This just came out on 3DS. I'm playing it now for the first time and really enjoying it. Love the large open world to explore.
Me too! Technically quite impressive for the hardware.
My heart skipped a beat when I discovered you don't need to return to an NPC to complete a quest. I'm really feeling it!
Eh, it depends on the quest. It's one of the black marks against the game. A quest will say "Return to Greg in Colony 9" and it might have been a few hours since you got that quest, so if you don't remember where Greg is... have fun. You only get a map marker when you get close to somebody, which isn't close enough.
Yeah, if any of those fucking quests come back in XBX, they really need to have things like "Talk to Greg" with a fucking time and location noted (or abandon the time thing entirely, since it had no redeeming value).
XCX is going to have a new feature called "The Nopon Navigation Ball", a flying orb of light that guides you to your next quest objective. This should make finding Gregs much less of a hassle.
Aw fuck, I sorta mentally blocked how bad they could get. With people available only at certain times, or if they walk around the entire city...
And you're really beholden to do all this, because after doing enough quests in an area, you get another quest, but these unlock a skill tree for a character, and they're all really boss skills.
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physi_marcPositron TrackerIn a nutshellRegistered Userregular
In cases like these, I see nothing wrong with consulting a guide to streamline the quests.
Actually, could somebody offer some basic intro advice on where to focus early game in Xenoblade Chronicles? I'm about half hour in, kind of ran around the city and picked up whatever quests I came across, killed some enemies that were just along the way, and entered a cave with my first three person party around level six or seven. Is there any need or benefit to grinding stuff out at all early, or can I just ride the main quest line for a bit without issue?
You can ride by the main quest line for the entire game. Every side quest starts over leveling you bit by bit. Do whatever side quests you want, and ignore the ones you don't. None of the optional skill trees are required to beat the game.
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Some of the side quests do have story cutoffs. There are early ones where the cutoff is obvious when it comes and can be delayed for a while, but there are also a bunch of them that are only cut off very late in the game. You can put off the second batch for a really long time, much longer than you'd initially expect, but you'll want to do them eventually.
The events of XBC happened a long time ago. The universe was rebuilt, and a new earth was made, with the evolution we all know and love taking place on it, albeit perhaps at an accelerated rate. So, rather than the earth just poofing back into existence the way it was, it and the rest of the universe have to start over again. The universe will follow along the same general course of development that it did originally, but it's not an exact replica.
The Bionis planet is the one the humans find. Homs and mechons have long since perished/moved on, but remnants of their existence remain.
Enemies who are six or more levels above you will make combat drag on and on, due to the agility/tension negative feedback loop. Encountering such enemies is a good indication that it might be time to take a break from the story and grind out some side quests.
Also, if you do accidentally miss any of the side quests that expire, you can always access them again in New Game +, so no pressure.
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
My experiences as a first timer with Xenoblade Chronicles summed up: It's always good, but today, it's amazing.
Actually, could somebody offer some basic intro advice on where to focus early game in Xenoblade Chronicles? I'm about half hour in, kind of ran around the city and picked up whatever quests I came across, killed some enemies that were just along the way, and entered a cave with my first three person party around level six or seven. Is there any need or benefit to grinding stuff out at all early, or can I just ride the main quest line for a bit without issue?
While the extra skill trees are more or less the point of obsessively doing all the side quests, as others said, they're not required to beat the game; but they are for the not-post-game-but-post-game super bosses.
Which aren't required for anything except something to pursue; though a few are good for farming specific crystals for top level gem crafting. Which, are in turn, really only needed to fight others super bosses. :rotate: Basically, if you start going that route you're doing it for the sake of doing it as again it's not necessary at all for the majority of content in the game. And for making a balls out rocking New Game + with the most powerful of everything ever!
