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⬅️ Previous capture (2023-05-24)
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Once my pre-order for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 had arrived and it had officially been years since I last touched my Xenoblade Chronicles 2 save, I decided it was probably time for me to actually give the first game an honest shot.
I've tried to play this game several times across multiple platforms: First, I picked up an original Wii copy for cheap in that weird time after the Wii was old hat but before it was retro enough for the games to be priced exorbitantly. Pretty sure I picked it up off a GameStop shelf for ~$20 USD. I think I got to the cutscenes with lots of spiders and, for no particular reason, stopped playing.
If I get very far in this whole game journaling thing, you'll notice that pattern: I like a game well enough, I make some progress in it, then one day I'll put it down and just never pick it back up.
The second time I tried to play it was when it was released on the New Nintendo 3DS. Lots of people balk at the 3D gimmick on that line of systems, but I have to say that Xenoblade did it right. Despite being on such a tiny screen, the environments felt *massive* in a way that just didn't come through with 3D turned off. I got as far as Gaur Plain and, once again, found something else to play.
The third, and hopefully final, time is the Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch. I waited about two years, if I remember correctly, for it to go down to a reasonable sale price. When I finally pulled the trigger, I didn't put the game in my Switch until over a month later, and then I stopped playing for no reason after the first encounter with Metal Face. Womp womp.
I recently revived my efforts in earnest, starting over because it had been too long, and I'm currently sitting at 26 hours and 6 minutes for my current save.
If I don't finish it this time, I just won't finish it.
And so, with introductions out of the way...