Xenoblade Chronicles

Nope, the games are separate.

You do not. Leaked spoilers discuss a reference made to the plot of Xenoblade 1, but it's not something you absolutely needed to play it for. It was very explicitly stated in interviews that you won't need previous games to enjoy Xenoblade 2.

My copy of the game just came in.

edited 30th Nov '17 7:38:02 PM by burnpsy

Alright so good news, I just got a message confirming shipment to the correct address, with tracking info!

So even though it's still a few hours away in my timezone, and I won't be able to play period until tomorrow evening, the time is Reyn, and we must celebrate accordingly:

I'm definitely looking forward to this game, even though it's become a punching bag on /v/ on the level of Battlefront II.

edited 30th Nov '17 9:24:40 PM by LDragon2

well good thing no one really cares

edited 30th Nov '17 9:32:29 PM by edvedd

Though they say that many of the users who got to play it early were disappointed by it, to the point that they added it to the list of games they consider disappointing in 2017◊.

Course it's /v/. They hate everything.

Good for them. Not really relevant to anyone else.

It's literally just shitposting about the littlest of flaws

which /v/ does

all the time.

So disregard what they say.

>giving a crap about /v/'s opinion on video games
They're the dictionary definition for Accentuate the Negative. Half the time it's not even the fun kind of shitposting like on the other boards.

Game Explain's got their review/game mechanics rundown out. They confirm you don't need to play the first game to enjoy the plot although it's a nice bonus. The story gets some praise and so does the gameplay, which is apparently a lot less sluggish than it initially seems as there's more emphasis on rhythm and timing here. A lot of people's nitpicks from the previous game, such as random item drops being a pain in the ass and building regional affinity, seem to have been refined and improved on in this game.

edited 30th Nov '17 10:13:28 PM by AlleyOop

I would be utterly shocked if that wasn't the case. But Xenoblade X was mocked for being a blunder when it was released (and to less hype, honestly), and it still ended up having some staying power.

Looking at Metacritic, it currently has an average of 84, which is the same as Xenoblade X, and with a very similar spread of scores as well.

(And as we all know by now, reviews are never gospel. After all, one of the best games from last year got an even lower average score).

So it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. As for me, I'm going to give it some time to patch out technical issues, and probably get it around Christmas/New Years, and play Mario Odyssey in the meantime.

edited 30th Nov '17 10:16:14 PM by Eschaton

My first impression since day one would be that it'd be fun to play, have good music and enemy/world design, but the plot and characters would be okay at best, but probably just generic and nothing special. Everything I've seen has more or less reinforced that ^note also, the character designs are as unappealing as ever and the facial expression thing is mostly a dodge, since it didn't mandate that the designs look like trashy light novel characters, but whatever.

edited 30th Nov '17 10:32:44 PM by Draghinazzo

Hang on, people were down on furi? Holy shit, faith in humanity destroyed, it's incredible.

Anyway game is out NOW digitally! Go go go!

edited 30th Nov '17 10:35:07 PM by Watashiwa

There's no guarantee, but I do have some cautious hype because while Takahashi and Saga do love their anime tropes, they tend not to dig as hard into the trashier side of things with the writing (that one infamous Albedo/MOMO scene is the worst I can think of and it was straight-up horror), even if the character designs might belie that.

Furi? Edit: Ah. That one. Thought there was a character in this game named Furi.

edited 30th Nov '17 10:36:25 PM by AlleyOop

I just wish they would make a moodier game again like Xenogears.

Furi. It's supposed to be a pretty innovative and well-designed game but I haven't had the chance to play it myself.

edited 30th Nov '17 10:33:55 PM by Draghinazzo

Oh, hey Discar. Yeah, there's basically no plot connections between any of the Blade Xeno-games. I recommend all of them if you're interested in JRP Gs, but you can jump into Xenoblade 2 with no problem. Just expect to have to learn some systems!

When I look at Akhos I cant help but think of HB. Not helped that he has the same Japanese VA.

edited 1st Dec '17 2:20:16 AM by OmegaRadiance

Well, here's a tale of woe that I have for you.

So I wake up at 4:00 in the morning and head out to my local Best Buy, arriving at 4:40. Good idea to beat the rush for that Pro Controller, except that nobody else was going for it. When the store opened up, they told me that the game, let alone the controller, wasn't in stock because the delivery didn't arrive. There was no way to put in a reserve order for the controller, so now I have to check constantly to prevent myself from being outdone.

At least I got a $20 discount as compensation...

edited 1st Dec '17 7:01:09 AM by RainingMetal

Ok, so I have just finished the game after the street date broke for me.

Game is about 80-90 hours total, I spent some of it on sidequests, but it's mainly to balance the difficulty for the game.

Gameplay may look bad when watching it, but it's actually really hectic when you play the game. You have to be very active in the combat unlike the original or you might have difficulty on even a few underleveled foes. (especially if they outnumber you)]

Now as for the story, this story is absolutely insane near the end of the game. Granted it's not Xenogear levels of dark, but it's up their with the insane plot twist it pulls at endgame. A lot of the characters change in different manners, (Yes, some change outfits in time, don't worry) and the content in the game is surprisingly mature for its artstyle. (which, personally I liked, but their are tastes)

I do have to say though a few technical issues I found in the game:

Loading is a bit too fast, not giving the buildings time to fully render when you switch travel to a different titan.

Frame rate can stutter in a certain factory level, but only in that area, nowhere else have I encountered any frame problems

Resolution dips a bit when undocked, but it's not horrendously bad like the reviewers mention, just noticable.

Finally, Voice acting is good for the most part, I mean "most" because Rex really doesn't know how to scream in the game. He gets better at it in time, but at the start, it's pretty jarring.

My rating would be a good 9/10. Great game with a few caveats, maybe even better than the original Xenoblade. Probably not for Xenogears, but you can formulate your opinion on that.

Update from my previous post:

I searched Amazon, and miraculously, I found an entry directly from Nintendo that isn't at an inflated price. I hope this isn't too good to be true.

Still won't be able to play the game for a few days, for delivery reasons.

edited 1st Dec '17 9:41:44 AM by RainingMetal

My biggest issue with the game so far is actually the American-accented voices (except for Pyra, she's fine) and how a good chunk of them are extremely awkward. I don't know if this is true but most of them sound more like UK actors faking an American accent and when they don't sound like that, they're shouting. Beyond that and the fact that the syncing sucks, I have no complaints so far.

I went and picked up the game.

I want to update to 1.1 before I start but the update is paused at 0%. Do I need to start it once before it can download?

Edit: Nevermind, apparently all my other games were updating first.

edited 1st Dec '17 1:49:02 PM by Anomalocaris20

Definitely enjoyable, but I'm not quite feeling it as much as the first game. At least with story/characters, though I like Nia enough at least. Battle system feels super hectic when in tough fights. Tons of systems to keep track of, though hopefully less bloated than what X was.

edited 1st Dec '17 3:38:59 PM by Sterok

Are you going to try and convince everyone that wasn't on purpose, or will you just come clean?

Question: Once you get a blade from a crystal and you exit the 'Bond Blade' menu, how do you switch out the blades you have in your slots? I can't find it in 'Manage Blades'.

I'm in Torigoth at the moment.

Maybe I just have a high tolerance for voice acting ( found the acting in Zelda just fine), but yeah, the voices in the game are just fine to me, barring a few moments here and there. Nia is great.

edited 1st Dec '17 7:16:49 PM by edvedd

How old is Rex supposed to be? Everyone keeps calling him 'kid' but he mentions drinking a lot.