Nintendo Switch

I just checked, it doesn't

Deleting saves is a different screen in the option and it's very clear you are going in to delete saves

 

You're right Scatman839.

 

English trailer for xenoblade chronicles 2

 

I never played the first Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii - I think I sold the console by that point having gotten fed up of the waggle factor - and although I bought Xenoblade Chronicles X on the Wii U and initially enjoyed it, the lack of interesting characters and plot meant I never really got into it beyond a few hours of play.

I'm glad to say though that I've been thoroughly enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on my Switch for numerous reasons but the main ones are that I like the characters so far, an interesting if clichéd bunch, and the story is great too such that I am actually paying attention to it rather than skipping through dialogue. I think the game is well-written but lots of humour (especially from the Blades) and the main character, Rex, is very well voice-acted IMO as are the majority of the other characters. Although I've downloaded the Japanese voice pack I have not felt the need to switch to it as the English voices, lip synching aside, is absolutely fine. There's the usual abundance of cuteness (and unfeasibly large breasts) that you expect from a J-RPG but I don't mind that.
Graphically the game looks stunning too IMO. Sure, the resolution in handheld mode can look alarmingly soft and low-resolution at times (especially during combat and special moves) but the amount of detail on show is impressive considering the hardware it is running on. The art style is gorgeous IMO. There is some slowdown here and there but nothing that is worse than Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Docked the game looks much better and it's interesting to play this alongside the Star Ocean: The Last Hope remaster (on PC) because this game is much better in almost all aspects.

The world feels busy and alive and the transition between exploration and combat is pretty much seamless except for boss encounters. There's plenty of attention to detail too in the environments which isn't always true of J-RPGs. This does lead to my first issue with the game though: it's far too easy to get lost and the useless map doesn't help nor does the unhelpful quest marker on the minimap. It tells you how far you are from your objective and whether it is above or below you but the complex level design means that it can be infuriating working out how to actually get there. Twice I've had to consult a walkthrough to work out where it is I'm supposed to go.
It is all too easy to miss a path to another area and this isn't helped by the second problem I have with this game which is the placement of high level enemies in areas you often have to traverse. I found myself frequently getting killed at level 10-15 because a level 75 enemy spotted me and one-hit killed me as I attempted to run away. Infuriatingly, you respawn at the last Landmark (this game's equivalent of an auto-checkpoint) but any collectibles and, I believe, experience earned are lost. I often spent 15-30 minutes grinding enemies only to get one-hit killed and reset to the last checkpoint.

At one point, I decided to forgo the main story to explore the open world when I only had Rex and his Blade, Pyra. Big mistake! The game is very punishing in the early stages and I've since found that it is better to just stick to the main story quests, where you have 1 or 2 companions also with there own Blades, or just wait to explore when you have a party of 2 or 3. It is far less annoying and the further you get into the game then the easier is it is avoid dying, especially during bigger fights with multiple enemies as your party can revive you (and you them just by pressing A).

One oddity with this game is that the boss fights so far (I'm 30 hours in and on Chapter 4) have been surprisingly easy and I've yet to fail a single one. In comparison, I've died more times during that early exploration stage when I was soloing it. I'm not sure if it's because I'm 2 or 3 levels higher than I would be otherwise (I managed to level up a few times despite dying a lot) or if the boss fights really are just easy. Either way, it means I have been able to really enjoy the game without getting too stressed out over boss encounters as I typically do in many other J-RPGs.

The combat itself is excellent IMO. Real-time, which I like, fast and generally pretty hectic and exciting, although they do last longer than most other J=RPGs some of which can have battles that last a few seconds if you are levelled up enough. Here even when you are 10 levels above the enemies their high HP means that battles can last from a minute to 10 minutes. I don't mind that personally and I've found that I can easily avoid combat if I want to and just head for the next Landmark (checkpoint) instead to move the story on. I do not think you need to grind in this game, although it may help make those bosses a bit easier and combat in general I bit less stressful if you do some of the sidequests and do a bit of grinding from time to time.
Finally, I have to say that the music is great (as is the voice-over as I said earlier) but the sound effects during combat are not only repetitive in the extreme (oh god, these Imperial soldiers just drive me nuts with their "You think you can take me!!!" every two seconds) but also of a poor sound quality and can cut out if there's too much going on, which is very noticeable when played with earphones in.

