Xenoblade Chronicles

Slowly getting into the game. My penchant of snooping each corner and my tendency to get lost before I figured out how to map and camera correctly didn't help.

Also, huh, when I heard that the game plays better with a Wiimotechuck, I was expecting to be pointing at the combat icons with the damn 'mote, but after trying to use the Gamepad, the whole mobility issue in combat became a lot more apparent. And it was surprisngly easy to get used to using the wiimote for this game, as I never held one before in my life.

I just wish the camera controls were something a bit more intuitive. C + D-pad feels a bit clunky to control and get used to.

Anyhow, found outlook park before story told me to go there, got curious of cliff and body of water, so I saved and had Shulk jump like an idiot.

And survive, to my surprise. Swam around, collecting them collectibles because I seem to have the attention span of a magpie, swam to shore and then some fish that can walk on land hit Shulk for 2416 damage and he was dead.

I might had gone a bit too much off the rails there.

Right now I'm at that part where I got a 3 person group for the first time and my quest log has a dozen unfinished requests. Somehow I have parts 2 and 3 of a quest line, but missing part 1 completely?

I've decided to restart my low level run, instead of using the 3DS version, I've been emulating and decided to use cheats to lower the amount of experience, so I could 100% the game at low level, removing the cheat when I can seem to win at my current level. I've also been using a cheat to always Mega Heat gems because fuck that noise.

A couple of things I've noticed:

• This low level run is so much easier, not only from quest rewards, but also from the ability to gain more AP and SP, and more chests dropping which mean more silver and gold chests, which I can then save scum to get the right weapons/armor I want.
• It's much more fun than the run I was doing.

You're talking about Monster quests and stuff like that right? Typically, Monster quest 1 will be on one generic NPC while another will have the other. You just need to find every generic NPC, and just like named NP Cs, different ones will come out at different times.

Also, this game is heavy on the spoilers, so watch out and be wary.

Not necessarily. During my previous playthrough, due to the lack of defense, Riki and Sharla were invaluable. Also, Sharla's Heat Bullet and Riki's Happy Happy can easily help fill the party gauge early on.

Thoughts while playing so far:

• Smash Bros Shulk: sounds chipper and slightly hammy
  • Xenoblade Shulk: sounds calmer and more serious
    • Smash Shulk never gave off an inventor vibe. Nice to see a protag who isn't yet another generic shonen-hero-hothead
• Reyn, your name is spelled so wrong for me to pronounce it as "rai - in"
  • Reyn's a cool bro, eh tanks hits and doesn't afraid of anything
    • Also the kind of funny but not that funny man, and doesn't expect people to praise his buffness like a typical gym-bro
• Fiora is just your average nice girl. Not much else stands out, but it's hard to dislike her for it.
  • Obvious crush is obvious.
• Enough snooping around and jumping into lakes, story quest time!
• Oh look, Mechon invasion.
• Oh hi there Metal Face! Do I get to hear your funny voice today?
  • metul fais wat u doin
    • metul fais stahp
      • stahp
        • STAHP!
• I felt a twinge of sad
• Wellp, I'm always up for a good revengeance hunt!
• Oh, so that's how Shulk's Combat Clairvoyance works as a game mechanic!
  • If only he would had told everyone else about it before Metal Face happened.

It's neat having a lead who's both very intelligent and a complete doofus.

Reyn is great, and probably one of the characters that benefits most from the UK dub.

It's always nice to see genuine reaction of new players

Riki and Dunban pls.

Riki and Dunban sound great, too, but they could have achieved similar levels of greatness from American voice actors. I don't think the same could be said for Reyn.

I can give you Riki, but Dunban and that smooth accent of his?

Smash Shulk and OG Shulk sound slightly different, or am I just crazy?

Or is it an audio quality thing?

Also, there was that guy with a familiar voice in the opening scene, that little asswipe who left Dunban for dead.

Hmmm.... Nah, what I'm thinking wouldn't make sense.

But I'll admit that that's mainly because of Jenna Coleman.

It's the same VA, so they shouldn't sound too different.

Sometimes it just sounds like they're two different people trying to sound like the same person.

But I also slightly feel that way about Robin, Ike and Lucina in Code Name STEAM compared to Smash.

Might really just be an audio quality difference.

And as I said, Smash Shulk seems more energetic, while Xeno Shulk sounds more calm, so the tone might be affecting it a bunch.

edited 14th Mar '16 3:36:08 PM by Volatile-Fox

Yeah, that's probably it.

Shh! Don't spoil him and give him any ideas about Mumkhar! Though to be fair, I always knew Mumkhar would play an important role in the story in the future.

Smash!Shulk's accent only really shows during his victory cutscenes or his taunts. I didn't really notice it otherwise. In Xenoblade, it's much more obvious.

edited 14th Mar '16 3:40:30 PM by RainingMetal

Smash Shulk's clips are also mostly exerts, not worded lines. It's kinda unsurprising.

Not to sounds like I'm trying to trigger Parrot Exposition, but;

Exerts?

edited 14th Mar '16 4:23:58 PM by Volatile-Fox

Wordless shouts done when doing... Stuff. Swinging a sword, jumping, etc. What Link speaks in exclusively.

Oh, "voice grunting" or whatever it's called, as opposed to acting.

edited 14th Mar '16 4:29:49 PM by Volatile-Fox

That's still acting though...

Well , yes. Acting skills are required to make convincing sound clips.

But you knew what I meant.

The final boss theme sounds a bit different than I remembered it...

That's cuz there're two forms

As if an RPG final boss would have just the one form.

Ah, I forgot to mention this before, but since we're on the subject of the endgame-

Man, Dickson's voice doesn't sound intimidating with the Giant reverb filter over it. And his name was always Dickson, apparently? It was all just slightly odd.

...you should probably listen a little more closely to what he linked.

NA is finally getting an VC release tomorrow.

Been playing a bit again.

Sharla is best support. Pls never leave party.

Reyn and Shulk change the future, save old man.

Saved Juju from the ether mines.

Kicked Bronze's ass twice. I suspect he used to be human, and that all mechon once were!

Metal Face! Oh hey, you're talking now!

... And you had to be a huge prick the moment you open your steely trap.

Dunban! And Dickson (that name... )

Neat, Dunban joins the team! Oh and Dickson.

HOLY SHIT DICKSON YOUR GEAR! I CALL HAX

And then he left.

Wait, Dunban, you telling me Agility is the god stat of this game?

...

Should I just strip everyone?