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Xenoblade Chronicles X - Review Thread
- Thread starter Nightbird
- Start date
Who?
Sable~Knight
Member
Kind of silly though, considering this from Xenoblade Wii: http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/xenoblade/0/0
It seems they didn't follow the same tight philosophy in this game. Whether that was mostly because of Sawano's schedule, or they wanted him to follow his own creative process or not, it would have been nice to have a more tailored experience. It's also a kind of jarring when you realize that most of the soundtrack was composed in 2012-2013... and this game is releasing 2 years later. I imagine there was lots of stuff Sawano didn't have the exact context of when composing... which might explain some of the disconnect? Might explain why the area themes are so perfect (besides NLA) and the cutscene music changes from 'perfect' to 'WHO TURNED ON THIS RANDOM MUSIC WHEN WE'RE TALKING'.. or more aptly: https://youtu.be/i1MO023vN8o
They don't like any games though.
Ulysses 31
Member
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Not really true. They gave high marks to a number of games this year.
But seems to be an exception, I read around on the site and like every review had pretty bad scores. Won't even talk about the Xenoblade review, that was actually a pain to read.
Their Anno 2205 review was a joke aswell
Geez, whoever these guys are they are hard to please.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
I really think people have selection bias. Not every game has bad scores. That's a patently ridiculous claim. Of "big" titles or ones thought to be in "GOTY" running, they gave many of them fairly decent scores:
Xenoblade Chronicles X: 50
Life is Strange Episode 5: 82
Halo 5: 83
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 68
Undertale: 65
Super Mario Maker: 83
Destiny: The Taken King: 78
MGSV: TPP: 69
Until Dawn: 78
Batman: Arkham Knight: 65
Her Story: 83
The Witcher 3: 87
Splatoon: 82
Pillars of Eternity: 85
Bloodborne: 90
Of those 15 games, selected as an example because how many of us have played them, 5 of them have what you could call "bad scores." And even then, every single one of those games is a 50 or above, meaning they're all getting "average" or better scores. The only really "bad" review of those is their Undertale review, which is actually just pants-on-head stupid. The reviewer whines about some part of the game not allowing him a choice, when it did and he just failed to realize it. The rest are well within the realm of fairness in my opinion, and it's nice to have reviewers who aren't afraid to give out some harsher critiques.
Lucent
Member
My main gripe with this game so far is how they place such high level monsters in your path when trying to do story missions. Like where you are going after 3 turrets and I'm level 17 and theyre like 20-23 and aggro and stomp you out if you draw a mech's attention. You gotta sneak around. For the final turret I got fed up and hired a level 30 character to assist me to finish the job and then used him to grind out some level 23 enemies somewhere that gave me huge exp to quickly get me to 21. I hate power leveling but this game is just ridiculous with the leveling and stuff.
I do think it's hard to understand their logic behind how you are supposed to progress through the zones, if there is any. Maybe they just think it makes more sense for there to be a wide range of enemy strengths on a continent, or to give you reasons to go back and keep exploring.
But it's even strange in quests. I had an Oblivia mission that required me to walk through a base full of 45-50 enemies and then when I got to the mission area, it started a cutscene and a confrontation. At first was like WELL I'M FUCKED but the enemies were level 16 or so. OK.
But it's even strange in quests. I had an Oblivia mission that required me to walk through a base full of 45-50 enemies and then when I got to the mission area, it started a cutscene and a confrontation. At first was like WELL I'M FUCKED but the enemies were level 16 or so. OK.
Diprosalic
Banned
i agree with all of these scores except Xenoblade and Halo should swap scores.
i need to give this site a chance.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
I just started reading their reviews recently myself. I don't agree with all of their critiques, nor do I always agree with their scores (though I agree with almost all of the ones I posted), but I think they take a really interesting look into games. Sometimes it can feel pretty pretentious, but it's one of the few sites to give me any inkling of the deeper analysis and critique that you can find in music, film and literature. Well worth checking out, even if just to see unique opinions.
No, I admit that I simply did not read every review they published in last 12 months (why would I). I checked their last reviews and they all seemed extremely negative with XB being the absolute icing on the cake.
And that's what is my problem with the Xenoblade reivew, it felt pretentious as fuck to me. I even went as far as to check out the reviewer and his twitter profile is "Pretentiousaurus [...]", well there you go. I actually agree on your second point as some interesting ideas were brought up, but I simply cannot get over the guy's writing (I guess thats because I really dislike pretentious people).
The worst part of the review certainly was:
I simply have no words for that part, it was the last straw for me not to take the reviewer seriously.
