My Time With Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Let’s just start this by saying that this was my initiation into the Xenoblade series. I beat the main story. I am by no means a novice at Japanese Role Playing Games. I am a veteran. I have been playing JRPG’s since I was like ten or younger. I beat Final Fantasy VII, Legend Of Dragoon, Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 and a lot more. I did not beat Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on GameCube. I did not like it. I did not beat Final Fantasy VIII. I could not. I got up to disc 2 or 3. It was the same for Final Fantasy IX. I got up to the last boss in Final Fantasy X but could not beat it either. It has been a long time since I played. With it being ported to the Nintendo switch now I may play it again.  I am finally getting to Kingdom Hearts III. I beat II and a bunch of the side stories but not one until I got bored of it. The Switch is very convenient I play it in the car, at my cousin’s house, at my friend’s house and on long trips like when we drive to Florida. I put 120+ hours into the game according to my save file. According to my Nintendo Switch I played for 175 hours or more. That is not including the number of times that I quit. My build was driver Nia, Rex, and Tora. With driver Nia I use an almost maxed out Kanehira missing three affinity orbs, an almost maxed out Ursula missing two affinity orbs one for trust and one for the Tantal Throne but I am missing one more ice mastery and Dromarch. Ursula uses a Positron chip. Kanehira uses a Photon chip. Nenoh uses a Positron chip. Daiko uses a Positron chip. Totetsu uses a Dark Matter chip. Mitsukage uses a Positron chip. Anyone that I can’t remember what I equipped with or that I did not put chips on to begin with I did not say. The aux cores of which you can only use refined ones are another whole thing. They are like accessories for your blades. Mythra was equipped with an HP Attack Boost II. It increases damage by 15% when health is 90% or higher. She is also equipped with a Physical Defense Up II. That one boosts defense by 12%. I’m not going to say what each one does but Dromarch was equipped with a Blade Combo Boost I and an Affinity Max Barrier I. Xenobia was equipped with an Affinity Max Barrier III, a Shackle Blade Resist I and a Specials Lv 2 Plus II. Even blades that I don’t use like Roc are equipped with aux cores. He has on an Affinity Max II and an Ambush Boost II. Brighid has an Ether Defense Up I and an Auto-Attack Stealth I. Dromarch uses a Photon Chip. Roc uses a sphere chip. Jin is a G. He might just be my favorite character. (spoiler)He sacrificed himself to take out Amalthus.(spoiler) I was level 65 when I beat Amalthus. His plight with Lora and Torna is as touching a story as I have ever seen. Well I am not going into that. With driver Tora I use of course all of the Poppi’s. I went out of my way to get Poppi QT Pi as well as Poppi Alpha and Poppi Qt. With driver Rex I mainly use Mythra and is equipped with a positron chip but when she’s not available I use either Electra, Wulfric, Sheba, or Totestu. Vess’s affinity tree is the most annoying one because you need to be a master dumpling maker. I also use Nenoh and Mitsukage. Electra is really cheap because when the enemy attacks you they pretty much attack themselves. The way the mechanics are explained are so piss poor that it is ridiculous. I got all of the heart-to-hearts. I played the game on easy. Usually people judge you for playing a game on easy but even on easy this game is not easy. When I fought the last boss I was level 68. Lucky for me I was able to beat most of the bosses even without the mechanics. I did not even use ascended Mythra to beat artifice Aion. When I changed my main team who only got the last boss to like 10% with 2 orbs. It then only took me 2 or 3 times to beat artifice Aion. Not only did I beat artifice Aion but I got an overkill. I did not even change the accessories on the blades. I only changed one accessory on myself and it was on Nia from a muscle belt which increases strength by 22% to an infantry vest which raised her health by 400. Her other accessory was a Gear Vest. Rex had an accessory titanium vest that raised his health by 30% and another one the ceramic belt that boosted his strength by 30%. When you can do over 1,000,000 damage in one hit and still lose then you need that. Tora had the accessories abyss vest which raises health by 24% and another one that raised agility by 27%. Artifice Aion’s most annoying attacks are War of the Servants, Prometheus and Siren Buster which is also a one hit kill once he is enraged. You have to enrage him to beat him because when his health is half or a little less then it just happens. I got in a Dead Of Winter with Xenobia who is bonded with Morag and is equipped with a positron chip but being used by Rex. I also used Perceval who is bonded with Zeke and is equipped with a positron chip