Gaming Does Xenoblade Chronicles get any better?

Deleted User · Apr 26, 2015

Ive been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I just gotta say I'm not having any fun at all. To be straight and to the point, its the combat system that is ruining it for me. It's way too complicated for me and I can't figure it out or seem to find any strategies in battles. Its weird, I feel like I mostly get it but I just keep getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter.

I decided to stop playing at the spider boss in the first cave (Thats maybe about 2 hours into the game). I pretty much get killed 30 seconds after the fight begins. Theres also this see into the future thing that shows the enemies next attack blah blah blah basically the battle system is just getting more complicated by the minute. I dont understand why Im dying so easily though, this spider is only level 12 and both party members are level 15.

I mean sure call me a sore loser, Im not having fun because I keep losing but yknow why play if I cant win. Idk at this point, I only picked up the game because everyone who's played says its the greatest game ever made and wont stop constantly jizzing over it, plus its N3DS exclusive.

Any thoughts? Am I wrong to feel this way? Do I really just suck or is the combat system actually complicated? Would it be stupid of me to return the game if I dont end up getting into it? If anything, The story was interesting so far and I really liked the environmental design

zoogie · Apr 26, 2015

Name any critically lauded game and there will be a percentage that doesn't 'get it'. Maybe you're in that percentage. Some people don't like bloodborne or zelda OOT. It happens.

I don't like Minecraft or any FPS that ever existed. It's okay, move on if you don't like it.

Kenneth196 · Apr 26, 2015

To start, I agree in the percentage that states it's the greatest game ever. I first played it on the Wii, sunk over 50+ hours into it without doing any side quests. I instantly regarded it as the greatest game on the wii.

The combat system to me was fun and easy to grasp but not trying to disregard anything that you stated. Different strokes for different folks. I'd say keep practicing at it, backtrack and practice on weaker enemies. Practice makes perfect. It's way too great of a game to take back.

Wowfunhappy · Apr 27, 2015

My recommendation: Keep playing until you get to Gaur Plain. If you're not having fun by then, give up, but not before.

I said this in the other Xenoblade thread: there's a certain feeling of openness, wonder, and invitation that pervades Xenoblade's world, and that feeling is the source of most of the game's appeal. It's also a feeling that, in my experience, affects some people much more than others.

Edit: Oh, and yes, the combat system actually has a TON of depth... but the game does a really crappy job of explaining it.

Edit2: And "sore loser" is a terrible term within the context of a single player video game. Games are supposed to be fun (or, at least engaging, see: This War of Mine).

storm75x · Apr 27, 2015

This is like playing losing in competitive Pokemon and complaining why your Hyper Beam, Earthquake, Flame Burst and Dragon Claw moveset didn't work.
But trust me, this game is amazing. The finest are the music, the environments, the plot, and the battle system. I'd even dare to say that they have perfected the real-time JRPG battling system.

b17bomber · Apr 27, 2015

I guess you could say he isn't ..
...
feeling it.

sarkwalvein · Apr 27, 2015

Robfozz said:
Ive been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3D and I just gotta say I'm not having any fun at all. To be straight and to the point, its the combat system that is ruining it for me. It's way too complicated for me and I can't figure it out or seem to find any strategies in battles. Its weird, I feel like I mostly get it but I just keep getting my ass handed to me on a silver platter.

I decided to stop playing at the spider boss in the first cave (Thats maybe about 2 hours into the game). I pretty much get killed 30 seconds after the fight begins. Theres also this see into the future thing that shows the enemies next attack blah blah blah basically the battle system is just getting more complicated by the minute. I dont understand why Im dying so easily though, this spider is only level 12 and both party members are level 15.

I mean sure call me a sore loser, Im not having fun because I keep losing but yknow why play if I cant win. Idk at this point, I only picked up the game because everyone who's played says its the greatest game ever made and wont stop constantly jizzing over it, plus its N3DS exclusive.

Any thoughts? Am I wrong to feel this way? Do I really just suck or is the combat system actually complicated? Would it be stupid of me to return the game if I dont end up getting into it? If anything, The story was interesting so far and I really liked the environmental design

The most interesting part of the game are the battle system and exploration. The story is just OKish.
As someone else said, get to Gaur Plains (that is the peak of great landscapes and exploration), and if you still don't enjoy it in there, then perhaps stop playing.
The battle system is not so hard, but I suppose you have to get accustomed to it.
Also, it is very important to use the right equipment, and specially to strengthen yourself with the adequate gems.
Normally it would be hard to take enemies 3 or more levels above you, but with the adequate gems and equipment I have beaten enemies 14 levels above me with some strategy.
Also, your magic user is the best character to control IMHO. But you have a long way to go to get that character, that many say is very weak, but I find that when used well is OP as hell.

