The whole diurnal cycle factoring into to quest npc spawns makes the whole thing pretty bad. I'd like it a lot if NPCs just stayed where they are in X, even if it is unrealistic.
Looking in a wiki to find out when you can talk to your npc to turn in a question is really stupid.
I'm going to completely ignore all of the optional super bosses
They just sound suuuuper tedious
The super bosses suck, don't bother. If they didn't require special stuff that you needed to grind they might be fine, but as it is they're just for people who must complete everything.
And how long would it take to craft VI rank night vision gems if you hadn't bother crafting any up to that point?
This is mostly not a rhetorical question because I really don't remember how long that would have taken, but I do know that it was going to take long enough that I didn't feel like doing it.
thats not really something you craft up to, at that point you'd just have access to what you need, and it would just be getting your crafting game down to where you know how to 200% gems, which isn't terribly hard
Well from what I've read, it's less exploit every game mechanic and more exploit daze and topple. Might not be right though, I never really intend to find out, the break topple daze triangle isn't available really in my chosen party makeup so for-get-it
Haha, wow, am I underleveled for this fight. Every single one of my attacks miss and he just murders me. Shulk can't even draw aggro away from Sharla or charge the Monado because he can't hit a damn thing.
Currently exploring the mountain trying to grind exp and try out some new teams and ohhhh man I did not know what I was missing by just controlling Shulk the whole game. Melia is basically an electric god of death when you take her out of the AIs hands, good times.
She's awesome for sure but it sort of gets old after a while.
Shulk is more frenetic and fun.
I'm sad saying it but Sharla is dead boring to play as, and I should know after spending probably 15 hours as her exclusively to build affinity.
Haven't really tried anyone else. A bit of Dunban but he didn't really click. I'm bad at the closing circle timing game so his middle attack is wasted in my hands.
PM7 seems similar to Shulk in the right gear but not as bursty, more even and steady damage. I might drop Shulk for a bit though after the Core (yeah right this the endgame don't try to pretend you're not a JRPG on me Xenoblade) and try the game with her, Reyn and Sharla, playing as her straight dpsin.
"Gadolt, why would you say such a thing? Gadolt! GADOLT, STOP! *BOOOOOOOOM*"
Deep fried drama running into Robogadolt, whose ENTIRE GUT AREA WAS REPLACED WITH SOME KINDA ROBOT EYE THING? Angst sauce on the side.
Mm omph oh yeah mm slurp seconds please
I haven't really been as sold on the Sharla Gadolt sideplot
It's wanting to be another Shulk/Fiora but really just comes off as forced to me
It's not actually bad, mind, but where I actively feel empathy for Melia and her position, I just kinda wanted that sideplot to be over with. Not a lot of emotional resonance for the players.
I think if they'd developed Gadolt more, it'd be better, but he's been in like 3 flashbacks. Hard to care about a relationship they didn't spend a lot of time into selling you.
I don't need to sympathize with Gadolt much, because his presence in flashbacks managed to do two things very effectively and in very short:
1. It managed to frame Gadolt's relationship with Sharla by contrasting the one Sharla has with Reyn. Reyn and Gadolt are fundamentally similar men who respond very differently to tragedy, which has resulted in them having different outlooks.
2. It has established that Sharla cares about Gadolt a very great deal.
I don't need to care too much about Gadolt himself, because I care about Sharla, and the pain she's feeling is pretty apparent, and it creates new in-roads and framing devices for her (respectful, non-pushy, non-presumptive) relationship with Reyn
I kinda just rolled my eyes and endured the dialogue.
To be perfectly honest, you're starting to get to the portion of the game where I kinda gave up on hoping for the quality of writing I saw in the first half.
Its been relying more and more on JRPG tropes but to be honest the game has done that since the beginning. Its always been the character stuff that shined. At the risk of sounding like a braggart, long years of JRPG and anime experience helped me predict a bunch of the story stuff well in advance even when it wasn't spoiled outright by wiki leaks.
That said, the presentation has been really top notch so I haven't actually cared so much.
the gadolt subplot, mostly because it gives a running thread to the 3 mechonis areas and gives sharla and reyn some good character moments. not as strong as shulk/fiora, but i mean, it never could have been without some huge changes
as to the later third of the game, i can see getting a bit tired of mechonis field/central factory if you are doing all the sidequests but just going through its pretty short and a cool change from the bionis areas so i liked it. just DON'T do the agniratha quests, holy shit. fucking wise gremory
xenoblade doesn't really 'avoid' jrpg tropes but instead executes them very well and presents them in cool ways and makes them good things and not bad things. the type of trope it does it for in the last third gets a lot, i guess, grander? in scope, but i still think it does it in real cool ways. plus the final third flows pretty fast if you aren't a crazy person and do the post game stuff
Xenoblade has had a very JRPG plot from the beginning, though a few notes it has subverted to pretty good effect. Outside of that, plotwise, pretty standard! You can get a good guess about almost everything going on not too far into the game (which is pretty freaking far) if you listen carefully to the dialogue
The execution so far has been top-notch, though, and had a certain dignity to it. It's good anime, rather than bad anime.
