Xenoblade Chronicles available now in Europe

I went the buy + emu route and am liking it. 720 internal native resolution with max settings (full AA/AS) is very nice. Have the rare sound issue (Twice so far with approximately 40 hours clocked) and crashed once. Plays beautifully on my TV while using my Wiimote since I have built-in bluetooth on my motherboard.


[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']You can complete quests anywhere whenever the quest objectives is met.[/QUOTE]

This is not entirely true. With quests from NPCs with real names, you have to return to them. With generic named NPCs, they complete when you fulfill the objective(s).
 
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[quote name='Draekon']


This is not entirely true. With quests from NPCs with real names, you have to return to them. With generic named NPCs, they complete when you fulfill the objective(s).[/QUOTE]

Ah ok, still it's a hell of a lot better than most games where you have to return every quest to the quest givers. I also like how guys give you multiple quests at once, instead of having to return a quest and get a new one.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Got my copy today as well. Shipped the fucking 15th from Zavvi. :lol: Still gotta set up my Wii for it, but then I should be good to go. Can't wait. :D[/QUOTE]

Mine too ;), although the case on mine was crushed (yet not cracked) and partially open at the bottom. But why the heck was it shipped from Belgium??? I thought Zavvi was located in the UK?

Anyway I'm happy, but for The Last Story and whatever else they release I'm thinking of using a different retailer next time.
 
[quote name='uncle5555']Mine too ;), although the case on mine was crushed (yet not cracked) and partially open at the bottom. But why the heck was it shipped from Belgium??? I thought Zavvi was located in the UK?

Anyway I'm happy, but for The Last Story and whatever else they release I'm thinking of using a different retailer next time.[/QUOTE]

Yeah mine was from Belgium as well, but it looks to be in pristine condition.

I would consider using them again if they offer a good price like they did for Xenoblade.
 
Anyone know if there is a guide for this game coming out. All these quests and quest times tend to get confusing for me, even though the game is awesome.

I would find it a lot easier if there was a guide.
 
Goddamn. I paid for shipping from Game.co.uk, and still have nothing. I ordered Inazuma Eleven a week later from ASDA and that's already arrived. fucking customs.
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Anyone know if there is a guide for this game coming out. All these quests and quest times tend to get confusing for me, even though the game is awesome.

I would find it a lot easier if there was a guide.[/QUOTE]

Thought I had seen something in the deals forum mentioning it (an import guide) but it was for DX:HR and Dark Souls...sorry. You might want to check Gamefaqs from time to time for help.

Anyway...(I posted this on the deals thread too)

A special note: For anyone with the game, if you register with Club Nintendo Europe and enter the code for the game, you can get a 12 track sampler under the Treasures section (don't ask me about it, because I'm just passing along the info and know nothing else) of your account. It's a 118MB file (you might have to use a file manager to d/l it since it's notorious for not completing) in MP3 format. ;)
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Anyone know if there is a guide for this game coming out. All these quests and quest times tend to get confusing for me, even though the game is awesome.

I would find it a lot easier if there was a guide.[/QUOTE]

There's no guide for this game, nor is there any FAQ (last I checked). I'm almost 40 hours in and haven't really had the need for one though.

One basic tip I'll give everyone in regards to quests is: accept every quest and then just keep paying the game. Nearly all NPC quests involving finding X number of items (whether on the field or enemy drops) or killing X number of enemies, which you'll usually end up doing anyway as you play the area. So as soon as you see the quest update after getting an item or killing an enemy, you'll know what to do. Rarely did I go out of my way to finish a quest.

Also, don't forget to make use of the quick travel through full area maps in the menu (by pressing "X"). You can travel to any land mark instantly, any time you want- except during some key story moments and if you're in the middle of a battle. You can also access quick area maps by pressing the "-" (minus) button.
 
[quote name='Vinny']There's no guide for this game, nor is there any FAQ (last I checked). I'm almost 40 hours in and haven't really had the need for one though.

