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Hero-of-Time

Xenoblade Chronicles X (4th Dec)

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Xenoblade is a top, top game. You know that means something, coming from me. ;)

 

Don't deny yourself this gem. One of the best JRPGs of the last generation, easily.

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I tried to play it on the Wii and it was to dark, I could barely see anything, then I've just stopped.

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If you can look past the rough edges there is a decent JRPG to be played. I don't dish out the praise for this game like other N-E members ( FAR better JRPGs out there ) but it's still worth a punt. The soundtrack is probably the best thing about the game. You could save your money and just listen to that on YouTube. :D

 

It's not the rough edges, it was literally to dark, I could hardly see anything. Maybe it was just the beginning or something on the TV settings.

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It's not the rough edges, it was literally to dark, I could hardly see anything. Maybe it was just the beginning or something on the TV settings.

 

@Hero\-of\-Time is right in that the soundtrack is probably the best thing about the game. It's a fantastic soundtrack, one of the best I've ever heard.

 

Maybe alter your brightness settings on the television. I don't remember it being too dark at all, unless you were in some sort of cave...but even then, I never had any problems with it. If you're in the overworld and you're running through a landscape and can't see much because it's too dark (and it's daytime of course) then your tv settings need configuring.

 

As for this game, I really, really like it, but there are also a few things that infuriate me about the game.

 

Please don't read below, Kounan.

 

The difficulty spikes/Boss fights in this game are...unfair at times. To the point where it becomes a little tedious and it takes away a lot of the fun.

 

The item collecting (for certain missions, like the Colony Rebuilding quest) is really, really, really shit. It's too random. There's no real logic to it. You go to a location that you KNOW contains the item you're looking for, and it's down to luck whether you actually come across the item or not. I spent close to two hours once confined to one specific stretch of land trying to find three lots of one item...barely got one after that time. It's a shit gameplay mechanic and I'm angry just thinking about it.

 

Shadow of Mordor showed you how to do this sort of mechanic properly. Each "region" of land contains a certain amount of herbs. There are symbols that are placed on the map next to each region that tell you which herbs are found within that region. It's much more fair and it actually feels like you are collecting (which is what you're meant to be doing) rather than whatever you were doing in Xenoblade, which is random.

 

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My time has been so limited with Xenoblade Chronicles over the last few days that I find myself itching to get back to it! I really hope that feeling lasts :heh:

 

A positive experience could nudge X onto my radar..

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My time has been so limited with Xenoblade Chronicles over the last few days that I find myself itching to get back to it! I really hope that feeling lasts :heh:

 

A positive experience could nudge X onto my radar..

 

I honestly don't think you should play Xenoblade. No offence but this game doesn't seem to fit with your gaming habits and you could end up just wasting time that could be used to play something more fitting to your needs.

 

The game is around 80 hours long and that's probably a time more fitting to the lower end of the scale. Do you think you have the stamina for such a game? :heh:

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I wish there were more bitesize 10ish hour RPGs. It's what puts me off the genre, I know I'll need to devote 100 hours (including lots of grinding) to it.

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I honestly don't think you should play Xenoblade. No offence but this game doesn't seem to fit with your gaming habits and you could end up just wasting time that could be used to play something more fitting to your needs.

 

The game is around 80 hours long and that's probably a time more fitting to the lower end of the scale. Do you think you have the stamina for such a game? :heh:

 

Tempted to agree with this, @/nando/

 

Although, it's a difficult one to assess. On paper, I'd say it's something you wouldn't enjoy. But maybe it'll surprise you. If you've already got the game, play it and see how you find it. I love the battle system. You'll probably know within a few hours or so how you feel about it.

 

I do think it's worth experiencing.

 

I wish there were more bitesize 10ish hour RPGs. It's what puts me off the genre, I know I'll need to devote 100 hours (including lots of grinding) to it.

 

I didn't do an awful lot of grinding with this, especially when you do the sidequests. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a few points where the difficult spike is a bit ridiculous.

 

Part of the thing with RPGs is that they usually contain bigger worlds, tons of quests within them and a lot of the focus is on the plot. (cutscenes, storytelling, character development) There probably are quite a lot of shorter RPGs out there, but you just need to find them.

 

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that the game is huge. In fact, it's a very, very good thing. Especially since the world is beautiful to look at and there's lots to see and discover.

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Just saw that they uploaded some videos of Xenoblade Wii up on the eShop. First time they've ever released trailers alongside the digital release of a Wii game (and they're not old trailers either, they actually bothered to capture/edit new footage of the Wii version of the game)

 

Nice to see NOE put the effort in :) You can tell that they're really gonna be pushing Xenoblade X hard as the big Xmas game for Wii U (especially since Zelda is gone now)

 

I wish there were more bitesize 10ish hour RPGs. It's what puts me off the genre, I know I'll need to devote 100 hours (including lots of grinding) to it.

