Xenoblade Chronicles X

Why am I the only person playing this game!?

It says a lot that two hours in and so far my only complain is that the character creation doesn't have shoulder length hair.  Even an hour in I'm already loving the changes that seem to have been made to the battle system (the ai actually works with you when trying to get status effects, and lets you know when they're using an art that you can follow up to inflict them!!  I know that seems really basic, but after not having that for the entirety of the first game it's an absolute godsend to be able to topple foes with ease), and the world already looks every bit as appealing as the best of the first games areas.


And yes, I chose the female avatar.  It's just, I made a male avatar and everything, and tested out the male voices and was just like, "nope, nope, nope, ain't having this for eighty hours thanks".  So no, this will be the adventure of Noel the jokester as she, guided by forces unseen, travels the vast world of Mira having many adventures! Not the original plan, but I can't help it if the female options have superior in-battle remarks! Doesn't hurt they got some of my favourite dub actresses to contribute either.

You'll only hear them occaisionaly in battle anyway, and the music will surely drive you mad long before the voices do so you won't even hear that

Athrun888 wrote:

Why am I the only person playing this game!?

Because Christmas is around the corner!

For me it's because Yakuza 5 isn't a disappointing sequel

The battle theme is pure fire and an absolute blast.  There's bad, and then there's so bad it's actually amazing, and the beat is super hype.  

Not that any of my battles have lasted long enough to get to them outside the four legged dino thing on-route to NLA.    I familiarised myself with the battle system before even leaving the starting alcove on those weak bug enemies.

Balladeer wrote:

Athrun888 wrote:

Why am I the only person playing this game!?

Because Christmas is around the corner!

A poor excuse to wait!  Unless you're planning on squireling yourself away for the holiday period at any rate, which is my favourite part of the season!

I'm not playing as I'm playing FFVII instead, but will come to this or Witcher III after that.

Andy with your Yakuza 5

I don't know what's more stunning, the art direction or the fact you can eventually go to every part of that image.


Also Lyn knows what the hell's up!  Lyn >>> everybody's favourite video game character


Bonus first encounter with a skell in vehicle mode.






Most unfitting music for fighting a small crab in a small alcove?  Most unfitting theme for fighting a small crab in a small alcove.  Hype as hell mind you!

It's so good to see those terrifying monsters that plagued Gaur Plains are back to creep up behind us while we're busy fighting something else!

I'm sure the Zelda fans among us can appreciate this hilarious nod to the franchise.

Image, not a spoiler:

All that was missing was the jingle!  

The data packs. Sweet God, the data packs! They're huge!

Time for me to acquire an external HD. Question: if I have one, and save them to it, and keep it plugged in, can I still access said packs? Does anyone know?

Everything is saved to my HDD and runs of that as that takes priority.

A new day a new continent!  




I've now been to four of the five continents, fav is absolutely sylvalum which goes full Satorl Marsh at night.  That ascent up the beach after swimming there for twenty minutes was just... Spine chilling.  And the music, oh god the music.  Like the continent itself, I'm not spoiling it!  


Alright, so now I've played enough for the game to open up I'm going to post some serious impressions.  

Verdict?  Great game.  It has a sense of overall cohesion that in my opinion the first game lacked.  Take the side quests for instance, in the first game almost all of them felt out of place and at odds with the narrative driven nature of the game, here they're woven in to the very fabric of the story.  

You are a member of a organization whose job is to ensure humanities survival on a unexplored planet.  The quests just tie in to that a lot better, you go and kill monster bounties because they've been deemed a threat to the colony, you locate resources for humanity to continue developing technology, you explore the land because humanity needs to know what's out there, and you sort out seemingly irrelevant day to day issues of people because the populace will crumble if it loses moral.

It all ties in to the overall story and creates one big immersive experience.  Everything feels like it's going towards some greater purpose.  

The graphics, well, I really don't need to go in to that do I?  We've all known the game looks absolutely stunning since day one.  Gameplay is like Xenoblade yet evolved, with some new mechanics taking the place of the old chain attack system (one of which I've yet to unlock and cannot comment on).  

Sound, well, I'm of the opposite view of Andy's.  I think the sound direction is absolutely spot on for the type of game it is.  Some of the music choices are definitely strange and borderline controversial (battle theme having rap for instance), and yet it just somehow works, in that way that genius often straddles the line between insanity and brilliance.  Sawano brings his typical blend of orchestral and electronic to the table and the result is something that, in my opinion, nails the feel of the game to a T.  Even themes like Black tar, which on paper shouldn't work, somehow simply fit the tone.  

Finally there's the story.  From the outset it's clear the main story is a lot shorter than the first games, but like the side content it also fits in with the narrative it wants to portray.  The player is part of a organization that assigns its members missions to complete to further overal aims, and progression is what you'd expect.

That isn't to say there isn't story outside the main story.  Affinity missions, of which I've done three, are fully voiced story segments in their own right, and it is in these you will see character arcs and side-stories, as well as learn about the cast.  I feel very safe in saying that to get the full experience this game has to offer you need to embrace the side material and the overall experience of the game and its (very VERY large) world.  

As for how the side material affects the game.  Well, lets just say I finished chapter 3 of the main story about ten hours in.  Between the affinity missions and exploring I'm now at about 18 hours of playtime, and I haven't even started chapter 4 yet, and I've absolutely no idea when I'll be getting my mecha (which the game makes crystal clear are highly limited resources and only for the truly skilled).



So, in a nutshell, excellent actual rpg, so far it'd get an 8.5/10 based on what I've played alone, although I'm expecting the game to only impress me more. At 18 hours in I still feel like I've only seen a fraction of what it has to offer.

