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[LiK]

The only console I own this gen is a Wii so you know I'm not a graphics whore (I do have a nice PC but I know what to expect from Wii games, I mean) but man... this game looks fuckin' awful. Just jaggy and generic and so blurry I pretty much can't read the on-screen text on my 4:3 SDTV.

DOLPHIN PUNCH!

 

[BocoDragon]

The only console I own this gen is a Wii so you know I'm not a graphics whore (I do have a nice PC but I know what to expect from Wii games, I mean) but man... this game looks fuckin' awful. Just jaggy and generic and so blurry I pretty much can't read the on-screen text on my 4:3 SDTV.

Not my experience at all.. and I'm on a 4:3 SDTV.

Does your TV have a "16:9 mode"? If so, turn that mode on, and switch your Wii system settings to 16:9. It will look sharper.

 

[shadyspace]

DOLPHIN PUNCH!

Already tried. My computer can run DX:HR with everything set to max. I can't even run Xenoblade at native resolution with all enhancements off.

Not my experience at all.. and I'm on a 4:3 SDTV.

Does your TV have a "16:9 mode"? If so, turn that mode on, and switch your Wii system settings to 16:9. It will look sharper.

It does not. And, what the hell? This is a Wii game. Why should I need a 16:9 HDTV just to be able to read the on-screen text? My cousin had the same problem btw.

 

[Feep]

Copy arrived, direct from Frankfurt. I love you, Christy.

I don't know where my Zaavi order is, and I no longer give a fuck.

*boots Xenoblade*

 

[MYE]

The only console I own this gen is a Wii so you know I'm not a graphics whore (I do have a nice PC but I know what to expect from Wii games, I mean) but man... this game looks fuckin' awful. Just jaggy and generic and so blurry I pretty much can't read the on-screen text on my 4:3 SDTV.

For all I know (and I'm sure you dudes are on to something with all the praise and whatnot), the combat's great as is the story but the graphics making this game unplayable for me has basically killed my hype.

It shouldnt look worse than the videos on Youtube. And those look pretty awesome IMO.

Maybe its one of those games that dont work too well in 4:3?

 

[shadyspace]

It shouldnt look worse than the videos on Youtube. And those look pretty awesome IMO.

Maybe its one of those games that dont work too well in 4:3?

It looks way worse than the videos on Youtube. It letterboxes and it looks like the entire image is pushed so far away I need a pair of binoculars to actually make anything out.

 

[LiK]

Is it fairly optimized on the Dolphin yet? How does it perform on NTSC Wii console?

People have been reporting that it's running well in the Dolphin thread. They just need an audio plugin and tweak some settings. A few crashes or graphical glitches but relatively ok.

 

[Oxx]

After dying quite a lot in the early part of the game I ended up just running away from a lot of enemies. I have probably fled from more battles in 5 hours of this game than in all the other RPGs I have played combined.

 

[Gvaz]

Play it on dolphin and your game could look like this!

sexy

 

[Dead Prince]

After dying quite a lot in the early part of the game I ended up just running away from a lot of enemies. I have probably fled from more battles in 5 hours of this game than in all the other RPGs I have played combined.

you must be in the wrong area or just solo'ing. go find some more party members lol.

 

[Alrus]

It looks way worse than the videos on Youtube. It letterboxes and it looks like the entire image is pushed so far away I need a pair of binoculars to actually make anything out.

Well apparently the game doesn't support 4:3 for some reason. It's indeed unplayable in that mode because you can't read anything.

 

[Zafir]

Ergh, hate how the leader dying takes you back to the landmark if you havent got a bar in the party guage. Sometimes the landmark can be ages away.

 

[BocoDragon]

It does not. And, what the hell? This is a Wii game. Why should I need a 16:9 HDTV just to be able to read the on-screen text? My cousin had the same problem btw.

You don't need HD.. but the game was designed around widescreen and even on 4:3 forces a letterboxed widescreen. It may be doing some scaling on the image or something, I dunno.

