Xenoblade Chronicles X [Wii U]

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

It's also ironic, since Censoring is something by definition that is imposed by others to prevent harmful content, whereas this single costume change is simply localization: Changing of content by the content's creator to be better received by it's audience, that does not in any way affect the story or overall experience

[Dantemustdie00]

Okay, just watched Gnoggins vid.

Huh, Europe manage to avoid some censorships, but it's mainly the U.S.

 

I must say I'm surprised they didn't bunked up Lyn's age.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Dantemustdie00

[DarkDefeater]

Others may disagree, but I'm grateful for the censorship. The 'new' armor on Lyn looks more action oriented, and I detest when women I respect and admire, fictional and non-fictional, are portrayed as sex objects. Well Done Nintendo. It somewhat atones for over-emphasis on Samus' zero-suit. But I don't want to derail the topic so...

On a different note, I'm slightly surprised the next survival guide has not come yet. Hopefully it will soon.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

From what I've seen, this costume is the only case of "censorship" too.

I can't help but find this to actually be more of a localization of decency as opposed to the misfired term of "censorship" that angered parties are claiming this to be. 

Heck,  the outfit wasn't even removed,  they just added more covering material onto it. 

 

Edited November 9, 2015 by Jovahexeon Ace Joranvexeon

[Zaysho]

I can't help but find this to actually be more of a localization of decency as opposed to the misfired term of "censorship" that angered parties are claiming this to be.

That's exactly what it is, though.

It's an internal decision made by Nintendo of America because of cultural differences of what's acceptable. Ultimately, it's a joke costume, and one not worth the amount of attention it's gotten. Nothing about this is new or unexpected.

The whole thing is blown so spectacularly out of proportion, it's not even funny.

Seriously, I just want the game already.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Zaysho

[JaidynReiman]

Someone in the Niche Gamer article actually posted pictures of them cancelling their order in the comments. I can guarantee you a lot of them are.

Several are cancelling their preorder, but I'm pretty damn sure most of them will likely try and buy the game again later after its out and seeing other people's responses to the game.

[Zaysho]

Oh hey, next Survival Guide's up. This time we get another look at the Skells.

I'll give it a look later.

[DarkDefeater]

...Insurance? I never anticipated that. Calling GEICO can save you 15% on skell insurance.

Seriously, the mechanics look amazing. The ability to fly around the entire planet, complete freedom, (other than having to re-fuel) that ability alone makes the Skells hugely desirable.

[Zaysho]

Dubbed story trailer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5b2ZoZlW5c

Nice to hear a bit more of the voice acting. Sounds really good, actually.

Also, holy shit, Elma

EDIT:

Yooo we got VAs confirmed for the created characters!

Male: Yuri Lowenthal (Heroic), Bryce Papenbrook (Rookie), Keith Silverstein (Rebel, and yes, he sounds like Vector), Robbie Daymond (Studious), Ben Diskin (Joker), Adam Howden (Classic--Shulk!), Dan Woren (Warrior)

Female: Tara Platt (Heroic), Kira Buckland (Independent), Mary Elizabeth (Mature), Cristina Valenzuela (Peppy), Kate Higgins (Joker), Carina Reeves (Classic--Fiora!), Erin Fitzgerald (Soldier)

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZtGu1nyYow&feature=youtu.be&t=5m11s

Male voices start at 5:11, Female at 11:40.

This sounds like a really nice selection, actually.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Zaysho

[Junko]

Here are all your MC's voice options in the English dub.

[PSI Wind]

To add on to that, they removed the bust slider option for females in the customization.

Look, I'll defend the Lin decision over and over again, but this? No. It's pretty sad for the girls who want to self-insert themselves but can't get an exact look because, news flash Nintendo, not all females are the same bust.

Also, Flat Chest gets no justice yet again :V (this one was a joke)

[Zaysho]

I hadn't realized they did until you mentioned it, but it's kind of an odd removal because I can't think of a reason they'd need to take it out. It's not like localizing Lin's optional outfit where it makes sense (that was expected and is just how localization works).

