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43M's Gaming Journal: A Few New Review and Red Dead 2!!!!


43M

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I am almost 60 hours into Xenoblade, and there is still a TON to do.     This game should easily hit the 150 hour mark.

However, as much I love the game at times, it can also be endlessly frustrating with certain things...but I will save all of it for my eventual review.

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I agree w/ your gripes about tW3. I found it easy to play after a while b/c combat was fairly simple unlike HZD. I also LOVED the open world and many, many, many, many things to do but I forgot what the hell I was doing in the main quest many times b/c I would run off on tangents lol. I need to learn to do better in open world games to prevent that from happening. I have done it w/ every single one I've played.

Good write up and glad you liked it!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just a quick update for anyone who may be interested...

Since building my new PC rig, I got distracted from playing Xenoblade Chronicles X for a couple weeks, but Ive gotten back into it.

The game is so massive and there is so much left to do.     Im already close to 90 hours (although probably more like 70 since I tend to let it sit quite often, and the time doesnt stop when the game is paused) and I still have a pretty much two entire continents left to explore.

I have such a love/hate relationship with this game.    Part of me wants it to end soon, and part of me wants it to go on forever.

Its honestly feels more like an MMORPG than a JRPG.    

Might take me another month to finish.     I dont get to play much during the week.

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@FourThreeMafia

"Admittedly, when I first started this game, I wasn’t sure how much I would like it.    Nothing was wrong with the game really, but as I am getting older and being that I am a casual gamer, its harder for me to jump from game to game and it takes me longer to adjust to new game dynamics.      For example, going from Horizon Zero Dawn to The Witcher 3, it was weird not being able to use stealth or climbing as much.      Beyond that, Witcher 3 throws alot at you from the beginning and I am someone who likes to do everything and learn everything I can, but I was so focused on learning the ins and outs of gameplay and focusing on the story that I chose to skip over things like Gwent and horse racing.    Some gamers might actually be better off just going through the main story and only a few side quests the first time through, then go back through and do everything.     I kind of did something in between, and I definitely plan on revisiting this game in the relatively near future.  "

 

This is very much my current experience. I'm also getting on a bit and now a part timer, but I also have the added thing of being more into realism, and have tended to avoid monster killing RPGs for more realistic shooters/simulators etc (realistic in a loose sense of course). I've just downloaded W3 after years of hearing how good it is (I did play it once but not for long enough). I'm currently feeling overwhelmed. I feel there's too much to do, and as someone who ALSO loves exploring and doing EVERYTHING possible in a game, sometimes I have to walk away and take a breather.

I have to admit I'm not 100% captured by it like I thought I was going to be. I can tell it's a great game with it's care to detail, care to mission and side quest building, attention to details within missions and rewards observant players etc. I can tell all that, but I'm still not drawn all the way in. The clunkiness puts me off, the size worries me. I LOVEEEE the medieval setting and the world, but monsters etc have never interested me. If it were like a Nilfgaard vs Temeria medieval combat (human vs human) kind of thing, I'd prob be more intrigued.

I have read your review and it would suggest -STICK WITH IT. But I'm asking you separately because you sound a bit similar to me with certain points in the quoted. Does it sound like I'll be rewarded for sticking to it now? I'm on the bloody baron quest (great writing....this game has great writing which I appreciate). Thx dude.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/29/2020 at 8:31 AM, Hunter2_1 said:

@FourThreeMafia

"Admittedly, when I first started this game, I wasn’t sure how much I would like it.    Nothing was wrong with the game really, but as I am getting older and being that I am a casual gamer, its harder for me to jump from game to game and it takes me longer to adjust to new game dynamics.      For example, going from Horizon Zero Dawn to The Witcher 3, it was weird not being able to use stealth or climbing as much.      Beyond that, Witcher 3 throws alot at you from the beginning and I am someone who likes to do everything and learn everything I can, but I was so focused on learning the ins and outs of gameplay and focusing on the story that I chose to skip over things like Gwent and horse racing.    Some gamers might actually be better off just going through the main story and only a few side quests the first time through, then go back through and do everything.     I kind of did something in between, and I definitely plan on revisiting this game in the relatively near future.  "

 

This is very much my current experience. I'm also getting on a bit and now a part timer, but I also have the added thing of being more into realism, and have tended to avoid monster killing RPGs for more realistic shooters/simulators etc (realistic in a loose sense of course). I've just downloaded W3 after years of hearing how good it is (I did play it once but not for long enough). I'm currently feeling overwhelmed. I feel there's too much to do, and as someone who ALSO loves exploring and doing EVERYTHING possible in a game, sometimes I have to walk away and take a breather.

