I'm sure I'm several years late to board this particular train, but what did /v/ think of XCX?
I never really managed to get a read on the general consensus of this game, mostly because nobody in my subscription feed or twitch notifications ever plays it, and all the reviews on media outlets are obviously worthless.
I thought it was p. good, though.
It was okay I guess. Its fun in the same way most open world games are, there's a bunch of mindless shit to do that is sort of interesting but very little about it was particularly memorable or outstanding. I can't even remember any of the party members names other than elma and lin and I played it for like 150 hours.
I love the world and its very vertical structure that you just never see in open world games really. Best part was when I first obtained a flying skell, but it's a slow descend from there.
>>345169316
It was pretty solid overall.
Story was weaker than previous entry, but it improved in almost every other regard.
Music has its highs and lows, but the highs hit real high.
>>345169316
It has some pretty glaring problems, but it's far from the worst I've played, and pretty enjoyable once you get past them.
First up, either because they didn't bother to translate shit properly, or didn't think to do it even in it's native language, at points it becomes almost impossible to figure out where you're meant to go next. I mean, I dislike the 'Walk to the glowing compass marker' hand holding most games do, prefer exploring myself, and even I got fed up with it and looked up a walkthough eventually. Nobody bothers to tell you where to go half the time, and when they do they're pretty vague about it. And there's no logic or reason to it, at least not that can be deduced before finding it.
Two, the sound guy does not know what the words 'instrumental version' mean. Every track has vocals, and several of them play quite often. Worse, they don't often play for long, so by the end of the game, you'll have heard the first four lines of the main five or six themes so many times you'll want to tear out your own eardrums. And the soundtrack has some pretty awful engrish. Music is pretty good apart from those, depending on taste, of course.
Three, the story is... well. You ever seen one of those anime like DBZ or YuGiOh, where one character all but turns to the camera and explains it to the audience, and then a second character sums it up for the real thick kids that didn't quite get the long winded explanation? That's most of the cutscenes right there. Whole story could be summed up in a paragraph, but they keep repeating and rephrasing the obvious over and over. Most of the key plot points are instantly obvious, yet halfway through the game, party members are still acting like they only just figured them out.
Getting the mech takes forever. All the ground stuff becomes all but redundant the second you do. Other then that, pretty solid.
It's a solid game, although story wise it is not as good as the original
But damn the gameplay is good. Hope they improve on the mech combat next time. The enviroment is really unique and explorable too, and I love the feeling of going up against Giants at the start.
Overall very good game, but with some flaws taht cna be overlooked. Don't expect to like it if you can barely tolerate the first, though
Xenoblade = Xenogears > Xenosaga III > Xenoblade X = Xenosaga II > Xenosaga I
>>345176613
Yo fuck this guy.
I was happy as a pig in shit when I had a skell strong enough to kill him reliably.
>>345176675
Same. This guy's dark attack wrecks everyone's shit if you're under 50.
>>345176675
the unique one in noctilum had so many players killed in the online stats, i hate the reflect mechanic
>>345176823
That level 99 one?
>>345169316
Sound mixing is atrocious, but apparently that's only present in the localized version. Other than that, my only real problem is the lack of depth for Skell combat and the story not being as fleshed out as it could. However, I do think the sacrifices made to make one of the best open worlds I've played were definitely worth it, and any quality lacking in the main quest is prevalent in the side quests. Overall it's solid so long as you weren't expecting a jrpg in the same vein as Chronicles.
Oh, and no playable cat people. That's the real crime.
>>345169316
original chronicles was better
but was western first l96 robot and 2nd on 100m hp thing+ telethia. quit with 5 world records in time trial too :^)
didn't really plan on doing it until i saw that nobody killed any of them when i hit level cap, only needed to grind for telethia really the others you could cheese with shitty gear longsword + infinite overdrive and dodge skill i forgot the names
I have been playing it lately, I have 63 hours so far.
I have no idea why this game exists. Enemies of grey difficulty just oneshotting my dumb party AI while other purple/blue difficulty enemies just stand there to get stomped. A million effects like tossing and flinch that are never explained in-game, not like it matters because you just watch the game play itself.
The UI is dog shit and it doesn't let you hover bonuses to know what they fuck they do.
Oh cool, I got a piece of gear with aura surge IX, let me go to the main city, open the crafting menu, and 15 clicks later I actually get a list of what the effects are, because that's the only way to see them. Oh wait, there's 300 of them, I forgot which one I was looking for.
