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Xenoblade Chronicles |OT| Man, what a bunch of jokers.

S

SecretMoblin

Member
If it helps, for importers:

I always call the place I'm importing from. Always. When I called Zavvi, the lady at the other end of the line confirmed my order, and as I was wrapping up the conversation I did my usual "sorry if I'm being a bother, I just want to make sure" routine. She laughed, said something to the effect of "I'll make sure it's one of the first ones out the door" (in her charming British accent, natch). I laughed, said "I appreciate it", and ended the call. I assumed it was just jokey banter. But who knows? :)


Gem question:
What color are aggro up or aggro down crystals from mining spots, or where can I get crystals with those properties from enemies? I'm having a rough time keeping aggro off of Shulk, even though I have auto-attack stealth and aggro down on him and aggro up on Reyn. And I even use Shadow Eye and have Reyn's aggro arts leveled. :-/
 
V

Varion

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Yeah. It just stings when people that live in my state are getting their copies, and not me. How do you Europeans deal with this? Can't say I'll be importing a game again.
Click to expand...
You just have to get used to it after a while. I import like 90% of my games from Japan these days and some arrive quickly, some arrive slowly (although the latter type are generally from godawful Play-Asia). I've even had one where I paid double the price for express postage and it got stuck in customs for 2 weeks, and then I got charged for the privilege of waiting that long. Thanks, UK customs.

It's always frustrating as hell (I'm the kind of person who given a tracking number will just sit refreshing it multiple times an hour grumbling about the lack of progress) but at the end of the day there's nothing that can be done so you just have to distract yourself. At least it's months or years faster than waiting for the games to come out where I live.
 
Z

Zafir

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Yeah. It just stings when people that live in my state are getting their copies, and not me. How do you Europeans deal with this? Can't say I'll be importing a game again.
Click to expand...
I think you get used to the wait after importing quite a lot. I doubt it has gotten lost, in all the times I've imported, I've never had anything get lost along the way. I've had it take a couple of weeks though.

I tend to try and distract myself while waiting. I suppose it helps that I have a ridiculously long backlog.
Varion said:
You just have to get used to it after a while. I import like 90% of my games from Japan these days and some arrive quickly, some arrive slowly (although the latter type are generally from godawful Play-Asia). I've even had one where I paid double the price for express postage and it got stuck in customs for 2 weeks, and then I got charged for the privilege of waiting that long. Thanks, UK customs.

It's always frustrating as hell (I'm the kind of person who given a tracking number will just sit refreshing it multiple times an hour grumbling about the lack of progress) but at the end of the day there's nothing that can be done so you just have to distract yourself. At least it's months or years faster than waiting for the games to come out where I live.
Click to expand...
I take it was UPS or something, haha. UPS always seems to get hit with customs. I actually had to send off some faulty RAM to america to get a replacement, and I got hit by customs on the replacement they sent. Fortunately I managed to get compensation, but wasn't very happy at the time.
 
C

Clever Pun

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Yeah. It just stings when people that live in my state are getting their copies, and not me. How do you Europeans deal with this? Can't say I'll be importing a game again.
Click to expand...

If it makes you feel any better I ordered mine from 365 Games and it didn't ship until this week. So I'm a week behind you in the waiting process (and also in Texas).
 
R

robotzombie

Member
Didn't get my copy from game today, I'm in new jersey, mine shipped Tuesday as well. I really want this game for the weekend.

Where are you located and did it come in regular mail?
 
J

JumpingTheGun

Banned
Zafir said:
I think you get used to the wait after importing quite a lot. I doubt it has gotten lost, in all the times I've imported, I've never had anything get lost along the way. I've had it take a couple of weeks though.

I tend to try and distract myself while waiting. I suppose it helps that I have a ridiculously long backlog.
Click to expand...

This is my first time importing so I find it excusable to be anxious and antsy.
 
B

Buttons

Member
Sigh, I'm in Germany and still have not gotten my copy I preordered in July. Seems cd-wow has still not even received their initial shipment that was supposed to cover preorders.

Can't even cancel and buy the game somewhere else as I was already charged for my order. :( Oh well, back to waiting. (At least I started Wind Waker again yesterday, gives me something fun to play. :D)
 
Go_Ly_Dow

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Yeah. It just stings when people that live in my state are getting their copies, and not me. How do you Europeans deal with this? Can't say I'll be importing a game again.
Click to expand...

It will come tomorrow.

Trust me!
 
D

djlr181

Member
robotzombie said:
Didn't get my copy from game today, I'm in new jersey, mine shipped Tuesday as well. I really want this game for the weekend.

Where are you located and did it come in regular mail?
Click to expand...

