Xenoblade Chronicles X vs. The Holiday Season

The holiday season for 2015 video games has begun and their are some heavy hitters, Fallout 4, COD BLOPS 3, Rise of the Tomb Raider...etc

So is anyone out there bypassing any of this stuff for Xenoblade Chronicles X? I think I am in the minority here but I have pre-ordered this and I am putting everything else on the back burner, including Fallout 4. Right now I am deep into Witcher 3 and I should be done by the time Xenoblade comes out.

I am not the only crazy person here, right?

I'm a busy university student that won't have time to really play anything until Christmas (exasperated by the fact my gaming PC is at home). So I've already planned what I'm going to play then and Xenoblade Chronicles X is number 1 on my list. Hopefully I'll find time to finish MGSV around that before game of the year stuff, but in terms of games I just want to spend my time with... Xenoblade X can't come out fast enough.

The real question is: do I order the Japanese soundtrack for it now, and it will probably arrive during the Christmas period/early January or do I wait until I've experienced the majority of the game before I start absorbing the soundtrack into my life like the original Xenoblade Chronicles'?

Hell yeah! Ever since I bought a house, I started an ongoing tradition where I play an RPG during my winter break, and Xenoblade Chronicles X won that honor this year. I am super hyped for this game.

Past winter holiday RPGs include Final Fantasy XII, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story.

@dixavd: I usually find that it's better to experience a soundtrack in-game first, since you'll associate moments in the game with the music. I think listening to the soundtrack first weakens those connections. Also, the soundtrack is by Hiroyuki Sawano, which is fucking awesome. That dude knows how to jam. I can't wait to hear it.

Xenoblade is my second most hyped game of this year, so yes I'm with you. I think Just Cause 3 might be the only other game coming out this holiday that I'm even interested in.

Xenoblade is my most hyped game left to come out this year. And like Dixavid I need to think about when I get the soundtrack, because the original game's 4 disc one is utterly fantastic and got a ton of play (I need to dig up my rips and listen to them some more, SO GOOD).

If this game turns out to review well, I'll be getting all over it. Turns out I'm not too interested in Fallout 4 or anything else coming out on PC anytime soon.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is quite literally the only game I care about this holiday season. I was kinda looking forward to Tomb Raider at one point, but every time I think about it, I remember it's not what I want out of a Tomb Raider game. Obviously, judging by the review scores, it's a pretty fantastic game and I can see myself picking it up a year from now for $20 or whatever, but meh, as of right now, the rest of my year is all about Xenoblade...and all the other games that came before it that I still haven't beaten.

I've already finished MGSV, which would have been the last major timesink or the year for me. I'm not currently planning to pick up any of the other games you listed, and don't have anything urgent in my backlog, so I'll definetly have time for it.

I'm just torn 'cause, while I'm excited to play it, and enjoyed the original Xenoblade Chronicles a lot, I didn't come close to finishing that game. It's a problem I have with a lot of long-ass jrpgs: I enjoy them a lot, but burn out on them before the end. It might be because I'm particularly prone to doing a deep dive into grinding early on, so without characters that I'm invested in, that can carry the story beyond a certain point, I just lose interest.

It's just a little demoralizing to consider that you're probably not going to finish a game you started on, even if you're going to enjoy your time with it.

@dixavd: I'm in the same boat (soundtrack issue and all). I've got 5 exams next month so new releases and long games get put on the back-burner for now anyway.

Haven't played a long ass JRPG in a long time so I'm ready. Also, I did skip those games you listed since I'm in no rush to play them.

I'm eagerly awaiting reviews, and all being well I'll be all over this.

If the reviews aren't awful I'll probably get it for Christmas. Seems like a real good vacation game.

I'm putting a lot of games on hold right now until I can afford a decent PC to play them on. So i'll probably be playing Yakuza 5 (assuming that's still coming out) and XCX until then. I'm playing the original XC at the moment because of the deal that essentially makes it free if you buy X. I was going to skip it since I dont want to overdose on JRPGs but i've got nothing else besides Halo 5 to play at the moment so I need something with a little more substance to keep me sane.

