Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Personally I think it is the job of the developers to make people hooked. You should never have to play large portions of a game just because the ending is cool.

And while we are at it, I don't like the presentation at all of xc2. Xcx seems much cooler.

@EvilLucario Well, my complaints about XC overall aren't limited solely to 2 beyond the HM blades and rediculous questing layout. The other complaints, such as lack of instruction apply to the whole series. (I know you'll tell me they did much better in XC2, which may be true but that's like saying drinking month old milk isn't nearly as bad as drinking year old milk. That may be true, but both are terrible. )

For XCX I happen to have the LE hardcover guide which certainly made understanding the game easier. But I also consider that game traumatically flawed and hope a port would fix a lot of what ailed it. I'd hoped XC2 learned some lessons, but it made similar errors, less severely. Personally XC2 doesn't really present itself much more clearly than X and much as I gripe about modern Squeenix, they've really learned how to introduce game's systems to you in a way that neither overwhelms nor under-informs, from FF & Octopath through Deus Ex. Something Monolith really needs to learn.

@darkfenrir LOL yeah I could see that. Playing most of my time handheld I didn't really even notice the odd proportions....Pyra's that little dot in the corner of the screen except cutscenes. But yeah her proportions are, honestly, unsettling if you stop to look....there's nothing human about that....granted, she's not actually human, but still. It's as though the entire game takes place in Texas. I haven't really noticed many characters other than her as so exaggerated. Clothing best suited for the Oscars everywhere, but I haven't seen much exaggerated design. Then again I've probably only unlocked a fraction of rare blades.

@Ralizah XCX still had a pretty refined system with the switch of ranged/melee etc. Movement felt important where in XC/XC2 it really doesn't. But then the Skells happen and I'm too cautious to risk using them in battle.

@Therad XC1 suffered from that greatly. The first many hours through the mine were boring as heck. It was like 40% through when the plot twists started rapid fire it got good.

XC2, I don't know, it was intriguing at the start, you get your story quest in the first location, and embark on an FFX style mission where the big first turning point happens....it went into the "proper" hook pretty fast. I still don't like how NPCs work in the series. It feels boilerplate.

I haven't played any of them. Xc1 and xcx both had terrible timing coming out when I was knee deep in other games and xc2 for some reason I felt no desire to play.

https://nintendoeverything.com/diablo-iii-eternal-collection-...

Wow! Diablo III is native 720p in handheld mode on Switch, 960p when docked.

60fps in both modes.

Awesome performance!

@NEStalgia Movement is penalized in XC2, since your character can't move and attack at the same time. In general, the combat has de-emphasized the constant importance of positioning compared to the previous two games in the series.

I really like blade/driver combos, sealing abilities, timing attacks like in Paper Mario and blowing through a bunch of orbs on a powerful enemy with a chain attack. The system is just really fun to manipulate. Especially considering arts are tied to button presses in this game.

In terms of XCX, I like the flexibility of combat, but I'm still not sure what an overdrive is (after 35+ hours of playing, mind you), and I DETEST Soul Voices, and scrolling across the arts bar, and managing SP, especially when there doesn't seem to be an easy way to recover it.

@Therad And I'd argue that all those examples I gave do a fairly decent job at it. They're 50+ hour games (except for Hollow Knight which is more around 20, with a lot of wandering on your first playthrough), the first few hours are never going to be as good as the 5 hour mark onwards and that's something you have to accept from these types of games.

@NEStalgia The part on instruction is where I heavily disagree in that only XCX dropped the ball severely with instructions by omitting a lot of CRITICAL information from the manual. The guide might be betterm but ingame instruction was anemic. XC1 was good since it told you every stat and their function, what status effects did, along with revisitable tutorials that properly explained everything. XC2 is almost the same way, minus revisiting them.

@NEStalgia @EvilLucario @Therad I don't like the fantasy setting, much preferring the hard sci-fi and open world of X, plus the combat of X. 2 feels exceptionally slow and the inability to move auto-attack bogged the pace down, but the general slow nature did it too. Then I saw the borderline HM blocking be introduced and knew this was how the game was going to go.

The game didn't grab me within 6 hours. X did. X had more of what I personally look for in a game.

Sorry if you think I didn't give it a chance, but I know when a game wont do it for me.

@Ralizah Another problem of XCX, learning Overdrive (the main reason why XCX is my favorite Xeno game) is a brick-wall learning curve. Your colored Arts now serve different purposes, like green/blue Arts giving you extra Overdrive durations, purple Arts giving you 10 x (your Overdrive counter) per hit, and your yellow/orange Arts increase your Overdrive counter. Using a green -> yellow/orange Art doubles counter gains, using orange -> orange increases XP gains after the fact, blue Arts extend Overdrive much more than green Arts, etc.

