Xenoblade Chronicles 2

[The DanMan]

First thing of order: those spoilers I posted? They ended up being mostly fake. Somebody just threw them together and kept a 40 page thread going on Gamefaqs before a contradiction with pre-release info popped up and some reviewers said that it "mostly wasn't true". Of course, he did guess some things right (we don't know for sure what, but there's a few obvious tidbits that stand out).

Secondly, they finally released a dubbed version of the Direct trailer:

...Only to then release a new, sub-only trailer that is really, really spoiler heavy.

[Hardin]

A fancy story trailer to drive up hype before Friday's release. 

 

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, The DanMan said:

Only to then release a new, sub-only trailer that is really, really spoiler heavy

Ah yes, i see Nintendo didn't learn from last time. What is it with Nintendo and having pretty big Xenoblade spoilers in trailers? I really want to watch that new trailer, but after learning it had quite a bit of spoilers in it, i decided against it.

5 hours ago, LuxSpes said:

Some production notes by Yasunori Mitsuda were released on the Japanese website. A reddit user made a summary of the notes, which  I'll spoiler just in case :

EDIT: Nintendo UK's website just posted a full translation of those production notes. I'll add some of the new details I gathered from it to the spoiler. I might add that the only details are the number of songs performed by ANÚNA and where "Shadow of the Lowlands" plays in the game. If it's not something you care being spoiled about, I'd recommend reading the full thing. 

  Hide contents

 

It's stated that ANÚNA also performed 3 other songs for the game, so we still have yet to hear the particular song Yasunori Mitsuda was talking about.

He also stated that this is the town theme for the Kingdom of Tantal. I can't wait to experience that in game. The song does sounds really fitting for a cold, snowy city.

EDIT: The official translation specifies that all four of the songs performed by ANÚNA are town theme. 

 

Mmm, yeah, i read those notes.

Spoiler

It being the town theme for the Kingdom of Tantal makes so much sense.

Oh and, i don't know how accurate these are (as i'm copy-pasting them from YouTube comments) but these are the lyrics

Shadow of the Lowlands,

Leading to the cold and darkened days. Without any hope,

Without a light for love.

Will this suffering ever come to an end?

One day...

Pride keeps us strong today,

Glory will be with us,

Now the time has come,

To fight and seize the day.

Suddenly a gleam (?),

Can you feel the power of faith?

Our native land,

Here we stand as one.

The lyrics also seem to fit the state Alrest is in, with all the Titans marching towards death and Rex and Pyra trying to reach Elysium. "Our native land" most likely refers to Elysium.

 

Edited November 27, 2017 by Armagon

[Interdimensional Observer]

I'm ignoring everything about this game to preserve that all too valuable unbiased first impression. But there is one thing that is bothering me- what is the DLC going to be and how much will it cost? Need to conserve eShop funds for that. I'll assume the typical $20 for good non-cosmetic/grinding DLC.

It seems like video games as a whole nowadays need you to shell out for extra if you want the complete package. As long as games are giving more than they used to and the DLC quality is good, I don't necessarily mind this. But just remember that a $60 purchase is really an $80.

[The DanMan]

Welp, street date has been broken in the US:

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

But there is one thing that is bothering me- what is the DLC going to be and how much will it cost? Need to conserve eShop funds for that. I'll assume the typical $20 for good non-cosmetic/grinding DLC.

The Season Pass is $30. As for what it is, it's basically doing the same thing as the Zelda Season Pass. We'll be getting smaller things like some new items, quests, and a new Rare Blade (i'm not that happy about a singular Rare Blade being DLC unless it's like, the Monado or something) and then at the end, we'll get a new story. The DLC starts rolling out on launch day and ends with the new story in Fall 2018.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It seems like video games as a whole nowadays need you to shell out for extra if you want the complete package. As long as games are giving more than they used to and the DLC quality is good, I don't necessarily mind this. But just remember that a $60 purchase is really an $80.

Agreed but, at least with Nintendo, you can still get a complete experience even without the DLC, at least for single player games. I haven't bought the Zelda Season Pass but i don't feel the need for Master Mode or the new armor sets.

But then you get to Smash and the DLC would have to be bought to get the full roster. But in both cases, Nintendo has been generous with DLC prices. Even the $30 Season Pass for Xenoblade 2 is generous considering the scale of the game and how the game will continued to be supported up until Fall 2018.

[Hardin]

Shit just got real. 

 

[The Geek]

6 minutes ago, Hardin said:

Shit just got real. 

 

Nice.  I wonder what Nintendo and Monolith Soft had to do to get Namco to let them use KOS-MOS.  Maybe it's payback for letting Fiora, Chrom, and Lucina into PXZ2

[Hardin]

Probably not that much honestly, a designer from Namco designed some original Blades for the game, so they probably discussed it then. 

[Jedi]

I had a feeling Kos-Mos would show up as a Blade, It was a simple gut feeling, but its cool to see it happen.

