Nintendo of America has finally made a choice and that choice has made a lot of people happy and excited.

   Wii owners are on some unfamiliar ground these days with the news pouring on us from all over the world. Just when you thought that you were about to pack up and store or trade in that console best suited to collect dust, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was announced and then released for all those to enjoy. Many, like myself, thought that was one hell of a way for the Nintendo Wii to end its lifespan in the console time line, but then something else was announced from Nintendo on their Facebook. Xenoblade Chronicles was making its way over to the United States... finally!
         
   Xenoblade Chronicles was released in Japan back in June of 2010 and there it would stay for quite some time. People were excited to see this game play, even if they couldn't read what was happening. We would in time, we all knew, so the excitement just keeps growing with each screen shot and story that was posted online about this massive game that has an epic adventure in it. In August 2011, Xenoblade Chronicles would be released in Europe and then in Australia in September of 2011. That leaves only one more place to see a release date and that would be us here in the United States. Nintendo of America had an announcement about the game: We have no plans at this time to bring this game to the US.

   Let me get this straight: You're telling me that this game that was released for everyone else except America, has received high praise from reviewers from around the world, was the number one game being sold on Amazon for a few days straight, would NOT be coming to America. What sort of move was Nintendo pulling? Did they really understand that this was a game, exclusive to their Wii system by the way, would not only make them a lot of cash (which they do need since the 3DS release hurt the company), it would make their fans happy with something that was worth their time instead of all the third party crap games being released every week. This caused many furious fans to overflow gaming site blogs with words of hatred and hurt and from this, "Operation Rainfall" was born.

   Xenoblade Chronicles takes place one year after the events that happen during the games Prologue, where two titans (Bionis and Mechonis) raged a war against each other until the day where they're lives ended and nothing was left but their bodies forever entangled in battle. You take control of man searching for fuel supplies outside of your home, Colony 9. While there, you witness an attack on your home by a military force, catching both military and civilians off guard. You race back home to obtain the Monado (a legendary weapon) to help fight off the invasion. Being overwhelmed, they flee and must find a way to defeat this army with their leader, a large Mechon called "Metal Face". In order to do so, Monando's wielder has visions of the future and the party you leave Colony 9 with decide to take the path of the visions in order to take revenge on those that killed everyone they know.
         
   When you're not running the lines of Xenoblade Chronicles main story arc, you'll most likely be enjoying many of the quests that the game gives to you. Xenoblade has up to a 100 hours of gameplay from the main story arc, side quests, collectibles and the like which gives the player a comfortable grip on this JRPG while expanding it, much like the Final Fantasy games, and gives you the reigns to free roam the land. During battles, which use the real-time battle system (similar to the Final Fantasy XIII battle system), the Monado will give you a "spider-sense" sort of warning, allowing you to see attacks of devastating power before you are hit with them, giving you an allotted time to dodge or counter the attack before it is brought down on you. Your party members will be able to attack when the enemy enters the radius surrounding the character as well, though you are able to use manual attacks, which the game calls ARTS. You use the arts after you have set up the "battle palette" outside of a battle, allowing your character to go through and use the correct attack that you have selected.

   Other features that are within the game are "Time Saving Support Features", "Bonds" and "Affinity". The Time Saving Support allows you to "wind the clock" as the game system allows for a day and night time shift while you are running about. This is helpful when you are in need of items or such during the day, but it happens to be night and you don't want to wait x amount of time for the sun to rise. The Bonds feature allows you to take up and complete quests from various towns in the game, resulting in the changes each town has for the characters as well as unlocking more quests for you to venture out on. Then you have the Affinity feature, which seems to be taking from many games these days, and decides how each character in your party feels about you. This can be altered by giving gifts to them, having those heart felt conversations throughout the game or even just having them in battle with you as you play the game.
         
   Sorry to Best Buy, Target and others, but if you are interested in the Xenoblade Chronicles, the only place to find it will be at GameStop as Nintendo has made it an EXCLUSIVE to that retailer. This is going to be a heavy hitting title, so be sure to pre-order the game from them now or you can wait until December 19th, 2011 and pre-order on ShopNintendo. Xenoblade Chronicles has the release date of April 2rd, 2012. If you are not familiar, "Operation Rainfall" is an online petition/blog to bring to America three of the most anticipated games to come out of Japan (Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower). You can jump aboard and help bring the other two games to America with your support.

Xenoblade Chronicles Trailer:

Let's Play!

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