I dunno, it's weird, but I can't say it's going to affect things for me.

[PSI Wind]

It isn't going to affect me either other than not being able to make certain characters that match the VA's previous roles, but it's still really disappointing.

[Zaysho]

True enough, I can see that people would've wanted to have fun with that sort of thing.

 

Again, it's just... weird, because I can't think of a reason to take it out. It is what it is, I guess.

[Junko]

And here's a video showing the VAs off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEz0Fa53B4s

 

[DarkDefeater]

Out of all the role-playing games I have played, never once was I concerned with adjusting a female character's bust size. Xenoblade X will be no different. I understand those who see the issue differently, but for me its a non-issue.

As for the voice actors, I love them. I am so happy and Adam and Carina were able to perform voices again. It will be interesting to see which actors can deliver the most dramatic performance. With his stellar performance in Xenoblade, Adam will be difficult to beat.

Heh, what a whimsical trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGAwHbluZ0

Edited November 14, 2015 by DarkDefeater

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Here's a cool interview, can't wait for this game!

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/designing-xenoblade-chronicles-x/1100-6432549/

 

[Zaysho]

One week to go, and Survival Guide #4 is up:

This one's about the FrontierNav, mining, and Arms Manufacturing.

Final video is going to be about Squad Missions. I'm expecting that one launch day.

Also, most of the English voice cast is now known: http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/video-games/Xenoblade-Chronicles-X/side-by-side/

Only a few don't seem to be credited, or at least have their characters named in the credits, but I have to say it's a pretty impressive cast!

Edited November 27, 2015 by Zaysho

[DarkDefeater]

The passive-aggressive comments in this trailer is remarkable; it's the same kind of humor seen in Sonic Colors or Portal 2. I'm glad to see Nintendo has this humor as well. If the game has it, that would be a very delicious cherry on top.

[Zaysho]

As I've managed to tear myself away from Xenoblade X (I'm over 60 hours in and love it), I wanted to post a little PSA for something I learned tonight:

If you bought the Collector's Edition DO NOT OPEN THE EXE IN THE USB DRIVE

Apparently there's a bit of DRM attached to it that will mount an encrypted folder to the Y: drive, edit group policy to block access to it, and then edit the registry to hide the drive. According to this posting, it is possible to revert these changes, but it's baffling this was done at all.

I was pretty suspicious of them not including actual music files in place of a program when I first saw it, but wrote it off as simply an attempt at anti-piracy (because it's not like the music was ripped straight from the game and posted to YouTube the day after it came out in Japan or anything, nope) and ignored it since I already legally own the soundtrack and had no use for the drive. Well, it is an attempt at anti-piracy, and a rather stupid one at that, and just one more reason for me to not touch the drive again. It's a neat little display piece, but that's it.

I'll post my thoughts on the game itself later on, but this is worth keeping in mind if you have the Collector's Edition or are planning on getting it. If you want the soundtrack, I urge you to buy the real thing from places like CDJapan or reliable sellers on Amazon (which I did).

[DarkDefeater]

Lin's Voice Acress

The final Survival guide

Check out the two links; it's a treat to hear an interview from the actress of Lin and the final survival guide is compelling as well.

As for the game, I love it. I just recently started a new game, and activities are going to much smoother now that I have a much better understanding of game mechanics and how to use tension points properly. It will be a very long time before I'm able to truly finish everything; that makes me very happy.

I do have questions regarding the final chapter of the story; don't look unless you have completed the main story. 

In the middle of the final chapter, before fighting defeating a horrifically mutated Lao, Elma explains that everyone's consciousness is stored inside a massive super-computer. It houses all genetic data and memories and personalities, of all people; the people running around as mims and 20 million people from Earth. Lao is defeated, power is restored; everything is happy, right?

It seems that way until the post-credits scene shows up; Elma walks into the Lifecore Database, and discovered it is completely destroyed, not from battle, but from the initial impact.

I don't understand. I thought everything was stored in that afore mentioned computer; than why do we need that database? Elma and everyone else is puzzled because with the database gone, all the mims should have stopped functioning. But, once again, I thought all the Mim data was stored in that super computer.

I don't understand; first Elma says that everything is stored in a single computer, but then is puzzled and wonders why everyone is not dead because the database is trashed. 

I can only speculate, but perhaps the overhead super-computer only stored a fraction of the data and that the rest of the data was housed within the database? However, that conflicts with what Elma said earlier about all the information being stored in the computer.

Another explanation is that the Lifecore Database chamber is within the computer itself, but that does not seem possible; the computer is large certainly, but not large enough to house an entire chamber. Unless, I am missing some crucial detail, I am baffled by the conflicting information the final chapter gives.

Does anyone have any thoughts or possible answers?

Another thing, if all the memories are gone, like Elma says, than does that mean that all the information of 20 million people are gone forever?

What a remarkably dark ending. Is humanity destroyed? People having to live out their entire existence as Mims? Can Mims even reproduce? I doubt it. However, Elma was able to use the core the genetically replicate a cat; not to mention all those other replicated monsters, so true human bodies should be able to be replicated as well, so there's still some hope.

Edited December 29, 2015 by DarkDefeater

[Ether Penguin]

Well this game has eaten up the last month of my life. I should start by saying I am huge Monolith/Takahashi/Xeno fan. I'm very passionate of Xenosaga and I adored the first Xenoblade Chronicles so I was thrilled for the next game. In some ways I feel I hyped myself to much and what I truly wanted was just Xenoblade 2, this is in some ways a very different game.

The big thing that stood out was the combat. I was wanting the Xenoblade combat with balanced hit/evade percentages given how broken the agility stat was in the first game, but I'm not entirely thrilled with some changes. My main issue is how aggro is handled. If your preferred playstyle is position based attacker like Shulk in the first game or the Full Metal Jaguar class in this game, not having aggroing enemies lock on to character really takes out a lot of strategy. Overall the AI is just not as good in this game which makes it better if the enemy is targeting you anyways. Managing aggro was a big part of strategy and fun in the first game and in this you can't even see who has the aggro.

The next thing was the skells. Xenosaga Episode III was the only monolith game where I really liked the mech combat. I was not sad to see mechs go when the first Xenoblade came out. It's Monolith and Takahashi though so of course mechs had to come back eventually. But the combat just isn't as deep and that fact that everytime you use an art while in a mech it has a 10% chance of activating cockpit mode which resets all cooldowns encourages players to do just spam arts right off cooldown. What's worse is that the latter half of the game and much of the post game is balanced around skells meaning if you want to take things down on foot you have to farm monster drops for augments and make ridiculous builds like the ether blossom dance + ghostwalker + core crusher build. The augment farming leans way to far into MMO grinding for my tastes.

There were things I really loved. I like the more aggressive feel of combat and the healing system being tied to soul voices. It's an interesting way to passively heal your party without taking a break from attacking. I think it works and it makes your other party members and choice of party members feel valuable given that they all have different soul voices, but this is the extent to which the value of the party is seen. Not only is the AI not great, but the party setup feels less meaningful beyond soul voices. Arts are tied to weapons instead of characters and the 18 character are just different melee and ranged weapon combinations. They all feel cloney and there's no stand out playstyles like Melia or Riki.

The open world is gorgeous. There's so much to explore and it's a major selling point. In spite of that I also think it's a bit shallow to do open world for the sake of open world and I hope they don't repeat this module if they go for more linear story telling in the next game. End of the day it really stole the thunder from Zelda U, I'll be surprised if that world is as big and interesting as this one.

