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Xenoblade Chronicles X: new info from Famitsu (map size, battle system, characters)

L~A

Member
Famitsu has a 10-pages article dedicated to Xenoblade Chronicles X (and Xenoblade Chronicles 3D) this week. There's info about the game, but also an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi (Executive Director). Magazine will be out tomorrow in Japan, but some tidbits have already surfaced and were translated by some fellow Gaffers.

So here's the round-up of all info available at the moment:

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.

More at the link (roughly the same as what's below, but with some additional tidbits).

Some more details according to Shinobi (excluding ones already shared by Raven777):

Characters
Nagi (Takayuki Sugou)
-Former Captain of the White Whale and current Military Chief in the Autonomous Government of New Los Angeles.

Guin (Yuichi Nakamura)
-Worked in the same division as Elma and Irina on Earth. Was their subordinate.

Player Avatars
-Many options for customization (sex, face type, skin colour, hair style, eyes, make-up, voice, etc).
-Preset designs done by Kunihiko Tanaka
-Some famous voices actors providing their voice as options for the avatar, will be announced on the Xenoblade homepage later.

GamePad
-Will show character location, question locations
-Warping to previously visited areas

Online
-The use of 'X [Cross]' has implications for the online functionality.
-Not a standard online game, more 'loosely connected'

I took a look at the actual text from sinobi about the interview, and the description Takahashi gives the online is definitely indicating something like the passive online features of Souls game. He refers to it as ゆるく繋がるオンラインゲーム which is the common term used these days to refer to stuff like the blood stains, messages, and player shadows.

Music
-About 90 songs in the game. Sawano involved in all of them.

Battles
-Faster paced, more-actiony than Xenobalde.
-Differentiates close and distant attacks.
-No healers.
-Healing done with new system called 'Soul Voice'.

-Xenoblade was traditional RPG, whereas XenobladeX is an open world RPG. Xenoblade was linear despite having big world. In XenobladeX, you will get quests from different places and have more freedom.
-Xenoblade had 1 vocal song at the end, but XenobladeX has many vocal song. (Many for RPG)
-Mira is 400km² which is 5 times bigger than Xenoblade. So there is Dolls which can fly. Also you can check your location via gamepad
-Battle system is based on Xenoblade, but it's faster paced and more action packed.
-4 player party, you control 1 and AI controls the rest.
-number of unique monsters and equipments have increased from Xenoblade.

The magazine also introduces "Union". Sounds like something like factions for quests.

There are 8 of them, and you can join any of them, and change depending on your goal.

PATH FINDER
COLEPEDIAN
INTER CEPTOR
LAND BANK
AVALANCE
ARMS
TESTAMENT
COMPANION

Takahashi's XenobladeX's final check play time was over 300 hours

The interview says the world of Xenoblade X is about 400km&, which is 5 times bigger than Xenoblade. But I think he did mention it was about 5 times of Xenoblade in the past.

Hopefully, this post will be updated with some nice pics in a couple of minutes!

Thanks to Raven77 and StreetsAhead for the translations!
 

JCX

Member
I am trying to imagine 5x Xenoblade, wow. Gonna be so much fun just flying around in a mech.
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
Again for the new thread.

Player Avatars
-Many options for customization (sex, face type, skin colour, hair style, eyes, make-up, voice, etc).
-Preset designs done by Kunihiko Tanaka
-Some famous voices actors providing their voice as options for the avatar, will be announced on the Xenoblade homepage later.

So, were this "mute protagonist" came from?
 
300 hours?

BCP4b4g.gif
 
-4 player party, you control 1 and AI controls the rest.
I want this trend to die so, so much. At least set up a FFXII system where I can tailor the AI and micromanage whomever I want whenever I want. I'm really happy with that. I'm not happy when I knock an opponent down, and it turns out the AI already used the appropriate follow-up attack for a smidge of extra DPS a moment earlier.
 

rhandino

Banned
OMG! All this info all over my face!

