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StarTopic Xenoblade 3 |ST| Σ Become One

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I have to go to bed, but hoo boy the end of Chapter 2 is good. The cutscenes, voice acting, direction, and so on is just excellent. And the music is great of course and the battle themes keep on coming; I think I just wasn’t too terribly keen on one or two tracks but everything else has been great.
 
Seems like Chapter 2 picks up quite a bit based on what people are saying in this thread, which is a big relief. Story really feels like it’s spinning it’s wheels at the moment for the sake of tutorials.

Also very curious as to just how big this world is. Story blitzes through locations like they’re nothing. I barely got a chance to even listen to the Millick Meadows theme ingame.
 
chocolate_supra said:
Couple quick questions:

1. Can the big destination ! marker be turned off? I like having it on my minimap but not so much in the middle of the visible landscape. I thought the developer interviews said it could be turned off it you don't like it, but I can't find the option?
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You can deactivate it (and others) from the Quests menu.
 
Yeah, I was also worried I wasn't so much into the game during chapter 2, but then the ending happened and now Im totally in. I've spent more than 10 hours just doing side stuff in chapter 3 and I've loved every minute of it. Heroes are SO well integrated into the lore and the story that you don't really feel it's side stuff. It's crazy. Now Im a bit overleveled because I unlocked three heroes before moving on with chapter 3.

I remember reading in some of the reviews that early areas are intentionally more boring or less welcoming to fit the theme of the game, but that it gets better when you progress on the story. Let's see if it's true!
 
dude, this game needs to be the BIGGEST nosedive in history to not be the best Xeno game. I'm 10h in and its insane how good it is.
 
Wow, the story is taking fascinating turns almost each and every cutscene.

While the progression and world design isn't fully open like in XCX, it's something I'm not that disappointed in since I never expected it to be like that, but it sort of makes up for it with Monolith's usual knack for aesthetic flair and the ability to just produce breathtaking vistas.

The biggest thing that hampers my enjoyment is 2 things.

First of all (4 hours and beyond spoiler)

The villains. They feel pretty shallow, and I don't like how they're written.

It was one of the weaker parts of XCX as well, and it's a bummer that XC3 doesn't quite improve all that much on it.

The other thing stopping me a bit is the fact that I don't understand it fully. I'm not very well versed into the mechanics, so I stick to lower level enemies. It's like.. I don't feel like I have the confidence to tackle tougher enemies because I'm afraid to get done for since I don't quite understand the combat fully.

So, anyone wanna share what their general strategy has been? I don't mean it as a "please help me" question. I'd just love to hear about various ways and means to optimise the battles.
 
Currently fussing with the sweet spot for when to turn on hard mode lol. It occurred to me after the tutorial fights absolutely dragged that it might just be an HP modifier, and then when that level 5 unique seemed utterly impossible on level I turned it off and it became doable. (Though I will say - I haven't actually wiped yet. I may have been playing it too safe with bailing after Lanz went down, but it really didn't look like reviving him was going to make a difference.) Makes sense that when you have so few options at your disposal, difficulty scaling falls apart.

However:
Moebius felt too easy. I kinda want to turn the difficulty back to hard now, but I feel maybe I should wait until I have six members permanently.
 
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The battle system is really starting to open up now. Got three ouroboros and my first hero and it's awesome

The biggest twist for me so far was in Millick Meadows when his name wasn't Territorial Rotbart
 


high praise from Austin! glad he hasn't given up on the series


WestEgg said:
Does cleaning your clothes at camp actually do anything?
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seinfeld-nothing.gif

(srsly)
 
Dunban said:
Can we not turn this into a Xenoblade 2 thread? Or worse, a Xenoblade 1 vs Xenoblade 2 thread?
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I did no such thing. This game is literally taking aspect of both titles and my post was just highlighting that. I also just complimented monolith of what they can achieve with obstacles in front of them and when they have full control, a what-if for being impressed with this titles quality. Someone took it wrong, it’s their fault. Not my fault if it touched a nerve.

I’ll continue to compared it to both titles (1&2) if I post here, it’s just part of the critical analysis on my part.
 
the ending sequence of chapter two was really, really awesome. i feel like the chapter dragged out for a while - it's definitely your traditional early game xenoblade type of 'go here and do this, then go here and do this, and that, and this, etc' quest for the sake of tutorials but the ending really picked up
 
I was gonna hold off on this one for a bit but the impressions I'm seeing everywhere are so positive that maybe I'll try to make time for it lol. Glad everyone is enjoying it so much.
 
