Bitanator
Member
Nintendo won something for once
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Time : The Best RPG of 2015 Is Only Available on the Wii U
- Thread starter texhnolyze
- Start date
Nintendo won something for once
Calamari41
41 > 38
It's funny, I'm the opposite of many people with the story and only go into those missions reluctantly. To me, the story missions are incidental. They're only there to guide you along and open up new side missions, and expand your squad. Exploring and conquering the different continents is what the game is all about, for me at least. Wandering into Oblivia accidentally for the first time and having that music blast out at me as the valley opened up to the huge canyon, I knew this game was something special.
But yeah, if your motivation in an rpg is to progress through an epic story and you consider exploration to be incidental to that, then the game isn't for you and that's fine. I just can't remember experiencing a more robust and interesting open world in a game before.
But yeah, if your motivation in an rpg is to progress through an epic story and you consider exploration to be incidental to that, then the game isn't for you and that's fine. I just can't remember experiencing a more robust and interesting open world in a game before.
Nintendo
Many people had the problem to find their own pacing because the game give them that freedom.
I migh actually after finishing the game make a quick starter guide to "suggest" a pacing.
That's a bit sad but if it could reassure rookies, then be it.
Someone said their toy is better than the toy people in GAF owns.
ChetWilson
Banned
That's a ridiculous request. According to that logic, if want to go past a door hiding the final boss that requires 4 elemental gem stones to open, it should just open. To hell with getting those gems, each hidden in a separate dungeon by design ""That's a huge problem.""
entremet
Member
The fact that people can't understand subjectivity still baffles my mind.
We have GOTY voting that occurs here every year and those games are the best games for individual posters. It's all subjective!
The final tally is just a tally of subjective statements, which we call opinions.
Jesus fuck. It's not that hard to understand.
For the TIME writer/editor that's his favorite JRPGs of the year, hence it's the best for him. Subjectivity is implied by the medium. It's a best of article.
We have GOTY voting that occurs here every year and those games are the best games for individual posters. It's all subjective!
The final tally is just a tally of subjective statements, which we call opinions.
Jesus fuck. It's not that hard to understand.
For the TIME writer/editor that's his favorite JRPGs of the year, hence it's the best for him. Subjectivity is implied by the medium. It's a best of article.
I'm not saying "hey skip everything", I'm saying "hey I'm here now, I should be able to do it". If the story motivation calls for something it better not be "hey go here and kill monsters till X item drops" or "wander around for X item"
RespectThySole
Member
Why are people getting riled up over this article? There is no need to qualify every statement with "imo."
I haven't played it myself, but there's no chance of being it my favorite RPG this year based on what I know about it. I would still like to play it at some point though.
I haven't played it myself, but there's no chance of being it my favorite RPG this year based on what I know about it. I would still like to play it at some point though.
Console wars
ChetWilson
Banned
You are getting to the point of just complaining for the sake of complaining. Aside from not having shared Party member xp, the rest aren't worth addressing.
ChetWilson
Banned
In a GOTY rpg I would expect better story/quests too. The game disappoints me too in some areas. If XCX had a solid story w/ better quests and better characters, it wouldn't be GOTY. It would be GOTD (decade.)
Actually, this :
Sounds like the worst. If this is like the first game, it should be alleviated somewhat by having things complete immediately if you meet criteria. Still this is the laziest form of questing and one of the reasons that people raked DA:I over the coals.
I'm inclined to agree seeing as it managed to surpass Undertale as my personal GOTY, something I didn't think it'd be able to do. It's one of the few games that really captured my fully attention and perfectly replicated that sense of adventure I haven't experienced in quite a while. Yeah, it's got some issues but what doesn't at this point? I'm able to get over them and still experience a great game.
No you don't understand. Some of us have very objective, infallible opinions
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
I think it is weak, because the complexity it offers does not come with an appropiate strategic depth to justify it. Also the two fight modes... you have them, but only after 30 hours of gameplay.
