@ttualumni13: I'll take that into consideration playing this version! Can you do any of the side quests at any point of time in the story - or are they limited to when you've progressed in the story...?

I'm just worried about missing some of them on the way, but if they're accessible any time then I should be okay to go back and see what I missed from a wiki/walkthrough.

@roboccs: I haven't encountered anything like that so far but I'll keep that in mind!

I loved Satorl Marsh when I played the Wii version, I absolutely still love that area on the 3DS version. Particularly, the night version! I find myself humming just about every song from the game, the soundtrack is brilliant.

I've made it all the way to Frontier Village now, so I'm playing a decent pace! I think I'm closing in on the point where I stopped on the Wii version but I can't remember how much further away it is. I stopped playing the Wii version at the Mumkhar fight in Valak Mountain.

@ttualumni13: I'll look out for it. Does the game make it obvious or do you have to find it somewhere?

I've been accepting all the side quests. I complete most of them just by progressing the story. Basically, the ones where you have to kill x number of y monster, I end up doing those anyway.

I also think I have some kind of OCD when it comes to collecting the blue orbs. Honestly, if I see them I just stop going towards the checkpoint and just run right towards all the orbs I see lol.

I've always paid on the first date.

After that if it's continually expected that's a problem. My girlfriend and I usually just take turns, or just pay our own bills.

@ttualumni13: Damn that sucks! I'd be super upset.

I had a mini-freak out when we moved earlier this month, I thought I lost my big box of games in the move... I just found it under like 10 other boxes in a random corner of the house.

On the other hand I found a bunch of old consoles from our storage unit that I forgot about. NES with SMB/Duckhunt, N64, GameCube, PS2, original GB, etc. My mom gave away my SNES and Genesis to my cousins who we don't talk to much, which I'm sure has gone to the trash. That one hurt.

I like the 3DS version of Xenoblade Chronicles a lot. It's just so easy to open up my 3DS and continue playing where I left off. GF was out of town this weekend so I basically spent the entire long weekend playing. I just finished the quest at Satorl Marsh where you need to collect the four radiants for the ancient ceremony. I don't know how close I am to the point where i stopped playing on the Wii but I think I'm about halfway there. I stopped at the fight against Mumkhar on the Wii.

Apart from gaming I'm a pretty big dweeb when it comes to film/TV shows, music, reading, and technology.

I enjoy reading and understanding politics, both domestically and on a global scale across various countries. In terms of sports I like watching Hockey and Basketball. More recently, I've taken up drawing.

@ttualumni13: Sweet, that sounds pretty fun! I haven't been to the beach in ages.

I'm almost 11 hours in Xenoblade on the 3DS, I just got to Satorl Marsh. I fell in love with this game all over again, but this time I'll finish it all the way through.

I understand the systems way more this time than I did initially, for whatever reason. It was never overly complex but for some reason I always remember gem crafting as being confusing, and I remember being confused by random things, but I guess I just never read the small tutorials because... they tell you everything.

@bunchanumbers: That's a lot of games to play!

@roboccs: I did more digging and found that Iwata made similar comments on the Wii U replacing the Wii and 3DS replacing the DS, but they ultimately just meant a new console/platform.

Nintendo is so cryptic about these things!

I don't understand this mentality. If there's one gaming company that continues to receive scrutiny no matter what they do, it's usually Nintendo. The number of Nintendo is dead articles post-3DS and post-Wii U alone makes it pretty obvious that game journalists do indeed criticize Nintendo when they mess up.

That said, it goes for most gaming companies. They're usually always called out for poor policies. Sony for PSN outages, Microsoft for DRM with XBO and Nintendo for pretty much everything they've done with Wii U, especially it's launch.

No one is calling out Nintendo on this because no one really cares about it. Consumers have continually spoken with their wallets. People are willing to buy DLC, even on day 1. I don't blame publishers and developers for following suit with a proven business model -- Nintendo is doing what everyone has already been doing. Once people are fed up, lose interest and stop supporting said practice with their money then Nintendo will alter their strategy with paid add-on content.

Further, the DLC which is locked to Amiibos thus far has been non-essential to the enjoyment of the game. Nintendo has yet to put out a game where you feel disadvantaged for not having the paid add-on content. That's also another reason why a lot of people generally just don't care. The loud vocal minority who posts on GameSpot does not represent the larger community.