The trick to it is to do lots of quests, and chain attacks. You'll find it'll really go up soon.

Good poll question. I voted for Satorl; my first time through the area it fully captivated me. I enjoyed just being there so much, I did practically every sidequest to delay leaving. The mood is so powerful in the Marsh. I enjoyed the subplot with the giants, too -- it was my first taste of actually exploring the rich history of the game world.

This is a very good point, but I'd like to also add-in the stuff which goes with the Mafia sidequest in Frontier Village, and more importantly the quests which appear post-Mechonis Core. One of them is incredibly important!

Ofcourse, we also have many areas which, for the first time in the game really, aren't really on the path to the end of the game, but you can explore (the fortress is the best example). It set the benchmark for future areas, and whilst some may have improved on it a tad, it will always be the first and the most surprising (night time).

Night time in Satorl, don't even get me started haha. I just cleared the core a bit ago, haven't finished the game (or the remaining sidequests) yet. But I did enjoy the Nopon drug trade, haha.

Exile Fortress was definitely one of my favorite parts up to that point. The fact that there was a huge fortress full of enemies, with its own history, unique monsters, sidequests, that blew me away that early in the game. A lot of it has been overshadowed by now -- the visual spectacle maybe isn't as strong as the Distant Fingertip, the sidequests not as deep as Colony 6 Reconstruction, but it was my first brush with the scale of the game, and I won't forget it.

Very true, but if you've already done the core then why don't you try and finish the game! The next area is particularly difficult but the boss fight at the end is OK (not as bad as Gadolt) if you choose the right party...

That boss fight was actually really easy for me. I was pretty OP from doing so many sidequests. The only boss that has given me any trouble recently was Lorithia in the Bionis' Heart. Now that I've cleared that one, I want to get back to sidequests. I'm really enjoying all of the subplots, I'm kind of in the mood to just breeze through the final 'dungeon', and I know once I finish the main story I won't feel like going back to do sidequests. If anything I'll want to start a new game, or maybe the new game plus. But I feel like now is my chance to finish some of this stuff. Really want to wrap up Colony 6...

That fight was the one I was talking about...the endgame is fairly straightforward if you were overalevelled as I was. Wrapping up Colony 6 cannot be done until you finish the final dungeon, as one of the enemies you require is at the point of no return.

Oh no! lol, aw man. Do you need that one for the actual reconstruction or just for one of the sidequests within the colony?

I knew there would still be some quests that just wouldn't be possible at this point, I went to get Riki's fifth skill tree and apparently I have to defeat a level 96 or so unique monster... that's not real, haha. I figure most of the other fifth skill trees will be similarly off-limits for the moment.

The actual construction, Level 5 special requires 2 elements. One can be found at the start/middlish of the final dungeon, but the other can only be found right at the end.

I wonder if the announcement of the new game in the series will give Xenoblade any sort of boost. It's currently sat on 825k and is selling around 1k a week. The holiday boost gave it nearly 40k in one week though!

I see a million as being a milestone that should be easily passable now. And a well deserved one too. Great game.