This spring I told you about the game Xenoblade Chronicles, which was released in 2010 for Nintendo Wii console, and in 2015 was postponed to the handheld console Nintendo 3DS. Came to study the following large-scale game Xeno Saga the genius Japanese game designer Tatsui Takahashi. Today I will tell you about the game Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Nintendo Wii U console, which, though released only December 4th, but has already managed to win the hearts of tens of thousands of fans of the JRPG genre all over the world.
In Japan, Xenoblade Chronicles X, was released on 29 April 2015, but American and European players had to wait for the start of December, as the volume of Japanese text and voices of characters in the game were huge. Departments localization Monolith Soft and Nintendo, responsible for translation to English, literally wrapped up in the desire to release the game outside of the Country of the rising sun. “Day X” has come, and I got at its disposal a digital copy of the highly anticipated game. The distribution kit weighs more than 22 gigabytes, which is pretty critical, if your console is Nintendo Wii U has to the eyeballs in other games.
Let me remind you that the maximum amount of built-in storage this console is 32 GB. To not feel discomfort – hook to the console external hard drive and install games on it. If you purchased a disc copy of the game – you may have another problem: too slow load data from disk. To avoid such discomfort, you can download specific data packets (required for installation about 15 GB) on the internal drive of the console. Trust me, it will save you a lot of time in the process of passing. Well, the game is installed on the console, and you can start.
The plot of Xenoblade Chronicles X is not related to the previous game in 2010. It all begins in 2054, when near the Land unfolds a large-scale battle between two alien races. The rulers of the largest countries realize that business smells fried, and initiate the project “Exodus”, in which part of the population entered into a state of cryogenic sleep and giant ships-the ark leaves the home planet. The premonition proved correct: in the heat of battle aliens destroy the cradle of humanity, and with it most of the ARKS trying to get away from the enemy.
Only one space ship manages to leave the conflict area unharmed. They became an American ark “White whale”, which started from Los Angeles, CA. For a long time he was wandering the vastness of space, but alien invaders stalk the ship and open fire on him to kill. Fleeing from the enemy, “the White whale” is wrecked in the atmosphere of an unknown planet. The living chamber detached from a burning shipwreck and lands on the surface. And the worst thing about this disaster that most of the capsules with people being in a state of cryogenic freezing, is scattered on the surface of an unfamiliar planet.
The main character of Xenoblade Chronicles X, unlike Sulka from a previous game, is not endowed with personality, and completely created by the imagination of the player in the character editor. You choose name, gender, voice, configure the appearance and proceed to the passing game. It all starts two months after the collapse of the “White whale” in the planet’s atmosphere, which people called the World. The main character is removed from the surviving cryogenic capsules. His Savior turns out to be a dark-skinned girl Elmo, one of the leading military units BLADE organizations protecting the remnants of humanity in tough alien conditions.
It turned out that the surviving humans quickly come to terms with his unenviable position and decided to terraform a new planet to suit your needs. Home they no longer have, so it would have to start life with a clean slate. Huge circular living chamber, separated from the “White whale” was named as the New Los Angeles, in his the perimeter of the set a well armed military to protect against hostile life forms, and staff of the eight departments of the organization BLADE day and night exploring the vast Worlds in search of valuable information, resources, artifacts and lost caps with survivors. Humanity will have to arrange their lives in a rather inhospitable environment in which it turned out by chance.
If you think that the game, like other modern role-playing projects will be with you Lisp, you are seriously mistaken. Unlike the previous games of 2010, in which literally every couple of minutes before you had any detailed illustrated instructions in Xenoblade Chronicles X most of the intricacies of the gameplay the player will have to discover yourself. You only explain the basic principles and mechanics. And this, in my opinion, a very questionable step. Such deliberate complexity in the development can frighten off most of today’s players. Of course, you can open and read the electronic manual that came with the game, but it is unlikely that many users will guess. But there is a lot of invaluable tips that can greatly facilitate your life.
The protagonist is solemnly accepted into the ranks of the organization BLADE, and from that moment he has access to perform various tasks, which receives several types of awards. Missions are divided into four categories. The first is plot tasks that you must perform to develop the main story of the game. But not so simple as to get access to the next story Chapter, you must meet certain requirements. For example, to pump your character to 13th level, or to explore 15% of the planet’s surface. If you think you can hurriedly run through the game story — there it was! To find out what happens next, you first need to explore a new planet far and wide, and it’s not like those people who like to get everything at once.
