Someone said the combat was a little less technically complex than XBC 2, but one thing I haven't seen, is about how many times per minute are you hitting abilities vs auto attacking? It looks like it is indeed MMO -like in this regard, maybe to the tune of 1 every 2 seconds, if not early on then by the mid game?
I'm only around 8 - 10 hours in and slight changes come to the combat every so often that may change how I play, but so far I only auto attack to build up my 'talent' art, and I tend to only care about that when fighting a very specific type of enemy. Otherwise, I am positioning myself so I can use my other abilities pretty much any time they are charged up, which is pretty frequent.
I'm sure someone more experienced can expand on that.
It depends on the character and the build you use. Characters like Shulk and Reyn are using their abilities a lot, especially after you get enough arts to fill the bar of 8. Some other characters have skills with longer cooldowns or unorthodox uses that you're not using quite as often. But most characters are using their arts with pretty good frequency. Some characters actually can focus on auto-attacks as a major game plan.
As for Talent Arts; those become more important as the game goes on, as characters are introduced who use it as a major part of their game plan, rather than just having it as an extra-big attack, like Prologue Shulk or Fiora. Well, OK, Dunban also does that. Reyn has a taste of that, for instance. Using Mad Taunt is an important part of him being able to hold aggro from enemies. Though he has Bone Upper and War Swing as a way to charge without relying too much on autoattacking first.
Not much of a spoiler but the name of an early-ish boss fight mentioned so putting it in tags.
Whoever sound mixed the in-combat voice lines for Xord in the ether mines needs to be beaten with a sock full of batteries.
I don't think I've ever had anything so unpleasant assault my ears. I don't remember it from the original game, but in the remaster, the volume feels like it's twice what it should be for the rest of the game, and the distortion and voice in general are so unpleasant that it just made the entire fight a misery =p.
I feel like the original game was the same, because
Xord was always a super annoying asshole. The colony 6 part of the game is prooobably my least favorite part, and I'm working through it right now. The party composition isn't the most fun one, and the three things that stand out the most from the original are
1) Xord yelling a lot with his very loud and thick accent for like 5 hours.
2) JuJu being the worst and getting captured over and over again
3) Sharla trying really hard to convince herself that Reyn is totally Gadolt, with Reyn realizing this but ultimately just giving in because hey substitute Gadolt is an easy in with his lady.
Agreed on all points.
I didn't find Xor annoying before other than just his attitude, but he was such an audible assault to my ears this time. I'll be curious if it jumps out at you when you get there this time.
Also, the first time I played the game, I didn't get much farther than I am now and I never changed from my default party. I hadn't planned to this time either but maybe I will switch it up after seeing you mentioned the composition isn't the most fun!
I think I just gave in at the time. "Gotta have Shulk, need a healer, and I already have a tank so I'll just stick it out."
Just FYI. You really don't need a dedicated healer in most cases.
Not much of a spoiler but the name of an early-ish boss fight mentioned so putting it in tags.
Whoever sound mixed the in-combat voice lines for Xord in the ether mines needs to be beaten with a sock full of batteries.
I don't think I've ever had anything so unpleasant assault my ears. I don't remember it from the original game, but in the remaster, the volume feels like it's twice what it should be for the rest of the game, and the distortion and voice in general are so unpleasant that it just made the entire fight a misery =p.
I feel like the original game was the same, because
Xord was always a super annoying asshole. The colony 6 part of the game is prooobably my least favorite part, and I'm working through it right now. The party composition isn't the most fun one, and the three things that stand out the most from the original are
1) Xord yelling a lot with his very loud and thick accent for like 5 hours.
2) JuJu being the worst and getting captured over and over again
3) Sharla trying really hard to convince herself that Reyn is totally Gadolt, with Reyn realizing this but ultimately just giving in because hey substitute Gadolt is an easy in with his lady.
Agreed on all points.
I didn't find Xor annoying before other than just his attitude, but he was such an audible assault to my ears this time. I'll be curious if it jumps out at you when you get there this time.
Also, the first time I played the game, I didn't get much farther than I am now and I never changed from my default party. I hadn't planned to this time either but maybe I will switch it up after seeing you mentioned the composition isn't the most fun!
I think I just gave in at the time. "Gotta have Shulk, need a healer, and I already have a tank so I'll just stick it out."
I was very similar to you with my party composition until end game of the original. Playing through again, yeah I can see that Sharla probably isn't the best party member now. She's a healer, wooh, but most of the cooldowns are ridiculous. Like 60+ seconds for the heavy heal, group heal, and shield until you have a lot of experience invested in those skills. Definitely experiment with more party combinations as you go on!
And on the Xord topic:
I've fought him once, but just the introductory fight so far. Does it get worse once you're fighting him in the mines? The first experience is about what I remembered from before, but I just walked into the mines last night so I'll be fighting him 1000 more times soon!
Not much of a spoiler but the name of an early-ish boss fight mentioned so putting it in tags.
Whoever sound mixed the in-combat voice lines for Xord in the ether mines needs to be beaten with a sock full of batteries.
I don't think I've ever had anything so unpleasant assault my ears. I don't remember it from the original game, but in the remaster, the volume feels like it's twice what it should be for the rest of the game, and the distortion and voice in general are so unpleasant that it just made the entire fight a misery =p.
