Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles - Impressions

[Mannypon]

lol, if you have any shred of ocd then you'll definitly need a lot of time on your hands.  This game is amazing and one of the best jrpgs I've played in years but it can be torture sometimes.  There are moments where I want to put in just a quick half hour to an hour of adventuring but my uncontrolable desire, whether I want to or not, to check around every corner and map out the ingame map completely ends up dragging the playtime up a few hours.  Eryth Sea was like pulling teeth for me lol.  I knew there wasn't going to be much to find swimming through that ocean but I couldn't help myself, I had to swim it lol. 
 
Don't get me started on the collectables either lol, thats electric crack to me since you actually get ingame items for completing it as apposed to just shallow "achievements". 

[broodwars]

lol, if you have any shred of ocd then you'll definitly need a lot of time on your hands.  This game is amazing and one of the best jrpgs I've played in years but it can be torture sometimes.  There are moments where I want to put in just a quick half hour to an hour of adventuring but my uncontrolable desire, whether I want to or not, to check around every corner and map out the ingame map completely ends up dragging the playtime up a few hours.  Eryth Sea was like pulling teeth for me lol.  I knew there wasn't going to be much to find swimming through that ocean but I couldn't help myself, I had to swim it lol. 
 
Don't get me started on the collectables either lol, thats electric crack to me since you actually get ingame items for completing it as apposed to just shallow "achievements".

Some of us like collecting those "shallow achievements", thank you very much (though in my case, it's trophies).  It's nice to have actual in-game unlockables for them for a change, something that I've only occasionally seen with trophy unlocks on PS3.

We'll see how this game fares with me.  I've had a real falling out with JRPGs over the last few years (I'm currently struggling to maintain both interest and consciousness trying to get through Star Ocean 4), and of the 3 Rainfall games Xenoblade was the least-interesting one to me.  I can pin some of that on the game's seeming similarity to Final Fantasy XII, one of the worst games in that series I've ever played.  But hey, it's the Baten Kaitos team and James did mention many much-needed new ideas implemented in this game, so it might be different.

[Shorty McNostril]

lol, if you have any shred of ocd then you'll definitly need a lot of time on your hands.  This game is amazing and one of the best jrpgs I've played in years but it can be torture sometimes.  There are moments where I want to put in just a quick half hour to an hour of adventuring but my uncontrolable desire, whether I want to or not, to check around every corner and map out the ingame map completely ends up dragging the playtime up a few hours.  Eryth Sea was like pulling teeth for me lol.  I knew there wasn't going to be much to find swimming through that ocean but I couldn't help myself, I had to swim it lol. 
 
Don't get me started on the collectables either lol, thats electric crack to me since you actually get ingame items for completing it as apposed to just shallow "achievements". 

You know that when you find all the landmarks in an area the map is cleared don't you?

[broodwars]

I got my confirmation today that my copy of Xenoblade has shipped from Zaavi, so I've been trying to get this Hack Mii "Letterbomb" installer to actually work.  I figured I might as well test it out with the Donkey Kong Country Returns hack that makes the Classic Controller useable.  I've put in the necessary information on the webpage (including my MAC address), I've downloaded the zip file, and I've unzipped the zip file to my SD card.  But when I put the SD card back into my Wii, I'm not getting the installer "mail" that's supposed to self-install the homebrew channel once I click it.  Is there a time delay before getting your installer email, or am I doing something wrong?

EDIT: OK, I've been at this an hour trying to get this damn program to work right, but I'm still not getting the Letterbomb "envelope" to appear anywhere in my Wii message list.  I'm seriously close to saying "**** this" and just returning Xenoblade when it arrives.  Looking at the list of crap on Joystiq you have to install after this finally works, it doesn't look worth the trouble right now.

[broodwars]

Heh, go figure.  On a whim, I decided to hunt down the old 1 GB SD card I got back when I first got my Wii (but eventually upgraded to a larger 8 GB card).  I formatted that thing, put the Hack Mii stuff on it, and THAT worked.  So now I have the Homebrew Channel installed.  Is that all I need to do?

[Mop it up]

Do you have Gecko? That's the program you'll need to run the game.

You will also need to have the Wii connected to your TV with component cables and running in 480p, or else the image may not display properly.

[broodwars]

Do you have Gecko? That's the program you'll need to run the game.

You will also need to have the Wii connected to your TV with component cables and running in 480p, or else the image may not display properly.

I've actually been trying to hunt down the GeckoOS for the last few minutes.  I can't find anything concrete just yet that doesn't seem to already be covered by the Homebrew Channel.

And yes, I'm using Component Cables.

