Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles X Limited Edition Announced For North America

[Shaymin]

A new paradigm in soundtrack sampling awaits.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41063/xenoblade-chronicles-x-limited-edition-announced-for-north-america

Nintendo's Xenoblade Chronicles X panel at PAX Prime has revealed North America's limited edition for the game.

The special package will include the game with special disc art, a matted art card, a 100+ page art book and a 10 track soundtrack sampler that comes on a custom designed USB drive. The edition has a MSRP of $89.99 (US$).

Soooo this is what you'll get if you preorder the special edition of #xenobladex. Preorders open today! Eeee! pic.twitter.com/eUIDrHJuZV

— Kindra Nikole (@KindraNikole) August 29, 2015

The panel also revealed that 8-4, who handled the localization of Fire Emblem Awakening and the recent Monster Hunter titles (and have appeared on NWR's annual Child's Play podcast telethons) are assisting with the title's localization.

[broodwars]

To say this Limited Edition is underwhelming is quite the understatement. For an extra $30, at least give me the full soundtrack, not a 10-track sampler of probably the least interesting tracks. Nah, I think I'll save my money for what Atlus claims is Persona 5's release.

[NeoStar9X]

I would say art books alone can be pretty pricey. They can easily be $20/$30 for around 100 pages and that might be on the low end depending on the type of art.  Matted art cards as well can go for around a similar price. Price we're looking at a decent deal with everything together.

[NeoStar9X]

I agree though I'd much prefer the full soundtrack then the sampler but that likely could make the price higher. I do wonder if they'll even make that available outside of Japan.

[ejamer]

I normally would buy... but $90 US is currently $120 CAD and that's before taxes or delivery.  I'm lucky enough to already have the game preordered at a discount, set to arrive at my door for under $60 CAD including taxes and shipping.


The special edition would have to be a hell of a package to justify that kind of increase. Even though what they are offering is nice, it's not enough to double the price for me. (Also, the "soundtrack sampler" is kind of a piss off. NoA really doesn't seem to give two twigs about soundtracks - a shame, because I love getting them with special editions.)

[broodwars]

I agree though I'd much prefer the full soundtrack then the sampler but that likely could make the price higher.

Why? They're MP3s on a flash drive for a soundtrack they are very unlikely to sell outside Japan. There is ZERO added cost. It's not like it's a physical CD set where you'd have to factor in the cost of additional discs. I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered when the set releases that the entire OST on mp3 could've fit on the same size flash drive.

As for the soundtrack itself, I imported Xenoblade 1's OST on CD. If Xenoblade X's OST is anywhere near as good, I could see myself somewhere down the line importing that OST as well. It's just such a colossal pain in the ass to import those that I try to avoid it if possible.

[NeoStar9X]

When it comes to music it's likely not completely in Nintendo's power. They had an outside composer, Hiroyuki Sawano, do the music and it's attached to a record label. Defstar Records and Sony Music Marketing in Japan. Just going by anime that can be a pain to license outside of Japan at times. The contract likely only included use of the music in the game itself. Maybe they could only swing the sampler. The actual sound track is 55 songs across 4 CDs. A record label is going to want to make money off that and not allow that to be given away for free.

[Stratos]

The thumb drive looks cool. Not $20-30 cool on a limited gaming budget though.

[kokumaker]

As a huge Xenoblade fan... I must have this.

September through December are going to do murder to my pocketbook.

[Leo13]

Days like this are when it's super nice to be an adult with a professional job. Xenoblade is my all time favorite game. I regret not jumping on and pre-ordering to get that art book (I waited until I tried it out on gamefly and then bought it used for $80) I won't make the same mistake this time. I won't even flinch at $90 I'm getting this special edition I wish it came with a poster too though

[Enner]

And it's gone, from Amazon at least.

To say this Limited Edition is underwhelming is quite the understatement. For an extra $30, at least give me the full soundtrack, not a 10-track sampler of probably the least interesting tracks. Nah, I think I'll save my money for what Atlus claims is Persona 5's release.

To be honest, what did you expect or want? For the extra dough that is going to trinkets for fans, a big art book and a specially made USB stick are sensible things compared to ridiculous figurines. Unless you want to argue that a limited edition is supposed to as far from sensible as it can possibly be, which... is a reasonable argument to have.


On the soundtrack point specifically, the 4 disc import costs 3980 yen which exchanges to 32.70, not counting shipping fees. Add to that a high-profile composer and a probably-fussy Japanese music company, and it is most likely a hard ask for Nintendo of America to secure a version of the entire soundtrack for a cheap-enough price.


