Current Events > The first Xenoblade Chronicles is fantastic so far

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just fought Mysterious Face in Gaur Plains. I cannot put this game down. Even going out and doing these not fun side quests is fun.

R.I.P. best girl

Smash Ultimate totally ruined that for me >_>
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I thought x was good until I started playing botw.
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Wait until you meet best girl Riki, best character in the game
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hated the quest design

ff12 did the offline mmo thing better

wait until you get about 70 hours in and the game becomes ultra tedious
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Lmfao yeah... I guess it's been long enough. Technically it was already spoiled in a Smash 4 trophy.

I think the game still holds up today. I think it was pretty revolutionary when it first came out cuz it was on a toaster of a console but had a lot of designs that modern games might even still wish they had. Obviously the textures are super blurry and the character models and designs were decided before they had an official art (which tbh kinda made them more unique) so their eyes are a bit off. But it's just like this game that had a perfect blend of everything. Gripping story, fun and easy to dive into but secretly complex gameplay, amazing characters, fantastic music, beautiful environments, it was like this perfect mistake.

I remember reading something about how this game would've been impossible if it weren't on the Wii because Takahashi kept wanting to do way more than what they could afford (which is one of the big reasons why Monolith Soft was bought by Nintendo in the first place I believe). Because the hardware itself pretty much told him to slow the fuck down, could we get the game of that level of polish.

Kinda seems like Takahashi hasn't learned his lessons though. With X, he had massive worlds and graphics that were better looking and better performing than all Wii U titles at the time, but it literally had no story and like 2 actual characters.

With Xenoblade 2, he had a team that was like 30% of what he had because they all got pulled to do other games like BotW... and then he decided to make it a game that was much much grander than Xenoblade 1, which resulted in a pretty bad release build with a lot of bugs and very few QoL necessities, which were mostly fixed with a bunch of high quality updates where the game now has pretty confidently surpassed XC1.
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Sharla has nice titties but she needs to go. I'm over having a dedicated healer in RPGs nowadays if I can avoid it.

TomNook20 posted...

I thought x was good until I started playing botw.

Got 4 hours into X before never playing it again. I might have to break it out though after this game.

WSM Piru posted...

Wait until you meet best girl Riki, best character in the game

Cannot wait. I want more girls.

Kaiganeer posted...

hated the quest design

ff12 did the offline mmo thing better

I can see myself getting tired of it eventually.

foreveraIone posted...

wait until you get about 70 hours in and the game becomes ultra tedious

Hopefully, I'll be near finished with the game before it becomes ultra tedious.

legendarylemur posted...

Lmfao yeah... I guess it's been long enough. Technically it was already spoiled in a Smash 4 trophy.

I think the game still holds up today. I think it was pretty revolutionary when it first came out cuz it was on a toaster of a console but had a lot of designs that modern games might even still wish they had. Obviously the textures are super blurry and the character models and designs were decided before they had an official art (which tbh kinda made them more unique) so their eyes are a bit off. But it's just like this game that had a perfect blend of everything. Gripping story, fun and easy to dive into but secretly complex gameplay, amazing characters, fantastic music, beautiful environments, it was like this perfect mistake.

I remember reading something about how this game would've been impossible if it weren't on the Wii because Takahashi kept wanting to do way more than what they could afford (which is one of the big reasons why Monolith Soft was bought by Nintendo in the first place I believe). Because the hardware itself pretty much told him to slow the fuck down, could we get the game of that level of polish.

Kinda seems like Takahashi hasn't learned his lessons though. With X, he had massive worlds and graphics that were better looking and better performing than all Wii U titles at the time, but it literally had no story and like 2 actual characters.

With Xenoblade 2, he had a team that was like 30% of what he had because they all got pulled to do other games like BotW... and then he decided to make it a game that was much much grander than Xenoblade 1, which resulted in a pretty bad release build with a lot of bugs and very few QoL necessities, which were mostly fixed with a bunch of high quality updates where the game now has pretty confidently surpassed XC1.

