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[jdstorm]

What is Xenoblade Chronicles X? (XCX)
XCX is an openworld Scifi RPG made by Mononolith Soft (Nintendo) for the Wii U. It is an indirect sequel to the 2011 Wii title Xenoblade Chronicles.

Plot/Setup

Humanity is caught in the crossfire of two waring alien races and Earth is destroyed. A small subset of humanity manage to escape earth on ships called Arks each of which features a new version of the city it departed on. The game focus' on the white whale, home of New Los Angeles. After spending 3 years on the run fighting for their lives, the white whale crashes on a mysterious planet named Mira. This is where humanities last survivors are to rebuild their lives while under siege from the forces that destroyed earth.

Gameplay

Exploration
XCX has one of the most intricately designed open worlds in existance and its your job. (Should you choose) to join the Pathfinder division and explore Mira, planting probes that will give you resources to upgrade your gear/abilities as well as fast travel points should you wish to return to that area.

The open world can feel overwhelming as at first glance the game doesnt seem to care about the players level. You will quickly find yourself in over your head surrounded by enemies 20-30 levels higher then you.

On second glance however the genius of Monolith Soft starts to shine through. It turns out that this isnt your typical open world, which has been filled with random enemies as it first appears. Its actually an overwhelming series of linear paths perfectly stitched together that the player can follow to reach any required point on the map that their level allows.

Yet this world encourages you to take risks and branch off the designed path looking for secret mini dungeons within caves, amazing vistas and even Superbosses.

Combat
XCX uses a turn based battle system similar to an MMO (Auto Attacks + Abilities on cooldiwns to supliment them) within a typical party based combat of a jrpg. In many ways this feels like the propper evolution to older turnbased JRPG combat as it is still tactical but has the flow most like from modern action games. This is built upon a Stun -Stagger-Topple rythm as you work as a party to topple enemies to do increased damage.

How does it work?
XCX doesnt explain this very well. Combat uses a combination of several interlinking systems that the player has to master and learn how they interact with eachother. These are

1. Level. Players can level up from 1-60.
2. Gear Score: all weaons/armour deal damage and have elemental effects
3.GearAugments: a way to customise and enhance elemental effects, accuracy, evasion among other things
4.Arts: powered abilities that work on a cooldown timer. Have bonus' if stacked.
5. Passive abilities: players have up to 4 that will constantly give players boosts
6. Soul Voices: in battle a party member will make a comment, this will trigger a QTE and give a short term boost in that battle. Its the main way to heal party members
7: A Tension Point system: can be used to revive allies or do increased damage in an "Overdrive mode" tension points build up in battle by doing basic attacks (can be boosted by Weapons/Augments/Passive Abilities)

This is all constrained by your typical RPG trinity class system: with each class having 2 options. What class you chose determines what weapons and arts you are allowed to use. Thankfully the player is allowed to be an allrounder and can level up all classes. Though its best to master one fully before switching as ut allows you to take your gear to the next class you are leveling.

Its all a bit overwhelming. I followed a guide on my second run through. It helps to know that your build from the begining will be viable for the final boss. Especially since the final few chapters have rapid difficulty spikes should you not understand how the systems interact.

Story/Writing

Monolith fully committed to emergent storytelling in XCX. This is done through XCXs affinity system where the player will be presented with choices and if a party member likes that desison a heart will apear above their head if they agree. Its subtle but it allows the player to get to know their party members organically through the weight of multiple simple choices. These choices primarily occur in several mission types.

1. Main story missions
Fully voice acted, with cutscenes. These represent a critical path through the story. At approximately 50hours its pretty meaty, but gives the player little context to what is happening
2. Afinity Missions
Similar to the Mass Effect series loyalty missions, these are also fully voice acted with cutscenes designed to let you get to know your party members better. There are multiple affinity missions for most party members

3. Regular Missions
You get these from talking to NPCs. These shine a light on New LA and its residents and are also fully featured with cutscenes, player choice scenarios and branching quest chains, where decisions you make can have repercussions later.

I've heard the story sucks. Does it.

Yes and No. The Writing in XCX is great overall but most of it is hidden in side content. This writing contextualises the world and its characters. This makes it a rich experience on multiple playthroughs like the Devs must have experienced when testing the game. The main plot is very well set up and all key events are foreshadowed well if you play most of the sidequests, however without playing them the main story beats can feel inauthentic and melodramatic.

If you have 150+ hours to play through everything, potentially multiple times its the best written game this generation. If you only have 50 hours to rush through the main plot it will appear overly melodramatic and leave you feeling hollow and with a bad taste in your mouth. Especially after the multiple Tatsu is not food jokes.

