Yup, Monolith Soft makes great RPG's but they just don't look great.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 2 preview embargo up - Impressions
- Thread starter SpottieO
- Start date
Yup, Monolith Soft makes great RPG's but they just don't look great.
As far as we know it's more like the first one; even though the areas are big the structure of the game should be linear.
I completely agree. I don't play Xeno games for top end graphics. BOTW is a better graphical showcase for the Switch but Xenoblade 2 looks more impressive to me in various location design, music, and storytelling.
Same. I'm sure if Monolith Soft were given a higher budget to work with, the games would look better graphically. Not really Monolithsoft's fault but Nintendo's.
Out of curiosity, what are you basing the premise that Xenoblade is budget constrained on?
Not saying it isn't true, but I'd love to know where that kind of information is coming from.
Nintendo is known for having pretty conservative game budgets and they are the ones paying the bills for Monolith Soft.
Takahashi has said Xenoblade are middle-tier titles. No doubt the Zelda team is given a bit of a bigger budget to work with, but still nowhere near AAA titles.
I play a ton of handheld mode, but for the bigger Switch titles I've definitely been doing a ton of docked mode just for the superior graphical fidelity. Super Mario Odyssey for example looks pretty acceptable in handheld mode, but just knowing it's that tiny bit better on the dock I've been making an effort to play it in docked mode something like 90% of the time.
I'm sure I won't mind playing in the less impressive handheld mode here and there since I'll probably be spending plenty if not most of my time with the game in docked mode.
I'm sure I won't mind playing in the less impressive handheld mode here and there since I'll probably be spending plenty if not most of my time with the game in docked mode.
Not really Nintendo's fault when the games sell less than one million copies.they look great for what they are.
Look at Tales Of for a low budget jrpg series
I believe each game does something technically better than the other.
Xenoblade 2 may have a lower resolution and a lower draw distance, but it has MUCH better:
-Anti Aliasing (That's a big one)
-Higher quality textures
-More complex character models (Also like 6 party members with you at all times which takes up resources vs just Link)
-Better LOD blending (Meaning you don't see that line load higher quality textures right in front of the character like in Botw)
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All though Botw has these over Xenoblade 2:
-Much better lighting system in place (Although X2 did upgrade the lighting system a lot since XBX)
-Better LOD in the distance (Xenoblade 2 for some reason can look really bad in the distance in the Gormott Province but good close up while Zelda looks pretty even close and far)
-Looks sharper and not as soft (Xenoblade has better AA, but that can make a game look quite soft with a lower resolution. Zelda is 900p dynamic, while Xenoblade is unconfirmed. Could be 720p or 900 dynamic, TBD if Zelda has better resolution)
-Interactive grass, plants, trees, and physics
Imagine what Monolith can do on their second Switch game coming up now that they're established on the hardware!
We will see with their medieval action rpg. Maybe it will be a fantasy world with mechs like The Vision of Escaflowne. One can hope.
this will be my goty. sorry Zelda, Mario, nioh, yakuza! love the art style btw. tired of realistic proportions.
Combining medieval fantasy with sci-fi. Imagine the possibilities!
But in all seriousness I'm really pulling through for that game. I hope it'll be the big breakout hit Monolith needs to be recognized by the gaming community. They always feel forgotten and pushed to the side in gaming news, barely being covered especially for award season.
The design of the girl in the artwork looks really great, a step in the right direction. And if they improve from this game in terms of their raw technical capabilities, they could really create a big attention grabber
Character models are a big step up from the last games. There will be compromises because of the hardware, but they will be made more in the distance, or the middle ground of the viewdistance. But that goes for every Switch game, even Skyrim, which doesn't seem to be as demanding as Xenoblade 2. The textures seem to be fine for a Switch game, the mostly blurry videos aren't a help though.
In my opinion they look pretty good for the hardware they are developed for. They have a smaller budget and not 300+ devs like Aonuma had for BotW, you will see some less than stellar animations here and there (jumping, swimming), but i have no doubt they will bring the most beautiful landscapes to the Switch we have seen so far. Also bigger cities than BotW with more population and better framerate in those places. Lighting and anti aliasing also seem better.
Eh? Monolith Soft has been a bunch of goddamn wizards on Nintendo's tech, IMO. Chronicles X is still something I look at to this day and can't believe they pulled off on a fucking Wii U.
This one pretty much answers all my skepticism around the game, particularly on characters. Now I can safely raise up my expectations a bit.
Excited.
A good portion of the previews have said the game is a looker, at least in docked mode.
And yeah the Chugga Q&A is good. Pretty much answers most questions that can be answered without getting into spoilers.
The biggest sticking point for some of them seems to the Intro to the game, some find it too linear and slow paced. Though, for me that's usually something I prefer in JRPG's.
And yeah the Chugga Q&A is good. Pretty much answers most questions that can be answered without getting into spoilers.
The biggest sticking point for some of them seems to the Intro to the game, some find it too linear and slow paced. Though, for me that's usually something I prefer in JRPG's.
I'm almost curious as to what they'd be able to achieve if they created a game with more closed environments like Alien Isolation. Not that I'd want them to make a game like that, but I'd love to see what they'd be capable of in a more focused environment where they don't have to stretch their resources across huge landscapes. If they can do these big open areas with lots of foliage, enemies, and party members on Switch in its first year, just think of what could come in the future
Man, imagine if the Switch gets 3 Monolith Soft games in its lifetime. If that second game is already in development that seems well within the realm of possibility.
Takahashi has said that the budget for his games isn't that big, but why would you think that a better budget could make for such a big graphical difference? We're talking around 90-100 developers working for around three years here, and I'd say they've pushed the hardware with the two previous Xenoblade games.
