Xenoblade Chronicles

Lost Odyssey was hands down the best jRPG for XBox 360 in my opinion but there is very little competition there so its not a hard bar to cross.

Have you played Tales of Vesperia? If so, what was your impression? I own several of the Tales games on Gamecube/Wii and PS2, and it's one of the few jRPG series that I don't mind playing, even though I've never finished any of them. I've heard good things about Vesperia, but unfortunately it's an Xbox exclusive here in the US, and that's the only system I don't own.
 
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Have you played Tales of Vesperia? If so, what was your impression? I own several of the Tales games on Gamecube/Wii and PS2, and it's one of the few jRPG series that I don't mind playing, even though I've never finished any of them. I've heard good things about Vesperia, but unfortunately it's an Xbox exclusive here in the US, and that's the only system I don't own.

If I may butt in, I find it a bit annoying, and I left it short after the beginning. I didn't like the gameplay; it's disappointing for me, 'cause I have fond memories of Tales of Phantasia :).
 
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I didn't much care for Tales of Vesperia either. It's not that it was a bad game really, I just didn't really like the battle system all that much, and I encountered a very tough boss early in the game that I couldn't kill, so that was the end of that game for me. It seemed okay, and had I not encountered that boss I probably would have continued playing, but it wasn't as good as Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon for me.

I agree that Blue Dragon is a bit too easy, but there is a downloadable DLC patch that introduces higher difficulty modes.

"Dubbed the Ultra Hard Mod, the new content has three aspects. The first is Game Plus, which allows you to start a new game using a saved file from near the end. The other two are specifically for the masochistic: Hard Mode, reportedly twice as challenging as normal, and Impossible, which is meant to play with characters starting at level 50 or higher. (If you want to do the Impossible at level 10, however, by all means go for it. Let us know how that works out.)"

I don't think Blue Dragon should be dismissed as "just a kid's game" though. Yes, the main characters in the game are kids, and the world is bright, colorful and, I guess you could say, "cartoon-ish", but I still feel the main game has a lot of depth that adults can enjoy. There's optional content in the way of very hidden items and optional bosses at the end of the game that you have to grind for many hours in order to defeat. I can't imagine that type of content was made with kids in mind. Maybe it's me though. I definitely had a blast with Blue Dragon and would recommend it to those who thought Lost Odyssey was great as well.

I don't agree that Blue Dragon didn't have a soul either. I'm not sure exactly what having a soul entails, but Blue Dragon has plenty of charm, character, humor, etc. The story is great with a very memorable villain and some great cutscenes. The gameplay is very addictive, and in order to master it and reach level 99 it takes a very "hardcore" mindset. Building a character with the job system is a blast, as you can mix and match skills from different jobs to your heart's content. The main quest takes you to some fantastic locations, like a place where the inhabitants are living murals painted on the walls. And finally, the music is excellent and very memorable.

If you want to really enjoy Blue Dragon, approach it with an open mind and don't listen to reviews. You'll find a game that is completely charming and beautiful that will grow on you, and in time you'll be wanting to complete it because you find yourself loving it. At least, that's how it happened for me…

Anyway, back to Xenoblade!
 
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Fluent> Can you tell if you have enough points to eventually fill most battle arts evenly? I'm at level 11 but haven't assigned any because I didn't know if I should concentrate on a few arts or allocate points evenly.

Also, regarding skills, is any one group better than another for each character? For example, Shulk has Humanity, Integrity and Intuition…

I have to say that I really like it. It has a lot of heart. You even feel a bit of connection to the random people in town that you do quests for :) Now if I can just straighten out my battles I'll be good to go. I'm up at Tephra Caves and now is the time to learn.

Thanks!
 
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Fluent> Can you tell if you have enough points to eventually fill most battle arts evenly? I'm at level 11 but haven't assigned any because I didn't know if I should concentrate on a few arts or allocate points evenly.

Also, regarding skills, is any one group better than another for each character? For example, Shulk has Humanity, Integrity and Intuition…
Shulk should be able to fill the most useful ones at least. Just fill the ones that you think look good, the game won't punish you too hard for making poor choices.

With your other characters, it becomes more of an issue, they get more skills to chose from than Shulk.

