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[Yazuka]

You randomly get cats from some of the locations in Kitty Dispatch. Enter that menu, press the square button and go place by place until you find one or two with question marks, then send the cats there until you get them.

I've done that. I've sent cat dispatch to all the places I have. And
From what I know I only have one cat dispatch left that I can see and its in

Spoiler

Canaan

.

EDIT: Found them! I had missed Helioborg. So got the cat there and now getting the one with Kitty Dispatch.

 

[Datschge]

Is anyone else bothered by the awkward, stilted animation in most of the cutscenes? I don't remember Xillia 1 being this bad tbh.

To me it seems they still like to use that limited set of stilted stock animations whenever they couldn't use motion capturing for a scene. The latter got a lot better so the awkwardness of the former whenever it's used is more apparent than ever.

 

[Finalow]

the AI (not the party member I was linked to) went OVL and used the mystic arte. wow much impress

 

[Papercuts]

Wow, the bad ending is fucked up.

 

[kewlmyc]

Wow, the bad ending is fucked up.

Spoiler

Family before friends dude.

 

[Papercuts]

Spoiler

Family before friends dude.

Spoiler

But he's dying anyway! So he just killed his friends and will watch him die out here, lol.

 

[kewlmyc]

Spoiler

But he's dying anyway! So he just killed his friends and will watch him die out here, lol.

Spoiler

Yeah, it's pretty ooc and silly overall.

 

[Xianghua]

is the English voice acting better this time around? The first game the VA of the female main character was so bad. Her voice shouldn't be that deep.

 

[Falk]

Same voice actor, but they fixed the lisp.

 

[Finalow]

Spoiler

But he's dying anyway! So he just killed his friends and will watch him die out here, lol.

that doesn't really happen in the ending but he's going to become

Spoiler

a catalyst? So he just goes insane or whatever? I guess that Ludgers spends some more time with him and then bye bye.

I don't know but yeah, it's pretty stupid.

that fight there is also pretty fucking stupid, easy mode activated. I guess you can

Spoiler

just unequip everyone before the fight so they won't do shit?

I don't if it works since I didn't bother trying. I'd say that it's the hardest fight of the game but I haven't reached the other 2 endings yet.

 

[Taruranto]

Had Muzèt during the fight with

Spoiler

Fractured Maxwell and Muzèt,

but no one said anything about that, awkard.

Spoiler

But he's dying anyway! So he just killed his friends and will watch him die out here, lol.

He snapped. Julius and Ludger are ridiculously close, I don't think the game explain that well (due to the lack of Julius screentime)

 

[Falk]

Had Muzèt during the fight with

Spoiler

Fractured Maxwell and Muzèt,

but no one said anything about that, awkard.

Thanks, was wondering what happens when stuff like that happens, heh.

 

[TheMrPliskin]

Finished the game a few hours ago and I think overall I really enjoyed it. I think my main issue beyond the reused assets would be that the old characters felt pointless in a story sense, their motivations for joining at first are kind of weak and some characters felt underused.I still enjoyed spending more time with the characters it was just disappointing to see some of them left on the side lines.

As for the endings

Spoiler

.The bad ending was just bizarre, Ludger slaughters all of his friends yet doesn't seem particularly bothered and I don't think the game did a really good job of selling Ludgers relationship with his brother so it's hard to make sense of this outcome, the cutscene that plays if you choose to kill him did a better job of selling me on the relationship with his brother than the rest of the game.

Then I got the normal ending and I was initially happy with it when we saw Ludger as CEO meeting Elle's mother it seemed like a good place to leave that character and I was ready to see the rest of the cast and it just ends.

Then I got the True ending which was okay I guess, Ludger sacrificing himself is fine yet the game seems to force it on you that this is the right choice and yet they still don't really give any of those old characters a good sendoff when those are the characters that I'm far more interested in knowing about.

 

[Finalow]

chapter 14 was pretty dumb. not to mention the short dungeon that consisted in killing the same monsters 10 times in order to open the next room. much fun

Spoiler

Rideaux appears again, no one says anything after the bullshit of chapter 11. (which was already bad in that chapter)
so yeah, he's there, like if nothing happened. no one can even think that he comes from Kresnik family (they don't even say that after he's used as the bridge in chapter 15, whatever) or that he's clearly telling Ludger that Bisley is his fucking father. which was pretty obvious since chapter 12. of course at the end of the chapter you fight Rideaux again. "oh right guys, I gotta stop you lolz" - in the end, the one thing you needed to stop him was a remote control.

dumb villain involved in dumb scenes.

then there is Ivar, he fights you for no reason, he was mostly a comic relief at first and I got that but now he's just there because "hey don't forget about me, game!". yeah, ok.

the fact that half of your party disappears for no reason during these main missions (I can understand that only in characters episodes) it's pretty dumb as well.

