Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@Rexenoboy

Yeah it is boring and empty, but I think that fits with the whole theme of the place. It's the "safehouse" you find along the way on your dangerous journey. It works because it's a temporarily pause in the story pacing.

I liked Mor Ardain most because it's got a real steampunk vibe going on.

Still, Leftheria is the one place in the game that's free of corruption and decay so I can see why so many would like it.

@Matt_Barber
I love the atmosphere of Mor Ardain as well. I just wish they had done more with the old factory and industrial districts.

Time for the next question:
Who's your favorite Driver/Blade combo?

Mine is Rex/Corvin. I love playing solo with Rex and he's awesome at doing that with Corvin as his blade.
Most playthroughs I pick up Corvin as soon as I can (early chapter 2) and make him my main blade. Once I hit Chapter 4, I go solo with Rex and start wrecking everyone who stands in my way.

@Rexenoboy I haven’t played that far through but Nia and Dromarch are the best in the early game. Both move set and personality wise.

@Blooper987
Nia and Dromarch sure have a great dynamic going on. It's also very fun to explore the world riding on Dromarch's back.

@Knighty_IX
I see you've played around quite a bit with drivers and blades. Nice diverse list of combinations you've got there!

I've returned to this game after all this time. When I played it when it was new, almost none of the DLC was out yet, so there's quite a bit of new content for me to explore this time. 30 hours have gone by in a heartbeat as this game has pulled me back in hard-core.

They didn't patch out that great core crystal grinding spot in Mor Ardain did they? I just got back there.

I've picked up the DLC on sale, and i'm giving this game another go. I like the world design, but I'm having trouble with the battle system. I've played for 110 hours and really don't understand it that well. I get the base mechanics, but find it super difficult to see what's going on in a battle, and every time I look at the accessory descriptions it gives me a headache.

Any tips on what I should be looking out for, and which stats are actually worth improving.

@Wargoose There are some easy wins with the battle system:

1. You can increase the rate of your auto attacks by tapping the left stick immediately after the first one connects, as this resets the sequence. This greatly speeds up your arts recharge.
2. Pouch items. Deserts that improve your arts recharge are the best. Narcipear Jelly from the shop in Argentum is available right from the early game. Once you can spam arts every few seconds fights will usually end quite quickly.
3. Core chips. By and large, you want to equip the ones that increase your auto-attack as that's the base stat for all attacks in game. Don't worry too much about the other effects; things like crit and agility boots are useful, but not worth sacrificing your base stats for.

Getting a bit more complex:

1. Combos. Learn both the driver and blade combos and how to combine them for fusion combos. The tutorials in game are really bad, so look for some guides online or YouTube videos.
2. Skill tree. Every driver has a skill that allows you to cancel arts into themselves. Try and unlock this as soon as possible, so you can further enhance your arts spamming.
3. Chain attacks. These can be utterly devastating if applied well and can finish off most enemies once they're down to a third health. Again, the in-game tutorials are terrible though, so look for an online guide.

@Matt_Barber @Knighty_IX Thanks for the help. That was really useful. Some of those things I would never have guessed.

Happy anniversary to the game!

Unfortunately today someone mentioned the scene with Rex and Mythra, you know THAT scene, and didn’t exactly leave me in mood to celebrate. It’s so unbelievably cringe...I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT. I want to @ whoever wrote that scene on Twitter and BEG them to speak to a real human woman their age...but on the other hand that would mean a woman would have to interact with HIM and wishing that on anyone would be misogyny.

@horizonisland Happy anniversary too, and that is an unfortunate predicament.

@theJGG lollllll maybe so. I still love the game though, even if it has its...quirks.

@horizonisland I said this on Unpopular Gaming Opinions but Xenoblade 2 feels derivative of 1 in terms of scope, and setting. Fan service is strange, and the anime tropes are very inconsistent...

@theJGG Those are all valid complaints. 2 was my first Xenoblade game so I was in awe of things like the scope and the setting, but it wasn’t until I played (but not finished) 1: Definitive Edition earlier this year I could see how it was similar and how the 2’s locations are not as fully developed. That said, I still love Uraya and Leftherian Archipelago despite the flaws in their map design. I 100% agree with you on the anime tropes and fan service..There are some very dark elements in the 2’s story later on and juxtaposing them with the “jiggle” physics and suggestive camera angles and all-around anime cringiness makes it very inconsistent and almost frustrating...I do think the story pulls through but most of that was due to Lora and Jin and the Torna backstory (and subsequent DLC). They are all things you just have to deal with the game and it IS irritating that you have to in the first place...

@horizonisland basically I think the writer of Xenoblade 2 needs to take some time out, to meet an actual woman. The way all of the Xenoblade games are written seem to be from the perspective of someone who has never been in a relationship.

So you get prolonged awkwardness instead of characters developing a normal relationship.

Things that would have made Xenoblade 2 an infinitely better game.
-Delete Tora, I don't think theres any need for him. His defining character trait, is grooming a sexbot with a child's personality. Thats creepy and weird no matter how you spin it. He should at the very least be portrayed as a villain.
-Make Rex 5 years older, so the relationship between him and Pyra/Mythra seems more believable.
-Redesign Mythra/Pyra's standard outfit to look a little more appropriate. She's meant to be a warrior, she's dressed like a stripper. I've got nothing against showing a bit of skin but have it make sense in the context of the scene and the character.

All of them? XC1 and XCX are not like that at all.

@Wargoose XC2 had terrible relationship writing, no doubt (though, I was genuinely impressed by almost all the main story content outside of that...) It also had absolutely terribly written side content (notably the majority of the Rare Blade quests).

But yeah, bad relationships is more of an XC2 thing than a whole series thing. Just look at how Shulk and Fiora act around each other at the beginning of the first game, that was better than anything in XC2 basically.

@Dezzy Xenoblade X doesn't really have a relationship. Xenoblade has the tried and true JRPG love triangle, where I don't get the vibe that any of the participants have ever been on a date before. I prefer X and the original, but neither showed me the writer was particularly good at writing relationships.(Is it the same writer?)

To be honest it's an issue with JRPGs as a whole. There are very few I can think of, that do relationships well. I think if more RPGs went the route of final fantasy X, and actually had the characters get together halfway through the story. You'd eliminate a lot of the odd scenes that populate the genre.(FFX has some super weird dialogue as well, but at least they moved past awkward glances in a timely manner.)

@link3710 It definitely was a lot better. Xenoblade Chronicles story telling was a lot better as a whole. Especially in the first half of the game.

I've got issues with the 2nd half of the game, but that was mainly because I thought the game was going in a certain direction and then it didn't.(and I shouldn't really judge a game based on what I thought was going to happen.)