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Adam Prime · Mar 17, 2012

So I'm curious, how necessary are the side quests? I started going through my list of sidequests from Colony 9 and I'm realizing how much much more there is to do there and I've already way moved on. Is it worth it to invest my time bringing my affinity with the region to a very high level? It seems that so far through the story I've stayed about 1-2 levels above the monsters in each area, and that's keeping the combat interesting for me. If I sit down and start completing side quests is there a chance that I will overlevel my enjoyment of the game?

... Or is it best just to move at whatever pace you want, and you'll make it through the game fine? I'm just wondering if I'll still be interested in doing those side quests when I'm 50+ hours into the game, or if there will even be a point in doing them at that point since I'm already past the level of rewards that I'm getting from them.

Leezard · Mar 17, 2012

chaosblade said:
Including that one? Because that was my first thought. I brought it up before and people were like "Oh, Monado Purge just doesn't last very long." Of course, I'd used it for the entire game, I knew how long it should last, so I figured maybe something went wrong since it didn't do anything about spike damage in that fight.

To be honest, I can't remember completely. I have a vague memory of him having resistance against it, but I can't be sure.

chaosblade · Mar 17, 2012

You just have to balance it out. There are a ton of side quests in every area, and more will pop up as you do quests and raise affinity in the area, as well as between different NPCs.

The thing to remember is that a lot of the quests with the good/important rewards require high affinity. If you plan on just beating the final boss and being done with the game, you can probably just do whatever quests you feel like. If you plan on doing more than that, you'll probably want to get affinity up for certain rewards later.

Won't hurt to do them later, as long as they aren't timed.

Zornica · Mar 17, 2012

Leezard said:
Yeah, that fight was a bit uncalled for.

Now you are at the point of no return, at least

yeah.. having a

dragon

there felt somehow strange...
however,

maybe they tried to connect the main quest with the sidequests and the optional stuff?
as in:
the strongest enemy in the entire game is a lvl 120 dragon, the strongest enemy you need to kill for a quest is a lvl 99 dragon... so maybe they felt that they need another dragon at the end of the main quest

(or just an excuse to make another hard boss with spikes and lots of immunities)

nan0 · Mar 17, 2012

Adam Prime said:
... Or is it best just to move at whatever pace you want, and you'll make it through the game fine? I'm just wondering if I'll still be interested in doing those side quests when I'm 50+ hours into the game, or if there will even be a point in doing them at that point since I'm already past the level of rewards that I'm getting from them.

Do it at the pace you want, it's neither required to do them all nor it kills the difficulty itself. Beside the quests with a stopwatch next to them, they all can be completed any time you want anyway. I found them a nice distraction after a long story-related part, and since exploration is part of the game, I doesn't hurt to fulfill some quests along the way and get some new items, gems and non-story information about the world.

Adam Prime · Mar 18, 2012

Does anyone know if there's going to be an official strategy guide when the game is released in US?

EvilMario · Mar 18, 2012

Adam Prime said:
So I'm curious, how necessary are the side quests? I started going through my list of sidequests from Colony 9 and I'm realizing how much much more there is to do there and I've already way moved on. Is it worth it to invest my time bringing my affinity with the region to a very high level? It seems that so far through the story I've stayed about 1-2 levels above the monsters in each area, and that's keeping the combat interesting for me. If I sit down and start completing side quests is there a chance that I will overlevel my enjoyment of the game?

... Or is it best just to move at whatever pace you want, and you'll make it through the game fine? I'm just wondering if I'll still be interested in doing those side quests when I'm 50+ hours into the game, or if there will even be a point in doing them at that point since I'm already past the level of rewards that I'm getting from them.

Timed quest will have a little clock icon next to the item in the quest list. These expire at major points during the game (only a few times), and the point is clearly made like 'DO YOU WANT TO GO ON FROM HERE, SHULK. YES/NO', so you'll know when they come.

You should feel free to move on and come back later when you feel like clearing out more quest. I did a number of quest in a specific area until I felt like progressing the story and moved on. And then I would occasionally come back to complete some later, etc. There's fast travel, so it's not a big deal to travel far back and complete them later when you're a higher level and you possibly have collected more deliverable items. I would just try to activate all the quest possible though, so while you're out fighting / collecting, you're also completing quest.

