A number of years ago this scribe was sitting playing Xenoblade Chronicles when a relative walked into the room - what they saw was weird characters and a jumble of text, icons and assorted madness. As we tried to explain what was going on it became clear that it was a doomed task - "it's a quirky RPG" was the get-out-of-jail description we opted to use in the end. "Oh, another one of those is it". End of conversation.
Some games make sense to a broad range of gamers (a term that should mean 'anyone that has played a video game') and are instinctive. This year's mega hits on Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey - arguably meet that criteria, as we've seen gamers of various stripes enjoy both to great lengths. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will, like its predecessors, likely intrigue but ultimately push away a percentage of Switch owners because of its inherent depth and strangeness. That's absolutely fine, as the games industry needs experiences like this, but let's call it for what it is.
The more pertinent question around this one, then, comes from those - like this scribe - that have battled through the adventures of the Wii original (which also landed on New 3DS) and its Xenoblade Chronicles X spin-off on Wii U - what kind of Xenoblade game is this? Looking back they were very distinct experiences, and having played the new entry for about six hours so far - which is likely to be about 2% of game progress - we reckon this one is certainly a return to the formula of the original, as Monolith Soft has indeed promised. It's less about factions and dictating your path, and more about embarking upon a narrative story.
This time the protagonist is Rex, and indeed his Titan friend / ally 'Gramps', and early on there's an introduction to the world of Alrest and the 'cloud sea'. Nintendo's multiple showcases and Directs give a good sense of the early game, and in fact the initial 90 minutes is relatively sedate, as you amble from basic tasks to cutscenes and back again. It's a useful opening, as it teaches the basics for any series newcomers.
Then, it all kicks off. We hit a sequence of events that jolted us into action and was downright exciting, even if the most snazzy moments were cinematics - big music, drama, slightly baffling narrative, it's all there. It's at this point that it's very clear this is in the style of the original, as Monolith Soft returns to the roots of its Nintendo-based era.
Considering the key points that series or RPG fans may want to know with this new entry, we think the UI (user interface) is worth mentioning. It's rather chunky and easy to follow once you grasp the mechanics, which is light years away from the modern touches and tiny text of Xenoblade Chronicles X. It seems Monolith Soft listened to the feedback and ensured that it's easy to read and understand what's happening on a TV or in portable mode. So far we've had little problem following on-screen information and working through menus, so that's a notable early positive.
Visuals and broader performance are another interesting point, with varied opinions on the aesthetic used in this one. In some respects the art style works quite nicely, with characters being far more expressive than in the past, though we still have stilted animations to contend with, an old bugbear with Monolith Soft's releases. That said, the studio retains its flair for impressive landscapes and vistas, with early environments being undeniably eye-catching. We also have a return of many regional accents, with subtitles to help out. UK gamers may get a kick out of it, and already we've had voices from Tyneside, West Coast of Scotland and - pleasingly for this writer - an entire town of Welsh accents. One of the main characters sounds like they're from the US, we should add, so it's a global cast.
One area we're less pleased with early on is visual fidelity. At times the game looks fantastic, but there are also some rather rough areas and a low core level of assets. This is easier to get past, strangely, on the TV, where the scale of environments compensates. The game does look rather choppy and fuzzy on the portable at times, though it just about holds up in terms of its framerate and performance. Though we've enjoyed the flexibility of dipping in on the move so far, this feels like a console game that looks and feels at its best - by quite a distance - on a TV.
In terms of gameplay, the opening feels familiar to a series veteran, and as mentioned draws its broader style and approach from the Wii original as opposed to the Wii U spin-off. You gather as many resources as you can, pick fights with wildlife, work through scripted and at times exhilarating story set-pieces and then do it all again in a new, larger location. We've barely scratched the surface and have already visited three distinct areas, each with their own spin. There's also scope to dive off into sub-quests, but early on the game is quite keen to keep you on the story path; we'll see how much it opens up for sub-quest shenanigans later on.
New this time is the relationship between Drivers and Blades, and having gone through the early stages we're starting to see how this will play a role as a major evolution in the series. The core combat feels the same - characters auto-attack to charge 'Arts' that you then trigger. The Blades initially hover nearby, with their affinity reflected in the colour of the line between them and your character; as you attack you charge a special Art for your Blade, and this triggers a powerful attack. This also has levels, so you can hold off triggering this special to unleash an ever more powerful Blade assault later on.
