Top 5 More Games to Play on Halloween

 

AHA HA HA HA HA!!!! Yes everyone it's Halloween, a terrifying October season that creeps you out with many gruesome things such as scary looking skeleton hanging on top, deadly zombie dugged out of the graveyard, grimreaper welds with sharp scythe, and spooky ghost just haunts you everywhere.

Nah I'm just kidding those aren't real, this season are normally for people to celebrate Halloween related stuff like eating slimy candy, decorating stuff in the house filled with spiderwebs and skulls, crafting and designing pumpkins, dressing up as horror characters, watching scary films in darkest room, and of course giving people a surprise with jumpscares prank is what all about.       

In last 6 years ago, I've already covered my 5 games that you should play it during the spooky Halloween, so if you haven't seen my previous two then here's my link down below to check it out before you're proceed to this recent blog that I've just published now.

Top 5 Games to play on Halloween (Thursday, 29 October 2015) - https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/top-5-games-to-play-on-halloween.html

Top 5 Another games to play on Halloween (Thursday, 27 October 2016) - https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2016/10/top-5-another-games-to-play-on-halloween.html

Okay tonight, I decided to make my 5 more spooky games that are really fits the Halloween season. I can include any types of genres that I've previously mentioned on my earlier twos blogpost such as slasher, psychological, ghosts, vampires, and etc. 

So turn off your lights, sit, relax, and shhhhhh!!! because this is my top 5 More Games to Play on Halloween.  

5 - Splatterhouse (TG16) 

 

Splatterhouse is a horror-style beat em ups title was originally released for arcade system in 1989, where as PC Engine/TG16 version was released sometime later after the arcade releases was created by Namco.

You take control of Rick Taylor being resurrected by Terror Mask goes on a rampage through the dungeon and the mansion grounds, killing hordes of monsters, and searching for his missing girlfriend Jennifer Willis.

The game is fairly simple, so you have ability to punch, kick, jump, and of course pick up and use various weapons placed in the levels which is pretty straightforward to learn few basic moves that does not require many additional buttons, and it also has alternative pathways through sections of the house are possible by falling down through holes or jumping up onto ladders can lead into an alternative levels.

The boss battle is quite intense to play which requires you to memorise their patterns adding a fun overall challenge, so it has large teeth worms, bagheaded guy weids with two chainsaws, rotating 6 severed headed guys, grey floating fetus, and more to fight.   

I also liked the ongoing segments throughout the levels such as avoiding ground spikes, the bouncy room with bunch of furniture going ape shit everywhere, fighting with fake Rick shattered from bunch of wall mirrors, and beating crap of the floating ghosts really adds the fun factor of the game.     

Despite the PC Engine/TG16 are not look nearly good as the arcade originals, the game's presentation is pretty good for its dark and gloomy settings, so you have stuff like outside forrest, creepy altar room, libaries piled up with bookshelf , basements full of guts and intestines, and more gross stuff included in the game really adds the game's appeal. 

I highly recommend to those who are a fan of the horror films and beat em ups genres in general should able to enjoy a gruesome beat em ups action.

Thankfully you can able to find this game on video game compilation such as Namco Museum for Switch (via eShop) released in 2017 which is cheaper option than the actual PC Engine/TG16 copy.

4 - Luigi's Mansion 2 (3DS)

Luigi's Mansion 2 (A.K.A Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon in US) is a Ghost Horror Action-Adventure game only for 3DS, which was developed by Next Level Games and published by Nintendo. It is a sequel to the 2001's original title for Gamecube called Luigi's Mansion which is also on the 3DS as remake in 2018 by Grezzo.

You take control of Luigi setting his quest to obtain 5 missing dark crystals with the help of the assistant Professor Elvin Gadd, a scientist who helped Luigi in the first entry of game, providing a support and guiding Luigi to capture all ghosts as possible to restore peace to Evershade Valley.

The game is rather more intriguing than the original because I liked the idea of having various of types of ghost with different abilities and attacks is pretty good when it comes with their strategy resulting a many variations of attacks and ability making them a less boring that worked pretty well for most rooms.

The game also improves upon the original game such as the ghost capturing system are much easier to pull the enemy ghost into the vacuum cleaner, the large range of charged flashlight which I can able to stun them much quicker, and capturing the boos on this game is much of the less headache compared with the first ones.

