Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

Thanks for the comments and taking the time to read my thoughts.

@RogerRoger The N. Verted levels are really well designed. Other ones I didn't mention include a watercolour style design and one done like an old comic book with Adam West Batman type "BANG" graphics when you jump on enemies and crates. The ideas are clever but it drags a little when the same design is used for the five or six levels in that world.

I'm not normally one that notices soundtracks unless it really grabs me and that one track did. After the criticism I just made above, they really made an amazing effort to have so many levels so unique with music, art styles, and enemies that only appear once.

And as you and @Rudy_Manchego say, I think the game is pretty accessible. Levels gradually get longer and more difficult but fairly so. Although when I was doing runs just to get through with minimal deaths and ignoring the crates, they actually didn't feel that long at all. The trickiest bits come in the Flashback tapes and bonus levels which are completely optional. The end of the final level is a bit of a humdinger though as you use the mask powers back to back in clever ways. I was just surprised they hadn't used that sort of idea elsewhere.

@mookysam I got the game in a recent sale and was happy with what I paid. I read some things about the game "having 100 levels!" as a way of justifying the full price but presumably that included all the N. Verted levels etc. It is still a pretty meaty game though! And I did like some of the little nods to the other games like the Deja Vu screenshot.

@Ralizah The problem of repetition and side missions is a difficult one. As much as I enjoy the Yakuza games, the plethora of side content does distract from the main story, and I've suffered the same problem with other games too; I remember Wolfenstein: The New Colossus having a similar problem for me. As someone who wants to do everything in a game before I move on, it is a cross I have to bear though

As for the story, I mean plot isn't really a big thing for the Crash games really is it? I guess carrying on from Warped makes sense seeing as the remake was so recent but in the grand scheme of things it's a fairly trivial thing for me at least. To be honest, I wouldn't have really noticed without reading elsewhere that that's what had happened anyway. If you're being pedantic, Warped ends with Cortex and N. Tropy stuck in a time prison as infants and Crash and Coco don't look to have aged between Warped and 4

The Flashback tapes were a highlight though as it really let them experiment with the platforming but so that the main game can still be completed. It also adds funny little bits to the backstory with comments Cortex and N. Gin make while the trials are being completed.

And thanks for the comments on the screenshots. It's a great looking game and I liked catching cutscenes with the different skins on the characters too.

@Thrillho It's interesting how many games (and 3D platformers in particular) have that effect, whereby an incremental difficulty increase makes later levels feel dauntingly long and hard but, in reality, they're probably no longer or harder than anything which preceded them. Individual moments or levels (like the finale you mention) will always stand out but, speaking as somebody who replays a lot of games, I'm often surprised by how much of an impact that first-run uncertainty makes.

@RogerRoger The levels are certainly longer by the end but yes, when you’re not riding platforms into the foreground and taking every branch to get every crate you can certainly get through levels quickly!

The hardest thing in the game was obtaining some of the flashback tapes as you have to get to them without dying. As levels get longer and harder, the tapes also get put deeper into the level so the one in the last level is fiendish as one slip up and you have to reload the whole level.

I’m also interested to hear what our resident Crash aficionado @DerMeister has to say on the game as I don’t recall seeing him write much about it.

@Thrillho Well, I figured I'd make my own detailed write up on it at some point. I will say that there was plenty with in your review that I agreed with. Namely, I do think the game is does have too much for it's own good, and at times the difficulty is less "challenge" and more "Let's make this guy hate himself". I'm nowhere near completely finishing the game, but there are some parts I'm actively dreading.

All said, good review, and I hope I can do my thoughts on this game just as well as you did when I get to it.

@DerMeister From what you'd posted before, I thought you'd finished the game and gone back to try and get every single collectible. Good luck with the rest of the game then!

After their well-timed post in the unpopular opinion topic the other day, I'm tagging @BowTiesAreCool in case the below is of any interest.

***

BLOOD STONE 007
NDS, PC, PS3 and Xbox360 / November 2010

As an opening shot from a new licence-holder, Activision's Quantum of Solace hadn't entirely missed the target, but it hadn't been a bullseye, either. Instead of refining their aim, the publisher reached for an RPG with which to decimate the whole shooting range; they would remake GoldenEye 007 and use it to fill the then-cavernous gap in the Nintendo Wii's FPS offerings (because sure, resurrecting the GoldenEye name for marketing purposes had worked so well in the past... oh wait).

Whilst the Wii would be waggling its wands at various scar-sporting villains, developer Bizarre Creations were told to come up with an alternative purchase for everybody else. So as not to drown everybody in samey Bond blasters, they were initially instructed to produce a driving game (in light of their historical success with the genre, including the Project Gotham Racing series) but then, in 2009, folks by the name of Naughty Dog released a little something called Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. It did pretty well for itself, both critically and commercially, and so Bizarre received new orders from the ever-imaginative Activision boardroom: "Make that, but with Bond in it."

The end result is rather like drinking Ribena concentrate, straight from the bottle. It's a sudden and intense hit of every conceivable Bondian staple, delivered in a rush which risks sensory overload as it frantically crams more action, more explosions, more breakneck pacing into every frame. If you ever find a quiet moment amidst the carefully-crafted chaos, make the most of it because, more often than not, walking a few paces in any direction can trip an enemy spawn trigger, or slam shut a trap from which you'll have seconds to escape. Blood Stone is, in a word, relentless.

Nothing reflects this better than its opening mission. Designed to emulate a Bond film's pre-title sequence, it also acts as a tutorial for everything Bizarre are about to throw at you. Sneaking around a luxury yacht parked in an Athens dockyard, you're soon at the controls of a speedboat, before you crash it and engage in more gunplay in order to reach an Aston Martin, which you commandeer and race up a mountain. All inside of five minutes. I'm out of breath just writing about it.

The only problem with the game is that, to extend the aforementioned Ribena analogy, one mouthful contains enough sugar to last a week... and yet, it's still just one mouthful. We dilute it with water to make the bottle last longer and, I hate to admit it, part of me wishes Bizarre would've applied this principle to Blood Stone. It might very well capture the essence of a Bond movie perfectly, but that doesn't mean it should share their average two-hour runtime (especially as a full-priced, Triple-A game at launch). Okay, first playthrough might take you three, at a push, but you're still looking at an evening's entertainment here... albeit a very pleasant evening, I grant you.

