Xenoblade Chronicles.

Either buy a EU wii, or softmod your existing wii to get through the region locking, and import it legitly or don't bother. For a game as good as xenoblade, there is no excuse for pirating. No, not even NoA being dumbpineapples.

And it sorta plays in the same way as FFXII, in that its a real time battle system and you have 3 charaters, 2 being cpu controlled. But thats about where the similarities end.

It's much faster paced in battles than FF from the few videos I just watched of it, and there isn't a single menu screen you use during battles, unless you want to switch characters, which seems to have plagued the FF game. All spells/ attacks/ect are done through icons you select on screen without pausing the game.

Either buy a EU wii, or softmod your existing wii to get through the region locking, and import it legitly or don't bother. For a game as good as xenoblade, there is no excuse for pirating. No, not even NoA being dumbpineapples.

And it sorta plays in the same way as FFXII, in that its a real time battle system and you have 3 charaters, 2 being cpu controlled. But thats about where the similarities end.

It's much faster paced in battles than FF from the few videos I just watched of it, and there isn't a single menu screen you use during battles, unless you want to switch characters, which seems to have plagued the FF game. All spells/ attacks/ect are done through icons you select on screen without pausing the game.

You can't switch characters during battles. Which sucks if you run into some Mechon without Shulk in your party (because without Monado Enchant you have to use the Break --> Topple combo to even deal damage).

Waiting until my birthday to get this game was the worst idea ever. The wait is killing me. I did hear there were some people having trouble with the game using composite cables, but the TV that I have to use for the Wii is kind of old (it can only use composite cables, no component, which I don't even have). So now I'm worried the game will just be 1 big blur too.

Hopefully Nintendo of America will actually localize this it sounds like the best rpg since last generation for a console..what the hell are they waiting for.

The sales seem pretty decent from what I have read at random but Reggie is a bit stubborn from what I have seen.

As Final Fantasy XII's biggest fan and someone who has been looking forward to this for years before Operation Rainfall and all of that business, I have to say that I really believe it's getting more credit than it deserves. It may be a great game, but I think it all seems amplified by what's been going on around it. I don't think it would be getting the same reviews if it were coming as JUST a new release.

That said, it's good to hear that it is living up to the hype, even if it's exaggerated. So often things get blown out of proportion and everyone ends up being let down. Even if it's just a "good" game at best, it's still one of few in, as DrRusty pointed out, an era filled with terrible story-less First Person Shooters and worthless casual dance games.

I can't even believe how awesome this game is. I was wondering how the Wii could possibly have a good game with its track record...I now know; this game is the reason the Wii has very few good games, because this game is so good it is literally sucking the fun out of everything around it to fuel itself. I was having fun from the beginning, had a few pomegranate got real moments in the beginning so I would have been happy had it just kept up that pace...then I got to the refugee camp before Colony 6. On the way to stop the premonition, I ran into a giant rhino of some sort, entirely by accident though it was a mark, so I said, "hey, let's just kill it"; 10 minutes later I believe I came out of my braingasm. It was just a normal fight, how the hell was it that awesome? Then I got to the boss I was headed to, and that was even more awesome. Then I went to the mines, which was awesome too. What is wrong with this game, why is it so awesome. I'm positive I will buy this as soon as I have the money, and I will probably replay the entire thing at least once right on the spot at that point. I don't even have a Wii, I think I'm going to buy a Wii just for this game. ;_;

I could not have said it better than Flonne. This game is sooooo good. Especialy if you compare it to the utter lack of quality in just about every damn RPG released during the last 5 years. The graphics can't match games like FF XII, but hell, the character design and art beat it to a pulp. Story looks tight, even if it aint exactly groundbreaking. A few hours into the game and it already gave off a feeling of life than I have not seen since Radiata Story (human path mind you, the non-human path was a joke as far as games go). I absolutely adore the british voiceacting too.

I could not have said it better than Flonne. This game is sooooo good. Especialy if you compare it to the utter lack of quality in just about every damn RPG released during the last 5 years. The graphics can't match games like FF XII, but hell, the character design and art beat it to a pulp. Story looks tight, even if it aint exactly groundbreaking. A few hours into the game and it already gave off a feeling of life than I have not seen since Radiata Story (human path mind you, the non-human path was a joke as far as games go). I absolutely adore the british voiceacting too.

Yeah they kind of dropped the ball on the nonhuman one. Human had an awesome town, tons of quests, much better party member choices (chick with rune magic in particular)....nonhuman had none of that, with the added bonus of pants on head retarded logic instilled into half of the cast.

