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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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:57:25

I don't remember the size of Oblivion. It was certainly large but the open world was all samey anyway, almost as if it was randomly generated, with samey caves and dungeons to find, nothing like Xenoblade's world which is densely designed with points of interest everywhere making even small areas seem larger due to their multi tiered design and various nooks and crannies. And I've not gone far in Makna Forest yet.

Edited: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:58:37
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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:06:12

I'm only talking about the overworld in Oblivion, not the insides of dungeons or houses.

Yeah the nooks and crannies and vantage points especially make Xenoblade look huge.

I love how they make these secret areas you find and suddenly you can look at the whole vista stretched out in front of you. Iga, nice one underplaying the environments after frontier village, I love them. How much real estate is there?

I don't want to spoil anything - there was this part where I was in a dome and looked out and not only could I see clear across the horizon I could see inside the other transparent area too as a thunderstorm raged. So cool.

I was initially unsure about the layout of eryth sea with the teleporters but they use nice clear lines on the map and even on screen to show you what links to what.

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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:51:20
Agnates said:

I don't remember the size of Oblivion. It was certainly large but the open world was all samey anyway, almost as if it was randomly generated,

That is because it is somewhat radomly generated.

Oblivion's landscape is created with help of Procedural Content Generation.

And according to PCG wiki it means

"Procedural content generation (PCG) is the programmatic generation of game content using a random or pseudo-random process that results in an unpredictable range of possible game play spaces. "

gamingeek said:

Iga, nice one underplaying the environments after frontier village, I love them. How much real estate is there?

I was not underplaying anything, you asked if the upcoming areas are as good as Makna and Bionis Leg, I said they were not. They are still awesome and have their own unique characteristics, but not as good as those two.

And about your progress, You know the vision you got in the beginning? The one vision that motivated you to travel upwards to the head? Yeah after you finish that part in real gameplay you will be about 1/3 finished. (according to gaf)

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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:51:21

I know what that is, but where did you read that, and to what extent? For example it could just refer to populating the landscape with grass, plants and trees and such with the Speed Tree technology, not the actual design of the area... I doubt Monolith Soft hand placed every piece of grass too, but the actual areas are obviously predesigned.

Edited: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:52:07
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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 18:24:08

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Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:25:32
Agnates said:

I know what that is, but where did you read that, and to what extent? For example it could just refer to populating the landscape with grass, plants and trees and such with the Speed Tree technology, not the actual design of the area... I doubt Monolith Soft hand placed every piece of grass too, but the actual areas are obviously predesigned.

I heard it from gaf before and Wiki also mention that they use PCG. The explanation is from another site, it was a general explanation what PCG is, not how it is used in Oblivion.

About to what extend Oblivion uses it, I do not know. Someone at gaf should know.

About Xenoblade, the design methodology of the world is interesting. They actually started with modelling those 2 giants in real life. They made 2 sculptures of them. They first build the world and then filled it with details and characters.

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Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:29:13
Iga_Bobovic said:

And about your progress, You know the vision you got in the beginning? The one vision that motivated you to travel upwards to the head? Yeah after you finish that part in real gameplay you will be about 1/3 finished. (according to gaf)

surprise

Agnates said:

I know what that is, but where did you read that, and to what extent? For example it could just refer to populating the landscape with grass, plants and trees and such with the Speed Tree technology, not the actual design of the area... I doubt Monolith Soft hand placed every piece of grass too, but the actual areas are obviously predesigned.

I heard the dungeons and caves in Oblivion were all Procedurally generated. It felt like it.

Eryth sea in Xenoblade, at first I loved it, but now not so much. The floating platform warping travel method means you can't explore to the same extent as the other areas. Each floating platform has a fairly boring design and the main town/city looks impressive but is fairly dull to explore. The problem is that there are no enemies to spice up exploration yet the city is huge and not anywhere near as densely packed with things to do like Colony  9 is.

I've been trying to go back and do a few quests. I need to kill some Aqua nebulous on bionis leg to get some stuff to rebuild Colony 6. The only ones I know of are near Raguel lake, I killed them but didn't get the material I need. Any ideas where the other Aquas are in Bionis leg guys?

