Pre-Release Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Pre-release Discussion Thread (Spoilers from leaks/early copies NOT allowed)

[EtherPenguin]

Mio using a sword while in the Zephyr clothes is really interesting. I had a theory that using left-side arts would switch to the required weapon because a lot of the animations wouldn't make sense with different weapons (especially the tactician arts with the origami birds), so maybe that's what we're seeing here and you stick with the weapon until using another art.

Mio seems to use Air Slash with the sword, I like how the animation is pretty much the same as Shulk's air slash.

 

[Renmazuo]

Not sure I see it. Mio starts with the sword, unsummons it to dash, then summons it again to perform a regular autoattack, and only then she uses an art.

The first blog post already confirmed having multiple of the same class is possible and that's all it looks like to me here: both Noah and Mio being swordfighters.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

About “leaks”

Spoiler

Today tweet show this

Eh, while I think the leak is likely fake (mostly because of the trailer thing) and in any case doesn't really tell us that much new, this outfit thing does kinda fit with the wording of the leak. This is still an outfit tied to a class, just not the one Mio's in.

But a possible confirmation of being able to wear any class outfit regardless of current class is pretty neat

 

[EtherPenguin]

Not sure I see it. Mio starts with the sword, unsummons it to dash, then summons it again to perform a regular autoattack, and only then she uses an art.

The first blog post already confirmed having multiple of the same class is possible and that's all it looks like to me here: both Noah and Mio being swordfighters.

The clip starts with them already in combat. There are some item drops implying they just defeated another enemy that was with the aspar. My theory is she used a left side sword art before the clip begins, it stays out, and then she uses another sword art so it keeps staying. But whenever she uses a right side art it'll switch back to the chakrams.

We know you can have multiple of the same class, I'm not questioning that. Just looking for a reason why she's in the wrong clothes for the swordfighter class. Since the left side art palette is made up of arts taken from classes that aren't your currently active one, I'm having a hard time imagining how some animations would work for every weapon, especially ranged arts for melee weapons. Like at the end of the crustip clip from the other day, Taion sends his birds forth like a wave, how would that work when you're in the swordfighter class? I guess melee weapons could just shoot a wave of ether but that means you'll need a hard separation of ranged arts are always ether arts / melee arts are always physicsal which previous games didn't do.

I'm a little concerned left side arts may only be usable as fusions giving us even less arts to work with on top of this system already having the least amount of arts available to the player. Maybe I'm also just looking for reasons not to dismiss the leak because I liked the way it described equipment, cooking, and affinity building camp activities.

 

[Almadel]

Everything about combat so far looks so good. I can't find anything to complain about the game yet

I agree Soma Bringer and Xenoblade 1 aren't that big of a departure, but Xenoblade 2 is where people went all in on it being a retelling of Episode 5. And I've seen people like Enel be dismissive toward the first game for not being proper xeno. Like there's plenty of legitimate criticisms a person can have toward 1 and explain why they like 2's story better, but when someone's argument is just "2's better because it's more xeno" that's what bothers me, especially when it's put in a more condescending way along the lines of "if you understood what xeno is about you wouldn't be saying you like 1 more" as if there's no merit to any of these games having their own goals and themes. But also I feel it's dismissive to 2 as its own thing as well as if it needs to be a retelling of gears to be good. Now with 3, I've seen some people say "it has two nations at war that start with K and A, it's episode 5!".

And I'm not saying you were doing any of that at all, this is a problem with me. My past interactions with people like I describe above has created this kneejerk reaction in me to be overly dismissive of gears comparisons and I absolutely need to be more mindful of when I'm doing that. I personally don't believe Takahashi has been trying to tell this one grand story for 20+ years. I think all his games start with some specific inspiration and then he uses his usual set of interests and storytelling gimmicks to flesh out that idea. And I do like his overall style even if I think he can go overboard with re-using stuff. But most people are just having fun with finding and drawing comparisons and I don't want to be the asshole who ruins the fun. A lot more people like connecting everything than I do, the comparisons are valid, and yea I need to be more mindful of when I overreact to gears comparisons. And because Takahashi reuses stuff, it's fair game to use past work to make predictions.

There are some gears/saga comparisons I find a bit silly. Every time a new weird creature is introduced, a subsection of fans are like "it's totally a gnosis!" I could see it with the fog king but at the point that people are now saying it about the ouroboros too, it's just getting a little hard to take seriously. Then Luxin opened his feature-length analysis by explaining how Ethel is a KOS-MOS reference.