Personally, I like a beefy art book and art pieces so this limited edition looks good to me. The $30 upgrade sounds right to me given my experience with picking through art book imports. Also, whether we like it or not, that plastic USB drive probably costs more than we would like it to.


Though, if today's premium (as opposed to no additional cost) limited edition accepts no half measures or sensible trinkets, then it would be dishonest if I didn't admit that I would've really liked it if the package had included a figurine or a model kit of either the poster-boy or Elma's Skell.


Lastly, I imported the soundtrack CDs and the soundtrack for the game is quite good. Also, extremely typical of Hiroyuki Sawano current style, so you might tire of the game's beats if your ears are played out from Attack on Titan and Kill la Kill.

[broodwars]

When it comes to music it's likely not completely in Nintendo's power. They had an outside composer, Hiroyuki Sawano, do the music and it's attached to a record label. Defstar Records and Sony Music Marketing in Japan. Just going by anime that can be a pain to license outside of Japan at times. The contract likely only included use of the music in the game itself. Maybe they could only swing the sampler. The actual sound track is 55 songs across 4 CDs. A record label is going to want to make money off that and not allow that to be given away for free.

Fair point. I'd forgotten about the Japanese Entertainment Industry's stupid production committee system.

To be honest, what did you expect or want? For the extra dough that is going to trinkets for fans, a big art book and a specially made USB stick are sensible things compared to ridiculous figurines. Unless you want to argue that a limited edition is supposed to as far from sensible as it can possibly be, which... is a reasonable argument to have.

To me, an artbook's a nice thing to have, but it's one of those things I flip through once and then never look at again. For me, a decent low-end LE is a nice case (preferably Steelbook) with a copy of the soundtrack and 1-2 pieces of DLC if the game supports it. For instance, 2 of my favorite simple LEs are Final Fantasy XIII-2's and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's, which were just nice cases with full copies of their CD soundtracks (which was really impressive in the case of XIII-2's 4 disc OST). Since Nintendo believes in locking content within impossible-to-find toys now instead of just download codes, I could see something like a Skell Amiibo being in the thing.

[kokumaker]

Pre-orders aren't up ANYwhere yet. I don't know what Nintendo was talking about.

[Neifirst]

Pre-orders aren't up ANYwhere yet. I don't know what Nintendo was talking about.

I snagged a preorder last night on Amazon, but I'm hoping Best Buy makes it available too since I'd like to get 20% off with gamer's club.

[Leo13]

Pre-orders aren't up ANYwhere yet. I don't know what Nintendo was talking about.

I snagged a preorder last night on Amazon, but I'm hoping Best Buy makes it available too since I'd like to get 20% off with gamer's club.

I'm with you on the Best Buy thing. Unfortunately, it's still not up there.

[kokumaker]

The Amazon listing isn't even available via a regular search. That may just be a placeholder page. Any pre-orders placed from that might just end up getting cancelled.

[NeoStar9X]

Actually is it searchable. You have to type "Xenoblade Chronicles X Special Edition" and it shows the standard edition and the special edition as the first two results.


It was up for a few hours after it was announced. I guess it sold so well it's now the #1 best selling Wii U game and is the current #3 best selling game out of all games on Amazon.com. It was #1 earlier in the day but it's sure to drop since since they're sold out now.


I do hope it shows up in Best Buy and GameStop. If it shows up in GameStop I'll get it from there and cancel my Amazon order so I can have it that much sooner. I can then pick it up after work when it comes out.

[Leo13]

I just put my name on the "email me" at Amazon because it sold out. Hopefully I can catch wind of it being listed on Best Buy's site before it sales out too.

What the heck is wrong with Nintendo? Again with this idiotic not making enough of things to allow people that want one too buy. I would have thought that in August they'd leave it completely open to gauge interest. Even if it hit 10 million (yes I understand that's not possible I'm just trying to make a point) I'd think that would still be possible to make that many by Dec 4th at this point isn't that part of the purpose of doing pre orders to gauge interest to help determine how many to produce?

[Adrock]

For a second there, I thought, "Yeah, I should definitely try to get this special edition." Why? I haven't even completed the original Xenoblade Chronicles and I probably wouldn't even open this one for a while. Cool extras, but I can't justify the additional cost due to all the nothing I would do with them. I have enough games to play this year.

[Dan Laser]

Aw, at first I thought the USB had the game loaded up digitally! I have the regular edition preordered for under $60 too (thank you amazon preorder price protection) but I’ve been debating getting it digitally instead. Well, I still have a few months to decide.


This special edition doesn’t look too bad to me. Some of the special editions out there are pretty ridiculous. I wouldn’t want all the gaudy clutter some of them come with.