The second type of missions – base. Basic mission the player can take on a special Bulletin Board located in front of the soldiers ‘ barracks in New Los Angeles. For once you can take no more than 20 tasks, which are at first glance simple quest: to find and kill 5 monsters of a certain type to destroy a particularly powerful monster, which people called “tyrants”, or to gather in the vast Worlds 5 plants/minerals/details. If the monsters are all clear and the region in which they live, somehow marked on the map, collecting all the ingredients is very very bad. You only called continent of the world where these ingredients can be detected. Given that in the game all the items look the same as glowing blue crystals, find and collect the right amount of something specific is incredibly difficult. This job order is able to fray the nerves of the player and even take him out of himself.
The third type of quests – the quests you can get from an NPC living in New Los Angeles and beyond. These missions are much more varied and interesting than basic tasks, so it’s best to download their characters with them. The fourth type of mission is “bringing jobs”. Almost any actions of the player affect his closeness with other characters. Over time, your spiritual relationship with your team members to rise to a level where you can do the job, revealing interesting information about their past and inner world. These quests do not affect the course of the story, but you will much better be able to take in the sights of Xenoblade Chronicles X and learn a lot about your friends. The second point that confused me in the local quest system, is the inability to abort some of them. You just can’t take no more, until you finish certain tasks. This is extremely inconvenient and causes serious discomfort.
Planet World is so giant that it can explore for hundreds of hours. Just to finish the main story takes about 60 hours. And in order to fully explore the game world, be prepared to free up in your schedule up to 300 hours time (the fastest to date, the passing game 100% took the player almost 210 hours). Alien world populated with hundreds of amazing creatures, from tiny to absolutely gigantic, which your characters will look like toy soldiers. The scenery of the planet just boggles the imagination: you see a glowing in the night-time rainforest, huge waterfalls and mysterious ruins of ancient civilizations will find themselves in a field strewn with white dandelions, will visit the sun-drenched desert and endless green meadows. The work of artists Monolith Soft never fails to surprise you for a second, even when you’ve spent in the game more than a dozen hours.
Despite all its visual beauty, the game lacks the power of the console Wii U to turn around. No joke, fit as much data in only 1 GB available to developers RAM consoles (1 GB required for the operating system). Such restrictions lead to the fact that the distance a player can see only large objects, like decorations and huge monsters. Medium and small objects arise literally a few dozen meters in front of you that constantly reminds us about the technical gap with Nintendo Wii U from its competitors. Having a triple-CPU with a clock speed of 1.24 GHz, the console displays an enough high-quality images in a resolution of 720p with a stable 30fps. We immediately see that the developers tried very hard to make the most of the available iron. And it struck me that in the passage I encountered no one, even the most insignificant bug. Nintendo has always been famous for its testers and QA team.
The interface is one of the major handicaps of the game. Screen fonts are so small that even on the screen of my 47-inch TV from a distance of 2.5 meters to read them was almost impossible. You need to either sit close to the TV or to play on the monitor. Most of the playing time the screen is littered with dozens of scales, symbols, icons, and tons of labels, why is only a small Unallocated area through which you see the beauty of the Worlds and their characters. The in-game menu multilevel is so confusing and that you can easily get lost. Sometimes, to find the desired function, long enough to delve into its maze, to eventually find the required in the most unexpected place. After dozens of hours after the start of the game you can suddenly stumble across a function that you do not have enough for several days. All this is very annoying, but with all this you can live.
On touchscreen game controller Wii U Gamepad displays a stylized map of the world, divided into small hexagons. During the research the Worlds the player can set each of these hexagons specific probes that are few that will tell you more about the contents of the neighboring hexagons, and can periodically bring you a certain amount of cash or valuable mineral “mireniamu”. Properly placing the probes of a particular flavor on the world map, you will be able quickly to increase their incomes and greatly facilitate the passing game, as the prices in local stores just space, but to use them you sooner or later.
Obtained with probes iranium you can transfer to the account of the Armoury of New companies in Los Angeles and they use it to develop new weapons, which will then appear in local stores. You can also craft their own weapons or improve already existing with ingredients, mireniamu and special stones, increasing a particular parameter. The system rocks well known to those who played Xenoblade Chronicles is a 2010 release, so get used to the game for these players is not difficult. But beginners will have hard times, as they may give the impression that they started to watch a series at once with 100-series. I remind you that no you all these details to explain will not be.
