Xenoblade 2 wishlist and improvements

[malyse]

As someone who was disappointed in Xenoblade Chronicles, I'm frankly shocked with how much fun this game has been. The battle system has been refined to a much superior implementation and a lot of the things that annoyed me in the first game have been excised entirely.

That being said, I do have a few things that I wish had been done differently.

• Buying and Selling - I wish that instead of "choose item, confirm item" over and over, the game would let you pick multiple items at once. I personally think the Tales series would be a good example of how to do it better: on the shop screen you push right on the controller to increase the amount of items you're buying and then you buy everything at once. Selling would be similar: you press one button to mark all the items that you want to get rid of and another to confirm. Quick and easy.
• Managing your Blades - I know that in the first three chapters at least, I tended to run low on space for Blades and ended up letting a few go. I would like two improvements to the blade management screen. First, I want the ability to lock Blades so they can't accidentally be released. If you've ever played a mobile gacha game, you've seen the concept. Second and going along with that, I want the ability to release every unlocked blade now currently in use with a warning and separate confirmation if a Rare Blade is unlocked. Or maybe just exclude Rare Blades from mass release.

That pretty much covers my current improvements, though I'm only in chapter four so they may be more coming later. Now for the wishlist (which could just as easily be what I want in Xenoblade X2)

• Multiplayer Co-op - Basically, imagine a Monster Hunter Style mode where you and two others go on missions to hunt Named enemies. I think the battle system they have would work just as well if not better with actual players controlling the other two characters instead of AI.
• Multiplayer Versus - Take everything I just said and put it in the context of a three on three battle mode. For the sake of expediency, the Chain Attack gauge would probably have to be disabled, but the rest would be the same.
• The Fucking Monado - The Shulk amiibo should unlock Fiora with a Monado. Running with KOS-MOS, Fiora, and Pyra would be amazing.

 

[takriel]

Edit: Don't want to derail the thread.

I agree that the game needs a more intuitive map system and more precise navigation icons.

 

[Xenosaga]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

 

[Baust]

All I want is to be able to look at an area's map faster than having to dig through several menu items first.

 

[Grim Patron]

Less fanboy pandering, please. Less sexist female designs.

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yes im sure they are scrambling to "fix" these

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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Yea. this is a big issue. Also hopefully performance improvements for both docked and handheld/

 

[Mezoly]

Fix the compass and map.

 

[SalvaPot]

Amiibo support that gives you one more gatcha chance per day, with a chance to get a Blade that is somewhat similar to the Amiibo.

Tap the Shulk amiibo and get a Monado like Blade, eh?

 

[Theswweet]

I'm wanting some performance patches, and some QOL updates for the interfaces and stuff (map is a big one, I feel).

Besides that, this is probably my game of the year so far... which I honestly didn't expect going into it!

 

[Jump_Button]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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A full map with a button press would be nice, but not that bad when you see the blue arrows telling you it higher or lower.

And i love a bit of fun in games I've missed that from JRPG

outfit not so much, that most down from outsides artist

 

[Pablo Mesa]

Less fanboy pandering, please. Less sexist female designs.

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lets not make yet another XB2 thread into this please

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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Navigation itself should be fixed, for some reason walking, running jumping feels kinda off, compared to X

to get a Blade that is somewhat similar to the Amiibo.

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What Amiibos should unlock increase which blade drop rate?

 

[LetsRock]

Make the game playable when undocked

 

[Mistle]

there's a lot of not great quality of life things, but i can shrug them off easily enough. that map needs to be seriously fixed though

 

[kami_sama]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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From what little I have played, this.
Also, the portable performance pls.

 

[Haunted]

I can't believe a game from an experienced jRPG team in 2017 can have such bad map and menu interface UX.

What were they thinking, honestly. Minor squibbles, yes, but something so easily fixable that it 100% should've been adressed during development.

 

[malyse]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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All I want is to be able to look at an area's map faster than having to dig through several menu items first.

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I knew I forgot something. The map should have worked like Metroid Prime: you go to it and it shows your immediate area and then you can zoom out to the whole world.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

Make it even more anime pls

 

[Pablo Mesa]

I can't believe a game from an experienced jRPG team in 2017 can have such bad map and menu interface UX.

