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[desu]

I think it's just MMO difficulty.

If you're fighting rare mobs below your level it's easy, above your level it's hard/impossible and it's up to you to decide when you want to take them on. In rpgs I like to challenge myself so even if a mob if a higher level, if I try it and die but think I can pull it off I'll spend 30 mins making strategies and take it down rather than just level up and come back later when it's easier. I mean if it seems impossible I'll come back later, but at this point I can usually judge what's doable with some strategy and what's not doable at all when fighting rare mobs.

Uhm fought quite some uniques/bosses 2-4 levels above my level today, nothing serious to be honest. I also can only remember 2? enemies in my last 10h+ that I knew I wouldnt be able to take, obviously for being unique and having a really really high level.

I think it's just MMO difficulty.
Also one thing I forgot to mention was arts that connect to other arts add another layer of strategy. Sometimes I'll equip a sucky art over a useful art because when you combine the sucky art with another art it'll do GREAT damage + useful buffs/debuffs/other effects. I mean when you go to the arts screen and look at the info on an art there is usually a toooon of stuff about each art. Like positioning, other arts they connect to, debuffs/buffs/side effects, etc.. choosing your row of arts gives you a lot of control over your team imo.

Yes thats some kind of depth I like, its just barely needed and imho doesn't have enough impact on the fights. So if you're someone using all that knowledge or being someone standing in front of the enemy and just ding nothing but using random arts, it makes pretty much no difference (expect that you're maybe a bit faster but it doesn't change much on the difficulty front).

 

[Bebpo]

I dunno. I never just stand still and let the battles fight out like FFXII. I don't do that because it's boring and if I did it against rare mobs I die.

Not sure why battles are so easy for you, but you could always change your team and play as other weaker characters if you want more of a challenge.

 

[desu]

For the jungle/ Elto Sea/ Ice region I used Shulk/Riki/Damage dealer (Rain or Danban), I didn't really need any healing here so it was pretty easy (I think I had a healer for some bosses). In the next region there was no more point for another dmg dealer so I have gone with Shulk, Riki and Healer. And ever since I got the final character its just Shulk, last character and Riki, no healer needed in the current dungeon as well, even facing 5-6 enemies.

I leveled up the Blast Attack of the Mondo sword to almost max now, so all I need is to line up enemies, use a single Blast attack that deals 20k+ dmg, rince and repeat (with using some arts but they just hold me back from regenerating my next Blast attack.

 

[Bebpo]

I mean, I'm just going off the top of my head and I can't think of any non-turn based battle system that are deeper and more strategic. Bioware games feel even less strategic and tend to be light on depth, some Tales games like Graces have good depth, but I'd still give the edge in depth to XB, FFXII was fairly simple as were the .hack games. Ys games are less rpg and more straight up action patterns & dodging.

But then maybe I'm thinking less about the sheer difficulty and just looking at which realtime battle system has the most complexity. And I see where you're coming from. That if the game doesn't force you to go deep into any of that, then the depth of the battle system doesn't matter. But I just feel in general rpgs that let you level tend to put the difficulty in your own hands. If you are high level, have the best equip, the best attacks, any rpg is going to be easy because they have to be balanced to allow the person who isn't at a high level, doesn't have great equip, and doesn't have the best attacks to still make progress. I like that Xenoblade constantly gives you the option to fight higher level enemies that can challenge you. Honestly if you're taking on unique mobs that are 4 levels higher than you and killing them easily...you're just better at XB than me, because I can't imagine doing that from what I've played.

 

[desu]

I like that Xenoblade constantly gives you the option to fight higher level enemies that can challenge you. Honestly if you're taking on unique mobs that are 4 levels higher than you and killing them easily...you're just better at XB than me, because I can't imagine doing that from what I've played.

I love that too!

Haven't really fought that many uniques in the last days, I think only 2-3? and prolly 4-5 bosses? Maybe it also depends on the region, not sure if you're in the Sword area of Kyoshin yet, at the beginning it was not that easy, but then at some point it just triggered and ever since then it has been rather easy for me. Elto Sea and the Ice Area were pretty okay as well difficulty wise. For me the biggest impact was the new character, even since then it has become much easier, maybe its the same for you once you get there.

I also doubt that I am any better than you because I am pretty sure you put the skills to much better use then I do, especially the ones building up on each other.

 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I could see that happening. I'm still finishing up stuff at the sea.

Although, even if it gets easier I wouldn't be surprised if as you get towards the endgame it picks up again. Those lvl.90 monsters everyone certainly don't look nice

 

[Bebpo]

Hey desu, how are you using Riki?

I don't really use him as a main because I don't know what to do with him. His HP is high like Rein, but he doesn't have tank abilities and his magic attacks are kinda iffy or support stuff (I like his heal spell and his party gauge up spell). His physical attacks don't seem as good as Rein or Dunban either. So he just seems like an oddball red mage-ish character with a little bit of everything and high HP.

For serious fights I go with Shulk for Monado attacks, Rein as tank, and Karna as healer. Sometimes I'll use Dunban instead of Shulk if I don't think I'll need the Monado.

For normal fights I like trying to fit Meria/Riki in. Sometimes I go Karna, Riki, Meria which is probably the weakest team you can get.

Also a lot of the reason I use weaker teams and switch people around is because I'm trying to build up everyone's kizuna levels so I can see all the kizuna talks. Since when they help each other in battle they get hearts between them. So I usually look at whose kizuna level I want to raise and that's the basis for my team outside of boss fights/rare mobs.

