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Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

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kkslider5552000

TheFrenchiestFry wrote:

Yeah but like, what IP damage would Nintendo be sustaining

See, the problem is you assume the laws they're dealing with all make sense. Basically, what Nintendo is doing is dumb but that's because they have to deal with dumb.

But it is also true that it is fairly unlikely anything negative would come from it (I assume it would require a particularly bold patent troll). So...I dunno.

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Quimbolas

Unpupular opinion: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is mich more and better in many ways than Xenoblade Chronicles.
Dunno if it was because i played it first or not, but it holds right up for me

Quimbolas

jedgamesguy

@Quimbolas In what way? The characters, the combat, the story, the art style, the music? Personally I get how Xenoblade 2 can be compared to the first, and yes, I played XC on the Wii first, but after playing and replaying X and 2 multiple times, I still feel that Xenoblade 1 beats 2 in all the departments I listed. The characters are more likeable, and their voice acting is extremely good. The combat is not too fast or slow (in 2 it's pretty slow, because of the way Arts are charged with auto attacks), and is challenging and complex. The story is more grounded than 2's but emotionally still makes me tear up when I watch certain cutscenes! And in terms of art, I prefer XC's less anime approach. In DE it's a little cartoony but it fits very well. The chibi style in 2 is cool, but they don't use the anime effects (like in the Wanted Nia scene, with the tear drop, eye effects) as much as they could have. And some of the fan service is too blatant, like why there's so many female Blades, et cetera. And the music isn't live recorded in 1, (some of it is in DE), but it has a lot of love put in. And with processed instruments I feel electric guitars sound better, for some reason.

I've played all three Chronicles games, and Torna, in the space of four years, and it's already vaulted on top of my all time favourites list. Let me know what you love about 2.

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Quimbolas

@theJGG some of the aspects you mentioned. Both ost's are great, but i like XC2 more overall, samething about the gameplay, the world and it has better humour moments. The combat may be a little slower but for me is more satisfying as it gives me more options.
The story and characters for me it's basically on the same level for each of the games, they have strenghts and weaknesses but i like them both.

Edited on by Quimbolas

Quimbolas

Ralizah

@theJGG Not the person who you're responding to, but I share the same opinion (although I've yet to play DE, so I'm open to my mind changing with regard to that specific version), so let me go explain myself.

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Xenoblade Chronicles is an UGLY game. While impressive in scope, the muddiness of the landscapes broadly ruins the aesthetic of the game for me. On the character design front, the characters have these kind of hideous face textures plastered onto their models, so they hurt a bit to look at.

One of the reasons I'm looking forward to playing DE is because of the way it salvages the character designs with updated character models that aren't hideous.

Untitled

The lighting and visuals in the original release are also kind of... washed out? It's just a really bad looking game all around.

I actually really like the more expressive and stylish designs of the XC2 characters. You mention they're "fanservicey," but that really only applies to Pyra and a handful of optional blades you may or may not see throughout the game. It's overstated. I understand someone being uncomfortable with Pyra's design, of course, but it's not a big deal to me, and it's certainly not indicative of how characters are designed overall.

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I liked the cast of XC2 (and Torna) far more than the one in the first game. Shulk was annoying and never clicked with me. Fiora becomes a plot device. Sharla doesn't have a lot of personality. British Wakka Reyn is one of my least favorite characters in the game. Riki is probably the worst nopon character in the series. etc. I didn't really connect with any of these people.

Rex/Pyra/Mythra/Nia/Zeke/Dromarch/Poppy/Tora/etc. were all far more interesting and immediately likable personalities for me. I became emotionally invested in Rex's quest when I never could quite do the same for Shulk. I think a lot of it is the writing: the game allows these characters to have fun and, in general, leans more heavily into humor overall, despite also being a much more emotionally devastating game at all times. And, in general, I feel like Xenoblade 2 is better at juggling characters and giving them all time to shine.

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Xenoblade 2's story is quite a bit better overall. It's extremely well-paced and kept me highly invested over the entire length of the game. It is also, as mentioned, a game that deals with difficult subjects and emotions, and I appreciate the emotional candidness involved. While the final thirty minutes or so of the game pulls its punches a bit in a way I didn't appreciate, I was still highly invested in the story from beginning to end. It's well-written.

