Xenoblade Chronicles

[Deleted User]

Anyone else playing this? Post your impressions if so.

 

[CelesteGB]

I have it but am finally getting around to playing the Witcher. My pile of unplayed games is shameful. Fluent, keep us posted on your impressions

 

[Deleted User]

^ Let us know what you think of it when you do get around to playing it Celeste!

I'm 22 hours in now and having a blast. The story is picking up and the cutscenes are just a joy to watch. Seriously, the cutscenes are so good in this game. It's like playing through an awesome movie, except the movie has highly addictive gameplay too.

Speaking of gameplay, there are so many quests and things to do, it can almost be a bit overwhelming, but not quite. You do have to have a sense of direction and purpose when you play though, or else you might not get anything done. But mostly as long as you can follow directions well enough and can wrap your head around some complex RPG systems, you should be fine. It is a complex game. From the affinity system to the quests to the battle mechanics, it can get a little deep. It's never so deep that you are confused though, for the most part they do a great job of explaining everything, and you can view the millions of tutorials built in to the game on the tutorials menu page. So they did a great job making it as accessible as they could.

I'm spending some time going back through the previous zones I've been in to see if there's any new quests, and sure enough there are. So I'm cleaning those up before moving to the next major area, which would be the 3rd major zone I've been to so far. The second major zone was enormous and I really enjoyed exploring it. The game definitely seems massive and you will need to dedicate some time to it for sure. The music and visuals are gorgeous though. I'm quite happy that this game is on the Wii. Not only did it give me an excuse to buy the system, but it also seems to have pulled things off that may not have been capable on an HD system. For example, the game may not have been able to be as huge as it is if they had to make everything high res textures and all that. The budget may not have been big enough. That's just speculation though. I'm just thrilled that I'm able to own a Wii now and play a great RPG for it.

But anyway, looking forward to what else the game has in store for me. Check it out guys. Do not sleep on this game. If you like deep, satisfying JRPGs, you will almost certainly like Xenoblade.

 

[CelesteGB]

Last night I played the intro and have to say that, for me, it's a breath of fresh air. I like Jrpg's but have found that a lot of them are a little too angsty and over-dramatic. Another big turn-off is the squeaky-voiced female. So many jrpg's have them and this type of character will drive me up the wall. I had fired up FFXII and was getting used it but trying to ignore the one squeaky girl. Hopefully, I'll get back into that one day. I lived in Okinawa for 4 years when I was young so I have an affinity to animé and jrpg's. Maybe it's my age but the squeaky girls drives me nuts

Back to Xenoblades...the voice acting and British accent were mighty refreshing! In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I will probably play it this weekend. I normally "try" to play my games roughly from oldest to newest but sometimes ya just gotta go for it

Fluent> Did you play Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3? I *really* liked that game. I chewed through it without a break and I forgot how many hours I put into it. I'm a sucker for cel-shading and the story was good without being overly dramatic (to me anyway)

 

[Kendrik]

It's quite nice hearing someone really enjoying a game without analysing every singel aspect and comparing and contrasting it. Your reaction reminds me of the first time I played Final Fantasy 6 (or 3 in the Western release). That game blew me away. It was sooo big and then just when you thought it was coming to an end ... it got bigger. I'm primarliy a fan of Hardcore Western RPG but I do have a soft spot for JRPG's. I should buy Xenoblade but like many others I have such a backlog of games to play that I can't really justify buying any more (apart from Legend of Grimrock of course )

 

[figment]

Damn soft spot for the Xeno games. The comment that it runs on dolphin and apparently with an xbox controller from other forms means I picked it up this morning despite hating Gamestop to see if I can make it work. After an hour of fiddling with dvd support apparently my main machine wont work but my 9 year old laptop has a supported DVD drive but will take 10 hours before I can try it.

 

[CelesteGB]

Oh figment...if we could compare unplayed game piles There are all those Steam Christmas deals, a ton of indie games in which I want to help the developers, the AAA titles, the DS, PSP....

I too bought Legend of Grimrock within an hour of release but I will have to wait to play it. They will have probably made new adventures for it by the time I get to it hehe.

