Xenoblade Chronicles - Wii

[ah]

That actually kind of bugs me about this game - loads of the monsters that are supposedly terrorising the community are pretty amiable looking creatures that won't attack if you leave them alone. So harsh running around murdering bunnies just to level up! I swear, the next guy that gives me a quest to kill some pink bird that "attacked" him...

[Vorgot]

That actually kind of bugs me about this game - loads of the monsters that are supposedly terrorising the community are pretty amiable looking creatures that won't attack if you leave them alone. So harsh running around murdering bunnies just to level up! I swear, the next guy that gives me a quest to kill some pink bird that "attacked" him...

Thats because the Defense Force, and the colonists, are a bunch of Jessies.

[Davros sock drawer]

The display when you target an enemy will have a different background colour. Black means you'll win the fight easily and the enemy will ignore you, yellow means it's a pretty even fight and red means you'll get your arse handed to you in the quickest and most humiliating way possible.

Ah, right. I wasn't targetting it, so I guess I should do so and scope new monsters out from a distance.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I think your view of japanese rpg's is stuck in the dark ages. Valkyria Chronicles, Demons Souls and now Xenoblade. And even FXXIII was visually stunning with a hum dinger of a battle system, even though it was too linear. This game in particular couldn't be enjoyed on a handheld - the areas are just too big and MMO like.

I don't consider Demon's Souls a JRPG - for me a JRPG isn't an RPG that comes from Japan, but more the typical genre of Japanese RPGs with manga-esque styling (epic hair), (random) (semi) turn-based battles with complex battle systems and a story with more cliches than an afternoon of the homeshopping channel.

Demon's Souls falls well outside of this, don't know about Valkyria Chronicles as I never played it.

[___]

There's an option (non-default) to always show monster indicators. Makes it easier to spot them in the first place and spot ones which will kick your arse from afar.

[Talk Show Host]

I'm no expert but it seems to me that some people haven't read any of the tutorials.

About the battle system. Don't let the icons and seemingly frantic rhythm throw you off. This is a highly tactical system.

First, all party members have roles, so you can have an idea how to use them or develop them (check tutorial).

Secondly, there is no need to always use arts (the A.I. doesn't). Everyone auto-attacks so you have time to think about your next move or any combo you might do. Letting the characters auto attack (+ criticals) help your party gauge to fill up. You need at least 1 bar in order to be able to revive a character. 2 bars mean you can revive twice, 3 bars mean thrice or a chain attack.

You don't always have to use a chain attack when it's available. Look at how the battle is going and if you really need to use the chain attack do it. If you don't you can have the three bars follow you in the next battle. Be careful. As long as you don't fight these bars slowly empty. It's not really important to pay attention on the party gauge when fighting ordinary enemies, but when you are in a high level area or you have a boss fight imminent, it makes a hell of a difference to keep track of your party gauge and try to keep it filled.

To use a chain attack try to match the colors of the arts that each member has. Follow a blue art with a blue art or a green art with a green art, etc. If you succeed on this sometimes you will get an added damage bonus or another chain round. In order to initiate a second chain round a QTE appears requesting you to press B. Do it when the line is over the B circle or inside the B circle (continuous damage or skills from party members can also raise tension and you can see fire in the characters' portraits - that means that they can do more damage during their "fiery" status).

During battle sometimes you get the QTE in order to perform some context battle actions. You can warn a party member when he or she is about to be attacked (as you have foreseen a vision), so go near them and press B. You can revive a member (go near them and press B) and you can encourage a member (go near them and press B).

Before you start the battle you may also get the QTE sometimes, which gives a starting buff to your party if you press on time. Don't forget that you can also lure an enemy away from a pack, by pressing down on the d-pad when you target the monster but before initiating a battle. The same applies when you want to disengage from an enemy (you can do it if the monster lets you or you can simply run away, wow style).

Last but not least, when you see many icons flashing on and off in characters portraits it means they are either buffed or debuffed. Until you know what the icons mean and what skills are being cast, you can easily see whether a character or enemy is buffed or debuffed. When there is a buff you can see a small arrow pointing up in the skill icon of a character's portrait. When there is a debuff you can see an arrow pointing down.

