Xenoblade Chronicles

[Vyk]

No, you passed it. I forget exactly where it is, but I did like you and got the last one sooner than expected, and on many back-tracking expeditions managed to stumble across the other one. There's a way to make it your current quest, but I forget how, that way it'll pop up on your map when you get close to it. But yeah, I figured the kid would have gotten a lot farther. And it seems like you got a lot more quests than me. There must have been some I needed to get before Colony 9's attack or something

[Fynn]

t finished the Satorl(sp?) Marsh, or as I like to think of it as "Spira done right". The day time is just a foggy grey, but the night has the entire marsh glowing with multitude of colors and the trees almost look like crystal, and the rainbow colored fog, it really looked like Macalania Woods with the Pyreflies of the Moonglow combined. Not to mention the moody choral background theme that was very reminiscent of the Hymn of the Fayeth. It also turned out to be a huge area about half the size of the Bionis Leg which I was not expecting. There are several hidden caves and the Exile Fortress and the quests connected to it were very interesting an unexpected. Thank god the Lv.80 monsters are not terribly aggressive like the ones on the Bionis Leg were, as they are everywhere and the Nopon Merchants are right about night time being dangerous as half the monsters in the daytime are replaced with endgame versions of themselves.

I'm currently in the Trachea, and I must say that the inside of the Bionis is one of the most otherworldly sights I've seen in a game barring the MegaTen titles. I'll probably head to the next landmark and then backtrack to Colony 6, since it's finally opening up and looks to be an interesting diversionary sidequest of its own. Speaking of quests, I was finally able to finish the letter from Linnia quest that had me go toe to toe with a very angry Lv. 40 frog who nearly wiped my Lv.36 party out multiple times. Also, I have a question for people who may know. The quest where you have to find the mementos of a widows son who tried to reach the Bionis Head, I have two of the items, his armor and his knife. I found one in the Tephra Mines and the other in the Satori Marsh, but it looks like I found the first and third items. Have I already passed the second item? Was it in the Bionis Leg or Ether Mine, or is it actually farther up (I always assumed the last item would be on the head) or is it now in a place that just opened up?

The game is getting pretty good, and Dunban is officially my favorite character (even if his victory speeches are corny) because he's just an awesome character, and he's my favorite character to play as.

I'm pretty sure the items you're looking for are further up, but it's been a while and I can remember. If you're careful, you might be able to check it out on gamefaqs and avoid spoilers.

BTW, the next area you're going to visit is one of my personal favourites

[Madonna]

Wolf Kanno, I am fairly confident the item for which you are seeking can be found on Bionis's Leg, past (SPOILER)Daksha Shrine by hugging right as you go in. Spoil yourself or resign yourself to a lot of searching; happy travels in either case.

[Wolf Kanno]

Thanks everyone, I was able to track it down, hell yeah I'll take a bit of spoiler advice if it's associated with the Bionis Leg, I would have been searching forever before I found it. I wasn't able to play terribly long last night cause I chose to go out drinking, but I did check out a few things. I started work on Colony 6, which turned out to be a more interesting sidequest than I first thought. I figured it would be just a typical town with the usual quest, I didn't realize that it was going to be based around the Fairy Colony from BoF and the Immigrant Town from DQ. So that was a nice surprise, especially since I have tons of money just lying around and doing nothing. I was able to get far enough to get the item for the Gem Crafting Engineer but I'll save that for tonight. I may keep Reyn in my party long enough to unlock the next Heart to Heart with Sharla, but he'll go into reserve once that's over. I also took on another(possibly the second to last) mission for Leeter, the woman trying to get the Lt. Commander position for the Colony 9 Defense Force. I'm actually debating how I should complete this mission since it has two different ways of being handled. Decisions...decisions...

[Roto13]

I was having so much fun before that boss in (SPOILER)Sword Valley killed me like twenty times even though I breezed through everything leading up to him. Now I'm in (SPOILER)Galahad Fortress losing to another boss for the same reason I lost to the first one: I'm being ganged up on by a boss and all of its stupid little friends. I'm at level 50. I shouldn't be getting killed every fifteen seconds, and I'm sure as tit not going to go grind.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'm slowly moving ahead in the plot. I just picked up Melia. Her skills and Arts look interesting, I'll have to switch to her to see how she plays. I honestly thought I was going to get the Nopon character next but this is a nice surprise as well, though she is a bit arrogant so far, considering the circumstances of how we met.

I'm curious to see how the game interprets a more traditional mage character. Makna Forest is very pretty and easy to get lost in. The game does a pretty good job creating the sense of a deep wood, which is surprising since what I've explored of the place, it's a more linear design than the previous area. The game is doing a great job with mixing up the types of dungeon layouts. Basically alternating between open and linear which makes both types really shine as you don't necessarily get bored with too much exploration or too straightforward travel. The fact I could jump off the rope bridge into the huge river below and swim around to check it out was pretty awesome and just another testament to the awesome craftsmanship of the designers.

