Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition Catch-All

On May 29, 2020, Nintendo releases Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition for the Switch. The game will feature a new epilogue adventure called Future Connected.

As this game is new for many people and also contains new content, please use spoiler tags. Conversation can be more relaxed in the original thread, started in 2010.

New thread smell, mmm.

Before I stick my foot in my mouth, is this a spoiler-sensitive thread? Future Connected is obviously new, but the original game is ten years old at this point. Should we treat it like a new game and spoiler tag everything, or should we treat it like an old game and only spoiler tag the new content?

Amazon has the basic edition $10 off right now. Basically price matching Walmart.

Yup. Just grabbed mine as an early Father’s Day gift. Was hoping amazon would price match like that soon! Super excited after playing through XC2 a couple months ago. I never got a chance to play the first one.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Before I stick my foot in my mouth, is this a spoiler-sensitive thread? Future Connected is obviously new, but the original game is ten years old at this point. Should we treat it like a new game and spoiler tag everything, or should we treat it like an old game and only spoiler tag the new content?

Good question, esp with some folks likely jumping on Future Connected out of the gate.

Maybe spoiler in this thread, but free game in the original game's thread? I feel like we can utilize the two threads somehow. I have to imagine there's going to be some new players.

Tagging.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Before I stick my foot in my mouth, is this a spoiler-sensitive thread? Future Connected is obviously new, but the original game is ten years old at this point. Should we treat it like a new game and spoiler tag everything, or should we treat it like an old game and only spoiler tag the new content?

I know I started this game three or four times but never finished any of those playthroughs, so I'm still largely ignorant of a lot of the later content. It seems like I'm not alone in the "loved it but never finished" camp, so it might be a good idea to hold off on spoilers for now.

As someone who saw Chrono Trigger spoiled (not on Gamers With Jobs) when I was thoroughly in on the story I've a soft spot for eternal spoiler tags. Then again, after a certain period of time, it's somewhat fair warning.

garion333 wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Before I stick my foot in my mouth, is this a spoiler-sensitive thread? Future Connected is obviously new, but the original game is ten years old at this point. Should we treat it like a new game and spoiler tag everything, or should we treat it like an old game and only spoiler tag the new content?

Good question, esp with some folks likely jumping on Future Connected out of the gate.

Maybe spoiler in this thread, but free game in the original game's thread? I feel like we can utilize the two threads somehow. I have to imagine there's going to be some new players.

I wasn't sure which way to go when I made the thread, so I wanted to see what you all thought. Personally, I played a little bit of the game on the 3DS, but I really don't remember anything. I think the game will be new enough for many that spoiler tags would be appropriate.

I really liked XC2 despite some weird stuff. Definitely giving this a try at some point.

garion333 wrote:

Maybe spoiler in this thread, but free game in the original game's thread? I feel like we can utilize the two threads somehow. I have to imagine there's going to be some new players.

I think this would be the sensible way to go. I, too, have never finished the game, nor gotten all that far into it, so spoiler-tag the day away in this thread, and see if the denizens of the older thread are good with making it a story spoiler free-for-all.

I borrowed the original version from a buddy years ago and played it through on the Wii, so I don't plan on getting this one at full price. But, it is probably one of my favorite JRPGs and I'd like to own it for myself (and I didn't have a New 3DS so I couldn't play it there), so I do plan to grab it on sale and replay it eventually. But I'll be keeping tabs on the conversation here to see how people like it.

There are some really good twists and turns later in the game, so careful use of spoilers would probably be wise. That said, I think some of the reveals got spoiled by at least one Smash Bros game, but if no one remembers anything, it's best not to go back and look for it now.

I'm tagging interest in the thread as well, since I have it on my Switch. I have about 4-5 other games ahead of it I need to clear off the backlog before I tackle it.

Based on this trailer, Makna Forest may be the furthest I ever got in this game (twice!). So, uh... yeah that's probably not very significant. At the very least I never reached the Sea after.

I'm looking forward to thoroughly enjoying the first half of the game before sputtering out and somehow losing motivation for the fourth time. Seriously!

Xenoblade X is the only one of the three that I've actually managed to play through to completion (and still wanted more!). XC and XC2 just... I dunno. I get halfway through and somehow I just don't seem to feel compelled to continue.

Farscry wrote:

I'm looking forward to thoroughly enjoying the first half of the game before sputtering out and somehow losing motivation for the fourth time. Seriously!

Xenoblade X is the only one of the three that I've actually managed to play through to completion (and still wanted more!). XC and XC2 just... I dunno. I get halfway through and somehow I just don't seem to feel compelled to continue.

