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Monolithsoft WiiU trailer - X (Takahashi x Tanaka x Sawano, Xenoblade x/multiplayer?)

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Wichu

Member
Can someone make a summary of the elements so far that are similar to Xenoblade in this game?

Here's a start:
  • User interface (minus the multiplayer chat) looks practically the same.
  • Battle system is very similar.
  • Environment design looks similar - there's a bit that looks like the Bionis' shoulder in the background at one point.
  • The guy at the end of the trailer looks a bit like Shulk.
  • 'X' logo looks similar to the X in the Xenoblade logo, but coloured red as in Xenogears.
 

mihon

Member
Dude is too awesome for a mech. He'd be the guy that just cuts down mechs and giant monsters with just his sword and his awesomeness.

Or he'd at least have an awesome melee mech like Jin from Xenosaga.

Yeah, he'd be like Citan with Power Crisis.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
The party members look like adults. Hopefully. I hope that's the case.

I'd like to see more crazy monster party members, personally.
 

Lunar15

Member
I'm going to get so much flak for saying this, but I actually don't think the graphics are QUITE as good as everyone's saying.

Don't get me wrong, the game looks beautiful. But there are some minor things here and there that just look a bit off in terms of textures. It's early though, and I'm taking that into account.

Plus, Xenoblade was AMAZING looking even on the Wii, so art direction and scale really trump everything in my opinion.
 

Thraktor

Member
I was expecting to see an impressive Monolith RPG today, but I have to say that it's even exceeded my expectations. The game looks great, there's the huge scale we wanted, and even what seems like online co-op. In fact, when I was watching the stream live during my lunchbreak, the connection kept dropping out, so I missed a few seconds here and there from the video, but thought I at least got the jist of it. Then, I come home after work, fire up my browser, and see this:

amekbv.gif

Fucking mechs! Holy shit! I'd completely missed that bit during the stream, so it was crazy to get a "oh, and also there's mechs" bonus when I got home.

Seriously, though, I hope Nintendo has some faith in this and releases it worldwide this year with a decent marketing budget behind it, as I think it has the capacity to do surprisingly well. Of course Xenoblade didn't set the world on fire in terms of sales, but the critical success and fan acclaim it garnered puts a sequel/spiritual follow-up in a very good position, because unlike Xenoblade, everyone (and particularly the gaming press) is going to take it seriously right from the start.

X has some good things going for it as far as a solid worldwide performance goes:

- Follow-up to hugely acclaimed Xenoblade
- Nice graphics
- Dramatic sense of scale
- A style that neither seems "too Japanese" nor "too western" to alienate too many gamers
- Fucking flying mechs
- Online co-op
- Hopefully fairly accessible combat
- A good amount of polish
- Fucking flying mechs

We've seen games that do similar sorts of things do very well in some or all regions, such as Final Fantasy titles, Skyrim, Monster Hunter, etc., but this seems to hit the right notes while still feeling completely unique. Especially as JRPGs (and particularly Final Fantasy) have declined in popularity in the west in recent years, Nintendo should really push this to take over that old audience. Release it worldwide this September/October, give it a big marketing push and make sure the English localisation is solid, and Nintendo could really have something on their hands here.
 

Roo

Member
Not impressed.

Will wait for some actual solid details on what the game entails, and something other than generic landscape battles being shown.

Will hope for a more evolved Xenoblade. Currently wary of a curveball however.

burnthewitch.jpg
 

Rich!

Member
Can someone make a summary of the elements so far that are similar to Xenoblade in this game?

- The third person gameplay is identical to how it looks in Xenoblade
- The battle system (the line of selectable arts) along the bottom and the rest of the GUI is very similar to Xenoblade (would be identical if it had the same graphics and a party gauge)

xenoblade-1.jpg


- The mechs. Xenoblade had a big focus on them.
- The weapons - similar to Reyn's driver and Sharla's rifle.
- In one shot, the player character aims up and shoots, and is covered in an aura. EXACTLY the same as Sharla's techniques in Xenoblade.
- Three character party.
- The character shown near the end looks like it could well be Shulk.

