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Oh gently caress yes. Lethemonster, you will always be awesome to me for having made the original LP, inspiring me to pick up the game myself last year. I love it to death. (I will attempt to exhibit some self-restraint and not  on mechanicschat at the slightest provocation.)
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Jul 16, 2013 16:49
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Okay, now that I've watched the vid rather than just pre-emptively gushing... My 2 cents on the audio levels is that both your own voice and the game audio in the background behind it could stand to be a little louder. In other words, if your own voice is a little louder, you wouldn't need to duck the game audio as much to be clearly audible (you should still, of course, duck it enough to be clearly audible). That way the viewer could better appreciate the battle music and some of the party chatter, just as a background thing rather than a focal element. Right now they're a trifle too quiet for me to really hear them at all. Also, I've got to admit that I've never paid too much thought to the actual names of some of the items, but you're absolutely right about dance apples.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:57
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It looks like a new playthrough. Also, it's a bit disconcerting to hear you talk about Fiora's vomit-like jump noise when I can't actually hear said jump noise very well.
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Jul 18, 2013 21:01
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I would not be opposed if every update image link were accompanied by a picture of a random nopon.
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Jul 25, 2013 02:22
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Critic of the Dawn posted:Also, one thing that Lethemonster didn't mention during her brief overview on Chain Attacks is the multiplier. Using arts of the same color consecutively will increase the amount of damage that later arts in the chain do - this is indicated by the Chain Multiplier on the right side of the screen. The second attack of the same color will do double damage, the third triple damage, the fourth quadruple, and the fifth "Max" damage - I'm not sure if the fifth is quintupled as seems logical for the progression, or if there's an extra bonus for getting to Max. I think the big damage hit that Letthemonster referenced may have been partially because of this (but only partially, because Fiora really does hit harder than Reyn or Shulk).  For damage boosts, the math includes a multiplier (default to 1 in neutral situations) that various sources can add to. Chain attacks are one of those sources: chain 2 is +1 (= 2x damage if otherwise neutral), chain 3 is +3 (4x damage), chain 4 is +5 (6x damage), and chain max (5+) is +7 (8x damage). It's usually safe to think of it as 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x for chain 1 to 5 respectively, though if you're getting multiplier boosts from other sources then it's worth remembering that all the multipliers there get added together first, then applied as a group. Because of that, chains won't have quite the full 2x/4x/6x/8x (relative to the damage you do without the chain but still with your other multipliers) in those situations. For example, if you were getting a +0.5 from something else, then your chains would have net multipliers of 1.5, 2.5, 4.5, 6.5, and 8.5, and the latter four when compared to the first (baseline) one would be 1.66x/3x/4.33x/5.66x. This is really only an issue if you're gonna rules-lawyer about "but I thought I was going to get X times more damage, waaaah". It's always a good thing to get the multiplier as high as you can.
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Aug 10, 2013 18:56
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Sharla has her uses, to be sure, but I've seen many a player stick with Shulk/Reyn/Sharla and use her as a crutch rather than branching out into notions of "best defense is a good offense/kill them before they kill you" or "keep yourself alive in other ways besides facetanking and art-healing, such as dodging or getting heals from other sources like skills". Also as a rule, for chain attack effectiveness, it works well to pair up characters who have lots of the same color arts so you can get the multiplier high. Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban all have a good number of red arts. Sharla is majorly blue with a few other colors thrown in. This makes her a good choice for a clutch chain attack to bust out a lot of utility stuff but no good damage (e.g. topple the enemy and heal the party), but a poor choice if you want your chain attack to focus on  .
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Aug 27, 2013 15:52
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Wonderslug posted:Edit: Alternately, it is pronounced "rain," only through the mouth of Eliza Doolittle: the Reyn in Speyn steys meynly on the pleyn. Funny that you should mention that, considering the party banter... though I think that particular one involves a character we haven't met yet.
