My attraction to the open world isn't about doing things in it but exploring it. Most of what I've seen from this game is the few gifs that get posted and some videos here and there. I've probably barley seen 15% of the whole world and I want to just go and explore it all to see the sights.
Xenoblade X Eurogamer Preview: Maybe 2015's Most Impressive Open World
- Thread starter Malus
- Start date
timetokill
Banned
Man I am psyched for this, but I'll probably wait until Xmas to start.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I'm sure anything I can say be considered instantly biased, but I disagree with this.Exploring often reminds me of Crackdown - for example, was just doing chapter 5 (wont spoil specifics) and using careful jumps to basically use the mountain ridges to get around a bunch of tough enemies to reach the goal - I love finding stuff like that and I feel like it's all over the game world. There's so much to see and do - and thanks to the combat (which is really great IMO), I never get tired of exploring in this game.
Haven't played Fallout yet so not comparing to anything else, just saying, on its own, I find the game world to pretty nice!
It's definitely fun to navigate, but it's pretty empty in terms of "content" as would be defined by games like the ones Bethesda makes or The Witcher 3, for example.
That's fine, though. Xenoblade X is filled with cool monsters to fight and it's fun to navigate the environments. It's just a different kind of open world.
I'm 30 hours in, might as well share some of my impressions (reviewing it for a Dutch site). Overall, it's a very weird game. Very ambitious and spectacular in some parts, almost archaic in others.
+ The scale of the world is amazing. Just running around the plains in the first area (Primordia) and seeing huge creatures all over the place made me feel like a wide-eyed kid visiting an alternative version of Jurassic Park. I've been running around all areas for hours and I'm still regularly impressed by the vistas, the creatures and the hugeness of it all.
+ Exploration is constantly encouraged and rewarded. The game has an extensive map that's always showcased on the GamePad. One of the main things that you do in this game is go out and plant probes on designated spots in the map. This gives you experience, it creates a quick-travel point and shows some points of interest in the surrounding area. Getting to the place where the probe can be planted is often quite a trip. It really feels like you're an adventurer, going into wild unexplored territory and slowly charting the place.
+ Movement is surprisingly good. Your character has a fast running animation and a cool astronaut jump that propels you forward with some momentum. It's one of the reasons exploring is so much fun.
+ The battle-system has evolved in some pretty meaningful ways. Overall I'd say it's way more active and fast-paced. It's still all about staggering and toppling enemies, but there is just so much more going on. Arts now all have secondary cooldowns that add some effects, forcing you to consider timing a bit more. Healing is now mainly done by using an Art-type one of your teammates call out (healing Arts are mostly gone). Your avatar can pick between multiple classes, there are mechs... there is just a lot going on.
+ Monolith have become masters at designing videogame landmasses. Mira has very interesting landforms on top of an incredible sense of verticality. There are huge waterfalls, trees and mountains. There are valleys, underground passages, lakes and so much more. It looks natural, which is a great achievement.
+ Skells are so fucking cool bro. Seriously, it's not just because you're piloting a mech. There are so many customization options and cool stuff to buy for it. It's easy to create the mech you've been dreaming off since watching Gundam Wing as a kid. Mine wields two light-sabers and also packs two cannons strapped to his back. It also adds yet another layer to the exploration.
+ I love the soundtrack. Yeah, it's totally Sawano, but even walking around town gets me hyped.
~ I can't really judge the story yet, I'm just a bit past the halfway mark. I can tell it's not going to be as good as the original Xenoblade though (which I consider to be fairly good). There are some typical Monolith twists though and it does enough to keep me interested. The real problem are the characters, which I'll get to later.
~ This game doesn't explain itself...at all. Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most hardcore games I've played. Seriously, I can't believe how newbie unfriendly this game is. I finished the original Xenoblade and I'm an avid fan of games like Dark Souls, but I still had trouble understanding the plethora of systems in Xenoblade X. The game only has a very basic tutorial, but it pretty much never explains some of the crucial mechanics. I actually had to read the manual to find out about lots of stuff (how to switch targets for example). Even now I'm still struggling with some of the details like the importance of attributes and what different Skell parts do. Why is there no in-game encyclopedia?! I'm sure this will become easier once online guides start coming out, but initially you'll have to dive in pretty deep yourself.
~ The online stuff so far seems kind of blah. There is some asynchronous stuff going on, but do I really need to have a constant feed of the achievements other people have unlocked? I don't think it adds much to the game, but I still need to test some modes out.
~ Unlike the rest of Mira New Los Angeles is kind of flat and bland. Having Skells walking around makes up for it a little.
- The quest design is horrendous. Before I explain why you should know there are 3 types of missions: main story missions, affinity quests and 'basic' missions. The basic missions are basically MMO-style quests that you grab from a board and mostly boil down to kill X or collect X. There are tons of these and I've completely ignored them. The affinity quests involve solving an issue for a particular character and have some (mostly silly) cutscenes. The main missions advance the story.
