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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

flyover

Member
I've already accepted that I'm going to miss some quests based on timelines, but I can't just skip ones that are right infront of me.

I know that feeling. You can move on anytime, but it's so difficult. One of the best and worst things about the game. I felt like I was switching between two games, at times. Some days I was playing Xenoblade, and sometimes I was compelled to spend entire days playing a sidequesting game that just happens to be set in the world of Xenoblade. I loved both.

Was The Last Story worked on by the same translation (and/or voice direction) team as Xenoblade? I just played TLS, and there's a guy you meet in that game who tells you how many hanging pub/shop signs you've bumped your head on. Before he does, he says, "It's sign time!" Has to be a Xenoblade reference, right?
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
My advice for quests is this... Just accept every quest that you get, then explore every possible inch of the map. You'll complete some along the way, and F the rest. Exploring is the best part of this game, once I've fully explored an area, I move on to the next. I haven't over leveled very much and each new area has monsters around my level which keeps combat interesting.

The ONLY side quest that you should definitely do is the one to get the portable gem crafting station. It's obviously presented to you, some won't even spoiler tag that for more detail. But yeah getting the portable gem crafting simply saves you a loading screen back to colony 9.. That's it! Lol
 
My advice for quests is this... Just accept every quest that you get, then explore every possible inch of the map. You'll complete some along the way, and F the rest. Exploring is the best part of this game, once I've fully explored an area, I move on to the next. I haven't over leveled very much and each new area has monsters around my level which keeps combat interesting.

The ONLY side quest that you should definitely do is the one to get the portable gem crafting station. It's obviously presented to you, some won't even spoiler tag that for more detail. But yeah getting the portable gem crafting simply saves you a loading screen back to colony 9.. That's it! Lol


This is pretty much what I've been doing. At first I found questing annoying, because I thought you had to turn all those kill quests in, but it turns out you don't. I've been pretty much doing a majority of the side quests now.
 

Konstrix

Neo Member
Played about 7hrs straight last night. What I don't like is seeing incomplete quests in my log lol. In other games, I'd be able to drop the quests so I wouldn't have to see them. But correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's an option here. So it's like I gotta complete them all. I don't mind though since I'm having an absolute blast with this game. Came in with hype, and so far it's delivering!
 

clemenx

Banned
A downside of doing too many quests is that you end up overleveled for the whole game.

A single level makes a big difference in this game, so be careful if you care about difficulty when facing bosses.
 

frequency

Member
So I played a tiny bit more.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do a complete second playthrough. I guess I should ignore most of these side quests. I'm playing with Wii remote this time for a different experience. The camera control is frustrating...

I noticed they changed Fiorung's name to Fiora. That's weird. I wonder why they did that and if they changed others too. It must be weird for people playing with the Japanese dub. It's not like "Shulk" is a particularly normal name either. So why change Fiorung?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
So I played a tiny bit more.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do a complete second playthrough. I guess I should ignore most of these side quests. I'm playing with Wii remote this time for a different experience. The camera control is frustrating...

I noticed they changed Fiorung's name to Fiora. That's weird. I wonder why they did that and if they changed others too. It must be weird for people playing with the Japanese dub. It's not like "Shulk" is a particularly normal name either. So why change Fiorung?

Shulk doesn't really have an analog to another name like Fiorung has to Fiora. Plus Fiorung sounds really weird. I think that was a change for the better, the changes in Last Story seem more questionable to me from what I've heard.
 
don't do all the quests they are far to many unless you want the reward or need to level up and you don't want to grind

quests are they to take the grinding out really if you do them all you be over level for next part so do them with a relax mind

this game is hell for completeness just slap yourself
 

Aeana

Member
So I played a tiny bit more.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do a complete second playthrough. I guess I should ignore most of these side quests. I'm playing with Wii remote this time for a different experience. The camera control is frustrating...

I noticed they changed Fiorung's name to Fiora. That's weird. I wonder why they did that and if they changed others too. It must be weird for people playing with the Japanese dub. It's not like "Shulk" is a particularly normal name either. So why change Fiorung?

