Xenoblade Chronicles (Europe) just arrived!

[Nobiyuki77]

My order finally arrived from the UK and I'm SO pumped for this. Will post my review here later when I finish. Thank Althena the Wii was so easy to hack! ^^

*off to play*

[whitedragon_nall]

Me = jealous.

Want this game so bad!!!

[Nobiyuki77]

Just played it for a few hours, and it's really good. Obviously I'm only in the beginning section, but the battle system flows very smoothly and the graphics are really nice.

Since I built a new rig last year I also tried it out on Dolphin. Looks glorious in HD, but I occasionally get sound issues. >>

[Sonic#]

I'll turn my envy waves into fistslaps of awesomeness. Let us know how it goes!

[Nobiyuki77]

Just wanted to let you all know. If you have a Wii, hack it. Buy this game. Seriously, this is the game Final Fantasy XIII SHOULD have been.

[whitedragon_nall]

That amazing, huh? I've heard so many good things about it and I'd love to hack my Wii to play it, but as someone who has never hacked a system before, the thought of it scares the crap out of me

[Nobiyuki77]

Okay, I'm pulling myself away because I'm trying to control my gameplay habits and curb myself to only 2-3 hours on the game so that I don't burn through it in a mere week. So about 10 hours in at the moment.

Let me post a few general impressions. I'll try to not be super detailed and just bullet point because you could simply read the myriad of positive reviews to get bogged with details. I'm going to stick with what it does right and what it does wrong. I'll start with wrong, since that list is shorter.

What it does wrong:
-The character models aren't so hot technically. Early PS2 level.
-With this much loot, inventory management can be a huge pain in the butt. Ditto for equipment management
-Not necessarily wrong, but definitely plays better with the Classic Controller instead of Wiimote + Nunchuck.
-Only really control one character at a time, other characters are AI (decent AI, but still...)

What it does oh so gloriously right:
-Focused story with ability to ignore if you so choose. (so you can do quests and stuff for money or EXP. Or just run around for fun.) Story is RPG cliched at times, but told well, and cinemas don't go on forever like Xenosaga.
-An arrow (usually) will point you in the general direction you need to go in to proceed with the story. Nice to know if you want to pursue (or avoid) the main story at any given time.
-Huge, beautiful world to explore that has an amazing draw-distance and has tons of vistas (Hey Square-Enix, even the Wii can do grass! You've no excuses!)
-Battle system is fast-paced, but strategic (plays like a much faster, offline MMO with streamlined interface).
-When you die, you don't reload your last save. You're instantly transported to the last Landmark you visited, and everything you've collected/achieved remains intact. Everything. All EXP, items, quest accomplishments, money, nothing is lost.
-Additionally to the above, if you die on say, a boss, you don't have to watch the pre-fight cutscene again; you simply start the battle over from the beginning.
-I'd say 80%+ of the time, if you take on quests to say, defeat X number of Y monster, or collect X number of Z item, you don't have to return to the quest giver to complete the quest and claim your reward. Once you defeat the enemies/collect the items, the game stops and a window appears showing you that you've completed the request and gives you your reward. SWEET!
-EXP for things other than fighting battles (like discovering locations or crafting gems. Actually kind of reminded me of Lunar 1 SCD when you got EXP for finishing quests).
-INCREDIBLE Instant-Travel system! Just select the map, pick a Landmark you've previously visited and BAM! You're there. Virtually no load-time, it's insane!
-Save anywhere (just like Lunar! So long as you're not in a story sequence or in battle, obviously)
-All equipment changes the look of your character. Some are palette swaps, lots of others are genuine different looks.
-Great music! Seriously, this is a hot soundtrack. ^_^
-Dual-language (spoken), British English and Japanese

Also, hacking the Wii is super easy and took me all of 10 minutes. I'll post the guide here. Seriously the Wii is the easiest system I've ever hacked.

http://wiisixtyfour.webs.com/WHG/Letterbomb.htm

[brightshield]

I'm actually pretty far in this game. It's definitely the best JRPG of this generation, by far. Dunban is easily the best character to come out of a JRPG in years. Story-wise it's definitely not on par with Xenogears, but it's still very good. The world is probably the best in any game though.

