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eRonin

Xenoblade Chronicles X - good bye Earth

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This game came out on the weekend and it consumed all of Sunday for me. It would have consumed Saturday too, but it was my birthday and I had guests that I needed to entertain. 

 

This game is so beautiful and even after all the youtube videos/screenshots I pored over, I'm still constantly amazed by how it looks. I've always been a fan of the core Xenoblade gameplay, and they've tweaked it here to make it deeper and more engaging. For those asking: no, there is no relation story/lore-wise of this game to the last. Still, a lot of the gameplay mechanics are carried over, including having a wide open plains peppered with monsters 50 levels higher than you. It helps create the feel that you're living in an actual ecosystem with a food chain, though, and 90% of monsters won't actually attack you if you leave them alone.

 

So far the story doesn't seem as interesting as the first game, but the dialogue is way better and is keeping me entertained. I haven't felt like skipping any cutscenes yet, since the VA work is excellent in my opinion and the delivery of the lines is great. Despite the overworld being so beautiful though, unfortunately the home city, "New Los Angeles" is quite rough around the edges and look straight up like a PS2 game in some places. Still, it's a fantastic game and it's all I can think about right now.

 

And how much I want to get into one of these:

 

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really want this game. I just have too much work!! When my current contract ends on 8th of Jan, I am buying this, a pack of IPA and playing for like 14 hours straight.

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With my other half pulling a 24-hour shift over Xmas Day, I was thinking this could be a nice way to spend the day. What's the online like? If the servers melt over the holidays, will it affect the singleplayer in any way?

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I haven't gotten into the online stuff yet, but it is rather convoluted. There are basically several layers to it:

 

  • when you play the game and are connected to the internet, you are asked to passively join a 32-person squad. You have the choice of joining a SP-focused or MP-focused squad, OR squad with your friends
  • a squad is given 5 random tasks to complete, which would be too much for one person to handle, but could be cleared by a 32-person squad quite easily
  • once one or more tasks are complete, THEN you can party up with 3 other people to actively play with them to accomplish squad missions
  • finishing squad missions work towards unlocking a "Global Nemesis" mega boss that has an insane amount of HP, but every point of damage done by members of your squad contributes to depleting the Nemesis HP

More details here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/3u77rz/xenoblade_x_multiplayer_information_thread/

 

It's pretty daunting, as are a lot of this game's mechanics. I definitely recommend perusing through the in-game manual (home button OR start menu leads to the same document) when you first start the game or maybe after beating the prologue.

 

All of this is quite separate to the single-player game. You can play this game with your Wii U not connected to the Internet, if you like.

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Just got the limited edition box on Friday. Created my character and started the story and ran around the world and tipped my toes into the combat system a bit.

 

Looks absolutely gorgeous so far.

 

I will so not have time for this game to play it properly in the near future. :)

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Man I've been playing this game over the weekend and it's good. I just got to the end of the training missions, and now everything is unlocked and I feel like I'm drowning in stuff that isn't wholly explained. Missions have requirements before you can undertake them, and main story mission have requirements that involve finishing missions, but to my knowledge there is no way of knowing if you've actually met the requirements, or how to find the missions that you need to finish.

 

On top of that is it me, or is the writing really small? I'm squinting to read most of the things on the screen. 

 

The fighting is great though, and auto run is a wonderful thing. It reminds me all of a MMO more than a JRPG.

 

Finally my silent protag looks creepy, but the best thing about the female choice is that one of the voices is Fiora's VA (classic). Honestly I think the voice acting is on par, but I do miss Riki's voice. Teddy's VA isn't as good as a nopon, imo.

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I watched a video of this on the bus today and I'm shocked that the WiiU can make things look this pretty.

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Is the off-tv play any good?

 

No, unfortunately. Text in-game is small enough as it is on a TV. Plus accessing the map for fast travel is kinda a pain since you have to keep switching. 

 

Also with regard to the downloadable packs: there are 4 of them which total ~11GB. They basically are responsible for making different bits load faster (world, character, monsters, and skells (the giant mechs)).