But having said that, I do think reincarnation will be a part of 3's story. After Rex and the gang meet with Klaus, Klaus says quietly to himself "maybe I will one day meet with you again... Galea" and I think they're going to do something with that. I'm half expecting Noah and Mio to be new reincarnations of Klaus and Galea. So maybe not a Graf character exactly but Klaus could be described as a combination of Kim and Grimoire Verum, and I've considered he could be the Kim to Noah's Fei. So that's my crackpot theory.

I agree that people saying "this and this is Episode 3 or this and that is Episode 1" is a bit silly. None of what happens in the Xenoblade games lines up with Perfect Works layout at all. Reusing certain plot points doesn't mean it's meant to line up directly with Xenogears., but some story elements seem so obviously reused that it's fun to speculate and predict what will happen.

But stuff like Ethel you mentioned, I agree with. There's nothing KOS-MOS about her except some longer hair and blue eyes. She's probably going to be a minor story related antagonist we fight a few times early on, then she dies because her time is up (her marking is all black). But stuff like the Fog King is so obviously a Gnosis. It's a ghost like being using the same model as the Infernal Guldo, which is a mutated human. It can't be touched by normal physical attacks and requires a special ether wave. It comes through a dimensional portal like the Gnosis do, and most of all.....it has an attack called "Agnost Beam" lol.

The original Xenoblade is probably Takahashi's most complete and well balanced game he's ever done. That's why it's so successful. He actually took some steps back to make a game. But you can also tell it's not one of his passion projects. Like Gears, Saga, or Xenoblade 2. X feels somewhere in the middle. That's why I like XC2 more than XC1, but I still absolutely love 1 and could replay it countless times.

I don't personally think XC1 is inferior to all his other games on it's own, but it's a little disappointing when you have such amazingly varied character writing/story/detailed lore in Xenogears/Xenosaga, then XC1 happens and most characters are just there to be support for Shulk and fade into the background. It's not bad, but it doesn't feel like something Takahashi was all in on. Even the party members in Soma Bringer felt like they stood out more than anyone in XC1. But in the end, I still believe XC1 is what needed to happen for Takahashi and Monolithsoft for them to be where they are now. And we see them getting back more and more into that ambitiousness again with each game.

My crackpot theory is that the new world is called Aionios because it's the place where Artifice Aion is going to be revived by the Saviourites and all those fallen people the Offseers are sending off get to be fuel for it. And Malos might be the male version of Miang (Myyah) and Noah gets to be one of the hosts for him. Or maybe Pyra/Mythra get that role now

 

[Renmazuo]

Maybe I'm also just looking for reasons not to dismiss the leak because I liked the way it described equipment, cooking, and affinity building camp activities.

I didn't want to say it but that was the impression I was getting lol

But I promise you it is fake and I have proof too. Like I said several of the "leaked" concepts are speculation that was posted previously on a different 4chan board.

For example that stuff about Riku being a gem crafter, or Valdi being a pilot is from this post made earlier the very same day that "leak" was posted

Or that other specific thing he posted about Zeon being a tutorial guy was taken from this other post made in the very same thread as the previous one

Literally all the things he "leaked" are like this, speculation taken from other people worded in a way that sounds "plausible"

When one is dealing with a seemingly fake anonymous text only leak with no proof, and evidence that contradicts it appears, one's first instinct should be concluding that the leak was indeed fake, not try to find ways for how the leak could technically still be true, simply because it says things we want to hear. Let's not turn this into a Smash Bros speculation thread lol

 

[Procheno]

So the whole time Adam was an Ouruboros

 

[Harpoon]

So this might have been mentioned earlier, but I just found out that the "Moebius ↑" effect that Eunie and Taion's Ouroboros has on one of its attack is apparently "Moebius Slayer" in Japanese, which seems to confirm that Moebius is indeed referring to an enemy type and not a stat. Looking at the mobius strips on Wild Ride in the place of Ouroboros symbols, that's veeeeerrrry interesting to know...

 

[NabiscoFelt]

The clip starts with them already in combat. There are some item drops implying they just defeated another enemy that was with the aspar. My theory is she used a left side sword art before the clip begins, it stays out, and then she uses another sword art so it keeps staying. But whenever she uses a right side art it'll switch back to the chakrams.

We know you can have multiple of the same class, I'm not questioning that. Just looking for a reason why she's in the wrong clothes for the swordfighter class. Since the left side art palette is made up of arts taken from classes that aren't your currently active one, I'm having a hard time imagining how some animations would work for every weapon, especially ranged arts for melee weapons. Like at the end of the crustip clip from the other day, Taion sends his birds forth like a wave, how would that work when you're in the swordfighter class? I guess melee weapons could just shoot a wave of ether but that means you'll need a hard separation of ranged arts are always ether arts / melee arts are always physicsal which previous games didn't do.

