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[Bitanator]

So now that people have had time with the game, what are your impressions? Is the game worth it? Is it as good as we hoped or has it fallen short? I see posts that worry me. Lots of grinding, little story, etc. Thoughts?

There is impressions in the OP, people keep jetting in here, read a big post on one dudes opinion about a certain aspect of the game and start sweating like its the end of the world.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162171571&postcount=942

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162578167&postcount=1568

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162875401&postcount=1934

There are some good impressions for you to read

 

[tebunker]

There is impressions in the OP, people keep jetting in here, read a big post on one dudes opinion about a certain aspect of the game and start sweating like its the end of the world.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162171571&postcount=942

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162578167&postcount=1568

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162875401&postcount=1934

There are some good impressions for you to read

Thanks for that. I can't wait to see this game in the states. Hopefully we know more by E3.

I personally feel like the light online elements are what is going to push me to finish this one versus giving up 75% through the first one.

 

[Acrylic7]

So is this game going to be crazy hard to find like Xenoblade was?

 

[Cheesecakebobby]

Stuck on a bloody kizuna quest, maybe one of the ones people were talking about earlier. I gotta get an electrical tentacle but hey guess what when you even find the enemy that has one its impossible to target the damn tentacle and it always ends up dead before I can shoot it off. Rage.

Edit: actually it seems I've been targeting its tail and it is impossible to target the tentacles themselves. So what am I doing wrong? I've killed dozens.

Double edit: eventually got it. Possibly another part of its body that didn't look like a tentacle did the trick. No more kizuna quests for me unless they are necessary to progress the story.

 

[TheMoon]

So is this game going to be crazy hard to find like Xenoblade was?

No? Why would it.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

FINALLY DONE GRINDING >_< Got everyone's affection levels to 4 hearts so now there's nothing stopping me from accessing all the story quests in the game. Can finally see all the remaining story.

Took me 3 nights of about 3 hours each just mash mash grind while trying to find ways to multi-task and do something else. So about 10 hours of pure grind. Been years since I've wasted that much time just grinding, but since there's not a whole lot of story in the game I do want to see all the kizuna quests through since a good chunk of the story that is there is in those quests.

Looking forward to next play session when I never.have.to.grind.again for the rest of my Xenoblade X experience. I think I'm over grinding for about another 10 years. So glad jrpgs have ditched grinding in the modern era.

Yeah... fuck that noise. Once I finish the main story, it's off to YouTube for me to catch the remaining bits of the story I may be interested in. It's not like the minute-to-minute gameplay or limited conversation options are compelling enough to keep me motivated to grind a bunch just to experience the cutscenes with my character.

 

[zero shift]

So what's the better game? Xenoblade or Xenoblade X?

 

[Smoothice65]

Gamekult.com Import Review (in french)

+ an unforgettable game
+ heady level design
+ very successful robots
+ the incredible beauty of the surroundings
+ the feeling of exploring a new world
+ some epic musics
+ the customization possibilities
+ the drilling system to make easy money

- characters as charismatic as chicories
- some stupid quests
- bad multiplayer
- some raps
- the guy who sings at one point "I need a bigger gun." That guy.

8/10 (editor's choice)

Wha ?

 

[Acrylic7]

No? Why would it.

The wii has a absurd install base yet only 500 magic copies if Xenoblade Chronicles exist.
I don't know that's what I was asking.

 

[Xbro]

So what's the better game? Xenoblade or Xenoblade X?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Xenoblade. But I expected this really.


IGN is doing a live stream of the game btw.

 

[PetrCobra]

So is this game going to be crazy hard to find like Xenoblade was?

It's going to be available digitally. Even if there's no copy of the game to be found at retail, the situation will still be better just because of that fact.

 

[theprodigy]

The wii has a absurd install base yet only 500 magic copies if Xenoblade Chronicles exist.
I don't know that's what I was asking.

dude, you can just go digital now

 

[rhandino]

The wii has a absurd install base yet only 500 magic copies if Xenoblade Chronicles exist.
I don't know that's what I was asking.

The situation is different this time, last time the game was Gamestop exclusive because NoA couldn't be bothered to bring it here but now they are REALLY pushing it hard so I don't think you are going to struggle finding a copy this time =D

Also, digital =D x 2

 

[Bebpo]

Jesus, the grind never ends. Trying to get Mechanical Skill lvl.5 so I can finish placing all the viewpoints on the map, and constantly reloading point 515, collect 6 collection items, reload 515, collect 6 collection items repeat over and over while trying to get 6 of some rare chance appearing item just to finish this quest. Why does this game make everything outside of the main story just repeating shit over and over? It's so player unfriendly.

