General Interest Gauge Topic (SPOILERS)

From my post on Temp Sibb:

katimus wrote:I noticed that the will to talk about Xenoblade on the main forums has died down a bit.  I know it's not part of the "series" due to its Xeno title being a tack-on, but we've included it in our forum set for the past two years, and I see no reason to chop it off.  

That being said, I loved Xenoblade.  How about yall?

Adrak wrote:Even though

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was lacking as a villain, it still doesn't change the fact that he was really amusing. His comments about

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were so amazingly hammy. It's kind of sadistic of me to laugh at that, but I found it hilarious.

katimus wrote:Mumkhar is my moon in a non-moon sky.  He's HORRIBLE, but I think I love him all the much more for it.  |3

Adrak wrote:I consider Mumkhar to be the Albedo of Xenoblade, in that he's the incredibly hammy villain that just steals the show. Whenever he's on screen, he's always the center of attention.

katimus wrote:I hadn't thought to compare him to Albedo, though it is a pretty spot-on comparison.  Since he looks more like Margulis and has a rivalry with Dunban Uzuki, I was more inclined to think he was more like Margulis, but he's definitely not.  Good call! :3

Adrak wrote:I think it works since they're both obsessed with their rival (Albedo-Jr. and Mumkhar-Dunban), which makes some sense.

katimus wrote:Albedo's brotherly obsession does match up quite well.  Thinking of sticking Mumkhar in with the other URTVs is a very amusing throught, tho.  I think I need to try to draw some fanart to that effect.  XD

Jintoki wrote:I really enjoyed Xenoblade for its scale.  I really felt I was in this really big world, on a big adventure.  The story didn't really grip me until about 70 or so hours in (I played over 100 hours, but I don't remember the final count), but I still really had fun with the game.  The atmosphere and music <3

Also, I feel like if I ever want to go on a vacation, I'll just pop in Xenoblade (which sounds slightly sad, I guess).

katimus wrote:The thing about Xenoblade is that it's kinda so dynamic and everyone moves at their own pace that saying 70 hours in doesn't really give that good of an idea of how far in you were.  XD  At 70 hours, I think I was still mapping all of Eryth Sea.  Care to clarify?

Jintoki wrote:^lol, very true.  

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I mean, I really tried to like the characters, but I couldn't get as emotionally invested as I could with Xenosaga or Xenogears.  I still love the game for its atmosphere, music, and addictive gameplay, though.  I really want to play it again someday just to run around the map.  XD

Adrak wrote:

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katimus wrote:I suppose that's understandable.  Team Monado was tasked with gameplay first and story second, so I can see where the characters would fall short.  I honestly think stamping Xeno on the title shot up the fans' expectations for the story and the characters, and

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I think I walked out as relatively pleased with it as I was because I didn't walk in with a lot of expectations?

Adrak wrote:Well, I did still really enjoy the game. I was definitely not expecting the typical Xeno experience, but was still pleased. I just really liked the final scenes on Mechonis.

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I still haven't played it because I don't have a Wii. But I plan on it.

Oh, and the game has made the 1up best of list:
http://www.1up.com/news/1up-favorite-games-2012-xenoblade

That is mega-awesome.  :3

I know a bunch of people who are just waiting to get it when they get a Wii-U, which is a reasonable expectation for an end of life console title.  Xenoblade is pretty much the only way I've turned on my Wii in years.  >_>

I was just on your Deviantart page, Katimus, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who heard "dustbuster" in Dunban's Electric Gutbuster move.  

Even before the tack-on of the title, I felt it was a spiritual successor of sorts. There's just so much homage throughout. I know why they felt the need to differentiate the two universes, because Xenoblade has such a lighter feel and very different gameplay. And I know Takahashi was not as happy with the game as with others. But I love it. Truthfully I'm more into Xenoblade fandom right now than Gears or Saga (although I do still like them), so I'd be happy to see a bronado-friendly forum.

Haha, yeah, Electric Dustbuster is awesome. I have to do fanart worthy of it.

AND BRONADOS FOR LIEF!!!

I suppose it makes sense to post it here, so here goes. XD

I decided to give Xenoblade another chance, and I'm actually really enjoying it now.  I gave up relatively early, but I still had the save from that point.  It was even before Shulk got the Monado, so...yeah.  It's weird how his acquiring it has suddenly made the game much more interesting for me.  So I'm going to keep playing it and hopefully enjoy it just as much as I did 'Saga.

Chibi; yeah there is a bit of a learning curve, and it takes a little time for the story to pick up.  The real inciting event occurs a few hours in, after you've gone on some missions to give you an idea of how the game is played.  Then stuff starts to happen.  If you have gotten the Monado then you probably know what I mean by now.

I also found it a bit difficult to get into at first because the characters are much more archetypal.  They don't really get interesting until things start to happen to them.  I normally would not care about yet another teenage boy protagonist, but Shulk won me over after a while.  

The battle system gets infinitely more fun with the Monado because now you can apply strategy, unleash higher damage, and stuff.  Until you get a wider set of characters to play with, it is your bread and butter.    

The gameplay is very exploration-oriented, which is the complete opposite of Xenosaga.  So going into it expecting them to be similar may be a shock.

GlanceReviver, it's definitely a whole different feeling than Xenosaga, which is probably what threw me off at first.  I'm not one for huge lands of exploration;

I'm more a "Give me a specific goal to get done" type of person.  Which is why JRPGs appeal so much to me.  I don't play WRPGs, so Xenoblade really does take me out of my comfort zone and forces me to do something different.  However, I'm really enjoying it now.  I just FINALLY (after 50 billion tries) beat

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 So I'm heading off to the Marsh now.  It's funny how the game has managed to suck me in after my initial tossing it to the side for other games.

Edit - How important are quests in this game?  I have done a number of them, but I feel like I'm getting weighed down by them sometimes and just want to move on.  So I have pushed quite a few to the side for the time being, but I just want to know if that's going to come back to bite me.

Well, quest give you exp, money and item boost. Friend of mine has skiped all quests and then he have problems with later bosses.

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying it. Admittedly I find MMO's extremely boring, and I really slogged through FF12 (which had similar exploration gameplay). But Xenoblade was really addictive for some reason.

I did all the quests on my first play (except for the final one, killing a LV120 dragon). Some of them give you relevant story, some have nice items and unlock skills, some of them present a fun challenge, bit a lot of them are just busy work. My advice is to start as many as you can, because it will not affect anything important if you decide not to finish. Once you start a quest, you may incidentally find all the required items or kill all the monsters without going out of your way. Do the ones that look fun or interesting as they come along, but don't kill yourself over it.

If you find yourself under-leveled, then you can do quests instead of mindless grinding, since they award EXP. You can also search out all the map areas, they also give you EXP. Otherwise, it is not essential to beating the game.

Doing quests raises town morale as well as the affection levels of whoever is in your party at the time you accept/complete the quest. This allows you to access more heart-to-hearts. So if you want to see all the heart-to-hearts, doing a lot of quests is one of the faster ways to get hearts. But you can raise hearts just by having people in the battle party, or giving presents, so it's not 100% necessary.

There are a few quests, like creating the portable gem-crafting unit, that just make your life easier, too.