The combat system of the game is also similar to its predecessor from Xenoblade Chronicles. Random battles in this game, you will not find (scene the duels don’t count). Representatives of the World fauna of the planet are divided into three categories: peaceful, gregarious and aggressive. Peaceful grazing in the meadows, pluck grass and not bothering anyone. The herd never attack you first, but if you notice that you attacked their own kind, will immediately run to him to help. While aggressive monsters will attack you on sight. The player can decide whether or not he attacks a peaceful and gregarious creatures, but aggressive, especially if their level rather than yours, better stay away.
After the start of the battle your character will automatically attack the nearest enemy. You have weapons ranged and melee. A melee weapon deals one powerful blow, and ranged weapons makes many fast but weak shots, the amount of damage which approximately equals damage from melee weapons. Almost no difference at what distance from the enemy you are, because he will hit you anyway, even if you are very far away from him. In addition to standard attacks each character has a set of so-called artifacts or special attacks. Combining items in the proper sequence, you can inflict great damage, just remember that after using every art requires time to recharge. Each art has two scales of a recharge, so if you wait, when both are filled, the capacity will increase twice.
Some arts use ranged weapons, for example, you can fire a grenade launcher, and the other melee weapons. Certain items to temporarily boost your characters or hinders the performance of the opponent. Some arts work best, if you attack the enemy from the side or behind, and using special attacks you can knock the opponent off his feet and in position to inflict maximum damage. Each art can be pumped using in battle earn Battle Points, increasing its effectiveness or decreasing the reload time. Over time, the characters will receive new art, and the player will have to make the sets that will allow the characters to be head and shoulders above enemies during combat.
In combat, with each blow increasing the scale of “tension” between characters and the enemy, measured in Tension Points. The more damage inflicted the character of the monster, the bigger the monster gets angry on him and hard on him. You can distract the enemy’s attention on themselves, using special art, when suddenly the other members of your team have hard times. Once the scale TP reaches 100%, you will be able to activate the Overdrive mode, in which all the arts are recharged much faster, and they have the third scale reloading, after filling which you can pull enemies to 400% of normal damage.
With the growth of the characters will have access to change its class. Everyone starts the game as “strangers”, then you become available to classes of “security guards”, “attacking” and “commando”, each of which branches into two additional subclasses. Each class gives you certain advantages in combat, including unique art, and allows you to master a variety of weapons. When you master one class, you will learn next, so that over time, combining the knowledge, you can make your characters almost invincible fighters. In General, it seems that in this game you can pump just about anything, only here to understand all this you will not succeed at all desire.
In addition to classes, there are also internal units of the BLADE, which the game 8 pieces. The player in the beginning of the game must choose which of the directions of development of the new society on the planet the World he likes the most. You can become a “Pathfinder” and explore a new planet, when installing probes in different areas and opening new locations, and can join “the Hounds”, which is applied to preventive strikes by especially dangerous monsters, if they are approaching the city. You can become a “Miner” and get valuable minerals, and can devote himself to law and order, becoming the “mediator” (analogue of police) in the city of New Los Angeles. Doing the activities of your unit, you’ll raise its level of professionalism and gain valuable rewards and the skills that allow you to explore the planet more efficiently in the World. The other players also perform similar tasks, so at the end of each day the results are summarized: the personnel Department, which has shown itself better than the others, receive additional bonuses.
Don’t forget to chat with all the NPC’s that you will meet while traveling over the vast expanses of the Worlds. Some may offer you very interesting quests, and you just talk on various topics. During the dialogues, the player is often offer two options to allow you to formulate its position on this issue according to their views of the world. Keep in mind that your answers will affect the attitude of your comrades to you. If your behavior to impress them, your intimacy will increase, if you will behave like a pig, it will lead to discord in your ranks. And your companions during battle to tell you what art should now be used to cause the enemy maximum damage. Listen to their advice, and your intimacy will grow as well.
What struck me in Xenoblade Chronicles X in addition to visual beauty, this elegant music by Japanese composer Hiroyuki Sawano, famous for work on such animated television series as Sengoku Basara, Attack on Titan and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. In the sound track of the game, which consists of 55 tracks, intertwined epic orchestral compositions with rhythmic electronics, unhurried ethnic motifs, as well as vocals, various Japanese artists. At first, I was a bit tensed in the presence of the soundtrack songs with elements of hip-hop, but I quickly resigned, as local music is still dominated by a beautiful female vocal that I love so much. In General, the presence of vocals in the OST of the Japanese role-playing games are a very rare and personally for me very pleasant. It was surprising to read in Western gaming press, that the musical arrangement of Xenoblade Chronicles X many journalists were disappointed. Fundamentally disagree with my colleagues. Music is one of the strongest components of this game.
