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CharlestheHammer
Jun 26, 2011

YOU SAY MY POSTS ARE THE RAVINGS OF THE DUMBEST PERSON ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH BUT YOU YOURSELF ARE READING THEM. CURIOUS!

Taear posted:

XB1 is still anime, it's just nothing even close to this. Or to the last game.
Other people know exactly what it means when you say something is "really anime" in the same way as you'd understand it if a person said something was "like a soap opera". Sure it doesn't mean 100% the same thing from person to person but it's enough to understand.

Because it means "thing I don't like" which is so generic it fits anything.

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Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

CharlestheHammer posted:

Because it means "thing I don't like" which is so generic it fits anything.

No, it doesn't.
It means loads of scantily clad women with insanely long legs and big boobs. It means extremely dramatic overacting that involves loads of "true forms" and "real power". It involves weirdly sexualised kids who are usually "thousands of years old". There's the weird Japanese food thing where they're super enthusiastic about how nice it is and you get loads of cooking bits and references (XCX loves that). And often loads of internal monologues about "how can this be??" sort of themes.
Usually there's loads of references to some greater power that you haven't heard of yet. Like the "handle god" in the youtube link.

There's animation things about it as well that this game doesn't do very much, thankfully.

I'm enjoying the game, but if someone doesn't like Anime this game drips with it.

quote:

This game is just a bit off in every way. There's so much good stuff. But the way everything is implemented is just awkward and infuriating and wrong.
Yea this is JUST how I feel about the game. There are so many little things that really wind me up. I'm glad they've fixed the map, that's good. But the list I posted not that long ago feels like small changes that would go so far towards making it feel better!
I'd probably take out Aux Cores as well. The Kotaku review spends loads of time focusing on how annoying it is to have to find them and then refine them and I totally agree. It's stupid!

ThisIsACoolGuy
Nov 2, 2010

Shaped like a friend

I think the most interesting thing about the games hit and miss nature is the reaction to the story.

First half I was kinda tapping out because lots of kid friendly anime humor was going on and it wasn't what I was hoping for really after XB1. Then the second half of the game totally won me over as I love insane shonen anime bullshit and the cutscenes really drew me in to the point I'm shocked when I see people get so down on the story (the frequency of the cutscenes late game is another thing entirely though)

I haven't really seen any middle of the road opinions on it either. It's either "I love what they did holy poo poo this is awesome" or "I'm skipping every scene I'm done giving the story a chance/staring at my phone"

ajkalan
Aug 17, 2011

Perun's voice acting is painfully flat, and the cutscene near the end of her mission goes on forever and has some of the cheesiest villain laughter I've heard in some time.

In the middle of Chapter 7, so opinions can change, but I'm rolling my eyes at white-haired guy with bullshit superpowers and a tragic past casually owning everyone.

Also after trying one dungeon with Tora in the lead I never want to hear "Meh" again, holy poo poo shut up Tora.

I'm enjoying the game despite this whining, KOS-MOS's level 2 special is really good.

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
Toran are all drawn by nomura. Jin is sepiroth.

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

ajkalan posted:

In the middle of Chapter 7, so opinions can change, but I'm rolling my eyes at white-haired guy with bullshit superpowers and a tragic past casually owning everyone.

His stuff is what annoys me the most about the game's story I think. Every fight someone "powers up" and has some bullshit new power to fight with. It's stupid.
I feel like the tension drains from the game if your fights can be something you win and then suddenly lose and when you DO suddenly lose them some random crazy poo poo saves you every single time. Or you lose in the cutscene because the enemy suddenly goes "no sorry bullets can't hurt me now" or whatever.

Is this their true power??? repeat 30 times.

Taear fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Jan 3, 2018

THE AWESOME GHOST
Oct 21, 2005

CharlestheHammer posted:

Anime is a bullshit descriptor as anime encompasses many genres.

