NESpowerhouse
Perhaps he's wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane.
What he said. Most of the side quests I find are not really worth it.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
I am finding Xenoblade extremely tedious and repetitive
- Thread starter fireflame
- Start date
What he said. Most of the side quests I find are not really worth it.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
There's no goddamn way you would platinum FFXV, yet find Xenoblade boring. Unless you're talking about Xenoblade Chronicles X.
You platinumed FFXV? Yeah, don't worry about Xenoblade then.
FlaygletheBagel
Banned
I was super into Xenoblade for the first 10-20 hours, mainly because the story hooked me, but the combat is such a slog. I had to put it down after awhile and accept that it wasn't for me.
If a JRPG is going to demand 100+ hours of my time, its gameplay and story have to both hit the mark. It's story was there, but I had lots of hangups with the gameplay.
If a JRPG is going to demand 100+ hours of my time, its gameplay and story have to both hit the mark. It's story was there, but I had lots of hangups with the gameplay.
Ok ok. I'll still play. Now I just gotta decide Wii vs 3DS. I own both.
I'm sure Wii is a better experience, but these days I much prefer playing RPGs portably, especially with a new baby.
Did you guys play Wii or n3DS?
Also I assume I should play on my XL if I go n3ds? I own both.
I'm sure Wii is a better experience, but these days I much prefer playing RPGs portably, especially with a new baby.
Did you guys play Wii or n3DS?
Also I assume I should play on my XL if I go n3ds? I own both.
TheListOfToddicho
Member
Didn't get to play the original, but LOVED Xenoblade Chronicles X.
The combat is only boring if you use Shulk and Reyn.
Rodney McKay
Member
I never felt the need to grind in XC (and I ALWAYS grind in JRPGs), but there were times I had to look online for more effective team combos (ended up having the most success with Shulk/Dunban/Riki), and had to look up exactly which stores had the intermediate ability upgrades.
Unfortunately I never grew to enjoy the combat. It's fine, but I just don't have fun with it. It's rarely ever challenging, and when it is I'm usually just frustrated that I cant directly control my party to do what I want outside of those link combos or whatever they're called.
I think I'm only one or two hours from the end of the game, but I stopped (I think Zelda or something came out) and I haven't felt any interest in returning. I think I'd rather just watch a YouTube video of the ending at this point since I care so little for the combat and I'm pretty sure I already know how things are going to end for the most part.
I was kinda interested in X when it was rumored to come to Switch, since the metagame stuff looked like it would be great for a portable (taking over territories and mining and stuff), but that rumored ended up being wrong and we're getting a new game.
I'll wait for more previews, reviews, and impressions on the new game before I decide to buy it. If they change the combat for the better I'll be interested, but if it's not different enough I think I'd just get bored again.
Unfortunately I never grew to enjoy the combat. It's fine, but I just don't have fun with it. It's rarely ever challenging, and when it is I'm usually just frustrated that I cant directly control my party to do what I want outside of those link combos or whatever they're called.
I think I'm only one or two hours from the end of the game, but I stopped (I think Zelda or something came out) and I haven't felt any interest in returning. I think I'd rather just watch a YouTube video of the ending at this point since I care so little for the combat and I'm pretty sure I already know how things are going to end for the most part.
I was kinda interested in X when it was rumored to come to Switch, since the metagame stuff looked like it would be great for a portable (taking over territories and mining and stuff), but that rumored ended up being wrong and we're getting a new game.
I'll wait for more previews, reviews, and impressions on the new game before I decide to buy it. If they change the combat for the better I'll be interested, but if it's not different enough I think I'd just get bored again.
Lol.
I had been following FFXV / versus xiii since the beginning. It was the reason I bought a PS3 (you fool!). There was no way I wasn't getting that platinum
Honestly, I felt the same. The story and world was pretty good, but the gameplay just irritated me. The side quests were a bore, I got burned out on them pretty quickly and then stopped persuing them after the first 10-20hours or so. In doing that it meant I was underlevelled for the main story. Unlike many other games, in Xenoblade Chronicles, if you're underlevelled you can't do shit. They dodge all of your attacks, so you physically can't beat stuff if you're too under.
