Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Snuff That Mudder! - The Bear and Badger

regmcfly

They slow down after chapter 3.

Dogfingers

I really like this. 20 hours in much more open now. Plenty to busy myself with. Not finding it much of a challenge, any one playing hard? Tempting to up it if I can.

Saw comments about voice acting, I like it, I just think of it as a cheesy cartoon. Utterly fine for what it is.

Blue Swirl

regmcfly wrote:

They slow down after chapter 3.

I hope so, I've been hit with another.

1*zmHKAMmdNBGNWyjDwJS7pg.jpeg

Dogfingers wrote:

Saw comments about voice acting, I like it, I just think of it as a cheesy cartoon. Utterly fine for what it is.

I can't comment. The mockney in the original was just the wrong side of grating, so I've got a general rule with JRPGs where I set the language to Japanese with English subtitles, and the stuff they shout in combat etc. just becomes another sound effect. I did this with Ys IX and FFXII Zodiac Age before even starting the games.

Talking of Ys IX, I thought that was the most ANIME game ever, but Xenoblade 3 might be more ANIME. I'm pretty sure the girl with the blue flaming hair* ends every sentence with this pose.

school_idol_project_happy.jpg?itok=sSJagjc1&mtime=1423023684

school_idol_project_happy.jpg?itok=sSJagjc1&mtime=1423023684

*Which is a design choice I've not seen before, so well done devs. But they played it safe and put a cat girl in too.

Syph79

Do you hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something a little meatier.

regmcfly

Syph79 wrote:

Do you hear that, Noah? Lanz wants something a little meatier.

regmcfly

IM THE GIRL WITH THE GALL

Syph79

I’m fine with the acting quality, but the repetitive lines may break me at some point.

In other news, I brought a replacement fan and thermal paste for my OG Switch. Pray for me when it arrives.

Blue Swirl

Syph79 wrote:

I’m fine with the acting quality, but the repetitive lines may break me at some point.

Japanese audio, English subtitles. Trust me.

Syph79 wrote:

In other news, I brought a replacement fan and thermal paste for my OG Switch. Pray for me when it arrives.

I didn't even know that was a thing. Where'd you get them from?

Syph79

S-Union New Replacement Internal Cooling Fan for Nintendo Switch NS 2017 Console https://amzn.eu/be0qrHJ

Blue Swirl

Noice.

Syph79

Syph79 wrote:

S-Union New Replacement Internal Cooling Fan for Nintendo Switch NS 2017 Console https://amzn.eu/be0qrHJ

Can confirm this is worth it. Didn’t do the paste on the CPU itself, but replaced the fan and the paste on the heatsink, and the whole device is back to being whisper quiet again. It was shockingly loud before.

Blue Swirl

My Switch is running OK at the moment, but I'll remember it for the future; I might even do it for the lols. I'm well out of warranty anyway.

Blue Swirl

In other news, considering the puntastic names of some of the items in XC3, I have to believe that someone at Monolith Soft was particularly proud of "Nopon Strap".

Dogfingers

I’m losing patience with this. Played for 90 minutes today, must be over an hour of cutscenes, and mostly bad and completely unnecessary ones at that.

Birdorf

Yeah, the cutscenes are doing my nut in, along with the chain attacks, which take far too long.

It took a while to click, but I'm mostly enjoying it now.

Birdorf

Just discovered the delightfully named Anu Shoals.

Yesterday was a test of patience with a couple of areas that had a cutscene, made you walk 50 yards, then another cutscene, etc. It’s made more bearable by some of the best views ever. I do like how you are rewarded with exp just for exploring.

So, mostly enjoying it, apart from too much knocker sway and waffle.

hylian_elf

Anus Hoals, you say? Nice.

EvilRedEye

I didn't know this but Ninty just tweeted you can press L and R at the same time to take a HUD-free screenshot.

Blue Swirl

EvilRedEye wrote:

I didn't know this but Ninty just tweeted you can press L and R at the same time to take a HUD-free screenshot.

It does mention it in the tutorials, but it's fleeting. I had to look up what the button combo was because I was just mashing the A button at the time.

