[AniHawk]

level 39 and just made it to the imperial city

i think i'm about to hit something pretty story-heavy so i'm calling it a night for now.

restoration of places is going way more slowly than expected. wish there was a way to know where to look or who to trade with to get things.

[Junie12]

lol. You learn that pretty quickly when ultra-optimised stable dolphin turns out not to be. Buh-bye three hours of playtime

Damn that sucks :lol

But yeah what's strange about my situation though is that my house never had a power outage before, in fact this is the first time it ever happened! Talk about bad timing >_<

It's almost like God himself didn't want me to pass this game tonight. Well I'm not gonna give up! I'm gonna do everything all over again and beat that boss again! YEAH!!

[SaintMadeOfPlaster]

Just got to the Divine Sanctuary landmark; the place with all the waterfalls that you throw the mushroom cap into. It really makes me wish that the Wii was a more powerful system. I was awestruck enough without any HD-ness. I can only imagine how beautiful it would look on more modern hardware.

I love this game so much.

[Gravijah]

is "thunderstorm" an actual different kind of weather or just rain?

[SecretMoblin]

is "thunderstorm" an actual different kind of weather or just rain?

It's a different weather pattern. The rain falls in different directions and there is thunder and lightning. The differences are obvious if you look for them.

[SaintMadeOfPlaster]

is "thunderstorm" an actual different kind of weather or just rain?

Yes, they are different. I didn't encounter a thunderstorm until after about 15 showers, so I was confused for a while as well.

You'll definitely know if it's a thunderstorm. The rain is much more chaotic and, well, there's thunder.

EDIT: Beaten to death by a Moblin.

[Hiltz]

I think there's very few thunderstorm weather condition sidequests. Two kind of suck since you have to be in the area of one the later maps otherwise risk having to rush over to the locations in time before the weather changes.

[Gravijah]

thanks, time to force it to appear!

[chaosblade]

Well, I did it. I managed to beat the boss with the Melia, Riki, and Sharla team. Man I wished I payed attention to these characters ether attacks. Then this boss wouldn't be so damned hard <_< God I hope there is no other boss that have to use ether to beat them, I hate using ether >_< Oh and fuck that boss for having so much HP!

That boss. Ha, I beat that particular boss with Shulk, Sharla, and the last character. It was a mess of a battle, and the terrible framerate didn't help.

I had gun drones in that battle, does that do ether damage? Because I recall it being pretty effective against the elementals during that battle.

[Junie12]

Okay, I managed to recovered from my incident and did everything all over again but now I can't beat the boss again T_T

Sigh I guess I'm just too tired to play...

I'll try again next time I have some free time. If only I've saved as soon I beat that boss, I probably would've passed it tonight. Oh well, maybe next time.

That boss. Ha, I beat that particular boss with Shulk, Sharla, and the last character. It was a mess of a battle, and the terrible framerate didn't help. I had gun drones in that battle, does that do ether damage? Because I recall it being pretty effective against the elementals during that battle.

Yeah that framerate was giving me such a headache a while ago. This is definitely the most unpleasant boss battle I've faced in the game.

[anaron]

Possibly late to this but lawd, this had me near tears:

2:03 I think the lyrics are Latin. But here is my misheard lyrics: ♫Please tea or tuna. Please tea too long. Please tea or lay. Piss off. Please tea or tuna. Please tea two laser. Please tier two. Piss off. ♫ Wiinajamizzi 6 months ago 48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BvWP...feature=relmfu


I'll never hear it the same way again.

[Jintor]

goddamnit anaron

that's not cool

that's not cool at all

[AniHawk]

also, is there pretty much no reason not to have sharla/shulk/dunban almost all the goddamn time? i'm at level 39 and dunban's agility is 135 while he can normally hit into the low 1000s. shulk attacks from behind and sharla heals/cures status ailments.

i'm sure there's going to be a couple ether monsters, but i switched to my reserve party of reyn/melia/riki for the hell of it, and they got the job done, but they weren't the well-oiled machine the main group is. and while reyn could stand in and be the tank, i don't think anyone can replace sharla.

[anaron]

Sharla was in my party for the majority of the game. Girl was a goddamn miracle worker.

[Jintor]

I routinely switch my party around so I can social link up. I hate gift-giving.

