Ok, liking it pretty well, so far. (Which is not very, only just got a full party in chapter 2.)
Some impressions/annoyances/snarky comments, because why say something nice about something you love when you can complain instead?
- First scene, and our boytagonist (I saw someone use that word here earlier. I love it and I'm adopting it.) takes a big bite of nothing and chews on it with an open mouth. Kind of incongruous with the rest of the graphics quality.
- The underdressed/overly sexualised/male gaze thing is real. Ugh. Yeah.
- I keep messing up the menu buttons ( -/+/x). I swear they were laid out differently in XC1 and XCX. Why isn't the character menu under X, the map/quick travel under Minus and the options under Plus? Why, Monolithsoft, why!?
- Also, would it hurt to open up the skip travel map on the current map, instead of needing to hunt down several menus just to get a good look at where you're are?
Some chapter 2 stuff, pretty vague.
- There's no justification given at all for Skip Travel, is there? You crash landed on another Titan, and your previous means of transportation now fits in your helmet. This wouldn't be so bad if the tutorial didn't suggest to go use it to compare shop prices/inventory between towns the moment you arrive in that second town when you're still without transportation.
- Nia's hair clips very noticeably through her clothes in an early chapter 2 scene. I thought part of the justification for only one costume per character was that they could avoid stuff like that. Eh, it's fine, I'm used to hair clippng through everything. It's what hair does in video games. And, uhh... are her ears backwards? How does that make sense? I also noticed all of her people have a full head of hair. Maybe the designers didn't want to deal with the 2 or 4 ears question.
- They're very sparse with eye movement animation sometimes. Especially noticeable with a minor chapter 2 character who lacks the big 'anime eyes', and has none, but takes center stage in some scenes.
- Pyra sticks out like a sore thumb, so let's cover her up. Rex, in bright blue salvager dress and a talking dragon thing in his helmet won't turn any heads, so he's fine.
- Pyra, you're supposed to be incognito. Stop playing with fire.
- Yes, Quick Travel also works in the middle of a prison break. "We need to get through this door so we can escape this location, but first some shopping back in town. Maybe a sidequest or two."
- Speaking of said door: There's no way to get to the controls up on that railing without backtracking a couple of corridors. Despite that harpoon gun our boytagonist uses all the friggin' time. Last but not least to get to this very location to begin with. Pretty minor quibble, sure, but I got stuck there for a little bit, seeing no obvious path. That other door didn't look very doorlike when I didn't have the key yet.
But now I'm in a dungeon with human enemies. They have 2 voice clips. "Think you can take me?" and "Don't forget me!". And they seem to be tied to fucking everything they do, because they just repeat it 10+ times a fight.
Oh god, yes. I'm not likely to forget, no.
Oh, and I grabbed the Japanese voicepack, just to see how it compares. The Event Viewer is pretty great. There's less random mouth flapping with the Japanese track, that's for sure. Think I'll stick to English during play, though. I do like me some British.
While rewatching some stuff: (Very early chapter 1, but possible endgame speculation.)
Is that a satellite dish on Rex's hut on Gramps' back? Were they a space faring civilization, and are there still functional satellites up there? Oooohhh.
But I, uh, guess parabolic antennas have terrestrial uses too. (Alrestrial?) Meh.
The way the compass works with waypoints is really weird to me.
And for being a compass, it SURE seems to be missing any heading markers.
Does anyone know much about the system for getting deeds to shops? Do you have to buy 1 of every item, or do you have to buy the complete stock?
Also, is there any way to tell if it's ready for deed-ing? And if it isn't, when it finally is, do the items you previously purchased count toward it?
It's "alright" just nothing to write home about. There's some small oversights, like how when you open it it opens to just the general screen and you have to go to the map you're on/want. It's just a little unwieldy but I wouldn't call it awful either.
Does anyone know much about the system for getting deeds to shops? Do you have to buy 1 of every item, or do you have to buy the complete stock?
Also, is there any way to tell if it's ready for deed-ing? And if it isn't, when it finally is, do the items you previously purchased count toward it?
The deed system works like this: Buy at least one of each item a shop can sell (I think this only applies to the commodity shops? Not 100%, but like blacksmith may not count) and then you can purchase the deed for a special bonus. No, you don't have to buy items all at once. However, there's no really any way to tell (I don't think?) if you've previously purchased an item and used it. The catch here is that shops might start selling more stuff at different development levels, in this case the deed obviously won't be available until you actually can purchase everything. So if you buy everything and don't see the deed there's probably more to buy later.
