"The apples turn to brown and black, The tyrant's face is red.
Oh war is the common cry, Pick up you swords and fly.
The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know..."

- Led Zeppelin, "The Battle Of Evermore"

There's something endearing about the Wii, even if it goes dormant for months at a time in my home. I booted it up for the first time in eons to play Xenoblade, and it just turned on and was ready to go. No long firmware updates, or codes to download, or some gaudy new display with commercials all over it. Just the same ol' simple interface it had when I bought it. It was strangely soothing, like catching Bob Ross on public television.

Wife: "Wow, you're gonna play the Wii? Toejam and Earl time?"

Yes, I primarily use the Wii these days to play an old Sega Genesis game. You can see why I was stumping so hard for Operation Rainfall. And now, at last, we have the first crop of the harvest.

XC is a wonderful game, but there's no denying that it looks strikingly dated as soon as you fire it up. It does the best it can with the Wii's cobwebbed hardware, but at the end of the day, it's the PS2 all over again. It's no wonder that the Rainfall Three - XC, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower - were celebrated for their amazing gameplay, as they're fighting an uphill battle on the production front. As a contrast, Final Fantasy has kept its AAA status by coasting on production values for a decade now... chrome and a brand name can keep the lights on for a LONG time. And I'm not really a junkie for flashy graphics (see: Toejam and Earl, above) - imagine how the kids must be reacting.

The game delivers everywhere else, though. The music is gorgeous, the combat is clever and complex, and the characters are surprisingly endearing given how cliched JRPG heros are in 2012. The best I can say about JRPG characters these days is "I don't want them to die horribly," and XC manages this feat. It sounds like a backwards compliment, but it's a legitimate kudos. Even the goofy "WHATTA BUNCHA JOKAHS!" celebration cry - already a meme before the game hit American shores - has a certain awkward charm.

XC certainly doesn't lack for content, and it gleefully poaches from every beloved idea an RPG has ever spawned. Gem-crafting, skill trees, quest-givers with Gold Exclamation Points, chain attacks... it's like a Greatest Hits Of RPG Gameplay.

And therein, I think, lies the game's ultimate charm: it serves as a homecoming for JRPG holdouts like myself that haven't played one in ages, but still have some fond memories from Ye Olden Days. It's the best of both the old and new, and I'm glad every region can get their grubby mitts on it. So if you're looking for an excuse to dig the ol' Wii out of your attic, here you go.