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marurun wrote:

Segata wrote:I hope you rebuild Colony 6. While the collecting is tedious as hell, in the end, it's worth it.

It makes one wonder why developers bury worthwhile stuff behind tedious gameplay. Shouldn't you want your players to be having a blast the whole time they're experiencing your game?

Yeah... Every time I see people discussing the Xenoblade games on this forum I think "Wow you guys make these games sound so shitty!"
Grinding
"Collecting"
Yikes. No thanks.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

marurun wrote:

Segata wrote:I hope you rebuild Colony 6. While the collecting is tedious as hell, in the end, it's worth it.

It makes one wonder why developers bury worthwhile stuff behind tedious gameplay. Shouldn't you want your players to be having a blast the whole time they're experiencing your game?

Yeah... Every time I see people discussing the Xenoblade games on this forum I think "Wow you guys make these games sound so shitty!"
Grinding
"Collecting"
Yikes. No thanks.

This is how I feel about 90% of the 8-bit RPGs you play

Xenoblade is way less grindy than most classic era RPGs

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Yeah... Every time I see people discussing the Xenoblade games on this forum I think "Wow you guys make these games sound so shitty!"
Grinding
"Collecting"
Yikes. No thanks.

I'll just say that all the folks who gave XC 9/10s and 10/10s have considerably different value systems than I do for JRPGs.

It's still an above average JRPG though, sure.

I hope to have XC beaten by the end of this week. If I can muster up enough give a fuck afterwards, I'll try to write a decent review that explains what's wrong and right with it.

I like Xenoblade way more than Ex and even I didn't bother with the Colony 6 stuff. I do not recall having to grind in that game at any point whatsoever. Also it's insanely easy to skip all the side quests, which I would even encourage. Very easy to make a straight line through the game.

Also Bone: Phantasy Star Online.

Actually, I think all the rare drop collectathon stuff in PSO is so boring. It can all be ignored in single player Normal mode.

The game is grindy though. But such a sweet succulent grind it is.

You don't have to grind ion Xenoblade. WTF lol. Almost all those 80s/90s JRPGs are the ones that require grinding. Dragon Quest to this day is a grind fest. Phantasy Star 1-4 are grind fests.You don't grind in Xenoblade really at all. You just run the hell away from those level 90 super bosses when you are level 4 out in the field. You will just eventually come to be powerful enough to take him on and if you don't want to you never have to.

You know what I mean playa. "Grinding" as in the the repetition of one task. Not necessarily the literal old-school 8-bit style of level-grinding.

Segata wrote:You don't have to grind ion Xenoblade. You don't grind in Xenoblade really at all.

I disagree with you.

It never fails that as I make my way through an area, once I finally reach the area's boss, it'll be a few levels higher than me. That means I have to go back and grind against enemies, just to gain a level or two. For example last night I was playing through the second pass of Bionis' Interior. My party was level 71 when I reached the boss, but the boss is level 75. My party could barely even scratch the boss, and the boss was doing massive damage to us. However, I guarantee you that after I go and grind my party up to level 73, we will be able to take the boss out. If I grinded my party up to level 76, they would utterly destroy the boss. Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the most level-dependent RPGs I've ever played (to the point of satire really). You don't need to employ any skillful strategy at all if your level meets or exceeds your enemy. Now perhaps if you've been focusing on side-quests (which heavily dole out experience) as you go along, your levels would have naturally maintained parity with bosses. However, if you don't do that, you're stuck grinding against monster mobs to keep your levels up to par. In that regard, I'd rather grind against monsters than put up with doing dozens upon dozens of the most banal "side-quests" imaginable.

I just never had to grind in Xenoblade. Then again I do sidequests but I do in every RPG. I don't do all of them but a lot of them. Not because I have to but because I just like to. X has some weird ones like the lobster bomber lol. Dark yet funny quest. Another one was a time traveler with a Delorian sorta to avoid copyright. Shame most of them were not quirky like that.

Segata wrote:I just never had to grind in Xenoblade. Then again I do sidequests but I do in every RPG. I don't do all of them but a lot of them. Not because I have to but because I just like to. X has some weird ones like the lobster bomber lol. Dark yet funny quest. Another one was a time traveler with a Delorian sorta to avoid copyright. Shame most of them were not quirky like that.

Xenoblade seems to have a very similar problem to Kingdoms of Amalur in this regard. Both good games, but the combat is SO level-based that the game effectively punishes you for doing sidequests because it makes every actual story encounter absolutely trivial. Amalur was a fun game, but damn was EVERYTHING too easy save for some veeery brief moments where you were the right level for that area's content

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Tales of the World: Reve Unitia has gotten a lot more interesting! Maps actually have stuff in them now aside from just the masses of enemies. The game is also getting a fair bit harder, with stuff like zone of control quickly becoming very important for keeping my mages alive. Story is also more than serviceable so far, with a nice overall plot and the fanservicey character interactions have been well done. I wouldn't call it a GOTY or anything so far, but it's a nice SRPG with a nice story. It IS getting to the point where missions take like an hour to complete though (mission 9 or 10 or so), so that's getting to be a bit of a bug bear Xp