Actual GotY right here

they are?

I loved XCX when I played, until that love hit a sharp decline at around Chapter 9-10.

Not a fan of being forced to grind a character I never use, nor want to use, to max Affinity, or whatever.

Anyone get far enough in this one to know if any bullshit like that exists?

I love JRPGs. That and Visual Novels are my two favorite genres. I love anime plot lines and all the good and bad that comes with them. That being said, this game has some of the worst voice acting I’ve ever heard (English, or should I say Scottish) and some of the most generic JRPG character designs I’ve ever seen.

@wasabiicecream: One of the characters cannot use multiple Blades and instead gets a completely customizable one that you can radically alter on the fly. These parts and power ups require you to play a mini game to acquire though. It's not a particularly challenging or fun game so it getting all of those would just be raw time. There are other characters and many other Blades if you wanted to just avoid that though.

@efesell: Well, my problem in XCX was that this grind was required to start the next chapter of the main story.

If this one doesn't require any forced grinding, then I'm totally fine with that.

I also hated that about X - thankfully in 2 any characters you don't use still gets the same amount of XP so if you there ever comes a point that requires you to use certain party members, no grinding is necessary (just over 20 hours in myself and haven't come across anything like that but you never know).

As someone half-watching my roommate play in the background, I'll say that I kinda love how hella British most of the voice acting is. Like the first Xenoblade, there's something novel about having an abundance of regional UK accents alongside the usual sorts of anime dub voices that one expects from this kind of game. That's not to say that all of the voice acting is good, mind you. Mythra's VA is preeeeeety terrible, and I can't tell if the actress is trying to half-do a valley girl accent or what, but it's not great.

I'd forgotten how exhausting the combat in this series is. Not like "It is boring I'm tired of it" but to do it well the number of things you have to manage keeps you on your toes CONSTANTLY. Especially when fighting elites near your level. However still enjoying the insane over the top plot (I'm somewhere probably late in Chapter 4).

Edit: BTW I've felt 0 need to grind mobs/etc so far. Just doing quests has been enough. Mind you that sometimes means grinding materials which leads to more combat. Also early on I got lost in Chapter... 1 I think? en route to a boss so was briefly overleveled. However I seem to be much more back in line now.

However there IS one form of grinding that I'm not a fan of so far, Tiger! Tiger! I avoided it until late last night when I realized the character tied to that game was feeling underpowered. An hour or so of that game and she's back in line with everyone else... for now.

Tiger! Tiger! Is also my one standout annoying system/mechanic. It’s just not very fun, and to boot, I’m absolutely ASS as it, hrheh.

This potion dropping mechanic is only going to result in a joycon hurtling through a window.

Kept switching between English and Japanese early on, comparing it between various early scenes in the Scene Theater to ultimately land on Japanese and stick with that. The English dub is horrible... the character's personalities, emotions, delivery etc. don't match at all with the original script and intent. This becomes especially evident for Nia. So much more personality and emotion in her Japanese VA through her first cutscenes with Rex and in the first major town. It's a little upsetting because I actually liked most of Xenoblade 1's English VA cast.

As for the game itself, so far I don't think it's anywhere near as good as the revenge-fueled Xenoblade 1, but definitely better than Xenoblade X in terms of story.

I’m enjoying a few of the western journalists moaning about female character designs in this game, calling it misogynistic and typical male design work.

But wait. A lot of these designs were made by a woman. Insert laughing emoji.

I really wanna buy it but I have too much other shit to play!

There are many guest artists for the Blades and some definite artist appeal going on with some.

@ricobanderas: I totally agree that Nia comes across better in Japanese. Other than that though, as I’ve said, I think most of the English cast, with their multiple UK and EU accents, are totally on point, with Rex and Pyra being paticular standouts for me.

I dunno though. I’ve always been a dub guy when it comes to Anime as well. “Regular” movies and such, I vastly prefer subtitles, but games and cartoons, not so much =/

That was pointed out and they gave the stock "durrrr of course a woman in an institutionally mysoginistic environment blah blah blah fart." As always, continue to ignore anything western media, such as Polygon and its filth-encrusted ilk, have to say about Japanese games.

