Support NeoGAF

[Brakke]

Awwww shit this game just turned from p cool to v cool. Took a break from that spider boss, went and fused crystals, bought gear (which I'd never done...), came back and whupped her ass. Now on to the Leg! Hope I get a new party member soon.

And now collectables get flagged as future quest items! It's nice when a game fixes something you specifically grumble about.

 

[Kadin]

A lot of people have said you can play this game with doing literally none of the side-quests. Is that realistic? I mean, wouldn't you be incredibly under-leveled?

I might give this game another shot (never finished the Wii version), and I plan on picking up all the quests I come across, I just don't want to focus on them. Just finish them as I go about working on the main quest line.

 

[Xbro]

A lot of people have said you can play this game with doing literally none of the side-quests. Is that realistic? I mean, wouldn't you be incredibly under-leveled?

I might give this game another shot (never finished the Wii version), and I plan on picking up all the quests I come across, I just don't want to focus on them. Just finish them as I go about working on the main quest line.

I did it on my first time around. tbh I didn't even know how quests worked until very late game on my first time around.

There are more ways than quests to get exp. Biggest is exploration. Specifically secret areas

 

[Brakke]

A lot of people have said you can play this game with doing literally none of the side-quests. Is that realistic? I mean, wouldn't you be incredibly under-leveled?

I might give this game another shot (never finished the Wii version), and I plan on picking up all the quests I come across, I just don't want to focus on them. Just finish them as I go about working on the main quest line.

There's no reason not to pick up everything. Usually the quests for Kill 4 X Monsters are given right before you encounter X monsters.

 

[ramyeon]

There's no reason not to pick up everything. Usually the quests for Kill 4 X Monsters are given right before you encounter X monsters.

Generally those quests don't give you EXP for completion anyway though.

I personally feel like I would be under levelled if I didn't do ANY quests. But I think you definitely need to strike a balance between completing everything and nothing, especially on your first playthrough. There are some quests that are rewarding both in gold, EXP and by expanding on the story/relationships/lore of the world. I just complete quests that interest me and then move on. The bulk of quests are not timed anyway.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

My copy arrived today so now I can play on my n3DS I just got for this game.

Anyone know what time it is?

Just checked.

 

[Coffee Dog]

Bought it. I played a friend's copy of the game a while ago, but not for more than like 5 hours or so before I returned it. Can't wait to dive in.

 

[names2hard4you]

I love how even though the game is massive, even if I only play for an hour or so I actually feel like I have made some kind of progress, be it in the story, exploring the map, or even just leveling up a character. I'm at 9hours and just recently met

Spoiler

Sharla

. I'm taking my sweet good time with this game, and I'm loving it. Warranted an avy swap

 

[RobbieNick]

I'm about 2 and a half hours in and I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but while the game looks fine in regular gameplay, close up cutscenes look like crap to me. Almost 1st gen PS2 era. How is it that the old 3DS couldn't handle this game?

Anyway, this one's pretty good, but I'm looking much more forward to the sequel.

 

[ramyeon]

I'm about 2 and a half hours in and I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but while the game looks fine in regular gameplay, close up cutscenes look like crap to me. Almost 1st gen PS2 era. How is it that the old 3DS couldn't handle this game?

Anyway, this one's pretty good, but I'm looking much more forward to the sequel.

Because it's a huge, open world game with very minimal load times and an incredibly stable frame rate? The fact that it runs on this handheld and runs as well as it does is amazing.

I think it looks passable. The art design is where the game always shined. It certainly isn't the best looking game on the 3DS but it doesn't look like "crap" or "shit" like a lot of people here are saying either.

 

[TheGreatLugia]

I'm about 2 and a half hours in and I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but while the game looks fine in regular gameplay, close up cutscenes look like crap to me. Almost 1st gen PS2 era. How is it that the old 3DS couldn't handle this game?

Anyway, this one's pretty good, but I'm looking much more forward to the sequel.

Because it couldn't handle a large number of maps with this level of scale.

 

[Coffee Dog]

It doesn't look a whole lot worse than the wii version, which was already ugly as hell. The art saves it in both cases.

 

[RobbieNick]

Because it couldn't handle a large number of maps with this level of scale.

I see. Nice pic. It does look best when the camera is pulled out. It's mainly the close ups that turn me off a bit.

 

[ramyeon]

Because it couldn't handle a large number of maps with this level of scale.

And that's one of the smaller areas.

It doesn't look a whole lot worse than the wii version, which was already ugly as hell. The art saves it in both cases.

I don't think the Wii version was "ugly as hell". It looked passable as well, people tend to go to extremes when talking about graphics. It's either amazing or it's a pile of crap apparently.

