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[Xenoblade Chronicles] Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition coming to Switch in 2020

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  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    I found Rex a refreshing change of pace in an era where too much of gaming is focused on dreary, broken protagonists in dreary, broken scenarios. I'd much rather play 10 more games with him than, say, another The Last of Us. Probably because I'm almost 40 and find grimdark anything boring and utterly unimaginative.

  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    I really love Rex, he's great
    I do love mostly EVERYONE in this game, although I begrudge Tora for the creepiness.

    and I finally got Ursula up to S rank. Almost done with the few remaining rare blades before NG+

    BTW, what are good blade combos for Ophion and the other super post game monsters?

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  • PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    I really love Rex, he's great
    I do love mostly EVERYONE in this game, although I begrudge Tora for the creepiness.

    and I finally got Ursula up to S rank. Almost done with the few remaining rare blades before NG+

    BTW, what are good blade combos for Ophion and the other super post game monsters?

    Poppi, Mythra, and then just cover heals and elements is the baseline imo. Mythra is OP, Poppi can do a full driver combo on her own, and then its just build orbs, launch, chain attack full burst for a kill.

    That said. Xenobia and Sheba have very high damage multipliers you can build around. Herald too. Kos-Mos and T-elos laugh at defense.

    Mostly, you just want blades who can hit 300%+ damage bonuses for various conditions, and make sure someone can tank and someone heals?

    But Mythra is basically mandatory because of her OP crit resets and making full burst trivial.

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  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    Tora's frustrating because he's 90% endearing, but his making not-quite sex bots is just... yikes. I don't really understand why that was added to the character (outside of "it's Japan"). Neither Tora nor Poppi are better for it.

  • Maz-Maz- 飛べ Registered User regular
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  • skeldareskeldare Gresham, ORRegistered User regular
    It’s nice that it’s not just a simple remaster. Hopefully there’ll be new content.

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  • Shenl742Shenl742 Registered User regular
    AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

    Guess I'm buying XC1 for a FOURTH time! Not that I mind!!!

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  • Maz-Maz- 飛べ Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    skeldare wrote: »
    It’s nice that it’s not just a simple remaster. Hopefully there’ll be new content.

    There will be, the trailer briefly showed what is likely a rather infamous piece of cut content from the original release, the Bionis's Shoulder.

    I do wonder how they'll fit in into the game though - will it be slotted into the story/progression where it was originally planned to go (between Frontier Village and Eryth Sea)? WIll it be a post-game area?

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  • Shenl742Shenl742 Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Maz- wrote: »
    skeldare wrote: »
    It’s nice that it’s not just a simple remaster. Hopefully there’ll be new content.

    There will be, the trailer briefly showed what is likely a rather infamous piece of cut content from the original release, the Bionis's Shoulder.

    What!? That's nuts! As if I couldn't get more excited...

    Shenl742 on
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  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    It's cool it looks to be getting updates, at least visually, and that added content.

    Looks like it won't be a quick port, even though I absolutely would have paid for it.

    I wonder if they'll be doing QOL stuff. Like adding in markers like XC2 had to tell you if a townsperson had something to say, so you don't have to go around every town every time of day, after every story bit, so you didn't miss out on connection stuff.

    That was about the only part of XC1 I didn't care for, and would be happy for some work on it.

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  • skeldareskeldare Gresham, ORRegistered User regular
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  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    It's her XC2 model (Shulk is his too), so I imagine all the characters will be getting that level of revamp.

    I'm sure it'll miff some people, the XC2 model differences did, but I think the stylized change works a lot better, and hopefully will let them maybe animate their faces more. Not that they weren't in the original release, but yeah.

    It doesn't look like, aside from a pass of higher rez textures and probably more grass/dodads the general world is getting any major updates, which is fine. Though there's a couple later areas that might not look so hot if they don't do a bit more work
    like sword valley, specifically
    .

    I can't imagine they're going to take a brush to everything though. Like all the enemy models. Maybe just the major stuff?