But none of them are required. They're just for items, and experience. If you find yourself underleveled at some point, sidequest work much better than grinding by fighting.

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

Okay, area of effect attacks that hit my entire party for massive damage are not interesting, they are not fun, and there are far too many of them in the last few hours of the game. The only strategy involved is "shit, is my talent gauge full, Y/N"

EvilMario · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Okay, area of effect attacks that hit my entire party for massive damage are not interesting, they are not fun, and there are far too many of them in the last few hours of the game. The only strategy involved is "shit, is my talent gauge full, Y/N"

Who's leading, and what's your party?

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

EvilMario said:
Who's leading, and what's your party?

Currently trying to take down

Disciple Dickson, second phase

with Shulk, Melia, and Riki. I have to lead with Shulk since the only way to keep his stupid "hit everybody attacks" from destroying my party is with Monado Armor and they happen way to frequently for me to be losing a precious section of my party meter every time I need to defend

EDIT: So I finally beat him, the problem is that I feel like I beat him by chance. I tried a dozen or so times and got lucky once

EDIT 2: Also I still don't get why

all dead people go to Saturn

EDIT 3: WAIT ITS ACTUALLY CALLED

SATURN

? BAHAHAHAHAHA

Skel1ingt0n · Mar 18, 2012

Paid this off the other day at Gamestop.

It's not really my type of game, and I find the voices to be a bit grating. Also, I doubt I'll find myself investing the time it takes to actually finish this game.

Alllll that said, I want to support NOA for bringing this over here. Even if it's exclusive to two stores, that's much better than nothing.

EvilMario · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Currently trying to take down

Disciple Dickson, second phase

with Shulk, Melia, and Riki. I have to lead with Shulk since the only way to keep his stupid "hit everybody attacks" from destroying my party is with Monado Armor and they happen way to frequently for me to be losing a precious section of my party meter every time I need to defend

EDIT: So I finally beat him, the problem is that I feel like I beat him by chance. I tried a dozen or so times and got lucky once

EDIT 2: Also I still don't get why

all dead people go to Saturn

EDIT 3: WAIT ITS ACTUALLY CALLED

SATURN

? BAHAHAHAHAHA

Haha. I mostly used Riki, Shulk, Dunban near the end, but I was probably high enough level from all my side quest not to have too much trouble in the battles. Last battle was actually easier than some leading up to it if that gives you some hope.

And if you think the story is out there now, just wait until the end.

Skel1ingt0n said:
Paid this off the other day at Gamestop.

It's not really my type of game, and I find the voices to be a bit grating. Also, I doubt I'll find myself investing the time it takes to actually finish this game.

Alllll that said, I want to support NOA for bringing this over here. Even if it's exclusive to two stores, that's much better than nothing.

Even if you find yourself not really loving it right off the bat, try to give it a few hours. Once it opens up and you're exploring some of the more awesome areas.. and you grasp the combat a bit more, it becomes more appealing. They do throw a lot at you, especially combat wise, right off the bat.

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

Yeah, the last battle definitely feels easier. I mean...I can't beat it at the moment, but even though I've been trying and failing it doesn't feel cheap

McNum · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, the last battle definitely feels easier. I mean...I can't beat it at the moment, but even though I've been trying and failing it doesn't feel cheap

Just one thing you need to know about that fight:

The QTEs in that fight are not the usual "Shulk! That was awesome!" QTEs. You really want to hit these as you can avoid some nasty attacks with it.

nan0 · Mar 18, 2012

EvilMario said:
These expire at major points during the game (only a few times), and the point is clearly made like 'DO YOU WANT TO GO ON FROM HERE, SHULK. YES/NO', so you'll know when they come.

I thought so too, because the first point of no return was like this. But later, in

Agniratha and Mechonis Core

I didn't saw such a choice. It was more like "Shall we go on y/n?" but it didn't say you can't get back to certain areas and was rather kind of "Do you want to fight this boss or check your equipment first?"

Adam Prime · Mar 18, 2012

EvilMario said:
Timed quest will have a little clock icon next to the item in the quest list. These expire at major points during the game (only a few times), and the point is clearly made like 'DO YOU WANT TO GO ON FROM HERE, SHULK. YES/NO', so you'll know when they come.