Even in early skirmishes we can see the strategic potential for this feature. For example when in a team with another Driver / Blade you can bring together Blade combos, and elemental attacks also come into play. You're then introduced to the idea of creating new Blades as you can utilise more than one at a time - depending on which is in action your weapon and moves change, too. It's an interesting system, and while we're still mastering its intricacies it is intuitive as long as you pay attention to tutorial prompts and experiment in battles.
Blades, then, feel like the key unique selling point for this one, along with the fact that it's a new cast, world and story to work through. The plot hasn't grabbed us as quickly as in the original, but it's done a decent job and has us intrigued. Like series predecessors there's some cringe-worthy writing and animations - and a few of the outfits and designs aren't to this writer's personal tastes - but the broad potential is there. Even in the opening half dozen hours some segments have had us on the edge of our seat, and there are attractive worlds in which to explore, potentially endlessly.
So far it's more of the Xenoblade gameplay we know and love, and the additions seem to be well thought out. Time will tell whether it'll be an evolution or generational revolution for the IP, but for now we're pleased to report that it's still delivering a very 'Monolith Soft' experience.
Comments 87
Looking forward to it. Last physical switch game of 2017 for me. Hopefully the Switch has a fantastic 2018 to follow on from this.
So hyped for this!
A Welsh town?!? Just preordered the deluxe version.
"A number of years ago this scribe..."
This term that you and PushSquare like to use always makes me picture you sitting in a castle, wearing 1800's clothes writing about games with a quill feather and paper!
Really looking forward to this. Bit frightened about the length though. Not enough time...
A town full of Welsh people? Blackadder is needed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnl3N1RQedE
@datamonkey That's exactly how it is.
@ThomasBW84 Hah excellent, you guys never disappoint!
If only Pyra can be transform into Mithra oftenly, i feel less disturbed by her outfits because Mithra's outfit design looks better than Pyra.
Also, i wonder if there will be a lot of Male suppirting characters with Big Body, Big Muscle, to swap Pyra with soneone else.
Thanks for the GREAT NEWS! Don't get me wrong I really looked X, but the original is my all time favorite game!
What you did there, I saw.
Wait.. it doesn't run at 200 FPS? ... UNPLAYABLE!!!!
The worst part of X was by far the music, I have no idea what they were thinking, the first game had some of the best JRPG music then they went all techno dance club for X. So as long as this game goes back to a more traditional JRPG soundtrack, which it seems like form all we've seen, I'm good.
And 6 hours in doesn't sound like much. The first game only really began for me around the 15 hour mark, then big things started happening around 25, 35 hours in and around 50 hours you really knew what was going on. Then I played the main story for about another 50 hours, then leveled up to go monster hunting for another 25 hours after that. I'm pretty sure this game isn't going to be that long, but I am expecting something developing over time like that.
But for now I'll just give them time to finish the game. Maybe pick it up next summer for my birthday.
It's no fun when he says it in the first line.
Feelin' the hype!
@rjejr I've heard it is the opposite. I have heard it is even longer than the original.
"It's time, but without Reyn"
And you don't know how thankful I am for that.
@Ralizah Seeing that it's already a meme, I hope they shoehorned something similar. Just for fun's sake.
@Snaplocket YEAH, UH, UH, UH, UH
@Ralizah You're always on about Reyn. It's about time you and a few others faced your obsession with Reyn. You bunch of jokers just need to get over it. The adults are talking here, pops.
Maybe I'm just not really feeling it. Let's not lose our heads......
@Snaplocket Which is sadly, even more fitting
@rjejr So, you're #teamfantasy? I think X's techno music suited X's sci-fi environment. I just could have done without the rap and bad repeat loop of the city music.
Technically they're two different series, more like SMT and Persona than they are like FF7 and FF8.
I think by most accounts the game is even bigger and meshes some of X's systems and exploration (unlike the fake on rails exploration of XC1) with XC1's more linear storytelling and event driven travel. XC1 was big, but so much of that time was just grinding and pointless MMO quests that the world wasn't as big as it is in our memories. X was genuinely huge. XC2, I think I recall them saying it was at least as large as X if not larger.
"The game does look rather choppy and fuzzy on the portable at times"
That's... worrisome. Portable mode is a big draw for me.
@NEStalgia I see what you did there.
But no, Reyn seems like what happens when you take Wakka from FFX and brainstorm about ways to make him more annoying. Horrid character.
