The last couple years have seen a wealth of high-profile remade and remastered video games… but few have gotten me quite as excited as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Xenoblade is easily one of my favourite games of all time, and I am so very looking forward to a version that irons out a bunch of the kinks, improves the visual presentation, and adds a big chunk of new content.
To help put this into perspective, I’ve already spent close to 150 hours on the Wii version of this game, and I am thrilled at the idea of doing it all again. Although I hear that the quest system has been streamlined to remove a whole lot of back-tracking, so it’ll be probably way less than another 150 hours, but you get what I mean.
I’ve also heard that one particular part of the combat system has been completely removed, which is super exciting to me. Namely, the part where your character’s accuracy is reduced when facing monsters with higher levels, which made fighting stronger enemies almost literally impossible. I always though that was a really stupid “feature” and I’m so glad they’ve done away with it. Taking out a foe that is way more powerful than your party is always incredibly satisfying, and I strongly disliked how Monolith Soft went out of its way to take that way from players.
Mostly I’m just really excited to go back and explore the Bionis again. I’ve been longing to replay Xenoblade for some time now (roughly since my playthrough of the 3DS port stalled out), even without the graphical overhaul of the remastered version. It’s just going to be all that much better now. Looking out over the incredible vistas was mesmerizing even when it was rendered in blocky Wii graphics, it’s going to be so nice to revisit all those memorable locations in high definition.
One last thing I need to point out is that it’s an insane coincidence that Nintendo decided to release Xenoblade DE on the same week as what would be my wedding anniversary (which is today, in fact). Why is this relevant? Because our first dance as a married couple was to “Beyond the Sky”, the song that plays over Xenoblade Chronicles’ credits. Kinda nuts, right?