Xenoblade Chronicles: Better than Chrono Trigger.

Quick trailer for Monolith Soft's new WiiU game:



It's not been confirmed as a Xenoblade game, but there's some pretty obvious clues in there.

Is there a way to transfer saves on a Wii system to Dolphin?

I dunno how i feel about a sequel to xenoblade, since there weren't really any outstanding plot points that you could build a story around by the end.

However, that trailer showed mechs, and a high res xenogears-alike is something i can get behind.

What's with everything being so grainy and washed out? Can't they capture proper footage from their own development kits? The text and logos in-between the clips are very crisp, but once the game appears it's... yeeesh.

Oh well. Xenoblade Chronicles, now with online multiplayer! Or at least that's what it looks like, considering there's a chatbox.

From the looks of things - single-player RPG with MMO-alike multiplayer? Pretty much doing the Monster Hunter thing there.

Only one shot including the chatbox - other multi-character shots don't have it. Guessing how it works is that you have a highly-customizable main character and AI partners; you can go into battle with those partners, or you can team up with some other players and their custom characters.

Probably going to pick it up day 1, regardless. Already have the console, after all. (Hey, remember when Pikmin 3 was a launch title? bwahaha)

If anything this could push me to buy a Wii U. Loved Xenoblade and would purchase a Wii U to enjoy more from Monolithsoft in the same vein as the previous!

Okay, yeah, it's a Xenoblade sequel. Check out the rock formations - unmistakable.

I'm not convinced even something as nice as a new Xenosaga could convince me to get a Wii U. Release on something that isn't a Fisher Price iPad pls.

If it's anything like xenoblade then classic will be the best controller anyway.

The Gamepad is the pro controller with a big screen in the middle; unless they're doing something with the screen that's integral to the mechanics, I can't see the pro controller not being an option.

Since I'm describing exactly what Monolith did in their last game, I don't think that's relevant.

Yes, yes, EAD is weird as shit and won't let you use the classic controller for a 2D Mario game, despite it having all the inputs they actually use. (Fun fact: New Super Mario Bros. Wii has a driver for the thing. Which means they considered it, implemented it, and then decided to remove it. why.jpg)

Luckily, this is not EAD and their weird fetish for One True Control Scheme.

Well, yeah, if Nintendo goes and tells them no, they do as they're bid. I don't see any reason to assume that, though; they seem to be largely left to themselves.

Anyway -

Okay, co-op is optional, confirmed.



Tri-attack is back. Which means AI partners; there's no point to the thing in co-op.

And this is pretty much guaranteed to be a Xenoblade sequel; I can't see them pulling mechanics like that wholesale, even in a spiritual sequel.

It assigns attacks to your AI partners; if those are humans, it means that you pretty much tell them to stop and watch a cutscene. (There's also the issue of who'd start it...)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Monolith wouldn't make a design decision as dumb as letting you take control of your partners' characters away from them and having them just sit there and watch. (And if you keep the QTEs, they can be waiting for a long time.)

Maybe same-room coop, but two randos on the Internet? No.

That'd be really awkward to co-ordinate for decent results.

The composer change has some people worried about the soundtrack.

Even if Sawano doesn't have a lot of gaming work - given what he has done, I'm okay with the pick.

God the partner AI in this game is fucking awful. Please for the love of all that is holy give me some sort of control (or gambit system, or *anything*) over them if you are going to make them an integral part of the combat.

Ugh, man you weren't kidding. It looks so washed out and dull.

You can - there should be an command to order your party members to focus attacks, split up and something else.

Additionally, there's a more roundabout way to control their actions - you can select which abilities they have on their action bar, so if you want rein to tank, you give him the taunt ability, the tank stance and maybe one damage ability and that's it.

IT'S REIN TIME

MAN WHAT A JOKER.

There is a lot to keep track of in this bastard. :) Using 2 hands to play a game when one hand is not on a keyboard BARELY computes.

Love,

Chronically LTTP

So what you are saying is my options are "attack what I'm attacking" "attack a different target to me" (which isn't the case btw, sometimes they still hit my target), that I already knew about *or* completely artificially limit the choice of things my other characters can do in fights to one or two things in the hope they use those one or two things properly.

Yea... You are right. I don't know why I was so skeptical before, that does sound like a brilliant system.

Shrug. Most combat in the game isn't hard enough to require any real control over your party members, and the fights that do (mostly boss battles) get around the limited control options by using the tri-attacks to select the exact moves you want. Could it be better? Sure. I'd love for the next iteration to have something like a gambit system. But, you made it sound like you didn't even know about the command options that were available, and i responded to that rather than your disappointment in the game.

If you have a Classic Controller it is highly recommended to use it!

That's fair enough, I was including a little bit of hyperbole in my original post to be fair. It's not completely awful, it does it's job and it's serviceable. I just spend all my time ranging from mildly bothered - good damn frustrated by the fact it's not a lot better. I'm sure in time I'll get used to it but for now... Sigh. If the rest of the game wasn't so damn good so far and the combat didn't seem so promising I'd probably have lessened expectations and not be that bothered by it, such is life :)

Think of your AI partners as supplementary units to your main character, and treat them accordingly. Tailoring their movesets is a necessity to keep them behaving well.

Oh, and don't use Melia unless you're maining her. Because her AI is the worst.

Is she a caster? Because if so that does not surprise me *at all*.

PSA to anybody who hasn't finished the game: DO NOT GOOGLE THE GAME'S CONCEPT ART. I just stumbled into a massive spoiler while browsing excerpts from the art book. I'd suspected that particular plot twist, but still. :(

So did this game have like a pathetically short run as far as copies made? I see it only used, for $89 from some website I've never heard of. Is there a downloadable version one can buy?

Yes, and no. It does run on Dolphin emulation on PC if you get an ISO copy, although obviously you'd have to buy it and ISO it first.

It's easier to get the PAL version I think, they really just didn't want to release it in NA at all so they only did like a single run of copies.

Could someone who plays this on Dolphin see if the latest commits fixed the freezing problems? I could usually lock it in just a few minutes and it seems it's now more resilient.