 

[Deleted User]

I too have the same problem as you guys - too many games! Since buying a Wii it just made that problem a million times worse, because now there's about 20 games for the Wii and Virtual Console that I want to buy, and then some Gamecube games, and Wiiware games, and oh my…just way too many games I want to play.

Celeste - I haven't played Valkyria Chronicles, but from what I hear it's a great game. When I eventually pick up a PS3 that will be one of the first games I get for it.

I haven't noticed any whiny characters in Xenoblade, but then again I haven't met all the characters in the game yet, so maybe they're saving the whiny character for later . So far so good though. I actually really like all the characters. I especially like how they are constantly interacting in cutscenes and what not. It makes me care for them much more. There's also a cool addition called "Heart-to-Heart"s, which are basically little chats that certain party members have with one another. You unlock them by raising the affinity between party members and then it plays out like a little interactive cutscene. It adds some more depth to the characters which is always nice.

Figment - Let us know how it plays with an Xbox controller. Unfortunately you lose some functionality when you play the game with a controller - mainly you can't move while selecting Arts with a controller, like you can with the Wiimote and Nunchuk. That could pose a little bit of a problem in certain situations because some Arts need to be activated in certain positions, such as behind the monster, or on it's side. You'll have to move into position then try to quickly select the art and hope the monster doesn't move in the meantime. But yeah, let us know what you think of it when you get around to playing it!

 

[figment]

Thanks for the heads up about the controller. I'm going to assume that since they officially support using one that it will not be overly difficult to deal with. Just in a disadvantage as a result.

The chat thing sounds familiar from other jRPGs. I want to remember that Star Ocean did something like that. Of course the western RPGS like BG2 did that really well as well. It does give the game a nice touch when done well.

Also wanted to pick up Valkyria Chronicles just never did. Sort of went pure digital (aka steam) for everything for past couple of years and only buying dvds in rare cases like this. Really hope the next generation of consoles embrace that concept.

 

[JDR13]

Your reaction reminds me of the first time I played Final Fantasy 6 (or 3 in the Western release). That game blew me away. It was sooo big and then just when you thought it was coming to an end … it got bigger. I'm primarliy a fan of Hardcore Western RPG but I do have a soft spot for JRPG's.

Final Fantasy 6 was a great game. I played the original SNES version back in the day and then again when it was rereleased on PS1. I've played every FF game up until FF X, and the SNES titles (4, 5, & 6) remain my favorites.

I rarely play any jRPGs nowadays though. My backlog of PC titles doesn't allow that.

Damn soft spot for the Xeno games. The comment that it runs on dolphin and apparently with an xbox controller from other forms means I picked it up this morning despite hating Gamestop to see if I can make it work. After an hour of fiddling with dvd support apparently my main machine wont work but my 9 year old laptop has a supported DVD drive but will take 10 hours before I can try it.

It does indeed run well on Dolphin, at least what I've played so far. It also plays great with my Logitech dual-analog gamepad. I wasn't aware that Dolphin supported DVD drives, but if I were you I'd just go ahead and download the ISO. It wouldn't be pirating since you own a copy of the game, and it might be more stable than trying to run it off the disc.

 

[figment]

It doesn't support the drive directly, I did have to use a dump tool which indeed took 10 hours to complete but works fine by all accounts. Next part was that I needed a special build of Dolphin with improved sound handling for XB (available on Dolphin forum) and replacement images for buttons (also on that forum). Also grabbed a HD image project (had to rename files from SX4P01 to SX4E01) but its just in its infancy but any little part helps.

Had to fiddle with settings to make it happy and key was using the "Classic" extension on the Wiimote to enable the controller. Looks like I'm missing 2 buttons but they don't use all of the buttons afaict so remapped unused ones.

After that ran out of time and got through the first set of scenes. Now to find some long contiguous blocks of time to complete it. Another great feature of dolphin the snapshot saves so you can save in the middle of battle or cutscenes and not have to wait for menu access.

--
There aren't many JRPGs being made these days really (at least for western audiences). I think I played FFXIII last but just wasn't the same as the old classics which were much more non-linear (or at least gave that illusion). It may be for the best as I dont have time for it so 1 or 2 a year is good enough. Xenogears was a favorite of mine from the PS1 era which had a ton of great jRPGs.

