Finally got Xenoblade

So I ended up splurging 69$ on an used copy of Xenoblade chronicles. I am about 2 hrs into the game and I gotta say its looking very, very good so far. Anyone else see the similarities of this game and Final Fantasy XII. I swear the art style is so similar.

I am just not digging the fight style right now. It appears to be quite rigid as in I die immediately upon engaging an enemy even two levels above. Is this sort of the norm here?

Gamestop is going to have that game for $39.99 on Black Friday

@voljin1987: That's awesome!! I just finished it a few weeks ago. It was the best game I played this generation.

There are gameplay similarities with FFXII but the story is light years different. The characters are the best part of the game as is the addictive battle system. It's a bit rigid with levels but as you get better and more equipped you'll be able to beat monsters 4 or 5 levels above you. But leveling up to within 2 or so levels of later game enemies makes a HUGE difference.

Enjoy the game man! It is as good as advertised. And try not to read too much online about the game, there are a lot of twists and spoilers could easily ruin it.

I haven't started Xenoblade yet. I started with The Last Story. Main reason being its shorter. I'll start Xenoblade once I finish The Last Story, but I'm about two hours into that one and enjoying it as well.

@voljin1987: Don't fight red enemies until you're more comfortable with the combat system. The game streams new combat techniques to you for several hours, so just stick to easy enemies for awhile. You'll have a lot more strategies to use later on.

If you stack AGI you can take on higher level enemies easily, just FYI :) Gem layouts make a much bigger difference in your combat effectiveness than levels, as do your skill links!

@ttualumni13: Lol! I figured it was a matter of time before you chimed in on a Xenoblade topic!

You are right about the gems. I balanced my party out well with them. I honestly was too lazy to meddle with the skill links until very late in the game! I wish I would have sooner. So you don't need these things but they sure do help.

I listen to the soundtrack on YouTube all the time too... Prologue A and Prologue B are incredible.

@voljin1987: It is really worthy of every penny! Enjoy :D

@roboccs: Hah yeah, it's hard for me to stay away. I'm actually playing it through again while I'm sick and off work cause the music is soothing :P Skill links can be huuuuge, right now I've got my shulk with 100% crit chance through weapon, gems, and links, with each crit healing me. Kinda overpowered haha

@ttualumni13: I think you've mastered it! I'm tempted to play again but I restarted Arc Rise Fantasia and am really into it right now.

Awesome!

I am not a big fan of JRPGs, but I loved Xenoblade! It is one of the Wii's best games. I put it on my Top 3.

Figures.. i dont even have gem crafting unlocked yet.. the machine in the town is powered down.. must say, its looking to be very, very good. I just want to explore every inch of bionis.. so beautiful.

Great for you. It's an amazing game.

theres always 1 enemy you cant defeat until you advance further in the level...then you can go back and beat him.

You will get slapped around if you engage the wrong monster at the wrong level. Even two levels above can be pretty tough. I really like that direction, as the monsters don't necessarily level up with you(Oblivion) and present an ongoing challenge of what to engage, observe, avoid, and attack. It took some getting used to. Be sure to get better armor/weapons whenever possible. Best to have every edge you can get.

20 hrs in.. and all I can say is wow.. I have just reached Colony 6.. and really this is an excellent example of a game with crap graphics but excellent art direction.. Bionis Leg was seriously jaw dropping... I must have died like 30 times.. more than any other jrpg i have played before.. loving the mechanism where i dont lose anything when i die.. wonderful.. all jrpgs should have this from now on..

i am taking my sweet time just exploring the world for hours at end.. the scenery is seriously jaw dropping.. and must say the story is quite good too

That's great! Keep it up, it only gets better.

I was never one to feel the graphics were as bad as everyone said they were. They looked like a ps2 game but still looked good. I honestly can't believe the wii could handle a game with fields of that size and with that much activity. It shows that the system was more powerful than people thought.

I died a ton too. I'm glad you're not getting frustrated. I did a little bit but I'm glad I pressed on, it turned out to be a true classic in my eyes. I loved too how when you died you didn't lose progress.

best JRPG game this gen for me and one of the best of all time i hope you like it

Xenoblade is a very good game. I heard about it when I found out about Operation Rainfall. When I found out that it was being sold in America exclusively through GameStop, I purchased it on a whim to check out what all the fuss was about.