Her name is pronounced Fiorun in Japanese, with the g being silent, so it isn't a huge difference between Fiora and that in audio. That said, I expect most of the people playing with the Japanese track aren't even trying to comprehend it.

At any rate, Fiorung is an ugly as sin name.
 

frequency

Member
Shulk doesn't really have an analog to another name like Fiorung has to Fiora. Plus Fiorung sounds really weird. I think that was a change for the better, the changes in Last Story seem more questionable to me from what I've heard.

I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying it's really weird - especially after you played it with the original.

I just googled Last Story and you're right. That got even more name changes. Some poster on another forum said it's because of feminine vs masculine names. Elza is apparently really feminine, so they changed it to Zael.

So I guess "ung" just be a masculine name ending?

Her name is pronounced Fiorun in Japanese, with the g being silent, so it isn't a huge difference between Fiora and that in audio. That said, I expect most of the people playing with the Japanese track aren't even trying to comprehend it.

At any rate, Fiorung is an ugly as sin name.

It's different enough to me.
And I like "Fiorung".
But I'm weird.

I'm 100% sure that I'll get used to it. I got used to "Leanne" over "Reanbell" in my English End of Eternity/Resonance of Fate playthrough.
 

Cloudy

Banned
I found a bit of a workaround to the jaggies. I moved over to my higher-end tv (42 inch 1080p Vizio) and the "movie" setting on that seems to blur out the jaggies. There's still a weird "oily" look to the main character when running around but I guess I can live with it. Nintendo is so wrong for not including HD output on wii lol
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Damn I'm at exactly 50 hours in, the story just got A LOT more interesting, and the game overall. There are a lot of things that the game does at this point of the game that probably should've been done earlier. Hearing people's early complaints about the story, like the girl who was on Weekend Confirmed two weeks ago, who basically said "This story isn't as interesting as Xenogears, it's really a basic anime 'revenge story' " obviously did not play up until this point in the game.

Story Spoilers for ~50 hours/Lv 55+

So yeah just landed on Fallen Arm. The sequence before that was really intense and interesting. Shulk's reunion with Fiora is really touching. I JUST started this area so I haven't seen how that's going to play out, but I'm definitely more interested.

Things that the story does at this point that needed to be done earlier:
1. Establish a clear villain, Gold Face or whatever he is. He seems to be the god of the Mechanois. For most of the story there wasn't a clear villain, it was just "I'm going to kill all of the Mechanois and that Face Guy who started this whole thing in Colony 9. Now the game is like: alright this Gold guy is the one in charge. The story needed that sooner, I think.
2. The game FINALLY splits up your party forcing you play other party members. Why didn't the game do this sooner? Granted you always had the option to switch and play characters, I feel like if they had done this sooner we wouldn't be HAVING to tell players who are new to the game "hey, try out other characters". This is a really organic way to have players keep the combat fresh.

... oh and the music overall, battle themes just changed and got A LOT better, in my opinion. Like the past five hours before this point I was playing this game with headphones, listening to Podcasts and such because the music was just... the same. Finally a switch and I'm back to being engaged by the music.

Anyways, I do like the pacing of the story... it has it's spikes, but right here at 50 hours, I feel as excited about the story as I did in the first two hours. It's back to that "Okay, I cannot put this down, I need to know what happens next". Most of the story between 2 hours and 50 hours has had its spikes in being interesting, but I'd say the story has really shifted and has re-engaged me before I started to become disengaged.
 

conman

Member
Nintendo is so wrong for not including HD output on wii lol
It's a real drag for those of us whose AVRs don't upscale component video. It means that I have to plug my Wii directly into my TV and use my lame TV speakers for Wii games. I could run RCA extenders, but that gets ugly and messy fast.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
I can't beat the boss
spider boss

So now I'm grinding
-----

Just ordered the lens cleaning kit from Nintendo ... hope it works
 

clemenx

Banned
Damn I'm at exactly 50 hours in, the story just got A LOT more interesting, and the game overall. There are a lot of things that the game does at this point of the game that probably should've been done earlier. Hearing people's early complaints about the story, like the girl who was on Weekend Confirmed two weeks ago, who basically said "This story isn't as interesting as Xenogears, it's really a basic anime 'revenge story' " obviously did not play up until this point in the game.