    Regardless! As I said, I would have paid full price for just an HD port of the game with no changes. Improvements are just icing. I'm sure if they change too much it'll be controversial, but gameplay wise, XC2 had better systems for virtually every thing the games shared. I would imagine they'll redo the abilities to not be a MMO hotbar-ish thing, that while functional in XC1/X, weren't as fluid as the buttons/joypad being mapped to abilities in 2.

    Whenever they say "next year", I assume that means next holiday season, but I'd be happy to be wrong!

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  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    Maz- wrote: »
    skeldare wrote: »
    It’s nice that it’s not just a simple remaster. Hopefully there’ll be new content.

    There will be, the trailer briefly showed what is likely a rather infamous piece of cut content from the original release, the Bionis's Shoulder.

    I do wonder how they'll fit in into the game though - will it be slotted into the story/progression where it was originally planned to go (between Frontier Village and Eryth Sea)? WIll it be a post-game area?

    The original decision to cut out the shoulder felt to me like an admirable bit of self-restraint. Xenoblade has a lot of seams visible where you can tell that the designers were originally planning to squander large chunks of their time and budget on locations and plot points that wouldn't do anything other than bog down the game, and the shoulder was one of the biggest of them.

    I'm hoping it doesn't just get jammed back in in a place where it really doesn't need to go.

  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    jothki wrote: »
    Maz- wrote: »
    skeldare wrote: »
    It’s nice that it’s not just a simple remaster. Hopefully there’ll be new content.

    There will be, the trailer briefly showed what is likely a rather infamous piece of cut content from the original release, the Bionis's Shoulder.

    I do wonder how they'll fit in into the game though - will it be slotted into the story/progression where it was originally planned to go (between Frontier Village and Eryth Sea)? WIll it be a post-game area?

    The original decision to cut out the shoulder felt to me like an admirable bit of self-restraint. Xenoblade has a lot of seams visible where you can tell that the designers were originally planning to squander large chunks of their time and budget on locations and plot points that wouldn't do anything other than bog down the game, and the shoulder was one of the biggest of them.

    I'm hoping it doesn't just get jammed back in in a place where it really doesn't need to go.

    From the point of view of somebody who spent like 100hrs on XBC without even doing a lot of the sidequests, my overall sentiment is that I'm not sure I want an even longer XB1.

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  • TDawgTDawg Registered User regular
    From the point of view of someone who has almost spent 200 hours now (!!!! this is a lot for me) on Xenoblade 2...bring it on. I am so ready for more Xenoblade right now. I'm gonna take a brief break before diving into Torna, then hopefully another small break before going in for XC1 Redux. SOOOO glad this is going to be on Switch. The aging graphics & desire to play it on a non-3DS portable were honestly a sizable hurdle for me to realistically ever make it through.

    In other news, I think I am going to finish Xenoblade 2 tonight? Some of this stuff towards the end is absolutely bonkers and I am really feeling it.

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  • initiatefailureinitiatefailure Registered User regular
    as someone who hasn't yet jumped into any of the xenoblade options, will the chronicles remake be the ideal starting point over either of the available options?

  • TDawgTDawg Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    as someone who hasn't yet jumped into any of the xenoblade options, will the chronicles remake be the ideal starting point over either of the available options?

    I would say so. Xenoblade Chronicles X is on the WiiU, and XC2 is super inundated with #AnimeBullshit that turns a lot of people off. Don't get me wrong, they're all very anime...but XC2 takes it to a whole new level. I say this as someone who really loves that game, too. I was probably only able to get into XC2 as much as I did because I had played a good chunk of XC1 via a copy my old roommate had, and a lifetime of intense anime consumption, so I could stomach the worst bits and knew to expect the best (which it delivers! in spades!).

    I've heard good things about XC2's spin-off/DLC as being a reasonable jumping-on point as well, but can't vouch for it myself yet.

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  • PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    TDawg wrote: »
    as someone who hasn't yet jumped into any of the xenoblade options, will the chronicles remake be the ideal starting point over either of the available options?

    I would say so. Xenoblade Chronicles X is on the WiiU, and XC2 is super inundated with #AnimeBullshit that turns a lot of people off. Don't get me wrong, they're all very anime...but XC2 takes it to a whole new level. I say this as someone who really loves that game, too. I was probably only able to get into XC2 as much as I did because I had played a good chunk of XC1 via a copy my old roommate had, and a lifetime of intense anime consumption, so I could stomach the worst bits and knew to expect the best (which it delivers! in spades!).

