Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Hands-on Preview: The First 30 Hours

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been a massive joy to play so far. I’m aware many remain a bit skeptical due to its move to a more cel-shaded anime artstyle. I think it largely benefits from it so far. Characters are much more vibrant and animated in cutscenes. Rex’s party compliments each other. The chemistry between them works. It pulls off endearing light-hearted moments particularly well, and the English voicework is no slouch at all - even compared to the highly regarded performances in the first Xenoblade Chronicles. I've sunk a bunch of hours into it and I feel like I've only scratched the surface.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

The only thing that bothers me about the English VA, is that it's quite obvious that it doesn't match the Japanese lip-synching that the game does anyways, in a lot of cases.
The voices themselves are okay in most points, though. Only a few cases I've seen where they feel like of off-putting or hesitant, like the intro scene for Poppi where her creator's VA, in English, has a few moments where the voice feels hesitant, as if trying to decide whether or not the words match the lips of the character well enough.

Other than that, though, everything else I've seen of the game looks like it's going to be AMAZING.
The Japanese VA with English subs patch on day 1 is going to be a huge QoL-saver for many players, and as for the music, it needs no help whatsoever; every single track, without exception, has been amazing across the board from what little I've heard.

The combat has also been readjusted to flow a lot more smoothly, which makes me really happy.

If I had to name one irk point in the info provided thus far, it's that Poppi, the artificial Blade, has an entirely different upgrade process compared to literally every other blade.
Depending on how you look at it, it either makes Poppi incredible for being so customizable, or it makes pretty much every other blade look bleh in comparison for NOT being as easily-customizable as Poppi is. [She's the only blade, as far as I'm aware, who can have her elemental type customized, amongst other things.]

I mean, being the only artificial Blade IN EXISTENCE [so far, at least], it's something that makes SENSE from her backstory perspective, but still...

I'm sure it's something I'll get over as I play, though.
Who knows; maybe there's a few surprises later on in regards to upgrading other Blades that will leave me surprised.

[nitus10]

Dubbing a show, movie or game is always problematic especially when it comes to lip synchronizing which can be off-putting to some viewers. Sometimes it can be better if the show etc is subtitled although again this can be annoying to some especially if the subtitle translation is not a correct or good approximation translation and the viewer has a little grasp of the spoken language.

While the above can be considered nit-picking it is especially important that in the case of dubbing the voice actors voices fit the particular characters that they are dubbing.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Yeah, I know. It's quite obvious that the lip synching is matched to the Japanese audio, and it would cost them more time and money to go back and re-do all of those animations for those that want to use the English option.
That's why I said the J-Voice with E-Subs will be a big Quality-of-Life thing for fans, and as I said, I'll probably get over it at some point relatively quickly.

I survived the atrocious VA's of Arc Rise Fantasia, so this won't be enough to faze me for very long.XD

[Dalailana]

I literally can't wait for this game

[Cyro]

So hyped for this game. Very good first year for the Switch.

[Wrex369]

So glad it's shipping with that day one JP VO dlc. Like really glad. The games a looker too

[Gemmol]

So hyped 😍

[michellelynn0976]

I am so excited for this game. It looks so amazing.

[Prince_TFK]

*The first 30 hours.

Man this game is gonna be so fucking epic. Another time sinker after Mario O and Skyrim. Can’t wait.