Monolith Soft Celebrates Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Fifth Anniversary With Special Artwork

Don't care what everyone says about the game and it's "anime-moments", it's still my favorite XC game

I can’t wait to play these! I’m definite going to at some point! 3 looks especially amazing! As it seems to keep twos artstyle, but do it just right, from what I have seen of course.

@mariomaster96 Isn't it widely regarded as one of the best jrpgs of all times? I certainly would get behind such statement and I played a lot of rpgs

@ComfyAko For most who have actually played it: Yes

But some people really love to hate on this game because Anime

One of the only games that had a gacha mechanic that I actually enjoyed.

Xenoblade 1 DE and X are WAAAAAY better than 2&3
However, 2&3 are amazing. It’s kind of a Zelda situation in which the bar is so high that even the “worst” games are a piece of greatness.

@mariomaster96 Me too. Story + voice acting alone. For me XC2 was the best game they ever made.

XC3 is a good game in it's own right, but it sadly doesn't come close to XC2 in my opinion.

Yeah, I still can't take these characters seriously. Looks like the character designers had a severe case of puberty.

I only pulled the trigger in early 2020 (after the announcement of XCDE spelled out a double-dip and a restart and thus no chance in hell of finishing the first game anytime soon😆), but it blew my already high expectations out of the Solar system. The varied locales and many proper cities of Alrest boosting the thrill of exploration even despite relatively enforced fast travel, the evolved and even more engaging battle system, yet cooler music, yet more FFXIII vibes here and there... and don't get me started on the whole character roster from the main cast that needs no commentary to the daunting crowd of blades you can recruit where even "common" ones have a certain amount of personality and a pool of lines and responses for the battle/field/menu banter. And the affinity charts pretty much ensuring that you always have something to tend to on the side no matter which titan you're visiting? As a result, I may be farther down the plot than in the other two glorious flagship time sinks (ironically because I needed to get a certain character back into the party for advancing half my side sidequests), but the overall playthrough has been a good hundred hours longer - 235 and counting, to be exact. Granted, XC3 amassed over half of that in a fraction of the period (as the first game where I ever racked up over 100 hours in one month)...😅😄

@mariomaster96 most JRPGs are "Anime", shocking as it may be. So the neighsayers in question don't really make a case to humour, including those who had only just discovered that Japanese devs - and Monolith Soft in particular - like going to town with female character designs (although a lot of their complaints on the matter sound almost Freudianly exaggerated).

XC2 is great and TTGC is even better! Happy 5th anniversary!

I really wish they would run a reprint as the carts are tricky to find at a reasonable price. I finished XDE and loved it, although the ending took some comprehending. Nothing against digital dl per se, so I guess I'll hang on in for a decent price at some point

@PinderSchloss Agreed. The blatantly sexist fanservice with the design of the female characters is why I've refused to buy this game, even though I enjoyed the first XC. (And that game already had its share of questionable fanservice too, but it wasn't as bad as here.) Promo images with like this certainly aren't gonna change my mind.

This game was so unfairly criticized. You'd think people hadn't seen anything anime inspired in their life before.

The fact that some of these idiots who hate on the designs of women in this game don't even acknowledge that Rex's design is also the same kind of ''anime fanservice'' is just the cherry on top

At any rate congrats on your fifth birthday XB2! What a great game and a great journey. Xenoblade 1 on Wii was already amazing, never played X, but I feel like this game is when many players finally realized that Monolith is a top tier developer.

@YoshiF2 All Xenoblade games are in the same ranking for me. I think whichever one is your favourite is dependent on what story themes appeal to you the most and which one has the more appealing game mechanics to you. Also, whichever one you played first would also likely affect your opinion.

Many people would agree with you and many would disagree with you, I don't think it has to do with the varying quality.

Xenoblade 3 > DE > 2 > X is my personal order for example.