Also online, please be co-op or at the very least use a function like the Tingle Bottle's in Wind Waker T_T

So, were this "mute protagonist" came from?
Those voices are suposed to be battle grunts and quotes... or at least that's what they showed. Maube they will have a protagonista like the one in Fire Emblem: Awakening just fully voiced? Who knows =/
 

duckroll

Member
Nagi (Takayuki Sugou)
-Former Captain of the White Whale and current Military Chief in the Autonomous Government of New Los Angeles.

I wonder if he's the "hero" mentioned in the background story writeup.

Online
-One of the intended meanings of 'X[Cross]' relates to distant players playing together.
-Not a standard online game, more 'loosely connected'

Sounds like they might be going for something like Souls? Maybe "cross" refers to players "crossing over" into another player's world?
 

Effect

Member
300 hours is madness.

Indeed and I love it. I'm glad they've announced this ahead of time. It gives me more incentive to finish up the games I have now. I want nothing lingering be it on Wii U, 3DS, or PC by the time this game comes out in the US. I want all games that have a finite end to be completed as much as possible so I can give this my undivided attention when it comes to my game time. Leaving only time for MK8 and Smash.
 

Rootbeer

Banned
300 hours?
5x the explorable area of xenoblade?
over 90 songs?
several vocal songs?
lots of avatar customization options?

AAAAAAHHHHHH~~!
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Took 300 hours to beat.
I'm sure I'll be able to cut that to 50 hours. Since that was more than likely from a lot of exploring and other stuff.

Nice to hear about the more actiony combat system. Just wonder how the new "healing" mechanic will work.
 
Please say Nintendo is going to released a Collectors Edition with a Soundtrack and Art book in the States. Maybe a little mech too... please!
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
-Mira is 400km^2 which is 5 times Xenoblade.

*Faints*
duckroll said:
Sounds like they might be going for something like Souls? Maybe "cross" refers to players "crossing over" into another player's world?

These are my thoughts as well. Would be a great idea.
 
300 hours? That's a lot of fetch quests =P

jk jk, don't kill me.

Anyway, the battle system makes me more interested in the game (I would like normal healing, but it's fine). I really really hope that at least fighting in mechas is fun.

This game can't come soon enough, I want all my fears to be proven wrong soon =X
 
I'll have to not get any other games around the time this comes out. I hope it comes out during the emptiest time this year which is fairly packed already.
 

oti

Banned
Soooo... that multiplayer chat they were showing when they unveiled the game was just fake and misleading? No 4-player-coop hunts or something similar?
 
Xenoblade was traditional RPG, whereas XenobladeX is an open world RPG. Xenoblade was linear despite having big world. In XenobladeX, you will get quests from different places and have more freedom.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN :'(

I hope it's still kinda story focused.
 

krizzx

Junior Member
*Faints*


These are my thoughts as well. Would be a great idea.

I thought that was a fairly standard component of single player games with long before Demon Souls was even a thought going back to the 90s.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN :'(

I hope it's still kinda story focused.

I agree. I really dislike this "open world" obsession. The best stories need some form or structure and order to be told properly.
 

Bebpo

Banned
All I care about is if the game is a single player traditional rpg with a good story, good dungeons, and good pacing/progression like every single other game directed by Takahashi to date.

I do not want a GTA/Sandbox/MMO or Monhun game that's 300 hours long and most of that is quest based as opposed to story based. I mean XB was really long. It had a great 60-70 hour main storyline and another 50-60 hours in quests for about 120-130 hours total. Any longer would've been tiring and really hurt the pacing (it was already slow after a while when MMO questing), but really it was just a perfect sized epic rpg. 5x bigger landmass is fine since with mechs you'll move hopefully at 5x the speed, but then the game should still be ~120-130 hours in that case, so the 300 hour playtime (most likely for 100%) is a little worrying.

Since it's Takahashi I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that when it's actually in our hands it'll be a fantastic single player jrpg epic adventure with another top notch Takahashi exciting storyline of gods and mechs and people and cute mascot characters. Fingers crossed at this point.
 
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