As far as worrying about missing things, I'm 99.99% confident that there isn't a single side quest that expires that doesn't specifically have the clock icon by the quest, and in those cases the game will outright tell you when you're passing that point, so you can't do it on accident. I mean, there is a literal text box that pops up telling you this and you have to approve it to move on. For the most part (if not their entirety) any quest that can expire takes place in whatever area you happen to be in that gave you that quest; or is easily accessible via vast traveling. Gaur Plains, for instance, has a mess of timed quests when you first get there that disappear for story reasons afterward. And to be clear, "timed" doesn't mean a literal timer, it simply means that there is a story progression point they disappear. I can't think of any quests that have a literal timer for completion; npc's only being around at certain times of the day not withstanding.
So, yeah, if you ever feel underleveled just do some side quests. Otherwise, if you don't want to do them, don't. Possibly consider doing the timed ones when they pop up (I don't believe any have base affinity requirements so not having done prior ones shouldn't matter for those specific quests), for some affinities that will give you access to more quests later. For the vast majority of other side quests, should you decide later you actually want to do them, they'll still be there; although you will likely overlevel a shit ton of them.
The only other thing is possibly grab any "Kill X" target quests, if you see them, because you'll generally be killing that crap anyway and might as well get the rewards.
EDIT: Personally the way I play Xenoblade is with my laptop open with a sidequest (and unique enemy, among other info) spreadsheet open (you should be able to just google to find one) so I can keep track of what I have done, haven't, and so on. Which absolutely isn't required at all for just playing and enjoying the game. But if you're aiming for total completion, since the game doesn't have a real journal/encyclopedia, having another method of keeping track of things helps a ton.
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XCX is going to have a new feature called "The Nopon Navigation Ball", a flying orb of light that guides you to your next quest objective. This should make finding Gregs much less of a hassle.
And you're really beholden to do all this, because after doing enough quests in an area, you get another quest, but these unlock a skill tree for a character, and they're all really boss skills.
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Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
The Bionis planet is the one the humans find. Homs and mechons have long since perished/moved on, but remnants of their existence remain.
Also, if you do accidentally miss any of the side quests that expire, you can always access them again in New Game +, so no pressure.
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While the extra skill trees are more or less the point of obsessively doing all the side quests, as others said, they're not required to beat the game; but they are for the not-post-game-but-post-game super bosses.
Which aren't required for anything except something to pursue; though a few are good for farming specific crystals for top level gem crafting. Which, are in turn, really only needed to fight others super bosses. :rotate: Basically, if you start going that route you're doing it for the sake of doing it as again it's not necessary at all for the majority of content in the game. And for making a balls out rocking New Game + with the most powerful of everything ever!
As far as worrying about missing things, I'm 99.99% confident that there isn't a single side quest that expires that doesn't specifically have the clock icon by the quest, and in those cases the game will outright tell you when you're passing that point, so you can't do it on accident. I mean, there is a literal text box that pops up telling you this and you have to approve it to move on. For the most part (if not their entirety) any quest that can expire takes place in whatever area you happen to be in that gave you that quest; or is easily accessible via vast traveling. Gaur Plains, for instance, has a mess of timed quests when you first get there that disappear for story reasons afterward. And to be clear, "timed" doesn't mean a literal timer, it simply means that there is a story progression point they disappear. I can't think of any quests that have a literal timer for completion; npc's only being around at certain times of the day not withstanding.
So, yeah, if you ever feel underleveled just do some side quests. Otherwise, if you don't want to do them, don't. Possibly consider doing the timed ones when they pop up (I don't believe any have base affinity requirements so not having done prior ones shouldn't matter for those specific quests), for some affinities that will give you access to more quests later. For the vast majority of other side quests, should you decide later you actually want to do them, they'll still be there; although you will likely overlevel a shit ton of them.
The only other thing is possibly grab any "Kill X" target quests, if you see them, because you'll generally be killing that crap anyway and might as well get the rewards.
EDIT: Personally the way I play Xenoblade is with my laptop open with a sidequest (and unique enemy, among other info) spreadsheet open (you should be able to just google to find one) so I can keep track of what I have done, haven't, and so on. Which absolutely isn't required at all for just playing and enjoying the game. But if you're aiming for total completion, since the game doesn't have a real journal/encyclopedia, having another method of keeping track of things helps a ton.
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