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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

Ath

Member
god i wish i could play this game for the first time again =( playing vesperia now and it just doesn't compare...

Ah man, it was this around this time last year that I was still on my first playthrough of this, just reading this thread makes me wish I could play it for the first time again too! It's like Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft read my mind and decided to make my ideal video game...

Ah well, maybe it's about time I revisited Xenogears, I never got past those damn sewers when I first played it in 2006. Oh and I have Tales of Graces F coming this week, though I'm keeping my expectations low for that. Really looking forward to seeing what Monolith Soft come up with next.
 

Seik

Banned
Ah man, it was this around this time last year that I was still on my first playthrough of this, just reading this thread makes me wish I could play it for the first time again too! It's like Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft read my mind and decided to make my ideal video game...

Ah well, maybe it's about time I revisited Xenogears, I never got past those damn sewers when I first played it in 2006. Oh and I have Tales of Graces F coming this week, though I'm keeping my expectations low for that. Really looking forward to seeing what Monolith Soft come up with next.

Yeah its pretty much the same deal for me, I see Xenoblade as 'THE' game now. Every other recent RPGs I dare to compare with it feels like shit. That's why I must avoid comparison as much as I can. :p

I'm currently progessing in The Last Story, 9 hours in and it feels great on its own! :D
 
I think people just don't appreciate what Sharla offers. She's the worst, no doubt, but she's not bad. Because her damage is so poor, it's one of the few characters that you don't feel bad about stacking debuffs on. Sharla with Slow, Paralyze, and Agility Down debuffs really destroys an enemy's damage output. Or, load her up with EtherDefDown, PhysDefDown, AgiDefDown to help your team tear the opponent apart. That's how I think she's best used. Just take off Thunder Bullet to increase her attack rate so the debuffs stay on, or give her Weapon Power / Buff Time Up. Putting defense down debuffs into action is so worth a person's time. It's basically +75% damage output - how many gems can say they do that?!
I always went with Lightning Attack (to aid auto-attack damage) + Electric Plus (it boosts Thunder Bullet and Lightning Attack). In fact, I've played the game twice and not once did I use the debuff gems.
 
I always went with Lightning Attack (to aid auto-attack damage) + Electric Plus (it boosts Thunder Bullet and Lightning Attack). In fact, I've played the game twice and not once did I use the debuff gems.
Lightning Attack only procs on auto attacks, and Sharla has maybe the slowest attack rate in the game. You want to put Lightning Attack on a character that can attack frequently, since the proc rate and damage are flat. 7th is probably the best user of Lightning Attack, since she has a massive attack rate. After that, probably Dunban.

Putting Lightning Attack on Sharla actually exacerbates her problem. Giving her debuff gems, and boosting characters that can actually do damage, is a much stronger option.

That you have never used her with debuff gems is meaningless. This is obviously not a game where you need to optimize. You could beat everything in the game with no gems at all, but that doesn't make it advisable.
 

ScOULaris

Member
In
Bionis Interior
now and having trouble with the first unique monster I came across. It's Level 75 and my party is Level 69 at the moment.

Pretty much NO physical attacks land on it whatsoever. Is this because of how much higher its level is than me, on top of it being an elemental-type enemy?

Is its resistance to physical attacks considered to be an "aura?" I ask because Shulk's Purge art could take care of that problem, but I'm not able to try at the moment.
 
In
Bionis Interior
now and having trouble with the first unique monster I came across. It's Level 75 and my party is Level 69 at the moment.

Pretty much NO physical attacks land on it whatsoever. Is this because of how much higher its level is than me, on top of it being an elemental-type enemy?

Is its resistance to physical attacks considered to be an "aura?" I ask because Shulk's Purge art could take care of that problem, but I'm not able to try at the moment.
If it's an elemental, the physical resistance is just an innate trait AFAIK. You can't get rid of it. Putting Melia and/or Riki on your team makes those fights a lot easier. Make sure any physical attackers have Agility +50 at this point. It should be reasonably achievable, and will help with your level gap.
 

xandaca

Member
I used Sharla in my party for pretty much everything except boss battles. Her instant death move in a chain attack is fantastic, and she heals everyone quickly enough that you rarely need worry about health unless heavily out-levelled or out-numbered.
 
hey guys I am at a very unique gem deposit it only gave me 1 level 5 gem and I really want more of this gem... how do I recharge this deposit so I can collect from it again?

very dangerous area with red monsters surrounding me
 
man that boss was annoyingly hard!

I barely beat a level 80 monster I guess I can go see the end game now hopefully this next area is not too long and painful
 
So I have a professor whose last name is "Dickson" this semester, does anyone know of any good collection of Dickson-related quotes from Xenoblade online? It can be a Youtube video or whatever.
 
Just started playing through this again. I got just over 40 hours into it my first playthrough and then stopped playing for too long to pick up from where I left off.

Hopefully I'll actually finish it this time...
 
