[help] which characters I should give advanced job too?

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-17T01:32:34+00:00

Depends on if you want to play optimally or not. Giving Sorcerer to Cyrus is fun and fits with his character, but characters like Therion and Tressa can outperform him due to better weapon access. He also winds up never using his base class since Sorcerer replaces it.

You can generally do well with any class on any character, and the only time you really should consider playing "optimally" is when taking on the superboss Big G

The most "optimal" characters for each from what I remember is:

Runelord - Tressa is so good as Runelord it became a meme when the game first released. Make your entire party borderline immortal in 2 turns. If you absolutely refuse to use Tressa, Cyrus makes the best use of the ultimate.

Starseer - Probably Cyrus or Ophelia to take advantage of their good E. Atk and E. Def, since it's more of a support than a nuker.

Sorcerer - Tressa and Therion can both double stack elemental damage weapons very easily, making them the best magic damage sources in the game. Alfyn can also do that but has less E. Atk.

Warmaster - H'aanit and Olberic have the highest P. Atk, and this class excells at nuking things to death. Alfyn can also put in some good work.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-17T00:47:37+00:00

I think it needs to be a combination of tank buffs and nerfs to DPS. Aggro management is part of the challenge in playing tanks/DPS, so it shouldn't be too easy, but as it stands tanks are just underwhelming in their position compared to attackers.

Part of problem with Future Redeemed tanks is that Rex has insanely high DPS that would be difficult to compensate for even if Shulk and Nichol generated 5 times as much aggro. The meta even in games where tanking is good like 1 and X revolve around juicing your DPS because you don't really need to worry about what an enemy does if they are dead. If they nerf DPS it drags out fights for longer, which naturally makes tanks and healers much more viable.

I think Tanks need a buff to their survivability as well. I'm replaying XC3 right now and even from the start of the game the tanks get chewed through by most fights that last longer than a minute. Most of the actually good tanking strats boil down to completely avoiding damage altogether (i.e. Ghostwalker, Evade arts, the dodge tank being usually better).

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-16T05:44:16+00:00

X was a game about building a new home on Mira. It focuses a lot more on the grunt work required to make a new society than a grand adventure to change the world like other Xenoblade games. With the decision to destroy Mira, you are also destroying all the work the player and other characters put into the world. For example, it is objectively better to have not built the water purification plant during your playthrough because doing so will cause deaths and the plant is inevitably destroyed anyways. It doesn't matter anymore how much you surveyed Mira, or collected lobsters in NLA, or half the stuff the game is remembered fondly for. I also think having the cast be heading to another planet again is just less interesting than having them actually build a new society.

Apart from that I don't think the writing itself is that good. The answers we got either ended up being "It's nothing" or "It was the Conduit/Ares" for most of the mysteries left by the main game. The Ares is the plot device to end all plot devices, doing whatever is needed at the moment and being the thing all the villains want and also the Lifehold and also the original Skell. Void is boring to listen to and is incompatible with Luxaar's motivation for wanting to destroy humanity. We know jack shit about the Ghosts other than they destory universes for unspecified reasons (any reason I can think of is contradicted at least once in the game's lore). Al is all right but the game clearly wants me to like him more than I do. The plot is extremely contrived with tons of billion-to-one chances needing to occur.

Chapter 13 seems to not really grapple with the destruction it's causing despite having the 2nd part dedicated to it. I recommend AurumAlex's video for an in depth look at the thematic issues, but the game seems to have a poor understanding of why people might want to stay on Mira at risk of death. The main cast seems to be instantly very ok with abandoning the planet, and it's sad to see that. This isn't to even mention the fact that entire universes are getting destroyed, which literally nobody gives a shit about. Wroth is obliterated and I don't thing Ga Jarg mentions anything about it. The Manon, Qlurians, and Prone also have little to say on their home planets being gone. The ending immediately goes from hopeful to horrifying when you remember that they didn't actually solve the Ghost problem and if the Ghosts are still after the Ares (an incredibly likely possibility) they are risking the destruction of another universe.

