Topic: Xenoblade Series chat

@StarPoint There's actually another pretty big one but idk if you want to figure it out yourself

@Vortexeo As long as it doesn't spoil anything from Torna/ XC3, I'm good with you sharing it

@StarPoint At the end of XC2 The architect mentions "Ontos", do you know who that is?

@Vortexeo Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that! Alvis, right?

@StarPoint Yup! Did you already know about that prior? 😂

@Vortexeo Yeah, I think I heard that name online at some point.

@StarPoint XC2 has a 10/10 soundtrack.

IMO so does XC3, although it's... different, tonally. Unsurprisingly, the darkest entry in the series isn't filled with light, happy tracks. What's there is often pretty incredible and emotionally resonant, though.

I'd give XC3 the nod for the best soundtrack on the grounds that it's integrated into the story via the flutes.

I really enjoyed XCX soundtrack too, although that's totally different in style to the other games.

@EaglyPurahfan I remember the pre release hype like it was yesterday

Ironically, the pre-release footage of XC3 didn't excite me initially. I was thinking of waiting for a sale. Really glad I didn't. My personal favorite JRPG, and easily the best game they've made as a company to date.

Xenogears would probably be no. 2. I'd LOVE to see Nintendo collab with S-E and get a proper remake of that going. Give us a fleshed out Disc 2. If Mario RPG remake is possible, then this should be, too.

@Matt_Barber The use of flutes, and the way that's integrated into the story IS very cool.

Some of the tracks are just magnificently integrated as well. Like the few times The Weight of Life pops off, or the second-phase theme for your last fight with N.

It works even better considering how seamlessly XC3 sometimes transitions between cutscene and gameplay.

I’m still mad they only play Weight of Life twice in the whole game…

So it looks like some updated sales numbers were released today.

As of December 2022, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is at 2.7 million (260k up from 2021) and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is at 1.88 million (200k up from 2021). Strange enough though I haven't seen any updated numbers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

So right now I’m about halfway through Torna, and I am absolutely loving it. I can’t believe how much better everything feels compared to XC2. Driver combos feel much easier to pull off, the side quests make the world more interesting, and the field skills finally feel manageable.

In particular, I love the streamlined combat. Being able to switch between 3 characters on the fly feels awesome and leads to tons of combo potential. And since your party is smaller, you can get more used to performing specific blade combos.

It’s just been super fun all around, and in my opinion, a huge step up from XC2 which I also really enjoyed. Hopefully it manages to stick the landing and the required side quests don’t get too tedious.

@StarPoint You have summarized, in essence, why I think Torna is the better game. The fact that it's more focused on its limited cast helps a great deal. Shame that many going into it know how things will end....

by far some of the best jrpgs on the switch

Alright! Torna has been beaten! And as of now it has easily been my favorite Xenoblade experience. I already recently posted some of my thoughts on the things I liked, so I won’t repeat them here. However, I am very happy to say that this game absolutely stuck the landing for me. It wraps up in an incredibly satisfying and strong way. Story/ final boss spoilers: The final fight with Malos is easily my favorite boss fight of the series as well. It has a fantastic twist by forcing you to fill up the party meter as much as possible to launch attacks. And the overall intensity of the fight was amazing. I also loved how the game didn’t end with Lora dying. I was fully expecting that going into it, and I’m really happy to say that I was wrong. It ends on a somber, yet also happy tone, despite what happened before and after the ending. Just a really great subversion of my expectations.

My only minor issue with this game was something not too surprising, and that’s just the amount of side quests. I knew going into this game that they were required to progress, and as a result, I did pretty much every one I came across leading up to that checkpoint. But I still ended up needing to raise my community by 2 more levels. So that kinda stunk and slowed the pacing down pretty significantly for an hour or two. But it’s definitely not an unforgivable downside, and I’m able to look past it thanks to how excellent the rest of the game is. Definitely gonna be starting up XC3 pretty soon here, as I am surprisingly not as burnt out of these games as I expected to be. 9/10

I'd think that having to play a certain number of side quests is just about excusable for a relatively short game like Torna, when you're probably going to finish it in 20-30 hours anyway.

It's just not a practice that I'd like to condone for the main Xenoblade games, especially when they're renowned for having some grindy side content, so I'm glad that they didn't make it a mandatory part of subsequent games.

@Matt_Barber Agreed. If Torna was like 40-50 hours then I think I would take much more of an issue with it. But I was able to beat it at just under 20 hours so it definitely wasn’t a huge deal. I would have preferred less side content and more main story, but like you said, it does work for a shorter DLC story.

@StarPoint Torna was my favorite Xenoblade prior to XC3. I know some people really don't get on with the way progression is structured, but it addressed the majority of issues I had with the mainline games, and the sidequests themselves were mostly pretty good, so I didn't really mind.

I also love that they allowed it to be a bit of tragedy at the end.

@StarPoint Torna is a wonderful experience and I'm glad you seem to be enjoying the series so far! I recall on my first playthrough of Torna I was rather irritated with the mandatory side quests and I sorta just mashed through all the text 😅. However after XC3 was announced I did a 100% completion playthrough for Torna and I was actually surprised at how I enjoyed the quests. Idk if you got to do the cooking contest quest but I thought that one was great 😂.

I also absolutely agree with you on the final boss fight. It was just so dang exciting and I'd say it's among my favorites as well! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on XC3 and Future Redeemed!