Topic: Xenoblade Series chat

@EaglyBird I will start off replying to these two first!

Also before I do I have another question, the game told me before I went on to the next mission That I wouldn’t be able to unlock Ethel after I continue, and they said you got her by doing a master quest of some kind, how do I unlock this master quest? Because I don’t want to pass her up! Also I’m 99% sure the queen of Agni is freaking Nia! It’s her same VA! Her ears are the same! And if it’s not it’s not if so I’m going to be so sad and happy at the same time and then they gave me Ethel’s class, and then have outlines for like five different classes! It just got even more complex!.

Ok so I’m not doing it wrong, because I have been doing this! Also what level do they start learning arts? They just seem to be learning the skill when they hit ten, or I’m not noticing that they unlocked arts as well lol.

Thanks for the equipment locations!

Dang halfway!? And dang I think I see what you mean! They have added like every mechanic from the last two games it’s wild!

That’s the best part for me, it has just always hard for me to get rid of a character, it was less difficult than one but hard nonetheless. Yeah that’s what it seems like, everyone has a roll and it kinda makes up a whole character, normally characters would have like three different things they’re good at. Oh and the ai seems to be better this time too!

Overwhelming was an understatement, from the story, to the link mechanic! It’s all so, I don’t even have a word for it but my brain it’s just trying to find answers to the story! And then remember the gameplay!

I freaking love him so much! Also this story is just sad, like characters looked at K and just was baffled that his face was different, aging is a foreign concept to them, what happened to this world! And then not only do they get the years but the flame clock forces them to fight as to not die early, it’s terrible, and I’m just throwing this out here you can’t tell me, but if Melia and nia are the queens, I just need to know why? They all just had the same idea for solders? And the counsel seems to be working for both sides? It’s so crazy.

Ok so at this point I decided to rewrite what I wrote, because I feel like I had brain fog at the time.

Sorry I rewrote this, I just felt like my reply before was just kinda eeeeh. I gotta replay xenoblade 2 after I 100% the blades, because I feel like there are a few things I forget, oh and blade quest, I never got to them, I felt like they were mentioned but I could never find them.

The class learning system is confusing me so much. How exactly does it give arts? I have some of the classes level ten but I don’t seek to gain the arts? So do only defense arts gain defense arts? Or is it weapon dependent? I am a little confused on what I should level up for each character, like would it be a good idea to have Eunie be the defense blocker? I know that’s probably isn’t the best role for her but I only do it for the arts, Or is that just a bad idea because she wouldn’t even use the skills later?

It’s confusing me now but I can’t wait to get all these mechanics down! I know I just asking question, but it really is confusing me.

@Snatcher charcters have class and master arts

A class art is the arts in thier class

A master art is a transferable art to a class from the other nation

For instance noah can use shadow eye as mio’s class

And all characters atats are the same so yeah eunie can be a blocker and blockers are usuatthe ones with transferable break, topple etx arts so it’s wort it

[o comment on the queen one way or another all I’ll say is keep digging deeper. As for the heroes every one has a class and the classes range from underwhelming to some of the most broken things in any video game I’ve played all I’ll say it’s a late game class but class name Troubadour is like the most broken thing in the multiverse

You unlock new arts ar lvl 5 and 10

Yep they really tried to make xenoblade 3 a “culmination” of everything that came before it narratively, thematically and gameplay wise. I really wanna say more but I can’t

And yeah I always feel bad benching someone in an rpg. I know it’s all code but It bothers me that you just leave sharla some poor rando on the curb while everyone else has fun. Xenoblade 3 is the best in this regard because you never feel like your missing content. And yeah it’s really nice that you have to essentially build every character into a specific role. While I enjoy that in 1 and 2 you have very specific characters 3’s system of “make everyone poppi” works wonders I mean nothing is stopping you from making lanz a healer. And yeah the ai is definitely improved but I still think it could have been better

I don’t blame you xeno 3 easily has the most customizable characters like I said. The unfortunate part of that also means it has to largest yet most satisfying learning curve. It clicks eventually

And yeah torna is a masterpiece. The devs went above and beyond with this dlc and gave us something truly unique and tragic its one of the best rpgs ever crafted

And don’t worry we all have off days

I figured this would be the best place to ask a question I've been asking myself for a little while now. I'm very interested in the Xenoblade series, mostly for having a big world with a sprawling story that apparently all gets connected by the end of the third game and its DLC. Add to that that it's often mentioned as having some of the best narratives in the JRPG space and I've had no choice to take note. I've been wanting to take the jump, but some stuff keeps holding me back.

