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XenobladeX |Import OT| Discovery of Superb View: http://youtu.be/HgIXNOEv_40

V

Vena

Member
StreetsAhead said:
I was a little down on the game 2 days ago, but I've swung right back around. Some of the quest design is blergh, but it's no worse than Xenoblade was (at least at this point). What turned me around was a quest involving a human who hates the other "aliens". It's a simple little story, really, but it's nice and really sells the concept of the game. There is a lot more world-building and character expanding done in the normal quests and affinity quests compared to Xenoblade. You actually do feel like you're having an effect on the world by clearing them.

Although, yes, it sucks that some playable characters don't feature so much into the main story (although their affinity quests sort of make up for it) and I still think that a Mass Effect Shepard-like main character would have worked better than a silent protagonist, it is still really fun.

I've also found some (more) interesting locations in the 3rd continent, but the 2nd one is still my favourite in terms of variety & level design.
Click to expand...

Quick someone grill Streets on his score out a billion tweets!
 
S

SoraanTribal

Member
tryagainlater said:
The areas being less unqiue and more copy and paste which I really worried about when I heard how big it was. Hearing that the characters are less unique too because they wanted to make Xenoblade even more of single player MMO for some reason also bothers me.
Click to expand...

I haven't really heard anything about the areas being copy/paste and from the streams I've watched, that's far from the case. The biggest difference is there are less areas in total, so maybe each area doesn't look as unique as going from one to another in Xenoblade did. That was always a big concern of mine once I found out there were only 5 continents, but from the streams I saw, the game still looks gorgeous with a fun world to explore.

Characters being less unique is definitely an annoyance. To be honest, I never really expected this game to be better than the original Xenoblade, but still better than most recent JRPGs out there.
 
L

Lumyst

Member
Vena said:
That said, I don't know if what I've been told meshes so well with the idea that the characters are drastically less unique than the main players in Xenoblade. They are not all as fleshed out as the core of Xenoblade, though, for rather self-evident reasons. But this is something I will judge for myself when the time comes.
Click to expand...

That's actually why I couldn't resist spoiling some of this game's later cutscenes (it helps that I don't understand Japanese, so I could pick up on the emotion rather than really spoiling the content :p) to see if the characters showed some emotion. I have to say, I was surprised to find out that the official story trailers, the way the characters were presented in the three half-hour streams,
were red-herrings regarding the dialogue and how the characters would be, their relationships, etc. They mixed dialogue over the wrong characters and the wrong scenes to throw the viewers off.
The nature of the relationships among the characters surprised me, and the character(s) who carried the most emotion(s) surprised me too. I'm even unsure if I can say I picked up on a main character, so I might even go in expecting
to think of "BLADE"
as the main character, and whether
they make it through their struggle to establish themselves on Mira, while managing the drama that ensues
as the question that the main story answers. And instead of a big novel, to expect the story to be like a novel alongside a collection of short-stories and vignettes. That gives the characters besides the core characters the opportunity to have stories or moments that contribute to the color of the world, which I look forward to, since that was relegated to little sentences of dialogue to read in the previous game. There was even an opinion on Miiverse I read that stated that this game feels more like a drama (even saying that's why Sawano's music was appropriate for this game), and that's what I'm expecting, rather than the heroic adventure novel feel that the previous game had. It's why the people mentioning "lowered expectations" regarding the story sounded harsh to me, because it's more like "adjusting them to the type of story it is" is what should be done instead, especially if drama isn't immediately to their tastes.
 
S

StreetsAhead

Member
Lumyst said:
That's actually why I couldn't resist spoiling some of this game's later cutscenes (it helps that I don't understand Japanese, so I could pick up on the emotion rather than really spoiling the content :p) to see if the characters showed some emotion. I have to say, I was surprised to find out that the official story trailers, the way the characters were presented in the three half-hour streams,
were red-herrings regarding the dialogue and how the characters would be, their relationships, etc. They mixed dialogue over the wrong characters and the wrong scenes to throw the viewers off.
The nature of the relationships among the characters surprised me, and the character(s) who carried the most emotion(s) surprised me too. I'm even unsure if I can say I picked up on a main character, so I might even go in expecting
to think of "BLADE"
as the main character, and whether
they make it through their struggle to establish themselves on Mira, while managing the drama that ensues
as the question that the main story answers. And instead of a big novel, to expect the story to be like a novel alongside a collection of short-stories and vignettes. That gives the characters besides the core characters the opportunity to have stories or moments that contribute to the color of the world, which I look forward to, since that was relegated to little sentences of dialogue to read in the previous game. There was even an opinion on Miiverse I read that stated that this game feels more like a drama (even saying that's why Sawano's music was appropriate for this game), and that's what I'm expecting, rather than the heroic adventure novel feel that the previous game had. It's why the people mentioning "lowered expectations" regarding the story sounded harsh to me, because it's more like "adjusting them to the type of story it is" is what should be done instead, especially if drama isn't immediately to their tastes.
Click to expand...

I actually really like that idea.

In my opinion, if Xenoblade is a novel, XCX is a novella interspersed with a series of vignettes and short stories.

Whereas Xenoblade has you exploring up, XCX has you exploring out.

At first, the world is almost too big too explore on foot, but that's sort of the point. You're just one person trying to survive in this unthinkable context. I think that this will make getting the doll pay off all the more.

Also, yeah, they totally used a ton of red herrings in the pre-release trailers and footage
 
Z

Zero²

Member
Vena said:
Its true, the game's main character is actually
Kirby
. He appears about
two-thirds of
the way in... you'd have never suspected it.
Click to expand...
So Mira is actually
Popstar?!
Who would've guessed.
StreetsAhead said:
In my opinion, if Xenoblade is a novel, XCX is a novella interspersed with a series of vignettes and short stories.

Whereas Xenoblade has you exploring up, XCX has you exploring out.
Click to expand...
I wonder if Takahashi will actually publish the script of XenoX :p
 
L

Lumyst

Member
StreetsAhead said:
In my opinion, if Xenoblade is a novel, XCX is a novella interspersed with a series of vignettes and short stories.
Click to expand...

And that's why my expectations for what was considered "side content" in the previous game, is to consider it essential to the experience in this game (and why I won't spoil it). After all, if they want me to do this:
img_info_20150428-06.png

They better make them worthwhile :p
 
Dwight Schrute

Dwight Schrute

Member
Bebpo said:
As to my opinion on the original Xenoblade? Best rpg of the last generation by far. Yeah there were a lot of filler quests and that does take it down a notch, so maybe I'd give it a 9/10, but the world was fascinating, the locations were incredibly memorable and the story once it got started was very compelling and filled with Takahashi-ism like cloak & masked mysterious characters (Faces). The story kept you wanting to move forward and each time you did each new area blew you away with diversity and wonder. The scope was incredible and the areas were all richly designed and layered.

Now I'm not saying Xenoblade X doesn't have that. But yeah, the story is barely existent not particularly compelling so far (by this point halfway, Xenoblade's story was), there characters are paper thin and there's hardly any "real" characters because instead they give you 20 generic recruitable people who get like 1-2 hours of screen time the entire 100+ hour game each. Also no one can die or anything interesting happen to them because they all need to be available to do optional missions with them post game. The locations are nice but outside of the 2nd continent and a few other sections they don't have that same "wow" factor and I don't think much will be memorable. A big empty desert is never going to be as memorable as a swamp that comes to life at night and is filled with ruins of ancient lizard civilizations or a magical futuristic city floating above a gorgeous sea.

XBX also has way more filler, worse pacing, and even less balance.

However, the battle system and character customization is better in XBX, so is the multiplayer stuff, so are the mechs. For what Xenoblade X lacks in world design or story it makes up in other areas.

It sounds harsh, and that's not my intent. For all purposes, Xenoblade X is one of the best jrpgs since Xenoblade. The Kiseki series has been the only other series that's had better rpgs of the last few years off the top of my head. XBX is a good rpg that every rpg fan should play and enjoy. But it's got its flaws like most jrpgs and if you directly compare it to Xenoblade the flaws in comparison stick out. But that's because Xenoblade X is not Xenoblade 2 and shouldn't be directly compared. It's doing its own thing and it is its own game and it's a good game.
Click to expand...
. Dammit, everything i was worried about a sequel...
 
S

StreetsAhead

Member
TheMoon said:
You mean in terms of story? "You think it's gonna be this..."-stuff?
Click to expand...

It's more that a couple of scenes in story trailers are actually from Affinity Quests, or lines of dialogue appeared over totally different scenes to give a slightly different interpretation of a character.
 
M

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Just a question: do we know how many people worked on the game by watching the credits? Sorry if already answered.
 
S

Smoothice65

Member
For those who have finished the game how is the monster variety ??
I have seen a lot of the same monsters in the live streams with the same animation, with the only difference that its just a large version, another color, different level,different design but basically the same samples.

Are there a lot of different monster/enemies in the game compared to chronicles ?
 
L

Lumyst

Member
Mpl90 said:
Just a question: do we know how many people worked on the game by watching the credits? Sorry if already answered.
Click to expand...

There was lots of outsourcing to other Japanese companies, like Imagicadigitalscape, I even saw some Tri-Ace employees credited :-D I'd say over 100 easily, but of course not all were working on it full time.
 
T

theprodigy

Member
heh, found a Japanese wiki for the game, google translate is barely passable for my non-plot purposes lol

so there's 11 level 70+ enemies out there?
 
T

tonyh24613

Member
Finally find a way to abuse OC Gear, Longsword combo feels so good. Trying to unlock Blossom dance without using DLC quest to grind affinity.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Wow, I didn't even realize there was DLC for this. It looks pretty damn significant, too.

I definitely don't feel great about being asked to pay another 2,000 Yen on top of the almost 8,000 yen the base game cost. Yay, $100 video games.
 
C

Chaos17

Member
StreetsAhead said:
Although, yes, it sucks that some playable characters don't feature so much into the main story (although their affinity quests sort of make up for it) and I still think that a Mass Effect Shepard-like main character would have worked better than a silent protagonist, it is still really fun.
Click to expand...

When you've the wrong voice actor, you wish that you're MC will be mute.
Many time in Bioware games the voice actor didn't say what I wanted the way I wanted mainly in DA serie. Because of that many fans hates the hero of DA 2. Voice actors were too snarky.

That's why I will always favor mute MC.
 
C

Cosmozone

Member
Can someone explain the report communities on Miiverse, please? I'm curious what happens there. There should be more posts there, too, if they're about community integration of some sort.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
Cosmozone said:
Can someone explain the report communities on Miiverse, please? I'm curious what happens there. There should be more posts there, too, if they're about community integration of some sort.
Click to expand...

Those are for those field reports you can leave anywhere in the world. Think Tingle Bottles in Wind Waker HD or bloodstains in the Souls series. But I think they are filtered to show only those from people currently in your squad. "This is where rare material/monster X appears"
 
H

Hasemo

(；・∀・)ﾊｯ?
TheMoon said:
Those are for those field reports you can leave anywhere in the world. Think Tingle Bottles in Wind Waker HD or bloodstains in the Souls series. But I think they are filtered to show only those from people currently in your squad. "This is where rare material/monster X appears"
Click to expand...
When a report appears on screen you can upvote it (or blacklist it or the player, not sure which one it was). If a report gets enough votes, it will be displayed for all players.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
Hi importing people !
Quick question for you !
How are the Kizuna Quests and Simple Quests ?
I heard the Kizuna Quests were story driven, is that true ? What kind of objectives/quests are these ?
What about the simple quests ? I heard these had no story behind but what kind of objectives can you expect ?
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
GhostTrick said:
Hi importing people !
Quick question for you !
How are the Kizuna Quests and Simple Quests ?
I heard the Kizuna Quests were story driven, is that true ? What kind of objectives/quests are these ?
What about the simple quests ? I heard these had no story behind but what kind of objectives can you expect ?
Click to expand...

-> (Kizuna Quests = Affinity Quests, in case there is confusion)

StreetsAhead said:
I was a little down on the game 2 days ago, but I've swung right back around. Some of the quest design is blergh, but it's no worse than Xenoblade was (at least at this point). What turned me around was a quest involving a human who hates the other "aliens". It's a simple little story, really, but it's nice and really sells the concept of the game. There is a lot more world-building and character expanding done in the normal quests and affinity quests compared to Xenoblade. You actually do feel like you're having an effect on the world by clearing them.

Although, yes, it sucks that some playable characters don't feature so much into the main story (although their affinity quests sort of make up for it) and I still think that a Mass Effect Shepard-like main character would have worked better than a silent protagonist, it is still really fun.

I've also found some (more) interesting locations in the 3rd continent, but the 2nd one is still my favourite in terms of variety & level design.

There's also a silly little quest where you're helping a woman named Victoria make underwear for the Ma Non aliens and it's just...weirdly awkward.
Click to expand...
 
H

Hasemo

(；・∀・)ﾊｯ?
GhostTrick said:
Mmh, I wonder though what kind of conditions are required to clear them. Is it the kind of "Kill 5 bunnies and bring 3 rocks" or something else ?
Click to expand...
Almost all quests in the game can be broken down to:
- Go to X
- Talk with X
- Get X of item Y (from one of the fields, usually available in only one location)
- Collect item X from monster Y
- Kill X monster Y
- Give X money/minerals

Kizuna quests have more dialogue, cutscenes etc. and just like Normal Quests have multiple steps (each of which is one of the above). Simple quests have only one step. That's all.
 
