Xenoblade Chronicles 2

[Lightchao42]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The last sidequest's ending was unexpected.

  Reveal hidden contents

Addam has an unseen pregnant wife? Well good for him and the writing, this is unusual for a game. And here I was lowkey trying to get myself into him. Won't try to steal this one.

My one criticism of this is Mythra. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't quite get past her in her skimpy clothing with Addam all the time. What I had expected the entire game in line with the oh-so-expectable is that he and her would become romantic, not helped by Jin and Lora. 

I get that Addam and Mythra, much like his relationship to Minoth, is purely one of the task at hand, coworkers one must work closely with. But I would've liked just a statement from him earlier to the effect of "I'm not into her" or even "she's more of a sister". This wouldn't have been the case though had I actually see the second Stepan Inn scene first, where it is made clear somebody a gentle shounen in the future is her perfect husband partner.

And actually, this is something to be said for the three playable teams. Addam's is coworkers, Hugo has the theme of lord and lieges. And just as in gameplay where they are the mixed group, Team Lora has two themes- a sister figure in Haze, and a lover in Jin. I like this, because it means that despite being souls bound together, Blades and their Drivers don't have to be lovers, and Mythra-Addam bring this home. Good because MinothxAddam/Amalthus sounds ohhh *shudders*.

I don't mind Jin and Lora as a couple by the way, and I was fine with them musing about running an orphanage together. Great way to get past their inability to procreate together. Kinda leaves Haze out of the matter, but I'm sure she'd willingly go along with it. Shame it doesn't get to happen.

 

I also like that Jin wasn't the only Blade who was keeping a diary as a way of pseudo-memory carryover (I'll need to play the main game though to see why he burns everything at the end- hopefully a good reason and not just edgelord). Giving one to Brighid was a nice move. Of course falsifying diaries sounds like a great way to manipulate a Blade.

 

On Addam and Mythra's relationship

Spoiler

I think the intended idea is that Addam views Mythra and Milton as his "children", though there's some leeway to suggest that Mythra might hold some confused romantic feelings for him. This exchange after meeting Minoth makes Addam's view clear:

• Addam: Please, don't mistake her. Despite the attitude, she's a good kid.
• Mythra: The hell is with that tone? Where do you get off acting all parental?
• Addam: Hahaha! Oh, come on. I woke you up, I make sure you get enough to eat...

I don't see Lora and Jin as a romantic pairing either, but maybe as another brother/sister bond. And Jin basically raised Lora since she was ten, so...

Speaking of which...

11 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I actually quite want to see Mythra spending time with.....

  Reveal hidden contents

Addam's wife. Since Addam is kind of her dad his wife could try to either spoil Mythra or try to discipline their bratty teenage daughter. 

 

In my own interpretation

Spoiler

based on Mythra's personality I don't think she would have a close relationship with Lady Origo, so I think Mythra would avoid interacting with her if possible. Though she doesn't say anything, the only mention of Lady Origo in the game elicits Mythra's "arms crossed and looking away" pose, so make of that what you will.

Mythra might be jealous of her relationship with Addam (which may be compounded by the baby on the way), or Mythra rationalizes to herself that Lady Origo doesn't want to see her husband run around with a pretty young Blade. Lady Origo may be polite about the situation but she might not have the drive to close the gap between them even if she wants to, but of course we don't know anything about her so we can't say for sure.

Thinking about it more, they might have some kind of chilly stepmother/stepdaughter situation...

Or at least that's what I think.

[Armagon]

@Interdimensional Observer congrats on beating Torna. Here's some points of discussion

Spoiler

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

My one criticism of this is Mythra. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't quite get past her in her skimpy clothing with Addam all the time. What I had expected the entire game in line with the oh-so-expectable is that he and her would become romantic, not helped by Jin and Lora. 

I get that Addam and Mythra, much like his relationship to Minoth, is purely one of the task at hand, coworkers one must work closely with. But I would've liked just a statement from him earlier to the effect of "I'm not into her" or even "she's more of a sister".

So the game actually suggest that Addam and Mythra's relationship is more parental. In particular, there's the line

Mythra: "Where do you get off acting so parental?"
 