Also, where is the key to that door in Tephra cave?

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Tue, 06 Sep 2011 16:12:09

Agua Nebula appear when it rains. If you found one, just warp back at the nearest landmark and it will appear again. Defeat it again until it drops the required loot.

Can you be more specific about the key in Tephra cave? I do not know what you are talking about!

About the city stuff happens there during the day and night, just go through it twice and you will have all the quests. Or you could hang around the teleporters at 6:00 and 18:00 hours and you will get all the quests you need. Equip your character with movement gems so they move faster. That will help a bit.

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Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:02:16
Iga_Bobovic said:

Agua Nebula appear when it rains. If you found one, just warp back at the nearest landmark and it will appear again. Defeat it again until it drops the required loot.

I tried that and they didn't come back.

Iga_Bobovic said:

Can you be more specific about the key in Tephra cave? I do not know what you are talking about!

There is a cave behind the waterfall, needs a key to open it.

Also in Makna forest on the top left of the map, left of the river there is an entrance or exit. I can't work out how to get there.

BTW, you know the Bionite order guys? For some reason, as Shulk all my attacks and I mean ALL my attacks, even the Monade only deal 1 point of damage wtf?!

Also, I've started to come across enemies which cheat, stop you using your arts. I need to know the name of the move they are doing so I can equip some gems to stop that cheap ass shit.

P.S, now I've almost 100% Makna I withdraw my comment about the area being as big as Oblivion's overworld.

The game as a whole, maybe, but not Makna alone.

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Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:46:04

The reason for that is because.................................................................................................................

SPOILORS

The Monado can't hurt humans and other people like High Entia

/SPOILORS

I will check later in the game to see what you mean exactly and to find out the gems you need.

Edited: Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:46:47
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Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:06:52
Iga_Bobovic said:

The reason for that is because.................................................................................................................

SPOILORS

The Monado can't hurt humans and other people like High Entia

/SPOILORS

I will check later in the game to see what you mean exactly and to find out the gems you need.

It's allright, I asked at GAF.

Pretty silly, 40 hours in and only now this Monado fault rears its head. I thought it was that the monado couldn't hurt organic matter but it's wrecked every monster up to this point.

I need Arts seal defence gems.

BTW, you know the Nopon in Satori Marsh in the cliff? Where is the Nopon he wants to give the thing to? It doesn't specify a location.

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Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:05:43

Frontier Village, it's Gadidi or something. Do this sidequest it is important, it will unlock an awesome sidequest in the feature

SPOILORS................................................................................

You probably did see that all the quests in Alcamoth have a timer on it?

Don't worry I am a lot farther than you and the quests have still not run out. If you are bored, just move the story forward.

/SPOILORS

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Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:08:37

Okay played some more almost 120 hours in. I reckon I am 70% done. Found lots of cool secrets, explored plenty of new areas, discovered new things, done awesome sidequests and was forced to make a decision a few times. Heck I think I ruined two marriages in this game. Oops

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:34:28

The guy is named like dobabadoba or something, there are a couple of similar sounding guys in frontier village but it's not the one you want.

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:18:46

His name is Dobadoba and he can be found near the Pollen Orb Storehouse at 3:00-21:00

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:22:10

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:08:07

Thanks! Grinning

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:45:10

LOL

I just read the thread from the beginning again. Cool to see that Edge was hyped from the beginning, even Vader was, but somehow he had forgotten everything about the game. The commercials are very spoilerific, so don't go back and watch them.

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:49:23

How far past Eryth sea are you? I'm there now. Are there lots more large exterior locations?

P.S how do you get back to frontier village from eryth sea without using the map and warping?

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Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:55:00

A lot further. I don't want to spoil it, but you can probably guess where the story is going.

Later in the story their is another way to get back down, but right now your only option is warping.

I actually moved the story forward alot, first because some of the sidequest send me in new areas, but then I ran out of sidequests. So I had to move the story forward and shit just got real.

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