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[Head of Vengarl]

Ahh, so nice to be back home playing Xenoblade after Xmas. I made some more NG+ progress, but I'm taking things a bit more slowly right now because I rushed through these areas in my first playthrough.

Cleared all uniques in F

Spoiler

allen Arm

and M

Spoiler

echonis Field

. For the first time this playthrough, I did some quests in order to gain access to a unique:

Spoiler

Evil Bathing in the inner area of Ether Exhaust System on Fallen Arm

. I didn't plan on doing any quests this time around, but I was feeling patient yesterday so I went ahead and did it for the affinity coin. The only other quests I plan on doing before I reach the "post-game" are

Spoiler

the Preparing for Adventure series in Alcamoth, which leads to a unique enemy spawning in Colony 9. It expires after Mechonis Core, which is approaching

.

I did some exploring in M

Spoiler

echonis Field

and discovered a couple places I had never seen before — the most important place being Spent Fuel Tank, which has a unique (Commander Oracion) that I missed last time. It's nice to explore the area when it has one of the best music tracks in the game playing.

I am just getting more and more broken with each additional affinity coin. Also, Shulk is ridiculous in NG+ because

Spoiler

with the Monado III + Critical Up VI gem, I have 105% crit

. So he's just doing ridiculous damage with arts and auto attacks, and he no longer needs that very expensive skill link from 7th that makes double attacks crit.

One more note: Remember how I was talking about "assassinating" monsters with Back Attack Plus gems? Well I just remembered a gem that I completely neglected before, but would be awesome for this: First Attack Plus! At rank VI it gives +150% to your attack! A 250% damage Sword Drive or Back Slash? Oh lawdy.

 

[chaosblade]

First Attack works just on the first attack against the enemy right? So you could still use Berserk + Magnum Charge with that too. I remember someone also having a first attack skill but I don't have any idea who it was.

 

[Karsticles]

First Attack works just on the first attack against the enemy right? So you could still use Berserk + Magnum Charge with that too. I remember someone also having a first attack skill but I don't have any idea who it was.

I haven't tested it extensively, but it seemed to me like "First Attack" really means "First Action", so if you Magnum Charge then there's no bonus on your skill art. I tried it about a dozen times and found that to be the case.

 

[chaosblade]

I've never used it at all, it seems like one of the most pointless gems/skills in the game unless you're just going around OHKOing everything in NG+.

The fact you can't stack it with anything makes it even more useless, on Reyn I'd rather just use Berserk+Magnum Charge than First Attack. Might be better on Shulk with Back Slash.

 

[Karsticles]

I've never used it at all, it seems like one of the most pointless gems/skills in the game unless you're just going around OHKOing everything in NG+.

The fact you can't stack it with anything makes it even more useless, on Reyn I'd rather just use Berserk+Magnum Charge than First Attack. Might be better on Shulk with Back Slash.

I used it in the middle of the game because Shulk with Back Slash would 1-shot a lot of critters with it (new game), and whatever he wouldn't kill had about 10% of its health left for easy pickings. Gems in the early game are pretty mediocre, so getting 75% on your first attack is a pretty nice bonus compared to something like +2 Strength.

 

[Ken]

Is this game hard to find now? I tried to get it at Gamestop but they told me they were sold out.

 

[olimpia84]

Is this game hard to find now? I tried to get it at Gamestop but they told me they were sold out.

It's getting harder to find by the minute so try to get it asap. Have you checked gamestop.com? They had it in stock a few days ago brand new.

 

[Ken]

It's getting harder to find by the minute so try to get it asap. Have you checked gamestop.com? They had it in stock a few days ago brand new.

Sold out on the site too. D:

Should I try direct from Nintendo or are they sold out too.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I'm blasting through the game now, since I've killed almost every unique monster out there. I'm almost at the end now (late game spoiler):

Spoiler

I'm headed for the Bionis' Interior to kill Lorithia

. I remember almost everything about the locations in the game, but I had forgotten many cutscenes. I did manage to find two things that I missed the first time around (more late game spoilers):

1.

Spoiler

The "hidden" area in Central Factory, Training Ground Roof, which contains a surprise quest to kill the unique mechon Venerable Focalor. You reach the Training Ground Roof by jumping off the the north end of the Central Lift on 2F while it is in motion and onto a ledge a short distance below

.

2.

Spoiler

Melia's whole sequence where she talks to Shulk while he's "dead." Total bummer

.

Spoiler

I did end up doing some quests in Alcamoth so I could spawn and kill Lakebed Orthlus. Thinking back, I don't think I ever actually completed the quest before Alcamoth fell. Oh well, poor bastards

.

