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

Basically, Melia is the best.

There is a dungeon that acts as a tutorial section for playing as her not long after she joins the party, so don't fret too much in the mean time.
 
SolicitorPirate said:
On more gameplay oriented matters though, could someone explain how
Melia
works as a character? I don't quite get playing her yet.
Click to expand...

First, her auto-attacks uses her staff. She really isn't a useful auto-attacker so don't focus too much on it. What you want to utilize are her arts.

Her arts are ether-based besides her 2 weak, but very very useful physical arts. So stat-wise, focus on improving her ether. What makes her powerful is that being ether-based, her attacks are almost a guaranteed hit, even against higher-level enemies with scaled-up agility.

There are more in-depth guide on using her effectively, but as a basic starter, her ether attacks are based on summoning and discharging elements. You can summon up to 3 elements at a time, and keeping them up will provide a temporary stat buffs to nearby allies. See the arts description for what stat buffs they provide and for how long. Buffs get lost when the time expires or when you discharge the element. Discharging the element is like casting an attack spell, so that's how you attack with magic. Discharge it by using the talent art (don't worry about not getting it filled, her talent art works differently), and it gets filled up whenever you discharge an element. A filled up talent art unlocks some powerful ether arts, and the discharged ether attack is amplified in power. So the key is her summoning elements, discharge and repeat.

She also has a good amount of spells that inflict status effects. You might want to also check them out and add them to your arts palette.
 
Whoompthereitis said:
So I've played about three hours of this so far. I've basically been running around getting into battles and trying to get used to the combat system. Kinda reminds me of FF12 to be honest. I still don't really understand how Chain Attacks work, can anyone gimme a primer on that?
Click to expand...
Before you can perform a chain attack, you have 3 bars to fill up near the top of the screen (can't remember if it's on the top left or top right) which is also used to either warn your team on an upcoming attack or to revive them. You build this up by attacking in special positions if the arts require you to be in for the full effect or attacking with your team (not actually sure on this one). Encouraging allies will also build this as will toppling and dazing enemies.

Within the chain attack, you can build up a huge chain combo or to force topple/daze. To build the damage up in the chain attack, you must match colors with your 3 characters. Arts in the middle, which is a white color, serve as a wild card; it will build the combo number up regardless of the color. This also allows you to switch colors as well. You also don't have to match the color if you just want straight up damage, though I'd recommend it if you want the most damage out of your party.

If your tension is high (the portrait should either show them yelling or yelling with fire behind them), you have a chance to get another attack in with your next party member. The higher the affinity between the current character and the next will increase the chance for another attack. You will always get 3 attacks in the chain attack unless the character is too far away with a bind debuff, dazed or toppled party member, or if Sharla needs to cool off her rifle. I also think art sealed characters will not be able to attack either, but not too sure on that.

Force topple is when an enemy is unable to be toppled normally, you can topple them in the chain attack. Flying units normally can't be toppled at all. This may not be the best thing to do all the time because later within the game, monsters will gain spike damage, which can cause damage to you when you hit them or daze them. Characters will be able to disable this move when you get far enough into the game.
 
People actually don't give Reyn enough credit, thinking that Dunban is definitely the better tank for all situations. It's not really the case, Dunban is the easier tank, especially if you're not controlling him.

Reyn is better in fights where you can't just avoid the damage and has some really interesting abilities for both tanking and as a third damage character. Problem is that Dunban is better at doing damage and almost all of the fights you can just agility your way out of the damage! If you control him though I find Reyn's tanking skills to be more complete.
 
ForteanMan said:
Level 90 and 85 hrs later I completed the game over my lunch break at work moments ago. What an awesome, awesome experience. I think it's fair to say this game has now taken a place in my top games of all time. I'm getting ready to dive back in to New Game + in order to try and complete more of the sidequest stuff and to finish
reconstruction of Colony 6, I got all of the areas to level 4 before I just finally gave in and completed the game
. I think I might still be smiling from the ending, it was really good. Now I have to go back up and find all those links to the philosophy behind the concepts in the ending, because I'm not sure I 100% understood what was going on.
Click to expand...

