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If I can choose only one huge RPG to play...

Aeana

Member
In this fantasy scenario, are we to assume that Skyrim is bugfixed and actually playable? I was doing great in the game until this most recent patch, so now I have to wait until they (hopefully) fix it next week to continue. (._. )
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
It does a lot of what Skyrim does in the "sum of the parts" type of way but with better combat I think. I still think Skyrim is a better game but it's also just improving on fundamentals laid forth by previous installments. Both are great time sinks. I will still say Skyrim is GOTY but Xenoblade should be in any Wii owners library if you like RPG's.

There's something about the world and the way you go about in Skyrim that Bethesda just got right. It's not exactly the same style of slow plowing game. And we've yet to even get the Creation Kit which will be directly tied to Steam. If anything Skyrim is only going to get bigger and better.

I say bugs alone take it away from any GOTY discussion. its amazing how forgiving gamers have become to this in this generation. There are companies still putting out games that are huge, run at a a great framerate and have no bugs, hyet they dont get rewarded for that.

In Skyrim the combat is better, ok, but it doesnt touch Dark Souls or Xenoblade in that area.

Personally I think Xenoblade looks better (art direction , designs), has just as much value, better story, better voice acting, better music, combat ... Skyrim has the "those are very big textures and effects" factor, but other than that, it doesnt do much for me.
 

okenny

Banned
In this fantasy scenario, are we to assume that Skyrim is bugfixed and actually playable? I was doing great in the game until this most recent patch, so now I have to wait until they (hopefully) fix it next week to continue. (._. )

From what I understand, Skyrim had issues on PS3 that made it difficult to play and the patch helped some. As far as the PC and 360 are concerned, Skyrim is perfectly playable even with the random bugs one would get every now and then. Remember that this is a game that people are sitting down with and playing for 10 to 20 sessions between 5 and 15 hours long. It goes kinda with the territory.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Xenoblade is Wii GOTY (and probably my personal GOTY). Skyrim is probably the overall GOTY. I've put in something like 115 hours on Xenoblade. I think I've put in something like 40+ hours into Skyrim so far. They're both awesome.

Otherwise, there's little to compare. They're completely different experiences. What features do you value most in an RPG?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
In Skyrim the combat is better, ok, but it doesnt touch Dark Souls or Xenoblade in that area.

Personally I think Xenoblade looks better (art direction , designs), has just as much value, better story, better voice acting, better music, combat

Art is a tossup but the story, voice, music, and combat go to Xeno. It just goes to show what Skyrim does for me as I'm still saying it's the better game when Xenoblade offers almost as much and does several key things better. I don't know if it has the crafting systems or things like that but it doesn't need that sort of elaborate thing. Good points.
 

Aeana

Member
From what I understand, Skyrim had issues on PS3 that made it difficult to play and the patch helped some. As far as the PC and 360 are concerned, Skyrim is perfectly playable even with the random bugs one would get every now and then. Remember that this is a game that people are sitting down with and playing for 10 to 20 sessions between 5 and 15 hours long. It goes kinda with the territory.

I had no issues with the PC version until the 1.2 patch. I fixed the resistance bug and interface issues with third party fixes but it doesn't fix the dragon problem or the interior lighting issue, or the crashes I'm starting to get after 40 hours pre-patch without any.
 

Buttons

Member
Don't think you can really compare the two but I can definitely recommend Xenoblade. One of the best and most engaging JRPGs I have ever played. Am at 65 hours now and still not even close to the end. The game actually makes me want to play more and more and I have not had that feeling in a long time. :)
 

Derrick01

Banned
I say bugs alone take it away from any GOTY discussion. its amazing how forgiving gamers have become to this in this generation. There are companies still putting out games that are huge, run at a a great framerate and have no bugs, hyet they dont get rewarded for that.

Another person who doesn't understand how a wrpg/crpg works

Evilore said:
More like evidence to support that they don't like CRPGs.

The best CRPGs of all time were released buggy as shit. All of them. BG 1-2, Fallout 1-2, Torment, Arcanum, ToEE, Bloodlines, Gothic 2, Morrowind, The Witcher 1-2, and Obsidian's Mask of the Betrayer and New Vegas.

All of them. Polish is inversely proportional with ambition in CPRGs. Dungeon Siege 3 isn't buggy. Bring on the fucking bugs, I say.

