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[Samurai Penguin]

Finally got my copy yesterday. I won it in a comp from PALGN/Nintendo

I am only 3 hours in so far, and despite the somewhat lackluster textures at times, the scope of this game is mind blowing.

I am only about level 7, and have spent most of the time just exploring the first town and doing side quests. I haven't even finished the first main story quest yet :lol

I love the day/night cycle and how that causes the creatures to change.

The game punishes you for attempting to grind solo (even at level 7, it's almost impossible to kill things level 5 or higher), but at least it makes up for it by not causing you to get game over when you die.

Respawning you in town instead of a game over screen is a really refreshing welcome.

With all the side quests, I think I might actually have to buy a guide for this game

I also love the trade system. I randomly pick something from my inventory to trade and hope that I get a bonus reward

I might only be early in, but so far this has been one of the most enjoyable JRPG's I have played in many years.

EDIT: Thank god for the Japanese audio. I cannot stand the British accents. Could be worse..they could have the Aussie accents from Dead Island

 

[Gvaz]

in Makna Forest there are three bridges connecting to a small place with some ore. Since map isn't complete for some reason I noticed some galleries extending from the upper left part of the map...- are they reachable or just part of

Spoiler

Bionis' interior

?

because that part is killing me. I keep looking for a secret passage in Makna to get there

You get to both of those parts later, don't worry about it.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

You get to both of those parts later, don't worry about it.

thanks, I was spending WAY too much time with that...48 hours and I'm still finishing Alcamoth quests in Eryth Sea. Need to get on with that story!

 

[mclem]

I seem to have levelled off now, after my initial charge and overlevelling, I used the Ocarina code to reduce experience gain and am now L55 and facing off against enemies of about my level again, some of whom (L52 enemy example

Spoiler

such as the absolutely massive Fortress mechon

caused me a fair few deaths while I tried to figure out how to combat them, which hadn't really been an issue for the last 30 levels or so thanks to my overlevelling. Just short of hour #70 as I call it for the night.

Now, though, I'm not sure if I want to remove the Ocarina code or not. I've heard later on levelling becomes a bit grindy - after being ludicrously easy at the start - so perhaps it's worth getting on top of that now to start earning extra XP again.

Anyhow, I have a feeling the title screen has spoiled the next bit of the plot (booo!), but I'm still looking forward to seeing if some of my guesses are correct.

 

[Dmax3901]

Yeah I get a bit worried with upgrading gear, I just do it when all the stats are in the blue, or if it's only a very minimal red decrease.

Eryth Sea is the first place to really test me battle skillz.

 

[LionFranco]

Woot! I was able to order it tonight off of GAME! I know i paid a little extra for International delivery, i'm so stoked to be able to get it...how, i just need to find the posts about Modding the Wii...

 

[Reveirg]

I just finished the game! LOVED IT!

Here are some final impressions, full of spoilers, read only if you have completed the game!

This reads more like a series of observations than an actual review...

Spoiler

The story
The setting was interesting, but I was worried for the better part of the game that this wouldn't be a real successor to Takahashi's earliest work.

Boy was I wrong. The final hours of the game was almost a tribute to Xenogears/Xenosaga. It was executed flawlessly. I can already hear the voices of Xenosaga-haters saying that this kind of story is "pretentious bullshit". I say it's the kind of intelligent, thought-inducing scenario that more RPGs need to implement in their games.

The Villains
Again, I was worried for the first half of the game about this. Let's just say that the introduction of DICKSON as one of the main villains was a fantastic plot twist. He ended out being one of the best villains in recent gaming history, his exit being particularily well done.