I think a lot of people are misremembering how the Wii version looked however, especially on HDTVs. I hear a lot complaining about lack of saturation in colours here but I remember the Wii version's colours looking pretty much identical.

 

[names2hard4you]

The fact that the game runs at all, with loading times being next to null should be what everyone talks about. Heck, having come from Bloodborne, I was expecting something like that whenever I warped somewhere else. The fact that there's no loading for that, or when you fast forward to another time of the day is super impressive. Also I personally never played a game with a sense of scale as big as this, and to see it done on a handheld, which arguably is the weakest system specs wise this gen, is quite a feat. These devs did some black magic on the code, I tell you.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

The Wii version definitely looked ugly as hell upon character close ups.

In grand vistas, however, it looked damn decent.

 

[braves01]

The fact that the game runs at all, with loading times being next to null should be what everyone talks about. Heck, having come from Bloodborne, I was expecting something like that whenever I warped somewhere else. The fact that there's no loading for that, or when you fast forward to another time of the day is super impressive. Also I personally never played a game with a sense of scale as big as this, and to see it done on a handheld, which arguably is the weakest system specs wise this gen, is quite a feat. These devs did some black magic on the code, I tell you.

It doesn't seem like the number of enemies has been scaled back either, based on what I remember from Wii. Can anyone confirm that?

 

[TheGreatLugia]

It doesn't seem like the number of enemies has been scaled either, based on what I remember from Wii. Can anyone confirm that?

I'm right outside Colony 6 at the moment and the enemy placement seems 1:1 compared to the Wii version. I haven't noticed any changes in enemy locations or numbers.

 

[Overside]

I'm about 2 and a half hours in and I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but while the game looks fine in regular gameplay, close up cutscenes look like crap to me. Almost 1st gen PS2 era. How is it that the old 3DS couldn't handle this game?

Anyway, this one's pretty good, but I'm looking much more forward to the sequel.

Hey, its 2010 again and I get to listen to the same xenoblade to ps2 comparisons because people still dont comprehend the difference in resource overhead between square miles and two dudes and a wall.

The games a WII PORT, aside from compressing 5Gb of assets like textures to fit on a 4Gb cart, thats the way the game ALWAYS LOOKED. Those blurry fish faced close ups are in the 3ds game because they were the exact same assets exported from the wii game. Aside from being incredibly hard and tedious to port because of wierd wii specific shit like the tev shenanigans and the gpu being integer based instead of floating point, there is nothing GRAPHICALLY that the old 3ds couldnt handle, being it had 128Mb of ram to the wii's combined 88Mb, 6Mb of vram to the wiis 3Mb, a more modern and effecient vertex/pixel pipeline and more modern shader functions than the ancient hollywood, AND it was even clocked higher.

Its almost like Xenoblade was a cpu taxing game that had large open areas with lots of stuff in them, containing lots of scripts, events, state changes, and butt tons of draw calls, and the old 3ds was a horribly cpu bpttlenecked design or something. I wonder if the game not coming to original 3ds has anything to do with the new system now having 3 available cpu cores and vfp coprocessers for the game on new 3ds, as opposed to just 1 available to the game on old 3ds.

 

[Brakke]

Lol chill buddy. I can understand *why* a game looks like ass and also be kind of bummed it looks like ass.

The biggest thing on the tech end of this game is the no-loads-ever (so far anyway?). It's so fucking nice to be able to warp all over the place without worrying about wasting time loading again and again.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

I'm about 2 and a half hours in and I hate to sound like a graphics whore, but while the game looks fine in regular gameplay, close up cutscenes look like crap to me. Almost 1st gen PS2 era. How is it that the old 3DS couldn't handle this game?

When a game engine is built around maximizing draw distance on a system that isn't that much better than PS2 hardware, it's going to look like an early PS2 game up close (if we're lucky).

The original game was late-gen and pushed the Wii to its limit, and people still complained all the time about how it looked up close. But that's missing the point. From the story, to the gameplay, to the graphics; Xenoblade is about its setting in the game's unique world.

 

[El Odio]

I'm taking my sweet time with about 8hrs in and only just reaching Colony 6. I've been taking out all the UM I can and managed to take out the Cellular Bugworm on the second trip to Tephra Cave.

 

[DVCY201]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

 

[Dice//]

The Wii version definitely looked ugly as hell upon character close ups.

In grand vistas, however, it looked damn decent.

