Xenoblade Chronicles

[quote name='watcher0']I'd posit that if they can't afford or access broadband that they aren't buying much, if any, new games anyway, so why should gaming companies give a damn about them?[/QUOTE]

broadband access is a little more challenging depending on where you live. When I lived "in town" (i.e. 10 miles closer to work) I had access to cable internet, but now that I'm out a little ways all I can get is DSL which is basically worthless for downloading anything. It's not a question of affordability so much as it is a question of availability, and that's a deep issue that is more about ISPs and their unwillingness to upgrade aging/decrepit infrastructure while they continue to price gouge. Hopefully google fiber will get going in more locations and finally spur some competition. That said, I had two gamestops within driving distance (i.e. 10-15 miles) and both of them had a physical copy for me.
 
[quote name='Kazuya']Does the Gamestop low stock indicator on the website really mean it's just gutted copies left? The Gamestop near me is so incompetent, I can't trust them to understand my definition of new over the phone.[/QUOTE]

If you don't want to go over there to check, you have to call to find out if they have a 'sealed' copy (I don't say new). If there is only one copy left, it's the gutted display copy. If there is more than one copy, they may have a sealed copy, but they have to check the drawer to confirm.
 
Found one in my area. Originally I was going to wait 'till the game hit $39.99 new or $29.99, but since new copies are disappearing and used are getting hard to find I bit on a used copy for like $43.
 
[quote name='Blaster man']Dont try the last remnant![/QUOTE]

I did end up getting this, Lost Odyssey and Resonance of Fate with a B2G1 coupon I had at Gamestop for renewing my PUR. Honestly, Last Remnant gave me a headache during the first battle. A few games do that to me (Resident Evil 5, Two Worlds 2), just randomly.

So, it's going back to Gamestop...probably swap it out for Call of Juarez Bound in Blood. I can't find anything else right now around $10.

Lost Odyssesy, however, still my favorite JRPG of all-time, just above Legend of Dragoon.

Looking forward to trying Resonance of Fate, too. I've heard good things.
 
[quote name='JaylisJayP']Looking forward to trying Resonance of Fate, too. I've heard good things.[/QUOTE]
It's quite enjoyable, but not in the same league as Lost Odyssey or ToV. People bitch about the battle system being difficult when it's really not at all. Make sure you do the tutorials and you'll be fine.
 
[quote name='simmias']It's quite enjoyable, but not in the same league as Lost Odyssey or ToV. People bitch about the battle system being difficult when it's really not at all. Make sure you do the tutorials and you'll be fine.[/QUOTE]

It looks cool, I like the style of the game from some videos. Tried 3 times to get into ToV but just couldn't do it, same with Star Ocean. I'm more of a turn-based JRPG fan. Sometimes I feel like if I'm going to do real-time combat, I'll just play an action game that does it better. Narrow-minded view of everything a good modern JRPG brings to the table, of course, but in most games, I care about the gameplay first.
 
[quote name='JaylisJayP']
Looking forward to trying Resonance of Fate, too. I've heard good things.[/QUOTE]

Resonance of Fate has some good parts to it, but overall, I really wouldn't bother. It's doesn't have a very good story, the battle system just plain sucks and it has so much potential that it just squanders away.

I did write a review about it a while back in my CAG blog. Good luck!
 
[quote name='battousai11']Resonance of Fate has some good parts to it, but overall, I really wouldn't bother. It's doesn't have a very good story, the battle system just plain sucks and it has so much potential that it just squanders away.

I did write a review about it a while back in my CAG blog. Good luck![/QUOTE]

Agreed RoF was booooring to me. The battle system was cool for like 30 mins. I think the reason a few people liked this was because it launched with FF13 and some people wanted to boost it up due to their hatred for FF. I bought in to the hype and was letdown. Ugly graphics, nonsense story, horrible overworld.

Xenoblade is good. ugly but good. It dragged on like a christopher nolan film, but was enjoyable. Shame this was on wii, but good game indeed. I found vesperia boring I'm 30 hrs in and can't seem to force myself to finish it. I never really understood the hype behind this game. Its very mediocre to me. Valkyria is my fave rpg this gen.
 
