Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@JaxonH I have I think 3 or 5 at the moment. I got them by talking to the Nopon in Goldmouth (I think that's right. the first place you visit when you start the game.) that ranks your salvaging skill. If I remember correctly I am rank B. I'm sure they become more available later in the game as well. I'm only just starting Ch. 4.

@JaxonH you get 5 as a reward later and then you'll be able to buy them in the shop.. there's, i think they're called platinum.. i was reading a thread everyone was trying to find out how to get more.. eventually after people thinking they were a limited item in the shop, they figured out it's random if it will appear. I guess you need to have full dev level and rank A salvager and then keep sleeping at the inn until they appear.

@JaxonH Maybe develop the towns/cities and see if they become available. I think I last bought some in Mor Ardain. To the others, I don't know if they're locked behind story progression. I only just started using/buying them. Granted, I'm in the last chapter.

@JTMnM he is not far enough yet for them to be available i don't think, but he is pretty close.

I think it's worth noting Legendary Core Crystals still have a fairly low rare Blade return rate. (Say that 10 times fast.) Maybe I was blindly optimistic, but it was disappointing for me to find my first Legendary Crystal Core yield a common Blade.

Where do you get the beastly core crystal? I've had that blade for a while but seriously don't even remember how i got the core crystal.

@Inertiacreep The Beastly Core Crystal is unique and awakens Wulfric, an amazing attack Blade. His core dropped after you defeated a boss when Vandham was around. As you can imagine, you'll want to bond him to an attacker. He has a few quests that were really entertaining, too.

@JTMnM all I've sen so far is his first heart to heart which was hilarious

@Inertiacreep He's hilarious. His quests go for the same kind of humor.

@JTMnM so i haven't had any blade quests yet. How do you get them?

@Inertiacreep They're initiated like any other quest. I don't know if there are prerequisites, but I've done a few Blade-specific quests just by stumbling onto them.

Just beat the game with the "true" ending, according to Youtube. What an experience this was. Takes XC's place as my favorite JRPG. It built on it in nearly every facet. It was cheesy at times, but that's to be expected in an anime tale of heroes.

@JTMnM oh ok cool.. yea the only thing keeping this from potentially being my favorite jrpg is they wrote all this sexual stuff between a child and a 500 year old woman who looks like she's 20... and also sexualizing poppy who looks like a child as well...

@Inertiacreep Zeke: "Way to bog the mood down, chum."

@Knighty_IX Cheers! That snippet after the credits tugged on my heartstrings.

@Knighty_IX I see your point, but I'm a sucker for happy endings. The ending you depicted was the one I expected, so seeing her return was a pleasant surprise. The following cut-to-black and closing chapter title were also nice touches. To be honest, I'm sad to see it end. The expansion DLC can't come soon enough!

Just found out Overdrive Protocols are given out when you max out a party member's affinity tree. This is valuable information for those who wish to transfer Blades, given that I've beaten the game and have only found 3 of them.

@JTMnM lol.. seriously though it makes me uncomfortable... if the sexes were reversed this sh wouldn't fly but for some reason everybody thinks this is ok... i just try to ignore it but the game would have been so much better without these things written into it...
Like sexy women imply enough.. that's all you need, you don't need to start writing sexual dialog and scenes, and if you do, then write it without the children involved... like the one eyed snake line would have been funny if everyone got it except rex, who didn't get it because he's young and then have the rest of the cast laugh it off and tell him he'll understand when he gets older.

@JTMnM
Thanks about the info.. was wondering about that because they are so rare to find. I got mine first one wasted on common 😡

I'm getting a real Dragon Quest IX vibe in terms of the localization with this game (this may be lost on Americans), because I'd reached the first settlement, and the locals are clearly Welsh. The Mor Ardanians (from what I've seen - Mórag, Dughal, Brighid, the soldiers) are all Scottish as well. If anyone remembers playing DQ IX, the EU version at least, the fishing community were Welsh, the good King in the beginning of the game and the princess were Scottish (you could tell because they spoke like Rab C Nesbitt), and the canal town (sorry for the ambiguity, but I can't remember the names off the top of my head) were Londoners.

Just an observation. Not something you'd usually see in a mainstream game. The Last Story on the Wii had a wide range of regional UK accents too, although if I recall, no heavy Welsh accent.

I'll probably upset a few Welsh peole by saying this, but I feel Nia's accent is out of place. I'm sure its a proud moment for many Welsh people hearing their accent in a mainstream Nintendo game, everytime she opens her mouth, it sounds like Ruth Jones.
Maybe one day there'll be a Norfolk accent in a mainstream Nintendo game, and you can all cringe at that...

Staying with accents, I can't quite place Rex. I've read American opinions on the game that say he's Scottish (and Nia is Irish, which is patently false), but I'm sensing a Northern English accent. I feel his accent's a bit out of place too.

I'm aware there's an option to switch the voices to Japanese, but to be honest, I'm not too bothered. It'd be interesting to play through it again in Japanese, but for the mean time, I'd stick with the English.

As for the game itself, I can't help but find the battle system a bit confusing. I remeber in Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (and Disaster Day of Crisis - same devs as it happens), you could open up a menu with every tutorial and peruse it at your leisure. Why in the heck did they decide to do away with that? The game throws so many concepts at you, but fortunately, I haven't come up against anything that's required too much thought. It might be worth watching some of those youtube videos again. I'd certainly throw doen some gold coins on my.nintendo for a small guide, like I did with Zelda BotW.

The concept I'm struggling with is blade combos. As I understand it, as you perform arts a gauge (which I can never find) fills, and your special goes up from 'I' to 'IV'. Meanwhile, your team mates are levelling up their specials, and you can choose to let them perform them with the Z triggers. Furthermore, if you chain them - providing the attack is one level higher than the preceding one, you can do increasingly higher damage.
Furthermore, as you land a special, its element follows a tree on the right that does something or other.

There's a few other concepts that I'd really appreciate being able to refresh myself on in game, but I'm probably going to have to watch some official videos. I find it easier to learn these things after I've dabbled a bit, so the absence of a tutorial screen let alone a digital manual is an annoyance. I understand why they phased out paper manuals, but is it really too much to ask for a digital manual?

The only other issue I have is a quick way to look at a map. Other than that, I've got no complaints. Nia's voice makes me cringe sometimes, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone for liking it.

@JTMnM There's no "true ending". That uploader messed up and did not properly put in all Chapter 10 cutscenes into his "all Chapter 10 cutscenes" video.

Chapter 3 done. I never finished Xenoblade Chronicles (I think I'm in Sword Valley) but so far I enjoy this one more. And I really liked the original Xenoblade too. I gotta say the cutscenes are really nice. I've been playing exclusively in handheld mode (tried TV once to see how it looks) and I haven't noticed resolution hiccups after Torigoth and its surrounding area. Or maybe I'm just so into the game that I don't even pay attention to it. It's a shame there are couple of smaller things that limit my enjoyment a bit. First one is the map. It's really clunky. Second one is the camera. Anyone else have trouble with the camera when going inside buildings? I get some motion sickness when the camera suddenly zooms in and out and rotating it is even worse.