Game Completion 2018 #21 – Xenoblade Chronicles 2

- Game: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Platform: Switch
- Developer: Monolith Soft
- Publisher: Nintendo
Such is the release schedule for the Nintendo Switch, there was a point that it seemed unlikely I’d ever go back to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Yet, playing through Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom for a recent freelance project proved to me that I can get through meatier games if I put my mind to it. And so I decided to revisit this while I was in that frame of mind.
I was a huge fan of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, which I played through a few years ago on New 3DS, and while this follow up is also very good, it’s bogged down in a number of ways that the original simply wasn’t. Pacing is a particular problem, it drags at points, even halting progress with skill checks against abilities you didn’t know you needed to upgrade. The story also takes a while to get there, but it does, and I was fully invested by the end.
I’m glad I found time to beat it.