Xenoblade Chronicles (Aug 19th)

[darksnowman]

At 2:08 I felt like firing up Twilight Princess and jumping from the bridge down to Lake Hylia.

[Fierce_LiNk]

This game seems absolutely huge. How many different locations did we see there?!

[Shino]

At 2:08 I felt like firing up Twilight Princess and jumping from the bridge down to Lake Hylia.

 

Can you do that in TP? From what I remember the lake was almost a closed system, accessible only by those clowns and teleports.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Can you do that in TP? From what I remember the lake was almost a closed system, accessible only by those clowns and teleports.

 

I'm pretty sure you could jump down? I think getting out of Lake Hylia was the problem?

 

I really need to play this again. Keep wanting to do another playthrough, just don't have the time.

[darksnowman]

Can you do that in TP? From what I remember the lake was almost a closed system, accessible only by those clowns and teleports.

 

Yup!

 

That was how you first got to Lake Hylia wasn't it? There was a battle on the bridge which culminated in you (as Wolf Link as far as I remember) getting knocked down below.

[Shino]

But from what I remember that was a single instance event, where there was a crate near one of the edges from which you jumped down. I mention this because I remember having some difficulty getting into Lake Hylia after that (and was really disappointed that I couldn't jump down again into a now full lake).

[Ganepark32]

You can jump down into the lake after that event. I think you have to change into Wolf Link when you get to the bridge and do it in a similar fashion to the bridge battle (where the bridge goes on fire and the only way off is to jump). Believe that's how you do it as I know I've done it many times outside of the scripted event when playing. You can also do it from within the clowns house at the top of the cliff, opting not to pick up a cuccoo and just jump off of the platform. Not quite the same level of excitement but it still works.

 

Anyway, yeh the scale on this is very impressive. I know a lot of people have complained about visuals elsewhere so no doubt this trailer itself should show exactly how good to game looks given how grand they've been with the scale and draw distance.

[Dante]

Close Look at Xenoblade's Fields

 

Large Map

You'll be able to move seamlessly through the game's vast world. The only loading you'll find is when moving between the various body parts of the world. Those who like to explore will find secrets hidden in areas away from your target location.

 

3D Field Construction

The Xenoblade fields are not just vast, but have height as well. You'll be able to make your character jump as you move through the fields. You can also leap down from heights, although you may end up incurring damage.

 

 

△(right): Incurring damage after a fall.

 

Support

 

The game includes a variety of support features that assist as you move through the vast fields. These features include:

• Warp to previously visited landmarks by selecting them from your map
  
• Your target area is indicated by an arrow at the top of the screen
  
• You can freely change the in-game time
  
• You can save anywhere
  

△(left): Selecting a location from the map. The area shown is Colony 9, the home base for the main characters. (right): A pointer shows you the way.

 

△(left): You can advance and rewind the time here via the Wiimote d-pad. (right): The in-game save menu. Z accesses a Story Memo.

 

It does seem that time will play a role in the game. A few of the time aspects are detailed in the World part of the site, which now has a section titled "City and Life."

 

Xenoblade will have a full day cycle. The people of the Kyojin part of the world all have unique personalities, and make different movements depending on if its morning, noon, or night.

 

You'll be able to listen to the worries and requests of NPCs in order to bring about changes to their lives, allowing you to delve into the game's deep story.

 

The site also provided screens showing many of the locals from the trailer.

Edited May 7, 2010 by Dante

[LostOverThere]

Wow, apart from those hideous clouds this game looks quite impressive. Especially those magnificent draw distances.

[Nolan]

 

Mana Tree?

[Shino]

 

Mana Tree?

 

With a Mana crystal inside? At this moment the main reason I'm still sceptical of this, is the probable use of JRPG clichés and storyline.

[killer kirby]

With a Mana crystal inside? At this moment the main reason I'm still sceptical of this, is the probable use of JRPG clichés and storyline.

 

I am fully confident that this game will perhaps have the best story this gen for a while...all of the Xeno games have been beyond truly epic in terms of story telling and making it not sound like a Final Animu story.

[LostOverThere]

I am fully confident that this game will perhaps have the best story this gen for a while...all of the Xeno games have been beyond truly epic in terms of story telling and making it not sound like a Final Animu story.

Bear in mind two things:

 

1. This game is not a true Xeno game.

2. The developers have said it will be light on cutscenes.

Edited May 8, 2010 by LostOverThere
Automerged Doublepost

[killer kirby]

Bear in mind two things:

 

1. This game is not a true Xeno game.

2. The developers have said it will be light on cutscenes.

 

1.It's not the same Xeno game of course I know that, but Xenogears and Xenosaga weren't connected between one another either.

 

It's got the Xeno on it to pay tribute to the guys who are working on this game who ARE the guys that made Xenogears and Xenosaga.

 

2.Most games I love don't rely on cutscenes though, it's funny when some companies finally figure out that they are making a game and not a movie. Dialog on the other hand...Baten Kaitos Origins is a true masterpiece, and the only like special cutscene was at the start, and the game had perhaps one of the greatest stories ever written in a game.

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

1.It's not the same Xeno game of course I know that, but Xenogears and Xenosaga weren't connected between one another either.

 

It's got the Xeno on it to pay tribute to the guys who are working on this game who ARE the guys that made Xenogears and Xenosaga.

 

2.Most games I love don't rely on cutscenes though, it's funny when some companies finally figure out that they are making a game and not a movie. Dialog on the other hand...Baten Kaitos Origins is a true masterpiece, and the only like special cutscene was at the start, and the game had perhaps one of the greatest stories ever written in a game.

 

You really make me want to give the original Baten Kaitos another chance and then import Origins afterwards. Stop it. I don't have the time.

