Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@Heavyarms55 I didn't say I didn't like the story. I loved the story. I said the side quests were weak.

Oh wow, I find the sidequests absolutely fun in this game- I enjoy those tidbits (and the most problematic I have is only Zenobia's one... Lv9 for two element mastery are too hard for me DX Really need to fire it up to send some to mercenary time :T )

@subpopz it appears randomly after you sleep in inn. After which they'll be gone after you sleep in inn again.

Thankfully there's that one sidequest (not sure if expansion pass locked or not) that will allow you to craft premium cylinder with a nopon instead of spamming inn (you can do the spam at rex's hometown too tho)

@darkfenrir Said sidequest is Season Pass only.

Also compared to Xenoblade 1, these sidequests are way better. Not as good as Xenoblade X's sidequests though.

@EvilLucario Aahh, gotcha. Tfw I already bought 99 Premium cylinder anyway that the crafting won't be useful (as well as maxing my salvager rank already anyway)

Still love this sidequests where I got stories though. I always enjoy those little pieces of lores compared to other things (Especially when I didn't even get gated... but if I am, I don't mind leaving it until around a few chapters later where I remember I need to do it lol)

@AlternateButtons You clearly need to get more blades. I almost never ran into the problem you describe. About 3 times. All specifically for Fortitude.

@AlternateButtons I know of that exact quest involving Bana you're mentioning. The game indeed DOES give hints where to find them, with two options on getting them:

1) Go do the Merc Mission that pops up and you'll get the Switch Parts info.

2) You can just directly buy the infos from the Informats around the world. You won't know which informat has the info until you go out to search for it though.

Then, go to your Item List and it'll literally tell you where you can get the item. For example, for Switch Part 2, the info tells you to go salvage at the port in lower Mor Ardain.

I have my fair share of issues with the sidequests as well, but this particular one isn't one of them.

@AlternateButtons I did the quest long ago, but I remember the quest log telling you "search for the part locations using Merc Missions". So after doing it and receiving the stuff, then the log updates for you to go find them, and that gets you to look in your item list to see more information.

Whenever you catch on is a different story, but the game does give you the tools to find that, at least.

If anything what I find more egregious that would most likely require looking up: generic "collect these" steps can suck as you won't really know where to find them, and different places have different collectables. For example, even if you found this one place that gives fish, it may not give you the fish you really need. Stuff like that is really the worst part of sidequests imo.

I got my ancient salvaging suit from a gold cylinder... But I had to look up where to salvage it. By far the worst quest is the nopon doubloon one. I have 8/11 and I really can't be fussed to go and search for them in obscure location X. That and Ursula's quest. You have to send her on merc missions at 10 minute intervals for potentially 47 and a half hours (I did the maths), if you don't use extra blades to speed it up or use the level 3 lessons. So probably about 30 hours in total of selecting the same blades again for the same merc mission. If you want to use Ursula, you technically can't use Ursula for 30 hours. So ridiculous.

Bad side quests and annoyances like blade switching for field skills aside, I'm of the opinion that this is the greatest Jrpg of recent years.
I didn't really like the side quests but the game is so generous in all areas that I grabbed 100 hours just doing what I liked doing. Game's a bloody masterpiece.

@NinjaAceTrainer I agree on her mission is so ridiculous-- but I'm glad I did it (especially since she was one of my first few Blades!) since she's just so powerful, and a Fist weapon!

I hope they changed her mission mercenary missions in future update but I doubt it. But I'm glad I can use her around the last 3-4 chapters ish since I was diligent in doing her missions (even leaving my switch running while I work at home)

@AlternateButtons I really experienced none of the difficulty you are talking about. I enjoyed unlocking the skills on the rare blades. That was a big part of the game. If you don't like doing quests, leveling your characters or using unlockable skills, I am shocked you like any RPGs. JRPGs or otherwise. I had the door you are talking about open before I even got to that side quest. shrug I guess I could see how you would be annoyed, if all you want to do is just barrel through the main story with little interest in experiencing everything the game has to offer. In that regard I would say you are probably playing the wrong game.

@AlternateButtons We are are of a single mind. You could be my blade😀

@EvilLucario One of the few things BotW does better than Xenoblade 2, I would've liked if Xenoblade 2 had something similar to the Hyrule Compendium. Something you'd have that could remind yourself where certain items and enemies are (the latter would especially help for affinity charts).

@8-Bit_Superman That's only like a few items per region though.

Once, again without the inn i just started chapter 5 and i am already almost level 50...just with side quests.
On another note, did anyone use a particular auxilary core with their blades??

@AlternateButtons Probably wouldn't have helped you now if you already passed that section, but I also mentioned that there was a second way of progressing that didn't involve Merc Missions, and it was just directly buying the info from the Informants that were around the towns. You know, like the ones that tell you what affinity does, Blade Combos, like the tutorials but heavily abridged. Three of the like eight or seven of them sell the info you need to salvage those items. However, I will grant you that the game does not tell you that you can do that particular way, I only stumbled upon it by accident myself when I was just fooling around at one point and I had my Merc Missions doing other stuff.

Also, there's two Rare Blades that doesn't require RNG to get for another Nopon Wisdom skill. One is Kasandra who can be salvaged from in Mor Ardain at a specific place (which you can find out if you bought the appropriate info from an Informant), the other is Theory who's locked behind another sidequest that also requires doing another sidequest that unlocks Praxis. Nopon Wisdom is fairly annoying, yeah, but at least the Blades you need for that isn't locked behind an RNG wall.

@Grumblevolcano We call that the Collectopedia from Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade X, and I hated both those and the Hyrule Compendium personally. Filling them out was busy-work, and if you never ran into the materials you need in the first place, you never would have gotten them in your information at all. Granted, maybe they could have made a tracker that shows you specific spots like BotW did, but I still hated it in those games. Just me though.

@EvilLucario In BotW you can pay the guy in the Hateno Lab rupees to get Hyrule Compendium entries.

@scubydo Three words:
Exploit Rex's criticals.

The collect random item sidequests are nowhere near as bad as the original Xenoblade's. For the sidequest 'Insurgent Investigations' does anyone know how to get into bellyfull canteen? I can't find an entrance anywhere...