Xenoblade Chronicles X

[sweenish]

Is there a break mechanic in this game for some of the enemies?
I have the version for the 3ds, and really want to avoid a game that you have to do that in.

This game is not your game.

I was coming by to say that the more I've been playing it, the more I've been enjoying it.

Got stuck for "just" a couple hours when a quest required more work be put into my FrontierNav, but this game just doesn't seem to disappoint. Getting around some of the sheer cliffs can be time consuming, but never dull. I do wish some fights went a bit quicker, though. The ones where I have no chance of really taking serious damage. I've upgraded what I can on my party, but some fights just take a while when a creature is closer to, but still under my level.

I only ever played Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii until it opened up, and something newer and also shiny came along. I regret not buying it when I had the chance.

 

[Fulle]

I've been busy with work and family stuff, so finding chunks of time to play has been hard.... but I still managed to just get to the point where Skells are unlocked in the game.

Got to say that the early pacing is pretty good. By the time you're somewhat familiar with the battle system, you can start experimenting with changing your class, and swapping in different squad members. Then you get access to Overdrive a bit later. Then you unlock your first Skell, and things are fresh once again. A bit after your first Skell, you get access to Skells for Squad members, and then while I'm not there yet you get access to flying Skells, and craft-able Skells.

For the first 30 levels of the game, I've felt like there's always something fresh, and it's been pretty fun.

 

[BW86]

I've been watching my brother play this game over the past few days. Looks like fun - the music is horrible though.

 

[JD50]

I got the collectors edition on launch day but I haven't played it yet. I haven't been able to put down Fallout 4. Fallout is starting to get a little old so I'll probably start this soon.

 

[exdeath]

Biggest disappointment of 2015 for me.

I already had low expectations when the developer said the game focused less on story but good fucking god they didn't say almost NO story.

I want my hour long cut scenes and characters tragically screaming in slow mo with dramatic music and stuff and mind blown spine tingling story revelations. There's like... nothing like that here.

Hyped for nothing.

Gameplay is a toss up too.

I'm getting so tired of trying to do my lowbie quests on the way to level 20 objectives and having level 90 shit pop out of the ground and 1 shot me every 2 seconds or the level 15 creature I need to get being surrounded by and chained to a bunch of level 60 shit. It's starting to get old, like controller throwing old.

The music isn't soul capturing. The characters aren't endearing at all, most of the ones you pick up from affinity quests are just filler and meaningless. It suffers too much like western RPGs in that it's TOO open so everything and everyone lacks any identity and definition.

Xenoblade Chronicles I couldn't stop playing the moment I popped the disc in and heard the title screen music. Three weeks straight and 100% it in 164 hours including a perfect affinity chart. The Wii game was just mesmerizing other than being a blurry 480p Wii game.

XCX so bad. I might have to turn to Trails of Cold Steel as my JRPG of 2015?

 

[Fulle]

@exdeath

Yeah, it's story structure reminds me more of a game like Fallout/Skyrim than it does a typical JRPG. If you wanted a dramatic story driven JRPG, this isn't it. I think the little voiced quests the game does have do a decent job of world building though.... and the main quest is serviceable in setting the stage for why you are doing things within the world, and pushing exploration into new areas.

I do like what's there, it kinda has a Battlestar Galactica vibe to it. They have created an interesting game world, with some neat sci fi stuff in it. I think the story relies too much on Elma and Lin, though, and Elma in particular is a bit boring.

The higher level mobs that aggro are labeled, with one indicator being a red eye. Their Line of Sight is pretty easy to avoid, but you do have to watch your surroundings more than some other games, since the density of enemies is pretty high within the world.

Music, well... it's a mixed bag with this one. Some tracks, like "The Key We've Lost" and "So nah, so fern" are pretty good. The weak point for me (and quite a bit of other people as far as I can tell) are the voiced lyrics in 'Black Tar', which get too repetitive over the course of the game, and are pretty silly sounding. Hiroyuki Sawano can be good, but isn't really that experienced in videogame soundtracks, so think he made a few poor decisions. Overall, he sets a proper mood with the music in most situations, though.
- My biggest gripe is the lack of volume controls. In some cut scenes the background music can be overpowering.... which was a pretty dumb mistake in the game's presentation.

I think XCX is a good game for what it is, but it's not really a traditional JRPG.

I've been keeping an eye on Trails of Cold Steel. 'The Legend of Heroes' games are a bit under-appreciated out west, I think, but are pretty solid JRPGs. The 'Trails in the Sky' games were VERY text dialogue heavy, but for someone willing to take the time with them, they were great games. Totally different animal though, 'The Legend of Heroes' games are very old school JRPG, while XCX is an attempt by a Japanese developer at something more western, with some JRPG elements retained in the combat systems and whatnot.