In regards to the 3 trees, each successive step requires more exp, so don't focus too much on just one tree.
Finally, when you pick your "affinity skills" from these trees, don't worry about doing anything wrong, those are not permanent choices.
 
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Celeste - Fnord is pretty much right. Just pick whatever skills and arts you like using the most and focus on those. Whichever ones sound the most useful to you should work fine. With skills there's really no bad decisions, because all of the skills are useful in some way. Arts are the same way pretty much, as long as you plan on using the arts you invest points into then there is no wrong choices. Just do what sounds good to you and you should be fine. Enjoy!

But if I could offer some slight suggestions, I would say to focus on Shulk's Back Slash, because when Reyn is drawing aggro the enemy is going to be facing away from Shulk, so that move will be one of his most powerful. I also focused on Air Slash and Light Heal, because at the time Shulk was the only healer in the party, so that art came in very useful. I would focus on Reyn's aggro-drawing arts, like Hammer Beat and Mad Taunt, to make his ability to draw aggro more effective. That's what I did anyway and it worked out pretty well. If you decide to try a different strategy let us know about it!
 
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It comes out tomorrow in the US. Anyone interested in this game or picking it up?

I'm picking up a Wii just to play this and the Last Story which comes out later this summer. I think both of these games are "must-plays" if you are interested at all in JRPGs.

Anyone else buying a Wii to play these?

Yep, just picked up a Wii for this and the last story. Have just started the game but I found the dialogue to be pretty cringeworthy in the opening scenes, and the battle system will take a bit of getting used to. But otherwise it feels good to be playing a jrpg again, haven't bought one since FFXIII (Tales of Graces f hasn't been released in my region yet. I would import but I'm making an effort to support my small independent gaming store.)
 
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Celeste - Fnord is pretty much right. Just pick whatever skills and arts you like using the most and focus on those. Whichever ones sound the most useful to you should work fine. With skills there's really no bad decisions, because all of the skills are useful in some way. Arts are the same way pretty much, as long as you plan on using the arts you invest points into then there is no wrong choices. Just do what sounds good to you and you should be fine. Enjoy!

But if I could offer some slight suggestions, I would say to focus on Shulk's Back Slash, because when Reyn is drawing aggro the enemy is going to be facing away from Shulk, so that move will be one of his most powerful. I also focused on Air Slash and Light Heal, because at the time Shulk was the only healer in the party, so that art came in very useful. I would focus on Reyn's aggro-drawing arts, like Hammer Beat and Mad Taunt, to make his ability to draw aggro more effective. That's what I did anyway and it worked out pretty well. If you decide to try a different strategy let us know about it!

Good, I was on the right track hehe. I figured that making sure Reyn kept aggro so I could go whack them from behind was a good idea. Yes, I boosted healing since I didn't have one. It helped during the Metal Face battle. That battle made really learn to fight properly.

Oh and I pre-ordered The Last Story and also Ni No Kuni because it's Studio Ghibli's first foray into games and I love all of their movies.
 
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I should probably preorder Last Story too since it's going to be a limited release from what I hear. The Last Story is pretty much the reason I bought the Wii. Xenoblade has been a nice bonus too :).

The battles with Metal Face can be challenging. I had a little trouble figuring out how to crack his puzzle during one of the fights and ended up dying. Thankfully the game doesn't really punish you for dying, which is nice. But yeah, as good as Xenoblade has been, strangely enough I haven't touched it in the past few days. I've been basically playing short spurts of Super Mario Galaxy 2. That game is a blast to play. Very challenging too at times. But just really fun. Also played about 6 hours of Monster Hunter Tri. That's another good one, but it's kinda creeping me out. The underwater levels are really creepy, especially when you get blindsided by a sharq or you see a giant, monsterous sea creature that you can't possibly kill coming right for you, and the music gets all loud and scary. Yikes. Underwater levels always creeped me out. Ecco the Dolphin was a nightmare to play as a kid.

I'll get back to Xenoblade in a few days I'm sure.
 
Haven't had much time but I've gotten through I guess the first battle with Metal Face and in the cave to next colony. I hate it when games jerk around your world just as you get used to the current cast. I'm guessing I know who 'he' is and that is not the end of it after what was in the background of the cutscene during the battle. At least they are sprinkling clues around and assume some level of intelligence of the player and hope it keeps up.