Further thoughts on story

What i love about XCXs writing is that it is a deconstruction of the cost of doing the right thing through a mindset of optimism. Better still is its strong voice on racism and the difficulty of intergrating multiple cultures and people groups. XCX doesnt shy away from all sides of the debate (including presenting characters with racist views) it will even allow the player to agree with them on occasion. Yet the game is always firm in its stance that racism, fear and exclusion are wrong and makes sure to show the negative consaquences of xenophobia.

XCX also takes a strong stance against the prevailing culture of the Anti hero and moral relitivity, with the characters of

Spoiler

Lao .

and the Wrothians being held to account for why going against ones own values and beliefs or grey beliefs are wrong.

Fundamentally the tone of this game can be compared to a lightside playthrough of KotOR or JRPG Classic FFVI

What are the Characters like?

Elma the games real protagonist is one of the best characters of this generation. She would be what you would get if you combined all the best qualities of Natasha Romanov, Superman, Han Solo and Katara of the Water Tribe. Or Spoilers for XCX and Horizon Zero Dawn

Spoiler

Elisabeth Sobec if she had ensured humanitys survival by singlehandedly fighting off an alien invasion in a mech. The remained alive to help rebuild it.

Phog and his brother have a story that harkens back to the story of Edgar and Sabin

Im going to stop gushing right now. With 10+ characters all of whom are expertlty crafted XCX is a masterclass in character writing. Especially its female characters. XCX manages to write 7+ fully developed assertive female characters all of whom are unique and have agency in their choices. Its mind-boggling given the current gaming climate.

For instance if you chose a female player character, one of the dialogue options will be between elma and the player character about hair products. If Irina another female character is in your party she will make a quip about how this talk should stop. This is perfectly in character since Irina is more of a tomboy and uninterested in pursuits that are typically feminine.

There are hundreds possibly thousands of these scenarios littered throught the game.

I also personally think that the player character works better as a female, as it primarily sets the main party as all female. To me it serves as a nice antidote to the cynacism and masculinity of the gaming industry and makes the game feel a bit like the classic 1970s televison version of Charlies Angels. Hence the title of this RTTP: Nagi's Angels.

Soundtrack
You will either love it or hate it. The frequent repetition of its most polarizing tracks is problematic for some.

Conclusion

This game is fantastic, however its missing many basic quality of life features that you would expect of a game released in 2015.

Should I play it?
Its a very polarizing game. If you already own a WiiU, watch the opening cutscene and if you are immediately drawn to XCX play it.

If you love JRPGs and want to own a classic, buy it and a WiiU. This games reputation will improve as people finish it multiple times and good guides filter onto the internet as to how best to experience it.

If you dont fit into either of those categories, I'd skip it and hope for a Switch port with some basic quality of life changes and a better structured main path.

Also Nintendo if you are reading this please remove Afinity requirements for Afinity missions in any port. Thats a hugely problematic design choice that only serves to frustrate the player and lock them out of XCXs best content.

 

[James Scott]

I think it's super impressive tech wise for the system and it's a great base for any future title, but in itself it falls flat as a complete package. The exploration and traversal is pretty amazing. I think the scale and the Skells are pretty impressive no matter the hardware. Flying out of the city is one of the best moments in gaming for me. But the story progression and the requirements for each are really annoying. There was a part I needed to explore a lot of land just to get to the next story mission. That's not good

 

[Makonero]

Loved it. Looking back, I can see the influences it had on Breath of the Wild. Crazy that Wii U got two of the best open world games ever made.

 

[jdstorm]

I think it's super impressive tech wise for the system and it's a great base for any future title, but in itself it falls flat as a complete package. There was a part I needed to explore a lot of land just to get to the next story mission. That's not good

XCX definitely has some strange gating mechanics. It feels like Monolith built a 200+ hour game. Tried to cut it down to 50ish hours and then realised the player was missing too much content so they imposed arbitrary gates to force the player to experience some of the better content.

Yet it seemed easier to ignore it and grind so most players did that and got frustrated since XCX agressively punishes players who try and grind to overlevel.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

I couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. The combat seemed wonky (likely because I didn't know what I was doing), the story too sparse for a Xeno game, and the soundtrack very hit or miss.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Building the Ares90 is my biggest regret.

 

[Some Nobody]

Yes and No. The Writing in XCX is great overall but most of it is hidden in side content. This writing contextualises the world and its characters. This makes it a rich experience on multiple playthroughs like the Devs must have experienced when testing the game. The main plot is very well set up and all key events are foreshadowed well if you play most of the sidequests, however without playing them the main story beats can feel inauthentic and melodramatic.