Final Fantasy XI's Legacy
Xenoblade has been frequently compared to FFXII, not without reason. However, I believe it holds a LOT more in common with Final Fantasy XI. Many of its areas and mechanics were clearly influenced by S-E's MMORPG:

The Areas
-Colony 9 / Bastok
-Makna Forest / Yuhtunga Jungle
-Frontier Village / Windurst
-Eruyt Sea and Alcamoth / "Sky"
-Valak Mountains / Uluguerand Range
-Satorl Marsh / Pashow Marshlands
-Even the way the fields / towns / dungeons intertwine, and how their secret areas, tombs and treasures unfold are similar. Some of the area musics are really similar too.

The Gameplay Mechanics
-The Affinity and Quest system / FFXI's Fame and Quest system
-The exploration and battle system, this is obvious and FFXII was also clearly influenced by XI.
-The Unique Monsters / Notorious Monsters

I could probably go on and on... I know those are points that could be said of every MMO or MMO-like RPGs. But I believe that anyone who's played a few years of FFXI will realize how closely it is linked to Xenoblade

The Sound
-It's been said more than enough : Fantastic soundtrack and surprinsingly good dub!
-It's not been said a lot : Monolith Soft needs to hire new sound engineers! The mix is a mess most of the time (especially during the battle), the cutscenes are crushed when there's music + voices + sound effects at the same time. They need to stop using the same 2 tracks for every cutscene, too.
-At least NoE did a good job for the VO sound quality, as opposed to recent works such as the american Catherine dub, where the sound is crushed.

Random food for thought
-The character models have already been (rightfully IMO) criticized. They remind me a lot of PSX's Vagrant Story... (the faces)
-Am I the only one who thought the Machina looked like bad Tron fanart?
-So much praise has been given to Xenoblade's quest system for the fact that you "don't have to go back to the NPC to finish the quest". It turns out this was true... for about 1/3rd of the quests. Running around finding NPCs in huge towns is NOT fun. NIER was harshly criticized for this, and Xenoblade is MUCH worse IMO.
-The achievement/location/landmark system was fantastic.
-For a game that has so much content... why no mini-games?

Fantastic game! I cannot wait to hear about Monolith Soft's future game...

 

[Leeness]

Your review bit on Villains:

Spoiler

The Villains
Again, I was worried for the first half of the game about this. Let's just say that the introduction of DICKSON as one of the main villains was a fantastic plot twist. He ended out being one of the best villains in recent gaming history, his exit being particularily well done.

And my thoughts on it:

Spoiler

Okay, so, I'm not even half way through the game, but I had Dickson spoiled for me the other night. I was on the Xeno-pedia, and Dickson's profile, under Protagonists, at the very top, it said "Though he begins as a protagonist, he is revealed to be one of the main villains" and oh my god. I was so mad, haha. I really freaking like Dickson! I truuuuuuuusted hiiiiiim. I thought that, of Dunban's friends, one was a jerk! Not both! That's why I trusted him! AAAARG, I was so mad I got spoiled, haha.

I'm only heading to Eryth Sea, so, I don't really want to know much about Dickson's turn. ...Just expressing my displeasure at being spoiled, and my displeasure at him being a villain, cause I really trusted him

 

[RPGCrazied]

Wow. I only have 2 stars for colony 9. ;_;

 

[MetatronM]

Yeah I get a bit worried with upgrading gear, I just do it when all the stats are in the blue, or if it's only a very minimal red decrease.

Eryth Sea is the first place to really test me battle skillz.

There's a really easy way to figure out upgrading gear. If all the stats are blue but ONE is red, you should upgrade. All gear except for weapons can only have one gem, so that one red stat is almost certainly the gem you have in the other armor. And if it isn't, you could use a different gem to offset that stat loss if you want.

 

[Bel Marduk]

I have a question about

Spoiler

Colony 6

For how much do you have to

Spoiler

reconstruct the place

for this track to play? Is it when

Spoiler

you reconstruct it fully or what? This is the best Colony 6 track for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBZAHFgf8U0

I should hopefully be ordering the game in another week or two

 

[MatthewB92]

100+ hours!! woooo! lvl 91. Once I get to 92 I can start doing that quest I got after all that crazy s*** went down lol.