I'm a little concerned left side arts may only be usable as fusions giving us even less arts to work with on top of this system already having the least amount of arts available to the player. Maybe I'm also just looking for reasons not to dismiss the leak because I liked the way it described equipment, cooking, and affinity building camp activities.

I think your theory about switching to another weapon for left-side arts is pretty plausible, I just don't know if they'd let you continue to use the weapon afterwards (I'd think you'd just immediately switch back). I don't think we need to worry about the arts on the left side not being usable outside of fusions since otherwise there's no reason to have them assigned to the d-pad like they are

I think the thing with Mio in the clip is most likely just confirmation that class outfits can be swapped independently of your active class. Kinda like how DE let you customize your visual appearance outside of the actual armor you had equipped. Also not sure it would really disprove the leak anyways (if it wasn't already likely false, that is) since this to me still counts as outfits being tied to class instead of fully customizeable. It's just Mio wearing her Zephyr outfit in a Swordfighter class, not a new outfit entirely.

 

[EtherPenguin]

The affinity tree posted on twitter mentions gems in Manana's feelings toward Riku so gems have to be back in some fashion. But that part about Valdi being a pilot is indeed taken from random speculation, so it's definitely fake and we aren't getting an X-lite equipment system. I just hope whatever equipment is like it's better than 2's two accessories with only one effect each. I wonder how a system with only gems would work, think Paper Mario's badges.

There seem to be unique models for every enemy drop. In 2 you had a different model for each category of item but this seems more varied and the items seem less generic. There's the purple orb and orange crystals the crustip drops, the blue crystal and spherical grayish ore in the Lanz vs Aspar clip, and an ancient looking stone ring glowing gold in the Eunie vs. Rhogul clip. There's also a green shiny behind the desert Camil that's marked on the map. So it's likely the gems will be crafted. Torna and Future Connected looked to be moving away from that design so I wondered if 3 would follow the trend.

@Almadel I do see it with the fog king. That's one time the comparison made sense to me. I just thought it was getting funny that it seemed every time something weird was shown people jumped to gnosis. But there are legitimate reasons to think ghosts and ouroboros are too as explained on the last page, so that's fair. It's just sort of amusing when people seem trigger-happy to make references but I'm guilty of that as well. There are times when I've wondered if something was at least a jokey wink to fans of another game when it probably wasn't. I mentioned in another thread that I always thought the two scientists assisting Klaus in Xenoblade 1's version of the experiment scene bear a vague resemblance to Shion and Kevin, a woman with auburn hair and glasses along with a dark haired man as scientists working together.

Oh and if this is just confirmation that you can stick with any class outfit in a different class, I'm happy I can keep Taion in his doctor who looking outfit while learning other class's arts for him.

 

[Renmazuo]

So this might have been mentioned earlier, but I just found out that the "Moebius ↑" effect that Eunie and Taion's Ouroboros has on one of its attack is apparently "Moebius Slayer" in Japanese, which seems to confirm that Moebius is indeed referring to an enemy type and not a stat. Looking at the mobius strips on Wild Ride in the place of Ouroboros symbols, that's veeeeerrrry interesting to know...

I thought that was already posted here but yes, I think it's extremely likely that the giant is one of these moebius creatures. Both the Ouroboros and the Moebius are concepts heavily associated with the Greek god Aion (god of perpetual time/eternity), likely who our new setting is named after.

While I'm at it I want to post something curious that might be relevant in future speculation: "aion" in Xenoblade 2 and "aion" in Aionios in Xenoblade 3 are NOT written nor pronounced the same way in Japanese. The former is アイオーン (aioon) and the latter is アイオン (aion).

As confusing as it might be for us westerners it is possible they are referring to different things and therefore not related. If I had to guess the former refers to the gnostic Aion while the latter refers to the Greek god.

EDIT:

I should note however, that at the very least the Japanese wikipedia makes no such distinction and writes both as アイオーン, meaning that the slightly shortened version Xenoblade 3 uses could just be something to make the name "Aionion" less cumbersome to pronounce.

EDIT 2:

It's most likely referring to the Greek word and I am overthinking things

 

[Pokemaniac]

So the whole time Adam was an Ouruboros

Not quite. It's more that Addam (specifically after he died) may have been a fog entity similar to the fog king, and, if that's true, Ouroboros might be a special class of fog entity that at least appears, on the surface, to be normal.

