Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

[Vagiel]

I don't know guys, i felt somehow i was just running after exclamation marks while bling bling hundreds of quests with no meaning kept being completed. I know there is a good game beneath that but this complete handholding is a big turn off.

 

[Perkel]

I don't know guys, i felt somehow i was just running after exclamation marks while bling bling hundreds of quests with no meaning kept being completed. I know there is a good game beneath that but this complete handholding is a big turn off.

You should be happy you are not playing original where you had to wander in map just to find where something is. Game was not made with idea that something will point you into right direction.
Moreover you are looking at around 90% being pure fetch quests.

Imho those pointers are greatest QOL for Xenoblade1 they could ever make. World was amazing but those fetch quests were painful. The problem with them was that some of those fetch quest do contain story bits and you never knew which ones did so you had to do them all if you wanted to get those bits.

If they wouldn't contain those bits i wouldn't ever attempt to do them and i would just ignore them.

 

[cruel]

So... I played the game for 26 hours or so, level 36 - going through Makna forest now. And I must admit, I'm not surprised by all the high rankings (9/10 and more) this game gets. The world is beautiful, music is incredible, characters are authentic and likable, combat is fun, story is also OK. The only thing that can be annoying are those fetch quests, but with the improvements of Definitive version, you just collect all of them during normal play - so no issue here. World design continues to amaze me - all the verticality, everything is so alive, and just feels organic, not another copy-pasted boring design. Somebody really did a fantastic job here.

What makes me think though... how is it possible that a game like this, released (original) in 2010, shits on every recent western RPG? Comparing this to, let's say, Greedfall, is not even funny (I know, different games, but still). The world is better, combat is better, characters are better, same for music, exploration, itemization, atmosphere, etc. EVERYTHING was better. 10 years ago. Why are we going backwards with games quality?

Ech, end of rant.

 

[Alphard]

So... I played the game for 26 hours or so, level 36 - going through Makna forest now. And I must admit, I'm not surprised by all the high rankings (9/10 and more) this game gets. The world is beautiful, music is incredible, characters are authentic and likable, combat is fun, story is also OK. The only thing that can be annoying are those fetch quests, but with the improvements of Definitive version, you just collect all of them during normal play - so no issue here. World design continues to amaze me - all the verticality, everything is so alive, and just feels organic, not another copy-pasted boring design. Somebody really did a fantastic job here.

What makes me think though... how is it possible that a game like this, released (original) in 2010, shits on every recent western RPG? Comparing this to, let's say, Greedfall, is not even funny (I know, different games, but still). The world is better, combat is better, characters are better, same for music, exploration, itemization, atmosphere, etc. EVERYTHING was better. 10 years ago. Why are we going backwards with games quality?

Ech, end of rant.

because if you haven't noticed western civilization is on its biggest decline since barbaric invasions. only japanese remain, and they are one step from falling into the abyss of the neoliberism and PC as of the rest of """developed """" countries

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Yeah, I do find the characters in Xenoblade very likeable. I was watching some of the later cutscenes on youtub and was instantly reminded of this. It gives you proper motivation to mix your party up to hear all of the different combinations of fun banter. Can't have a reyn-bow without reyn.

That may be why I couldn't get into XC2 as much. There was just too much combat banter, everybody talking over each other. It multiplied the amount of entities in your party and added a lot of combat with human enemies, and everyone's just diarrhea-ing out their voice lines all at once.

 

[Sentinel]

I'm playing this and I'm up to level 55 on the

Spoiler

Mechon Village

, and because I suspect I may be nearing the end of the game, I've looked into XC2. From everything I've seen of it, it seems like a complete 180 turn on this game's strengths, which is a massive disappointment, as I'll have nothing to play after this.
It's gearing up to be my favorite jRPG along with FF9.

 

[SerratedBiz]

So XC is better than XC2? I never played the first one but I wasn't greatly impressed by 2.

 

[Perkel]

So XC is better than XC2? I never played the first one but I wasn't greatly impressed by 2.

I heard XC2 is worse but i can't say that since i didn't play it. I will though play it in near future. It already works in Yuzu switch emulator and has really good framerate but there are some graphical bugs that probably will be quickly fixed.

All i know about XC2 is that you collect anime waifus for a plot.

