Official Newcomer/DLC Speculation Discussion

[Guybrush20X6]

Out of curiosity, where would you guys rank K Rool in the tier list?

Depends on the level of play. I'd still say he's top tier against visiting 10 year olds.

 

[Calamitas]

Yeah yeah, we get it. XB2 is the literal anti-christ and Rex and Pyra getting in would be the worst thing to happen to Ultimate possible.

Ah, you finally get it! Good.

View attachment 243558

Hey, let's be fair. With you mentioning fur armor and anime, it just works.

I wouldn't say filler, but they do have anime tropes, just from different genres and times.

X's Issue is more that the game is only really the first act of a story. It sets up the world, conflict, and characters before telling you there's a bigger problem and then the game ends. It's a good game, but the side content is where it shines, not the main story. If there were sequels that took the worldbuilding and went somewhere with it I might feel differently.

If X gets those sequels, I could see Elma being a lot more popular with people and potentially showing up more prominently in crossovers, etc. Her premise (and that of Xenoblade X) is good. It just needs more time in the cooker.

I mean, I don't disagree, but my point was about filler, not overall story quality or influence of anime tropes.
(Also side note but I'd argue that the side content and main story content are pretty much of equal importance to game's overall narrative)

 

[Rie Sonomura]

I wouldn't say filler, but they do have anime tropes, just from different genres and times.

X's Issue is more that the game is only really the first act of a story. It sets up the world, conflict, and characters before telling you there's a bigger problem and then the game ends. It's a good game, but the side content is where it shines, not the main story. If there were sequels that took the worldbuilding and went somewhere with it I might feel differently.

If X gets those sequels, I could see Elma being a lot more popular with people and potentially showing up more prominently in crossovers, etc. Her premise (and that of Xenoblade X) is good. It just needs more time in the cooker.

What if X got a Definitive Edition like XB1 that does flesh out this first act just a smidge more? There’s some straight up unexplained things in it too like the Neilnails/Qlurians in general

also implied X spoilers

Spoiler

at one point Celica was planned to have been able to join before chapter 10, as she and Lao have post battle banter together

 

[Lamperouge]

Uh-huh. What's some instances of filler in the main stories of 1 and X, then?

Rescuing Juju, the High Entia tomb, killing the Telethia in Makna Forest, and the starting areas of Mechonis come to mind.

I haven't played X, yet, but I've heard that the story doesn't really go anywhere.

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

I mean, I don't disagree, but my point was about filler, not overall story quality or influence of anime tropes.
(Also side note but I'd argue that the side content and main story content are pretty much of equal importance to game's overall narrative)

Oops. I probably should've quoted the other post instead.

I agree on the side content, especially since that's where a lot of the worldbuilding and characterization come from. It still doesn't change that the game sets up for a lot of stuff that should happen later and raises a lot of questions that need the story to go further to be answered. I just think that we're looking at something akin to The Fellowship of the Ring without knowing whether we'll get the other two books. And Lord of the Rings is good stuff, but it needs all three books to be complete.

What if X got a Definitive Edition like XB1 that does flesh out this first act just a smidge more? There’s some straight up unexplained things in it too like the Neilnails/Qlurians in general

I would like that. I'm not sure if that would remedy the situation for me personally in the way that a sequel would, but it would give the game more of an audience, and that's always a good step.

 

[KatKit]

I said 'etc.' because we can honestly do this forever, but if y'all want to, I'm down for turning this into the 'videogame anime swordswomen not from FE' hype thread for a bit.

The most slept on Capcom character.

Spoiler

A slept on Sega antagonist.

Spoiler

Retro Bandai Namco love:

Spoiler

Because the games have way more depth and variety than they probably should.

Spoiler

Because French Bread deserves love like ArcSys:

Spoiler

An awesome and popular Nihon Falcom character.

