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[Wonko_C]

If there's anything I can say about the graphics, it's that they're consistent. There's no CGI or tricks to swap out better models. What you see is what you will always see. I think that helps with the scope, and it's awesome that the game runs at 60 FPS.

I'll take consistency over anything else (aside from quality art design). Also, 60 FPS or bust.

Is the NTSC version running at actual 60 fps? What about the users commenting about having to patch the PAL game to make it run at 30 fps instead of 25 on Dolphin? I have no actual interest in the game but this is some curious info. Has there been any other games that run at 30fps in one region and at 60fps in others?

 

[Lonely1]

I think I've mistaken screens of this game as being from FF12 about 8 times or so, so I understand the graphics complaints. There's nothing wrong about being frustrated with Nintendo's cheapness and outside of some unnecessary overreactions for a "journalist" there's nothing wrong with the article.

The problem is, whats the point of this article? To enlighten us of the shortcomings of the Wii, which we all knew about years ago? To urge Nintendo to release a HD console, which they already announced? To let us know that Xenoblade, despite graphical shortcomings, is a great game?
Anything else? Because, where I'm standing, is looks just like pointless drivel out of (maybe legit) frustration. Professional journalism should be over this.

 

[Like the hat?]

Nintendo would have gone broke if they tried to be on par with ps3 or 360 at launch.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

It's "video games". The video part is important. I'm not speaking of tech, but aesthetics & presentation. Tech is not an end in and of itself, it's an enabler. Lack of AA combined with blurry textures and proliferating jaggies, for example, is one of the worst offenders and is ruinous for your game's aesthetics.

That's nice from an idealistic perspective, where every developer has any platform they choose and there's no market pressure. In this nice little world, every game gets ported to PC and we get anti-aliasing and wonderful effects for everything.

However, seeing as I want to play this game outside of dream-land, I make do. Monolith is a small Nintendo-owned company, they made a game within their limits and it's fantastic. Strangling kittens over what could have been is really silly when it doesn't impact how fun the game is.

 

[SouthernDragon]

I’m tired of seeing Mario relegated to kitschy ideas because there’s no horsepower under the Wii’s hood

Wow. This guy would have been the one to type the "Mario is finally free from his 2D shackles" when SM64 released, huh?

 

[Levyne]

The problem is, whats the point of this article? To enlighten us of the shortcomings of the Wii, which we all knew years ago? To urge Nintendo to release a HD console, which they already announced? To let us know that Xenoblade, despite graphical shortcomings, is a great game?
Anything else? Because, where I'm standing, is looks just like pointless drivel out of (maybe legit) frustration. Professional journalism should be over this.

Thanks for putting into words what I couldn't. Even if the embarrassing dribble was removed, the article is telling us "man, this great game would look better on a more powerful platform". That's almost a tautology. .. no duh

 

[Omega]

Would better graphics make the game any better?

Never understood this.

 

[Durante]

Would better graphics make the game any better?

All else being equal? Of course they would.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Actually, I'm just going to defer to my favorite set of images that explain why the Wii's hardware is dog shit:



F-Zero GX on Wii: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/Konsolkongen/30052009036.jpg?t=1277537481

F-Zero GX on Gamecube: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/Konsolkongen/30052009042.jpg?t=1277537479



The problem is the Wii. Not that someone's playing on an LCD. Not that Xenoblade is ugly. It's that Nintendo made a bad piece of hardware.

 

[Sponge]

What a baby, graphics are not everything ya'know.

 

[Hot Coldman]

if you guys want a really ugly rpg from 2010, get infinite space.

it's a really good rpg, but very much looks like a playstation 1 game.

i guess it gets kinda charming after a while.

And it was on the DS so people are used to that level of graphical fidelity from that system.

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Isn't this pretty much a paraphrasal of nearly every review/article/editorial Game Informer has published for a Wii game?

 

[impact]

Would better graphics make the game any better?

Killzone has fans, so yes.

