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Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
This is a general information thread for Nintendo's two RPGs that have been announced. I'm just doing it since they seem to be releasing news/media at a decent pace and don't wanna ruin the Game Announcement thread
Xenoblade
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- “The world setting, story and other elements have no relation [to the Xenosaga series]. It’s a completely new title. I wanted to to have some sort of common point with the games I’ve made.” – director Tetsuya Takahashi
- Takahashi wanted to create an enjoyable adventure
- “Xeno” has a meaning of “different nature” or uniqueness, meaning of “Blade” will be revealed in the game’s ending
- Two gods battled many, many years ago, at the end of the battle only their corpses remained
- Xenoblade takes place on the god’s corpses and the rest is ocean
- Inspiration for the setting came from a meeting regarding Soma Bringer, other members of the dev. team liked the idea
- “It seemed like it would be enjoyable to adventure on top of the body of a giant god.”
- Model of the gods in their resting position (see scan) was created before game development: “It was of great help when explaining the project to Nintendo”
- Takahasi says the world is about the size of Japan from one corpse to the other
- Can access more of the world as you progress, will be able to enter one the body of a god
- The world is vertically large: “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 are related to the gods’ bodies
- Much variety, weather/monster ecology included (ex: one regional feature is that you can go to the top of one of the gods, see an aurora)
- There are enemies living in the corpses
- Player on one god (houses organic life), mechanical life on the other
- The start of the story: “It’s simple — the fight against mechanical life that threatens the peace of mankind.”
- Begin on the right foot of the player’s god, in an empty cave (developers decided on this before the game’s development started), make your way to the head of the god
- Game keeps track of where you should be going (includes both the main story and sub quests)
- Can warp to previously visited areas
- There will be some systems that will make sure you don’t lose your way
- Seamless movement through the world: “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.”
- Takahasi hopes players will walk around, explore areas that contain beautiful settings
- You’ll encounter some enemies that can’t be defeated initially, you’ll need to power up your character and battle them later
- Enemies will be on the fields, if you encounter one you’ll battle it
- Takahasi didn’t want to have a typical RPG field-to-battle transition, it’s seamless
- Other enemies nearby will join battles
- Two AI characters will join you and be a part of your party
- Character carries out attacks automatically, you choose special skills (“arts”)
- Can execute attack skills, recovery skills, etc. through “arts”, learn more as you progress
- 50 – 60 hours, won’t be just leveling up and event scenes
- Releasing in Japan this spring
Due for release in Japan in 2010, The Last Story is a RPG from Mistwalker on the Nintendo Wii which takes on a new direction for the genre. The theme of the game involves the universal feelings all of humanity shares.
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Re: Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
Looks very interesting.
__________________ "I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories,"-Hiroshi Yamauchi
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Re: Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
Quote:
Originally Posted by Angrist
Interested in The Last Story.
Xenoblade looks terribly boring.
I'm interested in The Last Story as well if only because it's from Mistwalker and I think they can make some pretty fun stuff (although I've never plated Blue Dragon yet)
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Re: Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
So looks like Xenoblade has been announced for a June release in Japan.
Quote:
- Monolithsoft estimates the game to be 70-80 hours long, over 100 hours if you decide to enjoy all the optional content
- The entire world in Xenoblade is "seamless" and all areas flow naturally and continuously. But there are loading breaks when you travel between major areas. Major areas are defined as different body parts of the two gods. So travelling from the region of the lower leg up to the knee area, there will be loading.
- The battles are all in realtime and seamless as well. No transitions or break, and you can see enemies roaming on the fields. When you attack enemies normally, you use auto-attack which makes the character automatically attack the targeted enemy continuously with regular attacks. If you manage to move behind an enemy or to the enemy's sides, you can trigger special attacks called Arts.
- Xenoblade's soundtrack is composed by Yoko Shimomura, and she's the only one mentioned in relation to the pre-order "special soundtrack" bonus. If there are other composers involved, they haven't been mentioned, but it's clear she's the main composer.