I'm still impressed that the Wii was able to pull off this type of game. That's some wizardry done by the game devs and props to them for that.
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WSM Piru posted...

Wait until you meet best girl Riki, best character in the game

What? Riki is the manliest man of all time.
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The_Scarecrow posted...

Sharla has nice titties but she needs to go. I'm over having a dedicated healer in RPGs nowadays if I can avoid it.

That's good, because she's easily the worst party member. Since you auto-heal out of battle it's much better to focus on a powerful DPS team and not have a dedicated healer, since battles don't last too long when you know what to do.

Yeah, you got spoiled a big plot point thanks to Smash (which technically got spoiled in Smash 4 but it was via a trophy), but there's plenty of other plot twists, so the plot isn't totally spoiled. I still think XC1 has the best story of the Xenoblade games.
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The_Scarecrow posted...

Sharla has nice titties but she needs to go. I'm over having a dedicated healer in RPGs nowadays if I can avoid it.

Luckily for you this is a game where you can avoid it. It's maybe a little tough in the earlier stages in the game but before long you'll be able to pretty much blitz everything before it can kill you.

Xenoblade Chronicles is great...up until the last few hours. I've never been as disappointed by the final stretch of a game as I was by this one, and I'm a guy who thinks very few games have finales that are particularly good to begin with.
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Panthera posted...

Xenoblade Chronicles is great...up until the last few hours. I've never been as disappointed by the final stretch of a game as I was by this one, and I'm a guy who thinks very few games have finales that are particularly good to begin with.

I thought it was mindblowing...but only because it was something I totally didn't expect coming considering the rest of the game's theme. I can see how that can turn away some people.
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It's funny. I liked the game, hated it, then liked it again once I really understood the combat system. Now the Xenoblade games are a top 10 franchise to me. I havent beaten any of em yet but Ive put at least 70 hours into all of them with Xenoblade 2 being the one I like the most.

You're in for a jolly time, comrade.
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I really enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles. Even if it does look kind of ugly now.

But if they did an HD remaster for Switch, I'd totally pick it up.
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Esrac posted...

I really enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles. Even if it does look kind of ugly now.

But if they did an HD remaster for Switch, I'd totally pick it up.

That would make me rebuy the game, yeah. HD remaster with touched up textures would be great.
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I think the game still holds up today.

Except the graphics. It's like 340p and the character faces look like Miis but unironically.
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If there was a setting that always locked you one level below what you were fighting, or maybe even equivalent - this would easily be one of the best RPG's I've ever played. Too bad it's literally impossible not to skyrocket off in level.

But when you get those fights where it's a powerful enemy that's not 2+ levels on you or vice versa, the battle system just gleams.
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The environments are fantastic, the music is top notch, the story and characters are enjoyable enough at the least, but beyond exploring areas the gameplay in the original never clicked with me. The combat just kinda worked for most of the game, occasionally I would hit a level wall because I found myself avoiding quests whenever I could because I don't really enjoy the quest style of these games, until I got like maybe eighty percent in and I got a certain set-up with Shulk/Dunban/spoiler and pretty much just steamrolled everything else that came my way in the story and it was in that last fifth or so of the game where I realized I never really had fun with the combat and it never felt like anything mattered except me having the right set-up. Maybe one day when I get to replaying it with the 3DS version I'll find new appreciation for it.

I liked Xenoblade 2 a lot more mostly just because the combat felt more dynamic. Felt like there was better feedback to your actions with shit like the announcer and the timed hits, more player input during battles themselves with you needing to actually react to what's going on once in a while, though it worked off the same baseline and once you got strong enough it again started to feel like something you could set to a macro.

The_Scarecrow posted...

Got 4 hours into X before never playing it again. I might have to break it out though after this game.

XCX kicks ass, but I get why it didn't capture people right away.

The thing is, it's not like XC1 or XC2. The story is incredibly lacking and it's hard to get invested in the characters, which is where 1 and 2 thrive. The fully voiced affinity missions are alright, since they build a little insight into the side recruits who don't get much development in the main story.

