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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

L00P

Member
I wish some of the side quests had a waypoint system. Sometimes I just have no idea where to go and have to resort to the internet :(
 

Zing

Banned
Got my wii component cables from amazon($5) and I can see a difference between composite and component
Component cables are pretty much required for this game. Like Skyward Sword, it is natively rendered in 16:9, so text is hard to read and you are missing out on many lines of resolution (due to letter-boxing) when playing it in 4:3 via composite.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
About to enter
Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group...
when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).
 
Is it just me or does Dunban sort of takes the role of the main character after he joins? He seems to get more lines than "Hey I just had a vision, remember me guys" Shulk. Not that I mind, he's a lousy main character anyway.

Riki's clearly the best character, he's hilarious.
 

Hiltz

Member
Shulk's simply a dull character who keeps on talking about the same bloody thing over and over again. He'll always be a douche bag. Dunban's just cooler and has more interesting things to say compared to Shulk. In addition, Dunban's relationship with the other characters helps make his stake in the story more a bit interesting.
 

Penguin

Member
About to enter
Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group...
when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).

Also be wary
A lot of those enemies have like spike damage as well. So sometimes, its better to not attack them in certain positions.

It REALLY annoys me when they have topple SPike damage.
 

Zornica

Banned
So I'm having trouble trying to prioritize what stats I should be focusing on for each character. So far I only have three:
Reyn, Shulk, and Sharla. I understand defense should be a priority for Reyn since he's a tank, but should I even be bothering with ether for these three? None of them seem to have "magic" unless Sharla's bullets count (which I don't think, right?).

Sharlas bullets and most of her other arts are ether based, you can read that in your arts menu, also: if an art is ether based, it has a fine line in the background.
your priority however should be agility, because it is THE most important stat in the entire game. It raises accuracy and evasion, which means you will need less healing, and thus can enjoy all sorts of party combinations much more.

Right there with you. I wouldn't mind if it was strictly vertical, but branching paths and criss crossing and going outside.. makes it my least favorite environment

Actually it is strictly vertical for the most part... on the way up, you meet about 80% of all the important npcs. furthermore, it is easier to find people, because they hardly move at all, und spawn at 6 and 18 o'clock. there are only 2 exceptions.
If you have trouble finding a certain npc, this might help:
Map 1
Map 2
 

ZenaxPure

Member
Well I've had time to recover from the end of the game and have questions for those that have beat it and done all the endgame super bosses and such.

So first a story related question, note this is complete end of game spoilers:

So what exactly was Alvis? He said he was a computer program and such but for what exactly? Was he some sort of AI built into that space station from the start or something else entirely? I was honestly confused by that bit in the final explanation of things. Oh also, space station - I am oddly OK with that. Yes it's freaking ridiculous but it made me hate Zanza less since it gave him more a character than an angry god dude. The fact that he was once just a curious/ambitious scientist makes all the difference in the end. I have a bit of a soft spot for insane endings to be honest, especially as long as they make some sort of sense which Xenoblade pulled off very well.

Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I
literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest.
My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

Right now I plan to finish up
Colony 6 reconstruction
because I had a ton of fun with that, but not sure I want to do anything else.
 
I've found a couple advanced books so far. How rare of a drop are they?
Depends on the book, but for the most part, pretty rare.
Advanced books are from gold treasure chests. You can use
Rikki's
skill tree link to increase the chance of silver and gold treasure chests appearing.

According to the Wiki guide, it mentions the monster/npc shop and map location of where to get intermediate and advanced books . Just so you know, it lists ALL of the characters and their movesets.

http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Levelling_Battle_Arts
Actually, they're pretty easy to get if you know which unique drops the book you want: once you get it to drop a gold trasure chest, simply save before opening it. If the book you want isn't there, just load your save file again. Rinse and repeat until you get the book you are after.

Just be careful of uniques sometimes respawning when you load, but that's only a problem if they're strong and is easilly avoided by killing them away from their spawn point.

Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I
literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest.
My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

Oh, most definitely yeah, there's some pretty challenging uniques, specially if you go in unprepared. You're almost guaranteed to et your ass kicked the first time you encounter some of the higher leveled ones and it's really satisfying once you beat them, so I recommend at least checking them out. Other than that, some of the best quests are endgame quests, so try a few of them.
 

White Man

Member
They're an enormous improvement over the wiimote\chuck, but the pad controls are also a bitch. I'm not missing a way to change them anywhere, am I? This and icarus would probably rank as faves if not for this.

Sorry for complaining about stuff that's already been complained to death
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
About to enter
Galahad Fortress, and for some reason these mechons are much harder to fight than anything i fought so far, even with the anti-mechon weapons. I died three times on the Mumkhar fight, once on a group of 4 right after him, and the unique mechon a little far almost killed my whole group...
when i could hardly die before. Guess i should go back and do some sidequests to lvl up a little more(im at 49).
Consider
not using anti mechon weapons. They are weaker than normal ones, plus with enchant you get a damage bonus against mechon.
 
Bad -
Presentation - I can look past some of the graphics because it is on the Wii but the character animations are pretty bad. As well, the armor design is not only horrendous, but pretty inconsistent from an art direction perspective.

I'm finding it pretty entertaining how absurd all of the armor looks. Reyn will be wearing something utterly ridiculous, and then I'll switch it out and be treated something even crazier.

burgerdog said:
Not a fan of frontier village at all, the layout sucks.

It would be fine if there were more warp points.
 
They're an enormous improvement over the wiimote\chuck, but the pad controls are also a bitch. I'm not missing a way to change them anywhere, am I? This and icarus would probably rank as faves if not for this.

Sorry for complaining about stuff that's already been complained to death

Nah, you can't change them, sadly. There are different ways people adjust to the control scheme, none of them perfect.

But I need a right stick for the camera, so there's really no question which method I prefer.
 

White Man

Member
Nah, you can't change them, sadly. There are different ways people adjust to the control scheme, none of them perfect.

But I need a right stick for the camera, so there's really no question which method I prefer.

Yeah, same here. It's not that the controls are necessarily bad. It just seems like they took a look at the face button setup on most rpgs and swapped buttons around just for the hell of it. I'll know em in a day or two.

Icarus, well, I need more time with that one, but the controls in that as of right now aggravate me. No really Circle Pad support is way lame. I know they are married to motion and touch stuff, but if they had used the CPP you'd be able to see amusing stuff on the bottom screen much better.

I probably wouldn't have complained but two games in a row that are awesome but nutted by suspect controls. Nintendo doesn't do patches, right?
 
I've just gotten to the area after getting access to the 4th party member, and yeah, this game deserves to be played on Dolphin some. I've to the GAF Wii Homebrew found, but is there an easy to follow guide of some sort to go from "Homebrew Installed" to "ISO for Dolphin?" Thanks in advance, sorry for newbishness!
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I've just gotten to the area after getting access to the 4th party member, and yeah, this game deserves to be played on Dolphin some. I've to the GAF Wii Homebrew found, but is there an easy to follow guide of some sort to go from "Homebrew Installed" to "ISO for Dolphin?" Thanks in advance, sorry for newbishness!

Follow the guide for installing the Configurable USB Loader. You can move rips from that to your PC for Dolphin.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Is there a way to trigger one of your party members to use a special move, or switch between them, while in the heat of battle?

I'm just about finished exploring the swamp, game is amazing so far although combat is a bit repetitive and there are times when I feel the game just may be too overloaded with content for its own good. Don't think it's this so called "RPG savior" though, since I didn't think RPGs needed saving in the first place! (apart from them actually being translated and released in America)
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Is there a way to trigger one of your party members to use a special move, or switch between them, while in the heat of battle?