And some new artwork from The Last Story
Main characters
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The director (still unidentified) confirms that the characters depicted in the illustration are the main character and heroine.
"There is a wall between the two," he writes. Based off the director's comments, it seems that there's something keeping the two apart and unable to live their dreams together.
The director also writes that in The Last Story, there will be a number of other stories besides the story of these two characters. He mentions:
* The fear of speaking your true feelings
* The mystery of the father who went missing on boat
* The difficulty a leader has in making decisions
* The close accomplice who's turned to evil
* The foolish archaeologist's prison break
Concludes the director, "It's very important to merge battles and gameplay with story. Neither can stand on its own. Once both are connected together, the characters will rise up as "human" within the container of a game."
The game's producer (also unidentified) states, "The characters who appear in The Last Story all walk their own paths and have their own stories." He likens this to the real world, where no one has lived their lives following the same path as you.
The main part of The Last Story's story will focus on the main character, says the producer. However, he believes players will also have a chance to be touched by the stories other characters as well. "Once you've been touched by that, it's likely that you'll be able to feel their [the characters outside of the main character] true feelings, which you did not see before."
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Re: Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
Quote:
The post is titled "Chaos and Order." These are themes Mistwalker CEO Hironobu Sakaguchi addressed months before The Last Story's official announcement at the Mistwalker blog.
Writes the director, "Making order from chaos. Or, pulling the enemies who were in order into chaos. Using one of the main character's skills called 'Gathering,' we wanted to make a system that would let you control that type of situation."
During battle, the current focus of the enemy is marked with a line, called a "Pointer." "This is probably the most special feature when you see this game," writes the director. The pointer's color can be used for strategy, as it will indicate enemy type, such as soldier, mage, or archer who attempts to disrupt your own mage's magic chants.
The gathering skill is used to steal the focus of an enemy. Execute the gathering skill, and you make the enemy turn his focus on to you.
One example of this system's use is in a situation where enemies are focusing their sights on your mage. You can use gathering to turn their sights on to you, assisting your mage in chanting his magic.
"Controlling chaos and order on the battle field ties in to victory," finishes the director.
The producer notes that when playing sports or doing anything where you face off against an enemy, the first thing you do is create a strategy. In order to have all members move in accordance with a prescribed strategy, participants need to cooperate, sending signals to each other and getting into formations.
"Combat in games is the same," writes the producer. "Ordered movements of your allies is the key to victory. But what if there were an opponent who could bring confusion to that order?"
A story board at the blog shows how the gathering and pointer systems work, beginning with the start of battle (above) and continuing to the main character gathering the enemy focus on himself so that a party member mage can successfully cast a spell that makes the main character's sword more powerful.
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Re: Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
Double update day
first up The Last Story
Quote:
"We wanted to make a new type of RPG battle," writes the game's director about how the staff approached the game's battle system. "We wanted a system that merged real time battles with command selection, something that had an action feel but would also make you think. After much trial and error, we came to the current form."
Joining the "Gathering" and "Pointing" terminology from the last blog post, the director here mentions "Magic Circle." This is apparently something that remains on the battle field after your magic strikes. While not saying exactly what the "Magic Circle" is, the director describes it as an "important element." There are a variety of types of circles, including "recovery" and "flame" types.
Regarding the "thought" part of the battle system, the director says that time will freeze while you're inputting commands. You'll also be able to give orders to your AI-controlled party members.
The director finishes: "Combat in The Last Story is powered by a system that blends action with command selection.
The game's producer gives some background on battle system creation in general. "Before making characters and stages, you have to create the battle structure." With this thinking in mind, The Last Story's development consisted of a lengthy period showing red and blue scribblings as the characters in combat.
According to the producer, the staff required a great amount of test time to properly show the battle system's concept of "Order and Chaos."
And now Xenoblade
Really dig the enemy designs. And the sword looks bad-ass.
Wii RPGs: Xenoblade and The Last Story
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