While Nintendo of America dragged its feet in getting Xenoblade Chronicles out on the Wii, it's still been quite a long time since the game made its way to the US. In fact, this year will mark eight years since players were first able to travel the worlds of both the Bionis and Mechonis. It's fair to say that you may have forgotten about some of the cast in the original, but fear not! A new trailer released by Nintendo of Europe is here to save the day.
A short, two-minute trailer that briefly sets up the plot and runs through each character, I'm actually quite surprised that I remembered everyone. I originally played the game in Japanese, though, so this English VO is a little odd. I'll admit that the dub job isn't bad, but it's hard to accept such different voices from the ones in my head.
Still, the cast of Xenoblade Chronicles was one of the best aspects of the game. That it featured engaging combat, cool boss fights, and a wonderful world were almost just extras on top of the excellent banter this party has.
What this trailer did remind me of is how unbalanced the party is. Despite how you're supposed to be constantly swapping out characters to mix and match roles, I mostly stuck with Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla. Their combination of specific attacks was way too powerful, not to mention it had a lot of synergies. I wouldn't mind a rebalanced difficulty option to change that.
That aspect is what has me intrigued about the Future Connected epilogue. It not only changes the battle system up, but it also looks like you won't have a choice of party members. Shulk and Melia will carry on and you'll just have to deal with it. That's certainly one way to increase the challenge.
Regardless of those faults (which are kind of inherent to classic JRPG design), I'm pretty excited for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. It was one of the best RPGs on the Wii and is absolutely deserving of an HD port. Bring on May 29!
Source: YouTube