Xenoblade

[Steven Pendleton]

I just learned that Xenoblade releases in 28 days. I am surprised that there is no topic for this game since it definitely deserves one. Apparently there was a limited edition version with artbook + OST, but that's gone now. Too bad, because the music is very good and I am not sure how I missed the announcement that this limited edition exists.

 

Anyway, I preordered it on Amazon (Japan) and I am looking forward to playing it again and actually finishing it this time. I never finished the 3DS version for whatever reason (I think it was probably SMT IV FINAL taking priority at the time) and my 3DS has a dead battery and the d-pad's down button no longer works properly even though I've taken care of it and even opened it up to clean the d-pad.

[cybercylon]

I wasn't even aware that a release was around the corner. The Wii version has been on my to play pile for ages.

 

About these limited edition sets.... I have generally stopped getting them due to endless clutter that I don't need. I am a sucker for good sound tracks. I see the scalpers are out for the limited edition of Xenoblade. I'd like to see Nintendo stick it to them and drop more out in the wild after release. The collectors editions for Chronicles X and Chronicles 2 aren't all that much more than the original price (last time I checked anyway).

[Steven Pendleton]

I'm honestly surprised that it took over 2 weeks to get a reply here. I wonder if I'm the only person here who has actually played this game and knows how good it is.

 

Yeah, about the limited edition... the only thing I really would have wanted it for is the OST because the music in this game is incredible and I think it might be one of the best OSTs in recent history.

 

In any case, the game is really long. Expect at least 60~100 hour game. Honestly, I just started Mary Skelter the other day after dropping it to play Mary Skelter 2, another 70~80 hour game, first (since you're supposed to play 2 first), and I hope I can finish that game (I was about 50% done at 32 hours before I dropped it and I deleted my old save file for various reasons, so I'm guessing that it, like its sequel, is also a 70~80 hour game) before Xenoblade arrives in the mail. I guess I could just cancel my Amazon preorder and just walk down the street to Tsutaya to preorder a copy there so I won't have to wait for Amazon to deliver it to me. Maybe they even have the limited edition available, but I doubt it.

 

Anyway, Xenoblade is really great and I am extremely surprised that nobody here is talking about it except the 2 of us. I guess since basically nobody in the USA bought the Wii version and lots of weird people pass on handheld games because apparently people think they "aren't as good as console games" and you need the New 3DS to play the New 3DS version that most people in NA passed on it. At least, they passed on the Wii version for sure. Not sure what happened in Europe.

[King_Salamon]

Question about this re-release... I missed out on the original release and when I heard about it, the Wii version was over-priced and even then finding a copy for sale was tough to find.  Anyway, my question is this:  How much of the game revolves around the mech combat?  I'm all for another 70+ hour adventure - especially now with covid - but I will admit I'm more interested in the mech stuff and the characters are more secondary.

 

The idea of playing through this re-release on the Switch along with the sequel and the other game all on the Switch really has my interest piqued!  

 

Oh the reason for the 3DS version not doing well was that the New 3DS was required where the majority of 3DS owners didn't have the New 3DS as well as Nintendo likely released a smaller run of these carts.  I considered picking up a New 3DS just to play this but reading a review or 10 told me that this version of the game didn't warrant a purchase of a handheld console that I already owned just to play this one cart.

 

Anyway, this Switch edition has me excited!  It's less than 2 weeks away and I'm looking at going on a long adventure in a new world.  If someone can give me a time frame on the amount of mech fun I can expect, that would really help my decision to enter the world.  I guess I should use the correct term, how much of the game evolves around using your frames (I believe that's what they are called)?

[Steven Pendleton]

Um, what? There are no mechs in this game. You run around on foot the whole time.

[cybercylon]

If one hasn't thought about this game for awhile, it might be easy to think that mech combat is involved as many of the "Xeno..." games do even these different series are not related to one another.

 

So do I play my Wii version or opt for the Switch version. I really don't need to shell out $60 right now, and I started playing Persona 5 Royal, so there is only so much time!

[Steven Pendleton]

I think Xenoblade X (that's Cross, not the letter X) has mechs. I have not played it, though.

 

As for the Switch version, it adds stuff that got cut from the original game and has a playable epilogue part. The original is probably just fine, but the Switch version is going to look a lot better while having the same stuff + more. It also has 16:9 widescreen, which Wii version doesn't have, and the screen is pretty cluttered. Your choice, though. Perhaps play a few hours and see if you like it first, either way.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[digdugnate]

I'm holding off on buying until probably end of June.  I'm planning on picking up Borderlands: Legendary Collection in a couple of weeks so trying to space out my game purchases. 