Story Spoilers for ~50 hours/Lv 55+

So yeah just landed on Fallen Arm. The sequence before that was really intense and interesting. Shulk's reunion with Fiora is really touching. I JUST started this area so I haven't seen how that's going to play out, but I'm definitely more interested.

Things that the story does at this point that needed to be done earlier:
1. Establish a clear villain, Gold Face or whatever he is. He seems to be the god of the Mechanois. For most of the story there wasn't a clear villain, it was just "I'm going to kill all of the Mechanois and that Face Guy who started this whole thing in Colony 9. Now the game is like: alright this Gold guy is the one in charge. The story needed that sooner, I think.
2. The game FINALLY splits up your party forcing you play other party members. Why didn't the game do this sooner? Granted you always had the option to switch and play characters, I feel like if they had done this sooner we wouldn't be HAVING to tell players who are new to the game "hey, try out other characters". This is a really organic way to have players keep the combat fresh.

... oh and the music overall, battle themes just changed and got A LOT better, in my opinion. Like the past five hours before this point I was playing this game with headphones, listening to Podcasts and such because the music was just... the same. Finally a switch and I'm back to being engaged by the music.

Anyways, I do like the pacing of the story... it has it's spikes, but right here at 50 hours, I feel as excited about the story as I did in the first two hours. It's back to that "Okay, I cannot put this down, I need to know what happens next". Most of the story between 2 hours and 50 hours has had its spikes in being interesting, but I'd say the story has really shifted and has re-engaged me before I started to become disengaged.

I disagree with your point 1 :p
I absolutely loved that the story was about pure revenge up until they discover Fiora and the truth about faced Mechon. And then it turned into the "i gotta save the world!" hippie bs, lol. It really ruined that part of the game for me that Shulk turned all hollier than thou and refused to kill Mumkhar it really left a bad taste that we couldn't even kill the "main" villain of the first 30 or so hours. I loved the story again after Fallen arm though :p
 
I didnt expect (big early spoilers)
Fiora to die so soon. At least they didnt pull an Aeris where i gear a character for a good part of the game for nothing. Although i wonder why i see her in the backcover with other characters i have yet to meet... Hmm.

Yeah, that was really great. I loved that scene because they drew it all out as if someone was going to "anime in" and save her, so it was actually kind of shocking that they killed her off exactly as Shulk foresaw. This game is full of surprises!
 
Damn I'm at exactly 50 hours in, the story just got A LOT more interesting, and the game overall. There are a lot of things that the game does at this point of the game that probably should've been done earlier. Hearing people's early complaints about the story, like the girl who was on Weekend Confirmed two weeks ago, who basically said "This story isn't as interesting as Xenogears, it's really a basic anime 'revenge story' " obviously did not play up until this point in the game.

Story Spoilers for ~50 hours/Lv 55+

So yeah just landed on Fallen Arm. The sequence before that was really intense and interesting. Shulk's reunion with Fiora is really touching. I JUST started this area so I haven't seen how that's going to play out, but I'm definitely more interested.

Things that the story does at this point that needed to be done earlier:
1. Establish a clear villain, Gold Face or whatever he is. He seems to be the god of the Mechanois. For most of the story there wasn't a clear villain, it was just "I'm going to kill all of the Mechanois and that Face Guy who started this whole thing in Colony 9. Now the game is like: alright this Gold guy is the one in charge. The story needed that sooner, I think.
2. The game FINALLY splits up your party forcing you play other party members. Why didn't the game do this sooner? Granted you always had the option to switch and play characters, I feel like if they had done this sooner we wouldn't be HAVING to tell players who are new to the game "hey, try out other characters". This is a really organic way to have players keep the combat fresh.