And yeah I don't fight a lot of enemies in general. Usually because by the time I get to an area they're all lower level and give almost no xp. I'll fight a couple of each type to get a few of their drops in case I need any, and when I get quests to kill specific monsters I do that. But usually when I'm just running around exploring or going through a dungeon I just run past all the enemies since they ignore me anyhow. It's why when I'm doing sidequests and exploring I'll spend 10 hours in an area, but when I decide to do a story dungeon I'll blow through it in 30 mins or less.

 

[ShineALight]

I also emailed Nintendo, not expecting anything particularly insightful and I got the same sort of response everyone else has been getting. For the interested:

"I'm here to let you know that Monado: Beginning of the World is definitely well into its development cycle! And, it’s not surprising that you want to know more information about this highly-anticipated game. Believe me, we are every bit as excited as you are to learn more about what’s coming! Unfortunately, no release date has been announced for the game.

Having said that, Nintendo is very careful to only show a game when the developers are ready to do so. Also, we tend to concentrate on showing off products coming out in the near future. This means that you know as much as anyone else outside the development teams about Monado: Beginning of the World. We just don’t have any additional information to provide."

The game is clearly done so this rep didn't really provide any useful information, but at least it's vaguely positive. I just wanted to write to ensure they were aware of the interest in this game.

 

[CryingWolf]

I also emailed Nintendo, not expecting anything particularly insightful and I got the same sort of response everyone else has been getting. For the interested:

"I'm here to let you know that Monado: Beginning of the World is definitely well into its development cycle! And, it’s not surprising that you want to know more information about this highly-anticipated game. Believe me, we are every bit as excited as you are to learn more about what’s coming! Unfortunately, no release date has been announced for the game.

Having said that, Nintendo is very careful to only show a game when the developers are ready to do so. Also, we tend to concentrate on showing off products coming out in the near future. This means that you know as much as anyone else outside the development teams about Monado: Beginning of the World. We just don’t have any additional information to provide."

The game is clearly done so this rep didn't really provide any useful information, but at least it's vaguely positive. I just wanted to write to ensure they were aware of the interest in this game.

:lol Yeah, in the end I'm not convinced that these reps know any more than we fans do.

 

[The Judge]

So, I'm a few

Spoiler

dozen

hours in and I got this quest to kill an unique mob. But I've killed it before and I have no idea what to do now.
More specifically, the quest is to kill the blue bird near the third anti-aircraft device on Colony 9. I've killed it hours ago though and only got the quest now. I'm having the same issue with the lizard unique mob in Tefla, petitioner wants me to kill it, but I've done it ages ago already. Any ideas on how to fix this?

(It happened with the giant frog-thingy on the extreme end of Colony 9. I killed it once, started the quest, but somehow when I went back to kill it, he was there again. So that gave me hope of some sort of fix for this >_> )

 

[AceBandage]

So, I'm a few

Spoiler

dozen

hours in and I got this quest to kill an unique mob. But I've killed it before and I have no idea what to do now.
More specifically, the quest is to kill the blue bird near the third anti-aircraft device on Colony 9. I've killed it hours ago though and only got the quest now. I'm having the same issue with the lizard unique mob in Tefla, petitioner wants me to kill it, but I've done it ages ago already. Any ideas on how to fix this?

(It happened with the giant frog-thingy on the extreme end of Colony 9. I killed it once, started the quest, but somehow when I went back to kill it, he was there again. So that gave me hope of some sort of fix for this >_> )

Rare spawns have a fixed spawn rate.
So you just have to wait for it to respawn.

 

[Bebpo]

The rates are weird. I've had some respawn by just saving and reloading in the area a few times.

Other times I've checked back each day I was playing and it took 3-4 days of playing to respawn.


I'd just check back every once and a while and eventually it will be there. Or you can use the save/load over and over method. I think respawns actually go by how many times you save/load and not hours played. Which explains why playing 3 sessions over 3 days doesn't get a spawn sometimes!

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I'm here to let you know that Monado: Beginning of the World is definitely well into its development cycle!

Some might describe this development phase as "released".

 

[Bebpo]

Man, I think I've passed the halfway point story-wise and as much as I liked Soma Bringer, it has nothing on this. Xenoblade is definitely Xenogears/Xenosaga level story. So, so awesome. The story is absolutely intriguing right now and I love the themes Takahashi is rolling with. Already trying to guess all the mysteries and what the story really is about. Can't wait to see how it all comes together.

Gonna chill on the story a bit again tomorrow and do some drop hunting to build up my city some more and get a few more quests done. Since I enjoy the story a lot and since there's so much else to do I like taking in a few hours of plot and then doing other stuff for a day and then a few hours of plot and then other stuff, repeat, repeat. I feel like it's letting me stretch out the experience and savor it all


Also going by Desu's recommendation I played a Riki a bunch tonight. I can see the potential in him, like shulk he's sort of the jack of all trades and his heal spell is decent enough to replace the dedicated healer outside of real tough situations. Plus he moves fast and makes funny noises when jumping :lol

 

[desu]

Also going by Desu's recommendation I played a Riki a bunch tonight. I can see the potential in him, like shulk he's sort of the jack of all trades and his heal spell is decent enough to replace the dedicated healer outside of real tough situations. Plus he moves fast and makes funny noises when jumping :lol

Honestly, I never wanted to use him. When I got him I looked through his art list and was like "WTF am I supposed to do with this thing?". Then I read that he can steal rare items and other things. So my main reason for using now is that I need lots of Kizuna with him to use some of skills that I like. As for fights, I think he isnt all that bad, I kinda like the Poison spell and some of his others, also he got tons of HP.

