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There's always been an air of implausibility around Xenoblade Chronicles. When it received a PAL release on the Wii in 2011, it was hard to believe such a niche RPG would find its way out of Japan, let alone find itself the subject of one of Nintendo's most expansive, exacting localisations. Playing through Monolith Soft's epic, there was the gentle revelation that from a background of adversity had emerged quite possibly the finest JRPG of a generation, one that picked up the baton fumbled by Square as it waded through the Final Fantasy 13 saga.There's something equally implausible about seeing it land, for all intents and purposes, intact on a handheld. It's helped that Xenoblade Chronicles 3D arrives in tandem with a new model of Nintendo's 3DS - it won't be playable on older models, which is somewhat understandable given both the undertaking and what's been achieved here - launching to help bang the drum for this year's release of the game's spiritual successor, Xenoblade Chronicles X.
The four years since the launch of the original Xenoblade Chronicles have done little to dim its appeal. Indeed, aside from Persona 4, it's hard to think of an RPG that's launched in the intervening years that carries the same broad appeal, or one that's provided the same tantalising fusion of traditional JRPG traits with more modern, western elements. This remains an essential play, a dizzyingly large open world filled with side quests and a taut, thrilling combat system that's deep and flexible.
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