 

[DR2K]

Xenoblade also has one of the biggest scopes and variety of explorable areas than any other game this generation (regardless of platform)

It doesn't look better for it though, which is the whole point.

Would better graphics make the game any better?

Never understood this.

It's not a difficult concept.

 

[popeutlal]

Remember the NES? Remember the Super Nintendo? Those were cutting edge systems

There were more powerful systems in the NES era. How can people not know that?

 

[Ridley327]

Is the NTSC version running at actual 60 fps? What about the users commenting about having to patch the PAL game to make it run at 30 fps instead of 25 on Dolphin? I have no actual interest in the game but this is some curious info. Has there been any other games that run at 30fps in one region and at 60fps in others?

Xenoblade definitely does not run at 60 fps on my system. It's a stable 30 fps, outside of the random drop in battles here and there.

 

[Anteater]

Is that really someone from GI? It looks like a random blog entry

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

Is the NTSC version running at actual 60 fps? What about the users commenting about having to patch the PAL game to make it run at 30 fps instead of 25 on Dolphin? I have no actual interest in the game but this is some curious info. Has there been any other games that run at 30fps in one region and at 60fps in others?

Ignore my post, I'm a fool who forgets frame rate numbers.

 

[Seda]

Graphics do practically nothing for me. Doesn't hinder/boost my enjoyment at all.

 

[jett]

I can't believe someone was paid to write that garbage.

 

[Strife91]

I though I was reading a neogaf post.

 

[sublimit]

Lol this looks as if it was written by a 12 year old fanboy.

Sad.

 

[krameriffic]

It baffles me that the people in this thread are defending their game from one person's opinion on a way to MAKE THE GAME BETTER. He's saying that this was the kind of great game that could have been a legend of its era if it wasn't held back by an unnecessary technological restriction.

He's not saying that the game was bad, he's saying that the game could have been better in this way.

 

[Aguirre]

wow. i thought the graphics of xenoblade are pretty awesome. we know wii is a hardware powerhouse like its other console brothers, but that's ok. the wii is like a little bro.

 

[Ridley327]

I can't believe someone was paid to write that garbage.

Given the choice between writing an opinion piece for Game Informer or spending time practicing for another season of Vikings football, which would you rather do?

 

[2San]

The game looks great, it's way more pleasing on the eyes than many ps360 titles(like BF3 or the GR:Future Soldier beta more recently). The vistas will stun you, make you think wow. If you haven't played a Wii or PS2 game in a while, you'll get used to the graphic soon enough. Some of the armor designs are terrible though. :x

This game would either look the same with a higher res and AA on consoles or it would need a massive increase in budget to take advantage of the capabilities of the HD twins hardware.

 

[Sadist]

I though I was reading a neogaf post.

A badly writen Neogaf post.

 

[aliencowz7]

Graphics do practically nothing for me. Doesn't hinder/boost my enjoyment at all.

It's not simply about pure graphical prowess. A more powerful machine allows for a bigger scope, for more things on screen at once without taking a framerate hit and who knows what else they could account for if the game had been created for something other then wii. Do I think it would have been viable to do so? Probably not but that doesn't somehow change the fact that more could have been done with the game on a more powerful system.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

A badly writen Neogaf post.

An above average NeoGAF post.

 

[Orayn]

A badly writen Neogaf post.

So a GameFAQs post, then. (Not a 4chan post because he actually seems to be taking himself seriously.)

 

[Chesskid1]

i'm reading his twitter.

Xenoblade Chronicles keeps getting better and better. Honestly, if it wasn't for the graphics, I think it could be this generation's FFVII.

It's just a shame to see all the hard work Monolith put into it and *know* that their effort could've turned out so much better on 360/ps3.

Here's the thing: I'm not a graphics whore (far from it), but there's so many subtle emotions they're trying to convey with the Wii and the

technology just does not do the characters justice. It's frustrating to know that it *could have* been done, but wasn't.

