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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

It's crazy reading how many hours people have put into this game and are no where near as far as I am. Not saying that's a bad thing, just mean that I definitely play differently than a lot of people in this thread.
 

burgerdog

Member
I'm right at the end but I refuse to beat the game until I do all side quests and get the 5th talent tree for all characters. Maybe around 20 quests left and 3 trees to go. Soooooon.
 

Croc

Banned
Holy shit I had so much trouble with the
Lightning Ronove
in Sword Valley. I had to fight it like 4 or 5 times before I won, and I (presumably) only won the last time because I went into my arts and saw I could level stuff up a couple of times yet.

I was even level 54 fighting against it (I thought I was pretty overleveled as I had done a TON of questing before hand.

Aaaaand just realized that I didn't even have to fight it (I think). There was just a wall behind it and I thought it was blocking my path forward. -.-
 

StAidan

Member
OK, I usually hate silly/joke characters in games because they all seem like cookie cutter amusement exhibits to me. But I have to admit, the
Riki
introduction cutscene made me laugh a couple times.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
This might be obvious, but I recently realized(only took 50 hours!) something with the battle system. When you queue an attack that gets a bonus based on where it hits, it will work even if it doesn't physically hit them there. So if I run up behind an enemy from the back and hit a backstab art, but someone else attacks normally and makes the enemy 180 around, the backstab bonus still happens even if the attack hits in the front. Pretty useful.

Holy shit I had so much trouble with the
Lightning Ronove
in Sword Valley. I had to fight it like 4 or 5 times before I won, and I (presumably) only won the last time because I went into my arts and saw I could level stuff up a couple of times yet.

I was even level 54 fighting against it (I thought I was pretty overleveled as I had done a TON of questing before hand.

Aaaaand just realized that I didn't even have to fight it (I think). There was just a wall behind it and I thought it was blocking my path forward. -.-

I was level 48 in that area. Only time I really felt underleveled...I had a lot of rough spots there, haha.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
I finished the game in 50 hours, supposedly that's crazy. :/

That is pretty fast, I barely did any side stuff and I had almost 70 hours. I will say though, I am someone who explores every corner of the map and looks for every tough enemy to kill and in Xenoblade I am pretty sure that can add quite a bit of time.
 
That is pretty fast, I barely did any side stuff and I had almost 70 hours. I will say though, I am someone who explores every corner of the map and looks for every tough enemy to kill and in Xenoblade I am pretty sure that can add quite a bit of time.

I loved the game to death, but I didn't even bother with the side quests... I was in for the beautiful world and story.

I was terribly under leveled at some point and I had to grind like 2 hours to win against a boss (it's the boss everyone bitches about)
 

ZenaxPure

Member
I loved the game to death, but I didn't even bother with the side quests... I was in for the beautiful world and story.

Haha, that was sort of my point. I also didn't really do much side questing (only world exploration) and put in almost 70 hours. I've spent too much time with WoW after the past few years to stomach the blatantly grindy mmo-like side quests of Xenoblade unfortunately.
 

Exeunt

Member
69 hours in now with my party at level 54, heading into
Sword Valley
.

I think I just experienced the least enjoyable quest in the game so far in which you have to make it to the
Antol Den in Valak Mountain
. The actual fight once you get there isn't that bad but
that jump is extremely difficult to make. The hole in the tube led me to believe that I was supposed to jump out there and I actually triggered the fight both times using that method—the first time I didn't make it to the ledge and the second my momentum incapacitated my party on landing. It probably took me three times longer than the fight itself to make it to the ledge.
Anybody else have difficulty with that part of the quest or was my timing just extraordinarily poor tonight? Also,
I'm so glad that Riki accidentally opened the pod in which the Chilkin leader was hiding. I can't imagine what a pain it would have been to search the entire area for him; I had originally thought he would be hiding near whatever spot you said had a better view in the research quest.
Is would this be considered "that one quest" or are there others in the later parts of the game that will be a pain beyond "collect these rare drops"?

