I just murdered my way through the Bionis Interior on the Speed Shift setup. Love that basically everything it needs is from shops. Chain attacks fill so stupidly fast when you're scoring 2-3 crits per second, which I can then loop Speed Shift>Berserk>Hero Time>Drones>Sword Drive. Maintain everyone's powerful buffs and deal metric tons of damage. Or topple lock with Final Cross>Wild Down>Roly Poly to stack up several seconds worth... and then talent art into sword drive because why not?
Also, I forgot how easy Shulk's final skill tree is in that there's no fighting whatsoever for the quest, unlike I think literally everyone else facing off with 85+ uniques.
"Hey Reyn, we want to make some friendship bracelets. Could you go and get these parts from monsters that are actually strong enough to kill God?"
And I think in the quest dialogue, Reyn even said something like "oh yeah, Shulk and I made those bracelets when we were kids too."
I got Dahlia really early in my XC2 playthrough, and she is a monster in chain attacks. Getting to break them wide open sooner than you normally can was great.
All bosses boil down to "how fast can I set up the lethal full burst" in XC2. One upside to the unreliabiltiy of XC1 chain attacks is you can't just hit a button and know the boss is about to lose 60-70% of their max HP in a single go (I mean, you can set up a lot of boosts to the odds, but it's not nearly as guaranteed as endgame with 5-6 orbs in 2).
The secret best Blade is Crossette, because once you've picked up a sufficient number of potions it's just setting up for Break/Topple then blowing up the boss in a single shot, Chain Attack not even required.
I got Dahlia really early in my XC2 playthrough, and she is a monster in chain attacks. Getting to break them wide open sooner than you normally can was great.
All bosses boil down to "how fast can I set up the lethal full burst" in XC2. One upside to the unreliabiltiy of XC1 chain attacks is you can't just hit a button and know the boss is about to lose 60-70% of their max HP in a single go (I mean, you can set up a lot of boosts to the odds, but it's not nearly as guaranteed as endgame with 5-6 orbs in 2).
The secret best Blade is Crossette, because once you've picked up a sufficient number of potions it's just setting up for Break/Topple then blowing up the boss in a single shot, Chain Attack not even required.
Oh I've gotta try this out. I also noticed how broken Fusion combo damage is! Ahhh so many ways to break this game. It's a shame I realized this now.
Finished my relatively perfect run in XC1 last night.
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+. Other than that, max arts (including all the master books from time trials) max affinities, an absurd amount of max gems to ensure I can max out every party member in whatever buff, at the same time (completely unnecessary, but I made a list and I stuck to it, damnit!) all sidequests, full light/medium/heavy top tier armors for every character, best weapons, all unique monsters, and anything else I didn't think of. I considered getting a full set of all the items needed for sidequests for another run, but decided that IF I do decide to eventually go for 999 affinity coins, I wouldn't do another 100% playthrough till the very final playthrough, and I'm bound to get most everything I could need in the meantime. I also didn't do a couple of the more grindy achievements (5k kills, 500 revives, 366 days) because those don't reset and I'd probably get them done in subsequent playthroughs. And grinding them now would serve no purpose as I have no need for xp/ap/sp. Which reminds me, I can probably sell all those stupid AP gems I farmed. :rotate:
Regardless, I'm gonna take a break for awhile. I started up a NG+ and learned that in this version you don't have to pick and choose gear you carry over, it just brings it all. So that's a lot more user friendly.
Good times. Best game. A++ would play again.
Though, you know, 3 save slots on such a massive game, particularly with a NG+, is fairly stupid, and I'm not sure at all why they didn't expand that.
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+.
I know the third, but what are the first two? Are they just a matter of buying out shops before the shops disappear?
For me there is one quest I missed...sort of, because I picked it up, but you can only do it while another quest is active, and if you finish that quest then it auto-finishes/cancels the other quest too.
There is a shocking number of little unique situations and special circumstances along the way that make doing everything very tricky. Especially if you include the handful of quests with multiple outcomes, where one outcome is worse for the characters, but you're likely to have the items to fulfill that bad outcome already and be locked into it by accepting the quest.
Finished my relatively perfect run in XC1 last night.
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+. Other than that, max arts (including all the master books from time trials) max affinities, an absurd amount of max gems to ensure I can max out every party member in whatever buff, at the same time (completely unnecessary, but I made a list and I stuck to it, damnit!) all sidequests, full light/medium/heavy top tier armors for every character, best weapons, all unique monsters, and anything else I didn't think of. I considered getting a full set of all the items needed for sidequests for another run, but decided that IF I do decide to eventually go for 999 affinity coins, I wouldn't do another 100% playthrough till the very final playthrough, and I'm bound to get most everything I could need in the meantime. I also didn't do a couple of the more grindy achievements (5k kills, 500 revives, 366 days) because those don't reset and I'd probably get them done in subsequent playthroughs. And grinding them now would serve no purpose as I have no need for xp/ap/sp. Which reminds me, I can probably sell all those stupid AP gems I farmed. :rotate:
Regardless, I'm gonna take a break for awhile. I started up a NG+ and learned that in this version you don't have to pick and choose gear you carry over, it just brings it all. So that's a lot more user friendly.
