Xenoblade Chronicles

Uncontrollable is fine, though I wish the instrumental version was also used outside of that useless Time Attack mode. I tend to ignore the lyrics.

You know, I still wonder about the mechanics of Rex's relationship with Mythra and Pyra post game.

It would have been hard enough even when they still shared a body (if Mythra wanting to switch for the hot springs is anything to go on, they may share memories and see what the other does, but not physical experiences so if either of them got physical with Rex, the other wouldn't get anything out of it), but now they're separate and...well I can admit I can expect them to be willing to go full on OT3 (they kinda already were), but there's still gonna be a lot of kinks to work out.

I also still like to imagine that after centuries of sharing a body, Mythra and Pyra have a lot of awkwardness while they adjust to actually having their own bodies. Like little things where they try and walk through a doorway at the same moment and get stuck because they forgot the other was even there or something like that.

Or they both bend down to pick something up and smack their heads together. I mean, there's a lot for both of them to get used to, and I'd be interested in seeing that explored in some way.

Guys drop everything else I found how to make Xeno X better.

Xenoblade X

But it's SHOJI MEGURO AT THE MUSIC.

Beneath the mask as NLA's night theme is woah. It turns the entire ambiance of the city on it's head. And it's actually pretty appropriate when dealing with the more emotionnal sidequests.

Also, Wake Up, Get Up, Get out There when acquiring a skell for the first time. ooooh boy.

And now I know what I can listen to for hours when flying around in my skell. Sunset fucking bridge. It was there all along.

I hate it because my burning hatred for xenoblade 2 is actually getting worse by the day now that I've been reminded of how much I love X but I also love it because it's geniunely pretty funny. So.... Good job Rob. I think.

Replacing Hiroyuki Sawano's soundtrack is blasphemy, even if the music from P5 is incredible.

This one does not spark joy

This one sparks joy

Replace P5's music with Sawano goodness.

For the most part I actually hated X's soundtrack. Most tracks were meh, and one of the few decent ones played way too much and wore out its welcome (the flying music). And the game's best track literally only plays for the final boss fight.

Each continent really needed more than one overworld theme, with each covering a different region of the continent. A main battle theme that isn't absolute garbage would also have helped a lot.

Get out of here, you heathen, before I break out the stake and torches.

He's not wrong though. Wir fliegen could really uses not being stuck on the first verse nonstop, it gets old reaaaaaaaaally fast. Sawano has a ton of masterpieces in that game like EX 01, Melancholia, Requiem, Theme X, Codename Z, The key we've lost, and all of them plays either exactly once (thrice for theme X I guess) or for five seconds before they get replaced with something else (except when melancholia goes off in sidequests), like wir fliegen's first verse for the umpteenth time.

Meanwhile the music you'll listen for 80% of the game is NLA's themes, black tar and the "enemy spotted you" music and the Areas music.

NLA day is mostly fine, the night theme is straight up bad, black tar is only good/okay on foot, the skell version is one of my most hated tracks in this game, and the enemy spotted you is garbage.

Areas music are good. Until the day where Don't worry will erase them all, at least.

I like sawano but I'm not not replacing all of this shit with Meguro's work.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 12th 2019 at 9:34:41 AM

Yeah, I agree that X had a serious problem with soundtrack distribution. Though I will argue that the NLA theme isn't as bad as you say (and I believe that's the only place where Don't Worry should ever play).

I'm just so glad that 2 got rid of ambush themes entirely. They were always inferior to the regular battle theme, even in the first game, where luring an enemy without prompting the battle start a second after would play it.

My only issue with the soundtrack is the cave theme because you hear it so damn much. Each region really should have had its own cave theme.

NLA (both themes) gets points for being so powerful in driving the atmosphere of the game of an unstoppable, upbeat cheerfulness despite the situation being very questionnable for humanity. which is great, because establishing that tone in turn makes the silly bits of the world work, like the nopons or the manon joke quests.

(Which in turns slams the rap of Black tar into the ground because the only time it's ever relevant is for the Bianho tragedy.)

But in terms of the track being. like. good. to listen. I really hate the night theme.

Am I the only one who is more partial to the night theme than the day theme? I guess it probably helps that I always arrive in NLA for the first time at night.

