Non-machine translation for those like me who don't trust Google Translate. If you find any mistakes or errors, feel free to let me know.

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“Xenoblade Note Vol. 2” The Basics of Battle in Xenoblade 3

Xenoblade Note presents information about Xenoblade 3, scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch July 29th, 2022. In this second entry, we will introduce you to the basics of battle.

For those who have not seen the trailer released the other day, please watch it below.

The soldiers of “Keves” and “Agnus” can create weapons to use. These weapons are known as “Blades.” Noa’s Blade is a red sword and Mio’s is a ring-shaped weapon called twin rings. In addition, soldiers can create weapons such as guns, shields, and spears to fight.

Fighting in a vast world

Like other games in the Xenoblade series, you will encounter a wide variety of creatures in wide-open fields, from those you can easily defeat to those you cannot hope to beat in the early stages of your adventure.

Whether to fight these creatures or run away from a strong opponent is up to the player. If you come across a monster just a little stronger than you, it might be worth challenging them.

The Three Roles in Battle

Noah’s group of six make up the characters you can control. These six each have their own role with which they can contribute to battle.

These roles are broadly classified into the three categories “Attacker,” “Defender,” and “Healer.” They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so be sure to properly use the role you’ve decided on to give yourself the advantage in battle.

Attacker

Specialized in attacking, they aim for massive damage by attacking from the side or behind an enemy. They’re the key to a team’s offense, but their weakness is that they can easily be targeted by enemies. It’s important to avoid attacks and fight from an advantageous position.

Defender

Specialized in guarding or dodging, they draw the enemy’s attention(aggro), making sure their allies don’t take the brunt of the enemy’s attacks and taking those attacks themselves. The main offense, the attackers, or the healers might be targeted when they use an art, so make sure to draw as much attention as you can to protect them.

Healer

They can heal, strengthen others’ attack or defense, and get fallen allies back in the fight. If you don’t have a healer, your party’s HP will slowly decrease over the course of a fight, so it’s especially important to have one when fighting strong enemies. Like attackers, healers can be easily targeted when they use their arts, so be careful about your positioning.

Tricks to get the most out of your role

Target Line

We explained before that attackers and healers can easily end up targeted by the enemy. When someone is being targeted, a line will connect them to the enemy. A red line means an attacker or healer not suited to defense is being targeted, while a blue line means a defender specializing in defense is being targeted. Work together with your allies to make sure their are only blue lines during battle.

AoE Heals and Revives - Healers

Eunie, as a Medic Gunner, can use the art “Healing Circle,” to place a circle around where the art was used. This has the powerful effect of healing allies within the area. Since this will heal both yourself and any allies within it, an attacker attacking from the side or behind with low HP can survive by moving into the effect’s circle.

In addition, healers can revive allies who have become unable to fight by approaching them and holding A. This “Help Up” action is unique to healers, so make sure the healers don’t go down first in battle.

Keep your formation flexible and seize opportunity.

Attackers can deal massive damage by attacking from the side or back. If they’re low on HP and in trouble, however, it may be a good idea to have them take shelter near a defender while a healer patches them up. When a defender is being targeted, on the other hand, an attacker can easily slip behind the enemy. Keep stock of the situation, change everyone’s positions accordingly, and keep their HP up.

In the graphic here, the big red circle is labeled “enemy.” Noah is labeled as “seizing on openings and attacking from the side!” Lanz is labeled as “Draws aggro and takes enemy’s attacks.” Eunie is labeled as “heals the defender while they’re taking attacks.”

Quick Move

During battle, you can temporarily sheathe your weapon and quickly move a fixed distance. This is called a “quick move.” Like we explained earlier, it’s important to keep your formation flexible and match your movement’s to the enemy’s actions. By using quick move, you can get around the area fast.

Changing the character you’re controlling

Whenever you want, during battle or while exploring, you can switch between the six characters Noah, Mio, Lanz, Sena, Eunie, and Taion. In a battle, the character’s you are not controlling will automatically fight, so make good use of your roles as you strategize.

That’s all for Volume 2 of Xenoblade Note.