I have to admit I'm not 100% captured by it like I thought I was going to be. I can tell it's a great game with it's care to detail, care to mission and side quest building, attention to details within missions and rewards observant players etc. I can tell all that, but I'm still not drawn all the way in. The clunkiness puts me off, the size worries me. I LOVEEEE the medieval setting and the world, but monsters etc have never interested me. If it were like a Nilfgaard vs Temeria medieval combat (human vs human) kind of thing, I'd prob be more intrigued.

I have read your review and it would suggest -STICK WITH IT. But I'm asking you separately because you sound a bit similar to me with certain points in the quoted. Does it sound like I'll be rewarded for sticking to it now? I'm on the bloody baron quest (great writing....this game has great writing which I appreciate). Thx dude.

 

I swore I responded to this.

Sorry.

Yes, stick with it.  Maybe you already have, but Id at least recommend playing through the msin story.  The entire game is full of great side stories to, but it can be overwhelming.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 6/18/2020 at 11:53 PM, FourThreeMafia said:

Ugh....its gonna be hard NOT to buy as PS5 early if thats the case.  

 

On 6/19/2020 at 12:32 AM, JTagg7754 said:

If my queue isn't loaded at that point, for PS4, I'm going to make a more costly decision bc of this game

I got goosebumps at the 2:23 mark.

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On 5/29/2020 at 8:31 AM, Hunter2_1 said:

@FourThreeMafia

"Admittedly, when I first started this game, I wasn’t sure how much I would like it.    Nothing was wrong with the game really, but as I am getting older and being that I am a casual gamer, its harder for me to jump from game to game and it takes me longer to adjust to new game dynamics.      For example, going from Horizon Zero Dawn to The Witcher 3, it was weird not being able to use stealth or climbing as much.      Beyond that, Witcher 3 throws alot at you from the beginning and I am someone who likes to do everything and learn everything I can, but I was so focused on learning the ins and outs of gameplay and focusing on the story that I chose to skip over things like Gwent and horse racing.    Some gamers might actually be better off just going through the main story and only a few side quests the first time through, then go back through and do everything.     I kind of did something in between, and I definitely plan on revisiting this game in the relatively near future.  "

 

This is very much my current experience. I'm also getting on a bit and now a part timer, but I also have the added thing of being more into realism, and have tended to avoid monster killing RPGs for more realistic shooters/simulators etc (realistic in a loose sense of course). I've just downloaded W3 after years of hearing how good it is (I did play it once but not for long enough). I'm currently feeling overwhelmed. I feel there's too much to do, and as someone who ALSO loves exploring and doing EVERYTHING possible in a game, sometimes I have to walk away and take a breather.

I have to admit I'm not 100% captured by it like I thought I was going to be. I can tell it's a great game with it's care to detail, care to mission and side quest building, attention to details within missions and rewards observant players etc. I can tell all that, but I'm still not drawn all the way in. The clunkiness puts me off, the size worries me. I LOVEEEE the medieval setting and the world, but monsters etc have never interested me. If it were like a Nilfgaard vs Temeria medieval combat (human vs human) kind of thing, I'd prob be more intrigued.

I have read your review and it would suggest -STICK WITH IT. But I'm asking you separately because you sound a bit similar to me with certain points in the quoted. Does it sound like I'll be rewarded for sticking to it now? I'm on the bloody baron quest (great writing....this game has great writing which I appreciate). Thx dude.

 

If you're into the medieval setting but prefer realism to monsters and magic you should definitely check out Kingdom Come: Deliverance... It's exactly what you're talking about, an open world RPG set in medieval Bohemia.

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9 hours ago, rob_shadows said:

If you're into the medieval setting but prefer realism to monsters and magic you should definitely check out Kingdom Come: Deliverance... It's exactly what you're talking about, an open world RPG set in medieval Bohemia.

Thanks Rob, will take a look

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xenoblade-chronicles-x-game-01.png Review

 

This is easily my hardest review yet, because I am torn on so many things.    