Addam: "Oh come on, i woke you up, i make sure you get enough to eat".

This is also supported by Addam trying to get Mythra to open up to the world, much like how a father would try get his socially awkward daughter to talk more.....i think. I'm no father, this is just guesswork.

 

 

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Who thought that was a good idea? Without Specials, fights feel less intense, and will end up taking more time since they pack so much damage

I haven't fought it myself but the trick is to use Driver Combos instead. It's trickier sure, but that's the method.

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Actually, maybe that'd be good with Elemental Awakening- dispel it via powerup orb smashing. Turns the Chain Attack into a technique for defense and not just offense.

That actually is how you get rid of Elemental Awakening. Smash all the Orbs during a Chain Attack. But again, the main issue is that Elemental Awakening is so unpredictable. Under those effects, the Lv.75 Superboss can pretty much one-shot you.

 

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

One little annoyance with this game, remind me if I am wrong, but didn't XC1 give you 30 seconds if you got KO'ed for your allies to revive you before losing the fight? Or did XCX? I thought one or both of the games did.

It was X and i think that was because X didn't have a Party Gauge but TP instead.

 

Have you noticed how Torna ~ The Golden Country takes elements from Xenogears Episode 4? Specifically the Day of Collapse?

Spoiler

A war 500 years in the past and a man setting out to purge the world armed with an army of mechs. In Xenogears' case, that was Grahf and the Diablo Corps. In Torna, it was Malos and the Artificies.

And while it's not from Episode 4, the creation of Pyra shares similarities to the creation of Id. Both Fei and Mythra were traumatized by events (experimentation by his mother in the former and causing the thing she set out to stop in the latter) and mentally breaking down at the sight of a loved one's death (Fei's mother in his case and Milton in Myhtra's case). Of course, the main difference between Pyra and Id is that Pyra is sweet while Id wants to kill everything. The other difference is that Id is monstrously more powerful than Fei while Pyra isn't necessarily weaker, just has different advantages that i'll leave you for you to find out when you get around to the main game.

In fact, that's all the comparisons i can talk about for now without spoiling the main game.

 

6 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I look forward to the main game, but if I don't want to fail college in my last semester, that I can't touch until mid-late December.

I know you won't be touching the main game right away but here are some tips to keep in mind when you do get around to it.

• Screenshot every tutorial. Xenoblade 2 is a great game but it oddly has some missing QoL stuff. Not a whole lot but being able to review tutorials is one of them. 
• Since you have the DLC, once you unlock the ability to resonate with Blades, be sure to activate Crossette and Corvin. To do this, open the Expansion Pass menu and they'll be under DLC Blade distribution 2 and 3 respectively (DLC Blade distribution 1 contains Poppibuster, which is gotten through a quest that you can't do until Ch.5). After that, receive their Cores from the specific Nopon in the specified areas in Argentum. Crossette is a Fire Bitball Blade (Healer) while Corvin is a Light Chrome Katana (Tank, also he technically has his own unique weapon but it's really just an enhanced Chrome Katana).
• Unlike in Torna, Auto-saving isn't a thing outside of awakening Blades (to prevent save scumming) so save regularly. That goes without saying but people have reported the game crashing

Edited October 18, 2018 by Armagon

[Lightchao42]

Xenoblade 2 and Torna may be complete, but versions 2.0.1 and 1.0.1 (respectively) were recently released. They don't come with any new content, but they do have some helpful bug fixes. You can see the patch notes here.

I'm glad Monolith Soft took the time to remove these pesky leftover glitches. I didn't think they would, since chances are they already started on their next project.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Lightchao42

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Oh and if anyone was looking forward to a Xenoblade X port for Switch it doesn't seem to be in the cards for now, which is a shame

Why?! The gamepad map isn't enough justification. A little more of a hassle, but that could work in a menu.

Money? Would this really cost more to port than it'd bring in? How much work must be done to port this? Monolith Soft isn't a large company I'd imagine though, and financially, if they don't have enough team members to both tackle an XCX port and a new game of some kind, then monetarily, it does make sense.