The puzzle solving is pretty straightforward that does not require a complicated objectives meaning that you can able to solve problems faster thanks to simple list of tasks resulting a very good mission play in each levels.

The boss battles are pretty fun in the game, so you have the three ghostly sisters, the variation of possessor, and of course the King Boo which really adds up a experience of the game thanks to clever tactics that keeps you engaging with the boss fights.  

The game also includes 4-player mode such as modes called thrill tower where your goal is to explore each floor of mansion and complete the objective within time limit can be played on both locals and online play which gives you an option to play on solo or teams which I got to say its enjoyable.

It is a solid overall title that gets everything right for a sequel that does better job than the first installiment thanks to fluid capturing system with improved gameplay mechanics, additional bonus missions, entertaining boss battles, great cast of enemy ghost, and has good multiplayer mode and excellent single player campaign that made Luigi's Mansion 2 a fun ghost-horror title on the 3DS library.

3 - Doom Eternal (PS4)

Doom Eternal is a FPS game for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, Stadia, and PC. It was developed by Id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, and it is a sequel to Doom (2016) and the fifth main game in the Doom series.

The game takes place in the event after the the 2016 game, as it follows badass silent protagonist known as Doom Slayer once again, on a mission to end Hell's consumption of Earth and foil the alien Maykr's plans to exterminate humanity.

The game's presentation is very well done for its demonic settings and darker tone of the game itself, as I really liked the mixture between earth and hell of the levels and atmospheres.

I like how they designed the concept to make it look and feels more gothic and gritter than just the traditional Sci-Fi tone in the game which in fact I really liked the way the settings in the level had been created.

The single-player campaign has done such an incredible job thanks to combat system actually works because of the skill based upgrades and effectiveness of weapons that really improves the playability, the well executed enemies are very good in the game with different abilities and attacks may satisfy your action, the large amount of level design is spectacular for platforming segments and exploration, and fighting with the hordes of the enemy which is outstanding because it gives the player an achievement when playing on the higher difficulty is what makes the game brutally tough, but made everything fun to play at the same time is what really matters the most.

The graphics is looking damn impressive for modern gaming with large environments design, crispy textures mapping, great animation of demons, and brutally gore effects which really adds the appeal of the game especially with running with PS5 and XSX/S console free upgrades which gives the game's advantages of the enhancements running on these console including fully rendered 4K native and ray-tracing support which adds the significant details of the game itself with better resolution with less jaggy details, runs on 120fps for smoother performance, and makes the visuals feels more next gen is definitely makes the best looking game I've seen so far.

The full blown Heavy Metal soundtrack of the game is sounds incredible throughout the game that makes the player pumped out for the action and ready to kick ass screams with gritty guitar riffs and has aggressive drum percussion that gives the player an edge to beat the shit out of these demons which makes it one of the Mick Gordon's best video game soundtrack I ever heard.

Doom Eternal is definitely not just a much bolder and better sequel, but as the another legendary FPS title that gets everything right will not disappoint the fans of the series can get a hands on with this awesome shooter game. 

This is definitely must play for all hardcore FPS players as well as the fan of the series should able to get it on depending which platforms do you own, and it is also featured on Xbox Game Pass as well.

2 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (PS4)

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2D Side-Scrolling Metroidvania games for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was developed by ArtPlay and published by 505 Games, and it is a spiritual successor to one of the masterpiece classics from mid-90's such as Konami's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which was also created by Koji Igarashi who had responsible with his Castlevania titles for PS1, GBA and DS.

The game focuses on Miriam and former alchemist Johannes began their journey to castle, as well as stopping Gebel taking his power to harm the homeland of England.

The presentation is just like from Castlevania series as you expect with gothic themed environments, rich and dark looking levels from in and outside of dark castle, has several of locations such as broken home villages, rich-looking cathedral rooms filled with blood fountains, library areas that books fly everywhere, underground water stages, inferno cave levels, icy cold places and etc.

I really liked the overall design of the levels that really fits the tone of the dark and demonic themes of gothic horror genres as I find the cathedral rooms with blood everywhere and rich details building is rather looking sinister for most part, while I finding the underwater stages is looking calmer and gloomy for its aquatic tones which I liked the aspects of the stage design that made the game very appealing to look at.

