The hottest of takes, but I agree. When it was revealed, its art style had me feeling a little off, though I generally like anime, the main cast of character's models rubbed me the wrong way. Though over time I have warmed up to them and I like the stark contrasts from the different character designers in the game.
Feels like Nintendo is giving it lots of support and its coming out at a time when not a lot games are coming out. I feel like this could be a sleeper hit, especially with how hot the Switch is.
Also, if re-releases count then this game has one hell of a competition for "best JRPG of 2017". Dragon Quest VIII, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and Final Fantasy XII all had releases this year and all of those re-releases came with significant features that haven't been officially seen in the West. Disgaea 5 got a release on the Switch. And, of course, Persona 5 and Etrian Odyssey V came out this year, and Ni-Oh if you count that, and Nier Automata if you count that.
As someone who hasn't played either of the previous Xenoblade games (beyond half an hour in an emulator), this one looks pretty cool half the time and the other half of the time looks like generic anime bullshit. I can tolerate a hefty amount of generic anime bullshit - I have an anime avatar, after all - but this one looks like it could cross the line into just way too much. Or maybe my impressions are totally wrong and this game is the modern incarnation of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger that we've all been patiently waiting for, I dunno, I'm still on the fence about whether I'll buy it or not and I'll probably lean towards a yes unless the reception is just horribly negative.
We had a couple of JRPGs this year that had actually good characters, actually good story, and actually good gameplay. Seeing as the first 2 Xenoblade games lacked all three of those things, I don't see how this game could possibly top any of the other JRPG hotness this year.
What, I'm just adding my hot take to the hot take thread.
I'd like to give this a try now that I got a switch. Will I miss out on anything by not having played the first game? Is there anything essential to at least know about before jumping into this? I could wikipedia or youtube it I suppose.
The Idea of using Humanoids as weapons is pretty neat, it's probably gonna stir up some dumb controversy about the English version being censored and people losing there jobs because of all this dumb backlash. Also Divinity 2 is the real GOTY.
I bounced off XC1, but had a great time with XCX. I want to get excited for this game, but just about every bit of pre-release footage they've shown makes me think this might not be for me. There are a lot of things that I wish were different (character designs mostly), but having a half-dozen characters constantly shouting over each other during combat might be a deal breaker*. If you can disable in-combat voice quips, or even just turn the voice volume down, that'd go a long way towards keeping me sane.
*The characters shouted a bunch in XCX as well, but in that case it was tied into the combat system as a thing you actually needed to pay attention to, and it never played more than one voice clip at a time.
I'm playing the original Xenoblade Chronicles on the wii right now in anticipation of the new one coming out. I originally bounced off of XC1 but after having a great time with Xenoblade Chronicles X when that came out it renewed my interest in the series. I must say, I'm actually enjoying the game a lot, and the story characters are actually a lot better so far than what I had been led to believe.
Most of the previews I've read about XC2 have been very positive, so I'm eagerly anticipating it.
Wait, people dont like the character design in this? I actually thought the characters looked pretty awful in both xenoblade 1 and chronicles X but finally looked normal in this one.
The game isn’t even out yet. And for all my problems with Persona 5’s writing, I think it’s the best JRPG since Persona 4 Golden, which is the actual king of JRPGs. This game has a really uphill fight against P5 in my book. /hotTake
I really love the first Xenoblade a lot but dropped X like a rock after playing it for about 25 hours. X's focus on needlessly complicated systems, side-quests that you were forced to finish before you could continue with the rest of the game and bare-bones story were a huge turn off for me. I don't know if Xenoblade 2 will be GOTY but it does look to be the return to the more story-based structure of the original game that I loved so much and I'm highly anticipating its release later this week.
@soulcake: Actually I doubt there will be any "censorship controversy" with Xenoblade 2. Nintendo of Europe, the branch of Nintendo translating the game, has said in interviews that they have been advising Monolith during Xenoblade 2's development on what content will be appropriate for a Western audience so that the game will be the same in all regions. So any content that has been shown in any region so far is stuff that has already gotten the okay from NOE.
@themanwithnoplan: I haven't played the first either, but it seems like the connection between the two is very loose. I've been told jumping in at 2 should be fine :)
With how much people here were similarly hyping up XCX and with how quickly everyone (seemingly) turned on it after its release, I'm taking these sorts of posts with a big grain of salt this time around. I did generally enjoy XCX, though, even though it clearly had some significant issues. Let's call my current state "cautious optimism."
Even Dragon Quest XI couldn't top Nier Automata for me, so there's no chance this will either, but it could certainly become my #3 this year.
Interesting change in art style, though... They had a good thing going with the first two games and their appeal to western audiences, only to go all-in anime and possibly alienate a potion of their fanbase.
Judging from those trailers they've put out it also looks like they're going after a much younger audience. But we'll just have to wait and see if any of that comes through in the actual game or if it's purely for promotional purposes.
