My experience with Xenoblade 2 SPOILERS

[LucarioGamer812]

So I just beat Xenoblade 2, still watching the post final boss cutscenes. So I'll break this down into several sections, with some comparisons to Xenoblade 1.

Gameplay: I honestly find the gameplay to be very great. I see it as multiple tiers of building up attacks to combo which is always satisfying, and using later special powers was amazing. The gameplay was so engaging. I'll be honest I haven't beaten Xenoblade 1 but I know of what happens, the main reason is due to how slow I find it. I know it's a great game but I just find it slow is all.

Music: I daresay this game's music surpasses that of the original Xenoblade, in certain areas. I really love the combat (normal, boss, and unique boss 1+2) and cutscene themes. However most of the world themes I find lackluster with exception of Gormotti Plains (day) and Tantal (day). Honestly Xenoblade 1 has the better world themes (Gaur Plains hands down) and pretty good battle music (YWKON, Engage the Enemy, Obstacle in our Path, and Unfinished Battle.

Characters: I'll admit, Xenoblade 1 has the better characters overall, all of them are perfectly done. Xenoblade 2's aren't that level of characters but still good. However Nia is my favorite right up there beside XC1's cast. The character designs for Xenoblade 2 though are definitely superior to the original.

World: Xenoblade 2 has a nice varied world, but I found it was just going to the next area with almost no sense of scale. Xenoblade 1 obviously makes this its crowning achievement in terms of world building. You can actually see places you've been from other places while Xenoblade 2 is just world traveling with little connection, but it fits into the story.

Story: I still think Xenoblade 1 has the better story. I did however enjoy this one's story a lot. My highlights were Chapters 1,3, end of 6-7.

Spoiler

Honestly Pyra's sacrifice and return to life had me in tears. I knew she would return but it still had me connected to her. Also I feel sorry Nia gets the shaft when Pyra is involved, but I do hope she finds happiness. Also I call Pyra's alt super form Pythra since I find it a mix of both Pyra and Mythra.

Arguably the most important part is the connection to Xenoblade 1. It may have felt rushed but honestly despite how overtop the connections are I love them and really do think of it as making more sense now. Though this does open many questions from my lore maniac side

In total I had an amazing time with the game. My party was all 70+ with Tora being 69 (unintentional but I used Morag as tank almost immediately). I awakened every rare blade except KOS-MOS (who everyone is missing or trying to get), Zenobia, Praxis and Theory, and Herald. I plan on maxing out everyones affinity charts too and getting everyone to 99 and farming the superbosses. Once I do that I plan on playing the game all over again since I really love it that much. So me beating the game along with some side questing, blade grinding, and just messing around took me about 125 hours. Hours I do not regret and would gladly do it all over again Though I think at least 20 of those hours were sleep mode only

Also just a funny moment from my playthrough here on my twitter

https://twitter.com/Wartortle8MC/status/948355487799668736

 

[Armagon]

We have a thread for this

I agree with about 75-80% of this.

Regarding music, i'm really surprised you found the area themes lackluster. It's a matter of taste, i know, but i found the music to just be better in 2. Did you really find the Mor Ardain them to be lackluster? It's regarded as one of the best songs in the series and i personally regard it as the best area theme in the series. I love both games' soundtracks but i personally found 2's area themes to be more memorable.

Battle themes, specifically when it comes to Uniques, i rank them: Awakening>YWKON>Gormott and Uraya Unique Monster theme though at least no song in the game gets interrupted by Vision Reacts.

Regarding characters, i love both casts, but i gotta give the win to 2. If we're taking about party members, then 2 wins. Villains, 1 wins. The thing about party members in 2 is that none of them ever felt irrelevant. Compared to 1's party where it's mostly Shulk, Dunban and Reyn, and then later on, Shulk and Fiora. Sharla, Melia, and Riki all have varying degrees of relevancy with Riki barely contributing to the plot after Makna Forest. Compared to 2's party members, which didn't suffer that problem at all. 

Villlain-wise, 1 wins. Torna was a more consistent threat than Egil (because Egil didn't show up until after the halfway point) but Egil was more developed.

