So... my first post (I think) in this thread, since getting the game anyway, and...

I am so happy I have this game. I haven't been so satisfied with a purchase in a long time.

It's just pure fun. The game rewards you for playing and doing anything and everything, which just encourages me further.

I've just been running around the Bionis' Knee lately, and even just exploring that is amazingly fun. Seeing it for the first time was breathtaking also.

I played about an hour and a half on first putting in the disc. It's quite fun! I'm already used to the British VA. "Man, what a bunch of jokers!" Haha. This is the kind of battle system I can get behind. It's just action-y enough for my tastes.

Only one thing bothered me: is there a way to buy and equip something? I had to go into the menu and unequip.equip stuff after I had bought new gear in Colony 9.

@anon_mastermind

I'd also like to know if someone has a good way for equipping. My wife handles all that stuff, but it takes so long because you have to go in and unequip first.

You don't have to unequip before you can equip something else, but I don't think there is a way to equip something right when you buy it from a store.

Yeah, you can just equip over it. You can also sort by "Recent" or "DEF" or whatever when selecting. It doesn't take THAT long -- and you pick up so much stuff that you might have something more powerful that you got from a Drop, so I really don't mind as much.

Is there any rules I should know about in terms what equipment to save? I've been generally afraid to sell things. I also have a TON of materials and all sorts of shit but I don't know what I need to save or don't.

Thoughts?

@DrFinkelstein I'd guess I'm maybe half-way through the game. Just about to get to Sword Valley. So far, I haven't run into any problems from selling stuff. I'm like you, and I tend not to, but you won't get terribly far without running out of room. I'd say to not worry much about it. Sure, it's a pain when I sell off or use up an item, them later get a quest where someone wants five of them, and I have to run around picking them up again. (Or I could just not do the quest.) It's not so bad.

@-JKR- You can tell what gems are on unused equipment because they're gray instead of red or blue, if that helps. You don't have to unseat them before unequipping. I agree that equipping can take a lot of time, though, when you go to redo everyone to optimize resources.

@DrFinkelstein

If Sharla looks hot in it, don't sell it.

At least, that's my rule for equipment.

@-JKR-

Yeah, i'm gonna save up and see how those bikini's turn out. haha

I'm sure half the people on this board thing that's dumb, but if we can hope our heroes look heroic and badass, why not our heroines sexy?

@VickiL

So there's (so far) nothing that I can't "re-get" if I did use them all? Now that I've discovered the collectapedia and such i've been filling that out and I know with all these items I could make a lot of cash on them...

Now I've started gem-crafting too which is... interesting.

@DrFinkelstein I'm pretty sure all the quest items are just item drops from enemies, so you'll be okay. It looks like the game starts letting you know which items will be important on quests too, so you'll know what to save.

I haven't unequipped goofy looking items from my characters yet, though I've been tempted. They start looking REALLY bad as you mix and match equipment. There's certain equipment that 'matches', so sometimes when you mix it up they look really bad. However, it's also helpful - you get a good idea as to what armor you should have because certain items are designed for usage at certain points in the game. MMOs do this as well to an extent.

It's a shame there's no 3 person multiplayer for this game, because honestly I think it kind of begs for it, especially considering that characters gel well together (one character inflicts Break, another Topple, another Daze). If multiplayer were an option, this game would practically be the second coming of Secret of Mana. Xenoblade really feels like a single player MMO at times, so to me it only feels natural that there would be some multiplayer involved. It would also make sense because otherwise, you don't really have control over your squadmates. Some teamwork would be really fun methinks.

Even unique monsters respawn, so there's very little one-time pieces of equipment in this game. Also, items that are in areas which will later become unavailable can be traded for from certain NPCs. As for when you run out of space for materials, which will happen given how space for them is needlessly smaller than other items, try to toss out common items so you can easily get them again if you need to. That part can get on my nerves, but oh well.

I had another character I started using take Dunban's armour, and I didn't think about how that would leave him without it. In the next cutscene, he was completely shirtless, which made it unintentionally funny. I could just see him thinking, "I'm too sexy for my shirt, even in these serious situations."

And yeah, I felt this game should have been online from the moment I started playing. A shame that it isn't.

So I am at the point where Melia goes to the temple to prove herself worthy to rule her people in the skimpiest outfit I could get for her outside of being totally unarmored. I've got her in the Panther Top, Jungle Gloves, Cool Trunks and Makna Shoes. Kind of a weird tribal look going.

Almost back to where I was before I was stupid.

This game man....even though I've grown tired of the disgustingly large number of mundane side quests, I still absolutely love it.
.
Pretty big near-end game I'd assume spoilers below.

Even though it was fairly obvious Dickson was going to betray them....man that whole string of cutscenes was absolutely phenomenal. And now I finally understand why some quests were timed, lol. As for the Egil fights, they kinda made me realize how unbelievably overpowered Melia is. I went into the fights at level 67, which seemed like it would be low since he was 70 and then 72 or 73, and I just made sure I had 2 Earth summons up all the time. The defensive buffs from those 2, made it so I only had to rescue Shulk once throughout all of the fights. My team of Melia/Shulk/Riki has pretty much been an unbeatable force even against high leveled enemies, heh. I dabbled in removing Shulk for a bit, but he seems to work better for me than Fiora...well at least until he became kinda sorta "dead" for now ;p

I'm getting owned by some random monsters in Tephra Cave. I feel like a real nub. But it's fun so I keep at it

@Mop it up
Hm, that kind of stinks. Evey RPG should let you equip something as soon as you buy it. If it's part of loot, I understand not equipping it right away, but not when you're specifically buying it.

@anon_mastermind

You can't beat those monsters now. You have to come back later. There's a lot of those sort of monsters throughout the world. It makes it more fun, for me anyway. There's a giant T-rex at one point that came out of the bushes and WRECKED me. One hit KOs and all I saw was a giant head filled with razor teeth.

I'LL BE BACK, T-REX! I'LL BE BAAAAAAACK!

@-JKR-
Yeah it is different than most other RPGs where you just grind everything in sight.

@anon_mastermind

Sounds like some people's teenage years... badum chhhhhh....

@DrFinkelstein

"Some poeple's," Fink? You wanna come clean here?

@Mr_Mustache

Nah, I wouldn't wanna embarrass you.

@DrFinkelstein

"Embarrass" as in I'd be ashamed of stuff you did, or "embarrassed" as in you got way more "tail" than I did, or something?

--Come to chaaat!