Oh, for this gem, I need this item. Does the game tell me who drops it? Yes, after 10 minutes of clicking. Does the game tell me where the monster I killed is? Fuck no, enjoy running around a fuckhuge map to find that one monster you've killed 30 hours ago because the game won't fucking tell you where they are. Or just google it instead.
Let me choose between a dozen pointless clans in the beginning of the game, that serves as absolutely nothing but making it a more tedious and longer tutorial.
Want to talk to an npc? You have to readjust your character 7 times, oh and you can't interact with anything on the mecha, enjoy seeing that in and out animation 25 times a minute.
You want to use the helicopter to change district? There are literally 4 cutscenes of the same thing for no reason. Or just press one button to fast travel. Why did they even bother?
Want to get a particular NPC in your party? Too bad, there is no different icon on the minimap, you now have to play wack-a-mole on every hexagon until you find their name.
On top of this, the combat is simple, sterile and dumb as fuck.
There are all the nuances of a difficult game but none of the depth in the gameplay. It's like, intentionally trying to make a game the wrong way.
>>345178443
Adding more to the bucket list of shit game design
>terrible stat comparison of gear
>there is no "only show your class' weapon" as a default option every time you are in a character menu you have to manually filter it yourself, when in reality you'll really do what the game takes as default 0.01% of the times
>affinity requirements for some missions
>they shouldn't even have bothered to make cutscenes or dialogue, they spent money to create literal dog shit
>dialogue's pacing is painfully slow, chatacters wait 5 seconds before interrupting someone else
>huge pop-in issue while in the open world
>the whole "game over" mechanic makes no sense. you aren't punished at all except if you lose your skell, however you can just jump to a FN site while it's about to die without restrictions. super mario 64 did not allow players to cheese the game like this, in 1996.
>all cooldowns reset even after 2 seconds battles, so you can stack absurd amounts of TP or other cheesy shit that makes no sense
>the way environment damage works is absolutely retarded. you WILL die if you don't use protection on MC, but if you do only on him, there are absolutely zero repercussions because your party memebers will get auto revived all the time anyway
>there are so many pointless side quests that you outlevel even the sidequests themselves, let alone the main quest. this game needed level scaling for quest events at least.
>there is no reason for a limit to accumulated miranium
>clunky and poor AI partners, it's such a fucking bother to try and direct them with that shitty menu that it's just better to let them die
>some monsters will chase you for 2 minutes, some will let you go in 5 seconds
>some monsters will attack you from 50 miles away, some appear to be right next to you as you run but they will never touch you
>if you have the menu selections open, you do not collect items
>art and skills is in two different tabs with minor loading time, despite sharing the same points
>>345178443
>>345179803
Is this pasta or are you legitimately brain damaged?
>>345169316
best openworld game I've ever played.
my personal favorite game for past few years at least.
if to criticize anything aside of lack of dual audio and few dumb changes in localization - I'd say overdrive mechanics are a bit overused at the end to point you can neglect everything else.
and if you do a lot of sidequests, story becomes really easy enemies wise.
I had fun with it, I didn't feel motivated to do the end game content though. It has a lot of problems but exploring the world and completing the grid is pretty satisfying.
>>345169316
Turns to shit a couple hours after you get the flying module for the Skells. The fun of having full access to the world wears off and you realize the game expects to fight all future battles with Skells- extremely limited combat options compared to on-foot, but they're too powerful to ignore.
Don't even think about taking on level 70+ enemies without grinding for countless hours to have Skell gear that have a chance (unless you want to grind even longer for an Overdrive build to take enemies down with).
>>345169316
Great game
>>345181272
>>345171151
Wow, I'm not gonna bother to keep going then, I was hoping the game would get better with flying skells
>>345181272
>flying module
DON'T WORRY
honestly I don't mind it too much, but it'd be way better game in my opinion if mechs never flied in the first place.
>>345181397
>complaining about needing skells in endgame
>claiming overdrive requires tons of grind
He's a moron. Ignore him.
>>345180673
Is there something you disagree with?
>>345178443
>There are all the nuances of a difficult game but none of the depth in the gameplay
this in a nutshell
menu navigation is the hardest and most frustrating part of the game
i think the game became too big for monolith to handle with all the shit they added so they left it at the prototype stage
>>345181778
>menu navigation is the hardest and most frustrating part of the game
how?
I imported JP version without knowing the language
interface is pretty good, you really start to appreciate it when you can't read jack shit
I love the pseudo-platforming / jumping to climb tall structures, for an open world game that was remarkable since they all ignore physics.
