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There was one actually good cutscene in X at the end of one chapter where your main gets his/her forearm blown off, freaks out, and wakes with it back like nothing happened. Then you find out everyone's in a mechanized body or something. The rest were somewhere between forgettable and awful. I'll be damned if the exploration wasn't a whole lot of fun though. I also liked how skell flight opened up a lot of the places you could see but never get to.
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May 17, 2020 00:21
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Evil Fluffy posted:That scene makes every single scene where people are mourning the 'death' of someone fall pretty flat because you know it's really not the case (as long as you get the macguffin). Hmm, that is disappointing because I definitely wanted some of the characters to get lost. I've never skipped cutscenes that aggressively in a game before. The actual game part was pretty fun. Pinterest Mom posted:They named the hub city "New Los Angeles".
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May 17, 2020 04:42
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Neddy Seagoon posted:You can't reasonably assume or expect a guaranteed average level of success out of random dice rolls. Some are absolutely gonna get screwed and never see any by the five pity-timer'ed Blades just by it being random. Some lucky little shits will also pull ALL the Rare Blades well before the end of a playthrough. I thought this overstated the chances you'd be that unlucky, but in the worst case there's just under a 6% chance you get no rare blades after opening 60 common cores (i.e., enough to get all 3 pity blades). That number assumes the minimum luck and idea stats. Opening rare or legendary cores will substantially reduce that chance, and it drops further as luck/idea stats increase. Assuming I interpreted the drop rules correctly.
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May 22, 2020 22:37
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Tae posted:The early game is still rough for me, and I'm actually doing more sidequests than normal. Am I missing something, or equipment other than the refuge colony 6 camp? (just met hammer mech). Prioritize learning Shulk's skills that 1) heal after a chain attack, 2) increase chances of a chain link, and 3) boost chain attack damage. Link the first skill to other characters ASAP because it stacks. I forget if the other skills stack if you link them. Remember to go through your inventory periodically and give your characters the best available equipment. Gems can help, even though they're weak earlier in the game. Agility is the stat you want to try to boost, and HP up and muscle up (raises def) gems can be helpful early. It's best to play as Shulk because the AI doesn't pay attention to positioning. Use your break arts so Reyn can topple. Try to hit burst affinities (button challenges) every time, because they build party gauge. They tend to happen when someone dodges, crits, or inflicts a negative status. Chain attacks are your main source of damage - use arts of the same color during the chain to build the attack multiplier. Talent arts can link with any colors in a chain attack, which you'll need because Sharla's arts don't match well with Shulk/Reyn. If you're able to extend the chain attack and get the multiplier to a decent number, the Monado Buster art is great for heavy burst damage.
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May 31, 2020 06:04
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For anyone worried about missables and quests, very few quests have unique rewards. Those that do tend to be gated behind area affinity levels or come at the end of a quest chain, and are not permanently missable. I'm pretty sure there's no significant items that are permanently missable, which is something I really like about the game design. Also, generic quests tend to be numbered (Challenge x/Monster Quest x) and automatically complete when you hit the requirements. You tend to finish a lot of these during regular play. The rewards aren't anything special so they can be safely skipped.
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Jun 1, 2020 01:34
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For the main story the key skills to link are mainly coming from Shulk anyway. The others help but it's postgame when you'd really want to optimize.
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Jun 2, 2020 05:09
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Also increases the level of the crystals in the Ether Mine. I think it's one of the few ways to craft lv 5/6 agility gems.
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Jun 4, 2020 03:39
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Memnaelar posted:So... help a brother who might otherwise get overwhelmed with sidequests. Is it possible to miss a few sidequests and still max out a region's affinity? I've been paranoid about doing EVERY sidequest so as to make sure I don't miss an opportunity to get that region to 5 stars, but I've obviously got to go back and catch up on a few as, around Chapter 11, I'm sitting on a 3 star Colony 9. Yeah, don't worry. After one of the major near-endgame events some new quests open for each region and they award a lot of affinity. You'll know you've hit that point because a lot of timed quests expire. I'm pretty sure you can't lock yourself out of max area affinity. A lot of the low value quests you can get away with ignoring altogether.
