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McNum · Apr 24, 2012

Tension is the mood of the characters. You might have noticed that when a battle goes well, you'll have the character portraits yelling with a flaming background. That's high Tension. If they're sulking with a blue background, it's low Tension, and you should run your playable character over next to them and cheer them up. (Yes, really.)

You gain Tension by hitting the enemy, doing criticals (more if you hit the "That was AWESOME!" QTE) , and so on. You lose it by missing the enemy (unless you hit the "You'll get it next time!" QTE), taking damage, and being affected by enemy auras. Getting KO'd will drain a lot of Tension, too, so remember to give the character you revive a pat on the back before running off, they appreciate it.

What it does? It's basically a minor buff or debuff to more or less everything. More Agility, more damage, and so on. This also means that low Tension is a cascading failure, by the way. Low Agility means hitting less, means drop in Tension. On the other hand, as long as you stay alive, it's easy enough to stay at flaming rage tension as you just keep pummeling the enemy when you hit that.

Roto13 · Apr 24, 2012

Some arts only work with high tension as well.

Seanspeed · Apr 25, 2012

ZenaxPure said:
Easiest way to see tension is by paying attention to the character portraits in combat. The more depressed someone looks the lower their tension. The more angry they look the higher. The cap for it I believe is when there is flames behind their picture.

As for it's use I can't recall if it does anything the higher it is but I do remember the lower it is the higher chance the character's seem to miss. Also Riki has an ability that can only be used at higher levels of tension.

McNum said:
Tension is the mood of the characters. You might have noticed that when a battle goes well, you'll have the character portraits yelling with a flaming background. That's high Tension. If they're sulking with a blue background, it's low Tension, and you should run your playable character over next to them and cheer them up. (Yes, really.)

You gain Tension by hitting the enemy, doing criticals (more if you hit the "That was AWESOME!" QTE) , and so on. You lose it by missing the enemy (unless you hit the "You'll get it next time!" QTE), taking damage, and being affected by enemy auras. Getting KO'd will drain a lot of Tension, too, so remember to give the character you revive a pat on the back before running off, they appreciate it.

What it does? It's basically a minor buff or debuff to more or less everything. More Agility, more damage, and so on. This also means that low Tension is a cascading failure, by the way. Low Agility means hitting less, means drop in Tension. On the other hand, as long as you stay alive, it's easy enough to stay at flaming rage tension as you just keep pummeling the enemy when you hit that.

Roto13 said:
Some arts only work with high tension as well.

Appreciate the quick answers. I had never even noticed that my character's faces changed. I'd seen the flames although I had no idea what it meant. And I also did notice that I could usually 'encourage' a player I just revived.

I've been trying to work on the Affinity of some of my lesser used characters, so knowing when or why I should be encouraging will help.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

Man i hate trying to unlock Sharla's 4th tree... I need 4 stars affinity with Frontier Village and i've been at 3 for a while now and all i seem to have left to do is a bunch of stupid quests asking for me to collect "humming" and "rumble" parts, which is basically running all over the Bionis worlds hoping that damn blue orb in a corner is the one i need... Ugh.

Maybe there is a few quests left somewhere in Frontier village, but looking all those damn floors at different time of the day is frustrating, maybe even more than looking for npcs in the ridiculous size of Alcamoth.

Somebody kill me!!

Roto13 · Apr 25, 2012

Bisnic said:
Man i hate trying to unlock Sharla's 4th tree... I need 4 stars affinity with Frontier Village and i've been at 3 for a while now and all i seem to have left to do is a bunch of stupid quests asking for me to collect "humming" and "rumble" parts, which is basically running all over the Bionis worlds hoping that damn blue orb in a corner is the one i need... Ugh.

Maybe there is a few quests left somewhere in Frontier village, but looking all those damn floors at different time of the day is frustrating, maybe even more than looking for npcs in the ridiculous size of Alcamoth.

Somebody kill me!!

Can't you just look at the spreadsheet and compare it to your quest list for that area and see what quests you're missing?

SecretMoblin · Apr 25, 2012

Or trade! Trading is a great and easy way to get items you need for quests.

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

Bisnic said:
Man i hate trying to unlock Sharla's 4th tree... I need 4 stars affinity with Frontier Village and i've been at 3 for a while now and all i seem to have left to do is a bunch of stupid quests asking for me to collect "humming" and "rumble" parts, which is basically running all over the Bionis worlds hoping that damn blue orb in a corner is the one i need... Ugh.

Maybe there is a few quests left somewhere in Frontier village, but looking all those damn floors at different time of the day is frustrating, maybe even more than looking for npcs in the ridiculous size of Alcamoth.