 

I agree. Most RPGs are far too long for their own good, artificially stretched out with tons of padding...

 

Xenoblade is an extremely rare exception though where I really can't say it's too long at all. 70-80 hours long without sidequests and no padding at all! Incredible!

 

But yeah, I wish that there were more RPGs around the length of Chrono Trigger or Mario RPG.

Edited by Dcubed

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Just saw that they uploaded some videos of Xenoblade Wii up on the eShop. First time they've ever released trailers alongside the digital release of a Wii game (and they're not old trailers either, they actually bothered to capture/edit new footage of the Wii version of the game)

 

Nice to see NOE put the effort in :) You can tell that they're really gonna be pushing Xenoblade X hard as the big Xmas game for Wii U (especially since Zelda is gone now)

 

 

 

I agree. Most RPGs are far too long for their own good, artificially stretched out with tons of padding...

 

Xenoblade is an extremely rare exception though where I really can't say it's too long at all. 70-80 hours long without sidequests and no padding at all! Incredible!

 

But yeah, I wish that there were more RPGs around the length of Chrono Trigger or Mario RPG.

 

Did you not do the sidequests?

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Did you not do the sidequests?

 

I didn't do all of them on my first playthrough, just some of them (a big chunk of them were done along the way passively).

 

If you did all of them you're probably looking at about 150+ hours.

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I didn't do all of them on my first playthrough, just some of them (a big chunk of them were done along the way passively).

 

If you did all of them you're probably looking at about 150+ hours.

 

I did quite a lot of them and think my game-time was around the...110 mark? Might be a bit less than that.

 

Tempted to go back through and do the game on New Game+ one day. Should be good fun.

 

These new characters in X better be half as likeable as they were in previous.

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I didn't do all of them on my first playthrough, just some of them (a big chunk of them were done along the way passively).

 

If you did all of them you're probably looking at about 150+ hours.

 

Should point out that he got this information from me.

It was a New Game + run on the 3DS version with quite a lot of knowledge from previous playthroughs and a guide available so I knew where every quest was.

I missed nothing. Every character was on Level 99, (You actually got 99 tokens for doing that in the 3DS version) finished rebuilding colony 6 and I got every skill tree. Honestly, except for the Skill trees, it's not really worth doing the rest.

 

Those skill trees are totally brilliant though. If you decide to go through a new game +, @Fierce_LiNk, aim for those.

 

These new characters in X better be half as likeable as they were in previous.

 

I've got my money firmly set on "nope" for that. The American accents just won't be the same...

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I honestly don't think you should play Xenoblade. No offence but this game doesn't seem to fit with your gaming habits and you could end up just wasting time that could be used to play something more fitting to your needs.

 

The game is around 80 hours long and that's probably a time more fitting to the lower end of the scale. Do you think you have the stamina for such a game? :heh:

 

It's not like I've never played long games before :heh:

 

Things like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a long, but awesome, experience at over 40 hours long :smile:

 

Ultimately, if the game is fun and I get into it, I can see myself having a great adventure :grin:

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It's not like I've never played long games before :heh:

 

Things like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a long, but awesome, experience at over 40 hours long :smile:

 

Ultimately, if the game is fun and I get into it, I can see myself having a great adventure :grin:

 

..and yet, roughly an hour later, I may be done. I've reached a boss battle against Mechon M71, a fight that gave me a ridiculous amount of trouble last time I tried to play the game, and despite eventually beating it last time and adding a few more hours on top of that, the frustration is getting the better of me this time :hmm:

 

It makes me think that if I'm really struggling so much this early on it's going to be a nightmare later on. I'm not having fun anymore :sad:

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..and yet, roughly an hour later, I may be done. I've reached a boss battle against Mechon M71, a fight that gave me a ridiculous amount of trouble last time I tried to play the game, and despite eventually beating it last time and adding a few more hours on top of that, the frustration is getting the better of me this time :hmm:

 

It makes me think that if I'm really struggling so much this early on it's going to be a nightmare later on. I'm not having fun anymore :sad:

 

Uhhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the first Mechon you fight, when Colony 9 gets attacked?

 

Because I specifically remember the game actively telling you exactly how to beat it before that battle starts.

If you're Shulk, use skills that inflict Break, if you're Reyn, wait until Shulk inflicts Break, then use Wild Down.

Once it's toppled, hit it hard.

