I've heard this game's battle system compared to Final Fantasy XII's and White Knight Chronicles, but I haven't played either of those games so I have no idea what to expect. I'm looking forward to my copy coming in the mail though! I wish it would come soon! The mail has been coming to my house really late in the day lately; it was almost dark before it arrived yesterday D:

EDIT: Mail finally came; got some other games, but no Xenoblade! Hopefully it'll come tomorrow.

Ok, I've only been playing for an hour so far, and it seems promising.

Gameplay feels almost like a hybrid of a JRPG and Diablo. Huge environments to explore stuffed full of critters and collectables. Pretty much every monster drops some sort of loot that can be used for various purposes.

Combat is interesting and seems to be set up around "Arts" (skills) that are used in real time. Your characters have their basic attack that autoattacks every few seconds whilst you're near an enemy in combat. Whilst that's going on, you can select one of your "arts" to perform instead of an auto attack. These Arts have different effects, which can also vary based on your position in combat (eg attacking from the side or behind). Arts can only be used periodically as they have cooldown times.
Strategy involves using a particular Art that inflicts a state on an enemy, allowing a teammate to take advantage with an art of their own. Eg. your main character Shulk has his Talent Art "Turn Strike". This inflicts "Break" status on the enemy. This thus allows a party member to then use another art to inflict "Topple" status, further weakening the enemy.

Only (minor) gripe so far is the auto attack itself, I don't know why but I feel it'd be more satisfying to keep this as a manual option. I like pushing buttons to hit things. Having it happen on it's own feels a little weird. But I guess that allows you to focus on using your Arts without having to pause your attack.

I'll post some more impressions later as I get further into the game.

Oh god I just remembered even Australia gets it! Australia! The place where this happens!

I really hope there are no arachnophobes on NW. If there ever were, I'm sure they're gone now.

Saw spider... not coming back.


(to this thread)

I don't like spiders, but that picture doesn't scare me away from this thread. They're just annoying to deal with IRL, and I also don't like pretty much anything that's creepy and crawly (spiders/bugs/etc.).

When Shadowlink first started posting that picture I wanted him banned. Now it just seems like a part of life. He was right, it toughens you up!

@Secret_Tunnel

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

DAMN YOU ZERO

That's worse than Brick's freaky octopus gif he posted on IGN last week.

First, I was sad because I don't have Xenoblade... Now I am sad and crying tears of spider-fear.

Still scared to mod my Wii.

@Guillaume

Arachnophobia right here.

Okay, are these arachnophobia comments for real or mostly jokes? Because we could certainly try to put a stop to the random spider pics in the future.

Wait... are people serious? Like even a picture can freak them out? For reals?

I'm like the most scared and paranoid person I know, but I can't think of a single picture that could freak me out. Except maybe if I was home alone and saw a creepy little girl ghost picture.

But I mean real things. No real thing picture could creep me out.

@Zero

I had to log on someone else's facebook and unfriend a guy for him because he was being trolled with spider pics. He couldn't handle it.

Yeah but what is the rationality behind it? Like, do they think these things will attack them in the middle of the night or something?

Irrationality is actually in the definition of phobia.

Anyway. Xenoblade thread. Thanks for the impressions. I'll probably steer clear of the thread until my own copy arrives, though. And judging by how long it's taking for X-pert to receive his, which shipped weeks before mine, it could be a while.

@Zero

I guess they're kind of like shock gore pics to some people. You probably won't get your eyes stabbed out, but you still don't really want to see a picture of it.

@Guillaume Maybe I used the wrong word, I was more trying to figure out where the fear comes from. I have an irrational fear of flying, but I can still pinpoint what it is connected to (not wanting to plummet to my death in a fiery plane crash, yada yada.) I'm just curious as to whether people with a real phobia of spiders to the point where they can't even look at the pictures are actually worried about them in real life, or just get nervous looking at pictures without connecting that to real life.

@Secret_Tunnel I guess, but that is looking at something that, by most accounts, is f-ed up. A spider existing is just sort of... nature.

@Guillaume
Aww, I've been waiting to see how your Wii-modding is going to go! You're my guinea pig! DO it now so I know it's safe.

Also, I was just joking regarding the spider pic. I actually got Trish to show her the creepy spider and now it's gone! WAAHH.
Furthermore, yeah, I have a friend who is ridiculously afraid of snakes. Like, a picture of Coily from Q*Bert would make her feel uneasy.


Crazy stuff.

Said friend should not visit Point Pelee then. We saw two snakes there. Mind you, I was specifically looking for them.