Xenoblade is a generic shounen anime
  • Loads of filler that didn't need to be there
  • Power of friendship
  • Screaming attacks out whenever you do them, except in an anime this is like once an episode and in this game it's every 12s cooldown
  • ANCHOR SHOT
  • Mythra literally says "B-b-baaaka" then slaps you
  • ANCHOR SHOT
  • The end of chapters have you beat a bad guy, then the bad guy powers up then beats you back, then something else happens and you beat them back back
  • ANCHOR SHOT
  • Randomly get superpowers every once in a while when an arc is over
  • The robot is a maid
  • Master RexRex
  • The main character is an orphan
  • The main character is a 15 year old with like 5 years of work experience somehow
  • Child main character still gets a big titty gf who's clearly like, 22. Also she's naked
  • But it's ok because actually she's a 1000 year old demon angel

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

voltcatfish posted:

You have to get like 35 of each. Basically, it's nothing but repeating the previous number endlessly until the next number appears.

That's dumb as hell. Why bother telling you vocal "levels" at all if they're not going to bother telling you how many whatever to the next level? Just tell me how many tickets I need or whatever!


THE AWESOME GHOST posted:

Xenoblade is a generic shounen anime

Maybe it's a good thing I haven't seen much anime, because I find the story hilarious in its over-the-top stupidity.

I could do without the godawful outfits for 99% of the female cast, though.

RazzleDazzleHour
Mar 31, 2016

ajkalan posted:

Perun's voice acting is painfully flat, and the cutscene near the end of her mission goes on forever and has some of the cheesiest villain laughter I've heard in some time.

Also after trying one dungeon with Tora in the lead I never want to hear "Meh" again, holy poo poo shut up Tora.

Switch the voices over to Japanese. I made a post about it in the JRPG thread but XBC2 has the second-worst English dubbing I've ever seen in a video game with an actual budget. Arc Rise Fantasia is first place but even with the unforgivable voice acting I'm still torn if XBC2 is actually worse. I don't speak Japanese or anything but the English dub made so many terrible changes that even I can identify that my mind is loving blown. For example, the forced "meh" Nopon thing? Doesn't happen in Japanese. "Rex-Rex" is just aniki, and I'm pretty sure all the dumb titles like biggipon are very exaggerated changes to Nopon using different age honorifics. Also, they changed a million names for some reason. Hikari to Mythra, Hana to Poppi (and HanaJM (Justice Maid) to PoppiQT), Suzaku to Roc, you get the idea. Why? Worried the names might be too Japanese in a literal shonen anime? Also, they added in Rex's classic "Titan's Foot!" catchphrase when in Japanese, what he actually says is *upset sound effect*. Also the voice casting itself is poor, I heard Vandam's English VA and holy poo poo it's dumb, meanwhile he and everyone else in the game sounds exactly like you would expect them to sound in Japanese. The direction of the VA is bad, where you had tons of examples of actors giving lines that have the wrong tone or inflection given the situation, like casual conversation lines while sword-locked with a bad guy. Also, cherry on top, Tora sounds totally tolerable in Japanese.

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

Japanese Nia is simply a poor choice.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Name changes dont bother me because a good chunk of the people playing it english wouldn't get the wordplay involved in the characters names in japanese. Pyra is fine, it invokes the same image in english as the name does in japanese just probably less hamfisted. Mithra does the same thing as Hikari, again just less hamfisted.

The localization seems fine to me. Only problem is Rex's voice actor cant do shonen protagonist at all. But Nia is way better in english, gramps is way better in english, the regional accents by titans is great and pyras/mithras valley girl accent clashing with everyones is fine too.

Cao Ni Ma fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Jan 3, 2018

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

RazzleDazzleHour posted:

Also the voice casting itself is poor, I heard Vandam's English VA and holy poo poo it's dumb, meanwhile he and everyone else in the game sounds exactly like you would expect them to sound in Japanese. The direction of the VA is bad, where you had tons of examples of actors giving lines that have the wrong tone or inflection given the situation, like casual conversation lines while sword-locked with a bad guy. Also, cherry on top, Tora sounds totally tolerable in Japanese.

How the hell would I expect them to sound in japanese?
All of the Urayans are from Australia and so is Vandham.

The voice casting in the English one has some really good attention to detail. Like every Ardanian has a scottish voice (and I don't just mean accent). And you know what? Roc means big bird. I have no idea what Suzaku means. And I'm glad the name of Poppi doesn't point out the stupid maid poo poo either.
I feel you're assuming a much bigger familiarity with Japanese stuff than a normal person has. Maybe if they had French or Spanish names, sure. But not Japanese ones.

quote:

The localization seems fine to me. Only problem is Rex's voice actor cant do shonen protagonist at all. But Nia is way better in english, gramps is way better in english, the regional accents by titans is great and pyras/mithras valley girl accent clashing with everyones is fine too.
I quite like that every Blade is American. Different American accents but still always American.