I'm at level 54 and it seems like I need to rethink the game. I've never used Riki and don't do much with Melia. What should I start doing, because I'm not even playing the game due to how little progress I've made.
 
just to Time Stamp that I finally beat my first play through

EPIC GAME! Great challenge for me since I am not as good as I once was as a kid.

not sure about how many hours I am now trying to choose my items to carry over which is so ugh I'm just going to have to collect whatever I left behind again anyway so I'll try not to stress about it.

I'm going to hurry up and pick my stuff cannot wait to challenge some big guys that killed me easily

EDIT: time 163 hours... and the time keeps going to the next game awesome :)

I should at least try to play The Last Story soon but want to play more Xeno :3
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Ah I knew this would happen I am at the end and I find no energy to see the end... one last push tonight to end the game I'll collect my junk in NG+

There's really no point in NG+ aside from making it easy to do quests and stuff early on. It doesn't add anything
except Monado III, but you can get good Monado Replicas and not have to replay the entire game to open up the post-game content again.

Better off just continuing from a save at the point of no return than playing through the entire game again just to get back to that point, basically.
 
no I'm okay with playing it again from the start, now I don't feel I need to run away from everything lol

I'm going to focus on Trading this time... I may play this a few more times. I want to explore more
 

McNum

Member
163 hours? Wow. And you're ready to have another go? Looks like you found your that game. Congrats!

So, be honest with me here, the ending, did you see it coming?
If not, try keeping an eye out for hints towards it in your second playthrough. They're there.
 
I did not really stop and read everything people said or even spoke to everyone that might have given me hints... I did not see the boss area coming at all and where this boss came from came out of left field to me.

The only real clue is
Eryth Sea

I skipped Zelda SS so far... so this game made my Wii worth it for the generation. I really enjoyed it.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
There are a lot more hints that that, all throughout the game. Even in the
first hour or so
, there are several hints that you'll notice refer to the ending of the game.
 

McNum

Member
I did not really stop and read everything people said or even spoke to everyone that might have given me hints... I did not see the boss area coming at all and where this boss came from came out of left field to me.

The only real clue is
Eryth Sea

I skipped Zelda SS so far... so this game made my Wii worth it for the generation. I really enjoyed it.
The first really big wham line that you will completely miss is this:
Shulk: "I feel like there are two voices in my head, one telling me to kill all the Mechon and..."
Now read that considering how the game ends. It's not the only one, but I haven't gotten that far in my replay yet. But then there's everything
Alvis
says. Yeah, those words will sound a lot different to you now.

As for Skyward Sword, I like it. It's not as good as Xenoblade, but I can give you one reason to buy it: It's the game that delivers on all the promises of the Wii Remote. It's more or less the game the Wii was meant to play. At least that's how i saw it. That Xenoblade is better than that, well, just speaks volumes about Xenoblade.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
The first really big wham line that you will completely miss is this:
Shulk: "I feel like there are two voices in my head, one telling me to kill all the Mechon and..."
Now read that considering how the game ends. It's not the only one, but I haven't gotten that far in my replay yet. But then there's everything
Alvis
says. Yeah, those words will sound a lot different to you now.

There's also
Dickson referring to "him" being the only one who can wield the Monado. But it's pretty obvious he's not talking about Dunban given his tone. Or really, all his comments and everything regarding the Monado at the beginning of the game.

idk really for sure... I was thinking if I found a good clip, I'd make it my cell phone ringtone, and have it "accidentally" go off in his presence before or after class or something... idk, or something else like that...

I can't think of any that reference him directly. Some quotes from him, but that wouldn't do you any good. And most of the good ones referring to him are from Dunban and he just calls him "old man" or something similar most of the time.
 
Is there a way to force a faster respawn on UMs? I need to grind out Belgazas and Daedolon (not for Night Vision gems, I'm still trying to avoid those).

So people that played Xenogears, Saga and Blade. What are your favourites?
I only played Xenosaga 1, and it was a pretty cool game. Xenogears definitely has the better story over Blade, but Blade has much better combat, exploration, interesting things to do, non-random battles, etc. It's hard to judge Xenosaga just because it went through serious development hell and its number of games was cut by half. I really wish Nintendo would buy the rights to Xenogears so its entire story could finally be told how its creator intended. For those who don't know, in the Xenogears credits it ends by saying "Xenogears Episode IV". We know Xenosaga was supposed to be 6 games long originally.

just to Time Stamp that I finally beat my first play through

EPIC GAME! Great challenge for me since I am not as good as I once was as a kid.

not sure about how many hours I am now trying to choose my items to carry over which is so ugh I'm just going to have to collect whatever I left behind again anyway so I'll try not to stress about it.

I'm going to hurry up and pick my stuff cannot wait to challenge some big guys that killed me easily

EDIT: time 163 hours... and the time keeps going to the next game awesome :)

I should at least try to play The Last Story soon but want to play more Xeno :3
Grats!

idk really for sure... I was thinking if I found a good clip, I'd make it my cell phone ringtone, and have it "accidentally" go off in his presence before or after class or something... idk, or something else like that...
Would he actually know what it means, though?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Save-Load is the only way I know of, and that's totally luck based. I don't think changing the time will make them respawn.

