Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

@Heavyarms55 I want to love this game so bad. I played it for 15 hours or so, split up among multiple play sessions, and I just can't get into it for some reason. It absolutely feels like a game that I should love to no end, but I just can't get it to click for me.

@roadrunner343 I don't know what I can really tell you. I adore it, I love the story, the characters, the gameplay, almost everything about it. All I can suggest is taking a break for a while and coming back and giving it another chance. The game does start out somewhat slow as it works you up through all the myriad systems that make up the combat. So if it feels like there isn't a lot you can do at first, that is because if they dumped it all on the player in the first hour or too it'd be overwhelming. Thing is, at 15 hours, depending on how you play, you could still be on Chapter 1 or 2 with a lot of things left to unlock. One thing this game isn't, is short. I dropped 36 hours just into the expansion.

@Heavyarms55 I really do need to give it a 4th shot. Hollow Knight was similar in that it took me a few tries to get into it, but once I did, I sunk 40+ hours into it. With Smash on the Horizon, pretty sure I won't be touching XC2 again until early next year.

I think the main issue I had with XC2 was the combat system. I know I am still early in the game, but the combat felt very MMO like - almost turn based. No that there is anything wrong with that inherently, it's just not was I was expecting. And my battles seemed to last for ages, just waiting to whittle down the enemy's health. Does the pace of combat ever really pick up?

@roadrunner343 Where did you get to? The thing about XC2 is the combat system grows as you progress through the story.

@roadrunner343 I've heard many people having that very same complaint. It didn't feel that way to me though. Are you upgrading your Blades with new (stronger) core chips when possible? Are you steadily working on filling out their affinity charts? Are you making sure you are using aux cores and pouch items and what have you? If you don't do these things, your Blades won't get stronger and it will take forever to beat enemies of the same or close to your own level, and I would imagine that would be boring/frustrating/annoying.

Once you unlock that you can use two and eventually three Blades at the same time, it will get more fun/less waiting for Arts to charge during battle.

I will say this though; while I absolutely love this game, I can understand why it might not be for everybody.

@Hallonblad I feel like I was doing that, but maybe I didn't enough. I don't know. Money also seemed a bit difficult to come by, so I probably wasn't upgrading enough. I think I even dropped the difficulty (Something I never do!) just to see if it would speed things up, and some battles still felt unbearably slow. I'm not even actually complaining about the difficulty, just the time battle took. I will definitely give it another shot someday, hopefully the pace picks up a bit. While I understand that the game isn't for everyone, that's what bothers me so much - everything about this game seems custom tailored to be something I love, but I just haven't been able to get it to click.

I had to get used to the XC series' combat system as well.

@roadrunner343 So....you're not really feeling it?

What's not grabbing you about it. The world/characters/story? The gameplay systems? The obtuseness of some of the systems? Confusing/hard to play or too easy? What part are you up to?

@roadrunner343 Combat is turn based....it's a JRPG It's more like an advanced ATB from FFXII/FFXIII, or even WoFF. It's designed to feel more real-time, but ultimately it's very much ATB style turn based JRPG combat with a unique real-time twist. It's not an action-RPG like Ys8.

As for combat taking a long time, there's two things to keep in mind. Combat keeps evolving until around when you get to the merc camp....you don't have all the systems yet. But more importantly combat isn't especially difficult as long as you're not underleveled, and/or bosses. But the way the game punishes/rewards is combat takes as long as your skill makes it take. Battles take a very very long time if you're letting auto attacks do the work and not effectively using combos and/or chains. Battles can be fast if you combo up. And once they unlock chains you can blast half a boss's health bar in one go if you line everything up right. In fact it becomes essential.

Ultimately, though, if battles are taking a long time: You're not using the combat systems at your disposal. You can wear enemies down by attrition just hacking at them, but it's not very fun Make sure you have diverse elementals for all your blade slots and....I love Tora...but...ditch Tora....a single Poppi kind of hampers the flow IMO, and I hate playing Tiger! Tiger!. (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, disregard and realize you really don't have most of the systems yet )

Keep in mind not all enemies in the field of Gormot etc are meant to be attacked yet.

@EvilLucario I'm in Chapter 3 of NG+, can you get enough extra Accessory slots for everyone or should I skip giving Vandham one because he dies at the end of the chapter.

Yeah combat in Xenoblade 2 (and X) have some VERY big gaps between slow and fast kills. Moreso than any other JRPG I've played.

@Grumblevolcano I've had enough since I first started NG+, but you can buy enough for everyone I'm pretty sure.

@EvilLucario After getting 4, the bard by the inn in Argentum doesn't have any left. Is there another bard which sells them?

