Nothing is really wrong with it, though I have noticed it's louder than it used to be and some games take longer to load. For the sheer number of hours on it I suspect it may not last more than another year.

The real reason is competition. I have two kids now who are of gaming age and like to play the Wii. A game like Xenoblade isn't something I'd just play for an hour or so and then move on.  I could certainly play the dad card and tell them I can do whatever the hell I want, but they're crafty demons and would find a way to get back at me.

Huge Iwata Asks feature on Xenoblade


In English

Takeda:

It sounds obvious, but when I was working on the scenario, that was my whole world. Then when I actually came to play the game, I’d see all these elements that had grown out of the main story, things that hadn’t been in the scenario, such as the overall atmosphere, the villagers’ appearance and so on. I felt like I’d written a huge volume of material, but it actually only amounts to one section of this vast world. I found that really overwhelming.

Iwata:

So even the scenario writer was overwhelmed! (laughs)

Takeda:

Yes, I was. For instance, there’s an area called Colony 9. The sheer scale of it is incredible. When I was working on the scenario, I had in mind the type of village that appears in regular RPGs. But then when I actually came to play the game, I found that this single village had so many ideas put into it that it could have made an entire game in itself. That’s why, as we neared the end of the development process, it was really brought home to me just what a monumental project I had been involved in.

Iwata:

I see. Now, generally speaking, one finds that the bigger the game world gets, the less detailed it becomes. But with this title, you were looking for a world that was ‘both vast and intricately detailed’, weren’t you, Takahashi-san?

Takahashi:

That’s right. I wanted to make it so that even if you went to the far edge of the map, you wouldn’t find it empty. I wanted to ensure that wherever you went, there would be something there waiting for you, be it something you’d been seeking, a quest, or a fearsome monster. In certain places, I also wanted to have secluded spots where players would think: ‘Wow, there are beautiful areas like this here in this world!’

Iwata:

So in other words, you made sure the player’s investment in the game would always be repaid.

Fuuuuu - skip to 3.36 mins

More

From Neogaf about Xenoblade's battle system

wsippel said:

Billychu said:

Considering how many cues it takes from FFXII it practically has to be. FFXII is in the top 5 RPGs of all time for me.

Plays and feels quite different, though. Xenoblade is much faster and more hectic. You constantly have to watch and manage aggro and change position, as the skills only really work if you manage to hit your enemy from a certain angle. That's especially important for the secondary effects of your skills. To knock an enemy down, you do a sweep attack from the side, but you can only knock him down if he's dizzy, which means you first have to hit him with a different skill from behind. Stuff like that.

wsippel said:

eLZhi said:

That sounds absolutely obnoxious.

Not at all. It's quite engaging and surprisingly strategic, at least for anything other than trash mobs. You constantly have to keep an eye on your AI companions, because they might break your chains, change position themselves, or your tank might not keep the aggro up if you're too aggressive, in which case the enemy will focus on you, and most of your skills are not meant for a frontal assault.



There are no FFXII like gambits to program AI behavior, either. What you can do is get close to one of your allies and issue orders directly (you basically get access to their skill list for one strike), but that uses up your combo meter. And you need the combo meter to revive fallen allies and to do combo attacks. A combo attack means that your whole party attacks in rapid succession, too fast for the enemy to react. You can either use it to chain certain attacks to get a certain status ailment (dizzy -> knock down -> paralyze for example), or ignore secondary effects to keep the combo going for several rounds and more damage in total. The system is quite simple overall, but allows for many very different strategies.

wsippel said:

eLZhi said:

Gotcha. That makes more sense then. Before it just sounded tedious.

Interestingly, I found it a lot less tedious than pretty much every other RPG combat system I've seen so far. Battles are almost always meaningful in some way. It either makes sense that you were attacked, or you attacked for some reason. It's not just the system itself, it's the overall design. Large beasts with lots of armor and HP are usually neutral and won't attack you if you don't provoke them. Predators will usually attack you on sight (or, if they're blind, if they hear you - yes, there are enemies you can simply sneak by by walking slowly and not getting to close), and their attacks are quite powerful, but they don't have many HP, so the battles are usually very short. For aggressive trash, many insect enemies for example, it's usually best to attract as many of them at once as possible, run around to lure them to you without engaging combat (your AI teammates will just follow you unless you issue an attack command), and kill all of them at once using one of your Monado powers. Low level mobs typically won't attack you either way, which is something I absolutely hated in FF. Complete waste of time - no challenge, no reward. Here, beasts ignore you or outright flee if you're a few levels above them. You have to actively hunt them down if you require stuff they drop, which can be a challenge in itself.



  There are also other, more complex things you might or might not take into account. Some areas are more or less dangerous during certain times of day, or depending on the current weather. Passing the swamp at night time is extremely dangerous for example, while by day, it's a rather sleepy and idyllic place. Part of that is due to the fact that some beasts change behavior depending on whether it's day or night. The world is surprisingly alive, and awareness and knowledge of your surroundings will be rewarded. That's probably the single best thing about the game.

Fucking assholes!