Xenoblade Chronicles 3

[Ninja Doctor]

5 hours ago, Nosejam said:

Just finished listening to the Back Page pod about the Xenoblade saga. Xenoblade crafting ingredient or drug slang 😂
 

Not sure I can commit the time to XC3 right now, however the Torna dIc sounds much more manageable. Having sold my physical XC2, what’s the cheapest way to get hold of this? Had a quick look on eBay and physical prices are £60+! Don’t have my Switch with me this week, can someone check the eshop price for me?

Torna is £26.99 on eshop but i believe you need the physical XC2 before you can play it as it's an expansion rather than standalone. 

 

Edit: https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en/xenoblade-chronicles-2-expansion-pass-P00071

[Quest]

I have a standalone release of Torna on a cart. Not sure if it came out in the UK though.

[dataDave]

Yeah, it’s definitely a design choice.

 

Really looking forward to jumping back in when on the ferry home tonight, either way.

[Popo]

7 hours ago, Fallows said:

I had to turn the voices over to Japanese. “Loverly jubberly!” was the tipping point. 😆 

In XC2, the characters (or some of them at least) have different Japanese names than their English language versions, which became confusing very quickly. That in itself was enough to turn me off the original language, which is not something I’m averse to under normal circumstances, but there’s been a decent localisation effort made here, and the regional British accents gives the game an added flavour I’m not sure was there originally. 

[Stanley]

Around the 7 hour mark the game really throws a lot at you in terms of class switching and levelling, fusing arts etc. need to stop and get my bearings! 

[Nosejam]

1 hour ago, Ninja Doctor said:

Torna is £26.99 on eshop but i believe you need the physical XC2 before you can play it as it's an expansion rather than standalone. 

 

Edit: https://store.nintendo.co.uk/en/xenoblade-chronicles-2-expansion-pass-P00071

Thanks, will buy 2 and sell it after

[Stanley]

2 hours ago, Quest said:

I have a standalone release of Torna on a cart. Not sure if it came out in the UK though.

It did, quite a limited release though. 

[scottcr]

1 hour ago, Stanley said:

Around the 7 hour mark the game really throws a lot at you in terms of class switching and levelling, fusing arts etc. need to stop and get my bearings! 

just got to that bit…

 

not sure I fully understand it tbh

 

game is ace tho

[MikeBeaver]

27:22 Hours, Level 42.... I REALLY need to do something else with my time, other than smash every hour I can into this... or do I? 😛

 

So far I've had 2 fights I struggled with, even after using up the bonus XP, so I just rverted every one back to their original class and that sorted it, or for the second one, I had 4 healers on the team, as only healers can revive a fallen ally this time out.

 

Still loving it, but my step count since it's release has fallen off a snuffin' cliff!!

[BitterToad]

Holy shit this goes completely mad once you’ve got a full team doesn’t it? I thought I was starting to get the flow of things but with 6 lads running about it seems like stuff’s dying before I can begin to get to grips with what’s going on!

[shynra]

One tip I have for switching classes... Its good to have a team with skills:

 

Break-topple etc

 

I was running around without Break for a while so couldn't start off thoes combos 😛

[SuperCapes]

About 15 hours in and just encountered:

 

Spoiler

The fight against K. 

 

I mean the cinematics are just absolutely off the wall. The transformation from the sword, into that arm gear, and all the Ouroboros transformations... Truly incredible. 

 

Having such a blast with this. I hope there's the full alphabet of Moebius dickheads to take down!

 

One of the best JRPGs I have played in some time. It is just fantastic. 

[MikeBeaver]

53 minutes ago, SuperCapes said:

About 15 hours in and just encountered:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

The fight against K. 

 

I mean the cinematics are just absolutely off the wall. The transformation from the sword, into that arm gear, and all the Ouroboros transformations... Truly incredible. 

 

Having such a blast with this. I hope there's the full alphabet of Moebius dickheads to take down!

 

One of the best JRPGs I have played in some time. It is just fantastic. 

Bloody hell, 15 hours to THERE!!! Think I might have been there around the 10 hour mark at the most ( Normal difficulty though here ) guess I am powering through though.

The game only gets better I've cleared Chapter 4 I "think" , just stopped to finisha PS Vita repair video, now back to the game....