I do love how combat has evolved from xb1 but boy does it take a while to give you the tools to really use it. Once you have 3 blades a person theres a ton to do and I'm enjoying it a ton.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Probably Nintendo saw that and said atleast don't make the protagonist do it. Though he does say he wants to "Kick his arse" (I so enjoy the Britishness)
I wonder, is this the first Nintendo made game with the word shit or the like ?(I doubt they'll go any further)
Nintendo published sure, Bayonnetta for example but that wasn't a Nintendo studio.
There was just some discussion in the Switch thread about how Nintendo isn't really as family friendly as people like to think they are (the example was the graphic murders/swearing in L.A. Noire, that they'd allow that on their system).
They've had swearing in first party games before, Advance Wars Days of Ruin and Fire Emblem Awakening come to mind.
Alright, I've got a full party and just got through a good deal of main plot stuff. Time to do 40 fucking hours of sidequests and exploring.
Add me on Switch: 7795-5541-4699
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pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
Oh fuck yeah I had forgotten the feeling of running in a straight line through the first real open field toward my destination and getting vivisected by a monster five times my level
- It's funny, I've read a lot about how you gotta pay so much attention to the tutorials because they only show up once and that's it...I think I missed one altogether. I was fighting the first boss and it was like "hey let me tell you how to use blade combos or whatever! If you time your ability usage right you earn more progress toward being able to use a combo, and you can power them up to level 3!" So I thought alright, instead of using it right away I'll practice this timing and get it up to 3. I did, and I used it, and the game was like "great! Also you can do this other kind of combo with elements and stuff, you have to chain them together, here I'll grant you a free use of a combo so you can try it out!" ...And then the boss was dead instantly as soon as the message went away. I dealt too much damage for the tutorial to finish. So I guess I'll figure that stuff out on my own.
- Without being real spoilery, it's not long before the game does the thing where you're stranded somewhere unknown...but you can fast travel right out of it and back again. If I don't know where this place is, how can I fast travel back to it? If I don't have a means of transportation, how can I even leave there in the first place? More details, that make it even more ridiculous:
This was right after escaping the ancient ship and crash landing in the forest. We don't know where Gramps or Nia are, we gotta find them and figure out where we are...the moment I had control I fast traveled back to the first town like nothing had happened. I had just gotten done seeing a cutscene of the magistrate nopon (or whoever he is) deducing where we were at, and having an evil conversation with another dude, like they had dark designs for us...a minute later I walk right up to him and talk to him like nothing had happened. AND on top of that, Rex doesn't demand 100k gold from him like he should be!! He doesn't say what the heck was up with risking our lives and all that...it's nuts.
- Also the reason I fast traveled above is because I never can remember the dang menu button in this game and keep bringing up fast travel by mistake. I can't believe they thought we would need fast travel on a face button and we have to reach for the menu that we're using much more often.
- Something real screwy is going on, I think I got cheated out of some WP. Early on I spent WP to upgrade Anchor Shot to level 2...now it's back at level 1 again?! Also earlier I think the costs to upgrade Rex's abilities were like 250/300/350, now they are 480/360/440. What the heck?
- It's funny, I've read a lot about how you gotta pay so much attention to the tutorials because they only show up once and that's it...I think I missed one altogether. I was fighting the first boss and it was like "hey let me tell you how to use blade combos or whatever! If you time your ability usage right you earn more progress toward being able to use a combo, and you can power them up to level 3!" So I thought alright, instead of using it right away I'll practice this timing and get it up to 3. I did, and I used it, and the game was like "great! Also you can do this other kind of combo with elements and stuff, you have to chain them together, here I'll grant you a free use of a combo so you can try it out!" ...And then the boss was dead instantly as soon as the message went away. I dealt too much damage for the tutorial to finish. So I guess I'll figure that stuff out on my own.
- Without being real spoilery, it's not long before the game does the thing where you're stranded somewhere unknown...but you can fast travel right out of it and back again. If I don't know where this place is, how can I fast travel back to it? If I don't have a means of transportation, how can I even leave there in the first place? More details, that make it even more ridiculous:
This was right after escaping the ancient ship and crash landing in the forest. We don't know where Gramps or Nia are, we gotta find them and figure out where we are...the moment I had control I fast traveled back to the first town like nothing had happened. I had just gotten done seeing a cutscene of the magistrate nopon (or whoever he is) deducing where we were at, and having an evil conversation with another dude, like they had dark designs for us...a minute later I walk right up to him and talk to him like nothing had happened. AND on top of that, Rex doesn't demand 100k gold from him like he should be!! He doesn't say what the heck was up with risking our lives and all that...it's nuts.