After these next two areas, I will officially be at the end game; back where I started. It's gonna be different fighting the superbosses this time, since I now have

Spoiler

the Monado III, all 5 skill trees completed for every character

, a ton of affinity coins, and most of my arts fully leveled. NG+ does a body good.

 

[ASIS]

Ok I need to get this off my chest,

Spoiler

I've just defeated metal face at sword valley, and the cutscene that followed just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, so they go out of their way time and time again to kill him, and when they Dunban finally gets the chance, Shulk stops him, WTF?!! He explains that killing faced mechons would like killing homs, and that is not their objective.. That would be all fine and dandy if they didn't just kill SIX FREAKING FACED MECHONS IN THE SAME FIGHT! Really what the hell? To make things even worse, Dunban is actually convinced by this reasoning? really?! And to top it all off, Mumkar just dies anyway.. from a spear in the architecture. So not only did they go completely out of their character, contradict themselves, but Metal Face dies in the most anti-climactic way a person can think of.

That really was my least favorite scene in the game, just completely uncalled for, if Dunban just finished him off all would be good.

On the bright side, getting level 50 was more rewarding than I thought. Leveling up in this game is really fast.

 

[Zornica]

Ok I need to get this off my chest,

Spoiler

I've just defeated metal face at sword valley, and the cutscene that followed just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, so they go out of their way time and time again to kill him, and when they Dunban finally gets the chance, Shulk stops him, WTF?!! He explains that killing faced mechons would like killing homs, and that is not their objective.. That would be all fine and dandy if they didn't just kill SIX FREAKING FACED MECHONS IN THE SAME FIGHT! Really what the hell? To make things even worse, Dunban is actually convinced by this reasoning? really?! And to top it all off, Mumkar just dies anyway.. from a spear in the architecture. So not only did they go completely out of their character, contradict themselves, but Metal Face dies in the most anti-climactic way a person can think of.

That really was my least favorite scene in the game, just completely uncalled for, if Dunban just finished him off all would be good.

On the bright side, getting level 50 was more rewarding than I thought. Leveling up in this game is really fast.

there is actually a reason why that happend, but you won't understand it at this point and I am not going to spoil it.

 

[MrDaravon]

FINALLY starting this up since I've almost cleared out my backlog, and I was saving this for towards the end since I know it's so long. 20 minutes in, and the Reyn Time meme immediately makes sense lol.

 

[Karsticles]

Ok I need to get this off my chest,

Spoiler

I've just defeated metal face at sword valley, and the cutscene that followed just left a sour taste in my mouth.

Ok, so they go out of their way time and time again to kill him, and when they Dunban finally gets the chance, Shulk stops him, WTF?!! He explains that killing faced mechons would like killing homs, and that is not their objective.. That would be all fine and dandy if they didn't just kill SIX FREAKING FACED MECHONS IN THE SAME FIGHT! Really what the hell? To make things even worse, Dunban is actually convinced by this reasoning? really?! And to top it all off, Mumkar just dies anyway.. from a spear in the architecture. So not only did they go completely out of their character, contradict themselves, but Metal Face dies in the most anti-climactic way a person can think of.

That really was my least favorite scene in the game, just completely uncalled for, if Dunban just finished him off all would be good.

On the bright side, getting level 50 was more rewarding than I thought. Leveling up in this game is really fast.

Spoiler

1) Why do you assume they killed all the other faced mechon?
2) Killing metal face was the goal, but then they found out about what's inside. Goals change.
3) It makes sense to simply disable the suit and render Mumkar mostly harmless.

I agree that I would have preferred to see Dunban kill Mumkar, but I don't think the scene is as ridiculous as you make it out to be.

 

[ASIS]

Spoiler

1) Why do you assume they killed all the other faced mechon?
2) Killing metal face was the goal, but then they found out about what's inside. Goals change.
3) It makes sense to simply disable the suit and render Mumkar mostly harmless.

I agree that I would have preferred to see Dunban kill Mumkar, but I don't think the scene is as ridiculous as you make it out to be.

Spoiler

1) You kill them in battle, they are nowhere to be found afterwards or they would have attacked while Shulk and Dunban were talking.
2) This is referring to your first point, if the goals really have changed then why did they kill the other fased mechon?
3) I'm not pissed at the disabling part, more so of the way Mumkar died off, it was really dull IMO.

For what its worth I am in love with the game so I'm really just bitter about this one scene, I'm now at Junks.. shit's getting really good now.