Good times. Best game. A++ would play again.
Though, you know, 3 save slots on such a massive game, particularly with a NG+, is fairly stupid, and I'm not sure at all why they didn't expand that.
Wait really? I don't have to pick my gear? Does that mean no weird Shulk weapon problems?
By the way super on topic but not really, finally beat Ophion! Took me a couple of tries because I couldn't get the timing of the I frames. Then I remembered hey I've got Shulk. Just like in XC1, Visions on that fight are godlike!
Enlong's comment above brought up a good point that I had thought about earlier as I was starting this playthrough.
Where are the other colonies? We never see anything that might indicate ruins of other destroyed colonies. And frankly there just isn't room for them in the geography of this game, the Bionis doesn't have space for them...unless they're on the other arm and leg, or the feet, but nothing in the game ever implies that those areas are reachable, or that homs would have any communication or way of knowing what's going on over there.
Any possible other colonies likely weren't destroyed by mechons, because over the course of the game we learn that
the battle of Sword Valley was a unique situation, a sudden attack/establishing of a forward base by Mechonis that caught everyone off guard. It doesn't sound like there's been constant war for decades. Everyone talks about Egil's attacks as if they are a new thing. Face mechon are a new development etc. So it isn't like one by one the colonies have been snuffed out.
I'm up to the point where they clap you on the shoulder and say "Choosing the affirmative response in this dialog box will result in the final boss sequence, Yes/No?" and I gotta say I'm feeling really tempted to cash in all my quest EXP under the pretense of "the power of friendship that I built up over the course of the plot", and go end this thing. I'm not sure whatever lore there is about the Giants in these last couple quests is worth the extra time spent to do them, especially when the plot I don't know in Future Connected is sitting right there...
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
Enlong's comment above brought up a good point that I had thought about earlier as I was starting this playthrough.
Where are the other colonies? We never see anything that might indicate ruins of other destroyed colonies. And frankly there just isn't room for them in the geography of this game, the Bionis doesn't have space for them...unless they're on the other arm and leg, or the feet, but nothing in the game ever implies that those areas are reachable, or that homs would have any communication or way of knowing what's going on over there.
Any possible other colonies likely weren't destroyed by mechons, because over the course of the game we learn that
the battle of Sword Valley was a unique situation, a sudden attack/establishing of a forward base by Mechonis that caught everyone off guard. It doesn't sound like there's been constant war for decades. Everyone talks about Egil's attacks as if they are a new thing. Face mechon are a new development etc. So it isn't like one by one the colonies have been snuffed out.
I haven't beat it, but I very much had the impression that the rest of the colonies were just somewhere else on the lower body of bionis that you can't happen to go to. It at least feels, plot wise, like there are other colonies besides for nine and six given the way the characters talk broadly about the Homs.
Finished my relatively perfect run in XC1 last night.
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+. Other than that, max arts (including all the master books from time trials) max affinities, an absurd amount of max gems to ensure I can max out every party member in whatever buff, at the same time (completely unnecessary, but I made a list and I stuck to it, damnit!) all sidequests, full light/medium/heavy top tier armors for every character, best weapons, all unique monsters, and anything else I didn't think of. I considered getting a full set of all the items needed for sidequests for another run, but decided that IF I do decide to eventually go for 999 affinity coins, I wouldn't do another 100% playthrough till the very final playthrough, and I'm bound to get most everything I could need in the meantime. I also didn't do a couple of the more grindy achievements (5k kills, 500 revives, 366 days) because those don't reset and I'd probably get them done in subsequent playthroughs. And grinding them now would serve no purpose as I have no need for xp/ap/sp. Which reminds me, I can probably sell all those stupid AP gems I farmed. :rotate:
Regardless, I'm gonna take a break for awhile. I started up a NG+ and learned that in this version you don't have to pick and choose gear you carry over, it just brings it all. So that's a lot more user friendly.
Good times. Best game. A++ would play again.
Though, you know, 3 save slots on such a massive game, particularly with a NG+, is fairly stupid, and I'm not sure at all why they didn't expand that.
Wait really? I don't have to pick my gear? Does that mean no weird Shulk weapon problems?
Not sure what weird problems you are referring to but:
in NG+ you start with the Monado III and any of the replicas you kept from the last run. You also get to use the appearances for Shulks weapons from then on out, including the ones from Future Connected if you finished that. I didn't play NG+ here long enough to know if there's any issue with equipping once you get the Monado from the story, but something so notable would have been called out by the interwebs at this point, and surely the devs would have caught something so obvious.
There's no reason to use anything other than the Monado III though, it has the highest min/max attack and 75% crit rate sooo.....:rotate:
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+.
I know the third, but what are the first two? Are they just a matter of buying out shops before the shops disappear?
For me there is one quest I missed...sort of, because I picked it up, but you can only do it while another quest is active, and if you finish that quest then it auto-finishes/cancels the other quest too.
