Xenoblade

I've been doing a ton of the side-quests and trying to complete all the collectibles, but I'm not trying to complete every quest. That said, I'm 12 hours into the game, I think around level 25, and something just happened that seems to suggest that I have only just scratched the surface. So awesome...

I love this game. The characters are great, the game is fun to play, the world feels massive, you're never left without something to do, and the story is genuinely interesting. Also, you're constantly getting loot, you get exploration xp and the quick-travel system makes running back to town to sell some of the crap you picked up completely effortless.

My only complaint is that switching out gear is a bit awkward. Some of the items have slots in which you can add bonuses, and it can be a bit of an effort trying to figure out what the optimal setup is and when to switch out gear.

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Originally Posted by taggart6

My only complaint is that switching out gear is a bit awkward. Some of the items have slots in which you can add bonuses, and it can be a bit of an effort trying to figure out what the optimal setup is and when to switch out gear.

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I've taken to focusing on how I want to spec my characters when deciding on what new equipment to actually use.

For Reyn, I go for super high defense, attack power be damned. Ether defense is nice too, but I have him as a primarily physical tank. Bonus gems focus on defense and hp and I have his arts and skills focused around holding aggro. The weapons you pick up for him seem to flip-flop between high attack and high defense, so I'm guessing either build would work for him.

For Shulk, I'm going for high attack power, medium-high agility. You don't get extra weapons for him after picking up the Monado, so all you need to worry about is equipping armor. I try to keep him out of the line of fire, so I keep his defense somewhat low (which tends to mean higher ether defense just from the way armor is designed) but if he does get into a fight, his agility means he dodges a fair amount of attacks long enough to use his shadow power and call Reyn over to pull aggro back to him. With him, I try to get more sockets than worry about defenses so I can pump strength with gems.

Sharla is a combat medic with a big gun, so she has no problem staying far away from the action taking potshots and healing/buffing/debuffing everyone. I give her as much Ether bonus as I can and watch to make sure she hasn't accidentally angered some wandering monster.

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Originally Posted by Kamakazie

I've taken to focusing on how I want to spec my characters when deciding on what new equipment to actually use.

For Reyn, I go for super high defense, attack power be damned. Ether defense is nice too, but I have him as a primarily physical tank. Bonus gems focus on defense and hp and I have his arts and skills focused around holding aggro. The weapons you pick up for him seem to flip-flop between high attack and high defense, so I'm guessing either build would work for him.

For Shulk, I'm going for high attack power, medium-high agility. You don't get extra weapons for him after picking up the Monado, so all you need to worry about is equipping armor. I try to keep him out of the line of fire, so I keep his defense somewhat low (which tends to mean higher ether defense just from the way armor is designed) but if he does get into a fight, his agility means he dodges a fair amount of attacks long enough to use his shadow power and call Reyn over to pull aggro back to him. With him, I try to get more sockets than worry about defenses so I can pump strength with gems.

Sharla is a combat medic with a big gun, so she has no problem staying far away from the action taking potshots and healing/buffing/debuffing everyone. I give her as much Ether bonus as I can and watch to make sure she hasn't accidentally angered some wandering monster.

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I do the same. My issue though, is that when it comes time to actually change out items it can be a bit of chore trying to find out if what I have is better or worse then the new ones I picked up. For example, take shoes. I basically have to pop out the gems of whats equipped, compare the raw stats, and then figure in additional bonuses each item piece gets depending if they are S, U, are standard. Then I just sell everything else off.


Also wanted to say, the future item feature is AMAZING. I hated how in other RPGs, you'll collect a bunch of something, sell it off, and then find out 10 min later you needed that for a quest. I like how xenoblade works around this. In fact, all the future prediction features are just awesome and work well.

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Originally Posted by taggart6

I do the same. My issue though, is that when it comes time to actually change out items it can be a bit of chore trying to find out if what I have is better or worse then the new ones I picked up. For example, take shoes. I basically have to pop out the gems of whats equipped, compare the raw stats, and then figure in additional bonuses each item piece gets depending if they are S, U, are standard. Then I just sell everything else off.


Also wanted to say, the future item feature is AMAZING. I hated how in other RPGs, you'll collect a bunch of something, sell it off, and then find out 10 min later you needed that for a quest. I like how xenoblade works around this. In fact, all the future prediction features are just awesome and work well.

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Fair nuff.