I feel like the original game was the same, because
Xord was always a super annoying asshole. The colony 6 part of the game is prooobably my least favorite part, and I'm working through it right now. The party composition isn't the most fun one, and the three things that stand out the most from the original are
1) Xord yelling a lot with his very loud and thick accent for like 5 hours.
2) JuJu being the worst and getting captured over and over again
3) Sharla trying really hard to convince herself that Reyn is totally Gadolt, with Reyn realizing this but ultimately just giving in because hey substitute Gadolt is an easy in with his lady.
Agreed on all points.
I didn't find Xor annoying before other than just his attitude, but he was such an audible assault to my ears this time. I'll be curious if it jumps out at you when you get there this time.
Also, the first time I played the game, I didn't get much farther than I am now and I never changed from my default party. I hadn't planned to this time either but maybe I will switch it up after seeing you mentioned the composition isn't the most fun!
I think I just gave in at the time. "Gotta have Shulk, need a healer, and I already have a tank so I'll just stick it out."
I was very similar to you with my party composition until end game of the original. Playing through again, yeah I can see that Sharla probably isn't the best party member now. She's a healer, wooh, but most of the cooldowns are ridiculous. Like 60+ seconds for the heavy heal, group heal, and shield until you have a lot of experience invested in those skills. Definitely experiment with more party combinations as you go on!
And on the Xord topic:
I've fought him once, but just the introductory fight so far. Does it get worse once you're fighting him in the mines? The first experience is about what I remembered from before, but I just walked into the mines last night so I'll be fighting him 1000 more times soon!
I HAD wondered why it seemed to take so long to drop some of those heals, didn't realize the timers were soooo long. I'll definitely mess with other combos this time.
Xord:
It's the final fight with him that was the issue. If it happened in other fights, it didn't jump out at me. But between the distortion, volume, and frequency, it was extremely grating on my nerves at the time =p.
Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
edited June 2020
I started this up, determined to actually beat this version (I say that with every port they release but Imma really try this time). So far my muscle memory is betraying me since they moved all the menus around (no quick button for time change is annoying).
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
I started this up, determined to actually beat this version (I say that with every port they release but Imma really try this time). So far my muscle memory is betraying me since they moved all the menus around (no quick button for time change is annoying).
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
I don't know if there exists a way to 100% cleanly present all of the sidequest / 100% completion stuff, as it is an absurd amount of things that makes my eyes glaze over when I start to try to understand it.
But, there is this pretty great minimal spoiler google doc for tracking 100% that is probably the closest thing you'll get? People seem to like it at least.
I actually need to look up a youtube combat tutorial or some such. I don't quite 100% grasp the time mechanic and color linking vs using break effects and such in chain attacks.
I started this up, determined to actually beat this version (I say that with every port they release but Imma really try this time). So far my muscle memory is betraying me since they moved all the menus around (no quick button for time change is annoying).
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
I don't know if there exists a way to 100% cleanly present all of the sidequest / 100% completion stuff, as it is an absurd amount of things that makes my eyes glaze over when I start to try to understand it.
But, there is this pretty great minimal spoiler google doc for tracking 100% that is probably the closest thing you'll get? People seem to like it at least.
Oh this is pretty nice. I think I will definitely use this. Still wouldn't mind something with like, actual suggestions on the mutually exclusive stuff (I'm still debating on Romantic Notions of a Boy/Girl... both endings are pretty trash...)
Side note, jesus, would it kill them to sort the affinity chart in alphabetical order? I was looking for someone and I dunno wtf order they put them in but it's all scrambled. I found a pretty cool guide on GameFAQs for how to easily get all the affinity links (which is just like, talk to X person after Y person/quest, or whatever). I think the actual list of characters is a new improvement IIRC, so I don't wanna slam them too hard, but I mean, every other menu has sort options.... (also I swear it used to be if you hovered over the icon on the spider-web flow chart it'd tell you the person's name, but it doesn't.. you have to click them )
I actually need to look up a youtube combat tutorial or some such. I don't quite 100% grasp the time mechanic and color linking vs using break effects and such in chain attacks.
Are you talking about the seeing the future thing? Maybe I can simplify some things:
For chain attacks - using attacks of the same color will add a multiplier to the strength of the attack (ex: using all red attacks will do like 2x damage, 3x damage, etc). "White" attacks (i.e. basically anything in the middle button) are wildcards and will increase the multiplier while also letting you change the color with the next person (ex: red attack, then Monato Buster, then pink attack will keep the multiplier going, while also changing it to needing to chain pink attacks). However, chain attacks are also a good way to inflict break (any pink skill), then topple (any green skill) and optionally daze (any yellow skill). This lets you do more damage to the enemy and some are actually immune to break/topple EXCEPT for during chain attacks.
For the future sight thing - the main thing you need to know is whether the damage coming is physical or arts ("magic") damage. If it's physical, you need some way to mitigate physical attacks (i.e. Monato barrier), otherwise, you wanna block arts attacks. You can also interrupt future sights with things like healing the person about to die so they don't fall below 0 hp from the attack, manually warning them which lets you use one of their abilities (ex: if they have a defensive aura or something, or maybe you can break+topple the enemy to interrupt the incoming attack), etc.
