Xenoblade and The Last Story in the US?

Yeah, it gets to be a spastic mess that I actually find hilarious, random polygon body parts sticking out all over the place lol

Ugh...I just got the Heropon, and by now I'm pretty well sick of the game.

How far am I, and is it worth forcing myself to keep playing for the story? I really don't want to lose my whole vacation playing this, but if I quit, I'm done with it for good.
 
You're not even halfway yet. If you're forcing yourself to play I'd say drop it. No point to torture yourself for the next 50+ hours. It really is a huge game and definitely overwhelming. But there is an addicting quality to it.

I do find the story & premise intriguing and it's enough to keep me going. It does get tiring at times but I plan to stick with it.
 
[quote name='Rodimus']You're not even halfway yet. If you're forcing yourself to play I'd say drop it. No point to torture yourself for the next 50+ hours. It really is a huge game and definitely overwhelming. But there is an addicting quality to it.

I do find the story & premise intriguing and it's enough to keep me going. It does get tiring at times but I plan to stick with it.[/QUOTE]

I thought that due to the game's vast nature, the story was a bit too sparse... I normally don't bother with RPGs if the story's missing but this game was too good, even with a contentiously present story on hand.
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Yeah, it gets to be a spastic mess that I actually find hilarious, random polygon body parts sticking out all over the place lol

Ugh...I just got the Heropon, and by now I'm pretty well sick of the game.

How far am I, and is it worth forcing myself to keep playing for the story? I really don't want to lose my whole vacation playing this, but if I quit, I'm done with it for good.[/QUOTE]


You're not far at all. Even if you just did main story quests, you'd still have a lot of game until you finished.

There were a couple times where I felt it was becoming tedious as hell and what really helped me was switching up the party so it doesn't seem like it's the same combat over and over. Once I started playing with different party arrangements it was really fun, because if you do it right you can start killing stuff 20+ levels above you.
 
[quote name='Rodimus']You're not even halfway yet. If you're forcing yourself to play I'd say drop it. No point to torture yourself for the next 50+ hours. It really is a huge game and definitely overwhelming. But there is an addicting quality to it.

I do find the story & premise intriguing and it's enough to keep me going. It does get tiring at times but I plan to stick with it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! Yeah, I'm going to be strong and switch to something else (Yakuza 4, Kirby's String...thingee, and Lost in Shadows are up next I think).

Oh well, I figured when I bought it at worst I was supporting stuff like this being released over here! The story is pretty darn strong, so for a while there I was plugging through, but...dang, I have well over 100 games in my backlog, plus over 300 shows on my Tivo, plus all sorts of stuff I want to see from Netflix....if the moment to moment gameplay doesn't work for me...
 
I've been steering clear of this thread until I beat Xenoblade
I'm pretty close, I think. Home stretch after the Core.

Wanted to come in here to ask if anyone has checked out that Monado Archives artbook though. I'm thinking about picking it up, but haven't been able to find anyone to comment on the quality. Just want to be sure it's worth dropping 80 on eBay for.
 
Only thing holding me back from playing more of this is I need to have a good chunk of time for each session, at least 2 hours.

Anyways I'm at Sword Valley right now. Guess I'm past the halfway mark.
 
I bought xenoblade at launch but I just haven't had enough time. 13 Hours in, everyone level 25, and i just "beat" level 25 Xord. I know Im no where near the end, but is this about normal progression this many houra in?
 
[quote name='IanKazimer']Wanted to come in here to ask if anyone has checked out that Monado Archives artbook though. I'm thinking about picking it up, but haven't been able to find anyone to comment on the quality. Just want to be sure it's worth dropping 80 on eBay for.[/QUOTE]
I wouldn't pay 80 for it, but it's very nice with a ton of art.
 
I finished up Pandora's Tower. It was a interesting game, but some really poor decisions (fixed camera, inconsistent dialogue, cryptic story, shoddy chain mechanics) prevented it from being a better game. It took me 25 hours and I apparently got the best ending.

[quote name='IanKazimer']I've been steering clear of this thread until I beat Xenoblade
I'm pretty close, I think. Home stretch after the Core.

Wanted to come in here to ask if anyone has checked out that Monado Archives artbook though. I'm thinking about picking it up, but haven't been able to find anyone to comment on the quality. Just want to be sure it's worth dropping 80 on eBay for.[/QUOTE]

I picked it up for $55 back when it was readily available (in Japan, at least). It's really nice but it's hard to say if it'll be worth $55 to you. It's not particularly long and it's only a softcover... the artwork itself is stunning.