[Armagon]

I wake up and i see Kos-Mos is in the game. What a great way to start the game. Surprisingly though, from the looks of it, she isn't the DLC Rare Blade. She would've been perfect for that role considering she's the Kos-Mos and not just a reference. So that leaves two possibilities: either the Monado or someone from Xenogears is the DLC Rare Blade. The latter requires getting permission from Square Enix though. And Square Enix can be.......well, despite Cloud being in Smash, they could only get two FF songs for both versions. Yeah, getting the rights from Square Enix wouldn't be as easy.

I really do need to play Xenosaga (and Gears) eventually though.

Here's Kos-Mos' summoning cutscene

 

3 hours ago, The Geek said:

I wonder what Nintendo and Monolith Soft had to do to get Namco to let them use KOS-MOS.

Like Hardin said, it probably wasn't much. Namco owns Xenosaga, but because it's a Xeno game, that's probably the reason they were able to get Kos-Mos in the game, and the fact that Namco had designed some characters in Xenoblade 2 already (though i don't know which ones). Like, Namco could make a Xenosaga game if they wanted to, but they most likely wouldn't out of respect for Takahashi and Monolith Soft. And if they ever did want to make a new Xenosaga, i'd feel that they'd ask Nintendo for permission to have Monolith Soft help them out (which isn't something new, Monolith Soft developed Project X Zone 2 and i think the first one as well). Said new Xenosaga would be Switch exclusive, probably.

[The DanMan]

At least she's not hogging the special DLC Blade spotlight (which I still believe is the Monado).

[Armagon]

Reviews are out. The Metacritic score is 85

• GameXplain: "Loved it" (GameXplain doesn't do normal ratings but a "Loved it" basically means a 9/10 or 10/10)
• RPGamer: 5/5
• IGN: 8.5/10
• Nintendo World Report: 9.5/10
• Nintendo Life: 9/10
• DualShockers: 9.5/10
• GameSpot: 7/10

Some things i noted

• GameXplain and RPGamer both state that the gameplay is the best in the series.
• IGN and Nintendo World Report both mentioned something that's rather concerning: it's possible to have story progress halted at a certain point in the game if you don't have the required field skills. The former was frustrated by this roadblock while the latter stated that if you regularly do sidequests and explorations and unlocking new parts of the affinity chart, you should be able to avoid that roadblock.
• When Skip Traveling from one Titan to another, the load time is fast. Too fast, appearntly, because you'll have to wait a few seconds before everything properly renders.
• GameXplain had the game freeze at one point and crash at another. I haven't seen this with anyone else so it's probably just something technical Derrick experienced on his end. It only happened to him twice during his 80 hours of gameplay at the time but he did recommend to save often.
• Pretty much everyone seems to agree that the story is amazing.
• The game is best played on the TV as handheld mode, while good, does have a noticeable drop in resolution.
• GameXplain mentioned that the voice-acting in Heart-to-Hearts has that audio mixing problem X had.....at least by default. We already knew about being able to change the volume on all aspects of the audio in both cutscenes and gameplay.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

Kos-mos being in the base game sounds weird, and makes me wonder if they'll throw in any XC and XCX Rare Blades. I'm just hoping they won't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played them so no....

Xenoblade Chronicles spoliers

Spoiler

Mecha Fiora- although Smash and PXZ2 already spoiled her (why Smash why?). And no Alvis or Monado III either.

Major Xenoblade Chronicles X spoilers

Spoiler

Elma in her true form. Or Lao if it is explicitly said in a viewable profile or anything that he betrays.

 

As for what they could include for Xenogears if Square wasn't being so stingy, well the Gears are lifeless giant robots, so I'm not sure if they could make a Blade out of one of those (I'd expect them to use the Weltall if they did though). I'd expect either Fei, Elly, or Citan, or maybe that abomination called Chu Chu. Fei being the main character, Elly the heroine and second in importance only to Fei, and Citan being the PC in a distant third in terms of plot importance, Bart occupying the fourth plot importance PC spot. Elly looks a little Blade-like in her attire:

[Jingle Jangle]

This reminds me I still yet to complete the first Xenoblade Chronicles, but I my completionist nature make me want to do all of the sidequest, which makes me burn out fast. Is there a list of recommended quests to do in the game?  

[Armagon]

3 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

This reminds me I still yet to complete the first Xenoblade Chronicles, but I my completionist nature make me want to do all of the sidequest, which makes me burn out fast. Is there a list of recommended quests to do in the game?  

For Xenoblade Chronicles (spoilers)

Spoiler

At least do all of the Alcamoth and all Mechonis quests sans most of the ones on the Fallen Arm. All of those quests are timed, meaning they expire after certain events in the story. Alcamoth quests expire after the events of Mechonis Core while Mechonis quests expire after the events of Agniritha, with the exception of the ones in Central Factory. Central Factory quests will expire after Mechonis Core though.

If you don't want to reads that spoiler, basically just do all of the timed quests ASAP.

[The DanMan]

Somebody on Gamefaqs who's actually beaten the game is answering questions, one of which is about party members. Mild spoilers:

There's six total permanent party members and two guest party members. 

