Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - pip pip cheerio cor blimey

[Takayuki Yagami]

Just Unlocked Class Changing.

Why does it change their clothing to the clothing the original class holder just put on?

Probably so you can tell at a glance what each character will do.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Yeah in hindsight difficulty seems to be front loaded on Hard, with the Agnus trio fight and the first Moebius being stand outs. The fight with Consul J wasn't as bad as B for instance, just knock the chubby little shit down while cure bullets stop his bleed.
If I made it this far on hard I may as well continue, don't want to lose that Real Gamer Cred™

The biggest problems with early hard mode is chain attacks, good master arts, and good heroes dramatically change the combat and those take a bit to come in. The first few Heroes are eh (The first is okay) for chain attacks save for their orders (although Valdi can be insane, but he's niche by design). Once you get Ashera about at the half way point, she changes the entire game because she can not only set up launch but she gives the best start to chain attacks. Literally game changing character, Grey from FMJ's quest is also quite good as his class is just solid damage all around.

Honestly you're past the worst at this point, so I'd say go for it except for grinding class levels if you're into that. Also look for the Househunter Carly NM near the lake area in the area just past colony 9 just before you find the first rest spot iirc, their is a small cave you can swim through that takes you to a rock crab thing, it drops an accessory that boosts your class exp gains. 100% worth getting, just farm it on easy so it dies fast.

 

[Barracuda Joe]

You cancel successfully if you see a little white colored circle pop up in the middle of your character. For Zephyr you sound like you're doing it right. Also do note that fusion arts can cancel into anything, so you can go auto attack > standard art > fusion art > standard > talent art in a perfectly canceled sequence.

To add on to this (I won't spoil the name or place), there's a hero you can get not-to-far into the game who unlocks universal cancels for your entire party, so you can go back to XC2 style art>art cancels. I think following the art>fusion art>art>talent art type chains gives a higher damage bonus though. It might also add more party gauge but I can't be certain.

PS: Visions aren't in the game (yet, maybe it'll be DLC like Overdrive was in XC2, I dunno), but I'm pretty sure the huge party gauge bonus for interrupting enemy attacks (during the startup for their arts, when their name changes to the attacks name) with a topple > (combo) is still there. If you want to punch above your weight on hard mode, it seems to do alot for getting chain attacks going.

 

[huecoffs02]

Just got through Chapter 5. Holy shit that was a roller coaster, I loved every second of it. Lots of questions though, so I hope they are all answered through the rest of the game.

As for difficulty so far. I've still struggled. Not too much since I am much more familiar with all the systems and have learnt to hold on chains for a bit which helps a lot. The ending of Chapter 5 was not too hard but it required careful execution if your battle plan I'd say. If you go in (at a decent level) spamming arts just because you will have a bad time probably.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I tried going into Hard mode, first boss battle was 2 mechas that immediately summon 3 soldiers each and rape my party with AOEs (I outleved everything by 5 levels). I tried couple of times until I gave up and went into Normal, and even then it felt like luck based mission since that fight is complete chaos and the party keeps bunching up on enemies despite how suicidal it is. Either I'm missing some technique how to fill the charge gauge super fast to get out of pinch situations, how to tell the party to spread out or I do significantly less damage. The only other alternative I didn't try is to completely wall out with 4 healers and 3 defenders, but then I feel combat will become completely dry. The most baffling gameplay decision is that only healers are able to revive characters, meaning that if your healers get one shot by enemy AOE (like with J's fight) then you are essentially suffering an instant game over without even the ability to just instantly restore it, instead forcing you to wait for everyone to die. In general enemy AOE abilities completely break the whole DPS/Tank/Healer roles of the game.

But my main issue with the game is how slow it feels and how much nothing changes that much gameplay wise. Unlike the Blades in 2 that had great designs and a lot of depth to them, the heroes and classes are just the same human with variations of the same 3 base roles. You are also limited to one of them while 2 let you have 9 different blades. The heroes quests are also boring - going through the colony liberation, rather than the unique actions you needed to do in 2. I still didn't get any part 2 to hero quests, but if it will require to grind colony relations then fuck it. World exploration is also vastly more boring, 1 had a huge wow factor while 2 had cool biomes inside the whales, while 3 just feels like any other JRPG design wise, and I never get a sense of wanting to go back to a previous location and exploring new parts of it.