I dunno, I arrived at night in NLA this time too. The difference to me is more that i like electric guitar and percussion than... the sort of rap we get ? I'm not much of a rap guy so it doesn't starts with points in my book. I at least actively enjoy the electric guitar in the day theme. the regular guitar of the night theme, though ? ehhhhhhh.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 12th 2019 at 6:42:54 PM

I'm not much of a rap guy at all either, but I found NLA Night to be weirdly charming. It certainly represents how American the game is, compared to the other Xenoblade games.

I've actually been replaying XCX myself and I'm really hoping for a sequel or remaster on the Switch so that way they can fix some of its flaws. The unavoidable ambushes that aggro you regardless of your level, the fact that enemies chase you halfway across the map, the piss poor tutorials, the fact that the game doesn't pause when you bring up the menu (seriously, this isn't Dark Souls and just makes the fact that I'm playing on the GamePad alone all the more annoying), the collectable system, and being unable to easily find your teammates in NLA (being able to switch out the entire party from the menu would be even better). There are quite a few other things they could fix but those relatively simple ones would greatly improve the game.

The mere fact that a direct followup to X would exist would fix 80% of my criticisms of the game to me because I still find that his biggest flaw is that's he's a giant introductory act to a sequel that may never exist and as such allows himself to setup a lot of things while giving little in the way of payoffs. I sort of like finding my teammates in NLA, and the menu never posed my any issue despite doing the game entirely on the pad.

The collectable system could really use an ingame map of where to find them. We already have npcs dedicated to discuss where to find the rare ones, so just do the even better thin, have a dynamic map being filled out as we find those items or hear npcs talk about their location. More incentive to talk to people is always good.

Similarly, please for god sake give us the "hey that guy has something new to say" popup from 2. I am becoming slightly tired of talking to everyone every 2 chapters and being proven right enough to keep doing so, but not right enough to be fully engaged in it.

Tutorials don't even need that much work, the in-game manual is pretty complete about the game ans explains a lot of things, so it really just needs to incorporate more of those organically and tell you the thing exists at all.

In general X just needs a ton of quality-of-life adjustments and an actual conclusion to the story. If they'd take all the upgrades from 2 and apply them to X, that alone would improve it immensely.

The game also needs more viable combat styles for endgame. 1 and 2 had tons of viable ways to fight, but X you're basically shooting yourself in the foot by doing anything except Infinite Overdrive.

And make obtaining the equipment you need to fight superbosses not require a ridiculous MMO-like grind.

That one quest where you had to collect 6 items, but they only came up once every 1000 times you searched.

I think it's one of the few quests I never bothered to finish. I can't remember it's name either. It's been too long.

I sort of fail to see how 2 has more variety going for it when the endgame is always some form of spamming blade combos and chain attacks. Infinite overdrive is barely a build, since it works with apparently anything, so it's like saying there's no variety in 2 because the endgame consists of crit healing. or 1 having to stack night vision for the superbosses.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 12th 2019 at 10:35:23 AM

Nerf the fucking Dual Guns and Ghostwalker, and stop making it everyone's crutch.

or, y'know, let people have their fun if they want to. It's not like the game is PVP based, balance doesn't have to be perfect.

I'm honestly enjoying the combat and exploration a lot more now that I'm not dying for questionnable reasons everytime the situation spirals just a bit out of control, in a game where everyone keeps joining in your fights.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 12th 2019 at 11:09:36 AM

I am taking more care to AOE management whenever a big indigen is nearby. May make a fight last longer than it should, but it beats getting creamed by something 30 levels above you with little to no warning.

2 has plenty of variety. Not as much as 1, but still plenty.

You can spam chain attacks or you can save up for a really big full burst, you can choose whether to use actual healers or to rely on critical hits, you can choose how much you want to focus on or ignore driver combos, you can make a careful party that actually manages aggro or you can make a hyper-aggressive party that ignores the entire mechanic, etc. Some tactics are clearly better than others, but all of them are perfectly viable without insanity.

Its been a few years since I played X, but I distinctly remember that combat felt really samey regardless which weapons I was using and that how the other characters are setup is basically irrelevant. And good luck doing postgame stuff with neither Infinite Overdrive nor Ghostwalker. Also the issue of the one specific attack each for on-foot and in-skell that ignore the enemy's elemental resistances are far and away the best way to fight superbosses.

X has way too much "you're shooting yourself in the foot if you aren't playing this way".