[ag-my001]

also, is there pretty much no reason not to have sharla/shulk/dunban almost all the goddamn time? i'm at level 39 and dunban's agility is 135 while he can normally hit into the low 1000s. shulk attacks from behind and sharla heals/cures status ailments. i'm sure there's going to be a couple ether monsters, but i switched to my reserve party of reyn/melia/riki for the hell of it, and they got the job done, but they weren't the well-oiled machine the main group is. and while reyn could stand in and be the tank, i don't think anyone can replace sharla.

Many people switch out Sharla because her damage contribution is so much lower than other characters. She gets the job done, sure, but it can take a while.

For your earlier reconstruction question, this page of the Xenoblade googledocs has all the things necessary and where you can get them. There are some location and NPC name spoilers in there, but only very minor. Nothing in my scan looked like a major spoiler, but look at your own peril.

[ZenaxPure]

also, is there pretty much no reason not to have sharla/shulk/dunban almost all the goddamn time? i'm at level 39 and dunban's agility is 135 while he can normally hit into the low 1000s. shulk attacks from behind and sharla heals/cures status ailments.

Use whoever you want, but like people have been saying for most of the thread Sharla isn't that popular of a choice. Personally I am like Jintor where I constantly shift my party around for easier affinity gain but when stuff gets serious I tend to fall back to Riki/Shulk/Dunban since I can easily spend 90% of a fight inside of chain attacks which mostly allows my shulk to do things like backslash for like 50,000 damage or more depending on the situation. Riki and Shulk's tiny heal is plenty enough to keep Dunban alive when he rarely gets hit. If things get to rough chaining 3 blue skills makes Shulk/Riki's heal strong enough to do 7 or 8k which is more HP than my Dunban even has right now.

[AniHawk]

Many people switch out Sharla because her damage contribution is so much lower than other characters. She gets the job done, sure, but it can take a while. For your earlier reconstruction question, this page of the Xenoblade googledocs has all the things necessary and where you can get them. There are some location and NPC name spoilers in there, but only very minor. Nothing in my scan looked like a major spoiler, but look at your own peril.

awesome. thanks!

[chaosblade]

I used Sharla way too much in my playthrough, ditched her for the post-game stuff and "super-boss" type enemies though.

When I get around to replaying I plan to drop her as soon as possible and not use her the rest of the game.

[state_vector_collapse]

I have spent the last few days finishing off side quests before facing the final boss. I'm quite sad it's going to be over to be honest. 150 hours+ on the clock and for the most part loved every second - though I did take a break for a couple of months as I found the later sections to be lacking compared to the first half of the game.

After all that though I'm tempted to play it again as I too made the "mistake" of sticking with pretty much the same party throughout. The faq about Melia posted a page or so back has been an eye opener for sure.

[Hero]

So yeah, pretty much loving the hell out of this game. The intro was really awesome, did not expect Fiora to die and I actually felt kind of bad. 10 hours in and I just saved Juju and on the way to the tower Shulk just had a premonition about..

The soundtrack is amazing like everyone has always said. The Dolphin shots of this game really wish I had a PC capable of running it. We can always hope for an HD remaster of Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii U, right? :)

[Luigiv]

restoration of places is going way more slowly than expected. wish there was a way to know where to look or who to trade with to get things.

xenoblade.wikia.com
www.google.com

In an game bestiary with drop rates would have been nice but without it you should just pack up your pride and use third party sources. The hassle of trying to figure it all out for yourself just isn't worth it, the game is just too large and the task too monotonous.

[Tenck]

This game is so frustrating at times.

Not too far into the game. Reaching Colony 6.

At the part where I am done going through the tunnels but where I have to jump on those spinning platforms to get to fight some level 24 Mechs. One isn't a problem, but I have to fight two now and I'm barely level 21. What's even more stupid is that it made me go back to the elevator, so I'm going to take a wild guess that I have to defeat the first Mechon to get to the duo.

I wish they made it easier to get and finish some quests. I feel so under-leveled and I can see this game getting really boring pretty fast if this stuff continues. And most quests I did finish offer gold instead of experience, which is even more stupid. Stuff is so cheap that I hardly have to work for gold to get the best stuff.

[Shahadan]

Just dropping by to share this nice cover of the main theme I just found : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feak2-0omK4

[ElTopo]

This game is so frustrating at times. Not too far into the game. Reaching Colony 6. At the part where I am done going through the tunnels but where I have to jump on those spinning platforms to get to fight some level 24 Mechs. One isn't a problem, but I have to fight two now and I'm barely level 21. What's even more stupid is that it made me go back to the elevator, so I'm going to take a wild guess that I have to defeat the first Mechon to get to the duo. I wish they made it easier to get and finish some quests. I feel so under-leveled and I can see this game getting really boring pretty fast if this stuff continues. And most quests I did finish offer gold instead of experience, which is even more stupid. Stuff is so cheap that I hardly have to work for gold to get the best stuff.

