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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - New Xenoblade Chronicles X Music, Gameplay, Images <3

JayWood2010 said:
So i have to ask....Is the first Xenoblade's story really good? The New 3DS tempts me to want to play it but havent decided yet. If the story is really good i might

Its story is above average (it keeps up with its spirtual predecessors in all but scope.) I'd compare it to a good anime series  in terms of story. One that doesn't have bad implementation of cliches, while still having them exist. Furthermore, there is a lot of symbolism and depth to the story. The characters are only fleshed out if you do extra content though, which you likely will. 

Even more important than the story, is the atmosphere. This game has the best atmosphere of any JRPG I've played. You literally are traveling on a behemoth which feels like the size of a country in a semi-open world. Anywhere you can see, you can go to, and the views are amazing. This helps the story because the conflict feels real and not video-gamey. Everything about the world has some sort of explanation, and it makes you want to explore that much more. 



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Clyde32 said:
JayWood2010 said:
So i have to ask....Is the first Xenoblade's story really good? The New 3DS tempts me to want to play it but havent decided yet. If the story is really good i might


Depends on your standards. If you go in there expecting Xenogears or Saga, the story might disappoint you. Otherwise it's a pretty good story. 

I'm assuming people who don't think it is up to par with Xenogears/Saga's standards either rushed through/didn't complete Xenoblade's story, missed a lot of the hidden depth provided through side-quests and exploration, didn't do a literary analysis as much as they did Xenogears/Xenosaga, or just are remembering Xenogears/Xenosaga differently. While those games are quite fantastic in scope and layering their story, Xenoblade provides some of the same themes and even goes more in depth into some of the themes (while discarding others), and pacing the plot much, much, better. There is also a level of completeness without compromises. It never was suppose to be an episode in a six part epic. For that, its story is extremely well done for what it was meant to be. Xenogears had the problem of its story being separated on many different formats. First you experienced it through gameplay. Then through a monologue in game. And then to have the full picture you need to read Perfect Works. Xenosaga had the problem of not being fully realized because it was cut in half. I think Xenoblade X will have a good balance of a concise and complete story, but maybe a long timeline and layered story like Xenogears/Xenosaga to provide the historical foundation of the universe it takes place in. The aliens, and ancient artifacts littered through the landscape definitely give creative freedoms for this.  

Overall, I enjoyed Xenogears' story in hindsight more than Xenoblade's, but while I was playing the game Xenoblade's felt more interesting. Xenogears had a lot of conflict, but the pacing was quite inconsistent, and that ruined a lot of the motivation in some parts, while making the player overly motivated to find out more about the story in others, so much so that they didn't care about the gameplay. You have to play the game multiple times, and read perfect works to enjoy the core of the story beyond a surface level. This was both an advantage and disadvantage for the game, in my opinion. Xenoblade on the other hand had perfect pacing. The plot twists came at the right time, and the external characters didn't go into random gibberish dialogues with a lot of jargon which you wouldn't get unless you went back and watched the cutscene again (you remember it instead.) There was a particular set of cutscenes in Xenogears which annoyed me. It involved external parties who are controlling the strings using a billion words I didn't even know about yet in the game commenting on the situation of the world. Later on you find out about most of things they were talking about, but you don't really remember what the heck they were saying 20 or so game hours (or weeks/months in real life) before you found out about these things. You just remember bits and pieces match up. This gives you the feeling that you are suppose to understand something at that point, but you are missing it.  That is very frustrating. Still when you go back to watch the cutscene again you didn't really miss anything. Everything they were talking about you found out 40 hours into the game. Honestly it made it feel like that cutscene was there just to make you feel like there was a mysterious group of "people" controlling the strings, and that's all it was there for. It was really annoying to have all that build up with such a sequence of cutscenes, where you are confused as hell, and then have a single character or a number of single characters just explain to you things as a matter of fact, "oh yeah there are these things you need to go collect."  Having said that, when everything does come together Xenogears is an excellent story. The amazing plot was just ripped to shreds and glued together, that's all. Xenoblade has the benefit of a consistent budget, and that definitely shows. 



sc94597 said:
Clyde32 said:


Depends on your standards. If you go in there expecting Xenogears or Saga, the story might disappoint you. Otherwise it's a pretty good story. 

