Xenoblade Chronicles can’t catch a break in North America.
Let’s get right to it: Xenoblade Chronicles is the best RPG of the last console generation. Expertly combining mechanics from MMOs with both Western and Japanese RPG design, Xenoblade’s nearly 100-hour long campaign (give or take depending on your side quest obsession) that stretches across a sprawling, connected landscape felt strangely familiar in moments but demonstrably unique as a whole. While it was readily available in Japan and then Europe, Xenoblade Chronicles toiled in purgatory for nearly a year until – after constant prodding and an organized fan campaign – it was finally released in North America in 2012. But it wasn’t really that simple.
Echoing the current Amiibo and Majora’s Mask 3DS situation, Xenoblade Chronicles was released in short quantity and sold exclusively at GameStop or from Nintendo’s own online store. It wasn’t long before the original run was gone, and soon Xenoblade could only be found on the second-hand market for nearly twice the original price. The barrier to entry started high and then grew exponentially grander.
Given, too, that the game was released mere months before the launch of the Wii U, it wasn’t especially easy to drum up excitement for a game that, due to its scope and the relatively ancient hardware powering it, was admittedly muddy-looking. The hardcore RPG fan may have devoured it, but the rest of the community likely shrugged at the already 2-year-old game and moved on.
When Xenoblade Chronicles X was announced for Wii U, we discussed the two games on Connectivity. During our conversation, it was posited that perhaps Xenoblade Chronicles would be packaged with X, similar to the treatment Bayonetta received last year, in order to give more people the opportunity to play the original. At the time, I thought the idea was genius, which is why, naturally, it didn’t happen.
Instead, Nintendo announced that Xenoblade Chronicles was being ported to its dimension-defying handheld ahead of the release of X. I assume the move is to expose more people to the world of Xenoblade and to hopefully hook them for the upcoming sequel. This would be great if it was running on the original Nintendo 3DS, which has at least quintuple the install base of the Wii U, but instead it’s being used as one of the first exclusive New 3DS games.
My concern is that the same core audience that’s going to grab a New 3DS at launch is likely the same audience that nabbed Xenoblade Chronicles back in 2012. Releasing a niche game on what is to be a niche platform, at least initially, isn’t exactly giving North Americans a genuine shot to experience Xenoblade if they missed it the first time around. And, assuming the plan is to build interest in the sequel before it launches later this year (fingers crossed), it’s been botched by re-releasing the original to the smallest audience possible.
A much more fruitful avenue would be releasing Xenoblade through the Wii U’s Virtual Console. It would fit right at home with Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid Prime Trilogy, and other venerable standouts from the Wii era. But, if Nintendo is likely banking on Xenoblade to be the showpiece title that moves New 3DS units at launch, releasing it for a mere $10 or $20 on the Wii U would directly undermine that strategy. So, more than likely, Xenoblade Chronicles will exist on the New 3DS and the New 3DS alone.
And that’s really a shame. Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played, and though the refined gameplay and exquisite soundtrack will be preserved, I wince thinking about the rough, Wii-powered visuals being additionally downscaled to run on the New 3DS. More than that, I can’t help feeling like this great game is being given an even worse chance at success here in North America the second time around. The silver lining is that, in the very least, it will be available on the eShop for eventual adopters of the New 3DS to download, but the chance to make 2015 the year of Xenoblade feels entirely squandered.