Aren't there like...50 quests you could already do ? Anyway, are you using Shulk's Enchant skill ? That should usually be more than enough to take them out with your group. If you really can't handle them, I'd suggest to maybe level a bit (since the boss later can be pretty tough) - usually if you do sidequests you'll be (maybe even severely) overleveled, so it shouldn't be a problem later on.

You also get (quite a lot) experience (and skill points) for discovering new places and killing monsters (especially uniques) should give you quite a bit of experience if they're above your level, not to mention you get a lot of skill points (which can be hard to get once your level is way above that of the enemies, especially later).

[Tenck]

Aren't there like...50 quests you could already do ? Anyway, are you using Shulk's Enchant skill ? That should usually be more than enough to take them out with your group. If you really can't handle them, I'd suggest to maybe level a bit - usually if you do sidequests you'll be (maybe even severely) overleveld, so it shouldn't be a problem later on.

Yes I am using enchant. As soon as I see 1's flying on my screen, I know it's time to enchant.

Problem with the side quests, like I mentioned, is that most are gold. Which is bothersome, since I want EXP and I could be fine with no gold since I'm getting so many items that I'm selling to make a lot of money.

[ElTopo]

Yes I am using enchant. As soon as I see 1's flying on my screen, I know it's time to enchant. Problem with the side quests, like I mentioned, is that most are gold. Which is bothersome, since I want EXP and I could be fine with no gold since I'm getting so many items that I'm selling to make a lot of money.

Plenty of the quests however involve killing monsters or discovering new places, which should net you experience. Also if the monsters have a higher level than you, they usually net a lot more experience/skill points.

But believe me, if you do sidequests experience will be the least of your worries. Trust me, there's a plethora of sidequests, which often involve killing monsters (e.g. to farm items). Later on fighting will be a lot more fun, because you'll have more party members to choose, which gives you more strategies and spices up combat.

Edit:
Always spend your skill points, use your affinity coins and pick the right abilities to learn. Those things can make the game A LOT easier (or rather speed things up).

[Tenck]

Plenty of the quests however involve killing monsters or discovering new places, which should net you experience. Also if the monsters have a higher level than you, they usually net a lot more experience/skill points. But believe me, if you do sidequests experience will be the least of your worries. Trust me, there's a plethora of sidequests, which often involve killing monsters (e.g. to farm items). Later on fighting will be a lot more fun, because you'll have more party members to choose, which gives you more strategies and spices up combat. Edit: Always spend your skill points, use your affinity coins and pick the right abilities to learn. Those things can make the game A LOT easier (or rather speed things up).

Oh man, Affinity coins, hahaha. Forgot about those. What's even more embarrassing is that yesterday, after 8 hours or so, I finally started leveling up my skills. Will have to look into that again to see what I can improve.

[ElTopo]

Oh man, Affinity coins, hahaha. Forgot about those. What's even more embarrassing is that yesterday, after 8 hours or so, I finally started leveling up my skills. Will have to look into that again to see what I can improve.

You can also level up your Monado skills, which can be useful if you're having problems with the Mechs. Affinity coins can be really, really useful, especially later on, even if they may not seem that amazing at the beginning.

[SecretMoblin]

You can also level up your Monado skills, which can be useful if you're having problems with the Mechs. Affinity coins can be really, really useful, especially later on, even if they may not seem that amazing at the beginning.

They can be really helpful near the beginning, too! Skills like the one that heals you after a chain attack can be linked fairly early on, and it helps mitigate the loss of Sharla from a team. Also, early on the simple extra defense/attack ones can help a bit, as you'll want to redistribute those coins into more valuable skills later on.

Remember to go back and kill the uniques you missed. Those extra coins can be a great help.

[BlazingDarkness]

Sharla <3

[Bagu]

To share an experience from yesterday.


