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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

So what is the best possible display for someone with HD and component cables? Would switching to 4:3 help? Or should I go the SDTV route lol. I'm sure I'll get used to it but I'd like to enjoy the game with the best possible graphics

PS: I have a 32 inch 720p westinghouse and a 42 inch 1080p vizio. On the 32 inch right now
Not in Xenoblades case as Game forces 16:9 so now you have 640x360 with it rendering black bars top and bottom for the remaining 120 pixels of space, thus using less of the possible output so less detail being possible (and also it makes everything really hard to read anything). For any Wii game that doesn't force 16:9 though, go 4:3.

Best possible graphics would be a CRT HDTV (but these are impractical) and facing the fact 4:3 or 16:9 the Wii is letting you down for this game due to it being forced widescreen. Also you might have better luck with the other TV and/or using different signals (though thats probably going a bit far). Some TVs upscale component signals really badly (or set post-processing on a input basis rather than universal so you find a load of "enhancements" making things worse). Also make sure its component (you can select the 480p option) and not composite (the crappy RCA cables the Wii came with).

Finally just remembered turn sharpness down. HDTVs come with it tuned up too high (and kinda of other bad settings) so making jaggles that don't exist. Its particularly bad for gaming.

If you see something close to the pic I mocked up (which should represent the best you can do on the basis of how many pixels there are to work with).
 

flyover

Member
I've not checked the thread but the method of someone needs to use is basically: use a homebrew save extractor (this is important as we need the directories without encryption) on both saves (so you need to run the US Xenoblade and have it make a save). The copy over some files in the EU save directory overwriting files of the same name in the US save directory (if someone gives me a directory listing and I see the post I could stab a guess at which files are the adventure logs; which is all we want at the end). Load it back on the Wii and it should work (at least someone did that for the Japanese version, I think they mention their adventure log being over 200 hours meaning the 99:59 glitch was displaying, not storage.

Thanks! (And great post above on video tweaking.)

I just launched the NA version through Gecko, and my EU saves do not automatically show (had to try!). So, I will be using the above method.
 

Cloudy

Banned
Not in Xenoblades case as Game forces 16:9 so now you have 640x360 with it rendering black bars top and bottom for the remaining 120 pixels of space, thus using less of the possible output so less detail being possible (and also it makes everything really hard to read anything). For any Wii game that doesn't force 16:9 though, go 4:3.

Best possible graphics would be a CRT HDTV (but these are impractical) and facing the fact 4:3 or 16:9 the Wii is letting you down for this game due to it being forced widescreen. Also you might have better luck with the other TV and/or using different signals (though thats probably going a bit far). Some TVs upscale component signals really badly (or set post-processing on a input basis rather than universal so you find a load of "enhancements" making things worse). Also make sure its component (you can select the 480p option) and not composite (the crappy RCA cables the Wii came with).

Finally just remembered turn sharpness down. HDTVs come with it tuned up too high (and kinda of other bad settings) so making jaggles that don't exist. Its particularly bad for gaming.

If you see something close to the pic I mocked up (which should represent the best you can do on the basis of how many pixels there are to work with).

Thanks for the detailed reply
 

gotee12

Member
About three hours in and I have to say that:

1. The game is definitely living up to the hype thus far.
2. If at all possible, play this in Dolphin.

I started out by putting the game in the Wii. 15 minutes later, I was reading the howto's and whatnot on getting XB running in Dolphin on my laptop.

Soooo very very pretty when you get rid of the jaggies....

Please forgive me Wii, but you will not taste my Monado!
 
Thanks! (And great post above on video tweaking.)

I just launched the NA version through Gecko, and my EU saves do not automatically show (had to try!). So, I will be using the above method.
The way to think about it is: it is looking in a different directory for the saves.

Also I found this in the homebrew thread. From reading the instructions it sounds like a tool that can work with encrypted data.bin files and extracts the mondao1-3 adventure log files (and can insert them back into the other regions file).
 

mr stroke

Member
About three hours in and I have to say that:

1. The game is definitely living up to the hype thus far.
2. If at all possible, play this in Dolphin.

I started out by putting the game in the Wii. 15 minutes later, I was reading the howto's and whatnot on getting XB running in Dolphin on my laptop.

Soooo very very pretty when you get rid of the jaggies....

Please forgive me Wii, but you will not taste my Monado!

Maybe I should give this game a go with Dolphin. How hard is it to get dolphin up and running properly? I have a good PC, but is there a ton of tweaking and trial and error to it?
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
The game seems to be ridiculously massive. Right now I'm trying to beat some giant worm creature inside a cave pretty early into the game.

I'm still getting used to the controls and combat, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Oh, and the music is freaking fantastic.
 

