Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles X - OT

Um...nobody mentioned Kingdom Hearts. If you're implying that FF and KH have the same amount of QTE's, you're sadly mistaken.

I was making the comparison that XV is built off of Kingdom Hearts combat style and the Director of the game is Nomura who's other than having a fetish for belts and zippers, makes pretty damn good action rpgs with his last directorship being the Kingdom Hearts series and The World ends with you.

One thing I will say is that why hasn't square made RPGs for Digital download onlt. They could easily make a 3D RPG simialr to the PS1 games for the eshop/PSN/Xbox Live.

I dunno, there's too much they've shown that I'd find hard to believe would make they're not gonna rely on that in some form. It'll likely be leagues better than recent games, but I really don't have much confidence that even the best people at SE will make a great game from Final Fantasy (especially if their graphical fidelity obsession comes into play) and the fact that the only way that's even a possibility to try to be another franchise gameplay-wise seems more than a little sad to me. And bringing up TWEWY makes it more disappointing considering how new that was.

But even if the game is great, I can name a real good amount of JRPGs I like more than any Final Fantasy. This is despite still not having yet played a lot of games in the genre (including Suikoden, Xenogears, any PS2 JRPG other than Final Fantasy, SMT etc.) So this would have to be the best Final Fantasy ever made...and there's still a good possibility I'd prefer X. Like, maybe Monolith soft will make some terrible decisions we haven't seen yet, it's possible. But Xenoblade was the type of game, where it's kinda hard for me to overstate how well made and fun it was. It wasn't good, it wasn't great, it was a genuine masterpiece on nearly every level. There's no chance any Final Fantasy will compete with that.

Granted, I would be biased no matter what because the popularity of Final Fantasy XIII and the like compared to Xenoblade or SMT or Radiant Historia or TWEWY or any other JRPG genuinely angers me, in a way that a lot of other things in gaming don't really. It's probably why people hate Twilight, there are so many great writers and talented people in the industry, and we hand success to this nonsense.

@kkslider5552000 wipes tears from eyes Man, what you just said was epic. There's a reason why you are becoming one of my favorite members on this site along with Gioku and ShadowFox254. I agree with everything you said!!!!

I probably account for half of the nearly 700,000 views on youtube! I'm so psyched for this game!!! And, day by day, as I play Xenoblade more, getting closer to the end, I realize more and more that X is very capable of being game of the generation. I would give up a lot of things just to hear some of the OST!

Just seems a bit Cynical to go in expected diastor even if its a bit warranted

But all this talk of Xenoblade has me thinking ya'll be forgetting the real forgotten best JRPGs.

Straight up one of the best written jrpgs in recent times (especially the poems you find in the game). This game straight up should have been XIII.

yeah I heard some good things about Lost Odyssey. Need to pick it up someday (same with Nier...)

I didn't like Lost Odyssey when I first played it, but I recently rebought it, and I think I might like it this time.

It's totally a you have to be feeling it game. It works more if you look at as Sakaguci's answer to Final Fantasy XIII. Blue Dragon is really fun as well if your looking for something alittle light hearted.

I do hope we see Nintendo and other Pubs start to go back to older franchises and new RPG IP. Seems right now that Square is going to be content going forward with four brands in Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Dues Ex, and Chaos Rings. It's a big sad that one can make a list of unused or badly used RPG Ips. At least Sega is trying to bring back single player Phantasy Star with Nova. There's also the two rumored JRPGS from Sony that will be announced soon.

to be more fair, one of the very few problems I had with Xenoblade is that the characters could be better, which I felt they did a fantastic job with in TWEWY. Like, it might be the definitive good example I've seen in a JRPG for the coming-of-age, angsty teen sort of character/s and the character interactions are sometimes just wonderful. Of course, I felt TWEWY had some story issues or that it didn't matter compared to the characterization (great use of an individualism(?) theme aside), and let's not get into that game's post-game, but Xenoblade seemed to not have enough moments in the story where most of the characters are that much more than "the current hero doing heroic things because plot". I dare any of you to describe Sharla's personality.

Of course this was acceptable because 1. quite frankly video games have lower standards for this stuff and 2. because you can learn to love characters just by what they do and say in combat and I don't even think I need to explain that Xenoblade got that down perfectly. But I do hope X has better/more consistent characterization. But TWEWY was an awesome game too, and I'd honestly consider both to perhaps be the best examples of JRPGs legit moving forward in interesting, worthwhile directions (not that I mind more traditional JRPGs, but the effort is very much appreciated).

But my point still stands that it would take lots of really good evidence and first hand impressions from JRPG fans and worthwhile critics for me to even consider Final Fantasy XV has any chance of being the better game. But maybe we need a more logical comparison with X. I dunno...what's Bethesda working on?

cut to footage of the Evil Within

...nvm...

Blue Dragon wasn't really my thing, either. The gameplay felt bog-standard, with the only twists serving to lessen the experience for me, and the whole game just felt soulless. At least Lost Odyessy I recall liking more than Blue Dragon, I just couldn't get into it at the time.

@kkslider5552000

You'd really like Neir and Lost Odyssey if your looking for games that push story telling in the genre. Lost Odyssey is espcially good when it comes to dealing with the curse of immortality. I remember liking the bits I played of Tales of Vesperia and I loved symphonia. Has the story telling in those games improved much?

The only problems I had with Xenoblade was the fact that it's pretty much an offline MMO in terms of gameplay and Quest styles.

Storywise, they're still heavily cliche, especially if you watch anime, but character-wise they've always been good. The characters are generally what keep you playing the game outside of combat.

Yeah, that's what everyone says. I'm not expert on that because the only MMOs I've played were the free ones (and a free trial or something of Everquest), but from what I know, yeah it really is. But while I had SOME issues with the quests, the gameplay itself almost never got old for me (and if it did at any point, I again point to the issues with the quests). I don't think being offline MMO-like is bad as long as it's done well and takes advantage of the fact that it doesn't have to worry about the many, many things devs have to worry about because of the online part of MMOs.

I thought the way that you were to learn of the characters' personalities in Xenoblade was cool. They story told some, but to really understand you had to battle with them and do heart-to-hearts.

Maybe because I did most of the heart-to-hearts like right before the finale but...eh...

I never got the chance to play Xenoblade. Were the heart-to-hearts basically like support conversations in Fire Emblem?

I really this game being at least as good as Xenoblade is extremely important. Xenoblade was one of the masterpieces of last gen, but I feel it sort of didn't get enough attention from people cause it came on the Wii when the Wii was that "kiddie system." I know it is A LOT to ask for and it's basically like saying hit lighting twice, but the Wii U is a new console and if this game is as good or dare I say better than Xenoblade I feel Monolith Soft will get the recognition it deserves. Not to mention much needed good press for the Wii U. I almost feel bad putting these people to such high expectations knowing if this was somebody else or a different situation I wouldn't. It will probably like this if TWEWY2 ever comes out. sigh

I wouldn't say that. It didn't get a ton of play because Nintendo didn't push the game hard in the US at least. By the time the 3 RPGs came anyone who wanted to play them had bought and modded a wii to play them but than.

Nah, considering how far the console JRPG has fallen in relevance until recently, Xenoblade was never gonna be a huge hit, and the controversy surrounding it is probably a major reason it succeeded at all tbh. Of course, it doesn't help that any interesting hardcore Wii titles tended to die a terrible and miserable death outside of Nintendo's more well known franchises.

Kinda. Basically that type of system combined with the optional party conversations from Tales of games.