 

I don't have KOS-MOS. I feel your pain. I'm also missing Electra and Vale.

45 minutes ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

I plan on maxing out everyones affinity charts too

Having fun maxing out Ursula's Affinity Chart?

 

Edit: in case you're wondering, i find 2 to be better than 1 overall. 1 is better in some individual aspects though.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Armagon

[LucarioGamer812]

54 minutes ago, Armagon said:

We have a thread for this

I agree with about 75-80% of this.

Regarding music, i'm really surprised you found the area themes lackluster. It's a matter of taste, i know, but i found the music to just be better in 2. Did you really find the Mor Ardain them to be lackluster? It's regarded as one of the best songs in the series and i personally regard it as the best area theme in the series. I love both games' soundtracks but i personally found 2's area themes to be more memorable.

Battle themes, specifically when it comes to Uniques, i rank them: Awakening>YWKON>Gormott and Uraya Unique Monster theme though at least no song in the game gets interrupted by Vision Reacts.

Regarding characters, i love both casts, but i gotta give the win to 2. If we're taking about party members, then 2 wins. Villains, 1 wins. The thing about party members in 2 is that none of them ever felt irrelevant. Compared to 1's party where it's mostly Shulk, Dunban and Reyn, and then later on, Shulk and Fiora. Sharla, Melia, and Riki all have varying degrees of relevancy with Riki barely contributing to the plot after Makna Forest. Compared to 2's party members, which didn't suffer that problem at all. 

Villlain-wise, 1 wins. Torna was a more consistent threat than Egil (because Egil didn't show up until after the halfway point) but Egil was more developed.

 

I don't have KOS-MOS. I feel your pain. I'm also missing Electra and Vale.

Having fun maxing out Ursula's Affinity Chart?

 

Edit: in case you're wondering, i find 2 to be better than 1 overall. 1 is better in some individual aspects though.

I wanted to be special

Mor Adain's is alright, I do admit I often didn't pay attention to the area themes besides the ones I mentioned. Though I am surprised I don't like Mor Adain's so much given how long I spent core grinding there.

Unique monster themes are all up to preference, I often associate 2's more with chain attacks and in my opinion the hypest part of those songs always lines up with my chain attacks. Though YWKON is a hardwired classic in all of us.

I didn't think to talk about the villians, of which I agree 1 had the better villians. As for Xenoblade 1's characters, didn't Sharla wanted to travel with them to get revenge for Gado, Melia more so cause her entire kingdom got caught up in the plot plus she crushed on Shulk, and Riki was ordered to finish the quest with them if I remember right. I'll admit Riki didn't contribute to the plot that much but it can't be denied that 1's characters had more growth and development whereas 2's only real development I saw was with Rex and especially Nia. Tora didn't change much despite rescuing his father. Morag stayed roughly the same. And Zeke Owain Strife the Thunder Lord improved his relationship with his father.

I've seen KOS-MOS go by several times, not as much as Zenobia but still. Ah those two, I managed to get them in the sweet spot of the game and I would use Vale if I already didn't have a setup on Nia

I already have up to tier 3 or so on Ursula, though to be fair I was focused on building Mythra for lategame so she's maxed out.

I agree 2 is better than 1 overall, just 1 has the perfect harmony of everything and it's why it's a masterpiece. Heck I'll be honest 1 isn't even in my top 10 anymore, 2 is.

Also Figured I'd add my main blade builds

Rex

Spoiler

So besides Pyra/Mythra, he also always had Adenine (my first rare and one still viable endgame), and either Perun or Nia

Nia

Spoiler

Dromarch, Perceval, and Ursula

Tora had all his Poppi's

Morag

Spoiler

Besides Brighid, she also had Wulfric and either Aegaenon or Kassandra

Zeke

Spoiler

Pandoria, Sheba, and Agate

 

[Armagon]

11 hours ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

didn't Sharla wanted to travel with them to get revenge for Gado, Melia more so cause her entire kingdom got caught up in the plot plus she crushed on Shulk, and Riki was ordered to finish the quest with them if I remember right.

