The Last To Post Wins!

[Armagon]

 

[Shrimpica]

Shrimperial Victory!

[Armagon]

So can we talk about how EDGY TMS Navarre is as a Swordmaster?

[Acacia Sgt]

I swear, sometimes the Monster Arena AI seems deliberately stacked against the player.

[Nobody]

20 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Savannah would be more fertile; Ardainian imperial Scots, soldiers, steel and steamworks in an environment where you'd expect to see zebras, elephants, giraffes, and Unique Monster hippos that you accidentally aggro and get OHKO'ed by.

tfw you live in a savannah but there are only boring animals in it

The most interesting ones are like jaguars, aligators and maned wolves

[Acacia Sgt]

Alright, I have the Mountaincleaver. Now it's off to the Maw of the Necrogond!

I'd say, I'm thankful switching equipment mid-battle, without using up a character's action for the turn even, is a thing. I can switch to the appropriate equipment when needed depending on the enemy.

Alright, got the last orb and have woken up Ramia. I'm close to fighting Baramos... but that will be for some other day.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Armagon]

So i've got the normal ending of Atelier Escha & Logy secured. I think i have at least one or two character endings secured as well. I do have a clear chance at the true ending, i just gotta beat the final boss. Gonna do that tomorow. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Chapter 19 is utter garbage to deal with due the lack of switch starting position of the allies.

Especially if low movement and unarmed healers start next to mounted ememies.

I still do not know how to manipulate the allies's starting position.

[Acacia Sgt]

Isn't it possible by selecting and deselecting people? The order in the preparations screen is important, if I recall.

Just look up which tile corresponding to which slot and you're set.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

It is possible, but I don't know how the order is determined for each chapter.

I have not the patience to do (de)selecting people over and over, especially in a chapter where 20 units can be brought.

[DragonFlames]

Tfw you want to play a new game but then your body's like "Nope! Go to sleep for 12 hours!" Damn you, Morgana!

Anyhow, I finally dove into the vastness of the sea of clouds that is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and played the first hour or so (I am now at the point where I could go on the mission the Chairman of the Argentum Guild gives you). Here are some first impressions:

• The graphics are absolutely stunning. I haven't seen too many areas yet (a total of two. Yay!), but I can tell this is gonna be a treat for the eyes
• The premise and story are very interesting. People living in a literal sea of clouds (that you can swim in, because f*** physics, am I right?) on the backs of giant creatures that are about to die out. I suspect some post-apocalypse stuff to jump at me in the backstory somewhere (don't spoil anything for me, please!)
• The music, while I have only dipped my feet into it, is absolutely incredible. The regular battle theme is amazing, almost worthy of being a boss theme.
• Characters seem likeable so far. Rex seems like a cool enough guy and his "grandpa" is funny ("Kids these days." <- what he literally said)
• There is a diving minigame that reminds me of how fishing in Three Houses works. Fishing is unironically my favorite thing to do in that game, so it's only logical that I'd like it here
• I am not too sure how I feel about the combat system. On one hand, it's new, on the other hand, having attacking be automatic is something that will take time getting used to and I think I'd prefer it if it went full-on action RPG instead of this - for now, at least - weird system.
• The German localization for the dialogue of the little furball creatures is literal garbage. I suspect they tried to make it cute and/or funny, but it just comes across as infantile and thus makes it hard to take... well, everything they say seriously at all. Makes the little things annoying as hell, too. Glad the English VO is different in that regard.
• Speaking of the English VO, I was aware of this already due to Armagon sharing some non-spoiler-y videos here, but I like how everyone has a thick British accent. It's neat. The delivers feel natural as well.
  The exception to this is one girl character I met that I don't know the name of (around the same age as Rex, wears yellow, constantly bickers with him, and has a talking white tiger with her that is incredibly polite), where her voice doesn't really fit her appearance and her delivery doesn't match the character's body language at all.

^One of the first things you see. And it makes whale noises. Cloud whales?

[Armagon]

18 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

There is a diving minigame that reminds me of how fishing in Three Houses works. Fishing is unironically my favorite thing to do in that game, so it's only logical that I'd like it here

Funnily enough, when fishing was revealed for 3H and that it involved timing a button press at the right time in a circle, literally every Xenoblade fan was like

I guess for you, it's the other way around haha.

21 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I am not too sure how I feel about the combat system. On one hand, it's new, on the other hand, having attacking be automatic is something that will take time getting used to and I think I'd prefer it if it went full-on action RPG instead of this - for now, at least - weird system.

You'll get used to it. Hopefully. You also don't have a Blade at this point in the game so you're really limited in what you can do. Best tip i can provide right now, if you're feeling the combat is a little slow, is after the first auto-attack, quickly flick the control stick left or right. This resets the auto-attack cycle and allows Arts to recharge faster than if you just did a normal auto-attack cycle. But whether or not you're able to do this depends on the character and weapon; Rex with the Broadsword/Aegis can do it but if Rex had a Greataxe, he wouldn't be able to.

