X

[Demi-fiend]

Before we get into X from Monolith Soft, I'd just like to make an announcement:

I'm supporting Nintendo again. Mostly. That youtube thing still aggravates me to no end.

Here is Nintendo's policy on used games:

"The best possible countermeasure against people buying used product is making the kind of product that people never want to sell."

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/18/nintendos-used-game-policy-make-games-people-wont-sell

Truer words have never been spoken Iwata-san. In a better world, all game companies would have this philosophy.

I especially like the finishing blow towards other gaming companies with this particular line:

"Unfortunately, however, as I saw the reports dispatched from E3 this year, they’re pretty much occupied by talk about which machine is more friendly to used games, or which machine is $100 cheaper than the other. I’m sorry that we’re missing the most important discussion – about video games."

All right. Now let's talk about X.

No, not that X.

Not that X, either.

That's better.


I'm just going to let these images speak for themselves:

Needless to say, I'm really hyped for this game.

In a gaming environment increasingly saturated with apocalyptic scenarios and military shooters, this comes off as not so much as a breath of fresh air as it does an entire blizzard.

A jrpg with live-action combat, an expansive sci-fi world, and flying mechs that transform (ha-ha) into off-road vehicles...

Nope, don't see a reason to ever go outside again.

 

[Shin Muramasa]

Here's gameplay for anyone interested.

 

[xMobilemux]

OK OK that's it, that's F**KING IT!!!! I'm getting a f**king WiiU!!

 

[Shin Muramasa]

OK OK that's it, that's F**KING IT!!!! I'm getting a f**king WiiU!!

Remember, there's also old Nintendo franchise you can have with the Wii U and the Wii since the Wii U plays Wii games as well. So, Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Zelda, Metroid, Super Smash Bros., Fire Emblem, Kirby, etc.. Nintendo also announced that GBA and DS games will be available to the Wii U's Virtual Console soon and you'll be able to pick up Metroid Fusion, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and more. Older games like Mother/Earthbound are gems from the past when people relied on magazine reviews and not peer-to-peer reviews and journalist reviews. There's probably some indie titles on the Wii U, but I'm not sure. For Wii games, try Muramasa: The Demon Blade if you don't have a PS Vita, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn if you can find one for a reasonable price - it's one hell of a challenging strategy game especially on higher difficulties -, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, and Xenoblade Chronicles - hopefully not paying Gamestop's and other seller's "premium" price -, the game before "X". There's also Sonic Colors, Sin & Punishment, Monster Hunter, and some, I guess, underrated Final Fantasy spin-offs.

Nintendo has games, it's just a matter of having as much as possible on a system. The other issues are third-party support, multiplayer, and the system itself being weaker than the PS4 and Xbox One.

 

[xMobilemux]

There were a lot of Wii titles I missed out on and I'd like to try them out as I like that the WiiU has backwards compatibility.
I was never interested in Mario, Donkey Kong, Super Smash Bros and games like that, even Legend of Zelda, but that was because I was never interested in the N64 nor the Gamecube, I was always a PC and Playstation gamer growing up.
I wanted to try Metroid on an emulator but could never get it to work.
Other games that have me sold on the WiiU are of course my system seller Bayonetta 2 as well as Wonderful 101, Sonic Boom and Hyrule Warriors.

As for X, the mechs and massive world sold me straight away, the only thing that has me thinking twice is that I don't know a lot about its gameplay, the one thing I don't want it to be is the turn based battle system like Final Fantasy, don't like that kind of gameplay at all and I'll likely give up on the game if that's the case.

 

[Bazilican]

Ok, that looks rad as ****! I so gotta get me a WiiU now!

 

[xMobilemux]

Love this!

 

[Demi-fiend]

http://mp3truck.net/download/Z3liX1...-trailer-song-theme-extended-xenoblade-2.html

 

[Shin Muramasa]

There were a lot of Wii titles I missed out on and I'd like to try them out as I like that the WiiU has backwards compatibility.
I was never interested in Mario, Donkey Kong, Super Smash Bros and games like that, even Legend of Zelda, but that was because I was never interested in the N64 nor the Gamecube, I was always a PC and Playstation gamer growing up.
I wanted to try Metroid on an emulator but could never get it to work.
Other games that have me sold on the WiiU are of course my system seller Bayonetta 2 as well as Wonderful 101, Sonic Boom and Hyrule Warriors.

