I never got around to playing the original version of Xenoblade Chronicles. Released in 2011 to critical acclaim, I was just about to enter my final year of university, and not being much of a RPG gamer, never got around to playing this 80-hour plus epic. Boy, do I regret that now.

With the long-awaited sequel Xenoblade Chronicles X due out later this year, this port of Monolith Soft’s blockbuster adventure is ably handled by Monster Games, providing those like me who missed it a chance to catch up, and those who loved their time on the Bionis so much an opportunity to enjoy it all again, this time in the palms of their hands on the New Nintendo 3DS.

As the first game produced exclusively for the “New” iteration of the handheld, I was eager to see just how much of a boost the new hardware would give. On my first look, I was slightly disappointed as the graphics of Resident Evil Revelations probably look as good as those of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. You could even argue Majora’s Mask 3D’s art style makes it a better-looking game. But once the story gets going and you leave the home comforts of Colony 9, you realise where the power is going: the world is massive, and when I say massive, I mean giant. It could take up to 15 minutes to traverse just one of the game’s twenty-two main areas. If you thought the Great Sea in Wind Waker was big, think again.

If this sounds like a turn-off, don’t you worry; the world is littered with quick-travel points allowing you to reach a point near where you want to go almost instantly. It also gets a lot more beautiful – Eryth Sea during meteor showers is a sight to behold.

The world is almost seamless.  Very rarely will you see a loading screen in this game, only when travelling from one major area to another, and even then, they last for mere seconds.  It was impressive when this world was created on the Wii, it’s even more impressive on the technically inferior handheld.

While the draw distance of the environments give you nothing to complain about, unfortunately characters and enemies only pop-up when you are much closer. This can be especially frustrating when searching for someone in particular, but I guess there had to be some compromise to create such an expansive world. It was a flaw of the original Wii version, and while it’s a shame that this port can’t improve on it, it’s understandable.

I’m reluctant to spend too much time in this review talking about the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles. Talking about it in a review can’t really do it justice. To set the scene, the game is set in a world where hundreds of years ago, two giant gods, the Bionis and Mechonis, battled to a stalemate where their bodies were devoid of energy and become lifeless corpses upon which life was born, including the human-like Homs on Bionis and the more robotic Machina on Mechonis.

The hero of our story is Shulk, a young engineer from Colony 9 who comes to wield the Monado, a legendary sword that grants the power to see the future, and change the fate of a battle. After an attack on his hometown by invading Mechon forces, Shulk sets off on a quest to avenge those who died in the attack.

While many of the main characters do conform to some of your typical JRPG stereotypes – the charismatic leader, meat-headed sidekick, wise veteran, princess, etc. – their characterisation through the somewhat cheesy, yet endearing voice work will make you really care for these characters and their world as the journey progresses.

It’s probably important to note that while the Wii version had both English and Japanese voices, this version gives you no choice but to have your characters be British, due to the size constraints of a 3DS cartridge. While a lot of the plot points are well telegraphed beforehand, there are some pretty major twists throughout the game that will keep you gripped. It can get a little cut scene heavy at points later in the game, but they are well done and don’t feel too excessive. All the cut scenes are played out with the in-game engine rather than being pre-rendered, meaning your team will be wearing the same gear when a cinematic rolls as while you are playing. It’s a nice touch that really keeps you in the action. 

Of course, it’s all good that a game has a great story, but the gameplay is what really holds Xenoblade Chronicles together. Featuring a real-time battle system similar to that in the likes of Final Fantasy XII, there are no random battles here. Creatures and enemies populate the fields of Bionis, and it is down to you to decide whether to engage in battle. Enemies may attack if they see or hear you, but if you are a higher level than them, they’ll recognise you’re higher on the food chain and ignore you. It may also shock you to see enemies 60 or 70 levels higher than you roaming the game’s early areas, threatening to send you to an early grave unless you give them a wide berth. It makes the Bionis feel more like a living world than a set of areas created to accommodate the player.

As a default, you will control Shulk, alongside two computer players assisting you in battle, but you can switch to play as someone else if you prefer. Each character will auto-attack enemies at intervals once engaged in battle, but victory will probably come from how you use your special abilities – Arts. Depending on your character, these skills may be more powerful physical attacks, they may be stat boosts and healing aids, or they may be powerful magic attacks. As with many RPGs, these skills can be selected and levelled up in a pause menu, so you can alter your set up to your pleasing. Each art has a specific cool-down time before you can use it again, so timing your moves is crucial to defeating an enemy.

During battles, these arts are displayed on the lower part of the top screen, and are selected using the D-Pad. I have to say, that while these controls copy those of the Classic Controller configuration of the original, the arrangement is slightly awkward to use, as you will find it difficult to move your character and select arts at the same time.  With the ZR and ZL buttons used only to bring up the map and give you additional camera control respectively, it’d have perhaps been nice for these buttons to be put to more use and allow you to cycle through your abilities in combat.