That said Pyra is ridiculous lmao and I do wish there was at least one character so far who wasn't designed to be sexy first but nothing really worth complaining about and I'm certainly not going to try to enforce my own tastes on anybody else - or even an entire nation half the world away - as some kind of self-aggrandizing moral crusade.

@wasabiicecream: there was a part where i was forced to play that Tiger Tiger game. Just to upgrade my tank cause i was getting owend in a Boss battle.

I've tried using the JP dialogue on and off, but the thing that gives me pause about it is just how much unsubtitled stuff there is, especially mid- and post-battle quips. Not all of it is super important, but it does help give the characters some personality.

@cloudymusic: I just came here to ask if there was a way to turn the unsubtitled stuff on, but I guess not from your comment. Bummer, the Japanese is way better but I don't want to miss that stuff.

So I guess there will be no QL for this game on GB ?

@shades846: I’m sure they’ll get around to it. My guess is they’re just trying to get all the GOTY stuff done while all the Beast folks are still in SF.

Did kinda think someone might have played some on UPF, but it was naturally more multiplayer focused.

Loved the first one and had a great time with XCX. Can't wait to eventually hop into this when I have time!

It's a fine game, but it is nowhere near GotY. The English voice acting is terrible, the map and compass suck, fast travel makes no sense, and Tiger Tiger is annoying as hell. If it weren't required, I'd be fine with it, but you need to do that stupid minigame to improve one of your party members. And all of this has been discovered in the first 6-7 hours of the game.

@deathtrap: What's wrong with the fast travel? It's just fast travel.

Eh, fast traveling IS sort of cumbersome. At least I wish there was a way to quickly jump to the map you're already on, since item farming often requires you to reset the mobs/collection points to gather things.

Oh for sure the game needed a real separate map screen.

And also the fast travel menu should not be bound to X you monsters I'll play this game for a hundred hours and still open it instead of the menu.

On the character designs: Monolith Soft doesn't have an in-house artist for character design.

• We needed plenty of Blades, so it was already decided on that we’ll need to get help from numerous character designers.

• The reason we request designs from outside is because Monolith Soft doesn’t have a character designer.

• Lately we’ve been told that our modeling has gotten better, but it’s actually the same staff.

• As a result of having the Rare Blade illustrators follow a weapons and attributes guideline document, we ended up with too many girls [laughs].

Read more at http://www.siliconera.com/2017/11/28/xenoblade-chronicles-2-devs-talk-many-female-rare-blades-super-rare/#vr50PtZJU2U5diVx.99

So, they have been contracting or bringing in different artists for the Xenoblade games. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, you have Torna being designed by Tetsuya Nomura and all the rare Blades being drawn by a different artist. Dahlia, the hot topic on the Xeno socials, was designed by character designer for Macross Frontier, Risa Ebata of Satelight. That's why here 2D art kind of looks like Sherly Nome!

Thus, if you were wondering why Monolith Soft seems kind of shit with designing their characters, it might be because of this set up. Also, maybe because of Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi (and whatever executive staff) let their people go wild and never reined them in toward a more focused vision.

Nice to see some folks here enjoying the game, despite some shortcomings. I don't know if it's because of the short development time (from what I can tell, concepting/development started during Xenoblade X's development and the earliest I can find out is sometime around early 2015) or if Monolith Soft had a lot on it's plate, but there are some really odd decisions and absent functionality in Xenoblade 2. To think of positively, it's really interesting and wild that something this rough is coming from a Nintendo-owned developer. However, playing it requires getting used to some quirky bullshit.

The Skip Travel menu is kind of a disaster (I could swear Xenoblade 1's map was fine). A tip for it is that the right stick activates a cursor that you can move around. It is baffling that you can't zoom in or out, as far as I can see.

There doesn't seem much reason to since you can't do much with the map screen but you can zoom in and out just fine.