So far the only character that I have really nooo clue about is Meari, I don't know, I tried having her in my party but I didn't like her at all.

Oh and one last thing, I am pretty boring because99.9% of the time I am using Shulk (because of the Monado attacks...).

 

[lorddarkflare]

Some might describe this development phase as "released".

:lol

 

[wazoo]

It just show that every question addressed to a PR is a waste of time.

 

[desu]

@Bebpo

Since we were talking about Uniques with 3-4 levels more than me. Beat one today, I just hit 62 with Shulk, rest of my party was 61. Still the 65 Unqiue was really easy. No real strategy or anything needed.

How far are you with Colony 6 building? Currently trying to get level 4-5 done.

Also, uniques now sometimes drop the final art books , wonder if you can buy them or of they are enemy drop only (which would kinda suck with like 80+ arts...).

 

[grandjedi6]

:lol Yeah, in the end I'm not convinced that these reps know any more than we fans do.

Of course. Nintendo wouldn't succeed at hiding any information if they let every entry-level PR worker in on it. All these employees are doing is looking into their database (or even the Nintendo website) for common information about Xenoblade and then relaying it to the emailer. Hence why all the emails sum up as "We announced Monado at E3 09". Chances are people in this thread know more about Xenoblade's localization than the PR guys they are emailing. At least the forum-goers kept up with the game's development cycle and Japanese news.

Emailing reps is always a pointless endeavor.

 

[Bebpo]

@Bebpo

Since we were talking about Uniques with 3-4 levels more than me. Beat one today, I just hit 62 with Shulk, rest of my party was 61. Still the 65 Unqiue was really easy. No real strategy or anything needed.

How far are you with Colony 6 building? Currently trying to get level 4-5 done.

Also, uniques now sometimes drop the final art books , wonder if you can buy them or of they are enemy drop only (which would kinda suck with like 80+ arts...).

I got everything to level 3 except nature because the guide I'm using for it doesn't tell me what drops the ice cabbage. There are like 200 hundred enemies out there and it's probably some random drop. Do you know where I can find them? I need 2 to get my nature to lvl.3. I can't get any to level 4 yet because I'm not far enough in the game. Currently in the

Spoiler

ice mountains

. My party's lvl.48.

Speaking of rebuilding colony 6. I think it's the worst part of the game. If I didn't have this guide:
http://www35.atwiki.jp/xenoblade/pages/31.html

I just wouldn't be able to do it. It's the only "quest" type thing in the game where they say "I need 3 of these items" and they don't tell you where to get them and like I said there are 200+ monsters and the items are all rare drops which take a few tries to get, so the likelyhood you will normally have enough of them is very, very low. It seems like the one part of the game that you basically need a guide or wiki if you want to complete the town.

I also started trading with people. I kind of forgot about it after the first city, but sometimes people have some good stuff now! Either quest collection items you need (really saves your ass for some collection items that are ridiculously random and rare) or quest rare drops or sometimes good gems. Now everytime I meet someone I'm checking what they have to trade. I don't care about the equipment because frankly it's too much of a pain in the ass to try to compare it to my current armor and see if it's worth trading for since the compare interface sucks, but for items and gems trading seems pretty good.

Oh and one thing that pissed me off today is there are rare town quests where you have a choice of how you want to solve it and if you solve it the WRONG WAY your town popularity will take a massive DROP, you'll get bad reward items, and that named npc will hate you and it probably kills any further quests from them. Worst of all is sometimes you can't even tell you are solving it the wrong way. I had a quest from the first city where I could either find a sword or a shield for a person. While exploring I found a red collection item with a red "!" over it. But since I always have a dozen quests running I have no idea what it is. I grab it and it's the shield. Report back and it screws me over because it was the wrong choice, so I reloaded my game before reporting back and will just leave it pending in my quest list forever I guess. Don't want to take the popularity drop. And I'm almost 100% positive when you make a choice it kills the other choice, so I don't think I can still find the sword now and choose which to give her. I looked around a bit for the sword and didn't find anything. Quests like these are really rare, but in a game this big and long it's kind of stupid you can screw up npc relations and quest lines. This and the time sensitive quests are both player unfriendly :|

Oh and I've only gotten 1 final art book so far. I found it in a hidden room in

Spoiler

the place where meria goes alone and you have to go save her in the elt sea. It was for her summon bolt spell

 

[CryingWolf]

Of course. Nintendo wouldn't succeed at hiding any information if they let every entry-level PR worker in on it. All these employees are doing is looking into their database (or even the Nintendo website) for common information about Xenoblade and then relaying it to the emailer. Hence why all the emails sum up as "We announced Monado at E3 09". Chances are people in this thread know more about Xenoblade's localization than the PR guys they are emailing. At least the forum-goers kept up with the game's development cycle and Japanese news.

Emailing reps is always a pointless endeavor.

I know that they don't know anything, but I'm hoping that they're forwarding some of these emails to the people in charge.

I just want Nintendo to get the picture that there is demand for Xenoblade in the USA. Hopefully it is working.

 

[desu]

I got everything to level 3 except nature because the guide I'm using for it doesn't tell me what drops the ice cabbage. There are like 200 hundred enemies out there and it's probably some random drop. Do you know where I can find them? I need 2 to get my nature to lvl.3. I can't get any to level 4 yet because I'm not far enough in the game. Currently in the

Spoiler

ice mountains

. My party's lvl.48.

