Poll of the Day > Been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3.. . ***MAY CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS***

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ive been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Its pretty fun Still confused about a few things. And even though the flame clock thing in the eye is gone (is Ouroboros now), I have no idea what its original purpose was (gameplay wise) I think Im about to unlock classes or something. And I like Ethel so far

How did others like the game? Also, did you guys play with one character more than the others. Or did you switch a lot. Ive been playing as Noah a lot. But I think I might start trying the other characters more

Also, I dont want to turn off the tutorial since I dont want to miss anything But I do think its a bad system, tbh And slow, at times To much forces stuff going on with it

I enjoyed much of the humor in it, and the cast of characters overall. I wasn't expecting to relate so hard to Eunie, but I did. Seeing the return of two previous characters from XC 1 and 2, and having them interact with one another besides, is great.

I also liked seeing a Gundham lookalike. I assume its not the one from 2. I was thinking that he looked like him. And then, when they said his name, I was like, same name and face But I guess its someone related on some way

LinkPizza posted...

And even though the flame clock thing in the eye is gone (is Ouroboros now), I have no idea what its original purpose was (gameplay wise)

If you let it get low enough, your whole party will suffer an Attack Down debuff until you can raise it back up. Letting it get that low pretty much requires you to have the whole party die a couple dozen times, though, so it's not something you're likely to encounter naturally. The mechanic pretty much just exists so the Flame Clock isn't relegated to being entirely a story gimmick, which is a nice touch for making the game feel more fleshed out and consistent, but ultimately has pretty much zero impact on the game.

LinkPizza posted...

I think Im about to unlock classes or something. And I like Ethel so far

If you've met Ethel, I believe you've already unlocked classes, though just those of the main party. More will follow shortly.

LinkPizza posted...

How did others like the game?

I absolutely loved it. It's perhaps a bit early to tell since I put it down relatively recently (after ~200 hours and just straight up running out of content, though I want more and I'm quite hyped for whatever the DLC brings), but I think it's managed to beat out #1 as my favourite in the series and one of my favourite games ever.

LinkPizza posted...

Also, did you guys play with one character more than the others. Or did you switch a lot. Ive been playing as Noah a lot. But I think I might start trying the other characters more

For the most part, I stuck to Noah and just cycled him through different classes as I maxed them out, occasionally popping over to Mio if the one she was working on interested me more. For late-game farming, I generally controlled Sena for more reliable Breaks (the Break-Topple-Daze-Burst combo is very useful for farming and Ogre has a skill that reduce Break resistance by a large margin, which makes those combos more reliable) and played as Mio as either Zephyr or Guardian Commander for the superbosses because controlling the tank for harder fights tends to be the best way to keep them under control, but you've got a long way to go before that becomes relevant.

LinkPizza posted...

Also, I dont want to turn off the tutorial since I dont want to miss anything But I do think its a bad system, tbh And slow, at times To much forces stuff going on with it

The tutorials ease up pretty quickly (unlike 2, you get most of the important mechanics pretty early), but if you're finding them too frequent or to be stating things that are annoyingly obvious, you do have the option to review them later in the System menu, so you can turn them off and just read them as needed on your own terms.

LinkPizza posted...

I also liked seeing a Gundham lookalike. I assume its not the one from 2. I was thinking that he looked like him. And then, when they said his name, I was like, same name and face But I guess its someone related on some way

Fun fact: Guernica's name is shared with one of Picasso's paintings. Specifically a very overtly anti-war piece, which is pretty fitting and a nice little touch (I very much doubt it's a coincidence, because Takahashi).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)

adjl posted...

If you let it get low enough, your whole party will suffer an Attack Down debuff until you can raise it back up. Letting it get that low pretty much requires you to have the whole party die a couple dozen times, though, so it's not something you're likely to encounter naturally. The mechanic pretty much just exists so the Flame Clock isn't relegated to being entirely a story gimmick, which is a nice touch for making the game feel more fleshed out and consistent, but ultimately has pretty much zero impact on the game.

If you've met Ethel, I believe you've already unlocked classes, though just those of the main party. More will follow shortly.

I absolutely loved it. It's perhaps a bit early to tell since I put it down relatively recently (after ~200 hours and just straight up running out of content, though I want more and I'm quite hyped for whatever the DLC brings), but I think it's managed to beat out #1 as my favourite in the series and one of my favourite games ever.

