Xenoblade X Eurogamer Preview: Maybe 2015's Most Impressive Open World

forrest said:
I'm not a huge JRPG fan, but I can't help but be in awe of some of the imagery and scale I've seen of the characters exploring or the skells traversing the environment. This game has quickly moved up my list of must have right now. Quick question for anyone in the know, can you limit the UI or HUD in away, such as disabling the floating combat text and onscreen controls? Seems awfully busy.
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Yes to some extent you can from what I've heard
 
Riki said:
You know Witcher 3? Imagine that but times a thousand. And giant robots inside giant robots. Roboception. Plus, you can traverse a small galaxy in them.
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I'd definitely be down for Xenoblade 3: Yours is the Blade That Will Pierce the Heavens.
 
MouldyK said:
I start my first ever Full-Time Job on the 30th...the week the game comes out!
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I got a midterm, my regular job and a paper deadline in that week.

odDLuGg.gif
 
I've got exam week shortly after this comes out. I'm going to wait and not start it until my winter break. It's going to be tough holding out the additional time but it's the call to make.
 
I expect fans of Xenoblade expecting more Xenoblade to be really disappointed, but this is definitely shaping up to be a unique experience.
 
Wow, after watching the Test Chamber video, this game looks intimidating as hell. Even as someone who has played a lot of heavy RPGs, when they opened the Soul Voice menu, my jaw dropped a little. I'm guessing that's going to be one of those things you can ignore for the first 10-20 hours and then end up sweeping through and optimizing in one go. And then tweaking on occasion when reclassing and stuff.

Just in general, I get a little nervous that the system is so complex that it will be hard to tell if your changes are doing anything. I'm hoping the feedback is good. Like, if I want to experiment with a setup emphasizing Topple and Topple buffs and stuff, that I could optimize a setup where I could see a difference in how the battle progresses. I would imagine there is pretty good way of giving feedback... It's just hard to tell sometimes in these demo videos what exactly their strategy is (aside from "just damage the enemy a lot").

I'm sure the game will do a good job ramping you up and not overwhelming you too much during the opening quests. It's just really scary to look at from afar. Really looking forward to this in December.
 
Jims said:
Wow, after watching the Test Chamber video, this game looks intimidating as hell. Even as someone who has played a lot of heavy RPGs, when they opened the Soul Voice menu, my jaw dropped a little. I'm guessing that's going to be one of those things you can ignore for the first 10-20 hours and then end up sweeping through and optimizing in one go. And then tweaking on occasion when reclassing and stuff.

Just in general, I get a little nervous that the system is so complex that it will be hard to tell if your changes are doing anything. I'm hoping the feedback is good. Like, if I want to experiment with a setup emphasizing Topple and Topple buffs and stuff, that I could optimize a setup where I could see a difference in how the battle progresses. I would imagine there is pretty good way of giving feedback... It's just hard to tell sometimes in these demo videos what exactly their strategy is (aside from "just damage the enemy a lot").

I'm sure the game will do a good job ramping you up and not overwhelming you too much during the opening quests. It's just really scary to look at from afar. Really looking forward to this in December.
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In xenoblade it was done pretty well. Slowly revealing complexity.
 
SoraanTribal said:
Everything looks great except I'm still concerned about the main story progression being gated behind stuff like surveying. It just seems unnecessary to me. If someone wants to focus on the story or affinity missions, that should be their choice. You shouldn't have to go explore a certain % of a land just to trigger a new story mission... Feels a little arbitrary to require something like that.

It probably won't be a big issue for how I play games like that (explore constantly, do tons of side quests/missions, etc), but sometimes I just want to focus on the main story and the game won't let you do that here.

I hope I have time to finish this game before early January... lol
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I don't see it like something arbitrary to me. You have the freedom to explore all the continents since the beginning of the game (well, chapter 3, IIRC), but for some story missions you need to be around a certain level (inner, blade level, world etc) in order to reach the point in the map where the story mission takes place and also in order to defeat the enemy/enemies/boss in that mission, so the game needs to know that you can complete the mission when you start it (these story and kizuna missions triggers some world events in the map so you cannot exit them without finished them).

The best way is to make some pre-requisites like % exploration in the area where the story takes place or to complete some Kizuna mission that has a certain level-XX enemy -inferior to the enemy of the story mission so the game knows you can defeat it-. That story mission could also have a cameo of some character that says something important that explains a mystery of a previous Kizuna mission... There are many circumstances that the game needs to check in an open world but yet with a big story/plot/lore so you can do things in any order and still don't feel broken.
 
Gravijah said:
I expect fans of Xenoblade expecting more Xenoblade to be really disappointed, but this is definitely shaping up to be a unique experience.
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Hey now, I'm totally expecting more Xenoblade and I'm expecting not to be disappointed. :)

But then again, what really made the first game for me was the exploration and gameplay so I'm really glad they decided to focus on that for the sequel because I was kinda worried that HD development would force them back to their old habits. I do think people who mainly played through the first game for the story will be disappointed, but anyone who spent hours just wasting time running around the landscapes will feel right at home.

At least, that's what I think. We'll see in a few weeks!
 
alvis.exe said:
Hey now, I'm totally expecting more Xenoblade and I'm expecting not to be disappointed. :)

But then again, what really made the first game for me was the exploration and gameplay so I'm really glad they decided to focus on that for the sequel because I was kinda worried that HD development would force them back to their old habits. I do think people who mainly played through the first game for the story will be disappointed, but anyone who spent hours just wasting time running around the landscapes will feel right at home.

At least, that's what I think. We'll see in a few weeks!
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I'm the same way the story was nice to have in Xenoblade but the areas are what drove me to continue it all the way to the end.
 
