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[Boss Doggie]

Because most games require that you hit an arbitrary map completion percentage to continue the main story.

Because the quest requires you to be familiar with Oblivia. Besides, it's not like at that point you'd not have explored it. You would have NPC quests taking you there or have dumped some easy to reach probes which are beneficial.

I don't know how many times that I had been playing through normal missions or exploring when I decided to continue the main story only to discover that I needed to go back out and meet some meaningless requirements.

But the only affinity quest required were Lao's and Gwin's.

Not true. There are lots of quests that require more than 1 heart. I spent 4+ hours toward the end grinding out affinity for Irina and Nagi to be able to accept quests I needed to complete.

Those were affinity quests, and they do require heart to hearts because they are for the character.

Drops and quest rewards don't give you enough when decent skells cost $2 million or more, armor and weapons cost hundreds of thousands etc... Yeah, chaining is great when you have good probes but until then you are shit out of luck. I still can't get over how the best advice early/mid game is to spend hours in the crystal caves making $5k a run. Talk about a grind.

Err you don't really need good probes. As long as you have sightseeing spots you're good to go. Noctilum and Primordia have easy to reach SS. And what, that's the worst advice. Doing a mission awards you usually 20k or so.

Because party management is also a chore. I have to play the hex match game every time I switch between the NPC missions and the main story/affinity missions.

This I agree though, they are annoying having to jump around to switch them. Thankfully they're near fast travel spots.

Yeah, this is probably good advice.

Generally just do story if you don't see any more NPC missions (some of them don't pop up in the board, you have to go around NLA as you should) or doable affinities for the chapter.

 

[Neiteio]

If pop in is minimal in this game I'd like to see your idea of bad lol. I had to look up a quest in post game because somebody in the back of a room wouldn't show up unless I walked up to a random wall that seemingly had nothing. A lot of things pop in right in your face, sometimes you'll be right on top of them and run into their invisible model.

I haven't had that happen, but I'm playing with the four data packs installed. I haven't had trouble finding anyone. Pop-in only occurs at a distance, in my experience.

 

[Teletraan1]

I've died several times because a random party members AOE has hit a lvl billion brontasaurus. It's pretty dumb actually. Also how come the wildlife never fight each other sometimes?

This was my biggest gripe with the game. Since they take all your control away from what your party is doing they should at least have some rules for the AI that is fair for the players time/enjoyment of the game. Party AI should not aggro non combatants period.

 

[Malus]

I haven't had that happen, but I'm playing with the four data packs installed. I haven't had trouble finding anyone. Pop-in only occurs at a distance, in my experience.

I've also had the data packs installed. More noticeable in NLA and with NPCs.

 

[Yukinari]

This was my biggest gripe with the game. Since they take all your control away from what your party is doing they should at least have some rules for the AI that is fair for the players time/enjoyment of the game. Party AI should not aggro non combatants period.

Party members in skells stepping on bugs is also another huge problem. They purposely fill areas in the game with those bugs so that you step on them accidentally while doing other things.

 

[PensivePen]

I really dislike being limited in the number of quests I can have active at a time. It's one of the things that has held me back from returning to this game in awhile. My preferred way of playing is to just accept every quest and do what I come across along the way, but this limits the effectiveness of that play style.

I still plan to keep playing, but will probably put it off for a bit until I can devote a lot of time to this game without other distractions. The game seems really good, but there are so many simple usability issues like this that make it kind of a chore.

 

[Malus]

I really dislike being limited in the number of quests I can have active at a time. It's one of the things that has held me back from returning to this game in awhile. My preferred way of playing is to just accept every quest and do what I come across along the way, but this limits the effectiveness of that play style.

I still plan to keep playing, but will probably put it off for a bit until I can devote a lot of time to this game without other distractions.

I thought that was going to be a problem for me but I never hit the limit. Probably because I did a lot fewer "basic" style quests in this game compared to the original, since they feel like a much smaller part of the game now. Normal missions don't have a limit I think and you'd be hard pressed to hit the limit anyways if there was one.

 

[darkstar0155]

I really dislike being limited in the number of quests I can have active at a time. It's one of the things that has held me back from returning to this game in awhile. My preferred way of playing is to just accept every quest and do what I come across along the way, but this limits the effectiveness of that play style.

