This was a bit of a surprise, but it’s par for the course in 2017-2018 gaming. I think the best part is that they’re offering more quests and story in the expansion pass. They’ll be able to promote it for a year which obviously means they won’t have a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 anytime soon.
Shin Megami Tensei 5 will be the big RPG in 2018.
Also, the Direct is amazing. The game looks and sounds incredible. Very excited. The 2 seems well placed. This does not look like an open world in the way X was designed. It seems a lot more like the original game.
I’ll probably skip this and get it closer to when the main content is out a year later, like with Zelda.
Makes sense given it’s a sequel whereas X wasn’t.
Oh and the preload is available already. :)
Good news, if true!
You have the option to change the volume of the voices, sound effects and music.
You can change the volume in cutscenes and battles separately.
That previewer felt the handheld mode looked significantly worse than docked which is a major disappointment if true. I play my switch probably 95% handheld and that was the plan for XC2 as well. He compared it to playing on the Wii U gamepad! This would also be a change from other AAA Switch games such as BoW and MO which have performed as well if not better in handheld mode.
Yes, that viewpoint was also mirrored in the EG preview, which compared it to the 3DS version of the first XC:
It’s a slightly rougher beauty that Xenoblade Chronicles holds, however - whether that’s due to its shorter production cycle or the sheer scale of its world, there are plenty of frayed edges to be found here. Played in handheld mode, where the resolution frequently drops until the world is but a smear, and it’s all a bit reminiscent of when Monster Games tried to squeeze the original Xenoblade Chronicles onto the 3DS. It’s perfectly playable but noticeably compromised - though as these are games that demand to be experienced on the biggest screen possible it’s a problem that can be overcome easily enough.
Yeah I saw that too. I really hope it doesn’t drag the game down too much. As much as I’d love to play this on my big screen if I’m ever going to make any progress it’s going to be un-docked.
Reviews starting to appear ahead of release tomorrow:
Anyone play this yet? I have it pre-downloaded and I have my Switch with me, but I don’t have access to WiFi until later today. I probably won’t be able to play it without authenticating with a server first, I would presume?
I played it for about 30 mins before I went into work and haven’t been able to think about anything since. Way to early to give any sort of rational reaction but I already love it and can tell this is going to suck up my life.
I really liked the first one, and was planning on getting this until I saw the screenshots. Skewing even younger with the characters just set off all kinds of antiJRPG alarm bells for me. So will just wait for all of you to say how awesome it is before I eventually pick it up.
They comment on the age thing within the first 30 minutes in an almost meta way. I would say the characters I’ve seen so far don’t look any younger than in the first game.
I actually have two special editions coming because I didn’t trust Amazon to actually ship me one and the Gamestop order was placed months ago.
If anyone wants the SE, I can sell it to you for cost plus shipping. It was $106 after tax. I should have it by Monday. Otherwise I’ll ebay it.
Yeah, I’m a good few hours in and onto the first ‘proper’ map past the chapter 1 prologue stuff, and I can safely say - it’s a Xenoblade game all right! So awesome…
If you like these games you’ll probably like this too. The English voices seem to clash with the art style at first but they grow on you.
Layers of complexity are still being unlocked as I go, love it. Same dizzying array of systems and stuff as before.
I’d suggest if you’re new you may want to ‘screenshot’ the tutorials as you go, as there’s no in-game facility to view them again once dismissed. Not been a problem for me so far since I’m familiar with the other games and there are a lot of similarities in the way things work.
And there’s this scoundrel:
Have to buy tips on playing the game! I saw some hate for this but I seem to recall something like this was in X too? :)
If it was a pre-load and you didn’t start it yet, then yes it needs to check online to see if the game is released. There was also a patch.
I literally haven’t played a JRPG since the Final Fantasy that was on the original NES! :)
I was able to get a wifi connection and play it just briefly. I’m in the prologue still, just had a quick question on Salvaging. I may have missed the instruction, but when exactly am I supposed to hit “A”? Is it when it’s in the middle ring of the circle, when it’s constricted all the way, or what? I tried all three ways I could think of and every time he muttered about getting a bunch of crap, so I don’t know if I was just missing something or not. It seemed like when I hit it in the middle ring, it glowed like that was the correct spot.
Anyway, I was playing out where there was a lot of sunshine, so the glare was pretty bad. If I missed obvious prompts, that may be why. :)
Probably want to screenshot those tutorials then, as the game steadily builds in complexity as you go.
I haven’t got that salvaging timing down yet, and not pulled one off properly! You’ll always get something as long as you don’t royally screw it up.
I’ve only tried maybe one or two since that prologue bit - but I’ve just now come to some quests that require salvaging, so I’m about to get better at it…
Thankfully the similar prompt to boost supers in battle is simpler; there’s a ‘zone’ surrounding the central button that you need to hit.
Thanks for sharing the impressions, Profanicus. The only “Xeno” game I’ve played was Xenogears nearly 20 years ago (gross - I’m getting old!), but as I understand it, both Chronicles and X are pretty big departures from that game. I’ve heard the tutorials are a little lacking in 2, do you think that’s the case, or would it be fine to jump into the sequel even if you’re new to the series?
While most reviews seem to be really positive, Kotaku’s J-RPG fanatic Jason Schreier hated it.
Schreier wasn’t much of a fan of the first game either…
I didn’t love the first Xenoblade Chronicles, a 2010 Wii game from veteran director Tetsuya Takahashi and his team at Monolith Soft. I hated the boring do-gooder Shulk and his dull screeching about the power of the Monado, and the world’s impressive scale didn’t make up for its rote combat system. I skipped 2015’s Xenoblade Chronicles X but have been looking forward to Xenoblade 2 for a while, in hopes that the man behind Xenogears, one of my favorite games of all time, might have returned to form. It brings me no joy to report that he has not.
Ah, paraphrasing here, but I also remember Tom said that Chronicles was for people who don’t like J-RPGs, so that could help explain why Jason wasn’t into it. The world looks really cool!
No, the tutorials seem fine to me, the game starts simple and they dole new bits out regularly as you go. Everything’s explained. The problem is there’s no way to see that info again, so as I said - use the Switch screenshot feature to get around that.
I think you’re fine to jump in with this one. But we’ll see what @KevinC thinks, since he’s new to the games. Or the genre, really. And I’m biased in favour of the series. :)