I'm in New York. It came with my regular mail.
 
B

bubnbob

Banned
VillageBC said:
So I'm curious what combat techniques people are using and finding success with? I'll hide it behind spoilers since I know people can be sensitive with character spoilers. I'm level 53.

Main Party, Shulk, Dunban and Sharla. I use that combo for boss fights. Pretty much melee focused, with Sharla handling the healing role. Chain attack setup so Break, Topple and Daze then hoping for extra attacks for more damage.

Beyond that, I'll play around a bit with Melia taking Dunbans spot while just doing side quests. Could be I've gone down the wrong skill paths, but I just cannot find an effective group without having Shulk maining it. I just tend to die, even against normals mobs of equal level.
Click to expand...

Going to spoiler this even though it's not story

Shulk/Dunban/Riki

Riki has a lot of moves that inflict various statuses - Chill, Blaze, Poison, Bleed, etc.

This adds on to damage while you are wailing away, chipping at them. Riki also has a move that takes every debuff you have on an enemy, and adds x1 multiplier to his attack. You can deal upwards to 40,000 damage with this.

Riki also has a Heal move that makes him still useful for those last minute heals - he is a good finisher during a Chain Attack, if you need to heal.

Dunban has good moves, high agility, and great aggro. His Blossom Dance art does beefy damage during a Chain Attack.

Shulk is... well, Shulk.

For Chain Attacks, I can still perform Topples with Shulk+Dunban, and if I get a Chain Link, I can Daze the enemy with Shulk. This is -great- for bosses. But any team that can do this is good enough.

At the stage of the game I'm at, I don't even need him since Riki and Dunban have weapons that can damage Mechon without casting Enchant. Everyone says use Melia, so she would be my replacement if I wanted to remove Shulk. But I've grown attached to the guy, so I stick with him.
 
S

Starwolf_UK

Member
SecretMoblin said:
Gem question
Click to expand...
Not good with enemy ones myself but you should get the abilities by mining them from the same colour as those gems are (well thats how it seems so far). I think spots only determine level and the abilities you get are random. I wonder if the best way to craft is to refine what you have to get 2 crystals of an ability at high 90%s then go for those and hope for (
mega heat, with those numbers heat is near certain
). I only just thought of that. Though that said maybe having multiple abilities in the furnace at once makes things better in general as it does give you lots of slots for a reason...hmm. Something for me to play with sometime.

Also, some NPC have gems to trade. Who knows maybe an NPC will have ones with the ability you're interested in. Probably not worth going out of your way.

As for what it is
agro eh? I think Ryen has some Agro up skills as well. Could go down the Wizdom route with Dunban as well, he has an agro tranfer skill...but can you rely on the AI using it?

VillageBC said:
So I'm curious what combat techniques people are using and finding success with? I'll hide it behind spoilers since I know people can be sensitive with character spoilers. I'm level 53.

Main Party, Shulk, Dunban and Sharla. I use that combo for boss fights. Pretty much melee focused, with Sharla handling the healing role. Chain attack setup so Break, Topple and Daze then hoping for extra attacks for more damage.

Beyond that, I'll play around a bit with Melia taking Dunbans spot while just doing side quests. Could be I've gone down the wrong skill paths, but I just cannot find an effective group without having Shulk maining it. I just tend to die, even against normals mobs of equal level.
Click to expand...
I'm about the same level with my characters and almost have the opposite problem
My Shulk is too all-round for his own good, not enough defence or HP to effectively tank and not enough agility to be a dodging machine, his damage output is good though (maybe if I kick him out of the lead that'll free up gem slots he uses on quick step which means I can HP+ gems instead)
. I try to keep the game fresh so am constantly changing who I'm using
I should kick out Ryen and subsitute with Rikki or Dunban (I got a very nice weapon for him so his damage will be great which is my Ryen problem but Rikki makes a nice tank) but I want to max affinity with Ryen and Shulk first.

My boss tactics usually revolve round the same as you can do that with lots of party combinations
You might consider Sharla, Dunban, Shulk as that does break, topple, daze but Sharla is kind of dull to play as
. With chain attacks another thing to remember that white acts as a wildcard in combos so that can be a good way of seriously boosting damage
Melia and Shulk in particular can exploit this nicely, with anyone else its a matter of luck (especilly if CPU controlled)
.
 
M

MechaX

Member
I swear, I'm going to have Reyn's "WHAT A BUNCH OF JOKAHS" line engraved into my mind before the hour is through.

But man, based on the battle system alone, this is pretty much the FFXII that I always wanted; one where positioning actually does matter. And I love the additions of things like fast travel and a quick story synopsis. Just little things that really show that the developers wanted to make things as painless as possible for the player really gets appreciated by me.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
MechaX said:
I swear, I'm going to have Reyn's "WHAT A BUNCH OF JOKAHS" line engraved into my mind before the hour is through.

