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[SolicitorPirate]

So I was on one of those little islands and it was infested with Prone. Most of them were patrolling around, but there was a male and female Prone just sitting at the beach, watching the sun set.

On one hand, I love how Monolith filled their world with cool little details like that.

On the other, I stomped the shit out of the lovebirds with my skell.

 

[Shifty Capone1]

I need to stop reading about this game. The more I read about it the more I want to go out and just buy a Wii U to play it. I've searched a bunch, but is there anyway to play this game without buying a Wii U? What I mean is not emulation or anything like that, but does anyone know of a way to rent a console? I've looked, but the very few I have seen seem very sketchy. All I want to do is play this great looking game!

 

[BY2K]

sorry. Didn't realize an alien dude in a normal mission is a spoiler. Spoilered it.

Actually, it is because I'm to a point where

Spoiler

Prone

are the biggest douche on the planet so far so I'm VERY CONFUSED by this.

 

[Malus]

Am i the only one who thinks that subquests in this are actually pretty great? I just did the one for Rosie where you go to the

Spoiler

water center, where you find the girl locked in and all those monsters outside. You get rid of them only to find out that they were the staff working at the center, who got infected by a parasite, and the girl is the only survivor (only because she didn't drink water despite being thirsty because of the virus and never activated it). And to think it started as a dumb "go yell at them for not inviting Rosie to their party"...

A lot of the quests as well as the main story have cool stuff happen in concept. I just think the execution is really weak. It feels rough, awkward, and boring. Xenoblade Wii had its awkward moments but it felt much stronger overall. The story has really sapped my enjoyment of this game. I gladly did all that grinding in the original Xenoblade because I wanted to see all the heart to hearts and rebuild Colony 6. By comparison I really couldn't care less about any of X's characters or the plot, and especially the Affinity missions. X has a few funny lines of dialogue and some quirky characters but other than that it feels soulless.

 

[DigiDom]

i started a new game this morning after my hdd died last night. I managed to get my skell license in 12 hours. You could probably get it a lot quicker than that as well. I'm not sure how it took me 45 hour before.

 

[epmode]

Affinity is such a garbage, game padding mechanic. The fact that XP only goes to people currently in your party is pretty lousy too.

The game has too much grinding in general but I thought the same about XC.

 

[CAAAAAAAAAAAW]

Glad to see Mia is just as mental in English, if not more mental somehow. Can't wait to do the rest of her missions.

 

[Nbz]

Does anyone know if there is a way to quickly build affinity with a character? I've got an affinity mission with Doug that I want to do, as its around my level (30) but I need 3 hearts with him, and have hardly used the guy at all so far.

 

[aravuus]

Affinity is such a garbage, game padding mechanic. The fact that XP only goes to people currently in your party is pretty lousy too.

The game has too much grinding in general but I thought the same about XC.

Yeah, I feel like they really handled the affinity system the worse way they could with XBX

At least in XB you could gift stuff to people

 

[arimanius]

So has it been finally verified that the division passive bonuses only apply to your squad mates and not to yourself? Having a hard time deciding on a division.

Also why is prospectors always #1 in the ranking? Should I just join a higher ranked division for the daily rewards?

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Staying online is a must if you're like me and keep getting disconnected.

Especially by getting online tickets so you can go around so many annoying "go carve X rare drop from y creature that never drops it"

I just go and use tickets and get those carves. Fuck actually bothering to get all that bullshit.

 

[TheMoon]

Affinity is such a garbage, game padding mechanic. The fact that XP only goes to people currently in your party is pretty lousy too.

The game has too much grinding in general but I thought the same about XC.

There was no grinding in Xenoblade when I played it.

 

[Aaronrules380]

So has it been finally verified that the division passive bonuses only apply to your squad mates and not to yourself? Having a hard time deciding on a division.

Also why is prospectors always #1 in the ranking? Should I just join a higher ranked division for the daily rewards?

I ended up switching to prospector so I could get a salvage ticket every day

 

[Golnei]

Affinity is such a garbage, game padding mechanic. The fact that XP only goes to people currently in your party is pretty lousy too.

The game has too much grinding in general but I thought the same about XC.

