Topic: What's the deal with Xenoblade: Chronicles' praise? (no spoilers please)

i've noticed that just about everyone anywhere is just about praising this game for everything thats in it. everywhere on youtube, everywhere on NLife, game has glowing reviews, EVERYWHERE, etc. i knew absolutely nothing about the game before i bought it because i avoided the reviews and didn't let anyone spoil the game for me because i might play it. and i bought it yesterday at gamestop ($90 used WTF). and i... honestly, is it THAT good? combat is okay, i can't complain about it, but the script is atrocious, and the voice acting is not that good. i've made some progress in the game, not too much, but those two things bugged me right off the bat. but i must ask, is the game that good? no spoilers please, if its required to spoil the game to explain, just say something like, "keep playing and you'll see."

I'm only halfway through the game (give or take) myself. Before I really got into it I didn't see what was so great. But after the locations I've seen so far, my opinion did a full turn around. Plus I like the story. The theme of the world and civilizations is kind of like a mix between Star Wars (without the space travel) and Lord of the Rings if you ask me.

While I do agree that the voice acting isn't the greatest ever, it's certainly far, far from the worst.

Bottom line, if you don't like the game, that's fine. Just don't be annoyed if lots (and lots) of other people love it.

Like any RPG, it takes some time to pick up. Give it some time, it's well worth the investment.

it's easily 100+ hours' worth of sheer awesome, which is more than you can ask of most modern JRPGs. switch the audio to Japanese if the English voices bug you (i hate the dub, but the JP version doesn't bother me) and get at least 10 hours into it before throwing in the towel. it grows on you; i had honestly despaired that the battle system would be forever beyond me, but then it all just clicked and suddenly the battles were almost more interesting than the plot. If you give up on it, that's on you, but the hype is there for a reason. You've already spent the money, you kinda owe it to yourself to give it an honest shot.

http://cross-up.blogspot.com/2013/06/lets-discuss-xenoblade-c...

Mostly just posting it because it is the best thing I've ever seen written about the game.

I actually didn't mind the dub, but I admit that it took a while for me to warm to the game. The "dead eyes" of the characters bothered me and there were cutscenes every few steps. Not a great first impression, but I stuck it out.

And I'm darn glad I did. It took me until about Bionis' Leg to come around, but it all clicked. I really enjoyed the story and characters, the combat system was very fun, the bosses were exciting, and most of all, the sheer size of the game and enjoyment of exploring it all was what won me over. It was one of the first games where I actually just stood in places and looked around because the scenery was so wonderful. Besides the exploration, the volume of side stuff to do like gem crafting and Colony 6 restoration will give you at least 100 hours of things to do, if not more.

Nintendo used the brilliant marketing scheme "You can't have this....until now!" So Xenoblade became overhyped and now everyone still likes it for some reason

Reason probably being that it is an excellent game.

You might not like the game. I've been gaming since the 80s though, and it's easily one of my top 5 of all time.
I liked the story, really liked the combat (gets better over time), and absolutely loved the sense of scale and exploration. If those things don't appeal to you then maybe you'd have a different view of the game.

Play it more, the story gets better and better and you will see why it is the best game in all 7th generation (even it is better than skyward sword).

Way to be that guy.

If you want a tl;dr version, it's because it flawlessly took a western RPG worthy open world and sidequest system and an MMO-inspired combat system and put it into a JRPG while also pushing the Wii's hardware to its limits. And also because the entire theme of the game seems to be remembering to be a good video game instead of a bad anime and avoiding everything people are sick of about the genre without alienating fans.

I want to be the non-conformist!

I grew up with the Atari 2600 and my favorite system is the SNES but this game is easily in my Top 5 games of all time. I put in 100 hours and enjoyed every minute even the voices. The combat at first was slow and took getting used but the game only gets better from there.

Once you get a few hours in it, the story really picks up and you feel for the characters( no matter how annoying some of their voices are) It feels like something like Lord of the Rings, it starts slow but ends ups epic.