Xenoblade Chronicles X does have linear progression. You can do the main missions only in order; for all other missions, a simple solution would be to have dynamic enemy levels that are chosen according to your level. This way you can choose to play side missions in any order. Moreover, side missions become available over time, linearly. The conditions to start a mission like "beat harmony mission X beforehand" (and the harmony mission in turn has a level requirement) or "explore area X up to Y%" come on top of this and are often of a grindy nature, too. Playing through this game without heavily engaging in sidequests (which are almost universally dumb and feel like work) is incredibly grindy and the sidemissions themselves, as well as many semi-sidemissions that are required for story progression are super grindy in nature, too. All of this is not a neccessary requirement for an open world. It's just Monolith's choice.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Using keys for game progression is completely fine. I'm the first one to say that Zelda Skyward Sword's endgame missions are completely justified. However, having someone just collect some arbitrary stuff that shows up randomly in a specific area is bullshit. This is not good gamedesign. It is not about the story reason for it, it is about the action required. Solving some puzzles in a dungeon, defeating a unique monster, do some platforming - all of this is ok and using some gems to represent you did it is completely fine, too.
poet at play
Banned
Compare
'My favourite RPG of 2015 is..'
with
'The best RPG of 2015 is..'
Only the former is consistent with the mediums subjectiveness.
Only the former is accommodating to the preferences of others.
And only the former understands it's own limits.
It's amid the noise & competition of the school yard where "My Favourite" becomes "The Best". It's inelegant, it's factually incorrect.. but it's louder.
'My favourite RPG of 2015 is..'
with
'The best RPG of 2015 is..'
Only the former is consistent with the mediums subjectiveness.
Only the former is accommodating to the preferences of others.
And only the former understands it's own limits.
It's amid the noise & competition of the school yard where "My Favourite" becomes "The Best". It's inelegant, it's factually incorrect.. but it's louder.
Just about every gathering quest I encountered was optional with a few exceptions. You can actually ignore them until you happen to have the items since it'll tell you on the quest board.
But yeah, some things come down to "this game is not for you". It's like farming for Rathian rubies in Monster Hunter or having to run about in the grass for a chance to catch certain Pokemon. It's part of the design and if it rubs you the wrong way just put it down and play a game you find fun.
The other complaint about "grinding" sounds like complete bullshit and misinformation though. This game has no random battles so you can avoid most high-level enemies and you still have a chance to run away if the detect you. It gives you Exp points just for walking into areas and, though I've never encountered it myself, will lower boss levels if you keep dying.
But yeah, some things come down to "this game is not for you". It's like farming for Rathian rubies in Monster Hunter or having to run about in the grass for a chance to catch certain Pokemon. It's part of the design and if it rubs you the wrong way just put it down and play a game you find fun.
The other complaint about "grinding" sounds like complete bullshit and misinformation though. This game has no random battles so you can avoid most high-level enemies and you still have a chance to run away if the detect you. It gives you Exp points just for walking into areas and, though I've never encountered it myself, will lower boss levels if you keep dying.
Admiral Woofington
Member
As someone who played through it, not at all. It was an enjoyable game and easily one of the bests of the year but the story and design decisions for some aspects left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Silver-tongued
Banned
I think we all possess the very minimal IQ required to comprehend that a statement like 'the best...' is typically an opinion.
From The Game Awards
Smash Bros was Best Fighting games of 2014
Mario Kart was best Racing game of 2014
Nintendo vas best dev of 2014
Splatoon was best multiplayer game of 2015
Splatoon was best shooter game of 2015
Mario MAker was best family game of 2015
Xenoblade was probably too late to compete on anything
Fired their uncle.
poet at play
Banned
Just because we can deduce bad writing, it does not mean we should stop arguing for good writing.
Little Monser
Banned
Ask the Bloodborne fan base.
