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[shinobi602]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

 

[StreetsAhead]

Just re-watching the video I realized the Ma・Non aliens (the little guys with the alien-y voices) were the ones looking at the pizza shop in a previous trailer and their little description in this video says they like pizza, lol

EDIT: In terms of X's story, we really only know the back story so far; humans had to escape earth due to alien war. The ship your on gets attacked by the aliens after 2 years of wandering around space and crash lands on Mira. The facility housing the stasis pods was damaged and pods were scattered everywhere in the crash, Elma and her team of mercenaries are responsible for waking humans up to help populate New Los Angeles, which is how she finds your pod. You're then made a member of her team B.L.A.D.E. and we don't really have any idea about how the story progresses from their. My guess is that while trying to discover more about the planet you uncover *something* or the aliens that attacked earth appear.

It seems like you'll have the choice about doing stuff like finding other stasis pods, finding out more about Mira, helping people in NLA and so on though.

 

[TheGreatLugia]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

I can't speak for X since it seems to be changing things up a little, but in the original Xenoblade you would basically travel from one large zone to another with various cutscenes and plot progression through each area. You could either run straight through to your destination to continue the story or you could fully explore the zone or take quests from NPCs. The story and exploration were both major points in the original.

So far with X, the trailers have been mostly focusing on the exploration and world design with a few hints of what the story might be like. I want to say they did something similar with the original Xenoblade's Japanese release so they wouldn't spoil much of the plot, but I'm not certain. Nevertheless, it seems like the story will still be an important factor in X if the E3 2014 trailer is anything to go by.

 

[dkeane]

Wow those maps are awesome.
Getting hyped for this and I'm really not into RPGs.
I haven't played one since Tales on the GameCube. Or maybe a final fantasy on PS3.

 

[wrowa]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

We don't really know how the game will be structured, I think. Xenoblade (the Wii game) had a normal, linear story with "an actual meaty stoy arc to follow with cutscenes and everything" but also tons of (optional) MMO-like quests similar to what we've seen today. Xenoblade X will definitely have a story, but at the same time the director said that the world is supposed to be more open than in Xenoblade and that the player is supposed to have more freedom, so who knows how they'll structure that exactly. It's possible that quests like that data probe thing we've seen today will be vital to advance the story.

 

[shinobi602]

Thanks, sounds good!

I'm assuming things like upgrading and customizing your character (clothes, armor, weapons) are part of it too?

 

[threelights]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

Xenoblade has an amazing story and characters, so yeah.

How an hour or two go by?

Yo go to town. Walk around talking to people, understanding the layout of everything, accepting side-quests, and shopping (and everything that comes with it, such as comparing equipment, managing money, selling stuff, etc.)

After that, then you can either progress the story or complete the sidequests (personally, I complete the ones I like and the ones that have a time limit to complete). Completing sidequests is basically going to the field around the town killing monsters, fetching items, finding people and exploring.

When you decide to continue the story you go to the place you're supposed to go, and well, you follow the story, maybe go to a dungeon, maybe fight a boss, maybe go to a place in the field. And eventually the story will tell you to go to another area, where you find another city, and everything starts again.

Some JRPGs tend to have minigames, optional dungeons, and stuff like that, but Xenoblade doesn't do that usually.

Combat itself is basically like an MMO (in Xenoblade at least) where your character auto attacks and you use abilities, wait for cooldowns, etc... Many people (myself included) think that the combat system and the amount of generic quests are the biggest flaws with the first game, but the rest is outstanding.


EDIT: Oh yeah, and there's the affinity systems, which is basically giving gifts to your party members, and watching dialogue between them. This affects some parts of battle and some sidequests.

Thanks, sounds good!

I'm assuming things like upgrading and customizing your character (clothes, armor, weapons) are part of it too?

Yes.

 

[tuxfool]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

Think FFXII, There were plenty of MMOish quests in the first game but a lot of meta game stuff link building relationships, building towns, crafting and skill linking. High level enemies in areas that you could only tackle later (large creatures like in the video).

Combat is control of a single character while the rest is ai driven. It is cooldown management and building gauges of characters and party, positioning matters.

in other words there was a shit ton of things to do.

 

[alvis.exe]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

Given the developer's history and the fact that we got that story trailer way back, the game should have a nice long story (first game had like 11 some hours of voiced cutscenes alone, mixed into an average playtime of like 60-70 hours spent exploring areas, completing quests, fighting monsters as the story took you to each new area, each with its own special areas, quests, and monsters). However, the developers have said that Xenoblade X won't be as "linear" as the first game so I don't think we really know at this point how exactly we'll be progressing the story.

