Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

New Game+ seems perfect. Much better than in Xeno1.

You can repeat the story, while keeping all your levels and items. Just like in Chrono Trigger.
What's more to ask for?

Harder enemies? Change the difficulty!

I adore this game. I'm barely chapter 4 and 62 hours in - between sidequests, merc missions and simply roaming around I'm having a blast.

Oh, and I hate Tiger Tiger. Poppi's a great tank, but I don't have the patience to grind ether or parts in that minigame. It's annoying.

The only thing I dislike is the RNG system for the blades.

@SKTTR You can't increase the difficulty though? At least from what I'm gathering here, even having all your drivers at level 1 is easier than the first playthrough.

Wait a second, I see where this may be going. The challenge mode that's part of the expansion pass could potentially be a hard mode like how BotW has one in its expansion pass and that being a way you can experience NG+ with an actual challenge.

@Snaplocket That's how I feel about the music in the first game. For some reason, I really dig XC2's soundtrack, though.

@AlternateButtons It's been bugging me to no end, because I was really getting into this one sidequest, and then... I just had to stop. It's been, like, 10 hours of playtime since, and I still don't have the skill I need to advance further into the sidequest. Way to kill narrative build-up there!

Other things, too. Like: why isn't there an option to just skip blade opening cinematics you've already seen, but have them play if you haven't seen them? When I first started playing since the update that added the option to skip blade cinematics, I gave a common core crystal with no boosters to Nia, figuring "99% chance it'll just be another random blade I already have 10 of," and skipped it. Well, it turned out to be a rare blade!

I know, I know, you can actually watch those videos in the event viewer, but it's not the same. And it's even a pain, because you have to go back to the main menu to access it, as far as I understand it. Is there even a soft reboot option for the game? So, after opening a rare blade, I have to quit the game, wait for it to boot up again, and only then get to see the Blade's intro cinematic (unless I've misunderstood something and there's an easier way to do this). But I'm not going to stop skipping the cinematics, because I don't want to waste more hours of my life watching common blades introduce themselves for the thousandeth time.

So many little issues, yet the core experience is still pretty fun.

Create a second profile on the Switch and start a new game and challenge yourself on that version. Nothing we can do about the difficulty on NG+ for now.

Just a heads up even though I doubt anyone cares if they lose a common blade in New Game+.

Recently caved in and bought this. Predictably, I'm enjoying it. Unfortunately the handheld resolution is as bad as I feared it would be.

@Reignmaker Oh yeah, it's bad. But the art direction and quality of the actual graphics make up for it enough to still look decent/fine, though XC2 is Nintendo's worst docked-to-handheld conversion to date.

@EvilLucario Yeah, I sat on the fence a long time, hoping for a performance update that never came. However some of the quality of life changes combined with the fact that I've been craving a big meaty RPG to get me to Summer, finally pushed me over. Totally ready to lose myself, and it seems this'll do the trick.

Hello good people I haven't been able to go back to Xenoblade Chronicles because Splatoon 2 is taking most of my game time. But how is the New Game Plus so far? I started it but I'm still in the first chapter because I got impatient and immediately went back to Splatoon 2.

@iLikeUrAttitude I like it a lot, lots of story-breaking stuff but it's hilarious to see. Also, all the NG+ Blades are really fun to use.

@EvilLucario That's great to hear but a couple of questions. How many blades were added to NG+? Also are they also obtained by rolling core crystals?

@iLikeUrAttitude 7 new Blades, 6 only obtained with Core Crystals. The last can be recruited after Chapter 9 before you fight the final two bosses of that chapter.

@EvilLucario Thank you for the quick responses, I'll play this whenever I can.

Beat the game last night. Dang, what an incredible game, about 230 hours logged after all was said and done. Can't wait for the story DLC.

@KryptoKrunch Well while you're waiting you can enjoy the New Game Plus mode

So I've started a second, fresh file from my original 300 hour, 100%ed file and yeah, I'm still loving this game. I feel like actually creating a beginner's guide that goes more in-depth than what I normally see on the Internet, though I need to keep playing a bit more to get my thoughts down.

I just had to look into this Forum Topic and say that this game is great.
They did a great job solving a lot of problems JRPGs usually have.

The update fixing the common blade issue is coming tomorrow.