Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles X - OT

Just finished chapter 4, with my main party sitting around level 20 currently. Enjoying the views, but I'm getting annoyed with how often aggressive higher level enemies are mixed in with lower level mobs. One level 30 something monster just popped out of the ground and destroyed my party in a few seconds recently!

At least the save system accommodates this somewhat, as you don't really appear to lose much in the way of progress when you die.

@Ralizah Yeah, that's annoying. I also hate when I'm running around trying to get where I need to go, and I have to try to sneak through a bunch of level 40-50 enemies just to come out into a clearing of level 10s at my location.

I didn't think much of XCX's story or characters, much prefering XC's.
Didn't stop me from putting in 215+ hrs for my initial playthrough and dubbing it my best game of 2015 and 2016 and all time favourite Wii U title.
But damn do I desire a sequel. I hate open endings.
http://wyleczsiezdrowiem.pl/

I said the characters max out at LV 30 earlier, my mistake, they max out at level 60.

The max level seemed weird and arbitrary. Why not 100?

@Tsurii

I could've sworn it did more than that?

In the late aftergame (when everyone is level 60 / rank 20 / all tech unlocked / 5 hearts affinity with everyone) more strength can only be obtained by gear.
Grinding for specific gear (and skell materials) is needed to kill the hardest (optional) monsters.

@SKTTR

I only ever got 1 of the super weapons for the skell. Basically killed the final boss in 1 hit.
Didn't try and take on any of the superbosses though. They looked too scary...

It's rare that I'm so into a game and yet have so many problems with it. It's impressive in a way.

"Hey, how about another mission where you sneak past super tough enemies to fight weaker ones, btw we have no stealth mechanics even though stealth is blatantly the point of this, sorry" GREAT MISSION IDEA :/

I will say, it's a shame that the story, 8 chapters in at least, is just a series of events more than a flowing narrative, because I think if the game did have a story on the level of the original, I'd probably be more invested thanks to some of these missions and characterization because of it. And the lack of other towns doesn't even make it a fun adventure on the level of like an Elder Scrolls game because you always have to go back to the same town.

I'll give it credit for trying something new. I can't think of many examples of "100+ hour JRPG sidequest game based on building a civilation on an alien planet". But I kinda hope they don't go this direction again. Not this exact one at least. I did not need Colony 6 to be expanded into a whole game.

@kkslider5552000 Yeah, I find it interesting because I am actually more interested in the story of this game more than the original. I want to find out what is going on, who these other races are, and what their goal is, and so on. But I am in chapter 6 and it was like "Where did this come from? This has nothing to do with anything that has happened so far." I like the game, but everything is so disconnected.

The Elder Scrolls games I played are also really good examples of "great games I have a ton of problems with".

The difference is that they know how to make this type of game better, but Monolith Soft are more interested in...making a great game in the first place. Which is kinda my point. Xenoblade X is one of the smoothest, least broken, most ambitious open world experiences out there. Like if you judge Xenoblade X purely on its gameplay, aesthetic and a few other elements, it's an all time great game. No doubt. Which is why it's sad that I can't say it's one of my favorite JRPGs. Especially since I've put more time into it than most games.

...blah blah blah, risk vs reward for innovation, etc

I will say, the game does a good job to remind you of how absurd video games can be. During one of those pseudo-stealth missions, I ended up starting a cutscene after being chased by an overpowered enemy, which meant that he stopped chasing me after the cutscene. Clearly that's the way the game intends you to do this mission. Oh and also, I ended up dying after killing the enemy who had the key because the tougher ones kept finding me, but it gave me the key.

So, I'm 26 hours in.

• I think I have a pretty strong grasp on all of the game's major systems and subsystems now. There's just so much going on here. It all feels a bit needlessly complex, honestly.
• I'd like to re-iterate how much I hate the arts bar in this game. Always fun when you're in a life-or-death battle and it takes so long to scroll over to an art and activate a soul voice that your character dies. Even outside of such critical moments, it's just a pain having to manually scroll over to whatever art you happen to want to use. I'm SO glad Xenoblade 2 seems like it's going to map arts to specific button presses.
• Dunno how level progression is in the late stages of the game, but it's kind of messed up early on. Early quests and areas filled with low-level enemies are often hidden behind chokepoints guarded by absurdly high level enemies that will kill you the moment you get close to them. This is a problem throughout the various landmasses, too. There's no apparent rhyme or reason to the placement of high and low level mobs. This wouldn't be a problem if most of the high level enemies weren't also viciously aggressive. There's an obvious work-around to this that I finally just took advantage of after getting frustrated by repeated deaths to high level enemies (scout MUCH higher level players and use them to win battles with high level enemies, thus power-leveling my lower level avatar and normal squad mates), but this feels like cheating. Why should I need to resort to this?
• Another complaint: it's absurd how difficult it is to escape from some enemies. It's bad enough aggroing a high level enemy, but what makes it worse is how that enemy will often be right on your heels, chipping away at your health as you flee for hundreds of feet. Did they even test this aspect of the game at all?
• It's amazing how stunning some of the environments in this game can look (like, I've had so many "how is this even running on the Wii U?" moments), only for the effect to be ruined when some particularly bad character model that looks like something from a late PS2 game comes on-screen.

