Board 8 > Xenoblade Chronicles (unmarked spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I may have been able to justify keeping the FFX stuff in the FFXII topic, but not this time.

Was going to beat Arceus first, but 20 hours in and the game is still the same as it was 1 hour in, so that's getting the drop.

But hey, on to greener pasteurs! With Xenoblade Chronicles 3 looking like it was made by human beings, I feel like it's finally time to give the first game a fair shake so I have at least one of them under my belt going into it.

So far I am slightly into the chapter 3 cave, just after the big starting story thread. Opinions so far:

-World exploration is very good. Minimal to no load times for fast travel, lots of points accessible anytime. Save anywhere, very reliable quest markers, objective pathing on the ground. Not to mention a game clock that you just have....complete control over with no penalty?? Change the time of day to whatever you want, wild. Up on dpad being auto run is bad, though. Also how it cancels auto run if you even nudge in a direction to course correct.

-The NPC situation isn't as good, though. No indicators of character affinity without going into the menu, no indication of you have talked to a named NPC before or not, rather than pathing away somewhere they just vanish if they aren't present during a certain time of day when it transitions, even if they're two feet in front of you.

-Combat...I'm undecided. Controls for it feel super clunky, I lose track of what I have selected often, I can say the menu itself is a huge thumbs down from me. I do like the actual systems, though. Not being able to order allies to use specific abilities is suffering, though. During the mech section, before getting the Monado, there was maybe a 20% chance at best that Reyn would follow up a pink attack from me with a green attack. The part where you have to fight 3 mechs took 5 minutes.

-Story has a good setup so far, not the most original beats but the setting seems unique at least. The Fiora thing really surprised me, though not going to rule out a bait and switch. If they built a whole skill tree for a character who dies two hours in that's pretty neat. Of course she could just come back. I certainly don't see this being a Zesteria situation where they leave gear and stuff in the progression for her due to sheer incompetence.

-Do want to note that the voice acting is totally serviceable, but holy shit did FFXIV spoil the fuck out of me for brit dubs with it's stage theater VAs. The talent difference is night and day.

You're missing commenting on the best thing.

Give me a hint!

you will know it's name when you think of it

This is the Monado's power!

Oh, I haven't done a ton of combat after getting it.

Have certainly had the opportunity to hear "I'm feeling it!" plenty, though.

The battle cries in this game are....a lot...Tales doesn't go half this hard with the yelling.

LET'S NAWT LOOSE OUR 'EADS, THOW!

caps

You got as far as I got

WHAT A BUNCH OF JOKERS

The VAs are irreplaceable

UshiromiyaEva posted...

-Do want to note that the voice acting is totally serviceable, but holy shit did FFXIV spoil the fuck out of me for brit dubs with it's stage theater VAs. The talent difference is night and day.

Shulk in contention for best VA performance in any game though

I love (most of) the VA in this game! Haven't played FFXIV though. Combat gets better as you go imo, though I liked it from the start. I assume you're playing the Switch version?

The VA was really exceptional in 2011 and was one of the games that led to British dubs becoming a lot more common including FFXIV. However it is still a decade old. Still great though! As a note its not just stage actors, there are TV actors (a couple of whom broke out after), film actors, announcers, and so on. In the UK there isnt really a distinction the way there is in the US, everybody does a bit of everything.

I've yet to hear a better line delivery than Shulk telling Metal Face I'LL KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUU

BTW, I was referring to soundtrack. Game has a stellar soundtrack

I started tuning out the battle cries after a few hours so I can't tell you what any of them are aside from the memes

HanOfTheNekos posted...

BTW, I was referring to soundtrack. Game has a stellar soundtrack

So I actually haven't really taken notice of the soundtrack at all yet? I'm sure something will grow on me when I'm playing more consistentally, but I can't even think of the battle track in my head yet.

I'M READY for a good topic

I'm assuming this is the switch version, which improves the quests/sidequest system noticeably over the original

combat gets better

the menu navigation is probably the worst I've seen in a good game aside from witcher 3

Standard battle track in XBC1 is actually one of the weaker consistent tracks.

Colony 9 (area) theme is great.

But get out of Tephra Cave already

I quite like Tephra Cave, though I may be in the minority there. During my first playthrough, I did so much captivated exploring around Colony 9 (back in 2012, XC was my first game of such scale) that I kinda welcomed the much more linear dungeon.

I'm just waiting for the moment

I like Tephra Cave too!

Tephra Cave isn't bad but pretty much everywhere else in the game is better

UshiromiyaEva posted...

rather than pathing away somewhere they just vanish if they aren't present during a certain time of day when it transitions, even if they're two feet in front of you.

Fortunately this is easy enough to deal with since the game lets you skip to whatever time you want

JonThePenguin posted...

Fortunately this is easy enough to deal with since the game lets you skip to whatever time you want

Yeah its still funny but it's not really an issue.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Not being able to order allies to use specific abilities is suffering, though.

Yeah, that can definitely limit the usefulness of AI party members (some more than others). Alternatively, it makes Chain Attacks even more powerful and critical for success, as that's the only time you have complete control of the party.

FIOOOOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

caps

NPCs generally do have paths they walk over time, but if you manually adjust the clock then yes they'll often disappear. For most of them, you can sit and watch their set schedule as they go about their daily business.

the game's NPC system is basically the Bomber's Journal in Majora's Mask but blown out to hundreds of characters

Yo this game has tankbusters?

About to Nascent Glint all over Reyn.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

So I actually haven't really taken notice of the soundtrack at all yet?

How to tell exactly where someone is in their Xenoblade playthrough

IMO the best advice for enjoying the combat in the game is "stop playing Shulk".

Shulk is good but he's really boring to play as imo

No way, he's the one of the best leads if not the best. Shadow Eye & the directional attacks are a brilliant combination.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

During the mech section, before getting the Monado, there was maybe a 20% chance at best that Reyn would follow up a pink attack from me with a green attack.

For this kind of thing I would say use a party meter thing to tell them what to do if you really need it. It's less of a problem the more abilities you unlock, and you get the hang of how the AI behaves. But the AI isn't ever good. Think of your party as a lead + 2 very weak unreliable supports.

I stick with Shulk until Melia is playable, then she's the best character in the game for everything but super bosses but only when playing as her because her AI is actually the worst

then once i'm ready for super bosses I switch to the Shulk/Reyn/Naked Dunban combo

I like playing as the heropon

Definitely enjoy playing Shulk but it's good to switch around really. Honestly I've had a blast playing Sharla getting Headshots... I'm not really great on Reyn I think.

The problem with Melia though is that if you want her in your party you have to be playing her

Got to the fight with "Monodo Booooooooy!"

This is obviously the claw guy and obviously they're using human DNA or souls or some shit to make the Monodo bounce off, pretty obvious!

The environment here is killer, though and the music is good. As I have said before I am not a fan of big open maps as far as the actual area goes, but I assume I'll get the buggy or something later to help with that.

Combat is still the hardest thing to get used to here. After realizing what the cap on active skills is, I'd been racking my brain to think about why they didn't just rip of the Tales right right analog stick artes system, before FINALLY realizing that the entire reason the game's combat menu is designed like this is it had to work with the fucking Wiimote. Tragedy!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

but I assume I'll get the buggy or something later to help with that.

A mount or vehicle to traverse some of the bigger maps would be really nice but no, you don't get anything like that in either game.

Equip gems that increase your movement speed. Makes a huge difference.

The maps have built in travel points for you to teleport to as well.

And yeah, the wiimote controls might seem weird now but they worked well on the Wii.

And welcome to Gaur Plain! The moment I was referring to was stepping out onto it for the first time with the score hitting and the view. It's really a fantastic moment in gaming. The second followup moment is seeing the Territorial Rotbart for the first time.

Yeah it was a good reveal! Always like when games do that via a tight canyon entrance where you can see a peek as you're walking towards it. I spent like an hour cleaning up quests between leaving the cave and reaching it, lol.

Fast travel helps but there's a few stretches where it takes a bit too long to travel for my liking. I make no pretense that I have tolerance for big open maps, no matter how good they look. It's not the end of the world though. I knew about the giant roaming overlevelled monsters to watch out for from the Dunkey video on 2, though it seems like less of an aggro problem here. Still a cool sight though.

Xenoblade manages to accomplish the whole "this is a living world with creatures that are way too dangerous for you" with a sense of adventure and whimsy. It happens in many areas, but yeah, Rotbart has become the posterchild of that.

There will be other big maps, but this is the poster big map.

I think the next amazing environment/music combo you'll hit will be Satorl Marsh night. But for now, enjoy not losing your eads tho

Alright so I have a bit of an issue.

There's some real dark stuff here, but I don't think it's landing at all. It's not the actual events, but the direction of these scene and the music isn't reflecting the severity of the dialogue at all. This guy reveals he slaughters and ate an entire colony but it's already playing the high octane battle theme? And the camera direction also feels like an actin scene.

It's not that any of the parts are bad, they're just not shaking hands with eachother.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

This guy reveals he slaughters and ate an entire colony but it's already playing the high octane battle theme? And the camera direction also feels like an actin scene.

Welcome to his banquet hall!

I'm not quite sure where you are in the story. Based on the last post it seems like you've made quite a bit of progress

Currently in the area with the very cool glowy trees. In the cutscene right now where Dickson is talking to Shulk about when he found him.

The character designs for this game are title fine, in contrast to its successor, but it's still a pretty enormous disparity between the gorgeousness of the environments and the milquetoast character designs.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Alright so I have a bit of an issue.

There's some real dark stuff here, but I don't think it's landing at all. It's not the actual events, but the direction of these scene and the music isn't reflecting the severity of the dialogue at all. This guy reveals he slaughters and ate an entire colony but it's already playing the high octane battle theme? And the camera direction also feels like an actin scene.

It's not that any of the parts are bad, they're just not shaking hands with eachother.

I'm going to be honest, I don't think I've ever heard of someone who seems to be overall enjoying the game and also didn't get extremely hyped by Engage the Enemy music sync in dramatic scenes.

Yeah, Satorl Marsh turning to night is an amazing moment.

Ohhhh I hope you entered the Marsh in the daytime so you can watch the night transition in real-time - that's always my advice to people. Also, it's kinds funny that Sharla may not be mentioned once in this topic (at least in terms of gameplay) now that you already have Dunban!