Auto_aim1
MeisaMcCaffrey
After investing around 120 hours in Xenoblade Chronicles X, I think it's an excellent game. While the story definitely has some twists and will make you go "WHAT" at certain points, I still expect more from an RPG in 2015. The game runs and looks excellent and I think Monolith did a wonderful job on the Wii U. Exploring Mira with your Skell is just one of the best things you can ever experience in a video game. I don't know if it's "the best RPG of 2015", I think TW3 deserves it a lot more, but it definitely is one of the best games out there.
hobblygobbly
Member
Sorry, I should've clarified better by what I meant (although you may disagree which is fine), I mean the stats don't really apply in the same way they do in RPGs usually, in Bloodborne and the other Souls games you can still rely entirely on player skill regardless of stats, to me the impact of stats seems less important when player agency of the physical control of the character can override that. Of course stats aid this gameplay and make it easier, but in many RPGs certain low stats or wrong builds can totally screw up your progression because of the stat checks in combat, your stats severely determine your character and combat where as in Bloodborne it's more of a "flair" to it than really defining it.
I didn't intend that the stats play no role but I don't think they play the same emphasis as they do in RPGs. To me Bloodborne misses a lot of emphasis on RPG elements, it has RPG elements but they're more in a light or minimal fashion, Fallout 4 is also similar to this. I think Bloodborne is an action adventure with light RPG elements than saying Bloodborne is a RPG. Same goes with Fallout 4, Fallout 4 is more of a shooter with light RPG elements than a RPG. The games don't seem to be built on the same foundation of a RPG that games like Pillars of Eternity does for example, but use elements of RPGs to aid its core action adventure nature.
MatrixMan.EXE
Member
I think it's pretty stupid to dismiss everyone criticising this article as being butthurt because "Console wars" or "Because Nintendo won something". I've expressed that I'm enjoying the game, but have serious grievances with some of the design aspects of the game that ultimately lead me to disagree with the article. And there's nothing wrong with that. Subjectivity goes both ways.
Cause that uncle kept on revealing company secrets.
The way I see XCX, it's very flawed, but extremely fun. Objectively, it gets outclassed by other games, but that all goes away once you jump in a skell and fly around a beautiful alien world. It's not for everyone, and that's fine. But don't try to tell people it can't be their own personal favorite or "best" rpg this year.
Exactly, I´m still fine with this. Loved Witcher and Bloodborne too.
tiebreaker
Member
It's not exclusive to Nintendo really. Stop this victim mentality nonsense.
diablos991
Can’t stump the diablos
I agree with the article. I hate the Wii U as much as the next guy but I'm 80 hours deep and loving it. Haven't even played on the TV as it has all been through the gamepad.
The world this game creates is among the most beautiful things I have ever seen in a video game. Sure the game has some oddities like the crazy small text, but the game is attempting to innovate on many levels so I forgive it.
The world this game creates is among the most beautiful things I have ever seen in a video game. Sure the game has some oddities like the crazy small text, but the game is attempting to innovate on many levels so I forgive it.
I understand what you mean but I'd still say BB and Souls are very much build around foundation of RPG but they decided to go with action based combat system which will always make it so that it can be beaten without leveling. If they made the combat system turnbased it would be your basic console RPG. I also think that those games have stat and gear checks as 'normal' people can't do those SL1/BL4 style runs because the enemy damage output and enemy health increases a lot during the progression.
The game does NOT give you freedom. You are forced to complete boring many hour long affinity fetch / kill missions which you cannot quit with almost no information about what exactly to do. You are forced to complete many boring and stupid tasks (plant X probes, survey X percent, earn X gold) in order to continue with the story.
Forcing players to do all those boring mandatory side quests is the exact opposite of freedom. In the original Xenoblade you could skip all those boring, mundane and mindless things which most players did, except for a few hardcore completionists.
This largely reduces the fun most players and even Xenoblade fans will have with this game because you cannot skip many of the boring parts of the game like you could before.
