Now that you mention it, that Blade power-up grid (where every Blade has like six tracks on three tiers) was one of my minor annoyances with XC2, because all the bonuses sound insignificant individually, but actually add up to a lot of effectiveness in practice, and that winds up such that you never feel like you got a new tool that's making you powerful, but you definitely feel their absence if you've been neglecting those objectives. Which isn't to say that you don't feel powerful when you've got them all unlocked, but it's not tied to anything visible like a new usable skill, just... your numbers slowly got big, and now you're doing a lot more damage because ???.
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)
She is for a good portion of the story. Yeah, there's several others that surpass her in potential, particularly end/post game, but for a good chunk, she's just utter nonsense.
Now that you mention it, that Blade power-up grid (where every Blade has like six tracks on three tiers) was one of my minor annoyances with XC2, because all the bonuses sound insignificant individually, but actually add up to a lot of effectiveness in practice, and that winds up such that you never feel like you got a new tool that's making you powerful, but you definitely feel their absence if you've been neglecting those objectives. Which isn't to say that you don't feel powerful when you've got them all unlocked, but it's not tied to anything visible like a new usable skill, just... your numbers slowly got big, and now you're doing a lot more damage because ???.
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)
She is for a good portion of the story. Yeah, there's several others that surpass her in potential, particularly end/post game, but for a good chunk, she's just utter nonsense.
Also true, yes. And she's still good enough that if you optimize her she'll snap the difficulty in half... it's just the "stronger" options break it harder.
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
I found and messed around in the Nopon Archsage challenge arena thing. I'm guessing that's also a postgame thing, because the easiest first mission took a full 15 minutes to beat. But! The fight dragging on so long did mean I finally landed an orb, and then did a combo to break it!
Story stuff
yoooo. Shulk and Fiora showed up! Is this considered canon to either game or are we in goofy dream match world? What's happening!?
I found and messed around in the Nopon Archsage challenge arena thing. I'm guessing that's also a postgame thing, because the easiest first mission took a full 15 minutes to beat. But! The fight dragging on so long did mean I finally landed an orb, and then did a combo to break it!
Story stuff
yoooo. Shulk and Fiora showed up! Is this considered canon to either game or are we in goofy dream match world? What's happening!?
Some details make Shulk + Fiora being there kind of impossible, keep playing XC2 to figure out why.
But man I don't think I've successfully generated an orb yet. That system is... oof.
+11
Dark Raven XLaugh hard, run fast,be kindRegistered Userregular
Holy shit, just pulled KOS-MOS from a common core as my 7th rare blade. Been reading about how infuriating she is to catch, feeling very lucky right now.
I wish the rare and legendary cores had better drop rates, I don't think I ever actually got a rare blade from any of them, only from commons. Which also meant that I didn't see the draw animation for them, as I'm not opening 50 common cores individually.
I wish the rare and legendary cores had better drop rates, I don't think I ever actually got a rare blade from any of them, only from commons. Which also meant that I didn't see the draw animation for them, as I'm not opening 50 common cores individually.
Luckily you can replay all the Blade awakenings from the Events Theater and see whichever ones you missed(or just replay ones you liked).
+4
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Holy shit, just pulled KOS-MOS from a common core as my 7th rare blade. Been reading about how infuriating she is to catch, feeling very lucky right now.
That is awesome! When I played Xenoblade 2, Kos-Mos was my second or third blade pulled. I was ecstatic to say the least.
I know many didn't like it, but I didn't hate the gatcha mechanic. They were not necessary for completion or story, so the two or three I'm missing do not bother me much. The only thing you miss is each blade has their own little side story/quest that fleshes their personality out a bit. Those are fun but not necessary. Some of the completion requirements are infuriating though, for example the Ursula side quest was a beast to complete for her.
It's too bad her side story is so annoying since she was one of my fovorite blades to have around. Great design and fun character.
They just needed a post game ability to unlock all the rares and it would have been fine imo.
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+5
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited April 2022
I agree, that definitely would have been ideal.