[killer kirby]

You really make me want to give the original Baten Kaitos another chance and then import Origins afterwards. Stop it. I don't have the time.

 

Fuck the first one, as long as you know the basics of what the story is about thats all you need....

 

IMPORT BATEN KAITOS ORIGINS!!!! that game is like 100000000000000x better then the first one.

[LostOverThere]

You make some good points, killer_kirby, especially that of Video Games are not movies. This I can agree with especially

[D_prOdigy]

Nice battle system

 

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

That actually looks incredibly fun.

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

Iwata Asks Lots of People About Xenoblade's Music

The conversation took place at Monolith's headquarters, outside Nakameguro Station in central Tokyo. Iwata recalled when he lived in this particular area, from his fourth year of college to the first four years of his independent adult life.

 

Once he was finished reminiscing about his former home, Iwata asked Takahashi to describe his role on Xenoblade. Takahashi is actually "overall director," which in this case means he has a hand in everything from the start of the project to the writing of the scenario, all the way to debugging.

 

Takahashi proceeded to introduce the musicians who were next to him, noting that Xenoblade's sound component was made with this six person team.

 

Much of what he said here about Shimomura and Mitsuda was mentioned in the Famitsu interview. Takahashi has a long history with these two. For Mitsuda, the two worked together on Xenosaga. For Shimomura, while they've never done a project together, they were coworkers at Square.

 

As detailed in the Famitsu interview, Mitsuda's role in Xenoblade was to create the game's ending theme song, something that Takahashi wanted to have simply because of the "Xeno" in the title (the "Xeno" is just an homage to past Xeno games -- Xenoblade has no actual relation to them). Shimomura's role wasn't as clear from the Famitsu article, but here Takahashi said that he asked her to do such things as the game's main theme and opening song. The reason he selected Shimomura was because he wanted Xenoblade to have a different feel from his previous works.

 

Similar to Shimomura, Xenoblade represented the first time Takahashi has worked with Manami Kyota and the three ACE+ members. Takahashi was introduced to the four through Dog Year Records, a studio from legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. He ended up asking Kyota to do event and field songs. ACE+ was also asked to do field and event songs as well as battle music.

 

Kyota's dealings with Nintendo go a ways back, though. She did some music for 2009's Pokepark Wii and also sung (yes, sung -- not composed) the theme song for 2008's Glory of Heracles. She was asked by Dog Year Records if he wanted to work on composition for Xenoblade, and she jumped at the chance. She was particularly excited because she recalled having heard Shimomura and Mitsuda's soundtracks in games she played in junior high.

 

ACE+ is normally just ACE and consists of Chico and Tomori. When they add Hiramatsu, they become Ace+. Chico and Tomori had previous game experience through work on Minna de Tamagotchi for the Nintendo 64. Chico also sung the theme song for Luminous Arc 3 Eyes.

 

Moving on to a discussion of Xenoblade, Takahashi spoke about his concept for the game's musical component. He wanted to avoid focusing on a particular genre or instrument. Worried about giving the game a monotone image, he wanted to make use of a variety of instruments.

 

He also wanted to turn things up a bit for the RPG genre. Xenoblade is an RPG, and thus needs RPG-style battle scenes, but he wanted to use instruments that break that feel a bit.

 

Chico recalled Takahashi telling her from the start that he wanted to not deliver an RPG-like feel. However, he also said that he wanted them to do things normally, which left her a bit confused

 

Why the need for so many musicians? Takahashi explained that the game has 90 songs. This, Iwata said, seems to be a huge number.

 

Having music from so many musicians seems to have presented some challenges.

 

When requesting songs from someone like Mitsuda, because they've worked together so much in the past, Takahashi only had to detail the general atmosphere and he could leave Mitsuda to do his work.

 

However,, Takahashi had to be careful to keep the game's audio component from sounding scattered due to the individual color given by each musician. He came up with an image for the songs that he felt would fit each scene, and although he felt it might be a bit rude, he gave sample songs to the musicians and asked for something with the same feel.

 

Takahashi feels that, in the end, the game's aural component shows the personal qualities of the various composers while at the same time making it hard to see who made what.

 

Mitsuda seems to feel that making everything come together was one of his tasks. As detailed above, his work was just on the epilogue track. However, he felt that he had to make the ending connect with everything by summing up the prior pieces. This caused him great worries as he wrote his part.

 

Incidentally, the epilogue is a vocal track. The lyrics were written by Takahashi.

[Dante]

[STOOPIDDITTIES]

So I take it the way the battle system plays is not unlike that of FFXII?

[daftada]

That suits me - i liked the ff12 battle system!

 

This game looks fantastic, even better than mh tri. And the soundtrack is pretty damn good too from what i've heard. Shimumura and mitsuda are two of my fave vg composers. Looks like this is a day one purchase for me!

[Dante]

[Dante]

The game got 9/9/9/9 from Famitsu

 

 

Producer: Shingo Kawabata

Supervising Director/Scenario: Tetsuya Takahashi

Director: Keiichi Ono

Script: Yuichiro Takeda

 

Yuichiro Takeda did

Banner of the Stars (TV) : Screenplay

Banner of the Stars II (TV) : Screenplay, Series Supervision

Black Cat (TV) : Script

Brave King GaoGaiGar Final Grand Glorious Gathering (TV) : Script

Gin-iro no Olynssis (TV) : Series Composition, Script, Screenplay

Infinite Ryvius (TV) : Screenplay

Kyokujitsu no Kantai (OAV) : Screenplay

Nurse Angel Ririka SOS (TV) : Script (6 episodes)

Shin Cho Bakumatsu Shonen Seiki Takamaru (OAV) : Screenplay (eps 2, 4, 6)

Xenosaga: The Animation (TV) : Scenario, Script (Supervisor)

Zipang (TV) : Script