Xenoblade Chronicles

[Hamr]

The lovely bit about Xenoblade is that you can get Exp from tons of different sources. Killing enemies as usual, but also stuff like exploring the landscape and discovering new landmarks, completing achievements (e.g., walking X number of kilometers, being a smoothtalker or a massive jerk in the optional skit conversations, etc), or completing sidequests net you Exp. The latter is probably the best way to go about things, since the sidequests flesh out the world quite a bit and net you some really solid gear, which is in many cases way more important than the base level you have.

I do not really recommend trying to do all the sidequests (I got through the main quest without doing too many, and then went back and did all that were available for completion's sake), as a lot of them actually devolve into grinding anyway (Kill X number of enemies! Collect X number of rare item drops from killing the same enemy over and over!) and doing them all will lead you to be massively over-leveled, which removes a lot of the strategy from the combat. Also, there is the whole 'over 400 of them' bit, which is kind of excessive unless you really take your time with the game.

As a bit of advice, your most important stat for even having a chance to beat enemies that are at higher levels than you is your Agility. It determines whether or not your attacks will be able to actually land on the foe in question (and whether theirs will land on you). Best way to up it is through mining wind crystals to turn into gems that you can equip on your armor -- and through character specific skill trees that you can share between party members.

[StarStabbedMoon]

The side quests give an extremely large amount of experience points, much more so than traditional grinding, which means there's no real advantage to grinding over questing as far as strict experience is concerned. I personally would go around battling a little if I was under-leveled at any point, but that was only because I just needed to gain one level or two and the monsters were most convenient. That was the way I chose to play it, it was definitely not required of me. I also would actually recommend being very careful of how much exploring and side-questing you take on during your first run-through, as being about 3-5 levels under your enemies at all times is pretty fun and challenging because it forces you to use alot of strategy to make up for your pure strength.

I don't know what reviews you're looking at, but Xenoblade's strength is gameplay. Compared to other Xeno-games, the story is much more accessible and the graphics are limited by the hardware. It looks beautiful because of the way they designed the environment, but I credit that to the focus on exploration gameplay.

As far as the future of jRPG's are concerned, Xenoblade doesn't necessarily do anything new, except for the above-mentioned environment design which is unlike anything I've ever seen in a game. The reason, I assume, they're saying its the future is because it's one of the first jRPG's to adopt modern conventions in the genre while still retaining its entire identity as a jRPG. It's the kind of game that makes you completely forget there was ever a so-called decline in the genre. And it plays beautifully.

Hamr it sounds like you used a Dunban tank as well.

[Hamr]

I don't know what reviews you're looking at, but Xenoblade's strength is gameplay.

And music. Let us not forget the music.

Hamr it sounds like you used a Dunban tank as well.

once I unlocked the skill tree that required it, naked dunban tank.

BORN IN A WORLD OF STRIFE
AGAINST THE ODDS
WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT

[StarStabbedMoon]

... BLOSSOM DANCE!

... couldn't help myself. I was never brave enough to go with that minimalistic of a setup for Dunban, even knowing how great it would be, but I did max him out with agility gems and it was amusing to see him dodge everything. Maybe I'll have to reconsider that setup for this next playthrough.

Definitely one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard.

[Devil_Rising]

Operation Rainfall didn't cause Xenoblade Chronicles to be released here. Nintendo's only making you think it did.

I'd argue that point. I think if OR hadn't occurred, they wouldn't have known there was a big demand for this and Last Story, and would likely have used that as a major excuse not to bother localizing it. Keep in mind that it isn't just this. They copyrighted The Last Story for NA. They wouldn't waste time and money doing that if they weren't also localizing that for NA.

Except Xenoblade and Last Story have been copyrighted by Nintendo of America for a LONG time. It's not like they decided one day after Xenoblade got released in Europe that it'd be good to bring it out here. They were both localized already (Last Story was localized here, btw). By saying nothing, they're letting fans have their "day in sun" so to speak, when in reality it was coming all along.

The wife of the Xenoblade developer basically personally thanked the Rainfall people for "making this happen" in the US. That's good enough for me.

[Serpent_Seed]

I'm hoping the game comes out on a Sunday cause the rest of the week could be a problem.

[Hamr]

... BLOSSOM DANCE!

*brofist*

"I was never brave enough to go with that minimalistic of a setup for Dunban"

It is not really bravery: Agility stacks. Dunban + Naked Skill Boost + Max Agility gems on his weapon + Serene Heart + Melia's Wind Summon = Untouchable God of Murder.

it is honestly kind of obscene

"Definitely one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard."

Reading the things Takahashi put them through, I feel kind of bad for the musicians behind it. But man if it did not get him some great results.