Edit 2: Oh, and skill colors off the top of my head:
Red - physical damage (sometimes bleed)
Pink - inflicts Break status
Green - inflicts Topple status on enemies that have Break currently
Yellow - inflicts Daze status on toppled enemies
Purple - does arts damage (sometimes can be for status stuff like sleep)
Orange - an aura skill (basically like a buff)
Blue - healing skill of some kind (or otherwise "support" like aggro reduction, etc)
I started this up, determined to actually beat this version (I say that with every port they release but Imma really try this time). So far my muscle memory is betraying me since they moved all the menus around (no quick button for time change is annoying).
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
I don't know if there exists a way to 100% cleanly present all of the sidequest / 100% completion stuff, as it is an absurd amount of things that makes my eyes glaze over when I start to try to understand it.
But, there is this pretty great minimal spoiler google doc for tracking 100% that is probably the closest thing you'll get? People seem to like it at least.
Oh this is pretty nice. I think I will definitely use this. Still wouldn't mind something with like, actual suggestions on the mutually exclusive stuff (I'm still debating on Romantic Notions of a Boy/Girl... both endings are pretty trash...)
Side note, jesus, would it kill them to sort the affinity chart in alphabetical order? I was looking for someone and I dunno wtf order they put them in but it's all scrambled. I found a pretty cool guide on GameFAQs for how to easily get all the affinity links (which is just like, talk to X person after Y person/quest, or whatever). I think the actual list of characters is a new improvement IIRC, so I don't wanna slam them too hard, but I mean, every other menu has sort options.... (also I swear it used to be if you hovered over the icon on the spider-web flow chart it'd tell you the person's name, but it doesn't.. you have to click them )
I actually need to look up a youtube combat tutorial or some such. I don't quite 100% grasp the time mechanic and color linking vs using break effects and such in chain attacks.
Are you talking about the seeing the future thing? Maybe I can simplify some things:
For chain attacks - using attacks of the same color will add a multiplier to the strength of the attack (ex: using all red attacks will do like 2x damage, 3x damage, etc). "White" attacks (i.e. basically anything in the middle button) are wildcards and will increase the multiplier while also letting you change the color with the next person (ex: red attack, then Monato Buster, then pink attack will keep the multiplier going, while also changing it to needing to chain pink attacks). However, chain attacks are also a good way to inflict break (any pink skill), then topple (any green skill) and optionally daze (any yellow skill). This lets you do more damage to the enemy and some are actually immune to break/topple EXCEPT for during chain attacks.
For the future sight thing - the main thing you need to know is whether the damage coming is physical or arts ("magic") damage. If it's physical, you need some way to mitigate physical attacks (i.e. Monato barrier), otherwise, you wanna block arts attacks. You can also interrupt future sights with things like healing the person about to die so they don't fall below 0 hp from the attack, manually warning them which lets you use one of their abilities (ex: if they have a defensive aura or something, or maybe you can break+topple the enemy to interrupt the incoming attack), etc.
That actually does help. I definitely did not know about the wildcard white attacks. That is very helpful because I found myself in situations where I couldn't keep a multiplier going.
I imagine ideally you want to chain AND do break attacks, but a lot of times it's a decision to make? Or at least, that's what it feels like currently, maybe it's more valid to do it all once you open more abilities/characters?
I started this up, determined to actually beat this version (I say that with every port they release but Imma really try this time). So far my muscle memory is betraying me since they moved all the menus around (no quick button for time change is annoying).
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
I don't know if there exists a way to 100% cleanly present all of the sidequest / 100% completion stuff, as it is an absurd amount of things that makes my eyes glaze over when I start to try to understand it.
But, there is this pretty great minimal spoiler google doc for tracking 100% that is probably the closest thing you'll get? People seem to like it at least.
Oh this is pretty nice. I think I will definitely use this. Still wouldn't mind something with like, actual suggestions on the mutually exclusive stuff (I'm still debating on Romantic Notions of a Boy/Girl... both endings are pretty trash...)
Side note, jesus, would it kill them to sort the affinity chart in alphabetical order? I was looking for someone and I dunno wtf order they put them in but it's all scrambled. I found a pretty cool guide on GameFAQs for how to easily get all the affinity links (which is just like, talk to X person after Y person/quest, or whatever). I think the actual list of characters is a new improvement IIRC, so I don't wanna slam them too hard, but I mean, every other menu has sort options.... (also I swear it used to be if you hovered over the icon on the spider-web flow chart it'd tell you the person's name, but it doesn't.. you have to click them )
I actually need to look up a youtube combat tutorial or some such. I don't quite 100% grasp the time mechanic and color linking vs using break effects and such in chain attacks.
Are you talking about the seeing the future thing? Maybe I can simplify some things:
For chain attacks - using attacks of the same color will add a multiplier to the strength of the attack (ex: using all red attacks will do like 2x damage, 3x damage, etc). "White" attacks (i.e. basically anything in the middle button) are wildcards and will increase the multiplier while also letting you change the color with the next person (ex: red attack, then Monato Buster, then pink attack will keep the multiplier going, while also changing it to needing to chain pink attacks). However, chain attacks are also a good way to inflict break (any pink skill), then topple (any green skill) and optionally daze (any yellow skill). This lets you do more damage to the enemy and some are actually immune to break/topple EXCEPT for during chain attacks.
For the future sight thing - the main thing you need to know is whether the damage coming is physical or arts ("magic") damage. If it's physical, you need some way to mitigate physical attacks (i.e. Monato barrier), otherwise, you wanna block arts attacks. You can also interrupt future sights with things like healing the person about to die so they don't fall below 0 hp from the attack, manually warning them which lets you use one of their abilities (ex: if they have a defensive aura or something, or maybe you can break+topple the enemy to interrupt the incoming attack), etc.
