It is probably worth watching some of the (excellent) gameplay trailers for Xenoblade on youtube. I am new to this genre (although have played my fair share of "western" RPG's) and am really enjoying the game. It is has deep complex mechanics but doesn't do a very good job of introducing many of them though. Not a massive problem if you are willing to put the time in but can be off putting to newer players (my wife, an avid gamer, just can't get into it).
Get past all of that though and you are in for a treat.
Part of the reason why I've not played it yet. I've ordered the guide, which should go into detail on mechanics and the like, but it's not arrived so it's been a hassle trying to get that sorted.
I've also finally run out of space on my WiiU, surprising it took this long considering I have quite a few games and I've had it for a while. I'm installing the Xenoblade Chronicles X data packs onto a USB 3.0 memory stick after I discovered that the WiiU can't actually use the SD card in the SD slot for WiiU stuff (only for Wii stuff). Will the loading times be too slow or should I buy a hard drive? Strangely both the download and installation have been slow. That said, it's usually slow.
I'm waiting till I have room to set-up my PS4 so I can buy an external HD and upgrade the PS4 storage, while using the default 500GB drive to store things for my WiiU. My current external drives all have data on them and I use them on my PC. WiiU needs to format the data for itself, so it's not compatible with PC NTSC drives.
I voted for her!
I didn't vote for her but of the reveals, I was most happy about this one. I was expecting her to have been in the game from the start anyway, she seems perfect for Smash Bros. I voted for Wolf, he was one of my favourites from the previous game and I was sad to see him not return. I'm chuffed Bayonetta made it into the game though, I like her Smash attacks. The combo nature of her character seems cool, but having the chance to jump after the up special and do another up special sounds a bit OP. Granted the up special likely doesn't have much travel distance. I bet Bayonetta will be the opposite to Little Mac, she'll be queen of the skies and dominate the aerial game. Little Mac players beware, Bayonetta is coming for you!
However, the flipside of the coin is the horrible pricing. I found
this random article which sums up my thoughts. As much as I enjoy Smash Bros, I'm not liking the way they are doing the DLC for this game. Folks complain about how bad the DLC and season pass for Star Wars Battlefront is, yet Smash Bros and Nintendo get a free pass. And I do understand the large development costs associated with these characters, but if they are too pricey to develop, then perhaps they should have stuck with easier to produce DLC. There's always the argument that not everybody wants every character and that there's too many characters anyway. But we all know that most folks will want all the characters, take a look at how addictive collecting Amiibo is for many folks.
It's my opinion that DLC done reasonably is a good thing. The total sum of DLC shouldn't exceed the total price of the original game (at release), unless the DLC has a significant amount content and is more like a paid expansion. I.e. the full (including DLC) content of a game shouldn't exceed double the price of the game itself. A £40 game shouldn't have more than £40 of DLC. Non-cosmetic DLC shouldn't be produced before a game's release, but the framework to allow production can be done. On the other hand, badly priced DLC can be detrimental to the game itself, look at the backlash certain games have gotten for micro-transactions and badly done DLC.
Nintendo has done some good DLC with Mario Kart and Splatoon, but they dropped the ball here. The characters alone would set one back roughly £40. For the cost of just two of these characters, I could buy Fast racing Neo, heck for all of them I could buy Mario Tennis or some other full priced game. And the worst bit is that they are worth slightly less than the regular characters, as they don't have custom moves. I was disappointed when I found out I couldn't customise Mewtwo as much as the other characters.
Such a shame Nintendo. These past couple of years they've been giving me more reason to be cynical and negative, I really wish they wouldn't. A reasonably priced season pass or something for Smash and those of us upset by this might just forgive them (and buy said season pass too = profit for Nintendo).
(unless you're buying them for 3DS too), and you do get 3 stages too.
