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 “As the giant beasts march toward death, the last hope is a scavenger named Rex—and Pyra, a living weapon known as a Blade. Can you find the fabled paradise she calls home? Command a group of Blades and lead them to countless strategic victories before the world ends. Each Titan hosts its own distinct cultures, wildlife, and diverse regions to explore. Search the vast open areas and labyrinthine corridors for treasure, secret paths, and creatures to battle and index. During these escapades you'll get to know a large cast of eclectic characters, including the weaponized life forms known as Blades. Gather these allies, bond with them to increase their power, and utilize their special arts to devastate enemies. But to save the world of Alrest, you must first demystify its cloudy past.” From Nintendo Monolith Software’s latest entry in their flagship JRPG series Xenoblade Chronicles arrives exclusively on the Nintendo Switch globally at December 1st, 2017. Xenoblade 2 has the same general style as the previous two games with a massive overworld to explore and real-time MMO-esque combat, but now the combat has been modified to be more streamlined with buttons mapped to specific arts ala Persona 5 and a big focus on combo moves between party members. The story itself seems to take more queues from the original Xenoblade with a linear story and consistent cast of playable characters in contrast to the more open-world non-linear structure of Xenoblade X. Fans of the original that didn’t like the direction X took can feel more confidant that 2 might be something they’ll enjoy. Although the game has no direct ties to 1 or X, at least initially, and you don’t need to play either game to understand this one, I personally feel like there may end up being stronger connections to Xenoblade 1 near the end of the game. So, I would suggest either playing it yourself (it’s pretty good imo) or learning about it some other way. Just my opinion though. Combat i.e. Drowning in Numbers and Anime A common concern I’ve seen about the pre-release info for the game was how overwhelming the combat seemed with a bunch of different systems and numbers and what not. Undoubtedly, when you actually play the game, those systems will be introduced gradually in the beginning of the game, but I do want to give my understanding of what’s going on for those who want a general idea before buying. First thing is that your party is made up of up to three “drivers” each with up to three of their own “blades.” Basically, the drivers are the actual characters you can play as while the blades give the drivers powers and abilities. The combat itself fits into a fairly simple framework that might not be immediately apparent. The combat revolves around using your basic attacks to charge up special attacks and in turn to charge up even more special attacks and so on. To be more specific when you begin a battle, your character automatically performs basic attacks against the enemy. A change from previous games is that characters no longer attack while moving. This leads to precise positioning being more important since auto attacks are done in a combo with later hits doing more damage. Performing auto attacks charges your driver arts which are basically your standard RPG skill/spells. They each have their own special effects, but using them also charges your special art. Your special art is a strong elemental attack tied to a specific blade that can be charged to four different levels. You can use your special by itself or combo off your party members specials (you control when they use them too) to deal massive damage and limit an enemy’s abilities. Performing this elemental combo also places an elemental orb on them which gives them elemental resistance, but leads to the next step of the cycle. A mechanic called the “chain gauge” builds up over time in three blocks. You can use one block to revive party members or all three to start a chain attack. Chain attacks in Xenoblade 2 allow you to stop time and use your party’s specials to break the elemental orb with opposing elements and deal even more damage. The link between auto-attacks, arts, specials, and chain attacks is the framework for Xenoblade 2’s battle system. Hopefully, that explains the general idea of how the battle system works. If you understand that, the other parts like specific art abilities and stats should fit into place. Also, you can switch between the three blades your character has equipped when their gauges have filled and doing so equips that blade changig the arts, special, and stats your characters has. Here's a good post about the battle system that someone wrote now that the game has been released Tyma posted:A Super Quick Guide To Big Numbers Collecting and Customizing i.e. Managing your own hype squad As with most any RPG, battle is only half the… battle. The other half being customizing and upgrading your characters. As said before, each driver gets three blades, and those blades determines what arts and stats the driver has when equipped. Each blade (and driver) also has their own skill tree (skill being passive abilities in this game) that is unlocked as you perform certain objectives (like kill certain enemies, perform certain arts, etc.) to power them up. Being the central way of customizing your characters both in battle and cosmetically (there’s no visible equipment changes like in previous games), there is a significant amount of blades to mix and match to create your own perfect anime hype squad. The blade designs have actually come from a variety of different artists including people who have worked on Final Fantasy and Tales of games. This leads to a rather… robust and colorful selection of potential minions.       Music It’s ok you tasteless nerds, Hiroyuki Sawano who did the music for Xenoblade X didn’t do 2. They got ACE back. Either way the music’s still pretty tight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od6QApjpkXo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa2PH7zQVmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5g4uIfAKqo Trailers and stuff Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjpao-nD5YU Nintendo Direct https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hb0KmH2WBQ Gameplay videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW_REqB8vbc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s49dktg5_8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W7ROTyWFQs Poppi!  ]https://i.imgur.com/92HilQM.gifv Sam Faust fucked around with this message at 09:56 on Dec 3, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2017 01:36
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Reserved for other stuff. Maybe? I don't know.
