Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

I'm glad more people are digging into this game, again in some cases. It's probably one of my GotY contenders and likely wins in the JRPG department.

I still need to play XC2 and Torna down the line. To those who haven't played XCX on the Wii U, I highly recommend it! Hopefully it eventually makes the Switch.

@urrutiap I found the visions helpful at some points (mainly boss fights) and annoying with the more mundane fights. I believe more usefulness comes from how outmatched you are. Said feature did save me from a couple of wipes since it allowed me to change my strategy accordingly.

yeah i know the visions are supposed to be helpful story wise but they kind of pop up at a bad time when youre actually doing good against a boss.

More QoL improvements I found in comparison to the Wii version are

1. Automatic run/swim button for the longer stretches, especially useful for the lonely islands in Eryth Sea.

2. Treasure chests never fall into the abyss anymore, flying enemies now drop them on the edge.

3. Harmony gifts. You now unlock every characters affinity (from -4 hearts to +4 hearts) with the items you can gift. Just gift an item once and then it shows how loved/hated that gift is. No more writing down your own lists.

All these little additions make this a much more enjoyable experience.

@RR529

Surely base XC2 is a lot bigger than Torna?

But yes, it's one of the biggest JRPGs, in terms of scale, for sure. Probably was THE biggest when it was released.

The thing XC1 does better than nearly any other game though, is justifying its world design through the story, so everything feels necessary. Nothing feels gratuitous. That's definitely not true in all similar games. XCX for example has no real justification for its massive world. It's massive just for the sake of being massive. There are entire continents in that game that you only need to go to for one short story event.

@Dezzy, oh yeah for sure the main game of XC2 has some huge areas, it just isn't quite as fresh in my memory playing it 3 years ago.

Anyhow I arrived at the impressive Gaur Plains tonight. One thing that I'm going to have to get used to is the, at least for the time being, more limited healing opportunities. I'm way too used to all the potions constantly spilling out of enemies in the XC2 games when you have a rhythm going, and so far the only healing option here is Shulk's healing art which doesn't seem to do much. I was quite a few levels higher than the spider boss in Tephra Cave and even successfully countering it's big attack with the premonition feature I was still teetering on the edge of death.

@RR529

Don't speak too soon. You're about the gain access to a lot more healing skills.

@Dezzy I don't feel the same about Xeno X. True, the main story doesn't need massive continents, but I'm not only playing for the main story, but also for sidequests, worldbuilding, atmosphere, completion, and obviously for the ingenious resource system that just needed a huge environmental network, and Xeno X wouldn't be my favourite in the series if it was cut down to fit the main story. It's a living breathing world, moreso than Xeno 1 and 2 since your reallife/online friends roam the world as NPCs and can join your party or battle online in interesting co-op, versus and special modes. Mira, the planet, is human's new and only habitat to live in, and the effect is much greater when the land feels realistically vast, especially when it still manages to be so diverse and beautiful.

Also, without Xeno X there would be no Breath of the Wild. Xeno X and its world is just that important to gaming. Even Aonuma acknowledges this and put in Xenoblade gear for Link in BotW.

XCX Was my first Xenoblade game, and you've highlighted everything I loved about it. I also enjoyed the story, but it's more of a footnote compared to everything else you've mentioned.

...And who DOESN'T like beating up huge monsters as a giant robot?

I love much more about Xeno X than the arguments I brought up as an explanation to Dezzy.
For example I'm amazed how it manages to look so much better than Xeno 2. Xeno 2 was a tad disappointing visually, considering Switch is supposed to be graphically better than Wii U. My guess is, they didn't want to fork out money for a 32GB cartridge. That's probably also the reason why Xeno X is not on Switch (it needs to be on a 32 GB cartridge since it's 23 GB). In comparison Xeno 2 is only 13,6 GB. Xeno X just feels much more advanced, not just technically and thematically, but also with it implementing online in subtle, innovative, and effective ways.

Also, I'm much more drawn to the mature storyline and progressive music of Xeno X whereas the other Xeno games feel like they're made for a younger audience (especially Xeno 2), featuring typical (albeit great) "RPG music". But man, my top 5 favourite Xenoblade tunes are all from Xeno X, followed by many Xeno 1 tunes - another part where Xeno 2 falls short (not that it's bad, it's still pretty good).