One basic tip I'll give everyone in regards to quests is: accept every quest and then just keep paying the game. Nearly all NPC quests involving finding X number of items (whether on the field or enemy drops) or killing X number of enemies, which you'll usually end up doing anyway as you play the area. So as soon as you see the quest update after getting an item or killing an enemy, you'll know what to do. Rarely did I go out of my way to finish a quest.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah it was just the quest givers at certain times had me confused because I keep having to figure out what time to find the person. I am the type of guy who gets a giant list of quest and then one by one completes them to have a massive quest trade in so I sometimes forget what time x person was here. Still an awesome game though.
 
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Yeah it was just the quest givers at certain times had me confused because I keep having to figure out what time to find the person. I am the type of guy who gets a giant list of quest and then one by one completes them to have a massive quest trade in so I sometimes forget what time x person was here. Still an awesome game though.[/QUOTE]

I agree, that's definitely the most annoying part about quests. Even with the affinity chart listing what times they show up in the towns, it's still a pain to run around and find them.
 
This game is over 9000 levels of awesome. Everyone who was on the fence needs to pick this up, it's exceeded my (relatively high for me) expectations so far.

Whoever made the decision to not bring this game out here needs to be committed to mental institution. I'm pretty sure word of mouth of just how great the game is would charge sales (like Demon's Souls).
 
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I'm 45 hours in and at the second to last dungeon. I'm not sure this game will last the supposed 70 hours for the main quest...

[quote name='Dead of Knight']This game is over 9000 levels of awesome. Everyone who was on the fence needs to pick this up, it's exceeded my (relatively high for me) expectations so far.

Whoever made the decision to not bring this game out here needs to be committed to mental institution. I'm pretty sure word of mouth of just how great the game is would charge sales (like Demon's Souls).[/QUOTE]

I've said this in the Xenoblade import thread but it seems like this is sold out at nearly every retailer that sends overseas. I doubt NoA will release this here... with the holiday season almost here, it would be pretty difficult to market this game but you'd think they would be eager to bring it over considering the pathetic holiday line-up (actually, pretty much all of 2011 is pathetic for the Wii). Oh well, seeing as how easy it is to play imports now, I have no problem with giving NoE my money instead.
 
Question I been trying to figure out. Do some items you collect only appear at certain times of the day, or it is just all random to the area?

I just need two more of an item in the one area and I am just curious how it works.
 
Rarer field items are more likely to appear near the higher level monsters in the area. And yes, some only appear at night/during rain/etc.
 
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[quote name='Vinny']I've said this in the Xenoblade import thread but it seems like this is sold out at nearly every retailer that sends overseas. I doubt NoA will release this here...[/QUOTE]

Agreed. And seems like a no-brainer to release it here, with localization finished, but Nintendo trademarked The Last Story instead? Strange, strange, strange.

Bunch of CAGs imported this baby, so I'm sure those will end up on the trading channels here soon enough. I know I'll put mine up on CAG before elsewhere - just finishing a couple other games before diving in. (Thankfully, it's really easy to play if you can follow instructions.)
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']This game is over 9000 levels of awesome. Everyone who was on the fence needs to pick this up, it's exceeded my (relatively high for me) expectations so far.

Whoever made the decision to not bring this game out here needs to be committed to mental institution. I'm pretty sure word of mouth of just how great the game is would charge sales (like Demon's Souls).[/QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more. The save-anywhere makes me feel like I can sit down and just play for 30 minutes, and 3 hours later I don't know what happened. By the time they realize who fucking stupid it was, most people who want to play it will have imported it or played it by illegitimate means and they'll have lost their sales.

It's as if Nintendo wants people to import/pirate/etc instead of selling millions of copies. An RPG like this would be a system-seller if they did it right.
 
So, here I was thinking I'm near the end and then the game takes off again! I'm entering 50 hours now and not sure how much longer I have.

[quote name='johnnypark']By the time they realize who fucking stupid it was, most people who want to play it will have imported it or played it by illegitimate means and they'll have lost their sales. [/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, that would basically boost NoA's ego- they'll see slumping sales and probably think "We were right! Wii owners don't want quality games! More re-makes, more lazily made games with Mario music and themes plastered all over them and more shovel-ware!"
 
