Xenoblade - New Monolith RPG for Wii

farley3k wrote:

I just want to say I hate you all.

According to Nintendo my game will be delivered Friday. I ordered it months ago but apparently they didn't even want to ship to individuals until Monday - and then they used the slowest shipping possible.

Nintendo, after much prodding, has given me a UPS tracking number....which doesn't work. I'm beginning to regret not going with the great Satan of Gamestop.

If it's any consolation, I've got a copy but haven't had a chance to so much as put it in the Wii yet.

Wait, that probably doesn't make you feel better, does it? Oh, I'm so sorry.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

If it's any consolation, I've got a copy but haven't had a chance to so much as put it in the Wii yet.

Wait, that probably doesn't make you feel better, does it? Oh, I'm so sorry. :twisted:

I've only played the first 15 minutes or so. I saved at the first possible moment. I've been powering through Catherine instead but these posts are still killing me.

I don't care how good Xenoblade turns out to be, SixteenBlue, Catherine is a great experience, and there's nothing wrong with choosing to play it over just about anything.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I don't care how good Xenoblade turns out to be, SixteenBlue, Catherine is a great experience, and there's nothing wrong with choosing to play it over just about anything.

QFT.

I think my copy will be here today on account Nintendo apparently having a shipping center in Redmond. So...

IMAGE(http://shirtoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sheldon-squee.jpg)

Stele wrote:

I went back to colony 9 a bit last night just to do some gem crafting and accidentally found a few new people that I hadn't before somehow, and several new quests. Did some of those and my colony 9 affinity has now went to 2 stars.

But it already feels like I've done a ton of stuff there in my 18 hours or whatever of playing. But somehow you can get affinity up to 5 stars, right? I also swam around a bit for the hell of it to fully reveal the colony 9 map. Found several higher level things, lots of red. So I guess there will be more quests as I get higher levels and return. Wow.

So much to do... think I'll head back to the story when I play this afternoon. But holy crap there is a ton of sidequests.

I'm up to 3 stars affinity in Colony 9 and I have about 42 people in my affinity grid with several large clusters of 4 to 6 people whom I have connected via affinity related quests. I haven't looked it up yet, but I'm assuming that as you build up your affinity rating and open up new quests you might eventually connect everyone in an area. I finally left after about 12 hours of questing because I wanted to progress the story and see new places, but that's just an insane amount of "stuff" you can build up in each area. I am curious what the reward might be for achieving 5 stars in an area. Not sure I'll make it there myself though.

Well looking at that spreadsheet, there is a section about extra 4th and 5th skill trees. I think you might have to have an affinity of 4+ stars with an area to unlock some of those quests.

So yeah... that would definitely be worth it.

EDIT: Fixed.

So, after putting about 5 hours in on the Wii I got around looking into this Dolphin thing I've heard mention a couple times. The basic operation involved using homebrew on the Wii to rip the game disc to an SD card and transferring that to my PC, after which it took a bit of tweaking to get it to run without the sound hitching like crazy. For those with more time invested playing on the Wii, it looks like there might be a way to import your save, but I haven't tried it (I figured I'd just start over.)

Playing a bit now running the game at 1080, I can only say it's a shame this only came out on the Wii. It's a pretty looking game, and pretty damn impressive for a Wii title. The fact I can now play with my wired 360 controller is a nice bonus, too.
Some screens for the curious.

edit: Link fixed (Thanks, Stele)

I have it, and I have a fully functional Wii.

But it sits in the family room.

And no one wants to watch me play games.

At least it's in the packaging still, in case I get a chance to sell it for like $200.

Steal that damn Wii man, the game is rad.

Just found out what affinity coins are used for. The ability to share skills is so damn cool.

On a side note, I'm considering getting a second copy just to keep sealed as a collector's item.

By the way, retail gamestops may have copies. It might be worth checking out.

Wow. Satorl Marsh at night. Beautiful. Amazing music. I could just sit around doing nothing and enjoy some of this game.

Finally had a chance to open my copy and wow... I'm in love. I could walk around the outskirts of Colony 9 for hours just looking for blue glowing items. So many shinies!

I still haven't been able to start it.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I still haven't been able to start it. :(

Me neither! High five.

Stele wrote:

Wow. Satorl Marsh at night. Beautiful. Amazing music.

According to Wikipedia this game has music by both Yoko Shimomura (definitely the battle theme outside Colony 9) and Mitsuda.

*passes out ear plugs for the inevitable Demyx squeee*

Mystic Violet wrote:

I could walk around the outskirts of Colony 9 for hours just looking for blue glowing items. So many shinies!

I made the mistake of exploring at night and saw a nice trail of shinies which then lead to my inevitable death when I had my butt handed to me by the mobs.

My copy was waiting for me when I got home. I said I wasn't going to start it until I finished up Saints Row The Third, but now I'm starting to waver.

KidDork wrote:

My copy was waiting for me when I got home. I said I wasn't going to start it until I finished up Saints Row The Third, but now I'm starting to waver.

Where are you at in SR3?

I was underwhelmed by it. Loved SR2, felt SR3 crossed the line a bit and was too similar.

Anyway, I can't recommend everyone get to playing Xenoblade as quickly as possible. I'm now ten hours in and it is looking like this may compete with Lost Odyssey for the generation's JRPG crown.

