Xenoblade Chronicles 2: that waifu that you do

Eh that Tora scene is played for comic relief. He resolves the ‘mistake’ with the settings and the wardrobe falls open revealing a bunch of maid outfits. I found it amusing, and it seemed kind of like parody to me. The whole ‘white eyes, sweat droplets’ JRPG tropes are not commonly used elsewhere in the game.

I’m pro-mech and anti-waifu, so I think I’ll pass on this one. When’s Chronicles X getting ported to the Switch?

Correction:
“I’m still [in] the early stages”

It’s been talked about, apparently if Nintendo okays it it may happen!

I am enjoying this crazy piece of software a LOT more than I did X. I found X bewildering, but the combat here feels a lot easier (for me at least) to parse and understand. Quest structure seems to make sense to me too, whereas in X, it was always somewhat unclear to me what I was supposed to be doing. I’m about 10 hours into the story, and I have to say… I am enjoying it. The world building is bizarre and fascinating. Some dialog is actually decently written. You can turn on Japanese voices (and turn off battle chatter entirely). I like the Japanese voice acting, but I do worry I am missing out on Reyn Tyme level memes. The Pyra model is insanely too pervy. Some of the other blades are weirdly abstractly sexualized in a distinctly unerotic way. At some point in the story, they say that blades take the form from the mind of the person who unlocked them… that’s a fascinating idea, but I am sure it won’t be deeply explored.

I’m liking this game a lot, and it’s been a while since I liked a JRPG. The whole waifu thing is kind of disconcerting though. I mean, I like boobs. But it seems kind of weird to have it in this game.

Still a good game though, and boobs don’t make it worse. Just kind of… Weird.

One thing though… So much of this game is poorly explained exactly once, and then never again. There is nowhere to go to learn stuff. Even the internet doesn’t seem to know how certain stuff works.

Wait, what?! HOW DO YOU DO THIS?

To use Japanese VO, you have to be download a free DLC pack from the game’s Eshop page, and to disable the battle dialogue there’s a Battle Narration option in the sound settings.

I would say succinctly, not necessarily poorly… ;)

If you haven’t been screenshotting them on the Switch there’s a compilation in the link below. Note some may be spoilers depending how far you are, as they keep going for quite some time (up to the Orbs and Full Burst Gauge):
https://imgur.com/a/jZxj3

The only real unknown stuff for me so far are the ideas, and how using boosters relates to bonding particular blade types. You can see before bonding that each idea booster encompasses an elemental duality but it’s not clear what effect that actually has on the outcome. During the resonance it also flashes up shapes three times, that sometimes include figures - not sure on the significance of this either if any.

It’s just absurd to expect me to take screenshots of instructions detailing the game mechanics.

Yes it is. But at least you now have somewhere to go to learn stuff.

Believe it or not, there are informants who sell the equivalent of tooltips. Sheesh.

-Tom

I bought them all, read, then save-scummed. ;)

As is typical in JRPGs, there are also a bunch of tips scattered throughout NPC conversations.

I just encountered this. Funny.

Still, all of that stuff aside, the game is quite fun and well done.

I seem to be the only one that considers XCX the best of the lot. I was not enamoured by XC’s story but the character development was better. On the flip side in XCX the World is a character which has plenty of depth. Seems XC2 won’t dethrone XCX in my heart (waiting for the weekend to play it).

I found this a super helpful cheat sheet to the combat.

Pretty cool, and a very satisfying system - I’ve yet to do a 3-orb special!

And there’s also the driver combos - break/topple/launch/smash. You get even more damage for a special that lands during one of those status effects!

Note your character portraits at bottom left will flash if one of them has a special ready to chain too.

There was a pretty decent explanation of the system on the Treehouse Log, for any curious parties:

Ah, I didn’t realize the little white orbs circling the character portrait indicated the level of their special. Helpful!

Now someone tell me what “fusion” is a reference to.

-Tom

It’s the Blade special pulled off while a Driver combo countdown timer is active. They’re called Fusion Combos, and you’ll see “Topple X Volcano” or similar on screen when you do one.

Here's a pic I found

Ah, right, I’ve seen those. What do you mean they’re “blade specials”? Specific to certain blades? Or just the same thing that you mentioned when you said this?

If I just have to topple, break, launch, or smash someone while I’ve got a driver combo, I’m wondering why I’m not seeing a lot more of them.

-Tom

Sorry, I mis-spoke - it’s just called a ‘Special’ in the game (the A button).

But they are moves specific to each rare Blade. Common Blades’ specials are based on the weapon they use.

Or just the same thing that you mentioned when you said this?

Yeah I was trying to describe Fusion Combo there.

If I just have to topple, break, launch, or smash someone while I’ve got a driver combo, I’m wondering why I’m not seeing a lot more of them.

Break, topple, etc. is the Driver combo, and one of those needs to be active first. Then do a Special.

But I don’t think it’s enough to just trigger the Special, you have to complete the QTE button prompts and whatnot while the topple, break, etc. timer is still visible.

They may be happening more often and you’re just missing them during the insane lightshow! Easy to do. :)