The characters of Xenoblade, according to me

[JoostinOnline]

I think that's less "The player isn't patient enough" and more "The developers don't know how to properly pace the story" actually.

Oh, I agree with you. Most games have a slow start, but it's a major flaw in Xenoblade.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

That explains it. You haven't beaten it, which is why 3 of your points are wrong. I won't spoil it though.

Btw, I had 170 hours on the game before I beat it (I'm a completionist, and there are hundreds of missions), and there were still a few missions that I couldn't beat because the monsters were so %*$#ing hard!

It's ridiculous how long it takes for the story to really start developing, but overall it's worth it (there are a few jaw-drop revelations). However, if you don't have the patience for something like that, it's not the game for you.

I just don't see why anyone would have the patience for a game that only gets good after literal days are put into it.

Like I understand work-to-payoff. I think grinding is a horrible cheap excuse devs use to inflate game time but I can understand the argument that the dull, monotonous task pays off with a satisfying defeat of a tougher enemy. Or I guess a better example would be Super Meat Boy or Hotline Miami, games that are ridiculously hard but you feel all the more accomplished when you eventually master a level.

From playing it at the beginning I knew I wasn't ever going to give a shit about the story. It established itself within a couple of hours to be a very typical JRPG affair, which is basically just full of cliches and plot holes. It does however get some credit from me for not following the JRPG trend of making everything so fucking uselessly convoluted that you have no idea what's going on. At its core the story is still pretty simple, just incredibly stretched and drawn out and jabbed with irrelevant plot points to extend what feels like a two hour movie narrative.

I already have $10 riding on Fiora coming back in some incredible asspull. Either she comes back as a Mechon or, um, that guy from FFXII uses the Monado's greatest power, the "Bullshit We Can Pull Because Fuck You" and brings her back. EDIT: They keep making references to the Monado basically able to do anything and they have an entire sect of weapons dedicated to Fiora. You don't get them postmortem but you don't get anyone's weapons until they come back.

Also we all know Gadolt is alive. The game's too fucking cheery for that.

 

[JoostinOnline]

There aren't plot-holes, you just don't know the whole story (or in several cases, the truth) yet.

I found the gameplay decent, which is why I continued on with it. I wouldn't have made it otherwise. I actually quit playing for weeks before I picked it back up again. Everyone telling me "but it gets REALLY good if you just keep playing" is what got me through it. I'm glad I did, but completing a game shouldn't require nagging.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Lol the plot twist. Oh god I'm dying.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

I already have $10 riding on Fiora coming back in some incredible asspull. Either she comes back as a Mechon or, um, that guy from FFXII uses the Monado's greatest power, the "Bullshit We Can Pull Because Fuck You" and brings her back. EDIT: They keep making references to the Monado basically able to do anything and they have an entire sect of weapons dedicated to Fiora. You don't get them postmortem but you don't get anyone's weapons until they come back.

FIORA WASN'T DEAD SHE WAS MAGICALLY TURNED INTO A MECHON LOL.

MAN THIS PLOT IS SO DEEP AND INVOLVING LOL.

EDIT: BY THE WAY I GUESS NO ONE EVER BROUGHT UP THAT HER BODY MAGICALLY DISAPPEARED AND THERE WAS NEVER A BURIAL FOR HER LOL.

Seriously people.

 

[Foxi4]

If a story does not engage the player after several hours of gameplay, it's a bad story.

It's the introduction that's crucial for plot development - if there's no force that makes you want to keep playing, if you don't feel interested or in any way attached to the game and its characters there's nothing that's going to motivate you to invest more time or thought into it.

Perhaps good "game feel" could save the title but there is none - it's incredibly generic. The use of a sandbox world is crude - it's easy to throw a player into an open world, much harder to create an open world that maintains a sense of direction, of which Xenoblade has none.

It's easy to get lost in the game and in a bad way - it's not the "I'm lost but I've got things to do" kind of lost, it's the "I'm lost and I cannot bloody progress, what do I do?!" kind of lost which disqualifies the title for me even though I haven't finished it and for now I have no intention to do so.

 

[JoostinOnline]

If a story does not engage the player after several hours of gameplay, it's a bad story.

I think the problem with Xenoblade is that there isn't enough story for the huge amount of gameplay. It's stretched too thin.

It's the introduction that's crucial for plot development - if there's no force that makes you want to keep playing, if you don't feel interested or in any way attached to the game and its characters there's nothing that's going to motivate you to invest more time or thought into it.

There was a badass introduction.

 

[Foxi4]

I think the problem with Xenoblade is that there isn't enough story for the huge amount of gameplay. It's stretched too thin.
There was a badass introduction.

There was a badass introduction which showed us Dunban who is not the protagonist - he's the local Obi-Wan Kenobi cross Jesus the Martyr figure. That's hardly a presentation of character motivation for Shulk.

EDIT: Moreover, the intro sequence and the first hour of gameplay introduces us to characters that we're not even going to deal with anytime soon - as far as Shulk and the gang's story arc is concerned, the player is just randomly thrown into it.

 

[JoostinOnline]

There was a badass introduction which showed us Dunban who is not the protagonist - he's the local Obi-Wan Kenobi cross Jesus the Martyr figure. That's hardly a presentation of character motivation for Shulk.

More accurately, it showed us the history between the Mechon and the Homs, as well as the "power of the Monado". It wasn't about the characters in the war, although they all played important roles in the later story.

 

[Foxi4]

More accurately, it showed us the history between the Mechon and the Homs, as well as the "power of the Monado". It wasn't about the characters in the war, although they all played important roles in the later story.

I would rather learn the lore from the game proper, but hey! A matter of approach.

Like I said, the intro sequence was bad ass, it was followed by a great combat sequence with Dunban and climaxed with being relegated to the role of Shulking Shulk - great.

 

[p1ngpong]

Sounds mad gay.

 

[GameWinner]

My friend is going to let me borrow this next week, I really hope it's not THAT bad.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Can't be any worse than Final Fantasy XIII.

 

[GameWinner]

Can't be any worse than Final Fantasy XIII.

I still consider this one of the worst JRPGs I ever played.

 

[the_randomizer]

Can't be any worse than Final Fantasy XIII.

or Final Fantasy X-2

 

[JoostinOnline]

I would rather learn the lore from the game proper, but hey! A matter of approach.

What's the proper way?

 

[Gahars]

I think this is still relevant.

Spoiler

 

[Guild McCommunist]

What's the proper way?

Having it interwoven into the plot subtly without being too overwhelming at times or too scarce as a whole.

Xenoblade's lore is pretty simple though. Two gods fought, they both died, now their corpses are worlds. Mechons are from Mechonis, humanoid species are from Bionis (Mech, Bio, pretty self explanatory). They're at war. End of story.

 

[GameWinner]

That was a great story, so complex.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

That was a great story, so complex.

Well I don't need the story to be complex. Some of the best stories are simple ones. Star Wars for instance is just a very, very simple story. In fact its refreshing to have a JRPG that isn't convoluted and complex like FFX or XIII. Still, it doesn't save it from being a bland story with a lot of predictable twists. Hell I already predicted one of their big plot twists and I actually rolled my eyes when I saw it.

Also I got to the boss battle on that fucking snow mountain whatever it's called and I'm calling fucking bullshit. I guess I need to grind but the respawn from the boss is like 1500 whatever the fuck measurement they use (I'll say parsecs) away. Great fucking design there.

 

[JoostinOnline]

I think this is still relevant.

Spoiler

That was streets ahead!