I do like the plot and the characters, but again, everything goes so slow. Plot revelations are obvious several hours before they are revealed, character development would spread out over multiple scenes that are extremely similar, to the point you just want to get on with how it works out.

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

Ashera seems like she’d be very good in chain attacks.

I'd say she's one of the strongest in chain attacks. Just make sure you're using her round 1 and that you're re-activating three others and you'll pretty much be set to land at least a Bravo on every subsequent round. Starting strong like that is usually how you end up with the insanely good chain attack damage.

I would say she's only clearly beaten by Fiona who can grant additional chain attack rounds if you get her order. There is the odd chance that you won't get her card of course, but not getting at least one Hero order tends to be a result of exceptionally bad luck.

PS: Visions aren't in the game (yet, maybe it'll be DLC like Overdrive was in XC2, I dunno), but I'm pretty sure the huge party gauge bonus for interrupting enemy attacks (during the startup for their arts, when their name changes to the attacks name) with a topple > (combo) is still there. If you want to punch above your weight on hard mode, it seems to do alot for getting chain attacks going.

Also worth noting that starting a chain attack on a launched enemy is pretty much always a good idea. You get something like a 50% damage bonus against launched enemies (I think, don't hold me to the exact number) and the enemy will remain launched for the duration of the entire chain attack. It's basically just free damage.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I tried going into Hard mode, first boss battle was 2 mechas that immediately summon 3 soldiers each and rape my party with AOEs (I outleved everything by 5 levels). I tried couple of times until I gave up and went into Normal, and even then it felt like luck based mission since that fight is complete chaos and the party keeps bunching up on enemies despite how suicidal it is. Either I'm missing some technique how to fill the charge gauge super fast to get out of pinch situations, how to tell the party to spread out or I do significantly less damage. The only other alternative I didn't try is to completely wall out with 4 healers and 3 defenders, but then I feel combat will become completely dry. The most baffling gameplay decision is that only healers are able to revive characters, meaning that if your healers get one shot by enemy AOE (like with J's fight) then you are essentially suffering an instant game over without even the ability to just instantly restore it, instead forcing you to wait for everyone to die. In general enemy AOE abilities completely break the whole DPS/Tank/Healer roles of the game.

But my main issue with the game is how slow it feels and how much nothing changes that much gameplay wise. Unlike the Blades in 2 that had great designs and a lot of depth to them, the heroes and classes are just the same human with variations of the same 3 base roles. You are also limited to one of them while 2 let you have 9 different blades. The heroes quests are also boring - going through the colony liberation, rather than the unique actions you needed to do in 2. I still didn't get any part 2 to hero quests, but if it will require to grind colony relations then fuck it. World exploration is also vastly more boring, 1 had a huge wow factor while 2 had cool biomes inside the whales, while 3 just feels like any other JRPG design wise, and I never get a sense of wanting to go back to a previous location and exploring new parts of it.

I do like the plot and the characters, but again, everything goes so slow. Plot revelations are obvious several hours before they are revealed, character development would spread out over multiple scenes that are extremely similar, to the point you just want to get on with how it works out.

Which chapter was this fight? I haven't ran into anything quite so struggle inducing since chapter 3 started. I think the closest was in chapter 4 where you have 3 NMs next to each other and they call goons if you push them to enrage, so the best option is to chain attack burst them before that (which is easy, but their are 3 of them). I just ran 3 healers instead of an extra dps and it was a breeze. Ogre op if you haven't found that out yet once you get Yumsmith's break master art, makes many bosses easy to handle with topple locking. Enemy aoes don't really break anything I think, it is just standard design for systems like this to me as I've been playing MMOs for years. Tanks hold most damage, healers heal and provide support, and dps in XB do many things from stun locking to just flat out do amazing damage if you've seen stuff like Full Metal Jaguar.