You should feel free to move on and come back later when you feel like clearing out more quest. I did a number of quest in a specific area until I felt like progressing the story and moved on. And then I would occasionally come back to complete some later, etc. There's fast travel, so it's not a big deal to travel far back and complete them later when you're a higher level and you possibly have collected more deliverable items. I would just try to activate all the quest possible though, so while you're out fighting / collecting, you're also completing quest.

But none of them are required. They're just for items, and experience. If you find yourself underleveled at some point, sidequest work much better than grinding by fighting.

That's kind of what I've been doing most of the game. Accept as many quests as possible and then when I find a new area uncover as much of the map as possible. While doing that I usually clear a few collection and hunt quests along the way. I guess my main concern was the if I wait around too long to do side quests that the rewards are no longer worth it (HP UP I gem? I have twenty of those...)

Also a question about collectibles... I'm trying to get a specific one I need fr reconstruction, but it doesn't appear where it's supposed to according to the Guide Spreadsheet, how do they respawn? Is it an in game clock thing? Do you have to just wait it out and come back later?

nan0 · Mar 18, 2012

Adam Prime said:
Also a question about collectibles... I'm trying to get a specific one I need fr reconstruction, but it doesn't appear where it's supposed to according to the Guide Spreadsheet, how do they respawn? Is it an in game clock thing? Do you have to just wait it out and come back later?

I found that different items appear on a spawnpoint depending if its day or night. Save/Reload doesn't seem to work for collectibles.

Adam Prime · Mar 18, 2012

yeah I was trying to fast forward time back and forth, then I teleported to another area completely, and came back... still nothing. I'm thinking they maybe work off of the system time clock or something.

chaosblade · Mar 18, 2012

Is it one from a blue orb? Because those are kind of finnicky. Blue orbs are actually not entirely random, each one has a percentage for each item it could possibly be. And that percentage may vary from day to night.

Usually when you see people saying go for this certain blue orb, it's because it's known to have a higher percentage for that certain item, but there are other places you can find it usually.

That's one of the things I didn't really like about the game. Sucks that some of the items can be really rare with only a handful of possible spawn points and low percentage rates at that. Most of the time you can trade for those, but not always.

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

McNum said:
Just one thing you need to know about that fight:

The QTEs in that fight are not the usual "Shulk! That was awesome!" QTEs. You really want to hit these as you can avoid some nasty attacks with it.

Well...not really. They're ether arts the vast majority of the time, all I can do about those is re-direct them, right?

Zornica · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Well...not really. They're ether arts the vast majority of the time, all I can do about those is re-direct them, right?

depends on who you are playing...
melia can seal them and even throw them back (with reflection), dunban could dodge, riki+reyn got like 9999hp, so they wouldn't mind anyway.

The_Technomancer said:
Currently trying to take down

Disciple Dickson, second phase

with Shulk, Melia, and Riki. I have to lead with Shulk since the only way to keep his stupid "hit everybody attacks" from destroying my party is with Monado Armor and they happen way to frequently for me to be losing a precious section of my party meter every time I need to defend

there is absolutely no point in having melia in your party if you aren't playing as her.
You could remove her, use 7th, and stick to your strategie of defending against his attacks, or you go the other way, bench shulk, controll melia and use mind blast to seal his arts. (he wasn't immune, was he?)

I hope you are at least lvl

79/80

, because otherwise you are in for some tough fights

chaosblade · Mar 18, 2012

Zornica said:
depends on who you are playing...
melia can seal them and even throw them back (with reflection), dunban could dodge, riki+reyn got like 9999hp, so they wouldn't mind anyway.

there is absolutely no point in having melia in your party if you aren't playing as her.
You could remove her, use 7th, and stick to your strategie of defending against his attacks, or you go the other way, bench shulk, controll melia and use mind blast to seal his arts. (he wasn't immune, was he?)

I hope you are at least lvl

79/80

, because otherwise you are in for some tough fights

If he did that, then he'd be one character swap from the best party in the game! A well set Shulk/Melia (main for Melia beasting/Monado arts) + 7th + Dunban just isn't fair.

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

7th and Dunban feel a bit redundant, they're both powerful physical strikers without much in the way of effects or ethers. I tend to like Riki because of his insanely high HP and nice mix of both physical arts and status inflicts. Also did I miss a memo or something when JRPGs started

having their final boss fights be against vaguely cybernetic looking angels?

I disagree with Melia being no use if I'm not controlling her: I've tried switching out for more direct characters like Reyn and 7th and the battles always go worse for me. Her constant stream of buffs does seem to make a difference.

chaosblade · Mar 18, 2012

The AI does an extremely poor job of utilizing Melia. She's a fantastic damage dealer but the AI has a tendency to summon things and stand around or use melee attacks. The buffs can be useful (especially wind/agility) but I don't think it makes up for the lower damage output since it leads to battles taking longer.

And most of the time dealing physical damage is fine, I guess that just comes down to how the game is balanced. There are only a handful of enemies where you'll really need anything else.

I don't know of any party setup that will deal damage faster than the one I mentioned, but that doesn't mean there aren't other good parties. As long as everyone is optimized well for their role in battle I think just about any combination will work well enough, though the effectiveness of some combinations could be called into question. Riki/Sharla/Reyn would probably be a pretty crazy combination to try to use!

EvilMario · Mar 18, 2012

I loved using Riki as my lead, because he attacks are enjoyable from a player's perspective. A lot of directional (back, front, side) attacks, area healing and status. Plus he's hilarious. I know a lot of people said they couldn't play as him because they couldn't take the game seriously then, but boo to that I say.

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

Yeah, really the only reason I main Shulk is to have the necessary access to Monado arts, the rest of the time I enjoy playing as characters like Riki and Melia

Zornica · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Yeah, really the only reason I main Shulk is to have the necessary access to Monado arts, the rest of the time I enjoy playing as characters like Riki and Melia

I am not sure if you are aware of this, but you can use the monado arts even if you aren't controlling shulk.
If a vision comes up, just run to him and press b (wiimote). The upside is, there is no need to wait for any kind of cooldown on shulks end, the downside, ofc, is that this uses 1/3 of your chainlink/group bar (that blue thing)

The Technomancer · Mar 18, 2012

Zornica said:
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but you can use the monado arts even if you aren't controlling shulk.
If a vision comes up, just run to him and press b (wiimote). The upside is, there is no need to wait for any kind of cooldown on shulks end, the downside, ofc, is that this uses 1/3 of your chainlink/group bar (that blue thing)

Oh yeah, I know about that, the problem is that it costs an entire bar of my party gauge. If, for example, I'm fighting

Disciple Dickson

and I see he's going to pull off his physical attack that hits everyone I oftentimes can't afford to spend a bar of the party gauge to cast Armor, since its very likely that even with that defense one or more party members are going to die in the next thirty seconds and if it happens to be my main character and I don't have at least one bar left...instant failure.

This is also why I think chain attacks are useless in the late game. The tide of battle can shift so quickly and unexpectedly that you always want at least one bar in the party gauge just in case.

chaosblade · Mar 18, 2012

With high enough affinity and increased chances for chains, your chains should be long enough that you can fill the bar up a reasonable amount during the chain. With max affinity against the 100+ enemies, I was filling around two bars during the chain attack, so it didn't take long to refill again for another chain, or getting a party member up, or whatever I needed it for. (Of course it varies though, a short chain might have fill around one block, while some long chains would almost fill all 3).

Leezard · Mar 18, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
Oh yeah, I know about that, the problem is that it costs an entire bar of my party gauge. If, for example, I'm fighting

Disciple Dickson

and I see he's going to pull off his physical attack that hits everyone I oftentimes can't afford to spend a bar of the party gauge to cast Armor, since its very likely that even with that defense one or more party members are going to die in the next thirty seconds and if it happens to be my main character and I don't have at least one bar left...instant failure.

This is also why I think chain attacks are useless in the late game. The tide of battle can shift so quickly and unexpectedly that you always want at least one bar in the party gauge just in case.

You can easily regain the party gauge if you got high affinity in your party and make a long chain attack. Also, some skill trees (7th, for example) has a party gauge recover skill.

Oxx · Mar 18, 2012

Chain Attacks were the basis of my offence throughout the game.

I would just wait for the bar to fill-up before Toppling and unleashing hell.

