Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles X - OT

@Grumblevolcano: Oh, so NA gets to preload the game if digital? Well, I don't really care about not getting to preload the game. Honestly, I've never even heard of a game you could download in advance but can't play the game until the day of release. Honestly, seeing the icon of the game in the menu would be like hell on earth for me. Especially in the case of Xeno X, a game I am super-hyped for. I just tend to avoid everything related to a game I am hyped for. That's why I won't read/watch any review before I've played the game. I may not be going into the game completely blind but that's not why I am aiming for in the first place.

I've preordered my physical copy (European Special Edittion) at the local gamestop so I'll be picking up the game friday noon on my way to university (alongside the Shovel Knight Amiibo and Paper Jam). Sadly, though, I won't be able to play until Saturday morning. Except I am getting home early but then I'd have to hurry up and all that and it's just not fun playing a game when you had to hurry to play it. Strange, I know but that's just how I work. With "not so important" games like Arkham Knight I usually wait for a slow day to play it. At the very least, though, I've got the Monday and Tuesday of the following week off so I should have plenty of time to play it.

@Dezzy: I'd disagree with that narrow summary. It's quite simple and expected what has happened, people who aren't as passionate for long games, JRPGs or Japanese games in general found the grind less bearable and so the 100+ hours of potential gameplay were lost on them, whereas the exact opposite group of people had the exact opposite reaction, they love JRPGs and have gone so far as to call this essential for fans of the genre. As such, I think it's quite dismissive of the game to say it's worse than the original just because a few people who probably didn't like the original found the game to be overwhelming. Opinions at the end of the day, it's impossible to say at this point if it's better or worse if we only have the opinions of a handful of people.

Edit: also surprising to see the polarising opinion of the soundtrack. Again people have gone so far as to call it awful but then again Jim Sterling and others love the cheesiness of see of the tracks and consider the whole package to be one of the finest in years. Opinions, eh?

@TheLastLugia

That's all I was talking about. The opinions of a handful of people. That's kinda the point of metacritic. To give you an average opinion. The average of opinion you get from 85 is that it's good but it's less than 92.

Finally, now I have 17 GB free space on my WiiU. I even had to move my Smash 4 data. The only things that are still there are my digital copy of Mario Kart 8 and my Splatoon, Mario Maker and Amiibo Festival data.

I was planning to download this game entirely, but the price and lack of HDD space make it difficult. Oh well, the boxart looks pretty.

@GoldenGamer88: Sorry to disappoint you but the Shovel Knight amiibo comes on the 11th December, not the 4th.

@Grumblevolcano: Oh? Yeah, you're right! That must be a recent change then because when I checked last week if any of the new amiibos could be preordered yet, it was still December 4th (the same still goes for the austrian GameStop website but since Nintendo's UK Store lists SK as December 11th, it's probably just a mistake on GS's side). Oh well, Xeno is the important part this week, every single else is "bonus". I do however hope that the local GameStop sells SK earlier (like they usually do) because I don't wanna have to go to town on my day off again.

Well, traded in XC3D and took about $16 off of X's price...so, yeah. owo

Really pleased with how the western media is embracing the game — I didn't think it was possible, but today's reviews have gotten me even more excited for Friday. Here are some quotes that really struck me:

The bolding is mine, but that bit got me more pumped than just about anything — exploring has always been the aspect of video games I enjoy most. As much as I've loved the Wii U library, I've sorely missed games that invite you to sit back and explore.

Anyway, both reviews are great reads if you want some non-spoilery content to help tide you over. Full articles here and here.

I'm also stoked that Jim Sterling has gone on record stating that "Xenoblade Chronicles X has possibly the best soundtrack a videogame’s hosted in years," and recently tweeted that "thanks to the Gamepad, Xenoblade Chronicles X has the best fast travel system ever." His review on the Jimquisition is also a lot of fun.

On the note of small details, it should be said that bugs and glitches don't seem to be an issue, and that the game performs smoothly. I really feel like this should be appreciated, as the video game industry has worked itself into a sad state in which buggy, incomplete software is acceptable in large-scale games. I'm glad Monolith and Nintendo ain't having that business.

My weekend belongs to Xenoblade X. There will be snacks, and there will be no pants.

The people I trust love it so that's all I need.

Though honestly I don't know what would have to happen in order to make me NOT get this game but whatever...

@kkslider5552000: Agreed (and to expand, I've noticed that the media outlets I often don't jell with — Polygon and Game Informer, in particular — chimed in with some of the lowest scores). I often like Jim Sterling and The Escapist, so reading those pieces was heartening.

But, yeah, I've been all in since the words "Monolith" and "Wii U" were used in the same sentence. I will be there on Friday regardless.

3 days left.

Dawn of the first day.
72 hours remain.

...I knew you were gonna start doing the Majora's Mask thing. lol
Anyways, downloaded two of the packs, don't think I can fit a third one.

Downloaded all four packs now. It took about 2 and a half hours so I hope it was worth it.

@Kinan: It pretty much depends on what aspects of Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Final Fantasy you don't enjoy. Do you focus on story like I do? Do you like doing fetch quests and such?

shrugs

It's hard to say. The only game I know of that I find to be similar enough would be Final Fantasy XII. So if you specifically hate XII for what it specifically did, you might not want Xenoblade (and even then, Xenoblade is the superior title).

Otherwise, it's hard to say. I've seen enough people not like (insert game that inspired the original Xenoblade) but love Xenoblade. I mean, you like Bravely Default, which is INCREDIBLY inspired by Final Fantasy.

If you can find the original for cheap, that would be my recommendation in that case.

Downloaded all the packs! Times like this really justify my decision to get a 2TB hard drive, and really make me appreciate 80MB/S Fibre broadband

Are you british or american?

The game should be in my mailbox tomorrow! Couldn't be more excited