    I've heard good things about XC2's spin-off/DLC as being a reasonable jumping-on point as well, but can't vouch for it myself yet.

    I think Torna works better after being 2. Although partly because of how it takes the battle system and improves on it.

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  • The Dude With HerpesThe Dude With Herpes Lehi, UTRegistered User regular
    edited September 2019
    100 hours in XC1 is like, the base game? I think? I'm pretty sure my second playthrough had over 400 hours by the time I had done basically everything. Second. Thats when I knew what I was doing, the first had more, and didn't even get to everything because I wanted to do it "right" (and I had missed some quests/affinities)

    More? Bring it. Some games don't need to be tight and focused. Some games are fine being sprawling messes that overwhelm most players. :lol:

    Also, I keep seeing people around here and elsewhere say that the story in XC1 was better, in response to people who haven't played it. I feel like this needs clarifying; as someone who agrees it is better...

    Because the story in XC1 takes a lot longer to get going, and plods along for a very long time; some people claim that it doesn't really get going until Prison Island. I don't agree with that, but there is undeniably a pretty big gap in the story after the early game intensity, before it picks up again, and just sort of...goes, for awhile. Part of that is the fact that the world is just so big and there are constantly a billion side things to do at all times, so you can play for 50 hours between story beats and almost forget there is a story. I can't put myself in the shoes of someone who can ignore sidequests and stuff, so I can't even begin to say whether or not the game would feel satisfying if you just barreled through the story; though I can say that you'd have a game longer than the vast vast majority of games, even JRPG's, even if you did do only the main story.

    Personally I can't separate my history with all the xeno-game from my experience with XC1, and how that effected my view of the story. I'm fairly sure a lot of what I took from the story was colored in large part by what I played before from Takahashi, and the satisfaction of him finally getting to tell the story he had been trying to (in its concepts anyway, it is obviously a different literal story, but the ideas that form them are all the same) tell for so. damn. long. XC2 stepped outside this somewhat, but as a result, didn't have as big of an impact on me. However! Virtually every single thing about playing XC2 was better than XC1. XCX, on the other hand, is just so profoundly disappointing, story-wise; because you could see all the parts of what could have been fantastic, but missed every single mark; gameplay was great though!

    Also also, I think the "animebullshit" aspect of XC2 is dramatically overblown. The blade designs are intentionally anime inspired, they actively sought anime artists to design them, and they all carry their creators marks; some are gratuitous, but rarely are they off-putting (I'm speaking of someone who isn't into anime, but is into jrpg's, though I am aware of some of the more popular anime, and their styles). Dahlia is the only one I can think of off hand that actually bugged me; but she also wasn't a very good blade, so it never really mattered outside of doing her couple quests.

    Regardless, while XC1 is my favorite xeno-game, I also am super aware that its systems are not incredibly welcoming, and certainly would be harder to jump into for someone not already invested in extremely long and system loaded JRPG's, and game-play wise, at least for the original version (we will see if they make changes to gameplay for the Switch version), is a step back in pretty much every regard from XC2, if that's where someone is coming from. If you've never played either, the best summation of what to expect with XC1 is imagine a single player MMO made by the JRPG'iest of JRPG design teams, with the amount of side stuff that would make Bethesda blush.

    EDIT: One qualifier, the pseudo-gatcha aspect of XC2 was garbage, and I still can only think it is there because they had intended to do microtransactions and then abandoned the idea but left the systems in place. Because if they didn't, then they just designed a superbly bad system that adds absolutely nothing to the game whatsoever. So when I say "gameplay wise" XC2 is the better game, it has to be considered that XC1 has nothing like the blade crystal system, and therefore at least in that regard, is superior.

    XC1 still has the better story, but you have to want it to get there.

