Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles X - OT

@Tsurii That's it. I still haven't unlocked it. I can start chapter 5 I think next time I play. I just got confused the other day because I was in the middle of a battle and I saw this blue line like when all your characters connected for a chain attack in the original, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. After it happened a couple more times I think I discovered it means another enemy joined the battle and it was pointing out all the enemies.
There seems to be a kind of fine line you have to walk as far as upgrades. I've gotten stuck at boss battles twice, and both times I managed to defeat them after leveling up my arts and skills. But I'm wary of leveling up my arts because they go away and I get new ones when I change classes. There seems to be more strategy in this game than the first one.

I'm about 4 hours in so far. It might change for the worse, but so far I am absolutely in love with this game! Seems like this game is an improvement on the original game in almost every way! Better music, better presentation, an utterly gorgeous alien planet to explore, a more non-linear, open world feel as opposed to the original, significantly less annoying voice acting, more engaging combat system, etc.

@Tsurii Still trying to understand how setting up probes gives me money and materials (there is SO MUCH to this game, so it's a little intimidating at first!), but they have definitely been useful as fast travel ports. Although, isn't it easier to level up if you don't abuse the fast travel system?

Also, from what I've read, I should always chain between 3 - 5 probes of the same type in order to maximize bonuses from them. Does that sound correct?

Thanks for the recommendations! Yeah, the dialogue options remind me of Persona, where they don't really matter, but you can still elicit funny reactions from NPCs, and their presence personally makes me feel more engaged in the conversations!

@Snaplocket I got about 50 hours into the original and then just had to stop. There were some things I liked, but the big, open environments conflicted with the linear JRPG design, leading to a ton of wasted space thanks to the lack of interesting side quests, the characters were obnoxious JRPG stereotypes (seriously, I can't look at Chrom and Reyn and not see slightly less terrible renditions of Tidus and Wakka from FFX), the plot was sloooooooooooooooooow and too Attack on Titan-ish for my tastes (which is actually pretty funny, considering Sawano was responsible for the music in both AoT and XCX), the music was... decent, but mostly unremarkable, etc. Also, the game looks terrible on an HDTV, and the New 3DS' screen is too small to appreciate the expansive environments (I think the Switch tablet will fare better with XC2, considering it was easy to appreciate BotW's expansive landscapes while playing on the handheld).

I've already enjoyed the 4 hours I've played of XCX more than the 50 I played of XC. XCX reminds me a good deal of the original Mass Effect, actually, with the far-future sci-fi feel, squad-based combat, stilted character animations, class system, extensive customization, etc.

@Tsurii Yeah, I actually did Kirsty's missions as soon as I got my first bit of freedom post-NLA introduction! Does the game notify you when you accumulate miramium/credits from your probes, though? I'm in the middle of story mission 3, btw.

Another question: is there any point in changing divisions in this game? At least, for the immediate future?

@Tsurii Gotcha. Great!

The divisions thing seems interesting, but the Wii U's online community is likely dead, so I'm not terribly interested in the online side of things. Good to know I don't need to worry about changing divisions.

@Ralizah I'm a little farther than you are (I'm in chapter 5) and honestly, I don't do much with all of the deeper elements like chaining the probes and such. I probably should, but so far I haven't really gotten stuck enough to desire to. Whenever I have hit a battle that I can't beat in 2 tries, upgrading my arts and skills seems to do the trick. I don't think I like it as much as the original right now, but I'm not that far into it yet, and I didn't care that much about the original this early, either.

I'm currently making the terrible mistake of spending way too long on trying to intentionally keep Elma and Lin in the party for higher level enemies (either in missions or just level grinding) because I am so desperate to try to keep them close to my level that I will slow this game to a crawl just so my main party members aren't underleveled just because I want to enjoy the other characters' side content. And saving the side characters for lower level missions so I don't end up overleveled compared to Elma and Lin.

I honestly feel like I have to be missing something, either for affinity or leveling. There has to be a quicker way to do either/both (other than intentionally fighting monsters higher leveled than me)

You should change up the characters quite a lot in this game. The affinity missions are where most of the best story stuff is and you need to increase the affinity with various characters to unlock them.

I do. It's just that I have to juggle that with keeping Elma and Lin leveled up.

I'm kind of dealing with this now, too. I just finished chapter 5, and I wanted to switch to a different ally because the one I had wasn't very good at fighting, but when I switched he was not leveled high enough so I had to grind him. Did your allies in the first game not level up even when you did not have them in your battle party, because I thought they did? Also, is there an easier way to get new allies in your party, because I can never remember where they are in NLA and it's a pain to try to track them down.

@Tsurii Yeah, I thought so. Is there a way to put them in reserve in X? And Skells will be cool. I just unlocked the Over-whatever by beating chapter 5 so that will be good, although it didn't really explain how to use it. Also, I find it funny because the talk of these two games is that the first one was more focused on story and this one is more focused on just the world and gameplay, but I am much more intrigued by the story in this one than in the original. I really want to see what is going to happen, and I was not expecting the twist that came in after chapter 5.

@Tsurii I understand what you were saying. I was just asking if there is a way to keep party members in your "reserve" area so they could still level up when they aren't in your current party like they do in the original. I mean, when you look at your active party, there are four slots on the left for who is in your party and four slots on the right. But the slots on the right are always empty unless you already have four and are adding a new one. Is there a way to keep some people in those slots on the right for easy switching and experience? Or at least an easy way to find those who are not in your party? I just spent like 30 minutes running around the administrative district looking for Irina and Gwin so I could give the some experience and I couldn't find them.

@Tsurii Thanks. I was afraid of that. And I did find them both eventually. It's just really a pain to have to search for them if you don't remember where they are as there doesn't seem to be anything that signifies they are someone who can join your party as opposed to just some random person you can talk to. And even though Elma, Lin, and I are all up to level 19 or 20, they were only at 12, which stinks. It's going to take awhile to level them up and get our affinity up. At least most of the missions are fun, so it's not a big deal.

You should change party members only back to Lin and Elma if you want to progress through the next main story chapter (most of the time the game demands it anyways for story missions). If you're doing sidequests change to any other party member! Get all their affinity stars up or certain quests will never appear in NLA.

Also, there are easy ways to level characters up. Just take your low characters along with your strongest and farm some easy experience monsters like the weird plants in Noctilum.

Has Xenoblade 2 got people playing this game again or something?

@Dezzy Sort of. I've actually been playing it for quite awhile, but news of Xenoblade 2 got me trying to beat it in time for that. That is never going to happen, as I played the original for literally 4 years, but it has given me incentive. Speaking of which, I looked up and saw that there are 12 chapters. As I just finished chapter 5, am I really just about halfway through the game, or do the later chapters become bigger and longer?

Ok, that helps. I knew levels still scaled a bit but I was just concerned at how quickly I was getting ahead of Elma and Lin once I started to focus on newer party members again.

And yeah, I've been avoiding Lin and Elma for quests unless it required them.

So yeah, I guess I don't need to overdo level grinding. Thank god.

@Xyphon22

The chapters aren't all of equal length. I seem to remember the last 2 being pretty long.

The main story is still relatively short overall though. No way near as long as the first game. You need to do a lot of affinity missions for this game to feel like it has enough story content.

Once you get the Skells, there are some parts to grind for experience and affinity fast, though, if you never leveled up your other party members (like me), so it shouldn't be something you worry about!

@Luna_110

There aren't that many places that you need Skells to reach really. That's something that disappointed me.

The big plant at the top of the Noctilum waterfall is a good place though.