Now things are getting interesting.��
Listed on Nintendos japanese site
IGN eyes on trailer and screens
A lone warrior chopping through an army of robotic warriors with an outsized Cloud Strife-like energy sword. Colossal war machines advancing though a misty canyon, shooting anything that moves. The few remaining human defenders hiding behind simple wooden shields that are no match for high-energy weapons. Welcome to the world of Monado.��
The debut trailer for Monado: Beginning of the World premiered today at E3: 2009, and first impressions for the new Wii RPG are that the beginning is going to be pretty exciting. Things kick off with that canyon-set battle, revealing more and bigger enemies with an interesting steampunk design. Things likely don't end well for our lone warrior, as we soon segue to a young blonde hero discovering that energy sword - now inert - only to see it flash blindingly to life the moment he picks it up. Your standard JRPG Hero's Journey (tm) is definitely in full effect here, with just a dash of King Arthur.��
Gameplay appears to be open-world, where you'll traverse lush jungles, glowing forests, climb sheer walls, and encounter the crumbling remains of a conquered people. It looks nicely textured and details pop, animating at what looks like a smooth 30 fps.��
Players will pick up two partners in their travels, and while combat initially looks turn-based, we saw all three party members attacking simultaneously. Transitions into combat are completely seamless; characters approach enemies, draw weapons, and it's on. One scene showed your team (wielding much smaller edged weaponry) surrounding a lizard-man enemy, who didn't make much of a dent in their lifebars before it was downed. A much larger lizard-man (a good twenty feet tall) and giant mutant crab monster probably fared better.
(back up link - check the japanese site first link in post for proper quality trailer)
Hit the HQ option.
Plus, meet the enemies: Black Face and Brown Face.
The Xenoblade cast keeps on growing. Four additional characters made their debut in this week's Famitsu, including our first two representatives of the races besides Homs. Let's take a look.
Rein
Race: Homs, Gender: Male, Age: 18, Height: 190cm. A member of the Colony 9 Defense Force (Colony 9 is where the main characters live). He's a childhood friend of main character Shulk. While an optimist, he can show great anger.
Carna
Race: Homs, Gender: Female, Age: 21, Height: 168cm. A soldier in the Colony 6 Defense Force. She's good with projectile weapons.
Melia
Race: Hienter, Gender: Female, Age: ???, Height: 156cm. A young girl from the Hienter race. This race resides on the head area of the Kyojin part of the world and has an advanced civilization. She's skilled at using ethers for attacks.
Riki
Race: Nopon, Gender: Male, Age: ???, Height: 60cm. A hero of the Nopon merchant race who reside in the forests of the back area of the Kyojin part of the world? His words and movements are extremely childish, but in reality... !? (Note: I tried to replicate Famitsu's punctuation here.)
In case you're wondering about how all the races look, you can see the Homs races at the official site. The Hienter also look like humans. The Nopon, however, look like giant eggs, with wings and tiny feet.
The magazine also provided details on the mecha that were shown attacking Colony 9 in the previous trailer:
Black Face
Race: New Model Kishin Soldier, Head Height: 10.5m, Total Height: 15.5m. This type of soldier is capable of transforming into flying form. It uses its claws as weapons. Different from other Kishin soldiers, its head looks somewhat human-like. The Monado sword is apparently ineffective against this soldier.
Brown Face
Race: New Model Kishin Soldier, Head Height: 6m, Total Height: 7.5m. Like Black Face, Brown Face can transform into flying form. It wields a sickle-like weapon.
Also getting some space -- try a full page, or one-fourth of the article -- is the Monado Sword. The magazine summarizes what we're apparently supposed to already know about the sword. I use "apparently" because some of the info was new to me.
There are apparently three known properties about the sword:
1. It has the only power that can resist the Kishin troops.
2. It can't slash anything except Kishin troops.
3. Anyone can unleash Monado's power, but at present only the legendary hero Dunban can control it.
Point number 2 is of particular note. The magazine has a screenshot that shows Rein for some reason slashing heroine Fiorung with the Monado. However, the sword does not harm her.
Based off the screenshots, it looks like Monado is like a light saber -- the actual slicing part isn't metal, but rather a light beam. It's hard to see what's going on when Rein slashes at Fiorung, as the part of the sword that actually hits Fiorung is just a flash of light.
The central glass plate on the sword's head was previously revealed to have some mysterious properties. It seems to change color and text. Screens in the magazine show two textual images: "機" and "盾." The former could be machine -- it's the same character that starts off the name of the Kishin troops. The second is shield.
What do these mysterious characters mean? The "Monado" section of the official site has already been unlocked and contained no answers. Perhaps this is a mystery we'll have to figure out for ourselves once Xenoblade hits on June 24.
One thing bothers me about games of this size.
Pop up and fade away grass. Has there been a game which has made a decent excuse, storywise for this aspect? Something like magic shoes that make the earth grow or something? Or a spirit character who causes life to bloom under their feet?
It only blooms where your feet are because your magical power isn't strong enough yet for it to be permanent.
I noticed quite a bit of pop up in the field video and not just in the fly bys.