The story events more than make up for that little quest at this point though;
the newest villain looks like a pretty big threat and Mumkhar—whose name I just asked for in the thread yesterday—is a pretty despicable person and a fun fight. I can't wait for the final battle with him; it will be a long time coming whenever I finally reach that point. I do wish the game would give me some more bosses that actually die when the fight is over though!

In other news, I just got a five-star rating in
Central Bionis
but the area obviously isn't complete yet; I still have some quests outstanding and I am getting some new ones as well. In effect, does the five-star rating actually signify anything is done (e.g. I've improved the affinity between all the residences as much as possible) or does it just mean that the affinity with the area is really high?

I'm still really enjoying the game at about the 70 hour mark even though I'm not yet done the story; the sidequest I mentioned above was definitely the lowest point in the game for me so far. Considering it doesn't happen until this far into the game and it's completely optional, I don't think that's too bad at all. I'm also a little disappointed in the reskinned enemies that appear; given all the nice touches like
glowing horns at night
and the nice designs that are given to even normal enemies, it would be nice to fight a set of unique monsters in each area. Even though the environments are so vast and different from each other, I find the formulaic parts (such as
"evil tribe in this area causing trouble for the village"
) and the reskinned enemies to be somewhat of a letdown in comparison. I know that this occurs in a lot of RPGs and there are probably constraints in terms of disc space for the different enemies and whatnot but for all the great things that Xenoblade Chronicles does, it's a shame that so many enemies are reused throughout the different areas.
 

Alchemy

Member
I'm convinced this game is terrible and you all have horrible taste in games. I just got to
Valak Mountain
. I was level 43, creatures started to catch up to me but it seemed like pretty even leveling. I basically gave up on side quests because they're all horrible kill/collect padding, even the more important side quests that add to story or
help rebuild Colony 6
are just basic and bland kill/collect missions.

So I'm chugging along, and all of sudden there is this level jump in mobs and they all out level me 2-3 levels. That was a great sign of things to come because I finally reach
Mumkhar
and he out levels me by 5 levels and I can't even manage to land topple during a chain attack because of all the misses. Oh boy.

So now it is back to grinding to play catch up, but combat isn't exactly a strong point for the game. It is a notch below mediocre honestly. The lack of control over your team is beyond frustrating. How am I supposed to feel when I wipe because my healer decided to run into melee range and stand in front of a cone attack that got her killed? Or when my other partners are spamming topple skills on things with no break, wasting their cool downs?

Yes, there is a lot of the game but most of it isn't anything special. You have to grind the affinity system to make good use of the skill trees and crafting is beyond tedious. I would hardly say this is the best JRPG of this generation. I'm starting to believe a good portion of the hype around this game was just from the fact it was a decent attempt at a AAA JRPG on the Wii and not another Just Dance game.

I managed to get up to around 44.5 before turning the game off out of pure boredom. I'll probably give the boss fight another try and hope to hell it isn't still a missfest so I can topple the bastard, but I'm not sure I can put up with grinding in this game and might just have to shelve it. Which is unfortunate because the plot is decently entertaining and I wanted to see it the whole way through.

Hopefully I can get over this hump but if not, I at least have Disgaea 3 on the way.
 
I'm starting to believe a good portion of the hype around this game was just from the fact it was a decent attempt at a AAA JRPG on the Wii and not another Just Dance game.

This is like the go-to line when it comes to trolling the Wii and its games.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member

The stars themselves don't really mean anything, they are just a visual representation of your affinity with the area. There are a lot of cases where you might have enough stars for a quest to activate, but your actual affinity with the area is still slightly low.

And most areas in the game introduce some new types of enemies, though they do get recycled later usually. I think that area you were at was the first time you encounter slobos. The next area has
some new mechon enemies, and there is another new type a couple areas beyond that.
And some areas have a lot of unique types like Makna Forest and (late game area)
Bionis Interior
.