For the most part, I stuck to Noah and just cycled him through different classes as I maxed them out, occasionally popping over to Mio if the one she was working on interested me more. For late-game farming, I generally controlled Sena for more reliable Breaks (the Break-Topple-Daze-Burst combo is very useful for farming and Ogre has a skill that reduce Break resistance by a large margin, which makes those combos more reliable) and played as Mio as either Zephyr or Guardian Commander for the superbosses because controlling the tank for harder fights tends to be the best way to keep them under control, but you've got a long way to go before that becomes relevant.

The tutorials ease up pretty quickly (unlike 2, you get most of the important mechanics pretty early), but if you're finding them too frequent or to be stating things that are annoyingly obvious, you do have the option to review them later in the System menu, so you can turn them off and just read them as needed on your own terms.

Fun fact: Guernica's name is shared with one of Picasso's paintings. Specifically a very overtly anti-war piece, which is pretty fitting and a nice little touch (I very much doubt it's a coincidence, because Takahashi).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)

For the flame clock, that makes sense. It just never seemed to get low. I did fight a ton, though. And didnt really get wiped, as I ran from the string enemies while collecting stuff I also thought it was cool that is was a mechanic earlier, even though its not as important gameplay wise later

As for Ethel, I havent met her yet. Just saw her in a couple stories. But I did unlock classes. And am now in a forced class swap for a little while

I did enjoy 1 a lot. Though, X is a favorite of mine

I feel like sticking with one character is not bad here since they can all switch classes, anyway. Though, it might start making more of a difference later when I can start building string characters using stuff from multiple classes

Yeah. I think most of the tutorials came pretty early. It was just weird when theyd tell me how to do something, and then force me to do it before I could do anything else. Like buying and equipping accessories when I wanted to buy more. Or changing every characters class, adding a skill, and adding a sub art or something For all six characters And telling me to to do it for each character one at a time That was awful

And I didnt know that about the name, but thats actually pretty cool And very fitting!

LinkPizza posted...

For the flame clock, that makes sense. It just never seemed to get low. I did fight a ton, though. And didnt really get wiped, as I ran from the string enemies while collecting stuff I also thought it was cool that is was a mechanic earlier, even though its not as important gameplay wise later

It takes a hell of a long time for the clock to deplete, in real-time. I saw a Youtube video once where someone deliberately died to mobs over and over for a stupid long time, since that lowers the timer faster, and it was still a lot.

LinkPizza posted...

As for Ethel, I havent met her yet. Just saw her in a couple stories. But I did unlock classes. And am now in a forced class swap for a little while

Ah, you'll see more of her soon, and the class system opens up properly shortly thereafter.

LinkPizza posted...

I feel like sticking with one character is not bad here since they can all switch classes, anyway. Though, it might start making more of a difference later when I can start building string characters using stuff from multiple classes

Yeah, eventually you'll get to the point where everybody has every class maxed out and you can do whatever you want (there are minor stat differences between characters if you really want to min/max, and the original six classes will eventually get a sizable attack buff if you use them on their original users, but it doesn't really matter who is what for the most part), but until then you'll probably find yourself either focusing certain characters on classes that help them fill certain roles more effectively, or focusing them on classes with the highest aptitude so they level them up faster (which is what I did).

I will give you one piece of very important class advice that you probably won't understand for a short while: make sure that if you have Noah as a Yumsmith at the end of chapter 5, you change him to a different costume before finishing the chapter. Just trust me on this.

LinkPizza posted...

Yeah. I think most of the tutorials came pretty early. It was just weird when theyd tell me how to do something, and then force me to do it before I could do anything else. Like buying and equipping accessories when I wanted to buy more. Or changing every characters class, adding a skill, and adding a sub art or something For all six characters And telling me to to do it for each character one at a time That was awful

Yeah, that should all be done now. You might get one more for the Ouroboros skill trees when they open up, but otherwise the only remaining major mechanic is Chain Attacks, and they don't have such an in-depth tutorial (though they're pretty confusing and you might actually want more direction).

I always switched to the character with the class I felt like playing. I probably played everyone pretty equally.

Also, best game of all the (that isn't a gameplay VN).

Entity13 posted...

It takes a hell of a long time for the clock to deplete, in real-time. I saw a Youtube video once where someone deliberately died to mobs over and over for a stupid long time, since that lowers the timer faster, and it was still a lot.

