Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Catch-all

I finished both of the previous Xenoblade games, and really enjoyed both, but neither quite stuck the landing for me, for various reasons. And I've been on the fence towards getting 2, but I've been waiting to see the reviews before I made any final calls. But when I see things like this

Polygon wrote:

Xenoblade 2 takes place in a world reminiscent of Skies of Arcadia.

it's hard for me to not get excited. I love me some SoA, and any comparison will pull me in. Plus the voice acting sounds like it will be better than the trailers have shown.

I'm probably in once it goes on sale, or if I can snag a reasonable used copy on eBay. I remember that XCX dropped down by $10 within about 3 weeks of launch, at which point I snapped it up.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

My copy arrives tomorrow. I honestly don't care if I finish it or not. I didn't finish the other two, but they were unique and memorable experiences all the same.

Same here. This is also hitting at a really good time for Switch owners since it seems like many people have hit their limit with Mario Odyssey and are looking for a new "big" game release until Nintendo starts unveiling their 2018 slate.

EDIT: And cheers to anyone staying up late for the eShop release

JeremyK wrote:

Anyone know when the digital version unlocks?

In the US, it's always midnight eastern. So if you're in another time zone, you can maybe get it downloaded before midnight.

Gonna be honest, this is kind of a downer if this is how it actually functions:

https://twitter.com/Kotaku/status/936347149209669632

It does, though generally the enemies you are fighting don't also talk. This example of the soldiers is basically the worst it's gonna get. How that got through QA is beyond me.

There's also this:

IMAGE(https://assets.rpgsite.net/images/images/000/060/496/original/xenoblade2-review_%289%29.jpg)

garion333 wrote:

How that got through QA is beyond me.

I would bet you several dollars that QA flagged and complained about it, but it was deemed too difficult or not important enough to fix in the time they had, so they shipped it like that.

Or that the English recordings were louder and the real fix was to lower their levels but there were too many of them to deal with.

garion333 wrote:

I've seen people going "but he doesn't like Xenoblade games why would he review it?" So silly. Forget that he's familiar with the series and we'll versed in JRPGs. Those don't count, apparently. It just so happens he tends to prefer more polish.

That’s pretty irrelevant, at least in my opinion. I get that he is their JRPG guy, but it’s a known fact that he despised both previous games. It’s not like he just didn’t enjoy them, or didn’t really like the story, no he pretty much doesn’t get why anyone would play these games at all. That’s my exact stance on all of the Shin Mega whatever series. They are great RPGs, lots of people adore them, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why. I’m a HUGE JRPG fan, have been since the original Final Fantasy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I am the best person to review a new Shin Mega JRPG. I hated the others even though I’ve tried them all, so it’s a reasonable assumption that I’m probably going to feel the same way about this one.

Some of Jason’s points sound reasonable to me, but he pretty much invalidates his entire review in the first couple lines when he states he hated the previous titles and then proceeds to dump all over this one in the first paragraph. That to me isn’t remotely close to being objective, instead he comes off as someone who obviously can’t stand this series and is looking for anything and everything to nitpick, justifiable or not. It’s too bad because I normally like Jason and enjoy his writing, but this review really struck me as written by someone who has a huge proverbial axe to grind with the entire series.

Yeah, I've always found how he doesn't like Xenoblade kind of weird because I think they're great and a lot of the rest of the time he and I line up. It is what it is, but I still think Kotaku is right to give him the game to play as he's still very well versed in JRPGs. Maybe he should pass next time since three games in he's still waiting for Xenogears and that isn't gonna happen again.

The tweet Chaz linked to is exactly what he would post a video about. Most battles aren't like that.

Nopons can die in a fire though. They add next to nothing for me.

Honestly, I think difference of opinion is valuable and even necessary. I don't fault Jason Schreier for doing the review of a game he's going to dislike.

I haven't read the review, but I can at least say that, while confessing to not being a fan is a necessity outright, I think attitude and emotion is vital. It's easy to want to essentially trash a game that you spent a lot of hours disliking. However, there should always be an honest effort to enjoy it, and if you cannot then be able to explain why in a thorough manner.

Xenoblade isn't for everyone, and those who won't like it should be represented as well.

If Jason's perspective was childish and insulting or just complaining, then I'd say he's a great journalist but should leave the criticism to others. If this is just a matter of fans complaining that someone disliked a game they like, then they need to just learn to let sh*t go.

GameXplain with some splendid videos.

Gonna add to OP, actually.

It's a fallacy to assume that review assignments should go to people predisposed to like a product, or that someone invalidates their opinion of a game by not having enjoyed its predecessors. I'm glad Kotaku gave him this assignment, and I hope someone gives him the next one, too. That perspective is valuable, and I'm glad it was published.

Review objectivity is a lie. Why indulge it?

I don't mind someone reviewing a game that they're probably going to dislike, but I'd rather know that up front, because that calibrates whether I disregard the review. I don't like video game football, but I do like real football. I've had no fun with any Madden game I've played. If I do a Madden review, and start it with "I've never liked Madden, and this is no different", then that's kind of valuable. You can read that review, and maybe I raise some good points, but ultimately, my review probably won't be super valuable if you've always liked Madden. If I never tell you that, but dump all over the game, maybe you think "Oh, this is a bad Madden game this year." Context!

I don't particularly disagree. A well written review should give you an idea of whether you'll like a game no matter the reviewers leanings. In theory any ways. You also have to take into account reviewers play games in situations that result in completely different mindsets when playing games. They're on tight deadlines in some cases. They also play a bajillion games. I'm not sure my taste in games would be even close to what it is now if I was playing them for a job at the rate and in the time frame some of these people play them.

