brandonh83
Banned
Is that your only major complaint?
-
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Xenoblade |OT| The Adventure Begins
- Thread starter Bebpo
- Start date
CryingWolf
Member
This game has amazingly cool music.
DJmizuhara
Member
Nah...I wouldn't bother if U don't read or understand Japanese. The battle system is pretty deep and to get chains going you'll need to be able to read the instructions of how to make things work. I'd wait until the US/Euro version is released, hopefully we'll get a release date during E3.Superblatt said:
I meant just moving forward. Fast travel is great for returning to old areas. Although even fast travel is only to specific monuments. For example in a small camp you might get 20 quests to go do things in a field that takes 30 mins to run from end to end. Each quest wants you to get to differently places in the field, usually not specifically marked, just a general "it's to the right of the lake". You can't just warp around doing the quests and everytime you die doing one you'll start back at the camp. So it's a loooooot of footwork to get them done.
I've kind of given up on quests for now. Did all of them in the first few areas, but it just too much running for me. So I do the ones I can finish along the way of the main storyline.
And yeah it's really the only thing I dislike about the game. Otherwise it's a great game.
It's very similar to FFXIII where the reason it feels different from a normal rpg pacing is that normal rpgs have towns to stop at and talk to people along the way (XB has a few but they are very, very sparse so far), mini-games, dungeons with puzzles and other distractions. XB is more like XIII where there's nothing to break up the running, running, and fighting along the way besides cutscenes. You basically just do all your shopping and upgrading and looting along the way while out in the wild. It's a total uninhabited wilderness game so far despite that people do exist in the world (they existed in XIII too to be fair).
I just need to play more tomorrow and see where it goes. I felt the areas early on were very tightly paced with a good balance of story/character development/dungeons/exploring/battling. The area I'm at now might just be a slow area and then it picks up again.
I've kind of given up on quests for now. Did all of them in the first few areas, but it just too much running for me. So I do the ones I can finish along the way of the main storyline.
And yeah it's really the only thing I dislike about the game. Otherwise it's a great game.
It's very similar to FFXIII where the reason it feels different from a normal rpg pacing is that normal rpgs have towns to stop at and talk to people along the way (XB has a few but they are very, very sparse so far), mini-games, dungeons with puzzles and other distractions. XB is more like XIII where there's nothing to break up the running, running, and fighting along the way besides cutscenes. You basically just do all your shopping and upgrading and looting along the way while out in the wild. It's a total uninhabited wilderness game so far despite that people do exist in the world (they existed in XIII too to be fair).
I just need to play more tomorrow and see where it goes. I felt the areas early on were very tightly paced with a good balance of story/character development/dungeons/exploring/battling. The area I'm at now might just be a slow area and then it picks up again.
ShineALight
Member
Maybe not as ideal as a chocobo equivalent, but wouldn't it be possible to just try to avoid combat and make it to a landmark alive? Again, not ideal, but it would seem like a decent enough way to solve this problem.
Which area is it?Bebpo said:
This game got its hate before it came out, now everyone is saving their hate for when the game that's getting endless praise comes out. *glances over at The Last Story*Cep said:
Seriously though, it's not like this game is getting endless praise now. It's still early on and we don't have too many impressions beyond early in the game yet.
Alex
Member
Bebpo, I've got to say, your impressions are kind of offputting!To me, Final Fantasy XIII is about the worst RPG I can think of, and the last thing I will ever want is another cutscene to cutscene ride of nonsense fueled by insanely simplistic combat.
Maybe I'm taking it too literally, instead of just as a general descriptor for certain things, but it's still scary!
I feel like I'm missing a lot though here. They have these big, open fields that actually have... CONTENT in them no? Gran Pulse was just a big MMO field with everything in it completely removed.
Is the exploration actually meaningful? Is the combat actually challenging or at least interesting? And I mean ACTUALLY interesting not "goddamn, when I mash X a lot pretty things happen!" like FFXIII fans buy into.
Are dungeons actually dungeons? Are there good systems for character development and tweaking?
See, I mean, I can go without any huge focus on towns or fluff, I mean that never bugged me, but I want a game, not XIII with legroom. No one really cares that FFXIII lacked towns or fluff. They cared that it was about running through tubes from cutscene to cutscene, or wandering around a big empty field with nothing to do, or that the combat, character development and item synthesis was all about just holding down X on random tiles.