Case in point: moving death scene? Not quite as impactful when your characters look like fish gasping for air every time they talk.

he's not a graphics whore! he even says so. it just can't convey subtle emotions? idk

http://twitter.com/#!/chrisWarcraft

 

[Somnid]

I think it looks fine. Clearly the emphasis was on the large open world and scenery than the character models. You get lots of grass, huge areas with surprisingly little loading even when starting battles and fast-traveling in the same area (little bit of menu loading), and more than 4 enemies on screen at once. It also doesn't resort to pre-rendered scenes. It's Wii limited but that's an argument from 5 years ago.

Makes FFXIII seem like shit technically even if the models and textures look good.

 

[Derrick01]

The problem is, whats the point of this article? To enlighten us of the shortcomings of the Wii, which we all knew about years ago? To urge Nintendo to release a HD console, which they already announced? To let us know that Xenoblade, despite graphical shortcomings, is a great game?
Anything else? Because, where I'm standing, is looks just like pointless drivel out of (maybe legit) frustration. Professional journalism should be over this.

There doesn't seem to be any point that hasn't been touched on a bunch of times before but it's an opinion piece and it's obviously frustrating him. I don't think every article has to have some new untouched point of view in order for it be talked about.

And to answer his question yes Nintendo is doing something about it with a HD system coming. However it's still possible it will end up behind everything else again which will just breed the same complaints 4 years from now.

 

[GDGF]

You may not agree with him, but he's more knowledgeable about gaming than you guys assume. I like him more than I like you.

Did you write this article?

Just wondering

Oh wait, nevermind. Unless you're a punter for the Vikings of course lol.

 

[Hero]

This is what constitutes journalism for Game Informer? Come on.

He may have a valid opinion (he doesn't) but he needs to communicate like an adult instead of a whiny baby.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Looks fucking gorgeous when I'm playing on Dolphin - the art style and huge, open vistas look amazing in HD with great AA.

... But while a poorly written article, I can understand his point. I'm loving Xenoblade - it's a great game. But if I had to play this in 480p, poorly upscaled to 1080p on my LCD with jaggies everywhere, I don't think I would enjoy the game half as much. Yeah, yeah, gameplay is king. But graphics unquestionably help with immersion. Monolith put these huge, open vistas with brilliant lighting in here to awestruck the player - but it just doesn't work on its native platform. The game shines much, MUCH more brightly when emulated on Dolphin.

And, I think that's true for a lot of games. Many games on the PS3 and the X360 - and of course the PC - would suffer and probably not be as enjoyable with worse graphics. The jaggies on Forza 4, for example, are already awful. But could you imagine if they were 4x worse? I think it'd be hard for anyone to argue the game would be just as good if that were the case.

well said.

This is what constitutes journalism for Game Informer? Come on.

He may have a valid opinion (he doesn't) but he needs to communicate like an adult instead of a whiny baby.

He has a point. Just because you've come to accept how Wii looks on an HDTV doesn't mean it doesn't frustrate others. The shit is and continues to be off-putting in many games. I continue to find it very distracting. Particularly after spending ample time gaming on PC/PS360.

The fact that we had to have a Dolphin and a Dolphin thread here attests to that reality he addresses. You know what he sounds like? A frustrated, passionate gamer who desperately wants Nintendo to be who they *used to be*: a hardware power leader. Unfortunately, Nintendo will only be the power leader in this new generation for about 12 months, then they will be well behind with games that look like PS360 games in a world where graphics have leaped well beyond.

 

[Orayn]

It's not simply about pure graphical prowess. A more powerful machine allows for a bigger scope, for more things on screen at once without taking a framerate hit and who knows what else they could account for if the game had been created for something other then wii. Do I think it would have been viable to do so? Probably not but that doesn't somehow change the fact that more could have been done with the game on a more powerful system.

Kind of a moot point when most developers are currently doing fuckall in terms of ambitious games that actually take advantage of the hardware they run on.

 

[tmarques]

IT DESERVES BETTER THAN WHAT YOU’VE FORCED THIS GAME TO BE, NINTENDO.

