I think a lot of you might be taking the 300 hours quote out of context. "Final check" doesn't really sound like a normal playthrough or even a 100% playthrough to me, but like an actual playtest - and when a developer tests a game, he's doing all kind of crazy stuff to test whether certain things are working correctly that a player would never even pay attention to.
At the beginning of the story, the goal is to survive the uncivilized planet of Mira. After meeting up with private military organization Blade, you’ll choose from one of eight affiliated unions, each with their own overarching objective to fill, and embark on quests. It’s possible to join a different union later. Unlike the linear progression of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, the successor’s story will unfold in various directions.
Unions
The eight unions are:
Pathfinder - In charge of data probe installation.
Interceptor - In charge of exterminating protists.
Avalanche - In charge of hunting down dangerous life forms.
Testament - In charge of the search and recovery of debris scattered by the ship, as well as the recovery of items lost on the battlefield.
Corepedian - In charge of visiting areas and investigation/collecting materials.
Land Bank - In charge of securing resources and collecting minerals.
Arms - Assists the Arms Company in charge of the development of Dolls and their inner weaponry.
Companion - A Jack of all trades, from the mediation of petty fights to the search of stray cats.
My problem is that a lot of people are using the numbers as a multiplier to how good a game might be. Just because something might have a large number attached to it, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden it's going to be linearly proportional to how much content there is, if everything looks worthwhile, and is ultimately fun.
My problem is that a lot of people are using the numbers as a multiplier to how good a game might be. Just because something might have a large number attached to it, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden it's going to be linearly proportional to how much content there is, if everything looks worthwhile, and is ultimately fun.
I don't really see anybody saying, the bigger the world is, the better the game is. What you have here is people that have played Xenoblade the first game, have seen footage of this game so far, and are excited at the prospect of exploring it's large world. The larger the world, essentially means the more to explore and in a game like this that is a large part of the overall draw for many that plan on playing the game. Ultimately it may prove to be too much to explore or leave vast empty areas without much to see, but we'll have to wait and see.
Gematsu got some additional info, including some details about the Unions:
More at the link (roughly the same as what's in the OP, but with some additional tidbits).
I really dont get it... should the characters only be able to walk everywhere? Im sure the devs made running speeds and mech traveling fast to compensate for the huge world.It should be expected that the world is larger than that of Xenoblade. If you assume that the world is 5x larger, and also assume that the Doll is 5x faster (likely even faster), then it makes sense from a design aspect that the world is larger.
I see a lot of people going crazy over '400' and '5' and it's just weird to me, especially when Xenoblade offered the same type of explorations sans the Dolls.
I really dont get it... should the characters only be able to walk everywhere? Im sure the devs made running speeds and mech traveling fast to compensate for the huge world.
That's exactly what I said. So, what's the big deal?
I still don't understand what loosely connected means though..
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwMusic
-About 90 songs in the game. Sawano involved in all of them.
It sounds like they're still not ready to reveal details, so it's hard to say. But if I had to make a guess, I would say that what Takahashi is referring to here might be tied to Miiverse functions too. That would make sense given the WiiU capabilities. Seems like something Nintendo would push for too.
Gematsu got some additional info, including some details about the Unions:
More at the link (roughly the same as what's in the OP, but with some additional tidbits).
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
So no online coop then? Or, at best, something like Ultimate Climax in Bayonetta 2.
I still don't understand what loosely connected means though..
I am worried about the "open-world" to be sure.
Here's the issue I have personally. I probably am an OCD completionist by nature, so when you put me in an open-world game, I am compelled to try and complete as many quests/side-quests/collectathons as I can before "proceeding". The problem then is that once I feel like I'm ready to move on with the main story, I've begun to lose what the main story was all about and usually is not compelling enough to keep me going.
That and the fact that open-world design is often counter towards strong narratives Because they want you to go on these "completionist" quests to do other things to spend your time in-game. After a while though you start to realize that quests become repetitive and you're doing the same thing just for the sake of ticking off a chart. True you'll spend many hours doing this, but are you doing it because you're having fun or because you're waiting for the "fun to begin"?
Also narratives in open-world games typically lose any sense of "struggle" or "evolving world" because the main quest is somehow "on hold" until you continue it, meaning the villains and your antagonists are just sitting there waiting while you go and do your thing. Also the world itself sometimes never changes because it has to be kept static so that content isn't "removed" if something on the landmass changes drastically.
It's not a dealbraker of course. But I felt that the original Xenoblade was "open world" enough as it is, so to hear the director say this one is even more so is troubling to me.
It's too early to say, but the very first XCX trailer showed a chat box that was clearly filled with human players. It's either:
1) still in the game as full co-op
2) taken out after inability to get the functionality working
3) online chatting and trading, but not quite co-op (which makes the least sense in the context of the chat box)
Not interested in the open design. That's how I lose focus and drive to beat the game.