It looked ugly but the characters still were will manipulated to do some serious work in cutscenes (between their bodies getting tossed around to even pulling some great emotions that a number of games can't say they do as well). THey're muddy looking... but it does also make me sad we HAVE to complain about the characters graphics when it's clear they did the best they could and, honestly, the real bread and butter is and always has been the environments.

 

[ramyeon]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

Not once and around 50 hours in. And yeah, I'd say you should probably watch those cutscenes.

 

[Overside]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

Not once, and that totally sucks, im so sorry.


I have still gotten the music glitch despite updating once or twice though, although those are easy fixes.

 

[DVCY201]

Not once and around 50 hours in. And yeah, I'd say you should probably watch those cutscenes.

Not once, and that totally sucks, im so sorry.


I have still gotten the music glitch despite updating once or twice though, although those are easy fixes.

Hmm, I hope I didn't get a defective cartridge then. I might have to see if I can exchange it if it happens again.

It's really jarring, I never expected this to happen with a Nintendo game.

 

[names2hard4you]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

First time playing also, and I have found 0 issues so far. I'm afraid it really might be a defective cartridge, or even (hopefully not) the system itself. Keep us updated, maybe it was nothing.

 

[ivysaur12]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

Yeah, I had the same issue. Still can't find the stability patch anywhere on the eShop for NA :-\

 

[ArgyleGamer]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

I literally just watched that cutscene 2 hours ago and it played through fine for me...

 

[names2hard4you]

Yeah, I had the same issue. Still can't find the stability patch anywhere on the eShop for NA :-

Scroll to the left on the eshop until u find a section that says Settings. Go in and scroll down until you find Updates. It's in there.

 

[Xbro]

So this is my 1st time through Xenoblade and I absolutely love it, but I gotta ask: is anyone else getting frozen cutscenes? It started freezing just before

Spoiler

Metal Face

and it's persisted through. I can skip them, but it still is unfortunate because I'll have to YouTube those cutscenes later.

Sorry if this has already been answered. It's the NA version 1.1 I believe.

I'm pretty sure I missed a key story element because of it.

That really sucks. The cutscenes in this game are fantastic, and you really shouldn't miss them.

 

[DVCY201]

So, I rebooted the game and the 14 Years Later cutscene is playing perfectly fine.

But I'm reading about this sound glitch online, and interestingly enough, just before the freezing occurred, the music and voices had stopped for me in the middle of an earlier fight as well. I'm thinking that the two might be related somehow. Hoping it doesn't happen again.

If anyone's playing right now and that happens, you might want to save before progressing.

 

[Xbro]

So, I rebooted the game and the 14 Years Later cutscene is playing perfectly fine.

But I'm reading about this sound glitch online, and interestingly enough, just before the freezing occurred, the music and voices had stopped for me in the middle of an earlier fight as well. I'm thinking that the two might be related somehow. Hoping it doesn't happen again.

If anyone's playing right now and that happens, you might want to save before progressing.

Just make sure you save before you reach a marked location on the map. This should help you before any major cutscenes.

 

[Overside]

So, I rebooted the game and the 14 Years Later cutscene is playing perfectly fine.

But I'm reading about this sound glitch online, and interestingly enough, just before the freezing occurred, the music and voices had stopped for me in the middle of an earlier fight as well. I'm thinking that the two might be related somehow. Hoping it doesn't happen again.

If anyone's playing right now and that happens, you might want to save before progressing.

Probably are related, likely something having to do with breaking up all those things from running on 1 processor/thread on wii to running on 3 now.

 

[ramyeon]

Anyone know some good areas to gain levels in post

Spoiler

Mechonis Core

? Most of the endgame quests are to fight extremely high level monsters and I'm only level 69 at the moment.

 

[Xbro]

Anyone know some good areas to gain levels in post

Spoiler

Mechonis Core

? Most of the endgame quests are to fight extremely high level monsters and I'm only level 69 at the moment.

Good luck lol. I believe there are some low-mid 70s in Colony 9.

 

[ramyeon]

Good luck lol. I believe there are some low-mid 70s in Colony 9.

It's weird, because early on over levelling is so easy but towards the endgame it just seems like a struggle to gain levels :/

 

[Man God]

I usually start the "post game" content by going back to the stuff around the bridge outside of colony 9. Some of that is doable at lower levels and gives good end game equipment.

 

[DeSolos]

It's weird, because early on over levelling is so easy but towards the endgame it just seems like a struggle to gain levels :/

Just work your way through each area fighting monsters that were over leveled when you first visited the area. There are a handful of enemies on Bionis Leg that you can probably take on. Remember to use the lure command to fight enemies one at a time as necessary. You should also have a few EXP up gems so those should come in handy.