Somewhere closer to the middle of the game, you will have giant fighting robots “Skelly” that literally will transform the entire gaming process. These robots will allow you to engage in battle with the inhabitants of the planet huge World, and even to attack dangerous monsters that are 10 levels more experienced than your characters. Skellow, like everything else in Xenoblade Chronicles X, you can pump and give light weight with various weapons. The combination of improvements will depend on the list available to you in combat arts. Each Skill able to transform into a vehicle, on which you can travel across the vastness of the Worlds, and on Skellig you will be able to get to previously inaccessible places, because they can fly. Most importantly, do not forget to look at the fuel level in the tank of your robot and the time to refill it. You can buy in the store ready Scilla for a decent amount, you choose a suitable model, or build your own, provided that you have the necessary drawings.
Surprisingly, this game has its own achievement system. And then in the upper left corner of the screen jumps out the window, gleefully informing you that you have met the necessary conditions to receive the next trophy. Let me remind you that Nintendo Wii U is the only console of the current generation, which still does not support any system of achievements or trophies. The developers decided to correct this misunderstanding and has created its own system within the game that players did not feel slighted. In General, it seems to me that the next generation of stationary consoles Nintendo will be fashion and will support the achievement. And wait for the announcement of the mythical Nintendo NX, judging by the latest rumors, it won’t be long.
Sometimes it seems that the game is incredibly difficult. For example, you are fighting the enemy on its own level, and by walking tyrant with two strikes puts on the blades of your entire team. A similar situation in Xenoblade Chronicles X happens all the time. But it is not necessary to despair and give up. First, in the game there is no penalty for death in battle. You don’t have to start the game with the record, instead you Wake up in the nearest point of the key card managed to open earlier. Therefore, everything happens according to the scheme: killed in battle, was revived nearby, set up arts, put on your best armor, picked up the best weapons and ran back into battle. In this case, after death you don’t lose any collected items or experience gained. If you can not defeat the powerful boss, the game tactfully ask you: do you wish to temporarily reduce the complexity of the gameplay to overcome this obstacle in your path? You can feel free to take up this offer – no penalties for that in the game is not provided. Such adaptability of the game to the user invokes deep respect for the developers.
In Xenoblade Chronicles X are present and online modes, which should significantly enhance the study of another planet. In the beginning you are offered to choose one of three modes: pass the game alone, be allowed to join your world to other players, or pass the game with friends from your Friend List. If you choose the second option, from time to time, will give you missions where you can team up with other players and go beat face particularly powerful monsters, which alone is scary to watch even from afar. You can use a special service to rent avatar for the money of any high-level player who for a certain period of time will be shoulder to shoulder with you to fight with powerful opponents. You can also put your avatar in this virtual exchange. If other players use it in their journeys, according to their results you will receive various pleasant bonuses.
Pros:
- Before us is one of the most beautiful video game for the Nintendo Wii U.
- Giant open world that you can explore for months.
- Incredibly detailed flora and fauna of the planet World.
- Combat mechanics, admired for its thoughtfulness and depth.
- Just an incredible variety of game content.
- Great and very diverse music Hiroyuki Sawano.
- Cool mechs, transforming the gameplay in mid game.
- The crafting system, and flexible adjustment of all and all in the game.
- At first it is very difficult, but the game cleverly adapts to the player.
- Unusual and very enjoyable multiplayer mode.
Cons:
- Very poor training. The player is forced to learn everything himself.
- The game interface is extremely overloaded and confusing.
- Objects appear literally metres from the player.
- The fine print is very difficult to read on the TV screen.
- Serious problems with the missions to collect ingredients.
- The inability to abort some quests.
- The game is available only one save slot.
When you sit down to play Xenoblade Chronicles X, it is as if time ceases to exist. You literally disappear from life for days, weeks, months, and the game refuses to bore you. And Yes, this is another major reason to purchase the Nintendo Wii U, if you still didn’t. Amazing to see such a project in these days, because it was believed that the JRPG genre is finally and irrevocably dead. At Monolith Soft turned out to be incredibly huge, deep and sophisticated game, to learn that not everyone can. But if you explore all its nuances, to pull you from this fantasy world will be able to unless the next game in the Xeno series. Don’t know will last my love for Xenoblade Chronicles X forever, but this game will definitely take pride of place in my collection. 9 points out of 10.