Xenoblade Chronicles

X might have had an unengaging main plot and meh characters, but I found it to have the overall best narrative of the 3 Xenobalde games by far. Humanity's struggle to survival was more unique and interesting than the relatively standard (at least until the endgame) revenge/save the world stories.

As for sci-fi vs fantasy, in 2 itself the sci-fi elements had me pondering the story and themes much more than the adventure in the first 70% of the game. I do think Alrest not feeling very cohesive hurt it a lot more than it should've.

Alrest's biggest problem was probably what was designed to be its big worldbuilding selling point, that being the titans. They feel cramped compared to the ridiculously oversized worlds of the previous two games, and without the ability to travel between them then there's no real sense of coherency. Should've kept the titan ship, and had a sailing minigame. That might have helped?

Honestly, the only real theme I took notice of in X was the transhumanist theme toward the end. That was interesting and I'll admit to borrowing some of Elma's words when discussing the subject with others. Specifically the stuff about your body not being the same at a cellular level when you wake up as it was when you went to sleep, and digital transcription of a human brain into a computer or a new body is basically the same thing, just scarier sounding.

Mira itself is a boring setting to me. I like XC1's two dead titans, and while the multitude of titans in XC2 are a bit less distinct/interconnected, I LOVE the Seven Deadly Sins theme they've got going.

edited 12th May '18 9:24:31 PM by Anomalocaris20

@Ultimate: I kind of agree. Like, the concept of having the world be on titans that move around is really cool, but as far as the actual designs of the maps go, X felt way more open and interesting. Like, putting aside the titan aspect, most of the actual maps aren't really that unusual as far as design goes. Gormott is a pretty standard prairie surrounded by mountains, Temperantia and Mor Adain are basically wastelands, etc. Whereas in X even Primordia looked alien, if only because of the rock formations.

That isn't to say that 2's world is bad, just that X's felt like it was built to explore, whereas in 2 it's pretty clear that the world is more designed around the story and side missions.

I can agree with this. I wanted to explore every inch of Mira but Alrest? Not so much.

Maybe. I mean, I can understand why they didn't. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is infamous for its endless sailing, but it does do an excellent job of making the world feel huge. I guess there are other options between "fast travel wherever you want, whenever you want" and "make you sail every freaking inch of the ocean."

Having one town per Titan also made them feel tiny. Mention was made of other settlements on Gormott or Mor Ardain, but since we never had the opportunity to see them, we're left with the impression that Gormott is basically one big plain and some mountains, Uraya is some dark tunnels (with a couple cool side passages, but on your first visit it's too easy to get lost due to poor objective mapping), and Mor Ardain is just dry plains. It doesn't feel real enough.

edited 12th May '18 10:06:48 PM by Discar

Yeah, in general each of them feels smaller because there isn't as much in each area. In X, at least the areas are interconnected, so they feel larger. As is, they don't quite feel continent-sized. I think it would've helped if they had reduced the number of titans and made each one bigger. Not to mention you could've gotten some story mileage out of having two nations fighting over one titan.

@next monolith game : Nah, you can forget getting XCX 2 anytime soon, the next project they announced is going full medieval fantasy. There's some artworks lying around, IIRC, and of course plenty of articles about it.

And I really second the part about mira feeling more alien than alrest. Every single area felt so plain and boring. Temperentia is probably one of the biggest offenders : it's HUGE but it's almost completely empty. Gormott also has it bad because it's bound to be compared to bionis's leg since they share the same concept and overall ook, and bionis's leg is so much better. more scenery, more diverse...

Same goes for the areas all being unconnected, although I'm not sure a sailing minigame would have fixed it for me. Fast travel isn't so much the problem, there was that in 1 already and it worked, but I think with the titans being completely disconnected from each other, you lose the sense of going forward. It's like when climbing a mountain, once you're at the top you think about where you started and think "man, it feels so distant now". You can't feel that with the titans because no matter which titan you're on or which one you want to go, you can go to the one you want by boat.

The theme naming thing with the seven sins did strictly nothing for me, honestly. Some of them are just kinda there with little to no reason (gormott, uraya), and, overall, I felt it had no relevance to the story as a whole, mostly because we're never dealing with the population of a titan as whole, just isolated individuals, so they could be from wherever they want and it wouldn't change a thing to the narrative.

edited 13th May '18 5:29:15 AM by Yumil

Ah nuts. I'm sick of seeing pure fantasy RP Gs. It's why Xenoblade was so appealing to me; they tried something different.