That's all I saw. Oh, and Nintendo/Monolithsoft/Takashi don't own the rights to Xenogears do they? Just the Xeno title. So it MUST be either Xenoblade 2 or XenoSOMETHING. AFAIK, squaresoft still own the title trademark rights to Xenogears.

Anyway. As I said before, if this IS a Xenoblade sequel then NOE must localise it. It needs to keep the same british voice acting, damnit.
 

Malvingt2

Member
Core Battle system
Fighting huge monsters
Open world
Girl using Reyn's weapon
The Grass
Shulk?

8409539696_1c567a4e91_o.gif


8408445817_dacd63cdb4_o.gif


The weapons are more reminiscent of Xenoblade and of course the expansive setting and large creatures. Combat and HUD also looks similar to blade.

Mechs and character animu design speaks more generally to Xenogears/saga in my eyes though.

Here's a start:
  • User interface (minus the multiplayer chat) looks practically the same.
  • Battle system is very similar.
  • Environment design looks similar - there's a bit that looks like the Bionis' shoulder in the background at one point.
  • The guy at the end of the trailer looks a bit like Shulk.
  • 'X' logo looks similar to the X in the Xenoblade logo, but coloured red as in Xenogears.

- The third person gameplay is identical to how it looks in Xenoblade
- The battle system (the line of selectable arts) along the bottom and the rest of the GUI is very similar to Xenoblade (would be identical if it had the same graphics and a party gauge)
- The mechs. Xenoblade had a big focus on them.
- The weapons - similar to Reyn's driver and Sharla's rifle.
- In one shot, the player character aims up and shoots, and is covered in an aura. EXACTLY the same as Sharla's techniques in Xenoblade.
- Three character party.
- The character shown near the end looks like it could well be Shulk.

That's all I saw. Oh, and Nintendo/Monolith don't own the rights to Xenogears do they? Just the Xeno title. So it MUST be either Xenoblade 2 or XenoSOMETHING.
Thank you!!
 

Protocol7

Member
Ok looks interesting, kind of excited, need a bit more than that, but ok... I said that Xenoblade 2 would make me buy a new console in other thread so yeah... (and yes I know I said "not on Wii U..." :p)
 
Remember how different Xenoblade looked to Monado. That should give an idea of some of the changed to expect...

To the Xenogears people I saw the red X too). We're the mechs called Gears in that game yet the HUD here seems to call them Dolls...XenoDoll Chronicles, sounds like a children's toy.

Noooooooooo. #teamMelia
Xeonblady stuff
Don't worry, Melia will look about 5 years older (she's about 60 in Xenoblade...remember High Entia live for hundreds of years) so if it really is the Son of Shulk and Fiora so theres always opportunity for them to be a couple...
 

Teletraan1

Banned
Two of my favorite JRPGs of all time are Xenogears and Xenosaga but this MMO lite battle system has never kept me interested. I have tried 2x to get into Xenoblade and both times found the battle system not to my liking and the game went back on the shelf. Now add multiplayer Monster Hunter esque gaming conventions and I get a little less interested. Looks cool but will have to see more. If it was an actual successor to Xenogears I would pick up a WiiU and the game the day it launched.
 

Shion

Member
I don't know...there's something about the art-style and graphics that puts me off.

My reaction was "hey, this looks more like Monster Hunter and less like Xenoblade".

Is it just me?
 

Conor 419

Banned
I'm just over the moon that it is at least similar to Xenoblade, it would have been a tragic waste to not see them take the series further.
 

Rich!

Member
I'm still amazed no one's attempted to hack in Multiplayer support into Xenoblade.

