[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Alright, so with the game's Japanese release imminent next month and localization (supposedly) coming later this year, I think it's finally time to rev up the Xenoblade X (a.k.a. Xenoblade Chronicles X) froth engines with a proper thread!

Tetsuya Takahashi has done an Iwata Asks interview on Xenoblade X, and it looks to be an illuminating tell-all/mea culpa for people (e.g. myself) who are fascinated by the trainwreck of Xenosaga's development. Hope the official translation comes out soon! [laughs]
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

BenRen I think we might be the only two people here frothing for this game =(
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I've been sporadically reading more of the Iwata Asks interview and it's pretty amusing/interesting stuff. On page one Takahashi and Iwata ponder the Western market's reception to JRPGs, and on page two Takahashi confides that his own son refers to him as a Gundam otaku and describes the Freudian origins of his raging robot fetish (which, in retrospect, explains all too much about Xenogears and Xenosaga).

X and MGS5 are basically my major Froth Events of 2015.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Have you played any of the past Xeno games?
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I actually haven't really played the first Xenoblade yet either, but from what I gather it's a solid spiritual successor to Gears set within the framework of, like, an actual video game.

I'll be getting Xenoblade 3D with a New 3DS when it comes out (and I can afford it).
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Nah, I actually own the Wii version but never got around to it. I'd much rather play a 100-hour game on a handheld.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Xenosaga is just an incredible/incredibly incoherent clusterfuck of cultural and philosophical allusions - a million ingredients thrown into a stew, stirred vigorously, and plopped out without any real rhyme or reason. Spaceships are named after Wagner operas, restaurants are named after famous novels, special attacks are named after theoretical physics terms, organizations are named after sci-fi movies, mystical MacGuffins are named after Jungian psychological theories, super-powered mechs are named after the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and a few characters are named (or even modeled) after completely different characters from Xenogears.

I've said this a bunch of times before, but while I can't in good conscience recommend that anyone play the Xenosaga games unless they're really fanatical about the Xeno-series, reading a plot synopsis and listening to the OSTs (ideally at the same time) is something I can enthusiastically suggest. (I guess you could also watch all the cutscenes on Youtube, but the combined total of all three entries' cutscenes is longer than many whole games, and much of the series' plot is poorly explained in the games themselves to boot. Plus the majority of the cutscenes - with a few notable exceptions - are just not entertaining to watch, even ironically.)
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tfO-elYLCSqnqk81vvPcXPGaMEG7o8qZIg8w-JVpZO0/pub

Fuck I need this game.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I love the justification for enemy drops: killing aliens gets you gear from your fellow frontiersmen that they killed. Therefore, stronger enemies have better gear because an explorer with good gear wouldn't have been killed by a weakling.

I'm sure a million games have done this before but it's always cute to have that kind of in-universe rationalization for abstract mechanics (c.f. Metroid Prime).

Quests and battle system look like a bloated, convoluted clusterfuck. But in an endearing way, not a cynical and underhanded one.

Apparently there are aliens in the game called Ma Non
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

New story trailerrrrrrr (ATTN notbov)
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Nintendo Direct YESSSSSSS

Guys you don't understand, I obsess about Xenoshit the way I used to obsess about Metal Gear Solid, only now as a (theoretically) Grown Ass Man I know and embrace full well how completely ridiculous it is.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

In the sense that I perversely enjoy sifting through its metaphysical sci-fi lunacy and deranged clusterfuck of religious and philosophical references and botched animu operatics, yes
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Not yet (getting that N3DS with my next paycheck!) but even so I know there's still a bunch of mystical/philosophical subtext that the game doesn't shove in your face quite as blatantly as the previous Xenos (c.f. Monadology)
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Sounds about right.

Xenogears was also pretty good about contextualizing all the symbolism within the plot and setting for the most part. Xenosaga was not.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

You know the Wii U is fully backwards-compatible with all games, controllers and peripherals on the Wii right? Do what I did: get a Wii U, do the Wii-to-Wii U data transfer, then sell the Wii for a partial refund.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

YOU HAVE TO BUY MECH INSURANCE IN THIS GAME
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I'm not crazy about the name change of "Dolls" to "Skells", but boy, certain "communities" here on The Internet are getting hilariously outraged over it.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

An important lesson I learned today is how many people are still seething with raw wild animal fury over the toned down chibi stripper outfits in Bravely Default
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Well so far the fact that they changed the name of the robots has led to several hundred angry posts, cancelled preorders, people swearing off video games forever, threats of suicide, conspiracy theories about what else NoA will change during localization, declarations that Nintendo of America is the worst publisher in the history of video games, supposition about the intelligence levels, work ethic, moral character and respect for the original Japanese creators of the men and (especially) women localizing the game, attempts to organize a "grassroots" "protest" "movement" to have the names changed back, and calls to harass the wife of the game's director in Japan (complete with links to her Twitter).

