The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Xenoblade Chronicles: You Will Know Our Games
Sterica
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
YesRegistered User, Moderator mod
Xenoblade Chronicles is a decade-old series of action JRPG games by developer Monolith Soft. Considered a spiritual successor to the Xeno games, it is not necessary to have played the older Saga/Gears games to understand what is going on here, but it may help clarify the themes and allusions the games are trying to make. And the games are pretty good, if you're into older JRPGs (they are NOT retro; I am NOT old). Also Xenoblade does have a few references to the older franchises, so you might get more mileage if you know what KOS-MOS means. Alternatively, you can read a big book on Gnosticism to get yourself in the right mindset. The Xenoblade games are known for two things, the first being massive regions with a lot of exploration, sidequests, and high-level Rotbarts that would prefer you not be in their territory. While the main stories can be wrapped up in about 40-60 hours, you could easily plunge a hundred more exploring everything the game has to offer. What's nice is that the games are perfectly fine if you opt to bypass the fluff. You get the full story, the game rarely forces you to slow down and grind, and it doesn't feel like a lesser experience. But you'll probably at least dabble because of the second reason: the combat.
Xenoblade Chronicles is an action RPG, and is often likened to a single-player MMO. You have host of actions with cooldowns, a party with their own roles, and things like auto-attacking that help that vibe. I've heard some compare it to Kingdom Hearts' gameplay, which I have not played so I cannot confirm nor deny these comparisons. Each game offers its own twist on the gameplay, to the point where the third game layers a second system on top. It's got a learning curve, no doubt, but once it clicks you will have a fantastic time beating up the worlds' wildlife, right up until New Game+ and its massively overleveled superbosses.
Wait there's a third thing the series is known for: the jammin' sound track. The games bring us legends such as Yasunori Mitsuda (Secret of Mana, freaking Chrono Trigger) and the GOAT Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts, like EVERY Mario game that has hit points, Street Fighter II, Breath of Fire, the fucking Little Nemo game for NES, she has done it all) along with folks such as music duo ACE+ and vocalist Yasunori Mitsuda who both have portfolios mostly within Xenoblade, but they're incredible. It ain't a Xenoblade game without a killer soundtrack.
Also Nopons. And British voice acting.
Released: 2010, 2014 (Port), 2020 (Definitive Edition)
System: Wii, New 3DS, Switch (Definitive Edition)
The first game in the series, and so incredible that a fan campaign was created just to get the game a western release. It's about a young man, Shulk, who lives with his people on the corpse of a massive, long-dead titan. He has a special sword which could be instrumental in the war against the invading Mechonis from the other titan in their world. Things get more complicated than that. The game is highly praised for its likable characters, incredible villains, and it's plot that sticks to conventional JRPG structure including the Big Twist That Changes everything, but pulls it off admirably. This is where the game is at its simplest (relatively speaking), so it's an excellent jumping-on point for newbies. If you play just one game in the series, I would recommend it be this one. It's awesome, and I'm reluctant to say more so your experience can be as pristine as possible.
And good news! in 2020 the game got a remake, updating the graphics, interface, and offering quality-of-life changes to make the experience significantly better for newbies. It has some features to lure in vets, such as the ability to store XP so you level at your own pace, a remixed soundtrack (the original is still there), and cut content from the original game rebuilt into a bonus chapter framed as taking place after the original story. It's not 100% an improvement over the original, as some may not jive with the game's art style more closely matching later titles, but it's still enough to be a worthy replacement. Oh there is also a 3DS port that was made in 2014 to show off the power of the New 3DS (and thus can ONLY be played on it or the New 2DS) and is more of a straight port of the Wii version except with lower resolution and the UI being less cramped thanks to the second screen. I would honestly not recommend it since you can get the Switch AND Wii version for cheaper, but hey if that's all you have then that's all you have. Just buy Xenoblade Chronicles in SOME format, please.
Nopon Ratingpon: 10/10, Riki truly is heropon.