Hopefully the game introduces proper names for most of this stuff, because "fog entity" is a mouthful, and just falling back on Xenosaga terminology is a bit inelegant.

I thought that was already posted here but yes, I think it's extremely likely that the giant is one of these moebius creatures. Both the Ouroboros and the Moebius are concepts heavily associated with the Greek god Aion (god of perpetual time/eternity), likely who our new setting is named after.

While I'm at it I want to post something curious that might be relevant in future speculation: "aion" in Xenoblade 2 and "aion" in Aionios in Xenoblade 3 are NOT written nor pronounced the same way in Japanese. The former is アイオーン (aioon) and the latter is アイオン (aion).

As confusing as it might be for us westerners it is possible they are referring to different things and therefore not related. If I had to guess the former refers to the gnostic Aion while the latter refers to the Greek god.

Aionios I believe is actually a Greek word by itself that is used in biblical contexts to refer to things that are eternal.

 

[Renmazuo]

Aionios I believe is actually a Greek word by itself that is used in biblical contexts to refer to things that are eternal.

You are very correct and I totally forgot about that. Time to edit my post again.

However Aion himself is probably still relevant as we can see him here chilling with a Moebius strip in his most famous depiction:

 

[Apopheniac]

The clip starts with them already in combat. There are some item drops implying they just defeated another enemy that was with the aspar. My theory is she used a left side sword art before the clip begins, it stays out, and then she uses another sword art so it keeps staying. But whenever she uses a right side art it'll switch back to the chakrams.

What I'm thinking it might be is a class shift a la XC2 Blade swapping, where she stays as a swordfighter with her swordfighter moveset until she uses a different left side art, and the left side arts are replaced by zephyr arts to change back. That would mean you could swap classes based on the situation, like becoming a healer if both healers go down, or dealing with aggro overload by becoming a tank. Maybe the outfit indicates that certain role-based skills or bonuses are retained, so it's not as efficient as sticking with one role, but it's useful in a pinch. Or, you could swap classes without swapping roles by setting your left side arts palette so it only changes to classes of the same role, e.g. playing tactician and changing to medic gunner, trading versatility for consistency.

So this might have been mentioned earlier, but I just found out that the "Moebius ↑" effect that Eunie and Taion's Ouroboros has on one of its attack is apparently "Moebius Slayer" in Japanese, which seems to confirm that Moebius is indeed referring to an enemy type and not a stat. Looking at the mobius strips on Wild Ride in the place of Ouroboros symbols, that's veeeeerrrry interesting to know...

I'm guessing this means there will be more Moebius enemies than just the wild rider, since it would otherwise be a very niche effect. Probably will show up more later in the game, but they could be a whole thing like the Mechon or Gnosis.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

What I'm thinking it might be is a class shift a la XC2 Blade swapping, where she stays as a swordfighter with her swordfighter moveset until she uses a different left side art, and the left side arts are replaced by zephyr arts to change back. That would mean you could swap classes based on the situation, like becoming a healer if both healers go down, or dealing with aggro overload by becoming a tank. Maybe the outfit indicates that certain role-based skills or bonuses are retained, so it's not as efficient as sticking with one role, but it's useful in a pinch. Or, you could swap classes without swapping roles by setting your left side arts palette so it only changes to classes of the same role, e.g. playing tactician and changing to medic gunner, trading versatility for consistency.

I'm guessing this means there will be more Moebius enemies than just the wild rider, since it would otherwise be a very niche effect. Probably will show up more later in the game, but they could be a whole thing like the Mechon or Gnosis.

Class hot-swapping via the left-side arts would be interesting, but might just get way too complicated. But it would make sense since that's kinda how the left-side palette was used in 2

 

[Apopheniac]

Class hot-swapping via the left-side arts would be interesting, but might just get way too complicated. But it would make sense since that's kinda how the left-side palette was used in 2

You did say yesterday that you were looking for a way to get more arts in without mapping another button, and this would solve the problem of what a gunstaff user would do with a hammer art. Torna had arts that were used upon swapping characters, so this system could be viewed as being of a similar vein.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Some interesting things that I first saw pointed out in a Reddit thread:

The tactics button doesn't seem to be clicked in the support video with Eunie (no indication on the UI), but the orders menu is pulled up for about a second. Either the UI for that is just weird/incomplete and the button was actually pressed, or the tactics button isn't what puts up the orders menu, which means we still don't know what it actually does. Also, that's apparently another button that needs to be assigned. Joy. At this rate I'm thinking this game will require two controllers to play

Also, pulling up the command menu does give us another look at the L and R prompts when the orders menu is open. It shows the characters above and below Eunie (Mio and Taion), just like when we saw it with Noah. I'm starting to think it's pretty likely that we get active character switching, but maybe it instead has something to do with the Tactics button

Edit: Also in this video, Eunie's circle arts seem to be charging based on time, instead of auto-attacks. Could be because of some sort of pouch item effect, but it doesn't seem like her auto-attack at the beginning of the clip charges her arts any.