Finally got my copy today. I could only play for an hour, but hopefully I'll be able to sink some time in this weekend. Liking what I've seen thus far, though.
 
So, for the first time in this game, I'm stuck at a boss. I'm not sure what to do since there's no guides on said boss (even though people have already beaten it and have guides for the final boss already).

I guess I better start grinding...
 
Eh, Nintendo of America is just looking at how profitable it could be in NA. Which is understandable, because they know that the majority of video game players probably wouldn't buy a JRPG (console rpg). I do wish that they would release it over here and take chances more often, but it just doesn't work for them I guess.
 
[quote name='Droenixjpn']Eh, Nintendo of America is just looking at how profitable it could be in NA. Which is understandable, because they know that the majority of video game players probably wouldn't buy a JRPG (console rpg). I do wish that they would release it over here and take chances more often, but it just doesn't work for them I guess.[/QUOTE]

I understand the risk but let's look at it this way... Nintendo wants to win back the gamer with real games (Xenoblade is not for your mom), they've made tons of money this gen (so they can afford a risk or two) and they have nothing for the Wii outside of Skyward Sword (from a series which pretty much stopped progressing after Wind Waker) this holiday season. This game is already localized, they'd just need to press some copies and release it here.

[quote name='Dead of Knight']Logged in a bit under 50 hours already and according to NeoGAF I'm not even halfway through the story. fml. This game is incredible though.[/QUOTE]

Sweet zombie Jesus!:lol: I was too drawn in by the story that I didn't bother too much with sidequests... that and I wanted to finish before classes picked up.

[quote name='blueweltall']Can the Dolphin emulator read actual Wii retail disc game? I want to import and play Xenoblade in HD.[/QUOTE]

Wii discs are not DVDs, so they are not readable by 99% of DVD-ROM/R/RW drives, besides a handful of drives which can (though I'm not sure why). I'm not sure how much detail I can go into without getting in trouble but the Dolphin Emulator can only read "dumped" Wii games (basically meaning Wii discs ripped using one of the few compatible drives). This process takes at least 3 hours... instead of ripping my own disc, I just "obtained" mine via a different method (*nudge*nudge*wink*wink).

And if you have a powerful PC, then it's worth trying but the Dolphin Emulator is not perfect (lots of audio issues, the software does tend to freeze every now and then, etc.). I posted this somewhere else but if I had a newer PC, I could probably do better:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a187/fyreboltx/xenoblade720p.jpg

Makes you think how much better the Wii could have been in HD.
 
[quote name='Vinny']I understand the risk but let's look at it this way... Nintendo wants to win back the gamer with real games (Xenoblade is not for your mom), they've made tons of money this gen (so they can afford a risk or two) and they have nothing for the Wii outside of Skyward Sword (from a series which pretty much stopped progressing after Wind Waker) this holiday season. This game is already localized, they'd just need to press some copies and release it here.



Sweet zombie Jesus!:lol: I was too drawn in by the story that I didn't bother too much with sidequests... that and I wanted to finish before classes picked up.



Wii discs are not DVDs, so they are not readable by 99% of DVD-ROM/R/RW drives, besides a handful of drives which can (though I'm not sure why). I'm not sure how much detail I can go into without getting in trouble but the Dolphin Emulator can only read "dumped" Wii games (basically meaning Wii discs ripped using one of the few compatible drives). This process takes at least 3 hours... instead of ripping my own disc, I just "obtained" mine via a different method (*nudge*nudge*wink*wink).

And if you have a powerful PC, then it's worth trying but the Dolphin Emulator is not perfect (lots of audio issues, the software does tend to freeze every now and then, etc.). I posted this somewhere else but if I had a newer PC, I could probably do better:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a187/fyreboltx/xenoblade720p.jpg

Makes you think how much better the Wii could have been in HD.[/QUOTE]

Okay I understand. I'm going to import a copy anyway since I really like all the work the creator has done on the Xeno series.
 
