First Impressions: Xenoblade Chronicles X

The last game that we played at EGX 2015 was Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U. A sequel to the critically acclaimed Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii and 3DS, this game is massive in all aspects. From the world, and the monsters, to the combos and cut-scenes this game is big. And good. Don't forget good.
I started in the open world and (probably) due to me being one of the last people to play the game that day, had quite a leveled up party. Not completely knowing what to do, (this seemed to happen a lot) I got to work destroying monsters, traversing the world and picking up glowing orbs that turned into resources.

The monsters were varied in design if not in attack and the feel of the gun was great. It was a pure real-time RPG experience, with combos going off all the time and trying to find the weak spots of the monsters was nice as well. It might have just been the special moves that I had set up (most of them were gun related) but the sword didn't seem as responsive as the gun, with attacks taking a good few seconds to go off and, for a fast-paced battle, I needed to have moved onto my next attack already.

The companions were good in the battle (although I didn't really see their effect too much as I think I was a bit over leveled for that particular area) and the customization of their gear is nice to do. One of the things that was difficult to get hold of was the controls, especially targeting the enemies - instead of it automatically targeting them when you press the attack button you have to press R1 to target and then attack. Being a quite complex RPG, the amount of menus and stuff to do could be slightly overwhelming, especially given the time limit I had on playing the game.

Graphically the game was good for the console it was running on, if a bit too heavily reliant on individual textures. The world was vast and varied, with different landscapes and objects scattered around. A couple of helicopters and other vehicles were placed down, presumably for a later stage of the game, which was annoying as I really wanted to play as a mech! There were also a couple of obstacles, namely mountainsides that served nothing but to increase the time it took you to traverse. For a generation that has played the so free its £20 Skyrim, this was a bit frustrating, especially as the battles were so fast-paced.

The actual story and customization of the characters equipment was something I didn't manage to get on to but being a sequel to the incredible Xenoblade Chronicles, I wouldn't worry too much (at least for the story).

Overall, I can't wait to get this game at some stage over the Christmas period (when it is released). Now, to by the first game on the Wii U Virtual Console!

Thanks for reading, Satamer.