BORTZ · Apr 27, 2015

Can someone explain how to use the battle system without making ourselves (me and the OP) look like asses? I dont really get how to utilize the system in a way that doesnt end me up with a mediocre battle experience. I dont know what Im doing and just spam attacks as they come up from cooldown and try to make sure my positioning is good etc.

I got about where you guys are saying to go and just cant keep doing it. The game is fun to explore, I like the story, etc, but the battles are getting to me hardcore.

(playing the wii version, btw)

vayanui8 · Apr 27, 2015

I had similar feelings about the game when I first played it and ended up dropping around eryth sea. Picked up the remake and I finally understood the combat system, and I've been enjoying it a lot sense. The game does a terrible job of explaining certain elements because they don't really become crucial to how you play until long after they give you information on it. I think the system that you probably need help on would be how aggro works. Whichever character has accumulated the most aggro from and enemy is the character that enemy attacks. Certain skills can be used that increase aggro on a character, and others can be used to get rid of it. Aggro is accumulated by attacking an enemy or using skills. The general strategy you want to use it to have a tank character (in your case reyn) and have them accumulate the aggro. They can take a lot more huts, and it also allows you to reposition yourself and take advantage of shulks bonus effects. You will need to keep reyn healed, but as long as you can keep the aggro directed at him shulk should be fine. This applys to the entirety of the game, but you eventually will get other party members you prefer.

chartube12 · Apr 28, 2015

From what I have seen the combat system is nearly the same as the ps2 titles. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the 1 to 3 hours of constant cut senses. Hell I owned the first Xenosaga and didn't complete it. By the time I got into space, I gave up. Too many cut senses. Once a game feels like it is playing me instead of me playing it, I drop it and never go back. This is way I have not pirated/played the wii version and why I won't buy a new 3ds and this game.

sarkwalvein · Apr 28, 2015

chartube12 said:
From what I have seen the combat system is nearly the same as the ps2 titles. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the 1 to 3 hours of constant cut senses. Hell I owned the first xenochronicles and didn't complete it. By the time I got into space, I gave up. Too many cut senses. Once a game feels like it is playing me instead of me playing it, I drop it and never go back. This is way I have not pirated/played the wii version and why I won't buy a new 3ds and this game.

DISCLAIMER: I don't think the next segment contains spoilers as I speak in a very general way, but be advised that it may... spoil something perhaps? (I don't think so, but I take no responsibility if that happens)

So, you gave up at the end of the game?
When I got into space it only took me around 15 minutes to complete the game, including boss fights and all. (I admit most of the time was cutscenes).
Anyway, don't misunderstand, I think that the story in the game is only OKish, and also the cutscenes are sometimes bothersome (but let's not exaggerate), the fun is in exploring and the challenge in killing overlevelled unique monsters that are 12-15 levels above you.
The space segment was so much a piece of cake that I think the game could have won itself if I left the controller lying and went to eat some pizza during the battle. Meh... I don't like the ending, but the game itself is great.

chartube12 · Apr 28, 2015

sarkwalvein said:
DISCLAIMER: I don't think the next segment contains spoilers as I speak in a very general way, but be advised that it may... spoil something perhaps? (I don't think so, but I take no responsibility if that happens)

So, you gave up at the end of the game?
When I got into space it only took me around 15 minutes to complete the game, including boss fights and all. (I admit most of the time was cutscenes).
Anyway, don't misunderstand, I think that the story in the game is only OKish, and also the cutscenes are sometimes bothersome (but let's not exaggerate), the fun is in exploring and the challenge in killing overlevelled unique monsters that are 12-15 levels above you.
The space segment was so much a piece of cake that I think the game could have won itself if I left the controller lying and went to eat some pizza during the battle. Meh... I don't like the ending, but the game itself is great.

If that was really the end of the game then that would of pissed me alot. Really only 4 hours of actual game play. What a waste of a game.

sarkwalvein · Apr 28, 2015

chartube12 said:
If that was really the end of the game then that would of pissed me alot. Really only 4 hours of actual game play. What a waste of a game.

