@Mr_Mustache

kgtennispro said that you can alter your character but you'll need to do sidequests. So... do sidequests then I guess!

@VofEscaflowne

AWESOME. WHY ISN'T KENNY HERE? (And which sidequests? I'm gonna try to clear one of the Affinity ones I started on in the Barracks.)

EDIT- Damn. Just remembered I'm supposed to play Madden when I get home, ughhh. Maybe tomorrow..

EDIT2- Whats the deal with FASHION Clothing? I'm GUESSING that it'll provide your appearance even if you're wearing something else? Like, if you have a nice space helmet on, but your Fashion gear is "Heart Shades," you're going to appears to be wearing little pink glasses? Did I get that right?

@Mr_Mustache Yeah those guys. I was sort of hoping the battle system would have advanced to something like Chrono Trigger where it relies on destroying different parts but I guess they didn't want to make it necessary. This way works too.

@Zero

They did say (and I kind of think of it as a secondary function) that you'll eliminate certain attacks. Sooo..I dunno, bust 'em in the mouth so they can no longer breathe fire? I have no idea, haven't really done too much with that. I know that I wanna fill out my Beastiary though, and to do that, I gotta collect all of their faces. And butts.

EDIT- I think the Beastiary is in there somewhere when it says 'View Monsters' or similar. And I mentioned the Collectapedia before, took me 10 hours to find it, but its there. Can't direct you to it right now, but its there.. I hope I can find it again myself!

Picked this up at Best Buy tonight! Looking forward to joining the party.

Except now I have to balance this AND Yoshi AND Picross e. Such droughts... then everything piled on at once.

There is a lot that I have missed in this game it appears. I am at level 20 and just about to revisit Chapter 4. I was right in the middle of it when I had a power bump and lost about 6 hours of gameplay. Freaking horrible. One question I have which a google search did not help was what the heck happens when you press L+A? That is the basically the only spam I see.

@gtarrant

It recommends the message or whatever... which I assume is tied to an achievement of some sort? It's kind of easy to catch on after you keep getting back to back messages. That and the control listings on the right side of the screen say so

@gtarrant
@VofEscaflowne

Recommends the message? What, like an in-game thumbs up or something?

Man I forgot how impossible it is to make main quest progress if you try to do all of the side quests. I'm not totally committed to doing them ALL yet though so we'll see what happens.

Just started this myself last night. Only fought twice before booking it to NLA, and had very little idea what I was doing. Being the busy season for me, I doubt I'll get too much time to play, though I'll try to carve out as much time as possible.

I had every intention to play for an hour or so last night, but my guitar was calling my name. Sigh. I need to dedicate HOURS to playing at once. Perhaps Friday night...

@Mr_Mustache

I think so yeah. Does it post those messages on Miiverse? I've never tried them but maybe it just gives the message a Yeah too.

Here are my early impressions after a couple hours of playing:

Let me start with the bad, because it's bugging me.
- Whoever decided the font size in this game should be punched in the face. What the crap? My wife and I literally have to get up from the couch to go read what the different abilities do. Boo to this.
- Ten minutes into Xenoblade and I was surrounded by really cool, interesting characters I was already getting invested in. Two hours into Xenoblade and I just finally met two pretty generic ones that I have some slim hope of eventually caring about.
- I hate silent heroes. I hate them. I wish there was never another game with a silent hero, and that includes Mario and Zelda games. I hate them hate them hate them.
- The game starts in the rain at night, making it look like crap from the first minute.
- The controls suck compared to Xenoblade's. My fingers are rarely on the right buttons, unlike with the Remote/Nunchuck setup in the first game.
- The camera makes me physically ill as it swoops around like a kid with ADD who is also probably legally blind.

Okay, so how about the good stuff!
- Once the rain and darkness goes away, the epic scope of the land is super cool.
- The big monsters feel alive and amazing
- My main character is a girl with purple hair and blue highlights.
- I still really enjoy the core gameplay of the Xenoblade fighting system, even if I can't read the abilities and am constantly pressing the wrong buttons.

I'm very hopeful that as I play, the good list will increase and the bad list will seem less bad, but right now all Xenoblade X is making me do is miss Xenoblade! Guess we'll log some more time tonight and see if things improve after getting the tour of NLA. (One more "bad?" WHY WOULD YOU MODEL A CITY AFTER SUCH A CRAPPY CITY! Sigh... Humans never learn.)

@J.K. Riki

The more I play, the less I mind the silent protagonist. I understand it's meant to represent the player... and I guess you're still given dialogue choices, some of which are funny. I guess it could still be voiced but it doesn't bother me anymore.

I do like how the game starts you off in the rain though. Sure it looks dark and not pretty but that's the point I would think. Once you get out of that small area, the rain clears and reveals the amazing landscape. Jaw just drops then!

As for the controls, I guess I don't have issues with them? Maybe you just need to play more and get used to their layout.

Oh and the combat system actually feels better than the first Xenoblade I think. It definitely feels more complex at first but once you get how it works, it's really fun and more strategic in using your skills. Definitely a bad idea to go in and release your attacks as soon as they're available. Gotta know how to maximize their effects cause it makes a HUGE difference in damage output.

@VofEscaflowne

You mean like toppling something before you use an ability that boosts damage when something is toppled? Because that's the depth X1 had, and I really enjoyed that aspect. Seems the same to me, unless I'm missing something.

I'm sure I'll get used to the controls eventually, I just miss having easy access to the B button and d-pad while fighting. Now I have to take my fingers off main buttons (and stick) to access them. Not a fan by comparison. On the other hand, it makes me appreciate just how terrific the Remote/Nunchuck setup was!

@J.K. Riki

Arts now have different tiers of charge ups which increases their effectiveness though. It also charges up based on what weapon you have out so the first tier will charge up regardless. The second one will charge up with the green meter around the art but only if you have the right weapon out. So if a melee art is what you want to charge, you need to have a melee weapon. Same goes for ranged arts. Also you have Soul Voices to work with which still has me a bit confused... but in the end, it definitely feels more satisfying to release powerful attacks! There's also a third tier I think? But I'm a bit lost on how to charge that one

@VofEscaflowne

Uhg. Well, I'll leave that noise to my wife.

The way I like to play RPGs is "run forward, press A, repeat." I'm a very simple man.

Has anyone actually read the manual yet?

@Brick

I've been through it a few times when it involves content I've actually seen in game. I've skimmed the rest but keep returning when things are still not clear on mechanics I'm dealing with.

"The game starts in the rain at night, making it look like crap from the first minute."

That seemed like an odd decision to me too, but then it leads to the sunrise cutscene so... I think it was on purpose? Because that part is glorious and part of what made it so powerful is the contrast.

/EDIT Oh someone else already said this.

At least it isn't like Oblivion where the whole first half hour or so was in tiny, dirty, claustrophobic dungeon area before letting you out into the big open world.