Released: 2015
System: Wii U
The next game in the series is a spin-off unrelated to the main series (for now???), although it is still a full game with all of the exploration and combat you could ever want. It's about humans fleeing aliens to a distant planet after the destruction of Earth. Here you must help the fledging colony survive on an alien world. Things get more complicated than that. The game gets a fair share of criticism on a few fronts. The art style is different and some would say off-putting. The characters and plot are weaker, notably due to the game featuring the franchise's only custom player-avatar, although the story is absolutely not about you which doesn't help things. The quest system tends to force certain party members to tag along which can be annoying. It's also system-dense, throwing a lot of stuff at you very early on, which might be a tad bit intimidating. Also the game has an entirely different soundtrack from a different crew this time, which I personally thing is plenty solid but it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
Having said that, the game is still Xenoblade so far as gameplay is concerned. It definitely feels like a hostile alien world, with massive dinosaur-like creatures, dangerous monster hidden away in the world, and even features the only vehicles in the game, Skells, which change the gameplay up a bit once you acquire them. There is still an absolute mountain of fun to be had here, and while I wouldn't recommend as your first Xenoblade, if you still got a Wii U and find a copy, then give it a try!
Nopon Ratingpon: 1/10, Tatsu does not fight, frequently hurts party. Part of worst running joke in game. Shameful, bad nopon.
Release: 2017, 2018 (Torna the Golden Country DLC)
System: Switch
The third game in the series, but the second in the mainline series for those keeping track. It's about a boy, Rex, who lives in the world of Alrest, whose peoples dwell upon the backs of massive beasts known as Titans. Rex is a scavenger of Alrest's vast cloud ocean, and on a special job he discovers a special sword. Things get more complicated than that. We're back to basics here, with a more focused plot, the game easing into its systems a bit more gently, and we're back to a less controversial soundtrack from the OG team. Game is still divisive among the fans, so buckle up. One thing people tend to agree on is that the combat is excellent despite changing so much it may seem unrecognizable at first. It layers on a secondary "blade" system, which splits your skills across additional party members, and honestly it's not super hard to understand, but this is already going to be a lengthy OP without combat primers. If it has ONE downside, I will say combat in XBC2 is way more built around fighting big enemies with shitloads of HP, so fights against lesser enemies tends to be a bit more boring since you can't do the flashy chain attacks as often like in prior games.
Onto the controversy! First, the game was released in 2017, the first year of the Switch, so the team had less experience with the hardware and it definitely shows performance-wise if you compare it to XBC1's remake. Also, it's pretty well-known at this point that Monolith Soft got pulled from the team to aid with Breath of the Wild development. This results in the game feeling a bit uneven in places, and even a bit rough around the edges at times. Of course, if you played the original Wii version, which was also pretty janky by virtue of taxing the Wii hardware to its absolute limits, then you'll likely feel right at home here. I may be overselling it a bit, but if you come Definitive Edition you'll notice it so just a heads up. The game also has the infamous gacha system, which isn't monetized so it's only annoying in that your game experience may vary depending on pulls...a system that is quite literally broken meaning "pity" pulls are worse than intended due to a bug. Also, the game offers DLC for a bunch of better pulls, so what I meant to say is that isn't monetized as badly as gacha games. Then there's the character design, which (barring a few designs, hello Mòrag, hi Zeke) are either stupid, excessively horny, or both. Like, I am going to be very blunt and say some of the main characters are so ridiculous in their sexy designs that it's sincerely hard to take some cutscenes serious. Which is a good pivot into the dub, which is...not great. Honestly, I like the voice actors, they seem talented, but the direction is garbage, and it seems clear that the VAs were not given proper context or input on how they should be performing. Awkward deliveries, unnatural pauses, it's messy but you can switch on the Japanese track if you can't handle it. But you'll be missing out on a particular performance that you uh...aren't likely to forget.