... oh and the music overall, battle themes just changed and got A LOT better, in my opinion. Like the past five hours before this point I was playing this game with headphones, listening to Podcasts and such because the music was just... the same. Finally a switch and I'm back to being engaged by the music.

Anyways, I do like the pacing of the story... it has it's spikes, but right here at 50 hours, I feel as excited about the story as I did in the first two hours. It's back to that "Okay, I cannot put this down, I need to know what happens next". Most of the story between 2 hours and 50 hours has had its spikes in being interesting, but I'd say the story has really shifted and has re-engaged me before I started to become disengaged.

you only 45% done man they still more

yeah that was was maybe a little to much :/ but then it was under a spoilers and it was within the context
 
NOA still has my game on backorder

Rushing through Final Fantasy XIII-2 so that I can play this game as soon as it arrives, which I hope to god is better than XIII-2 :)
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
I can't beat the boss
spider boss

So now I'm grinding
-----

Just ordered the lens cleaning kit from Nintendo ... hope it works

As a tip, traditional grinding is almost completely unnecessary in this game. If you need some levels quick, go take a look at your side quests and see what can be done easily, quickly, or that you've already nearly completed. Exploration and quests are much much better for EXP than your typical RPG battle grinding.

Also, for that boss,
learn to use Shulk's Shield Monado Art. That's what that battle exists for, and if you time it right it is very difficult for the boss to do serious damage to you. Just remember, however, that in order to refill the talent gauge for the Monado, YOU MUST AUTO ATTACK.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
As a tip, traditional grinding is almost completely unnecessary in this game.

Also, for that boss,
learn to use Shulk's Shield Monado Art. That's what that battle exists for, and if you time it right it is very difficult for the boss to do serious damage to you. Just remember, however, that in order to refill the talent gauge for the Monado, YOU MUST AUTO ATTACK.

I am using the grinding to get used to the combat system. Most of the grinding involve quests anyway.

Thanks for the tip on the boss.
 

Cloudy

Banned
It's a real drag for those of us whose AVRs don't upscale component video. It means that I have to plug my Wii directly into my TV and use my lame TV speakers for Wii games. I could run RCA extenders, but that gets ugly and messy fast.

Hmm, I don't have it plugged into the AVR (Sony). Could that improve things for me?
 
I think I might have gotten screwed over by Gamestop. I pre-ordered in the store. Go in to pick up the game yesterday, and this was my exchange:

  • Clerk: Here's the game. Enjoy!
  • Me: Thanks. What about the artbook?
  • Clerk: What artbook?
  • Me: ...the pre-order extra that you guys advertised? I was told when placing the preorder it comes with an art book.
  • Clerk: There's no such thing. There's no freebie with a pre-order for this game. We didn't recieve anything from corporate.

I quickly try to find anything online via my phone that shows that I'm not making this up outta the blue. All I could find on the spot is an official tweet from Nintendo of America's account stating that every US preorder of Xenoblade from Gamestop comes with an exclusive artbook. I show it to the clerk,

  • Clerk: We haven't heard anything about this, but lemme check the back.

Wait for a bit till he comes back...

  • Clerk: Nope, sorry. We don't have anything. Sorry.

He was nice and genuinly seemed sorry (and if they didn't recieve it) there's nothing he can do so I dont' blame him, but this was pretty shitty.

I call Gamestops customer service line and they go

  • Phone-rep: "Oh yeah, sorry, not sure what happened, you absolutely should recieve an art-book. Lemme just get your reciept info and we'll send you one. When did you pick it up?"
  • Me: Game came out today, so picked it up today.
  • Phone-rep: Oh...well, it takes a day for transactiosn to process and show up on our end. Sorry, but just call tommorow and we'll take care of this.
  • Me: Oh...ok, sure.

Kinda lame, but whatever. I was just glad it was gonna be resolved.

So I call today,

  • Phone-rep: Oh um, it looks like we might already be out of these, but I'm not sure yet. I put a request to send you one, but we won't know for sure until Monday. So call back Monday.

