Admittedly, most of the extra content included in this edition is stuff you probably won’t notice at all. There’s also a new additional story segment to play after the end credits roll for avid lore heads, too. All perfectly pleasant inclusions in and of themselves, but nothing that will fundamentally change your wider appreciation of the game as it stands. For something a bit more personally intimate, there are Affinity Missions.
Xenoblade Chronicles X launched on the Wii U in 2015 and returned to the series’ fixation on space and insightful storytelling. Then, Monolith released Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Switch in 2017, a notable departure for the series at first glance, with a shallower, immature story about the power of friendship until the game’s closing hours. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 picks up its predecessors’ interest in philosophy and builds itself around exploring Socrates’ question of what it means to live a good life.
As in other Xenoblades, all battles take place in real time, with characters attacking automatically while you manoeuvre them into position and unleash their powerful Arts attacks. There are several under-the-hood improvements peppered throughout the experience, but some of these might be a tad divisive. BLADE levels are gone, and so are the field skills that would keep you from opening chests on the overworld. You can now change your party anywhere, instead of finding the character’s hanging out in NLA. Every party member now levels up regardless of if they’re in your active party. The time of day can now be changed wherever you are, right in the system menu.
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I’m just about to fight Sin on the airship and these things are kind of ruining an otherwise great experience, so I may skip the rest (and the monster arena, and the omega ruins) and beat the game. On one hand, you have a particularly goodish story delving into religious themes and philosophy that reflect on the characters (to a point) as they go on their venture. I’m going to put this whole section in spoilers, but it also includes my thoughts on optional content, which could have been its own section.
I’ve never been very into the overly energetic anime stereotype I expected him to embody, but while he certainly has some of that annoying “Never Give Up!” energy, he has a lot more going on beneath the surface. Without spoiling anything, I appreciated how his relationship with his father plays into the story and especially liked that even in the end, his feelings still seem the right amount of conflicted given what he’s been through. His English VA is pretty solid throughout and even has some really great moments near the end of the game. I feel the need to address the infamous laughing scene here, which is way overhated in my opinion.
Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster Review
Though seemingly straightforward for a large portion of the game, the plot unravels in a slow but steady pace that builds an increasing amount of suspense and plot revelations. The amazing character interaction only benefits the story, which proves to be one of the most balanced plots in a Final Fantasy title thus far. The combination of excellent fantasy storytelling and moral values seems to have a very real application to the world today; this factor made it much more “real”. There’s also still a dizzying number of menus, skill points and currencies to juggle around in your head as you get to grips with all its underlying systems. From Miranium mining and improving all the different arms manufacturers to crafting augments and upgrades and sorting through all manner of mech attachments, it’s a lot to take in.
One of the main hub’s themes, for example, sounds like someone wrote half a dozen bars of a rap song, forgot to finish it, and decided to just loop them instead. After the bright colors and generally improved lighting in Chronicles 3 and Chronicles Definitive Edition, it would’ve been nice to see a similar touch-up for Chronicles X. FF games are considered JRPGs because they are developed in Japan and follow key JRPG design principles. If you want to start with the older games, you can start with IV, V, or VI. But for those who embraced its challenge, FF XI was legendary.
In service of the more intimate, character-driven story, the game is a good bit more linear than all of the previous Final Fantasy games. This was fine for the most part because I was enjoying seeing where the story would go, but it was still kind of disappointing. I kept waiting for the moment the game presented me with the world map and let me freely make my way to the next area, but it never truly came. You only are given the reigns to explore ffx freely just before the final boss, and at that point I was ready to finish up the game. That said, just like with Final Fantasy IX, I can see myself returning to this to explore the stuff I missed because it seems like there’s a lot there to dig into. I went into this game kind of expecting to dislike Tidus.
Exploring more will allow you to make more money, which allows you to buy better gear which will allow you to make it to new places on the map. It’s an incredibly satisfying loop, especially by the end where I was able to fly around the map knocking out quadrants with ease. Mira, the planet itself, is the true star here – being a massive open world made up of five key regions. Each of these regions is broken down into hexagonal quadrants that you can maintain in an in-game app called Frontier Nav. This is functionally your map, which has been moved out of the Wii-U gamepad and into an easily accessible menu.
What’s surprising (and frustrating) is that you can’t skip past them. The one significant addition to X-2’s playbook–a monster-teammate mechanic similar to the one employed in FFXIII-2–doesn’t lend much to the original dynamic, and actually seems extraneous and out-of-place. The simplified single-character gameplay of Last Mission is also hit-or-miss, and may take some getting used to for players expecting something akin to the game that inspired it. For the most part, though, Remaster approaches X and X-2 by leaving well enough alone where it needs to. No longer is there an ATB bar, but instead FFX has a set turn-based system that relies more on strategy and brains than quick decisions. Though basic commands stay the same, gamers can freely swap any character in their party in and out of battle, which is a necessary factor.
Final Fantasy VII (Best for Fans of Classic and Modern RPGs)
If you’re a fan of cinematic RPGs, this is a game worth playing. The cinematic storytelling elevates the original to a new level. Some side quests feel like filler quests, but they’re called side quests for a reason I suppose.
RPGFan is a gaming website focused on roleplaying games and related genres such as graphic adventures, visual novels, and roguelikes. We cover franchises, creators, fandom, and everything inbetween. If you were as overeager as I was in this regard, I’d rein in those expectations. Outside of a very small number of tracks, there hasn’t been any re-orchestrations. I can only assume Sawano’s rise in popularity means he could only return in a supervisor role for the new music in this game.