Exactly how I feel in my negativity, and why I've now chosen to bow out. I think there's a good game in there, but it's not at all what I want from both the genre and this (potential) series. It's too scattered, aimless, and spread thinly in the same way MMOs are at the expense of a greater sense of moment-to-moment progression, which Xenoblade did very well. There's no one thing XCX does that takes me out of the adventure, so much as the sum total of parts. What on the surface looked like another Xenoblade, with a twist is in fact a very different game even if it shares some superficial ideas. Structurally and conceptually it's a different beast, and since I'm already obscenely picky with JRPGs this is, as a whole, leaning far too hard in a direction I have no interest in.
Where Xenoblade was for me a return to form for the classic genre tropes with modern trimmings and a great premise and cast, XCX is a dull and somewhat aimless excursion in knuckle dragging that lacks the punch of its predecessor. It could also be that my love for Xenoblade also burned me out in the formula, but XCX is too different for no gain.
So yeah. Gave it a crack, but not for me. Gonna sell it off to someone who can appreciate it.
I am really enjoying the game, gameplaywise is so much better than xenoblade. The game makes a good job making you feel small and getting you used to fighting on the ground, and when you get the skell it really opens up and shows how "small" the world actually was. There's just too many layers to the combat, allowing for a lot of experimentation on builds.
However in terms of "experience" the game barely has anything that made the original Xenoblade special. Most of the soundtrack itself is fine, but is awfully implemented, with bad mixing, and poor use of tracks that make no sense for the scene, its obvious there was almost no feedback between the composer and the rest of the devs on how the soundtrack would be used.
The individual landscapes of the Xenoblade X are fantastic, and the only place where I really feel the soundtrack shines, but compared to the first game, they don't feel as cohesive, Sylvanum and Cauldros being right next to each other doesn't make much sense (what's causing the drastic divide?) Same with Oblivia and Primordia. Not only that, but they just file they are there and that's it. In the first Xenoblade each area has its own "role" in the world, as are all part of the Bionis and connected with each more meaningfully than the areas in X, except for the Eryth Sea and Magna Forest in the first game, which really made no sense. You can see it with stuff like Prison Island or the Ruins in the Bionis which do get a backdrop explanation, compared the ruins in Oblivia which are just mysteriously there.
On top of that, while some of the characters in X are amusing (H,B, Mia, Phog, L, Alexa) the huge amount of playable characters made the focus on a small playable party impossible, you won't see interactions between the characters the way the characters interacted in the first game, which is a shame, because I actually think the characters on this one have the potential to be really interesting interacting with each other. What would an adventure with H.B, Murderess and Boze would be like? I don't know, but I'd like to see that.
The main story is really bland, and I didn't care for how it was presented much, the game throws all the twist to the player at the last second, without letting them have time to digest them, but even then, all the normal missions do really make Mira an interesting place, by lategame, its clear there's
something about the planet drawing everyone together, but no one knows anything about it.
The game has been out for long in Japan, so I had time to come with terms with all of that for a long time, so coming into Xenoblade I just let the "Video Game" part do its job and I am having a lot of fun, with it, I got to the point where I finally got a good Ground Gear built in, and I am trying to see how many enemies I can take on without my skell.
Is a good game, I actually hope the next Xenoblade is a direct sequel to this one, taking on the gameplay cues of this game, but dialing the world a bit back and letting it feel a lot more focused like on the first Xenoblade.