[quote name='Droenixjpn']Eh, Nintendo of America is just looking at how profitable it could be in NA. Which is understandable, because they know that the majority of video game players probably wouldn't buy a JRPG (console rpg). I do wish that they would release it over here and take chances more often, but it just doesn't work for them I guess.[/QUOTE]
It's sad that releasing a fantastic game is considered a "taking a chance." Oh, Wii.
 
[quote name='Draekon']You mean like this?[/QUOTE]

What are your PC's specs? I was able to run it fairly consistently at 23-25fps (except a few areas where it dropped to an average of 20). The final boss was really bad though, my fps dropped to 10-14. And worse was the ending that went blank for some scenes though I could still hear it but I just watched it on YouTube so it wasn't too big of a deal.
 
[quote name='Vinny']What are your PC's specs? I was able to run it fairly consistently at 23-25fps (except a few areas where it dropped to an average of 20). The final boss was really bad though, my fps dropped to 10-14. And worse was the ending that went blank for some scenes though I could still hear it but I just watched it on YouTube so it wasn't too big of a deal.[/QUOTE]

Intel i7 2600K
ATI HD 6870 (1x out to Monitor / 1x out to TV)
16GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM (a lot for virtualization needs, but not running virtual shit while gaming)
2x 128GB SSD in RAID 0 using SATA 3 (6.0Gb/s) slots benchmarked at roughly 1GB/s (For Windows/Games)
Built-in bluetooth on motherboard

I haven't played it much lately since work has been hectic, but I only had 1 freeze and 2 small instances of audio screwing up in roughly 40-50 hours.
 
[quote name='blueweltall']Okay I understand. I'm going to import a copy anyway since I really like all the work the creator has done on the Xeno series.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I can tell... your ID is a dead giveaway.:D

[quote name='Draekon']Intel i7 2600K
ATI HD 6870 (1x out to Monitor / 1x out to TV)
16GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM (a lot for virtualization needs, but not running virtual shit while gaming)
2x 128GB SSD in RAID 0 using SATA 3 (6.0Gb/s) slots benchmarked at roughly 1GB/s (For Windows/Games)
Built-in bluetooth on motherboard

I haven't played it much lately since work has been hectic, but I only had 1 freeze and 2 small instances of audio screwing up in roughly 40-50 hours.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that's definitely a bad ass set up.:drool: My system is basically a cheaply upgraded from when I built it 5 years ago. The newest parts are a Phenom II X3 720 (OC'd to 3.33 from 2.8, but still running on a crappy AM2 mobo) which I added roughly a month ago and a HD 3850, which is nearing 3 years old.:p I'm still amazed though that this game runs well at all on this emulator, since other Wii games simply don't for me. GC games run great though, even at very high settings.

It seemed to get gradually worse the further I got into the game. The first few areas were fine for me... I was kinda wondering if a better graphics card would help but it seems like the Dolphin Emulator is more processor based going by the increases in temps.
 
[quote name='Vinny']
Sweet zombie Jesus!:lol: I was too drawn in by the story that I didn't bother too much with sidequests... that and I wanted to finish before classes picked up.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I've probably done close to 200 of them so far. I just can't help myself. This is probably going to end up being one of my favorite games of all time.

If Sony or MS had a second-party game of this caliber, they would be promoting it till kingdom come and definitely releasing it in all territories. What Nintendo has done to this game is just plain shameful and it makes me feel really bad for Monolith. I hope they can get themselves away from Nintendo ASAP.
 
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[quote name='Dead of Knight']Yeah, I've probably done close to 200 of them so far. I just can't help myself. This is probably going to end up being one of my favorite games of all time.

If Sony or MS had a second-party game of this caliber, they would be promoting it till kingdom come and definitely releasing it in all territories. What Nintendo has done to this game is just plain shameful and it makes me feel really bad for Monolith. I hope they can get themselves away from Nintendo ASAP.[/QUOTE]

I like to believe that Nintendo is getting alot of bad karma with the 3DS for not releasing this game to the U.S.
 