How to make Xenoblade X ten times better game in 5 minutes:

-Get rid of affection level requirements for kizuna missions

-Get rid of collection item for anything besides just filling the collectapedia; do not use these for quests

 

[Tohsaka]

So is this game going to be crazy hard to find like Xenoblade was?

It's not going to be a Gamestop exclusive like Xenoblade was, so no.

 

[alvis.exe]

Jesus, the grind never ends. Trying to get Mechanical Skill lvl.5 so I can finish placing all the viewpoints on the map, and constantly reloading point 515, collect 6 collection items, reload 515, collect 6 collection items repeat over and over while trying to get 6 of some rare chance appearing item just to finish this quest. Why does this game make everything outside of the main story just repeating shit over and over? It's so player unfriendly.

Sounds like Black Liver Bean fun time Though I'm pretty sure Frost Glass gave me the most trouble. Either that or Ice Cabbages I forget. One of the Valak collectables.

You know... It's probably a good thing the US/EU is getting this way after Japan does. Let the Japanese players figure out all the best spawning spots hahaha.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Jesus, the grind never ends. Trying to get Mechanical Skill lvl.5 so I can finish placing all the viewpoints on the map, and constantly reloading point 515, collect 6 collection items, reload 515, collect 6 collection items repeat over and over while trying to get 6 of some rare chance appearing item just to finish this quest. Why does this game make everything outside of the main story just repeating shit over and over? It's so player unfriendly.

How to make Xenoblade X ten times better game in 5 minutes:

-Get rid of affection level requirements for kizuna missions

-Get rid of collection item for anything besides just filling the collectapedia; do not use these for quests

- Get rid of rare item drops from monsters (especially the rare spawn ones) as requirements for quests.

This kind of stuff works fine in MMORPGs because they work to create some kind of scarcity in a shared world, but it's just frustrating in a single player game.

 

[Parakeetman]

There is impressions in the OP, people keep jetting in here, read a big post on one dudes opinion about a certain aspect of the game and start sweating like its the end of the world.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162171571&postcount=942

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162578167&postcount=1568

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=162875401&postcount=1934

There are some good impressions for you to read

By far the 3 best writeups that were done by people who know what they are doing with the game and do not involve constant mopey whining.

So what's the better game? Xenoblade or Xenoblade X?

Two different designs. If you want a more focused story Xenoblade. If you want something a bit more open ended Xenoblade X.

The combat too how things is handled is different also. As Xenoblade X you need to pay attention to the constant requests the party members give you if you want to maximize your damage. Where in Xenoblade you didnt have to do that.

Honestly I preferred Xenoblades system as it was less of a pain in the ass. That and there are more direct ways to heal your party than how Xenoblade X handles things.

Both are good games on their own accord. But I think that Xenoblade X will have more design choices which will piss people off. Which has been mentioned in here multiple times.

 

[Bebpo]

Got mechanical and biological to lvl.5 after some collection item grinds and got all the last globes placed. Kind of weird that the lvl.5 field skill for Search is a lot higher level requirement than the other lvl.5 ones with the lvl.62 boss with thick armor and high damage. I can't do it with my lvl.50 dolls + lvl.52 characters. Checked some Japanese wikis and they recommended doing it with lvl.60 dolls post-game. Guess I'll skip that one.

So what's the better game? Xenoblade or Xenoblade X?

Short answer: Xenoblade

Long answer: Xenoblade by either faaaaaaar or by far; I'll get back to you on this one after I finish the story and see if it's any good in the end. But Xenoblade X does have some good stuff going for it. It's a solid 8/10 good, but not great jrpg. There's some impressive stuff like the world they've built and moving around in dolls, but there's also a lot of bad game design stuff and lack of story and characters and the combat system is janky as all fuck though it does have a ton of depth in customization.

 

[InternHertz]

- Get rid of rare item drops from monsters (especially the rare spawn ones) as requirements for quests.

At least you can buy those with tickets, provided you have enough of them

 

[Parakeetman]

At least you can buy those with ticket, provided you have enough of them

Its too bad that they didnt include the map pickups too for buying stuff with tickets lol.

 

[Magusx]

By far the 3 best writeups that were done by people who know what they are doing with the game and do not involve constant mopey whining.



Two different designs. If you want a more focused story Xenoblade. If you want something a bit more open ended Xenoblade X.

The combat too how things is handled is different also. As Xenoblade X you need to pay attention to the constant requests the party members give you if you want to maximize your damage. Where in Xenoblade you didnt have to do that.

Honestly I preferred Xenoblades system as it was less of a pain in the ass. That and there are more direct ways to heal your party than how Xenoblade X handles things.

Both are good games on their own accord. But I think that Xenoblade X will have more design choices which will piss people off. Which has been mentioned in here multiple times.

