Xenoblade Chronicles Coming to America

[Epona]

So, Operation Rainfall actually won one! HOORAY!

Now, comes the moment of truth: Will they put their money where their mouths are and actually BUY the game?

They wanted three games released and they got ONE and it's a limited release. They haven't won.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

So, Operation Rainfall actually won one! HOORAY!

Now, comes the moment of truth: Will they put their money where their mouths are and actually BUY the game?

I fully expect at least half of them to chicken out. I've learned not to fully trust the gaming community

 

[Yopaz]

I am happy for you Americans. It's a good Wii title and worth a purchase if you got a Wii.

 

[Palademon]

Well, I am sad about this lack of exclusivity. At least it being limited to Gamestop will bring me some happiness.

Plenty of cases of the rest of the world not getting things or getting them really late, but when it's America suddenly it isn't fair.

Well at least it's a game with British English voice acting.

 

[Allurse31]

If you like Final Fantasy XII at all, you should get this game. Not only because of the similar gameplay mechanics, but also because of the sheer vastness and beauty of the world. Remember the Cerobi Steppe area in XII, imagine that all seamlessly stitched together without it being chopped up into chunks that have to load separately every few minutes. Not only are the areas wide, they're also high; you can leap of the highest ledge and plunge all the way into lakes right at the bottom.

The best part is finding new places on the map rewards you with lots of experience points, along with all side/fetch quests making them worth doing. You can actually level up a lot faster doing these sorts of things rather than just grinding out fighting monsters all the time.

So happy with this game, I wasn't a big fan of the Xenosaga series but this one is back to the excellent Xenogears standard.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

And about a hundred frothing fanboys will buy it, because the rest of the people who still care imported it.

Or, even if it does fine, Nintendo's going to say not enough bought it regardless of how many did just to shut people up. Japanese video game companies have developed some disturbing ways of handling customers demanding something lately.

Of course, I'd like to be wrong on all fronts, because it'd set a nice precedent. But given that they're deliberately limiting its availability, I'm going to seriously doubt it.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

I am still clueless as to why it never got released in the USA.

RPGs took a massive nose-dive in the last gen of consoles; I mean really, even Final Fantasy kinda fell into the wayside for a while there. My guess is that Nintendo is using those figures to assume that RPGs aren't going to sell in the states.

 

[4RM3D]

I am still clueless as to why it never got released in the USA.

RPGs took a massive nose-dive in the last gen of consoles; I mean really, even Final Fantasy kinda fell into the wayside for a while there. My guess is that Nintendo is using those figures to assume that RPGs aren't going to sell in the states.

That is a shame...

*looks at Modern Warfare 3* - best selling game ever -

*sigh*

 

[AbstractStream]

Yes! YEEEES! We're getting somewhere~

Spoiler

 

[DJDarque]

Is this game related to like Xenogears and Xenosaga? I've never played those before. For anyone that has played it, is it fairly self-contained?

 

[Penitent]

Dammit, Nintendo, first Skyward Sword, now this. I don't want to buy a Wii six months before they replace it!

On the bright side, the WiiU is backwards-compatible. You could buy Xenoblade in April and then play it when the WiiU's out.

 

[Stormz]

Thanks for ignoring Canada you douchebags. Because I'm sure no one here wants to play it anyway right?

 

[Trishbot]

They are not fully releasing it. They are limiting the release to only two retailers, one of which is Nintendo itself. That's called a limited release. You know how they released Skyward Sword everywhere, Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy, Gamestop, etc.... That's called a full release.

Those other three games you mentioned with a limited release, yeah, I never heard of them until now so you can see how effective a limited release is. I think they want the game to fail so they can say "We told you so" the next time there is a movement like Operation Rainfall.

If they sold this game ONLY at McDonalds and you bought it anyway, they YOU are part of the problem. Read my text: RETAILER EXCLUSIVE GAMES ARE A BAD THING! DON'T ENCOURAGE IT! Please.

You seem to believe a niche JRPG like Xenoblade could sell as much as Skyward Sword or Call of Duty... only ONE JRPG has sold more than a million copies in the US in over five years, and that was Final Fantasy XIII. This is a SMART move by making and releasing enough copies to satisfy the people (like me) that asked for the game without losing money by making more copies than people will buy.

For example, Battlefield 3 has sold 3 million copies to date, but there are 8 million copies just floating around on shelves. Now, maybe those will be sold, but more than likely they'll just linger on shelves until they're dumped or sent back to the publisher, which counts as a significant loss of money for every copy unsold.

