Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii: Controls, Release and Reviews

Xenoblade Chronicles is an open-world action RPG for the Wii, developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo. Wikipedia’s reception table prints a Metacritic score of 92 out of 100 for the Wii version, and the ESRB rates it T.

Overview

The setting is the frozen bodies of two titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis, whose inhabitants are at war. Homs, humanlike people on the Bionis, fight the machine-race Mechon with a sword called the Monado, and when Mechon attack Colony 9, a young mechanic named Shulk becomes its wielder and discovers it shows him brief glimpses of the future.

Tetsuya Takahashi first sketched the idea of people living on giant gods in June 2006, after Xenosaga’s disappointing sales had left his team low in morale. Development began over four years before release, with first prototypes in April 2007, and Genki Yokota was brought in by Nintendo to look after the system side. Shulk’s glimpses of the future became the basis of the battle system after a turn-based prototype failed.

How it plays

The player steers one of three party members with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk or the Classic Controller. The world is open, with seamlessly linked zones, a day and night cycle of about ten minutes and Landmarks that work as warp points. Saving works anywhere outside combat, and a New Game+ mode carries progress forward.

Fights run in real time. Party members attack on their own when enemies come close, while the player triggers Arts on cooldowns, and a Party Gauge enables chain attacks. Arts are arranged beforehand on a Battle Palette.

Release and credits

Japan got the game on 10 June 2010. Europe followed on 19 August 2011, two weeks ahead of schedule, with English and Japanese voice tracks, and a version with a red Classic Controller Pro also appeared. Australia is listed on 1 September 2011.

North America took longer. Nintendo of America made no commitment, and the fan campaign Operation Rainfall, which also covered The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower, drove attention until a GameStop listing surfaced. The game arrived on 6 April 2012, sold only through Nintendo’s online store and GameStop. The ESRB entry lists blood, mild language, partial nudity, use of alcohol and tobacco, and violence.

Reception

Wikipedia’s table gives Metacritic 92 out of 100 for the Wii release and calls the reception universal acclaim. A note on sources: Metacritic’s own page for the title prints 86, and its dates are from April 2015, so it describes the New Nintendo 3DS port, not the Wii disc. The Switch remaster is listed at 89.

Perfect marks came from Digital Spy, Joystiq, GamePro and RPGamer. IGN’s Keza MacDonald said the game shocked her out of expecting Japanese RPGs to resemble Final Fantasy XIII. The graphics drew the main criticism, since critics found them less polished than on rival consoles. IGN named it Best Wii/Wii U Game of 2012.

Can you still play it?

The Wii disc works on a Wii and in Wii Mode on a Wii U, which needs a Sensor Bar for most software. Mind the region coding, since the North American copy was sold only through Nintendo’s online store and GameStop.

A Wii U eShop version appeared in Europe on 5 August 2015 and in North America on 28 April 2016. The Wii U eShop closed on 27 March 2023, so it can no longer be bought there; the Wii Shop Channel closure does not touch the disc.