Happy birthday to the weirdest entry in my favorite jrpg series. I might not like the voice acting, or the character designs, or the humor, or that it's basically a harem anime shoved into a group of much more thoughtful and serious narratives, but darn it, it's still a great game. The gameplay, world design, and soundtrack are somehow more than enough to make up for its many, many flaws.

How has it been 5 years...

Such a stellar game despite it flaws, and the one that got me into the whole series proper. Truly owe a lot to xenoblade 2.

It’s a really good game.

First game to make me cry since FF7. I got bored early game but persisted and wow does the story and gameplay really take off

@Polvasti Your fears are founded. I really enjoyed exploring the world and some aspects of the battle system, but I accredit at least 20% of all the eye rolls of my life to this game.

Yep, my favourite XC game. I'm currently deep into XC3, and it's really good but the XC2 just knocks it out of the park. Battle system is deep and nuanced, world exploration really rewards you with interesting discoveries, you can actually spend the money on something and the plot is really gripping and emotional. Furthermore - Pyra. Enough said.

It's okay, but I find the original Xenoblade Chronicles to be far better designed, with a more meaty and satisfying story.

The sequel has a pretty simple and short story that is needlessly stretched out to make sure you visit the entire world. As a result, not much of significance happens on each Titan. The worst offender is the region that contains Rex's home. I don't even remember why you had to go there, as you just visit his town, fight Zeke, then continue to the next Titan.

And after all this I still don't know what motivated the final boss.

The first game had lots of quests to make you explore the world. In the sequel, there are very few of them given by NPCs, the rest of them being stashed away in Blades's skill trees, which makes them easy to miss and a pain to check up on.

In battle, Blades decide your class, which decides most of your skills. As a result, every character feels the same, and there's no reason to use anyone else.

Finally, I found Rex to be a pretty one-dimensional main character.

@YoshiF2 idk. Maybe. I enjoyed 2 better than 1 and X. It has its quirks, but I prefer almost everything about it.

@Mauzuri without any rationale provided with your comment, the fact that you like 1 and 3, rubbish seems a little harsh. Whilst different, they are similar in many ways.

No problem with opinions but I always look for a sound argument and/or reasoning.

Bless Monolith Soft for this.

@YoshiF2 I think they're all similar in quality, though I might give the overall nod to XB1 because it was first and still might have the best narrative. I do agree though, one of the rare series where the worst games in it are still really good. The only other series that applies to in my mind is Dark Souls.

For all its faults, I still loved XC2 so I’m glad to see it getting some love on its fifth anniversary. It’s funny to me how XC3’s flaws were much more of a sore spot for me than XC2’s, even thought the general opinion seems to be the exact opposite. All good games in their own right, at the very least.

Honestly, I kinda get why some people were pushed away by XC2 character designs. Have to admit, it is the worst part of the game.
And saying it's just "people hating anime" is strawmanning hard. Xenoblade 3 is also anime style JRPG and is not as... questionable as XC2 with character designs. And that's also without counting some stuff about the story that is also questionable (Tora and Poppi anyone?).

It's a shame because, it is a great game in a lot of areas. But the character designs are so questionable that even undermine the story at some points.

But, again, it's a great game. Great story, great characters (in personality at least... for the most part), amazing music and world design, great world and sidequests. Even the DLC is really good and worth the money (and in some ways better than the main game).

Great game, though it took me around 4.5 years to finish the main story since I couldn't understand the battle system. If they ever remake/remaster it, they really should include reviewable tutorials and a practice mode. I didn't get the Elemental Combo/Burst mechanics until literally the last battle of the second to last chapter after looking it up online. Still, amazing journey.

Thank you for this gift of light.

Despite it's many (technical) flaws/issues like the field skill system & gacha system, I still think this is my favorite in the series.

The tone, vibe, & character design top the series IMO (though I'll admit I think it'd be even better if you could freely change the costumes of the main characters at least, like XCDE), and once you get the hang of it the battle system is super rewarding.

It’s been sitting on my shelf for about a month now, and I can’t wait to play it, though I need to finish Scarlet first. Xenoblade has quickly become one of my top favorite series.