Adam Prime · Mar 19, 2012

chaosblade said:
The AI does an extremely poor job of utilizing Melia. She's a fantastic damage dealer but the AI has a tendency to summon things and stand around or use melee attacks. The buffs can be useful (especially wind/agility) but I don't think it makes up for the lower damage output since it leads to battles taking longer.

And most of the time dealing physical damage is fine, I guess that just comes down to how the game is balanced. There are only a handful of enemies where you'll really need anything else.

I don't know of any party setup that will deal damage faster than the one I mentioned, but that doesn't mean there aren't other good parties. As long as everyone is optimized well for their role in battle I think just about any combination will work well enough, though the effectiveness of some combinations could be called into question. Riki/Sharla/Reyn would probably be a pretty crazy combination to try to use!

Do you have any tips for manual using melia? I'm at lv 40 with her right now. I'm not sure I fully understand how to play her... I just let the AI use her from now, but like you said I don't think it does the best job.

MvmntInGrn · Mar 19, 2012

So I'm about 12 hours in right now and I have a few questions I'm hoping to get help with:

When chaining, leading as Reyn, is there anyway to pull of an break > topple? Right now Reyn has no break moves and is the only one who can topple so unless I get an extended chain I can't pull it off. Can I change who starts the chain to someone else? Do other characters get topple moves at some point?

The other is selling items, whats best to sell and what can I be certain I won't need? I'm afraid I'll sell one-time items. I've put it off so far but my inventory is full and I need to start clearing out. Help!

Zornica · Mar 19, 2012

Adam Prime said:
Do you have any tips for manual using melia? I'm at lv 40 with her right now. I'm not sure I fully understand how to play her... I just let the AI use her from now, but like you said I don't think it does the best job.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=34985554&postcount=16970
there you go

MvmntInGrn said:
So I'm about 12 hours in right now and I have a few questions I'm hoping to get help with:

When chaining, leading as Reyn, is there anyway to pull of an break > topple? Right now Reyn has no break moves and is the only one who can topple so unless I get an extended chain I can't pull it off. Can I change who starts the chain to someone else? Do other characters get topple moves at some point?

The other is selling items, whats best to sell and what can I be certain I won't need? I'm afraid I'll sell one-time items. I've put it off so far but my inventory is full and I need to start clearing out. Help!

you can change who is 2nd and 3rd in line, but the first one is always the player aka you. that means, if you want to play reyn, and you want to topple stuff, you should do it without a chainattack - or be lucky (there is only one or two situations where a chain is really necessary). reyn won't get a a break move, but there will be outer characters whith their own unique topple mechanics. you will see.

sort your items by price, and sell the last page (except those with a star* or an ! )
If you want to complete as many quests as possible, I'd advice to sell stuff only if you really have to.

chaosblade · Mar 19, 2012

Adam Prime said:
Do you have any tips for manual using melia? I'm at lv 40 with her right now. I'm not sure I fully understand how to play her... I just let the AI use her from now, but like you said I don't think it does the best job.

Key arts are Summon bolt+copy, starlight kick, spear break, and mind blast. Wind and Fire summons are good for two other slots, and you can fill the last with hypnotize, reflect, or summon ice/earth depending on your playstyle and what the circumstances are.

You can use spear break+starlight kick and that will automatically topple an enemy, obviously a good combination.

Other than that, you'll just want to focus on using summons unleashing them to deal damage. Bolt is particularly strong, and you make it even better with the lighting damage up gems/skills (NOT the ones that add lightning damage, just damage up by x%). Between Bolt, Fire, Wind, Copy (and optionally earth/ice), as well as toppling the enemy occasionally and using mind blast if necessary, you should be able to push a constant stream of arts and not worry about her pathetically weak auto attacks at all.

One thing that helps is to remember what each summon does to benefit you. Having a wind summon up is nice when you're fighting a lot of enemies or a boss since it improves agility. Alternatively, keeping a bolt summon up will increase the power of other ether attacks, so you might summon it first and keep it up while summoning and attacking with others.

Zornica wrote a pretty detailed guide for Melia.

Edit: beaten.

