Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Torna the Golden Country

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country is a 2018 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch console. It is a story expansion to the 2017 game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and was released both as downloadable content and as a standalone title on a physical cartridge. Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country features a brand-new story and environments, taking place 494 years before the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It explores the pasts of several main characters from the base game, such as Jin, Mythra, Malos, and Praetor Amalthus, and introduces characters such as Lora and Addam as playable party members.

494 years prior to the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Aegis Malos has been awakened by the misanthropic Quaestor Amalthus of Indol and embarked on a campaign of destruction. The mercenary Lora and her trusted partner Jin are recruited by Addam Origo, fourth prince of Torna and Driver of Malos’ counterpart Mythra, to battle Malos. Together with Addam’s young attendant Milton, the group detours to Gormott to track down Lora’s mother, who has been killed in a bandit attack. In Gormott, the group is joined by Emperor Hugo Ardanach of Mor Ardain and attacked by Gort, Lora’s abusive stepfather who stole Jin’s Core Crystal from the Tornan royal family and tried to kill her when she bonded to it 17 years prior.

Lora defeats Gort, who unbeknownst to her is captured by Amalthus’ men. The party returns to Torna, and learn that Malos is targeting the Tornan capital Auresco. When they arrive in Auresco, Malos besieges the city and declares his intention to destroy the Tornan titan by overloading it with ether energy. The party pursues Malos to the Titan’s core and battles him, but Malos launches an attack on Auresco that kills Milton. A distraught and enraged Mythra unleashes her full power to drive off Malos, but loses control and accidentally kills Hugo and destroys Torna. Devastated over the destruction that she caused, Mythra retreats into a split personality named Pyra.

Addam departs for Leftheria to seal Pyra away, while Jin takes Lora and the others to a militia camp in Spessia to meet up with Tornan survivors. In Spessia, Lora is again attacked by Gort, whom Amalthus has transformed into a monstrous Blade Eater, and is forced to kill him in self-defense. Amalthus launches a coup to take control of Indol, becoming the nation’s Praetor. Some time later, after Lora has been killed in an attack on the Tornan survivors by Amalthus and Jin has consumed her heart to become a Flesh Eater, Jin burns the remnants of his old life and embarks on a quest for revenge against Amalthus. In a post-credits scene, Rex discovers the room where Pyra was sealed by Addam, leading into the events of the main game.

Torna – The Golden Country expands on Xenoblade Chronicles 2 by introducing a new combat system. The battle system and other gameplay systems were changed from the base game because Tetsuya Takahashi had a strong desire to make it easy for players to engage with the game. Since the game was designed as a separate DLC experience, the team incorporated as many new gameplay elements as possible to go along with its story and characters. In comparison to the base game, Torna – The Golden Country made improvements to the user interface and tutorials. One such example is the ability to switch characters and entire teams with a single button when out in the field.

The collectible items in the field are now sorted into categories to make them easier to collect. Monolith Soft also added a “Tips” section to the game, allowing players to review previous tutorials. Regarding the battle system, there are three members in a team, and a maximum of three teams, making the total amount of playable characters at nine. When in battle, only one team can be in direct control while the other teams are controlled by the CPU. The battle composition for the active team includes the Vanguard and the Rear Guard. The character in the frontline and rear line is represented by the Vanguard and Rear Guard respectively.

Unlike in the main game, the Rear Guard is an active participator in the battle. The way that Blade combos and chain attacks work have also been revamped. The team streamlined the sidequests, implementing a new “Community” system. “Community” is a more straightforward version of the “Affinity Chart” in Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X. Compared to the base game, there is more of an emphasis on how the sidequest characters relate to the main characters. Monolith Soft integrated a new system called “Camping”, which is an amalgamation of the main game’s crafting, Inn, and Heart-to-Hearts.