I've been quite vocal on my love for its predecessor, the original Xenoblade Chronicles, all the way back on the original Nintendo Wii.   It was a throwback to old school PS1 Final Fantasy's that focused on character driven story and exploration.   Ever since beating it all the way back in 2011, I wanted a sequel, or at least another JRPG similar to it, but we dont really get games like that anymore.    Then, back in 2013, the follow up, Xenoblade Chronicles X was announced, but the Wii U was a dud that fizzled out pretty quickly, thus didn’t get much buzz.   The game always looked appealing, but I never really felt like buying a Wii U, so I just waited to see if the NEXT Nintendo (which turned out to be the Switch) would offer a port of XCX, or have another Xenoblade Chronicles game, maybe one more in line with the first one.    Indeed, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was released for the Nintendo Switch back in 2017, and it was apparently more like the first game than X was.     So, I looked into getting a Switch, but it was always hard to find, and I couldn’t really justify spending nearly $500 on a console and 2 games (XC2 and Zelda) when those were the ONLY two games on the console I really wanted, and the fact that every cross platform game looked and played better on my PS4 Pro.    After looking around, I was able to find a used Wii U console on Gamestop, and both Zelda and Xenoblade Chronicles X for a fraction of what it would have cost to get those games on the Switch, so I pulled the trigger and got two games I was very eager to play.

The first things I will say, before I get into the review for the game, is that I can understand why the Wii U failed.    It has a few cool features with the touch screen controller, but that shouldn’t have been the primary controller for the console.   Its bulky, cumbersome and needs recharged quite often, and the wire to recharge it was annoying sometimes.    The Wii U was more like what the PS4 Pro was to the PS4, but it was treated like an entirely new console, even though it clearly wasn’t a major leap forward.    And that’s a shame, because I think if Xenoblade Chronicles X HAD been released on the Switch or a more powerful console, it would’ve possible resolved some of the games issues and gotten a lot more attention than it did.

So, lets start off with the good….the gameplay.    The gameplay is so freaking addicting.    There is a pretty steep learning curve….maybe TOO steep for some.    Just to learn the basics it takes several hours to really get a hang of, but once you do, holy crap!    You cannot change the difficulty level in the game, which sounds like a negative, but the difficulty is largely based on the enemies you’re facing, so if you can’t beat a certain enemy, you need to go level up and get some better weapons, and then come back.   The difficulty, for the most part, was very balanced, challenging and rewarding.     The battle system is a lot of fun and action oriented, and the deeper you get into it, the more skills and tactics you learn and its fun going back to areas you couldn’t roam before because you were too weak.    I am not going to go too in depth because I do not foresee anyone on here playing this game after me, but I WOULD highly recommend it, because the gameplay is EXTREMELY fun.

Character building and development is pretty damn fun too.  This ties largely into gameplay, but it feels worth mentioning separately.    Now, there are a few negative aspects I will mention a little later,  primarily involving the other characters outside of the main character (you only have COMPLETE control of your main characters development).    However, the new Arts and Skills you unlock really make a difference in making your characters stronger, and upgrading those Arts and Skills often meant the difference between winning or losing a battle.     There were numerous times when I forgot to “upgrade” certain team members and it cost me.     You really needed to stay on top of your characters, and outside of the main 3 you USUALLY play with (your main character, Elma and Lin), you had to remember to upgrade the other characters when you used them or unlocked them (and there is a major negative here too I will get into).     For the most part though, it was a lot of fun to make these characters stronger.

Then, there are Skells.    This is gameplay related too, but again, it’s a different dynamic.   Skells are Transformer like mechs you unlock as the game goes on.    You don’t get your first mech until after chapter 5, which is about 25 to 30 hours in the game, maybe longer depending how fast you progress through the story.     However, getting the Skells are vital to beating certain enemies and reaching certain areas.   Even after getting your first Skell, you still have to wait ANOTER 20 to 30 hours to get the FLIGHT MODULE so you can go ANYWHERE and fly around the world, exploring everything you want.   Once you can, it really opens things up.  Flying around and fighting with the Skells is A LOT of fun, and just as with your characters, you upgrade their parts and skills too.     You need to farm and mine for certain rare materials to craft Superweapons, usually needed to defeated a lot of the Super Bosses in this game.

Exploration and CERTAIN side quests are outstanding.   This world is ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE, and there is a lot to discover.    This does hold a candle to Witcher 3 in terms of how much there is to do, but its not done as well, but in fairness, Witcher 3 couldn’t even exist on the Wii U.   The fact that they were able to pack as much as they didn’t into this game given the limitations of the console is mesmerizing and to be applauded.    Monolith Soft is truly a great developer, and its kind of sad they are exclusive to Nintendo, because I would LOVE to see what they could do on a more powerful console.