I wonder if changing the difficulty changes the amount of time needed

adjl posted...

Ah, you'll see more of her soon, and the class system opens up properly shortly thereafter.

Yeah, eventually you'll get to the point where everybody has every class maxed out and you can do whatever you want (there are minor stat differences between characters if you really want to min/max, and the original six classes will eventually get a sizable attack buff if you use them on their original users, but it doesn't really matter who is what for the most part), but until then you'll probably find yourself either focusing certain characters on classes that help them fill certain roles more effectively, or focusing them on classes with the highest aptitude so they level them up faster (which is what I did).

I will give you one piece of very important class advice that you probably won't understand for a short while: make sure that if you have Noah as a Yumsmith at the end of chapter 5, you change him to a different costume before finishing the chapter. Just trust me on this.

Yeah, that should all be done now. You might get one more for the Ouroboros skill trees when they open up, but otherwise the only remaining major mechanic is Chain Attacks, and they don't have such an in-depth tutorial (though they're pretty confusing and you might actually want more direction).

Yeah. I definitely opened up the class system more. Haha. But that makes sense given how big the box was. But I think I like how its done. So far, Ive opened up all the ones I currently could for each character (7 of them) I also like the hero system

I also like how it tells you which classes work better for characters by ranking them Which is probably how you figure out which ones also get learned faster And I will keep that is mind about the yumsmith. Haha.

Yeah. I think I got the last few tutorials. Hopefully, they are done That said, I do like chain attacks. I can do them, and do them well, but I usually stop at three. When I got my Ethel, I was able to get to 4 chains I think things can work better based on what everyone is

agesboy posted...

I always switched to the character with the class I felt like playing. I probably played everyone pretty equally.

Also, best game of all the (that isn't a gameplay VN).

I think thats a good way of doing it. After learning each class, Ill probably switch to characters using classes Im better at, or that I want to play. I might even switch during battle a little, in some cases Especially if I get downed, since it might not be as fun to just watch the rest of them doing stuff

LinkPizza posted...

I also like how it tells you which classes work better for characters by ranking them Which is probably how you figure out which ones also get learned faster

The aptitude for the class only affects how quickly you learn them (both the initial unlock as the chibi outline fills in, and your CP gain once you set it). Past that, the only thing that affects which class works best is their innate stat differences, which aren't terribly significant (less than 10% between the highest and lowest, in most cases).

LinkPizza posted...

That said, I do like chain attacks. I can do them, and do them well, but I usually stop at three. When I got my Ethel, I was able to get to 4 chains I think things can work better based on what everyone is

With a couple of exceptions (there's a hero later on whose chain order refills the chain meter by one stage), three is the maximum number of chain orders you can get from main party members because the chain meter will run out. Hero orders don't deplete the meter, though, so they give a fourth, which means it's usually a very good idea to choose them when they come up so you get that extra round of damage and increasing the ratio. Later, you'll unlock Ouroboros orders, which appear after using the chain orders from both members of an Ouroboros pair, reactivate all characters for one last round when chosen, and do buttloads of extra damage.

adjl posted...

The aptitude for the class only affects how quickly you learn them (both the initial unlock as the chibi outline fills in, and your CP gain once you set it). Past that, the only thing that affects which class works best is their innate stat differences, which aren't terribly significant (less than 10% between the highest and lowest, in most cases).

Thats not too bad, then. 10% means they should still be usable enough, even if they arent the best at it

adjl posted...

With a couple of exceptions (there's a hero later on whose chain order refills the chain meter by one stage), three is the maximum number of chain orders you can get from main party members because the chain meter will run out. Hero orders don't deplete the meter, though, so they give a fourth, which means it's usually a very good idea to choose them when they come up so you get that extra round of damage and increasing the ratio. Later, you'll unlock Ouroboros orders, which appear after using the chain orders from both members of an Ouroboros pair, reactivate all characters for one last round when chosen, and do buttloads of extra damage.

Ok. That makes me feel better. I figured I understood it, but only made it to 3, except when I had Ethel. So I wasnt sure if I was missing something to make it better Haha. And the Ouroboros Order sounds like it can immensely help with harder battles later on

I thought the game was pretty good, but a lot of its sci-fi concepts seem a little half baked and I thought it had an extremely weak villain group that didnt give enough time to the baddies that mattered.