If they just put a small effort into marketing this game, perhaps like Atlus does with their games, it would sell. The people who like this kind of game just need to be aware of it and the fact that it's fucking awesome, and it would sell easily.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']If they just put a small effort into marketing this game, perhaps like Atlus does with their games, it would sell.[/QUOTE]

^This :applause:
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']If they just put a small effort into marketing this game, perhaps like Atlus does with their games, it would sell. The people who like this kind of game just need to be aware of it and the fact that it's fucking awesome, and it would sell easily.[/QUOTE]

If they showed the first 20 seconds of the intro and maybe a montage of some of the huge locales as a commercial, that would be all they need to create hype for this game.

NoE released a statement recently addressing the shortages of this game and that they're trying to get more copies to retailers. What that's telling me is that they released the amount needed to at least turn a small profit on this game. So now with all the shortages, and added hype, they're going to at least make more than they expected to on this game.
 
[quote name='pete5883']It's sad that releasing a fantastic game is considered a "taking a chance." Oh, Wii.[/QUOTE]

It just shows that Nintendo is pretty much dead in the console market. The WiiU will be a failure and then Nintendo will be a third party developer just cranking out rehashes of Mario, Zelda, etc. just like CAPCOM.

They could save some costs if NOA just released Xenoblade for download on WiiShop but I don't the Wii can handle a 5GB download or so.
 
Even if somehow sales were a terrible 10,000 in the us, they should have at least released the game and chalked it up to marketing.
It's like, why would I buy the wii u if I know that really great games in underserved genres may not make it to the us, and end of life the console is going to be left to die.

At this point, I'd like to write a check to monolith, and just play the iso on my pc.

edit: you are right about supporting noe, I ordered a copy from zavvi
 
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[quote name='vherub']

At this point, I'd like to write a check to monolith, and just play the iso on my pc.[/QUOTE]

Give your money to NoE and buy an import copy (when they come back in stock- word is within a week). NoE took the risk and did the work, they deserve the sales. Plus, Nintendo owns a majority share in Monolith Soft so if they see good sales for Monolith Soft games, it'll be good for the team.
 
NOE did a fine job with this game. There is so much shit to translate and the job they did was admirable. I agree with Vinny, definitely give them your monies.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']NOE did a fine job with this game. There is so much shit to translate and the job they did was admirable. I agree with Vinny, definitely give them your monies.[/QUOTE]

Not only that but they gave away a free soundtrack on the NOE Club Nintendo site for the game (when you registered it), do you think NOA woulda done that...NO. :roll:

Funny thing is I was reading Iwata's comments at the Nintendo TGS event yesterday and after they showed the new Wii releases he said that those should be enough Wii games to satisfy any gamer on the Wii...

I was like WTF, is this guy as stupid as Reggie or what???

Here it is...

"He says that people no longer need to worry about software for the Wii with all these titles coming out."

http://www.gamespot.com/events/tgs-2011/story.html?sid=6333814

Almost unbelievable that the CEO's of Nintendo (except NOE) are so short sighted that they believe this shash they are serving up...

If NOE is bringing it, I will be buying it, screw NOA...

And while their at it, I'd like a few of these please. (I know there is hope for the first two...)

Pandora's Tower, Last Story, Earth Seeker (pretty please with sugar on top, this game was woefully ignored by Operation Rainfall in their campaign) Dragon Quest I, II & III, Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road
 
Anybody have any tips on getting rid of the sound static and popping when playing on Dolphin? It runs beautifully otherwise. No crashes after 6 hours and a near constant 30 fps after the patch. After finally playing it, I really have no idea what NOA is thinking. I can see this easily being in my top 5 this year.
 
Iwata is a fucktard confirmed. I do not give a shit about any of the Wii games they promoted at TGS. Maybe I'm mildly interested in a couple of the 3DS games, but none of them are killer apps in the least.

Edit: Thinking about this, he is talking about Japan, which already got all these fucking games. In that context, maybe he isn't that much of a fucktard. Still, he IS Reggie's boss.
 