Oh and I've only gotten 1 final art book so far. I found it in a hidden room in

Spoiler

the place where meria goes alone and you have to go save her in the elt sea. It was for her summon bolt spell

Actually I think I can (even though I am not 100% sure), the item is actually not a drop but a collection item. I needed stuff from the Nebulas and I remember a certain place there, so I went to that outer place just to discover a secret way to unknown landmark I hadnt noticed on my first time there. There are 2 blue spheres there, one at the top, one when you walk that way all down to the edge. If I remember right one of them was that item (it was also my last item I was missing). You have to take the long way all around.

I am using the same wiki, very helpful! (can I actually add stuff there on my own? Even without real jp writing abilites I could have added quite some useful info there already...).

Also using this one: http://kumicyou.sakura.ne.jp/zenobure/ where I found out that the item was not a drop but a collection item.

Extra: There is a secret room there :O? Damn I think I need to check it out (even I am not really using her).

 

[Shuusui]

Are there any videos out there or high-level grinding? I'd love to get a feel for the combat system...

 

[grandjedi6]

I know that they don't know anything, but I'm hoping that they're forwarding some of these emails to the people in charge.

I just want Nintendo to get the picture that there is demand for Xenoblade in the USA. Hopefully it is working.

When has Nintendo ever cared about that? Nintendo firmly believes that they create the demand and the only other evidence of demand they pay attention to is sales. (The oddity here is that Nintendo will accept any form of sales as evidence for or against demand; hence why Japanese sales can doom or justify western localizations and why virtual console sales can justify new Wii games.)

 

[Glix]

Any non-Japanese readers playing through this? If I import, can gaf help me get my head around the controls and menus?

Is this a pointless endeavor?

 

[desu]

Any non-Japanese readers playing through this? If I import, can gaf help me get my head around the controls and menus?

Is this a pointless endeavor?

Actually people on gamefaqs have created a translation patch that covered most of the menus, people were also working on translating all items/enemies/locations and so on, so basically everything you would need to get around in the game. However, you still won't understand anything of the story. The topic was just recently modded so I can't really help you further, but I guess if you google a bit you might find where that project is finding its new home in the next days.

 

[Bebpo]

One thing I realllllly like about Xenoblade is that there are a ton of hidden secrets. So far while exploring I've run across areas I couldn't reach or access in about half the locations and have been jotting them down for later when I get access. Between coming back for these secret areas & fighting the high level monsters, I'm looking forward to the endgame in XB.


@desu, thanks. I was over there earlier but didn't get it. That's the problem with collection items, you don't always get what you want >_< I'll keep looking. Still exploring the area.

 

[jay]

When has Nintendo ever cared about that? Nintendo firmly believes that they create the demand and the only other evidence of demand they pay attention to is sales. (The oddity here is that Nintendo will accept any form of sales as evidence for or against demand; hence why Japanese sales can doom or justify western localizations and why virtual console sales can justify new Wii games.)

It took about 600 years buy Miyamoto said they are doing a Kid Icarus because people kept asking for it. So if we start now maybe Xenoblade 4 may be localized.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Yeah I am still enjoying the game pretty well. Had a busy weekend so I didn't get to put too much time into it though.

I am right there with bebpo regarding the battle system. All of the systems put in place work really well together and most importantly to me it has a great style. I have kind of just been blowing through story stuff the last few times I have played so the difficulty has actually stepped up quite a bit since I am not power leveling by quests.

I also gotta say I love the customizable armor. Shulk has been wearing what basically looks like a fancy handicapped person's safety helmet for a few days now and it constantly cracks me up in cutscenes. Also little details like different kinds of headgear changing Dunban's hair style are really cool. Simple but small details like this are in abundance in this game.

The locations are just amazing and I really love the atmosphere and scope of all of them. I thought the night change in #6 couldn't be topped but then

Spoiler

Stars started raining down at nighttime inside the Elto Sea.

I also gotta say that the colony rebuilding does seem pretty annoying. I had no idea how to find the stuff and was hoping some NPC would give me a hint. Will probably have to use the guide bebpo posted.

 

[Varion]

My god, this game is so long :lol 46 hours into the game and I'm still on the Kyoshin, and while I'm doing a lot of the quests I'm not even doing close to all of them. So much content.

Still really liking the game, and the plot's really starting to pick up a lot now (although most of the twists are still a tad predictable, (spoilers up to the ice area)

Spoiler

As soon as Black Face spoke with Wakamoto's voice it pretty much gave away the whole 'Monado can't hurt them because they have humans in them' angle, and as soon as Nemesis spoke with a female voice I pretty much figured that it was going to be Fiorun. As the saying goes, if you don't see the body they're not dead.) They really shouldn't have used Wakamoto though, his voice is far too distinctive.

The cutscene direction is just awesome in a lot of the big scenes. The final few scenes on

Spoiler

Prison Island

made up for all the ridiculously formal Japanese I had to endure up to that point :lol

 

[Bebpo]

My god, this game is so long :lol 46 hours into the game and I'm still on the Kyoshin, and while I'm doing a lot of the quests I'm not even doing close to all of them. So much content.

Haha, yeah tell me about it. I'm only in the next area and I've just finished mapping it out at 60 hours now :lol I get the feeling the

Spoiler

robot god side

will be a lot smaller and shorter than the kyoshin, but I'm ok with that since the kyoshin is so big and has so many areas.

Still really liking the game, and the plot's really starting to pick up a lot now (although most of the twists are still a tad predictable, (spoilers up to the ice area)

Spoiler

As soon as Black Face spoke with Wakamoto's voice it pretty much gave away the whole 'Monado can't hurt them because they have humans in them' angle, and as soon as Nemesis spoke with a female voice I pretty much figured that it was going to be Fiorun. As the saying goes, if you don't see the body they're not dead.) They really shouldn't have used Wakamoto though, his voice is far too distinctive.