*Sees M64 while going to save derp*
Me: The brat can wait, I’ve got a quest to complete!
*Fight goes well enough. Then I’m over overrun by more mechon*
Me: WTF! Where did these assholes come from! AARRGGG!
*Fights for about two minutes*
Me: WHY WON’T ANY OF YOU DIE!
*Notices the 1s and realizes enchant has ended*
Me:We’ll don’t I feel sil…
*Sherla bites it*
Me:Shit! Now I have to sav…
*Shulk gets nuked*
Me:FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUI don’t even care anymore.
*Reyn being the amazing bro that he is manages to cross the circle jerk of Mechon and save my ass. Then I revive Sherla*
I then proceed to not play like an idiot and finally start chain attacking like a BOSS.


Overall I think it was a great fight.

[zlatko]

I'm 23 hours in, and am about to head out to the Sorla Marsh I think it's called?

It's a little predictable I feel about the Mechon at this point in the plot, so I hope I'm completely wrong on some stuff, or there is another big twist I'm not expecting. Even so, this game is amazing through and through.

Nothing is a challenge currently story wise. I'm like level 28 and the monsters are 23 tops, so it's a bit of a wash.

This is a game that could have definitely used a hard mode of some sort.

I'll probably just avoid side quests from here on out that don't get done along the way, or don't focus on a named monster to hunt.

[massoluk]

I'm 23 hours in, and am about to head out to the Sorla Marsh I think it's called? It's a little predictable I feel about the Mechon at this point in the plot, so I hope I'm completely wrong on some stuff, or there is another big twist I'm not expecting. Even so, this game is amazing through and through. Nothing is a challenge currently story wise. I'm like level 28 and the monsters are 23 tops, so it's a bit of a wash. This is a game that could have definitely used a hard mode of some sort. I'll probably just avoid side quests from here on out that don't get done along the way, or don't focus on a named monster to hunt.

Oh, there will be twists. A good Shyamalan's Sixth Sense twist, not The Village twist. Well, may be about Unbreakable's twist, but not at The Sign's level twist.

[Meier]

Last time I came to the thread, someone suggested a utility would be necessary to convert the EU save to an NA-capable one. Does anyone know if this exists yet? Or have they heard anything about plans to create one? I would like to re-buy the game but not if I have to start over after 40 hours.

[M_Night]

The music in this game is soooo good. Who did the OST? Here's the most recent song I like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poyyRFEoNlE

Love that so much. Beautiful

I'm currently replaying the game from scratch at my friends house every weekend!

[B.K.]

Last time I came to the thread, someone suggested a utility would be necessary to convert the EU save to an NA-capable one. Does anyone know if this exists yet? Or have they heard anything about plans to create one? I would like to re-buy the game but not if I have to start over after 40 hours.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/96056...icles/62466640

[Lonestar]

Game just keeps going :lol

Played against a Sniper Face boss battle that took place in a gigantic open hallway. Worlds longest hall. When seeing a cross section of the Titan, I realized...I'm inside his Thigh :lol

[Bisnic]

You should really get in the habit of saving every 30 minutes. Set an alarm when you play games if you must.

It would have been easier if the game actually autosave after every cutscene or something.

[TDLink]

It would have been easier if the game actually autosave after every cutscene or something.

The game already lets you save whenever you want. It's a lot better than needing to wait for save points like most RPGs.

[Khold]

The game already lets you save whenever you want. It's a lot better than needing to wait for save points like most RPGs.

I agree that it's nice, but an autosave would be even better!

[Lonestar]

Most of the time, the games system of checkpoints is pretty good. Finally ran into an instance that made me go "hmmm, I should save more often, or before certain points."

Mainly, the Heart to Heart moments. As the choice options can lead to gaining, or losing, hearts. Should have saved beforehand, as I'm trying to gain affinity levels between the characters, and have "screwed" up conversation points.

[Alchemy]

So do party options open up later? Because I just got Dunban but it doesn't really feel like he fits on the party outside of taking Shulks spot. Sharla/Reyn/Shulk fills the healer/tank/DPS trinity that it feels like combat revolves around, and Shulk is there for dealing with Mechons so it doesn't feel very easy to replace him. I'm hoping we get more healer/tanks... right?

[chaosblade]

I'm 23 hours in, and am about to head out to the Sorla Marsh I think it's called? It's a little predictable I feel about the Mechon at this point in the plot, so I hope I'm completely wrong on some stuff, or there is another big twist I'm not expecting. Even so, this game is amazing through and through. Nothing is a challenge currently story wise. I'm like level 28 and the monsters are 23 tops, so it's a bit of a wash. This is a game that could have definitely used a hard mode of some sort. I'll probably just avoid side quests from here on out that don't get done along the way, or don't focus on a named monster to hunt.