@efesell: Ah! I must have missed the control prompt somewhere. EDIT: Ah, yeah. ZR and ZL. I have too much stuff blocking the bottom of my TV.

Just tried downloading and turning on the Japanese voice pack. I usually prefer dubs to subs (I know: I’m a monster), but man, my ability to enjoy this game goes way up using those voices. Highly recommend it

I just finished Chapter 3 last night and I just wanted say that Xenoblade 2 has some damn impressive cut-scenes. Every chapter so far has ended with an exciting cinematic that features a really well choreographed action scene (or an action scene plus a sweet character moment in the case of chapter 2). I remember Xenoblade 1 having some pretty cool cut-scenes but Xenoblade 2 feels like it is operating on another level.

Also I had a revelation during chapter 3 when I finally figured out how to read the combo tree and now combat has become a lot more interesting and fun.

@lentfilms: Mastering the element tree plus learning when to cancel in each weapon's animations plus managing all the Art/Special meters really gives the game so much damn depth. Especially once you have 3 Blades per character unlocked (well, most characters...)

@lentfilms: Yeah the cutscenes have been on some wild anime shit and I guess I was really in the mood for that.

After learning how to fully use the elemental combos and promptly destroying three consecutive bosses with them at the end of Ch. 4, I'm really getting into this game. My reward was a scene of delicious anime nonsense, which after a few years on the outs, I've recently come back around to appreciating. I just wish the aesthetic wasn't such a mess.

Is this compass and map supposed to be completely redundant? I beat chapter 2, went back to clear up some sidequests, and now the main quest is changing to all kinds of directions when it isn't leading me into walls.

It's terrible but eventually you kind of get used to the way that it's terrible? Or maybe later areas are just not quite as wide as the first zone and it gets a little easier to control.

Will someone explain to me why Rex put his left hand up behind his head in literally any cut scene? This is my GOTY too OP, Ass Creed Origins just took a back seat.

Tried going back through the event viewer to try out Japanese voices with some of the earlier cutscenes. It really makes a big difference to have lip sync and actors more capable of outputting the hyper-expressive anime style that this game is going for. I think that difference in style is what is making the English dub negatively stand out so much compared to 1 and X, where the characters tended to be a lot more low key. On the other hand, fuck having Japanese squeaky monster grandpa. Give me jolly ol' British grandpa any day of the week. Same goes for Tora for that matter. I guess I would say that voice portrayal of cutesy characters in general is the deal breaker that keeps me away from the Japanese V.O for this game.

Haven't played through with the Japanese voices but there do seem to be some mismatches in either language preference.

Still not sure this is GOTY for me. It's good, but it's not Persona 5 good...

Man, there's a huge disconnect between users here and reviews for the game in general. Pumped for it, but I must wait until Xmas (which is probably a blessing in disguise as I can try to get through a chunk of AC Origins and I'll be situated in my new place by then).

So how many bugs have you guys encountered in this game that lacks auto-saving and multiple save slots?

Within 24 hours I've had this happen to me:

- Infinite loading screen
- Game crash
- Screen turned black

In all 3 cases progress was lost, obviously. At this point I'm not convinced there isn't a game-ending bug in here somewhere.

Where's the disconnect, exactly? Seems like people are pretty positive overall. I'm liking it as well, but the crashes and overall bad hardware optimization are a bummer. Especially coming off DQ11, an absolutely gorgeous game that is still sitting at version 1.00.

I've only played about 4 hours or less but so far it's really hooked me. I read somewhere to treat it like you're watching an anime and I have to say - it's the best start to an anime in seasons.

Combat seems okay but I know it'll ramp up in the future. I just started Chapter 2 so I can't wait to get further in and have some Blades to customize. For my money, Pyra's design doesn't really bother me except for her shorts. I'm surprised her butt isn't falling out of them. I do think her generic "oblivious, 50 ft stare" is going to play into the story in some way. If it doesn't than maybe I do hate Pyra's design.

I definitely think some of the other Blades and characters that I've already run into do look a lot better. Nia and her Blade both have really cool designs and I like the design for Malo's Blade.

