Okay woah. Fioras death was extremely unexpected and I am loving the future visions thing in combat. About to go rescue that kid from the Mechon, dumb kid.

@Pokefreak911

So how you liking the scale of everything? I really couldn't believe that they managed to pull that off on the Wii. Really strong work which makes Monolith Soft's next game even more intriguing.

@chrisbg99
Yeah it really is massive. They combined some of the best parts of JRPGS with some of the best parts of The Elder Scrolls games.

@Smerd

Yeah it definitely isn't my friend. Neither is Oracle of Ages, New Super Luigi U, or Picross e. And those are just my most recent games... there's the backlog then there's the backalackalog. Xenoblade resides there.

Ok Zelda U better have an amazing world because Skyward Sword was really pathetic compared to this in world scale and size. I just entered the Jungle type area and oh ma lawd those waterfalls. I never thought I would call a Wii game that went for a realistic look 'beautiful'.

@Pokefreak911

Zelda won't have that world... It wouldn't be a Zelda game then..

I can't imagine wandering a world as big as Xenoblade's by yourself... You need enemies etc to fill in the world and it would be just way too many for one person - unless the difficulty was really easy and that would defeat the purpose.. Having a 'team' with you the whole time really helps.

I think what's really neat in Xenoblade is that everything is just so massive and all connected. Skyward Sword's world was big - it was full of places to explore and gave me 70hrs of gameplay but it was broken into sections - I hope the Zelda U game has that connectivity that Xenoblade had but I doubt the world will every be as big.

@Smerd
I don't want it to have a JRPG size world, that wouldn't make any sense. But the first time I entered Gaur Plains I was dumb founded. It was like entering Hyrule Field in OoT for the first time again. There was so much to do and so much to see. There were massive cliffs and waterfalls. There were enemies way stronger than me that I was afraid of. Those are the feelings that older Zelda games captured that modern ones are missing. Modern ones try to hard to railroad you, no pun intended, and focus you down a tight track but the way they do it is compacting the world and removing it's freedom.

I came across this from Super Smash Bros for 3DS



Looks like its from Xenoblade but didn't Sakurai say the 3DS version will focus on hand held releases.

Is this from Xenoblade or did I miss a handheld title with a similar setting? If so think there's a chance we'll see a Xenoblade 3DS remake? If there is any Wii game I'd love to see remade and available for 3DS its this one.

EDIT: Read people are saying its this versions Battlefield which is probably true but I saw some similarities in the diagonal rock structures.

Hmm, knowing their attention to detail...if it was a Xenoblade level, I think we'd know it right away. I wouldn't be surprised if the Xenoblade level was like, a tour of the Bionis, but I don't know if they'd want to 'spoil' the progression of the game.

@PogueSquadron

true, though it certainly looks inspired by xenoblade.

i thought this was the equivalent of the "new pikmin" from last E3 no one bothered to notice.

Anybody here know how to make it back to the Fallen Arm after you go back to Bionis ?

I thought Junks would take me back, but it only takes me to the Bionis' Interior

HOLY SHIT! Just found out you can view the map of any area you have been too. I thought you could only fast travel my going landmark to landmark. SO MUCH TIME WASTED! I didn't even know area map was a thing until now! DA FUCK!

Pokefreak911 said:

@Smerd
...Those are the feelings that older Zelda games captured that modern ones are missing. Modern ones try to hard to railroad you, no pun intended, and focus you down a tight track but the way they do it is compacting the world and removing it's freedom.

I can't argue with that - i wonder if it's because I'm better at Zelda games now then I was before...or the fact that the formula itself hasn't changed much. A combination of both probably.... I'm hoping the Zelda on WiiU goes above and beyond...

@Brook

Oh man..another person who doesn't take the time to read the tutorials that pop up during gameplay Well..now you know.. better late then never I guess...

Well, truth be told, Nintendo doesn't do much to surprise you in Zelda games anymore, aside from having new items. The formula hasn't changed at all in so long. There are a couple places in Skyward Sword that offer glimmers of hope (that is, Nintendo throwing you a curve ball), but they're pretty subtle. I honestly felt that it was exciting at the beginning, but grew more and more predictable as the game went on.