Yeah Skyrim from a gameplay perspective isn't as complex as those but they still had to cram a huge complex and detailed world onto ancient systems.
 

frequency

Member
It depends what kind of RPG you're into.

Bugs aside, I find Skyrim to be a pretty mediocre experience. There's no direction. While it's not as repetitive as Oblivion, it still suffers from the "samey" type feeling. The quests are uninteresting, the story is bad fantasy, the setting is bland for me, there's no emotional connection with anyone or anything in the world, and the scaling takes away the satisfaction of character progression.
There's no real evolution to the gameplay. Hour 10 plays very much the same as hour 50.

But it should be noted that I am not a fan of "open world" type games, and I am bitter at Bethesda for releasing a bug-ridden shoddy product. So I'm biased I suppose.
I vastly prefer JRPGs to WRPGs so I guess it's pretty obvious which I would choose to play.

Also for full disclosure, I haven't finished Skyrim. I was on the PS3 and the game has become unplayable for me, even with the patch. It will be the first game in about 20 years of gaming that I trade in.
 

2San

Member
Do you prefer open world RPG's with a lot of freedom of choice? Go Skyrim.
Do you prefer a directed more story driven experience? Go Xenoblade. Xenoblade does still offer a ton in terms of exploration even it is a directed experience.
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
If I had to choose a game, it wouldn't be any of those, because I'd really rather play me some Witcher 2. Awesome game. I would play it over and over again. With different choices of course.
 

Aeana

Member
Bugs aside, I love Skyrim and I am/was certainly having more fun with it than Xenoblade, which is also good but is also not without its stable of issues. I complain about the specific bugs I'm getting in Skyrim because they're keeping me from playing it.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Yup, Skyrim just looks like typical open-world western RPG lord-of-the-rings generica, and knowing Bethesda the combat will be awful and riddled with bugs.

But Xenoblade doesn't look any different from most jrpgs and you still can't fully control battle (auto attacks, really?). Both sides can say the same thing about the other pretty much.

Haunted said:
Which do you prefer, jRPG or WRPG?

There's your answer as far as these two are concerned.

Yeah this is what it comes down to again. It's what it has to come to I suppose since they're so different.
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Xenoblade seems to have far better combat than Skyrim. Not a difficult thing to do, admittedly.

In every other respect, Skyrim is probably better. That said, combat is a profoundly important part of a game.
 

JJD

Member
It depends on your systems. If you don't have a 360, play Xenoblade (you have a Wii right?), but if you do have a 360 Skyrim is the game to get!

Whatever you do just don't play Skyrim on the PS3 right know...they have released a patch but it seems that it doesn't resolve the framerate issue completely.
 

Aeana

Member
Which do you prefer, jRPG or WRPG?

There's your answer as far as these two are concerned.

I don't think that's true at all, especially since Xenoblade does not represent the typical Japanese RPG. I tend to gravitate toward Japanese RPGs, but I'd choose Skyrim in this case because it is more compelling to me due to its setting, actual compelling quests, dungeons to explore and things like that. Xenoblade is a great game that gets worse as you go. The game is longer than its content or combat system support.
 
Witcher 2

I've been playing Skyrim for 30 hours and the experience start to feel 'samey' after a while. fighting dragon for the first time is awesome, but then now they're just some random battle and each fight felt the same, the excitement lower a bit. maybe I should focus on finishing the main quest first, hopefully there's more exciting stuff later in the game. but for now, Witcher 2 is still my best rpg this year. I even enjoy Deus Ex more than skyrim right now.
 

Haunted

Member
I don't think that's true at all, especially since Xenoblade does not represent the typical Japanese RPG. I tend to gravitate toward Japanese RPGs, but I'd choose Skyrim in this case because it is more compelling to me due to its setting and dungeons to explore and things like that. Xenoblade is a great game that gets worse as you go. The game is longer than its content or combat system support.
I do agree that it's not your typical jRPG, but it's definitely closer in that corner than anywhere else.

Maybe I should've specified that it's a jRPG with some modern gameplay conventions thrown in (like TLR, bless its heart).

I also prefer Skrim and think it's the better game, but I also enjoy WRPGs more so yeah.


The important thing to note is that the OP can't really go wrong with either.
 