-

that being said, I liked chapter 15. the not bad ending was really good.

oh, in that dimension

Spoiler

Ludger talks

. are you fucking kidding me.

He snapped. Julius and Ludger are ridiculously close, I don't think the game explain that well (due to the lack of Julius screentime)

he snapped but that was really forced nonetheless. I wish that Julius had more screentime, like I still have no idea of why

Spoiler

Chronos calls him "the seeker" or what the fuck he was doing during all that time anyway. seeker of waymarkers? Meh.

 

[NoirVisage]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=127415846

I made a spoiler thread for the game based on the last few posts here.

The black walls of text are returning, please continue here if you have to wax poetic about the endings.

 

[Vylash]

Spoiler

Then I got the True ending which was okay I guess, Ludger sacrificing himself is fine yet the game seems to force it on you that this is the right choice and yet they still don't really give any of those old characters a good sendoff when those are the characters that I'm far more interested in knowing about.

?

Spoiler

Jude perfects his spyrite research, Leia is chief editor of her paper, Alvin is running a successful business, Gaius and Rowan make great strides towards truly unifying Rieze Maxia and Elympios, Milla and Muzet return to the spirit realm and continue watching over humanity, and Elize is working with Elle, seems fine to me

 

[TheMrPliskin]

?

Spoiler

Jude perfects his spyrite research, Leia is chief editor of her paper, Alvin is running a successful business, Gaius and Rowan make great strides towards truly unifying Rieze Maxia and Elympios, Milla and Muzet return to the spirit realm and continue watching over humanity, and Elize is working with Elle, seems fine to me

Spoiler

I guess it's mainly the fact that this is all just told to us through text that I'm getting hung up on, I mean you're right they've all seen success but the fact we don't get a short animated scene similar to the first game where we saw them start these tasks a scene in Xillia 2 showing progress would have been a nice end, I mean I only just finished it so if I give it a couple of days my opinion could change but right now it's kind of disappointing.

EDIT: I only just noticed your post NoirVisage, apologies.

 

[Falk]

You know, halfway through the game, I was convinced that at the end,

Spoiler

Fake-Milla would swap places with Real-Milla and become the ethereal Lord of Spirits while Real-Milla and Jude get their happy ending together.

I'm so glad that wasn't the case as it would really have undone* what made the end of Xillia so meaningful.

*Like a certain other JRPG with a sequel which recently got a HD remaster.

 

[DXLelouch153]

anyone have a general idea of what to do first postgame
im lv73 atm and have access to the EX elite monsters and the EX dungeon
but the stupid job listing doesnt say what lv these things are so EX scorpionoc proceeded to curbstomp me
and i dont wanna do the EX dungeon yet incase im too low leveled

 

[Falk]

If you need quick levels, EX Dungeon is the way to go (it's not too bad) - the dragon-type and gentleman-type monsters give the most XP. Have 80% XP from Leronde up while grinding there and Demon Sigil (x2 XP, take more damage) on Ludger if you can tank it.

Just grab gear from Fennmont second level stores and you should be good to power level.

You can also generally sort the EX elites by difficulty by looking at their reward size. Generally the smaller ones -should- be doable if you can clear the final boss. Just get max transformation and the link art bar stacked up before you engage and you should be able to lop off a lot of HP right off the bat. You always want a 80% XP food while fighting any of the elites - While it's harder starting off without 25% P/M ATK/DEF it generally levels you up so much more that it makes the next ones more manageable.

edit: Should add that you won't game over by losing to the bosses in the EX Dungeon, so don't worry about saving yourself into a corner or losing your grind.

 

[DXLelouch153]

If you need quick levels, EX Dungeon is the way to go (it's not too bad) - the dragon-type and gentleman-type monsters give the most XP. Have 80% XP from Leronde up while grinding there and Demon Sigil (x2 XP, take more damage) on Ludger if you can tank it.

Just grab gear from Fennmont second level stores and you should be good to power level.

You can also generally sort the EX elites by difficulty by looking at their reward size. Generally the smaller ones -should- be doable if you can clear the final boss. Just get max transformation and the link art bar stacked up before you engage and you should be able to lop off a lot of HP right off the bat. You always want a 80% XP food while fighting any of the elites - While it's harder starting off without 25% P/M ATK/DEF it generally levels you up so much more that it makes the next ones more manageable.

reward size as in gald or points?