The combat systems in the game is working absolutely well for most part. The responsive of weapons is very good for some range attacks and has fair collisions which I did not have any issues while attacking the enemies so it really helped me a lot when giving an options to equip the right items that I can able to defeat them much quicker and making easier to avoid any deaths in some levels.

I was really impressed with the size of the exploration which given me freedom to explore around the levels where I can able to discover secrets, visiting new places that I never been too, collecting valuable items and materials, gaining upgrades for HPs and MPs, helping people in side quests, and encouraging me to keep killing more bad guys to level up your character is the reason why the game had kept me busy to play in good old 25 to 30 hours.

I got to say the boss battle in the game is very well done for its overall challenge, so it features bloodless lady, Vepar the giantic seawoman, Valac the twin dragons, Bathin, Doppelganger the clone, Valefar the tophat casino, and many more to fight against which I had tons of fun to memorising these enemy's patterns and taking time to defeat them had really kept me motivated for my gaming experience.

The graphics and sounds are also highly positive for its outstanding environments, stunning visuals, and incredible animations which I am very glad that the creator had finally improved the overall game's design after taking criticism from the fans since the 2018's prototype demo making entire game visually appealed, as well as the original soundtrack was composed by Michiru Yamane, who previously did her work on Castlevania games, did a fabulous job of making such epic music on most areas with darker classical tone and has kickass progressive sounds which is very like to Castlevania: SOTN.

It comes with free 13 DLCs, surprising easter eggs, customising your own character's appearances and bonus unlockables using cheat code are also welcoming edition for the game's content.

This is one of the Igarashi's strongest title that I highly recommend to play this on both PC and consoles platform because Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is not just the best 2D Metroidvania game for 8th gen era, but it is definitely also a best Kickstarter title that never disappoint the fans of the classic Castlevania titles will be fully appreciate with the quality 2D indie titles. 

Resident Evil 2 (PS4)

Resident Evil 2 is a Survival-Horror title for PS4, XBONE, and PC which was developed and published by Capcom. It is a 2019's full remake of 1998's title of the same name and of course a sequel to first Resident Evil game.

The game takes place two months after the event of the first game and it's set at Raccoon City in September 1998 where most of the people have been turned into zombies, due to an outbreak of a viral bioweapon known as the T-Virus, manufactured by Umbrella Corporation.

You take control of Leon or Claire in 2 separate scenario depending which characters you're playing as first in single-player story mode, as their goal is to find the way of escaping from the city feasted with hordes of zombies.

The story is is done absolutely well for making the plot much easier to follow the point of the story that has well-written dialogue, memorable story sequences, and of course two of the major characters like Leon and Claire are my favourite RE characters is what really adds the game's biggest highlight.

The whole presentation in the game is pretty well done which brings up the nostalgia of the original design. You have the recognisable locations such as police station filled with the hallways, library, office room, statue's room, clock tower, parking garage, the sewers, and underground base that these settings in the remake are much more appealing to look at and how nicely these level structure came close to the 1998's original design. 

I also liked the tone of the whole game are much terror and darker than the original version that really adds up the overall atmospheres of horror design. 

The remake made the improvements upon the original 1997's game such as playing on third-person perspective view which really helps the game as opposed to fixed-camera angle from the original that didn't hold up to today standards which is the reason why Capcom wanted to go for a over the shoulder view for its easier gameplay design such as being able to aim and shoot freely at enemies, making easier to navigate items and objects what's front of you, and controlling your playable character precisely than the tank controls from the original that made the game fully playable for newcomer of the series.

The combat system is nicely balanced with limited ammo and range-shot that are heavily designed for survival depending on which weapons that works effectively against types of monsters, as well as using it as the self-defence mechanics rather than being the lethal is what makes the game feels just right for the genres.  

The puzzle solving aspects is actually fantastic that keeps me engaging with the game well because I really liked finding objects to reveal the hidden area as well as finding key or cards in different rooms that leads me to next locations that makes the whole exploration very satisfied.

The best of all are actually cast of monsters such as Lickers the fast moving monster can scratch you with their deadly claws, Plant 43 creatures can bite your head off clean, Lesser G monsters has large tentacle mouth and arm, Tyrant Mr. X chases you around the rooms till you get a massive beatings, Giant Crocodile is a huge-ass monster chases you through the sewers hall, and that god damn William Birkin always never dies that adds up the scare factor which is the reason why these monsters are so memorable in the game.