Fuck getting sad reading this.
I loved xenogears to death for the story en feels like every newer entry after xenosaga is less story focused

 

[Deleted member 17706]

"constant mopey whining."

Fucking hell, man.

 

[Parakeetman]

Fuck getting sad reading this.
I loved xenogears to death for the story en feels like every newer entry after xenosaga is less story focused

I think the issue is that they tried to go more with a community based gameplay style which is why it has all of the social / MP related features and such. Where Xenoblade was meant to be a SP experience.

So the one most simple word of warning is just do not expect the title to be like Xenoblade. Outside of having large worlds and similar combat.

Those who wanted a more narrative focused title will feel a bit disconnected from the story itself due to how the game is designed. That and having the silent protagonist does not help either. Still though outside of that quite well built game for the most part.

 

[jb1234]

So the one most simple word of warning is just do not expect the title to be like Xenoblade. Outside of having large worlds and similar combat.

That's a bummer for me, as I really liked Xenoblade's story elements. Without a strong motivating factor pushing me forward, it's hard to care about open-world exploration. The disappointing soundtrack doesn't help matters.

 

[Parakeetman]

That's a bummer for me, as I really liked Xenoblade's story elements. Without a strong motivating factor pushing me forward, it's hard to care about open-world exploration. The disappointing soundtrack doesn't help matters.

While there are some tracks which are not too hot depending on folks tastes, a lot of other music in the game really is fantastic. Though yeah the standard battle music stuff am neutral on. Dont like it, dont really hate it either. Would have preferred no vocals honestly.

Yeah people who want a more focused story to give them a reason to constantly move forward will be a bit let down. Also with how $$$ is gained is basically time spent in the game unless you do the DLC quest stuff and "grind" those out so to speak. Where as in Xenoblade $$$ was seriously not a problem at all.

Ive put in about 120? hours into the title I think. Thats subtracting time spent just leaving it idle to gain money and resources.

Do believe even the dev mentioned that they designed the game to be played over a long period of time. Which is why I guess they made a lot of mechanics the way they did. Plus all of the social / co-op related stuff.

Will be interesting to see what the general reaction will be in the West once it hits. Id imagine will be divided by folks who get in a good amount of play time to those who love / hate the title.

Considering I dropped 400+ on it and the WiiU Im still happy I did it as it is quite a unique game and very well built world overall.

Oh yeah and as others mentioned in the thread a lot, those hoping to get the dolls right away will have a bit of work to do first lol. So thats another thing to consider if the "dolls" are ones main reason to purchase the game.

 

[thematic]

That's a bummer for me, as I really liked Xenoblade's story elements. Without a strong motivating factor pushing me forward, it's hard to care about open-world exploration. The disappointing soundtrack doesn't help matters.

I'm with you
story is the motivation for me to finish a game
I also didn't like silent protagonist (Suikoden series for example, great game, great concept, but poor main protagonist)

but I'll try this game, because of the "mecha with open exploration"

hopefully they reduce the grinding in English release
and soon enough..

Oh yeah and as others mentioned in the thread a lot, those hoping to get the dolls right away will have a bit of work to do first lol. So thats another thing to consider if the "dolls" are ones main reason to purchase the game.

awwww crap

 

[jb1234]

While there are some tracks which are not too hot depending on folks tastes, a lot of other music in the game really is fantastic. Though yeah the standard battle music stuff am neutral on. Dont like it, dont really hate it either. Would have preferred no vocals honestly.

Yeah people who want a more focused story to give them a reason to constantly move forward will be a bit let down. Also with how $$$ is gained is basically time spent in the game unless you do the DLC quest stuff and "grind" those out so to speak.

Ive put in about 120? hours into the title I think. Thats subtracting time spent just leaving it idle to gain money and resources.

Where as in Xenoblade $$$ was seriously not a problem at all.

Do believe even the dev mentioned that they designed the game to be played over a long period of time. Which is why I guess they made a lot of mechanics the way they did. Plus all of the social / co-op related stuff.

Will be interesting to see what the general reaction will be in the West once it hits. Id imagine will be divided by folks who get in a good amount of play time to those who love / hate the title.

Considering I dropped 400+ on it and the WiiU Im still happy I did it as its quite a unique game and very well built world overall.

I'll still play the game but I think it's safer for if I don't go into it expecting another Xenoblade because the two games sound like they have very different focuses.

 

[Parakeetman]

I'm with you
story is the motivation for me to finish a game
I also didn't like silent protagonist (Suikoden series for example, great game, great concept, but poor main protagonist)

but I'll try this game, because of the "mecha with open exploration"

hopefully they reduce the grinding in English release
and soon enough..



awwww crap

You need to go through a bunch of story progression first. Then to get the actual doll license, there are a bunch of requirements for the quests involved. Though if some can be completed from the get go if you have already explored a lot and such I think. Forgot what the specifics were with the quests.

