Yes, the only thing you will miss is some extra experience points, items, and gems.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!
- Thread starter SecretMoblin
- Start date
Yes, the only thing you will miss is some extra experience points, items, and gems.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I don't think any of the big rewards like skill trees are missable by not doing timed quests. I thought some of them were, but it looks like that's not the case.
Spoilers are for late/near end-game again. Lol
. Beat that at level 71, without using Melia, Riki, or Sharla. And it was still ridiculously easy.
Also maxed out the nature part of Colony 6 a while ago, so I was able to get Agility V gems to craft into VI ones.
And only four more unique enemies below level 80 to tackle. One back on the Leg, one I need to go to the previous area for, and two more in the area where I'm at. Couple of them also drop some advanced art books I need, so I might end up grinding them briefly.
Spoilers are for late/near end-game again. Lol
Lorithia
Fiora got high enough tension to use Final Cross a minute or so into the battle, and that was it. Lorithia never recovered from the topple/daze state and the battle was over within a couple chain attacks.
Also maxed out the nature part of Colony 6 a while ago, so I was able to get Agility V gems to craft into VI ones.
And only four more unique enemies below level 80 to tackle. One back on the Leg, one I need to go to the previous area for, and two more in the area where I'm at. Couple of them also drop some advanced art books I need, so I might end up grinding them briefly.
I finally beat the game last night. All lv100+ UM killed, all heart to heart watched, Colony 6 at 100%, all possible quests finished, and optimal gear and gem set ups. Final damage was 139 hours. Loved every moment of it and I kind of want to play it again and just do a story run.
endgame spoiler
after 200 hours with the pal and der jp version, I'd have never guessed that there is so much unseen contend left...
after 200 hours with the pal and der jp version, I'd have never guessed that there is so much unseen contend left...
I read about the tyrea quest again, put the game back in my drive for the first time since last year october and went to colony 6 to finally do it. and wow... Why weren't all sidequests like that? How could I miss something like this?
Running through makna again really made me feel sentimental :7 I really need to replay this again soon -_-
btw: sharla (or 7th?) said something about seeing tyrea again soon... are there more quests involving her?
Running through makna again really made me feel sentimental :7 I really need to replay this again soon -_-
btw: sharla (or 7th?) said something about seeing tyrea again soon... are there more quests involving her?
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Yes, they stack.
And I think I'm going to try and beat the game at level
77
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Final boss at that level was ridiculously easy too. I still felt overleveled even though I beat it at a lower level than some people seem to struggle at, and the boss had a red nameplate indicating I was underleveled. Dolphin couldn't keep a decent framerate for anything, the battle ran at like 15 FPS and the jittery QTEs were kind of hard to hit.
But yeah, otherwise, it was extremely easy. Certainly more so than my first playthrough, better party setup > higher level.
But yeah, otherwise, it was extremely easy. Certainly more so than my first playthrough, better party setup > higher level.
Exactly what I was saying!
They did not really do a great job balancing characters imo. Some party setups are clearly far more overpowered than others. That's not to say there is only one good group but rather I think there is just as many bad group setups as there are good and I assume a lot of people were using lesser ones when they tried the final boss.
I don't know how it ended up that way, part of it may have to do with so many mechanics in the game. Every character plays more different than alike and you have tension, gems, chain attacks, and so on that it was probably impossible to balance it all.
I think in retrospect I would have appreciated some mechanics being removed in favor of more balanced gameplay. It was just far to easy to break Xenoblade which really bums me out.
82 hours in at this point with my party at level 58; I have now reached the
. I don't really get how
but maybe that's explained later on. I officially got the seventh character at this point;
In any case, I need to build up affinity throughout my party so I suppose I'll be giving some gifts now as well as doing the new quests I've been given. It seems like I finally have
and access to many of the heart-to-hearts so I suppose the final push to complete everything will happen as my party levels up and explores the new areas I find. Does the game give any indication if you've completed every possible quest
or is that something you have to check via external sources?
Hidden Machina Village
everyone survived that fall without a scratch
I haven't spent much time with the new Fiora so I don't know how she plays this time around, but I'm definitely going to look at her in-game tutorial and check it out. She definitely seems like she has some pretty strong attacks (very position-based like Shulk's) and her regeneration Art is way better than Melia's even at the first level.