 

[Falk]

reward size as in gald or points?

Aren't they quite proportional? D:

It probably doesn't matter anyway as there are some smaller ones that will kick your ass and some larger ones that are a pushover.

 

[Finalow]

shouldn't I have 26 giganto monsters unlocked before unlocking the EX versions? I've unlocked only 24 and I'm not sure how to get the last 2.

The black walls of text are returning, please continue here if you have to wax poetic about the endings.

I will when I finish the game.

edit/

Just grab gear from Fennmont second level stores and you should be good to power level.

second level stores? I was wondering where's the best gear, and if I can buy it or if I have to create it from custom. I'm not talking about weapons, for them I read you get the best ones after you finish EX tag mode or something, both unsealed weapons and fell arms.

 

[Falk]

I have 48/48 elites (24, 24 EX) and my trophy popped at 46. Might be a mistake with the FAQs or simply something changed in the localization. I dunno.

 

[Finalow]

I have 48/48 elites (24, 24 EX) and my trophy popped at 46. Might be a mistake with the FAQs or simply something changed in the localization. I dunno.

oh, thanks. I read that there are 52 of them (only 50 needed for the trophy) so I was wondering what I was missing. not sure how they got the number wrong

 

[mgs2master2]

so question bout true ending

Spoiler

the epilogue scene after credits, how may years is that after the game's end?

 

[Falk]

not sure how they got the number wrong

Majority of the FAQs are based off the original Japanese version.

 

[Finalow]

Majority of the FAQs are based off the original Japanese version.

yes I know but I still don't see how 52 became 48, unless the japanese version has more elite monsters.

 

[phoenix296]

Tales of Xillia 2 Impressions (Spoiler Free!)

I've finally finished Xillia 2 at around 40 hours. Thought I'd write some impressions while the game is still fresh in my mind.

Gameplay:

The combat of the game is pretty standard Tales fare. If you've played the first Xillia game (which you should if you want more background surrounding the characters and the story) the combat is very familiar. However, with Ludger as the main protagonist they have added weaknesses to Blade, Blunt and Projectile weapons. This encourages you to switch between Ludger's three weapons to full exploit their weaknesses. Ludger is locked to the party for almost 100% of the game so I hope you like playing as him. It doesn't really get dull however as you can switch between three unique move pools to vary up the gameplay. However, this discourages you from switch between characters. I found myself player Ludger almost 90% of my playthough.

The same link system is present from Xillia one which is disappointing for those who want to play co-op with more than two players as you can no longer fully exploit the Link system, chained arts and mystic arts. Partners still use partner abilities such as Jude's recovery and Millia's bind. There is also an affection system added to the game and the longer you link with a party member, the more affection you build with that character. This encourages you to switch partners to see character skits and gain awards for increasing affection with your favorite characters. Personally I took advantage of this system to get some OTP shipping going on between Ludger and all the female characters. (What a stud)

The food system takes a back seat in this game and you are more limited to the food items you can buy. The Lilium Orb has been replaced with the Allium Orb. The Allium orb system is much different from the Lilium orb and you need to use boosting items to increase your affinity with certain elements. Both systems are not very good but the Lilium orb was more transparent about what skills/arts you will learn as you level it. The Allium orb interface is terrible and it's hard to tell what you'll be learning next. Finally we have the cat system. It's a fun little distraction to get extra items but it can get annoying sending your cat off to fetch stuff every few minutes only to return with common items or nothing at all.

Story:

Tales of Xillia 2's story is probably my favorite Tales story of the games that I have played. It is not necessary to play the first game to understand the story but it is highly recommended. You play as Ludger, a silent protagonist and you make decisions throughout the game that can increase your affinity with certain characters or make drastic changes in the story (this is not that often). Ludger may be silent but they did a decent job at making him an interesting character. Would it be better if he spoke? Definitely. The silent protagonist has many flaws including comically grunts during serious dialogue and characters passing off decisions to him only for him to say nothing.

Elle is the girl you encounter at the very beginning of the game and is the main motivation to play. She was a great character and they really did a good job with her writing. She was never annoying yet she rarely acted outside of her age. You want to protect and see how her character develops and grows as the story progresses. By the end of the game she was my favorite character and it was great to see how her story ends.

The rest of the cast returns including some familiar faces not playable in the first Xillia game. Since the rest of the crew has already been established in the previous game we get to know more of their background and motivations in this game through character side stories. They did a really good job fleshing out the characters. While some of the side stories were pretty lame

Spoiler

Gaius and Leia

. Most were interesting and added to the character making them all the more likable.