That actually does help. I definitely did not know about the wildcard white attacks. That is very helpful because I found myself in situations where I couldn't keep a multiplier going.
I imagine ideally you want to chain AND do break attacks, but a lot of times it's a decision to make? Or at least, that's what it feels like currently, maybe it's more valid to do it all once you open more abilities/characters?
Yeah, most of the time it's pretty much an either/or situation, unless you can chain white attacks in between them (i.e. pink - white - green), but then there's no guarantee you'll get more followups after that (it's based on character affinity with each other) and the red/purple/white skills tend to be the ones that actually do a ton of damage. There will be some enemies that are flat out immune to break/topple too (or some that have a nasty "spike" effect where using say, topple on them will do a huge amount of damage back to your party) so those ones it's an easy choice.
Sharla has a bunch of heals, but she does almost no damage.
She's a real liability when you're doing skill chains, especially if you're trying to get a red combo going.
I'm running around with Shulk/Dunban/Riki atm and it's working pretty well.
This is my issue with Sharla, is it is very difficult to near impossible to get a good chain going with her. I tend to keep her around for the healing plus I like her character.
But once you get another party member, keeping Sharla instead of Riki or Melia is like making the game harder for yourself on purpose.
In other news, just killed the tentacle Mechon. God I missed this game and I am loving the updated character models. They no longer look like they've been hit with a truck.
I feel like you could maybe cheat your way to a high chain count with Sharla if you're pairing her with Melia? Melia's Talent Art is a wild-card that can be used at least 3 times in a Chain Attack if she's got 3 elements summoned, which can let you make use of Sharla's weird art colors a bit better; Melia can even use a Blue herself to summon another element and get another use out of her Talent Art. Alternatively, a team with Shulk, Reyn/Dunban, and Sharla can do a combo to topple and Daze an enemy, then Shulk/Dunban can use their talent art to wild-card the chain, and have Sharla drop a Head Shot on the Dazed enemy to maybe kill it outright, and if not, at least get the chain moved over to Red.
But that's a lot of planning to make her contribute as much as the other party members can do with ease. One of these days, I'm going to have to look up a video about how to use Sharla properly, because there's got to be a good method.
My favorite team for chains, I think, would probably be Melia, Riki, and Dunban. Thing is, I dunno if it's better to leave an enemy with a bunch of chain attack-boosted DOT effects on them, or end a chain with Say Sorry for BONKERS damage, at the cost of removing all those effects.
Sharla has a bunch of heals, but she does almost no damage.
She's a real liability when you're doing skill chains, especially if you're trying to get a red combo going.
I'm running around with Shulk/Dunban/Riki atm and it's working pretty well.
This is my issue with Sharla, is it is very difficult to near impossible to get a good chain going with her. I tend to keep her around for the healing plus I like her character.
But once you get another party member, keeping Sharla instead of Riki or Melia is like making the game harder for yourself on purpose.
In other news, just killed the tentacle Mechon. God I missed this game and I am loving the updated character models. They no longer look like they've been hit with a truck.
All Sharla really needed was like... one more red art. Just one.
Give her an armour-piercer round that ignores the target's physical defense. Good Red art, fits her sniper motif, isn't situational as hell, good combo ender for a chain attack. Bam.
Sharla has a bunch of heals, but she does almost no damage.
She's a real liability when you're doing skill chains, especially if you're trying to get a red combo going.
I'm running around with Shulk/Dunban/Riki atm and it's working pretty well.
This is my issue with Sharla, is it is very difficult to near impossible to get a good chain going with her. I tend to keep her around for the healing plus I like her character.
But once you get another party member, keeping Sharla instead of Riki or Melia is like making the game harder for yourself on purpose.
In other news, just killed the tentacle Mechon. God I missed this game and I am loving the updated character models. They no longer look like they've been hit with a truck.
All Sharla really needed was like... one more red art. Just one.
Confession: I never beat Xenoblade. I got to the last boss without knowing where to place my saves and I was fucked. Looking back, I was simply not good at grasping the combat.
In the event I purchase this, how do you stay afloat in sustained boss fights without Sharla? What are the not-horrible team compositions?
Sharla has a bunch of heals, but she does almost no damage.
She's a real liability when you're doing skill chains, especially if you're trying to get a red combo going.
I'm running around with Shulk/Dunban/Riki atm and it's working pretty well.
This is my issue with Sharla, is it is very difficult to near impossible to get a good chain going with her. I tend to keep her around for the healing plus I like her character.
But once you get another party member, keeping Sharla instead of Riki or Melia is like making the game harder for yourself on purpose.
In other news, just killed the tentacle Mechon. God I missed this game and I am loving the updated character models. They no longer look like they've been hit with a truck.
All Sharla really needed was like... one more red art. Just one.
Confession: I never beat Xenoblade. I got to the last boss without knowing where to place my saves and I was fucked. Looking back, I was simply not good at this game.
In the event I purchase this, how do you stay afloat in sustained boss fights without Sharla?
Some character skills will heal characters under certain conditions; Shulk has one that heals anyone you Encourage with a shout in battle, and one that heals the party after a Chain Attack. Dunban learns a skill that heals when you deal a critical hit, and Seven can share that and will learn several skills that boost her crit chance. There's some others in that vein.
