Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Was Fundamentally Better Than Breath of the Wild

Brandon Bui, Editor-in-Chief of Gamer Professionals, and a staunch Breath of the Wild defender, eats his words and finds a new favorite game in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, taking the place as his 2017 Game of the Year. Here is his detailed analysis comparing the two games.

[MichaelPyre]

I never clicked approved button with more mixed feelings. Amazing article overall but I love BOTW sooooo much!!! But you do have a point.

[n1kki6]

Breath of the wild wasnt a good game. Remove link and replace him with a unknown character and people would hate the game claiming its a ubisoft clone with a cooking gimmick that adds nothing to an already thin experience with no narrative.

[Nu]

If it was developed by any other developer it would've been praised as a uniquely designed experience in gaming. The physics are pretty interesting and fun to play with

[JEECE]

This is an exaggeration. You are correct that it being a Zelda game gave it a major boost, but it's still good aside from that. If you took Link out, as you say, review scores would have probably dropped 1-1.5 points on a 10-point scale, but it isn't like the game would have been terrible.

[Concertoine]

To an extent i agree, but BotW has a mystique to it that is so much better than a ubisoft game. If it was just the towers and the seeds and the shrines then yeah, itd be pretty ubisoft-esque in design.

The maiden statue, lost temple, the dragons, Tarry town, my first fairy or my first time seeing the weird fluroscent mountain. Those moments really stuck with me and the game has more mystery to it in that way. I remember discovering the jungle town for the first time after seeing it on the map and thinking “hmm, that looks town-ish”.

Ive just never really felt that sense of discovery much in recent games. There were certainly areas where the game felt lacking, but i cant wait to see whats next and this is coming from someone who hadnt liked a Zelda game since Majora.

[TheFirstClassic]

I have felt that most zelda games in the past were very overrated but botw is just an insanely good game.

[Gemmol]

Did you miss when different developers come out and praise the game for what it do

If they love the game so much and they also gave the award to the game and the developer award where developers vote for the game.......what makes you think your response hold any weight

[Dark-soul]

i never played any zelda game, first time ever bought nintendo switch and bow was one of the best games i played in my life and i started gaming from 8 bits.
so you are wrong saying its becouse of link

[grogue]

I've been a staunch defender of Breath of the wild as well, but this game just had a lot more emotional resonance behind it.

[FullmetalRoyale]

For sure.

[PhantomS42]

They are two vastly different games...both are great though.

[Jinger]

Eh, I stopped with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I loved the first and Chronicles X... something about 2 felt off to me.

[CDbiggen]

Same here, but I keep getting told it picks up and gets better, but I stopped playing after 2 or 3 hours and haven't played since.
Normally slow starts don't stop me, I just didn't like anything I was seeing.

[Jinger]

I made it through a good chunk, I just got tired of it. I'll probably go back and much through to see the end, but right now I don't have any desire

[spwittbold]

I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The fighting cutscenes were awesome and so fun to watch. The storyline cutscenes and character development was fun although it was really a slow start. I'd say the world is almost too big though - I felt like I was wondering around for countless hours lost trying to find the next point I needed to go to to progress. the battle system was fun and rewarding. The inventory and equipment/blade system though was a bit repetitive and I felt like dealing with that in and of itself could force me to spend alot of time just managing that as well. There was "too much," to do with that finding characters preferred foods and upping blades grid spheres trying to find the next thing to do to unlock their next ability.

[grogue]

I personally enjoy games that require I ask for directions. And it's hard asking for directions in an open world.

[Asuka]

Can't really say as I only played a few hours of BotW, but I do have over 300hrs in XC2, and for me it was my favorite game from 2017. I cannot wait for the Torna dlc later this year!

[FloydianAndroid]

No..... it wasn’t.

[Godmars290]

Then its a good thing you can get both.

[Segata]

They aimed for something different in a different genre. XB2 is my fave of the 2 if I had to pick one but you may as well compare Horizon Zero Dawn to Dragon Quest.

[Ivar_Ragnarsson]

I haven't played BoTW yet, but I have been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for quite some time now. I love the game but the menus are frustrating. It's really lacking some basic functions. There is no proper map, the minimap toggle is annoying. No proper quest tracking and many more

[Razzer]

I gave up on XC2 for those very reasons. BoTW wasn’t that much better of a game, imo, for different reasons.

[pinkystinkinc]

what is does means funda mentally

[leahcim]

worst rated Xenoblade better than the best rated game of all times. Do the math

[Kosic]

I got to agree. I spent around 21 hours in botw and felt bored. That I rushed the last 5 hours of my story just to get it over and done with.

Xenoblade I spent over 60 hours on the game and loved most off it. Did find the last boss crap with just doing an ultimate and nuking 70% off it's HP in one go.

[FernDiggidy]

LOL