Topic: Xenoblade Series chat

Heh, you'd probably be surprised how many people got into games due to the character being in a Smash Bros, @Vortexeo ....
I've avoided MMOs as I don't want to be playing 1 game all the time, too

@Ralizah My sentiments exactly, from what I've experienced so far! Monolith has done an excellent job with quests this go-around.

@BruceCM In XC3, I'm about to infiltrate the Agnian prison but held off to do some side content since the game was very clear about not being able to leave for a bit. I've mostly done all I can until I advance the plot again I believe, so now I can finally get Chapter 5 rolling along.

@Vortexeo I have a love/hate relationship with open world RPGs like this as a result. I love exploring and digging into any worldbuilding if it's worth my time, but that also means my playtime becomes quite inflated. My goal is to at least complete the main story by the end of the month - October is always very busy for me - but I'm not sure if I'll reach that goal. XD

@Tyranexx same. I was shooting to finish by tomorrow for Splatoon3. But....that's clearly not happening lol.

Great stuff, @Tyranexx .... You might be finished in another 40 hours!

@NintendoByNature I was banking on 90-100 hours....I think it'll be more than that now lol.

@BruceCM 40 more hours is probably a better estimate at this point. Maybe 50. XD

Heh, well .... somewhere around that, hopefully, @Tyranexx!

@Tyranexx yeah, I'm thinking I'll be close to 75-80 myself.

@NintendoByNature In addition, there are other things besides quests that can extend playtime - I won't spoil how. I don't plan on 100%ing the game, but you can bet I'll finish most of the quests at least. XD

110+ hours for me before I finally beat the game, and there's still a lot of post-game stuff left to do. I'll dip back in after I'm done with Splatoon 3.

I beat the game yesterday so I'll just copy and paste what I said in the Xenoblade 3 thread:

Just beat the game - the ending got me even more emotional than 2/torna did and I didn't even think that was possible.

I enjoyed the game through and through and it only got better as time went on.
I loved the combat and music of XC2 more and it had better worldbuilding (but for this part I'll give it a pass since that was one of the main themes of XC3) and the characters meanwhile XC3 has great characters, good combat in its own way and music.
It was really hard for me to decide what was the better game between XC2 and XC3, overall XC3 to me is a better game but I still have some bias towards XC2 it has higher peaks than XC3 but lower lows imo.

For the series I would rank the xenoblade games as:

XC3 ≥ XC2 > XC1

(haven't played XCX it doesn't exist)

I just cleared chapter 5 in XC3 earlier and moved into the very early part of chapter 6. I'm not an outwardly emotional person, but how chapter 5 ended...I got teary-eyed. Just...wow. AND there was even a moment beforehand that tried to dropkick me in the feels a bit too. So far, this game has my favorite plot in the series. It started out with a tad more exposition than I'd like, but it was for good reason.

I'm getting there i think. I've done nothing but sidequests the last 3 nights so I'm a tad bit sidequest'd out lol.

But, I did Eunies sidequest the last night. It was solid overall.

Just wana get back to the main story now and see what's happening. Looking forward to my session later tonight.

@SplooshDmg I'm not going to lie as someone who's finished the whole trilogy, XC3 will make you bawl your eyes out.

@SplooshDmg XC2 is commonly viewed as one of the 'worst' in the series. But like I said befroe they are basically all 9+/10 so it's never bad.

@SplooshDmg @themightyant It's Tora isn't it? He was virtually game-breaking for me! Not necessarily his fault but IMO Xenoblade 1 and 3's Nopon are less grating.

@SplooshDmg So you're like me; I only loved Tora whenever he got put on the spot! Kidding of course. But I love how the game owned it; one of the DLC outfits was literally Pyra's art stretched over a massive t-shirt, almost like Tora had a dad bod. The anime style though... it felt like they didn't go all in. They did one or two scenes with anime influence and then the rest was just typical Xeno awesomeness. Not that that's a bad thing.

@SplooshDmg there’s no wrong answers they are all great. But yes the Anime aspect, and over reliance on DOA physics, was a little off putting to me, and marked it down in minor ways.

The other larger issues a lot of people seem to mention are:
1) the RNG gacha-like system for pulling blades. Honestly made me pull out what was left of my hair
2) parts of the combat system felt like a bit of downgrade compared to previous games I.e. you had to stand still to auto-attack making it feel less dynamic.
But these are all minor gripes to what was an excellent game

@SplooshDmg @TheJGG @themightyant
The fanservice is the least of XC2's problems.
For me it was primarily the gacha system and how field skills were implemented that brought the game down.

Yeah, I'm another one who prefers the aesthetic & tone of XC2. The Gacha elements & field skill requirements unfortunately make it one of the most mechanically obtuse games in the series though.

I like that the "Hero" system in 3 is like a better realization of what they were going for with the "Blade" system in 2, however the Heroes by & large are much less visually appealing in terms of design (though they're usually fleshed out better as characters, and a few still look neat, like Segiri in her battle mech).

XC2's highs are the highest for me. The music is amazing (I'd go as far as saying it has one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever heard). I LOVE the cast. The story gets so good in the second half. And Alrest is a top three JRPG world for me overall.

But the really questionable voice direction, janky cutscene animations, aggravating integration of field skills, gacha grinding for rare blades, poor tutorialization, and unwieldy suite of mechanical systems bring it down from greatness for me.

Torna, despite being shorter and smaller in scope, fixes a lot of that, and prior to XC3 was my favorite entry in the series.

Aside from how it handles side content, XC3 is rarely 'the best' at any one thing, but it manages to be consistently excellent across the board in ways that previous game just weren't. Also, its most emotional sequence basically destroys anything comparable in the rest of the series. People are never prepared for it.