While the attack system doesn’t seem entirely revolutionary, Xenoblade Chronicles adds a few additions to this simple base to keep things fresh. Every so often in battle, for example when a critical hit is landed, or an enemy misses, a quick time event will activate, where you have to time a press of the B-Button to align a circle with another. If your timing is right, it will improve the affinity between your characters, enhancing their compatibility in battle, and fills a three-part party gauge, located at the top left of the screen. This gives a number of uses. Firstly, you can use one segment to revive a fallen comrade in combat, or be revived yourself if you happen to be knocked out. Secondly, if the gauge is full you can launch a chain attack, giving you the opportunity to choose which moves your teammates use to rack up massive damage. The better the affinity between your character, the more chance you will be given the chance to extend the chain through some more well-timed B presses.

 The third use of the party gauge relates directly to the powers of the Monado. Occasionally during battle you will be shown a vision of an enemy using an attack, one that may be fatal. It is down to you to avert this future, either by drawing the enemy away from its target yourself, or using a segment of the gauge to warn teammates so you can select one of their abilities to help change fate.  It’s a brilliant system, which may seem daunting and confusing at first, but one that links amazingly with the story and you’ll have the hang of it in no time.

Perhaps the most daunting part of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D is the amount of content that is on offer. I completed the game with 98 hours on the clock, with nowhere near 100% completion. In total there are 480 quests that you can taker on, of which only 31 are directly the main story. While that number of side quests may seem excessive, the world is so wonderfully realised that you’ll complete most of these quests simply by exploring the Bionis. They also translate wonderfully to handheld gaming – you can pick up and play for a short period of time and actually achieve something. While I played it at a relatively fast pace, it’s also the perfect game to take your time with and complete over a long while.

The only sour notes of some of these quests are that it is often difficult to find the person who gave you the quest when you have finished – there is a chart of NPCs but it isn’t the most easy to navigate. On top of the map and pop-in issues, along with characters only appearing at certain times of day, it sometimes makes you feel that you are wasting your time. On many occasions I searched online to find the exact location of particular character to save myself hours wandering around vast towns.

Additionally, some of the quests seem like a chore. The world is littered with little blue orbs, which you collect by running over them. These will help you fill your collectopaedia, which rewards you with extra gear and power-boosting gems that you can equip to your character. However, NPCs also task you with collecting certain items for them. At one point in the game, I had to collect two of a particular item that only had a tiny chance of spawning in a specific area. Needless to say, I wasn’t a fan of waiting around this area for an hour, collecting blue orbs until the exact one I needed appeared. It’s really cheap that such tasks are left to small random tasks. If you don’t care too much about side quests it won’t bother you too much, but things like this could drive those obsessed with completion away with the game. On top of this, your inventory only has limited space, which means you’ll spend some time trying to decide what is disposable and what’s worth keeping. With so much to collect it can be difficult to know whether you’ll actually need a particular item for a later quest.

On top of all the gear, weapon and gems you can use to customise your team, perhaps the most important aspect of creating a good team is the affinity system, which I touched on briefly. Alongside perfect timing of quick-time events, this stat can be raised by running over to help a struggling teammate in battle and by completing side quests, during which they will offer each other moral support while solving NPC problems. Each character has a selection of skill trees, a bunch of special proficiencies that may give them the edge in a battle, for example a higher rate of evasiveness or a strength boost for the first part of a fight. Levelling up and completing side quests will unlock more skills and branches, but building affinity between your characters will allow you to share each character’s skills among the team. It may sound a bit boring, but it will really help you prevail in battle, and also rewards you with a range of touching “heart to heart” scenes between your party members around the world, which give you a chance to boost your affinity even further.

While I mentioned that I felt that it was a shame that the control scheme isn’t the most comfortable, it’s also a shame that the lower screen of the 3DS isn’t fully taken adavantage of. Although your character’s portrait/health, the map, and context sensitive information is relegated to the lower screen to make the top screen less cluttered, it’d have been nice to be able to select arts using the touch screen, allowing you more control for movement with your left hand and a fully clear vista on the top screen. Perhaps it was too much work considering this is merely a port rather than a remake.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D does have some minor amiibo support, but it’s really shoehorned in. From the main menu you can unlock galleries of character models and music from the wonderful soundtrack. These are unlocked with a lottery system, with the tokens gained by touching a Shulk amiibo to the screen, or by purchasing them with the system’s play coins. It’s a nice addition, but nothing to get really excited about.

No doubt about it, this game is a masterpiece. It’s unbelievable that such an epic adventure can be realised in the palms of your hands. Its deep, unique gameplay and engrossing story has had me hooked like no other game has in years, and left me ridiculously excited for its sequel. This is truly a magnum opus, and one that any New Nintendo 3DS owner would be negligent to avoid.