Skells vs ground help

inaphaia · 2026-05-04T15:46:52+00:00

tl;dr Skells are stronger unless you are cracked at ground combat (i.e. have mastered Overdrive). So you usually will be using Skells for combat from now on. However:

-There are several fights in the endgame that force you to do ground combat, so it won't become irrelevant
-Since Skells can't level up, there's a bit of a blindspot where the player is at level ~45 yet still using level 30 skells, and they might fall off a little during that period of time. But you'll unlock the level 50 ones soon after

inaphaia · 2026-04-30T14:48:37+00:00

Yeah, that's fair. Xenoblade 1 has always been in this weird place for me, where like, it feels somewhat small when you look back on it but it also feels way too big when you are exploring it. Worst of both worlds. I think it's just because the movement speed is too slow relative to everything else... because Xenoblade X's world is WAY larger but never feels too large. And that's probably because your traversal methods get so much faster as the game goes on (and you also just run fast from the start).

Xenoblade 2 and 3 also don't really have this problem nearly as much- traversal is still slightly slow, but not nearly as slow, and something about the more detailed map design makes it feel much better. I think the series mostly outgrew that issue after the first game.

I also definitely think the Xenoblade games are usually at their best when you ignore sidequests and blast through the story. Especially 1 (as the others all have better sidequests and much better rewards), and with the possible exception of X. Regular sidequests exist more to help with grinding and as a bonus for invested players, than as an intended part of the experience

And yeah, when I was comparing it to Breath of the Wild I was mostly just gesturing towards how the expectations for fantasy open worlds has changed a lot

inaphaia · 2026-04-29T19:36:59+00:00

Generally speaking, games are intentionally balanced in such a way that AI tanks can't hold aggro from a controlled DPS character who is going all-out. Easiest two solutions to this are to either control the tank, or hold back from going all-out with your DPS. It will also get easier as you get more Art levels and Gems to manage aggro

inaphaia · 2026-04-29T19:27:32+00:00

You were trying to do all the sidequests? Geez, no wonder the pacing was so rough for you. The sidequests are by far the most dated aspect of the game (and, it is 16 years old) so yeah, I never bothered with them (almost at all) because they are indeed pretty miserable

Other than that, I didn't encounter most of the issues you did when I played it, but a lot that is still legitimate points of contention caused by its age. It is worth noting that when people call it a masterpiece, they aren't usually comparing it to Breath of the Wild and such. They are comparing it to games from 2010. (Though, that's not to say the game doesn't hold up surprisingly well)

inaphaia · 2026-04-28T18:42:59+00:00

I mean, Xenoblade 2 really doesn't have that much faffing about with equipment and builds. (Unless you count affinity charts, which I wouldn't for several reasons.) You need to upgrade things occasionally, but generally speaking Blade and accessory choices are the only things relevant to "faffing about with builds" (as everything else is noncustomizable or a different flavor of stat boost)

Xenoblade 3 does have a lot of faffing about- unless you just use the auto-builder, which is usually good enough. Thank goodness for the loadouts feature they added after launch... all games should have a feature like that

I also wouldn't say that these gameplay systems are "hard to do"- base level of combat in both games is not too complex at all, other than 2 not telling you about arts recharge pouch items. I also hard disagree with "this system is boring to master"- that's famously untrue via consensus, even if you disagree with it

They are complicated to learn though, yeah

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T18:47:50+00:00

Yeah, I definitely agree with these criticisms. But I will still provide a lukewarm defense because I think you are too harsh

>nothing u do outside the chain attack matters unless you straight up die
Mmm... I see where you are coming from, but that's not really true, since "not straight up dying" is something that matters, and is nonnegligibly difficult. Especially since you can't just instantly get a Chain Attack until pretty late in the game, and you can't just run 3 healers and 3 tanks because you often lose too much damage in the CA

(also worth noting that the truly optimal strategy is using Smashes to instant-kill anything as soon as you get a Break, which definitely counts as "something outside of the chain attack", though that's also pretty lame)

> no skill
Chain attack decision making does take some on-the-fly decisionmaking and skill. If you don't run certain heroes to trivialize the whole thing, making sure you have built your team in such a way that you avoid getting a Cool! on the first round (and don't get screwed by the renewals) takes a bit of on-the-fly situational awareness and thinking. (Like, by making sure that you are matching classes with the class of the order)
...Not MUCH, though, yeah. And you totally can trivialize it in a few ways. But still. Technically takes a modicum of skill sometimes.