Replaying the game really is a different experience, because there is a lot of dialogue and stuff where you had no idea about its true meaning. It's why it's one of my favourite games, very well told, but needing to replay it to really grasp it.
 
ForteanMan said:
Level 90 and 85 hrs later I completed the game over my lunch break at work moments ago. What an awesome, awesome experience. I think it's fair to say this game has now taken a place in my top games of all time. I'm getting ready to dive back in to New Game + in order to try and complete more of the sidequest stuff and to finish
reconstruction of Colony 6, I got all of the areas to level 4 before I just finally gave in and completed the game
. I think I might still be smiling from the ending, it was really good. Now I have to go back up and find all those links to the philosophy behind the concepts in the ending, because I'm not sure I 100% understood what was going on.
Click to expand...

Give a breif read over some of this subject matter to start the process of getting a grasp on what really went on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monadology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(philosophy)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(category_theory)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad_(functional_programming)
 
Man God said:
People actually don't give Reyn enough credit, thinking that Dunban is definitely the better tank for all situations. It's not really the case, Dunban is the easier tank, especially if you're not controlling him.

Reyn is better in fights where you can't just avoid the damage and has some really interesting abilities for both tanking and as a third damage character. Problem is that Dunban is better at doing damage and almost all of the fights you can just agility your way out of the damage! If you control him though I find Reyn's tanking skills to be more complete.
Click to expand...

I think Reyn manages powerful ether enemies and big groups of enemies better due to his high HP and better aggro management, but neither of those situations are all that common.

Most of the fights that are challenging enough to matter mostly have you facing off against single powerful enemies (maybe with weak mobs on the side) that primarily use physical arts, which is where Dunban shines.
 
ivysaur12 said:
Mechonis
goes on waaaaaay too long. Or, there could've been some more interesting ideas with the design of its inside :-\
Click to expand...

It was pretty grueling wasnt it?

Remembering, I pretty much stopped after every couple landmarks to go back to previous areas, do some quests in areas I couldnt before, then go back, get to another landmark, rinse repeat.
 
I'm on the final boss.

They should've enable saving in the last part por the portable version. Now I have to wait 9 hours with the 3ds on stand-by, I hope battery endures.
 
ivysaur12 said:
Mechonis
goes on waaaaaay too long. Or, there could've been some more interesting ideas with the design of its inside :-\
Click to expand...

It was supposed to be a "dead" continent after all, so thematically Mechonis was really well represented. I suppose it really felt like that because there's really no stop-gap town or colony inside.
 
chaosblade said:
I think Reyn manages powerful ether enemies and big groups of enemies better due to his high HP and better aggro management, but neither of those situations are all that common.

Most of the fights that are challenging enough to matter mostly have you facing off against single powerful enemies (maybe with weak mobs on the side) that primarily use physical arts, which is where Dunban shines.
Click to expand...

Yep, it's the same reason why Sharla's healing isn't necessary. Why heal when you can burn down the enemy before you need to! Hell sometimes taking damage is a good thing because it'll inspire a vision, giving you more free hits. Then eventually you can just chain attack spam and heal any damage you take via skill links/not take any damage because everything is chain toppled.
 
random25 said:
It was supposed to be a "dead" continent after all, so thematically Mechonis was really well represented. I suppose it really felt like that because there's really no stop-gap town or colony inside.
Click to expand...

And I appreciated that it was represented as a long grueling trek.

I also appreciated the ability to leave at any time and screw around in other areas, then teleport back to the last landmark I discovered.

Pretty sure everyone who was ever in immediate peril at any point in the game absolutely hated my party.

Oh no!!! We have to save the children!

Ooh! Squirrel!
 
random25 said:
It was supposed to be a "dead" continent after all, so thematically Mechonis was really well represented. I suppose it really felt like that because there's really no stop-gap town or colony inside.
Click to expand...

Sort of. I shouldn't be doing it all at once, but I am. I just wanted to get to
the capital
and then go back and clear the quests in Frontier Village (ugh) and more importantly, Alcamoth.

EDIT: BEST MUSIC =
Agniratha
 
ivysaur12 said:
Mechonis
goes on waaaaaay too long. Or, there could've been some more interesting ideas with the design of its inside :-\
Click to expand...

It's weird, but I actually really, really liked it.

