Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

@Tyranexx Sadly, there's not. Turn on auto run and grab a drink. Swimming in this game kinda sucks. One of the few things I'm not a fan of in the game.

@Tyranexx @Heavyarms55 When swimming long distances swap to Sharla, she is a very fast swimmer. Doesn't solve the Satorl Marsh problem though as the water isn't deep enough for swimming.

@Heavyarms55 I actually turned on autorun at one point and checked a few things on my phone while swimming around the large lake area. At least the area is scenic, but I got tired of switching to the map to see what all I'd filled in. I finally gave up on all space that wasn't land there. I think my "fill the map" OCD will let that go for now lol.

@Grumblevolcano Hmm, I'll try that next time. Thanks for the suggestion! The best solution I've been able to find so far is movement speed with gems...and I'm not sure that has any noticeable difference in the water, if any at all.

Need some help, at level 80 and progressing in the story is too difficult but all my remaining quests are defeating monsters of level 85 or higher so I can't progress with side quests either. On a side note, how do you get advanced art manuals, my party's arts are mostly at level 7 except Shulk's Monado arts which don't require art manuals.

@Tyranexx The map of each region fully reveals itself when you find all the locations and landmarks, most of which you find naturally by doing quests (main quests and side quests).

@Tyranexx That's the thing with swimming though, often you're just in a big pool of water without much to see.

@Grumblevolcano Maybe not too helpful but monsters like Territorial Rotbart are in your level range now... payback time!

@Tyranexx I've used other names in the past but SigourneyBeaver is my favourite and seems to amuse others who see it

@Grumblevolcano have you attempted to defeat the 85 monsters? Normal monsters, 1 on 1 even when they're higher than me, don't tend to be an issue. It's when there are multiples enemies with them, or if they're unique monsters. Maybe give it a shot to see how you do?

@Grumblevolcano what I can remember its possible to beat them.
Use the right strategy.

@Grumblevolcano

The advanced art manuals are loot from beating the high level unique monsters throughout the game. Quite a lot of them give a manual.

@Dezzy how do I get higher Monado manuals? I've been able to get the next level of each character through buying at merchants but not with the Monado

@NintendoByNature

There are no manuals for the Monado arts. They're unlocked at a particular event in the story, about half way through the game.

@Dezzy good I thought I was missing something

Loving the game even more than I did when I first played it. You could even say I'm really feeling it. There are some things it does better than its sequels. I think it has aged well. It still feels fresh.

I believe I got all the available timed quests done so I can now start working on Colony 6. I skipped the reconstruction altogether when I played on Wii. I was more focused on the story. This time I'm really into all the side content. My only worry with going slow is that I'll lose interest before I'm able to finish the main story. It would be a shame to stop halfway through for the second time.

I did a ton of side quests in Makna today and advanced the plot slightly. My group is in the level 39-40 range. While most of the side quests are fetch quests, some of the flavor text is interesting on occasion.

I did enjoy these lines after reviving Melia:

Reyn: Hey Shulk, you're creeping this lady out!
Shulk: Shut up Reyn!
Melia: This large one is far worse.
Reyn: Me?

Unfortunately I doubt I'll be able to play at all this evening as I'm off to a wedding.

@Grumblevolcano Hmm, I'm surprised I didn't notice that. Which means I'm either missing a location or two in some instances (found an area I can't get into in Makna Forest earlier, for example), or else it did fill itself in and I didn't notice and thought I'd fully explored everything lol.

@Heavyarms55 Haha, good point!

You were right about Riki's introduction scene btw. I had to do a save reload just to watch it again. XD

Granted, as cute as Riki is, he's also the only voice in this game (so far) that annoys me.

@Tyranexx Most of the regions have at least one area that either can't be explored initially or have high level enemies guarding it.

@Grumblevolcano Could be I've missed a couple of places I don't recall in that case. It wouldn't surprise me if Gaur Plains still has an unexplored niche, though I'm fairly sure I've covered other areas such as Satorl pretty thoroughly.

Welp, guess this game is probably never getting beaten until I get new controllers. Both pro controllers I have are the original 2017 model and the dpad has starting drifting a lot meaning I can't select arts (especially Monado arts) in time to counter the endgame bosses. You can't save either so the past few hours have been a complete waste of time.

Has the better dpad been integrated into the normal pro controllers recently. I know the XC2 one had a better dpad but that was limited edition and out of stock by like early 2018.

@Grumblevolcano You've also had trouble with your pros? Both mine are crap: the first one's (got it Dec 2017) right stick is getting stuck and the second one's (probably bought it late 2018-early 2019) left stick is drifting. The pros feel like they should be top quality, but they're not.

So I bought a third party controller the other day, for a third of the price of a new pro. It's a little bit more plastic feeling, the rumble is less advanced and misses the amiibo feature (which I never use anyway), but overall it's pretty solid. The sticks feel good.

Funnily never had any problems with the joycons. 😋

Man, the story really takes off as soon as you get involved in the political game surrounding the High Entia. 30+ hours in now, level 41 on all characters and I'm at the beginning of chapter 9. It's amazing thinking there are eight more chapters after that + the new epilogue. And I have done about half of the side quests being presented so far. Huge game!

I’m level 41 myself, and dealing with the High Entia.