If you try out Trails of Cold Steel, I'd be curious on what your opinions are since I was planning on grabbing that for my Vita eventually.

 

[exdeath]

Wow this game is just horse shit around every corner. Between constantly getting ambushed by shit 10x my level or shit that fights 10x above it's stated level and no story to motivate me to grind I'm just about done with this piece of shit.

 

[Fulle]

Wow this game is just horse shit around every corner. Between constantly getting ambushed by shit 10x my level or shit that fights 10x above it's stated level and no story to motivate me to grind I'm just about done with this piece of shit.

There are higher level mobs mixed in with the lower level ones, but in the early game its very easy to find a safe place to grind levels without high level mobs paroling through.... While exploring for mining points, you just need to watch Line of Sight on mobs that can aggro, and avoid walking right in front of them.... Mob size does effect how hard they'll be to take down, especially by a ground party. Early on there's a few Tyrants that'll show up on generic quests that aren't really possible to kill yet, but its optional anyway, and you can go back to get them once your party is stronger. I do think that some of the early story quests are tuned a bit on the hard side, so over leveling your party a little bit might help.

Once your leveled up a little bit, and more of the map is explored, the story quests unlock at a bit faster clip for a while and take less time to complete due to fast travel.

I used to be a Ranger in FFXI (who is usually tasked with pulling mobs to the party group to kill), so I find this type of environment with high level mobs mixed in VERY easy to manage. The game seems to assume the player has some familiarity with this type of gameplay, which I've mostly seen in MMOs. If it wasn't for my experience with FFXI, maybe I would have had a harder time. If you get caught and can't just run away, the game doesn't have any death penalties for a ground party wipe.

 

[exdeath]

There are higher level mobs mixed in with the lower level ones, but in the early game its very easy to find a safe place to grind levels without high level mobs paroling through.... While exploring for mining points, you just need to watch Line of Sight on mobs that can aggro, and avoid walking right in front of them.... Mob size does effect how hard they'll be to take down, especially by a ground party. Early on there's a few Tyrants that'll show up on generic quests that aren't really possible to kill yet, but its optional anyway, and you can go back to get them once your party is stronger. I do think that some of the early story quests are tuned a bit on the hard side, so over leveling your party a little bit might help.

Once your leveled up a little bit, and more of the map is explored, the story quests unlock at a bit faster clip for a while and take less time to complete due to fast travel.

I used to be a Ranger in FFXI (who is usually tasked with pulling mobs to the party group to kill), so I find this type of environment with high level mobs mixed in VERY easy to manage. The game seems to assume the player has some familiarity with this type of gameplay, which I've mostly seen in MMOs. If it wasn't for my experience with FFXI, maybe I would have had a harder time. If you get caught and can't just run away, the game doesn't have any death penalties for a ground party wipe.

Doesn't do much good when I'm running towards a single enemy my level and then a microscopic blade of grass jumps out of the ground in front of me and it's some level 47 bitch.

And oh look another probe area guarded by level 50s wtf.

And another inanimate object popping out of the ground at level 47 punishing me for exploring again.

It's not funny anymore assholes.

I'm seriously doubting this game was event developed by the original Xenoblade Chronicles team. There's just no way.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Doesn't do much good when I'm running towards a single enemy my level and then a microscopic blade of grass jumps out of the ground in front of me and it's some level 47 bitch.

And oh look another probe area guarded by level 50s wtf.

And another inanimate object popping out of the ground at level 47 punishing me for exploring again.

It's not funny anymore assholes.

I'm seriously doubting this game was event developed by the original Xenoblade Chronicles team. There's just no way.

That sucks, that was the only other game I was interested in on Wii, but your descriptions sound like it would be something I would lose interest in fairly quickly. :/ I put off buying it because many of the reviews pointed to the things you call out, but then turn around and say "but it's a great game!" Yea, no...sounds like it should have been an MMO.

 

[Fulle]

Doesn't do much good when I'm running towards a single enemy my level and then a microscopic blade of grass jumps out of the ground in front of me and it's some level 47 bitch.

And oh look another probe area guarded by level 50s wtf.

Are you talking about the slow-as-hell big turtles in Oblivia? Its rare a camouflage mob can't be just ran away from...