The new Monado skill I unlocked sounds very intriguing. I've been picking up Spike-type gems and armor for awhile now, so it will be interesting to see how the enemies use this feature. The fact I need the new skill to neutralize abilities that prevent me from even landing a blow is an intriguing concept and so I hope the Spike element makes battles even more fun. I like how the game finds new ways to keep combat interesting. I'm over 40 hours in and I'm still having fun with combat.

[edczxcvbnm]

I have to be near the end of the game. I am level 77 and there is only one map that I have not been to according to the collection sheet thingy =P The cut scenes and story do pick up greatly at some point but not to a crazy extent.

My party for the entire game has been Shulk, Dunban and Sharla...until now. This boss seems to need actual strategy. It would also help if my teammates had the brains to stay out of damaging liquids >:o

[Fynn]

I have to be near the end of the game. I am level 77 and there is only one map that I have not been to according to the collection sheet thingy =P The cut scenes and story do pick up greatly at some point but not to a crazy extent.

My party for the entire game has been Shulk, Dunban and Sharla...until now. This boss seems to need actual strategy. It would also help if my teammates had the brains to stay out of damaging liquids >:o

I think that's the boss battle I wa at when I accidentally erased my save file. (SPOILER)Ist it her? You know who I have in mind.

[edczxcvbnm]

(SPOILER)You are correct. It is that bitch. I have beaten the game and I did not foresee how everything would go down in the end. Very nicely wrapped up story wise.

Overall I think the game need to be explored more from a gameplay perspective. In this world of MMOs and Western RPGs, I think the quests and exploration aspects fell well short of the goal. Outside of the battle that shall not be named, I was never in a position where I had to change up my party and explore different battle strategies.

Not a bad game but I don't really think it is worth all of the hype that it received. Maybe it is just because it is one of a handful of JRPGs this generation that it stands out? You don't have to agree with so long as you understand you are wrong ;D

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't know, I've been actually having a fun time changing out party members just because everyone plays differently and have very precise roles, it breaks up the monotony of just playing as one guy, thank god. Melia is an intriguing character who first buffs your party up and then murders creatures with elemental magic Burst. She has a very interesting design since it all revolves around using an Art and then activating it's secondary power by using the Talent Art and the first wave buff skills meant I could drop some Auras and gems from my other parties set-up. Riki himself is pretty much a typical Takahashi character, a harmless and adorable creature who is actually one of the games better party members, with his debuff skills, high HP, good damage output, and he's designed around allowing you to pull off more Chain Attacks. He's even pretty charming if you can get past his annoying voice. I just defeated minor story spoiler the Telethia/DinoBeast and I'm finally back on my way, to try and reach the head. It looks like I have my full party now, and I must say it's a pretty well rounded team overall. Riki's intro actually made me burst out laughing, and Melia has finally grown on my now that's I've done a few side-quests and a Heart to Heart with her that brought up a few things that made her pretty interesting besides her big "not-so-secret" secret. I've really enjoyed Makana Forest. It's a pretty beautiful place and the monsters were interesting. I finally had a battle go horribly wrong due to my party set-up. I think I made things worse in Colony 9, due to my decisions to help Captain Leeter (she's pissed at me and has disappeared) and Shulk's other childhood friend who appears to be a possible love interest for the towns major poet. Colony 6 is slowly getting finished but my quests have dried up there. My only beef with the Nopon is that they all look alike when they are next to the nameless NPC and the Frontier Village is HUGE. Making getting back to quest givers a pain in the ass, since this town seems to have more quests that require returning to the quest giver than the other towns so far. School is almost out, I should be able to finally dedicate more time to it by then.

[edczxcvbnm]

I don't change my characters out because I found a terrific strategy for all encounters. I would feel like a fool to not go with it. Maybe there are better strategies for certain situations or maybe a better overall one but since nothing is challenging, I am not encouraged to try and figure out a new one.

I will tell you this, that one boss fight I mentioned above did force me to alter my party and it was exciting to try new combinations until I found one that worked. It would be great to have to tweak my party every other dungeon to find the team that works best for that area. But if this was Halo and everything was a wide open field, I am not dropping that sniper rifle to try something new...just to change it up. That is not who I am. By changing it up from a wide open field to narrow corridors, I switch up my weapons to find the next best option. I debate what weapon to take with me not knowing what the next area will bring. That is exciting!

[Wolf Kanno]

I don't change my characters out because I found a terrific strategy for all encounters. I would feel like a fool to not go with it. Maybe there are better strategies for certain situations or maybe a better overall one but since nothing is challenging, I am not encouraged to try and figure out a new one.

