Otakumegane
Member
I'm really stoked that they took a mention towards the issues of chain attack and its more stopping action nature and changed it into the more action fast paced overclock gear.
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Xenoblade Chronicles X Direct - Battle on March 6th [up: video with subtitles]
- Thread starter L~A
- Start date
tonyh24613
Member
I don't see any issues about chain attack, since Xenoblade's battle really isn't action based, and chain attack gives you more control over allies. Also I can foresee that people will just stand still and cast as many arts as possible during OC gear to increase combo counter.
StreetsAhead
Member
Specifically, their (at the time new) Kyoto Studio, who's role seems to be art & design support for EAD.
Important there is the distinct pronunciation: it's "loggos" (as in a log of wood or your backlog) and not "lowgoes" (as in those symbols representing companies).
True, but the spelling is the same, and well, I spend a lot more time seeing "logoes" than thinking about jungian psychology (Sorry Tiny Carl, I still love you) or reading Johns gospel etc...
Then again, maybe I looked at this completely wrong, and we are supposed to sell space on our dolls for sponsors :O
I got dibs on chicken in a biscuit.
Smiles and Cries
Member
I was just thinking about how western media will react to this game
I would like to see Jeff Gerstmann being hyped about X in a quick look later this year being on WiiU makes this less likely
Not that I need western media to love this game but I feel if this was on PC or PS4X1** someone would have been looking forward to it and talking about the updates
**Note: Nintendo will not send early demos out to those guys in then media to get them talking about X, that fact is why I say if it was on Steam or other consoles the hype would have been beyond the GAF threads
the game seems to deserve much more of a push in the US but only fans are spreading the love outside of E3s
I would like to see Jeff Gerstmann being hyped about X in a quick look later this year being on WiiU makes this less likely
Not that I need western media to love this game but I feel if this was on PC or PS4X1** someone would have been looking forward to it and talking about the updates
**Note: Nintendo will not send early demos out to those guys in then media to get them talking about X, that fact is why I say if it was on Steam or other consoles the hype would have been beyond the GAF threads
the game seems to deserve much more of a push in the US but only fans are spreading the love outside of E3s
TheMoon
Member
That will never happen. Ever. Western games media will go "oh the environments look pretty" and once they see "crazy JRPG story" they'll ship the game off to their freelancers to review and any Quick Looks and similar will happen in a distanced "that's neat I guess, I wonder if they can sustain this for 100 hours" / "but the story isn't grabbing me" kind of way. Jeff specifically will say, if he does get himself into a situation to say anything about the game, "I just want to wreck shit in those mechs. Get those menus out of there, I wanna do some slicin' and dicin'!" ...
Give up the dream of Western media getting hyped about this type of game. Best you can hope for is the old 1UP crew now at USgamer showing it some love.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Is jeff a guy at giantbomb, cause I remember giantbomb did a quicklook for xenoblade and they were hyped by it and surprised how that game could be on wii.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
They already marketed it more than other games, its general aesthetics lend to showing specific things, like they have for the first 2 trailers that will appeal to the western demographic, showing large expansive fields, flying mechs and shooting ze guns, and boom, you have a commercial.
I want to disagree, but the fact that you're probably right is one of the saddest things ever.
Oh well. I at least wanna see how the Western push looks like. Well, I'm not sure how much they'll do for the Japanese one.
Judging by the response from GAF and general comments all over the show (faces, music, voices etc.) I'm going to suggest that you cull all hope of good reviews from Western media.
This is going to be pretty niche... It doesn't have the universal 'pretty' appeal, action-orientation and brand of something like FFXV. This is unabashedly anime and J-pop culture in all aspects of its design. I'm pretty sure most people will consider that a pejorative. But this is a dream game for the select few who are loving every aspect that has come up so far.
It feels a little like Wonderful 101 all over again
This is going to be pretty niche... It doesn't have the universal 'pretty' appeal, action-orientation and brand of something like FFXV. This is unabashedly anime and J-pop culture in all aspects of its design. I'm pretty sure most people will consider that a pejorative. But this is a dream game for the select few who are loving every aspect that has come up so far.
It feels a little like Wonderful 101 all over again
threelights
Member
Judging by the response from GAF and general comments all over the show (faces, music, voices etc.) I'm going to suggest that you cull all hope of good reviews from Western media.