Yeah, the future item feature is pretty awesome. I love that they even mark the item in your inventory with a little '!'. I'm being a stupid pack rat anyway though; I haven't been selling anything but equipment. XD

Oh, and I have like 5 pages of Materials. What are they used for!? :O

I guess I don't properly understand the combat. I am getting my *** handed to me by the "elite" worm in the tunnel right outside of the first quest hub. Any suggestions, was he hard for you?

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

I guess I don't properly understand the combat. I am getting my *** handed to me by the "elite" worm in the tunnel right outside of the first quest hub. Any suggestions, was he hard for you?

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If he's destroying you, maybe you're not meant to fight him yet. :)

This game has no problem throwing big monsters in your way that you have no chance of beating yet. Ignore him, do some quests, level up, then try again.

THAT BEING SAID, you do need to have some skill. Always make sure Reyn is soaking up the damage rather than Shulk and be sure you're in the right positions to do your various position-dependent attacks. Remember that if you Break a monster, Reyn can then Topple that monster. Remember that until you meet Sharla 8 hours later, Shulk is the healer, so keep an eye on your tank's health and try to keep him standing. If you have Fiora in your party at this point, keep watch so that she doesn't pull aggro and get killed.

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

I guess I don't properly understand the combat. I am getting my *** handed to me by the "elite" worm in the tunnel right outside of the first quest hub. Any suggestions, was he hard for you?

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Run away. Seriously. As Kama said, the game mixes low and high end monsters in an area. In fact, you have unique monsters that will decimate you in just one hit. IIRC, that monster you are trying to fight is a unique.

Also make sure you are leveling up your arts and that you are mixing up your skills. You have 3 skill branches and the game suggests moving from one branch to the other since earlier skills fill up first then later ones. Skills are passive and offer benefits like increased health, defense and etc. You can also link skills between players once their affinity gets high enough.

Aside from that, play smart. Playign as Shulk, I initiate battle and wait till Reyn takes the first hit to draw agro. I'll then pile on the status effects (reduce defense, break and slow) and then let Shulk auto attack for a bit. Heal up reyn when he needs to, and pull of a back stab attack after reyn does a big attack or an aggro generating attack. I try to balance Shulk's arts with auto-attacks so as not to draw aggro to quickly and to also fill up my arts faster. This will also help build up the party bar for chain attacks.

If your having a real hard time, just skip it and wait till later. You'll gain some abilities that help in battle that I don;t want to say cause its a bit of a spoiler.

Okay, this worm was blocking the path to a quest I was doing. I quest I should look around for more quests first then. I didn't know if I just really sucked. He would literally two shot me lol. I'll play some more over the weekend.

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

Okay, this worm was blocking the path to a quest I was doing. I quest I should look around for more quests first then. I didn't know if I just really sucked. He would literally two shot me lol. I'll play some more over the weekend.

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Is this the thing inside of the cave at the top of the hill? Because if it is, there is another way around him.

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Originally Posted by Timman_24

Okay, this worm was blocking the path to a quest I was doing. I quest I should look around for more quests first then. I didn't know if I just really sucked. He would literally two shot me lol. I'll play some more over the weekend.

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There is a side entrance leading to a stone bridge overhead. It shows up on your map. I think the worm is level 10. I was level 10 when I first tried to take it on and died. I then built up my party bar by fighting other creatures and then pulled off a chain attack at the start of my second encounter with the worm. I also baited the worm to get it away from the other worms.

So while playing this last night (for 4 hours straight just doing quests) I started getting a very Panzer Dragoon Saga vibe from this that I haven't felt since......well Saga. I'll try to explain. The game itself isn't much to look at (nether was Saga at launch) but it has a charm to it and I have yet to become frustrated at anything in this game. The last RPG I had no frustration towards was Saga. It's just so fun to lose a couple hours and not have to worry about all the little things the dev did wrong that make you stop playing eventually.

I may break out Saga after I finish this one up. God I love that game.

im getting more of a phantasy star vibe from it

its nothing like xenogears though

the british accents are a little annoying though, almost as bad as the corny english VAs we sometimes see in other JRPGs. i would so japanese voices if they had subtitles for the battle shouts too

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Originally Posted by kpxgq

im getting more of a phantasy star vibe from it

its nothing like xenogears though

the british accents are a little annoying though, almost as bad as the corny english VAs we sometimes see in other JRPGs. i would so japanese voices if they had subtitles for the battle shouts too

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I think the UK accents are hilarious coming out of super asian characters.

I love the British accents. I was annoyed by the Japanese ones.

I also love the banter between characters during a battle.