In any case, I need to build up affinity throughout my party so I suppose I'll be giving some gifts now as well as doing the new quests I've been given. It seems like I finally have
all five areas on the Affinity Chart
since the five-star rating doesn't seem to say anything
The Wii was really chugging on the final boss for me too. I was level 93, so trounced the final boss without breaking a sweat (I'd guess he's around level 78-80 standard), and completed the game with a total time of 115 hours, of which the last ten-odd hours were spent levelling up in order to complete the final sidequests. Loved the twist in the final cutscene, and
Dixon's death
EDIT: Would also like to say that, despite some balancing issues, it's amazing that I encountered no serious bugs throughout my entire playthrough. It's a reminder of how patching has allowed certain developers to be incredibly lazy when it comes to releasing games, usually a tenth the size of this one, in the best possible shape for their release.
*I know nothing about game development, so excuse me if this comment is profoundly misguided.
i've been using her as the main character since about this time, so for 30-40 hours or so. she's really fucking good, but you have to level her double attack and speed in general.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I don't just mean characters but skills/links and making an effort to get good gems for the point in the game you're at. But character choice is part of it. I think all the game mechanics are pretty sound, I don't know of anything I'd want to remove, but the characters and some skills definitely could have been balanced better.
Thinking out loud for a moment here.
The obvious example is they really could have balanced your two primary tanks far, far better. Reyn has the advantage when it comes to large mobs, but that's it. In every other situation (which includes practically every important boss fight/unique enemy) Dunban outclasses him.
Dunban should have been weaker, damage-wise, and his agility shouldn't be so high that with some skill links and moderately good gems he can easily take on enemies that other characters can't even touch. Specifically, he was able to basically take out a level 79 enemy at level 71 by himself, because my other two party members couldn't do anything. Maybe the way accuracy is handled by agility just needed to be changed. And Reyn, if anything, should deal more damage than Dunban.
Shulk is completely broken all around if you level up and take advantage of the right arts, and he's doubly completely broken once you max his 5th skill tree, since it
allows you to use the overpowered Monado arts without any concern for visions
Melia's elementals should have been a lot weaker, or at least bolt, and the cooldowns (especially on bolt) should have been longer. And some of the buffs should have been better to make you want to use them. The agility one is fine, and probably the ether one. All the others I'd call into question, I never see a point in keeping a flare element up.
Sharla needed more diversity in her arts. She was too much support, not enough anything else.
I'll admit I haven't used Riki much in either playthrough, so I can't comment on him.
And the last character,
it would be fine if not for the horribly overpowered skills. Combine that will good gems and a few key skill links and you have a monster that can almost solo the later part of the game if you don't intentionally underlevel yourself.
I think skills might have worked better if instead of unlocking them and having everything active, you instead had two "pools" of affiinty coins. One for skill links as is, and one for that character's own skills. That way you actually have to manage your skills instead of just unlocking them and overpowering yourself. Some people probably wouldn't like that since the game already has enough micromanagement, since I've seen some people prefer to avoid the skill system altogether.
And I guess chain attacks could have been more limited. It's crazy when you have a 12-15 link long chain attack, sometimes I'm tempted to end chains early because I don't even have that many arts to use during the chain. I end up just using support arts and auras :lol
I played it when the PAL version came out, that was on the Wii. I don't remember that battle being that bad (nothing in the game was THAT bad, but one late game boss came close). Final boss is
level 82
at 79
at 77
And just seeing the ending again, I didn't realize how open for a sequel it was the first time. It doesn't really leave anything dangling in front of you, but at the same time they left the ending open in a way they could write in a sequel without continuity issues.
That sounds pretty promising
but her jumping sound is pretty painful to listen to! She definitely seems like she can hold her own and if she turns out as powerful as Shulk or Melia under my control that would be awesome. Thanks for the tip about the double attack! I've been looking more into agility as well recently and it helped me out against a couple unique monsters I was having trouble with.
This is the big thing for me. Honestly the most I had a chain link go for is about 6 attacks. I never had anything (outside of some bosses) survive it, you just do far to much damage during it, especially with Dunban. Max chain Blossom Dance hits for more damage than most enemies have HP, including some bosses. Not to mention Shulk's Backslash (and other abilities) start to hit really hard.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Next area I think. Don't recall any sooner than that.
ok thanks!