Taear fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Jan 3, 2018

ChaosArgate
Oct 10, 2012

Why does everyone think I'm going to get in trouble?

It’s fascinating to me how many people are ragging on this Japanese game for taking influence from Japanese media.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



What does bother me incredibly to the point of me shaking visibly was the rice balls into dumplings scene. i thought I was going to have an aneurysm

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

ChaosArgate posted:

It’s fascinating to me how many people are ragging on this Japanese game for taking influence from Japanese media.

It's more that it's followed on from two quite original jRPGs. Both of them have elements of what this one has become but they're not as hugely cliche as this one is. It's a shame.
And the outfits are loving terrible regardless of if it's acceptable in Japan.

Runa
Feb 13, 2011

I'm honestly fine with Suzaku, Seiryu, Byakko, and Genbu all being changed to different names in the localization because the names themselves are only thematically appropriate if they're part of a whole set. Two of them are Blades and two are Titans, as opposed to all of them being Blades or Titans.

If you're curious, they're the Japanese names of four mythological animals associated with quadrants of constellations in Chinese astrology, and in Chinese folklore are associated with various other groupings of four (cardinal directions, seasons, elements, etc.) in that typically astrological way. Their names are fairly literal in Chinese, and the Japanese names are just their own pronunciations of the same written characters that make up the Chinese names. Vermilion Bird, Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, respectively. They're also present in the folklore of other countries influenced by Chinese culture, like Vietnam and Korea. It's not just a Japanese/anime thing, though that's how most westerners get exposed to this cultural tidbit.

Roc being literally a red bird and Dromarch being literally a white tiger are as far as I can tell the only reason they have the names of astrological beasts in the JP version. Gramps being Seiryu is just kind of lol.

emoji
Jun 4, 2004

Cao Ni Ma posted:

Name changes dont bother me because a good chunk of the people playing it english wouldn't get the wordplay involved in the characters names in japanese. Pyra is fine, it invokes the same image in english as the name does in japanese just probably less hamfisted. Mithra does the same thing as Hikari, again just less hamfisted.

The localization seems fine to me. Only problem is Rex's voice actor cant do shonen protagonist at all. But Nia is way better in english, gramps is way better in english, the regional accents by titans is great and pyras/mithras valley girl accent clashing with everyones is fine too.

They should have named one of Pyra's heat powers Vocal Fry

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.
I've just started playing this.

Why is the catgirl Welsh?

RazzleDazzleHour
Mar 31, 2016

ChaosArgate posted:

It’s fascinating to me how many people are ragging on this Japanese game for taking influence from Japanese media.

When you say "influence," normally what that means is that you take some things you like from various sources, and then weave them together with the things you're creating yourself to make something new. The problem with this game is that it does a very poor job of bringing anything new or interesting to the table from a narrative perspective and relies so heavily on tropes and cliches that it feels redundant and derivative rather than new or exciting. That feeling of derivation stemming from an overreliance on tropes, formulas, and cliches, are what people are criticizing when they say something, in this example the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2, feels "too anime."

I hope this has helped straighten things out so we can reduce the number of people pretending not to understand what people are complaining about when they say the game is way too anime

Louisgod
Sep 25, 2003

Always Stupid
Bread Liar

RazzleDazzleHour posted:

When you say "influence," normally what that means is that you take some things you like from various sources, and then weave them together with the things you're creating yourself to make something new. The problem with this game is that it does a very poor job of bringing anything new or interesting to the table from a narrative perspective and relies so heavily on tropes and cliches that it feels redundant and derivative rather than new or exciting. That feeling of derivation stemming from an overreliance on tropes, formulas, and cliches, are what people are criticizing when they say something, in this example the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2, feels "too anime."

I hope this has helped straighten things out so we can reduce the number of people pretending not to understand what people are complaining about when they say the game is way too anime

Wait people called me an idiot when I said this game is over the top anime, do people now agree with this?

Neddy Seagoon
Oct 12, 2012

"Hi Everybody!"

Natural 20 posted:

I've just started playing this.

Why is the catgirl Welsh?