DecoReturns said:
I did no such thing. This game is literally taking aspect of both titles and my post was just highlighting that. I also just complimented monolith of what they can achieve with obstacles in front of them and when they have full control, a what-if for being impressed with this titles quality. Someone took it wrong, it’s their fault. Not my fault if it touched a nerve.

I’ll continue to compared it to both titles (1&2) if I post here, it’s just part of the critical analysis on my part.
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it's doing so much more, it's taking a ton of gameplay-stuff from X and the expansions as well, this goes way beyond the surface level plot combinations of 1+2!
 
I was able to finally start the game a few hours ago, and wow. I have to say I'm quite impressed, even if I knew it was going to be a great game. It's miles ahead the other Xenoblade, both graphically and in the animation field, and the story is the most interesting to me of all of them. You can feel all the massive work of monolith as you keep playing. Simply amazing.
 
11 hours in. Near the end of Chapter 2. Why is this game so good??!! I'm not even a fan of jrpg games. Cutscenes are maybe the best I've ever seen.
 
Yeah the game feels like the best parts of 1 and 2 in the most thorough way.

Even Chain Attacks feel like a fusion of 1 and 2
 
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Also the characters.... I would die for these characters lol. They're so good and I love all their dynamics.
 
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7 hours in, just unlocked the class change. Enjoying the pace so far but reading all the comments in here about the ending of chapter 2 has me more pumped up to finish it.

Best thing I can say about the main cast is I don’t dislike any of them, they’re all great

Trying to decide best girl (or boy) though
 
About 15 hours in, start of chapter 3. Taking my time unlocking heroes at the moment. They are really really well integrated in the world and story so far and mastering different classes is really fun too. I’m insanely hooked and sad that I have to work tonight. Up to this point it‘s an almost perfect experience. Can’t really echo the sentiment that it‘s too slow in the beginning either (at least compared to XC2).
 
The game really opens up in chapter 3. I went from having no sidequests to worrying that I'm getting overleveled doing them. The hero quests are great, they remind me a lot of X's affinity missions. The boss at the end of Valdi's was legitimately challenging and really showed off the battle system. Getting the art that revives everyone for Eunie's ouroboros helps a lot when your healers die (I had Eunie as a tank during the fight). Combat just keeps getting better and better. Things really heat up when you hit level 20 and get the extra art slot, skill slot, and gem slot.

Originally, I was going to give characters classes that I thought fit their personality and style or have an art/skill that caught my eye, but then I felt like I was wasting class points so I had everyone learning the main six. The two healer classes only really synergize with each other, there's no skills that are useful to them from the physical classes, but now that I'm starting to unlock heroes it's getting interesting.

Silver nopon coins seem easy to acquire so I've been liberally upgrading classes with them, and I just got the recipe for Manana's dish that boosts CP gain by 20% without boosting EXP.
 
EtherPenguin said:
The game really opens up in chapter 3. I went from having no sidequests to worrying that I'm getting overleveled doing them. The hero quests are great, they remind me a lot of X's affinity missions. The boss at the end of Valdi's was legitimately challenging and really showed off the battle system. Getting the art that revives everyone for Eunie's ouroboros helps a lot when your healers die (I had Eunie as a tank during the fight). Combat just keeps getting better and better. Things really heat up when you hit level 20 and get the extra art slot, skill slot, and gem slot.

Originally, I was going to give characters classes that I thought fit their personality and style or have an art/skill that caught my eye, but then I felt like I was wasting class points so I had everyone learning the main six. The two healer classes only really synergize with each other, there's no skills that are useful to them from the physical classes, but now that I'm starting to unlock heroes it's getting interesting.

Silver nopon coins seem easy to acquire so I've been liberally upgrading classes with them, and I just got the recipe for Manana's dish that boosts CP gain by 20% without boosting EXP.
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The gold nopon coins ain't hard to obtain right?
 
Starting Chapter 3.

Jesus Christ the cutscenes in this game, they went above and beyond.
 
Ketwick9844 said:
The gold nopon coins ain't hard to obtain right?
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I have a lot less of them, only got 18 after about 16 hours of playing. You don't get any for skirmish rewards like silver and skirmishes are the only way I know of to farm nopon coins. Usually, when I open nopon marked chests, it's always silver. The DLC gives you a bunch, though I only redeemed the outfits so far.

Maybe later in the game they become farmable, but I wouldn't care to spend any right now. I did find something you'll want to save your coins for instead of using them on gem crafting and the like:
A secret shop that only exchanges nopon coins. It wants 99 gold nopon coins to get an accessory that allows non-healers to revive.
 
