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Xenoblade 3D |OT| Is that a Monado in your pocket or are you just really feeling it?

Rich!

Member
That boss is piss easy if you use Melia and have reyn and riki in your party

Especially now the 3DS version doesn't have the slowdown in that fight that crippled the Wii version.
 

butzopower

proud of his butz
I'm against the first major boss I think, in Ether Mines. I've been playing as Reyn mostly, as it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to tank the enemies properly. But now, it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to setup the topple combos either, and I basically can't do anything in the battle. I'm thinking of switching to Shulk and setting up the combo, but I only have Reyn to combo with Wild Swing, and expect him to either not use it at all, or use it at the wrong time. Am I missing something here in how I can control the AI? I know I could combo attack, but since the main character gets first hit, that means I need to be Shulk basically.
 
Man, I posted it before and the music in this game is great. It's fun to just to run around Guar and see the different creatures and lakes and stuff. It's cool how they let you get so close to enemies that are like six times your level. I'd feel bad for killing enemies that don't attack you first if I wasn't having so much fun with the combat. I'm still not very far, just got to the camp of refugees in Guar, can't wait until I'm done with Bloodborne so I can dive into this.

Is there any way to view exactly how a piece of new equipment changes your stats? That's my one complaint with the game so far, if you highlight a piece of equipment is shows stat increases in blue and decreases in red, but that's not very useful since it doesn't show you the initial values. If an item increases some stats but lowers others I have select back and forth between them to compare the changes. There should be a way to either simultaneously view both items, or show what the values are changing from, like 126=>119 instead of just 119 highlighted in red.
 
I'm against the first major boss I think, in Ether Mines. I've been playing as Reyn mostly, as it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to tank the enemies properly. But now, it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to setup the topple combos either, and I basically can't do anything in the battle. I'm thinking of switching to Shulk and setting up the combo, but I only have Reyn to combo with Wild Swing, and expect him to either not use it at all, or use it at the wrong time. Am I missing something here in how I can control the AI? I know I could combo attack, but since the main character gets first hit, that means I need to be Shulk basically.

You can't really control the other characters. The best you can do is buff the good arts so they use them more often. AI Reyn will prioritize Wild Down if the enemy is in Break status, but he'll do it other times as well, so the risk is that he'll use it before a Break status is active and then Wild Down will still be in cool down. The goal behind buffing the team's arts in this regard is to increase the probability that the art will be available. The game gets easier when more characters get more arts that aid the Break / Topple sequence.

The boss you're dealing with can't be put into Break / Topple unless done in a Chain Attack anyway, so yeah it'd be better if you were playing as Shulk so you can do the Break Art and have Reyn follow. Also I think AI Shulk has no clue whatsoever on how to use the Monado arts.
 

butzopower

proud of his butz
You can't really control the other characters. The best you can do is buff the good arts so they use them more often. AI Reyn will prioritize Wild Down if the enemy is in Break status, but he'll do it other times as well, so the risk is that he'll use it before a Break status is active and then Wild Down will still be in cool down. The goal behind buffing the team's arts in this regard is to increase the probability that the art will be available. The game gets easier when more characters get more arts that aid the Break / Topple sequence.

The boss you're dealing with can't be put into Break / Topple unless done in a Chain Attack anyway, so yeah it'd be better if you were playing as Shulk so you can do the Break Art and have Reyn follow. Also I think AI Shulk has no clue whatsoever on how to use the Monado arts.

Is there a way to control the order that the chains go in?

Is there a way to switch equipment but keep what gems I have equipped?

Also, I'm sure I'm not the first to point this out, but half the time the battles sound like a porno. "Suck on this" followed by "You're really feeling it aren't you" followed by "Ugh, stick it in". And then the opening seems like no one is interested in Fiora at all, but as Reyn and Shulk leave town everyone is kind of longingly looking at each other. And there's sort of this robot vore thing going on. Been a little hard to take any of it seriously, though I enjoy the gameplay.
 

Zing

Banned
Is there a way to switch equipment but keep what gems I have equipped?
It's easy to re-equip the gems, as they will have a black E on them when looking at the gem equip screen. Black E means the gem is equipped in an item that is not currently worn. Just re-equip all black E's.

