Monolith Soft

Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 5 Comments

Update: Bumped to the top. Added in the Treehouse presentation below. It’s after the break due to auto-play.

Nintendo has now uploaded the full recording of today’s Xenoblade Chronicles X video showcase. Watch it below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 16 Comments

With today’s Xenoblade Chronicles X presentation, some fans were hoping that we’d hear about a release date for the west. That definitely did not happen, but Nintendo did reconfirm its original, vague timeframe for release. Xenoblade Chronicles X will launch “later this year.” Beyond that, we have no idea when!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 30 Comments

Update: Nintendo said during the Treehouse portion of the presentation that the localization is a work in progress. I have a feeling that the “Skells” name will stick (and probably the continent names as well), but keep that in mind!

During today’s Xenoblade Chronicles X presentation, Nintendo confirmed the English names of the game’s five continents. They are as follows:

Primordia (the first area)
Noctilum (the Forest of Nightglow)
Oblivia (the Valley of Oblivion)
Sylvalum (the Continent of White Trees)
Cauldros (the Continent of Black Steel)

The “Dolls”, which are Xenoblade Chronicles X’s mechs, are also getting a name change. They’ll be called “Skells” in the English version.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Videos, Wii U | 9 Comments

Technically this isn’t a Nintendo Direct, as Nintendo calls it a “video showcase”. In any case, we’ll go with that to make things easier.

Today’s Xenoblade Chronicles X broadcast will kick off at 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT / 7 PM in the UK / 8 PM in Europe. Don’t forget to stick around after it ends for an additional Treehouse presentation.

You can watch all of today’s Xenoblade Chronicles X goodness below. I’m not planning a live blog since the information will largely be rehash of what we’ve already covered extensively, but if we hear anything about something like a release date, it will be on the site immediately.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 16 Comments

Nintendo has announced that a new “video showcase” will be held tomorrow for Xenoblade Chronicles X. Following that, there will be a Nintendo Treehouse: Live presentation featuring the game.

Nintendo’s presentation will kick off at 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT. You’ll be able to watch it here, though we’ll have a stream on the site as well. Keep in mind that the videos will be available in English only.

Source: Nintendo PR

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 1 Comment

Xenoblade Chronicles X’s Japanese launch is just one week away, but Monolith Soft hasn’t stopped updating the game’s official website. The most recent content added to the page covers the Kizunagram and online functionality. For a roundup of the new information, check out the summary below (thanks Gessenkou).

Kizunagram

– Kizunagram (or affinity chart) revolves around the relationships between characters
– View relationship types and bond strength between the player and other characters, traits of those characters, and their relationships with other characters in the chart
– Players can view the links between characters they’ve met
– Raise bonds with allies beyond a certain point to grow them even stronger
– This allows you to take on special Kizuna Quests
– It also causes special events called “Kizuna Talks” (heart-to-hearts)
– Characters respond differently to different choices you make
– This includes accepting and completing special Kizuna Quests, finishing Story Quests and Normal Quests, completing an ally’s Soul Voice, and viewing Kizuna Talks
– Can view the bonds formed with other players met through the online mode

Online Features

– Xenoblade X’s online is characterized by being “loosely connected” to other players
– If you play the game while your Wii U is connected to the internet, you’ll meet other players’ avatars in the field or BLADE Area
– Scout these avatars and add them to your party
– The other players do not control their avatars during that time
– Other players can add your avatar to their party, where the avatar will gain exp
– Can join Squads while connected to the Internet
– Squads can have up to 32 members
– Members of the same squad become loosely connected, view Reports sent by each other, and can cooperate in battle
– Life Point Search Squads: Intended for players who prefer to take their time playing solo
– Conquest Squads: Intended for players who want to proactively engage in multiplayer
– Friend’s Squads: Join the same squads as your friends
– Can change your squad while playing
– You can add members of your Squad to your “Favorites List”
– Send them Friend requests as well
– Squad members can give away or receive equipment obtained after battle
– Setting up Treasure Deal(giving away) – Joining Treasure Deal(receiving)

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Screenshots, Wii U | 4 Comments

The Japanese Xenoblade Chronicles X website was updated once again today. While we don’t have a new video this week, there is a batch of new screenshots and art to check out. You can go through the full set below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 14 Comments

Yesterday, Dengeki Online published its review of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Gessenkou has since picked through the verdict and has translated a bunch of details. You can find them rounded up below.

