I had this weird moment last night where it was starting to feel a bit grindey and the environments were starting to blend into each other a bit...

So I chose to focus on a mission that sent me up into the northwest of the map. Explored a bunch of stuff I hadn't been to yet. Found this huge mountain thingy that only seemed to have two paths up to it, both of them *sort of* blocked by level 30 creatures. Had to navigate around it for now, but it really made me curious.

I also picked a mission that brought me to some cave in a swamp in the northeast, and the cave had a ton of higher level creatures so I couldn't really get too deep into it yet. It also has me intrigued.

THAT'S the kind of thing I love about these games. The teases of places you can see but can't really get to... yet. It's not a physical barrier though, like in a lot of games. Like, there isn't one exact moment when this stuff becomes "unlocked". Just something you work up to and can take on eventually. I get excited about that kind of thing. It feels like a living, breathing world in a lot of ways.

With that said I don't know about the story so far. I feel the intro was pretty awesome but now the plot seems to be moving towards this one-note KILL ALL HUMANS alien species and it feels kind of generic. I hope they do something interesting there. MonolithSoft usually has some bizarre elements to their stories.

When and how enemies decide to attack you feels sort of weird too. Like I was literally in the middle of the alien base fighting an alien enemy and some other creatures and we're all running around yelling and screaming and shooting and stabbing and another alien just stood there like ten feet away doing absolutely nothing. Bizarre. I honestly can't recall if the original Xenoblade was like this.

@VofEscaflowne

Yeah, look at the set on that guy. Maybe he's a strain of Ballchinian, like from Men In Black.

@DrFinkelstein

I'm on Page 7, haven't been to Page 8 yet; what do you mean "how do the Hex Grid work?" Its just the way the map is set up, they liked it better than a bunch of squares, I guess?

@Zero

Kirsty taught me how to improve my Probes abilities. Do you guys not do sidequests or anything? She had a big red question mark above her head. I never leave a friend in need..

@Zero

What was the Northwest mission (or who initiated it)? Theres one that I did (I also thought Northwest) where I had to TIPTOE past some high level guys, by design.

@Mr_Mustache I figured that out eventually. At like 3 in the morning last night. Does the game tell you to talk to her or do you just find out by exploring? I don't remember anyone mentioning her and she is a bit away from the main base area at first so she is easy to miss.

@Zero

Nobody mentioned her. I just talked to every new person I could when I got there (and get anywhere), and she eventually had something over her head. You can ask people if they're having any trouble though, so maybe that started it. I do the first two options every time I meet someone new, gotta get that Affinity Chart moving.

She's got me on a mission still. Can't remember what it is currently. Or did I clear it? I haven't started Chapter 4, and I won't until I knock off some of those Affinity Missions that are laying around.

@Mr_Mustache

What do all the icons mean? It's hard to understand right now. I know the hexes are just how they divided it up. However I enter some hexes as a pathfinder and there's no probe to be seen. The ones I speak of have the probe signal on them. So what's up with that? And otherwise, what do the other icons mean?

@DrFinkelstein

Probes are sometimes hard to find and I imagine some require the use of a Skell to reach higher areas where they'd be located. Though there's at least one in Primordia that I can't figure out... unless if it's maybe in a cave? I don't even know if that happens.

I finally unlocked chapter 4. It required a lot of running around confused though, which is making me a tad weary of the game. I need to figure out exactly how everything works, especially if (as I imagine will be the case) future story missions will also require surveying X amount of the land. I'm 10 hours into the game and it's still unclear how the surveying works and how you know what you have and haven't surveyed and what you need to do in any given area to survey more.

There is something about the area design that is a bit odd too. I guess with the original Xenoblade it felt like you were always moving forward. You would get to a new area and yeah they were big and often had a lot of open-ended tasks involved within them, but there it still felt like there was a sense of progression, slowly working your way up the Bionis, and some areas had some very tight point A to point B movement. This game just feels like you can sort of go anywhere whenever, which doesn't make me feel like I'm progressing towards any specific thing very often outside of some of the story mission areas.

I dunno. I'm liking it, but it has been a very ups and downs experience for me so far. When it clicks, it clicks, but then other times I feel like I'm just running around doing a bunch of pointless tasks. Like, is most of the game really just going to be clearing out the maps?

@DrFinkelstein
@VofEscaflowne

You can generally see the RED LIGHT shooting up into the sky, yes? I don't know how..good? the "draw distance" is in this game though. I've seen SOME lights from pretty far away, but that doesn't mean that you can ALWAYS see the light. As V mentioned, yeah, we're all (at least I am VERY) pre-Skell, so theres much we can't do yet. I hope to get some in later, its been like 4-5 days!

Just dig around in there. Its gotta be somewhere. Or maybe it needs to be unearthed somehow, a la Pikmin 2 geysers? Maybe they're "off" for now? I was in a 'zone' where there was supposed to be a probe and I didn't find it either. Hmm. Maybe later? I don't expect to find every single thing in one shot, ya know? Are you only missing on Probe zone?