Since the game forces letterboxed widescreen, if you have a 16:9 mode on your TV (my little 22inch CRT does), use that to make the letterbox bars, and devote the Wii resolution to the actual game window. It won't have to do any janky scaling.

It looks sharp on my display when I do this. And this game simply isn't ugly if you press on further. There are some beautiful environments in here..

 

[reektann]

After dying quite a lot in the early part of the game I ended up just running away from a lot of enemies. I have probably fled from more battles in 5 hours of this game than in all the other RPGs I have played combined.

This - I had a look online after dying a lot a couple hours in and a lot of people seem to just run past if they aggro an elite style boss by accident. Curious.

 

[shadyspace]

Well apparently the game doesn't support 4:3 for some reason. It's indeed unplayable in that mode because you can't read anything.

Well, I can't play this game then. I have one 16:9 HDTV in my house and it's in the living room where it's constantly in use by my parents. Fucking great. A Wii game you can't play on a SDTV. Awesome.

You don't need HD.. but the game was designed around widescreen and even on 4:3 forces a letterboxed widescreen. It may be doing some scaling on the image or something, I dunno.

Since the game forces letterboxed widescreen, if you have a 16:9 mode on your TV (my little 22inch CRT does), use that to make the letterbox bars, and devote the Wii resolution to the actual game window. It won't have to do any janky scaling.

It looks sharp on my display when I do this. And this game simply isn't ugly if you press on further. There are some beautiful environments in here..

I don't know where you live but I have never seen a 16:9 in my entire life. It goes hand in hand with HDTVs from every TV I've ever seen.

 

[Aeana]

Well, I can't play this game then. I have one 16:9 HDTV in my house and it's in the living room where it's constantly in use by my parents. Fucking great. A Wii game you can't play on a SDTV. Awesome.



I don't know where you live but I have never seen a 16:9 in my entire life.

Well, it's unfortunate that you can't play it, but there are tons of Wii games that behave exactly the same way as Xenoblade, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the RE Chronicles games. They are letterboxed on 4:3 screens as well. Did you not have a problem with these?

My only suggestion to you would be to try to sit closer to the television.

 

[BocoDragon]

Well, I can't play this game then. I have one 16:9 HDTV in my house and it's in the living room where it's constantly in use by my parents. Fucking great. A Wii game you can't play on a SDTV. Awesome.

Do you have a 16:9 mode? If it's an older CRT it won't be there, but if you have a flatscreen CRT made in the 2000s, it just might be in there, but you haven't ever looked for it before. It might also be buried in the TV menu as "wide" mode or something.

I don't know where you live but I have never seen a 16:9 in my entire life. It goes hand in hand with HDTVs from every TV I've ever seen.

You misunderstand. Most recent (since 2000s) 4:3 SDTVs have a "16:9 mode"... so it will accept a widescreen signal and put the bars on the top and bottom to preserve the right shape for a 4:3 TV.

If you have this, use it, and it will fix the text. My SDTV is tiny and I can read text just fine, due to this.

 

[Feep]

Well, I can't play this game then. I have one 16:9 HDTV in my house and it's in the living room where it's constantly in use by my parents. Fucking great. A Wii game you can't play on a SDTV. Awesome.



I don't know where you live but I have never seen a 16:9 in my entire life. It goes hand in hand with HDTVs from every TV I've ever seen.

You misunderstand. The SDTV's themselves aren't 16:9, but they have a 16:9 MODE, where the television itself takes the 16:9 picture and letterboxes it.

If this mode isn't enabled, the Wii takes it upon itself to do the letterboxing, and for some reason, the Wii is absolutely horrible at stretching the image this way.

Check your television settings. If it's not horribly old, it should be there.

Most computer monitors these days also have some method of receiving in picture from an alternate, non-computer source. Mine does, and I'm using it as my "TV".

