Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS @ 45 hours
I can not believe that in less than a week I have logged in near 15 hours of game play into the game Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS(XC), which may be a night and a day in the life of some gamers but for me with work, a wife and children that is a lot of gameplay for one week. My goal was to play 40 hours or more of the game prior to the release of the Wii U title Xenoblade Chronicles X, for no other reason than to say I played that many hours of the game. I hit my goal a couple of days ago but with time to spare before the arrival of the newest Xenoblade game I played on not just to rack up the hours of game play but also because it is a great game, one I look forward to playing. As excited as I am about the release of Xenoblade Chronicles X (XCX) tomorrow ,which is near feverish, I am also dreading it. I know without a doubt that XCX is going to steal many if not all of the free time I get so it will leave next to none for any other game including XC. XC has blossomed into a great game, one worthy of all the praise bestowed upon it which is why I want to play it to the end sooner than later. Unfortunately XCX looks to be just as amazing and fulfilling to play so its going to make completing XC in a timely manner tough to do. None-the-less I will complete XC its now just a matter of when since all of my game play will be confined to my break times at work. Since I get less than an hour worth of breaks it might be 15-20 days from now before I rack up 15 more hours of game play, slow but steady.
Regardless of how long it takes me to log in another 15 hours of game play let me tell you about my adventures in XC since last I blogged. If you haven’t noticed yet from these blogs about XC they occur about every five hours of game play, I don’t know why it just works for me to do it in those increments. Melia is now Crowned Princess, we learn Shulk is the chosen one to wield the Monado and he has been unshackled from any sorts of constraints that it may have had before, Fiora is piloting a Mech for the other side (the bad guys), Zanza, well lets just say he is an interesting… giant, Alvis is like a double agent with psychic abilities and there is more than just these tidbits I have relayed here. Now I know I haven’t gone into the specifics of the story before so the above may mean nothing to you if you haven’t played the game but the point is to show some of the drama in this game with out all together spoiling it for those playing the game or those would be players of this game. I keep saying it but XC has one heck of a storyline, which alone is enough to keep me playing. There are other reasons beyond the story why I enjoy investing so many hours into this game, like exploration each map, collecting all the items in an area and perfecting my fighting abilities using the arts system.
Exploration, collecting items and fighting go hand in hand with one another because while you set out to do one you inevitably do the other two as well. There are always monsters to fight and things to collect while you fill out your map. All of the previously mentioned tasks grant you some rewards too, every new place discovered, item collected and monster slain will give you arts points, experience points and money. Arts points help you increase your arts, experience points help you increase your level and money allows you to buy new arts manuals and gear you may need, so they are all worth wild to do. The three activities I just mentioned plus side quest are the ways that you rank up and become stronger in XC, or in other words they are the system to which you grind your way up the ladder of power and ability. I try not to use the word grind because it invokes a negative reaction from some gamers but that is essentially what you are doing when you collect items, fight monsters, explore new areas and complete quests in this game. But the grinding in this game is rather fun to do, at least for me. I enjoy exploring and fighting and the completionist in me loves filling out my collectopedia in this game, so all in all I find the grinding system in this game to be one of the better ones I have come across playing an RPG adding yet another reason as to why this game is so good.
As I have explained there has been plenty to keep me occupied playing this game over the past five hours and driven me to want to play more. It is very unfortunate for me that XCX releases tomorrow because it will disrupt my adventures in XC slowing down my game play to a snails pace. But XC has such a great story and is becoming an absolute joy to lose myself in playing that I will see it through no matter the time frame. I will keep you posted on my adventures in XC as they unfold for me, most likely in five hour chunks of time.
Until I blog again, Goodbye!