And regarding Alchemy, I don't see how you can end up so underleveled, especially if you're doing some quests and apparently grinding. I'm having the opposite problem and have temporarily disabled exp gaining altogether since I've been getting more and more overleveled without grinding and before I really even started focusing on quests.
 

anaron

Member
I'm convinced this game is terrible and you all have horrible taste in games. I just got to
Valak Mountain
. I was level 43, creatures started to catch up to me but it seemed like pretty even leveling. I basically gave up on side quests because they're all horrible kill/collect padding, even the more important side quests that add to story or
help rebuild Colony 6
are just basic and bland kill/collect missions.

So I'm chugging along, and all of sudden there is this level jump in mobs and they all out level me 2-3 levels. That was a great sign of things to come because I finally reach
Mumkhar
and he out levels me by 5 levels and I can't even manage to land topple during a chain attack because of all the misses. Oh boy.

So now it is back to grinding to play catch up, but combat isn't exactly a strong point for the game. It is a notch below mediocre honestly. The lack of control over your team is beyond frustrating. How am I supposed to feel when I wipe because my healer decided to run into melee range and stand in front of a cone attack that got her killed? Or when my other partners are spamming topple skills on things with no break, wasting their cool downs?

Yes, there is a lot of the game but most of it isn't anything special. You have to grind the affinity system to make good use of the skill trees and crafting is beyond tedious. I would hardly say this is the best JRPG of this generation. I'm starting to believe a good portion of the hype around this game was just from the fact it was a decent attempt at a AAA JRPG on the Wii and not another Just Dance game.

I managed to get up to around 44.5 before turning the game off out of pure boredom. I'll probably give the boss fight another try and hope to hell it isn't still a missfest so I can topple the bastard, but I'm not sure I can put up with grinding in this game and might just have to shelve it. Which is unfortunate because the plot is decently entertaining and I wanted to see it the whole way through.

Hopefully I can get over this hump but if not, I at least have Disgaea 3 on the way.

XSdMm.gif


Huh.
 

Grampasso

Member
I'm convinced this game is terrible and you all have horrible taste in games. I just got to
Valak Mountain
. I was level 43, creatures started to catch up to me but it seemed like pretty even leveling. I basically gave up on side quests because they're all horrible kill/collect padding, even the more important side quests that add to story or
help rebuild Colony 6
are just basic and bland kill/collect missions.

So I'm chugging along, and all of sudden there is this level jump in mobs and they all out level me 2-3 levels. That was a great sign of things to come because I finally reach
Mumkhar
and he out levels me by 5 levels and I can't even manage to land topple during a chain attack because of all the misses. Oh boy.

So now it is back to grinding to play catch up, but combat isn't exactly a strong point for the game. It is a notch below mediocre honestly. The lack of control over your team is beyond frustrating. How am I supposed to feel when I wipe because my healer decided to run into melee range and stand in front of a cone attack that got her killed? Or when my other partners are spamming topple skills on things with no break, wasting their cool downs?

Yes, there is a lot of the game but most of it isn't anything special. You have to grind the affinity system to make good use of the skill trees and crafting is beyond tedious. I would hardly say this is the best JRPG of this generation. I'm starting to believe a good portion of the hype around this game was just from the fact it was a decent attempt at a AAA JRPG on the Wii and not another Just Dance game.

I managed to get up to around 44.5 before turning the game off out of pure boredom. I'll probably give the boss fight another try and hope to hell it isn't still a missfest so I can topple the bastard, but I'm not sure I can put up with grinding in this game and might just have to shelve it. Which is unfortunate because the plot is decently entertaining and I wanted to see it the whole way through.