but being used by Rex. I got 3 orbs on him. For arguments sake let’s say the 3 orbs were Wind, Water, and Earth. It might have been Fire but I don’t think so. Pandoria has equpped an Aggro Boost III, a Beast Hunter I and a Specials Lv 2 Plus I. Aegaeon has an Aggro Attack Up III and a Healing Hand III. Wulfric has on a Physical Defense Up I and an Element Orb Prioritizer. Perceval has a Specials Lv 1 Plus II. Agate has on a Critical Up II and a Jamming III. Boreas has on a Element Orb Ender. Ursula has on a Water Def Up II. Perun has on a Ambush Boost III. Zenobia has on an Affinity Max Barrier III, a Shackle Blade Resist and a Specials Lv 2 Plus II. The ones that Zenobia and Perceval have I took away from and Mitsukage and Nenoh. Shinome has on a Knockback Resist I and a Break Resist I. Kanehira has on a Specials Lv 3 Plus I. Sarasa has on a Helping Hand I and a Damage Heal II. Kirim has a Shackle Blade Resist II and a Aerial Hunter II. I gave Mitsukage a Outdoor Attack Up II and a Opening Art III after giving the other ones that were equipped to him to Xenobia. With driver Morag I use Sarasa, Aegaeon, and Brighid. Aegaeon and Brighid use Hadron chips. Agate uses a sphere chip. Boreas uses a sphere chip. Sheba uses a sphere chip. With driver Zeke I use Pandoria, Kirim, and Perun. After beating the boss everyone was level 72 and I was level 71. I played a bit of tiger! tiger! but I felt like I had wasted too much time with the waiting on Ursula’s affinity chart already. I did all of this before (spoiler) Indol become a hostile territory.(spoiler) The opening had a lot of action. The end was a bit of a bait and switch. They have the names written in Greek on their chest. There are bible verses that correspond with each Ontos(Alvis) no one knows what happened to him, Pyra/Mythra/(spoiler)Pneuma(spoiler) and (spoiler)Logos(spoiler)/Malos. Torna aren’t all bad. (Spoiler)Most of them come around sin Logos/Malos who is corrupted by Amalthus.(spoiler) Nia made the right call from the beginning to join you. I will not say anything about (spoiler)flesh eaters/blade eaters etc.(spoiler) I feel bad for Akhos. Everything from (spoiler)the whole new cycle of evolution and titans(spoiler) was brought about by Klaus. He was punished and Morytha was left in ruins. His punishment was that (spoiler)he was ripped in half and living in two different dimensions.(spoiler) Mikhail and Patroka had a good story going. They were annoying bosses. There were a few of them like the (spoiler)ancient weapon robot(spoiler) that I had to beat with Wulfric. Wulfric uses a Dark Matter chip. I don’t like blades with axes. I prefer the ones with bit balls, knuckle claws, swords, and spears etc. What’s left now is the unique monsters. I beat optional bosses like the one that is level 65 the Praetorian Argus that you fight on the ledge by the end. Sometimes I did it even before having the one that I needed to for it’s affinity chart. I am missing fourteen rare blades. I don’t understand why they have level 130 unique monsters. I have six pages of quests left and a bunch of affinity charts to max out. Azurda/Gramps is a cool character too. I am also working on my mercenary level. I am at level 3 and I believe that the max level is 5. If I had to give my impressions and I am a fanboy by no means. I did watch the recent Nintendo Direct and I did not like it. The one that stood out to me most was Astral Chain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brmmV3g4qqo&feature=youtube watch the trailer. I hope the next Nintendo Direct is better. I also hope the rumor of Scalebound being picked up as a Nintendo Switch exclusive among other things is true. It looked too good for Microsoft to have cancelled it and for none of the other big companies to do anything with it. Growing up I did have an affinity for PlayStation. I now try to play a little bit of everything. I played inFamous:Second Son on PS4, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on this and also Sunset Overdrive on Xbox One. I have shows to catch up on. I also have a few more switch games which are Lost Sphear, Kirby Star Allies, and the Banner Saga Trilogy. I was going through the Nintendo eshop a few days ago and saw a few cool games. I have been wanting Gris and I really like the premise of I and Me. I got 3 of the 4 pouch expansion kits. I am missing the one from the hero’s portal and it is because I do not have enough of the lock picking skill. That happens a lot with excavation points, murals and the like. I would say it’s a really good story. I would give this game between a 7 good and an 8 which just happens to be great. What this means is that it is worth playing. I would have given it a higher score if the mechanics were better explained from the get go when they tell you to implement them around chapter 3 in the Akhos fight. When you have to go out of your way to watch videos in order to be able to grasp the mechanics something is clearly very wrong.