A bit of trivia, auto-attacks work a little bit differently in this game (and in Torna) as you can't move while auto-attacking and auto-attacks charge up your Arts, whereas in previous Xenoblade games, you could move while auto-attacking and Arts were on a timer cooldown.

30 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

The German localization for the dialogue of the little furball creatures is literal garbage. I suspect they tried to make it cute and/or funny, but it just comes across as infantile and thus makes it hard to take... well, everything they say seriously at all. Makes the little things annoying as hell, too. Glad the English VO is different in that regard.

What exactly are the Nopon saying in German, i want to know. I know the voice acting is in English (or Japanese if you downloaded the free JP voice pack) but is there a noticable difference between what the Nopon are saying in German and what they are saying in English (beyond the obvious language difference of course)?

32 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

The exception to this is one girl character I met that I don't know the name of (around the same age as Rex, wears yellow, constantly bickers with him, and has a talking white tiger with her that is incredibly polite), where her voice doesn't really fit her appearance and her delivery doesn't match the character's body language at all.

You mean Nia? Yeah, her accent isn't British at all, it's actually Welsh. That's why it sounds so thick. I've seen some clips of her VA in Welsh TV shows and she really does speak like that. Appearently that's just what Welsh women sound like.

[Acacia Sgt]

Alright, time for some grinding to take on Baramos...

... which means trying and failing to take down Liquid Metal Slimes, hahaha. At least the other monsters are manageable... though it's telling that I need to cast Kabuff almost every battle. And those Leger-de-Men are just a pain...

[DragonFlames]

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Funnily enough, when fishing was revealed for 3H and that it involved timing a button press at the right time in a circle, literally every Xenoblade fan was like

I guess for you, it's the other way around haha.

Yup, exactly!

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You'll get used to it. Hopefully. You also don't have a Blade at this point in the game so you're really limited in what you can do. Best tip i can provide right now, if you're feeling the combat is a little slow, is after the first auto-attack, quickly flick the control stick left or right. This resets the auto-attack cycle and allows Arts to recharge faster than if you just did a normal auto-attack cycle. But whether or not you're able to do this depends on the character and weapon; Rex with the Broadsword/Aegis can do it but if Rex had a Greataxe, he wouldn't be able to.

A bit of trivia, auto-attacks work a little bit differently in this game (and in Torna) as you can't move while auto-attacking and auto-attacks charge up your Arts, whereas in previous Xenoblade games, you could move while auto-attacking and Arts were on a timer cooldown.

That is a useful tip, thank you!
It's not that battles are slow, it just feels like I'm not really in control and it makes me a bit anxious about later fights.

4 minutes ago, Armagon said:

What exactly are the Nopon saying in German, i want to know. I know the voice acting is in English (or Japanese if you downloaded the free JP voice pack) but is there a noticable difference between what the Nopon are saying in German and what they are saying in English (beyond the obvious language difference of course)?

They say stuff like "lecki-schmecki" (which roughly equates to something like "goodie-tastie") when referring to food and drink, and "Kachings" when referring to money among other stuff that makes them feel less like a different species with different grammar and more like toddlers. The way sentences are structured and their overall choice of words also makes them seem a lot more childish than what the English VO suggests they should be. The Nopon-led bar in the first area is called "Bauchiknurr-Kantine", which I guess would translate to "stomachyrumble canteen" in English.
It's facepalm-inducingly dumb, not gonna lie.

7 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You mean Nia? Yeah, her accent isn't British at all, it's actually Welsh. That's why it sounds so thick. I've seen some clips of her VA in Welsh TV shows and she really does speak like that. Appearently that's just what Welsh women sound like.

Ah, I see. That would explain a lot.

[Interdimensional Observer]

15 hours ago, Armagon said:

So can we talk about how EDGY TMS Navarre is as a Swordmaster?

I LOVE IT! I NEED THIS! MORE MORE MORE!

It's almost Conqueror!Chrom tier for me, it's oozing style and I like it! Makes a good contrast to the white and holy Hero alternative.

 

30 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You mean Nia? Yeah, her accent isn't English at all, it's actually Welsh. That's why it sounds so thick. I've seen some clips of her VA in Welsh TV shows and she really does speak like that. Appearently that's just what Welsh women sound like.

Minor correction. British = of the Isle of Britain, or of the United Kingdom. Wales was conquered by England and has since been in union with it since the late 1200s AD. Although with hundreds of years of this union being premodern and pre-mass media, the complete assimilation (though the Welsh language endures to this day b/c national identity for some) to a single language and homogenization of dialect proceeded far slower. 

I've watched several seasons of The Great British Baking Show and a good documentary on Scotch whiskey (which reminds me- I realized there are no alcoholic pouch items in XC2- thanks for being underage Rex). I can say that there are far worse accents XC2 didn't use. Normally I set my TV to no higher than 10 on the volume for most things, some of the accents demanded I crank it up to 18 or even 30, it can be so hoarse and they cut their wor so shor.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Armagon]

Really cool how the final boss of Atelier Escha & Logy can just decide to delete my support bar, forcing me to build it back up again. Thanks game, it's not like i'm trying to get the true ending or anything.