Probe sites guarded by higher level stuff happens. I was able to hit quite a few of them anyway, since the mobs will have their back turned to a side of the probe site, or they go to sleep at night. I did have one or 2 where I had to suicide run to it and mash to set the probe while it eats Elma and Lin.... but I could have just skipped it and came back later (I just set every probe I could for $$$$$)

 

[exdeath]

Trying to do a quest that involves killing 5 level 18 dudes and wouldn't you know there are two level 55 things flying above them that aggro due to AOEs and shit.

Wow really guys? You fucking suck.

Oh look another level 18 enemy the size of a house that acts like its level 50 one shotting everyone.

Where the fuck is the real Xenoblade. What the fuck were they thinking?!

 

[Fulle]

Trying to do a quest that involves killing 5 level 18 dudes and wouldn't you know there are two level 55 things flying above them that aggro due to AOEs and shit.

Wow really guys? You fucking suck.

Oh look another level 18 enemy the size of a house that acts like its level 50 one shotting everyone.

Where the fuck is the real Xenoblade. What the fuck were they thinking?!

Just throwing a wild guess out here, but it sounds like you queued up every basic quest you could grab and are working through those. They don't give a lot of XP for their rewards, so you're better off just finding a safe place to grind out levels, or exploring for probe sites, and ignoring a lot of the basic white quests.

The difficulty level of this game isn't very high... Most Japanese players thought it was "just right" when surveyed.
http://nintendoeverything.com/japan...s-x-in-new-famitsu-poll/nggallery/image/85522

Also, stop going out of your way to fight huge mobs prior to getting your skells. They aren't well tuned to low level ground parties, and you're just going to frustrate yourself.

 

[exdeath]

Tainted Sphinx, another unbalanced encounter. Jesus fucking christ.

 

[Fulle]

Tainted Sphinx, another unbalanced encounter. Jesus fucking christ.

Well, that one can be hard for some newer players. Seems some common reasons are that they don't have level appropriate gear on all their team members, they haven't leveled up their arts, their arts are poorly chosen, or they don't know how combos and overdrive work.

I actually died on my first attempt, since I wasn't taking full advantage of Overdrive the way I should have been.... I wasn't used to having that be important to being able to take something down, and it was the first fight of the game that I actually made an effort to use it effectively.

If all else fails you can just get a couple levels on you, or die 3 times for easy baby you don't need to try now mode.

 

[gothamhunter]

I have to say, I'm really appreciating Fulle's level-headed responses to exdeath's rage-induced comments about the game 😀

 

[Rhezuss]

I have to say, I'm really appreciating Fulle's level-headed responses to exdeath's rage-induced comments about the game 😀

Hahhaha yeah, Fulle you rock.

But I can understand exdeath rage though, JRPGs tend to be like that and they lack some structure in most cases. But that's what they are and I too would probably throw a couple of controllers at my cheap-ass TV set.

The game still look nice and interesting, might give it a shot when the price go down, been a while since I fired my WiiU...

 

[Fulle]

I think a big factor in the enjoyment of a game, is in the player's expectations. For an example, did the player know that a game was an arcade racer, or were they expecting a sim racer? There's actually a lot differences between Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X, so I can understand where exdeath's feelings are coming from.

Rattling off a couple of thoughts on the differences of XC vs XCX:
- XC's music is more orchestral. XCX has a composer best known for his work in Anime.
- The first half of XC is much easier than the first half of XCX.
- XC has dedicated healers. XCX has the 'Soul Voice' system for healing.
- XCX has enemy size classes that effect how combat interactions work with them. If you're in a ground party, attacking a huge monster might be hard. If you're in a big Skell, you can damage little enemies by stepping on them.... Size matters in XCX.
- XCX has Skells! Big mechs that have their own weapons and abilities separate from what your ground party abilities are.
- XCX's maps are much larger.
- XCX's enemy population density is much higher.
- XC's main story is longer than XCX's, but XCX has a bigger emphasis on "affinity missions" with party member character development to supplement the shorter main story. I think there actually might be more story content in XCX, but much less is distributed into the main story arc.

I think the biggest difference is that XC was structured like a traditional JRPG, but XCX is a Western RPG JRPG hybrid. XCX takes gameplay ideas from MMOs, and western RPGs, and then keeps some of it's JRPG stuff too. XC feels more like an easier story driven JRPG with a somewhat action-y combat system. XC has few mistakes in its presentation. It has great music, a well done story, good characters, and so on. It's just a fine example of the type of game it is. XCX is mostly great, but there's so many new ideas that not all of them are executed perfectly.

 

[exdeath]

I'm level 60 with skells now. So fuck everything that moves. G Buster in the face.