Just another savage day on 4chan.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

In a development absolutely no one could have predicted, discussion now turns to how Nintendo is controlled by "the SJWs" (a.k.a. the women on the localization team) who will be ruining this game and all future games to come

Of course beyond all the name changes and other standard features of localization, nothing is dreaded more by these fine young men than the absolute worst-case scenario: the removal of skimpy costumes for female party members.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

The thing about the name changes is that as in pretty much any modern localization process, the Treehouse team is working in tandem with the original developers in Japan, so any major changes were almost certainly approved by the original team. (Whether the original team gives a damn is another story.) I'm not crazy about "Skells" either (I assume it's supposed to sound like military slang for "exoskeleton" but it sure is awkward) but if the name "Dolls" was really important to the story I assume Monolith would have insisted on it. Still, I kinda liked "Dolls" for how oddly unfitting a name it is for giant mecha.

Also, fears about censorship at Nintendo seem pretty misplaced when literally the only censorship they've done in recent years is slightly toning down blatant fanservice in games with a "Teen" rating. Not a big fucking deal, and certainly not anything on the scale of what Namco did with Xenosaga.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

The real Iwata Asks for this one is up now
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Shulk's swimsuit alt in Smash was evidently Sakurai's idea, according to Takahashi

But yeah having wacky bonus swimsuit outfits for the male and female characters is a Monolith thing going all the way back to the first Xenosaga. I think there was at least one game where you could make the "samurai" character Jin walk around in nothing but a fundoshi.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

So I've already had the (supposedly) major plot twist of this game spoiled for me by The Internet.

Thanks, Internet!
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Fairly substantial E3 interview with Takahashi published over at Game Informer. I'm reading through it now.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

NoA announces special edition, sells out on Amazon within hours

December 11, mark your calenders everyone who's interested in this game and isn't me
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

4chan and internet comments sections are still shitting their pants with conspiracy theories about the crippling censorship to which NoA will be subjecting the game
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

They never got over the trauma of the "modified" loli thong outfit in Bravely Default
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Loli party member's age has officially been changed from 13 to 15.

Let the petitions commence.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

IT'S (supposedly) HAPPENING

They're comin' to take away our loli bondage outfits, then our guns, then our very freedom
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Did Xenosaga have anything this cringey with its token loli party member? I honestly don't remember.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I mean not counting the whole nanomachine cyber-rape thing
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Xenogears gets a pass because there were a lot of characters with naked sprites in that one and Emeralda is, to the best of my recollection, never presented in an overtly sexual way. I don't recall Momo's bathing suit models being as... kinky as these new ones either.

Did Xenoblade even have a loli?
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

It's not actually child exploitation, it's just skeezy quasi-pedophilia pandering
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Taking a break from this fun and lucrative line of discussion, a couple years ago I was mucking around with video game soundtracks on Youtube and I found this (paging DAIS, Toll - URGENT)

I guess the question here is, "Would I watch a full-length Xenogears hip-hopera?" and the answer is, "Fuckin' A!"
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

...and start treating them as horny adolescents!
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Ganespot has a big two-part interview up with Takahashi and this game's art director.

It always bums me out that the interviewers in these things never ask Takahashi about his interest in the metaphysical themes that are the actual connecting thread between all the different Xeno games.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Interestingly, early reviews are pointing to many of the same virtues and flaws in this game's design as in the storytelling of older Xeno games: on the one hand breathtaking scope and singular ambition; on the other needlessly protracted pacing, a bizarrely absent sense of form and structure, and an excessively convoluted tangle of factors that are all poorly (if at all) explained to the audience. (Actually, that last piece was true of the battle systems in Xenosaga as well, especially the first and only Tetsuya Takahashi-directed one, which had the best battle system with the absolute least helpful tutorials.)

This is going to be an insane mega monsterpiece just like I hoped for and I'm hyped (and nervous). Already got my special edition pre-ordered.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

This looks like pretty much the antithesis of making JRPGs more "streamlined" and "accessible" and generally appealing to people who aren't already invested in the genre. The Xeno series has never been any other way, and I love-hate it for knowing nothing at all resembling elegance or restraint.

Worth noting: Takahashi implies in that Gamespot interview that Monolith is doing development assistance for the new Zelda.
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[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Not sure what you mean by that. If anything the original Xenoblade is more akin to Xenogears, whereas Xenoblade X is almost a take two of Xenosaga - the main goal in both cases being to translate those games' huge mass of storytelling through cutscenes into storytelling through world design and mechanics. The MMO-style grinding and layers of convolution seems to be a consequence of Takahashi's inability (or misguided unwillingness) to be succinct in translating his massive top-down visions into practice, which is his greatest weakness as both a game designer and a storyteller. Comparisons to Masamune Shirow or George Lucas wouldn't be far off - but with the possible exception of Kojima there's really no one else in video games today doing this kind of crazy thing, which is why for all the massive flaws in his works I continue to follow Takahashi's output with interest.
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