Xenoblade 1 starts with a premise that feels vaguely Attack on Titan-y, which is fine, I guess, but it's difficult for me to become invested in revenge narratives. After Shulk and Reyn leave their village, it feels like the plot goes on hiatus for a long period of time as you slowly assemble a cast of characters. In fact, I'd argue the plot never really picks up again until the prison island sequence halfway through. That chunk of the game, in the middle, is pretty good, but the plot sort of falls apart near the end as well and becomes overtly metaphysical in a way I didn't connect with.

Xenoblade 2 feels like it was written by someone who knows how to structure a plot involving multiple parties in a satisfying manner.

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In terms of landscape design, I found the Xenoblade 2 titans far more evocative and visually interesting than the landscapes in the first game. Xenoblade 1's areas are needlessly huge, and there's really nothing to find in them since you spend the entire time running around collecting random blue orbs everywhere. While Xenoblade 2 could probably also stand to shrink its landmasses a bit, Monolith went to greater pains in the sequel to justify the 'open area' philosophy of level design and made item collection points that feel grounded in the environment.

Name an area in Xenoblade 1, and I can almost always name a similar but more well-designed level in Xenoblade 2.

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Gameplay-wise, I wasn't a huge fan of the monado's constant visions, and the combat in general is slow and simplistic. Xenoblade 2's system might seem a bit too complicated at times, but it's a really cool little system once you learn its intricacies, and the amount of customization you have with Rex's loadout is insane. I found that, one you understand how to use blade combos, pile on orbs for chain attacks, etc. the combat didn't feel too slow at all for me. The skill ceiling is higher in Xenoblade 2, but I don't think that's a bad thing.

I feel like Torna: The Golden Country did a much better job than the first game of using a simplistic battle system that is a joy to engage with.

Just my opinion. Xenoblade 1 is too focused on positioning Shulk and overcoming monado visions.

You also have a lot less control overall when it comes to how chain attacks play out.

Also, Xenoblade 2 is the game in the series where it's easiest to control health regeneration in combat, which is a huge boon to me.

A change in Xenoblade 2 that makes me appreciate it over Xenoblade 1 is also the way heart-to-hearts work. The affinity requirements in the first game are too strict, which meant I'd have to grind random characters together for hours and then trek back to areas where I passed them up in the first place. It was a pain. Xenoblade 2 just treats them as little moments between two characters and seems to ditch affinity requirements entirely, which allowed me to engage with them when I first came across them. It's a small change that had a large impact on my enjoyment of the game.

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I'm one of those people who thinks the first game's music isn't that great. In general, I feel like the soundtracks for these games have only improved over time. Xenoblade Chronicles 2's soundtrack is full of bangers, whereas I found the instrumentation in the first game to be... lacking.

Admittedly, the DE goes a long way toward salvaging the soundtrack of the first game by reorchestrating key tracks.

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It's hard for me to think of an area where I don't think Xenoblade 2 is just flat out better.

I guess I'd give these to the first game:

  • Better voice acting for the main character (I prefer the voice acting for the extended cast more in XC2, though)
  • Main character is better designed in XC1
  • No annoying gacha element or field skill blocks to worry about
  • It's easier to not get lost in XC1's landscapes

While, again, I'm going to replay XC with the DE on Switch and see if my feelings have changed, I found the original XC to be quite disappointing. XC2 surpassed my expectations in a variety of ways.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

Cotillion

@Ralizah Well, I was going to weigh in with a lengthy post, but wasn't much point after reading yours I feel the same way about XC2 over XC that you already eloquently spelled out. XC2 just seemed to do almost everything better. The only thing I'll add is the personal feeling I had when playing. XC1 seemed dragged out at times and when I was done with the story, I was just done. XC2, however, I didn't want to leave the world when it was done. It sounds overly dramatic, but it left a bit of a void for a while. Comparatively, like when you finish a really good book or TV series you've really been invested in and still want more.

Cotillion

jedgamesguy

@Ralizah I'd say every single point you've brought up made me seriously think. This won't change your stance, but I can guarantee you that Definitive Edition fixes some of these issues. To me, until the Definitive Edition was released, Xenoblade Chronicles was an incredible game that fell just short of perfection, because it had some of the worst graphics for any videogame I've played. But, obviously, the hardware on Wii was not very powerful, and thus it took a mammoth effort for that game to even run on Wii to begin with. DE fixes the graphical stigma with a flourish, and while the more cartoon art style might not agree with everyone, I think the approach was to allow for more noticeable expressions. Lighting's also been fixed, and it seems to be easier on the eyes.

