@@yazeedalsheikh2320 dunban was my prefered tank when I played the first time on 3DS. I only ever used Reyn if I needed to get aggro off another character. Riki never made sense to me, so I only used him to get affinity up and use his abilites on other characters.
I came back to xc1 a few days ago and was really worried that after playing xenoblade 2 for so long, I wouldn’t really like it as much as I did before While I still do think 2’s is better, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this games combat is much more different to 2’s than I thought and is still so much fun. I can’t wait to officially do my 100% ng+ playthrough on the 1 year anniversary of DE, and it’s still my favorite video game ever (and 2 isn’t far behind)
i remember going back to 1 after finishing 2 and i was like "wow, this is so vanilla 😅" not saying that in a bad way. i just was like "i used to think this was complicated" i got into it fine and it was still fun
2 and torna have a superior combat As for the story, that's up to preference. I prefer 1 cuz 1 has a well balanced tone to it. 2 was too "anime" cliche with an overly wacky tone at times. Plus more on the fanservicy Shonen side. That's why I like 3's tonal shift back to what 1 did
Glad I watched this, didn’t know about the chain attack multiplier, I’d been basically doing “driver combos” during chain attacks and wondering why the damage output was so disappointing.
I’m sure you already have a grand scheme in mind, but one of my least favorite parts of combat is how tedious raising party affinity between members can be. I’m sure a lot of us would love to see a content creator such as yourself make a tip video / guide for how to raise affinity as quickly as possible either throughout the game or in end-game :] As always, love the videos man. It’s really cool to hear the combat explained so clearly when the game itself doesn’t give many specifics.
Just do quests and gift a lot. Not sure if it's different in definitive edition, but there is an enemy you can grind affinity on named stormy belegon in eryth sea too.
Gifting is streamlined in this version, much quicker and easier to understand. Using a chain attack raises all affinity with those currently on the field, use those as often as possible no point in saving it as it usually is drained and wasted, that and the party gauge raises quickly, even in a chain attack.
There is a unique monster in the game called stormy belegon at level 85 that any physical damaging move hits it the attacker falls asleep. Really easy for end game affinity grinding works like a charm Step 1: have the two party members you want to raise affinity and have sharla for healing in the party so you can drag the fight out. Step 2: dont kill it because you can go back so bring its health low then run and fight it again Step 3: enjoy all those heart to hearts
I feel like they've made it easier to gain affinity in this port. I just reached Satorl Marsh and I have lv4 affinity between Shulk and Reyn already. Granted, I did all the timed side quests, but it still seems like a very fast gain. It's been a couple of years since I played the game though, so I guess I can't say for sure.
As others have already mentioned, you can grind the ether based enemies for affinity, but I did a similar thing much earlier in the story. In Makna forest across bridge number 2 (I haven't gotten there in this release and it's been a while since I played the Wii version, so I hope that's the right bridge), there's a bunch of ether-based clouds that give you constant debuffs every time you hit it. On your party members, unequip all gear and unequip all arts from their palette so CPUs can only auto attack and talent art occasionally. Put low level weapons on your party and yourself to drag out the fight, keep whacking the enemy and get debuffed constantly, and go around encouraging your party. With DE, you can even use the expert mode setting to lower the level of your party if you're killing the enemy too quickly (in theory, again I haven't gotten there yet). I just know that on the original Wii release, I grinded to max affinity with everyone in the party (except 7, didn't have them yet when I did this) from about affinity level 2-3 between everyone in around 4-6 hours (yes, that sounds tedious, but if you're at the end game then I assume affinity levels are higher in general and won't take as much time).
it is the third itteration of the game after all. by simply chain-attacking to finish every halfway big fight you have such a good experience curve that just like in XC2 you never really have to level if you know what you are doing
I'm more impressed they are having no trouble whatsoever against Rotbart. Actually reaching the level they go gold isn't easy in my experience. Maybe a quick EXP path tutorial on leveling plateaus? Given my general strategy was Riki the Red Rotbart and keep it up till they died from status effects. Only managed to beat it once before giving up on that strategy and just turned my game into a Stealth Game to reach certain post-game areas.
I‘m so incredibly proud of myself that I knew most of what you explained in the video, I usually suck at understanding battle systems but I feel like I didn’t do too bad here
This video is extremely helpful! I'll have to watch it a few times to fully understand the concepts, but this is the best video I've found explaining the battle system. Thank you!