TheUnsane1

Neo Member
So I was going to pick this up after work, but all of this ffxii comparing has destroyed my hype.

I HATE ffxii. Make me believe again!
 
So I was going to pick this up after work, but all of this ffxii comparing has destroyed my hype.

I HATE ffxii. Make me believe again!

Man. I mentioned to one of my friends that the battle system "kinda reminded" me of FFXII. He then proceeded to get a different game.

*sigh*
 
Picked up this game, am currently playing it on my small SDTV on my Wii and am loving it. I don't need no dumb component cables/Dolphin to have fun still. :p

But agh, the Gamestop I was at really bugged me in two ways: The first was that they had eight display cases of XB up at the front counter, but the header above it read something like "From Studio of the Year Bethesda Games" and the employee I talked to didn't seem too keen on changing it.

Then, the employee next to her was also pushing GI subscriptions, but made it sound like you could only get the magazine digitally now, and that just pissed me off because that's just lying.

I also got the artbook, put some money down on Pokemon Conquest, and picked up Populous DS as well. The same copy I've been staring at since approximately late 2010.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
The game seems to be ridiculously massive. Right now I'm trying to beat some giant worm creature inside a cave pretty early into the game.

I'm still getting used to the controls and combat, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far.

Oh, and the music is freaking fantastic.

Took me a while to beat that guy. I think I just skipped him the first time.
 

TheUnsane1

Neo Member
Lol at FFXII haters. Good example of pure gaming ignorance.

My thing is I play rpgs for the battle systems primarily. I know this puts me in the minority and that's fine. That doesn't fix the fact that ffxii felt like a game where I got to watch the game play its self essentially. I only played about 5 hours of the game but it was more then enough to know it was not for me.

I will likely still pick this up because I am assuming it's going to be rare and is also one of the few must own wii games to come out recently, but I was kind of hoping it would be worth playing for me.
 
Went into my Gamestop in the Chicago suburbs and got a copy. They'd started with nine non-preorders and were down to four (after my purchase). Good sign!

Wii question. I've only ever used my Wii for Homebrew (EU Xenoblade and Last Story). Now, upon putting in the NA Xenoblade disc, the Wii wants me to update its OS software, but it says that it "may detect and remove unauthorized content causing... inoperability of your console." Anything to worry about? Should I just not update (and launch with Gecko, like the EU version), or should I update and not sweat it?

! went into one on the westside of chicago, in Oak Park, the store manager told me they had 20 pre orders and five copies that were non-reserve to sell, I bought one and then then one of the employees went on break an bought one, then another customer came in to purchase the game. Sales seem to be going well, however the promo for it was minimal. There is no chance that a person will buy it without knowing what it is already.
 

Teknoman

Member
Doesn't the PS3 play PS2 games with some sort of enhancements?
And what sort of cable are you using with the Wii?

PS3 has graphics smoothing/quick loading for both PS1 and PS2 games if i'm not mistaken.

Agreed. I thought that the game was universally loved until I came to NeoGAF.

Their loss.

My thing is I play rpgs for the battle systems primarily. I know this puts me in the minority and that's fine. That doesn't fix the fact that ffxii felt like a game where I got to watch the game play its self essentially. I only played about 5 hours of the game but it was more then enough to know it was not for me.

I will likely still pick this up because I am assuming it's going to be rare and is also one of the few must own wii games to come out recently, but I was kind of hoping it would be worth playing for me.

Lol at FFXII haters. Good example of pure gaming ignorance.

Man. I mentioned to one of my friends that the battle system "kinda reminded" me of FFXII. He then proceeded to get a different game.

*sigh*

So I was going to pick this up after work, but all of this ffxii comparing has destroyed my hype.

I HATE ffxii. Make me believe again!

To be honest, i'm not a big fan of XII's battle system. Its not bad, and I never used gambits (like to be in control of everyone's moves at all times if possible), but I really expected an evolution of FFX's battle system. Its the reason why I like P4's battle system more than 3...always want to avoid AI setting party members whenever possible. Yes I know XII played similar to XI and XIV, but they are both MMORPGs and you only have to worry about your character either way. Of course i've heard others state that Xenoblade's battle system is still alot more involved than XII (and i've still got to play the Zodiac Job version of XII, but thats another thread). I just dont want Wild Arms, FF 1-X, Dragon Quest, Grandia, etc. style battle systems to die out.


That being said, are the JP voices better than ENG this time around, or was the english dub pretty good?

Picked up this game, am currently playing it on my small SDTV on my Wii and am loving it. I don't need no dumb component cables/Dolphin to have fun still. :p

But agh, the Gamestop I was at really bugged me in two ways: The first was that they had eight display cases of XB up at the front counter, but the header above it read something like "From Studio of the Year Bethesda Games" and the employee I talked to didn't seem too keen on changing it.