If you're interested, I might have a cheaper way to get it. No, it's not my copy... my uncle in Japan and my dad ship stuff to each other all the time for work. So it's a bit cheaper to ship.. the problem is that since it's for work, it has to be shipped to my dad's work address before I can ship it to you so the cost will be the cost of the book, shipping from Japan to US, then I pick it up, and then shipping costs from me to you. It would probably cost $65-ish, if I had to make a guess.
 
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I might be interested in that, Vinny. Provided it's not too much of a pain for you. I'll shoot you a PM so as not to clutter the thread. Thanks for even offering, man!

Thanks to everyone else for weighing in. I found a few scans and it's definitely the quality of artbook I tend to shoot for. My collection's getting out of hand.
 
I just wanted to say that I'm a little late to the party, but damn Xenoblade Chronicles rocks. I'm about 60 hours in and have just gotten to Sword Valley. I'm looking forward to the next 60 hours.
 
[quote name='IanKazimer']Never played TLS, but I'm all for picking it up.

Also Vinny, my Monado Archives showed up. Thing's incredible![/QUOTE]

Isn't it though? I know when I saw it, the first thing I thought of was how incredible this game would look on a more powerful console (PS3 or 360). Oh well, guess we'll never know...

I'm personally excited for Monolith Soft's next game, since the Wii U can actually do HD at the very least.

I didn't think TLS was bad as DoK did. It was cheesy, corny, and cliched but it was a decent throwback to the old days and it was balanced out by the great combat system (definitely more original than Xenoblade's combat system). The slowdown was annoying as fuck though.
 
[quote name='Vinny']Yeah. It's not a huge issues but it is annoying...[/QUOTE]

It's a pretty bad issue til I installed it to a USB drive. Nearly unplayable on my launch Wii.
 
I just picked up Xenoblade and started playing it this weekend. At first I wasn't all the impressed with it, but then I found myself sinking like 3 hours into it each of the last 2 nights. I kept doing "one more quest" or "explore one more area" before stopping and next thing I knew it was an hour or two longer than I meant to play ;). That's a good sign I think.
 
are Amazon and GameStop the only places that will sell The Last Story?

haven't used the Wii in a long time so what's this installing on USB stuff?
 
[quote name='Gamer SDP']are Amazon and GameStop the only places that will sell The Last Story?

haven't used the Wii in a long time so what's this installing on USB stuff?[/QUOTE]

Just Google playing wii games off of USB. It improves loading and stuff usually but I don't think we are allowed to talk about that kind of thing here.
 
[quote name='io']I just picked up Xenoblade and started playing it this weekend. At first I wasn't all the impressed with it, but then I found myself sinking like 3 hours into it each of the last 2 nights. I kept doing "one more quest" or "explore one more area" before stopping and next thing I knew it was an hour or two longer than I meant to play ;). That's a good sign I think.[/QUOTE]


Same exact thing happened to me :) Got to the point where my "Ok, I'll play til 10 sessions." after work turned into "Oh shit, it's 4am."
 
The way I played Xenoblade was doing all the quests I could before moving on with the story. I can't help it, I must complete them.

This is a long game but I feel the story winding down. 95 hours so far.... haven't plugged this many hours into a game since Persona 4.
 
[quote name='Rodimus']The way I played Xenoblade was doing all the quests I could before moving on with the story. I can't help it, I must complete them.

This is a long game but I feel the story winding down. 95 hours so far.... haven't plugged this many hours into a game since Persona 4.[/QUOTE]

I'm the same way. But the lack of achievements/trophies (or at least ones that show up anywhere else but in the game) may allow me to skip out on a few extras. But who am I kidding, I'll probably still do them all anyway ;).

I do have to say the battle system has me totally confused. I figured out the attack from the side/back stuff for certain attacks, though selecting them in the heat of the battle I find difficult. But now they are throwing chain attacks and something about element effects and colors at me? I couldn't even follow that :lol:. It took me a couple hours before I realized chain attacks are triggered manually by pushing down on the D-pad from the Monado. Then there's some sort of 'b' thing with a decreasing ring that you have to push - I still don't know what that does or why it shows up seemingly randomly but I try to push it every time it shows up. Then I got the "seeing the future attack" thing last night and that just got really complicated - I think I did it right, but I couldn't really tell. Then there's the encouragement/revive stuff too. And since I'm just starting out I expect more to be thrown in there! And I find it hard to monitor health bars of all my chars when fighting multiple enemies and there's so much going on (since the bars move around with the characters and get hidden in the action). Some battles they barely get touched but in others, all of a sudden, the other 2 chars are dead and I'm on my own before I even realize anyone is getting hurt.