Yeah I'm actually going to make myself go back and try to finish XC2 before I buy this one. Hopefully I'll catch a $10 or $20 sale by then too.

Ok, I updated the original post.

"As this game is new for many people and also contains new content, please use spoiler tags. Conversation can be more relaxed in the original thread, started in 2010."

Farscry wrote:

I'm looking forward to thoroughly enjoying the first half of the game before sputtering out and somehow losing motivation for the fourth time. Seriously!

Xenoblade X is the only one of the three that I've actually managed to play through to completion (and still wanted more!). XC and XC2 just... I dunno. I get halfway through and somehow I just don't seem to feel compelled to continue.

Duuuuuuuuuude, I feel ya. I only finished XC2 because I put it on auto. I was so tired of the combat by hour 60 or so that I wanted to plow through it to see it through. (Side note: Now that I've finished the story I find the world much more enjoyable to be in.) I highly recommend going that route, especially since this game now has an easy mode. It's gonna be tough not to switch to easy part of the way through the game since this is the second time, ya know?

Digital Foundry helping to temper folks expecting this to be a huge improvement. Improvement it is, but the engine seems to have been pushed to its limits. Man, I sure can't wait for Switch 2 so we can play these games in 1080p and whatnot. Or, at least, 720p in handheld!

Still, DF says it's better in handheld than XC2 and that's a godsend as XC2 felt much less epic in handheld mode.

This game took me a few running starts to get through (I petered out in the mines the first three times) but I finished it on 3DS and loved it. I devoured Xenoblade 2 and Torna.

Xenoblade X is the only one I haven't finished. I invariably get frustrated with the item collection quests where you have to collect X number of a item, but the game doesn't tell you where they are or even what region they might be in, and all the pickups are random blobs of light that could be anything. I turn to a wiki (which I always hate doing) and find out the item has a 5% chance of dropping in one very specific area, and I give up.

Yeah, that aspect was supposed to be a cool feature mimicking MMOs and creating unique situations, but I think it's more irritating than anything. Oh, it had to be nighttime and raining when I fought that guy. Gotcha. No thanks.

Yeah that's the one aspect of XCX that I did genuinely dislike. If you're going to make things that rare to find in the game, at least provide some means of figuring it out in-game so I don't have to break out a fan-created spreadsheet just to find stuff.

"ClockworkHouse wrote:

Xenoblade X is the only one I haven’t finished

Curious, are you counting Xenogears and The Xenosaga games?

I ask because I’ve had an on-off relationship with them. Loved Gears, thought Saga 1 was okay, didn’t bother with the other two Saga games because I didn’t have a working PS2 when they released. Stalled out on Chronicles pretty quick, finished and loved X, have bought but not started Chronicles 2.

I DID and LOVED XENOGEARS.... I never was able to complete Xenosage games... i dont know what happened back then.. could be FFXI when it came out.. or some other game. Are they worth going back?

Blind_Evil wrote:
"ClockworkHouse wrote:

Xenoblade X is the only one I haven’t finished

Curious, are you counting Xenogears and The Xenosaga games?

Nope! I haven't played any of those, although a friend recently gave me copies. My understanding has been that outside of an interest in killing gods, they're not really related in plot or mechanics to the Xenoblade games.

Yeah they aren’t very similar to the Nintendo published games. It’s more of a feel and spirit thing. I do recommend giving gears the college try though. The story and characters are fun.

They are unrelated, yes. Xenosaga is supposedly a prequel(?) to Xenogears, but because the developers swapped from Square to Bandai Namco they couldn't be quite obvious about it. Fun fact: Soraya Saga was the writer and creator of characters Edgar and Sabin in Final Fantasy VI and responsible for their back story. She married Tetsuya Takahashi, head of Monolith Soft, and the two of them submitted the script for Xenogears as a proposal for Final Fantasy VII. They were turned down because it was "too dark" but allowed to make the game themselves.

Makes me wonder how Xenogears would have turned out (and the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole) if it was given FF7's big bucks o' cash.

I never finished the first Xenosaga game. I can't remember how far it was, sometime around when some dude was getting crucified by a Pink Floyd laser light show, that I gave up. I realized I was under-leveled, and the reason I was under-leveled was because I wasn't enjoying the combat, which means they had taken one of the better aspects of Xenogears and completely ruined it.

I think I liked the -gears combat at the time but recently played some - it feels snappy enough but lacks any real depth.

Is It Worth Buying Xenoblade Chronicles: DE for the Future Connected Epilogue Alone?