• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Tales of Xillia 2 |OT| Return of the Bazongas

Dice//

Banned
Why is there a ceiling to how much you can win per hand in poker? ; ; Also, 100 chips is the max bet?!

Yeah, they uh really make you put the time in.

I've heard they practically throw gold/silver dice at you in the EX Dungeon, so there's that at least.
 
Nah I think it just runs off the PS3 clock or something, since it works when you're paused as well. That's probably also how the game selects the Kitty Dispatch day bonus.

It's weird though, because in this instance I dispatched my kitty at some point in time, let's say t=0. Then I saved my game later, at like t=5. At about t=7 I reloaded my game (kitty still hadn't returned btw), so at this point I should have been at t=5 again, and the kitty immediately returned the instant I loaded.
 

demidar

Member
It's weird though, because in this instance I dispatched my kitty at some point in time, let's say t=0. Then I saved my game later, at like t=5. At about t=7 I reloaded my game (kitty still hadn't returned btw), so at this point I should have been at t=5 again, and the kitty immediately returned the instant I loaded.

I think it's more like

Kitty dispatched at t = 0.
Game saved at t = 5, kitty dispatch time also saved as t = 0.
Upon reload, game checks the delta between current time (t = 7) and kitty dispatch. Game retrieves previously saved dispatch time t = 0, compares to current time t = 7 received from PS3 clock. Delta = current time - dispatch time.
If delta is beyond threshold, kitty returns.
 
Post chapter 12 question....
So the chromatus power "uses up" Elle, correct? If I don't use it anymore, does anything special happen?
 

Zafir

Member
Finally finished the game and seen both endings. Figure I'll post my over all thoughts -

The Good -
- A direct sequel done relatively well. Most direct sequels end up being inferior than the original, but I can't really say it's the case here. I think it stands tall alongside the original. It also understood that people probably want to see the old characters, which leads onto my next two points.
- The returning characters are really well done. It kind of felt believable that it had been a year.
- Liked the character episode idea, gave a lot of depth to the old characters.
- The story over all was pretty good. A bit slow to get going but once it did, it didn't stop.
- I like that they expanded on Elympios more, the first game was in dire need of that. Probably the reason this game was made really, all the content they didn't get chance to add into the first one. :p
- Combat is better than Xillia over all. Harder, too.
- They made it really difficult to miss stuff. Fantastic improvement.

The Bad -
- Short, artificially lengthened by the debt system.
- Debt system. Pointless addition, just ends up being annoying and breaks up the pacing. Wouldn't have been half as bad if Nova didn't spam and force you to pay up if you had too much cash.
- Reused assets. The field maps became utterly tedious in the first game, never mind releasing them for another run through. Not helped by the fact of quests requiring items from the areas.
- Kitty Dispatch. Interesting idea in theory, but in practice I think it was just tedious. Often you ended up just not getting the item you wanted, resulting in you having to either idle, or just keep doing other stuff until it finally graces you with the item you need. One of the reasons I won't go for plat, despite getting the originals.
- Aforementioned performance issues. Like they weren't great in Xillia but at least it didn't interrupt your game play. Here you can be waiting a bit while the vendor/npc that you need spawns in. Some area's cause massive frame drops too.
- Ludger being mute...

The Meh -
- New orb system wasn't too great. I felt like it really limited your choice in character growth. I would have preferred either Xillia's system or just the old traditional method of unlocking abilitys.
- I wanted to care about Ludger but even with the voice from NG+ it's still hard to care a lot. You'd have an heartwarming scene between him and another character or whatever but he'd just be silent.. Made some scenes awkward, especially in some of the character episodes.
- Wasn't the biggest fan of the way they split the party up all the damn time. I missed seeing the reactions of some of the characters. Didn't really make sense a lot of the time either. It also meant some of the fights were artificially more difficult because of a forced composition.
- (Ending spoiler)
Kind of wish we'd had a inbetween for the true and normal endings. I preferred the idea of Ludger surviving since Elle wasn't from the world anyway. However, a lot more effort was put into the True endings. The scene was longer between the party and origin, and it also gave info on what happens after for a few other members of the crew.
 
If im going for the Platinum, is there anything i should keep in mind as i play the game and always try to stay on top of to cut down on my grinding time postgame? For example, in Xillia 1 it was food effects, i never used food until way late in the game so it took me forever to get the required number of food effects. This time I'm constantly using food (don't even know if it's a requirement, but doing it just to be safe). Anything else? Like using certain skills, maining certain characters, etc?

Edit : Im already sending kitties out constantly, so I'm on top of that one.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
If im going for the Platinum, is there anything i should keep in mind as i play the game and always try to stay on top of to cut down on my grinding time postgame? For example, in Xillia 1 it was food effects, i never used food until way late in the game so it took me forever to get the required number of food effects. This time I'm constantly using food (don't even know if it's a requirement, but doing it just to be safe). Anything else? Like using certain skills, maining certain characters, etc?