 

[cruel]

Finally finished the game. Took me 91h for the main story and 13h for Future Connected, so 104h total.

What a wonderful game. I'm so happy that I asked and tried it, even with my reservations regarding the combat system. Not everything was perfect - story became a mess in the end, I didn't like the whole plot twist around chapter 15, levels matter too much, etc. But overall, as a whole package, this is a fantastic game and truly deserves a spot for best rated Switch game up to date:
- Amazing, unique environments, so different from each other, and feeling alive / organic. Not another copy/pasted corridor
- very likable cast, with authentic characters; clearly somebody put a lot of work into their design, each one has its own personality
- a lot of memorable moments / situations: Satorl Marsh during the night, Makna Forest, Riki introduction
- great sense of journey
- amazing / magical music; one of the best OST I heard in the game
- charm, humor, love just emanating from the game
- enjoyable combat system
- finishing the game makes you sad

9/10. One of the best JRPG out there.


BTW, good collection of funny character conversations from the game: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/Xenoblade

 

[Perkel]

YUP OST is legendary, now can try Xenoblade Chronicles X and rage with us how awesome it is and yet almost unplayable due to stupid design reasons.

 

[Sentinel]

I couldn't even finish the DLC. It was so boring to me. Maybe it's because I played it immediately after the main game so I just missed the main cast. But even on the gameplay side, the removal of the time mechanic made the combat a lot less appealing for me.

 

[Jenkem]

YUP OST is legendary, now can try Xenoblade Chronicles X and rage with us how awesome it is and yet almost unplayable due to stupid design reasons.

I had no trouble with it, seems like it was user error.

 

[Perkel]

I mean sure if you are cheater and play with gamefaqs then game will be of no issue. But for me which never uses it, is a huge problem where i get sidequest that wants me to find 5 something from tail of some monster without explaining me anything about quest and where and what should i hunt.

Turns out it was some monster who would only appear at night in area 105 or something like that and chance for that drop was like 2%. So basically you could dig through whole continent piece by piece murdering each monster 10 times at every time of day you would still have very small chance to find it and do that quest.

Naturally since it was character sidequest i couldn't decline it and i couldn't progress main quest since those are locked if you take character sidequest.

After spending nearly 5 hours grinding for that part i got only like 3 out of 5 and i said enough.

Game theme is cool as hell but this is just poorly designed. All quest don't explain shit where you supposed to even go, they expect you to just find things in open world which is huge as fuck with usually very gated paths blocked by some super high level monsters.

 

[Sentinel]

I mean sure if you are cheater and play with gamefaqs then game will be of no issue. But for me which never uses it, is a huge problem where i get sidequest that wants me to find 5 something from tail of some monster without explaining me anything about quest and where and what should i hunt.

Turns out it was some monster who would only appear at night in area 105 or something like that and chance for that drop was like 2%. So basically you could dig through whole continent piece by piece murdering each monster 10 times at every time of day you would still have very small chance to find it and do that quest.

Naturally since it was character sidequest i couldn't decline it and i couldn't progress main quest since those are locked if you take character sidequest.

After spending nearly 5 hours grinding for that part i got only like 3 out of 5 and i said enough.

Game theme is cool as hell but this is just poorly designed. All quest don't explain shit where you supposed to even go, they expect you to just find things in open world which is huge as fuck with usually very gated paths blocked by some super high level monsters.

you aren't missing anything. it's absolute fucking trash and the open world is straight out of your chink mmo. none of the quests are good either

 

[cruel]

Best character introduction ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA9HVZJAJAk

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

The upgraded character models really made me wish Sharla would sit on my face when I played through the Definitive Edition. Never happened when I played it on Wii

 

[Naharcito]

Today I finished D:OS and tonight I'm gonna start this one. Really wanting to play it for years, but I never kinda got to the right moment to play it.

 

[Jackpot]

Games like this with big open areas and a bunch of sidequests are always a problem for me.
I'll be enjoying the game a lot and decide to complete all of the sidequests in the first few areas to get a better feel for it.
Then because I already completed all the sidequests in those areas I'll feel obligated to do the same in any future areas.
And that just leads me to getting burnt out on the game quick because each new area introduces a bunch of boring fetch/kill quests that I feel I need to do.