Honestly just what the hell. When placing the pre-order there was nothing said about limited quantities. I was told every pre-order gets one. And it's not like I waited a few days. I picked the freaking thing up on the day of release. It pretty much sounds like they took more pre-orders than they can accomodate for the pre-order-extra without stating otherwise. I think they should be held accountable but if it's all gone, there's nothing they can do. :(
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Anyone have any good strategies for Dunban, Rikki and 7th - I've heard they are among the best. What are their best skills to use? I've pretty much cemented that Melia is my main, but I want two good supporting characters that the AI can handle. Up to this point Dunban has been pretty good, his agility is high.

Any pointers would be appreicated. Thanks!
 

conman

Member
Hmm, I don't have it plugged into the AVR (Sony). Could that improve things for me?
Depends on whether and how well it can upscale (and whether it does a better job than your TV). Wouldn't hurt to try. Hard to do a direct comparison. And really the differences would probably be minor anyway. But give it a shot.
 

TDLink

Member
Anyone have any good strategies for Dunban, Rikki and 7th - I've heard they are among the best. What are their best skills to use? I've pretty much cemented that Melia is my main, but I want two good supporting characters that the AI can handle. Up to this point Dunban has been pretty good, his agility is high.

Any pointers would be appreicated. Thanks!

Dunban was always my personal favourite to play. The AI does a pretty good job with everyone except Melia though so as long as you don't let the AI control her it should be fine with the others. Dunban, Rikki, and 7th does sound like a pretty broken team since they are all fairly fast and thus attack a lot and dodge a lot.

With Dunban he has a lot of moves reliant on "after Gale Slash" but what it really means is "after the opponent is bleeding". Since Rikki has a bleed too having both of them on your team could actually be advantageous since you need to rely less on Gale Slash being off CD. You want to do Dunban's talent art as often as possible so make sure to take Soaring Tempest which is AOE and builds Blossom Dance up pretty fast. Final Flicker is also something to look into taking but make sure you are careful with it since it -can- kill you. I also find Demon Slayer useful for the AOE topple but you really need to time it right. Peerless is his best Aura and you should also note that in general you can only have one aura active at a time per character. I didn't realize this at first when I played and had 3 Auras on Dunban, not realizing everytime I activated one it just overwrote the previous one.

I wrote a post on Riki earlier in this thread but in summary you should take Happy Happy for essentially infinite party meter and You Can Do It for a fantastic group heal. I round my build for him out with Bitey Bitey, Burninate, Riki is Angry, Tantrum, Roly Poly, and Lurgy.

I don't really use 7th all that much but it is important to note that the "drones" you use changes the talent art considerably. 7th also has a healing aura but instead I would say use the speed aura and get the skills that allow auto-heal on attack.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Anyone have any good strategies for Dunban, Rikki and 7th - I've heard they are among the best. What are their best skills to use? I've pretty much cemented that Melia is my main, but I want two good supporting characters that the AI can handle. Up to this point Dunban has been pretty good, his agility is high.

Any pointers would be appreicated. Thanks!

I keep Riki in because he has decent damage output, insane HP and one of the best healing arts in the game. I want to say that I outfit him with that healing thing, either freezinate or burninate, lurgy (love lurgy) and the back-attack. Other then that...I'm not sure what all I use. Oh, I think the paralysis art as well.

I really love playing as Melia but I always feel like I can't trust the AI to handle the rest of the party effectively enough to make up for the fact that she's more of a support role.
 

Teknoman

Member
I think I might have gotten screwed over by Gamestop. I pre-ordered in the store. Go in to pick up the game yesterday, and this was my exchange:

  • Clerk: Here's the game. Enjoy!
  • Me: Thanks. What about the artbook?
  • Clerk: What artbook?
  • Me: ...the pre-order extra that you guys advertised? I was told when placing the preorder it comes with an art book.
  • Clerk: There's no such thing. There's no freebie with a pre-order for this game. We didn't recieve anything from corporate.