I can say that you can start with XBC2 and go backward, I certainly did, and it honestly doesn't spoil all that much but will still likely give you a weird experience starting with the more complex combat and systems of 2. Start with 1, move on to 2, and then...get the DLC! Yes, XBC2 has DLC that you can technically play whenever as it is standalone, but I highly recommend you finish XBC2 first as the DLC is a prequel and you'll get way more mileage going into the DLC with that prior knowledge. The DLC also changes combat YET AGAIN, and it's a bit simpler and pretty neat, so play through XBC2 first so you don't have to keep track of two combat systems in your brain. I think I will close on XBC2 by saying that I think you get way more out of it by playing the post-game. I played both XBC1 and 2 straight to the end with little sidequests, and 1 was a significantly better time. The postgame is the real strength of the series, and that's why I think the devs made the changes the did to the sequel in order to really maximize what you get out of that. So if you get into New Game+ and completing everything, you will find a much deeper and richer experience than 1. Otherwise you will have a decent time but feel it can never rich the highs of the first game and feels just a bit hollow in places.
Nopon Ratingpon: 2/10, Tora fights but Tora is also creepy. Exceedingly generous in this score. Poppi deserves better.
And that's all the games in the series! You can also find more Xenoblade goodness in Super Smash Bros., which features characters from the series lik-
A VISION!
Release: July 29th, 2022
System: Switch
There's a new game coming! The third in the main series, and fourth overall, it will be out early this fall to the delight of many. It's about a young woman, Mio, and a young man, Noah, who live on the world of Aionios, during a war between two nations. It's probably gets more complicated than that. But we don't know because we only have a trailer, although based on that we can surmise that perhaps [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] are [REDACTED] after the [REDACTED]'s actions that were hinted at in [REDACTED]. Furthermore, some have surmised that [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] have returned based on [REDACTED]. Oh shit right, discussing the plot of even the trailer is a one-way ticket to Spoilerland. As a decent number of people might be starting the series due to the announcement, please spoiler speculation and all prior games' plot beats. Using fan conventions for discussing spoiler characters should continue, so all hail Seven.
Recent trailers show seven characters in a battle, with a special mode where pair of characters fused into a skell blade persona thing and likely gain extra power for its duration. Maybe akin to Overdrive in XCX? Is limited to specific pairings? Does it impact chain attacks? Who knows!
It's looking like a good time to be a Xenoblade Chronicles fan. You might even say that I'm really feeling it.
Sterica on
+10
Posts
(Reserved for useful tutorials and such)
Never even got a Skell in X, despite putting ~30 hours into it, and with 2 the tedious Pokemon-style combat put me off after only 10 hours or so.
And I really like a lot of JRPG's, so, I have no idea why I keep being unable to motivate myself to finish any of the games in this series.
Hoping that they port X to the switch so I can give it another go, my Wii U's gamepad is busted.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
What are these two player parties you are referring to in XC3? Have they talked about gameplay somewhere?
I'm sure at some point they team up of course
And yea they show the two of them together which is probably why I didn't pick up on it.
Noah, Lanz, and Eunie (main boy, Machina dude, High Entia girl) are the Keves side.
Mio, Taion, and Sena (not-Nia, origami guy, hammer Blade) are on the Agnus side.
From the trailer it seems that you play parts with both groups, as well as at some point being able to make a party of four from the six.
There's some really basic routines it doesn't even try to do, like Tora being able to just put up the shield block and do nothing else, which handily outheals all incoming damage while you wait on other cooldowns. Or just, forever, because the self-heal is hilariously OP.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Use Noah's crew and add Mio.
The HP potions healed your entire party on collection, and the Healer class got a bonus to the effect of potions collected. So from the standpoint of the rules as intended, the Healer is supposed to be the one running around picking up the potions, while the Fighters and Defenders don't want to break their attack strings with extraneous movement.