If you have 150+ hours to play through everything, potentially multiple times its the best written game this generation. If you only have 50 hours to rush through the main plot it will appear overly melodramatic and leave you feeling hollow and with a bad taste in your mouth. Especially after the multiple Tatsu is not food jokes.

Further thoughts on story

What i love about XCXs writing is that it is a deconstruction of the cost of doing the right thing through a mindset of optimism. Better still is its strong voice on racism and the difficulty of intergrating multiple cultures and people groups. XCX doesnt shy away from all sides of the debate (including presenting characters with racist views) it will even allow the player to agree with them on occasion. Yet the game is always firm in its stance that racism, fear and exclusion are wrong and makes sure to show the negative consaquences of xenophobia.

Facts. I'm always positive when someone says "the story sucks" they haven't played all of the side quests, which adds so much to the world it feels like a different game almost. I always say each main chapter mission is like an episode of the show while the side quests are what happens in between each new episode.

Also Nintendo if you are reading this please remove Afinity requirements for Afinity missions in any port. Thats a hugely problematic design choice that only serves to frustrate the player and lock them out of XCXs best content.

YES. Who designed it that way? Affinity missions should raise affinity, which should have a bunch of battle effects. You shouldn't have to raise affinity in battle to do them.

If those things went away for a potential Switch port, half of my issues with that game would go away.

 

[Thud]

Never finished the game. Final chapter just sucks.

Got my mileage from the sidecontent. Mira is awesome. That's what the story should have focused on more as well. Felt disconnected from the maingame.

 

[Eliseo]

I had a great time with this game, over 400+ hours and I loved the soundtrack. That being said I can see where people are coming from with the story issues because if you rush this game it is easy to be like "this game has no story" which is not true.

Spoiler

NAGI IS A FUCKING BADASS

 

[SolicitorPirate]

I adored the entire city of NLA and it's quirky residents.

The consistency of characterization amongst all the NPCs was a masterpiece unto itself. Like random NPCs all had little characters and narratives that you might never know if you didn't talk to them regularly

 

[madstarr12]

I liked the story and setting, though even with the Affinity Missions, I feel like there could have been more to the main story. I would be absolutely fine with a Xenoblade X-2 in the future. They should have had more playable species though in the original one.

 

[Andyliini]

Played the game for 140 hours, until I beat the final boss. He was a touch one, but after I had to lower his level, I was finally able to make it trough. Still listen to the soundtrack almost daily, though. Some fantastic tunes in there.

 

[Hilarion]

I was shocked how much I liked this game, because all things considered, I really shouldn't have. It was massively different than the sort of game I normally like, but I just kept doing side missions and encountering charming NPCs with fascinating stories. The main plot isn't very good, sure, but you can go days or weeks at a time without doing a story chapter and not run out of far more interesting and better written sidequests to do.

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

Loved it.

Building the Ares90 is my biggest regret.

Why? It's one of the best skells in the game that doesn't require heavy optimization. Even for the best skell setups, it's recommended you get an Ares just for the grind required.

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Some fantastic tunes in there.

Not to sound cliche, but this world sucks!

 

[Neoleo2143]

People hate the main story, but damn this game's NPCs are some good stuff even if the quest design is meh.

 

[KraytarJ]

I played 90hrs and finished it when it came out and it's one of the most mixed experiences I've ever had. The combat was great and the sidequests and world were at times very entertaining but then there are things like the entire fucking main story and the beyond garbage enemy placement that bring it back down. Overall I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about it other than to say it's one of my biggest gaming disappointments ever after what the original did.

 

[ruimound]

Played it a little under a year ago with a 100% run, so it's still somewhat fresh in my memory, but I might be forgetting some details. I think you're overselling it a little bit on the characters front, to be honest -- there was a large cast, but I would only really consider 3 or 4 actually developed characters (Elma, Lin, Lao, and maybe Nagi). I maxed out everyone else's affinities, and I guess they had some backstories, but never anything remotely compelling enough to use them in my party during story missions. Some of the characters, like Murderess, were walking archetypes that didn't contribute anything of their own personality of interest. I found the main story to be a letdown for the most part, too, but that wasn't as big of a deal because it seemed to lean toward a lighter narrative.

The planet was pretty astounding though. I remember running around during the early stages of the game and just feeling incredulous about the size and scope of the game's world. In a way, I wish it had taken a more traditional RPG approach to worldbuilding and installed towns and cities across different zones, instead of only maintaining a single city (NLA) and shuttling back and forth to it, if only because it would have let me stay out in the overworld for longer.