But this is me, arguing for less style and more substance, and that speaks volumes. I'm never one to come away from a game wishing for more gameplay, but Blood Stone can't hide its desperate need for more gamification in parts; for example, there's a bit where Bond is imprisoned, chained to a wall and robbed of his all-seeing, all-powerful smartphone. It's a gaming cliché to de-equip your protagonist for a level but hey, this is a game, and forcing you to rely on nothing but your wits and your fists is an approach befitting Craig's interpretation of the character. And so you mash a button to wrench your wrists free of their shackles, pick yourself up off the floor, creep out into the corridor and tackle a guard to the ground. You're not even allowed to pick up his gun. Awesome.

Round the corner, up a small staircase unchallenged, and... oh. There's my smartphone. Ringing, in case you could possibly miss it. And my silenced pistol, right there beside it, fully loaded and ready to go. Boy, that was a tense twenty seconds. Can't believe I made it.

Even the very concept of mashing a single button replaces the innovative interactivity of Bond's previous games; there's a similar escape sequence in the PS2 era's James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing which required recollection and some smart gadgetry to survive. In fact, speaking of that particular chapter of Bond's gaming back-catalogue, the third-person comparisons are easy to draw. Pierce Brosnan boasted a robust, three-input melee system of punches, kicks, throws and counters. Six years of supposed progress later, what does Daniel Craig get? A solitary "Press Square for Takedown" prompt.

Surprisingly enough, he fares better on the Nintendo DS. Developed by the inexhaustible n-Space (they also adapted the GoldenEye 007 remake for handheld, managing to release both on the same day) every core element is present and correct, yet its gameplay feels slightly more involved than that of its big brother. This isn't just the intimacy of portability playing a part; there's simply more nuance. Melee attacks require a short QTE input to strike true, and there are signature "Bond Moments" peppered about the environments which, whilst blatant, help you connect with proceedings. To translate everything so successfully to smaller screens would've been impressive enough, but to add more features... well, it's an incredible achievement. Undoubtedly your best bet for taking Bond on the bus.

The little NDS cartridge even covers more story ground. It fills in some blanks from the console version, visits more locations and expands certain showdowns. Not that you'll notice if only playing in HD, as the writing still clips along nicely, suiting the game's brisk pace. It's an original effort which ends on a cliffhanger but, when taken as a standalone adventure, it retroactively fits into the canon of the Craig era subsequently established in SPECTRE (in other words, they got lucky).

There's no Hollywood A-List casting budget to speak of, beyond Daniel Craig himself (who betrays his contractual obligations with every sleepy syllable) and Judi Dench (who says yes to everything, national treasure that she is). The game's biggest "get" is Joss Stone, who pulls double duty inhabiting newcomer Nicole Hunter after writing and singing her own title song. She's a pretty solid voice actor, it must be said, and her character ends up being a highlight amidst an otherwise-bland cavalcade of identikit male allies, villains and frenemies. They're all accompanied by composer Richard Jacques (yes, he of much Sonic the Hedgehog praise) who eschews the overplayed, overly familiar guitar-twanging theme and instead brings his own recurring melody to the music. The end result is a score which sounds frenetic and fresh, yet still remains recognisably Bond. It fits Blood Stone like a glove.

And that isn't the only presentational trick up Bizarre's sleeve. My freeze-frame screencaps might reveal a few rough textures and low-poly models, but the graphics are gorgeous when moving, both on console and when fed through the guts of a modern PC. There's just the right amount of motion blur and film grain maintained throughout, creating the most accomplished cinematic effect I've ever seen applied to a game. This isn't chasing some folly about being Bond; it's about allowing players to direct the action of a Bond movie. As such, when you sit back and simply let it unfold, Blood Stone remains one of the best-looking games from the PS360 generation.

Which helps to sell the chaos. Driving through an expl... no, an erupting oil refinery in Siberia? You're assaulted with layers of particle effects, snow blinding the screen, light blooms from each explosion, blurs from the wreckage you're weaving through. It all comes together with an overwhelming potency. Even when strolling through a (briefly) sedate location, like a giant whale aquarium in Bangkok, you'll notice extra flourish, such as real-time reflections dancing across a glass floor. The developers really did have a knack for spectacle, and it ensures that even the most mundane moments feel exotic enough for Bond. There are no more broom cupboards to speak of but, if there were, Bizarre would've made the best, most lavish broom cupboards you'd have ever seen.

Alas, they'd never get the chance. Despite praise from some quarters, sales for Blood Stone tanked. This was entirely Activision's fault; they'd released it on the same day as the GoldenEye 007 remake and therefore split the market. Nostalgia drew a casual audience towards the safe, predictable quality and, as such, the enigmatic unknown was left on the shelf. Activision being Activision, they ruthlessly pinned all the blame on Bizarre Creations, shutting them down a few short months later. They also cancelled the game's planned sequel (which was being developed by Raven Software, who suddenly found themselves "streamlined" into becoming a Call of Duty support studio).

Such is the nature of business, and Bond is certainly more of a business than an artistic endeavour nowadays, but it's still a shame. Blood Stone was likely doomed the day somebody decided to chase a trend; the goal of making Uncharted in a tuxedo isn't as terrible a crime as trying to CoD-ify Bond, because the template is more suited to the character, but it's still a template. Chucking in a couple of leftover point-to-point driving levels is hardly gonna reinvent the wheel.

But at least we have some proof, and therefore some hope, that it's possible to convey Bond's big-screen magic in a game without the need for deathmatches and killstreaks. You can find the right composer, the right writer and the right approach because, for a few fleeing hours, Blood Stone did, and it comes highly recommended as a result.

Just don't blink. You might miss half the game otherwise.

Blood Stone 007 = 8/10

James Bond will return in 007 Legends.

Some great reviews as of late, particularly the Crash 4 from @Thrillho, and the Bond reviews from @RogerRoger (as an aside, are you planning on reviewing the Wii Goldeneye, or it's port to the HD Twins?)

Meanwhile I'm currently working on my Xenoblade Chronicles: DE piece. It won't be as eloquently written as the reviews you guys post, but it'll probably be my biggest yet.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch)

The enhanced Switch remaster/remake of the now iconic Wii era JRPG. Although I've played XC2 (and it's Torna expansion), this was my first time with the original adventure. This release also includes the all new Future Connected adventure, but for the purpose of this review I'm going to focus on the core game.