- Also the reason I fast traveled above is because I never can remember the dang menu button in this game and keep bringing up fast travel by mistake. I can't believe they thought we would need fast travel on a face button and we have to reach for the menu that we're using much more often.
- Something real screwy is going on, I think I got cheated out of some WP. Early on I spent WP to upgrade Anchor Shot to level 2...now it's back at level 1 again?! Also earlier I think the costs to upgrade Rex's abilities were like 250/300/350, now they are 480/360/440. What the heck?
I think that's because Rex is using a generic sword at the beginning before switching to the Aegis Sword when he meets Pyra. Even though they share the same types of arts, they technically count as different weapons so WP don't carry over.
Add me on Switch: 7795-5541-4699
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pyromaniac221this just might bean interestin YTRegistered Userregular
- It's funny, I've read a lot about how you gotta pay so much attention to the tutorials because they only show up once and that's it...I think I missed one altogether. I was fighting the first boss and it was like "hey let me tell you how to use blade combos or whatever! If you time your ability usage right you earn more progress toward being able to use a combo, and you can power them up to level 3!" So I thought alright, instead of using it right away I'll practice this timing and get it up to 3. I did, and I used it, and the game was like "great! Also you can do this other kind of combo with elements and stuff, you have to chain them together, here I'll grant you a free use of a combo so you can try it out!" ...And then the boss was dead instantly as soon as the message went away. I dealt too much damage for the tutorial to finish. So I guess I'll figure that stuff out on my own.
- Without being real spoilery, it's not long before the game does the thing where you're stranded somewhere unknown...but you can fast travel right out of it and back again. If I don't know where this place is, how can I fast travel back to it? If I don't have a means of transportation, how can I even leave there in the first place? More details, that make it even more ridiculous:
This was right after escaping the ancient ship and crash landing in the forest. We don't know where Gramps or Nia are, we gotta find them and figure out where we are...the moment I had control I fast traveled back to the first town like nothing had happened. I had just gotten done seeing a cutscene of the magistrate nopon (or whoever he is) deducing where we were at, and having an evil conversation with another dude, like they had dark designs for us...a minute later I walk right up to him and talk to him like nothing had happened. AND on top of that, Rex doesn't demand 100k gold from him like he should be!! He doesn't say what the heck was up with risking our lives and all that...it's nuts.
- Also the reason I fast traveled above is because I never can remember the dang menu button in this game and keep bringing up fast travel by mistake. I can't believe they thought we would need fast travel on a face button and we have to reach for the menu that we're using much more often.
- Something real screwy is going on, I think I got cheated out of some WP. Early on I spent WP to upgrade Anchor Shot to level 2...now it's back at level 1 again?! Also earlier I think the costs to upgrade Rex's abilities were like 250/300/350, now they are 480/360/440. What the heck?
Regarding the last one, I also put points in anchor shot before unlocking the first blade. Once I reached that story beat, I got a pop up telling me that the arts menu had been opened up for me, even though it had been before (which is how I spent the points in the first place). I think the original intention was to lock you out of that menu until that point in the story, but they just...forgot? And then once you had the blade, it overwrote the points you had spent on your initial prologue weapon since arts are unique to each blade. I found that a little obnoxious.
- It's funny, I've read a lot about how you gotta pay so much attention to the tutorials because they only show up once and that's it...I think I missed one altogether. I was fighting the first boss and it was like "hey let me tell you how to use blade combos or whatever! If you time your ability usage right you earn more progress toward being able to use a combo, and you can power them up to level 3!" So I thought alright, instead of using it right away I'll practice this timing and get it up to 3. I did, and I used it, and the game was like "great! Also you can do this other kind of combo with elements and stuff, you have to chain them together, here I'll grant you a free use of a combo so you can try it out!" ...And then the boss was dead instantly as soon as the message went away. I dealt too much damage for the tutorial to finish. So I guess I'll figure that stuff out on my own.
- Without being real spoilery, it's not long before the game does the thing where you're stranded somewhere unknown...but you can fast travel right out of it and back again. If I don't know where this place is, how can I fast travel back to it? If I don't have a means of transportation, how can I even leave there in the first place? More details, that make it even more ridiculous:
This was right after escaping the ancient ship and crash landing in the forest. We don't know where Gramps or Nia are, we gotta find them and figure out where we are...the moment I had control I fast traveled back to the first town like nothing had happened. I had just gotten done seeing a cutscene of the magistrate nopon (or whoever he is) deducing where we were at, and having an evil conversation with another dude, like they had dark designs for us...a minute later I walk right up to him and talk to him like nothing had happened. AND on top of that, Rex doesn't demand 100k gold from him like he should be!! He doesn't say what the heck was up with risking our lives and all that...it's nuts.
