Xenoblade Chronicles 2

[Shiki]

14 hours ago, Armagon said:

I agree but disagree at the same time. What i like about the Blade system is that it allows you to build your Drivers however way you want and it allows varying future playthroughs.

This would only apply if you could distribute your Blades without restriction. But you only have that many Overdrive Protocols.
I'm a Nuzlocke player myself and I know how to make lemonade with bitter lemons but this system is really more inconvenient than giving you a challenge. It's not just having a different Blade selection it permanently affects your party line-up and that's not a good thing.

14 hours ago, Armagon said:

It's actually possible to have <spoiler> start a battle without defaulting to <spoiler>. Go to the Blade menu and, while you can't disengage <spoiler> you can change her slot in the Blade slots.

That's not necessarly a solution. The problem is that the AI always switches to the Blade that is convenient for Blade combos and then just stick with it until a better element arrives. Unless 2 of the 3 Blades are Healers your AI partners tend to neglect the healing aspect and you have to rely on Specials to heal yourself (if any of the Blade has any). That's why I value Nia as a Healer so much because she is the most consistent one. Give her any Bit Ball Blade and she will keep you alive a long time.

Btw. I'm not missing many rare Blades now.

Spoiler

Gorg
Vale
Agate
Newt
Zenobia
Dahlia

While I'm happy that I have these Blades, some of them are just on incovenient characters (see my complaint). Aside from Rex having way too many of them (Wulfric is fine but Electra, Azami and Sheba could be in better hands). Zeke has Godfrey, Finch and Ursula which Morag could use better (especially Finch for Agility stacking).
The irony is that she has Perun which Zeke would love to have as an offensive Ice Blade. RIP.

The only ones I really want from this list are Agate and Zenobia which were my priorities from the beginning with KOS-MOS and Adenine. Even this game has a desire sensor in its gacha.

 

Edited December 14, 2017 by Talandar

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Talandar said:

It's not just having a different Blade selection it permanently affects your party line-up and that's not a good thing.

Ehh, i disagree. It does permanently affect your party-line up, however, i don't see it as a bad thing. You mentioned how Nia wants all the healer Blades she can get yet my Nia has done just fine as a Jack-of-all-Trades (Dromarch, Wulfric, Finch). Zeke's Blade line-up in my playthrough right now consists of Pandoria, Perceval, and Dahlia and he's still able to get the job done.

1 hour ago, Talandar said:

The problem is that the AI always switches to the Blade that is convenient for Blade combos and then just stick with it until a better element arrives.

Devil's Advocate: if they didn't, it would potentially make Blade combos harder to pull off.

I see your points but i don't see it as big of an issue. Especially since i've never had a problem with the AI party members not using healer Blades (it's possible that i don't have an issue because i use Rex's Anchor Shot so regularly so HP potions appear every 5-10 seconds, not counting any Nia may have summoned, assuming she's in the party).

[Shiki]

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Ehh, i disagree. It does permanently affect your party-line up, however, i don't see it as a bad thing. You mentioned how Nia wants all the healer Blades she can get yet my Nia has done just fine as a Jack-of-all-Trades (Dromarch, Wulfric, Finch). Zeke's Blade line-up in my playthrough right now consists of Pandoria, Perceval, and Dahlia and he's still able to get the job done.

Still makes it unnecessary harder to get a better if not optimal setup. Jack-of-all-trades is a terrible class if you can focus on one direction like Master Healer or Holy Cavalier.
It is a terrible system, no matter how you look at it. It wouldn't have been a big deal if Blades could be exchanged without these Overdrives but it isn't and it makes so much more frustating to optimize your setup for more challenging content like unique monsters.

One good example for better setups is spike damage which you happen to loathe. I for one never had a problem with Spike Damage until now because Nia + Dromarch + Boreas + Nim manage to keep the party up long enough. Unless the game has Instant Death Spikes I don't think it will be too much of an issue further down the line.
One other thing to keep in mind; if you have a better balance on your elements for each driver getting a full chain makes difficult boss battles much more bearable. I consider myself lucky with my setup but not everyone has that and if you happen to draw the same element on your rare blade for one character, then my condolences.

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

I see your points but i don't see it as big of an issue. Especially since i've never had a problem with the AI party members not using healer Blades (it's possible that i don't have an issue because i use Rex's Anchor Shot so regularly so HP potions appear every 5-10 seconds, not counting any Nia may have summoned, assuming she's in the party).

