Xenoblade Chronicles: Torna -The Golden Country Review Part 2

Check out part 1 of my review-in-progress. In part 2, I talk about Torna’s battle system. I’ve already said that its better than Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s system. Why is that? How do you improve on something that is already so good?

I’m usually not a fan of auto-attacking combat but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 made their battle system very interesting by giving players options when it came to special attacks for your main person and sometimes other people in your group. Torna: The Golden Country improves on that battle system by introducing some intriguing new elements.

When you meet Lora and Jin in the Golden Country, you see that they fight differently than characters in Xenoblade 2. Yes, they still auto-attack and there are special attacks for them, but now you also switch between playing as Lora or Jin.

Basically, here’s how the combat in Torna works: you enter a battle with an enemy by targeting them and pressing A. Lora will attack the enemy and you can give her special commands by pressing the X, Y, A, or B buttons.

So far thats a lot like Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And here comes the big difference: once Jin charges up at the bottom left hand of the screen, you can press a d-pad button and have him come forward to fight. Lora goes into the back row to support him.

Each of them have their own special attacks. And the same goes for the rest of your group. You can do the same thing with Addam and his blades and Hugo and his blades too! The switching mechanic makes battles even more fun and helps a lot when one characters HP starts to get low.

Yes, you can’t constantly switch between characters, however the recharge time for switching isn’t that long. This is a very handy new feature.

Monolith Soft absolutely improved on Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s combat system. Its familar for people who played the previous game, but the new elements keep it from being boring and add an extra dash of fun.

Not all battles in Torna are easy either. I’m playing the game on easy mode and mostly not having trouble, but every once and awhile, I’ll run into an enemy that is a way higher level than my characters. Leveling up still matters in the Golden Country. There will be grinding!

Overall, I’m enjoying Torna’s battle system a lot. I also really dig the community and camping aspects of the game and will talk about them next time!