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This might actually be the clearest step up from BotW, on a technical level.
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Reviews Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Review Thread (see staff post)
- Thread starter mazi
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Luneth
Bob-omb
I would add to the equation Legend Arceus. I had and have a lot of fun with it, a real step forward for the franchise.
Thunder84
Gerudo
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Depending on what peoples definition of “Nintendo” are, I’d imagine both Bayonetta 3 and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope will score in a similar range.
Crusters
Koopa
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Ha, used to joke around about how the game took the concept and theme of monads too far by incorporating a visual representation of the insanity of functional programming with monads into it's ever increasingly crazy ui, but now it is fully realized:
I am sorry, that your path must end here Skittzo, but your sacrifice will not be in vain!!!! Onwards fellow freaks! It is time to sup of the sweet, sweet nectar of utter insanity!!!!
Zeal543
Paratroopa
Yamauchi greenlit more jrpgs than iwata did, he was just upset with the Squaresoft situation at the time
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Deleted member 341
Guest
EnergyDrink
Shriekbat
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Some reviews are funny: "My time with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was overwhelmingly positive. I’ve clocked a hundred hours at this stage"
but despite hundred of hours of fun gameplay 8/10."
I mean I totally get when reviewers give a game like Xenoblade 3 8/10 but some seems to just have fear to follow their instincts. If I play a game hundred of hours it would get 10/10, despite I may not please everyone else.
but despite hundred of hours of fun gameplay 8/10."
I mean I totally get when reviewers give a game like Xenoblade 3 8/10 but some seems to just have fear to follow their instincts. If I play a game hundred of hours it would get 10/10, despite I may not please everyone else.
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Deleted member 341
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not every game I thoroughly enjoyed for dozens of hours is automatically more then an 8.0 to me.
An 8 is still a pretty fucking great and positive score. I don't get your argument.
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The Polygon review is really lovely; more about characters, the world and themes but completely spoiler free. What emerges here, but which I didn't quite catch in other reviews, is how Monolith Soft's approach to stressing the importance of the community in the world (present in the affinity charts and then the structure of Torna) sounds like a core strength of this game. I'm thrilled about that, because after Torna, that was what I wanted - a more fleshed out and organic approach to side content and secondary characters. I'm so very excited for this game.
Personally, despite the fairly full release schedule of things that interest me and limited gaming time, this is one game I really, really want to savour. Gonna avoid putting any pressure on myself to hit the credits.
Yeah, Eurogamer mention a 50 hour playtime, while Polygon mentions 140 hours. The latter review emphasises the quality of the side content, so the higher playtimes surely represent a deeper engagement with optional content.
Personally, despite the fairly full release schedule of things that interest me and limited gaming time, this is one game I really, really want to savour. Gonna avoid putting any pressure on myself to hit the credits.
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This line from the RPGSite review is great, really gets me excited to see the kinds of locations later in the game:
"I admit wandering around Aionios was, quite frankly, a bit boring at first. This title does not make a great first impression as far as its environmental aesthetics go; its early areas are intentionally drab because of its thematically dreary premise - with locales like wastelands and barren valleys.
None of the environments’ visuals really caught my eye until much later; Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a late bloomer in this aspect, but when it blooms, it is stunning. I don’t want to get into the specifics to not spoil any surprises, though I was astonished at the sheer scope and variety of some of the regions later in Xenoblade Chronicles 3."
"I admit wandering around Aionios was, quite frankly, a bit boring at first. This title does not make a great first impression as far as its environmental aesthetics go; its early areas are intentionally drab because of its thematically dreary premise - with locales like wastelands and barren valleys.
None of the environments’ visuals really caught my eye until much later; Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a late bloomer in this aspect, but when it blooms, it is stunning. I don’t want to get into the specifics to not spoil any surprises, though I was astonished at the sheer scope and variety of some of the regions later in Xenoblade Chronicles 3."
Chris Walken
Tektite
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- He
The side quests seems ti be the biggest improvement over not only the test of Xeno games, but jrpg in general.
Also, world building looks amazing.
Monolith has forged it's place as one of the best jrpg developers out there, what a steal from Nintendo.
I just want to know if someday Monolith will return to smaller, risky and mature projects like Xenogears.