Further from a wiki entry:
So, yeah, intentional on the devs' part.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
As far as roles go, the short version is:
Noah: DPS
Lanz: Tank
Eunie: Heals
Mio: Evade Tank
Sena: DPS
Taion: unspecified support
There are one or two shots of three-person parties which are all one faction. But there are also two or more shots of 4-character parties that feature 2 from each faction. I think there could be some kind of partner mechanic that appears at this point, based on some story speculation from trailer analysis. Though I doubt it would be Torna style where partners mostly sit out and take turns, since its only a 4-character group. I guess I will spoiler trailer speculation below, although it's leaving XC1/2 alone.
Later in the trailer the party members weapon clocks feature a different icon... a purple oroborus symbol. Its easier to see in some official artwork than the videos. So that's probably what Melia is referring to. There are also two cutscenes where party members from opposite factions stand close together (while seeming to work together) and blatantly show off oroborus. There's Eunie with her staff rasied while Taion is just behind her surrounding her with oragami. And then against the Agnus mech, there's Noah and Mio back-to-back like sitting ducks for a moment, but maybe they didn't do that for mere dramatic effect.
My guess here is that opposing faction's weapons can somehow pair up and create the oroborus symbol on their clocks, which gives them some kind of extra power. In both of the 4-player shots there's two characters from each faction, and it might even look like one character is following the leader more closely (and is opposite faction) while the other two are their own pair a little further off to the side. There's plenty of ways they can go to make mechanics out of this synergy, like partners powering up with proximity like the XC2 blades, having special combo moves with each other, or gaining temporary buffs every time the get close, meaning they can separate for a while before needing to get close again to buff up. However they implement it, it could be a way to square the circle on XC2's combat mechanics being so blade-dependent vs XC1's individuals acting alone and all at once.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Ok that makes team picking much easier.
Even if its 3 member I can use Noah, Eunie and Mio. Done! Those were my original picks but I thought I didn't have a tank.
The Chain Attack system is both vital to your enjoyment of the game, intuitive once you finally understand it, and difficult to express comprehensibly in text (and in typical JRPG fashion, explained to you once, in a giant text dump). That said, this is my attempt:
The battle system is a pyramid of resources, with the use of each lower resource building the next higher resource.
Auto-attacks charge your Artes.
Using Artes charges your Specials.
Specials, used in specific sequences by element and level, place Orbs on an enemy. (You may only place one Orb of each element on an enemy at the same time.) (This is the hardest step to get your head around, since only specific element sequences actually work in base XC2. This really has to be experienced directly to be understood.)
The Chain Attack consumes all Orbs on the enemy, and the more Orbs it uses, its damage increases geometrically.
It's possible to kill bosses without setting up huge Chain Attacks, but it is going to be a grinding and miserable process. The sooner you master the sequence outlined above, the less frustration you're going to experience with the large enemies.
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
The game does give a chart in the corner of what elements can continue the element combo (blade combo iirc?).
There's also the driver combo, which is break>topple>launch>smash, and being further in that also applies a damage multiplier (well, topple and launch do, smash ends it with a massive hit). Having both combo types running causes a fusion combo, which lengthens the timers of both and does some other stuff I can't remember, but basically it's even more damage.
Maximum damage more or less comes in two forms - either a fusion combo to set up massive multipliers, or a chain attack with several orbs (breaking orbs extends the chain attack, letting you get in more hits and higher multipliers. Breaking enough orbs spikes the bonus significantly and will lead to a level 4 special as a finisher for extra damage). Both of these aren't really feasible to do completely for much of the game, depending on blade access, since you need to be able to get a good spread of elements (the AI will switch to enable continuing a chain, thankfully) and access to launch etc. (Tora is very useful for fusion combos because Poppi's element can be changed and she eventually can be set up with all four stages of the driver combo at endgame, which I'm pretty sure nobody else can do).
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Chain attacks are fun regardless, so just learn them once they are available to you.
There's like no actual decision making of any kind in combat. Its just like you pick your blades and then you have a series of moves you repeat ad nauseum.
