Xenoblade Chronicles

I thought that it would better with someone like Melia and Seven, or Riki and Sharla.

The former at least means that you'll keep a bunch of the cylinders, while the latter are extremely likely to use gentle flames that almost completely fill the gauge. But even at zero affinity, things go poorly for me because Melia just has to jump in and raise the stats by 44.

Eh, I was working with rank I crystals anyway. Wasn't actually going to use them.

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

I did it with Riki and Seven, as I recall. I forget why Riki was a good choice for that pair, but Seven's Shooter ability meant you started with three cylinders instead of just 1, so you could work on several qualities at once.

Moon◊

Riki's best because he has terrible strong and medium flame, and excellent low flame. I don't remember what Reyn does but I think he makes it more likely to get consistent flames, in this case consistently low.

Anyway, it's all trivial with I-IV crystals. You only really need to worry about it when you're trying to make perfect VI gems out of V crystals.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

Yeah, I had to save/load a bunch when I was making my rank VI gems. Speaking of, any good ways to get AP/SP up crystals? I think one of the superbosses has one or the other.

Blizzard Belgazas drops AP Up crystals. I think he's the only source of those.

There are no SP Up crystals, though. The best way to get SP is by starting a New Game + and re-discovering all the landmarks and secret areas again.

edited 7th May '15 5:16:48 PM by Anomalocaris20

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

You get a few AP up gems, but those are specific rewards. Different to being able to craft them.

Has anyone ever stopped to really think about the stories behind those Strange items in the collectapedia?

Black Panel: Melia named this in a hurry.

Why? Why was she in a hurry? Is she afraid of black panels? Was she about to be eaten by a superboss? You could write all sorts of mini-fanfics about them.

edited 7th May '15 6:40:55 PM by Ekimmak

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

... I started at 24%. Melia as the shooter, Sharla as the engineer.

They got a crystal frenzy, and two assists, forcing it into 156%.

The worst part of this game is definitely gem crafting. It's worse than MMO drops, because you can see great stuff getting ruined by the RNG.

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

So, is anyone starting to get tired of "You Will Know Our Names" being overexposed (by the fans)? It seems to be getting to that point.

Please help out our The History Of Video Games page.

Not at all.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

Nope. Song's awesome, and if that track helps to give exposure to the game, no problem on my part.

"Yeah, it's a shame. Here we are in an underground cave with all these lasers, and instead of having a rave we're using it for evil."

A bit. It's a great song, though.

I mean, there's that 'fuckfuckfuckfuck' moment you get when it suddenly starts up out of nowhere, and the 'bring it, bitch' feeling from when it plays during story boss fights.

Heart of Stone

Ok. Theory time.

If you get a vision on an enemy, and then topple it, how would you spend the free ally art? Dazing the enemy, or toppling them?

I'm trying to extend the duration of the vision so I can hopefully kill the target and go for the achievement for killing an enemy to prevent a vision.

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

Get topple boost gems in the first place? Chain Attacks are the best way to topple lock, but I think Dazing breaks the vision tag to begin with.

To be honest, that achievement is pretty easy and should happen naturally during gameplay.

If you really want to get it easily, weaken an enemy, call your allies back, wait until you get a vision of an attack, then initiate a Chain Attack to finish it off.

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

Not the way I play. I'm an RPG grinder. If I see some skill I want, I put all story on hold until I get it, and that normally results in me massively outleveling enemies. Which means that they can't hurt me enough to put anyone in danger, and I rarely ever see visions.

Problem is, Topple Plus gems (and Daze Plus, for that matter) are either extremely uncommon rewards for quests, included on very few unique weapons, or high level gems dropped by endgame bosses. And although Chain Attacks are better for topple locking, you still get a free art from using a vision, so if you need that little extra time to get a new chain attack, you take it.

I'd say that, all things considered, daze is probably the better ailment. It prolongs the topple for a shorter time, true, but it also resets the vision tag, which is probably worth more in the long run.

edited 7th May '15 10:46:07 PM by Ekimmak

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

Theory: you could probably almost kill a strong monster, then tell your AI opponents to come to you instead of auto-attacking, let the monster have at them until their health is so low that visions start happening, then tell them to focus on the thing and whack them down before they follow through on their threat. That would probably get you the "kill a monster to shatter a vision" tag.

Or, y'know, you could not grind that achievement, because after a while it starts happening on its own with surprising frequency.

Anyway, as far as the Chain Attack question goes, I flip-flop depending on whether I want the thing Dazed or if I want to try and extend the Chain Attack by using like-colored Arts.

edited 7th May '15 11:07:54 PM by ShadowHog

Moon◊

Its also extremely memorable just for being fairly different from the Bionis battle music- That one is orchestral and, while it sounds great and gets that "combat" feeling too, it's not nearly as loud and energetic as You Will Know Our Names, which just kinda jumps in and punches you for stumbling on Adjective Name.

I sure said that!

Gentle Rodriguez isn't very gentle.

So 48 hours in and just before Prison Island am I only just finding out how to gift items to party members.

You are a lot faster with that than I was. I realized it after finishing the game and trying to complete achievements...

Pour y voir clair, il suffit souvent de changer la direction de son regard www.xkcd.com/386/

Now that I've found swimming Oil I find myself in the strangest situation where shulk's best equipment is to be shirtless.

Apocalypse: Dirge Of Swans.

Whew. Finally beat this. Took about 108 hours. Loved it, though not necessarily every minute of it. Sidequests got overwhelming by the end. Still fun overall, and the main story was consistently good. Great JRPG with a loveable cast. Definitely looking forward to X. But not for awhile. I'm a bit burned out on Xenoblade right now. Glad I finally managed to finish it.

Your preferences are not everyone else's preferences.

Well, from what I see, there aren't that many similarities between this game and X.

There's Arts, and a Nopon. That's about the only connection I can see.

If everyone were normal, the world would be a dull place. Like reality television.

Well, the Monado does make an appearance in a sidequest. But all in all, it seems like X is Takahashi's third attempt at his fabled Xeno mythos. The White Whale is basically the Eldridge, Zohar-Expy and all.

edited 17th May '15 6:48:44 AM by AlleyOop

Eating a Vanilluxe will give you frostbite.

Well, now I know what music will be in my head next time I deal with Jade Face.

I kinda burned myself out on this game for a bit there- After twenty or so quests done in one session everything just kinda blurs together. I gotta fix that.

I sure said that!