EDIT:  OK, there we go. I have the latest version of the GeckoOS installed, and I can access it from the Homebrew Channel.  From the looks of it, I'm good to go for playing Import games now, so long as I have this SD card inserted when I do.  Now to try this out on DKCR...

[Mannypon]

Some of us like collecting those "shallow achievements", thank you very much (though in my case, it's trophies).  It's nice to have actual in-game unlockables for them for a change, something that I've only occasionally seen with trophy unlocks on PS3.

We'll see how this game fares with me.  I've had a real falling out with JRPGs over the last few years (I'm currently struggling to maintain both interest and consciousness trying to get through Star Ocean 4), and of the 3 Rainfall games Xenoblade was the least-interesting one to me.  I can pin some of that on the game's seeming similarity to Final Fantasy XII, one of the worst games in that series I've ever played.  But hey, it's the Baten Kaitos team and James did mention many much-needed new ideas implemented in this game, so it might be different.

Sorry about that, I should've worded that differently.  I guess you can tell I can live without the achievements lol but to each there own.  As for the similarities to FF12, I wouldn't worry about that too much.  The game looks similar but is far from it.  FF12 required you to micromanage every aspect of your AI's command structure which could be a pain in the ass sometimes.  With Xenoblade, your partners for the most part take care of things quite well.  They heal when they have to and buff/defuff accordingly so they require little to no management.  This leads you to really think on how to develope a proper strategy within the battle as field placement is very important to increasing your damage output.  To summarize, the game is solid, you should def play it lol.

I finally got passed the Prison Island section, which really opened up the story a bit more I'm glad to say, but I freaked out as my Wii started to randomly turn itself off on me a couple of times.  I'm not sure if this is a result of me soft modding my Wii but hopefully it doesn't happen anymore.  Its got me saving every few minutes now as if I was playing one of Bathesda's games.  I'd die if I couldn't continue on with this game as I'm already a good 50 hours in and would not enjoy starting all over again. 

I have a quick question for those who also have the game.  Are the collectables random?  I've been going crazy trying to find 1 damn collectable in one of the areas to complete the set and I can't find it for the life of me.  I've been wandering around the whole map, grabbing any collectables I see in hopes of finding the 1 missing piece.  Sh*t is a pain in the ass.

[KDR_11k]

I think collectibles are random but there might be some logic that "unlocks" some when you pick up specific collectible points (I have no proof for this theory). Also some are just insanely rare like the fossil ape.

[Shorty McNostril]

As far as I know they are indeed random.  But I know how you feel.  It took me ages to find the last Wool Rock that I needed.  And now funnily enough I have a whole swag of them now that I finished that quest. 

I am currently up to what I assume to be the final battle against Zanza (In space of all places).  But damn talk about frustrating. I finally beat his first form and got about half way through his 2nd before he made two more of those damn guardians.  If you die though it sends you all the way back to prison Island.  I'll try it again later. 

I am assuming that this is the final battle in the game.  I am at level 80 and have sunk about 120 hours or so into this game.

[noname2200]

Imported it, played it for about 20 hours, really liking it so far. It's more or less what I'd hoped it would be, and modding turned out to be about as easy as advertised (next up: USB Loader, baby!).

That said, there are some things about it that annoy me. Hunting down named NPCs can be annoying, but my big gripe as a completionist is trying to raise everyone's affinity levels. I rotate who's in when accepting/finishing quests, I'm pretty good at timing the affinity bursts in battle, and I've even emptied out the collectibles handing out gifts, but it's still soooo slow to rise. Anyone got any tips?

[broodwars]

That said, there are some things about it that annoy me. Hunting down named NPCs can be annoying, but my big gripe as a completionist is trying to raise everyone's affinity levels. I rotate who's in when accepting/finishing quests, I'm pretty good at timing the affinity bursts in battle, and I've even emptied out the collectibles handing out gifts, but it's still soooo slow to rise. Anyone got any tips?

What does Affinity do in Xenoblade, anyway, and how does it work?  I was watching Benzai's Quick Look of the game over at Blistered Thumbs, and saw him get Affinity with an NPC for turning in a quest but the game didn't pop up one of its little tutorial panels to explain what it does.

I've actually been listening to the Xenoblade soundtrack over the past few days to get psyched for the game.  Wow, I listen to a lot of JRPG soundtracks, and Xenoblade has to have some of the most memorable tracks I've heard from an RPG in years.  It makes sense, though, considering this game was composed by the composer from the Kingdom Hearts games (which tends to have pretty excellent original music).  Personal favorites include "Main Theme", "FIGHT!", and "Unfinished Battle" (especially that one).  I'm seriously close to importing the soundtrack, despite not really having the money for that right now.