So, yeah: complain, complain, complain. To echo @kkslider5552000, though, even with all the problems I have with the game, I still find it incredibly enthralling and original. The sheer scale of this game, on every level, is pretty incredible, even if I'd argue that the almost boundless ambition behind this project outstrips the skills and resources needed to fully realize it. That might not seem like a compliment (and I suppose, in a sense, it is also a criticism), but I utterly admire the spirit behind it: so many games settle for neat and well-realized mediocrity that it's nice to see one that shoots for the moon, even if it results in a clunkier and somewhat intimidatingly complex experience.

I will agree with that. Especially since nothing they would've done would've helped or hurt them nor the Wii U, it's cool that they went in a different direction and I hope the better ideas they had for it are relevant to 2. But at the same time, there's some weird stuff in this game that I'm baffled no one looked at and at least asked "do we need to do this?"

Like this affinity mission I did today had a level requirement of 32, but had no required battle (and not really anything particularly in the way of the objective). As compared to the recent story missions that have had required battles above my level and yet said I could totally do this at level 1. WHAT?! WHY?! Even with the ability to lower enemy levels if you fail enough, why?

It is also weird that the more I think about it, the more I think the side missions you find from NPCs are actually a lot of the better sidequests. I'll never forget that water purification plant sidequest, that's for sure.

I should also mention that XCX is a wonderful showcase for the (sadly unfulfilled) potential of the GamePad. The ways in which the GamePad is integrated into the core design of the game are absolutely brilliant! Between the ever-present map, the little notes telling you where people typically hang out, the fast traveling, the probe manipulation, the data on different landmasses, etc. I can honestly say that I can't imagine playing this game without it. I play using the Pro controller, but the GamePad is always sitting by my side, and I reference it constantly.

@kkslider5552000 While there are a good deal of grindy MMO quests, I'm really happy to see how much work and thought went into creating a TON of substantial side content in this game. They really committed to the open world storytelling here, where the main plot is basically just there to provide some structure to the game, and the bulk of the stuff to see and do is found by running around, exploring, talking to people, etc.

I also love that the very act of going out in the world and finding new places, planting probes, etc. feeds back into the same set of systems that you build up throughout the game. Everything you do in this game is significant in a number of ways, and that is really cool.

Xenoblade 2 could be amazing if it combines the substantial side content and rewarding exploration of XCX with the meaty campaign and constant sense of progression from Xenoblade 1.

@Dezzy While the player's party can only reach level 60, enemy can go up to level 99. This fores people who want to fight the toughest enemies to use the entire combat system, which means delving into the realm of augments, and most likely Skell pilot clothing as well. That means that the most challenging fights will stay challenging, no matter how well equipped you are.

I just hope XC2 is as big and content filled as the previous 2 games were. Haven't played a 100 hour game since Witcher 3.
(I thought Breath of the Wild would be but it only kept me going for about 60 hours)

It's a shame that Xenoblade X is the only openworld 3D RPG that was actually released with no bugs. Other RPGs of that scale have received several patches long into the games lifespan and still don't work flawlessly.

The devs at Monolithsoft are possibly the only studio in the world that are able to achieve this. I don't get why they don't sell at least a million. Or ten millions for what the game actually has to offer in quality, uniqueness, content, and gameplay.

Hopefully they can with 2. Xenoblade 1 was a late Wii game (and later a NEW 3DS exclusive thing that was buried under the marketing of MonHun4 and MM3D) that people had to beg to get limited quantities. Xenoblade X was a later Wii U game that was a JRPG that didn't focus on its core story. These are not ways to get that Skyrim or Final Fantasy money, let's just say. :V

@SKTTR

It probably did sell a million. Both XC1 and XCX are at the exact same sales numbers of 0.91 million at retail on vgchartz. So if you trust those numbers, XCX would just have to have sold 90,000 copies in digital for it to hit 1 million.

Finally, I bought XCX. It was just 10 EUR on ebay and I hope that I have enough time for playing it. The game feels a lot different than XC1 but the music feels fresh and nice.

Do I need to study the manual for fighting command and so on?