[Wiper]

2 hours ago, shynra said:

One tip I have for switching classes... Its good to have a team with skills:

 

Break-topple etc

 

I was running around without Break for a while so couldn't start off thoes combos 😛

 

This is one minor issue I have so far: the game encourages you to switch classes whenever your character(s) max out their level, which is cool, but I'm now nine classes into the game and still only the starting swordfighter class has access to break, and not as an inheritable skill. Which, being a starter class, everyone has already maxed out, so I'm stuck either with someone not class levelling, or reliant solely on the one Interlink with access to break for all my combo openers (which can't be used at all in chain attacks, so prevents all combo use within them).

 

Not game breaking by any means, but feels a bit of an odd decision to keep the combo-starting ability so rare, design-wise!

[Phantoon]

11 hours ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

I also love it, including the repetitiveness. 

There's a reason Xenoblade gave birth to a thousand memes.

 

This is the Monado's power.

[Colonel Panic]

"Leave it to Reyn" and "Now it's Reyn Time" are why I never finished Xenoblade Chronicles. I was told that it needed to stop!

[Alan Stock]

1 hour ago, Wiper said:

 

This is one minor issue I have so far: the game encourages you to switch classes whenever your character(s) max out their level, which is cool, but I'm now nine classes into the game and still only the starting swordfighter class has access to break, and not as an inheritable skill.

 

Yep, definitely agree. I've been soldiering on without relying on the Break combos, which I suppose is testament to the other big power combos that I can do that. You can do Break with Ouroborus but it hardly ever works on bosses and with such limited attacks it hardly ever procs for me. On Hard most of the bosses are highly resistant to the Break>Topple combos, but if you do manage to pull them off you can get big damage. So for some of the hardest fights I've had to do just as you say and switch someone back to swordfighter just to have access to Break. Weird design decision. What I suspect is going on here is that they wanted to encourage veteran Xenoblade players to engage with the other systems instead of just relying on Break>Topple. Topple is also an art with an incredibly long cooldown, making it hard to justify keeping in the bank just in case someone procs Break. I've never even got a Launch>Smash combo once because its so hard to set up. Hopefully as more classes unlock we'll get better access to Break and Topple.

 

As for my playthough, I'm still in Chapter 3, I think, and up to about level 22. I'm in a massive zone which is very Xenoblade 1 but really cool in scale. I'm currently stuck on a side quest boss, with a level suggestion that's my level, but in reality he kicks my arse massively, with elemental attacks and horrible status effects which knock out your healers. I've died about 5 times to him and each fight takes ages due to his huge health bar. Might have to come back in a few levels for that one.

 

I've found that for the hardest fights it's sometimes best to switch to controlling a healer or at least someone who can proc healing abilities, and get off some lifesaving heals or well places buff circles. Or alternitavely a tank, so you can move around to protect healers and actively take aggro when things go to shit.

 

Also @SuperCapes I agree, that was epic! And what's cool is even some of the character focussed side quests have little epic action scenes like that!

[BitterToad]

Are people sticking to one character in combat or jumping about?

[MikeBeaver]

12 minutes ago, BitterToad said:

Are people sticking to one character in combat or jumping about?

Jumping around between them, but ONLY so that I am the sword class and can initiate break.

As mentioned up thread, only one class has it ( so far ? )  so I'm just slowly raising eac characters class to 10, cycling everyone around, mostly keeping oe of each of the starter classes, once the squad are all lvl 10, I'll start making a squad for keeps .

Had to leave the Switch at work tonight, might be obsessing over the damn game too much, don't want to burn out on it, and also... I need a decent nights sleep 😛

[Alan Stock]

Good news folks, I just unlocked another class with Break. Combos are back on the menu!

 

Still can't beat this lvl 22 side quest boss, has anyone else found it really difficult?

Spoiler

The Mobius guy at Colony 9, who does blaze attacks, grab attacks, imprisons your healers, and lazers people to death. I'm level 25 now and still can't beat him on Hard, best I've managed is about 2/3rds of his HP down, and that's with a lot of tinkering!

 

[Stanley]

I don’t mind not initiating break as one of the other characters will do it anyway, I’ve been trying lots of characters and changing things up - once you learn chain attacks things go crazy! 

[mwaawm]

On 31/07/2022 at 19:08, Stanley said:

I definitely prefer it a bit zoomed out than the default view, makes everything feel more epic and you can see all your team. 

