Xenoblade - New Monolith RPG for Wii

Ahhh, ok, I misunderstood the distinction.

Oh good grief...

I just accidentally hit Y when talking to a named NPC and discovered there's a whole trading system I was completely unaware of. This is just after hitting level 41

-_-

stevenmack wrote:

Oh good grief...

I just accidentally hit Y when talking to a named NPC and discovered there's a whole trading system I was completely unaware of. This is just after hitting level 41

-_-

Every time you walk up to someone with a name, the y button pops up with word trade next to it!

I know...now.

Somehow I completely missed it 0_o

of course, now I *have* to go back and see what every named NPC has to offer -_-

Ok, see you in a week!

So forgive the silliness of these questions, but the idea of having a limited inventory is making me wonder about a few things in advance of when the game might answer the questions for me:

- Is there any reason to keep around low level crystals/gems? At this point I have enough rank 2 gems that I really don't need many of the rank 1s, and I'm wondering if I should just start mass selling crystals and gems of rank 1 to big up my bank account/keep my inventory clear.

- The items in the materials tab seem to be used for quests every now and then and for trading purposes, but are they used for anything other than that? Ie, is there like an gear crafting thing at some point?

- Similarly, for items in the collectables tab, other than quests, trading, and the collectopedia, any reason to keep them around?

(For the sake of reference, I'm just about done with the Bionis' Leg area, which by the way is a stunning piece of design work.)

zeroKFE wrote:

So forgive the silliness of these questions, but the idea of having a limited inventory is making me wonder about a few things in advance of when the game might answer the questions for me:

- Is there any reason to keep around low level crystals/gems? At this point I have enough rank 2 gems that I really don't need many of the rank 1s, and I'm wondering if I should just start mass selling crystals and gems of rank 1 to big up my bank account/keep my inventory clear.

- The items in the materials tab seem to be used for quests every now and then and for trading purposes, but are they used for anything other than that? Ie, is there like an gear crafting thing at some point?

- Similarly, for items in the collectables tab, other than quests, trading, and the collectopedia, any reason to keep them around?

(For the sake of reference, I'm just about done with the Bionis' Leg area, which by the way is a stunning piece of design work.)

Personally I've just been selling the weak gems/crystals and keeping the strongest ones. To be honest, I've not paid the gemcrafting side of things a lot of attention so far - though there has been a couple of rather challenging unique monster fights that made me think I should maybe start giving what gems I'm using a bit more thought.

No other crafting as far as I know.

I've done a fair bit of gem crafting, but just for the sake of messing about, really. I got a couple of strength 3s out of it, and whatnot. I started to sell the items in the tiny little bags to make room for other stuff. I just wish that there was a monsterpedia built in; I'll hate the have to go looking for soemthing later.

The game actually gives you a vision of you find a side-quest item before you have the quest active, and marks it in your inventory so that you know not to sell it. Hopefully, it is a full scheme, or I could be in trouble later!

Well, 40 or so hours in:

- Definitely more and more impressed with the world design as I enter each new area, and more forgiving of the graphical foibles to boot.

- A bit less impressed by the storytelling, character development, and voice acting than I was at first. Not that it's bad by any stretch, but the opening few hours definitely got my hopes a bit high. Still, much better than standard JRPG fare (and definitely better than anything I've played in recent years other than the Persona games). Oh, and I also just recently picked up the token annoying mascot character, so there's that.

- When it comes to the nitty gritty of combat design, character customization, side questing, etc that generally make up the majority of what you spend your time on in these games, the game continues to fire on all cylinders. Some personality types may find the extreme amounts of side quests available exhausting, but I'm absolutely loving it.

- All told, definitely among the most worthy entries in the genre in recent years -- although admittedly, that isn't saying all that much -- and if you like these games it's probably well worth spending a few extra bucks to import it (and worth dealing with the minor hassle of soft-modding your Wii to play imports).

April is almost here so I thought we might want to resurrect this thread since North American players will soon have it in their hands!

Gametrailers has a pretty darn glowing review here.

Yeah I guess I'm going to have to visit gamestop soon and pre-order. Maybe I'll watch for a trade-in deal of some type to at least get a decent price.

Has there been a negative review from anyone about this game?

garion333 wrote:

Has there been a negative review from anyone about this game? :P

Not that I'm aware of.