Edit: Not only beaten, but beaten with the exact phrase "You misunderstand"

 

[shadyspace]

Well, it's unfortunate that you can't play it, but there are tons of Wii games that behave exactly the same way as Xenoblade, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the RE Chronicles games. They are letterboxed on 4:3 screens as well. Did you not have a problem with these?

My only suggestion to you would be to try to sit closer to the television.

That's how I've played all of what I have of this game so far. Which literally hurts my eyes after no more than ten minutes. No thanks.

You misunderstand. The SDTV's themselves aren't 16:9, but they have a 16:9 MODE, where the television itself takes the 16:9 picture and letterboxes it.

If this mode isn't enabled, the Wii takes it upon itself to do the letterboxing, and for some reason, the Wii is absolutely horrible at stretching the image this way.

Check your television settings. If it's not horrible old, it should be there.

Most computer monitors these days also have some method of receiving in picture from an alternate, non-computer source. Mine does, and I'm using it as my "TV".

Edit: Not only beaten, but beaten with the exact phrase "You misunderstand"

This is the fourth SDTV I've owned in my life. I was very familiar with all of them. None of them had a 16:9 mode. Including this one.

 

[MYE]

AND nothing in the mail today.

I must be the only European still waiting for his pre-order copy. Fuck!
ENGLAND IS SO CLOSE WHY IS IT TAKING SO LOOOOOOOOOOOONG?!!!!!

 

[duckroll]

Well, it's unfortunate that you can't play it, but there are tons of Wii games that behave exactly the same way as Xenoblade, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the RE Chronicles games. They are letterboxed on 4:3 screens as well. Did you not have a problem with these?

My only suggestion to you would be to try to sit closer to the television.

I have heard that on some 4:3 TVs, especially those which aren't huge, Xenoblade is completely unplayable because the text is unreadable due to the letterboxing. Similar to Dead Rising on SDTVs.

 

[LProtag]

Nothing here either. Come on GAME!

 

[BocoDragon]

Well, it's unfortunate that you can't play it, but there are tons of Wii games that behave exactly the same way as Xenoblade, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the RE Chronicles games. They are letterboxed on 4:3 screens as well. Did you not have a problem with these?

My only suggestion to you would be to try to sit closer to the television.

I bet those games would have blurry text / scaling issues too.. but they're not RPGs so you never notice.

 

[mattiewheels]

I'd love to see if this is playable at all with the new Suoer Famicom classic controller I just got. Probably not well, but my god that thing is fantastic.

 

[JumpingTheGun]

Hopes are 'meh' at the moment. My mailbox was devoid of even some junk mail yesterday. Maybe the kind Brits could send me my game before Irene fucks up Florida.

 

[Jucksalbe]

I'd love to see if this is playable at all with the new Suoer Famicom classic controller I just got. Probably not well, but my god that thing is fantastic.

How would you move? The digipad is already used for selecting commands.

 

[Aeana]

I bet those games would have blurry text / scaling issues too.. but they're not RPGs so you never notice.

Another Code: R is another one, which I managed to play on my SDTV with it letterboxed just fine. :\
Oh well, I'm sad to hear that some people can't play the game.

 

[BocoDragon]

This is the fourth SDTV I've owned in my life. I was very familiar with all of them. None of them had a 16:9 mode. Including this one.

If it's the classic 2000s-era CRT: silver, with a flat glass screen, I'd be very surprised if it didn't have that mode. Any Sony, JVC, Toshiba, Samsung, etc is gonna have it.

It's buried in a menu on most TVs.. I'm sure most users don't know about it.

If you push menu on your TV remote and dig through a few screens, you will see where they usually hide it. If you know its not there, than I guess you know...

Another Code: R is another one, which I managed to play on my SDTV with it letterboxed just fine. :\
Oh well, I'm sad to hear that some people can't play the game.

Also I guess I should say... before I used the 16:9 mode, I would describe the text in Xenoblade as just "ugly" not "unreadable"... My 22 inch is small, but I do use component.. maybe that helps.