Gravijah said:
I expect fans of Xenoblade expecting more Xenoblade to be really disappointed, but this is definitely shaping up to be a unique experience.
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I think good games have the potential to impress people even when they go in expecting something else. I'm excited for this game based on the merits of the first Xenoblade (and the development team in general).

Plus, most of the tepid import impressions were by people who didn't like the original Xenoblade, which has a similar combat system. There seem to be more similarities between the two games than there are differences.
 
ika said:
I don't see it like something arbitrary to me. You have the freedom to explore all the continents since the beginning of the game (well, chapter 3, IIRC), but for some story missions you need to be around a certain level (inner, blade level, world etc) in order to reach the point in the map where the story mission takes place and also in order to defeat the enemy/enemies/boss in that mission, so the game needs to know that you can complete the mission when you start it (these story and kizuna missions triggers some world events in the map so you cannot exit them without finished them).

The best way is to make some pre-requisites like % exploration in the area where the story takes place or to complete some Kizuna mission that has a certain level-XX enemy -inferior to the enemy of the story mission so the game knows you can defeat it-. That story mission could also have a cameo of some character that says something important that explains a mystery of a previous Kizuna mission... There are many circumstances that the game needs to check in an open world but yet with a big story/plot/lore so you can do things in any order and still don't feel broken.
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I understand what you mean, but I guess I just wish the game had a structure more similar to the first Xenoblade. I don't really care personally that the world is completely open from the start (I don't consider that a positive or a negative, it just IS). However, I feel like Xenoblade's setup was perfect for how I play games - love a good linear story that still has lots of exploration within each linear area-to-area map. Any "gating" Xenoblade's story (needing to be a certain level) was hidden a lot better than it seems to be in X.
 
StarStabbedMoon said:
I think good games have the potential to impress people even when they go in expecting something else. I'm excited for this game based on the merits of the first Xenoblade (and the development team in general).

Plus, most of the tepid import impressions were by people who didn't like the original Xenoblade, which has a similar combat system. There seem to be more similarities between the two games than there are differences.
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It's not just importers. Impressions within Japan are similar. http://wiimk2.net/title.php?title=757 http://wiimk2.net/wiiu/title.php?title=124

That's not to say the game is going to be bad or that you should listen to what others say. Just that the game doesn't really have a focus on story like the original game, and that it's much more ambitious in design.
 
Xenoblade's story was one of the weaker aspects of the game I thought.

The actual nature of the world was really cool and interesting but the story was kind of so-so. I'm definitely not coming to XBX for the story
 
Zekes! said:
Xenoblade's story was one of the weaker aspects of the game I thought.

The actual nature of the world was really cool and interesting but the story was kind of so-so. I'm definitely not coming to XBX for the story
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But the ending was so darn good!
 
Zekes! said:
Xenoblade's story was one of the weaker aspects of the game I thought.

The actual nature of the world was really cool and interesting but the story was kind of so-so. I'm definitely not coming to XBX for the story
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I don't think Xenoblade's story was super amazing or anything, but I found it really entertaining. Had a lot of great twists that kept me wanting to keep playing to see more. Also, good characters, too. It was no Xenogears, but nothing has been since that game came out. :P
 
So this game isn't worth playing for the story?
Is it that bad?

I'm thinking of cancelling my preorder if that the case.
I mainly play games for their story, I'm not looking for a masterpiece but xenoblade was alright and worth it, but people are making sound that x is horrible.
 
I still haven't finished Xenoblade Chronicles (heck, I reached the friggin Gaur Plains, which is like what, 5-10 hours in?). Still, I am so tempted to just pre order this thing. ;__;
 
Lilo_D said:
From the importer, if you wanna rush the game to the end you'll definitely hate it, plz take your time
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I borderline played Xenoblade like Animal Crossing. I think it took me 3 months.


DecoReturns said:
So this game isn't worth playing for the story?
Is it that bad?

I'm thinking of cancelling my preorder if that the case.
I mainly play games for their story, I'm not looking for a masterpiece but xenoblade was alright and worth it, but people are making sound that x is horrible.
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None of the previews seem to think the story is terrible. Hardcoregamer likes it better than the original. Some gaffers don't like it, but you can never tell if it's a vocal minority or something. Hard to make a judgement without actually playing it. All I know is there's more focus on world building and character development through sidequests, at the price of shrinking the main story to an extent.
 
I'm honestly looking forward to the change in structure. Not because I dislike the original, but just because I love world building and am curious how they'll handle it.
 
Gravijah said:
It's not just importers. Impressions within Japan are similar. http://wiimk2.net/title.php?title=757 http://wiimk2.net/wiiu/title.php?title=124

That's not to say the game is going to be bad or that you should listen to what others say. Just that the game doesn't really have a focus on story like the original game, and that it's much more ambitious in design.
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Mk2 is a really freaking harsh website though. They gave Bloodborne a C http://www.psmk2.net/index.php?r=site/title&title_id=97&db=2

Kinda makes the original Xenoblade's score seem like quite the acheivement.
 
chadboban said:
Mk2 is a really freaking harsh website though. They gave Bloodborne a C http://www.psmk2.net/index.php?r=site/title&title_id=97&db=2

Kinda makes the original Xenoblade's score seem like quite the acheivement.
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The music
The everything

was the achievement

Gaiaknight said:
So using 2 weeks of my vacation time to play this game in december :)
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Dice// said:
lol yeah, I'll just post this too for easy quoting:

RskXDPY.jpg
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1408554938761.gif


2 weeks is not enough
 
Zekes! said:
Xenoblade's story was one of the weaker aspects of the game I thought.

The actual nature of the world was really cool and interesting but the story was kind of so-so. I'm definitely not coming to XBX for the story
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I found the story really good in the beginning, but it fell off once they got to Melia.
 
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