Combat was nuanced enough and I found it to be fun and engaging in the beginning, but even after 80+ hours in the game I can't say I ever fully felt like an expert at ground combat (which I know in part because of videos like these). Skells were pretty exciting, but felt tremendously stronger than ground combat in the vast majority of circumstances, and terribly balanced: on the same Skell, you could have an ability that deals maybe 500 damage, and another that deals 50,000, which made combat feel incredibly bursty, and during the game I would often just be waiting on the cooldown of that single nuke ability for minutes at a time, because everything else was useless. Fuel was also a terrible concept, where your Skell slowly ran out of fuel over time, and could only regenerate that fuel with a cost that was prohibitive during the regular game, or with hours of real time (I think it took 18 hours to fully recharge, or something like that). I suppose the fuel mechanic made some sense in that it existed to "balance" Skells out, but since it was in the metagame it felt more like I was waiting for my energy to come back like some shitty phone game, and since Skells were strictly more fun than ground combat most of the time, it just became an anti-fun factor for me.

The last thing I want to talk about is the music. I just don't understand how they threw in that atrocious faux hip hop in NLA, while simultaneously recognizing that they expected players to spend literal dozens of hours there as well. I honestly prioritized running to benches to skip time for time-agnostic quests just to avoid that garbage music. I'll probably forget most of the details of this game as time goes on, but I know I'll remember that gross attempt at an urban sound for years to come.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Why? It's one of the best skells in the game that doesn't require heavy optimization. Even for the best skell setups, it's recommended you get an Ares just for the grind required.

Because I could one-shot 95% of the enemies without them even had a time to react. It killed most of the challenge that was left and I got bored. Should've sticked with the regular mechas a bit longer, got the Ares way too early I think.

 

[jdstorm]

Played it a little under a year ago with a 100% run, so it's still somewhat fresh in my memory, but I might be forgetting some details. I think you're overselling it a little bit on the characters front, to be honest -- there was a large cast, but I would only really consider 3 or 4 actually developed characters (Elma, Lin, Lao, and maybe Nagi). I maxed out everyone else's affinities, and I guess they had some backstories, but never anything remotely compelling enough to use them in my party during story missions. Some of the characters, like Murderess, were walking archetypes that didn't contribute anything of their own personality of interest. I found the main story to be a letdown for the most part, too, but that wasn't as big of a deal because it seemed to lean toward a lighter narrative.

The planet was pretty astounding though. I remember running around during the early stages of the game and just feeling incredulous about the size and scope of the game's world. In a way, I wish it had taken a more traditional RPG approach to worldbuilding and installed towns and cities across different zones, instead of only maintaining a single city (NLA) and shuttling back and forth to it, if only because it would have let me stay out in the overworld for longer.

Combat was nuanced enough and I found it to be fun and engaging in the beginning, but even after 80+ hours in the game I can't say I ever fully felt like an expert at ground combat (which I know in part because of videos like these). Skells were pretty exciting, but felt tremendously stronger than ground combat in the vast majority of circumstances, and terribly balanced: on the same Skell, you could have an ability that deals maybe 500 damage, and another that deals 50,000, which made combat feel incredibly bursty, and during the game I would often just be waiting on the cooldown of that single nuke ability for minutes at a time, because everything else was useless. Fuel was also a terrible concept, where your Skell slowly ran out of fuel over time, and could only regenerate that fuel with a cost that was prohibitive during the regular game, or with hours of real time (I think it took 18 hours to fully recharge, or something like that). I suppose the fuel mechanic made some sense in that it existed to "balance" Skells out, but since it was in the metagame it felt more like I was waiting for my energy to come back like some shitty phone game, and since Skells were strictly more fun than ground combat most of the time, it just became an anti-fun factor for me.

The last thing I want to talk about is the music. I just don't understand how they threw in that atrocious faux hip hop in NLA, while simultaneously recognizing that they expected players to spend literal dozens of hours there as well. I honestly prioritized running to benches to skip time for time-agnostic quests just to avoid that garbage music. I'll probably forget most of the details of this game as time goes on, but I know I'll remember that gross attempt at an urban sound for years to come.

The fuel mechanic wasnt so bad. You just needed to install fuel probes and chain them in appropriate spots. Pottentialy add booster probes.

As for story stuff. Even if you played most/all of the sidequests there is so much stuff you can miss. Take for example Irina. In one of either the regular missions or affinity missions she has a friend having some dating issues so she asks for your advice. (It might be a heart to heart?)

