Xenoblade X (Cross) is illegible even in HD

[FoxNtd]

I can't believe my eyes. Literally. Xenoblade X is impossible to fucking read. I was looking forward to this game expecting one of the best titles on the system, happy it came with the console I just bought. The subtitles during the opening cutscene looked normal. Those I could read. Then the game started... Holy fucking shit I need a microscope to see this. I am even using a Trinitron WEGA at 720p via HDMI and kanji look like white blocks basically. Even the simple kana characters are frustrating to read! This flaw is not tolerable whatsoever; it's unacceptable and renders the game unplayable. Not even 30 minutes in I'm TRYING to understand combat, hopelessly staring at the text captioning the icons below... I have no idea what anything does because no words are legible. I've already given up and decided to try to sell the game to someone who has the eyes of a fucking eagle that can read kanji that are only 6 pixels in height. Trying to play using only the game pad screen was equally futile. They say this game is many many hours of content; I'm worried I'll fuck up my eyesight trying to play this game even 1 hour.

There are threads on GameFAQs and a few other small places on the web where people are saying the same thing about this game. I don't know why there has not been a patch to the game; is it just not possible to change something like this or do they just not care? I read somewhere that this was Monolithsoft's first title in HD and it was a mistake on their part. That's it? We're sorry, oh well, good luck reading the text? I've seen comments from people using 40+ inch HDTVs at 1080p and still can't read -- and those people are using the English version! English has much simpler letters than Japanese kanji. I remember staring at the mini-guide of controller buttons below the mini-map. I couldn't read a damn thing in kanji, and the words in katakana I could barely figure out. It should not take me 10+ seconds to read the word ダッシュ for example.

Here's someone who clearly feels the same way, and note this video is about the English version too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_0xWhaxc4

I will give the benefit of the doubt to all positive reviews for this game. It probably is as awesome as they say. I just wish I could read the text so I could find out for myself. :(

I looked up a Japanese video of Xenoblade on the original Wii. All the text there looks like it's a sensible size. I mean I could read it watching it as a youtube video on my phone. Wish they kept the UI scale of text the same for the sequel.

[bb_hood]

Wow thats amazingly un-readable text.
You should be playing Mario Maker... probably the best game out on the WiiU

[Jehusephat]

You could always sit a few feet closer to your television. I've been playing the English version for about 50 hours, and I'm almost always sitting on the floor directly in front of my television when I play. While I'll admit that I would much rather be sitting on my couch and would have preferred the text to have been larger, something about sitting five feet from the screen reminds me of playing Atari 2600 games on my tiny black & white television when I was six years old. When I think about the inconveniences I used to put up with to play any video game, I start to see small text as a relatively minor issue.

[kupomogli]

Even with the readable text, the reviews on the original game are grossly overrated. It deserves no where near the scores it got and it's closer to being a bad RPG than the best RPG ever made. It's one of the games that were lucky enough to receive the hype from the journalists and is now praised as a legendary game. Being a first party Nintendo game certainly helps.

If you honestly want a game that is literally identical to Xenoblade, has more depth to its combat and you have more of a penalty than restarting 30 seconds away from where you died? Play World of Warcraft. Xenoblade is like an MMO iwth a better storyline but worse gameplay.

[FoxNtd]

You could always sit a few feet closer to your television.

There's an acceptable distance between one's eyes and a screen based on the size of the screen, typically. Even if I completely disregarded straining my eyes, I can't read the text no matter how close I get. It's just not enough pixels for the characters to read them. The irony of high definition. The picture quality has way more pixels yet the text is too low resolution. I've seen footage of lots of Wii U games. Not a single other game has text so small that it's incomprehensible.

I think it's hilarious that the last update for the game was for European translations. What's the point when the text is illegible!?


Even with the readable text, the reviews on the original game are grossly overrated. It deserves no where near the scores it got and it's closer to being a bad RPG than the best RPG ever made. It's one of the games that were lucky enough to receive the hype from the journalists and is now praised as a legendary game. Being a first party Nintendo game certainly helps.

If you honestly want a game that is literally identical to Xenoblade, has more depth to its combat and you have more of a penalty than restarting 30 seconds away from where you died? Play World of Warcraft. Xenoblade is like an MMO iwth a better storyline but worse gameplay.

Makes me feel a lot better about dismissing the title. I don't like MMOs... but I did like FF12 and its combat system. Does that sound confusing? It's the fundamental MMO design I don't like but that doesn't necessarily include combat mechanics. A "normal" RPG that happens to have completely fluid real-time combat as typically seen in MMOs - exactly like FF12 - doesn't bother me.