Also, where are my Baten Kaitos remasters?...just..WHERE.
Also, world building looks amazing.
Monolith has forged it's place as one of the best jrpg developers out there, what a steal from Nintendo.
I just want to know if someday Monolith will return to smaller, risky and mature projects like Xenogears.
Also, where are my Baten Kaitos remasters?...just..WHERE.
EnergyDrink
Shriekbat
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No Xeno 2 was not seminal in any relevant way. In some ways Xeno2 was a step back, and was a lot worse in many points as its predecessors. It was just the first Xenoblade game that released on a highly successful platform. Xeno1 released only on Wii in Japan and sometime later in other countries but without advertising. Xenoblade X is probably best game of the bunch, but released only on WiiU...
It is seminal in a way. It is the Nintendo game that panders most to a male (and creepy) audience with its long camera flights above female bodys, sexualized character designs and character writings and some added drops of pedo- and robosex. Adn this all not in a mature or even comedic way but in a strange split between infantil story/character writing and melon breasts.
rickyson33
Koopa
I think I only ever even saw a few of the blade quests and I played that game for 100+ hours
will be nice for all that sidequest work put in to actually be accessible without having to go super over the top and spend hundreds of hours unlocking stuff just to see it
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An X port would crash bad, it suffers all the bad elements of open world games and a weaker story focus over random quests
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OMG I keep forgetting that game came out this year lol.
To be fair, January was a lifetime ago.
Zeal543
Paratroopa
Xenogears was anything but small, it was envisioned as a 6 part series
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As someone who hasn't touched the series yet, this screenshot puts a pit in my stomach and disgusts me
11/10
sign me up
Crusters
Koopa
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X seems draped entirely over a massive twisted all encompassing psychotic spiderweb of finite state machines delicately and haphazardly balanced just so, like bajillions of them, any and all of which could be spat out broken or changed from a cross compiler to start a port.
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The music they’ve been putting out on social media has all been pretty great so far. Impressions of leaked music seem really good too.
Chris Walken
Tektite
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Well i mean, more linear game and not as big in scope as Blade series.
Also, Xenogears was big for it's time, right now It would be a smaller project, sucks that the series is in SE hands.
rickyson33
Koopa
yeah I feel like people would hate me if I was reviewing stuff
I love this series and have played 1,2,and X for 100+ hours each but they each have some things I don't like about them so I still wouldn't give any of them a 10(or probably even a 9 although I haven't put enough thought into it to be certain on that one)
Sparkling Hootle
Moblin
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I CANNOT WAIT
(snippet from polygon review)
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Deleted member 2
Guest
Because it's like judging a movie for the theater you watched it in
As opposed to an analogy such as judging a movie for the cameras and film it used, which is something the filmmmaker actually had a choice in
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With theaters you at least have a choice though, unless you're counting emulation as one which I don't feel is fair to include in the argument
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This is the explanation I couldn't come up with myself. Nice way of conceptualising it.
Raccoon
Fox Brigade
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What is the purpose of a game review if not to describe the experience of playing it? On a dedicated console, game performance is not a variable left to the player (outside of emulation, of course).
It seems that many are suggesting that these reviews should be an evaluation of the developers' performance, rather than being written solely for those interested in playing the game being reviewed. I suppose I can't discredit that perspective, but it's one that hasn't crossed my mind.
Crusters
Koopa
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I can identify with the concept of 'seeing through', along with the concept of evaluating a specific releases performance on the hardware it was specifically released on. They are perspectives I constantly switch between.
This must be what it's like to be Blade!
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Honestly, I think there's no right answer here, nor should there be, and that is precisely why (well, one of many reasons why) taking any stock in a review aggregate is a load of hogwash. Whenever I see folks comparing games using them I instantly check out.
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Deleted member 341
Guest
it should be first and foremost be an evaluation of how much a reviewer was impressed by a game or enjoyed it.
As long as a game isn't undeniable broken or a technical mess it shouldn't affect a score too much. Depends on the sensitivity of the reviewer of course.
Thats for him to decide of course.
Of course it should be mentioned but I am not a fan of giving games lower scores just because its 30FPS for example compared to 60 on another platform.