I still plan to keep playing, but will probably put it off for a bit until I can devote a lot of time to this game without other distractions. The game seems really good, but there are so many simple usability issues like this that make it kind of a chore.

this was only a problem for me until I realized a lot of the collecting missions you can just wait until you have all the items then choose it and you automatically complete that mission.

 

[mclem]

I will continue to preach my love of the NLA theme

It's growing on me. Or at least sticking in my head, which is perhaps the next best thing. I thought that reply worked nicely on two levels, though

 

[Gravidee]

Party members in skells stepping on bugs is also another huge problem. They purposely fill areas in the game with those bugs so that you step on them accidentally while doing other things.

It's annoying in caves because sometimes you can't do anything at the objective until the "battle" ends.

 

[JohnnyWestlake]

When I got my Skell, I got even more bored of the game. Haven't touched it since being so overwhelmingly disappointed with Skells. (I bought the best lv30 I could right out of the gate). Terrible handling, and it just makes things too easy, and makes the world feel insignificant.

Wish I could find my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D so I could finish that up >.<

 

[Chi3fster]

This was my biggest gripe with the game. Since they take all your control away from what your party is doing they should at least have some rules for the AI that is fair for the players time/enjoyment of the game. Party AI should not aggro non combatants period.

You can mod your partners' art palettes. Just change the arts that do AOE damage. You can also give commands in battle to have them focus on certain attacks or positions.

Shit like this is right in the menus guys c'mon. A lot of these problems can be solved with proper planning and knowledge found in the menus and manuel.

 

[slayn]

Started the game over the holiday weekend and ~25 hours in (with mech, finished story mission 7 I believe) and yup its pretty boring. A massive disappointment going from xenoblade to this.

the first game had:
- a fun cast of characters with excellent voice actors.
- a great storyline that gave actual meaning to each new place you were exploring
- some of the best music in video games
- great and dramatic cutscenes with an eye for animation and cinematography that is rare seen in video games complemented by the voice work. It filled the game with incredibly memorable moments like Shulk staring down a mechon giant standing over him screaming 'I'll kill you!'

I often tell people that playing xenoblade was like getting to watch the original star wars trilogy for the first time again. X lost all of that and now I'm watching the phantom menace for the first time again. It even has a jar jar.

Now the cutscenes are people standing and talking to each other about how they're going to eat tatsu for the 50th time while I spin the camera around wildly and contemplate whether I should just start -> skip.

 

[ASIS]

I have the same problem as every other open world game ever. The game feels completely aimless. Don't get me wrong I really like exploring in this game because it is so beautiful. The sceneries are outstanding, but once I reach an area I feel like I already got all the content I need out of that section. In other words, the mechanics barely improve over time. And while that was true in the original, there was at least a story to follow, and no it's not that the story was great or anything, but it gave a sense of purpose, it gave a lot character development, it gave a sense of progress, and it gave a sense of achievement once you reach a certain area, for instance

Spoiler

reaching the top of the bionis head was highlight of the game simply because of how foreshadowed it was, and reaching the mechonis field was mind-blowing because I didn't even know that was possible when I started the game.

None of that is present in XCX. I'm not bored of it yet, and I still didn't get my skell which apparently changes the entire game. But that's my impression so far, 12 hours in.

 

[Wildean]

Random thoughts: the game is slow. The game world is vast and pretty. I had to take L out of my party because annoying voice and tired running malapropisms gag. I feel bad battling the bunny rabbit creatures who let out blood curdling shrieks of pain while your crew hack their ears off.

 

[shark sandwich]

Now the cutscenes are people standing and talking to each other about how they're going to eat tatsu for the 50th time while I spin the camera around wildly and contemplate whether I should just start -> skip.

That adjustable camera is such a terrible idea for dialog scenes. It's centered on your character so it's almost impossible to get a good view of everything. You end up with a super zoomed-out view of the lifeless characters stiffly reading their lines.

Wish they would've gone with cinematic camera direction instead.

 

[Chris R]

I consider the combat in this much better than the first Xenoblade.

Characters are only annoying if you generally find Japanese Anime characters annoying. They are very well acted and got a top quality english dub.

I'm happy the game has dialogue options at all... I never would have expected that aspect to stand against Fallout or other such games.

