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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 20, 2022 11:11:02 GMT
Tiger Tiger was my biggest problem with Poppi as well, as busted as she is (especially QTπ) it's just so flipping tedious to do the minigame over and over that after a while I just never bothered with Tora at all... It gets fixed in NG+ since you can just buy most of her stuff with banked Exp. (which is far quicker to get with the level reduction you can do) but by that point...
I'm just glad they did something different with Ino (the DLC Blade) in 3, harvesting High Ether is much less annoying.
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Dec 20, 2022 11:17:36 GMT
Main problem I have with Tiger Tiger is that there is no quick reset for it. I don't mind playing the actual arcade game (especially when I realised there isn't any penalty for sticking it on easy), but having to sit through the adding up the score, entering the high score, going back into the main game, opening up Tiger Tiger again, waiting for the title to appear, selecting the difficulty and finally selecting the stage. If you could add extra credits, so you quickly get back into it, it would be less tedious and you could probably have about double the number of attempts in the same amount of time.
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gamecat
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Post by gamecat on Dec 20, 2022 12:11:52 GMT
Yea I think you either go all in for Tora & QT pi, or just never use him and go with something like Brighid evasion tanking instead.
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Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Dec 20, 2022 18:23:13 GMT
Still loving this, not that far in (Chapter 3) but the reins have been off for a while and I've done a ton of exploring. May be slightly over-levelled! I'm 33 and just reached Colony 30 and received the ability to climb purple vines. I just reached that point. You’re definitely over levelled. Think I’m mid 20’s haha. Absolutely loving this. Just so light and breezy to play. It’s the first time in a while I have wanted to play more than what I intend do in any given session. I was worried I was going to get swamped in all the systems it throws at you, but think I got a general hang of it. All I done is just change to the character who has the swordfighter class and just shulk it up. Yet to use the two hero class I have received as I currently got Noah and Taion classes swapped but will tinker with them when they reach full rank. |
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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 20, 2022 20:57:22 GMT
Still loving this, not that far in (Chapter 3) but the reins have been off for a while and I've done a ton of exploring. May be slightly over-levelled! I'm 33 and just reached Colony 30 and received the ability to climb purple vines. I just reached that point. You’re definitely over levelled. Think I’m mid 20’s haha. Absolutely loving this. Just so light and breezy to play. It’s the first time in a while I have wanted to play more than what I intend do in any given session. I was worried I was going to get swamped in all the systems it throws at you, but think I got a general hang of it. All I done is just change to the character who has the swordfighter class and just shulk it up. Yet to use the two hero class I have received as I currently got Noah and Taion classes swapped but will tinker with them when they reach full rank. FWIW, Flash Fencer (Ethel's class) is quite fun to play and you'll eventually (read: after you break its rank cap) want pretty much everyone levelled up in it because of its Rank 15 Master Skill, Capable Hands. Starting every battle with a full Talent Art gauge enables a lot of powerful strategies, especially with the Talent Arts you'll have available by the time you can actually get it. Apart from that, it sounds like you're already doing it, but as tedious as it may be you'll want to swap classes on everyone on the regular, pretty much as soon as somebody caps. The more skills and arts on people the better after all. Just make sure you keep a good role balance (I usually roll with three Attackers, two Defenders and two Healers, but that depends on playstyle) Oh, and Mio with the Flash Fencer outfit is perfect for Xeno-bling purposes, especially after Chapter 5 for... reasons. |
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Post by Red_Bool on Dec 23, 2022 15:46:50 GMT
I'm blaming the Covid-induced fever, but Sena's hero quest somehow really struck a chord with me.