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  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    I'm so stoked to play through Xenoblade Chronicles again. Time to help Colony 6 again. :P

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  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    Regardless, while XC1 is my favorite xeno-game, I also am super aware that its systems are not incredibly welcoming, and certainly would be harder to jump into for someone not already invested in extremely long and system loaded JRPG's, and game-play wise, at least for the original version (we will see if they make changes to gameplay for the Switch version), is a step back in pretty much every regard from XC2, if that's where someone is coming from. If you've never played either, the best summation of what to expect with XC1 is imagine a single player MMO made by the JRPG'iest of JRPG design teams, with the amount of side stuff that would make Bethesda blush.
    Possibly the worst mechanic of XC1 one, to me, was gems and the crafting thereof. The effects of them are pretty weak unless you got a perfect roll until higher ranks, then at end-game if you have high affinity with your other party members your attempts at refining them into decent quality cylinders are ruined by party members "helping" and boosting them into gems. It turns into Save Scumming: The Game. At least the Shulk and Reyn combo have no problem reliably getting Mega Heat once you've gotten to that point. I much preferred the straightforward crafting system of XCX.

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  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    100 hours in XC1 is like, the base game? I think?

    I think it could definitely be beaten in fewer than 100 hours if you really ignored the sidequests entirely, but I did a bunch and spent a lot of time poking around all the maps at every time of day. I also spent way too much time trying to figure out where the hell to go for a lot of the sidequests involving people being at certain places at certain times of day!

    I don't think it needs to be any tighter or more focused, and its sprawl was something that was part of its character. But I do think that there was just so much in it that I don't need EVEN MORE, and that even just the main storyline was already a satisfying tale told in a satisfying amount of time. I think making that longer would make it feel worse, in addition to the sheer laboriousness of it.
    I can't put myself in the shoes of someone who can ignore sidequests and stuff, so I can't even begin to say whether or not the game would feel satisfying if you just barreled through the story; though I can say that you'd have a game longer than the vast vast majority of games, even JRPG's, even if you did do only the main story.

    A-ha, for me there's an entire set of sidequests that I gladly ignore in XC1 and XC2, and those are generic sidequests where a person tells me to go out here and kill these things and bring some whatevers back to them. To me, the creatures on the world map in XC1 and XC2 make the world map a more beautiful and alive place, and when I wipe out the creatures, I have made the place less interesting and more desolate. These creatures don't even attack me normally! Especially considering that the story motivation for many of these quests is "a job I can do for money", I don't feel "good" doing these sidequests and I feel like I am entirely justified in choosing not to do them when that story motivation is not motivating given my party's circumstances. On the other hand, in FFXV they specifically point out that these hunt quests are about creatures causing environmental problems, so the story justification for me is much more palatable!

    These quests really do have no bearing on how the main story feels, especially because the "handy bunch of folks that help people!" angle of the experience is still entirely captured in both the main story and in other sidequests.

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  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    i played just 20 hrs of XBC1 (feels like a lot more), but I'm up to 250 hrs of XBC2 and I fucking love it to bits.

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  • rahkeesh2000rahkeesh2000 Registered User regular
    l_g wrote: »
    A-ha, for me there's an entire set of sidequests that I gladly ignore in XC1 and XC2, and those are generic sidequests where a person tells me to go out here and kill these things and bring some whatevers back to them.

    I didn't realize that this really was a single-player MMO!

  • jothkijothki Registered User regular
    Barrakketh wrote: »
    Regardless, while XC1 is my favorite xeno-game, I also am super aware that its systems are not incredibly welcoming, and certainly would be harder to jump into for someone not already invested in extremely long and system loaded JRPG's, and game-play wise, at least for the original version (we will see if they make changes to gameplay for the Switch version), is a step back in pretty much every regard from XC2, if that's where someone is coming from. If you've never played either, the best summation of what to expect with XC1 is imagine a single player MMO made by the JRPG'iest of JRPG design teams, with the amount of side stuff that would make Bethesda blush.
    Possibly the worst mechanic of XC1 one, to me, was gems and the crafting thereof. The effects of them are pretty weak unless you got a perfect roll until higher ranks, then at end-game if you have high affinity with your other party members your attempts at refining them into decent quality cylinders are ruined by party members "helping" and boosting them into gems. It turns into Save Scumming: The Game. At least the Shulk and Reyn combo have no problem reliably getting Mega Heat once you've gotten to that point. I much preferred the straightforward crafting system of XCX.