What are Hp potions? I only see a green light in a chasm or the Cloud Sea. Or do you mean that flask that seems to vanish everytime a bigger opponent knocks you back?
... Hp potions aren't exactly reliable. Serviceable for most situations, yes, but they are not a steady source of healing. Anchor Shot is also better used for its other utility which makes it more rewarding in terms of Party Gauge and Specials (aka finishing battles faster).

Edited December 14, 2017 by Talandar

[Armagon]

5 hours ago, Talandar said:

Still makes it unnecessary harder to get a better if not optimal setup. Jack-of-all-trades is a terrible class if you can focus on one direction like Master Healer or Holy Cavalier.
It is a terrible system, no matter how you look at it. It wouldn't have been a big deal if Blades could be exchanged without these Overdrives but it isn't and it makes so much more frustating to optimize your setup for more challenging content like unique monsters.

I guess it just depends on what you value more then. You seem to value efficiency and optimization. I value playing based on what the game gives me.

5 hours ago, Talandar said:

One good example for better setups is spike damage which you happen to loathe. I for one never had a problem with Spike Damage until now because Nia + Dromarch + Boreas + Nim manage to keep the party up long enough.

I mean, thankfully, only like three enemies have Spike Damage, so it isn't that big of a deal, even if Spike Damage was a mistake, in both Xenoblade 1 and 2.

Regardless of our views on the Blade system, i do hope we can agree that Xenoblade 2's battle system beats the original's, as it's a lot more involved.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anyway, i'm at the final boss and oh boy, it's second phase is poorly designed. The trick to winning here is to stack up to three or more orbs and burst them all with a Chain Attack. However, to succeed, it's best done when it's health reaches 50%. What happens if you the Chain Attack doesn't kill it? After reaching a certain HP%, the final boss will go to the far back of the room, out of range. After like a minute or two, he one-shots your entire party except your tanks. Now, if you hadn't used your Chain Attack yet, then the survivors can revive you and the fight will continue on as normal. If you had used your Chain Attack.....honestly, save yourself the wait and reset. The game autosaves right before the final boss btw.

Onto the story though (Ch.9 and 10 spoilers, but actually just Ch.10)

Spoiler

As expected from the final chapter, we meet the Architect and find out the creation of the world. But it's here that someone who has played Xenoblade 1 will get full enjoyment out of. The Architect......is none other than Klaus. The same Klaus who destroyed the universe and became Zanza. But now, we learn what really happened. Klaus didn't destroy the universe. He did create a new one (that being Xenoblade 1's world) using an artifact called, The Conduit. However, it had vast sideffects. Mostly everyone in the world was transported across various dimensions (so the multi-verse is now an established thing in the Xenoblade series). Klaus lost his left side. That left side became Zanza in Xenoblade 1's world (but only those who played Xenoblade 1 will know that). In addition, we learn Malos and Pyra/Mytrha's true names: Logos and Pnemua (i thik i spelled this right). And we also learn of an existence of a third Aegis, whose name i can't remember right now. That third Aegis, however, disappeared in a space-time continuum. Whether that third Aegis is Alvis or someone that will appear in Xenoblade 3, only time will tell. Hell, it may even be that mysterious figure seen at the end of Xenoblade X.

And then the transition cutscene between Aion (controlled by Malos)'s first and second phase, at the end of that cutscene, we hear familiar words: "Today, we use our power to fell a God and then, seize our destiny!' Turns out that when Zanza is defeated, Klaus will disappear, and so will the Conduit. This means that Xenoblade 1 and 2 take place at around the same time.

Honestly, this final chapter is good on it's own but it's much more appreciated if you played Xenoblade 1 first.

And now, back to beating Aion.

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by Armagon

[Armagon]

Alright, i've finally beaten the game. This game is my GOTY. It's honestly a 10/10 in my eyes. The music, the characters, the world, everything was great. Some minor hiccups but nothing that ruins the game except for when the final cutscene got a framerate slower than PowerPoint's but apparently it's just on my end so whatever. That's actually concerning though. 

If i were to rate the Xenoblade games for each category

• Story: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1>>Xenoblade X
• Characters: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1 (i can't rate X on here because while i can rate it's story, i can't rate it's characters without knowing what X's Heart-to-Hearts and Affinity Missions contain)
• Music: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1>Xenoblade X
• World: pretty equal, actually.
• Gameplay: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1 (can't rate X's gameplay, as i've no experience with it).

So yeah, i'm of the opinion that Xenoblade 2 was an improvement over Xenoblade 1 in pretty much everything. 1 is better in some individual aspects, but 2 is the better game overall imo.