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Jun 6, 2020 00:59
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Ogmius815 posted:How much should I worry about permanently missable content? I am just finishing up Tales of Vesperia and I have bad memories. None of the missable quests reward you with anything that unique. The good stuff like extra skill trees isn't missable, and equipment, including the best gear, is dropped by enemies frequently. There are hundreds of quests, so don't feel obligated to do them all unless you enjoy them.
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Jun 11, 2020 05:49
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Burst end is quite good because it debuffs enemy defense and ether defense. It's a direct increase to your damage, and if you're going for big numbers with Melia it's flat out better than mind blast. Ideally you use it right before a chain attack. Summon bolt is mainly good for the ether buff. Don't discharge it (until the buff wears off) because it increases aggro on Melia. Avoid using wind for the same reason. For big damage, replace blaze plus with back atk plus. Position behind the enemy, chain attack, discharge ice and earth when the multiplier is high. Almost nothing can survive that as long as your party can stay upright for several seconds while the DoTs do their thing. Don't sleep on Melia's reflection art either. It can save in a pinch and I find it has a lot more utility than summon flare.
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May 21, 2021 05:15
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:All the superbosses have a 70% resistance to defense/ether defense down so Burst End seems like a huge waste of a slot to me when Mind Blast is absurdly powerful and can seal auras. A night vision V and agility VI gem, along with a few linked skills are enough to consistently hit any of the superbosses, unless your strategy hinges on using Melia's topple combo. Blizzard Belgazas has low base agi so you don't need night vision for that fight. If you're swapping out summon earth for summon wind you're cutting Melia's DPS damage heavily and needlessly lengthening the fight in return for a buff that doesn't make that much of a difference. Mind blast doesn't help with DPS much. It hits in the 5 digit range, but with a good setup Melia's DoTs do way more. The idea is to kill enemies quickly, so even if they activate an aura they're not alive long enough to do anything. Alternatively you just can topple lock, which is a foolproof way to beat the superbosses but not one you'd normally use with Melia.
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May 21, 2021 13:48
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Sure, you can topple lock with Melia but she's less effective than a party of Shulk/Reyn/Dunban and she doesn't synergize as well with physical characters. In your example you'd be better off with Reyn in the party because he has topple and daze arts with shorter cooldowns. With the right setup he can keep an enemy locked down by himself.
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May 22, 2021 00:53
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Break is just one art at the start of a chain attack though, a small cost to pay. Starlight kick's longer cooldown relative to wild down and steel strike is a liability. If we're talking superbosses, 2 of them halve topple duration so you have to be efficient to keep them locked down. You're also reliant on AI shulk to use monado cyclone or save his talent gauge until a chain attack, which is unreliable. Putting night vision on Melia nerfs her damage because her best attacks are ether-based and unaffected by accuracy/evasion. You mentioned being reliant on Melia's mind blast to remove auras from superbosses - if you need to do this you're not topple locking effectively. Melia/Shulk/Dunban is a decent party, and it's what I used on my first playthrough years ago. But for pure damage (burst or DoT) or topple locking other parties are much better. It's also not that great at building party gauge, which is important for most strats.
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May 22, 2021 15:00
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Ytlaya posted:What is actually involved with the high-end XB2 content? I've never done any of it beyond Cloud Sea King Ken. Depends on what you consider high-end. For main game superbosses, you can equip a bunch of burst symbols or run an evasion build. A couple of high damage blades is enough. For the harder fights in challenge mode, a straightforward play is building party gauge quickly and unleashing chain attacks. You'll need those and blade combo finishers or lv 4 specials to evade attacks that can cause a party wipe. Party composition starts to matter. In challenge mode on a higher difficulty level, it's all about locking down an enemy with driver combos, getting a fusion combo going, and then using overdrive. Blade setup matters a ton and you're also dealing with RNG. You'll be grinding love sources for the important blades too.
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May 8, 2022 02:04
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If you don't have a blade combo up, female characters will switch blades to keep the driver combo going. Alternatively if you're relying on Nia for launch, you can start a blade combo with an element that will force her launch blade out. It limits flexibility, but there are times you can use it to your advantage.