I can definitely agree about the lack of shared EXP being baffling due to its presence in the previous game and the drastically increased party size; but some form of affinity system or relationship-building dynamic isn't an inherently bad idea - the problem is with its implementation, especially taking the amount of characters and the sort of content gated off by the mechanic into account.

At least there's apparently a postgame mission which makes affinity grinding easier, but at times I wish I could just rub people's faces to make them like me.

 

[-Horizon-]

Phew, finally finished chapter 3 after 15 hours.

Music too intense! I'm liking the regular battle music now, not so much the tyrant one yet.

Died once during a regular mission (not the story required tyrant one) fighting one of those giant beetle looking things. Not because of the beetle but because the pigs with sight agro killed off my team and me with stupid projectiles. I went at it again and took care of them first before fighting the beetle thing.

 

[jgwhiteus]

Traveling over the water in your skell is kind of calming - and it's also really beautiful in the early evening.

 

[Venfayth]

spoilers spoilers spoiler spoilers do not read this post if you have not beat the game

Spoiler

I just saw the credits moments ago and I'm back in the city and Elma looks like her mim again. I did step away for a moment during the post-credits-cutscene, does it explain why this is? Is there any way I can get Elma to go back to her xeno body?

 

[toastyToast]

So is there any kind of strategy with this battle system? My AI party members have no idea how to initiate topples. They hardly ever prioritize for bonus damage and the tension QTE has a habit of not showing up when I've got something almost dead and something like 5 times in a row when I couldn't give a shit.

It's easy to ignore when you're overpowered but those close fights feel pretty rng

 

[Beats]

spoilers spoilers spoiler spoilers do not read this post if you have not beat the game

Spoiler

I just saw the credits moments ago and I'm back in the city and Elma looks like her mim again. I did step away for a moment during the post-credits-cutscene, does it explain why this is? Is there any way I can get Elma to go back to her xeno body?

Spoiler

Go to the game settings. There should be an option for it there to switch between the two.

 

[JulianImp]

A lot of the quests as well as the main story have cool stuff happen in concept. I just think the execution is really weak. It feels rough, awkward, and boring. Xenoblade Wii had its awkward moments but it felt much stronger overall. The story has really sapped my enjoyment of this game. I gladly did all that grinding in the original Xenoblade because I wanted to see all the heart to hearts and rebuild Colony 6. By comparison I really couldn't care less about any of X's characters or the plot, and especially the Affinity missions. X has a few funny lines of dialogue and some quirky characters but other than that it feels soulless.

I kind of agree with you. While the world-building feels okay-ish, every single character interaction so far looks completely soulless, even when they're interacting during cutscenes. The original Xenoblade did a lot better for me since the main cast were more relatable than a bunch of military guys doing military stuff in space.

Right from the start, Xenoblade had three friends separated by fate, a quest for revenge, and several different characters that interacted with each other, rather than keeping a fairly limited 3-man party for all the story missions. I guess even XBC would've been bland if all the story missions were limited to displaying interactions between Shulk, Reyn and Dunban. Scenes such as the one where Riki fools Melia to have her rest a while and chats with Dunban while she's sleeping were inifinitely more interesting than having 90% of story scenes in X be like:

High-ranking guy: Elma, you must complete this task.
Elma: Roger.
Lyn: Can we eat Tatsu now?
Tatsu: Bad Linly! Tatsu not food!

*mission gets done, but at a cost*

Elma: ...
CO guy: You did well, Elma. We all did what we could, and there's no helping what happened.

I'm also listening to the original's soundtrack again, and I've got to say I still remember most of the songs in there while the new soundstrack, while cool, doesn't have any stand-out pieces so far such as Those Who Bear Their Name, Fiora's Song, Gaur Plains and Reminiscense (the music box version specifically). The usage of music in cutscenes, and cutscenes in general have had a lot less "oomph" than in the original Xenoblade.

The open world elements have been cool so far, but story-wise it feels considerably worse than the original, even with its anime-ish twists and limited character development.

 

[Venfayth]

spoilers spoilers do not read the quote if you have not beat the game

Spoiler

Go to the game settings. There should be an option for it there to switch between the two.

Fucking awesome. Thank you.

 

[bizzarewars]

At least there's apparently a postgame mission which makes affinity grinding easier, but at times I wish I could just rub people's faces to make them like me.