Final Thoughts
Overall I enjoyed my time with Xillia 2. The story is the best Tales story I've played even with some silly decisions made and some corny dialogue. The gameplay is very similar to Xillia but improved with Ludger's multiple weapons. Instead of giving some arbitrary score I'll rank Xillia 2 based off other Tales games (which we so often like to do).

Favorite Tales Story: Xillia 2 > Symphonia > Xillia > Vesperia > Graces > Abyss
Favorite Combat/Gameplay: Vesperia > Xillia 2 > Xillia > Graces > Abyss > Symphonia

 

[Falk]

Favorite Combat/Gameplay: Vesperia > Xillia 2 > Xillia > Graces > Abyss > Symphonia

:|

I honestly enjoyed the side-stories, even if

Spoiler

"you will face one important person from your past"

kinda got shoehorned in and quite predictable halfway through.

Muzet was especially well handled, no small coincidence being it didn't fall into the trope above. I was half afraid it'd boil down to fanservice pandering/innuendo, but the almost-yandere oddball approach made it hilarious. I legit was rolling on the floor when

Spoiler

she looked like she was about to puke in her head when plucking harpy feathers

.

edit: ^ rofl. Also cosmetics are the worst thing ever

 

[Vylash]

Favorite Combat/Gameplay: Vesperia > Xillia 2 > Xillia > Graces > Abyss > Symphonia

I never played Vesperia so i can't really speak to that, but this is pretty much my list if you swapped Xillia with Xillia 2, and removed Abyss and Symphonia since they don't even deserve to be listed

 

[DXLelouch153]

so guys im trying to beat elite tag mode on coliseum but i keep getting my ass kicked
any tips, lowering it to easy isnt good enough either

 

[Taruranto]

Waaat, are you telling me

Spoiler

Bisley is the final boss? That's bananas. I was super-ready to smack Origin's ass.

I feel robbed.

Also, I don't think I understand the whole deal with

Spoiler

Origin's Trial and Miasma.

And Milla is probably the worst Maxwell EVER.

Spoiler

Chronos can manipulate time and Origin can do... things, while she can... summon the four? She had problem with one super-golem to the point they had to bring Old Maxwell back from death

.You suck Milla.

 

[Papercuts]

I never played Vesperia so i can't really speak to that, but this is pretty much my list if you swapped Xillia with Xillia 2, and removed Abyss and Symphonia since they don't even deserve to be listed

Oh, you preferred the combat in the first Xillia?

 

[Falk]

Spoiler

Chronos can manipulate time and Origin can do... things, while she can... summon the four? She had problem with one super-golem to the point they had to bring Old Maxwell back from death

Technically that fight would have been mechanically beatable with just Milla's Element Shot but eh, story and drama and such, what can you do.

so guys im trying to beat elite tag mode on coliseum but i keep getting my ass kicked
any tips, lowering it to easy isnt good enough either

Just come back later. I didn't even bother with the Arena till later and I blew through it on Normal after I finished the secret dungeon. Was ~lv155 on Ludger. Linked Mystic Arts + Chromatus makes for awesome nuke.

In hindsight though those weapons from Elite Tag would have probably made the last few bosses in Secret Dungeon a lot easier.

Spoiler

Shadow Gaius kicked my ass quite a bit till I got confusionproof on everyone

 

[Falk]

(Sorry for the double post)

So I've started to clear out all the Battle Challenges and the game is starting to get aggravating. It doesn't help that the translation for many of the items on the list are questionable (power combo vs combo vs arte combo, what the heck 'don't get hit' means for the dodge one, etc.) and some are outright wrong, like "You've performed skills that interfere with enemy's attempt to backstep".

What's downright awful, though, is that for the most difficult ones, the game really doesn't give you enough feedback as to what's going wrong with your meticulously planned link combinations.

I just spent the past two hours attempting to troubleshoot what was going wrong with my Dual Chain x9 attempts (basically use all 9 elements for the weakness multiplier, the catch being all 9 have to come from linked artes). I honest-to-God made four different attempts at sets of Artes from scratch that I was 100% sure covered all 9 elements, yet the after succesfully pulling them off, dumb timing and all, Dual Chain 9 didn't register (While Dual Chain 6 did, implying a few elements didn't register). Up till this point I have no idea if it was simply some attacks not connecting, or if the AI was attacking the mobs with non-linked-arte attacks making those elements permanently not register in my chain, or whatever. After a few successfully executed (or so I thought) attempts on each set, I basically stormed off, forced myself to cool down, come back, and cook up another array of Linked Artes without even knowing what was wrong in the first place.

