Xenoblade

[RollCasket]

This game was mentioned in The Last Story thread, but as I now have and have been playing Xenoblade a bit it needed it's own thread. To get it out of the way, Xenoblade is a european import (so all english obviously) that for whatever reason NOA refuses to put out here. To get it to play on an american Wii was rather simple and harmless, if anyone is interested I can link the stuff in here.

All that aside, I haven't gotten too far into the game yet but it's already hooked me pretty well. To start, it's an action-ish style rpg with combat similar to like White Knight Chronicles or FFXI...which does nothing for me in and of itself, but it works really well in this game. You'll usually have a "tank" style character that will grab enemies attention, and much of your time will be spent positioning yourself while the tank holds them to use your special abilties (with positional requirements).

Other than that, the other sort of MMO-ish qualities are tons of quests (which are completed on fulfilling the requirements instead of having to return to quest giver) and some named/rarer mobs that are quite a bit tougher than normal monsters. My first rush of excitement came from taking one of these down with the tank having died and me almost dead before delivering a final side-swipe. Oh, and the special mobs have more epic music too, which is quite fitting.

Finally, you have this puny little jump, and I was of course jumping like crazy cause it was kinda funny...and then I jumped over a ledge and was literally like and fell all the way down (luckily) into water...and swam to shore =O So yes, you can jump over ledges (and to your death if applicable) and yes you can swim, lol. More on the game as I get more into it =P

[Pie]

lol, it's interesting to know that you can fall to your death in that game. XD -something I really wouldn't expect from a console RPG. If you die from falling, is it a game over and you have to start from your last save? It'd suck if you were playing for a few hours and hadn't saved thinking that you won't die to small-fry mobs, but then ran off a cliff to your death. =x

I wonder why NoA is against localizing it in America if it's already translated. o_<

Thanks for the info Roll! =D I was a bit curious about this game a while back and was surprised to hear that you're playing it. For a minute, I was feeling really far out of the gaming news loop.

[Soeroah]

I am thinking about getting the game. I don't have to import it for I live in the PAL-friendly region of Australia, and it should be interesting playing an RPG with British VAs.

I agree with what you said, though, Pie. Sometimes the States gets a game I want to play, and it doesn't get localised in Australia. Most times it does, it's been better recently with a few weeks between releases, but Super Smash Bros. Brawl took bloody 6 months to get to Australia. Feels like all they had to do was add some 'u's to certain words or flip an 'r' with an 'e' in others, but six months, aargh.


JRPGs take up a lot of my time, as do action RPGs. Sitting at 87 hours on Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded, and I already finished the story mode about 50 hours in. The rest is trying to not-quite-100%-the-game-but-kinda-mabye-80%-it.

[RollCasket]

That was actually one of the things I forgot to mention, death is actually fairly "painless" in the game as it just warps you to the last "location spot" you visited. Heck, you even keep the exp and items you got on the way. Another thing I forgot to say is you can see all equipment you put on, which some games do, but not all.

I also had something of an epiphany during this one scene in the game that made me realize a certain something could be something else (trying to be vague here) and it was a cool feeling to think for one that I could be right and two that there's already enough of the story there that small subtle things seem to be hinting at stuff. Goosebumps moment I tell ya =P

@Soeroah: I can't recommend that you pick this up any more. It's getting really high reviews and if you already have a PAL system that makes it even easier. Totally worth it.

[Soeroah]

I've heard there's weapons with certain powers of things I enjoy.



Going in to town today anyway, I shall buy it then.

*Looks and sighs at the ever-growing pile of games and books* Damn Uni taking my gaming time.

[RollCasket]

Oh...my...effing...crap. So, I actually accidentally stumbled onto a spoiler for this game, but it's actually cool instead of...not cool like most spoilers. Basically the epiphany I had was totally right, so it's more like it confirmed my suspicions instead of spoiling anything. Also, since that is true, it makes the story even MORE interesting and adds some other cool things to it.

Sorry, I know I'm totally geeking out over something that I can't even say cause it's spoilerish but I just thought it was cool that I figured it out in like the beginning of the game. I think it was going to be revealed or hinted at in the next area anyway, but yeah.

TLDR: this game is cool =P

[Soeroah]

I have the game, but I haven't started it yet. Trying to finish Sonic Heroes. Must decide whether I wanna play FFXIII or Xenoblade next x.x

I'm hearing good things, though. Metacritic is interesting, there are 30 critic reviews and 0 user reviews.

[RollCasket]

It's weird that you're trying to finish Sonic Heroes...I woulda just said skip it entirely =P

I would say go with Xenoblade, not just because the Final Fantasy series is dead to me now due to increasingly mediocre games, but because Xenoblade is actually a better game. I haven't checked a metacritic score on anything in a while though, well, for that matter, I don't really check scores of much of anything anymore. Most of what I go by is word of mouth through podcasts and friends and such. I do like me some podcasts.

[Soeroah]

Sonic Colours, I meant >_<

[RollCasket]

Ooooooooh...ok well that one is actually a decent new Sonic game so I guess that's ok =P

Also, if/when you do start Xenoblade I might suggest not worrying TOO much about doing every quest, cause that can get overwhelming and you don't really need to =P You do end up finishing a good number of them just moving along through the game though so you don't have to worry about missing too many.