I'm just about finished exploring the swamp, game is amazing so far although combat is a bit repetitive and there are times when I feel the game just may be too overloaded with content for its own good. Don't think it's this so called "RPG savior" though, since I didn't think RPGs needed saving in the first place! (apart from them actually being translated and released in America)

Only after a vision, you can go talk to a party member and "warn" them, and that will give you the option to select an art to use. It costs one bar of the party gauge to do that though.

No way to switch characters mid-battle. If you find the combat repetitive you might try switching your lead character if you haven't. All the characters play at least a bit differently. Using Sharla would probably mix things up a lot.


And I'm finally getting around to ripping my NA copy. Going to play it on Dolphin all the way through this time.
 

Lonestar

I joined for Erin Brockovich discussion
Heh, just looked up the voice actors. Melia is voiced by Jenna Louise Coleman, who is the next Companion on Doctor Who :D
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Consider
not using anti mechon weapons. They are weaker than normal ones, plus with enchant you get a damage bonus against mechon.

Yes but im not always playing as Shulk, and the idiot AI will not always use enchant right at the start. I have to use Dunban because the AI sucks at holding aggro with him.


By the way, i've been playing with the CC since the beginning, started with fresh new batteries, been playing 50 hours so far and its still at 3 bars!

Either my Energizer batteries are that good, or the CC use a lot less power than the Wiimote+Nunchuck, or there is some kind of magic in my golden Zelda Wiimote.
 

wsippel

Banned
Well I've had time to recover from the end of the game and have questions for those that have beat it and done all the endgame super bosses and such.

So first a story related question, note this is complete end of game spoilers:

So what exactly was Alvis? He said he was a computer program and such but for what exactly? Was he some sort of AI built into that space station from the start or something else entirely? I was honestly confused by that bit in the final explanation of things. Oh also, space station - I am oddly OK with that. Yes it's freaking ridiculous but it made me hate Zanza less since it gave him more a character than an angry god dude. The fact that he was once just a curious/ambitious scientist makes all the difference in the end. I have a bit of a soft spot for insane endings to be honest, especially as long as they make some sort of sense which Xenoblade pulled off very well.
Alvis was the AI/quantum computer supervising the experiment. A quantum could be seen as a monad -> Monado. He was the only thing to survive the experiment and became almighty, but he's just a computer designed to supervise and analyze - he needed input. So he recreated the two scientists heading the experiment and made them "gods".
 

Ultratech

Member
Anyway, for actual endgame stuff how challenging are the high level unique mobs in respect to the final boss? I was I assume about 6 or 7 levels to low for the final dungeon (everything was red or yellow) but I
literally breezed through the entire end of the game and killed Zanza in 2 chain attacks that were almost back to back, it was pretty underwhelming to be honest.
My question is will any of the harder challenges in the game really even be a challenge? Anything note worthy because in general I found Xenoblade to be a bit on the easy side.

They're pretty damn tough if you go in unprepared. Keep in mind that max level is 99. The final boss' level is somewhere around
~81?
.
The Super Uniques reach up to
100+ (the strongest being around ~120)
. So you'll need some good Gem setups to actually try and hit the higher leveled ones.

Also be wary
A lot of those enemies have like spike damage as well. So sometimes, its better to not attack them in certain positions.

It REALLY annoys me when they have topple SPike damage.

It's super annoying when the enemies have access to
Topple Stun or Topple Sleep, like those two Uniques in the Final Dungeon
.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Advanced books are from gold treasure chests. You can use
Rikki's
skill tree link to increase the chance of silver and gold treasure chests appearing.

According to the Wiki guide, it mentions the monster/npc shop and map location of where to get intermediate and advanced books . Just so you know, it lists ALL of the characters and their movesets.

http://xenoblade.wikia.com/wiki/Levelling_Battle_Arts


*bookmarks*
That'll come in handy
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
It's super annoying when the enemies have access to
Topple Stun or Topple Sleep, like those two Uniques in the Final Dungeon
.