As for your tanking issue, I don't know what to say. I controlled Sharla all the way until Amelia joined the party. Reyn's AI has been pretty solid and keeps aggro consistently for me.
 
I'm against the first major boss I think, in Ether Mines. I've been playing as Reyn mostly, as it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to tank the enemies properly. But now, it doesn't seem like the AI knows how to setup the topple combos either, and I basically can't do anything in the battle. I'm thinking of switching to Shulk and setting up the combo, but I only have Reyn to combo with Wild Swing, and expect him to either not use it at all, or use it at the wrong time. Am I missing something here in how I can control the AI? I know I could combo attack, but since the main character gets first hit, that means I need to be Shulk basically.

Not for that battle, no, you have to use the chain attack. An important note being left out is that Xord resists break and attacks in general unless you do it in a chain attack, similar to Metal Face. It's not the AI, the boss resists the status by design.

Regardless you'll have a tough time controlling Reyn because that means he has to go first in the chain attack, but you really want him going after Shulk. In my experience the tank AI isn't that bad, especially compared to the way it handles the mage character, the monado, and DPS.
 

tigerin

Member
what is the chance of this game becoming rare in the near future? I have a few games I want to finish before I move on to this but I'm afraid this will become rare like the Wii version.

Should I buy it now while it still available at most retailers?
 

Ridley327

Member
what is the chance of this game becoming rare in the near future? I have a few games I want to finish before I move on to this but I'm afraid this will become rare like the Wii version.

Should I buy it now while it still available at most retailers?

With it being available at every retailer, I don't think you should worry about it getting rare nearly as quickly as the Wii version did. Even ignoring them, it's always going to be available on the eShop as an option.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
I have like 2,000 AP with Reyn and Shulk and can't decide if I should level up arts or what I should level. I made Back Slash level 2 but that's it. I don't want to pump a skill that becomes obsolete.
 

Heng

Member
I have like 2,000 AP with Reyn and Shulk and can't decide if I should level up arts or what I should level. I made Back Slash level 2 but that's it. I don't want to pump a skill that becomes obsolete.
Throughout your gameplay, you'll end up with more than plenty enough AP. Don't worry about a skill becoming obsolete and pick arts that sounds fun to use or arts that will help hold aggro, heal, support, etc..
 

OMG Aero

Member
I have like 2,000 AP with Reyn and Shulk and can't decide if I should level up arts or what I should level. I made Back Slash level 2 but that's it. I don't want to pump a skill that becomes obsolete.
With Shulk it's always a good idea to upgrade your monado skills, with shield and speed being good ones depending on how far you are since those are your primary ways of preventing visions. Aside from that buster, enchant, back slash, and his break and daze skills are abilities that Shulk will pretty much use for the whole game so those can be good to upgrade too.
With Reyn, his blocking move can be good to upgrade since you can also use it to prevent visions affecting him. In terms of actual attacks, Reyn's topple and daze skills will be used for the whole game so those can be good to upgrade and for his other attacks just upgrade what you like to use, I tend to prioritise sword drive because it does a ton of damage and war swing because it hits all around Reyn so if he is in the middle of a group of enemies it fills up his talent gauge a lot.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
what is the chance of this game becoming rare in the near future? I have a few games I want to finish before I move on to this but I'm afraid this will become rare like the Wii version.

Should I buy it now while it still available at most retailers?

If you can afford to buy something you wont play right away you might as well do it while it is still available.
 

MrPanic

Member
I was just wondering why I stopped playing this game for a while now, but I think it's because of Melia. I was really enjoying the game mostly playing as Dunban up until the point I got Melia and started playing as her, which caused me to get bored with the game without me realizing Melia's brain dead combat mechanics were the real evil.

Time to banish Melia to the bench forever (except for certain boss fights apparently) and go back to having fun again.
 

Overside

Banned
I was just wondering why I stopped playing this game for a while now, but I think it's because of Melia. I was really enjoying the game mostly playing as Dunban up until the point I got Melia and started playing as her, which caused me to get bored with the game without me realizing Melia's brain dead combat mechanics were the real evil.

