Xenoblade: First Impressions

Today I went to Gamestop and picked up my copy of Xenoblade. So far, I have seven hours on the game. Here are my thoughts about Xenoblade so far:
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On the Playstation 2, fans of Japanese role playing games had a lot to be happy about. There were great games like Final Fantasy 10, Dark Cloud 1 & 2, Wild Arms 3, and many other cool rpgs. Just like the PS1, the PS2 was a great home for RPGS. Enter the PS3. It has some really great rpgs, but most of them are NOT from Japan.

What does any of this have to do with Xenoblade, a Wii rpg title?

Basically Xenoblade is a lot like a Playstation 2 Japanese role playing game in some ways. And that is a VERY good thing. Graphics-wise, the game is on the level of one of the PS2 greats like FF10 or Wild Arms 3. Its not a next gen looking rpg, but I have to say: SO WHAT. Seriously, the graphics may not be next gen, but its PS2 era and the level of design & detail on the game may even surpass some PS2 games. The areas you can explore are amazingly HUGE (think more like a PS1 rpg huge or maybe more so). I'm so very impressed by that. I'd say this game has even more exploration than a game like White Knight Chronicles (which had some really huge areas to explore). It just so very impressive and its not something you'd expect to see on a Wii game.

Oh and I haven't even mentioned the battle system yet. I have to admit at first I wasn't sure about the battle system, but now I'm really growing to love it. Its part real-time, part menu based. Think FF12 or White Knight Chronicles (but imo, better than both). You only control one character in Xenoblade during battle and all of your characters auto-attack, but you have special powers that you have to time just right to get the bad guys. The menu buttons are there all the time and they are big and you get a description of what each power does. Its a cool battle system.

There are a ton of other great things in the game like buying new weapons, armor, etc (and equiping them and seeing your character actually look different with them on), making gems and adding them to the weapons, armor, etc, going on sidequests, getting to know your team mates and even people in the towns, and more.  Also: NO RANDOM BATTLES!! You see the enemy at all times and can, mostly, avoid them if you want (expect for story battles of course).
As for the controls, I'm playing the game with the Wii remote and nunchuck. It plays really good with that, expect the camera can be a bit tricky to use sometimes. But I'm even getting use to that. Though, I hear the Classic Controller is the best way to play the game, so you may want to use that when playing this game. I may want to get one of these days, but for now I'm more than ok using the regular Wii controls.

In summary: Xenoblade is a wonderful game. Its one of the few great rpgs of, not just the Wii, but of any system out right now.

IF YOU'RE A RPG FAN, GET THIS GAME. Show Nintendo you want more games like this. PLEASE.