 

[Icelight]

I just finished the game! LOVED IT!

Here are some final impressions, full of spoilers, read only if you have completed the game!

This reads more like a series of observations than an actual review...

Spoiler

The story
The setting was interesting, but I was worried for the better part of the game that this wouldn't be a real successor to Takahashi's earliest work.

Boy was I wrong. The final hours of the game was almost a tribute to Xenogears/Xenosaga. It was executed flawlessly. I can already hear the voices of Xenosaga-haters saying that this kind of story is "pretentious bullshit". I say it's the kind of intelligent, thought-inducing scenario that more RPGs need to implement in their games.

The Villains
Again, I was worried for the first half of the game about this. Let's just say that the introduction of DICKSON as one of the main villains was a fantastic plot twist. He ended out being one of the best villains in recent gaming history, his exit being particularily well done.

(All of my spoiler tagged text is ending-related stuff!)

In my opinion, in terms of story, it still doesn't approach his earlier work (especially Xenosaga).

However, I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. I agree that

Spoiler

the final hours really brought things closer to gears/saga though. Very cool. It wasn't enough to even attempt to approach the depth of character and motivations that existed throughout saga though, but it was awesome.

And I, too, liked Dickson being revealed as bad. It worked well and was a reasonable surprise to me (the game makes it obvious later on that there's more to him than meets the eye...but I figured he'd be some ancient *good* guy).

His death was also really well done. Again, I figured that they'd pull the cliched "Oh you beat me, I'll just stay here but show up during the final boss to betray him!!" and instead he just up and died.

Anyways, having just finished the game this evening as well, I adored it. Truly a masterpiece and really felt like the entire thing was one huge labor of love. (Especially when you consider how *little* of the whole game you'll actually see if you just go through the story mode, I swear you'd only get through like 30% of what the environments have to offer).

I cannot wait to see what Takahashi does next (and, to be honest, it makes me even sadder than we'll never get to see his original vision for Xenosaga or Xenogears, especially given how amazing this turned out [which was, I can only assume, uncompromised]).

 

[Reveirg]

In my opinion, in terms of story, it still doesn't approach his earlier work (especially Xenosaga).

However, I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. I agree that

Spoiler

the final hours really brought things closer to gears/saga though. Very cool. It wasn't enough to even attempt to approach the depth of character and motivations that existed throughout saga though, but it was awesome.

Spoiler

I do have to agree with this. And it's indeed unfortunate that the "real" Xenosaga never came to existence. Many people criticized Xenosaga's story for being incoherent, this probably wouldn't have been the case had he been able to complete his vision of that series.

 

[Bel Marduk]

I do have to agree with this. And it's indeed unfortunate that the "real" Xenosaga never came to existence. Many people criticized Xenosaga's story for being incoherent, this probably wouldn't have been the case had he been able to complete his vision of that series.

Nah I still think you'd have a lot of people saying the story's incoherent. Even if you read the Perfect Guide, it's still really complicated (though everything makes sense) and I bet people would still say it's convoluted and whatever because they don't understand it :/

 

[RPGCrazied]

I should hopefully be ordering the game in another week or two

You won't regret it!

 

[Leeness]

In terms of the story, I have a feeling that what he wants to tell, he's just overly ambitious with it. All of his games have kind of the same theme/idea to them, and it's just a new way he wants to tell it.

However, they end up getting bogged down with so, so much that he wants to put in there, that they become long winded, side-tracked, unfinished, etc.

I love Gears and Saga, don't get me wrong. But I have a feeling that, with Blade, he kind of understands now that through simplicity, you can convey a lot more. With Blade, he's stripped the story down, and while it's still got his theme and ideas, it's just brought together much better and he ends up with a story that isn't difficult to understand and conveys similar things.

Now, I haven't finished Blade, so I could totally be talking out of my butt and the game's ending takes it in a different way than his other games. But this is what I've noticed from what I've played. It's a similar take but stripped down to the essentials and with a great cast that develop well together.

