Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@VoidofLight, what level are you?

There are a number of post Mechonis Core quests & Colony 6 upgrades that have you going up against level 70-something enemies.

An good one should be available at Frontier Village, if you managed to complete all the Red Pollen Orb related missions earlier, where you face off against a level 78 enemy which rewards a ton of EXP & gives you an EXP Up VI gem.

The game will tell you when you absolutely can't go back, so feel free to go to the next story area if you feel you need to be a little stronger before taking on the late game quests.

I've been playing the Future Connected expansion in XC:DE, and while I know the area it takes place in (the Bionis' Shoulder) was originally intended for the original game, I wonder how much of it's design was complete at the time (or if it was ultimately expanded for FC).

I say that because in terms of design it feels much more like an XC2 area than an area from the original, in terms of "dense verticality". XC's areas are big, but even in areas that have a large amount of verticality (such as Eryth Sea, or Bionis' Leg) the lay of the land tends to be very easy to read & while I'd never say it's "flat", there doesn't seem to be as much complex geometry in the landscape (which makes sense, given it was a Wii game). Meanwhile Bionis' Shoulder in FC seems to have more complex geometry in it's design and has a lot of vertical planes packed on top of each other really densely, which is much more like how I remembered certain areas in XC2 (there's been a few times when I needed to reach a certain area for a quest and was at the wrong elevation because I missed some tucked away path, or can see the area I need to get to but had to think and poke around a bit how to actually get there, which aren't problems I really had with the main XC campaign).

@RR529

You don't need to guess. The original shoulder was imported into the game in Dolphin by modders. It's 90% identical to the version you see in Future Connected. The only major changes were the inside caves. And obviously the fact that it was originally intended to still be attached to the Bionis at the time you explore it. I'm still kinda bummed we never got to see that. I wanted to see that awesome view down across the Bionis, with the Mechonis in the distance.

@Dezzy I wish they put the Bionis' Shoulder in as a small chapter in the middle of the game, likely in between the Prison Island and Valak Mountain sequence, getting rid of the part (or just changing the story a bit) when the party travel through Makna Forest.

@theJGG

That was my thought exactly! Would've been a good point to have another slow relaxing lull in the story.

I mean we already knew there were at least 9 homs colonies, yet we only see 2 in the whole game. Where were the others? I think they did say that homs only lived around the lower parts of the Bionis, but they easily could've adjusted that so that one of the colonies had moved to the shoulder after the battle of sword valley. Would've been a nice addition to the world building and story.

I think the main reason they didn't is because they were worried of messing up the pacing of the story (and maybe the levels that enemies need to be at in the areas that followed).

Also, it's supposed to be the left shoulder of the bionis, and Valak mountain is the right arm. So they'd have to maybe mirror it and say it's the right shoulder to make the 2 connect. That does suggest maybe their original intention was to have it be on the way up the Bionis, rather than on the way down.

Just a heads up this video does have some spoilers in it.

I'm not sure if this was posted here already but has anybody tried this out? I didn't know this was a thing and man it looks super fun! I might do a third playthrough to give it a shot lmao.

Now that I'm done with Xenoblade DE I popped in XC2 to re-watch some of it's late game cutscenes to re-evalue it's connection to the first game, and while they definitely added on to the lore established in the first, it's still really cool to understand it more in depth.

Also forgot how gorgeous of a game it is (on TV at least). There's a lot more going on in the environments, with Gormott seemingly so much more lush than Bionis' Leg. Also, the moment to moment combat is sooo much more fun in the second game, and yes, I even still prefer the character designs.

I honestly kind of wish that Definitive Edition was a full on remake of the game, and that they changed a couple of scenes to make it fit in with the sequel, like changing the scene where the big plot twist was revealed.

@VoidofLight

There are like 7 or 8 plot twists!

Also, did you not see Alvis' necklace that was changed to fit in with the sequel?

@Dezzy I meant a certain scene at the very end of the game. The one where it's revealed that Klaus created a new universe and discarded the old one. Also yeah, I saw his necklace, but other than that they didn't really change many scenes in the game, not that they needed changing except for probably the one I mentioned.

@VoidofLight

What should they have done differently exactly? Just made it so half of his body split off into the new universe and the other half remained?

@Dezzy In the original game, the scene itself is entirely different from how it is in 2. The locations themselves are even pretty much different. I was expecting them to remake the scene from xenoblade 2 in the ending for Definitive edition, mainly to make the link the the two games stronger.

@VoidofLight

Oh you mean how it's an orbiting satellite type thing instead of the 'beanstalk' from Xenoblade 2. Yeah that's a breakdown in continuity. They probably just thought not enough people would notice the difference for it to be an issue.
I'd played XC1 nearly a decade before XC2, so I didn't notice differences like that to start with.

My EU Collectors Edition of this just arrived on Friday. Can’t wait to get knee deep into this game on Monday after work. Everything I’ve read makes me think I’ll enjoy this just as much as XC2 but the combat won’t be as robust. That’s fine by me.

@Varking Honestly, I'd say that the original game's combat is better than XC2, at least in my opinion. It's not as slow, and you can actually move while attacking.

Well than that’s even more exciting. I’ll be honest I had low expectations for XC2 coming from Breath of the Wild and not having played any of the previous Xeno games and I ended up falling in love with it and sinking in about 400 hours into it. I hope I enjoy this one as much. I’ve heard they may eventually port Xenoblade Chronicles X and apparently they have a new game in development as well that I am pretty hyped for.

@Varking Hope you enjoy it honestly! It's one of my favorite JRPG's.

I actually found the combat in XC2 to be faster than XC. Back when I originally played XC I stopped right before the end of the game. Once XC2 came out I beat it then immediately went back to finish up XC, and it was jarring how slow the combat felt in comparison. I think switching between 3 Blades in XC2 helped keep up the pace in combat.

@Cynas do you feel 2 was better than 1 overall? On reddit I see a lot of complaining that 2 had a weaker story but I still enjoyed it plenty.