2 is not a pure fantasy RPG. Not even close. It's hard to explain, but sort of think of it like a sci-fi setting papered over with fantasy. Yeah there are magical fire swords and whatnot, but all the "magic items" have Tron Lines, the "magic" is spoken of in very precise scientific terms (there's not much Techno Babble, though), and... well, spoilers. But it's not a pure fantasy RPG.

Hence why it remained appealing. I'd hate to see the Xenoblade franchise lose its identity.

Given Monolith's history, I'm not expecting their next game to actually be pure fantasy. There's going to be some massive Sci-Fi twist in the second act, you just wait.

Not even in baten kaitos ?

and Baten Kaitos was almost entirely fantasy. Even Alfard had more of a steampunk aesthetic - the closest anything got to full sci-fi was a specific area at the very end of Origins. The setting had a distinctive visual flavor that varies a lot between locations (not to mention ridiculously gorgeous backgrounds). It also had several worldbuilding quirks that helped set it apart from Generic Medieval Fantasy #18472947, and some of them had direct applications in gameplay.

Speaking of which, there was a piece of concept art a while back that looked a lot like a specific place in Baten Kaitos, but nothing ever came of it, and I'm still disappointed about that. This new artwork has more credibility since it's connected to something they were hiring for, but these◊ pictures◊ were supposed to be tied to a 3DS project they wanted people for, and that never happened either. I'll probably be interested in this new thing, but I'll believe it when it's actually announced.

edited 13th May '18 2:20:32 PM by SapphireBlue

Finally got Vale. Now it's time to download the DLC pack and get T-elos and Poppibuster. After that I'm maxing out Ursula's affinity chart (Kill me), maxing out KOS-MOS affinity chart for a Fast Blade Switch VI for Ursula and force feeding all of the Blades so they can be S+ for Challenge Mode.

@Anomalocaris: Wait, what's the Seven Deadly Sins for the titans in Xenoblade 2? That sounds super interesting but I can't quite place some of them. Mind elaborating? I'd love to hear about that in more detail.

If you've got access to the DLC quests, do the Cleared Of All Charges quest from set 2. It unlocks a trio of 30 minute long repeatable merc missions that give out somewhere between 200-300 Trust per Blade every deployment. It's really useful if you want to sit back and grind Trust with minimal button pressing (unlike the feeding method).

For reference, at what point during the plot do the superbosses spawn? I'd like to get back to the plot for a bit, but want to leave room to keep myself from inadvertently blocking out Nim's sidequest.

During Chapter 10, except for Tyrannotitan Kurodil and Gladiator Orion who are available as soon as you can get to them.

@Alfric: In the Japanese version, the countries were named after the Seven Deadly Sins. The Argentum Trade Guild was Avaritia and Torna was Ira, for example. This was changed in the West to words that reflect the sin, usually by association (Argentum is the Latin word for silver) or being in another language (toorn is Dutch for wrath).

It changed basically because the Latin names are a bit too on the nose for how little those sins come up in interacting with the countries and their people, but it's still a cool theme.

Yeah, it makes the associations a bit more subtle, whereas in Japanese they can get away with it because it comes across as more foreign. The direct translation would've been a little too on-the-nose.

Frankly, Argentum and MAYBE Indol are the only two I feel really deserved their Sin of choice. The rest just seemed a bit too benign. Like, what about Gormott screams 'Gluttony'?

Torna fits if you identify it with the terrorist group rather than the original continent.

It's not that Gormott's a gluttonous place, it's that it's being devoured by Mor Ardain to support that country.

But yeah that and Indol are exactly why I'm fine with the changes, it's not like any one of them is an especially meaningful Meaningful Name.

edited 13th May '18 8:20:26 PM by Watashiwa

@Alfric:

• Argentum = Silver = Greed
• Gormott = Gourmand = Gluttony
• Uraya = Urayamashi = Envy
• Mor Ardain = Ardan = Pride
• Indol = Indolence = Sloth
• Tantal = Tantalization = Lust
• Torna = Toorn = Wrath

And for bonus points, Leftheria, Temperantia, and Judicium are all named after three of the seven heavenly virtues.

I'd explain how each of the main nations fits their respective sin (though Argentum and Torna should be so painfully obvious that I don't need to explain anything), but it's getting really late here so maybe tomorrow.

edited 14th May '18 1:08:53 AM by Anomalocaris20