Quitting Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Love of Gaming blog! Recently I made the decision to quit a game, twelve hours deep into it. That's a lot of time for someone who plays games for around two hours a night, especially when I try to keep a good cycle of activity to keep this blog varied. The game in question was Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and if any of you have read through previous blog posts, you may have come across a blog entry I wrote when XBC2 was announced and saw how excited I was to play it. 

I didn't decide to quit it flippantly mind you, the decision was materialising very early on in fact. XBC2 starts very slow (unlike Xenoblade 1, a fantastic game I enjoy to this day) and has some incredibly poor design choices in it's first hour that always put me on the back foot with a game. Such as, explaining the most basic of controls; "use the right stick to move the camera and the left stick to move". Oh thanks and while you're at it, remind me how I breath again? Oh wait, there's more, at the market place we're told we can buy armour at the armour store, items at the item store and how to suck eggs at the how to suck eggs store. Game, don't insult my intelligence when you cannot even explain succinctly how your combat system works, as you pile mechanic upon mechanic on it. Right, breath...

In all fairness to the game, the story is interesting and when it takes hold of the reigns it's intriguing and exciting, but after twelve hours of the gameplay I had throw the towel in. I arrived at an area where I was around level 23 and every enemy in the field was around that level (apart from the odd level 70-80 mob they chuck into virtually every area). I had this area to cross, a small alcove it was and it was littered with mobs, that despite the even levels between myself and them, could one shot my main character, consistently. 
No matter how I maneuvered, how many potions spawned, combos commenced I died over and over again. 
Well, the answer is simple surely? Grind some levels and lay waste to these soon to be lower leveled vermin. Oh wait, each enemy that's my level that I can kill takes up to six minutes to kill and gifts me with anywhere between 3-5% XP I need to level up... 
I had, had enough. This was the last straw, the straw to break the camels back. The sheer lack of respect for my time this game was showing had me fuming. I ripped the tiny cartridge from the Switch and thrust it back in to it's case and into the cupboard where it'll remain.
I had to grind for money to buy parts for that ruddy Poppi, that took ages. I ran around Gormott looking for pieces of wood, pinned oh so vaguely on the not particularly informative or detailed map. Sat through minutes of "don't forget me," yelled incessantly and sat through hours of filler dialogue and padded gameplay. (Fetch quest, anyone?)



Sometimes I've quit games and regretted it, even got back on the horse and pushed all the way to the end. Those games that I resolved on have often been some of my favourites. I bailed on Black Ops 3's campaign at one point, (I never miss a campaign!) But after reading a wiki about the plot, I had to see the whole thing for myself and once the credits rolled, I was satisfied. And it's a game I can pick up to this day and enjoy, the subtle and subversive narrative is an absolute treat to pick through as you play. It's such a clever story, shame that the experience was bogged down by a campaign designed for four player co-op.

Apologies for a rather short entry this week, there hasn't been a lot of note worthy news to talk about or games to play. I'm currently playing Final Fantasy 7 to make an ABC guide. I was going to do one on the New Threat mod but it has been buggy as hell for me these last two weeks and after hours of trying to get through crashes and bugs I've burnt out and so decided to do ABC guide for 7, 8, 9 and 10 on my YouTube channel. But naturally that'll be a slow burner.

If you'd like to share some tales of quitting, then feel free to unburden your soul here and revel in your disdain!
I hope you enjoyed this blog entry and as always, please hit the +1 button, follow the blog or myself and have a great week.