 

[Gvaz]

Just finished

Spoiler

Agniratha

 

[Bel Marduk]

Seriously, the volume of the stuff Takahashi thinks up is ridiculous. I'm not sure how he does it.

I mean, this Perfect Guide man:

http://translations.xenotensei.com/Xeno3/PerfectGuide.html

Just so much stuff. The motivations of the characters, the workings of the story, the functions of the universe...

It's just ridiculous. I'm not surprised at a story that's more stripped down a notch for a compact experience is the more favorable option for a game.

 

[Gvaz]

Seriously, the volume of the stuff Takahashi thinks up is ridiculous. I'm not sure how he does it.

I mean, this Perfect Guide man:

http://translations.xenotensei.com/X...tGuide.html#41

Just so much stuff. The motivations of the characters, the workings of the story, the functions of the universe...

http://mlkshk.com/r/4863[/ig]

It's just ridiculous. I'm not surprised at a story that's more stripped down a notch for a compact experience is the more favorable option for a game.[/quote]

[IMG]http://www.yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.com/yes.jpg

I was hoping for an explanation, and lo and behold there is! Thank you so much!

 

[Bel Marduk]

Wow, you didn't know there was one? Prepare for a super long read and your brain splattered all over your monitor lol. The Perfect Guide gives a ridiculous amount of insight that the game doesn't have (outside of the database, though I think the PG expands more).

Edit: Or are you talking about Xenoblade? lol. That's Xenosaga.

 

[Gvaz]

About Xenosaga, it's one of my favorite series.

The technobabble is too much for some people but it makes me salivate

 

[Bel Marduk]

Ah, that's good. I thought you might've mistook it for the Perfect Works (or Secret Files or whatever) for Xenoblade :x I hope that one ends up translated.

 

[Leeness]

About Xenosaga, it's one of my favorite series.

The technobabble is too much for some people but it makes me salivate

I love it too, but in some ways, I do think the story stripped down to its essence works really well.

I think if you took Saga's story, cut out a lot of things that didn't contribute to the endgame, and then gave it a really tight rewrite, it could make a REALLY amazing single game. It's an amazing series of games already, but things can always be done better, haha. I think this of Gears, too, that creating a tighter story with less meandering would have created an amazing piece of work and he might have finished it properly. That always seems to be the problem. He has this grand tale to tell, runs out of time, things get messed around in development, etc.

And Blade is kind of his compromise so he could see it through properly and it's awesome.

 

[Icelight]

Yeah, the sheer amount of stuff in that series and all the auxiliary material is unbelievable. And it all works together!

Ah, that's good. I thought you might've mistook it for the Perfect Works (or Secret Files or whatever) for Xenoblade :x I hope that one ends up translated.

Hmm, what ever came of those copies in France that were given to the first, what, 1,000 people to register their copy?

Was there ever word if they were translated? (I figured they'd just be the JP copy since I doubt they'd make the effort to translate something free that was in such limited quantity)

And Blade is kind of his compromise so he didn't run out and had the potential to see it through properly, which he ended up doing, and it's awesome.

Ah, that's a really good point. Okay, I'll go and be sad now that we'll probably never see anything on the (originally planned) scale of Xenosaga or Xenogears again

 

[Leeness]

Ah, that's a really good point. Okay, I'll go and be sad now that we'll probably never see anything on the (originally planned) scale of Xenosaga or Xenogears again

I'm feeling a pretty big scope in Blade. Maybe not quite as big as Gears/Saga, since Gears goes forever back in time and Saga goes across the universe, but the whole "our world is on the back of two gods and there's machines vs man and humans are practically extinct", it's got a nice scope to it. Let's see if we'll be given the chance to kill god in Blade or liberate the universe from eternal recurrence, haha. I don't know yet, don't tell me!