Here's the problem: affinity quests are also all boring fetch-quests. You are asked to just go to a place and kill a couple of monsters or to collect a rare material. There is never a cool twist to this, making them all very tedious in terms of gameplay. The other problem is that there is no narrative payoff either, but I'll get to that in the next bullet-point. The main story missions are mostly fine, because they just ask you to go to a certain place you haven't been deep into an area. They play on the strengths of exploration I mentioned earlier. But there are only
(number) story missions in the game. There are dozens of affinity quests, which makes them the main meat of the game. You also can't completely ignore them, as you are required to do some to access the next story mission. The quest design in this game feels light-years behind something like Witcher 3.
- The characters are plain bad. They seem to have come out of some Star Ocean game. It's like all the charm found in the original Xenoblade was completely sucked out. The silent avatar is a shame and makes some scenes awkward. Elma is fairly decent, but mostly bland. Lin is annoying. Most of the jokes revolve around her and this Nopon named Tetsu, but I was never even close to cracking a smile. This is a far cry from the amazing Riki. The rest of the cast is completely anonymous or just some tired cliché. You mostly get to know them through the affinity quests, but as I said the narrative payoff isn't there. Most scenes devolve into lame and predictable jokes. I don't care for any of the characters right now. A huge step back from the predecessor.
- It doesn't help that the cutscenes are incredibly stilted. Characters stand around like statues while yapping with the worst lip-syncing I've seen since Final Fantasy X. I don't understand why the scenes lack any dynamism or life. The only exception so far is the scene were you first get your mech, which is jaw-droppingly cool. The voice-acting is thankfully mostly good, but there is an alien species that exclusively talks with exaggerated chipmunk voices.
Damn, didn’t think I was going to write this much. Even talking about this game is a big timesink.
+ The scale of the world is amazing. Just running around the plains in the first area (Primordia) and seeing huge creatures all over the place made me feel like a wide-eyed kid visiting an alternative version of Jurassic Park. I've been running around all areas for hours and I'm still regularly impressed by the vistas, the creatures and the hugeness of it all.
+ Exploration is constantly encouraged and rewarded. The game has an extensive map that's always showcased on the GamePad. One of the main things that you do in this game is go out and plant probes on designated spots in the map. This gives you experience, it creates a quick-travel point and shows some points of interest in the surrounding area. Getting to the place where the probe can be planted is often quite a trip. It really feels like you're an adventurer, going into wild unexplored territory and slowly charting the place.
+ Movement is surprisingly good. Your character has a fast running animation and a cool astronaut jump that propels you forward with some momentum. It's one of the reasons exploring is so much fun.
+ The battle-system has evolved in some pretty meaningful ways. Overall I'd say it's way more active and fast-paced. It's still all about staggering and toppling enemies, but there is just so much more going on. Arts now all have secondary cooldowns that add some effects, forcing you to consider timing a bit more. Healing is now mainly done by using an Art-type one of your teammates call out (healing Arts are mostly gone). Your avatar can pick between multiple classes, there are mechs... there is just a lot going on.
+ Monolith have become masters at designing videogame landmasses. Mira has very interesting landforms on top of an incredible sense of verticality. There are huge waterfalls, trees and mountains. There are valleys, underground passages, lakes and so much more. It looks natural, which is a great achievement.
+ Skells are so fucking cool bro. Seriously, it's not just because you're piloting a mech. There are so many customization options and cool stuff to buy for it. It's easy to create the mech you've been dreaming off since watching Gundam Wing as a kid. Mine wields two light-sabers and also packs two cannons strapped to his back. It also adds yet another layer to the exploration.
+ I love the soundtrack. Yeah, it's totally Sawano, but even walking around town gets me hyped.
~ I can't really judge the story yet, I'm just a bit past the halfway mark. I can tell it's not going to be as good as the original Xenoblade though (which I consider to be fairly good). There are some typical Monolith twists though and it does enough to keep me interested. The real problem are the characters, which I'll get to later.
~ This game doesn't explain itself...at all. Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most hardcore games I've played. Seriously, I can't believe how newbie unfriendly this game is. I finished the original Xenoblade and I'm an avid fan of games like Dark Souls, but I still had trouble understanding the plethora of systems in Xenoblade X. The game only has a very basic tutorial, but it pretty much never explains some of the crucial mechanics. I actually had to read the manual to find out about lots of stuff (how to switch targets for example). Even now I'm still struggling with some of the details like the importance of attributes and what different Skell parts do. Why is there no in-game encyclopedia?! I'm sure this will become easier once online guides start coming out, but initially you'll have to dive in pretty deep yourself.
~ The online stuff so far seems kind of blah. There is some asynchronous stuff going on, but do I really need to have a constant feed of the achievements other people have unlocked? I don't think it adds much to the game, but I still need to test some modes out.
~ Unlike the rest of Mira New Los Angeles is kind of flat and bland. Having Skells walking around makes up for it a little.