Edit: I wonder how they could have integrated that with the fact that you have access to new rare blades in New Game+. I really want to do a new game+ run at some point as I'd love to get
Edit: I wonder how they could have integrated that with the fact that you have access to new rare blades in New Game+. I really want to do a new game+ run at some point as I'd love to get
Edit: I wonder how they could have integrated that with the fact that you have access to new rare blades in New Game+. I really want to do a new game+ run at some point as I'd love to get
T-elos
.
I don't think that particular blade is NG+ locked
It isn't technically new game plus locked, but it is locked to you having beat the game at least once. So you don't have to play NG+ to get this blade, but in my case, it would be since that is the way I'd play through it again.
Edit: I wonder how they could have integrated that with the fact that you have access to new rare blades in New Game+. I really want to do a new game+ run at some point as I'd love to get
T-elos
.
I don't think that particular blade is NG+ locked
It isn't technically new game plus locked, but it is locked to you having beat the game at least once. So you don't have to play NG+ to get this blade, but in my case, it would be since that is the way I'd play through it again.
That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. My game must have glitched, because I still haven’t beaten it but I have T-elos.
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
And I am SO mad at all of you who got KOS-MOS =p. I freakin' loved that char back with the Xenosaga and I heard about her RIGHT before XC2 came out so she was my ultimate goal blade. Didn't get her through my first OR second playthrough. Which was very disappointing.
So yea Sterica, definitely didn't love the gacha system after all that.
God XC3 better not have the stupid gatcha shit. It wasn't fun! I doubt it'll have the same systems anyway, but hopefully they got enough feedback that it wasn't well liked that they figure out something else entirely.
Or at the very least have options. Like, maybe have the crystals so you could possibly get someone rare or good randomly, but then also have a superboss that for sure drops a specific blades crystal. Hell, it wouldn't even have to be a 100% drop, but just a for sure place to get it so you're not mindlessly collecting a few hundred of the crystals to open at once in the off chance that maybe you'll get the blade you want.
But better to not include anything like it at all in XC3.
I'm fine with some things being locked behind NG+ like XC2 has, just steer waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of the way from anything that resembles gatcha, even if it is "free". We don't need more normalization of manipulative methods of addiction abuse.
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
That actually makes me realize how excited I am for XC3. I already know they make awesome worlds that I love to explore. But XC2, while a great game, just missed the mark for me a bit mostly due to 2 things..
The Blades. Bot the haha system and how they affected combat. And they always change up those systems so its fairly safe to assume we will have something new there.
And the MC. I spent so long in that game just kinda waiting to get Zeke on my team so I could play as a character with a design I liked. And it made me not as into anything prior to that point because I felt like I wasn't really playing my character yet and he comes in a fair bit into the game.
But I already like the design of the new MC. So just knowing I'll get to be jumping into a big beautiful XC world to explore without those downsides? Oh boy. Hype is starting to kick in!
God XC3 better not have the stupid gatcha shit. It wasn't fun! I doubt it'll have the same systems anyway, but hopefully they got enough feedback that it wasn't well liked that they figure out something else entirely.
I'm fine with some things being locked behind NG+ like XC2 has, just steer waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of the way from anything that resembles gatcha, even if it is "free". We don't need more normalization of manipulative methods of addiction abuse.
I didn't mind the gatcha mechanics too much, but I do wish that would have made the odds of getting the rare blades from the higher level cores better. I think I went through the 30 legendary cores you get from buying the expansion pass a couple of times(hooray for save scumming), and I still got commons pretty much every time. I haven't been keeping track, but I think I've gotten more of the rare blades off common cores than I have off the rare and legendary cores. So, if in XC3 they just fixed that aspect(say have the common cores give you a minor chance, the rares give you a 50% chance or something and the legendary ones give you a 100% chance), I would be fine with it.
God XC3 better not have the stupid gatcha shit. It wasn't fun! I doubt it'll have the same systems anyway, but hopefully they got enough feedback that it wasn't well liked that they figure out something else entirely.
I'm fine with some things being locked behind NG+ like XC2 has, just steer waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of the way from anything that resembles gatcha, even if it is "free". We don't need more normalization of manipulative methods of addiction abuse.