What I can tell you from experience is that Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the best RPGs I have ever played, right up there with games as diverse and superlative as Planescape: Torment, Lord of the Rings Online, The Witcher 2, and especially Dark Cloud 2. I am head-over-heels in love.

Guess who wrote that?

I assume he started taking Prozac.

I pre-ordered the game recently since I got a bunch of cash in trade-ins, so I'll be giving it a whirl as well.

Odd thing is, I know nearly nothing about the game, but I consider that a good thing.

Wait, better than Dark Cloud 2? I may have to look into this now

(What I wouldn't give for a new Dark Cloud game...)

Stele wrote:

Yeah I guess I'm going to have to visit gamestop soon and pre-order. Maybe I'll watch for a trade-in deal of some type to at least get a decent price.

Gamestop's running a +50% on all trade ins for any reason right now.

mrtomaytohead wrote:
Stele wrote:

Yeah I guess I'm going to have to visit gamestop soon and pre-order. Maybe I'll watch for a trade-in deal of some type to at least get a decent price.

Gamestop's running a +50% on all trade ins for any reason right now.

'

You are correct, through April 1. Guess I'll head over this week then.

shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Has there been a negative review from anyone about this game? :P

Not that I'm aware of.

What I can tell you from experience is that Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the best RPGs I have ever played, right up there with games as diverse and superlative as Planescape: Torment, Lord of the Rings Online, The Witcher 2, and especially Dark Cloud 2. I am head-over-heels in love.

Guess who wrote that?

Shockingly (not) given the source, he's maybe gone to a bit of an extreme there.

So, I need to be careful here: I don't want to discourage ANYONE from playing this game, but I would suggest that buying into that level of hyperbole could be setting yourself up for a small bit of disappointment. I refer to my post from months (but only half a page!) ago:

zeroKFE wrote:

Well, 40 or so hours in:

- Definitely more and more impressed with the world design as I enter each new area, and more forgiving of the graphical foibles to boot.

- A bit less impressed by the storytelling, character development, and voice acting than I was at first. Not that it's bad by any stretch, but the opening few hours definitely got my hopes a bit high. Still, much better than standard JRPG fare (and definitely better than anything I've played in recent years other than the Persona games). Oh, and I also just recently picked up the token annoying mascot character, so there's that.

- When it comes to the nitty gritty of combat design, character customization, side questing, etc that generally make up the majority of what you spend your time on in these games, the game continues to fire on all cylinders. Some personality types may find the extreme amounts of side quests available exhausting, but I'm absolutely loving it.

- All told, definitely among the most worthy entries in the genre in recent years -- although admittedly, that isn't saying all that much -- and if you like these games it's probably well worth spending a few extra bucks to import it (and worth dealing with the minor hassle of soft-modding your Wii to play imports).

I then proceeded to play ANOTHER 50 hours (yes, 90 hours total) before deciding to take a break (during which Forza, then Skyrim, then SWTOR, then Mass Effect consumed my time) because while everything I said in that post at 40 hours remained true (amazing world design and gameplay, but story and characters that became less well executed as things progressed) it just went on, and on, and on thanks to the almost silly amount of side questing that is available. Eventually the charm of the combat wore a bit thin and the deteriorating storytelling was no longer able to hold me in, hence the break. Of course, if you don't have gaming OCD you could very easily avoid this kind of burnout by just skipping lots of the side quests, but folks who tend towards the completionist side of the spectrum need to beware: at 40 hours you might still love it, but like me, you might be setting yourself up for an overwhelming amount of gaming.

Anyway, now that my gaming plate is mostly empty again, I'm picking it back up again with the intention of NOT getting bogged down in side questing again, but the design of the quest system is so insidious that it is quite hard (for me at least) to ignore them. That said, my final point from that 40 hours post still stands: if you like JRPGs (or MMORPGs, for that matter, since a lot of this game feels like soloing a good MMO), you need to play this game. Don't expect Persona quality character building or story telling, but do expect to see some really cool places and to play a very fun action oriented RPG.

I gotta tell you, zero, "I played 90 hours of this game and had to take a break because there was so much stuff to do" is not exactly the cautionary tale you're presenting it as.

zeroKFE wrote:

Anyway, now that my gaming plate is mostly empty again, I'm picking it back up again with the intention of NOT getting bogged down in side questing again, but the design of the quest system is so insidious that it is quite hard (for me at least) to ignore them.