The cast of characters is something I could debate for a very long time. With 1's cast I feel that Sharla is a little bland in terms of her personality, but I love every party member, some more than others though. I actually started Final Fantasy X a few weeks ago, so I get the Wakka joke. But it isn't fair, ya? Same with Riki, during Chapter 12 I think, he has a really heartwarming cutscene, that made me reconsider my own view on his character.

With the whole concept and story premise of 2, I can't say that I appreciate it as much as I should, because the whole idea of humans living on the backs of ten to fifteen Titans, feels far too derivative of 1's idea (humans living on the bodies of two titans). It is because of this that I mark down 2 in the story department. And strangely, I feel the pacing is weird...the way the chapters were divided made them seem far too big. This point is weak but I might as well get it out there.

Ahh, music. I love all the games' music. Almost equally too... but 1's evokes the strongest memories for me. At first I disliked the remastered/orchestrated tracks, but almost every single one grew on me, because the instrumentation was better, tracks like Satorl Marsh, The Spiritual World, have nicer-sounding vocals (for me at least), some tracks have new backing melodies, like that synth in You Will Know Our Names, etc, making them sound fuller. I cover songs for fun, and doing songs from 2 is impossible, because the music is orchestrated in such impressive depth. X's soundtrack is a mixed bag. Some songs are incredible and are bangers, but some songs make me want to turn off the game, because of how poor they are on my ears.

The thing with Monado visions is that it's a step forward from other mechanics, which show up in cutscenes and that's it. It's a really cool idea that I feel was implemented really well. Of course there's things like the Vision music playing during a boss fight which kills the atmosphere, but in the grand scheme of things, there's other things to prattle about.

I agree with your commentary about Heart-to-Hearts, but I'd wish there was a compromise, where each pair of characters had multiple conversations to deepen their connection, but without any affinity system. Best of both worlds, no?

As for you getting DE, hope you enjoy it more than you did on Wii, or Wii U. I beat the game three times on Wii, and managed to sink three hundred hours into it on Switch. The QoL changes make it very easy to play.

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F1 23
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

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Ralizah

@theJGG The new character models really bring everything to life in DE, from what I've seen. It's still a remaster, so environments aren't as gorgeous as XC2's, but, in general, I'd say it's a good looking game (in TV mode, at least). I've owned it since launch, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'm hoping to start it within the next few months, though.

I guess, for me, XC1's setting feels very mythical and, thus, detached from reality. A lot more was done to integrate the titans in XC2 into the worldbuilding of that universe, so it felt more 'real.' I can swallow people building civilizations on the backs of these giant animals due to the surface of their planet being uninhabitable, and I love how the need for people to reside on them, like parasites, fuels conflicts related to resources and land. It's absolutely derivative of XC1, of course, but I felt like it was an improvement on the concept of the original.

LOL XCX's music was always going to be controversial. I really like Sawano's work in various anime I've watched, but the style is often over-the-top and extremely distinct from the sort of music employed in XC1 and XC2.

XC1 has some good tracks, and, like I said, the reorchestration of various tracks really gives them the pop I felt like they were missing in the original. But XC2 has one of my favorite video game OSTs of all time. I love almost every track in the game. As you kind of allude to, the music is so good that there's no need to alter or change any of the tracks.

As for Heart-to-Hearts... yeah, that sounds great. In general, I feel like the affinity system adds nothing of value to Xenoblade Chronicles.

I did play a few hours of the original on the Wii, but it looked so bad on my HDTV (and, IMO, the Wii classic controller is really uncomfortable) I stopped and bought the 3DS version instead. Which... is still ugly, but less noticeably so on a smaller screen. I'll be playing the Switch version primarily on the TV, so I'll be able to get a fuller appreciation of the striking landscapes this go around.

Oh, and to be fully candid: while it's not as 'full' an experience as the retail games, I think, pound-for-pound, Torna: The Golden Country is the closest to perfection the series has gotten. It's sublime in almost every regard. It even has excellent sidequests, which sucked in XC1+2.