I'm still very cautious about picking this one up... Chronicles was fun to play for the first 40 hours or so, but then I realized the sidequests were all worthless, dull content that wasn't even levelling me up, and the characters hadn't changed a single bit since their individual introductions. The story goes to some great places at the very end, but I think the pacing was way off for the sake of padding the length and most of the story was meaningless fluff (also, that game felt like it ended like 5 times over the last 20 or so hours of the game, so that got exhausting).

The biggest complication for me though is that the game will review great no matter how bad any of the aforementioned things are, since Chronicles got glowing reviews (people were throwing around "Best RPG of the generation" like it was going out of style).

It'll probably still play great though, so if it ever ends up on sale I'll definitely play some even if I can never finish it (there was about a 1 year gap between play sessions after yet another difficulty spike, and the only reason I went back to it is because I wanted to sit and watch that title screen for a while because goddamn that's a nice title screen). It won't be my holiday game though, because of Yakuza 5 (assumed) and Zestiria, which I'm playing right now.

Even with it's faults, I'm a huge fan of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. It even made me try out some of the older Xeno games (played all of Xenogears, played most of the first episode of Xenosaga) even if they aren't really a series, per se. I have my worries, the story could be underwhelming, and the sidequest problem might not be fixed (there were definitely way too many in the first Xenoblade). However, I'm really excited to explore the game's huge world, one of my favorite parts of Xenoblade, especially with mechas this time. Also, the soundtrack will probably be pretty cool. Even after all of the other awesome games this year, it's still one of the games I'm looking forward to most.

I don't own an Xbox One or PS4 so Xenoblade Chronicles X is pretty much the only big holiday title I am excited about. I finished the first game earlier this year and really enjoyed it so I'm expecting great things from X.

I am super psyched to play Xenoblade X!! That being said, I won't play it at launch because I'm still grinding through MGSV and I have Fallout 4 waiting on my desktop... I refuse to start Fallout 4 until I finish MGSV and same with Xenoblade X until I finish one play through of Fallout 4. I loved all of the Xeno titles from the PS1/PS2 era. I've only played Xenoblade Chronicles for the first time last year and was obsessed with it! I think I'll end up sinking more time into Xenoblade Chronicles X than MGSV and Fallout 4 so I'm getting them out of the way first! Can't wait!

I would love to play this game. Xenoblade Chronicles was the first good JRPG in years. The only problem is, I don't want to play it quite enough to buy a bloody WiiU for it...

Hopefully this game is finally the clear cut GOTY I've been waiting for. None of the big games I've played this year really deserve GOTY.

Scenery p*** Holy crap!

Have the collector's edition pre-ordered, eagerly awaiting its release! Been trying to finish up Xenoblade Chronicles 3D while I wait.

I feel like I'll be playing Xenoblade and Just Cause 3 simultaneously for the rest of the year.

I really wish Nintendo would stop being so bad at localizing games. Just translate the game and give it to me. Stop taking out and changing things.

i bought fallout 4 and i'll buy xenoblade cx, so no problems here.

Could not agree more. It's dumb, but I can totally understand taking away the risque outfits for the young lady (what is she? like 13?), but the boob slider? Really? That just seems like going overboard. To be fair, that's like quite literally the least important thing they could have chosen to remove so it's not even remotely a big deal, but still, just the fact that one or more people at Nintendo actually sat down and were like "the boob slider has to go!" just baffles me.

I feel more or less the same way about the changes made to Fatal Frame. Again, I realize it's not a big deal at the end of the day, but it just feels like they're playing it way too safe for an audience (the people buying fucking Fatal Frame and Xenoblade of all things are a very specific kind of audience) that doesn't need to be protected.

@babychoochoo said:

Yeah, ugh, I'm not happy to hear about these changes either. No, in the grand scheme of things, it's not that important, but that's totally not the point. Just localize the damn games; don't remove content so they meet some arbitrary standards. It still baffles me that Bayonetta 2 was somehow published by Nintendo without being made more kid friendly.

Apparently, the Japanese audio track is not in the game. Sigh, god dammit, Nintendo.

Also, I guess there's an acronym in the game: BLADE. It originally stood for Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator and was changed to Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth. The first one doesn't really make much English sense, but it's a hell of a lot cooler than the generic crap they changed it to.