Ooh boy chapter 4 was awesome.  Gameplay wise it was an absolute adventure heading in to Noctilum without any prior exploration, and the story is ramping up the tension!  

Also going to make bets that Balla is going to hate the intro of a new character at the end of the chapter.  I'll keep the whys to myself for obvious reasons.


And while I'm talking about this, a heads up to everybody planning on getting this: do not, I repeat, DO NOT choose to "fix the real problem" in Lin's first Affinity Mission, just let things be after the painless part collection and you'll enjoy yourself much more.  You dodge a bullet of a fetch quest by doing this.  

Finally, never save during either an affinity or main story quest.  You're locked in to it once started, so if you find you come to a point you can't get an item or something and you saved, well, better hope there's a way around the issue.  


With that I'm going to hibernate from the internet for a few days, Smash spoilers are bound to pop up soon if the new characters are in that upcoming patch and I for one am not getting spoiled!

What you mean by Actual RPG?

I am interested in what you think of XCX as you were a big fan of XC and to see if XCX is that good or a little disappointing like some reviews have said about poor music and lack of story.

I'd wager he means that because the sidequests tie into the plot, it allows you to get into the role you're meant to be fulfilling in the overall story. Correct me if I'm wrong though, Athrun.

I've seen at least as many "XCX's music is great" comments as I have "XCX's music is crap" comments.

Crap:
Andy
Mas?

Great:
Athrun
Jim Sterling
Matthew Castle

So the ayes have it as things stand!

Balladeer wrote:

I've seen at least as many "XCX's music is great" comments as I have "XCX's music is crap" comments.

Crap:
Andy
Mas?

Great:
Athrun
Jim Sterling
Matthew Castle

So the ayes have it as things stand!

The daft souls podcast likened it a lot to the music of the Persona games & also seemed to enjoy it.

It's nowhere near the quality of Persona. Though I do admit I find Persona's music to be a tad repetitive after a while. Xeno's rubbed me the wrong way from the off though. Can't remember if I've said this before, but it feels like it's making out every moment to be exciting when 100% of the time you're just wandering over somewhere to collect/kill the same old things before going back.

I don't think it's crap, I quite enjoyed my time so far with it.

I'm just saying what I see, I disagree with Andy a lot that I wasn't really considering his view on the game that much but just the general talk of the game.

Which some of them may of not played XC whom are talking about, so curious what a fan of XC like Athrun thinks of XCX same with his GoT updates as there a good read.

Just you again then Andy.

Chapter 5, wow, that was one hell of a ride. I went in slightly underleveled and had a immensely tense time while in Oblivia. Stuff happened, too, awesome stuff. I think I'm nearing the point where you can get Skells now.

JayMoyles wrote:

I'd wager he means that because the sidequests tie into the plot, it allows you to get into the role you're meant to be fulfilling in the overall story. Correct me if I'm wrong though, Athrun.

Sort of.  You know how most jrpg's are about a band of very distinct characters and the player just follows their journey, whereas with jrpg's of old and western rpgs they're about making the protagonist the player?  It's more like that with X.  It's much more about immersing yourself in the world and becoming a part of it, and so far I'm absolutely loving it.  There's enough of a story here to make it engaging, too, which is normally my main gripe with games of this nature.

There's just this really big symbiosis of all the elements in this game, the side content, the main content, everything just ties together.

It's time for Crumpy's Counter-Point!

I don't think there's much of a story, I find games like Skyrim & Fallout, famed for their open ended nature and worlds to explore for no real reason, have more direction than Xeno. I never got the sense of doing anything meaningful, monster killing was the closest to doing something worthwhile, but gathering items never felt like it was for anything important. You just get told to go find some crap in BIG AREA.

Whilst I agree that the side stuff ties in with the main stuff, I think that's mostly because of how pathetic the main questline is. The whole plot is just "look around this world", there's no danger, no intrigue, just fetch quests.

Yes, Skyrim's "you are the chosen one, now defeat this evil Dragon because all Dragons are the embodiment of evil!!" is infinitely better than a story that's already raising questions about human nature and the fight for survival.

I think if you take any game to it's most basic premise it sounds rather lame, like Mass Effect = Humans must rise up and save the galaxy & your that human, it sounds a bit rubbish from that but it's told brilliantly.

I turned my Wii U on yesterday to download Cloud which I didn't do as I'm trying to get some cheap eShop points then I'll buy FAST, Ryu as well.

With the Wii U being on I thought I'd play some XCX, I'm now about 3hrs in and at the end of chapter 3. I'm enjoying the combat system, I like all the characters I've met, the world is lovely and the enemies designs are great.

I don't like some of the technical / graphic side of things, yes it's a great achievement for a Wii U game but going from a open world game like the Witcher III then to this, is a little jarring. Enemy placement, where I'm at on Chapter 3 there is some enemies close by that are level 45 that you can just bump into and it's instance death.

I'm 3hrs into this and I feel like I've done nothing and all I know is I've picked a division which sounds like it doesn't make much of a difference and look for lifepod things.

Where I've also been playing FFVII a 18 year old JRPG and I'm about 3hrs into that, in that I'm far more invest in the characters and the plot of the game. I will come back to XCX but it's certainly not a priority.

mas wrote:

Where I've also been playing FFVII a 18 year old JRPG and I'm about 3hrs into that, in that I'm far more invest in the characters and the plot of the game.

Isn't that really unfair to say since FFVII has a certain status surrounding it in the gaming community?

VII is a bit of an odd one, it has had a bit of a fall from grace over the years and is well known for feeling quite dated, hence the need for a proper remake. Let's not forget this is a sequel to the joint best JRPG of all time as well...