By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The Xenoblade Chronicles Series Thread: Definitive Edition (All Spoilers in Tags)

Nuvendil said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah they did say they were in the 'transitional period of refining its use for future games" so Torna won't showcase its full potential, their next game in 2020 or qwhenwever should look far better.

I never felt like the XCX engine was a good fit for Switch; it squeezed incredibly impressive results out of Wii U, but in base XBC2 it was underwhelming.

Not really a matter of fit.  More a matter of not all the additions coming out as good as intended.  Cause technically 2 has a number of features X does not that make it the more demanding game it is.  Godrays, improved lighting, ambient occlusion, a new rendering pipeline, better handling of materials, new folliage solution, improved texture filtering, volumetric cloud simulation, new water shaders, screenspace reflections, higher quality shadows, TAA.  Overall an engine much more in line with current generation standards.  But it seems not all these additions went smoothly.  A lot are welcome but some came out rough.  TAA I hojestly think is the worst result.  The blurring artifacts are very noticeable in a game with a pulled back camera.

So it seems they've gone back and built a new rendering engine to replace this one to address all this.  Bolting new stuff on is faster but never as effective as building a new one in terms of implementing new features.  It's not always practical but I think in this instance it's a good move to prep for the future.

God rays were already in XCX, and while XBC2 did add new rendering features, it also had a lot of rough spots; the framerate was never as stable as XCX, and the character models and textures wouldn't have looked out of place on PS3/360. The engine just never quite seemed to sing on Switch the way it did on Wii U.



Around the Network
curl-6 said:
Nuvendil said:

Not really a matter of fit.  More a matter of not all the additions coming out as good as intended.  Cause technically 2 has a number of features X does not that make it the more demanding game it is.  Godrays, improved lighting, ambient occlusion, a new rendering pipeline, better handling of materials, new folliage solution, improved texture filtering, volumetric cloud simulation, new water shaders, screenspace reflections, higher quality shadows, TAA.  Overall an engine much more in line with current generation standards.  But it seems not all these additions went smoothly.  A lot are welcome but some came out rough.  TAA I hojestly think is the worst result.  The blurring artifacts are very noticeable in a game with a pulled back camera.

So it seems they've gone back and built a new rendering engine to replace this one to address all this.  Bolting new stuff on is faster but never as effective as building a new one in terms of implementing new features.  It's not always practical but I think in this instance it's a good move to prep for the future.

God rays were already in XCX, and while XBC2 did add new rendering features, it also had a lot of rough spots; the framerate was never as stable as XCX, and the character models and textures wouldn't have looked out of place on PS3/360. The engine just never quite seemed to sing on Switch the way it did on Wii U.

I don't recall godrays in X but I may just have never noticed.  And character models didn't decrease in polygonal detail much really.  If at all.  And while skin, hair, and eyes feature a simplified approach in textures, clothes are very much the same level as X.  And besides, the character models have never been the hallmarks of Xenoblade's technical achievements; X's also wouldn't look out of place on the PS360.  And any decrease in character model detail  is offset by the general and sharp increase in overall scene detail and the fact that you have 6 of them running around in your party vs 4.  And the baseline texture res overall is higher.   Noticeably so.

Again, got nothing at all, whatsoever, to do with the Switch.  It's the features that were added.  That's where the improvements come from, that's where the rough edges come from, and that's obviously where the performance issues stem from.

They could have left the engine the same and it would have performed the same.  But they chose to push it with new visual features.  It has rough edges but thd game has rough edges because it is a flat out more technically advanced and demanding game than X.



Nuvendil said:
curl-6 said:

God rays were already in XCX, and while XBC2 did add new rendering features, it also had a lot of rough spots; the framerate was never as stable as XCX, and the character models and textures wouldn't have looked out of place on PS3/360. The engine just never quite seemed to sing on Switch the way it did on Wii U.

I don't recall godrays in X but I may just have never noticed.  And character models didn't decrease in polygonal detail much really.  If at all.  And while skin, hair, and eyes feature a simplified approach in textures, clothes are very much the same level as X.  And besides, the character models have never been the hallmarks of Xenoblade's technical achievements; X's also wouldn't look out of place on the PS360.  And any decrease in character model detail  is offset by the general and sharp increase in overall scene detail and the fact that you have 6 of them running around in your party vs 4.  And the baseline texture res overall is higher.   Noticeably so.

Again, got nothing at all, whatsoever, to do with the Switch.  It's the features that were added.  That's where the improvements come from, that's where the rough edges come from, and that's obviously where the performance issues stem from.

They could have left the engine the same and it would have performed the same.  But they chose to push it with new visual features.  It has rough edges but thd game has rough edges because it is a flat out more technically advanced and demanding game than X.

PS3/360 caliber characters and textures are kinda to be expected on Wii U as its barely more capable than those systems hardware wise, but on Switch, where you've got considerably more power to play with, I think it's fair to expect better. 



Interview going out saying this is last content update for the game and so far no additional plans for the franchise yet. So for a while this will be all we get from the franchise.



https://mynintendonews.com/2018/09/20/japan-xenoblade-chronicles-2-receives-an-award-for-excellence/



Around the Network
NoirSon said:
Interview going out saying this is last content update for the game and so far no additional plans for the franchise yet. So for a while this will be all we get from the franchise.

Honestly, I'm glad, as much as I like the Xenoblade games, I wanna see Monolith do something different next, preferably a new IP.



I love the banter in Torna, everyone is so mean to each other to some degree. Almost like with real life friends, goddammit.

Poor Mythra, though.



My bet with The_Liquid_Laser: I think the Switch won't surpass the PS2 as the best selling system of all time. If it does, I'll play a game of a list that The_Liquid_Laser will provide, I will have to play it for 50 hours or complete it, whatever comes first. 

NoirSon said:
Interview going out saying this is last content update for the game and so far no additional plans for the franchise yet. So for a while this will be all we get from the franchise.

Ergo, Ursula will continue to groove for a minimum of 22 hours real-time in order to complete her quest.



RolStoppable said:
noname2200 said:

Ergo, Ursula will continue to groove for a minimum of 22 hours real-time in order to complete her quest.

...and the RNG to get rare blades from core crystals will continue to suck.

Thankfully, the Torna expansion has neither core crystals nor crazy sidequests. Unfortunately, right now it looks to me as if there will be no fast method to gain skill points for the driver's charts. A shame that such stupidity continues to slip past quality assurance.

It's been long enough since I had to suffer the gacha nonsense, but you're right that the whole RNG system is also bad. The game has so many features that actively detract from enjoying the game that I have to imagine some higher-ups are pushing their pet ideas through, feedback be damned.



noname2200 said:
RolStoppable said:

...and the RNG to get rare blades from core crystals will continue to suck.

Thankfully, the Torna expansion has neither core crystals nor crazy sidequests. Unfortunately, right now it looks to me as if there will be no fast method to gain skill points for the driver's charts. A shame that such stupidity continues to slip past quality assurance.

It's been long enough since I had to suffer the gacha nonsense, but you're right that the whole RNG system is also bad. The game has so many features that actively detract from enjoying the game that I have to imagine some higher-ups are pushing their pet ideas through, feedback be damned.

Yeah while Xenoblade 2 has many, many strong qualities and I did enjoy it overall, some of its design choices are bafflingly bad.