Ended up giving up on the game 2/3 or so into it, didn't want to grind or do those shitty side quests for xp.
Frankly I found Xenoblade Chronicles X to be the better game. The story is worse, but at least I loved exploring and the side quests were improved.
Ended up giving up on the game 2/3 or so into it, didn't want to grind or do those shitty side quests for xp.
Frankly I found Xenoblade Chronicles X to be the better game. The story is worse, but at least I loved exploring and the side quests were improved.
I bounced off the game after trying to get into it for 10 hours or so after it finally got released on the Wii wayback then with all the Operation Rainfall stuff. I wanted to like the game, and I certainly did and do like parts of it, but the combat and characters did not work for me. Since then I have liked the Xeno series only from a distance.
I'd rate Xenoblade Chronicles as highly as my other favorite RPGs of all time: Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and IX, and Grandia. Just play it.
I also love Earthbound tho.
As someone that played through both to completion, I don't think you can go wrong with either version, though it does need to be noted that only the Wii version has dual audio available. Being able to unlock the soundtrack to listen to on the go is a pretty big benefit for the 3DS version, though!
Mr_Appleby
Member
I couldn't finish it until I stopped trying to do all the sidequests and just enjoyed the main story.
No need for grinding, any time I got stuck on a boss I overcame it by adjusting my party composition, skills, and gems.
If you do feel like you have to grind, iirc doing those sidequests has a better payoff than just killing mobs.
No need for grinding, any time I got stuck on a boss I overcame it by adjusting my party composition, skills, and gems.
If you do feel like you have to grind, iirc doing those sidequests has a better payoff than just killing mobs.
ErasureAcer
Banned
XB was a decent game. The world is amazing to explore. The battle system was passable. There were a few awesome tracks. The characters were average and there was a few awesome scenes,
.
The story did nothing for me though. Below par for RPGs.
It did a lot of things mediocre. Hence it's a mediocre game. Awesome game to see the sites though.
I, like others, enjoyed TLS more and agree Gears is the best Xeno game.
Water on the beach
The story did nothing for me though. Below par for RPGs.
It did a lot of things mediocre. Hence it's a mediocre game. Awesome game to see the sites though.
I, like others, enjoyed TLS more and agree Gears is the best Xeno game.
NeonZ
Member
Just ignore the sidequests in the original Xenoblade. There are a couple of good ones, but they're mixed with many boring quests and there's no way to know which ones are worth your time since there's no clear division and they're all gotten from random npcs, and all have some dialogue, even though many use generic responses from your characters to accomplish that.
Worry! It's very tedious. I recommend playing Nier or Nier Automata instead.
What did you find tedious about Earthbound though? I don't consider EB to be very tedious.
Handily.
James Scott
Banned
Don't think either of those are good suggestions if he's worried about Tedium
FlaygletheBagel
Banned
I know people have been jumping down your throat for that remark, but I'm honestly in the same boat. I found FFXV more enjoyable. Its story was a rickety mess but an entertaining one (and worth it for its facepalm-inducing, unintentionally hilarious writing). The combat wasn't much of a challenge but IMO it was more satisfying than Xenoblade's.
Plus FFXV didn't demand 80-120 hours of my time, so I felt more comfortable enduring rough side quest design and a weak main story for that game.
To be fair, the english voice acting spoils it a bit because of how obvious it is.
Edit: come to think of, the Japanese version has Norio Wakamoto lol
Something I missed for a good while was that you could lv up arts, making the skills you use during battle do alot more damage, noticed that maybe 20h in or something which was a gamechanger in a way. Still the combat wasnt that fun, the hook was definitly the exploration/story and I do recomend you finish the story.
That said, there is a exploit early in the game(the cave), where you can get
for managing to do a apparently hard trick, would break the game but let you enjoy the story, maybe even the lategame is still hard though.