 

Overall, I enjoyed Xenogears' story in hindsight more than Xenoblade's, but while I was playing the game Xenoblade's felt more interesting. Xenogears had a lot of conflict, but the pacing was quite inconsistent, and that ruined a lot of the motivation in some parts, while making the player overly motivated to find out more about the story in others, so much so that they didn't care about the gameplay. You have to play the game multiple times, and read perfect works to enjoy the core of the story beyond a surface level. This was both an advantage and disadvantage for the game, in my opinion. Xenoblade on the other hand had perfect pacing. The plot twists came at the right time, and the external characters didn't go into random gibberish dialogues with a lot of jargon which you wouldn't get unless you went back and watched the cutscene again (you remember it instead.) There was a particular set of cutscenes in Xenogears which annoyed me. It involved external parties who are controlling the strings using a billion words I didn't even know about yet in the game commenting on the situation of the world. Later on you find out about most of things they were talking about, but you don't really remember what the heck they were saying 20 or so game hours (or weeks/months in real life) before you found out about these things. You just remember bits and pieces match up. This gives you the feeling that you are suppose to understand something at that point, but you are missing it.  That is very frustrating. Still when you go back to watch the cutscene again you didn't really miss anything. Everything they were talking about you found out 40 hours into the game. Honestly it made it feel like that cutscene was there just to make you feel like there was a mysterious group of "people" controlling the strings, and that's all it was there for. It was really annoying to have all that build up with such a sequence of cutscenes, where you are confused as hell, and then have a single character or a number of single characters just explain to you things as a matter of fact, "oh yeah there are these things you need to go collect."  Having said that, when everything does come together Xenogears is an excellent story. The amazing plot was just ripped to shreds and glued together, that's all. Xenoblade has the benefit of a consistent budget, and that definitely shows. 

@Bold. Which is what I meant when I said Xenoblade's execution is what made it so well. Xenogears had the better story, Xenoblade had the better execution. It makes you live in the moment, it gets your blood pumping, and it gets you excited for the next part. 

As far as Xenosaga goes, I like the story because of how unique it is. But it really is a bunch of jumbled up garbage you don't understand until you get to Xenosaga III, when you can truly appreciate the depth of the story. 

I had no idea what the Miltian Conflict was until I played through it. 

I agree with you on everything here. Those two games have better stories in retrospect, but that's only because you understand it. Xenoblade presents it well enough for you to understand right away, and it does it in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Something I found extremely disappointing in Xenosaga is that it didn't have these moments until the third game. 



As pretty as always.



Clyde32 said:

I agree with you on everything here. Those two games have better stories in retrospect, but that's only because you understand it. Xenoblade presents it well enough for you to understand right away, and it does it in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Something I found extremely disappointing in Xenosaga is that it didn't have these moments until the third game. 

Yeah, Xenosaga I would say is the weakest entry in terms of execution (again reflecting the budget) but there were some very nice ideas they were toying with in that series, and they seemed to complement Xenogears well. I think each game in the meta-series has its advantages and disadvantages in the story department. It will be interesting to see how Xenoblade X turns out. I think we're going to see some new themes and some old themes missing. With a similar pacing to Xenoblade Chronicles. Takahashi already said he is going to make it a complex, sci-fi plot (more so than Xenoblade Chronicles) so we should expect at least somewhere between Blade and Saga (or Gears)  in that aspect. The amount of Gears allusion so far, makes me think that is the primary inspiration for this game. The alien species will definitely spice up the story as well. :) 



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Bristow9091 said:
Okay so just watched the video... someone PLEASE tell me that isn't the battle theme or even a song from the game, otherwise I'll be putting it on mute every time it plays.


It's the battle theme. It's apparently designed to grow on you overtime. But you should be fine because before it gets to the part everyone doesn't like, you should have already finished the battle. 

For unique monsters and tough enemies, I'm assuming there will be different themes like in the first game. 

 

I'm also going to say that there will probably be a different theme for each area. The battle cries seem to drown out the quiet moments in the song, so you should be fine on that aspect. 

 

Hoping they have an option to turn down the music though.



Bristow9091 said:
Okay so just watched the video... someone PLEASE tell me that isn't the battle theme or even a song from the game, otherwise I'll be putting it on mute every time it plays.

If you watch the treehouse event, the lyrics are absent, but it is the same song. It is perfectly possible that the game will have multiple battle themes though, like the original Xenoblade. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKKiODpn6Fg (20:50)



Bristow9091 said:
To be honest, I'd be more than happy if they just removed the lyrics from the song, as without the silly rapping it was fine... but seriously, why did they think it'd be a good idea to do that?!


Sawano isn't experienced in Video Games. 

But those lyrics should have the volume low enough to be drowned out by the fighting noises. In fact that's a pretty much guarantee.



Bristow9091 said:
To be honest, I'd be more than happy if they just removed the lyrics from the song, as without the silly rapping it was fine... but seriously, why did they think it'd be a good idea to do that?!

Some other RPG's like the Persona series have similar music Maybe that was the mindset.Although in the Persona series it fits the tone of the game. This can fit the tone of this game if they highlight American culture through NLA. 

Deep Breath Deep Breath (Persona 3) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiP9Bhha0-4



sc94597 said:
Bristow9091 said:
To be honest, I'd be more than happy if they just removed the lyrics from the song, as without the silly rapping it was fine... but seriously, why did they think it'd be a good idea to do that?!

Some other RPG's like the Persona series have similar music Maybe that was the mindset.Although in the Persona series it fits the tone of the game. This can fit the tone of this game if they highlight American culture through NLA. 

Deep Breath Deep Breath (Persona 3) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiP9Bhha0-4


And similarly I just ignore the battle music in P3 lol.