The fact that things keep kicking your butt and you seem to think grinding is the answer to everything? You also probably avoided the much stronger optional enemies rather than actually facing them and learning what's required to beat them.
The first time I played Xenoblade I did just grind my way and hit a wall late game, but if you learn from the start it's really no grind required.
Firing up my save file, I did a lot of stuff post-game and am level 71.
Here is the secret of JRPGs: you are pretty much never forced to grind. The few that make you are poorly designed, and also rare. This is why low level runs are possible.
Xenoblade is actually one of the worst designed JRPGs I've encountered in this respect actually. The main offender is the insane hit rate penalty applied when fighting higher level enemies. According to the wiki, a 10+ level difference (which I was faced with pretty much every boss fight) has the following penalties:
-200% hit rate, -200% evade rate, -110% ether hit rate, -50%+ block rate. Block rate is decreased by -5% per additional level. Example: If the enemy is 11 levels higher, block rate penalty is -55%. Maximum block rate penalty is -100%.
This wouldn't really be that bad by itself, but there aren't really many ways to increase the hit rate. Stacking agility gems only gets you so far and there are only a few characters that can raise it (Dunban and Riki spring to mind, but I don't remember anything else). Additionally, this was really the only thing I noticed levels having an effect on. Whenever I grinded enough for my hit rate to reach a reasonable amount every boss was incredibly easy.
You can absolutely overcome this, but to me it just made it incredibly boring. Every fight was essentially just exploiting several broken abilities in order to win. I couldn't really experiment with different party compositions, since so many characters seemed like they just plain suck. Granted, I'm not actually an expert at the game so it's possible there are ways to go around this but the game itself presented no obvious solution except, of course, more grinding. So yeah, low level runs are technically possible, but I certainly didn't find it any fun.
I must say, I'm flabbergasted. What did i miss that allow you to even scratch the last bosses at lvl 67? I tried a lot of party combinations and always got wiped at lvl 79 / 80.. My main party was Shulk / Rikki / Sharla.
Reading the thread, I probably missed something huge with the gem crafting.
edit: Ok, i get it, it seems like I haven't learned to play the game properly. I should't have to find out 1h before the end.
Like I said before, I beat it at 78 and I never got into the gem crafting stuff at all. I did use gems, but only those I felt would work well from the pool I had already acquired from quests. Leveling up a bit will in fact make the final fights trivial, but you can absolutely beat them now. If you have literally no gems in your gear at all then yeah go ahead and slot some in, that can only help. It won't make or break you though.
Shulk/Riki/Sharla isn't a terrible party but it could be better. I would get rid of Shulk or Riki and replace them with Dunban or Reyn (so you have a tank). Alternatively keep both and replace Sharla with one of the tanks. Riki and Shulk's healing together should be enough without also having Sharla. Your team is too heal heavy and not beefy enough right now, imo.
Yeah. It seems to be one of those games like Chrono Cross where if it has good music and looks pretty, people will call it great ignoring that everything else about is flawed.
I went the entire game not knowing how Monado Shield worked, so by the end I was getting by stacking haste and double attack gems on Shulk so he could constantly cast Monado Speed on whoever was being attacked to make them an agility tank.
. Otherwise Dunban with Agility up gems made everyone else manageable and since you've already done that fight OP I'd say if you haven't already give the evasion tank strategy a go, I honestly think you're already past the hardest fight in the game.
Shulk/Riki/Sharla isn't a terrible party but it could be better. I would get rid of Shulk or Riki and replace them with Dunban or Reyn (so you have a tank).
Weird. I was the same level as the OP and didn't find the fight that hard. Challangeing sure, but manageable. Only reason I never finished is because the game crashed on me when the final boss used one of its super attacks when I had it down to like 1/4 of its life. I never understood why people rage quit before, but I do now.
Man, I was expecting this to be an entirely differenet kind of thread. I was thinking this would be a complaint about side quests, which is the one reason why I stopped playing Xenoblade in the first place. Got burnt out on side quests after 35hrs. Yes I know I can skip them but part of me can't pass them up if they are available because then I think I'm missing out on a part of the game. Didn't help that all of those side quests were super duper boring as fuck.
End game bosses are supposed to be hard and provide a challenge, hopefully making you use what you've learned over the course of 50+ hours of game to come out on top. Sometimes even stretch the system a little more than you are use to.
Guy probably watched the game on YouTube. The story bosses are fair if you paid any attention to sharing personal skills system. The game is the best jrpg ever because any team can beer made to work
Anyway, I'll one give it one last go tonight, and I'll re-read all the tutorials (it surely can't help that I started that game 2 years ago), before rage quitting and "closing the YouTube window".
Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about the incredibly shitty camera during battles. It's incredibly shitty.
I absolutely adored my time with the game, but after 40 hours I got burnt out and never returned. I'd rather keep it that way. I left with a great memory.
Guy probably watched the game on YouTube. The story bosses are fair if you paid any attention to sharing personal skills system. The game is the best jrpg ever because any team can beer made to work
Like anyone would spend more than a hour watching this bland cliche story with bland characters on YouTube. It's not even close to the best RPG that has Xeno in the title.
I beat the final boss first try, was around 80ish. If anything he was disappointingly easy!
Some people have pointed out crafting gems, that might be your issue indeed, I abused the hell of that system. You can get some ridiculous stat boosts from them.
... by the fact that you're stuck? If you had been stuck earlier you would just have started complaining earlier.
Seriously, are gamers nowadays really that lazy that the second they find adversity in a game, they automatically decide it's the game's fault without bothering to explore what they can actually do? No wonder 90% of AAA games are autoplay faceroll Press A for Awesome shit.
I'm with you there. I quit at the 30 hour mark. JRPGs are mostly just not for me anymore. I don't enjoy the combat and just don't have any interest in learning all the systems for leveling, gear upgrades, character links etc. I play games, outside of shooters and fighting games anyway, mainly to relax. So I'm just not into games that require a bunch of strategy, puzzle solving etc. I tax those skills more than enough at work.
Visual Novels have filled my desire for those jrpg type stories shootout all gameplay hassles of JRPGs that hinder my enjoyment.
Don't play any Tri-Ace game then. They love to make the last dungeon in their RPG's controller-snappingly difficult, and then hit you over the head with a brutal final boss too.
You should still play Tri-Ace games, but only the good ones, from the PS1/PS2 era.
... by the fact that you're stuck? If you had been stuck earlier you would just have started complaining earlier.
Seriously, are gamers nowadays really that lazy that the second they find adversity in a game, they automatically decide it's the game's fault without bothering to explore what they can actually do? No wonder 90% of AAA games are autoplay faceroll Press A for Awesome shit.
WTF is this, seriously.
If i had been stuck 20h in, I would have studied the battle system more, simple as that. It's 80h in. I'm not asking for a auto-battle here. Just not being wiped 10 seconds into the fight.
WTF is this, seriously.
If i had been stuck 20h in, I would have studied the battle system more, simple as that. It's 80h in. I'm not asking for a auto-battle here. Just not being swiped 10 seconds into the fight.
Grind in a game where Agility is borderline broken since if its high enough you will never get hit and allows you to always attack or even double attack.
Xenoblade is extremely doable without grinding since you only need to plan carefully what party members to bring, equip them with the some nice gems and armor and optimize their respective skills and attacks.
I finished the game at level 84 or 86 and none of the late game bosses gave me any trouble whatsoever. Pretty sure I couldve done it at level 80. Seems to me like you're doing something wrong.
Isn't the final boss like level 80 even though it displays as '???'? I beat the game at like level 76. Grinding is silly in XC, pick up as many side quests as you can during the main story and you complete so many as you go through the story.
Buff you team, chain arts, combo chain attacks as much as you can, etc. I had finished with Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla. Mostly tank n spank but Sharla healing and buffs while keeping low Aggro. The final fight really isn't that bad if you know how to manage the team specialities well enough.
I think OP's assertion isn't that he doesn't understand the battle system, it's that it's the game's fault he doesn't. If they had prevented him from overleveling until now, it would have been fine. But now he doesn't want to overlevel and the game should have stopped him beforehand.
When FFXIII introduced the per-chapter level cap, I remember thinking it was a bad idea. Now I feel like it might be the only way to get people to understand what they're doing in a game.
Dude, you dont have to "grind" (i.e., mindlessly fight monsters to increase your level). What you want is to hunt down high levels unique monsters for book arts so you can get extra levels on your spells and create gems that allow you to push your character strenghts. You may get some extra levels in the process but that's a bonus
When FFXIII introduced the per-chapter level cap, I remember thinking it was a bad idea. Now I feel like it might be the only way to get people to understand what they're doing in a game.
For Xenoblade you get reduced exp when you fight lower level monsters, 50% if they are between 3 and 5 levels lower, 10% anything 6 levels or lower. So its really really hard to just grind exp until you are overleveled for the area by just killing monsters. Even then, people will just grind monsters without looking at the exp bar so a level cap would work even better.
Was just expressing my concerns about this for Tokyo Mirage Sessions. I played most the game under-leveled. Took out most bosses on my second try using good strategy and everything at my disposal. Now I've reached the Final Boss about 5 levels under leveled with my main character and 10 levels with all my other characters and it's a massive gear check with some AOE attacks that one hit kill my entire party.
Why make me grind 3-4 hours just to beat the final boss in the game, there's nothing after that? If I've made it to the final boss I should be able to beat him using proper strategy (never mind my items are mostly depleted too).
I don't remember having any issue with any boss aside from Gadolt. Last boss was beaten on the first try and everything. Not any higher level than you.
I did a bit of gem crafting, but I did really go into figuring out how to get my party members to work together.