@Shadowthrone Thanks! I almost didn't download it at launch, but XC2 ended up really resonating with me in an unexpected way. I was disappointed by XC1 and mixed on XCX, but, some issues aside, I think they hit XC2 out of the park in many respects.

I didn't complete most of XC2's blade quests, though, so I really want to go back one day and fully dig into it. There's hundreds of hours of meaningful content available after the credits roll.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

jedgamesguy

@Ralizah It's an interesting strategy, to buy a game and not play it for six months. I'm pretty poor at holding off like that, so when I buy a game I'll sink my time into it until I beat it. The only time I didn't play a game immediately after purchase was FFX/X2 for Switch. Reason being... Persona 5 Royal!

Thing with XCDE is that it runs on Xenoblade 2's engine, and because of that both look appalling on handheld when it comes to draw distance and when you're looking at screenshots of it on a computer, but I've spent some time playing both games on handheld and it isn't too bad. Torna uses an updated graphics engine so it's no surprise to hear me say that it looked better than 2.

I didn't realise that about the worldbuilding there. Thanks for that, it'll allow me to think more about the very premise of the game when I start my eleventh play through the game.

Regardless of Sawano's poor work I'll still play his songs from the game whenever the mood allows. Some of his songs are incoherent soups of electronic sounds and some aren't... But because of Xenoblade's strike rate, it's safe to say that awesome music that combines orchestral elements, electronic elements, and rock elements, is a calling card of the franchise.

Christmas is coming up, so it's a good time to knuckle down and rediscover the original Titans! Even if to you they aren't the best.

PS: It still shocks me as to how much love MonolithSoft put into Torna, and making it free to Expansion Pass owners, which already had new quests, Blades, and game mechanics.

@Shadowthrone I really embrace that feeling whenever it strikes me, and usually only Japanese Role-Playing games manage to pull it off so consistently. They have awesome, quirky characters, insane scopes, addicting combat and detailed, hand-crafted worlds. Examples; (speak of the devil) all three Xenoblade titles, FE: Three Houses, Persona 5 [and the Royal story], Persona 4 (just started but I'm in love), Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy X. All of these fill these criteria, and these games are just sublime. They've stolen my heart over and over.

@TheFrenchistFry Just when I capped off a huge post on Japanese Roleplaying games! Atlus has made some neat stuff so I might end up coming to some kind of verdict myself about those two games. But do you mean the vanilla versions, or Full Body and Royal?

Edited on by jedgamesguy

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TheFrenchiestFry

Catherine >>>> Persona 5

TheFrenchiestFry

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kkslider5552000

I somewhat tl;dr'd those Xenoblade posts (partially because I haven't beaten 2 and thus don't have the most definitive opinion to contrast with), but I will say, one out of every three times Xenoblade 2 tries to be funny, I feel like literally any justification for it somehow being better obviously dies a miserable death. I mean, unless they saved all the best humor for later on (or just abandon the tone its been going for so far).

It's very Kid Icarus Uprising so far, in that it has a specific kind of comedic tone so that when it fails, its baaaaaaaad. Like Xenoblade 1 has its bad and frustrating moments, but I'd take all of them over a single more cutscene in 2 like the ones I'm talking about.

Edited on by kkslider5552000

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MPSSislit

@Blooper987, @Wargoose
Actually, that's what Smash Bros. Brawl was going to be (Melee with added online support), if Iwata couldn't get Sakurai to develop Brawl as a new game, as Iwata announced Brawl before development on it even started.
Also, with 3D All Stars running via emulation, I believe this opens the door for other Wii and GameCube to make an appearance on Switch in the (hopefully not too distant) future.

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Ninjala Gang FOR LIFE!
Also, if I don't respond to your post within a day (or two), don't worry, I'm not ignoring you. I'm going to be busy, though I will do my best to respond in a timely fashion.

Wargoose

@kkslider5552000 The moment it started with the Japanese maid humour. I was pretty sure I wasn't gonna be recommending it to anyone I know.

My favourite game in the series was Xenoblade X.

Edited on by Wargoose

Wargoose

Matt_Barber

I think Torna is massively underrated. It's got the best, or at least close to, that the series has to offer in terms of graphics, music, voice acting, combat system, story and characters. The only thing it hasn't got is the sheer enormous scale of the other games, but it's still something I spent as much time with as other full-price RPGs like Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Paper Mario.