There is a shocking number of little unique situations and special circumstances along the way that make doing everything very tricky. Especially if you include the handful of quests with multiple outcomes, where one outcome is worse for the characters, but you're likely to have the items to fulfill that bad outcome already and be locked into it by accepting the quest.
minor story spoilers
For Melia, just in case someone else isn't aware (I sure wasn't) if you talk to her brother after the events of the first visit to Prison Island he will give you a unique weapon. Apparently quite useful for most of the game, but also a unique appearance.
For the other two it was just two of the machina weapons you get in the Mechonis and only mechonis. Random enemy drops. I thought I had gotten all the variants, but wasn't paying enough attention I guess. Machina sniper and Machina Nibbler I think. Each character has several machina weapons, a couple can be bought, but I think each character has one or two that are only from enemy drops that have unique graphics, and only on enemies in that area, not buy/trad able, and not from any other enemies in areas you can return to.
Since Shulk carries over the True Monado, he will not receive the original nor will he receive his Junk Sword in the next playthrough. He will begin the game fighting with the True Monado (assuming it was equipped when the previous playthrough was finished). During the final battle of the normal playthrough preceding the first New Game+, the Monado III automatically replaces one of the Replica Monados Shulk is wielding, knowing that the standard Replica Monado will not be obtained during New Game+ contrary to the other Replica Monado obtained as quest rewards.
That was the wiki text, so this time you keep all the Monados then? The text made it sound you lost one you had equipped during the fight against Zanza. Oh, I really should do a NG+ run with the Monado and leveling down just for fun.
That been said, I just started Torna. Man, after playing around the past week with maxed out broken blades, I feel a lil light on skills but I figure that will change soon enough.
Enlong's comment above brought up a good point that I had thought about earlier as I was starting this playthrough.
Where are the other colonies? We never see anything that might indicate ruins of other destroyed colonies. And frankly there just isn't room for them in the geography of this game, the Bionis doesn't have space for them...unless they're on the other arm and leg, or the feet, but nothing in the game ever implies that those areas are reachable, or that homs would have any communication or way of knowing what's going on over there.
Any possible other colonies likely weren't destroyed by mechons, because over the course of the game we learn that
the battle of Sword Valley was a unique situation, a sudden attack/establishing of a forward base by Mechonis that caught everyone off guard. It doesn't sound like there's been constant war for decades. Everyone talks about Egil's attacks as if they are a new thing. Face mechon are a new development etc. So it isn't like one by one the colonies have been snuffed out.
Early on, when Shulk and Reyn are planning on going to Colony 6, they mention that it’s the only other Homs colony left on the Bionis. So there were other ones (presumably at least 7 others), that have all been wiped out for one reason or another.
Since Shulk carries over the True Monado, he will not receive the original nor will he receive his Junk Sword in the next playthrough. He will begin the game fighting with the True Monado (assuming it was equipped when the previous playthrough was finished). During the final battle of the normal playthrough preceding the first New Game+, the Monado III automatically replaces one of the Replica Monados Shulk is wielding, knowing that the standard Replica Monado will not be obtained during New Game+ contrary to the other Replica Monado obtained as quest rewards.
That was the wiki text, so this time you keep all the Monados then? The text made it sound you lost one you had equipped during the fight against Zanza. Oh, I really should do a NG+ run with the Monado and leveling down just for fun.
That been said, I just started Torna. Man, after playing around the past week with maxed out broken blades, I feel a lil light on skills but I figure that will change soon enough.
Loaded up the ng+ to check
You do lose whichever replica you had equipped in the final battle where you get the Monado III as part of the story. I wouldn't have noticed if you didn't say anything. Sure enough my Abyss is gone. I still have the basic "replica" Monado you get after Shulk wakes back up after the Core. I don't think there's any way to avoid losing at least one of the replicas, because you can't completely unequip your weapons. You still have whatever you had equipped with your Clear save, but it is replaced in NG+ (since even with a Clear save you still can't access weapon appearances for Shulk, nor do you get the Monado III until NG+)
I'm not sure it matters though because the Monado III is just stupid better than anything anyway. With a max crit gem you can have 100% crit, and any skill link that benefits from it (crit heal, tension, etc) just makes Shulk a beast. I think, technically, Reyn still has a higher damage potentially properly equipped, but Reyn is more one and done with his DPS and is better as a topple locker. IMO anyway. Put a crit gem with Monado III, any crit skill links, back attack skill links, a max back attack gem and welp. Then again, there's not really anything in the game that is difficult enough to need that kind of power. Hoping for maybe (probably not) some more time challenges there.
Regardless, because of the appearance tab, for me at least the loss of the specific replica isn't a huge deal, because if for some reason I wanted that appearance I can just choose it. I can't think of any reason I'd want to weaken myself with the actual weapon. Though, now that I know, if I do multiple NG+'s I'll be sure to redo that side quest and make sure it's not equipped in the future.
