Reviewing this like a full game is fair, given it can be bought by itself, but in a way it diminishes the fact that this is likely the best DLC Nintendo has ever produced. I bought the expansion pass back in January without knowing exactly what I'd be getting for $30 because I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that much and I had a gut feeling Monolith wouldn't let me down, and man were my expectations blown away beyond retrieval. We got Shulk, Fiora, and Elma as extra blades (along with other cool new rare blades as well), the Bringer of Chaos mode and other amazing additions to the base game, and then this freaking awesome expansion on top of all that. And not only did Monolith give us a new titan to explore, a new story with plenty of cut scenes, boss fights, and so on, but they ALSO completely revised the combat into something even better than what the original game gave us, overhauled the community system and gave us several dozen new side quests, a brand new crafting system, and more besides. I've personally already delved into the NG+ mode and am loving my second playthrough of this DLC as much as my initial run, and cannot praise the time and effort Monolith put into this expansion enough. All other games that do Expansion Passes and the like, take note: THIS is how you do extra content for a game!
It must be just me but all Xenoblade games are 9-10 range. I know there is some issues but honestly they are tiny blips on massive amazing games. I played the first on 3ds and not on the wii and this already is my favourite JRPG franchise.
@@Ben-do1bf The motives behind Jin's and Mythra's actions from Torna were just too much for me not to end up loving this game more. I still love Xenoblade 1 and would love an HD remake. I think the game deserves it. And with how much attention Xenoblade 2 got, maybe now it'll finally sell to a wider audience.
I think this game's characters and story was not only better than the base game, but even better than any other JRPG this year. Yes, better than DQ11, Ni No Kuni 2 and Octopath Traveler. The few big problems are the graphical short comings and sidequest heavy ending. But still a pretty fantastic game!
Better than DQ 11 ?? Haha dont make me laugh sorry Xenoblade 2 is great had fun spent around 350 hours BUT DQ 11 is in a another league period. DQ 11 is the best rpg this generation especially after finishing the postgame. I agree Xenoblade 2 is better than octopath and that shit game nino kuni 2. DQ 11 holds the crown and will hold the crown for a long time in my opinion.
@@Symphony85p I am talking about Torna not the base game. And also: Opinions. Overall I also think DQ11 is probably better than both X2 and Torna, but not in every area. Persona 5 is still the best of all of them if you ask me.
@@alexanderchilton911 the music is not the strongest in DQ 11 i agree. Persona is not a typical jrpg more a newschool modern jrpg it is great for what it is but DQ 11 is better overall in my opinion.
Everything is an opinion. Xenoblade 2 is my favorite game of 2017. And 2017 was stacked. Played Persona 5, Breath of the Wild, NieR Automata, Tales of Berseria, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mario Odyssey, etc. People will have their own reasons for their favorite games, and Xenoblade 2 are some people's favorite games. Don't see why some people in the comments feel compelled to try to talk down on the game to justify why it shouldn't be someone else's favorite game.
I never understand when people say the fighting mecanichs could be better. They gave us something unique, different from the rest. It is what I always wanted, I did not want to pay 60 dollars just to play an 8 hour game long. Xenoblade gives you at least 60 and beyond than that. The game is not that easy neither.. Let's not forget about about the amazing storytelling and amazing DLC that ads 30 hours. I would give Xenoblade 2 and Torna a 9 or 9.5 to be honest.
This expansion was better than the main game of XC2 but still didn’t get me hooked like XCX did. God I wish they would port XCX to the Switch. I would probably play it for 1000 hours.
The battle music is the the best I have ever heard! Eticka basically expressed it perfectly in his video when he heard it while he was playing it back in the day.
This game cost £27 and offers more hours of gameplay for just the main story than most AAA games and up to 40 hours if you're going for completion, it also came with multiple additions for the main game like new quests, blades, older characters, items etc. Oh, it also made improvements to a combat system I thought was already perfect and it added smaller improvements like colour coding collection spots to show where the rarer items can be found which is very convenient, they didn't need to make changes to the gameplay like that but they did it anyway. This was some of the best value for money I've seen from a DLC.
I played that on PC (emulation) in 4K with hi res texture packs two or three years ago and it looked fantastic. I agree the least they can do is remaster it or give it an upres to 1080p for the Switch. Hope it happens!
