Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I'm level 62 in my file. I love how these games so seamlessly mix Sci fi with fantasy. It seems to be a recurring theme in each game, though of course in X it seems to go from Sci fi to fantasy instead of the other way around

@EvilLucario

You hardly need to know the name of NPC shopkeepers though. Just a small icon indicating the type of store would do!

@Dezzy True, but I still like/don't mind that detail.

@EvilLucario

I wouldn't mind it if it wasn't covering half the screen! It's incredibly distracting when you're supposed to be in the relaxing exploration part of the game.

@Dezzy
I think there’s an option in the configurations menu to reduce the clutter or at least give you a minimal UI, hope it helps a bit. I didn’t mind the text after XCX though - I prefer that to not being able to see where the shopkeepers are.

I agree with the lip sincying complain though, and it’s sadly because most of Monolith’s team was busy with BotW instead of their own game. Let’s hope BotW 2 doesn’t impact Monolith’s next game so badly.

THERE IS??? I can't find it. I need details!

im 160 hours in, and im on chapter 8. This has been an excellent game. I love the story and i really don't want it to end. I still the Torna game waiting on me also.

I'm on the final boss now. The last chapter did a good job of making me love the game even more

@Ralizah I wish all the side-quests were optional. I just want to play through the story.

@NorseGamerTommy In Torna? I don't mind too much. The side-quests are all good (a Xenoblade first), and help to strengthen the impact of the ending as you get to know the people of Torna.

Yeah. It's just that I prefer to do side-quests when I'm standing in front of the final boss door. I don't want to be forced to do them to progress the story.

Enjoying the story and gameplay immensely. As always, the environments are the best part of these games. They're just so damn good at making epic fantasy environments. I've only done Gormott and Uraya but both were just incredible and I could've happily explored for dozens of hours.

Have to say though, the audio mixing in this game is absolutely terrible. A lot of the cutscenes don't have quite the same punch as in the previous 2 games, because there are so many little mistakes in the mixing. A voice will be too quiet relative to the music, or they'll randomly forget to include a sound effect for someone running during a tense battle, so it sounds like it's happening in space or something. It's annoying.

@Dezzy I messed around with the audio settings to make sure the music wasn't drowning out the talking.

The good news is that the game just gets better and better as it opens up. Both in terms of the story and gameplay. I started out feeling how I usually do about Xenoblade games: a mix of enjoyment and irritation. By the second half of the game, though, I was utterly enthralled.

One thing that really helps is taking the time to cultivate a healthy set of blade skills among your common blades, as field skill checks are the single biggest annoyance early in the game. The combat also gradually evolves and becomes more involved as the game progresses.

I beat the game and I really love the climax. These games always go from good to amazing at the end of them

I always stop playing these games at a certain boss. Some of them seem to be unnaturally hard and not in a fun way. I think it was the second time you fight this Rosa robot when I lost interest. I have never had this issue with the original mind you.

@Spanjard

You can always do some sidequests, level up your characters, resonate with new blades, enhance weapons, power up skills. This all will help you in battle. Every boss is easy unless you rushed through the main story.

The problem is it's differently mixed during exploration than it is during battle. It's too loud during battle but too quiet during exploration. So you can't fix it because one of them is always too loud/quiet.

I am enjoying the game (in Chapter 7 currently), but somewhat regret playing Torna first (bought physically) because most of the stuff that bothers me about XC2 was fixed in Torna.

For example, Torna's method of handling Blades is so much better than the originals. Way too often I find myself trying to find the 1-2 blades that allow me to open something out of the 99+ I have sitting idle, and for the most part it makes all those other blades feel like throwaway characters you are forced to use just for merc missions.

That's how I felt about most of the blades in my playthrough. For the first chunk of the game I was planning on only using Face blades. For the most part it was that way, save for the few times I had to have a generic on Rex for healing purposes. The rest I just used as Merc fodder as an easy way to build up the environmental skills without having to actually use them.

like how they implement all of these extraneous systems and development trees in this game. There are like 20 different things you need to be developing at once, but they're all quite well conceived and fit into the game well.
It's a good way of doing some cheap workbuilding (cheap as in it doesn't cost much for them to develop it)