True, Sharla can't really put out DPS for crap. But, she partly makes up for it with her Stun + Headshot combo that can Instant-Kill enemies (assuming they aren't immune).
But yeah, Sharla can be dumped if you're in no danger of dying quickly.
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Xenoblade Chronicles |OT| Man, what a bunch of jokers.
- Thread starter Sadist
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True, Sharla can't really put out DPS for crap. But, she partly makes up for it with her Stun + Headshot combo that can Instant-Kill enemies (assuming they aren't immune).
But yeah, Sharla can be dumped if you're in no danger of dying quickly.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
Yes, it is pretty explicit, I think it also might be in red text but it's been too long since I last played it.
Sgt.Pepper
Banned
Yes. It's pretty damn obvious too.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Yep
I've asked this before, but no one answered me back then:
As there are no exhaustible resources in Xenoblade, I fail to see why DPS is in any way important. If you can make a battle sustainable, that is to say, the enemy cannot damage you more quickly than you can recover, then you can defeat any enemy regardless of how many hit points they have.
With this is mind, why would anyone sub Sharla out? If you have low DPS, yeah, battles will be longer and more boring, but if you can sustain yourself, I fail to see how you could possibly lose.
I had extreme trouble when not using Sharla.
As there are no exhaustible resources in Xenoblade, I fail to see why DPS is in any way important. If you can make a battle sustainable, that is to say, the enemy cannot damage you more quickly than you can recover, then you can defeat any enemy regardless of how many hit points they have.
With this is mind, why would anyone sub Sharla out? If you have low DPS, yeah, battles will be longer and more boring, but if you can sustain yourself, I fail to see how you could possibly lose.
I had extreme trouble when not using Sharla.
There were some battles (such as That One Boss and a unique I took on 10 levels too low) where Sharla absolutely was the only reason I survived. However, I felt there were more where having more DPS meant more success. Preventing bosses from using special arts more than once, reducing the time needed to nullify spike damage, etc. The slow and steady way is fine, I just wish Sharla had one or two more attack arts to mix in. There is balance, though; if Melia's auto-heal ticked for more or another character got a small heal like Shulk's there would be no need for Sharla at all.
BlazingDarkness
Member
Sharla was pretty much always in my team
I've used Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla ever since I got them, except for a couple hours when I tried switching Reyn for Dunban.
BlazingDarkness
Member
My team was usually Sharla, 7th and either Shulk or Dunban
Never used Reyn, but sometimes Riki and Melia to mix things up a bit
Never used Reyn, but sometimes Riki and Melia to mix things up a bit
Elfforkusu
Member
Riki's healing skill is pretty formidable, you can sub him in for Sharla not long after you get him. For a while, Melia, Riki, Dunban was my team of choice. (playing as Dunban or Melia)
Later in the game, the possibilities are endless with auto-heal gems and skill tree links and the like. You can rely on Shulk to be the healer and just crush everything.
Melia, Shulk, Dunban/7th, BTW. Instant death.
Later in the game, the possibilities are endless with auto-heal gems and skill tree links and the like. You can rely on Shulk to be the healer and just crush everything.
Melia, Shulk, Dunban/7th, BTW. Instant death.
This is true. Riki's AoE Heal is pretty damn good and only gets better if you're drowning in Debuffs. (I think that's right?) Riki is damn near a jack-of-all-trades; a shame he can't really tank (can't hold aggro for crap). Oh well, just slap Debuffs on everything and use Say Sorry and watch for big numbers.
I tend to have more fun playing around with "glass cannon" setups in RPGs than I do with safe ones. I used Shulk/Melia/7th towards the very end and managed to burn through most things before taking any real damage; knowing that taking a few hits could be the end of me helped maintain a sense of tension. It also forced me to be more strategic with my chain attacks.
Come to think of it, I did this in most of the RPGs that I played last year (all offensively oriented spirits in Bastion, destruction magic oriented character in Skyrim, almost all offensive spells in my loadout in Sequence, etc.).
This is true. Riki's AoE Heal is pretty damn good and only gets better if you're drowning in Debuffs. (I think that's right?) Riki is damn near a jack-of-all-trades; a shame he can't really tank (can't hold aggro for crap). Oh well, just slap Debuffs on everything and use Say Sorry and watch for big numbers.
Riki is definitely a terrible single target tank, but he can hold aggro on groups pretty well.
Because sometimes the enemies will be able whittle away your health faster than Sharla can heal the party, therefore these fights are actually harder to win with her than with a higher DPS party.
I guess I lucked out in noticing it when I first came upon it. It seemed like such a weird thing to have a location mark so I zoomed the camera around it and realized "hey wait a minute, it sure looks familiar" and saw the head-piece and knew it then.
There's apparently a hand-to-hand conversation with Dunban and Melia there, so I'm trying to raise their affinities for each other to see it.
Another cool thing I just noticed in Colony 9 while talking to the NPC Desiree about her dead father who
swung a giant hammer all the time and ran a shop called "Xord's Smithy"
:Ochaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
It's probably the safest console to buy used of any of the three current gen home consoles. I don't really like buying used systems though, especially after bad experience with a used PSP.
IMHO, the money you'd save buying a used one isn't worth the potential concerns and the loss of the original warranty.
SecretMoblin
Member
If Xenoblade is really all you can imagine playing on it, getting it used would be a good bet.
There's a lot of great stuff on the Wii at this point, though - and some of the best games are dirt cheap - so I would recommend looking around for other games that might interest you and possibly investing in a new Wii.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Agility, haste and double attack are useful on just about any character. Double attack + 7th is probably the most deadly combo in the game with the right skill links.