    The problem with the crafting system in XCX is that there's so many different parts that you need to gather and the rest of the game really isn't set up for easily farming them, so it's really easy to just keep putting it off and off until eventually you've beaten the entire game without touching a single augment.

  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    I loved how XC1 retooled a JPRG cliche I'm fed up with (the villain) and actually explored some reasonings behind it.

    I give bonus points to Guilty Gear Xrd exploring that cliche very deeply too.

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  • BarrakkethBarrakketh Registered User regular
    jothki wrote: »
    The problem with the crafting system in XCX is that there's so many different parts that you need to gather and the rest of the game really isn't set up for easily farming them, so it's really easy to just keep putting it off and off until eventually you've beaten the entire game without touching a single augment.
    That was certainly not the case for me, and I put it off early game when it would have benefited me the most. Actually, augments in the early game require little resources and are stupidly powerful at that point in the game. The Melee/Ranged Attack Up V gives you 30 to each attribute and require two of the items you get from suid head/tail appendages + a FrontierNav item. For comparison, level 30 Dual Sword/Dual Gun from Candid & Credible have 40/15 attack power. Fleecy furs are the only enemy drop you need for Max TP Up augments.

    As far as the game not being setup for easily farming...please elaborate.

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  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    Cantido wrote: »
    I loved how XC1 retooled a JPRG cliche I'm fed up with (the villain) and actually explored some reasonings behind it.

    I give bonus points to Guilty Gear Xrd exploring that cliche very deeply too.

    The Xeno series on the whole is known for that. What XBC1 did was remove most of the cruft surrounding the themes and story beats Takahashi is known for. Even with a relative lull in the Bionis, it's probably the best paced Xeno game.

    But, yeah, in most cases, his 'villains' aren't. They tend to be broken and/or misunderstood people defending themselves from a world that doesn't accept them. Or, they're trying to escape to/create a world that will. The real villains tend to be those that exploit the former, or are otherwise in it for themselves.

  • Maz-Maz- 飛べ Registered User regular
    The real villains are the Nopon of Frontier Village and their unjust treatment of Heropon Riki!!

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  • delf4delf4 Registered User regular
    I'm hoping they increase the inventory limit so you don't start running out of space midway through the game again.

  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    Nightslyr wrote: »
    Cantido wrote: »
    I loved how XC1 retooled a JPRG cliche I'm fed up with (the villain) and actually explored some reasonings behind it.

    I give bonus points to Guilty Gear Xrd exploring that cliche very deeply too.

    The Xeno series on the whole is known for that. What XBC1 did was remove most of the cruft surrounding the themes and story beats Takahashi is known for. Even with a relative lull in the Bionis, it's probably the best paced Xeno game.

    But, yeah, in most cases, his 'villains' aren't. They tend to be broken and/or misunderstood people defending themselves from a world that doesn't accept them. Or, they're trying to escape to/create a world that will. The real villains tend to be those that exploit the former, or are otherwise in it for themselves.

    I have no idea what the statute of limitations are on a 10 year old game, but anyway:
    I was wondering at what point they would fight "god", because the story and setting seemed so entirely concrete for so long, without a lot in the way of abstract villains. And then almost at the very end, you get revealed the (re)creation of the universe and Zanza!

    Metal Face and Zanza are 100% unequivocal no-shades-of-grey villains, though.

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  • NightslyrNightslyr Registered User regular
    l_g wrote: »
    Nightslyr wrote: »
    Cantido wrote: »
    I loved how XC1 retooled a JPRG cliche I'm fed up with (the villain) and actually explored some reasonings behind it.

    I give bonus points to Guilty Gear Xrd exploring that cliche very deeply too.

    The Xeno series on the whole is known for that. What XBC1 did was remove most of the cruft surrounding the themes and story beats Takahashi is known for. Even with a relative lull in the Bionis, it's probably the best paced Xeno game.