 

[LiK]

Another Code: R is another one, which I managed to play on my SDTV with it letterboxed just fine. :
Oh well, I'm sad to hear that some people can't play the game.

I ordered that based on your recommendation

 

[SecretMoblin]

So I've played around with it for a bit, mostly to test different TVs and settings.

Yes, the text and scaling is terrible on a 4:3, letterboxed SDTV. Things look scrunched and tiny. But in 16:9 mode it's fine (with the Wii set to 16:9 as well), and it looks great on an HDTV if you adjust the settings.

Also, just a note for importers: just in case you needed extra extra extra confirmation, it definitely works on an NTSC SDTV, with both composite and component cables.

 

[MoogPaul]

Still nothing in the mail. Kind of pissed at this point.

 

[Durante]

The only console I own this gen is a Wii so you know I'm not a graphics whore (I do have a nice PC but I know what to expect from Wii games, I mean) but man... this game looks fuckin' awful. Just jaggy and generic and so blurry I pretty much can't read the on-screen text on my 4:3 SDTV.

For all I know (and I'm sure you dudes are on to something with all the praise and whatnot), the combat's great as is the story but the graphics making this game unplayable for me has basically killed my hype.

Well, I am a graphics whore, and I really think this is one of the best looking Wii games. Of course you have to consider the vastness of the areas and the draw distances. This means that the textures are often pretty awful and everything is generally rather low-poly, but pulling this game off on the Wii is still really commendable. The detail is almost on a level with Final Fantasy XII, and while the hardware is more powerful I'm also sure that they had a much smaller budget to work with.

Dolphin helps a lot of course: (this is a direct grab with the settings I play at)

 

[mattiewheels]

How would you move? The digipad is already used for selecting commands.

Ah, you're right. Nevermind.

 

[Oxx]

I'm playing on a 4:3 SDTV and 95% of the text is perfectly visible. It's really just some of the tutorial text and button icons that cause me to squint at the TV.

 

[Alrus]

(Story spoiler, don't read if you're not in Eryth Sea and advanced the plot there a bit)

Spoiler

Ah, racist elves, it wouldn't a jrpg without them, at least it's not the entire population that is racist this time

.

Also I tried playing Riki and he's fun but I'm just a bit bored with Melee characters right now. I probably won't play him much.

 

[Codeblue]

Nothing for me today, which is fine. I need to get through the rest of Away Shuffle Dungeon anyway.

 

[Totalriot]

Today, I have played a little with the affinity gifts. Here are my observations (most of you will know a lot of this but I think it's interesting enough to share):

Every character likes different items, some more, some less and some even give negative affinty. This is shown by the number of hearts going either up or down. So far (I did my research right after the chapter ending of the mines) I have found items that give -2, -1, +1, +2 and +3 affinity.

Here is a list of all items that give +2 or more affinity to each character. Unfortunately, I could only guess the English name as I play the German version. I have put in the location, maybe someone can help out. I'll edit the correct names in (Spoilered, because of character names, just to be on the safe side):

Spoiler

Shulk:
Sirius Anemone (Colony 6, Siriusanemone) +2
Pyro Lizard (Colony 6, Pyroechse) +2
Knocking Fly (Tephra Cave, Klopffliege) +2
Mystic Shining Beetle (Mine, Mystic-Leuchtkäfer) +2
Winding Wheel (Bionis' Leg, Aufziehrädchen) +3
Blue Chain (Colony 9, Blaue Kette) +3

Dunban:
Rubber Mantis (Mine, Gummianbeterin) +2
Plains Dragonfly (Colony 9, Prärielibelle) +2
Blue Engine Part (Swamp, Blaues Motorenteil) +2
Bracelet of Death (Bionis' Leg, Todesarmreif) +2
Snow Plate (Colony 9, Schneeplatte) +2

