This is a real shame - a unique, well developed, non-shovelware game developed by a company OTHER THAN Nintendo comes out for the Wii and I can't get into it. I'm about 35 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles and it's just not workin for me. I haven't touched it in over a week, chiefly because I'm at a boss that's a few levels higher than my party so I need to go around and grind up a few levels. Never fun, even with Xenoblade's excellent battle system, it's not something I can sit myself down to do.
Although I feel like I would have the motivation to grind if the game had gotten it's hooks in me a little earlier. Granted, the story is fairly unique for the genre and the characters tend to be less archetype-y, but everything is delivered with such blandness that it takes a real effort on the part of the player to become invested in the world.
Behold - serviceable, but ultimately bland and uninteresting voice actors.
As I've said with many reviews on this blog, the graphics, sound, voice acting etc. are only as good as their ability to keep me in the fantasy, and this is where Xenoblade fails. It seems like it is actively attempting to take me OUT of the fantasy of it's tale. The graphics are muddy, voice acting - while better than a lot of games - is delivered with such stiffness and with such little emotion. The character animations are extremely awkward and the inventory/character management system requires hours of trial and error to use effectively. Xenoblade is a real hard pill to swallow after coming off of playing Uncharted 3, which kept you almost literally chained to the fantasy.
I don't think I'm gonna sell it just yet. It will probably end up being pretty rare, and I may come back to it one day, but for now I'm shelving it.
See you later, Shulk.
well, 35 hours is nothing to sneeze at. You probably feel like you got your money's worth, at least, right?
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