i think people are drastically underestimating the work it takes to put into game development, let alone localization. People are working really hard on both and there's a reason they do things the way they do. Show a little patience. There's no way we're all done with smash bros already, Hell i'm still playing alot of mario kart. That dlc was so worth it.

Might as well post this here, there are too many X threads and this is one of the most recent ones.

About a half-dozen characters have been 'officially' reavealed so far, but despite the apparent implication that they are probably all party members, technically only Cross (the player-created character), Elma, and Lynlee have been confirmed to be party members. Every time gameplay has been shown, that's the party, just those three. I've always assumed that these are the first three party members and we've been seeing very early-game footage this whole time, like how Xenoblade promotion focused heavily on Shulk/Reyn/Sharla on the Bionis Leg.

But there was one instance in which this was not the case. In the Nintendo Direct last February, Iwata presented some gameplay footage of X in which the player and three party members take on a couple of enemies -- first on foot, and then in mechs. It looked like it was just showing off the battle system at the time, and was presented more or less without comment.

But wait, who the hell is this party?

It may be blurry, but even so you can plainly see that none of these four characters are Elma or Lynlee -- or Tatsu, Van Damme, or Irina, for that matter. Actually, we've never seen any characters who even vaguely resembled these four in any footage aside from this short gameplay clip. What's more, in Xenoblade your party members gained experience and leveled up together, even when not in use. Yet here we see a gap of 19 levels between the top and bottom party members.

That seals it, I'm 100% sure online co-op is in the game and these four characters are all Cross.

Well ...   

Massive Xenoblade Chronicles SPOILERS: At the end of the game the world was born anew and assuming that this game is a sequel of some kind, Neo Los Angeles doesn't necessarily have to speak American English.

Question, because I never tried, but can you dress up Momo in a swimsuit in Xenosaga? Thinking about it now, there was a cutscene when she was wearing one...

Also, this game is rated higher in Japan than Xenoblade was/is, so I wouldn't be surprised. They just need to keep the costumes for Lynlee tame.

I haven't played any of the other Xeno games. I'm guessing undergarments will basically be bodysuits this time rather than bikinis... at least for Lynlee.

Or those were preliminary character designs that were later scrapped?  It's also entirely possible that's a test build that uses test assets, especially character models since they are rather inconsequentual in the context of game mechanics testing.  Main character designs in a game like this can come pretty late in development and can also change drastically over time. 

I for one, *highly* doubt that it has main-character co-op because it would be a huge hurdle for the narrative based on what we have seen so far of it.  And this is Takahashi we're talking about; he's not going to hamstring his narrative.

Highly doubtful. This gameplay footage was shown over 3 years after development started, and just a few months before E3 2014 at which it was fully unveiled, main characters and all. If that's not enough, there's this:

Elma, right? This picture is from the January 2013 reveal trailer.

I don't see why main character co-op would represent a 'hurdle' for the narrative. Cross is a member of the military, other players' main characters are simply other members of the military.

Here she was in III

It was the same in the first game. I think she's technically 15, but she is a robot-ish, type thing capable of feelings.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Maybe with a little more... pants.

Anyway robot-ish type things are par for the course in Xeno games, I fully expect some of that in X as well.

Well, I wouldn't say she is an android, because their are those, but..not sure how to describe realians.