Dark_castle
Junior Member
Less hyped than before after learning that there was only 1 central city and problems with the story-telling.
What mediocre/mixed reviews? You mean that one guy from Kotaku who hated the first game as well?
I don't know. Here's one metric for you:
Xenoblade: http://wiimk2.net/title.php?title=757
Highest rated Wii RPG on the site.
XenobladeX: http://wiimk2.net/wiiu/title.php?title=124
Far fewer reviews, but fairly middling compared to its predecessor. (A 59 on MK2 is actually fairly decent, relatively).
Even Famitsu (lol) rated it a bit lower than the original at a 34 (vs. 36). I don't know what surveys you're referring to, but the general reception is not nearly as strong as Xenoblade for the Wii was.
The topic of story, it's mostly in the kizuna quests/heart to hearts. The story is spread out and meant to be played for the long term. I do understand people having issues not having all the story in cutscenes but there's far more in the side quests which builds it outward. It's meant to feel like you're exploring this planet.
I was in that thread alot aswell, even the negative impressions weren't the majority of them.This:
I also followed the import thread here as well as a couple of other places. Not really obliged to go hunting for specific posts here for you, I'd actually forgotten about the whole Kotaku thing. It's not like I spent 200 hours on last game and am looking for reasons to hate on it or anything -_-.
Anyway all of that aside the game's critical/fan reception in Japan won't have a huge impact here since I'm sure 90+% of the audience for this game here will get it regardless, it's more the game took too long to come out here and is just simply going to get buried by being a December release in an incredibly strong fall release season on a virtually dead platform.
I was in that thread alot aswell, even the negative impressions weren't the majority of them.
The fact that the sidequests are more fleshed out is a pretty big deal since you spend like 75% of the time in Xenoblade doing sidequests.
God damn all these pictures lol. I'm trying not to spoil the environments.
I mean yeah, that seems to be where it started, I just find it really weird how one bad preview (From a guy who didn't like the well received first game either) somehow meant that it was poorly received in general. Because it really, really wasn't. Most Japanese players really enjoyed the game based on surveys I've seen
There's a gaf thread I've been trying to find where Famitsu posted some survey stats about how the people who played the game recieved it, it was overwhelmingly positive, but I have a haRd time finding that thread
This:
I also followed the import thread here as well as a couple of other places. Not really obliged to go hunting for specific posts here for you, I'd actually forgotten about the whole Kotaku thing. It's not like I spent 200 hours on last game and am looking for reasons to hate on it or anything -_-.
Anyway all of that aside the game's critical/fan reception in Japan won't have a huge impact here since I'm sure 90+% of the audience for this game here will get it regardless, it's more the game took too long to come out here and is just simply going to get buried by being a December release in an incredibly strong fall release season on a virtually dead platform.
The fact that the sidequests are more fleshed out is a pretty big deal since you spend like 75% of the time in Xenoblade doing sidequests.
Here it is, found it.
Kotaku: Japanese Gamers' Opinions on Xenoblade Chronicles X
Here it is, found it.
Kotaku: Japanese Gamers' Opinions on Xenoblade Chronicles X
Reasons I'm not hyped:
- Lack of same epic story, cutscenes, characters
- Silent Protagonist
That survey in actuality doesn't tell us much at all. It's about 100 hours, isn't light on content, isn't very difficult, has a "Branching storyline", has mecha and has a cruddy online system.
This. I think they could have knocked it out of the park if this had hit in like August. But now it's been a prolonged time to get it to the west, and in the meantime there has been a pretty fair amount of so-so impressions and reviews from the Japanese release which I know has definitely tempered my expectations. It certainly doesn't help that almost every time I've seen the game come up in the last few months it's regarding what a 13 year-old character in the game is wearing.
Aside from all of that though it's a Wii U game which inherently works against it, and it's releasing in December right after a crazy blockbuster Fall release calendar (Fallout 4, Halo 5, Battlefront, Black Ops 3, etc etc). Even if it had reviewed well in Japan it still would be getting sent to die as a Wii U release in December. This really, really, really needed to be out this past Summer. Even as a huge fan of the original I'm debating canceling my CE order since I don't know I'll have the time or money at that point in the year after a crazy fall schedule and mediocre/mixed reviews.
I'm still hyped for it, but man, every time I watch a video showing how long even the most mundane fights seem to take, it kills me a little inside.
has a "Branching storyline",
But the fights are generally faster than they were in xenoblade
Nope, but to be fair to past me, none of the websites I followed back then posted any catchy images, unlike Kotaku did after one of the Nintendo Directs. That GIF of the mecha transforming did more to make me care about Xenoblade X than dozens of articles about Xenoblade that only had the game's logo as the eyecatch.I take it you never played or saw any videos of the first Xenoblade?
I was incredibly hyped when the game was revealed. But the following has dulled my hype so much that I don't even know I'll buy it release day (may pick it up a few months later for cheaper).
- Custom main character
- Poor story/characters as per impressions
My favourite aspect of the original Xenoblade was the setting, story and characters. And this game sounds like it took most of that out.
I was incredibly hyped when the game was revealed. But the following has dulled my hype so much that I don't even know I'll buy it release day (may pick it up a few months later for cheaper).
- Custom main character
- Poor story/characters as per impressions
My favourite aspect of the original Xenoblade was the setting, story and characters. And this game sounds like it took most of that out.
The survey even asked, "How would you rate your satisfaction with the game on a scale of 1 to 100?" but the writer for Kotaku didn't seem that was an important metric, I suppose. Maybe he just didn't feel like making any more pie charts.
What was the answer to that one?