Also, fun fact: The guy who did the art from this game was a straight-up hentai artist. Just look up "saitou_masatsugu" on Gelbooru.com and there ya go. He even drew some Xenosaga III fan art. Now he can make porn of his own Xeno game.
Another person who's eh on the art style, but between XB and XBX I've sunk over 250 hours, so I expect to like this game a great deal. I also expect I'm going to buy the soundtrack at some point, as I bought the first 2.
Unfortunately I'm going to have to pass on this game. As cool as the rest of it is I can't get past the battle sounds.
It seems the characters verbosity bar is set to Bubsy because they constantly talk and talk over themselves and it drives me nuts in the short demo I watched. See for yourself.
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@gloomytangent: I hope there's an option to turn it off, then maybe I'll give the game a try. I watched that preview a week or so ago and "Spinnniiiing Cutttaaaa" has been stuck in my head ever since.
The mass of voices doesn't bother me as much as it bothers others here. Xenoblade 1 and X both were very verbose too. It makes more sense after playing the game for a long time, because you start to learn what the callouts correlate to and that lets you play off their actions without having to watch their animations. With X1, you gathered so much data just from listening to the chatter that the entire party UI was almost redundant, except to check that, yes, Reyn was stunned.
I am also very bothered by the grotesque chest sizes on the main characters. It's always been a thing in every Xenoblade game, but it was usually kept to evil characters like Goetia or Lorithia. I think that my opinion is probably in the minority, though, as it seems like in general the gaming world is constantly experimenting with what they can get away with in terms of male and female artwork, and they get positive feedback every time they do. I'm trying very hard to tolerate it for X2. :(
I'm trying not to get my hopes too high for this release. All the signs are pointing in the right direction, as there already seems to be a deep backstory to the world and the main characters. It also seems like they understood the criticisms for XCX and have tuned the battle system to remove some of the branching complexity XCX suffered from. But, I also had high opinions of XCX from all the pre-release material and was disappointed, so I'm staying optimistic but cautious this time around!
@omega: Holy shit that is truly egregious. Maybe there'll be an option to turn it off? Or Japanese voices? I can generally tune those out better.
Japanese voices are a day one free dlc.
Anyway the first Chronicles is one of my favorite JRPGs so I've high hopes. Chronicles X was not my jam at all but it was trying to be a very different thing.
@axersia: People always sound shocked whenever they find out a character designer draws porn on the side but there are actually a lot of Japanese games where this is the case. Tony Taka is always brought up, who works on the modern Shining titles, but Wild Arms 5/Wild Arms XF's characters were designed by Tomomi Sasaki, who draws a lot of yaoi, and the Valkyria Chronicles series designer, Raita Honjou, publishes lot of pornographic doujinshi as well. Even the designer behind Xenogears draws plenty of sensual artwork outside of video games, although it is certainly a lot classier then some of the work by the artists mentioned above.
The 8-4 Play podcast was pretty positive on this game. Though they pointed out that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is basically a continuation of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 in terms of gameplay and game structure. 2 is not very much like Xenoblade Chronicles X, so there's no mechs, no big open world, etc.
The 8-4 Play podcast was pretty positive on this game. Though they pointed out that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is basically a continuation of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 in terms of gameplay and game structure. 2 is not very much like Xenoblade Chronicles X, so there's no mechs, no big open world, etc.
I did not realize 8-4 Play covered XC2. Thanks for mentioning it.
@cmblasko: I don't think there's a way Xenoblade would ever get GOTY in any Giant Bomb category, regardless of how good it was. Nintendo and Monolith don't have the JRPG brand recognition that others have had for a long time. That, and Giantbomb as a whole has a hard time embracing JRPGs.
(I'm assuming you were talking about Giant Bomb GOTY specifically)
@efesell: Okay, cool. I actually enjoyed the weirdly British dub from the first though, I would prefer to turn the battle chatter down and have the dub tbh.
The 8-4 Play podcast was pretty positive on this game. Though they pointed out that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is basically a continuation of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 in terms of gameplay and game structure. 2 is not very much like Xenoblade Chronicles X, so there's no mechs, no big open world, etc.
That sounds great - I loved Chronicles 1 but never got really into X - if this is more like the former this is a day one buy for me!
That guy's pants are just absolutely ridiculous. Those things look hilariously bad.
The combat looks OK, but they should chill it with the talking. Why would you talk so much during a fight?
That girl's boobs are impossible.
There's a whole bunch of anime bull in the trailers. Just ridiculous things uttered in a very serious manner mashed up with some maudlin, cheesy as all hell shit thrown in for good measure.
The world looks nice, and the lore is interesting, but that's par for the course for Xeno games.
All in all... I'll definitely wait for the reviews. And even if it gets high notes, I'll probably wait until I can find it on the cheap.
@themanwithnoplan: I haven't played the first either, but it seems like the connection between the two is very loose. I've been told jumping in at 2 should be fine :)
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