Riki was also annoying, but in that mascot character sort of way, and after Tatsu in XCX, I've just sort of accepted that the series is going to have incredibly obnoxious mascot characters.
Other characters (Sharla, Dunban, Shulk, Fiora, etc.) were just sort of bland, but they didn't inspire any kind of hatred in me.
@datamonkey
You might want to subtract a few hundreds years for sitting in a castle with a quill.
"this feels like a console game that looks and feels at its best - by quite a distance - on a TV."
Mario Odyssey is the same,there is a huge difference. I'm not going to play any more of it on the handheld, not for the first play through anyway as it's just not the same. The game looks so much better on TV.,for me it's missing out on the experience playing it on the handheld.Not just the screen but the controls too. Split Joy-con,with straps attached and HD Rumble up to the max,it feels amazing, I love it.
I have a bad feeling about this game
@Ralizah Considering these guys managed to get XC1 running on the N3DS, I'm not too worried about their ability to get it running smooth in handheld mode. AFAIK the engine is the basis for BotW as well, so even if it releases with some areas that choke the performance in handheld, I'm confident that a future patch will resolve or reasonably resolve it like with BotW and the tall grass when docked. (I think it's partially the same engine team.) This preview build is probably a gold master at this point with a release in 2 weeks, but patch work is no doubt ongoing.
OMG Wakka.....how did i NOT see that correlation? You're exactly right, it's almost the same exact character but worse and more shallow! (Then again, the guy that created him probably IS the guy that created Wakka...maybe he really likes (or resembles) that type of character?) What has been seen.....
I can see why everyone hated Rikki....I didn't mind him as he's what I expect from a mascot cute character in a Japanese game....and he had his "just won the Internet" moments, so it's easy to let it slide. IMO the VA was the problem with Rikki more than the character. I haven't hear the Japanese VA for it (I'm not one of those 'I need my JP VA's!' gamers) but I imagine it's more well suited.
But yeah, the character design in Monolith games seems generally bland. I get the feeling they are very numbers oriented designers that are all about the crazy complex core internals of the battle system, with a secondary smaller team of dedicated background artists and scenic landscapers......and almost noone with any sense of story telling and character building. And a dialogue scripting cast that is inferior to what the bunch of us could write in this thread for them instead
@EternalDragonX Why's that? It looks polished, follows what looks like a hybrid formula of XC1 and X, both well received games, typical Monolith warts aside, and has been in development for years, a.k.a. not rushed, run by a veteran team.
My expectation is the usual logic for Monolith games will apply: If you loved the last two you'll love this one, if you hated the last two you'll probably hate this one.
@NEStalgia
Exactly.
This game will surely be a classic. The developer's and series' pedigree speaks for itself. When have we ever seen a bad Xenoblade game? Never.
In fact, this one could top them all, having learned lessons from the last two. I don't think it'll top the world of XCX, but who can say... the world here does look amazing.
I don't know if I should get this game soon after or on launch or wait, because if I start this game I will be playing it for months and there are so many other Switch games I would like to play right now. Probably will wait a little bit on this one so I can give games like Rocket League and SteamWorld Dig 2 a go!
I'm clearing my whole schedule from December 2017 to March 2018. Hopefully it should be enough. There will always be the season pass DLC afterwards, something I would have truly like to happen in "Xenoblade Chronicles X", those final cliffhangers are just too damn cliffhangery.
Wales represent!
"It's time, but without Reyn"
@NEStalgia Xenoblade 1 on N3DS didn't look great, but it was kind of the DOOM of that system: you were just stoked you could play this full-blown console JRPG on a piddly 240p handheld. Then again, I also thought it looked better on the tiny 3DS screen than the graphically superior Wii version did blown up on an HDTV. Unfortunately, unless you have an original Wii and an SDTV sitting around, there's no way to play Xenoblade 1 where it doesn't look terrible.
If it's just a SMO situation, where it looks better on the TV thanks to slightly boosted visual settings and a higher resolution but still looks good on the handheld, then I'll be fine. The word "blurry" worries me, but I suppose if anyone is likely to not design a game around the limitations on handheld mode, it probably won't be a Nintendo dev.
This game is going to be so wonderful. I am so felling it. This is a sequel to the original which was my favorite game for Wii and 3DS. So it is going to be better than the WiiU one which lacked a compelling story. I hope they fix the reading. I could not read some of the text because it was so small. X was amazing but I know this will be better. I enjoy this more than any Final Fantasy game. It has a place in my heart like the Tales and Dragon Quest series and it is only the 3rd act, or second if you don't count the Wiiu one.