I doubt there's any way anybody could have the story figured out at that point. There are a few carrots on a stick it's dangling in front of you (and at that point there are some things you might have figured out), but there's a long way to go from there and a lot of major plot twists remaining. There's even some key plot threads that haven't even been introduced at that point.

And I think it's really interesting how people react to the difficulty, some people find the game really hard, others find it too easy.

So do party options open up later? Because I just got Dunban but it doesn't really feel like he fits on the party outside of taking Shulks spot. Sharla/Reyn/Shulk fills the healer/tank/DPS trinity that it feels like combat revolves around, and Shulk is there for dealing with Mechons so it doesn't feel very easy to replace him. I'm hoping we get more healer/tanks... right?

Internet ate my reply. Well, that character you got is an evade tank, so you want to give him lots of agility gems (you want to do that with everyone anyway though, but him especially) and light armor and he'll avoid most attacks that go his way, and deal nice damage too. He has an art that lowers aggro, it's kind of a trap, you want to make sure you get rid of that one.

The game doesn't really fall back on healer/tank/DPS. You can use just about any party and be fine as long as you think it through. With those four characters the only "good" option is to replace Shulk, but you can get by replacing either of the other as well. If you replace Reyn, you should start needing less healing during battle so that will limit Sharla's usage. If you drop Sharla, things get a bit more difficult since Reyn will still eat a good bit of damage since he draws so much aggro. You can account for that though with various gems (aggro up/down) and adjust arts to keep that from happening too much. You'll be thinking along those lines a lot later on as you get more party members, because none of them are damage eating tanks or straight healers.

[Bisnic]

So do party options open up later? Because I just got Dunban but it doesn't really feel like he fits on the party outside of taking Shulks spot. Sharla/Reyn/Shulk fills the healer/tank/DPS trinity that it feels like combat revolves around, and Shulk is there for dealing with Mechons so it doesn't feel very easy to replace him. I'm hoping we get more healer/tanks... right?

Dunban IS a tank. Just a "dodging" type one rather than one with tons of HP. I dont think anyone really replace Sharla has a healer, you got Shulk and another one with a one or two healing skills, but that's it... unless the last character i have yet to unlock is another healer.

[Alchemy]

Dunban IS a tank. Just a "dodging" type one rather than one with tons of HP. I dont think anyone really replace Sharla has a healer, you got Shulk and another one with a one or two healing skills, but that's it... unless the last character i have yet to unlock is another healer.

Ok... I'm going to have to mess around then. He seemed more like a DPS character from what I was seeing of his skills.

[nan0]

Ok... I'm going to have to mess around then. He seemed more like a DPS character from what I was seeing of his skills.

He's actually more like a "Rogue" with Combo-like attacks, focus on avoidance, debuffs (limited) and critical hits. I never used him as a tank in harder/boss battles though, because he couldn't hold up aggro if you let the AI play him.

[timmy]

I'm about four hours into this game. I'm still wrapping my head around all of the systems, but I figure that's normal at this point. One question I have for those who are further in: the inventory system seems pretty big. Is there a good rule of thumb for what is safe to sell? Will I need collectibles or materials later in the game, or is it best to sell them for gold?

[Bisnic]

I'm about four hours into this game. I'm still wrapping my head around all of the systems, but I figure that's normal at this point. One question I have for those who are further in: the inventory system seems pretty big. Is there a good rule of thumb for what is safe to sell? Will I need collectibles or materials later in the game, or is it best to sell them for gold?

You end up with a lot of gold by simply doing quests, keep those collectibles for quests or for giving them as presents to other characters to improve their affinity. Items for quests will eventually have a blue or red ! on top of them.. although i still have no idea what the color mean.

[TDLink]

Most of the time, the games system of checkpoints is pretty good. Finally ran into an instance that made me go "hmmm, I should save more often, or before certain points." Mainly, the Heart to Heart moments. As the choice options can lead to gaining, or losing, hearts. Should have saved beforehand, as I'm trying to gain affinity levels between the characters, and have "screwed" up conversation points.

You can't lose hearts in a Heart to Heart. Depending on the options you pick you may end up getting less than if you pick all the "right" options but no matter what you increase the affinity with that party member by doing the Heart to Heart. Many of the "wrong" choices can lead to some pretty funny conversations anyways.