Zero Punctuation: Xenoblade Chronicles X

FPLOON

Your #1 Source for the Dino Porn
Jul 10, 2013
12,531
0
0
So... it's basically open-word Monster Hunter only with even less direction, which adds to the game's overall exploration feel? Does it, at least, come with a [game] manual of some kind?

Other than that, that's one anti-climatic robot fairy... :p
 

Varadar

New member
Oct 24, 2013
10
0
0
Note to myself "Do not eat or drink while watching Zero Punctuation." I've almost chocked on the part "or I'm severely mentally ill... let's not dwell on that."
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

New member
Nov 19, 2009
3,672
0
0
RisenStorm said:
Another funny review.

Can't wait for the salt from the game's fanbase. Hopefully it arrives before my fries do.

Oh and first, I guess.
-Looks at thread- Well, that was awkward, wasn't it?

FPLOON said:
So... it's basically open-word Monster Hunter only with even less direction, which adds to the game's overall exploration feel? Does it, at least, come with a [game] manual of some kind?

Other than that, that's one anti-climatic robot fairy... :p
Maybe with how it has big, exotic fauna that look straight out of the age of the dinos, but that's just one aspect of the game. Fighting for instance is like they took FFXII but made it competent, there are a ton of party members to recruit that have their own sub-missions and issues, exploration is plentiful with a bunch of hidden nooks and crannies in the geography (which can become STUNNINGLY surreal at times), you can invest in arms manufacturers for better gear, and some passive online aspects for getting some goodies. And then of course we have the Skells which add a whole new layer to things with the ability to fly and have a different set of mechanics.
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
Wow, even Titanfall gives you your big stompy robot faster than 24 hours worth of grinding. I laughed at the "WHA?!" after that "It was Earth all along!" and the purple dildo as a probe.
 

Metadigital

New member
May 5, 2014
103
0
0
RisenStorm said:
Because anytime Yahtzee harshly criticizes a beloved game, tons of salt results from its fanbase, which tends to forget that Yahtzee is a critic first and foremost.
To be fair, though I think Yahtzee is clever and I generally enjoy his stuff, it's really part of a larger trend in game criticism that has a pretty terrible attitude. It's the idea that creatives deserve an onslaught of mockery, beratement, and hostility for the offense of not appealing to one's personal whims and fancies with a work they put their heart and soul into, often at the sacrifice of health and family. A sliver of consideration here goes a long way, and it's no surprise that fans of these works get defensive in the place of the work's creators when they see this kind of snark.

That's not to say what Yahtzee does is necessarily terrible (or that he's anywhere near the worst at it), but one should at least be compassionate enough to understand when feelings are hurt and give them a break.
 

TerranV

New member
Feb 19, 2014
34
0
0
Aiddon said:
And then of course we have the Skells which add a whole new layer to things with the ability to fly and have a different set of mechanics.
Other than the ability to fly the skells have nearly identical combat mechanics to fighting on foot. Except with longer cooldowns on all their abilities to ensure you spend more time sitting doing nothing.
 

Ryallen

Will never say anything smart
Feb 25, 2014
511
2
23
I am pleasantly surprised that he liked the game for whatever reason. I honestly thought that he was gonna bang on about the atrocious art style or the poor characterization or something else that I missed. But I'm glad he liked it, if only so I can justify it being my GOTY 2015.
 

OfficialJab

New member
Jan 14, 2012
40
0
0
My skell experience was different from Yahtzee's - while it did get broken from time to time I found it absurdly powerful and no fun to use. You just spend your massive fortune to get one for each team member and play cooldown bingo for the rest of the game. I was at 101 hours played when I realized I wasn't "having" "fun".
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
4,931
0
0
OfficialJab said:
My skell experience was different from Yahtzee's - while it did get broken from time to time I found it absurdly powerful and no fun to use. You just spend your massive fortune to get one for each team member and play cooldown bingo for the rest of the game. I was at 101 hours played when I realized I wasn't "having" "fun".
Not sure which difficulty you where on, but I was ejecting from my skell in virtually every battle to prevent it from getting blown up. Though I feel like an idiot for getting it destroyed falling off a cliff (I was trying to get to the probe in Oblivia you need to fly to).