Obviously it'd be nigh impossible, but it would fit it perfectly. Oh well, this will have to do! Yesss

edit: haha, that WARNING!! bar in the battle screens is also straight from Xenoblade. Well, this is either a Demons/Dark Souls situation or a genuine sequel. I mean, so far it looks like it'll play exactly like Xenoblade.
 
For the Xenoblade similarities, there's also the fact that the central icon is often a triangle made of squares much like the chain attack in Xenoblade. The description also mentions consuming 100 of some gauge, which should be equivalent to the party gauge.
 

Rich!

Member
For the Xenoblade similarities, there's also the fact that the central icon is often a triangle made of squares much like the chain attack in Xenoblade. The description also mentions consuming 100 of some gauge, which should be equivalent to the party gauge.

The thing I have noticed is that everything seems very sterile and computer-like in terms of the GUI and effects. There's a scene where the main player character aims his rifle up and shoots aura into the sky, just like Sharla would in Xenoblade. But if I'm looking right, it seems like the mist that comes back down is very...glitchy? Like in an intentional computerised way.

Considering the end of Xenoblade,
(the entire world is a computer's creation and the world that is wished for by Shulk at the end is STILL a simulation created by Alvis)
maybe this is hinting at something? Or maybe I'm just crazy.
 

Rich!

Member
Nintendo going all out today, is this because of the next gen consoles are being leaked out?

It's because of the shitty sales. In the UK, not a single Wii U game was in the top 40 chart for the past three weeks.

Call of Duty Black Ops II was fourth or so on the Wii U chart for the UK last week. It sold less than 320 copies. That means, the next five games on the Wii U chart sold less than 300 copies throughout the entire UK. Tekken Tag could have, theoretically, sold as little as 50 copies in one week for example.

It's absolutely fucking horrendous. Not sure about the situation in the US/JP, but it is doing Gamecube 2006 levels of sales here at best.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
I don't know...there's something about the art-style and graphics that puts me off.

My reaction was "hey, this looks more like Monster Hunter and less like Xenoblade".

Is it just me?

It's like Xenoblade. This just has some bigger monsters and you can cut monster body parts off.
 
It's because of the shitty sales. In the UK, not a single Wii U game was in the top 40 chart for the past three weeks.

Call of Duty Black Ops II was fourth or so on the Wii U chart for the UK. It sold less than 320 copies. That means, the next five games on the Wii U chart sold less than 300 copies throughout the entire UK.

It's absolutely fucking horrendous. Not sure about the situation in the US/JP, but it is doing Gamecube 2006 levels of sales here.

Damn, that is pretty shitty, I didnt know this.
 

Rich!

Member
Damn, that is pretty shitty, I didnt know this.

I have a Tesco next to me which is absolutely massive (for a USA dude, you can imagine it as a Walmart equivalent, just like ASDA).

They have an entire floor dedicated to electronics and toys. Two aisles for games. No Wii U games apart from NSMBU, and it's third in the Wii chart. They have half a bay for accessories, underneath the 3DS consoles. But that's it. No one gives a shit.

It's terrible.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I guess I should get to finishing Xenoblade because god damn that looks hot

always count on Nintendo to make sure their system is at least not worth nothin'
 

Strife91

Member
I have a Tesco next to me which is absolutely massive (for a USA dude, you can imagine it as a Walmart equivalent, just like ASDA).

They have an entire floor dedicated to electronics and toys. Two aisles for games. No Wii U games apart from NSMBU, and it's third in the Wii chart. They have half a bay for accessories, underneath the 3DS consoles. But that's it. No one gives a shit.

It's terrible.

This is great. I'm awaiting a price drop patiently.

BTW is there a directfeed of this trailer?
 
Considering the end of Xenoblade,
(the entire world is a computer's creation and the world that is wished for by Shulk at the end is STILL a simulation created by Alvis)
maybe this is hinting at something? Or maybe I'm just crazy.
It's not impossible, but still relevant to theory-making though :p


The game looks gorgeous. The day it'll release in Europe is the day I'll buy a Wii U.
 