 

I'd seriously consider double dipping for once. I don't want to delete my save and yet I want to start all over again with all the knowledge I've gained (like swapping to Elma at the start for an easier time). And if BotW is anything to go by, it's possible, or so I heard, to use separate profiles on a single Switch for the same game to create pseudo-multiple slots for a game with only one.

There is also a list of changes I'd hope for, some bigger, some smaller. I'll just throw them in spoilers for space's sake.

Spoiler

Possible changes:

Ability to swap team members from the console in the barracks.

Being able to rename Skells with room for more than just ten characters. Why is this when Skell names by default are longer than this!? English is not as information-dense per character as Japanese and this doesn’t work.

More and better tutorials, this game is left so unexplained and it’s not good for beginners. It almost assumes you played XC1 first- never a good thing.

The map needs more place names on it.

The map also needs a separate layer for the caves.

Enemy attribute strengths and weaknesses to be a bit more diverse within a given class. Why aren’t Millesaurs weak against Gravity?

Better ally AI.

That auto-QTE trigger option of XC2, for players who don't want to miss the timing on the precious heals of Soul Voices or have to put up with Skell Insurance.

Fashion weapons- the ultimate tier is all a shade of objectionable red. Why can't it work so as long as the fashion weapon is of the equipped weapon's type? Fashion armor was good, but why stop at just the armor?

 

Unlikely changes:

The ability to have Lin and Elma, if you don’t want to use one or either them on a story mission, moved into NPC slots so they can still be present on a mission fighting in plot, but not in gameplay.

Making the Multigun a fully fleshed out weapon type, as opposed to a bauble you use once and then forget.

More than just the Telethia Plume and Yggralith Zero for online raids- that I can imagine got pretty boring.

The same for the Police and Dozer Skells, which are only level 30 Skells despite the player needing to be so much higher in level to complete the Affinity Missions to get them.

More Skells another model each of the heavy and medium types, to match the three of the smalls, is another pipe dream. (Hopefully the eventual sequel would have more times, ideally with Orphean, Manon, Wrothian, Ganglion, and even Nopon-made Skells available.)

Change up two of the character weapon selections to reduce redundancy. 

• • Doug, whose two Signature Arts are both Photon Saber, whereas Yelv has one for both his Photon Saber and Raygun, gets Psycho Launchers so we have a standard Blast Fencer/Galactic Knight. Even if it seems less manly to be using Psycho Launchers over a hulking Raygun.
  • Nagi, whose two Signature Arts are both Longsword, whereas Frye has one for the Gatling Gun, loses his Gatling Gun, and gains something other than the Assault Rifle. Sniper Rifle would be possibly the worst possible combination, yet it’d really help the number of Sniper Rifle users. I’m thinking Raygun. In doing this however, the number of Gatling Gun users falls to 2.
  • Phog sadly can’t be changed, he will have to exist as a redundancy, since neither he nor Elma have Signature Arts belonging to just one weapon type. Changing either of the Signature Arts into belonging to a different weapon type would be too fundamental an alteration.

I wouldn't want them to add new characters, even to rep less represented weapon types, since there are already so many playables.

And a little peeve, but it annoyed me the person in the video say "ex", I believed it is supposed to be pronounced "cross", that is normally how that works in Japanese titles. Although I don't know if it actually applies to XCX. Anybody?

 

@Lightchao42 and @Armagon I remember that scene you mention. I just didn't quite put it together with the rest. It does in a sense justify Milton more, since Mythra being childish as well would mean two charges for Addam. Weird that the daddy-ish figure isn't old-looking, but like Lora, I guess the game broke from usual age perceptions and ways here.

 

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

That actually is how you get rid of Elemental Awakening. Smash all the Orbs during a Chain Attack. But again, the main issue is that Elemental Awakening is so unpredictable. Under those effects, the Lv.75 Superboss can pretty much one-shot you.

Did they ever actually explain how Elemental Awakening works? I don't think so, I notice the technique's name though when it activated. I guess you could save your Specials until the Party Gauge is full and then launch a Chain Attack right after the Elemental Awakening. But then you'd only get 3 orbs on the enemy, and I've never Full Bursted with only three, thereby limiting the true power of the Chain Attack. And there is always the risk that you don't Chain in time and get wiped that way.