- The quest design is horrendous. Before I explain why you should know there are 3 types of missions: main story missions, affinity quests and 'basic' missions. The basic missions are basically MMO-style quests that you grab from a board and mostly boil down to kill X or collect X. There are tons of these and I've completely ignored them. The affinity quests involve solving an issue for a particular character and have some (mostly silly) cutscenes. The main missions advance the story.
Here's the problem: affinity quests are also all boring fetch-quests. You are asked to just go to a place and kill a couple of monsters or to collect a rare material. There is never a cool twist to this, making them all very tedious in terms of gameplay. The other problem is that there is no narrative payoff either, but I'll get to that in the next bullet-point. The main story missions are mostly fine, because they just ask you to go to a certain place you haven't been deep into an area. They play on the strengths of exploration I mentioned earlier. But there are only
12
- The characters are plain bad. They seem to have come out of some Star Ocean game. It's like all the charm found in the original Xenoblade was completely sucked out. The silent avatar is a shame and makes some scenes awkward. Elma is fairly decent, but mostly bland. Lin is annoying. Most of the jokes revolve around her and this Nopon named Tetsu, but I was never even close to cracking a smile. This is a far cry from the amazing Riki. The rest of the cast is completely anonymous or just some tired cliché. You mostly get to know them through the affinity quests, but as I said the narrative payoff isn't there. Most scenes devolve into lame and predictable jokes. I don't care for any of the characters right now. A huge step back from the predecessor.
- It doesn't help that the cutscenes are incredibly stilted. Characters stand around like statues while yapping with the worst lip-syncing I've seen since Final Fantasy X. I don't understand why the scenes lack any dynamism or life. The only exception so far is the scene were you first get your mech, which is jaw-droppingly cool. The voice-acting is thankfully mostly good, but there is an alien species that exclusively talks with exaggerated chipmunk voices.
Damn, didn’t think I was going to write this much. Even talking about this game is a big timesink.
Astral Dog
Member
Damn sounds like a big step down from Xenoblade, hope the good things outnumber the bad.I'm 30 hours in, might as well share some of my impressions (reviewing it for a Dutch site). Overall, it's a very weird game. Very ambitious and spectacular in some parts, almost archaic in others.
+ The scale of the world is amazing. Just running around the plains in the first area (Primordia) and seeing huge creatures all over the place made me feel like a wide-eyed kid visiting an alternative version of Jurassic Park. I've been running around all areas for hours and I'm still regularly impressed by the vistas, the creatures and the hugeness of it all.
+ Exploration is constantly encouraged and rewarded. The game has an extensive map that's always showcased on the GamePad. One of the main things that you do in this game is go out and plant probes on designated spots in the map. This gives you experience, it creates a quick-travel point and shows some points of interest in the surrounding area. Getting to the place where the probe can be planted is often quite a trip. It really feels like you're an adventurer, going into wild unexplored territory and slowly charting the place.
+ Movement is surprisingly good. Your character has a fast running animation and a cool astronaut jump that propels you forward with some momentum. It's one of the reasons exploring is so much fun.
+ The battle-system has evolved in some pretty meaningful ways. Overall I'd say it's way more active and fast-paced. It's still all about staggering and toppling enemies, but there is just so much more going on. Arts now all have secondary cooldowns that add some effects, forcing you to consider timing a bit more. Healing is now mainly done by using an Art-type one of your teammates call out (healing Arts are mostly gone). Your avatar can pick between multiple classes, there are mechs... there is just a lot going on.
+ Monolith have become masters at designing videogame landmasses. Mira has very interesting landforms on top of an incredible sense of verticality. There are huge waterfalls, trees and mountains. There are valleys, underground passages, lakes and so much more. It looks natural, which is a great achievement.
+ Skells are so fucking cool bro. Seriously, it's not just because you're piloting a mech. There are so many customization options and cool stuff to buy for it. It's easy to create the mech you've been dreaming off since watching Gundam Wing as a kid. Mine wields two light-sabers and also packs two cannons strapped to his back. It also adds yet another layer to the exploration.
+ I love the soundtrack. Yeah, it's totally Sawano, but even walking around town gets me hyped.
~ I can't really judge the story yet, I'm just a bit past the halfway mark. I can tell it's not going to be as good as the original Xenoblade though (which I consider to be fairly good). There are some typical Monolith twists though and it does enough to keep me interested. The real problem are the characters, which I'll get to later.
~ This game doesn't explain itself...at all. Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most hardcore games I've played. Seriously, I can't believe how newbie unfriendly this game is. I finished the original Xenoblade and I'm an avid fan of games like Dark Souls, but I still had trouble understanding the plethora of systems in Xenoblade X. The game only has a very basic tutorial, but it pretty much never explains some of the crucial mechanics. I actually had to read the manual to find out about lots of stuff (how to switch targets for example). Even now I'm still struggling with some of the details like the importance of attributes and what different Skell parts do. Why is there no in-game encyclopedia?! I'm sure this will become easier once online guides start coming out, but initially you'll have to dive in pretty deep yourself.