I'm probably mistaken here on what this game is actually vying for, but I just want to make sure I'm not walking into something I wont' like. A lot of it sounds very interesting and fun, and I'm sure it is, but please don't use the "XIII" word! Just say it's more about combat and exploration (FFXIII really still didnt have any exploration..., goddamn empty ass map)
Maybe I'm taking it too literally, instead of just as a general descriptor for certain things, but it's still scary!
I feel like I'm missing a lot though here. They have these big, open fields that actually have... CONTENT in them no? Gran Pulse was just a big MMO field with everything in it completely removed.
Is the exploration actually meaningful? Is the combat actually challenging or at least interesting? And I mean ACTUALLY interesting not "goddamn, when I mash X a lot pretty things happen!" like FFXIII fans buy into.
Are dungeons actually dungeons? Are there good systems for character development and tweaking?
See, I mean, I can go without any huge focus on towns or fluff, I mean that never bugged me, but I want a game, not XIII with legroom. No one really cares that FFXIII lacked towns or fluff. They cared that it was about running through tubes from cutscene to cutscene, or wandering around a big empty field with nothing to do, or that the combat, character development and item synthesis was all about just holding down X on random tiles.
I'm probably mistaken here on what this game is actually vying for, but I just want to make sure I'm not walking into something I wont' like. A lot of it sounds very interesting and fun, and I'm sure it is, but please don't use the "XIII" word! Just say it's more about combat and exploration (FFXIII really still didnt have any exploration..., goddamn empty ass map)
AceBandage
Banned
Stolen from Hero of Legend:
http://e3.gamespot.com/e3-showfloor-map?tag=content_nav%3Bbooths
Shows Xenoblade at the Nintendo booth.
And also of note, shows BKO at the BN booth.
Take it with a pile of salt, of course.
http://e3.gamespot.com/e3-showfloor-map?tag=content_nav%3Bbooths
Shows Xenoblade at the Nintendo booth.
And also of note, shows BKO at the BN booth.
Take it with a pile of salt, of course.
CryingWolf
Member
Alex said:
I just want to say, I love your comments about FF13. I feel the same way as you do about that pile of garbage.
I don't like hearing Xenoblade compared to FF13 in any way, but I'm not too worried... based on everything I've read about the game's design, I can't imagine that it could be anywhere near as bad as FF13. The designers specifically stressed that they believe in rewarding exploration. They said the world would be massive but dense with content.
I'm looking forward to more impressions from people who are playing, but at this point, if it came out in English tomorrow, I would line up to buy it.
Hero of Legend
Member
AceBandage said:
I WAS going to put this here, but I didn't want BKO risking "derailing".
How funny though; I bought BKO for $10 at a clearance sale brand-new! :lol
Alex
Member
Yeah, FFXIII is like the last thing I had expected it to be compared to. Now, if it were another Xenosaga affair, which is just not for me, that'd have made sense!
But all the trailers I saw showed were big, open environments with lots to see and do, lots of questing, a few really big towns, some interesting looking combat, etc. I'm all for supporting the evolving flow of JRPGs, and there have been a lot of unique and really mechanic heavy entries in the past year.
Also I really attach quickly to big, beautiful game worlds because usually those are supported by heavy customization and a lot of fun content and not so much drolling story. I mean I'm cool with story, fun characters and dialogue, but the extended cutscene spam school of design really needs to die, and for the most part, it really has been lately.
I'm not a Takahashi fan, but I really did like some of his comments about the reform he felt like he was going through for the genre. Some of Bebpo's comments sound the exact opposite, although the whole wilderness, questing, risk and danger and lesser story focus part Bebpo commented on is still warming my heart. I don't mind running around, even a lot, if there is lots to see and do in the environments. I'll wait to hear how it fleshes out in upcoming impressions over time.
I think maybe I'm just reading too much into the FFXIII thing and taking it too literally. It sounds way more interested when reading deeper into it, it's that that game to me is like garlic to a vampire
But all the trailers I saw showed were big, open environments with lots to see and do, lots of questing, a few really big towns, some interesting looking combat, etc. I'm all for supporting the evolving flow of JRPGs, and there have been a lot of unique and really mechanic heavy entries in the past year.