Also for reference, I personally don't care at all for their score(s). XB is a 10/10 for me but only because I can overlook the many many flaws. I have no problem with 7es or 6es for the game as it has more than enough flaws that people should consider for their reviews. But the pretentious writing coupled with some really really weird reasoning made the worst first impression of the site for me.
JumpJeff84
Member
Pretty sure I'm getting this for Christmas, looking forward to it.
Question: I like the look of the guns in this game. Combat seems MMO-like, and I tend to play MMOs as ranged characters. Can you play a primarily ranged character, or is the game designed to have you alternate between ranged and melee?
Question: I like the look of the guns in this game. Combat seems MMO-like, and I tend to play MMOs as ranged characters. Can you play a primarily ranged character, or is the game designed to have you alternate between ranged and melee?
orthodoxy1095
Banned
So your comment was just based on a fairly useless cursory overview. Fair enough I guess.
If you read his profile, you'd also know that the man is an English PhD with a focus on 19th-century British and American literature. His style comes across as pretentious at times, but I appreciate that he's bringing a scholarly and erudite approach to the medium. Too much of industry critique reads like low-brow trash written by two-bit bloggers rather than people interested in delving into more complex questions and meaningful conversations about the content being portrayed. We have threads like the recent one about "Ebert and games," where people vehemently assert that video games are art. And yet when people who actually want to talk about games as art come along, they generally seem to get shunned.
I really don't find that section quite so problematic. It might be if you have some blinding hate for FFXIII, but otherwise he's raising a rather interesting question of open world game design that he elaborates on in the next sentences:
I don't think he's attempting to put out a ringing endorsement of FFIII’s overall game design. In some ways, it's actually an indictment of FFXIII that the relatively average area of Pulse actually feels so large. It shouldn't feel so large, but the game cramps you for so long that Pulse feels massive. But like I said, I think he is raising an interesting question regarding open/large world games: is there any value in narrowing the scope of the world before you let the player roam free? FF7 keeps you confined to Midgar, and the entrance into the overworld is an absolute revelation. He elaborates on that later when he points out that:
Similar to the value of narrowing the scope, I do have to wonder if there's a value in slowing the pace of traversal down. Some games have maps and planets that take days to actually cross, and I think that's a rather neat approach to make the massiveness translate into a reality for gameplay. But beyond that, I think he feels that XCX is focusing on size too much, and that it's to its detriment. His entire conversation about maximalism, if you're willing to look past the FFXIII remark, is actually a very interesting one.
ShinNoNoir
Member
I have only poured in a bit more than 20 hours into the game, but I'm not entirely sure if a ranged character is viable. I have just finished maxing out Partisan Eagle and I'm now continuing with Astral Crusader. These two classes use sniper rifles and javelins. It is nice to be able to attack enemies from afar with your rifle, but if your party members ask for a melee Art, you have to close in if you want to answer their Soul Voice.
The good: Huge and beautifully realized world to explore, excellent gameplay systems work well together
The bad: Insufficient documentationand this is a game that could use a better manual
Bottom line: Hands-down the best roleplaying game of 2015
http://time.com/4149154/xenoblade-chronicles-review/
5 out of 5
The bad: Insufficient documentationand this is a game that could use a better manual
Bottom line: Hands-down the best roleplaying game of 2015
http://time.com/4149154/xenoblade-chronicles-review/
5 out of 5
Their biggest gripe seems to be the FavNet, which interestingly enough is one of my favorite parts of Xenoblade X. I think seperatig a big open world into hexagons is actually quite a clever way to solve a particular problem many open world RPGs suffer from: Once a world reaches a certain size, the player needs some guidance in order to find things. Games like Witcher 3 solve this by literally plastering symbols over every specific location where you can find some point of interest. The result of that: Exploration feels meaningless. Why explore the world when you know where to find everything interesting? There's no sense of wonder anymore.
However, X finds a nice middleground. As the player, I know that in this hexagonal area is a special monster, a quest or some kind of treasure. However, I don't know the exact location - so while I have a good grasp of what I am looking for, I still have to search for it to a certain degree. I think that's a really great approach and I wish more open world RPGs would be like that.
Astral Dog
Member
I agree wth most of his points, and felt he even lacked to mention a few things, but not in the score, a 7 or even 6 at worst for this game. An opinion is an opinion, but X has enough quality to pass the 5 bad entirily mediocre score.