 

[chaosblade]

Spoiler

Mumkhar was scum anyway, he didn't deserve a noble death at the hand of his enemy. An unfortunate accident while he attacks, not accepting the second chance Shulk and co. gave him, was a perfectly suitable death in my opinion.


That, and it and a number of other things get explained pretty well by something that happens later in the game.

 

[Snacks the sober sea lion]

I'm assuming the Faced Mechon

Spoiler

did die because there's no indication that they didn't. Besides that, Shulk's "reasoning" is assembly line shonen hero bullshit. You shouldn't kill him for no reason other than that he's a Homs? Give me a break. Dunban has seen countless people, including his entire family, killed by Mechon. He has every single reason to kill Mumkhar, who has shown no remorse (the opposite of remorse, in fact) over people being killed for his petty little fantasy, and no indication that he's ever going to stop. We also know that his memories weren't even erased. Xord remembered he used to be a Homs, but that was it. Mumkhar knows exactly who he is, what happened, and even works on his own agenda. He shouldn't receive any sort of special treatment just because he's the same species, that's crazy. But dying because of his own bloodthirsty bullshit was still a fitting enough death.

 

[ASIS]

I'm assuming the Faced Mechon

Spoiler

did die because there's no indication that they didn't. Besides that, Shulk's "reasoning" is assembly line shonen hero bullshit. You shouldn't kill him for no reason other than that he's a Homs? Give me a break. Dunban has seen countless people, including his entire family, killed by Mechon. He has every single reason to kill Mumkhar, who has shown no remorse (the opposite of remorse, in fact) over people being killed for his petty little fantasy, and no indication that he's ever going to stop. We also know that his memories weren't even erased. Xord remembered he used to be a Homs, but that was it. Mumkhar knows exactly who he is, what happened, and even works on his own agenda. He shouldn't receive any sort of special treatment just because he's the same species, that's crazy. But dying because of his own bloodthirsty bullshit was still a fitting enough death.

THANK YOU! You understand completely where I'm coming from, though I still don't agree with that last sentence

also, can someone please tell me how to manage Melia and Riki? The others I have no problem with, but those two seem like a burden whenever I try to play them or even put them in my team, I'm done trying to figure them out so I'm asking, how do I play with them? They look like beasts.

Also, I'm at

Spoiler

Junks

Where can I find books for Dunban and Reyn?

 

[chaosblade]

THANK YOU! You understand completely where I'm coming from, though I still don't agree with that last sentence

also, can someone please tell me how to manage Melia and Riki? The others I have no problem with, but those two seem like a burden whenever I try to play them or even put them in my team, I'm done trying to figure them out so I'm asking, how do I play with them? They look like beasts.

Also, I'm at

Spoiler

Junks

Where can I find books for Dunban and Reyn?

With Melia, you want to use a few of her elements and fire them off. Bolt is nice since it has pretty fast cooldown and deals high damage, and is easily powered up further thanks to Electric Plus. Wind is useful since it boosts agility for party members near you while the summon is up. Fire/Ice/Earth all have damage over time, and Wind/Fire/Ice are area of effect. Copy is useful.

Summon Aqua sucks. Melia is a caster, not a healer/medic. Same applies to Healing Gift.

I'm sure someone has done the math on which of Melia's arts deal the overall best damage taking base damage + DoT damage + time + cooldown. Then factoring in AoE for multiple potential targets. If not I should.

Melia has her own quick topple with spear break->starlight kick, but it's "exclusive" in that she can't topple other enemies that are toppled and other characters can't add time to an enemy she toppled. Hurts it's usefulness somewhat. Reflection is good since it mirrors one attack back to the enemy, but it's timing is annoying since it goes away so fast. Burst End is nice, since it reduces enemy defense.

Hypnosis is good, since it completely resets an enemy vision. Mind Blast is extremely situational and probably not worth the art slot. Shadow Stitch isn't really useful unless she's stealing aggro, and ideally that's not the case (or if you want her to have aggro, it might be useful, but other arts are better). Never bothered with Power Effect, it's not worth a slot.

Since Melia ideally won't be tanking in a typical party, and her attacks are ether based, she doesn't need agility gems. Load her up with ether gems and element boosts for the arts you're using and maybe some situational gems. In battle just use the elements then use the talent art to fire them off. Bolt and Wind make good openers since bolt will increase the power of your other summons, and against tougher enemies wind boosts your agility to help you dodge more often. Usually roll with copy after that to further boost the ether/agility, then summon something else and start firing things off. Rinse repeat, as you level up your preferred elements it should keep you plenty active in battle. Throw in the occasional topple and use hypnosis against visions, burst end when you get elemental burst (full talent gauge).