But, here, let me mention another game with a "limited" release: Two Worlds II. It was Amazon-exclusive in Europe... and it still sold over 2 million copies (which, for the record, is FAR MORE than Skyward Sword, the game you mentioned).

I am not "a part of the problem". There is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING wrong with supporting a game and developer by buying the game where it's available. I'm "part of the problem" if I bought Infinity Blade on the Apple store because they don't have the game available anywhere else on any other platform? Am I "part of the problem" when I buy a game off of Valve's Steam service that isn't available on consoles or at retail stores? Am I "part of the problem" when I bought Shadow Complex off of Xbox Live, the only place you can buy it from?

Don't be so ignorant. There is no "problem". In fact, if you think a limited release is a "problem", the best way to fix it is to BUY THE GAME!

Disney, for instance, wanted a "limited" re-release of The Lion King in theaters a few months ago... until it broke several records, made them a ton of money, and they realized "wow, people want to see this!" and expanded their "limited" release by nearly a month and to several hundreds more theaters. That only happened because people came out to support and buy tickets for the movie.

SUPPORTING something is how you get rid of a "limited" release, so buy it. If you hate Gamestop THAT much, just buy it directly from Nintendo, the publisher, and give them and their hard work all the money instead. You get a phenomenal game, your Wii gets some much needed JRPG love, fans show they wanted JRPGs in the West, the publisher and developers get full profits from you, the customer, and maybe we'll get the other great RPGs waiting in the wings. There's zero downside. Everyone wins.

 

[Epona]

They are not fully releasing it. They are limiting the release to only two retailers, one of which is Nintendo itself. That's called a limited release. You know how they released Skyward Sword everywhere, Wal Mart, Target, Best Buy, Gamestop, etc.... That's called a full release.

Those other three games you mentioned with a limited release, yeah, I never heard of them until now so you can see how effective a limited release is. I think they want the game to fail so they can say "We told you so" the next time there is a movement like Operation Rainfall.

If they sold this game ONLY at McDonalds and you bought it anyway, they YOU are part of the problem. Read my text: RETAILER EXCLUSIVE GAMES ARE A BAD THING! DON'T ENCOURAGE IT! Please.

You seem to believe a niche JRPG like Xenoblade could sell as much as Skyward Sword or Call of Duty... only ONE JRPG has sold more than a million copies in the US in over five years, and that was Final Fantasy XIII. This is a SMART move by making and releasing enough copies to satisfy the people (like me) that asked for the game without losing money by making more copies than people will buy.

For example, Battlefield 3 has sold 3 million copies to date, but there are 8 million copies just floating around on shelves. Now, maybe those will be sold, but more than likely they'll just linger on shelves until they're dumped or sent back to the publisher, which counts as a significant loss of money for every copy unsold.

But, here, let me mention another game with a "limited" release: Two Worlds II. It was Amazon-exclusive in Europe... and it still sold over 2 million copies (which, for the record, is FAR MORE than Skyward Sword, the game you mentioned).

I am not "a part of the problem". There is NOTHING, I repeat, NOTHING wrong with supporting a game and developer by buying the game where it's available. I'm "part of the problem" if I bought Infinity Blade on the Apple store because they don't have the game available anywhere else on any other platform? Am I "part of the problem" when I buy a game off of Valve's Steam service that isn't available on consoles or at retail stores? Am I "part of the problem" when I bought Shadow Complex off of Xbox Live, the only place you can buy it from?

Don't be so ignorant. There is no "problem". In fact, if you think a limited release is a "problem", the best way to fix it is to BUY THE GAME!

Disney, for instance, wanted a "limited" re-release of The Lion King in theaters a few months ago... until it broke several records, made them a ton of money, and they realized "wow, people want to see this!" and expanded their "limited" release by nearly a month and to several hundreds more theaters. That only happened because people came out to support and buy tickets for the movie.

SUPPORTING something is how you get rid of a "limited" release, so buy it. If you hate Gamestop THAT much, just buy it directly from Nintendo, the publisher, and give them and their hard work all the money instead. You get a phenomenal game, your Wii gets some much needed JRPG love, fans show they wanted JRPGs in the West, the publisher and developers get full profits from you, the customer, and maybe we'll get the other great RPGs waiting in the wings. There's zero downside. Everyone wins.

So, from scanning your novel here, I see that you agree that this is not a full release and is, in fact, a limited release. So we agree.

It seems that we don't agree that retailer exclusive games are a bad thing. I think they are worse than retailer exclusive DLC and you take the "addict approach" and say that "anything is better than not getting the game at all".