Gameplay:

• In terms of structure it's actually pretty standard fare for a JRPG, as you'll traipse across towns, field areas, & dungeons on your way to your next story destination, tackling optional quests along the way (I will say I found this preferable to XC2, which I don't remember having bespoke dungeons, just many open areas, followed by a series of more linear areas near the back end. While this game does have a series of more linear zones in the back half as well, I think in general it does a good job of mixing up it's open & more focused areas). Where it stands out is in the expansive scope of it's environments, which is so impressive I could honestly believe this was built ground up for Switch if I wasn't aware of it's Wii origins (it's not open world, but many of it's areas are large enough to invoke that feeling of wondering if you can get to that distant location in the distance). I can honestly see why it would have been viewed as a revelation of sorts on Wii.
• The world comes to life with monsters that have different "triggers" when it comes to attacking your party (if they have an eye logo above them they'll attack on sight, a vibration logo means they'll attack if you're moving quickly, a nuclear looking symbol means they'll attack if you use an ether based ability around them, and no symbol means they'll only attack when you make the first move), and you'll come to terms with avoiding powerful enemies levelled in the 70's & 80's that can prowl around even early areas, which helps to establish the world as a living environment with apex predators (while there is lore mentioned in the occasional side quest that mentions some groups of monsters being enemies with others, monsters don't actually react to each other in practice however). Enemies also have color coded icons above them that let you guage their strength relative to yours from afar (Red is too strong, Yellow tough but doable, Brown equal, Blue weaker, & No Icon no threat), and if they have no color coded icon they won't attack you even if you set off their trigger. Of course you can always target an enemy to get it's exact level as well.
• Exploration is very encouraged and you'll earn experience for arriving at new locations & landmarks (the latter of which act as warp points once you reach them), and you don't lose anything when you die (you're just sent back to the last landmark you passed, though you keep all experience, money, etc.), so you don't need to fret over getting bodied by a powerful enemy around the bend when you want to explore. It really cultivates a sort of relaxing vibe, and while the size of some areas may seem intimidating at first, if you keep up on side quests they generally send off to every nook & cranny over time. One other thing I'll briefly mention is that there are blue dots scattered over the landscape that are material harvest points (each area has it's own set of materials to collect, and while there is some randomness to what spawns where in an area, some materials will have a higher chance to spawn at night, during bad weather, etc. It's largely up to luck of the draw though, and a few materials are very rare to spawn regardless. This is definitely inferior to the system in XC2, where specifically marked harvest points will only spawn bugs, flowers, etc). You'll often need these materials for sidequests, and you can also fill out a "Collectipedia", which earns you rewards for filling out an area's material list.
• As for the side quests themselves they don't tend to be anything fancy, usually just stuff like Kill "X" number of this enemy or collect this number of items, though the basic gameplay loop was fun enough that I found doing them preferable to grinding, plus there were a few interesting ones from a lore perspective (though I thought the whole Giants' Treasure questline ended up being pretty anticlimactic). While it is true that doing all you can will over level you for the early areas, quest opportunities generally shrivel up into the second half & I felt things kind of evened out (not counting the endgame quests that pop up right at the end. Those are tough, however doing them will let you plow through the final boss). I'll also mention that whenever you have a quest selected as your main one there'll be a blue "!" marking exactly where you need to go, so there's no running around guessing where you need to go, which is especially helpful whenever you need to collect materials that spawn randomly (you can just open up the map and see exactly where the materials you need have spawned). Environmental designs aren't as intricate as those in XC2, so I never had the issue I had in that game where I'd seemingly go to the right location for a quest only for it to be at a different elevation. It definitely made things a bit easier.
• One issue I had with quests though is the whole affinity chart. You see, by talking to named NPCs & completing quests you're reputation in that area of the game world will increase, and when it increases more quests will open up, however that's not all there is to it. You see there is an affinity chart that displays how every named NPC is connected to those around them, and sometimes you need to talk to one NPC in order for some other NPC to give you a quest, and it's not often apparent that you need to do this, so if you want to attempt to do all the quests you can, you'll spend a lot of time talking to random NPCs to see if the affinity chart will update. This is slightly compounded by the fact that certain NPCs will only be active at certain times (though you can freely change the in-game clock to your heart's desire, and after you talk to an NPC once you can check their active times in the affinity chart), and of course certain quests are missable due to story progression (these quests are marked with a clock icon, so at least you know to prioritize those).
• Early on in the game you'll run across a settlement that has been destroyed and you'll be given the optional game long task of rebuilding it by gathering materials (and paying lots of money). While the character in charge of the rebuilding program will give you hints where you need to find certain items, the game is never quite as open as it is when it comes to pointing you in the right direction with normal quests, but I found it worthwhile to tackle though as I liked seeing the city being rebuilt, plus doing so grants you access to even more side quests, shops, & more.
  