Resident Evil 2 is by far the best remakes of whole franchise that is worth checking out for all newcomers and the fans of the series will be impressed with the game's results turns out very successful.

If you like my recent blog, please hit like and comment below for further questions.

This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging and have a nice spooky halloween everyone, MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Xenoblade Chronicles Wii Review

 

Xenoblade Chronicles is a open-world Action RPGs game originally released for Wii in 2011, and was later ported to New 3DS released in 2015 fully titled as Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, and then the Switch released in 2020 as Definitive Edition, which was developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. 

Xenoblade Chronicles is also a subseries under the Xeno franchise which acts as a spiritual successor to earlier games like Square's Xenogears for PS1 in 1998, and Namco's Xenosaga trilogy for PS2 in 2002 - 06.

Today I wanted to do something different that I haven't been reviewing any of Wii games for very long time since I've covered the last Wii game in 5 years back, so I decided to try out one of the RPGs title that I am interested in playing was Xenoblade Chronicles, an open-world RPGs which incorporates the aesthetic and narrative elements from both fantasy and sci-fi genres.

It's one of the fan's most demanding Wii title that took forever for this game to get the release in US till a year later after the JP and EU release, thanks to fan campaign under "Operation Rainfall" drew attention to the game along with other twos such as The Last Story and Pandora's Tower are the last threes being released late in the lifespan of the Wii system.

Upon the release, the game was commercially success in worldwide and had gained critically acclaimed citing as one of the best RPGs game ever released for Wii, while the later Nintendo platforms such as New 3DS and Switch are also getting similar praise with newly added features. 

The success of the first entry had spawned with sequels such as Xenoblade Chronicles X for Wii U in 2015, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for Switch in 2017.

Shulk, a main protagonist of first entry, has been featured as playable roster in the Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, and SSB: Ultimate for Switch.

So going back to this review, I been spending 7 - 8 hours a day of playing this game because it's had a huge chunk of multiple quests just like most of the RPGs does tends to have a long lengthy campaign up to 70 hours or more which I did not expect the game to be really big for the Wii system despite the hardware limitations and being utilized with dual-layered optical disk that doubles the size of capacity really benefiting the game's content which I got to say it's pretty damn impressive for technical aspects.

As being one of the Wii's biggest libraries in terms of technical design goes, this game is absolutely done beautiful that I did not regret playing it because this is the game that I wanted to review it to discuss how the story presentation went, how the open-world exploration goes, and how the combat system feels.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game takes place on the bodies of two enormous titans, such as the Bionis and the Mechonis.

The Bionis is where human race known as Homs lives in, while the others known as Mechon which is a Mechonis's machine race are in a perpetual war between the twos.

It focuses on a young Homs scientist named Shulk, who discovers his ability to wield the a plasma-like sword "Monado" are capable of defeating against the Mechon army, set out on a quest to seek his revenge on Mechon army after the colony 9 attack incident, as he teaming up with his best friend Reyn, while others joining in as the game progresses to stop the Mechon from taking it power.

The game comes with great opening introduction that explains the fallout between the rivalries that led into a such devastating war which endangers many innocent people struggles to defend themselves from the foes that threatening their lives by destroying their homes, losing their family, and so on.

I like the idea of having these mankind living inside the body of the titans which is strangely different from living in the planet, so lets pretend that you're the one of the titan who had millions of people living inside your body parts like head, arms, legs, and chest which is really weird, but I do really liked their imaginative concept for the game.

What makes the main highlight of the game is the whole storyline which I got to say it is a well-written that really delivers the ambitious results that may going surprise you with several cool events and some unexpecting plot holes without giving many of heavy spoilers because the entire chapters in the game sounds really outstanding thanks to in-depth dialogue and precise story development. 

The cast of characters in the game are actually likable such as Shulk is one of the character that I find him quite memorable especially he appeared as playable roster in Super Smash Bros games. Going back to this, he has an interesting backstory to know his background as the game's story progress through, and he discovers a powerful looking beam sword known as the Monado which gives him ability to use his vision to sees the future, as well as effectively using it to defeat bunch of Mechon armies.