Story Spoilers for up to the end of prison island:

Spoiler

I actually didn't catch that and it was one of the few twists that surprised me. Once Black Face started talking with Wakamoto's voice I figured it was Mumuka from the intro but I thought somehow they transferred the soul into the robot or something. For some reason I didn't put 2 & 2 together about how Monado couldn't cut people & so the robots put people in them. I actually think it was pretty smart of Takahashi only showcasing/mentioning that fact (that Monado can't cut people) once at the very start, so you kind of forget it and then 40-50 hours later when they reveal the twist you go "ooooh" I was geniunely surprised!

What I did think was pretty predictable was most of the other main plot stuff. Especially since the visions show what's going to happen. You knew that the emperor was going to die and that since the black face was mumuka and the white face was white + girl that it was going to be fiornne.

Although otoh, I think the visions give the story potential to actually be surprised when the future is changed. Like when Odama in colony 6 didn't die and Rein saved him I was geniunely surprised because having the old elder guy sacrifice himself and die and the hero be helpless to stop it is a very cliche thing so you were expecting that to happen. But it doesn't! And that's surprising. But then it does with the emperor, so it's cliche lol. On one hand it feels cliche and on the other hand it means next time you're going to be unsure of whether the vision will happen or be stopped. I think it works. I get the feeling leading up to the ending you'll see visions of it and see a bad ending over and over and then when you change it into a good ending it'll be a satisfying finale. That's my guess at least.

But the reason I really like Takahashi's stories and why I'm loving Xenoblade is that even within the predictable events (going to the top tower, king is going to die, fiornne is going to be the white mech) there's still been a ton of unpredictable events and mysteries in the world lore. The other prophet guy, Meinus, Zanza, the mysteries of the Haenter race and their high technology. Why monado and the giant were sealed. The most interesting parts so far have been the scene when Miera becomes qualified to be the next emperor and the AI talks to her and says her mixed blood of haenter & holme is what they ancients wanted and what can free them from the giant's curse & the stuff with the prophet + zanza where they talk about how zanza was full of shit and all that was all just an act & the part where meinus talks to zanza and he's like "how can this be?! Oh, you are on who is outside the circle of events" & meinus talking about how El someone (who I'm guessing is the true form of the prophet guy) doesn't realize she exists yet.


Anyhow, I'm going to put forth my current theory on the story from what we've seen through the end of prison island.

I think the story is about a never ending circle of events like Xenosaga/Gears where every thousands of years the Giant God and the Machine God have the lifeforms that have grown up from them fight and kill each other as a sacrifice to resurrect the gods so they can do battle again and then they die which kills everything on them and rebirths life from the ether of their dead bodies and the cycle starts again.

I think that the prophet guy is the spirit of the Giant God itself. And Zanza is his helper/underling/the actual Monado sword. They are all putting on an act like they do everytime with the humans to lead them toward their demise and the rebirth of the gods.

Meanwhile Meinus, like Elly in Xenogears is some immortal god or person or something who is outside this circle of events and everytime the circle happens she tries to stop it but is killed (like Elly's true soul) and her goal is this time (like previous times) to try to stop the chain of events. And her comment about them not having realized its her, meant that the prophet hasn't realized meinus has been reborn yet and it's her chance to sneak around and try to influence the events.

And the wildcard is shulk. Why choose him for the Monado? Like Meinus said, why unlock the power of the Monado to slice humans when it will be detrimental for Zanza (I'm guessing because it can now slice him)? I don't have any ideas here and I'm looking forward to what they do with it.

Of course my theory is heavily banking that Takahashi is pulling another Xenogears/Xenosaga endless cycle of death/rebirth with reincarnated souls who attempt to stop it. So maybe he isn't and it's nothing like that But Takahashi loves his Evangelion style plotlines, so it might be! :lol

I'm almost pretty curious about the hienter ancients, because one of the npcs in their city said originally the hienter watched the battle of the gods from outside of the fight looking on in and then after the fight concluded they flew and landed on the kyoshin's head and built their city. Definitely curious about where this whole battle of the gods is taking place.

But yeah, all in all there's a lot of meat in the story & world. Lots of questions. It's been a long time since I've played an rpg as interesting as this. Really looking forward to how it plays it in the 2nd half (I'm assuming the prison tower cutscenes are the midway plot-twist of the tale).

The cutscene direction is just awesome in a lot of the big scenes. The final few scenes on

Spoiler

Prison Island

made up for all the ridiculously formal Japanese I had to endure up to that point :lol

Yeah, the cutscene direction is fantastic. I notice it's the little things like how the camera shakes when mechs fly by to show the force of their movement that really make action feel exciting and events dramatic. It also helps that the mech design for the major mechs is AWESOME. I seriously think Takahashi's mech guy(s) are up their with Shinkawa and his ZoE/MGS mechs as the best mech designs in videogames.

Spoiler

kuro/shiro are really nice designs and I like zodd and the giant one in the intro as well

.

 

[Bebpo]

btw, I just found Shulk's 4th skill tree line. I was looking at the faq for that stupid quest that I choose the wrong solution and got 3 stars down.

Spoiler

Turns out either solution gets you stars down and opens up a followup quest that gives you the stars back and Shulk's 4th skill tree line.

