[Let’s Talk] June 2023 Nintendo Direct reactions
We’re a few days removed from the June 2023 Nintendo Direct, and now we’re interested in hearing your honest reactions to the event.
As always, Nintendo brought a few key announcements to the show. A week ago, many wouldn’t have guessed that Super Mario RPG would be getting a remake on Switch. The other big moment of the show was Nintendo unveiling Super Mario Wonder. We also heard about a new Princess Peach game and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon for Switch that are coming out next year, and WarioWare: Move It was revealed for November. Detective Pikachu Returns was unveiled after being teased years ago, too. Pikmin 1 and 2 for Switch were even revealed and announced on the same day.
On the third-party front, there were some announcements as well. Metal Gear Solid Collection Vol. 1, Batman: Arkham Trilogy, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, Star Ocean: The Second Story R, and Penny’s Big Breakaway were shown.
This wasn’t everything, but those were some of the notable games shown. You can catch up on everything in Nintendo’s recap here. And let us know how you felt about the Nintendo Direct as a whole, and what your favorite announcement was.
Highlights from last week’s topic: Ranking the Xenoblade Chronicles games
Kyoko
Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii/Switch). I love it. 10/10
The first one made me appreciate games on a different way. It really was a turning point for me and one of my favorites games ever. I’ve played the Wii version at least 10 times and it never gets boring to me.
Listening Colony 9’s main theme is just.. one of the most nostalgic feeling I can get. It just feels like home.
Xenoblade 2 (Switch) and Torna (DLC) I love it. 9.5/10
This game is amazing. The world felt more alive or connected compared to the first one, and I simply loved exploring it and doing side quests on every Titan.
The cast is one of my favorites when compared to any other videogame and I get happy whenever I think of them.
Torna is also one of the best expansions I have ever played (granted I don’t buy that much DLC) and it made me love the world and story even more.
Xenoblade 3 (Switch) I like it. 8/10
It has a lot of thing I like, but also a lot of thing I don’t like that much.
The battle system was less enjoyable to the point my party was defeating stronger enemies while I wasn’t doing anything and I don’t like the class system.
Half of the main cast felt bland and the enemies were… there, I guess.
But I still had a lot of fun playing it and exploring the world
Xenoblade 3 Futures Redeemed (DLC) 9.5/10
This was amazing. I still have some questions, but I enjoyed it entirely.
Having Rex and Shulk fighting together was simply magnificent for me.
Xenoblade X. (Wii U)
My gamepad was broken but I bought the game anyway, so I will give it an “I couldn’t play it out of 10”.
I hope it gets ported at some point.
Fandangle
Xenoblade 1 is an absolute classic. Genuinely would put it up there with Chrono Trigger, FFVI, or any other JRPG great. The story is still shonen but everything about it has such thought put into it and knows when to use a trope for entertainment value and when to disregard, subvert, or toy with one to make a better story. Combat was simple but so deep at the same time. It kept adding new party members and mechanics at just the right times. It legitimately was just a fantastic game.
Xenoblade X was a huge step forward and a huge step back at the same time. The story was gutted, the translation was awful, but the game itself was so much better. Combat was so much deeper and more complex. The world was more impressive and generally just so well designed. It was genuinely just so fun to play. And RIP the online, I wish they didn’t shove the entire post game into it. Genuinely the best side quest system in the series. Best combat.
Xenoblade 2 is… worse in every degree. The art design was ugly. Characters didn’t look like they belonged to the same game. The story was a straight up shonene harem plot. The characters are love or hate them and all of them have the depth of a kiddie pool. The combat was so dumb. I could see every thought they put into it was to make it more accessible to the dumb modern JRPG crowd that just didn’t get 1 or X and thought they were too hard. Not to mention it has the WORST world design in the entire series. No one can sit there and defend Temperentia. I dare you. That’s not even getting into how ear grating the voice acting was or the localization that made an already childish shonen plot even more PG-13. Xenoblade 1 was definitely holding back punches but it didn’t feel like it was talking down to you. Xenoblade 2 felt like it was actively talking down to you. And I feel like people don’t complain about it enough, but the UI is seriously some of the worst garbage I’ve seen in a video game. The battle elements are noisey and crowded, and the menus are some of the worst I’ve ever seen.
Torna was pretty much everything Xenoblade 2 wanted to be but better. Literally every aspect of 2 was improved in this. It was still pretty mid.