Hopefully I can get over this hump but if not, I at least have Disgaea 3 on the way.
So you're just saying that because you totally avoided side quests monsters started outleveling you? That's quite strange... I guess how this could happen :rolleye:
 

ZenaxPure

Member
So you're just saying that because you totally avoided side quests monsters started outleveling you? That's quite strange... I guess how this could happen :rolleye:

I avoided side quests as well (as pointed out a billion times by now I know, sorry) but I never really found myself under-leveled until the next to last dungeon of the game. In fact at one point I was over-leveled (specifically the part he just finished) and I had no freaking clue how since I was avoiding every sidequest. The only way I can imagine you ever get under-leveled is by not fighting everything you come across. If you constantly walk around enemies instead of rushing through them to attack you will clearly not level as fast (this is precisely why I was such a low level for the final dungeon).

I think I agree with a lot of his points (as pointed out earlier in the thread), but yeah I don't really consider the game mediocre in any stretch of the imagination. Above average, great, a fun time - adjectives I'd use to describe my experience, but certainly not mediocre. I am not sure I can fathom the thought of someone thinking this is mediocre compared to some other stuff to come out this gen like Infinite Undiscovery which is truly the appropriate game to slap a label such as mediocre onto. Tons of systems used once and never touched again, legitimately useless character crafting skills, convoluted combat mechanics not incorporated into the game at all. Things a real mediocre game actually has, but certainly not Xenoblade, at least all the mechanics make sense.

How much longer do I have if I'm at the
2nd Gadolt
fight?

Probably like
10
hours if you just go straight through the story at that point and do nothing else.
 

Omzz

Member
about 40 hours in...and im gonna guess
dickson is going to be a dick and betray me? the way this guy has been acting has been extremeelyy shady. always knowing where i am, spying at me from corners? if so...fuck you dickson

anyways this game has been great. if i were to complain about something, sometimes the camera gets outta wack when battling. also not really a fan of constant "future seeing" during battle. kinda ruins the flow of the game. wouldn't mind it if it was occasionally, but it's just too frequent for my liking.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
Well, guess I'll do that then. I just want to see the ending at this point

As you should, it's.... just so amazing. On a side note for you, though,
I don't believe there are many side quests left for you to do anyway (aside from those you've picked up already, obviously). Most of the last few hours is strictly story stuff with very few new side quests popping up.
 
I like running off and finding all the named mobs and messing them up. Only at the "leg" area mind you so that might get abit boring 30+ hours in.
 
Question: Do Ether Up gems increase healing? I've got Sharla decked out with them so I really hope so.
Ether is the magic stat and healing spells are ether based so yes. Also you can see this in-game by comparing the HP healed in the art description with and without the gems.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I like running off and finding all the named mobs and messing them up. Only at the "leg" area mind you so that might get abit boring 30+ hours in.

That's one of the things I'm doing on my playthrough, but it's my second one and I'm using a list to make sure I hit them all. I've killed nearly all of them up to level 65 or so (which, if you want a number, is
92 so far, of 157 total, excluding quest-specific enemies.

Honestly, I'm finding the majority of them extremely easy. It's nice when one poses a real threat, but the ones that are just ridiculously powerful (
Mischievious Naberius, Magestic Mordred
) tend to be less fun. Hopefully that second one I mentioned will be less troublesome than the first one was, I should be a bit better prepared for it.
 

Zornica

Banned
Late game sidquest spoilers:
Was anybody else hoping/thinking the Replica Monado quests would result in Monado style weapons for the rest of the party? Feels like a missed opportunity for something cool there.

yes, that was my 1st thought too. Kinda disapointing... at least some of them were better than the original.

Also, some sixty hours into the game I finally realized that if you pull up a quest it will show you the closest landmark to the NPC who gave it to you. [...]
wow... I never realized that Oo and I spent at least over 200 hours with the game.


Is there ANY possible way, someone could send me a save file or instruct me on how to use one of the part of the game where you reach
the city where you fight Gadolt for the 2nd time in the city with the dead Telethia on the floor
? I've been asking the internet forever, but no one has come through to help me. I bricked my Wii, and lost all my save files so anyone who could hook this save file up, preferably at this boss battle would be FOREVER thanked and loved.