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Sep 3, 2013 17:50
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I'd say he's got a dash of Not-Wilhelm and a dash of Not-chaos. Either way, I really like Alvis too. Telethia aren't exempt in the same way. They're more "gently caress off, super Monado powers, we're all out-predicting you and super dodgy and poo poo" but it can smack them around just fine (when you can hit) - compare to an un-toppled Face Mechon who's perfectly hittable, but just takes 1 damage per hit.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:20
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Blind Sally posted:I might be mis-remembering a later event. I think I can guess what you're thinking about, there, but let's wait until we get there. Lethemonster posted:I've got an update that is split about equally between going through awesome scenery and cutscene. Are you guys happy for a non-commentated update? It's so pretty I can't think of anything to add over it, but I'll sort something out if people just get bored of that. Personally I'm always happy just to soak in the scenery and party banter, but commentary doesn't need to be constant-or-never. You could have, like, two comments for the whole video and otherwise keep quiet, for example. Say stuff if you feel like you want to say stuff, and let it speak for itself when there's nothing you want to add.
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Sep 18, 2013 18:16
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Ometeotl posted:What a cruel place to end it. Totally. In other news, I absolutely adore Chief Dunga's design.
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Sep 18, 2013 21:42
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JT Jag posted:One thing I find curious is the insistent terminology of the Nopon. They repeatedly call Shulk and crew Hom Hom, but they don't use that term when discussing Melia. Even Melia refers to the group as "These Homs", as if she isn't one herself. FTFY. The language of Glorious Nopon must be preserved in its true original form.
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Sep 19, 2013 06:59
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All hail the mighty heropon! Best character not named Dickson - I also love the fact that the chief basically pressures him into indentured servitude with a line of bullshit. And that the cute mascot character is a 40-year-old dad.
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Sep 19, 2013 19:12
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alcharagia posted:Gifting items exists for a reason, y'know. (The reason is so that you don't have to use Sharla to gain affinity.) I'm not that big on gifting. It feels like too small an affinity boost for the time investment of both grabbing up the collectible and going through the process of using it from the inventory. (Most of this is, admittedly, a generalization of "I'm not that big on Xenoblade's inventory system overall". I have few gripes with the game, but that's one of them.) Much, much later on, in a few dozen updates, it'll be fine for me to discuss what I like to do for efficient affinity in the endgame, for any character pairings that haven't already maxed it out by then. But all the way until that point? I'd rather just run around fighting poo poo because really, combat's a lot of fun.
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Sep 20, 2013 01:26
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Most of the good ones involve Reyn or Riki. Reyn: "You can't make a rainbow without Reyn!" Melia: "Dunban, you need to talk to Reyn." Dunban: "No, let's just pretend it didn't happen."
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Sep 20, 2013 02:37
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Whatever's more convenient to you. My only request is that you do one of two things: 1. Be completionist as gently caress and do just about every last sidequest so we can see the masterful chart showing the links between every goddamn NPC in the world. 2. Be selective as gently caress and do (or at least show) only the sidequests that are in some way unusually interesting or rewarding. The dilemma here is that despite the sheer number of sidequests, nearly all of them (aside from generic kill/collect ones from nameless NPCs) are in fact interesting and shed some light on the character of one or more of the NPCs in the game. If you really go nuts sidequesting, you actually end up seeing an appreciable amount of personality and sometimes development, from nearly every named NPC. And there are over 150 of them. So there isn't really a nice compromise option of "only do the sidequests which provide interesting insights or humor" because that's, well, almost all of them. The sidequests themselves can get a bit samey (they mostly devolve to kill/collect quests in terms of what you actually have to do from a gameplay perspective), but they become a story of their own after a while. Video or screenshot, either way I'd certainly ask that you snip out the bits where you're actually doing the killing or collecting, except for when something calls upon you to fight a unique, because the music always rocks. Backup option: focus on the plot and skim past sidequests in the first playthrough, and then have an NG+ playthrough that focuses in heavy depth on NPCs and sidequests.