For one, Field of Machinae is probably one of my favorite songs on the whole OST for striking something somewhat 80's-synth-y, modern, and still somewhat steeped in fantasy.

I also love the look of the Central Factory for, once again, illustrating just how massive the world is even if it is confined to two titans:
latest
Click to expand...

Agniratha is part of that RPG-wet dream of exploring olde ruins, and indeed, that aspect that
life was once good and thriving --- but not it's good as dead
.

It was an odd change of pace to have a whole place so hostile to you and so different compared to the very green and friendly Bionis... but I loved that the creative team behind it still managed to make some extraordinary geometry and architecture from the whole place. The place is, essentially, very dead yet felt still very much alive. A misunderstood place that is all fire and filled with fearsome enemies, but still unique to look at and no less interesting that the intricacies on Bionis.

Plus, it definitely helps there's so many plot bomb shells along the way with unique "rebels" littered along the way to really change up your understanding of the world, its many peoples, and how it is and how it counters with everything the player is taught since the beginning of the story. If you're interested in the story by that point the game has totally worked at telling its story since it teaches you one thing but flawlessly twists it for you in a compelling way.

I really don't think I hit the "love" part of Xenoblade till I got to Mechonis and it "changed the game" a bit.
 
Overside said:
It was pretty grueling wasnt it?

Remembering, I pretty much stopped after every couple landmarks to go back to previous areas, do some quests in areas I couldnt before, then go back, get to another landmark, rinse repeat.
Click to expand...

I did much the same thing when I first played the game - it helped that I had managed to convince myself that
Agniratha
was the final area of the game, making
the journey up the Mechonis
feel that much less tedious; it fit the template of a Tower of Kagutsuchi-esque final dungeon.

random25 said:
It was supposed to be a "dead" continent after all, so thematically Mechonis was really well represented. I suppose it really felt like that because there's really no stop-gap town or colony inside.
Click to expand...

The structure of the field aside, I thought progression was handled relatively well between the
Hidden Village and Agniratha
- the
terminals of the latter handling the basic functionality of a RPG town while being completely devoid of life
in particular was a nice way to fulfil the requirements of the gameplay loop while maintaining the desolate atmosphere. It's also probably one of the stretches of the game with the most contrast between area themes - especially considering they share a relatively similar palette and aesthetic compared to the Bionis' environments; the significant differences in style between the
Mechonis Field, Central Factory and Agniratha
themes helped give the areas a slightly more distinct character than they would have had otherwise.
 
TWO
HOURS
LATER

The loser known as L
orithia
is freaking DEAD.

I refuse to grind at this point. I tried every combination involving Melia (winner was Melia/Dunban/Sharla). Finally got the run where everything worked out -- At 1AM. Instead of 11PM, when I said Id just beat the boss real quickly before going to bed.

So yeah, after beating them, brushing teeth, showering, taking care of pets, etc, it's 2AM and I'm going to sleep.

Looking forward to the rest of the game now that I've got that hurdle out of the way!
 
Now that I think about it...

Wonder if they designed it so that
Melia
would be the best choice for taking down that boss.

This is your destiny. Accept it with dignity!
 
Dice// said:
It's weird, but I actually really, really liked it.

For one, Field of Machinae is probably one of my favorite songs on the whole OST for striking something somewhat 80's-synth-y, modern, and still somewhat steeped in fantasy.

I also love the look of the Central Factory for, once again, illustrating just how massive the world is even if it is confined to two titans:


Agniratha is part of that RPG-wet dream of exploring olde ruins, and indeed, that aspect that
life was once good and thriving --- but not it's good as dead
.

It was an odd change of pace to have a whole place so hostile to you and so different compared to the very green and friendly Bionis... but I loved that the creative team behind it still managed to make some extraordinary geometry and architecture from the whole place. The place is, essentially, very dead yet felt still very much alive. A misunderstood place that is all fire and filled with fearsome enemies, but still unique to look at and no less interesting that the intricacies on Bionis.

Plus, it definitely helps there's so many plot bomb shells along the way with unique "rebels" littered along the way to really change up your understanding of the world, its many peoples, and how it is and how it counters with everything the player is taught since the beginning of the story. If you're interested in the story by that point the game has totally worked at telling its story since it teaches you one thing but flawlessly twists it for you in a compelling way.