Riki is a bit of a jack of all trades. His physical damage output isn't too good, but elsewhere he's solid, but not really the best at anything. Highest HP along with adequate defense and agility can allow him to tank, and his spike aura is useful if he is, but it can be hard to get him to keep aggro with most other characters. He has some good damage over time arts, but not quite as damaging as Melia's, and is the second best healer in the game due to a good AoE healing art. Plus lots of wacky support arts.

You can set him up in a variety of ways, I think most people go with a support+healing/debuff build focused on his ether arts.



And Reyn and Dunban had books throughout the game, it depends on which ones you're looking for specifically. From where you are, I think there is only one or two more shops with art books and I don't remember if they have any in those shops. The rest will be from rebuilding Colony 6, and advanced books from enemy drops.

 

[ASIS]

With Melia, you want to use a few of her elements and fire them off. Bolt is nice since it has pretty fast cooldown and deals high damage, and is easily powered up further thanks to Electric Plus. Wind is useful since it boosts agility for party members near you while the summon is up. Fire/Ice/Earth all have damage over time, and Wind/Fire/Ice are area of effect. Copy is useful.

Summon Aqua sucks. Melia is a caster, not a healer/medic. Same applies to Healing Gift.

I'm sure someone has done the math on which of Melia's arts deal the overall best damage taking base damage + DoT damage + time + cooldown. Then factoring in AoE for multiple potential targets. If not I should.

Melia has her own quick topple with spear break->starlight kick, but it's "exclusive" in that she can't topple other enemies that are toppled and other characters can't add time to an enemy she toppled. Hurts it's usefulness somewhat. Reflection is good since it mirrors one attack back to the enemy, but it's timing is annoying since it goes away so fast. Burst End is nice, since it reduces enemy defense.

Hypnosis is good, since it completely resets an enemy vision. Mind Blast is extremely situational and probably not worth the art slot. Shadow Stitch isn't really useful unless she's stealing aggro, and ideally that's not the case (or if you want her to have aggro, it might be useful, but other arts are better). Never bothered with Power Effect, it's not worth a slot.

Since Melia ideally won't be tanking in a typical party, and her attacks are ether based, she doesn't need agility gems. Load her up with ether gems and element boosts for the arts you're using and maybe some situational gems. In battle just use the elements then use the talent art to fire them off. Bolt and Wind make good openers since bolt will increase the power of your other summons, and against tougher enemies wind boosts your agility to help you dodge more often. Usually roll with copy after that to further boost the ether/agility, then summon something else and start firing things off. Rinse repeat, as you level up your preferred elements it should keep you plenty active in battle. Throw in the occasional topple and use hypnosis against visions, burst end when you get elemental burst (full talent gauge).


Riki is a bit of a jack of all trades. His physical damage output isn't too good, but elsewhere he's solid, but not really the best at anything. Highest HP along with adequate defense and agility can allow him to tank, and his spike aura is useful if he is, but it can be hard to get him to keep aggro with most other characters. He has some good damage over time arts, but not quite as damaging as Melia's, and is the second best healer in the game due to a good AoE healing art. Plus lots of wacky support arts.

You can set him up in a variety of ways, I think most people go with a support+healing/debuff build focused on his ether arts.



And Reyn and Dunban had books throughout the game, it depends on which ones you're looking for specifically. From where you are, I think there is only one or two more shops with art books and I don't remember if they have any in those shops. The rest will be from rebuilding Colony 6, and advanced books from enemy drops.

Wow thank you so much! I'll probably switch out mind blast for summon earth then, how well does the topple work for melia? I mean is it worth switching out, say hypnosis for it? Final question about her, would you recommend giving her HP gems to boost her up in that regard? Her HP really is the biggest worry for me and, as you said, her healer qualities are absolute crap. And it appears I know now why I didn't get Riki, his HP is wonderful but I pushed him to act as a tank, but his best arts are all about reducing agro or back attacks which really puzzles me, I guess I'll stick with ryen then as my tank.

Again, thank you, this really was helpful.

 

[chaosblade]

Toppling is fine for her, the only real problem is that it's not good when working with topple/daze locks since it doesn't play well with other characters. Cooldown is longer than Reyn and Dunban's topples, but still manageable, especially since you don't have to rely on the AI for part of it. Not sure I'd trade another key art for it like Hypnosis, especially if you don't have Shulk in the party.

