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No Dignity
Oct 15, 2007

PJOmega posted:

I just want the quests at this point. I haven't had a problem with the superbosses so far, but all of the blades still have gold chip weapons because I keep having to go back and get more cores.

I want to love this game. I want to recommend it to others. But I cannot. It has too many utterly bizarre choices of content gated behind randomness that I'd feel bad. And it isn't only equipment. I'd be annoyed by 1/255 equip drops in TYOOL 2017/18 but whatever. This is story content.

Especially when there are things like The World Ends With You Remastered coming out on the Switch on the horizon.

Monolith Soft should just hire one developer whose job it is to ask 'is this design decision needlessly frustrating, punitive or inscrutable?' and hit the responsible person on the head with a rolled up newspaper if it is. Every new game in the series seems to drop the worst cruft from the last but manages to replace it with a new selection of horrible, unnecessary bullshit, there's still alot to love in each game but trying to do anything approaching a full clear in them just gets more and more aggravating the deeper I get.

...

I'm never getting Zenobia, am I?

No Dignity fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jan 11, 2018

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chumbler
Mar 28, 2010

I'd rather they hire a UI designer first. And a therapist for that UI designer.

Runa
Feb 13, 2011

I really like the Argentum Guild Day theme. It's one of the first tracks you hear and it's just so bustling. I actually didn't progress the opening stages of the story for like an hour because I was dicking around on Argentum, listening to the music and exploring the place.

The Sean
Apr 17, 2005

Am I handsome now?


Fritzler posted:

so the left dpad button (next to your blade switching) makes your teammates target whoever you targeted. Maybe that will help?

Edit: beaten twice

IcePhoenix posted:

Hit left on the DPad to tell the AI to focus on your target. I think the game mentions it as a throwaway line when it teaches you how to lure and this is basically the first time it's really necessary so I'm not shocked you don't remember.

If they are still affected by taunt it won't work, obv, but keep pushing it and they'll switch when they're able.

U-DO Burger posted:

Press left on the D-pad to make your party members target the enemy you are currently targeting


Thanks for the responses, everyone. This was the game changer for me. I beat it on the first try. What that means is that I was almost solo'ing him to 50%HP with Nia alone previously...

ThisIsACoolGuy
Nov 2, 2010

Shaped like a friend

On Nia's chapter 7 thing I wasn't terribly surprised that she fell for Rex considering her backstory and power of anime. She grew up and was mentally abused into pretending to be someone she wasn't, chased and hunted for a untold amount of years because of what she was forced to be, then signed up to a terrorist group that she joined just because she was desperate and at hopes end.
With all that drama piling up having someone that likes you for you and is constantly encouraging you to be yourself because you're a good friend? I can see feelings forming from all that encouragement she was lacking beforehand- and the games plot takes place over like a month or two so it's not just a overnight thing.

Cao Ni Ma
May 25, 2010



Louisgod posted:

I haven't even gotten that far yet but Gormott and Mor Ardain's overworld music is brilliantly conducted. Like the first soundtrack, putting on headphones makes you appreciate it even more as you pick up on the more muted nuances of the instruments they used.

I think XBC2s soundtrack is overall better than the first ones but I'm a mitsuda fanboy so I might be biased.

Hammer Bro.
Jul 7, 2007

THUNDERDOME LOSER

I feel like overall XBC2 has the better soundtrack though XBC1 has higher highlights.

I don't think I've gotten the shivers nor attempted to learn any of XBC2's songs but I haven't found one I didn't like, the choral ones were delightful and I didn't even realized I liked that kind of thing, and everything feels super appropriate to where it's at.

Fritzler
Sep 5, 2007


The Sean posted:

Thanks for the responses, everyone. This was the game changer for me. I beat it on the first try. What that means is that I was almost solo'ing him to 50%HP with Nia alone previously...
Cool, good job! I'm only in chapter 8/9ish. I do think the enemies get more frustrating, but you get so many more options to deal with them that it gets a lot better.

Leathal
Oct 29, 2004

wanna be like gucci?
lil buddy eat your vegetables

Barudak posted:

Ive never gotten a rare blade with a booster so I stopped using them.

Some guy on gamefaqs or some similar place opened a few hundred cores to test the gacha system's mechanics and came to the conclusion that Idea levels are all that matters. Essentially, the higher the Idea level for a respective element, the more likely it is that you'll roll a blade with that element (and how many stars it's likely to have).

He came to the conclusion that unless you're purposely opening cores for 4* commons, there's no point in investing boosters beyond whatever it takes to make an individual Idea stat higher than all the others on that character. (ie: if all Ideas are at 9, only use one booster for the element you're trying to roll).