MvmntInGrn said:
So I'm about 12 hours in right now and I have a few questions I'm hoping to get help with:

When chaining, leading as Reyn, is there anyway to pull of an break > topple? Right now Reyn has no break moves and is the only one who can topple so unless I get an extended chain I can't pull it off. Can I change who starts the chain to someone else? Do other characters get topple moves at some point?

The other is selling items, whats best to sell and what can I be certain I won't need? I'm afraid I'll sell one-time items. I've put it off so far but my inventory is full and I need to start clearing out. Help!

You get a lot of topple arts by the end of the game. Five of the seven characters get one IIRC (one character actually gets two very different ones I think).

And you can safely sell anything with a small bag icon. Those are common items that you can reobtain easily if necessary.

Actually, this seems like a good FAQ question :lol

MvmntInGrn · Mar 19, 2012

Zornica said:
you can change who is 2nd and 3rd in line, but the first one is always the player aka you. that means, if you want to play reyn, and you want to topple stuff, you should do it without a chainattack - or be lucky (there is only one or two situations where a chain is really necessary). reyn won't get a a break move, but there will be outer characters whith their own unique topple mechanics. you will see.

sort your items by price, and sell the last page (except those with a star* or an ! )
If you want to complete as many quests as possible, I'd advice to sell stuff only if you really have to.

Thanks for the info. I am finding that needing to topple with a chain is rare, I got frustrated with

Xord

because I handled the battle best as Reyn

keeping the aggro from Xord and non-targeted enemies off Sharla by quickly switching, but being unable to really do damage to Xord with Reyn in lead. Ended up using Shulk, just needed to do a bit more damage before I could get aggro back.

chaosblade said:
And you can safely sell anything with a small bag icon. Those are common items that you can reobtain easily if necessary.

This is what I wanted to hear, thanks. I probably won't 100% this game but there is always a part of me that wants to make sure I don't lock myself out of it.

chaosblade · Mar 19, 2012

MvmntInGrn said:
Thanks for the info. I am finding that needing to topple with a chain is rare, I got frustrated with

Xord

because I handled the battle best as Reyn

keeping the aggro from Xord and non-targeted enemies off Sharla by quickly switching, but being unable to really do damage to Xord with Reyn in lead. Ended up using Shulk, just needed to do a bit more damage before I could get aggro back.

This is what I wanted to hear, thanks. I probably won't 100% this game but there is always a part of me that wants to make sure I don't lock myself out of it.

I'm not sure there are any missable items in the game. Or at least any items that you can miss and as a result not be able to complete a quest or something. Some might as well be, as hard as they can be to find.

Those Black Liver Beans! I wonder how many people went crazy looking for those.

Jintor · Mar 19, 2012

ARGH WHY DID I PLAY THIS ON DOLPHIN audio stutter crashes losing you hours of progress are INFURIATING

why this game no has autosave arrrrrrgh

I'm somewhere up in the mountains after I gave up trying to push through mechon three levels higher than me for now. I found an ice-slide.

chaosblade · Mar 19, 2012

If your PC is fast enough (4GHz+ I'd guess) you can use LLE audio and that will eliminate most of the stuttering. I ripped my copy and played up to the end of Tephra cave without any problems.

The Technomancer · Mar 19, 2012

I'm planning on saving a really thorough playthrough for the NG+. The first time through I've been basically running through the game, usually doing only a half dozen sidequests in each new location.

Oxx · Mar 19, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
I'm planning on saving a really thorough playthrough for the NG+. The first time through I've been basically running through the game, usually doing only a half dozen sidequests in each new location.

This might explain why you have been having problems with some of the bosses (although a couple are genuine difficulty spikes).

McNum · Mar 19, 2012

The_Technomancer said:
I'm planning on saving a really thorough playthrough for the NG+. The first time through I've been basically running through the game, usually doing only a half dozen sidequests in each new location.

I did the same. Yeah, some bosses are a pain when doing this. I pretty much had Sharla around at all times just to keep everyone standing. That and hardcore abuse of Chain Attacks. You know you've done well when you hit 100,000 to 150,000 damage off a chain attack. And two bars of Party Gauge recharged. That'll hurt most enemies, including bosses.

You really should learn Shulk's easy meter-builders, which are Back Attack and that one that does bonus damage hitting from the side. Hit those consistently and you'll be able to spam chain attacks.