I forget, does
Monado Purge eliminate those topple spike debuffs? I know Purge eliminates an enemy's regular spikes, but does it work on those more specialized types as well
?
 
By the way, i've been playing with the CC since the beginning, started with fresh new batteries, been playing 50 hours so far and its still at 3 bars!

Either my Energizer batteries are that good, or the CC use a lot less power than the Wiimote+Nunchuck, or there is some kind of magic in my golden Zelda Wiimote.

I noticed this as well. I'm guessing cause the CC+Wiimote setup isn't using any of the motion or pointer stuff on the controllers while playing.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
By the way, i've been playing with the CC since the beginning, started with fresh new batteries, been playing 50 hours so far and its still at 3 bars!

Either my Energizer batteries are that good, or the CC use a lot less power than the Wiimote+Nunchuck, or there is some kind of magic in my golden Zelda Wiimote.

I have about 30 hours clocked and my batteries for my wii-mote/nunchuk is at 3 bars. It has gone down 1 bar in 30 hours of play. Fucking crazy.

Probably because there is

-Zero pointer stuff
-Zero rumble
-Zero speaker use

I would have liked an option to enable this stuff. Maybe not the pointer so much, but rumble would have been nice, and maybe the speaker to tell you when a chain link is available, or if someone is down and needs help, etc. Just that when it pops on, you know it is something important.
 
Just ordered this game off Nintendo.com last night (I would have bought it at GameStop but I used to work there and generally dislike the company).

This game better be good, GAF.
I am pretty good at keeping my expectations in check; I fully expect it to have its flaws, but the hype and great ratings are a good sign.
 

burgerdog

Member
Question about Melia + Eryth Sea events:

I just got arrested and don't have access to her for the time being. Will I miss out on the timed Alcamoth(sp?) quests if I push the story forward?
 
When is the right time to move the
camp
? Ive been there multiple times but I dont see any quest for me, and I know there are some I havent done yet from a list I saw. Do more show up as you progress? I already cleared the bridge.
 

Wichu

Member
When is the right time to move the
camp
? Ive been there multiple times but I dont see any quest for me, and I know there are some I havent done yet from a list I saw. Do more show up as you progress? I already cleared the bridge.

Try looking around (and just outside) the camp at different times of day. Some NPCs are only active at night.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
When is the right time to move the
camp
? Ive been there multiple times but I dont see any quest for me, and I know there are some I havent done yet from a list I saw. Do more show up as you progress? I already cleared the bridge.

Misread the question, I'm tired...

Yeah, try different times of day and talk to everyone at least once if not twice. Sometimes talking to characters after you finish a quest or something will change their affinity with someone else and cause more quests to pop up.
 

AniHawk

Member
Just ordered this game off Nintendo.com last night (I would have bought it at GameStop but I used to work there and generally dislike the company).

This game better be good, GAF.
I am pretty good at keeping my expectations in check; I fully expect it to have its flaws, but the hype and great ratings are a good sign.

i wasn't looking to be impressed, but i've found myself doing all the stuff people have been saying: getting lost in sidequests (in a good way), wanting to explore a huge gigantic world.

it's not blowing me away like it did for other people, but i've put 35+ hours into it, am currently at the 50% mark, and still want more. that's a good sign.
 
I must be crazy to be level 79, 110 hours in...and
just doing stuff after bearing Disciple Lorithia

How much farther do I got, or else I may be like going 130+ hours in before I actually finish the game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I must be crazy to be level 79, 110 hours in...and
just doing stuff after bearing Disciple Lorithia

How much farther do I got, or else I may be like going 130+ hours in before I actually finish the game.

You're at the final dungeon. When it tells you about a point of no return it means it, if you don't keep a save file from before you fight the final boss, you can't continue that file. It goes straight into NG+.