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Sep 20, 2013 22:18
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That's true, the Xenosaga series could do with a complete and archived LP. I really liked Zutaten's, but it's unfortunate that he never finished. Maybe I should tackle that myself, though I'm more of a mechanicschat person than a plotchat person.
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Sep 24, 2013 17:00
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Oh hey, didn't realize that's what it was. I can be pretty derpy if the name itself isn't in the topic title. 
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Sep 24, 2013 18:25
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Aside from Sharla's unavoidably fanservicey outfits (and while you can't do much about that, you can at least make it equal opportunity by having Reyn and Dunban run around in boxers), I don't think the game handles female characters poorly so much as it handles non-Shulk characters poorly. The story very clearly revolves around him, from what we've seen. I'd comment more about character development, agency, and Interesting Things They Are Involved With (and which characters/sexes get more of this than others when we exclude Shulk), but it'd be best to see things play out first. Maybe remind me about it when the LP is over. That said, even a newcomer to the game can tell it's pretty obviously setting up a big Melia arc here.
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Sep 28, 2013 21:21
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Lethemonster posted:Here's a teaser for upcoming episodes: Heropon very cool! Riki is the one character for whom every outfit looks amazing. Dunban is a close second, though heavy armor still looks doofy on him.
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Sep 29, 2013 20:10
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Every character is the best character. Except Dickson. He's the for-real-guys best character. You can only play as him for that one battle because all the enemies would be like "gently caress off, we can't challenge this level of awesome" if you could use him more, and the plot would be very short.
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Sep 30, 2013 21:27
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Riki's voice grew on me really loving fast. Also, bear in mind that his banishment comes with the goddamn guarantee that his (very large and very hungry) family will be cared for. That may well be more than he could personally have provided if he'd stuck around. It's basically like a father in the real world taking a dangerous overseas military job that pays super well: there are down sides to be sure, but there are also obvious benefits and reasons to do it. Particularly considering Riki was apparently something of a deadbeat before that, given that he'd been Heropon'd on account of his debt. ("Prophecies" my rear end. Nopon are all about justifying indentured servitude with cute explanations.)
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Oct 1, 2013 16:53
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Is this going to include things that we haven't unlocked yet? (Either due to being too low level, or not having done certain things yet - e.g. Monado Purge for reaching Makna or Mind Blast for fighting the telethia.) Or are you planning to give a more high-level overview rather than a detailed blow by blow? (In which case the point is rendered somewhat moot.) Regardless, I hope you feel better soon.
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Oct 7, 2013 16:19
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Arts Seal is indeed annoying. You can, however, do something about it with gems at this point, though this will take anywhere from 3 to 5 gem slots per character (for full immunity) depending on how much you can pump up your gem crafting. The Flutes Kromars on the hovering reef right before that fight, and the Lunar Gradys on the shore where we first entered Eryth Sea, both drop crystals that can include Arts Seal rank 3. Depending on how much percentage you end up with in gem crafting, you can either end up with: - A rank 3 gem giving 20-25% resistance (100-199% progress when crafting) - A rank 4 gem giving 28-33% resistance (200-299% "heat" progress when crafting) - Two rank 4 gems giving 34% resistance each (300% "mega heat" progress when crafting) Now, whether that's worth the bother for this fight is another matter entirely.
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Oct 15, 2013 19:46
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Eh, she doesn't comment on the outfit. Like with every other cutscene in the game, it'll proceed exactly as normal whether your characters are wearing normal clothes, tribal jungle gear, skimpy bathing suits (or no equipment, which looks much the same), moderately heavy armor, or are decked out in layers of spiky plate. Riki is currently wearing one of my two favorite outfits for him. The other is the heavy armor set that makes him look like a little spiky ball.  Everyone else is best served by wearing swimsuits all the time (except Reyn, who should wear whatever combo getup looks the most ridiculous - generally some combination of heavy armor and jungle gear) in an attempt to undermine the gravitas of any and all situations.