[Shorty McNostril]

Affinity grows as you complete sidequests, as well engaging in combat.
It is the bond between your party members, as well as your party and various locations and townships. The higher your affinity grows, the more sidequests you can access, and the deeper relationships between characters will unlock. That's it in a nutshell anyway.

[noname2200]

What does Affinity do in Xenoblade, anyway, and how does it work?  I was watching Benzai's Quick Look of the game over at Blistered Thumbs, and saw him get Affinity with an NPC for turning in a quest but the game didn't pop up one of its little tutorial panels to explain what it does.

There are two different kinds of affinity: the kind you build up with NPCs and the type you build up with party members. Shorty's outlined the effect of raising affinity with NPCs (i.e. more sidequests. It's also mandatory for unlocking each character's fourth skill tree). Affinity between party members not only helps unlock a few cutscenes, it also helps greatly when you're crafting gems, doing chain attacks, and sharing skills between party members.

[broodwars]

Well, my Xenoblade soundtrack arrived today, which definitely has markedly better audio quality than those .mp3s I was listening to.  I just wish the CD player in my car still worked so I could listen to these CDs on the road, but I'll have to settle for my old reliable JVC CD boombox (which still works marvelously considering it was probably made in the 80s). 

It's amazing, though, how a CD set shipped from Tokyo, Japan can arrive in 3 business days, but a game sent from the United Kingdom still hasn't arrived 11 days after it shipped.  Still, if Zavvi's 10-15 business days estimate is accurate, I should be getting the game sometime this week.

[noname2200]

My copy took about two weeks to arrive, so hopefully yours should be coming soon. One strange thing is that my copy got routed through Belgium, for reasons unknown to me.

[broodwars]

My copy took about two weeks to arrive, so hopefully yours should be coming soon. One strange thing is that my copy got routed through Belgium, for reasons unknown to me.

My copy finally arrived today, 3 and 1/2 weeks after it shipped out from the UK (18 business days).  And my package also went through Brussels, Belgium for reasons that defy logic and reason.

I never thought I'd have reason to say this, but I'm going to put Uncharted 3 down for a little while and play some g-damn Wii for once now that Xenoblade's here.   

EDIT: Looking at the game in motion, is there anything I might want to do with my Wii's settings or whatnot? Because that game looks more desaturated than I usually expect in Wii games.  PS3 and normal Wii games look fine on the thing, so I'm curious if there's just something in the Gecko OS' PAL conversion that may be responsible.
 
EDIT 2: Looks like turning my TV's brightness setting down a few notches did the trick, as the colors don't look so washed-out now.

[broodwars]

So I'm a couple of hours into the game, and so far I'm really liking it.  I have a few minor issues with the game, like how a monster's level is kind of meaningless since lower-level unique monsters still kick your ass extremely easily early on.  I'm also not terribly fond of how randomly the game seems to determine when you've reached a landmark outside of towns.

I spent a good deal of time in this early going just roaming around and exploring, and several times I clearly wandered into a different area but the game determined that I hadn't somehow reached the landmark for it.  So I run into a monster too powerful for my two-party team, get my ass kicked, and I get sent way back to the Park since it was the last landmark the game thought I touched.  Irritating, but not game-breaking.

What is incredibly annoying, though, is that there's no way to set an active quest in a game with this many sidequests.  Oh well, I knew that would be an issue going in.  I also wish the game would somewhat auto-target enemies when you get near them, because it's kind of annoying having to L-target them every time I want to engage something.

Despite these issues, though, the game's been a lot of fun.  I especially love how it encourages you to explore and experiment, and then rewards you for doing so.  It does remind me a lot of Final Fantasy 12, but with some refinements that make it look like Monolith Soft learned some important lessons from it.  Whereas FF 12 was very generic-feeling, Xenoblade still feels like a JRPG but with much-needed elements of Western games.  And the voice-acting is excellent, though I'm getting sick of Rheyn and his love of saying "YEAH, It's RHEYN TIME!"  This game probably could have done well in North America if NoA put any effort into marketing it, because it's a JRPG without the stupidity that plagues that genre right now.

[noname2200]

I spent a good deal of time in this early going just roaming around and exploring, and several times I clearly wandered into a different area but the game determined that I hadn't somehow reached the landmark for it.  So I run into a monster too powerful for my two-party team, get my ass kicked, and I get sent way back to the Park since it was the last landmark the game thought I touched.  Irritating, but not game-breaking.

The problem might actually be that while you went by a "landmark," you didn't go by a teleportable landmark. By this I mean that only some (usually 1/4-1/3) of the landmarks are ones you can teleport to, and on respawning you're sent to the nearest one of these landmarks. The good AND bad news is that the first area, Colony 9, is probably the worst in spreading out the teleportable landmarks, with almost everything being bunched in the center and nothing appearing on the eastern half.