As for X, the mechs and massive world sold me straight away, the only thing that has me thinking twice is that I don't know a lot about its gameplay, the one thing I don't want it to be is the turn based battle system like Final Fantasy, don't like that kind of gameplay at all and I'll likely give up on the game if that's the case.

Xenoblade Chronicles combat. I just picked a video; I know little about the game's combat and have some knowledge on the lore and such. This was Monolith Soft's most-recent game released. There's also Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga and Xenogear from them too.

"X" and Xenoblade Chronicles seems to share a combat system. It's real-time turn-based combat sort of like Final Fantasy XIV's - more so A Realm Reborn since that has an improved combat system -, Guild Wars 1 & 2, White Knight Chronicles 1 & 2, and Ni no Kuni. Speaking of Ni no Kuni, that's a game people should try and compared to Xenoblade Chronicles, there's a ton of them out there. Damn Nintendo and Gamestop for limiting Xenoblade Chronicles so much.

Other RPGs comparison; TL;DR version, different combat systems compared to other games. Like I said, the unfortunate thing is that Xenoblade Chronicles is a "premium, collector's, special, limited, exclusive, BS-thing" that's under Gamestop and greedy people who want to profit off of "rare" games. So it'll be difficult to get an early impression on the gameplay unless a demo of "X" is released.

Spoiler

Anyway, it's not like Final Fantasy X's, XII's, XIII's, and XV's; Dark Cloud 1's & 2's, and the Tales of series' combat system. For one, FFX represents the "traditional" turn-based combat system found in tons of old, old-school, and some recent RPGs, both WRPG and JRPG. FFX basically functions like chess but with the ability to know who goes when and through memorization, what someone may do. FFXII's the typical and older MMO combat where you walk up to monsters and characters auto-attack, but through player input and the gambit system, the characters can do more than just attack; they can be set to heal, use items, skills, etc.. FFXIII's and XIII-2's combat is less, "heavy" strategy, and more I, guess, pattern-based and rhythm-based combat. It still follows a turn-based system in real-time, but in many cases, the Paradigm Shift mechanic is used almost rhythmically on tougher enemies while battles can and will be simple on easier enemies, especially in XIII-2. FFXV's combat is said to be like Kingdom Heart's, so it's going to be an action-RPG similar to The Witcher and Mass Effect. Final Fantasy does have different combat systems that tend to anger fans who prefer one system to another along with most of the systems being "experimental". That's one thing Square Enix tends to do well, but usually backfires on them.

Dark Cloud's combat is a primitive version of Demon's & Dark Souls, Kingdom Hearts, and more. Basically, you whack at enemies until they die, use ranged attacks to stay safe, and strafe around. Also, in the first game, you had to manage thirst... It's a simple combat system and most of the RPG elements are focused on restoring the world and weapon evolutions.

Tales games are much more action-orientated than FFXIII(-2), Dark Cloud, Xenoblade Chronicles, but less than Kingdom Hearts and other action-RPG games. Combat involves the player managing attacks, skills, spells, etc. without the use of the Menu bar-thing that RPGs uses to select from "Attack", "Magic", and "Items". I never played one, so what I said may be wrong; I have, seen them in action, though.

"What the Hell, Nintendo?" rant:

Spoiler

First off, if a game didn't sell well and is rare, that's the developer's fault for making a poor game. Now, if it's rare because the publisher, retailer, etc. holds them back despite popularity, than that's complete and utter BS on them. Really? Tons of people want to play this game and tons of people became aware and interested in it after others said it was a damn, good game, but you turn a blind eye and let others take money away from you. Idiots. Hundreds of thousands want the game, but you only let about a hundred thousand on the market through one seller and let them limit that inventory to about half so they can sell at a premium and call it "pre-owned" and take all your profits. Freaking idiots.