From what I understand, if you need items from a locked out zone late in the game, you either:
1) Find somebody who has the item for trade.
2) Level up Colony 6 and pray you can find what you need.
I beat that UM without resist daze and 5 levels below con. Just take control of Shulk and abuse Monado Purge.
she starts off pretty meh, to be sure. the only reason i had her was to level affinity. there's a skill that makes any double-attack a critical attack, every time guaranteed. so make sure you get that skill as soon as possible. dunban has a skill that has a 2% chance of returning hp for every critical attack, or maybe it's 2% hp returned for every critical attack landed (probably the latter). if you can get those on her and level her haste spell, she'll be a monster. i think she does more damage per second that shulk or dunban for me right now. not sure about melia, since melia can poison/burn, but it's close.
The nameplate is always red, it was red for me at lv99.
Yeah, I have one item which is now unattainable and is preventing a full rebuilding. Sucks
Its not impossible, i started rebuilding Colony 6 AFTER
every Mechonis zones were gone
I suppose it makes sense story-wise that
she starts off "pretty meh" seeing as how she still seems kind of weak while talking to Shulk. I switched to her because she was the shiny new character and I also want to get her Arts achievement plus the affinity with the rest of the gang. I'll have to check which skill tree is active the next time I boot up the game.
Maybe, but I think the real issue is that you just don't need a tank unless the enemy is more than five levels above you. Everything else can pretty much be outhealed or simply blitzed down with mostly equal efficiency and without much difficulty. Though I'm wondering how you got Dunban to be effective against enemies that much higher level than him, since in my experience melee characters simply can't hit let alone dodge enemies with a level advantage of 6 or more, and that's with all the agility/accuracy boosts I can stack on to them, in which case I generally use Reyn to grind my way through thanks to his generally higher defense and more efficient aggro abilities.
I'm in the middle of playing (what sure has to be) the last boss. About a minute into this attempt, "Communication with the Wii remote has been interrupted". Man, what a buzz kill. It's charging now, but I might just go hunt down some AAs. Itching to get back in, but I don't want constant battery interruptions.
I really need to find a better time to play this game. My gaming time in recent days have been late in the evening (past 8pm est). I'm really enjoying the game. Up to level 30 now and about to progress more with the story (
) after messing around Colony 6 and doing some side quest. Think I'm going to cool it with side quest for a while though. Want to see more of the story. However the music and visuals of the game, which are great, are making me really tired. I think the issue is that I'm tired anyway when I start playing and the game is just making me even more relaxed or content which helps put me down quicker. It's part of why I haven't been playing it as much as I wish I was.
Skyward Sword did this to me as well. The visuals and music (which are very pleasing to the eyes and ears) turned out to be a negative mix when I was already tired to begin with. I started making a LOT of progress in that game when I started playing in the mornings (around 9am) and into the afternoon when I didn't have to do anything on some weekends. I wonder if I'm going have to start doing that with Xenoblade. I could always mute the game I guess but would hate to do that. Then I'm just left in a quite room as I play. I hope I don't have to do that with The Last Story. However the art style in that game seems a bit darker and music sounds louder. So maybe that wont' be a problem, similar to how this wasn't an issue with Final Fantasy 13.
Or maybe I need to have my eyes checked or something.
Need to look for the four items in Satorl Marsh to complete some ceramony.
Skyward Sword did this to me as well. The visuals and music (which are very pleasing to the eyes and ears) turned out to be a negative mix when I was already tired to begin with. I started making a LOT of progress in that game when I started playing in the mornings (around 9am) and into the afternoon when I didn't have to do anything on some weekends. I wonder if I'm going have to start doing that with Xenoblade. I could always mute the game I guess but would hate to do that. Then I'm just left in a quite room as I play. I hope I don't have to do that with The Last Story. However the art style in that game seems a bit darker and music sounds louder. So maybe that wont' be a problem, similar to how this wasn't an issue with Final Fantasy 13.
Or maybe I need to have my eyes checked or something.
Finally beat the game.
