Board 8 > Torna - The Golden Country topic [xenoblade 2]

(+) Yeah! (+)

This is out now for expansion pass holders, standalone physical version in a week.

Story trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGMhS80qUAA" data-time="

Best battle theme evs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_SlG-xDBLo" data-time="

It's basically like a better version of XC2 so far, really liking it.
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I've been listening to that battle them for a week its hot fire
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More like Bore-na m i rite
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I'll have to get to it after I'm done with DQXI
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Also why is the main character Hinoka from Fire Emblem?
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TheRock1525 posted...

Also why is the main character Hinoka from Fire Emblem?

She headed for a better game. One that deserved her.

Played a bit and really enjoying it so far. This cast is already so much better than the XC2 one.
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Did anyone else get an email from Nintendo with a download code for some random items? I have Xenoblade 2 digitally, but I haven't actually bought the season pass yet.
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mnkboy907 posted...

Did anyone else get an email from Nintendo with a download code for some random items? I have Xenoblade 2 digitally, but I haven't actually bought the season pass yet.

I just got this now too, and I do have the season pass
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I heard this game focuses on town building and removes the gatcha system

that's all I needed to hear
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Town building? That would be the first I've heard of that.
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I don't know if it's town building or settlement building or whatever. I just saw a wheel and saw you can recruit npcs to that wheel and that's basically what I want in a game
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xp1337 posted...

TheRock1525 posted...

Also why is the main character Hinoka from Fire Emblem?

She headed for a better game. One that deserved her.

Played a bit and really enjoying it so far. This cast is already so much better than the XC2 one.

Yup. Lora (Hinoka lookalike, Rock) is a really likeable character. Her battle and field quotes are great:

"Spoiling for a fight? Happy to oblige!"

*When falling off a cliff* "I blame gravity for this!"

Also I love Addam, he's such a weirdo.

MawiIe posted...

I don't know if it's town building or settlement building or whatever. I just saw a wheel and saw you can recruit npcs to that wheel and that's basically what I want in a game

It's a system similar to the one in Xenoblade 1 I think.
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xp1337 posted...

She headed for a better game. One that deserved her.

Fire Emblem Warriors.
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CelesMyUserName posted...

mnkboy907 posted...

Did anyone else get an email from Nintendo with a download code for some random items? I have Xenoblade 2 digitally, but I haven't actually bought the season pass yet.

I just got this now too, and I do have the season pass

I got the email too.

I have the season pass

I 100%'d the main game but haven't played any of the DLC not even when they patched in more blades or the Shulk and Fiora stuff so I guess I can use all these extra legendary core crystals to try to pull them
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Can I play this without having the main game or do I have to wait for the physical release?
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You have to get the physical version if you want to play it without having Xenoblade 2, otherwise it's only available via the expansion pass


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*gets to gormott*

oh mannnn remixxxxx

this is the greatest dlc of all time
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This to my eyes looks like a further refined, shorter XC2... which I'm totally excited about!

Literally can't stop playing DQXI though so this'll have to wait.
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Played up until when you finally get the full party (Drivers + Blades.) The cutscenes around that were so good. how does this cast get better chemistry in one cutscene than the main game cast did in an entire game?

Also, I found a glitch on accident that might be of some interest to people because on the surface it appears wholly beneficial. It skyrockets trust levels at an absurd rate which allows you to unlock all the Affinty Chart Nodes. On the occasions where a Driver leaves the party temporarily for story reasons but they have a Blade remaining in the party to represent their team, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to gain Affinty/Trust. However, if you have an Aux Core or Pouch Item in effect that has that effect the game freaks out and they gain ridiculous levels of Trust.

