Metal Max Xeno
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Critic Reviews for Metal Max Xeno
In a year filled to the brim with triple-A game releases, there's no doubt some of the smaller games will be lost in the fray. I hope that Metal Max Xeno isn't one of those games. While it may seem like I had a lot more to complain about than praise, I actually did really enjoy my time with the title, and it was a nice surprise considering how unfamiliar I am with the series. At $40, Metal Max Xeno is a worthy addition to any JRPG-lover's library, I hope you'll consider it.
Metal Max Xeno is just so thoroughly average when it comes to JRPGs. The basic world, familiar storyline, and characters serve an okay experience which embraces the grind a bit too much for a world that is generally void of much interest. The game feels like a throwback to older JRPGs which is great if that is what you're into, but there has been so much advancement in the genre that overall Metal Max Xeno feels a bit out of place.
That's about it, really! If you're looking for storytelling chops you won't find them here. Metal Max Xeno is all about angry and confused survivors screaming about dying, starving, or being horny, and how dope their tanks are, and how more bad guys need to die. It's refreshing in its earnest nature, and is actually more hopeful than nihilistic. But it is still on the simple and tropey side. Ultimately, this is a game about having a billion options dumped in front of you, and the joy of diving into that pile and making cool stuff out of it. There's lots of menu-fiddling, number-crunching, and ingredient-gathering, but at the end of that grind is comeuppance for evil, jerk murder-bots as your painstakingly-curated ordnance tears them to shreds, and it's hard to get more satisfying than that. Metal Max Xeno is a strange, janky, ugly mess of a game, but one I was glued to every minute of.
Metal Max Xeno is one of the most average RPG's I've played in a long while. It's almost a comfort food in a strange way: warm and familiar but without any spice.
Metal Max Xeno lacks just about all of the characteristics that made the series interesting to begin with.
While the combination of tank and foot combat offers some interesting wrinkles, it can't hold up an otherwise bland skeleton of a game.
Fans of JRPGs should definitely check this one out from Kadokawa Games. It doesn't have that compelling story as some other JRPGs have, but the simple yet deep combat system and accompanying customizations have more than what it takes to compensate and give you a fun game to spend a lot of hours on.
Metal Max Xeno has no distinguishing features and there are better RPGs on the PS4 that deserve better attention.
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