The last anime game I played before this was Tales of Xilia, though, so my lame-o-meter may need further calibrating.
i dunno what it is about the agniratha quests, i'm just not a big fan of the area and finding some of the enemies took me forever and i felt like i was just fighting nonstop for hours
and then the special reward you get just makes you look at what you did
I'd need to take control of Shulk and give him a couple of Haste gems, then use Purge more or less non-stop, before I'd want to take on a high-level unique Spike Aura enemy
Edit: Oh, or I guess I could use
Fiora's high-speed double-attack auto-crit powers to build up chain attacks at incredible speed and keep a fool locked in Topple forever
Posts
They just sound suuuuper tedious
Looking in a wiki to find out when you can talk to your npc to turn in a question is really stupid.
The super bosses suck, don't bother. If they didn't require special stuff that you needed to grind they might be fine, but as it is they're just for people who must complete everything.
like, for avalanche you have to be max level and craft VI rank night vision gems just to hit it
This is mostly not a rhetorical question because I really don't remember how long that would have taken, but I do know that it was going to take long enough that I didn't feel like doing it.
Perhaps I will try at the end of this NG+ playthrough, since it shouldn't take too long to get to the end of the game.
Currently exploring the mountain trying to grind exp and try out some new teams and ohhhh man I did not know what I was missing by just controlling Shulk the whole game. Melia is basically an electric god of death when you take her out of the AIs hands, good times.
Shulk is more frenetic and fun.
I'm sad saying it but Sharla is dead boring to play as, and I should know after spending probably 15 hours as her exclusively to build affinity.
Haven't really tried anyone else. A bit of Dunban but he didn't really click. I'm bad at the closing circle timing game so his middle attack is wasted in my hands.
PM7 seems similar to Shulk in the right gear but not as bursty, more even and steady damage. I might drop Shulk for a bit though after the Core (yeah right this the endgame don't try to pretend you're not a JRPG on me Xenoblade) and try the game with her, Reyn and Sharla, playing as her straight dpsin.
Deep fried drama running into Robogadolt, whose ENTIRE GUT AREA WAS REPLACED WITH SOME KINDA ROBOT EYE THING? Angst sauce on the side.
Mm omph oh yeah mm slurp seconds please
It's wanting to be another Shulk/Fiora but really just comes off as forced to me
It's not actually bad, mind, but where I actively feel empathy for Melia and her position, I just kinda wanted that sideplot to be over with. Not a lot of emotional resonance for the players.
I think if they'd developed Gadolt more, it'd be better, but he's been in like 3 flashbacks. Hard to care about a relationship they didn't spend a lot of time into selling you.
1. It managed to frame Gadolt's relationship with Sharla by contrasting the one Sharla has with Reyn. Reyn and Gadolt are fundamentally similar men who respond very differently to tragedy, which has resulted in them having different outlooks.
2. It has established that Sharla cares about Gadolt a very great deal.
I don't need to care too much about Gadolt himself, because I care about Sharla, and the pain she's feeling is pretty apparent, and it creates new in-roads and framing devices for her (respectful, non-pushy, non-presumptive) relationship with Reyn
Sharla being upset is really all I need
I mean you'd be right if it wasn't as clumsy as it has been coming off to me.
It sure feels like I complain about the game a lot
It's a really great game though! There's so much heart in the characterization and the environments are mind blowing! Plus it's fun too!
I kinda just rolled my eyes and endured the dialogue.
To be perfectly honest, you're starting to get to the portion of the game where I kinda gave up on hoping for the quality of writing I saw in the first half.
Well, yeah, obviously.
I'm just saying I started to cool on the game in the latter third.
That said, the presentation has been really top notch so I haven't actually cared so much.
I'll be the judge of that.
as to the later third of the game, i can see getting a bit tired of mechonis field/central factory if you are doing all the sidequests but just going through its pretty short and a cool change from the bionis areas so i liked it. just DON'T do the agniratha quests, holy shit. fucking wise gremory
xenoblade doesn't really 'avoid' jrpg tropes but instead executes them very well and presents them in cool ways and makes them good things and not bad things. the type of trope it does it for in the last third gets a lot, i guess, grander? in scope, but i still think it does it in real cool ways. plus the final third flows pretty fast if you aren't a crazy person and do the post game stuff
I always found it funny though
Oh God I think that might be a penny arcade
Edit: found it
The execution so far has been top-notch, though, and had a certain dignity to it. It's good anime, rather than bad anime.
The last anime game I played before this was Tales of Xilia, though, so my lame-o-meter may need further calibrating.
that said, there's certainly improvements to be made on multiple fronts
mid game spoilers probably, nothing most of you to worry about
and some character concept art
it also had stuff that i can't find online like the entire main cast in fancy suits and dresses, maybe a wedding?? maybe canon??
ALSO it contains a short story that fills in a small story gap and takes place right before the end of the game, worth reading if your at that point
Melia what are you smug about though
What do you know that we don't Meliaaaa
You know the tie in between this game and X don't you
I mean
It couldn't help being
but also that BLADE acronym is fucking incredible
I don't even wear hair clips
Or actually have enough hair to
But I'd be tempted to with a monado one anyway
Hair clip though
For sure
That one unique enemy mentioned was a pain though
Make liberal use of backstabbery and Monado Purge for the spike damage
and then the special reward you get just makes you look at what you did
I'd need to take control of Shulk and give him a couple of Haste gems, then use Purge more or less non-stop, before I'd want to take on a high-level unique Spike Aura enemy
Edit: Oh, or I guess I could use