I was also about 4 hours in before I realized there was a 'jump' button. There was a quest item behind some boxes on a ledge and I kept running around to find a secret path to that ledge when all along all I had to do was jump over the boxes #-o.

But I always love games that let you explore and run into way too powerful enemies that you just can't even begin to handle. I remember DQ XVIII was like that. Too many games now are scripted for you to follow a linear path with gradually increasing difficulty (that matches your levelling up). I was just exploring around Colony 9 last night and had some fish insta-kill me with a 4000 HP bite (when I only have about 1200). I love to see that kind of stuff (occassionally, anyway).

Also, the save system, lack of random battles, and really extensive quick-trip system are all awesome features. Oh, and the quest log is pretty nice, too, though on occasion I'm not sure where to go to find someone (I have that watch to return for example and don't know where that person is).
 
[quote name='io']Then there's some sort of 'b' thing with a decreasing ring that you have to push - I still don't know what that does or why it shows up seemingly randomly but I try to push it every time it shows up.[/QUOTE]

I'm not 100% sure what makes it pop, it does seem just random. Hitting it at the right time does 2 things, fills up your chain bar and also it imporves affinity with your team. Next time it pops notice in the bottom right of the screen you'll see the little heart indicater pop up. If you hit just right, right when the circle matches up with the outer edge of the the "B" indicator your affinity goes up much more and with both members.

But the combat system defintly has a lot going on. It's not complicated but there are a ton of little elements. I also felt overwhelmed at the begining, throwing a new element on me right when I felt used to it. Took me a while to really "get it" but even now I feel like I might be missing something.

Just remember: break attack - topple attack - daze attack
 
[quote name='Rodimus']

Just remember: break attack - topple attack - daze attack[/QUOTE]

Yeah, they do kind of force this on you with the Mechon attack early on, so I think I got that. I don't think I have a Daze attack just yet though. I did just add (another) 3rd person to my party right before quitting last night, so maybe she has it. Of course my original 3rd person, Fiora,
died... Which seemed odd since I had even bought new weapons for her just before this happened - do you get her, or at least someone who uses the same weapons (dual knives), back later?
 
[quote name='Rodimus']I'm not 100% sure what makes it pop, it does seem just random. Hitting it at the right time does 2 things, fills up your chain bar and also it imporves affinity with your team. Next time it pops notice in the bottom right of the screen you'll see the little heart indicater pop up. If you hit just right, right when the circle matches up with the outer edge of the the "B" indicator your affinity goes up much more and with both members.[/QUOTE]
It also increases tension. You'll notice at times the portraits of the characters will flame up, it increases stats and such. Those opportunities to raise it happen whenever you initiate a battle and during battle whenever someone does a critical hit, misses a hit, or dodges.

Also remember that break attacks are pink, topple are green, and daze are yellow. That should help you if you are getting lost when selecting arts.

[quote name='io']
died... Which seemed odd since I had even bought new weapons for her just before this happened - do you get her, or at least someone who uses the same weapons (dual knives), back later?
[/QUOTE]

I'll answer this just by saying "yes".
 
[quote name='Indignate']It also increases tension. You'll notice at times the portraits of the characters will flame up, it increases stats and such. Those opportunities to raise it happen whenever you initiate a battle and during battle whenever someone does a critical hit, misses a hit, or dodges.

Also remember that break attacks are pink, topple are green, and daze are yellow. That should help you if you are getting lost when selecting arts.
[/QUOTE]

I have a real hard time seeing the colors while fighting - they aren't distinguished from one another well enough IMO. I remember the game telling me something about linking same-colored attacks together (maybe during a chain attack?). But I couldn't tell what they were, really. They all seemed like muted pastel colors to me (and no, I'm not color blind ;)).

And thanks for the "Yes" answer - I just had a feeling it was something like that.
 
[quote name='io']Yeah, they do kind of force this on you with the Mechon attack early on, so I think I got that. I don't think I have a Daze attack just yet though. I did just add (another) 3rd person to my party right before quitting last night, so maybe she has it. Of course my original 3rd person, Fiora,
died... Which seemed odd since I had even bought new weapons for her just before this happened - do you get her, or at least someone who uses the same weapons (dual knives), back later?
[/QUOTE]

Yes you do, but by that time the weapons you have now will be obsolete. Shulk and Sharla get daze attacks. You should be getting Shulks soon.

Also if you haven't already try using other characters. Shulk is fun, but I love using all the other characters too.
 