Able to start the doll license quest

Spoiler

after finishing the 6th chapter in the game.

which has the player do

Spoiler

8 smaller quests to obtain the license.

I'll still play the game but I think it's safer for if I don't go into it expecting another Xenoblade because the two games sound like they have very different focuses.

Yeah basically if you do that, hopefully you will enjoy it for what it is. Since as mentioned it still really is a great game, outside of some of the odd design choices.

 

[threelights]

After reading a few stuff, I have to ask, whenever the game requires you to do a quest to get something (unlocking the doll, unlocking the avatar changing stuff, continuing the story, etc.), are those quests determined? Like, is it specifically "complete X quest", or is it "complete X amount of quests"? And for these things, will I ever really have to do the generic stuff or can I just stay with the quests that have stories to them? Even if it takes me a bit longer to get through the game.

 

[Parakeetman]

After reading a few stuff, I have to ask, whenever the game requires you to do a quest to get something (unlocking the doll, unlocking the avatar changing stuff, continuing the story, etc.), are those quests determined? Like, is it specifically "complete X quest", or is it "complete X amount of quests"? And for these things, will I ever really have to do the generic stuff or can I just stay with the quests that have stories to them? Even if it takes me a bit longer to get through the game.

Yes those are specific quests. And some of those quests have sub requirements such as the doll one which I gave a simple explanation above.

Skipping out on the other quests on the quest board or ones around town will have you missing out on events, money, exp, items etc. Not to mention those also help raise your friendship level with the characters currently in the party.

 

[threelights]

Yes those are specific quests. And some of those quests have sub requirements such as the doll one which I gave a simple explanation above.

Skipping out on the other quests on the quest board or ones around town will have you missing out on events, money, exp, items etc. Not to mention those also help raise your friendship level with the characters currently in the party.

So they still locked some stuff behind the generic quests then >.>

Hopefully the required generic ones are not the harder ones to complete.

 

[zero shift]

So reading the answers to my question it seems that Xenoblade X is a different approach to the franchise (similar to how say Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future differ). Xenoblade is more of a traditional JRPG with strong MMO elements, while Xenoblade X is more like an pseudo MMO with strong JRPG elements. Is that right?

It sounds like most prefer Xenoblade, do you think that is because that is what you experienced first so Xenoblade X is constantly being compared to Xenoblade or is Xenoblade just better rounded overall?

 

[Parakeetman]

So reading the answers to my question it seems that Xenoblade X is a different approach to the franchise (similar to how say Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future differ). Xenoblade is more of a traditional JRPG with strong MMO elements, while Xenoblade X is more like an pseudo MMO with strong JRPG elements. Is that right?

It sounds like most prefer Xenoblade, do you think that is because that is what you experienced first so Xenoblade X is constantly being compared to Xenoblade or is Xenoblade just better rounded overall?

I think its because Xenoblade does not have things that are a pain in the ass to do. Where Xenoblade X does have that. That and there is a stronger narrative so folks who appreciated that in the first game are let down with X.

 

[zero shift]

I think its because Xenoblade does not have things that are a pain in the ass to do. Where Xenoblade X does have that. That and there is a stronger narrative so folks who appreciated that in the first game are let down with X.

Can you sum up the things that are "a pain in the ass to do" in Xenoblade X?

 

[Vena]

Can you sum up the things that are "a pain in the ass to do" in Xenoblade X?

Kizuna, Frame-60 grinding are two big ones.

 

[Parakeetman]

Can you sum up the things that are "a pain in the ass to do" in Xenoblade X?

Its mostly the quests that require you to go after a certain item on the maps. The map pick up items. Since some have a super low rate of spawning. Plus the game does not show you the locations also.

Earning cash also takes a while just due to how they made it be earnings from all of the probes. Or if you want to grind out the DLC missions you can do that too, but it gets old quick lol.

There is a few other small design things that adds to irritation depending on ones views.

Kizuna, Frame-60 grinding are two big ones.

that too.

 

[Bebpo]

Ok, final chapter was really good. The game needed cutscenes and story movement and character development like that (actually having party members with more to do than say one line) throughout the whole game. It's the only chapter that felt like it was written by Takahashi and feels like a Xeno game.

Story was good, not his best, but a good short story. The sequel/DLC/expansion hook stuff is bullshit unless the post-game couple of quests wrap that up. A couple of story points brought up weren't dealt with and seem to tie into the sequel hook.