Future Connected was significantly worse than the main game. Shulk doesn’t act like Shulk anymore, he’s this happy go lucky, can-do protagonist. The Shulk in the main game was pragmatic and scarily violent at times. He was very decisive and almost oblivious to the emotions of people around him to a fault. In FC, he’s none of this. He falls on Melia for decision making, he offers platitudes instead of decisions, he’s incredibly aware of Melia’s emotional state and displays none of the flaws the base game goes out of its way to show in him. The game would have been better if it was JUST Melia, or even Melia and Dunban here. Tyrea was such a great addition though. The gameplay was alright, the shoulder really wasn’t enough for a full post-game though, they should have thrown in another area or two (especially considering this cost 60 bucks for what’s essentially a remaster), any more new content would have definitely justified the price more. The story also felt really pointless. Side quests with full cutscenes and voice acting lead nowhere. Fog beasts are never properly explained, and the final boss is a reskin of a Xenoblade 2 boss and it feels so utterly lackluster. Literally the only thing I can say positively about the plot is that it does at least complete Melia’s arc, which was one of the first game’s major flaws.
Xenoblade 3 is a huge step up but still manages to fall behind. Definitely they rely less on generic modern anime tropes and nonsensical coincidences and plot twists and definitely has more competent characters. Not to say it was even close to 1 or X was though. The side plots take way too much away from the main plot. There’s no cutoff for them so you can do them well after it’s pretty clear that the whole conflict is pointless. There’s so many scenes where characters philosophize and I love it, until they stop making sense. The world is a definite step up from 2, bigger and more interesting, but still a bit empty feeling compared to X. The plot doesn’t meander like 2 did, there’s less magical coincidences, the characters don’t act like complete idiots. But there’s still issues, there’s still magical coincidences that keep the party alive, there’s still moments where characters act illogical, and a majority of the plot is just… unexplained. Motes are never explained, The ten year term limit is never explained, Riku is hardly explained, Lucky Seven is never explained, Z is poorly explained, and so, so, so, so much more. I get that a lot of this is explained in the DLC, but I paid 60 dollars for this. Why am I paying 40 more to get 1/3rd of the story that still doesn’t answer a lot of my questions?
Haven’t played FR yet, honestly have pretty middling hopes for it. 2 and 3 definitely feel like Monolithsoft lost their way with the franchise. Instead of continuing to make the Xenogears/Xenosaga mold of grand, post-apocalyptic scifi with well thought out themes on religion, humanity, and cycles of life and death and inevitability they’re making more shonen-ified plots. 1 was definitely a shonen anime, but I’d compare it more to Cowboy Bebop while 2 feels more like I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level, while 3 does find a decent and enjoyable middle ground between the two, I wanted more of a middle ground between Gears/Saga and Xenoblade 1 (which I’m now realizing is basically just X), not to go harder into the shonen aspects.
Apfel
Story: XC
Exploration: XCX
Combat: XC2
My top 4:
XC2, XC, XCX and, in the last place, XC3.
I love X, I love the skells, and the map…best map of all RPG/JRPG/Adventure, hands down.
For the overall experience, I prefer XC2. I love that game.
I was slightly disappointed by XC3. Not the best characters, not the best story. Exploration was, sometimes, boring. Don t get me wrong, it s a great JRPG…but XC and XC2 are, to me, sublime.
The music is amazing across all games and DLC.
Vigilante_blade
In order:
Xenoblade Chronicles 1
Future Redeemed
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Torna: The Golden Country
Xenoblade Chronicles X
Future Connected
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I still think that the narrative, world, and voice acting of one is unmatched. When Xenoblade 2 got released, I liked a lot of aspects of it, but it did worry me with its addition of gacha mechanics, which is a completionist’s nightmare, and and its more “typical” modern anime tropes. While there is nothing wrong with some anime tropes, some I like more than others. Alternatively, 2 had a better DLC than 1. I appreciate what Future Connected did for the story progression, I think it could have been done better, including adding playable Tyrea for example. Xenoblade 3’s tone and story was a lot closer to 1 in quality, but vilains were mostly poorly-written. Future Redeemed was short but sweet, and kind of fixed a lot of the story issues I had with 3.
While X is not my favourite, I would still want to see a sequel, especially to tie loose ends. Still, every game was very good, I just like some more than others.