Probably one of the best impromptu purchases I've made.

The game certainly has gorgeous scenery. If you're enjoying it a lot now, just wait until you make your way further up the Bionis.

Some of the bosses of the game's final stretch drove me insane with frustration. They were really hard.

And yeah, enjoy exploring the game! I spent countless hours finding the landmarks of all the scenarios to unlock the full maps!

I must say the Brit accent in the game is quite nice.. Look forward to hearing Reyn say "what a bunch of jokers" after every game xD.. and Sharla.. woot.. thats some nice physics shes got :)

@voljin1987: What always cracked me up about Sharla was some of her armors are so skimpy, especially later in the game... Yet the more skin is exposed, the more protective the armor is!

just reached satorl marsh.. reached around 3 PM in the evening.. looking around feeling disgruntled that the level is so "brown".. and then its nighttime and boom.. avatar's pandora is right here

Oh yeah. I remember when I first saw that place at night. My mind was blown. It is gorgeous!

@Pierst179: Yeah my thoughts exactly. I got to Satorl marsh first during the day and I was like "well this sucks" then it turned into night and holy hell. One of the most surreally beautiful moments I've had with a game. Wish there was a way to replicate the feeling of first playing it like that again.

The marsh certainly stands out, but that game has an incredible amount of awe-inspiring environments.

When you step into them for the first time, it is like walking into Hyrule Field back in 1998. And I don't feel like I am exaggerating.

@Pierst179: Oh, undoubtedly. Very few games can draw me into their worlds like Xenoblade did. It was enourmous, without ever feeling like it's big just for the sake of being big. IMO it's the best console game of the generation... Although Knights in the Nightmare takes my game of the gen. It just did so many things well and was made with such care that I can't think of another suitable game. At the very least, you need to give it credit for its pacing; whenever you weren't pushing the (awesome) story forward, it was simply because you chose to, not because you're grinding or anything.

So, in short, I completely agree. It has one of the best worlds ever crafted. Comparing it to OoT is perfect; not since that game (and Majora's Mask
) has looking at the world given me such an incredible sense of awe.

@turtlethetaffer have u played the indie game aquaria.. for me that game and final fantasy 12 gave me worlds which i thoroughly enjoyed exploring.. but yeah xenoblade is definitely up there.. each area is unique and beautiful.. cant wait to see what else this game throws at me

@voljin1987: Never even heard of it sorry.

Although, how have you died 30 times? As long as you avoid really high level guys, you shouldn't die too much...

i know.. i suck :P... i died like 4-5 times to xord before i managed to topple him and in bionis leg.. there is a HUGE guy sitting in the middle of the map around lvl 80.. he attacks me if i attack any low level creature near him.. half my deaths happened in bionis leg during exploration..

- visted some cave where a bunch of spear tarkins assaulted me.. i was at lvl 13 at the time.

- underneath the bridge, there were some interesting rock formations, so explored there and boom two lvl 70 creatures destroyed me.

- visited the shrine all the way to the end and a big badass spider took me for lunch

- attacked a leg amu or whatever they are called to finish a side quest and it called out to its papa a big lvl 74 badass who proceeded to pommel me

so yeah a lot of deaths.. some caused by jumping from high places too :D.. even got an achievement for that lol

@voljin1987: Ah yeah I see. you'll find that there are lots of enemies that are much higher level... They're meant to be. You're supposed to go back later to conquer them.

@voljin1987: Aquaria has been on my watch list for awhile. I'm going to pick it up next Steam sale.

sigh.. the music in satorl marsh during nighttime is so heavenly.. makes me just want to stop playing, crank up the volume and listen it all day.. bless youtube for its 30 minute extended version..

i loved the game.. the world and the music were beyond awesome..

@voljin1987: I was going to ask you if you like the music. It was one of my favorite parts of the game. I listen to it when I'm working a lot.

This thread is slowly convincing me to enjoy my next vacation by staying home and replaying Xenoblade.

@roboccs loving the music.. very relaxing and soothing to listen to.. reminds me of the music from the .hack series of games

@Pierst179: Likewise! I'll even try to complete all ~480 side quests if I end up replaying it.