<3 Engage the Enemy

[StarStabbedMoon]

That Iwata Asks with the composers was definitely the best interview Iwata has done for any game, I think. The best part is when they all find out, for the first time apparently, that all the harsh cruel e-mails he sent out were actually edited back quite a bit by someone else to soften what Takahashi really wanted to say.

Have you seen these interviews?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpojtuhe ... F69607BA61
Really great insight into their design intentions. Absolutely amazing.

[Bonampak]

From Operation Rainfall's facebook page (posted on January 5th, 2012):

✦GameStop/EB Games Online Rank Update✦

Xenoblade hits #3 for best selling on the entire site at EB Games!
Xenoblade still on the rise at GameStop

GameStop
Xenoblade Chronicles is currently
#6 for Most Anticipated (-1)
#2 for best selling Wii game
#4 for best selling in the Wii category (+!)
#43 for best selling on the entire site (+24)

EB Games Canada
Xenoblade Chronicles is currently
#1 for Most Anticipated
#1 for best selling Wii Game
#1 for best selling in the Wii category
#3 for best selling on the entire site (+6)

GameStop http://bit.ly/rsxvtx
EB Games Canada http://on.fb.me/sBsulW

Note: This is the first time that we know of that the game is been in the top 5 at either GameStop or EBGames.

[Gulshog]

I keep forgetting to place my pre-order...will try to do it soon. I do not want to miss out on this game.

[Carbondog]

I got mine pre-ordered! I now have a big reason to look forward to April!

[L Thammy]

I just listened to to the voice samples on , Nintendo of America's Xenoblade site. This is really terrible. I'm not usually a stickler for that kind of thing and I wasn't in love with the Japanese actors, but wow. Shulk sounds ten years too old, Riki sounds like a creepy old man badly imitating a little Japanese boy...

I'm really glad this has dual audio. I'm also really glad that they didn't change all the names to make them closer to generic British fantasy stuff like they're doing with The Last Story, but I digress.

Can Xenoblade's cult popularity draw some of the Skyrim crowd to Monolith's later games? Could The Last Story's engine be reused so they can make a series?

[motherbra1n]

The wife of the Xenoblade developer basically personally thanked the Rainfall people for "making this happen" in the US. That's good enough for me.

and yet people are still convinced that operation rainfall had nothing to do with it. And if nintendo of America really had this planned long before operation rainfall and wanted to "surprise" everyone, then they are much dumber than I thought they were because this game will completely flop sales wise. Too many have switched consoles, pirated/imported the game or just lost interest.

Anyway, I'm about 15 hours into the game and I'm not exactly in love with the game, here's what I think so far.

- side quests are extremely repetitive, they don't involve anything more than fetching a certain number of items or killing a certain number of enemies, very disappointing.
- the main quest involves nothing more than walking, fighting and watching cutscenes.
- walking is surprisingly vaguely enjoyable since theres a good variety of environments in the game, but it still gets tedious as hell.
- when I've finished the story part to an area I see no reason to go back to it since the side quests are crap
- gaur plain is the only place worth going back to purely for the music.
- There are way too many items in this game and I don't know what any of them do, why couldn't there be a description in the inventory screen or something so that I wouldn't have to go to xenoblade wikia every time I get an item (I think most of the items are just for the side quests, i.e just the same recycled pixel given a different name so that it can be copied and pasted 500 times for each side quest)
- the battle system is decent, it's like half turn based and half action.
- The difficulty in this game relies way too heavily on grinding which is extremely boring.
- The only thing that's really making me go on right now is the story
- Overall the gameplay is bad but not so bad that I want to give up the whole game and miss out on the story.

[CorusFace]

I bought this as soon as it was up on Amazon, I have been stoked for this game for years now, and finally, finally my waiting (and law-abiding) will be rewarded properly (I guess, maybe "rewarded" isn't the right term...). Amazon ended up erasing my order eventually, of course, but what was dropped by Amazon was picked up by Gamestop (whether I like it or not). I. Cannot. Wait.

[Berrix]

I just listened to to the voice samples on , Nintendo of America's Xenoblade site. This is really terrible. I'm not usually a stickler for that kind of thing and I wasn't in love with the Japanese actors, but wow. Shulk sounds ten years too old, Riki sounds like a creepy old man badly imitating a little Japanese boy...

I'm really glad this has dual audio. I'm also really glad that they didn't change all the names to make them closer to generic British fantasy stuff like they're doing with The Last Story, but I digress.

Can Xenoblade's cult popularity draw some of the Skyrim crowd to Monolith's later games? Could The Last Story's engine be reused so they can make a series?

First off damn that is one manly sounding kid you're hearing (goes without saying the VA can still be better).