Glad to know I'm not the only one looking forward to FE Fates.

 

[RagnarokX]

At least there's apparently a postgame mission which makes affinity grinding easier, but at times I wish I could just rub people's faces to make them like me.

 

[arimanius]

I ended up switching to prospector so I could get a salvage ticket every day

I'm thinking of doing the same thing.

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I'm in Chapter 8 right now and just finished the sidequest titled

Spoiler

"Shotgun Diplomacy"

.

Is there any way to

Spoiler

convince Alex not to fight?

 

[Malus]

I'm also listening to the original's soundtrack again, and I've got to say I still remember most of the songs in there while the new soundstrack, while cool, doesn't have any stand-out pieces so far such as Those Who Bear Their Name, Fiora's Song, Gaur Plains and Reminiscense (the music box version specifically). The usage of music in cutscenes, and cutscenes in general have had a lot less "oomph" than in the original Xenoblade.

The open world elements have been cool so far, but story-wise it feels considerably worse than the original, even with its anime-ish twists and limited character development.

I'm loving the music so far. Comparing it to the original is tough because the style is so different and Xenoblade Wii had probably my fav soundtrack of all time. Hard to follow that up, but X performs very admirably imo.

It's a shame though, sometimes I'm watching the story and it's like, "Man, this music is really being wasted on this boring ass cutscene." And then you got the mixing issues and the abrupt transitions between tracks that are almost laughably bad. X has a lot of great pieces, but they're not put together with the same level of care and cohesion as in the original. Playing Xenoblade Wii it felt like those cutscenes were made for the music. They fit together so perfectly and elevated each other. Don't really get that impression with X.

Also, a random issue but I don't like how the skybox has a very visible and blocky border between the sky and the clouds.

 

[Golnei]

I guess even XBC would've been bland if all the story missions were limited to displaying interactions between Shulk, Reyn and Dunban. Scenes such as the one where Riki fools Melia to have her rest a while and chats with Dunban while she's sleeping were inifinitely more interesting than having 90% of story scenes in X be like:

The usage of music in cutscenes, and cutscenes in general have had a lot less "oomph" than in the original Xenoblade.

That's definitely an area where their approach shows its limitations - despite the affinity missions helping to flesh out the main cast, the main missions feel a lot more repetitive and wooden for the limited party. One way they could have gotten around it might have been to be more flexible with the characters who show up at the beginning and end of missions - instead of another Lin and Tatsu skit, they could have had another party member show up as part of the briefing, regardless of their presence in the main mission.

And while there's a few tracks here I'd easily count among those of the first game, you're right that the way sound cues are handled in cutscenes is utterly bizarre. Specific scoring like the Telethia theme aside, the vocal themes in cutscenes tend to be arbitrary and clumsy, actively working against the scenes they play across.

 

[Trevelyan9999]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

 

[Shifty Capone1]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

This just makes me want to play it even more. I am so tempted to just go buy a damn Wii U for this game alone...

 

[Trevelyan9999]

This just makes me want to play it even more. I am so tempted to just go buy a damn Wii U for this game alone...

Worth every penny, so much value in this game man.

 

[Squishy3]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

It's definitely one of the best games on the system, I wouldn't say it's my favorite, though. Wonderful 101 is probably my favorite.

 

[Shun]

Salvage tickets are useless if you know and are able to time the B press.

Useful items are the ones that replenish HP and the 3000 TP ones.

 

[Shifty Capone1]

Worth every penny, so much value in this game man.

I really just want to be able to rent a Wii U for a month or less to just go through this game. Why aren't there places to rent consoles anymore!?

 

[VanillaCakeIsBurning]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

I feel the same way. I've been playing it pretty much every day since release and I'm not feeling any burnout.

I have around 64 hours and there's still so much for me to do.

 

[HawthorneKitty]

I jumped into a bottomless pit with my skell...

 

[Zafir]

There was no grinding in Xenoblade when I played it.

Depends how much you stopped to smell the roses.

I got to a stage where I was just under levelled. How I got to that stage? I burned myself out early on with sidequests, so tried to rush through the story. Sadly, it isn't a game you can play through underlevelled either, due to the agility mechanics.