I quickly try to find anything online via my phone that shows that I'm not making this up outta the blue. All I could find on the spot is an official tweet from Nintendo of America's account stating that every US preorder of Xenoblade from Gamestop comes with an exclusive artbook. I show it to the clerk,

  • Clerk: We haven't heard anything about this, but lemme check the back.

Wait for a bit till he comes back...

  • Clerk: Nope, sorry. We don't have anything. Sorry.

He was nice and genuinly seemed sorry (and if they didn't recieve it) there's nothing he can do so I dont' blame him, but this was pretty shitty.

I call Gamestops customer service line and they go

  • Phone-rep: "Oh yeah, sorry, not sure what happened, you absolutely should recieve an art-book. Lemme just get your reciept info and we'll send you one. When did you pick it up?"
  • Me: Game came out today, so picked it up today.
  • Phone-rep: Oh...well, it takes a day for transactiosn to process and show up on our end. Sorry, but just call tommorow and we'll take care of this.
  • Me: Oh...ok, sure.

Kinda lame, but whatever. I was just glad it was gonna be resolved.

So I call today,

  • Phone-rep: Oh um, it looks like we might already be out of these, but I'm not sure yet. I put a request to send you one, but we won't know for sure until Monday. So call back Monday.

Honestly just what the hell. When placing the pre-order there was nothing said about limited quantities. I was told every pre-order gets one. And it's not like I waited a few days. I picked the freaking thing up on the day of release. It pretty much sounds like they took more pre-orders than they can accomodate for the pre-order-extra without stating otherwise. I think they should be held accountable but if it's all gone, there's nothing they can do. :(

Yeah our store only had 2 preorders (mine and someone else) but we only got one book. Got 7 copies of the game though, so thats something. The game listing change to "no premium" or something like that a week or so ago, so maybe that has something to do with it.

NOA still has my game on backorder

Rushing through Final Fantasy XIII-2 so that I can play this game as soon as it arrives, which I hope to god is better than XIII-2 :)

Xenoblade is this generation's Dragon Quest VIII. Even though it sucks to see square like this, Xenoblade has a much better overworld, different models for almost every piece of equipment, you can actually buy armor instead of just mixing accessories, battle system is very engaging, and so on.

I like XIII-2, but Xenoblade shows everyone how a JRPG should be done in this day and age (I havent played Tales of Graces F yet).
 

Teknoman

Member
Any comparison shots?

Not that i'm aware of, all i've seen are Dolphin emu shots, but I know nothing looks good using composite these days, and colors always look more vibrant/image quality is sharper when running things in progressive scan rather than just normal 480i/composite on any HDTV/monitor.
 

Tunic

Member
Yeah our store only had 2 preorders (mine and someone else) but we only got one book. Got 7 copies of the game though, so thats something. The game listing change to "no premium" or something like that a week or so ago, so maybe that has something to do with it.

Similar thing happened to me with my local Gamestop. Preordered the game on the first day it was announced for a NA release and didn't receive the art book. They actually didn't receive any art books and there were around 10 preorders at the store. Very disappointing for sure since they were definitely pushing it as a preorder exclusive. It sounds like there is a huge shortage of the art books in comparison to the number of preorders that were made.
 
Similar thing happened to me with my local Gamestop. Preordered the game on the first day it was announced for a NA release and didn't receive the art book. They actually didn't receive any art books and there were around 10 preorders at the store. Very disappointing for sure since they were definitely pushing it as a preorder exclusive. It sounds like there is a huge shortage of the art books in comparison to the number of preorders that were made.

It's fine if they were offering a super-limited freebie promoted as a first-come-first-serve thing. They were taking all pre-orders though and promising the book with them all. How is that not blatantly lying?

Yeah our store only had 2 preorders (mine and someone else) but we only got one book. Got 7 copies of the game though, so thats something. The game listing change to "no premium" or something like that a week or so ago, so maybe that has something to do with it.

It's pretty disheartning to hear they do this. Isn't this technically false advertising?
 
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