You have to approach it like an open-world, BotW (sorta) "explore and go at your own pace" game. It's not linear, and you get the game done in chapters, leaving you plenty of time to dick around until you feel like progressing with the story. Mapping is great, tyrant killing is great, equipment functionality is fairly deep; the non-affinity-mission sidequests are a little lacking though (literally "kill 5 things, gather 4 things, etc.). But at least for the killing quests, they tell you where to find said enemies.

It's a great game nonetheless, but for totally different reasons. Trying to compare it to XC1/2 just doesn't work.
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Make sure you play XC2 after this one. Both 1 and 2 blow X right out of the water.
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Banjo2553 posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

Sharla has nice titties but she needs to go. I'm over having a dedicated healer in RPGs nowadays if I can avoid it.

That's good, because she's easily the worst party member. Since you auto-heal out of battle it's much better to focus on a powerful DPS team and not have a dedicated healer, since battles don't last too long when you know what to do.

Yeah, you got spoiled a big plot point thanks to Smash (which technically got spoiled in Smash 4 but it was via a trophy), but there's plenty of other plot twists, so the plot isn't totally spoiled. I still think XC1 has the best story of the Xenoblade games.

Panthera posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

Sharla has nice titties but she needs to go. I'm over having a dedicated healer in RPGs nowadays if I can avoid it.

Luckily for you this is a game where you can avoid it. It's maybe a little tough in the earlier stages in the game but before long you'll be able to pretty much blitz everything before it can kill you.

Xenoblade Chronicles is great...up until the last few hours. I've never been as disappointed by the final stretch of a game as I was by this one, and I'm a guy who thinks very few games have finales that are particularly good to begin with.

Very nice. I like Sharla as a character at least but I prefer more damage output over a dedicated healer nowadays.

Blue_Inigo posted...

It's funny. I liked the game, hated it, then liked it again once I really understood the combat system. Now the Xenoblade games are a top 10 franchise to me. I havent beaten any of em yet but Ive put at least 70 hours into all of them with Xenoblade 2 being the one I like the most.

You're in for a jolly time, comrade.

I remember renting this game when it first came out and really liking it. I returned it the next day because I thought I would go out and buy the game relatively soon after. Years later, I finally managed to do that.

Darksaber310 posted...

If there was a setting that always locked you one level below what you were fighting, or maybe even equivalent - this would easily be one of the best RPG's I've ever played. Too bad it's literally impossible not to skyrocket off in level.

But when you get those fights where it's a powerful enemy that's not 2+ levels on you or vice versa, the battle system just gleams.

I'm always overleveled in RPGs so that never really bothers me tbh
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Second_Chances posted...

The environments are fantastic, the music is top notch, the story and characters are enjoyable enough at the least, but beyond exploring areas the gameplay in the original never clicked with me. The combat just kinda worked for most of the game, occasionally I would hit a level wall because I found myself avoiding quests whenever I could because I don't really enjoy the quest style of these games, until I got like maybe eighty percent in and I got a certain set-up with Shulk/Dunban/spoiler and pretty much just steamrolled everything else that came my way in the story and it was in that last fifth or so of the game where I realized I never really had fun with the combat and it never felt like anything mattered except me having the right set-up. Maybe one day when I get to replaying it with the 3DS version I'll find new appreciation for it.

I liked Xenoblade 2 a lot more mostly just because the combat felt more dynamic. Felt like there was better feedback to your actions with shit like the announcer and the timed hits, more player input during battles themselves with you needing to actually react to what's going on once in a while, though it worked off the same baseline and once you got strong enough it again started to feel like something you could set to a macro.

I'm not sure which combat system I prefer. Xenoblade Chronicle 2's battle system never got fun until I was about 30 hours into the game. Then, it was pretty engaging from there on.

Muffinz0rz posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

Got 4 hours into X before never playing it again. I might have to break it out though after this game.

XCX kicks ass, but I get why it didn't capture people right away.

The thing is, it's not like XC1 or XC2. The story is incredibly lacking and it's hard to get invested in the characters, which is where 1 and 2 thrive. The fully voiced affinity missions are alright, since they build a little insight into the side recruits who don't get much development in the main story.

