| sc94597 said: Tales of Xillia had a decent semi-open world similar to FFXII's, but if you thought Xenoblade's world was only a "transversal method" or "is empty" I don't see how you would think Xillia's was anything more. Ni No Kuni and Vesperia had traditional world map systems, which while fun to explore, do not have the same scale of what I was talking about. I won't comment on WKC or SO4 because I didn't finish them for reasons other than this particular topic, but I'll take your word that they did eventually do exploration well. Anyway, I wasn't only talking about the scale of the world, but the level of detail and how one interacts with it in whichever way they choose by purely exploring, by doing side-quests, or as you seem to have done - just going from point to point. The main purpose of Xenoblade's world, besides travel, was exploration. There were secret areas to find which awarded you with great views of places that you had already visited. For example, I can see the Sword Valley from Colony 6, and Colony 6 from the Sword Valley, with a level of detail so great that I can point out particular locations and buildings. When certain events transform the Sword Valley, it is reflected in my view from Colony 6. The world changed when that event happened. I always see the Mechonis looming accross the vast ocean, and vice-verse with the Bionis. Within the context of a large area I can find secret paths to connect places I have visited before. Furthermore, certain quests made me go back to areas I felt I explored extensively and gave me rewards (such as new skills for a main character) for visiting a new ruin with a backstory (built by Giants) and researching it. Just something small like being rewarded experience for exploration creates an atmosphere that isn't only about travel, as you say. Furthermore, each populated area had an affinity system which allowed you to become more invested in the activities of the NPC's. You also saw connections between named NPC's in these areas, whom you would never have thought to be connected, and they made sense as you did side-quests. No other JRPG has done this without major deficits and flaws, and it shows in that the JRPG's that did attempt it (FFXII most notably) weren't as highly polished and appraised for in that area. Xenoblade didn't revise what people thought of JRPG's because it tried these things, it revised the perception of the genre because it did these things, with every ounce of the game contributing to the development of a natural-like world. The only other games that have provided similar experiences are CRPGs and Sandbox games. But that is what makes Xenoblade so unique. It retained many of the JRPG elements while providing these open-world elements. |
Yeah, and my point is that it isn't the only 7th gen RPG that did that. It didn't reinvent anything. It took a lot of what was done right, and did a melting pot of it all. It felt great playing a RPG that brought back elements from what made the 4th and 5th gen so great, but it isn't the only game who did that. Ni No Kuni, for example, brought back many of those elements. It is true that a lot of the JRPG series were seemingly toned down during the seventh generation. The focus wasn't on that genre nearly as much as it was during prior generations. For many reason. Xenoblade brought a lot of these beloved elements together to make a compelling ensemble, but it didn't reinvent a genre. Many other games did just what you're describing. That they were praised as much as Xenoblade or not is an other story.
As for what you say about FF XII, I don't think you know the meaning of he word you're using. Because that game was highly polished. It ran prefectly, controlled perfectly, didn't have loading issues, no glitches or bugs to write about. and its visuals were top-notch for its time and in fact still look good to this day. And the game is also quite extensive in its exploration aspects.
One game you should take a look at is Dragon Quest VIII. That game did everything right when it comes to taking 4th or 5th gen JRPGs beloved JRPG tropes and modernizing them for the modern age. And it did that while making the map on the same scale as the rest. Just like WKC and XB. It's a 6th gen game, so it may not fit with your narrative. But it still illustrates the fact that Xenoblade didn't reinvent anything. That doesn't make it a bad game, and that's certainly not what I'm saying either.
