Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

In 2012, when we first tested Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii, we found it exceptional. Here is what we wrote: “Xenoblade Chronicles is the best Japanese role-playing game of its generation. Although it looks straight out of the previous generation, its technical limitations are offset by original art direction, a captivating and innovative combat system, and thoughtful design. It's a nod to the genre's glorious days, proof that there are always new ways to tell a story. If you've always felt frustrated with the lack of epic, detailed Wii games, then this title is for you. "

So how does the port of this epic, exclusively to New Nintendo 3DS, fare? It still offers the same innovative ideas, deep combat, and an expansive world filled with quests for almost 60 hours of play, however graphics quality suffers.

The developers at Monster Games have done an admirable job of compressing the huge world of Xenoblade into a more compact form, only the textures suffered from this transition on a smaller and lower screen resolution. The downside is that some characters and environments don't look very good, up close or at a distance. The 3DS still manages to capture the spirit and emotions conveyed by the world of Xenobalde. We keep the same great outlook, whether you freely visit the wild lands of the Plains of Guar or the hostile jungle of the Forest of Makna, and these technical sacrifices allow this version to run at a rate as fast as that of the previous game for Wii. .

On the control side, the 3DS is well equipped to meet the requirements of Xenoblade. Switching from C-stick to buttons feels natural. The ZL and ZR keys are used to manage the zooming and de-zooming of the camera, and to access the fast travel system. The only disappointment concerns the 3DS touch screen which is not used at all. This is a disappointing omission, especially because the touchscreen interface could have made it easier to navigate through the menus.

Likewise, despite the mention "3D" in the title, the usual use of 3D does not make this version especially better. Some cutscenes have some additions, but this does not impact the gameplay of the game.

So, apart from the possibility of experiencing this RPG in a portable version, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D does not add much to the original. The new collections of 3D character models and music are awesome, but having played on Wii before, I won't buy it for that reason alone.

If, therefore, on the goodness of the game there were no doubts despite the past years, the operation wanted by Nintendo to bring Xenoblade Chronicles 3D exclusively on the New 3DS lent itself to some questions. Will the processor of the new portable console of the big N make such a vast, complex and graphically satisfying title run? How will menus, fights and characters be handled? Will the C-Stick work well? Will the touch display be exploited in any way? How much will 3D add visually? Legitimate questions also considering the splendid work done recently by Nintendo with The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, which by the way is an enhanced and embellished version in all of that classic of 15 years ago and not a simple port as in the case of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D.

The fluidity has almost never shown considerable drops even in clashes with multiple enemies on the screen, the uploads are extremely short (even more saves) and in general, although they never touch levels of excellence, the graphic work can be said to be successful. Unfortunately, several textures appear washed out and not very incisive and even the faces of the protagonists in the cut-scenes are flatter and poor in detail compared to the Wii version. Also noteworthy is a rather pronounced aliasing and the fact that 3D, to be honest, does not add much to the original gaming experience.

The English dubbing is less exciting, especially when the voices of the characters tend to become too emphatic and end up repeating the same things during the fights. Unfortunately there is no Japanese dubbing present in the Wii version and I imagine that this absence is due to space reasons. Already in fact, the downloadable version of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D requires a microSD of at least 8 GB to be installed and therefore the 4 GB already present in the console is not enough.

Even the texts re-proposed with such small characters (all translated into Italian fortunately) require a certain effort to be read, while in the most intricate fights it can happen quite often to lose for a moment the thread of the situation between icons, graphic effects of special shots , characters and monsters. On a TV all this had a much lesser impact, but on the New 3DS you notice much more, although it represents a nuisance only in certain situations. You have to get used to the controls instead.