I didn't finish most of the side quests in first section just because there were too damn many and had hard time finding the time and location of quest givers to complete after succeeding. Sounds like a lot of of the game's side quests are like that. Hopefully some of them are more rewording or I might just start skipping them even though I tend toward being a completionist when playing.
 
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I didn't finish most of the side quests in first section just because there were too damn many and had hard time finding the time and location of quest givers to complete after succeeding. Sounds like a lot of of the game's side quests are like that. Hopefully some of them are more rewording or I might just start skipping them even though I tend toward being a completionist when playing.

Part of the challenge of quests later on is going to be locating the right people at the right times. It can become pretty tricky to keep track of people. You have to remember where they hang out and you have to check your affinity charts to see what time they are active. Some would probably say it's a bit of a hassle, but I think that's by design. It does feel great when you track down the right NPC at the right time to finish a quest, and I think that's what they were going for.

The quests do get more rewarding though. You'll get special gear that you can't find anywhere else and lots of EXP. And once you complete enough quests from random townsfolk, named NPCs will open up with their own quests, which are usually more involved and with better rewards. You'll generally want to do as many as you possibly can though in order to open up the next tiers of quests. The more you do of the small stuff, the bigger stuff will open up because of it.
 
I didn't finish most of the side quests in first section just because there were too damn many and had hard time finding the time and location of quest givers to complete after succeeding. Sounds like a lot of of the game's side quests are like that. Hopefully some of them are more rewording or I might just start skipping them even though I tend toward being a completionist when playing.

I found the side quests very easy to find and complete. In fact, I think it's sort of lame how a quest giver shows on your mini-map before you've even seen him/her. And then you don't even have to return to them after fulfilling their request.
 
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Embarrassingly I figured that out after I posted that. They trained me early on that most quests required returning to the quest giver. So I kept going back and no one cared to finish off those quests. The other is the daily schedule (which I like) and didn't notice the affinity page has peoples active schedule times when you do have to locate them. Couple that with the fact that the Quest page defaults to showing every quest and not just active quests I just misread the situation.
 
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In general, you will only need to return to quest givers if they are named NPCs. If they are generic townsfolk you won't have to return to them. Sometimes you don't have to return to named NPCs but for the most part you do.

Also keep in mind that some quests are timed, and if you don't finish them in a certain amount of time you will fail them. They are marked with a stopwatch in the quests menu screen. I didn't know there were timed quests, the game never really tells you that, I just learned by reading someone post about the game on the gamefaqs forums. So keep an eye on those.
 
In general, you will only need to return to quest givers if they are named NPCs. If they are generic townsfolk you won't have to return to them. Sometimes you don't have to return to named NPCs but for the most part you do.

Also keep in mind that some quests are timed, and if you don't finish them in a certain amount of time you will fail them. They are marked with a stopwatch in the quests menu screen. I didn't know there were timed quests, the game never really tells you that, I just learned by reading someone post about the game on the gamefaqs forums. So keep an eye on those.

I had read though that you still have plenty time though...I hope :D
 
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I haven't failed one due to the time limit yet, but if you were like me and didn't even know there were any timed quests, I could imagine you could put something off and fail it without even realizing what happened. And some of the failures would be terrible because NPCs will die, so it seems like you can miss out on quests because of it. I wouldn't say you have to be really worried about running out of time, but I make sure to do those quests first and not put them off...
 
I don't think they are really timed quests in that you have x time to complete. Its more like if you progress too far into the story the quest is no longer valid so you fail it. What I've seen is you generally get an 'Are you sure?' prompt before it progresses but then I've not completed that much of the game to know if that holds.
 
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I don't think they are really timed quests in that you have x time to complete. Its more like if you progress too far into the story the quest is no longer valid so you fail it. What I've seen is you generally get an 'Are you sure?' prompt before it progresses but then I've not completed that much of the game to know if that holds.



Figment> That was my understanding as well. The timer has more to do with the story progression than an actually time. That is what I read when I got my first timed quest and looked it up :)
 
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That's right, all quests with a timer icon are fail triggered based on main storyline events. For the most, you will have a good sense to when to make sure those quests are complete.
 
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