 

I'm level 14 now, finally got a mission to set off to another continent. This is exciting =D

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MLG Professional Tip: when you increase your BLADE level and get the opportunity to rank up your field skills, rank up Mechanical to Level 5 ASAP (read each letter, please). You'll get the ability to place every probe right out the gate, which means you won't run into any frustrations when you reach a probe spot and find you can't do anything until Level 3.

 

I'm currently BLADE Rank 4, and I think the most infuriating part of the game so far is when I was Rank 2, made it to some probe spot that I admittedly probably was not supposed to reach without a Skell, and was met with "Requires Rank 5 Mechanical."

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The absolute best thing i can say about Xenoblade Cross is that it feels like the kind of unrestrained, ridiculous, impossible ambition my twelve year old self would have tried to envision as a game.

 

It's a messier and less charismatic RPG than Xenoblade Chronicles was, but it's just so monstrously and unrepentanly ambitious in its scope and systems that i can't help but forgive it any of its failings.

 

I think i'm about fifteen hours in, and i'm probably actually not as far into the game as people usually would be at this point, i don't even have a mech yet, i've spent a lot of my time trying to sort out what all the systems mean and do rather than just critical path story quests. The multiplayer component in particular is much more expansive and multi-faceted than i was expecting, and a lot of the core game systems are doing some pretty unusual and interesting things. (Soul voices, in particular, seem to be kind of a way to program character logic into not just AI party members, but into live players by incentivizing coordination with tangible rewards. They can even be both at once, with your own player character possibly being summoned into another player's game as an AI party member via one of the game's many multiplayer systems in a move that seems a little like the pawns from Dragon's Dogma.)

 

Again though, less charismatic. The game features a pretty weird and inconsistent use of the silent protagonist, i also don't think i particularly like or care about any of the other characters, and as much as i am a sucker for mecha anime, the premise is way, way less interesting than that of the first game. The game is coming across as a bit of a beautiful void. Gorgeous environments and densely rich systems, but not much personality to back it up. I'm personally totally okay with that, but people should know what they're getting into.

 

The OST is also kind of all over the place. I don't even know what to say about it. It's not unusual for a JRPG to have a weird and eclectic soundtrack, but there are some real hard swings in quality here. Some of the

just come across as comical and out of place in what is on the whole probably one of the better video game OST's i've heard in a long time.

 

I think i'm going to have a lot more to say about this one, but i'm quite in love with it so far. (I'd advise looking through the very comprehensive digital manual. Excepting a few odd omissions, it's very useful.)

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As of last night the game said I've spent about 24 hours on it, and I'm too preoccupied running around getting all the party members unlocked to care about the story missions.

 

I had to go to Sylvarum (the second northernmost region) for one, and man, all the regions in this game are so vastly different and beautiful. You have to swim across an ocean of aggro level 34s to get there (they're avoidable), but it's absolutely worth it to take in the sights. It was also the first time I had to drop the difficulty of the game because the level 16 "boss" of the mission was not doable with a party of 3 level 18s and a useless garbage fourth character.

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You're definitely not expected to have a mech at 15 hours in. Most places I've seen say you could get it at 20 hours if you rush, but more commonly you'll get it at 30 hours. I believe you get them after chapter 6. I'm at 16 hours into the game and I'm jut about ready to start chapter 5. I've explored most of Primordia and the lower landmass of Noctilum so far. I hope chapter 5 takes me further out there, or maybe to Oblivia, where I've basically jut dipped my toes into (for Lin's first affinity quest). Multiplayer missions below level 20 seem pretty boring so far, but that might just be because I've been playing with some over-leveled friends using the mechs to destroy everything before I get a chance. Still, the mission structure for low levels at least have so far just been "kill X of Y". One time there was a treasure box to obtain but my friends killed the objective before I had a chance to check out the treasure =(

 

I'm personally a fan of Black Tar! I don't mind the vocals at all and that soundtrack gets me pumped up for the battles.

 

It sounds like I'm sort of near the same level as Sno and aprettycooldude, so maybe once we're a bit higher level, we should do some multiplayer missions together. My NNID is in my sig (it's also the same as my username sooo)

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Some details i've gleaned from the internet and some observations i've personally had about the game that all might not be outwardly evident on their own:

- You have separate cooldowns that can run simultaneously for your ranged and melee attacks. So by stowing the weapon that's in cooldown, you get to cycle two autoattacks during combat and essentially double your DPS.

