We detail the elements that make the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 so special and immense.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 can be a difficult game to tackle in some ways. The plot, which does not measure up to previous Tetsuya Takashi works such as Xenosaga or Xenogears, flows inconsistently and almost accidentally at times and is loaded with teenage topics from manga and anime culture, making it simple and loose in enough points. Furthermore, as mentioned by Uxio P.R. in DNA Games [1]Certain scenes or dialogues are uncomfortable due to the clearly sexist overtones that they give off, since they humiliate the woman or place her in a situation of servitude. Despite all this, critics have given Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a score of 83 out of 100 in Metacritic, while users give it a more generous 8.7 out of 10 and in Meristation we give it an outstanding 9.2. So high score in a game with such an upgradeable story?
A truly living world
The beginning of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 presents a small tutorial on the back of a titan where we will learn how to fight. After this, we will visit a limited section of the mercantile city of Bocáurea, which may mislead us into believing that the limits of the world are quite small. But this conception will change radically when the plot leads us to investigate the vast fields of Gormott, one of the main titans that we will visit during our adventure. The sheer size of this scenario would be enough to leave us open-mouthed, but after a few hours of exploration we will realize that its magnitude is even more colossal than expected.
And is that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 not only has huge worlds, but they are also full of mysteries and secrets. Throughout our adventures we will find subtly hidden areas that we could ignore without realizing that they exist, but that contain enormous and majestic scenarios behind them; Or perhaps we realize that when the tide of clouds rises or falls we can gain access to completely different places. That without counting the secret areas, which will be a challenge to discover but that hide authentic treasures inside …
What makes the Titans (representing the terrain through which we can move and explore) teeming with life is that they are not simply solitary areas, but are teeming with wildlife of all kinds, both hostile and peaceful, as well as areas collection, treasures and paths that will only be accessible if we have a certain skill or if a character is in our team … in other words, it is a highly interactive world in which there is much to do. And, as the story progresses and more members join the roster, the Titans will reveal more and more of their secrets …
Worlds that make us grow
The central idea around which the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 revolves is the symbiosis between some human beings, called Pilots, and some immortal warriors who are able to grant them abilities when they fight alongside them, called Blades. At first we will only have one Pilot, Rex, and his Blade, Pyra, so our options will still be quite limited.
However, as we level up or make certain milestones, we will complete the afigram of our Blades. And what is an afigram? It is a skills board that allows our companions to grow and acquire skills according to certain requirements of various kinds. For example, for many of them it will be necessary to increase the relationship of trust between Pilot and Blade; for others, we will have to cook their favorite food or make them read their favorite book; in other cases we will need to complete missions, etc. It will even be necessary to hold conversations in specific areas to get to know them better, or to help them discover their innate talents.
The interesting thing about all this is that the skills that a Blade acquires after meeting all these requirements will not be limited to better combat, but will also help us to explore the world. For example, we may find a lake where diving is possible, but for this we will need the Mastery of Water and Constitution at level 3. If among all the Blades who are with us at that time, the requirements are not met, we will not be able to dive into the water and we will be unable to discover what lies beyond (a secret area, perhaps?).
This means that if we want to delve into all the secret corners of the Xenoblade world, we will need to take care of our Blades and help them grow. And how do we get that? Well, precisely, exploring the world. For some Blades to improve their characteristics, it will be necessary to discover secret areas, or obtain resources from collection points, or even eliminate enemies of a certain type. In the end, this serves to close the circle in a very elegant way: the more we explore the world, the more we will be able to explore.
Endless stories waiting to be told
Also, the interaction between our Blades and the surface of the Titans does not end here. Because, although most of these warriors are generic and have no story load, there are other more distinctive and powerful Blades that also have their own side missions. These will take us again to explore the titans on which the plot unfolds, but in a different way: all the places that we have been visiting without giving them greater importance suddenly will acquire a great narrative weight in the history of some of the Blades that they accompany us. Considering that there are more than 40 unique Blades, each with its history and its secondary missions, we will find that each point and each zone of the Titans that make up this world are narratively charged, a very important feature if we want a world open don’t feel empty and boring.
And it is that, although the main plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is quite typical and sometimes mediocre, the game wins a lot in its subplots and side missions. These allow us to get to know our companions better, discover hidden recesses of the map, and interact with a very alive and vibrant universe with which we will spend hours and hours exploring until we discover each of its secrets.
conclusion
In his book Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (2011), Jesper Juul [2] describes videogames as a compound made up of two elements: the rules of the game, which are objective and unalterable and make up the essence of what a game is in itself; and fiction, or the narrative coating that adorns the rules and makes a game more attractive and immersive. With this, he tries to combine two competing disciplines that emerged during the first years of the discipline of Game Studies:
The early years of video game studies were often conceived as a discussion between narratology (games as stories) versus ludology (games as something unique).
(Juul 2011: 15)
However, throughout this study you will conclude that both elements must be closely related to create a satisfactory experience: “Rules and fiction interact, compete and complement each other. A video game may project a world and the game may be played in only a part of this fictional world ”(Juul 2011: 163). From this we can conclude that, the closer the relationship between the rules, the technical and playable aspect of a video game, and its narrative (its “fiction”), the more satisfactory it will be to play it, since any progress in one of these two currents will suppose a Progress in both (for example, visiting a secret area gives us treasures that will make our adventure easier, but at the same time it provides us with a conversation that will allow us to delve into the narrative background of a character).
And this is why, if you asked what is the secret behind the success of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I would not hesitate for a moment: it is the open world so full of mysteries and interesting situations waiting to be discovered, the consequences of which will be felt by a level both objective (improving statistics or obtaining objects) and narratological (conversations or character development). During the game one tends to spend a lot of dead hours exploring and uncovering every little secret however hidden it may be, while the segments unfolding the story seem heavier and more difficult to digest.
In summary, Monolith Soft has done everything that could be done well in creating an open-world game, because instead of erecting barriers that hinder our way, it has included more and more content so that the player never tires of explore, and has been able to adequately reward their efforts. It is at this point that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 can be counted as a masterpiece, and which has earned him acclaim from both fans and critics. The only thing that should be asked of the team is that they give the same weight and affection to the plot and the narrative that they showed in previous games.