You have many more Jaw dropping places to go, my friend! :D Post your thoughts when you hit the swamp area and the forest. Oh and you may want to not skip to daytime when you hit the swamp. ;)

@bbkkristian Quoting my post below.. yep the swamp was awesome.. visiting during the day was good. Made that transition all the more impactful.. yet to reach a forest.. currently getting my ass handed to me while i am searching for some relics to pass some crappy test in the swamp... so taking a break and exploring/doing some side quests

@Pierst179: I was thinking the same thing! I just finished the game and am enjoying another JRPG right now but I'm dying to play Xenoblade again!

Am I the only one who if I started again I would start from scratch and not do new game + with carried over items and level from my first playthrough? I know I'll never get 100% completion and don't want to beat all the side quests. I just want to experience the story again and maybe do some additional side questing. Once Voljin1987 is done with the game, we should just make this the official Xenoblade discussion thread so we can talk spoilers and all that good stuff

Don't forget how slowly the combat system is rolled out, though. There's a TON of stuff locked to you until many hours into the game. I feel like it would be really frustrating to play through the beginning so hamstrung.

@roboccs out of curiosity, what jrpg are u playing now? also feel free to make this into a xenoblade spoiler discussion thread.. i dont mind.. i am wierd in that i dont mind if a story is spoiled.. i usually tend up reading a lot about the games i like online anyway.. xenoblade is the only game this gen on which i have spent so much time reading online about.. kinda sucks tho.. back in the the day so many games i used to refer online.. i remember pouring over spreadsheets looking at the stats breakdown of each pokemon for emerald.. referring to so many guides online for item locations in final fantasy 12.. searching for recipes and ingredient locations in witcher.. this gen tho was sad :(

Xenoblade has finally given me something to read online about.. so i daresay i would know a lot of teh spoilers already :)

@voljin1987: I'm playing through Arc Rise Fantasia on the Wii. It got beat up by critics but I really like it. I'm 25 or so hours in. It's pretty traditional with turn based battles, over world map, etc. story is getting really good too. Localization was pretty weak but I don't mind. It's a very enjoyable game do far. I'm glad I gave it another shot.

@JordanElek: Yeah but going through the early stages over leveled and with powerful gems sounds really boring too. I liked building the characters and the challenges overall. Plus I'm better at the game now so I'm curious to see if it would be easier than the first playthrough or if I still actually suck!

I hadn't put much thought into it to be honest, but I would probably start from scratch.

I will be happy if I complete 1/4 of them.

One thing I would for sure go after are the heart-to-hearts. I know I should be embarrassed for saying this, and I truly am, but I never did one on my original playthrough. It seemed every heart-to-heart spot I came across had requirements I had not fulfilled.

@Pierst179: I agree about the heart to hearts. If anything that's what I would focus on. I did very few. The ones I did were pretty touching. I'm kind of a sap TBH.

The heart-to-hearts are terribly designed. Even going back to some of the early ones after 70 hours, I still couldn't do them. I think I only found two or three in the entire game that I could actually do.

I like the idea, but the requirements are way too hard to fulfill for the majority of them.

I am also a sap. So I would probably love the heart-to-hearts.

So I wasn't the only who had problems with them.

I thought I was the only one.

How in blazes do i beat Aggressive Cornelius.. hes a boss battle in satorl marsh in the Igna territory. I need to defeat him to get some offering for a coming of age ceremony.. he has some kind of a three hit attack that destroys me (does like 2k damage) i am lvl 29 ATM.. should i go level up more?

@voljin1987: gosh I can't remember off the top of my head. I do know that 9times out of 10, if I had boss trouble I generally just leveled up and fared much better after that.

Another trick I figured out was if I had Sharla in my group, whenever Shulk had a vision, sometimes instead of warning the party member about the incoming attack, I would "warn" her and have her cast the heal round spell that heals the whole party.

I was really close to starting another playthrough today but then ran out of time. It's probably gonna happen though

@voljin1987: Was that the lizard king guy? If so, yeah that guy took me forever... I did my best to lure out the lizards one at a time. Didn't always work but I beat him after a few tries.