Several characters other than Sharla can use healing skills. Melia can heal with the passive aura of her Aqua summon, or sacrifice some of her own HP to heal someone with Healing Gift. Shulk of course has his light heal. Riki's probably the best healer after Sharla; You Can Do It heals everyone in a line from Riki, including Riki, and heals more if they have debuffs.
there's also preventative measures; Shulk's Monado Arts can help with blocking incoming damage, and Melia can boost defensive stats with Earth, Ice, or Wind.
Shulk with all of his optional stuff is a monster of defensive abilities, although you have to be strong enough to beat the final boss to get the last part of that (the most broken part). But Sharla is just pigeonholed really hard into buff/heal as her role and it's unfortunate.
Shulk with all of his optional stuff is a monster of defensive abilities, although you have to be strong enough to beat the final boss to get the last part of that (the most broken part). But Sharla is just pigeonholed really hard into buff/heal as her role and it's unfortunate.
It's honestly a real shame they didn't take a little effort with this Definitive Edition to fix some of this kind of stuff. Making Sharla just slightly less trash, fixing Melia's AI to not suck horribly, maybe fixing the gem bug? (what was it, Min-Attack was borked or something?)
Edit: Yeah, the bug was that max attack was capped at min attack+99, so weapons (or gem usage) that brought the difference to higher than 99 were losing attack that the game said was there (ex: a weapon with an attack range of say, 100-300 was actually doing 100-199). Some brief googling is suggesting maaaaybe they fixed it? But no one seems to know for sure.
Naked Dunban always felt like something that's funny and all, but isn't really useful later on.
Sure he can dodge a ton, but if he does get hit or the enemy uses an art attack he's fucked. I feel it's a lot better to get some of the weight reduction skills and just throw a bunch of agility gems into his gear. That way he actually does have some defense for when he can't dodge something.
The main thing about damage mitigation in XC1 is that your hit and evade rate scale powerfully with level disparity and team morale. If you are a few levels higher than the enemy and keep hitting those cheer prompts, your party will pretty effectively dodge-tank... at least enough that "makeshift" heals are sufficient. Also, similar to XC2 (except that in XC2 it was more explicit), long-term encounters are designed around the idea that you'll be using the Chain Attack to step over most of the last 30-50% of the life bar in one go. You don't need a healer when the other, harder half of the fight doesn't happen.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Can you switch back and forth between normal and expert mode repeatedly, or is it a one-time conversion?
At will. If you turn it off it records the banked XP and you gain normally, you can turn it back on to spend or delevel or whatever.
Cool. At first I thought I wouldn't use it at all because I like being overpowered, but then SP and AP was mentioned and now I think that staying at the correct level to get those from monsters before leveling up and moving on will make me even more overpowered.
Spoilers about an NPC I met in the forest, a gameplay mechanic, and a very minor Xenoblade 2 comment.
I am as far as I've ever gotten in Xenoblade 1 and just reached Makna Forest.
1 - Wow, I am always impressed by the scale of stuff in this game and what they managed to pull off on a freakin' Wii. There is a massive body of water below the area you first arrive at, so I took a hop off the ledge for giggles to see how far it let me fall before killing me and then, plop, landed in the water without harm and discovered that whole giant area is just another exploreable region. Crazy
2 - I just met Alvis and I noticed he had a necklace on that looks very much like the pendant that is on the Aegis' chest in Xenoblade 2. Is there a connection there? I only vaguely recall the ending of XB2 and a lot of the connect from XB1 was lost on me since I'd never gotten far in it.
3 - The new 'spike' mechanic that was just introduced, on paper, sounds like something I'm not going to enjoy. I hope I am wrong about that!
Also, thanks a ton for that info on the chain attacks and future vision yesterday, Warlock82. It has been a HUGE help and man, getting into fights and countering some of those abilities repeatedly - and hearing the crashing glass sound effect back to back - is sooooo satisfying.
Spoilers about an NPC I met in the forest, a gameplay mechanic, and a very minor Xenoblade 2 comment.
I am as far as I've ever gotten in Xenoblade 1 and just reached Makna Forest.
1 - Wow, I am always impressed by the scale of stuff in this game. I jumped off the ledge for fun because I just knew that huge sea WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY below was an instant death but...nope. A whole exploreable area. Crazy.
2 - I just met Alvis and I noticed he had a necklace on that looks very much like the pendant that is on the Aegis' chest in Xenoblade 2. Is there a connection there? I only vaguely recall the ending of XB2 and a lot of the connect from XB1 was lost on me since I'd never gotten far in it.
3 - The new 'spike' mechanic, on paper, sounds like something I'm not going to enjoy. I hope I am wrong about that!
Also, thanks for some of the
About #2:
The necklace is a new addition to the Definitive Edition. In the original the necklace just had a key on it. It's actually a lifepod from Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I believe XC2 was also referencing with that.
AFAIK it's just an easter egg, like the Monado hairpin in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
(also I really need to effin' beat XC2 at some point... I never got very far in it which is a shame)
Spoilers about an NPC I met in the forest, a gameplay mechanic, and a very minor Xenoblade 2 comment.
I am as far as I've ever gotten in Xenoblade 1 and just reached Makna Forest.
