Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles - Impressions

[Ymeegod]

Roughly $58 total for the standalone package if you wanted the Classic Controller Bundle is was nearly $90 though.

Not really worth it for the bundle IMO,  you can pick up the Classic Controller Pro with Monster Hunter 3 at most Walmarts for $20 or less.

[Mop it up]

But it isn't RED.

My fingers are still crossed that  not only will the game come here, but the bundle as well.

[KDR_11k]

Man, Riki's got annoying voice acting but it's just not possible for a westerner to produce those high-pitched squealy mascot character voices the Nopon were designed for. They should have had him voiced by a girl at least though.

Now that I'm up to 6 characters I'm trying all the off-characters as my active party. Would be painful to encounter Mechon without Shulk in the party but if I do I can just re-configure after a wipe. Melia is interesting to play, she has a completely different combat system than other characters. First you have to summon elements that provide a status boost aura while summoned and then you can use her special skill (which doesn't require a charge to use) to launch them at enemies. Seems you can have up to three elements summoned and each type can be used multiple times (but since each summon is on a separate cooldown timer it's faster to summon three different ones). Dunban as a main character seems suicidal, he's pretty frail and attracts enemy aggro (even has skills to draw aggro, as opposed to Shulk who has a skill to AVOID aggro) so he gets killed quickly. Supposedly high AGI stats can make him survivable (the game throws you a bunch of help pages for every character but only logs them in the tutorial menu so you have to look them up before using the character) but I haven't played much since re-outfitting him for agility instead of armor.

Seems inactive characters get reduced XP (at least there's a skill for having them get full XP on one of the characters). Can't be by much though, I think I have them all at the same level (or maybe that's because XP decays exponentially with your level so an underleveled character would gain exponentially more XP than the others, bringing them up to speed quickly).

[NeoStar9X]

Put my order through for the game today. Though it looks like it will be a while before I even get my copy due to stock issues. Might actually cancel with Zavvi if nothing happens to the order over the next few days and try someone else. They were the cheapest.

Edit:

Bah. Canceled the order. Waiting till October is out of the question. No point in having the order if they are currently out of stock. That and I since heard some negatives about Zavvi so I might try a different store.

[Ceric]

I'm using Riki as my main for now, that guy is indestructible. Tons of HP (highest among my party) and I linked a medium armor skill to him so he doesn't make up for that with low defense either. He can do a weak group heal and his play dead ability loses aggro AND recovers a ton of HP. Too bad he cannot DRAW aggro, I often had him at nearly full health while my other characters were chugging along near death. The boss fight at the end of the Highentia Crypt was long and looked like I would lose quickly but since Riki is so damn durable he didn't go down once and could revive and heal the other two (used Shulk and Reyn there) constantly. It was a messy battle but in the end I won thanks to the Heropon.

Kinda funny that in the following cutscene Reyn contested Riki's claim that "it was all because of the Heropon!"

I'm going to put this here because well.  I'm pretty sure it was suppose to be.

[KDR_11k]

Ah, yeah, probably clicked the wrong thread by accident.

[Ymeegod]

Think my copy is MIA, have to wait another 26days to even report it .  40 day grace period for Royal Mail is a bit extreme considering it's suppose to be 4-6 days.

[KDR_11k]

I don't know about US customs but the customs here in Germany can easily swallow something for two weeks before notifying you that you need to come over and handle it.


Just got through the showdown at Prison Island and it feels like the plot is finally really heating up.

[Shorty McNostril]

Just out in Australia today.  Rented it out for $3 to give it a look.  I'm only about an hour or two in and it's looking pretty promising. 

If it holds my interest for another few hours I might pick it up.

[Scatt-Man]

I was so sure my UK copy would arrive here in Australia before the local launch. Bloody Zavvi... Same thing happened when I imported Galaxy 2. Ah well, at least I save 50% this time. *Sits infront of door*

[KDR_11k]

I really like how much there is to discover about the relationships and stories between NPCs, on the first pass of talking to everybody you may only get a few uninteresting gameplay hints and some generic kill or fetch quests but as you talk to named NPCs multiple times they reveal their connections to each other and new quests appear based on those. Some even with multiple outcomes, like deciding who to help in a love triangle, what kind of ingredient to hand to a brewer for his "firewater" (I gave him the cheap one which made everybody think of him as a cheap boozer) and other stuff. The game clearly tells you that sidequests do not impact the main story so I guess there won't be any major consequences to that stuff but there's still a lot to discover. Also the quicktravel lets you return to older areas at will to pursue the quest chains there (a few are marked as time limited which means they become unavailable after specific plot moments or sidequest moments, e.g. helping a refugee camp won't be necessary once you reclaim their hometown). Almost like a sandbox game.

[Shorty McNostril]

Ok. I gave in and picked it up this morning.  Traded in a couple of games for it.  They red controller will be coming in a few days.  (Am listening to the soundtrack as we speak)

I am currently in the camp where we meet the kid with the buggy (can't remember his name).  Just before we go to camp 6. 

Damn, didn't I meed those high level monsters in the worst possible way.  I was busy fighting some water bird things for a bit of grinding in between plots, while all of a sudden some level 73 flamingo things jumped into the fray and one shot my team.  Didn't go back there again. 


I assume losing the girl at the first battle with the faced mechon was unavoidable?  I ask because I am still finding weapons that she can carry.  This leads me to think that either she comes back or maybe there was something I could have done?

