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Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii

The Sarge

By The Sarge
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mdn2

mdn2

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The voice acting feels slightly out of place, but I've heard much, much worse - some of the disconnect is from hearing an array of English accents in a JRPG. At least give it a little time to get to know the characters before you switch. I was tempted in the opening couple of hours, but after a while I grew to like their voices.

And it's only really in cutscenes that it looks rough. Shulk in particular, for some reason, has a face like a painted egg. some areas look great - when you get into a wide open space and can see a vast plain stretching out in front of you, it's actually rather pretty.

I've put another hour or so in. The voice acting has been changed to Japanese because I found it so bad in English it was quite distracting.

I'm in the first 'town' now. I've been mulling around, doing a couple of side quests and attacking random innocent animals at the outskirts of town. I didn't realise the game was quite so time sensitive. Characters seem to appear at certain times of day.

And I love the fact that if you fall in battle you're taken to the nearest landmark to try again, not the last save like so many RPG's. I've got this personal vendetta against this pair of random animals who keep killing me. When I die, the game puts me right back next to them and so I try again. And again. I should probably wait until there's more than just me in my party but if I leave them be, it'll be like they won. Bastards. :ph34r:

Overall: Very Good out of ten, so far.

EDIT: Quick question for Rudderless. If I decide to move on with the story, can I still come back later and finish some sidequests?

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Rikku

Rikku

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Well our games arrived this morning, immediately whipped it out the box and popped it in. Manual is quite thin, but pleasingly all colour. :wub:

I don't find the voice acting grating at all during the cutscenes, it's not the best I've ever heard nor the worst. My only criticism would be there are far too many comments from the characters in combat. I know you can encourage your party by pressing b when it pops up, but Fiora constantly banging on about how she can do it, and how strong the party are getting, and how they should fight together like this ALL the time, sometimes she doesn't finish one comment before starting another so I'm not sure if they are triggered by certain moves / points in combat. It's just a bit too much. I might have a look in the options and see if there is an off option for it.

Plenty to do and explore so far, massive thrills when you take on a named enemy and you get annihilated and then come back in a level or so to take them down and you are rewarded with phat lewts. I like that I can go through a cave and not just whizz through it, something in there is ready to smoosh my face in good and proper and it makes for a more cautious playstyle.

Anyway, initial impressions from playing the first few hours are really good. Can't wait to see how the story unfolds. If I can actually stop messing around trying to get as many affinity connection lines as possible I might actually see some of it!

Kayin - I hope you find your Wii. :(

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Rikku

Rikku

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EDIT: Quick question for Rudderless. If I decide to move on with the story, can I still come back later and finish some sidequests?

I meant to reply to this earlier. According to the ingame tutorial help page, a stopwatch appears next to quests that you won't be able to go back and complete if you continue with the story. It advises that if a stopwatch appears next to a quest you should finish it as quickly as possible. :)

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revlob

revlob

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I meant to reply to this earlier. According to the ingame tutorial help page, a stopwatch appears next to quests that you won't be able to go back and complete if you continue with the story. It advises that if a stopwatch appears next to a quest you should finish it as quickly as possible. :)

Amazing, I would never have expected something so ingenious from a JRPG, a genre renown for requiring strategy guides or omniscience if you ever wanted to 100% them.

No ShopTo delivery yet :( I'm going out in a bit and it's coming by recorded delivery, it's going to arrive when I'm out, I know it.

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SteveH

SteveH

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How does this play with just a wii-mote and nunchuck then? Does it at all?

I have been playing for the last hour or so using that control method and it is perfectly fine if you aren't one for wanting to swish the camera around as you explore (it requires you to hold the c button and then use he d-pad to manipulate the camera.)

Can't wait for my order to arrive though and try the classic controller, as I just think it will suit this type of game better. But I don't think it would be the end of the world if I was stuck using the wiimote.

I take back what I said about it looking rough as well. I mean it kind of does (bit nowhere as much as I initially thought), but I'm sure the sense of scale would be lost playing on a small screen. I've quickly got used to it now. I love the FFXI vibe I'm getting off it as well :)

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Kayin Amoh

Kayin Amoh

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Kayin - I hope you find your Wii. :(

Heh, thanks! Took an hour of searching, but I found it mysteriously hidden away in the back of a cupboard under a pile of DVDs. I never put it there, so it would have been nice to be told when it was shifted. :/

Played a quick half hour of this, but I'm pretty tired so I'll leave getting started proper till tomorrow. Looks interesting so far, the intro was neat and the battle system's looking good as well. I do sort of wish it was a multi release though - Wii games always look really fuzzy on my TV, which doesn't handle non-HD signals too well.