Right, but for Shulk, you get the added bonus that the Monado cooldown isn't timed. It's based on the number of auto attacks performed (I believe they only count if they connect, which is where agility becomes important). With high level haste and double attack gems in place, you can spam Monado arts like there's no tomorrow. And Speed V is all agility, haste and double attack, anyway.
judging by this it's most likely better to go with Attack V gear rather than Speed V. imho the fixed gems in Speed V are a waste of space, selfcrafted ones are much better.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
Found it best to mix and match in the end. Speed V helm is terrible (since you probably want aggro on 7th, good tank). Can use a variety of things in place of that though. Attack V body is a better bet than Speed V. Kept the other two parts of Speed V though since they add agility and haste, even if it's 45% vs 50%. And the last armor part you'll want to use is pretty obvious, if you do the quest for it! Shame it doesn't have a gem slot, but the bonus it does provide is oh so worth it.
Are monado arts absolutely necessarily for any of the later bosses? I don't see how Shulk can be better than 7th, plus 7th is way more fun to use.
Also, I got the
Also, I got the
Fallen arm affinity to 5 stars before entering the 2nd part of Mechonis Field. Made me overleveled again but I absolutely loved that area! It was a breath of fresh air it being so compact, compared to Alcamoth.
SecretMoblin
Member
Monado arts shouldn't be necessary for nearly every boss—including the ones later in the game. Melia is probably the most useful character to main late-game, but if your gems/skill links/strategies are configured correctly then most combos should be fine. Monado arts certainly help against several uniques, though.
Note that Attack Plus & Attack Stability affect both arts and auto-attacks, so having the lv 6 versions of these gems (+50%) for at least characters with high attack power (e.g. Shulk) is a good idea, IMO. With Glory gauntlets (45% Haste), you can still have Double Attack and Haste too.
Ha. I just had to backtrack across the jungle for some Water Ether and just before that had to fetch quest in dreamy marsh for 4 somethingmadiggles. The water one was funny to me, seeing as I just did that in Skyward. Didn't bother me though because apparently I like backtracking.
SecretMoblin
Member
It's also a minor issue because of quick travel. You should be able to get pretty much anywhere you want to go in under a minute from pretty much anywhere you are, which is remarkable considering how vast the game is.
Actually kind of hate that about that game and don't use em at all for the quests. Its not even a warp, it a quick load. Would it have killed them to add some sort of effect so it looks like a teleport or anything? Quick jumping around the place makes to world feel cheap.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
My only complaint there is that there are a few times when landmarks are pretty far apart, and others where they are like right next to each other.
Makna Forest has an annoying spot, pretty much the entire southeast section of the map just has that one triangle tree landmark to run from, that's right beside the windmill one. Should have spread those out more.
SecretMoblin
Member
Interesting. I never really care about realism (or the illusion thereof) so I absolutely loved that such an option was available from the start. I adore Dragon Quest, but the period prior to Zoom in every game can be frustrating - as well as your inability to Zoom from anywhere with a ceiling - and Fly in Pokémon is annoying in the extreme.
Which, annoyingly, the game itself spoiled for me.
If you leave it on the title screen, it'll loop through flythroughs of various regions. One of the ones in question is Fallen Arm, just around that spot.
There's also Fiora's wreckage further along, which is a bit more distinctive.
I saw this shortly after seeing the Silver Mechon / Fiora for the first time, and from seeing it I could easily deduce some future events.
There's also Fiora's wreckage further along, which is a bit more distinctive.
I saw this shortly after seeing the Silver Mechon / Fiora for the first time, and from seeing it I could easily deduce some future events.
Yeah I felt that every time I used it, which was A LOT. A teleport explanation would have made it a little easier to stomach.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I think the implication is that the party just goes to that location. Should have adjusted the time by X amount depending on how far you were from that landmark.
For those that have beat the game and are going through it again is there any replay value in the game? Been trying to stay away from details but since I'll be picking up the game in April I'm being more open. If you decide to use another group of characters as your main party a second time around do you get additional/different story elements compared to the first time?
SecretMoblin
Member
Other than enjoyment, then no, there isn't anything major you unlock after playing through the game once. There are a few quests that have branches, so you could do one on each playthrough, but you can see nearly every bit of content the game has in a single playthrough.
I suppose if you really wanted you could use only one or two characters as your main during your first playthrough in order to make the next one feel fresh, but that probably isn't a good idea. Switching up your party frequently during the game adds a lot to the challenge and the fun of the experience.
The game is plenty long and lots of fun to play, though, so replaying it for the sake of enjoyment isn't really a bad thing.
Edit: Damn it, first post of the page.
Well, it's an excuse to post this:
It's the same rough type of gameplay, but you're WAY more involved in the combat so it's more engaging. On the other hand though you don't have fine control over your team mates at all.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
I guess you mean the sound? I didn't think it was that bad.
Shouldn't be a compression issue since they had a whole second layer on the disc just for dual audio. Japanese audio might have poor compression to fit originally, but there wouldn't be any excuse for the English.
creid
Member
It's not only the voices though, it's the music too. Noticed it as soon as I got to the title screen.
I actually had to do some googling to even remember that FFXII had this same problem. If my copy is it home I'll try to pop it in later to compare.
RPGCrazied
Member
I had zero issues with the sound.
Neither did I, but I just have a blend of my crappy TV speakers and the PS3 soundbar. Maybe any problems are noticeable with a better setup.