Whats your plan for class setups? I had a lot of success with 1 tank 2 healers 3 attackers with either ashera or Fiona for my hero.

PK_Spam posted...

I thought the game was pretty good, but a lot of its sci-fi concepts seem a little half baked and I thought it had an extremely weak villain group that didnt give enough time to the baddies that mattered.

Whats your plan for class setups? I had a lot of success with 1 tank 2 healers 3 attackers with either ashera or Fiona for my hero.

Not sure yet, tbh That setup sounds good. That said, it depends on which heroes I get, and decide to use. And what kind of tank and healers(support) I use Once I start unlocking and trying new classes, Ill probably start figuring out which ones I like more

Generally speaking

Attacker > Healer > Tank

Bur Signifier (healing class) is jjst fun and busted when in player control. But Asheras clas can basically just spam arts, provided you have the right setup, and getting access to an easy Blossom Dance in clutch moments can help you survive tough encounters, provided you can keep aggro

A certain character after a certain point, when given access to an attacker class, basically becomes a walking delete button to everything but Uniques and Bosses. Thats fun to walk around super high level areas with after the midpoint to just see things drop in under a second sometimes.

PK_Spam posted...

Generally speaking

Attacker > Healer > Tank

Bur Signifier (healing class) is jjst fun and busted when in player control. But Asheras clas can basically just spam arts, provided you have the right setup, and getting access to an easy Blossom Dance in clutch moments can help you survive tough encounters, provided you can keep aggro

A certain character after a certain point, when given access to an attacker class, basically becomes a walking delete button to everything but Uniques and Bosses. Thats fun to walk around super high level areas with after the midpoint to just see things drop in under a second sometimes.

I cant wait to unlock more classes Seems like there are some interesting classes. And fun setups!

New DLC drops tonight with a new (probably busted) hero

Yeah. My game downloaded it. It said its ready as soon as it releases.

Not sure if I should go for the DLC now or wait until wave 3 so I've got all the content that's based on the base game available at once. I want more, but if it's just a little more, then I'm not going to stop wanting more for having played it.

I'm relatively sure the challenge DLCs are the only one I'll truly want (assuming they follow the trend of XC2 DLC waves), but... bah, idk. I'll just sit on it for a while. I put a ridiculously large amount of time into the game already, I can take a break for a few more months.

Who is your favorite girl and why is it Eunie?

PK_Spam posted...

Who is your favorite girl and why is it Eunie?

gotta fiona

loved all of that section

(but also mio)

PK_Spam posted...

Who is your favorite girl and why is it Eunie?

Because yes. Also, she's basically how I see my high school aged self, decades ago.

PK_Spam posted...

Who is your favorite girl and why is it Eunie?

Honestly, I'm not even sure I have a favourite character. Eunie probably generated the most outright hilarity, but everyone is really just delightful and it's such a fun party to adventure with and watch grow. Eunie is absolutely the most memeable, though, which is saying something in a world of wotah and yippee.

agesboy posted...

gotta fiona

loved all of that section

I really like how well they tied Fiona in to Lanz. Physically, it seems ridiculous that he'd inherit the class, but the parallels between Fiona's insecurities and Lanz's are really quite brilliantly executed and I loved the subtle ways he hinted that he understood her situation.

Also, the late-game quest where Triton talks about Irma carrying around an empty box that she wanted to fill with treasure after we'd found a box in her hideout full of mementos from her time with Mu was peak manly tears.

So, Valdi can get like a lot of chain by himself. He got 271% on his own. Which is confusing since he was the green healer type. I thought they did a point limit thing He can also seem to reactivate more than 1 (at least 2)

The point limit thing only applies to main characters in healer classes. Broadly, heroes have no special effects except the ones that are specific to them (which you see when you select them), regardless of their role. In Valdi's case, that's +50 TP when he's targeting a Machine enemy, which is really niche but can lead to some very impressive TP values in the right circumstances.

adjl posted...

The point limit thing only applies to main characters in healer classes. Broadly, heroes have no special effects except the ones that are specific to them (which you see when you select them), regardless of their role. In Valdi's case, that's +50 TP when he's targeting a Machine enemy, which is really niche but can lead to some very impressive TP values in the right circumstances.

