curl-6 said:
Jumpin said:
I didn’t find the game had any difficulty spikes after chapter 7. The biggest difficulty spike for me was Chapter 4, the giant robot at the end of the factory (mostly because that’s where I was forced to learn the systems, all other spikes just needed a stay at the inn to use the bonus XP; even chapter 4 was NOWHERE near as Xord from XC, which requires a ton of grinding, even on my third play through it required more grinding than any point in XC2; and then there were bigger ones such as Lorithia, Gadolt, and Zanza at the end of the game - which (if you were as grossly under leveled for the point I was) required you to turn off the game and return to the save point - a while back, in order to grind out levels - extra annoying because you need to set aside a significant amount of time in order to get past that portion, and if something comes along (and you need to turn off the game) you lose all your progress, which could be quite substantial. There is nothing like that in XC2. XC2 is much better balanced, but it’s also a shorter game.
Still, I think the worst difficulty spikes of any Takahashi game are still Xenosaga Episode 2. Even on my second play through it took me about ten attempts to get past the Patriarch. That boss is the most brutal I have come across in a post early-16-bit RPG (You have to go back to games like Phantasy Star 2 and Seventh Saga to see spikes like that)
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Those bosses were hard, but I don't recall them being as frustrating as chapter 9 Jin because they didn't have as many annoying overpowered gimmick moves. They were straight fights, just harsh ones. That was one thing I didn't like in Xenoblade 2 versus 1, too many of the bosses had gimmicks.
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I didn’t really find any of the bosses to be any more gimmicky than XC. If you mean having to equip certain builds (very specific types of equipment in order to have a shot), use specific character combos, and exploit certain battle mechanics/skills in ways you normally wouldn’t, XC has more of that than XC2. When was the last time you played XC? It might be that you were in a more forgiving mood at the time.
I am not trying to deny XC2 had spikes that were kind of annoying; only that, relative to past Xeno games, it’s not really that bad. IMO the most annoying spikes are: last section of Xenoblade Chronicles and the Encephalon in Xenosaga Episode 1; not because they require hours of grinding, but because if you try and fail, you potentially wasted 1-3 hours of your life for no progress/gain.