When I went to beat Abaasy the second time at level 79, it took me almost 5 minutes of reloading (45 seconds or so to get a blizzard, freaking forever for him to actually spawn). I just assume he's weaksauce and knew what he had coming.
 
Save-Load is the only way I know of, and that's totally luck based. I don't think changing the time will make them respawn.

When I went to beat Abaasy the second time at level 79, it took me almost 5 minutes of reloading (45 seconds or so to get a blizzard, freaking forever for him to actually spawn). I just assume he's weaksauce and knew what he had coming.
That bites. I want to beat all the big guys (lvl 105+) with every possible team combination, and the only part I hate is waiting for the respawn.
 
what would have happened if all these big guys were on your path to the final boss?
would it break the game for anyone? For me it would have taken me months to beat it I guess, I would have looked for cheap ways. I like this way of just being part of the world
 
ever since the first cutscene on NG+ I've been looking for differences and changes I'm second guessing myself thinking was she wearing a helmet the first time I played this?

strange that some of the changes are just want I left on my characters but others are stranger

Also paying more attention to the clues and the story becomes more solid. Cool :)

Run past them. Easy.

not if every 100+ level UM was made to be bosses that you could not run from to continue the story
 

Zornica

Banned
Save-Load is the only way I know of, and that's totally luck based. I don't think changing the time will make them respawn.

When I went to beat Abaasy the second time at level 79, it took me almost 5 minutes of reloading (45 seconds or so to get a blizzard, freaking forever for him to actually spawn). I just assume he's weaksauce and knew what he had coming.

setting the time works too. As long as the entire map is forced to reload, there is a chance. for some reason collactables can't be forced though... I wonder why
 
eh jumped into The Last Story gave it 10 minutes to the first save point... totally different game here... going back to Xenoblade I am not ready to give the time needed to learn a new way of fighting.
 

Anustart

Member
I got diverted by some Lego games, but finally back to playing this and I have a question.

What should and shouldn't I sell to vendors? Everything I find just sits in my stash in case I can use it later :/

My progress:
Just got past the second metal face mechon 'near' colony 6. This one actually talked! As for why the Monado doesn't hurt these metal faces, I'm assuming they're part biological, since it was stated that it couldn't hurt bio (though it chops up monsters nicely :/ )

Edit: Didn't realize I'd posted anything considered a spoiler. But I apologize, and edited.
 
Goddamn, how about some spoiler tags?

Edit:
KMD, there are two things in your post I would consider spoilers; do not read these unless you want something spoiled for you:
1) A talking face mechon.
2) The Monado being unable to damage a face mechon.

Both of these are foreshadowings of later plot twists the game throws at you. More importantly, I think that knowing the mechon talk ruins a certain mysteriousness one has with the first encounter with the faced mechon. It's so quiet that it's eerie. Mechon seem like mindless killing machines early in the game. You've just discovered that they have a personality. I wouldn't want that revelation ruined for me, personally.
 
@KMD I always sell from the sales price list whatever is the most expensive that is not marked as a quest item

the reason spoiler tags are important to the thread is because many people have put this game off because NOA was so damn late so many are just now picking it up or getting back to it.

man you are so early in the game I may just get to that point again soon...
 

Rich!

Member
Playing through this for the 5th time now, on dolphin. Just got to gaur plains.

Dear god this is beautiful. Having this on the wii is a technical marvel,
 
i hate the inventory in this game, so its good to see others complaining about it also.

just tried the
lorithia
fight for the first time. damn is that tough. i wasnt even close. am i doing something wrong in this area? i feel like i never do any damage. any particular kind of damage i should be trying? main party is shulk sharla dunban, but i have used pretty much everyone except riki at various points.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
You either need to topple the boss as much as possible (disables the physical damage protection), or use ether damage. Physical damage isn't going to get you anywhere.
 

Ezalc

Member
Bought this game, I'm just over 11 hours in and I'm basically convinced that I was trolled into buying this. I really hate how boss fights work and how there is apparently no items that you can use in battle. Also pissed that I can't really just grind through the problem seeing as levels mean almost fuck all in this game.
 

I think you may be onto something....



In case your post was serious:

1. What is it about boss fights you hate, specifically? There is quite a bit of variety among the bosses, and many require different or unique tactics to win.

2. No, there are no consumable items to be used during battles. Healing and buffs are done via arts, skills, or gems. If you're having trouble staying alive during battles, it's either an issue with battle strategy or levels, which leads to

3. You can absolutely grind through virtually any problem in the game, because levels are massively important; they play a huge role in determining accuracy and evasion. If you are 5 levels below a monster, you will have a much more difficult time hitting it than if you were 5 levels above it, where it will have a much more difficult time hitting you. Given the open world, the lack of a separate battle screen, and the quick nature of battles, it's quite easy to grind. I did it during my first playthrough (and I don't regret it).
 
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