Somebody kill me!!

Always check if you can trade for quest items.

DragonGirl · Apr 25, 2012

RawPower said:
I imported the UK version months ago, but the text was really tiny. I figured it might have been the PAL-to-NTSC conversion, and I wanted to make sure.

I have the US release and the menu text is very small. I imagine it would be fine if I owned an HD TV.

Papercuts · Apr 25, 2012

How long do I have to do the timed quests at Alcamoth? I'm at

Sword Valley and have to talk to Dickson to progress here

.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

Papercuts said:
How long do I have to do the timed quests at Alcamoth? I'm at

Sword Valley and have to talk to Dickson to progress here

.

You still have at least 4 more zones to do after

Sword Valley

i heard.

dragonlife · Apr 25, 2012

Just beat the game. What a ride. The last few hours were certainly something.

Anyway, did anyone else really love the English voice acting? I thought everyone's (party members) voice was perfect. The localization in general was great.

Also, Riki <3<3<3 I never really like the cute mascot characters in RPGs, but everything about Riki was great. Cute voice. Cute personality. And some fucking adorable equipment here and there. Plus, he's a beast in battle... so fun to play as.

Wyndstryker · Apr 25, 2012

dragonlife said:
Just beat the game. What a ride. The last few hours were certainly something.

Anyway, did anyone else really love the English voice acting? I thought everyone's (party members) voice was perfect. The localization in general was great.

Also, Riki <3<3<3 I never really like the cute mascot characters in RPGs, but everything about Riki was great. Cute voice. Cute personality. And some fucking adorable equipment here and there. Plus, he's a beast in battle... so fun to play as.

I loved the VA. Melia's voice works so well imo. And Riki is an awesome character, exact same sentiments.

I just wished this was an actual scene and was voiced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7EhTlce71E

dragonlife · Apr 25, 2012

Wyndstryker said:
I loved the VA. Melia's voice works so well imo. And Riki is an awesome character, exact same sentiments.

I just wished this was an actual scene and was voiced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7EhTlce71E

Damn, I didn't even think to do that on my playthrough. That's pretty nice.

Exeunt · Apr 25, 2012

Over 26 hours in now with my party at about level 34 and

about to leave Satorl Marsh

; I'm still really enjoying the game. The area I just discovered felt like it might be a bit of a drag (except for the music) until

night came and all the lights started filling the air. Incredible. The music subtly changing as you move from area to area was a great touch and I think my favourite track from the Satorl Marsh was the night music with minimal vocals. The Ignas kind of felt like a rehash of the Tirkins from the Bionis' leg though. I hope the upper areas shake things up a little, though I'm sure they will look pretty regardless.

If nothing else, Xenoblade certainly features some breathtaking landscapes.

And oddly enough, I would actually downplay the complaint I had in my last post about the plot being too weak/predictable. While the one element is pretty clear, I actually became more interested when

I talked to one of the NPCs in Colony 9 and all but found out that Xord used to be her father. I'm actually more invested in finding out what's going to happen/what's behind the transformed faced Mechon even though their nature is no longer a complete secret.

Sure, a lot of the dialogue is pretty cheesy but at least there's enough of a hook to keep you following the story or give you motivation to move away from subquests. In any case, it's definitely most tempting to follow when

there is a villain actively threatening the party so I have been doing a lot of quests lately. I have to wonder what Dickson is on about as well...

My biggest complaint would instead be that some of the cutscenes stretch on a little longer than I'd like; I'm aware that they are completely skippable but I would like to see as much and have as much context as I can during my first playthrough of the game. But was the scene

with Shulk asking Dunban permission to keep the Monado really necessary for example? I felt like everything in that bit was pretty much implied at that point and didn't need to be dwelled upon.

I feel like some of the less important cutscenes overstay their welcome.

On the note of quests, I question why some of them have you arbitrarily return to the person who gave you the assignment whereas others just let you be. There doesn't seem to be any reason for why this is so (unless I am missing something) in most cases unless the person gives you another quest immediately afterwords; is the game trying to tell me that there is something in the NPC's area I should be checking out (like new quests) or something? That's part of the quest system I haven't quite figured out.

I also have a question about some of the quests that expire for those who have gotten far enough or beaten the game:

the expiring quests in the Refugee Camp made sense when it became clear that Juju and the gang were leaving, but now I'm finding more in Colony 6. Are the quests here tied to a specific level of construction or something—as in, if I "level up" the city do certain quests become unavailable/impossible to complete?

Or is it strictly reaching a certain point in the storyline

and I can upgrade the city as soon as possible without missing out

?