Which reminds me, I forgot to mention in the final battle, Malos got Overkilled by I think Jin, and then Team Addam Full Bursted him. A fitting ending blow.

 

4 hours ago, Armagon said:

Have you noticed how Torna ~ The Golden Country takes elements from Xenogears Episode 4? Specifically the Day of Collapse?

I didn't actually. My eyes were too busy taking in the moment and looking for other parallels. Although Elly I think did pop into my head as I was watching it. But wow that is a striking remix of the old ideas- originality doesn't always mean abandoning what you've done before.

Although just to very briefly comment on your comments in spoilers

Spoiler

So I was right to assume that Pyra is the remains of Mythra's emotional collapse, nice to know. Interested in seeing what these alternate but equalish powers are.

As for Id, I would love for him and Malos to meet each other. Both hate the world, one is, so as far as I know, craves nothing but destruction, the other was born to take the blame and suffering another did not want and then trained by his past self to destroy. It's in their nature that I don't think they'd get along, even if they are of a feather. They'd just fight each other endlessly out of mutual passions. All the while, Grahf sits back questioning whether being the Contact again is truly worth it, or whether he should go for a new edge, or somehow get both (of course he picks this option). All the while pumping THE POWER into his potential victims' mecha when their love-hate-hate-hate bromance takes to steel souls.

 

And thanks for the future advice. I don't think I had the auto-save on actually, and I only when ending my play sessions manually saved most of the time. The cause being the lack of a penalty when dying. I'm normally much less careless than this in games. And thanks for telling me of the tutorial issues.

 

1 hour ago, Lightchao42 said:

Xenoblade 2 and Torna may be complete, but versions 2.0.1 and 1.0.1 (respectively) were recently released. They don't come with any new content, but they do have some helpful bug fixes. You can see the patch notes here.

I'm glad Monolith Soft took the time to remove these pesky leftover glitches. I didn't think they would, since chances are they already started on their next project.

Doesn't say anything about this one glitch that happened to me. I was in Aletta, fighting a Grady in the lake, I was controlling Aegaeon and used one of his arts- whichever is a flurry of sword strikes. When the enemy was killed, the visual effect of the flurry of strikes remained behind. I didn't having any issues controlling my character, but the flurry animation (without Aegaeon in it- just the sword strokes) wouldn't stop by time alone, it remained there over the water, as if it was a trick of it. Eventually it went away, I forget how, but even walking some distance away with the camera aimed at its spot, it remained there clearly visible.

Edited October 19, 2018 by Interdimensional Observer

[omegaxis1]

Spoiler

I just realized something. It is said that Amalthus had attacked Spessia to destroy the remaining Aegis, Mythra, along with Addam. But Spessia was where Addam had his militia, along with Lora, Haze, and Jin, while Addam himself went off to seal away the third Aegis sword. 

How did Amalthus even know where to attack? Who would know about a possible location to where Addam was?

Well, we see that when the previous Praetor and that other guy were assassinated, we see Amalthus looking at the painting, and then walking, and passes by Zettar and the creepy guy that experimented on Blades and humans for Blade Eaters. 

If Zettar is the one that founded Tantal and made the story up about being Addam's direct descendants (even if they were related already), Zettar might have wanted Addam to be out of the way and thus gave Amalthus the information he might have found out when he had left Torna with the other refugees. With Addam gone, he would no longer be able to pose claim to rulership over Tantal. 

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

In an earlier topic, I voiced my dislike of this game. However, I gave it a few more hours and it really started to ramp up. I've found myself enjoying the game a lot now that I've gotten more rare blades and the combat mechanics have opened up.

[Armagon]

https://www.monolithsoft.co.jp/xb2/illust/result.html

The results for the Xenoblade 2 art contest have been released. There's a ton of good art there. 

The page does have a spoiler warning, recommending that you play all the way through Ch.7 though one of the pieces of art features a location visited in Chapters 8 and 9.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I can join this club now.

I have no real knowledge about this game because I haven't played a game of this series yet.

I only know that battle system is a bit weird and new for me by pressing the right buttons in the right time. It's neither a traditional roundbased, nor a action RPG. Since I'm not experienced with this battle system I'm prepared for trouble.
And I heared the tutorials aren't really kind to newcomers either since they vanish once you saw them once.

