Before I tackle Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition proper I should point out this is a remaster, albeit one that remains faithful to the original game. Despite some character art being debated fiercely in the community regarding which style reigns supreme. I've played some of the original all the way back when player outcry got it translated via Operation Rainfall initiative, but this got me finishing it at long last.

In ancient times two titans fought – Bionis and Mechonis – until they came to a standstill after wounding each other and just stopped surrounded by endless sea. Over the course of ages life sprang and evolved all over these colossal beings where parts of their bodies form ecosystem and regions unto themselves. Sadly, it seems animosities of founding fathers carried onto their descendants as biological and mechanical life respectively continued the conflict. A year ago hero Dunban and his company stopped the final Mechon assault in Sword Valley, but paid a heavy price for that seemingly shaky stalemate. While he's recuperating under his sister's care in far removed Colony 9, counted among the few Homs bastions still left, our protagonist Shulk gets caught up in the mystery of the sword Monado that allowed Dunban to become the hero, and it also seems Mechons have further designs of their own. Perhaps even to nullify their weakness to Monado itself...

I generally hold the opinion that JRPGs tend to not have very thought out or engaging stories as much as they have emotionally packed moments and sympathetic characters easy to be entertained by, but with Xenoblade Chronicles I'd say it's more about the scale of the story itself. On top of the positives I've touched upon, that is. This is very much your friendship saving the day and fighting God setup where both cornerstones are well executed. It also has the added benefit of a fresh setting where you don't know what to expect around the corner even accounting for “kitchen sink fantasy” genre is known for. I would still argue game would've benefited had it stuck to straightforward revenge angle it held onto for a while before stakes went up exponentially. Xenoblade Chronicles would've worked just fine even if it was entirely a Homs-centric story and Shulk's visions paving the way.

Characters tend to wear personality and agendas on their sleeves. Shulk may be somewhat atypical because he fancies himself a researcher of Monado and scientist, but when push comes to shove he's your fiery protagonist, while his best buddy and walking meme extraordinaire Reyn is blunt a protector always there for his friends both mechanically and narratively. There are more who join your party like Dunban and his sister Fiora, sniper/healer Sharla, etc. but I'm saddened to report the non-Homs characters end up being little more than archetypes game forgets about the moment it becomes convenient. For example, Melia is an overly mature and reserved type pivotal to gaining High Entia support and even throws more than few hints she has feelings for Shulk, but both end up swept under the rug. Which is still better than Heropon Riki who joins the party to flee from debts in his village only to become no more than comedic relief. These points will be (overly)corrected in the DLC I'll talk about later, though. If anything it's the spoilerific antagonists who end being the mysterious ones you're constantly second guessing, but if you ask me game takes too long to reach the point when all the cards are on the table. Good thing is key characters have existing ties from before events of the game start so you never get the impression it's a pack of strangers herded together by plot convenience. They HAVE a very valid reason to do what they're doing, and defined characters are instrumental in carrying that notion across which they absolutely succeed at.

Something irregular about Xenoblade Chronicles is the manner in which I found it to be rather fresh when it comes to game design. Familiar while also taking some modern gaming lessons to heart with Qualify of Life features and few decisions purposefully going against established JRPG norms. Essentially, there's more to talk about here than you'd think at a glance.

Biggest departure is how the game handles zones. Not adhering to worn out and frankly annoying modern notion of “open world” Xenoblade Chronicles opts instead for straight up massive areas that perplexed everyone how the damn thing even ran back on the old Wii. Less impressive today, but still noteworthy due to how impressive they are visually and custom-made for taking vista screenshots. Locales vary dramatically with each being carefully handcrafted and ranging from vast plains to neon foundries. Peppered with landmarks you can fast travel to, secret locations to discover, and extremely handy map as well as mini-map ensure you'll never feel lost or inconvenienced after you've explored it already. Alas, there is no faster form of travel to acquire besides a faster movement gem you can equip so you better get used to jogging around. You'll need it to avoid the insanely high level enemies game likes to sprinkle here and there either to make certain parts of lower level zones remain off limits, targets for future quests or just to keep you on your toes. And speaking of which...