I tend to prefer 1’s combat that reason, but chain attacks continuing off random percent change is not particularly fun when you low roll and your huge buster attack setup died prematurely.
Torna may be the best of both worlds. It’s like a weird mashup of 2’s combat with fucking MvC of all things thrown in. The talent arts add more engagement since they have drawbacks so you can’t just spam them.
Endgame gives you some tools that make it dramatically easier to do all this.
Normal enemies it's not worth bothering for sure - you're normally going to just build up a level 2/3 special and explode them horribly.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I have the Expansion Pass with all the random goodies. Should I redeem all that stuff now, or wait til I know what I'm doing? Like is it worth cashing in these core gems in the early game at all?
The two semi-valuable things I remember getting is legendary crystals and overdrive protocol. Legendaries are rare enough you might want to wait until later when your driver stats are higher (improves odds of pulling good stuff) + the pool of rare blades is smaller since you got so many. Rares and especially common crystals are pretty common so just pop them whenever you need, especially to avoid overflowing from having more than 99 in inventory. Overdrive protocols let you switch blades between drivers, you only get a limited supply of these before New Game+ so I would use them sparingly and on rare+ blades only.
The game is basically two overlapping systems with extra cruft attached that you can largely ignore.
Drivers: The ones you control. The skills they use are driver arts, and you can perform Driver Combos inflicting special conditions on an enemy in a set order. Break, Topple, Launch, then Smash. Besides preventing the enemy from doing stuff, they allow for more damage and also generate health pots of increasing restoration. If you can set up these combos on the regular, you won’t even need a dedicated healer.
Blades: the ones behind you. As you perform Driver Arts, you build up a meter for Blade Arts that are basically super moves. Perform a chain of level 1 (or higher), 2+, and then 3+ that follows the elemental chart, and you finish a Blade Combo and generate an orb. The orb gives the creature resistance to that element that finished the combo, so you want to vary how you finish Blade Combos. You want orbs because when you start a chain attack, orbs can be broken to give you are another round of chain attacks. You can also mess with enemies by sealing moves via Blade Combo, but that requires memorization and builds that you won’t need to invest in.
How they overlap is if you do any portion of a Blade Combo during any duration of a Driver Combo, you get a fusion combo which mainly results in more damage and adds time available to proceed to the next step of the Blade Combo. This is key, as generating orbs gets more difficult as you run out of unique elements. So if Rex needs to perform a Fire level 1 to start the combo, and then build up to a level 3 to finish it because you have no other fire blades, then fusion combos provide sufficient time to get there.
Everything is secondary. Upgrade characters every so often, sleep in inns to give yourself additional levels you’ve earned (this is to prevent outleveling of content but shouldn’t be relevant on your first playthrough), and give everyone pouch items that recharge arts by X seconds.
But man I don't think I've successfully generated an orb yet. That system is... oof.
By the time they're even necessary, and not just a nice bonus, you should have access to skills and traits that make them easier to get and use.
Basically don't sweat it. If you're starting to do super bosses and are still struggling, I'd watch some guides.
Also, at some point you might notice that one or two of your primary blades are suddenly feeling grossly overpowered. Don't mistake that for cheesing, take advantage and enjoy it!
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I'm "kupiyupaekio" on Discord.
As an example of this? Mithra is actually kind of easy to have be very, very dumb. She has a trait that caps out at critical hits completely refresh the cooldown of the skill. It is not hard to get her crit rate very high, and one of her skills hits twice, with each hit able to crit. Rex regularly just keeps linking a skill into itself, which fills gauges fast and drops healing pickups like crazy (that double hit skill is also a potion drop...). Bonus - both Fire x 3 and Light x 3 are valid chains for orbs, and Mithra can easily make both of those completely on her own (by swapping to Pyra for specials for fire, but).
The scary thing is I don't think Mithra's even in the top 5 most gamebreaking blades. (granted, many of those are from the DLC... but Poppi and Kos-Mos both surpass her)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy