Quick Look: Xenoblade Chronicles

@RVonE said:

@Brendan said:

@RVonE said:

@ADAMWD said:

Voice acting is a major turnoff. All I could imagine was that the two characters were Harry Potter and Ron Weasley stuck in a JRPG world.

That sounds like the best thing ever!

Der-der-der-duh-dee-de-dee-dee-de-dee-dee-dah-durr-durr-der-derr-durr-dah-dah-dah-deedee-de-dee-dee-de...

Oh man, that made me laugh a lot harder than it reasonably should have. Well done, sir!

oh lord me too. thats fucking priceless.

The best thing to do is turn the voices to Japanese. It's awesome - I don't have a clue what they're saying half the time! Subs for story and you're away

If I were stuck on a deserted island, this is the one game I would want with me.

He's 5 hours in and he doesn't know what's going on yet?

Crimson Gem Saga on PSP is so far a really enjoyable game. I don't know why people say there are no JRPGs.

The user interface on this is absolutely unbelievable. Put these guys on an MMO immediately.

Did anyone else switch the V/O to japanese after watching this quicklook?

Beat the import version a while ago. Easily my favorite JRPG of all time. Excellent combat system and a great story with an INCREDIBLE ending. Love it.

Combat looks good. Graphics look like a PS2 game, not sure what's so nice about them except for the art style.

@dyong said:

Combat looks good. Graphics look like a PS2 game, not sure what's so nice about them except for the art style.

I think you just answered your own question.

@Nakiro said:

Crimson Gem Saga on PSP is so far a really enjoyable game. I don't know why people say there are no JRPGs.

Well that's the thing, there are some pretty good JRPGs on handhelds (Ys Seven, Radiant Historia, etc). It's just that when you tell people this, it's the same argument of wanting to play big games not on handhelds but on consoles.

Which I understand and that's totally valid. I mean people like what they like. I happen to be okay with big games being on handhelds and have had some fun times with my PSP/DS this and last year. When a person says no new (good) JRPGs have come out these past few years though? That's where things become weird because... well they do exist.

Just got this last night and I'm loving it so far! Here's hoping it doesn't pull a FFXIII-2 and get all shitty midway thorugh.

@dyong said:

Combat looks good. Graphics look like a PS2 game, not sure what's so nice about them except for the art style.

Implementing an art style isn't as simple as punching it in to a sub-par engine. How many PS2 games do you know that could pull off an art style like this?

Just bought this game because of this quick look, Never heard of it before, i'm not a big RPG player so might as well play a good one. £18 at CEX for anyone who's interested here in the UK.

@DustoMan: In JPRG time 5 hours in is like the first 15 minutes of a three hour movie.

Okay, am I crazy that i start to hear Dancing Queen in that music?

Man, I stopped caring about JRPGs after Chrono Trigger...way back. Now I kinda legitimately feel like playing this, and feel as if I sold my Wii just a tad bit early. I'm honestly impressed, I thought this would be a really funny quick look with Patrick and Brad trashing the game, but I agree with the description...it seems like this JRPG "gets it." I assume this is somehow related to Xenogears? I also love the British voice actors.

Is it possible that European games just have better voice talent behind them? I can't tell you how many games I've played with awesome stories, but with lackluster to just godawful voice acting. Syndicate was the last game I felt had genuinely great voice acting, also the game that kinda gave me some hope that not all current shooters will necessarily remain stale and unimaginative forever. Yet I've always been, and still am, most loyal to the fighting genre...but let's not even discuss the voice-over performances in those.

@needforswede said:

Is it possible that European games just have better voice talent behind them? I can't tell you how many games I've played with awesome stories, but with lackluster to just godawful voice acting.

You mean you don't like the four universal voice actors that all North American anime receives?

1. The "Over Nine Thousaaaaad" voice. Also known to chuckle a lot. (strong male)
2. That grinding voice that comic relief characters get. These characters often speak with giant mouths. (weak male)
3. The domineering female voice. Also known to chuckle. (strong female)
4. The whispery quiet "rape victim" female voice that does that weird "uh huh" hiccup sound when she's surprised or aroused. (weak female)

Ugh. The fact that I can recount even this much about anime makes me feel like I need to take a shower. But whatever, know your enemy I guess.

@needforswede: Unfortunately, it isn't related to Xenogears. It has some pretty nice mech designs, though.

I like Patrick

Every time I see a Wii quick look I'm reminded why I can't deal with Wii games not being HD. I guess I've just become a resolution snob.

There are games with great art for sure, but that resolution is a deal-breaker.

"u"s are never superfluous mr Shoemaker

Is there some reason why when I watch the videos on GiantBomb they're pixelated, but when I watch them on youtube they're crisp and look even better? Even the player controls at the bottom appear pixelated on here, and sharp on youtube. I'm using Chrome, so flash is up to date. It's bizarre.

@JohnDudebro said:

Every time I see a Wii quick look I'm reminded why I can't deal with Wii games not being HD. I guess I've just become a resolution snob.

There are games with great art for sure, but that resolution is a deal-breaker.

Someone here recommended I buy the game, then just use an emulator on my PC to run it. I obliged them, and my god that is totally the way to go.

With the dolphin emulator, and I can run it at native 1080p res with 8xAA. I even found a texture pack that replaces the on-screen button prompts with 360 controller button prompts.

The game looks gorgeous, but of course, the textures look muddier than a bog.

Still, it's one of the few emulating experiences that seems completely flawless, no audio or video hitches I've seen so far.

Basically, this should have been a 360/PS3 game, a shame Nintendo had to fund it.

@MikkaQ said:

Basically, this should have been a 360/PS3 game, a shame Nintendo had to fund it.

Dude, Monolithsoft is a Nintendo-owned studio.