Oh yeah, the giant robots, another reason why the continents needed to be huge... because once you control one the huge world suddenly shrinks drastically.

And all of this is also why Elma needs to be in Smash and not Rex.

To me, I felt Xenoblade X was less mature and more...lacking in personality. At least comparatively. Those lifeless character models didn't help. I mean at points it was more mature, and it was certainly a unique story and way of telling a story for the genre and I like the general point of everyone helping in small ways (well mostly you lol) to help survive a newly created civilization. But it didn't come across as like...profound or especially deep or anything. I have played enough sidequest focused games with far more compelling, mature storytelling, even from Nintendo (Majora's Mask).

Granted so far Xenoblade 2 feels like a cringy shonen anime from 15 years ago at points, but it...stands out (unfortunately, the not good comedy of X also stands out, let's be honest here). I remember basically every cutscene that's happened thusfar. I put 140 hours of my life into Xenoblade X and so many characters and storylines I have no memory of already. And I played most of X like 2 years after released, so its not been THAT long.

I mean, I actually think a lot of X is great but compared to the original, it had far more annoyances and fell into the trap of "bland seriousness" more than it should have, for mature stories that aren't as mature as truly great mature stories anyway.

@SKTTR

Oh yeah I'm not saying the XCX world was bad. Nor was the game bad. I enjoyed it immensely. One of the best games on the Wii U easily.

But the world is so completely disconnected from the story. It feels like the exact same story could've happened in a completely different world, and it while there is plenty of character backstory through the side-quests, there isn't much actual world building. Like there are huge areas on the map that are barely even mentioned. That massive ring on Oblivia, I think is mentioned maybe once in a piece of offhand dialogue. For the most part it's just 'there'. Same for all the massive fortresses on Cauldros. They could've had some great story purpose and a lot of background lore about how it all came to be, but there's not really much of anything. It's all just the incidental setting for the story.

NLA is the only part of the world that feels justified by the story in that sense.

in Xenoblade im at some swamp area after defeating Xord.

So when do I even get to rebuild Colony 6 anyway?

@urrutiap After finishing Satorl Marsh, which is a pretty simple quest. When you get to the end of the area you'll be able to reach the colony entrance.

@urrutiap That's exactly where I just reached. At this rate I might finish XC by the end of 2021 lol.

Last play session I fought a tentacled Mechon boss (that went down easy) before a faced Mechon took off with Juju.

It was really cool how doing all the refugee sidequests pretty much took you to every corner of the Bionis' Leg map (it's so huge, but the map was pretty much completely filled out before I went to try and rescue Juju). I even managed to do all the quests that required you to tip toe your way past super high level monsters without alerting one once.

@urrutiap

Juju will return to Colony 6 after you finish the current area. Once he's gone, just teleport back and he'll give you the quests to rebuild.

If you want to complete all side missions, you should prioritize timed missions anyway.
You can (accidentally) skip them if you move the main story forward too much.

There refugee camp on Bionis leg is the first one to disappear when Colony 6 unlocks, so make sure to talk to everyone (some NPCs/items only appear at certain times so play around with the in-game clock)

Here's my progress so far in Xenoblade

Chapter 7. Melia left party to do her own thing

Shulk, Reyn Sharla and Dunban at level 38

Equipment for them:

Shulk
Monado with Strength Up II and HP Up II
Quark head armor
Grand Arnor torso
Chain Gauntlets
Iron Leggings
Infantry boots

Reyn
Tank Guarder with EXP Up I
Quark head armor
Jungle Top
Hunter gauntlets
Iron leggings
Infantry boots

Sharla
Breeze Shot
Round cap
Panther Top
Great Tree bracelet
Twin Tree Trousers
Round shoes

Dunban
Illunis Defender
the rest of his armmor is his default General stuff

@urrutiap

You were on the marsh literally a day ago! Are you just playing every waking hour or something?

pretty much a couple of hours. Yeah I was in the marsh area yesterday but now at Frontier Village. Melia ran off to do her business.

Who should i have for a team? I have Shulk as leader along with Reyn as the big heavy fighter along with Shara as healer