I didn't mind the gatcha mechanics too much, but I do wish that would have made the odds of getting the rare blades from the higher level cores better. I think I went through the 30 legendary cores you get from buying the expansion pass a couple of times(hooray for save scumming), and I still got commons pretty much every time. I haven't been keeping track, but I think I've gotten more of the rare blades off common cores than I have off the rare and legendary cores. So, if in XC3 they just fixed that aspect(say have the common cores give you a minor chance, the rares give you a 50% chance or something and the legendary ones give you a 100% chance), I would be fine with it.
It'll be some completely different system I bet. They've repeated very little of their systems between games.
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I think we've seen enough to rule out blades as collectables... the whole blade/driver system is lorewise likely in shambles, and everything about the trailer and revealed characters is maintaining a balance between XC1 and XC2 worlds. We've also seen the revealed player characters in a variety of outfits, that's something the XC2 team had to largely sacrifice to support so many different characters. Hopefully without something as strong to anchor in as unlockable NPCs, there would be less desire to make a gacha system in the first plce.
Some new key art (possibly box art?) has leaked from the official site. Nothing crazy, just shows the six revealed player characters, although their pairing might be interesting.
+3
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I've been calling for full-party battles for years! Decades! Finally someone listens to me! No more having to choose between favorites and has-beens! Now everyone is my favorite!
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Not the biggest fan of all 6 characters in combat but still way better than blades and I guess it makes it more like a DnD size party or an MMO party.
But that comes with the downsides of not being able to sideline a character if I dislike them plus I just love having my main character deal huge damage and more characters means thats much less of the overall % of damage.
Called the opposing factions having some pair-up synergy, but I never thought they'd go as far as voltron. Or full parties which is pretty cool. Now, they just need to let us swap characters mid-fight...
Wait count seven instead (eight total as the 7th are a pair of Nopon!)
It looks like the main six cast, and then a seventh spot that the trailer shows a few characters occupying at different times (Riku & Manana, Zeon, Valdi).
0
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Called the opposing factions having some pair-up synergy, but I never thought they'd go as far as voltron. Or full parties which is pretty cool. Now, they just need to let us swap characters mid-fight...
Dont they already allow that? Switching who you control mid fight?
Called the opposing factions having some pair-up synergy, but I never thought they'd go as far as voltron. Or full parties which is pretty cool. Now, they just need to let us swap characters mid-fight...
Dont they already allow that? Switching who you control mid fight?
In Xeno 1 it's not a thing at all.
In Xeno 2 you are locked to one of the three drivers in your party, but can swap which blade/weapon they are using to access more skills.
In Torna you are locked to one of the three blade/driver teams. Each team has three members, but only one member participates in battle at a time, so it's closer to a cosmetic variation on Xeno 2's weapon swapping.
also it's kind of creepy that only male/female pairings end up making evangelions
Just in case anyone thought we could escape Xeno 2.
+2
DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Also kinda interesting you can see aggro values on skills.
And shows that cat girl is indeed able to tank. So I assume we will get skill trees in some way that can focus a role because if we are always using all characters dint really need 2 devoted tanks.
I wonder if we can think of each pair as a role?
Magic support pair / then the other two can focus either dps or tank pending build path?
Would definitely be easier for my brain to think of it like that instead of 1 healer, 1 tank and the 4 dps lol.
also it's kind of creepy that only male/female pairings end up making evangelions
Not holding my breath, but it might be possible to pair up anyone? The trailer just might be using canon pairings, which yeah super het, but as long as they’re not pairing 14-year-olds with adults I’ll consider it a win.
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She is for a good portion of the story. Yeah, there's several others that surpass her in potential, particularly end/post game, but for a good chunk, she's just utter nonsense.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
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Also true, yes. And she's still good enough that if you optimize her she'll snap the difficulty in half... it's just the "stronger" options break it harder.
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Story stuff
It's just fanservice. There's a postgame unlock to bring them back into the main game with you, as well as
Luckily you can replay all the Blade awakenings from the Events Theater and see whichever ones you missed(or just replay ones you liked).
That is awesome! When I played Xenoblade 2, Kos-Mos was my second or third blade pulled. I was ecstatic to say the least.
I know many didn't like it, but I didn't hate the gatcha mechanic. They were not necessary for completion or story, so the two or three I'm missing do not bother me much. The only thing you miss is each blade has their own little side story/quest that fleshes their personality out a bit. Those are fun but not necessary. Some of the completion requirements are infuriating though, for example the Ursula side quest was a beast to complete for her.
