Board 8 > OG Xenoblade Chronicles is pretty darn good

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just passed through Satori Marsh and things are finally starting to click. Doesn't feel like a 15 hour tutorial anymore.

Also that soundtrack at night...wow.

yeah Satori marsh is where the game definitely begins to shine

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https://youtu.be/TA7pFI4pEv0

I mean jfc

I've been playing the Switch version (I have beaten the original) and am at exactly the same place

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2 is better because it has more and better waifus

Melia is top tier tho

LordoftheMorons posted...

I've been playing the Switch version (I have beaten the original) and am at exactly the same place

How do the two compare? I didn't really love the art direction in the definitive edition, but I can absolutely see some areas of optimization for the original.

MitchMcConnell posted...

How do the two compare? I didn't really love the art direction in the definitive edition, but I can absolutely see some areas of optimization for the original.

It's been quite a while since I played the Wii version so I'm sure I'm missing stuff, but the main thing is map markers for quests (which hopefully will let me avoid missing one and being super annoyed about it like last time). Just not being tied to the TV is also nice.

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MitchMcConnell posted...

How do the two compare? I didn't really love the art direction in the definitive edition, but I can absolutely see some areas of optimization for the original.

The character redesigns are so good. They might not be your thing if you actively dislike the anime look, but they still "feel" like the original characters without having early-era PS2 faces. Overall, I didn't notice any "jarring" changes. The rearranged musical tracks sounded very similar to me, and most other changes are welcomed QOL improvements with the quest and menu systems. One thing I appreciated in DE's combat system is that some Arts icons blink up to alert you when it's the best time to use them.

The one major new addition to DE - the separate epilogue - is pretty trash compared to the main game, but the main game is so damn good and complete that I wasn't even disappointed.

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I'm doing a replay and I'm having trouble getting into it. It's probably just the shift back onto this style of battle system after playing Trails for the last six months.

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colliding posted...

I'm doing a replay and I'm having trouble getting into it. It's probably just the shift back onto this style of battle system after playing Trails for the last six months.

After the dumb Xord battle, it's been a real breeze.

It feels weird because I always expected this to be a more "typical" JRPG, but it feels way more western to me. The lack of real towns, lack of item usage in battles, etc.

CaptainOfCrush posted...

One thing I appreciated in DE's combat system is that some Arts icons blink up to alert you when it's the best time to use them.

That would annoy me. I hate when games are this prescriptive.

It's more just to let you know you're in the proper position so that hitboxes won't screw you over with stuff like Back Slash, where for some reason the game decides you're technically not behind the enemy

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DE is better in every way and I feel bad for you that you're having to suffer through that blurry mess.

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Waluigi1 posted...

DE is better in every way and I feel bad for you that you're having to suffer through that blurry mess.

I rarely play games that are newer than 15 years old so it's pretty good looking to me. I also upscale my Wii and it's pretty smooth.

Man Riki feels like such a relic of a mid-90s JRPG. I do not like.

Also how is this the same minds behind Xenoblade/saga? The story is really damn restrained so far in comparison.

Riki's the token mascot. He adds some color to the team, but yeah he's not my favorite. The rest are pretty solid in terms of their stories and inter-party relationships.

Speaking of which, do you have a favorite team so far?

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Heropon Riki greatest Heropon

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ninkendo posted...

Heropon Riki greatest Heropon

Yeah don't be talking shit on my man Riki!

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I hated Riki for a bit but he grew on me a lot.

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Riki is fantastic.
Loved him right away.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Speaking of which, do you have a favorite team so far?

Shulk, Reyn, Dunban (the bros) for most battles, and swap Dunban with Sharla for ones where I need to heal.

Also am I doing something wrong with the relationship part of the game? I literally haven't been eligible for a heart to heart since colony 9.

You're probably doing fine. A lot of heart to hearts you would've seen by now probably involve characters you don't have yet, or didn't have at the time. You can probably go back and do Reyn and Sharla's first one by now though

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The story never reaches the same epic scale of gears or saga but it's good in its own right. I'm one of the few that preferred xc2 though so I don't know if I share the majority opinion on that or not

And yeah heart to hearts unlock quite slowly

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I ended up reading a script for all the Heart to Hearts after I beat the game because leveling up affection takes so long.

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Have you tried controlling characters other than Shulk?

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LordoftheMorons posted...

Have you tried controlling characters other than Shulk?

Nope!

Born in a world of strife!

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neonreaper posted...

Born in a world of strife!

Against the odds!

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We choose to fight!

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The pacing in this game is really weird.

So far the only real story beats are Mechon are attacking and then Shulk has a vision of a tower.

Thankfully I really like the battle mechanics and basically every aesthetic feature of the game.

I didnt like it.

The side quests were especially terrible

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masterplum posted...

I didnt like it.

The side quests were especially terrible

Playing this after the mass effect 2 and 3 quests is pretty disappointing. Really wish some of them would at least add to the plot/characters/world building.

I really didn't expect the story to be my least favorite part of this game

I guess it depends what you're looking for because for me filling out that bombers journal style relationship chart and rebuilding colony 6 were both aspects I loved doing

Once you hit the area after makna first and nopon village though the story starts to take more of a leading role

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Yeah the story will pick up soon.

And I agree with SHINE - the Colony 6 quest line and interconnected Affinity Chart made the world seem pretty cohesive for me. That said, I don't think I've heard a single fan mention the side quests as a standout part of the game (there are over 400, so most will be very boilerplate).

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CaptainOfCrush posted...

Yeah the story will pick up soon.

And I agree with SHINE - the Colony 6 quest line and interconnected Affinity Chart made the world seem pretty cohesive for me. That said, I don't think I've heard a single fan mention the side quests as a standout part of the game (there are over 400, so most will be very boilerplate).

Which was a huge problem. You had to do them to get your affinity up so you could trade for materials for colony 6 and unlock the quests that gave more character abilities. The ones that were missable were an extra layer of brutal because not only did I not want to do them, I had to do them RIGHT NOW

I dont mind mediocre side quests, and I dont mind lots of side quests necessary to unlock things, but the combination was horrendous to me. I would have gone from disliking the game to liking the game quite a bit if every Kill 10 wolves side quest was removed from the game, and there were at least 100 of those

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I also dislike the side quests in xenoblade. The relationship/affinity/sidequest stuff was poorly explained in the original and drove me, a completionist, insane. There's so many of them and 80% of them are tedious fetch/kill quests

it's a little better in DE from what I can tell

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Also it wouldn't be so bad if the missable sidequests could just be done in a NG+, but nope. NG+ resets sidequests.

Like what the hell. It's like they picked the worst option at every choice

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