It's an amazing system all in all, and not only because it's tactical and fun, but also because it's tied to the affinity. Helping others, warning others, encouraging others etc raises the affinity between them, which is one of the things that help the heart to hearts to "open".

Use the triggers in order to cycle between enemies, to change targets during battles or see if an enemy in front of you is "beatable", level-wise. Also use the LZ button (i think it's called that) with the D-Pad to give orders to your party members. With the LZ pressed push up on the d-pad to make party members attack the same enemy, push right to make them choose their targets (good when you are being attacked by multiple but weaker enemies) and push down to gather the party members around you (for example good when you want to keep them safe from harm or stop them from attacking an enemy).

Picking the right party members for the job is also crucial and some standard MMO rules apply. For example if you are using Reyn as a tank it's good to have Charla as a healer. For my bosses I usually use characters with amazing agility and keep Shulk always ready with a heal and the monado shield (doing only a few arts from time to time). You can also use the Monado for non-mechon enemies. Picking the right party members for the job can help you defeat some really tough enemies, but don't think that you can tackle all of them from the go. 2 or 3 level gaps for an elite enemy usually means he's too difficult. So there is room for experimentation as well.

That's the most I can think of (and I'm sure I got some wrong). Hope it helps some people.

[Davros sock drawer]

Very helpful, thanks.

I did read each tutorial as it came up, but you have to admit that there are an awful lot of them! I was planning a "revision" session tonight before going back in, but you've answered a few of my questions already. Hopefully what to me currently seems like on-screen clutter will look like poetry in motion once I know what it all means by heart.

Christ knows what's going on with the Chuckle Brothers gem-crafting though....

[Talk Show Host]

Very helpful, thanks.

I did read each tutorial as it came up, but you have to admit that there are an awful lot of them! I was planning a "revision" session tonight before going back in, but you've answered a few of my questions already. Hopefully what to me currently seems like on-screen clutter will look like poetry in motion once I know what it all means by heart.

Christ knows what's going on with the Chuckle Brothers gem-crafting though....

There are many tutorials indeed (and they are not enough).

[Shoes]

I love Reyn's English dub, incidentally. It's very Mary Poppins, but it's incredibly charming at the same time.

Shulk is a bit of a wet ponce, though.

[Shoes]

One bit of in-battle banter I found amusing was when I had a party of Shulk, Sharla and Reyn. Sharla healed Shulk, and Reyn was like "Sharla! What about me?" I laughed.

[revlob]

His jumping utterance is perhaps one of the best samples ever recorded.

[Kayin Amoh]

That actually kind of bugs me about this game - loads of the monsters that are supposedly terrorising the community are pretty amiable looking creatures that won't attack if you leave them alone. So harsh running around murdering bunnies just to level up! I swear, the next guy that gives me a quest to kill some pink bird that "attacked" him...

Glad to know I'm not alone in this.

'A fluffball glanced at me the other day - I was so scared I had nightmares for days! I want you to teach him a lesson by eradicating his entire species and kicking him off the highest point of the Bionis so that he can reflect on what he did as he plummets to his death.'

[Professor Puzzles]

Some of my favourite monster quests come from a rather... er... incontinent Nopon in Frontier Village; I love the way that the quest information is written in the 'voice' of the character that gave it to you, someithng that only really becomes apparent in Frontier.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

I'm contemplating to get this along with the new classic controller. Wasn't there some bundle with the controller packed in?

[daveodeth]

Yes, worth it to.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

Does the new classic controller work on its own, or do you still have to connect it to the wagglestick? Does it have rumble?

I'm in the market for a new classic controller anyway as I plan to put a SNES emulator on my Wii soonish

[mdn2]

Does the new classic controller work on its own, or do you still have to connect it to the wagglestick? Does it have rumble?

I'm in the market for a new classic controller anyway as I plan to put a SNES emulator on my Wii soonish

It has to be connected to the Wii remote to use, and it doesn't have rumble.

And the bundle seems to be sold out everywhere, sorry.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

There might be some in the local stores here. Stuff doesn't tend to move very fast in this forsaken country if there's no 'Call of Duty' on the box.