Of course, I still got beat up fiercely until I learned the "trick" to Chain Attacks. Keep the chain the same color! If you start off with a red, follow up with a red, and try to stay red as it will drastically build up the damage. Talent attacks, the big white one, are special as they're joker colors. You can follow up a white with anything AND it gets the damage bonus. It's almost worth keeping Shulk in second just to be able to land a "Lvl MAX" Monado Buster on an enemy. That one HURTS. Or just see if you can wrap the chain around enough to give Shulk a third go, but you might run low on colors. Melia is awesome in this, by the way, due to how her Talent Gauge works. You can always fire off White with her, as long as she has an element summoned. Meaning any time Melia is up, you get to change colors, if you want.

nan0 · Mar 19, 2012

Can I get

all five Monado replicas

, or can I only complete one of the quests?

Leezard · Mar 19, 2012

nan0 said:
Can I get

all five Monado replicas

, or can I only complete one of the quests?

You can get all.

Oxx · Mar 21, 2012

Melia is the new companion in Doctor Who.

What the Shhhhuuuulllllkkkkk!?

If Doctor Who and Xenoblade take place in the same universe...

SecretMoblin · Mar 23, 2012

Alright guys, put together some templates for the North American OT; any and all feedback would be very much appreciated.

Stuff I'm still working on and/or thinking about:

images of the boxart / reversible boxart
a picture of the artbook cover, just to let people know that it exists and is an incentive for preordering
whether to add more content and what to add; my goal was to pack as much useful information into as little space as possible while having it look clean, but it's a big game and there's obviously a lot out there
making absolutely sure proper credit is given
the OT title! I still like "Sorry I Kept You Waiting" but there have been a number of good suggestions

This is one with several banners by Maddness, who whipped up a number of images in the span of a few minutes when he saw I was working on the OT: image link

This is one with banners put together by me: image link

This is another banner Maddness came up with: image link

Likes/dislikes/preferences? Obviously things can be mixed and matched as necessary. Did I leave anything essential out? And if there's anybody who isn't getting credit who deserves some, please let me know.

Oxx · Mar 23, 2012

RPGCrazied needs to be in the credits.

Zornica · Mar 23, 2012

there is still one problem with the faq:

about timed quests expiring, as we all know, there are 3 points of no return for them, and 1 of them hasn't even a warning sign. furthermore, there are more "are you ready" pop ups than those 2. the one when you are about to leave alcamoth is in particular troublesome, because most people will think their quests gonna end now, when in fact, they won't end for another 20 hours or so.
the 3rd point of no return is the last elevator in mechonis halls the big one before you encounter egil. it cuts of sword valley. there is no sign of warning, and you can't save there. (this is a problem for colony 6 rebuilding also)

I am not sure how to rewrite that without spoilers.

Oxx · Mar 23, 2012

You could link to the GAF Soundtrack of the Year thread (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=459262) or post some Youtube links.

chaosblade · Mar 23, 2012

Zornica said:
there is still one problem with the faq:

about timed quests expiring, as we all know, there are 3 points of no return for them, and 1 of them hasn't even a warning sign. furthermore, there are more "are you ready" pop ups than those 2. the one when you are about to leave alcamoth is in particular troublesome, because most people will think their quests gonna end now, when in fact, they won't end for another 20 hours or so.
the 3rd point of no return is the last elevator in mechonis halls the big one before you encounter egil. it cuts of sword valley. there is no sign of warning, and you can't save there. (this is a problem for colony 6 rebuilding also)

I am not sure how to rewrite that without spoilers.

I asked about including a note about the Alcamoth one since it's an exception, but nobody had anything to say so I wrote it out. I don't remember any other points where you're asked if you want to continue but it's not a point of no return.

And there is a message before you fight Egil, it's before you board the ship to go to Mechonis Core. I don't remember any unmarked points of no return. Even the ones at the refuge on Bionis leg have a message, it will ask if you're sure you want to send the people back to Colony 6, unless I'm mistaken.

The four points where you're asked, IIRC:
1) Before moving refugees
2) Alcamoth, leaving for Makna Forest
3) Before traveling to Mechonis Core
4) Before the last two bosses

And I like the Bionis/Mechonis banners.

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I can't believe these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?