I'd only put an HP up gem on her if I had an extra slot for it and if she had a bad habit of snatching aggro. Or if AoE attacks are causing you problems, but most should come with vision tags that you can deal with.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Edit: I have a question about the superbosses. For Belgazas, do you need Topple Resist and Spike Defense? Meaning, does he do spike damage and topple, or would having 100% topple resist null his spike? Same kind of question with Abaasy — do you need Debuff Resist and Spike Defense?

So I made it to the point of no return, after killing all of the uniques in

Spoiler

Bionis' Interior and Prison Island

. With all of my unique hunting and a little bit of questing/gem collecting at the end (got my First Attack Plus VIs), I did it in ~26 hours, which is longer than I expected it to take. Though a good chunk of that time was spent watching cutscenes, especially in the second half of the game where they are longer. I was planning on skipping the cutscenes in NG+ but I was enjoying them too much.

I'll tell you what: I was shocked at how long it took to kill

Spoiler

Lorithia

, and how hard some of her attacks hit (got Dunban down to 2k HP). Not that it took that long, and I was never in any danger, but at level 99 with the best gear, full VI gem sets and skill trees maxed, I blew through most bosses really fast and without losing any HP. But not her. She's definitely the toughest boss in the game, save for perhaps the final boss.

I'm assuming the Faced Mechon

Spoiler

did die because there's no indication that they didn't. Besides that, Shulk's "reasoning" is assembly line shonen hero bullshit. You shouldn't kill him for no reason other than that he's a Homs? Give me a break. Dunban has seen countless people, including his entire family, killed by Mechon. He has every single reason to kill Mumkhar, who has shown no remorse (the opposite of remorse, in fact) over people being killed for his petty little fantasy, and no indication that he's ever going to stop. We also know that his memories weren't even erased. Xord remembered he used to be a Homs, but that was it. Mumkhar knows exactly who he is, what happened, and even works on his own agenda. He shouldn't receive any sort of special treatment just because he's the same species, that's crazy. But dying because of his own bloodthirsty bullshit was still a fitting enough death.

Yeah, that was probably the biggest plot hole in the game — the fact that

Spoiler

they're supposed to be against killing face mechon after they find out there's Homs inside, yet you kill a group of them during the Mumkhar fight, and later you kill more of them in Agnaritha

. I didn't catch it in my first playthrough, but this time around it definitely made me scratch my head. Though

Spoiler

it still makes sense that Shulk wouldn't want Dunban to kill Mumkhar like that. It's one thing to just destroy a face mechon; it's another to actually land a killing blow on the person inside, which is what Dunban was about to do. I could see how Shulk wouldn't be down with that; even if it was well-deserved, it would be too much like murdering a fellow Homs

.

 

[chaosblade]

How long it took? That just means you did it wrong :lol. My second playthrough I was level 70 and I beat that boss in around two minutes.

Shulk+7th+Dunban. Max tension in about 20 seconds on 7th, topple the boss, win during the lock.

 

[Ryaaan14]

Bought this game last week to play at my girlfriend's place after hearing all the good things about it.

This is my first JRPG.

This fucking game is kicking my ass. I am only about 2-3 hours into the game and I feel like I'm playing it wrong. I keep getting beaten over and over in this first cave I have to go through. I ended up leveling up so much attempting to get through and failing, that I just bolted past all the enemies to the exit. Is this a normal thing to do?

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Lol, it didn't take more than 5 minutes, but still, compared to the 2-3 minutes it's taken for the past few bosses, I was surprised. And no I didn't use any chain attacks or topples... I was just being lazy since this whole playthrough I've gotten away with just spamming arts to kill everything. I had the same party as you.

 

[chaosblade]

Bought this game last week to play at my girlfriend's place after hearing all the good things about it.

This is my first JRPG.

This fucking game is kicking my ass. I am only about 2-3 hours into the game and I feel like I'm playing it wrong. I keep getting beaten over and over in this first cave I have to go through. I ended up leveling up so much attempting to get through and failing, that I just bolted past all the enemies to the exit. Is this a normal thing to do?

Against normal enemies, no, you should be able to win as long as they aren't much higher level than you.

Unique enemies will be a lot more troublesome, especially the first one in the cave (the giant worm). Until you start getting good equipment and get a better feel for the game, you might not be able to beat them until you are at least a few levels higher than they are. You can see the difference because they are specifically named enemies and the nameplates have designs on the sides. The battle music is also different.

 

[Ryaaan14]

Yeah I totally avoid the worm because I knew he was too high leveled. But many times I get into battles with several of those bunny things that are the same level as me and my whole team dies. I keep attempting chain attacks and spamming all of my arts attacks but it's not working out.

