[quote name='Billytwoshoes']
As someone who has only causally played RPGs over my years of gaming, I can say that Xenoblade certainly does many minor things right that just add up to a complete positive experience for me. Maybe these are just universal improvements made to all RPGs in the past few years, but the small features like insta-map travel, automatic quest completion, clear battle / aggro icons, manual control over day and night cycles, and the ability to save whenever you want, cuts out alot of the junk I've been peeved at in past experiences.
Again, maybe someone who is more hardcore just isn't as impressed, but it personally has been the most refreshing JRPG I've played in some time.[/QUOTE]
My problem with it was that it felt too much like an MMO - I prefer JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or Radiant Historia. Automatic quest completion was great, but it ultimately emphasized how meaningless the quests were. I think 90% of my quests ended up being WoW-esque "Find 20 Doo-dads" quests and I usually completed them on accident. I don't think this is bad, per se, I just want quests with some kind of meaningful narrative. It's the reason I don't do radiant quests in Skyrim. I honestly just don't feel like Xenoblade fits the traditional JRPG category. To see modern turn-based JRPGs like Ni No Kuni being compared to Xenoblade in reviews just doesn't seem right.
As someone who has only causally played RPGs over my years of gaming, I can say that Xenoblade certainly does many minor things right that just add up to a complete positive experience for me. Maybe these are just universal improvements made to all RPGs in the past few years, but the small features like insta-map travel, automatic quest completion, clear battle / aggro icons, manual control over day and night cycles, and the ability to save whenever you want, cuts out alot of the junk I've been peeved at in past experiences.
Again, maybe someone who is more hardcore just isn't as impressed, but it personally has been the most refreshing JRPG I've played in some time.[/QUOTE]
My problem with it was that it felt too much like an MMO - I prefer JRPGs like Chrono Trigger or Radiant Historia. Automatic quest completion was great, but it ultimately emphasized how meaningless the quests were. I think 90% of my quests ended up being WoW-esque "Find 20 Doo-dads" quests and I usually completed them on accident. I don't think this is bad, per se, I just want quests with some kind of meaningful narrative. It's the reason I don't do radiant quests in Skyrim. I honestly just don't feel like Xenoblade fits the traditional JRPG category. To see modern turn-based JRPGs like Ni No Kuni being compared to Xenoblade in reviews just doesn't seem right.