[Davros sock drawer]

I started out with the Classic Controller, but switched to Nunchuk and remote as it's so damn comfy.

[Mr.Jeff]

It just became apparent to me as I woke up this morning that due to various reasons in plot progression, some of the heart to hearts I hadn't activated yet have completely disappeared. So I'm going to have to revert back to an earlier save and do some lovely affinity grinding because I want to know what they all contain.

So that's the rest of my week sorted then. Still, at least it's only losing about 2-3 hours of progress eh?

[Talk Show Host]

It just became apparent to me as I woke up this morning that due to various reasons in plot progression, some of the heart to hearts I hadn't activated yet have completely disappeared. So I'm going to have to revert back to an earlier save and do some lovely affinity grinding because I want to know what they all contain.

So that's the rest of my week sorted then. Still, at least it's only losing about 2-3 hours of progress eh?

Wow, I didn't know that could happen.

[Kayin Amoh]

It just became apparent to me as I woke up this morning that due to various reasons in plot progression, some of the heart to hearts I hadn't activated yet have completely disappeared. So I'm going to have to revert back to an earlier save and do some lovely affinity grinding because I want to know what they all contain.

So that's the rest of my week sorted then. Still, at least it's only losing about 2-3 hours of progress eh?

They disappear? Are you serious? Half of them are for characters I don't even have yet (I just picked up my fifth a few hours back) and every time I'd go check one out it would say I couldn't do them yet.

[Mr.Jeff]

Not all of them but there's a few that I know for certain have disappeared which is highly annoying.

I get the logic behind linking affinity with the heart to hearts but it really is a silly idea overall for what they are - brief cutscenes between two characters. Not to mention, they sometimes lose all context when you've gone way past when you encountered them in the first place.

Edit: Also, for the ones which say they aren't available yet, I'm thinking some of those are specifically plot progression related rather than character related.

At the stage I'm at, I was still getting some of those messages and yet I appear to have the full roster in my squad and no seemingly new party members coming forward.

[revlob]

I don't think I've watched more than two heart-to-hearts in the 50 hours I've played so far, and those I have seen must have been in the first hour of play. They are either all "You cannot see this heart-to-heart", or require affinity levels I haven't reached yet. I can probably go back and view some of the earlier ones maybe, but I stopped thinking about them after the fortieth message telling me to come back later.

[Talk Show Host]

Doing the heart to hearts has become a great side quest for me. I like it that I have to work for the relationships with questing and fighting. I also like the fact that if you do well your affinity gets raised even more.

I kind feel they should be less of them, though. Some could easily be cutscenes.

In general it's another fresh and good feature that I never saw coming.

I'm nearing 80 hours and have just reached the place after Eryth,

Valak Mountains

.

The game just keeps on giving. The story seems to change direction now and I'm more than hooked. The cutscenes and action scenes still retain their tight direction and good character development.

I'm running out for superlatives for this game.

[Kayin Amoh]

I don't think I've watched more than two heart-to-hearts in the 50 hours I've played so far, and those I have seen must have been in the first hour of play. They are either all "You cannot see this heart-to-heart", or require affinity levels I haven't reached yet. I can probably go back and view some of the earlier ones maybe, but I stopped thinking about them after the fortieth message telling me to come back later.

I'd agree with that. It's a bit annoying to run up for the hundredth time and not even get the conditions - just a message telling you to sod off.

Also, anyone else find the repeated quest dialogue from your characters hilariously out of place?

NPC: 'Agh, I've got a major problem!'

Shulk: 'Sounds like you have a problem. Could you tell us more?'

Spoilerman: 'You're growing up, Shulk.'

Shulk: 'R...really? That means a lot coming from you.'

It's probably not that funny unless you've seen it in action for the millionth time. It's like they're a bunch of demented, obsessive compulsive actors trying to perfect that one take on every NPC they come across.

[Colonel Panic]

The dialogue in general is ridiculous.

LEAVE IT TO REYN!

[Talk Show Host]

Don't lose our heads though!

[Professor Puzzles]

Hey Sharla, did you see that?

Sorry I er, wasn't looking.

What? Oh. Ha Ha!

[polygon_monkey]

I need a shower after that!