Time to banish Melia to the bench forever (except for certain boss fights apparently) and go back to having fun again.

e71ebc217063c4bc54a46851ee78cee9.jpg
 

Qwyjibo

Member
An 8 hour flight tomorrow will be a perfect time to start Xenoblade 3D. I've been looking forward to playing this game for a long time but just had other games on the go the last couple of weeks.
 

MrPanic

Member
areyouserious.jpg

Absolutely. She's like a worse version of Sharla. It's just you standing at the side line but instead of reacting to healthbars you spam the same optimized pattern of arts over and over again. That makes her the most braindead character so far imo, that summon/discharge only makes getting to learn Melia interesting because once you know it, it only turns into a pattern that you repeat constantly. Very poor gimmick imo.

Maybe she'll turn interesting at higher levels with new arts, because atm she turned the whole game into a snoozefest.
 

BY2K

Membero Americo
God damn this game is big. Every time I clear an area thinking the next one can't possibly get any bigger IT DOES.
 

Overside

Banned
Absolutely. She's like a worse version of Sharla. It's just you standing at the side line but instead of reacting to healthbars you spam the same optimized pattern of arts over and over again. That makes her the most braindead character so far imo, that summon/discharge only makes getting to learn Melia interesting because once you know it, it only turns into a pattern that you repeat constantly. Very poor gimmick imo.

Maybe she'll turn interesting at higher levels with new arts, because atm she turned the whole game into a snoozefest.

Yeah, that is not how you play melia.
 
I actually was going to pick this up for my New 3DS XL, but I've been listening to a lot of reviews/impressions from critics and they've been very tepid about how this game plays on the system vs. how it played on Wii.

Does this game play well on 3DS to make it worth it?

I rally wish Nintendo had done a HD version of this for Wii U. This is one of those games that could've really used it.
 

Overside

Banned
I actually was going to pick this up for my New 3DS XL, but I've been listening to a lot of reviews/impressions from critics and they've been very tepid about how this game plays on the system vs. how it played on Wii.

Does this game play well on 3DS to make it worth it?

I rally wish Nintendo had done a HD version of this for Wii U. This is one of those games that could've really used it.

The game plays exactly like it did on wii.

Honestly, its performance is actually better.

The resolution hurts a little, (More if you are unfortunate enough to be forced to use an XL), the textures were horribly compressed to fit on a media storage cart that was 1Gb smaller than the game itself (Subtracting the japanese audio) and very few wii shaders made it through, because the wii/gc gpu was int based for some reason, so it simply wont render correctly in a fp environment. And the foilage density was scaled back a bit.

But playing it? The game itself plays identically to playing the game on wii with a classic controller, and its performance is actually surprisingly noticably more solid than the wii game. And having a portable adventure like this is... absolutely fantastic.
 
So I'm just getting started with this game and I'm having trouble with the unique bosses. Is Shulk not the best character to control? This unique monster is only one level below me and its kicked my ass. Should I just do some more side quests?
 

Dice//

Banned
So I'm just getting started with this game and I'm having trouble with the unique bosses. Is Shulk not the best character to control? This unique monster is only one level below me and its kicked my ass. Should I just do some more side quests?

Naw, Unique Enemies, perhaps slightly hinted by their title, are a bit special and probably aren't the best to take on "the same level". Take your time, do quests, get EXP, come back and whoop 'em good another day.

Shulk is sort of a strange character; he's got a ton of unique skills, but he's a bit of a glass cannon (as evidenced by his pretty damn low HP for a main hero dude). You will definitely want aggro OFF of him (so he's not getting attacked) and onto a tank like Riki or Reyn so Shulk can swing to the side (Slit Edge/Air Slash) or the back (Backslash) while still also acting as a great support through Monado Arts.
 

Parakeetman

No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
So I'm just getting started with this game and I'm having trouble with the unique bosses. Is Shulk not the best character to control? This unique monster is only one level below me and its kicked my ass. Should I just do some more side quests?

Sounds like you are pulling too much hate which is why you are getting attacked.