On that note, I suppose I will also ask: is it always made clear when your "last chance" to complete the quests are

like how Juju asks you before everyone packs up from the Refugee Camp

? Or will I face the scenario where say,

an NPC gets killed by the Mechon before I can complete their quest

or something like that?

Thanks in advance, and I hope everyone is enjoying the game as much as I am right now! It certainly seems—at this point in the game more than ever—that there is a load of content to explore so I'm sure I will be playing for a long time still.

MetatronM · Apr 25, 2012

Exeunt said:
On the note of quests, I question why some of them have you arbitrarily return to the person who gave you the assignment whereas others just let you be. There doesn't seem to be any reason for why this is so (unless I am missing something) in most cases unless the person gives you another quest immediately afterwords; is the game trying to tell me that there is something in the NPC's area I should be checking out (like new quests) or something? That's part of the quest system I haven't quite figured out.

It's world building. Those NPCs have things to tell you about themselves, about other people, about the world. It's an additional layer to the story, not any real critical plot but rather color that fills in the world around you. There are personal stories that are woven across the entire game world that exist solely within the context of those quests. Those quests where you have to go back to the quest givers also give your party affinity boosts, which quests that complete themselves in the field do not.

Also, quests only expire at major events. They don't all have such explicit warning like that first batch, but there are only a couple such moments, and they're all fairly huge events, so even though the game doesn't say "hey, are you sure you want to do this?" (though it does that for the final cutoff), the quest expiration points are pretty clear.

Exeunt · Apr 25, 2012

MetatronM said:
It's world building. Those NPCs have things to tell you about themselves, about other people, about the world. It's an additional layer to the story, not any real critical plot but rather color that fills in the world around you. There are personal stories that are woven across the entire game world that exist solely within the context of those quests. Those quests where you have to go back to the quest givers also give your party affinity boosts, which quests that complete themselves in the field do not.

Also, quests only expire at major events. They don't all have such explicit warning like that first batch, but there are only a couple such moments, and they're all fairly huge events, so even though the game doesn't say "hey, are you sure you want to do this?" (though it does that for the final cutoff), the quest expiration points are pretty clear.

Ah, that makes sense now. In retrospect, the quests that don't require you to return to the NPC are more like "collect these items so I can make x" as opposed to more personal stories from named characters. That definitely helps put them into perspective; the game definitely has a lot of things to pull you into its world such as the affinity chart and the little details you get when a quest is completed. Speaking of affinity, I never considered the affinity boost as a part of the "return" queststhanks for the perspective in both areas. I knew there had to be a reason why those quests were different but it just didn't occur to me until then.

And thanks also for your quests answer. I'm glad the expiration points are pretty clear, as that means I can be a little more easygoing in how I approach them. I'm also pleased this means I can begin

rebuilding Colony 6, as that looks like an interesting diversion to keep coming back to

now that I know that shouldn't have any unforeseen consequences.

chaosblade · Apr 25, 2012

Actually the only quests that expire without warning are

Sword Valley/Gallahad Fortress.

All the others have some sort of warning, including the

Alcamoth

timed quests. The warning does come a little before that though.

jwj442 · Apr 25, 2012

I'm at level 19-20 now and am

looking for Colony 6 after Juju's capture.

A few questions:

1. It seems like the game wants me to find the next location on my own after I go through the road; is that correct?
2. Do I need to worry about becoming overleveled? I'm already a few levels ahead of the enemies I meet. I've done some quests, but I haven't gone out of my way for that many. The possibility of becoming too powerful and steamrolling everything is keeping me from exploring as much as I would otherwise.
3. I have a bit of a hard time selecting the right enemy in combat. When I'm fighting a bunch of bad guys, it can be confusing targeting the right one - I'm playing Reyn right now and when someone uses break and I want to topple or I need to draw aggro away from a party member I often have trouble getting the right enemy targeted before it's too late. Are there any tricks for this or do I just have to get used to it?
4. How much of a difference do gems actually make? I feel like I spend a lot of time rearranging them and I'm not sure how much benefit it really gives me.
5. Should I bother trying to fight monsters above my level? I'm guessing the level 70s are imposible at this point, but would it be possible for me to tackle the 30s?
6. Is there any way to change the camera with the nunchuck? Choosing attacks while moving is nice but no camera is kind of a dealbreaker.
7. Are the "materials" vendor trash or should I actually keep some of them?

Korosenai · Apr 25, 2012

I just got

Melia

in my party.

A couple of questions

1. What are some good team combinations that include her?

2. What is a good way to use her over all?

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

NubInaTub said:
I just got

Melia

in my party.