 

- When a party member, whether it's an AI or a live player, successfully triggers a soul voice prompt that requires an action from another party member, the appropriate skills will flash on your hotbar. (They will flash in their own color-coded color, a white flash just means its cooldown has completed.) This is usually a significant boost in power, to the extent that you might want to keep the skill available so you can use it for soul voice combos.

 

- While your walking speed is reduced in combat, you can still sprint and jump at full speed without exiting the combat state. Use these for positioning.

 

- Good soul voice setups kind of nudge your party along the right direction in terms of tactics and strategy, but sometimes you need more. Holding the right bumper will bring up a list of basic commands for AI party members like focusing attacks or regrouping on you. Hitting start while in combat also opens up a much more elaborate command menu, but i'm honestly not clear quite yet if the AI actually listens to those advanced commands, or if they're for the co-op. (Which turns out to be much more fun than i was expecting, i encourage trying to find some matches.)

 

- Some of your hotbar skills, ones for stealth as an example, are useful even outside of combat. If you lock onto an enemy but don't hit the big button to start your auto-attacks, you can use some of these more passive abilities without engaging in a fight. (I'll concede that i keep forgetting to test this one myself, but i've seen a few people vouch for it.)

 

I think i'm enjoying the combat in Xenoblade Cross a lot more than i enjoyed the combat in the first game. The systems are a little more standardized, there seemingly isn't as much variety among the various classes as there was amongst the first game's characters, and i find myself missing a few mechanics such as Shulk's premonitions, but everything in Cross feels much more active and it all moves with much more momentum.

 

Also, just... God damn, those environments are incredibly gorgeous. This game is so gorgeous. (Also: Right bumper and up on the d-pad when out of combat for drone camera!)

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This game is so weird. I absolutely love the combat, with the strange call outs for combos. I really enjoy that part of it.

 

However, I have no idea how to start the story missions, I know I've got to do prerequisite missions, but they're not shown anywhere. Also the way the party works, you have to find the people to put them in your party, rather than just using the menu.

 

Despite that, it's beautiful and really fun!

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- Good soul voice setups kind of nudge your party along the right direction in terms of tactics and strategy, but sometimes you need more. Holding the right bumper will bring up a list of basic commands for AI party members like focusing attacks or regrouping on you. Hitting start while in combat also opens up a much more elaborate command menu, but i'm honestly not clear quite yet if the AI actually listens to those advanced commands, or if they're for the co-op. (Which turns out to be much more fun than i was expecting, i encourage trying to find some matches.)

 

Pretty sure your AI characters listen to these commands. The one I use most often is to tell some characters to switch to ranged attack if they're under too much fire; that way they move further back and the monster might aggro onto a closer target instead. Most of the time I get by with switching between focus fire and the regroup as required; it makes perfect sense that these two are on shortcuts.

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This game is so weird. I absolutely love the combat, with the strange call outs for combos. I really enjoy that part of it.

 

However, I have no idea how to start the story missions, I know I've got to do prerequisite missions, but they're not shown anywhere. Also the way the party works, you have to find the people to put them in your party, rather than just using the menu.

 

Despite that, it's beautiful and really fun!

 

Finding those prerequisite missions can be a nightmare, but fortunately most of them can be viewed on the gamepad map. Just browse around the different NLA maps and check on all the hexagonal segments that have something in them; they usually are either where a party member is commonly found, or an affinity quest location (with the name, party members required, etc.). So that solves both your issues (but I do agree it's very silly).

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I found it, started that mission, and it turns out I'm massively underleveled for it. I now have literally no idea what I'm supposed to be doing.

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I found it, started that mission, and it turns out I'm massively underleveled for it. I now have literally no idea what I'm supposed to be doing.

 

Which mission is it, and what level are you? I found that the affinity quests' required level indicator is spot-on most, if not all, of the time. Is it just because you have to carry a 4th character who hasn't been leveled? This game kinda blows in that regard.