I'm wondering if he'll be given even more leeway for his next game, since this one was a success.

I just hope, if they do tell him "Yep, make a game, have fun", that it doesn't get out of hand and he gets booted out again, haha.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

You have Shulk wearing plate? That's an... interesting approach. I see a lot of people use medium armor, but I focused on light armor - evasion > armor. On the other hand, my two support girls were wearing plate armor.

The game is pretty easy so it scarcely makes a huge difference, at least in my experience. I wasn't keen on Shulk tanking throughout the game, so it especially didn't matter to me much because if my party was working right, I never had aggro on him. Sure, a huge amount of agility can have a noticeable impact, but it's pretty easy to buff it with gems and counteract that small negative.

 

[Icelight]

Oh, by scope I just meant complexity of story and characters and such. Not willing to let go of my hopes and dreams even though it makes sense why something like that probably won't be made (and has been canned at least twice already ).

I agree though, the scope of the story in Xenoblade is certainly waaay up there.

 

[Leeness]

Oh, by scope I just meant complexity of story and characters and such. Not willing to let go of my hopes and dreams even though it makes sense why something like that probably won't be made (and has been canned at least twice already ).

I agree though, the scope of the story in Xenoblade is certainly waaay up there.

Oh, okay. Yeah, Blade may not be as complex, but I do think that's one of its strengths over Gears/Saga.

I think he should try writing a book series, though, with his entire ideas. I get that he wants to tell it in a visual medium, but I think a series of books might suit the whole story better.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I mean, this Perfect Guide man:

http://translations.xenotensei.com/Xeno3/PerfectGuide.html

Hey, thanks for linking to that perfect guide. I would love to replay Saga and do some back reading to accompany it. I remember in the late 90s or 2000ish I got ahold of a couple hundred of the Xenogears Perfect Works guide before Square's merchandising company went under (isn't that what happened...? Seems like I recall them going out of business.). Being that Xenogearshas been traditionally my favorite RPG, I was always fascinated by those perfect works books. I even had a replica of that jewel piece crafted by some jeweler based on imagery, here's a cropped photo of the item laying on a Perfect Works book actually.



Edit: And yeah, I realize he did make one major cosmetic error in production, but I still though it came out swell enough.


At the last boss now in Blade... Report back with thoughts in a bit..

 

[polg]

Question about affinity. Do you increase your party member just by having them fighting together and heat-to-heart? Or is there another way?

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Question about affinity. Do you increase your party member just by having them fighting together and heat-to-heart? Or is there another way?

Also when you accept quests with the members actively in your party, they make side comments and your affinity towards them raises.

 

[polg]

Also when you accept quests with the members actively in your party, they make side comments and your affinity towards them raises.

so basically I need to play with everyone to raise their affinity...

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

so basically I need to play with everyone to raise their affinity...

Between each other? Yes. Also giving gifts maybe? Not sure on that one.

 

[dani_dc]

Gifting each other items will also raise/lower the affinity.

 

[_Alkaline_]

Guys...

This game...

 

[Airgetlam]

Gifting each other items will also raise/lower the affinity.

You can gift items?? How?

 

[Gvaz]

I'm feeling a pretty big scope in Blade. Maybe not quite as big as Gears/Saga, since Gears goes forever back in time and Saga goes across the universe, but the whole "our world is on the back of two gods and there's machines vs man and humans are practically extinct", it's got a nice scope to it. Let's see if we'll be given the chance to kill god in Blade or liberate the universe from eternal recurrence, haha. I don't know yet, don't tell me!

I'm wondering if he'll be given even more leeway for his next game, since this one was a success.

I just hope, if they do tell him "Yep, make a game, have fun", that it doesn't get out of hand and he gets booted out again, haha.

This post makes me sad.

So I just got to

Spoiler

Bionis Interior

for the second time and well

 

[Leeness]

This post makes me sad.

Why?

 

[Gvaz]

Why?