Not sure if what Shulk said at the end was just there in case of a sequel...although i wonder where it could be. The Bionis is gone and the new land just next to it...well i have no idea how big or small it is. Still, i would really like another game with these characters and with graphics that are more current gen than last gen. Hopefully Monolith will show its Wii U RPG at E3, although i know the chances are slim. Going to be more Mario & Pikmin than anything.
Diddy Kong
Banned
I really hope this becomes a series. I loved all of the characters..
The Awesomest
Member
-Doing the 'Mystery of Makna Ruins' series of quests. Finished 1 and 2, but Lupa isn't offering 3 for some reason. What's going on?
-What the heck is 'overtrading'?
-What the heck is 'overtrading'?
Trade an item that is worth significantly more than their item.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Holy shit at all these subquests. I love the insta complete, but i would have loved some location markers. IS there one and i just missed it?
I got fatigued on playing Xenoblade several times because of how addictive it is. Just try to cut back your gameplay time by breaking it up into multiple gameplay sessions for less than 4 hours at a time. It may even be a good idea to skip a day or two from playing altogether once in a while. I'd often find that it is more effective to set up a rule where you stop playing after a certain time. Cause telling yourself to "stop after getting just a little bit further into the game" usually doesn't work out that well.
This, I'm not very happy with NoA right now. It will easily be my game of the year, if not generation.
Ugh I'm getting so fed up with (late game spoilers):
Any tips besides grinding?
The 2nd Gadolt fight. All of my characters are level 67, he's 68. I can get him down to about half health and then he uses some OHKO AoE attack (Laser Bullet or something IIRC) that I can never dodge and that Shield also won't work against (and it's at level 7). It's also not helping that Shulk's AI is terrible and they'll be good portion of the fight where Dunban is just consistently dealing 1 damage per hit. I control Melia and the other AI is Shulk so we still do damage, but still having Dunban do only 1 damage instead of all his potential is super annoying.
Any tips besides grinding?
If Dunban is only doing 1 damage that means the monado buff is not up. If you're not directly controlling Shulk I'd strongly suggest giving Dunban an anti-mech weapon, you've probably found quite a few on your way to that boss, so check your bags. If you don't have one I'd just teleport to a shopkeeper somewhere and pick one up.
Secondly I can not recall but is Laser Bullet a red text attack? The only attacks shield works against are the ones that have a number (1-10 obviously) to the side of them. The red text ones are melee I believe which means you need Shulk to use the ability that gives you a increased chance to dodge.
Secondly I can not recall but is Laser Bullet a red text attack? The only attacks shield works against are the ones that have a number (1-10 obviously) to the side of them. The red text ones are melee I believe which means you need Shulk to use the ability that gives you a increased chance to dodge.
Head of Vengarl
Banned
Oh god this. I actually set a timer on my phone for 1.5 hours at a time, to make sure I get proper water/food/bathroom/exercise breaks. The times I forget to do this, like tonight, I will blow through 3-4 hours without realizing it. Definitely not healthy...
Melia is the one who I'm controlling. I realize that means the buff isn't up but (before this situation) I'd rather have Dunban do more damage than have the weaker Mechon weapons. Until now Shulk never really had trouble keeping up with that buff though. I guess I'll just have to give him an Anti-Mechon weapon for this battle.
I didn't know that about the red text arts though. It's definitely not a numbered one so I'll have to try using that other art next time instead, thanks!
I didn't know that about the red text arts though. It's definitely not a numbered one so I'll have to try using that other art next time instead, thanks!
Head of Vengarl
Banned
Man, I've played a bunch of hours since my last update but I've done too much to report on. I'm at the part (mid-game spoilers)
Thankfully I had already explored a lot of the area so I was able to just skip to the locations, lol. Made that story quest a lot easier.
I'm a bit overleveled so I was messing around with Sharla, who I deem to be the most useless character (although she isn't terrible by any means). I've been trying to level up her affinity with Dunban so he can get her +10 agility skill link. She's pretty fun to use at times, and a beast of a healer, but then there are times where her heals aren't needed and she's just kinda... there. Thankfully
so I've been using her some more. I didn't think she was all that great in my earlier posts, but then I had the recent realization that her summon buffs stack. That is fucking awesome. At the moment I double up on her Wind Summon so Shulk and Dunban get 20% extra agility, and then I alternate between her lightning and fire attacks, throwing in a water one when I need healing. Shulk's AI hasn't been too bad lately, although he seems to like casting
on himself, which does absolutely no good because Dunban is the one who's taking the shots. :\ But oh well, he still pisses me off less than Riki for some reason.