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I'm only at Chapter 2 in Millick Meadows but I am pretty surprised at handheld visuals. They're like Xenoblade DE but a bit cleaner, which is great cause DE was comfortable to play in handheld a fair bit.

Game is a triumph so far, love it so much.
 
After not liking Tatsu and Tora very much, I'm glad we've gotten back on track with Nene/Kino and Riku/Manana as likable Nopon buddies.
 
I found when you have an accessory that increases a stat by a percentage, it does not apply to any flat increase from a gem.
So it's: (Base Stat * Accessory's Percentage Increase) + Gem's Flat Increase.

I'm also pretty sure field effects stack. So if you can lay down two Attack Up fields, characters seem to do double damage while standing in it (it's +50% normally). What I haven't been able to figure out yet is if the gem that boosts the power of buffs applies to field effects.
 
I arrived yo the desert yesterday (or today) and I was expecting its theme to be like Oblivia's or Mor Ardain's, but instead it was really sweet, cozy. Area themes haven't wowed me a lot but this one really is so pleasant.
 
Holy shit you people weren't kidding, near the end of chapter 2 goes BONKERS! It feels like the end of of an epic jrpg but it's legit only the beginning.

That one scene where the soundtrack from the second trailer plays gave me goosebumps.

So much mystery, action, emotions ahhhhh.

This is GOTY folks.


Oh interlink is a sick gameplay element.
 
This game is incredible. No caveats.

I had a short conversation with someone a little while back about the grass, maybe feet? Where I could not tell because if online video quality and image blur, if the grass was full 3d or billboarding, but I thought it was just a denser version of what the previous games were doing.

I was wrong, it's a completely different system. It definitely gives off a 3d look complete with foreshortening. I still feel like something's off, I can kind of see it in batches when rotating the camera, but not enough for me to grok it.

My hats off to the VA's.
 
Síriocaz said:
Do you have a 2017 model? I always have my personal fan on so I don't really hear anything, but I'll check out today.
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Yeah it's a 2017 model, and it's quite hot around here to be fair lol

It's fine in portable mode, but when i try to play in docked...oh boy
 
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I had to run away from this thread ever since Friday due to late delivery but finally! The way it delivers the opening really heightened my appreciation of MS in cinematic direction: the smooth transition between cutscenes and gameplay sections, the way both blend into each other after a scripted battle. The overall presentation is also a big step up over XC2, even the menu design shows a lot of effort.

My only gripe is that the game opens itself a bit too slowly, but such choice will probably help newcomers. Also mob battles are too short for me to have eargasm over the Keves battle theme lol.
 
Mercury_Sagit said:
I had to run away from this thread ever since Friday due to late delivery but finally! The way it delivers the opening really heightened my appreciation of MS in cinematic direction: the smooth transition between cutscenes and gameplay sections, the way both blend into each other after a scripted battle. The overall presentation is also a big step up over XC2, even the menu design shows a lot of effort.

My only gripe is that the game opens itself a bit too slowly, but such choice will probably help newcomers. Also mob battles are too short for me to have eargasm over the Keves battle theme lol.
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Hear that Fami? Mercury wants something a little meatier!

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Riku is fucking amazing. Best Nopon since Riki, although that wasn't a high bar, he cleared it from orbit.

Riki was a lampshade (and I'm not sure if it was intentional from the beginning, or a creation of localization) of the annoying child like mascot character, where the little hairball was actually self aware of it, and was also really a 40 year old dead beat dad. (I feel this moment is best encapsulated by victory banter, with riki, mellia and sharla, where riki bullshits his ass off as the living cutesy teddy bear to Melia, 'ooooh, I wish Mellie was real sisterpon!', which mellia finds adorable, and tries to bring sharla in on it. To which Riki immediately flips to 40 year old deadbeat who is tired of the mother in law with a straight deadpan in tone delivery: 'Meh, sharla is like Mommapon. One mommapon is enough.'

Riku is a nopon through and through, but he's a comically serious trope, in a world that is already played straight and serious, even when he messes up on something and gets a little flippant, in the body of a classic annoying mascot character. It is such a blatantly obvious juxtaposition, it's played in a world with no wise guys for a straight man trope to play off of, he is over serious to already serious characters, but somehow it just works so damn well, and I think that lies heavily on the shoulders of the VA.

It took me a while to realize what riki was, that he was making fun of the reason I didn't want to go anywhere near him, that it was done well, and then to warm up to him. Riku is just my boy from the first time he opened his mouth.
 
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