  Sorry if this drags... on.
• When it comes to the game's combat (it's about time I got to this, lol!) it has a real time system where your character performs basic attacks automatically, though there are a series of special abilities (known as arts) displayed at the bottom of the screen, and it's the player's job to activate them at the right moment (you can't spam them as they have cool down gagues that must refill before you can use one again). For example Shulk has an art called "Back Slash" which, as you can imagine, deals extra damage when you're positioned behind the enemy you're targeting. There is a gauge with three bars that fills up as you fight, and when fully filled it allows you to pull off a powerful chain attack (the action stops, and you're free to chain together a series of arts, one from each of your party members, into a powerful combo), based on your party's affinity (more on this later) you may get extra chances to string even more arts into the combo. Doing so is a gamble however, as expending one bar of the guage is the only way to revive a fallen ally (there are no usable items like potions & such as there are in other JRPGs).
  Certainly seems to be a lot to take in.
• As briefly mentioned before there are no usable items in the game. This means that in order to heal yourself (or perform other buffs) in battle you'll have to make sure you have a character in your party with healing arts. Shulk has one that restores a small amount of HP to one character, but you'll largely be relying on Sharla once she joins the party a few hours in. I'll admit I was worried at first about leaving the health of my party largely up to an AI character (you can control characters other than Shulk in battle, but for reasons I'll get to in a bit, it's not something you'll likely choose to do often), but in practice it never presented any problems.
• A key aspect of the game's combat that's unique are Shulk's visions of the future. Part of the game's narrative is that lead character Shulk can see the future, and this is worked into the battle system in a neat way. Whenever an enemy is going to hit a party member with a special attack that'll really wreck them (usually resulting in death, but not always), the action will be interrupted with a monotone colored vision playing out the attack. Once you're back in control you'll have a few seconds to keep the scenerio from coming true. While you can warn a fellow party member by walking up to them & pressing "B", letting you choose one of their arts to activate & potentially nerf the impact of the attack, your strongest course of action is to use one of Shulk's special Monado arts. The Monado being the game's sword of legend so to speak, Shulk has access to a special selection of powerful arts that can turn the tide of battle in these scenarios. If effective a Monado art will be highlighted with a "!", and if you select it in time the enemy attack will effectively be neutralized alltogether.
• Another wrinkle to the combat are Mechon enemies. Robotic foes from Mechonis (more on this when it comes to the story) that are invulnerable to all attacks except those from Shulk's Monado. While other party members gain effectiveness against them as the story goes on, early on Shulk is really the only one that can harm them (one Monado art temporarily makes everyone effective against them, but activating it means you may not have another Monado art charged in time to stop a big attack if one is coming, so it's a bit of a gamble). Otherwise everyone can damage them if they are toppled or dazed. This is a mechanic that can be used against all enemies, but is particularly useful against Mechon early on (probably as a way to seamlessly train you to use it). Certain arts will have a chance to "Break" an enemy (arts with a pink icon can do so), which causes a gauge to appear above the enemy. They will then be "Toppled" if hit with a green colored art before the guage depletes, this causes the guage to be refilled and they can then be "Dazed" if hit with a yellow colored art before it depletes. An enemy will be immobilized with one of the latter two effects inflicted, and will take more damage as well (Mechon foes can be damaged by everyone as well while one is active). On top of this there are a couple early bosses that can only be damaged while "Toppled" or "Dazed" too. Also, your own party members can fall victim to "Topple" & "Daze", though similar to warning them about a future attack, if you are unaffected you can walk up to an affected ally and press "B" to get them back into the fight early (similarly, you can do the same thing to an ally suffering certain stat reducing status ailments, returning them to normal).
• Being a JRPG there are many ways to strengthen your characters. Of course they can level up by gaining enough EXP (earned by beating enemies, discovering new locations/landmarks, rewarded after completing some side quests, and unlocking in-game achievements), and by equipping new weapons & armor (bought in shops, dropped by enemies, awarded for completing side quests). Equipment also has Gem slots (0-3 slots on weapons & 0-1 slot on armor pieces), which act a lot like Materia from FFVII Remake. New arts ARE NOT tied to Gems like magic is to Materia in FFVII, however they offer all kinds of various buffs (or debuffs to attacked enemies) for battle & exploration. Gems can be earned as side quest rewards or crafted from ether crystals (dropped by enemies or harvested from ether deposits in the environment). Also, it's important to note that the strength of your arts DOES NOT increase upon character level up like base attack/stats (rather you have to level up each art independently by spending from a pool of accured Art Points, which you also earn from defeating enemies. This is especially important for Shulk's Monado arts, as vision or not, you're not going to be able stop an upcoming onslaught if you don't keep these properly upgraded as you move forward). Of course with so many systems in play there's bound to be one or two you won't bother with, and for me it was the Skill Trees. Each character has three different Skill Tree paths (plus 2 extra ones earned after certain side quests, resulting for a total of 5 each), each containing 5 skills, and when you have a path selected you slowly unlock it's skills (which tend to be passive buffs) as you aquire SP (which earned alongside EXP & AP). You can also spend Affinity Coins (earned upon levelling up) to give the effects of an unlocked skill to another party member as well. This is something I rarely bothered with, mostly leaving everyone on their default Skill path & it never resulted in any noticeable trouble for me.
• Outside of the Skill Trees I also never really bothered with Party Affinity. Party members gain affinity with each other by fighting alongside each other in combat (you can also have them give gifts to each other to build affinity), and if your party has a high affinity it earns you extra moves to add to chain attack combos (there's probably some other benefits as well). I really only ever used the same 3 characters, so their affinity was high with each other, but I never bothered to build affinity with anyone else outside of a certain side quest that required two female party members to have high affinity. This means I never got to see many of the Heart-To-Hearts (these are certain locations in the game world where two of your characters will have a personal chat, revealing more about themselves), which earn characters big affinity gains, but they usually have to have a pretty high affinity with each other to access them in the first place, kinda defeating the purpose, IMO.
• Oh, there's also these little dimensional tear things you'll run across that'll take you to a psuedo dimension where you can take on timed challenges to earn rewards. I think there are different challenges for different characters, but I honestly never once bothered with it.
• Another thing I never bothered with are the different difficulty modes. I played "Standard/Normal/Whatever it's called", however I know there's a "Casual" mode that at least weakens enemies, but probably has other effects too (being a Nintendo game, if you die 2 or 3 times in relatively quick succession it'll ask if you want to switch to the easier mode, which I ignored). At the other end of the spectrum is the "Expert" mode, in which EXP earned from exploration isn't automatically applied (it goes into a pool you can pull from at a later time if you feel like you need it), and you can actively de-level yourself if you think you over leveled & want a challenge (whether this mode actually makes enemies harder than normal I don't know).
• In comparison to XC2, it seems like there's a bit of a step back with every step forward, but I think I actually slightly prefer XC:DE in terms of gameplay. While the moment to moment combat here has a good flow to it (and the vision mechanic is cool) I think I prefer the much more rhythmic flow of XC2's battle system, plus the second game has more intuitive material harvesting & I LOVED getting new rare Blades to add to my party. However XC2 also added one to many excessive systems, such as the Gacha mechanic to acquire new Blades (which was a grind), and the dreadful Field Skill system (you needed Blades in your party with certain adventuring skills to access certain areas, which hindered exploration & interfered with story progression occasionally), and I think XC:DE is better off without all that. At the end of the day I guess those two issues I had with XC2 were a bigger nuisance than the niggles I had with XC:DE.
  That was a lot to take in, but let's move on shall we?

Story/Characters:

• When the world was young two titans (the organic lifeform Bionis & the mechanical Mechonis) did battle in a vast ocean. While it's said that Bionis won the day, the battle was exhaustive and both titans have long since been immobile. Bionic life (including Homs, fantasy speak for Humans) were born from the flesh of Bionis, and have lived on it's body relatively peacefully until one day they came under attack from the Mechon, robotic lifeforms from Mechonis. Powerless against their assailants, the number of Homs has diminished, and only a few of their colonies remain...
• There was hope however, as the Homs found themselves in possession of the Monado. Said to be the sword used by the Bionis itself, one warrior was strong enough to weild it's power and singlehandedly drove off the Mechon, seemingly winning the war. This was a year before the start of the game's events proper, where we join up with Shulk, a young scientist in Colony 9 who is studying the fabled sword. After the Mechon suddenly show up and shatter the fragile peace of the colony, lead by a new kind of Mechon immune to the Monado (during the events of which it's discovered that Shulk can weild the Monado & see visions of the future with it in hand), Shulk & his friend Reyn go off on a quest to reach Fort Galahad (the Mechon stronghold from the last war) to seek out revenge. Of course being a JRPG there are many detours & narrative twists along the way, providing for a grand adventure.
  