Also his numbers worked out to be essentially "lol this whole system is trash" because you'll only get a 40% chance from boosting an Idea for that element to be ONE OF THE THREE possible outcomes per core. :downs:

Tldr: outside of trying to roll 4* and literally just Kos-mos (since she's the only rollable light blade in the game - and even then, you're rolling against the more likely shadow outcome), boosters are next to useless.

Edit: vv sure I guess but tracking several hundred cores in a game with mechanics as opaque as this game is as good as you'll get. None of his results contest anything spelled out in the game and they don't contradict anything else I've read.

Leathal fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Jan 13, 2018

tap my mountain
Jan 1, 2009

I'm the quick and the deadly
That's a lot of assumptions to make off of pretty limited data

Amppelix
Aug 6, 2010

Boosters, regardless of their usefulness, are a great way to encourage not hoarding your cores in the early game, i think. You can only hold 5, and if you do even a bit of salvaging you'll ram up against that cap, which is then easily solved by awakening some blades with them. That's what I did for like 30 hours of game, and it gives a nice natural pace to your blade accumulation.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

Ytlaya posted:

No, even then it still doesn't make sense, because it would mean that boosters would give a smaller bonus as your ideas leveled up (while still being limited to only using 5 at once). a 15/10/10/10 spread would give less of a relative bonus to getting the elements associated with the 15 than a 5/1/1/1 spread would for the 5.

Characters having their own ideas that level up when you do things simply doesn't jive with the idea that boosters - which increase idea levels - increase your chance of getting blades of that element. Meanwhile, it's all-but-confirmed that idea levels do influence star rating of commons.

I think you misinterpreted what I was saying.

Let's assume idea level gives a proportional boost to the type of element (which is what you are initially saying). So 5/1/1/1 would be a 62.5% chance to be one of the two elements from the 5. Normally a 15/10/10/10 would be a 33.3% chance for the 15...but what if every idea point after 10 (which can only be reached with boosters) counts double? So now it's effectively 20/10/10/10. Triple? 25/10/10/10. Etc etc.

We don't actually know what the formula even is, maybe the game already weights it more towards the ones that are higher in the first place. But considering all the weird poo poo they did with the game, I kind of doubt that they made boosters less useful as you level up the character's idea points.

nessin
Feb 7, 2010

multijoe posted:

Monolith Soft should just hire one developer whose job it is to ask 'is this design decision needlessly frustrating, punitive or inscrutable?' and hit the responsible person on the head with a rolled up newspaper if it is. Every new game in the series seems to drop the worst cruft from the last but manages to replace it with a new selection of horrible, unnecessary bullshit, there's still alot to love in each game but trying to do anything approaching a full clear in them just gets more and more aggravating the deeper I get.

It's pretty obvious the developers on this team are incapable of working out how they don't have to implement F2P mechanics in a fully priced game. I could defend a lot of bad design decisions in one way or another, but there is no defense for not having a quick blade swap option for challenges. For that matter, there isn't a defense for needing to swap blades at all, there is not point in the game for field arts being locked to just your active three blades. Although the true thing that takes the cake is the gachapon system, where you can skip the introduction animation for your new blade but not the core activation animation. No way such a small and simple thing yet so pervasive in the game would have made it all the way through to release unless they never played their own game without debug tools unless the concept of user friendliness is foreign to them.

And to be clear, when I say F2P mechanics I mean the complex and frustrating menus, the lack of animation skips, and so on. The gacha system itself is one problem but the whole interface and user experiences screams lovely F2P game designed to frustrate the player into buying into premium services to avoid it.

Pierson
Oct 31, 2004



College Slice
Welp they announced a remastered The World Ends With You which also has a baller and interesting combat system with has a collectable series of parts as part of that system so there it is I guess.

chumbler
Mar 28, 2010

You call it a F2P interface, but X's was just as bad. I think in Monolith's case they are just constitutionally incapable of making an interface that isn't a hot mess.

U-DO Burger
Nov 12, 2007




yeah as frustrating as XC2's menus and systems are, they're still more accessible than XCX, the game that basically required you to read the online manual

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

IcePhoenix posted:

I think you misinterpreted what I was saying.

Let's assume idea level gives a proportional boost to the type of element (which is what you are initially saying). So 5/1/1/1 would be a 62.5% chance to be one of the two elements from the 5. Normally a 15/10/10/10 would be a 33.3% chance for the 15...but what if every idea point after 10 (which can only be reached with boosters) counts double? So now it's effectively 20/10/10/10. Triple? 25/10/10/10. Etc etc.