 

There's another few games coming out later this month (Shantae and the Seven Sirens among them), so I'm set for games probably till Fall!  Lego Star Wars and possibly Mario 64 will be dropping then, anyway. lol

 

 

[King_Salamon]

Well this is an easy pass then... man I would have been really disappointed to play through the game and not get some sort of mech fix.  lol

 

Saved myself a little bit of cash at least. 

[DavidD]

I never quite finished the Wii version...

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I own and played the 3DS version. But to be honest came into the series all wrong. I do own the Wii version still sealed and never opened along with a few other late release Wii titles. But see, I started playing Chronicles on the Wii-U as my first game into the series and as a result, when I got the 3DS version of Xenoblade, I found it lacking and it didn't hold my interest. I did give it a chance as I know I have well over 20 hours if not a few more clocked into it but yeah. Just became too much of a grind for me trying to find stuff and the scenery didn't seem to have as much variety to it as Chronicles does. Course Chronicles is a Wii-U title and therefore going to be graphically better overall, but it wasn't about the graphics the overall game for the first title just didn't hold my attention.

 

Now to be fair...I haven't beaten or played Chronicles in a long time either. I was playing Chronicles all the time until BOTW was released. Then...I was only playing that until I lost interest in that game and only recently have I come back and started playing BOTW again on my Wii-U. 

 

[Razzie.P]

On 5/16/2020 at 5:48 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

I guess since basically nobody in the USA bought the Wii version and lots of weird people pass on handheld games because apparently people think they "aren't as good as console games" and you need the New 3DS to play the New 3DS version that most people in NA passed on it. 

 

Funny thing it, I bought the Wii version at launch, played about 3-4 hours into it, and bounced out to something else, telling myself I'd come back to it.  Then the 3DS version was announced, so I figured I'd just get that version and it'd be perfect to play at work.   

And it was, for about 3-4 hours into it, and I bounced out again to something else, telling myself I'd come back to it.  ?   Then they announced the Switch version ---

 

I have it pre-ordered and plan to start in on Launch day next week.  Maybe it'll stick this time.

[Steven Pendleton]

After 200 hours, I've finally finished Mary Skelter 2 and the remake of Mary Skelter (and they were both WAY better than I ever imagined they could possibly be), so I've nothing stopping me from putting my full attention into Xenoblade when it releases in a few days. I do actually have the Langrisser 1 and 2 remakes that my shipping company in the USA has in storage because of the whole Amazon not shipping to Japan + NISA not shipping to Japan, but since that's in the USA and won't be here in the next week, it's not like I can play those anyway.

1 hour ago, Razzie.P said:

 

Funny thing it, I bought the Wii version at launch, played about 3-4 hours into it, and bounced out to something else, telling myself I'd come back to it.  Then the 3DS version was announced, so I figured I'd just get that version and it'd be perfect to play at work.   

And it was, for about 3-4 hours into it, and I bounced out again to something else, telling myself I'd come back to it.  ?   Then they announced the Switch version ---

 

I have it pre-ordered and plan to start in on Launch day next week.  Maybe it'll stick this time.

It's a good game and it gets better as you go. The only real thing that I don't like about the game is that it highly encourages you to do sidequests since sidequests give you decent amounts of EXP. I hate sidequests in general, and if you don't do them, you will end up underleveled. In this game, being underleveled really has a huge impact on your ability to take and receive damage. Just being 2 or 3 levels higher than bosses or enemies makes a huge difference, and being a few levels too low makes boss fights range from very difficult to nearly impossible. Even regular enemies will kill you fast if your level is too low, and if you get swarmed by a bunch of them when your level is too low you're dead for sure.

 

This is annoying, but that's how the game works and I'll forgive it this time since the game is so good otherwise. There is also absolutely no penalty for dying at all from what I remember, though. There is no game over screen and the game generally respawns you somewhere very close to where you died. This gives you a perfect reason to jump to your doom from very high places just for fun since it will just put you right back where you were before you jumped. I'm terribly scared of high places in real life for whatever reason, and this is one of the few games I've played, along with Metroid Prime, where I feel extremely uncomfortable jumping down from very high places. Jumping into water is fine, though, and you'll get the opportunity to do that from an extremely high place very early in the game. I think there's actually an achievement for making that specific jump, as well.

Edited May 23, 2020 by Steven Pendleton
spelling

[Video]

Xenoblade chronicles 3d was cool for 3ds, but despite being a beautiful 3d adventure game, the weird bastardized psudo live action/turn based combat system was just to complicated and clumsy for me to enjoy the rest of the game.