Jumping into my first Xeno-experience. The Switch was initially the big hope for me to have huge RPGs. It is a bit worrisome that things get choppy in portable, seeing as a seeeping rpg is going to okayed 65% in portable mode.
Also hoping the story is above average. I played the latest final fantasy, and liked it for a lot of things, but both the story and the wandering band of Bros didn’t really grab me.
Already got this pre-order while at the same time coming close to finishing the first game on my New 3DS.
I'm typically a bigger fan of western RPGs, but this looks more appetizing than starting another playthrough of Skyrim. Will probably wait and see.
I am a little intimidated by Xenoblade's depth, and hearing about low-res assets seems pretty annoying after playing plenty of games on the system without that issue.
Oh wow, this game just looks better and better every time I see it! So excited!
@River3636 From the Treehouse feed in June, the text looked WAY bigger. That's the first thing I noticed X is not for the near-sighted and those not playing on PC monitors...and even then the text is sketchy .
@Ralizah Sadly I never saw a Wii look "good"....I got my Wii the year AFTER I got my HDTV.....a large RP HDTV (that I will continue to use until the color wheel motor burns out......4k...pfft...what's that?) and also played (and still do) primarily on 22+ " PC monitors. So "SD" will is something I never saw. Only burry-mess Wii on a 1080p screen. To me ALL Wii games are vaseline-smeared messes and always have been. Wii will always be a synonym of "blurry" in my head. Twilight Princess was unplayable...gave me headaches...never even finished it until TPHD. 3DS was sharp as a tack after that
@JaxonH Yep! I took it as encouraging that the developers correctly identified, in an interview, the largest weaknesses with each of the prior games: The first one wasn't really open, and the narrative took away from the gameplay at times, while the second one corrected too hard the other way, ignored much narrative, but introduced a great world and more nuanced gameplay. Since they actively took that knowledge into consideration for this game to blend them, I fully expect it to be the best Xenoblade yet (though I do love the sci-fi world of X still....)
Please none of the B.S. you pulled with the Farming Simulator review, where every aspect of the review was positive but you docked it down to 7/10 for being a niche title.
@NEStalgia I'm amazed how good the Super Mario Galaxy games still look on an HDTV. And I never played TP on the Wii, but what I played of it on the Wii U was still ugly and unenjoyable, so I can only imagine what it was like on the lesser system.
@NEStalgia I think Riki is great, he seemed obnoxious when he first joined the party but he rapidly grew on me.
Tatsu, on the other hand, is awful. He's little more than a vehicle for endlessly repeating the same joke that wasn't even funny the first time.
I remember continually falling asleep on the living room floor while farming for rare drops in Xenoblade Chronicles. I hope the sidequests are easier to manage/achieve this time around.
To the people who think X's music was bad.
"What a bunch of jokers!"
Bravo, I hold the original as one of adult me’s top 5 titles and couldn’t help but feel a bit bummed by the turn X took, both in style and function. This will go under the tree the 24th.
@EternalDragonX Monolith Soft have a great track record with these games, the gameplay videos look wonderful, and the preview above says it feels good... What's there to feel bad about?
@NEStalgia "I just could have done without the rap and bad repeat loop of the city music."
When you are playing a game and purposefully not going into your skell - one of the coolest apsects of the game - or your hub city simply b/c you just cant' stand listening to the music any more, that's bad. At times the music was so loud you couldn't hear what the people were saying. Which exacerbated the fact that you couldn't read what they were saying either in that teeny tiny font. When the font is too small on a 52" tv you are doing that wrong. I've been gaming on that tv for 8 or 9 years and X is the only game that has ever given me that much of a problem. It got to the point where I wasn't even trying to read it anymore, and my kids got sick of me sending them up to the tv to read it for me.
So i suppose the teeny tiny font was bad also, but I forgot about that, the music has haunted me, and not in a good way, to this day. The music in XCX was worse than the voice acting in Arc Rise Fantasia, and that is by far the worst voice acting I have ever heard in a video game. A bunch of drunk guys in a bar literally phoning it in on a pay phone would have been better.
"I think I recall them saying it was at least as large as X if not larger."