Also I really attach quickly to big, beautiful game worlds because usually those are supported by heavy customization and a lot of fun content and not so much drolling story. I mean I'm cool with story, fun characters and dialogue, but the extended cutscene spam school of design really needs to die, and for the most part, it really has been lately.
I'm not a Takahashi fan, but I really did like some of his comments about the reform he felt like he was going through for the genre. Some of Bebpo's comments sound the exact opposite, although the whole wilderness, questing, risk and danger and lesser story focus part Bebpo commented on is still warming my heart. I don't mind running around, even a lot, if there is lots to see and do in the environments. I'll wait to hear how it fleshes out in upcoming impressions over time.
I think maybe I'm just reading too much into the FFXIII thing and taking it too literally. It sounds way more interested when reading deeper into it, it's that that game to me is like garlic to a vampire
ShineALight
Member
Sorry to continue the BKO derail, but why would that possibly be listed? 3DS port :/?
AceBandage
Banned
ShineALight said:
Or Wiimake (to build up hype for BK3!).
It's frustrating, because it could just be a GS screw up, so it doesn't deserve a thread, but still, it's interesting.
Bel Marduk
Banned
Clearly they listed Origins by accident and actually meant Baten Kaitos 3
But it would be cool for a Wiimake to come out for people who haven't bought it (especially Europeans). If this is even true though...
But it would be cool for a Wiimake to come out for people who haven't bought it (especially Europeans). If this is even true though...
Hero of Legend
Member
Think they could've fit both games into one dual-layered Wii disc?
In fact, do ANY 3rd Party Wii games use dual-layered discs? I only know of Brawl and MP Trilogy.
In fact, do ANY 3rd Party Wii games use dual-layered discs? I only know of Brawl and MP Trilogy.
Hero of Legend
Member
Alex said:
But didn't Origins have two discs? I forget, were the discs two halves of the whole games? What about the original?
SailorCosmos
Member
Hero of Legend said:
I think Sakura Wars - So Long, My Love is also dual-layered.
Alex
Member
Hero of Legend said:
They both did. But 1.4 x 4 = 5.6. Easily enough on a dual layered disc.
This all said, I still think it's an error on Gamespot's part. They don't even wanna publish Graces here, well, assuming that based on their little whiny rant about how their D-list bullshit all tanks, why would they be messing with Baten Kaitos?
I guess it could be 3DS. Launch periods are more sparse, and get more attention, especially over time, but I still think it seems funny.
Watched a stream of this for about an hour or two.
I like the dialogue, from the little bit I watched, the people talked fairly normally without any really annoying and unnecessary quirks, and seem to at least be tolerable. Character design leaves something to be desired however imo. The battles seem pretty fun and the game gives me a really nice adventurous vibe.
I jumped in at what appeared to be somewhere between 8-10 hours into the game (not to mention I know pretty much nothing about this game), so I couldn't make much sense of what was going on. But unless I get super bored and restless, I suppose I intend for it to stay that way until I play it at some point.
I like the dialogue, from the little bit I watched, the people talked fairly normally without any really annoying and unnecessary quirks, and seem to at least be tolerable. Character design leaves something to be desired however imo. The battles seem pretty fun and the game gives me a really nice adventurous vibe.
I jumped in at what appeared to be somewhere between 8-10 hours into the game (not to mention I know pretty much nothing about this game), so I couldn't make much sense of what was going on. But unless I get super bored and restless, I suppose I intend for it to stay that way until I play it at some point.
MidnightScott
Banned
well since this is the release list from January: http://i47.tinypic.com/2sb5uee.jpg
I think we will probably get Xenoblade ^^, hopefully Reginleiv & Last Window too...;-;
I think we will probably get Xenoblade ^^, hopefully Reginleiv & Last Window too...;-;
Fantastical
Death Prophet
Which reminds me, I hope Nintendo puts up nearly transparent sheets to cover their booths before the press conferences this year like they did last year.AceBandage said:
GAF found out about NSMB Wii before it was announced that way.
That was excellent.I seriously doubt GS has any kind of inside information. They are probably just guessing.ivysaur12 said:
Fantastical
Death Prophet
Oh.. yeah...ivysaur12 said:
Gamespot sucks.
nm, what I said earlier. I think I was just burnt out on the game from playing 8 hours straight all day.