As other said, I also stopped doing the sidequests around the 20h mark and it made it better!
That said, there is a exploit early in the game(the cave), where you can get
50+ lvs
As other said, I also stopped doing the sidequests around the 20h mark and it made it better!
Except you never rarely (ever?) have to report back to NPCs to complete quests, which is why the collect-a-thon sidequests never bothered me since you'd finish most of them simply by playing the game normally.
Dude you platinumed FFXV. Play the original Xenoblade and don't think twice about it lmao.
It's also imo better than Persona 5 with better story and music.
The first game was super overrated IMO, couldn't get into it at all. X was better at least because it was more open but it is still arcane, but the mechs were awesome.
I'm glad fans of the first game are happy with it, but XC2 getting rid of the mechs and following closer to the first one makes it a nogo for me
I'm glad fans of the first game are happy with it, but XC2 getting rid of the mechs and following closer to the first one makes it a nogo for me
Iva Demilcol
Member
And then you'll come back here to tell us it sucks, because it really lacks on certain aspects.
I played it on WiiU and it looks horrible unless you play it on the gamepad. oh... but you don't own a WiiU.
NeonZ
Member
Nah, there are many quests where you need to report back to npcs. And although they have different names from the ones where you don't need to do it, you'd only notice that pattern after playing for a while and there's no way to know what's going to be the quest's style before getting it.
I do own a Wii U actually. That's what I'd be playing on. I just meant the Wii version.
But if I'm gonna play on the game pad, I'd probably just stick to the 3DS version.
Iva Demilcol
Member
That spoiler is totally wrong. Story and music are not as good as Persona 5's: Xenoblade's music is generic AF and the story is so predictable you could shake the game's case and the cliches would start to fall to the ground. When I played it I literally predicted most of it without effort.
With earthbound, I was REALLY feeling the grind and not into it. Especially with how boring the battles were. Ive actually tried playing twice. I was liking it a bit more the second time around and got to the 4th town or whatever. But for some reason I stopped and never picked it back up.
Don't force yourself to finish all the side quests. Many of them are not worth it.
Earthbound is the kind of game that you just read the story from somewhere else instead of playing it yourself. The combat is mind-boggling boring and the grind is real. I tried multiples times before I realized that this game is not worth my time.
Earthbound is the kind of game that you just read the story from somewhere else instead of playing it yourself. The combat is mind-boggling boring and the grind is real. I tried multiples times before I realized that this game is not worth my time.
texhnolyze
Banned
Well, yeah. But I found that new quests pop up after you finished certain quests and/or progressed the main story, so you'll want to revisit the hub/city to see the NPCs again anyway. That's how I remember it, though it's been years so maybe I'm a bit off. I've reached the giant tree hub thingy before I left the game, not sure how far I was until the end.
Iva Demilcol
Member
it looks horrible on a TV screen, tons of jaggies and bad textures. That's why I decided to play it watching the gamepad instead.
I'm a little fuzzy on the details myself since I beat it back in 2012. Loved every second of it personally, mostly because it had the best overworld to explore since DQVIII.
Rock And Roll
Member
I quit near the end. There's a boss fight that is just aggravating and the poor AI on your team doesn't help matters.
I liked the art style and environment but the actual game itself is kind of meh. The story is typical JRPG and the combat could have been great if you could control your party better.
I liked the art style and environment but the actual game itself is kind of meh. The story is typical JRPG and the combat could have been great if you could control your party better.
Shadow Ranger
Member
That's because it is..
I wasn't feelin' it in the 90 hours I spent with it. If I'm honest with myself, I found half the game pretty boring. A big ass world really doesn't mean anything if it's boring to play in (the problem I am finding with most big ass games).
I wasn't feelin' it in the 90 hours I spent with it. If I'm honest with myself, I found half the game pretty boring. A big ass world really doesn't mean anything if it's boring to play in (the problem I am finding with most big ass games).