The graphics are a bit hard to review for reasons I will get into, but the art style and world design are absolutely breathtaking.    The mountains, fields and skies are majestic, and once you can fly, you will spend time just gazing at how vast and beautiful the world is.   The enemy designs are rather unique and creative, and the different continents in the world offer completely new scenery and challenges.

Now its time to start going downhill a bit, and I will start with the downside of the graphics.   Given that the game is so massive and the limitations of the Wii U, I am not necessarily blaming Monolith Soft, but the textures often took awhile to load.   There were times when you would load into a new area, where the game would honestly look like late PS1 or early PS2 game while everything loaded, and depending on the area, it could take up to a minute for everything to load properly.    I eventually got used to this and it didn’t really hurt my enjoyment of the game, but it was more noticeable than it should have been,   I largely give them a pass here, but it still needed to be mentioned.

The characters and story were just average.    There were parts where the story and characters were interesting, but overall it was underwhelming.     The characters were much better fleshed out in different sidequests, but if you don’t play them, the main story doesn’t offer much.   The overall plot is relatively generic, although it had more potential to be more than it ended up being.  One of the biggest downfalls IMO is the main character, who you create and name yourself.   This sounds cool, until you realize your character has no backstory, voiced dialogue in the story and cutscenes and overall just feels boring.   Now, there are other RPGs like this, including another favorite of mine, Kindoms of Amulaur, but I had similar critiques of that game.    For a JRPG though, I am looking for a great story and character development, and this game just didn’t deliver the way I hoped it would.   No, it wasn’t terrible, just lackluster, and as stated, given the main character and voice and fleshing him/her out would’ve added A LOT to this game and the story.

From here on out, I am just going to list the issues I had with this game, because there are a lot of things I want to mention that don’t really require huge write ups…

1)    There are no separate save files for the game.  There is only one.   This is incredibly annoying.    You cannot save an earlier part of the game and return to it if you choose.   Once you finish an area and save, that is it.   Now, for the most part, this wasn’t a huge issue, but it just felt stupid that in 2015, any game wouldn’t allow for multiple save files.    And at the end of the game, it did become a MAJOR issue, for a reason I will get into soon.

2)    You only have complete control over the development of your main character.   The other ones, you have options with, but you are largely on a set track.   This wouldn’t annoy me so much if it wasn’t for the fact that by the time your other characters hit level 20 or 25, they were fully developed in many ways.    With your main character, you can change classes at will, and learn all the different weapons and skllls in the game, but with the other characters, you are stuck in one class.   It would’ve added much more to the game if you could develop these characters the way you wanted, without restriction.

3)    When you want to change the characters in your party, its such a pain.    You have to go and find them in different places, and they are scattered around different parts of the city, and you aren’t always going to remember exactly where each of them are, so you have to look it up.    And sometimes, they aren’t even in the spots they are supposed to be in.   There are reasons for this, related to certain sidequests, but this was on of the more annoying aspects of the game for me.   This is a world with advanced technology, and I have to go hunting every team member down individually if it I want to use them?    This is bush league, and never should’ve been an issue.     Even with the limitations of the console, I feel like this was just a horrible design choice.

4)    When your Skell is destroyed in battle, you have to go all the way back to your home base, access the terminal and sometimes pay a salvaging fee.   As annoying as it was, this wasn’t a huge deal until the end of the game, which is what I was talking about in regards to the separate save files issue.    The first time I got to the end of this game, I lost against the boss, and it started me back from the inside of the room where the  final battle was.   The problem, I now had NO SKELLS (and unless your characters are all maxed out with all the top gear, skills and upgrades, you have no chance without the Skells, since the final battle consists of about 4 or 5 separate battles), and you cannot leave or fast travel out of the to go back to the barracks to recover your Skells.     SO, that meant you had to turn the damn game off, and then reload from your previous  save file, and then go make adjustments….and in my case, that meant going and become much stronger, since the very final battle, I was absolutely destroyed in.    I had to save up a bunch of extra money so I could buy higher level Skells to take on the boss.    Just such a needless pain in the rear.  

