Xenoblade Chronicles

Play it on: Switch

Current goal: Get farther than I did back in 2012

Lately, I’ve been craving a big, epic role-playing game, the kind I can really get lost in and that maybe has something to say about evil, courage, compassion, and resistance. And rather than one such game, I now find myself playing two: Dragon Age: Origins, which I’m playing on my PC, and Xenoblade Chronicles, which I spend a bit of time with on my Switch each night before bed.

This isn’t my first time giving Xenoblade a shot. I bought it for the Wii back when it first released and found its world utterly captivating. However, upon arriving at some fairly early boss who wiped the floor with me, I realized I didn’t have a good enough handle on the game’s combat to emerge victorious and, rather than sticking with it, I set it aside in favor of other things. This time, however, I’m taking my time and being a bit more diligent about absorbing the game’s intricacies. I did every last quest I could find in the game’s opening region of Colony 6 before setting off on the next stage of my adventure, both to reap the in-game benefits and because I’m so smitten with the setting that I’m in no hurry to leave any part of it behind.

Even all these years after the original Wii version released, the game on Switch remains stunningly gorgeous, and its “world”—which is actually the bodies of two colossal titans, frozen forever in their battle’s final moment—remains one of the most conceptually fascinating settings for a game I’ve ever encountered. Hopefully this time, I’ll get to the bottom of its mysteries. — Carolyn Petit