Y'know what's even funnier? Nintendo does this to their own first-party developed games. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is no where to be found except at Toys R Us, online retailers, and used game stores. A popular, critically-acclaimed game by their own hands is left "in demand". Wow, just wow. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and Awakening; probably Path of Radiance, Kid Icarus: Uprising - I think, recently it popped up in stores a lot -, SMG2, some Kirby games, and hell, I think New Super Mario Wii suffered from this. Are you trying to go out of business, Nintendo?! Y'know what, Nintendo. Announce a game, finish developing it, and on release day: no copies. No digital copies, no physical copies, and don't even bother releasing it "late" or saying it's delayed because it will never be released despite sinking in millions of dollars into it. And when people ask: "Where's the game?" Just calmly say: "It was released to the public." So all those pre-orders will go back to customers, reviewers will have "N/A" for a score, the release date would change to "unknown" or "WTF?", and Nintendo will sit and smile while people's heads implode, yes, so disturbingly "what the hell" that instead of exploding, people's heads are imploding.

 

[xMobilemux]

Ok comparing to other RPGs doesn't help much since the only RPGs I've ever played range from Borderlands to WoW to Mass Effect, now that I think about it, those are the closest things to RPGs I've ever played, I did manage to get The Witcher 2 in the steam sale and I'm downloading that now and then there's the upcoming Duke Nukem ARPG I'm gonna try, I'm not a big RPG fan, never was as the gameplay never appealed to me.

The reason why I'm so interested in X is because of the massive good looking world and mechs, I'm not expecting much from the story, but the gameplay is something that has to be good in order to keep me playing the game, Turn based gameplay is just unsatisfying as I'm watching the attacks, not doing them.

I've seen the gameplay videos and X's gameplay seems to be that the characters just keep attacking automatically and I just move him around during the battle throwing around special attacks or something.

 

[Shin Muramasa]

Ok comparing to other RPGs doesn't help much since the only RPGs I've ever played range from Borderlands to WoW to Mass Effect, now that I think about it, those are the closest things to RPGs I've ever played, I did manage to get The Witcher 2 in the steam sale and I'm downloading that now and then there's the upcoming Duke Nukem ARPG I'm gonna try, I'm not a big RPG fan, never was as the gameplay never appealed to me.

The reason why I'm so interested in X is because of the massive good looking world and mechs, I'm not expecting much from the story, but the gameplay is something that has to be good in order to keep me playing the game, Turn based gameplay is just unsatisfying as I'm watching the attacks, not doing them.

I've seen the gameplay videos and X's gameplay seems to be that the characters just keep attacking automatically and I just move him around during the battle throwing around special attacks or something.

Apparently, Xenoblade Chronicles's and X's combat is more complex than that, especially later on. That said, my only reference about this is from a Let's Player called Chuggaaconroy who also happens to be obsessed with the game and calls Xenoblade Chronicles the best game ever on the Wii. I'd say the Metroid Prime games, Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, or The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as the best, but I never played Xenoblade Chronicles because of how rare it is.

Anyway, if you have a PS3 and like Studio Ghibli films, try Ni no Kuni, it's like 20 bucks for a beautiful RPG with some cutscenes by Studio Ghibli. Final Fantasy X/X-2 comes out on March, so there's that. Steam, well, try Final Fantasy VII and/or VIII. Anyway, think of turn-based combat as chess more than say, tennis, like other action-orientated games.

Also, Borderlands has RPG elements in form of an action skill, "classes", and a Diablo-styled loot system. Speaking od Diablo, try that or try Path of Exile which is inspired by it. Mass Effect 1 was much more RPG-heavy than 2 and 3 which were more action-RPG or third-person shooter. WoW's your traditional, old MMORPG which needs to die in my opinion so MMOs can be more innovative. The Witcher 1 looks like Diablo in a sense where you move and click on enemies. The second one is more like Demon's and Dark Souls where it's more action-RPG than RPG.

I was never interested in shooters until Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metroid Prime came along into my library. Before that, it was just action-adventure and platformers. Same with hack n' slash until DMC3 came along; I don't count Dynasty Warriors. Same with fighters until I saw Super Smash Bros and played it. Same with RPGs until I could play without being confused and annoyed; Final Fantasy XIII created the interest even though I played FFX and FFXII. Strategy games through Fire Emblem and Civilization V might create an interest in RTS games if I get a PC capable of running it. Horror games are a never for personal reason and racing games are still left at the "eh" part while MOBAs would be Smite if I had a PC... Anyway, with Steam sales and such, try as many RPGs and other games as you can. The least that could happen is that you can understand and appreciate RPGs despite not liking to play them.