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Xenoblade Chronicles


Jimboxy
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They've definitely nailed the QoL improvements in this edition, maybe taking hours of leg work out of the game by simply removing the need to report back to a sidequest giver to get your reward/xp. It feels a bit weird if the quest is to find something specifically for that person, but I'm not complaining. This was a feature of XC2, and is certainly a welcome fix for a game of this scale. 

 

A lot has been made of the resolution on handheld but I think it looks fine for a hd rendition of a game from the wii. It looks a bit like FFXII on the switch, to be honest. I was a bit more surprised by the low fidelity of XC2. Why was that so janky on the switch handheld screen when they'd already made the pin sharp Xenoblade X on the WiiU?

 

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle with 100 hours of Jrpg splendor stretching before me. Phew!

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I split it if I can, docking the console for important story bits and bosses. But it would be hard to get thru these long games without the handheld option, and that all important sleep function.

 

As far as hand cramping goes. That's for novices

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Because that way you can watch TV in the background at the same time @Maf ?

 

I started this up last night and almost immediately realised why I gave up on it so quickly on N3DS. The opening is just godawful. 
 

It’s just so ridiculously slow. I like that they let you explore Colony 9 more or less straightaway but it just feels like there’s 0 motivation for me to care about anything in the world, it’s just all a bit too twee. The story does eventually kick into action but this is only after 4 hours. 

 

I have to say though that it is nice to immediately get tons of freedom to explore these huge expansive environments and have tons of side quests thrown at you after nearly 60 hours of FFX which doesn’t have any ‘side quests’ per se to speak of. The side quests haven’t been much to speak of - they weren’t in XC2 either - but they’ve been a nice relaxing distraction. 
 

Colony 9 itself is pretty cool too. I do love a nice big JRPG town to explore and this is quite a nice, surprisingly big place to start off in.

 

Haven’t really warmed to any of the characters yet either - aside from Fiora who has best girl potential - but it’s still very early days. 
 

I haven’t really got a handle on the combat yet either and am basically just button mashing. It is more similar to XC2 than I thought with the Arts, combos and exhaustion meter (or whatever it’s called) along with the break/topple stuff but it just doesn’t feel quite as intuitive somehow, it feels like I’m less involved and more like hammering buttons. 
 

I don’t wanna be too harsh on it as I’m very early in still and the story has only just properly started but so far I’m not too impressed with it, seems far worse than XC2 in almost every way. 
 

 

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I think the trick with the combat is to not button mash. Getting the aggro off shulk so that he can get in position to deliver the meaty cuts is what it's all about in the early game. Plus, what have u been doing for 4 hours? I'm in the middle of fending off a massive invasion of colony 9, but I'm nowhere near 4 hours in.

 

Having said that, I can see how this game isn't for everyone. The combat either clicks or it doesn't. If it doesn't, you're buggered, really. Like most games like this, there's an awful lot of fisticuffs.

 

 

 

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I’ve been exploring pretty much the entirety of Colony 9 @bellow ? and doing a shit ton of side quests, once I start with them I can’t stop. Getting all the red ! cleared off the map is addictive haha. I am at the same point you are with the story so the game has finally got started for me. 
 

I don’t hate the combat but it just feels like something’s missing if that makes sense, XC2 had my fave JRPG combat system ever so I feel like this has to live up to that and it doesn’t. I need to try to stop comparing the two and just try to enjoy this, I’m hoping - like XC2 - the combat in this gets more complicated and involved as the game goes on.

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Made it to the bionis' leg - a wondrous place that sold the game back in the day with its sheer scale. Not so impressive now, of course, after the even more momentous vistas of xeno X and XC2, but it's still a big moment to walk out on that field, look up and see the shape of the bionis' sword cutting thru the sky.

 

I've probably caught up (in hours spent) with Blakey, as I've completely cleared a massive amount of side quests, and got pretty well levelled for where I am in the game. I have no idea where the story goes from here. It's been too long, and I only got 30 hours in anyway. All I know is that metal face will rue the day....