The VA overall people seem to be very picky over. Though I can't argue how bad the VA is, this isn't really THAT bad from what I am hearing. Playing Arc Rise Fantasia really got me to appreciate some of the better attempts I guess.

It can so be worse. I have to agree though, the JPN VA for Riki is a thousand times better.

[StarStabbedMoon]

In my experience, the voice acting was pretty good over the course of the game. From what I've heard, most people seem to like it, so I don't think people are being too picky. Riki's english voice will always be intolerable, however.

Most of leveling is based off of questing, because it gives a disproportionate amount of experience compared to simply fighting monsters. This doesn't mean that I recommend you should start questing if you don't want to, I actually prefer to play the game under-leveled because it offers more of a challenge and is, in my opinion, more fun the first time around. You can become over-leveled from doing alot of questing.

[MoldyClay]

- The difficulty in this game relies way too heavily on grinding which is extremely boring.

From what I've heard, this means you're sort of playing it wrong.

According to the Rainfall Facebook, a lot of experience comes from doing sidequests and unlocking achievements and stuff.

The actual tidbit or whatever says this:
"In Xenoblade Chronicles, having to grind to level up your characters is rare. Exploring, achievements, and quests grant enough experience that more often than not you will find yourself at the needed level to play the main game. Of course, this really depends on how you approach the game. If you choose to fast play the game, ignoring quests and exploration, you'll likely find that grinding is necessary. But most people will tell you that the need for grinding in Xenoblade is a rare thing."

So yeah, if you're going to ignore the sidequests since you find them uninteresting, then you are going to be grinding a lot.

[motherbra1n]

- The difficulty in this game relies way too heavily on grinding which is extremely boring.

From what I've heard, this means you're sort of playing it wrong.

According to the Rainfall Facebook, a lot of experience comes from doing sidequests and unlocking achievements and stuff.

The actual tidbit or whatever says this:
"In Xenoblade Chronicles, having to grind to level up your characters is rare. Exploring, achievements, and quests grant enough experience that more often than not you will find yourself at the needed level to play the main game. Of course, this really depends on how you approach the game. If you choose to fast play the game, ignoring quests and exploration, you'll likely find that grinding is necessary. But most people will tell you that the need for grinding in Xenoblade is a rare thing."

So yeah, if you're going to ignore the sidequests since you find them uninteresting, then you are going to be grinding a lot.

How can anyone enjoy those side quests they're always the same damn thing.

And even then, from what I remember the side quests don't give you that much exp, and it's actually 5 times more tedious running around fetching items or looking for specific enemies to kill so you might as well just stick to grinding anyway.

And I'm not exaggerating when I say that all the side quests are the same. I have about 15 in my quest log and I looked through every one of them. It's just "collect X number of Y items" or "kill X number of Y enemies" and I don't see how anyone could not find that boring and repetitive after the 5th time.

[L Thammy]

From what I've read:

- Levels are factored perhaps too much into the battle calculations, so the game can easily be too easy or too difficult if you aren't scaled with the enemies.
- Most sidequests are the MMORPG type discussed.
- There are other types of sidequests. These are unlocked through doing the previously-mentioned sidequests.
- Experience can be earned through sidequests and exploration as well as defeating enemies.



On the subject of VAs, I don't think the fact that worse is out there prevents this being bad. When I look at the character and I hear their voice, the voice should roughly match. I'm not feeling at that all here.

the main quest involves nothing more than walking, fighting and watching cutscenes.

...I really don't think JRPGs are for you.

Actually, if you're looking for games that sound good under this sort of reductionism, there's really not a lot to go on.

[Hamr]

How can anyone enjoy those side quests they're always the same damn thing.

The draw of the sidequests is what it is in virtually any game -- world-building. Each named NPC has their own storyline and their own relationship with the other NPCs in the area (which the game keeps track of). Off the top of my head, throughout the game I played matchmaker for couples, smuggled weapons, broke up a drug ring, helped archaeologists learn the history and backstory of ancient races, restored a destroyed town, stopped a loanshark, cured sick children, etc...

Of course if you are not interested in the narrative aspect of the sidequest and wish to view them by reducing them to their most basic objective of 'go out, engage in standard gameplay, and come back', then yeah, you are not going to enjoy them at all and would probably be best served by ignoring them.

And even then, from what I remember the side quests don't give you that much exp

You are remembering incorrectly, but the bigger issue is that you are ignoring that sidequests give you equipment as well, which is in many cases way more important to boosting your stats than increasing your level.

From what I've read:- Levels are factored perhaps too much into the battle calculations, so the game can easily be too easy or too difficult if you aren't scaled with the enemies.

This is true but requires elaboration. Throughout the opening chunk of the game, if an enemy is more than 5 levels above you (this will be denoted by his name appearing in red), then generally the difference between his Agility and yours is high enough that all of his attacks will hit you and none of yours will hit him in return.