(spoilers below)

Spoiler

Hearing Shulk in the final chapter made me jump up with excitement. Honestly, this game is best appreciated if played after Xenoblade 1.

 

And i know @Thane posted his thoughts about the entire story, but as i hadn't beaten it at the time, i couldn't reply. I can now though (this contains spoilers for the entire game)

Spoiler

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

The most bizarre example of this, however, is the artificial Blades. Poppi looks like a cute girl, as did Lila, but the mass produced Blades look nothing like them at all.

The mass-produced artificial Blades don't have to look like Poppi and Lila though. Since they are built, not born, there's nothing that dictates "artificial Blades have to look like this".

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

The clash between gameplay and story is weird. There are so many boss fights where you defeat an enemy and then in the following cutscene you get your ass handed to you.

Yeah, i will agree on this. Thankfully, it only happens like twice (at the end of Ch.2 and halfway through Ch.3).

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

Rex is the most generic, uninspired, lackluster piece of cardboard

I'm sorry but i heavily disagree. You really need to see his Heart-to-Hearts. I found Rex to be a fun character and honestly, a good contrast to Shulk. Both are intelligent, but whereas Shulk tends to be more calm, Rex tends to be more hot-blooded. And not just Rex but the entire cast's facial expressions were amazing and everyone felt relevant in the plot (which was something Xenoblade 1 suffered from. I mean, Riki contributed nothing to Xenoblade 1's plot). It's for that reason that i find this game's story to be better than the first's.

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

but everyone seems convinced that he'll bring about great changes, that his eyes are special, etc.

Right, but the way it's done makes it so i don't think it's that big of an issue. He gets praised, yes, but not super repeatedly to the point where it starts to get redundant. People were convinced that he'd bring about great changes because he had the Aegis, much like how Shulk was praised for having the Monado. And in the end, he did just that. He climbed the World Tree, met the Architect, defeated Malos, and saved the world.

As for the eyes thing, it was more about how people were seeing his determination or whatever. Honestly nothing new in storytelling.

On a side note, something i appreciate about Xenoblade is how it's protagonists are never "chosen ones". Sure, Shulk can use the Monado and Rex is the Driver of the Aegis but these things happened purely on chance. Elma and Cross in Xenoblade X were just regular people (Elma was an alien but she didn't have any magic powers or stuff like that).

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

Finally, and this is another problem with Rex, any tension the game could've hoped to build for its climax was ruined when he went to grab the third sword. It disappears in his hands, he gets a vision, and then...he says it's alright because he's realized something. That effectively meant that no matter what the story threw at him, he'd overcome it with the power of deus ex machina. The difference in power level, the advantages of the enemy, everything was apparently alright, and that meant there were no challenges left to overcome.

Except even after getting the third sword, he still had to actually fight. It's incredibly powerful but he didn't one-shot anyone who crossed his path. When he said he realized something, it's because he knew the true requirements for wielding the third sword. It could be seen as deus ex machina but the same can be said about the Monado II and the True Monado in the first game.

On 12/4/2017 at 4:28 AM, Thane said:

Torna fucking sucks.

I mean, i wouldn't say they suck but they are definitely weaker than Egil, and later on, Zanza. Still better than Luxar from X tho. What saved Torna for me was how they had this sense of comradeship. Their interactions with each other showed that they actually cared about each other and as someone who values characters over the story, this was welcome. Again though, they can't beat the amazing villain that is Egil, because Torna's motivations were kinda ass. Interesting twist on Malos' "destroy the world" motive not coming from him but from Amalthus instead though.

 

 

 

Anyway, i may have beaten the story but i am far from done with this game. I've got a lot to do. Rare Blades to find, quests to complete, etc.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Armagon

[Etrurian emperor]

Chiming in on the villains I do think they are a downgrade compared to the original Xenoblade but they are all decent enough. They aren't as funny and intimidating as Metal face and that secret disciple and they aren't as interesting as Egil but I do like the big happy, evil family thing they got going on there. Malos is also definitely worth at least an 8 to me.

I like what they did with their powers. They are depicted as though fighters and a step above the party but not overly so. They have to retreat plenty of times and once you reach the snow Titan your party is probably stronger than anyone but Malos and Jin.

I definitely don't like Akhos though. He's painfully generic and every time he uses his theater speech I have to think on how the writers were just doing it because they needed to convey he was the smart one instead of it having an actual point like with Kuja. He's just a trope going through the motions.
Jin's okay but kinda generic as well.

And about that spoiler villain, he definitely gets points for

Spoiler

Coming off as a reasonable guy who's not evil at all despite being the pope in a JRPG.