Healers only being able to revive is a very mixed bag, sometimes it makes fights painful (you can reset story boss fights btw if you pause) if you're unlucky and sometimes it makes fights too easy as your healers just dash around and chain revive your entire party to stability after a minute of konga line dying if you give them the gems that speed up and enhance reviving. I'd say Healer only revive is mostly a benefit for the player, as 1 or 2 would not allow you to die nearly as much as you can in 3 and still win. Also 3's characters are in general more frail and have less self sustain which was another change to force Healers to not suck in this game like they did in 1, X, and 2.

Spoiler: Giant tangent about 2's combat

2's blades are very hit or miss for me, some blades are just flat out trash compared to others. 2's game balance is horrendous, though 3 has its own issues with that though those are reduced to about 1 exploit and 1 class, everything beyond that is pretty reasonable for the most part save for how shit Stalker is. 2's game balance had Fiora, Mythra, Poppi QTpi, Kosmos, Corvin, Crossette, Patroka, Zenobia, Dagas (Kaiser Zone is busted) vs crap like Gorg or Godfrey. Some of their gimmicks are crap with Finch, Electra, Percival is mob fight dependent and does nothing without them, Kassandra, Perun, etc. Also the arbitrary aux core slot limits MASSIVELY gimp many blades and prop up other ones for no reason, if you have one aux core slot then you're pretty much average at best and it sucks.

Also some drivers suck with some blades, getting megalances on Zeke was painful because his animations were shit and getting most big melee weapons on Nia was also painful because her animations are equally shit. Pandoria was also awful pre- NG+ Bringer of Chaos mode beside being a launcher (and even then BoC mode has its issues in Challenge mode). I also didn't find the blade quests immensely more interesting then 3's colony liberation arcs, each colony in essence reflects on a mindset regarding this world in different ways which fits the whole angle they're going for with the freedom to choose what to do with your life.

9 Blades themselves don't matter nearly as much as the weapons do (and many unique blade passives suck or just boil down to unga bunga hit gooder damage boosts save for slightly quirky stuff like Nim being about fusion combos), and XB2 weapons are just classes by a different name. If we go off art totals 3 has way more going on then 2 did due to how arts work out and how much more you can actual tailor arts in 3 compared to 2, and unlike 2 you can actually control the party so you don't just default the AI to support if you don't want to just let the AI run everything. Plus the best way to play 2 was to stick to one blade a good chunk of the time, you have little good reason to change out of Fiora, Elma, BoC Pandoria, Mythra (most the time), or any other great damage blade and your AI should be either stuck on Poppi QTpi for break spam, Dagas for Kaiser Zone, Mythra/Shulk support, or Patroka/Adenine for weakness exploiting. So sometimes AI just ran one blade so they didn't swap out of their job by accident. If you're playing 2 at its best and most optimal, it is as degenerate as 3's system just you have arguably more speed in 2 (depending on the class set up).

I love 2 a lot because it has a great combat system, but that's because it is fun to play like a degenerate in 2 not because their isn't a lot of very degenerate strategies in 2 where it can become a very unga bunga game.

The environment is weird for me, it is very desolate and it just feels wrong, especially in the Uraya-like area. Probably because it is just feels wrong on purpose given the context of the world, it isn't quite as mystical as 1 or 2's biomes could be but considering this is a war torn hellscape I can sort of see this direction and ultimately I like the environments fine. I've seen spouts of mythical stuff here and there, though one was a secret optional area in a far off corner of the desert.

I need to see where this plot is going fully, because I've heard mutterings from overhearing discussions that the plot takes a huge turn by chapter 6 and 7 and the ending is very divisive for people. Some think it is uber based and is the best Xeno ending, and others think it sucks and ruins the game. I'm seeing a lot of mixed takes in general, but that's at least partially because these people are retarded ADD redditors who think that any arcs that doesn't lead to a major plot changing action set piece is filler and that the game should be just chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 or something weird like that.