[Tanooki]

I hate to second it with kupo but I do have the game on the 3DS and it's not what people made it out to be. It's not bad, it's also not good, it's somewhere in the middle and upwards of 30hours into it my motivation is just gone. I picked it up I think after he took a shot at it before in the last week or two and I ran around and killed a few things (I'm 50% done as I checked a faq as I forgot where I was) and then just flipped it off. I can't decided if I should keep it or sell it as it's the only 'NEW' 3DS game I have. The problem is the combat looks live so I keep hitting buttons like a fool thinking I'm doing stuff, but really it's all very passive to an annoying level where you just select commands as it does its own thing and just shoehorns in the commands. You can easily get killed by garbage both on and OFF the screen, like if you're running away (and ratio to body on size of screen) 100yards away something can swipe as claw at you and you take big damage. It's stupid. If you're not in range, you're not in range...sheesh. The story drags quite a bit, takes a long time to get anywhere, and they have a crap load of these quests, most of them annoying and quite out of the way to satisfy which already drags out what looks like a 60hour game to probably 100+ dragon quest level of length going on with the rewards of that franchises value to bother with it.

I'm currently downsizing games on every system I have to stuff I'll use and it's teetering on the brink as is Smash Bros, can't motivate myself to ever play it, but when I try and sell it I fire a game up and then I put it back (ugh.)

[Tron 2.0]

I can't believe my eyes. Literally. Xenoblade X is impossible to fucking read. I was looking forward to this game expecting one of the best titles on the system, happy it came with the console I just bought. The subtitles during the opening cutscene looked normal. Those I could read. Then the game started... Holy fucking shit I need a microscope to see this. I am even using a Trinitron WEGA at 720p via HDMI and kanji look like white blocks basically. Even the simple kana characters are frustrating to read! This flaw is not tolerable whatsoever; it's unacceptable and renders the game unplayable. Not even 30 minutes in I'm TRYING to understand combat, hopelessly staring at the text captioning the icons below... I have no idea what anything does because no words are legible. I've already given up and decided to try to sell the game to someone who has the eyes of a fucking eagle that can read kanji that are only 6 pixels in height. Trying to play using only the game pad screen was equally futile. They say this game is many many hours of content; I'm worried I'll fuck up my eyesight trying to play this game even 1 hour.

There are threads on GameFAQs and a few other small places on the web where people are saying the same thing about this game. I don't know why there has not been a patch to the game; is it just not possible to change something like this or do they just not care? I read somewhere that this was Monolithsoft's first title in HD and it was a mistake on their part. That's it? We're sorry, oh well, good luck reading the text? I've seen comments from people using 40+ inch HDTVs at 1080p and still can't read -- and those people are using the English version! English has much simpler letters than Japanese kanji. I remember staring at the mini-guide of controller buttons below the mini-map. I couldn't read a damn thing in kanji, and the words in katakana I could barely figure out. It should not take me 10+ seconds to read the word ダッシュ for example.

Here's someone who clearly feels the same way, and note this video is about the English version too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6_0xWhaxc4

I will give the benefit of the doubt to all positive reviews for this game. It probably is as awesome as they say. I just wish I could read the text so I could find out for myself. :(

I looked up a Japanese video of Xenoblade on the original Wii. All the text there looks like it's a sensible size. I mean I could read it watching it as a youtube video on my phone. Wish they kept the UI scale of text the same for the sequel.
Biggest flaw in the game.It's some thing there wasn't a patch to correct the text size.It doesn't make it impossible to play the game,very annoying to say at least still.I just completed the game main story recently and let's just say the ending is a disappointment.All in the all what stands out the most in xenoblade cx is the gameplay and i enjoyed it throughlly.

[BlastProcessing402]

Have you tried dropping down to 480p? Oddly, sometimes doing weird things like that can help due to weird ways the game is programmed. That or get some binoculars, I guess.

I agree about the original game being overrated, I just couldn't get into it. Haven't tried this one, but if I ever find it cheap, I might.

[FoxNtd]

Have you tried dropping down to 480p? Oddly, sometimes doing weird things like that can help due to weird ways the game is programmed. That or get some binoculars, I guess.

I agree about the original game being overrated, I just couldn't get into it. Haven't tried this one, but if I ever find it cheap, I might.

Nope and I won't even test it. Some stuff like text in the eShop can be a little tough to read and I end up just looking at the game pad display to read it since at 480i some kanji are just a bitch to read. I'm sure that if I try to load Xenoblade at 480i the text will look like ■■■■■■

[PreZZ]

I play in english on a 1080p 100 inch screen and letters dont seem like they are properly defined... good old nintendo, dont expect a patch!

[RP2A03]

Just started this game the other day and I am able to read everything. For what it's worth, I am playing on a PC monitor; however some of the text is not as readable as it should be. Looking closely at the letters it would appear that they are being deformed by poor scaling.

[RP2A03]

So I just came across this thing:

http://s33.postimg.org/a5iplvvb3/latest_cb_20160108030714.png


But hey, at least NOA removed the boob slider.

[BlastProcessing402]

So I just came across this thing:

http://s33.postimg.org/a5iplvvb3/latest_cb_20160108030714.png


But hey, at least NOA removed the boob slider.

Is that thing related to Peter Griffin?