Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

This doesn't make sense. It clearly IS pushing the hardware, because it uses dynamic resolution, and that falls to an insanely low resolution when undocked in some situations.

"Pushing the hardware" is what causes it to drop resolution. They regulate that based on the frame rate, so it drops to whatever level is needed to achieve 30fps.

Framerate drops whenever the CPU or GPU can't complete their workload in the necessary time. Which, is by definition "pushing the hardware", in my mind.

@Ralizah My thinking was that if you have a physical version size restriction there's 2 options:

1. Scale some things back to make everything fit on the cart/disc

2. Keep things unchanged but add in some kind of download whether a forced day 1 update like many games do or optional downloads like the XCX data packs

The base size of XC2 and XCDE are very close to 16GB so it looks like a situation of option 1.

Two weeks until this drops. My guess is I won't be the only one constantly checking the status of my shipment once it has deployed?

@Tyranexx i normally would. But.... I am gambling on a Wal-Mart copy. Well see if my gamble pays off

@NintendoByNature That's a gamble I considered for sure, but there was no guarantee they'd have them in stock. Plus, that would involve actually going to Walmart.... The one closest to me has been a zoo most of the time I've heard. I've successfully avoided it since mid-March but am gonna have to do a run next week.

@Tyranexx yea it's a tough risk. I keep toying with just buying it on Amazon, but saving 10 bones sounds good.

@NintendoByNature The savings crossed my mind, but I decided this is one of those few cases where I'd be fine spending the full $60. Unless the game has been grossly overhyped to me. XD Normally I pick up many games in some sort of sale or with a discount.

Gamexplain did one of those cool Q&A thingies:

Also, check it out. Looks like it might be quite big. This is a good sign 2 weeks ahead of launch:

Wow so I just checked, and Xenoblade is in the top 10 sellers on like every single country's Amazon store.

Top 10 in US, UK, France, Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, Canada

Up until now I'd been predicting fairly mild sales. I thought it would be over 1 million but not by much, because it still is a fairly niche series.

But now I'm wondering if maybe this could be when the series really takes off. Maybe it could be the Fire Emblem Awakening moment for the series and it ends up selling like 3-4 million copies. That would be pretty exciting for the future of the series.

@Dezzy That could also spark interest in an X port, an X sequel, or a new mainline game!

@Dezzy yea I think it has to do with what Nintendo had lined up this year( not much aside from animal crossing). I don't pretend to know how people perceive this series, but I think you have alot of people like me willing to give it a shot for the first time since the first half of the year has been barren. Of course, that's a good thing for the series.

I think if you were to tuck this game in between June and November of last year, it might have been a different story.

2020 has been the year for me to try new games because Nintendo hasn't had much. For example, animal crossing. Never would have batted an eye, but it came at a good time. I love it. Sunk at least 70 hours in since April started.

Final fantasy series, I had nothing else to play so i gave it a shot and I'm all in on the series after playing ff7 and ff9.

Next up is xc:de. Im hoping for the same feelings and outcomes as the 3 games mentioned above.

While Xenoblade is way more popular now as an IP, I wonder if part of it is just that nothing else is going on. There are actually a bunch of mostly smaller games coming out on the Switch around the same time (I remember because like 1/3 of that last direct was focused on late May games!), but Xenoblade is easily the biggest one.

Though part of it might be that Xenoblade has a hardcore audience, and thus pre-orders and the like might not exactly reflect the long term sales compared to some of Nintendo's biggest franchises. I don't think a remake of Xenoblade is gonna sell 5 million copies or something crazy (as much as I kind of wish it would).

They're supposedly already working on their next big game, and it's apparently not a Xenoblade game.

I really do hope they go for a XCX port though, especially because they would only need a smaller team of staff to work on it. No need for any more art assets or anything, just a straight port. Hopefully at higher resolution when docked.

That game was so unbelievably huge that I felt like I barely scratched the surface on my only playthrough.

If you like Final Fantasy, there's like a 95% chance you'll like this too. It follows the exact same kind of formula. If someone told you it was a Final Fantasy game and covered up the title, you'd probably believe it.

Yeah I think 5 million is probably beyond plausibility. But I definitely think if it really catches peoples eye then something like 3 million is possible over the lifetime.
I can't think of any inherent reason why it couldn't. The genre isn't any more niche than Fire Emblem really, and that's kinda gone mainstream now.

Also, just look at how many series Nintendo has that have suddenly exploded in sales numbers on the Switch. Breath of the Wild has doubled the next best selling Zelda game. Mario Odyssey nearly has with the next best selling 3D Mario. Then Splatoon, Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem all shattering previous series records.

I think there's just something kinda magic happening with the Switch as a console. A lot of people are clearly very attached to it, in a way that you didn't really see on previous Nintendo consoles. Even the consoles that sold a lot of units like the Wii, never had these kind of software numbers except for a very few games.

@Dezzy I can trust Monlith to make a good game, especially because how they bossed Breath of the Wild.

@theJGG

I don't think we know how much they did on that. The info is vague.

@Dezzy The naming characteristics of the Bionis Shoulder remind me of Breath of the Wild, so one way could have been making up names for places...

For Xenoblade X, the ability to cancel out of Affinity Quests and Story Quests, and quests that require certain resources should let the Follow Ball lead you to the general area. That's the only real changes I think it needs.

It does seem like there's a lot of attention on Xenoblade Chronicles (and Switch in general). Hope it breaks through. 3-4 mil lifetime sales would be huge. But I think it'll more likely end up somewhere between 2-3m by the end of the generation like Fire Emblem

@NintendoByNature
Nintendo has actually had the most packed H1 since the Switch launch, if you think about it

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Animal Crossing
Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition
Clubhouse Games
Paper Mario The Origami King.

That's 6 games in 6 months, half of which are brand new and 2 are remakes (and one will likely prove to be the 2nd biggest Switch game of the generation). It think it just feels like less because they haven't made any major Direct announcements to get hype train going.

@Dezzy MonolithSoft has 5 offices. 2 are dedicated support to other Nintendo EPD (such as helping on games like Splatoon / Breath of the Wild), but the other 3 supposedly have their own projects. We know one is the new ARPG, one is XC:DE, and the last is unknown. We also know there were hints they were working on a major Xenoblade project, and it's unsure if that was referencing XC:DE or the other studio's title. So there may be another Xenoblade in the works, and if not it's quite likely the XC:DE team will be put on an XCX port if XC:DE does 3-5 million sales.

@JaxonH While I agree with you point in general, Paper Mario: The Oragami King is H2, right? I thought it was launching in July.

Xenoblade x whas for me the best xeno game so far.
Whould love a remaster remake or whatever for that one.

@JaxonH that's a good point. But we also need to consider that there are alot of people who aren't really interested in animal crossing, or jrpgs. I was one of them last year. So if you take that into of the equation, it can seem barren for alot of people. Thankfully I've adapted and am willing to try new things, which has turned out to be a blessing.

But not everyone is going to pony up and do the same is all im saying.