Current Events > Was Xenoblade 1 really all that?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I had a lot of fun early on.
My lasting thoughts are frustration that it's so difficult to talk about this game in an engaging way to someone who hasn't played. You can't talk about the plot without it crumbling into a pile of spoilers. There's little room for reinterpretation or jokes.

There's this point late game where you're doing loads of side quests and you don't hear or read any new dialogue from the party. They have the same pre-quest and post-quest lines repeatedly.
It's nice that the gameplay keeps going but for a long stretch before the ending, it turns your party into these blank avatars with the same general interest in helping toward every side quest. It's good for levelling and maxing out your characters the first time but it just doesn't seem much fun to replay.

I'm starting to doubt Xenoblade 1.

Yes, it is.

It's one of the best games of all time.

My #2, after A Link to the Past

It's fun, but a bit over hyped imo.

kinda but not really

it suffers from the typical JRPG stuff of having bad pacing and never ending. it's got so many twists that they just lose all impact. the combat is kinda basic and worse than the sequels

but the world was absolutely incredible to explore at the time, and it still mostly holds up.

ellis123 posted...

Yes, it is.

But if I replay they won't let me use my maxed out NG+ future changing sword to mess around or win the forced loss fights.
And the late game is fetch quests and monsters that don't stand a chance against a maxed out party and give insubstantial rewards.
And the plot forgets about half the party.
And Egil's much less interesting the second time around when you know what he's angry about and that he'll be partially redeemed near the end.
And the Zanza stuff sucks.
And in the late game there's only one area left that plays Mechanical Rhythm.
And it doesn't let you start with your full party, makes you collect them by progressing through the game.

my hot take is 3 > 1 > 2 re: xenoblade

I love it. I replay it fairly often.

I like it well enough, but I honestly dont see myself playing it again lol. Im just not interested in playing 80-ish hour long games.

The characters, story, and music were all fantastic but I didnt much care for the gameplay. Im honestly probably too dumb for it, but it just didnt really click with me. Maybe Ill give it another play through someday.

Yes, its absolutely amazing, and it was a real shame to see how many steps back XC2 took

Breaker posted...

I love it. I replay it fairly often.

What do you do to keep repeat playthroughs interesting?
Guessing you mean new game files and not NG+.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

What do you do to keep repeat playthroughs interesting?
Guessing you mean new game files and not NG+.

Yeah, I just start over. I don't really do anything. I just wait until I'm in the mood to play it again and I don't worry about doing every little thing for every playthrough.

Great game that I feel kinda jumped the shark once zanza was introduced

For me it was. Easily my most hyped Wii game and it blew me away. Even without talking about the story, the gameplay, music and environments were all amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xx6g3M0TWg

Not at all

Breaker posted...

Yeah, I just start over. I don't really do anything. I just wait until I'm in the mood to play it again and I don't worry about doing every little thing for every playthrough.

Not sure I follow.
You just like watching the story play out with little bits of gameplay in between? And you get to a certain point and would rather go back to the start instead of keep going? I feel like that would just make me dislike the early game.

That's kind of how I play Dark Souls 1. I don't bother with BoC or Gwyn, more fun to start over. That game's all gameplay though. This one's got lots of cutscenes and forced losses.

It's great still but I believe all future Xenoblade games improved on it in some way, whether it be characterization, gameplay, or even story elements.

I don't think any game ever matched the exciting storytelling 1 had though. Felt like an exciting popcorn flick movie that keeps you engaged while the others were more character-focused and dealing with their internal struggles.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

No, kind of similar though.
That one was me asking if there's a way to get people interested in the game. It's really hard to get someone to take an interest in what appears to be a generic anime game that I also can't really say much about without spoiling everything.

Now I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons of replaying the game.
I have this kind of apathy toward revisiting it that I don't really understand. It should be at the top of my list of reasons to buy a Switch but it's just not for some reason.
I don't like the idea of having to concede this was a one-and-done, because unlike most one-and-dones, it actually was really fun the first go around.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Not sure I follow.
You just like watching the story play out with little bits of gameplay in between? And you get to a certain point and would rather go back to the start instead of keep going? I feel like that would just make me dislike the early game.

That's kind of how I play Dark Souls 1. I don't bother with BoC or Gwyn, more fun to start over. That game's all gameplay though. This one's got lots of cutscenes and forced losses.

No. I mean I play the story and side quests and rebuild Colony 6 . But I don't worry about maxing everything out. Like maxing out all arts, party affinity, achievement list, defeat every unique monster, and things like that.

Maybe the problem is that it feels like an MMO but it doesn't last half as long as one.
Or that it feels like an MMO but you're the only person still playing.

I'm trying to go back to my first playthrough and figure out what exactly made it click the first time round.
Maybe something made it seem much better than it actually was. I think if a game struggles to tempt you back then that's a real knock on the game. Something has to be up.

-The gameplay was different and it was fun.
-It was very reminiscent of FFX.
-It was surrounded by everything else that came out in the 2020s.
-It was like playing an MMO the way it constantly gave you little tasks and took any excuse to dump cash and EXP on you.
-The first time around, you don't know how abruptly it's going to run out of fun, you think it'll last like an MMO.
-You don't know if there's a NG+ or that it's going to fall short of its potential on the first run.
-Characters who would not stop yelling.
-Gaur Plain and Mechanical Rhythm are legendary.
-Shit's captivating. Until the last stretch.

If I'd watched this on Youtube, the plot twists would have been the main focus and there'd be no dashed hopes that the game would last.