 

[ClayKavalier]

The fact that the game runs at all, with loading times being next to null should be what everyone talks about. Heck, having come from Bloodborne, I was expecting something like that whenever I warped somewhere else. The fact that there's no loading for that, or when you fast forward to another time of the day is super impressive. Also I personally never played a game with a sense of scale as big as this, and to see it done on a handheld, which arguably is the weakest system specs wise this gen, is quite a feat. These devs did some black magic on the code, I tell you.

Yeah, I mentioned that in an early post, the distance you can cover with no load times is really impressive.

 

[dragonfart28]

Other than the fact that they say monado literally A BILLION TIMES, I am really digging this game.

 

[WarAdept]

I like the fact you're not forced to use Shulk all the time in the party, but at the same time it's his story. And he's one (if not the best? I didn't crunch numbers) good DPS. And he has the Monado.

Basically, without Shulk it's ''hard'' mode, I think. Excepted certain boss?

I rarely run Shulk. Rarely did in the Wii version, rarely do now on the 3DS. Only learning 8 arts (which is basically the hotbar) that isn't Monado locked means he's doing exactly the same thing for the entire game. And really, the only Monado art worth a damn is Armour and Cyclone for Topple Locking.

As for DPS, he's middle ground. Better than Reyn/Sharla. The rest are stronger.

 

[foxuzamaki]

I rarely run Shulk. Rarely did in the Wii version, rarely do now on the 3DS. Only learning 8 arts (which is basically the hotbar) that isn't Monado locked means he's doing exactly the same thing for the entire game. And really, the only Monado art worth a damn is Armour and Cyclone for Topple Locking.

As for DPS, he's middle ground. Better than Reyn/Sharla. The rest are stronger.

Shulk might do the same thing the entire game, but his moves are incredibly diverse and are basically meant for you to learn and master the mechanics of the combat.
I myself once I got certain party members used shulk alot less(but it was also rare that he wasent in my party in general) but I never got tired of him other than wanting to switch up my party for variety's sake.

 

[Heng]

Anyone know some good areas to gain levels in post

Spoiler

Mechonis Core

? Most of the endgame quests are to fight extremely high level monsters and I'm only level 69 at the moment.

If you don't mind cheesing the game,

Spoiler

you could go to the bridge on your way to Colony 6. There are some apes around 72, and one strategy would require a character with a knock back and push them into the lake. You'll get the experience but you might not get loot.

Spoiler tagged all that incase some want to do it the legit way.

 

[random25]

Anyone know some good areas to gain levels in post

Spoiler

Mechonis Core

? Most of the endgame quests are to fight extremely high level monsters and I'm only level 69 at the moment.

So I'm assuming

Spoiler

Bionis has started moving again.

If you want to gain levels by fighting, try this place: Windy Cave (Bionis' Leg). There are tons of level 70+ monsters there to get exp boost, and the enemies there drop great equipment too. Just be careful not to get ganged up by spiders.

 

[ramyeon]

If you don't mind cheesing the game,

Spoiler

you could go to the bridge on your way to Colony 6. There are some apes around 72, and one strategy would require a character with a knock back and push them into the lake. You'll get the experience but you might not get loot.

Spoiler tagged all that incase some want to do it the legit way.

Is that Raguel Bridge? Couldn't find anything there, unless they're not on the bridge itself. Couldn't see anything in the immediate vicinity besides low level Mechon either.

Fought some level 74 Flamii in Colony 9 and damn they give so little EXP.

So I'm assuming

Spoiler

Bionis has started moving again.

If you want to gain levels by fighting, try this place: Windy Cave (Bionis' Leg). There are tons of level 70+ monsters there to get exp boost, and the enemies there drop great equipment too. Just be careful not to get ganged up by spiders.

Ah yes, the Windy Cave. Should have thought to revisit there.

 

[Solid SOAP]

Other than the fact that they say monado literally A BILLION TIMES, I am really digging this game.

Yeah... I'm glad I'm not the only person who realized this. It's like the writers were so obsessed with it.

 

[ramyeon]

Yeah... I'm glad I'm not the only person who realized this. It's like the writers were so obsessed with it.

Well it is one of the key parts of the story.

The game was originally going to be called Monado, not Xenoblade.

 

[Heng]

Is that Raguel Bridge? Couldn't find anything there, unless they're not on the bridge itself. Couldn't see anything in the immediate vicinity besides low level Mechon either.

Fought some level 74 Flamii in Colony 9 and damn they give so little EXP.

Ah yes, the Windy Cave. Should have thought to revisit there.

It's on the left side of the north end of the bridge. It's not actually on the bridge itself.