 

Getting on somewhat better with the game since your tip on zooming the camera out. Still doesn't feel like a worthy sequel to xenoblade chronicles though. 

[Stanley]

Is everyone levelling up each class with every character? 

[Stanley]

42 minutes ago, mwaawm said:

 

Getting on somewhat better with the game since your tip on zooming the camera out. Still doesn't feel like a worthy sequel to xenoblade chronicles though. 

It’s a shame you’re not feeling it, I was in right from the start as I found the story engaging and the presentation really impressive. I would only say that it does hold your hand to begin with, but in a game which can be quite complex at times I understand why this is necessary. Still, it’s not dropped off a bit for me - I just love it. I don’t think I enjoy any other RPG battle system as much as these games, they’re just so much fun to mess about with. 

[Squigs]

5 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

Good news folks, I just unlocked another class with Break. Combos are back on the menu!

 

Still can't beat this lvl 22 side quest boss, has anyone else found it really difficult?

  Reveal hidden contents

The Mobius guy at Colony 9, who does blaze attacks, grab attacks, imprisons your healers, and lazers people to death. I'm level 25 now and still can't beat him on Hard, best I've managed is about 2/3rds of his HP down, and that's with a lot of tinkering!

 

 

That one took me a few tries with some leveling up in between, think I was 26/27 by time I won it. Definitely the trickiest one I've come across.

 

I'm playing on normal and sticking to a single character, can't remember if I tinkered with the classes etc before finally beating him.

[Ste Pickford]

About 4-5 hours in, and I'm reminded of all the things I don't like about these games.  The over-written, over-long conversations and cut-scenes.  The awkward way every character walks into shot during the conversations, then slips into a 'stand' pose, then rotates on the spot, all taking about 3x longer than necessary, before the awkward delayed 'shock' emotion animations that rarely match the words just spoken.

 

I have to power through to get to the part where the game opens up and I can choose for myself where to go and what to fight rather than following the scripted corridor.

 

(I do really like these games, just not the early parts where it's all story.)

[Parksey]

Slightly hijacking the thread with this question, but is the physical copy of XB2 Torna rare? 

 

Going through the first game now and very early on, but have an ambition to play through the entire series. I'm away I can get Torna and the DLC digitally, but have found a physical copy for £50 on Amazon. 

 

Seems expensive, but heard that it was a small print run and quite rare, so could be a decent investment even at that price.

[mwaawm]

4 hours ago, Stanley said:

It’s a shame you’re not feeling it, I was in right from the start as I found the story engaging and the presentation really impressive. I would only say that it does hold your hand to begin with, but in a game which can be quite complex at times I understand why this is necessary. Still, it’s not dropped off a bit for me - I just love it. I don’t think I enjoy any other RPG battle system as much as these games, they’re just so much fun to mess about with. 

I loved the story much more than the combat in the original,  hence why I hated x with its almost complete absence of coherent story narrative. Am hoping this picks things up story wise soon as so far all seems a bit meh in that respect. 

[scottcr]

4 hours ago, Ste Pickford said:

About 4-5 hours in, and I'm reminded of all the things I don't like about these games.  The over-written, over-long conversations and cut-scenes.  The awkward way every character walks into shot during the conversations, then slips into a 'stand' pose, then rotates on the spot, all taking about 3x longer than necessary, before the awkward delayed 'shock' emotion animations that rarely match the words just spoken.

 

I have to power through to get to the part where the game opens up and I can choose for myself where to go and what to fight rather than following the scripted corridor.

 

(I do really like these games, just not the early parts where it's all story.)

 

yeah - the early parts of these games are all the same... and once you've played a few it can get a bit annoying.  

 

The music in this isn't as good as XC2 though (my favourite in the series)...  the systems though are much more straightforward.  I like the options that swapping class does, although I'm always tempted to keep Noah as warrior - it seems to fit well and he always gets wiped out too quickly when I'm trying to make him a better tank/heavy guard type.

[scottcr]

48 minutes ago, mwaawm said:

I loved the story much more than the combat in the original,  hence why I hated x with its almost complete absence of coherent story narrative. Am hoping this picks things up story wise soon as so far all seems a bit meh in that respect. 

 

the vast open world of XCX was *amazing* - and there still hasn't been the equivalent in any other XC games.  The generic characters and lack of story to drag me in put me off...

 

I never did get to be a skell