 

[George Boreman]

I'd agree that this one probably has the worst environments/exploration of the trilogy though its still fun to run around and explore. In fact, I'm impressed with how I keep finding more in each map, after I think that I should be close to finding everything.

I'll try to keep this spoiler free but I didn't find chapters 6 and 7 aren't nearly as bad as people say. They aren't as good as chapter 5 and have plenty of issues but they also aren't as bad as chapter 4 in XC2 (my personal low point in the trilogy). And I found the actual ending fantastic. I think the main cause of the backlash is that it didn't meet the really high expectations of fanboys who wanted to see Shulk and Rex join together to fight Malanza again after some amazing twist. That being said, the last dungeon is too long and boring. The final boss fight has some neat ideas but drags on and was too easy.

I'm seeing a lot of mixed takes in general, but that's at least partially because these people are retarded ADD redditors who think that any arcs that doesn't lead to a major plot changing action set piece is filler and that the game should be just chapters 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 or something weird like that.

That and being upset if the game doesn't spoon-feed them every little bit of information, no matter how inconsequential. The number of complaints I've seen about "plot holes" which are neither actual plot holes nor things left completely unexplained by the game is too damn high. Of course the game has plot holes but for some reason those aren't what's getting people worked up.

 

[huecoffs02]

I tried going into Hard mode, first boss battle was 2 mechas that immediately summon 3 soldiers each and rape my party with AOEs (I outleved everything by 5 levels). I tried couple of times until I gave up and went into Normal, and even then it felt like luck based mission since that fight is complete chaos and the party keeps bunching up on enemies despite how suicidal it is. Either I'm missing some technique how to fill the charge gauge super fast to get out of pinch situations, how to tell the party to spread out or I do significantly less damage. The only other alternative I didn't try is to completely wall out with 4 healers and 3 defenders, but then I feel combat will become completely dry. The most baffling gameplay decision is that only healers are able to revive characters, meaning that if your healers get one shot by enemy AOE (like with J's fight) then you are essentially suffering an instant game over without even the ability to just instantly restore it, instead forcing you to wait for everyone to die. In general enemy AOE abilities completely break the whole DPS/Tank/Healer roles of the game.

But my main issue with the game is how slow it feels and how much nothing changes that much gameplay wise. Unlike the Blades in 2 that had great designs and a lot of depth to them, the heroes and classes are just the same human with variations of the same 3 base roles. You are also limited to one of them while 2 let you have 9 different blades. The heroes quests are also boring - going through the colony liberation, rather than the unique actions you needed to do in 2. I still didn't get any part 2 to hero quests, but if it will require to grind colony relations then fuck it. World exploration is also vastly more boring, 1 had a huge wow factor while 2 had cool biomes inside the whales, while 3 just feels like any other JRPG design wise, and I never get a sense of wanting to go back to a previous location and exploring new parts of it.

I do like the plot and the characters, but again, everything goes so slow. Plot revelations are obvious several hours before they are revealed, character development would spread out over multiple scenes that are extremely similar, to the point you just want to get on with how it works out.

You need three medics for that, that's how I did it. Also, put Mio on Zephyr and boost her evasion and speed + Speed Demon and Wide Slash and you should have an easier time. I don't know if you got her but the Hero with the banner is also really good because she has a Regenerate art.

I'd agree that this one probably has the worst environments/exploration of the trilogy though its still fun to run around and explore. In fact, I'm impressed with how I keep finding more in each map, after I think that I should be close to finding everything.

I'll try to keep this spoiler free but I didn't find chapters 6 and 7 aren't nearly as bad as people say. They aren't as good as chapter 5 and have plenty of issues but they also aren't as bad as chapter 4 in XC2 (my personal low point in the trilogy). And I found the actual ending fantastic. I think the main cause of the backlash is that it didn't meet the really high expectations of fanboys who wanted to see Shulk and Rex join together to fight Malanza again after some amazing twist. That being said, the last dungeon is too long and boring. The final boss fight has some neat ideas but drags on and was too easy.