Would this game even exist in its current form if it required an HD-budget? Honest question.

And whining about the Wii's hardware all these years after its release is just bizarre.

 

[Htown]

I wonder if he's got his Wii hooked up through composite cables.

 

[Seda]

It's not simply about pure graphical prowess. A more powerful machine allows for a bigger scope, for more things on screen at once without taking a framerate hit and who knows what else they could account for if the game had been created for something other then wii.

Certainly.

 

[Throwaway123456789]

dont blame xenoblade for being xenoblade but on the wii blame SE for not making a xenoblade for whatever system you wanted to jerk off to /shrug

SE? Square Enix?

It's Monolith, dude. It's a first party Nintendo title.

 

[Lonely1]

There doesn't seem to be any point that hasn't been touched on a bunch of times before but it's an opinion piece and it's obviously frustrating him. I don't think every article has to have some new untouched point of view in order for it be talked about.

It should in order to be worth reading, let alone being talked about.

And to answer his question yes Nintendo is doing something about it with a HD system coming. However it's still possible it will end up behind everything else again which will just breed the same complaints 4 years from now.

Whats everything? More than it's power, I believe that what hurts Wii the most is the horrible up-scalling it gets from LCD 40 in+ monitors.

 

[mclem]

Would better graphics make the game any better?

Never understood this.

If anything, they'd probably make the game worse.


That is, it's a sliding scale. I think it's fairly safe to assume that Nintendo wouldn't have increased the budget had the game been developed in HD, so budget that went to content in this version would instead have gone towards the pretty stuff, and we'd have got less content accordingly.


People *really* need to think in budgetary terms when writing diatribes like this, because it exposes the demands for the sham that they are.

And, frankly, Eryth Sea at night with a meteor shower looks stunning enough even in blocky-o-vision.

Kind of a moot point when most developers are currently doing fuckall in terms of ambitious games that actually take advantage of the hardware they run on.

Compare and contrast: On the one hand, you have Xenoblade. On the other, you have FF13.

 

[aliencowz7]

Kind of a moot point when most developers are currently doing fuckall in terms of ambitious games that actually take advantage of the hardware they run on.

Just because people haven't been doing it well doesn't mean it can't be done well. There also hasn't been a game that did open world environments on consoles near as well this gen before xenoblade came out but obviously it was still capable of being done.

 

[burgerdog]

Actually, I'm just going to defer to my favorite set of images that explain why the Wii's hardware is dog shit:



F-Zero GX on Wii: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/Konsolkongen/30052009036.jpg?t=1277537481

F-Zero GX on Gamecube: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/Konsolkongen/30052009042.jpg?t=1277537479



The problem is the Wii. Not that someone's playing on an LCD. Not that Xenoblade is ugly. It's that Nintendo made a bad piece of hardware.

What?! I wish my gc still worked to test that, damn.

 

[Levyne]

SE? Square Enix?

It's Monolith, dude. It's a first party Nintendo title.

I think he said SE because they would have the capability of developing on a non-Nintendo platform.

 

[2San]

It's not simply about pure graphical prowess. A more powerful machine allows for a bigger scope, for more things on screen at once without taking a framerate hit and who knows what else they could account for if the game had been created for something other then wii. Do I think it would have been viable to do so? Probably not but that doesn't somehow change the fact that more could have been done with the game on a more powerful system.

Yeah go for a bigger scope and then still be blasted for being "ugly", unless they crank up the budget.

 

[ZenaxPure]

It's a silly article but honestly I have to agree the game looks bad. The outdoor environments look great but pretty much all the cities are visually repulsive (except for

Spoiler

Frontier Village

) and gah the character art is just so bad, what is wrong with those people's eyes!?

Didn't stop me from enjoying the game though, on a Wii no less.

 

[ZoddGutts]

Don't know how fugly it looked on Wii. But it looked great for the most part on my PC.

 

[Sadist]

SE? Square Enix?

It's Monolith, dude. It's a first party Nintendo title.

You do realise it's Threi don't you?