  Let's do this.
• While it does have it's more lighthearted moments, it definitely strikes a generally more serious tone than XC2, which wasn't afraid to go out of it's way for a laugh at times. While I think I actually preferred XC2 in this regard, the story on offer here is still really gripping, and I can understand why fans who started with the Wii original may have not jived with the second game's tone.
• It has a pretty solid cast of characters, and while it's not as prevalent a theme as it is in something like XC2 or FFX, I think the romance elements worked into the narrative were done really well. After nearly 120 hours of play time it was kinda sad to let go.
• I really liked the lore they worked into the game world like the Giant's ruins, and other vestages of civilization that show life was once more prevalent on Bionis. I also really like that some groups of monsters seem to have some level of intelligence (like the Turkin/Chillken & Ignas) as they fight with basic weaponry & make small camps or reside in the ruins of abandoned civilizations. This was similar to how they were presented in XC2 as well, and I'd be really be interested if they expanded on it in a future title, like having them have cultures at least on par with the Nopon (cuddly little round bird creatures that have appeared in every Xenoblade game, and one usually ends up in your party), just in a hostile role.
• On a side note, while it's pretty clear at points that it's connection to XC2 was probably only fully realized during the second game's production (who knows how much of that was actually pre-planned), by the end I was pretty satisfied with how well it does connect (how much they changed for this remake to retroactively make it fit better, other than a slight alteration to one character's design, I do not know as I've never played the Wii version).

Graphics/Audio:

• As mentioned before the sense of scale in the game can be absolutely awe inspiring & hard to believe it started life as a Wii game. Cleaned up in the XC2 engine, aside from a rough edge here & there it could totally pass for a ground up Switch title. It has a wide variety of biomes in a unique enough world where even the standard grassland & jungle areas feel anything but generic, and many areas, particularly on Bionis, take the Avatar approach of making everything glow in the night (of particular beauty are Satorl Marsh at night & Eryth Sea during a meteor shower). There is an additional sense of scale as in many places you can see were other parts of the titan you're currently on are in relation to you (and the other titan as well), which is a really cool piece of world building. My only little bit of disappointment in this regard is unfortunately many of the Mechonis locations. Granted, they still have an awe inspiring sense of scale & some really cool set-pieces in spots, but whereas the Bionis' locales (even it's sci-fi ones) feel like a living, breathing part of a coherent world, many of Mechonis' locales kind of blend together in a kind of series of brownish rust gold, generic militaristic sci-fi hallways & lifts. Still cool in general though.
  
  
  
  
  
  Shots from various Bionis locales.
• In a neat touch every different piece of armor changes your characters' appearance where it's worn (there is armor for your head, torso, arms, legs, & feet), and new to this version is the ability to set your appearance to a different set of armor compared what you're actually wearing for stat purposes (as long as you actually have the corresponding armor), so if you want the benefits of wearing the best armor in the game but want to see Shulk running around in his undies you can do that (if you payed close attention to my environment shots you can see I briefly did that with Sharla 😏).
• The British voice work is absolutely wonderful & helps to set the fantasy tone (coming from an American yokel in the Midwest).
• Great soundtrack too. I'm not one to usually notice music in games, and won't be tracking down individual pieces for my review, but it has a wide variety of tracks for various purposes & can be suitably sombre, upbeat, ready for action, relaxing & much more when it needs to be.

Conclusion:

• I'm not quite sure it's my favorite Switch title, but at nearly 120 hours of playtime it's certainly the one I've spent the most time with (and that's not counting the Future Connected bonus story, which I'll be reviewing on it's own!). Whatever the case, if your one of those people who've played BotW, Odyssey, and a few other Switch titles, complain that it doesn't have enough "big" exclusives and haven't yet played the Xenoblade titles (this or XC2), so so now.
  
  Hold on guys, I think we're finally done!

@RogerRoger I like these multi-platform reviews for older games, considering how wildly different bespoke versions often were. The way you describe the HD version of Blood Stone does indeed recall some of my experience with the older Uncharted games, where they felt thrilling, with pacing like a rocket blasting off into the atmosphere, but, by the time I had finished, it ended up feeling like more of an amusement park ride: the thrill wound down, and I wasn't left with a lot of memories. Such is the fate of the thrill ride, I think.

It's interesting how well the NDS version fared. Proof enough, I think, that weaker hardware is no excuse for turning out an inferior product.

And yeah, releasing two Bond games at the same time is dumb. Especially when one has a lot of nostalgia attached to it.

Is this based on one of the books or something? Usually the games seem to be adaptations of the films, but I don't remember a "Blood Stone" movie.

@RR529 Nice piece on Xenoblade DE. The affinity requirements were indeed the worst aspect of the original, IMO. The best change XC2 made was to not make it where there has to be a certain level of affinity built up between characters to see one of their heart-to-hearts, given those were often a pain to return to (in the 3DS version, at least), and building affinity between specific characters could take hours of grinding. Also, I admit, the affinity chart has always made me scratch my head in this game: it's inscrutable.

It is, indeed, a very pretty game on Switch (in docked mode, at least; I've heard mixed things about handheld mode performance, although hopefully nothing as awful as XC2's handheld performance at times). The new character models make this feel a LOT less like a PS2 game, but the environments are also pretty stunning this go around (the Wii version was a fuzzy nightmare on my HDTV, and the 3DS version is, well, low-res by default).

BTW, if the glut of systems in XC2 was bad for you (I was pretty okay with it outside of, as you mentioned, the insanely annoying field skill requirements; especially for side-quests), then you're going to have a bad time with Xenoblade Chronicles X if that ever gets ported to Switch. I played that game for 35 hours or so, and I still don't quite feel like I have a grasp on half of nightmarish pile of systems in that game.

@Ralizah, yeah, the looser restrictions on Heart-To-Hearts were definitely an improvement to XC2, and as a bit of a sneak peek I'm glad to report that this extends to XC:DE's Future Connected (which has a lot in common with Torna in that it streamlines a lot of the main game's mechanics, resulting in a gameplay loop that feels better, IMO).