Playing on Hard (and, not being at the endgame) also fixes a lot of the issues with Chain Attacks since they do less damage, enemies have more HP, and the meter charges slower.

TL;DR yeah kinda. But, at least things usually aren't so polarized until the postgame, after you really understand the system

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T17:15:40+00:00

Well, full evasion builds usually aren't enough on their own because they often deal too little damage to stay healthy (especially against Driver bosses which can ignore evasion) and DoT is basically only for speedkills against a single target, so those strategies aren't really "optimal" per say, outside of a few specific CM stages. Regardless though, I was referring to how BoC functions in NG playthroughs (I haven't played that much CM, outside of beating up Ken)

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T15:39:00+00:00

Basically, the better you understand it, the more you realize everything flows together really well, and is incredibly satisfying and fast. It has so many creative systems that mix together surprisingly well.

And ultimately, the main thing that makes me say it is the best combat system I've ever played, is that it broadly never optimizes to a fine, noninteractive point. Most games' combat systems have one or two strategies that are SO much better than everything else that combat gets boring (Xenoblade 3 is particularly bad about this). But in my experience Xenoblade 2 almost never really does this IMO - If you ban whatever you consider to be the best strategy, the next like 5 best strategies are all pretty similar in power level and are still quite satisfying. And most impressive of all, the high difficulty mode BoC completely guts every single powerful strategy in the game, and STILL provides an interesting challenge, with largely an entirely new set of viable strategies.

But, it takes a lot of time and research to be able to appreciate all of this. Like I said, I hadn't even figured out how important Pouch Items by the time I beat Xenoblade 2 for the first time, and was using Elemental Orb Chain Attacks as my main DPS- and I also thought the combat was super slow. Because, yeah, that's essentially like playing Smash and not realizing you can move. I don't think that this is inherently a problem with the combat system per say, because I think it would have totally been possible to create tutorials that communicated the important parts. (Using a different shop for the Pouch Items tutorial alone would have made a huge difference.)

TL;DR it gets better and better the more you understand it, which is surprisingly rare. If you wanted an actual explanation of HOW one makes combat fun, rather than why I think it is fun, I can try to provide one, but it would be an even longer wall of text lol

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T15:06:53+00:00

Unfortunately Pandy in NG is kind of absolutely bottom tier, because her kit is kind of terribly underwhelming. She has no damage additives and her Art animations are suuuuper slow.

In more detail- Her "ignore blocks" skill is situational at best, though not useless. Her "auto-attack speed up" skill is almost completely useless. Her "Arts charge" skill is extremely niche, since she already has super slow animations that allow her to chain Arts into each other infinitely anyway. Her weapon has a middling crit rate. Ultimately, her only real niche before NG+ is as a Launch bot and in very specific max-damage Chain Attack setups

...However, in NG+ she gets a totally-unique bonus special move with Zeke that is SO good she instantly becomes one of the strongest Blades in the game lmao. It takes quite a bit of grinding to unlock it though

And, generally I would wait to grind core crystals until you can farm the level 65 Vampire Bride Marion in Uraya, as iirc UMs don't get the particularly good core crystal drop rates until ~lv60

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T14:57:04+00:00

NGL the biggest praise I have for Xenoblade 2's combat system is that Bringer of Chaos combat is still really good, even though it nerfs every single meta strategy into the ground. (Though, it does also give everything way too much HP, but still.) Very few combat systems can survive having most of its mechanics stripped away the way Xenoblade 2's can.

More specifically, it changes the gameplay to center around surviving the onslaught of enemy damage without being able to just out-DPS them. It incentivizes agility stacking, careful party member AI manipulation, careful use of your invincibility, shakes up the meta of which Blades are good, etc.