 

May I ask what was tripping you up about it?

Not trying to be insulting, by the way, just curious.

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Uhhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the first Mechon you fight, when Colony 9 gets attacked?

 

Because I specifically remember the game actively telling you exactly how to beat it before that battle starts.

If you're Shulk, use skills that inflict Break, if you're Reyn, wait until Shulk inflicts Break, then use Wild Down.

Once it's toppled, hit it hard.

 

May I ask what was tripping you up about it?

Not trying to be insulting, by the way, just curious.

 

Ahhh, the ol' break topple and daze! The combat system for Xenoblade definitely made it much more tolerable for me as a JRPG - I'm really not sure if I'll be feeling the changes they're making for X though. Really lost most of my excitement for the game now - just taking far too long! Do we even have a UK date as yet?

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Uhhh, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the first Mechon you fight, when Colony 9 gets attacked?

 

Because I specifically remember the game actively telling you exactly how to beat it before that battle starts.

If you're Shulk, use skills that inflict Break, if you're Reyn, wait until Shulk inflicts Break, then use Wild Down.

Once it's toppled, hit it hard.

 

May I ask what was tripping you up about it?

Not trying to be insulting, by the way, just curious.

 

It's definitely not that one as that was straightforward :heh:

 

This is a boss with tentacles who appears not long after Juju tried to run off to Colony 6 by himself. I beat the first phase after a few attempts but then lost heavily a couple of times on the second phase and I just had to wonder if I could really be arsed with this :hmm:

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I bought the game for £9.99 in GAME a few years ago and it came with the Red Classic Controller Pro so I ultimately got a pretty good deal regardless of my feelings towards the game right now :heh:

 

It probably isn't the sort of game I would buy in my current state of mind, meaning Xenoblade Chronicles X is extremely unlikely to ever make it into my collection, but already owning it meant I wanted to try to embrace it and enjoy it like many others have done. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case :hmm:

 

Making this discovery early may be a blessing, though, as not having that 100-hour noose round my neck means I can finally free myself up for checking out the Splatoon update and continuing my enjoyment of Wii Sports Club :hehe:

 

casual-gamer.jpg

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It's definitely not that one as that was straightforward :heh:

 

This is a boss with tentacles who appears not long after Juju tried to run off to Colony 6 by himself. I beat the first phase after a few attempts but then lost heavily a couple of times on the second phase and I just had to wonder if I could really be arsed with this :hmm:

 

Ah, fair enough.

 

You got there in about an hour? I think that might be your problem. (That, or you're not using Monado Speed to dodge physical attacks you forsee)

 

I can imagine that playing it at that speed would leave you a little underleveled. Taking your time to explore stuff and find landmarks normally puts you at a reasonable level for boss fights.

 

But if you're not finding it fun, I would recommend you stop.

The game, while brilliant, is not for everyone. So I can understand where you're coming from.

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You got there in about an hour? I think that might be your problem. (That, or you're not using Monado Speed to dodge physical attacks you forsee).

 

I meant that I played about an hour more since making my previous post :heh: I'm in about 6 hours so far and have definitely been taking my time!

 

Speed is learnt going into the battle.. but maybe I'm just not using it properly or at the right time :red: I'll probably have another attempt at it later to see how I feel..

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I meant that I played about an hour more since making my previous post :heh: I'm in about 6 hours so far and have definitely been taking my time!

 

Ohhhhh!

My bad, man, I am just misunderstanding everything today!

 

Speed is learnt going into the battle.. but maybe I'm just not using it properly or at the right time :red: I'll probably have another attempt at it later to see how I feel..

 

After using Enchant, try saving the Monado meter for when you need to use Shield or Speed. Buster causes more problems than it solves in my opinion, I almost never use it.

Basically, if you see red text during a vision, use Speed, white text needs Shield.

And remember that Speed only works on one party member, so try not to draw aggro away from the target.

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It's definitely not that one as that was straightforward :heh:

 

This is a boss with tentacles who appears not long after Juju tried to run off to Colony 6 by himself. I beat the first phase after a few attempts but then lost heavily a couple of times on the second phase and I just had to wonder if I could really be arsed with this :hmm:

 

I think I know which battle you mean. Metalface?

 

Welcome to one of the difficulty spikes in this game. :p

 

It can be frustrating. My advice: Get yourself onto Youtube to see how somebody else does it. Sometimes you need to see what they're doing because it can feel incredibly overwhelming at times. Especially as you're fairly early on in this game and everything is a bit chaotic and quick.

 

It would be nice if you could get past this bit. There's a great game underneath it's moments of frustration.

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