[quote name='Rodimus']Yes you do, but by that time the weapons you have now will be obsolete. Shulk and Sharla get daze attacks. You should be getting Shulks soon.

Also if you haven't already try using other characters. Shulk is fun, but I love using all the other characters too.[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, I figured they would be useless pretty soon - it was just the whole "type" of weapon that I thought it was odd to introduce and then have no one there to use it.

I have only used Shulk so far, as I feel like I am just now starting to figure out how to do so - maybe once I get that nailed down I'll switch it up.
 
xenoblade-screen.jpg


You are insane.

And possibly color-blind.

Chaining same colored attacks occurs during chain attacks. So it's a chain within a chain if that's not confusing enough.
 
[quote name='Indignate']
xenoblade-screen.jpg


You are insane.

And possibly color-blind.

Chaining same colored attacks occurs during chain attacks. So it's a chain within a chain if that's not confusing enough.[/QUOTE]

In no part of the game so far has my screen been that bright and colorful. It is much more muted than that. And yet SMG2 (same Wii, same TV input, same settings) is like an exploded candy factory ;). It is also much easier to sit and study the colors on a static screen like that - much different during game action.

Right, and I also remember the game telling me something about the lines in the attack icons meaning something. But I don't even remember what and also those are much harder to see in-game than on that screen.
 
[quote name='io']In no part of the game so far has my screen been that bright and colorful. It is much more muted than that. And yet SMG2 (same Wii, same TV input, same settings) is like an exploded candy factory ;). It is also much easier to sit and study the colors on a static screen like that - much different during game action.

Right, and I also remember the game telling me something about the lines in the attack icons meaning something. But I don't even remember what and also those are much harder to see in-game than on that screen.[/QUOTE]

Honestly, and weirdly enough, I've had moments where the game blips into a really desaturated version of itself. I thought it was my TV, but it sounds like you may be dealing with something similar. I assure you, though it may not be reflecting it, the game's really vibrant. Wish I had more to go on, but it seemed worth mentioning.

Regardless, if you go into your Arts menu, you can actually use the C button to reorganize your Arts loadout to something you're more comfortable with. Might be worth checking out :)
 
I didn't discover that you could keep Chain Attacks going with the same colored Arte until last night (around the 18 hour mark). It's a nice touch to keep it simple yet hidden at the same time. Oh well, back to grinding my characters up to level 30 or so.
 
[quote name='IanKazimer']Honestly, and weirdly enough, I've had moments where the game blips into a really desaturated version of itself. I thought it was my TV, but it sounds like you may be dealing with something similar. I assure you, though it may not be reflecting it, the game's really vibrant. Wish I had more to go on, but it seemed worth mentioning.

Regardless, if you go into your Arts menu, you can actually use the C button to reorganize your Arts loadout to something you're more comfortable with. Might be worth checking out :)[/QUOTE]

Hmmm - will have to look into it more. I thought maybe it was just the areas I've been in (up to the camp right now). But the area around Colony 9, the cave (somewhat expected there), and the big plains area near the camp have all been muted/muddy looking for the most part. Nothing like that screen shot above that's for sure.

And yeah, I think I have to reorganize my Arts because I just got the message about only being able to have 8 loaded at once so I must have learned another one that put me over the limit. It would be really helpful to have all the attack ones in order (front/side/back attacks) as they are all jumbled up now.
 
[quote name='KingBroly']I didn't discover that you could keep Chain Attacks going with the same colored Arte until last night (around the 18 hour mark). It's a nice touch to keep it simple yet hidden at the same time. Oh well, back to grinding my characters up to level 30 or so.[/QUOTE]

It doesn't keep them going, it's just multiplies damage. Affinity between characters is what helps to add another attack to a Chain Attack.
 
OK, I sorted the color thing out - I can tell the difference. It isn't as vivid as on that screen shot and since were so subtle I didn't even really notice them so when the game started talking about colors I was confused. I mean, I noticed different colors but I just thought they were different icon designs and not the actual link colors. Now I got it figured out.

Now I'm just trying to figure out what the skill links are and what they do. Do they provide the skill from the linked person back to the original person?

I'm still on Bionis' Leg and just keep getting more and more quests. And like I said before, I love seeing the hugely overpowered monsters that are just teasing me by blocking off certain paths and areas. Though I figured out you can run past some of them.

That "Immovable Gonzales", though, looks like a tough one. He's like level 80-something and I'm 23 ;). And he's just standing there blocking a narrow path. I guess that is for much later! But I love the names. I think I also saw a "Territorial Rotbart" (level 70-something) wandering around in the plains area. I snuck behind some high level Tirkin and got into a bunch of caves full of level 70 things. I got killed by one flier that I didn't see but otherwise was able to run through most of it.