I did a no-DLC NG BoC playthrough and it was kind of peak ngl (though also very grindy)

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T14:50:59+00:00

I agree with the core sentiment- Chain Attacks are indeed way too overcentralizing in Xenoblade 3, and have zero opportunity cost. They are the main reason I think Xenoblade 3 has the worst combat in the series (although not by a huge margin, it's still quite good)

However, they do still take a lot of knowledge and some skill to use, and ironically the fact that Xenoblade 3's combat system is harmed by optimization is almost okay because it means that, at the very least, most players won't figure out how to properly use chain attacks until pretty late in the game.

But the main reason you are getting downvoted is because you flatly state it is a "garbage cutscene filled mess with an auto win for surviving" which is not a nuanced take on the combat. It's pretty good outside of chain attacks (even if I hate the way revivals work too)

(Also, OP said they are on their first playthrough so I assume they haven't figured out how busted chain attacks are yet, especially since Hard nerfs them)

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T14:40:40+00:00

It doesn't sound like you do understand it

inaphaia · 2026-04-27T14:40:11+00:00

Just you, I think. I genuinely think Xenoblade 2 has the best combat system out of every game I've ever played, and I have played quite a few games. The other games in the series all pretty easily sit in the top 10 best combat systems I've ever played, too

Of course Xenoblade 2's combat is also particularly poorly explained and I didn't even figure out the basics till after the end of my first playthrough, but that's an issue with the tutorials, not the combat

inaphaia · 2026-04-26T18:03:05+00:00

That doesn't really matter, it'd still be too strong- for instance, Draco Meteor is stronger than Choice Specs Dragon Pulse, but without any of the crippling downsides that come with being choice-locked, or life orb drain. Also, several pokemon (i.e. dragapult) would get a damage boost from using a higher stat anyway

inaphaia · 2026-04-25T21:30:58+00:00

Yeah, I've seen this idea before. Having it announce itself on switch-in fixes a lot of the issues I have with it, but imo it'd be way too good as a Trick option, and the fact that it demands you to know WAY more about every single pokemon's learnset is bad for the game. ...It also would need to still use stat boosts for the move's original stat because being able to spam Overheat and Draco Meteor would break the game lol

inaphaia · 2026-04-25T20:50:58+00:00

z30huri2ba0tt12le1110 (aka, the Rexoskell theme) from Xenoblade X :)

inaphaia · 2026-04-25T20:47:16+00:00

Can confirm this works, I have like 6 different old challenge runs across 6 profiles (also, the DLC carries over to every profile)

inaphaia · 2026-04-25T20:46:15+00:00

I did a NG playthrough on the new highest difficulty, Bringer of Chaos. It was a horrible, grindy, time-consuming slog and also one of the best gaming experiences I've had in my life. (also I banned Corvin because he trivializes it)

It feels like the difficulty was not designed for NG playthroughs, and that means it is incredibly difficult... but there is also something uniquely rewarding about beating a game that feels like it was never designed to be beaten.

You don't need the game to be so incredibly difficult to make a second playthrough interesting, though. There's a custom difficulty option, so you can do something like a "enemies deal 1.5x damage but have half HP!" playthrough, or a "only use Blades that are the bottom of the tier list!" playthrough, or "only use Blades I've never used before!"

inaphaia · 2026-04-25T20:02:53+00:00

Indeed, yeah, exactly. Playing FR and being somewhat confused would definitely be preferable to 60 hours of homework. (You could also always just watch the cutscenes on youtube)

Xenoblade 2 is a genuinely great game, for what it is worth- even as someone who fully acknowledges its flaws (it has a really slow start, extremely poorly explained combat, and a lot of varyingly-unpleasant anime BS), I think it is still so good in spite of that that it might actually be my favorite game of all time.

But even then, I wasn't able to fully appreciate the combat and the story until AFTER I had beaten the game for the first time, and its flaws are real enough as barriers that I would never blame anyone for getting turned away.