Plus in general if I'm trying to figure out whether a game is for me I'm not going to be reading reviews. Not these days. I'd much rather see it in action via a stream/video/quick looks. Not because I trust streamers to be impartial(a lot of the time it's the opposite) but because watching a game in action is far better for me in determining if I'll like something or not. Maybe it's just the way my brain works.

Not much to add but I've found reviewers who bounce off a game to find interesting points that get overlooked in other reviews. Or you get a different perspective than if you only look at the good ones. I specifically remember finding Tom Chick's review of Transistor interesting just because he played it in a manner that was nearly opposite of how I approached it.

Anyways, more musings by Jeremy Parish and how XC2 relates to the rest of the Xeno- games: https://retronauts.com/article/695/d... (some minorish spoilers)

So, my launch day delivery looks like it may slip. Amazon doesn't reflect it yet, but UPS does. New estimate... Monday!?

What, they don't deliver to my town on weekends? Seriously, the package is less than an hour away as of the last scan, and it's now going to take 3 more days...

garion333 wrote:

Nopons can die in a fire though. They add next to nothing for me.

Seriously. Who thought it was a good idea to double down on Nopons?

I get my reviews from you people. Goodjers > all.

I ordered this game on a lark the other day having no familiarity with the series.

Is there anything I need to know before playing it? Any story/character history? Weird mechanics prevalent in these games?

-BEP

bepnewt wrote:

I ordered this game on a lark the other day having no familiarity with the series.

Is there anything I need to know before playing it? Any story/character history? Weird mechanics prevalent in these games?

-BEP

Of course! You need to read the 957 page treatise on higher order geo-poltical structures in societies build on the backs of large beasts (2nd edition) and there are roughly 3 hours of Youtube videos that are recommended (but, I have found, you can skip appendix 7 thought 14)

You should be ready to enjoy the game in 30-90 days.

bepnewt wrote:

I ordered this game on a lark the other day having no familiarity with the series.

Is there anything I need to know before playing it? Any story/character history? Weird mechanics prevalent in these games?

-BEP

Well, there's a lot to do and don't feel like you need to do all of it.

Story-wise you don't need to know anything, they're all separate stories.

Bought to start playing so we shall see. The patch is downloading now.

The art direction is really great. The characters are silly and odd. Combat is ok, but a little odd. So far good but not raving.

Edit: There are a lot of cut scenes, the game is totally anime. It's got good production values though.

The soundtrack is pure Mitsuda.

Only played a bit after Chapter One. Maybe around 3 hours in?

Random impressions:

- The music. Holy moly it's so good. It's so good!
- The art direction is really great. So many beautiful vistas.
- Really liking the characters and story so far.
- Surprised and appreciate all the options the game has. The camera alone has an entire section. You can even go first person, it's kinda crazy.
- The button detection on prompts seems bugged. Feels like I always have to press A twice to initiate a chest/conversation/prompt.
- I went with the Japanese VO and have been really enjoying it (so glad they added the option). I wish they added subtitles to the combat sections though since I have no idea what their barks and flavor conversations mean.
- It's been so long since I've played a big budget JRPG in this style and I forgot how much I enjoyed the sort of mystical yet joyous feel of these games. And on top of that, I like how the game systems are very deliberate. Little touches like the star next to a character denoting that they have something to say is a nice feature.
- The XP system is really interesting where you can bank XP if you don't want to over level.
- This game has grabbed me way harder than I expected. To be honest, I was really just going into it as a curiosity and not sure what to expect but I'm all in now and can't wait to sink an obscene amount of time into this.

End of Chapter One spoiler:

Spoiler:

- That was so anime but it was fire (Pyra?). What a way to end Chapter One. Grandpa swooping in Han Solo style.

I don't have much to say but a couple more negative things are sticking out to me:

Looks worse in handheld mode than I expected. Like I'm streaming over a slightly dicey connection. Or YouTube compressed it. I really want to play this in docked mode now!

Definitely feel like I can see the seams on this more than other Xeno games. Animation on the Jaws of non-humans and other movement related stuff looks janky. A few more months of polish might have helped it feel a bit more AAA than AA. Very minor nitpick, but it feels less polished than XCX.

I don't have enough time to play it. The worst!

Some not nitpicks:

Loving the soundtrack though. Really is top notch.

Human facial animation is phenomenal. I dig the look.

Rex's voice actor sounds better than in the trailers.

Can't wait to dive in more!!

I'm playing in docked mode, and it's a pretty consistent 30 FPS. So that's pretty good.

garion333 wrote:

Definitely feel like I can see the seams on this more than other Xeno games. Animation on the Jaws of non-humans and other movement related stuff looks janky. A few more months of polish might have helped it feel a bit more AAA than AA. Very minor nitpick, but it feels less polished than XCX.

It seems to have gotten better right after Chapter 1.

There was some nice low-res book textures in one of the cutscenes near the end of Ch. 1 which... Man flashbacks to the Wii or even PS2 Era even.

Pretty fun to play tonight and see 90% of my friends list playing.

Not much else to add other than so far, so Xeno. I am liking having Arts mapped to the face buttons instead of a horizontal menu. Unfortunately I wish I could actually practice some of the intermediate combat concepts (anything involving the Blade) on trash mobs.

EDIT: Also, this probably has the best 3 hour opener I've seen in an RPG of late. They waste no time getting you into a dungeon unlike the first game and X.

I'm honestly surprised by how much I'm enjoying this. I'm happy with the performance in both docked and handheld mode, and the English voice acting is surprisingly great with Rex, Nia, and Pyra being standouts.

Just over three hours in, but those three hours have been really strong.

Despite the prevalence of Nopons, chapter one was rad.

The only thing bothering me is the lack of access to tutorials. I'm been OCDily screen shotting them when they pop and I'm actually going back and reviewing because the systems are pretty idiosyncratic.