[KDR_11k]

I assume losing the girl at the first battle with the faced mechon was unavoidable?  I ask because I am still finding weapons that she can carry.  This leads me to think that either she comes back or maybe there was something I could have done?

Yeah, that scene is a key point in the plot and the motivation for the whole adventure. I only found like two weapons for her, don't think you'll be getting to use those. Just sell them off.

Also fun with high level monsters are things like high level nebulas, those things aggro if you use any ether spells in combat and it doesn't seem like you can tell your allies not to use ether. I think the music changes when a high level monster joins the fray, at that point you should run the **** away. I don't think the escape menu option really does much, what matters is getting enough distance between you and the monster's spawn point (even if it chases you it doesn't matter that the monster is three feet away from you, distance to the monster's spawn point or where the fight started matters). I once accidentally ran out of a fight when I was trying to use Melia's shadow stab to keep a bunch of enemies outside of melee range with the rest of my party dead, I retreated so much that eventually I moved out of the combat zone and the fight just ended.

[Shorty McNostril]

I have also done that.  Even if some of your team is dead, they will resurrect themselves when you get out of range.  I am assuming that is intentional.  I was very surprised when this happened.

Roughly how many hours have you played thus far KDR?

[KDR_11k]

Party members always return to 1 HP when the battle is over, that mechanism doesn't distinguish between winning and fleeing. I've had some battles that ended with my main character biting it and the enemy for some reason disengaging so I got revived at 1 HP and the battle was over instead of it throwing me back to the last waypoint.

The timer on my savegame says 34 hours and I'm at level 43.

[Shorty McNostril]

I find it interesting that most of the kill quests don't require you to bring to go back and the tell the person who asked you to.

Not that I'm complaining of course.   

[KDR_11k]

I think most of the quests from nameless NPCs are automatically solved without returning. The ones from named NPCs usually require returning though (they also add some story bits when you turn them in but it's still annoying).

[Mannypon]

damn, this wait is brutal.  My copy was disptached on the 20th and it still hasn't come in.  I can't wait to jump into this game.  Keep up the feedback everyone.

[Shorty McNostril]

I think most of the quests from nameless NPCs are automatically solved without returning. The ones from named NPCs usually require returning though (they also add some story bits when you turn them in but it's still annoying).

This is true.  At lease we have quick travel though.  Makes it a lot quicker.  But it is still a pain trying to remember where we found the character in the first place.  The affinity chart does help to a point, but we still have to find where they are located in that area.

But I suppose that if that's just nitpicking.  It is a well built game.  Certainly the most immersive that I have played for some time. 

Do you know if the quests that pop up for the unnamed NPC's are randomly generated, or are they all pre planned? (and will therefore run out)

[KDR_11k]

I think they're all pre-planned, after all there's at least some text to them. There's more than enough of them that you don't need to worry about running out. You'll get too good for the quest rewards before you finish them all.

Also it's kinda annoying that some of the red items (quest-specific items found in the field) only appear once you get the matching quest. Though I guess compared to other RPGs that should be "it's nice how most red items appear even before you have the quest". Pretty funny when you take a quest and immediately complete it because you found the item already.

The game has some self-spoilery stuff (premonitions aside, of course), you will be offered skill books for characters before you encounter them and all quests from the city of Alcamoth are tagged with the time limited icon so I guess something will happen to the city? Well, okay, I misinterpreted the time limit on the refugee camp as meaning that the camp gets wiped out when really the people just migrate back to their home colony and then task you to rebuild it.


That self-spoiling is why I don't spoiler tag talk about Riki or Melia, by the time that you know who either of these people are you've already seen skill books for them and thus know that they are future party members.

[Shorty McNostril]

Here is a question for you.

I have been asked to go and kill a couple of monsters that are over level 70.  This is all well and good, but the problem is that they have the timer next to them, indicating they need to be done before I advance to much further through the main story. 

Has this happened to you, if it has, how did you do it?

[KDR_11k]

Are you sure those are the right monsters? You're not supposed to hunt a different version of the same monster type (e.g. Colony 9 has toad monsters at level 4 or so and toad monsters that are level 50)?

Anyway, those "time limits" seem to be extremely loose, it just means that at some point something will happen to make the quest impossible. Hell, even if it does, no biggie, it's just a quest. I think the only ones that I've lost to the "timer" were in the refugee camp and they even asked me if I wanted to do more quests first.

[Shorty McNostril]

It is definitely a certain monster.  It isn't one of those "kill 5 mutant ostriches" kind.  It is a "kill the *insert unique name here* type.

That giant level 73 quadruped thing that runs around in the middle of the leg just near the lake.  I am supposed to kill that while I am boasting level 24 stripes. Instant death.

[KDR_11k]

If you got that quest from the refugee camp you can do it until you migrate the people to Colony 6. I'd advise against waiting too long with that though, the rewards for rebuilding Colony 6 apparently get fairly major.


EDIT: Speaking of which, I can't find the Fossil Ape I need for constructing level 2 housing.


EDIT 2: I got the damn ape from the universal drops in colony 6. They're supposed to be found in Makna.

[Shorty McNostril]

I really want to do all the side quests.  I am a bit anal when i comes to things like sidequests.  I want them all finished before I proceed.  But stuffed if I know how to kill a level 70 beast.