Thank goodness I'm locked up so noone was there to witness that 😷
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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 23, 2022 16:13:48 GMT
I'm blaming the Covid-induced fever, but Sena's hero quest somehow really struck a chord with me. Thank goodness I'm locked up so noone was there to witness that 😷 I doubt you were the only one, tbh. That's another thing where the hero quests excel imo, fantasy setting or not, most of the time they tackle things that actually happen in real life. In this one specifically, you've got Shania constantly being the unfavoured sibling, facing pressure to the point of parental abuse from her mother, anything she did short of perfection not being good enough, her support network being limited (and part of it being Ghondor, who managed to do some things right about Shania's hobbies but ultimately kept relaying her message in an aggressive way that just pissed her off even more)... And then there's the contrast with Sena, who, despite slowly being isolated during her training days from the peer pressure and mockery, found an absolute pillar of unconditional, loving support in Mio and flourished thanks to that.
Replace "becoming Ouroboros" with, I dunno, getting a good job or a 4.0 GPA or something and the whole thing becomes bitingly realistic. Shania was set up as a hate magnet during the story (and not undeservedly), but I've got a feeling a lot of people saw a part of themselves in her backstory... |
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Post by Red_Bool on Dec 23, 2022 17:01:00 GMT
I think for me it was the final scene between Monica and Ghondor, where you could almost see the real mother-daughter bond. That was so brilliantly subtle yet so powerful On another note, I'm really glad I'm obscenely overlevelled right now. I don't think my head can manage any tough fights. Just exploring and doing sidequests is about the only thing I can manage. |
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Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Dec 23, 2022 22:02:15 GMT
I havn’t reached that far, but i am enjoying the side quests in this. There are not too many, but they feel meaningful and designed in a way where they feel like there are on the main path if that makes sense. They are tied into the main narrative quite well and you feel the game world getting wider because of them.
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Post by Red_Bool on Dec 25, 2022 8:28:27 GMT
Well put and totally agreed. The side quests are good, but the hero (and their ascension) quests are even better. And the good thing is that not one of them is the same. Each has its own theme. The writers really outdid themselves here.
Yesterday I finally found the last hero. Now I'm mopping up the hero ascension quests. From the main crew I only need to find Noa's (figuring out how to trigger them is part of the fun).
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Post by Nanocrystal on Dec 27, 2022 4:25:11 GMT
About 40 hours into XC2 now and, like XC1, it's taken that long for it to get its hooks into me. Currently using Rex, Nia and Morag with a decent bunch of unique blades. I'm getting the hang of the combat, just had my first full burst. Still not quite sure what exactly bursts orbs though, sometimes they burst but sometimes they just crack, even when I use the opposite element. And do you need to burst an orb for the chain to continue for another round?
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Post by Gearoid on Dec 28, 2022 9:03:29 GMT
Orbs are burst by the opposing element combo. For example, if you've managed to plant fire and light orbs, do water and dark combos to burst them.
The other ones are earth v lightning and ice v wind.
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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 28, 2022 10:18:12 GMT
About 40 hours into XC2 now and, like XC1, it's taken that long for it to get its hooks into me. Currently using Rex, Nia and Morag with a decent bunch of unique blades. I'm getting the hang of the combat, just had my first full burst. Still not quite sure what exactly bursts orbs though, sometimes they burst but sometimes they just crack, even when I use the opposite element. And do you need to burst an orb for the chain to continue for another round? Elemental Orbs in Chain Attacks normally need 3 hits to break, attacking with the opposing element counts as two hits. The element pairs, as Gearoid mentioned, are Fire/Water, Ice/Wind, Earth/Electric and Light/Dark. Also, for the sake of clarity, you can only break Orbs during Chain Attacks, any element combos outside of them will only assist in making more Orbs (along with the other element combo effects) Some other Chain Attack tips (spoilered to cut the post length): Using an orb's opposing element to attack will always hit that orb, while attacks of any other element will aim at random orbs (so if you've got Fire, Light and Dark orbs around, a Water Blade will always hit the Fire orb, but a Wind Blade, for example, will hit randomly)
A Chain Attack can only be extended once per round, no matter how many orbs you burst during that round. The theoretical maximum is 9 rounds (having all 8 orbs and only bursting one each round) but orb management to that level can be pretty tricky and usually unnecessary. And besides...