A couple of questions

1. What are some good team combinations that include her?

2. What is a good way to use her over all?

I like Melia, Riki, Dunban and Melia, Shulk, Dunban set ups.

You can use this rotation:
Summom Wind, Summom Bolt, Copy Element, Spear Break, Starlight Kick, Release Bolt x2, Summom Flare, Release Flare, Release Wind. I think this is the general rotation and also what the gaf Melia guide suggests.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

For Reyn's 4th skill tree, they say i need to migrate some guys to Colony 6, but when i talk to, say for example Hoko, he just talks and nothing else. My affinity is at 4 stars with Frontier Village and storywise im at the beginning of

Agniratha

. Do i need more stars? More quests to be done? Advance further in the story?

Exeunt · Apr 25, 2012

jwj442 said:
I'm at level 19-20 now and am

looking for Colony 6 after Juju's capture.

A few questions:

1. It seems like the game wants me to find the next location on my own after I go through the road; is that correct?
2. Do I need to worry about becoming overleveled? I'm already a few levels ahead of the enemies I meet. I've done some quests, but I haven't gone out of my way for that many. The possibility of becoming too powerful and steamrolling everything is keeping me from exploring as much as I would otherwise.
3. I have a bit of a hard time selecting the right enemy in combat. When I'm fighting a bunch of bad guys, it can be confusing targeting the right one - I'm playing Reyn right now and when someone uses break and I want to topple or I need to draw aggro away from a party member I often have trouble getting the right enemy targeted before it's too late. Are there any tricks for this or do I just have to get used to it?
4. How much of a difference do gems actually make? I feel like I spend a lot of time rearranging them and I'm not sure how much benefit it really gives me.
5. Should I bother trying to fight monsters above my level? I'm guessing the level 70s are imposible at this point, but would it be possible for me to tackle the 30s?
6. Is there any way to change the camera with the nunchuck? Choosing attacks while moving is nice but no camera is kind of a dealbreaker.
7. Are the "materials" vendor trash or should I actually keep some of them?

I was at the point in the game you have reached not too long ago, so I can answer some of your questions for you.

1. Unless you turn the display option off, the game will always direct you to your next objective (this has always been the case for me up to plot advancement with my party in the 30s). If you have a "Story Memo" notice on the screen instead of the arrow, it just means you are not currently on the same map as your objective.

2. I think it's possible to become overleveled as a result of doing quests, but there are still unique monsters that can keep you in check. I do a lot of quests and I find I have usually been around the same level as the unique enemies whereas the normal ones hover around blue or grey threat levels, often turning black as I advance. If you level up your Arts and do all the quests, you will probably find most monsters too easy.

3. Make sure you're close to the monster and move the target until you are hitting the right one. As far as I can tell, that's all you can do.

5. Fighting enemies above your level is harder not only because of the stat difference, but also because you are more likely to miss an enemy above your level. Named monsters are more powerful than an average monster their level as well. That said, there are achievements for defeating enemies that are above your level, so it's obviously designed to be possible. If you level up your Arts, have good equipment, and have a battle plan you might stand a chance. I haven't tried it myself.

7. By materials, do you mean drops from monsters or the items you find in the field? If the former, you will want to hang onto the drops that have a little sparkle on their icon indicating a rare item in case someone wants them (which is entirely possible). I would also keep most of the field items as well

especially in the Bionis' Leg area

. The game might make it more obvious that you found something you'll need later after a certain point, but there is still a chance the items could turn up in another quest. From what I noticed so far, most of the common drops and old equipment seem safe to sell.

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

Five stars with Frontier Village and I still can't get even in the chief's absence, probably not far enough in the story maybe? Other than that I'm making good progress, I have every quest possible done up to Eryth Sea with half of Alcamoth done. After that I'll be able to continue the story.

Hiltz · Apr 25, 2012

Bisnic said:
For Reyn's 4th skill tree, they say i need to migrate some guys to Colony 6, but when i talk to, say for example Hoko, he just talks and nothing else. My affinity is at 4 stars with Frontier Village and storywise im at the beginning of

Agniratha

. Do i need more stars? More quests to be done? Advance further in the story?

Did you talk to Ma'crish in Colony 6 first? I think that's the npc you need to trigger the right quest for Reyn. The npc appears from 6:00 -18:00.Also, make sure that you are playing as Reyne when you are talking Ma'crish. Apparently, if you still cannot activate the 4th skill tree, then you'll likely have to do more sidequests in that area. Also, you may have to get Colony 6 reconstruction areas up to level 2. As for Hoko, you may not be able to migrate him over until the population of Colony 6 has been increased enough by upgrading the reconstruction areas.

