Massive Open World That Worked With the Wii’s Limitations
Xenoblade Chronicles is a gorgeous game and absolutely massive in scale, that’s really saying something for a game that was on the Wii. Somehow Xenoblade found a way to work with the Wii’s limitations and create a stunning world, both in look and scope. Part of this is due to the unique setup as you wander through the Bionis’s interior or across Sword Valley, which is literally on the Mechonis’s sword that’s stuck in the Bionis, linking the two titans together.
Countless environments in Xenoblade Chronicles are huge open fields to explore that often rival the size of games we get today. It’s truly astounding that Monolith managed to cram so much detail into a massive open world game on the Wii. Of course, Xenoblade Chronicles does have its drawbacks; character models can look a bit flat and ugly at times, and there’s the fair share of muddy textures here. Even so, seeing the hulking forms of the Bionis and the Mechonis in the distance while roaming through massive plains or a dense jungle is impressive. It also speaks to the variety of environments in Xenoblade, with everything from poison swamps to hulking mechanical cities and grand floating cities. Hopefully whoever was in charge of environmental design for the game got a raise.
