Forum > Gaming Discussion > XENOBLADE Reviews from page 10 onwards - "A goosebump inducing, splendid, expansive, epic."
XENOBLADE Reviews from page 10 onwards - "A goosebump inducing, splendid, expansive, epic."
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Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:17:17

I guess I should be updating this thread more often. 

2wmm89d.jpg1zmz24k.jpg

Music from website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX9sB7CXQ3U

Official website trailer@

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/sx4j/trailers/index.html

Youtube version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhnZBahIOi4&feature=player_embedded

Edited: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:33:11

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Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:24:07
+1
Can't wait to see more, lotsa ppl put down the video's visual quality but it's just like the famitsu scans really (as the purdy screenshot above proves, even though the video had lesser image quality). Ie, not the most technically accomplished Wii game, but good enough, with awesome world design to make up for that. Character models are crude but not enough to detract from a great game. If it is one. And I like cut scenes being done in-engine with the same graphics as the gameplay. Love the layout of the landscape and city shown and the draw distance.

PS: you can do hyperlinks by highlighting the text you want, then pressing the little chain icon on the toolbar above where you type, and inputting the url you want it to link to there.
Edited: Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:28:54
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Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:30:10

Agnates said:


PS: you can do hyperlinks by highlighting the text you want, then pressing the little chain icon on the toolbar above where you type, and inputting the url you want it to link to there.

 Thanks for telling me. In IE it does it for me. Since I switched to Opera I was wondering how without having to do it via the HTML

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Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:30:01

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Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:17:23

i think these are beautiful.

are all these screens from the intro about the conflict between the two deities?

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Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:16:36
No, just art. Actual screens are just @ the top of this page. The intro is with in-game graphics, not CG or anime.
Edited: Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:16:55
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:57:46

Sweet, can't wait. Low res textures and crude models galore but it has an undeniable charm with the world design and scale. Looks like the scans.
Edited: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:19:50
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:43:58

Yeah the wide shots look great, but close up there is some bad texture work, especially on characters. Wonder why they didn't just do the cinematics like Disaster, using the models and environments but sprucing it up. The scale of everything is incredible for wii. 

It looks like the engine was built for scale and everything is meant to be viewed with the camera zoomed out like the E3 2009 video. Then when the camera gets zoomed in, not so hot. Almost Dreamcast like. 

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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:51:22
It doesn't have any advanced engine features, that's what hurts it the most, I think. No shader-like effects on the surfaces or even the water and particles, no fancy lighting or specular mapping or whatever else on the characters to accentuate the silhouettes. It looks like a less than top PS2 title in that aspect (FFXII had better texturing on the characters really, and Wii has many times its memory). The Wii should be able to do both scale and quality better than this with the right techs and what not. Tales of Graces (& Crystal Bearers?) didn't have a lesser scale but was much more competent technically, with proper shadowing and smooth environments and characters up close, though it also had some low res textures, but that was by a third party even. At least the world design is top.
Edited: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:00:34
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:07:19

From what I played of Crystal Bearers the environments in Xenoblade look several times, maybe more, larger in scale. I think that Xenoblade, close up looks shabby. They should have a different cutscene engine. I don't like when games use FMV or drastically different looking cutscenes from the in game graphics but you can take in game models and environments, direct and animate them a bit better in cutscene form. 

The start of that video had me wowed at the vistas and monster animation and then vomiting at the inside of someone's low res house. 

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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:19:55
Maybe the areas are smaller but the whole world is still seamless in TCB. So it's really one gigantic area in the end. There are various larger "rooms" as well (like the beach stuff I think?), just of a different style. Anyway, ToG certainly has the same type of large scale environments, rolling hills, trees, etc, and certain scenes do have lots of NPCs in place. Man when are they gonna bring that over to Europe already... Look at some of this for example (it's the video that's choppy, I don't think the game has frame rate issues from what I've read at least):

Oh, I thought the animation was a joke in Xenoblade btw, look at that horse...thing... It's lol worthy. But it's better in the characters. Though I prefer in-game than CG scenes even if they're in the same overall style, like in Red Steel 2.

Anyway, my guess is they didn't even have money to hire a good CG studio. Doesn't seem like Nintendo funds and backs Monolith Soft games fully, what with this and Disaster, but it's not like sales would justify it.
Edited: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:43:28
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:52:19

I really hate the beach section in TCB. It's so ugly.  

Graces looks good, but its cel-shaded so it doesn't need the same resources as doing a realistic style right?

I like the animation of the monster in the Xeno trailer. Wish I could watch that Graces footage but I'm trying to view another video and its taking an age to load. 