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

Hiltz said:
Did you talk to Ma'crish in Colony 6 first? I think that's the npc you need to trigger the right quest for Reyn. The npc appears from 6:00 -18:00.Also, make sure that you are playing as Reyne when you are talking Ma'crish.

Apparently, if you still cannot activate the 4th skill tree, then you'll likely have to do more sidequests in that area.

Colony 6 needs to be at lv2 as well before you can send some of those NPCs there.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

Hiltz said:
Did you talk to Ma'crish in Colony 6 first? I think that's the npc you need to trigger the right quest for Reyn. The npc appears from 6:00 -18:00.Also, make sure that you are playing as Reyne when you are talking Ma'crish.

Apparently, if you still cannot activate the 4th skill tree, then you'll likely have to do more sidequests in that area. Also, you may have to get Colony 6 reconstruction areas up to level 2.

Macrish is still in Alcamoth and wont yet migrate.

But yeah i think it has something to do with my reconstruction only being at lvl 1. I'll try to improve that to lvl 2 and see.

Hiltz · Apr 25, 2012

Reyne 4th skill tree:

- Upgrade all of Colony 6 to level 2. By the way, you get a useful gem as a reward.

- Warp to Alcamoth's Imperial Palace landmark. Turn around and walk to the big staircase in front of you on Melifica Road. Ma'crish will appear here so change the time to 12:00 daytime. Talk to the npc and invite to Colony 6.

- From here, walk past the staircase and go down the central escalator. Turn left and find Talonyth standing next the big fountain. You won't need to change the time. Invite Talonyth to Colony 6.

- Warp to Frontier Village Chief's Residence landmark. Talk to Hoko near one of the mushroom fountains next to a large tree door entrance. Invite Hoko to Colony 6.

- Go to the Central Plaza on the bottom floor and change the time to 0:00 night. Talk to Pokapoka (the nopon with the blue hat) and invite him to Colony 6.

- Warp to Colony 6 and change the time to 12:00 daytime. Talk to Hoko on the upper right side area of Juju's location. He'll appear in the back next to the second blue tent. Accept and complete his new side quest. He'll want you to collect the following items: 3 Thick Armu milk on Bionis leg, 3 White Brog livers from Detox Brog enemies in Satorl Marsh, and 3 Juicy Wild Meat from Stella Eks enemies at Eryth Sea.

note: the detox brogs appear in Satorl Marsh's Nopon Merchant Camp landmark. Warp there and walk forward and you see that monster behind the rock.

- Warp to Colony 6 and talk to Hoko again. He'll give you another side quest to do. You'll be asked to collect 4 Charcoal legs, 4 Honey Rhubarb, and 4 Tropical Radish.

- Talk to PokaPoka who will appear in the same area as Hoko in Colony 6. PokaPoka's new sidequest has you collect 3 Bunnia Hams from Ether Bunnia enemies in Satorl Marsh. If you need to, warp to Satorl Marsh's Glowing Obelisk landmark and walk to the Nopon Refugee Camp on top of the mountain. You will find the enemy right before walking up to the mountain path next to the Ogre Bunnia. Apparently, you can get the same item from the Ogre Bunnia enemy as well.

- Go back to Pokapoka to complete his side quest and talk to Talonyth and accept the new side quest. Talonyth is inside the blue tent right next to Pokapoka. This quest wants you to collect 1 Sky Frying Pan from near the Sky Stage location on the Bionis Leg. To find it, warp to Kamos Guidepost on Bionis Leg and walk across Vienna Hill to the Sky Stage area. This item is a red orb that is found in the back area.

- Return to Talonyth and she'll give you a second-part of the side quest. Collect 1 Nature's Stove from near Eks Watering Hole in Makna Forest. Again, this item appears as a red orb. The item is found behind Eks Watering Hole next to a tree where there's a group of pirahna fish in the water.

- Warp back to talk to Talonyth to complete the quest. Now talk to Ma'crish (6:00-18:00) who should be found in the general area between Hoko and Juju. Accept the new quest and then go to the back area of Colony 6 where the the fenced off farm area is. Talk to Nopo'rikh (6:00-6:00) next to the friendly Armu monster. and then go back and talk to Ma'crish to complete the quest. Now play as Reyne and talk to Ma'crish and then talk to Hoko. Accept Hoko's quest to collect 2 Soya paste shells from Entma king enemies on Valak Mountain. Warp to the Mechonis Wound landmark and follow the guide arrow to fhelp find Entma King which his lvl. 45. Keep a look out for the big enemy because it comes up fairly quickly.

- Warp back to Colony 6 and use Reyne to talk to Hoko to choose any of the two choices he gives you. Finally, talk to Ma'crish and you'll now have Reyne's 4th skill tree unlocked !

note: Always play as Reyne while talking to these npcs.