My concern is they meant that in a - "Windwaker is the biggest Zelda game" - kind of way, as most of theplanet is just empty space and the game takes place on the back of smaller giants than the Mechonis and Bionis in XC. And really the Mechonis was kind of useless. Would be great if I'm wrong, I thought the Bionis in XC was plenty big of a landmass.
It's certainly looking awesome. I didn't play the first one, but I thoroughly enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles X.
I think I will get the regular physical edition rather than the special edition. I think the special edition would cost me an extra $64.96. I think I'll use that for some DLC or some other game or beer.
All I know is I "get" Monolithsoft, and I've followed them doggedly since Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos Origins. This game is a no brainer and will be bought asap so I can spend the next 6 months trying to beat it (sorry, Adulting gets in the way of gaming sometimes, lol)
@rjejr To be fair the font is too small for me from TV distance even it were written in 3" block type That's why I game on a monitor mounted to mic boom next to the chair like some sort of dystopian starship pilot's seat. I can actually see it 6" in front of me.
Well, honestly "most of the planet being empty space" basically IS the definition of a Xenoblade game I mean that's the whole point, the Field was the most iconic part of XC1 and it was a big empty grass plain (technically it was a room with a skybox, but hey....) The rest of the game was like the corridors of FFXIII but prettied up so nobody noticed.
XCX did it right with a genuinely huge world you were free to travel. IMO my impression of the smaller giants is the same as the differen't "regions" of X, where it's different "world sections" that are each unique, but are all open from the greater whole.
Mechonis's problem is once you got there you just followed corridors as a gian't "enemy base installation".....after you crossed the arm (which was awesome) all you saw were interior corridors. It wasn't "used" like Bionis was. And you got to it so late in the game that you only cared about the story not the envioronments....you were waiting for the next plot twist (and at that time they were coming by the bucket load.)
@NEStalgia XC2's environments look way more varied than what I saw in the first game, Not the imaginative wonderlands of XCX, but a step up from XC1.
@rjejr Interesting how divided opinion on XCX's music is. Its OST is one of my all-time favorites, and I genuinely think it's the best aspect of the game. The in-game text was DEFINITELY too small, though: I had difficulty reading it on a large-ish HDTV from my couch. That's... not good.
@Ralizah I didn't know the OST was divisive, I thought we were all in agreement on hating it.
My family watched the XC2 ND together and one of the first things we noticed was they seemed to have focused on making the font larger.
Really my only problem w/ XC2, well besides the newly announced $30 season pass, is that my expectations for it are so high there's no chance they can be met. Need to keep myself in check.
@NEStalgia "Mechonis's problem"
You summed that up nicely.
@rjejr A lot of people, including myself, really like it. Not that the audio balancing isn't occasionally off, although I haven't had as much of an issue with it as you apparently have.
Unpopular opinion: I thought the original Xenoblade had pretty bland music overall, although, of course, the title screen music and You Will Know Our Names are pretty good.
@Ralizah TBH I expect we'll see more variation with the different biospheres in the game more like with X. I think they're only showing us the "main" areas for now to keep it on theme as the XC sequel and not spoil too much but critics may (or may not) get deeper into it after launch.
@rjerj @ralizah I think with the soundtrack you have to be at least a bit of a jpop/kpop fan to "get" it (arguably it's more kpop than jpop which......is weird.......) and not "anime music" but actual pop I am a fan and I actually liked some of the hooks. But the problem is in a game where it's on infinite loop for hundreds of hours and you're not a rap/hiphop fan to begin with, it's like hearing Mel Blanc doing the 12 Days of Christmas every hour on the hour on a shopping mall loudspeaker every day by the time you get to December 24th.
@OorWullie That's entirely subjective, tho.
There are many that will enjoy XC2 and Odyssey perfectly fine in portable mode. And they shouldn't be shamed into not enjoying it that way.
But the beauty of the Switch is that it gives gamers the OPTION of playing it docked or undocked.
Both ways is the best way to play it as long as you enjoy it.
@Ralizah I'm not that big of a fan of videogame music in general, I like when a piece here or there will have an emotional response, but overall I just want it to be background music. Guar Plains was good enough to stand out in XC and the rest just fit. The only piece of music that has ever had a real impact on me is One Winged Angel. I do like the Sonic Adventure theme song for a Sonic game, but I don't want that anywhere near my JRPGs. Oh, and I have yet to play Skyrim, but I have considered it just to immerse myself in the music.
But whenever I hoped in my skell I would just cringe. If I were drunk in a bar in Tokyo it would probably be fine, but I just like my JRPG background music to be JRPG background music. In the background where it belongs.