@Hailinel said:

@MikkaQ said:

Basically, this should have been a 360/PS3 game, a shame Nintendo had to fund it.

Dude, Monolithsoft is a Nintendo-owned studio.

I know, and I'm not a fan of that. Exclusives bother me, especially when you have good talent working with limited hardware such as the WIi. It wasn't that long ago when they were making those PS2 Xenosaga games.

@MikkaQ said:

@Hailinel said:

@MikkaQ said:

Basically, this should have been a 360/PS3 game, a shame Nintendo had to fund it.

Dude, Monolithsoft is a Nintendo-owned studio.

I know, and I'm not a fan of that. Exclusives bother me, especially when you have good talent working with limited hardware such as the WIi. It wasn't that long ago when they were making those PS2 Xenosaga games.

What does it matter how limited the hardware is if it's being put to good use? It's an excellent game that just happens to be on the Wii. Suggesting that it should have been anything else just comes off as whining.

@Hailinel said:

@MikkaQ said:

@Hailinel said:

@MikkaQ said:

Basically, this should have been a 360/PS3 game, a shame Nintendo had to fund it.

Dude, Monolithsoft is a Nintendo-owned studio.

I know, and I'm not a fan of that. Exclusives bother me, especially when you have good talent working with limited hardware such as the WIi. It wasn't that long ago when they were making those PS2 Xenosaga games.

What does it matter how limited the hardware is if it's being put to good use? It's an excellent game that just happens to be on the Wii. Suggesting that it should have been anything else just comes off as whining.

I am whining. And yeah the hardware is being put to use, but the game isn't realizing it's own potential. If it had cleaner textures and some better effects and shaders, it would easy be one of the best looking games out there. If you're unfortunate enough to live in a PAL territory you're playing the game at 25FPS, which... I don't typically get picky about framerates, but dipping much lower than 30 starts to break the illusion of motion for me.

Hell, 3DS games look better than Wii games at this point, it's becoming silly.

@MikkaQ: Well, the 3DS uses newer tech. So does the Vita for that matter. We're talking about a console that's hung around for six years and was already a comparative graphic weakling in its prime. That being said, I've never had a problem with graphics in Wii games, aside from those games whose graphics are purely atrocious. I've just never been that big of a graphics snob to care. From my perspective, Xenoblade is a fantastic looking game with great art design. Does it pale to other games in terms of its technical limitations? Sure, but that's not enough to make me say, "Blargh, this game should have been on another console."

Endurance run? :D

@potatomash3r said:

I've never owned a wii. Would now be the time to buy one?

just wait and get a WiiU... It's backwards compatable anyways.

If I hadn't sold my Wii I'd probably pick this up, looks pretty damn good.

Meh.

@PooPooKaKaBumBum said:

Wait....this isn't a broken and buggy Bethesda game.

Why isn't Brad hating on it?

I see what you did there.

"Xenoblade does not give a fuck that it's on the Wii" - Patrick Klepek

I love giantbomb!

Yasunori Mitsuda only did the ending credits song. Several of the more standout tracks were done by Yoko Shimomura of Kingdom Hearts, Mana franchise, Mario RPG, and Street Fighter 2 fame. Most of the tracks were done by Manami Kiyota and a composer trio called ACE+.

For a little voice actor trivia, Shulk is Anders from Dragon Age 2.

I will be playing this tomorrow! so excited.

@mutha3: necrobumping, but... there's really no need to grind. Patrick basically said he has no real experience of how to actually function in an MMO-lite combat system. The only reason he wasn't able to take out those bosses is just what the commentor said about not being able to talk and play at once.

Initiate combat, don't move. Use the Right Trigger command he even SPOKE of (but didn't use) to have allies focus on a single mob. Let the tank land the first couple of hits to establish "aggro" (threat). Then stick to that mob and don't deviate. Running around TOO much can lead to screwing up the aggro. He should not have used his cone attack, as it just ended up getting the aggro from the non-targeted mob. Now instead of only worrying about healing his tank, Patrick instead had to split one heal spell with a 22.5 second cooldown (seen in the video) between two characters, taking on average, 200 damage a second. That's only ten seconds before one of those characters has to die.

He could have:

1-Checked his gear to see if he upgraded it or slotted in gems, with it doesn't look like he did at all. Those outfits are the same ones you start the game with. By this point, they'd have plenty of better pieces of gear, and Reyn would have a better damage/defense weapon. Armor and weapons are displayed cosmetically on all characters in this game, so you can tell Patrick didn't do much, if anything, to promote any sort of actual progress. He's not used to RPGs, and generally doesn't like them, so I guess it makes sense that he didn't do any real character management at all, or speak to many npcs (he only had 3 on his "Affinity Chart." Colony 9 has a fuck-ton of named NPCs that show up on that list and give quests that give you tons of exp).

2-Gone in with a full party gauge, built off of trash mobs prior, and used it either for a chain attack to start, or 3 guaranteed revivals.

3-Actually did those quests he picked up, as they would not take much time at all, and gotten an extra level. In this game, the difference a level makes is huge. If a mob is yellow, considered maybe 2-3 levels higher (notice, these bosses were grey for "even level/one level higher"), you have a very hard time hitting it, and without special gems and/or late game stats, you will not hit a red mob at all (the giant lv 81 unique monster that one-shotted him). The same works in reverse. When a mob is blue, it will hit you sometimes, but if it checks clear, it's probably not gonna hit YOU at all.

It's not really something that requires much practice to get used to, especially in a game this forgiving, and him haven taken down a boss prior to this video. Also, to compare this game to Monster Hunter is like comparing apples to rocks. Your FFXII assessment is spot on in a lot of ways, though.

5/5 for me, recently got this for my new 3ds xl and its an incredible game that still looks good on a handheld.