Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@Dezzy @Late great that’s reassuring, counting down the days!

The 3DS version I picked up a couple of months before the Switch version was announced so I left that to wait for this instead.

Annoyingly it comes out at the end of my week off work. But it sounds like I’ll be chipping away at it for quite some time.

@iKhan I'd take Pandora's Tower on the Switch, too! That one has an interesting premise and different endings, from what I've read.

Best that I can tell as not remotely an expert. the textures are improved from the original but maybe not exactly top tier Nintendo stuff (I wouldn't be surprised if Xenoblade 2 looks much better in this regard). But even as a dated looking game (even when it released), I thought Xenoblade 1 had more than enough artistic quality and sheer spectacle from its size to more than make up for its dated graphical elements. And this remake has made it look...not dated, which is arguably all it needs to do. So basically, technically they might be right, but artistically, I just don't think it matters much.

I have no idea wtf brightness is supposed to be exactly, especially since this game is much less drab and dim compared to the original from what I've seen.

Another screenshot from the new area in the expansion. Looking great:

Pretty much all of the textures are twice the resolution as in the original. Most of the models have about twice the polycount too, although not all of them.
There's no difference in the general brightness. They're probably basing that on just the new character style. Cell-shading does tend to be used at a higher brightness, because it wants to emphasize that contrast between the lit part and the shadowed part of the model (as a substitute for actual texture detail).
It's definitely not the best-looking game on the Switch, because they are still basing it on original assets that were created for the Wii (all of the textures are just upscaled redrawn versions of the same textures, they haven't redesigned anything), but I think it looks pretty damn good. Especially the cutscenes! When it's in motion, the newly added motion blur mixes with the new character style really nicely.

Here's another new trailer where I think it looks really good:

So it seems that the challenge mode from XC2 is back in this. I thought it would be the case as that's how you unlock Shulk and Fiora in XC2.

There's a new difficulty mode too.

That and challenge mode were already leaked by someone who got hold of the game early.

Here's another image from the expansion:

Also, looks like this is the new official font they've gone with. I guess Comic Sans wasn't available?

From the sounds of all of this, the Switch drought after June isn't going to be a problem for me.

So with more and more of XC2's QoL improvements being confirmed as being brought in (Event Theater and difficulty selection being the latest ones I've heard), I'm starting to wonder what's even left that they could do. NG+ features are obviously one (and quite likely considering), but any other ideas for features from XCX / XC2 / Torna that could be brought over?

Oh yeah 'event theatre' was mentioned in that same leak too, so that's probably true.

The only thing they haven't done that I'd want, is to replace some of the sidequests. There are way too many boring fetch quests in the game. They did massively improve those in XCX and XC2, where sidequests were much more story oriented.

@link3710 Difficulty selection is a double-edged sword. For new players it allows them what is essentially a faux pas on harder fights like noskcid or aihtirol, but for players of the original, it allows them to just turn down the difficulty if they get frustrated. The fact that that is available could take away some of the post-boss euphoria, especially if one is doing it on easy mode.

@Dezzy If they could add more quests (because only one major quest has actual voice acting), with a mix of more monster or collection stuff, and story driven quests too, it could do wonders for this already 'alive' world.

@theJGG

Which one has voice acting? The Colony 6 stuff?

The only quest with voice acting is Melancholy Tyrea. Everything else has dialogue with just unvoiced text boxes

I don't remember that. Might have missed it on my previous playthroughs.

It sounds like that will remain the same though. We've heard nothing about them getting voice actors back, except for the expansion, which is probably just Shulk and Melia.

@theJGG Easy mode is entirely a choice though, one I'm not planning on using (except maybe if I encounter some really grindy quests). Are you saying it makes more sense to not include it because some players have no self-control?

@link3710 Some people who impulsively switch to easy to avoid frustrating bosses exist.... like me! I nearly gave up on Xenoblade 2 because of Malos. I planned to proceed once the easy mode came out, but I got to chapter 8 Jin before it actually released. I beat Xenoblade 1 multiple times, and found the same bosses difficult through every play. Tlodag, Noskcid and Aihtirol, and sometimes the final boss.

With difficulty modes, I prefer you can't change them once you've started a game. It should be a 1 time decision at the beginning.

Xenoblade had pretty good difficulty already though. I remember dying a few times and having to grind for some bosses, but never anything too extreme.

@Dezzy I'm on the other boat, I prefer that jacking up the difficulty increases the rate of rare drops, incentivizing raising the difficulty as high as you can handle.

I prefer that it can just be changed anytime you want, just so you can turn it down for some cases and then put it back up if you want it. Or if people just want to cruise through things just let them be :V

Yea I'm In the 'change it on the fly' difficulty setting camp. You dont want to get 5 hours into the game to realize it's either too easy or too hard. I love when a game has the ability to change settings at anytime. It's a feature I believe every game should Have if there's a difficulty choice.

On a side note, and it may be hard to know ahead of time, but are you guys thinking this game will have stock shortages? The reason I ask is that i like to grab games at Wal-Mart and save a few bucks, but last time I tried that, there was no stock for a smaller title( trials of mana).

Being that this is a larger release, wondering if I should keep my Amazon preorder in at full price(and will prob show up at launch or close to), or be on the hunt at Wal-Mart to save some coin.