In the end though, I imagine that play sessions would still end up similar to the first game, where you could basically spend each play session as you wanted - in each session you could do any combination of completing a bunch of quests, doing some exploration, fighting some unique monsters, and progressing the story because the game basically never really locked you into only doing story scenes or anything like that. I still remember getting to the first town, having one of my party members leave, getting a story quest, thinking "huh, I wonder if I can exit the town to do some exploration," heading to the exit, expecting to get some text window pop-up telling me I needed to go to my destination first, and being absolutely surprised that not only did I not get a text window but that the entire area was open for me to explore.

I imagine Xenoblade X will be similar but instead of just one area for you to explore, you get access to all/most areas straight from the get-go.

 

[StreetsAhead]

Thanks, sounds good!

I'm assuming things like upgrading and customizing your character (clothes, armor, weapons) are part of it too?

Yeah, they show off some of the shops where you can buy upgrades when introducing the BLADE area. And one of the quest rewards is a new piece of armor. You'll also be able to upgrade your doll once you get access to them, too.

 

[rhandino]

Watched the video, game looks wonderful. Can anyone explain to me how the base game works? As in, how would a standard hour or two go by? I see towns...shops...spaceships, mechs, then going out with a group into the wilderness...It sort of feels/looks like an MMO in terms of combat/exploring the wild. Is there an actual meaty story arc to follow with cutscenes and everything?

The RPGs I'm most familiar with are WRPGs, but I've played JRPGs like FFX, Golden Sun, Lost Odyssey, Pokemon among some others...

In a hour in the original Xenoblade I think the game could be:

1) Explore the vast maps in search of collectibles, discover secret areas and random NPC. All of these gives you Exp, Money and Abilty Points as rewards.

2) The cities are full of sidequest, some are well thought quests like help people take life choices, make a quest chain to help someone who is in debt, etc. But those quests are mostly gated behind some filler quests, the good thing about the filler ones (Kill X enemies, recover some items, etc) is that in the moment you complete them they mark them as completed and give you the reward without going back to the quest giver. Also the filler quest are mostly given to you at the start of the are so you can complete them naturally.

The rewards for the best quests goes from weapons, armor to skill trees.

3) Fight difficult enemies, I really liked the battle system and the fact that some of these enemies only appear in the maps according to climatic or time conditions make the fields feel very dynamic. These battles can give you all of the above rewards.

4) Talk to people in towns and see how they all are connected, in Xenoblade there is an Affinity Chart that as you discover and talk to NPC it shows the relationships between them. One of my favorite things since you could be in the most far away zone and found a Nopon who has family in the first village, an if he discover that you know his family could give you a quest to deliver something...

Now these game appears to have all diferent kind of quests appart from those above since there are now somethin akin to factions that if you are member of them yield different quests, like one of them dedicate themselves to exploration, other to help people in the colony and others appear to deal with the Mech themselves.

 

[chadboban]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

 

[shinobi602]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

 

[Verger]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

Ah cool, you can have the

Spoiler

non-human character as companion

, definitely swapping out Lynlee as soon as I can. But I guess there may be no

Spoiler

Heropon this time

 

[StickSoldier]

That game is gorgeous. Some of the characters don't even look like they should be from the same game though, it's kinda weird. Like the dude with the red hair, which I guess is who you play as, looks like he's taken from a How To Draw Anime book, but that old Army guy looks like something from Cowboy Bebop.. Totally throws me off.

 

[Blunoise]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

but where is tatsu. he has been in the party as well

 

[rhandino]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

The good thing? YAY The Affinity Chart tracks now how the NPC interact with the other Playable Characters individually instead of the whole group... the bad is that it appears that for now Heropon 2.0 is probably not Playable T_T

but where is tatsu. he has been in the party as well

Maybe he is a Guest Character like the ones in Xenoblade, those were showed to be with the group but almost never participated in battle T_T x 2

Edit: Or he could join later and the chart updates that by putting him inside the circle =P

 

[random25]

To go back to the seamless conversation, looking at this map, it does appear all areas are connected.

Looks like every continent can be traveled by foot. Makes me think that there are still unmentioned 1 or 2 continents that can only be seen and reached with the use of dolls. Probably because one of them may contain enemy colony or stronghold.

 

[Aaronrules380]

but where is tatsu. he has been in the party as well

Off to the side connected to Lynlee

 

[Mory Dunz]

I don't understand why people are complaning about something you will only see in some cutscenes. you are always looking at the characters from the back and the camera is too zoomed out to see the face anyways.