The graphics look amazing so far.

Hopefully Rex won't disappoint me...

[Michelaar]

So I've started this game again after I bought it like 2 months ago and played it for 3 hours or so.

I can't believe how hooked I got in such a short amount of time. I might actually buy the DLC if I end up loving the game as much as the later parts. I just started chapter 4. The rest of this post will be in the spoilers, spoilers for up to the end of chapter 3

Spoiler

First of all, Vandham NO. It's amazing how much you can get attached to a character in such a short amount of time. And then they kill him off. I gotta admit I did NOT see that coming. 

Second of all, is it just me or is the Uraya kingdom annoying as shit! I had such a tough time tracking down where I needed to go to reach the capital and it took me at least an hour. I've been killed multiple times but at least the enemies were mostly around my level, unlike a lot of enemies in Gormotti. It happened more than once that I was killed by level 35 enemies, or by that gigantic gorrila thing thats like level 85.

Some of the mechanics I feel like they explained it way too early, and took me way too long to figure out then should have been neccesary. I'm still not entirely sure i'm doing things right but for now I'm scraping by. Also some of these fetch quests side quests made me rip my head off but okay (Especially the Snow Rhino one. Fuck that quest honestly.)

Lastly, why are all the guys from torna so damn hot and cute. I want a piece from all of them.

 

[Armagon]

18 hours ago, Necrofantasia said:

I only know that battle system is a bit weird and new for me by pressing the right buttons in the right time. It's neither a traditional roundbased, nor a action RPG. Since I'm not experienced with this battle system I'm prepared for trouble.
And I heared the tutorials aren't really kind to newcomers either since they vanish once you saw them once.

Regarding the tutorials, i recommend using the Switch's built-in screenshot option to snap a picture of every tutorial box.

For the battle system, here's a few tips: First, level up your Arts. This increases the power and rate of recharge. Second, pouch items. Use 'em, they provide really useful buffs. Third, this only works with certain weapons on certain characters but after the first auto-attack, quickly flick the joystick. This resets the auto-attack animation and allows the Arts to be recharge faster. Fourth, every Driver has a Skill that can be unlocked in their Affintiy Chart that allows them to chain Arts into Arts. This speeds up battles immensly. Unlock it ASAP.

Unrelated to that but reguarly fill out your Blade's Affinity charts. Just trust me, it'll make the late game way easier.

5 hours ago, Michelaar said:

Second of all, is it just me or is the Uraya kingdom annoying as shit! I had such a tough time tracking down where I needed to go to reach the capital and it took me at least an hour.

Uraya is far from the most annoying area. It's just got this confusing design because they slap a giant staircase but you can only access it from Fonsa Myma.

The only actual annoying area is the first new area of Ch.7.

6 hours ago, Michelaar said:

I've been killed multiple times but at least the enemies were mostly around my level, unlike a lot of enemies in Gormotti. It happened more than once that I was killed by level 35 enemies, or by that gigantic gorrila thing thats like level 85.

You're gonna be seeing more of this as you go. It's a Xenoblade staple that not every monster in an area is around your level. This gives you incentive to come back later when you're stronger and to explore to find pathways that let you avoid the stronger monsters. There's a section in Mor Ardain (Ch.4) that's filled with lv.80 monsters and while you could run through it, it'd be better to find a less hostile path.

[omegaxis1]

So it turns out that Mythra in SSBU has a bit of censorship going on:

Spoiler

Normal/Censored:

 

Personally, if you ask me, it makes actually more sense for her to wear something like this given that she goes into fights.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

16 hours ago, Armagon said:

Regarding the tutorials, i recommend using the Switch's built-in screenshot option to snap a picture of every tutorial box.

For the battle system, here's a few tips: First, level up your Arts. This increases the power and rate of recharge. Second, pouch items. Use 'em, they provide really useful buffs. Third, this only works with certain weapons on certain characters but after the first auto-attack, quickly flick the joystick. This resets the auto-attack animation and allows the Arts to be recharge faster. Fourth, every Driver has a Skill that can be unlocked in their Affintiy Chart that allows them to chain Arts into Arts. This speeds up battles immensly. Unlock it ASAP.

Unrelated to that but reguarly fill out your Blade's Affinity charts. Just trust me, it'll make the late game way easier.

First, thanks for the tips.

Yes, I was told to make a screenshot of the tutorial since I have no access to read a guide book afterwards. I messed up a few time by forgetting to make them.

Overall I think to understand the skill system (harmonic rings). It reminds me on Tales of Xillia's.

However I still have problems with the combat system, especially in a duo fight. In the bossfight in the forest (when Nia shows up again), I didn't get how to control Pyra and let her attack with her fire sword the boss's weakness.

 

Unrelated to the combat Xenoblade is a very aesthetic game in terms of graphics and music. I also like the accent of all the non human characters. It suits them.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, omegaxis1 said:

So it turns out that Mythra in SSBU has a bit of censorship going on:

  Hide contents

Normal/Censored:

 

Personally, if you ask me, it makes actually more sense for her to wear something like this given that she goes into fights.

But it destroys her color aesthetic. If they were gonna give her leggings, it shouldn't be the exact opposite of her main color. Her sides and back are covered too which means that she's wearing more black than white, which goes against her being the Aegis of Light.

20 minutes ago, Necrofantasia said:

However I still have problems with the combat system, especially in a duo fight. In the bossfight in the forest (when Nia shows up again), I didn't get how to control Pyra and let her attack with her fire sword the boss's weakness.

If you mean controlling Pyra directly, you can't. You can only control Blades directly in Torna ~ The Golden Country (and there's an in-universe explanation as to why). You were already attacking the boss by using Pyra.

To be honest, i don't think elemental weaknesses make that much of a difference. In fact, i don't think there's even elemental resistances. Every element opposes it's opposite (so a Fire Blade is effective against Water and a Water Blade is effective against Fire).

In case you want to know the elemental weaknesses, they are:

Fire <-> Water

Ice <-> Wind

Electric <-> Earth 

Light <-> Dark

On a side note, XC2 and Torna are the only games in the series that have elemental systems (in Xenoblade. Xenogears and Xenosaga defintely had elements as well).

Though actually, i don't remember if Xenoblade X had them. Maybe they did.

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Armagon

[omegaxis1]

13 minutes ago, Armagon said:

But it destroys her color aesthetic. If they were gonna give her leggings, it shouldn't be the exact opposite of her main color. Her sides and back are covered too which means that she's wearing more black than white, which goes against her being the Aegis of Light.

 

The lighting is a bit too dark, but it isn't like she's wearing all white. Her outfit definitely shows plenty of black on there as well. Least her shoulders aren't covered.

[Armagon]

4 minutes ago, omegaxis1 said:

The lighting is a bit too dark, but it isn't like she's wearing all white. Her outfit definitely shows plenty of black on there as well. Least her shoulders aren't covered.

Yeah, she does have some black on her original design but her aesthetic is white and green. Again, it goes against her color aesthetic. And aside from that, the edit just looks bad. Like the fan-edited designs you'd see in the pre-release days because "oh no, not fanservice".

[omegaxis1]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, she does have some black on her original design but her aesthetic is white and green. Again, it goes against her color aesthetic. And aside from that, the edit just looks bad. Like the fan-edited designs you'd see in the pre-release days because "oh no, not fanservice".

It does feel a little overdone, I admit. 

[Lightchao42]

The change itself could be worse, I suppose, but more confusing is the fact that it was apparently necessary in the first place. Other girls with exposed legs like Azura and Cammy are fine, but Mythra's legs are too much for today's youth? Sakurai previously discussed similar changes to the Japanese version of Smash 4 and called CERO "ridiculous and frankly quite juvenile" for requiring such changes.

Quote

Sakurai: One of the first things they say in overseas ratings reviews is “no guns”—that I can understand. But in Japan, they immediately ask “could you show us all the female characters upside-down?”

Interviewer: Well, that’s, uh… Are they checking for panty shots?

Sakurai: Precisely. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U almost didn’t make its scheduled release date because of ratings issues. We had to revise Palutena and Wonder Pink’s models over and over again.

Interviewer: All because you might be able to see up their skirts? Seriously?

Sakurai: We had Palutena wearing shorts and made the inside of Wonder Pink’s skirt too dark to see anything. Nevertheless, CERO told us the designs were “sexually provocative.” They were being ridiculous and frankly quite juvenile.

Interviewer: Some players take great sport in finding that sort of suggestive material even where it doesn’t exist—they see what they want to see. In that sense, it seems like an exercise in futility for ratings boards to determine what is and isn’t “sexual.”

Sakurai: Underwear is just a piece of fabric. If you’re more worried about something trivial like whether you can see some cloth than whether a game includes firearms, you clearly ought to get your priorities in order.

Though I'm not sure why someone would be concerned about looking up the skirt of a 2D image...

[Strullemia]

14 hours ago, omegaxis1 said:

So it turns out that Mythra in SSBU has a bit of censorship going on:

  Reveal hidden contents

Normal/Censored:

 

Personally, if you ask me, it makes actually more sense for her to wear something like this given that she goes into fights.

It doesn't really bother me that she's wearing something but why does it have to be such an ugly black color? It looks really ugly and jarring if you ask me.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

On 26.11.2018 at 6:50 PM, Armagon said:

If you mean controlling Pyra directly, you can't. You can only control Blades directly in Torna ~ The Golden Country (and there's an in-universe explanation as to why). You were already attacking the boss by using Pyra.

To be honest, i don't think elemental weaknesses make that much of a difference. In fact, i don't think there's even elemental resistances. Every element opposes it's opposite (so a Fire Blade is effective against Water and a Water Blade is effective against Fire).

In case you want to know the elemental weaknesses, they are:

Fire <-> Water

Ice <-> Wind

Electric <-> Earth 

Light <-> Dark

On a side note, XC2 and Torna are the only games in the series that have elemental systems (in Xenoblade. Xenogears and Xenosaga defintely had elements as well).

Though actually, i don't remember if Xenoblade X had them. Maybe they did.

I know only the masters can be controlled -> Rex or Nia so far. 

However what I tried to say how to use elemental attacks with the symbiosed ally. 

Also I still don't quite get how to use combo attacks. I see sometime a command with a B in center, but I always click it too late.

So far this game gives me hard time. It's not really beginnerfriendly for someone who hasn't this kind of RPG yet. And the disappearing tutorials don't help me either. I missed taking a lot of screenshots.

It's not said it's a bad game at all, but for now I can't really enjoy it as I could if I figured out its gameplay.

[Armagon]

1 hour ago, Necrofantasia said:

However what I tried to say how to use elemental attacks with the symbiosed ally. 

Oh that? You press A. Let me visualize it so it's easier to explain

Where the Arts are (box number 4), you see that Roman numeral? That's your Specials. There are four Specials in total and they charge up whenever you cancel an auto-attack into an Art (they can also charge up with passive effects from pouch items). The first three Levels are charged this way. For a Lv.4 Special, it will automatically charge up from a Lv.3 Special.

1 hour ago, Necrofantasia said:

Also I still don't quite get how to use combo attacks. I see sometime a command with a B in center, but I always click it too late.

Those aren't combo attacks, those are QTEs. Getting an "excellent" on them will increase their power but you don't lose anything from messing them".

There are two types of combos: Driver Combos and Blade Combos. Driver Combos follow the Break -> Toppple -> Launch -> Smash path, always in that order. Regular Arts have these (like you can see in the picture, Rex's Anchor Shot has the Topple effect, which will Topple the enemy if they've been inflicted with Break).

Blade Combos are done with Blade Specials. In the picture, if you look at box number six, that's the currently active Combo path. The way it works is that you have to use a corresponding Blade Special of each tier. So using the picture as an example, Nia used a Lv.1 Water Blade Special. To continue the combo, Tora can use a Lv.2 Earth Blade Special or Nia can use a Lv.2 Water Blade Special. Once that's done, then a Blade Combo is finished when the required Lv.3 Blade Special is done. It sounds confusing but the more you play around with it, you should get the hang of it. Completing a Blade Combo puts a Seal on the enemy, which prevents them from doing certain things. This is also key for doing Chain Attacks but you can't do that yet.