But I am not a fan of scores in general and I think they are a bane on the industry.
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I think that's honestly what a lot of reviews do, though. Unless a game's performance is egregiously bad or has really disruptive elements like crashing or bugs, reviews don't usually take off many (if any) points for performance. They'll usually mention them, to let people know, but I rarely see it given much weight into the actual scoring of the game, if that makes sense.
Crusters
Koopa
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I remember writing something similar to this, the other day, but then I realized I was in the thread about guessing the aggregate, writing a post about how I feel aggregates are nonsense, so I cleared out my post lol.
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Well yeah, time and place. I wouldn't have posted it then either, but I'm not knocking discussion of aggregates in general.
balgajo
Koopa
I mean, you could play a game for hundred of hours, have a great time but nothing that will change your life. I, for example, played 200+ hours of Elden Ring and GTA V, 500+ hours of BOTW and none of them impacted me that much, so I wouldn't give them a 10/10.
Though my time with those games was good.
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Yea I get that. I was also being a little cheeky with the Dragon Warrior promotion because it's such a night & day difference between then and now when you think about it. Nintendo went from "please rest of the world, play this genre we know you'll like it if you give a try" to to Earthbound flopping to almost cutting Roy and Marth out of Melee's international release to finally giving Fire Emblem a chance outside Japan to Operation Rainfall to Fire Emblem having a good sized audience in the West thanks to Awakening to today with XC3's reviews.
It just feels a little like a culmination of 30+ years of investment in the genre kinda paying off. That's where I'm coming from.
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EtherPenguin
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This came up a few times during previews as well and... I can sort of see where they're coming from. Their going for a more grounded look this time which can feel like a step back to how fantastical the environments in 1 and especially 2 were.
I had alarms first go off when Nintendo of France did that 20 minute presentation where they ran around the snow area. 1's snow area was memorable for the yellow crystals that illuminated the night (and even many enemies there had the same bioluminescence), and 2's snow area had the giant stone castle with the ether lines, ice crystals floating in the sky, the central pillar, and lots of verticality. The snow area in NoF's presentation had nothing. There were no discernable landmarks or anything to make it special. It was just a plain of snow.
The previous numbered games having their environments built on the bodies of giant beings also created that sense of awe and added to the fantasy. 3's gimmick is seeing bits and pieces of those past environments sticking out here and there. So it's less awe-inspiring new fantasy world and more 'remember this?'
The big area where it goes from desert to two types of grassland leading up to where Uraya crashed looks amazing and dense, but I'm worried that area got a lot more attention than the others. We also haven't seen a whole lot of truly fantastical beautiful areas like Uraya. There are glowing trees in some places, but for the most part, the aesthetic direction feels a lot more grounded. I don't think it's an entirely baseless criticism and it has been a concern of mine.
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Xenoblade 2 was clearly a turning point for the series, making Xenoblade go from a niche Nintendo series to one of their bigger core gamer titles. Trying to downplay XC2's success as "only benefiting from being on Switch" is pretty embarrassing. Maybe if XC2 became the best selling game at like 1.2 million copies sold, sure, we can say "Switch popularity helped to get the series over the million hump", but the game sold over 2 million copies, more then double any other game in the series. That didn't happen because it was Xenoblade on switch, but because it reviewed well and had very positive word of mouth.
Also the real proof XC2 was a seminal game is how it continues to live rent free in the minds of so many people. I think in the past 5 years no single game has caused more thread derails then XC2 in sales threads, review threads, and even spoiler threads.
On the topic of XC3 reviews and scores, play time should only come up imo if a games length is a detriment to it's mechanics. By that I mean if a game is too short that it never feels like it dives deep enough into it's concepts to be satisfying, or if a game runs out of clever ideas at the x hour mark and goes on for another 10-40 hours past that. If you enjoyed a 5 hour game vs an 100 hour game that both did what they did equally well, the 100 hour game shouldn't get extra credit for being long, nor should it lose credit for being too long imo. Xenoblade always presents itself as a super long game, and the reviews for every entry generally shows that each game justifies that length.