[quote name='gmsick']Agreed RoF was booooring to me. The battle system was cool for like 30 mins. I think the reason a few people liked this was because it launched with FF13 and some people wanted to boost it up due to their hatred for FF. I bought in to the hype and was letdown. Ugly graphics, nonsense story, horrible overworld.

Xenoblade is good. ugly but good. It dragged on like a christopher nolan film, but was enjoyable. Shame this was on wii, but good game indeed. I found vesperia boring I'm 30 hrs in and can't seem to force myself to finish it. I never really understood the hype behind this game. Its very mediocre to me. Valkyria is my fave rpg this gen.[/QUOTE]

I liked Vesperia a lot. I thought it was really good and the protagonist was way more badass than the guys in most JRPG's. he murders people that (as they say in Texas) needed killing. That's not too much of a spoiler for a 4.5 year old game is it?
 
[quote name='Blaster man']I liked Vesperia a lot. I thought it was really good and the protagonist was way more badass than the guys in most JRPG's. he murders people that (as they say in Texas) needed killing. That's not too much of a spoiler for a 4.5 year old game is it?[/QUOTE]
My all-time favorite RPG is Vesperia. Even more than all the FF games. The combat is engaging. I loved the alternate objectives in boss fights. The protagonist is deep and full of character as are all of his support. Even the dog has a personality. It's long and the story is a hell of a ride all the way to the end.

[quote name='kraftwerks']Resonance of Fate had one of the best and deepest battle systems this or any other gen. The story did suck monkey butt though.[/QUOTE]
I liked RoF for the first hour but the disjointed story and linearity just crushed my enjoyment. The combat was good but I'd rather play a Tactical RPG instead like FF Tactics.
 
Damn no longer in stock online. I looked yesterday they had them in stock and then this morning when i was going to purchase they are all gone :cry:
 
[quote name='gmsick']Agreed RoF was booooring to me. The battle system was cool for like 30 mins. I think the reason a few people liked this was because it launched with FF13 and some people wanted to boost it up due to their hatred for FF. I bought in to the hype and was letdown. Ugly graphics, nonsense story, horrible overworld.

Xenoblade is good. ugly but good. It dragged on like a christopher nolan film, but was enjoyable. Shame this was on wii, but good game indeed. I found vesperia boring I'm 30 hrs in and can't seem to force myself to finish it. I never really understood the hype behind this game. Its very mediocre to me. Valkyria is my fave rpg this gen.[/QUOTE]

Thoughts on WKC2?
 
[quote name='JaylisJayP']Thoughts on WKC2?[/QUOTE]
you know i never tried that series. ive almost always heard nothing but negative things about it.
 
If you want to try it definitely get WKC 2 so you get the improved version of 1 in addition to 2. Most GS have this in stock for $20 new and some for $18 used.
 
I am notoriously jaded when it comes to JRPGs but Xenoblade grabbed me like few other games this gen. I'd grab whatever copy you can find before they end up on fleabay.

+1 for Lost Odyssey...I really wish other JRPG developers would get with the times and hire an actual novelist/screenwriter/writer to pen a story like LO's instead of however the fuck they came up with FFXIII's vomit pile of a narrative.
 
[quote name='MetalSlugger']I am notoriously jaded when it comes to JRPGs but Xenoblade grabbed me like few other games this gen. I'd grab whatever copy you can find before they end up on fleabay.

+1 for Lost Odyssey...I really wish other JRPG developers would get with the times and hire an actual novelist/screenwriter/writer to pen a story like LO's instead of however the fuck they came up with FFXIII's vomit pile of a narrative.[/QUOTE]

Agreed on both points but only LO's 1000 Year of Dreams were penned by an famous novelist, the story was by some writer.

A lot of people say the dreams were way better than the actual game's story but I think that's probably because it's probably easier to write a short compelling story than a long one.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Agreed on both points but only LO's 1000 Year of Dreams were penned by an famous novelist, the story was by some writer.