@MegaVel91 I think the big issue with the XCX music was NLA Night, which a lot of people hated. People who don't like rapped lyrics were also turned off to the basic battle theme.
XCX also had a more generally uneven soundtrack than XC, which is not surprising since XC had the best soundtrack in video game history.
@NEStalgia I don't agree about variation in XCX--one of my big complaints about the game was that the continents were very different from each other but there wasn't much variation within each continent. There are some areas that are conspicuously different from the rest of the continent they're in, like the Delusian Mountains and the White Phosphor Lake, but they're pretty small and there aren't many of them.
Compare XC, which was divided into had a much larger number of smaller areas, no two alike.
@rjejr That's understandable. Sawano's music most definitely calls attention to itself. I love video game music like that, really, as its effect can be quite profound on the player and becomes an integral aspect of the experience. I could never play something like Persona 5 or XCX on mute due to how central the music is to my emotional experience of the game.
The prominence of music to an experience seems to be a cultural thing in video games. I can barely recall any of the tracks I've heard in most Western video games, but a lot of Japanese games place a HUGE emphasis on music as a central part of the experience.
Thanks for addressing the issue that I've been wondering the most about - handheld mode UI. So many developers get this wrong (including MonolithSoft in XCX), so it's very promising to hear that the issue has been resolved in XC2.
@datamonkey Haha! I was wondering if I'd ever see anybody mention this. I look for that in every article and I always imagine the same.
@Dezzy Yeah true didn't really think that bit through enough!
@SpacemanSpiff Hehe, glad I'm not the only one!
@GC-161 For sure, that's why I tried to be careful with my wording to make it clear it was just from my own point of view. Mario in 2D or 3D is my favourite series of games, these games stay with me and I can tell already from the first few worlds I've played this is going to be an all time favourite,that's why I want to experience it the best way possible. It's not really subjective, me saying that the graphics are better on TV by quite some margin,it's pretty obvious. Thomas even said as much in his review, as well as adding that it's a game best experienced on the TV. Playing with split Joy-con is obviously how the developers intended it to be played as well, seeing as Mario has more moves this way and all the in-game instructions only show split Joy-con controls, even when in handheld mode. At the end of the day though, the option is there to play it how you want and for sure, I'll be revisiting it's world's in handheld mode when I play through it again in future.
@Ralizah I think Japan in general has a huge emphasis on music and tonality at large as an integral aspect to everything. Similarly their traffic signals and trains play melodic tones. We get someone with a poor grasp on remedial English barking unintelligibly into a microphone.
In games it's just further side effect of aping Hollywood films for games, just like the vfx. Background orhestral score that only subconsciously affects the viewer is how Hollywood does it most of the time so that's how games do it. Of course, anything scored by Jeremy Soule puts the orchestra at the forefront. But he doesn't compose Hollywood background style. He composes as though it's for the concert hall, much like Howard Shore, which is why both Bethesda game soundtracks and LotR have such captivating soundtracks despite being "generic orchestra."
@riki_sidekicks I think the weaker graphics and limitations at the time made all the environs of XC blend together. Plus I played on N3DS (never could get that Wii copy, darn you GameStop!) so the low res textures made everything blend into one smear as long as it shared a color palate. You're right it had a lot of small areas but so many felt like you were passing through "this texture zone" rather than entering a really large special area. XC1 despite how loved it is, was a product of its time and its limited hardware. And was as a result much more limited than I think the recent-nostalgia makes people for it. I expect XC2 will expose those weaknesses in XC1 much more glaringly once we have our hands on it.
I really want a demo of this game to be able to make up my mind about it.
So far I love the environments but really dislike the combat.
Only a few videos on YouTube can’t give me what I need to decide. Right now is a “no buy” from me. I hope a demo that changes my mind is released.
@MegaVel91 Agreed; XCX's music is well done. It just gets a bad rap for a few reasons. First, the night theme for NLA is awful, and is heard disproportionately because of how much time you spend in the city compared to any other region.
And second, despite the incredibly nuanced and persuasive argument that @Snaplocket put forth, the OST for the first Xenoblade game is one of the greats of the genre, and the follow-up suffers in comparison, when it should be judged on its own.
@JimmySpades
Black Tar is a damn good song man. The flying song for the Skells. Both are my favorite tracks in the game.
I'm still playing through the original. Think I'll have to admit defeat and watch some YouTube to get me past the bit I'm stuck on.
