Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@Zeldafan79

Lol, I'm hoping 100%-ing this keeps me busy all the way until Cyberpunk comes out.

I bet it could. I've never done the various superbosses before.

So how long is the base game in comparison to XC2? Trying to decide whether to get both physical and digital or just physical for Wonderful 101 given the physical delay to late June/early July.

@Grumblevolcano It's over 100 hours usually to beat if you're taking your time and messing with sidequests and stuff. I think the main campaign is at least 40, probably closer to 60.

The new trailer basically confirms no direct, since it was basically a Xenoblade direct in all but name.

Considering this game. How hard is it to get into. Is it pretty cumbersome for a newbie in the series or is there alot of hand holding? Thanks in advance.

Edit: I did play torna for a little while but didn't finish it.

Xenoblade 1 is probably the easiest to get into out of the series at least. It starts fairly simple and only adds complications to it as things go on (some of which I didn't need to use until late game tbh). And it does teach you every major mechanic in the game that you can also re-read in the menus later. I wouldn't say its especially hand hold-y though....but to be fair, I'm playing Mario and Luigi Dream Team, so I'm not sure anything is hand hold-y compared to that. :V

@kkslider5552000 good to know. I've had it preordered just in case. Still deciding if I want to keep it ordered or not.

@Knighty_IX great thanks, this is good to hear. Been playing a ton of jrpgs lately and it only seems fitting to get the next big Nintendo release since there's going to be a huge drought after that.

I'm not gonna be a completionist in this game, but I'm sure I'll get sucked into exploration and many side activities, like in most JRPGs. XD I'm anticipating spending around 80-100 hours with it at least.

Loved the trailer that went live earlier today. It seems like Nintendo is really trying to market it this time. I missed out on the original release, but I've read it wasn't advertised much at all.

@Tyranexx That's... An understatement. They refused to release it in NA. Then after a huge fan campaign they did, but as a GameStop exclusive with no advertising at all. It then sold out within a month and stock shortages were so bad that the game was being sold used by GameStop for around a hundred dollars after just a month. I think they reprinted it around a year later, and that one sold out near instantly too but it's when I got it.

My biggest issue with Xenoblade was how the heart-to-hearts were handled. You needed to build a certain level of affinity between characters to see their scenes. But there was no obvious way to quickly increase the affinity levels between particular characters, so you just had this huge chunk of content that was inaccessible until you filled some invisible quota and they unlocked later on. Now, XCX has the same problem, but the difference with that game is that they were generally located in the hub area you kept returning to throughout the game, making it where, despite the irritating affinity requirements, they were easy to access. Xenoblade 1 is a story-driven JRPG where you keep moving from area to area, though, and heart-to-hearts were puked out all over the world, so it often became a chore to hunt down the spots later in the game if you wanted to see the interactions.

Xenoblade 2 removed the affinity requirement entirely, which was an amazing change, as it meant you could see the interaction as soon as you arrived at that spot with the characters.

I hope Monolith kept this change from Xenoblade 2 for the Definitive Edition, because it was a major black eye on the original, IMO. The new trailer made it look like there were no affinity pre-requirements for seeing the scenes now.

@link3710 I learned about Operation Rainfall posthumously, mainly because I was in on Operation Moonfall. I also knew about the game being a limited GameStop exclusive, but...there was no advertising at all? Did they think it would be so niche that it was DOA? It's like they doomed it to not sell well.

...On that note, I'd love to see The Last Story get another chance to shine. That game also looks pretty cool.

Yeah, it was really frustrating. People from Operation Rainfall actually came to this forum to get people involved, I distinctly remember, the day before the whole thing blew up and got a ton of attention. Like suddenly it was like the most talked about thing in gaming, not even exaggerating. And yet NOA doubled down and took like half a year to decide to actually release it and did so with as little fanfare as possible. I mean, despite it being their games and them being Nintendo, those other two games were thrown to Xseed to publish because NOA couldn't even be bothered.

It's actually really funny to see how Fire Emblem and Xenoblade were treated at the time compared to now. It's almost like when you put out highly regarded games that a part of your audience adores...you can build on that to make money.

It's pretty much the exact same length as XC2. I think they might have deliberately designed them to be the same length, because it's uncanny how similar they are. About 70 hours for the main story. Double that if you want to do everything.

It's by far the easiest to get into, because the battle system is a lot simpler than in XCX or XC2.
And that's the main source of complexity in Xenoblade games generally.

@Dezzy yea that's good. I'm pretty much leaning towards giving it a shot. I do have ffx and x-2 + Ys VIII waiting for me after ff9, but I might make an exception and put those to the side for xc:de

@Tyranexx Pandora's Tower too please. Such a fun Zelda-like JRPG.

Seems unlikely given that Sakaguchi pretty much abandoned console gaming entirely.

@Dezzy I’m also trying the series for the first time, so it’s good to hear it’s a more simple and accessible starting point. I’m really looking forward to it but it’s the battle system that I’m most nervous about.

I’m sure after 70+ hours with it I’ll get the hang of it though.

@JoeDiddley

There's no reason to be nervous. It's a well designed game. The large starting area is full of enemies that it's nearly impossible to die to, that way you have plenty of time to pick things up, before you're put under pressure.

@JoeDiddley As Dezzy said, you don't need to worry. The first area works as a real nice tutorial. You can pick your battles and get accustomed to the mechanics. The area is quite big and fun to explore. From what I remember, the battles start out really simple. You only have couple of arts to worry about and those focus on your positioning. Get behind an enemy and use Back Slash to deal extra damage. That's pretty much all you need to know at first. You'll get access to more interesting strategies as you go.

Some people complain about the graphics in this new version. They claim the textures and brightness look bad. Personally I don't think so but then again, I've never played this game. To those who've played it, does it really look that bad?