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May 16, 2022 00:49
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Ytlaya posted:And related to that - how do you decide which armor type to use? In theory, the difference in defense stats between Light and Heavy armor (which is kind of small) doesn't seem to make up for "having a high dodge rate" vs "not having a high dodge rate," but it'd be easier to tell if I actually knew what the dodge rate was with different levels of weight/agility. I'm also not clear on what blocking does; does it reduce or completely negate damage? The weight stat subtracts from agi. Heavy armor prioritizes physical over ether def, and light armor is the opposite. The weight penalty can build up with a full set of heavy gear, though skills that reduce armor weight can help. For endgame/postgame builds, can't go wrong with the Hierax (light) or Lancelot (med) gear. Heavy armor carries too much of a penalty to weight and ether def for me. Dunban has a skill that boosts light armor stats by 15%, which is very nice. The Glory (med) equipment is probably best just going by stats, but since it's unique you're stuck with the preset gems.
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May 19, 2022 04:21
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Eventually you'll hit the point where your party members are just there for show, because whatever they do in battle makes no difference.
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Jun 1, 2022 23:56
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Pretty sure there's one more step to the equation for rare blade probabilities. If you use a common crystal and a rare blade comes up, an additional roll is applied that gives you the rare blade 25% of the time and a common blade for the other 75%. Because of that, rare and legendary crystals have x6 and x12 higher probabilities over a common crystal of pulling a rare blade.
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Jun 14, 2022 00:37
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OhFunny posted:I then equipped two blades (not on NG+ so Dromarch stays) with Luck Mod. You can see which blades have Luck Mod on the second stat page of a blade or just scroll through the list while watching the luck stat. I gave all three core chips that gave flat +50 luck. Ureilite Chip for Dromarch, Magnet Chip for fist blade, Amethyst Chip for the bitball blade. Ureilite and Magnet Chips will also give +50 luck to axes and spear blades. You can swap Dromarch for a third luck mod blade without being on NG+ as long as you're in a lategame chapter. With Dromarch not in the top blade slot, use Rex's master driver ability to swap the blade over to him. Now the slot's open and you can hit the luck cap at high enough levels. Works with any driver except Tora.
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Jun 14, 2022 18:18
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Ytlaya posted:My main issue with Rex largely stems from his appearance just being kind of goofy and making the Pyra/Mythra romance feel weird. He's basically a child (and to the game's credit Zeke/Morag treat him like one - in general I really like their role in the party, as reliable* figures who try to assist and guide Rex), but it makes the core relationship between him and Pyra/Mythra feel kind of weird. I'm very relieved that in XC3 the main couple (I think it's safe to assume this anyways) actually look like two young adults of a similar age. In contrast I really liked the Torna crew, even though the game was way shorter. The dramatic irony in knowing how the story ends definitely added to the flavor. Can't remember a game doing that since Lufia 2.
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Jun 25, 2022 05:41
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XB1 and XBX had some lategame/postgame quests that sped up some of the affinity grinds. Could have done that in 2 with the rare blades. Once you finish the game there's no need gate them behind RNG. Playthroughs on fresh saves would still end up being a bit different if that was the goal.
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Jun 29, 2022 18:34
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No Dignity posted:It's the third game in the series and set in the combined world of the first two games dealing with the fallout of their plots, gives 'grand finale of trilogy' vibes to me which this seems to also imply Definitely the vibes I got, not counting the finale tagline in the song title. Even if this is the end in some respect, they still have a half finished story from XBX to work with. Also hard to imagine them shutting down a franchise that's outsold everything else they've done. IcePhoenix posted:When should I start bothering with gems in DE? Now is always a good time to make more agility up gems.
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Jul 6, 2022 00:43
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Agree with above for the most part but most of those won't be available yet in meaningful quantities during the midgame. Back atk plus is great for Melia since she shouldn't be holding aggro, but it's also more of a lategame find. I don't think topple/daze resist or blaze plus are really necessary though. Given where OP is, basic stat up gems are fine. Ether up and strength up depending on which type of attacks a character uses, and they're useful through the postgame. Boosts to HP and defense can be good until better gems are available. I also like quick step to run around the map faster. You don't need to optimize beyond some decent stat boosts. Party and arts setup makes a bigger difference at this point.