Adding on to this:

 

The IGN video review spoiled what everybody, their brother, mother, and dog were guessing: Morag is a playable party member. Some footage has also shown Vandham, but you're unable to change his equipment or give him new Blades-- so a guest party member.

Edited November 30, 2017 by The DanMan

[Interdimensional Observer]

23 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

This reminds me I still yet to complete the first Xenoblade Chronicles, but I my completionist nature make me want to do all of the sidequest, which makes me burn out fast. Is there a list of recommended quests to do in the game?  

Be sure to complete the sidequests for the 4th Skill Trees, they'll be helpful.

By the time you reach Satorl Marsh, you can unlock the first 4th Skill Tree (Shulk's). The rest will gradually become available as you proceed, although most require you do a lot of questing to build Area Affinity and complete prerequisite quests. All of them should be available (except for the seventh character's) by the time you get to Sword Valley (or rather the area right before it).

The 5th Skill Trees don't show up until much much later, near the end of the game. Shulk and Sharla can have their quests completed without being overleveled for the final boss, Dunban and Reyn might be, while Melia, Riki, and the seventh character all have sidequests with enemies much too strong to be fought without severe overleveling- which makes the final boss a complete joke who can't kill you- ruining the feel of the final battle.

Two Monado Arts, Eater and Armour, are also obtained from sidequests. When you can complete Makna Forest's area map (and have a 3 Star Central Bionis Area Affinity), you can complete a series of quests called "The Mystery of Makna Ruins" from a Nopon named Lupa- the last of these gives Eater. Armour can be obtained shortly after the seventh character is recruited by completing sidequests in the relevant area.

If you want more details on the requirements for each Skill Tree, just ask. I don't know how far you've played, so I'm only giving some minor area spoilers.

[Water Mage]

1 hour ago, The DanMan said:

Somebody on Gamefaqs who's actually beaten the game is answering questions, one of which is about party members. Mild spoilers:

  Hide contents

There's six total permanent party members and two guest party members. 

 

Adding on to this:

  Reveal hidden contents

The IGN video review spoiled what everybody, their brother, mother, and dog were guessing: Morag is a playable party member. Some footage has also shown Vandham, but you're unable to change his equipment or give him new Blades-- so a guest party member.

Just a question about the plot

I’ve heard a rumor where it mentions there is a timeskip and you control an older Rex, is that true?

[The DanMan]

2 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

Just a question about the plot

 

  Hide contents

I’ve heard a rumor where it mentions there is a timeskip and you control an older Rex, is that true?

 

Hahahah no. They're probably joking about FFXV.

[Water Mage]

Just now, The DanMan said:

 

  Hide contents

Hahahah no. They're probably joking about FFXV.

 

Ah good, I was afraid of expecting a timeskip and it not happening.

[The DanMan]

Full English VA credits. Only a single VA I recognize; they really did get new blood on both sides:

"Main" Characters:

 

Rex: Al Weaver
Pyra and Mythra: Skye Bennett
Nia: Catrin-Mai Huw
Tora: Rasmus Hardiker
Morag: Kirsty Mitchell
Zeke: Daniel Barker
Vandham: Simon Thorp
Dromarch: William Roberts
Poppi: Arina Li
Brighid: Jules de Jongh
Pandoria: Becca Stewart
Roc: Todd Kramer
Gramps: Sean Barrett
Jin: John Schwab
Malos: David Menkin

Secondary Characters:

Mikhail: Todd Kramer

Akhos: Hugo Harold-Harrison

Patroka: Laila Pyne

Sever: Eric Meyers

Cressidus: Kerry Shale

Obrona: Naomi McDonald

Perdido: Joseph May

Lora: Anna Koval

Fan la Norne: Samantha Dakin

Addam: Paul Thornley

Niall: Daniel Buckley

Eulogimenos: Keith Bartlett

Dughall: Callum O' Neill

Cole: Eric Meyers

Bana: Stephen Critchlow

Raqura: Tersa Gallagher

Muimui: Jonathan Keeble

Amalthus: Corey Johnson

 SPOILER CHARACTER:

Klaus: Adam Howden

 

[Armagon]

On 11/16/2017 at 7:32 PM, LuxSpes said:

And I'm waiting to hear the Mor Ardain theme as well. 

Wish granted

 

[LuxSpes]

I listened to/read a couple of reviews and I can't wait to play this game. Most of the fears I had regarding the game have been blow away, so I'm sure I'll greatly enjoy this game. Just need to be patient and stay spoiler-free till Christmas. (though I'll have the game tomorrow. It will sit pretty waiting for a Switch to be played on) .

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Wish granted

Thank you for this. The itch to listen to that song cam again today after I saw Gamexplain's review. (And just a general thank you for that playlist, I had it opened in a tab for the last couple of days to listen while doing my final projects).

[The DanMan]

Hopefully my copy comes before the evening tomorrow. Amazon's developed a bad habit of doing that in regards to release date shipping.

Edited December 1, 2017 by The DanMan