 

[Crusters]

Everything about combat so far looks so good. I can't find anything to complain about the game yet


I agree that people saying "this and this is Episode 3 or this and that is Episode 1" is a bit silly. None of what happens in the Xenoblade games lines up with Perfect Works layout at all. Reusing certain plot points doesn't mean it's meant to line up directly with Xenogears., but some story elements seem so obviously reused that it's fun to speculate and predict what will happen.

But stuff like Ethel you mentioned, I agree with. There's nothing KOS-MOS about her except some longer hair and blue eyes. She's probably going to be a minor story related antagonist we fight a few times early on, then she dies because her time is up (her marking is all black). But stuff like the Fog King is so obviously a Gnosis. It's a ghost like being using the same model as the Infernal Guldo, which is a mutated human. It can't be touched by normal physical attacks and requires a special ether wave. It comes through a dimensional portal like the Gnosis do, and most of all.....it has an attack called "Agnost Beam" lol.

The original Xenoblade is probably Takahashi's most complete and well balanced game he's ever done. That's why it's so successful. He actually took some steps back to make a game. But you can also tell it's not one of his passion projects. Like Gears, Saga, or Xenoblade 2. X feels somewhere in the middle. That's why I like XC2 more than XC1, but I still absolutely love 1 and could replay it countless times.

I don't personally think XC1 is inferior to all his other games on it's own, but it's a little disappointing when you have such amazingly varied character writing/story/detailed lore in Xenogears/Xenosaga, then XC1 happens and most characters are just there to be support for Shulk and fade into the background. It's not bad, but it doesn't feel like something Takahashi was all in on. Even the party members in Soma Bringer felt like they stood out more than anyone in XC1. But in the end, I still believe XC1 is what needed to happen for Takahashi and Monolithsoft for them to be where they are now. And we see them getting back more and more into that ambitiousness again with each game.

My crackpot theory is that the new world is called Aionios because it's the place where Artifice Aion is going to be revived by the Saviourites and all those fallen people the Offseers are sending off get to be fuel for it. And Malos might be the male version of Miang (Myyah) and Noah gets to be one of the hosts for him. Or maybe Pyra/Mythra get that role now

Hmmmm..... Monolithsoft does love repurposing their old tropes in new directions (Xenoblade is a 'reversal' of xenosaga. Ie xenosaga = it's tech, no it's actually based on religion, Xenoblade = it's religion, no it's actually tech).

The way the Xenoblade world has been set up, aegis don't, or rather did not back then, need host bodies in that way. Not like Miang did, or zanza for that matter. They were an ai routine running on a processor, in order to get a host body they needed the materials to make one, mostly carbon, water, iron, and other trace ingredients, for the Klaus machine to print the humanoid body. Their actual 'body' was the processor core. BUT NOW Malos's processor, the Logos processor, itself was broken.

Which leaves a surprising amount of paths, just off the top of my head based off of your prompting is something that can be used for your crackpot theory (I'm loving all our crackpot theories).

Malos's logos processor was destroyed, what about system memory? There would be remains in system memory

Ontos is a master core, going by both the science: a tricore big little processor. (Big Master core with 2 littles), and the philosophy of the monadology. Triad= Monad with two Dyads. He DOES contain the functions of both the Logos and Pneuma cores.

The logos core can be reconstituted, the function redownloaded.

Malos.... May still be, fractured, but more or less in system memory, maybe he would now have a need to hopping into a pre existing host body?

Maybe we would need to reunite these two, to recreate a new proper Malos (hopefully untainted by evil blue keebler elf)?

 

[Zeal543]

Morytha detected, hype increasing

 

[chocolate_supra]

Hmmmm..... Monolithsoft does love repurposing their old tropes in new directions (Xenoblade is a 'reversal' of xenosaga. Ie xenosaga = it's tech, no it's actually based on religion, Xenoblade = it's religion, no it's actually tech).