---

Nothing beats killing that
massive lv 40 frog in the small cave
at lv 38. lol
 
Care to explain? I'm trying her out now and I've been less than impressed.
Summon, summon, summon, attack, attack, attack

Her summons have AoE stuff associated too, so positioning matters. Single-handedly toppling enemies is pretty fun too. Also, sometimes you need to take a few steps back so the constant character chatter isn't so loud.

Basically, Melia is the best
 
I think I'm getting the hang of it, thanks for the help! Definitely enjoying the game so far, the battle system is pretty entertaining.
 

Overside

Banned
Care to explain? I'm trying her out now and I've been less than impressed.

Melia is a dot and topple lock monster (Definately give melia lots of topple up, and dot up gems), and the closest youll get to managing the rest of the party outside of warnings and chain links.

There are so many different builds for playing her its crazy.

Generally you want to get out your stackable dot moves out first and replace them when they wear off, poison, burn, ice, and then buff up whatever stat you want your party to be buffed on. Doesnt really matter too much unless you are playing the superboss/way underleveld game, as most things have trouble staying alive very long, but if you are, its pretty huge.

Summon bolt is basically melias normal attack (A lot of people drop it, simply because her dot moves destroy it in total damage, I tend to keep it for quick reliable control of her talent gauge), but dont spam it past filling the talent bar. Once the talent bar is full you can seriously cripple all the enemies in the area with aura burst, as well as do heavy ether damage and shut off any talent arts, also over a large area (Which makes another move of melias usable with impunity)... which leads into the general strategy of:

Actively be the biggest most antogonizing dick you possibly can be to the monster you are fighting. Enemy about to do a big move? Nope. Spear break -> starlight kick= instant topple. Screw you monster, Im Melia.

Enemy using talent move (or aura, or spike)? Mindwipe, screw you monster. Not enough talent art for mindwipe? Topple (actually, another character may then daze him destroying the future anyways) then discharge to fill gauge, aura burst (for extra dick points, always want to max those out) mindwipe, screw you monster.

Still cant get rid of that talent move? Hypnos. Screw you monster. (Hypnose can get rid of any move, but she has another move thats better used for those situations)

Enemy using non talent move? Gain aggro to get attention, then use reflect to reflect (This gains a lot of aggro) back ANYTHING, thats not a talent art (Move name with a number next to it) and any status effects it inflicts from any and all monsters, back to sender(s) it stays active for 5 seconds and has a usefully quick cool down. Yes, ANYTHING, instant kills? Yes, they commit suicide, HP down? Yes, reducing a superbosses max hp by 60% by throwing his own move back in his face is freaking hilarious. Screw you monsters, Im fucking Melia.

And then melias just plain a chain attack god, here large number of aoe and dot stacking attacks can wipe out minions with ease rapidly filling the party gauge for chain attacks, and she can use the 'wild card' color up to 3 times to chain off of and into any colour.

Melia is a glass cannon, but her buffs can make her pretty tough, defense or agility can skyrocket to stupid levels, so you can actually handle, and in fact will want to take aggro at certain times, and with reflect you can even literally tank with Melia, getting everyone to dogpile melia and then unleashing reflect and wiping them all out is hilarious. Hopefully the 3ds version fixed the glitches associated with these with the other glitches its fixed from the wii version(No chests from instant kills, no xp/ap from reflected damage resulting in kills)
 

Velcro Fly

Member
Holy shit just played for five hours. This is definitely the kind of game I can easily get lost in and lose all track of everything.

I love the monster killing quests and the material finding quests. And even the challenge quests. Easy mindless find and kill monster or find and collect item. Perfect for when I'm just walking around looking for stuff.

I think I enjoy combat a little too much. Sometimes instead of focusing on collecting materials or advancing the story, I just run around and kill things.
 

DagsJT

Member
Only played for a couple of hours but not sure I'm enjoying the fighting. It all seems like complete chaos and the graphics don't help me distinguish who's who and whose facing which way.
 
Just had a really weird glitch. I'm in Makna Forest, and was fighting an Inferno Deinos (i think that's the name?). I was in the middle of a chain attack, and the Deinos' head detached from its body and starting flying around the screen as I was doing the attack. The chain attack ended and it went back to normal, but it was pretty hilarious.