    But, yeah, in most cases, his 'villains' aren't. They tend to be broken and/or misunderstood people defending themselves from a world that doesn't accept them. Or, they're trying to escape to/create a world that will. The real villains tend to be those that exploit the former, or are otherwise in it for themselves.

    I have no idea what the statute of limitations are on a 10 year old game, but anyway:
    I was wondering at what point they would fight "god", because the story and setting seemed so entirely concrete for so long, without a lot in the way of abstract villains. And then almost at the very end, you get revealed the (re)creation of the universe and Zanza!

    Metal Face and Zanza are 100% unequivocal no-shades-of-grey villains, though.

    Oh, definitely. And, in the former's case, he really seems to be the exception to the general rule...
    Did Metal Face have any backstory aside from being a cruel asshole? I honestly can't remember.

    And, I sort of misspoke earlier. It's not that the Xeno games don't have villains - they definitely do. It's that they tend to have actual reasons for their behavior. There's very little evil for evil's sake, and what characters are like that stand out because of that juxtaposition.

    Like, in Xenosaga, Albedo was an absolute monster. But his actions were essentially driven by a desire for his brother to kill him. To be monstrous so he could be put down like the monster he saw himself as because he couldn't stand the idea of being, for all intents and purposes, immortal while his brothers inevitably died.

    Or in Xenogears with Krelian. Refusing to believe that a god that would allow Sophia to die existed, he decided to become a god himself. He does a lot of terrible things, but it's all for a larger goal - to create an existence where people don't have to experience the kind of loss he felt. It's only at the end that he recognizes his folly, and leaves with the Wave Existence after saving Fei and Elly.

    Definitely villains, but not the standard fare of "I'm going to take over the world because I'm megalomaniac #458858 straight from central casting." Most of the main villains in Takahshi's games have a tragic element (or two) to them. It's the JRPG version of Batman villains. They need to be stopped/brought down, but on some level you can sympathize with them. And the ones you can't - like the Joker, or
    Metal Face
    are all the more memorable because they don't fit that mold.

  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    One thing that did feel "weird" in Xenoblade 2 is that when you get the XBC cameo, Shulk's voice sounds deeper/older than I remember... and it made me think that that was done to prevent him from sounding too much like Rex. Was that just my imagination?

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  • TcheldorTcheldor Registered User regular
    l_g wrote: »
    One thing that did feel "weird" in Xenoblade 2 is that when you get the XBC cameo, Shulk's voice sounds deeper/older than I remember... and it made me think that that was done to prevent him from sounding too much like Rex. Was that just my imagination?

    The VA is that much older now is what i'd expect to be the real reason. It's gotta be a newly recorded line.

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    Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
  • CantidoCantido Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Nightslyr wrote: »
    l_g wrote: »
    Nightslyr wrote: »
    Cantido wrote: »
    I loved how XC1 retooled a JPRG cliche I'm fed up with (the villain) and actually explored some reasonings behind it.

    I give bonus points to Guilty Gear Xrd exploring that cliche very deeply too.

    The Xeno series on the whole is known for that. What XBC1 did was remove most of the cruft surrounding the themes and story beats Takahashi is known for. Even with a relative lull in the Bionis, it's probably the best paced Xeno game.

    But, yeah, in most cases, his 'villains' aren't. They tend to be broken and/or misunderstood people defending themselves from a world that doesn't accept them. Or, they're trying to escape to/create a world that will. The real villains tend to be those that exploit the former, or are otherwise in it for themselves.

    I have no idea what the statute of limitations are on a 10 year old game, but anyway:
    I was wondering at what point they would fight "god", because the story and setting seemed so entirely concrete for so long, without a lot in the way of abstract villains. And then almost at the very end, you get revealed the (re)creation of the universe and Zanza!

    Metal Face and Zanza are 100% unequivocal no-shades-of-grey villains, though.

    Oh, definitely. And, in the former's case, he really seems to be the exception to the general rule...
    Did Metal Face have any backstory aside from being a cruel asshole? I honestly can't remember.

    And, I sort of misspoke earlier. It's not that the Xeno games don't have villains - they definitely do. It's that they tend to have actual reasons for their behavior. There's very little evil for evil's sake, and what characters are like that stand out because of that juxtaposition.