The way the Xenoblade world has been set up, aegis don't, or rather did not back then, need host bodies in that way. Not like Miang did, or zanza for that matter. They were an ai routine running on a processor, in order to get a host body they needed the materials to make one, mostly carbon, water, iron, and other trace ingredients, for the Klaus machine to print the humanoid body. Their actual 'body' was the processor core. BUT NOW Malos's processor, the Logos processor, itself was broken.

Which leaves a surprising amount of paths, just off the top of my head based off of your prompting is something that can be used for your crackpot theory (I'm loving all our crackpot theories).

Malos's logos processor was destroyed, what about system memory? There would be remains in system memory

Ontos is a master core, going by both the science: a tricore big little processor. (Big Master core with 2 littles), and the philosophy of the monadology. Triad= Monad with two Dyads. He DOES contain the functions of both the Logos and Pneuma cores.

The logos core can be reconstituted, the function redownloaded.

Malos.... May still be, fractured, but more or less in system memory, maybe he would now have a need to hopping into a pre existing host body?

Maybe we would need to reunite these two, to recreate a new proper Malos (hopefully untainted by evil blue keebler elf)?

Goddamn I love these games

 

[Brewster123]

Some interesting things that I first saw pointed out in a Reddit thread:

The tactics button doesn't seem to be clicked in the support video with Eunie (no indication on the UI), but the orders menu is pulled up for about a second. Either the UI for that is just weird/incomplete and the button was actually pressed, or the tactics button isn't what puts up the orders menu, which means we still don't know what it actually does. Also, that's apparently another button that needs to be assigned. Joy. At this rate I'm thinking this game will require two controllers to play

Also, pulling up the command menu does give us another look at the L and R prompts when the orders menu is open. It shows the characters above and below Eunie (Mio and Taion), just like when we saw it with Noah. I'm starting to think it's pretty likely that we get active character switching, but maybe it instead has something to do with the Tactics button

Edit: Also in this video, Eunie's circle arts seem to be charging based on time, instead of auto-attacks. Could be because of some sort of pouch item effect, but it doesn't seem like her auto-attack at the beginning of the clip charges her arts any.

Its possible they did the crazy thing I'm hoping they did and made XC1 nation characters have XC1 art recharge (timer-based) and XC2 nation characters have auto-attack based recharge like XC2. Have we seen any auto-attack recharging on Noah or Lanz?

 

[EtherPenguin]

Haven't seen much talk about the second battle theme, granted we've only heard 10 seconds. But the rhogul they're fighting isn't unique (the second one not being targeted could be though), so it seems this is just a second normal theme like Mechanical Rhythm or Exploration. So I would guess the battle theme changes depending on whether or not you're in Keves or Agnus controlled territory.

Also, I wanted to point out there's something really pleasing about the color distribution among monsters in an area. The area with white sand has white aspars and black scrawlers that give a nice contrast with each other, and there's something attractive about that stream in the grasslands having a mix of sky blue crustips, purple brogs, and purple+blue blants. I don't know if I'm crazy for finding enemy colors attractive, but it feels like there was some thought and cooridination put into it.

I do believe circle arts are cooldown based and diamond arts are auto-attack based. The Eunie footage last night convinced me of that. Talent art refills are weirder. I've seen Noah's fill a tiny bit when he starts the animation of an art, and fill up a lot when his art hits. Then Eunie's fills a tiny bit after the art's animation finishes but nothing at the start of the animation like Noah. Several times in the trailer, Talent Arts don't fill at all when Arts are used. Maybe every class has unique talent art charge conditions. Talent arts also flash blue from time to time when they're full.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Its possible they did the crazy thing I'm hoping they did and made XC1 nation characters have XC1 art recharge (timer-based) and XC2 nation characters have auto-attack based recharge like XC2. Have we seen any auto-attack recharging on Noah or Lanz?

I imagine it would be class/Art based and not character based (you can distinguish the arts by whether they're a circle like 1 or a diamond like 2), but yeah that theory's been bandied about a lot and I suppose it could be true. Not really sure what the point of that would be vs just having a standard system but I suppose it would be a neat touch thematically (and in any case it seems fairly likely that'll be the case)

 

[Zeal543]

Haven't seen much talk about the second battle theme, granted we've only heard 10 seconds. But the rhogul they're fighting isn't unique (the second one not being targeted could be though), so it seems this is just a second normal theme like Mechanical Rhythm or Exploration. So I would guess the battle theme changes depending on whether or not you're in Keves or Agnus controlled territory.