I don't know where his character leads just yet and his general archtype made it inevitable that he was evil but he's definitely getting points for the good effort.

Edited December 15, 2017 by Etrurian emperor

[kingddd]

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

 

• Story: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1>>Xenoblade X
• Characters: Xenoblade 2>Xenoblade 1 (i can't rate X on here because while i can rate it's story, i can't rate it's characters without knowing what X's Heart-to-Hearts and Affinity Missions contains

Ok no this is a really really big pet peeve of mine which people judging  Xenoblade X story.  The story is not all about finding lifehold which is only 10% of the game.  X's story is about alien cultures clashing in together to find a way to integrate their lives together.  X's story is structured all on the sidequest.  Not the main story.  The sidequest in X are the best parts of Xenoblade X and they answer, build and show just how harsh the colonization journey has been for everyone not just the main characters.

The sidequests are 90% where the story telling is told and they are meant to be many mini episodes in one huge game package.  Majority of the writers in the xeno team worked on the sidequests and it was the start of affinity missions where you learn about a side characters backstory, the cultures that they go through, the psychological issues with the aliens and human relationships all both light and dark.

If you played the game one sidequest completion leads to another chain of sidequests and they answer a lot of questions like who built the frontiernav, what is the water in NLA made from?  And there are tons of great scenarios like:

Humans being mutilated and turned into mechanical weapons.

The water purification incident trying to get clean water.

Alien and human marriage problems

Story of being born in mira but have issues integrating their life together with parents clashing

The orpheans and how they are overall structured

Another take on nopon drug trade

Make NLA great again sidequest

Hell your main avatar even witnesses a murder happening right in front of your eyes from falling a 20 or so story building and you gave to figure out the motivation.  These sidequest have many different choices and that greatly affect if the npcs will live or not and that makes the choices of the player more prominent and leads to tons of happy and dark endings.

And of course every single party members in this game have their own sidequest.  The writing and story parts of X are all integrated in here and it requires the players to actually put in the effort to go and find these and integrates with gameplay and story way better than 1 and 2 where majority of the time you watch a scene play out walk 5 seconds another story exposition.

Please stop judging X story by the main cutscenes and actually play the game.  There are tons of great story materials that too many people overlook and it's something that really gets me.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2017 by kingddd

[Armagon]

6 minutes ago, kingddd said:

Ok no this is a really really big pet peeve of mine which people judging  Xenoblade X story.  The story is not all about finding lifehold which is only 10% of the game.  X's story is about alien cultures clashing in together to find a way to integrate their lives together.  X's story is structured all on the sidequest.  Not the main story.  The sidequest in X are the best parts of Xenoblade X and they answer, build and show just how harsh the colonization journey has been for everyone not just the main characters.

The sidequests are 90% where the story telling is told and they are meant to be many mini episodes in one huge game package.  Majority of the writers in the xeno team worked on the sidequests and it was the start of affinity missions where you learn about a side characters backstory, the cultures that they go through, the psychological issues with the aliens and human relationships all both light and dark.

If you played the game one sidequest completion leads to another chain of sidequests and they answer a lot of questions like who built the frontiernav, what is the water in NLA made from?  And there are tons of great scenarios like:

Humans being mutilated and turned into mechanical weapons.

The water purification incident trying to get clean water.

Alien and human marriage problems

Story of being born in mira but have issues integrating their life together with parents clashing

The orpheans and how they are overall structured

Another take on nopon drug trade

And of course every single party members in this game have their own sidequest.  The writing and story parts of X are all integrated in here and it requires the players to actually put in the effort to go and find these and integrates with gameplay and story way better than 1 and 2 where majority of the time you watch a scene play out walk 5 seconds another story exposition.

Please stop judging X story by the main cutscenes and actually play the game.  There are tons of great story materials that too many people overlook and it's something that really gets me.

 

 

Woah, hold your horses. I never said X's story was bad. It's just the weakest in my opinion. I'm sure the side quests and Affinity Missions significantly strengthen the story of Xenoblade X. But if you were to take away those things, what is X's story left with? Meanwhile, Xenoblade 1 and 2's stories can both function without the sidequests. Keep in mind, this is all regarding the main story. Past that though, well, Xenoblade and X take very different directions when it comes to their stories, so there, it's just a matter of what you prefer.

As for the characters, well, i said it myself. I can't really judge X's characters at the moment because i don't have a Wii U so my only hope is for X to be ported over to the Switch so i can actually play the game and experience these sidequests and Affinity Missions for myself.