AniHawk · Apr 25, 2012

hey so spoilers for after getting 7th

mechonis field music finally has me in love with this game. that's the thing that put me over the top. good fucking awesome stuff.

Starwolf_UK · Apr 25, 2012

So I'm going to do a second playthrough sometime or other. I'm in the process of prepping up a material/collectible guide.

The goal is to alphabetically list what materials and collectibles you need for quests, how many you need and where to get them so you can ditch the rest. Also where to find the materials if you're questing. A sample of what I'm going for:

Code:

[C] Blue Chain (3)
(3) Q - The broken watch C.9
-L- (F) Colony 9
    (T) Liliana C9 OT

[C] Plate Snow (1)
(1) Q - Collection quest 2 C.9
-L- (F) Colony 9
    (T) Jolele C9 1*, Sonia C9 OT, Perrine C9 5*

[C] Rabbit Diode (2)
(2) Q - Collection quest 1 C9
-L- (F) Colony 9
    (T) Rocco C9 OT, Jan C9 2*, Sesame C9 4*
        Moritz C9 1*, 

[M] Small Scale (1)
(1) Q - Material quest 2 C.9
-L- (E) Piranhaxes near Anti-Air Battery 1.
    (T) Narine C9 1*, Kantz C9 OT, Cheryl C9 1*

[M] Yolkless Flamii Egg (1)
(1) Q -  Material quest 4 C.9
-L- (E) Flamiis beach near Anti-Air Battery 1 day
    (T) Jackson C9 2*

Its not too hard to make as its going through that spoilery google doc and a list of quests and throwing in the appropriate info into as text document.

and probably making tonnes of mistakes and omissions

Collectibles is less useful as you can't run out of inventory space for those so excess is less of a problem (but so many of them are just sanity-saving to trade instead) so they'll probably become a separate list (I might include best spots for ones for collectopedia too as not all can be traded).

Maybe enemy levels and drop rates for the materials too...

Poyunch · Apr 25, 2012

Okay Makna Forest spoilers.

I have Melia and I'm wondering what I should do with my party now. Previously my team was Shulk, Dunban, and Sharla. I love playing as Shulk but the party needs a tank (Dunban) and healer (Sharla) so I've had to get rid of him to play as Melia. Was this a good idea? I've already read the GAF post about how to play as her. I'm willing to get rid of Sharla but I'm worried about not having a healer.

Leezard · Apr 25, 2012

Poyunch said:
Okay Makna Forest spoilers.

I have Melia and I'm wondering what I should do with my party now. Previously my team was Shulk, Dunban, and Sharla. I love playing as Shulk but the party needs a tank (Dunban) and healer (Sharla) so I've had to get rid of him to play as Melia. Was this a good idea? I've already read the GAF post about how to play as her. I'm willing to get rid of Sharla but I'm worried about not having a healer.

You don't really "need" a healer actually, seeing as you recover health after battles. I found it very useful to have a healer in some boss battles though.

SecretMoblin · Apr 25, 2012

Starwolf, you're amazing...

Poyunch said:
Okay Makna Forest spoilers.

I have Melia and I'm wondering what I should do with my party now. Previously my team was Shulk, Dunban, and Sharla. I love playing as Shulk but the party needs a tank (Dunban) and healer (Sharla) so I've had to get rid of him to play as Melia. Was this a good idea? I've already read the GAF post about how to play as her.

You can (and should) do whatever you want to do, but it would make the game more fun to switch up the party every now and then.

Melia can be one of the most dominant characters to control, as most enemies have pretty pitiful ether defense and she is able to single-handedly break and topple virtually all non-flying enemies with only two arts. Her AI is considered the worst in the game, as it only attacks under certain circumstances, so if you want her in your party it's best to control her.

And I'll second Leezard (and everyone else): you don't need a dedicated healer in the party if your setup is OK.

RagnarokX · Apr 25, 2012

Starwolf_UK said:
So I'm going to do a second playthrough sometime or other. I'm in the process of prepping up a material/collectible guide.