He is joined by his cool best friend Reyn, his passionate love interest Fiora who also had her brother joins in named Dunban, a medic and sniper professionalist Sharla, a princess of High Entia Melia, and a Nopon's chosen hero Riki to aid him by fighting against the evil and protecting the home world.

The presentation is absolutely look beautiful for every locations to discover. Stuff like Bionis Leg does have a lovely view of caves, rocks, bridges, waterfall, and hills filled with the mix of stormy or clear weather.

Valak Mountain has peaks and lairs of snowy places filled with blizzard and crystal, Makna Forest has greenery stuff like bunch of trees, lakeside, landing site, and grove, Satorl Marsh has bloomy environments like swamps filled with foggy areas and glowy lighting, and Colony 9 has stall markets, wreckage site, plaza, park, and homes.

The entire locations in the game is looking stunningly impressive for the Wii system despite the technical showcase goes on, this game is looking massively big for its huge landscape, bigger environmental design, and many landmarks to visit really adds the in-depth of the game's design.

I got to say I really liked the design of the enemies such as Ansels, Mammut, Skeeter, Barg, Mechon, Behemoth, and of course Telethia which I considered them as stylish and exotic, where as the bosses like Metal Face, Jade Face, Yaldabaoth, and others are actually pretty good too which they did a fabulous job of creating a such unique monsters that totally fits the RPGs standards.  

       

 

Overall, it has precise story development, likable characters, and beautiful presentation design.

Gameplay

You get to play as Shulk along with his friends in big open-world environment where you get to explore around the areas to discover and visit the places which you can also navigate the locations and landmarks throughout the map screens menu.

You will have the list of goals on the quest log which includes both the story and side-quest to complete each objectives throughout the game.

The story quest are mainly part of the whole main game which heavily focuses on story campaign, where as the side-quest are not entirely connected to story based, but more like optional stuff been added to game in order to provide extra content. 

To keep you mind, I'm playing the game mostly with the Wii Classic Controller, instead of using the Wii Remote and Nunchunk, because it feels much more suited to play RPGs games.               

You roam around the areas by moving with the left stick and rotating camera system with right stick to see the surroundings of the area. 

You will have the commands buttons such as the A button uses to talk with NPCs, examine objects, and confirming selections, where as the B button are used for jumping while roaming and cancelling selections. 

You can also access the opening menu by pressing the X button which lets you select any of these options such as changing equipments, organising items, upgrading arts and skill trees, and changing time system which I will explain these further for later on this review.

During the exploration, you will engage the combat to fight off the enemies when you're get near close to them, so you will start off by locking on the enemies with the L or R shoulder button which can also cycle the lock-on targets, and then you will have 8 selectable commands known as the art moves and 3 other combat actions such as talent arts, chain attack, and flee.

Your character has an auto-attack system depends on which party members you're playing as, so those who welds the sword weapons are used for close-range attack, where as others like Sharla has sniper-rifle works effectively with long-range attack.

These 8 arts moves are used for manually input attacks are also be performed by the player, but are only available after the cooldown period that occurs after every use, while you also had the talent arts only became available after executing enough auto-attacks.   

Each of the characters will have different kinds of input attacks which allows them to perform various of attack and specials such as physical damage, inflicts stuff like break, slow, and daze, toppling them, recover with health and curing, reducing enemy's physical and ether power, summoning power like earth and bolt, and increasing player's strength and shields. 

The talent arts lets you perform some kind of special moves: For instance, Shulk's monado arts with buster, purge, cyclone, and others which doubles the damage hit, where as shields, speed, and armour temporary increases the defense and movements.

You will have 3 party guage bars slowly fills when you and your party members successfully land the hits on the enemies which filling the 3 tier gauge allows you and your party members to perform a chain attacks with multiple hits on the enemy for extra damage.

You will have one of the mechanic for battle system called vision system where Shulk can sense the enemy's future attacks also factors into battles, so you can prevent it from happening by alerting the party members which allows you to use one of their arts, and you can also revive the characters when they been fully knocked out in zero health points which also depletes 1 guage tier each.           

In case you're struggling to defeat the enemies, you can also disengage the combat battle by switching into one of the combat actions called flee which allows you and your party members to retreat from the combat as far as possible.

