Xeno*****s, herpes outbreaks, the undead, and cockroaches

[AndrewTS]

...I'll say, "What are things that refuse to go away, despite how horrible and unwanted they are?", Alex.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/106/1065038p1.html

The game we thought might be a new Xenosaga, Xenoblade, is indeed the game that was unveiled at E3 last year under the name Monado. The game is in development at Xenosaga developer Monolith Software and will be the next big RPG from Tetsuya Takahashi.

Follow this if you can. Nintendo bought Xenosaga developer Monolith Software a while back. At last year's E3, the studio was said to be developing a Wii RPG titled Monado: Beginning of the World. Today, an official release list from Nintendo provided a strong hint that Monado's name has been changed to Xenoblade.

So, there's a game with the four letters "Xeno" in the title, and it's being developed by the developer of Xenosaga. Is it reasonable to assume that Nintendo is releasing a new entry in the Xenosaga series?

The Xenoblade name appears in a first party release list in a just released Nintendo financial report. The game is listed as set for Japanese release this Spring. Aside from the time frame, the report contains no details on the game.

The reason we have a feeling Xenoblade is a new name for Monado is due to a slipup of sorts on Nintendo's part. In the English version of the financial report, the release list for the Japanese market has a listing for Xenoblade but no Monado. The release list for the US market has a listing for Monado, but no Xenoblade. Jump to the Japanese language version of the report, and the US release list has Xenoblade but no Monado. Looks like someone at Nintendo didn't feel like putting the Monado name in Japanese characters.

We'll leave further speculation to you. With a Spring Japanese release time frame (a US release is still listed as TBA 2010), expect details on Xenoblade to surface shortly.

So yeah, Nintendo's money printing machine left them flush with cash, as many of you may know, and they had started to dip their toe into buying some developers to build up their first party studio portfolio. For some science-only-knows reason, they decided to buy Monolith Soft (not to be confused with Monolith Games, the F.E.A.R. and Condemned guys).

So, yeah, this appears to be what they came up with.

Wii and Xeno*****. They deserve each other.

 

[Molotov The Bear]

I dont really care if you don't like it, a new Xeno-series game is good news to me.

I'm not gonna be like SO2 and proclaim Xenogears to be the greatest thing in the history of things, but its one of my favorite games, and the Xenosaga series has its faults (TONS OF THEM, the entirety of 3... yeah.) but I liked the series and hoped I'd get a new one somewhere down the line.

 

[Black Lushus]

At this point I'll take any RPG on the Wii not named Tales of Symphonia...god that game was horrid!

 

[AndrewTS]

I dont really care if you don't like it, a new Xeno-series game is good news to me.

Seriously, though, we don't even know if this has, well, anything to do with either -gears or -saga. Considering that this name change came pretty sudden, it could be something being used to make a desperate grab for attention considering that the most people usually have to say in favor of Baten Kaitos is "Hey, the graphics are decent" and "the gameplay isn't really terrible!"

Still, developers have done similar tricks with spiritual sequels (Bioshock following System Shock 2, for instance). I think it's funny that this would be the 3rd publisher they've shopped around to.

 

[Kageho]

I don't think its necessarily that they've been shopped around, its probably more that people were willing to buy into the product. After all, whether we like it or not, all of the Xeno series has been profitable.

I'll keep an eye on it, but I really don't think I'll like it. I mean I loved Xenogears, but with each game that followed my love dropped from liked, to meh, to why am I still playing. Kinda like my love for Star Ocean, though I played 2, then 1, then 3, then 4...

That's usually not a good indication of a series life to have your feelings drop with each successive game.

 

[Molotov The Bear]

I dont really care if you don't like it, a new Xeno-series game is good news to me.

Seriously, though, we don't even know if this has, well, anything to do with either -gears or -saga. Considering that this name change came pretty sudden, it could be something being used to make a desperate grab for attention considering that the most people usually have to say in favor of Baten Kaitos is "Hey, the graphics are decent" and "the gameplay isn't really terrible!"

Still, developers have done similar tricks with spiritual sequels (Bioshock following System Shock 2, for instance). I think it's funny that this would be the 3rd publisher they've shopped around to.

No, your right, and there's a good chance that is what it is. And if thats the case then yeah, that fucking sucks.

 

[AndrewTS]

On the bright side, it seems to have giant robots in some form and (going entirely from the teaser site at least) Mitsuda music. So that's something, at least.

I don't think its necessarily that they've been shopped around, its probably more that people were willing to buy into the product.

Well, it seems like they're trying to coast on past...uh...success...with a horse that wasn't that great to begin with.

 

[Kageho]

Oh I won't doubt they are. And hey, people are investing in them, so can we say it wasn't a horse that isn't great?

Oh you meant the actual games themselves. Yeah, I'll agree with you there.

 

[AndrewTS]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3177981

"Most of the RPGs we've created had their main focus on story and cutscenes, but I think that approach has reached a dead end," Takahashi said in an interview with Famitsu magazine this week. "This project got its start because we wanted to return to basics -- we just wanted to create a fun adventure. We're trying to give the player a lot of freedom without having them feel lost."

The Wii-exclusive Xenoblade -- which, as Takahashi is quick to note, has nothing to do plotwise with his other "Xeno-" games -- is set in a fantasy world composed of the dead bodies of two massive gods; one organic, the other machine-based. ("From one end to the other, they're about the size of the Japanese archipelago," Takahashi noted.) These two gods died after a pitched battle against each other, and now the creatures that have taken up residence on and within their corpses -- human beings on the organic god; robots and such on the machine god -- have picked up the battle where the deities left off.

As Takahashi puts it, Xenoblade will be fairly open in design, allowing players to explore much of the game's world from the get-go. You'll be able to instantly warp back to any previously visited location, and Takahashi said that other features will be implemented so players won't get flustered and lose track of the story.

Battles, meanwhile, will take place seamlessly when you encounter a visible enemy on the field map. Your party (the hero and your choice of two AI-controlled friends) automatically attacks the enemy with standard weapons once they're close enough; after that, you can use special moves known as Arts to deal more damage, heal your allies, and perform other actions. "There are assorted battle systems in RPGs, but I didn't want one where you cut from the field map to a separate battle screen in this game," Takahashi noted. "I think changing the scene with every battle cuts off the flow of the game."

Maybe this won't actually be shit.