Xenoblade (Wii)

[Golgo]

For a game meant to revolutionize/streamline the JRPG, this is falling somewhat short of my expectations. It's got the same clunky, ugly menus and smorgasbord of trivial fetch/delivery-quests ("Kindly take these cookies to my grandson!" was memorably my first!) that puts me on edge with the genre. And the colleague AI in battle and out in the field is woeful. The world/towns also seems much less sparesly populated and vibrant than FFXII, say. Graphically quite poor as well, especially pop-up. Walking through a street to have an NPC flicker into view a few feet ahead of you, and then disappear if you step back slightly, is simply ****. Lovely music, though.

[Charlie]

Picked this up today but before starting the adventure am wondering whether to set the voice to the original Japanese with subs, or the English dub? Is the English dub any good, does it get annoying, does it start off annoying but gets much better? Recommendations please.

[nakamura]

I find the English dub to be mostly ok but the battle comments grate very fast. You can change it mid game.

[Sketcz]

I started with English and never bothered changing it. I really liked the use of British voice actors. Good performances, and well matched.

[Charlie]

Cheers fellas. Wasn't sure you could change audio mid game. Will start off in English and take it from there.

[nakamura]

Finally got stuck into this and it really is excellent. Twenty one hours in now and despite the combat not having that much depth at the moment, the locations are amazing, plot is good and exploration is utterly compelling.

['Press Start']

Finally got stuck into this and it really is excellent. Twenty one hours in now and despite the combat not having that much depth at the moment, the locations are amazing, plot is good and exploration is utterly compelling.

What about that music hey! Where are you in the game now?

[nakamura]

Just reached Eryth Sea which is another stunning location. Perhaps this is one of the best looking games ever made. Music is generally stunning too.

['Press Start']

For sure. Although, whilst I do not consider myself a graphics whore I only wish the Wii had a bit more graphical grunt to fully realise the art style.

This must be one of the most beautify haunting tracks from any RPG I've played, especially from 2:00:-

[danholo]

I agree with PSTB. I just passed that big gate after that marsh. I find myself not being so immersed into the game although it's a fun game for sure, but the amount I need to play it is really daunting. I feel like I don't have much time to put into big games like this anymore. Having said that, I'd think an HD remake for the Wii U wouldn't be a ridiculous idea. They could just port it to make the graphics sharper. I mean it's done on emulation... It's a shame that this vast RPG really gets very little attention although it might be one of the best.

[nakamura]

PSTB, I listened to that loads of times when you posted it a while back in either this or the headline thread and when I got to the marsh I was not let down, stunning.

Deep into the quests at Eryth Sea now and it really is fantastic. I still think the combat lacks a bit of depth but it's certainly satisfying when you take down a group of enemies more powerful than you. The comments made by Kryss about getting clouted by super high level enemies are just incorrect. You simply don't go near them. They seem to patrol certain areas and are all avoidable until you are strong enough.

[nakamura]

Completed this now and it came too an excellent conclusion. Overall a superb game with so.much to do in the game and so much to explore. Story was entertaining too.