The opening movie is also the coolest I've ever seen in a game. Right up there with Shadow Hearts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyQ7w0hj ... 79B03B70DD

[Nobiyuki77]

So I finished Xenoblade over the weekend. I’m going to avoid story spoilers and gush about the game itself.

Xenoblade takes everything I’ve ever loved about Japanese RPGs, and improves all of them in every meaningful way imaginable. Most (not all) of what comprises Xenoblade’s gameplay, structure etc. isn’t “new” per say; it’s been done before. But it makes it so much better. So for example, save anywhere outside of cutscenes and battle? Awesome, and all RPGs should do this, but it’s not new. Lunar did that ages ago. But we’re ALSO going to put in a checkpoint system where if you die you don’t lose the experience you gained, items you collected, quest accomplishments etc. Warp to any major landmark you’ve previous visited? Awesome, but that’s not new either. Grandia did this as well. However in Grandia you had to exit whatever town/dungeon you were in to the World Map to do this, and it was limited to towns/dungeons. Xenoblade doesn’t care where you are (so long as you’re not mid-story/battle), you can pull up the map and go whatever landmark you want so long as you’ve been there before at least once. Day/Night cycles where things are different and you can only do certain things in one or the other? Dragon Quest lays claim to the “I did that first” prize. But Xenoblade makes this better by letting you change it at any time, anywhere, and expands on this by even letting you decide what time of day it is. Fetch Quests? Well, I don’t always love these, but if done well they can be lots of fun. But make it so that 70-80% of them don’t require me to go back to the quest giver to “complete” the quest, and I’m much happier to oblige. This is how you take already awesome GAMEPLAY features and make them even better, ladies and gentlemen.

Xenoblade not only features one of the most original game worlds I’ve ever experienced in an RPG (Living on a giant creature, journeying up its body on your quest? Wow!), but it’s also beautifully designed and expansive. Any RPG where I can have barrels of fun just running around in it has already won half the battle. The world of Xenoblade accomplishes in all its SD glory something I haven’t felt in any HD JRPG to date; it feels ALIVE. I feel like I’m running through a living, breathing world as I trek through the Gaur Plains or quest through the Makna Forest. This game is stunningly designed and constructed.

The battle system actually feels strategic, and I often found myself changing out party members and putting them in different arrangements depending on the situation. Sometimes I needed to be able to cast lots of magic, and Melia was put in. Other times I found I was dying a lot and needed that party gauge to fill up quicker, enter Riki. In most RPGs (even my favorites, sadly), I usually don’t think about this and just stick to my favorite group. In Xenoblade it’s actually a lot harder to do this all the way through, and it’s much better to adjust to the situation with different people. The affinity system only further incentivizes this idea by giving you yet another reason to mix and match your groups and gain more affinity between members.

Any more and I’d be going into story spoilers, so I won’t do that, but I’ll end with this: Xenoblade has usurped Final Fantasy VI in my mind as the best Japanese RPG I’ve ever played. It’s that good. Thank you, Nintendo of Europe for letting me experience this great game in English. Also:

[brightshield]

I beat it too. It was a great game. I wouldn't put it as high as you, but it's still the best JRPG out on the next gen consoles. Xenogears trumped it badly in story, and I wasn't a huge fan of the battle system in Xenoblade.

[WhiteKnightLeo]

Good stuff. This game looks pretty sick. I will have to order it. I found a nice little snippet on joystiq that gives information on how to hack as well. In-case anyone was having trouble here is the link
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/19/how-t ... n-america/

-WKL-

[Nobiyuki77]

I just had so much fun with this game! There's just so much attention to little details with regards to gameplay that I was floored. I'm going to play it again as soon as I finish Atelier Totori. ^^