You have to approach it like an open-world, BotW (sorta) "explore and go at your own pace" game. It's not linear, and you get the game done in chapters, leaving you plenty of time to dick around until you feel like progressing with the story. Mapping is great, tyrant killing is great, equipment functionality is fairly deep; the non-affinity-mission sidequests are a little lacking though (literally "kill 5 things, gather 4 things, etc.). But at least for the killing quests, they tell you where to find said enemies.

It's a great game nonetheless, but for totally different reasons. Trying to compare it to XC1/2 just doesn't work.

BotW gave me a newfound appreciation for exploration type games so I'm hoping that I will find much more enjoyment in XCX when I play it eventually.

DoGCyN posted...

Make sure you play XC2 after this one. Both 1 and 2 blow X right out of the water.

Haha yeah...
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I guess you could say youre really feeling it, huh?

It is a good game though I never finished it sadly
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I loved it. More than 2.
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Yes, hello Dunban and goodbye Sharla.
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The_Scarecrow posted...

Yes, hello Dunban and goodbye Sharla.

Dunban's better naked than Sharla is anyway.

...Half-joking, but he has skills that legitimately boost his (I think it's agility?) when he's not wearing armor.
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The cutscenes in this game are really good. I still go back and rewatch the opening cutscene. What an opening to a game.
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Melia best girl

Loved XC1 to death. Took years to get into and finish XCX 100%. Still struggling to get into XC2...
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I beat it for the first time about two months ago. I loved it. Tried X but I played for about an hour and couldn't get into it. 2 has been pretty great so far. I'll probably go back to X at some point, I really want to play with the mecha.
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The story keeps getting more interesting. I'm generally curious as to how it develops. Can't say that about many story driven games I've played.

Anyways, I just got Melia. No idea if I should stick her in the party or not. I want to but Shulk/Reyn/Dunban have been doing a good job so far. Decisions...
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Melia has some of the worst AI in the game. The computer does not know how to play her. However, shes a monster if you control her.
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Spidey5 posted...

Melia has some of the worst AI in the game. The computer does not know how to play her. However, shes a monster if you control her.

Yeah, Melia's a big party buffer. Summon orbs that power up the party and discharge them as attacks when it's safe to. I'm sure there's some other nuances, but yeah. The AI just summons the orbs and immediately discharges them, not using her to the fullest potential.
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Spidey5 posted...

Melia has some of the worst AI in the game. The computer does not know how to play her. However, shes a monster if you control her.

Damn. I'll have to try her out on some of the side missions to get a feel for her. Perhaps this will be a good time to learn how to survive without Shulk in the party.

Banjo2553 posted...

Spidey5 posted...

Melia has some of the worst AI in the game. The computer does not know how to play her. However, shes a monster if you control her.

Yeah, Melia's a big party buffer. Summon orbs that power up the party and discharge them as attacks when it's safe to. I'm sure there's some other nuances, but yeah. The AI just summons the orbs and immediately discharges them, not using her to the fullest potential.

Interesting. Too bad the AI can't keep up.
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pinky0926 posted...

the character faces look like Miis but unironically.

just like BotW!
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That entire introduction with Riki was pure gold. Now, I'm really not sure who I want in my party.
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The_Scarecrow posted...

That entire introduction with Riki was pure gold. Now, I'm really not sure who I want in my party.

Riki is the shit. He's an HP tank and he specializes in enemy debuffs, which are actually really useful.

He's also a damn good character in the story too. He subverts the expectation of being a pointless mascot party member.
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I know I beat this game a few years ago but I don't remember a goddamn thing about it other than the spoiler TC mentioned

Just reread the plot synopsis on Wikipedia - that ending is wild.
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The_Scarecrow posted...

Anyways, I just got Melia. No idea if I should stick her in the party or not. I want to but Shulk/Reyn/Dunban have been doing a good job so far. Decisions...

Try out Melia, she'll come in handy later. If Melia is in your party she has to be played, her AI sucks.
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Shulk/Riki/Dunban or Shulk/Riki/Reyn is a pretty pretty good party for this point. Unless you want to experiment with Melia, then switch out Shulk.
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I'll vouch for Melia.