While I'm at it, I have a Melia question: Does her fire attack's afterburn stack with itself? Like, if I summon 2 of them and release them on the same enemy, will it suffer afterburn for each one?
where the Mechon begin their assault on Bionis. I just unlocked the route to Prison Island.
I'm a bit overleveled so I was messing around with Sharla, who I deem to be the most useless character (although she isn't terrible by any means). I've been trying to level up her affinity with Dunban so he can get her +10 agility skill link. She's pretty fun to use at times, and a beast of a healer, but then there are times where her heals aren't needed and she's just kinda... there. Thankfully
I just got Melia back from the tomb quest
Speed
While I'm at it, I have a Melia question: Does her fire attack's afterburn stack with itself? Like, if I summon 2 of them and release them on the same enemy, will it suffer afterburn for each one?
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
It's blue IIRC, not red. So there's really only one option to negate the damage. Go back to
Fallen Arm
Monado Armor, which reduces ANY damage and not just enemy Talent Arts
If you have that art at a reasonable level you should be able to breeze through that battle.
No, enemies will only take up to one of each different status ailment. So you can inflict Bleed+Blaze+Chill+Poison all at the same time, but you can't have two Blaze effects at once. And the damage from two doesn't stack, but I think it does increase if you use it while you have a chain attack multiplier going.
Might have to progress the story a little further. I don't think it's available as early as the first two, but I'm not 100% sure. Or it might be that it requires higher area affinity. Either way, it wasn't immediately available for me either.
Overtrading is when you trade an item that is of much higher value than the item you're trading for. So you might be trading for something that's only worth around 1000, but you trade something worth 10000, they'll give you a second item for overtrading. I think area affinity affects overtrading, the higher your affinity the lower the value required to overtrade.
Agility VI for max boost from the gem, the standard agility skill links, plus numerous other non-standard ones like increasing it when his HP was lower than 50%, battle start affinity agility boost, etc, and Dunban also has an aura that increases accuracy/evasion, which is effectively an agility aura. He wasn't hitting every attack, but he was also not even missing enough to go into normal/low tension.
I could have sworn it was yellow for me on my first playthrough. Maybe I'm just not remembering right.
I'd like to use Dunban instead of Reyn but I just don't know how to "do" it. Mainly because when he jumps in the party there's already lot of affinity between the starter characters, so it seems a "waste" not using them any more, but it also means that the more I'll use them, the least I'll use the others... and I don't understand if I should use him "without armor" (avoidance boost with no armor? @_@ Is that worth? Does it stack with every piece of armor or does it mean I have to wear no armor at all to get the buff?).
Also, looks like there's only a healer in the first 6 characters, how am I supposed to beat the bosses without her if I wanna try different groups?
Edit: Is Melia's healing consistent?
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
The no armor skills are kind of a gimmick. There's also an unlockable skill from another character you can link in that will increase all stats with no gems equipped, which is useful for a naked Dunban. I never bothered with it though.
Just use light armor on him, boost his agility as high as possible, and he'll dodge most non-ether attacks, and light armor has very good ether resistance which helps for those attacks. Dunban is also an awesome damage dealer. Not sure if he's immediately better than Shulk, but he will eventually surpass him by a decent margin.
And the thing about Sharla is that she slows down battles a lot, so characters take more damage due to fighting longer, so they require more healing. There are several ways to heal without Sharla, although she obviously is the best way to heal a lot of damage immediately. She's absolutely not necessary though, see all my comments about going through the later parts of the game underleveled and not using Sharla at all (for the entire playthrough apart from where it was required, i.e., not having another party member to replace her with, or to talk to someone to start/end a quest).
Shulk and Riki's healing skills are good enough to get you through most battles, you can link Shulk's Friendship Heals skill around that will heal your party after chain attacks, and for characters like Dunban, Reyn, and the 7th character aura heal can be a useful gem since it practically turns any aura into a regen aura, among other things.
Thanks for the tips! Will try them as soon as I start my new playthrough. Now if only I could find that 30fps patch ç_ç
Oh, look like I found it *_* Will try at home
Similar threads
- Locked