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No, it was because I walked into the area (Chapter 4) and there were a bunch of level 35 enemies who attack on sight. Turns out I was just supposed to avoid them.

 

I like that design choice of including multiple high level enemies in areas where you're supposed to be a much lower level. It's just years of MMO and RPGs have taught me that if there's a high level enemy, you're not supposed to be there.

 

It's a strange game. It's a good game. There are so many damn systems that I have no idea what they do. The resource points...like, it's explained how to change them to different things, but not what the point of changing them is. I feel like I'm going to have to check out a FAQ.

 

I really enjoy that you can just change class without worrying about anything. 

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When you change the resource points (data probes), there are two main types: one that will increase miranium production, and one that will increase your money income. There are a bunch of others but those are the main ones. You can see on the gamepad that your miranium/income production gets changed when you select the probe type you want to use. Miranium is used to invest into manufacturers so that they stock better gear, and are also required for some quests.

 

I like that you kind of have to use stealth in this game. The game encourages you to try to find pathways around cliffs and stuff, so in addtion, you also have to find safe pathways around high-level monsters. Alternatively, I guess you can do what other people have done and use the stealth art that Elma has, but that art requires TP to activate, and you might not necessarily be the right class or have Elma in your party anyway.

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I want to complain about a few things for a bit.

First, the Wii U:

The way the Wii U seems to generally need more than twice a file's actual footprint in storage space to download and install something? That really, really freaking sucks, and the way that information is surfaced in the eShop is incredibly confusing and opaque. So yeah, when i first got Cross, i thought: i should need about ten gigs of space to download and install Cross's datapacks for the disc version. Well great, i have 17 gigs available. So that stuff all started downloading and downloading and apparently maxed out my Wii's storage and errored out and then vanished. Took me a bit of digging to realize what happened. Didn't feel like doing it again at the time so i just started playing the game off the disc.

Honestly, the load times didn't really bother me, nor did the pop-in, but the game seemed to be causing some considerable distress to my Wii U's disc drive, so i go back into the eshop store to download just one of those data packs. The basic pack just by itself apparently still makes a huge difference in load times and should ease up on and preserve the lifespan of my Wii U's disc drive. I pay closer attention while downloading just that one pack, and it presents two filesizes when i'm getting to ready to download. It says it's 2 gigs, but that it needs around 4.5 gigs. Okay, whatever.

Then the store insists to me that it's already downloaded and on my Wii U. (It's not. What it would be occupying was definitely free space.) I tell the store to download it anyways and now i'm a little worried that i'm going to get a weird error at some point in the process. More than half an hour later it's downloaded and installed and seems to work fine. The game loads significantly faster and isn't causing my Wii U to yowel with pain anymore.

I think there's two things to take from this: The Wii U's OS is a bit of a hot mess, and if any of you are playing Xenoblade on disc and don't think you have room for the data packs, go ahead and grab the basic pack that contains the environments just by itself. It's apparently the important one, it's only 2 gigs, and it made a huge difference.

 

The other thing i want to bitch about is how affinity quests, especially the ones that were DLC in japan, are magnitudes more difficult than any other level appropriate quests you find in the game. Getting locked into a DLC affinity quest just barely at its required level and with an underleveled party has been holy-shit miserable. Try to be over-leveled before committing to those is my advice.

 

 

I really enjoy that you can just change class without worrying about anything. 

 

Take care with your BP though, it's a single semi-finite resource you share between skills and arts upgrades. (The way i've heard it, you should have enough to max out 2 or 3 hotbars worth of arts by the end of the game.)

 

But as you note, the initial unlocks to make use of those skills and arts have no associated resource cost, so the game really does let you play around before you decide where you need to focus your efforts.

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I should probably look up a guide for which affinity quests are DLC, huh? I've been chewing through them and avoiding the story (I'll get to Chapter 6 eventually...) because that's how I always play games with sidequests. It's clear I have to break that compulsion because the game is more than happy to just throw more stuff at me every time I finish, and I'm starting to get a little antsy about them skells.

 

Also, the game trying to pretend 100k is "a lot of money" at this point is laughable. I'm sitting on three mil, just waiting to start dumping money into my Gundam/Jehuty/Whatever

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