A lot of people say the dreams were way better than the actual game's story but I think that's probably because it's probably easier to write a short compelling story than a long one.[/QUOTE]

lol I know it was only those segments but I'll take what I can get at this point.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Agreed on both points but only LO's 1000 Year of Dreams were penned by an famous novelist, the story was by some writer.

A lot of people say the dreams were way better than the actual game's story but I think that's probably because it's probably easier to write a short compelling story than a long one.[/QUOTE]
The game's over-all story is pretty boring but the interactions between characters is well worth the price of admission. I actually teared up a few times during that game. Not something most games can do. Hell, most games I barely care about the story and end up just trying to get it over with so I can move on.
 
Haha, this thread goes from a game being in stock, to flippers suck, GS sucks for gutting new games, game out of stock, this jrpg is good, that jrpg sucks, game comes back in stock, GS still sucks for gutted copies arriving, jrpg drama, game out of stock, and finally back to great opinions on the said jrpgs. Gotta love it! :)
 
[quote name='Woocls']My all-time favorite RPG is Vesperia. Even more than all the FF games. The combat is engaging. I loved the alternate objectives in boss fights. The protagonist is deep and full of character as are all of his support. Even the dog has a personality. It's long and the story is a hell of a ride all the way to the end.


I liked RoF for the first hour but the disjointed story and linearity just crushed my enjoyment. The combat was good but I'd rather play a Tactical RPG instead like FF Tactics.[/QUOTE]

I'm actually playing Vesperia right now. It's pretty, fun and has good music. That's really all I can ask for in a game. It is really frustrating messing up all these sidequests though.
 
I found Lost Odyssey so much better once I switched to Japanese VA. Didn't like Jansen, Mack or Cooke's American VA. The side quests on disc 4 were us much fun, I've missed character based bonus dungeons. I just wish I knew what treasure I was missing I wanted to 1000 the game.
 
[quote name='chunlirocks']How is 49.99 a deal?

That's msrp

WutTheFuk ?[/QUOTE]

Based on supply and demand I don't see this dropping below MSRP anytime soon if ever. Doesn't seem like a reprint will happen either but you never know.
 
[quote name='gmsick']Agreed RoF was booooring to me. The battle system was cool for like 30 mins. I think the reason a few people liked this was because it launched with FF13 and some people wanted to boost it up due to their hatred for FF. I bought in to the hype and was letdown. Ugly graphics, nonsense story, horrible overworld.

Xenoblade is good. ugly but good. It dragged on like a christopher nolan film, but was enjoyable. Shame this was on wii, but good game indeed. I found vesperia boring I'm 30 hrs in and can't seem to force myself to finish it. I never really understood the hype behind this game. Its very mediocre to me. Valkyria is my fave rpg this gen.[/QUOTE]

never did finish RoF stupid random difficulty spikes. oh hey lets toss a level 80 monster against your level 30s. real fun developers heck even level 20s guys can be a pain thanks to their shields and the battle system. got to chapter 8 ran into another uber boss and just stopped caring. and since the only way to back out is to restart at the beginning of chapter 8 which ive had to do a few times in other chapters restart i just cant be bothered to care anymore. maybe if you could have more than 1 save file at a time....

tales i do enjoy tales games but never got into vesperia either i dont know how far i got but its another unfinished game.

xenoblade is good. the story is cliche to no end. and the ending sucks balls and makes 0 sense from any logical point of view. but its overall rather good. the world and battle system and monsters you run into sell this game.

i did buy a sealed copy to keep at launch so idea when i would sell that.
 