Spoiler

Because these gals need an Empress to guide them:

Spoiler

Because a Warriors (Dynasty or Orochi) rep would be neat:

Spoiler

 

[Deleted member]

I know you said this a while ago, but my god did I spend way too much time having to defend the merits of Dragon Quest as an inclusion to the Geno thread and ironically having to explain the popularity of a series that is more niche to the general public in the west, but heavily supported by a core dedicated fan base still has merit (and not to mention how many times I had to bring up Dragon Quest as, you know, a Japanese cultural phenomenon that makes a ton of sense to include in a Japanese developed game by a fan of Japanese gaming that wants to make a Japanese video game hall of fame in his Japanese crossover fighting game). Being a fan of Dragon Quest and Geno was kind of suffering for a long while and I generally felt embarrassed to be a Geno fan during that time period. In general being a "centrist" Geno fan (I hate to use that because of how it has certain connotations these days, but it describes me best as a fan of Geno and lots of other properties and Square Enix characters at this point) ends up getting me in a lot of trouble and discussions having to defend either Geno or some other bigger series...



I feel like the budget concerns is more of just Nintendo telling Sakurai he has to have a stopping point on DLC somewhere, as in he can't get 30 songs from Sugiyama's expensive *** or that he can't spend money making 3 different movesets for Joker and his different Personas. I think it's more of a limitation so that he doesn't go absolutely insane with everything and has to actually get things done in a reasonable amount of time. I mean, what we've got as far as DLC is already stunning as hell, especially compared to Smash 4, so it's clearly still a meaty budget that Sakurai is taking full advantage of.

I'd say the Fighter's Pass is selling quite well, and Nintendo is more than willing to give Sakurai the money for another Fighter's Pass or additional fighters as long as they're selling well and Ultimate is the "in" Smash game (so basically until they decide another Smash needs to be made). The budget is just there as an upper limit so that they're not just continually pouring more money into Sakurai's insane vision for the game (cause I mean, they have clearly already given him truck loads to make Ultimate happen as it did). It's why I think they can probably continue DLC for a while longer than just another pass. Sakurai wants to do it. It sells well and the fans want it. There's no reason to be investing in a future Smash Bros. title since you wouldn't want one until the next system and that's still a few years away. Nintendo likes the huge press and continued hype that feeds into Smash as an evergreen title that keeps selling and then promotes all of their other titles. And they'll only get to do all of these huge crossovers this one time more than likely. So yeah, as someone who expected just the original Fighter's Pass when Sakurai was talking in his book, I've starkly changed my stance when they went all in on more fighters. And personally, I really hope they continue the passes so we keep getting loads of additional content and I just have to make a one time purchase.

Also, Lloyd is my pick as Tales is another big Japanese IP I want in Smash and he actually does do pretty well on polls too, so he's a wanted character. But I've got no issue with KOS-MOS and she's a way to promote the Xenoblade series through a third party, so either one would make me happy at this point. And Tekken just seems too big to ignore at a certain point haha.



You know you can't sub out an Echo for full fighters, right? If this was going to be accurate you'd have to sub Akuma or Sakura for Ken to make this work.

God, I know, right? It made me insanely embarrassed to be a Geno fan. Having to defend the Geno fan base by saying we weren't all that bad was irritating. Having to defend Erdrick and his fans because of how iconic and deserving DQ is was irritating. They were things that shouldn't have had to have been done, The instant pot shots taken at Erdrick were terrible, and the good Geno fans were thrown under the bus by the bad ones painting a terrible look over them. Nothing was okay and it was all stupid.

I'm so glad we're over that now. Besides, Hero was a pretty great addition to the roster. Yeah, I'm hoping Geno comes back someday, too, but I'm not about to denounce Hero just because he's not Geno. You gotta admit that he's pretty freaking cool and Munchie is THE CUTEST EVER.

Yeah. You guys stood your ground at least respecting Dragon Quest and its fans, and I appreciated that.

 

[ALongWistfulSquiggle]

I said 'etc.' because we can honestly do this forever, but if y'all want to, I'm down for turning this into the 'videogame anime swordswomen not from FE' hype thread for a bit.

Because French Bread deserves love like ArcSys:

I'm down for some French Bread love.

On the swordswomen front, may I nominate Ms. Edea Lee?

 

[Deleted member]

I'm down for some French Bread love.

On the swordswomen front, may I nominate Ms. Edea Lee?

You just summoned Gentlepanda

 

[Rie Sonomura]

Hey so

didn’t Vergeben say he would be looking into some rumors while corroborating Sabi that neither Crash nor Hayabusa were FP5 for certain? He said the investigation would take a couple days or something, I think. Has he said anything yet?

 

[3BitSaurus]

Hey so

didn’t Vergeben say he would be looking into some rumors while corroborating Sabi that neither Crash nor Hayabusa were FP5 for certain? He said the investigation would take a couple days or something, I think. Has he said anything yet?

That's what we're all waiting for. He said that piece about Hayabusa two days ago and then went silent.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

Out of curiosity, where would you guys rank K Rool in the tier list?

I believe he's considered to be the worst heavy in the game.

Rescuing Juju, the High Entia tomb, killing the Telethia in Makna Forest, and the starting areas of Mechonis come to mind.

I haven't played X, yet, but I've heard that the story doesn't really go anywhere.

It goes places, but it's not as gripping as the stories that Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 tell, and Lao is the only character that's explored in any capacity (Elma is the only other character with a standout moment) because his affinity missions are required to continue the main story. It's a shame really, from what I've heard these characters are actually really good. I only did H.B.'s affinity missions, but they managed to take my perception of him from "what a prick" to "this is legitimately my favorite character in the game".

 

[KatKit]

The main story explained things and definitely had its moments, but Xenoblade X was all about the side quests (no joke).

 

[Goombaic]

The main story explained things and definitely had its moments, but Xenoblade X was all about the side quests (no joke).

I don't think there's been any other Nintendo game that has made me care about the minor characters more than Xenoblade X. For having very little screentime, some of those NPCs had more character development than 95% of Nintendo characters.

 

[SKX31]

Out of curiosity, where would you guys rank K Rool in the tier list?

Bottom, and to go into more detail as to why:

* His projectiles have big weaknesses. The crown is one of his best move, but he can lose it - and the opponent can pick it up and hold it, nullifying Side B until he gets it back. The opponent can choose to toss it back (starting the opponent's combo potentially), upwards (to irritate K Rool further) or hold it while still doing B moves. Sure, good K Rools can still defend by avoiding or shielding - but the K Rool needs to mind game at a disadvantage here. Ditto the blunderbuss - laggy afterwards and the vacuum can be countered by an aerial or even Smashes. His other mechanic, the Belly Armor, can also be a major blessing and a curse.

* He lacks the speed - especially in the air - to really push any advantage he gets. Compare Bowser, who can easily become a terror in good hands because those aerials hurt and are relatively safe. Yes, K Rool has a really strong back air, but if he misses he is open to be punished. Thus, any advantage he gets quickly becomes "lets get back to Square 1" unless K Rool gets a KO.

* Related to the above, but he's sorta vurnerable from the above. UpSmash / UTilt's his best options, but those are only sorta fast and can be wonky. UAir is weeird and currently a pretty bad move overall, since it accomplishes not much. UpB's good for cheeky kills, but it's obvious and the K Rool needs to hard commit for that one. Likewise, his Up-B's very vurnerable if the opponent know how to counter it (if the opponent doesn't, he's safe).

I feel that he could be a good or great character just by reducing his lag a bit or giving his aerials a bit more utility, really. His biggest strengths are that he can force reactions and his grab game - he just doesn't have many tools to follow up unless the opponent makes a mistake.