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This is a fantastic RPG, there's no doubt about it, but it's a bastard on the eyes. Now that I've got three in my team it's just hard to tell what's going on in the heat of battle. There's just too much to take in - lasers, explosions, and great big numbers flying everywhere, and a graphical resolution that Nintendo should be embarrassed about. I've had to get Shulk and co. down to their near birthday suits (you can do this while maintaining equipment stats) just to have a chance of picking them out from the chaos.

 

Needs a patch.

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You wouldn't have to if they'd have just cut the grass. Half the time you're just losing track of what's going on in the (strangely out of focus) foliage.

 

Doesn't make sense either, considering the amount of grazing animals wondering around. Don't they have farms in Japan?

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Up to 10 hours played on this now and things have got much better since I’ve reached Guar Plains. 
 

It’s just such an impressive place to explore, reminds me of the first huge area you encounter in XC2. Absolutely humungous this place as well, set off exploring the entirety of it before I did anything of not and it just seems to go on and on! 
 

Did a ton of side quests and exploring before carrying on with the story, a whole new load of side quests opened after this so that’s about where I am now. Still exploring around the Plains. 
 

I picked up my 3rd party member during my last session and she seems pretty great so far too, very handy in battles with all her healing abilities too. 
 

I will say the combat has got better too, it’s thrown some new mechanics into the mix since I picked up ‘the’ sword and has got quite a bit more complex which is nice.
 

Spoiler

That shot with Fiora in Colony 9 was a bit dark though, I was like WTF?! Came out of nowhere.


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57 minutes ago, bellow said:

 

As a matter of interest, why did you play W3 on the switch if you were going to play it docked? 

 

Off-topic so I'll keep it short: I only bought it to see how it performs and at some point I realised that I wanted to continue but didn't have the DLC on my Xbox so I just went on with the Switch version. I don't play 3D games that ask you to use both sticks all the time (for camera adjustments and such) in portable mode, so that wasn't an option either.

Put 130 hours into it in the end and never regretted the system I was playing it on.

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Just tackled a major sidequest involving an alter in the middle of Sartol Marsh. So many special monsters in the area, it's quite easy to stumble into a hardcore barney, but I got thru it and copped some major XP. 

 

I think I ended my session in the last area I got to a decade ago, before resting the game - Makna forest. With a lot less access to gaming it took me literally weeks to get to this point back then, not to mention about 12 hours more in-game time (the game has been streamlined to an astonishing degree). 

 

Money was tighter back then and I made a big mistake in trading in the game, with the reasonable expectation that I could buy it back cheaply a couple of months down the road and continue my adventure. The game, of course, became a bit of a collector's item due to scarcity, and I could never warrant the outlay to buy it back.

 

Looking forward to seeing how the thing unfolds. There's certainly plenty going on in the story.

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Think I’ve put another 6 hours into this since my previous post, 16 total. I’m up to Chapter 6.

 

I still don’t really know what to make of it overall. I am enjoying it for sure but there’s just something there that doesn’t exactly make me jump at the chance to play it every day. 
 

I really enjoyed the Bionis Leg portion of the game. I spent quite a large amount of that last 6 hours just doing this side quests, they are utter shite but as soon as you put that ! on the map I’ve just gotta do them. The rewards and XP you get from them seem worthwhile too. 
 

I really enjoyed the first proper dungeon in the Ether Mine as well. I initially thought it would just be a boring cave system but it was so much more than that, I enjoyed navigating the areas via the vent fans too, thought this form of transport was a neat little touch. 
 

The story has gotten much better too, with some big revelations at the end of the Ether Mine. I do really like the story setup, it’s like a little drip feed of mysteries with you finding out more every few chapters or so, enabling you to gradually get a clearer view of what’s going on as you make progress through the game. The villains don’t seem great to me so far, they seem very comic book and one-note but it’s early days still I know. There is definitely enough there to keep me engaged and intrigued though. 
 

But yeah, there’s just something about the world and characters that still aren’t connecting with me. I do now like the combat and I enjoy the exploration side of the game but the other aspects are still lacking a bit for me.

 

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