This is going to be pretty niche... It doesn't have the universal 'pretty' appeal, action-orientation and brand of something like FFXV. This is unabashedly anime and J-pop culture in all aspects of its design. I'm pretty sure most people will consider that a pejorative. But this is a dream game for the select few who are loving every aspect that has come up so far.
It feels a little like Wonderful 101 all over again
You say that, but Xenoblade is currently sitting at a 92 metacritic, with 58 positive reviews and 1 mixed (0 negatives). Xenoblade got a lot of positive reception from western media.
Xenoblade had the faces problem as well, the gameplay was a lot more... -ahem-, simple -ahem-, and it had very little marketing (or mainstream western appeal for that matter).
I doubt XCX's reception will be bad. Everything is an improvement (maybe not the soundtrack) over the original.
Xenoblade is a very different game from XCX. You can see it already with the complaints:
"Why did they get Sawano instead of the Xenoblade composers?"
"WTF is wrong with their faces? Xenoblade's was better."
"I can't stand Lyn's voice."
I know, objectively, music and aesthetics are only a small part of the game we are about to experience (in 2016... /cynicism /jokingnotjoking), but I'm pretty sure if something doesn't appeal to one's tastes immediately via aesthetics, then the bias will be engaged before one has a chance to engage.
I totally agree with this.
Are we really expecting it to review that poorly? AFAIK the random few times the game has been mentioned by Western games media has been very positive? Plus the first game was by all rights a media darling despite all the similar complaints about faces and the substitution of sub-HD graphics for music. Also any current complaints about the Japanese dub wouldn't really be valid since Western media will most likely be going off the English dub instead and I'm optimistic that NoA will do a good job with this one given their recent track record regarding voice acting.
threelights
Member
But Xenoblade's faces were not better =P
Also, we can't really comment on the voices, as we haven't heard the english cast yet.
Also, you often see reviewers giving a bit more of a pass for Wii/Wii U's graphics (and Xenoblade is still one of the prettiest games on the system, with possibly the best art direction).
As long as the game itself doesn't focus too much on the faces (and it doesn't seem like it's trying to), I think we'll be fine. We comment on the faces now because we can't really comment on the gameplay, things change once people gets hands on with the game (a recent example of that would Type-0 HD).
I do, however, think that the overall scores will be lower than Xenoblade, but that's just because Xenoblade has such high scores.
Hmm you guys may be right...
I guess it doesn't really matter to me how the "Western media" reacts. It would be cool to have it at least review strongly even if it doesn't sell well, but it won't affect my epic levels of hype
I'm just waiting for ninjablade to show up and tell us why this game sucks.
I guess it doesn't really matter to me how the "Western media" reacts. It would be cool to have it at least review strongly even if it doesn't sell well, but it won't affect my epic levels of hype
I'm just waiting for ninjablade to show up and tell us why this game sucks.
Smiles and Cries
Member
Hmm you guys may be right...
I guess it doesn't really matter to me how the "Western media" reacts. It would be cool to have it at least review strongly even if it doesn't sell well, but it won't affect my epic levels of hype
I'm just waiting for ninjablade to show up and tell us why this game sucks.
I want it to review well AND sell well because I want more Xenoblade games
I'm probably being overly optimistic but I think it'll do OK... At least probably better than the first game sales-wise even despite being on a much weaker platform sales-wise. I imagine Shulk in Smash will help sales similarly to how Marth and Roy helped drum up interest for FE7. The New 3DS port will also help boost awareness of the brand especially in Japan. US sales should be helped based on the sole fact that it won't be a retailer exclusive and I imagine we'll get at least a bit of a marketing push for the game, at least much more than the non-existent push there was for the first game lol. The Wii U is also extremely RPG-starved right now so it might be able to find success similarly to how Tales of Symphonia did on the Gamecube.
Lifetime sales of the first one were like 194k as of 2013 in Japan. No idea how well it sold in NA/Europe other than "quite well" but I'd like to think it broke 500k worldwide? It'd be pretty awesome if XCX could break 1mil worldwide but we'll see I guess! I've already gotten a few of my friends super hyped about the game so at least I'm doing my part haha.
Trevelyan9999
Banned
Yes pretty much standard Xenoblade fair, but improved upon. What exactly do you see that looks boring? If you were expecting Bayonetta 2 gameplay with a JRPG flare, you'll probably be disappointed
At least it's not turned based....
Yes pretty much standard Xenoblade fair, but improved upon. What exactly do you see that looks boring? If you were expecting Bayonetta 2 gameplay with a JRPG flare, you'll probably be disappointed
At least it's not turned based....
What I was hoping was for some more movement; something more dynamic. It looks quite stilted with the animals sitting there as the player just stands and shoots or attacks. Then he moves a little and repeats. I definitely don't want Bayoneta but something where I have to be moving and attacking. This is either one or the other.
threelights
Member
It looks miles better than the first game.
Personally I'm trying my best to reserve judgements, but I'm unsure if I'll like the battle system in this one.
I agree until the last sentence. Turn based would be so much better.Yes pretty much standard Xenoblade fair, but improved upon. What exactly do you see that looks boring? If you were expecting Bayonetta 2 gameplay with a JRPG flare, you'll probably be disappointed
At least it's not turned based....
I imagine there would be more positioning action and verticality with dolls. But it's certainly not an action game if that's what you were expecting...
Umm... I think you're probably misremembering? Battles look way flashier than in the first game and look like they'll be more involved as well what with the Soul Voice mechanic, double/triple recast/cooldown, the addition of elevation in addition to positioning, and the addition of a new TP bar that you have to manage. Sure, Visions are gone but Overclock Gear looks to be an interesting alternative to Chain Attacks and we haven't even gotten into Doll battles yet.
But ultimately the battle system is still menu-driven though with a lot of real time aspects you have to manage so it's probably not quite what you're looking for if you want a pure action RPG?
threelights
Member
If you want to interest people who like action games, then you talk about combos.
And show that gif of the mech losing an arm.
tonyh24613
Member
Though I think the problem here is the button mapping on the game pad, but one need to know is Xenoblade's battle system is not action based. The hit, block, dodge and counter are all calculated and controlled by RNG god. The beauty of Xenoblade's battle system lies in how you land your arts in orders for good combos, setting skill links with party members and controlling tension/party gauge during battles in order to use as many chain attack as possible. Positioning only plays a small part in it.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Have to agree unfortunately.
threelights
Member
Well, different tastes, really.
I doubt many RPG players would like to hear about animation cancelling, attack priority, OTGs, chip, 1f links, and whatever other term related to action/fighting games are there.
What the bigger RPGs are having to do (fortunately or unfortunately) is having to appeal to both sides, because the RPG crowd is not as big anymore to sustain big budget titles (Xenoblade would be even worse in that regard, as it still has to build a name for itself).
The key right now is to balance out the RPG and strategy elements with action elements. That, however, is a very delicate balance. Xenolade didn't reach it, X seems to be much closer...
Personally, I kinda want to see a Xenoblade with turn-based combat, but if they have to resort to a more action-y approach to the game so it can reach a good amount of sales, I'm all for it personally. Whatever gets us more Xenoblade games.
I guess it doesn't really matter to me how the "Western media" reacts. It would be cool to have it at least review strongly even if it doesn't sell well, but it won't affect my epic levels of hype
I think the critical acclaim Xenoblade received showed that the Western Media is open to games like this and there's little reason to be pessimistic about a game that evolves from a game that was so acclaimed. Things like unusual or outright controversial artistic decisions don't necessarily detract from a game's acclaim (see Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2!) There was a Bayonetta 2 video from IGN that had Producer Yamagami explaining how he is in charge of content that seems "un-Nintendo." So Xenoblade X may fit that same deliberate directive. They may feel that it is beneficial to them as a company in the long run, to show a willingness to create content in such a way.
And I also think their mindset is that limiting an aspect such as the artistic decisions the game makers can take would manifest as an attitude that hinders the making of something unusual or unprecedented in other ways, ways that could in fact be major aspects of the game's core appeal. It's why I'm kind of curious about Devil's Third, since I know now about Yamagami's mindset regarding the content he produces. As for the artistic decisions of Xenoblade X, I think that could be similar to what was said by Itagaki about Yamagami's directions for Devil's Third. To (my paraphrase) "go ahead and make your skinhead protagonist and show that we Japanese game makers aren't afraid to do something outlandish"
It sounds like that's part of Nintendo's content strategy that Yamagami is in charge of, and it's not like they aren't also making their bread-and-butter franchises too. So for Xenoblade X, maybe Yamagami said something like "go ahead and let Sawano make your music, rap/rock battle music and all, and take your Xeno-looking characters into the HD era, piss off Ninjablade while you learn to use HD graphics, but you have to make a game that is unexpected of Nintendo!" The company is run by creators who I think feel that part of the fun of being game makers by profession is to at times dare to do something unusual or maybe even unpopular with their current userbase. Those kinds of games sometimes even come from the other platform holders too, games whose intrinsic purpose isn't necessarily to be the most popular thing, but maybe the reaction can be louder towards Nintendo's games, the love and the hate, haha ;-)
TheGreatLugia
Banned
Going by Takahashi's statement in the famitsu interview, it sounds less like the team had to make the combat more action-y and more like they wanted to.
It sounds like the team initially might have wanted X to be an action RPG but since they were already changing and adding so many gameplay aspects they didn't want to get in over their heads and tackle more challenges than they could handle at once, so instead they built X's combat on top of Xenoblade's foundation and made changes from there.
threelights
Member
Well, yeah, my post was mostly talking about the market today. It always helps when the director itself already wants to make a game geared towards action, as it won't feel like it was a system shoehorned into the game.
Anyway, I read that statement before, hopefully they pull it off in the next game.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
I didnt finish version 2 of the subs so im doing that now, at 24:52 Irina says "I-Im only coming along as your superior, It's not like I want to help you or anything."
I cant, I hope to god they translate it exactly like that in the official translation.
baka
I cant, I hope to god they translate it exactly like that in the official translation.
TheGreatLugia
Banned
Ah, I might have slightly misread your post then.
But yeah, if Monolith gets the chance to make another big RPG after X, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the first things they decide on is making it a full action RPG since they already wanted to go that direction in X.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Once again want to reiterate that the song that plays when Elma is introducing the extra party members is the best song Ive heard on this OST bar none.
tonyh24613
Member
Feels like they're gonna ignore skill system before release, again.
Yeah that was hilarious!
Imagine her saying that to Tsundere Cross. If the avatar spoke in cutscenes, then we would have a big tsundere off!!!
TheMoon
Member
Yes he is but he was not involved in that QL. That was Patrick Klepek (now at Kotaku) and Brad Shoemaker who were impressed but also exactly with that distance I mentioned.
Again, mostly from the freelancers who signed on for it because they already like these kinds of games and were more prone to like it than the main staffers on most sites who live and breathe Western AAA and the Hot New Indie Jam of the week 24/7.
It's not about reviewing poorly, it's about mainstream press hype. They will farm reviews out to freelancers mostly, bet on it. Because of its sheer length and complexity. Western media has been very positive because all they've seen are the trailers of pretty environments and awesome mechs flying around. Shem them the battle presentation and they'll be "nope.gif" ... if the same game had Souls combat, that'd be a different story since that's the hot thing these days.
tryagainlater
Member
It will be buzz coming out of Japan when it releases there that will interest me rather than the Western media reaction.
TheMoon
Member
But what you're describing is exactly what this is. Position yourself, attack, reposition yourself for different Art, attack, maybe even enter your mech, fly around. There is a shit ton of movement and far more than in Xenoblade already. Haven't you seen any of the combat gifs?!
Bilollipop
Member
That song and the one that plays during the overclock gear explanation give me faith this will be a decent OST.
I don't think you will able to perform OCG so easily, I think you will need to meet certain conditions. It's a replacement for combo chain in Xenoblade after all.
tonyh24613
Member
All you need is 3000TP, though we don't know if we can use OCG multiple times in one battle.
Sable~Knight
Member
But in all honestly, as a Sawano fan (who prefers instrumentals, especially more on the softer atmospheric side) I can firmly say the song that plays when you enter NLA is the best thing we've heard yet (although that Kobayashi ballad is great too, definitely the best vocal song so far). You can hear it pretty clearly here from 0:23-2:27 https://youtu.be/kjTzuqyQZlc?t=22s
I second this. It's my absolute favourite, I don't think I've ever heard a sci fi track as fitting to the theme as this. Wish we had a clean version...