- Also the reason I fast traveled above is because I never can remember the dang menu button in this game and keep bringing up fast travel by mistake. I can't believe they thought we would need fast travel on a face button and we have to reach for the menu that we're using much more often.
- Something real screwy is going on, I think I got cheated out of some WP. Early on I spent WP to upgrade Anchor Shot to level 2...now it's back at level 1 again?! Also earlier I think the costs to upgrade Rex's abilities were like 250/300/350, now they are 480/360/440. What the heck?
I think that's because Rex is using a generic sword at the beginning before switching to the Aegis Sword when he meets Pyra. Even though they share the same types of arts, they technically count as different weapons so WP don't carry over.
Wait so this is like some KotOR business where it's better to not invest points at the start until the big unlock? That's amazing.
There are some informants that will basically sell you the tutorial text. That's nice, but currently paying for that would empty my coffers. I'm not too enthused about paying through the nose for two lines stating the obvious. This is a (J)RPG, though, so I'm sure it'll be chump change soon enough.
What's with this Thought Cloud business, and their boosters when awakening cores? They show up in the affinity web for blades, too, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how they relate. That first free extra blade upped one of Rex's stats when unlocking an ability on the affinity chart, but I don't see how what he has and what Pyra has differs. Maybe they'll explain later, but it's pretty vexing right now.
Speaking of unlocking that affinity web thing, I seem to remember one of Pyra's level 2's wanted her to be part of a Driver Combo.
Driver Combos was the Break/Topple thing, right? Stuff that chains based on Arts (X/Y/B)? And Blade Combos are the Specials (A)?
None of Pyra's Arts are part of the Break/Topple chain, so how are you supposed to unlock that? Perhaps more importantly, how did I unlock that? I am confuse.
Wait so this is like some KotOR business where it's better to not invest points at the start until the big unlock? That's amazing.
No, WP is also independent to the weapon type. Your first weapon WP don't matter at all, spend them or don't, when you get the actual weapon type you don't keep the unspent points.
Driver Combos was the Break/Topple thing, right? Stuff that chains based on Arts (X/Y/B)? And Blade Combos are the Specials (A)?
None of Pyra's Arts are part of the Break/Topple chain, so how are you supposed to unlock that? Perhaps more importantly, how did I unlock that? I am confuse.
Break/topple isn't really "unlocked", other characters with arts that inflict them can do them whenever, but there's more indepth tutorials on it later. Minor spoiler regarding arts and topple, though not strictly a story spoiler or anything:
Later on you get an upgrade to an art that will inflict topple.
Wow, the writers and directors perfectly tuned the pacing and editing of the opening bit in the game (until first town). They did an excellent job of making me care about the world and characters by the initial dialogue. They never wasted time, it's rather impressive. I quite like how our main character has passions and interests besides just a general and vague adventurous sentiment.
If this is indicative of the rest of the game, XC2 will go down as one of my favorite games ever.
Nah, I meant to unlock one of the upgrades/abilitiesskills affinity rewards on Pyra's affinity chart. I think Resplendence? It has that for the level 5 unlock, (Perform a Driver Combo 0/12) but I think it was on level 2 as well, but maybe on another abilityskill affinity reward. I got all of the level 2 ones (except Purifying Flames - Help an incapacitated ally 3/10) and that was before I had access to anything more than Break.
Is a Driver Combo different from the Break/Topple thing, then? Or did I confuse the game/myself by performing Blade Combos while Break was active, and that counted or something?
Ehhhh, I could just not worry about it, but I'd like to get my system concepts/names correct.
EDIT: speaking of getting my terminology correct.
EDIT 2: No, seriously. Get it right, Ark. The thingamabobs on the Drivers' Affinity Chart are Skills, on Blades, they're called Affinity Rewards.
Wow, the writers and directors perfectly tuned the pacing and editing of the opening bit in the game (until first town). They did an excellent job of making me care about the world and characters by the initial dialogue. They never wasted time, it's rather impressive. I quite like how our main character has passions and interests besides just a general and vague adventurous sentiment.
If this is indicative of the rest of the game, XC2 will go down as one of my favorite games ever.
I agree, it has a really awesome intro. It was drawn out JUST enough to give us a glimpse of him as a person before the adventure without getting boring, and didn't dump us in too quickly.