Breaking enough orbs will eventually lead to a Full Burst, a finishing move that pops all remaining orbs and deals massive damage, more for each remaining orb. The way it works is, you get 1 point for the first orb broken in a round and 2 points for every other orb broken in the same round, and Full Burst needs a total of 6 points during the Chain Attack. In practice, this means that even if you drag out the orb-breaking as long as possible, you can only get a maximum of (late edit) 7 6 rounds (initial + 5 extensions, Burst happens after round 6) and usually it's best to aim for the Full Burst to trigger with at least a couple of orbs left.
There's two skills rarely available on common Blades (some specific Rare Blades have variations or upgrades of those skills) that can manipulate element orbs:
-Orb Master gives an X% chance (increases with skill level) to create an Orb during every step of a Blade combo as long as the Blade with the skill is on the battlefield (usually only the third step creates one)
-Slamdown gives an X% chance (increases with skill level) to damage the orbs adjacent to the one hit by the Blade with the skill
Finally, there's two Aux Cores that can assist during Chain Attacks:
-Element Orb Ender gives the equipped Blade the ability to instantly break any orb of its opposing element instead of only dealing two damage
-Element Orb Prioritizer will cause the equipped Blade to prioritize already damaged orbs (although it doesn't override always attacking the opposing element if present) All of the above and more can also be found in more detail here (spoiler-free): www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/8i82yk/a_complete_guide_to_chain_attacks/ |
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Vandelay
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Post by Vandelay on Dec 28, 2022 11:54:05 GMT
Just finished XC2 yesterday. It is a great game that is really hampered by some annoying elements. It is a game I would definitely play quite differently if I were to play it again, particularly trying to mix up blades a little more rather than focusing on a few key ones (and working on my affinity charts earlier!) The explanation of the systems was incredibly poor throughout, leading to elements seeming less important than they actually are. Side quests were definitely improved over the first game, with the framing of them in particular being significantly better, with more interesting stories attached to each. The actual process of completing the side quests was still quite tedious though. The added annoyance of field skills didn't help. When the game works though I enjoyed it very much. Combat was really satisfying when the chains all came together and the world was beautiful to explore. The story wasn't quite as good as 1, but still chucking out plenty of batshit animé madness to be fun. Definitely looking forward to getting to 3 sometime. Probably hold off a bit though  |
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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 28, 2022 18:55:59 GMT
Nanocrystal bit of a correction, Chain Attacks in 2 can only go up to 6 rounds, not 7. I messed up on when the Full Burst would happen  And for the sake of completeness, in the Torna DLC most everything works the same, except Blade combos create orbs on every step of the combo as if the Orb Master skill was always active, which is nice.
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gamecat
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Post by gamecat on Dec 29, 2022 14:18:13 GMT
Definitely looking forward to getting to 3 sometime. Probably hold off a bit though NG+ and NG++ are good, and Torna, and the arena thing, lots more to do anyway. |
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Post by Red_Bool on Dec 31, 2022 11:27:18 GMT
So, only three hero quests left to unlock (XC3).
Oh, and I'm looking for one more Nopon with a hammer (talk about a needle in a haystack /o\).
I think that when I've found that Nopon and finish that side quest I'm ready to dive into the final chapter (at least I expect it to be the final one).
What a ride it's been so far! I don't think I've ever played a game where I did this many side quests which were all this good.
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Post by JuniorFE on Dec 31, 2022 11:29:21 GMT
Pretty much in the same position, except with the New Year's surprise I can only play handheld and Xenoblade deserves the big screen, so... involuntary break time I suppose |
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 3, 2023 14:09:48 GMT
Finished XC3 last night.
What can I say? It was epic, magnificent and absolutely one of my favourite games ever.