This game has a lot of systems, so if you ignore things like gem crafting or comboing arts, it will be a grind. There are final boss runs on YouTube at like level 50.
It always warms my heart when people shit on Xenoblade's armour designs. The comparisons to the worst parts of FFX's style are pretty accurate, mixed in with a repugnant take on generic MMO aesthetic for the heavier sets.
I didn't do a lot of the side quests as they were sucking the enjoyment out of the game for me (Anything the resembled a fetch quest was pretty much immediately skipped). That left me grinding at various points, but as I enjoyed the fighting, I didn't mind so much. (Had to grind for a bit before
Lorithia.)
But that final boss... That final boss really left me on a sour note with the game. Seeing how far back I'd have to go in order to get myself grinded up to a position to beat the final boss was enough to make me give up. Games shouldn't be set up that way. If you can get to the final boss, you shouldn't be leveled in such a way that it's a nearly impossible proposition to beat them. I believe I was much lower in level (Maybe 70?) than you, but I don't recall what level that was and at what level it's recommended you do the final boss. (It feels like a very antiquated design.) I youtubed the ending.
It's a shame because I pretty much loved the game otherwise.
This shitty wannabe mmorpg has the most annoying mascot. Once I got it in my party I stopped. Shouldve hours ago. Also, wtf is up with the sound cues. Listening to the same shitty one liners is painful.
It always warms my heart when people shit on Xenoblade's armour designs. The comparisons to the worst parts of FFX's style are pretty accurate, mixed in with a repugnant take on generic MMO aesthetic for the heavier sets.
The discussion here is the same about any JRPG where people have problems.
"I hate having to grind."
"You don't have to grind, though."
"Yeah but I hate having to grind and the game is making me."
"But you don't have to."
"Yeah, but I really hate that the game makes me grind."
Grind in a game where Agility is borderline broken since if its high enough you will never get hit and allows you to always attack or even double attack.
Xenoblade is extremely doable without grinding since you only need to plan carefully what party members to bring, equip them with the some nice gems and armor and optimize their respective skills and attacks.
Can you explain how you can stack enough agility to overcome the inherent hit rate and evade penalties caused by difference in levels, without grinding for anything? I'm genuinely curious, since even with throwing everything I had on my party my hit/evade rate was still completely terrible when fighting bosses 10+ levels above me. As far as I remember, nice gems and gear still had to be grinded. Something that does not involve Dunban/Riki/Melia would be nice, since being locked into one party is not what I would consider a fun way of playing the game.
To me it seemed like agility was incredibly broken not because it made you invincible, but because I couldn't even hit anything without it.
The discussion here is the same about any JRPG where people have problems.
"I hate having to grind."
"You don't have to grind, though."
"Yeah but I hate having to grind and the game is making me."
"But you don't have to."
"Yeah, but I really hate that the game makes me grind."
Aha I love this, Xenoblade really isn't a grindy game and if you're having trouble it's probably because of your gem setup or lack of understanding of the battle system.
I had fun with the Xenoblade combat but I controlled Melia the whole time I had her. Any time I had to use Shulk or anyone else I didn't like it but then again it's my favorite game of the past five years easily.
I was level 78 and while tough, it wasn't ass kickishly tough. There's a sidequest later in the game that gives you a useful ability and you might want to look at equipment and gem stuff closely to make the most of your party.
Aha I love this, Xenoblade really isn't a grindy game and if you're having trouble it's probably because of your gem setup or lack of understanding of the battle system.
I dunno, i don't remember any other RPG ever stonewalling me that hard with a completely arbitrary and extremely punishing debuff to hitrate (and a whole lot of other things) just because I was underleveled. In most of them having less stats/skills is the only punishment you get, but Xenoblade just throws another mechanic at you just to screw you over if your level is not high enough. You can get around it of course, but it requires you to really know what you are doing and basically breaks the games combat system, imo.
Not that that should be a problem at OP's level, but it was pretty annoying for me, since I really didn't care about any side content, which left me perpetually underleveled.
No, really. I'm fucking 80h in (lvl80), and the last zone is a fucking torture.
First there was
this dragon
that kick my butt, then
disciple hulk hogan
, that kick my butt too, then the last boss that, you guessed it, kick my butt.
I just rage quit after beating
the first form of the last
boss, and oh what a surprise, I have to beat the previous one all over again.
IT THE FUCKING END OF THE GAME. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO GRIND FOR HOURS TO BEAT THE LAST 3 BOSSES in a row .
Why the fuck would you put the first difficulty spikes at that point in the game?
Other thant that, yeah music and landscapes were nice, but the chara/armor design is probably the wors thing I've seen since FFX. The story is your shônen cliché and the last part of the game is a draaaaaaag.
And don't listen to anyone that says "Don't mind the sidequest, they're boring and neglectable" if you plan on start this game, or else you'll find yourselves underlevelled and stuck like a moron at the last fight of the game.
If anything he was disappointingly easy!
