MTZehvor said:
This is going a bit off topic, so hopefully people won't mind too much, but I'd be curious in asking and getting the opinion of someone who really likes X. One of my biggest problems with X thus far (and honestly what's really keeping me from enjoying it immensely) is the pacing of the game; how it routinely forces you to do side quests/place a bunch of data probes before it lets you accept story missions. I've found this particularly frustrating when combined with the fact that the game consistently reminds you in story missions after Chapter 5 that you've got a limited amount of time to find the Lifehold before humanity dies out. One particularly agregious example that comes to mind was before Chapter 11, where the game forces you to track down someone's cat before you can proceed to the next mission. It feels like an extreme clash of narrative and mission design; on one hand, the game is telling you to hurry things up, while simultaneously forcing you to take part in fetch quests and side quests before you can proceed. Is this annoying for you, and if so, how big of a problem is it? |
I like to break clunks into parts, so I'll respond with numbers:
1) The side quests are what makes this game amazing. Don't get me wrong, I love the central story, but the character development with affinity missions is amazing and all the random little bounty/gather missions you can do while you do story or affinity missions adds extra perks to just randomly exploring. You should never feel like your going out of your way to do side quests. I love exploring to plant probes/do story and affinity missions and then just stumble upon the last gathering piece or stumble upon green iconed monsters I need to kill. It makes exploring fun.
2) That % from the lifehold goes down as you do missions, it's not like if you just stand around humanity is going to die. There should not be a rush or pressure feeling at all from this, I certainly don't feel pressure.
3) I don't find the side things annoying, as I said earlier. Side quests are what builds characters up in any story. LOST was filled, non stop, with side stories and people loved the show for it (including myself). Xenoblade isn't supposed to be like a Halo-level linear game. It's supposed to feel like an adventure where your discovering and exploring this world. And the game is filled with comic relief, which I found and find hillarious and charming.