Might be spoilers from here - story thoughts

The big disappointment was the story. Monolith is known for story telling. The first Xenoblade was divisive among the fans. I personally loved it and find it charming as do many but I fully admit it didn't have the philosophical depth and artistic integrity of Xenogears or Xenosaga. But here they go even further and just have very little focus on story and characters. There's affinity missions meant to flesh out the character but they never interact with one another it's just seeing how one person acts and getting a feel for their personality. It's nowhere as deep as the enneagram based characters from gears and saga. There's some really interesting concepts in there. I like the idea of Ganglion as a religious organization, they remind me of the Ormus in Xenosaga with Luxaar being similar to Sergius. The last chapter was great, it had some interesting discussion over the ethical ramifications involved in transhumanism. The post credit scene also gave some hints that they're going with the Xenosaga/Perfect Works idea of a literal collective unconscious existing on a higher realm that gives some scientific credence to the idea of a soul. Essentially it's the same arguments that were being made over why realions deserved human rights in Xenosaga. There's some interesting threads that could picked up on in a direct sequel but ultimately I just don't find this world or cast as endearing as the first game.

I like the game, I really did. I had tons of fun. It's just that it could've been so much more. Takahashi says he wants to return to a more story driven traditional RPG style for the next game more in line with the original Xenoblade and I sort of hope he does. Regardless of what happens I look forward to see where Monolith goes from here (and hopefully bring back Soraya Saga!)

EDIT: Just as a disclaimer I realize this may sound a little too negative. I'm just really biased toward the original game. Don't let this scare you off, it's still a solid RPG and a really unique game to have on the Wii U, I'd say must have for Wii U owners and just showing Nintendo that yes we want RPGs on their home consoles

[DarkDefeater]

This thread is about the "Predator and Prey" mission. If you have not completed this mission, please do not read the spoilers.

Here's a link to the post I made (huge spoilers)

This mission will enrage you, or at least it did me. What do you think?

It's the most horrific thing I have ever seen in a Nintendo game.
 

 

[Ether Penguin]

On 1/17/2016 at 6:22 PM, DarkDefeater said:

This thread is about the "Predator and Prey" mission. If you have not completed this mission, please do not read the spoilers.

Here's a link to the post I made (huge spoilers)

This mission will enrage you, or at least it did me. What do you think?

It's the most horrific thing I have ever seen in a Nintendo game.
 

 

Yea, I remember that quest. It's part of that chain that kicks off with guy who quotes Metal Face. There's other quests that I thought were even darker than that. I can't quite recall right off the top of my head but there was one involving a lady by the church and some manon who built up this whole religion and thought that the ganglion robots were angels. That was one of the more interesting ones to me. The end of Hope's second affinity quest got to me as well.

Honestly though, I'm glad to see Monolith isn't toning it down since the Nintendo bought them. The darker elements didn't really surprise me given previous xeno games. I mean this is the same studio that made a game where a soldier was trapped on a war-torn planet overrun by androids that had been driven insane and forced to eat their synthetic flesh for survival to a point of growing addicted to their flesh and having a visible skin condition to the effects, not to mention the only woman he ever loved was one of these robots. (Virgil in Xenosaga)

Pulling it back to Hope for a second, I just wanted to say I absolutely love her. She, Irina, and H.B. are my favorites, but Hope is the one I was always most interested in seeing the next affinity quest for. I really felt for her and her social anxiety issues. I really wanted to go out and help her for her last quest just to cheer her up.

Irina on the other hand has some lackluster affinity quests. I just did her last one and it was not that interesting. I felt like I learned more about her through the main story and Gwin's required affinity mission than her own. I still have a few 4-heart affinity quests left for the characters I liked the least (Boze, Yelv, and Murderess).

Beyond that, I just got the Ares 90 and I'm contemplating if I really want to go for 100% completion. Beyond those affinity missions, I still have Definian Downfall, Rise of the Blood Lobster, and few other normal missions so I still have something with story attached to it to look forward to. I've looked into some good defense ground gear builds to take on a lot of the post game without infinite overdrives and blossom dance. Still more farming than I care for but the Ares 90 has at least made it easier to fight the same thing over and over. I one-shotted that dragon tyrant in the high cliff of primordia (drop draft entrance) and got some nice orphean heavy wear from it. Anything to raise that pesky gravity resistance.

[DarkDefeater]

I'm in the same spot; I'm working towards having a 100% survey rate, but it is a remarkably long-term endeavor. About Definian Downfall; make sure you have very good ground gear and are comfortable with infinite overdrive; otherwise, it's going to be very difficult.