Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the next title in the Xenoblade franchise. It will be released at the end of 2017 (likely November) exclusively on Nintendo Switch.
A young man named Rex lives among an endless ocean of clouds, where the last remnants of civilization live on the backs of colossal beasts called Titans. He finds Pyra, a mysterious Blade who grants him tremendous power, and together they go searching for Pyra’s long lost home Elysium, the ultimate paradise for all of humanity.
Check out the trailers that have been released so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjpao-nD5YUhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJuiTw6nk7A
Here's an extended look at some gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfGk6VMcJsw
The game will definitely feel familiar to those who played Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X. There's a heavy focus on exploration, many familiar enemies return and the combat is also reminiscent of the two previous games, though with a twist. Your party is kind of divided into two types of characters - Drivers and Blades. Blades are living weapons, in a way, and Drivers can draw out their full potential and use them in battle. Each of your Drivers can equip a multitude of Blades, which changes what kinds of abilities are available to them in battle.
The game is out now. Having trouble with the combat or understanding some of the upgrade systems? RPG Site has some good guides for the game:
Battle System Guide: Combat strategy tips and tricksClasses Guide: All the roles and jobs available to party membersRare Blades Guide: All rare blades and where to get them (slight spoiler warning)
Booster Guide: all about Bravery, Truth, Compassion and Justice BoostersTiger Tiger Guide: how to play and upgrade Poppi
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Beat up the strongest named enemy you can handle, exit skell, use return to reload and repeat.
Joker is really good because its squishy and has lots of adds, so skells can mop the floor with it.
And its level 90-something
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUl3kUhc73c
https://youtu.be/EmUeqMnWmDY
edit- To make this post more substantial here is a bit of history on XCX.
Originally the city was Neo Tokyo, but on a trip to LA Tetsuya Takahashi saw how crazy diverse the city was and came to the conclusion that having a story about rebuilding humanity would be better in a less homogenized environment.
The game was originally single player only. I don't quite remember why they decided to add the multi, but that and the city change caused them to scrap a lot of what they had done. They said they had about 50% of the game completed when they made the call. Their deadline remand the same though.
Dough, Irina, Lao, Gwin, Elma and Lin along with the PC were to be the main characters. They were all meant to play a solid role in the story and to some extent parts of that is still present. Most notable change though was that Elma and Lin ended up as your permanent party members for story missions. This wasn't the original intent. They wanted you to bring whoever (story permitting) and have them take part in the dialogue and story.
The forth party member slot came with the multi-player addition and was kind of meant for you to bring along another player's character. Though you could just bring another NPC character too if you wanted. Hence why they never talk, cause they weren't really meant to.
So all in all a lot was cut, changed, and shuffled around on a pretty short time schedule as far as game development works.
Still one of my most favorite games though.
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They wanted to take a break from the harsher stuff and do a "boy meets girl" sorta thing.
Which man I love a love story but a love story with a stupid looking 13 year old is.. less appealing.
He says knowing he is going to play the heck out of the game just being slightly grumpy when he thinks about what it could've been.
Ugh, all I liked about the story was the dark stuff and Shulk brooding about his revenge.
Got quite far in XCX before dropping it. I liked the story, the music and the environments, but the combat just never clicked like XC1 did and I really dislike Skells and what they do to combat (Mash buttons).
When I sit down for a Xeno game what I'm really looking for is the slow transformation from "We're on an adventure!" to "brain melting world ending Gnostic insanity."
Also I liked the music in XCX way more than I thought I would. Somehow this is one of my favorite tracks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOeb7StJlRc
I actually like that Shulk retains his critical thinking in the midst of his quest for vengance.
World ending isn't exactly light! I think that's the stuff they are saying they are stepping back from as... well yea that's kinda the opposite of light and feel-good.
One of the overriding themes of Xeno games is that enemies can put aside their differences and come to some sort of an understanding. Even after atrocious things have been done.
Fei and Krelian (and Elly, and, to a certain extent, Grahf)
Jr. and Albedo
Shulk and the Mechons
The Xeno series is pretty heavy on Gnosticism and philosophy and whatnot, sometimes successfully, sometimes not, but it's also a fundamentally hopeful series. That, even after everything, the desire for peace outweighs hate, and that we can overcome our prejudices and tribal instincts and forge forward together.
Shulk being willing to listen to the denizens of Mechonis and act accordingly in both a rational and compassionate manner is very much in line with everything else Takahashi has given us. And it's one of the big reasons why I'm a Xeno fan.
Yeah, maybe scratch the world ending part and focus more on what Nightslyr said about enemies coming together in the end. I can dig that.
I really would have liked it if
I don't want to dive too deeply in the gameplay trailer myself yet, but what's up with the huge health bars? Seems like it takes forever to kill something.
Yeah, I really hate the kettle looking thing that's on his back
It was clear the guy in control was slow-playing the combats to give himself time to explain things. And sometimes that wasn't even enough - he kept trying to set up a combo but the enemies would die before they were ready.
In practice, it looks like the pacing of combat will be similar to previous Xeno games. Normal enemies are dead by the time you finish using all your arts. Bigger enemies take multiple cycles, and will get finished off by a huge combo.
Biggest differences between Xeno 2 and the previous games were:
-You have to auto attack a few times before your arts are ready
-Instead of using your 8 arts one after another, it's "Use 3 arts -> Switch blades -> Use 3 arts -> Switch blades -> Use 3 arts -> Combo time"
That kid hasn't said much, yet. Seems fine.
It turns out the game was being programmed by new staff so they were basically stuck with "on the job training", causing production delays. Square wouldn't budge on the deadline, so he had to either end it the way he did or end it at the conclusion of disc 1.
http://kotaku.com/the-real-story-behind-xenogears-unfinished-disc-2-1796151112
Indeed, I find that JRPG cliche tiresome.
Disagree on that.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
They do seem to have eventually learned how to not overextend. You can see points in Xenoblade where they desperately wanted to blow all of their development time and budget dealing with giants, spiders, and Bionis cults, but managed to restrain themselves.
Localization talk with Takahashi
Small soundtrack preview
From the end of that article:
Did Kotaku screw up? I thought this was going to be a holiday release.
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
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I personally prefer the name "Fourth Quarter Holiday Event."
Sometimes it starts early at the end of August or early September, too.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
The answer to that question is always yes.
The game will be released in late November or early December.
A "holiday release" is usually going to be in the fall. Winter solstice is 12/21, and games rarely come out four days or less before Christmas.
Which, according to the calendar, is fall.
That's a fucking sweet special edition (that I was just able to pre-order. Yaaay!).
Oh, and a December 1st release date. Here's the segment from the recent Direct:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXGTJgXPhm0
seriously
EDIT: Never mind, Gamestop had it. Deal with the devil is a go.
Clearly, someone thought people liked the Speed Frame.