That said, I agree that nearly every zone should have had some more landmarks you can warp to, especially since it'll be a while until you can make your characters move significantly faster.

Also, regarding monsters' difficulty, you can essentially ignore the monsters' levels and should instead focus on their "threat level," i.e. enemies whose HUD is black are laughably easy (and won't even attack unless they're unique), those in blue are the "suggested" difficulty, and red means "I wouldn't".

[broodwars]

I'm almost 10 hours in, and this game is rapidly living up to the internet hype of being "the best JRPG released this console generation", though I'm starting to have misgivings on the battle system since combat is getting increasingly easier as the game unlocks new features.  I'm also really perplexed as to why you'd ever make your party leader anyone other than Shulk or remove him from the party, because he's just too useful in combat.

I've unlocked the Monado's ability to show flashes of the future, which has had interesting implications occasionally in battle but especially out of it.  Like a lot of things in Xenoblade, it's the little things that really make me enjoy this game.  Things like the game now using the Monado's story hook of showing the future to warn me when I pick up a collectible that I'll be needing more of that for a future sidequest.  And while it's nice to have so many things to do, the sheer number of sidequests is pretty obscene (especially since, at this point, I can easily slaughter anything Colony 9 sends me out to kill) and I'm still hanging around the first quest hub.  I'm really liking how the story is playing out, though.  I didn't see that plot twist in Colony 9 coming, and the fact that it was allowed to play out was really interesting.  It'll be interesting to see where the game goes with that.

Playing the game, it's interesting to see how much of an influence Zelda had on this game.  The exploration and the minor platforming are very 3D Zelda.  And the way that the sidequest-giving townsfolk are only out and about at certain times of the day so you have to adjust the in-game clock to meet them reminds me a LOT of Majora's Mask.

And for all my minor gripes with the game, I still glance over at my save slot clock and see that I played the game for almost 10 straight hours.  And I'd play more, but I have to sleep sometime.  It's been a LONG time since I've been this engrossed in a JRPG, and I couldn't be happier to finally have one like this again.

[Shorty McNostril]

I'm also really perplexed as to why you'd ever make your party leader anyone other than Shulk or remove him from the party, because he's just too useful in combat.

In short, affinity. You will find that as you get more party members, they all have talents worth using.  Shulk has no ether arts, which you will discover as you progress. 

[broodwars]

I'm also really perplexed as to why you'd ever make your party leader anyone other than Shulk or remove him from the party, because he's just too useful in combat.

In short, affinity. You will find that as you get more party members, they all have talents worth using.  Shulk has no ether arts, which you will discover as you progress.

Good to know that I can take the couple of Ether Ups he has on him off.  I was wondering if those tied into his Monado powers considering that it doesn't look like the Monado itself will ever upgrade as a weapon.

[alegoicoe]

I just got the game today, am 45 mins into the game, and so far so good, i like the battle system and the clean menus alot, although the lip sink is lacking, but overall its looking good.

[Mannypon]

Holy mother of god, I was hoping to never having to experience the typical JRPG cliche of the cheap boss in this game but F me, here it is in all its glory.  This damn Deciple Lorithia is handing me my ass in more ways than the karma sutra.  These are the type of bosses that I consider to be game killers becuase I'm so burnt out on battling that I have no energy or drive to grind it out for who knows how many more hours to be able to tackle this boss.  As it is right now, I'm 1 level under the boss but it makes no difference.  I've even resorted to coming online and see how others handled her but alas, its offering me no assistance.  Right now, I think my only course for a win would be to level up at least another 10 levels. 

Given Elder Scrolls V, Zelda, and the new Assasin's Creed is coming out, I don't see me dedicating the little time I have in my day to grinding my way through this.  This is sad, I was really aiming to finish this game off this week before Skyrim released but this really ruined those plans. 

ugh, sorry for venting but this really pisses me off lol.  I really love this game and wish to see it through to completion but it looks like I might have to put this game on the back burner for the time being in the hopes that I'll work enough patience and time to little by little level up my characters.   

EDIT:  I spoke to soon, probably all out of frustration lol.  Soon after the last post, I decided to put on my big boy pance and nut up.  Lets just say the b*tch met my blade.  On to the next spot, lets hope thats the last of these frustrating bosses lol.

[Shorty McNostril]

I did find her to be rather challenging.  I got her on my second try though.  Just.  She has that stupid shockwave move that throws you all back and stuns you.  Very frustrating. 

Just have to try and keep out of the purple goop too.