Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Finished Chapter 4, at 32 hours and level 36. Doing a lot more quests, but still got a lot that can be done.
Yo dawgs, we herd u wanted to progress the main storyline, so how's about you go and fight bandits instead?
Since I had bought a new copy of both X2 and Torna: The Golden Country boxed, I finally used my DLC code for X2. I should probably use some more of those Legendary Crystals than the 2 or 3 I have so far, along with all the Rares, to get some more Rare blades...
I've been able to execute full Blade Combos more regularly at least with some trial-and-error. Oh yeah, speaking of Blades, and Specials. I notice that level 2 specials sometimes deal a lot more damage than level 3 specials, even though I don't have the Aux Core bumping up damage for level 2 on me. The specific circumstance I found was Mythra's level 3 special doing like 10% damage to Tirkins in the Old Factory, but then when I used level 2, it did 25%~ damage??? There's no information description for her various specials that says one level does more damage to beasts or anything else.
There's a surprising amount of platforming that can be done in the game, even if I don't think any of it's mandatory. Why it's surprising it it really goes unstated that you even can do some platforming. I noticed in Uraya some chests that I was only able to get to through clever jumping and/or falling off heights, and the same in Mor Ardain (albeit, one of the spots I climbed up to resulted in me encountering a level 78 monster!)
Once more, just the sheer grind of regular monsters vs bosses is way too startling. I should not find it easier to fight bosses that are a level or two above me compared to monsters that are a level or two below me. Or Unique monsters too, for that matter. In that big warehouse area I have to travel through to get to the Old Factory, I fought the Judicial Kollin, which went down easy. It barely moves, confined space, and I only have one enemy to fight, with the only aggravating part being HP potions getting caught up on high spots that I can't grab them. Compared to some of the enemies in the same area that will call for more reinforcements, or regenerate once to full HP. More Volfs, too. A lot of my party wipes have been from trying to fight one or two monsters, only for them to call for back-ups until I'm practically buried. Or just trying to sneak in anywhere, and getting surrounded by a hundred Igna. I guess I'll also have to look into optimising my Pouch set-ups to see if that helps.
I've been doing some Merc missions, and leveled up to level 2. I'm not sure if anything will come out of it in the end, but may as well do it for some items and SP, plus levelling up Trust on my Blades I'm not using. After a little more grinding out the Trust on the Rare blades, I should finally be able to dispatch basically any field obstacle I find. Oh yeah, since I have the DLC, I'll be looking at doing some of the challenge battles, too. If only because I'm thirsty enough to at least try getting the character's swimsuit costumes, though it might actually cover up more of Pyra's skin lulz.
Some story moments...Mythra's sleepwalking moment, hah. That makes me think Pyra hasn't really had one actual feminine moment in the whole game to date, outside of the stereotypical moment of her getting in a huff at what Pyra thought was a crack at her weight. Nia having what almost looks like a gay panic moment in the hot spring (though her reaction is actually very restrained compared to the over-the-top reactions a lot of games or anime like to do, surprisingly), and something unsaid going on with her that'll probably be relevant in a chapter or two. Poppi getting a magical girl transformation is the best. Like I said before. X1 had its share of slapstick scenes. But X2 really ups the ante with camp (Nia and her 'one-eyed monster moment!).
Yo dawgs, we herd u wanted to progress the main storyline, so how's about you go and fight bandits instead?
Since I had bought a new copy of both X2 and Torna: The Golden Country boxed, I finally used my DLC code for X2. I should probably use some more of those Legendary Crystals than the 2 or 3 I have so far, along with all the Rares, to get some more Rare blades...
I've been able to execute full Blade Combos more regularly at least with some trial-and-error. Oh yeah, speaking of Blades, and Specials. I notice that level 2 specials sometimes deal a lot more damage than level 3 specials, even though I don't have the Aux Core bumping up damage for level 2 on me. The specific circumstance I found was Mythra's level 3 special doing like 10% damage to Tirkins in the Old Factory, but then when I used level 2, it did 25%~ damage??? There's no information description for her various specials that says one level does more damage to beasts or anything else.
There's a surprising amount of platforming that can be done in the game, even if I don't think any of it's mandatory. Why it's surprising it it really goes unstated that you even can do some platforming. I noticed in Uraya some chests that I was only able to get to through clever jumping and/or falling off heights, and the same in Mor Ardain (albeit, one of the spots I climbed up to resulted in me encountering a level 78 monster!)
Once more, just the sheer grind of regular monsters vs bosses is way too startling. I should not find it easier to fight bosses that are a level or two above me compared to monsters that are a level or two below me. Or Unique monsters too, for that matter. In that big warehouse area I have to travel through to get to the Old Factory, I fought the Judicial Kollin, which went down easy. It barely moves, confined space, and I only have one enemy to fight, with the only aggravating part being HP potions getting caught up on high spots that I can't grab them. Compared to some of the enemies in the same area that will call for more reinforcements, or regenerate once to full HP. More Volfs, too. A lot of my party wipes have been from trying to fight one or two monsters, only for them to call for back-ups until I'm practically buried. Or just trying to sneak in anywhere, and getting surrounded by a hundred Igna. I guess I'll also have to look into optimising my Pouch set-ups to see if that helps.