Otherwise I did play it in portable mode once when the power was out, and it was definitely sub HD, but not blurry (it wasn't a huge open area though, so I can't give a definitive answer on that). I was really excited about Xenoblade X back when it was new & the talk of the town (I just never had a Wii U), but the more I hear about it the less interested I am, which is a shame as I love the mech idea (From what I understand it's one of the few Wii U games that'd probably have to be graphically compressed if it released on Switch as it was over 32 GBs, and they probably wouldn't shell out for a 64GB cart. Apparently XC2's graphics & textures were scaled back compared to the Wii U game, and even BotW in final form looks less impressive than the early Wii U only footage due to memory constraints. I've only ever heard this from a couple of Wii U die hards who complained about Switch holding things back though, so who knows how true it is).

As for the other conversation, sorry for butting in @RogerRoger, while I'm not a Bond specialist, from what I understand the Blood Stone movie was cancelled and the game(s) is the only thing that went ahead. That's what I remember hearing at the time at least.

@RR529 Oh, nice! Torna is currently my favorite Xenoblade game. If Future Connected manages to one-up the first Xenoblade for me as well, I'm fully on-board the "Monolith Soft needs to release smaller, more tightly-designed JRPGs from now on" train.

Yeah, XC2 was ok in smaller areas, but the resolution bottomed out in large open area like Gormott Province. I have no idea why Monolith Soft won't make use of higher GPU clock speeds in their games when they're in portable mode like Breath of the Wild does. XC2's battery life was great, but what does it matter if the game looks like crap half of the time?

BTW, it's actually not true that XC2's visuals were scaled back compared to XCX. Digital Foundry did a technical analysis of the game and discussed the numerous advanced visual effects that weren't present at all in XCX. There's also almost no collision detection in XCX with anything other than large structures and enemies, leading to ridiculous situations like cars being able to drive through your characters like they're ghosts or something. People saying XCX is the more visually advanced game are probably just reacting to the change in art style.

Also worth mentioning that XCX would probably work fine on the Switch. Switch ports tend to use up less space overall, and it was under 25GB on disc. XCX also actually made use of downloadable data packs on the eshop to install certain data to the hard drive and get around the speed limitations of running the game from the disc, which would have been what bumped up the file size of the game.

And interesting to hear about a canceled Bond movie! I didn't know that was a thing. I wonder if it was supposed to release before or instead of Skyfall?

@RR529 First up, awesome work on your Xenoblade review! Your most in-depth and informative yet, and I really enjoyed reading it through (definitely a good sign, given that JRPGs aren't exactly my first choice of genre). I'll admit, the series' name has caught my eye a lot more recently, after I submitted the utterly gorgeous Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Special Edition box art to the recent forum contest. You have an analytical attention to detail in your writing which I could never hope to emulate (punctuated by great screencaps and puns which made me chuckle out loud). You've covered all the bases which, in a game seemingly as intricate as Xenoblade, is most impressive!

The forgiving cost of death and overall relaxing vibe you mention would appeal to me, I reckon. They might also suit my partner, so I'll keep Xenoblade in mind, should we ever wanna broaden his Switch collection. He seems to gravitate towards peaceful exploration of large maps, providing he can leave any challenging combat to one side, which I'll then tackle for him later (thankfully, the way you've described the combat kinda reminds me of Dragon Age II, which I had no problem with... that being said, I'd probably follow the "Casual" suggestion if I ended up dying a couple times!).

Now, to Bond (and this is where I'll bring in @Ralizah a bit early).

Interesting rumour! I've never heard that before, and I'm afraid I'll have to shoot it down, but I can absolutely see how it would get started. There should have been a new Bond movie in 2010, but there were delays caused by various studio shenanigans.

Blood Stone was always an original story, penned by prolific Bond writer Bruce Feirstein, and the cancelled Raven Software game would've been its direct sequel, running a separate but parallel ongoing storyline. Blood Stone was likely designed to be a "companion piece" to a new movie (in the same way NightFire, an original story, released alongside Die Another Day back in 2002) but none of its components were ever destined for, or taken from, the big screen.

I've done a bit of research this evening, just to make sure I'm not typing nonsense, and it turns out that Blood Stone was supposed to launch much, much earlier in 2010. Quite why it ended up releasing right alongside the GoldenEye remake, I'll never know (and no, I won't be reviewing that game, for reasons that'll become clear in about a week's time). I guess, if you put the words "delayed" and "cancelled" together enough times, and considering the final game's quality... yeah, I can totally see how people would've assumed that Blood Stone represented what Bond should've been doing that year.

But it was never the plan. Skyfall was always the movies' destination, and we gamers were supposed to enjoy an ongoing, original series of third-person action games in the meantime.

***

@Ralizah Thank you; yeah, if you ever see an NDS copy of Blood Stone knocking about, it might be worth a look-see (for the right price). I know you're a fan of the console, and seeing it handle a big Hollywood blockbuster can be quite impressive at times. Alas, there'll be no more multi-platform reviews from me going forward (Blood Stone was Bond's handheld swansong) but I will be writing a full piece about a GameBoy Advance game in the near future.

Arguably, all the best Bond games have original stories (Agent Under Fire, NightFire, Everything or Nothing and Blood Stone). It's always fun to see how imaginative developers have to be when tied to a pre-existing story, but it's also heartbreaking to see how often they're forced to mangle it beyond recognition, in order to fit their gameplay targets.

And yeah, despite being somebody who loves to replay old favourites, I'm with you on the whole amusement park analogy. If the original Uncharted games had stayed on PS3, and never been given Photo Modes, I wouldn't have spent half as much time with them in recent years.

@RR529 I’ve played about 10 hours now of Xenoblade and haven’t even made it out of Colony 9! There are just so many sidequests but it’s definitely a fun game. It’s good to see that it mostly stands up as a classic.

@Ralizah I can confirm that Xenoblade in handheld is rather blurry, especially in the character model side of things. It’s playable and actually maintains a decent frame rate but yeah, it’s interesting going from my Vita and seeing how crisp some of those games looked and then Nintendo’s hazy approach to handheld fidelity.

@nessisonett Interestingly, a lot of PS Vita games were subnative as well (which I'd have never realized before looking into it), but I guess it's less noticeable on the smaller screen. Which makes sense, because subnative games on Switch can look crispier on the Switch Lite than on the base model (TW3, in particular, looks pretty damn good on a Lite with the right combination of settings). Although it doesn't help in the case of a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where the drops were SO severe in some sections.