Sable~Knight
Member
You CAN customize Soul Voice, so theoretically you can equip as many ranged arts as possible (from one weapon) and customize soul voice to revolve around those arts (I don't know the extent of the customizability though...). Obviously you'd be limiting yourself, since the game is designed to draw on arts from two different weapons, and limiting yourself to only one (ranged in general are more support focused compared to the more offensive focus of most melee weapons) will mean your build will likely end up inferior in a relative sense. I mean, who knows? It'll be unique. Might as well try it out and see what happens. You'll most likely revert to a more mixed approach, but it's definitely possible, even if it's not optimal, to try and focus on ranged.
The review thread feels a bit redundant now that I have the only review that matters.
Wait..someone gave this game a 5/10? Behead him slowly with a Forfex pincer and feed his corpse to a Grex pack.
EDIT: I currently have a character that has mostly Melee arts but I still have one ranged Art on the set and I carry a good gun that's capable of racking up some damage.
Wait..someone gave this game a 5/10? Behead him slowly with a Forfex pincer and feed his corpse to a Grex pack.
EDIT: I currently have a character that has mostly Melee arts but I still have one ranged Art on the set and I carry a good gun that's capable of racking up some damage.
orthodoxy1095
Banned
Obviously, Matt disagrees with you.
¯|_(ツ_|¯
Which is the great thing about reviews. They are never wrong since its entirely subjective.
For example Matt actually critiques the game for not going down the your-hero-is-the-one-true-hero route like every other jrpg in existence, whereas I felt it was one of the positive things about the game.
Also I liked that they managed to give me a wow this world is refreshingly huge feeling within the first few minutes, whereas Matt felt that the grass pasture of grand pulse was much more of a huge world to him.
I like games that try something new, Matt obviously doesnt.
ShinNoNoir
Member
Yes, you can customize Soul Voice, but only for your avatar. If you want to focus on ranged arts for your own character, you'd have to choose party members who mainly call out for ranged arts.
This Time review does the best job out of any so far elucidating what I love so much about this game.
http://time.com/4149154/xenoblade-chronicles-review/
Edit: Beaten. But still read the review. I've never had a JRPG keep me so interested in the combat.
"But make no mistake, battles are utter onslaughts of numbers and jumbled visual information, while you’re simultaneously trying to flank for damage advantages, selectively target body parts to weaken an enemy before delivering the coup de grace, and trying to stagger then topple foes by sequencing attacks correctly. It’s a lot to take in, much less master. And just when you think you’ve got it under your fingers, Xenoblade Chronicles X upends the ground game you’ve been playing for dozens of hours and, crazily, trots out a giant robot sim."
http://time.com/4149154/xenoblade-chronicles-review/
Edit: Beaten. But still read the review. I've never had a JRPG keep me so interested in the combat.
"But make no mistake, battles are utter onslaughts of numbers and jumbled visual information, while you’re simultaneously trying to flank for damage advantages, selectively target body parts to weaken an enemy before delivering the coup de grace, and trying to stagger then topple foes by sequencing attacks correctly. It’s a lot to take in, much less master. And just when you think you’ve got it under your fingers, Xenoblade Chronicles X upends the ground game you’ve been playing for dozens of hours and, crazily, trots out a giant robot sim."
orthodoxy1095
Banned
I don't think this last line is true at all. I think he feels the "new" wasn't that well done, so he might be thinking that treading the older, safer path might have been a better path. Obviously I can't know exactly what he's thinking, but that's a possibility. There's really nothing wrong with following that old JRPG formula, they're classic story archetypes. The problem really comes into execution and how so many games flub it up.Which is the great thing about reviews. They are never wrong since its entirely subjective.
For example Matt actually critiques the game for not going down the your-hero-is-the-one-true-hero route like every other jrpg in existence, whereas I felt it was one of the positive things about the game.
Also I liked that they managed to give me a wow this world is refreshingly huge feeling within the first few minutes, whereas Matt felt that the grass pasture of grand pulse was much more of a huge world to him.
I like games that try something new, Matt obviously doesnt.
I think the killscreen reviewer clearly didn't like the game very much because it's big and non-linear. That's pretty much the only thing that can be gleaned from the review. It's one of the most deeply subjective reviews I've ever read even though all reviews are opinions. I love the scale of X and wrapping my head around the various systems so it turns out that I like it for some of the very reasons he disliked it.
BTW, as I get into X there is a sense of linear progression within the freedom you're given but it is a real-world growth of the player rather than an articial levelling up by incrementing a number. There is a feeling of gradually fathoming every area, every mechanic, etc. as you play so that things and places that were obscure before gradually come into clear view.
BTW, as I get into X there is a sense of linear progression within the freedom you're given but it is a real-world growth of the player rather than an articial levelling up by incrementing a number. There is a feeling of gradually fathoming every area, every mechanic, etc. as you play so that things and places that were obscure before gradually come into clear view.