@DrFinkelstein

Thats pretty much the ONLY thing I do ever. I'll never advance..

@Mr_Mustache

Yeah you will. You'll run out of sidequests and need to advance story to get more.

I don't really like doing the sidequests at all. I'll pick up a few now and then, and hopefully kill whatever it is I'm supposed to kill along the way. Right now I just want to start getting through the story, because I feel like if I don't, I never will. That, and I just don't find the sidequest stuff very compelling. I don't like the way it handles them compared to other games I've played (namely MMOs). I think part of the reason is simply the way the map loads the exclamation points. It can be a pain to find whoever it is you're supposed to turn a quest into.

I've found so far that I've gotten plenty of experience just killing monsters and doing the story. Maybe that will change, but for now it seems to be working.

I think it's just the way my life is right now, but I just want to 'beat the game.' It's a pretty long game and I don't want to waste a night doing sidequests when I could be watching some cool cutscenes that advance the plot, exploring new areas, and getting into some boss fights.

I'm now at level 33 and am at the Eryth Sea making my way towards the captiol.

@PogueSquadron
I'm just accumulating side quests with no intention of completing them. Exploration gives some decent exp. I'm about to reach the same spot as you!

Sidequests are definitely just that, sidequests. You don't have to do any of them and it won't make the game hard if you pass them up. In fact, it's probably a good idea to not do very many sidequests because if you do, you'll become overleveled which, with the way this game's level system works, makes it very easy even just being a few levels over your enemies.

@PogueSquadron
@anon_mastermind

I'm a little further than you guys. I don't care about the sidequests, but I love exploring the world, so I figure I might as well do whatever sidequests happen to pop up along the way.

If I don't limit myself this game could take me until August.

I do pretty much every side quest I get. Some of them yield boat loads of experience, others give good loot. But most importantly, you build your affinity and relationships between characters by participating in/completing those quests. The better relationship characters have with each other, the more bonus things you can have in your skill tree (using those affinity coins).

@TheOldManFromZelda And you get a boost when making ether gems. Shulk and Reyn are best buds and almost always get Heat and get Mega Heat at least half the time for me.

I've had far too much to do in real life...I need to get back to this game soon, or I'll never finish it. I'm at the dangerous part I reach in RPGs, where the end is just around the corner, and I want to try and do everything before I finish, but then I burn out.

Just wondering,how do you know when the weather is hot in game?I need it for a side quest.Seems to me I only get the same three or so weather conditions no matter what.

This game seems to be a complete fuck about what items it gives you when you run around collecting those blue orbs.I collected something like 300 in one area and still haven't gotten the last one for the collectopedia thing.

@jonjon85

There is a haze in the air. You will notice it right away. And yes, those blue orbs are a pain in my shiny metal ass. I've played for over 70 hrs... and still haven't gotten the one last thing I need to fill out the Colony 6 section.

TheOldManFromZelda said:

@jonjon85

There is a haze in the air. You will notice it right away. And yes, those blue orbs are a pain in my shiny metal ass. I've played for over 70 hrs... and still haven't gotten the one last thing I need to fill out the Colony 6 section.

That doesn't seem right then.I have been trying to find a certain unique monster and it appears only on hot days,ive had a million of them and i have been looking where a guide told me to and I still haven't encountered it.I have had this quest for almost 20 hours already.

Id have finished this game already if it weren't for the side quests being so mind numbingly boring and unimaginative.
The game is good,but they really phoned in the side quests.I think so far there has only been a handful of unique ones and the rest are just collect or kill.

Yeah, it'd be nice if you could get to the more interesting sidequests without having to do a bunch of the generic ones first.

@VickiL I'd recommend beating it first, before you do the endgame stuff. The final boss is a huge pushover if you're lvl 99, it's more enjoyable if you're 80-85.

Finally beat this boss in the Bionis Interior that had been giving me a headache for the last week. Spent the better part of playtime leveling up and making strength up gems.

Well, I finally started this game today, and it's… wonderful! An amazing package; it's just insane to think how this game may not have even released in the U.S. at all.

Didn't make it too far yet, just made it through Tephra Cave for the first time (with a lot of unfinished quests, which is ok I think because none of them seem timed at the moment). I'm still learning quite a lot about how the game works, but I'm getting the hang of it.

@roykoopa64

You are just starting and I just finished the other night. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

@roykoopa64

I'm 40 hours in, and based on my levels and plot... I think I am maybe halfway through.... Have fun RKoop, cause it's gonna be a lengthy ride!

@DrFinkelstein xenoblade was a long game, took me wout 50 hours to beat.... Dragon quest 8 took me 72 hours to beat..

Im 89 hrs in... you aren't as far as you think...

@Mop it up I'm only in the early 60's, so I've got a little ways to go yet! Level 60, but about 95 hours in. I'm very slow! I spend far too much time running all over Frontier Village trying to figure out what Nopon I haven't talked to yet. I can't remember my Dragon Quest 8 time, but I do remember shocking friends and family by having way more than the normal number of hours in Dragon Quest 9. I think I had like 140 or so. I guess I won't be making any submissions to those speed run sites anytime soon.

I recently learned my lesson in Radiant Historia about end game. I went ahead and did everything before beating the game, and then had a, "Duh," moment when I realized that if I wanted to see the mediocre ending, I'll have to start over from the very beginning.

It was really tricky trying to figure out the right moves to use so the Chain Attack would work on the Metal Face, but you have to realize which moves cause 'break' and which cause 'topple.'

Man, some sad stuff at this point in the game. But we move onward!