Edit : Im already sending kitties out constantly, so I'm on top of that one.

You have to do a bunch of each character's skill ability(like Jude's snap pivot) along with their helping trait, so you might want to switch people around for that.
 

Cryst

Member
If im going for the Platinum, is there anything i should keep in mind as i play the game and always try to stay on top of to cut down on my grinding time postgame? For example, in Xillia 1 it was food effects, i never used food until way late in the game so it took me forever to get the required number of food effects. This time I'm constantly using food (don't even know if it's a requirement, but doing it just to be safe). Anything else? Like using certain skills, maining certain characters, etc?

Edit : Im already sending kitties out constantly, so I'm on top of that one.

Make sure you kill 18 of the Elite Monsters shown on the job board in under 2 minutes for part of the Battle Challenge trophies. I suppose you can grind and take out the harder ones later in under that time, but I'd rather not worry about 'em.
 

demidar

Member
If im going for the Platinum, is there anything i should keep in mind as i play the game and always try to stay on top of to cut down on my grinding time postgame? For example, in Xillia 1 it was food effects, i never used food until way late in the game so it took me forever to get the required number of food effects. This time I'm constantly using food (don't even know if it's a requirement, but doing it just to be safe). Anything else? Like using certain skills, maining certain characters, etc?

Edit : Im already sending kitties out constantly, so I'm on top of that one.

Have you got Catstantine the III from the first time you met Leia? Someone in this thread said that's a missable kitty.
 
Have you got Catstantine the III from the first time you met Leia? Someone in this thread said that's a missable kitty.

It's supposedly not necessary for the trophy, but I also don't plan to miss him regardless. I think you can't get him until much later in the game though, and I'm not far enough yet.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Beat Chronos 1 on hard mode, fuck yeah!

I was lvl 26 with everyone and set Jude and Leia to Only Heal as well as Be Careful. Alvin was on Prioritize Healing. I was linking with Alvin the whole time. Ate some Veggie sticks (30% Pdef and Adef) I bought at Trigleph. I also bought 15 Apple and Orange Gels plus 15 life bottles and kept Auto Item on. Doing all this kept my party's HP constantly high. I kept dying with Ludger though since I was aggressive and Tetra Spell kept killing me. But I managed in the end. It's a good thing that halfway through the fight he gains weakness to the three weapon types.
 

kewlmyc

Member
The Meh -
- (Ending spoiler)
Kind of wish we'd had a inbetween for the true and normal endings. I preferred the idea of Ludger surviving since Elle wasn't from the world anyway. However, a lot more effort was put into the True endings. The scene was longer between the party and origin, and it also gave info on what happens after for a few other members of the crew.

I agree with this.
The game would have been better off it the didn't have a "normal" end and a "true" end. Just have two endings and don't label them. Have the same amount of work put into both endings since both were two very reasonable solutions to the problem at hand. Actually the "normal" ending would actually benefit the world more having someone with Ludger's connections as CEO of Spyris, but whatever. The game didn't force you to pick True end, but it sure made you feel as if that was the wrong choice, which is a design choice I don't agree with.
 

Datschge

Member
- (Ending spoiler)
Kind of wish we'd had a inbetween for the true and normal endings. I preferred the idea of Ludger surviving since Elle wasn't from the world anyway. However, a lot more effort was put into the True endings. The scene was longer between the party and origin, and it also gave info on what happens after for a few other members of the crew.

While I agree that they could have made the difference between "normal" and "true" more ambivalent, I strongly disagree with the bolded. Consequentially sticking with the plan laid out by the story and spelling out the emotions that come with it is what makes those endings special. Actually I feel what Xillia 2 tried to do and did well in many (but by far not all) parts is putting in emotional reflections of what's happening (mostly personified in Elle) in place of the usual (typical game-y) strange lack of empathy. Having an ending compromising on it would have weakened the effort as a whole tremendously imo.
 

Finalow

Member
The chain attacks was pretty much Dark Projection, aerial attack towards 1 or 2 times. There's a rhythm to it.

Well there's also a skill that extends Chromatus time if you're in the air iirc. With a long power combo before transforming they won't break out.
.
yes I use that skill for extending chromatus time while in air, it's pretty good.
I guess that 1. I do not always transform after a power combo and 2. I pretty much smash X for a while and then press O when I do transform. no idea how to do that Dark Projection but I'll look it up.


It's a trophy if you don't depend on the Chromatus too much from that point to the end of the game.
it's funny how that trophy is "don't use the transformation more than 50 times after that chapter! (which is near the end)" and I've used it 50-60 times after 35 fucking hours.
o-okey

Whelp. Just finished chapter 12.

