I've finally wrapped up Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, and wow, what a journey! First things first, the scale of this game is absolutely massive, and the stunning environments look downright beautiful on the Switch 2. Traveling across the bodies of the two colossi felt incredibly grand, and the Switch 2 upgrade really lets the vibrant landscapes and massive vistas shine.
The narrative is definitely one of the high points of the experience. It has a genuinely good story and a cast of deeply likeable characters brought to life by some fantastic voice acting. The Japanese voice cast was absolutely fantastic! I was already hooked early on, but in the last part of the game, the plot becomes really interesting with some wild surprises and mind-blowing twists that I thoroughly enjoyed.
As a small negative, though, I felt like the game didn't give me a whole lot of compelling reasons to actually go off the main path and explore those gorgeous environments. The world is huge, but because the side quests felt like generic fetch tasks, I mostly just ignored the subquests entirely and strictly followed the main story quest to keep the narrative moving.
Unfortunately, that brings me to my last complaint, which is the exact same issue I ran into with Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. The last part of the game hits you with an incredibly harsh difficulty spike. Because I played the game organically and skipped the side content, I ended up drastically underleveled for the final stretch. The combat mechanics heavily penalize you if you are even a few levels below your enemy, so you're forced to either stop everything and spend hours grinding for experience or just lower the difficulty to Casual Mode to progress.
I really dislike when games force that kind of roadblock right before the finale, so I chose to just lower the difficulty to finish the game. Even with that frustrating balance issue at the end, the spectacular world and unforgettable story twists made it a JRPG well worth playing!