Combat is something of an odd, cooldown-based take on real-time eschewing notions of separate battle screens. There's auto attack system for regular attacks which characters perform as long as they're within range of the enemy, but actual bread and butter are their Battle Arts which you also get to upgrade and assign to a limited number of “hotbar” slots. Only Shulk has enough slots for all the Arts which means you'll be picking and choosing what everyone else has access to in a fight. While characters broadly fit into that familiar trinity role as long as you have healing and reliable way to induce Break → Topple → Daze upon enemies you'll be fine. There's no resource management here other than cooldown time and characters automatically heal between battles. Additional mechanics come into play like Tension affecting overall performance in battle, Party Gauge which lets you string up Chain Attacks, and Talent Bar for each character's unique gimmick. Moving parts aplenty when you read about them like so, but Xenoblade Chronicles actually not only has effective pop-up tutorials you can always reference, but will also gradually introduce new features to the player. Major props.

While I'm on the subject of putting a spin on something familiar there's the matter of Shulk's visions. They're not just a plot device in the background, but rather an active element of the game. Enemy is about to use a powerful attack? Shulk gets a combat vision and timer starts that lets you counter said move. You come across unrelated collectibles in the world? Shulk gets a vision that someone in near future might require precisely that for their quest and you now know not to trade it. Naturally, it plays a major role in the story on top of that. Since equipment actually shows up on characters, another uncommon feature for JRPGs, developers also kept that in mind as flashbacks remember what characters wore at the time.

Finally we reach that truly divisive feature of Xenoblade Chronicles you'll love or hate – quests. Gorgeous zones require content and fighting enemies/collecting materials is what you'll be doing with missions giving you context. Due to the Affinity system in the game you have to work through annoying chores and talk to NPCs with their own time-dependent schedules to build the relationship network, raise your rating for that particular social circle and unlock more missions as you go along. There are tidbits of story here and even some ongoing arcs, but for the most part they're easy experience as just killing enemies under your level has diminishing returns. You may be tempted to skip seemingly ENDLESS number of these whenever you reach new areas, some clearly just there as padding, and it would seem natural because you will end up over-leveled for the main story on top of gear rewards being something you'll naturally come across anyway. However. There is a drop-off point towards the end where you lose easy sources of experience unless you fancy grinding, which game expects you to do to some degree as there are quests with higher levels involved than even the final boss. There is payoff to doing quests if you intend to complete the game through and through as much as they might tempt you to quit the game altogether.

Even if you're returning to a game you already finished all those years ago there's Future Connected aka epilogue story included in Definitive Edition. It took me under ten hours to finish and your mileage will most definitely vary. My biggest problem with it, other than reworking and reusing existing material, is how unstable tonally it comes across. You have somber Melia dealing with her people losing their capital with a new danger driving them out... and then that's contrasted with two Nopon siblings, Nene and Kino, who just cannot stop quipping and acting cutesy. If you liked Nopon to begin with this is amazing, but mechanically they're just differently flavored Reyn and Sharla. Chain Attacks are also gone replaced with even more Nopons in the form of prospector brigade lending you their aid after you've found them all. It's a lightweight story overall providing closure to the High Entia arc if you really wanted one, and giving Melia some attention after being sidelined. I do wish other characters were featured as well.

As I'm usually want to I left the production aspect for last.

Putting some model debates aside I think it's impossible to deny that Definitive Edition looks incredible as so many assets were reworked while retaining the original appeal. Let's be honest, character faces taking the anime route seems to be a big point of contention while for me it was more about different level of expressiveness. It's different, but just as good. Voice acting is another high point of contention even more so than your customary English dub vs Japanese original. This time we have the Brits voicing characters and it ends up being one of those aspects that define the entire experience, let alone all the meme community got out of it. Plenty of voice acting to go around in the game as well, too.

Soundtrack hits all the familiar notes you'd expect, but even more so than epic orchestrations or fist pumping action it's the atmospheric zone tracks that left the biggest impression on me. Given there's a day cycle in the game each zone has a respective daytime and nighttime track which accompanies changing of enemies and mission availability. If you actually listen to game audio it becomes second nature to know where you are simply by audio.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition tackled the very fundamentals of JRPG and somehow clung to them while simultaneously doing plenty differently. Endless war between Bionis and Mechonis rages on as our hero Shulk researches the ancient sword Monado until the latter seemingly chooses him to end the status quo. As story of Homs survival is seen through, our party venture across vast zones, get mired in endless quests you'll be tempted to skip all along fighting enemies in real-time with cooldown-based abilities. Not even equipment showing on characters, conveniences like fast travel or emotionally packed story could get me to overlook game's questionable pacing or sudden revelation reserved for the very ending, though. Made me step away from giving it higher rating.