At the end of a dialogue tree when playing as a female (this might not even happen with a male cross) irina compliments your looks. When you return the compliment, the heart doesnt appear above Irina's head. This indicates that she has self esteem issues about her appearence. Something that foreshadows her later actions where she is almost suicidially reckless.

This stuff is really easy to miss, but there are hundreds of similar examples of contextual character development. Its the sum total of these moments that make X's characters so well developed and memorable

 

[CaptainAmeijin]

I played a good deal of the sidequests but frankly I thought them underwhelming. They were a notch above the main story, sure, but nothing worth the inane grinding necessary to get them. And I mean both the Affinity Missions and the Regular Missions.

Some of the NPCs were fairly likeable, but not so special as to make slogging through the combat worth it. Maybe I'm just not a fan of the MMO-style, but when you make mecha combat that dang boring you might want to have another look at your fighting system. I'd also have liked for them to explain like, one or two of the mechanics that the player has to deal with throughout their 50+ journey. Maybe then I'd at least figure out whether or not I even like the battle system or if I just suck at it.

Not gonna knock the OST, but I really do think they could've toned down the awesome for every battle encounter or new region you walk through. Songs that I loved listening to just prior to the game's release soon became sorta... standard fare.

Overall I think it really fell flat as an overall experience. Huuuuge open world with tons of varied creatures and interesting designs and plenty of characters to join you... and yet it somehow still felt empty.

 

[Buzzi]

I loved it with all its faults (mostly on the gameplay/technical side), investing close to 200h into it and reaching near completion (Thelethia...). The feelings of exploration were so good in the early (first three areas?) game, when reaching the mine spot involved game and thinking skills and showed you a new side of the beautiful world.
I'm not going to open the debate again, but I was annoyed seeing the reactions and comments on XB2 announcement as most of the criticism is excessive and imho undeserved (sawano.jpg), while the love for XB is understandable but overblown as well these days.

I really, really hope they are not done with the series and the commitment to challenge themselves in this full exploration titles: they can absolutely improve the formula, but dropping it to propose only linear jrpg with big worlds is absolutely not what I want.

Out of curiosity, what were your favourite continents in the game?
For me: Sylvalum > Primordia > Oblivia > Noctilum > Cauldros

 

[UltimaKilo]

I was disappointed with the soundtrack, which doesn't compare to Xenoblade Chronicles, so I decided against purchasing a Wii U for this game. Also, the reviews on the weak story put me off, but again, not as much as the music.

 

[Smasher89]

It was a ok game, story not at all on the level of the first game but

Spoiler

if they still want to keep suprising me on how huge it's, this might be the prologue for Xenoblade 2, or just a very minor part of that game that still has impact. It also introduced a ton of new races.

 

[Daria Morgendorffer]

It was a great game but I really wish experience was also gained when not in the party, that really killed the experience for me in the end.

 

[Jackano]

I think it's my favorite Wii U game (I mean game I played on Wii U).

Mira deserve another open world XCX, the setup and exploration are great. The rest... pretty repetitive with balancing problems. Many things including characters who deserved more content but you just get to scratch the surface.

 

[ecosse_011172]

I didn't buy this with 30% off due to the Switch port rumours and now regret it, I'll have to pay full price. I supposed the rumour confused the sequel with the port.

 

[SoulUnison]

I JUST bought and started Xenoblade X after BotW because I wanted to play an open world game that actually made use of the Gamepad.

These something about this game that gives me serious Dreamcast-era SEGA vibes.
Like, there's a lot of ambition and surprising concepts that work, but there's also a lot of jank and obvious budgeting.
Natural environments look like they shouldn't be possible on the hardware, but new LA looks like an upscaled/emulated Gamecube game.

It's also very, very Phantasy Star Online, in a way.

EDIT: I wish there were some way to disable ONLY MiiVerse posts.
I missed the boat on this game by a year and a half and now the playerbase is mostly dead and you see the same 6 or so nonsensical out-of-context messages over an over.

 

[LordKano]

Best JRPG to have been released in the last decade, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[jb1234]

I couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. The combat seemed wonky (likely because I didn't know what I was doing), the story too sparse for a Xeno game, and the soundtrack very hit or miss.

Ditto. I could have forgiven the sparse story if the characters were interesting but neither Lin or Elma did much for me. The former in fact was actively irritating a lot of the time (especially when paired with Tatsu). Ultimately, I had other more story-driven JRPGs to play (like Trails in the Sky) and Xenoblade X got forgotten. A shame because I loved the first game so much.