 

[Gentlepanda]

You just summoned Gentlepanda

plushiedea in the newcomer thread

it's ok tho, she just vibin

 

[Senatiator]

OTOH I could see Sony (even if reluctantly) agree to a side game or a port of an older game if it means a Smash appareance. Yes, even when it comes to the big guns. There are a couple things worth noting:

* PlayStation AllStars is dead and buried. Yea, Battle Royale didn't exactly get off the ground running - but what sunk it IMHO was the Coke Zero sponsored mobile game Island. Sony doesn't have a competitor to Smash alive, so it's either Smash or nothing, Likewise, Sony's direct competitor nowadays is Microsoft - not Nintendo. Sony doesn't have a handheld, Nintendo doesn't have a 4K power machine.

* Sony recently (and quietly) agreed to crossplay. We'll see if this is just a PS4 thing or it'll continue into the PS5, but that's gnawed at them for a bit too long. Microsoft - and Nintendo - got a lot of mileage out of that, and I doubt Sony wants to lose more ground on that front.

* Sakurai saying "Banjo Kazooie is currently available on the Xbox One" is not the first time. What with Metal Gear Solid 4 being a PS3 exclusive and Brawl still pushing MGS4 quite a bit. If there's one developer who could concievably approach Sony it's Sakurai.

Even Sony's dormant or more minor franchises are notable - Sly I'd argue is around as popular as B-K overall (outside of Smash) if not slightly bigger. Gravity Rush's in a decent position, Medievil got a remake recently and even though LBP's dormant it's still a recognizable series,

Whether Master Chief getting in or not will be key, since if he does Sony will be on the outside looking in while Nintendo and Microsoft goes all in on Smash. Steve would also be a similar warning shot for Sony, and it becomes a question of "Get nothing and watch your two competitors gain a ton" or "Watch your two competitor gain a ton, but also gain quite a bit by getting your characters in Ultimate (and promote your own game) as well".

Not saying Sony getting in is likely - I know it's very unlikely. Especially since Microsoft has one of Nintendo's former second parties, something Sony doesn't have. I'm saying that the groundwork's partly laid already for a potential turnaround.



*Looks at Nathan's PSASBR moveset*

*Sees concrete barriers, oil drums, tranqs, ziplines and stone pillars. In case Sakurai vetoes real life guns.*

Turns out there's actually something there for a potentially interesting moveset.

Well, it is “recent” if you want to ignore Final Fantasy XI, Street Fighter V, and a whole bunch of games. Oh, look Phantasy Star Online 2 supports cross play and it is on the Switch and it features Kat and Raven from Gravity Rush in it. Kat and Raven has good chances now. Also, Q*bert is a Sony character with games on the SNES and Game Boy Color. It’s time to support Q*bert. Sony is publishing Tiny Metal on the Nintendo Switch, if Nintendo can’t produce an Advanced War game on the Nintendo Switch at least Sony is able to produce something similar.

 

[Sysreq]

Well, it is “recent” if you want to ignore Final Fantasy XI, Street Fighter V, and a whole bunch of games. Oh, look Phantasy Star Online 2 supports cross play and it is on the Switch and it features Kat and Raven from Gravity Rush in it. Kat and Raven has good chances now. Also, Q*bert is a Sony character with games on the SNES and Game Boy Color. It’s time to support Q*bert. Sony is publishing Tiny Metal on the Nintendo Switch, if Nintendo can’t produce an Advanced War game on the Nintendo Switch at least Sony is able to produce something similar.

Oh come on, you know SKX31 was talking about the more recent events where Sony wouldn't allow crossplay on Minecraft, Fortnite, and Rocket League and everyone was putting them on blast for it. The CEO even said PS4 is the best place to play stuff.

 

[SMAASH! Puppy]

also implied X spoilers

Spoiler

at one point Celica was planned to have been able to join before chapter 10, as she and Lao have post battle banter together

Could have been added just in case people modded the game or if they changed their mind. It's similar to how there are unused voice clips in MvCI where characters are shouting random names of characters not in the game; just in case they're added later.