[kingddd]

6 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Woah, hold your horses. I never said X's story was bad. It's just the weakest in my opinion. I'm sure the side quests and Affinity Missions significantly strengthen the story of Xenoblade X. But if you were to take away those things, what is X's story left with? Meanwhile, Xenoblade 1 and 2's stories can both function without the sidequests. Keep in mind, this is all regarding the main story. Past that though, well, Xenoblade and X take very different directions when it comes to their stories, so there, it's just a matter of what you prefer.

As for the characters, well, i said it myself. I can't really judge X's characters at the moment because i don't have a Wii U so my only hope is for X to be ported over to the Switch so i can actually play the game and experience these sidequests and Affinity Missions for myself.

Which is why i stated this is a big pet peeve of mine.  Too many people missed out the creative writing and efforts they put into the sidequests in X because that's the main focus of the game.  Literally you will be doing sidequest for 90% of the game.  From a gameplay standpoint this makes X story telling integrated way better because you actually put the effort to explore and they reward you for it and that's what makes the game stand out way more.  I can say the same if you remove the main story of 1 and 2 you're left with just combat and maybe few sidequests that don't mean much and you can easily miss out on them. whereas in X you might miss out one h2h but they aren't part of your completion.  I really beg everyone to at least give X a chance in this and stop judging its story from the main chapters.  There is a lot of beautiful efforts put into X and people don't appreciate it enough

[blah the Prussian]

So I'm going to sound like a noob but is there an easy way to take out those 3 blades blocking the route to the Urayan Capitol?

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, kingddd said:

Too many people missed out the creative writing and efforts they put into the sidequests in X because that's the main focus of the game. Literally you will be doing sidequest for 90% of the game.  From a gameplay standpoint this makes X story telling integrated way better because you actually put the effort to explore and they reward you for it and that's what makes the game stand out way more. 

Oh, i agree. Even if X's main story was weak, that was never the main focus of the game. Even though i've never played the game, i've known for a long time that the gameplay, characters and sidequests were the much bigger focus. Which is why i'm not rating X's characters yet. I value characters over story anyway, so me saying X has the weakest story doesn't mean that much in the long-run.

11 minutes ago, blah the Prussian said:

So I'm going to sound like a noob but is there an easy way to take out those 3 blades blocking the route to the Urayan Capitol?

My first time through, i just went around them. Later, when i was about, 5 levels higher, i came back and beat them. Driver battles can be scary. AoE and healing Arts help though.

 

 

[Shiki]

Opening 99 Common Cores isn't fun.
Same as checking for Lvl 5 Ice Mastery.

18 hours ago, Armagon said:

Regardless of our views on the Blade system, i do hope we can agree that Xenoblade 2's battle system beats the original's, as it's a lot more involved.

That's something I wouldn't necessarily agree. It depends what you value more.
While Xenoblade 2's combat is strategically deeper that doesn't translate well if you're grinding low-level stuff (like for the Affinity chart). Enemies die much slower in this game than in the first one so you're kinda forced to fight seriously in every battle which can make it annoying.
Being more involved =/= being better.

But I like this battle system.

2 hours ago, kingddd said:

Too many people missed out the creative writing and efforts they put into the sidequests in X because that's the main focus of the game.

That doesn't stop people from critizing X's horrible writing. A game can have the best side content but that doesn't affect the quality of its main story and X really dropped the ball in that regard.

[kingddd]

1 hour ago, Talandar said:

That doesn't stop people from critizing X's horrible writing. A game can have the best side content but that doesn't affect the quality of its main story and X really dropped the ball in that regard.

I'm probably one of the few guys that unfortunately have a weird story taste where I actually legitimately like the main story in X.  Yes I understand there could be more expositions, more character involvement and more dialogues and justifications from some of the stuff but what it sets out did it well enough without dragging the whole pacing down.

1 for me was pretty uninteresting for me.  While there is definitely more spectacle to watch, I ultimately didn't really care about the characters as whole despite how much expositions was involved.  I definitely like 2's characters a lot more.

[Etrurian emperor]

I can't believe how poorly the third Malos fight is designed. He's already tedious to take on because of his high damage output and attacks on the whole party which makes chain attacks to big of a gamble to use.

But there's also a big element of unfairness to him. He can cancel out your healing move if he uses his cyclone attack but worst of all is that he can blast you into another area where monsters will swarm and kill you. 

Worst of all is that I nearly killed him before being blasted downstairs were I got killed by the monsters. This gives me the feeling I've been stuck the entire afternoon on a boss I should have already defeated an hour earlier had the game been properly designed. 