I will say though, since it was pointed out, for safety reasons I'm going to go back to the pre-NG+ save and remove all gear on everyone in case the game decides to return them to me without said gear. I don't recall if the original version made you pick the NG+ stuff right when you finished the game, but at least in this version you just choose NG+ from the main menu and pick the save you want to base it on. You make a clear save after you beat the game and you can continue from the point of no return and the save slot is marked as "Clear". So you don't need to re-beat the game unequipped to make sure you don't accidentally lose anything. There's only one character I'm concerned about losing anything with, though, but still. I'd rather not have to refarm that stuff. For Shulk and Reyn at least the NG+ starts you in whatever you had equipped, minus gems (they're just unequipped, you don't lose anything). Still, better safe than sorry.
EDIT: I think, regardless, the appearance options resolves most every gear issue, since the appearances are what you're looking for if you ever want to use something that isn't the "best". Now you can just have the best of both.
The other colonies were probably raided and destroyed by the high entia, there are no homs in alcomoth that you can talk to but racism exists towards the half homs. So the homs must be kept in the residential area so as not to dirty up the imperial grounds. And they werent taken from colony 6 or 9 as they all thought high entia were a myth.
Also, just NG+ and ending spoiler stuff (some XC2 spoilers too)
I completely forgot (or it didn't do this?) that in the opening cutscene it makes Mumkar his Face appearance instead of his original.
I wonder what other stuff like that changed? I think there was one other thing I noticed but I can't recall right now.
I'm also surprised they didn't make any changes at all to the space station cutscene to have it match better XC2. I'm curious if that was because they generally avoided any changes (other than Alvis's "necklace") to keep the game exactly as it was, or if there's an actual reason the events leading to the creation of the worlds of the XC games are portrayed differently. But maybe what we see is more like their memory of what happened, and not an actual representation. Hence Klaus being angry in XC1, but more rational and conversational in XC2, for what should have been the same event.
I had a thought while replaying that maybe an XC3 will focus on Meyneth/Galea, but have her be the "villain" in the sense that her darker traits manifested in a different world, similar to how Zanza is the dark side of Klaus and the good side is in XC2; whereas the good side of Galea is in XC1, so... Then something something related to the fog beasts from FC and the rifts threatening the world(s), coming from that world. I dunno! Short of the world ending, there is almost 100% chance we will eventually get an XC3 so I'm sure we will find out someday.
Also, just NG+ and ending spoiler stuff (some XC2 spoilers too)
I completely forgot (or it didn't do this?) that in the opening cutscene it makes Mumkar his Face appearance instead of his original.
I wonder what other stuff like that changed? I think there was one other thing I noticed but I can't recall right now.
I'm also surprised they didn't make any changes at all to the space station cutscene to have it match better XC2. I'm curious if that was because they generally avoided any changes (other than Alvis's "necklace") to keep the game exactly as it was, or if there's an actual reason the events leading to the creation of the worlds of the XC games are portrayed differently. But maybe what we see is more like their memory of what happened, and not an actual representation. Hence Klaus being angry in XC1, but more rational and conversational in XC2, for what should have been the same event.
I had a thought while replaying that maybe an XC3 will focus on Meyneth/Galea, but have her be the "villain" in the sense that her darker traits manifested in a different world, similar to how Zanza is the dark side of Klaus and the good side is in XC2; whereas the good side of Galea is in XC1, so... Then something something related to the fog beasts from FC and the rifts threatening the world(s), coming from that world. I dunno! Short of the world ending, there is almost 100% chance we will eventually get an XC3 so I'm sure we will find out someday.
The original game absolutely did make Mumkhar appear in Face-pilot form for the intro on New Game +. It also doesn’t give Dunban the Monado back for the prologue, nor does it take the Monado away from Shulk. In the Sword Valley prologue, they just make Dunban and friends get the Enchant buff for no reason, just in case Dunban ended the game without an anti-Mechon sword in hand. Never played NG+ far enough to see if Fiora also kept her late-game appearance.
The other colonies were probably raided and destroyed by the high entia, there are no homs in alcomoth that you can talk to but racism exists towards the half homs. So the homs must be kept in the residential area so as not to dirty up the imperial grounds. And they werent taken from colony 6 or 9 as they all thought high entia were a myth.
The High Entia live a long damn time. Melia's 88 and still seems to be comparable to a teenager. Presumably there was a closer Colony at one stage or another or possibly every now and then a Homs makes the trip and sticks around but it's rare enough that they're still practically a myth. Either way any Homs living in Alcamoth likely died of old age.
the whole of the bionis and the places on him are so impossible that I try not to think about logic and logistics too much, more than any other JRPG. Even XBC2 is more "beliavable". It's all a fable to me.
the whole of the bionis and the places on him are so impossible that I try not to think about logic and logistics too much, more than any other JRPG. Even XBC2 is more "beliavable". It's all a fable to me.
I will say it was really cool being able to look down from the outside environs around Colony 6 and see where Colony 9 was further down on the leg. The scale of the Bionis is crazy (if inconsistent), but it was neat regardless.
Xenoblade Chronicles X already earning major points with me for having a character creator.
Even got beards, scars and hardened facial features. I can make an anti-Shulk/Rex. Niiice.
