Why was this such a worshipped game back when it came out?

to be fair, for a Wii game it's very pretty to look at and the combat wasn't as simplified as the later games, shame the AI was retarded for Riki, Sharla and Melia

It was and still is the only RPG franchise Nintendo has, so most of the fanbase is people extremely inexperienced with the genre and praise what is a relatively mediocre game to high heaven.

Still is, cope.

I was hooked the moment Fiora died. The voice acting in that cutscene still sends shivers down my spine. I'm used to JRPGs like Ys, Dragon Quest, Tales, Pokemon, and Chrono Trigger where seemingly important characters getting murked so early is a rarity.

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Storywise, the beginning is phenomenal, but I have to agree on the tutorials not being great.
I had to grind like crazy to get through the game back in 2012, because even at fucking Mechonis and all the way to Zanza I didn't understand the combat well at all, they really should have introduced everything in a better way. I also had no clue fast travel was a thing until the last few hours of the game, so I wasn't crafting gems at all the whole time, in my defense it was my first time playing a game with fast travel, so the entire concept was foreign to me.

Nintendo had Dragon Quest 1 - 6, Final Fantasy 1 - 6, Chrono Trigger, Pokemon, Mario & Luigi, Paper Mario, Mother, Skies of Arcadia, Tales of Symphonia, and so on. RPGs weren't a rarity on Nintendo consoles. They were during the childhood of the Nintendo YouTuber due to a drought of them on the Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U. It's why they all act the same.

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She literally comes back afterwards.

The world design mostly. Very memorable scenery, some good characters, addicting gameplay as well for JRPGs, leveling up, the NPC stuff and the town thing. I have not played the other Xenoblades, only this 1 on Wii using the Wiimote.

Oh wait actually I did craft gems at one point, I remember spending like 2 hours walking all the way back down to Colony 9 from Nopon village and then walking all the way back up.

>Nintendo fans have barely had any experience with RPGs since the Super Nintendo
the best of the genre is still on SNES, cope

Way later in the game. I'd already put another 50 hours in before I got her back.

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Two hours of melodramatic story didn't interest me. But I didn't give up on it because of that. I can overlook a bad story if the gameplay is good. But every time I went out into the field to try and learn the combat, a dozen pop up tutorials would keep interrupting me.
>pop up describing how to do a skill
>read it all and close pop up
>while trying to do the skill, another pop up shows up and tells me about another skill I need to learn
>close that and try to do the new skill
>another pop up showing me about ANOTHER skill when I still haven't even been able to do the first two
>repeat a dozen times
>turn off game

i was very skeptical when i began the game but i got hooked when i first heard "you will know our names" and launched my first chain attack on that worm boss in tephra cave, a great ost really makes a game, movies too benefit from great ost tbqh

>I'd already put another 50 hours in before I got her back.
That's pretty much impossible unless you were literally just wasting time throwing yourself off clifs for an extra 50 hours, you get her back at the 40ish hour mark.

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OST is vastly understated in how well a game is perceived. It's basically the entire reason people care about Undertale at all.

>good story
>good environments
>good combat system
what's not to like exactly? just played the definitive edition a few months ago and its still a great game

It's still one of the best JRPGs I've played though I don't feel like the zoomers appreciate it. Not enough microtransactions and boobies.

On a first playthrough where someone is doing side quest it's completely reasonable to get her at the 50 hour mark. Not everyone plays the game as you do.

I am and was very thorough. Talking to all the NPCs, doing all the quests, etc. I didn't use any guides either. Ended up with like 120 hours in the game.

Do Nia and Mio fuse to create... Mia?

You are the same kind of retard that makes threads complaining about 2's combat because they skipped the tutorials and didn't learn how to elemental combo

>what's not to like exactly?
The combat system, spike damage, visions, monotonous rotations and lack of build variety, mostly linear environments and maps, grindy, MMO fetch quests with barely any substance which are there to inflate playtime or give extra EXP instead of having interesting stories or plotlines.

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Xenoblade X is actually Xenoblade 10 afterall

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>unless you were literally just wasting time throwing yourself off clifs for an extra 50 hours
Listen, that one area is totally accessable from here, i wont die to fall damage this time because if i hit this one outcropping just right...

To be fair, I complain about 2's combat because it's boring. I started actively avoiding fights some time around Tantal because I wasn't enjoying the combat. All the elemental blades felt the exact same, there was very little character building going on, and I didn't feel like my creativity was being rewarded like with the prior 2 games.

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I die if I jump the mechonis arm I'll fall into that water spot surel-ACK

Still happens to me in 3.
>I can just go and upgrade my HP up gem and put it on my tank, and if I slide down at this angle I can totally survive

yeah i kind of agree, i liked the prologue a lot, but everything between fiora dying and finishing the ether mine was kinda "meh". i like the bionis leg area itself a lot, i think its one of the strongest field areas, but the story stuff with trying to get back juju i just didn't care about at all. leaving the mine and having dunban and dickson show up followed by a bunch of faced mechon was a great moment though, one of the best in the game especially since i wasn't expecting it at all, i fully expected a lull after the boss fight. then the marsh and forest were good, low point of the game for me was the high entia area because its kind of a pain to move around and i do not give a shit about melia at all, maybe used her for two fights the entire game. everything after prison island 1 is great

Lmao no