90% of my Switch library looks awesome in handheld mode. 9% looks rougher, but serviceable. It's that last 1% that's the trouble, and that, unfortunately, is where XC2 resides half the time.

Torna was still pretty rough on the eyes, but it avoided the worst drops of the base game. I'm guessing XC:DE is the same way.

Oh well. It'll still look better than that 3DS port in handheld mode.

@RogerRoger OK, cool. I figured the neighborhood Bond expert would have the answer. I'm not surprised that the game was Bond's last handheld outing, considering the practice of developing bespoke portable versions of big games for handhelds really started to die out with the 3DS/Vita, and is all but dead with Switch.

A GBA game, huh? You're really digging into the portable library lately. I'd love to get one of those original GBA models one day modded with a backlight. I currently have a couple of GBA SPs, but it really was a terrible hardware revision: no headphone jack, cramped controls, etc. Your hands have to adopt a claw shape to even use it. I used to use a DS Lite as my GBA, but that broke, so I sold off my games for the system and have been hoping Nintendo would be smart enough to bring the library to the Switch. Alas, no beans.

One of the better developments with ND in recent years has been their shift toward games with more actual substance. Neil Druckmann might be a pariah to some angry right-wing types who don't like the inclusion of gay or black characters, but Uncharted 4 is legitimately a far more interesting games than previous Uncharteds, with better character development, much wider level design, etc., and, while I have no desire to play it, The Last of Us Part II seems to have taken even larger steps in that direction.

@Ralizah I remember searching far and wide when I had to replace my original DS Lite, just so that I could preserve that crucial GBA cartridge slot. It's an understandable shame that they dropped it. I've dabbled with various iterations of GBAs over the years, via friends and relatives, and my conclusion is that the DS Lite really is the best way to play GBA games. I'm gonna be beside myself when my current, much-cared-for DS Lite gives up the ghost, because replacing it is likely impossible now.

The GBA SP was a nightmare! Here's hoping you can find one of those modded originals, or a functional DS Lite comes your way someday. Your games library is probably bigger and more diverse than mine (five Sonic, four Star Wars, two Bonds and a Tomb Raider) but regardless, it's never nice to lose access to any part of your gaming history.

***

@mookysam Thank you! Oh yeah, Activision will clone anything for a quick buck. Despite their shocking handling of the whole affair, Blood Stone does come away somewhat untainted, and still holds up, so I'd absolutely recommend it to a fan (especially one who struggled with the GoldenEye 007 remake). I've just checked HowLongToBeat.com and they're saying Blood Stone is a six-hour game, so maybe it's my gameplay style which whittled it down to two! Seems that, whenever I'm playing as Bond, I don't hang around; there's a world to save, for goodness sake!

@RR529 Thank you for the Xenoblade review! Glad you enjoyed it. It's become my favorite Switch game, and warts and all one of my favorite RPGs. The review was very well written and detailed, and I appreciated the comparisons to XC2 despite not playing it, though I have a decent idea of what I'm in for when I do.

There weren't too many gripes I had with the game aside from the quest variety and how tedious building affinity can be, so it definitely one of the better RPGs I've touched.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected (Switch).

An all new adventure bundled with Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. While you can jump straight into it, for narrative reasons it's recommended you play through the main game first (I'll try writing this as spoiler free as possible).

Gameplay:

• Like XC2's Torna expansion, Future Connected is a shorter adventure (I'd guess 10 - 15 hours, which is even shorter than Torna's 30 - 40 runtime) that features a completely new area, plus a returning area from the main game. The new area in question is the Bionis' Shoulder, which was a nearly complete area developed for the original game but cut due to thematic redundancy with a few of the game's earlier locales such as Colony 9 & Bionis' Leg (in short, it's a grasslands area). Gussie it up a bit and you've got yourself a brand new area for a story expansion. For spoiler purposes I won't reveal the returning location, though I will say it's one of the game's smaller locales, and you really don't spend a whole lot of time with it here.
• Returning party members include Shulk & Melia, and they're joined by two new Nopon characters in Nene & Kino (two children of Riki, the main game's Nopon party member). Basic combat is the same as the main game, with Nene & Kino even taking the abilities/roles of Reyn (tank) & Sharla (healer) respectively (sorry Melia, I'm putting you on the side lines again, lol). Fitting that it takes place shortly after the events of the main game, you don't start out at level 1, but instead level 60 (with all your arts already at level 4 or 5). Of course the area's enemies are levelled accordingly.
• There are 4 big changes to combat.
  1. There is no more future vision mechanic in place to counter killer blows, with nothing to replace it. This means you really don't have a need for most of the special Monado arts, though I did find a use for a couple. I never particularly found this to be a problem however, so enemy special attacks must have been relatively nerfed to sort of balance it out.
  2. Across your journey you'll run across a group of Nopon adventurers known as "Ponspectors" who'll join up with your party. There are 12 in total and mention this here as they ever presently follow your party of 3 while out adventuring & in combat (like active Blades do in XC2). During battle they'll randomly heal or buff party members & attack & debuff enemies (4 carry blue flags and have restorative effects, 4 more have red flags and attack enemies, and 4 others have yellow flags & debuff enemies). This is all AI controlled & involves no input from the player.
     
     I hope you're not tired of Nopon.
  3. The Chain Attack mechanic has been removed (where you expend your whole talent gauge to chain an art from each party member into a combo). It is replaced with a mechanic where you instead call upon all Ponspectors to strike in unison. Performed under the same conditions as a Chain Attack, you'll have the option to have them heal all party members & provide a litany of buffs, do massive damage to an enemy, or automatically Daze & debuff the enemy. The effectiveness of the strike depends on the total number of Ponspectors you've joined with as well as a little 3 prompt QTE (I think it's the same one used when performing certain arts in XC2). You'll occasionally get an "Extra Chance", which lets you immediately choose another strike (though you can't pick the one you've already used again).
  4. Another new aspect is the presence of "Fog Beasts". These are regular monsters who have fallen under the influence of the "Fog King" (the big bad of the expansion who is brought up in the first hour, so not really a spoiler). They have a black aura around them & when engaged send out a shockwave that attracts the attention of all nearby monsters (& levels them up). They sound annoying, but in practice I never had any particular issue with them (all other enemies return to their regular level if the Fog Beast is killed beforehand).
     