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Nov 22, 2017 01:37
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But are you REALLY feelin it?
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Nov 22, 2017 01:57
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Glad they went back to the three tiered party gauge for revives and chain attacks from 1, rather than the individual gauges and overdrive from X. To this day I'm still not really sure what overdrive does. Game never explained poo poo.
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Nov 22, 2017 02:00
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Is it Reyn time yet?
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Nov 22, 2017 02:00
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I'm very excited for this, the blades look really cool (mostly) To get in the spirit of things, should I play XB1 3D, or XBX? I own both but never got far in either 
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Nov 22, 2017 02:04
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CuddlyZombie posted:I'm very excited for this, the blades look really cool (mostly) X has some mixed reception but I'm a big fan of it. If you don't mind reading through a big in game manual to figure out combat, you might like it. The 3D version of XB doesn't look too hot, but if that doesn't bother you go for it.
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Nov 22, 2017 02:10
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This game is the main reason I bought a Switch, I'm so ready. Tooling around in Mario & Rabbids in the meantime
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Nov 22, 2017 02:15
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Thread not titled Knifefuckers Inc 0/10
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Nov 22, 2017 02:28
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So are the additional collectaible blades are actually different characters or just collectibles with attached JPEGs? The vaguely Amano drawing in the first image has me curious as to how they'll codify it.
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Nov 22, 2017 02:38
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Hi I heard this game was anime
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Nov 22, 2017 02:39
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Sakurazuka posted:Hi I heard this game was anime
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Nov 22, 2017 02:42
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I am actually looking forward to this 
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Nov 22, 2017 02:43
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Bae Blades
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Nov 22, 2017 02:45
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LostRook posted:So are the additional collectaible blades are actually different characters or just collectibles with attached JPEGs? The vaguely Amano drawing in the first image has me curious as to how they'll codify it. I don't think they have any story significance, but they all do have in game models when you summon them. The drawings are just concept or menu art for what you get in game. Think more along the lines of pokemon or persona. Wonder Turbine posted:Bae Blades drat, this one's really good.
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Nov 22, 2017 02:47
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Sam Faust posted:X has some mixed reception but I'm a big fan of it. If you don't mind reading through a big in game manual to figure out combat, you might like it. The 3D version of XB doesn't look too hot, but if that doesn't bother you go for it. By big manual, do you mean the manual all wii u games come with or a set of in game tutorials?
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Nov 22, 2017 03:07
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Xenoblade X’s music ranged from woeful to beautiful. The day and night music in the city was disgusting but some of the overworld tracks, particularly Sylvalum, were amazing. Anyway I never finished that game due to the crappy level requirements for the main stuff.
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Nov 22, 2017 03:09
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CuddlyZombie posted:By big manual, do you mean the manual all wii u games come with or a set of in game tutorials? The Wii U manual which you can actually access directly from the in game menu and is really big. The game will put you through some basic tutorials, but for a lot of the specific details you gotta read it yourself.
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Nov 22, 2017 03:17
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Sam Faust posted:The Wii U manual which you can actually access directly from the in game menu and is really big. The game will put you through some basic tutorials, but for a lot of the specific details you gotta read it yourself. Got it, thanks!
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Nov 22, 2017 03:21
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fake edit: drat, people already brought up the manualJimmybob posted:Glad they went back to the three tiered party gauge for revives and chain attacks from 1, rather than the individual gauges and overdrive from X. To this day I'm still not really sure what overdrive does. Game never explained poo poo. Overdrive actually has a large section in the manual that explains a bunch of it's specific poo poo. I know I know, who reads manuals in 2015 etc. The game is weird in that it has a lot of complicated, complex, and specific things all very different from the first game, with most of it not explained within the game at all*. But then you get the manual which is fairly dense and explains a ton of poo poo. It's just strange since the first game gave plenty of pop-up tutorials for everything. *maybe there's a shitton of expository npcs out there that I never found, game's huge man
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Nov 22, 2017 03:23
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Maybe I'm just hearing things, but I noticed something interesting when I was listening to the boss battle music. (Mild Xenoblade 1 spoilers) The boss battle theme seems to have bits from XB1 themes. Compare these two parts in particular for a clear example: https://youtu.be/pa2PH7zQVmU?t=126 and https://youtu.be/v6xQyJlt7EE?t=40
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Nov 22, 2017 03:38
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I think the OST to xenoblade chronicles x was actually pretty dope. Do I need to play the first Xenoblade to know what the hell is going on with this one?