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Oct 16, 2013 03:53
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Things I like? Coughing, no. Heropon, yes. rikisneaky Seriously though, take as much time as you need to rest up and feel better. Drink lots of fluids, of course, to help with the coughing. 
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Nov 8, 2013 22:45
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I like that Riki flutters in the air a bit before he joins them. I also love pretty much any scene involving Lorithia.
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Nov 19, 2013 20:04
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Regarding your comment near the end, you can absolutely return to the High Entia Tomb later in the game. I'm not sure about immediately after your initial visit, but it's definitely not a place where you're permanently locked out.
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Dec 5, 2013 18:54
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The general Alcamoth-area plot sequence is filled with "no, gently caress you, you are going where the game wants you to go" barriers in the form of NPCs stopping you or your party members going "no, we have to do ____". It's really the only offender that comes to mind, though. I can think of a few other brief moments, but for the most part you can happily fast travel to anywhere you've previously visited, provided it's not permanently locked out like the bottom half of Ether Mine. But High Entia Tomb very definitely does not get any sort of permanent lockout - you can pop in there just fine even with an endgame save. I would at least suggest returning for the chest containing an advanced manual for Summon Bolt (might as well make Melia even more of a broken glass cannon by letting her go straight to rank 10 as soon as she has the AP for it), unless you picked that up on your first visit. There's also a bit of a reason to return there much much later in the game, but - especially if reminded - I'll talk about that when we get there. We're still a long ways off from that point. In general I agree with you that it's really tedious and repetitive level design. It doesn't help that most of the enemies there use physical-resistance buffs, at a point in the plot where your main ether damage dealer is out of party in need of rescuing. The mighty heropon can help mitigate that if you're controlling him.
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Dec 5, 2013 20:05
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Reoxygenation posted:Well it's an affinity coin The same can also be said of the first treasury. Also, I couldn't catch it on the high-speed video, but the structure in the middle of that hidden room can be opened like a treasure chest. It's one of a handful of fixed chests (as opposed to enemy-drop chests) throughout the game.
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Jan 20, 2014 09:22
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Can't really argue with that, affinity coins are always useful.
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I'm biding my time waiting for the next update. Even if I hadn't played the game before, it's obvious that poo poo Is Going To Go Down with all the foreshadowing of how important this place is.
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Jan 28, 2014 23:19
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Reoxygenation posted:Prison Island is REALLY loving important, and one of my favorite places in the game. Frontier Village still has the number 1 spot on that list though Well yeah, you can't beat the nopon and their pollen orb economy. But Prison Island's whole atmosphere comes reaaaaaally close.
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Jan 29, 2014 05:32
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I just started playing again today. I'm not much farther ahead at all. In fact, my saved game was right after where the video ends. I decided to try and main Sharla for a while to see if I could put her attack skills to use. Eh, not great. Most of her attack skills have huge cooldowns. It wouldn't be so bad if her worthless "Cool Off" talent art actually reset her cooldowns as well, but noooooo. Drive Boost aura + Sustained Spirit skill linked from Dunban (to extend aura duration) + Aura Bullet art (to further extend aura duration) can result in perpetual or near-perpetual Drive Boost on Sharla. Drive Boost majorly cuts down the cooldowns of all her arts except Drive Boost itself (hence why you go through those shenanigans to keep it up in turn). Notably this includes Thunder Bullet, and of course levelling that up will cut down on its cooldown as well. The basic idea here is to maintain perpetual Drive Boost, boost Sharla's electric and ether damage, and spam the poo poo out of Thunder Bullet. It works better the higher you level the relevant arts, of course, and Sharla still isn't as damaging as, well, anyone else. But at least she's not a complete DPS dead weight like she usually is. On plot: it's already been said, but poo poo Just Got Real. Part 1. I really love the whole Prison Island sequence of events, though. You're introduced to a lot of characters and revelations, and while you've resolved the whole face mechon immunity problem, now there are a whole bunch of other concerns and questions occupying both the party's and (e.g. Alvis) the player's attention. Vil fucked around with this message at 08:58 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 08:56
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I've got a bunch to say, but I'll wait for more people to see the video first.