Compared to other JRPGs, for example FFX didn't give us enough time with Tidus before he ended up fish out of water, there was weird mysterious stuff happening in the first few minutes, one or two hallways to walk down, no sense of the city or life he knew at all. Oddly enough that game also opened with salvagers at sea...
Just something handy for questing. If the compass indicator is a bit too vauge, press the left control stick. It'll cycle through no minimap, minimap and a map overlay. On the overlay you can see exactly where the quest marker is.
Just something handy for questing. If the compass indicator is a bit too vauge, press the left control stick. It'll cycle through no minimap, minimap and a map overlay. On the overlay you can see exactly where the quest marker is.
If it's nearby. Sometimes it is quite far. I'm like 20hrs in and I can say definitively that the map could use work.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Another early game thought, from just before Rex meets Pyra:
Jin's line about killing Rex being a mercy, so he doesn't have to experience what's coming next, that strikes me as a uniquely good villain line. I've heard similar things before in various media but not as much in JRPGs. It shows he has a clear plan and motivation, and it's something that's going to be terrible for humanity, but doesn't give too much away. And that combined with the idea later of leaving no witnesses...I dunno it just feels a little more Western than normal JRPG fare. At that point in other games I guess I'd expect more dumb vagueness like "...pitiful" or just silence.
Also a prediction for a later game plot twist, I know this has got to be an obvious thought but still - one or more of the main cast of heroes and villains are
going to turn out to be a blade with no driver. Possibly Rex, it would explain his ability to have learned arts without a blade, explains no parents, and he has similar eyes as Pyra. Could very well explain why he is able to live on half a blade's life force. Much more likely for Jin I think, though. I could totally see a situation where he got tired of taking orders from his driver and betrayed him somehow, maybe keeps him alive in suspended animation, allowing Jin to roam free and invincible(?).
Oh also I assume blades are made from the souls of real people who died or gave up their life voluntarily to become blades or something. Somebody's going to have their dead brother or sister as a blade.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
edited December 2017
Alright I really am enjoying this game a lot.
Biggest complaint is the garbage map. Why the fuck can you not scroll from the fullscreen minimap? Checking for marked spots on the map is a god damn chore, amplified by it being a game with so much exploration.
QUESTION!
For the sake of blade combos, how do you tell what level of special your teammates have?
oh and cool note: If youre like me and enjoy playing with the camera in closer you set the camera higher and have it offset left or right to do an over the shoulder thing.
Biggest complaint is the garbage map. Why the fuck can you not scroll from the fullscreen minimap? Checking for marked spots on the map is a god damn chore, amplified by it being a game with so much exploration.
QUESTION!
For the sake of blade combos, how do you tell what level of special your teammates have?
You cannot. You know if it's high enough for the next combo only as you cannot tell them to execute a blade special that will not combo. You eventually memorize the elements that work together etc.
TCHELS THOUGHTS through chapter 3's end;
Other than stupid tropey anime scenes that serve no purpose the story's been real good.
Also the heart to hearts are all fully voiced and are multiple party members. They're also real good.
League of Legends: Sorakanmyworld
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Another early game thought, from just before Rex meets Pyra:
Jin's line about killing Rex being a mercy, so he doesn't have to experience what's coming next, that strikes me as a uniquely good villain line. I've heard similar things before in various media but not as much in JRPGs. It shows he has a clear plan and motivation, and it's something that's going to be terrible for humanity, but doesn't give too much away. And that combined with the idea later of leaving no witnesses...I dunno it just feels a little more Western than normal JRPG fare. At that point in other games I guess I'd expect more dumb vagueness like "...pitiful" or just silence.
Also a prediction for a later game plot twist, I know this has got to be an obvious thought but still - one or more of the main cast of heroes and villains are
going to turn out to be a blade with no driver. Possibly Rex, it would explain his ability to have learned arts without a blade, explains no parents, and he has similar eyes as Pyra. Could very well explain why he is able to live on half a blade's life force. Much more likely for Jin I think, though. I could totally see a situation where he got tired of taking orders from his driver and betrayed him somehow, maybe keeps him alive in suspended animation, allowing Jin to roam free and invincible(?).
Oh also I assume blades are made from the souls of real people who died or gave up their life voluntarily to become blades or something. Somebody's going to have their dead brother or sister as a blade.
Plot predictions, up to the end of Ch.2:
I bet ya the "villains"... aren't. Or there's a very good reason why they want Pyra. Because... uh Morag was her name? Basically said "She can end the world and we wanna stop that".