This game is on par with persona 5 and beats the core game in gameplay but acts a complimentary expansion to Xenoblade chronicles 2 that you understand the story of the main game more and understand jin, the paragon of Torna
@DarkSonic180 my little brother could understand the combat. It's really not convoluted at all. Auto attacks charge arts. Arts charge specials. Use increasingly higher specials for blade combos. After enough blade combos, chain attack. Chain attack enough rounds to full burst. Driver combos operate independently. They are a status condition that Arts inflict. Break, which allows for Topple, which allows for Launch, which allows for Smash. These are the two straightforward strategies in dealing damage. Fusion combo is just doing both at the same time. If that's too convoluted for you to grasp, then yeah the game aint for you.
If the trimmed down combat from Torna was in the rest of the XBC2, I would actually finish it...but nevermind. Of course if you told me that Torra was just optional, and some other things were stripped away from the base game, I would attempt to finish it for sure.
After the main game we all knew the fate of Lorna ,Jin, Malos, Mythra, Adam, Amalthus and the entire country of Torna.. But NOTHING could prepare me for THAT ending...
I got Xenoblade 2 last week, and I’m loving it. 45 hours on it already, and I also bought the dlc. Probably best game I played this year. Probably a 9 for me so far . Quite addictive. I still consider the fifa games to be great as well, maybe and 8 for fifa 19 on PS4.
I wanna play Xeno 2 but even tho I have no problems gameplay-wise, I wish it was more real-time like Ni No Kuni 2. Just an opinion but still gonna give it a shot.
As someone who put 100+ hours into both I can say that they both feel good. NNK2 is faster than Xeno 2, but once you get a bit further into Xeno 2 they allow you to cancel abilities with other abilities and that makes the combat feel so much faster and better. And the whole chain attack system makes you think about how you attack certain stronger enemies, it's a well made system.
There's always Ys 8... Played that immediately after Xenoblade 2... You don't need to grind. There is a bullet-time like combat system, reminiscent of Nier and Bayonetta. Talking about Nier, you can see side quests actually affect what you can do in the game/affect the world/village you're in. Nier Automata's quests didn't really do this, but for how annoying half of those quests are + how endearing the others were coupled with the writing, I mean, they made more sense than base Xenoblade 2's outlandish and insane side quest stories like the damn Tranquility quest. There is an actually useful journal system (albeit it has it's grammatical errors, but at least it's there, unlike in xenoblade 2 where, re-explaining mechanics is impossible, they give you a single page "hey stupid" hold-my-hand segment for more notable concepts like canceling and driver combos, which yeah, when you learn them, aren't hard, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around cancelling, and I already beat the main storyline and prepping my team for post game) Digging through menus doesn't delay like in the base xenoblade 2 (haven't played torna, and I intend to, what with the music sounding oh so much better to me than the original game, do you hear that Gormott theme? Oof) You can view what collection points, what drops are potentially offered, unlike base xenoblade 2 Like, Xenoblade 2 kept my attention for 140 hours, but man, was going to Ys 8 such a damn breath of fresh air that I definitely needed from the slow pace of Xenoblade 2... There were things I liked in Xenoblade 2 like the complexity, but with all this emphasis on grinding, from affinity points, using timed Merc missions, grinding for core crystal and monster drops, salvaging for money, boosting development levels, having to exploit the system to improve your odds in gathering random drops, waiting for enemies to spawn or make their rounds for affinity charts, there are so many annoyances that I'm just like, AGH. Ive been hit with so many texture popin's terrible mouth syncing on the English voices, the quest bug where if you finish certain side quests with specials, your game freezes, and others... Falcom, for a TWO YEAR OLD GAME doesn't suffer a lot of these issues (maybe attributed to little voice work, lower polygons and textures, separated maps to allow better load-ins) and with PROBABLY LESS THAN HALF THE BUDGET... Xenoblade 2 has moments but AGH does it feel so aggravating... If it weren't for how insane the combat system was, I don't know how I would have kept at it, in the game... But even that was too slow for me... Then I'll thank morag's English voice actor for making her sound more real than her Japanese "I must make her sound like a man" voice... I don't even know why she's my favorite character in the game... She just is... Maybe it's her Welsh voice... :/ Regardless, try Ys 8, it's an exploration action rpg that just... Feels better than Xenoblade 2... It doesn't have the Polish but at least it has common sense design decisions on it's UI, like a button re-map system,much easier to understand fast travel/map system, etc... And you won't end up doing literally inane side quests like that one quest with the choir girl in Indol...ugg
I feel the opposite as you on Ys 8 vs Xenoblade 2. Ys 8, while it is very fast and fluid, feels very loose. It doesn't feel as satisfying defeating enemies and bosses in Ys 8 because I just hit and avoid getting hit, whereas Xenoblade 2 requires me to actually think and build my team to work well together. I have not needed to grind much in Xenoblade 2 either. Unless you are trying to finish every side quest. I do agree the side quests were not very well handled in the base game. At the very least, Torna does it much better. Overall, Ys 8 is more of a middling game where it's good but not great and not awful, but Xenoblade 2 has moments where it's fantastic and moments where it's a slog, but overall I got way more out of Xenoblade 2 than Ys 8.