Melia wasn't going to travel at first but Kallian was like "i'll handle things here, you go".

It's not really the motivations i'm talking about. Both parties had their motivations. Regarding development, i don't know if i'd agree that 1's party members had more development. Again, it's kinda hard for that when the characters' relevancy varies constantly. I can't really judge either party's development though, as i haven't seen every Heart-to-Heart in both games.

Though I will admit that, in the context of just the story, most of both casts are static characters. In 1, the only one who had real development was Melia. In 2, it was Rex, Pyra/Mythra and Nia. I don't see this as a bad thing though.

When it comes to the protagonists, I like Shulk but never got the sense of growth that i got from Rex. Shulk rarely struggled. Sure, he failed to save Fiora and the Emperor but other than that, not much stood in Shulk's way. He basically had a free win on battles because of the Monado. Even when the Apocrypha seals it, Shulk just forces it back open (that bites him in the ass later though). Compared to Rex, who, despite having the Aegis, still got his ass kicked in his first few battles. He loses Vandham, he loses Haze, and at the end of Ch.6, he loses to Jin both physically and emotionally. Rex had to lose and reflect on his loss in order to become a worthy hero.

 

[LucarioGamer812]

5 hours ago, Armagon said:

Melia wasn't going to travel at first but Kallian was like "i'll handle things here, you go".

It's not really the motivations i'm talking about. Both parties had their motivations. Regarding development, i don't know if i'd agree that 1's party members had more development. Again, it's kinda hard for that when the characters' relevancy varies constantly. I can't really judge either party's development though, as i haven't seen every Heart-to-Heart in both games.

Though I will admit that, in the context of just the story, most of both casts are static characters. In 1, the only one who had real development was Melia. In 2, it was Rex, Pyra/Mythra and Nia. I don't see this as a bad thing though.

When it comes to the protagonists, I like Shulk but never got the sense of growth that i got from Rex. Shulk rarely struggled. Sure, he failed to save Fiora and the Emperor but other than that, not much stood in Shulk's way. He basically had a free win on battles because of the Monado. Even when the Apocrypha seals it, Shulk just forces it back open (that bites him in the ass later though). Compared to Rex, who, despite having the Aegis, still got his ass kicked in his first few battles. He loses Vandham, he loses Haze, and at the end of Ch.6, he loses to Jin both physically and emotionally. Rex had to lose and reflect on his loss in order to become a worthy hero.

 

When you put it like that it is hard to argue against. I feel like Shulk had development as he went from hate and near powerless to protect the ones he loved to understanding and ultimately gained the power to alter fate and save everyone. Rex though does have a good redemption arc and the ending of 6 through 7 honestly is probably my favorite arc. I get how Vandham affected him as a mentor but Haze didn't really have much impact on Rex. Pyra would have had more of an impact and sense of loss than anything. I'll be honest Rex maturing like that is something I really like but overall I still feel like Shulk's maturity and his change in perspective are bigger feats.

But I don't want this thread to be an argument. Both Xenoblade games are amazing and both have their strengths and weakness's.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

But I don't want this thread to be an argument. Both Xenoblade games are amazing and both have their strengths and weakness's.

No worries. I just like discussing things when it comes to my favorite video game series. It was fun. And hey, let's not leave out X. That was also a great game that i never got to play.

Edited January 11, 2018 by Armagon

[LucarioGamer812]

19 minutes ago, Armagon said:

No worries. I just like discussing things when it comes to my favorite video game series. It was fun. And hey, let's not leave out X. That was also a great game that i never got to play.

Oh okay. Sorry I'm semi-used to other users on here constantly causing debates that go on forever cause they don't see the other side. I too never played X, mostly due to me not having a wii-u. I may get one eventually one day and play it, I've heard while it got the world, gameplay, and music right., It's story and characters weren't great.

Also I understand why this is your favorite series as it is amazing. I still enjoy Fire Emblem overall more but Xenoblade is right up there with Valkyria Chronicles, the Project X series (actually very related to xenoblade and xenosaga since its roots), and God Eater.