5)    The music was more annoying than anything.   Some of the music was pretty good, but there is music playing every second of this game, and some of it is terrible.   The music when youre inside the city is some kind of generic hip-hop, and its SOOOOO bad, especially after the 5000th time you’ve heard it, because it plays the exact same music everywhere in the city on a loop.   The areas you are in dictate the music that plays, and you spend A LOT of time in the city.   Then, during cutscenes, music is playing.   Sometimes that can add to the scenes, but in this game, it was just distracting and in many cases, the music didn’t fit the scenes at all.   Certain emotional cutscenes had either terrible music, or it was a song you’ve already heard at least 10 times in other cutscenes.

6)    Fetch quests in all RPGs suck, but this might be the worst.   The only reason it isn’t at the top of my list is because you aren’t required to do most of them, and most of them can be completed without even accepting the mission, but the ones I did do got on my nerves to no end, especially when you had to find rare items.   I could understand if this was for some mega weapon or upgrade you were trying to build, but no, this was for a normal freaking mission, and sometimes it took hours to get them, because the drops and treasure were loaded at random.   Ughhhhh….

7)    The voice acting and dialogue was pretty rough.   Some characters and parts were okay, but there is a certain character in this game named “Tatsu” who is basically like the Jar Jar Binks of this game, and has WAY too much spoken dialogue.     And one of the main characters, Lin, has to make a joke about cooking him and eating him about 50 times.     A lot of the voice acting simply didn’t fit the characters….but these were MOSTLY in side quests, but since I did many of the sidequests, I heard just how bad it could be.

8)    They couldn’t freaking seem to decide if they were gearing this game towards kids or adults, so they tried to please both and in many cases, it just didn’t work.  What I mean is, a lot of the dialogue and certain elements of this game are cheesy and feel like its aimed at younger audiences, but then it also covers a lot of adult themes like death (sometimes gruesomely), sex, sexual orientation, and other things, and they just clashed.   Maybe it was just poorly done, which it was, but it just felt really off at times.

9)    The female armor in this game is so stupid.   Don’t get me wrong, Im not someone who gets triggered by scantily dressed females in games, but I prefer realism.   I don’t mind some skimpy options, but there were certain armors for females that were clearly meant to show off skin on females.   For instance, there is a certain armor that, on men, it looks awesome and realistic, but on the women, there is a section of armor around the chest that is cut out simply to show off cleavage.   What the hell type of armor leaves a section of the CHEST exposed?    I like cleavage as much as the next guy, but come on….

 

Look, I could go on and on about the improvements that could’ve made this game better, but those are the major ones.   There are a lot of other things I could point out, but that almost any game.   The ones I listed are the ones that seriously needed to be addressed to make this game as good as it could’ve been.

Let me say this though, and I don’t say this easily…this game COULD HAVE been a top 5 game of ALL TIME for me.   Seriously.   I sunk 250 hours into this game over the last 3 months.   There aren’t many games I could say that about, and it was mainly due to how fun gameplay and exploration were.  The story wasn’t great, but it wasn’t so bad that it lost you completely.   The ending was actually quite good and set up a direct sequel, which I hope we eventually get, but likely won’t.      

Bottom line:    Its clear how much love and attention to detail went into certain parts of this game, and the sum of all its parts makes for a really fun game, despite some pretty notable flaws.

Gameplay:  10
Story:  5
Graphics: 8 (taking the limitations of the Wii U into account)
Value/Replayability:   15 for value, 7 for replayability.    I could play this game over again, but the flaws might keep me away.   
Personal Enjoyment: 8.5

Final Score:    8.4

Edited by FourThreeMafia
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Might take a week or 2 off before I jump into a new game.   Still trying to figure out what that will be.   Right now Im debating between...

Tomb Raider (PC)
Zelda: BOTW
Civilization VI (which I may just do as a side game, as opposed to playing it exclusively)
God of War PS4 (This is least likely since its the only one I dont currently own, but I am willing to buy).

Edited by FourThreeMafia
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This is a great idea, I should have thought of this as well, but mine would have been a lot slower lol. But I've also been getting back into the gaming angle with quarantine and finished a through a few games. Great stuff. 

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2 hours ago, Forge said:

This is a great idea, I should have thought of this as well, but mine would have been a lot slower lol. But I've also been getting back into the gaming angle with quarantine and finished a through a few games. Great stuff. 

Do it, man!

No need to rush through it.  

Might give me some ideas on other games to check out, too.  ;)

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