Speaking of gameplay wise, Xenoblade 2 starts off slow, but it gets faster as you unlock more abilities in your skill tree. Once I got to the part of the game where I get 3 party members, it felt quite fast for me. Just make sure you learn how to do driver and blade combos when those tutorials show up. When you learn how to do driver combos and blade combos at the same time (fusion combos), the combat gets quite involved and feels very satisfying. Or if you're still on the fence, you could start with Torna which has a faster combat and a faster pace in the story.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna: The Golden Country Review Scores: Famitsu- 35/40 GameXplain- Likes-A-Lot! MyNintendoNews- 9 out of 10 NintendoWorldReport- 8.5 out of 10 GoNintendo- An Adventure Well Worth Taking! RPG Fan- 92% Twinfinite- 4 out of 5 Great! Luis Alamilla (TH-cam Channel)- 9 out of 10 NintendoLife- 9 out of 10 Excellent! Opencritic- 83% RPGamer- 4.5 out of 5 Jay RPG (TH-cam Channel)- Torna The Golden Country is Brilliant! GamingBolt- 9 out of 10 TheSixthAxis- 9 out of 10 Wccftech- 8.5 out of 10 mynintendonews.com/2018/09/20/japan-xenoblade-chronicles-2-receives-an-award-for-excellence/
Without corporate pressure, they tend to review games they are actually interested in instead of being obligated to review crap. Guess it happens that nearly everything they are interested in is good
wish you wouldn't mute the gameplay, would be nice to hear what the game sounds like (combat, sound effects, ambience, voices etc). Feels jarring not being able to hear anything of the game at all
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a fun game buried under a bunch of overly complex mechanics and systems imo. The music is outstanding and while the voice acting is charming, the nearly nonexisting lip sync pulled me out of many cutscenes where I was supposed to be all in. In the end I put about 120 hours into this game with what feels like little progress to show for it ultimately bringing me to the point where I watch the last bits of the story on youtube. :/
Beat it in 80 hours without doing that much of the side stuff. Basically, it is pretty forgiving difficulty wise. And the ending section is the best part of the game by far.
That U.I. still looks cluttered and it still doesn’t look that visually impressive. From the perspective of an outsider, the older games looked better (more distinct).
It saddens me that the appreciation for this game lies so far beyond my comprehension. Everything about it turns me off, and yet it is adored by many. This game makes me frustrated by my own personal taste.
Its ok to not like something others do, i found out that i can enjoy a game by watching walkthroughts rather than playing them, i recommend that for games you cant get into but you really like the lore or genre, etc.
This DLC only reminds me of how annoying this game is. Stupid cutscene > dumb cutscene > loading screen > dumber cutscene > dialog section > frustratingly over-tedious task and so on. The only positives for me were the additions to the battle structure, the ability to skip the way too many meaningless and stupid cutscenes, and the addition of so much new content (which would be awesome if the game was done better).
Fortnite and 2K? (I'm assuming you mean sports games). Men and women with brains? I don't like Fortnite or sports games and I can't imagine anyone with brains more advanced than a toddler could enjoy those terrible cutscenes which comprise more than half the game. And this game is more tedious than complex. But I'll stick to my BOTW and leave this tedious game to the men and women with the patience for poorly translated B-grade Japanese soap operas.
@@souljang So please, talk more shit about a game you know nothing about. You play BOTW. The only grind you need to know about is Wiki how to cook. Other than that, it's counter, dodge, hit, arrow. Then you have all this other shit like bombs and ice blocks and stopping time and taking that you won't use for 90% of the game that are pretty much useless once you beat the game and finish the puzzles, and then its just the same artificial difficulty of doing the same things and shrines over and over again with nothing complex to actually do and no vivid variety. Not requiring any more than 60 hours of gameplay.