Megaton.

Those feels.
I spoiled that myself, while I was reading Xillia 1's plot (I didn't remember some stuff) on wikipedia. yes, wikipedia. I didn't find anything better and there you go, that spoiler after "Xillia 2 plot takes places in ... and LUDGER IS"

however, the game drops a lot of hints so I might have managed to figure it out for myself before actually arriving there.

still, 12 was a great chapter. unlike 11, which yes, glorious return of someone but the rest sucked.
 

Finalow

Member
The Meh -
- New orb system wasn't too great. I felt like it really limited your choice in character growth. I would have preferred either Xillia's system or just the old traditional method of unlocking abilitys.
to be fair, Xillia 1 system was "fill up the whole circle to unlock the next one" which pretty much meant 0 personalization in character growth. in this one at least you get some of that as far as skills go.
not a great system but I think that it's definitely an improvement from the first game.
 

Zafir

Member
to be fair, Xillia 1 system was "fill up the whole circle to unlock the next one" which pretty much meant 0 personalization in character growth. in this one at least you get some of that as far as skills go.
not a great system but I think that it's definitely an improvement from the first game.
You didn't have to fill the full circle. I remember that much. I didn't until the end of the game for the plat.

It's worth noting just because I prefer Xillia's system to this one, it doesn't mean I think Xillia's was great. It wasn't but, I just didn't like the new one more.
While I agree that they could have made the difference between "normal" and "true" more ambivalent, I strongly disagree with the bolded. Consequentially sticking with the plan laid out by the story and spelling out the emotions that come with it is what makes those endings special. Actually I feel what Xillia 2 tried to do and did well in many (but by far not all) parts is putting in emotional reflections of what's happening (mostly personified in Elle) in place of the usual (typical game-y) strange lack of empathy. Having an ending compromising on it would have weakened the effort as a whole tremendously imo.
(Ending spoilers)
But Elle going would have been just as emotional if not more because she's a child... Though that was poorly shown in the normal ending due to less attention being given to it.
 

Datschge

Member
(Ending spoilers)
But Elle going would have been just as emotional if not more because she's a child... Though that was poorly shown in the normal ending due to less attention being given to it.
"But"? I'm not even sure what you are responding to. Yes, Elle going was kind of poorly shown. But both endings are fine story wise, and having a middle ground compromise between both would have been absolutely awful.
 

Zafir

Member
"But"? I'm not even sure what you are responding to. Yes, Elle going was kind of poorly shown. But both endings are fine story wise, and having a middle ground compromise between both would have been absolutely awful.
I don't even get what you're arguing, are you suggesting I wanted both to live? I didn't even say that. I said I wanted just Ludger to survive and NOT Elle(because I think it makes the most amount of sense story wise) but I wanted the same kind of detail that the true ending got.

What I was trying to say in what you quoted was that Elle disappearing was still emotional, but it was poorly portrayed by the lack of effort put into the ending. I didn't really get why you seemed to think that wasn't emotional.
 

galvenize

Member
Regarding the orb system I just used whatever gave me the most over a short time with a priority to new abilities. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it to be honest.
 

Datschge

Member
I don't even get what you're arguing

I was responding to your following statement.

- (Ending spoiler)
Kind of wish we'd had a inbetween for the true and normal endings.

I took that as you wanting something inbetween both ending story wise, some outcome where both would survive or some compromise along that line. I thought the story came across fine even with the normal ending. It didn't sound to me like you are only talking production values and just wanting the normal ending having the same effort put into it like the true ending.
Good to know we actually agree but kept talking about something else. =P
 

Zafir

Member
I was responding to your following statement.



I took that as you wanting something inbetween both ending story wise, some outcome where both would survive or some compromise along that line. I thought the story came across fine even with the normal ending. It didn't sound to me like you are only talking production values and just wanting the normal ending having the same effort put into it like the true ending.
Good to know we actually agree but kept talking about something else. =P
Yeah, it was perhaps poor wording on my part to use the word inbetween. :p
 

aravuus

Member
You didn't have to fill the full circle. I remember that much. I didn't until the end of the game for the plat.

It's worth noting just because I prefer Xillia's system to this one, it doesn't mean I think Xillia's was great. It wasn't but, I just didn't like the new one more.

Same here. Illusion of choice and so on, but I actually liked the ToX orb quite a lot more than ToX2 orb.
 

Finalow

Member
You didn't have to fill the full circle. I remember that much. I didn't until the end of the game for the plat.
are you sure about that, I remember that you had to fill the whole thing/level to unlock the next one, maybe not all of it but let's say 80-90%?

whatever, at least it looked pretty.
 
are you sure about that, I remember that you had to fill the whole thing/level to unlock the next one, maybe not all of it but let's say 80-90%?

whatever, at least it looked pretty.