 

[Deleted User]

If you guys like JRPGs make sure to check out Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon if you haven't yet, which were both developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the guy behind the first 9 Final Fantasy games. They are Xbox 360 exclusives and well worth checking out. They both feature some great old-school type gameplay. yet are new and unique games in their own right. Highly recommended for fans of JRPGs. Lost Odyssey especially feels like a true old-school Final Fantasy game.

Also, Enchanted Arms is a pretty cool game too. At least what I was able to complete of it - I ran into a boss that was too hard and I had to grind a few levels to beat him, and I just never went back and did that - but the gameplay is really cool and unique. You basically have monsters that fight for you in turn-based, grid-based battles. It's very strategic and engaging, and a blast to use all the different monsters to find your favorites. I think it came out for all next gen consoles minus the Wii. Worth checking out as well if you like strategic battle systems in your JRPGs.

But back to Xenoblade. I'm now a celebrity in Colony 9 . Pretty cool. New quests are popping up with some really nice rewards. The townsfolk are also saying new things when I talk to them, telling me about secret areas, secret doors, landscapes that change based on the time of day, amongst other interesting things. There seems to be a lot of mysteries to uncover in this game if you really dig into it. I guess that's like any good JRPG really. There's always some secrets to uncover as you progress through the game.

 

[Ball_Breaker]

If you guys like JRPGs make sure to check out Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon if you haven't yet, which were both developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the guy behind the first 9 Final Fantasy games. They are Xbox 360 exclusives and well worth checking out. They both feature some great old-school type gameplay. yet are new and unique games in their own right. Highly recommended for fans of JRPGs. Lost Odyssey especially feels like a true old-school Final Fantasy game.

Also, Enchanted Arms is a pretty cool game too. At least what I was able to complete of it - I ran into a boss that was too hard and I had to grind a few levels to beat him, and I just never went back and did that - but the gameplay is really cool and unique. You basically have monsters that fight for you in turn-based, grid-based battles. It's very strategic and engaging, and a blast to use all the different monsters to find your favorites. I think it came out for all next gen consoles minus the Wii. Worth checking out as well if you like strategic battle systems in your JRPGs.

But back to Xenoblade. I'm now a celebrity in Colony 9 . Pretty cool. New quests are popping up with some really nice rewards. The townsfolk are also saying new things when I talk to them, telling me about secret areas, secret doors, landscapes that change based on the time of day, amongst other interesting things. There seems to be a lot of mysteries to uncover in this game if you really dig into it. I guess that's like any good JRPG really. There's always some secrets to uncover as you progress through the game.

Lost Odyssey, what a game... Too bad that my xbox got broken a couple of years ago, I was at the disc 4 and doin' all the secondary stuff to power up my characters. Probably the last jrpg that I've enjoyed in a long time...
Really, I want to like FFXIII, but it's way too much linear imho; also, I don't like the combat system, but probably I'll turn back on it when I'll have time and will to go further .
As for Enchanted Arms, it's a nice game too; I've gone through halfway, and I consider it pretty decent, although LO is superior by me.
And one more thing: there are two patches for Xenoblade that allow
1) 30 FPS just like Japanese version;
2) Using Xbox icons instead of Nintendo ones;
They're both for Dolphin, check them out: http://wiki.dolphin-emulator.com/index.php?title=Xenoblade_Chronicles

 

[CelesteGB]

JDR13> Why did you quit at FFX? Did you think the "heart" of the series had changed? I played the first 2 that were released in North America but of course never finished them. I also have FFX, FFXII and FFIII just...because. One reason why I don't attempt to play them is I know I will be in for a loooong playthrough.

I, too, am a pc gamer but I still can't stay away from buying console games Lately though I've been playing more console games mainly because I found that my kids ignore me when I'm playing a game in my bedroom If I go downstairs, it's "Mom, look at this!", "Mom, I built this in minecraft so come and look!" and so on.

I also have Lost Odyssey and have wanted to really give it a go but I feel like such a failure when I can't hit that "perfect" button My 18 year old played it but stopped because he got stuck on a boss and he's a pretty good player so I was left thinking that if he can't get past a boss, how could i? Then again, he's impatient and will try to plow through anything *rolls eyes* Did anyone else have issues with really hard bosses?