All Gormotti are Welsh, ya numpty.

nerdz
Oct 12, 2004


Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things.
Grimey Drawer
hopefully in the future someone will do a fan translation to make it more Japanese like the one they did with Chrono trigger, with lines like "vinegar pinch!!!"

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

RazzleDazzleHour posted:

Switch the voices over to Japanese. I made a post about it in the JRPG thread but XBC2 has the second-worst English dubbing I've ever seen in a video game with an actual budget. Arc Rise Fantasia is first place but even with the unforgivable voice acting I'm still torn if XBC2 is actually worse. I don't speak Japanese or anything but the English dub made so many terrible changes that even I can identify that my mind is loving blown. For example, the forced "meh" Nopon thing? Doesn't happen in Japanese. "Rex-Rex" is just aniki, and I'm pretty sure all the dumb titles like biggipon are very exaggerated changes to Nopon using different age honorifics. Also, they changed a million names for some reason. Hikari to Mythra, Hana to Poppi (and HanaJM (Justice Maid) to PoppiQT), Suzaku to Roc, you get the idea. Why? Worried the names might be too Japanese in a literal shonen anime? Also, they added in Rex's classic "Titan's Foot!" catchphrase when in Japanese, what he actually says is *upset sound effect*. Also the voice casting itself is poor, I heard Vandam's English VA and holy poo poo it's dumb, meanwhile he and everyone else in the game sounds exactly like you would expect them to sound in Japanese. The direction of the VA is bad, where you had tons of examples of actors giving lines that have the wrong tone or inflection given the situation, like casual conversation lines while sword-locked with a bad guy. Also, cherry on top, Tora sounds totally tolerable in Japanese.

No, because then I'd lose Welsh Nia and every female character would sound like a 6-year-old on helium.

Also I have no idea what Hikari and Suzaku mean so I'd prefer them localize them into something most people would actually understand. Poppi is a flower and so are Lila and Rosa. It's thematic without calling attention to the dumb creepy maid aesthetic they have going on.

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

emoji posted:

Driver accessories, not aux cores. For whatever reason item manage for those is different from every other item and broken.

It would be helpful if people tweeted that to the monolith Twitter so it gets noticed

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

RazzleDazzleHour posted:

Switch the voices over to Japanese. I made a post about it in the JRPG thread but XBC2 has the second-worst English dubbing I've ever seen in a video game with an actual budget. Arc Rise Fantasia is first place but even with the unforgivable voice acting I'm still torn if XBC2 is actually worse. I don't speak Japanese or anything but the English dub made so many terrible changes that even I can identify that my mind is loving blown. For example, the forced "meh" Nopon thing? Doesn't happen in Japanese. "Rex-Rex" is just aniki, and I'm pretty sure all the dumb titles like biggipon are very exaggerated changes to Nopon using different age honorifics. Also, they changed a million names for some reason. Hikari to Mythra, Hana to Poppi (and HanaJM (Justice Maid) to PoppiQT), Suzaku to Roc, you get the idea. Why? Worried the names might be too Japanese in a literal shonen anime? Also, they added in Rex's classic "Titan's Foot!" catchphrase when in Japanese, what he actually says is *upset sound effect*. Also the voice casting itself is poor, I heard Vandam's English VA and holy poo poo it's dumb, meanwhile he and everyone else in the game sounds exactly like you would expect them to sound in Japanese. The direction of the VA is bad, where you had tons of examples of actors giving lines that have the wrong tone or inflection given the situation, like casual conversation lines while sword-locked with a bad guy. Also, cherry on top, Tora sounds totally tolerable in Japanese.

Translator's note: Keikaku means "plan"

Natural 20
Sep 17, 2007

Wearer of Compasses. Slayer of Gods. Champion of the Colosseum. Heart of the Void.
Saviour of Hallownest.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

All Gormotti are Welsh, ya numpty.

Oh god what hell have I walked into.

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Natural 20 posted:

Oh god what hell have I walked into.

Not many of them are quite as welsh as Nia.

quote:

Wait people called me an idiot when I said this game is over the top anime, do people now agree with this?
The same guys that just kicked off about calling the game Anime called you an idiot, it's not that opinions of the game have changed you've just noticed some other voices.