I'd recommend finishing out the game now so the final boss isn't a total pushover, but not saving/starting NG+ (or do it in a different slot) so you can continue doing side-stuff. After Mechonis Core, a lot of high-level stuff and new side quests opened up. Basically all the "post-game" content.
 

Hiltz

Member
I forget, does
Monado Purge eliminate those topple spike debuffs? I know Purge eliminates an enemy's regular spikes, but does it work on those more specialized types as well
?

I think Purge should work. However, you'll have to keep using it multiple times as its effects are temporary. In addition, you can equip your party with debuff resistant/spike defense gems or a topple resistant gems. You can probably also use Melia's Mindblast to do the same thing as Purge (except you'll have to wait until elemental burst is available).
 
Just got this yesterday. Man... this is the RPG I've been waiting for since Tales of Symphonia.
I'm glad to hear the game is filled with content to a fault, because I plan on spending a lot of time in this world.
 

Rebel Leader

THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Just got this yesterday. Man... this is the RPG I've been waiting for since Tales of Symphonia.
I'm glad to hear the game is filled with content to a fault, because I plan on spending a lot of time in this world.

If playing on the wii, get component cables. Don't ask why. Just do it.
 

burgerdog

Member
If playing on the wii, get component cables. Don't ask why. Just do it.

I can't believe this even has to be suggested. I've had my wii since launch and only own about 8 games for it, and I bought component cables as soon as they were available despite barely using the console. Are people really playing with AVs hooked up to their HDTV?
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I have no idea what to do with my party now with Melia and Riki joining pretty quickly. I've actually tried using both while I go back and do more sidequests, and I can see why Melia can be so good. It seems like when I have her as an AI in my party she summons but never fires/takes a long time to, when it seems like it should be pretty rapid. Guessing the AI isn't very good with her or I'm not actually using her the way I thought I should.

And what "role" is Riki considered? The slow over time attacks coupled with someone like dunban taking aggro letting him do a ton of damage with back attacks and stuff make it seem like DPS, but I'm wondering why he has so much HP.

I can't believe this even has to be suggested. I've had my wii since launch and only own about 8 games for it, and I bought component cables as soon as they were available despite barely using the console. Are people really playing with AVs hooked up to their HDTV?

I figured the picture was going to look pretty bad anyway and never bothered. The difference with Xenoblade is huge, so clearly that was wrong. :p
 

ag-my001

Member
I have no idea what to do with my party now with Melia and Riki joining pretty quickly. I've actually tried using both while I go back and do more sidequests, and I can see why Melia can be so good. It seems like when I have her as an AI in my party she summons but never fires/takes a long time to, when it seems like it should be pretty rapid. Guessing the AI isn't very good with her or I'm not actually using her the way I thought I should.

And what "role" is Riki considered? The slow over time attacks coupled with someone like dunban taking aggro letting him do a ton of damage with back attacks and stuff make it seem like DPS, but I'm wondering why he has so much HP.

It's odd, I've been replaying a bit and noticing things I missed the first time through. There is a part, decently past when Melia joins, where a tutorial window pops up to tell me that hey, I might want to fire off the summons. As if people would have controlled her for the last few hours by queuing up three auras and waiting for her spear move to come off cool-down.

For Riki, he's more of a jack-of-all-trades. He has a good collection of ether based attacks, many of which you can boost with weapon gems. He also has several physical moves, as well as having his stat/party buffs. Tanking is probably the job he's worst at, having no real way to grab and hold aggro, but it's nice to know that if the AI grabs aggro for a bit, his high HP will keep him safe.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I really should have read the tutorials: it took me almost fifteen hours before I realized exactly how Melia worked and why I was never doing any damage as her...
 

AniHawk

Member
I really should have read the tutorials: it took me almost fifteen hours before I realized exactly how Melia worked and why I was never doing any damage as her...

yeah, she's pretty good. my team right now is dunban/sharla/melia with dunban hogging all the glory. god damn he's awesome. maxed out his agility as far as i can tell and virtually unhittable.
 
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