I picked it up again recently after a break and hit the motherload of sidequests, most of which are 'timed' * and spent a good hour or so running around just COLLECTING the quests.

Spoiler:

This is when first arriving at the 'highborn' city with the winged head dudes

...I was quite pleased how easy it was to jump back into after a lengthy break, especially the combat. With most other games of this type I'd find I have to restart from scratch (which would be a VERY daunting task in this case).

* and by timed I mean that they'll be unavailable after a certain point in the story, there's no ACTUAL time limit, in case anyone worries.

I think I probably mentioned this above somewhere but it might be worth keeping some sort of internet access handy nearby for a quick google of an NPC or item name from time to time - the quest log is a little sparse on details and it's VERY easy to lose track of exactly when/where a particular NPC hangs around, or where a certain creature or item spawns. Either that or keep extensive notes

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I gotta tell you, zero, "I played 90 hours of this game and had to take a break because there was so much stuff to do" is not exactly the cautionary tale you're presenting it as. ;)

Heh, indeed.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that while it is great that they filled their game with so much content (although you should be warned if you haven't been already, a lot of the side quests draw from the MMO school of quest design), I definitely reached a point where my opinion of the game would have been higher if some of those quests had been edited so that it would be easier to focus on the ones that were genuinely interesting.

Still, ignore the ones that are obviously just "kill x enemies" or "collect x items" and you won't have my problem. Sure, a few of those chain into something with more interesting NPC interaction (which is why I've done them all), but not enough that it calls for the level of OCD that I applied to the situation.

stevenmack wrote:

I think I probably mentioned this above somewhere but it might be worth keeping some sort of internet access handy nearby for a quick google of an NPC or item name from time to time - the quest log is a little sparse on details and it's VERY easy to lose track of exactly when/where a particular NPC hangs around, or where a certain creature or item spawns. Either that or keep extensive notes

I've found this spreadsheet amazingly helpful in that regard:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...

Be careful opening it until you are a good way into the game though -- as with any such reference document, it's pretty easy to spoil some big surprises if look in the wrong places.

zeroKFE wrote:

Shockingly (not) given the source, he's maybe gone to a bit of an extreme there. :P

Possibly, although it's glaringly obvious when he's excited about a game. He was quite enamored with Saint's Row last year if I'm remembering right.

shoptroll wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Shockingly (not) given the source, he's maybe gone to a bit of an extreme there. :P

Possibly, although it's glaringly obvious when he's excited about a game. He was quite enamored with Saint's Row last year if I'm remembering right.

And ME3. And Wargame: European Escalation. And Kid Icarus 3DS.

Not saying the man is on the happy juice, but if he is, I want some of it.

There is no middle ground for him. If a game isn't a shameful, disgusting affront to all that is good about gaming then it's the best thing ever made. He is the king of hyperbole, and anyone who reads his reviews without a MOUNTAIN of salt readily available is likely to leave with an unrealistic idea of what to expect from the experience of playing the game being reviewed.

zeroKFE wrote:

There is no middle ground for him.

Not to send this careening off-topic, but he was pretty lukewarm on Hero Academy. Journey was also a "meh" and boiled down to him not "getting it" I think. Those are the most recent things I can think of that were squat in the middle.

I mostly like reading his stuff for the writing, which is probably why the hyperbole doesn't phase me that much and it's fun when someone goes against the grain (ie. his Hero Academy review vs. the high praise I was hearing at the time on Weekend Confirmed) . *shrug*

Yeah, the value of Tom Chick's reviews is a well trodden topic at this point, and DEFINITELY not worth any more derailing here -- sorry for going off on it. (MOUNTAINS of salt, though. )

Suffice it to say, he's right that this one is well worth playing, just don't expect it to be wart free.

zeroKFE wrote:

don't expect it to be wart free.

I can't think of many games that are. Always bring the salt to any review I say

A shame this game releases at the start of PAX. I'm going to be in recouperation mode when I pick this up on the following Monday and I'm not sure I'm going to have the energy to start it immediately. Woo first world problem.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I gotta tell you, zero, "I played 90 hours of this game and had to take a break because there was so much stuff to do" is not exactly the cautionary tale you're presenting it as. ;)

It is for me!

Are these side quests pretty obviously televised as being kill X or collect X items or such? Because I'm going to take your advice and avoid side quests unless they'll help me level up and I reach a point where I need to grind.