I still need to go back and finish Xenoblade, I just found the whole process of combat, from starting it, waiting for commands to execute and then waiting for everyone to return to non-combat so slow coming from a MMO background.

The annoying characters stuff is more on the fluff non-human NPCs in New LA. And I guess dialog is nice, I haven't seen how much stuff can branch so that might actually open up a ton of cool options, it's just really weird to have the music totally stop when you make a decision instead of just letting it continue on in the background.

Not saying it's a bad game or anything, I just have no desire to ever play it through to completion, same with me watching him play MGSV last year.

 

[Mephala]

I just feel like Japanese games seems to be criticised on different scale. They should not have to be since some of the best stories are in Japanese games. (FF6, Zelda OOT, souls games etc.)

I disagree. If anything I think it is just a culture difference that makes it difficult for some of us to enjoy these particular story/character beats/tropes. Critique it based on our own tastes and preferences, it isn't really unbelievable that even the more annoying things (children and bad jokes for instance) are just easier to swallow if you're familiar with it culturally.

Lin's jokes can be a bit over bearing. Especially if you hit story missions one after the other like I did for a while. It can feel like they are just beating on a dead horse in hopes for a reaction.

 

[dtm808]

I dont want to sound mean but next time please dont title your threads in a way thats just going to piss off everyone who likes this game and cause flame wars. If you had questions about the game theres a million other resources you could have used instead of making a thread like this.

 

[ninjablade]

I dont want to sound mean but next time please dont title your threads in a way thats just going to piss off everyone who likes this game and cause flame wars. If you had questions about the game theres a million other resources you could have used instead of making a thread like this.

If somebody gets pissed off, over a thread title, which is just stating somebody's opinion they need to grow up.

 

[It's Reyn Time!]

If pop in is minimal in this game I'd like to see your idea of bad lol. I had to look up a quest in post game because somebody in the back of a room wouldn't show up unless I walked up to a random wall that seemingly had nothing. A lot of things pop in right in your face, sometimes you'll be right on top of them and run into their invisible model.

Yeah I had this all the way through the game with the digital version. I'm guessing my hard drive is shite.

 

[ViciousDS]

Loved chronicles.....did not care for X. Played it for about 20 hours and couldn't do palette combat anymore. Apparently I don't like the hybrid style combat system anymore. I would rather just have all real time combat. Also story and stuff bored me out. Open world is beautiful though......but I don't have any plans on finishing the game.

 

[jahasaja]

I disagree. If anything I think it is just a culture difference that makes it difficult for some of us to enjoy these particular story/character beats/tropes. Critique it based on our own tastes and preferences, it isn't really unbelievable that even the more annoying things (children and bad jokes for instance) are just easier to swallow if you're familiar with it culturally.

Lin's jokes can be a bit over bearing. Especially if you hit story missions one after the other like I did for a while. It can feel like they are just beating on a dead horse in hopes for a reaction.

There is a lot of amazing japanese manga,anime and games that does not have the issues that this game has story wise. (for instance watch Space brothers and read Master Keaton and Monster) Just dismissing it as culture difference is making Japanese culture a disservice. But I can obviously not argue with different taste and preference.

I love the premise of the game and I really think they succeed in making you feel like part of an organization that is exploring an alien planet. It does not make the mistake of Bethesda/bioware games were you always are the chosen one. That's make it all the more disappointing that the dialogue is so slow and so often cringe worthy.( Perhaps it is a location issue would be interesting to hear from a Japanese speaker.)

 

[Wireframe]

That game had me sucked in around 20 hrs. 260 hrs later I'm finally done.

 

[TrueBlue]

I often tell people that playing xenoblade was like getting to watch the original star wars trilogy for the first time again. X lost all of that and now I'm watching the phantom menace for the first time again. It even has a jar jar.

I'd argue that the original Xenoblade had a Jar Jar in Riki. Being useful didn't negate for him being incredibly annoying to me - I actually remember groaning when he was introduced. But ya know, opinions and all that jazz.

On a more general note though, I'm a little bit confused as to why some are giving such praise to the story of the original. I mean yeah, the story here is pretty bare, but I didn't think the story of the original was anything to shout about. I'd even argue that the final third pretty much lost its way when it comes to narrative.