Gonna just name this guy Man Beef: The Conqueror.
The downside of a character creator in games is that you tend to lose a lot of the character interaction.
I call my custom character Awesome McCoolface, and everyone just calls him New Guy, or Chosen One.
And they have a heavy tendency to be mute, or close to it.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+2
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Xenoblade Chronicles X already earning major points with me for having a character creator.
Even got beards, scars and hardened facial features. I can make an anti-Shulk/Rex. Niiice.
Gonna just name this guy Man Beef: The Conqueror.
The downside of a character creator in games is that you tend to lose a lot of the character interaction.
I call my custom character Awesome McCoolface, and everyone just calls him New Guy, or Chosen One. And they have a heavy tendency to be mute, or close to it.
This isn't always the case though, see Bioware games (with fully voiced custom protagonists).
I feel more connected to both the protagonist and party members when I can actually make choices of how to talk to and interact with them. Even when they have to be silent though, I think FFXIV shows how this can still feel very effective due to how animated the Warrior of Light can be in cutscenes and dialog choices.
Unfortunately, unlike XIV, doesn't seem like the MC in XCX has a lot of animations and facial expressions to draw upon to express itself.
the whole of the bionis and the places on him are so impossible that I try not to think about logic and logistics too much, more than any other JRPG. Even XBC2 is more "beliavable". It's all a fable to me.
Yeah, XBC2 is quite a bit more believable in that sense, it feels like they put more thought into its world and the logistics of everything. There's the likelihood of other Gramps-style titans around, other people living in smaller settlements.
The idea of the landmass and space on Bionis isn't quite the only thing for me either. And I feel like some of it could be easily fixed with just small script tweaks, a line of dialogue here or there.
The story requires that a ton of homs fought in Sword Valley a year ago, which means two possibilities: they walked there or they flew there. Walking doesn't seem likely: most of them seem to know next to nothing about the majority of the world that you have to travel through just to get to Sword Valley. This includes Dunban, with his generally world-wise demeanor that often gets traded out for as much naivete as Shulk when convenient. A heart-to-heart in Satorl has Dunban saying he's never been there, when he would've had to have been. There's a non-functioning high entia elevator where apparently the entire homs military would have to scale the decorative wall platforms, followed by rickety Makna bridges.
However flying also doesn't seem likely, in spite of scenes that make it seem like that's how it was done. We know that homs have flying machines, as Dunban is brought out of a dropship in the intro scenes, and I believe Sharla mentions that Colony 6 once had ships. However...if homs can fly, then
why are high entia treated as a myth that no one thinks exist? Why have no homs ever even heard the world Telethia (or "dinobeast" as the ubiquitous nopon traders would call them)? Why did they never fly down to the Fallen Arm, as it seems Dickson has done regularly?
Did no flying hom ever scout any other parts of their world at all?
To some extent it feels like the writers fell into the desire to have fish-out-of-water heroes encountering everything in the world for the first time, to give an opportunity to explain those things to the players. (Tidus in FFX is kind of my go-to blatant example of this. What's an Al Bhed? What's a shoopuf?) Except decent writing would make this generally unnecessary.
So here are my solutions:
The high entia aren't myth. There is no reason for them to be myth. The consort system means they even NEED to have homs contact on occasion. Just make them well known to be standoffish, snobbish, unlikely to help out homs. This already fits perfectly with the story, where they say they knew about the mechon threat and chose not to help the homs. Let the homs know this too. They shut down the Satorl elevator due to strained relations.
Tell us that other colonies exist on the other leg but that Colony 9 has gradually lost contact with them one by one, and it's generally thought to be caused by the mechons. It doesn't take too many lines of dialogue to say "y'know it's been 4 months since we last heard a peep from Colony 4 on the radio. Things are getting worse and worse..."
More unseen colonies out there are only boons to the story and universe. It gives Egil more sources for his experimentation and more places that can be attacked off screen, so we have stakes, but not that high of stakes (since we only really care about our hometown and Sharla's hometown). It gives more possible nopon colonies as well, along with making their trading seem more significant and actually physically possible/worthwhile.
If it's important that homs don't get to fly as high as Eryth Sea, then give us a throwaway line about high quantities of ether in the air the higher you go interfering with the flying machines. And also make them really scarce and broken down and super valuable so they can't use them much; we already have precedent in their rustbucket mech that Fiora uses that they specifically tell us they only have a few functioning ones left.
i mean remember that all homs live off those four little plots of land in colony 6 and that all the trade and transportation between 6 and 9 have to go through tephra cave and those tiny passages and vine ladders
so it's really best to NEVER think about how things work
Yeah, the best change to the script would have been for the High Entia to be treated like Elves are in Lord of the Rings (because they’re basically Elves, let’s be real). Rarely seen in lands outside their own, seen as mysterious and powerful, and having left some serious artifacts around the world in places. We don’t need the Homs colonies ronhabe extensive relations with them, and the common folk can have a lot of unfounded ideas about them, but making them a myth is silly in hindsight.
i mean remember that all homs live off those four little plots of land in colony 6 and that all the trade and transportation between 6 and 9 have to go through tephra cave and those tiny passages and vine ladders
so it's really best to NEVER think about how things work
Apparently, Tephra Cave has had landslides and such lately that blocked off areas. So that’s a thing.