Reyn:
Flavored Cabbage (Bionis' Leg, Würzkohl) +3
Shin Salamander (Thepra Cave, Schienbeinmolch) +2
Yellow Cat (Mine, Gelbe Katze) +2
Black Frog (Mine, Schwarzfrosch) +2
Giant Hornet (Colony 9, Riesenhornisse) +2
White Night's Piston?? (Colony 6, Weißnachtkolben) +2

Sharla:
Hardened Lotus (Bionis' Leg, Harter Lotus) +2
Sour Berry (Bionis' Leg, Scharfbeere) +3
Bright Fig (Thepra Cave, Hellfeige) +2
Kneecap Rock?? (Thepra Cave, Kniescheibenfels) +2
Gold Powder Illusion (Bionis' Leg, Goldstaubillusion) +2

As I progress I will update this list.

But these values are not really accurate, e.g. some +3 items give more affinity than others.

For example to raise the affinity between

Spoiler

Shalra

and

Spoiler

Shulk

from yellow smily to green smiley I needed 3 Blue Chains. However, replacing 1 Blue Chain with 1 Winding Wheel was not enough, I had to add another one. When only using Winding Wheels, I needed 4 of them.

Another thing I've learned is that a +3 item does not equal three +1 items. A +3 item is much more powerful than a +2 item which is still much more powerful than a +1. Here is what I did to test this out:

When

Spoiler

Dunban

and

Spoiler

Sharla

met, they where absolutely neutral (yellow smiley). In order to get to the first level (green smiley)

Spoiler

Sharla

gave

Spoiler

Dunban

38 +2 gifts and then about 100 +1 gifts => In total 178 hearts.
I reloaded and wanted to achieve the same with only +1 gifts and this time I needed 240 items.
In the third try I wanted to use as many +2 or higher items as possible, so in addition to the 38 +2 gifts from

Spoiler

Sharla

,

Spoiler

Dunban

gave her 2 +3 and 17 +2 gifts => 116 hearts.

The more powerful gifts I've used the less I needed in total.

TL;DR. When trying to raise affinity with gifts don't bother wasting +1 items and if possible only use +3 items.

 

[robotzombie]

Anyone got it in the US from Game? If so, how does it ship, FedEx, UPS, regular mail?

 

[Jucksalbe]

I ordered that based on your recommendation

And rightfully so. Such a great game.

 

[SecretMoblin]

info

You're a saint.

 

[wsippel]

Speed gear has to be one of the most ridiculous outfits ever (yes, a specific outfit called "Speed"). I would lie if I said I didn't like it, though...

 

[Diffense]

Nothing here either. Come on GAME!

Same here, nothing.

 

[A Human Becoming]

I think he was just playing around/giving you a hard time. I immediately thought of meet the parents. Lol

"See, if I can't trust you, RPGCrazied, then I have no choice but to put you right back outside the circle."

Didn't get my copy either, damn it!

 

[JumpingTheGun]

Same here, nothing.

when did you guys order?

 

[Dead Prince]

Oh look. i'm off tomorrow from work. You know they know i probably got the game!

 

[Zing]

Well, it's unfortunate that you can't play it, but there are tons of Wii games that behave exactly the same way as Xenoblade, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the RE Chronicles games. They are letterboxed on 4:3 screens as well. Did you not have a problem with these?

Is this a PAL only thing? Because NSMB Wii is native 4:3 on my 4:3 TV.

 

[Totalriot]

You're a saint.

I'm glad you liked it, thank you.

In order to get an estimate of the total gifts needed I am thinking of raising the affinity of two characters only by using items. Not too sure which pair to pick, though.

 

[Dunbar]

People that ordered from ASDA, how long did you order stick at "Waiting for Stock Pick"? It's been 2 business days for me.

 

[Diffense]

when did you guys order?

My copy was dispatched last Tuesday.

 

[Aeana]

Is this a PAL only thing? Because NSMB Wii is native 4:3 on my 4:3 TV.

You sure about that? I've only played the NA version, on a 4:3 SDTV. It was letterboxed.