"I'm So Glad to Have Met You": XC2 & JRPGs in Current Year
As 2018 started kicking into full gear for me, with spring on the horizon, a previously silent obligation started to crescendo in the back of my head. Yes, it was about that time… about time to suffer through the experience of a single player video game. While I've become a bit distanced from this pasttime in recent years, I try to make it a point to at least consume one each year, at least to see if anything has changed. Last year's endeavor ( NieR: Automata ) left me hopeful for what was to come in the story-driven space for video games, so going all in on the narrative seemed to be the appropriate choice. Since this yearly dive is done purely in the interest of loathsome performance art in order to cultivate a smug sense of superiority about media, the longer and more obtuse the game, the better. It was at that point I remembered the hype around a certain game: a JRPG that released in the holiday of the previous year, of a series I was all too familiar with. Xenobl...