After months of pleading, thousands of petitioners, and hundreds of letters, Nintendo brings Xenoblade Chronicles to the US. Is it worth all the hassle?
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Jared Knabenbauer is the ScrewAttack.com Reviews Editor, Hard News host, and a host of our weekly video podcast, "SideScrollers". He has also produced several notable ScrewAttack shows, including Nametags, and Control Issues. He specializes in RPGs, and has a great fondness for Dungeons & Dragons. A comedian at heart, he is one serious gamer. |
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
togok
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sam456
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Parrots_United
This game is fantastic. 130 hours in, and I still haven't 100%ed it, nor have I started the new game plus. As for sidequests, you need to pace yourself well. Doing all the sidequests for an area, for example, the first 64 from colony 9 all at once, will be cumbersome as you said. Going back to sidequests will help you enjoy the questing system much more. It is likely that you played the story alone, and did not 100% the game due to time constraints, but believe me, in the long run, side quests aren't helpful for the quest reward, but they are fantastic for Location affinity, and party affinity, and advancing more into the sidequest chain which are extremely important end game post-storyline.
Also, after the first 40 hours of the game, It really stops bombarding you with sidequests.
LordoftheDerp
HOLY FUCK!
DustinLovesMario
this game was really good, i've been playing it in small bits and i think im just now about finished.... now, please bring the entire mother series to america T_T pretty please
RaycxellTorres
This game is simply amazing,truly one of the best games iv'e ever played.I'm glad that this game made a profit for Nintendo,maybe now they'll localize games more freely.
Metalhero
great review, personally i think this is literally the best game ever made
Dmii3
this game is easy?,i keep dying on boss battles at least once,specially the big mekons with faces,not that is a bad thing,cause on those figths you gotta come up with a stragegy that helps more than anything,not to mention that some enemies have prety high levels at the very start of the game,you can encounter level 80 enemies when your around level 25 or so,you will need to level up and backtrack levels to defeat this enemies,but thats not a problem thanks to that transportation method you get in menu,actually thats something Jared forogt to mention,the world it IS quite big,and is really easy to move around it too,as you progress you get checkpoints,you can use those to move from a part of the world to another one anytime truly one heck of an JRPG
Sol-Raith
This jgame isn't that jbad, I put it in my jwii and had a great jtime, a wonderful action RPG.
MisterBo
I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!! I NEED A GOOD RPG MADE IN THE LAST 5 YEARS THAT ISN'T A REMAKE!!!!!!!
Samuraispartan7000
Only disagreement I have is that it should have been a 10/10. I am serious. This an RPG whose absecene in the U.S was worth bitching about. The game is truly amazing.
Great review.
I can only express a great deal of empathy to those who thought it was a good time to sell their dusty Wii console before this game came out. Because with Legend of Zelda, this game, and the upcoming Last Story, there is no doubt that Nintendo saved the absolute best for last.
lastexile0
I'm so goddam addicted to this game right now. It makes me feel like I'm playing an old 16 bit era SNES RPG... but current(ish). It just takes me back to the days when gaming was pure bliss for me. I love it, truly. If Last Story is half as good then I'll be surprised and pleased.
Amlure
my only issue is with the comment of it being the best jRPG of the last 4 years. Meaning the last one you guys liked was Persona 4. Not knocking it since it is one of my favorite game but you can't really say it's the best of so many years if only one title sticks as one. Heck Pokemon and Monster Hunter are JRPGs. your telling me Jared of all people doesn't like him some Monster Hunter Tri? or that Kingdome Hearts Birth by sleep isn't that good?
metaking64x
He said it was the BEST of the last 4 years, he didn't say it was the only good one for the last 4 years.
gothicgamingnerd
I don't think Jared likes the Kingdom Hearts series
xhunter143
He never said it was the only good JRPG in the last four years, just the best. I would probably agree, as the newest Pokemon games disappointed me, and Monster Hunter Tri lacked in content to the PSP versions.
ThePonchoNinja
wow i'm surprised to see so many good reviews for this game...is it really one of the best rgs in four years? if so then i'm probably gonna have to buy it.
NIK12787
All I can say about Xenoblade is its freaking awesome. Definitely worth buying. I got the artbook for preordering the game. Also I will look forward to the review for The Last Story. I wouldn't mind seeing a review for Skullgirls as well.
Hmm good RPG in the last 4 years? Etrian Odyssey III, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony, Ys Seven(and the others), Tales of Vesperia and Tales of Graces F and Tales of Xillia, Witcher 2, Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, and Disgaea 4.