Do you still need that save file?
I got one right at that point befor the 2nd g. fight.
It's in Pal, so you would need to convert it though.
 
Two hours in and I still haven't tried to do the main story yet after Reyn left my party. Just running around doing quests and making trades. The open field entices me to venture yonder @_@
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Who drops spike defense V gems?

Satorl Marsh: Ice Elemental
Makna Forest: Fire Elemental
Eryth Sea: Lograt Kromar, Thunder Elemental
Valak Mountain: Slobos

Very late game area spoilers:
Bionis' Interior: Jelly Selua, Largo Selua, Chimai Selua
Prison Island: Earth/Ice/Fire/Wind/Thunder Elemental

The google document has a list of all the Rank V gem drops.



Also, I think I found a glitch/bug that's kind of interesting. Maybe somebody can confirm, but twice I've survived attacks that should have killed me by activating a chain attack right as the enemy uses the attack.

In the first instance I wasn't really watching the numbers and I figured hey, maybe I just HAPPENED to get hit for an amount of damage that left me with 1HP. But then it happened again with an AoE attack that left two characters with 1HP, and the damage dealt should have been more than enough to kill me (Titan Stamp). Instead it let me start the chain attack. And no, I am not using Unbeatable gems.

Edit: And it looks like this is indeed the case and it also protects you from other things like topple and debuffs too. Now that I know about it I'm going to feel the need to take advantage of it...
 
OK, I usually hate silly/joke characters in games because they all seem like cookie cutter amusement exhibits to me. But I have to admit, the
Riki
introduction cutscene made me laugh a couple times.
Melia's intro cutscene made me laugh a couple times as well.
"Hey Shulk, you're creeping this lady out!" Plus the scene right after where Reyn is giving Shulk a bunch of shit for his "imaginary friend." Hahaha.

Is there a certain threshold where we don't have to spoiler tag stuff? Like I know I've thrown out areas like the Bionis' Knee and character names like Sharla without censoring them -- is this wrong? I saw people mention the names Melia (who I just got in my last 10 minutes of playing last night) and Riki (no idea who he/she is). I don't really feel like knowing Melia's name in advance ruined anything for me, nor did knowing the names of general areas like the Bionis' Knee, Colony 6, etc. But if people want me to, I'll go back and spoiler tag stuff more rigidly.

That said, I'm excited to use Melia; I had to hit the sack last night before I got to use her in a battle. The pacing of her addition was perfect -- I was just starting to wonder when I'd get a new character to use. I also hear she's a little tricky to use effectively, so I'm curious to see how she works.

Ether is the magic stat and healing spells are ether based so yes. Also you can see this in-game by comparing the HP healed in the art description with and without the gems.

Thank you. I figured as much, since I haven't seen any "healing arts up" gems or anything.

Going further with gem questions...

What is better for Shulk/non-tanking Dunban: Atk Stability & Atk Plus, or just stacking Strength Up gems?

What is better for Reyn: HP Up, or stacking Muscle Up and Ether Def Up gems?
 

burgerdog

Member
Satorl Marsh: Ice Elemental
Makna Forest: Fire Elemental
Eryth Sea: Lograt Kromar, Thunder Elemental
Valak Mountain: Slobos

Very late game area spoilers:
Bionis' Interior: Jelly Selua, Largo Selua, Chimai Selua
Prison Island: Earth/Ice/Fire/Wind/Thunder Elemental

The google document has a list of all the Rank V gem drops.



Also, I think I found a glitch/bug that's kind of interesting. Maybe somebody can confirm, but twice I've survived attacks that should have killed me by activating a chain attack right as the enemy uses the attack.

In the first instance I wasn't really watching the numbers and I figured hey, maybe I just HAPPENED to get hit for an amount of damage that left me with 1HP. But then it happened again with an AoE attack that left two characters with 1HP, and the damage dealt should have been more than enough to kill me (Titan Stamp). Instead it let me start the chain attack. And no, I am not using Unbeatable gems.