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Well it seems like, according to the RPGSite review, that the game is more backloaded in terms of the really interesting and jaw-dropping locations. And the earlier part of the game is a bit more boring/bland, at least relatively speaking. And most of what we've seen has been early game.
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Seminal’s other definition is uh, a little too perfect here.
Nintendo really wants to see men enjoy this series huh
sorry ill see myself out
Twilight Sword
General of Khaenri'ah
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I seriously thought this game was going to get nit picked more...hype intensifies...
Hopefully it hits 90 for the final meta score.
Hopefully it hits 90 for the final meta score.
Sumio Mondo
Lynchian
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Looks at Metacritic/Opencritic scores and review blurbs
So yeah, this game sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
So yeah, this game sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
Warlord
Chain Chomp
Saying that Xenoblade 2 was successful just because it released on Switch is just wrong. It still selling to this day, something that wouldn't happen if it didn't have great WoM. It is a very beloved game despite what forums might make you think.
Also most of the second half just seems like a classic Era exaggerated statement about the game.
EtherPenguin
Koopa
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I hope so. The party was level 60 in the Nintendo of France presentation and the enemies in the snow area were in the 50s so it was definitely a late game area. Maybe the snow area is supposed to be a smaller outdoor dungeon-like area similar to the Cliffs of Morytha. Unfortunately, that would mean there is no proper snow area.
I do have high hopes for the Cotte Falls and Maktha Wildwoods though.
kvetcha
hoopy frood
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So seminal in the context of gaming forums, but not in the sense that it spawned dozens of imitators, gotcha.
Takahashi should be proud.
manfromthedam
Semi Undercover Game Music Guy
Not sure if I agree. BotW is a very clean looking game and can push masses of fine detail up close. XBC3 looks quite a bit more blurry and barren.
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I think it's pretty hard to say in general, since some areas don't show well with limited viewing, and some areas might be smaller and just less interesting in general. XC2 has Cliffs of Morytha and Temperantia, for example, that were both pretty bland IMO but also not that big.
Crusters
Koopa
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We actually don't know how much the original XB sold in it's highest selling market, as the subsequent print runs were ordered by GameStop, (identified by being packaged in Wii u boxes as opposed to Wii boxes), considering the tracked NA sales we do know outsold the rest of the world combined, we don't really have the foundation for this assertation.
Then there is the concept of value normalization between unit sales and cost of units due to increased demand and limited supply. If you wanted Xenoblade back then, you could ONLY get it from GameStop, or 200+ bucks from a Scalper. GameStop was able to get away with selling newly ordered print runs of Xenoblade as 'used' for 90 bucks a pop for roughly 3 years. Today people who wanted it but couldn't get it, could simply download the game, and had their sale tracked. Very wild west situation, fascinated the second hand market for years.
The assertation that it sold double sounds good at first blush, is not true at least not yet with the data we have currently, as XBDE just standalone as a single release sold 1.5 million. Double that would be 3 million. Also, at such 'low numbers' doubling just isn't that impressive of a feat, and could easily be in the range of a platform appeal/availability difference.
On top of that, Xb1 has been released a total of 3 times, and just with what we know, with around .8 million tracked on Wii, 500k on new 3ds, and 1. 5 million on switch it has outsold what we currently know of xb2, which only released (so far) on one platform. Which.... Kinda makes this whole assertation moot, particularly with the agressiveness of it's leading and forgone conclusions.
We really need those next white paper to drop so we have updated hard information.
I also don't think people being dissappointed by or disliking the game is something that can or should be construed as making the game 'seminal'.
But most absolutely importantly, I don't think value about any game should be so aggressively quantified by such extrinsic criteria.
I absolutely adore astroneer. I have hundreds of hours in this game. It has a 76 on metacritic (switch release, irrc highest score). Most of the reviewers completely missed the appeal of the game in their reviews because it it just plain did not appeal to them. I can't force them to like it or understand, or make astroneer look better in comparison by tearing down the games they like better. I can adore the game for what it is, and the extremely high value it has to me, because it appeals to what I enjoy.
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Mr.Fletcher
Bob-omb
Guys, it's okay to let go of all this now. Honestly, it's exhausting. We"re on the eve of XC3 here. We don't need to have this discussion - it's been had... for years.
Time to move on.
Time to move on.