     There's something not quite right with these guys.
• Adventuring is largely the same as it is in the main game (you gain EXP from discovering new locations & landmarks, the latter act as warp points, harvest points are random blue dots everywhere, etc), though there are a few nagging issues. First off, given that they've had to cram an entire adventure into this one location, it's entirely possible to take a few steps off the beaten path (particularly early on) and wind up in a space with enemies too strong for you (& I don't mean the occasional random super strong enemy you're supposed to tip toe around you'll get in the main game, just a space with enemies generally too strong for you early on). Secondly, the landscape can be quite "layered" in spots, and yet the map is depicted as one "floor". This means you'll probably run into the issue where you'll go to a quest marker only to look around and see it's on a plane above or below you (a problem with XC2 occasionally, but not one I had with XC:DE proper). Granted, these are small problems in the grand scheme of things (death is just as un-punishing as ever, and you'll know the entire area by the back of your hand before too long), but they are there.
• Otherwise the game is streamlined in many aspects.
  1. The Skill Tree & all Affinity related systems (including all the charts) have been completely wiped. The "Heart-To-Heart" conversations scattered around the map (previously locked off by affinity requirements) have been replaced with "Quiet Moments". These are fully voice acted interactions between party members that are only ever locked off by story progression. Honestly this is a big load off your back as you don't have to worry about some obscure affinity requirement locking off a side quest or some such.
  2. While they can drop better weapons, enemies no longer drop armor (and the armor you obtain from quests is largely cosmetic). Better armor is exclusively obtained by buying it from one of the two shops in the game.
  3. There is no more Gem crafting system. An upgrade to your Ether Deposit mining gear near the start of the game means you harvest ready to go equipment Gems from Ether Deposits instead of crystals (enemies no longer drop crystals either). At some point you can do a side quest that improves the quality of Gems you mine as well (you start out mining level II & III Gems, and get level IV Gems afterwards) You still get a few Gems from side quests or treasure chests too, though.
• 3 - 4 NPC side quests usually open up after every other story event, and while (almost) none of them reward EXP, they all reward large amounts of money (which is important, since you can only buy better armor as previously stated). Each Ponspector also requires you to complete a side quest before they join you, and while (almost) none of them reward money, they all reward large amounts of EXP. You run across the first Ponspector as part of a scripted event, and after that he'll give you the locations of a few others. Ideally after you get more to join they'll reveal the location of a couple others, so on so forth, but it's important to note they all load in after you meet the first one, so it's entirely possible to get them out of order (I got a few this way), though be aware one may give you a quest you're not ready for if you're not "supposed" to meet them yet. Unlike the main game none of the quests get locked off due to story progression, and unless I somehow completely missed it during my entire playthrough of the main game, another new aspect is that it'll tell you what level they recommend you be at to take them on.
  
  Ready for duty!

Story/Characters:

• A year after the main game ends, Shulk & Melia are taking a trip to [insert returning location here] to see how things are going, when a big laser fires upon their ship & they crash land on the Bionis' Shoulder. Joined up by Nene & Kino (children of the previous game's Riki) who had stowed away on board, they soon meet up with refugees from [insert returning location here] who were driven out by a foe they've dubbed the "Fog King", an etheral being who seems immune to all physical & ether (magic) attacks, which phase through it. To make matters worse is that racial tension has caused the military class to leave the civilian camp unguarded, meaning Shulk & Co. have their work cut out for them.
• Despite the serious nature of the narrative, the game is a lot like XC2 in that it seemingly always balances out the more sombre moments with something a bit more light hearted, and that's largely where Nene & Kino join in. Yes, they're Nopon with all the speach & personality quirks that come with that, but they're also actual children, so the whole schtick comes off as much more genuine from them & they never fail to bring a smile. Despite the short run time of Future Connected, I probably care more about them than some party members from the main game.
  
  A surprisingly heartfelt duo.
• By and large this is Melia's story though (kinda ironic considering I sidelined her, lol), as she was the party member with the most baggage left over at the end of the main game, and it provides a nice conclusion for her (and some expanded roles for characters around her narrative).
• However, a lot (read: practically all) of the phenomena surrounding the sudden appearance of the Fog King is left unanswered, and I can't help but think that in that regard, this is as much prologue for where they want to take the series next as it is epilogue for where it's been. Unfortunately, unless some eagle eyed fan has noticed something that flew over me, there was nothing here that seemed to tie things back into XC2 (which I assumed there might be). Whatever the case, while the main game had a satisfying end & I shouldn't be itching for more after playing this cart for nearly 140 hours, that's exactly where Future Connected left me, wanting more.

Graphics/Audio:

• While you'll largely be spending your time in one location, I think they did a pretty good job of bringing the Bionis' Shoulder to life, and there's just enough diversity to keep it feeling fresh (though in terms of native monsters, it kinda feels like they jammed a bit of everything in there, feeling a bit more of an ecological mishmash than the locations in the main game).
  
  
  
  
• While you can't carry over any equipment from the main game (for practical gameplay purposes), you can still use the appearance of armor you collected in the main game for cosmetic reasons (once you clear it you can set the appearance of Shulk's weapon too).
• When you first load into an area (after warping or some such) or when things get really, really busy, I noticed the occasional dropped frame, which I imagine had to do with your little Ponspector army flailing their little flags about everywhere. It's not something that bothered me, but I figured I should mention it for transparency.

Conclusion:

• It's brief enough that it's probably not worth buying XC:DE just for this, but if you've never played the original game (or are looking to re-experience it) this is definitely a nice bonus that sweetens the deal.
  
  A dessert worth digging into.

@RR529 You're a machine! Great piece on Future Connected. Sad to hear it's so short (Torna's 30+ hour length was basically perfect, IMO), but it's nice to hear that at least some of the streamlining and QoL improvements from that made their way here as well. All the screenshots certainly look vivid and pleasant, and I'll admit to being a little too pleased about being able to build a minor army of Nopons, like it's Pikmin or something.

@RR529 Great follow-up piece! Did you write both together, or did you take a break between them? I'm only asking because they compliment one another really well (and you've definitely tapped into some sort of "Beast Mode" in order to convey such detail so effectively)!

@Ralizah, @RogerRoger (and everyone else who commented on my original review that I haven't yet mentioned), thanks!

I actually slowly wrote out the main Xenoblade piece over the course of about a week, which just happened to be about the length of time it took me to complete Future Connected (so I was close to finishing that up when I posted the first review). After that the Future Connected write up took only a couple days, as it was more "here's what's different", rather than a comprehensive detail of every little gameplay system.