Blue Swirl

It's worth doing the training stuff under System in the game's main menu, it turns out I'd been doing Chain Attacks wrong.

Also, I may have got a bit distracted with side quests - I'm currently level 32, and only just noticed that the main story quest I'm doing has a recommended level of 17. Woops.

Blue Swirl

Reasons I love this game, no. 958,934,786,979: a quest to harvest potatoes ends up with a fight. Because ANIME.

In other news, here's a complete list of all the gubbins you can find lying about on the floor, and where you can obtain them, if you need that particular something for a quest or recipe or whatnot.

https://underbuffed.com/all-collectibles-xenoblade-chronicles-3/

EvilRedEye

I've been really enjoying this after getting through the opening chapters. I've read non-spoiler impressions of the late game that suggest I'll end up in the minority of people that would rank XCDE over this but it's nice to have another Xenoblade game that is putting up a solid fight for the top spot.

Xenoblade is really starting to supercede Final Fantasy in my affections now - it almost feels like Xenoblade took up the mantel from FFXII, whereas the actual single-player FF games post-XII have floundered a bit.

regmcfly

I know I'm at end game and I am ready to clear it. I've got Live A Live still in wrap, and Splatoon 3 is on the horizon. It'll end up in my top 5 of the year for sure, but a new Splatoon is a tough thing to overcome.

Raiziel

I haven’t even made it out of chapter one yet. I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played, but just no time for games right now.

Birdorf

Finished this after 120 hours, mostly enjoyed it, apart from the excessive cut scenes. Some amazing sights and still discovering stuff I'd missed right up until the end. [8]

Dogfingers

Polished it off in about 90 hours. I liked it, and when it let me off to explore the world uninterrupted by faff I found myself really liking it. It suffers though, cut scenes can be painfully long. Side quests are also a mixed bag. Some are utterly tedious whilst others (mainly the hero quests) are quite good. The most frustrating thing though is the difficulty balance. It had what appear to be well thought out systems yet I feel like I barely scratched the surface given I was overlevelled by about 7-10 at any given point (until the last boss where I was only 3 higher). I could of cranked up the difficulty but didn't want the fights to last even longer. It's fine, but no where near the quality of the original.

Blue Swirl

Dogfingers wrote:

I could of cranked up the difficulty but didn't want the fights to last even longer. It's fine, but no where near the quality of the original.

This is my general feeling so far. I have no idea how far through I am in terms of story.

Blue Swirl

Xenoblade 3 is starting to do that Xenoblade 1 thing, where I'll just find the highest point in a particular area, and start slowly rotating the camera, just to gawp at my surroundings.

In other news, the Yumsmith class is perhaps the greatest thing in the history of video games.

Blue Swirl

So when a game's story and it's gameplay don't mesh, that's ludo-narrative dissonance. (The classic example is FEAR 3.) What do you call it when a game's story clashes with it's story? Case in point, I just had a "fight to the death" with a group of soldiers, in which no one died, and afterwards the hero in the party said they hoped they could have another fight to the death with the same people later on. Does "to the death" mean something different in Xenoland?

This activated another quest to find some deserters. Despite reaching the conclusion that they were free to leave, we went out to bring them back anyway. Upon finding them, they refused to return, and the party guests sighed and commented that they'd have to die. A fight ensues. No one dies.

I guess I should have seen this coming when, very early on, we're warned that the party is on its own and won't find allies easily - only for everyone to become your best buddy, pretty much immediately. I really enjoy this game, but to call some of the narrative questionable would be generous. The Puyo Puyo Tetris games had more robust plot lines, and that's a game in which every problem can be solved, and every conversation ends, with a Puyo Puyo Tetris match.

Blue Swirl

Whenever I get an OVERKILL during a Chain Attack, this plays in my head.

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giphy.gif?cid=ecf05e47sswe79p2mz80zs0v2gdsa3oz77yqr3dqjdsis9qc&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g

I don't stop, though. I'll beat that exp bonus out of the mauled corpse.

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