Board 8 > so xenoblade 1 (mid-game spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

just got the monado 2

eryth sea is visually my favorite location out of the xenoblade franchise thus far. i'm not as big of a fan of teleport-heavy areas in rpgs, but everything else about the area is amazing. i want to take a free camera and just explore all the stuff going on.

also wtf fiora. i'm getting xenosaga testament vibes all over again

i think i enjoy controlling melia more than shulk. her elemental stuff is fun to use. not sure what her main skill art thing does when it fills up all the way, though.

i rocked shulk/sharla/dunban for a bit, then switched out dunban for riki up until the last big story event. i'm trying out shulk/melia/sharla to see how well a team with no tank/pseudo-tank fares. but i think eventually i'm going to settle on shulk/melia/dunban. which is a shame because i love sharla as a sniper/support
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True story: Switching off of controlling Shulk was the difference between my dropping the game 1/3 of the way through and it landing as one of my top 20 games of all time.

I switched off between controlling Dunban and Melia for most of the game, but I liked both of them.

Personally my favorite area was probably Satorl Marsh, though Eryth Sea is nice as well. Also a pretty big fan of one area you have yet to reach yet.

Great game.
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I think I switched to lead Melia around the Monado 2 also. She's awesome with Starlight Kick and all the different (i.e. if you have Dunban you want wind elements to boost him, otherwise might want defense or heals). Her main ability just gives her a damage boost and unlocks some abilities. You can use it to deal insane nuke damage.

Drop Sharla entirely though, she just makes combat less fun. Bring her out when you have a really tough fight but for most things she's unnecessary.

I also tried Dunban and Riki leading and they were cool. The best part about them is they have so many skills that depending on how you set them up, there are like 3 different playstyles each. I still prefer Melia though. And tbh Shulk is still the most fun and I switched back to him often. He's so well designed and purely focused for lead play.
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Shulk plays really well but he's a very simple character and easy to burn out on with how much combat the game has. I definitely recommend swapping around between your party - they're all super fun to use in different ways IMO. (Maybe Sharla a bit less so and Dunban + Melia a bit more so.)
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I never tried controlling Riki or included him in my party because his voice/battle lines were a complete dealbreaker.
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I mostly just swapped around some combination of Riki/Melia/Shulk/Sharla. Riki is best.
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