Spoilers here are just for party member names in case someone doesn't want to know various characters that leave temporarily. When Lora and Haze sat out and you have just Jin for Team Lora, I had an Aux Core on him that boosts his affinity when you start the fight with an advantage - Hunter's Affinity I or something. In a single fight, Trust maxed out as far as the Affinty Chart was concerned and jumped from C to A or something, unlocking all the nodes. In numbers this had to be a couple thousand Trust at least. Later, When Hugo and Aegaeon leave and you have Brighid alone, Hugo had a pouch item that boosted base affinity by... 75, I think? I started a fight with fodder and in a ~3 second fight there was at least 2000 trust gain. There was some kind of time factor involved too because when I reloaded the save and fought a stronger enemy more Trust was gained (The short fight ended just short of A rank Trust, the long one got there.) Also, the pouch item timer doesn't count down and can't be removed while the Driver is away so the only way to avoid this happening is to remove the Blade from the battle party entirely.

Personally, I wanted to build Trust the usual way so I quit and reloaded my save after all these incidents except for some testing I did to determine the above. Also in case it somehow could have a bad effect somehow by like... overflowing trust or something. You gain the ability to craft an item that makes raising Trust super easy with the right Aux Core set-up anyway so it's not a big deal but hey maybe some people would be interested.
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So one of the most significant improvements over the main game is the visuals due to them having more resources (i.e. not having half their team on Breath of the Wild). This is most notable in the cutscenes, they look fantastic.

I also like that the tone is more in line with the first game and X. It was fun how goofy 2 was but I like that this is a bit more serious.
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Yeah, the more serious tone is definitely much appreciated. A big part of the reason I was so excited for this was how it was stated that it would have a more mature tone than the main game.
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The game difficulty is kinda strange sometimes. There's a regular Lv41 Aspar that can just AOE nuke my team and in the same area a Lv40 Unique who I could beat. My team was around Lv34 and usually don't expect to be about to fight Uniques that are that many levels higher than me.
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Yup there are some random Riiks that just destroyed my team a few times. Though I also had trouble with the boss immediately after you get your full team. Then again that one might have been my fault due to not just doing the chain attack when I should've.
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Just made it to Auresco. I went on a detour to complete as much of the Blade Affinity Charts as I could. Got everything except nodes I literally can't because they're tied to crafting or community.

Think the game went a bit overboard with some of these requirements though. "Use Level 2 Special 30 times." Without taking direct control of the relevant teams it'd be a huge pain to do naturally because the AI would refuse to cooperate on some of them if I left them to their own devices regardless of how I shuffled them around.
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Too much exploring and filling out affinity chart has left me like 8 level higher than the story bosses. Maybe I should try avoid fights for the next little while.
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So how is this game compared to the original? Was not interested in Xenoblade 2 but based on trailers this one seems more appealing.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Too much exploring and filling out affinity chart has left me like 8 level higher than the story bosses. Maybe I should try avoid fights for the next little while.

lol that happened to me too. Although I think I'm even worse off. >_>

Currently off sidequesting because a ton opened up.

KamikazePotato posted...

So how is this game compared to the original? Was not interested in Xenoblade 2 but based on trailers this one seems more appealing.

Definitely better IMO. Characters, Story/Tone, Gameplay are all superior IMO. And the graphics engine got a slight retool so it's improved there too. Plus no gacha system for Blades.

Thaaaaaaat said, while Nintendo has advertised this as fine to start with, I'm not totally sure I agree. I feel like a lot of the game relies on you knowing things from the main story. It also spoils some main story reveals, but the reverse is also true in that as a prequel you know how it's going to end. A lot of terminology and stuff kind of goes by without explanation that you got in the main game. You can piece much of it together but it would be more frustrating I think.
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KamikazePotato posted...

So how is this game compared to the original? Was not interested in Xenoblade 2 but based on trailers this one seems more appealing.