You had to had all the lines connecting surrounding a node in the middle to unlock it.

You didn't have to fill up everything to reach the next level, just all the specially marked ones.

So in theory and with planning, you probably could go through it and get the stuff you wanted earlier. But most of the time, you are going to be ending up with learning the same things at around the same time.
 

Zafir

Member
is lv64 good for bad ending fight?

Pretty sure that is higher than I was. :p It's kind of a pain regardless just due to you being out numbered. Stock up on those accessory's which revive you, as well as setting the skill which revives you with full health.
 
am i the only one and scanning every enemy so i can hit all weakness? then again im playing it on hard

I believe the blades are the most useful and often are my bread and butter when it comes to the combat. But i agree i often check the weakness much more now that monsters are often weak to a weapon class also. I will say the guns have their uses as a good crowd control or to handle flying enemies. The hammer has been less useful unless an enemy is weak to it. I don't find the range useful and it does not break guard often to be a real benefit.
 

Taruranto

Member
Was experting Ludger to go "NO ONE STOPS" during the bad ending in Chapter 15.

to be fair, Xillia 1 system was "fill up the whole circle to unlock the next one" which pretty much meant 0 personalization in character growth. in this one at least you get some of that as far as skills go.
not a great system but I think that it's definitely an improvement from the first game.

The way the system works in Xillia 2 there isn't much choice tbh, you are constantly forced to rotate elements for the cross-element skills and there isn't any planning going on.

I enjoyed seeing my characters elements bar filling up, but... meh.
 

FSLink

Banned
Ha, Ludger's ringtone is a remix of Eternal Mind.
And Leia's is Pascal's theme from Graces.



Hammer is easily best weapon by end game. Power Charge 2/3, Hungry Hunter, and Freezing Eruption are all very useful tools in breaking enemy guard and starting a weakness combo or controlling the pace of the fight by knocking down spellcasters or petrifying with Freezing Eruption. Dual Blades are best during combos, free run due to its speed, or against enemies weak by blades, and guns are good for crowd control, zoning, TP regen, Overlimit bar raising, and comboing after hammer/blades.
Linking with Muzet also helps the movement problem.

Lilium Orb was shit. Allium Orb isn't much better but it's definitely more engaging.
 

Okamid3n

Member
I'm having a mental breakdown trying to go through the final (?) dungeon with the disappearing paths a second time.

I first got through this REALLY SHORT but incredibly annoying and confusing and stupid dungeon after an hour or so, only to notice I'd missed a sidequest bubble, so I warped out...and now I can't find my way anymore. I know the paths changed, so there probably isn't any maps to help me but...I really need help.

People complained about the confusing dungeons of ToG and such, but I never had a problem. This dungeon, though. Uuuughhh.

I bet most of you guys got through it just fine, too...

EDIT:

I cannot believe it. I got through it instantly after complaining here. Thank you so much, NeoGaf! Complaining worked.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
This was one of the better written JRPGs in forever and worked well both as a sequel (as far as JRPG sequels go, the 'what happens to the characters after?' way) and as a story on its own right, but damn if it isn't depressing beyond belief.

Looking at the plat now and this looks more tedious than Disgaea games. I'll probably tackle it in concentrated spurts every few weeks or so.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Is anyone else bothered by the awkward, stilted animation in most of the cutscenes? I don't remember Xillia 1 being this bad tbh.
 
Is anyone else bothered by the awkward, stilted animation in most of the cutscenes? I don't remember Xillia 1 being this bad tbh.

The animations were quite stiff in Xillia 2 I noticed that as well,
they were better in Xillia 1 or my memory serves me wrong on that.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
They were quite bad in Xillia 1 too.

Xillia 2 gets further aggravated by Ludger's awkward moments of silence, I guess.
 

Yazuka

Member
I'm hoping I could get some help here with the cats. I'm currently at 96 and I know where two of them are. I haven't entered that place yet, but the remaining two I can't find. I've checked guide and I can't seem to figure out who I'm missing, I've stared for this for too long. So I'm hoping a fresh set of eyes can help me, here are all the ones I have so far.

My cat list
 

Peff

Member
I'm hoping I could get some help here with the cats. I'm currently at 96 and I know where two of them are. I haven't entered that place yet, but the remaining two I can't find. I've checked guide and I can't seem to figure out who I'm missing, I've stared for this for too long. So I'm hoping a fresh set of eyes can help me, here are all the ones I have so far.

My cat list

You randomly get cats from some of the locations in Kitty Dispatch. Enter that menu, press the square button and go place by place until you find one or two with question marks, then send the cats there until you get them.
 
Top Bottom