If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

So I take it

Spoiler

Telethia

must be a really easy boss fight? I beat the thing with everyone at the same level even though I'm terrible at outfitting my party. I'm probably gonna try to complete my map of Makna Forest before I head on to Eryth Sea. Also, I love how this game can be a huge dick in a sorta amusing way sometimes, those of you who've tried their hands at a certain quest involving the altar on top of Exile Fortress probably know what I'm talking about.

 

[Leeness]

If I told you, I'd have to kill you.

Oh okay. Maybe I'll find out by the end of the game...? :O

More playtime tomorrow, I hope, aw yeeah.

 

[Gvaz]

So I take it

Spoiler

Telethia

must be a really easy boss fight? I beat the thing with everyone at the same level even though I'm terrible at outfitting my party. I'm probably gonna try to complete my map of Makna Forest before I head on to Eryth Sea. Also, I love how this game can be a huge dick in a sorta amusing way sometimes, those of you who've tried their hands at a certain quest involving the altar on top of Exile Fortress probably know what I'm talking about.

You say Huge Dick, I say A Challenge (finally)? Have at ye!

At the time I had a harder time with the guy below than above.

So hows my progress, 71-72 party, 76 hours. The mobs seem to be 72-75 so far in this zone, is that pretty much par the course?

LATE GAME SPOILER IMAGES

You've had suitable warning. If you haven't started exploring the rest of

Spoiler

Bionis Interior

, don't click these.

Cool picture of our favorite seer
Another
I think someone's been playing kingdom hearts (Okay guys, i mean it, spoilerrss)
another
final
Smuggiest smug that ever smugged
I love the lighting in this picture
He had an itch, it wasnt my fault! (mega spoilers)
The night sky looks nice in this one (mega spoilers)
These next ones aren't huge spoilers but damn the art direction is awesome, some make good wallpapers I think:
One (my personal favorite)
Just strollin along
More wallpaper material
Interesting composition, not sure how much I like it

 

[SlipperySlope]

Sharla's cooling off - How the FUCK do I prevent this? I can't have a healer go out of commission for 15 minutes

 

[SlipperySlope]

reckless godwin - how the fuck do I beat him at level 31? I just don't get it, he's so hard.

 

[magicalsoundshower]

You say Huge Dick, I say A Challenge (finally)? Have at ye!

I just thought the way in which it played out was funny.

Spoiler

Finally tracked down that shrine to collect the mirror? Well, here's a huge fuckoff spider with tons of health, popping up out of a huge chasm. Me: "ARGH!" OK, managed to kill that thing in a super-long battle and made it to the altar? Well, here's TWO huge fuckoff spiders with an ever higher level, popping up from nowhere, owning your entire party. Me: "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

But like I said, the game manages to make it come across as the fun type of hard. So, no complaints from me.

 

[SlipperySlope]

I hate Sharla. Do we get another healer?

 

[magicalsoundshower]

reckless godwin - how the fuck do I beat him at level 31? I just don't get it, he's so hard.

I haven't been able to beat him, either, but don't forget that you don't have to beat him, you can just sneak past him.

If you really want to fight him, don't forget that Red special attacks can be dodged with the Monado's Speed power and white ones require the shield. I didn't really realize this (I thought both Speed and Shield served the same purpose) until I read about it on some message board. :O

Although this thread at the Gamespot forums seems to contain some pretty cool strategies.

 

[CoolS]

I hate Sharla. Do we get another healer?

Some characters have healing arts, but not as good as hers.

 

[SlipperySlope]

I haven't been able to beat him, either, but don't forget that you don't have to beat him, you can just sneak past him.

If you really want to fight him, don't forget that Red special attacks can be dodged with the Monado's Speed power and white ones require the shield. I didn't really realize this (I thought both Speed and Shield served the same purpose) until I read about it on some message board. :O

Although this thread at the Gamespot forums seems to contain some pretty cool strategies.

Cool, thanks.