Do you mean the original Xenoblade or Xenoblade 2? With regards to Xenoblade 2, it is better due to the mechanics being refined, the visuals are improved, and even things like the voice acting are better (I really liked the voice acting in Xenoblade 2 but there were rough patches early on, here it is on a par with the first game probably). It also moves much quicker, Xenoblade 2's first two chapters were the weakest by far, this is strong out of the gate. Compared to the first game it is still quite different but the tone is more in line with that than Xenoblade 2, which was much, much lighter. It's also worth remembering that it is an expansion and much smaller than the main games, though pretty huge for an expansion.

It does work on its own, but assumes you know some of the mechanics of the world. It doesn't bother re-explaining its world even though the story is self-contained, which is probably for the best. It does spoil some reveals, but you could arguably say that the main game spoils reveals in this!

If you're never going to play Xenoblade 2, go for it. The physical version of this also includes the Expansion Pass for the main game if you decide to get that later.
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Also right now I'm doing a side quest that makes me think that between the development of main Xenoblade 2 and Torna, Takahashi or someone else high up in development played The Witcher 3.
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Torna DLC beaten *ending spoilers*
The ending is still a gut punch even though I knew from the very start how things would end. RIP Lora
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I've also beaten it now. The ending is fantastic. The last bit before the endgame dungeon was a little bit of a drag on the pacing but miles better than it could've been. I was never not having fun because the gameplay and quest design is so solid.

As for the ending itself, Milton's death is the most shocked I've been by a video game in a long time, even though I saw it coming. Mythra snapping was pretty terrifying and sad. And in general it was a massive bummer, but a damn good one.
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*ending spoilers*
The decision to force you to get Community Level 4 just before the final dungeon seemed like strange decision to make. I was pretty diligent in collecting Community and I wasn't even Level 3. I went and completed all of the quests since that's how I play but I can definitely see this as a bigger problem for people who don't do every side quest they can. I guess even for me it kinda hurt the pacing since they open up a lot of quests right at the very end.
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I've now beaten every Unique Monster. I think I'm pretty close to having done everything I can do.
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I probably would have beaten the game yesterday but I got sidetracked by hunting the Golden Monsters.

that was a bit more frustrating and time consuming then i would have liked

Community Level Max get though, so I think I can beat the game later today.
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Yeah, it's kinda annoy how the only way to grind for exp to kill the next Golden Monster is to beat on the previous Golden Monster.

What level are you? I didn't even try to fight the final Golden Monster until I was Lv99 and even then he was kind of a pest.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Yeah, it's kinda annoy how the only way to grind for exp to kill the next Golden Monster is to beat on the previous Golden Monster.

First one was fine even when I was underlevelled to him. Second one was brutal because that multi-hit move he has that breaks and topples kept screwing me up. I even had Break Resist V on everyone. Usually could survive it by Vanguard Switching in the middle of the attack for both the HP refill and also to switch the Break character into the back and avoid the Topple (leading to funny times where the Rear Guard got toppled because of the switch timing.) But sometimes it'd fail or the AI would die and it'd fall apart. Third was weird in that I thought I figured out the fight's mechanics but nope would still auto-die sometime even with the 100% resist item from the previous guy. This was just more tedious than anything though.

Last guy I came up with a strategy that worked 95% of the time so he was actually the second nicest to deal with.

What level are you? I didn't even try to fight the final Golden Monster until I was Lv99 and even then he was kind of a pest.

Currently Level 99. Beat him at Level 95 though. Tried going in there at like... Level 87 after I beat the third one to see what it was like and was getting one-shot so I leveled up to 95.

My strategy was: Quick get 5 orbs on him. My opening Blade Combo is always Addam's Volt -> Brighid's Fire -> Jin's Ice. It's a critical path too so you get the invincibility during the third animation which is nice. After that it's really in the hands of the AI. Ideally I wanted Light and Water from Mythra and Aegaeon. I can make do with just one of those as long as I get a 5th Orb though. With neither it's RNG and probably a fail though. I tried using Haze to get Wind/6th Orb but it's really unreliable. I actually did it once but usually she just dies.