Also make special note that the "God" of this world isn't called God... he/she/it is called "The architect". A decidedly sciency name for their deity. Yup, Xeno game be Xeno gaming.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Do we have any idea if it's better to have blades all of the same type on a character or maybe one of each? Got a rare tank blade on Rex and wondering if it's a waste or not.
Biggest complaint is the garbage map. Why the fuck can you not scroll from the fullscreen minimap? Checking for marked spots on the map is a god damn chore, amplified by it being a game with so much exploration.
QUESTION!
For the sake of blade combos, how do you tell what level of special your teammates have?
oh and cool note: If youre like me and enjoy playing with the camera in closer you set the camera higher and have it offset left or right to do an over the shoulder thing.
If they're building up for a combo you can tell where they're at by the spinning white things around their picture. This has come in handy pretty often so I can know when to trigger a combo and reset the bar so their 3rd bar has time to build.
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Biggest complaint is the garbage map. Why the fuck can you not scroll from the fullscreen minimap? Checking for marked spots on the map is a god damn chore, amplified by it being a game with so much exploration.
QUESTION!
For the sake of blade combos, how do you tell what level of special your teammates have?
oh and cool note: If youre like me and enjoy playing with the camera in closer you set the camera higher and have it offset left or right to do an over the shoulder thing.
If they're building up for a combo you can tell where they're at by the spinning white things around their picture. This has come in handy pretty often so I can know when to trigger a combo and reset the bar so their 3rd bar has time to build.
Perfect! I knew it had to be somewhere otherwise getting a full driver combo would just be a guessing game.
The map could definitely stand to be improved. At least let me zoom in and out on the overlay map or SOMEthing. I actually had to look at a guide on the...
(not really a spoiler but being safe)
"go to boatyard"
...step after wandering around for like an hour trying to find where to go. Between the map and the markers on the compass working really oddly, it was not the easiest of times.
Also, please PLEASE patch the option to skip the ENTIRE "bonding to core" cutscene. I've got like 50 common cores I haven't bothered with because I don't want to sit through the animations =p.
Other than those gripes, I'm absolutely in love with the game.
I'm still not sure how to make my party members swap blades, so not sure if it's even worth it to put extra blades on someone like Nia for example. Just open everything on Rex I guess?
I'm still not sure how to make my party members swap blades, so not sure if it's even worth it to put extra blades on someone like Nia for example. Just open everything on Rex I guess?
I'm not sure either, but I'm assuming it's automatic. I put an extra one on a character and it's been gaining WP so it must be getting used at some point.
If it IS automatic, I hope it's smart about when it swaps.
I forget where but I read somewhere that to swap blades between characters requires an extremely rare/expensive item so people should use cores on characters who need more blades.
Posts
And now I got a common Blade from my very first rare core crystal. That's karma I guess.
Some impressions/annoyances/snarky comments, because why say something nice about something you love when you can complain instead?
- First scene, and our boytagonist (I saw someone use that word here earlier. I love it and I'm adopting it.) takes a big bite of nothing and chews on it with an open mouth. Kind of incongruous with the rest of the graphics quality.
- The underdressed/overly sexualised/male gaze thing is real. Ugh. Yeah.
- I keep messing up the menu buttons ( -/+/x). I swear they were laid out differently in XC1 and XCX. Why isn't the character menu under X, the map/quick travel under Minus and the options under Plus? Why, Monolithsoft, why!?
- Also, would it hurt to open up the skip travel map on the current map, instead of needing to hunt down several menus just to get a good look at where you're are?
Some chapter 2 stuff, pretty vague.
- Nia's hair clips very noticeably through her clothes in an early chapter 2 scene. I thought part of the justification for only one costume per character was that they could avoid stuff like that. Eh, it's fine, I'm used to hair clippng through everything. It's what hair does in video games. And, uhh... are her ears backwards? How does that make sense? I also noticed all of her people have a full head of hair. Maybe the designers didn't want to deal with the 2 or 4 ears question.
- They're very sparse with eye movement animation sometimes. Especially noticeable with a minor chapter 2 character who lacks the big 'anime eyes', and has none, but takes center stage in some scenes.
- Pyra sticks out like a sore thumb, so let's cover her up. Rex, in bright blue salvager dress and a talking dragon thing in his helmet won't turn any heads, so he's fine.
- Pyra, you're supposed to be incognito. Stop playing with fire.
- Yes, Quick Travel also works in the middle of a prison break. "We need to get through this door so we can escape this location, but first some shopping back in town. Maybe a sidequest or two."
