Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Andy

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Sep 11, 2013
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Looks like another good game for the Switch. Averaging 84 at Metacritic.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/xenoblade-chronicles-2?ref=hp

XenobladeChronicles2_Thumb.jpg


Sample of reviews:

IGN (85):

"Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a standout RPG that manages to keep its story, combat, and exploration interesting over the course of at least 70 hours of adventure through an impressively varied and rich world. Getting from place to place can be confusing, but outside of that and a multi-hour progression roadblock near the end this is an excellent game full of tough, memorable battles and a positive message."

RPG Fan (90):

"The combination of engrossing story, fabulous music, expansive world, and complex yet rewarding battle system make XC2 one hell of a grand adventure."

Game Informer (75):

"Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a sprawling RPG with numerous interconnected pieces, so no part of the experience is isolated. It takes about 100 hours to finish, and not all of that time feels well spent, with bloated quests and repetitive combat. On the other hand, the vast world and intricate upgrades are a joy to dive into. Everything evens out in the end, but the wild swings between its highs and lows make it impossible for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to maintain altitude above its peers."

Nintendo Life (90):

"Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Switch won't disappoint series fans, especially those that love the Wii original (or even experienced it on New 3DS). It's a new cast and world, with some fresh mechanics and ideas, but much is still familiar. The story has high points, the world and its varied Titan lands is intriguing, and it draws you in for many dozens of hours. It's Monolith Soft doing what it does best, albeit without shaking off the occasional flaws of the series. It's ultimately an important part of an incredible launch year for the Switch - a reminder that while system concepts change some things are constant. This is another Xenoblade gem, and a must-have for the most dedicated of adventurers."
 
I've got a copy. I just haven't opened it yet. Glad to hear its at least a halfway decent timewaster.
 
Would like to get into it but it's just too big of a game right now. My backlog is huge so I will keep this for 2018.
 
Started playing last week. Its not a bad game but its not a great game either. Somewhere alone the line of a 7-8 / 10 game. Its a very grindy game So if that's not your thing you might need to stay away.

Now to the Voice over work. The English voices are not bad. They don't quite sync up with the characters lip movements so that's a bit jarring. The big surprise for me was the actual English voices. It seems like Nintendo of Europe was in charge of localization and it shows. Nearly every character speaks with some sort of European accent. So far I've hear alot of Scottish, Irish, Cockney and RP English. Again not a bad thing, just wasn't expecting it.
 
Started playing last week. Its not a bad game but its not a great game either. Somewhere alone the line of a 7-8 / 10 game. Its a very grindy game So if that's not your thing you might need to stay away.

Now to the Voice over work. The English voices are not bad. They don't quite sync up with the characters lip movements so that's a bit jarring. The big surprise for me was the actual English voices. It seems like Nintendo of Europe was in charge of localization and it shows. Nearly every character speaks with some sort of European accent. So far I've hear alot of Scottish, Irish, Cockney and RP English. Again not a bad thing, just wasn't expecting it.
How’s the battle system? Everything I’ve seen suggests it’s needlessly complicated.
 
How’s the battle system? Everything I’ve seen suggests it’s needlessly complicated.

If you've ever played a Xenoblade game, its combat is similar to Chronicles 1 and X. So yes its needlessly complicated. They have this weird combat system that's tries to blend rpg traditional elements with action rpg elements and it just comes off tedious. Though in their defense, after the first few hours you'll have it down to a science.
Frankly they should have gone with Star Ocean's combat system if they were trying to blend genres but whatever.
 
By the time i get a Switch it'll have plenty of games to play. Shooting for February or March. Xenoblade Chronicles is a good RPG. Looks like this one is even better than the first.
 
Ok I'm now 70% of the way through the game chapter wise (@53 hours) and I can give a few of you some impressions.

1. Music is on point. Whoever did the soundtrack nailed the epic scope of it. Very well done imo.

2. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, the combat system is needlessly complicated and tedious. Also the game does give you a tutorial about how combat works, 1 time. I hope you take notes because after tutorials end there is no way to reference what you just learned for the future. In my case, after a while you'll want to skip fighting altogether........