 

[3BitSaurus]

Having a Gravity Rush Challenger Pack would be funny considering that it has a scrapped stage in PSASBR.

 

[Michael the Spikester]

Imagine if we got a direct announced on Monday or Tuesday coming out on Thursday and alongside when Terry gets released in November. Morrigan Aensland gets announced as DLC fighter 5.

How would you all react? How would you feel about her being the final character of this Pass?

 

[Senatiator]

Oh come on, you know SKX31 was talking about the more recent events where Sony wouldn't allow crossplay on Minecraft, Fortnite, and Rocket League and everyone was putting them on blast for it. The CEO even said PS4 is the best place to play stuff.

They all have “recent events” like Capcom treating Megaman like garbage and “on-disc DLC” and Konami with Pachinko machines from now on and stop producing console games and delist themselves from the stock market but they still showed up for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It is as Yuji Naka said it: “yesterday’s enemy, today’s friend.”

 

[DrifloonEmpire]

I said 'etc.' because we can honestly do this forever, but if y'all want to, I'm down for turning this into the 'videogame anime swordswomen not from FE' hype thread for a bit.

I guess I'll contribute my personal choices!

Gonna start with a rather obvious choice with a great booming voice!

Spoiler

Though here we have another very worthy choice, a champion renown for the ages!

Spoiler

But who can forget the classics? Gotta throw in the most uniquely designed of the trio!

Spoiler

Or, if we wanna go a completely different route and confuse the ever living **** out of everyone (including myself) xP :

Spoiler

All prime candidates for Fighter #5!

 

[Sysreq]

Imagine if we got a direct announced on Monday or Tuesday coming out on Thursday and alongside when Terry gets released in November. Morrigan Aensland gets announced as DLC fighter 5.

How would you all react? How would you feel about her being the final character of this Pass?

I would be moderately hype. I like Morrigan as a character and even have the first DS (it's not very good though).

They all have “recent events” like Capcom treating Megaman like garbage and “on-disc DLC” and Konami with Pachinko machines from now on and stop producing console games and delist themselves from the stock market but they still showed up for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It is as Yuji Naka said it: “yesterday’s enemy, today’s friend.”

Uhh okay. Don't know what that has to do with the crossplay issues mentioned but sure.

 

[Plank08]

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

 

[Michael the Spikester]

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

Kratos, Kineticlops, Nariko, Kat, Sir Daniel Fortesque

 

[Flyboy]

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

PaRappa, Kat, Sack Thing, Kratos, and a character representing the world of Wipeout.

1. Invented rhythm games, a character I'm very fond of

2. Super unique surprise pick with great aesthetics

3. The first two LBP games are classics and ones I've played for hundreds of hours. Unusual mechanics and very cute

4. Sony's crossover poster boy, and especially the new version of Kratos with Atreyus would be HYPE

5. My purely selfish pick - I LOVE the Wipeout series and while it wasn't always Sony-exclusive (shoutouts to Wipeout 64) Wipeout HD Fury is my favorite racing game ever made. The brands of cars have had pilots shown in concept art, so one based on the Feizar class that uses car weapons like the leech beam and mines and cannons would make a great counterpoint to Captain Falcon.

 

[Plank08]

PaRappa, Kat, Sack Thing, Kratos, and a character representing the world of Wipeout.

1. Invented rhythm games, a character I'm very fond of

2. Super unique surprise pick with great aesthetics

3. The first two LBP games are classics and ones I've played for hundreds of hours. Unusual mechanics and very cute

4. Sony's crossover poster boy, and especially the new version of Kratos with Atreyus would be HYPE

5. My purely selfish pick - I LOVE the Wipeout series and while it wasn't always Sony-exclusive (shoutouts to Wipeout 64) Wipeout HD Fury is my favorite racing game ever made. The brands of cars have had pilots shown in concept art, so one based on the Feizar class that uses car weapons like the leech beam and mines and cannons would make a great counterpoint to Captain Falcon.

sack THING?!??!?!?!