Xord that’s because you didn’t have to time it in the original, it was only "you got it" or "you didn’t get it" Now it’s either you have perfectly timed it, you managed to press the button while it was in the blue area or you missed it
Excellent video homie. I had the general gist of how it worked from playing but like most JRPGs some stuff isn't fully explained in game so I learned quite a bit from this.
I already understand the battle system but I like seeing people wreck unique monsters And why aren’t you using Riki, he’s like the best Jack-of-all-trades character
short answer is i haven't used him enough to have affinity with party so can't do big chains with him, I have Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban all maxed with each other. They also deal more damage overall and i'm all about damage typically lol. Couldn't show Seven though for the max damage of course.
Brea Nightly ok not only is it only the name but come on the game came out 10 years ago. Now that doesn’t mean it’s ok for story spoilers but for part member names (except for 7) are perfectly fine when it’s been that long
Thank you for this! I had trouble when playing the original Xenoblade so this will be very useful when I replay the Definitive Edition, I just hope my copy arrives soon
like every totally sane man we preordered it, waited impatiently for the relase by checking the downloaded game every 30 seconds and then proceeded to tear through it with the experience of running the same thing 2 times already and easily getting to high entia in like 5 hours max. Its pretty obvious isnt it?
Great video! Thanks for keeping this so compact while also fleshing out some of the finer details of the chain combat system. Much needed as I dive into this game! Already 20 hours in and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface.
nice vid dude. was awesome getting to help you work on this and im glad you're having fun with the combat in this game. one quick little thing: crits can't get you to max tension, you can only do that via explosion of energy from seven, getting a burst affinity at high tension, or breaking a vision tag. also, ether affects healing arts as well as ether damage arts. other than that video is great and i hope you'll make more in the near future :)
I gotta say man the quality of your content is evolving at a crazy pace. Really like the effort you're putting into these videos. Keep up the good work! I'd love to see more(despite already knowing a lot about the system lol)
My absolute favorite Xeno content RU-vidr. Thanks to you I learned to have even more crazy fun with XC2 and thats saying a lot cause its one game I have spent about 800 hours on. Cant wait for each and every video you plan on doing about this remake!!!
I beat the super bosses after 200 hours grinding the best gems and getting all affinity coins and affinity between my characters and mastering topple locking and critical drain and still had absolutely no idea what tension was until just now. All I knew was 7 benefits from it so I liked to cater to it a bit when using 7 through skills mostly.
Gem crafting is daunting for sure, but remember these simple tips: Shulk and Reyn for crafting badass gems, characters with bad affinity towards each other for creating
This is exactly the type of video I needed right now. I was watching someone stream the beginning of the game yesterday and I struggled to figure out what makes the combat so engaging as it just looked kind of mindless to me. After watching this video though, I now have a slightly better understanding of how and why it works. It definitely seems like the type of thing I'd appreciate more from playing the game myself compared to watching videos online. Whenever I give the game a proper shot whether it be on Wii or Switch, I'll keep all of this in mind. Thanks for this.
Excited to see newcomers from XC2 see this, I never knew so many struggled with the mechanics so hopefully this will help people appreciate the combat instead of blowing off the intricacies when wandering through the story. Keep doing what you do best!
I first watched this video at level 15 and didn't understand shit. Now I'm level 75 and everything makes sense. Point is, keep playing and you will get eventually.
I personally discovered something more important with agility. I was doing a control test using reyn and the weakest weapon I could find. I took off all gems and non defense boosting equipment, then added strength gems to a value of 27, and then replaced them with agility gems to the same value. Using the plazma deinos in makna forest that reportedly have 0 in both defenses, i found that the additional agility affected the overall damage output far more than the strength gems. Control averaged 720 damage. Strength averaged 900 damage. Agility averaged 1100 damage. So agility is definitely the most important stat. I was doing this control test at level 54
Didn’t know that you get the best outcome with pressing B at the edge of the ring, thanks for the info. I just sarted my game so this should help later
You are a godsend, my man. A friend of mine bought me a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii to support Operation Rainfall. I did decently up until Xord and got destroyed (disclaimer: I'm not really a JRPG person). Years later, I bought the Switch version of Xenoblade and got past that bottleneck, and it was thanks to your explanation of the battle system.
ive played the original for so many hundreds of hours, but it was nice getting a refresher and relearn or learn some new things. thank you, ill be looking forwards to more guides.
Just look at the skill trees continued tutorial. It's in the combat section. It's pretty self-explanatory. Don't forget that "affinity coins" aren't actually spent: you get coins back when you un-link skills.