[Armagon]

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/December/Masatsugu-Saito-discusses-main-character-design-in-Xenoblade-Chronicles-2-part-two-1319322.html

Some more specific insight onto why some characters were designed the way they were. Pyra's design is still one of the most controversial ones so here's the reasoning as to why she looks the way she does

Quote

When designing Pyra, we wanted her to be a protective presence for Rex, so we envisioned her as a flame with a passionately burning core. But at the same time, we also designed her to evoke a certain sense of incompleteness as a way of reflecting the existence of Pyra’s other form: Mythra. That’s one reason the glowing areas on her body are not horizontally symmetrical, and why we partially removed the back of her outfit and cloak.

 

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

but worst of all is that he can blast you into another area where monsters will swarm and kill you. 

Yeah, just stay away from that hole as far as possible. Lure Malos to the back of the room.

Honestly, that's fight is nothing compared to the next one. Because there you have to deal with Malos AND Jin.

Spoiler

Thankfully though, you just have to get Malos to 50% HP. Then a cutscene plays and after it does, you can't lose at all. The fight becomes a guaranteed win.

Easier said than done though because Malos still pulls his bullshit but Jin will occasionally taunt you, forcing you to attack him. 

In both fights though, try to stack at least two-three orbs and then preform a Chain Attack. It helps.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/December/Masatsugu-Saito-discusses-main-character-design-in-Xenoblade-Chronicles-2-part-two-1319322.html

Some more specific insight onto why some characters were designed the way they were. Pyra's design is still one of the most controversial ones so here's the reasoning as to why she looks the way she does

 

Yeah, just stay away from that hole as far as possible. Lure Malos to the back of the room.

Honestly, that's fight is nothing compared to the next one. Because there you have to deal with Malos AND Jin.

  Hide contents

Thankfully though, you just have to get Malos to 50% HP. Then a cutscene plays and after it does, you can't lose at all. The fight becomes a guaranteed win.

Easier said than done though because Malos still pulls his bullshit but Jin will occasionally taunt you, forcing you to attack him. 

In both fights though, try to stack at least two-three orbs and then preform a Chain Attack. It helps.

Its weird. Malos on his own was terrible but a higher level Malos with Jin was a complete walk in the park for me.

[kingddd]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2017/December/Masatsugu-Saito-discusses-main-character-design-in-Xenoblade-Chronicles-2-part-two-1319322.html

Some more specific insight onto why some characters were designed the way they were. Pyra's design is still one of the most controversial ones so here's the reasoning as to why she looks the way she does

Honestly, that reasoning is kind of not a very good one because the events in the beginning of the game pretty much represents that philosophical ideology already without having to use all those physical designs.  I'm still not a fan of Pyra and Mythra's design as a whole.  Still muffled about as it can be pretty distracting in some scenes.

Right now I'm in ch 9 and these field skills are killing me.

[Armagon]

3 hours ago, kingddd said:

Right now I'm in ch 9 and these field skills are killing me

Ch.7 was way worse with that imo. At least Ch.9 only asks for Field Skills like, twice. And at least in both cases, it was usually just elemental skills that even Common Blades have+specific skills that any of the Special Blades may have (such as Leaping for Poppi and Ancient Wisdom with Dromarch).

Honestly though, i think Field Skills are the worst part of this game. I don't mind them when it comes to sidequests, but when it's required for story progression, it just doesn't feel right, especially since it could end up breaking the pacing. Ch.4 at least gave you ways to work around it.

[kingddd]

18 hours ago, Armagon said:

Ch.7 was way worse with that imo. At least Ch.9 only asks for Field Skills like, twice. And at least in both cases, it was usually just elemental skills that even Common Blades have+specific skills that any of the Special Blades may have (such as Leaping for Poppi and Ancient Wisdom with Dromarch).

Honestly though, i think Field Skills are the worst part of this game. I don't mind them when it comes to sidequests, but when it's required for story progression, it just doesn't feel right, especially since it could end up breaking the pacing. Ch.4 at least gave you ways to work around it.

Yeah I don't know why they had to make the field skills even worse.  In X, it was simple and easy to understand and majority of them were completely optional.  Heck I would say in X, all you really need is mechanical skill at level 3 to at least make the story progression easy and that only takes like 20 levels or so and enough blade works would get you there pretty quickly.  Here I really felt these a lot of them were unnecessary at times, big pace breakers and they weren't needed.  Sure most of the story blades will get you those but it can get really annoying if you don't know what they are without looking it up and of course if you want to avoid spoilers that can get really annoying.