1 - Wow, I am always impressed by the scale of stuff in this game and what they managed to pull off on a freakin' Wii. There is a massive body of water below the area you first arrive at, so I took a hop off the ledge for giggles to see how far it let me fall before killing me and then, plop, landed in the water without harm and discovered that whole giant area is just another exploreable region. Crazy
2 - I just met Alvis and I noticed he had a necklace on that looks very much like the pendant that is on the Aegis' chest in Xenoblade 2. Is there a connection there? I only vaguely recall the ending of XB2 and a lot of the connect from XB1 was lost on me since I'd never gotten far in it.
3 - The new 'spike' mechanic that was just introduced, on paper, sounds like something I'm not going to enjoy. I hope I am wrong about that!
Also, thanks a ton for that info on the chain attacks and future vision yesterday, Warlock82. It has been a HUGE help and man, getting into fights and countering some of those abilities repeatedly - and hearing the crashing glass sound effect back to back - is sooooo satisfying.
Spike can be nasty. The worst of it is when it's status ailment Spikes instead of the standard damage Spikes. Some super-ultimate bonus bosses can have Death Spikes.
The standard type can be circumvented by Toppling the target, so that can help. Some enemy varieties have Topple Spikes that damage you if you attack while they're Toppled. So if you're fighting an enemy that the AI seems to refuse to Topple, that may be why.
Warlock - I definitely concur! I love XB2 so much, and Torna, so I highly recommend playing through them.
Enlong:
Topple spike is specifically the part that sounded unfun to me . But it's good to know the NPC AI will try to avoid toppling them if that is the issue. I kept picturing me killing myself by hitting toppled enemies.
Warlock - I definitely concur! I love XB2 so much, and Torna, so I highly recommend playing through them.
Enlong:
Topple spike is specifically the part that sounded unfun to me . But it's good to know the NPC AI will try to avoid toppling them if that is the issue. I kept picturing me killing myself by hitting toppled enemies.
Yeah, I think I got to the first really big open area of the game (there was a town and I got Poppy and stuff?) and then kind of got away from it too long. I'd probably have to start over if I picked it back up again. Doesn't help I bought the damn physical version so I have to get off my butt and replace the cartridge if I wanna play it :P
I will say, to use a bad quote, I wasn't "really feeling it" at the time, but I think I also kinda played it at a time I was a little mopey in general in my life and I really didn't get far enough to give it a proper shot to wow me :P Everyone says it's amazing and I loved the hell out of the other two Xenoblades so I don't see any reason why I shouldn't like it.
Warlock - I definitely concur! I love XB2 so much, and Torna, so I highly recommend playing through them.
Enlong:
Topple spike is specifically the part that sounded unfun to me . But it's good to know the NPC AI will try to avoid toppling them if that is the issue. I kept picturing me killing myself by hitting toppled enemies.
Yeah, I think I got to the first really big open area of the game (there was a town and I got Poppy and stuff?) and then kind of got away from it too long. I'd probably have to start over if I picked it back up again. Doesn't help I bought the damn physical version so I have to get off my butt and replace the cartridge if I wanna play it :P
Yea that's the first real area and town .
I hope you get around to it, it's such a treat of a game. Though I honestly like Torna a bit more.
Spoilers about an NPC I met in the forest, a gameplay mechanic, and a very minor Xenoblade 2 comment.
I am as far as I've ever gotten in Xenoblade 1 and just reached Makna Forest.
1 - Wow, I am always impressed by the scale of stuff in this game. I jumped off the ledge for fun because I just knew that huge sea WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY below was an instant death but...nope. A whole exploreable area. Crazy.
2 - I just met Alvis and I noticed he had a necklace on that looks very much like the pendant that is on the Aegis' chest in Xenoblade 2. Is there a connection there? I only vaguely recall the ending of XB2 and a lot of the connect from XB1 was lost on me since I'd never gotten far in it.
3 - The new 'spike' mechanic, on paper, sounds like something I'm not going to enjoy. I hope I am wrong about that!
Also, thanks for some of the
About #2:
The necklace is a new addition to the Definitive Edition. In the original the necklace just had a key on it. It's actually a lifepod from Xenoblade Chronicles X, which I believe XC2 was also referencing with that.
AFAIK it's just an easter egg, like the Monado hairpin in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
(also I really need to effin' beat XC2 at some point... I never got very far in it which is a shame)
Actually that change is a direct connection to Xenoblade 2. Spoilers from the end of Xenoblade 2 within:
There were three Aegis' made by the Architect. Ontos, Logos (Who was Malos), and Pnuema (Who was Mythra/Pyra). It explained that Ontos triggered a 'space-time transition effect' and disappeared. It was always speculated that Ontos was Alvis, but with the Definitive Edition, the change to his model pretty much solidified it. Instead of the key from before, he now has his core crystal attached to him. This also works with the fact that the Architect is stuck between dimensions, with his evil half taking the form of Zanza in Shulk's dimension. So the third Aegis, Ontos, disappeared into Shulk's dimension and lived among that world as Alvis.
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I'm only around 8 - 10 hours in and slight changes come to the combat every so often that may change how I play, but so far I only auto attack to build up my 'talent' art, and I tend to only care about that when fighting a very specific type of enemy. Otherwise, I am positioning myself so I can use my other abilities pretty much any time they are charged up, which is pretty frequent.
I'm sure someone more experienced can expand on that.