After defeating these enemies will drop down the treasure objects which rewards you with the items that you want to keep it, as well as gaining amount of EXPs along with completing quests and discovering landmarks which highly increases yours and party member's skill levels can be raised up to level 99.

On the opening menu, you will access to the party's inventory screen where you can able to switch one or three of the party members that you wanted to play as, and changing their equipment such as weapons and armours that suits the best for you and your party members, so you can find the best available from the shop where you can pick and trade each of the equipment has the own advantages like one of these each will have additional gem slots where you can add these gems into the equipments will increasingly adds health points, strength, ether power, defense, agile, and others will make you and your party members becoming even more stronger.

Speaking of being stronger, you can also access to arts menus that requires your APs and learning book items to upgrade one of your arts commands increasingly adds up your damage attack and health points, reducing amounts of nasty drainage and slow cooldowns, improving shield protection, and etc. which makes your attacking and using magic system feels more effective in combat battle.

The skill trees can also benefit your teamwork if each of the affinity stuff has improved, so you can able to add up to 6 slots in skill links such as increasing aggro, allows medium weight armour to be equipped, improves arts with bonus effects, increases chance for chain links, increases tension, reduces the duration of cool off, and etc.

On the item inventory menu, you can organise your item stuff like weapon, armor, materials, gems, and collectables that you can view any of these objects to examine, remove, and use.

Then lastly you will have the real-time system that cycle the day and night affecting the in-game events, quests, enemy strengths, and item availability: for instance, most of the stronger enemy types appear at night where as the quests or events may be available on any of day or night cycle, so you can also adjust the in-game clock on the menu to the desired time at any point.

The landmarks on the map screens lets you traversing the land by serving as warp points, allowing you to instantly return to that point at any time which is similar to the fast travel system that are later used for current RPGs games nowadays.

So far, this is really huge game especially playing on the Wii which I am quite impressed with the result showcasing the Wii's hardware had managed to create a bigger open-world design which expands the heavy use of exploration, participating numerous of side-quests, gathering collectable items, and has so many monsters to fight around is what I consider the over 70 and additional hours of playthrough in all thanks to Wii's dual-layer disc format that weighs 8.54GB of size can store almost twice as much information as a Wii's single-layer disc format has 4.7GB of size which is the reason why they created such a long open-world game.        

I have spent playing 7 to 8 hours a day of playthrough to experience my RPGs adventures, as I really enjoyed stuff that kept me very busy like exploring around the areas to visiting new locations, talking with NPCs to do favours for side-quests, trading the items at shop to get the best equipment to use, and of course fighting the bunch of monsters in combat to grind many EXPs as possible is what makes the game quite unique.

Speaking of being unique, I loved how the combat system really works in the game that relying on the level grinding system and upgrading arts commands which really boosts the player's and party member's skill level with better defense, speed, and attacks that makes the enemies feels vulnerable in battle.

I also wanted to praise the boss battle segments which requires a good amount of skill levels and memorising one of their weak patterns using the right type of input attacks which really adds the overall epicness of the whole battle that keeps you very entertained.   

It plays really well with the Wii classic controller are much easier to control during the exploration and battle is highly designed for RPGs games to get a better gaming experience for those who dislike the Wii's default controller like the Wii Remote and Nunchunk may be lucky to stick with the traditional standard controller like the Wii classic controller is highly recommended.

The part that I don't like about in the combat is the moderate frame-rate drop when it had 5 or more enemies on the screen performing their heavy magic attacks makes the performance a bit janky, but it's not sounds all terrible in my opinion because the game still plays outstanding especially playing on the Wii console.

Overall, it has large-length single-player campaign, outstanding combat gameplay, and big open-world exploration.

Graphics

Despite it's on the Wii system which lacked HD display support, the game itself is looking remarkable with enormous open-world environments which I really liked the way the large parts of objects at landscape looks at the draw-distance is stunningly amazing to look at. The textures mapping on the area design is looking smooth, the use of cloudy fog effects works better for some locations, the balance of colours and lighting is nicely detailed, and I also liked the in-game time system that cycle the day and night is absolutely done such a cracking job for its detailed sky effects and weather animation is looking impressive for the Wii technical aspects.         