Then, the employee next to her was also pushing GI subscriptions, but made it sound like you could only get the magazine digitally now, and that just pissed me off because that's just lying.

I also got the artbook, put some money down on Pokemon Conquest, and picked up Populous DS as well. The same copy I've been staring at since approximately late 2010.

They want all employees to push digital GI now, by any means necessary.
 
So I was going to pick this up after work, but all of this ffxii comparing has destroyed my hype.

I HATE ffxii. Make me believe again!

I hate FFxii too but love this it every thing that was missing or wrong fix and a story that keep you moving game dont play itself if you do nothing you get your ass kick
 

Aeana

Member
PS3 has graphics smoothing/quick loading for both PS1 and PS2 games if i'm not mistaken.

To be honest, i'm not a big fan of XII's battle system. Its not bad, and I never used gambits (like to be in control of everyone's moves at all times if possible), but I really expected an evolution of FFX's battle system. Its the reason why I like P4's battle system more than 3...always want to avoid AI setting party members whenever possible. Yes I know XII played similar to XI and XIV, but they are both MMORPGs and you only have to worry about your character either way.


That being said, are the JP voices better than ENG this time around, or was the english dub pretty good?



They want all employees to push digital GI now, by any means necessary.
The English dub is wonderful.
I think Reyn is way cooler in English.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
My thing is I play rpgs for the battle systems primarily. I know this puts me in the minority and that's fine. That doesn't fix the fact that ffxii felt like a game where I got to watch the game play its self essentially. I only played about 5 hours of the game but it was more then enough to know it was not for me.

Or you could have just changed the settings and either turned off or tweaked the gambits so that the game's battle system played more or less identically to any other Final Fantasy game's system. I mean, XII doesn't even force you into using auto-attack.

You DID know you could do that, right?
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
That being said, are the JP voices better than ENG this time around, or was the english dub pretty good?

They're both pretty solid. I slightly prefer the Japanese voices if for no other reason than that Riki's English voice is a travesty. Everybody else sounds pretty great in both, though.

Pretty much pure personal preference.
 

Teknoman

Member
The English dub is wonderful.
I think Reyn is way cooler in English.

They're both pretty solid. I slightly prefer the Japanese voices if for no other reason than that Riki's English voice is a travesty. Everybody else sounds pretty great in both, though.

Pretty much pure personal preference.

Depends on whether your tolerance of a certain furball sides with a high-pitched voice or a clown voice.

English it is. Probably best to be able to understand all the voices on a first time playthrough anyway.
 
! went into one on the westside of chicago, in Oak Park, the store manager told me they had 20 pre orders and five copies that were non-reserve to sell, I bought one and then then one of the employees went on break an bought one, then another customer came in to purchase the game. Sales seem to be going well, however the promo for it was minimal. There is no chance that a person will buy it without knowing what it is already.
I have a buddy who works at Gamestop and said there 180 k preorders company-wide. Don't know if he was shitting me or not but that would be respectable for something with so little promotion.
 
The voice work in this is really well done. Taking a break for now. 2 1/2 hours in. Did some side quests.

Don't really like the side quest menu a whole lot, so I probably won't be doing too many of them, even though I know it's recommended if I want the game to be easier. Also, named monsters are no joke.
 

mudkyp

Member
So I'm trying to play this with Dolphin but instead the disc is stuck in my laptop and I can't open Dolphin or anything else, so that's cool.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
I have a buddy who works at Gamestop and said there 180 k preorders company-wide. Don't know if he was shitting me or not but that would be respectable for something with so little promotion.

I somehow doubt that. That would be beyond impressive.

Anyone remember how the 3 Xeno games did in America? And did we ever get any hard Euro numbers?
 

gotee12

Member
Maybe I should give this game a go with Dolphin. How hard is it to get dolphin up and running properly? I have a good PC, but is there a ton of tweaking and trial and error to it?

It was a little bit of trial and error. It doesn't play 100% perfect but it's pretty close. I followed the last page or so of the NTSC-J version of the game on the Dolphin forums. The main setting that helped me was enabling the checkbox for "Lock Threads to Cores". And I'm using Lectrode's version of Dolphin (3.0-508-gf30aebf_XBHLE31_PresRes_L102_x64_ICC).
 

TheUnsane1

Neo Member
Or you could have just changed the settings and either turned off or tweaked the gambits so that the game's battle system played more or less identically to any other Final Fantasy game's system. I mean, XII doesn't even force you into using auto-attack.

You DID know you could do that, right?

I messed with settings but the game still felt like an mmo with out what's good/fun about mmos.

My real issue may have been that it was the first proper ff game after my favorite battle system ff game. And yes I do mean x-2.

But enough of that topic. This is still Gamestop exclusive correct?
 
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