– Clearing quests grants access to more party members
– Although you won’t have access to certain things if you don’t progress the story to some extent, you can explore the entirety of Mira right from the start
– The previous game (Xenoblade) set story objectives and gave you freedom to explore before arriving at them, but in this game there’s a much higher degree of freedom, like the developers were saying ‘you can do whatever you want, just do some story quests occasionally.’
– After clearing a certain quest, you’re able to freely re-customize your avatar
– You can even change genders, perfect for moody people who think “I don’t want to look like an old man again today”
– We left NLA and walked from one end of the continent to the other, and there really were no load times. I was surprised that the game didn’t run choppily due to the disc seeks.
– However, there are three points where there are some small loading: when you go in and out of the BLADE Home, use skip travel, or view cutscenes.
– And since this preview version is disc-only, the textures and character assets would sometimes take several seconds to load in when we’d drive around with the Doll at high speeds, or immediately after those load points. I’m interested in seeing to what extent the ‘load time reduction data packs’/digital version can reduce this delay.
– Rock faces and lakes are usually impassable boundaries in games, but if you try hard enough you can continue past them in this game. You can jump up some rocky platforms to scale cliffs, or stealthily swim[by sea] around tough enemies guarding the entrances to continents, which make finding paths through the world very fun.
– The direct path isn’t the only path. If you try going down a path that made you think “maybe I can get there from here,” you’ll find that you will in fact be able to. This kind of accommodating map design is just what you’d expect from Nintendo and Monolith Soft.
– No matter what height you jump from in this game, you won’t take any damage. You can jump all the way down from the top of the Upper Strata in the BLADE Area to the Lower Strata. And the game won’t have to stop and load at all, totally seamless!
– If you don’t plan out your strategy and manage your arts and equipment, the bosses are quite difficult, even for people who are experienced with RPGs.
– But don’t worry, it’s still a Nintendo game. They allow you to lower the difficulty on a boss if you lose to it several times. There’s no penalties for lowering the difficulty, so people who don’t play RPGs often can still enjoy the story.
– When you defeat native creatures, they’ll drop equipment that was used by members of BLADE they defeated/killed. Drops obtained from enemies have different abilities and affixes attached to them, some even have unexpected ones! Searching for equipment with amazing abilities by killing enemies can give it a bit of a [loot-focused game] feel.
– You don’t get money for buying equipment from killing monsters. You can sell the materials you get from them, but that doesn’t net you much cash. So, how do you get money on Mira? The Frontier Net, of course. It’s not just for gathering info on the planet. The person who placed the probe receives payments regularly(fixed intervals), from the citizens of NLA who pay a fee to view images and information recorded by the probes. The more Data Probes you set, the more money you make.
The moneymaking occurs in real time, so you’ll make a lot if you just leave the game there and space out!
– There are tons of Doll weapons and armor as well, that you can freely customize.
– Dolls turn into vehicles when dashing. The frame series don’t just differ in vehicle design, their handling and engine sounds change as well.
– I played this review copy for much more than 100 hours, but there was still so much left to see in the game. There were many things we were unable to fit into this review, so we hope you play it yourself to experience all of its limitless fun!

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 9 Comments

Last night’s Xenoblade Chronicles X trailer was heavy on story, so it’d probably help to know what’s going on. Thankfully, one fan has re-uploaded the video online with English subtitles. Check it out below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 40 Comments

Nintendo’s latest trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X focuses on story as opposed to gameplay. You can watch it below.

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