Limited Edition Boxart Spotted For Europe's The Last Story

Looks like Europe might be getting a limited edition of The Last Story. No word yet on what is in the box.http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=169832#p556352

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Xenoblade Chronicles Pre-orders available at Play-Asia

Looks like there may be another option for those wanting to order Xenoblade, other than GameStop and Nintendo. 

The online retailer play-asia is now accepting pre-orders for the game. Does this mean other online retailers might sell Xenoblade as well? We're not sure but at least there are three options for people now. Also, Play-Asia ships worldwide so it seems people in Latin America have an option.

http://www.play-asia.com/Xenoblade_Chronicles/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-70-4idp.html

╰☆ Xenoblade Chronicles Tidbit of the Day #83 ☆╮

Town Building. There is some town building in Xenoblade Chronicles. For those that don't know what that is, town building involves building or rebuilding a town by providing money or materials. Those that rebuilt the town of Luin in Tales of Symphonia would have an idea of what town building is. You are rewarded quite nicely for the town building in Xenoblade. To avoid any game spoilers, we'll just leave it at that.

Xenoblade Chronicles Tidbit of the Day

Over on our Facebook page we post a daily tidbit about Xenoblade Chronicles. The idea is to get people excited about the game by letting them know what kind of things they can expect come April 2. It is pretty popular over there, so we have decided to also start posting the tidbits on our blog.

So everyday, and counting down until the release of Xenoblade Chronicles on April 2, we will post a new tidbit for you to read. We started at #113 on our Facebook page and are now on #84. If you would like to read our previous tidbits, you can find them in this thread: 
http://oprainfall.freeforums.org/post2493.html#p2493

So let's start with #84.

☆ Xenoblade Chronicles Tidbit of the Day #84 ☆

The character Melia is voiced by actress Jenna-Louise Coleman who played the character Connie, a minor role in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1982510/ 

GameStop/EB Games Xenoblade Online Rank Update

GameStop
Xenoblade Chronicles is currently
#8 for Most Anticipated
#3 for best selling Wii game (-1)
#5 for best selling in the Wii category
#38 for best selling on the entire site (+3)

EB Games Canada
Xenoblade Chronicles is currently
#1 for Most Anticipated
#1 for best selling Wii Game
#1 for best selling in the Wii category
#4 for best selling on the entire site

GameStop http://bit.ly/rsxvtx
EB Games Canada http://on.fb.me/sBsulW

Compared to yesterday's numbers

Xenoblade Chronicles Featured in Latest Issue of Nintendo Power

  

Xenoblade Chronicles gets a three page feature in the latest issue of Nintendo Power. They also promise to take an "in-depth" look at Xenoblade next issue.
The article reads:
‎
"Ever since Xenoblade Chronicles launched to rave reviews in Japan and Europe, North American RPG fans have been holding out for a domestic release. Their wish has been granted-Nintendo of America has finally announced plans to release Xenoblade Chronicles in April, exclusively at GameStop and Nintendo's own online store.

So what's the big deal? Maybe the attention comes from the game's likable cast and its intriguing storyline set on the corpses of two fallen gods. Or maybe it's more about the way the game's battle system combines real-time elements with traditional RPG strategy. Or it could be due to the phenomenal graphics-some of the best ever seen on the Wii console-and the catchy soundtrack from an all-star team of composers that includes Yoko Shimomura of Kingdom Hearts fame and Chrono Trigger's Yasunori Mitsuda.

But the team behind Xenoblade Chronicles seems to have had loftier goals than just checking off all the boxes on some RPG-design cheat sheet. This title is regarded as one of the few Japanese RPGs of this generation to actually advance the genre, mixing in some of the open-world elements that are popular in the West while still retaining the strong central narrative that Japanese RPGs are famous for. That means giving players a wide-open world to explore and some freedom to choose how they do so, while offering hundreds of side quests to pull them towards every lovely corner of the game's massive dead-god continents.

Has developer Monolith managed to pull off this ambitious gameplan? We'll find out for ourselves in April, but our Wii-playing brethren across the oceans sure seem to think so." 

Thanks Mark for the heads up and scans!

Xenoblade Chronicles in Latest Issue of Game Informer

The January Issue of Game Informer has given Xenoblade Chronicles a full page, page 79. Below are two excerpts, the first and last paragraphs:

First ParagraphIf you look at the game of the year candidates in Japan in 2010 and Europe in 2011, there is a common title that missed the American lists for both years: Xenoblade Chronicles. Despite rave reviews and endless begging from U.S. gamers in the form of online petition and Facebook groups, Nintendo waited until the end of the year to tell us that this excellent game from Monolith Soft is finally coming to our shores. I’ve played a good chunk of the European release, and I can confirm that it will be worth the wait.

Last Paragraph
Based off my first 10 hours with Xenoblade Chronicles, this smart, self-aware design sticks out to me the most. I’m not ready to say that Monolith Soft has reinvented the Japanese RPG, but they’ve certainly brought it in line with a modern audience’s expectations while retaining an art style and tone that sets it apart from the average Western RPG. It’s crazy to imagine Nintendo sitting on this gem if a game for so long but be thankful it’s finally (coming).

Thanks Lewis for the heads up and scan!