 

[Sysreq]

I guess I'll contribute my personal choices!

Gonna start with a rather obvious choice with a great booming voice!

Spoiler

View attachment 243570

Though here we have another very worthy choice, a champion renown for the ages!

Spoiler

View attachment 243571

But who can forget the classics? Gotta throw in the most uniquely designed of the trio!

Spoiler

View attachment 243572

Or, if we wanna go a completely different route and confuse the ever living **** out of everyone (including myself) xP :

Spoiler

View attachment 243573

All prime candidates for Fighter #5!

I notice none of those happen to be women and only one anime lol

 

[Spongeboob]

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

Sackboy, Kratos, Ratchet & Clank, Kat, and either Sweet Tooth or PaRappa.

 

[SKX31]

Well, it is “recent” you want to ignore Final Fantasy XI, Street Fighter V, and a whole bunch of games. Oh, look Phantasy Star Online 2 supports cross play and it is on the Switch and it features Kat and Ravenfrom Gravity Rush in it. Kat and Raven has good chances now. Also, Q*bert is a Sony character with games on the SNES and Game Boy Color. It’s time to support Q*bert. Sony is publishing Tiny Metal on the Nintendo Switch, if Nintendo can’t produce an Advanced War game on the Nintendo Switch at least Sony is able to produce something similar.

Damn, was hoping Tiny Metal would be a Twitsted Metal spin off. Would love to have Sweet Tooth get in on that technicality.

TBF didn't know about those honestly and forgot about Q*Bert completely. TBH he should've been in PSASBR, but that's a very long list (including the characters who were considered / in development: Chun Li, Sub-Zero, possibly Ryuabusa, Tomba and Legend of the Dragoon's Dart).

The crossplay thing still stands though as Sysreq said. It's a real stance Sony took, despite the previous crossplay efforts and the backlash (initially). It's telling that Microsoft used that as an opportunity to boost themselves and even Nintendo benefited from that flub. Sony's competitors took an inch and gained a lot of mileage out of it. And Sony's left to reconsider their stances even if they're the leader.

I still feel that Q*Bert's a bit too unlikely - I'd be singing a different tune if Q*Bert had more going for him recently. Anecdotally, TIL there's a recently released mobile game. I also feel that Gravity Rush is in that weird "Master Chief as a MineCraft costume = Smash eligible?" territory since they're costumes in PSO2. At least unless something more substantial is on the way.

Still, I do agree on the larger point that Sony's more or less worth watching out for (especially with the industry landscape changing and Nintendo no longer being Sony's nor Microsoft's direct competitor, only indirect. ).

Having a Gravity Rush Challenger Pack would be funny considering that it has a scrapped stage in PSASBR.

Also, since Kat's the best character bar none in PSASBR (Brawl MK tier if not better).

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

Sly Cooper
Kat
Kratos
Sweet Tooth
Nariko or Ratchet / Clank

Honestly Sony has a very interesting bench if they ever choose to go for it.

Imagine if we got a direct announced on Monday or Tuesday coming out on Thursday and alongside when Terry gets released in November. Morrigan Aensland gets announced as DLC fighter 5.

How would you all react? How would you feel about her being the final character of this Pass?

I'd be really happy about that, but I'd also be having PTSD-esque flashbacks to the Soul Fist spam back in the UMVC3 days.

 

[Plank08]

Sackboy, Kratos, Ratchet & Clank, Kat, and either Sweet Tooth or PaRappa.

Oh my god I forgot ratchet and clank! I’ll Replace toro with them

 

[Flyboy]

sack THING?!??!?!?!

You're a fan, you should know the new name LBP2 gave them!

 

[Plank08]

You're a fan, you should know the new name LBP2 gave them!