~ The online stuff so far seems kind of blah. There is some asynchronous stuff going on, but do I really need to have a constant feed of the achievements other people have unlocked? I don't think it adds much to the game, but I still need to test some modes out.
~ Unlike the rest of Mira New Los Angeles is kind of flat and bland. Having Skells walking around makes up for it a little.
- The quest design is horrendous. Before I explain why you should know there are 3 types of missions: main story missions, affinity quests and 'basic' missions. The basic missions are basically MMO-style quests that you grab from a board and mostly boil down to kill X or collect X. There are tons of these and I've completely ignored them. The affinity quests involve solving an issue for a particular character and have some (mostly silly) cutscenes. The main missions advance the story.
Here's the problem: affinity quests are also all boring fetch-quests. You are asked to just go to a place and kill a couple of monsters or to collect a rare material. There is never a cool twist to this, making them all very tedious in terms of gameplay. The other problem is that there is no narrative payoff either, but I'll get to that in the next bullet-point. The main story missions are mostly fine, because they just ask you to go to a certain place you haven't been deep into an area. They play on the strengths of exploration I mentioned earlier. But there are only(number) story missions in the game. There are dozens of affinity quests, which makes them the main meat of the game. You also can't completely ignore them, as you are required to do some to access the next story mission. The quest design in this game feels light-years behind something like Witcher 3.12
- The characters are plain bad. They seem to have come out of some Star Ocean game. It's like all the charm found in the original Xenoblade was completely sucked out. The silent avatar is a shame and makes some scenes awkward. Elma is fairly decent, but mostly bland. Lin is annoying. Most of the jokes revolve around her and this Nopon named Tetsu, but I was never even close to cracking a smile. This is a far cry from the amazing Riki. The rest of the cast is completely anonymous or just some tired cliché. You mostly get to know them through the affinity quests, but as I said the narrative payoff isn't there. Most scenes devolve into lame and predictable jokes. I don't care for any of the characters right now. A huge step back from the predecessor.
- It doesn't help that the cutscenes are incredibly stilted. Characters stand around like statues while yapping with the worst lip-syncing I've seen since Final Fantasy X. I don't understand why the scenes lack any dynamism or life. The only exception so far is the scene were you first get your mech, which is jaw-droppingly cool. The voice-acting is thankfully mostly good, but there is an alien species that exclusively talks with exaggerated chipmunk voices.
Damn, didnt think I was going to write this much. Even talking about this game is a big timesink.
Just to clear this up, there is no game audio through the GamePad unless you enter Off-TV mode. Off-TV mode displays the game on both screens. If you want to play with headphones you'll have to sacrifice the map that shows on the GamePad, which I really don't recommend.
Thanks for the impressions. For the most part none of the negatives bother me; I like MMO-style quests and I prefer a de-emphasis on story/characters these days. I just want to go out and explore and fight.
Xaero Gravity
NEXT LEVEL lame™
Yeah, those cons seem like serious ones to me.
Sounds like a step down if you only read the negatives lol. Combat evolved in meaningful ways, when combat is such a big chunk of the game. Exploration enhanced by character movement, gamepad integration, and god damn giant flying transforming mechs. Another huge element of the series improved over the original. That's not even getting to the play value difference. Quests are another huge element that I expect to be improved based on what I've read, even if they're not improved enough for some people. The part about the online surprises me since it's been generally getting praise from the media.
The complaints about quests are very similar to those of Xeno Wii. I always enjoyed any excuse to continue exploring (Colony 6 series of quests was my favorite, and that involved a lot of rng farming), but I can see how it gets annoying to some. The fact that there are required quests will certainly get on some people's nerves. Same as the complaints about the game not explaining things. Xeno Wii never even told you what Agility did explicitly, when it's perhaps the best attribute in the game. I definitely encourage anybody playing Xenoblade to consult an online guide for the finer details.
Complaints about the story/characters/cutscenes will be really subjective at the end of the day. I'll just have to see for myself. Xeno Wii could be very awkward and stiff at times with the cutscenes/dialogue and I know people complained about it being a "generic anime story" or some such. The excellent world building really helped make up for that imo.
It's fine if you don't like the game, but people are gonna dismiss your opinions if you don't turn down the hyperbole a couple levels.
Feel free to point out the hyperbole.
I did. If you can't see that I don't know what to tell you.
Honestly, while good, the story/characters in Xenoblade Chronicles proper wasn't THAT great in the first place (the last few hours and the ending however more than made up for that though). What had me coming back to the game was the world, its soundtrack and the combat. This game seems to have all of that in spades PLUS Mechs and that's more than good enough for me.
Added the gameinformer preview from September in case anybody missed it.
That's unfortunate. I wish Nintendo standardized this feature. It's such an easy way to improve the experience.
That's unfortunate. I wish Nintendo standardized this feature. It's such an easy way to improve the experience.