 

[casiopao]

Ditto. I could have forgiven the sparse story if the characters were interesting but neither Lin or Elma did much for me. The former in fact was actively irritating a lot of the time (especially when paired with Tatsu). Ultimately, I had other more story-driven JRPGs to play (like Trails in the Sky) and Xenoblade X got forgotten. A shame because I loved the first game so much.

The Normal Mission and Affinity Quest is sooooooo good though.T_T They even make up for the kinda lack luster main story.^^

 

[casiopao]

And, you guys on GAF always seems to be like me lol. And here i am just thinking about what we can even further improve for the next Xeno X-2 and voila, another Xeno X thread.^^

That is my post on other thread on the improvement of what i would love to see on the next Xeno X lol.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=213226989&postcount=1

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Personally it's probably be my favorite game of all time in what it gives me in terms of mechanics.

I plan to write an extensive post detailing why it's a game seemingly made for me. And how all the little things it does make me so happy.

As a huge Sci-fi guy with no interest in fantasy its amazing compared to the most fantastical RPGs which make up most of the market. I really like have a gun to take out and shoot constantly as a nice change of pace to melee which seems so prevalent.

Also I really loved all the characters and their affinity missions. They felt much more "real" to me as a bunch of people of various ages (thankfully many near 30) as opposed to the usual JRPG party of teenagers and token old and young person.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Very much enjoyed this game. I was completely hooked. Looks like we won't get a direct sequel to this game any time soon.

 

[-MB-]

Best JRPG in years, on par with the original, but different.

 

[casiopao]

Personally it's probably be my favorite game of all time in what it gives me in terms of mechanics.

I plan to write an extensive post detailing why it's a game seemingly made for me. And how all the little things it does make me so happy.

As a huge Sci-fi guy with no interest in fantasy its amazing compared to the most fantastical RPGs which make up most of the market. I really like have a gun to take out and shoot constantly as a nice change of pace to melee which seems so prevalent.

Also I really loved all the characters and their affinity missions. They felt much more "real" to me as a bunch of people of various ages (thankfully many near 30) as opposed to the usual JRPG party of teenagers and token old and young person.

Aww yeah baby.^^ Another Xeno X fan.^^ I would love to check your thread there when you make it .^^ There is also some conspiracy quest too lol.^^ That J-Bodies.^^

 

[Famassu]

Pretty good gameplay and some interesting vistas and fun enemies, but what really got me to drop this game after 40-50 hours was its horrible pacing, overly verbose writing & too long cutscenes as well as the mostly boring-as-fuck characters I do not give a single fuck about. The story just didn't grab me at all so after the first 3 regions I just haven't gone back to the game.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Aww yeah baby.^^ Another Xeno X fan.^^ I would love to check your thread there when you make it .^^ There is also some conspiracy quest too lol.^^ That J-Bodies.^^

There's quite a few vocal voices against it that almost make it seem it was very poorly received but the user reviews/ratings across the web as well as hitting #11 in Neogaf GOTY so a lot people enjoyed it.

Almost everything it does really seem to speak to me.

 

[casiopao]

There's quite a few vocal voices against it that almost make it seem it was very poorly received but the user reviews/ratings across the web as well as hitting #11 in Neogaf GOTY so a lot people enjoyed it.

Almost everything it does really seem to speak to me.

Skypunch huh.^^ Well, as a huge LoGH, Tytania, Infinite Space, Crest of the Stars and Gundam fans. This game indeed is tickling my sci-fi sense a lot.^^ Hell, 340+ hours into this game. And i can't wait for the continuation here.^^

 

[jdstorm]

It was a great game but I really wish experience was also gained when not in the party, that really killed the experience for me in the end.

Leveling mechanics were broken anyway. Being overleveled did basically nothing but you could take a 4th party member from level 1 to level 40 ish in 15 minutes by grinding small level 60 enemies. Once you learn to abuse the system its bareable.

I JUST bought and started Xenoblade X after BotW because I wanted to play an open world game that actually made use of the Gamepad.

These something about this game that gives me serious Dreamcast-era SEGA vibes.
Like, there's a lot of ambition and surprising concepts that work, but there's also a lot of jank and obvious budgeting.
Natural environments look like they shouldn't be possible on the hardware, but new LA looks like an upscaled/emulated Gamecube game.

It's also very, very Phantasy Star Online, in a way.

EDIT: I wish there were some way to disable ONLY MiiVerse posts.
I missed the boat on this game by a year and a half and now the playerbase is mostly dead and you see the same 6 or so nonsensical out-of-context messages over an over.

Make sure you hit up the XCX community thread and find as many hints as you can. This game can be pretty frustrating going in. Having a plan going into the game and build guide is well worth it.