Xenoblade X: and you thought Fallout 4's character models looked like garbage.

@pyrodactyl said:

Haha, this is true. It's a little weird going from Xenoblade Chronicles to this, since the previous game's characters actually had personality.

I've even heard some of the religious and psychological stuff has been rewritten which is just insulting, especially when it's important to the Xeno series. Who do they think is buying this? I kind of hope when Wii U emulation kicks off we can get a better version of the game, but I doubt it.

At least I'll actually enjoy Xenoblade.

I thought I would be in the minority here when it comes to pretty much being the most excited for Xenoblade this holiday but I guess I'm not. Just plopped down a pre-order for the special edition and I can't wait for that type of game.

Though the GB members are a different demographic than the general public, but I hope the game does well.

Xenoblade X will likely be the only game releasing this holiday season that I buy within a couple months

It's not really hype related though - I'll be getting a PS4 next month and rather then going for the new releases I want (Fallout) I'm planning on getting older games for it first since they're cheaper, by the time I've played them I reckon Fallout will be around half the price it is now anyway.

I plan to get Xenoblade near launch as I don't wanna be stuck if the physical version shoots up in price like the wii game did. I'll be playing on my sisters WiiU so I really don't want to get it digital, so if the price inflates too much I may end up having to skip the game which would suuuck

Aside from Just Cause none of the other holiday games really interest me that much, so as long as it reviews well I'll be giving it a go. I haven't played a good new jrpg in awhile so I hope it can fill that void.

So I felt the same way at first, but there's 14 different voices to choose from for you main character. 14! In a game this big that's a fuck ton of dialogue, so putting in other languages probably isn't worth the extra space, especially since this game is already over 22GB to get digitally. Also I think the Japanese version had 20 voice options, which is still crazy to me 'cause I thought it was nuts for a game like Saints Row to have 7. I'm just psyched that I can choose the voice actor of Shulk or Fiora as my main character, the english accents aren't completely gone after all!

Here's a video with samples of all the voice options, they even have the voice actor's names included which is rad to see that in a game(8-4 pushed for that). The "Classic" options are the voice actors who did Shulk & Fiora.

So yeah I'm excited about playing most of the big games that came out this year, but I can wait to play them. I wanted to play X immediately, it was basically half the reason I got a Wii U a year ago(along with Bayonetta 2). I've also been trying to finish Xenoblade Chronicles, I'm near the end at about 150 hours over the course of the last 3 years, it's been quite a journey.

@tournamentofhate: I didn't realize there were that many options. At least there's Carina Reeves (Fiora), I guess, but she's no Maaya Uchida or Atsuko Tanaka. I probably shouldn't have looked up the Japanese voice actors. It just makes me more sad. I mean, if there's no room on the disc, they could have made the Japanese voices a free download. Us disc buyers already have to download 10 GB of data packs to make the game load faster.

I'm actually working extra in order to take December 4th off. This game is pretty important to me and my holiday season.

The removal of the boob slider is an amusing and weird thing to see. I'm not one to fuss over it, but it is sad for those that were looking forward to having a smaller or larger bust for their character. As for the other alleged localization efforts, I guess I'll wait and see. Localization should be recognized as an art, not a science. While I respect those that want a more literal effort and have wanted such myself... I think it's important to flip the tea table sometimes and consider that the Japanese version may have had some really stupid shit that ought to be changed. Also, maybe it would be nice once in a while to think of Treehouse and Monolith Soft collaborating in their decisions and efforts rather than a more unkind relationship?

I'm curious as to how the game's weird multiplayer functions will work out. If there is enough control over it, it would be nice to have a Giant Bomb squad up and running on Mira's Miiverse.

As for the game's review prospects, I'm thinking it will be significantly cooler than expected. The novelty of the first game is gone, and the flaws that followed from predecessor to successor will be more apparent. Also, Xenoblade Chronicle X's focus away from a big main narrative to having more side stories might turn out to be a change for the worse. Lastly, Monolith Soft and Nintendo may be too far behind the curve of best-practices and design, and will fail to garner great praise because so.