Again though, it's looking good from what little I've seen of it. And there's Japanese dialogue! That went straight on, even though I hear the dub's okay.

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Rikku

Rikku

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Awesome that you found it. :)

I have a problem in that I killed a named mob earlier and now I've been given a quest for it and it hasn't respawned. :( Stupid me and my eagerness for loots.

Edit - Never mind, I ran out of the area a different way and entered again and there he was. :) Quest complete!

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mdn2

mdn2

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This is brilliant. I've put about 4 hours in today and I already love it. The story is interesting, the combat is great, the characters aren't your average JRPG stereotype and the gameworld and music are lovely. I've just reached the part where

the city has been attacked by the Mechon.

Most of my time I've spent twatting bugs and getting my arse handed to me by their big brothers. Because the game throws you pretty much where you left off when you lose a battle, the 'one more go' response kicks in and you try - and fail - again. I'm also trying to complete my Collectopaedia for each area.

It's a shame they didn't go with the reverse artwork for the boxart. It's lovely.

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SteveH

SteveH

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One other nice touch is the chests monsters drop. I had tackled one mob and it had dropped a chest, but decided to quickly kill the one next to it - and died. Got back to where I was, and there was the chest still sitting there waiting for me. It really is very nicely polished indeed.

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boybrown

boybrown

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I'll add to the praise. Only played a quick hour last night but all seems very slick. I thought the voices would

grate on me (from the videos i viewed) but they're not as bad as expected.

Lovely tutorials, combat seems intuitive and easy, long may it continue :)

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Vimster

Vimster

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I see FFXII mentioned quite a bit in reviews and comments elsewhere re the combat. This can only be a good thing. Can you pause the action and issue commands or at least issue commands to your party as they fight?

Can't wait for my time off now!

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Jolly

Jolly

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RLLMUK strikes again!

I could put the extra money into our savings for a deposit for a house. Or I could put it into our daughters trust fund. Or I could spend it on a massive JRPG while my pile o'shame gets ever higher.

Nice work thread. I hope you're satisfied.

;)

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Stoikovich

Stoikovich

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RLLMUK strikes again!

I could put the extra money into our savings for a deposit for a house. Or I could put it into our daughters trust fund. Or I could spend it on a massive JRPG while my pile o'shame gets ever higher.

Nice work thread. I hope you're satisfied.

;)

Yesss!

We should form a club or support group or something. My pile of shame was looking manageable, then I remembered a bunch of XLBA and PSN stuff..

Shit's gotten VIRTUAL :wacko:

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SteveH

SteveH

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Edge review is out: http://www.next-gen.biz/reviews/xenoblade-chronicles-review - 9 for those too lazy to click :)

Great to see this getting such good reviews. I hope it translates into decent sales.

One other thing I'm loving which I don't think has been mentioned much - save anywhere! So nice to have a meaty jrpg that you can dive in and out of no matter how much time you have.

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Corleth the Fey

Corleth the Fey

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where do the saves take you back to? is it effectively like a real save and your back where you were, or is it back to the last landmark ala zelda.

Where you saved. :)

You can very quickly reload straight from the menu as well. This game pretty much irons out nearly all of those niggling tropes of yore.

Most impressive game I've played so far this year. Easily.

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Kayin Amoh

Kayin Amoh

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Back where you were, Dave. I saved outside the first town and restarted from the exact same spot.

By the way, I've been told to go and sell stuff - only some RPGs are quite cheerful at telling you to sell what you have and then revealing that you need some of the items you just sold. This makes me nervous about actually selling anything. :/

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Corleth the Fey

Corleth the Fey

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Back where you were, Dave. I saved outside the first town and restarted from the exact same spot.

By the way, I've been told to go and sell stuff - only some RPGs are quite cheerful at telling you to sell what you have and then revealing that you need some of the items you just sold. This makes me nervous about actually selling anything. :/

There is some quests that require items. It's normally easy enough to go searching for more if you did sell them. Selling the weapons and armour that you no longer need shouldn't be a problem.

I found anyway if you do enough quests and exploring - you'll have plenty of cash - you sell stuff to make space more than anything.

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Joyrex-J9

Joyrex-J9

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Is this really good then? I mean like actually good?

I got burnt badly with Lost Odyssey, forcing my way through 60 odd hours, only to give up on it. So kinda vowed "JRPGs - never again" but this sounds like it might be fun, and not punishingly difficult & obtuse

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