@@souljang You know what Chain Attacks, Driver, Blade, Fusion Combos, Elemental Weakness, Core Chips, Affinity, Accessories, and AUX Cords are? Have you heard of Break, Topple, Launch, Smash? Oh wait you probably never actually played the game... You're just a review sheep that doesn't know how to play complex RPGs so you stick with bland Dark Souls "rolly polly MASH MASH" basic games.
@@gatst7680 Play through it. Sadly the Story could be good but to often the Story feels uneven with its Comedic Moments in serious story moments like the Maiden Mech bossfieght attack on the president. Or the bad character designs like Pyra , her sluty design even don't fit her character. Side Quest are medicore too. And why has a 12 years old boy so many (I hate this word) Waifus in the end ? And I don't even won't start with the shaky Framerate. Sry I love this franchise but this game feels more like a generic anime.
@@OrangeBox93 Nope I just played games like all Persona the games , most of the Dragon Quest and Tales and I love some of the best FF Games like 6,9,12 and Tactics. Also I played and loved Xenogears and Blade 1 and X. I just don't like medicore JRPGs who try to much to appeal to Otakus like Tokyo Mirage. You know that a great JRPG is ? Fucking Dragon Quest 11 this is with Persona 5 the best JRPG this Generation.......and tales of beseria and Ys 8.
I bought the expansion pass back in March as a birthday present to myself, I still need to start playing the Golden Country story, I just have many things to play through.
Xenoblade music is just so good. The new Gormott remix is even better than the original.
Amazing that the remix is better and the combat theme....Wow
Wild Link yeah I like the battle theme better than the original
Reviewing this like a full game is fair, given it can be bought by itself, but in a way it diminishes the fact that this is likely the best DLC Nintendo has ever produced. I bought the expansion pass back in January without knowing exactly what I'd be getting for $30 because I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that much and I had a gut feeling Monolith wouldn't let me down, and man were my expectations blown away beyond retrieval. We got Shulk, Fiora, and Elma as extra blades (along with other cool new rare blades as well), the Bringer of Chaos mode and other amazing additions to the base game, and then this freaking awesome expansion on top of all that. And not only did Monolith give us a new titan to explore, a new story with plenty of cut scenes, boss fights, and so on, but they ALSO completely revised the combat into something even better than what the original game gave us, overhauled the community system and gave us several dozen new side quests, a brand new crafting system, and more besides. I've personally already delved into the NG+ mode and am loving my second playthrough of this DLC as much as my initial run, and cannot praise the time and effort Monolith put into this expansion enough. All other games that do Expansion Passes and the like, take note: THIS is how you do extra content for a game!
This is probably one of the best DLC packs out there.
If you mean of all time I'd wholeheartedly agree.
This is what we wanted with the Breath of the Wild DLC. This is what we should've gotten.
Yami Witcher 3 says otherwise but yes this DLC is very good
@@mohangrewal1466 Why do so many people not know what "one of the best" means?
It must be just me but all Xenoblade games are 9-10 range. I know there is some issues but honestly they are tiny blips on massive amazing games. I played the first on 3ds and not on the wii and this already is my favourite JRPG franchise.
Just glad that my favorite switch game got further expanded.
This DLC on top of the main game made this game my favorite game. I never thought Xenoblade 1 would get dethroned.
Yami I love Xenoblade 2, but I'd say 1 overall still has a bit more going for it. But Torna and the base game are still very very good
@@Ben-do1bf The motives behind Jin's and Mythra's actions from Torna were just too much for me not to end up loving this game more. I still love Xenoblade 1 and would love an HD remake. I think the game deserves it. And with how much attention Xenoblade 2 got, maybe now it'll finally sell to a wider audience.
I think this game's characters and story was not only better than the base game, but even better than any other JRPG this year. Yes, better than DQ11, Ni No Kuni 2 and Octopath Traveler.
The few big problems are the graphical short comings and sidequest heavy ending. But still a pretty fantastic game!
Better than DQ 11 ?? Haha dont make me laugh sorry Xenoblade 2 is great had fun spent around 350 hours BUT DQ 11 is in a another league period. DQ 11 is the best rpg this generation especially after finishing the postgame. I agree Xenoblade 2 is better than octopath and that shit game nino kuni 2. DQ 11 holds the crown and will hold the crown for a long time in my opinion.
@@Symphony85p
I am talking about Torna not the base game.
And also: Opinions.