Spoiler

1) That everyone is magically speaking the same language, 2) That the Grovius enemies were magically warped to Mira in a flash of light and that all these other alien species have been brought to Mira around the same time, which is basically statistically impossible. Both points + the ending point lead to "yeah, there's something up with this planet" but this game not addressing that is pretty lame (unless the 2 or so post-game kizuna quests do). Also not a fan of them not addressing the Dark Matter, Bad Guy's "god" and stuff as well (unless that's in the post-game quests). Really seems like they purposely left a bunch of stuff open so they could do an expansion or a sequel which is, again, lame. With how little story there was in the game and how long the game is, it really should have been self-contained.

The main problem with the story is that it's like those anime TV shows where they're like 26 eps long and nothing happens for 24 eps except just filler crap and monster of the week and then suddenly in the last 2 eps it's full plot time, and the plot is good and the ending is satisfying, but basically the whole show was boring and wasted until it got to the final 2 eps. Except since Xenoblade X is 60-90 hours long (due to gameplay exploration and questing, the narrative is probably like less than 5 hours long), it's more like a 52ep anime series where nothing happens until the final 2 eps and then there's a story and it's good and it ends.

Game is definitely built to appeal to a certain crowd that likes taking 400 hours to go through 40 hours of actual content. I wonder if Iwata asked for more of a Monster Hunter like grind game this time around. It's a much, much smaller game than Xenoblade. I think I would've enjoyed it a lot more if it was 30-40 hours long with all the same content and just fewer quests. I'm guessing they wouldn't have had the story requirements for % of sidequests except that if they didn't people would probably be beating the game in 10-15 hours for those just doing the main story and required kizuna missions along the story and it'd get knocked in the reviews for that.

Having an actual story though raised my opinion of it for sure. Even with all the flaws and the lack of narrative and tons of boring filler, I'd say it's an 8.5/10 at the end of the day. Though I'd probably recommend for people to just speed run the game as fast as possible ignoring all optional quests and enjoying the game and exploration and then do the quests after until they get bored.

 

[Bebpo]

Dammnit, so reading up on the story discussion, yeah the reason this game has almost no plot is that's it's basically a 5 hour prologue story (in a 60-100 hour MMO world filled to the brim with quests and monsters to fight) to a real game that is Xenoblade X2 someday. Eh, not cool.

If they do make a XBX2, hopefully the narrative will be closer to Xenoblade in pacing and substantial story and real characters. But yeah, this is my least favorite Takahashi game to date, so not super thrilled at the idea of a XBX2 unless they really change it up. Even the plot threads that build up in XBX towards the story of XBX2 aren't anywhere near as interesting XG/XS/XB, so unless he's got a great plot up his sleeves, I'd rather they start over with something new.

 

[Schlomo]

When playing last night I got a connection lost error and found myself back in the main menu. WTF!

Now I'm afraid to turn the console on to see how much progress I've lost.

 

[zero shift]

Its mostly the quests that require you to go after a certain item on the maps. The map pick up items. Since some have a super low rate of spawning. Plus the game does not show you the locations also.

Earning cash also takes a while just due to how they made it be earnings from all of the probes. Or if you want to grind out the DLC missions you can do that too, but it gets old quick lol.

There is a few other small design things that adds to irritation depending on ones views.



that too.

So the game has a lot of grinding or it isn't necessary?

 

[Lumyst]

I'll still play the game but I think it's safer for if I don't go into it expecting another Xenoblade because the two games sound like they have very different focuses.

From what I've spoiled (and I'm glad I did spoil it, to alleviate some curiosity about the game compared to the first), there's a greater volume of "side story" and a shorter volume of main story but together, it's a larger volume of story than the first game, and it attempts to shift the axis of the story by some degree away from a "core group of friends in support of a hero" so as to include some meaningful content about the lives of others. And it might be better to think of it as a drama rather than a heroic quest. Though all this talk about stories that require esoteric knowledge as being more creative than others surprises me, because both Blade and based on what I've seen, X, have very interesting and creative stories, which should be a conclusion most customers reach. (The first being a heroic journey in a world of two gods that were both characters and settings for a story. And X, a story about a US colony making an alien planet its home while its citizens face the drama that results from the Earth's destruction in the crossfire of alien warfare). Though admittedly my opinion comes from the Nintendo afficionado side rather than a JRPG afficionado side.

I haven't played Gears or Saga, but my hunch is that as a Nintendo subsidiary, Monolithsoft and Nintendo blend their values to create a unique JRPG and perhaps story that can be appreciated by more customers than those traditionally interested in that kind of game, because they (including Monolithsoft) feel it can lead to a better received game overall. Nintendo makes mechanics focused games, and their customers may have that as part of their tastes too. Some go so far as to hold mechanics as the highest value of games and dislike convoluted stories. I almost felt dirty for enjoying the story, world, and yes, the fruit of the graphics of the first Xenoblade :-D

While definitely Japanese made in aesthetics and story, and hence can be appreciated by those traditionally interested in JRPGs, decisions regarding the series' gameplay were I think to make a product that new customers (including Nintendo's traditional customers, who should definitely be considered as potential new customers) could enjoy as well. (And to be blunt, I think for X, open world with a more realistic appearance, and even NLA, were for the players in the West). While some would understandably be concerned about it, and be skeptical of the attempts to get new customers interested in the series, it's rather commendable of Nintendo to dare to consider the JRPG and the Xenoblade series as having something uniquely entertaining that can reach more people. I definitely felt the first game was a breath of fresh air and something excitingly different from Nintendo, with an epic scope, more mature nature, and yes, more story with many new characters, that I was amazed to see them offer, and I hope they continue to perfect and offer games like this.