Actually, in general it seems like there’s a relatively high risk of shifting lands on Bionis; Colony 9 has those anti-air guns for the sole purpose of shooting down debris that falls from the area’s higher up.
Future Connected so far is pretty neat. Though in addition to some major spoilers if you so much as start it before clearing the main game... it does spoil some minor bits about late game quest resolutions, so I'm debating shelving it til I go back and wrap those up.
Also, removing the skills/link system, while understandable, is a bit annoying for losing some of the sillier things in it. Like Melia going up a notch of tension every time she uses her talent art (which basically means permanent max tension for her).
i mean remember that all homs live off those four little plots of land in colony 6 and that all the trade and transportation between 6 and 9 have to go through tephra cave and those tiny passages and vine ladders
so it's really best to NEVER think about how things work
Apparently, Tephra Cave has had landslides and such lately that blocked off areas. So that’s a thing.
Actually, in general it seems like there’s a relatively high risk of shifting lands on Bionis; Colony 9 has those anti-air guns for the sole purpose of shooting down debris that falls from the area’s higher up.
Also we know that nopon have access to pterodactyls with passenger baskets and could trade that way. Drop traders off, pick them up later.
We do see a nopon in Colony 9 with beasts of burden, but again, could be that he primarily traded between Colony 9 and 6, and landslides have him stuck in Colony 9.
I do think there's a difference between nitpicky dumb stuff ("But where does Dunban poop??") and basic issues that are obvious in the story presented to us. At a certain point "turn your brain off completely don't question ANYTHING" is silly and untenable. Everyone has that point they reach where it's like, no, I'm sorry, this was an overly questionable decision on the writers' part. For some, Xenoblade won't reach that point. For me it did in a few places.
I do think there's a difference between nitpicky dumb stuff ("But where does Dunban poop??") and basic issues that are obvious in the story presented to us. At a certain point "turn your brain off completely don't question ANYTHING" is silly and untenable. Everyone has that point they reach where it's like, no, I'm sorry, this was an overly questionable decision on the writers' part. For some, Xenoblade won't reach that point. For me it did in a few places.
There was a notable disconnect between "We Homs thought the High Entia were a myth" and "We Homs are pissed that the High Entia didn't help us in the war when we asked."
Were they asking for help from other myths? Did they send messages to the giants, too?
I'd also like an explanation for how the lake over the forest worked. Was there glass there or something?
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
+1
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
edited June 2020
Imagine theres like a bucket version of the monado thats just as stylish and fancy looking but the only thing it does is it tell you when you're going to take your next dump.
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The secret best Blade is Crossette, because once you've picked up a sufficient number of potions it's just setting up for Break/Topple then blowing up the boss in a single shot, Chain Attack not even required.
Oh I've gotta try this out. I also noticed how broken Fusion combo damage is! Ahhh so many ways to break this game. It's a shame I realized this now.
I say relatively because I apparently missed a weapon appearance for Riki, Sharla and Melia, that are wholly missable. The first two I should have known better, the latter I figured out I had no idea existed to begin with; so I'll have to grab those in a NG+. Other than that, max arts (including all the master books from time trials) max affinities, an absurd amount of max gems to ensure I can max out every party member in whatever buff, at the same time (completely unnecessary, but I made a list and I stuck to it, damnit!) all sidequests, full light/medium/heavy top tier armors for every character, best weapons, all unique monsters, and anything else I didn't think of. I considered getting a full set of all the items needed for sidequests for another run, but decided that IF I do decide to eventually go for 999 affinity coins, I wouldn't do another 100% playthrough till the very final playthrough, and I'm bound to get most everything I could need in the meantime. I also didn't do a couple of the more grindy achievements (5k kills, 500 revives, 366 days) because those don't reset and I'd probably get them done in subsequent playthroughs. And grinding them now would serve no purpose as I have no need for xp/ap/sp. Which reminds me, I can probably sell all those stupid AP gems I farmed. :rotate:
Regardless, I'm gonna take a break for awhile. I started up a NG+ and learned that in this version you don't have to pick and choose gear you carry over, it just brings it all. So that's a lot more user friendly.
Good times. Best game. A++ would play again.
Though, you know, 3 save slots on such a massive game, particularly with a NG+, is fairly stupid, and I'm not sure at all why they didn't expand that.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
For me there is one quest I missed...sort of, because I picked it up, but you can only do it while another quest is active, and if you finish that quest then it auto-finishes/cancels the other quest too.
https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Protect_the_Capital!
There is a shocking number of little unique situations and special circumstances along the way that make doing everything very tricky. Especially if you include the handful of quests with multiple outcomes, where one outcome is worse for the characters, but you're likely to have the items to fulfill that bad outcome already and be locked into it by accepting the quest.
Wait really? I don't have to pick my gear? Does that mean no weird Shulk weapon problems?