I also wanted to praise the character's animation is pretty look spectacular for Wii's RPGs just like I've previously mentioned about the enemy's design that feels well animated throughout the game.               

The downside is like most of the Wii games may not look good when playing on the HDTV with RCA composite cable plugged in is due to system's lack of HD support may effect on the screen resolution display can only support 480p, so you may want to look for the alternatives like video converter devices that are highly designed for retro gaming console can be found on some dedicated online stores that sells gaming's video converter devices such as RetroTink or OSSC which really helps the system's resolution look and feels more cleaner.   

I overheard the people had said the 3DS version is looking even worse on the screen resolution display compared with the Wii counterpart I'm currently playing on, where as the Switch version are completely overhauled the game's visuals are looking much better than the previous two versions. 

Despite the Wii's low resolution, the rest of the whole game still look spectacular for its open-world design and weather effects which I am happy with the results had turned out.

Overall, it has enormous open-world environments, smooth textures mapping, and the use of effects and animation.

Music and Sounds

The game definitely has the best original soundtrack of whole RPGs genres which was composed by Manami Kiyota, ACE+, and Yoko Shimomura are involved creating a original score for this game. The title screen is so beautiful to listen giving a strong relaxation before beginning the game. Then you have rest of the songs like Everyday Life, Memories, Sorrow, Hometown, Alcamoth (Imperial Capital), and Agniratha (Night) is also pretty to listen with beautifully made orchestrated sounds that really delivers the emotional tones, where as others like Gaur Plain is definite one of the highlights song that I finding it quite catchy to listen.

The game does have the best selection of battle songs such as An Obstacle in Our Path, and You Will Know Our Names which I really liked the intense mixture of Hard Rock and Orchestrated combine really fits well to the game's battle.

The sound effects is genuinely sounds great in all thanks to environmental noises in some locations, and atmospheric sound design which I am glad that it doesn't sound and feel out of range throughout the campaign. 

I got to say the voice acting in the game seems to be better than what I've expected, as you can hear their voice doesn't sound off for their characters role because I find Shulk and their friends is actually sounds pretty decent throughout the scenes with no clunky dialogue whatsoever, so I'm assuming the people had said that it's sounds lot better in comparison with Namco's Xenosaga in terms of voice performance quality which I'm glad they found the right casting choices for the roles.  

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, great sound design, and decent voice performance.

Special Features

The game does include new game plus mode when you beating the game once retaining the same items and equipment that you previously collected and obtained from the single-player campaign, as well as numerous of side-quests on the quest logs that I've mentioned before which really helps the game's replay value.

Overall, a fine features.

Advantages

Precise story development 

Likable characters 

Beautiful presentation design

Large-length single-player campaign 

Outstanding combat gameplay 

Big open-world environment 

Fantastic original soundtrack

Disadvantages

Lower screen resolution for Wii games don't look good on HDTVs

Janky frame-rate drop on some battles

Final Verdict

Presentation 10/10 - precise story development, likable characters, and beautiful presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - large-length single-player campaign, outstanding combat gameplay, and big open-world exploration.

Graphics 9/10 - enormous open-world environments, smooth textures mapping, and the use of effects and animation.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, great sound design, and decent voice performance.

Special Features 8/10 - New game plus. 

Overall 9/10 - I am very glad that I had this game because I was hoping to look for the best possible RPGs game that made the right balance between the story and combat doesn't really drags down my experience.

I am happy with the game's result that delivers many positive things like the combat system are kept well balanced with level grinding and upgrades, having the long campaign fills with large exploration, numerous of quests, and epic bosses, and of course you can't go wrong with the game has the best overall story and characters that made Xenoblade Chronicles a such legendary RPGs.

I also heard from the people had said that even the 3DS version is still a faithful port to the original game but felt downgraded compared with the Wii version, where as the Switch version as definitive edition expands with many improvements over the previous Nintendo platforms such as new epilogue scenario, casual mode, overhaul graphics design, and remastered soundtrack.

That being said, this is one of my favourite RPGs for Wii libraries that the hardcore RPGs fans will be fully appreciated with the game. This version is recommended for the Wii owners which cost cheaper around £20, while the Switch version cost £30 which is slightly expensive, but more recommended to newcomers rather much preferred the game's definitive content as the better option. 

  

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