I'm very much looking forward to the time when Overside shares his thoughts on the story, though, maybe it does have an esoteric dimension to it just as the first game did but many overlooked, to his chagrin ;-)

 

[Parakeetman]

So the game has a lot of grinding or it isn't necessary?

It depends on how fast you want to complete things I suppose. As the designers created the game to be played over a long period of time.

If one tries to rush through the game as fast as possible things like money and the whole kizuna (friendship) type of stats will be a problem.

Leveling is fairly easy, so its nothing that would really be considered grinding. Its more resources + money / friendship level related.

Though if you want to unlock all of the classes then I suppose that can be considered "grinding" since it requires a different exp from the main one earned.

 

[zero shift]

It depends on how fast you want to complete things I suppose. As the designers created the game to be played over a long period of time.

If one tries to rush through the game as fast as possible things like money and the whole kizuna (friendship) type of stats will be a problem.

Leveling is fairly easy, so its nothing that would really be considered grinding. Its more resources + money / friendship level related.

Though if you want to unlock all of the classes then I suppose that can be considered "grinding" since it requires a different exp from the main one earned.

So in other words, if you want to do a lot of side quests then you won't need to grind. However, if you just want to do the main story quest, you will need to grind.

 

[Bebpo]

The more I think about it, the more I think the game would be better as an MMO. Everything from the scarcity of materials, to the million quests and more of a focus on small side stuff in the world than an actual plot or characters fits exactly into an MMO. Xenobalde X feels like Takahashi and his team really really wanted to make an MMO but they couldn't, so they made a single player version of it. I never played Kingdoms of Amalur, but I wonder if there'd be a lot in common between the two.

From what I've spoiled (and I'm glad I did spoil it, to alleviate some curiosity about the game compared to the first), there's a greater volume of "side story" and a shorter volume of main story but together, it's a larger volume of story than the first game, and it attempts to shift the axis of the story by some degree away from a "core group of friends in support of a hero" so as to include some meaningful content about the lives of others. And it might be better to think of it as a drama rather than a heroic quest. Though all this talk about stories that require esoteric knowledge as being more creative than others surprises me, because both Blade and based on what I've seen, X, have very interesting and creative stories, which should be a conclusion most customers reach. (The first being a heroic journey in a world of two gods that were both characters and settings for a story. And X, a story about a US colony making an alien planet its home while its citizens face the drama that results from the Earth's destruction in the crossfire of alien warfare). Though admittedly my opinion comes from the Nintendo afficionado side rather than a JRPG afficionado side.

I haven't played Gears or Saga, but my hunch is that as a Nintendo subsidiary, Monolithsoft and Nintendo blend their values to create a unique JRPG and perhaps story that can be appreciated by more customers than those traditionally interested in that kind of game, because they (including Monolithsoft) feel it can lead to a better received game overall. Nintendo makes mechanics focused games, and their customers may have that as part of their tastes too. Some go so far as to hold mechanics as the highest value of games and dislike convoluted stories. I almost felt dirty for enjoying the story, world, and yes, the fruit of the graphics of the first Xenoblade :-D

While definitely Japanese made in aesthetics and story, and hence can be appreciated by those traditionally interested in JRPGs, decisions regarding the series' gameplay were I think to make a product that new customers (including Nintendo's traditional customers, who should definitely be considered as potential new customers) could enjoy as well. (And to be blunt, I think for X, open world with a more realistic appearance, and even NLA, were for the players in the West). While some would understandably be concerned about it, and be skeptical of the attempts to get new customers interested in the series, it's rather commendable of Nintendo to dare to consider the JRPG and the Xenoblade series as having something uniquely entertaining that can reach more people. I definitely felt the first game was a breath of fresh air and something excitingly different from Nintendo, with an epic scope, more mature nature, and yes, more story with many new characters, that I was amazed to see them offer, and I hope they continue to perfect and offer games like this.