Rich!

Member
This is great. I'm awaiting a price drop patiently.

BTW is there a directfeed of this trailer?

Yeah sure, it'll be absolutely brilliant if retail support for the Wii U is dropped in the UK within it's first year.

(of course it wouldn't. It'd be by far the worst thing ever)
 

skypunch

Banned
Pretty sure one of X's biggest unique selling points is being able to jump inside a mech and just fly around the beautiful, expansive environment. I can't get over how amazing it looks when your characters runs on that cliff and in front a mech sits as if he's sitting on the edge of the world. Brilliant.
 

mattp

Member
ok so, before anyone jumps on me i 0 have experience with xenoblade and monster hunter

with that said:
can someone explain to me why this looks good? the mechs and crazy huge scale and world look great but most of the trailer just looks like boring mmo gameplay(but in real time)? just a bunch of dudes standing around shooting at a big monster
 

Rich!

Member
Pretty sure one of X's biggest unique selling points is being able to jump inside a mech and just fly around the beautiful, expansive environment. I can't get over how amazing it looks when your characters runs on that cliff and in front a mech sits as if he's sitting on the edge of the world. Brilliant.

Considering it's Monolithsoft who created the mindbogglingly massive world of Xenoblade, and that Takahashi said that Xenoblade was like, 25% of the game he'd like to make...

it's entirely possible that everything we've seen in this trailer is essentially an area equivalent in this game to maybe...a quarter of Gaur Plains?

THIS GAME WILL BE GIGANTIC.

ok so, before anyone jumps on me i 0 have experience with xenoblade and monster hunter

with that said:
can someone explain to me why this looks good? the mechs and crazy huge scale and world look great but most of the trailer just looks like boring mmo gameplay(but in real time)? just a bunch of dudes standing around shooting at a big monster

the answer is this:

play xenoblade or at least watch some videos on youtube. goddamn.
 

YAWN

Ask me which Shakespeare novel is best
Hmm, I wonder if there's a character creation aspect seeing as online multiplayer is present, as well as the hero being called "Tester". Wouldn't bother me either way, as long as the other party members have cool personalities.
 

creid

Member
Man, I was squealing at my PC this morning. So so glad to see Tanaka back on character designs, as his designs for Gears and Saga I are some of my favorite of all time. Reeeeeally hope this isn't called Xenodolls.

Going to have to check out some Swano tracks when I get home. If Mitsuda had been involved, I might've died on the spot.
 
Stuff of dreams, the scene where the character takes off in his mecha almost melted me with hype!!
I'm a little worried that this will turn out to be a little too monster hunterish, but I'm sure it'll work out either way!
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
ok so, before anyone jumps on me i 0 have experience with xenoblade and monster hunter

with that said:
can someone explain to me why this looks good? the mechs and crazy huge scale and world look great but most of the trailer just looks like boring mmo gameplay(but in real time)? just a bunch of dudes standing around shooting at a big monster
It's a JRPG so there will obviously be a story and a world to explore, which are both elements the developers are known for. So, yes, it's good that the world already looks good and huge and yes, the combat does resemble an mmo in some ways (have you played one, most are real time, so I dunno why you make the "but" distinction) but a fun one, not a boring one, especially if they improve on what Xenoblade did, which they're bound to. Think FFXII except with a more open seamless world rather than segmented and narrow pathway stuff (though on Wii there was still loading between major areas, each was big). But yes, this video only showed a bunch of dudes killing some monsters. You can make such a video for every game out there and add the word "boring" in front of any kind of battle system they could possibly use. Oh, it uses a boring turn based Dragon Quest-like system. Oh, it uses a boring active timer Final Fantasy-like system. Etc, But where's the fun in that? Nowhere, that's where. Also, it has nothing to do with Monster Hunter which is an action game as far from story and open worlds as it can get.
 
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