Went and did real life things, came back at night and turned it on, fought a good boss, watched some cool cutscenes, did a ton of quests, explored, and the game was fun again.
I think the bulk of the "game" is in there quests and the loot. There is an insane amount of quests. I mean this game would put the most quest heavy wrpg to shame. You can have a 1 screen village of 10 people and you'll get 40+ quests out of them.
What's kind of evil is that some are time restricted (game is nice enough to mark these on your quest list with a timer clock; but you don't know when they'll expire). So suddenly you have 40 quests pop up that are time restricted and all give loot, which may or may not be your only chance to get it in the game. Evillllll
But actually going around and doing them all is fun. The quests are what take advantage of the varied wildlife that roams the land. Quests mainly boil down to "kill x of these enemy" or "get x of these drops from this enemy" or "find my glowing red dot item I dropped somewhere in an area", but they are fun and give you a good incentive for exploring the land. It's a good idea though when you get to an area to save your exploration/killing of the local wildlife until you've run into whoever gives quests for that area since you'll probably finish most of the quests by just exploring the place completely.
Exploring is also nice because even though it doesn't set warpable landmarks most of the time, it sets non-warp ones that name the location. This is useful when you're doing quests because usually say "the creature lives near x landmark" so at least you have an idea of where to go. You also get exp when you find landmarks, but it's so little I think the quest reason is a better reward.
As you explore an area you'll find all sorts of hidden caves and canyons and waterfalls and there really aren't any non-drop treasure chests I think, so the main thing that sets them apart is their local wildlife including often BIG mobs that always drop a rare chest with rare loot when you kill them. I don't think they respawn.
And yeah, messing around with your loot is where a lot of the fun is in the game. You have hundreds or pieces of equipment. You can play normally for 20 mins, open up your menu and you have a dozen new equipment items. So mixing and matching, then making gems and placing them allows you to constantly be beefing up your characters. It's very mmo/loot game in that respect but it's fun. It also helps to actually stop every 20-30 mins and do this because you can get the boost in stats that you need to defeat the enemies ahead.
The battle system is fast and fun, but I can't sing 100% praises to it. It seems like for normal enemies and even big mobs you pretty much do the same thing for every battle no matter the enemy. Buff your buffs, try to tumble/knock out the enemy if possible, and do your back slash from the back, side slash from the side, and wait for stuff to recharge and repeat. The one interesting bit is the Monado attacks since unlike your normal arts you have to choose 1 and that's it. So depending on the situation you might want DEF shield buff, SPD buff, super attack, and other stuff. I think if you could actually control all 3 characters this battle system would be the deepest of any MMO-style rpg. Since there are some real interesting abilities that each character has that are meant as support abilities for a party strategy. Even without controlling them, there's depth but I'm still waiting for strategy to shine. The most strategic parts in the game so far are when you see visions of a party member about to die in 10 seconds and you have to think fast on how to prevent it. The boss fights are also a lot more exciting than normal mobs and make you think quick and use some strategy.
I think the actual cutscene cutscenes (aka, not two people standing still with dialogue bubbles) have really good direction. Especially the action direction. Wish there were more of them, but what is there is quality cutscenes.
Anyhow, I'm going to not marathon the game so much in the future. Definitely the kind of game you can get burnt out on in long sessions. But if you aren't burnt out, it's a very fun and satisfying experience.
Went and did real life things, came back at night and turned it on, fought a good boss, watched some cool cutscenes, did a ton of quests, explored, and the game was fun again.
I think the bulk of the "game" is in there quests and the loot. There is an insane amount of quests. I mean this game would put the most quest heavy wrpg to shame. You can have a 1 screen village of 10 people and you'll get 40+ quests out of them.
What's kind of evil is that some are time restricted (game is nice enough to mark these on your quest list with a timer clock; but you don't know when they'll expire). So suddenly you have 40 quests pop up that are time restricted and all give loot, which may or may not be your only chance to get it in the game. Evillllll
But actually going around and doing them all is fun. The quests are what take advantage of the varied wildlife that roams the land. Quests mainly boil down to "kill x of these enemy" or "get x of these drops from this enemy" or "find my glowing red dot item I dropped somewhere in an area", but they are fun and give you a good incentive for exploring the land. It's a good idea though when you get to an area to save your exploration/killing of the local wildlife until you've run into whoever gives quests for that area since you'll probably finish most of the quests by just exploring the place completely.