I really don't think I hit the "love" part of Xenoblade till I got to Mechonis and it "changed the game" a bit.
Click to expand...

I actually wish they would have handled Mechonis Field a bit differently. The other two areas are fine, but that one feels needlessly samey. I think it would have been cool to see some weird, alien looking mechanical flora growing on everything. Mechanical wildlife would be neat too, but that would kind of kill the desolance.

But as a whole I agree, the areas are really well designed.
 
chaosblade said:
I actually wish they would have handled Mechonis Field a bit differently. The other two areas are fine, but that one feels needlessly samey. I think it would have been cool to see some weird, alien looking mechanical flora growing on everything. Mechanical wildlife would be neat too, but that would kind of kill the desolance.

But as a whole I agree, the areas are really well designed.
Click to expand...

Something like that, yeah. I would've liked that.

Also why does Frontier Village have so many quests :-(
 
I'm liking this a lot now that I'm done with Bloodborne and putting more time into it.

I'm early into Colony 6, around 12 hours of playtime. Still figuring out the nuances of the combat etc.
 
Ventara said:
So, can anyone tell me without spoiling anything when those Alcomoth quests will expire? I'm inside the tomb right now.
Click to expand...

My guess is you're about 20 hours out from that point (maybe less, maybe more). After the tomb, there are
6
new regions you'll visit before you can reach the area that locks those quests out, as I recall. Some of those regions are pretty small and you don't spend much time with them, however.
 
Finished the game today. Was thinking of playing more to fight the superbosses and do some more things, but the amount of farming for art books and grinding for AP that I'd want to do was going to be too much. Finished at around 73 hours played with something like 98%~ completion. All maps fleshed out, collectopaedia completed, five star affinity with all regions, only a handful of quests left to complete.

Managed to unlock all the models as well. Turns out you get 99 tokens as a gift for reaching level 99, (I assume with the entire party, since I had a couple people at 99 when I loaded it up today and I only got the gift after I had finished leveling everybody and finished the game) and 100 tokens for beating the game.
 
Parshias7 said:
Finished the game today. Was thinking of playing more to fight the superbosses and do some more things, but the amount of farming for art books and grinding for AP that I'd want to do was going to be too much. Finished at around 73 hours played with something like 98%~ completion. All maps fleshed out, collectopaedia completed, five star affinity with all regions, only a handful of quests left to complete.

Managed to unlock all the models as well. Turns out you get 99 tokens as a gift for reaching level 99, (I assume with the entire party, since I had a couple people at 99 when I loaded it up today and I only got the gift after I had finished leveling everybody and finished the game) and 100 tokens for beating the game.
Click to expand...


Five star affinity with ALL regions with level 99 in 73 hours? Wow is that normal or am I just really slow (though the two are not mutually exclusive)? Pretty sure that'd take a metric shit ton of questing. I think I was only at level 96 after ~150 hours played.
 
So I just reached the
Nopon village.
I absolutely love how in Xenoblade, when characters say a place is big, they mean it. Don't believe us when we say this is a giant tree? Fuck you, here's 12 flights of stairs to get to the top.

Also, holy shit, I did not expect to see a
Nopon party member.
 
Malus said:
Five star affinity with ALL regions with level 99 in 73 hours? Wow is that normal or am I just really slow (though the two are not mutually exclusive)? Pretty sure that'd take a metric shit ton of questing. I think I was only at level 96 after ~150 hours played.
Click to expand...

Its my second time through the game and I used a guide/the wiki for quests so I didn't spend much time screwing around. My first playthrough on the Wii was around 120 hours.
 
Looking to get a new 3DS game to fill up my new 32GB microsd, but I can't decide between this and Majora's Mask. I've never played either game so it's a hard choice. How does Xenoblade game run on the new 3ds? I've been leaning towards Xenoblade over Majora's, but the fact that I'd be buying the worst looking version, whereas I'd be buying the premiere version with Majora's, has made me hesitant.
 
54:35, my first time through Xenoblade is done. Some things I loved, some not so much. But as a whole, it was a mostly enjoyable play.