Now, A. As the game goes on, you are increasingly given access to systems which if managed well enable you to boost your Agility enough to have a fighting chance in the face of larger and larger level disparities. By the end of the game, it is possible to one-sidedly curb-stomp enemies with double-digit level advantages.

and B. As long as the enemy's name is not red (i.e., he is less than 5 levels above you), you can kill him in the overwhelming majority of instances, probably all of them. If the name is yellow, blue, grey, or uncolored, then -- as in all RPGs, and I say this as someone who is not even all that fond of the genre -- your last response to getting killed should be "Oh, I need to raise my level, time to grind!" Your first (and second, and third, and...) should always be "Hey, I need to come up with a better strategy."

[L Thammy]

Thanks Hamr.

Actually, if you don't mind me asking, how do the battle systems hold up throughout the game? It looks like there are a lot of factors that could turn bad or could be used for an on-the-spot tactic.




I'm looking at some numbers, and it seems like a lot of niche RPGs on the Wii do better, sometimes much better, in North America than other regions. e.g., Muramasa, Rune Factory, Fragile Dreams. Looking at Operation Rainfall's page, it looks like preorders of Xenoblade are at around 100,000 (compared to 150,000 or so for Europe or Japan), while their poll suggests that only 50% of informed purchases have currently preordered.

This is totally shaky reasoning but I can easily see the actual purchases ending up at 200,000 or more. I don't see it doing too much better, but it's not bad for a niche title. If Europe's a market for RPGs then it should convince them North American can be too. Mind you, this is all small potatoes for a company Nintendo.

[Lenin]

On the subject of VAs, I don't think the fact that worse is out there prevents this being bad. When I look at the character and I hear their voice, the voice should roughly match. I'm not feeling at that all here.

Why not reserve your judgments until you've actually played the game and gotten a feel for the characters' personalities?

Their English voices match their personalities very well: Shulk sounds intelligent, Reyn sounds goofy, Dunban has a sort of exaggerated 'hero' voice. They emote well and it's generally a great dub - easily the best English voiceover work in a Nintendo game.

[L Thammy]

Well, the problem is that what I'm noticing is a disconnect between the character's appearance and their speech. The characters we see aren't actually making any sound, so the illusion of speech can be broken when the voice doesn't match the picture.

So, excuse me if I find it hard to believe it's a "great dub". Not being the worst doesn't make it good.

To be honest, I think that a lot of people just hear the various British accents and say "oh, that sounds like it's really well written and well-acted" without actually paying attention to the actong or the use of voice. That's especially the case when dealing with fantasy.

[Hamr]

Actually, if you don't mind me asking, how do the battle systems hold up throughout the game? It looks like there are a lot of factors that could turn bad or could be used for an on-the-spot tactic.

Depends on what you want out of your RPG battles. The meat of Xenoblade's combat is the preparation aspect. Which characters you go with, what attributes and stats you prioritize for your characters, what armor they wear, what gems you put on that armor, what skill trees you unlock and link for them, what moves you choose to have at your disposal, how well your characters like each other, etc. You have a fairly prodigious number of variables to take into account and manage before heading into a fight, and building/picking a solid set-up is crucial to victory over enemies whose levels are higher than yours.

On the other hand, once the battle starts, I honestly felt like the options were limited in comparison to the crazy number of gameplay systems present prior to engagements. Your character goes into battle with only about ten moves (aside from a basic auto-attack when in range). And you have a party gauge that once you fill you can use for reviving KOed characters or for a massive chain attack. Some of your moves and those of the enemy are dependent upon your position for causing damage or evasion, but there are way too few of these for my liking. You get at most two additional party member: outside of a chain attack or a vision, you have no direct way of controlling them, and your indirect methods of controlling them are practically useless: you can order them to group around you (in which case they will not attack anything) or you can order them to focus on on enemy.

Now to be fair, you can use your arts in any order or combination you want, and they all have their own cooldown time, so a lot of the on-the-fly strategy comes from knowing when the proper moment is to use which move. But outside of visions, where your choices open up considerably, there is a lot less control than a micro-manager like me would really prefer.

"I'm looking at some numbers, and it seems like a lot of niche RPGs on the Wii do better, sometimes much better, in North America than other regions. e.g., Muramasa, Rune Factory, Fragile Dreams."

This is true for most games solely by virtue of the fact that North America is the largest market. That we are also the region that has to beg for releases is a testament only to the fact that something is dreadfully wrong with Nintendo of America.

[Lenin]

Well, the problem is that what I'm noticing is a disconnect between the character's appearance and their speech.

I found no such disconnect when I played Xenoblade last year. The dub was well cast and very well acted.