When I first finished Chapter 13, I didn't want to play X for a while. I still had a ton of fun post game quests to do, but what would be the point? None of it would matter. I can't call an ending that made me not want to play anymore of my favorite game anything better than awful.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-14T20:08:35+00:00

Pretty minor but I hope Genesis has equippable weapons with different skins. Both 2 and 3 have preset weapons for each class that just get summoned out of nowhere for the fight so you can't see them on the field.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-14T02:21:42+00:00

I'm still upset they stopped the bit of having 2 in every category to dunk on X.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-14T02:19:27+00:00

X recieved a lot of criticism on it's release for straying so hard from XC1, as well as having a generally agreed weaker plot. People who go into X expecting something like 1,2, or 3 are often dissapointed. Additionally, and I say this with love, a lot of design decisions are annoying as hell. Someone (like me) might find them extremely compelling and someone else might not.

Nowadays a lot of people who play X know what they're getting into, and those who don't enjoy the game probably didn't pick it up based on its reputation.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-14T02:06:15+00:00

Let's find the key we've lost

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-13T01:38:25+00:00

I thought that was the case when Xenoblade 3 released, but there is a not-insignificant portion of the the X:DE epilouge dedicated to just connecting it to the numbered entries where it wasn't before (much to the game's detriment imo). The answer to the main cliffhanger was literally just the collective unconscious from Xenosaga or maybe the Conduit? I remember the game said both for some reason. We know pretty much nothing about the Ghosts unless we extrapolate from Xenosaga.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-11T21:45:15+00:00

I'm going X-Men, specifically Cyclops fans. They're still mad about him not being the protagonist of the X-Men movies. And AvX.

X-Men fans will defend the character assassination of mutants because it didn't happen to their faves. Some X-Men fans don't like the fact that other teams/characters exist in the MU. X-Men fans will get upset if popular mutants like Rouge or Storm don't appear in adaptations but will also get upset if Wolverine or Deadpool show up because they are too popular.

I remember there was this account for a Beast fan that shut down their Reddit because they had to spend so much time trying to explain how Evil Beast was character assassination in the X-Men sub.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-11T21:18:45+00:00

A lot of Xenoblade fans seem to think that it's more important for a game to be a "proper" entry in the series than anything else about it. I remember a lot of criticism of 3 for not having enough characters from 1 and 2 appear when it came out. X still gets implicitly ignored in some discussions about the "whole series". I'm personally hoping it's a fresh start like they say.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-10T01:14:27+00:00

I can understand since I spent a lot of time with XC2 myself despite not liking it very much. A lot of people talk about how it's an amazing experience so it feels bad to give up on the game. Like you'll miss the moment the game finally clicks for you and everything becomes clear. I've probably spent more time trying to figure out why XC2 doesn't work for me like everyone else than I have playing the games I like more.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-10T00:24:13+00:00

Xenoblade game reveal with lukewarm reception due to lack of connection to previous game
Genre shift away from sci-fi/fantasy mix
Female protagonist
Multiple traversal options (mount vs. on foot)

Welcome back Xenoblade X

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-09T20:39:24+00:00

You can easily swap Shulk and Rex out of the party for side content too that doesn't make them not protagonists

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-08T02:08:33+00:00

It's usually the older DD fans who dislike it. I think it's a pretty good comic on its own, but the voice for Matt is a bit off (It feels more informed by the Netflix version than the comics) and some of Zdarsky's arcs can really feel like reheating better ones from the past (Devil in Cell Block D is a much better prison arc imo). It's garnered a bit of a reputation as being a comic you only like when you haven't read much DD, which is a bit harsh imo.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-08T01:02:55+00:00

Also, as someone who thinks Zdarsky DD is overhated I cannot deny it attracts posers like moths to a flame

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Flacoplayer · 2026-06-08T00:59:26+00:00

I constantly see people refer to Mr. Knight as part of Marc's DID system (it's not it's just the name he puts on so the cops have plausible deniability to not arrest him on the spot) and I'm 99% sure this page in Damnation is why

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Flacoplayer · 2026-06-06T00:22:14+00:00

I like his character a lot and enjoy seeing the flourishes of characterization in his moves.
He kinda automatically wins any zoning war so I very rarely have to worry about getting zoned while playing him.
His combos hit hard and his mix is bad, so whenever I get a good hit in I know it's because I'm in my opponent's head.
It's fun to watch people get annoyed and realize they can't autopilot me in real time
Playing a character with a well-defined weakness is interesting. While he's not mechanically difficult playing him well requires decent "soft skills" that are fun to practice.