As for Talent Arts; those become more important as the game goes on, as characters are introduced who use it as a major part of their game plan, rather than just having it as an extra-big attack, like Prologue Shulk or Fiora. Well, OK, Dunban also does that. Reyn has a taste of that, for instance. Using Mad Taunt is an important part of him being able to hold aggro from enemies. Though he has Bone Upper and War Swing as a way to charge without relying too much on autoattacking first.
Just FYI. You really don't need a dedicated healer in most cases.
I was very similar to you with my party composition until end game of the original. Playing through again, yeah I can see that Sharla probably isn't the best party member now. She's a healer, wooh, but most of the cooldowns are ridiculous. Like 60+ seconds for the heavy heal, group heal, and shield until you have a lot of experience invested in those skills. Definitely experiment with more party combinations as you go on!
And on the Xord topic:
I HAD wondered why it seemed to take so long to drop some of those heals, didn't realize the timers were soooo long. I'll definitely mess with other combos this time.
Xord:
I really wish they would release an official guide for this game... there is sooooooooooooooooo much nit-noid missable and/or mutually exclusive stuff and it's annoying to have a bunch of rando text guides up on my phone (I wanna 100% as much as possible). Speaking of, does anyone know a good guide for that? Like "Doing this quest path has a better outcome than the other... I specifically remember there's one you can majorly fuck up if you pick up a wrong item ahead of time and it auto-completes the bad path (I just remember it;s in Gaur Plains). Honestly I may just try to re-watch ChuggaConroy's let's play because that one was a FANTASTIC guide to the game. He literally does every quest and shows the alternate paths and everything (even the alternate heart-to-heart branches). It's just a shame it's not something I can easily reference while playing
So far the game is pretty gorgeous... I was worried this remake (for lack of a better word) would change the visuals too much but I'm finding everything actually is looking pretty good. Sort of a "it looks how you remember it looking" except for the fact that I remember this game having the worst low-res textures ever despite it's amazing art direction (so thank christ for this overhaul)
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
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Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I don't know if there exists a way to 100% cleanly present all of the sidequest / 100% completion stuff, as it is an absurd amount of things that makes my eyes glaze over when I start to try to understand it.
But, there is this pretty great minimal spoiler google doc for tracking 100% that is probably the closest thing you'll get? People seem to like it at least.
She's a real liability when you're doing skill chains, especially if you're trying to get a red combo going.
I'm running around with Shulk/Dunban/Riki atm and it's working pretty well.
Oh this is pretty nice. I think I will definitely use this. Still wouldn't mind something with like, actual suggestions on the mutually exclusive stuff (I'm still debating on Romantic Notions of a Boy/Girl... both endings are pretty trash...)
Side note, jesus, would it kill them to sort the affinity chart in alphabetical order? I was looking for someone and I dunno wtf order they put them in but it's all scrambled. I found a pretty cool guide on GameFAQs for how to easily get all the affinity links (which is just like, talk to X person after Y person/quest, or whatever). I think the actual list of characters is a new improvement IIRC, so I don't wanna slam them too hard, but I mean, every other menu has sort options.... (also I swear it used to be if you hovered over the icon on the spider-web flow chart it'd tell you the person's name, but it doesn't.. you have to click them
Edit: Are you talking about the seeing the future thing? Maybe I can simplify some things:
For chain attacks - using attacks of the same color will add a multiplier to the strength of the attack (ex: using all red attacks will do like 2x damage, 3x damage, etc). "White" attacks (i.e. basically anything in the middle button) are wildcards and will increase the multiplier while also letting you change the color with the next person (ex: red attack, then Monato Buster, then pink attack will keep the multiplier going, while also changing it to needing to chain pink attacks). However, chain attacks are also a good way to inflict break (any pink skill), then topple (any green skill) and optionally daze (any yellow skill). This lets you do more damage to the enemy and some are actually immune to break/topple EXCEPT for during chain attacks.
For the future sight thing - the main thing you need to know is whether the damage coming is physical or arts ("magic") damage. If it's physical, you need some way to mitigate physical attacks (i.e. Monato barrier), otherwise, you wanna block arts attacks. You can also interrupt future sights with things like healing the person about to die so they don't fall below 0 hp from the attack, manually warning them which lets you use one of their abilities (ex: if they have a defensive aura or something, or maybe you can break+topple the enemy to interrupt the incoming attack), etc.
Edit 2: Oh, and skill colors off the top of my head:
Red - physical damage (sometimes bleed)
Pink - inflicts Break status
Green - inflicts Topple status on enemies that have Break currently
Yellow - inflicts Daze status on toppled enemies
Purple - does arts damage (sometimes can be for status stuff like sleep)
Orange - an aura skill (basically like a buff)
Blue - healing skill of some kind (or otherwise "support" like aggro reduction, etc)
That actually does help. I definitely did not know about the wildcard white attacks. That is very helpful because I found myself in situations where I couldn't keep a multiplier going.
I imagine ideally you want to chain AND do break attacks, but a lot of times it's a decision to make? Or at least, that's what it feels like currently, maybe it's more valid to do it all once you open more abilities/characters?
Yeah, most of the time it's pretty much an either/or situation, unless you can chain white attacks in between them (i.e. pink - white - green), but then there's no guarantee you'll get more followups after that (it's based on character affinity with each other) and the red/purple/white skills tend to be the ones that actually do a ton of damage. There will be some enemies that are flat out immune to break/topple too (or some that have a nasty "spike" effect where using say, topple on them will do a huge amount of damage back to your party) so those ones it's an easy choice.