Thankfully never had the problem of pissing off a tyrant. Game really is odd with the level placements of mobs, had level 50-90 tyrants spawning around NLA and a good third of them where hostile. I love this game but good god who designed the mob placement where the last place in the game to explore will have level 10 mobs everywhere. The only place I remember there being a logical level balance was in where the game starts and NLA.
 

Aiddon_v1legacy

New member
Nov 19, 2009
3,672
0
0
TerranV said:
Other than the ability to fly the skells have nearly identical combat mechanics to fighting on foot. Except with longer cooldowns on all their abilities to ensure you spend more time sitting doing nothing.
Except they don't due to how Arts are allocated, the reliance on fuel, how Overdrive functions differently depending on which Skell model you're using, and Bind which is where you can lay down big damage by freezing the enemy. A Skell fight is always going to be different than an on-foot one.
 

CarelessRook117

New member
Jan 13, 2016
16
0
0
Aiddon said:
TerranV said:
Other than the ability to fly the skells have nearly identical combat mechanics to fighting on foot. Except with longer cooldowns on all their abilities to ensure you spend more time sitting doing nothing.
Except they don't due to how Arts are allocated, the reliance on fuel, how Overdrive functions differently depending on which Skell model you're using, and Bind which is where you can lay down big damage by freezing the enemy. A Skell fight is always going to be different than an on-foot one.
Don't forget having limbs blown off, Cockpit mode refreshing cooldowns, super weapons, and aggroing much larger monsters while cruising last the little ones.
Not to mention different types of augments and defense bonuses to those not in skells while in your party.
 

Sheo_Dagana

New member
Aug 12, 2009
966
0
0
"Isn't it about time you got your giant robot license?" Yeah, everything he said about how long it takes you to get the goddamn Skell is all that was going through my own head as I played through the game, hoping against hope that each mission would finally be the one that got me my fabled mecha. And then there was a goddamn MMORPG run-all-over-the-fucking-world quest to get it. To relate it to other Xeno games (that actually have mechs), you get them either right at the start or even AT the start, as was the case in Xenosaga episode 2.

I basically also have all the same complaints that he did. When people ask me about the game, and I proceed to tell them, I then have to clarify that I actually DO like the game. I like it a lot. It's flawed, for sure, but I also do have some fun with it. I just wish finding your way around wasn't so goddamn hard, or that I hadn't spent a shit ton of time running to NavPoint, only to find my Mechanical skill was far too low.

It definitely IS a good game, but it does it's best to make you hate it.
 

shintakie10

New member
Sep 3, 2008
1,342
0
0
Zontar said:
OfficialJab said:
My skell experience was different from Yahtzee's - while it did get broken from time to time I found it absurdly powerful and no fun to use. You just spend your massive fortune to get one for each team member and play cooldown bingo for the rest of the game. I was at 101 hours played when I realized I wasn't "having" "fun".
Not sure which difficulty you where on, but I was ejecting from my skell in virtually every battle to prevent it from getting blown up. Though I feel like an idiot for getting it destroyed falling off a cliff (I was trying to get to the probe in Oblivia you need to fly to).

Thankfully never had the problem of pissing off a tyrant. Game really is odd with the level placements of mobs, had level 50-90 tyrants spawning around NLA and a good third of them where hostile. I love this game but good god who designed the mob placement where the last place in the game to explore will have level 10 mobs everywhere. The only place I remember there being a logical level balance was in where the game starts and NLA.
I actually dug the mob level thing most of the time. Having story quests marked as low level that require you to somehow make it past level 60 mobs was a gigantic pain in the ass (fuck all infiltration missions in that game, and that toxic cave thing with those undead lookin mobs that aggroed from a million yards away). It made the world feel like, ya know, a world. Everything isn't all segregated in neat little level zones where this is where the low level mobs are and this is where the high level mobs are. Did it cause me to die more than a few times while driving around in my Skell? Absolutely, but it still never bothered me that much.
 

Zontar

Mad Max 2019
Feb 18, 2013
4,931
0
0
shintakie10 said:
Did it cause me to die more than a few times while driving around in my Skell? Absolutely, but it still never bothered me that much.
Wait people actually drive them around? I walk around since I have coverage over the three lower continents that's so wide I may as well have full coverage (even if the game interprets "80% of probe locations visited" as ""40% coverage" in those areas) and I'm a real sticker for not wasting fuel. I only call the damn thing when I see a mob I want to use it to help me kill.
 

Metazoa

New member
Feb 3, 2016
1
0
0
Zontar said:
shintakie10 said:
Did it cause me to die more than a few times while driving around in my Skell? Absolutely, but it still never bothered me that much.
Wait people actually drive them around? I walk around since I have coverage over the three lower continents that's so wide I may as well have full coverage (even if the game interprets "80% of probe locations visited" as ""40% coverage" in those areas) and I'm a real sticker for not wasting fuel. I only call the damn thing when I see a mob I want to use it to help me kill.
Driving in and of itself does not use fuel, only battling while in it.

Yahtzee's response is about what I expected, although a little bit more positive than I anticipated. I was particularly amused by his discussion of the level 60 elite monster in his linear path, because I'm pretty sure I know exactly which one he's talking about, as a TON of people I've seen online ended up waking that particular one up.
 

SD-Fiend

Member
Legacy
Nov 24, 2009
2,075
0
1
Country
United States
For anyone having trouble sneaking past high level mobs there is a Dual sword skill called Shadowrunner that prevents enemies from aggro-ing you. You can either learn the skill yourself or put Elma in the front of your active member list and play as her.

I've already beaten the game and I had a good time but now I'm at the point where I kinda give up because of all the material grinding I've gotta do just to get the drops that make the material grinding easier. That and the fact that the build I wanna do (Dual Swords/Psycho Launchers) is difficult to pull off due to it's best combo requiring I be at half health constantly and is outright inferior the blatantly overpowered Ghostwalker/ Ether Blossom Dance build.
 

JohnnyDelRay

New member
Jul 29, 2010
1,322
0
0
Never played a Xenoblade game but this review was balls-out funny. I nearly choked when he pointed out the name had capital X's on either side of it like a child of single mom playing counter-strike.

Always wanted to try more JRPG's but they seemed like too much of a time sink for the amount of things I want to play (and have time for) these days. This game looks pretty fun though.
 

Groverfield

New member
Jul 4, 2011
119
0
0
I've got to ask. When the game tells you to stop and sidequest for awhile to boost your level, is it at a point in the plot where there's downtime, or is it on a cliffhanger? When a game stops and says "WE URGENTLY NEED YOU TO HERO UP AND DO THE NEXT QUEST" in a story, but then tells you that you can't because you're not high enough level, I call bullshit. Game, you say that there's an ogre about to smash the village, now I have to go off and kill bigger ogres -because I can- before it's safe for me to fight that one that's an imminent threat? Nope.
 

SD-Fiend

Member
Legacy
Nov 24, 2009
2,075
0
1
Country
United States
shintakie10 said:
Pretty fair review I'd say.

I loved the hell out of the game, but the complete and utter lack of documentation was a gigantic pain in the ass. What does potential do? I have no fuckin clue, but I have a ton of it!

What are all those icons on the bottom right when you equip gear? One of thems a -70 and one is a 30. Not sure that means, I assume -70 is bad, but I havent noticed anything majorly detrimental to my gameplay so...go with it!
Well potential increases the power of TP based arts and healing skills so having a lot of it is certainly a good thing, especially if you want to run the OP Ether Blossom Dance Build.

The + and - refer to the stability stat on your weapon that adds or subtracts damage depending how big or small the number is if you weapon attacks for 100 damage and the weapon has a stability of 5 then it's a coin toss as to wether or not you will do 95 damage or 105 damage so it's up to you if you wanna risk the damage loss or not.
 

SD-Fiend

Member
Legacy
Nov 24, 2009
2,075
0
1
Country
United States
Groverfield said:
I've got to ask. When the game tells you to stop and sidequest for awhile to boost your level, is it at a point in the plot where there's downtime, or is it on a cliffhanger? When a game stops and says "WE URGENTLY NEED YOU TO HERO UP AND DO THE NEXT QUEST" in a story, but then tells you that you can't because you're not high enough level, I call bullshit. Game, you say that there's an ogre about to smash the village, now I have to go off and kill bigger ogres -because I can- before it's safe for me to fight that one that's an imminent threat? Nope.
For the most part the quests are during downtime and the story doesn't pick back up till you accept the story quest.