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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The Xenoblade Chronicles Series Thread: Definitive Edition (All Spoilers in Tags)

Nuvendil on 27 March 2018
Asriel said:
Asriel said:
70 hours in and 7 chapters done, I'll be taking a break (probably for a few weeks at least) while I concentrate on Mario + Rabbids and my second playthrough of Breath of the Wild.

I thought the plot ramped up in chapter 7 and became quite interesting (even if every confrontation with the villains is predictable and repetitive), but chunks of the chapter gameplay-wise were a fairly boring slog. I love the game when it comes together, but it trips up over its own systems far more frequently than either Chronicles or X did. Undecided whether I'll power through and finish the main story when I go back to it, or take my time and go through side-quests and try and get more rare blades. I went through 70 common crystals and 8 rare crystals this weekend without a single new rare blade.

Odds are once I've done the main story I'm never going to have time to go back to Chronicles 2 (unless the story-driven DLC is particularly good), so I'm hoping a break means I'll be likelier to spend time doing more sidequests and unlocking rare blades when I go back to it.

77 hours in and I've done chapter 8 - I'm not sure what to do at this point! 

I mean the story has really ramped up with Amalthus revealing his true colours. I wish you spent more time doing story stuff in Morytha, but chapter 8 was really strong all in all. Right now with the Titans all at the World Tree, it would just completely break my immersion in the story if I sauntered off around the world doing various quests, instead of concentrating on the world-ending scenario currently playing out. I'm guessing I don't have much more to go now - maybe 2 to 5 hours if I just move on up the World Tree and onto Indol to confront Amalthus and then Jin and Malos.  

I have active side-quests I want to finish and more Blades to try and find. I have a couple of questions that people might be able to help with.

1) I've heard there's a 'point of no return' - is it easy to load your save up after finishing the main story and complete unfinished side quests?

2) NG+ adds new Blades - is it possible to get these in a normal playthrough, without starting NG+?

A problem for me is that I'm probably not going to have enough time to do a NG+ - but it is quite tempting given how you keep your Blades and Driver levels etc, and I guess if I took my time it would take me right up to the DLC release (I'll buy it if the story expansion is good). 

On top of Wyrd says, the game kinda accounts for what's happened.  Some new quests pop up related to those chapter 8 events and some things change visually in relation to that.



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Baddman on 28 March 2018

lol Ok I really stopped at the beginning of the last chapter I think I will play it this weekend and finally beat the game



Jumpin on 28 March 2018
Baddman said:
lol Ok I really stopped at the beginning of the last chapter I think I will play it this weekend and finally beat the game

Beat the game like it owes you change!



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Baddman on 28 March 2018
Jumpin said:
Baddman said:
lol Ok I really stopped at the beginning of the last chapter I think I will play it this weekend and finally beat the game

Beat the game like it owes you change!

Lol I have a bad habit where I stop playing a game when I feel I am close to the end. This will also likely be the first xeno game I ever beat despite owning them all at some point in time



Jumpin on 28 March 2018
Baddman said:
Jumpin said:

Beat the game like it owes you change!

Lol I have a bad habit where I stop playing a game when I feel I am close to the end. This will also likely be the first xeno game I ever beat despite owning them all at some point in time

Heh, I’ve had a few games like that - Final Fantasy 9 I finished about 5 years after I played it, I had no idea what happened at the end. Same deal with Final Fantasy X and 13.

Anyway, in New Game+ the game becomes more of a playground, first of all, no learning curve; second of all, everything’s much easier. The game, IMO, feels much more cinamtic AND productive to play - and therefore more satisfying. The big factory in chapter 4, for example, went from something that I think took me about 3 hours the first time through, to fighting the first major boss in under 3 minutes, and the second in about 15; since all those doors that couldn’t be opened before can now be opened, and they’re massive shortcuts.

I think for exploring the additional content, New Game+ is the way to go - focus on getting through the story on the first play through.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

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Wyrdness on 30 March 2018

Entering Spring means the next DLC will be the Rare Blades Pack, going by the image it seems we can expected 3 new blades, although it doesn't mean the won't be more after all NG+ gave us 7 new blades. Curiously a new NPC has been added to the game in NG+ with the recent update.

Spring 2018: New Rare Blade Pack
Summer 2018: New Challenge Mode Pack
Fall 2018: Brand-new Story Content Pack



Last edited by Wyrdness - on 30 March 2018

Nuvendil on 30 March 2018
Wyrdness said:

Entering Spring means the next DLC will be the Rare Blades Pack, going by the image it seems we can expected 3 new blades, although it doesn't mean the won't be more after all NG+ gave us 7 new blades. Curiously a new NPC has been added to the game in NG+ with the recent update.

Spring 2018: New Rare Blade Pack
Summer 2018: New Challenge Mode Pack
Fall 2018: Brand-new Story Content Pack

Neat.  I'll wait for the story expansion to be shown, but these are nice additions.



Stellar_Fungk on 30 March 2018

I loves Xenoblade 2 so much that I’m downloading Xenoblade 3DS right now. Can’t wait.



I am a Nintendo fanatic.

Shaqazooloo0 on 30 March 2018

Huh, I wish I knew this thread existed earlier lol



Asriel on 31 March 2018
Jumpin said:

Anyway, in New Game+ the game becomes more of a playground, first of all, no learning curve; second of all, everything’s much easier. The game, IMO, feels much more cinamtic AND productive to play - and therefore more satisfying. The big factory in chapter 4, for example, went from something that I think took me about 3 hours the first time through, to fighting the first major boss in under 3 minutes, and the second in about 15; since all those doors that couldn’t be opened before can now be opened, and they’re massive shortcuts.

I think for exploring the additional content, New Game+ is the way to go - focus on getting through the story on the first play through.

This is interesting advice - I finished the main story an hour ago (85 hours total) and have ended up loving the game overall. I'm really glad I did chapters 8, 9 and 10 straight through, it makes for an amazing narrative sequence to bring the game to a close.

That being said, I do regret not doing as many side-quests as possible. I'm even tempted to buy the expansion pass at this point so I can do the additional quests and hopefully find the extra Blades that come from DLC. It's either do the side-quests from my completed file or do NG+; I'm not going to have time to do both. I'll have another break from it while I decide what to do. 

EDIT: One thing that might tip me towards NG+ : can you swap Blades between Drivers freely, or are they still locked to particular characters? I'd love to be able to experiment more freely using the rare Blades.

Last edited by Asriel - on 31 March 2018