Xenoblade Length

[ihateghirahim]

I'm thinking about the upcoming Monolith game X. I played Xenoblade, and I spent 100 hrs. on it till I was through. Today I even heard that one guy from Gamexplain say he only, only! got 20-25 hours into it. I feel its absurd length makes it hard to finish and hard to get people into. I thought it was a great JRPG and proof that not all Wii games are casual. I am however hoping X grants a us a shorter story, perhaps 35-45 hours in length, something akin to FFVII. What did you think of Xenoblade 's length? Did you finish it?

 

[Ronin]

Yeah, I've both played and finished Xenoblade all the way through (or at least as much as I could). The total playtime on my first playthrough reached up to 150+ hours, much of which consisted of grinding so that I could take on higher foes after the final battle. Afterwards I began a second save file with all of my previous status ported over, but took a break from it. Xenoblade is a solid game, which I personally think is the best that the Wii has to offer, although I have not played everything on that console.

I'm hoping that Monolith X grants us about the same amount of time for the plot as its predecessor. That game is exploring an entirely new scope that has yet to be tried on the Wii U, and I'm expecting to see a world as grand as the Bionis and Mechonis. Taking on full control of a humanoid suit adds on to the various degrees of transportation and exploration; walking on foot, running in-suit, turning into a tank, or even flying provides all new features that will benefit the game's duration.

 

[tketle]

I didn't think Xenoblade was absurdly long. It's a commitment, for sure, but any game so story-oriented (like most JRPGs) will be, and when you throw in all the quests and the kind of potential for exploration that Xenoblade boasts you're going to be looking at a long adventure. The length of its story probably would be off-putting to a lot of gamers, but I think it should be assumed that anyone who actually managed to get their hands on the game is a rather avid fan of the genre and accepting of, or even hoping for, such a long and epic experience. For anyone who did get bored and never finished the game, I'd say the issue was probably that of a conflict between the nature of the game and these people's personal tastes, rather than the sheer length of the story.

I loved how long Xenoblade was, personally. Too often do I buy games and finish them after just a couple of days. With Xenoblade, however, I played the game practically non-stop for more than a month before I conquered the final boss and I enjoyed every second of it. My play time was roughly 106 hours, which excludes most of the post-game content. Since then I've started a new game (with my levels and equipment from the previous playthrough retained) and intend to go through as fast as possible--with no questing or grinding--to see just how long the campaign is at its purest, though I haven't touched this file in months.

As you can probably guess, I'm really hoping that 'X' will be at least as long as Xenoblade. Should Monolith Soft decide cut down on the campaign in an attempt to make the game more accessible, it'd better be made up for with more side content and/or a larger world to explore.

 

[Mercedes]

I enjoyed Xenoblade's length, and yes I finished it. The saddest thing about a good game is when it has to end, hopefully in a satisfying way, so I enjoy it when I game I like lasts quite a while. I have no idea about how long it took me but it didn't just take a week-end like some games tend to do. Also it's kind of about value. I definitely got my money's worth with Xenoblade!

 

[Triforce Hermit]

Still playing it, still loving it, haven't beat it. I like long games, it means I don't finish it in a week. I get my money's worth out of it as well. I hope X is just as long if not longer.