Xenoblade Chronicles X (coming on Switch): I need advice

[psvitaforever]

Hello everyone, before spending lots of money for a pre-order I would like to hear opinions.

I have tried "Xenoblade 3" but got bored after a few hours: to me the battles were so slow, you stay there, wait for the autoattack without moving, then for the cooldowns of the various arts after you put yourself in the best position for the max damage... I also didn't feel much for the characters, but that's not a big problem if I like gameplay. Problem is, battles didn't click for me. Exploring a big open world was cool, though. Menu also felt quite complicated to navigate, already at the first class changing I felt overwhelmed by the way in which you set all the different arts to the various characters, it didn't felt intuitive like other games - say Octopath Travelers 1 or also FF9 in which you were constantly switching equipment to learn new skills, they felt easier and more intuitive.

Now XCX is coming, I've read the autoattack is different (you can move and you will still autoattack, so it sounds like the battles are faster); of course I've read you must use arts in a smart way, and that there are many more options to make battles deeper (overdrive, leveling up arts, etc). Exploring the world is something I would like and I don't care if the story is weak, but for those of you who played both (of course the original X on WiiU), do you think I can enjoy it from the point of view of battles?

Also know that I didn't like FF12 precisely for that mixed mechanic of real time and turn based: without gambits (which I did not like, though I'm aware they are a very cool idea appreciated by many players!) the combat felt very slow. Ok, FF12 was meant to be played with gambits and in fact I went a few hours in before giving up, but playing without them was more or less like playing Xenoblade 3, to me. You stay there, wait for the line to fill, do the action, repeat, and sometimes you bring up the menu to do a different magic or action.

The gamplay trailers for XCX are amazing and I would like to try it, maybe there is something different this time and I would like it, but I also know myself and I know I prefer smashing buttons with an action game or taking my time in classic turn-based, even if it means always clicking the same button when you're grinding! I would like to hear your thoughts, especially if you've played all these titles and maybe you can give me your comparison between them.

Sorry for the long post and thank you!!

 

[Jeff]

I have played and completed all the Xenoblade games. Xenoblade X is very different than the original trilogy. You get to create your own character, explore a huge city, do lots of side missions, and ride skells. But in order to get a skell, you need to get a skell license after completing recommended missions. My only gripe, is losing the skell and getting a new one, so the trick to not losing your skell is to save in a safe location before a battle and load that save after your skell is destroyed.

 

[miguk]

XCX has some similarities to the mainline games, but it feels a lot more like a single player version of an MMORPG than the others. The world is much more open, and you can go to most locations that are accessible on foot from the beginning as long as you are leveled up enough to survive them. Later, when you get the Skell (mecha), you can access a little more, and after you get the flight module, you can access anywhere.

As for menus, XC3 has the worst menus in the series. No other game in the series has that level of frustration in just managing abilities and equipment. Unless they decide to redo them entirely, I doubt it'll be that hard in XCX.

Be forewarned, though, that the story was unfinished in the initial release. They have promised to extend the story for this release, but they haven't said how much of the story they will finish. Only the Black Knight storyline — the vaguest part of the story — has been revealed as being extended. That leaves a lot of other parts of the story left to fix, with tons of parts that just say "this is happening for some weird reason." (Sometimes that is literally said in the dialogue.)

Also, I should note that the joke in it (not jokes, but joke) is extremely repetitive and sophomoric. Expect countless moments of "Tatsu is food!" "MEH MEH, Tatsu is not food!" Even if you get a small chuckle out of this early on, it'll grate on you as you move through the story.

All that said, the gameplay is very good, improving on the gameplay of XC1 by giving everyone 2 weapons at once to change between on the fly, as well as letting the player character change job classes. And once you get the Skells, you get another "weapon" to switch to as well. Of course, the gameplay isn't entirely without problems either (this series is not known for good tutorials), so you might need to do some reading online about how to earn money in game, specifically from the borderline unexplained mining operation system.

And you'll be pressing buttons often enough in battle, as there's a lot of attacks to manage. In fact, once you get far enough, you'll get the Overdrive system, which can be very button mashy at time (though it does have a certain amount of esoteric strategy to using it).

But that's all based on the original release. I have no idea how the new one will be, though I don't have high hopes for them to fix the biggest problems entirely, as the things that were done right don't have much to upgrade, and the things done wrong have a ton of work to do for them.

 

[psvitaforever]

Thank you for the detailed replies! One more question (I forgot to ask): is the topple/daze mechanic like in the first one, where if I remember correct was something you HAD to do in a certain order if you wanted to win battles, especially the bosses?