And the manual tells you NOTHING on how to properly use it/maintain it.

XCX has the ugly faces, XC2 has the terrible voice acting. I wasn't sold on either game

@EvilLucario
You just need to "feel it".

@NEStalgia I also play mostly on handheld! (I think I only ever played on TV once in the entire game, and that left me with bad taste because the other 2 friends of mine were just complaining the whole way)

But yeah in general I just want more variance in the chest size if they were to shove us with a ton of girls. Or at least adult looking ones that have normal size chest. Idk, from what I remember it's quite a rarity. (probably wrong memories)

I had no trouble understanding the battle mechanics in XC2 and I didn't usr any guides for it. Are you guys sure it isn't explained in game?

@darkfenrir I'm a bit confused by that, because there is quite a bit of variance. Nia and Morag are just like that, Pandoria as well, etc. The only really big ones are Pyra/Mythra and Dahlia, maybe Vale and a few others. Looking through all of the Rare Blades there's a bunch of visual diversity.

@EvilLucario Yeah, that's why it felt like it has a lot of huge chested ones when it doesn't. I don't understand it myself, since once I try to think of it, I'm quite sure the one with Bear and some others have quite normal chest...

Maybe it's because I saw Pyra/Mythra a whole lot that it's ingrained in my memories?

But nonetheless, this is more of... something I felt from the game then, than what it is true. In the end I enjoy the game, and now I need to finish my 2 JRPG before the Torna's DLC come out smh.

@EvilLucario Another issue for me is how overly complicated everything seems. Even after reading the manual and playing 35+ hours, it just... I don't know, I feel like I only half-understand a lot of stuff. It's a cool game, but it's desperately in need of better tutorials and some streamlining.

@Ralizah I said I like X combat.....the UI can go X itself.

@EvilLucario XC1 was simple enough that it didn't really need much explanation. It was a traditional party system, fairly linear arts us, and a basic break/topple/daze loop. XC2 went not only into more battle complexity, but also more spread out disconnected systems that were never explained. You say they were, but they weren't. Not in a context that made them meaningful. The information "being there" isn't enough if needs to be digestible and contextual. The game failed, catastrophically on the latter front, and marginally on the former front. It remains a great game marred by failure in introducing you in how to use it. I understood nothing about the battle system, chains, etc until your single post explained it far better than anything in the game....that had moving examples and input reading ability.....failed to do. If you can explain it on an internet forum in a single post with far better understand-ability to the player than the game manages to do with the ability for interactive tutorials, the game is clearly at fault.

@Octane XC2 voice acting is nice...I find it charming. Way better than the first one. I'm really feeling it. What time is it? Swapping Rikki for Tora alone is worth $60.

@Knuckles-Fajita Ok, well disliking fantasy blocks out a ton of games, but that's at least fair preference
I suppose it can feel slow. Well in the beginning it can feel slow. Questing is slow. (Gawd, the merc mission quests....)

Yeah, it's not borderline HM blocking, it is HM blocking. I didn't even understand that field skills existed or how they worked until I was hard story-gated half-way through the game

" know when a game wont do it for me."
So, what you're trying to say is you're not really feeling it?

@Ralizah XCX is probably the posterchild of it. I love the game and will defend a bunch of its faults, but even as my third favorite game of all time I'm not afraid to say it has more flaws than either Xenoblade 1 or 2.

Overcomplicated mechanics and features may be one such thing I suppose. Although I'd argue it's not so much the overcomplicated stats and such, but more in that game balance is kinda wack. Defense is pointless, what you actually want are resistances... but there are six types of elements and it's a bunch to keep track of for a bunch of enemies. It can get pretty overwhelming.

I could probably spend an hour or two talking about the stuff I hate in XCX tbh lol. But the huge world, combat, gameplay loop, sidequests, and overall feel of the game instantly launched it into my top 5 games of all time despite all those problems.

@darkfenrir I'm convinced the player base is like this:
What adolescent males see in Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Breasts.

What adult males see in Xenoblade 2: A flawed game with a lot of redeeming qualities and hideously annoying Pokemon-HM style field skills.

What adult females see in Xenoblade 2: Breasts.

@EvilLucario You summarize for me that the Xeno series overall is very deeply flawed and unpolished in a lot of ways. It's a yin & yang thing. It does so many glaring things so very wrong it's beyond excusing, and yet it does so many things so uniquely right you have to try to look past the flaws because it's the only place you can experience that....so you kind of put up with a game mediocre in so many important ways to enjoy the unique things it does so well.