Also just finished the intro to ch 10.....so hoping to finish the game tonight.

Edited December 17, 2017 by kingddd

[Shiki]

I'm finally done with the main story. My final thoughts:

Spoiler

- This game has a good story behind it. Unlike most open-world games that lure you to explore the world first and never let you go XC2's story wants to keep you going which is a good sign for a story that keeps you interested.
Though I have to mention that the story loves to beat Rex into a pulp. With few exceptions every chapter ends up with something bad happening to him, be it witnessing Vandham's and Fan la Norne's death or being defeated both by Jin in Chapter 6. Not to mention the cutscene in Elysium was literally about him breaking apart mentally.
Overall, I wouldn't say the story is better than the first game but it is definetly an enjoyable part of Xenoblade 2. Way better than the poor excuse that made X with its main story line.

- The characters are very likeable though Zeke and Tora can be really silly sometimes (especially the former).
While Rex doesn't seem like the most interesting protagonist, it's his growth that sells him. He experiences a lot of things and learns what he wants to be in the world, so he reflects a lot. He gets annoying sometimes with his Salvager's Code (like Lloyd from ToS) but still, not a bad protagonist by any means. The english VA though ... ugh.
Nia is wonderfully sarcastic while being naive about most things and I love it. Though her love confession to Rex comes out of nowhere and the only build-up happens in Chapter 7 alone. In the rest of the story she seems more like a good friend to Rex, not really someone who desires to be his lover.
In case of Tora being a Nopon he is actually the most likeable of the bunch so far. Compared to Riki's and Tatsu's delusions he is actually humble and a hard worker. He shows sometimes that he is still a Nopon with his unreasonable demands but otherwise he is an enjoyable character overall and my favorite Nopon.
Morag isn't the most exciting character in the main story but the Hearts-to-Hearts give her a lot more personality, both in a serious and comedic manner.
Zeke is ... Zeke. No comments really.
The Blades themselves have personalities themselves though most of them are built around one gimmick. Some are even completely unlikeable (I'm looking at you, Dagas) and cringeworthy (*cough* Sheba *cough* Azami *cough). But what helps them are their Sidequests and they really expand on most Blades' personality and background. My favorites are Adenine, Agate and Perceval in that regard.
In terms of the main story Blades, they are pretty likeable and get some good development. Though Pandoria and Dromarch are probably the ones that get neglected the most. Compared to the rest of the cast they are the most regular Blades (Pyra is the Aegis, Poppi artifical, Brighid has connections to the Aegis War) but Dromarch has the clear advantage of joining early on. Pandoria really could have used more screen time.
Overall, a varied and likeable cast, though they could have dialed down on the anime tropes.

- The world itself is beautiful like you would expect from a XC1's successor. There are a lot of parallels (like Gormott = Gaur Plains) but there are also a lot of unique ones as well. Honorable mentions goes to the Land of Morytha which left the greatest impact on me.
I mentioned it multiples times that navigation isn't easy in this game because the map is lacking. Since accessing the map is quite cumbersome and the mini-map doesn't show anything like Landmarks the compass can throw you off. Even though you are closing in terms of distance you may have to go somewhere else entirely to reach your objective, so you can get lost easily. There will be a patch for this but it was still something that hampered my experience with the game.

- The Battle System is slower than X or even 1 but it's far more strategic compared to them. You have to think what kind of Blade combos you're building and you can't just switch between Blade on a whim since there is a cooldown. Not to mention every Blade has a different Specials and Blade Arts to supplement your Driver Arts which expands the battle options into infinity. Chain Attacks are satisfying as ever.
This has the downside that grinding random mobs becomes more tedious as battles naturally last longer. A lot of rare Blades require you to kill certain mobs and unless you're paying attention to that you're doing that much later where you are quite overleveled and unless you have a 20+ difference it can take a while (though Pyra has a skill that allows her to insta-kill mobs, so there is that).

- My biggest criticism is the implementation of the Blade system. Yes, every rare Blade has their sidequest and personality but you have to get them first. The gacha system can make every run different due to its random nature but that's actually detrimental to exploration and battle. You have very limited options to change the ownership of your Blades which means a character can get stuck with the wrong Blade. This can not only mess up your class bonus but also the dreaded Field mastery check which is another significant roadblock. There are so many places where you need certain Blades and everytime you have change your setup to accommodate the requirements. For example, if you happen to have 3 Blades with Fortitude on 1 character then it's most likely RIP if you don't have a high level.
This is seriously annoying and hampers exploration in such a unnecessary manner. If you could freely change Blades between characters this would be much less of an issue but as it is, this is just infuriating and probably the biggest turndown for most players.