But man, based on the battle system alone, this is pretty much the FFXII that I always wanted; one where positioning actually does matter.
Click to expand...

To me, the removal of gambits actually makes it somewhat worse for me. I just hate having to rely on AI to do what I want. Don't get me wrong, though -- it's still a lot of fun.
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
RPGCrazied said:
But the mail hasn't come today yet. What's so special about tomorrow?
Click to expand...
Rebecca-Black.jpg
 
L

LevityNYC

Banned
robotzombie said:
Didn't get my copy from game today, I'm in new jersey, mine shipped Tuesday as well. I really want this game for the weekend.

Where are you located and did it come in regular mail?
Click to expand...

Im in Jersey too...please please please come today...i need something to do during the hurricane.
 
K

Kerrinck

Member
Do new quests become available in older towns after you advance the story?
About 40 hours of gametime and I was wondering if I should revisit every single town searching for new quests.
 
V

Varion

Member
Zafir said:
I take it was UPS or something, haha. UPS always seems to get hit with customs. I actually had to send off some faulty RAM to america to get a replacement, and I got hit by customs on the replacement they sent. Fortunately I managed to get compensation, but wasn't very happy at the time.
Click to expand...
EMS, so it went through Parcelforce, who're notoriously terrible. Couriers seem to have their own customs staff that rush things through, Parcelforce/EMS have the multi-week long backlogs from hell. Never shipping EMS again that's for sure, it would've got to me weeks faster if I'd just airmailed it for cheaper.
 
M

meppi

Member
Phenomic said:
Eh, you act like there's a much better alternative. I mean with GAME I paid for estimated 4 to 6 business day shipping and that hasn't really gotten me anywhere. I just think it has more to do with your location than anything else, and how effective your post office is. I'm not in a super small town, but no means a major hub. Each and every time I've gone into my post office it's been a nightmare, and at more than one location so I'm pretty much contributing it to that at this point.
Click to expand...

There is actually.
I found that using shop to is your best bet to get the game as quick as possible for someone living outside the UK.

I'm in Belgium and I always use the cheaper shipping option (around €3) and my games always turn up within 3 days at most. Usually within 2.
Once I mistakenly chose the expensive shipping option and I had the game the next day!
That has never happened before, even when using most shops in my own country!

For this very reason I'll always go with shop to for games I don't want to wait 4-6 weeks on. So I have my pre-orders for Battlefield 3, Dark Souls and Skyward Sword ready at that shop. And I'm pretty sure I'll receive them all on release day and possibly a day or 2 upfront. :)
 
Z

Zafir

Member
SecretMoblin said:
To me, the removal of gambits actually makes it somewhat worse for me. I just hate having to rely on AI to do what I want. Don't get me wrong, though -- it's still a lot of fun.
Click to expand...
I wish there was both honestly. I hated the fact there wasn't already an AI in place for other characters. I wished that the gambit system was used to prioritise actions within that AI, rather than the gambit system itself being the AI of sorts. The gambits system was a chore to constantly swap, since you couldn't save gambit sets, and I found manually controlling people to be just as tedious due to having to cycle through characters, and then moving through different lists to get to the right spell.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
wow

white knight chronicles move the fuck over, this is RPG gameplay done right. Huge areas, tons of good sidequests, an interesting, challenging and multi-layered combat system that rewards both strategy and reflexes/timing. Fuck, I love this.


Too bad the character design, polycount and texture work are all ugly as fuck. The sheer scale and beauty of the environments mitigates it somewhat, but it's still iffy.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Zafir said:
I wish there was both honestly. I hated the fact there wasn't already an AI in place for other characters. I wished that the gambit system was used to prioritise actions within that AI, rather than the gambit system itself being the AI of sorts. The gambits system was a chore to constantly swap, since you couldn't save gambit sets, and I found manually controlling people to be just as tedious due to having to cycle through characters, and then moving through different lists to get to the right spell.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I was hoping there would be a sequel to FFXII that would allow for saving setups (as well as more gambits, party gambits, etc.). If Xenoblade had everything it has now and a gambit system I would be in heaven. But I understand why there isn't one; it would make an already complicated system - arts, skills, skill links, gems - even more complex. And as much as that would make the game friendlier for me, it would make it much more of a chore for the less frequent RPG player.
 
S

SecretMoblin

Member
Okay, another question, this one about skill links:

Do they need to be connected on the descending skill link tree? Say, for example, I have full affinity between two characters, but I don't have enough correctly-shaped skills to fit at the top of the tree. If I fill the third slot from the top while leaving the first two blank, will that skill be activated?
 
