Nintendo bringing Xenoblade to North America in April

[Udvarnoky]

Well whaddya know about that!

[Sno]

Watching this news spread around the net today, it was depressing seeing the relative apathy this was met with. Have definitely been seeing a lot of "Well i already played it." A sentiment justifiably from people who went through the trouble of importing a legitimate copy, but also somewhat less justifiably coming from people who simply ran emulated copies. So way to go, Internet. The people who were demanding this the most are probably the least likely to support it.

Anyways, i'm hearing the game is genuinely quite incredible and actually worth all of this fuss. I look forward to having the opportunity to play it.

[Twig]

I'm-a get it, yep yep. Assuming I get a job! Comes out right around the time I graduate. And, probably more conveniently, right around the time of my birthday.

I haven't played a good JRPG in forever, and I'm not sure the ones I used to think of as good are actually good, soooo this will be interesting!

[keibo]

This is one of the games I've asked my family to get me this Christmas. Hopefully they bought it for me

[Sno]

So Xenoblade has arrived in North American stores, and critical response continues to be universally positive.

I picked up a copy and intend on playing it, i'm just not sure when. I've been reading it's around 100-120 hours, a very long game.

[Raff]

It looks like something I might try. Is it possible to turn off the inane combat chatter? It's inconcievable to me how anyone can tolerate that, let alone decide to put it in the game. Is it required by the japanese government to

from games?

[thespambot]

My brother just finished his import copy about a week ago. His total time was 81 hours.

I grabbed the NA release and have played the first few hours. It reminds me a lot of FF XII, but feels more streamlined. I also love the fact that most quests auto-turn in so you don't have to worry about returning to town until you are good and ready.

[Bork Laser]

I think I may buy this. I've wanted a good JRPG for a while and this one seems to fit the bill. Not only that, but I want to show some support to them for bringing it to the US because, like someone above said, a lot of the people whining about the lack of a US release probably pirated it already. I don't want Nintendo to put to this as an excuse for them to not bring over some of their games.

[Udvarnoky]

Have you guys heard that The Last Story is getting a North American release as well, in June? The folks behind Operation Rainfall must be Snoopy dancing. Between Zelda and these belated JRPG localizations, it's nice to see the Wii going out with a bang.

[Kolzig]

And Pandora's Tower is finally coming out this week on friday in Europe. US release probably happens later as the other two huge rpg releases also have found their way to Nintendo of America release schedules.

Can't wait for Pandora's Tower also.

Really great that US isn't left out of experiencing the two (and hopefully also the third) last great rpg games on the Wii. I hope a lot of people buy these.

[lumberbaron]

Did not pick it up last week, but will pick it up this Friday. I am on call for my stupid tech job so it will give me something to do while things aren't breaking.

How close it looks to Final Fantasy 12 is not a selling point for me, I hated that game.

[Bork Laser]

Did not pick it up last week, but will pick it up this Friday. I am on call for my stupid tech job so it will give me something to do while things aren't breaking.

How close it looks to Final Fantasy 12 is not a selling point for me, I hated that game.

I loved the battle system in that game, it's just everything else I didn't really care much for, so it's a positive for me.

[Sno]

Have you guys heard that The Last Story is getting a North American release as well, in June? The folks behind Operation Rainfall must be Snoopy dancing. Between Zelda and these belated JRPG localizations, it's nice to see the Wii going out with a bang.

It's not even Nintendo that will be bringing over Last Story, is the weird thing. Xseed was granted the job of doing the North American localization.

NoA has set a lot of really weird precedents with the North American releases of the Rainfall games. (Xenoblade using the NoE localization, and this issue of allowing Xseed to localize and release Last Story.)

(Speaking of Xseed, they just released Falcom's original PC version of Ys: Oath in Felghana on Steam. That is a super, super awesome action RPG that i recommend checking out.)

And Pandora's Tower is finally coming out this week on friday in Europe. US release probably happens later as the other two huge rpg releases also have found their way to Nintendo of America release schedules.

Can't wait for Pandora's Tower also.

Really great that US isn't left out of experiencing the two (and hopefully also the third) last great rpg games on the Wii. I hope a lot of people buy these.

I hope North America gets Pandora's Tower too. Of the remaining two aside from Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower and its dungeon-crawling 3d action looked more interesting to me than Last Story.

[lumberbaron]

I loved the battle system in that game, it's just everything else I didn't really care much for, so it's a positive for me.

Watched the quick look over on Giant Bomb and it kind of reminded me of a functional version of White Knight Chronicles, although I am sure that I am the only person who had a good time with that game.

[TheLastBaron]

I loved the combat system in FF12, I was just skimming through this thread because I hadn't heard anything about this game at all and am now interested.

[lumberbaron]

I loved the combat system in FF12, I was just skimming through this thread because I hadn't heard anything about this game at all and am now interested.

I Final Fantasy Combat system with a script by people who made Xenogears/Xenosaga? You should be. Also a good game on the Wii, that is kind of something that should be encouraged as much as we can.

[TheLastBaron]

Wow, so I watched some videos of the game and the world looks super cool. Normally I find the settings of JRPGs so bland and uninteresting, but this one looks amazing. Also everything about this game looks so compelling to me to the point that I'll probably go see if I can find it asap so I can play it this weekend.

[Sno]

So i've been playing for a while now and i'm going to say that it's probably a game people should play.

To just kind of randomly run through some initial impressions -

1 - It gets going pretty quickly, takes about an hour to throw you into an absolutely enormous area with unimpeded freedom, and will rapid fire new game systems at you for a few hours after that. (The premonition system is just the smartest goddamned thing, this is an idea other games need to steal.)

2 - In the capacity that i am not really able to discern whether these British-ass voice actors are actually any good, or if i am just totally enamored with all the accents i am hearing, NoE's localization at least seems very good to me. If nothing else, there's a lot of novelty behind getting a European localization in North America. It ends up giving the game a unique flavor that, while not exactly part of the plan, still works in its favor.

3 - As JRPG's go, Xenoblade can come across as impressively modern. There is just a lot of smart, smart, smart UI and design. (Including a lot of basic usability stuff that is rarely a sure thing in a JRPG, like fast-travel and save-anywhere options.)

4 - People keep comparing its structure and combat to various MMO's and certain Final Fantasy outings, neither of which are things that i like enough to have invested much time in. So for me some of the similar pieces as presented here will perhaps have greater novelty as not already being well trodden concepts in my view, but even so, i am finding this game quite refreshing and enjoyable. I mean, but I can still generally recognize which pieces are coming from which sources. It deserves reiterating that i don't like the games it's being compared to, but i am so far quite enjoying this.

5- I'm not hugely in love with this particular style of RPG combat, but i think it works well here. Unfortunately, I'm not completely convinced that the party AI is holding up on its end of the deal, but it generally seems to be mostly competent. (It seems to, for example, at least sometimes respond appropriately when you're trying to set up for a chain of status effect staggers.)

For when you find the AI struggling to keep up with tougher enemies, the only real advice for it i've seen is to just be willing to switch up your party leader so you yourself can take better advantage of individual characters as an adaptation to those different situations. (Failing that, the game is incredibly forgiving about death, it just boots you back to the last fast-travel landmark with inventory and exp intact, so it seems like you can also kind of just leisurely brute-force the game.)

6 - I wish the game had a more obvious warning on screen for when one of your party members was low on health, that can sneak up on you very quickly.

7 - That first area is real, real big. Minutes after getting into that first city, i randomly jumped up against a rail not really expecting that it would let me jump over the rail, but it did. The next thing i expected to happen was that i would die, but instead i fell all the way into the lake below, confirming that the entire region was actively loaded. I might just be too used to the kind of JRPG's that exist in tiny instances filled with invisible walls, but that was a weird "oh shit!" moment for me.

8 - No Raff, you cannot turn off the combat chatter. (My god, and there is a lot of it in this.)

9 - This game has a great soundtrack.

10 - I really dig Xenoblade's take on reputation systems, and the cities feel pretty lively. (In a very scripted and surface-detail kind of way, mind you.)

11 - The setting is super cool, but the story so far seems completely standard.

[lumberbaron]

In the capacity that i am not really able to discern whether these British-ass voice actors are actually any good, or if i am just totally enamored with all the accents i am hearing

Anything with a British accent does instantly become dreamy.

[Sno]

There was a moment i had while playing this game, where i picked up a random piece of material off a defeated enemy, and the main character's premonition ability kicked in and tagged that material in my inventory as something belonging to a future side quest i had not yet obtained.

That was the moment that i decided that i really, really like this game.