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someone went by the credits and listed who worked on the game, basically XB2 seems to have been done by the "B Team" while A team and core Monolith members were/are working on that secret new IP or helping Nintendo with other games

 

[RockmanBN]

Change Dahlia to this:

Spoiler: Dahlia's Redesign

 

[Hate]

Resolution.

 

[Pablo Mesa]

RockmanBN only if they convince Danny Devito to voice it

 

[Static]

Alt costumes. Faster menu transitions and skippable mini-cinematics accompanying blade binding, resource collection, and mercenary management. Better item/blade filtering. A system-level manual akin to that for Xenoblade X on the Wii U (and indeed, all or most Wii U games.) Better sound mixing.

I think those are my major ones.

 

[Vishmarx]

1) Redo most of the battle UI (what the heck happened to the minimal version shown in the direct?). Make buying and selling easier , make removing blades or checking for their skills easier.
2) Rebalance enemy hp levels, as satisfying as 3 element chains feel, its needlessly exhausting when every damn enemy has hp pools that only take a significant dent when you use it.
3) Improve image quality obviously. If settings need to be turn down do so, its a compromise consoles have always lived with.
4) 3 blades on screen are still a needless resource hog
5) Fix the audio mixing , sound levels are all over the damn place. also lower the frequency , hiyaass and haaahss during combat.
6) Literally scrap your entire navigation and map systems and copy them as is from the previous games.
7) Better and permanent help for game mechanics. I still dont know wtf ideas do.
8) Better item tracking/info for the thousands of fetch quests.
9) Improve gatcha rates or redo them in a way that most people get most or all of them by the end. Theyre not unique enough to add replay value to an 80 game. and theres still a chance i wont get them even in the 2nd playthrough.
9) Make switching blades bw drivers easier. rare overdrives are bullshit.
10) Male tyrants actually worth killing. I dont wanna spend an hour beating something for 2 common cores. Oh and stop making treasure pop like confetti for god's sake.

 

[Sir Guts]

- The terrible map and compass
- RNG is from hell

 

[macapala]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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If you go into the Skip Travel menu you can get a better map of an area that details certain locations like a market in a town or a salvage point. It's not the perfect solution, but it is better than the mini map.

 

[Com_Raven]

Coop and Versus multiplayer post-launch, from a company with pretty much no previous experience in the field? That is an ambitious wish^^

Edit for clarification: I meant in the field of competitive online gaming, not co-op. Should have worded it more clearly.

 

[malyse]

Alt costumes. Faster menu transitions and skippable mini-cinematics accompanying blade binding, resource collection, and mercenary management. Better filtering. A system-level menu akin to that for Xenoblade X on the Wii U (and indeed, all or most Wii U games.) Better sound mixing.

I think those are my major ones.

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You should play with the default audio settings. I've had luck tweaking it.

 

[CielTynave]

Random enemies need their HP slashed in half, maybe more.

 

[Sol]

Add an autosave feature. The game crashed on me (again) near the end of a chapter and it had been several hours since my last save, so I've lost a lot of levels and progress that I'm going to have to make up tomorrow. Really damn annoying.

 

[Static]

5) Fix the audio mixing , sound levels are all over the damn place. also lower the frequency , hiyaass and haaahss during combat.

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YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME?

 

[Sevyne]

Yeah, I have to echo everyone else about the map being shit. The only way to even view a barely serviceable map is to dig into the menus for fast travel. The big overlay map is worthless and so is the minimap.

Also another thing that bothered the hell out of me if how all of the tutorial stuff isn't logged for you to go back and read. With a system as convoluted as this game's it really needed it. I mean I enjoy it but I can see how people would lose interest and get lost in it.

That second one raises another really big complaint from me that I'm kind of shocked nobody has really talked about. In many towns you can buy "hints". All they really are are shitty one line bits of the tutorials, which makes the lack of a log even more shitty. It was intentional to lack a log just to waste your damn time.

 

[Chasing]

Just give me the option to blow up the minimap to the one in the skip travel menu (or replace it entirely with that) and you'd have fixed maybe 50% of my problems with navigation.

 

[Perona]

Really wish this had a collectopedia like the previous games.

 

[Vishmarx]

YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME?

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TUMBLY TUMBLY!!

 

[macapala]

Yeah, I have to echo everyone else about the map being shit. The only way to even view a barely serviceable map is to dig into the menus for fast travel. The big overlay map is worthless and so is the minimap.