The characters were mostly good and charming, but even then there were cringeworthy moments - "FIOORRRAAAAA!" and screaming "ILL KILL YOU!" - to name just a couple.

I dunno. I just see all this praise for the Xenoblade narrative - which I still like, don't get me wrong - and it confuses me. It wasn't special at all, and I don't think it's what made the first game special either. I just find it weird that people are criticising this game for shlocky moments when the first game had frequent examples as well.

 

[KingSnake]

Yeah, Xenoblade's greatness in everything is as romanticized as SW OT's story quality and flawlessness.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

The game is a big step backwards compared to XC in terms of accessibility. Party Members in the town, changing the time of day from base camps and benches and having to craft gem from NLA are three major steps backwards from the original that let you do this stuff from a menu. Affinity system is also bad in this game and has zero point unlike XBC where increasing affinity was directly correlated to better chain attacks and crafting.

However the gameplay systems in X are all better than the original. The only thing I prefer in XBC is chain attacks compared to overdrive. Overdrive makes your party members even more useless. Within the first 4 chapters of X I would say the music is awful. Playing the whole game for 115 hours the music overall is good. I became a believer

 

[KeRaSh]

Mira is a wonderful world and I loved exploring it but the map just killed the game for me.
I stopped counting how often I reached a waypoint just to find out that the place I needed to go was above or below me and I had no idea how to get there.

 

[KingSnake]

Mira is a wonderful world and I loved exploring it but the map just killed the game for me.
I stopped counting how often I reached a waypoint just to find out that the place I needed to go was above or below me and I had no idea how to get there.

Follow ball is your friend.

http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Follow_Ball

 

[KeRaSh]

Follow ball is your friend.

http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Follow_Ball

Yeah I kept forgetting that thing existed... They probably added that thing because they ran into the same problems during testing.

 

[TheSpoiler]

I dont want to sound mean but next time please dont title your threads in a way thats just going to piss off everyone who likes this game and cause flame wars. If you had questions about the game theres a million other resources you could have used instead of making a thread like this.

Is this another "please stop shitting on my game" post?

These are getting excessive.

It's funny, because the back and forth discussion on what people liked and didn't like actually contributed to me getting the game. Fanboy shit does the opposite, despite the intent!

 

[slayn]

I'd argue that the original Xenoblade had a Jar Jar in Riki. Being useful didn't negate for him being incredibly annoying to me - I actually remember groaning when he was introduced. But ya know, opinions and all that jazz.

On a more general note though, I'm a little bit confused as to why some are giving such praise to the story of the original. I mean yeah, the story here is pretty bare, but I didn't think the story of the original was anything to shout about. I'd even argue that the final third pretty much lost its way when it comes to narrative.

The characters were mostly good and charming, but even then there were cringeworthy moments - "FIOORRRAAAAA!" and screaming "ILL KILL YOU!" - to name just a couple.

I dunno. I just see all this praise for the Xenoblade narrative - which I still like, don't get me wrong - and it confuses me. It wasn't special at all, and I don't think it's what made the first game special either. I just find it weird that people are criticising this game for shlocky moments when the first game had frequent examples as well.

The actual plot, if you were to write it out, wasn't anything unique or super deep or anything but its everything that comes along with that. The actors, the music, the scene direction, the animation, etc all contribute to elevating the emotion behind everything that you were doing in that game.

And so, like star wars, it was a pretty typical hero's journey told well with an interesting villain, outstanding visuals, and an incredible sound track that all contribute to elevating the story to something greater than it should have been. It achieved giving its major scenes emotional weight.

Fiora!/I'll kill you moments completely worked for me due to the camera work, music, and Shulk's voice actor being really good at screaming.

And I didn't like Rikki either but my hatred for him isn't as strong and he wasn't as prominent.

 

[Nocturnowl]

Now the cutscenes are people standing and talking to each other about how they're going to eat tatsu for the 50th time while I spin the camera around wildly and contemplate whether I should just start -> skip.

I echo this experience with most scenes.

 

[Movalpolos]

I dont want to sound mean but next time please dont title your threads in a way thats just going to piss off everyone who likes this game and cause flame wars. If you had questions about the game theres a million other resources you could have used instead of making a thread like this.

This post is embarrassing.

 

[Thud]

I echo this experience with most scenes.