For me, Xenoblade Chronicles is the front-runner for my most favorite game of the its generation. Xenoblade Chronicles X looks very much like more of that, remixed and rearranged, and with a mech. After dogging it's marketing cycle since 2013, I can't see myself being disappointed with the game after watching what I have seen.

The censorship of this game is getting ridiculous. Now they removed the bust size slider in the character creator. Why do they do this? When have ever a feature in character creation been censured before? I am not supporting this.

@dagas: I just don't understand how it will affect the game story or gameplay. Why is it such a big deal for so much people. You won't be able to make your giant breast or small creepy loli waifus? There's a lot of games for that.

i thought this were americuh. i want my vidja gaem boobs durnit....

This is kind of the only Wii U exclusive left for me to care about. I guess Starfox is cool but I've never played any of them. I played about 10ish hours of the first Xenoblade earlier this year. It was neat and then Metal Gear came out. It also felt like something I cold easily burnout on so I figured I'd wait for the sequel and a reason to turn on my Wii U.

Also the boob slider thing is pretty funny and sounds the most Nintendo.

I think I'm going to pick up the first one. I've never played it. What do you guys think? Should I play that one first?

I'm disappointed they went back to the Kunihiko Tanaka designs but other than that the game is looking good. Sadly, I think it will mostly get ignored though. Even more so than Xenoblade Chronicles.

That being said the game did not review that well in Japan, supposedly lacking what made the previous game so good.

Wait, are all English-language versions censored, or just the North American one?

i have the collectors edition preordered as well and i'm patiently waiting for Xenoblade X to drop! easily my most anticipated game of the holiday

@drakoji said:

It won't affect much for most people, but that's not the point here. Whenever something is removed from a game like this, it is never solely about how much it will affect players. Yes, a more egregious exclusion is of more importance, but the real issue here is the principle of shaping a game to fit an arbitrary standard. That shouldn't be up to Nintendo. At least in the case of Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, Nintendo removed the more risqué elements, so that fits their family friendly agenda -- forgetting that the game is rated M anyway. With the breast slider, though, that's just plain ol' anatomy -- nothing risqué about it.

It shouldn't be up to the localizer to change the story how they see fit. Usually, at least in my case, I want a more literal effort because that's the closest I'm gonna get to the creator's original vision. I don't think going the other way (less literal) works most of the time because the localizers usually aren't good writers, or some things just can't be localized because there's no equivalence.

I'm sure there are some good localizers out there. Probably more than a few. I'm playing Trails in the Sky right now, and its localization is pretty good so far. How much did they actually change, and what would a more literal translation be like, is very much in the back of my mind though. I used to not want honorifics period, and all I wanted was voices in English, but I've since flipped. I don't want English voices and give me all the honorifics. I understand that most people aren't going to be into that though, and that's okay; it's just what I prefer and hope is catered to when a Japanese game is brought over here.

There's no way to know the extent of the relationship, but it could also very well be, "We need to change these aspects of the game, otherwise it won't fit in the North American market." What are they gonna do, say no?

I don't get it. From videos I've watched the game has very little customization when it comes to the body of your character. Why then would they even put a boob slider in there to begin with, if it's the only thing aside from "general size" that you can change about your characters body?

If anything the boob slider stuck out like a sore thumb among the lack of other options.

@tournamentofhate: Holy crap, I can have Ben Diskin voice my character? That is pretty cool!

@jacksukeru said:

There are a decent amount of options. Not much changing the size of things, but I don't think it's unreasonable to include a breast size option. There probably isn't any in-depth customization to keep your character in line with Kunihiko Tanaka's character designs, as awful as they may be.

8-4 is responsible for the localization, so feel free to direct any boob-slider related concerns their way.

I didn't skip out on a LOT of games, but I'm finished with every big title I currently own, besides a few straggling backlogs that should be done any day now all my free time will be spent in X!

@razzuel: The singling out of that particular body part, among both genders, in the character creator when there's nothing else to affect in terms of body type aside from its general size? Seems lazy and cynical to me. I also don't think the women playing this game need to be reminded how important a part of their character the world think their chest size is, but that's a more subtle issue.