Oh and BTW, I love Gamestop but I still don't like retailer exclusive stuff. See how easy it is to say something without writing a novel?

 

[Trishbot]

So, from scanning your novel here, I see that you agree that this is not a full release and is, in fact, a limited release. So we agree.

It seems that we don't agree that retailer exclusive games are a bad thing. I think they are worse than retailer exclusive DLC and you take the "addict approach" and say that "anything is better than not getting the game at all".

Oh and BTW, I love Gamestop but I still don't like retailer exclusive stuff. See how easy it is to say something without writing a novel?

Apparently someone has never read a "novel" before. It's okay. They have teachers out there that can help you if you're intimidated by anything longer than a twitter post.

You apparently don't understand what quotations around words mean either when I kept using them for "limited", which I did, which meant that, no, I don't agree with you that it is not a full release.

Also, I never said I LIKED the fact Gamestop has US-exclusive distribution right. Never, ever. I would MUCH prefer it to be widely available at every store on the face of the earth, game-related or not.

I also don't understand your "addict" analogy. For a content-starved system, anything IS better than nothing! A better analogy would be a thirsty man in the desert gets a single glass of water rather than nothing at all. Now, maybe he might prefer beer or fine wine, or maybe he was a Coca-Cola guy. But you can't tell me that if he was offered something to quench his thirst he wouldn't take it, even if that glass of water came only from one distributor.

Do you know how few good JRPGs have come out in the past 10 years? I can count them on one hand. Xenoblade is ONE of them. Reports are even saying Gamestop is the one that offered to shoulder distribution costs so Nintendo would be enticed to sell the game to American citizens in the first place.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. If you want to avoid the game for this reason, it's nobody's loss but your own. In the big picture, it just seems silly that you wouldn't buy it from Nintendo directly if you're so upset about it, and you'd rather have ZERO experience with one of the best Wii games and JRPGs ever created rather than swallow a little pride, give it a chance, and enjoy it in spite of the manner that it was released.

 

[Epona]

So, from scanning your novel here, I see that you agree that this is not a full release and is, in fact, a limited release. So we agree.

It seems that we don't agree that retailer exclusive games are a bad thing. I think they are worse than retailer exclusive DLC and you take the "addict approach" and say that "anything is better than not getting the game at all".

Oh and BTW, I love Gamestop but I still don't like retailer exclusive stuff. See how easy it is to say something without writing a novel?

Apparently someone has never read a "novel" before. It's okay. They have teachers out there that can help you if you're intimidated by anything longer than a twitter post.

You apparently don't understand what quotations around words mean either when I kept using them for "limited", which I did, which meant that, no, I don't agree with you that it is not a full release.

Also, I never said I LIKED the fact Gamestop has US-exclusive distribution right. Never, ever. I would MUCH prefer it to be widely available at every store on the face of the earth, game-related or not.

I also don't understand your "addict" analogy. For a content-starved system, anything IS better than nothing! A better analogy would be a thirsty man in the desert gets a single glass of water rather than nothing at all. Now, maybe he might prefer beer or fine wine, or maybe he was a Coca-Cola guy. But you can't tell me that if he was offered something to quench his thirst he wouldn't take it, even if that glass of water came only from one distributor.

Do you know how few good JRPGs have come out in the past 10 years? I can count them on one hand. Xenoblade is ONE of them. Reports are even saying Gamestop is the one that offered to shoulder distribution costs so Nintendo would be enticed to sell the game to American citizens in the first place.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. If you want to avoid the game for this reason, it's nobody's loss but your own. In the big picture, it just seems silly that you wouldn't buy it from Nintendo directly if you're so upset about it, and you'd rather have ZERO experience with one of the best Wii games and JRPGs ever created rather than swallow a little pride, give it a chance, and enjoy it in spite of the manner that it was released.

So you don't think a game being released at only two places, one of which is from the publisher is a limited release? How do YOU define limited release? If Disney only released it's newest feature film in one or two chains of theaters, that would be a limited release would it not? Same thing here.

Personally, I don't care about the Xeno games, never have but I would have bought The Last Story. Someone on here said this game was like Final Fantasy XII, well, no thanks.

The Wii may be a content starved system but that's not your problem, it's Nintendo's and it may just be because they are too stubborn to release games that people are ASKING for while they do release games that no one wanted in the first place. How many titles on the Wii suck worse than any of these JRPG's? Most but Nintendo releases them. That you take the crumbs they offer with a smile and tell others they should as well is what I mean by addicted.

Yeah, I would rather not have The Last Story (the one JRPG that I do want) than to promote retailer exclusive games.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Is this game related to like Xenogears and Xenosaga? I've never played those before. For anyone that has played it, is it fairly self-contained?

It's made by some of the same people, but is completely unrelated to the other Xeno titles. If you must play any of them play Xenogears as it is by far the best due to interesting characters and a narrative unlike anything else.

 

[Trishbot]

So you don't think a game being released at only two places, one of which is from the publisher is a limited release? How do YOU define limited release? If Disnet only released it's newest feature film in one or two chains of theaters, that would be a limited release would it not? Same thing here.

Personally, I don't care about the Xeno games, never have but I would have bought The Last Story. Someone on here said this game was like Final Fantasy XII, well, no thanks.

The Wii may be a content starved system but that's not your problem, it's Nintendo's and it may just be because they are too stubborn to release games that people are ASKING for while they do release games that no one wanted in the first place. How many titles on the Wii suck worse than any of these JRPG's? Most but Nintendo releases them. That you take the crumbs they offer with a smile and tell others they should as well is what I mean by addicted.

Yeah, I would rather not have The Last Story (the one JRPG that I do want) than to promote retailer exclusive games.

I view a "limited" release as a game produced in very limited quantities for a very limited time. Super Mario All-Star 25th Anniversary was a limited release. Metroid Prime Trilogy was a limited release. The gold-cart Ocarina of Time was a limited release (along with the new golden remote/CD bundle of Skyward Sword).

If you don't care about Xeno games, then why are you even HERE, commenting about it? That's like a Sony fanboy who hates Halo going into Halo threads to complain about a game they've never played just because they don't care. Why? It serves no purpose.

I HAVE played the Xeno games. I love them, warts and all. Xenogears was one of the greatest RPGs of the PS1 era. The Xenosaga was an ambitious and thought-provoking epic. Their games deal with topics ranging from religion to parenthood to suicide to depression to fate vs. free will to pedophilia to teenage pregnancy to existential "god in the machine" themes. Sorry these subjects don't appeal to you, but they do to many people.

I had Xenoblade described to me as "the best parts of Final Fantasy XII mixed with the best parts of Chrono Trigger/Cross along with aesthetics of Legend of Mana and the sophistication of Xenogear."

And you are SO wrong about my mindset. Xenoblade is as far from a "crumb" as you can get. I know people who have poured over 150 hours into the game. It's huge. It's a banquet of a game, worth the price of a system even. I'm not a Nintendo fangirl... in fact, I don't even have a Wii (my roommate does), but I pre-ordered Xenoblade when I could because I love this industry (I make games too), and I want to demonstrate there is both a demand for these type of games, of merit and quality, and to support those that make it.

The first way to get Nintendo to ever change, and you apparently want them to, is to not just boycott them altogether, but to buy the products you feel should be bought, on their OWN merits. Your problems are entirely with Nintendo, not the game or the game makers, and that punishes them entirely more than it punishes Nintendo. It would be like not buying Okami, a fantastic, beautiful, lush, original game, just because Capcom published it.

That's pretty short-sighted.

But if you just don't care about Xenoblade, at all, kindly go bother some other forum and let the people that have been petitioning for this game for months rejoice with the good news we've received. I'm sure you can find some Call of Duty or EA thread or something to complain about.

Us lovers of games and JRPGs couldn't be happier Nintendo changed their tune. Shame you can't be happy for us.

Is this game related to like Xenogears and Xenosaga? I've never played those before. For anyone that has played it, is it fairly self-contained?

It's made by some of the same people, but is completely unrelated to the other Xeno titles. If you must play any of them play Xenogears as it is by far the best due to interesting characters and a narrative unlike anything else.

If you have a Playstation 3, you can get Xenogears on the PS Network, I think. It is worth playing. It's HUGE, though, and the second half of the game gets rather rushed (they ran out of money while making the game, so you'll just have to like it in spite of awkward "guy sits in a chair and tells you what the developers didn't have time to add in" moments.)

I actually view Xenoblade as my own personal "Episode IV". Xenosaga goes from Episodes I-III, and the end of Xenogears says it was "episode V", so Xenoblade fills that thematic gap rather nicely.

 

[DJDarque]

Is this game related to like Xenogears and Xenosaga? I've never played those before. For anyone that has played it, is it fairly self-contained?

It's made by some of the same people, but is completely unrelated to the other Xeno titles. If you must play any of them play Xenogears as it is by far the best due to interesting characters and a narrative unlike anything else.

Will do. Some of my favorite games come from random recommendations.

 

[Epona]

So you don't think a game being released at only two places, one of which is from the publisher is a limited release? How do YOU define limited release? If Disnet only released it's newest feature film in one or two chains of theaters, that would be a limited release would it not? Same thing here.

Personally, I don't care about the Xeno games, never have but I would have bought The Last Story. Someone on here said this game was like Final Fantasy XII, well, no thanks.

The Wii may be a content starved system but that's not your problem, it's Nintendo's and it may just be because they are too stubborn to release games that people are ASKING for while they do release games that no one wanted in the first place. How many titles on the Wii suck worse than any of these JRPG's? Most but Nintendo releases them. That you take the crumbs they offer with a smile and tell others they should as well is what I mean by addicted.

Yeah, I would rather not have The Last Story (the one JRPG that I do want) than to promote retailer exclusive games.

I view a "limited" release as a game produced in very limited quantities for a very limited time. Super Mario All-Star 25th Anniversary was a limited release. Metroid Prime Trilogy was a limited release. The gold-cart Ocarina of Time was a limited release (along with the new golden remote/CD bundle of Skyward Sword).

If you don't care about Xeno games, then why are you even HERE, commenting about it? That's like a Sony fanboy who hates Halo going into Halo threads to complain about a game they've never played just because they don't care. Why? It serves no purpose.

I HAVE played the Xeno games. I love them, warts and all. Xenogears was one of the greatest RPGs of the PS1 era. The Xenosaga was an ambitious and thought-provoking epic. Their games deal with topics ranging from religion to parenthood to suicide to depression to fate vs. free will to pedophilia to teenage pregnancy to existential "god in the machine" themes. Sorry these subjects don't appeal to you, but they do to many people.

I had Xenoblade described to me as "the best parts of Final Fantasy XII mixed with the best parts of Chrono Trigger/Cross along with aesthetics of Legend of Mana and the sophistication of Xenogear."

And you are SO wrong about my mindset. Xenoblade is as far from a "crumb" as you can get. I know people who have poured over 150 hours into the game. It's huge. It's a banquet of a game, worth the price of a system even. I'm not a Nintendo fangirl... in fact, I don't even have a Wii (my roommate does), but I pre-ordered Xenoblade when I could because I love this industry (I make games too), and I want to demonstrate there is both a demand for these type of games, of merit and quality, and to support those that make it.

The first way to get Nintendo to ever change, and you apparently want them to, is to not just boycott them altogether, but to buy the products you feel should be bought, on their OWN merits. Your problems are entirely with Nintendo, not the game or the game makers, and that punishes them entirely more than it punishes Nintendo. It would be like not buying Okami, a fantastic, beautiful, lush, original game, just because Capcom published it.

That's pretty short-sighted.

But if you just don't care about Xenoblade, at all, kindly go bother some other forum and let the people that have been petitioning for this game for months rejoice with the good news we've received. I'm sure you can find some Call of Duty or EA thread or something to complain about.

Us lovers of games and JRPGs couldn't be happier Nintendo changed their tune. Shame you can't be happy for us.

Is this game related to like Xenogears and Xenosaga? I've never played those before. For anyone that has played it, is it fairly self-contained?

It's made by some of the same people, but is completely unrelated to the other Xeno titles. If you must play any of them play Xenogears as it is by far the best due to interesting characters and a narrative unlike anything else.

If you have a Playstation 3, you can get Xenogears on the PS Network, I think. It is worth playing. It's HUGE, though, and the second half of the game gets rather rushed (they ran out of money while making the game, so you'll just have to like it in spite of awkward "guy sits in a chair and tells you what the developers didn't have time to add in" moments.)

I actually view Xenoblade as my own personal "Episode IV". Xenosaga goes from Episodes I-III, and the end of Xenogears says it was "episode V", so Xenoblade fills that thematic gap rather nicely.

My god, do you have to type such long posts. I scanned this one as usual.

I do like JRPG's, though not as much as I did in the SNES and PS1 days. I just didn't care for the Xeno games so IMO opinion this is a crumb. You asked for three games, they gave you one and they gave it to you conditionally.

Not caring about the Xeno games doesn't disqualify me from this thread because the bigger issue is this limited release. It's another bad step for the game industry just like retailer exlusive DLC was. I am glad YOU get to play this game but I am not glad that they are treating it as some sort of a crumb by offering it in a limited way.

I also wonder why they didn't release The Last Story which is another valid reason for me to be in this thread. Operation Rainfall got 33% of what it petitioned for, in my world, 33% is not a victory. Why should I care though? Nintendo has become the laughing stock of the game industry.