 

[JDR13]

It doesn't support the drive directly, I did have to use a dump tool which indeed took 10 hours to complete but works fine by all accounts. Next part was that I needed a special build of Dolphin with improved sound handling for XB (available on Dolphin forum) and replacement images for buttons (also on that forum). Also grabbed a HD image project (had to rename files from SX4P01 to SX4E01) but its just in its infancy but any little part helps.

I tried that special build, but it kept randomly freezing up on me. Now I'm just using 3.0 and it seems to run perfectly.

Xenogears was a favorite of mine from the PS1 era which had a ton of great jRPGs.

I actually thought most of the RPGs for the PS1 were pretty mediocre, but that's also around the time I started losing interest in most console-style RPGs. I did finish Xenogears though. I remember liking the music and atmosphere, but the story was a convoluted mess, and the game was too long for its own good.

My favorite RPGs for the PS1 were those developed by From Software. (King's Field series and Shadow Tower.)

And one more thing: there are two patches for Xenoblade that allow
1) 30 FPS just like Japanese version;
2) Using Xbox icons instead of Nintendo ones;
They're both for Dolphin, check them out: http://wiki.dolphin-emulator.com/index.php?title=Xenoblade_Chronicles

I saw the 30 FPS patch, but I don't quite understand what the purpose is. I know the PAL version of the game only runs at 25 FPS on the Wii, but I'm already getting 30+ FPS on Dolphin.

 

[JDR13]

JDR13> Why did you quit at FFX? Did you think the "heart" of the series had changed? I played the first 2 that were released in North America but of course never finished them. I also have FFX, FFXII and FFIII just…because. One reason why I don't attempt to play them is I know I will be in for a loooong playthrough.

I started losing interest in the series after FF 8, which I thought was mediocre. I forced myself to play through FF 9, but I didn't enjoy that one either.

I only played a few hours of FF X, and I hated it. I felt like I was spending more time watching cinematics than playing an RPG. The world and characters also didn't appeal to me at all.

I did like what I've played of FF XII though, especially the combat system, and I'd like to go back and give that one a try if I ever had the time.

 

[Deleted User]

Celeste, there are a few tough bosses in Lost Odyssey, and 2 of the tougher ones are found right at the beginning of the game. They aren't impossible though, and I personally didn't have any problem with them, but I know some people did. Other than those 2 bosses and a couple of optional bosses at the end of the game, the rest of the game is pretty easy. So I wouldn't be too worried about it if I were you.

You guys shouldn't sleep on Blue Dragon though. Yes, it looks like a kid's game, with it's very colorful world and cartoonish art style. But beneath the look of the game is a very high quality RPG with some really great systems in place. The combat system is a lot of fun and the story and cutscenes are great. If you give it a chance it is a game that can definitely grow on you, but don't give up if it doesn't automatically hook you at first. It takes time. But once it does hook you, it's a really fun ride all the way to the end.

 

[Scrav]

The only thing I liked about Blue Dragon was the boss music. While it was a high quality production, I found the game far too easy with too much focus on a younger audience.

Lost Odyssey was quite an interesting game discounting the main plot line and kid characters. The historical stories were fantastic and reached a new depth for rpgs. I still don't rank it as an exceptional game though.

This console generation still struggles to match the quality of last generation games (such as Persona 4 and Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken).

 

[figment]

Lost Odyssey was hands down the best jRPG for XBox 360 in my opinion but there is very little competition there so its not a hard bar to cross. And agreed the tail end of the main plot was disappointing as well as the kids were annoying. The stories did indeed make the game and I'd love to see writing and style done like that again.

I considered Blue Dragon at the time but the graphics did put me off from trying it but also several reviews indicated seemed to indicate that it lacked a 'soul' so I passed on it.

Not sure I ever completed Persona 4 but did go through Persona 3 quite thoroughly. P4 felt too much like P3 in style so I think I gave up due to length after a while. I generally liked the story of Shadow Hearts 1&2 (except the campy parts) but its combat relied heavily on button timing (which I didn't find too hard but could easily be seen as annoying).

 

[Ball_Breaker]

I still have to go through Shadow Hearts; too bad that it requires more hardware than The Witcher 2 to run it with PCSX2 and trying to upscale graphics .