Colony 6, Colony 6, Colony 6.
I hate you, but I can't quit you.
This is my issue with Sharla, is it is very difficult to near impossible to get a good chain going with her. I tend to keep her around for the healing plus I like her character.
But once you get another party member, keeping Sharla instead of Riki or Melia is like making the game harder for yourself on purpose.
In other news, just killed the tentacle Mechon. God I missed this game and I am loving the updated character models. They no longer look like they've been hit with a truck.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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But that's a lot of planning to make her contribute as much as the other party members can do with ease. One of these days, I'm going to have to look up a video about how to use Sharla properly, because there's got to be a good method.
My favorite team for chains, I think, would probably be Melia, Riki, and Dunban. Thing is, I dunno if it's better to leave an enemy with a bunch of chain attack-boosted DOT effects on them, or end a chain with Say Sorry for BONKERS damage, at the cost of removing all those effects.
All Sharla really needed was like... one more red art. Just one.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Confession: I never beat Xenoblade. I got to the last boss without knowing where to place my saves and I was fucked. Looking back, I was simply not good at grasping the combat.
In the event I purchase this, how do you stay afloat in sustained boss fights without Sharla? What are the not-horrible team compositions?
Some character skills will heal characters under certain conditions; Shulk has one that heals anyone you Encourage with a shout in battle, and one that heals the party after a Chain Attack. Dunban learns a skill that heals when you deal a critical hit, and Seven can share that and will learn several skills that boost her crit chance. There's some others in that vein.
Several characters other than Sharla can use healing skills. Melia can heal with the passive aura of her Aqua summon, or sacrifice some of her own HP to heal someone with Healing Gift. Shulk of course has his light heal. Riki's probably the best healer after Sharla; You Can Do It heals everyone in a line from Riki, including Riki, and heals more if they have debuffs.
there's also preventative measures; Shulk's Monado Arts can help with blocking incoming damage, and Melia can boost defensive stats with Earth, Ice, or Wind.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
It's honestly a real shame they didn't take a little effort with this Definitive Edition to fix some of this kind of stuff. Making Sharla just slightly less trash, fixing Melia's AI to not suck horribly, maybe fixing the gem bug? (what was it, Min-Attack was borked or something?)
Edit: Yeah, the bug was that max attack was capped at min attack+99, so weapons (or gem usage) that brought the difference to higher than 99 were losing attack that the game said was there (ex: a weapon with an attack range of say, 100-300 was actually doing 100-199). Some brief googling is suggesting maaaaybe they fixed it? But no one seems to know for sure.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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Sure he can dodge a ton, but if he does get hit or the enemy uses an art attack he's fucked. I feel it's a lot better to get some of the weight reduction skills and just throw a bunch of agility gems into his gear. That way he actually does have some defense for when he can't dodge something.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
At will. If you turn it off it records the banked XP and you gain normally, you can turn it back on to spend or delevel or whatever.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Become friends so you can kill giant spiders really fast.
Cool. At first I thought I wouldn't use it at all because I like being overpowered, but then SP and AP was mentioned and now I think that staying at the correct level to get those from monsters before leveling up and moving on will make me even more overpowered.
1 - Wow, I am always impressed by the scale of stuff in this game and what they managed to pull off on a freakin' Wii. There is a massive body of water below the area you first arrive at, so I took a hop off the ledge for giggles to see how far it let me fall before killing me and then, plop, landed in the water without harm and discovered that whole giant area is just another exploreable region. Crazy
2 - I just met Alvis and I noticed he had a necklace on that looks very much like the pendant that is on the Aegis' chest in Xenoblade 2. Is there a connection there? I only vaguely recall the ending of XB2 and a lot of the connect from XB1 was lost on me since I'd never gotten far in it.
3 - The new 'spike' mechanic that was just introduced, on paper, sounds like something I'm not going to enjoy. I hope I am wrong about that!
Also, thanks a ton for that info on the chain attacks and future vision yesterday, Warlock82. It has been a HUGE help and man, getting into fights and countering some of those abilities repeatedly - and hearing the crashing glass sound effect back to back - is sooooo satisfying.
About #2:
AFAIK it's just an easter egg, like the Monado hairpin in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
(also I really need to effin' beat XC2 at some point... I never got very far in it which is a shame)
The standard type can be circumvented by Toppling the target, so that can help. Some enemy varieties have Topple Spikes that damage you if you attack while they're Toppled. So if you're fighting an enemy that the AI seems to refuse to Topple, that may be why.
Enlong:
Yeah, I think I got to the first really big open area of the game (there was a town and I got Poppy and stuff?) and then kind of got away from it too long. I'd probably have to start over if I picked it back up again. Doesn't help I bought the damn physical version so I have to get off my butt and replace the cartridge if I wanna play it :P
I will say, to use a bad quote, I wasn't "really feeling it" at the time, but I think I also kinda played it at a time I was a little mopey in general in my life and I really didn't get far enough to give it a proper shot to wow me :P Everyone says it's amazing and I loved the hell out of the other two Xenoblades so I don't see any reason why I shouldn't like it.
Yea that's the first real area and town
I hope you get around to it, it's such a treat of a game. Though I honestly like Torna a bit more.
Actually that change is a direct connection to Xenoblade 2. Spoilers from the end of Xenoblade 2 within:
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