I ended up quitting the game because of this right around the foot.
Well, that and the plot wasn't too engaging, I felt like I was anticipating most of the twists already.

 

[Naharcito]

I've been playing for 9 hours now but I already decided I won't be doing all the sidequests. Most of them are just boring fetch quests that just give you pennies and doesn't add anything to the story. I have enough following the story and grinding some XP whenever I find myself getting rekt by the area mobs.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I tried playing XBDF in the latest Yuzu with the 60 FPS patch and it doesn't run well on my Intel i9/RTX 3070. I get microstutters galore even with the native internal resolution. Meanwhile, XB:X on Cemu runs silky smooth at 4K/60FPS. I guess if I want to play Xenoblades Chronicles the 1st with smooth framerates I'll have to do it on a more mature emulator like Dolphin, unless someone here knows a secret setting for Yuzu that magical cures shitty performance with XBDE.

 

[Puukko]

Why not try ryujinx? It's the emulator that's not dead. I haven't tested it in a long while but I'm almost certain I hit 60 fps on a 5600x on ryujinx in the first colony back when I last tested it.

Also, could I bother you to give me your exact Cemu setup for XBX? Emulator version, 60 fps patch source, anything else relevant. I ask because I simply can't get the 60 fps patch to work. I've tried a couple times since I first played it back in 2019 and ze patches do nothing. I know they like to break between versions.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Why not try ryujinx? It's the emulator that's not dead. I haven't tested it in a long while but I'm almost certain I hit 60 fps on a 5600x on ryujinx in the first colony back when I last tested it.

Also, could I bother you to give me your exact Cemu setup for XBX? Emulator version, 60 fps patch source, anything else relevant. I ask because I simply can't get the 60 fps patch to work. I've tried a couple times since I first played it back in 2019 and ze patches do nothing. I know they like to break between versions.

Yeah, I hear good things about ryujnx and XBDE (a PITA to setup compared to others though) but the 2 games I used it it with (SMT 5 and that last Metroid title) didn't run particularly smoothly on my system so I didn't bother much. That was a few builds ago though.

I don't think I used many special settings with Cemu other than the graphics pak (you can download this within Cemu). Just be sure to use the last official build (2.0.74), use Vulcan, and select the 60FPS patch and 4K (3840 X 2160) for resolution in the graphics pak. However, make sure you select these settings before you run the game, then restart Cemu (important!) to see if they stick; sometimes they don't. Go to full screen during the game, and when you exit XB:X in Cemu do it with Alt-F4 otherwise it will always revert to windowed. Good luck, and may the God of Emulation be with you! (P.S. I'm disappointed that I can't climb up those giant monster tails and up their backs like in Shadow of the Colossus because of no collision).

Spoiler

 

[Mig]

I tried playing XBDF in the latest Yuzu with the 60 FPS patch and it doesn't run well on my Intel i9/RTX 3070. I get microstutters galore even with the native internal resolution. Meanwhile, XB:X on Cemu runs silky smooth at 4K/60FPS. I guess if I want to play Xenoblades Chronicles the 1st with smooth framerates I'll have to do it on a more mature emulator like Dolphin, unless someone here knows a secret setting for Yuzu that magical cures shitty performance with XBDE.

I just finished it a few days ago on Ryujinx with an RTX3080 and all the settings maxed out. Ran smoothly.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I tried playing XBDF in the latest Yuzu with the 60 FPS patch and it doesn't run well on my Intel i9/RTX 3070. I get microstutters galore even with the native internal resolution. Meanwhile, XB:X on Cemu runs silky smooth at 4K/60FPS. I guess if I want to play Xenoblades Chronicles the 1st with smooth framerates I'll have to do it on a more mature emulator like Dolphin, unless someone here knows a secret setting for Yuzu that magical cures shitty performance with XBDE.

I just finished it a few days ago on Ryujinx with an RTX3080 and all the settings maxed out. Ran smoothly.

Yeah I'm checking it out now with the most recent build of Ryujinx. Would much prefer playing the DE over the old Wii version because of many notable enhancements (controller movement ie turning is much more responsive in DE I noticed). I wonder if they fixed the issue of leveling too fast if you do side missions or if there'a patch for that like in the original.