In colony 9 talk to emily (north end of the military area in colony nine) and do her quests and then after the bad end one, go talk to millar in the same area and get the final quest for that line and you'll unlock shulks "hero" skill tree line

 

[AdroitOne]

I get the feeling the

Spoiler

robot god side

will be a lot smaller and shorter than the kyoshin, but I'm ok with that since the kyoshin is so big and has so many areas.

That can't be possible though right? I mean when you look at both, the

Spoiler

robot god

is the bigger one.

 

[CryingWolf]

This game is clearly gargantuan and enormous.... if/when it comes out in English I hope there is an official strategy guide.

 

[B.K.]

It also helps that the mech design for the major mechs is AWESOME. I seriously think Takahashi's mech guy(s) are up their with Shinkawa and his ZoE/MGS mechs as the best mech designs in videogames.

I wonder who did the mech designs for the game. I wonder if Ishigaki or Choco came back to do them or if they got a new guy.

 

[Bebpo]

Man, everytime I go "hmm, I feel like finishing up a few old quests in my quest list before getting back to where I was in the story" I end up stumbling across a dozen more quests and for every quest I report back it opens up just as many. I used to have like 8 quests in my quest list backlog. I did all 8 and now I have 40 something :lol Thankfully only 2 are timed so I'll complete them and leave the rest for quest backlog another day. Almost have all the towns up to 4/5 stars now!

That can't be possible though right? I mean when you look at both, the

Spoiler

robot god

is the bigger one.

Well I mean there's a good chance you don't explore it all I know from the wiki that in terms of locations,

Spoiler

the giant god is 60-75% of the # of locations (I haven't read exactly, don't want to spoil what areas are ahead, but I can see where I am on the list and the list size and I'm definitely 60-70% down the list now and still on the giant). It's possible that the ones on the robot god are simply larger, but I'm guessing the story just doesn't give a reason to go from head to foot on it. Like I said though, the giant god is large enough and the game big enough that I'll be satisfied no matter how big or small the robot god world is

 

[EatChildren]

Are there, like, a billion quests in this game or something?

 

[fionel]

Just got to prison island and I'm beginning to have doubts about the battle system. Each character their own role in battle and so most of the time my characters are using the same set of arts. There are a few "useless" arts in every character's trees and they wouldn't have been useless if I didnt have only 8 art slots. But for now I'm always pretty much doing the same thing during battles for my damage dealers - namely Danban and Schulk. For Karuna you just have to time when to heal and when to cool down and maybe cast sleep on extra mobs. And as Rein you just hit any art as fast as you can as soon as they're recharged to gain hate for tanking.

I can see the potential in Meria to become more interesting to use as you need to time when to release her summon to exchange the buff for damage, but right now she's too weak compared to my other members in terms of hp and damage but maybe she will pick up when I get some better gears for her. Riki has a lot of arts that upon first glance seem like stuff for jokes but I think he actually requires more thinking in terms of what art to use and when to use them. However, a problem I have with these 2 characters is that I always have a hard time telling whether their attacks connected or not. It's a little odd and I think it's either the sound effect not standing out among all the talking or that it's slightly out of sync with the attack animation.

Hope somebody proves me wrong. Maybe I just need to try out more of the arts that I thought were useless.

 

[Bebpo]

Actually, I just noticed that the quest to get Shulk's 4th skill line won't open up until later on in the game. Must have some good skills in it

Are there, like, a billion quests in this game or something?

Probably about 400-500. I'm somewhere between 200-300 cleared and maybe done with 60-70% in the game

Just got to prison island and I'm beginning to have doubts about the battle system. Each character their own role in battle and so most of the time my characters are using the same set of arts. There are a few "useless" arts in every character's trees and they wouldn't have been useless if I didnt have only 8 art slots. But for now I'm always pretty much doing the same thing during battles for my damage dealers - namely Danban and Schulk. For Karuna you just have to time when to heal and when to cool down and maybe cast sleep on extra mobs. And as Rein you just hit any art as fast as you can as soon as they're recharged to gain hate for tanking.

I can see the potential in Meria to become more interesting to use as you need to time when to release her summon to exchange the buff for damage, but right now she's too weak compared to my other members in terms of hp and damage but maybe she will pick up when I get some better gears for her. Riki has a lot of arts that upon first glance seem like stuff for jokes but I think he actually requires more thinking in terms of what art to use and when to use them. However, a problem I have with these 2 characters is that I always have a hard time telling whether their attacks connected or not. It's a little odd and I think it's either the sound effect not standing out among all the talking or that it's slightly out of sync with the attack animation.

Hope somebody proves me wrong. Maybe I just need to try out more of the arts that I thought were useless.

See, I think the battles are a lot like Tales battles. To get the most out of the battle system and keep it fresh, you need to play like Tales and keep playing as different characters and switching around your party. Sometimes that even means using weak parties.

But I think it's XB it's different than say handcapping yourself in any other game (I'm not going to level, or use the best characters, etc..). I don't use weak teams because I want more of a challenge. I use them because there's a great advantage to using them, the kizuna growth. For me building kizuna is the #1 most important thing I care about because I want to see 100% all of the kizuna talks by the time I get to the last dungeon, get good crafting results, and I think it effects how they help each other in battle. So what I'm doing is looking at who has low kizuna levels with who else and I pair them up
and play as whoever I want to maximize kizuna with.