Meh, you can't beat the game in 4 hours, you really love to exaggerate.
Even if you skipped all kind of video or cinematic, and only walked, battled and kicked your way to the end without reading anything or doing anything of the real gameplay (hence knowing the game from memory) it would take you more than 15hs for sure.
And that would be stupid, as the game is not that.
The linear A-to-B part of the game is poor, the story is not so compelling.
The game is about exploring mostly. And exploring, doing subquest and specially taking out unique enemies would take you probably around 70 to 80hs in a first playthrough.
If you play this game only to complete the main story you are playing it the wrong way.

chartube12 · Apr 29, 2015

sarkwalvein said:
Meh, you can't beat the game in 4 hours, you really love to exaggerate.
Even if you skipped all kind of video or cinematic, and only walked, battled and kicked your way to the end without reading anything or doing anything of the real gameplay (hence knowing the game from memory) it would take you more than 15hs for sure.
And that would be stupid, as the game is not that.
The linear A-to-B part of the game is poor, the story is not so compelling.
The game is about exploring mostly. And exploring, doing subquest and specially taking out unique enemies would take you probably around 70 to 80hs in a first playthrough.
If you play this game only to complete the main story you are playing it the wrong way.

I don't think you ever played the first PS2 game. There is really zero exploration and the game is extremely linear. After about 4-6 hours of actual game play, you're suddenly on a space and a character awakens from a space pod and your attacked by pirates. That's when I finally stopped playing. There was already 20 plus hours of cut senses I had enough of watching them and/or skipping through them.

sarkwalvein · Apr 29, 2015

chartube12 said:
I don't think you ever played the first PS2 game. There is really zero exploration and the game is extremely linear. After about 4-6 hours of actual game play, you're suddenly on a space and a character awakens from a space pod and your attacked by pirates. That's when I finally stopped playing. There was already 20 plus hours of cut senses I had enough of watching them and/or skipping through them.

Oh, sorry. I don't know how to read apparently, and we are taking about different things.
For some reason I was talking about Xenoblade all along.
Regarding Xenosaga 1, I tried playing it, I really tried because I wanted to check the story and I loved Xenogears.
But I found the game so boring I couldn't stand it anymore after a couple of hours, and I left it to collect dust for ever.
I don't find the battle system similar at all compared to Xenoblade, but actually I barely remember the battle system in Xenosaga.

Apostrophe · Apr 29, 2015

Bortz said:
Can someone explain how to use the battle system without making ourselves (me and the OP) look like asses? I dont really get how to utilize the system in a way that doesnt end me up with a mediocre battle experience. I dont know what Im doing and just spam attacks as they come up from cooldown and try to make sure my positioning is good etc.

I got about where you guys are saying to go and just cant keep doing it. The game is fun to explore, I like the story, etc, but the battles are getting to me hardcore.

(playing the wii version, btw)

I beat Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii about 2 month ago. Really a great game, tons of side quests and a pretty interesting plot. I can try to describe the combat system from what I understand for you or anyone who's confused.

The most basic form off attack when you get into battle is the auto-attack, which happens from just being near the enemy. Auto attacking does damage obviously and increases your talent gauge (the white art in the middle of every character's art selection while in battle). All other arts have a cool down period and come back over time. Using an art and getting the bonus effect to happen (Hitting an enemy in the back with backslash) increases the party gauge (blue bar in top left corner). Doing the little B button quick time events during battle also increase the party gauge.

The party gauge allows you to do 2 things. 1. Do a chain attack when all 3 segments are full. This lets you use at least 1 art from each of your team members, and if you use arts of same color in succession the following art will be x2 damage, then x3 etc. up to x5. This isn't always the best thing to do though because you may really need to use an art of another color. 2. Eventually in the game, Shulk will start having visions of things to come, and the screen will flash blue and you'll see someone getting gravely wounded. When this happens a window will pop saying who's about to die, but this can change if someone takes aggro or the enemy gets toppled or someone increases that character's defense etc. So you can go up to one of your team mates while this countdown is happening and make them use any one of their arts immediately at the cost of 1 segment (1/3) of the party gauge.