[Raff]

8 - No Raff, you cannot turn off the combat chatter. (My god, and there is a lot of it in this.)

[Sno]

Having gotten about a half to two thirds of the way through this game, i would like to again emphasize that i think this is a game people should be playing.

It is EXCELLENT.

Really the only issue i have with it is the lack of scripting options for the party AI, but the canned routines they have in place remain mostly capable. The AI seems highly customized to each party member's unique traits, and generally acts very intelligently. (Occasionally in surprising ways.)

[lumberbaron]

Oddly enough my copy is still sealed and sitting on the shelf. I am probably going to wait until beating Disgaea 4 before I crack it open. Seeing as I am newly unemployed I don't think this will be that long.

[kael]

There was a moment i had while playing this game, where i picked up a random piece of material off a defeated enemy, and the main character's premonition ability kicked in and tagged that material in my inventory as something belonging to a future side quest i had not yet obtained.

That's one of the game's best design decisions, I think. Along with the fact that you can finish quests without returning to the quest giver, it makes questing in the game a lot less tedious than it would be otherwise.

Really the only issue i have with it is the lack of scripting options for the party AI, but the canned routines they have in place remain mostly capable. The AI seems highly customized to each party member's unique traits, and generally acts very intelligently. (Occasionally in surprising ways.)

I hated the AI a lot less once I realized you could use the dpad to order them to attack your target or run away. That usually covers most of the problems with it (though it's difficult to get them to set up chains sometimes - I'm not sure if that's from them being locked into an attack animation, or what).

Random highlight: One of the characters you get has a tanking specialization, and if you unlock it, they get defense bonuses for fighting naked.

[Sno]

That's one of the game's best design decisions, I think. Along with the fact that you can finish quests without returning to the quest giver, it makes questing in the game a lot less tedious than it would be otherwise.

While it is awesome that the game does that, it only does it for generic quests. For a lot of the town affinity quests, you do have to find the original quest giver again. Given that they're active only during certain times of day and that they will also move around while active, they can sometimes be really tricky to track down. That has at times been a source of significant frustration for me. Feels like quite an over-sight in amongst all the other smart, helpful things the game does. (I know they'll show up on the map with the red exclamation mark, but you still have to be near them for that to even appear, and some of the later cities are enormous.)

I hated the AI a lot less once I realized you could use the dpad to order them to attack your target or run away. That usually covers most of the problems with it (though it's difficult to get them to set up chains sometimes - I'm not sure if that's from them being locked into an attack animation, or what).

I know that you can do this, but the commands they give you are very cursory, and they aren't very useful in any tactical sense beyond "That flying enemy is over lava, get the fuck out of the lava." Any time there is a battle that makes you consider the game systems in a different way, the AI struggles and the game doesn't give you any way to exert enough direct control over them to make up for it. (Either during the battle or outside of it.)

The AI usually shows that it knows what to do when the requirements placed on it change, but it can be very unpredictable with follow-through on those adapted tactics. For example, don't give the AI control of Shulk when you're fighting Mechon, because there's go guarantee he'll cast enchant when he needs to. He has a tendency to make dumb decisions and forestall the proper moves. (Everybody's AI is also really iffy about working together to further break-topple-daze chains.)

I think it's a problem with the game, not having access to the nuts and bolts of their AI, so you can prevent them from doing things you don't want them to do while placing greater priority on the things you do want them to do. (That kind of control is a pretty standard feature for games with AI-driven parties.) I mean, the AI is generally very smart, but it still makes dumb choices and has trouble coping whenever strategies need to be mixed up.

Anyways, so the AI fucks up sometimes, and sometimes you die because of it. There's a random element to it that you don't have control over, and that can be a little frustrating at times. The instant no-penalty respawn almost seems like an acknowledgement of this. I probably don't need to harp on this one thing though, this is an excellent game. I just think that, in light of doing so much right, the things it gets wrong should be acknowledged.

Edit: I also love that the game clearly marks side quests that can be invalidated by points of no-return, how awesome is that? Though there's actually only a handful of notable no-return points in the game, and they're much further into the game than you probably would expect. However, sometimes there's also individual affinity quests that get tagged too, without any apparent relation to the areas affected by the larger points of no-return. Those ones probably shouldn't be ignored if you're concerned about town affinity or a completion percentage.

Edited April 24, 2012 by Sno