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Xenoblade 2 confirmed for Holiday 2017

bomblord1

Banned
I guess I'm just referencing the fact that video games make the overwhelming percentage of their profit from males 25-34. They have the most expendable income to blow on games, and the first generation of full-time-hobby gamers are in their mid 30s now. Creating games with child protagonists seems like an odd choice in that light, and I think it's even stranger to then make the child protagonist companion be a slightly older female with an extremely "voluptuous" figure. Don't get me wrong, me and Taro Yoko both love the ladies and I'm not trying to turn the discussion into a sexism argument, I just think the whole aesthetic of the character designs is really weird. All of the Switch commercials we've seen so far have shown athletic people in their early 20s, do you know a lot of people like that who are looking for long RPGs with 11 year old main characters? I just don't know who the target audience for these character designs is.

The target audience would be me
 

Brenal

Member
i wonder i this will have dlc, XCX had dlc in Japan but it was included in the western version but this seems like a simultaneous release.
 
In the first one the easiest way to play is a party of Melia/Dunban/Shulk to pile on the DPS and kill everything before it can do anything.

In XenoX by the mid-late game the DPS becomes supermassive, particularly with Overdrive builds.

Overdrive Photon Saber build with Essence Exchange was so nuts. I loved it.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
I went through it several times and it still looks absolutely awful compared to xc and c and its crushing me.
Theres something extremely dull and clunky about it that i cant put my finger on.

I found it more streamlined than the other two games especially with the arts mapped to the buttons. I also like how there are two kinds of combo chains now both being more extensive than previous titles. We get the physical chains with break, topple, daze?, and launch with them saying there was even more to it. We also now have status effect chains that look to have multiple routes they can go when attacking an enemy. To me it looks deeper than the previous two titles. That's not even bringing up wielding the different Blades and the little we know about leveling them up.
 

Harpoon

Member
Is this game connected to the other 2 titles?? Id like to play the other 2 but id probably be able to get a hold of this one first.

If I should play the previous entries i'll hold off.

No way to really answer this until it actually comes out. If there are any connections, it'll probably just be to the first one.
 

MoonFrog

Member
Really hope there is a way to encourage team-mate synergy. I did not like seeing them begging for a topple when the boss was broken in the stream so that they could do a combo. AI either needs to be smarter about this or be programmable and/or controllable, imo. Otherwise they have to balance around the combat system working as a bonus rather than a given.

...

I think it would be more rewarding if team play was strong and called on you to finish a combo or to start a chain regularly, if they are doing this combo system.
 
Anyone else feel like this looks kinda underwhelming visually compared to X?

I definitely think 2 looks nicer than X visually, but I don't think it's a drastic jump.

Takahashi confirmed 2 is built on X's engine, so going from X to 2 wouldn't be a visual leap like going from 1 to X.
 

duckroll

Member
OP should add the treehouse presentation link to the first post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGk6VMcJsw

Huh. Interesting. So this gameplay confirms that the Blades are anthropomorphized weapons, rather than character party members, and Rex can swap to different Blades who are teetered to him? And it looks like... errr.... other than the girls who are story Blades, there is.... Blade gacha? I wonder if they're going to monetize this.
 
Huh. Interesting. So this gameplay confirms that the Blades are anthropomorphized weapons, rather than character party members, and Rex can swap to different Blades who are teetered to him? And it looks like... errr.... other than the girls who are story Blades, there is.... Blade gacha? I wonder if they're going to monetize this.

Two other controllable party members are shown in the presentation who each have their own blades, too.
 

Exentryk

Member
Huh. Interesting. So this gameplay confirms that the Blades are anthropomorphized weapons, rather than character party members, and Rex can swap to different Blades who are teetered to him? And it looks like... errr.... other than the girls who are story Blades, there is.... Blade gacha? I wonder if they're going to monetize this.

Blade pokemons and amibos confirmed!

I'm a sucker for monster collecting, so all in!
 

aravuus

Member
The fact that the crystal he used had a very generic name tells me that the Blade you get is random each time. Like that crystal he used is not specific to that Blade he received. I think There may be an RNG element to it that for a huge game like this I could do without.

I was thinking the same thing when they picked up and "opened" the crystal. Making them random would be just the dumbest fucking thing, so I seriously hope that's not the direction they've taken and there's a ridiculous story reason for the Generic Crystal name.

The people complaining about character designs or calling for censorship are out of their minds. Nintendo hopefully learned from the Fire emblem Fates shitstorms.

??? Who is doing this????????
 
I found it more streamlined than the other two games especially with the arts mapped to the buttons. I also like how there are two kinds of combo chains now both being more extensive than previous titles. We get the physical chains with break, topple, daze?, and launch with them saying there was even more to it. We also now have status effect chains that look to have multiple routes they can go when attacking an enemy. To me it looks deeper than the previous two titles. That's not even bringing up wielding the different Blades and the little we know about leveling them up.
Oh surely theres a ton more depth, its just that the fights themselves arent very good looking. And i wont lie, it may just be the formula repetition setting in.
 

MoonFrog

Member
There are empty slots for Nia having multiple blades in the battle U.I., but I didn't see Treehouse look at her blade options in the menu.
Interesting, thanks. Wonder if they can do any old blade or have their own set.

I believe so. In the menu where Rex unlocked a new Blade, the menu asked to select a character first. Presumably, you select which character unlocks a crystal, and that Blade becomes tied to them.

And that feeds into the new question I had :) Thanks.

Sounds like there's a shared set of blades in that case, or it determines on opening, rather than purchase.
 

aravuus

Member
If there's blade gacha...I hope the story ones have good coverage lol as I could see myself just sticking to those.

Blade gacha would seriously make me reassess my day one purchase decision. That sort of shit needs to stay far away from non-mobile games.
 

duckroll

Member
Blade gacha would seriously make me reassess my day one purchase decision. That sort of shit needs to stay far away from non-mobile games.

But it's not an if, it's literally a system they demoed in the video. There are "core crystal" items you collect which you can use to "bond" and awaken new Blades, which are randomized. The demo shows "Unsigned Core Crystal" being used, so presumably there might be signed ones which give specific Blades, probably tied to DLC and/or Amiibos.
 

MoonFrog

Member
But it's not an if, it's literally a system they demoed in the video. There are "core crystal" items you collect which you can use to "bond" and awaken new Blades, which are randomized. The demo shows "Unsigned Core Crystal" being used, so presumably there might be signed ones which give specific Blades, probably tied to DLC and/or Amiibos.
Ugh...Sword waifus/defaults for other characters better be great.

I skipped that part of the demo to pickle some vegetables...I actually thought the blade system seemed pretty cool until this.
 

aravuus

Member
But it's not an if, it's literally a system they demoed in the video. There are "core crystal" items you collect which you can use to "bond" and awaken new Blades, which are randomized. The demo shows "Unsigned Core Crystal" being used, so presumably there might be signed ones which give specific Blades, probably tied to DLC and/or Amiibos.

I saw that, but I'm trying to stay optimistic. All we saw was someone picking a generic sounding crystal item and awakening a seemingly random Blade from it, but I don't think they actually explicitly said anything about it other than "we can use this to awaken a new Blade"?

Maybe the gear works similarly to other JRPGs for the most part - you find chests with set blades (or crystals for them, to be precise)/other gear throughout the world, you can buy new stuff/specific signed crystals etc., but in addition to this, some enemies can drop generic unsigned crystals that awaken a random Blade from a pool of Blades specific to that titan or something.

I dunno. I just want to believe they seriously didn't turn acquiring new weapons and arts, which are kind of important for planning builds and not to mention game balance, into fucking luck-based gacha grinds.

e: at least it didn't have a 1 to 6 star rating lol
 

MoonFrog

Member
Thing with a gacha mech is...I don't like the idea of having my weapon/ability coverage be random. I also don't like the idea of the characters of my party being chosen at random. I prefer to choose and find that kind of stuff organically in gameplay (the latter being the reason I dislike in-app purchase models on a gameplay level).

