Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

Started playing Future Connected tonight. Was really surprised when in a cutscene I ran into Teelan, one of the High Entia side characters from the main game. I was even more surprised to see them reference one of the late game sidequests where Teelan asks you to find research notes so he can learn how to transform Telethia back into High Entia. I really didn't expect a side quest that a lot of people would probably pass by to become part of the main story . Enjoying Future Connected quite a bit so far. It's not quite as amazing as the main game, but it's still a lot of fun so far and it's refreshing to have new areas to explore.

@Tyranexx Oh goodness I know that quest line you're talking about. Those characters really had it bad. It was hinted at earlier on, with some scenes in the tomb and involving a certain emperor and his consorts - but still... Be warned, that's not the only quest like it.
do you remember the two High Entia girls, the one who starts hating her half Homs friend?

That's also what makes the side quests in this game so amazing. Yes you have the generic ones from nameless NPCs but all the ones from named NPCs help with world building so much. The world of Bionis and Mechonis feels so alive, as though it's inhabited by people going about their actual lives, rather than just people shaped props in the background that tell you where to find the weapons shop.

@Dezzy From the charts we've gotten, it's very closely mirrored Xenoblade Chronicles 2's sales, so I'd assume somewhere slightly below that, launch aligned. XC2 only stuck in the charts for a month or so too I believe.

@Heavyarms55 I... actually don't recall that quest, though I'm almost certain I picked up and finished nearly all of them. Could be I just need a memory jog there. Unless that's referring to the one where you help a guy choose between which of his two (female) beat friends to marry? I don't feel like that's quite it, however....

I'm glad I didn't take a lot of the complaints about side quests in this game to heart. Sure, many of them are a form of fetch quest, and I could see it becoming a vote for those who don't bother reading the flavor text. But as you mentioned, there's a lot of world building there.

Heck, the changing locations remind me of Majora's Mask; each (named) character has their own schedule in the game and is active at certain times in the day.

@link3710

Well they usually announce big milestones. I wonder why they haven't announced 1 million yet. Or maybe it hasn't passed that yet.

They haven't announced 2 million for Xenoblade 2 either. It should surely be around that now. The last we heard was about 1 year ago and it'd sold 1.7 million.

Still kinda depressing how little these sell compared to something like Pokemon or Animal Crossing. Still, Nintendo do a good job of stewarding an IP over time, until it hits a growth period. Like Fire Emblem has since Awakening. That's increased it's userbase like 6-fold over a decade.

So last night I got frustrated hunting a few random collectibles for a quest - but I remembered something I had forgot. If you can't find a needed item, save your game and completely close the game and re-open it. Don't just go back to the main menu or reload your save, but fully close it. This resets all items on the field. I can't believe I forgot about this mechanic. But it works even better for quest items now because of the little exclamation marks on the map.

@Tyranexx Nope, you might have missed the chain.
It starts with I believe the racist girl's mother saying her daughter had changed - and she wants you to talk to her and see if she'll tell you why. She wont talk to you unless Melia is in the lead. Eventually you find out that she's insanely petty and hates her former friend because said friend broke a hair decoration or something. You end up going to Valak Mountain to find the material to repair it. And there's a touching story of how the two girls got lost on a trip and nearly died in a blizzard - but for each other and the hair piece or whatever reminds her of it. Ultimately the girl gives up her angry and the two make up. I might be misremembering, but I am pretty sure the former racist is turned into a Telethia.

@Dezzy Well, they literally haven't announced anything regarding any sales numbers since the Q1 shareholders meeting. Or well, had basically any announcements at all. I think Nintendo has just gone radio silent due to current events.

@link3710 Well the April - June results are on August 6th so we'll find out Xenoblade's 1st month of sales, whether Animal Crossing overtook MK8 Deluxe, etc. on that day.

@Heavyarms55 Hmm....I seem to recall a quest that I could only pick up in the Alcamoth by having Melia in the lead, but that might be something different. The rest of that doesn't ring a bell at all. What's weird is I was absolutely sure I picked up any and all exclamation points before moving on.

...Unless it was a chain that was only activated by talking to a certain NPC. I had that happen with a kid in that same area; there was no quest indicator at all until I talked to him.

@Tyranexx Yeah, a lot of quests in the game require you to create certain links between NPCs before they activate. Sometimes those links can't be created until you finish a different quest, or progress to a certain point in the story. What I usually do is once I finish all of the quests I can find in an area, talk to all of the named NPCs to see what new links I can form and see if that causes any new quests to appear. You could also look at a guide if you don't feel like talking to everybody.

@Cynas That's definitely something to keep in mind for later playthroughs. I'm used to quests activating other quests in other games, but specifically talking to someone just to unlock a quest indicator from them (or someone else) isn't a method I'm familiar with. Thanks!

@Tyranexx Yeah, I do think it's a quest you don't see until you have the right connection in the affinity chart. The game rewards you for talking to all named NPCs.

@Heavyarms55 Duly noted for future playthroughs. Thanks!

@Tyranexx

There are several different things that activate new quests to appear:
1) having finished another specific quest
2) having talked with that person previously
3) having high enough affinity for that region
4) having completed certain parts in the story (I think there's only 1 of these points though).

@Dezzy Yep, I've encountered and/or noted all your points barring #2 previously. Hence why that one was a little out of left field for me. What's crazy is that I'm normally pretty good about hitting up most if not all for some dialogue; I do tend to relax that tendency with massive games like this, however...unless they have those fancy quest indicators.

Lesson learned.

@Tyranexx

Don't forget different characters appear at different times throughout the day. So even if you talk to everyone at one point throughout the day, you'll still miss some people who aren't around at that time.

@Dezzy Oh believe me, I've done a ton of time skipping just to try and pick up all the quests. That's partially why I was so surprised I still missed a few.

That's one of the things I like about this game though; most NPCs have a set path or schedule. They aren't just rooted in place for eternity spouting the same basic lines.

Finally got sales figures. Xenoblade Definitive Edition has sold 1.32 million so far:

https://www.gematsu.com/2020/08/switch-worldwide-sales-top-61...

So that's pretty much identical to how Xenoblade 2 was selling at a similar point. I'm guessing that will be considered pretty successful given that it's a remaster of an old game, and likely more profitable than Xenoblade 2 as they didn't have to create it all from scratch.

You'd think that would be enough to justify a XCX port as well, although I guess that depends on whether they have any spare staff to work on it.

@Dezzy
Yes! Those numbers make me very happy.

I was worried for a bit after XCDE disappeared from the Top 10 charts after only 2 months. But I guess JRPGs really are more niche than I'd like them to be. A XCX port seems more possible than ever to me now. I do hope they give us the same kind of QoL improvements as XCDE did though. An epilogue to properly conclude the story would be nice as well because it's the only game in the series so far that ended on a cliffhanger. Unless they're planning a direct sequel of course.

@Shulkalot

Yeah JRPGs have always been pretty niche. For the last 20 years, the only JRPG series that routinely have sales figures in the millions are Final Fantasy and Pokemon (and then Dragon Quest but only in Japan).

There are surprisingly very few exceptions to this. In fact the only traditional JRPGs in the last decade that have passed 2 million sales (other than those 3 series) might be Xenoblade 2 and Persona 5. I can't think of any others.