 

[chaosblade]

Not sure what to suggest aside from keeping the basics in mind. I can't think of anything that would make early enemies difficult unless you're just running into some unique monsters (there is also a unique bunnit in the cave around the corner from the worm).

Check your arts to see what effects they have, level them up if you have enough AP. Use directional arts correctly, and take advantage of any sort of combos (slit edge->back slash, or pink arts/turn-strike to let Reyn topple with wild down).

Adding any gems you have gotten to some slotted armor could help, since I'm sure you've gotten some silver and gold chests with new equipment, or maybe gotten some from quests.

 

[ASIS]

Yeah I totally avoid the worm because I knew he was too high leveled. But many times I get into battles with several of those bunny things that are the same level as me and my whole team dies. I keep attempting chain attacks and spamming all of my arts attacks but it's not working out.

Make sure that the enemies are not targeting shulk. DON'T use chain attacks yet, leave the gauge for reviving allies, abuse backslash, and follow what choasblade has said.

Other than that. I suggest to take one enemy at a time I guess, don't tackle a large group just yet.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Yeah I totally avoid the worm because I knew he was too high leveled. But many times I get into battles with several of those bunny things that are the same level as me and my whole team dies. I keep attempting chain attacks and spamming all of my arts attacks but it's not working out.

A few things (since some of the conversation in here is like PhD level Xenoblade, and we need to start with the basics):

* Especially in the very first part of the game, you want battles to end quickly -- you can't heal worth a crap, but obviously there's auto-heal outside of battle.

* You want enemies attacking Reyn, because he has more HP and can absorb damage. If they're attacking you (assuming you're playing as "not-Reyn"), you can try having your guy/girl back away out of auto-attack range.

* Don't attack too many enemies at once, you'll get rocked.

* Your arts have special abilities, take advantage of them.

* You want to have your best armor equipped. This varies according to the role you want each character to play, but at the start it's rather simple. More defense = yay.

* If you have agility gems, or equipment with agility gems, or you see anything that says "agility" in the game... do it!

 

[Ryaaan14]

A few things (since some of the conversation in here is like PhD level Xenoblade, and we need to start with the basics):

* Especially in the very first part of the game, you want battles to end quickly -- you can't heal worth a crap, but obviously there's auto-heal outside of battle.

* You want enemies attacking Reyn, because he has more HP and can absorb damage. If they're attacking you (assuming you're playing as "not-Reyn"), you can try having your guy/girl back away out of auto-attack range.

* Don't attack too many enemies at once, you'll get rocked.

* Your arts have special abilities, take advantage of them.

* You want to have your best armor equipped. This varies according to the role you want each character to play, but at the start it's rather simple. More defense = yay.

* If you have agility gems, or equipment with agility gems, or you see anything that says "agility" in the game... do it!

Is there a way to pull individual mobs if they are grouped? This seems like it would help a great deal.

And thanks for the tips everyone. I have been doing most of what is suggested, so it seems like it probably boils down to me being too frantic with my arts and not positioning enemies correctly.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Ha! Took down Abaasy in an unexpected battle. I had never killed him before. I was farming Final Marcus and the slobos' on Three Sage Summit, and then a blizzard started. My team was Shulk/7th/Dunban, and thankfully I had the right gems equipped, but my skill links were atrocious (had Reyn's AP+ and Riki's +chance of finding gold chests on, for instance). But there was no time to change them because Abaasy aggroed right away. Still, I fought him like a man and didn't topple-lock. It wasn't the smoothest battle, but considering my poor skill link setup I was very happy with my performance. Dunban and 7th went down at one point, but I was able to revive both of them and start a chain attack shortly after, since we build our party meter ridiculously fast.

Riding on the high of my first Abaasy victory, I went to go take Belgazas down. I had taken about a quarter of his HP away when my girlfriend called. -_- I tried to talk and play at the same time but I was too distracted and Dunban got one-shotted by the poison move. So I just ran away and saved my game. Tomorrow with be Belgazas' day of reckoning.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Is there a way to pull individual mobs if they are grouped? This seems like it would help a great deal.

And thanks for the tips everyone. I have been doing most of what is suggested, so it seems like it probably boils down to me being too frantic with my arts and not positioning enemies correctly.

Instead of starting a battle the normal way, there's an option to "lure" an enemy away from the herd if you're close enough. Though, depending on which one you pick it may bring its pals to mob your ass anyway.

 

[Mockingbird]

So why is agility important again?

 

[Karsticles]

So why is agility important again?

It affects your dodge and hit rate. Basically, everyone but pure casters want it.