3. But you can't because the game is INCREDIBLY GRINDY.( A xenoseries stable) You have to grind out levels to be able to finish this game. I can't recall a game in recent memory that wasn't an MMO that I had to grind this much. I know grind is a stable of JRPGs but this seems a bit much.You can choose to do it early in the game or later but sometime down the line you will fight mobs of enemies just to raise your level and your blades level. The game itself tells you early on that the best way to raise your levels are side missions, which is true, but most if not all involve combat. Plus some side missions cannot be done if you Blade does not have the requisite skills, Skills you get through meeting certain criteria within the game ( Cook x number of times, defeat this enemy talk to this many people, etc)

4. Didn't mention earlier, you fight using 3 main characters and their Blades. Blades are support characters that aid you in fighting. Blades determine what type of weapon you use and its element. For example, my primary Blade, Pyra, imbues my character with a sword and her element is fire. You can switch you Blades out on the fly. You get story blades ( ones that progress the story) as you play. There are many other blades you can acquire by playing. You might receive a core crystal while playing. You'll bond the crystal with you character and get a new blade. Downside, the blade you get from bonding is completely random ( the game will automatically save before bonding) and bonded to that specific character not any of your companions. So you end up rolling the dice with the crystals. Though there is a chance you'll get a rare blade, that is a super strong unique blade. The rare blades were designed by many different artists within the Japanese rpg development scene so you'll see a good few different designs.

5. Story wise, the game was going ok through the first few chapters. I can't stand the central protagonist but they may have something to do with me getting older and not caring for the bright eyed naive believe in yourself teenager saving the world. Also later on especially past a certain chapter the game relies FAR to much on Deus ex machina. And I've already encountered some plot holes in the story that I hope are wrapped up in the end.

6. The minigames suck. You're going to have to do them to upgrade a certain character and make money. Just get through it.

7. Play the game docked. The resolution and frame rate take a massive hit in portable mode. Like 480p 30 fps at best.

8. The mini map is an afterthought. Don't use it. Its not as helpful as it should be.

Sorry I have more negatives that positives but this is what I've encountered so far. I'm going to finish it cause I've put in alot of time but as it stands, I can't see how any professional reviewer could give this game anything higher than a 7 or 8 out of 10.
 
Bought this at launch, still haven't played it enough to make it past the tutorial area.

Too many damn games!
 
Finally finished this beast of a game.(79 hours 59 minutes)

Final impressions/mini review, will tag spoilers:

  1. Again the music has to be one of the better aspects of this game. It's well done.
  2. The game will punish you in the later chapters for not doing side quests, not finding blades and not leveling up your blades and main characters.
  3. There is no content after the final boss. Once you beat it and watch the cut scenes, your save will reload you back to the last save point prior to the final boss.
  4. Speaking of the final boss, GOTDAMN it was a frustrating ass fight. I was slightly under leveled for it and the game let me have it as a result. Took me 2 nights to beat the damn thing. Its has 2 phases and while the 1st phase is a standard fight the 2nd is anything but. It summons multiple non push over allies to help it when weak. Has 2 one hit kill moves, one of with you can't dodge and ends the fight immediately. When you get its health down to less than a quarter, it starts the one hit kill chant while summoning allies. If your party dies while fighting, the game returns you to the title screen of the game. So needless to say when I finally beat that f***er, the joy I felt was unimaginable.
  5. Narrative wise, I feel like XC1 was the stronger story. XCX,I flat out enjoyed more.
  6. Speaking of narrative, XC2 connects to XC1. You'll start to see the connection in Chapter 7 but really see it and have it explained in the final chapter. The connection, won't make a whole lot of sense if you never played and finished XC1.
  7. After watching the ending, it feels like the journey was more important than the destination. What I mean is, I didn't feel like I got so big narrative payoff. Just a sense of accomplishment for finishing this titan of a game.
  8. The dialogue is hit or miss. There were some scenes that were really well done that made me laugh or made me angry for the character. Other times there were scenes that flat out were dumb or nonsensical. There are alot of anime troupes in the game. If that's not your thing just be aware, it doesn't go away.
  9. Money is surprisingly easy to make later on in the game by way of exploiting the salvaging system. Just be prepared to grind for it. I ended the game with 1.5 million gold.
Overall now having finished the game, I think if I had to give it a score it would be somewhere between 7.5 and 8 /10. Not a bad game and I am glad I got to experience it. But, I in no way want to do a second play through of this.
 