- Speaking of said door: There's no way to get to the controls up on that railing without backtracking a couple of corridors. Despite that harpoon gun our boytagonist uses all the friggin' time. Last but not least to get to this very location to begin with. Pretty minor quibble, sure, but I got stuck there for a little bit, seeing no obvious path. That other door didn't look very doorlike when I didn't have the key yet.
Oh god, yes. I'm not likely to forget, no.
Oh, and I grabbed the Japanese voicepack, just to see how it compares. The Event Viewer is pretty great. There's less random mouth flapping with the Japanese track, that's for sure. Think I'll stick to English during play, though. I do like me some British.
While rewatching some stuff: (Very early chapter 1, but possible endgame speculation.)
But I, uh, guess parabolic antennas have terrestrial uses too. (Alrestrial?) Meh.
And for being a compass, it SURE seems to be missing any heading markers.
Does anyone know much about the system for getting deeds to shops? Do you have to buy 1 of every item, or do you have to buy the complete stock?
Also, is there any way to tell if it's ready for deed-ing? And if it isn't, when it finally is, do the items you previously purchased count toward it?
It's "alright" just nothing to write home about. There's some small oversights, like how when you open it it opens to just the general screen and you have to go to the map you're on/want. It's just a little unwieldy but I wouldn't call it awful either.
The deed system works like this: Buy at least one of each item a shop can sell (I think this only applies to the commodity shops? Not 100%, but like blacksmith may not count) and then you can purchase the deed for a special bonus. No, you don't have to buy items all at once. However, there's no really any way to tell (I don't think?) if you've previously purchased an item and used it. The catch here is that shops might start selling more stuff at different development levels, in this case the deed obviously won't be available until you actually can purchase everything. So if you buy everything and don't see the deed there's probably more to buy later.
It's uhh, not exactly intuitive.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
There was just some discussion in the Switch thread about how Nintendo isn't really as family friendly as people like to think they are (the example was the graphic murders/swearing in L.A. Noire, that they'd allow that on their system).
They've had swearing in first party games before, Advance Wars Days of Ruin and Fire Emblem Awakening come to mind.
His design stopped bothering me really quick and it has a story reason for it.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
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- It's funny, I've read a lot about how you gotta pay so much attention to the tutorials because they only show up once and that's it...I think I missed one altogether. I was fighting the first boss and it was like "hey let me tell you how to use blade combos or whatever! If you time your ability usage right you earn more progress toward being able to use a combo, and you can power them up to level 3!" So I thought alright, instead of using it right away I'll practice this timing and get it up to 3. I did, and I used it, and the game was like "great! Also you can do this other kind of combo with elements and stuff, you have to chain them together, here I'll grant you a free use of a combo so you can try it out!" ...And then the boss was dead instantly as soon as the message went away. I dealt too much damage for the tutorial to finish. So I guess I'll figure that stuff out on my own.
- Without being real spoilery, it's not long before the game does the thing where you're stranded somewhere unknown...but you can fast travel right out of it and back again. If I don't know where this place is, how can I fast travel back to it? If I don't have a means of transportation, how can I even leave there in the first place? More details, that make it even more ridiculous:
- Also the reason I fast traveled above is because I never can remember the dang menu button in this game and keep bringing up fast travel by mistake. I can't believe they thought we would need fast travel on a face button and we have to reach for the menu that we're using much more often.
- Something real screwy is going on, I think I got cheated out of some WP. Early on I spent WP to upgrade Anchor Shot to level 2...now it's back at level 1 again?! Also earlier I think the costs to upgrade Rex's abilities were like 250/300/350, now they are 480/360/440. What the heck?
I think that's because Rex is using a generic sword at the beginning before switching to the Aegis Sword when he meets Pyra. Even though they share the same types of arts, they technically count as different weapons so WP don't carry over.
Regarding the last one, I also put points in anchor shot before unlocking the first blade. Once I reached that story beat, I got a pop up telling me that the arts menu had been opened up for me, even though it had been before (which is how I spent the points in the first place). I think the original intention was to lock you out of that menu until that point in the story, but they just...forgot? And then once you had the blade, it overwrote the points you had spent on your initial prologue weapon since arts are unique to each blade. I found that a little obnoxious.
Wait so this is like some KotOR business where it's better to not invest points at the start until the big unlock? That's amazing.
Some more quibbles:
There are some informants that will basically sell you the tutorial text. That's nice, but currently paying for that would empty my coffers. I'm not too enthused about paying through the nose for two lines stating the obvious. This is a (J)RPG, though, so I'm sure it'll be chump change soon enough.
What's with this Thought Cloud business, and their boosters when awakening cores? They show up in the affinity web for blades, too, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how they relate. That first free extra blade upped one of Rex's stats when unlocking an ability on the affinity chart, but I don't see how what he has and what Pyra has differs. Maybe they'll explain later, but it's pretty vexing right now.
Speaking of unlocking that affinity web thing, I seem to remember one of Pyra's level 2's wanted her to be part of a Driver Combo.
Driver Combos was the Break/Topple thing, right? Stuff that chains based on Arts (X/Y/B)? And Blade Combos are the Specials (A)?
None of Pyra's Arts are part of the Break/Topple chain, so how are you supposed to unlock that? Perhaps more importantly, how did I unlock that? I am confuse.
Jap voices rewatch update: Rex-Rex is Riki?
No, WP is also independent to the weapon type. Your first weapon WP don't matter at all, spend them or don't, when you get the actual weapon type you don't keep the unspent points.
Break/topple isn't really "unlocked", other characters with arts that inflict them can do them whenever, but there's more indepth tutorials on it later. Minor spoiler regarding arts and topple, though not strictly a story spoiler or anything:
If this is indicative of the rest of the game, XC2 will go down as one of my favorite games ever.
Is a Driver Combo different from the Break/Topple thing, then? Or did I confuse the game/myself by performing Blade Combos while Break was active, and that counted or something?
Ehhhh, I could just not worry about it, but I'd like to get my system concepts/names correct.
EDIT: speaking of getting my terminology correct.
EDIT 2: No, seriously. Get it right, Ark. The thingamabobs on the Drivers' Affinity Chart are Skills, on Blades, they're called Affinity Rewards.
I literally JUST unlocked a new stage after I read this.
At least the first three are story.
Anyone know how you get more blades for that character?
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I kept hearing that you never do. That's what Tiger! Tiger! is for.
I agree, it has a really awesome intro. It was drawn out JUST enough to give us a glimpse of him as a person before the adventure without getting boring, and didn't dump us in too quickly.
Compared to other JRPGs, for example FFX didn't give us enough time with Tidus before he ended up fish out of water, there was weird mysterious stuff happening in the first few minutes, one or two hallways to walk down, no sense of the city or life he knew at all. Oddly enough that game also opened with salvagers at sea...
But chain attacks don't work well if someone only has one blade... unless there's more to it.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Season pass Y/N?
If it's nearby. Sometimes it is quite far. I'm like 20hrs in and I can say definitively that the map could use work.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Also a prediction for a later game plot twist, I know this has got to be an obvious thought but still - one or more of the main cast of heroes and villains are
Oh also I assume blades are made from the souls of real people who died or gave up their life voluntarily to become blades or something. Somebody's going to have their dead brother or sister as a blade.
Biggest complaint is the garbage map. Why the fuck can you not scroll from the fullscreen minimap? Checking for marked spots on the map is a god damn chore, amplified by it being a game with so much exploration.
QUESTION!
For the sake of blade combos, how do you tell what level of special your teammates have?
oh and cool note: If youre like me and enjoy playing with the camera in closer you set the camera higher and have it offset left or right to do an over the shoulder thing.
You cannot. You know if it's high enough for the next combo only as you cannot tell them to execute a blade special that will not combo. You eventually memorize the elements that work together etc.
TCHELS THOUGHTS through chapter 3's end;
Other than stupid tropey anime scenes that serve no purpose the story's been real good.
Also the heart to hearts are all fully voiced and are multiple party members. They're also real good.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Plot predictions, up to the end of Ch.2:
Also make special note that the "God" of this world isn't called God... he/she/it is called "The architect". A decidedly sciency name for their deity. Yup, Xeno game be Xeno gaming.
Tora's name amuses me for obvious reasons.
And... I love some of these random humor interjections.
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Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
If they're building up for a combo you can tell where they're at by the spinning white things around their picture. This has come in handy pretty often so I can know when to trigger a combo and reset the bar so their 3rd bar has time to build.
Perfect! I knew it had to be somewhere otherwise getting a full driver combo would just be a guessing game.
Thank you!
(not really a spoiler but being safe)
Also, please PLEASE patch the option to skip the ENTIRE "bonding to core" cutscene. I've got like 50 common cores I haven't bothered with because I don't want to sit through the animations =p.
Other than those gripes, I'm absolutely in love with the game.
I'm not sure either, but I'm assuming it's automatic. I put an extra one on a character and it's been gaining WP so it must be getting used at some point.
If it IS automatic, I hope it's smart about when it swaps.