To be fair, if Xenoblade is anything to go by, there is a lot of cutscenes and dialogue, with facetime.

Character designs were fine

it's just how they were represented in 3D with textures

Both games need a better 3d character modeler... preferably from Square. They have "realistic anime" mastered

That's...not anime. It's just realistic.
Noctic and Prompto just have weird hair.

 

[threelights]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

Yup, that's pretty much what I had to do with the first game. And it became amazing after you ignore the combat.

That's...not anime. It's just realistic.
Noctic and Prompto just have weird hair.

Then look at any SE game. I can't name a single one with bad character models (after the PS1 era of course).

Also, that is not realistic. They are just wearing normal clothes.

 

[StreetsAhead]

but where is tatsu. he has been in the party as well

He's connected to Lyn in the image linked.

 

[Hours Left]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

Tatsu has already been confirmed to be a party member, so I don't think that chart proves anything definitely.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Tatsu has already been confirmed to be a party member, so I don't think that chart proves anything definitely.

I mean, he might travel with you, but not actually act as a party member and not participate in battles. I think someone mentioned earlier that the video seemed to say Tatsu can't fight or pilot dolls, so this would fall in line with that

 

[TheGreatLugia]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

In the original the combat felt a bit slow early on, but there was definitely a point where it clicked for me. Once I started unlocking and leveling up a lot of arts and got a couple of additional party members, I began to really enjoy the battle system.

 

[Hours Left]

I mean, he might travel with you, but not actually act as a party member and not participate in battles. I think someone mentioned earlier that the video seemed to say Tatsu can't fight or pilot dolls, so this would fall in line with that

Maybe, I guess we'll see.

 

[chadboban]

Tatsu has already been confirmed to be a party member, so I don't think that chart proves anything definitely.

We haven't seen Tatsu fight though, nor have we seen him as an actual member of the party. Everything we've seen from him seems to show him as a sort of helper type character that probably escorts you on the field depending on what you're doing. I hope I'm wrong though because I love my herapon.

 

[Mory Dunz]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

tbh, once you get to a certain point in the game (in Xenoblade 1), you're pretty much always "doing something". Whether selecting skills, encouraging allies (go to them and bress b), chain attacks, visions, reviving, whatever.

So there isn't as much waiting around time. I usually don't like it too so I can relate. (Turned off auto attack in Last Story).

The beginning of the game though, yeah.

 

[JB2448]

That game is gorgeous. Some of the characters don't even look like they should be from the same game though, it's kinda weird. Like the dude with the red hair, which I guess is who you play as, looks like he's taken from a How To Draw Anime book, but that old Army guy looks like something from Cowboy Bebop.. Totally throws me off.

You can customize that character (your avatar) in a lot of awesome ways. Space Rihanna more your thing?

More details from the E3 2014 Treehouse stream (5:00 mark), if you want them.

 

[Mory Dunz]

Then look at any SE game. I can't name a single one with bad character models (after the PS1 era of course).

Also, that is not realistic. They are just wearing normal clothes.

I wasn't disagreeing about it looking really good or whatever the conversation is about. I just didn't think it was anime styled.

 

[Ceravic]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

Damn it no!

Spoiler

Van Damme must be part of it too!

 

[Super Stardust]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

Try your best to play xenoblade wii to see how things are, trust me it's one of the best games ever made.

 

[Fandangox]

HOLY CRAP! I just realized that the affinity chart they showed very likely shows your party members closer to your main character just like the original Xenoblade. Also notice they all have a bolder looking green line going towards the MC. So by looking at that (will link it here to avoid spoilers for those who want to avoid them) it seems like your party is going to consist of

MC
Elma
Lynlee

Spoiler

Guin

Spoiler

Irina

Spoiler

Luu

Spoiler

Space Dunban

Spoiler

Older guy from the E3 trailer (picture linked here)

Spoiler

Some other light-haired character

Gonna take a wild guess that this was already discussed earlier in the thread and I missed the entire thing.

lol'd at

Spoiler

Space Dunban

 

[Hours Left]

We haven't seen Tatsu fight though, nor have we seen him as an actual member of the party. Everything we've seen from him seems to show him as a sort of helper type character that probably escorts you on the field depending on what you're doing. I hope I'm wrong though because I love my herapon.

Yeah, it would be disappointing.

Though alternatively, that list speculates on one character from an earlier trailer that I really do want to be a party member, so I wouldn't be disappointed if it turns out to be true.