Exploring is also nice because even though it doesn't set warpable landmarks most of the time, it sets non-warp ones that name the location. This is useful when you're doing quests because usually say "the creature lives near x landmark" so at least you have an idea of where to go. You also get exp when you find landmarks, but it's so little I think the quest reason is a better reward.
As you explore an area you'll find all sorts of hidden caves and canyons and waterfalls and there really aren't any non-drop treasure chests I think, so the main thing that sets them apart is their local wildlife including often BIG mobs that always drop a rare chest with rare loot when you kill them. I don't think they respawn.
And yeah, messing around with your loot is where a lot of the fun is in the game. You have hundreds or pieces of equipment. You can play normally for 20 mins, open up your menu and you have a dozen new equipment items. So mixing and matching, then making gems and placing them allows you to constantly be beefing up your characters. It's very mmo/loot game in that respect but it's fun. It also helps to actually stop every 20-30 mins and do this because you can get the boost in stats that you need to defeat the enemies ahead.
The battle system is fast and fun, but I can't sing 100% praises to it. It seems like for normal enemies and even big mobs you pretty much do the same thing for every battle no matter the enemy. Buff your buffs, try to tumble/knock out the enemy if possible, and do your back slash from the back, side slash from the side, and wait for stuff to recharge and repeat. The one interesting bit is the Monado attacks since unlike your normal arts you have to choose 1 and that's it. So depending on the situation you might want DEF shield buff, SPD buff, super attack, and other stuff. I think if you could actually control all 3 characters this battle system would be the deepest of any MMO-style rpg. Since there are some real interesting abilities that each character has that are meant as support abilities for a party strategy. Even without controlling them, there's depth but I'm still waiting for strategy to shine. The most strategic parts in the game so far are when you see visions of a party member about to die in 10 seconds and you have to think fast on how to prevent it. The boss fights are also a lot more exciting than normal mobs and make you think quick and use some strategy.
I think the actual cutscene cutscenes (aka, not two people standing still with dialogue bubbles) have really good direction. Especially the action direction. Wish there were more of them, but what is there is quality cutscenes.
Anyhow, I'm going to not marathon the game so much in the future. Definitely the kind of game you can get burnt out on in long sessions. But if you aren't burnt out, it's a very fun and satisfying experience.
Looks like I'm pretty far behind now, and have some catching up to do. Right now, I'm
. My thoughts on the game haven't changed much, except like Bebpo expressed, I'm a bit tired of doing the same thing in every battle already.
watching the cutscene where Shulk saves Rein from the spider in the cave
CryingWolf
Member
Thanks for sharing your impressions, Bepbo. I think a lot of people will be happy to read that. I know I am.
Alex
Member
Revised impressions rock, thanks a lot, Bebpo! I didn't know about all of the loot and itemization in the game. That's extremely encouraging to me and it goes hand in hand with a wide open game like that.
I'm going to get whiplash from the 180 I just took. It went from being like FFXIII to a open area quest n' loot with JRPG trimmings!? For me, who is a massive fan of a lot of what you mentioned, that's like going from dipping your head in a deep fryer to a prime rib dinner in your golden house
I'm really, really interested now. This is turning out to be a really amazing year for RPGs.
I'm going to get whiplash from the 180 I just took. It went from being like FFXIII to a open area quest n' loot with JRPG trimmings!? For me, who is a massive fan of a lot of what you mentioned, that's like going from dipping your head in a deep fryer to a prime rib dinner in your golden house
I'm really, really interested now. This is turning out to be a really amazing year for RPGs.
Aeana said:
Yeah. I think the battle system is actually too fast. A lot of times, especially if the camera is up close because of a cramped area or if there are like 6 enemies attacking you at once, you have no idea what is going on and you just do your motions and look at the HP bars and hope for the best :lol
When the vision thing pops up. I think the best bet is to either buff def with the main guy or if your monado attack is still recharging to use a tension bar and have that character block and try to throw some healing at them, or to try to hit the enemy hard and interrupt their attack or kill them.