Edit: And it looks like this is indeed the case and it also protects you from other things like topple and debuffs too. Now that I know about it I'm going to feel the need to take advantage of it...

I completely over looked the gem section of the google doc, thanks.

Ahh, that happened to me once and just like you I thought I simply got lucky with 1hp. That is going to come in handy, nice find.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Is there a certain threshold where we don't have to spoiler tag stuff? Like I know I've thrown out areas like the Bionis' Knee and character names like Sharla without censoring them -- is this wrong? I saw people mention the names Melia (who I just got in my last 10 minutes of playing last night) and Riki (no idea who he/she is). I don't really feel like knowing Melia's name in advance ruined anything for me, nor did knowing the names of general areas like the Bionis' Knee, Colony 6, etc. But if people want me to, I'll go back and spoiler tag stuff more rigidly.

That said, I'm excited to use Melia; I had to hit the sack last night before I got to use her in a battle. The pacing of her addition was perfect -- I was just starting to wonder when I'd get a new character to use. I also hear she's a little tricky to use effectively, so I'm curious to see how she works.



Thank you. I figured as much, since I haven't seen any "healing arts up" gems or anything.

Going further with gem questions...

What is better for Shulk/non-tanking Dunban: Atk Stability & Atk Plus, or just stacking Strength Up gems?

What is better for Reyn: HP Up, or stacking Muscle Up and Ether Def Up gems?

I spoiler tag any area after Valak Mountain. And I don't really see a point in spoiler tagging Melia or Riki. I mean, both of them are in the game's manual as far as I remember.

With Dunban and Shulk (and really anybody except Reyn and Sharla) agility is great. Between attack improvement gems, they all basically just raise your average damage. Just use whatever increases it the most.

For Reyn, I'd user HP up first (HP helps against any enemy), then Muscle Up (most of the time defense is more important than ether defense). I'd only use ether defense gems on him if you're struggling against an enemy that's really hurting him with ether attacks.

Speaking of defense, I generally use light or low weight medium armor on pretty much every character except Reyn until you unlock things that would make other setups more beneficial. Reyn gets whatever has the best defense, and Dunban always gets light armor.
 

StAidan

Member
According to an analyst firm, Xenoblade Chronicles is expected to be the third best selling title for April! The article states that Mass Effect 3 and Prototype 2 took the top two spots on the software chart. We'll have to wait until May 10 for April's NPD info

http://gamasutra.com/view/news/1697...urn_to_alternative_entertainment__analyst.php

Man. As much as I'm enjoying this game, this news is really surprising. But if true, it's probably enough to justify the U.S. release, considering how minimal the localization effort must have been.
 

Hiltz

Member
Prototype 1 topped the charts during the first month of its release. It sold 419.9k copies on the 360 (nearly 600k with combined PS3 sales). By March 2012, the game sold 2.1 million copies. I bet Xenoblade probably sold under 270k copies.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
Well I hope it just managed to turn a profit is all, I want to believe they can so Nintendo will actually realize releasing our silly niche games is worth it. I will say though 270k (even as a guess) is more than I figured it would. I was going to guess around 100k.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Well I hope it just managed to turn a profit is all, I want to believe they can so Nintendo will actually realize releasing our silly niche games is worth it. I will say though 270k (even as a guess) is more than I figured it would. I was going to guess around 100k.

Same. 200k would probably be really nice for Nintendo given how little effort they put into the release.
 

ZenaxPure

Member
I still can't believe NoA didn't see the potential for this game from the get go, it really is a wonderfully made game.

You can't blame them, it's a risky game. Ignoring the fact JRPGs are pretty niche over here anyway it's a "real" game on the Wii. The perception is that gamers as a whole don't care about their Wiis anymore and then asking them to buy a JRPG? Hah.

I probably would of made a similar decision if I were in their shoes.
 
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