I let it hang on my swim trunks MC. It makes it fun to watch.

 

[-Horizon-]

I let it hang on my swim trunks MC. It makes it fun to watch.

Its hilarious to put everyone in the most out of character costume I can find just for those scenes.

Though having Nagi wear a pair of shades and a shirtless dark suit just made him look even more yakuza than I expected lol.

 

[Ducktail]

This is bizarre, because I also fell asleep during my first Xenoblade session.

Of course, the 4h installation phase did not help the proceedings. I kept myself busy chipping away at Destiny on PS4 in the mean time. But the slow camera and awkward pauses in the dialogue put me to sleep pretty quickly. Somehow kept one eye open, ran to the city. Saved and turned off the console.

I thought it was 4 minutes when it started. Boy, was I wrong.

What the hell is up with the WiiU HD? This is not normal.

 

[burntchomsky]

The actual plot, if you were to write it out, wasn't anything unique or super deep or anything but its everything that comes along with that. The actors, the music, the scene direction, the animation, etc all contribute to elevating the emotion behind everything that you were doing in that game.

And so, like star wars, it was a pretty typical hero's journey told well with an interesting villain, outstanding visuals, and an incredible sound track that all contribute to elevating the story to something greater than it should have been. It achieved giving its major scenes emotional weight.

Fiora!/I'll kill you moments completely worked for me due to the camera work, music, and Shulk's voice actor being really good at screaming.

And I didn't like Rikki either but my hatred for him isn't as strong and he wasn't as prominent.

Yeah, that's well said. The game actually succeeded at getting you emotionally invested in its characters, and once you did that, you were just along for the ride with them. Actually, it took me awhile to get to that point on my first playthrough. I remember being very close to putting the game down just around the point that I entered Satorl Marsh, but played it for a few more hours, and by that point found that I actually really cared about the story & characters and wanted to continue on with the game.

 

[djtiesto]

I definitely liked the original much more but I'm still having a blast exploring Mira and engaging in Normal Missions/Affinity Missions after 120h of play. That being said, the game has more than its share of flaws and I have lots of criticisms with it and hope the next Xeno improves.

Poor text size, terrible tutorials and system explanations (I didn't even realize you can craft gems until I died at a boss and it suggested I raise my gravity damage... I didn't even know what the elemental-affinity symbols corresponded to!), an aimless quest where most of the world-building is done in bite sized normal missions, lots of collectathon stuff.

But damn, that world... that soundtrack... things really hammer the point home that you're a stranger in a strange land. I can never get tired of hearing Oblivia At Night.

 

[etking]

The game gets better later on but never achieves the perfection of the first Xenoblade. The original Xenoblade Chronicles is a much better game in every aspect.

 

[Overside]

The game gets better later on but never achieves the perfection of the first Xenoblade. The original Xenoblade Chronicles is a much better game in every aspect.

Thats not true. The story and characters absolutely.

However
It is extremely hard to go back to actually playing xenoblade after playing X.

 

[Voliko]

I definitely liked the original much more but I'm still having a blast exploring Mira and engaging in Normal Missions/Affinity Missions after 120h of play. That being said, the game has more than its share of flaws and I have lots of criticisms with it and hope the next Xeno improves.

Poor text size, terrible tutorials and system explanations (I didn't even realize you can craft gems until I died at a boss and it suggested I raise my gravity damage... I didn't even know what the elemental-affinity symbols corresponded to!), an aimless quest where most of the world-building is done in bite sized normal missions, lots of collectathon stuff.

But damn, that world... that soundtrack... things really hammer the point home that you're a stranger in a strange land. I can never get tired of hearing Oblivia At Night.

Would you say it makes you feel like you are stuck on a different planet? :^)

 

[spleenpoker]

Are the cutscenes any better in the original xenoblade? Just can't stand them in X. Just standing still.

 

[Overside]

Are the cutscenes any better in the original xenoblade? Just can't stand them in X. Just standing still.

Actually yes.

Like way better, like you'll be really feeling it in comparison.

 

[Malus]

Are the cutscenes any better in the original xenoblade? Just can't stand them in X. Just standing still.

There are a bunch of 'just standing still' cutscenes in the original, but the overall cutscene direction is much stronger for important moments in the story. Music is much better incorporated too.