Alex said:
Loot is really where all the customization is. You can use AP you earn to upgrade your artes, but if you have an attack that does 500 damage and takes 25 seconds to recharge, going up a level makes it ~550 damage and 24.3 seconds to recharge. So the upgrades are minor to the point that frankly you don't really notice the changes. Same with the passive skills that are at least early on, all relatively minor boosts that don't effect much.
But upgrading your equipment from loot drops that changes your def stats from 80 -> 130? You'll notice that
I also think after I start getting more than 3 party members who have more than 8 arts, the strategy of who to use and what arts to equip will be a big part of battle strategy going into tough mobs and bosses. Especially since so far each character is really unique in their arts.
Also I dunno if I mentioned it or anyone else mentioned it but you can also trade items with people in towns like the .hack games. Sometimes people will have really good loot. The more quests you do for a town, the more the townspeople like you and give you even more quests and in turn the items they are willing to trade improve.
And finally I think I should mention that I have a predisposition against GIANT worlds with mainly animals/enemies and actual locations few and far between, so that affects how I'm going to feel about the game. I enjoy nice size explorable worlds like FFXII or DQVIII or Fallout 1/2 where you get the sense that there's a lot to explore and find, but at the same time traveling is decently quick and you don't feel like you're actually some guy on a 1,000 mile journey. Otoh I don't like Bethesda world maps at all and when I played Fallout 3 I used a motorcycle mod to explore the world at a much quicker pace
But I know Bethesda has a huge fanbase, as do MMOs like FFXI that take forever to go through a city because of the scale, so obviously a lot of people really like a realistic giant size scale even if it means a lot of time spent walking/running. They should have no issues at all with Xenoblade's world and love it
Alex
Member
I like giant worlds, but I require density from them. Unique landmarks, general things to look at, unique spots to explore and for them to hide unique bosses, loot, etc, in. Modern Bethesda usually does ok, Warcraft, especially WOTLK uses it's world, lots of games really I can sit here and name.
Generic, unwavering blocks of plain terrain without much to do in it, however, is awful. People actually liked that stuff in say... Daggerfall, Final Fantasy XIII's Gran Pulse, etc, I think these people are a bit crazy. Even Red Dead Redemption can be a bit iffy here, though my adoration for that game doesn't falter much from it.
I will agree that after a set amount of time in those types though they should offer a mode of transportation, at least in previously explored areas.
Generic, unwavering blocks of plain terrain without much to do in it, however, is awful. People actually liked that stuff in say... Daggerfall, Final Fantasy XIII's Gran Pulse, etc, I think these people are a bit crazy. Even Red Dead Redemption can be a bit iffy here, though my adoration for that game doesn't falter much from it.
I will agree that after a set amount of time in those types though they should offer a mode of transportation, at least in previously explored areas.
Kinda disappointed to hear about the time-sensitive quests, as someone who is OCD about quest completion in games... thought developers on the whole were moving away from missable stuff in games? Ahhh well, will be interesting to hear your impressions when you are finished with the game, Bebpo.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Hmm, not a fan of when quests are a commodity.
Quests aside, assuming I do 10 and skip the rest, how's the game hold up?
Quests aside, assuming I do 10 and skip the rest, how's the game hold up?
B-Rad Lascelle
Banned
If Bebpo keeps making allusions to FFXIII when commenting on Xenoblade, it'll garner plenty of hate soon enough.Cep said:
Not from me, though... I enjoyed FFXIII. Xenoblade is easily my most anticipated game at this point.
carlo6529 said:
Basically. You get EXP while exploring and discovering stuff. Huge seamless world with very little loading. Mobs all over the place. Heh, heh. Available quests marked with "!". Heh, it even has some kind of "talent tree" system. No doubt that the guys who made this game play WoW. But, that's not really a bad thing. Because the world is so huge, it's easy to spend 4 or 5 hours just wandering around killing mobs and doin' quests. First time I leveled up after discovering a landmark, I practically fell over laughing, because that's something I do sometimes in WoW just for giggles. Hell, they even have high level mobs running around in the middle of low level mobs. First time I was exploring some area and found this huge turtle mob. I got close, then targeted it to find out it was level 73 and it turned around and one shotted me. Heh, heh.