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Jul 6, 2022 02:34
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Omobono posted:I have skipped Future Connected, which probably has massive amounts of foreshadowing for 3; and the Torna DLC, which is probably not relevant for 3. Just replayed FC because the timing seemed right and I wanted to wander around Bionis Shoulder again. Shulk/Melia and 2 nopon nuggets crash on the Bionis Shoulder. A sentient dimensional rift has taken up residence in nearby Alcamoth, shooting at stuff and possessing nearby wildlife. Melia convinces the quarreling local races to make up, then she and Shulk attack the rift with the power of friendship. The rift in corporal form supposedly reuses the model from the Galdo boss in XB2. The significance of this remains a mystery. Telethia fly into the rift and close it. Alcamoth is fixed up and Melia ascends the throne. She patches things up with Tyrea, and makes Tyrea her bitch.
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Jul 6, 2022 17:57
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DoTs in chain attacks are basically the same as physical arts. The tick damage deals a % of the main discharge, including all the damage multipliers. Ideally Melia's talent gauge is full for the 2x damage, and you use burst end right before the chain attack. Shulk has a lategame skill you can link that maxes the talent gauge after every vision too. Because of all the damage multipliers available for Melia the DoTs can wreck just about anything, and may have the highest damage ceiling in the game. Reyn with magnum charge/sword drive in a chain attack is probably the only strat that might do more.
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Jul 10, 2022 00:50
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Despite having more of them your other party members are a lot less important in X. Earlier in the game they're useful but by endgame/postgame all they do is commit insurance fraud with your robots. The AI is programmed to never use superweapons, which is the entire point of having robots.
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Jul 11, 2022 17:52
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XC2 has one of the most complicated battle systems I can think of offhand, but you don't have to engage with it deeply in the main game. I think the XC series draws a lot of inspiration from Xenosaga 2's combat. That game forced you to use its mechanics, and people hated it. Monolith probably learned some lessons back then. The combat style also flows a lot better with XC's real time battles.
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Jul 12, 2022 04:45
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The sidequests that unlock 4th trees are gated behind area affinity or a quest chain that becomes available after a plot event. The 5th trees are the same but need storyline advancement to the major lategame events. Pretty sure none are permanently missable. I don't remember if the sidequests tell you ahead of time that they unlock a skill tree.
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Jul 12, 2022 17:43
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Unlucky7 posted:I know it is meant to be standalone but is there anything I should know before going into Torna? I left off XC2 while my group was inside one of those big land whales. I doubt it is important to whatever XC3 is doing but I am curious about it, if nothing else as something of a preview for how 3 will play assuming it is building off of that. I liked its battle system the best of the series and maybe its cast too. As far as tips your tank character can sacrifice HP to draw aggro from all enemies. If you're having trouble, set that character as your main, build for agility/evasion, and keep aggro the whole fight. It works for every enemy and on the higher difficulty. You also don't have to do all the sidequests to open the final dungeon, but will have to finish a lot.
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Jul 13, 2022 13:34
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Monolith left X in such an odd place that it's hard to guess what they'd do with it. It's obviously not forgotten because Elma showed up in 2's DLC and was one of the best blades in the game. The talk about the work needed to port X might imply the devs want to tweak or add a bunch of things along the way. I enjoyed it but the game felt incomplete in a lot of ways beyond the story.
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Jul 17, 2022 07:42
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If the game's music is the only redeeming quality idk why you force yourself through it. XB2's narrative was kind of all over the place, and some parts were just silly like Jin and the elemental particle bit. I liked the battle system and roaming around the larger areas. The game was definitely a slow burner for me compared to the previous ones. Re Tantal it's anime north korea, where the ruling line is founded on a fake story and forces its people to live in austerity. This is oversimplifying, but for actual NK there's a general belief the population would revolt if the lies and restrictions were substantially rolled back. The game follows the same logic.