His name is and will forever be sackBOY(or girl)

 

[The_Naraotor]

Imagine if we got a direct announced on Monday or Tuesday coming out on Thursday and alongside when Terry gets released in November. Morrigan Aensland gets announced as DLC fighter 5.

How would you all react? How would you feel about her being the final character of this Pass?

A Nintendo Direct is coming soon ? sorry didn't follow that much the rumour and grain of salt recently. What's the most predicted characters to date ?

 

[Gentlepanda]

everybody gansta til the smash cross appears and left bank two starts playing

 

[Rie Sonomura]

A Nintendo Direct is coming soon ? sorry didn't follow that much the rumour and grain of salt recently. What's the most predicted characters to date ?

it's just speculation, like what IF a direct were to come soon

if anything though, i have a feeling a direct will come the second week of november as nov 1 falls on a friday and iirc they never do anything on friday

 

[Gentlepanda]

terry presentation nov 5, release nov 6

i beat masahiro sakurai at smash brothers in his own house and he told me this very secret info

 

[Calamitas]

Rescuing Juju, the High Entia tomb, killing the Telethia in Makna Forest, and the starting areas of Mechonis come to mind.

I haven't played X, yet, but I've heard that the story doesn't really go anywhere.

Spoiler: Xenoblade spoilers and all that

• Rescuing Juju is directly related to the Xord's arc, which in turn heavily foreshadows the nature of Faced Mechon.
• The Telethia in Makna Forest establishes the High Entia's connection to the Telethia from the get-go, which in itself ties into literally the first thing that Zanza does after killing Meyneth.
• The High Entia tomb mostly ties into Melia's character arc, and has more hints about the Telethia. I'll admit though, this one comes the closest to being filler.
• The early areas of the Mechonis don't really have much story, and still follow the overall plot of reaching Egil in Agniratha.

By filler, I mean story segments that you could literally cut from the story without really negatively impacting the entire rest of it, and none of these four really fit all that well. Now contrast that with Vandham's entire existance, the return trip to Gormott, Bana's return and most of Elpys in 2. No matter how you slice it, Vandham literally has no impact on the story of 2.

Oops. I probably should've quoted the other post instead.

I agree on the side content, especially since that's where a lot of the worldbuilding and characterization come from. It still doesn't change that the game sets up for a lot of stuff that should happen later and raises a lot of questions that need the story to go further to be answered. I just think that we're looking at something akin to The Fellowship of the Ring without knowing whether we'll get the other two books. And Lord of the Rings is good stuff, but it needs all three books to be complete.

Yeah, that's fair enough. From what I recall, they had to seriously scale back the overall scope of X, due to what I assume is a mixture of them being too ambitious, and the Wii U just needing games.

It goes places, but it's not as gripping as the stories that Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 tell, and Lao is the only character that's explored in any capacity (Elma is the only other character with a standout moment) because his affinity missions are required to continue the main story. It's a shame really, from what I've heard these characters are actually really good. I only did H.B.'s affinity missions, but they managed to take my perception of him from "what a prick" to "this is legitimately my favorite character in the game".

Lin honestly also has her moments. I mean, she is required for pretty much every main story mission, after all.

The main story explained things and definitely had its moments, but Xenoblade X was all about the side quests (no joke).

Pretty much my point. There's a reason why the game presents its main story in this mission structure, just like the side content. I'd honestly argue that the main story of the game is moreso about humanity establishing itself on Mira, rather than the conflict with the Ganglion. That is just a part of it.

 

[shinhed-echi]

GAME SHOW TIME!!:
If Sony wanted to play ball and allowed a whole fighter pass of 5 characters, who would you pick?
I would pick Sackboy(Obviously), Kratos, Parappa, Kat, and Toro

I’m not knowledgeable enough of Sony other than a few games and PSASBR, but I would choose:

1) Kratos
2) Jak & Daxter (personal fave)
3) Parappa
4) Kat
5) Medevil (don’t remember the name of the Mc).