That and being upset if the game doesn't spoon-feed them every little bit of information, no matter how inconsequential. The number of complaints I've seen about "plot holes" which are neither actual plot holes nor things left completely unexplained by the game is too damn high. Of course the game has plot holes but for some reason those aren't what's getting people worked up.

It is the best selling one so far isn't it? There's bound to be some idiots buying and being used to spoonfeeding on games like Dad of War that want everything explained through Mickey Mouse cartoons. Starting Chapter 6 right and I haven't found anything huge yet. I do have some big questions but still way to go so not taking that against the game.

I do have to say that the twist at the end of Chapter 5 (the actual twist and not the backstory) took me by surprise but it made sense.

 

[Barracuda Joe]

Frankly I'd have hated to see Rex and Shulk come back (I'd be fine with them being explicitly non-canon hero dlc, or having them show up as remixed "origin clone" variants). The fact that Nia and Melia are the only characters known to still be around adds a good sense that it's been a very, very long time since the events of 1&2. I like that, and it helps sell the idea that most nobody knows anything about what the mechonis' sword is, or what uraya was, or that the weird horned skull in the ocean was part of a massive god. The lack of constant cheap callbacks is nice.

 

[Welsh Catgirl Enjoyer]

Frankly I'd have hated to see Rex and Shulk come back (I'd be fine with them being explicitly non-canon hero dlc, or having them show up as remixed "origin clone" variants). The fact that Nia and Melia are the only characters known to still be around adds a good sense that it's been a very, very long time since the events of 1&2. I like that, and it helps sell the idea that most nobody knows anything about what the mechonis' sword is, or what uraya was, or that the weird horned skull in the ocean was part of a massive god. The lack of constant cheap callbacks is nice.

The callbacks definitely make it feel like a game that's made for the franchise fans, while also being subtle enough that new fans won't be excessively confused. Most importantly though, it lets the new cast take the stage without constantly being overshadowed by a character who's already had their time in the spotlight.

I'm guessing they were aware of the risks here, which is why Melia/Nia don't really have a presence till the last chapter, and they don't linger excessively. And the reference to Shulk/Rex in City is so subtle that a lot of people may miss it (for anyone not sure what I'm on about, go check out those statues of the first Ouroboros again).

 

[Fishious Rend]

Man this game feels way better then 2, shame about how long it takes to get to the decent classes.

 

[Monolith]

Frankly I'd have hated to see Rex and Shulk come back (I'd be fine with them being explicitly non-canon hero dlc, or having them show up as remixed "origin clone" variants). The fact that Nia and Melia are the only characters known to still be around adds a good sense that it's been a very, very long time since the events of 1&2. I like that, and it helps sell the idea that most nobody knows anything about what the mechonis' sword is, or what uraya was, or that the weird horned skull in the ocean was part of a massive god. The lack of constant cheap callbacks is nice.

Alvis should have been back.

 

[huecoffs02]

You can't convince me everyone yelling QUEEN NIA QUEEN NIA QUEEN NIA is not Monolith embracing waifu power

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Alvis should have been back.

Why? If to my knowledge Mythra and Pyra don't show up, why would Alvis? Plus Alvis kind of used everything he had to give Shulk his wish when he used the Zohar/Conduit to rewrite the world, Pnuema is pretty much dead, Klaus just rewrote things so Mythra and Pyra could be normal blades, so Ontos would also probably be gone too as would Malos if that weren't clear. It kind of fits the theme of 1 that Alvis like the rest of the bullshit Zanza/Klaus made fades by XC1. I would like to get a callback to when Alvis said the world would be better in his final vision, but XC1 was already kind of retconned anyway so meh.