As for the other icons, I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Someone (Page 7?) mentioned that the monster head appeared to be the presence of a Tyrant. Does the in-game Instruction Manual tell you? It has to.. I thought that the yellow shield was something to get, but rather that looks like "hey, you're done here!" Is that right? and have you noticed that talking to some people with a yellow word bubble over their head does something to your map, too? Its usually accompanied by "map survey complete" or something similar, but written better.

--Has anyone found a "California sunset" yet? Don't give me any specifics, just if you found one..

@Zero

Now you know how settlers in the mid-west / Kansas area felt! Land for miiiiiiiles in alllll directions!

@Mr_Mustache So what you're saying is this is a spiritual successor to Oregon Trail?

@Zero

More or less. Except I don't think your axles can break. And too early to tell about dysentery prevalence.

13 hours in and I'm just doing a few side missions (probe planting stuff) before I can do the second mission (are there requirements we need to meet first?).

Does anyone else still feel way too overwhelmed with this game? A lot just doesn't make sense in battles to me. The damage output is all over the place and I still have no clue why or if it's buffs or how to remove them or what the heck. The icons are way too small to make them out and memorizing everything would be a pain anyway. I almost feel like just giving up on it cause being 20+ hours in, someone should definitely have a grasp on things but the game explains NOTHING to you.

Finally playing this stupid game again tonight after not playing for days. BOOO NO TIME.

@carlosrox

The way that I play games like this; I NEVER run into requirement issues since I take my damn time and do all the side stuff first. Zero tried to start Chapter 4 before he was allowed, and got REJECTED. I don't even WANT to start Chapter 4 yet. I've got plenty of Affinity deals to do, and even more sidequests about.

@VofEscaflowne

Overwhelming? How do you mean? You mean, like, why you do 200 dmg sometime, but then 400 another time? Things like that? I've asked -- BEGGED -- people to go look at the Soul Voices thing and I don't know if anyone actually has yet. If someone has, and I missed it, I apologize (I always apologize when I'm wrong, which is why you rarely hear me do it, HEY OHHHHH).

The way my battles go, I have my Voice toggled to do something when I do well on that pre-fight timing exercise. If I hit it, we have an advantage; I can't remember what it is, but I think it works towards Stagger. When Staggered, I hit 'em with a Topple-inducing Art. When they're Toppled, I do my Good Against Toppled move. Usually Elma will go "now hit 'em with some melee!!," which makes my orange Arts blink. I quickly TAUNT them, and hit them with my starter Melee Art (can't remember the name) BECAUSE it does an extra 200% damage when taunted, or something. I chain things together all fight like this. YES, often times its pretty small (and takes you looking DIRECTLY at it to understand whats going on at least one or two times), but its color coded -- which I love -- and they also have your..tray? of arts blink when its a GREAT TIME for you to use them. Is this too much so far? Don't get lost in this..

I don't know if you can alter theirs, but you can definitely mess around with your soul voices (including SIX which you can make WHATEVER you want to. I changed mine to reflect things that I'd say or how it helps my current gameplan. I have one that responds to being healed by a female character. I laughed out loud when I heard it, haha.). And those icons, you complain of them being small, if you know what "YEAH, NOW SHOW ME THAT BELLY!!" means, you don't need to SEE any icon, see what I mean? Thats a real one for my guy. When he yells that, I get some side-bonus for Toppled guys or something. Seriously, dig around in there, I think it'll make a lot of sense. You have like 3 different choices for TONS of scenarios (20, 24 maybe??). Acclimate yourself with what your girls are saying, too ("Lay down some cover fire!" and what exactly that means / DOES), and you'll find things working out much better.


I hope I helped you out a little bit? Can anyone correct me if I'm wrong or add something I may've missed?

@Mr_Mustache

I know how that stuff works. It's just regular attacks I've noticed will sometimes hit hard and then all of a sudden, they almost do nothing. Though maybe it's just against certain enemies but there's so many complexities at work that it makes it hard to understand why anything does anything. And with a game that doesn't explain any of these mechanics, it just feels frustrating.

@VofEscaflowne With a game this large, I'm fine with using a guide. I'd certainly rather do that than waste time doing the wrong thing or missing out on good stuff.

@VofEscaflowne

It could be that some enemies are strong against certain types of attacks. Or, do some of your characters have things relating to the types of creatures you're fighting, whether they be humanoid, mechanical, or theroid, etc.? That could play a part for sure!

@Mop it up

Are you using a guide?

@Mr_Mustache

Even if that were the case, I mean that these numbers vary wildly within the same battle with the same enemy.

@VofEscaflowne

Its gotta be buff type things though, or are they getting beefed up somehow? Do you have any Taunt -> Attack type things? Are you able to look now? Too much guessing, Fabv!

Oh, maybe it depends what I'm locked on... but I've noticed that the lock on target is sometimes all over the place without me even touching anything too... the hell?

EDIT: And like I said, it's regular attacks

@VofEscaflowne

I don't really shift my target at all. I just kinda..fight the guy I'm fighting until he's DONE. And then I'm set up for someone else immediately after, whatevvvs.

Yeah, regular attacks, but some of your regular attacks behave similarly. Its been a few days since I've played. Tell us how you're set uppp!