I've put about 15 hours into the game so far and I'm not bored yet. Though, I do agree that long play sessions can burn you out, so moderating your time is a good idea. The good thing is that most of the quests I've done have been easy to deal with since they're for areas I'm going to so I can do them without really trying. I'm having a lot of fun with the game, and strangely enough my wife, who is pretty much against recent JRPGs, is dying to play the game now. So the English version can't come soon enough for her. Anyway, I think the scale of the game is massive, and people who don't enjoy massive games with this kind of scale probably won't like it.
The one thing that bothers me, though, is the fact that facing same level mobs can be tough. I'm level 20, and level 18 mobs will still kick my ass. More than one mob and fights can last a long time. I don't mind this since I enjoy the combat system, but not being able to beat mobs the same level is sad. Make no mistake, you die a lot in this game, but dying to same level mobs is disheartening for me.
Got to say for a minute Xenoblade had turned into my most desired game of the year with it being compared to FF XIII since I truly loved that game, but it seems that was receded pretty quick.
I also watched a live stream, though I don't think I was able to learn much about the game other then the combat looks kinda fun and I am pretty sure I am going to hate all the characters.
Still I am excited and can't wait to get my hands on it, just not the highest thing on my list.
I also watched a live stream, though I don't think I was able to learn much about the game other then the combat looks kinda fun and I am pretty sure I am going to hate all the characters.
Still I am excited and can't wait to get my hands on it, just not the highest thing on my list.
Alex
Member
On the difficulty, Japanese RPGs often have a severe problem in that for all of the stats and loot and mechanics you might get in a game that has it's heart in the right place, they can often all be for naught in that the game doesn't really push you to really work them and think.
There's been a pretty good assortment of JRPGs lately that are really good thinking man's games over the past year or so. Some real opportunities for things where you can really be pushed to use all of the content and try to find tricks to abuse and break the systems. Not just consume mindlessly and move on like a lot of the (bad) genre darlings.
Quests are also the way to go for a world with actual scope. Fleshing out the floura and fauna and the nooks and crannies and giving life to the actual landscape with marks and meaning. It would be pretty disappointing to me, if it was just another swamp of overly controlled set pieces. That's not just MMO style... That's a lot of style from WRPGs and open world in general. It completely makes sense for playability in a game of this type.
I think, from the sound of it, Xenoblade will probably be a pretty mixed title. It's going to probably turn off a lot of folks who are into this splintered franchise who are really just looking to consume set pieces and cutscenes in a way that tickles their anime fancy but also gives a few twitches of stimulus. That's basically what Xenogears and Xenosaga was, and those people are probably going to be taken aside by this reform.
But on the other hand, I think it'll pull in some new and lapsed fans of JRPGs, to go along with things like this. Fleshing out the actual mechanics and putting out a good, smart adventure that doesn't hold one hand while perpetually ripping the controller out of the other and wrapping it together with meaningful genre evolutions with the world design and less emphasis on just hyper linear setpiece events, it'll do a lot of good for some folks.
There's been a pretty good assortment of JRPGs lately that are really good thinking man's games over the past year or so. Some real opportunities for things where you can really be pushed to use all of the content and try to find tricks to abuse and break the systems. Not just consume mindlessly and move on like a lot of the (bad) genre darlings.
Quests are also the way to go for a world with actual scope. Fleshing out the floura and fauna and the nooks and crannies and giving life to the actual landscape with marks and meaning. It would be pretty disappointing to me, if it was just another swamp of overly controlled set pieces. That's not just MMO style... That's a lot of style from WRPGs and open world in general. It completely makes sense for playability in a game of this type.
I think, from the sound of it, Xenoblade will probably be a pretty mixed title. It's going to probably turn off a lot of folks who are into this splintered franchise who are really just looking to consume set pieces and cutscenes in a way that tickles their anime fancy but also gives a few twitches of stimulus. That's basically what Xenogears and Xenosaga was, and those people are probably going to be taken aside by this reform.
But on the other hand, I think it'll pull in some new and lapsed fans of JRPGs, to go along with things like this. Fleshing out the actual mechanics and putting out a good, smart adventure that doesn't hold one hand while perpetually ripping the controller out of the other and wrapping it together with meaningful genre evolutions with the world design and less emphasis on just hyper linear setpiece events, it'll do a lot of good for some folks.