Anyway, I guess there's a story event to be had somewhere, but I keep just exploring and doing quests since a lot of the ones I got from the Camp are showing the stopwatch now which I think means I have to do them before the next story event. I love the quest system with the "you are about to miss this one" warning - why hasn't any other RPG maker ever thought of that before? :lol: I'm just a little worried that the quests are kind of bogging me down as I'm sure I'm not even 1/10th into the story yet. But man, that Leg area is so huge - I keep thinking I have it all explored only to find a whole new region within it. And then there's the parts I can't get to yet!
 
I love the game (about 60 hours in and probably on the last 3rd of the story) but I think the quest log is terrible because often it gives you very little clue of where to go and you can't just select a quest to focus on. I do wish you could give party members some sort of general behavior guidelines because sometimes they don't heal when needed or won't follow up a break with a topple attack, etc. My party is in the low 60s now I am thinking when I get high enough I will go back and kick the crap out of all those 70 & 80 level monsters I desperately tried to avoid in certain areas.
 
Also, I just saw that apparently they still don't have an actual solid release date on Last Story, it's still just "summer" which blows.
 
[quote name='Erad30']Also, I just saw that apparently they still don't have an actual solid release date on Last Story, it's still just "summer" which blows.[/QUOTE]

Amazon has been listing July 31st as a release date. Course, we all know those dates don't always get set in stone.
 
Yeah gamestop had listed the 19th of this month, now it's July 10th. On the brightside it might actually give me time to finish Xenoblade and possibly even a couple other games before it actually hits.
 
Xenoblade has been my big "summer game" this year and I've been playing it for the last 8 or 9 weeks putting in about 10 hours of gameplay a week. So now my characters are at level 75 after about 90 hours of play and I'm nearing the end of the story, but I'm really looking forward to fighting overpowered "post-final boss" enemies and finishing up sidequests in the game, such as the affinty chart, heart-to-hearts, and rebuilding Colony 6.

It's been a great ride so far, and I've probably got another month or so left for this one. I'm undecided on Last Story yet however, if just because I might want to invest the time in other games.
 
The only reason I'm getting Last Story the minute it comes out is because I will be hard to pick up on a whim. I had other games I was working on when Xenoblade came out (namely Skyward Sword, which I still haven't finished), but I had a feeling it would be hard to get if I waited, so I got it right away and it's been hard to get since then. I imagine it'll be similar with Last Story.
 
[quote name='Erad30']The only reason I'm getting Last Story the minute it comes out is because I will be hard to pick up on a whim. I had other games I was working on when Xenoblade came out (namely Skyward Sword, which I still haven't finished), but I had a feeling it would be hard to get if I waited, so I got it right away and it's been hard to get since then. I imagine it'll be similar with Last Story.[/QUOTE]

I got a mint used copy of Xenoblade just a couple weeks ago from Gamestop. I got it in a B2G1 (PUR renewal coupon) with Metroid Prime Trilogy and Witcher 2 - now that's a hell of a lot of game there :lol:. Nearly every GS has new copies of it still so it isn't at all hard to find at full price. The used copies were a little spaced out though (like 1 in 3 or 4 GS had one around me).

Since Last Story won't be exclusive to GS I'm counting on it being even easier to find later and I may just pass on that one since by the time I would think of getting it the Wii U will probably be out.

As for the quest log, yeah, I suppose it would have been nice on a few of them for them to show you an icon on the main (travel) map, or perhaps have the distance arrow thing work on those as well. But usually when you get close enough you see the "!" and can then find what you are looking for. I've had trouble on a few of the "boss" monsters though in that the descriptions about where some of them are are kind of vague. But I don't mind it that much - it encourages you to explore and figure things out. But having the warning about quests expiring soon is great since you never know in most RPGs if some area will all of a sudden become inaccessible or whatever.
 
Ugh, FRAK Colony 6. I am done collecting little blue lights hoping they'll have some random collectible.
 
[quote name='Erad30']Ugh, FRAK Colony 6. I am done collecting little blue lights hoping they'll have some random collectible.[/QUOTE]


Find a place in the area where you're looking for a certain collectible that has a concentration of blue orbs. Save, reload, wait a minute or two, they reappear, collect, repeat.
 
Got myself up to Makna Forest (and just unlocked the route to the next place). It is amazing to me how many hugely vast areas there are in this game - and I take it I have a ways to go?
 
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