There's just so much to like/love. Thank you Monolithsoft for creating such a beautiful experience.
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jan 3, 2023 14:10:59 GMT
What did you think about the photograph?
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Post by dangerousdave on Jan 3, 2023 14:13:34 GMT
"Have you seen this boy?"
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rhaegyr
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Post by rhaegyr on Jan 3, 2023 14:46:33 GMT
I've just got to Chapter 4 and I'm still loving it - the story beats that ended the third chapter were surprisingly well done; there's some great monologues on death and what waits for us beyond (for a JRPG anyway). Taion's probably my favourite character now, starting to see some depth from him.
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 3, 2023 16:45:06 GMT
What did you think about the photograph? I thought it was a nice touch. To be honest I was too engrossed in the main story's ending. I think I'd need to see it again actually To be honest, I realized really (really) late who Queen Nia was. |
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jan 3, 2023 22:14:59 GMT
I think "a nice touch" is a pretty good euphemism for what Giga-Chad Rex did. (XC2 and 3 ending spoilers) |
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 4, 2023 8:23:51 GMT
Ehm...yes 😁
I had another look at that photo and, well, obviously I didn't properly register that bit 😅
It does raise a bunch of very important questions, but I expect the internet will give us plenty of explanations...
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MolarAm🔵
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Jan 4, 2023 8:56:54 GMT
I would play that DLC
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Post by Nanocrystal on Jan 6, 2023 1:21:46 GMT
Just finished XC2. Really enjoyed it overall. The world/level design and music (Counterattack!!) were both top tier much like the first game, but I found the characters and combat system in 2 were both better. Rex was a really lovable protagonist and for me that was due largely to a brilliant voice performance (I played with the English dub). The combat mechanics were great even if there wasn't really much variation in how you use them, each battle was basically the same process. The fun came in experimenting with different combinations of blades to make it easier or more efficient to build up and combine combos, and finally getting a decent group working well together was really satisfying.
There were a few negatives, though. I found the mix of realistic human face models and anime-style ones really odd and jarring, and the game is a lot less polished overall than XC:DE (lots of texture pop-in, some cutscenes with no music or ambient noises at all, which made me think the game had bugged until a character spoke, plus the menu and interface design was very unintuitive). Frame rate also dropped regularly during combat, sometimes into what felt like single digits. And some aspects of the game (acquiring rare blades, merc missions) clearly intend you to grind it for hundreds of hours. This is the kind of game I would have liked to 100% but I can't commit that much time. Especially when XC3 is waiting for me...
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Wizzard_Ook
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Jan 21, 2023 7:10:32 GMT
I finished chapter 5 and started chapter 6 last night (XC3). Absolutely epic. Think it is the only time I have shed a tear in a video game. Might have to give the game a couple days rest just to let everything sink in.
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Post by Red_Bool on Jan 21, 2023 7:42:54 GMT
I finished chapter 5 and started chapter 6 last night (XC3). Absolutely epic. Think it is the only time I have shed a tear in a video game. Might have to give the game a couple days rest just to let everything sink in. I know! I could not think of anything else the next day. The storytelling in this is just perfect. It's so easy to get emotionally involved. |
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Post by JuniorFE on Mar 2, 2023 3:40:52 GMT
...You know, it's been 13 years give or take since the first Xenoblade came out. More than half my life. And I don't think there's a single game in the series where I didn't cry my heart out during the ending. I don't know how the fuck they keep doing this, but they do, and I say it proudly. Thank you, Monolith Soft. 👏👏👏 There's a lot of very wrong things in our timeline, but at least we're living in one where Operation Rainfall happened and the first Xenoblade was localized. None of this could have happened without that (or at least, if it had, we wouldn't know about it...) Just... Wow. I need a minute now... Oh, and... (I would make this a separate post but it'd be ridiculous to open a page with it...) Remember when a certain someone said "I love you... and ALL you guys!"? Guess he meant it, huh... |
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