In Zelda now, every dungeon feels like it's following an outline. When things start getting predictable, the sense of adventure just isn't as palpable.

There was a great feeling in Xenoblade of really not knowing what to expect next, at all. Sure, it had its own formula as you progressed through the game, but they leverage story a lot to keep you interested, in addition to all the hundreds of nooks and crannies you can find in the world.

I'm not saying Zelda needs to become some epic tale of romance and betrayal and revenge....but surely some more story wouldn't hurt. I say they should either go all out with the story, or go completely hands off, Shadow of the Colossus/Metroid with the story.

@Brook
Oh man...you have my sympathies.

@vids
I do see what you're seeing, but at the same time, it's just different enough for me to think it's not Xenoblade. NSMBU has some slanted land, too, come to think of it. The Smash Bros mountains look somewhere between the two, to me.

So, I know I'm late to the party, but I have recently started playing Xenoblade. I'm borrowing it from a friend, and really enjoying it so far. I'm about 28 hours in and level 41 or so.

I just went and saved Melia in the Tombs, fighting the large Telethia and the assassin chick. That was actually kind of a tough fight! It's frustrating that I never knew when the Telethia was going to use Soul Read, because if I didn't have my Monado activated to use Purge, then I basically just lost, because I couldn't land any hits to get my Monado activated from that point on. Anyway, it took me a couple tries, but I made it through. Now I'm just kind of wandering around the area, doing quests, and exploring the Eryth Sea. Absolutely stunning environments. Some of the most beautiful and imaginative that I've ever seen.

I'm still a little confused by the skill link system, and gem crafting though. I mean, I get the general purpose of both systems, and I'm using them, I just don't know if I'm doing it... right.

How much game do I have left to expect? Would you say I'm a third of the way through the story? More than that? Halfway?

@WindWaker99

Level-wise you're nearing the halfway point.

There's still a lot of game left but I think time-wise it all varies person to person.

I don't know what to tell you about the skill-link system except that as you earn abilities for yourself you can earn them for others too, pending you have the right amount of coin-age to use. Or points or whatever. You just link whatever traits you think will best help you. Sometimes this criteria changes depending on your roster or your attack strategies.

For me, generally, if I was winning fights, I was doing it right. When I'd start losing fights, I'd say, "Welp, time to upgrade my stuff," and I'd catch up on equipment, gems, skills, skill links, everything. And then I'd start surviving again.

If you're staying alive, there's no right or wrong.

I didn't really understand the skill link system until the second half of the game.

Basically, you have the one skill tree with three branches. These are not skills that the currently selected characters have. These skills are skills that can be adopted by other players. That is what always confused me.

So, if I see that Reyn has a skill to 'wear heavy armor', that tells me that I can allow another character to use that skill. You do that by going into the skill tree that has every character on it. You go to Reyn, you see that "heavy armor" is a circle or square or whatever, and match it up to an empty slot on another character.

When you start matching up skills with the pros of each character, it can lead to results that make your characters very, very good. Put skills on Dunban that allow him to dodge a lot. Put skills on Shulk that allow him to deal out tons of damage. Want to level up quicker? Equip skills that increase exp during certain times of the day. Towards the end of the game, I was cruising through parts that people had trouble with (for the most part).

Regarding gems....yeah it was a bit confusing. I just tried to look for a gem that I wanted (say, Strength IV) and shoot for that. Go into gem crafting, and pick a bunch of Strength III gems (being careful not to bring other stat boosts into the mix - the more stat boosts in the gem crafting, the less likely you are to boost the one you want to boost). I'd then try to get the stat number as high as I could, since once you go over 100, you can't add any more gems. Then it's just a matter of picking two characters with a good relationship and going to town.

It's really really confusing but can lead to good results once you get a handle on it.

WHY ON EARTH DID THEY DECIDE TO PAD OUT THE GAME!

The entirety of Mechonis so far has been padding after padding after padding. The last 3 areas I did had all the same enemies and looked almost exactly the same. Urghh really draining at the moment.

Just finishing up Agnithara, at the fight with Gadolt and am about lvl 68.