I am so appreciative of you for making this video. I recall an earlier video of yours where you said you were unsure if you'd make many vids for XC:DE if they don't update the battle system since objectively the battle system is older and less intricate than XCX and XC2. I'm glad you did this for newcomers as well as people like me who used to have a solid understanding of it all but just forgot a lot of it over the years. I think it's good for your channel and good for the fanbase.
Great guide, this shall prove a great resource for newer players. But man, I'm out here praying that one day a detailed Combat Guide for Torna is made.
I'm surprised you didn't mention this: Agility only lets you evade physical attacks. Ether attacks entirely ignore evasion and will always hit (I believe you can still block them though). Only a few attacks in the game from enemies are Ether based but it's important to know for those enemies since they can suddenly wipe out your dodge tanks out of nowhere.
I wish we had this vid back in 2011. Whenever you'd ask a Xenoblade fan to please explain the combat, all you'd get were smug comments of 'It's like an MMO, man' and other such derogatory crap. Which is why I hate the Xenoblade fanbase with a passion. The battle system is anything but simple, 40 hours in you're still learning it.
I got this game a few days ago for Christmas...initial impressions were NOT great, largely due to the combat. This gives me a little more faith to keep going with it. Thanks
So, after these weeks do you like the game more? I'm 70hrs in, almost done and while I like the game a lot, I felt I'm not doing combat in the optimal way, and this video was great help.
@@RobMedellin Unfortunately not. I gave up on it after the first or second boss (I don't remember which). The gameplay did not win me over, nor did I find the story all that interesting. Just wasn't my cup of tea.
@@ATK1734 I don't think you were fair to the story which hasn't even begun at that point, it's been just the setup by then, but if you mean the setting/style it's not your thing then that's super fair, we have so little time that is best to use it with what hooks you. Thanks for the reply!
@@ATK1734 1: The story hasn't started. 2: You don't have a quarter of the combat mechanics. 3: You don't have half of the party members. Give the game a goddamn chance.
@@rosheafan if I’m three hours in and “the story hasn’t started”, I can’t play it if I’m not already interested. With the unfun combat explained even worse, I haven’t even finished that cave bit at the beginning of the game after the colony was attacked.
Enel coming in clutch because i need this. im playing casual mode and i know battle from x2 but for some reason i cant figure some stuff out. like how to gain monado power. it just happens most of the time😹
I learned several things from this even though playing definitive edition is my third time playing the game. Like I didn't realize that timing the button press on the edge of the circle was more powerful than just anywhere inside it.
cant wait for the Sharla guide can't believe i went through this game 1 and a half times without knowing about using same colored attacks during a chain for massive damage increases! I was always focused on toppling mofos with topple resist
Some of the best advice in this game is that you don’t need to use Shulk. Reyn, Dunban and Riki has been my most effective party by far. Sometimes I sub in Seven or Melia. Especially towards the end of the story, but before the end game, try to get used to using all the part members. Best advice you can get for this game.
Damn i just opened youtube and you uploaded this 52 seconds ago lol. This is my first time playing Xeno 1 so I'm sure this will help a lot. I read a wiki page about Tension and Agility but I'm looking forward to your explanation
Tension is actually pretty important just a tip when you revive someone mash b because when they revive they revive with the lowest tension which SEVERELY hinders there Agility, making them pretty susceptible to just dying again. Just dont forget to encourage them else they'll just be dead weight
This guide is incredibly useful for people who haven't played the game yet. As someone who's been playing since it came out on the 3DS I wish I had a resource somewhat like this.
You sir, just got a sub. I just got XBCDE yesterday and i was totally at a lost with the battle system. Your video is really helping me get a better understanding. Hopefully i can beat this game, and then try out out ZBC2.
Notable thing about the auto attack stat, the way damage works, you need to be careful about how it is displayed in the menu if you're considering ether arts. Ether arts do NOT use the displayed auto attack damage. They use the WEAPON'S auto attack damage. The difference? Equip a strength up gem, and notice how that raises your auto attack stat. So, for ether users, attack plus and attack stability affect their ether arts, but strength up does NOT, despite what the menu would lead you to believe.
Great stuff, I'm amazed how far you are in the game already! I always enjoy it when I get Heat Haze and Soaring Tempest with Dunban. The constant criticals absolutely skyrocket the party gauge so it's really easy to abuse chains to destroy all the hordes of regular mooks. I'm by no means an expert but I do love the gameplay, arguably more than the sequel (even if Agility is a pretty busted stat here imo).
Hey man, awesome video. Even though I played through the 3ds Version I still learned new stuff. I'd love seeing videos for each Char on what their pros and cons are.
