One step forward; three steps backward.
What They Say:
Guide a group of legendary warriors on a journey through the tragic history that doomed a kingdom and drove a hero down a dark path 500 years before the events of the Xenoblade Chronicles™ 2 game. Defend yourself from Malos and his forces using all the fury of this refined battle system, allowing you to fight as both the artificial lifeforms known as Blades and their masters, the Drivers.
The Review:
Xenoblade 2 is one of the most fascinating RPG’s I’ve played in years. It took quite a long time to really pull me in but once I did, it didn’t let me go and I still think about that game often. Suffice to say, I was more than excited for Torna The Golden Country. Starring my favorite character from the main game and focusing on some of the main villains, it seemed like it would be the Tales of Berseria-like prequel I was waiting for.
Unfortunately, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Torna failed to meet almost any of my expectations for many reasons. For one, the actual length of this standalone expansion isn’t nearly as long as you would expect. It only took me around 13 hours to complete the main story and most of the side missions (more on that bit in a moment). While that’s certainly a good length for most games, it only equals around the length of one of the shorter chapters of the main game.
By far, my biggest complaint with it is the odd pacing of the main story. It starts out really strong, hitting all of the beats that you would expect and diving deeper into characters like Jin and his partner Lora. Their relationship, in particular, is what I looked forward to the most and it doesn’t fail on that front at first. Before long, though, padding and filler start to kick in and they dilute what is in the story.
Twice in the story, everything comes to a complete halt. Here, it forces you to level up your Community; a new exclusive feature in Torna The Golden Country. Essentially, it is an added bonus to completing side missions and the like. Most side quests will result in you gaining the quest giver as a new member of your Community. Gain a certain number of members and the Community will level up.
While that would normally be an awesome feature, two things make it the most annoying part of Xenoblade 2: Torna. For one, there aren’t really any rewards at all to get from leveling up your Community. Some awesome gear or maybe Blades (you’re stuck with the same Blades in this expansion) would make it a little more worthwhile.
Unfortunately, the only reward is continuing the story, which segues into the second reason it’s annoying. The main story requires you to level it up in order to see the credits roll. What should be an optional, fun feature is a forced annoyance. Worse still, both times it happens are the moments where you’re excited for what’s next.
When you remove the hours of “optional” quests that you have to do in order to level up your Community, the main story of Torna isn’t actually that long. In fact, it ends on more of a whimper than I expected. It builds and builds, making you think it will end elaborating on a certain moment from the main story but it ends just before that. It kills the momentum and vibe.
There are certain moments that are great but, overall, it didn’t feel worth going through all of the problems to experience those couple of scenes. Torna would have worked better as part of the main game, as it was initially intended to be. However, my gripes with the main story and side missions don’t mean I didn’t entirely dislike my time with Torna.
What does stand out as an improvement over Xenoblade 2 is the combat and exploration. The combat in Torna is much more streamlined and improved in a great way. Instead of switching partners at will, you play as one human with two Blades. You can play as any of three whenever you want, each one having its own element.
Being able to play awesome Blades like Jin feels different and nice. In addition, it helps that the attack combos are streamlined. You can now use any elemental special in any order for the three special combo, instead of having to adhere to specific combinations. However, those special combinations still exist and give better results.
These simple changes allow the combat to feel more fluid and interesting. The same can be said for exploring the world of Torna. Thankfully, none of the environments you visit are literal copypaste sections from the main game. Even the places you have visited before look different enough to be interesting.
Better yet, the environments aren’t too big that the game suffers in performance. Torna actually looks a lot better than Xenoblade 2 when it comes to frame rate, resolution, and visual quality. There is still some blurriness at times but the graphics overall were far more appealing to the eye.
There are also some new types of areas to explore like a desert. The few environments you do visit each feel distinct and unique from one another. This is especially true for the capital city of Torna itself. I spent hours just wandering around the city, wasting time and finding every secret there. That’s because the place is a gorgeous Eastern-inspired city that has become one of my favorite video game cities of all time. It did make up some for the issues that I found with Torna.
In Summary:
Xenoblade 2: Torna The Golden Country would have worked so much better as a chapter in the main game rather than a standalone expansion. Though there are some really great moments towards the beginning that build on characters like Jin, the story ultimately falls flat by the end. Terrible pacing and annoying mechanics keep it from being greater. Thankfully, it’s still worth checking out for the much better combat, performance, beautiful environments, and the glorious capital city of Torna.
Grade: C
Released By: Nintendo
Developer: Monolith Soft
MSRP: $39.99
Release Date: 9/14/18
Platform: Switch
This review was done with a review copy provided by the publisher. We are grateful for their continued support.