On mobile, so I won't type up anything long. But man, that ending. I couldn't help but smile all the way through it.

Will probably be asking a load of questions in the upcoming days now that I don't have to worry about over-arching spoilers. :p
 
So I've been doing a few fights with
Riki
, and it seems to me he's some sort of support/DoT hybrid. Is that how he's meant to be played, or is there something I'm missing?
 
Riki
is a jack of all trades, and maybe the most useful character for the meat of the game as a result.

(but once you get into the endgame, you don't need a healer at all and you can just go pure DPS)
 
Elfforkusu said:
Riki
is a jack of all trades, and maybe the most useful character for the meat of the game as a result.

(but once you get into the endgame, you don't need a healer at all and you can just go pure DPS)
Click to expand...

This fills me with immense joy given how much I already love that motherfucker.

Actually, the characters in general are great. As much as I complained about him in my earlier posts, Shulk is probably my favorite RPG main character in a long time, and I love how much of a bro he and Reyn are to each other.
Riki
cracks me up and
Melia
is pretty much the only example of the snotty upper class girl JRPG archetype that I've actually liked.

I think the only characters I'm lukewarm towards are
Sharla
and
Dunban
.
 
45 hours into the game and I just made it to Spiral Valley. Man, Valak Mountain was an absolute pain, worst area so far by far IMO, tons of cliffs to fall off from, huge empty spaces and a painful lack of teleport points. Oh well, good to see that's over with :D

Cutscenes continue to be as cool as they've been so far, this game just keeps throwing revelation after revelation at you! I'm guessing I'm about halfway through the game? I think I'm going to take some time to do some quest hunting and focus a bit on
colony 6 reconstruction. I've only been able to invite 1 person from Alcamoth so far even though it's level 3. Gonna hit up the wiki and see who I can invite over.
 
ChrisD said:
54:35, my first time through Xenoblade is done. Some things I loved, some not so much. But as a whole, it was a mostly enjoyable play.

On mobile, so I won't type up anything long. But man, that ending. I couldn't help but smile all the way through it.

Will probably be asking a load of questions in the upcoming days now that I don't have to worry about over-arching spoilers. :p
Click to expand...

Wow! That seems fast at ~55 hours. What level did you finish it? I think that's on the quicker side of a play through for your first time. I think I was somewhere in the 70s on my first play through. I'm hoping to stay engaged in the game long enough to try to beat Super Bosses this time around.
 
Fireblend said:
45 hours into the game and I just made it to Spiral Valley. Man, Valak Mountain was an absolute pain, worst area so far by far IMO, tons of cliffs to fall off from, huge empty spaces and a painful lack of teleport points. Oh well, good to see that's over with :D

Cutscenes continue to be as cool as they've been so far, this game just keeps throwing revelation after revelation at you! I'm guessing I'm about halfway through the game? I think I'm going to take some time to do some quest hunting and focus a bit on
colony 6 reconstruction. I've only been able to invite 1 person from Alcamoth so far even though it's level 3. Gonna hit up the wiki and see who I can invite over.
Click to expand...

Spiral Valley? Man, you have a long way to go!

Like so many other areas, Valak is wonderful at night. Especially if you leave chests unopened. But yeah, it is one of the less fun areas to traverse.

And regarding your spoilers, that sounds like a good way to get, well, spoiled. :\
 
chaosblade said:
Spiral Valley? Man, you have a long way to go!

Like so many other areas, Valak is wonderful at night. Especially if you leave chests unopened. But yeah, it is one of the less fun areas to traverse.

And regarding your spoilers, that sounds like a good way to get, well, spoiled. :\
Click to expand...

Damn, I'm always fucking up the names. The other day I posted "Exile of Fortress". That doesn't even make sense =/
KuGsj.gif
I should stop posting at 1am.

And I glanced at the list in the wiki and didn't see any spoilers. Just NPC locations and
required reconstruction levels to recruit them
. Those are definitely far and away from what I consider spoilers :P

I actually think the Xenoblade Wiki does a great job at shielding you from spoilers. I've been using it to track enemies/collectibles/locations for quests and it hasn't revealed anything I would consider a spoiler.

Oh and yeah, Valak at night is beautiful.
 
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