I played 65 hours into this a few months back before taking a break. Curiosity lead me to look at the index of a walkthrough just to get a sense of how much further there was to go. It turned out I was barely past half way. I've just recently picked it up again, now around 80 hours and once again loving every minute of it. There is a lot to do, often too much, but it is enjoyable enough to make me want to complete things rather than rush through.
Personal favorite part of the game is exploring the areas. Some are HUGE! Love the sense of place.
Another thing OP, try not to do every side quest. The "kill x monster" ones are really beneficial tho because the monsters are usually on the way to wherever you want to go. Try and find a good balance as to not get burnt out.
Don't worry, I'm not super OCD about side quests. I'll pick them up, but if it wants me to go out of my way I'll probably never do it. I am enjoying battling the unique monsters, though. Nice touch there.
I'll be mostly sticking with the story side of things, but I do love exploring, and with how big the world is I can see myself sinking a lot of time into that. Plus, I'm sure other people are like this too, even if there's some crazy event going on in the game if I see one of those blue orbs nearby I'll totally stop what I'm doing and run over to collect it. Shiny object syndrome
I'll be right there to save you... after I pick up this item... oh and this one too... and that one...
This belongs in the "controversial opinion thread", but Xenoblade is not a great game. It may not even be a good game. It's incredibly bloated between the relationship tree, sidequests, and fetch/collection quests. The story is weak, you can go hours without coming across a single line of dialogue that isn't literally (yes, LITERALLY) laughably bad, the main character is a typical overthinking, emo, anime dunce, you spend half of your fights looking at a monsters buttcrack or craning your neck to look at it as it flies above the screen, almost all of the armor and weapons look ridiculously stupid, a whole bunch of systems are useless/poorly explained, Riki is so desperate an attempt at the "goofy/cute non-human party member that speaks with a stupid accent" trope (aka The Moogle) that it's offensive, etc., etc., etc. If I was a full member I would do a real rant thread about the game like that Max Payne 3 thread.
Spoilers
*Has vision of someone brutally dying*... "What does this mean?!?! I definitely shouldn't tell them!"
Granted, it's not all bad. The combat system has the potential to shine at times. The Mechonis/Bionis world is cool enough, and yes, it does provide you with some cool sights, although it really tops out with the plain on the Bionis' Knee early in the game. Some of the voice acting is really good, even if the rest sucks. You, uh... move at a really good, quick speed throughout the game. The dungeons are fine. The wide open environments are nice. The music is pretty much spectacular. I'm sure there's other things but I just had to put the game down. Couldn't tolerate the other crap piling up.
I think this game being so highly regarded (neogafessentialrpgs2013#4wutwutwut) is more a testament to how rough the JRPG market was this gen than any virture of the game itself. 7 years of mediocrity is apparently enough to make a pretty decent game shoot up into everyone's top 5 list.
I would agree if everything was applied to The Last Story. TLS and XB have similar ideas, but one game had much, MUCH better execution.
The '7 years of mediocrity' is not the fault of Xenoblade. If there were more games like it, XB might not be a true standout. Given the reality though, Xenoblade is a well-produced game.
I'd say it's in my top 5 for the generation, simply because the world is so beautifully realized (except for
some of the Mechonis interior
) and fun to explore. All the complaints about opaque and vestigial systems are true to a point but they don't really matter if you buy into the sense of space and exploration the game has.
I'm a professional dev who has worked on open world games and I'm very impressed by the quality of their LOD implementation.
I got 50 hours in (before distractions) and really need to sit down to finish the adventure. I was never in a rush with this one because it is so much fun, though I hope more moves start to pop up in the battles.
The game is worth it for the huge accessible robot-fossil world and is a breath of fresh air for JRPG fans
I've just started replaying this game on my Wii U. I never had the chance to get more than a few hours into it on my Wii. So far I'm loving the open would aspect of it.
I just transferred the save to the wiiu, when I'll finish more recent games, I'm going to finally beat those endgame monsters, I lost time getting knockdown boost items when you can't use that on those enemies...
I remember when I took the game because it looks kinda interesting but not expecting anything particular, in the end that was a great experience, battle mechanics linked to items and other developping stats for beating higher levels monsters was engrossing, a bit like baten kaitos, and a sense of wonder that was very welcome when we had a lot of dark and industrial world settings this generation, all genres included.
All this Xenoblade talk makes me want to hurry and get through Okami, Red Steel 2, and Zelda Skyward Sword a lot quicker. I'm saving Xenoblade for last and it's been sitting in my office, shrink wrapped since May or June of last year.
One tip for the OP: You absolutely need to be prepared to take out of it exactly as much as you want from it, because it's *very* possible to overindulge in optional sidequests and reach a point where the closing stages drag on a bit. Know the limits of your tolerance!
I'd say it's in my top 5 for the generation, simply because the world is so beautifully realized (except for
some of the Mechonis interior
) and fun to explore. All the complaints about opaque and vestigial systems are true to a point but they don't really matter if you buy into the sense of space and exploration the game has.
I'm a professional dev who has worked on open world games and I'm very impressed by the quality of their LOD implementation.
I know what you're saying and I agree to a certain point. If the core game, the central path, is that good, then I shouldn't worry about the problems with the auxiliary stuff on the fringes. But even discounting the fringe systems (character and NPC relationships, crafting, heart-to-hearts, sidequests straight out of a 2002 MMO), I still have huge problems with the story that I personally find insurmountable.
Other than the previously mentioned
"I'm not gonna tell this guy I just saw get murdered in one of my historically 100% accurate (even in gameplay) visions that he gets murdered because I'm whiny and stupid and no faith in myself but really just so the story can go on"
, there are a slew of other deus ex machinas like
"Fiora's alive! Even though we saw her get fucking annihilated by a huge mechon! And we all assumed that the Colony buried her body because there was no hint of the mechon taking her away and no one said anything about her body being stolen but here she is now! A high ranking mechon depsite just being brutally murdered by them! And by the way! All mechon aren't bad, as clearly evidenced by Fiora's completely incongruous and way too obvious pink and white suit!"
and loads of other stuff like that. You may like the overarching story arc, but the vehicles it takes from point to point are terrible. The "Lost" comparison is apt, because these guys just seem to have written whatever they wanted and bent the story around it. And seriously, I don't think I've ever seen worse dialogue in a game, even when the voice acting is decent enough.
But yeah, if you're the kind of person that can just play the game for the gameplay itself and not take the story too seriously or get yourself worked up over the sidestuff, I could see there being a lot to like in this game. I'm not, unfortunately. I'm the guy that couldn't finish even FFXII because I couldn't stand the whole chest-spawn system or the license board for equipment, and so vehemently hated the entire concept behind acquiring the Zodiac Spear.
"I'm not gonna tell this guy I just saw get murdered in one of my historically 100% accurate (even in gameplay) visions that he gets murdered because I'm whiny and stupid and no faith in myself but really just so the story can go on"
, there are a slew of other deus ex machinas like
"Fiora's alive! Even though we saw her get fucking annihilated by a huge mechon! And we all assumed that the Colony buried her body because there was no hint of the mechon taking her away and no one said anything about her body being stolen but here she is now! A high ranking mechon depsite just being brutally murdered by them! And by the way! All mechon aren't bad, as clearly evidenced by Fiora's completely incongruous and way too obvious pink and white suit!"
and loads of other stuff like that. You may like the overarching story arc, but the vehicles it takes from point to point are terrible. The "Lost" comparison is apt, because these guys just seem to have written whatever they wanted and bent the story around it. And seriously, I don't think I've ever seen worse dialogue in a game, even when the voice acting is decent enough.
The takeaway from this is that, cynicism aside, when GAF collectivelly swoons over something, it's usually for good reason. I've already got into a habit of at least checking out anything that is particularly popular within GAF, even if (particularly!) it doesn't look like much at first.
But yeah, Xenoblade is right there with the best JRPGs of all time.
But she WAS eaten like the rest! Humans are "eaten" to be resurrected as organic Mechon; that's the entire point of "eating" them, note they are swallowed whole. It's not like Fiona was the only one to have that happen to her in the game, the rest of the colony residents "eaten" were turned into the rest of the Face Mechon you fight (including the balcksmith father of one of the NPCs as the bronze Face with the hammer you fight early on.
So yeah, there's no plothole there; her body was indeed not recovered, but there was no reason whatsoever for the colony residents to think that the Mechon didn't actually "eat" (i.e. kill) their victims.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT READ THE ABOVE, MASSIVE SPOILERS.
Although in my defense, it certainly doesn't look like they're eating them when it shows guys getting their upper bodies smashed in a three-pronged claw then going limp, AND when Fiora gets stabbed by some giant Edward Scissorhands hands and not clamped in a claw. I always assumed when they said "eating" they meant bit-by-bit, and just couldn't establish it visually on the Wii, instead of "swallowed".
You and me both! I just got it today and cant wait. I'm a little worried about the length... don't know if I have 80 hours JRPGS in me anymore... ALthough I did put that much into Skyrim.
Edit: Got mine from Gamefly, surprisingly immediate! Like I put it in my queue and within an hour it was sent!
Wow. I knew this would happen. I usually wait on purchasing a game until I'm ready or it's a deal that I can't refuse.
But back in May, I suddenly became paranoid that Xenoblade may be in short supply by the time I was ready to play it, so I went ahead and bought it. Even back then I was seeing used copies of the game going for $65 and $70 on Ebay and Craigslist but I bought it no problem from Gamestop. I still see new and used copies at my local Gamestop.
I hope that you can maybe get one from Gamestop online for the retail price.
Edit: I mentioned "Gamestop" way too many times in this post.
I should pick this back up, I was nearly 20 hours in when I stopped playing, but I have trouble playing RPGs for very long. I didn't stop for any one reason, and I was really enjoying it, but knowing I'd have to dedicate at least an hour to play kept me from turning it on.
They don't even have to be whole. While Gado has most of his original body, Zod (the blacksmith) was just a brain and a few organs.
As far as Fiorn's scenario goes (death, reunion and rebirth at the end) it was all apparently decided near the beginning of the games development anyway, and with there being apparently nearly 21000 Faces it's only natural that she'd be turned into one.
Game of the generation and one of the best rpgs ever. I remember being hunched over at 4AM trying to discover every bit of an area and fleeing from random level 90s that would just be hanging out in hidden corners. I really need to replay it.
Wow. I knew this would happen. I usually wait on purchasing a game until I'm ready or it's a deal that I can't refuse.
But back in May, I suddenly became paranoid that Xenoblade may be in short supply by the time I was ready to play it, so I went ahead and bought it. Even back then I was seeing used copies of the game going for $65 and $70 on Ebay and Craigslist but I bought it no problem from Gamestop. I still see new and used copies at my local Gamestop.
I hope that you can maybe get one from Gamestop online for the retail price.
Edit: I mentioned "Gamestop" way too many times in this post.
I'll say that despite loving the game (holy exploration, Batman!), I also wasn't impressed by the plot. There were a lot of good plot threads and character arcs that ultimately led nowhere, and while plot twists are nice, they probably hurt the story overall.
However, I don't know that I've ever played a videogame where the story is legitimately good on its own merit. And Xenoblade's isn't bad, so in a way it exceeds expectations!
There's a limited amount of drives that can actually read/play wii disks, so unless you have one of them, most likely not. This is typically why it's preferred to use homebrew/rip the disk into .iso format and play it on your PC. If you have a fast hard drive, it's going to be better to run it via .iso than off the disk anyway.
Once you have the .iso ripped, the actual setup of Dolphin can be a bit daunting, especially for this game. To get it to run at 30 FPS, you need to download a patch for it and use it on the .iso you created (takes a couple minutes tops to find the patch/apply it).
After that, you have to find out what settings in Dolphin work best for you. This is a very resource intensive game, so you need a powerful CPU to run it. An intel i7 and above is preferred, but an AMD Phenom II at 3.2 GHz or greater (or an i5) can run it pretty well too.
Like I said, I have it running near perfectly on my PC, but I spent about 2 hours tweaking the settings in Dolphin to get things just right as my PC isn't powerful enough to run LLE audio and maintain a stable FPS (which leads to audio drop outs). So, I ended up having to run HLE audio and run the patched HLE client which fixes the audio problems that crop up with running this game with HLE (crackling/popping in the background).
Needless to say, Xenoblade is one of the hardest games to get running via emulator at the moment and it was a lot of work to get it so I could play the game without any FPS or audio problems.
Running this game on Wii U is no dolphin quality by any mean, but it's still a nice upgrade from running it on Wii. I just compared the title screen on both, colors are more vibrant on Wii U and the game is sharper. I'm glad I waited, starting it tonight
Although in my defense, it certainly doesn't look like they're eating them when it shows guys getting their upper bodies smashed in a three-pronged claw then going limp, AND when Fiora gets stabbed by some giant Edward Scissorhands hands and not clamped in a claw. I always assumed when they said "eating" they meant bit-by-bit, and just couldn't establish it visually on the Wii, instead of "swallowed".
Regarding being stabbed, also remember they do some kind of Robocop stuff with them, in that they're actually "dead" before being revived as Mechon. Fiora says as much later in the game, which is why no technology will get her back to being a living human being; she's not really "alive" in the strictest sense, again by her own admission. We don't know how much of Fiora is actually organic, even the "skin" bits we see could be synthetic.
Even though many elements of the story are very cliché, there are some very impressive and memorable spins. The main character in particular and the reason he's the "chosen one" is very unique for example.
What I love most about the story and the world is what it doesn't explain, though. The history. The symbiosis between the giants and the white spiders for example, or the history of the Nopon and the sage.
I know what you're saying and I agree to a certain point. If the core game, the central path, is that good, then I shouldn't worry about the problems with the auxiliary stuff on the fringes. But even discounting the fringe systems (character and NPC relationships, crafting, heart-to-hearts, sidequests straight out of a 2002 MMO), I still have huge problems with the story that I personally find insurmountable.
Other than the previously mentioned
"I'm not gonna tell this guy I just saw get murdered in one of my historically 100% accurate (even in gameplay) visions that he gets murdered because I'm whiny and stupid and no faith in myself but really just so the story can go on"
, there are a slew of other deus ex machinas like
"Fiora's alive! Even though we saw her get fucking annihilated by a huge mechon! And we all assumed that the Colony buried her body because there was no hint of the mechon taking her away and no one said anything about her body being stolen but here she is now! A high ranking mechon depsite just being brutally murdered by them! And by the way! All mechon aren't bad, as clearly evidenced by Fiora's completely incongruous and way too obvious pink and white suit!"
and loads of other stuff like that. You may like the overarching story arc, but the vehicles it takes from point to point are terrible. The "Lost" comparison is apt, because these guys just seem to have written whatever they wanted and bent the story around it. And seriously, I don't think I've ever seen worse dialogue in a game, even when the voice acting is decent enough.
But yeah, if you're the kind of person that can just play the game for the gameplay itself and not take the story too seriously or get yourself worked up over the sidestuff, I could see there being a lot to like in this game. I'm not, unfortunately. I'm the guy that couldn't finish even FFXII because I couldn't stand the whole chest-spawn system or the license board for equipment, and so vehemently hated the entire concept behind acquiring the Zodiac Spear.
I just took a break from it about 50 hours in (it was starting to drag a bit and I can't resist Ni no Kuni). It's a good game, no doubt. The design of the world is unique and gorgeous but it's unfortunate it's on old hardware... it suffers quite a bit for that. Still, the exploration of that world is a big selling point. The combat is nice and has some depth to it. I like the characters and story though I find Riki to be tough to take... glad I don't have to use him in my party, so grating. I'm a little surprised the game gets a pass for the repetitive battle cries, everyone shouting the same things over and over... reminds me of the rightfully-much-mocked "hot stuff coming your way!" from Shining Force Neo. Like I said, it's good but not "best ever" material in my book... temper your expectations if you haven't played it yet.
Regarding being stabbed, also remember they do some kind of Robocop stuff with them, in that they're actually "dead" before being revived as Mechon. Fiora says as much later in the game, which is why no technology will get her back to being a living human being; she's not really "alive" in the strictest sense, again by her own admission. We don't know how much of Fiora is actually organic, even the "skin" bits we see could be synthetic.
Very little, probably. There are seams everywhere, and her armor replaces whole body parts. Also, as the game explains, her internal organs were modified or entirely removed, so she can't survive living like an ordinary human. She's pretty much dead when you meet her again - just a reanimated corps. The same as Shulk, except his physical body is perfectly fine and works normally due to the way he died.
There are many helpful people in there that will give you any advice you need. In general, here are some of the more common advice pieces given:
- Agility is the best stat; it increases your dodge rate and attack accuracy
- When your party gauge is full, use a chain attack by pressing up on the talent art (middle) button, and then press the blue button with the "triangle" symbol on it
- You can lure enemies from a distance by highlighting them and pressing up on the red "start battle" button, and then pressing the lure button with the arrow symbol on it
- READ THE TUTORIALS THAT THE GAME PROVIDES
But... the major failing for most jRPG's (IMO) is the story. How is that? Well, I'm about 6 hours in and I've completed the Colony 9 part and moved onto the camp on the leg. And... well, unless things have a major falling out later the story is pretty fucking cool so far. I'm really digging the way things are going, and holy shit at
them actually killing Fiora. Usually RPG's are too afraid to kill off characters, so it was nice to see the hero not be able to save the day for once.
i spent about 125 hours with this game, which never happens with me and games. i think i played 150 hours of pokemon red, but that was me being a kid, spreading it over many months, and being helped by the triple speed of pokemon stadium.
Wow. I knew this would happen. I usually wait on purchasing a game until I'm ready or it's a deal that I can't refuse.
But back in May, I suddenly became paranoid that Xenoblade may be in short supply by the time I was ready to play it, so I went ahead and bought it. Even back then I was seeing used copies of the game going for $65 and $70 on Ebay and Craigslist but I bought it no problem from Gamestop. I still see new and used copies at my local Gamestop.
I hope that you can maybe get one from Gamestop online for the retail price.
Edit: I mentioned "Gamestop" way too many times in this post.
There are many helpful people in there that will give you any advice you need. In general, here are some of the more common advice pieces given:
- Agility is the best stat; it increases your dodge rate and attack accuracy
- When your party gauge is full, use a chain attack by pressing up on the talent art (middle) button, and then press the blue button with the "triangle" symbol on it
- You can lure enemies from a distance by highlighting them and pressing up on the red "start battle" button, and then pressing the lure button with the arrow symbol on it
- READ THE TUTORIALS THAT THE GAME PROVIDES
Thanks, I'll take a look at the OT later. I always read the tutorials, though, and I'd known all of that except that agility is the best stat My only qualm with the game so far is that it's way too zoomed in for my tastes and the camera can be a bit difficult to maneuver during battles with a lot of enemies on screen. I really wish I could somehow zoom the camera out some more to get a wider view of what's going on.
Oh and I'm not reading any spoilers in this thread, as I don't want to ruin anything for myself.
Thanks, I'll take a look at the OT later. I always read the tutorials, though, and I'd known all of that except that agility is the best stat My only qualm with the game so far is that it's way too zoomed in for my tastes and the camera can be a bit difficult to maneuver during battles with a lot of enemies on screen. I really wish I could somehow zoom the camera out some more to get a wider view of what's going on.