For example, right now my goal is to get karna and meria to a really high kizuna connection because some kid in colony 9 wants to see an example of girls bonding and will give me 20,000xp for completing the quest, which is a pretty good incentive! So I either have to play as karna or meria and have the other as support. So since I have 2 healer/mage characters I want someone who can attack meaning shulk/rein/dunban. I already have high kizuna levels with shulk and everyone and rein and a lot of people (since he was my main tank for most of the game so far), so I went with dunban since at some point I need to max his kizuna with karna to see a talk. So now I'm playing as Karna with dunban and meria as my support and building kizuna with both. It's an interesting team. It has medium atk power, medium ether attack power, healing, and magic but is not really tankish and has weak defense. It's mainly good but for instance my lvl.49 party got swamped by four lvl.48 flying bird enemies at once and it was a scary as hell fight. People died. Life was in red A LOT and I thought a few times that I should just run and high tail it. But I stuck in and won the battle using a strategy of healing, cooldowns, and chains and that felt good! By mixing up my teams every session and playing as someone different I still find the battle system exciting even at 60 hours in now.

It also probably helps that I've realized I don't spend 40 mins customizing equipment and crafting gems at the start of each day's session because the game is tough and I need the best equip and gems I can get, I realized I do it because I love min-maxing and for me personally it's really really fun to max my stats and add all kinds of cool gem effects and then go out and see it all work in action as I take down enemies. So yeah, that helps keep it fun for me.

But mostly I just like exploring, doing quests and watching the cutscenes. Outside of killing 1 or 2 of each enemy to see what they drop, I don't really fight normal enemies until I get quests to kill "x" number of them. Instead I spend my time just exploring and killing any unique monsters I find along the way.

 

[CryingWolf]

For example, right now my goal is to get karna and meria to a really high kizuna connection because some kid in colony 9 wants to see an example of girls bonding

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Yeah I don't really understand the complaints saying that you always do the same thing in the battles. Isn't that the case in EVERY RPG anyway?

This game actually throws some curveballs into the normal RPG battle formula with things like position and skill-chaining.

Also if you are just hitting every active skill with Dunban or Rein then you are doing it wrong. A lot of their skills are meant to have follow up attacks which add extra damage/debuffs when done correctly.

Meira is pretty fun in my opinion and I like how they found an interesting middle ground for a caster/buff character.

I haven't really tried Riki too much yet.

 

[Bebpo]

One thing I like is that as you progress further in the story, new quests open up in the earlier towns where things happen with the NPCs and they need you to do things in the later areas for them. It's nice because it's not like you get to a town, do all the quests, and then never step foot in it again. It keeps you checking in every so often on older areas only to find new and exciting things in them. It's also nice because just in terms of continuity it's a welcome change for npcs to acknowledge that places exist beyond just the areas you were aware of when you first got to their town/camp.

I also found out randomly that after you start rebuilding your city, you can invite certain people from other towns to your place and help fill it up! There's no marker or anything indicating who you can bring, so just talk to people next time you're in town and maybe you'll get new inhabitants

 

[CryingWolf]

One thing I like is that as you progress further in the story, new quests open up in the earlier towns where things happen with the NPCs and they need you to do things in the later areas for them. It's nice because it's not like you get to a town, do all the quests, and then never step foot in it again. It keeps you checking in every so often on older areas only to find new and exciting things in them. It's also nice because just in terms of continuity it's a welcome change for npcs to acknowledge that places exist beyond just the areas you were aware of when you first got to their town/camp.

I also found out randomly that after you start rebuilding your city, you can invite certain people from other towns to your place and help fill it up! There's no marker or anything indicating who you can bring, so just talk to people next time you're in town and maybe you'll get new inhabitants

That's all awesome. Thanks Bebpo.

 

[Hahaq8]

i am HUGE xenosaga series fan do you think xenoblade's story as good as xenosaga ?

 

[fionel]

Actually, like you, I enjoy frequently mixing up my party when I play RPGs. But the point I'm at in the game right now, I feel that I do not have the privilege to do that and at the same time be able to survive. I tried some unconventional combination such as Danban/Meria/Rein and without healing arts my party just gets steamrolled (or I would have to run from fights and try again and that gets annoying fast). I think you can afford to play around when you're fighting enemies around your level 1 on 1. However when I know I'm up against a group of mobs or a boss or a long fight I simply need Rein(tank) and Karuna(healer) and that only leaves 1 slot open for mix-ups. That slot would naturally go to Schulk or Danban. Sure Meria and Riki also have healing arts but they're only good when your enemies don't hit like a truck. I know the Kizuna system is a big incentive for using different party combos but I think the ordinary player would probably ignore it because it's a lot easier to play as tank/attacker/healer, which would be a shame and hence I hope my Meria/Riki/last PC would become more useable in the future and give me more practical options in party selection.

Yeah I don't really understand the complaints saying that you always do the same thing in the battles. Isn't that the case in EVERY RPG anyway?

This game actually throws some curveballs into the normal RPG battle formula with things like position and skill-chaining.

Also if you are just hitting every active skill with Dunban or Rein then you are doing it wrong. A lot of their skills are meant to have follow up attacks which add extra damage/debuffs when done correctly.

I haven't really tried Riki too much yet.

Yes I know about follow up attacks, but usually you only have 1 "launcher" (maybe there will be more later) and then you just pick a follow up that is suitable for the situation. It does add to the battle system but IMO not by a whole lot.

I guess in other RPGs even if you're fundamentally doing the same things, you usually learn new and flashier spells/skills to use even if they're only a more powerful version of a weaker skill. Whereas in XB each character probably has around 15-20 by the end, of which you only get to use 8 during battle. For lazy people like me I guess they would just stick to mostly the same arts. So far I don't see the need to change up my arts a lot so maybe that's why I find the battles a little repetitive.

