 I actually have three copies of Xenoblade Chronicles. I am today reviewing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and what you are probably wondering is is it worth it to pick up the Switch version if you have played the previous ones, because there are some new changes to the Switch version. The animations and character models are fully remade and there is also a new story added to the Switch version which is called Future Connected and that story takes place after the main game's story. Xenoblade Chronicles is an open-world JRPG by Monolithsoft where you will find all the traditional RPG elements like controlling one of several optional party members going from place to place while progressing the main story and doing a lot of side quests. Also while progressing you will have to constantly upgrade your gear and level up to become stronger. This is a huge game everyone and it was actually incredibly ambitious for its time because the original was actually released in 2010. It was super ambitious. Story. The first time that I played Xenoblade back in the day on the Wii what fascinated me the most was actually the world, the setting because there were two giants fighting an endless battle and then froze in time for such a long time that organisms and people and animals and all sorts of you know living creatures started to form on them so you live on giants the Bionys and the McConys. The game starts with you playing as a shulk who lives in Colony 9 and that is at the bottom of a Bionys body so that is where you start out and he hangs out with his friends Rain and Fiora and one day the McCon, the bad guys attack Colony 9 and shulk comes to a point where he picks up the mysterious sword known as the Monado. A sword of great power which is not supposed to be wielded by just about anyone because it's sort of dangerous and hard to wield to not spoil anything. Something happens in the beginning of the game and they all decide to travel up the Bionys from the foot of the Bionys and up. This is the sort of story that you don't want to have spoiled for you in some random review on YouTube. That is why I'm not gonna touch too much into the story but I can say this. The story is very easy to follow along to. It is very concise. You will meet a lot of interesting characters on your way in a bunch of different kinds of unique locations. You will also get to know all the characters on a much deeper level from all the special friendship cutscenes called Heart to Heart. Gameplay. You can play as any of your party members, whichever you like and they all play differently. You see this game in my opinion often feels like it tries to play as an MMO game. Even if it is a strictly offline single player you can just feel that in the way that the combat plays out. That MMO feeling. The first time I played Scene of the Chronicles I remember noticing many similarities between this and World of Warcraft. The combat is aggro based where it is often crucial to have one party member take on the role as a tank. You know aggro taking hits and have at least one active party member deal with the role of healing. I often play the healer because I don't trust healing to the AI. So actually I play a lot as Charla but I love playing as Shulk and I love playing as Dunban. So yeah those three are my main characters even though I have gotten everyone in the game. But yeah. Charla is fun if you like healing. It's more like a chill setback way of playing and if you want to be more forward play as Shulk. He is everyone's favorite maybe. Anyways you can play as whichever you want DPS tank or healer. In every location you can collect items to fill up your collectopedia and I love it. I love collecting stuff you know. You will acquire skills and you will use them in combat in a cool down based style. Just like in World of Warcraft you hit a spell you watch it play out and there is a cool down for it to be used again. And meanwhile your character will auto attack all the time. Positioning yourself correctly to the enemy plays a huge role as well. As some attacks are better done to the side of the enemy or to the back of the enemy. So this game is in no way having an action style based combat. It is all planning and cool downs. Some places you climb, some places you find chests and sometimes you'll find yourself dying from fall damage. You'll slowly build up your ultimate move for extra heavy damage which you can see up here. And that is great for boss battles. The game will early on tell you the importance of inflicting break then followed up by topple and then ended with daze for maximum damage. And if you played scene of the chronicles 2 you are familiar with this concept. It's just a way of you know messing up the enemy a bit. The game is absolutely filled with side quests and the thing here which is genius is that the side quests gets automatically completed when killing the certain enemies or finding the certain items. You don't actually have to report back to the quest giver. I love it. And I remember that this was also very unique and new when I played this for the first time. I was like I don't have to go back to the quest giver. The quests gets automatically completed. That saves up so much time. And if you are about to die in battle Shulk will have a vision to warn you beforehand of the deadly strike so it gives you a chance to quickly avoid it. Each party member has the skill branches to level up which you can also share to other party members using skill linking. This is some deep stuff for you to experiment with to create the ultimate party setup. There's also an in-game achievement list if you're into that sort of stuff. You can change the time of day whenever you want and there are some quest givers that you can only find at specific times of day and also some enemies that only appear at night. The gemcrafting can be confusing. That is all I have to say about the gemcrafting. It can be confusing. I'm sure you'll figure it out. Uncovering the map is a thing but you also have an already uncovered smaller map available. For every major location you reach you can at any time fast travel back to it. I love that. There are also several secret locations to uncover. There is an affinity chart too that fills up the more NPCs you meet and talk to and it is probably more complex than it needs to be. You can also increase friendship levels between your party members with gift giving in this. Graphics. They are better than the Wii and 3DS graphics that's for sure. You can still feel that they are old graphics kind of but the use of colors, lights and shadows makes up for it in my opinion. The entire world is amazing. Almost jaw-dropping at some points and most locations feel overwhelmingly huge. Sometimes too big for their own good but every location is beautiful and unique. From the deep forests to the eerie march to the frozen wastelands they're all very memorable locations. I even enjoy the caves in this game but the graphics are also very true to the original except for the animations which are so good. They did good with the animations. Music. Maybe the most memorable soundtrack in all of recent history. I have used this soundtrack in my YouTube videos as far back as 2016. I don't get tired of it and the voice acting is also impeccable. The music on its own is 10 out of 10. I can't praise it enough. Verdict. This is an absolute must buy. It is a true superior game but you gotta know what you're getting into when it comes to the combat style because some people can be really put off by the cool-down-based slow combat. But I love it. I like it. Just keep that in mind. It is not an action combat RPG but if you know what you're getting into you are good and play it for the story. Strong story in this one. And play it for the world. The story. The world. The gameplay. The music. Oh my god. I am absolutely recommending Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. It is a game that is worth the full price. I'm giving this game a 9.5 out of 10 and that is a very strong score but it is just amazing and you're getting all your monies worth in this title. So thank you so much for watching. Please like the video and I try to respond to as many comments as I can. Now I will see you later.