Sounds pretty awful. 7.5 is probably generous, based on your description (tedious combat, very grindey, annoying hero, boring sidequests, etc.).

What did you like about the game? Besides the music, I mean? What kept you going for 80 hours?

Thanks for letting us know how it plays. I thought maybe I'd like it, but your description makes me run in the other direction.
 
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Being a narrative guy, I like games with stories. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 main story isn't bad at all. If/when it gets its hooks in you, you kinda want to see where it goes and what it leads to. I think that is what kept me going for 80 hours. Every chapter answered questions but then lead to new ones. The main antagonists motivations are surprisingly understandable once the game starts getting into their character development. Plus I'm a Xenoblade and JRPG fan in general so I was in it for the long haul unless nothing clicked ( i.e see FF15)

Where I think the game fails is trying to do too many things at once while not doing one singular thing well. It tries to tell a story as good as Xenoblade Chronicles 1 while trying to emulate Xenoblade Chronicles X level of vast exploration. Then it tries to take the best of the combat from XC1 and XCX and mesh it into something new but still tedious. It also tried to shoe horn some pokemon/monster hunter features with the whole BLADES thing. I can't fault it for trying to be ambitious but you can't just slap a bunch of features in without proper implementation.

The tedious combat and the grind were the real low parts for me but not enough to turn me away. There still isn't another series quite like the Xeno series. The reason I might be so critical with it is; 1. I know how good Xenoblade games can be and might be grading on a curve based on previous outings, 2. I played ALOT of really good JRPGs in 2017 that quite frankly put this to shame. Persona 5, Tales of Berseria and The legend of Heroes: Tales of Cold Steel were superior in my mind.

So with all that said, would I recommend this game? As it is, no UNLESS you are a Xenoblade fan. Or really starving for a jrpg on the Switch or in general. But I can assure you there are better games coming and available already.
 
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I have scratched a bit on this game - I must say, great write up, wshowers.
 
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280K physical in US for Dec. With digital, very likely that's over 300K. Good debut, especially on a small install base. Benji (sales insider, Resetera) says it's headed for 1 million WW (not there yet), which is very good for this sort of game, and it will likely be the best-selling game in the franchise.
 
280K physical in US for Dec. With digital, very likely that's over 300K. Good debut, especially on a small install base. Benji (sales insider, Resetera) says it's headed for 1 million WW (not there yet), which is very good for this sort of game, and it will likely be the best-selling game in the franchise.

If true then its easily the fastest selling game in the series.
 
Playing through it more now. The map is just bad. I can’t stand it. The game is getting more engaging though.
 
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has sold 1.06 million (world wide).
 
I know millions sellers are more common now but that's still impressive to me.
 
Any notable progress or impression?
I am about 20 hours in, in the thick of Chapter 3.

Some of my thoughts:

Battle system is engaging but way too complicated to show tutorials only once. Once you get it, though, it’s a lot of fun. I still need to figure out Chain Attacks!

I can’t stand the map. When you have two quests active and they lay the markers on top of each other - that’s some seriously awful design. The quick travel is alright but it’s nested in so many layers.

Upgrading Poppi through the Tiger mini game is bizarre and not fun at all, lol.

But the story is getting engaging. It’s really anime and sometimes it throws me off but it’s got a good core.

The game looks terrible too.

It’s about as solid as a 7.0 - 7.5 can get for me. I like it but it’s really not without some problems. It needed a few more months in the oven.
 
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Eric Final thoughts?
It is probably in the 80s for me overall.
The battle system was fun overall, addicting at times, even, once you figure out how everything works.
The map is horrendous and I just can't believe it was approved for a modern game. Stacking multiple quests on-to each other and making them sometimes impossible to see is insane.
Limited to upgrading Poppi was bizarre as well.
The game also looks rough and runs poorly, I think.

Still, the game was engaging and enjoyable overall. I found myself more inclined to keep going than I did with the original or X.
 
I understand. The map itself is infuriating and I agree should have been implemented better. The Poppi upgrades was padding in my opinion. Too bad as she was one of the better characters battle wise. And for a 1st party game by Nintendo, it sure seemed like it lacked that typical Nintendo polish. But a 70 or 80 /100 seems fair for this game. Not a masterpiece like Breath of the wild but not totally junk. The definition of an AA game if I ever seen one.