We don't actually know what the formula even is, maybe the game already weights it more towards the ones that are higher in the first place. But considering all the weird poo poo they did with the game, I kind of doubt that they made boosters less useful as you level up the character's idea points.

Yeah, that's possible, though given we almost definitely know they affect common rarity it seems most likely that's all they effect (particularly since it seems like there are more anecdotal experiences against the boosters making a difference than there are in favor - most of the ones in favor I've seen have either been from earlier in the game, before getting rares is really that hard, or have been from people who almost always use boosters, in which case of course they'd get most rares while using them). Also, I'm pretty sure the method you describe would still involve decreasing relative chances prior to getting above 10 idea level. It would also mean that a character is still better off purposely keeping other ideas low if they want to get a specific blade.

The only possibility that would be directly consistent with what we do know is if, in addition to increasing common rarity (which is all-but-confirmed), they also treat rares as 5*s and increase the chance of getting them as well. The main reason I doubt this is the case is that, if it were, rares would probably be a lot more rare earlier in the game (since they would theoretically be rarer than 4* commons under that scenario).

Watch it turn out, once all the math is revealed, that increased idea levels actually decrease your chance of getting rares somehow, and that's why peoples' chances of getting rares decrease as they progress through the game. (I don't actually think this is true, though I guess it could be a way to avoid opening most of your cores on the same character, since ranking up commons on a character increases their idea level. IIRC the reason is because rares aren't drawn from a static "rare chance" but rather each have their own "slot" in the gacha, result in dramatically lower chances of getting the remaining ones as you get down to the last few.)

Silver Falcon
Dec 5, 2005

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and barbecue your own drumsticks!

I got my first rare Blade in post-game, after brutalizing poor Vampire Bride Marion a bunch of times and putting two luck-boosting Blades on Zeke!

It was Dagas.

multijoe posted:

...

I'm never getting Zenobia, am I?

:smith::hf::smith:

I've seriously pulled all of three luck-boosting Blades ever. The third one is a hammer... and there aren't any Core Chips that boost luck on hammers, right? Just Blitzball, axe, and spear?

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

Dagas is good.

Zoran
Aug 19, 2008

I lost to you once, monster. I shall not lose again! Die now, that our future can live!
Actually Dagas is incredible. His 120% damage at max affinity on his second affinity chart is a party-wide boost.

From playing around with the fourth party member at endgame, I have determined that Brighid is an amazing blade, all the other tank blades are kind of crap, and that Mòrag is garbage at holding aggro except under player control.

Zoran fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Jan 12, 2018

bef
Mar 2, 2010

by Nyc_Tattoo

U-DO Burger posted:

yeah Tantal has some of the best music, including the theme Nintendo used to make their sweet music video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv5CifO4KtA

I had to check these dudes out after hearing this, they got some pretty sweet tracks

Meowywitch
Jan 14, 2010

ThisIsACoolGuy posted:

On Nia's chapter 7 thing I wasn't terribly surprised that she fell for Rex considering her backstory and power of anime. She grew up and was mentally abused into pretending to be someone she wasn't, chased and hunted for a untold amount of years because of what she was forced to be, then signed up to a terrorist group that she joined just because she was desperate and at hopes end.
With all that drama piling up having someone that likes you for you and is constantly encouraging you to be yourself because you're a good friend? I can see feelings forming from all that encouragement she was lacking beforehand- and the games plot takes place over like a month or two so it's not just a overnight thing.


I was pretty convinced when she slugged him.

CharlestheHammer
Jun 26, 2011

YOU SAY MY POSTS ARE THE RAVINGS OF THE DUMBEST PERSON ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH BUT YOU YOURSELF ARE READING THEM. CURIOUS!

Barudak posted:

Ive never gotten a rare blade with a booster so I stopped using them.

Holy poo poo 97 legendary cores and no rares what is wrong with this game.

Lol I got one every ten until the end

Evil Fluffy
Jul 13, 2009

Scholars are some of the most pompous and pedantic people I've ever had the joy of meeting.
Monolith Soft really want to make an online game so they just need to go for broke and make Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with full (peer to peer) co-op gameplay. gently caress the World Tyrant-only co-op. Let me invite some poopsocking ubernerd friend(s) in to my game and wreck poo poo with with super mechs or whatever.

