Xenoblade Chronicles

Honestly, I understand the Godfrey hate, but why do you hate Sheba so much? I think you're the only person I've seen who actively dislikes her.

She's an active bully to the male party members. A Straw Feminist if I ever saw one (without the designated villainy). Just look at her quest. Plus, she never claims any responsibilities for her mistakes (which there are many during her quest), and always asks Rex to be her errand boy knowing full well she won't return any gratitude. She's also a classic insufferable Rich Bitch and only has one real field skill.

Here's my opinion on her in a nutshell:

edited 24th May '18 4:49:40 AM by RainingMetal

I really think >75% of her personality and quest is supposed to be taken as a joke.

If that's so, then for me, it's Dude, Not Funny!. It's not like she got any karmic retribution either, or rather any significantly long-lasting ones.

edited 24th May '18 4:58:30 AM by RainingMetal

Thanks for the tips. I've made some mild changes to my party with the blades suggested and things are going much smoother now.

I actually was trying to grind for Sheba when I first got to Torigoth. After several usages of silver cylinders and getting up to 200,000+ gold, I eventually decided to just wait until the gold cylinder method became available. Considering what I read on her, would it be a good idea to give her to Nia once I get her core crystal?

Technically Nia is the ideal driver for Sheba, but only if you make her fully dedicated to offense, which isn't really viable until much later.

In my opinion, absolutely not. Barring my personal dislike for her character, Sheba's a water type, which you'd want to avoid given Nia already has Dromarch.

If you must get her, she's best used on the very last Driver you get in the game.

edited 24th May '18 4:59:28 AM by RainingMetal

There are more water Rare Blades than there are Drivers, that isn't a concern. Especially since if you're dedicating Nia to offense, you're going to unequip Dromarch from her (which is possible late game).

The reasons why Nia is technically the best driver for Sheba are:

• All Driver Arts for Ether Cannons are based on the Ether stat, which Nia has the highest value for of all drivers. This is furthered by Sheba having a 15% Ether Mod.
• Nia has a slightly quicker attack animation with Ether Cannons than other characters do, which means that her autoattacks are slightly more frequent.

For the same reasons, she is also technically the best driver for KOS-MOS.

edited 24th May '18 5:23:10 AM by justinkal

I could make the obligatory 'But who has KOS-MOS though' joke, but then I remembered I pulled her before I even finished the main story.

Lucky bum.

Also, Sheba's personality didn't bug me that much because I think it's clear that even in-universe she's supposed to be seen as kind of a jerk. I think they overdid it a little, but still. I wouldn't really call her a Straw Feminist either; she acts the way she does towards the males in the party because she's a Rich Bitch, not because she's trying to make some sort of statement.

Personality aside, she's probably best on either Nia or your fifth party member, largely depending on whether you want to gear Nia towards healing or turn her into an attacker. Personally I do the former, and put Sheba elsewhere.

edited 24th May '18 7:22:50 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Pretty much yeah. For most people the most practical place for Sheba will be the final party member, but the place where she can function optimally is actually Nia.

Also, in regards to the doubling up on elements thing, that's a conflict regardless since you are wrong if you do not put Praxis on the final party member

Dagas is a better example of a jerk played for laughs. Everyone in the party is aware of it and isn't afraid to stand up to him. Sheba, meanwhile, milks the Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male trope for what it's worth, and nobody calls her out on it. If the developers intended for the player to root for her in any way, I have to question their sanity.

When it comes to doubling up on elements, I generally avoid doubling on that driver's signature blade's element (plus Roc and Aegaeon) due to not being able to transfer them to anyone else (save for that one mechanic from Chapter 8 onward). Doubling up on other elements is inevitable, so I tend to have Zenobia and Adenine/Sever on Zeke, for example.

edited 24th May '18 10:47:35 AM by RainingMetal

Sheba isn't a Straw Feminist. Nothing about her displays a feminist agenda, parody or sincere.

She's just yuri bait designed by men to appeal to men with strange fetishes, which is a problem in itself, but completely unrelated.

She's very useful in combat though, and says some pretty funny lines, so I recommend acquiring her when you've got a good opportunity to raise funds. You can put her on whomever you want, but Nia and the final party member are probably the most ideal spots if you want to be unnecessarily optimized. Depends on how you've distributed your other Blades.

edited 24th May '18 11:33:46 AM by Anomalocaris20

The English dub certainly paints it that way though, with Sheba being a bully to men in addition to being a lesbian. Maybe feminist isn't the right term. More like a straw misandrist, and I don't think there are tropes related to that, not any I recall at any rate. Maybe if she just paid them no heed it would have been a straight Yuri fantasy (which I have no interest in).

I won't deny that she's powerful in combat. But I think that makes me going out of my way to not have her all the more unfortunate.

So hey, couple bits of news. First off, the soundtrack's out, and I'm now looking into surround sound systems for completely unrelated reasons.

Second, Skye Bennette's playing through XB2 for the first time. She sounds way different in person, but it's neat hearing her thoughts on the game.

Lastly, new quest DLC tomorrow. Hope you're ready for a quest involving Elektra, Zenobia and Herald in chapter 10.

Sounds Shocking.

I am ready, as a matter of fact. Unless... did I max out Zenobia's field skills? I know I got Elektra and Herald to S-rank, but after Cleared Of All Charges from quest set 2...

edited 24th May '18 1:45:18 PM by Hunter1

She streamed the game some time ago. I haven't viewed it, live or otherwise, out of fear that she could have made obvious mistakes or got screwed over by the gacha system (Godfrey) like the rest of us.

Looking forward to the set of quests. Apparently one of them lets you craft a pouch item that's worth a truckload of trust, and not like the big letdown that was "Cleard of All Charges"; we're talking 6000 units.

edited 24th May '18 1:49:27 PM by RainingMetal

Oh, hey, Elektra and Zenobia together. Raijin and Fujin back together at last.

I heard 3,000, but super useful either way. Or it would be if I actually had the DLC.

Re: Sheba on Nia: Element redundancies are a non-issue. There are eight elements, 9 blade slots, and the games gives you a freebie with Pyra and Mythra sharing a slot. Unless you are for some reason limiting the number of blades you have equipped, you are going to have redundant elements.

This also goes for putting Herald on Five, or any fire or water blade on Four. Obviously don’t put every rate of the same element on one driver, but don’t worry too much about overlap.

Weapon type and role are the more important things to consider.

edited 24th May '18 3:43:00 PM by TheAirman

There's five rare Ice Blades, too, so you've got redundancy there even without story Blades.

Its also worth noting that Water only has one of its rares be from the gacha, with all the others being either plot related or special crystals. This means that its very easy to plan out who gets which Water blade without using Overdrives.

edited 24th May '18 4:58:06 PM by justinkal

I really forget Gorg exists a lot of the time.

He's probably best on Rex, hence why it's not a complete waste to go with Bravery on Rex (unless you drew him already). Dagas and Newt are rare enough to negate the risks.

Personally, I just never keep a rare blade on a driver if that blade shares the same element as that driver's signature blade. They're really good, and you don't want to ditch them. It's why I'm probably one of few people who doesn't put Herald on Zeke.