Overall, I will give this game a 8.5. If the patch fixes the map, I'm upping the score to 9. It was a truly enjoyable ride with some flaws but overall Xenoblade 2 is a fantastic game and if you like RPGs then it is a must-have on the Switch.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Talandar

[blah the Prussian]

Genuinely love the design of the city in Uraya, reminds me of European old towns.

[Sasori]

I've currently entered chapter 10 and I must say chapter 9 was a great chapter story-wise. It concluded the story of a pretty good villain, had some pretty good action cutscenes and one character in particular caught me of guard.

On the other hand the chapter did end up giving me yet another reason to dislike Jin. I already saw this one coming, but it always annoys me when they do something like this.

Spoiler

"What a splendid soul you were, Jin"

Um no. Jin killed hundreds/thousands of people with a superweapon in the hopes of starting a war killing millions. I'm glad they included a scene where Morag and Brighid where less eager to forgive him.

Amalthus on the other hand turned out great. There has been some foreshadowing, but Amalthus himself seemed perfectly reasonable until later on. When he does show up as a villain he ends up not doing the things that make me dislike Jin.

 

Edited December 19, 2017 by Sasori

[kingddd]

I finished Xenoblade 2.

Overall thoughts.  It's definitely an improvement from 1 in terms of combat, gameplay, places to explore and level design but it's nowhere near the expansive levels and combat and gameplay that are in X.  It's a good game but I still think Xenoblade X is the better game.

Xenoblade X > Xenoblade 2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Xenoblade 1 imo

• Mid game was definitely my favourite part of the game. 
• Lots of nice places to explore,
• combat is fun when you get into the groove and there is a lot of nice depth to it. 
• Some nice settings.
• Blade combo systems are fun to pull off to make heavy damages
• Most of the casts are very likeable and no one feels missed out
• Sidequests are much better here than in 1 as they have more interactions and writing in them but nowhere near the level of X's sidequests.  

The biggest issues I have with the game are:

• Intro is a slog that you don't really get to have much gameplay until 3 hours into the game
• Some really bad cutscene pacing.  Cutscene plays for 10 to 20 mins.  Ends.  Walk 5 seconds in game another cutscene plays for another 20 mins.
  • While this issue existed in 1, it's way worse here and it's very prominent
  • This can be real pace breaker at times
  • I know Xenogears and Xenosaga are even worse in this department though.
• RNG blade system should have never been a case in this game especially when you want to build your characters to an optimal level and you accidentally pull a rare blade that doesn't synergize as well on a specific driver is pretty bad.  Yeah there are items to compensate it but that doesn't come until very late game when you can get them
• Field skills were unnecessary for story progression and should been only used for optional stuff like treasure hunting and unlocking secret areas but even then this is a pacebreaker regardless if they were optional.
• Story is VERY VERY predictable
• They could have designed rare blades to be so less exaggerated with their proportions.  I understand the context but it can get really in your face with pyra and some of the later blade members you get later.  I did have the same issues with this in 1 but it's definitely way more in your face here.

Unfortunately I don't see myself replaying this game anytime soon.  I think it's good for one runthrough but after that, not really a point of replay it despite getting NG+ update. 

In terms of difficulty, it's probably the easiest entry in the series.  Once you figure out the blade combo and the chain attack's elemental burst, the entire game becomes a cakewalk.

Edited December 21, 2017 by kingddd

[Shiki]

8 hours ago, kingddd said:

In terms of difficulty, it's probably the easiest entry in the series.  Once you figure out the blade combo and the chain attack's elemental burst, the entire game becomes a cakewalk

Out of all things one can criticize, it's this? Like X is even more easy because Overdrive is basically gg in every battle.
2 has some challenging superbosses and you can't cheese these battles not with Full Burst (because they don't let you get there).

Edited December 21, 2017 by Talandar

[kingddd]

1 hour ago, Talandar said:

Out of all things one can criticize, it's this? Like X is even more easy because Overdrive is basically gg in every battle.
2 has some challenging superbosses and you can't cheese these battles not with Full Burst (because they don't let you get there).

This is more or less based on story progression.  I find OD gg every battle only really happens after you grind excessively and in post game time with excessive augs.

2 as a whole if you go by regular playthrough is not really difficult at all even if you hardly ever grind or bother with accessories or pouches.  I've beaten most of the bosses pretty underleveled and with maybe a few rare blades with me.