Where are the other colonies? We never see anything that might indicate ruins of other destroyed colonies. And frankly there just isn't room for them in the geography of this game, the Bionis doesn't have space for them...unless they're on the other arm and leg, or the feet, but nothing in the game ever implies that those areas are reachable, or that homs would have any communication or way of knowing what's going on over there.
Any possible other colonies likely weren't destroyed by mechons, because over the course of the game we learn that
I haven't beat it, but I very much had the impression that the rest of the colonies were just somewhere else on the lower body of bionis that you can't happen to go to. It at least feels, plot wise, like there are other colonies besides for nine and six given the way the characters talk broadly about the Homs.
Not sure what weird problems you are referring to but:
There's no reason to use anything other than the Monado III though, it has the highest min/max attack and 75% crit rate sooo.....:rotate:
minor story spoilers
For the other two it was just two of the machina weapons you get in the Mechonis and only mechonis. Random enemy drops. I thought I had gotten all the variants, but wasn't paying enough attention I guess. Machina sniper and Machina Nibbler I think. Each character has several machina weapons, a couple can be bought, but I think each character has one or two that are only from enemy drops that have unique graphics, and only on enemies in that area, not buy/trad able, and not from any other enemies in areas you can return to.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Since Shulk carries over the True Monado, he will not receive the original nor will he receive his Junk Sword in the next playthrough. He will begin the game fighting with the True Monado (assuming it was equipped when the previous playthrough was finished). During the final battle of the normal playthrough preceding the first New Game+, the Monado III automatically replaces one of the Replica Monados Shulk is wielding, knowing that the standard Replica Monado will not be obtained during New Game+ contrary to the other Replica Monado obtained as quest rewards.
That was the wiki text, so this time you keep all the Monados then? The text made it sound you lost one you had equipped during the fight against Zanza. Oh, I really should do a NG+ run with the Monado and leveling down just for fun.
That been said, I just started Torna. Man, after playing around the past week with maxed out broken blades, I feel a lil light on skills but I figure that will change soon enough.
Early on, when Shulk and Reyn are planning on going to Colony 6, they mention that it’s the only other Homs colony left on the Bionis. So there were other ones (presumably at least 7 others), that have all been wiped out for one reason or another.
Loaded up the ng+ to check
I'm not sure it matters though because the Monado III is just stupid better than anything anyway. With a max crit gem you can have 100% crit, and any skill link that benefits from it (crit heal, tension, etc) just makes Shulk a beast. I think, technically, Reyn still has a higher damage potentially properly equipped, but Reyn is more one and done with his DPS and is better as a topple locker. IMO anyway. Put a crit gem with Monado III, any crit skill links, back attack skill links, a max back attack gem and welp. Then again, there's not really anything in the game that is difficult enough to need that kind of power. Hoping for maybe (probably not) some more time challenges there.
Regardless, because of the appearance tab, for me at least the loss of the specific replica isn't a huge deal, because if for some reason I wanted that appearance I can just choose it. I can't think of any reason I'd want to weaken myself with the actual weapon. Though, now that I know, if I do multiple NG+'s I'll be sure to redo that side quest and make sure it's not equipped in the future.
I will say though, since it was pointed out, for safety reasons I'm going to go back to the pre-NG+ save and remove all gear on everyone in case the game decides to return them to me without said gear. I don't recall if the original version made you pick the NG+ stuff right when you finished the game, but at least in this version you just choose NG+ from the main menu and pick the save you want to base it on. You make a clear save after you beat the game and you can continue from the point of no return and the save slot is marked as "Clear". So you don't need to re-beat the game unequipped to make sure you don't accidentally lose anything. There's only one character I'm concerned about losing anything with, though, but still. I'd rather not have to refarm that stuff. For Shulk and Reyn at least the NG+ starts you in whatever you had equipped, minus gems (they're just unequipped, you don't lose anything). Still, better safe than sorry.
EDIT: I think, regardless, the appearance options resolves most every gear issue, since the appearances are what you're looking for if you ever want to use something that isn't the "best". Now you can just have the best of both.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
I wonder what other stuff like that changed? I think there was one other thing I noticed but I can't recall right now.
I'm also surprised they didn't make any changes at all to the space station cutscene to have it match better XC2. I'm curious if that was because they generally avoided any changes (other than Alvis's "necklace") to keep the game exactly as it was, or if there's an actual reason the events leading to the creation of the worlds of the XC games are portrayed differently. But maybe what we see is more like their memory of what happened, and not an actual representation. Hence Klaus being angry in XC1, but more rational and conversational in XC2, for what should have been the same event.
I had a thought while replaying that maybe an XC3 will focus on Meyneth/Galea, but have her be the "villain" in the sense that her darker traits manifested in a different world, similar to how Zanza is the dark side of Klaus and the good side is in XC2; whereas the good side of Galea is in XC1, so... Then something something related to the fog beasts from FC and the rifts threatening the world(s), coming from that world. I dunno! Short of the world ending, there is almost 100% chance we will eventually get an XC3 so I'm sure we will find out someday.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
The High Entia live a long damn time. Melia's 88 and still seems to be comparable to a teenager. Presumably there was a closer Colony at one stage or another or possibly every now and then a Homs makes the trip and sticks around but it's rare enough that they're still practically a myth. Either way any Homs living in Alcamoth likely died of old age.