[Steven Pendleton]

Yeah, the battle system is super weird. I don't hate it or love it, but it's unique as far as I know and it functions properly.

[Steven Pendleton]

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xenoblade-chronicles-definitive-edition-preorders-/1100-6477671/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

 

Somehow it's already gotten a discount without being released yet. It's even just slightly over 5000 yen here, too. If you don't live in US or Japan, check your local Amazon since you might have the same thing.

[Tanooki]

14 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xenoblade-chronicles-definitive-edition-preorders-/1100-6477671/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

 

Somehow it's already gotten a discount without being released yet. It's even just slightly over 5000 yen here, too. If you don't live in US or Japan, check your local Amazon since you might have the same thing.

Saw it commented last night, it was dropped for $50 shipped from Amazon yesterday in the US.  They're matching the Walmart standard, maybe others to follow.

 

I'm kind of tempted to buy it even if I wasn't 100% in love with it on 3DS.  I'm bored, want a new Switch game despite not finishing a fair few others as I'm suffering from Animal Crossing burnout.  I love the game, but it's turned into wash rinse repeat most nights so I'm down to like 2-3x a week with it.

 

I've got a few I wanted when I got them, but because of changes in time with design I got kind of shoved out of the motivation to try like Pokemon Shield as that wild area is almost toxic to me for game progression.  I do need to finish Links Awakening but I've done that a few times over the years.  I've got a few I stalled on long ago and probably would have to restart like Mario, Octopath, Dragon Quest 11S, and maybe Pokemon Lets Go(but this one is an easy pick up as is Mario.)  I like RPGs but have real trouble sticking with them anymore.

[Steven Pendleton]

9 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Saw it commented last night, it was dropped for $50 shipped from Amazon yesterday in the US.  They're matching the Walmart standard, maybe others to follow.

 

I'm kind of tempted to buy it even if I wasn't 100% in love with it on 3DS.  I'm bored, want a new Switch game despite not finishing a fair few others as I'm suffering from Animal Crossing burnout.  I love the game, but it's turned into wash rinse repeat most nights so I'm down to like 2-3x a week with it.

 

I've got a few I wanted when I got them, but because of changes in time with design I got kind of shoved out of the motivation to try like Pokemon Shield as that wild area is almost toxic to me for game progression.  I do need to finish Links Awakening but I've done that a few times over the years.  I've got a few I stalled on long ago and probably would have to restart like Mario, Octopath, Dragon Quest 11S, and maybe Pokemon Lets Go(but this one is an easy pick up as is Mario.)  I like RPGs but have real trouble sticking with them anymore.

I can see this, and the game is very long, so some people might feel it's a bit repetitive. I guess maybe that's why there are so many sidequests. RPGs generally require huge amounts of time in general, though, and if you're not enjoying it, you'll spend a lot of time not enjoying it.

 

Anyway, I just checked Amazon USA and Amazon Japan. On US side, it's #1 on Switch sales charts and #5 in video games. In Japan, it's #2 Switch and also #2 video games. Difficult to say how long it will stay there after release, though. I don't typically track sales, but I get the feeling that RPGs generally sell most of their units in the first week and then disappear from the charts. Again, I'm not sure, and this is just a guess, but maybe I'll watch the Famitsu sales charts to see what happens with this game.

[Tanooki]

I was enjoying DQ11S, Octopath and Link too.  Stuff came up, pulled off them basically for a few weeks, then just accidentally for a lack of a better word for it moved along.

 

There were others such as Tales of Vesperia which I only did like up to the first forest after this town with a tree but I wasn't like really sucked in like some other Tales games so I sold it, and it wasn't the only, as also Lost Sphear and a few other non-RPGs got put to sale.  I'm just better off with shorter games more often than not I can dig into fairly quick, but then you get those designed say like Diablo 3/Torchlight style and I can get sucked in for hours (or Breath of the Wild too) and have no issue.  Yet sort of like BOTW you have Dragon's Dogma(don't have) and Skyrim(do) and I couldn't finish that either but I have retained it though to be fair it got quite a few hours of time but it's overly massive (not sure if dragon's dogma is as much of a slog.)