I see. That makes sense. I was fighting the Counsel in the machine he built during his hero quest. He basically completed the chain attack himself. I was very confused. Haha.

Also, how come sometimes, I reactivate 2 characters?

LinkPizza posted...

Also, how come sometimes, I reactivate 2 characters?

If your final TP value is between 100 and 149, you'll reactivate one character. If it's between 150 and 199, it'll say "Bravo" and you'll reactivate two characters, as well as increasing your damage ratio by a greater amount. If it's 200+, it'll say "Amazing" and you'll reactivate three characters, with an even greater boost to damage ratio. Unfortunately, there's no benefit to going beyond 200, so as much fun as pushing Valdi to 250+ is, his value kind of drops off once your other characters can consistently get you to 150+ (while doing vastly more damage, no less).

There are some heroes whose special abilities will tweak how that works, but that's the gist of it. It's generally a very good idea to use a healer to stop at 99, then somebody that can generate 50+ (or even 100+) to get up to the next tier. Using a hero like Valdi to do that isn't necessarily the best option because heroes generally do far less damage than main characters and you risk reactivating them instead of somebody more useful on the next round, but they can sometimes be useful for helping you get back as many characters as possible while you build up their TP values to be able to get there on their own.

Doing huge damage in chain attacks basically comes down to healer spam and finishing every round at 200%. There is some RNG involved in the first few rounds even when you have an optimized setup, but you can use two healers to buff and get yourself up to 99%, then a 65+ attacker on an attacker order to reach 200%. Once you hit 200% once it becomes incredibly easy to keep reaching it. Then in the last two rounds, you can have all your healers act before finishing off with your attacker.

The more realistic midgame approach is, when using a 2/2/2 or so party, finish rounds with defenders while aiming for 100% or 150%, using healers when you want to try to push 150%. Or go for smashes. A smash near the end of a chain attack will absolutely murder anything in the game you're roughly on par with, even if your multiplier isn't very huge.

agesboy posted...

Or go for smashes. A smash near the end of a chain attack will absolutely murder anything in the game you're roughly on par with, even if your multiplier isn't very huge.

Specifically, a Smash paired with a high-ratio art like Hidden Thorn or Demolition, since Smash's damage in a fusion art is based on the damage of the art it's fused to. Critting for 2-3 million outside of chain attacks isn't unheard of with the right setups. In chain attacks, you'll pretty routinely hit damage cap (10 million).

adjl posted...

Hidden Thorn

snapshotting bleed damage at the end of a chain attack and watching the boss multiple levels above you melt their last few hp every tick is such a good feeling

If I was in a position to snapshot a good bleed at the end of a chain attack, the boss generally didn't spend any time alive after it ended.

That is one thing I'm not huge on with chain attacks this time around. In both 1 and 2, you could effectively weave them into various strategies as part of the overall process of killing the enemy, and while they did huge amounts of damage, you still usually had several over the course of a fight and they were only part of it. This time, if you've set up right, you can basically nuke anything from 70 to 0 in one go (including the level 200 version of the superboss), so fights basically amount to surviving until the party meter fills, then blowing the boss up. This maybe means I should have played on hard for the nerfed damage ratio, but I expect they'd still make up the bulk of my damage. I like the system and how it gets back to the more strategic approach of the first game's chain attacks instead of 2's "match the colours once or twice if you have 2+ orbs otherwise just do the most damaging one" (offset by 2 being more strategic in other ways), but the game does end up being a little over-centralized around them.

Of course, I could also just not use them all the time if I don't like it, so it's not exactly a major deal.

my main problem with chain attacks was that i'd accidentally bring a boss from 70% hp to... 5% hp

muh rewards.....

I usually end up waiting to get the boss to low health to get the overkill bonuses

yea but then u try an asap chain attack and the boss almost dies

and u feel..... the power..........................

agesboy posted...

my main problem with chain attacks was that i'd accidentally bring a boss from 70% hp to... 5% hp

muh rewards.....

But then missing the rewards works out to help keep you from being overlevelled, so it's not too bad. Plus you might actually get to hear the boss' low health theme, which is a really awesome idea that routinely gets missed because the chain attack theme overwrites it.

adjl posted...

Plus you might actually get to hear the boss' low health theme,

i heard enough of the theme to just piss me off tbh

i actually didnt realize there was a low hp theme until the 2nd theme ~sad~ theme, regardless. i missed so much..