Labrynian Rebel
Member
I'm 30 hours in, might as well share some of my impressions (reviewing it for a Dutch site). Overall, it's a very weird game. Very ambitious and spectacular in some parts, almost archaic in others.
+ The scale of the world is amazing. Just running around the plains in the first area (Primordia) and seeing huge creatures all over the place made me feel like a wide-eyed kid visiting an alternative version of Jurassic Park. I've been running around all areas for hours and I'm still regularly impressed by the vistas, the creatures and the hugeness of it all.
+ Exploration is constantly encouraged and rewarded. The game has an extensive map that's always showcased on the GamePad. One of the main things that you do in this game is go out and plant probes on designated spots in the map. This gives you experience, it creates a quick-travel point and shows some points of interest in the surrounding area. Getting to the place where the probe can be planted is often quite a trip. It really feels like you're an adventurer, going into wild unexplored territory and slowly charting the place.
+ Movement is surprisingly good. Your character has a fast running animation and a cool astronaut jump that propels you forward with some momentum. It's one of the reasons exploring is so much fun.
+ The battle-system has evolved in some pretty meaningful ways. Overall I'd say it's way more active and fast-paced. It's still all about staggering and toppling enemies, but there is just so much more going on. Arts now all have secondary cooldowns that add some effects, forcing you to consider timing a bit more. Healing is now mainly done by using an Art-type one of your teammates call out (healing Arts are mostly gone). Your avatar can pick between multiple classes, there are mechs... there is just a lot going on.
+ Monolith have become masters at designing videogame landmasses. Mira has very interesting landforms on top of an incredible sense of verticality. There are huge waterfalls, trees and mountains. There are valleys, underground passages, lakes and so much more. It looks natural, which is a great achievement.
+ Skells are so fucking cool bro. Seriously, it's not just because you're piloting a mech. There are so many customization options and cool stuff to buy for it. It's easy to create the mech you've been dreaming off since watching Gundam Wing as a kid. Mine wields two light-sabers and also packs two cannons strapped to his back. It also adds yet another layer to the exploration.
+ I love the soundtrack. Yeah, it's totally Sawano, but even walking around town gets me hyped.
~ I can't really judge the story yet, I'm just a bit past the halfway mark. I can tell it's not going to be as good as the original Xenoblade though (which I consider to be fairly good). There are some typical Monolith twists though and it does enough to keep me interested. The real problem are the characters, which I'll get to later.
~ This game doesn't explain itself...at all. Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most hardcore games I've played. Seriously, I can't believe how newbie unfriendly this game is. I finished the original Xenoblade and I'm an avid fan of games like Dark Souls, but I still had trouble understanding the plethora of systems in Xenoblade X. The game only has a very basic tutorial, but it pretty much never explains some of the crucial mechanics. I actually had to read the manual to find out about lots of stuff (how to switch targets for example). Even now I'm still struggling with some of the details like the importance of attributes and what different Skell parts do. Why is there no in-game encyclopedia?! I'm sure this will become easier once online guides start coming out, but initially you'll have to dive in pretty deep yourself.
~ The online stuff so far seems kind of blah. There is some asynchronous stuff going on, but do I really need to have a constant feed of the achievements other people have unlocked? I don't think it adds much to the game, but I still need to test some modes out.
~ Unlike the rest of Mira New Los Angeles is kind of flat and bland. Having Skells walking around makes up for it a little.
- The quest design is horrendous. Before I explain why you should know there are 3 types of missions: main story missions, affinity quests and 'basic' missions. The basic missions are basically MMO-style quests that you grab from a board and mostly boil down to kill X or collect X. There are tons of these and I've completely ignored them. The affinity quests involve solving an issue for a particular character and have some (mostly silly) cutscenes. The main missions advance the story.
Here's the problem: affinity quests are also all boring fetch-quests. You are asked to just go to a place and kill a couple of monsters or to collect a rare material. There is never a cool twist to this, making them all very tedious in terms of gameplay. The other problem is that there is no narrative payoff either, but I'll get to that in the next bullet-point. The main story missions are mostly fine, because they just ask you to go to a certain place you haven't been deep into an area. They play on the strengths of exploration I mentioned earlier. But there are only(number) story missions in the game. There are dozens of affinity quests, which makes them the main meat of the game. You also can't completely ignore them, as you are required to do some to access the next story mission. The quest design in this game feels light-years behind something like Witcher 3.12
- The characters are plain bad. They seem to have come out of some Star Ocean game. It's like all the charm found in the original Xenoblade was completely sucked out. The silent avatar is a shame and makes some scenes awkward. Elma is fairly decent, but mostly bland. Lin is annoying. Most of the jokes revolve around her and this Nopon named Tetsu, but I was never even close to cracking a smile. This is a far cry from the amazing Riki. The rest of the cast is completely anonymous or just some tired cliché. You mostly get to know them through the affinity quests, but as I said the narrative payoff isn't there. Most scenes devolve into lame and predictable jokes. I don't care for any of the characters right now. A huge step back from the predecessor.