Mainly, I'm not at all well versed with JRPG's. My exposure to them is limited to some Illusion of Gaia when I was a small child basically not knowing what was going and then, more recently, Octopath Traveler II where I pretty much instantly stopped after my second origin story because the repetitive combat within random encounters was getting on my nerves. Now, it is my understanding this series does not include random encounters (God bless!) and has a combat system considered unusual for your typical JRPG. A mix of real-time automated fighting and using your own spells at opportune points? Do you all feel like someone who is not into the turn-based format might be more open to this type of combat or does it have drawbacks on its own to someone not used to the genre?

And besides that concern, I am also not someone who is very into open world games. I love narratives in big worlds, but I don't love constantly traversing them and prefer to have more linear experiences. Now of course that doesn't mean I cannot play open world games at all, but I need an open world game to be free of the usual trappings like constantly quest markers or inconsequential fluff demanding/begging for your attention. This is why I will never be able to play a Ubisoft-style open world. Once again, it is my understanding that this series is filled with side quests and that many of them are fluff, but that they can safely be skipped? Can I really just limit myself to the more narratively driven side content and not be punished for it in terms of difficulty? I'm also a very bad completionist, which is a habit I've been trying to break. It'll be hard for me to ignore any content (hence why open world games are often hell for me), but if much of it here is known to be without much substance it might be an easier time for me.

Any advice on either of my concerns is highly appreciated! I'd love to try out this franchise, but I'd hate to spend money on something only to find out it checks many of the boxes that'd make me dislike a game. Thank you for the help.

@Tjuz in the first 2 games the xenoblade side content can and is recommended to be skipped it’s meaningless ubisoft fluff and the experience is more enjoyable without it and the game is easy enough that you don’t have to do it

side content in 3 can also be skipped however it is intentionally as high quality as the base game and I would recommend doing it. It has fully voiced cutscenes character arcs of npcs and really amazing scenarios like a potato cult.

I’d say xenoblade is comparable to GTA or MGS5 in the sense that the open world is linear and you go from location to location you can just ignore it. For what it’s worth I despise open world games. Couldn’t get 5 hours into totk yet I have 800 hours collectivley in the xenoblade trilogy

Edit I missed combat; the issue with xenoblade combat is there is really nothing else like it. So it’s kind of hard to even explain what it’s like. And it also dosent help every game re does the combat system and improves on it immensely so even of you didn’t like 1’s combat you might like 2’s or you might like 2’s but not ones. It is definitely more thought based it’s about timing attacks and building characters “before” the encounter maybe vampire survivors is a better comparison because i’ve found most fights are determined based on builds beforehand

@Tjuz I think these games can still be enjoyable even if you aren't super familiar with RPGs. In my experience I did play a few RPGs here and there but I didn't start saying I was a fan of them until after I played XC1 and XC2 lol.

The combat is very unique. It has a little bit of a learning curve but it's very satisfying once it all comes together and you fully understand it. Your analysis on the combat is pretty good. There are auto attacks and arts (arts can be viewed as spells if it makes more sense that way). Your auto attacks are used to recharge your arts but as the game progresses the need for auto attacks becomes less frequent. Xenoblade let's you be very creative with it's combat system. For example, in XC2 and XC3 you can build characters to recharge their arts everytime they land a critical hit. If you build your character to have a high critical hit rate then their arts will recharge almost instantly and you won't be using auto attacks nearly as much. Of course this is just one of many examples, if you want a deeper dive into the combat I can try and explain a bit more.

Now if you don't like open world games I don't know how well you'll like these. Most traversal is done on foot and the world is full of secrets (Xenoblade X let's you drive, fly, etc. but that's not on switch 😮‍💨). Now I will say the game never actually FORCES you to explore. You're allowed to just cruise the main story if that's what you prefer. HOWEVER part of what makes Xenoblade stand out from other JRPGs is that it actually gives you rewards for exploring. You can level up your characters and unlock new fast travel points from discovering new locations. But again, it's completely optional.

As for the side quests that you're worried about, XC1 is the game that really had the filler side quest problem. It's less of a problem in XC2 and XC3. For reference, XC1 has 480 side quests and 80% of them are just collecting items and killing monsters. You most definitely don't have to do all the side quests in XC1 but it will help doing some here and there as they help keep your characters leveled. I normally recommend people just accept a few and do them casually as they progress the story. In the switch version of XC1 most quests will complete automatically once you get everything you need so you don't have to report back to the quest giver. But yeah as someone who completed XC1 to 100% completion I definitely do not recommend trying to do everything on your first playthrough lol. If you REALLY want to I think there's actually a setting in the game that lets you turn off quest icons on the map.

I will say if you want to avoid side quests altogether each game does feature an easy mode which really helps with just steam rolling through the story. This is what I used in my first playthrough of XC2 😂. I think I did like 10 side quests by time I finished the game lol.

XC3 is the only game in the series where I'd recommend not skipping quests too much because they actually contribute a lot to the main story.