I've been doing some Merc missions, and leveled up to level 2. I'm not sure if anything will come out of it in the end, but may as well do it for some items and SP, plus levelling up Trust on my Blades I'm not using. After a little more grinding out the Trust on the Rare blades, I should finally be able to dispatch basically any field obstacle I find. Oh yeah, since I have the DLC, I'll be looking at doing some of the challenge battles, too. If only because I'm thirsty enough to at least try getting the character's swimsuit costumes, though it might actually cover up more of Pyra's skin lulz.
Some story moments...Mythra's sleepwalking moment, hah. That makes me think Pyra hasn't really had one actual feminine moment in the whole game to date, outside of the stereotypical moment of her getting in a huff at what Pyra thought was a crack at her weight. Nia having what almost looks like a gay panic moment in the hot spring (though her reaction is actually very restrained compared to the over-the-top reactions a lot of games or anime like to do, surprisingly), and something unsaid going on with her that'll probably be relevant in a chapter or two. Poppi getting a magical girl transformation is the best. Like I said before. X1 had its share of slapstick scenes. But X2 really ups the ante with camp (Nia and her 'one-eyed monster moment!).
Finished chapter 5. Level 40, with 44 hours of playtime. From now on, the playtime may be less accurate, since I'll likely be leaving the game on for periods of time to let mercenary guild missions wrap up while I do other real life stuff. Level-wise, I've still barely used any of my quest EXP, so I could get up to something like level 48 now if I so wished.
My earlier comments about geography in Xenoblade 2 really using the Z-axis a lot more than X1...lol. The Leftherian Archipelago goes full-bore on this, with the islands stacked on top of each other. I got bogged down a lot here, both between taking wrong turns, and with battles with monsters just calling for allies so by the end of it I feel like I've fought 20 monsters instead of the 2 I initially encountered.
Nia has become my new main for the time being, as I finally switched from playing Rex all the time. Which seems to be the thing I needed to make the battle system fun, as she barely ever used her moves to Break and later Launch, whereas Rex controlled by the A.I. will consistently Topple and Smash. So now by controlling her myself I can get a consistent Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combinations loop going, which is reducing enemy HP at a much brisker rate. At some point, I'll have to start actually using my two new party members, too, instead of just staying with Rex-Nia-Tora for the entire game. I also obtained Crossette, who I understand is supposed to be really broken, and put her on Nia for the time being since I'm maining Nia and want to maximise my healing. It's actually a funny thing that there was almost no in-battle healing in X1 (outside of Sharla), then in X2 there's healing going on all the time.
Then I started looking at the Blade Combinations chart, since I was peripherally aware only certain match-ups of elements would work. So with the given Blades I have and their elements, I've been able to get full Blade Combination match-ups going at a regular rate again. Which has been handy now for Chain Attacks, since I'll have two or three orbs to break when fighting against bosses and unique monsters instead of just one or zero.
I finally used all my Rares and Legendary Core Crystals sitting around from the DLC, so I've gotten quite a few of them. Ursula is sure to eat up a lot of the mercenary guild times...
Quests thing. When it comes to quests, can I not have one quest that just finishes up after the first objective? Feels like everything just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on. I have a few of the sidequests for the optional Rare Blades too, and even they just are dragging hard. For example, I've been working on Nim's, and it feels like I've already spent close to an hour alone on it, and still not completed.
Also, funny enough, I expected the previous game to have a Tales of Symphonia plot twist, then instead it ended up getting a Digital Devil Saga twist. This time around, it is a Tales of Symphonia plot twist.
My earlier comments about geography in Xenoblade 2 really using the Z-axis a lot more than X1...lol. The Leftherian Archipelago goes full-bore on this, with the islands stacked on top of each other. I got bogged down a lot here, both between taking wrong turns, and with battles with monsters just calling for allies so by the end of it I feel like I've fought 20 monsters instead of the 2 I initially encountered.
Nia has become my new main for the time being, as I finally switched from playing Rex all the time. Which seems to be the thing I needed to make the battle system fun, as she barely ever used her moves to Break and later Launch, whereas Rex controlled by the A.I. will consistently Topple and Smash. So now by controlling her myself I can get a consistent Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combinations loop going, which is reducing enemy HP at a much brisker rate. At some point, I'll have to start actually using my two new party members, too, instead of just staying with Rex-Nia-Tora for the entire game. I also obtained Crossette, who I understand is supposed to be really broken, and put her on Nia for the time being since I'm maining Nia and want to maximise my healing. It's actually a funny thing that there was almost no in-battle healing in X1 (outside of Sharla), then in X2 there's healing going on all the time.
Then I started looking at the Blade Combinations chart, since I was peripherally aware only certain match-ups of elements would work. So with the given Blades I have and their elements, I've been able to get full Blade Combination match-ups going at a regular rate again. Which has been handy now for Chain Attacks, since I'll have two or three orbs to break when fighting against bosses and unique monsters instead of just one or zero.
I finally used all my Rares and Legendary Core Crystals sitting around from the DLC, so I've gotten quite a few of them. Ursula is sure to eat up a lot of the mercenary guild times...
Quests thing. When it comes to quests, can I not have one quest that just finishes up after the first objective? Feels like everything just goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on. I have a few of the sidequests for the optional Rare Blades too, and even they just are dragging hard. For example, I've been working on Nim's, and it feels like I've already spent close to an hour alone on it, and still not completed.
Also, funny enough, I expected the previous game to have a Tales of Symphonia plot twist, then instead it ended up getting a Digital Devil Saga twist. This time around, it is a Tales of Symphonia plot twist.
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