At this point he's probably used Warning Cry. If not I just fought him until he did. The moment I see that pop up, I hit Chain Attack before his pals get there and lock your Party Gauge. Minoth had Elemental Orb Ender Aux Core so if there's Light he can break it, and if Water is there Lora + Brighid can and getting the first round extend is key because I can control it from there. Goal is to get Full Burst on Jin which just requires getting 2 Orbs broke on one round and Jin to deal the last break on Round 4. Full Burst here either kills the Unique or leaves him at like 5% HP at which point he can be finished quickly.

If anything here fails though, like not getting the Full Burst/Someone dies early preventing me from getting the Chain Attack at all/I'm too late and the party gauge gets locked before I can act I usually wiped yeah. Always because someone (and often me) gets knocked off the ledge and dies. Have to leave his pals alive because if they die he goes berserk and can total party kill you.

I had a Critical Heal set-up but that was my typical rollout so that wasn't a change. Tossed HP % up gear on everyone for extra survivability but that wouldn't be needed really. Minoth also naturally runs with Elemental Orb Ender for me since he has 3 Aux Core slots so it all worked well for my normal equips IMO.
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Haha, the game had one last surprise for me. Saw a spot I had my doubts the game would let me jump to at the very end and thought there'd be an invisible barrier. Then in the instant it let me I thought "well then there's gotta be a killplane here to cause you to die" then I landed safely and was like "huh, this is weird but cool that it lets you up here." Then I followed it to an area with monsters that only appear there and drop items that I don't think drop anywhere else and are good (including WP/EXP +50% accessories) and would only be accessible this way and I was like "well played Torna."

Anyway, I too have joined the beat Torna club now.

Fantastic ending. A little torn on whether I think the ending was just great the way it was or if I would have wanted some of that to be playable in a "the party dwindles" with Lora/Addam together a short bit until they split. Then Lora's team on their own for a bit before it all comes tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down.

On one hand the credits were incredible and really powerful but I just wanted more. =(

Also I guess I just wanted to have my heart ripped out some more but I was hoping we'd actually see an expanded version of Lora's death and any conversations playing out before/after. Also a bit surprised we didn't see Mikhail in the post Lora's death section like Indol before.

And a very minor quibble but I think it would have been a bit better not to have Mythra flashforward to Rex when she lost control.

Amazing expansion and pretty much everything I hoped it would be. GotY 2018 confirmed.
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*ending spoilers*
We find out that Haze was there before Lora was killed. That's also all we find out about where Haze was because she still gets killed of screen. >_> With that said, I think I still like how they decided to just skip over it instead of replaying an extended version of her death scene since it wouldn't have the same impact due to being a replay. The scene with Jin afterwards was just fantastic.
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*Ending Spoilers*

Well, Haze would return to her core when Lora died. Her not being physically present with Lora at the very end feels kind of like the main game not quite planning on Torna. So while I'd like to see what's up there it may have been a case of Torna going "uhhh too hard to explain this without retcons."

Still there was an opportunity to show her coming into Amalthus's possession I suppose.

I guess when I say I wanted to see Lora's final moments expanded on I guess I wanted more context on Jin's decision to become a Flesh Eater. We know he did because Lora said she didn't want him to forget her but IIRC wasn't the very end of the main game flashback unvoiced? Where it's implied he tells Lora he can make that happen? That's the expansion I wanted to see I suppose.

I always assumed that Jin made a tragic misinterpretation of Lora there by taking her completely literally. And if Lora assented to Jin becoming a Flesh Eater it was a similarly tragic misunderstanding of what he was doing/what it implied. But I can't deny there's alternate explanations there that would also make sense.

You're right that a straight replay of the main game flashback would be unnecessary but that's why some expansion on it would be key for me.

also i wanted to be sadder. i wanted to feel more emotions.

Like I said, it was a fantastic ending and part of me does think that changing it would be a mistake. I'm torn(a).