Here's a Blade Combo chart if you need it.

 

[Lightchao42]

So the Siren model kit has been released and it comes with a page that contains a surprising amount of background lore. It even uses some terminology from Xenogears! For the sake of spoilers I don't recommend reading it until you reach Chapter 10. Here it is if you want to read it.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Lightchao42

[Armagon]

21 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

So the Siren model kit has been released and it comes with a page that contains a surprising amount of background lore. It even uses some terminology from Xenogears! For the sake of spoilers I don't recommend reading it until you reach Chapter 10. Here it is if you want to read it.

Tetsuya Takahashi, you absoulte madman. That lore doesn't just have Xenogears references

Spoiler

According to this, the Conduit was discovered in Africa, which is exactly where the Zohar was discovered in Xenosaga. It doesn't specify where but i'm willing to bet that the Conduit was discovered in Kenya.

 

[Jotari]

On 11/27/2018 at 3:53 PM, Hekselka said:

It doesn't really bother me that she's wearing something but why does it have to be such an ugly black color? It looks really ugly and jarring if you ask me.

I find the fact that Pyra's and Mythra's costumes so fan servicey kind of creepy in the added context of the game. I'm all for women to chose to dress however they want, but the blades weren't born, they were created. They were designed to look sexy not just as characters in our universe but as entities in their own.

Spoiler

In other words, Claus is a horny bastard.

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Jotari

[Lightchao42]

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

I find the fact that Pyra's and Mythra's costumes so fan servicey kind of creepy in the added context of the game. I'm all for women to chose to dress however they want, but the blades weren't born, they were created. They were designed to look sexy not just as characters in our universe but as entities in their own.

  Reveal hidden contents

In other words, Claus is a horny bastard.

 

Well Blades evolve based on data collected from their Drivers and the environment, so technically it means that everyone is a pervert. Which isn't unrealistic.

Anyway I decided to summarize the new information the Siren model kit gave us, along with related information we can infer from the game itself. Again don't read this until reaching Chapter 10.

Spoiler

• At the beginning of the 21st century, a small university laboratory discovered the Conduit in Africa (presumably Kenya as in Xenosaga). To gain a better understanding of the Conduit's miraculous properties, the Unified Government formed the academic institution Aoidos devoted to studying it. Klaus and Galea were likely members of Aoidos.
• About ten years after its discovery, the Conduit was deemed too dangerous to keep on Earth's surface. With that in mind, the Unified Government set up the Orbital Ring to study the Conduit in a safe location, attached to the equator by three space elevators/Beanstalks. The Orbital Stations attached to the Beanstalks, Rhadamanthus (the one we visit in-game), Aeacus, and Minos, are named after the three judges of the Underworld in Greek myth. Aeacus and Minos seem to be absent by the time XC2 takes place, so presumably they were dismantled, destroyed or ended up in other dimensions at some point.
• The AI collective known as the Trinity Processor, consisting of Ontos, Logos, and Pneuma, was created to manage the Conduit aboard Rhadamanthus. The Trinity Processor uses biocomputer elements (so presumably the cores were made from the same artificial brain cells as the Core Crystals) and was raised in virtual reality to gain personality (so Mythra and Malos had personalities before being awakened by their Drivers, though how much personality they had is unclear).
• The Trinity Processor can act independently of humans (though it still obeys orders from humans, since Klaus can use it to perform his experiment), and created the Artifices on its own to protect the Orbital Ring. The Artifices use a system known as a Slave Generator to draw power directly from the Conduit.
• The Savorite Rebels were a faction that wanted to seize control of the Conduit from the Unified Government. They apparently weren't the only group created for this purpose.
• Since it consists of three AIs I'm not sure if I should use singular or plural terms for the Trinity Processor...

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Lightchao42

[Etrurian emperor]

So I might have a guess who's going to be the next villain for Xenoblade III. The identity of the architect leaves room for a certain character to get very prominent. 

Spoiler

And that's Galea. If Claus got ripped in two and became Zanza on the Bionis then couldn't the same have happened to Galea? She was standing at the same spot as Claus when the experiment happened. So perhaps there's a version of Galea in another world that went as crazy as Zanza and could thus be the main villain.