I will tell you this, that one boss fight I mentioned above did force me to alter my party and it was exciting to try new combinations until I found one that worked. It would be great to have to tweak my party every other dungeon to find the team that works best for that area. But if this was Halo and everything was a wide open field, I am not dropping that sniper rifle to try something new...just to change it up. That is not who I am. By changing it up from a wide open field to narrow corridors, I switch up my weapons to find the next best option. I debate what weapon to take with me not knowing what the next area will bring. That is exciting!

I'm not going to argue but I feel that unless an JRPG has Megami Tensei in the title, then chances are very high the game is not going to offer up much of a challenge; so switching it up is more of just a chance to experieince everything rather than finding an effctive strategy. I've been switching out party members largely for the sake of variety. I've been doing all the side missions and it gets boring using the same party. I especially appreciate that several character play very differently from each other because that makes switching out new leaders more fun and productive. I don't think I've ever played a mage character in an action rpg/semi-action rpg that was quite as fun as using Melia. I probably should give Riki a whirl as well since his skill set is very interesting since he's kind of a Green Mage from FFTA2 in theory. I think Reyn is the only character who kind of got thrown into permanent sidelines since Dunban does his role as well (though not as effective) and fits my playstyle better. If Melia only had an Esuna style ability like Sharla, I would probably ditch Sharla for her instead since, Melia is a great offenseive character with some good healing abilities.

Anyway... I didn't accomplish much this evening besides trying to finish up a ton of sidequests in Frontier Villafe. I couldn't complete the Mark Hunt where you face the one creature at the Eks Watering Hole on a hot day , whatever that means. So I finally jumped into the Eryth Sea now that I've reached the 60 hour mark of the game. I finally reached the point where the mission grinding has kind of screwed the story difficulty, as I am 10 levels higher than everything in the area barring the level 80-90 creature just hanging around to make me have a bad day when I start to feel cocky. I may just begin to make a straight jump to the plot since everyone in this thread has remarked that Eryth Sea/Prison Tower is a bit of a turning point in the story.

[Fynn]

I don't change my characters out because I found a terrific strategy for all encounters. I would feel like a fool to not go with it. Maybe there are better strategies for certain situations or maybe a better overall one but since nothing is challenging, I am not encouraged to try and figure out a new one.

I will tell you this, that one boss fight I mentioned above did force me to alter my party and it was exciting to try new combinations until I found one that worked. It would be great to have to tweak my party every other dungeon to find the team that works best for that area. But if this was Halo and everything was a wide open field, I am not dropping that sniper rifle to try something new...just to change it up. That is not who I am. By changing it up from a wide open field to narrow corridors, I switch up my weapons to find the next best option. I debate what weapon to take with me not knowing what the next area will bring. That is exciting!

I'm not going to argue but I feel that unless an JRPG has Megami Tensei in the title, then chances are very high the game is not going to offer up much of a challenge; so switching it up is more of just a chance to experieince everything rather than finding an effctive strategy. I've been switching out party members largely for the sake of variety. I've been doing all the side missions and it gets boring using the same party. I especially appreciate that several character play very differently from each other because that makes switching out new leaders more fun and productive. I don't think I've ever played a mage character in an action rpg/semi-action rpg that was quite as fun as using Melia. I probably should give Riki a whirl as well since his skill set is very interesting since he's kind of a Green Mage from FFTA2 in theory. I think Reyn is the only character who kind of got thrown into permanent sidelines since Dunban does his role as well (though not as effective) and fits my playstyle better. If Melia only had an Esuna style ability like Sharla, I would probably ditch Sharla for her instead since, Melia is a great offenseive character with some good healing abilities.

Anyway... I didn't accomplish much this evening besides trying to finish up a ton of sidequests in Frontier Villafe. I couldn't complete the Mark Hunt where you face the one creature at the Eks Watering Hole on a hot day , whatever that means. So I finally jumped into the Eryth Sea now that I've reached the 60 hour mark of the game. I finally reached the point where the mission grinding has kind of screwed the story difficulty, as I am 10 levels higher than everything in the area barring the level 80-90 creature just hanging around to make me have a bad day when I start to feel cocky. I may just begin to make a straight jump to the plot since everyone in this thread has remarked that Eryth Sea/Prison Tower is a bit of a turning point in the story.

I had problems with the Ekses as well. The day is hot whenever you can see the air sort of ripple, as in you can see a reddish haze, as far as I can remember.

[Del Murder]

I bought Xenoblade! Too bad I'm way too busy to play it right now...

[black orb]

>>> I love this game, the recent FF games look like dirt compared to it..

My only gripe with this game are the item/equipment/map/etc menus, they are terrible..