I mean random drops are bad enough...but at least you get those in normal play.

Gambling just isn't 'normal' play imo, for whatever reason.
 

Reki

Member
I haven't watched the Treehouse footage yet, but I wanted to ask if we know anything about the mech/sci-fi topics Takahashi loves to develop. Of course this is more of a fantasy tale, but even in XC they explored the relation between man and machine.

Also, the designs for X were great. They obviously lost something in the translation to 3D models, but Tanaka's work was good.
 

MoonFrog

Member
I haven't watched the Treehouse footage yet, but I wanted to ask if we know anything about the mech/sci-fi topics Takahashi loves to develop. Of course this is more of a fantasy tale, but even in XC they explored the relation between man and machine.

Also, the designs for X were great. They obviously lost something in the translation to 3D models, but Tanaka's work was good.
They asked him about xeno and he just said he made games about foreign things coming together in some way so "xeno-," nothing about his love of robots as I recall.

Should make a game about guest-friendship next and call it Xeniablade.
 

Schlomo

Member
I don't understand these "gacha" concerns. Isn't it just like randomised loot that we have in many games now, like enhancement boxes in Horizon Zero Dawn or upgrade crystals in Gravity Rush 2?
 

Inuhanyou

Believes Dragon Quest is a franchise managed by Sony
hopefully there is dual audio. Not a purist by any means, but these kinds of designs with british voices just seems bizarre

The red haired chick has a supreme wedgie and over-inflated implants....first fire emblem and now this...and i thought chronicles X was pretty bad
 

MoonFrog

Member
I don't understand these "gacha" concerns. Isn't it just like randomised loot that we have in many games now, like enhancement boxes in Horizon Zero Dawn or upgrade crystals in Gravity Rush 2?
These blades are characters/auxiliary party members. They're tied to your arts in some capacity and help determine playstyle, it seems.

So they're particularly big things to be randomized.

Also, as I said, I think they are particularly big things to be encountered in a shop and out of a randomized capsule. They're things I want to get doing quests, dungeons, and bosses as a reward that fits into that gameplay.

For some reason I also find randomized enemy and chest drops more appealing than randomized shop items. I don't like adding RNG hassle to shop gameplay. I prefer that simple and straightforward.

I'm more okay grinding enemies for parts that they in particular have. Idk. It is heavier engagement with the game that goes into the reward.

That said, I prefer random enemy drops have "reasonable" odds and not be things like characters/skills.
 

aravuus

Member
I don't understand these "gacha" concerns. Isn't it just like randomised loot that we have in many games now, like enhancement boxes in Horizon Zero Dawn or upgrade crystals in Gravity Rush 2?

You don't see why people would be averse to completely randomized weapons in a linear (especially compared to the games you mentioned) JRPG? Weapons, which also determine what arts you can use?

I don't remember the boxes from Horizon and I haven't played GR2, but the items you mention sound like something you just use to slightly improve your weapons. In this case, the actual weapons are seemingly randomized, and the weapons have a massive effect on your playstyle/party synergy/builds.

Worst case scenario, RNG gods will fuck you over at every corner and you'll keep running into bosses that you can't beat with your current Blade/party synergy, and you'll have to grind crystals, hoping for Blades with skills/arts that'll make victory possible.

hopefully there is dual audio. Not a purist by any means, but these kinds of designs with british voices just seems bizarre

The red haired chick has a supreme wedgie....first fire emblem and now this...i thought chronicles X was pretty bad

Trailer confirmed there's no dual audio.
 

JThird

Member
The character models are remarkable improvements over the past games

YZhVIKI.jpg

qrWB566.jpg

Yeah, sure.
media-07-7689eusp.jpg

In fact it looks worse than XCX models.

187kes6z.png
 
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