Just a final word on quests. They greatly help the length of the game, although they can make early parts of the game a bit too easy as they offer insane amounts of XP for completion, meanig that if you do them all you'll be a bit overleveled. Just one of the niggles I mentioned above.
About the AI not always inflicting Topple. Some of the game's enemies have Down Spike, which damages your character or inflicts debuffs if you attack them while they're suffering Topple. I've noticed that the AI refrains from using moves that inflict Topple on them unless the enemy is very close to death.
Yeah, I know, but the bit I was talking about was a problem I've had from the start, were it refuses to inflict topple on any mechon, even if I've broke it three times. Gets kinda annoying after a bit.
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An excellent reconstruction of the JRPG
When I first started playing Xenoblade, i'll admit I wasn't expecting much. At the time, it just seemed like an obscure JRPG. However once I started playing I was instantly corrected. My first thoughts were something along the lines of "How is the Wii even capable of stuff like this?"
The games scale is so big. The graphics are consistently beautiful, and the areas the game takes you too are so large, you can hear the Wii struggling to keep up. The areas are all so different from the last. One minute, you'll be trekking through a dark cave, the next rung across a wide open field, before descending into a mine full of glowing crystals, all within the first twenty hours of play time. None of the areas feel the same, each one showing you something completely different.
The story is also excellent, although I lost interest in it right before the final dungeon, although by then I had already experienced over eighty hours of the game. It's that long. Even if you do get a bit bored, press on, as the ending is too good to miss. The voice talent in the game really helps the story quality. All of the actors are exceptional, and although you may have heard complaints about the English dub, I would recommend it, as they sound very realistic, and they cover a wide range of English accents, realty making you feel as though the game spans a living world.
The music is also outstanding. All of the pieces fit in with the setting, and all add to the apeal of the game greatly. The battle themes are excellent too, and just when the first one starts to get a bit boring, the game switches to another one.
Which brings me to the battle system. It's . . . ok. When it works it's excellent, but sometimes the AI fails. The main point is that to do a normal attack, you stand beside the enemy and the game does the basic attacks automatically. It up to you to move your character and use arts, basically special attacks. This is where the AI can fail. Some status effects, such as topple, need another status effect to work. Keeping with topple, it needs break to start,Sometimes the AI won't use topple even if break is on the enemy which is annoying when you need it to defeat certain enemies.
All in all a great games with a few small niggles. 9/10- A must play for any JRPG fan, that picks the genre out of the rut it's been stuck in for the Past few years.