“Xenoblade: Chronicles” is without a doubt the best Role Playing Game (RPG) on the Nintendo Wii platform. Also there is a bit of controversy around it involving possible GameStop internal trading and market manipulation. Monolithsoft may be a small company but their games are huge in scale with easily over 900 hours to spend filling out your collectapedia (in game item log) with that alone this game is massive, and now it is on your 3DS (well new Nintendo 3DS). You are Shulk, a 19 year old Mr. Fix-it living in a fledging colony atop a massive organic robot (Bionis) locked in constant battle with another giant but inorganic robot (Mechonis) on a journey to avenge your childhood love’s demise at the hands of a giant robot attack on your colony. The story is way out if you could not already tell…the norm for Japanese RPGs. You also may remember my review on “Super Smash Bros.” and Amiibo.
“Xenoblade: Chronicles 3D” has Amiibo support only for Shulk, though. Your (GameStop exclusive) Shulk Amiibo is compatible with this remake. Unlocking tokens to spend on music and character models is very minor and hardly a selling a point with such a massive game at your fingertips at anytime and anywhere but it is there for extra flair. Also the Shulk Amiibo looks good on any collector’s shelf so even if you never use it on the game. I highly suggest you pick one up if you can find it.
On to the gameplay imagine “GodsEater” or “Monster Hunter” but only it is completely free roam. Every side-quest in this massive world actually goes toward something and just feels so rewarding whether it is experience ,weapons, armor, or just rebuilding Colony Six after you do it you feel like you have accomplished something in a living breathing world. As I briefly mentioned it requires the new Nintendo 3DS to play “Xenoblade: Chronicles 3D” but in a few short years that will be the case with any new game in Nintendo’s hand-held library.
I personally love the functions of the new hardware and this game only adds to my love of my new handheld. Do not get me wrong the original was a masterpiece aside from one glitch that is hardly a problem, unless you just plan on auto attacking through the entire game. The new console in all its awe inspiring glory still could not handle an exact port of the Wii version so they rebuilt it from the ground up graphically. It is a bit lacking at times but if you play with the 3D upscaling on you will not even notice it. In all honesty, I thought this version of game was the better of the two and it has me super pumped for “Xenoblade Chronicles: X” coming to WiiU later this year. At the low price $39.99 USD MSRP, compared to $70-90 USD, if you are lucky enough to find the original, I say it is worth the buy.