- It doesn't help that the cutscenes are incredibly stilted. Characters stand around like statues while yapping with the worst lip-syncing I've seen since Final Fantasy X. I don't understand why the scenes lack any dynamism or life. The only exception so far is the scene were you first get your mech, which is jaw-droppingly cool. The voice-acting is thankfully mostly good, but there is an alien species that exclusively talks with exaggerated chipmunk voices.
Damn, didnt think I was going to write this much. Even talking about this game is a big timesink.
Seems to be what I expected. I played Xenoblade Chronicles for the story, and it looks like I'll be playing X for the exploration. Hopefully "Xenoblade Chronicles Y" combines the strengths of it's two predecessors.
JohnTinker
Limbaugh Parrot
Can someone detail the co-op online missions? How many are there? Can I have friends join me on story missions?
Thanks for the detailed impressions. Pretty much echoes some other impressions/reviews I've seen. I'm pretty sure I'll probably still enjoy the characters and stories though, since I do like anime tropes.
Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
Bu...but in that other thread the vast majority were all like yo not a selling point it looks so empty and devoid of interesting place coz there's no way you can fill such a huge space and also a random dude said game was a bore and of course it's true
/croweaters
John TV is all over the game again after beating the jpn version and then working on it for months... That for me is enough to instill confidence it'll be amazing; after working on a game I usually never want to see it again, EVER
/croweaters
John TV is all over the game again after beating the jpn version and then working on it for months... That for me is enough to instill confidence it'll be amazing; after working on a game I usually never want to see it again, EVER
what makes a great open world is if it is fun to get around that world.
WatchDogs (my go to for open worlds I hate), wasn't fun because the driving was ass and HatDude was sluggish to control. GTAV while similar was fun because of throwing random haymakers > all. Saints Row too with the wrestling moves (and eventually super hero stuff).
This is something a lot of games fuck up. I love MGSV but the fact that getting around the world w/o DHorse and even w/ is a chore because you generally have to follow set pathways because you can't climb the mountains. This is why all non Spiderman 2 , Spiderman games suck because the web swing is generally ass. This is why the long walks in Dragons Dogma didn't bug me as much because the simple act of moving my character felt good.
If you are going to have a big ass world to explore make sure getting around it is fun and controls well. From the videos of this I saw, we can jump off of waterfalls, run really fast (also important) and of course fly goddamn mechs.
WatchDogs (my go to for open worlds I hate), wasn't fun because the driving was ass and HatDude was sluggish to control. GTAV while similar was fun because of throwing random haymakers > all. Saints Row too with the wrestling moves (and eventually super hero stuff).
This is something a lot of games fuck up. I love MGSV but the fact that getting around the world w/o DHorse and even w/ is a chore because you generally have to follow set pathways because you can't climb the mountains. This is why all non Spiderman 2 , Spiderman games suck because the web swing is generally ass. This is why the long walks in Dragons Dogma didn't bug me as much because the simple act of moving my character felt good.
If you are going to have a big ass world to explore make sure getting around it is fun and controls well. From the videos of this I saw, we can jump off of waterfalls, run really fast (also important) and of course fly goddamn mechs.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
"Evolved" is pretty subjective.
The aggro mechanics are bunk compared to the first game. You have far fewer options at your disposal to control a battle. Your success in battle is now heavily dependent on "soul voices" triggering and you successfully responding to the QTE. I didn't like this change very much at all.
It still does have the positional attacks and you can also target specific body parts and such, but I feel like the battles are far more chaotic and random than its predecessor.
AgentOtaku
Member
Yeah, after watching the GameXplain preview, I was finally sold on this game
FunkyDealer
Banned
I should probably put some more time in to the first one before getting this. But a goddamn brick wall keeps me from playing in bed...
Well if nothing else there's more content to the combat with the class system and mech customization, as well as the online co-op quests. Soul Voice also apparently gets rid of the need for healing arts, which is nice because people won't be so reliant on having the healer character in their party anymore.
Cool. Western previews are more positive than I thought they'd be.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Some people may like that, of course, but I vastly preferred having reliable healing arts that I could choose to activate based on how the battle was going. In X, you just have to kind of hope you get a healing-type Soul Voice at the right time and make sure you don't mess up the QTE. I don't see how anyone could see that as an improvement, but that may just be me.
Maybe the whole system works better in a multiplayer context. I never cared to try any of that stuff, though.
brainchild
Banned
The idea is that not needing a healing class makes room for more options on the battlefield. So while you're right that the old way is more reliable, it's also more limiting to your combat strategies overall.
EDIT:
Also, having everyone being able to heal themselves means that's one less aspect of your teammates that you'll have to babysit. It's definitely an improvement for me.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Perhaps. I guess I just hate unreliability in MMORPG style combat. It's probably why I couldn't get into Guild Wars 2 group combat, either.