[quote name='addicted2games']Haha, this thread goes from a game being in stock, to flippers suck, GS sucks for gutting new games, game out of stock, this jrpg is good, that jrpg sucks, game comes back in stock, GS still sucks for gutted copies arriving, jrpg drama, game out of stock, and finally back to great opinions on the said jrpgs. Gotta love it! :)[/QUOTE]
I'm just offering alternatives to paying ebay prices for this game.
[quote name='DQT']I'm actually playing Vesperia right now. It's pretty, fun and has good music. That's really all I can ask for in a game. It is really frustrating messing up all these sidequests though.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, those can be frustrating but when you get them it feels so rewarding. Also, it's a little slow to begin with. It doesn't really start hitting it's stride until you meet the full cast. You don't even unlock the full battle system until hours and hours in.
 
[quote name='kayne2000']never did finish RoF stupid random difficulty spikes. oh hey lets toss a level 80 monster against your level 30s. real fun developers heck even level 20s guys can be a pain thanks to their shields and the battle system. got to chapter 8 ran into another uber boss and just stopped caring. and since the only way to back out is to restart at the beginning of chapter 8 which ive had to do a few times in other chapters restart i just cant be bothered to care anymore. maybe if you could have more than 1 save file at a time....

tales i do enjoy tales games but never got into vesperia either i dont know how far i got but its another unfinished game.

xenoblade is good. the story is cliche to no end. and the ending sucks balls and makes 0 sense from any logical point of view. but its overall rather good. the world and battle system and monsters you run into sell this game.

i did buy a sealed copy to keep at launch so idea when i would sell that.[/QUOTE]
you know im glad im not the only one that thought xenoblade's ending made absolutely no sense. lol! your right my favorite thing about the game was the open world. it was maybe too big.

i need to start lost odyssey. i haven't toched it yet. damn backlog.
 
[quote name='gmsick']you know im glad im not the only one that thought xenoblade's ending made absolutely no sense. lol! your right my favorite thing about the game was the open world. it was maybe too big.

i need to start lost odyssey. i haven't toched it yet. damn backlog.[/QUOTE]

How long is the game exactly?
 
[quote name='gmsick']you know im glad im not the only one that thought xenoblade's ending made absolutely no sense. lol! your right my favorite thing about the game was the open world. it was maybe too big.

i need to start lost odyssey. i haven't toched it yet. damn backlog.[/QUOTE]

yea i tried arguing that sucky ending on gamefaqs people thought i was crazy glad im not the only one too. the ending was so terrible i had to rant about it somewhere.

[quote name='Blaster man']How long is the game exactly?[/QUOTE]

xenoblade is easily at a minimum of 60 hours but more like 80 for the main story especially factoring in leveling up enough to tackle the last boss be warned the game tosses a huge difficulty spike towards the very end. i recommend being at least level 80 before you take on the last boss unless you have mastered the game on your first playthrough which is possible depends how good you at rpgs.

this is a bad game to have in the backlog but i enjoyed it its worth it cliche story and bad ending aside.
 
[quote name='kayne2000']
xenoblade is easily at a minimum of 60 hours but more like 80 for the main story especially factoring in leveling up enough to tackle the last boss be warned the game tosses a huge difficulty spike towards the very end. i recommend being at least level 80 before you take on the last boss unless you have mastered the game on your first playthrough which is possible depends how good you at rpgs.

this is a bad game to have in the backlog but i enjoyed it its worth it cliche story and bad ending aside.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the info. I'll probably have to hold off on it for a bit. I focus on one game at a time (otherwise I never finish anything) and I've been playign Skyrim since I got it on Black Friday. Excellent game but holy shit it's got a lot of content and I imagine they've got another 1 or 2 big DLC packs coming. After Skyrim I'll probably figure out what some of my shortest games in the backlog are and blow through those to cut down the stack a bit and resell them to get my money back. After I get through everything that's maybe 10-12 hours or less I'll probably go for Xenoblade Chronicles.
 
and neither do most japanese based media.....

Its not like america where everything there is always a happy and logical ending...

There is never a clear cut endings in japanese type media..
 
[quote name='gmsick']you know im glad im not the only one that thought xenoblade's ending made absolutely no sense. lol! your right my favorite thing about the game was the open world. it was maybe too big.

i need to start lost odyssey. i haven't toched it yet. damn backlog.[/QUOTE]

I'm playing Lost Odyssey again right now, it's still awesome. I love the skill sharing/learning part of the game, too. Possibly the last great turn-based, non-tactical JRPG ever made.
 
[quote name='gmsick']i beat the entire xenosaga trilogy and xenoblades ending still made absolutely no sense. lol![/QUOTE]

It's not supposed to make sense, at least, to us... lol

Takahashi does this kind of ethereal / "what is god?" type angle, if you've played Xenogears / Xenosaga. I can understand being thrown off, expecting a resolution, but if you're aware of the writer's prior games, then you're just kinda like "OH YOU~" and just move on.

But the game was awesome even up to the ending, so whatever
 
It's not that hard the ending was basically

he remade the universe the way he thought it should be and then let it be instead of lording over it. The whole Xenoblade universe is literally made from the thoughts of two individuals from our universe in the future.

It seems a bit out there upon superficial reflection but similar themes have been tackled before in both in philosophy and science fiction so it's not unheard of.
 
[quote name='nnthomas']It's not supposed to make sense, at least, to us... lol

Takahashi does this kind of ethereal / "what is god?" type angle, if you've played Xenogears / Xenosaga. I can understand being thrown off, expecting a resolution, but if you're aware of the writer's prior games, then you're just kinda like "OH YOU~" and just move on.

But the game was awesome even up to the ending, so whatever[/QUOTE]

Wait, is Xenoblade related to Xenosaga? I finished the first Xenosaga but didn't like the 2nd so didn't finish it or the third.
 
[quote name='Motoki']It's not that hard the ending was basically



he remade the universe the way he thought it should be and then let it be instead of lording over it. The whole Xenoblade universe is literally made from the thoughts of two individuals from our universe in the future.



It seems a bit out there upon superficial reflection but similar themes have been tackled before in both in philosophy and science fiction so it's not unheard of.
[/QUOTE]

to build a world around a story and then completely throw everything away in the last 10 mins makes no sense to me. im glad some got enjoyment out of the ending. i just didn't. i felt like i played 80 hours for nothing. givin it was a fun 80 hours.
 
[quote name='gmsick']to build a world around a story and then completely throw everything away in the last 10 mins makes no sense to me. im glad some got enjoyment out of the ending. i just didn't. i felt like i played 80 hours for nothing. givin it was a fun 80 hours.[/QUOTE]

The end result is the same anyway even if you cut out that silly scene. You beat the bad guy, everyone lives happily ever after. JRPG finished.
 
[quote name='gmsick']to build a world around a story and then completely throw everything away in the last 10 mins makes no sense to me. im glad some got enjoyment out of the ending. i just didn't. i felt like i played 80 hours for nothing. givin it was a fun 80 hours.[/QUOTE]

Obviously, it's all an opinion and interpretation with no real right or wrong, but I feel like thematically it worked for me.
They got what wanted in the end. They never really wanted to fight in the first place. Then when they realized they were being subject to the whims of a capricious being, they basically took on god and won. Then Shulk was given the chance to be god, which he used to set things right the way he thought it should be so that everyone could live in peace and then he walked away.

I personally found it very satisfying and I was happy for the characters that they were able to achieve a peaceful, happy life after their long, difficult journey.

I realize the ending was a bit of a deus ex machina, but for all intents and purposes it's really not that much different than if they had just won the last battle, the world stayed as a huge dead titan and Fiora stayed as a mechon.

I do feel like the story is more of a 'it's about the journey and not the destination' story and I'm okay with that.

I also pretty much knew early on that the story
where the 'planet' is a giant living titan amid a void of nothingness
was not going to be a standard, straightforward story, at least in terms of the mythos and the rules of that particular universe.

I totally get that endings that seem to come out of the blue can ruin a story for some people, and that's actually how I feel about the ending to (the new) Battlestar Galactica :p, but in this case I felt like when I went back and thought about everything in Xenoblade even from early on it all seemed planned out and made a certain sense to me.
shrug.gif
 
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