Witcher 2

I've been playing Skyrim for 30 hours and the experience start to feel 'samey' after a while. fighting dragon for the first time is awesome, but then now they're just some random battle and each fight felt the same, the excitement lower a bit.

They sound like the Oblivion Gates. I got that vibe immediately after I first learned the dragons randomly spawn around in the world. And that even low level players could drop one.

They might have had more impact if there were only a handful of dragons in the game, used sparingly as bosses, each with different breath weapons/themes.

Of the three, I'm someone that hasn't played it yet. My vanilla Oblivion experience was horrible, although I put some seriously long hours into it later after Oscuro's mod. I'm going to save myself for Skyrim this time. The game will be that much more enjoyable if my first experience is 6 months from now, after Bethesda has patched it up more, and the modders have fixed things that I hate in RPGs, such as level/loot/encounter scaling.
 

Codeblue

Member
Skyrim will be $20 by the time you finish Xenoblade. Xenoblade will always be close to full price. Both are amazing games.
 

Durante

Member
Skyrim is a better game.

(Disclosure: I played Xenoblade for ~30 hours and Skyrim for ~70)

I don't think that's true at all, especially since Xenoblade does not represent the typical Japanese RPG. I tend to gravitate toward Japanese RPGs, but I'd choose Skyrim in this case because it is more compelling to me due to its setting, actual compelling quests, dungeons to explore and things like that. Xenoblade is a great game that gets worse as you go. The game is longer than its content or combat system support.
Very well said. And for me, that's one of the worst things an RPG can do.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
Xenoblade is a great game that gets worse as you go. The game is longer than its content or combat system support.

Aside from the fact that a few of the late zones are a little bland and repetitive compared to the more lush and varied earlier zones, I don't find this even a little bit true.
 

mclem

Member
In this fantasy scenario, are we to assume that Skyrim is bugfixed and actually playable? I was doing great in the game until this most recent patch, so now I have to wait until they (hopefully) fix it next week to continue. (._. )

That's basically the foundation for my "Xenoblade now, Skyrim in GOTY form later" suggestion. It Just Makes Sense.
 

mclem

Member
But Xenoblade doesn't look any different from most jrpgs and you still can't fully control battle (auto attacks, really?). Both sides can say the same thing about the other pretty much.

Is that *really* so heinous? Given how the fights are structured, it'd boil down to "Select special abilities while mashing the attack button", as opposed to the current "Select special abilities". Does mashing the attack button really add much to the strategy?
 

The Boat

Member
Aside from the fact that a few of the late zones are a little bland and repetitive compared to the more lush and varied earlier zones, I don't find this even a little bit true.

I'm with you, I think there are people that force themselves to do the sidequests when they don't like them and end up with this opinion or that it's a boring offline-MMO. I couldn't disagree more.
 

Aeana

Member
Aside from the fact that a few of the late zones are a little bland and repetitive compared to the more lush and varied earlier zones, I don't find this even a little bit true.

The zones themselves are fine. It's the quests that are completely repetitive after a while, and combat doesn't really get shaken up once you get all of your party members and find a party you like. It turns out you don't have a ton of options in battle - you'll most likely end up going for break->topple->daze repeatedly. Playing Melia changes things up a little bit but even in that case you will eventually fall into a routine. Toward the end of the game, it becomes tedious doing the same things over and over to successfully win a battle as efficiently as possible.
 

Evlar

Banned
I haven't!

...but then my answers have fundamentally boiled down to "play both".

I have!

But my answer also fundamentally boils down to "play both". (And honestly I haven't come close to finishing either Xenoblade or Skyrim's main quest).
 

Raging Spaniard

If they are Dutch, upright and breathing they are more racist than your favorite player
Why is it that the people that choose Skyrim seem to only have the following to say"

-The combat is better than Oblivion
-The bugs will be fixed eventually
-The art is pretty
-I like it because there are a lot of quests

And then they pick it as the GOTY, these don't sound deep or compelling reasons for all the acclaim. it tends to be "i like it because its awesome" and that's it. Other games don't get away with such explanations
 

frequency

Member
Wonder how many people confidently replying in this thread have actually played both games.

Seems to be a few posts of "I haven't played Xenoblade, but SKYRIM!"
But at least they admit it.
There's borderline fanaticism for Skyrim in the gaming community right now.
 
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