I can't say I liked any of the characters from the original, so the fact that they improved the open world and combat is really all I needed to hear. I don't expect good story from Monolith. I am a bit disappointed by the character design, which somehow reminds me of Evangelion but with way more muted colors. All I really want is a big, dumb, pretty world to explore and interesting ways to explore it. Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen kinda proved this to me.
Astral Dog
Member
There are significant differences though, especially the soundtrack, the story was not the focus in the first game but it was part of the charm imo.
After drudging through Tales of Zestiria's excuse of an "open world" and story, to be honest, I would actually prefer the story in this game to take a backseat to the gameplay and exploration (and based on the impressions I have read, X at least manages to get these two important things right the most of anything).
Yeah, I think this is going to be the RPG for me this season.
Yeah, I think this is going to be the RPG for me this season.
Definitely.
The brilliant voice acting and battle interaction did a ton of heavy lifting. Melia was probably the only character who was meaningfully developed beyond the constant exposition.
Ooccoo
Member
Yea it's an offline MMO. I'm also playing it and the game is great, just don't expect good quests...at all
edit: The game is pretty overwhelming too. There's a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff to digest as you play with little to no tutorial. Even as someone who played Xenoblade I felt a bit lost.
I'm only 5 hours in so far. There's been a lot of cutscenes, but now I'm free to explore pretty much anywhere. Just exploring New Los Angeles took me a lot of time because you can interact with dozens of NPCs (there's a new social grid, thought it appears to be gimped compared to the first game).
edit: The game is pretty overwhelming too. There's a lot, and I mean a lot of stuff to digest as you play with little to no tutorial. Even as someone who played Xenoblade I felt a bit lost.
I'm only 5 hours in so far. There's been a lot of cutscenes, but now I'm free to explore pretty much anywhere. Just exploring New Los Angeles took me a lot of time because you can interact with dozens of NPCs (there's a new social grid, thought it appears to be gimped compared to the first game).
Pretty detailed impressions from Hardcoregamer. Probably the most glowing preview yet, even calling the story excellent.
http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2015/1...ssive-world-of-xenoblade-chronicles-x/177093/
Yeah Xeno Wii's story wasn't gonna win any awards, but I found it engaging at least. It had some really high points during the climax.
http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2015/1...ssive-world-of-xenoblade-chronicles-x/177093/
Yeah Xeno Wii's story wasn't gonna win any awards, but I found it engaging at least. It had some really high points during the climax.
thebisonxrc
Member
A few of the previews that I've read sure make it sound like this is going to be a great game. Not perfect, mind you, but great. I'm on a bit of a media blackout, but I've been reading here and there and learning a lot about the game. The exploration alone gets me very excited.
Less than three weeks to go.
Less than three weeks to go.
I'm 30 hours in, might as well share some of my impressions (reviewing it for a Dutch site). Overall, it's a very weird game. Very ambitious and spectacular in some parts, almost archaic in others.
+ The scale of the world is amazing. Just running around the plains in the first area (Primordia) and seeing huge creatures all over the place made me feel like a wide-eyed kid visiting an alternative version of Jurassic Park. I've been running around all areas for hours and I'm still regularly impressed by the vistas, the creatures and the hugeness of it all.
+ Exploration is constantly encouraged and rewarded. The game has an extensive map that's always showcased on the GamePad. One of the main things that you do in this game is go out and plant probes on designated spots in the map. This gives you experience, it creates a quick-travel point and shows some points of interest in the surrounding area. Getting to the place where the probe can be planted is often quite a trip. It really feels like you're an adventurer, going into wild unexplored territory and slowly charting the place.
+ Movement is surprisingly good. Your character has a fast running animation and a cool astronaut jump that propels you forward with some momentum. It's one of the reasons exploring is so much fun.
+ The battle-system has evolved in some pretty meaningful ways. Overall I'd say it's way more active and fast-paced. It's still all about staggering and toppling enemies, but there is just so much more going on. Arts now all have secondary cooldowns that add some effects, forcing you to consider timing a bit more. Healing is now mainly done by using an Art-type one of your teammates call out (healing Arts are mostly gone). Your avatar can pick between multiple classes, there are mechs... there is just a lot going on.
+ Monolith have become masters at designing videogame landmasses. Mira has very interesting landforms on top of an incredible sense of verticality. There are huge waterfalls, trees and mountains. There are valleys, underground passages, lakes and so much more. It looks natural, which is a great achievement.
+ Skells are so fucking cool bro. Seriously, it's not just because you're piloting a mech. There are so many customization options and cool stuff to buy for it. It's easy to create the mech you've been dreaming off since watching Gundam Wing as a kid. Mine wields two light-sabers and also packs two cannons strapped to his back. It also adds yet another layer to the exploration.
+ I love the soundtrack. Yeah, it's totally Sawano, but even walking around town gets me hyped.
~ I can't really judge the story yet, I'm just a bit past the halfway mark. I can tell it's not going to be as good as the original Xenoblade though (which I consider to be fairly good). There are some typical Monolith twists though and it does enough to keep me interested. The real problem are the characters, which I'll get to later.