I will say it was really cool being able to look down from the outside environs around Colony 6 and see where Colony 9 was further down on the leg. The scale of the Bionis is crazy (if inconsistent), but it was neat regardless.
Even got beards, scars and hardened facial features. I can make an anti-Shulk/Rex. Niiice.
Gonna just name this guy Man Beef: The Conqueror.
The downside of a character creator in games is that you tend to lose a lot of the character interaction.
I call my custom character Awesome McCoolface, and everyone just calls him New Guy, or Chosen One.
And they have a heavy tendency to be mute, or close to it.
I feel more connected to both the protagonist and party members when I can actually make choices of how to talk to and interact with them. Even when they have to be silent though, I think FFXIV shows how this can still feel very effective due to how animated the Warrior of Light can be in cutscenes and dialog choices.
Unfortunately, unlike XIV, doesn't seem like the MC in XCX has a lot of animations and facial expressions to draw upon to express itself.
Yeah, XBC2 is quite a bit more believable in that sense, it feels like they put more thought into its world and the logistics of everything. There's the likelihood of other Gramps-style titans around, other people living in smaller settlements.
The idea of the landmass and space on Bionis isn't quite the only thing for me either. And I feel like some of it could be easily fixed with just small script tweaks, a line of dialogue here or there.
The story requires that a ton of homs fought in Sword Valley a year ago, which means two possibilities: they walked there or they flew there. Walking doesn't seem likely: most of them seem to know next to nothing about the majority of the world that you have to travel through just to get to Sword Valley. This includes Dunban, with his generally world-wise demeanor that often gets traded out for as much naivete as Shulk when convenient. A heart-to-heart in Satorl has Dunban saying he's never been there, when he would've had to have been. There's a non-functioning high entia elevator where apparently the entire homs military would have to scale the decorative wall platforms, followed by rickety Makna bridges.
However flying also doesn't seem likely, in spite of scenes that make it seem like that's how it was done. We know that homs have flying machines, as Dunban is brought out of a dropship in the intro scenes, and I believe Sharla mentions that Colony 6 once had ships. However...if homs can fly, then
To some extent it feels like the writers fell into the desire to have fish-out-of-water heroes encountering everything in the world for the first time, to give an opportunity to explain those things to the players. (Tidus in FFX is kind of my go-to blatant example of this. What's an Al Bhed? What's a shoopuf?) Except decent writing would make this generally unnecessary.
So here are my solutions:
Tell us that other colonies exist on the other leg but that Colony 9 has gradually lost contact with them one by one, and it's generally thought to be caused by the mechons. It doesn't take too many lines of dialogue to say "y'know it's been 4 months since we last heard a peep from Colony 4 on the radio. Things are getting worse and worse..."
More unseen colonies out there are only boons to the story and universe. It gives Egil more sources for his experimentation and more places that can be attacked off screen, so we have stakes, but not that high of stakes (since we only really care about our hometown and Sharla's hometown). It gives more possible nopon colonies as well, along with making their trading seem more significant and actually physically possible/worthwhile.
If it's important that homs don't get to fly as high as Eryth Sea, then give us a throwaway line about high quantities of ether in the air the higher you go interfering with the flying machines. And also make them really scarce and broken down and super valuable so they can't use them much; we already have precedent in their rustbucket mech that Fiora uses that they specifically tell us they only have a few functioning ones left.
so it's really best to NEVER think about how things work
Apparently, Tephra Cave has had landslides and such lately that blocked off areas. So that’s a thing.
Actually, in general it seems like there’s a relatively high risk of shifting lands on Bionis; Colony 9 has those anti-air guns for the sole purpose of shooting down debris that falls from the area’s higher up.
Also, removing the skills/link system, while understandable, is a bit annoying for losing some of the sillier things in it. Like Melia going up a notch of tension every time she uses her talent art (which basically means permanent max tension for her).
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there are no muscles there to move them
head wings
just don't think about it
Ether.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
Also we know that nopon have access to pterodactyls with passenger baskets and could trade that way. Drop traders off, pick them up later.
We do see a nopon in Colony 9 with beasts of burden, but again, could be that he primarily traded between Colony 9 and 6, and landslides have him stuck in Colony 9.
I do think there's a difference between nitpicky dumb stuff ("But where does Dunban poop??") and basic issues that are obvious in the story presented to us. At a certain point "turn your brain off completely don't question ANYTHING" is silly and untenable. Everyone has that point they reach where it's like, no, I'm sorry, this was an overly questionable decision on the writers' part. For some, Xenoblade won't reach that point. For me it did in a few places.
You were doing so well, Monolith..
Were they asking for help from other myths? Did they send messages to the giants, too?
I'd also like an explanation for how the lake over the forest worked. Was there glass there or something?
there's the whole lake right there
He calls it his electric gutbuster.