Gaarathedancingpanda
JRPG, Fallout doesn't count
JxL
I think you need to change the rating system, if a game gets a 9.0 or higher it should be rated as 'ride the scorpion'
Brockcold
This looks just like white knight chronicles
Goobly
It looks really good, but my only concern is the MMO style gameplay. I didn't like it in FFXII where I could let go of the controller during a boss and watch as my party attacked, healed, and buffed all by themselves. Please tell me it isn't like that because I love JRPGs.
PuppetMasterIX
It's definitely not the kind of game where you can let go of the controller. If anything, it requires your constant attention. It's a lot more involved than the combat system in the recent FF games (and that's what makes it so great).
sigmahunter06
Best RPG in the last four years? Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon say hi
JinjaBredMan
Eternal Sonata was decent... Blue Dragon just made me wish i were playing a better rpg in that art style ie Chrono Trigger or Dragon Quest
VacuumScam
If we are going to talk about best rpg's lately, you NEED to mention The Persona games! Geeze!
Jared
Both came out in 2007. And Blue Dragon wasn't THAT good.
OddRocker
i want more nametags
Jared
IT'S BEEN FOUR YEARS. NEVER HAPPENING. LET IT GO.
Gaarathedancingpanda
Hey Jared, I am not a huge fan of traditional JRPG's, but I enjoy real time RPGs (Diablo, Morrowind, and especially Knights of the Old Republic). Would you say this is a good buy for me, or not?
Gaarathedancingpanda
Nametags, most requested reboot in the last 4 years
OddRocker
So... Maybe?
bigjoe91
Well time to dust off the old wii!
yggdra324
if you need to dust off your Wii, just don't clean the Wii, clean your house
Superzone
Currently about 8 1/2 hours into this game, and I haven't even left the first area. The game is just huge and there are a ton of things to do, and I'm hooked. Great review.
iaby_dude
Jared, I have said before, and many others as well, that your reviews are WAY too straight forward. I know you like being honest and informative, but that doesn't cclash with developing a critic style in any way, quite the opposite. No matter how objective you want to be, no opinion is free of biases, so you should bring so much more to developing a perspective rather than just say what the game does good, and what it does wrong. Your reviews remind perfectly of what Extra Credits talked about in their Game Reviews episode (that if you haven't watch... seriously dude, fix that.)
At least I, but it's obvious that so does everybody else, come to ScrewAttack for their particular taste and humor about anything they have to say, and we all know you have a very dark and incisive humor, that we all love and apreciate, so why hold it back.
I REALLY miss the Scoop series of reviews by Ben, precisely for this reason. I recomend you watch the Super Baby or the Barbie's horse video, if not to take notes, just laugh your ass off; I think I'll do that myself just now...
Anyway, this is my humble and biased opinion.
Kos-Mos
I agree with you. Sometimes it`s so many "bad" things mentioned about a game I wondered how on earth it got 8/10. Often it`s like "this is good" and "this is bad". Most people who watch this sees only the surface and when it`s flat it is, well flat. There`s little depth to the reviews. I love Screwattack, but reviewing should be a lot better.
Jared
"Official" video game reviews deliver information, not entertainment. There's almost never an appropriate time to toss in a joke into a review without it feeling forced or contrived. Should the occasion arise, it doesn't hurt, but it's not right to derail everything for a laugh. I will continue to do reviews how I am because I aim to inform people with my particular insight, not entertain with my particular style of humor.
JxL
review Boong Ga Boong Ga
Digiwario
Said like a boss. lol
Sideqazxsw
" 'Said like a boss. lol' " And I am perfectly fine with that. :)
Ataeru
Glad to see there isn't any spoilers by only going up to a certain early point of the game. But I have to ask, did you finish the game Jared? finish the main 60 hours? all 200 hours?(doubt it) or just to that point in the video?
Anyway great review Jared.
pololmejor
I neeeeed this game!! Get ready for The Last Story everybody!
Kujou
The only thing that I disagree with is when Jared says "Battles are a blast to play." I've been playing this game since day one, and I've put in around 30 hours into this game. The only thing I don't like is the combat. I find it kinda boring. The auto attacking is downright awful, and waiting for specials to be used again reminds you of how engagingly it is. The problem becomes less noticeable as you go on, but it's still there. I love the game for it's story, atmosphere, great soundtrack, and how there's always something to do. i don't hate the game by any means, I just wished it had a better combat system.
Firethorn43
This was another really great review, Jared.
Nitroklop
I've honestly had minimal interest in this game, as RPGs that tend to incorporate a lot of MMORPG aren't really my style, but after watching your review I'm more than likely to pick this one up now.
Besides, It'd be good to make sure many people buy the game as Nintendo isn't going to be so co-operable with future game release in North America if games like this don't sell. To contribute to that would at least be meaningful to me.
cellslayer78
LEAVE IT TO REYN!
Ataeru
IT'S REYN TIME!