[Tempest]

1 hour ago, Tanooki said:

There were others such as Tales of Vesperia which I only did like up to the first forest after this town with a tree but I wasn't like really sucked in like some other Tales games so I sold it

Vesperia was my first Tales game and I loved it back then.  I just went through ToV again on the PS4 and could barely slog through it.  I was using a guide to do all the sub quests (and man are there thousands of those), but about half way through it just became a dull boring grind.  I don't remember it being that way the first time I played.  Either my tastes have changed or trying to do all those side quests killed my enjoyment.  Patty didn't add much to the game overall either so the new content was a bit of a letdown. 

 

Whenever I can get my hands on a Switch I'll pick Xenoblade up.  I have it for the Wii and was going to replay it again before playing 2, so this is a nice surprise.  I'm not paying full price for it though.  

[Steven Pendleton]

8 hours ago, Tanooki said:

There were others such as Tales of Vesperia which I only did like up to the first forest after this town with a tree but I wasn't like really sucked in like some other Tales games so I sold it

7 hours ago, Tempest said:

Vesperia was my first Tales game and I loved it back then.  I just went through ToV again on the PS4 and could barely slog through it.  I was using a guide to do all the sub quests (and man are there thousands of those), but about half way through it just became a dull boring grind.  I don't remember it being that way the first time I played.  Either my tastes have changed or trying to do all those side quests killed my enjoyment.  Patty didn't add much to the game overall either so the new content was a bit of a letdown. 

 

Whenever I can get my hands on a Switch I'll pick Xenoblade up.  I have it for the Wii and was going to replay it again before playing 2, so this is a nice surprise.  I'm not paying full price for it though.  

Vesperia is one of the worst Tales games. The best is the remake of Destiny on the PS2 (preferably the Director's Cut version of it, specifically) followed very closely by the PS2 (not 3DS) version of Abyss and then probably either the PS1 or PSP remake of Phantasia (they are essentially the same game but the PSP version changed the sprites and added full voice acting, which is why its full title is Tales of Phantasia Full Voice Edition) or Phantasia Cross Edition on the PSP that they stuck in with Narikiri Dungeon X, which is different from the other PSP version. I haven't played any of the newer games after Xillia except for the beginning of Zesteria, but neither of those are that great, I think, but not the worst games I've played.

 

Anyway, I've never played the Wii version, but Digital Foundry just put out their technical analysis of the Switch version, so maybe you should watch it and see if it's something you'd like to try or just stick with the Wii version and save some cash. I guess you wouldn't get the new stuff they added in the Switch version, though.

Edited May 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[Tempest]

Too bad ToD PS2 wasn't released in the US.

[Steven Pendleton]

6 minutes ago, Tempest said:

Too bad ToD PS2 wasn't released in the US.

Yeah, it's really awesome. Too bad it unfortunately runs in 480i like most other PS2 games. My PC monitor doesn't like interlaced signals and only has HDMI and VGA, so I have to use the bob deinterlace on the OSSC + HD Retrovision. I don't really like the bob deinterlace on the OSSC when I'm 3 feet from the screen, but it's better than nothing. PS3's deinterlace for PS2 games is incredible and basically runs them in flawless progressive scan, but unfortunately PS2 games are region locked and my PS3 is NTSC-U.

[Steven Pendleton]

Forgot to post this earlier even though I mentioned it before I derailed my own thread, so here's the Digital Foundry video. Maybe someone will be interested to see how it compares to the Wii and New 3DS versions.

 

 

[Tanooki]

8 hours ago, Tempest said:

Vesperia was my first Tales game and I loved it back then.  I just went through ToV again on the PS4 and could barely slog through it.  I was using a guide to do all the sub quests (and man are there thousands of those), but about half way through it just became a dull boring grind.  I don't remember it being that way the first time I played.  Either my tastes have changed or trying to do all those side quests killed my enjoyment.  Patty didn't add much to the game overall either so the new content was a bit of a letdown. 

 

Whenever I can get my hands on a Switch I'll pick Xenoblade up.  I have it for the Wii and was going to replay it again before playing 2, so this is a nice surprise.  I'm not paying full price for it though.  

I can't say, but all I can go after were the few Tales games that are earlier I've done.  Symphonia (even part of the Wii sequel), Eternia on PSP(UK import), Phantasia on GBA(most of it), and Tales PS2 port of Abyss on 3DS.  Those I got into, enjoyed, even if i didn't finish some I got far and got my fun value from it.  Vesperia just felt like going through the motions, so when something else popped up I unintentionally forgot about it, then felt bad about it months later when I realized I forgot about it...then realized I couldn't jump back in, refused to restart and dumped it.  I maybe think it's a game of its time period and perhaps even felt a little dated then if they have streamlined it more since but I just got put off it not getting into it.