 

[Monolith]

Why? If to my knowledge Mythra and Pyra don't show up, why would Alvis? Plus Alvis kind of used everything he had to give Shulk his wish when he used the Zohar/Conduit to rewrite the world, Pnuema is pretty much dead, Klaus just rewrote things so Mythra and Pyra could be normal blades, so Ontos would also probably be gone too as would Malos if that weren't clear. It kind of fits the theme of 1 that Alvis like the rest of the bullshit Zanza/Klaus made fades by XC1. I would like to get a callback to when Alvis said the world would be better in his final vision, but XC1 was already kind of retconned anyway so meh.

Pyra and Mythra were at best passively suicidal and didn't want to come back after Rex died. Alvis was never confirmed dead, wasn't suicidal, and I expected him to be roped into creating Origin since he's the only surviving character in the series even remotely qualified to screw around with dimensional borders.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Pyra and Mythra were at best passively suicidal and didn't want to come back after Rex died. Alvis was never confirmed dead, wasn't suicidal, and I expected him to be roped into creating Origin since he's the only surviving character in the series even remotely qualified to screw around with dimensional borders.

Not by the end of 2 game they weren't. They wanted to live after chapter 7 after Rex give them his big speech and became the Master Driver to reawaken Pnuema who is the unified full power Aegis. By the end of the game they learn to value their life as they learned from Rex who is so positive about life that he thanks Klaus for life despite everything that went wrong. Blades and Drivers feeding into each other is part of XB2's whole theming and how they work in the story, for better and for worse (See: Malos).

They sacrificed themselves because they had to in order to use the Conduit's remaining energy, Pnuema, Ontos, and Logos are tied to the Conduit. No Conduit? No Trinity Core Processor. Klaus had the means to remove Mythra and Pyra from their ties to the Conduit to be normal beings in his final moments, because the Trinity Core Processor didn't matter by the end anyway so messing it up when the Conduit is about to go away isn't a big deal, but he can't do that with Ontos because Ontos isn't in the same dimension.

To me it was implied that Alvis shouldn't be around anymore by how the end with how of 1 and 2 works out, I expected at most that he might get referenced or maybe exist like Pyra/Mythra but he can't be Ontos anymore. He can't be confirmed (prior to 3 anyway) because 1 wasn't made with 2 in mind so this question didn't really matter until 2 came out, and answering what happened to Ontos in 2 can't really happen in a way that makes sense unless we extend the ending to even further in time or something. Considering 1 made a world where no Gods exist then Ontos being an all powerful super computer who is considered the true God of 1's world pretty much also shouldn't exist as Shulk indirectly wished for Ontos to disappear using the true Monado. Shulk rewrote the world and reunited the dimensions in his few moments as a true God.

Finally Alvis shouldn't have any of his powers because the Conduit isn't accessible anymore to him as it is gone, so even if he did exist he can't do what you imply with your spoiler anymore.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Just met Monica. I was actually horrified when Melia was revealed to be a robot decoy. It still doesn't make sense to me why she is evil. It doesn't make sense to me with what happened in the previous Future Connected.

I noticed also the areas are all versions of previous areas. Area with the bow girl is i think Makna Forest
The castle area is the Eryeth Sea

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Just met Monica. I was actually horrified when Melia was revealed to be a robot decoy. It still doesn't make sense to me why she is evil. It doesn't make sense to me with what happened in the previous Future Connected.

I noticed also the areas are all versions of previous areas. Area with the bow girl is i think Makna Forest
The castle area is the Eryeth Sea

Consul N implies That Melia exists somewhere and she believes in hope for the future. N says something to the effect of, "Oh Queen, was this your doing as you believe in hope? Then I shall prove to you that your hope is foolish.". So Melia probably isn't evil.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Finished chapter 5, holy shit those were like 2 hours of cutscenes with bosses. Hopefully from here on out the pace gets better. I wonder if I'll try to get those extra heroes ranks or just go for the heroes one and then straight for the ending. I kinda with all those big moments in had a point instead of just having longer haired Nia and killing off a minor character, it's a huge problem in modern gaming where you can't do sweeping changes because then fans would get angry.

Also discovered that to see the requirements for level cap heroes you need to go to Settings and then the Hero Roster, wtf is that design?