Would it be fair to say that out of Valkyria Chronicles, Nightwar, Ys & XC2, that this is the biggest time eater? I own the first three (XC2 the only one I don't) and whilst I enjoy an 'rpg-palate-cleanse' of RDR2/Diablo following my completion of Octopath, I'm already planning which to tackle next. Ordinarily I'd go with one I already own but strange circumstances (going to be off work babysitting my poorly cat) mean I'm going to have a lot more time than usual to play games (he says confidently) so thinking that if this is as big a time sink as I've seen mention that maybe now is the time to attack it? Realise not everyone will have played all of those but seems there are quite a few RPG fiends like me dwelling here so any pointers/help gratefully received!

@Grumblevolcano Hm Idk. It's been months.

@BrainOfGrimlock Let's put it this way: it took me 70 hours to beat Xenoblade 2 and I have 400 hours in it. Meanwhile it only took me 40-45 hours to 100% Ys VIII. I haven't played the other games yet, but I don't think any game can compete except for Dark Souls 1.

@EvilLucario F-f-four hundred....!?

Ok...

Wow...

Well I have my answer - thank you!

I guess now I know it's in that sort of territory I'll throw it to the recommendations thread then (between this or Disgea 5)!

@BrainOfGrimlock Well 400 hours across two full playthroughs, one NG+ playthrough, and a lot of Challenge Mode which ate up a lot of my time. So I'm an anomaly in that regard.

Xenoblade in general consumed my life though. I have 500 hours in Xenoblade X and 250 hours in Xenoblade 1, and even Torna as an expansion took 40 hours of my life that I'll never get back. All of them with at least two playthroughs.

@EvilLucario It obviously depends on the type of game, but in RPG's like this I am generally a fan of NG+ so i'll certainly bear that in mind - thank you!

@roadrunner343 Well, if you really did, I've got nothing. You should be able to blaze through the first four or so chapters pretty quickly, after which most if not all battle systems should be unlocked (was quite some time since I played it for the first time, so my memory might be a little fuzzy on the details.)

Are you cancelling your attacks? Are you building your team with Blades that synergise well together so you can build elemental orbs and then use chain attacks? I second NEStalgia's advice to ignore Tora for now. He is not a damage dealer until you get QTpi (chapter eight, I think) and he's not unkillable until you get a Dilaton chip for alpha (post-game, IIRC). So basically, anyone else is better for damage, and Mórag is superior for tanking. Also, Tiger! Tiger! is the worst thing that ever graced Alrest with its presence.

I honestly don't know what to tell you, since I'm not sure what you already are doing, and what you're not. If you feel up for it, I do encourage you to give it another try. I genuinely feel that while it is very flawed, it is still an amazing game. I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and I think I have some 400+ hours in it by now. Only BotW has more on my Switch, but that is only because I recently started a brand new Master Mode run. Plateau Lynel didn't go as well this time, I think I left it for too long and managed to forget how to play the game. 8D

@Grumblevolcano You should be able to buy more from that bard, but I think you can only buy one with each character? Or something like that? Put Vandham as the player controlled character and try to buy from him - it should work. (I hope I'm not lying.)

@EvilLucario it took me 80 hours to 100% Torna in NG+. I too took 40 hours in Ys 8. Didn't 100% it, not even get the good ending. Need to get back and finish it. Octopath came out. Didnt even beat the final boss in Octopath because Torna came out and I was tired of grinding...

@NEStalgia You could definitely say I haven't felt it yet, at least As for combat being turn based, I know that it essentially is, but it also feels that way. I've played plenty of old (and some recent) cRPGs that were built on turn base systems, such as NeverWinter Nights 1/2, Dragon Age Origins, and even some MMOs like Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 that felt like they had a more active and engaging combat system to me.

Also, from the sounds of it, I would have to agree I probably am not leveraging the systems well. I pretty much stuck with whatever characters/blades I got as part of the main story, thus far. I think I have 2 others for Rex, but I pretty much used Pyra the whole time. I was also using Tora, so maybe that's part of it too. I don't know exactly where I was at in the game, but I made it to at least the Mercenary Camp and I know what Tiger! Tiger! is.

@Hallonblad Yeah, I don't know. I just need to give it another shot. I was definitely canceling attacks, and I was beginning to chain, though I also recall being confused a bit by how the mechanics worked and had to google a bit (I'm new to the franchise) so I'm sure I was doing so inefficiently.

As for BotW, I did the exact same thing a few months ago, brand new master run. Never came close to finishing it, but that was my solution for attempting to get into XC2 and failing again. I'll definitely give it another shot, but it will sadly probably have to wait for a while now. It's a bit frustrating to me knowing that I already own a game that could possibly be one of my favorite games on the system if I could just crack into it. Unfortunately, due to time constraints (And a wife and kids) my attention space is much shorter than it used to be. Someday.