Would it help? Of course. But it wouldn't make for that big of a difference.
Would it help? Of course. But it wouldn't make for that big of a difference.
I liked the intro to Persona 4.
:/
They look more than fine given the hardware they're running on.
That's always the case though. Monolith Soft has 143 employees between two studios, and in the last years they developed XC, SPT: EF and PXZ (both with Banpresto), XCX, PXZ2 and XC2, and helped with Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, A Link Between Worlds, New Leaf, Happy Home Designer, Splatoon 1 and 2 and Pikmin 3.
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True, but how many was just the support studio and which games besides Skyward sword and Botw were made by the main studio?
Also what happened to the smaller team that made XOX? I know the director/producer left, but did the rest just get absorbed by the rest of the studio? It'd be a shame, I'd like to see a side project from them (a better one of course lol)
Just in case you were confused, the screenshots directly above your post aren't Xenoblade 2.
Yeah we can't forget that Switch is a 400gflops machine, imo they are doing a good job balancing characters and landscapes but with an open world there will always be some not so beautiful things. I played Xenoblade this year and this will be a major step up on my TV lol. If they would go for an even more guided experience they could upgrade the graphics, but there would be another price to pay, i love the gigantic areas in Xeno games.
I wonder if the medieval game is Takahashis next project, didn't sound like it in the last interview. He talked about the potential of a new storydriven Xenoblade (numbers would go on) and that he has his ears to the ground what fans want. Would be great if we got 2 different games from Monolithsoft
CGiRanger : Baten Kaitos is Honnes work, i love his art and would love to see a new game from him (Baten Kaitos or a new IP).
Monolith has always had great artistic quality to their world and environmental design. Just recall the amazing visuals of the Baten Kaitos backgrounds:
I've always loved the Baten Kaitos series (Well, mostly because of Origins) but man, this reminds me that while that game had fantastic art design, the character models didn't mix well with it at all. Not only because those are obviously static backgrounds but also because the characters simply didn't have the same amount of effort or even vibrant style that was required and so they seem pretty out of place. There were other JRPGs in the Gamecube that did this much better (Tales of Symphonia for example).
See I'm extremely curious about that too. Who's directing the medieval game? Like you said he didn't infer at all that he was involved in something like this. Is he directing like how they began X2 before the end of XBXs development? Who's the lead artist/character designer? It's not the same person as X2 I don't think.
WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW? SO MANY QUESTIONS
I believe we don't have exact numbers (or maybe there are somewhere in their official page), but for some reason I think of the Kyoto studio as having 30-40 developers. Don't quote me on that though.
I... don't think I know that game? Unless you are referring to Project X Zone? If that's the case, we haven't heard a word since Morizumi and Ishitani left, but I'd say it's safe to assume the rest of the team merged with other units in the company.
Oh yes sorry, autocorrect changed it. PXZ. And hmm, that's a shame. I'm hoping Monolith can expand soon. They've been a very useful studio to Nintendo for so many projects including the Xenoblade series I'm surprise they haven't grown the studio more
I'm REALLY hoping that Honne is doing a new project. I don't care if it is the new IP they teased or something completely different but his art direction is definitely needed again.
XC is already an established Nintendo franchise and they will probably keep releasing more entries so is possible that Honne is working on something new.
They should be hard at work on that new IP now, since it seems like the game was actually finished several weeks ago and pre-planning for it was no doubt before we even heard about the news of its existence.
One of the reasons I hope XB2 does well (better than its predecessors at least) is so that Nintendo may be a bit more generous in freeing up funds for Monolith's future endeavors, or to at least ensure that the studio maintains its current staffing levels.
One of the reasons I hope XB2 does well (better than its predecessors at least) is so that Nintendo may be a bit more generous in freeing up funds for Monolith's future endeavors, or to at least ensure that the studio maintains its current staffing levels.
Yup :) Somehow i'm now hyped for the next game when Xenoblade 2 isn't even out (that is my most wanted this year). 2 Weeks!
I'd actually like to see if Aostia82 could re-emphasize how visually good the game looks like in docked and handheld mode.
I checked his Wikipedia and at the end it says he was working on an unannounced title, but I don't know if that information is outdated or not? Do you see him being a game director or just an art director?
To be fair, it's more like maybe 2.5 years, since they started the game at the tail end of X's development, which was launched in Japan end of April 2015.
It just took until December 2015 to reach Western markets because Nintendo at that time was still not quite focused on worldwide releases for these kinds of games. Which is also how they were able to do those talked-about localization changes to that game, something that isn't the case with XB2
It's actually not that crazy. They've been pumping out large scale RPGs pretty regularly for a long time now.
X only took as long as it did because they completelt changed focus during development to make it more online and open ended.
When they're just creating a traditional story RPG, they're basically the best in the business.
Well, he was the director of Baten Kaitos and I LOVED that series (Again, mostly because of Origins though) so I totally want him to get another shot at directing (and it should be even better than BK since now he wouldn't have to deal with Namco's cheap budget).
Also, I wouldn't really trust Wikipedia with updated info.
It's somehow outdated, there were rumblings about a new Honne project since 2010, but nothing ever came out of it. Also he works on so many Nintendo IPs i don't now if he had even time for that. But with Switch things could change for sure.
I agree that I hope Xenoblade 2 sells well. I just hope they don't get the idea that pandering is why it sold better. But I do want success for Monolith to become even better with more resources in the future.
The new IP(hopefully?) artwork appeared back in August, which means it began probably even earlier than that. So who's directing and the lead art/character designer here if Xenoblade was still in active development earlier this year?