The goal is to alphabetically list what materials and collectibles you need for quests, how many you need and where to get them so you can ditch the rest. Also where to find the materials if you're questing. A sample of what I'm going for:

Code:

[C] Blue Chain (3) (3) Q - The broken watch C.9 -L- (F) Colony 9 (T) Liliana C9 OT [C] Plate Snow (1) (1) Q - Collection quest 2 C.9 -L- (F) Colony 9 (T) Jolele C9 1*, Sonia C9 OT, Perrine C9 5* [C] Rabbit Diode (2) (2) Q - Collection quest 1 C9 -L- (F) Colony 9 (T) Rocco C9 OT, Jan C9 2*, Sesame C9 4* Moritz C9 1*, [M] Small Scale (1) (1) Q - Material quest 2 C.9 -L- (E) Piranhaxes near Anti-Air Battery 1. (T) Narine C9 1*, Kantz C9 OT, Cheryl C9 1* [M] Yolkless Flamii Egg (1) (1) Q - Material quest 4 C.9 -L- (E) Flamiis beach near Anti-Air Battery 1 day (T) Jackson C9 2*

Its not too hard to make as its going through that spoilery google doc and a list of quests and throwing in the appropriate info into as text document.

and probably making tonnes of mistakes and omissions

Collectibles is less useful as you can't run out of inventory space for those so excess is less of a problem (but so many of them are just sanity-saving to trade instead) so they'll probably become a separate list (I might include best spots for ones for collectopedia too as not all can be traded).

Maybe enemy levels and drop rates for the materials too...

I would organize it by location order.

Poyunch said:
Okay Makna Forest spoilers.

I have Melia and I'm wondering what I should do with my party now. Previously my team was Shulk, Dunban, and Sharla. I love playing as Shulk but the party needs a tank (Dunban) and healer (Sharla) so I've had to get rid of him to play as Melia. Was this a good idea? I've already read the GAF post about how to play as her. I'm willing to get rid of Sharla but I'm worried about not having a healer.

Both Shulk and Melia can heal.

picklecannon · Apr 25, 2012

SecretMoblin said:
And I'll second Leezard (and everyone else): you don't need a dedicated healer in the party if your setup is OK.

Is no healer viable for fighting unique mobs? I've been strictly Reyn, Shulk and Sharla and considered trying out everyone else but the lack of heals scares me.

chaosblade · Apr 25, 2012

So I've decided to take on every unique, all the way up to that ridiculous

level 120

bastard. Beat him on my other playthrough, but I guess I'm going to work my way up to doing it again.

Meaning quests quests quests so I can unlock some optional stuff I otherwise wouldn't have bothered with. Spent a few hours working on that, every timed quest from the initial set of them and the bulk of the Colony 9 quests since I hadn't touched those yet.

I'll probably hit up the next set of timed quests tomorrow and try to get as many of those done as possible.

SecretMoblin said:
And I'll second Leezard (and everyone else): you don't need a dedicated healer in the party if your setup is OK.

To clarify (and I assume this is what you mean) this is not referring to party makeup, but the arts, skills, equipment and gems used for each character. Any combination of characters will work as long as you have a plan for them, but you can't necessarily just throw a group of characters together without concern for the things I mentioned before, or it might not work.

It's not only about playing to each individual character's strengths, but playing to the strengths of the other party members too.

picklecannon said:
Is no healer viable for fighting unique mobs? I've been strictly Reyn, Shulk and Sharla and considered trying out everyone else but the lack of heals scares me.

Yes, I've been taking out unique mobs the same level as me and a bit higher with Shulk/Reyn/Dunban on my current playthrough. I do use light heal, and I have skill links for things like healing after encourage and healing after chains. I've had literally a couple instances where I "abused" those, and that's taking into account every possible unique up to the point I'm at (killing all of them on this playthrough).

RagnarokX · Apr 25, 2012

picklecannon said:
Is no healer viable for fighting unique mobs? I've been strictly Reyn, Shulk and Sharla and considered trying out everyone else but the lack of heals scares me.

I suggest luring non-unique members of a mob away from the unique until only the unique and what you can't separate from it are left.

Mikey Jr. · Apr 25, 2012

jwj442 said:
I'm at level 19-20 now and am

looking for Colony 6 after Juju's capture.

A few questions:

2. Do I need to worry about becoming overleveled? I'm already a few levels ahead of the enemies I meet. I've done some quests, but I haven't gone out of my way for that many. The possibility of becoming too powerful and steamrolling everything is keeping me from exploring as much as I would otherwise.

I am about 40 hours in, and I feel that yes, it is possible to become overleveled.

The thing with this game is that 1 level makes a HUGE difference compared to other RPG's. I was like you, exploring around, doing as many sidequests as I could, and I came to the realization that enemy encounters were not as fun anymore. I realized this about 6 hours ago.

I went into a dungeon, and ALL the enemies were black label. The game was throwing these enemies at me like they were supposed to be a challenge, surprising me, blocking off chests.
Except that when they are black label, they will ignore you completely, and you can steamroll them.

So I started to back off on sidequests specifically, and it has helped. The next dungeon had all blue labels, and was more of a challenge. Gray label seems the best.