Other than that, there's some in battle effects that are pretty intuitive and don't need much explaining. However, break, topple and daze can be a bit confusing. When you use an art that inflicts break, not much changes with the enemy other than they have the status break. From here, you can have a character with an art that induces topple use the art and have a chance to topple the enemy based on their topple defense and your topple bonuses. When an enemy's in the topple state they can't attack, and have to take some time to get back up. While in topple, you can inflict Daze if you have an art to do so. It works very similarly to topple the only real advantage is that it extends the time the enemy can't attack. You always have to follow the chain of break->topple->daze, you can't just topple or daze an enemy that hasn't been in the break state first.

That's all the big stuff I can think of right now. It's been a while since I played this game so I apologize if I have some misinformation or am forgetting something important.

sarkwalvein · Apr 29, 2015

Apostrophe said:
I beat Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii about 2 month ago. Really a great game, tons of side quests and a pretty interesting plot. I can try to describe the combat system from what I understand for you or anyone who's confused.

The most basic form off attack when you get into battle is the auto-attack, which happens from just being near the enemy. Auto attacking does damage obviously and increases your talent gauge (the white art in the middle of every character's art selection while in battle). All other arts have a cool down period and come back over time. Using an art and getting the bonus effect to happen (Hitting an enemy in the back with backslash) increases the party gauge (blue bar in top left corner). Doing the little B button quick time events during battle also increase the party gauge.

The party gauge allows you to do 2 things. 1. Do a chain attack when all 3 segments are full. This lets you use at least 1 art from each of your team members, and if you use arts of same color in succession the following art will be x2 damage, then x3 etc. up to x5. This isn't always the best thing to do though because you may really need to use an art of another color. 2. Eventually in the game, Shulk will start having visions of things to come, and the screen will flash blue and you'll see someone getting gravely wounded. When this happens a window will pop saying who's about to die, but this can change if someone takes aggro or the enemy gets toppled or someone increases that character's defense etc. So you can go up to one of your team mates while this countdown is happening and make them use any one of their arts immediately at the cost of 1 segment (1/3) of the party gauge.

Other than that, there's some in battle effects that are pretty intuitive and don't need much explaining. However, break, topple and daze can be a bit confusing. When you use an art that inflicts break, not much changes with the enemy other than they have the status break. From here, you can have a character with an art that induces topple use the art and have a chance to topple the enemy based on their topple defense and your topple bonuses. When an enemy's in the topple state they can't attack, and have to take some time to get back up. While in topple, you can inflict Daze if you have an art to do so. It works very similarly to topple the only real advantage is that it extends the time the enemy can't attack. You always have to follow the chain of break->topple->daze, you can't just topple or daze an enemy that hasn't been in the break state first.

That's all the big stuff I can think of right now. It's been a while since I played this game so I apologize if I have some misinformation or am forgetting something important.

There are also some special attacks, written in red in the next attack to come from the monster that you can see on the top of the screen.
These attacks can be turn ineffective if you use a particular ability from monado (I think it is shield).
You can command your companions to attack one enemy specifically, do as they please or stand back, it is done with R+Dpad I think on the classic controller.
This is quite useful if you are controlling your magic user and want your friend to collect aggro while you cast and release.
It is convenient many times to use the "seen into the future" events to get a free party healing from your healer.
Also it can be sometimes useful to use one of the turns of a chain attack to do party healing.
Take into account there are many abilities that are only effective (or more effective) when the enemy is in a specific state (break, topple, daze).

Purple_Shyguy · Apr 29, 2015

Started playing it yesterday (thanks Gateway) and for me its seriously unplayable.

Those fucking garfix man. I just cant deal with that shit.

storm75x · Apr 29, 2015

Purple_Shyguy said:
Started playing it yesterday (thanks Gateway) and for me its seriously unplayable.

Those fucking garfix man. I just cant deal with that shit.

The game really is too big for N3DS. But once you can endure and adjust your eyes to the game, I promise you the most fun you will ever have.

Guild McCommunist · Apr 29, 2015

Short answer: No.

Long answer. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Gaming Does Xenoblade Chronicles get any better?

Deleted User

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playing around in the end of life

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Well-Known Member

Remember that thing I don't remember? Yeah, that!

Well-Known Member

There's hope for a Xenosaga port.

DO NOT SCREENSHOT

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Captain Chaz 86

There's hope for a Xenosaga port.

Captain Chaz 86

There's hope for a Xenosaga port.

Captain Chaz 86

There's hope for a Xenosaga port.

VIDEO GAMES

There's hope for a Xenosaga port.

Well-Known Member

Remember that thing I don't remember? Yeah, that!

(not on boat)

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