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Jul 17, 2022 18:23
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Ytlaya posted:^^^ Unless you're going to deliberately underlevel your characters or something, you'll have an easy time throughout the story regardless of whether you use Normal or Bringer of Chaos. Even if you drop everyone down to starting levels, you'll steamroll enemies thanks to filled affinity charts, blade trust, and endgame core chips. A few enemies will be strong enough to be a real threat without a level advantage. Challenge mode is a different story, for the fights that can't be trivialized with an evasion setup.
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Jul 24, 2022 01:34
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Tabletops posted:Wulfric, and corvin are both really good. corvin could be a top 10 maybe Corvin is easily top 5. Ridiculously powerful and even more useful in some of the game's toughest fights. Only drawback is an affinity chart tied to plot progression.
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Jul 27, 2022 04:24
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X needs a third act or at least some sort of denouement. It ends on what could be a plot climax. Also something that makes the division choice thing significant. They left a lot on the table with some of the characters and two of the continents. It was already a huge game, and adding more would arguably make it as long as two games.
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Jul 31, 2022 19:36
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I'm pretty much convinced that anybody who actually likes tiger tiger is someone who found the mini game to be very easy and eventually got bored of it once they got enough equipment, or it was people who were good at that sort of game I've played enough nintendo hard 2D games that tiger tiger isn't hard, but it also isn't that fun and definitely not what I had in mind. Partly why I dumped Tora at the first opportunity and didn't use him much until an NG+ run years later. And on NG+ you can buy everything instead of grinding the minigame. Poppi is still moderately useful with no minigame grinding.
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Aug 1, 2022 06:31
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8 hours in and feels like I'm spending more time watching cutscenes than other games in this series, and some of them drag on. None is outright painful like some in X and early on in 2. Combat is fun with 6 characters and being able to freely switch around. The antagonists remind me of the 10 wise men from Star Ocean 2. I hope there are some decent sized towns to explore, not just colonies and endless wilderness. The opening cutscene set a few expectations. I have an idea of how Future Connected might tie in, but it'll probably be dozens of hours later before I find out.
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Aug 2, 2022 06:09
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Ardryn posted:The post-game. I'm only partially joking, if you try to mainline the story you'll be tripping over cutscenes every twenty feet or so. Part of that problem probably has to do with the removal of heart to hearts so all that character development goes straight into the main story. The game is just very cutscene heavy in general to the point I'd be interested in seeing what the runtime of a "Xenoblade 3: The Movie" would come out to on YouTube, or else a comparison to 1 or 2. I agree on both points. It's unexpectedly cutscene heavy. I don't have a ton of time to play the game each day and it feels like I'm getting repeatedly hijacked by lengthy cutscenes, many of which don't add a whole lot. I preferred the balance of gameplay to cutscenes in XB1, and I think Torna did a good job with that as well. Earlier games had more voiced dialogue boxes that you could flip through at your own pace. Feels like it's approaching Xenosaga territory and I don't like that. I've been alternating between story progression and fully exploring areas. As for the cast, it's still early in the game to make a final judgment (ch 3). The party's interactions in 1 had a pretty natural/believable flow that I found refreshing for this genre. I didn't particularly care that the screen time was unbalanced. Despite all the cutscenes I don't feel a whole lot to grab onto yet in this one. Plenty of time for that to change.
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Aug 3, 2022 13:38
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I need to play around a bit with party composition and try an extra healer in tough fights. Finished one of the early hero quests and could not quite bring down the boss that was 3 levels above my team. After gaining a level and switching Noah to his base class to get a break art it was much easier. Not sure if another healer would have done it since the boss was pulling off a party wipe at low HP. One of the (minor) downsides of this series is it can be hard to tell what happened if your party gets dropped suddenly. Liking this game a lot more now that it's not shotgunning cutscenes every 10 steps. I like having a guest character slot with the heroes to make it a seven person team. Not even Suikoden let you have that many.
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Aug 5, 2022 01:19
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Hoping there's a good answer for how exactly Dannagh Desert is an explorable area once again.
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Aug 5, 2022 05:10
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Still in ch 3, the full metal jaguar class has turned chain attacks from a 60k-80k damage affair to 200k-300k+. Also builds up TP like no one's business. The chain attack music is so good too. The second area in the game is just gigantic. At this rate the game world is going to be way bigger than even X.
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Aug 6, 2022 01:19
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