Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@Ralizah I have seen people compare him to Riku upon the first time seeing him lol

I'm not sure what the QoL improvements in XC:DE are, but between them and just coming into it with some knowledge of the story and the mechanics, I'm having a far better time with it second time round.

I'm doing most of the side quests and stop every now and again to upgrade gear, skill trees etc. so I'm not getting stuck at story battles due to being too weak. This makes the game much more pleasant to journey through, so even though there's lots of running about, the atmosphere and scenery is so nice that it's just good to keep moving, keep seeing new sights at different times of day etc., put it in first-person camera and take a few screenshots, and just keep ticking off the side quests. It's chill and I like it like that.

@gcunit Yeah, while this will likely remain my least favorite Xenoblade game, I am having a better time with it than my 3DS/Wii attempts.

It likely also helps that the game is easier on the eyes. Alcamoth looks quite good in the remaster.

@kaisu It's probably just another Xenosaga easter egg, like KOS-MOS and T-elos appearing in XC2. The Switch-era Xenoblade releases draw more heavily from older Xeno games in that respect.

Gotta say, I do like having clothing options in a Xenoblade game, although Sharla has some... different options.

Like I saw this at first and thought: "OK, that looks neat."

Then I rotate the model, and it's like: "...oh."

At least Dunban has that pirate swagger to him:

I always wondered what Sharla was supposed to wear on Valak Mountain. I guess you're better off using Riki for your healer by that point in the game though.

@Vortexeo I've seen more people claim Riku is Alvis, rather than compare Alvis to Riku.

@kaisu At this point, I don't think it's a theory, since it was a recent addition, and makes sense, given that there were three core processors with one missing. If anything, the key being changed is more of a hard confirmation that the theory that Ontos was Alvis is true.

@VoidofLight No I meant I've seen people compare Alvis to Riku from Kingdom Hearts 😅 (although I have seen that XC3 theory that you've mentioned also). I brought it up because @Ralizah said Alvis reminds him of a kingdom hearts character

@Vortexeo Oooh. Sorry about that. Forgot that Kingdom Hearts also had a Riku.

C'mon dude! You gotta let the real Dunban out...

Well, almost 40 hours in, I'm officially past the point where I stopped on 3DS.

I will say, while the re-orchestrated songs in this are quite a bit better than the music in the original version, the OST is still a massive let down compared to the sequels (I'd say XC2 has a top five video game soundtrack, and XC3 would be at least top twenty). Particularly the environmental tracks. It might end up being a bit of a godsend, though. Since this version has an autorun feature, I've taken to muting the game, pointing Shulk in a direction, enabling autorun, and letting him tediously plod his way through the game's profoundly empty environments while I watch shows on my tablet. Then I just re-enable the sound when I hit cutscenes, bosses, or named enemies (You Will Know Our Names is one of the few bangers in all versions of this game). It made the horribly designed Valak Mountain far more tolerable, for sure. Although I'd forgotten how cartoonishly bad the ice physics in that one tunnel were.

I also mute the game and listen to podcasts/watch TV when doing sidequests in older areas.

Will never, ever understand why people insist this game has amazing music.

@gcunit He has pretty incredible high heels.

Holy crud, Mechonis Field is an unholy slog. Literal worst area in the game to date.

At least the game makes up for this a tiny bit by improving the normal battle music. Mechanical Rhythm is a bop.

A good thing about Mechonis Field is that you're not going to have to go back there in the post-game. It'd be a bit of a spoiler to say precisely why though.

So I think I'm in the endgame now. After a monstrous 5+ hour play sessions that was, honestly, probably 80% cutscenes, and wading through endless heroic sacrifices and characters waffling on about defying fate, I seem to have reached a stable point now. The game wants Shulk and co. to fly into the chest of the Bionis, which feels like a very final area-y concept to me.

Probably a good idea to cool my jets on the main story progress and finish off the side-quests that'll award me with XP so I can level up a bit before hitting the last part of the game. At lvl 69, I feel a little underleveled at this point.

While he's not a particularly interesting villain so far, I did have an "Oh no, he's hot!" moment with Zanza. Fantastic design, if nothing else.

@Ralizah Honestly, the Mechonis Core segment is the peak of the game for me. Gosh, it's just one reveal after another, and everything sort of clicked into place at that moment. Also I kind of love how Meyneth literally shows up once and gets owned.

And yes, hot.

@GreenTea I dunno about the original, but the DE sort of spoils the surprise by marking quests in the Mechonis areas as being time-limited.

When I first played the game, the first Prison Island visit stood out to me the most and, tbh, I still think that's where the game peaked for me. It was the point where the twists felt most interconnected with the personal journeys of the main cast. Whereas the twists in the late game are very... detached and metaphysical. They had the potential for a great twist when Dickson was revealed to be an antagonist, but I don't feel like they built up to that well, and the lack of development for his character mitigated the impact of his betrayal, IMO.

I will say this, though: the subtle romance between Shulk and Fiora is well-executed, as is the subplot involving Fiora's struggles to survive in her new metal body.

@Ralizah Yeah, I see where you're coming from with the time-limited quests, but I somehow never noticed a difference when I first played it (only played DE) so it didn't spoil the surprise(s). Funny how some of the DE additions actually spoil the twists, with Fiora having a suspiciously low number of outfits , so that's a bummer.

And yeah, admittedly, it is detached, but we're talking about gods here, so I guess it's fitting

It's not perfect, but it sure left an impact on me. Lots of great moments in this game.

I do also love how we can see Shulk and Fiora caring for each other, it's so good!

@GreenTea Considering I've thrown myself at this game 2 - 3 times in the past (on both Wii and 3DS) before falling off each time, it'll be amazing to finally say: "I beat Xenoblade Chronicles." I had a similarly contentious, love-and-hate relationship with Super Mario 64, which I also finally completed, after years of aborted attempts, on the Switch.

So even if it's my least-favorite Xeno- game, I'm glad this version exists. The visual upgrade is significant (I'm not a graphics whore, but the character models not looking like they were ripped from an early PS2 game helps significantly, especially since it allows characters to actually emote now). The menus and UI were streamlined. The game also goes out of its way to make the environments and side-quests as approachable as possible. It's everything a proper remaster should be.

And yeah, I am actually invested in Shulk x Fiora at this point, which is awesome. It means all of the mainline Xenoblade games have a strong romantic storyline at their core.

How essential would you say Future Connected is? I've heard different things. It doesn't seem to be quite as highly regarded as Torna: The Golden Country was (which is probably the best DLC I've ever played; it's even better than The Witcher 3's celebrated story expansions).

@Ralizah Future Connected is incredibly short it only took about 5 hours to finish and 15 hours to 100% everything. It's definitely not on Torna's level though. I'm not going to lie it looks like Future Connected might be related to the upcoming story DLC for XC3