I never finished either XB1 or XBX but I did enjoy the time I spent with them. The stories dragged too much to keep me interested in them until the big twist (that I heard happens) so I'm hoping that this one keeps my interest for the long haul.

I absolutely am loving this game. It is beautiful and just watching the clouds move is enjoyable in itself. I don't understand the hate for the voice acting I find it very charming and am enjoying it very much (I'm only on chapter 2 but I've met several characters people seem to dislike). I think Nia is actually one of the more enjoyable characters so not sure why people think she is a bad voice actress. It would be nice to see this game in a higher resolution since it does have such incredible art and environments but even on a 32 inch monitor it looks incredible. I go to play something else and something just compels me to want to play more of this instead. The kotaku review for this game was one of the worst reviews i've seen for a game lately. I just don't see how someone could hate the game THAT much.

Something if someone who is farther in the game could answer is what is the point to upgrading the first few weapons? It seems like you will get many new weapons at some point so are you wasting skills by upgrading other weapons? Also why is there so many stores and items available when all you have is 2 accessory slots. I don't understand the massive amounts of items in this game but like I said I'm still only like 5 hours in. Highly recommended. My favorite Switch game by far probably next to Steamworld Dig 2. I just couldn't get into Zelda or Mario like other people but this game is really a joy to play and experience.

@axersia: I'm about 25 hours into the game and I haven't run into any technical issues like crashes or anything. Sorry to hear that you lost some progress that always sucks.

Also anyone else just finish Chapter 4? I just defeated the boss for that chapter last night and was laughing my butt off the whole time. The Mazinger Z reference was also really funny.

@steveurkel: Could you clarify what you mean by upgrading the first few weapons? It sounds like you could be talking about either upgrading your Blade's weapon using "chips" or upgrading weapon skills using WP.

@steveurkel: You probably already figured this out by now, but weapon art levels are tied to the character, and the Blades are simply equipment. So if you swap one Axe Blade with another Axe Blade, you still have all the same skills upgraded. WP is also specific to the weapon type, so you can't save the WP you earned with the Axe and use it on the Spear.

So basically, just keep bonding until you run into a weapon you like as a secondary, and hope that you'll eventually get a 5-star Blade that uses the same weapon.

But honestly, you probably won't, so you either accept what the game throws at you and get to have two more anime ladies as your Blades (seriously, like 90% of the 5-star Blades are girls), or you insist on using your favorite weapon and have to deal with ugly generic Blades.

As for the massive amount of shops... Most of them just sell Pouch items, which is a system I haven't really used that bestows timed boosts on your characters.

But yeah, there's also lot to choose from when it comes to accessories and aux cores, but if you wanna keep it simple, just go with some universal stuff like Aggro Up on your tank, Aggro Down on everyone else, Heal Up on your healer, etc. Honestly, it doesn't really matter.

@lentfilms: Yeah, I'm in Chapter 5 as well. Didn't get the reference, but the game certainly seems a lot more lighthearted and over-the-top anime than the first Xenoblade. I like it.

Also, interesting choice to have all the Torna characters designed by Nomura... I can't help but think I stepped into a KH game every time they come on screen. Even their eyes are totally Nomura. Would love to hear how this collaboration came to be.

I think I heard that Takahashi had always wanted to work with Nomura so he asked Square Enix if it was okay if he could work on Xenoblade 2 and they said it was okay. Also I think Nomura accepted the request because Takahashi was basically his senpai when he was still at Square.

I to like to watch the clouds in this game <3 I dont know about the weapons though. Someone else will have to answer that.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

I GOT KOS-MOS!

I GOT FUCKING KOS-MOS!

Holy shit I'm actually shaking right now.

GOTY right here.

@steveurkel: The point of using low rarity blades is for WP gain. When you max out the tree of a blade, you get items that you use to give WP to whatever weapon class you want. This helps as upgrading arts after a couple times costs a couple thousand WP. So you try and use Blades that have the smallest/easiest tree to max out and that's a good way to gain WP.