~ This game doesn't explain itself...at all. Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most hardcore games I've played. Seriously, I can't believe how newbie unfriendly this game is. I finished the original Xenoblade and I'm an avid fan of games like Dark Souls, but I still had trouble understanding the plethora of systems in Xenoblade X. The game only has a very basic tutorial, but it pretty much never explains some of the crucial mechanics. I actually had to read the manual to find out about lots of stuff (how to switch targets for example). Even now I'm still struggling with some of the details like the importance of attributes and what different Skell parts do. Why is there no in-game encyclopedia?! I'm sure this will become easier once online guides start coming out, but initially you'll have to dive in pretty deep yourself.
~ The online stuff so far seems kind of blah. There is some asynchronous stuff going on, but do I really need to have a constant feed of the achievements other people have unlocked? I don't think it adds much to the game, but I still need to test some modes out.
~ Unlike the rest of Mira New Los Angeles is kind of flat and bland. Having Skells walking around makes up for it a little.
- The quest design is horrendous. Before I explain why you should know there are 3 types of missions: main story missions, affinity quests and 'basic' missions. The basic missions are basically MMO-style quests that you grab from a board and mostly boil down to kill X or collect X. There are tons of these and I've completely ignored them. The affinity quests involve solving an issue for a particular character and have some (mostly silly) cutscenes. The main missions advance the story.
Here's the problem: affinity quests are also all boring fetch-quests. You are asked to just go to a place and kill a couple of monsters or to collect a rare material. There is never a cool twist to this, making them all very tedious in terms of gameplay. The other problem is that there is no narrative payoff either, but I'll get to that in the next bullet-point. The main story missions are mostly fine, because they just ask you to go to a certain place you haven't been deep into an area. They play on the strengths of exploration I mentioned earlier. But there are only(number) story missions in the game. There are dozens of affinity quests, which makes them the main meat of the game. You also can't completely ignore them, as you are required to do some to access the next story mission. The quest design in this game feels light-years behind something like Witcher 3.12
- The characters are plain bad. They seem to have come out of some Star Ocean game. It's like all the charm found in the original Xenoblade was completely sucked out. The silent avatar is a shame and makes some scenes awkward. Elma is fairly decent, but mostly bland. Lin is annoying. Most of the jokes revolve around her and this Nopon named Tetsu, but I was never even close to cracking a smile. This is a far cry from the amazing Riki. The rest of the cast is completely anonymous or just some tired cliché. You mostly get to know them through the affinity quests, but as I said the narrative payoff isn't there. Most scenes devolve into lame and predictable jokes. I don't care for any of the characters right now. A huge step back from the predecessor.
- It doesn't help that the cutscenes are incredibly stilted. Characters stand around like statues while yapping with the worst lip-syncing I've seen since Final Fantasy X. I don't understand why the scenes lack any dynamism or life. The only exception so far is the scene were you first get your mech, which is jaw-droppingly cool. The voice-acting is thankfully mostly good, but there is an alien species that exclusively talks with exaggerated chipmunk voices.
Damn, didn’t think I was going to write this much. Even talking about this game is a big timesink.
This matches most of what I've heard. Really disappointed that the characters/story are not to XC's level. Good write up.
Elfforkusu
Member
Thanks for this. Sounds good, except for the part I quoted of course.
Bummer that the quests still stink, though not unexpected. I'm expecting that the exploration makes it bearable.
Joegrine_TT
Member
I remember gametrailers saying the First Xenoblade Story wasn't so awesome as some people in here make it out to be. To me i loved it but yea....
victreeb3l
Member
Best Buy still has the special edition available for pre order if anyones looking for it.
Importer here too, and I feel the opposite.
Fallout 4 is so so, but X world's design is gold.
X is the game to look at and chill like most beautiful open world games, and travel on mechs is mind blowing.
Sakura
Member
The controls are displayed on screen at all times (unless you turn it off).
It literally says on the screen how to switch targets.
The manual is accessible from the start menu. I'm not sure how different that is from an in-game encyclopedia.
You can turn that stuff off too ^-^;
There are actually 4 types. You've forgotten the ones that are just question marks above people's head.
The board quests are infinite, so it makes sense that they are super generic. They are likely just there for you to grind affinity points easily, as later in the game you will find you already have the materials for half the quests listed on there and you can just instantly turn them in for free affinity points.
As for the characters and story, I will just have to disagree. I enjoyed both.
Though I would agree the cutscenes can be pretty stilted at times. The thing I hated most (aside from the silent protagonist) is that your doll is never present in the cut scenes, which can make things look jarring.
Vincent Grayson
Member
Yeah, healing is pretty much my least favorite thing to focus on a game, especially one happening in real time, so I kinda love this change.
It's a JRPG. Those never get scores higher than WRPG unless the game already has a high pedigree. But I guess Xenoblade might be a high pedigree. We'll see but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I like to see this too. Not sure if I want to get a hardrive just for this game.
DXB-KNIGHT
Member
I'm really feeling it XD