Wii/U Xenoblade Chronicles X

I just took this from NOE's Twitter.

CLobmlMWEAA78dX.jpg:large

If EB Games screws around again like they did with Majora's Mask 3D, I'll be so mad.

Assuming Australia gets the same options, of course.
 
who is playing this game? parts of it leave me giddy and parts have me very frustrated. namely the parts that are different from xenoblade chronicles, i guess.

the probe placing is really pissing me off and the scattering of the random high level animals is annoying too. i remember reading comments before we got the game about how the animal placements feel kind of random and it doesn't feel like different ecosystems spread out, everything is kind of just somewhere. i'm sick of randomly running into level 40s when i'm just trying to explore and place probes, which is what the game actually wants you to be doing but you're stopped by these over levelled monsters.

i think i'll end up liking this game a lot but man there's a steep learning curve. felt very overwhelmed for a long time and i'm just slowly getting to my feet (20 hours in, level 20). should have kept ploughing through the missions so i can get a skell but i got stuck on this stupid affinity mission.

i don't feel much for the characters so far, i dislike the nopon who is totally there just because everyone loved riki in the first one. but i'm starting to warm up to the responsibility and independence X gives you, despite loving the characters and plot and everything from the first game. this one is very different but still great, which is what you want i guess.
 
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who is playing this game? parts of it leave me giddy and parts have me very frustrated. namely the parts that are different from xenoblade chronicles, i guess.

the probe placing is really pissing me off and the scattering of the random high level animals is annoying too. i remember reading comments before we got the game about how the animal placements feel kind of random and it doesn't feel like different ecosystems spread out, everything is kind of just somewhere. i'm sick of randomly running into level 40s when i'm just trying to explore and place probes, which is what the game actually wants you to be doing but you're stopped by these over levelled monsters.

i think i'll end up liking this game a lot but man there's a steep learning curve. felt very overwhelmed for a long time and i'm just slowly getting to my feet (20 hours in, level 20). should have kept ploughing through the missions so i can get a skell but i got stuck on this stupid affinity mission.

i don't feel much for the characters so far, i dislike the nopon who is totally there just because everyone loved riki in the first one. but i'm starting to warm up to the responsibility and independence X gives you, despite loving the characters and plot and everything from the first game. this one is very different but still great, which is what you want i guess.
I am in spits and spats.

It should definitely be my kind of game - big world with exploration at heart, but it's made me realise how important a story and context for the world I'm exploring are.

Xenoblade X doesn't have much context at all. It's absolutely massive and beautiful in parts, but I'm exploring and going "why am I bothering? I don't really care'. I contrast that with the Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 (the two most recent open world games I've played) where I had to explore absolutely every nook and cranny in every part of the world to be personally satisfied, and realise that the Xenoblade world is just empty, despite being absolutely packed with monsters.

New LA is ok in parts but it's really nothing special. The quests are pretty boring and repetitive with only a few exceptions and the way the majority of the quests are presented in nearly impossible to read tiny font text is very aged now. I'm sure a game like Zelda could pull it off but Xenoblade X has reinforced my belief that Zelda U should have, at the very least, extensively tested how voice acting would impact the game.

The pop ins are as bad as I've noticed in a game. Outside NLA it's easy enough to ignore but geez it's bad in the city and actually does take away from my enjoyment of the game, and that's from someone who's not really picky on how a game looks.

The characters you do get to know and interact with with voice acting are dull at best imo and I've not really had a connection with them. Disappointing as there is a lot of potential in some of them. To be fair, some of them I have found ok so I'm possibly being a little harsh there - it's more the fact that they're thrust upon me and I need to do a lot of work before you start learning about them. It really feels like do a quest, find out a bit about them. Rinse. Repeat. It doesn't feel organic at all like F4 and W3 did.

Story is horribly slow at the beginning. It does get better but sheesh it was a struggle early on and the less said about the tutorial the better.

Despite all of that negativity I do actually like them game. It's amazing what they've made work on the Wii U and I understand a lot of the issues raised are due to the console's capabilities.

The fighting is great imo and I actually like all the different levelling up you have to do. The world itself is really well crafted and extremely good looking too. It just needs to have more in it to keep me coming back to want to play.



TL;DR: Overall good, but has serious flaws due mainly, but not exclusively, to the Wii U's lack of power. In many ways it feels like a game from 5-10 years ago, but the beautiful massive world is way too good for that.

Also extremely happy I got the collectors ed. I'm a sucker for steel boxes anyway but I found the artbook realy nice even if we got the small one
 
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i agree with a bunch of that, i think it stems from being this self-created avatar and the theme of the game being about YOU building this world and YOU mapping it out and it's not about a story they're telling and you're experiencing but rather that "start from ground zero" plot which i don't think is as engaging. shulk was a selfless hero and you were engaged in the story from the beginning but your avatar is a mute so there's nothing to be attached to. i'm only 20 hours in and don't have a skell yet so i'm sure i'll get sucked in more.

the nopon feels so forced, it sucks!

i do have the quirky soundtrack always playing in my head which i'm enjoying :p
 
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i agree with a bunch of that, i think it stems from being this self-created avatar and the theme of the game being about YOU building this world and YOU mapping it out and it's not about a story they're telling and you're experiencing but rather that "start from ground zero" plot which i don't think is as engaging. shulk was a selfless hero and you were engaged in the story from the beginning but your avatar is a mute so there's nothing to be attached to. i'm only 20 hours in and don't have a skell yet so i'm sure i'll get sucked in more.

the nopon feels so forced, it sucks!

i do have the quirky soundtrack always playing in my head which i'm enjoying :p
The silent protagonist sucks in this. If you're going to have a silent protagonist make sure you do it properly. I don't know why they bother having 'body dialogue' choices. They look rubbish and seem to be inconsequential. (Although I've seen people saying they do affect some things).

I see some stuff in other places of the Internet saying it's the greatest game ever. I love Nintendo but really, if this came out on X1 or PS4 it'd be a massive disappointment.
 
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Biggest worry for me from XCX is what it means for Zelda U.

If this is the Wii U running at full power there are going to have to be compromises. Obviously Zelda lends itself a lot more favorably to zoned off sections so that's a plus, but in the limited info we've been given, a big drawcard of ZU is the open world and seeing a spot in the distance and being able to get to there. I really hope that's the case but it can't have pop in problems to the extent that XCX has them.

Another plus for ZU is that it doesn't have to be as big as XCX, but I'm still slightly worried that the Wii U won't be up to it. If that's the case I hope there's an NX version.

Sorry about going off topic!
 
i'm now enjoying the absolute s**t out of this game. i've warmed up to the avatar because in the context of this kind of game it starts working. everything takes a bit to get your head around but once you get invested you can lose 2 hours of real time in what feels like 15 minutes. this game is ridiculously deep. i had that moment where i realised it was a nintendo game too, kinda blew me away.
 
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