Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

As a zelda super fan, I died on the inside with the VA all around. The guy in charge was the same guy who screwed it up for Mass Effect Andromeda. Totally incompetent. Its like he just listened to the first 15 auditions for each role, put their names on a dart board and that is how he picked. But I can say that for a lot of videogame stuff it is harder than almost any other type of Voiceover work due to the circumstances of recording. So when you hear a good performance, cherish it.

Or people just prefer the Japanese language option because they really don’t like the English VA’s. Even if my Japanese language skills are poor, I still get the overacting/bad acting because of body language, voice use etc.

As someone who loved the English VA of the original Xenoblade, X and 2 are pretty disappointing.

@Tsurii lol, you tell 'em!

@Ralizah well, all of them are designed for high pitched Japanese va's, but nothing screams out to me about any animation that the voice doesn't fit or that it feels like she should sound like that. Agreed though. I'll never understand the "this needs the Japanese track" crowd when they don't even understand it. Unless it's really cut rate English actors. Though i won't let anyone take away my Tokyo mirage jp voices.. They're perfect as they are.

@NEStalgia Morag's English voice is a LOT closer to the Japanese equivalent than Nia's is. Pretty much all of them are. The character's face and body are often visibly animated, which isn't a great match for the way the English voice actor emotes. Good voice, but not great casting.

All of those English regional accents (and Rex especially) did my head in for the first ten hours or so but they grew on me and by the time I had finished I found them endearing. More regional accents in western games please.

@Ralizah i suppose. Though I'm not sure if be as fond of nia without the monotone sarcastic ambivalence. That's what made her great. . Without it she's just another tsundere.

Regarding good and/or bad VA dubs in Switch games, I think Ys VIII and the new Valkyria Chronicles 4 both have pretty good English VA, while the one in Octopath Traveler is pretty hit and miss IMO.

I really like the character of Lora and I’m glad we get to see more of her in Torna and learn more of her story.

@Trajan In the main game (haven’t played the Bringer of Chaos mode, I’m talking about normal difficulty now), I switched a lot, but always had Rex and almost always Nia, then switched between Morag, Zeke and Tora.
I’m not that great on strategy, but found it was good in some battles to have one attacker, one tank and one healer. Morag with heightened speed really helped me in the final battle.

Crit heal Mythra was outclassed a long time ago. She's not bad and with the right build she has one of the highest damage output in the game but... if you want crit heal you put Fiora on Rex.

Tora is always OP with QTpi and alpha. Nearly unkillable if played right.

For BoC Nim is surprisingly the best healer, since fusion combos is essentially the only thing not nerfed. I didn't stick to a single team during my BoC run, but I did put Nim on Nia and left her there, and she did a far better job at keeping me healthy than I had expected.

I suppose it depends on how you want to play it. I did BoC before Corvin was released and haven't played it since so I'm not sure, but considering how ridiculously OP he is in normal mode I expect him to be at least all right in BoC. Dodge tanks tend to be more reliable anyways, and on Mórag it just isn't a contest (in normal, at least). If I remember correctly Crossette works well with fusion combos as well. I would've put her on Nia or Zeke.

Really, it mostly comes down to just using the characters you like and put suitable accessories and pouch items for them.

@Hallonblad Thanks man. Ive heard Fioria can solo tyrano pretty well but haven't looked into it. Is that what you mean by outclassed?

@Trajan
Fiora on Rex has an art called Screw Edge (iirc) that is crit recharge. And it hits 8 times. You are guaranteed non-stop attacks with her. Sneaky Fiora pretends to be a healer but she's really not. On Rex she's one of the best attackers in the game.

Mythra has one art that hits twice. Spinning Edge I think it's called (I feel like I'm going senile already). That means she's not 100% guaranteed to recharge her art every time. Her other arts only hit once, so they're even worse. I think she can get a 45% crit rate with the 20% aux core and a moon matter chip, so she has 2 x 45% chance of recharging her one two-hit art.

Fiora has over 50% crit rate (again, iirc). And an art hitting 8 times. For crit heal Mythra cannot hope to compete with Fiora because of this. Fiora can solo anything on Normal mode (so can Mythra, but it takes longer = not as fun (according to me)).

@Hallonblad Oh neat. Can't wait to try that out.

Beat the game a few hours ago.......bloody hell, I've never cried so much at an ending to a game before and the last time a game's ending made me cry was waaaaay back with Skies of Arcadia (Just because it was over.) but damn, that was a huge roller coaster of emotions. ;___;

Without a doubt, this is my favorite game ever. Does it have flaws? Yes, but it shines so brightly in other places. And just like my former fav game, again Arcadia, I'm gonna 100% the New Game +. <3

I have to wonder, why the frell does Xenoblade Chronicles 2 have level 79-90 unique bosses that wander randomly in the low level opening area, and pass through the areas you'll have to go when you're party is around level 16-18?! Especially since those unique bosses will jump into a fight as they're passing by and one shot everyone.

@FaeKnight It was the same in the first game. It gives you incentive to go back to certain areas when your level is higher and beat those monsters. Often they are unique ones. But in the beginning you have to sneak by.

Yeah, 'sneak by'... when it can fly, and just randomly decides to fly past while you are engaged in a side mission battle that ALSO attracted a level appropriate unique monster... and decides "LUNCH TIME" before joining the fight.

Or you watched carefully for ten minutes and there was no sign of the level 80 unique monster, then when you engage in a battle which ends up attracting more enemies then you expected the unique monster decides to wander by and join the fight too.

All in all, it's rather rage inducing when it keeps happening over and over.

@FaeKnight Heh, never play XCX, then. While I had the occasional problem with a high level monsters in XC and XC2, the density of higher-level mobs seemed a lot higher in the Wii U game, and it became a constant issue.

But yeah, it's one of the persistent design choices in the series that irritates me.

That's only true until the high level UM wanders randomly through such a wide area that it can engage you unexpectedly while you're in a mandatory fight for a side mission or main story mission. The level 80 gorilla/elephant looking one in the first main area of the game does just that. It wanders randomly across pretty much the entire area, and looks almost identical to the normal enemies of the same general type, just a bit bigger.

The level 78 bird monster one in the same area again wanders randomly, and since it flies it can potentially ambush you anywhere. The level 90 T-Rex looking one on the other hand tends to stay in one small area. It's the other two that keep attacking me because they were no where in sight, then wandered over and aggroed during a battle. It makes leveling rather difficult since I have to be fighting in the rather large area they wander around in if I want to get decent xp. And that 'wander around' area is incredibly large. I've seen them both wandering past no matter where I went.

I've been jumped by that bird during the fight at the start of the Star Crossed lovers side mission. And the gorilla thing I've seen on the far eastern side of the map, far western side, and anywhere else there's a path large enough for it to walk along. Been attacked by it in in a wide range of areas too.

@FaeKnight
Sneaking past that orangutan/gorilla mixup is easy, it's pattern is so easy to see and predictable, as for those funk-beak birds, if you try to sneak up to the closest one, then star a fight and run away and fight them one on one, you should be able to get past the ones that are your problem, but if more than one get on you, just run

The normal ones aren't the problem, I can fight 6-10 of them at once. But the really high level UM that appeared after you get Nia back, those are the issue.