So far as Xenoblade 2 goes generally, the first twenty hours are the worst. The slow start to the story, the endless gacha drops, the excessive (and often pointless if not outright misleading) tutorials, and the somewhat opaque combat system all irked me at the time, but by the time I'd played two hundred hours, that was all pretty much forgiven if not outright forgotten.

Oh, and for anyone who still thinks that combat in the Xenoblade games is needlessly slow, I'd suggest watching some of Enel's YouTube videos on the subject, as you can take down even the toughest superbosses in a matter of seconds with the right builds. I'd think that the games could do a better job of telling you these things, but that's an area where Monolith are at least starting to show some improvement.

Matt_Barber

RR529

@theJGG, I'm still in the middle of playing XCDE, so I'm not going to get into the overall discussion of whether it or 2 is better (though it's been an interesting debate to read), though I want to correct something you mentioned about XC2's art direction in your initial post, about it being "chibi".

"Chibi" refers to an anime substyle that features characters that have tiny bodies (usually with large heads), like the Bravely Default games or World of Final Fantasy, so while XC2 is very "anime", it's in no way "chibi".

Currently Playing:
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jedgamesguy

kkslider5552000 wrote:

One out of every three times Xenoblade 2 tries to be funny, I feel like literally any justification for it somehow being better obviously dies a miserable death. I mean, unless they saved all the best humor for later on (or just abandon the tone its been going for so far)

That's what I was going for. @Ralizah touched on it saying that the humour was better than in 1, but it felt extremely forced for me. @Wargoose the maid humour is a scene I will skip every time I play the game. It's a Japanese thing all right but that scene (and Lila too) could have been wiped from existence and nothing would change.
@RR529, my bad.

Currently playing:
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Persona 4 Golden
Dragon Quest XI S
F1 23
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

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TheFrenchiestFry

Graphics and presentation are probably the single most important make it or break it element in a game, and they matter way more than people give them credit for, especially the people who only game on consoles like Switch

TheFrenchiestFry

Switch Friend Code: SW-4512-3820-2140 | My Nintendo: French Fry

Euler

Considering how well the Switch (and portable Nintendo consoles in general) has sold, the number of GOTY/GOAT awards games like Zelda:Breath of the Wild (visually appealing but not even close to state of the art graphics) win from critics and gamers alike, and that the most powerful system on the market does not consistently win the console war (sometimes it's the least powerful of the three in fact) I'd say graphics don't really matter all that much anymore.

Euler

TheFrenchiestFry

@Euler I'm not talking in terms of the power of your console. I'm literally talking about in game graphics

Zelda is an ambitious game but what helps about it is that it's probably still one of the Switch's best looking games, and has great art direction and presentation

Contrast that with titles like Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite whose gameplay is fantastic, but people didn't buy it because the graphics looked unfinished, and the presentation was a major step down from Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and how distinct it looked compared to other fighting games in the market. In fact that's the exact reason why people bought Dragon Ball FighterZ in droves over it when it came out like a few months later

Like would you have bought Mario Odyssey if it looked about as good as something like Vroom in the Night Sky or Troll & I? Would you have bought games like Zelda or God of War PS4 if they looked and performed about as well as something like Ark Survival Evolved on any platform

I've seen people actively defend the state of ports like Outer Worlds on Switch and I really don't see how you can justify having a game portably if it frequently drops frames or has consistent resolution problems. I'd even argue games like Persona 5 wouldn't be nearly as popular as they are with mainstream audiences if it didn't have the slick presentation it did, and it's not even close to the best looking PS4 game imo

Another example is the PS2. It was less powerful than both the Xbox and the GameCube but I'd say games like Final Fantasy X and MGS2 & 3 have aged extremely well graphically speaking and are still appealing to play on modern displays at present

Edited on by TheFrenchiestFry

TheFrenchiestFry

Switch Friend Code: SW-4512-3820-2140 | My Nintendo: French Fry

kkslider5552000

I don't think graphical power matters too much but it has to look good in some way, generally speaking. (with rare exceptions here or there). There are games that look...modern enough but have such an underwhelming and bad art style that it almost certainly hurt them. Whereas there are games that look like they came out in 1991 but are still appealing to look at.

If your game doesn't look good in any way, that's a huge disadvantage to getting people to actually play it.

Edited on by kkslider5552000

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