Hmm.. Prison Island? I've been beating enemies there quite easily, I'll combine that with some sidequests then. I reached the final boss, but couldn't beat him. Thanks for the help TBD.

@G4L Dang you know all the cool people! I think if Heroes of Ruin ends up being very good he will change his mind. Or we will have to change it for his own good LOL!

As for those spiders I just didn't want to take them all on at once. I did what tbd said to me in an earlier post and lured them away and fought them one by one. It was pretty easy as I was level 37. I just don't like small spiders then alone three giant ones chasing after me!!

I do know I'm missing quests here and there. Its just after doing so many I need to take a break and move on with the story from time to time. My next goal is to at least get colony 6 up to level one across the board. Once I started to rebuild all I was able to do was one commercial district rebuild. I was hoping I had a few more materials then that.

@SomeBitTripFan I'd advise going for the areas that you've previously been to that TBD mentioned as the gorilla like enemies on the bionis leg are level 77 - 80 and in the windy cave there is a room with a spider unique enemy as well as four of those web things that contain enemies which all contain more of those gorilla like enemies which are all at level 80. The gorilla like enemies that TBD mentioned that are in Satorl marsh are good to as they're around level 80 or higher.

Around 70ish, I think.

@SomeBitTripFan
SPOILERS
Once you start reaching levels in the 80s, Alcamoth is a great place to farm for EXP. after that becomes too easy, the Tephra Cave second part has up to Lv96 monsters.

Once even THAT is behind you, Thee Sage Summit on Valak Mountain contains Lv99s at night.

i'd forgotten about that! i totes went back in there and trashed that stupid spider while leveling pre-endgame... he nearly got me earlier in the game when i had to get that mushroom or whatever out from underneath his nose, haha D:

I'm happy to say the game is starting to get good. It only took 18 hours! I've never played a game that started so slow, but it will hopefully only continue to get better. I'm still not doing many sidequests (or bothering with helping rebuild Colony 6) since it's really just my goal to beat the game. I just entered Makna Forest.

1. Not doing sidequests = hope you like grinding. Probably.
2. The game isn't remotely different in quality from Bionis Leg to that point in the game so I am confused.

I haven't had to grind yet. But if I do end up severely underpowered because I choose not to do sidequests (which are worse than grinding in my opinion) that would be another huge flaw of the game.

As for what's changed, not a lot, but I'm finding ways to enjoy it more. I guess it's because my last play session was all around good. Usually there is at least a couple of things that drive me crazy each time I play. Hopefully my new assessment of the game isn't premature. And Makna Forest is beautiful.

I just got to the leg, I've been just running around, first I went into a cave and came out to this small area with some short eagle looking things. I ran up to the bigger king looking one and then ran away since they all started chasing me, then I came upon some rock briges that crisscrossed nothingness, then I went up to these ruins with bug type creatures and tried grabbing a glowing red thing but a spider climbed out and got me. So I decided to go in a cave to the side and at the end was an overlook of some rock platforms over water. So I backtracked and climbed up to those and a bridge. Its actually quite fun to just wander around and see the sights and see what types of adventures you can get into.

Hey @Tech101, I registered your 3DS. My friend code is in my signature.

Tirkins are so adorable~! it's so fun in this game how when you wind up overleveled in relation to the enemies in a given area, they stop attacking when you get near them... i like just hanging out with the Tirkins and watching them do their little dance. it's like they're asking me not to kill them or something D:

Hahaha! Yeah, maybe they wanted you to join in and do the Chicken Dance @theblackdragon. Now that you've finished the game @theblackdragon, what would have to say was your favorite and or least favorite aspect of the game?

So at this point I'm probably gonna do some Colony 6 rebuilding missions. Y'know, I was worried for a while that I was gonna improve the character's affinities too quickly and then have nothing to do with that eventually, but I haven't unlocked the ability to use a Heart-to-Heart in like 10 hours, so I guess not. Probably because of the relatively rapid apperance of 2 new characters and me spending less time doing sidequests than the absurd amount of time I spent trying to do everything on Bionis Leg.

@G4L: honestly? probably all the exploration, the massive detail put into each location and all the enemies in 'em. i remember the first time i stumbled across a Secret Location, and there were times I honestly got so caught up in just looking around at stuff that I totally forgot what I was doing and where I was supposed to be going next. :3

@kkslider: I've seen people on other sites saying that the affinity thing and heart-to-hearts isn't a big deal until the second playthrough anyway.

that immediately convinces me to do all of them on the first playthrough then

also I'm not replaying a game this long anytime soon so screw that. Probably won't actually beat the game until early August at the rate I'm going anyway...

Yeah I have to agree with you, I'm just getting soooooo caught up in exproring and just wandering around.

OMG SomeBitTripFan, your user avatar

i'm dying over here, lolololol

SPOILER: Xenoblade is amazing

Got the game today and it's a true masterpiece. Love the voice work too. Monolith Soft does not disappoint. I really want a new Baten Kaitos game D: