Nevermind I´ll just keep on with the mainquest. Won´t do all sidemissions anyway. I just wanted to kill it because of the harmony token

You're right, only the first few quests in every area are like that, but most quests in the game are more complex than just that.

There are actually quests like that in C6 area, which are given by the Nopon merchants, but perhaps you missed them.

This is just plain false. Reyn sure enough is not a useless character.

You'd better say that you don't know how to use him, which would be more correct. For one, he has the best defence of all characters.

Each character can be maxed out and be a beast in various ways. Of course, when you get everything from every characters, there are powerful combinations. The key is to put the right gems on characters depending on the situation, or have a good default set.

With what they call Spikes in english version of the game, Reyn is just a killing machine on most enemy groups, and he doesn't even need to deal damage on its own. He can even get back life when he is dealt damage, and when an aura is active.

Every character is useful in Xenoblade, and depending on your style, you'll prefer use some combinations more.

What actually counts strategically in Xenoblade, and what define how you play them is :

- The 3 characters in your party

- The order they have in the party

- The gems they have

- The affinity between characters

- The skills they have

- The armors they have

- The weapon the have

You think only of damage dealing with your weapon, so you can't ever figure out how great Reyn is. He's not just a tank like in MMORPG.

All these DPS, Tanks and other Healer are meaningless in Xenoblade. There are gems that allow you to heal while dealing damage, get back HP while putting out auras, get back HP with chain Attack and so on. You can make nearly every character into anything, but of course some will be better in some areas.

The same is true with Sharla. Actually, you just show that you don't know how to control the characters, like most people that think they mastered the combat system but are far from it. I never had any problem with Sharla controlled by the computer, but I actually played with every character to max out the relationships, changed the Arts to suit my playstyle, and know when to go encourage my characters, when to tell them to go near me and stop attacking or go all out, when to prioritize maximizing aggro, when to prioritize tension, ... If you master all of that, you can beat any ennemy in the game with any combination of characters (yes, even the 120 level beast). If you don't, you'll be stuck with a few combinations that work better than others, and won't be able to do anything with the others.

But it doesn't mean the other characters are useless.

Question: Can i buy Skillbooks somehwere, or do i need to kill enemies and hope for some to drop?
(Max. level books)

I am fighting my way through  Agniratha right now.

something i kinda dislike is, that Xeno gets lazy with all of this "Oh, you reached the door, but you need 2 Keys to open it!" etc. stuff... but well, its not that i wouldnt like traveling through those areas, uncovering hidden spots and rare enemies.

If you know where the UM is and you are in the correct location and weather, you just need to save once, and then reload the save until the UM appears. BTW, you can do the same with treasure chests if they don't have what you want. Every chest from UM starting with the mountains (or above lvl 50 I think) have 4 different Arts, some that can be had by only one UM. Same for armors. You actually can't get all the best armors with one playthrough, you need at least 3, but you can get all the max Arts in one playthrough.

You needn't turn off the console to reload your save. Everytime you load from a save, all the normal enemies respawn, and the UM have a chance of respawning (if the weather conditions are correct). For example, most flying monsters don't appear when it rains (and some appear only when it rains).

Makes me think of the collectible : the rarest ones appear only at night, and night being more dangerous and lasting less than day, they are more difficult to find. They usually appear in secret areas.

Where you are though, look for the map and be careful of the shape of the area where the monster is. If there's a hole in the middle, there's a high chance the monster you're searching is actually BELOW, and you have to fall through the hole in the middle to reach the area. There are three areas like that IIRC.

The only way to get the highest ranked Skillbooks are Story quests, Sidequests and Golden chests. And the easiest way to get Gold chests is to kill UM. Starting from the moutains, they ALL have four different ones. Only by farming them with the techniques I described can you get them all easily and fast. Except for sidequests UM that usually appear only once, so you have to make a choice (and get the rarest one).

Also, the one most easily missed is on the area of the combat at the very start of the game, as it disappears very quickly, and if you didn't do all the sidequests and get overleveled before reaching this area, you won't be able to beat the UM in this area, which is very strong, and that you reach at just the right level if you did all the sidequests before. Also, he won't be there for long. Also, there's a trick to beat it easier, which is to attack it from the air, so that you just have its head to beat (because his legs have very powerful weapons that will rip you to pieces quickly from the ground).

His brother is also easily missed near the end of the game, and is also very powerful (and can be beaten easier with the same trick), and don't last long either.

This game became my best JRPG ever since FFTactics. I'm so in love with the game, I even enjoy my 2nd playthrough and surely will go with 5 I think.

It's funny seeing gamers being fooled around by this game, and that's one of the thing that pleased me the most with this game : how people are sure of things, and everything get shattered later on, and people discover how wrong they were. This game is just a masterpiece to me.

In this very thread, people were criticizing the scenario of the game without even having made 10 % of the game.
They were talking about the scenario being bad because Shulk's motivations for going after the Mechons are lame. They will eat all of those words before the end of the game, when they realize how wrong they were.
The worst is that the game is toying with the gamer, but at the same time gives him every single hint during the game. It's even more shocking when you realize that you were a fool despite the game telling you everything.
If you rush the game, you are sure to go past every single hint give, because you won't have time to understand the true meaning of what is being said. The same if you don't do all the sidequests. Some pretty important ones explains things that happen in the main story,
One word that best describe this game's scenario is "deception". From the very beginning of the game until the vey end, you are fooled by the scenario, and you can understand everything only at the very end of the game.
Which is what makes it so epic of a game.

What people describe as twists in the scenario are not even twists at all as everything is completely coherent.
It appears like twists because people believe some things (Dunban the great hero that arrives saving the day with his über sword) but it's smasehd to pieces soon after when he talks to Shulk, and that goes so far as revealing nearly the entire plot at the beginning of the game, and yet people fall for it and it goes far above their head.
Of course, everything can't be understood from the beginning of the game.

Whilst true that Reyn is not 'useless', he is definitely the least useful character in the game. If we look at the other characters (there are spoilers here!):

Shulk- All-rounder (Monado, healing, bonus damage)

Sharla- Healer, support

Dunban- Dodge tank, toppler, aggro drawer

Melia- Magic user, support character, toppler (starlight kick)

Riki- Health tank, DPS user, party gauge builder, support healer

Fiora- Any of the above tanks depending on equipment, DPS dealer, attacker

That leaves us with Reyn. And what role does Reyn fill? Sure, he's a useful damage-dealer, but  Dunban, Riki or 7 arguably do a better job at it. If you use Reyn, you NEED to use Sharla, because of very poor defence for a tank. His Arts are mainly attack-orientated, and aside from being able to topple (which other characters can do as well), he has no real use. 

I agree that the equipment, gems, affinity links, Arts etc. are useful in order to produce different playstyles for the game characters, each character is designed to fill a specific role. You'd struggle to get through all the bosses without a tank, a DPS, a healer or an all-rounder, depending on your playstyles. Saying characters DON'T have a special role to fill is simply false. They do, and whilst it isn't as evident as in other games, fact is they still exsist. And Reyn, sadly, just didn't cut it for me, namely because of his lack of defence, his lack of speed and his attack-only orientation. Yes, Reyn's spike is nice, but any character can gain Spike by equipping them with the gen anyway...

Personal preference of course, but Reyn just lacks something, and doesn't suit my playstyle.

I agree with this for the most part, but I must disagree with the fact that EVERY plot-point is clear. Indeed, playing through a second time (now at the abandond capital) knowing what's going to happen makes things easier, but the final twist still is pretty unexpected, and has relatively little build-up. Seems a little left-field, but I don't mind. It was a good ending to the game. 

But yeah, when you know what's going to happen, the game gives you several hints about it.

That's it, he doesn't suit your playstyle, that's what I said.

Reyn is based on defense and aggro, and he's the best for that. He has the best defense and the second highest hit points.

Despite his slightly higher HP, R will go down fast. And no other character can do mass crontrol like Reyn.

He can attract every single enemy on his spikes which will kill them all just by doing aggro, letting the other characters do their thing.

If you've finished the game and have done the highest level area of the game (which happens to be the second area you see in the game), he's becoming very useful there. He's even the best character to put in position 2 for the most powerful quest UM in the game (so these UM appear once).

But you're right : no character is invaluable in the game, they can all be ditched for most of the game, including Shulk.