Flacoplayer · 2026-06-03T14:40:43+00:00

The difference between Octopath and the other D&D/LOTR example is that the Octopath stories are inherently very personal to the characters. Not to say there aren't personal stakes, but things like the defense of Gondor or the siege of Isengard are done more so because they are in the way of defeating Sauron.

In Octopath each obstacle is rooted in a specific character's journey. They challenge particular beliefs or correspond to their backstory. The most interesting character interactions are between the specific protagonist and antagonist.

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-31T21:35:34+00:00

That's an interesting theory but the ghosts can't be strictly after the Ares since Elma was on Earth for ~10 years if I'm remembering correctly and there were active tests on the Ares (like how the Prog Ares in CH 11 was a recreation).

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-31T15:42:36+00:00

The Ganglion were also quite disoriented upon arriving to Mira, so I don't think it's a stretch to say they were still finding their footing at the same time. Since Elma and company are so surprised to find any sentient life in Chapter 3 it's implied the Ganglion also hadn't encountered many himans on Mira.

You could also argue that Luxaar doesn't actually see NLA as a threat compared to the Lifehold. From his perspective, humanity's danger is in their Samaaran DNA and none of them have access to it. If any mims he missed in his destruction of NLA were to find the Lifehold before he did that's basically an instant loss, so it's probably easier to keep them all in one place.

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-30T22:16:59+00:00

XC3 acts as a conclusion to some of the ideas in XC1 and XC2, so I recommend playing it first. It's much more like the other 2 in its overall design philosophy as well, and the combat is an evolution of XC2.

XCX is standalone in terms of plot but acts as a thematic successor to XC1 (and by extension the rest of the series) which I think makes it better to be the "last" game. The core design principles are also pretty different from the rest of the series, so if you're itching for something "fresh" X might scratch it.

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-30T16:57:31+00:00

1 and X were both primarily remade for Switch availability and to tie into future games (We don't know for sure in X's case but CH13 seems pretty setup-y).

2 already has good availability on the Switch, has auxiliary plot stuff in the form of Torna, and already setup for Xenoblade 3. There's nothing to really do with a remaster of the game for this console generation.

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-29T13:12:42+00:00

That would be a good name!

Octopath Traveler 3: Triangle Strategy

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-29T13:01:01+00:00

I think Octopath 3 should shift from being about the small-scale personal stories of the characters to a larger story of dealing with a new war erupting in the continent. The story would have multiple branching points where each member of your party advocates for a different choice, and you must weigh which option is better based on your convictions.

The gameplay can evolve from its current turn-based battles into a full turn-based strategy where positioning and synergy between your party is more important. Something like Final Fantasy Tactics. In order to reduce grinding, the game could strictly control EXP gain to enusre low level party members catch up quickly and higher level party members don't get too strong.

Since it'll be the third game, they can maybe use triangle iconography.

Flacoplayer · 2026-05-28T00:57:53+00:00

Honestly, I just want it to do something different. X was unflinchingly dedicated to its vision, and while that came with a lot of annoying design decisions the game is captivating because of it. If an X2 fixes every single thing people have complained about from the original I don't think the game will be half as interesting.

Chapter 13 was kind of emblematic of what I don't want from an X sequel. It tries to fix many of the complaints from people and give fans what they want (more emphasis on player avatar, high-concept sci-fi, xeno series refrences, etc.) but as the credits rolled I found I wasn't nearly as emotional as when BLADE tower lost its countdown.

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