My advice to you? When you go to your next dungeon, if 80% of the enemies of black label, then start to slow down on the sidequests. I think you'll have a much better experience.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

So...Riki 4th skill tree this time. :lol

I got all the prerequisites, but the wikia and google do not have the answer as to WHO gives the "Getting Bigger" quest and i've look all over Frontier village during the day and night and found nothing. -_-

Leezard · Apr 25, 2012

Bisnic said:
So...Riki 4th skill tree this time. :lol

I got all the prerequisites, but the wikia and google do not have the answer as to WHO gives the "Getting Bigger" quest and i've look all over Frontier village during the day and night and found nothing. -_-

It's "outside" the tree somewhere about the middle vertical height, near the place where you can jump down to the bottom lake. There's something like a trampoline or just a little bit that is outside the fence where you can jump down to the lake. I think it is during the night as well.

I hope you can understand what I mean, I can't explain it any better I think.

Bisnic · Apr 25, 2012

Leezard said:
It's "outside" the tree somewhere about the middle vertical height, near the place where you can jump down to the bottom lake. There's something like a trampoline or just a little bit that is outside the fence where you can jump down to the lake. I think it is during the night as well.

I hope you can understand what I mean, I can't explain it any better I think.

Thanks, just found him at 22h, 7th floor right outside the tree. Dabidabi it was.

I looked all over the place sooner but never thought of checking outside.

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

Bisnic said:
Thanks, just found him at 22h, 7th floor right outside the tree. Dabidabi it was.

I looked all over the place sooner but never thought of checking outside.

10 and 22 seems to be when named npcs sit around for a while so that's for the most part the best time to look for them.

Poyunch · Apr 25, 2012

RagnarokX said:
Both Shulk and Melia can heal.

But both their healing artes are pitiful compared to "MEDIC".

RagnarokX · Apr 25, 2012

Poyunch said:
But both their healing artes are pitiful compared to "MEDIC".

They're both adequate, though. The only time you might need a dedicated medic is when you have to fight a large high-leveled mob and other party members are getting attacked by the enemies you aren't targeting or the enemy has a powerful attack that hits multiple party members. Your tanks should be drawing agro.

gwarm01 · Apr 25, 2012

I know I'm incredibly LTTP on this one, but I had to stop playing just to post about how amazing the music is in this game. I'm only an hour in, but the theme of Colony 9 is bringing me back to the PS1 era. I feel like I'm playing Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy 8 for the first time, and for someone 27 years old that's a special thing. The only way a game could be better is if it made me feel like I was playing Chrono Trigger or FF6 for the first time again. Maybe Earthbound.

BlazingDarkness · Apr 25, 2012

gwarm01 said:
I know I'm incredibly LTTP on this one, but I had to stop playing just to post about how amazing the music is in this game. I'm only an hour in, but the theme of Colony 9 is bringing me back to the PS1 era. I feel like I'm playing Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy 8 for the first time, and for someone 27 years old that's a special thing. The only way a game could be better is if it made me feel like I was playing Chrono Trigger or FF6 for the first time again. Maybe Earthbound.

If you love the music already be prepared to have your mind blown

burgerdog · Apr 25, 2012

gwarm01 said:
I know I'm incredibly LTTP on this one, but I had to stop playing just to post about how amazing the music is in this game. I'm only an hour in, but the theme of Colony 9 is bringing me back to the PS1 era. I feel like I'm playing Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy 8 for the first time, and for someone 27 years old that's a special thing. The only way a game could be better is if it made me feel like I was playing Chrono Trigger or FF6 for the first time again. Maybe Earthbound.

When you get to the swamp...wait for nightfall!

BlazingDarkness · Apr 25, 2012

burgerdog said:
When you get to the swamp...wait for nightfall!

I hated the battles in that area for interrupting the music :lol

burgerdog · Apr 26, 2012

BlazingDarkness said:
I hated the battles in that area for interrupting the music :lol

Regular battles shouldn't interrupt the music track, UM and bosses, yes. Kev brought this up earlier, too.

Jive Turkey · Apr 26, 2012

RagnarokX said:
I suggest luring non-unique members of a mob away from the unique until only the unique and what you can't separate from it are left.

It's no fun that way. Real men fight 10 enemies at once. Just take out the little guys first since they'll go down faster and then you have less damage coming at you.

BlazingDarkness · Apr 26, 2012

burgerdog said:
Regular battles shouldn't interrupt the music track, UM and bosses, yes. Kev brought this up earlier, too.

It would have been cool if they did something like FFXIII-2 where there was a broken up/ faster version of the same area track when engaging the enemy

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