YAH SHOOLK, GET STUCK IN
ITS RIIYN TIME

I think I like this British voice acting a lot. Especially the face mechs; they all sound like extremely drunk, extremely angry British people, or like that Scotish warrior from Samurai Jack. Just hit ~30 hour mark; is there any way to actually get anywhere without using Sharla? I've tried everything but without her healspam, even a full party of dps with at least 1 heal skill each and tons of defend skills still can't cut it. Especially versus the named mobs. And now that she is sitting in town babysitting for the length of the current quest I am on, I can only just barely scrape by if I use Reyn+Riki stacking HP/unbeatable/prot% gems and Melia spamming earth elemental/ice elemental for even more prot%.

YAH SHOOLK, GET STUCK IN
ITS RIIYN TIME

I think I like this British voice acting a lot. Especially the face mechs; they all sound like extremely drunk, extremely angry British people, or like that Scotish warrior from Samurai Jack. Just hit ~30 hour mark; is there any way to actually get anywhere without using Sharla? I've tried everything but without her healspam, even a full party of dps with at least 1 heal skill each and tons of defend skills still can't cut it. Especially versus the named mobs. And now that she is sitting in town babysitting for the length of the current quest I am on, I can only just barely scrape by if I use Reyn+Riki stacking HP/unbeatable/prot% gems and Melia spamming earth elemental/ice elemental for even more prot%.

I heard that if you manage to get a lot of agility on Dunban and level the right skills/arts he can be a very good tank that requires little healing.

Finally got the game yesterday, right now I'm like 10 hours in, around Lv.19, and on my way to Colony 6 (will return to the camp ASAP though, since the quests there appear to be timed). Loving every single bit of the game so far. The amount of backtracking I'll have to do will be crazy though (with higher level monsters everywhere).

I heard that if you manage to get a lot of agility on Dunban and level the right skills/arts he can be a very good tank that requires little healing.

Finally got the game yesterday, right now I'm like 10 hours in, around Lv.19, and on my way to Colony 6 (will return to the camp ASAP though, since the quests there appear to be timed). Loving every single bit of the game so far. The amount of backtracking I'll have to do will be crazy though (with higher level monsters everywhere).

protip: click on the "maps" menu to instantly teleport to any waypoint in the world. I just found that out a couple hours ago, so either I'm slow or they were hiding it LOL. And yeah, Dunban has a skill where if he is low life he has 75% eva or something. I managed to find a decent setup minus Charla, but it took a bit of skillset changing/skill sharing/artes changing to work. Shulk works pretty well as a a secondary tank, secondary healer, and primary DPS, especially against bosses with their friggen talent artes, just needed to share a few of Reyn's skills that prevent tension from going too low to make it work, Shulk goes emo way too fast in battle later on without them. Those skills, coupled with Riki's 23 second long 21 second cooldown super buff that prevents all members from losing tension, has made battling way easier. Not to mention it gives him like 126% increase to a random stat for that time. Riki has decent DPS, great support, and great tanking if you throw on some +agro% gems; Tantrum stacks up agro like mad with those. Still using Melia as a third, though; now that it's closer to max, her heal skill is ok, but what really is nice about it is the very low cooldown...and her elemental auras are irreplaceable.

dat ending

 Spoiler

deep down it's what we all know will happen when they activate the Large Hadron Collider.

Just got to Makna Forest and got killed horribly by the Lv96 dinosaur monster after the first bridge. Satorl Marsh has been the least enjoyable place for me so far, but I don't like swamp/marsh areas most of the time anyway.

I really wish it was easier to manage quests. Right now you have to go all over the place, change clocks and check the quest menu all the time.

 Spoiler

Finally finished the story, took 102.17 hours. I did a lot of the sidequests which did take a huge chunk of time but thats just another good point to the game. The amount of side questing and time you could spend just exploring was amazing. I still haven't explored several of the higher level areas yet, and am still missing a couple of skill trees, as well as a monado skill.

The one addition I think it could have done with is a quest helper to let you know which npcs have a new quest for you, other than that no major improvements the game could have done with spring to mind (other than graphics obviously, but it's a wii game so it did well enough on that front by making up for what it lacks with a fantastic art direction)

Without a shred of doubt, Xenoblade is the best RPG I've played in many years. Nintendo America is really really screwing up. I'm expecting it to get several GOTY nominations at the very least.

After reading so much praise about this game and listening to this fantastic OST, I've been really tempted to play this. But I only have access to a wiimote and I heard that this game is best played with a classic controller pro. Is playing on the wiimote (with nunchuck if that's possible) going to make the gameplay experience a lot worse?

Off note: I wish I could have the main title screen as my wallpaper (with the wind and time shifts and everything!)

After reading so much praise about this game and listening to this fantastic OST, I've been really tempted to play this. But I only have access to a wiimote and I heard that this game is best played with a classic controller pro. Is playing on the wiimote (with nunchuck if that's possible) going to make the gameplay experience a lot worse?

Off note: I wish I could have the main title screen as my wallpaper (with the wind and time shifts and everything!)

Playing with the wiimote and nunchuck present not a single issue, don't worry. I have no idea why they bundled the game up with that ugly red controller, it is not needed.