One thing I can say about this game is that it eats up more hours in a day since any game I have played on console since any game I have played on home console since Dreamcast. This game takes many of the progressive elements of RPGs in the past 15 years, and refines them into a very strong play experience. Many of the elements will be reminiscent of materia from Final Fantasy 7, skills and refinement from Final Fantasy 8, and a battle system that behaves like a fusion of Final Fantasy 12 and Skies of Arcadia, and atmosphere that feels something like Final Fantasy 8, meets Xenogears, meets Chrono Trigger, meets Skies of Arcadia; and succeeding to feel like the next level of both. It also brings back a more advanced questing system from Dragon Quest 9.
Pacing
This game has a gigantic world, a MASSIVE world. This isn't too dissimilar to the Xenosaga games - although the pacing is much improved. The biggest issue with the first Xenosaga was that there would be large blocks of dungeon crawling followed by large blocks of cutscenes. Xenoblade is considerably different, while there are some large blocks of plot still, the adventure sequence feels much more vibrant and in context. The player is given a compass, and they can follow it to the next location; there are no HUGE sparse sections like in Xenosaga 1 or FF12; at least none I have yet come across (I am about 15 hours in). Plus you can warp to any landmark position you want to in the game, so it always feels very quick to move around; when moving around otherwise, characters go fairly quickly (feels much easier to get around than most games I have played). There are LOTS of Quests, but unlike Draon Quest 9, there doesn't seem to be a limit to these (at least none that I can hit); like Dragon Quest 9, these seem to fit in very smoothly (in other games, I find they often feel more like a burden than a bonus -FF12 for example-, it is not the case with Xenoblade - they feel very much like a fun bonus).
Despite the world being huge, things will move as quickly (or slowly) as the player really wants; this is a quality that was dying for quite a while on home console RPGs. Xenoblade takes that pacing trend and turns it back on its head, it doesn't feel like you are being prodded along like so many other recent RPG/adventure games on console.
"Materia, Skills, and Refinement"
These are just the terms I am using since they're familiar.
* Monsters all drop many different sorts of items.
* Some of these items can be refined into crystals, these crystals will give a boost to a character (similar to junctioned magic in FF8) which can include extra powers or status effects.
* These crystals can be equipped to weapons and armour (like materia in FF7).
* Characters individually learn additional skills through a sort of a skill-tree (not too unlike past Xeno-games and other RPGs,); these are battle skills which can be used similar to World of Warcraft and such.
* Skills can be upgraded to be more powerful by spending AP.
Battle System
* Most monsters in the game will not attack unless provoked. other Monsters will attack when in visual range, or if the player makes a lot of noise.
* Encounters are seemless, the player selects a target and then hits the sword icon, and the battle begins without any sort of transition.
* When in attack range, the player will auto-attack. The player also has access to their skills (described above)
* As the player attacks, a gauge fills up (Think Skies of Arcadia)
* This gauge can be expended to resurrect fallen party members, or if it hits max, will allow the player to utilize dual/triple attacks, where the player chains up a combination of attacks from all party members - these attacks have increased effectiveness and will hit with 100% accuracy. This comes in handy, for example, when you want to topple over an opponent that might be usually very very difficult to do so (toppled opponents take much more damage, are susceptible to certain types of very harsh attacks, and they can't attack back when in a downed state).
* Players gain experience and items from battle, you'll want to sell most of these for money, but many others can be used in certain other features.
* The player can also interact with his friends in battle, (ie. if someone gets knocked down, you can walk over and help them up faster; you run around quickly in battle, so this doesn't feel burdensome).
* Battles are a mix of very difficult to easy - regular battles can kill you, and sometimes I find myself retreating from battle only to return with a more effective strategy; you will find yourself in battles sometimes with more than a dozen relatively powerful foes - you'll want to take out a few, make a tactical retreat, recover, and then go back for more to deal more damage; this aspect alone in my opinion, makes the battle system more fun than other 3D RPGs. It is the next evolution of FF12's battle system, and it works so much better.
Atmosphere and Setting
* It reminds me of Skies of Arcadia in the way that you can look around to many different locations and think "This is beautiful". The night skies are stunning. FF13 had many locations like this as well. There are areas that remind me of Pulse in FF13, except the difference is there are people around, and signs of civilization.
* It also has that sort of a mystical feel that Chrono Trigger and FF8 have. Mitsuda's soundtrack also really adds to this, it is one of the best soundtracks that has ever been put to a game. When you're running through a cave lit by Ether Lamps, or with glowing ponds, you'll see what I mean; it gives off a very nice CT meets FF8 vibe.
* FF7 is represented here too, there are many areas that look like the lifestream flows through them, very vibrant and bright areas.
* Robotic enemies look like something out of Chrono Trigger or Skies of Arcadia's ancient civilization.
* The story and setting are VERY Xeno-like, a world filled with ancient wonders of societies that were far more advanced than the present day populace, Monado with Godlike/mythological qualities (but a technological background). Also, there has been hints of a vastly superior civilization watching over events.
* The world also has a vertical sort of setting (You're on one of two giant Gods); think Faxanadu except with a contemporary 3D RPG type setting with vast plains, canyons, and other sorts of locations (and giant Gods instead of a giant tree) - looking off the edge is like looking off of a high up island in Skies of Arcadia and seeing blue sky below with the hints of other islands; at night it is kind of creepy to see the red lights of the other world in the deep distance (wondering what creates such light, since that is a long distance away).
