Xenoblade Chronicles

Torna has a lot of filler even in its main quest. Searching for two missing kids, finding food, making those desert medicine, etc. Even the main game's infamous Roc theft isn't as bad as this.

Where there's life, there's hope.

You haven't even reached the most egregious part: The part where you're forced to get your community levels high enough.

In other stuff: Death Road to Elysium.

The purpose of it all is to get you more attached to the people of Torna before they all die a horrible, painful death. Without those checkpoints there, you could just run through the game without getting to know anyone outside the main cast and not give much of a fuck when Torna eventually goes down.

Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!

They wanted to recapture Alcamoth, but forcing people to do sidequests make people care less about the NPC.

Where there's life, there's hope.

I will say, at the mandatory "repair this bridge" quest I wound up dropping Torna for a month because I wasn't all that into it in spite of the good battle mechanics. When I came back with a fresh mindset I had more of a drive to finish, albeit I never really got hit by the community gates because I habitually do as many sidequests as possible when I play games anyways.

🏳️‍⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia

I beat Torna. So here's a recap of my thoughts. Some have already been said but I'd like to reiterate.

• I loved the cast. Easily my favorite Xenoblade party. Lora and Addam are up there with Morag and Zekey Boy. Jin and Mythra are great. Minoth and Team Hugo are likable but they don't have as much time to shine.

• I like the story much better than 2 and a tad better than X. It is still way below 1, though.

• I appreciate that the party comments on every sidequest. It's a step up from 1 and a huge step up from 2. Future games should at least aim for Torna's level of sidequest.

• Community makes sidequesting convenient, and I like it. However, forcing players to do sidequests doesn't sit well with me. Didn't like it in X, don't like it here.

• The lack of Heart-to-Heart is lamentable. Sure, campfire chat is nice, but it's not a replacement.

• Not being able to buy pouch items sucks. I want an easy way to stock up on deserts.

• The final boss is much more engaging than 2's final boss. That said, I'm pretty sure Malos has some rubberbanding BS going on.

• The game doesn't have as much replay value as 2. I understand that I cannot mix-and-match Blade combination for unique playthrough. Lack of Challenge Mode doesn't give me much incentive to go back to the game. Not even NG+ sounds appealing because of the Community.

• Aggro is much more balanced this time around thanks to Hugo's dedicated Aggro Art. Despite less-then-Stellar DPS, team Hugo can reliably keep aggro away from offensive monsters like Jin and Mythra.

• I stick with team Lora most of the time because of their command over Driver comboes and healing.

• Minoth is really disappointing in combat. His peashooters deal miniscule damage compared to the likes of Brighid and even Haze.

• There are some neat quality-of-life features like marked tombstones that I'm baffled that they did not make it to the main game.

Edited by RAlexa21th on Jun 12th 2019 at 10:16:18 AM

Where there's life, there's hope.

Minoth is a ramp-up character. His damage comes from his Talent Art boost and attack cancels thanks to his passive.

Also he just flat out does double damage to uniques and bosses which is neat.

Xenoblade strangely likes to give the smallest party members the highest HP in the game. Riki, Lin, Tora, Hugo.

Where there's life, there's hope.

Muscles Are Meaningless.

Although in Lin's case, she can be surpassed by HB.

Edited by RainingMetal on Jun 12th 2019 at 3:26:21 AM

Why can't HB stop being just so superior?

With Riki and Tora, I figure the big HP value is a Nopon thing maybe. Like, they have more stamina than other races or whatever.

Song of the Sirens

That's definitely possible. Tora failing to awaken a Blade just got him a really bad nosebleed. Same with his dad. That guy in town earlier seemed to have been severly injured.

I really wish they would have added in the Quality of Life features to XBC 2 after Torna came out.

Speaking on QOL patches with the whole slightly annoying map interface they had initially, I can't help but think the ability to patch and release DLC has made the developments a bit more complacent about things like that.

When I first played Xenoblade 1 all the nice little QOL features made me feel like the developers really cared about making the game as enjoyable as possible. I always thought they must have sat down a team of people for a few days and hashed out as many tiny features and fixes as possible.

x5 Also, who's that in your new avatar Alexa?

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 12th 2019 at 10:55:35 PM

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Angel Flare from a very NSFW visual novel.

Where there's life, there's hope.

That explains why I couldn't find it with a quick google :P

Thanks for the clarification.

That's a shame I was hoping it was a Magical Girl series I wasn't familiar with.

Because I could get behind a Magical Girl who names her attacks like that.

Yep, watched that quite soon after first discovering it on TV Tropes years ago.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 13th 2019 at 3:09:27 AM

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha has some similarly awesome attack names and is really good if you haven't already watched it.

While this is true, patches mean that the devs aren't under nearly as much pressure. If they didn't think of something or made a slight misstep somewhere, they can fix it.

Let the joy of love give you an answer! Check out my book!

Oh I do realize the pressure reduction must be nice for the devs. And time squeezes causing issues obviously are a result of the higher ups and not the actual developers the vast majority of the time.

It just feels noticeable to me, given the easy comparison to make between between that and XBC 1.

"But if that happened, Melia might actually be happy. We can't have that." - Handsome Rob

IIRC there's an endgame sidequest where it's mentions that this happens to every Nopon who fails to become a Driver

Song of the Sirens

Hmmm...I don't seem to recall anything like that.

It's the one where you have to rescue a couple of kids who fell from Indol and landed in the World Tree

Song of the Sirens

I only remember a Nopon kid actually managing to bond with a core crystal. I can't recall them talking about how Nopon react to rejections.

It's mentioned how unusual Nopon drivers are, and then the girl says that Nopon who fail get nosebleeds for several days

Song of the Sirens

Beat BOC Arek VIII: 44:06

The team was

• Morag (lead)
  • Avante-Garde Medal, Dauntless Boots, Auto Balancer.
  • Corvin + 2 Chrom Katanas

• Zeke
  • Avante-Garde Medal, Dauntless Boots, Auto Balancer.
  • Shulk

• Rex
  • Divine Vambrace, Dauntless Boots, Auto Balancer.
  • Mythra

Even with Dauntless Boots and Evasion Focus, Rex still could not dodge anything.

Giga Rosa took up more than half of the fight. It has so much HP.

Where there's life, there's hope.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RAlexa95/status/1140280283964436480

https://mobile.twitter.com/RAlexa95/status/1140279854077583360

Finally beat all Superbosses on Bringer of Chaos.

Where there's life, there's hope.

Today's my Birthday.

First up:

Good work Bruce.

Secondly, though I've had the money on my account for months now, I've finally decided to download the combined Torna / New Game Plus based DLC for XBC2.

I've been wondering which I should play first: a new game of the original, or Torna?

So I come to my fellow tropers to help me decide.

One Strip! One Strip!