I'm very much looking forward to the time when Overside shares his thoughts on the story, though, maybe it does have an esoteric dimension to it just as the first game did but many overlooked, to his chagrin ;-)

The game in no way has more story than the first Xenoblade (and nothing on even Xenosaga ep1 or Xenogears) unless you count sidequest writing like "[Random NPC#22] oh no I lost my wallet in the cave, please go find it", "[Random NPC#22: haha, I lured you into this cave now I will kill you and take all your money". There's a million little quests but most aren't substantial. There's a few good ones but everyone has the most minimal character development I've seen in an jrpg since almost ever. The playable voiced characters who are part of the story have about as much depth as a non-playable NPC who has a few sidequests in another jrpg, outside of Elma. She is basically the only character in the entire game. Every else is a one liner.

And the plot is so short. When Takahashi and crew said it might be a little shorter than the original XB, that's ridiculously understating it. The main plot is like 5 hours long and if you cut out all the filler stuff and just kept the plot and character development, the game would be a .Hack vol.1, a short 20 hour game that just sets up the next game.

I'm seeing a lot of people who've spoiled themselves on the story and so they think there's a full narrative in the game. They're gonna be really confused/disappointed when there's no plot for 70+ hours since they know there's a plot in there somewhere and they're waiting for it to happen.

So in other words, if you want to do a lot of side quests then you won't need to grind. However, if you just want to do the main story quest, you will need to grind.

If you want to see all the story, and get access to all the voiced cutscene quests, you will have to grind. At 70+ hours of "normal" playing, I still had to do a pure grind of 10 straight hours to unlock 9 optional full production sidequests. If you just want to do the main story and don't care about any of the side content in the game you won't have to grind. But if you want to do most of the sidequests and see most of the side content in the game you're gonna have to grind more than any other rpg in recent years.

 

[Lumyst]

I'm seeing a lot of people who've spoiled themselves on the story and so they think there's a full narrative in the game. They're gonna be really confused/disappointed when there's no plot for 70+ hours since they know there's a plot in there somewhere and they're waiting for it to happen.

It just sounds subjective to the experience and expectations of each player though, even down to their own values about games. Like, when I say mine is an opinion about what I've seen of the story coming from the Nintendo side of things, think more compared to other Nintendo games, games where well loved main characters don't even speak and sometimes retread the same setting over and over again It's honestly the gameplay annoyances that sound more critical to me, the premise of the stories in Nintendo games usually sets up the gameplay, which is even why I'm okay with spoiling story. Open world games usually have only so many permutations of the mechanics before they get tiring. For instance, one could end the first Xenoblade by seeing the credits, but in open ended games, one plays until they're bored, which is why some prefer a focused experience over open. After all, why not end an experience on a high note, rather than being bored. But "screwing around to one's content" is something people like about open world games, my own feelings were that Xenoblade was addictive, but open world games are most fun when there's mehanical variety when interacting with the world. JRPGs are about battle systems and leveling stuff up, so I'm sort of concerned that when seeing an open world, I will yearn to do something else in that world that other open world games of an action-adventure nature allow.

 

[InternHertz]

Ok, final chapter was really good. The game needed cutscenes and story movement and character development like that (actually having party members with more to do than say one line) throughout the whole game. It's the only chapter that felt like it was written by Takahashi and feels like a Xeno game.

I had the same reaction, the last chapter is so good! I absolutely love the production values put into it, and if the whole story had been like that, it would've been incredible.

I even like the cliffhanger/sequel hook a lot, even though I was yelling something like "oh the bastards, they can't do that, that's cheating!".
I had a smile on my face while yelling that though, and can't wait for resolution in the future. I hope not too far into the future though.

Did not play yesterday, spent the whole day sleeping >_< I had planned to do quite a lot but everything went down the drain because of that

 

[Bebpo]

I had the same reaction, the last chapter is so good! I absolutely love the production values put into it, and if the whole story had been like that, it would've been incredible.

I even like the cliffhanger/sequel hook a lot, even though I was yelling something like "oh the bastards, they can't do that, that's cheating!".
I had a smile on my face while yelling that though, and can't wait for resolution in the future. I hope not too far into the future though.

Did not play yesterday, spent the whole day sleeping >_< I had planned to do quite a lot but everything went down the drain because of that

The more I think about the story the more I'm pissed off at it than enjoying it because of how much I keep thinking about that is never touched on and is probably there for the sequel.

Like how in the game world there's unknown rings and stuff in the scenery that makes you think "oh hey, maybe there's some interesting history to this world and we're gonna find out about it!" (like how you do in XB, XS and XG), but nope, absolutely no story mention of anything visually interesting that you see in the world as you play the game. It's interesting that XBX also lacks flashbacks outside of like flashing back to the intro and 1 brief shot later on. Whereas Takahashi usually loves flashback sequences to explain and flesh out the larger world picture. Wait for Ep2!

But

Spoiler

it probably all ties into how all these alien races are somehow brought to Mira. Either by blinding white lights or crash landings like the humans were brought (probably explains the crashed rings).