Overall - my initial thoughts, before I played the game, were somewhat of excitement, but I figured that it wouldn't be that great since Tetsuya Takahashi abandoned the Xenosaga storyline. If I would have known how great this game actually was, I would have imported it last year. I was skeptical of people saying this game was better than Dragon Quest 9, Radiant Historia, or other greats on handheld. I am very surprised at this game and it does seem to succeed in exceeding those two games. It is the Chrono Trigger or Xenogears of this generation. The game feels very progressive, and it is PACKED with stuff; there is SO MUCH content in it; more value than any Wii or PS3 game this generation.
Pacing
This game has a gigantic world, a MASSIVE world. This isn't too dissimilar to the Xenosaga games - although the pacing is much improved. The biggest issue with the first Xenosaga was that there would be large blocks of dungeon crawling followed by large blocks of cutscenes. Xenoblade is considerably different, while there are some large blocks of plot still, the adventure sequence feels much more vibrant and in context. The player is given a compass, and they can follow it to the next location; there are no HUGE sparse sections like in Xenosaga 1 or FF12; at least none I have yet come across (I am about 15 hours in). Plus you can warp to any landmark position you want to in the game, so it always feels very quick to move around; when moving around otherwise, characters go fairly quickly (feels much easier to get around than most games I have played). There are LOTS of Quests, but unlike Draon Quest 9, there doesn't seem to be a limit to these (at least none that I can hit); like Dragon Quest 9, these seem to fit in very smoothly (in other games, I find they often feel more like a burden than a bonus -FF12 for example-, it is not the case with Xenoblade - they feel very much like a fun bonus).
Despite the world being huge, things will move as quickly (or slowly) as the player really wants; this is a quality that was dying for quite a while on home console RPGs. Xenoblade takes that pacing trend and turns it back on its head, it doesn't feel like you are being prodded along like so many other recent RPG/adventure games on console.
"Materia, Skills, and Refinement"
These are just the terms I am using since they're familiar.
* Monsters all drop many different sorts of items.
* Some of these items can be refined into crystals, these crystals will give a boost to a character (similar to junctioned magic in FF8) which can include extra powers or status effects.
* These crystals can be equipped to weapons and armour (like materia in FF7).
* Characters individually learn additional skills through a sort of a skill-tree (not too unlike past Xeno-games and other RPGs,); these are battle skills which can be used similar to World of Warcraft and such.
* Skills can be upgraded to be more powerful by spending AP.
Battle System
* Most monsters in the game will not attack unless provoked. other Monsters will attack when in visual range, or if the player makes a lot of noise.
* Encounters are seemless, the player selects a target and then hits the sword icon, and the battle begins without any sort of transition.
* When in attack range, the player will auto-attack. The player also has access to their skills (described above)
* As the player attacks, a gauge fills up (Think Skies of Arcadia)
* This gauge can be expended to resurrect fallen party members, or if it hits max, will allow the player to utilize dual/triple attacks, where the player chains up a combination of attacks from all party members - these attacks have increased effectiveness and will hit with 100% accuracy. This comes in handy, for example, when you want to topple over an opponent that might be usually very very difficult to do so (toppled opponents take much more damage, are susceptible to certain types of very harsh attacks, and they can't attack back when in a downed state).
* Players gain experience and items from battle, you'll want to sell most of these for money, but many others can be used in certain other features.
* The player can also interact with his friends in battle, (ie. if someone gets knocked down, you can walk over and help them up faster; you run around quickly in battle, so this doesn't feel burdensome).
* Battles are a mix of very difficult to easy - regular battles can kill you, and sometimes I find myself retreating from battle only to return with a more effective strategy; you will find yourself in battles sometimes with more than a dozen relatively powerful foes - you'll want to take out a few, make a tactical retreat, recover, and then go back for more to deal more damage; this aspect alone in my opinion, makes the battle system more fun than other 3D RPGs. It is the next evolution of FF12's battle system, and it works so much better.
Atmosphere and Setting
* It reminds me of Skies of Arcadia in the way that you can look around to many different locations and think "This is beautiful". The night skies are stunning. FF13 had many locations like this as well. There are areas that remind me of Pulse in FF13, except the difference is there are people around, and signs of civilization.
* It also has that sort of a mystical feel that Chrono Trigger and FF8 have. Mitsuda's soundtrack also really adds to this, it is one of the best soundtracks that has ever been put to a game. When you're running through a cave lit by Ether Lamps, or with glowing ponds, you'll see what I mean; it gives off a very nice CT meets FF8 vibe.
* FF7 is represented here too, there are many areas that look like the lifestream flows through them, very vibrant and bright areas.
* Robotic enemies look like something out of Chrono Trigger or Skies of Arcadia's ancient civilization.
* The story and setting are VERY Xeno-like, a world filled with ancient wonders of societies that were far more advanced than the present day populace, Monado with Godlike/mythological qualities (but a technological background). Also, there has been hints of a vastly superior civilization watching over events.
* The world also has a vertical sort of setting (You're on one of two giant Gods); think Faxanadu except with a contemporary 3D RPG type setting with vast plains, canyons, and other sorts of locations (and giant Gods instead of a giant tree) - looking off the edge is like looking off of a high up island in Skies of Arcadia and seeing blue sky below with the hints of other islands; at night it is kind of creepy to see the red lights of the other world in the deep distance (wondering what creates such light, since that is a long distance away).
Overall - my initial thoughts, before I played the game, were somewhat of excitement, but I figured that it wouldn't be that great since Tetsuya Takahashi abandoned the Xenosaga storyline. If I would have known how great this game actually was, I would have imported it last year. I was skeptical of people saying this game was better than Dragon Quest 9, Radiant Historia, or other greats on handheld. I am very surprised at this game and it does seem to succeed in exceeding those two games. It is the Chrono Trigger or Xenogears of this generation. The game feels very progressive, and it is PACKED with stuff; there is SO MUCH content in it; more value than any Wii or PS3 game this generation.
-Insert Inspiring Quote-