 

[chadboban]

That game is gorgeous. Some of the characters don't even look like they should be from the same game though, it's kinda weird. Like the dude with the red hair, which I guess is who you play as, looks like he's taken from a How To Draw Anime book, but that old Army guy looks like something from Cowboy Bebop.. Totally throws me off.

Red hair dude is completely customizable though. You can even turn him into a girl if you want.

 

[FlashbladeGAF]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

The basic attack is automatic but your special moves and arts have to be performed in real time and you have to maneuver your character in the right position(behind,side,front of enemy) for the specials to be effective.

It gets pretty intense if XB Wii is anything to go by. You won't even notice that your character is attacking on his own once you have plenty of special arts at the ready.

 

[Verger]

lol'd at

Spoiler

Space Dunban

I hope he's as cool as the first

 

[TheMoon]

The 5 continents. It looks similar to Xenoblade as of now, which has area transitions for each huge map.

There is no loading in the game outside of event scenes. Takahashi confirmed that again in the Famitsu interview.

 

[Hours Left]

Red hair dude is completely customizable though. You can even turn him into a girl if you want.

Imma make a grizzled silver fox.

 

[rhandino]

Red hair dude is completely customizable though. You can even turn him into a girl if you want.

Yu Narukami, is that you?

---

Are there translation of the names of the areas? I don't find them at least T_T

 

[Aaronrules380]

Yu Narukami, is that you?

---

Are there translation of the names of the areas? I don't find them at least T_T

Glad someone else thought they looked similar LOL

 

[weekev]

Anyone up for babysitting my kids for 2 months when this comes out? Ill throw in my wife too if it will sweeten the deal.

 

[stay gold]

Red hair dude is completely customizable though. You can even turn him into a girl if you want.

Can you also get rid of the ugly mustard & grey outfit?

 

[alvis.exe]

These impressions are excellent, thanks so much! Seems right up my alley. Only thing I might have reservations about is the combat (not too too fond of auto attack systems) as I prefer real-time action combat but I think I can overlook that easily because it sounds like every other aspect is great.

It's funny because I was the opposite going into the first game - prefer turn-based mostly. Ended up absolutely loving the battle system though it's definitely more about how well you manage your party both in and out of combat rather than being reaction time based, though there is a bit of action that comes from maneuvering around the enemy to perform location-based attacks (seems to be back in full force since the game now tells you where exactly you are in relation to the enemy when it could be kind of tough with the first game) and of course making sure that you're a master at picking an art fast enough from the art palette. Xenoblade X looks to be adding even more layers to it though so it should be interesting to see what the end result will look like. Hopefully we'll get a nice set of superbosses again!

 

[Aaronrules380]

Can you also get rid of the ugly mustard & grey outfit?

It's like the original Xenoblade where your clothes are based on your equipment

 

[alvis.exe]

Are there translation of the names of the areas? I don't find them at least T_T

I can take a stab at it.

First area is Primordial Wilderness. Second area translated literally would be Night Light Forest. Third area Forgotten Canyon. Fourth is White Tree Continent. Last is Black Steel Continent. Please correct if wrong!

 

[rhandino]

Can you also get rid of the ugly mustard & grey outfit?

Yes, each piece of equipment changes how you look. In Xenoblade you can mix and match piece for Chest, Hands, Head, Legs and Shoes. Also the weapons change and the equipment is visible in the cutscenes.

One awesome detail of the original is that it remembers what you were wearing, so in some cutscenes of characters remembering some previous event you and/or your teammates appear in the cloths you were wearing at that time. Sooooo cool.

I can take a stab at it.

First area is Primordial Wilderness. Second area translated literally would be Night Light Forest. Third area Forgotten Canyon. Fourth is White Tree Continent. Last is Black Steel Continent. Please correct if wrong!

Yes, thank you so much...

 

[stay gold]

It's like the original Xenoblade where your clothes are based on your equipment

Good stuff. Never played the original so I was worried i'd be stuck with the blandest looking character ever lol

 

[threelights]

I can take a stab at it.

First area is Primordial Wilderness. Second area translated literally would be Night Light Forest. Third area Forgotten Canyon. Fourth is White Tree Continent. Last is Black Steel Continent. Please correct if wrong!

Black Steel Continent looks the coolest so far to me.

And thanks for translating.

 

[Fandangox]

Good stuff. Never played the original so I was worried i'd be stuck with the blandest looking character ever lol

Unfortunately Xenoblade's armors were more often than not, terrible. Hope they are better this time around.