RazzleDazzleHour
Mar 31, 2016

I know Ursula's reliance on Merc missions to unlock her affinity levels is basically unacceptable but on a positive note, her merc missions have the highest time to merc points ratio by a mile

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




Natural 20 posted:

I've just started playing this.

Why is the catgirl Welsh?

Because it owns

Momomo
Dec 26, 2009

Dont judge me, I design your manhole

Natural 20 posted:

Oh god what hell have I walked into.

Easily the best part of the game, you did.

I really have no idea how anyone could think badly of the English dub. I've enjoyed it a lot and really don't care that they changed some names. Also calling it anime while somehow decrying XB1 wasn't is really just peak using it as a descriptior for "something I don't like".

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Momomo posted:

Easily the best part of the game, you did.

I really have no idea how anyone could think badly of the English dub. I've enjoyed it a lot and really don't care that they changed some names. Also calling it anime while somehow decrying XB1 wasn't is really just peak using it as a descriptior for "something I don't like".

Again, XB1 is still pretty anime but it's nothing compared to this. XB1 is more like final fantasy level anime where this is dragonball Z.

Neddy Seagoon
Oct 12, 2012

"Hi Everybody!"

Momomo posted:

Easily the best part of the game, you did.

I really have no idea how anyone could think badly of the English dub. I've enjoyed it a lot and really don't care that they changed some names. Also calling it anime while somehow decrying XB1 wasn't is really just peak using it as a descriptior for "something I don't like".

I can only assume some people have never heard how British or Australian people talk outside of US television.

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




It makes me sad that people are labeling this game as too much anime to enjoy because imo this is the closest a Xeno game has ever gotten to capturing the tone and flow of Xenogears.

RazzleDazzleHour
Mar 31, 2016

Momomo posted:

Easily the best part of the game, you did.

I really have no idea how anyone could think badly of the English dub. I've enjoyed it a lot and really don't care that they changed some names. Also calling it anime while somehow decrying XB1 wasn't is really just peak using it as a descriptior for "something I don't like".

I really disliked XBC1 and never made it past the second main town in the game, but think this game improved on a lot of what I disliked about the first game while introducing a whole new set of problems. Maybe you could address how this game doesn't have an overreliance on cliches tropes and stereotypes instead of just trying to deflect criticism?

Tae
Oct 24, 2010

Hello? Can you hear me? ...Perhaps if I shout? AAAAAAAAAH!
Okay please explain to me, because it's a complete bafflement at this point, on why Mythra's performance is not stilted.

Momomo
Dec 26, 2009

Dont judge me, I design your manhole
Didn't say the dub was perfect, but it was still very enjoyable. Mythra as a character has problems other than her voice acting anyway (mostly why was her character even necessary).

As far as this game being cliche, it totally is. I don't think that really matters at all though, because it's about the execution that makes or breaks a game, and this game usually does pretty well at being an entertaining ride.

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009
If Rex already has Gorg, should I give Praxis to 5th? And Vess should go on Nia right

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

RazzleDazzleHour posted:

I know Ursula's reliance on Merc missions to unlock her affinity levels is basically unacceptable but on a positive note, her merc missions have the highest time to merc points ratio by a mile

Oh yeah. I'm using them to grind up affinity on my unused unique Blades and my two 4* rando Blades so I can get me some Overdrives. It's just a shame I can never actually USE Ursula (as she's constantly running Merc Missions) because she's really cute. I haven't even used her in battle yet.


Centzon Totochtin posted:

If Rex already has Gorg, should I give Praxis to 5th? And Vess should go on Nia right

Yep, that's a good plan! You can also give Wulfric (Beastly Core Crystal) to Five, if you haven't given him to any one else. If you have, no biggie.

In general, Rex gets plenty of unique Blades through the story that you don't have to go out of your way to get him any more.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

By the time I actually got Ursula finished I had grown too attached to Kora so I can't even use her now :(

Also I dunno what the problem with Mythra is. Maybe I just have different standards.

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TurnipFritter
Apr 21, 2010
10,000 POSTS ON TALKING TIME

U-DO Burger posted:

It makes me sad that people are labeling this game as too much anime to enjoy because imo this is the closest a Xeno game has ever gotten to capturing the tone and flow of Xenogears.

The areas from like halfway through chapter 7 to the end being straight lines are really evocative of disc 2.

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