Nearly done with Satorl Marsh main quest line. Can't decide whether to...

Spoiler:

continue onward with the story, or head back and help start Colony 6 reconstruction. I know I want to rebuild a lot of colony 6 when I get the chance. But not sure if this is too early to start? Should I go ahead and try to get more party members, so they all get more rewards and affinity for doing colony 6 stuff? I imagine there are a ton of quests involved in the rebuilding.

Any advice from those past that point?

I got to play some tonight. The story is pretty decent so far. I like the idea of the world being upon two giant titan mechs. Not sure what to think of the combat, though. It's very MMO-like.

I foresee myself nabbing quests often, but not really focusing much on them.

Stele wrote:

Any advice from those past that point?

Head back every zone or two you pass through. You will find that the resources you need will come from later areas the higher the upgrade level (predictably enough).

Managed to get extremely lucky and borrow a PAL copy from a coworker. Took some time and we managed to create an ISO and run it on Dolphin. Going pretty good so far. Music hitches a lot and I've had a couple of crashses but I think I have that part stabilized.

About 10 hours in and just working around Bionis' leg. So much to do...so much to do. I am confused about the stats. What does agility and ether do? Same with some of the gems. I'm not sure how the Lightning or Frost attacks work either.

Vector wrote:

Managed to get extremely lucky and borrow a PAL copy from a coworker. Took some time and we managed to create an ISO and run it on Dolphin. Going pretty good so far. Music hitches a lot and I've had a couple of crashses but I think I have that part stabilized.

About 10 hours in and just working around Bionis' leg. So much to do...so much to do. I am confused about the stats. What does agility and ether do? Same with some of the gems. I'm not sure how the Lightning or Frost attacks work either.

Post #194 helped me immensely. No hitching no stuttering.

http://forums.dolphin-emulator.com/s...

Gumbie wrote:
Vector wrote:

Managed to get extremely lucky and borrow a PAL copy from a coworker. Took some time and we managed to create an ISO and run it on Dolphin. Going pretty good so far. Music hitches a lot and I've had a couple of crashses but I think I have that part stabilized.

About 10 hours in and just working around Bionis' leg. So much to do...so much to do. I am confused about the stats. What does agility and ether do? Same with some of the gems. I'm not sure how the Lightning or Frost attacks work either.

Post #194 helped me immensely. No hitching no stuttering.

http://forums.dolphin-emulator.com/s...

If I use that build will I need to start over?

Vector wrote:

About 10 hours in and just working around Bionis' leg. So much to do...so much to do. I am confused about the stats. What does agility and ether do? Same with some of the gems. I'm not sure how the Lightning or Frost attacks work either.

Ether is for "ether arts" like Shulk's heal and Sharla's shield and heals. Agility is for evade and "to hit" chance. I haven't seen a whole lot of misses out of my Shulk despite not really giving him any extra agility. I think it might be more to do with fighting things of the same or lower level than you most of the time. Stuff higher is probably harder to hit.

When Dunban rejoins your party, his build is more focused around agility. He's a dodging tank instead of a defense tank like Reyn. But if I understand the gems right, there are caps on how much of a stat you can add, and I think I saw the agility cap is 50. So it seems like Reyn is always going to be a better tank.

ccesarano wrote:

I have it, and I have a fully functional Wii.

But it sits in the family room.

And no one wants to watch me play games.

At least it's in the packaging still, in case I get a chance to sell it for like $200.

I lol'd because I'm in the exact same boat. Still haven't been able to bring myself to open the shrink wrap because I've had zero console gaming time this week. In all honesty, it was probably a bad purchase for me, but I haven't exactly decided to return it either. At least I didn't pay full price, thanks to some trade ins.

Stele wrote:
Vector wrote:

About 10 hours in and just working around Bionis' leg. So much to do...so much to do. I am confused about the stats. What does agility and ether do? Same with some of the gems. I'm not sure how the Lightning or Frost attacks work either.

Ether is for "ether arts" like Shulk's heal and Sharla's shield and heals. Agility is for evade and "to hit" chance. I haven't seen a whole lot of misses out of my Shulk despite not really giving him any extra agility. I think it might be more to do with fighting things of the same or lower level than you most of the time. Stuff higher is probably harder to hit.

When Dunban rejoins your party, his build is more focused around agility. He's a dodging tank instead of a defense tank like Reyn. But if I understand the gems right, there are caps on how much of a stat you can add, and I think I saw the agility cap is 50. So it seems like Reyn is always going to be a better tank. :?

Thanks! I've out leveled everything by such a high margin that the game is insanely easy. If I lose a fight it's usually been because I needed a 3rd party member or they massively out-leveled me.

Duffman wrote:
ccesarano wrote:

I have it, and I have a fully functional Wii.

But it sits in the family room.

And no one wants to watch me play games.

At least it's in the packaging still, in case I get a chance to sell it for like $200.

I lol'd because I'm in the exact same boat. Still haven't been able to bring myself to open the shrink wrap because I've had zero console gaming time this week. In all honesty, it was probably a bad purchase for me, but I haven't exactly decided to return it either. At least I didn't pay full price, thanks to some trade ins.

I'd hang onto it and just make it your highest priority pile game. Because if you return it, you'll probably never get a copy again...