Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I need to get this game at some point, Uh I want to ask one thing. Do I need to play the first one, or is starting here good for a first timer to the series?

I don't personally know about any plot connections that may or may not exist to the first game (for as far as I've gotten into 2) but I just flat out think the first one is the better game to get into anyway.

Not just because I like it more, but because Xenoblade 2 is more complicated and more difficult to fully appreciate as a video game.

They are loosely, yet also directly, connected and it's hard to define this more without spoiling too much. You can play 2 without having played the first and not really miss out, but there is one key scene that won't make any sense at all unless you know the plot of the first (this was a 'wow, that's cool' moment for me in 2) and there are some other plot points that make more sense if you've played the first.
Torna is very much connected to 2.
For a quick jump in to the mechanics, as DomGC said, Torna is a good spot, as it's much, much shorter (I think I did 36 hours for Torna VS almost 200 for XB2). But it's like a Star Wars point for me - the prequel more appreciated knowing the later outcome and it was released as 'DLC' for 2, so the assumption was you'd played 2 already and already know some of the plot points that would serve as spoilers for 2.

Ideally, release order is the way to go here for the overall plot. 1, 2, Torna.

It's not quite like a Final Fantasy situation where there's absolutely no connection at all.

@Snatcher I'd start with the first. You can play them in any order, but the second one has a scene in it that can only really be understood if you play the original. Torna is a prequel, but you need to play that after 2, since it spoils most of the plot-twists in 2.

The order I'd probably play it in is: Xenoblade Definitive Edition, Xenoblade 2, Xenoblade 2: Torna.

@Snatcher Play XCDE first!

I played XC2 first and while I enjoyed it, I do admit it can be a bit harder to get into for newcomers. As others have mentioned before the best order to play them is pretty much the release order: 1, 2, and Torna

@DomGC @Vortexeo @VoidofLight Thanks everybody, I will play them in order Like Void and vort said.

Torna was originally supposed to fit into the XC2 story as a flashback after chapter 7, so that would seem the ideal time to play it. Without getting into the details, I found the motivations of a couple of the characters in chapter 8 to be a little puzzling, and it was only after playing Torna that things really clicked into place.

So long as you've got at least that far in the main game you should be able to play it without spoilers though.

@Snatcher

Yeah like Void says, they're best played in the order they were released (XC1, XC2, Torna)

It's not a massive issue though. They're all largely self-contained stories that could be played in any order with only minor confusion arising.

Also XC1 is the best, so that's another reason to start with it!

Just started chapter 8. I'm curious if at the rate I'm going if its likely I can even beat the game in the next two weeks. I hope at the very least I can get to chapter 10 by the end of the month, without having to avoid too much side content. I don't want to do 100% but I do try to do as much as I...reasonably can in these games (my Xenoblade 1 playthrough was like 90-95%). I am saving any and all DLC for after I beat it btw (might take a short break before I even touch it, and a while longer for the explansion).

Regardless, probably not posting in this thread again until I beat it.

@kkslider5552000 I would say you have 15-25h of gameplay left without sidequests

When I said this, I did not think I would spend nearly four hours focused exclusively on the first PART of one blade sidequest (Agate) and on trying to clear out ONE ROOM. A SINGLE ROOM. (thank god I succeeded by the end of that)

I've never gone so back and forth on a game in my life. Thankfully most of this game is still really entertaining at its core, which is what makes it ultimately a great game. And even a lot of its low points are at least...memorable. Just like that awful part of the Thousand Year Door where you have to backtrack to find General White, I won't forget this anytime soon!

@kkslider5552000
I'm exactly the same on this game. I've put like 30-40 hours in (which is nothing, I know lol) and I'm not even finished chapter 4.

There was a time maybe like chapter 3ish where I really got into it and was just cruising along and feeling like I was understand things (story, gameplay, take your pick), but then I fell off and started counting hours again. And whenever I start counting hours I'm putting into a game, it's never a good sign.

To be fair, chapter 4 is the least relevant story chapter and the one where I had to learn the importance of pouch items (well largely the one specific pouch item to be exact), so that sounds right. Actually that's exactly like me, I quit playing for months immediately after the end of chapter 3 because my tv was broken and I didn't want to play too much of the game on handheld.

Xenoblade games in general are black holes that will consume your free time if you care at all about side content.

Even just doing the main stories, though, they're really long games. Not Persona 5 Royal long, but still long.

Yeah but in the original, that time actually went into accomplishing something with usually the only obstacle in your way other than an actual tough fight being rare item orbs (replaced by a way better system in 2). Maybe some of the really late game Colony 6 stuff, but its been a while. But what am I accomplishing by going to places and 3/4 of the time being told "you can't do this one, find the right one"? That's literally this quest. At least a few of the places are out of the way places I hadn't been to before, but too much of this is "walk 2 minutes, you can't do this yet, go to next place, repeat". I had to look up a guide because I assumed if I found one of the level 1 things that only had bugs it meant there wasn't a 2nd level 1 there, because the first area I checked had a level 1, a level 2, and a level 3. And also because another one was connected to a frozen lake that I could melt but it didn't show the icon to do something until I got basically next to it.

Like there comes a point where you're just wasting people's time for no reason. And its not like they needed to extend the game's length.

I think the one room had the same exact issue where you couldn't see an important icon until you close enough to it. I also think the original actually did a solid job of giving you mini story quests at times, I feel like maybe if they did that for this part they could've conveyed this to me or anyone playing it. It was cool when I figured out how to beat all the enemies in that room, I'll say that much at least.

@kkslider5552000 my recomendation is to ignore most of the sidequests on a first playtrough and do it on new game + if you're really into that

@kkslider5552000
Yea, I'm still trying to grasp the pouch items. I'm sure it's pretty simple, but a lot of the stuff in this game my brain just doesn't seem to understand lol

This is a reasonable idea but there was zero chance I was going to do a 2nd playthrough. I've never even replayed the original.

Also to be fair, I'm still definitely going to do less of a complete run than I did for the original (basically the only things I didn't complete in the first game were most of the late game content that almost certainly exists for after you beat the game). I have approximately 10 or so, non-required unique blades, so I'm probably not doing any quests for any blades I get after this. Most likely what I'm going to do is finish chapter 8, early enough in chapter 9 do all the quests I in any way want to do (actually finishing Agate's quest might be the last one I do depending on how things go), finish the game. It's a shame since I like the idea of all these unique blades having their own quest with actual voiced dialogue and everything, but its just too much at this point.

@kkslider5552000 Oh yeah, several quests in XC2 give you the runaround.

The only Xenoblade game I've played that has good sidequests is Torna: The Golden Country. Almost every sidequest in that game is fun, and there's none of the "you don't meet the blade field skill requirement" nonsense in that game, or the trash-tier sidequests and orb collecting from the original.

Just finished the game after 100 hours after beating the first one in another 100 hours during the last months. What an amazing experience. A truly outstanding rollercoaster of emotions, two great cast of lovable characters and an incredible overarching story. Xenoblade Chronicles as a whole has probably become one of my favourite gaming memory.