Overall I also think DQ11 is probably better than both X2 and Torna, but not in every area.
Persona 5 is still the best of all of them if you ask me.
@@alexanderchilton911 the music is not the strongest in DQ 11 i agree. Persona is not a typical jrpg more a newschool modern jrpg it is great for what it is but DQ 11 is better overall in my opinion.
Everything is an opinion. Xenoblade 2 is my favorite game of 2017. And 2017 was stacked. Played Persona 5, Breath of the Wild, NieR Automata, Tales of Berseria, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mario Odyssey, etc. People will have their own reasons for their favorite games, and Xenoblade 2 are some people's favorite games. Don't see why some people in the comments feel compelled to try to talk down on the game to justify why it shouldn't be someone else's favorite game.
I never understand when people say the fighting mecanichs could be better. They gave us something unique, different from the rest.
It is what I always wanted, I did not want to pay 60 dollars just to play an 8 hour game long. Xenoblade gives you at least 60 and beyond than that. The game is not that easy neither.. Let's not forget about about the amazing storytelling and amazing DLC that ads 30 hours.
I would give Xenoblade 2 and Torna a 9 or 9.5 to be honest.
my guess is that they do not understand it. To me, one of the best combat mechanics ever created. Fast paced, complex, deep and utterly rewarding.
You don't understand because your brain is tiny
man I love the fighting system in these games and they're so long which is good for me because I feel they're worth every dollar invested in them.
ben is on fire with the reviews
So was Filip Musen, just in a different way.
The ending of this game killed me. I was literally depressed for a week after beating it.
Aw. 💐
Same
What happened? Spoil it. ...i'm never getting a swinch
@@InnerRise If I simply told you what happened it'll have no impact on you.
@@ShallBePurified ...i'm never gonna play this or get a switch. It'll never have an impact.
Tell me
This expansion was better than the main game of XC2 but still didn’t get me hooked like XCX did. God I wish they would port XCX to the Switch. I would probably play it for 1000 hours.
Let's hope some team on Monolith is working on bringing X to the switch already!
@@joebilly3719 I thought I was all alone on this... I'll need a bigger gun for X
That music sounds so good
Man is the soundtrack amazing for this game
This honestly looks better than the main game to me...
they updated the engine, the cutscenes also look better as well.
The main characters are better for the most part.
@@Vyse195 that wasn't hard to improve on
The main characters are better in the base game.
This game is fantastic and worth getting even if you didn't finish the main game.
This game is a masterpiece
I have only played xenogears, Xenoblades wasn't related was it? Xenosaga sucked
They're all masterpieces to someone.
Char Aznable Nah 1 is a masterpiece. Just needs a little rebalancing for the later bosses
DarkSonic180 got em
DarkSonic180 that’s lovely
Brandon I greatly appreciate you editing in the clip of Lora clapping. That part of the game alone makes it an 8.0
this game has one of the better combat systems ever made. A true gem.
The battle music is the the best I have ever heard! Eticka basically expressed it perfectly in his video when he heard it while he was playing it back in the day.
Who is Eticka?
Oh my God that's the game trailers guy that voice all of there game reviews. I love his voice.
You guys ever think about bringing back pop facts?
I love this series so much. This dlc was awesome. It's dlc done right. I can't wait for the next game.
Ben is a Review machine you say ?? No! He’s a Review Monster!!
He is... BENZILLA!
He's a Mechon
This game cost £27 and offers more hours of gameplay for just the main story than most AAA games and up to 40 hours if you're going for completion, it also came with multiple additions for the main game like new quests, blades, older characters, items etc. Oh, it also made improvements to a combat system I thought was already perfect and it added smaller improvements like colour coding collection spots to show where the rarer items can be found which is very convenient, they didn't need to make changes to the gameplay like that but they did it anyway. This was some of the best value for money I've seen from a DLC.
Xenoblade chronicles HD please
I played that on PC (emulation) in 4K with hi res texture packs two or three years ago and it looked fantastic. I agree the least they can do is remaster it or give it an upres to 1080p for the Switch. Hope it happens!
Congrats
Like, what the fuck, bro?
How did you even know XBC will be remastered.
@@synthes3425 hahahahaha Im always wishing for remasters or remakes... next up is a Legen of Dragoon remake 🤣
@@kevinlopez555 That and Xenoblade Chronicles X. I hope your magic works again.
