Famitsu Review

http://nintendoeverything.com/famitsu-review-scores-42115-xenoblade-chronicles-x/

9/9/8/8 or a 34/40. The original Xenoblade received a 36/40.

From my lurking at GameFAQs and NeoGAF, I found these were the complaints:

-to play this enormous world and story you need time and effort
-the cutscene is too long so sometimes it feels like watching a movie
-the explanation for the world is good but too much cutscenes
-the tempo of dialogue is slow
-lack of explanations for game systems

I see a lot of people freaking out about the score, but my hype hasn't really died. Besides, Famitsu has a spotty track record when it comes to their reviews, so I will wait until I play it to decide. How about you guys?

With the exception of the explanation of game systems and the tempo of the dialogue, I don't see any of these as negative? And I think I can work around the other two. Also reserving judgement until I can get my dirty fangirl hands on it myself.

Xenogears got a 31/40, as did Xenosaga. XBC was 36/40, so I guess XBX being 34/40 is falling two points, buuut...I will never understand people who go in for things because of journalist's numbers.

Famitsu reviews are commercial press, right? Enuff' said, IMHO.

I could see how the first point could be trouble if the grind requirements were set too high (an unfortunate possiblity for all games that derive their gameplay from the standart MMORPG forumula), but no one will be able to answer that question for any of us until we actually get to play the game ourselves. Maybe you'd get so much into hunting alien flying elephants with mecha-mounted missile launchers that you won't feel anything negative at all? Grind tolerance threshold for each of us is probably rather different and can vary over time, so it is impossible to predict.

Same thing with cutscenes and dialogue. All previous Xeno games had wildly different examples of both of these, ranging from 'excellent!' to 'awful' in each and every installment. No way to predict what your reaction will be until you actually get to see with your own eyes.

Also, seeing as how this game is over 300 hours long, I don't see how a proper assessment could have been done in such a short time. Not sure how much time those reviewers actually spent playing the game.

I reacted about this on Tumblr already.
I think Famitsu reviews are untrustworthy.

Think about it for a moment : they criticized the cutscenes's lenght and number... for an enormous open world game filled with side content. Game gets a 34/40 score. FF13 was all about cutscenes with only a couple of side content stuff and it got a 40/40 score. Or 39/40. I've seen both so I don't know which is accurate... but my point still stands clear as day. Famitsu is biaised. And probably didn't play the game enough to truly give it a fair score/review. Unlike the Dengeki reviewer who apparently took his time to play (100 hours apparently) AND talk in depth about his impressions. I didn't read his review but from what I heard, he had a really good time with the game.

Besides, the whole "this game takes time and effort" is a joke. What do you want the game to do ? Play itself ? Hold your hand like the Zelda series does lately ?

I agree about Katimus. Only two things may register as legitimate issues : slow dialogue tempo (in stiffly animated dialogue scenes I presume *Xenoblade had those too*... and maybe the game being huge and open world is slowing down other aspects of the game... I dunno) and poorly explained game mechanics (also a thing in Xenoblade *I struggled to beat Metal Face at Colony 9 because of this, I didn't know how to offer characters gifts either, I also discovered the trading stuff rather late... and some people played the entire game without realizing there was a fast travel option*... plus the confusing menu and limited inventory).

I don't care about Famitsu. They gave perfect scores to absolutely boring/terrible games and lower scores to games that are among my favorites (Persona 4 is one of them, as well as Xenogears/Xenosaga 3 *though Xenogears had issues, being unfinished/rushed, but still impressive for its time*... and many others)

Famitsu's score/review doesn't reduce my excitement. In fact, I feel good about the cutscenes stuff, ahah (it's not like the game has no side content, you know).

EDIT : even better (or worse) about how Xenosaga was rated. All three games got the exact same score : 33/40. Unbelievable. Especially knowing the troubled development and how different each game turned out. It would be like rating all FF13 games the same.