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vaguely posted:Since this has already been answered, I'll point out that you can actually stumble onto the answer way earlier than this point in the game, and spoiler yourself for this Shocking Plot Tweest. I kind of like it though, it's part of the game's attempts to reward you for being a sidequest obsessive not just with better gear but also with a better understanding of the setting. Specifically, the plot unlock for that sidequest revelation is once you've beaten Xord. That said, you need a shitload of Colony 9 affinity - 4.5 out of 5 stars - for that sidequest as well, so unless a player is really diligent about sidequesting, they probably won't see the revelation until later.
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Feb 6, 2014 16:26
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Huh. My mistake, then. I thought that dialogue only triggered when you met the requirements for her quest (since the dialogue is also a requirement for the quest).
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Feb 6, 2014 17:17
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How is that you have not unanimously voted for the mighty Heropon?  Lethemonster, please take your time and rest up as much as you need to. Any infection that sticks around for two months is far more important than an LP.
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Mar 17, 2014 17:04
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InfiniteJesters posted:For the love of me, I cannot find Agile Albatro in Makna Forest. Clear or hot weather. More to the point, not raining. If you're concerned you're in the wrong place, I've circled the (Japanese) name and location of it, in red, on this map: 
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Mar 18, 2014 03:07
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:Jump off the bridge. It flies around down near the river. Breezy Zelos's spawn point is the purple label at X 1527, Y -64, on that map. In other words, a short ways north of Windmill Pavilion.
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Mar 18, 2014 03:29
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InfiniteJesters posted:I AM A DOOFUS! Morning to evening, not out at night. I think he might have a relatively wide roaming area, but don't hold me to that. Spawn location is circled in red again: 
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Mar 18, 2014 16:52
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I meant Sunlight Schvaik in Satorl Marsh, not Agile Albatro in Makna Forest.
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Glazius posted:So does that big heart in the relationship meter mean you completed the event? There are two ways to do that? In the heart to hearts, you get: +50 affinity (shown as four small hearts moving up) for every "right" answer. -50 affinity (shown as four small hearts moving down) for every "wrong" answer. +300 affinity (shown as a large heart moving up) at the end no matter what. There are three forks in every conversation, of which you'll see two in any given attempt: one fork is the first choice, and the other two are the respective second choices for if you picked the "right" or "wrong" answer to the first choice. Basically the conversation can go in one of four directions, but the characters still end up bonding somewhat no matter what: Right/right: +50 +50 +300 = +400 Right/wrong: +50 -50 +300 = +300 Wrong/right: -50 +50 +300 = +300 Wrong/wrong: -50 -50 +300 = +200 For some context on these numbers, the five affinity categories are at 0-999 (yellow), 1000-1999 (green), 2000-2999 (blue), 3000-4999 (purple), and 5000 (pink, and hard capped so you can't buffer extra, not that you really need to). Meanwhile, gifts of collectibles tend to be single-digit or low double-digit affinity changes, with particularly well-received collectibles giving affinity closer to +20. These are represented visually by 1 to 3 hearts. (There's one hard-to-get collectible that gives 4 hearts to anyone, which is actually a pretty hefty +100.) I'm having trouble digging up details on affinity gains from combat events, I'm afraid.
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May 24, 2014 17:06
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 12:25 |
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If you have the patience to wait until you're high enough level to fight a level 87 unique without promptly dying (read: endgame), said unique has a spike effect which puts the attacker to sleep. So your AI characters smack him and fall asleep, and your controlled character uses a sleep resist gem so they don't have to worry about it, and just sits there spamming B to wake them up (and occasionally encourage them when they get bummed out about their narcolepsy). When the unique gets low on health, run away to make him leash and regenerate, then repeat. Takes maybe two hours, tops, to get every pair (not each, every) from meh to max affinity.
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Jun 5, 2014 02:59
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