This game is on par with persona 5 and beats the core game in gameplay but acts a complimentary expansion to Xenoblade chronicles 2 that you understand the story of the main game more and understand jin, the paragon of Torna
........its not even close to Persona 5 or the first 2 xenoblade games.
@@devocrankseven1546
Opinions, man.
is definetly up there with P5
I think it's a far better game than Persona 5.
I think it's better than Persona 5. And I loved Persona 5.
The soundtrack is stupid good.
spent 25 hours in Torna and i love it
4:36 Some one who knows about fusion combos. That's how I know they understand the game combat.
@DarkSonic180 not really. Fusion combo is when a driver combo and blade combo is in effect at the same time.
@DarkSonic180 my little brother could understand the combat. It's really not convoluted at all. Auto attacks charge arts. Arts charge specials. Use increasingly higher specials for blade combos. After enough blade combos, chain attack. Chain attack enough rounds to full burst.
Driver combos operate independently. They are a status condition that Arts inflict. Break, which allows for Topple, which allows for Launch, which allows for Smash.
These are the two straightforward strategies in dealing damage. Fusion combo is just doing both at the same time.
If that's too convoluted for you to grasp, then yeah the game aint for you.
@@JP-zb3yb Shhh he doesn't have a brain to understand a complex battle system. That's why he plays a rolly polly spamming Dark Souls.
Gormott BGM, original and remix, is so far the best in the game
Its crazy how the "DLC" is actually a better game than the original.
This old school review style is great.
2:27 Haze missile
If the trimmed down combat from Torna was in the rest of the XBC2, I would actually finish it...but nevermind. Of course if you told me that Torra was just optional, and some other things were stripped away from the base game, I would attempt to finish it for sure.
I loved this DLC. That final boss was awesome with the siren fighting in the background.
After the main game we all knew the fate of Lorna ,Jin, Malos, Mythra, Adam, Amalthus and the entire country of Torna..
But NOTHING could prepare me for THAT ending...
Haha, when DLC gets a 8.0 rating, but a damn EA game cant get over a 7...
who buys EA games...other than brain dead fanboys
24 million fifa 18 sold against 1.5 Xenoblade Chronicles 2 sales
@@axis0316
Xenoblade is definetly a hit or miss game, but way better made than any Fifa. Any EA sports game is quantity over quality.
I got Xenoblade 2 last week, and I’m loving it. 45 hours on it already, and I also bought the dlc. Probably best game I played this year. Probably a 9 for me so far . Quite addictive. I still consider the fifa games to be great as well, maybe and 8 for fifa 19 on PS4.
Best soundtrack ever, imo.
A very purposeful "filling in"
yaaas
A excellent end to such an awesome Expansion, for a amazing game. Better then X that is for sure.
I'll buy this game. I'm a huge xeno nut!
One of the best games of 2018
good review
I wanna play Xeno 2 but even tho I have no problems gameplay-wise, I wish it was more real-time like Ni No Kuni 2. Just an opinion but still gonna give it a shot.
As someone who put 100+ hours into both I can say that they both feel good. NNK2 is faster than Xeno 2, but once you get a bit further into Xeno 2 they allow you to cancel abilities with other abilities and that makes the combat feel so much faster and better. And the whole chain attack system makes you think about how you attack certain stronger enemies, it's a well made system.
There's always Ys 8...
Played that immediately after Xenoblade 2...
You don't need to grind.
There is a bullet-time like combat system, reminiscent of Nier and Bayonetta.
Talking about Nier, you can see side quests actually affect what you can do in the game/affect the world/village you're in. Nier Automata's quests didn't really do this, but for how annoying half of those quests are + how endearing the others were coupled with the writing, I mean, they made more sense than base Xenoblade 2's outlandish and insane side quest stories like the damn Tranquility quest.
There is an actually useful journal system (albeit it has it's grammatical errors, but at least it's there, unlike in xenoblade 2 where, re-explaining mechanics is impossible, they give you a single page "hey stupid" hold-my-hand segment for more notable concepts like canceling and driver combos, which yeah, when you learn them, aren't hard, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around cancelling, and I already beat the main storyline and prepping my team for post game)
Digging through menus doesn't delay like in the base xenoblade 2 (haven't played torna, and I intend to, what with the music sounding oh so much better to me than the original game, do you hear that Gormott theme? Oof)
You can view what collection points, what drops are potentially offered, unlike base xenoblade 2
Like, Xenoblade 2 kept my attention for 140 hours, but man, was going to Ys 8 such a damn breath of fresh air that I definitely needed from the slow pace of Xenoblade 2...