 

[Zornica]

I'm assuming the Faced Mechon

Spoiler

Besides that, Shulk's "reasoning" is assembly line shonen hero bullshit. You shouldn't kill him for no reason other than that he's a Homs? Give me a break. Dunban has seen countless people, including his entire family, killed by Mechon. He has every single reason to kill Mumkhar, who has shown no remorse (the opposite of remorse, in fact) over people being killed for his petty little fantasy, and no indication that he's ever going to stop. We also know that his memories weren't even erased. Xord remembered he used to be a Homs, but that was it. Mumkhar knows exactly who he is, what happened, and even works on his own agenda. He shouldn't receive any sort of special treatment just because he's the same species, that's crazy. But dying because of his own bloodthirsty bullshit was still a fitting enough death.

Yeah, that was probably the biggest plot hole in the game — the fact that

Spoiler

they're supposed to be against killing face mechon after they find out there's Homs inside, yet you kill a group of them during the Mumkhar fight, and later you kill more of them in Agnaritha

. I didn't catch it in my first playthrough, but this time around it definitely made me scratch my head. Though

Spoiler

it still makes sense that Shulk wouldn't want Dunban to kill Mumkhar like that. It's one thing to just destroy a face mechon; it's another to actually land a killing blow on the person inside, which is what Dunban was about to do. I could see how Shulk wouldn't be down with that; even if it was well-deserved, it would be too much like murdering a fellow Homs

.

Obvious lvl 70/80+ story spoilers incoming
to conclude:

Spoiler

Shulk is zanza, zanza is shulk. Zanza has a certain sence of controll over shulk, we learn about that in first few minutes after fiora gets killed. Shulk talks about 2 voices in his head, his own and another one that keeps screaming "death to all mechon", something like that. It's obviously zanzas goal to reach mechons core to finaly kill meyneth. thats what he saw in his vision and thats why he inhabits shulks body in the first place.
Having face mechon stand in his way is obviously not ideal to reach his goal, BUT having a faced mechon standing in his way that basically a bigger thread to egil than to shulk, because he is out of control and causes some chaos within the mechons ranks, it seems kinda logical to use that convinient distraction against egil.

pretty late over here, so I probably forgot something.

It affects your dodge and hit rate. Basically, everyone but pure casters want it.

everybody wants it, I'd even argue it's nice to have for reyn.

 

[Karsticles]

everybody wants it, I'd even argue it's nice to have for reyn.

It's nice for Reyn, no doubt, but Melia? I don't even put it on Riki because he only gets to autoattack once every 10 seconds or so.

 

[chaosblade]

Instead of starting a battle the normal way, there's an option to "lure" an enemy away from the herd if you're close enough. Though, depending on which one you pick it may bring its pals to mob your ass anyway.

To expand on this, you can tell if it's an individual "mob" or a group "mob" by looking at the arrows over their heads when you target them to lure. If it's a group, multiple enemies will have yellow arrows over their heads and all of them will attack you at once.

 

[The Horror the horror]

I can't find this f'ing game new anywhere. Funny thing is, I stumbled across Last Story at a local Best Buy (with no intention of purchasing it beforehand, was looking for NSMBU).

Help me find a new copy of this game!!

 

[Karsticles]

I can't find this f'ing game new anywhere. Funny thing is, I stumbled across Last Story at a local Best Buy (with no intention of purchasing it beforehand, was looking for NSMBU).

Help me find a new copy of this game!!

With the Wii U releasing, and many people intending to buy this game for it, they should run another print.

Also, this game looks significantly better on the Wii U in my opinion.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

From what I understand Gamestop are all sold out and used copies go above RRP on eBay etc. Some independent stores were able to buy copies (despite its Gamesotp exclusivity). Who knows, they may be a reprint.

Otherwise, the nearest you'll find to RRP these days is over in Europe so there is always importing and going through all the homebrew steps.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Belgazas down, Arsene down, and Daedala down. Took out Abaasy again for good measure. I killed Belgazas a few more times and then mega heated myself a couple of AP Up VI gems. I'm gonna get some more of those. I also mega heated Critical Up VI, Strength Up VI, Quick Step VI, and Aggro Up VI. I figured the aggro gems could help Riki tank, if I ever choose to do so.

Not a lot left to do at this point. During my hunt of all the uniques in

Spoiler

Tephra Cave part 2

I got the Final Cross art manual from a Hanz Pod. I have a few arts left, and after that I'll do some quests in Satorl Marsh, Colony 6, and Frontier Village to get some quest-exclusive unique spawns. And after that, all that's left on my checklist is to get the slotted Ledios Arms from Demon King Dragonia. In order to do that you have to steal them with Riki's talent art; it's the rarest armor in the game AFAIK.