Mostly you will want to blow away enemies as easily as possible and just enjoy the story stuff.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

Also I did something pretty strange in my playthrough.

I decided to not got past chapter 3, which is pretty early, as I had other stuff to play for GOTY but I still wanted to play enough to be able to put it one my list.

So what I did was do everything possible I could. I actually explored most of the first 3 continents and even reached the fifth continent. It was kind of what some did in Breath of the Wild. Go into high level areas but run away a from enemies. Like BOTW I would find footholds on the cliff but instead of using them to regain stamina I would use them to use my super agility to jump to the next foothold and scale mountains.

I was able to get into a lot of places I shouldn't have. I actually was level 30 with my main and above 20 with all other characters I had access to.

In fact strangely enough one of the few affinity missions available was level 24/28 and actually took you to the fifth continent. You had access to it at chapter 3 for some reason.

It was super amazing to explore this huge world as a super acrobatic human and get really far.

I spent 90 hours just doing that. One of my favorite gaming memories.

 

[Dangerous1992]

I loved it with all its faults (mostly on the gameplay/technical side), investing close to 200h into it and reaching near completion (Thelethia...). The feelings of exploration were so good in the early (first three areas?) game, when reaching the mine spot involved game and thinking skills and showed you a new side of the beautiful world.
I'm not going to open the debate again, but I was annoyed seeing the reactions and comments on XB2 announcement as most of the criticism is excessive and imho undeserved (sawano.jpg), while the love for XB is understandable but overblown as well these days.

I really, really hope they are not done with the series and the commitment to challenge themselves in this full exploration titles: they can absolutely improve the formula, but dropping it to propose only linear jrpg with big worlds is absolutely not what I want.

Out of curiosity, what were your favourite continents in the game?
For me: Sylvalum > Primordia > Oblivia > Noctilum > Cauldros

I agree, exploring the first three continents on foot was one of the best and memorable gaming moments for me.

But my favorite part is still, getting my first skell and exploring Oblivia again, it realy felt fresh and exciting after so many hours of playing.

Takahashi's quote about X still warms my heart:

"15 years have passed since Monolith was founded, and I believe that with this game I have finally met the challenge I had within me, of creating an RPG in which humans and robots can co-exist.”

Even if i prefer the exploration pre flight module, he really nailed the sense of freedom once you fly for the first time, and the size of Mira was perfectly balanced for that, without making it too big on foot.

My continent ranking would look like this:
Sylvalum>=Oblivia>Noctilum>Primordia>Cauldros

 

[KingSnake]

Loved it. Looking back, I can see the influences it had on Breath of the Wild. Crazy that Wii U got two of the best open world games ever made.

You can clearly see the Xenoblade X influences in the landscape design of Zelda BotW. At several points in BotW it came back to me how similar some things are. Xenoblade X gets additional points for making the whole world pretty much as "open" as BotW without even being able to climb everything and before getting a skell. The level design is that good.

Also I did something pretty strange in my playthrough.

I decided to not got past chapter 3, which is pretty early, as I had other stuff to play for GOTY but I still wanted to play enough to be able to put it one my list.

So what I did was do everything possible I could. I actually explored most of the first 3 continents and even reached the fifth continent. It was kind of what some did in Breath of the Wild. Go into high level areas but run away a from enemies. Like BOTW I would find footholds on the cliff but instead of using them to regain stamina I would use them to use my super agility to jump to the next foothold and scale mountains.

I was able to get into a lot of places I shouldn't have. I actually was level 30 with my main and above 20 with all other characters I had access to.

In fact strangely enough one of the few affinity missions available was level 24/28 and actually took you to the fifth continent. You had access to it at chapter 3 for some reason.

It was super amazing to explore this huge world as a super acrobatic human and get really far.

I spent 90 hours just doing that. One of my favorite gaming memories.

I did a pretty similar thing but right before chapter 4 I think. Playing the stealth game and discovering strange routes to fascinating places was so damn good. I never rushed through the story, I rather went for exploring the world and talking to NPCs before doing the main story. I guess that made the whole game better for me, because I really loved it.

I hope Mira gets a sequel, it would be a pity not to.

 

[Andyliini]

Noctilum and Sylvalum have the best overworld themes, Primordia and Oblivia are also great. I can't remember the theme for Cauldros, probably because I mostly flew around it. I also remember not putting much thought into Sylvalum theme, but after listening the soundtrack recently, I love it. Better theme than that of Valak Mountain, that's certain.