Edit: Also that Ending Theme playing made the credits scenes so much more powerful. Perfect choice.
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About five minutes in.

No more of this rex/pyra stuff for smash ok? Lora and Jin have taken their place
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I just went and rewatched Minoth's play about the Aegis War

*Torna ending spoilers*
He completely rewrote Addam's personality and made it sound like Mythra and Malos were around when the third titan went down. Minoth should know that the Aegises weren't active when Spessia went down.
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gosh why are these games so close to being great with some major UI flaw hindering each one.

Meeting a new character should give you a little pop up, just like character affinity, not pull you to a separate screen to watch the character get added.

on the other side of the coin, character affinity SHOULD pull you to the screen, since you need to watch the boxes get unticked in order to unlock later ones, which means if you miss the notification after a battle, you have to cycle through all your blades before you see which is the right one.

this minirant brought to you by my game freezing on a character addition screen
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The freeze sucks, but the community screen thing is hardly a "major" UI flaw. Though with that said I am definitely of the opinion that the UI issues are likely the main thing holding XC2 from being quite as good as the first.
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You can turn off the "meeting a new character pulls you to the Community Screen" thing in the options.
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oh sweet! well that solves my problem then.

goty 2018
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Torna beated

The moment I climbed up the stares to the final boss instantly cemented this as goty 2018 omg (not cutscene/boss or anything... just the view you're met with as you reach the last floor)

Had the exact same thought process as xp, "awh well the map doesn't extend pass these walls so I guess that's just fall death... but I gotta jump"... and then I landed

and then I just spent a good while just exploring and just looking all around every crevasse just gushing over everything

Torna best titan/god/map/whatever of all time, instantly from that moment no question aaaaaaaaaaa

... as for the actual ending and everything uhhh well I was definitely overleveled since I completed all quests and everything, S-trusting the blades, and beat1 gold unique. Throughout the game though I've always been doing every quest possible at any time sooo yeah

Cool twist of the final boss fight mechanics though! Then the Mythra snapping and destroying everything... and then Milton... damn. Seeing Hugo's end there too had some good impact, followed by Lora handing over the Core Crystals.

Before the boss fight though I was all "man what happened to Gort-whatshisface that Amalthus was working on"... I did not expect him to come up this way though woah.

A lot of stuff that gets skipped over was fine and all but yeah there's still a lot more I wish I got to see, like xp mentioned the unvoiced moment with Jin/Lora. Also a bit more Addam's side, I mean XB2 he seemed to be really prophesying a bunch and I expected some hint about Rex origins in Leftheria... they also really did just toss in the nod of Addam's wife in the sidequest and then nothing >_>. Also could've seen something of Jin and Malos getting together maybe.

but yeahhh if they covered everything I wanted I'd basically need like a whole movie of a cutscene so.... XB2 just has so so so much stuff in its story

As people commented, characters a great plus. Addam kinda reminded me of a mature Zeke actually! Much better than Rex. Speaking of, I love how much Addam's displeasure of spicy food comes up, given the lie passed down about Addam's Embercakes in the future and Mythra crushing Zeke's heart about. Despite there being a lot of things I still wanted there's still a lottt of random nods in this... like Lyta's family oh man, Lyta and her blade are the best, naming the places of Gormott. The last batch of sidequests really bond you to all the people you've quested man, like bringing together other characters as part of the last few quests, I just actually felt like I got to know these people and I loved it.

Wish Minoth had a bigger roll than he ended up having though... I feel he doesn't really participate much, outside of like a couple sidequests he opens up a bit.

anyhow that's my random comments i can think of at 2am for now. pretty safe to say no DLC comes anywhere near as good as this was

play time 38:51, just gotta finish off the last gold uniques
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final golds beated and l then just put myself up to level 99~

dat community complete reward <3

now to start ng+
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So does Lora fight completely unarmed for the entire game or just the starting part?
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technically lora teaches everyone else how to fight like her
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she uses a whip
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