XC1/XCX failed to pull me in, to the point where I've abandoned multiple playthroughs out of a lack of interest.. It wasn't until XC2 that I became properly invested in the series, and XC3 maintained several of its strengths while also doing away with most of its weaknesses, becoming one of my all-time favorite JRPGs.

XC2 still does certain things the best, though. The soundtrack is INCREDIBLE, for one. Easily the best in the series, and a top three video game OST overall. I also really enjoyed how light-hearted much of the early game was. The game does drama well also, and the build-up to the finale in its last few chapters is also superb.

Certain qualities keep it from being my favorite, but it is the game that got me properly into the series, and for that, I'll always have a soft spot for it.

@jowe_gw definitely agree. Wish the designs were less questionable, but I’m hoping the I like the game itself as much as I did DE and 3.

I'm happy to see so many people in the comments holding an opinion I thought I was alone with! After playing all four Xenoblade games, XC2 still stands at the pinnacle for me.

This is the worst Xenoblade game that i have played, all due to Rex constant whining🤦 Worst main protagonist ever. Also the whole island floating thing didn't sit well with me either. I sold the game quickly after completing the story🤷‍♂️ The best and most amazing Xenoblade game for me is X, such a gorgeous game in a huge world, i've spend like almost 300 hours doing anything i could in the game! I sincerely hope that a sequel to X is announced, need to see what happens after "that" cliffhanger.

Amazing game. Actually enjoyed this game more then XB1 and XB3 because there was so much to do.

Prudes that skip the game because “anime fanservice” [which btw is an insignificant fraction of the entire game and there are PLENTY of non fanservice character designs, but people ignore that because it goes against their agenda] is their loss in the end.

Only REAL issue XB2 has compared to the rest of the Switch Xenoblades is it’s the worst looking one in handheld mode with that blur. Still more then playable, but you can tell MS fixed themselves in that front with XB1DE and XB3 to make it more clear in handheld mode.

Starting catching up on this game yesterday after taking a break for Splatoon 3. It's already pretty complex, and I'm sure I'm not playing it as well as I could be, but the locales are gorgeous and the battles are engaging. I'm hoping to finish playing through this and its DLC by the time the next Zelda arrives and consumes my spare time.

Good game, but significantly lesser than XC1 and XC3.

This game is honestly tied with the other 2 for me. Or really really close at least, I think all the games are 10/10s though. Love the story, the gameplay (it's soooo good), you can't beat the music, the world and characters.
I understand the complaint with female character designs but I think most people who say that either didn't finish or were looking for a reason to dislike the game, because it's incredibly easy to look past it at all the better stuff.
Happy 5th anniversary XC2!

@Arawn93 Being against sexism and objectification of women has nothing to with being a "prude".

Happy 5th XC2. You're not my favorite XC game, but even a not so great XC game is leagues better than most other games.
I wasn't fond of the slow, ponderous, poorly explained battle system. I particularly didn't care for the slow movement during battle, which completely disincentivized repositioning for position-based bonuses, and the characters stopped auto-attacking when moving. XC1 didn't do this, and XC3 had a great system of dashing and resetting the auto-attack timer, so the player wasn't punished for repositioning in battle. XC2 actively punishes the player for repositioning to take advantage of arts and it is super annoying.
The characters designs were so heavily sexually overkill, it made it awkward to play. I have a 55" TV aimed at our front window, in a neighborhood. I am an adult. It's not a good look for an adult to have jiggly waifu parts in bold bright colors on their street-facing TV. That's not being an unnecessary prude or being against "anime;" it is a fair and valid criticism, and one I do not back down from. It made the game, subjectively to me and many others, less fun. Pure and simple.
The voice acting was also not the best in the series, especially when compared with 1 and 3.
To say something nice, the story, while very tropey and heavily weighed down by poor voice acting and poorly written characters, was emotional and tear-inducing, and I did truly love it. I just feel XC1 and XC3 had better ones.
Respect to everyone who loves the game as you've all helped support the franchise to help it hit even greater heights. Can't wait for XC4!