I'm keen on visiting different cities instead of having the one hub city in XCX.
After watching the Direct presentation I'm tempted to ditch XCX for now and get XC2 instead, but will wait and see what reviews say.
@rjejr Hmm. I rather liked the music of X, at least outside New LA. It had a really alien feel, which I thought really fit the game.
@MegaVel91 It's been a while since I've played, but off the top of my head Uncontrollable is my favorite track.
the artsyle is what's realllly putting me off for this game.
@rjejr the one good soundtrack in X was in the jungle area.
@NEStalgia I think the Xeno games are also a product of their budget. They just have a mid-range budget, not a Final Fantasy budget. I hope this one builds a bigger fan base in Japan.
I'm currently playing through the original Xenoblade Chronicles, and I am truly impressed with the sidequest. There are plenty of grinding ones, about 5 per area, but those are really helpful to have focused grinding if you want to level. From my point of view this is way better than simply going and grinding with no direction. It's always fun to be sent to fight some unique monster instead of killing whatever is nearby with no purpose.
But, it gets even better outside of those "grind" quests. My first play through I beat the game pretty much as soon as I got to the final boss, having done plenty of other side quest on the way. These side quest really built on the relationships of the playable characters and NPCs. This time around I have done many of the side quest that only open up right before the final boss. And it is amazing how much the land opens up after the final big major plot twist. There is a whole world of story I did not realize existed the first time around, and new historical sites that open up only right at what I thought was the end of the game. Truly amazing!
All of that being said, I was quite let down with Xenoblade Chronicles X. I think I read here, maybe somewhere else, that 3/4 the way through the decided to mostly scrap the story to make it so you could be the "avatar" or main character. The exploring was amazing in XCX, but with practically no story there wasn't much point to exploring like there was in XC. I wish they would have merged the two and given an amazing sci-fi story that compelled you to travel to and explore the different areas of XCX. XC would be much better with a mech, or a buggy which would be more fitting. Unfortunately XCX added the mech which is amazing, but took away the story, and did a horrible job with sorting gems, armor etc that all worked perfectly well in XC. I don't think there was even an option to sort gems in XCX, and you couldn't sort your weapons by what weapons were actually equip-able. It was pretty horrible implementation especially after it was done so well in the first Xenoblade Chronicles game.
@roboshort and yet XCX was enormously better than FFXV. I liked FFXV but there's really no comparison unless you have an idiosyncratic attachment to bros riding around in a convertible.
I am so so so hyped for this game and this preview made me more so. The first game on Wii is possibly my favorite RPG, at least among the top 3. Hearing that this game returns to that narrative style, regional accents included, pleases me greatly. I liked X and would like an X-2 someday, but a definitely liked the first game more.
Preordered the special edition of this game, and the pro-controller, also plan on getting the expansion pass right away.
@rjejr It's true both games are very different with their music. But I bought both the sound tracks and like them both a lot.
@riki_sidekicks Yeah, so I wonder what Monolithsoft could do with the similar-sized budget.
I’ll put it on my Christmas list!
Will there be more telethia? I hope they try to top one of the greatest set pieces in gaming. The one in Xenoblade Chronicles X where telethia the endbringer saves your team from those wolf things and just creams them. Great stuff!
@Ralizah "Japanese games place a HUGE emphasis on music"
And voice acting. So much emotion. West does tend to play it safe on both w/ emphasis usually placed on the graphics.
@Heavyarms55 My kid listens to Gaur Plain a lot, and we have the cool little thumbdrive from XCX collectors edition but we only listened to it once and put it away. Maybe I'll plug it in later, I might like it better while I'm not playing the game.
@Camilla @roboshort I think some of the music might have been good, but all I remember is not liking the city music, and I was in the city a lot, and the skell music was so loud and bad I dreaded getting into my skell so I fast traveled a lot instead.
@roboshort I mean, it has an anime-esque visual style and is being released on a portable system. If Japan doesn't take to this one, then the series probably just isn't going to catch on over there.
There is one thing I am worried regarding this game. Fetch quests. The first game and the X were full of stupid boring uninspiring fetch quests, which felt really weird since as if every single person in the game world needed some kind of help. Absolutely ridiculous....if XCH2 has them, it will be a big letdown for me....
Never played this series before. It's look pretty good. As a former addict to Dreamcast Phantasy Star Online - is this something in any way slightly similar!?
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