B

bubnbob

Banned
Green Scar said:
Get worked by some massive worm thing at the beginning of Tephra Mines or whatever. Shit, I suck :(
Click to expand...

No, many people will get slaughtered by that worm. Just ignore it.

SecretMoblin said:
Okay, another question, this one about skill links:

Do they need to be connected on the descending skill link tree? Say, for example, I have full affinity between two characters, but I don't have enough correctly-shaped skills to fit at the top of the tree. If I fill the third slot from the top while leaving the first two blank, will that skill be activated?
Click to expand...

No. Just pick whatever skills look good.
 
V

Varion

Member
SecretMoblin said:
Do they need to be connected on the descending skill link tree? Say, for example, I have full affinity between two characters, but I don't have enough correctly-shaped skills to fit at the top of the tree. If I fill the third slot from the top while leaving the first two blank, will that skill be activated?
Click to expand...
They do not, just as long as they're set as a skill link anywhere it's fine.
 
W

wrowa

Member
RPGCrazied said:
Yeah. It just stings when people that live in my state are getting their copies, and not me. How do you Europeans deal with this? Can't say I'll be importing a game again.
Click to expand...
It's quite easy to deal with. There is only one very simple rule: If you import something, you have to wait.

Pretty easy.
 
T

Toma

Let me show you through these halls, my friend, where treasures of indie gaming await...
bubnbob said:
No, many people will get slaughtered by that worm. Just ignore it.
Click to expand...

I was wondering why it gave me such a hard time back then. I managed to kill it on my first try, but just barely.

Btw, this is really something where the game shines. It has so many memorable moments and setups that you can remember looots of it.
Spider anyone?
Same with the quests and where you'll find certain enemies. Great game design.
 
R

Reveirg

Member
Nothing on my side to day either.

At this point I'm just going to continue my Xenosaga III playthrough, it'll arrive when it'll arrive...
 
L

Ledsen

Member
Quick Q about skill linking: when you press the minus button on the skill tree screen, you come to the skill link screen. Here, you can basically equip a number of your team mates skills, correct? What decides how many of their skills you can equip?
 
J

JumpingTheGun

Banned
The Joystiq site where it gives the instructions on modding to play Xeno doesnt say anything about getting the Gecko or any othe app that allows the play of import discs. Should I assume with the instructions provided that I wont need it?
 
D

Dead Prince

Banned
wrowa said:
It's quite easy to deal with. There is only one very simple rule: If you import something, you have to wait.

Pretty easy.
Click to expand...
unless it got lost. he's just frustrated seeing how he lives in texas. along with aeana who lives not too far in another city get hers. and then you hear about how other people that got shipped out tuesday morning last week get theirs before him in other states.

Mine is still coming i guess too. i too bought it the same place where aeana got hers and both ours shipped the same day (last monday morning) and she got hers already. Can't blame RPGCrazied for going crazy.
 
M

meppi

Member
Gvaz said:
This game is fucking badass.
Click to expand...
Amen to that.

I didn't even think I needed to buy yet another RPG as I've bought so many over the past 10 years and never finished a single one.
My last one was Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast since it had an iron grip on me.

But for some reason, I know without a shadow of a doubt that this one is the exact same.
It might take me a couple of weeks with work and all, but damn if I'm not gonna finish this one I might just give up on gaming altogether.

Can't express how much I love this game right now.
I had work to do this afternoon, so I thought I'd just pop it in and play for an hour, perhaps even 2.
It's 19.26 now, I have played for over 6 hours straight and the only reason I'm taking a break is A) because I haven't eaten anything since this morning, and B) I have the biggest headache right now from playing too damn much. :)

Not releasing this masterpiece in the US should be a criminal offense. Damn.
 
Z

Zafir

Member
JumpingTheGun said:
The Joystiq site where it gives the instructions on modding to play Xeno doesnt say anything about getting the Gecko or any othe app that allows the play of import discs. Should I assume with the instructions provided that I wont need it?
Click to expand...
The joystiq guide shows you how to run it off a usb hard disk, or sd card. If you want to do that then you won't need Gecko OS. On the other hand, if you just want to play straight off the disk when it arrives, then you'll need Gecko OS to get past the region lock.
 
Mithos

Mithos

Gold Member
JumpingTheGun said:
The Joystiq site where it gives the instructions on modding to play Xeno doesnt say anything about getting the Gecko or any othe app that allows the play of import discs. Should I assume with the instructions provided that I wont need it?
Click to expand...
As far as I can see the Joystiq site mentions the "Configurable USB Loader" in their guide.
 
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