It finally worked with a really, REALLY obtuse combo with Ludger linking with all 3 party members AND switching between hammer/swords/guns. The timing on those switches were downright ridiculous since you both needed to keep your link chain going, as well as the power chain, and I honestly didn't expect it to register, but somehow it did, after two hours of trial and error.

edit: Keep in mind this needed to be attempted with a full Overlimit bar, meaning back to title and loading a game every failed attempt. God.

edit2: With this comes the morbid reminder that one day I will be too old and torpid to platinum games anymore.

tl;dr never been so annoyed at myself going after JRPG platinums.

 

[demidar]

So, the first Muzét character chapter is quite something.

 

[Finalow]

that battle challenges gold trophy is probably the main reason of why I won't go for the platinum, they didn't even look hard/annoying as fuck the first time I read the requirements but I was wrong, they are.

-

I enjoyed most of the characters episodes but can't say that I wasn't disappointed by some of them. Gaius,

Spoiler

the whole "friend of some punks"

story sucked. Leia and Elize ones also didn't really deliver anything.
and they abused the first game characters in pretty much every story, to add drama or whatever.

 

[Falk]

I think Elize's arc was pretty interesting. Leia's showed some character growth too, at the very least.

On the other hand, Gaius lol.

Alrighty, rant continuation time. Here are the descriptions from four consequent items on the Battle Challenge list:
- You transitioned into a linked arte from a 5-hit combo of spirit or martial artes!
- You finished off a 5-hit linked arte chain with a mystic arte!
- You finished off a 5-hit power combo with a linked arte!
- You finished off a 5-hit power combo with a linked chain AND a mystic arte!

And for good measure, some others:
- You had a 9-hit power combo using a linked arte chain!
- You combined an attack using seven different artes/skills.
- You performed a 9+ power combo!
- You built a 9-hit combo of different spirit and martial artes and then finished it off with a linked mystic arte!

GOD DAMN, so much ambiguity and overlap. It reads like a shitty kickstarter reward tier list.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

I'm getting destroyed hard in the EX dungeon. Anyone got any tips or anything? The shadows hit hard.

 

[DXLelouch153]

So, the first Muzét character chapter is quite something.

who knew deep down Muzet was a highschool girl like ditz eh?

 

[Finalow]

I really hope that the people that did the design of the dungeons in this game aren't working on ToZ. I really hope that they got actually competent people instead.

final dungeon, really? How were they thinking "yeah, let's go with this, looks good&fun". drugs? Sleep deprivation? I don't know, I'll stop here before getting rude. and it's not just that, pretty much every new dungeon (funny part is that there are NOT a lot of new dungeons, like, 5-6 maybe?) besides the one in chapter 10 is garbage.

congrats ToX 2 on setting a new shit bar for the dungeons design.

 

[Protag]

In Xillia 1, how can i get the special skill to use MA's?

On my way! To kanbarl and still dont have the skill.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

At Chapter 7 now.... hmmm the story and the events are as normal as the first one.. nothing really exciting :\

Does the game pick up at some point?

So far it's giving me the same level of experience as the first one which was my lest favorite main 3D Tales game.

 

[Thorgal]

In Xillia 1, how can i get the special skill to use MA's?

On my way! To kanbarl and still dont have the skill.

See if you have the arcane arte with a Yellow star next to it .

Once you go into overlimit , use that arte and keep x pressed down .

The arte itself is found in the second layer of the illium orb .

 

[Jathaine]

Does the game pick up at some point?

Oh boy, does it?
It picks up and then some.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

Oh boy, does it?
It picks up and then some.

Which chapter ?

 

[DXLelouch153]

i did it i cheesed elite and got ludgers fell arms and elizes as well

 

[Datschge]

I really hope that the people that did the design of the dungeons in this game aren't working on ToZ.

Bwahahaha...

With Tales it's kind of hard to figure out who's to blame for dungeon design as the credits usually refer to the graphic designs, not the layout. For Hearts and Xillia 1/2 though there was one person credited for Map Planning/Map Game Design. That guy, Yuuta Hase, is already credited as one of the (so far two) directors for Zestiria.

 

[Soriku]

Bwahahaha...

With Tales it's kind of hard to figure out who's to blame for dungeon design as the credits usually refer to the graphic designs, not the layout. For Hearts and Xillia 1/2 though there was one person credited for Map Planning/Map Game Design. That guy, Yuuta Hase, is already credited as one of the (so far two) directors for Zestiria.

Well fields in Zestiria appear better than Xillia so hopefully the same goes for dungeons lol.