GRcade

It's been a while, but the announcement of Xenoblade 3 has made me crack. I last played this when it was announced on Wii, and I loved it but it also confused and frustrated the heck out of me. I wanted to see if it's improved. Initial thoughts:
- Switched straight to Japanese voice acting. Dunban was good, Shulk was iffy, and Reyn was absolutely dire. Couldn't stomach it.
- I'd forgotten just how epic the opening act of this game was. Absolutely puts 2 to shame.
- They throw a lot of side-quests at you don't they.
- Adding exclamation marks to where the side-quest results are is the best thing about this remaster and it's not even close.
- I've not hit Gaur Plains yet, but the opening areas' music is... quite mediocre. Certainly nowhere near the heights of 2, which opens with the Argentum Frigate.

Balladeer wrote:It's been a while, but the announcement of Xenoblade 3 has made me crack. I last played this when it was announced on Wii, and I loved it but it also confused and frustrated the heck out of me. I wanted to see if it's improved. Initial thoughts:
- Switched straight to Japanese voice acting. Dunban was good, Shulk was iffy, and Reyn was absolutely dire. Couldn't stomach it.
- I'd forgotten just how epic the opening act of this game was. Absolutely puts 2 to shame.
- They throw a lot of side-quests at you don't they.
- Adding exclamation marks to where the side-quest results are is the best thing about this remaster and it's not even close.
- I've not hit Gaur Plains yet, but the opening areas' music is... quite mediocre. Certainly nowhere near the heights of 2, which opens with the Argentum Frigate.

I never played the original....what the strawberry float, that sounds impossible

Totally agree on the voice acting. The VA in XC2 (which I know is divisive with some) is one of the reasons I adore it but the quality here is nowhere near as good.

It was horrendous. Just ploughing through loads and loads of the blue shiny buggers, hoping to get the one you needed.

Nia's VA in XC2 is one of the best performances I've heard in games.

Nia

I've got a real affinity for the voice work/localisation in these games - but yeah, there is definitely a spread of quality across the characters and performances!

Is the opening act of this that epic? I don't recall being bowled over by it particularly, but I never really found myself getting that caught up in the story side of this one in general - it all seemed very run of the mill in a way that I never found 2 to be.

Musically I find 2 to be superior, but there are still some really gorgeous tracks in this as well. I'm properly hyped for what we get out of 3 music-wise!

I really need to get on and finish Torna before 3 arrives...

Talking of music, I've got X running nicely on Cemu so I get to listen to the NLA Night theme all the time.

andretmzt wrote:Talking of music, I've got X running nicely on Cemu so I get to listen to the NLA Night theme all the time.

There's a really good song in there if you take out all the crap rap vocals. I'm serious.

I'm enjoying this. Thanks for the recommend whoever did. I've currently put in about 80 hours and I'm on Chapter 11. Just defeated Melkhar.

One thing I only realised last night was quests often don't just 'pop up.' So I spent hours going back to old places and talking to green dots on the map to get quests to appear. I just assumed if you went back and looked at the map you'd see the exclamation marks, but oh no, people require you to butter them up a bit first.

Anyway going back to Tephra Cave and Slaughtering bunny rabits at level 55 felt a bit mean.

...I don't think that's true is it? I know some quests become available later game, and some have other quests as prerequisites, but I don't think you have to talk to the quest-givers first?

Anyway they're mostly bobbins and that remains my main take. I'm onto chapter 13 I think? Zanza has just shown up for real and started being an asshat. Oh and a load of other random quests have just appeared all over the world.

Well for example the Lady in charge of the defense force in Colony 9. She had no quests active. I spoke to a few of the green dot guards and her and boom, a quest appears for her....and then another and then another.

Anyone know how to unlock extra Skill Trees for Reyn, Sharla and Riki? I have Melia, Shulk and Dunban.

Curls wrote:Well for example the Lady in charge of the defense force in Colony 9. She had no quests active. I spoke to a few of the green dot guards and her and boom, a quest appears for her....and then another and then another.

Oh God you're right as well. I talked to some randomer Nopon. Boom! Quest. Worried I've missed out on some big ones now.

Riki's you get through Frontier Village, one of them anyway. Just keep slogging through the quests.

Ironically I got Reyn and Sharla's last night and Riki's is my last one to find, so thanks for the tip!

Also. How do I...ahem make my characters wear clothes again. I realised I can dress them, and I currently have Shulk, Reyn and Sharla wandering around starkers (from when I first realised) and can't seem to make it go back to the default setting of whatever they are wearing actually shows xD

I've never touched that, sorry!

What I have done is used guides to find out how to get the remaining skill trees - from quests where I needed to have talked to more people, natch. I love this game but its side-quests are dire.

Getting near the end now I feel.

Currently in the central Factory. No-one gives a crap about Sharla and Gadolt.

My characters are level 65/66. It seems I'll have a lot of end game side quests to do when the main quests run out.

Sharla is by far the worst of the party members in every way apart from being the most important in battle.

I finished this a while back, with an 80-something squad. There were a whole bunch of side-quests involving much higher-level monsters I just couldn't be doing with. The last one I did had a level 86 boss and that was more than enough I felt.

Yeah as much as I enjoyed the game I’ve got to admit that I kind of dropped off pursuing a lot of the side stuff as the game went on.

Pretty sure I just stuck with Shulk, Sharla and Reyn from start to finish as well

I’ve always stuck with the same teams,

Shulk, Reyn and Sharla. Sharks then gets replaced with Melia as soon as I unlock her.

Sharla's healing is too good to not have for boss fights. Although I'm normally a few levels above anyway. She is SO boring to play as though....so I never do.
I dislike Reyn also.

But what about Reyn time?

I won’t disagree that there are better options than Reyn and Sharla but I can’t help but just stick with them for the most part.