Everything else was mediocre or shit. I literally only enjoyed getting to difficult places either on foot or on skell.
>>345181778
Evidently you also have brain problems if you had any issue with the menus at all.
>>345181272
>you realize the game expects to fight all future battles with Skells-
>he is not good enough to fight without his skell
PEOPLE SOLO ON FOOT ULTRAFAUNAS. dont give me that shit
>>345179803
>>affinity requirements for some missions
>missions are story based
>why cant I do this mission about how Murdress confess her love to me when I just met her?
geeeee dude. wonder fucking why
>>345182094
yeah, after 50 hours of grinding, which was his point. or, just buy shit at the skell shop.
nice reading comprehension, rabid fanboy.
>>345181951
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nESq5jyIhc
>>345182094
How long did it take to get those builds before the kernal exploit?
>>345182210
>ultrafauna are the only monsters above 70
Maybe you should learn to read too.
>>345182338
>>345182281
the ultra fauna was the most extreme example. there are several Mini bosses (dont remember the name of the special type enemies) that you CANT even fight on skell due to location. that are lvls above the 60 cap.
>Fight everything on skell
is the easy mode. you can almost do the whole game on foot. If I remember right only like 1 boss phase the skell is mandatory cause is a flying boss that you have to take down to ground
>>345181778
OP here, I agree with this. I feel like the game relies too much on its MMO-style combat (which should only ever exist to compensate for latency, which you shouldn't need in a game that's predominantly single player with only certain mostly postgame missions available to tackle with friends) and just kept piling on top of it without allowing it to breathe.
I appreciate the game despite all its faults--I did all the grinding for my Ares 90 and loved it (besides the stupidly low droprate for NellNail Masks)--and I appreciate the general aesthetic as well as the world it's trying to build, but what fails the game most is its gameplay.
I feel it would be better served with something more hack-and-slash-y, even something like the system FFExplorers uses would be preferable to the psuedo-mmo icon-bar we have to work with even while piloting a Skell.
>>345182552
>le mmo
What MMOs might those be?
>>345182782
FFXIV would be the ur-example, but in a nutshell it's a limited number of special attacks on gratuitous timers and autoattacks as opposed to dynamic combat.
Basically, it's a system designed to compensate for latency.
I loved XC, the world, the story, the characters even.
All of those were worse in X. The world had amazing design, but was a boring concept. I knew what to expect beforehand, jungle was jungleish with massive roots and shit, desert was empty as fuck, vulcanoland was typical vulcanoland. XC has cities, forests and seas on and in a huge fucking robot! Much more interesting setup, while this was just an ordinary planet.
Story was teletubbies tier, characters speaking like the audience is 8 years old, with bad jokes and explaining everything obvious a hundred times.
Characters felt lifeless, home city was okay, but really no other towns in the world? You at least need towns to travel to in a (j)rpg. It's like a videogame house having no toilet, no towns break the context of the world in X. There is multiple species but you never really see where they live.
I've played for about 45 hours, never finished the story since it's not interesting enough to Wang to continue.
It's a great game to show of to friends, riding through the world and then flying of into the sunset in your skell. But after those glamorous moments fade there is very little there to keep you interested.
>>345183008
not that anything is wrong with such battle system, honestly. MMO usually filled with other problems, battle mechanics rarely one of them.
I still take X battle mechanics over what I played from FF XV demos, at least X one makes sense to me.
But all that FFXIV references make me wish to try it out, can't find enough of free time for 7 day trial tho. Cause after X I've been carving for similar experience.
>>345182524
Tyrants.
And there are quite a few of the stronger tyrants that WILL one shot your skells (Like the strongest Prone) if you give them time. You can one shot them from your skell, but it actually DOES require ten's of hour of farming for such
>>345183120
It's not like the Grassland, Jungle, Ice Area, Techno Dungeon, Mine, Dank Caves etc were particularly unique either. You had a couple zones that were legitimately unexpected in design.
Still haven't finished it, the exploration lost it's fun when you got a skell and I couldn't get past one of the bosses for the main story. It was the big fuck huge air ship.
>>345183234
Interestingly, you can beat Dadaan on foot without using a reflect build, a oneshot build or an Ares if you just sprint around and quickly nuke the adds as they appear.
>>345183120
>all these different races living on Mira before NLA arrived
>not one town outside of Ganglion bases or Nopon caravans
Yeah that was bullshit.
>>345183120
While I agree with the sentiment of this post, I think your complaint might be just a little misplaced. Because yes, the world of XCX does feel pretty empty and stock, as far as open-world-game-worlds go, but as for the villages?
I mean, the crux of the story was that humanity had crashed on this planet and was attempting to colonize it. NLA is the only major human settlement because it's, well ... it's the residential portion of the ship turned into a city, because it already WAS a city.
As for the other races? Well, the Nopon (the only species native to Mira among the xenoforms) have one caravan in each region, except for the starting planes I'm pretty sure. The Ma-Non have their ship, the cat-people have their base in Oblivia, and every other alien race was brought to the planet by the Ganglion, so it'd be anachronistic for them to have towns and whatnot.
Don't get me wrong, though, the rest of what you said was pretty on point.
The game came out less than a year ago
>>345183476
There were only Nopon and L earlier than a year or two ago though. The other natives either died off or left.
I just got a skell, changed around some parts I had, but right now it's very shit. It does 3 melee attacks with massive cooldowns, only one big aoe sword slash is good, then I'd be waiting for those cooldowns for 1 minute.
My question is, how do I go about upgrading it? Do I buy new skells, or develop new parts, or kill specific monsters for it? Is there a story mission that gives me skell abilities other than the melee color?
Help me please
>>345176613
> XCX>XC>>>>>>>>>XG>XS
FTFY
Japanese Skyrim
>>345183737
>millennials
>>345183203
I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with that particular type of battle system, per se. I just think that something a little more free-flowing would've served XCX and its intended tone quite a bit better.
>>345183732
Kill mechanical enemies for weapons. Luge enemies in Sylvalum can drop good lower level stuff.
Skells can only equip gear that is no higher than its own level.
>>345183732
Your level 20 one is weak and is really just a car. You can buy better ones at levels 30 and 50 and craft them at 60. Enemy machines will drop weapons and armor (the armor doesn't really matter). Barring good enemy drops, buy new weapons in the shop. If your skell has element boosting armor, try to match the weapons to it, for example beam weapons on a Mastema.
In general skells are good for spike damage, which makes farming relatively painless, but aren't so great in a drawn-out battle unless your ground game is shit.
And some weapons are just better than others. ME M-missiles and their thermal equivalent are the best at farming parts, drones do the most damage, sniper and scythe are good for oneshotting things etc.
>>345183828
>MS being capable of writing stories
Disc 2 and Xenosaga was a mistake.
>>345183120
Agree with everything except the world is cool, and "it's just a planet" is also cool. Sometimes, it's okay for a planet to just be a planet.
>>345183732
Your skell's abilities are tied to the weapons you equipped.
Developing run-of-the-mill equipment is dogshit, you should only really be saving resources towards developing the postgame superweapons, if you're into that.
Otherwise? Optimize your probe networks and buy better weapons, or farm the Lv. ~45 Ganglion base in the west end of Sylvalum.
But, honestly, you might need to adjust your expectations. Even the lightest skell weapons have a cooldown upwards of fifteen seconds, usually averaging about 20 for hand weapons and shields, and 30~60 for shoulder weapons, and 60 for back weapons (R. Shoulder Only) that are worth a damn.
>>345183732
Also, when you're in the weapon comparison screen, hit the R button to switch between the weapon stats and the art they have in combat.
>>345184308
>>345184028
>>345184238
Thank you that's what I needed
>>345183732
The level 20 skell is a joke, it's like the car you get from your uncle because it was in his garage for the past 10 years and he can't get rid of it. Sure it works but it's slow and loud and you're better off biking or taking the bus.
The level 30 skells start wrecking shit, especially the heavy ones
>>345183203
There is. MMO combat existed to make up for latency in a huge server. It was a necessity, not a design choice.
Now I know MMO babbies got accustomed to that combat and think it's a core of the industry, but it's fucking shit. Especially the "slecting skills" part, it's atrocious for a console game. That combat really only works well when you are playing in a 100 people siege and have a keyboard.
Otherwise you should just either go turn based or action. Literally what's the benefit.
>>345183964
Probably, who knows. Sometimes devs can nail new battle mechanics nicely, sometimes it can transform into a bloody mess you wish never existed.
XC style was tested by previous game, I glad they gone with it, but improved on it.
Tho I think they may go to complete different approach with next game, cause XCX was first Monolith's HD project, they used it mostly as learning experience.
>>345184072
Disc 2 was fucked over because of Square and Final Fantasy 8 and you know it.
>>345184072
disc 2's story of xenogears is amazing though, it only removes gameplay
>>345184605
Only MMO I played was RO around 14+ years ago, I can't be bothered with other ones - none managed to grab my interest more for than a few days.