K

kubus

Member
GhostTrick said:
Mmh, I wonder though what kind of conditions are required to clear them. Is it the kind of "Kill 5 bunnies and bring 3 rocks" or something else ?
Click to expand...
Well, in the end, every RPG is like that :p. Every quest, including story quests, comes down to "kill monster X" or "go to location Y", etc. and that doesn't change in XenobladeX. But context is key and the Kizuna/Affinity quests are really good in that regard.

The Kizuna Quests are all fully voice acted, have cutscenes and have pretty high production values overall. On par with the story quests, I'd say. The stories mainly focus on character development and expanding on the game's lore. I would say that if you beat the game without doing any Kizuna Quests (which is impossible btw, as some story quests require you to finish specific Kizuna Quests), you would've gotten an "incomplete" story, if that makes sense. You will want to seek them out and complete them all :).

Btw there are also Normal Quests, which is sort of between Kizuna Quests and Simple Quests. Normal Quests are activated by talking with NPCs with a quest marker above their head, so kinda like in the original Xenoblade. They're not voice acted, but (usually) tell cute little stories. Lots of text in these quests. The Simple Quests are accepted from the quest board and they're the sort of filler quests you come to expect from MMOs. Just "Gather 3 of this item" or "Talk to this NPC" or "Kill 5 of this monster" kind of quests. I don't know if they're endlessly generated but it wouldn't surprise me if they were.
 
TheMoon

TheMoon

Member
kubus said:
Well, in the end, every RPG is like that :p. Every quest, including story quests, comes down to "kill monster X" or "go to location Y", etc. and that doesn't change in XenobladeX. But context is key and the Kizuna/Affinity quests are really good in that regard.

The Kizuna Quests are all fully voice acted, have cutscenes and have pretty high production values overall. On par with the story quests, I'd say. The stories mainly focus on character development and expanding on the game's lore. I would say that if you beat the game without doing any Kizuna Quests (which is impossible btw, as some story quests require you to finish specific Kizuna Quests), you would've gotten an "incomplete" story, if that makes sense. You will want to seek them out and complete them all :).

Btw there are also Normal Quests, which is sort of between Kizuna Quests and Simple Quests. Normal Quests are activated by talking with NPCs with a quest marker above their head, so kinda like in the original Xenoblade. They're not voice acted, but (usually) tell cute little stories. Lots of text in these quests. The Simple Quests are accepted from the quest board and they're the sort of filler quests you come to expect from MMOs. Just "Gather 3 of this item" or "Talk to this NPC" or "Kill 5 of this monster" kind of quests. I don't know if they're endlessly generated but it wouldn't surprise me if they were.
Click to expand...

Put this into the FAQ. Nice write-up! :)
 
C

cube001

Member
So I mistakenly cancelled the mechanical lv 5 quest "Secret Order" and now I can't seem to find the quest to take it again... Any ideas why?
 
T

tonyh24613

Member
I really like normal quests, they provide some interesting stories.

Like
some BLADEs ask you to gather materials and fix their helicopter, you can choose between red and blue circuit to connect. If you choose the wrong one, they died.

Or
three Rath people ask you to provide the attack and weakness of some bird enemy they want to defeat. If you choose the wrong one, they died.

Or
serial killer killing humans and manons, you need to catch him with a manon detective ASAP.

All my choice were wrong.
Choose wisely or save frequently you people._:)3」∠)_

cube001 said:
So I mistakenly cancelled the mechanical lv 5 quest "Secret Order" and now I can't seem to find the quest to take it again... Any ideas why?
Click to expand...

It's random.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Honestly, it's been the normal quests that have been the most interesting for me. They kind of feel like Star Trek episodes or something.

I finished chapter 8 last night and I think I can safely say that I generally dislike the main story, or at least how it is presented. Some of these characters and scenarios are a bit too full of anime tropes for me. One more "I'm gonna cook you, Tatsu, because you look like a vegetable! Tee hee hee!" joke and I think I might have to just quit and delete the game from my Wii U.
 
V

Vena

Member
blanco21 said:
is there a lot of cheesy battle music? isn't one of the boss tracks similar to blue dragon's?
Click to expand...

Its hit or miss, and its very dependent on person to person.

Zefah said:
Wow, I didn't even realize there was DLC for this. It looks pretty damn significant, too.

I definitely don't feel great about being asked to pay another 2,000 Yen on top of the almost 8,000 yen the base game cost. Yay, $100 video games.
Click to expand...

The DLC is documented in the OP and here. Pretty standard stuff, so I'm not sure what you feel bad about, especially given their production value. (Easy way to get Frame-60, too, if you don't want to grind/farm them out.)
 
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