Hopefully pyra,mythra and the rest along with cast from the first one besides melia and nya who are in it alrdy return in xenoblade 3 dlc story where noah and his friends team up with them against a much bigger threat.

As much as I loved playing through this game, the gameplay for most of the game carried it hard while the last 2 to 3 chapters were carried hard by the story. The start was fantastic, one of the best set ups to a grand adventure I've ever had the pleasure of playing and seeing unfold. But then it's followed by this trope-y rescue arc filled with bad dialogue made even worse by the abysmal voice acting, and lame tactics to one up some of the strongest characters in the story because it's a game so the lowly protagonist still has to win somehow. Who is possibly one of the least likeable jrpg protagonists. And it kinda just keeps going that way, melodrama with characters you barely even met and have no attachment to that would've been enhanced if the torna prologue was explored properly without having to pay for dlc instead of having almost a full chapter dedicated to comically evil nopons and powering up poppi. Despite that the cast of characters still managed to mostly shine, and the villains were pretty great. I liked that they were actually shown trying to accomplish their goals and weren't generic evil organization that insults each other because they're evil even tho they're working together like moebius in xb3

The gameplay through most of that though was just amazing. The locations aside from the awful pixelated blur due to hardware, were gorgeous, diverse and fun to explore. They were full of stuff to find and thats not even mentioning towns which were also like mini dungeons full of hidden pathways and secrets. The landscapes had actual secret areas that were stunning, with superb music playing in the background unlike in XB3. Combat felt more engaging in xb2 with the orbs and chaining them up for massive damage and being able to cancel autos even if it wasn't intended. And while the gacha system is literally worse than an actual gacha game, the blades themselves were cool in that they had their own unique quests, animations and movesets

I'd get into those final chapters where the story finally became good. But I don't want to make an even bigger mountain of text. Tldr happy anniversary XB2, you managed to give me hundreds of wonderful hours

Happy 5th anniversary XC2!

I played this one first and dropped sooo many hours into it - I never managed to get all of the 'gacha' I'm missing like 2. My favorite of the XC so far. I am waiting to get the new one when I get myself an OLED Switch and pass my 1st gen to my kids officially.

For me 2 > 1 > 3.

The “anime fanservice” was a plus. Pyra, Mythra, Poppi, Brighid all awesome.

Rex was a bit annoying though.

Still one of the best games on the switch and JRPGs in general.
Also one of the best if not the best of it's series, it's combat system is still unbeaten, soundtrack arguably too, some characters just outshine most of the cast in any of the games except 3 and it has so much content and replay value compared to the others.

To me I still have a hard time deciding whether I like XC2 or XC3 more. I will have to revisit them both in the future to give my final opinion, perhaps after the dlc drops next year.

But anyways happy birthday XC2, although you have some major flaws you're still one of the best games out there.

@Polvasti Prude was the wrong choice of word I'd say but getting so up in arms over something so trivial just isn't worth it. Games like this will always sell, in the same way intense blood and gore is always a marketable selling point. The Callisto Protocol is literally selling "Look how many horrible ways you can die!". As long as the market is there for it, expect the things that you hate to keep being made.

Xenoblade 2 is EASILY my least favourite in the series (though I prefer the main game to the Torna prequel), yet it is still absolutely fantastic, just like all the other games.

I gotta admit though, Pyra and Mythra, and the "anime fanservice" moments were definitely a huge issue for me. After the absolutely amazing first game and the fantastic X, this one just felt...off in a lot of ways.

I still liked it overall, but I have wonderful, vivid memories of the original Xenoblade, of XCX and of XC3...and none of XC2 whatsoever, which, I guess, speaks for itself.

In my book, XC1 and XCX are in a constant battle for the top spot (the story and characters in XC1 are obviously way more intricate though, so it usually takes the win, much as I love sci-fi and transforming mechs), XC3 is a close second...XC2 is a bit further back...and waaaaaay behind the rest of the pack is Torna.