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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:58:37
It's not cel shaded and no, it's a myth that it needs less resources. If anything, when it's done properly, the cel shading is an extra effect on top of normal rendering (usually a pixel shader), so it could well need more. But ToG isn't cel shaded (Vesperia is), the rendering is normal. It's just easier for cartoony stuff to not look fugly. If you try to draw mickey mouse you'll pull it off easier than if you try a self portrait. Or you can do them simpler. But it's clear ToG environments and models aren't lacking in geometry detail. The character faces are more detailed than Xenoblade too even, with better ears and hair and what not. They just have a different art style.
Edited: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:06:35
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:59:42
Oh nice, Graces has nice large environments. Not sure I like the combat. Wasn't a huge fan of Symphonia's battles either. I'm not an rpg fan at all, but I prefer a fairly simple turn based system. 

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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:01:47
The combat sounds sweet, and Zelda-ish, with the new sidestepping.
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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:04:49

Agnates said:
It's not cel shaded and no, it's a myth that it needs less resources. If anything, when it's done properly, the cel shading is an extra effect on top of normal rendering, so it could well need more. But ToG isn't cel shaded, the rendering is normal.

 It's a very simple style though. 

Really doubt it uses as much resources as this.

It would be like comparing Metroid Prime 3 to Red Steel 2. Both are 60 FPS but I know which one is pushing it more. 

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Wed, 07 Apr 2010 17:11:28
I was comparing it to Xenoblade, not TCB. TCB characters are second to none on Wii with high detail in geometry and textures and specular mapping and everything. Xenoblade doesn't have such nice looking stuff from the video. The environments seem lesser in TCB though, overall, though they also have some nice texturing at times, but mostly not the outdoors. TCB doesn't have proper environment shadows either, does it? I don't think they're fully dynamic in ToG either but at least they appear properly. And all characters seem to have proper shadows.
http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/102/1023707/tales-of-graces-20090911072311757.jpg
http://wiimedia.ign.com/wii/image/article/102/1023707/tales-of-graces-20090911072322694.jpg
Anyway, screens don't do it justice, you can see some nice complex cities and such in the trailer, or the smooth looking dungeons and what not, even if the characters are simpler than TCB.

RS2 is cruder and blockier than MP3, it's not the cel shading that makes it so, it's their inability to make a better engine that handles more geometry. It's their design. So, yes, blocky and crude design (which I don't think applies to ToG's environments) needs less resources, that's obvious, but independent to cel shading. You could have the detail of MP3 and cel shade it if you had capable programmers and artists (or like Borderlands does have more detail). They didn't. But at least they had proper shadows both in the environment and the characters and all the breakables which MP3 doesn't have I guess. Of course, its world design is miles ahead.
Edited: Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:14:46
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Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:53:21
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/sx4j/world/index.html

A new part of the "world" section on the official site has opened. It has a running loop video of various locations and settings in the game, including stuff that wasn't in the new trailer.

- duckroll

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Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:29:23

Agnates said:
 You could have the detail of MP3 and cel shade it if you had capable programmers and artists (or like Borderlands does have more detail). They didn't. But at least they had proper shadows both in the environment and the characters and all the breakables which MP3 doesn't have I guess. Of course, its world design is miles ahead.

 Oh yeah, completely agree, I see what you are saying now. 

It's how simple they choose to make it. I think in the past cel-shading had the benefit of making more stylised visuals - that still looked good, yet didn't have to really push the machine as much as a detailed realistic game would. 

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Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:38:02

Andriasang
Nintendo gave the Xenoblade official site an update today, providing a few additional world details following yesterday's trailer.

Of particular note is a release date. According to the site, the long awaited RPG from the makers of the Xenosaga series (despite the name, it's unrelated to that series) is now set with a final release date of June 10. Pricing was previously announced as ¥6,800 yen.

Other specs listed at the site include the availability of three save files and controller compatibility with Wiimote x Nuncchuck or Classic Controller.

New content at the site includes yesterday's trailer, posted to the trailer section. See this story for a summery of what happens in that trailer.

The world section of the site has been updated with a new area, "Kyoshin to Hitobito," or "Kyoshin and the People."

Kyoshin, literally "giant god," is the name of one of the two humanoid gods who fought an epic battle with one-another long ago and froze into corpses. These corpses, locked in a battle stance, serve as the ground upon which people live. Kyoshin is the side of the world on which the protagonists live. Kishin, literally "machine god," is the other god, and it's the side of the game's antagonists.

"People born from Kyoshin return to Kyoshin," reads the page. The people of the Kyoshin side of the world are apparently full of thanks to the god for the vast fields and nature that have helped to build their civilization.



The people of Kyoshin are split into three tribes:
Homs Tribe
A race that resembles humans. They live in a number of colonies located in the lower half of Kyoshin. Their civilization has developed to a middling level.
Nopon Tribe
A tribe of traveling merchants who can be seen throughout the entirety of the Kyoshin side of the world.
Nienter Tribe
A race of legend that is said to reside in the head region of the Kyoshin part of the world. It is said that they have an ancient history and have built an advanced civilization.

Sections for Kishin Army and God Sword Monado still remain inactive in the world section. Additionally, the site as a whole still has inactive sections for characters, battle, and system, as well as one more slot for a trailer.

 

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