Xenoblade Chronicles X Could Have Been Perfect…But They Blew It
As you may have guessed by the website you're visiting my forte is typically the MMO genre but once in a while I dabble elsewhere. Just recently I dabbled into the wonders of Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U and today I wanted to touch on the shortcomings of the developers - specifically targeting the poor execution of what could have been a fantastic multiplayer component. I don't have any real experience with past games in the Xenoblade franchise and if I'm honest, I picked up the game just so I felt I didn't totally waste $250 on my Wii U back in the day. A few hours of Mario Kart, some decent time in Monster Hunter, but for the most part my Wii U has been a platform for my kids to dribble on and leave their crusted bogeys on the ridiculous control pad... Thanks kids. So anyway, lets move away from the wonders of kids experimenting with their bodily functions and onto the meat of the problem. If you're unfamiliar with the Xenoblade Chronicles X world the game boasts two distinct multiplayer game modes. There's a passive sort of multiplayer modes where up to 32 players can join an online squad to complete Squad Tasks together - although at no point do you interact visually with these players. They simply help complete sets of objectives so that the entire squad can receive rewards. For the most part this is executed well and the added communication of a very basic chat function does allow for sharing of intelligence and objective locations but this often feels lacking due to the main multiplayer component. The main multiplayer element is a 4 player co-op system that lets players from the same squad group up to complete instanced missions - similar in a way to Monster Hunter and similarly styled games. This sounds fantastic on paper but the final delivery is anything but. Instead of letting players explore these potentially exciting opportunities at their will, they instead have to wait for one to pop up in a terminal. This can be as common as a few an hour to not seeing any for an entire day of play. Combine this with the choice players are given, either complete the passive objectives in Squad Tasks or the 4 player co-op stuff, you cannot do both at the same time. Xenoblade Chronicles X is filled to the brim with exciting side content. A hugely diverse and robust weapon and armor customization system with an equally impressive Skell customization system provide hugely satisfying rewards for grinding but what's the point when the multiplayer component is flaky, shallow, random and boring? I can't see the game getting any attention in regards to updates, hell even a 200mb update would force the majority of Wii U owners to use external storage. A bit more thought and the Xenoblade Chronicles X mutliplayer could have been a real game changer.Leave a comment
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