@Polvasti Except none of that is in the game which proves my point with your gross exaggerations of what a typical prudish person would say. Lol “sexism and objectification of women!”. Learn what that means next time or play the game. Hint: There are plenty of male designs that appeal to women, but I guess that doesn’t count for your narrative. The characters were not made for sex either and actually show that both men and women are strong.

I guess Morag your party member is definitely something a “sexist and objectifying women!” game would have lol.

I feel silly to have to point this out, but it seems it has to be done: XB2 isn’t a Senran Kagura or DoA volleyball game aka games designed for the fanservice that people are trying to act like. At best it has elements sprinkled lightly on the game that every other anime game has including the other Xeno games.

Most people are fine with it, but there are prudish people that lose their mind because for example they are OK with mostly naked men character designs, but Mythra the confidant strong heroine isn’t ashamed of her body or isn’t shy to show some skin is where the line is apparently crossed lol

People like you that focus on a small handful of the character designs and a couple cutscenes and go “That is the game!” Is always hilarious and misinforming.

@Arawn93 You can keep on making strawman arguments about "prudishness" for all you want, that doesn't magically make them true. "Showing skin" is not the issue, it's how those characters showing skin are depicted. They are depicted as regular women with regular bodies, they're visually designed to have exaggerated physiques, comically large boobs, etc., in the ages-old tradition of sexist visual stereotypes. AFAIK them having bodies like than and dressing up like that doesn't serve any narrative point, so the main point is to titillate straight male players. And yes, the first XC had issues with this too, mostly with Sharla, but it wasn't as over-the-top.

Also, no one has claimed that fanservice is a big part of the game or that these characters aren't strong. People are merely saying that this gratuitous fanservice is distracting and doesn't serve any purpose in a game like this. It actually makes more sense in those volleyball etc. games you mention, because there it really is the main point. You might be fine with it in a serious RPG too, but that doesn't mean everybody is. For me personally, this kind of casual sexism is usually a deal-breaker, just like casual racism and casual homophobia are. That is not because of prudishness, it's because I'd like video games to respect all kinds of players, not just straight men who want to see some tits & ass.

I don’t think there’s any lack of respect there, if anything the Japanese games like this go out of their way to be respectful and good natured. I agree it may not be inclusive for everyone, but should art always aim for that? That would be pretty dull IMO. For some people it’s a plus, for some it’s a negative - and that’s fine.

I think it does show a lack of respect when they assume that people who play the game are folks who want to see female characters depicted like that... Instead of players being women (and others) who are tired of stereotypical, sexist depictions of women in media. And sure, tits & ass imagery can be art too, but I'd save it for games where it actually is the main point. In games like this, where it doesn't seem to serve any purpose, it feels like totally gratuitous fanservice, not some artful design choice.

@mariomaster96

Na, i somehow do not get warm with the Series.
Edit: But i am not hating on it, just not my Taste of RPG (mechanics)

@Polvasti "AFAIK them having bodies like than and dressing up like that doesn't serve any narrative point, so the main point is to titillate straight male players"

As far as I'm aware, this sounds sexist in it's own right coming from you. Acting as though sexuality isn't a two way street.

I haven't even played the game but even I know that Pyra's design, working in tandem with her personality, is suppose to make her come off as maternal or even show how Rex is still just a boy in many ways. Ya know the human body, especially female ones, are more multifaceted in appeal beyond sex, right? Breasts are meant for children, didja know? It just so happens that lots of adults are kids at heart too, women included. (And I can't believe I have to mention something so gendered in order to get across something so fundamental to the human race, but here we are.)

Besides, what's wrong with a game having fun designs on fun characters? What's wrong with looking sexy and indulging in it? Why am I replying to a person who's projecting a lot of their underexperienced petty grievances partly coming for a lack of care of one's own sexuality? Honestly, I don't know.