Switch games which underperfomed the most

[IcaroRibeiro]

Leynos said:

IcaroRibeiro said:

I was never bound to happen. Persona breaktrough was due to a combination of gameplay focusing heavily on social sim mechanics, presentation (overall distinct and very memorable aesthetics) and a very high school anime-like setting of story/characters

I didn't play Xeno 3, but the trailers gave me the impression it was pretty much Xeno 1 in new clothes. If the Xeno 1 was not a major seller, there was few reasons to believe Xeno 3 would be a major seller either. Even if the game in the end was significantly different, an average person like would hardly know it because it wasn't marketed as such. 

My impression playing Xeno 1 is that a RPG that is competent, but lacks something to stand out as unique, something other games don't have. For instance, team Asano games have their HD-2D, Fire Emblem have its permadeath, Dragon Quest have their Dragon Ball artstyle, Kingdom Hearts have the Disney characters, and the list goes on

I can't remember a single thing from Xenoblade1 that makes me think "This is so Xenoblade". If Monolith somehow manage to bring something that is easy to market and can be easily perceived as a must play then the franchise can finally have its breakthrough

 What a bad take. No Xenoblade 3 is not Xeno 1 with new clothes. Xenoblade stood out for helping revive the genre in 2010 and making some big changes to the genre on top of being extremely well-made. A fantastic story and characters music etc. JRPGs of that era were things like the budget-conscious and ever-so-mediocre Tales of games. Neptunia shit. Shining Refrain. Even higher-budget trash like FFXIII-2 felt held back in scope and ambition. Pushed the Wii beyond its limit and ran well. Making Monolith one of Nintendo's best studios not only in quality games but knowing how to push Nintendo hardware to the limit. Monolith should be in the conversations of studios like ND who get the most out of the hardware they have to work with.

Did you even rebuild Colony 6? I have 3 times. Finished the game 3 times. Twice on Wii (PAL and US) and Switch. The game added a lot of mechanics and features not seen in the genre at the time and still, most don't. Took some inspiration from western RPGs and implemented them. Some quests only can be completed at certain times of day or weather. Xenoblade is unique for many reasons. It's still unlike anything out there. If you need just one obvious thing to see what makes XB so unique it's the massive worlds even tho that is just one element of many. But that expertise is why Monolith designed the open world for BOTW. Oh and BOTW owes its best in class design to games like Xenoblade X which not only was a large sprawling world but added verticality.

Every Xenoblade game like any series has elements of being familiar to other games within a series or made by one studio but they all each have their own tone and feel. Xenoblade 3 feels far more hopeless than 1 and esp 2. The last half of that game feels more like Xenosaga and blade and chunks of the early game feel more like Xenogears than Blade.

I don't feel like massive world by itself is something unique I mean... there is quite a lot open world games nowadays, so being a big world in scope while nice is hard to be seen as a selling point. Other JRPGs have done it as well, like Final Fantasy XV. I get you like the game a lot, but nothing you are telling me strikes me as something you cannot find anywhere else. 

A made a list of things that are easily perceived by customers. What is the other RPG where you can control Disney characters or play in Disney worlds? None, only Kingdom Hearts have this. JRPG with heavy focus on school life social sim aspecfd? Persona. Those are selling points that you can see in a minute just watching a trailer. Xenoblade do not gave any of this. Take a Star Ocean trailer and a Xenoblade trailer and give it to someone who never played either and the answer is likely to be "ok, they are similar"

It's not that Xenoblade is worse than Star Ocean, but the presentation and marketing surrounding Xenoblade games makes hard to get people who never played Xenoblade and convince the people that the game is really worth a try. It lacks a "It" factor, and this factor is what preventing it to break a more mainstream audience, despite the heavy review from both critics and fans. 

I also must add that I've played Xenoblade remaster, so while I understand gameplay elements I'm familiar maybe came originally from Xenoblade the fact I've experienced them in other games are making me fail to have an better opinion about Xenoblade specifically. 

Xenoblade 4 can be the best game ever made, if Nintendo and Monolith are not able to find anything to sell that can make the average gamer see the game as unavailable I don't see it selling anything more than the average ~1.5 million. Is that a problem? Not really, I guess it's enough for the game to pay itself and keep the franchise afloat. Will Nintendo always be satisfied with this level of popularity? I dunno, I think so but we shall see