EDIT: Okay it's done it two more times, once outside of a chain attack. Is it supposed to do this? I don't remember that happening in the Wii version.
 

Thoraxes

Member
Only played for a couple of hours but not sure I'm enjoying the fighting. It all seems like complete chaos and the graphics don't help me distinguish who's who and whose facing which way.

You could just look at the little circles and diamonds on that circle that indicate enemy positioning and if they're facing you.

I actually find this stuff is easier to distinguish with the 3D on.
 

Rich!

Member
Just had a really weird glitch. I'm in Makna Forest, and was fighting an Inferno Deinos (i think that's the name?). I was in the middle of a chain attack, and the Deinos' head detached from its body and starting flying around the screen as I was doing the attack. The chain attack ended and it went back to normal, but it was pretty hilarious.

EDIT: Okay it's done it two more times, once outside of a chain attack. Is it supposed to do this? I don't remember that happening in the Wii version.

Heh I guess you missed that every single deinos has a smaller dinosaur riding on top of their head? When you topple it, the small one falls off and starts panicking!

Its not a glitch! And yeah it's on the original too
 
Only played for a couple of hours but not sure I'm enjoying the fighting. It all seems like complete chaos and the graphics don't help me distinguish who's who and whose facing which way.

2 days ago, I was not enjoying the battle system AT ALL. It is much better now but I really had to make an effort to understand it. I got some great tips a few post above that proved very helpful btw.
 
Heh I guess you missed that every single deinos has a smaller dinosaur riding on top of their head? When you topple it, the small one falls off and starts panicking!

Its not a glitch! And yeah it's on the original too

Lol guess I totally missed that then. Or maybe I wasn't as good at Toppling when I first got to Makna on the Wii version. I'm betting on both really.
 

TheMoon

Member
I actually was going to pick this up for my New 3DS XL, but I've been listening to a lot of reviews/impressions from critics and they've been very tepid about how this game plays on the system vs. how it played on Wii.

Does this game play well on 3DS to make it worth it?

I rally wish Nintendo had done a HD version of this for Wii U. This is one of those games that could've really used it.

I suggest you check out the OP (the FAQ bit, at least). Seems you haven't.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
With Shulk it's always a good idea to upgrade your monado skills, with shield and speed being good ones depending on how far you are since those are your primary ways of preventing visions. Aside from that buster, enchant, back slash, and his break and daze skills are abilities that Shulk will pretty much use for the whole game so those can be good to upgrade too.
With Reyn, his blocking move can be good to upgrade since you can also use it to prevent visions affecting him. In terms of actual attacks, Reyn's topple and daze skills will be used for the whole game so those can be good to upgrade and for his other attacks just upgrade what you like to use, I tend to prioritise sword drive because it does a ton of damage and war swing because it hits all around Reyn so if he is in the middle of a group of enemies it fills up his talent gauge a lot.

Speed is actually doesn't need to be upgraded, I'd argue it's not worth upgrading at all. The effect doesn't improve at all, only the duration, and after nearly 53000 AP to get it to level 10 you only increase the length by about 50% (4.5 seconds).

Shield pretty much needs to be upgraded, but it's not worth pouring points into indiscriminately. Try to keep it one level higher than the highest enemy talent art you've seen. Make it level 2 pretty early, and don't level it up to 3 until you have seen a level 2 talent art. And so on.

Monado Armor and Cyclone are the best Monado arts, but both come later (and Armor is entirely optional/missable). I've never bothered with Eater, but I guess a case could be made for that too.
 
So I'm just getting started with this game and I'm having trouble with the unique bosses. Is Shulk not the best character to control? This unique monster is only one level below me and its kicked my ass. Should I just do some more side quests?

The beginning of the game is surprisingly one of the tougher parts of the game because through most of it you only have 2 characters, your skills and defense aren't nearly high enough to tank all that well, and several important gameplay features such as chain attacks and gems are not unlocked right away. At this point, being the same level as everything else is almost a bare minimum, and that's under ideal conditions. Once you get further into the game, and especially after your party fills out, it's much easier to not only get overleveled but also take on stronger monsters without too much headache. Depending on your other party members, Shulk remains a good choice to control throughout, though other options are just as good.
 
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