 

[Valkerionseven]

I'm still on Chapter 11... how much longer to the end guys?

I enjoy this game for what it is but was also disappointed. For a lot of the good ideas and things this does it also has a lot of issues. I resorted to cheating for stat boosts and weapon mods to enjoy this game at a pace I could stand (Don't like open world) Once I did my enjoyment skyrocketed and I ended up blasting through a lot of the game in several days where as before I had not touched it in months.

Game was unbalanced as all hell also. The view of having options is one thing but there were just a lot of design choices that should have simply been streamlined for common sense sake. Like having to go to each individual party member to recruit them... really. Not a menu option, but having to run to their point on the city map, multiple areas no less, without them specifically marked because they just wanted the grids, then running to the quest location... man common with that. At some point I made my party just Elma and Lin because running around just to start a mission is stupid as hell.

 

[Earthpainting]

I enjoyed it, but I completely understand anyone that didn't. The game gives you the option to skip the vast majority of its strongest parts, and it doesn't even really make a big deal out of it, or present it in exciting ways. I understand why the developers did this. It keeps the player guessing, and the societal ills the game brings up really needs that slow build-up to see how it escalates. This game really did a number on my childhood scifi-dreams of living in a world together with alien life forms.

There are a few things I didn't like about it though. A big one was that the entire game felt a little lacking in the balance department. I had several points where I was struggling quite a lot, and some skell upgrades would turn me from underpowered to overpowered instantly for the next twenty hours. It didn't feel like there was as much of a difficulty curve to me, as much as difficulty walls. Walls that once you climb, you didn't have to worry about difficulty until the next one.

Another problem I had was that upgrading my skell to a flight model

Spoiler

took away my ability to jump. Jumping in this game was so satisfying and fun, it felt like part of the game got robbed from me when I had to upgrade.

The final issue is specifically about the final boss, and how game overs work in this game.

Spoiler

When you die, you get placed right back after the point of no return, right before the final battle. This is cool, except that it doesn't restore your skells. If they got destroyed in your previous failed attempt, you need to reload your save, and skip all those cutscenes again, because you can't walk out to fix them with money. Really destroyed the momentum of the finale to me to restart the fight and notice none of my party members had their skells any longer.

 

[Strings]

I think you're overselling the characters a ludicrous amount, and the side-quests too. They're definitely a significant step up from the main story, but at best they're just 'good', with the majority at an 'okay' level.

 

[Dangerous1992]

I think you're overselling the characters a ludicrous amount, and the side-quests too. They're definitely a significant step up from the main story, but at best they're just 'good', with the majority at an 'okay' level.

Elma is one of the best female protagonists of the last years, designwise too, in general it was a big step up compared to the first Xenoblade in terms of characters imo

Elma recheas the all time greats, like Kos-mos, Fei, Krelian and many others did in the Xeno Series!

 

[Cleve]

I think you're overselling the characters a ludicrous amount, and the side-quests too. They're definitely a significant step up from the main story, but at best they're just 'good', with the majority at an 'okay' level.

OP is the one that made the locked thread calling xcx the best writing of the generation and comparing it to KOTOR, which makes 0 sense. I'm glad people love the game, I just can't agree on it at all, with the main quest writing standing out as some of the worst of anything last gen to me.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

You can clearly see the Xenoblade X influences in the landscape design of Zelda BotW. At several points in BotW it came back to me how similar some things are. Xenoblade X gets additional points for making the whole world pretty much as "open" as BotW without even being able to climb everything and before getting a skell. The level design is that good.



I did a pretty similar thing but right before chapter 4 I think. Playing the stealth game and discovering strange routes to fascinating places was so damn good. I never rushed through the story, I rather went for exploring the world and talking to NPCs before doing the main story. I guess that made the whole game better for me, because I really loved it.

I hope Mira gets a sequel, it would be a pity not to.

Yup. I meant I wouldn't go past 3 so I was right before chapter 4 as well.

Yeah there's a ton of side content that actually feels important in this game.

As for stealth yeah. Most animals luckily only see like 2-3 feet in front of them (without this the game would be horrible to play).

I specifically remember one rock bridge that led to a high area where the top of the waterfall was. The developers put these two high level creatures there so there was no way you could get past without them killing you.

I waited for them to move into the right potion (and side several times) before making the quickest run I could pass them. They followed but I kept jumping up rocks hoping to break sight while simultaneously avoiding alerting the ostrich things around when I finally lost them and discovered the new location on top of the waterfall it felt great.

It really was super fun getting to new locations you had no business being in and avoiding the high level enemies and setting probes.

Man the sprint in that game was wondrous.