- "and the lack of any real healing abilities just chafes."
There's multiple healing spells/Arts. It's one of the perks of the Enforcer class.
- Irina's 'Smooth Recovery' is the best overall group healing spell in the game and can be learned by completing her "Renewed Will" affinity mission. I have it at Max lvl.5, and my party recovers 1,540-2,300 HP. During secondary cooldown it increaes to 5,000-7,000+.
- Astral Protection grants 'Astral Purge'note to the entire party.
- 'Recuperate' continually restores the user's HP while sharply raising their evasion at the same time.
- Lin (and any character in the Shield Gunner class) can use 'Enhanced Stand', which raises your physical defense and continually restores the caster's HP.
- And Fullmetal Jaguars can use 'Thirsty Edge' which raises your critical chance and restores HP when performing criticals.
...and there's other healing Arts besides those.
I agree about the overdone peace and friendship moments though. It feels cheesy at times.
As for the gameplay, I've gotten the hang of it so I've really got nothing to complain about there. Though it irks me that if you save and quit, your TP is reset to 0 when resume. I don't understand why they did that.
Forgot to mention 'Smooth Recovery' also temporarily raises the party's evasion. That spell is a lifesaver.
I have Smooth Recovery. In fact, I originally tried to spec my Rook into a healer class, but quit because I felt Smooth Recovery wasn't doing the job well enough.
My point by saying there's a lack of "real" healing abilities is that there's no universal "cure", or basically a quick and easy way to gain more HP than you lose. Due to the erratic nature of the game's battle system. Most of the arts you mentioned there either 1) require TP to use or 2) is more of "Regen" ability.
It's not really a secret that healing abilities aren't very common or useful in this game compared to other RP Gs. In fact, this fact is pointed out on the actual work page several times. So I don't get what the argument is.
- "I have Smooth Recovery. In fact, I originally tried to spec my Rook to into a healer class, but I quit because I felt Smooth Recovery wasn't doing the job well enough."
My Rook is bonefied Combat Medic who keeps the party afloat using Smooth Recovrry and Last Standnote and it's worked wonders; especially on secondary cooldown, and moreso during Overdrive. Having a reliable healer has been a huge stress reliever, even during the toughest battles, because I no longer have to concern myself with Soul Voice challenges.
In fact, my character has been scouted numerous times, specifically because she's a dedicated group healer. I even set it as my public greeting: "Need a healer?"
If you want, you can add her to your group and try her out for yourself (her name is Kira, she's a lvl.60 Mastermind with a knife and assault rifle). Or if you need help improving Smooth Recovery's efficiency, try the following:
- Equip the Secondary Accelerator support skill, which reduces secondary cooldowns by ½ at Max level.
- Consider using 'Gunforce' (requires an assault rifle) which has the same effect as Secondary Accelerator, plus it boosts ranged Attk and critical chance all at the same time. The effects of Gunforce and Secondary Accelerator stack. Meaning, instantaneous secondary cooldowns for all your Arts, which allows you to spam Smooth Recovery for as long as Gunforce is active. During Overdrive, you'll be rapid healing your entire party while buffing their evasion.
Why do you think it's one of the entries listed under Game Breaker?
- "My point by saying there's a lack of "real" healing abilities is that there's no universal "cure", or a quick easy way to gain more HP than you lose."
Yes there is. I've been using it throughout my second playthroughnote . In most cases, Smooth Recovery and Secondary Accelerator are enough to let you heal quickly. Gunforce allows for even faster healing when the situation calls for it.
That said, prevetion is your best friend. Outfit your party with gear that stacks resistances and 1-2 Arts that allow them to heal themselves, and you'll spend less time having to patch them up. For example:
- Lin can basically keep herself afloat with 'Shield Wall' and 'Enhanced Stand'.
- Doug has 'Atralibrium', which allows him to heal the entire party in a pinch.
- and Elma mostly survive off of 'Ghost Factory', 'Early Bird', and 'Thirsty Edge'.
That leaves me free to help whup @ss while building/conserving TP for Gunforce, or Brainjack should the need arise. And during emergencies, I'll tell them to board their Skells while I cover their retreat on the ground. With the setup I have, Kira can survive on her own long enough for the others come back for her.
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At times, it feels like one game with two different stories.
I enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles X. For the most part, it gave me the experience I was hoping for: a classic JRPG with an interesting sci-fi Space Opera spin.
Story-wise, the game seems to me as though it was written by two different people. One person wrote all of the interesting, intelligent, thought-provoking and authentic segments of the story—mostly for the main story missions. There's a lot of information to unpack there, and it's fun to do so, as the game answers lots of questions and logistics about just what humanity might need if it needed to exodus from its homeworld lickety-split. The bombs dropped during the ending are as smart and well-planned as they are shocking, so I won't spoil them here.
On the other hand, though, it seems there was another person with a "Generic Anime Trope Checklist" that went through the original story and just ticked off the boxes. "Let's see: underage girl? Check. Long-haired tortured bad boy? Check. Shonen-style action sequences? Check. Cute mascot character? Check. Repetitive drivel about "bonds", doing your best, and believing in the power of love and friendship? Check, check and freaking check. I get that sometimes you need to throw in familiar tropes and cliches to give the audience some grounding (as well as appeal to the marketing people), but like I said, it really stands in stark contrast to the more serious and thought-provoking parts of the game. And, in some cases, I'd actually argue that it hurts the overall delivery.
Gameplay-wise, the game lacks polish. The battle system, customization/crafting systems, and exploration mechanics feel like the developers tried to throw as much against the wall as they could in order to make them stick. The battle system has a number of superfluous details that aren't really explained unless you read the manual (and even then, it might take you a while to get it), and the lack of any real healing abilities just chafes. Speaking of which, late in the game, the rest of your party becomes completely meaningless aside from just having a little extra damage, some meat shields, and Affinity farming.
Everyone has already complained about the exploration/gathering/mission design, so I won't repeat most of that here.