Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@SilverEdge92 You should have gotten a Beastly Core Crystal in chapter 3.

@Late
I have that crystal. But it's greyed out when I go to bond new blades....?

@JaxonH It can't be used until halfway through Chapter 4. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind that was. The game informs you that you can bond with it once the time comes.

"Ugh, Pyra's too heavy!"
Well, if her BOOBS WERE A TAD SMALLER!!!

Just started Chapter 4. The boss fight and cinematics at the end of Chapter 3 were nuts. I absolutely loved how you go from feeling constantly overwhelmed by Malos and Akhos to feeling almost untouchable once you resume the battle with Mythra.

Pyra is a sweet-mannered red-head and a feisty blond tsundere in one. Objectively best girl.

Also like how this game has its own version of Meownster Hunters. Great way to get some use out of all those excess blades.

Even her arms went through them in one scene, it's weird. xD

@Ralizah It happens one too many times in the game I felt - you'd be in a cutscenes getting cained then something would happen to make you insanely powerful and you'd stomp the opposition then you'd regain control of your group yet not feel any more powerful. Just one aspect of the game that got a bit predictable to me. I don't watch a lot of anime so I did think maybe that's just what it's always like haha.

@kyleforrester87 I could see it losing effectiveness if overused, as you've suggested it is. I felt it was a wonderful fit for the momentum of that particular scene, though.

@Ralizah I hope what I said wasn't spoilerific in hindsight, I have to be honest though maybe it only really happened twice and I made more of it in my head than it was. Would be interesting to hear your thoughts on that by the end though. How many hours in are you?

@kyleforrester87 Nah. It wasn't. And I'm not super-sensitive about being "spoiled" anyway. Just don't tell me any gigantic plot twists or character deaths and we're good.

30 hours in as of today. I'm playing this in tandem with two other games (Danganronpa V3 on the PS Vita and Valkyria Chronicles on the PC), so my progress has been fairly slow. The game is a ton of fun, though! This feels like the first Xenoblade where I don't have any major complaints about the design of the game itself.

Sometimes, if something makes a particularly strong impression on you, it's easy to exaggerate its presence in the game itself. Take The Last of Us: half of the game probably isn't dragging boards and planks around, but I did it and hated it enough that, in my memory, it feels like half of the game was miserable busywork.

So however this ties into xenoblade1, at what point would a person want to stop and go back and finish the first game if you want to see it all tie in together

@Inertiacreep I heard there's like, very little connection to past games.

Without giving away too much, you'll get the most satisfaction from beating XC1 before XC2.

The end of chapter 3 was awesome. Gosh dang awesome.

And now I'm getting rare blades and the whole "Hunters 4 Hire" merc missions (@Ralizah I think Hunters 4 Hire is what you meant, although Meownster Hunters is similar, it actually requires a mini game to determine outcome whereas H4H is identical to merc missions... although, Meownster Hunters does follow the blueprint of sending out spares not currently in use, so I guess that's actually a solid comparison in that respect). And I just did a sidequest where I had to fight 6 Level 32/33 enemies at once (I'm just barely level 32). it was super hard and they killed Nia at least 5 different times, and me twice.

I love this game! Man I love this game.

@JaxonH merc missions = Meownster Hunters 4 Hire

Glad I'm not the only one taking this game slow.

Could anyone tell me if you can still play the game after you beat the final boss? I'm on chapter 8 and I really want to continue the story but I don't want to miss out on all the side quests because of New game plus. Does the game end after the final encounter or can you still do stuff after the story is finished?

@Garolymar After the credits, you're prompted to save your game. That save state has your party just before the final boss, meaning you can beat the game multiple times and are free to do whatever else.

@JTMnM Thanks a lot for the info man, much appreciated!

@Ralizah
Ya. Nice and easy... no rush... smell the roses and all that (actually there is a rush, I have one month until my beloved Monster Hunter and gosh dang it, I need to finish Xenoblade before that day comes!)

does a mission and fights a group weak monsters
This shouldn't take long.
gets interrupted by a boss
...Ugh, fine whatever, at least I can handle this one...
half-way through a high leveled monster shows up, dies
...I think I'm done with this game for the night.