12 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

It's not that battles are slow, it just feels like I'm not really in control and it makes me a bit anxious about later fights.

Understandable. Once you get a Blade, this feeling should go away as you get access to Blade Combos, which is the main thing the game wants you to do in combat, along with chaining your auto-attacks into Arts (using an Art right as an auto-attack animation ends to increase it's power, you'll see a little blue circle come out if you got it right). The game explains that latter bit but not right away. I don't remember if you're at a point where it's told so i'm dropping it here just in case. 

Btw, i probably should've mentioned this earlier but be sure to screenshot every tutorial. For some really odd reason, you can't review tutorials in this game. I don't know why, it's just not there. Screenshotting is the only way to review them.

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I LOVE IT! I NEED THIS! MORE MORE MORE!

It's almost Conqueror!Chrom tier for me, it's oozing style and I like it! Makes a good contrast to the white and holy Hero alternative.

Swordmaster!Navarre and Conqueror!Chrom are like the coolest TMS designs in my opinion. Assasin!Virion and Dark Knight!Cain are good as well, though for Cain i went Paladin instead simply for the more rounded stats.

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Really cool how the final boss of Atelier Escha & Logy can just decide to delete my support bar, forcing me to build it back up again. Thanks game, it's not like i'm trying to get the true ending or anything.

The sarcasm is strong with this one.

1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Understandable. Once you get a Blade, this feeling should go away as you get access to Blade Combos, which is the main thing the game wants you to do in combat, along with chaining your auto-attacks into Arts (using an Art right as an auto-attack animation ends to increase it's power, you'll see a little blue circle come out if you got it right). The game explains that latter bit but not right away. I don't remember if you're at a point where it's told so i'm dropping it here just in case.

This I look forward to because it sounds like it'll make the combat system more enjoyable.
Just to make sure, the Arts are stuff like Rex' Anchor Shot, correct?

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Btw, i probably should've mentioned this earlier but be sure to screenshot every tutorial. For some really odd reason, you can't review tutorials in this game. I don't know why, it's just not there. Screenshotting is the only way to review them.

Screenshotting tutorials starting now.
Luckily, the game only introduced the basics to me so far, which are pretty easy to grasp.

[Shrimpica]

You know when fans make you hate something? Yeah, i am starting to feel that way about Edelgard lol.

[Armagon]

4 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Just to make sure, the Arts are stuff like Rex' Anchor Shot, correct?

Correct. Each weapon gives a character four Arts but you can only have three Arts equipped per weapon (you can change which Arts they are in the Arts menu, which is also where you can upgrade Arts). As you get more Blades, you get access to more Arts and each character can have up to three Blades equipped (though early on, each character can only use two Blades) and since you can switch between your equipped Blades during battle, you have 9 Arts total per character during battle. The Blade Specials (the big empty slot on the right side of the Art pallet because you don't have a Blade yet) can be seen as the fourth "Art" so you're total would be 12 Arts per character.

 

[DragonFlames]

20 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

You know when fans make you hate something?

That would be part of the reason I gave up on Pokémon for me. Also mounted units. Fans ruined those for me.

Though you honestly shouldn't let other people influence your likes and dislikes like that.
And before you ask, yes, the glass house is very comfortable, thank you very much. Especially with all those rocks here.

10 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Correct. Each weapon gives a character four Arts but you can only have three Arts equipped per weapon (you can change which Arts they are in the Arts menu, which is also where you can upgrade Arts). As you get more Blades, you get access to more Arts and each character can have up to three Blades equipped (though early on, each character can only use two Blades) and since you can switch between your equipped Blades during battle, you have 9 Arts total per character during battle. The Blade Specials (the big empty slot on the right side of the Art pallet because you don't have a Blade yet) can be seen as the fourth "Art" so you're total would be 12 Arts per character.

Wow, that's quite a lot of art...s.
That joke was lame, I'm sorry.

I can already see myself fiddling around with this a lot. *rubs hands gleefully*

Edited February 16, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrimpica]

1 minute ago, DragonFlames said:

And before you ask, yes, the glass house is very comfortable, thank you very much. Especially with all those rocks here.

 

We are sharing the same Glass house! Which room?

[DragonFlames]

Just now, Shrimperor said:

 

We are sharing the same Glass house! Which room?

Room 00, left door from the fifth glass window. The one with all the cracks in it.

[Shrimpica]

20 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Room 00, left door from the fifth glass window. The one with all the cracks in it.

strange. Because i am in the same one...

are you perhaps a ghost?

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Shrimperor said:

strange. Because i am in the same one...

are you perhaps a ghost?

Or we exist in a spatial-temporal shift, meaning that while we are indeed in the same area, we technically exist on two different dimensional planes, even if they are pretty close.

[Shrimpica]

Just now, DragonFlames said:

Or we exist in a spatial-temporal shift, meaning that while we are indeed in the same area, we technically exist on two different dimensional planes, even if they are pretty close.

Well, time to call Histy.