Just in case you mean a literal grind, just know that you never at any point have to stop what you're doing and grind since there's no penalty for death. You get to keep all your exp and items and your money is in a ATM. I thought EB was pretty varied with its enemies, battles were quick, there was a sense of humor about the monsters, you never had to fight easy enemies. and constantly changing battle music helped out a lot.
What grind? Because EB is the RPG where it makes the least sense out of all RPGs to grind.
QuixoticNeutral
Member
The endearing camaraderie of the party members and the magnificence of the Bionis and Mechonis as a setting do a ton of work to disguise how shoddy the plotting in Xenoblade really is.
I wrote a huge post about the game back when I finished it, which I'm consulting now to jog my memory as I write this, and while the specifics have faded, my overall impression of the experience remains unchanged: the first ten hours or so were a slog, but the game started to settle in once I had a full party, and the further in I got, the more I liked the complexities of the battle system and the less I liked the story. Xenoblade is blessed with a superb mid-section large enough to devour most other games several times over, particularly once you find your own personal level of tolerance for the collectibles and side quests (which in my case was low). I'm glad I experienced it once, but I'm hoping for a leaner and less bloated adventure out of Xenoblade 2.
I actually thought Xenoblade X to be a more consistently engaging experience despite finding the battle system to be a step back in terms of party management (mostly due to the contradiction in how X was a game with deeper positional systems but less positional control). I know people who just want their JRPG story to be a neat and linear main quest didn't care for the "TV series in a box" structure of XCX, with all its minor (and semi-required) character pieces spread out between the major plot-advancing episodes
that never reached a coherent and satisfying conclusion anyway
The original Xenoblade, in contrast, had a wonderful concept for the world but not a structure that could make the most use of it, as it was still a fairly linear experience where some of the areas just happened to be open enough to have a lot of fat on the side. In different ways, both of them are case studies in doing a select handful of things so very, very right that these successes paper over the memories of all the elements that did not go so well. Three years after playing it, I have fond memories of XC1 because my recollections do not include the mountain of junk I ended up discarding or ignoring.
AzureFlame
Member
I loved the story, characters, world design, music but i did not like the gameplay in Xenoblade, i did not feel it, also the side quests and many other stuff i forgot, skipped X and 2 not looking that hot imo.
I want a new Baten Kaitos more than a new Xenoblade game.
I want a new Baten Kaitos more than a new Xenoblade game.
In my <admittedly limited> experience with EB, I feel like you'd be significantly underpowered for many battles without grinding. I played it somewhat recently and I don't feel like that's a crazy sentiment. Anyone else wanna weigh in?
I also don't see how not having a penalty for death somehow helps you get stronger and win battles for which you are ill equipped. But I'm no EB expert so I admit I could very well be wrong.
Calling the music generic is just wrong.
That something is predictable does not make it bad. You even bring in Persona 5...
Predictable doesn't make it bad. I still enjoyed the story alot.
many twists weren't predictable, at least not for me ¯\_(ツ
_/¯I never got very far, but I constantly felt enderleveled and had to grind because enemies deal massive damage.
I have to agree with OP. I've tried to play through Xenoblade Chronicles (and X) a number of times, and just couldn't get into it. The pacing seemed dreadful, even when I ignored sidequests and it just seemed to wrap itself in more and more obtuse systems that didn't seem to do anything of value when they were introduced.
I've tried to go back a few times to no avail. I've just accepted that the series isn't for me.
Earthbound is a game that gives you all the tools you need to avoid grinding, unless you're after a rare drop from certain enemies or something. All the items and tools thrown at you from a very early point in the game keep give you ample tools to avoid having to attack coil snakes for 30-40 minutes before going after a boss.
I've tried to go back a few times to no avail. I've just accepted that the series isn't for me.
Earthbound is a game that gives you all the tools you need to avoid grinding, unless you're after a rare drop from certain enemies or something. All the items and tools thrown at you from a very early point in the game keep give you ample tools to avoid having to attack coil snakes for 30-40 minutes before going after a boss.
i paid full price, played 30 hours, and never got access to a mech. Combat was bad, writing was worse, and character design was the worst - thankfully helmets existed.