Xenoblade Chronicles

Maybe you should spoiler that?

Why? He is mentioned as early as the refugee camp.

Yeah, but he's presumed dead at the time.

Yeah, if I said why he was a cool guy then I'd have to spoil that.

Man, the third tier Seven armor has a really cool color scheme.

Actually, he's presumed MIA.

edited 19th Jul '12 5:25:16 PM by BetaRay

Note to self: Unique monsters do not give a fuck if your level matches theirs. They will kill you dead unless you are significantly stronger than them. Once again, thank you Xenoblade, for not having any real consequences for dying!

That brings me to another point, how convenient this game is. You have features like that, and things like skip travel (REALLY CONVENIENT) and accessing the local map through the select button and all that. The fact you don't have to return to a person who gave you a sidequest once you're done with it (most of the time), is also nice. (Okay, I'll let up on the sidequesting.) And you can skip cutscenes in this game. I'm seriously wondering why the hell most other jrpgs don't have that feature. Other games have it, yet jrpgs seem to avoid having the option to do so. (thankfully, a trend that seems to be stopping)

Even though the graphical aspects of the game aren't that impressive, it still looks pretty damn good, even for a Wii game. And the music fits the atmosphere, and is pretty good at evoking emotion. Bear in mind I'm just about to get the ether cylinders. Though I do expect the game to stay at this level of quality. Don't disappoint me now, Xenoblade! Man, this is definitely the game FF13 desperately wanted to be, and failed.

EDIT: And boss battle ahoy! I'll get back to you guys.

edited 19th Jul '12 6:55:10 PM by Marioguy128

Oh, there is so much more about this game that is amazing. This is, like, tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. You're gonna love it.

Oh. Oh dear. Colony 9's under attack. Aaaaand, wait, there's no invisible walls? I can jump off the cliff into the water? AWESOME.

Get ready for your expectations to get blown straight out of the water.

Yuuup. This game is great about no Invisible walls. if it looks like you can jump onto or off of it, chances are you can. Even if it's useless or suicidal! :D

In fact, there's an NPC who suggests jumping into the drink from Tephra Cave.

Yeah, I talked to that guy. Though I kinda forgot about him. But yeah, that was awesome. (Best part is, this is probably what the trio would actually do in this situation if they weren't being controlled by the player. Nice immersion.)

... Oh my. Well, R.I.P. Colonel Square-stache, you were one badass Colonel. Also, FUCK YEAH, DUNBAN! Ooh, Shulk can wield the Monado safely? And can see into the future? Well this is certainly getting interesting. Now I better go rescue Fiora.

edited 19th Jul '12 7:37:54 PM by Marioguy128

Yes. Go do that! :D

Oh, and say goodbye to Turn Strike forever.

edited 19th Jul '12 7:39:32 PM by Enlong

Oh crap. Faced Mechon are immune to the Monado, it seems. And wow! Go Fiora! Being quite the badass there...

Oh hey! Another future vision- ... Oh dear.

... Fiora. Fiora, get out of there! Rest of you guys, get up already! Come on, Shulk! Do something! It's not like the game's gonna le-

... O_o

...

... Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. What the fuck? WTF? WHAT IN THE NAME OF FLYING FUCK!? ASDFGHJKL:"

Uhhhhhhhh...

HOLY MOTHER OF FUCKING SHIT!! DID THEY ACTUALLY JUST KILL OFF THE LOVE INTEREST!? Holy crap, that was a ballsy move, game! asdgfhjkl;'

Well... if I still had any doubts about this game, they're completely gone now! I am officially hooked! This game, this game completely shattered my expectations.

Also, wow Shulk's really emoting in this scene. His VA did a good job. And now, DIE METAL FACE! I ACTUALLY LIKED HER YOU BASTARD!

Really liking the music in these scenes. I do like that piano/violin piece, and that battle music.

edited 19th Jul '12 7:54:19 PM by Marioguy128

And that right there would probably be one of the best establishing moments of the game. If you didn't know that you were in for quite the ride yet, you do now.

That was only wham episode number one. You still have several to go.

Simmer down. Just let him go through the game as normal. Any Wham moment is best when you're not expecting it.

Alright fine, fine. Anyway, right now I'm post-Mechonis' Core and solely in control of Melia. Shit just got incredibly real.

Huh. Shulk's taking recent events awfully well. If this were any other JRPG, I'm sure he would be angsting over Fiora's death like crazy. I certainly didn't expect him to try to take revenge. Well this is certainly an interesting way to go about on a journey.

Also, I couldn't resist. I did more quests. I can't help it! I actually care about these NPCs! And I like seeing the affinity chart fill out and grow. (Okay okay, so I only did a few, which involved making some choices. One of them had a stopwatch anyway, so I prioritized that one.) Hmm, some of these quests are gray in their choices. Like the stopwatch one. Oh sure, you could not give the stone to Monica, and let him end up with a jerk, but you'd be letting her live a slightly unhappy life. Though, After save-reloading to weigh my options, I ended up giving it to Andreas, or whatever his name was. I think it was the better choice. Then I talked to Erik.

... Oh. Maybe I should've-

... I regret nothing.

I also like how these visions actually come into parts of the gameplay, it's not a plot power they introduce and forget about a few minutes later. Well, going through Tephra cave again. Oh no, there's quests in here too? Augh... must... resist.

Wait until you see just how much visions are used.

By the way, the stopwatch only means that the quest can be invalidated by later events. In this case, it was the fact that giving the Tephra Drop to one person invalidated the other quest. However, sometimes, large swaths of quests are nixed by a Point of No Return. That wasn't one of them, though.

But yeah, that quest... I agonized over the choice a bit. I wound up making the same decision as you did. I think it was okay, depending on how much power the Tephra Drops actually have. But then there's the questline involving the loan shark.

I think the lack of angst comes from the fact that, the next time we see Shulk, it's after Dunban comforted him.

edited 19th Jul '12 9:35:23 PM by Enlong

Currently shitting myself in the new area that opened up in Tephra Cave. Where's that key supposed to be anyway?

I think everyone takes that Andreas route. A new tephra cave area? I knew there were more locations to find.

Yeah, I checked the quests you get after that event, and they pretty much all involve fighting level 80+ monsters. Just head to the Interior and fight Lorithia, since there's not really much else you can do.

YEAH! I finally beat Disciple Lorithia.

The ether in the arena is far more dangerous then anything she can do. Also Monado Eater owns her so very hard.

Oh, but it was touch and go in the middle. My team was Shulk, Riki and Dunban and I love all three of them now.

I originally wanted to use Melia in that fight, but Shulk's AI is atrocious.

edited 20th Jul '12 5:14:40 AM by asterism

Only boss where I said "screw it, I'm getting some level ups". I don't think I really acted clever when fighting her, though...

Anyone know where I can trade for a shield bug? Damn fetch quests. So annoying, yet so addictive.

I could, if I would know the German name. There's an excellent database for xenoblade chronicles - in German. :/

[edit]
If you can tell me the area and the position in the collection, I should be able to find out.

[edit2]
If it's the "Stahlkäfer" (literal "steel bug") - ethermine/insects/position 1 - you can trade for it with norara in colony 6 after he joins from the nopon village, position changes depending on upgrade and time of the day, he should be available 6:00 - 18:00

edited 20th Jul '12 5:56:19 AM by Uchuujinsan