Alrest is a world composed of giant beasts, the Titans, who eternally roam a sea of clouds surrounding the World Tree. The people of this world live on the backs of the Titans alongside Blades, weaponized life forms who are awakened from crystals and bonded to their summoner until either dies. The protagonist of this game is a boy named Rex, who lives on the back of a Titan he calls Gramps and makes his living by salvaging ancient treasures that have sunk below the clouds. When a salvaging job goes awry, Rex finds himself bonded to Pyra, a legendary Blade called the Aegis. In return for saving his life, Rex promises Pyra to take her home to Elysium, a fabled promised land atop the World Tree. Not only does he want to honor Pyra’s wishes, but Rex also hopes Elysium will provide a home to the people of Alrest as the Titans grow old and die. However, Pyra’s power and place in Alrest’s legends and history mean several factions hope to take control of her. Rex, Pyra, and their allies will have to face those who wish to steal her away, including a terrorist organization called Torna with particularly nefarious reasons for seeking the Aegis’ power.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is an action RPG set in an open world. The player’s party consists of Drivers, who can be directly controlled, and the summoned Blades that grant their Drivers weapons and powers. The active party can contain up to three Drivers at a time, who in turn may engage up to three active Blades. During combat, each Driver can have one active Blade at a time, but may switch to either of the others as needed. Each Blade has their own weapon type, element, role in battle, and each grants a specific stat bonus to their Driver. In turn, Drivers have stat distributions that make them more suited towards certain weapons and Blade roles. Therefore, the player is responsible for assigning Blades that have synergy with both their Driver’s specialty and the elemental distribution of the party’s other Blades. Both types of character have skill trees and may equip items to further develop their strengths.
Most Blades are randomly summoned from Core Crystals, which can be earned from quests, dropped from defeated enemies, or hidden within treasure chests. Others, such as Pyra, are bonded to a specific Driver over the course of the story and usually cannot be disengaged. Lastly, some Blades come from unique Core Crystals that can only be earned from sidequests. Randomly summoned Blades can either be weak, generic types, or rare ones with a unique appearance and developed personality. The latter group have better stats, more complex skill trees, and unique sidequests. All Blades may be sent on Mercenary Missions, which run in the background and allow disengaged Blades to develop their skill trees and bring back items for the party.
The world consists of both wilderness, where monsters roam, and towns that house shops and other facilities. While exploring, players may encounter points of interest such as obstacles or item gathering spots; any of the party’s currently engaged Blades, whether or not their Driver is part of the trio of active battlers, can use their skills to interact with these points to alter the environment or increase the yield of items earned. As the player interacts with a Titan’s inhabitants by buying from shops and completing sidequests, that Titan’s level of development will increase. This translates to discounts in shops and new Mercenary Missions to undertake. Some of these missions open up trade agreements between the inhabitants of different Titans, which result in the development of new items to purchase.
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