SE showed with Dragon Quest 9 that you can have a perfectly acceptable co-op system in a turn based RPG so there's no goddamn excuse. If they're worried about balance... well they haven't been yet considering how you can break Xenoblade games in various ways. :colbert:

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

The post battle banter catches me off guard sometimes, I just had a new one that might be my favorite so far (minor party spoilers)


Brighid: Wow Floren, you're the opposite of Lady Morag
Floren: Well, Morag is strong and cool, so I'm...weak and lame?

Runa
Feb 13, 2011

Are there any consequences for which candidate to pick for the admin position in the Leadership Qualities quest?

Because the fallen nobleman seems like the obvious choice, especially if you plow through the skill challenges.

ajkalan
Aug 17, 2011

Xarbala posted:

Are there any consequences for which candidate to pick for the admin position in the Leadership Qualities quest?

Because the fallen nobleman seems like the obvious choice, especially if you plow through the skill challenges.

If there are, I didn't notice anything beyond which one sticks around in camp. Granted I only reloaded to check quest rewards and any other immediate differences, but I didn't see any additional quests from the chosen candidate later in the game.

socialsecurity
Aug 30, 2003





Xarbala posted:

Are there any consequences for which candidate to pick for the admin position in the Leadership Qualities quest?

Because the fallen nobleman seems like the obvious choice, especially if you plow through the skill challenges.

No choices in this game matter.

Runa
Feb 13, 2011

Welp, alright then!

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida

socialsecurity posted:

No choices in this game matter.

You get more trust if you pick the right choice during a heart2heart

Centzon Totochtin
Jan 2, 2009

IcePhoenix posted:

You get more trust if you pick the right choice during a heart2heart

WHAT

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

IcePhoenix posted:

You get more trust if you pick the right choice during a heart2heart

How much more though? Are we talking like...50 more or 1000 more?

quote:

Actually Dagas is incredible. His 120% damage at max affinity on his second affinity chart is a party-wide boost.
I couldn't believe having unlocked level 5 on his last tree meant only level 2 on his second. But Nopon Wisdom on him is so useful because it's such a rare ability.

quote:

That is genuinely strange, and I don't mean that as an insult or negative thing; it's legitimately something I don't think I've ever heard of before.
I think it's a leaned behaviour. When I was younger my parents and school would often play music in the background of things and I'd have to tune it out to concentrate on whatever I was doing. So I do it instinctively now, if there's no lyrics I just don't hear it at all.

Taear fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Jan 12, 2018

Gravy Jones
Sep 13, 2003

I am not on your side
The music in Indol amuses me no end. The lyrics are the most generic and meaningless religous-sounding, but not actually religious nonsense. Pretty though. Game has good soundtrack for sure.

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

IcePhoenix posted:

The post battle banter catches me off guard sometimes, I just had a new one that might be my favorite so far (minor party spoilers)


Brighid: Wow Floren, you're the opposite of Lady Morag
Floren: Well, Morag is strong and cool, so I'm...weak and lame?


Kora and Dagas have a good one, too.

Gravy Jones
Sep 13, 2003

I am not on your side
Favourite banter: Nia + Sheba, can't remember the actual wording, but something along the lines of:

Sheba: I'm glad to announce the tea party will proceed as planned
Nia: I'm glad to announce that no one cares

GreenBuckanneer
Sep 15, 2007

Amppelix posted:

Boosters, regardless of their usefulness, are a great way to encourage not hoarding your cores in the early game, i think. You can only hold 5, and if you do even a bit of salvaging you'll ram up against that cap, which is then easily solved by awakening some blades with them. That's what I did for like 30 hours of game, and it gives a nice natural pace to your blade accumulation.

Even at 25 being held you still ram into that cap easily. It's a frustrating system.

IcePhoenix
Sep 18, 2005

Take me to your Shida


Taear posted:

How much more though? Are we talking like...50 more or 1000 more?

I don't think it's very much

Amppelix
Aug 6, 2010

GreenBuckanneer posted:

Even at 25 being held you still ram into that cap easily. It's a frustrating system.

Well yeah but in the late game you can just sell them to get rid of them because you're constantly swimming in boosters anyway.

THE FUCKING MOON
Jan 19, 2008
I just found my first 3 legendary core crystals in chapter 10 last night, and all three were trash, what the living gently caress :suicide:

edit: Zenobia is the best rare blade, and I'm glad I've had her for most of my playthrough

THE FUCKING MOON fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Jan 12, 2018

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No Dignity
Oct 15, 2007

If nothing else legendary core crystals should be 100% rare Blade drops, there is no excuse for that not being the case other than the Monolith being staffed by actual deviant psychopaths who hate you.

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