Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@theJGG Yeah, it really is. Sure, the game uses a lot of tropes, but there's nothing wrong with tropes, as long as the story is well-written and can use them to it's advantage. This game really makes you care about the characters, both good and bad.

And there... Beat it. The ending gave me goosebumps, just as the last time.

This game is as good as I remember it, or even better. The upgrades really heightened an already amazing experience. This was a 10/10 for me on the 3DS, but this version is the one to play if you have the choice.

I'm yet to start Future Connected, but I think I'll wait a little. Too many games.

I finally made it to Mechonis Field yesterday. Like other areas, this one too benefits nicely from the remaster face-lift. So nice to have you know who in the party. I've been playing as said character in the lead almost non stop. Get those double attack gems and their "rash" skill tree and go to town!

Still so very glad my favorite game is on Switch. <3

Brief update : I'm on Chapter 14, made it to Agniratha, and recently witnessed [insert plot bombshell that I sorta guessed here] last session. Now I'm gonna spend some time beating up the many Mechon infesting the place for quest reasons while also moving the main plot along. My whole group is at Lv. 66.

I've also spent quite a bit of time with Colony 6 and now have everything except Special up to Lv. 3. Some of the NPCs and quests here are pretty interesting compared to other parts of the game; probably my favorite is one of the High Entia. She's an odd bird. O_o

P.S. I know I've mentioned this a few times now, but this game's soundtrack is one of the best, if not THE best that I've heard in some time. I love a lot of the tunes I've heard ever since making it on the Mechonis. Many of them are beyond fitting for their designated areas.

@Tyranexx Special is always the hard one to get up, but where you are, I believe you could actually get to level 4 at least in a few areas.

And yes, I've got the original soundtrack on CD and on my phone and have been enjoying it for years. So good!

If you're struggling to get the things needed for Colony 6 reconstruction, certain collectibles and monster drops are available from the Nopon Archsage's time trials, in exchange for earned Nopon Stone.
I was able to complete Colony 6 reconstruction without this though, and I'm not certain at what point these items become available.

Nice to see a lot of people having this reaction.

I've been the same. This version has really reinforced my very high opinion of this game.
I still don't particularly like the last quarter of the story, and think it really loses its pace after you've finished the Mechonis, but with the exception of that, it is definitely one of the best video game stories ever told.

This is undeniably the superior version too. There's basically no reason to ever go back to the Wii or 3DS versions.

Played last night, beat up more Mechon in Agniratha than I care to admit, got the group up to Level 69. Ended my session by beating up Jade Face (and freeing Gadolt) before calling it a night. Kinda surprised the game didn't segue into the next chapter after that, but I suppose it wanted to keep the upcoming fight in this chapter. XD

@Heavyarms55 That does seem to be the case; I have at least some of every item I need for Special Lv. 3, but not the full amount just yet. Might try to grab that stuff next session once I get past some current plot developments.

@Tyranexx That's a hell of a fight! I'm almost to it myself, but I took a detour to work on Colony 6. I've got everything to level 4 except special, which requires items that I can't get yet. (and rainbow slugs, to hell with those stupidly rare things! I spent like 30 minutes checking all the spawns yesterday and found none!)

@Heavyarms55 A hell of a fight, you say? Hopefully I'm prepared enough! XD Planning on playing for a little while this evening. Might do some work on Colony 6 if I don't get too worn down by allergy meds by then. I've racked up more money thanks to questing.

@Tyranexx Not so much that it's super difficult, it's really not, but just that it's a cool and memorable fight. Possibly one of the best boss fights in the whole game for me. At least the first round.

It could be hard if you haven't upgraded Monado shield very much though. (Though why you wouldn't I don't know, it's one of the absolute best Monado powers!)

So I've been fighting my way through Mechonis with a certain awesome final party member, and having a blast! Normally I don't bother with much gem crafting, but double attack gems are pretty rare items, so I tried to make some.

I triggered some kind of lucky boast while crafting the gems and hit over 300%! My double attack 4 gem became two double attack 5 gems! I've played this game a lot before back on the Wii version but I didn't even know it was possible to break 300%! I didn't know the reward was getting two gems at a higher level than the ingredients!

Now said final party member with their "Rash" skill tree gets a double attack basically every other attack, and every double attack is a guaranteed critical hit! Said character utterly TEARS through normal enemies like none other! Dealing even more damage than Shulk or Melia!

Finally got the "Beating The Odds" achievement (beating an enemy 10 levels above yourself) from a level 87 telethia. Xenoblade makes it pretty hard to do this since most of your attacks miss against enemies 6+ levels above yourself, plus to get the achievement the character you're controlling has to get the final hit. I tried using Riki with his counter aura and debuffs, and I was able to kill a few enemies 10+ levels above my own, but I wasn't getting the achievement even though I know Riki dealt the last damage. Maybe it has to be a direct hit from a skill instead of spike/counter/debuff damage. Anyway, I ended up switching to Dunban with no equipment, agility skills, and agility augments and he was able to do it pretty easily.

