Xenoblade Chronicles, some thoughts about this game.

[crimsonedge]

Too many side quests and distractions from what is actually a decent story. I personally haven't done many of the quests in this game. If I see ! point on the way to and from, I will grab it, and if I have to kill enemies in the way of doing something else, I finish the quest, or if I need to turn in some items I already have, it gets finished, other than that I don't waste my time with these. I am trying to raise up Colony 6, which is the only part of the side quests I am doing. Only because it seems like something more worthwhile than a fetch quest.

I consistently stay over leveled at least 2 levels above, and I don't even stay around and grind, I just kill everything in the way. The only actual hard fights are a special monster you might come across that is 2 or 3 levels above you, other than that everything else gets pretty much bulldozed without even trying. Its a pretty easy game. I don't even use chain attacks, never really had to except to get extra heals in on a +2 special monster or something.

This game doesn't live up to the hype most people are giving it. I think its an average middle of the road RPG to be honest. Its not terrible, but its not that great either. If it wasn't for the story it would be a pretty terrible game. The battle system isn't very good, it screams MMORPG. Between the battle system and how many pointless fetch quests are in this game, it screams MMORPG, the only saving grace it has is the story.

[waldorf2007]

Thanks for the review, I really needed an honest one that didn't scream "Redefines the epitome of RPG" like a broken record!
Just out of curiosity, did you get it for a low price, and if so where? I found a reliable rip but I heard the game was good enough that I should buy it, not burn it onto a verbatim and screw the developer. Good to support it if it's good enough I suppose.

[crimsonedge]

Thanks for the review, I really needed an honest one that didn't scream "Redefines the epitome of RPG" like a broken record!
Just out of curiosity, did you get it for a low price, and if so where? I found a reliable rip but I heard the game was good enough that I should buy it, not burn it onto a verbatim and screw the developer. Good to support it if it's good enough I suppose.

I downloaded it for free from a torrent, and am running it on an emulator. I don't even own a Wii. I would try the game first, if you like it and own a Wii, you should buy it. I can't justify buying a Wii just to play this game if I can play it on an emulator. Considering I don't like or play many Wii games.

If someone likes MMORPGs they will probably like Xenoblade Chronicles a lot. If someone is looking to get 100+ hours out of a game, Xenoblade would probably be it, just don't expect most of the time invested to be a quality gaming experience. Its about a 40 hour game, well over 100+ hours if you want to do all the quests and kill all of the special monsters. But all the extra content isn't that interesting, they presented it WoW style instead of lets say how old school RPGs like Chrono Trigger handled its side content, where most added something to the story, or opened up an extra dungeon or something with lots of goodies and an extra boss fight. For me its about quality not quantity when it comes to the extras.

There were a couple spots in the game where I had to get a few levels, one spot my team was around level 49 and I ran into a level 55 boss fight, I got raped anal with no lube, and had to grind a few levels. 6 level difference is huge in that game. Its not a hard game, you just need to keep your levels within 2-3 levels of the enemies/bosses at least. If you run though the game, you will be under leveled at a few points where mobs spike up in level a bit over the last place.

[scruffy87]

I downloaded a rip after giving up on trying to buy it. I have only played just over 2 hours but if I am honest I haven't had the urge to go back. I'm glad that it sets a platform for some more modern/futuristic RPG's on the Wii. I found the battle system to have little in the way of defending\stratergy apart from run at the enemy, hit them and run away until you recharge your attack. Perhaps I need to get stuck in a bit more to justify the hype, as crimsonedge said the story line is the saving grace. Even if the voice acting made me laugh I liked the whole warring 2 tribes angle.

[crimsonedge]

Strategy opens up later in the game when you get more skills and stuff. But yeah, your basic normal battles are all fought the same way, you run up and start attacking and win. Many of the fights don't even require you to push any buttons, you could simply lay down the controller and the AI will win for you. Just like most MMOs you can run up to something around your level and let auto attack win the fight. But I can't really hate too much on the battle system seeing as how its pretty typical for a modern RPG. I just don't like the auto battle = win strategy. Winning is supposed to require player input, even if its just mashing the X button like in FF7.

[scruffy87]

I thought it might as I only have a few 'arts'. I think the recent RPGs and MMOs have struggled to find the correct balance between real time and atb combat. I guess I would like the user input that you get in older RPG's but as the action becomes more real time the harder it is to have 20 menu's of items and magic.
I know how you mean about FF7 and after replaying 8 I realised that after over levelling on the first dics I beat 90% of the game just holding down attack/mug. I was a little disappointed by the over hype of Xenoblade especially one review praising it's innovating battle system for the wii.
All in all I will go back to complete the story and hopefully get more involved I really wanted it succeed and get a good RPG catalogue on the Wii.

[crimsonedge]

I don't understand how the battle system is really innovative, or how anyone can say that it is. If its similar to something that has been done before, then it cannot be innovative. Innovative is breaking off and doing something that has never been done before. Example Valkyrie Profile. That battle system was innovative. The first of its kind. Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, all innovative. There are quite a few other examples, but Xenoblade Chronicles isn't one of them. The battle system in Xenoblade is too much like WoW, or many other MMOs to be innovative. The only difference is the bells and whistles. A game like Dragon Age isn't innovative either, it plays similar to Xenoblade and WoW, but also ripped off the gambit style AI programming from FFXII.

[Darklinky]

Im only like an hour in and im bored already. And i got this 2 days before release. I just cant seem to go back to it. I have found myself booting up my wii and looking at the title screen and then going back to blue dragon on the 360. I just didnt enjoy the first hour, Maybe it gets better but i cant be bothered with it, I have just downloaded Tales of Vesperia for my 360 hope than ones good.


Should i Give Xenoblade another crack?

[megamanax]

I was really worried this game wasn't going to be as good as I hoped. Then again I didn't really care for FFXII so I should've known I wouldn't like it. The battle system looked pretty identical, although I haven't played even a moment of Xenoblade yet.

[Supreme Warrior]

im currently playing Xenolade, im over 20 something hours and i gotta say, im very impressed, I wasnt excited at all about it until i actually played it, it blows away FF12 in every aspect, im more of a traditional RPG kinda guy but this is a winner.

only con for me is the Translation needed more work and the difficulty of some enemies can be pretty...unforgiving

[megamanax]

im currently playing Xenolade, im over 20 something hours and i gotta say, im very impressed, I wasnt excited at all about it until i actually played it, it blows away FF12 in every aspect, im more of a traditional RPG kinda guy but this is a winner.

only con for me is the Translation needed more work and the difficulty of some enemies can be pretty...unforgiving

I see . Well, I guess I'll be giving it a try eventually after all. Lol

[Supreme Warrior]

I see . Well, I guess I'll be giving it a try eventually after all. Lol

oh yes, it is most awesome, the game is very beautiful too, scenery and environments are amazing, and the OST, man the Music is freakin fantastic, some of the best i heard in a long time.

and the issue about the side quests is no big deal, you can pas sthem up but its best to do what you can because you get Items,money and Experience, all of which are very essential to not getting your as handed to you

[megamanax]

Any idea if this game works via usbloader? I would assume it does, but just wanted to know if anyone could confirm it.

[Darklinky]

Works fine on configusbloader v70 ios249

[megamanax]

Works fine on configusbloader v70 ios249

Thanks! Someone else confirmed this for me too, so I'm pretty convinced. Going to give it a shot soon enough.