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Nov 22, 2017 04:01
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I hope this game never comes out, and they just keep announcing new Blades forever.
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Nov 22, 2017 04:03
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TFRazorsaw posted:But are you REALLY feelin it? No honestly I'm not. The REAL Goobusters posted:I think the OST to xenoblade chronicles x was actually pretty dope. Do I need to play the first Xenoblade to know what the hell is going on with this one? Probably not. There will probably some more pointless references to the original but nothing that you actually need to know.
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Nov 22, 2017 04:06
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Sam Faust posted:X has some mixed reception but I'm a big fan of it. If you don't mind reading through a big in game manual to figure out combat, you might like it. The 3D version of XB doesn't look too hot, but if that doesn't bother you go for it. I played through all of XB3D, it's perfectly serviceable. It runs a lot better than you'd expect! The visuals aren't super great but you're playing on a small phone-sized screen anyway with a vertical resolution of 240 pixels so I think the visual downgrade can be forgiven. Though, if XBX is on the table, then the original Wii version of XBC is likely an option too from the eShop.
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Nov 22, 2017 04:07
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ChaosArgate posted:Though, if XBX is on the table, then the original Wii version of XBC is likely an option too from the eShop. It'd be great if they both showed up on the eShop, although how the dual-screen aspect of XBX would work with the Switch...
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Nov 22, 2017 04:56
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If equipment doesn't change a character's appearance hopefully it has cosmetic outfits like in Tales at the least. The MC and his waifu need some less-awful clothing.Wonder Turbine posted:Bae Blades 
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Nov 22, 2017 05:26
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Wonder Turbine posted:Bae Blades gently caress  .That seriously needs to be the thread title.
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Nov 22, 2017 05:28
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The REAL Goobusters posted:I think the OST to xenoblade chronicles x was actually pretty dope. Do I need to play the first Xenoblade to know what the hell is going on with this one? Nope. Although this is probably more of a spiritual sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles than XCX was (which honestly had zero connection to Chronicles) the only real things in common besides gameplay are pretty much Nopons and the "we live on the backs of huge beasts" theme. Good job on the OP 
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Nov 22, 2017 05:39
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There is also this Character trailer here that reveals a bit more story stuff. Cavet Emptor if you are particularly spoileraphopic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygax_f4e5a8
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Nov 22, 2017 05:44
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Wonder Turbine posted:Bae Blades Neddy Seagoon posted:gently caress
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Nov 22, 2017 05:59
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Wonder Turbine posted:Bae Blades
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Nov 22, 2017 06:13
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Crap, I just looked up this game is about 13GB. I hope there is a good SD card for sale this week. Someone has confirmed to me that this game's soundtrack is better than Nier: Automata, which I find full of poo poo. Please confirm or deny.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:26
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Sam Faust posted:Poppi! I was on the fence about this game because I wasn't sure if it would have the charm I felt XC1 did, and this gif pushed me onto the "preorder" side of said fence because of their reactions to that. I am looking forward to fun exploration and a hopefully goofy cast.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:26
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So here's my guess: Torna is actually the name of the first dead Titan, and the villains of the same name want the Aegis to bring it back somehow, but it's some way that prioritizes them or fucks the rest of the world or something, and Pyra's goal is to fix the world nicely.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:35
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I bought a Wii for Xenoblade Chronicles I bought a Wii U for Xenoblade Chronicles X Will I buy a Switch for Xenoblade Chronicles 2? Yup.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:37
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requesting bae blades gang tag
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Nov 22, 2017 06:49
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Kris xK posted:I bought a Wii for Xenoblade Chronicles me too man, me too.
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Nov 22, 2017 06:56
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No visible clothing changes sucks hard. I loving hate the main guy's pants so much.
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Nov 22, 2017 07:14
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snoremac posted:Xenoblade X’s music ranged from woeful to beautiful. The day and night music in the city was disgusting but some of the overworld tracks, particularly Sylvalum, were amazing. XCX had so many great songs and you heard maybe 10% of the soundtrack on a regular basis playing the game 
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Nov 22, 2017 07:24
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