Also, I wanted to point out there's something really pleasing about the color distribution among monsters in an area. The area with white sand has white aspars and black scrawlers that give a nice contrast with each other, and there's something attractive about that stream in the grasslands having a mix of sky blue crustips, purple brogs, and purple+blue blants. I don't know if I'm crazy for finding enemy colors attractive, but it feels like there was some thought and cooridination put into it.

I do believe circle arts are cooldown based and diamond arts are auto-attack based. The Eunie footage last night convinced me of that. Talent art refills are weirder. I've seen Noah's fill a tiny bit when he starts the animation of an art, and fill up a lot when his art hits. Then Eunie's fills a tiny bit after the art's animation finishes but nothing at the start of the animation like Noah. Several times in the trailer, Talent Arts don't fill at all when Arts are used. Maybe every class has unique talent art charge conditions. Talent arts also flash blue from time to time when they're full.

It could be an event battle theme like the ones that play in side quests in XC2

 

[zumaddy]

I just hope we get some spicy Machina lore, they were the race I wanted to learn most about in the original but we didn't get a ton of info outside of side quests

 

[EtherPenguin]

It could be an event battle theme like the ones that play in side quests in XC2

True, that would make sense. Based on the trailers, it seemed like quest enemies have an exclamation mark to the right of their name but that probably only happens if the quest is set as the current objective.

I hope one of these tweets lets us hear some more of the field themes soon.

 

[PandaAndino]

 

[Harpoon]

I just hope we get some spicy Machina lore, they were the race I wanted to learn most about in the original but we didn't get a ton of info outside of side quests

I'm pretty excited that it looks like we're getting a lot more of them this time around. At least two in the party!

 

[Vladimir]

New blog post with new clips: https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/cf9c46c9-8f98-40f9-989d-3422b90eb8ca

 

[Almadel]

Ethel art

 

[Multiverse]

You can switch characters in battle! AHHH

 

[NabiscoFelt]

New blog post with new clips: https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/cf9c46c9-8f98-40f9-989d-3422b90eb8ca

Ok, some neat confirmations if the Google translate I got was correct

1. Revival seems to not use any resource, but does require a Healer/Support role to use. It also takes a certain amount of time, since you have to hold the a button, so presumably you'll be vulnerable while that's happening. Also seems like it charges Eunie's Talent Art, which is interesting.

2. Dashing officially confirmed. The translate calls it "Quick Move" but I'm sure they'll give it a slightly better name in English

3. PARTY SWAP DURING COMBAT CONFIRMED THIS IS NOT A DRILL. This is pretty damn huge, and basically confirms that that's what the L/R prompt that appears when the orders menu is up. Somewhat alleviates concerns over low art count for your controlled character if you can swap easily between everyone (and hopefully there's still something that'll help with increasing available art count per character, like weapon swapping mid-combat)

Edit: Tangential fourth point. Website description be damned, I'm getting pretty skeptical of being able to control the 7th party member now. The L/R prompt we saw with Noah in the Japanese trailer skipped over Valdi, and it seems pretty likely now that that was party member swap. Maybe you can only set yourself to control the 7th party member outside of combat? Idk, seems more likely to me that we just won't get to control them at all

 

[EtherPenguin]

Even more new battle music and it sounds amazing!!

edit: or maybe it's just a later part of the normal one? But character switching! Things are getting hype!

 

[Almadel]

I can't take how good everything looks and sounds. They weren't kidding about going hard with the flute.

And you can hear part of Gormotts theme clearly in this clip. I'm sure Gaur Plains is fused somewhere in there too.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Getting consistent updates for this game is nice, looks like we'll hopefully have a pretty steady stream of info between now and release

 

[EtherPenguin]

Oh my goodness, that gormott remix. Damn, I just said I was hoping to hear some field music and they delivered lol.

Are we getting a blog every week?

Oh and collectables have unique models when you get up close, they aren't just purple orbs.

 

[Renmazuo]

Edit: Tangential fourth point. Website description be damned, I'm getting pretty skeptical of being able to control the 7th party member now. The L/R prompt we saw with Noah in the Japanese trailer skipped over Valdi, and it seems pretty likely now that that was party member swap. Maybe you can only set yourself to control the 7th party member outside of combat? Idk, seems more likely to me that we just won't get to control them at all

That sucks, some of my most disliked moments in 1 were the game inexplicably not letting me control guests in the few fights where the joined me. Consequently I loved how 2 just let you play as Vandham and Jin if you wanted.

If the 7th sloth is just glorified chain attack filler I honestly wish they hadn't bothered.

