Xenoblade Chronicles (Aug 19th)

Previously announced at E3 2009 as Monado, this is Tetsuya Takahashi's next major RPG project due for release on the Wii in Japan in Spring 2010.

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

Source: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library...100129/06.html

Tetsuya Takahashi's wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsuya_Takahashi

I could have used the other thread for this game, but lazy and I would like to start fresh and get all hyped up for this game

Also on main site for this game, music sound AWESOME!!!

Feel like playing Xenogears, Xenosaga I,II and III as well as Baten Kaitos Origins all over again xD

Spring 2010? Expect details at GDC in March. Yes. Expect it.

...

God damn it. I'm starting to get hyped. I don't even really like RPGs. D:

I'm fucking HYPED!!! I love all of the games that Tetsuya has been involved with

I only wished Soma Bringer got an english release

EDIT: Have not been this excited since I heard the news of Dragon Quest X coming on the Wii so yeah.....*Explodes*

Hells yea, I've been waiting to hear what Monolith was up to, and that looks like an epic battle.

Hypemachine GO!

*head explodes due to RPG goodness*

Never played any of the "Xeno" games that came out in the past so it looks like I'll be jumping in here. Good job Monolith have been beavering away at an RPG behind the scenes.

Never played any of the "Xeno" games that came out in the past so it looks like I'll be jumping in here. Good job Monolith have been beavering away at an RPG behind the scenes.

Only a name.

"At E3 2009 it was announced with a temporary name, "Monado: Beginning of the World." We decided to call it XENOBLADE to honor Mr. Tetsuya Takahashi who poured his soul into making this and who has been working on the XENO series."

What happened to the Monado thread?

When I feen seen Monado at E3 it first reminded me of PSO. Been waiting for news ever since then.

Still gagging for an online co-op RPG.

Scans:

Looks pretty I guess...can't really tell much.

*Squints*

Nope, I can't really tell. Though the locales do look quite diverse, which is nice.

HQ scans

Source: True-Gaming

Interesting Interview as well...

-The entire game world is set on the top of the corpses of these two gods

Exploration of the world looks like it could be one of the game's charms. Takahashi said that he hopes players will simply walk around in search of special unexplored areas which have beautiful settings. You'll get experience for just finding these. Some areas include monsters that can't be defeated at first. Once you've powered your character up, you'll want to return to take on those beasts.

 

While most of this first interview was about Xenoblade's world setting, Takahashi also shared a few details on the Xenoblade battle system. Enemies in Xenoblade roam the fields alongside you. Encounter an enemy, and the game will transition seamlessly into battle. Takahashi explained that he didn't want make the game transition from field to battle in typical RPG style.

 

Since battles take place on the same fields across which you and the enemies roam, you'll find that nearby enemies will join in on the battle. As a strategy, you'll want to engage in battle in areas where there aren't any other enemies.

 

Your main character will adventure alongside two AI-controlled party members. Your character performs his attacks automatically while you watch the action and select special skills, known as "arts." Arts include attack skills, recovery skills and so forth, and are learned as you progress through the game.

More about the interview

Looks really beautiful!... maybe even a better overworld than Monster Hunter 3!

-The entire game world is set on the top of the corpses of these two gods

That's just win.

- "The world setting, story and other elements have no relation (to past Xeno games). It's a completely new title." - Xenoblade director Tetsuya Takahashi

- Takahashi feels that past Monolith titles have focused on events and scenarios, and this development path was a dead end

- Xenoblade started off with the dev team examining the origins of the RPG genre, and creating a game that was simply fun

- Why does this game have 'Xeno' in the title? "I wanted to to have some sort of common point with the games I've made."

- "Xeno" has the meaning of "different nature" or "uniqueness"

- the 'blade' portion of the name is explained in the game's ending

- background story involves two gods that fought a great battle tens of thousands of years ago

- the end of this battle resulted in two giant corpses, which happen to be the setting for this game

- "It seemed like it would be enjoyable to adventure on top of the body of a giant god." h

- Mr. Takahashi was inspired by Soma Bringer for his giant god idea, and started to work on design documents right away

- a model of the two gods (one with wings) was created in order to better give a sense of what's going on

- the two gods are frozen in battle, with swords clashing against one another

- the model was created before game development began. "It was of great help when explaining the project to Nintendo."

- the entire game takes place on the two gods, and you'll find nothing but ocean surrounding them. There's not even any outer space to speak of.

- the game world is about the size of Japan

- areas of the world open up as you explore

- you'll be able to go inside one of the gods

- verticality is a big part of Xenoblade. "From the start of the project, we thought it would be interesting if we could make use of a vertical construction."

- Areas of the world correspond to parts of the gods' bodies

- you'll also experience different weather and varied monster ecolog

- you can head to the top of one of the gods to see an aurora

- the people that live on the different gods are fighting with each other

- one god is a home to organic life (where the main character is from), and the other is home to mechanical life

- story beginning: "It's simple -- the fight against mechanical life that threatens the peace of mankind."

- the game kicks off in a cave on the foot of one god

- your aim is to make it to the god's head

- the game keeps track of where you should be going for both the main quest and side quests

- use warps to transport back to older areas

- specific systems in place to keep you from getting lost

- seamless world movement: "We've put effort into this, because we felt that in order to show a living world, we needed an overwhelming sense of scale, like that of an MMORPG."

- gain experience for exploring special areas that include monsters that can't be defeated at first. Level up and return to take these foes down.

- enemies visible in the game world, encounter one and you seamlessly transition to battle

- nearby enemies can join in on battles

- journey with two AI-controlled characters

- select special skills (called Arts) for your AI party members

- your character performs attacks automatically

- Arts - attack skills, recovery skills and more

- 50 to 60 hours of gameplay

- Takahashi promises you won't spend endless amounts of time grinding or engaging in event scenes

Sounds awesome.

the game world is about the size of Japan

Say what...

holy crap thats a pretty look game from the scans. About time that wii power was used.

Say what...

Japan size is 374,744 SQ KM and this game is said to be 60 hours long.

Sounds like a pretty small game then.

Sounds like a pretty small game then.

..........

.......

....

...

..

.

.

.

Lets put this in perspective. Oblivion, is said to be approximately 16 square miles, or (according to wikipedia) 41 square kilometers. If you've ever played Oblivion you'd know that those 40SQ KM are absolutely huge, so the size of Japan is quite ridiculous large.

Is my sarcasm really so bad that people believe what I say?

Sarcasm comes across poorly when using the interwebs. It's best to avoid or make painfully obvious.

I hope this shuts up people who whine about "no good rpg's". This looks FAR more interesting than the heap of boring looking shite that FFXIII is.

This looks extremely sexy. I'm tingling.

We won't see this for a while guys...60+ hours gameplay! Imagine the text which needs to be translated for Europe! Not good! Looks brill though!