 

[Bebpo]

I love how big and alive each area is. Spent whole day just exploring one place. Some crazy stuff went down in the name of exploration. The engine actually is surprisingly flexible for climbing, swimming, and doing several other things.

I think this last area I did was a really good example of how the quest system works and how it makes the world really interesting. I'll spoil it just in case since it spoils some of the optional sidequests for that location.

Spoiler

-So you go into an area and the first NPC you meet tells you he's part of an excavation and several members have gone missing.

-As you explore around you find groups of ants and groups of birdmen all around the area.

-You also eventually find the various members stuck in secret places and by doing the quests they ask you help them get back to the main research

-Then when you talk to the reunited team they tell you they were research the wildlife in the area and that the caves used to be the territory of the birdmen but their leader went missing and the researchers were trying to assess what impact that had on their ecosystem. They give you a quest to go check out the cave.

-You go their and only see ants. After informing the researchers of this, they say that because the birdmen leader went missing, the ant leader has taken over their home turf and left the birdmen without a habitat. As it stands the ant population will increase and eventually kill off the birdmen and the entire ecosystem will be destroyed. They go and think for a bit about a solution and ask you advice.

-All these quests from the very moment you stepped into the area and met the research team were all done to build up to the final quest here: they talk to your character and decide that the only way to return balance to the ecosystem is to take out the ant leader and find and take out the birdmen leader. Without either leader the long running turf wars between the two species will subside and both will thrive and survive. So that's your goal.

-Now I found the ant leader, but I've yet to find the missing birdmen leader so that's as far as my story goes. But quests in Xenoblade are like this. They start out being a bunch of separate quests with different npcs that build upon each other storywise and build up to higher quests. It's a really cool system and I think it makes the areas far more interesting than just some random place with enemies along the way of the story. All the stuff I listed above is completely optional and if you ignored it you'd never have any idea of what was going on in the place and why the ecosystem is what it is.

And there's plenty more quests and they all relate in some way. You'll be ask to do various things in the area to help their research or help them personally

Some pics I took over the last day or two:
Armor pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor11.jpg <-- Dunban as batman
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor18.jpg <-- Dunban as a pirate
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor19.jpg <-- Meria revealing a little
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor20.jpg <-- Shulk looking sexy
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmo17.jpg <-- smart Riki

Location pics (obviously spoils locations)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmo15.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor14.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor16.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor21.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/bebpo/xenoarmor02.jpg

i am HUGE xenosaga series fan do you think xenoblade's story as good as xenosaga ?

So far, I'd say it's close in quality.

Actually, like you, I enjoy frequently mixing up my party when I play RPGs. But the point I'm at in the game right now, I feel that I do not have the privilege to do that and at the same time be able to survive. I tried some unconventional combination such as Danban/Meria/Rein and without healing arts my party just gets steamrolled (or I would have to run from fights and try again and that gets annoying fast). I think you can afford to play around when you're fighting enemies around your level 1 on 1. However when I know I'm up against a group of mobs or a boss or a long fight I simply need Rein(tank) and Karuna(healer) and that only leaves 1 slot open for mix-ups. That slot would naturally go to Schulk or Danban. Sure Meria and Riki also have healing arts but they're only good when your enemies don't hit like a truck. I know the Kizuna system is a big incentive for using different party combos but I think the ordinary player would probably ignore it because it's a lot easier to play as tank/attacker/healer, which would be a shame and hence I hope my Meria/Riki/last PC would become more useable in the future and give me more practical options in party selection.

I was saying the same thing earlier in the thread. That I felt like I needed a tank/healer so I didn't have many options to switch up my team for tough fights. As I got higher level and unlocked more arts, I've felt the game is a lot more open to any team you want. Meria's hurt herself to heal everyone else with ~10 second recharge rate is a fairly good heal spell and any supplemental healing combined with that can be enough to not need a healer. In terms of tanks...I haven't used a tank in a long time now. If you give your people good enough armor and maybe mess with the gems so they have high HP and get a large heal bonus when healed, anyone can take a lot of damage. I've found that Meria and Riki have some good stuff later on as does everyone else.

In fact that's why I'd say you should really look into the new arts you get every few levels. I've been finding most of them to be pretty useful and throwing them into my arts set. There's a lot of interesting arts between all the characters. Also don't forget the skill linking. At this point I'm getting tons of bonuses to my stats, heal bonuses, ap/exp bonuses, etc...it adds up and helps.


---------------
heavy story spoilers until the end of the AREA AFTER prison island

Spoiler

ah, ok. I kind of had a sneaking suspicion that's who Meinus was. So if my theory is correct I think Meinus is the actual immortal reincarnation of the Machine God and Alvieus is the immortal reincarnation of the Giant God. So the twist will be that the machine god is actually the "good one" and Meinus doesn't want the life that grows on the world of their bodies to die so she's trying to stop the cycle of killing everyone to ressurect the god bodies before Alvieus pulls it off again.

I still might be way off, but it seems to make sense to me at this point. Will see how it goes

 

[CryingWolf]

I want this game so bad.

I need to play this game.

 

[desu]

@Bebpo

Not sure if this counts as spoiler, but it has something to do with how long you can take quests.

Spoiler

There is a point of no return for quests, which means areas won't be accessable anymore, at least I read that and I watched how far until the end I am and after seeing that it seems likely that there is a point that will change some things.

Also if people are interested, I could upload a few screens I have taken like 40-50.

 

[Bebpo]

Also if people are interested, I could upload a few screens I have taken like 40-50.

Definitely!

 

[The Technomancer]

Oh man, I seriously need to stay out of this thread. It just makes the wait/uncertainty worse