But of course, we gotta wait until the next game! Same with finding out about the other alien race from the intro, antagonist dudes "god" who he had the freaking church like room at his base built to revere (who will probably be a bad guy in the next game or something).

Basically they'll go into the ancient civilization that are the ancestors of humans and the bigger scale galactic world history.

I mean what the fuck does the opening piece of debris even mean? Wait for Ep2!

This game really, really feels like it doesn't touch on almost anything narratively. All the Takahashi-isms, religion, politics, magic-science, Zohars, character development, masked characters, monologues, dialogues, melodrama, emotional scenes and stuff all seem like they'd be in Ep2, but that's vaporware now and even if they make it, it could be 4-5 years away.

Plus there's the issue for a sequel where

Spoiler

If there's something up with the planet and the planet is a core plot point...then wouldn't a sequel need to take place on the planet? But you already explored it in this game....

Ideally I'd like a XBX2 to be less MMO and more Mass Effect, flying around in robots in deep space and landing on small planets and exploring them. Like I'd be fine if there was a half-dozen planets and each was the size of one continent from XBX. Would also make more sense than having sudden transitions on a planet from ice world to fire world to desert and such if they were separate planets.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, suddenly it all fits, having kind of a Eureka moment here. Almost all of my issues with the game's plot are because the game was a prologue episode 1 to a larger series. They really should have called it Xenoblade X Episode 1 so you knew from the start things being introduced weren't necessarily going to be addressed in this game.

Like

Spoiler

I just remembered ch.6 or 7 when you find the downed super mech of the gods, and the weird beasts that were anti-life, but even moreso the KING PHOENIX thing (yes I know he's an optional super boss), is introduced as something more than just a monster, it definitely is introduced as a major plot character as it shows intelligence and has a reaction to Elma and flies away. At the time I expect the phoenix to come back into the story later, but of course it's never touched on again because it's part of Episode 2 where the real story is.

Takahashi probably did write an entire novels worth of material for this. He probably did write the most he's written in a long time. Because he probably wrote a trilogy. It makes sense, since there's absolutely no way that the plot of this first game, even with all sidequests (which he didn't write most since the sidequest writer wrote them), would be some novel size design document.

I'm guessing that Takahashi got the greenlight from Nintendo to do a rpg trilogy over the next 10-15 years. There's just no way Takahashi would've written episode 1 so empty and the way it is if he didn't know for certain he was getting to make episode 2. Nintendo finances bomba stuff all the time to fill out their catalog and they are lacking a big traditional jrpg franchise, so I can see them giving Takahashi the green light for a 3 game trilogy after the quality Xenoblade he did for them.

So Takahashi problem sat down and did what he did with Xenogears and Xenosaga: He probably wrote down the history of the entire world from millenniums back. From ancient civilizations to present and where the story will go. He probably had some good ideas and ran with them and wrote a huge design scenario for an epic sci-fi trilogy.

It's just that with this game we only see the very, very basic beginning of it with glimpses at the bigger picture.

It all makes sense now. Damn. That still doesn't forgive Xenoblade X for not having good characters with actual real depth and character development as Xenosaga ep1 had lots of characters who were very developed even if the main plot was only the intro like XBX. Elma is a better KOS-MOS and I've fine with that, I like her. The ship captains are good traditional cool captains. But everyone else sucks. Even Lynne who gets as much screen time as Elma is flawed because all her screen time is just making cooking Tatsu jokes and a few scenes about her parents and that's it. She gets a little development, just like a lot of the side characters do, but she never really gets to be a good fully fleshed out character. Elma is definitely the closest there. The other characters just get worse and worse with development. Lu/Ru at first seems like "hey, this will be an interesting character for the story", but he has no story! He's just the goofy silly guy who dances a couple of times. I think they bit off more than they could chew. They should have kept the main party to Gren, Elleena, Doug, Lu, Rao, Elma and Lynne and that's it. Put those characters in the story more and incorporate their personal struggles into the actual plot and develop them. I think with 15 or so party members and everyone getting little bite-sized stories everything just feels really separate and doesn't come together. ALSO WEIRD THAT

Spoiler

the furry couple doesn't join as playable characters, since they seemed to have traditional class movesets (dude is a photon blade guy and girl is a lancer) and since the game has 15+ playable characters and has no problem constantly giving you NPCs as playable); I wonder if they will be DLC playable. They're show in the art book with the playable cast ^^;

So yeah, all that. Art book that came with the console set is nice.

 

[Lumyst]

Spoiler

Ohhh, duh, that's why the story was frustrating to you, there was stuff you wanted explained and the game was running out of time to do so, but I'd already spoiled and accepted that it would be a TBC kind of story