Xenoblade Chronicles

For me, Super Mario Odyssey and the Xenoblade games fell into the exact same, glorious boat.

Tiger Tiger's a game with an acquired taste for sure, but I adapted to it fairly quickly. Lots of people give up on it too easily. Though I definitely agree that its payout should be multiplied tenfold. Or have some kind of endless mode with a good payout. Worst part of that game was booting up like and old computer again and again.

It's marginally getting off-topic, but I'd even disagree that shorter games need replayability to mine out enjoyment out of it.

Helltaker is a one hour trip with little to no replayability but I still enjoyed it a lot and it doesn't need to be longer if it means padding it out with uninteresting cruft. I certainly enjoyed it more than all of Future Connected.

X and 2 are more naturally built for replayability due to how customizable the builds and/or team compositions are. But they're also the more frustrating grinds to deal with even when you know what you're doing, so it doesn't really work out in practice. X is okay for the main campaign, but post-game is just a slog.

TGC was short, and unreplayable for me, hence why it's on my shit-list. But agreed, off-topic. I do wish X had a New Game Plus along with its actual postgame. I wish more games had both of these so that you could repeat the main story and all that it comes with without throwing all the progress you made before away. It took me guts to start X over several times as much as I risked rolling the dice for 2.

I'm playing through 2, and am trying to do all the sidequests before the final boss, and holy hell does Perun's quest demonstrate everything wrong with this game's design. Sure is fun trying to fight a level 48 enemy... in the middle of a bunch of level 96 enemies... who are standing right below him, so as soon as you attack they see you through the floor and oneshot you without ever coming into view... because you weren't warned not to do this quest before, because you couldn't because the RNG didn't give you Perun that early.

Ah yes. At least 1 only added the superbosses in the endgame and they were mostly in out of the way places. Why they added high level regular enemies in random places I will never know. It's just as much of a problem in Nim's quest where a superboss appears in a seemingly innocuous place in Temperantia. There, they really should have moved it to the ruins of Judicium, and not near the part where you fight Theory's driver either.

248 Affinity Coins at level 95 with only Ancient Daedala, Blizzard Belgazas, and Avalanche Abaasy left to beat. Looks like I've found all unique monsters in the game. Good thing I don't have to scour the entire map anymore.

Xenoblade 2 is one of those games that I played, finished, and then took one look at the postgame and just kind of gave up on. I found Xenoblade X's system more fun, and I actually enjoyed the madness of the infinite overdrive builds that could be pulled out of it.

Managed to cheese it by turning off my party members, sniping through the walls from a nearby catwalk with Herald, and then running away as soon as the quest enemy was dead.

Luckily I got Nim super early, so I don't need to worry about her quest anymore.

Right. As I said, I filled out the blade charts of all the blades I got post game (with KOS-MOS being the one exception), and took care of all the DLC quests except for the Land of Challenge (which I was told to save until NG+).

Is there anything I need to do before I restart? Just want to be sure. There are a few things I wasn't able to take from the post game gift package (like I wasn't able to get some of those common core crystals due to already being maxed out on them). I might also make some Love Sources before I restart so I can start filling Affinity Charts immediately.

You could cheese through the Land of Challenge stuff by lowering the difficulty, at least enough to unlock the guest fighters to allow them to accompany you on Alrest, and take care of whatever challenges will unlock their chart nodes.

It would help if you stocked up on Compassion boosters given how most of the New Game Plus blades are electric or earth. But I reckon you just stocked up on them anyway in your attempts to get KOS-MOS.

Yeah. I'm pretty much maxed out on every other type of booster.

I believe the one to unlock the duo of Bionis is called Dino Mayhem or something. It involves killing a key target among a crowd that's deceptively dangerous on each wave. The one to unlock Elma is obviously Elma: Redux, and it's probably one of the hardest hurdles in the game. Definitely go to easy mode for that one, and you'll want to use a dark blade combo to prevent Elma from overwhelming you with clones mid-way. These are both laborious fights, but the abilities the heroes will provide you and their field skills will be worth it.

So I should do Elma, Shulk and Fiora before I restart then?

I thought that one was best held off until New Game Plus?

I think “save them until just before NG+” is a better interpretation.

Huh. Then I guess I'm heading to the Land of Challenge.

I suppose I could make some more tries for KOS-MOS while I'm at it.

I wouldn't blame anyone for assuming they would be New Game Plus-tier content. The challenges to "unlock" them as well as some of the challenges needing completion for their affinity charts are so hair-pulling they'd be on par with beyond endgame difficulty. Hence my suggestion of cheesing it by turning the difficulty down. You'd stand a chance to accomplish those challenges without getting yourself killed too often as a result. Nobody will judge you for it.

All superbosses dead. Looks like appearances is the only thing left to do now.

If you're going for that, remember that Legacy outfits are a thing. You can find quite a few of them at various stores, some require the completion of Time Attack challenges, and a few are only available for purchase at the Time Attack store. They'll have an L at the end of their name. You can cheese this by buying them and save scumming, but unless it costs Noponstones, there isn't much point since gold is so common like it always is.

Alright. Like I said. I'm getting back on, and hitting the land of Challenge.

Wish me luck bitches!

Luck bitches!

I was hoping someone would catch the full joke.

You are a noble soul.

Also, Got started on it. Died in the fourth challenge and took a break. Might keep going for a bit, or might try that New Game Plus now. Depends on how far I want to get.

And that's it. Fashion Blade Chronicles 1 is complete. Global cosmetic settings are one of DE's lowkey best features, and I hope that carries over to future games. Certainly glad I won't have to do that hunt ever again.

Been going through the land of challenge quite a bit.

Gonna do all the easy challenges (though I completed one normal one by accident) until I get to whatever challenge lets me fight Elma.

I think once I get to her, I'll finally hit New Game Plus (though I may see about buying those alternate clothes too before I do that, so Swimsuits and hooded Pyra).

Everything I do in the Land of Challenge will still carry over to New Game Plus right? I'd rather not start again.

Actually, you'd best just hop straight into the challenges that unlock those characters for use in the main game rather than go through every challenge, because those characters' skill charts require certain challenges to be completed. You don't want to have to complete those challenges a second time, do you?

Your progress in the Land of Challenge will be carried over. You won't even need to go to Uraya to get to it pre-Chapter 4, as the portal will move to Argentum for the time being.