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errr... never mind. I didn't read your entire post.

 

[malyse]

Coop and Versus multiplayer post-launch, from a company with pretty much no previous experience in the field? That is an ambitious wish^^

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It shouldn't be that complicated. Drop the AI and team prompts. Add two more player characters. Also:

Literally the first game they made after Nintendo bought the company was a Multiplayer RPG. A multiplayer RPG that's influence can be seen in Xenoblade.

 

[Atram]

Fixing the Map.

The easiest way would be if you open the map with the left stick to open the fast travel page for the current area directly.

 

[ParanoidRED]

Don't really like the map or how the compass works

Also, i find the Quest Log to be pretty confusing and a slog to navigate

 

[SolicitorPirate]

More Morag

 

[Elfforkusu]

My single biggest complaint is that the skip travel map isn't auto-zoomed to the current region+location.

Since the onscreen map is hopeless (well, it's a minimap with a useless full-screen function)

 

[Static]

You should play with the default audio settings. I've had luck tweaking it.

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Good advice, thanks. I just maxed out cutscene voice and raised game voice, as well as environment volume. Lowered bgm a tick.

It'll exacerbate the repetitive battle callouts a little but I miss too much other stuff. I agree with vishmarx's request for a slider on their frequency.

 

[Sevyne]

errr... never mind. I didn't read you entire post.

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Edit: Looks like you noticed!

 

[incogneato]

The terrible map and navigation compass needs to be addressed.

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The map is bad... terrible, even. The compass is okay. I just don't appreciate the overlap of all of the points on the compass and not having the ability to selectively turn the ones I don't want to see off. I honestly don't have a problem with the compass other than that though. The arrows given on the compass are alright and encourage exploration to a degree, I just think the terrible map and compass overlap make players less reluctant to explore.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

A graphics menu so we're not stuck with the visuals/frame rate of the "Switch optimized version" on the inevitable Switch+/Switch 2. I don't trust the console manufacturers to update their first party title games anymore.

 

[malyse]

Good advice, thanks. I just maxed out cutscene voice and raised game voice, as well as environment volume. Lowered bgm a tick.

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Also go everywhere at night. I lost five hours and had to replay part of chapter three. I adjusted the speech too, but I also arrived at night instead of the day and everything was much clearer.

D:

 

[newmoneytrash]

Fix the compass and map.

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Yeah the compass is awful and the map could be so much better

 

[FiXalaS]

-Fix the map and compass.

-Small subtitle bubbles for battle and area voices.

-Let the menu be better, put more encyclopedias other than Item List and Blades album.

-Multiplayer would be an amazing addition. doing combos with 2 others would be so much fun ❤️ hoping its added.

-Show how enemies aggro with markers, like how it was done in X.

I think thats what I want the most right now. also if it isn't in the game, let Overdrive Protocol be grindable

 

[Encephalon]

Non embarrassing character models for the female leads.

 

[Static]

Also go everywhere at night. I lost five hours and had to replay part of chapter three. I adjusted the speech too, but I also arrived at night instead of the day and everything was much clearer.

D:

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I'm befuddled. Why does time of day matter?

 

[Turtleboats]

More rare blades. They could totally go the diablo/pokemon route for further entries. Its a great foundation.

 

[Gabora]

Fix the tutorials. Instead of dropping piles and piles of information during a boss fight, how about stopping the gameplay at the first fight you have after a boss fight to explain everything? Its really irritating when the tutorial is referencing shit that doesn't reflect whats going on in the game.

Example: the first time the game reveals the existence of level 4 arts, the tutorial ends with "try it now!" but there is nothing to try now when I'm fighting a damn boss using strategies that don't take in consideration this level 4 art I knew nothing about. It was 3 hours later that I realized the art bar went up to level 4 now. That's bad tutorial!

Fix the combat. I get it that positioning is important in this game, since you have skills that hit harder on the side/back. But how about you stop making enemies move so damn much? A few boss fights almost made me chuck my Switch out the window because the bosses kept moving out of my character's range for no God damn reason, and it takes forever for player characters to resume attacking after moving.

Also, let me skip the blade summon thing. When you are burning through cores in hopes of getting a rare blade and you have done it 20+ times, it gets irritating to have to watch the little cutscene everytime for the crap blades