I really see nothing wrong with XCX battle system. It just works.
>>345184624
I'd be surprised if the next battle system weren't completely different or at least massively overhauled. X kind of took Xenoblade's little graphical menu to the extreme. I can't see that there's much more they can do with it.
>>345184467
What's the difference between heavy medium and light skell?
Actually same for armor, I have everyone on heavy armor for more def and had no problem so far. But I don't know when I should use the others.
>>345184792
Stop spreading this meme. Disc 2 blew because the director went overbudget and missed too many deadlines. The Xenosaga trainwreck showed his incompetence. He even admitted he bought off more than he can chew.
>>345184924
whatever mechanics they'll go with, I hope giant robots will stay and scale of world will stay. Second one is probably not tho, considering feedback of JP players.
>>345184864
Glad you like it. Go read VNs.
I personally loved it. I kind of wish it didn't have the Xenoblade name, too many people compare it to the first game story-wise.
>>345183964
>>345184624
>>345184924
>>345185115
XC's director openly said in an old interview that they were copying MMO combat.
The next logical step is the next step in MMO combat.
So Tera/BDO etc.
But the one thing I really want is something like a gambit system to customize for ally behavior.
>>345185035
There are statistical differences such as medium having the highest max gp and heavy having the highest hp and fuel. They also all have their own overdrive effects (they're displayed when you turn it on if you don't feel like looking it up). Armor is just a weight restriction and doesn't really matter unless you're trying to do a fancy endgame build. The stuff you get when you buy or craft it is fine for most things.
>>345185263
you mean for XCX or for new project?
for XCX it's a given.
Oh gosh i loved this game a lot more than i thought i would.
I was initially hyped for it, but it dwindled down so much that by the time of release i was reluctant to buy it. Thankfully i did, as this is now my #1 wii u game (this or bayo 2)
>>345185225
Xenoblade name was def out of place considering it had so little to do with the first one.
>>345183120
I thought the side quests did a lot better than the main quest characterization wise, for both the main characters and all the side characters you meet.
>>345182524
The toughest one i remember is the Chimera
"lugalbanda the wanderer king", a level 88 foe found in the deepest part of a cave where you couldn't bring your skell. The definian downfall mission was also almost completely on foot, with a tough boss enemy to boot. (you later wreck that same boss in a skell, but it's basically the epilogue to the mission at that point)
>>345177460
>>345177460
>>345177460
how many superbosses are there? and why was the max level only damn 60. didn't make any sense??they should have hit 99.
>>345169316
i'm still on chapter 11 i think. i never bothered to beat it, but i think it's a really fun and beautiful game.
>>345188142
Depends on what you consider a super boss, there are 30+ boss monsters over level 60, and i think 20-30 above level 80
>>345188685
>>345188685
i stopped once i got the mecha. i dont think its fun anymore to even pursue to get the flight
>>345176823
>fight him early game
>get instantly stomped
>come back 50 hours later with an endgame mech and fire off your instant death gun
>he reflects it and you deal 999999 damage to yourself
I wasn't even mad
>>345189795
Same. I feel like there is nothing interesting enough that makes me want to continue.
>>345176934
he's 60.
Gohra aka the rusemaster
Combat is decent
Quests are great
Exploration is good
Worldbuilding is good
Plot is bad
Characters are mediocre
Graphics are overall mediocre (good environments, horrible characters)
Music is overall mediocre (good main and area themes, horrible combat and flight theme)
Overall, 7/10
im fucking stuck on that stupid repair job bullshit and i dont know what to do so i jusr gave up
why did this game do that to me seriously
>>345176613
I agree with this order 100%
>>345169316
Very good with a few flaws, such as :
>skell combat is too shallow
>party ai sucks, honestly xc did party ai and aggro better
Everything else is better unless you dislike the music and cheesiness
World feels a lot smaller once you start flying, but it opens up a lot more too
>>345190212
How can you be stuck on that? Just kill some robots.
>>345190391
i'd say it's EXTREMLY good with a bunch of flaws
>>345169316
Best open world game ever made:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umwyql5c3Rk
>>345169316
It was a horrible jrpg. Shitty plot and shitty characters.
Only good part about it was the exploration. Even the sidequests were boring as fuck and had no depth.
I felt like I was playing a MMORPG offline.
Forced myself to finish expecting the game to get better at some point and it never did.
>>345192221
ya this
for all the faults it has, it's one of my favorite games of all time as someone who values exploration over anything in video games. Mira should be a textbook example on how to do open world.