I think one thing I like more from the original Xenoblade over the XCX and XC2 is how unique each party member feels combat-wise. XCX had a lot of customization and depth to the combat, but I found all of the weapon types sort of blended together. XC2 had a bit more unique weapon types than XCX but you still didn't have characters with combat styles like Melia. I think Riki might be my favorite to play as, shoving as many debuffs as possible on an enemy then hit them with Say Sorry for massive damage is really satisfying.

Have we had any info on how well this actually sold?

It seemed to be doing well at launch week, but then pretty much fell straight out of the charts sadly. Given that it will probably determine whether we get a XCX port, it probably matters a fair bit!

I've officially completed all of the side quests. I made sure to complete all of the timed quests and collect all of the missables before all of the points of no return. Took quite a while, I think there's about 450 sidequests if you don't count both quests in the mutually exclusive pairs.

Next I plan to read all of the heart to hearts. I tried my best to switch out my party members and keep the affinity distribution even, so I don't think it'll take much fighting/gifting to finish. I might also try to beat every unique monster, but some of the superbosses kind of scare me, especially Avalanche Abaasy.

I really want to try out the new story, but Friends of Mineral Town and Paper Mario are calling my name, so it might have to wait.

@Dezzy I'm sure NL would report on it if we had any info. They've done articles about much vaguer information related to Monolith Soft in the past.

I'm with you in hoping they do eventually port XCX. After all the Wii U ports we have gotten - there's very little Wii U exclusives left and I'd rather we get all the best from that failed console on Switch. And X is right at the top of that list for me.

I've blown all the way through to Chapter 17 this weekend. Whew...A LOT of story bombshells. Still processing a couple of them. One twist was way out of left field for me. I had a lot of difficulty with the fight at the end of Chapter 15, to the point where I almost unearthed Casual Mode. But I persevered, and my Lv. 70 team pulled through!

Now that the plot doesn't have my party on rails, I think I'll spend some time taking out more sidequests and leveling up my entire team for what I suspect is the final push. And I plan to work more on Colony 6; I have everything at level 4 barring Special, which is sitting at Lv. 3. Some of these items don't look fun to grind out, however....

@Heavyarms55 Were you referring to round 2 with Egil/Yaldaboroth (sp)? Round 1 went fine for me, but round 2 was hard as nails since one enemy add-in type had a devastating as heck AOE spin attack. I was shielding like crazy and still had issues lol. Trust me, that's a Monado Art I've been upgrading when I can!

To be fair, some of the problem earlier on was that I wasn't sure what I needed to be targeting at first at a certain point since everything on screen was so chaotic.

@Tyranexx That fight is hard, but not as memorable as dealing with Sharla's ex boyfriend .

Yeah special 4 has some really annoying items to get. I think I already mentioned I went looking for the rainbow slug for like a half hour and found none. The one I got before, for my collectipedia, must have been quite lucky.

For me the hardest boss in the game was in the middle of chapter 17, Lorithia. The game doesn't really give hints on how the fight works at all. That fight was the reason I put down the Wii game 7 years ago, and only went back to beat it a few years later.

Rainbow Slugs and Black Liver Beans were really annoying to get, especially since you need 2 of each for Colony 6 plus one for the Collectopedia. I think you can get them from trading in the Time Attack trials, but I never bothered with that mode. The hardest thing to get for the collectopedia was definitely Love Source though. You can only get it from trading and there's only one item in the game that is expensive enough to be traded for it, which is only dropped by the superbosses (level 100+ enemies). On top of that you also need both Shulk and Riki's skills from their skill trees which let you trade lower value items. I finally managed to get it yesterday from the level 100 superboss, but it has the lowest chance of dropping it (15%). I fought it so many times that I brought my whole party to level 99. My collectopedia is finally complete, so I'm satisfied.

Spent my last session exploring new areas and picking up some quests as a LOT have opened up in Chapter 17. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to do some grinding before I really go to town on a lot of them. Whole team is at Level 73. I'm about 75 hours in. I probably won't do much updating for a bit while I grind away unless I need some ideas and pointers. XD

...I must say, one quest that I picked up hit me kinda hard in hindsight. Back in the Alcamoth, there was this absent-minded father who lost track of both his kids in separate quests. It was easy enough to find those kids and complete said quests; the flavor text really indicated that, inattentive though he was, this High Entia really cared about them. Well, after Entia-geddon, his kids escaped but he became a Telethia. I found the item the son wanted me to get, but a quest add-on wants me to defeat the ex-father....Gonna have to wait on that a bit. But dang, between that quest and another one to a lesser extent, where that former High Entia retained enough of his sanity to help/defend others as they escaped...heavy stuff indeed. I know the game kinda hints at all this several chapters beforehand, but I didn't realize...well, that what could happen could happen NOW.

@Heavyarms55 Ah, yes. That fight was indeed wonderfully done. Very memorable indeed. And emotional as heck. I don't shed tears usually, but this game has seriously pushed that limit more than once.

I recalled you complaining about the Rainbow Slugs. XD Haven't went looking for those yet...not looking forward to that at all.