Board 8 > Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is out so let's talk about it, maybe?

(+) Yeah! (+)

that part confused me for a second too; if you fast travel to the place where you regain control after chapter 2 -- called something-or-another rest area -- and head north you should get where you're going. you have to go vertically a bit from there too

the end of chapter 3 can SMDFTB. i miss vandham. =(
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I like how the side quests are handled in this game more than the first game. Sure it is pretty much fetch quest # you name it but it is more detailed and more rewarding. And by god does a quest marker help immensely.
I assume the total number of quests is far less than Xenoblade 1's grand total of 480 (or 455 that you can do in a single playthrough)

Everything else, it isn't quite close to the level of the first.

At least I don't think I will be giving up my playthrough like I did with X.

I do kind of miss walking into a new town and seeing tons of exclamation marks to address. But these quests are better, and I love how they tell you when a character has something new to say.
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As much as I love Xenoblade 1's side quests. Sometimes combing an entire city to find who gave you which quest was just necessary open-world mechanics not implemented at the time. That made Colony 9's insane amount of side quests right off the bat a living hell for me because of my completionist nature.

Other than that Xenoblade 2 seeming more up to date with modern mechanics. That is so far the only thing it has going for it over the first game though.

But then again, it was a near impossible name to live up to in the first place, and with X's disappointment, I am enjoying the game quite a lot at the moment.

Rex kinda dumb so far. Makes me miss Shulk and co. so much.

It seems too easy to make a lot of money from salvaging. I'm tempted to just sit here and buy up all the inventory and deeds I can... I shouldn't spend THAT much time, though (especially since later you can get core crystals, so doing it now is kind of a waste now that I think of it). I did buy the deed to Argentum's fish market though!
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xenoblade arrived in the mail today

... in controller format



aww yeah

still unsure when I'll get the actual game, bestbuy status still "In Progress"
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Yeah I feel like this game could do with a good map. And maybe a better mini-map.
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I feel like I already understand everything about the battle system just from keeping up with the pre-release. But there's still some mastery to be learned in actually doing it, lol. I got myself used to doing Anchor Shot after two auto-combos, to the point I sometimes hit X even when I mean to be doing another art. At least I've gotten the general hang of canceling with Pyra.

I saw a tip that if you slightly move after the last hit of an auto combo, you can cancel out of the usual lag and start a new attack combo. It's not that much of a difference, but anything to speed up battles is good.
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Special edition currently sitting in the trunk of my car while I'm at work
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mnkboy907 posted...

I saw a tip that if you slightly move after the last hit of an auto combo, you can cancel out of the usual lag and start a new attack combo. It's not that much of a difference, but anything to speed up battles is good.

You can build up arts quick by just moving after the first hit. Also helps with positioning, like if you want to use a Back Attack it's better to jitter it with auto attacks instead of just running around.
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So is there a strategy for using the boosters for crystal cores? Should I save them for rare cores or does it not matter in terms of making a legendary blade
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I've heard two things about boosters. They supposedly increase the chances of getting stronger blades, and or also determine what element you get.

So the strategy could be to pump them all in the strongest stat you have to get the best blade possible, or to dump them all in the element that you really need.
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I've seen conflicting reports on whether or not boosters actually increase your chances of a Rare. Consensus is that they at least alter your chances at certain elements. I've stopped using them for now.
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Man, Poppi is such an annoying character mechanics wise. At first I didn't understand how she worked at all. Then once I figured it out, I realized I'd have to play that dumb minigame a million times to level her up (I'm assuming later stages give out more crystals and stuff, but it still seems too much). Then all the stuff I want to craft keeps telling me I need a "Technical Manual" to do it. It doesn't even say that on the menu, it just tells me when I try to choose it. Yeesh. It's a weird design choice to have Poppi start with basically nothing compared to other Blades. No wonder Tora keeps dying like a bitch, he's supposed to be a Tank but doesn't any abilities to help him and he won't get any until I play Tiger! Tiger! enough...

It's a shame because the idea of a fully customizable Blade is really interesting. It kind of feels like that's the type of Blade the main character should have honestly.
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Right now I question a lot of the design choices in this game, and Poppi is definitely one of them.

The game started out well but it's slowly dipping.
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I wasn't really having problems with Tora, but after Chapter 2 I probably spent a good 45+ minutes grinding Tiger! Tiger! anyways. Unlocked all of Poppi's slots except the last two and upgraded the reactor a bunch. Now he seems like a good tank, but not exactly leagues ahead of my other party members. So it's kinda dumb if all that garbage is necessary just to keep him at base level.