 

[zroid]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

50 hours and chapter 5 here. I am definitely a big "time waster" in RPGs, I like to just muck around in menus and wander aimlessly for hours on end, but XCX is probably the first time where I actually feel like my aimless wandering isn't aimless at all. I'm totally accomplishing stuff, either just from experiencing new vistas, or discovering secret locations, or installing probes. It's great.

 

[SparksterMeta0]

What is that?

G-Buster is a Right Shoulder Skell weapon; a giant sword. As a L30 weapon, it does a crazy 22400 damage in a single swing.

 

[Vena]

I jumped into a bottomless pit with my skell...

Did you find the bottom?

 

[Teletraan1]

I mean, I get that, it's just so weird after a string of Xeno games. I figured the Xeno part WAS their brand, Xeno-this, Xeno-that etc, similarly named and numbered Xeno-games would be direct sequels (Like Saga) and so on

Xeno is the brand. It is just that this time the gears/saga change wasn't necessary because they are still with Nintendo. Previously those other properties are owned by square/namco and they moved on to other publishers forcing the name change.

 

[aravuus]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

Absolutely

But then again, I'm not big on Nintendo franchises

 

[Vecks]

I think this is my favorite game on Wii U guys, anyone else feel the same? I am 40 hours in and just started chapter 6, the game is just so addicting the hours fly by when you play it and it calls to you when you are not playing it, lol.

For strictly single player, yeah. But Splatoon is probably my overall favorite.
And yes, I have a problem of doing all these normal/affinity quests without realizing how much time is flying by.

 

[rhandino]

Kii!

Those sidequest in NLA... some are hilarious but some are kind of fucked up like the one in which someone send you to

Spoiler

clear a cave full of Baby pigs... and then the mother appear... and then the quest giver stars to babble about how fucked up the whole situation is.

 

[Evilkazz]

Tips for the chapter 12 boss fights anyone? I've even brought the difficulty down and my whole party's at least 50.

Spoiler

I'm at what I'm assuming is Loa's final boss encounter, where I've found out that he takes away your skell fuel. Fighting him on foot goes okay but once he summons the exta thing it usual ends up killing one or two of my party members, or just killing me. Any tips for that fight?

 

[random25]

Mia is crazy. What the heck? Lol.

Need to finish my last skell license test. Getting too sidetracked with the other missions.

 

[Finalow]

now it's gonna cost me 200k-300k to buy new equipment for the whole party. should I just ignore that and save up for a Skell instead?

also, are there any "GAF Squads" I could join? I suppose I need to add a bunch of people? Every time I join a random squad we don't come even close to finish a mission.

 

[tiebreaker]

Staying online is a must if you're like me and keep getting disconnected.

Especially by getting online tickets so you can go around so many annoying "go carve X rare drop from y creature that never drops it"

I just go and use tickets and get those carves. Fuck actually bothering to get all that bullshit.

The longest I stayed online was 3 hours. Now it is usually only 30 minutes before I got cut off. I have this problem with other Nintendo games too, so I thought it was because of my connection.

 

[Astral Dog]

Ok, so i changed the sword for a new one and... where is the old sword? where does your equipment go? :/

I was thinking that because if i change gear with better stats but less augments/things then i might need to change back. but it just dissapeared

 

[Blues1990]

I make more than 200K right now,so take a look on this:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=188960285&postcount=11451

When you're basically done with chains in Oblivia, start finding places with good revenue and many sightseeing spots and add Research Probes there.

Is it possible if I could see an update on what your probe layout across the five maps looks like now?

 

[LurkerPrime]

Leaping off a huge height and landing square on the ground, without taking damage, is such a sublime feeling. My stomach drops during every fall, even knowing they're harmless; but, somehow, that landing feels hugely gratifying.

So fun.

Mia is crazy. What the heck? Lol.

Need to finish my last skell license test. Getting too sidetracked with the other missions.

So long as Mia keeps giving me missions, I'll keep helping aiding her insanity.

Ok, so i changed the sword for a new one and... where is the old sword? where does your equipment go? :/

I was thinking that because if i change gear with better stats but less augments/things then i might need to change back. but it just dissapeared

Do you mean ground gear starter weapons? Because, AFAIK, default gear will be equipped if you have nothing in that slot, regardless of its status in your inventory.

Not that I actually know how to unequip items... just change them.