Her AI does suck, but her potential damage output is crazy. Far as I recall, she basically specializes in party buffs and DoT spells. Cast Summon Bolt to buff your magic, then cast and discharge Summon Flare, Earth, and Aqua to put a bunch of DoTs on the enemy.
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Banjo2553 posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

That entire introduction with Riki was pure gold. Now, I'm really not sure who I want in my party.

Riki is the shit. He's an HP tank and he specializes in enemy debuffs, which are actually really useful.

He's also a damn good character in the story too. He subverts the expectation of being a pointless mascot party member.

Yes, he actually made a world of difference in a battle against an unique monster. Shulk/Reyn/Dunban were annihilated within a minute but Shulk/Dunban/Riki managed to pull a win.

CM_Ponch posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

Anyways, I just got Melia. No idea if I should stick her in the party or not. I want to but Shulk/Reyn/Dunban have been doing a good job so far. Decisions...

Try out Melia, she'll come in handy later. If Melia is in your party she has to be played, her AI sucks.

Esrac posted...

I'll vouch for Melia.

Her AI does suck, but her potential damage output is crazy. Far as I recall, she basically specializes in party buffs and DoT spells. Cast Summon Bolt to buff your magic, then cast and discharge Summon Flare, Earth, and Aqua to put a bunch of DoTs on the enemy.

She'll definitely be a part of my rotating party. Everyone will probably be getting decent party time except Sharla.

Phantom_Nook posted...

Shulk/Riki/Dunban or Shulk/Riki/Reyn is a pretty pretty good party for this point. Unless you want to experiment with Melia, then switch out Shulk.

I imagine that Shulk's AI isn't very good at using Monado arts?
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The_Scarecrow posted...

I imagine that Shulk's AI isn't very good at using Monado arts?

Pretty terrible, especially when fighting Mechon. It doesn't check to see if your party can damage them before wasting his talent gauge on Enchant.
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foreveraIone posted...

wait until you get about 70 hours in and the game becomes ultra tedious

I spent like 120 hours and started trying to mega heat and separate capsules and I got burnt out
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Do not play any other game in the series, you will be very disappointed
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MetalGearRiki posted...

Do not play any other game in the series, you will be very disappointed

Eh, I say otherwise. I absolutely love something from every game in the series.
- Xenoblade 1: Best story and characters.
- Xenoblade X: Best setting (I love sci-fi), best custom character creator.
- Xenoblade 2: Best gameplay with how more interactive it is.
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MetalGearRiki posted...

Do not play any other game in the series, you will be very disappointed

Ignore this post. XC2 is fantastic.
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I was looking through my Wii games and found The Last Story. I remember that game along with Xenoblade Chronicles and Pandoras Tower being part of some Operation Rainfall movement. Perhaps Ill play that after I finish Xenoblade.

DeathVelvien posted...

The_Scarecrow posted...

I imagine that Shulk's AI isn't very good at using Monado arts?

Pretty terrible, especially when fighting Mechon. It doesn't check to see if your party can damage them before wasting his talent gauge on Enchant.

I guess Shulk and Melia will never be in the same party. Bummer.
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Never played Last Story. Got just about halfway through Pandora Tower and dropped it.
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Spidey5 posted...

Never played Last Story. Got just about halfway through Pandora Tower and dropped it.

Just watched some gameplay of Pandoras Tower. It looks like it could get repetitive after a while with the 12 towers.
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Last Story and Pandora's Tower are both pretty good

PT is kinda formulaic and predictable, so I can definitely see it growing dull on people. My main issue with that game is that one of the last towers crashes the game when it tries to load it. If you keep resetting the Wii it will eventually work, but it really sucks.

LS is my second favorite Wii RPG after XC (though I guess that doesn't mean much given how rare the genre was lol). It's basically like an action game mixed with pseudo-tactical RPG battles. And it has a hub. But following the story it's like a giant action movie. Very quick paced.
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B-Bump
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