I progressed enough in Chapter 3 to unlock the second stage, but it doesn't look like crystal yield improved at all. That's garbage. It's 6k and 10k for the two slots at the bottom, which will take forever unless I sell my entire inventory. I don't want to do that because I assume Poppi eventually gets different loadouts or something? I dunno. Tora being locked on role and element is pretty annoying for my Blade combos. I only have one way to do a level 3 with my current blade setup.
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I don't like that the map starts out fully revealed. Diminishes the sense of exploration when I can't tell where I have and haven't been yet, and makes me feel less inclined to keep wandering around.

I also wish the chests I can't open right away would show up on the map once I've interacted with them, to easily find them again once I do have the right field skills... No way am I going to remember where they all are.
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Landed my first 3-stage Blade combo against a level 10 armu. Good stuff. I found the arachno area and tried to inch my way towards a treasure chest but the queen murdered me. Then I went in some new direction and jumped down a waterfall and ended up back near the start of the region, lol.
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Agreed about disliking the fully revealed map. I complained about this with XCX and this is another step back.

And I thought the unopened chests did show up in the map after you fail them? Or is that just obstacles?
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I dunno if others noticed it, but the amount if each booster you can carry caps out at 5. Also, when you dismiss a blade, they seem to always give at least 1 booster. I probably wasted a bunch of them from not paying attention.
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Ooh, a chest with 3 common core crystals. And I can't even use them yet!
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I'm not too concerned with getting rare blades really. 95% of them are just lame waifus
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thankfully i cant get ermine from rare blades
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KommunistKoala posted...

thankfully i cant get ermine from rare blades

I'm in ULTRA blades
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I mean, the real draw is that they seem to be a lot more powerful than the generic blades
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This music is so fucking good
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Chapter 2 beated

Does Rex ever stop being super lame?
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the foreward of this book explains how Xenoblade 1 had no concept art for the characters. They just created CG models to fit costume designs they had come up with :O

now Xenoblade 2 has so much art they couldn't even fill a 220 page book with it all
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So I know Morag joins the party, does anyone know exactly when?
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i have no idea what i am doing in battle

just using arts as they activate and then i hit circle if it pops up before i kill the enemy

i don't even know what's going on with that thing on the top right of the screen

and this is an improvement over xenoblade 1? that's nuts
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Snrkiko posted...

i have no idea what i am doing in battle

just using arts as they activate and then i hit circle if it pops up before i kill the enemy

i don't even know what's going on with that thing on the top right of the screen

and this is an improvement over xenoblade 1? that's nuts

I'm understanding it as I go along and actually finished a couple of combos.
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is there any penalty to dying in battle? lost gold? exp?
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Time
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Pride
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Ended up playing for like 3 hours straight last night, didnt expect that. Got sucked in!

Ive been pulling off 3-stage combos left and right now. I think I fully grasp combat, though I still dont know how to take advantage of topple. I guess I just need more moves because it looks like the same system as XC1 but with even more layers.

Im coming back around on the game. Cleared out a lot of side quests. Not a big fan of random chance in a lot of them but oh well.

I also pulled my first 5-crown Blade from a common crystal. After going through like 30 lame ones, I got a pretty cool book-wielding wind Blade healer. I set her to Rex and its pretty fun trying to get combos between her and Pyra.
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No luck with 4 common core crystals, but it's not like I expected to get a rare one right off the bat. One of them was a 2-crown at least. I also just noticed you can cancel arts (and auto attacks) into special attacks. Need to be on the look out for that more often now.

I worked on one of the new commons for easy Idea Points and unlocked four nodes that had Idea icons on them, but none of Rex's Idea thingies changed, so I don't actually know what's up with those. Oh well, at least this common has a cool +35% to WP gain skill now.

With a hammer it seems much more important to make use of lag canceling between auto attacks. I would never have gotten off the level 2 combo move in time otherwise.
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I've gotten a shit-ton of common cores so far, and I just started chapter 3.

I actually got a rare blade on a common and got nothing for my only rare.

It's this weird fat blob thing with a giant stomach mouth.
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I've used 20+ common cores and 2 rare cores so far. Only have one rare Blade (Perun) from a common.
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Yeah I'm at about the same ratio. 2 rares cores, ~25 commons, and I've gotten one rare blade.
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Are rare blades character specific?
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They are bound to the character you open them with, but there's a rare override item that lets you reassign them to a different character. I've only seen one override so far though, they're apparently really hard to come by.
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What I meant was do certain blades only appear to certain drivers or can any driver summon any blade
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I got my 5-crown healer rare off Nia, and then it let me "override" the blade to Rex if I wanted to. I didn't know what that meant exactly so I did it. Oh well!
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Oh, no any character should be able to summon any blade.
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someone told me KOS-MOS is in the game
how do I get KOS-MOS
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farm cores and embrace the gacha
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oh god
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I have the book girl healer on Nia and a creepy marionette girl with a HUGE gun on Rex. They're both pretty cool. I'll have to keep an eye out for the things that let me swap though because it's kind of annoying to have them both doubled up on roles.
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why cant i just buy her EA please
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