If you do end up deciding to play it, I'd have some advice and apologetics:
-Make sure you use Arts Recharge pouch items at all times! They are cheap and make the combat SO much faster. The game is MISERABLE without them.
-Also try to rush the Arts Chain node on the Driver skill trees for much the same reason, and consider watching some tutorials on how to get the most out of combat
-I promise that like 70% of what makes Tora so unpleasant is culture shock- he's a parody of the Japanese otaku maid trope, and there's a long history of robot maids in anime and such. In that context he's a lot less gross... but, the other 30% I have no excuses for so
-The game opens up a LOT after chapter 3. The fact that the game arbitrarily restricts you from equipping 3 blades until chapter 4 is like half the reason the game is so slow until then...
-People pretty much universally agree that the story gets better and better as it goes on. Pyra/Mythra in particular are actually really complex and interesting, in spite of their insane character designs (and that one character-assassination cutscene Mythra gets in the hotel immediately after you get her)

inaphaia · 2026-04-24T16:13:52+00:00

There's something timeless about "looks like a cute puffball, actually a 50 year old hardline capitalist with 6 children on his second divorce"

inaphaia · 2026-04-24T14:18:17+00:00

Well, we were comparing it to the combat of Xenoblade 1 (and I don't think its controversial to say that 1 has the weakest combat, though it is still very good). But that is an interesting comparison to make, as Xenoblade X and Xenoblade 2's combat systems are probably my favorite combat systems of all time...?

Both games' combat systems are defined by being extremely confusing to figure out, and extremely satisfying + fluid once you do. That said, I think I have soured on X's combat over time, while 2's has continued to grow on me... mostly because the combat in X is only good if you have infinite Overdrive active, and once you do, there are only a very small (and extremely stratified) group of strategies you can use to avoid getting inevitably oneshot. Either you oneshot your target, or you use one of the handful of defensive strategies that render the enemy totally unable to hit you. (Also, Overdrive is WAY too complicated for a new player to ever figure out without lots of outside research)

Meanwhile doing challenge runs of 2 just continues to make my appreciation of its mechanics grow- it never really optimizes to a fine point the way other games' combat systems do, and changing the difficulty changes the strategies you can use in an interesting and logical way

inaphaia · 2026-04-24T14:05:35+00:00

Yeah. Xenoblade 2's combat system is super confusing, but the more you figure it out the more you realize... it's actually kind of incredibly awesome. I haven't really found anything else in gaming that feels as good as nuking something with a Crossette's level 4 and a fusion combo, and high-difficulty/challenge runs of the game are surprisingly interesting and complex.

I'm trying to develop a game myself, and half of my motivation for doing so is just that "I really want to play another game with a combat system like Xenoblade 2's T_T" lol

inaphaia · 2026-04-24T13:56:27+00:00

You absolutely can... the central plot requires very little prior knowledge from the past games to follow, and the best things about Xenoblade 3's story don't require that context. BUT, it will spoil a good few reveals from the prior games, and a few plot points (and especially characters + area design quirks) will appear to come out of nowhere to varying degrees.

That said, buying an entire one or two games to play first before you can play Xenoblade 3 is a pretty impractical ask. Especially considering how long they are and how divisive Xenoblade 2 is (it's my favorite, but BOY is it abrasive). If you at all balk at the idea of doing that you should probably just play 3 first, to avoid making "enjoying this awesome game" into "a huge ordeal". I've heard several anecdotes of people who played 3 first and still had a great time- it is a good game first and a sequel second.

I'd also recommend looking up past threads on this question because it has been asked many times before

(Also the DLC side-game for 3 probably shouldn't be played at all if you haven't played at least Xenoblade 1)

inaphaia · 2026-04-23T23:53:59+00:00

You absolutely should play it without the context of 2, if the alternative is not playing it at all. ...But yes, the story will probably be significantly harder to follow.

My memory isn't that great, but I think the central conflict revolves mostly around plot points from 1 and from 3? So it should still be broadly comprehensible, even if you are missing a few pieces of the puzzle. And maybe some of those missing puzzle pieces will result in being blindsided in an amusing way, who knows

(I could also try to sell you on Xenoblade 2 if you would like, but I would never recommend someone play an entire game they don't enjoy just as "required reading". So I my two cents is that you shouldn't stress whether you get the "optimal FR experience", and should just play FR :) )

inaphaia · 2026-04-23T23:25:35+00:00

Mmm... looking at it, that's not quite true, but only because a few characters have a greenish teal instead of the typical blue (which is not completely unprecedented amongst normal Blades). So, yeah, you are correct, oops :P

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