To me the entire idea of opinion-based (not so much technical/objective) reviews is pointless and ridiculous (for things like movies, music and games, but physical more technical/objective product reviews are fine) because every single person has their own opinions and likes/dislikes and just because a person doesn't like a game doesn't mean anything. It bothers me when most people rely solely on opinion-based reviews instead of forming their own opinions by their own observations.
I always prefer to watch (no commentary preferably) gameplay videos to actually see for myself the gameplay and stuff and I can form my own opinion because I know what I like and don't like and I can see for myself if I want to play it or not, that always works for me. I just never understand why a lot of people in general rely on reviews/other people's opinions and decide not to even TRY to play the game just because of negative reviews or silly complaints. I agree, "the game is too long" is really silly, you're not supposed to finish it in an hour, it's not a speed race, take your sweet time, play it bit by bit over a long period of time, there's nothing bad about that, it's good!

Those complaints about the long cutscenes and long dialogue etc. were the same complaints people gave Xenosaga but for me, it's the total opposite and it's actually a PLUS! That is what I was HOPING for! I actually wish and hope that the game will have a lot of cutscenes and dialogue. If the game does have long cutscenes, I will honestly enjoy every second of it. I'm the type of person that will spend hours just talking to NPC's. When I first started Xenoblade Chronicles, I spent 3 hours alone just wandering in the colony talking to the NPC's and I love that!

I'm also the type of person that really loves multi-part sagas like video games that continue the story and get into depth with the characters and get into detail into the massive world. I really love deeply immersing myself INTO the world but unfortunately there are not that many games like that, it's why Xenosaga is one of my most favorite games ever. I LOVED the cutscenes in Xenosaga, they didn't even feel long to me (time flies when you're having fun), I loved how long the game was and how the story/world/characters continued on the next game, how you would learn more and more about the characters and the massive world, I completely LOVE that!

So to hear that Xenoblade X might have "long" cutscenes and dialogue, I'm very happy and hopeful about that because I *WANT* to get to know the characters and their interesting fleshed out personalities and banter (not just a silent disposable protagonist you don't care anything about), I *WANT* to explore a massive 300 hours+ detailed world, I *WANT* a really long detailed world that I can go back to for years to come. Like the Elder Scrolls series, my sister and I have played over 1000 hours on and off over the years that they (well mainly Oblivion and Skyrim, still haven't played Morrowind yet) first came out and we can still go back to playing those games and still find something new.

There was another unrelated game I was following the development of, it took a few years development and then the game finally released, I bought it the moment it came out and played it and finished it in just 8 hours, whoop dee doo! I always take my slow sweet time playing games but that game was short which was a bit disappointing because I loved it and wanted more. So to hear that Xenoblade X might be 300 hours long and have cutscenes and dialogue, I'm very happy and hopeful about that.

Anyway, I've seen people who lack patience, they don't even have the patience to watch 1 minute of a 5 minute video. Some people never read books because they find books to be a drag, they probably complain that the book "is too long". A lot of people don't care about a game's story, they just smash the "skip" button whenever a character talks and don't care about the story or characters but instead just the shooting and driving etc. There are *A LOT* of games for those types of people but not many games for people like me. Xenosaga was full of cutscenes, story, dialogue, it was made for people like me that love that. If a person complains that the story/dialogue/world/everything is too long and boring then the game isn't for them. Just my rambling 2 cents.

Angelfeathers wrote:skip

I agree with you.
Indeed, reviews are subjective (problem is, the industry and gamers depend a lot on them). They can state objective points but human beings with personal tastes and opinions wrote them. They're not useless, but you need to be smart when you read reviews, not buy everything the reviewer is saying and see if the game has things that appeal to you personally. Like the Famitsu review that states a few stuff as negative points while others will take them as positive ones (that said, Famitsu deserves to get a bit of criticism for the review/score they gave XBX... mainly because of the way they rated cutscene heavy games *with little side content* like MGS4 and FF13... something doesn't seem fair here *but hey, I don't know how things work at Famitsu... maybe the reviewers aren't the same people as the ones who rated MGS and FF... though I think it is likely that powerful gaming companies give extra money to reviewers to get better scores*).

I know what you mean about the Elders Scroll series... That said, I think Bethesda doesn't work hard enough on those games (save for the lore, which is incredible, yes *the reason why I bought Morrowind after Skyrim*). They're mostly sand boxes for players (modders) to complete and modify (it kind of reminds me of the Sims actually... with a stronger modding community). Bethesda's games are eternally evolving (and better) games thanks to the fans and I find this amazing/inspiring.