Great game though. It's just that poor map and confusing quest points that let it down along with the sub-par sound effects and battle narration (which you can at least reduce the volume of thankfully).

 

P.S. Forgot to mention much about the Blades but you get to be able to create new ones. I believe they are random but with unique ones that crop up from time to time, usually with rare cores but also with common ones too, and they all (so far) seem to have individual names and voices. Some are very amusing and you can tell this when you get the chance to send them on missions later on. This is quite a cool feature, similar to the one in Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, and allows you to form stronger bonds with Blades which you otherwise don't use much in the game itself.

Surprisingly, there is a lot of depth to the Blades which you only find out from checking through their stats. For example, during one quest you have to track someone down. You can do this in two ways, by following footprints (which I couldn't see myself) or by following a Witcher 3-like red trail using a Blade's tracking ability. Up to that point I hadn't even realised that the Blades were that unique as many of them do have a generic male or female look to them, just with different weapons and so on.
Not sure how useful this is to the game overall but even if it's not then it's a nice bonus feature that allows you to complete side quests without actually having to do them yourself (at least that's how I think it works; someone correct me if I'm wrong).

 

Looking forward to playing when I get home, got the pass today after seeing the trailer.

Out today but is it actually released now? Or at 6pm gst?

 

So botw first dlc sounded crap, multi level 100 floor enemy fight like in the past games had in it

Now, as soon as this dlc starts, I'm greeted with a kill all enemies and you die in one hit challenge? Feel this dlc is also shite and I made a mistake thinking there was a good dlc being release today.

Oh well, bought it, Nintendo don't do returns really, may as well play

 

Not sure if you guys know or not that Bayonetta 1 and 2 is being ported to the Switch and Bayonetta 3 is announced.
https://kotaku.com/bayonetta-1-2-are-coming-to-the-nintendo-switch-1821107692

 

Have fun with your cardboard lol

 

First small part of the Xenoblade 2 dlc is out friday, along with a patch that does something.

https://www.rpgsite.net/news/6588-f...ade-chronicles-2-expansion-pass-on-january-19

Still charging too much at current for the DLC but I think i'll get it when that big story dlc comes out later in fall

 

I still have my Switch. I haven't touched it in months. Maybe August? Anyway, is this new Mario game worth while? I know all the sites give it the typical 10/10 and hold Nintendo's nuts. But I'm asking as someone that felt Mario 3D Land or whatever it was named, on Wii U was pretty lackluster. Actually, it was downright boring. Is it like that? I'm in a dry spell here and had hoped FF XV for PC would be out at the end of this month. But it's not coming out until March, so I have some time and a want to play something aside from Destiny 2 (Already played Zelda BOTW, Mario 8, Splatoon 2).

 

Buy it physical if you feel you might not like it then trade in, but I think it's one of the best mario games in years.

A lot of variety in your challenge, a lot of content for your money, ~35 hours for me to get to about 97% completion, given up now, too hard, probably 5 more hours at least to get the last moons

Lots to discover, it's not a simple level crawl where at most you have some special coins to collect, big open levels to play around in.

 

So far the new Mario game is awesome. It's more of an open world Mario style game. The only downfall of it is that you have infinite lives so no game over.

 

That's a downfall? Mario games already mostly had infinite lives since continues were introduced ages ago. And once you got to 99 lives pretty easily they were pointless

 

Yeah your right about that. In Mario 3d Worlds I have well over 100 lives. I stand corrected. Pretty much every Mario game *SPAM* back to the NES has an Infinite lives trick with the exception of a couple of games.

 

Good point! Physical it is. Glad it's not just a level crawl. That piques my interest. I appreciate the input everyone. I'll pick it up this weekend. Hate having this Switch and not using it. Project Octopath has my attention, as does Metroid Prime 4.

 

Hey, i've never played a nintendo game/xenobalde game, i was thinking of picking up the switch and this is one of the games i was considering (along with mario,zelda,mario+rabbids,splatoon).

Did you feel like you missed something by not playing the other xenoblade? or is the story contained to just this game?

 

Story is self contained and completely unrelated to the previous games.

It's just a series like final fantasy