1. Certate0

   9

   It's rare that I venture from my PC lately but I was in the mood for an RPG so I grabbed a copy of Xenoblade. First impression was uurrghhh my eyeballs!! Did I just turn on the Playstation 1? Believing the favourable reviews I pushed forward to see what all the fuss was about. The first thing I noticed was how responsive the controls were. The character moves quickly and it never seems tedious to get from point A to point B. The characters are likeable and the storyline is great. The setting for the adventure is interesting and fresh. After a few hours of play the graphical limitations faded away into non-importance and the will to advance took over. The beginning of the game is heavy with tutorials, a sign of the games complexity. Leveling up is natural with little grinding and there is a lot of enjoyment to be had by changing character equipment. Side quests don't require a trip back to town to cash in and there are many other thoughtful inclusions. Death is only a short set back, not a disasterous return to your last save. This game really brings me back to my teenage years playing FF7,8,9....A wonderful and worthwhile experience. Highly recommended.… Expand

   • Helpful? 7 of 7 users said Yes.
2. sanchokobe

   8

   Fantastic game--the best JRPG I've played in years--but it isn't without its flaws. The first and most glaring thing everyone will notice is the graphics could be classified as PS2 quality at best. I would say later PS2 games like Final Fantasy XII and Xenosaga Episode III had better graphics. We've seen with Skyward Sword, Super Mario Galaxy, and others that the Wii is capable of more than this. However, when one sees just how huge this game is, Monolith can be forgiven for skimping on the graphics. I would guess the graphics were watered down because the game wouldn't fit on a single disc otherwise. There's tons of geography to explore, items to collect, and sidequests to complete, and that's only a fraction of things to do in Xenoblade. Even so, the game's graphics look like something from a ten year old game, and for that I cannot give it a perfect score. Gameplay wise, there are elements of both Japanese and Western RPGs, as well as MMORPGs. All three genres are blended together quite well, though the ability for your character to jump seems to be rather buggy (and generally unnecessary). I also have yet to hear any music that compares to the compositions of Yasunori Mitsuda or Yuki Kajiura in previous "Xeno" games. One more thing that may put some people off is the US localization was basically copy-pasted from the European release. The characters all speak with a UK dialect (everyone is called "mate", armor is spelled with a U, etc.) It didn't bother me, but some people may get uppity about it. Monolith and Nintendo get big kudos, however, for including the option to switch between English and Japanese voice tracks. Long story short, this game is hands down the best RPG on the Wii to date. It's a must-have for JRPG fans, and many western RPG fans will enjoy it as well. I know it'll keep me busy until The Last Story is released in June. :)… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
3. Dziver

   6

   RPG is my favorite genre and this is the first and the only RPG I would ever give under 7. Combat system tries to be creative but it feels really clumsy and boring. It's like D&D system without pause or character swap. You need to press right and left to select skills from the bar which is reaaally annoying in a long run. I mean why could they just have used skill wheel instead of skill bar. Enemies can be avoided by going around them even at situations where you're clearly supposed to kill them to get past them and sometimes they won't even react if you run directly towards them. You need to push down C and use all of the other buttons to adjust camera angle all the time because the game can't do it properly. Heck at one time I think I got some sort of "can't see a **** achievement in the middle of a battle. Game mechanics take forever to figure out, the tutorial doesn't feel like it's enough. Mainly because common things like stun, knockdown, etc. are named daze, topple or something else you've never seen used in any other game. Quests are "kill X parrots" style like in MMOs without any further depth or interesting storylines. As you get in higher level areas you just keep seeing same enemies with different names and in different colors. Characters are uninteresting and the story is mediocre. I know I could've spelled this all better and in better english but I honestly don't feel like I should waste any more time even thinking about this game.… Expand

   • Helpful? 4 of 22 users said Yes.
4. Tappuah

   0

   I struggled, no struggled isn't the word, I went to war with myself to love this game because of the overwhelming positive reviews. While video games can be so subjective at times, this one blows my mind as how it gets such high scores overall. The things that are wrong with it aren't in areas that are subjective.
   The game is broken and unfinished. It is a complete technical mess and a vomit of disjointed and unnecessary time killing objectives. Lazy programming and the sense that someone wanted to make something really epic ended up with an okay and sometimes good story line, but a disconnected npc world and flimsy lore. That I could live with, and perhaps 10 years okay a game like this would have been passable even great by forgiveness of hardware limitations.
   It is 2012. There is just is no room for forgiveness anymore. Game like Skyrim, Mass Effect and kingdoms of Amalaur to name a few have shown you can make, albeit imperfect, sweepings epics that incorporate mmo structure, rpg elements and meaningful side quest/reward connections that don't feel like they are throwing sand traps at you.
   I get that it's running on a Wii, slow hardware you say, well here's the thing, you don't bring a minivan to a Daytona 500. We forgave AI limitations in 1999 when all the CPU could do was a throw an enemy at you in a suicidal guns blazing chicken run. I will repeat, this is 2012. There is no excuse and this game should have been told to pack up and go home
   Ill try to avoid the subjective things like story elements, pacing. Heck even the unrequired unconnected, repetitive side quests are fun for some people. I will say if you are going to make a game where you pick up thousands of random items off the ground, at least make then useful for something, anything. Sell them you say, well good luck on that because you have no idea when you need one of those, maybe 10 of 5000 different items will come in useful for doing a task that isnt't even useful. Do I need bunniv ears? I don't know, neither do they and maybe in the phase 3 of rebuilding the base, which there is no reason to do anyway, you might need 10 of the things. As I mentioned at the beginning of this review the game is broken, I will say first off, I knew what I was doing with playing the game, I knew how to use individual… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 33 users said Yes.

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