From what I understand Gamestop are all sold out and used copies go above RRP on eBay etc. Some independent stores were able to buy copies (despite its Gamesotp exclusivity). Who knows, they may be a reprint.

Otherwise, the nearest you'll find to RRP these days is over in Europe so there is always importing and going through all the homebrew steps.

Wow I didn't realize that this game was that hard to find. I just bought it from the Nintendo website in April.

 

[chaosblade]

And after that, all that's left on my checklist is to get the slotted Ledios Arms from Demon King Dragonia. In order to do that you have to steal them with Riki's talent art; it's the rarest armor in the game AFAIK.

I thought it was just a drop? Should just be able to farm the gold chest for it.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I thought it was just a drop? Should just be able to farm the gold chest for it.

From what I've read, since it's a quest monster it will drop silver chests 100% of the time, so you have to steal the "gold chest" drops.

 

[ASIS]

So i just finished

Spoiler

mechonis field, it was such a beautiful place, I thought it would be like the ether mine but it was so much fun traversing around that HUGE area. Gadolt's fight was very creative as well, making excellent use of his character as a sniper.

 

[MrDaravon]

Also, this game looks significantly better on the Wii U in my opinion.

I thought the Wii U didn't do any sort of upscaling or anything? I just started playing this yesterday and am having a blast (I sadistically enjoy grinding in JRPGs and this already seems like the game for me in that regard), but it looks so, so awful on my HDTV even with component. At this point I'm almost over it and I don't think I'd actually wait to keep playing the game since I know I won't have a Wii U for at least a few more months at the soonest, but knowing it would actually be a little more bearable on Wii U would be nice.

 

[chaosblade]

I thought the Wii U didn't do any sort of upscaling or anything? I just started playing this yesterday and am having a blast (I sadistically enjoy grinding in JRPGs and this already seems like the game for me in that regard), but it looks so, so awful on my HDTV even with component. At this point I'm almost over it and I don't think I'd actually wait to keep playing the game since I know I won't have a Wii U for at least a few more months at the soonest, but knowing it would actually be a little more bearable on Wii U would be nice.

It just has better video output than the Wii, even the GCN did. Wii's is awful, which doesn't do it any favors on HDTV's.

 

[Elfforkusu]

I thought the Wii U didn't do any sort of upscaling or anything? I just started playing this yesterday and am having a blast (I sadistically enjoy grinding in JRPGs and this already seems like the game for me in that regard), but it looks so, so awful on my HDTV even with component. At this point I'm almost over it and I don't think I'd actually wait to keep playing the game since I know I won't have a Wii U for at least a few more months at the soonest, but knowing it would actually be a little more bearable on Wii U would be nice.

The Wii outputs in 480p/i. The Wii U outputs in up to 1080p, even in Wii mode.

So, it'll probably look better. It's pretty standard upscaling, ala the PS3/360 backwards compatibility (not native rendering in the higher res like Dolphin), but it definitely looks a lot better on my TV than the Wii does.

 

[Mockingbird]

My god. There is so much to do in this game. So much to explore, so many quests! God!

 

[ActStriker]

So I'm around 60+ hours in, just got to

Spoiler

Hidden Machina Village

and got the 7th party member.

my god this game is amazing

 

[Head of Vengarl]

I made a video of me taking down Blizzard Belgazas. No topples were used; topple-locking at level 99 is lame and with Belgazas it means you need a lot of spike defense. Looking back, the fight almost went too smoothly... maybe I shouldn't have spammed Monado A

Spoiler

rmor

so much. The reason I did that is because Dunban dodges so well that I miss a lot of visions, and it ended up getting my party wiped from a back-to-back Mountain Stomp + Vicious Combo in a previous battle. Since Belgazas is weak to side attacks, I decided to attack from the side and spam Split Edge for the awesome -50% defense debuff. Thankfully 7th's AI was smart and also attacked from the side for maximum damage. I only used chain attacks when my party needed some healing.

SPOILER WARNING - Do not click on any of the links below if you have not beat the game.

Video link: http://youtu.be/c23cjjsQkTM
*Sorry for the iPhone quality vid, and for the house phone going off at the beginning lol.

My gem and equipment setup:

Shulk
http://i.imgur.com/VCcrZ.jpg

7th
http://i.imgur.com/QcPLf.jpg

Dunban
http://i.imgur.com/PDbHA.jpg

Bonus pic - my jury-rigged camera stand: