Famitsu has a 10-pages article dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles X (and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D) this week. There's info about the game, but also an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi (Executive Director). Magazine will be out tomorrow in Japan, but some tidbits have already surfaced and were translated by some fellow Gaffers.
So here's the round-up of all info available at the moment:
More at the link (roughly the same as what's below, but with some additional tidbits).
Hopefully, this post will be updated with some nice pics in a couple of minutes!
Thanks to Raven77 and StreetsAhead for the translations!
So here's the round-up of all info available at the moment:
At the beginning of the story, the goal is to survive the uncivilized planet of Mira. After meeting up with private military organization Blade, you’ll choose from one of eight affiliated unions, each with their own overarching objective to fill, and embark on quests. It’s possible to join a different union later. Unlike the linear progression of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, the successor’s story will unfold in various directions.
Unions
The eight unions are:
Pathfinder - In charge of data probe installation.
Interceptor - In charge of exterminating protists.
Avalanche - In charge of hunting down dangerous life forms.
Testament - In charge of the search and recovery of debris scattered by the ship, as well as the recovery of items lost on the battlefield.
Corepedian - In charge of visiting areas and investigation/collecting materials.
Land Bank - In charge of securing resources and collecting minerals.
Arms - Assists the Arms Company in charge of the development of Dolls and their inner weaponry.
Companion - A Jack of all trades, from the mediation of petty fights to the search of stray cats.
More at the link (roughly the same as what's below, but with some additional tidbits).
Some more details according to Shinobi (excluding ones already shared by Raven777):
Characters
Nagi (Takayuki Sugou)
-Former Captain of the White Whale and current Military Chief in the Autonomous Government of New Los Angeles.
Guin (Yuichi Nakamura)
-Worked in the same division as Elma and Irina on Earth. Was their subordinate.
Player Avatars
-Many options for customization (sex, face type, skin colour, hair style, eyes, make-up, voice, etc).
-Preset designs done by Kunihiko Tanaka
-Some famous voices actors providing their voice as options for the avatar, will be announced on the Xenoblade homepage later.
GamePad
-Will show character location, question locations
-Warping to previously visited areas
Online
-The use of 'X [Cross]' has implications for the online functionality.
-Not a standard online game, more 'loosely connected'
I took a look at the actual text from sinobi about the interview, and the description Takahashi gives the online is definitely indicating something like the passive online features of Souls game. He refers to it as ゆるく繋がるオンラインゲーム which is the common term used these days to refer to stuff like the blood stains, messages, and player shadows.
Music
-About 90 songs in the game. Sawano involved in all of them.
Battles
-Faster paced, more-actiony than Xenobalde.
-Differentiates close and distant attacks.
-No healers.
-Healing done with new system called 'Soul Voice'.
-Xenoblade was traditional RPG, whereas XenobladeX is an open world RPG. Xenoblade was linear despite having big world. In XenobladeX, you will get quests from different places and have more freedom.
-Xenoblade had 1 vocal song at the end, but XenobladeX has many vocal song. (Many for RPG)
-Mira is 400km² which is 5 times bigger than Xenoblade. So there is Dolls which can fly. Also you can check your location via gamepad
-Battle system is based on Xenoblade, but it's faster paced and more action packed.
-4 player party, you control 1 and AI controls the rest.
-number of unique monsters and equipments have increased from Xenoblade.
The magazine also introduces "Union". Sounds like something like factions for quests.
There are 8 of them, and you can join any of them, and change depending on your goal.
PATH FINDER
COLEPEDIAN
INTER CEPTOR
LAND BANK
AVALANCE
ARMS
TESTAMENT
COMPANION
Takahashi's XenobladeX's final check play time was over 300 hours
The interview says the world of Xenoblade X is about 400km&, which is 5 times bigger than Xenoblade. But I think he did mention it was about 5 times of Xenoblade in the past.
Hopefully, this post will be updated with some nice pics in a couple of minutes!
Thanks to Raven77 and StreetsAhead for the translations!