You are also not free on how to design your party. Unlike in the first game, your main character is a mandatory member of your party which heavily limits variety and freedom. Also most missions have other required members which you cannot easily switch in and out in the menu. In my opinion, many parts of Xenoblade X like story progression, mission system, BLADE rewards, UI and character selection are broken and there are so many bugs (you can fall through / get stuck in the environment quite often and there are many reports about broken quests. The Pro controller also looses calibration often and forces you to restart the game.
Forcing players to do all those boring mandatory side quests is the exact opposite of freedom. In the original Xenoblade you could skip all those boring, mundane and mindless things which most players did, except for a few hardcore completionists.
This largely reduces the fun most players and even Xenoblade fans will have with this game because you cannot skip many of the boring parts of the game like you could before.
You are also not free on how to design your party. Unlike in the first game, your main character is a mandatory member of your party which heavily limits variety and freedom. Also most missions have other required members which you cannot easily switch in and out in the menu. In my opinion, many parts of Xenoblade X like story progression, mission system, BLADE rewards, UI and character selection are broken and there are so many bugs (you can fall through / get stuck in the environment quite often and there are many reports about broken quests. The Pro controller also looses calibration often and forces you to restart the game.
You are trying really hard to show that you prefer other games. But somehow I have the feeling you never played it? Am I right?
UnemployedVillain
Member
I can't roll my eyes hard enough. No. the ones saying that to respect someone else's opinion are not as bad as the ones saying it's shit
I bought a Wii-U only for this single game and I am just about to recruit Mia in Noctilum tonight. I had so much fun with the original Xenoblade, this game was perfect and better than any RPG on PS2 or PS3, maybe with the exception of DQ5.
But the problems with X are so big, they are impossible to overlook. The mixed Japanese reviews were right and after about 50 hours I would give the game a preliminary rating of 7.5/10 which is far from being bad. The game is already more fun than Skyrim but barely makes it into my Top 20. Even Xenosaga 3 made many basic things much better.
But the problems with X are so big, they are impossible to overlook. The mixed Japanese reviews were right and after about 50 hours I would give the game a preliminary rating of 7.5/10 which is far from being bad. The game is already more fun than Skyrim but barely makes it into my Top 20. Even Xenosaga 3 made many basic things much better.
OMG so salty. Why do you hate Nintendo?
7.5 is a good and objective rating so no hate here. And the only thing I really could hate is the stupid tablet controller. No wonder the system failed miserably. But for Xenoblade X, I play with a Pro controller anyway and use the tablet for fast travel / mining only.
The rating might increase or decrease depending on the rest of the story and game play. But there are at least 50 hours to go.
Both statements mean exactly the same thing. The Time article isn't trying to portray their statements as some sort of unchallengeable and definitive truth, so it doesn't make any sense to attack it on that point.
Anyways, I haven't played any of what would be considered for the best RPG of 2015, so I don't have anything too meaningful to contribute. However, everything I've heard about Xenoblade X doesn't sound very appealing, and even Time's review doesn't make it sound good. I guess it goes to show that people look for very different things from their RPGs.
kitchenmotors
Banned
I know. I was making fun of the people who believe that when talking about Nintendo exclusives you either think they are the best games made by far, or are salty that Nintendo makes games better than your favorite game.
LegendofDragoonLives
Member
Lets be real, that's a bullshit award.
Prefacing every other sentence with "in my opinion" is the opposite of good writing. Calling something "the best" is inherently subjective; there isn't much room for objectivity in games writing beyond simple tech specs, and even those can be misleading.
kitchenmotors
Banned
Space Medafighter X
Member
How do you figure? It seems like it boasts the same level of potential discourse as any other category out there.
Anyway, it's pretty cool to see the game get as much attention as it's been getting from the media recently. December tends to be harmful to most games in that regard, but with how big the game is and how interesting it is to talk about, it would have been a mistake to see it get the cold shoulder.
It might be time for a time out, GAF, until you can act your age