There were things I liked in Xenoblade 2 like the complexity, but with all this emphasis on grinding, from affinity points, using timed Merc missions, grinding for core crystal and monster drops, salvaging for money, boosting development levels, having to exploit the system to improve your odds in gathering random drops, waiting for enemies to spawn or make their rounds for affinity charts, there are so many annoyances that I'm just like, AGH. Ive been hit with so many texture popin's terrible mouth syncing on the English voices, the quest bug where if you finish certain side quests with specials, your game freezes, and others...
Falcom, for a TWO YEAR OLD GAME doesn't suffer a lot of these issues (maybe attributed to little voice work, lower polygons and textures, separated maps to allow better load-ins) and with PROBABLY LESS THAN HALF THE BUDGET...
Xenoblade 2 has moments but AGH does it feel so aggravating... If it weren't for how insane the combat system was, I don't know how I would have kept at it, in the game...
But even that was too slow for me...
Then I'll thank morag's English voice actor for making her sound more real than her Japanese "I must make her sound like a man" voice...
I don't even know why she's my favorite character in the game... She just is... Maybe it's her Welsh voice... :/
Regardless, try Ys 8, it's an exploration action rpg that just... Feels better than Xenoblade 2... It doesn't have the Polish but at least it has common sense design decisions on it's UI, like a button re-map system,much easier to understand fast travel/map system, etc...
And you won't end up doing literally inane side quests like that one quest with the choir girl in Indol...ugg
I feel the opposite as you on Ys 8 vs Xenoblade 2. Ys 8, while it is very fast and fluid, feels very loose. It doesn't feel as satisfying defeating enemies and bosses in Ys 8 because I just hit and avoid getting hit, whereas Xenoblade 2 requires me to actually think and build my team to work well together. I have not needed to grind much in Xenoblade 2 either. Unless you are trying to finish every side quest. I do agree the side quests were not very well handled in the base game. At the very least, Torna does it much better.
Overall, Ys 8 is more of a middling game where it's good but not great and not awful, but Xenoblade 2 has moments where it's fantastic and moments where it's a slog, but overall I got way more out of Xenoblade 2 than Ys 8.
Speaking of gameplay wise, Xenoblade 2 starts off slow, but it gets faster as you unlock more abilities in your skill tree. Once I got to the part of the game where I get 3 party members, it felt quite fast for me. Just make sure you learn how to do driver and blade combos when those tutorials show up. When you learn how to do driver combos and blade combos at the same time (fusion combos), the combat gets quite involved and feels very satisfying. Or if you're still on the fence, you could start with Torna which has a faster combat and a faster pace in the story.
@@FF18Cloud I have played Y's games before and it gets repetitive over time. Not saying that is bad, is just a bit repetitive.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna: The Golden Country Review Scores:
Famitsu- 35/40
GameXplain- Likes-A-Lot!
MyNintendoNews- 9 out of 10
NintendoWorldReport- 8.5 out of 10
GoNintendo- An Adventure Well Worth Taking!
RPG Fan- 92%
Twinfinite- 4 out of 5 Great!
Luis Alamilla (TH-cam Channel)- 9 out of 10
NintendoLife- 9 out of 10 Excellent!
Opencritic- 83%
RPGamer- 4.5 out of 5
Jay RPG (TH-cam Channel)- Torna The Golden Country is Brilliant!
GamingBolt- 9 out of 10
TheSixthAxis- 9 out of 10
Wccftech- 8.5 out of 10
mynintendonews.com/2018/09/20/japan-xenoblade-chronicles-2-receives-an-award-for-excellence/
Is it just me, or does the screen look incredibly cluttered during combat? Great review as always Ben.
Holy sh*t Ben is on a review roll!
So good jones so good
Yeah... Was going great till I got to the padding section. No idea why publishers think this is ever a good idea. Just let the game end.
Have they ever used the 1-6 points in the 10 point scale? Why have scores out of 10 if half of the scale is never even going to be used?
Without corporate pressure, they tend to review games they are actually interested in instead of being obligated to review crap. Guess it happens that nearly everything they are interested in is good
wish you wouldn't mute the gameplay, would be nice to hear what the game sounds like (combat, sound effects, ambience, voices etc). Feels jarring not being able to hear anything of the game at all
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a fun game buried under a bunch of overly complex mechanics and systems imo. The music is outstanding and while the voice acting is charming, the nearly nonexisting lip sync pulled me out of many cutscenes where I was supposed to be all in. In the end I put about 120 hours into this game with what feels like little progress to show for it ultimately bringing me to the point where I watch the last bits of the story on youtube. :/
Beat it in 80 hours without doing that much of the side stuff.
Basically, it is pretty forgiving difficulty wise.
And the ending section is the best part of the game by far.
Yeah, the unability to simply ignore the grind is definitely my part of the problem. ;)
Where did you fell off on?
I believe it was after defeating those Phantasms in Chapter 7.
Wow Ben, slow down man!
damn ben
Good game but fuck those side quests
Man the music is amazing.
Pffff I bet if it was a ps4 exclusive you'd have given it a 9 or 10
That U.I. still looks cluttered and it still doesn’t look that visually impressive. From the perspective of an outsider, the older games looked better (more distinct).
Dude you should work ob your volume . Your voice is so quiet that when you transition to the next part the music nust blasts my ears off.
It saddens me that the appreciation for this game lies so far beyond my comprehension. Everything about it turns me off, and yet it is adored by many. This game makes me frustrated by my own personal taste.
Its ok to not like something others do, i found out that i can enjoy a game by watching walkthroughts rather than playing them, i recommend that for games you cant get into but you really like the lore or genre, etc.
8/10?
Bullshit review.
Should be 9 or 10?
Of course... 9.5 - 10 i think.
This DLC only reminds me of how annoying this game is. Stupid cutscene > dumb cutscene > loading screen > dumber cutscene > dialog section > frustratingly over-tedious task and so on. The only positives for me were the additions to the battle structure, the ability to skip the way too many meaningless and stupid cutscenes, and the addition of so much new content (which would be awesome if the game was done better).
I agree. To be fair, at least the soundtrack was great.
Okay, Brainless. Leave the complex games for the men and women with brains and go back to playing your 2K and Fortnite.
Fortnite and 2K? (I'm assuming you mean sports games). Men and women with brains? I don't like Fortnite or sports games and I can't imagine anyone with brains more advanced than a toddler could enjoy those terrible cutscenes which comprise more than half the game. And this game is more tedious than complex. But I'll stick to my BOTW and leave this tedious game to the men and women with the patience for poorly translated B-grade Japanese soap operas.
@@souljang So please, talk more shit about a game you know nothing about. You play BOTW. The only grind you need to know about is Wiki how to cook. Other than that, it's counter, dodge, hit, arrow. Then you have all this other shit like bombs and ice blocks and stopping time and taking that you won't use for 90% of the game that are pretty much useless once you beat the game and finish the puzzles, and then its just the same artificial difficulty of doing the same things and shrines over and over again with nothing complex to actually do and no vivid variety. Not requiring any more than 60 hours of gameplay.
@@souljang You know what Chain Attacks, Driver, Blade, Fusion Combos, Elemental Weakness, Core Chips, Affinity, Accessories, and AUX Cords are? Have you heard of Break, Topple, Launch, Smash?
Oh wait you probably never actually played the game... You're just a review sheep that doesn't know how to play complex RPGs so you stick with bland Dark Souls "rolly polly MASH MASH" basic games.
Xenoblade 2 was just meh.
It was my fav game if 2017, but hey! To each their own
How far did you get into it?
@@gatst7680
Play through it.
Sadly the Story could be good but to often the Story feels uneven with its Comedic Moments in serious story moments like the Maiden Mech bossfieght attack on the president.
Or the bad character designs like Pyra , her sluty design even don't fit her character.
Side Quest are medicore too.
And why has a 12 years old boy so many (I hate this word) Waifus in the end ?
And I don't even won't start with the shaky Framerate.
Sry I love this franchise but this game feels more like a generic anime.
Actually it wasn't "meh" at all. I guess you aren't a fan of quality jrpg's?
@@OrangeBox93
Nope I just played games like all Persona the games , most of the Dragon Quest and Tales and I love some of the best FF Games like 6,9,12 and Tactics.
Also I played and loved Xenogears and Blade 1 and X.
I just don't like medicore JRPGs who try to much to appeal to Otakus like Tokyo Mirage.
You know that a great JRPG is ?
Fucking Dragon Quest 11 this is with Persona 5 the best JRPG this Generation.......and tales of beseria and Ys 8.
I bought the expansion pass back in March as a birthday present to myself, I still need to start playing the Golden Country story, I just have many things to play through.