It's too bad her side story is so annoying since she was one of my fovorite blades to have around. Great design and fun character.
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Edit: I wonder how they could have integrated that with the fact that you have access to new rare blades in New Game+. I really want to do a new game+ run at some point as I'd love to get
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I don't think that particular blade is NG+ locked
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It isn't technically new game plus locked, but it is locked to you having beat the game at least once. So you don't have to play NG+ to get this blade, but in my case, it would be since that is the way I'd play through it again.
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That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. My game must have glitched, because I still haven’t beaten it but I have T-elos.
Nah that would still have sucked for all the many many people that thought it felt bad through the whole game and don't play after the story.
I think getting whatever blades you get and dealing with it all game is fine.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
And I am SO mad at all of you who got KOS-MOS =p. I freakin' loved that char back with the Xenosaga and I heard about her RIGHT before XC2 came out so she was my ultimate goal blade. Didn't get her through my first OR second playthrough. Which was very disappointing.
So yea Sterica, definitely didn't love the gacha system after all that.
Or at the very least have options. Like, maybe have the crystals so you could possibly get someone rare or good randomly, but then also have a superboss that for sure drops a specific blades crystal. Hell, it wouldn't even have to be a 100% drop, but just a for sure place to get it so you're not mindlessly collecting a few hundred of the crystals to open at once in the off chance that maybe you'll get the blade you want.
But better to not include anything like it at all in XC3.
I'm fine with some things being locked behind NG+ like XC2 has, just steer waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hell out of the way from anything that resembles gatcha, even if it is "free". We don't need more normalization of manipulative methods of addiction abuse.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
The Blades. Bot the haha system and how they affected combat. And they always change up those systems so its fairly safe to assume we will have something new there.
And the MC. I spent so long in that game just kinda waiting to get Zeke on my team so I could play as a character with a design I liked. And it made me not as into anything prior to that point because I felt like I wasn't really playing my character yet and he comes in a fair bit into the game.
But I already like the design of the new MC. So just knowing I'll get to be jumping into a big beautiful XC world to explore without those downsides? Oh boy. Hype is starting to kick in!
I didn't mind the gatcha mechanics too much, but I do wish that would have made the odds of getting the rare blades from the higher level cores better. I think I went through the 30 legendary cores you get from buying the expansion pass a couple of times(hooray for save scumming), and I still got commons pretty much every time. I haven't been keeping track, but I think I've gotten more of the rare blades off common cores than I have off the rare and legendary cores. So, if in XC3 they just fixed that aspect(say have the common cores give you a minor chance, the rares give you a 50% chance or something and the legendary ones give you a 100% chance), I would be fine with it.
It'll be some completely different system I bet. They've repeated very little of their systems between games.
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This is the greatest suprise!
Also, we get to see combat! Six characters! No blades, but a weird Fusion system where two characters become a weird robot thing! Daze!
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But that comes with the downsides of not being able to sideline a character if I dislike them plus I just love having my main character deal huge damage and more characters means thats much less of the overall % of damage.
Overall though status is still HYPE!
It looks like the main six cast, and then a seventh spot that the trailer shows a few characters occupying at different times (Riku & Manana, Zeon, Valdi).
Dont they already allow that? Switching who you control mid fight?
In Xeno 1 it's not a thing at all.
In Xeno 2 you are locked to one of the three drivers in your party, but can swap which blade/weapon they are using to access more skills.
In Torna you are locked to one of the three blade/driver teams. Each team has three members, but only one member participates in battle at a time, so it's closer to a cosmetic variation on Xeno 2's weapon swapping.
Never played X so can't say there.
but i am still taking the week off to play the hell out of that game
Just in case anyone thought we could escape Xeno 2.
And shows that cat girl is indeed able to tank. So I assume we will get skill trees in some way that can focus a role because if we are always using all characters dint really need 2 devoted tanks.
I wonder if we can think of each pair as a role?
Magic support pair / then the other two can focus either dps or tank pending build path?
Would definitely be easier for my brain to think of it like that instead of 1 healer, 1 tank and the 4 dps lol.