Zero Punctuation: Xenoblade Chronicles X

Robert Kalmar

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Feb 3, 2012
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shintakie10 said:
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!
Press home button, then manual. You know... the thing most people forget it exists? It clearly states in the manual that potential increases the amount of HP healed, if you execute a soul voice. These icons are your resistances (again, clearly stated in the manual). That wasn't so hard, ehh? The game has a 80 page or so manual to describe all stat, buff, debuff, FrontierNav icon meanings, etc.
 

Arthain

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Jul 26, 2012
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It was about what I expected from Yahtzee for this game. I really liked XCX, put over 200 hours into the game. But it has its faults, anyone can see that. Poor story and lackluster characters makes it hard to care about the string that drags you along through the game.

But aside from that it's simply 'fun.' And Yahtzee even admitted that, until he got his Skell blown up. This game has a lot of problems, but being fun isn't one of them. But, I think Yahtzee did quit before he finished the game on account that he mentioned everyone is all buddy-buddy and licks each other's backsides since there is betrayal... as dumb as it was when it appeared. You do actually lose one of those party members.

But, from what I can see, despite all his complaints, that almost seems like his favorite JRPG in a long time.
 

GiantRedButton

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Why did Yahtzee yell out a big spoiler for the first game at the beginning of the video? Its not like it adds anything.
Xenoblade was released on the 3ds on 2. April 2015 and i am currently about 20 hours in. Still havent arrived at the spoiler so it is pretty deep in.
 

SmallHatLogan

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Jan 23, 2014
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I bought this back when it was released and played a grand total of an hour or two. Every weekend I tell myself I'm going to sit down and spend a decent bit of time with it but I have a hard time finding the motivation. This review hasn't really helped, despite Yahtzee having a somewhat positive opinion on it.
 

Llarys

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Aug 28, 2013
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Robert Kalmar said:
shintakie10 said:
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!
Press home button, then manual. You know... the thing most people forget it exists? It clearly states in the manual that potential increases the amount of HP healed, if you execute a soul voice. These icons are your resistances (again, clearly stated in the manual). That wasn't so hard, ehh? The game has a 80 page or so manual to describe all stat, buff, debuff, FrontierNav icon meanings, etc.
Ok, be fair. I'm a huge fan of the game, but it DEFINITELY has issues with explaining stuff to the players.


Potential is a great example: Yes, the higher your potential, the more HP you heal if you execute a soul voice. This is also the least important part of potential. By far. Potential replaces your melee/ranged attack stats when calculating TP attacks (which is why your "finisher" moves can be shockingly weak unless you have a high potential investment, or are sure to use a Potential Up Buff before unleashing those moves). Potential is also responsible for giving Skells a damage multiplier during their overdrives, as they lack any form of TP moves.

This problem also extends to the ol' "Stagger-Topple" system, where half of the Toppling moves work only when the enemy is Staggered, and the other half work regardless of the opponent being Staggered, breaking the importance of the status effect combo. Of course, the game doesn't actually tell you that the moves break the system (Unlike in the original where the single auto-topple move is properly labeled as such).


And good lord, don't even get me started on the likes of "Crit Power I-VII" or "Supercharge I-VII" or any other buffs that have a vague description of what they do, but no indication of how they change as they level up (I, personally, discovered that the base crit damage modifier is 10% and each level of crit power adds +20% more damage to each crit, but stuff like Supercharge which only works on the next attack? Not happening).


So yeah, while the manual is a good place to start learning about these things...it's vague...at best. And it definitely doesn't cover everything, like the many auras that give equally vague descriptions on how they work.
 

OldNewNewOld

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Mar 2, 2011
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So all in all, it's a positive review.
Pretty much everything is true, yet he kept playing.

I played it only for 10ish hours at my cousin's place, but I'm planning on getting it. I love it.
 

Logience

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Jun 25, 2014
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Jeez, Yahtzee's being forced to surrender all his reviewing restrictions in order to have something to review each week. At this rate, he'll probably end up reviewing FE14.
 

anonymity88

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GiantRedButton said:
Why did Yahtzee yell out a big spoiler for the first game at the beginning of the video? Its not like it adds anything.
Xenoblade was released on the 3ds on 2. April 2015 and i am currently about 20 hours in. Still havent arrived at the spoiler so it is pretty deep in.
I have to ask; although I do feel bad for you since I suffered a Force Awakens spoiler the very morning I was going to see it, but did you not think that maybe I shouldn't watch a review of the next game in the series before I've completed the one I'm currently playing, just in case?
 

GiantRedButton

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anonymity88 said:
GiantRedButton said:
Why did Yahtzee yell out a big spoiler for the first game at the beginning of the video? Its not like it adds anything.
Xenoblade was released on the 3ds on 2. April 2015 and i am currently about 20 hours in. Still havent arrived at the spoiler so it is pretty deep in.
I have to ask; although I do feel bad for you since I suffered a Force Awakens spoiler the very morning I was going to see it, but did you not think that maybe I shouldn't watch a review of the next game in the series before I've completed the one I'm currently playing, just in case?

Why? Most reviews are spoiler free. Try to find a Persona 4 review that spoiled Persona 3 for example.
Yahtzee usually doesn't spoil that much either and if he does it results in a point. Or atleast half a sentence.
Just yelling out the Spoiler really quickly at the beginning doesn't acommplish anything but spoiling it.
 

Silvanus

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Jan 15, 2013
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GiantRedButton said:
Why did Yahtzee yell out a big spoiler for the first game at the beginning of the video? Its not like it adds anything.
Xenoblade was released on the 3ds on 2. April 2015 and i am currently about 20 hours in. Still havent arrived at the spoiler so it is pretty deep in.
If you're referring to the "it was Earth all along!" line, that's not a legit spoiler. It's not actually true in Xenoblade Chronicles. It's just a jokey reference to Planet of the Apes.
 

GiantRedButton

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Silvanus said:
GiantRedButton said:
Why did Yahtzee yell out a big spoiler for the first game at the beginning of the video? Its not like it adds anything.
Xenoblade was released on the 3ds on 2. April 2015 and i am currently about 20 hours in. Still havent arrived at the spoiler so it is pretty deep in.
If you're referring to the "it was Earth all along!" line, that's not a legit spoiler. It's not actually true in Xenoblade Chronicles. It's just a jokey reference to Planet of the Apes.
Oh, no wonder i never arrived at that despite being quite deep in then :_D
Thank you Mister Forest-deity!
 

Oldcodger

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Dec 13, 2012
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I think I've only ever played a handful of games that Yahtzee's reviewed in ZP but his reviews are hilarious regardless. ("Licky, licky, botty, botty!") Ahem. ;)
 

ToastyMozart

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RisenStorm said:
Can't wait for the salt from the game's fanbase.
Honestly, I'm not really expecting much. It's not like his criticisms are invalid, a lot of the game's fans just either see them as positives or don't mind (or remembered to RTFM, so they actually know what shit like "potential" does).

For example, I actually rather like the way they sprinkled big fuckoff shit wreckers here and there regardless of area level. It makes the place feel more like an actual world than a collection of increasingly difficult stages. And one could make a point that running into something you are woefully underprepared for and running for your life is a fundamental part of exploration.

I think he missed a couple points of potential criticism though, such as despite how much XC and XCX treat failure as a learning experience, popping you back to life at the nearest landmark (or a few yards away if it's a boss fight), you have to travel aaaaaall the way back to the barracks whenever you or your teammates break their giant robot. It's infuriating during boss fights, and with how lenient Giant Robot Insurance LLC is about user-incurred damages, you'd figure they'd have a delivery service.