    Like, in Xenosaga, Albedo was an absolute monster. But his actions were essentially driven by a desire for his brother to kill him. To be monstrous so he could be put down like the monster he saw himself as because he couldn't stand the idea of being, for all intents and purposes, immortal while his brothers inevitably died.

    Or in Xenogears with Krelian. Refusing to believe that a god that would allow Sophia to die existed, he decided to become a god himself. He does a lot of terrible things, but it's all for a larger goal - to create an existence where people don't have to experience the kind of loss he felt. It's only at the end that he recognizes his folly, and leaves with the Wave Existence after saving Fei and Elly.

    Definitely villains, but not the standard fare of "I'm going to take over the world because I'm megalomaniac #458858 straight from central casting." Most of the main villains in Takahshi's games have a tragic element (or two) to them. It's the JRPG version of Batman villains. They need to be stopped/brought down, but on some level you can sympathize with them. And the ones you can't - like the Joker, or
    Metal Face
    are all the more memorable because they don't fit that mold.

    Xrd did something great with this.
    A female creature called The Universal Will turned out to be a golem created from the source code of the universe, programmed to help humanity obtain ultimate happiness, but do so while never harming them. Upon observing humanity, it finds that humans go through an endless cycle of cherishing a benefit or gift to expecting it and craving more (this is called Hedonistic Adaptation by psychologists.) Technology is one example of this.

    She blows a gasket and generates a logical loophole under the notion that humans don't exist "yet," and decides she is observing perpetually incomplete, inferior little shits that should be replaced by a race she can permanently program to be happy. Every time civilization edges close to ascension without her "help" she attacks to drag humanity back into toil until she can create her replacement.

    And then Sol fucks her shit up.

    Cantido on
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  • l_gl_g Registered User regular
    Tcheldor wrote: »
    l_g wrote: »
    One thing that did feel "weird" in Xenoblade 2 is that when you get the XBC cameo, Shulk's voice sounds deeper/older than I remember... and it made me think that that was done to prevent him from sounding too much like Rex. Was that just my imagination?

    The VA is that much older now is what i'd expect to be the real reason. It's gotta be a newly recorded line.

    If the actor's voice was mature back when the XB1 lines were recorded, I wouldn't imagine the voice changing quite that dramatically!... Looking it up, Adam Howden was the English voice of Shulk in XB1 and XB2, and he was born in 1983... so he was in his late 20s when he recorded those lines.

    That makes me feel like it was a choice of direction unless he smokes and drinks like an 80s rock star.

    Cole's Law: "Thinly sliced cabbage."
  • skeldareskeldare Gresham, ORRegistered User regular
    l_g wrote: »
    Tcheldor wrote: »
    l_g wrote: »
    One thing that did feel "weird" in Xenoblade 2 is that when you get the XBC cameo, Shulk's voice sounds deeper/older than I remember... and it made me think that that was done to prevent him from sounding too much like Rex. Was that just my imagination?

    The VA is that much older now is what i'd expect to be the real reason. It's gotta be a newly recorded line.

    If the actor's voice was mature back when the XB1 lines were recorded, I wouldn't imagine the voice changing quite that dramatically!... Looking it up, Adam Howden was the English voice of Shulk in XB1 and XB2, and he was born in 1983... so he was in his late 20s when he recorded those lines.

    That makes me feel like it was a choice of direction unless he smokes and drinks like an 80s rock star.

    It's most likely either a different voice direction or just the fact that it'd been several years between recording sessions and he couldn't perfectly do the same voice.

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  • NitsuaNitsua Gloucester, VARegistered User regular
    Or maybe he wasn't really feeling it.

    I'll see myself out.

  • Brainiac 8Brainiac 8 Don't call me Shirley... Registered User regular
    Nitsua wrote: »
    Or maybe he wasn't really feeling it.

    I'll see myself out.

    What a jokah!

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  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Thought I had missed my chance to finally get and finish XB1 when I missed the boat on the Wii U and new 3DS releases (don't have either).

    Looks like a masterful remaster. I can only hope XCX isn't far behind.

    Dr. Chaos on
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