[quote name='Killbomb']Anybody have any tips on getting rid of the sound static and popping when playing on Dolphin? It runs beautifully otherwise. No crashes after 6 hours and a near constant 30 fps after the patch. After finally playing it, I really have no idea what NOA is thinking. I can see this easily being in my top 5 this year.[/QUOTE]

There's unfortunately no real solution to this because Xenoblade is apparently an audio intensive game (which I can easily believe) and the Dolphin Emulator can only do so much to emulate the actual thing. The patch didn't really help me at all. The only things that helped were reducing the graphical enhancements and enabling the audio throttle (though most people say those hurt the audio performance) in the DSP. I'm on an fairly odd/old PC build (I'm running an AM3 processor on an AM2 mobo and a fairly old graphics card).

One thing that I noticed was the audio kept getting gradually worse and an easy fix to this is to just save the game, close out the Dolphin Emulator and then start up again. This only takes like 15 seconds (the Wiimote should stay connected) to do and always seemed to help "reset" the audio back to normal. The only bad thing is that whenever you re-load an area, all the monsters will have re-appeared.
 
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Gonna try turning down some of the graphical options when I get home and see it that helps. I'm on an i5-2500k @ 3.3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and a Radeon 6950 so I think my PC isn't the issue.

What happens for me is the music will start glitching after several minutes of play, it will go back to normal after a little while then return to glitching. Some of the cutscenes also have glitchy dialogue.
 
[quote name='Killbomb']Gonna try turning down some of the graphical options when I get home and see it that helps. I'm on an i5-2500k @ 3.3 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and a Radeon 6950 so I think my PC isn't the issue.

What happens for me is the music will start glitching after several minutes of play, it will go back to normal after a little while then return to glitching. Some of the cutscenes also have glitchy dialogue.[/QUOTE]

:lol: Your hardware definitely isn't he problem, you have more than ample hardware. I'm running a lowly Phenom II X3 720 (had to OC it form 2.8 to 3.33 to get more stable FPS). From what I can tell, the processor is definitely more import for the emulator.

For the graphics options: don't use AA or AF, instead just upgrade the native resolution to whatever you're comfortable with (it'll look just as good as using AA/AF but performs better I think). You could also give Xaudio a try (some people have reported better luck with it) but I didn't personally notice any differences between DSound/Xaudio.

Audio issues during cut-scenes are fairly normal from what I've gathered but I thought the audio throttle helped some.
 
[quote name='Vinny']:lol: Your hardware definitely isn't he problem, you have more than ample hardware. I'm running a lowly Phenom II X3 720 (had to OC it form 2.8 to 3.33 to get more stable FPS). From what I can tell, the processor is definitely more import for the emulator.

For the graphics options: don't use AA or AF, instead just upgrade the native resolution to whatever you're comfortable with (it'll look just as good as using AA/AF but performs better I think). You could also give Xaudio a try (some people have reported better luck with it) but I didn't personally notice any differences between DSound/Xaudio.

Audio issues during cut-scenes are fairly normal from what I've gathered but I thought the audio throttle helped some.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestions. Turned all the graphical enhancements to minimum, tried audio throttle both on and off as well as Xaudio with no improvement. I'm think the 30fps patch I applied might be the culprit but 25fps was giving me a headache so I guess I'll just deal with the audio issues. I've heard someone with a similar system say overclocking helps but I'm not sure if I want to mess with that for one game.
 
Odd, I ordered the game from game.co.uk late last night and they sent me an email cancelling it. No reason why given, just cancelled. I guess I better try elsewhere...
 
[quote name='cruzfactor']Odd, I ordered the game from game.co.uk late last night and they sent me an email cancelling it. No reason why given, just cancelled. I guess I better try elsewhere...[/QUOTE]

Game.co.uk seems like a pretty shady retailer. I order the bundle form them when the game was still in stock, they charged my CC already but have not yet shipped my order. It's been over 2 weeks. They won't answer my emails either... I guess I'm stuck with just the regular version.
 
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