I just got tired of being in a level n area on my way to a level n enemy or treasure only to have a level n+9999 enemy fall out of the sky or pop up from under ground. It got to OH BOY THAT IS A SURPRISE LET ME ROLL MY EYES SO HARD MY SKULL CRACKS levels of ridiculous.

The combat of XC is way better. I'm not sure how well topple lock is going to work when you can't control abilities of the AI on demand.

 

[Fulle]

I'm level 60 with skells now. So fuck everything that moves. G Buster in the face.

LOL, that's one way to solve the problem!

 

[Rhezuss]

All this talk makes me want to get the game...but at 75CAD+taxes it's a steep price to pay when you're not sure it'll be up to your expectations...dammit lol

 

[darkswordsman17]

After reading reviews this sounded like it could be fun (but also might not be). I seem to have fallen into the latter group. Not sure how long I've played, but I'm at like level 13 and need to do some grinding and just have no interest in that as I don't enjoy the combat much so far. And exploring doesn't appeal much as its like there's both too much and not enough (there's tons of creatures but so many high high level and at the same time there really isn't that much to do).

Nothing about this game hooks me and I find quite a bit of it to not be my cup of tea. The music is pretty terrible that I've encountered. The characters do nothing for me, the visual style (to me its like Mass Effect with a healthy dose of anime, and I'd rather they either committed to one style or the other as I'm not really digging the mix they have going on), the cinematics (something just rubs me wrong about them where they're just tedious so I skip them and then have no idea what is really going on).

Not sure if I'll try and power through where I'm at, and hopefully things will improve, or if the game will change enough for me to really want to. I've heard it is frustrating early on and the Skells (really the only thing I find interesting at this point in the game, and possibly just because I haven't actually gotten to do anything with them) make things a lot more enjoyable, but since not much else is really doing it for me I kinda think I'll just end up not enjoying my time.

Reading about the previous Xenoblade Chronicles doesn't sound like it'd be my cup of tea either sadly.

 

[exdeath]

XCX is far weaker in story and dramatic presentation than XC. I'd have called this Xenoblade Chronicles Battle Arena or something since exploring and combat is the primary focus. Makes me sad.

Not that I'm not having fun with Ares 90s one shotting things 40 levels above me now, but I wanted a dramatic and tragic 80 hour story to hunker down with for the winter.

 

[Fulle]

XCX is far weaker in story and dramatic presentation than XC. I'd have called this Xenoblade Chronicles Battle Arena or something since exploring and combat is the primary focus. Makes me sad.

Not that I'm not having fun with Ares 90s one shotting things 40 levels above me now, but I wanted a dramatic and tragic 80 hour story to hunker down with for the winter.

I disagree, that XCX is "far weaker in story". XCX has more story content than XC overall, but it's split between the main story arc and affinity quests. XCX is just more like a western RPG in it's story structure. The affinity quests are at least somewhat effective in making the player feel like their character is a new LA citizen. Under the game's budget and time constraints, I don't think a longer main story arc was possible.
- The only problem I have in the story, is that XCX's isn't completely self contained, kinda suggesting a sequel at the end. I like self contained stories in games better.

I do agree, however, that exploration and combat are a greater focus in this game vs XC. Beating the same dead horse, this is more of a JRPG Western RPG hybrid, while XC was simply a well done JRPG. This is a much more ambitious game overall, and could be the best attempt of a 'JRPG + Western RPG hybrid' yet. I think XCX is a really cool game for what it is.

XCX is a more rare experience than the "dramatic story JRPG" that you crave.... although, there hasn't been a big heavy hitting JRPG of that type for a while. I'm hoping that we'll get a home run from at least a couple of the upcoming big budget JRPGs. There a Persona, numbered Final Fantasy, numbered Dragon Quest, a Star Ocean, Kingdom Hearts, and you know, it's getting pretty stacked actually. Just fingers crossed one of them delivers the type of experience you want, since I like that type of game too... and it's been a while since I found a good one.

 

[Rage187]

This is my favorite game of 2015.

I bought it a week after launch and have put 300 hours into it. I'm at 98.7 survey rate for the whole game; missing 5 lobsters, 2 tyrants and some heart to hearts.

This game alone was worth buying a wii u for. Actually, I bought the wii u for it and totally accept I got my money out of both.



My team is 3xAres 90s and a lvl 60 Amadus with a level 60 zenith cannon + 3x Phys attrb damage XX + 3 phys frame XX +10 of the slayer versions of fauna/insectoid/humanoid XX, etc. You think Gbuster rules? try the default attack on an Ares 90. I one shot level 98 tyrants before they realize I hit them.