 

[Dunban]

Yay another blog! They should start translating those...

I have a feeling the 7th slot will be how we get access to more blades/weapon varieties, aside from their contribution to the chain attack. And there won't be any traditional weapons for equipment like in 2.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

That sucks, some of my most disliked moments in 1 were the game inexplicably not letting me control guests in the few fights where the joined me. Consequently I loved how 2 just let you play as Vandham and Jin if you wanted.

If the 7th sloth is just glorified chain attack filler I honestly wish they hadn't bothered.

Hmm actually the fact that you can use them in Chain Attacks may indicate they are controllable. I'm just kinda confused on this now

One other possible explanation for the Valdi example is that I'm pretty sure that scene is from her intro battle, so maybe you only get control of her after?

Yay another blog! They should start translating those...

I have a feeling the 7th slot will be how we get access to more blades/weapon varieties, aside from their contribution to the chain attack. And there won't be any traditional weapons for equipment like in 2.

Yeah I've been theorizing that you could gain the classes of the 7th slotters. Would be a neat way of tying gaining classes to the story and characters

 

[EtherPenguin]

Yay another blog! They should start translating those...

I have a feeling the 7th slot will be how we get access to more blades/weapon varieties, aside from their contribution to the chain attack. And there won't be any traditional weapons for equipment like in 2.

It would be really cool if all the 7th slot members had voiced affinity missions and you got their class as the reward for completing it. Similar to X's affinity missions that gave you the character's unique arts that you couldn't get from leveling up.

What do you want to bet the twitter updates spoil all the 7th members before release like they did for the rare blades?

 

[Renmazuo]

Not really seeing the weapons/class thing considering the nopon duo.

 

[Dunban]

Yeah I've been theorizing that you could gain the classes of the 7th slotters. Would be a neat way of tying gaining classes to the story and characters

I feel like they're really pushing the point across that the blades/weapons being used are a reflection of the character, and since we know we can mix and match our party weapons already it just makes sense that the extra party member will grant us access to more. Even if they're not playable I think the game will use its systems to get a lot out of them.

It would be really cool if all the 7th slot members had voiced affinity missions and you got their class as the reward for completing it. Similar to X's affinity missions that gave you the character's unique arts that you couldn't get from leveling up.

What do you want to bet the twitter updates spoil all the 7th members before release like they did for the rare blades?

Definitely expecting all of that. I'll have to stop coming to the spoilers thread at some point!

Not really seeing the weapons/class thing considering the nopon duo.

Just means 2 for the price of 1, an easy way to give the player more early on, It'd give us access to spears and other weapons our party lacks.

 

[EtherPenguin]

Not really seeing the weapons/class thing considering the nopon duo.

Together they're listed as an attacker so I'd imagine you'd just get Riku's gun class. I'm pretty sure that electric DoT field ring comes from the nopon so that'd be nice to have access to without them in your 7th slot.

 

[Arynio]

These new clips are taking my hype to another level, and I didn't think it was possible. Everything looks and sounds so good. Switching between party members with a single click is a GOAT-tier feature.

As for controlling 7th party member(s), maybe they implement that as DLC together with additional party members?

 

[Warlord]

Even with youtube compression this game looks REALLY good visually. grassy areas seem to be somewhat the exception
Also switching the lead party member on the fly during exploration AND combat? Hell yeah!!
Btw, everytime they post a new video Rotbart is getting closer. When the last trailer drops he's just going to jump out of the screen and punch you.

 

[ILikeFeet]

7th party members just look like temporary, story-related party members. Don't see much reason to think much of it beyond that

 

[Warlord]

2 things

1) loot will be like in XB2 (you can see this right at the end)


2) Seems like overworld items are represented as orbs but as you get closer you can see the type of item you will get (Again, right at the end)


everything bit of news coming out and being discovered sound amazing!

 

[Apopheniac]

Not really seeing the weapons/class thing considering the nopon duo.

Just because the Nopon probably can't share their class doesn't mean other extra party members won't be able to.

 

[sanstea]

Oof, I was worried by the comments that they just remixed Gormott again for the area theme but listening to it myself luckily that isn't the case.

The game looks and sounds too good, to be honest.

Also, it seems to me they are trying to hide something in the overworld because some of these behind the party shots are uncomfortably close.

 

[Shiba]

New blog post with new clips: https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/article/cf9c46c9-8f98-40f9-989d-3422b90eb8ca

Seems like this will be the same resolution as Torna but with more stability going by these clips. Was hoping for a slight bump in resolution but doesn’t look like that’s happening.