Videogame Review: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Keeping Track of Abilities)
February 24, 2018
A lot has happened since my last review. I can say, for one, that I am enjoying the game more. I still don’t think the time they use for cut-scenes is appropriate. Too long if the ask me. Eventually the story began to interest me, but the length of the video cut-scenes just drives me crazy, so I have not paid attention to some of it.
Apart from that, I have since discovered some wonderful things about the game I hadn’t paid attention to before and thus, had enraged me.
Abilities:
Each blade has special abilities that enable you to open chests, doors, jump, etc… to reach new places. In the beginning of the game, in the first world, you encounter the first chest (in the shape of a barrel) that you can’t open because it requires a level of abilities you do not posses. I believed I would eventually acquire these abilities and would eventually come back to these chests and goodies (since they mark them on the map after you encounter them) and be a happy player.
Wrong!
It took me some time to understand these abilities are added together depending on which blades are in play (as in, are equipped to the five playable characters even if they aren’t in your active party). After I found out about this, there came another problem: too many blades = too many abilities. It was horrible. If I needed Wind Mastery, I would need to search each blade, one by one, in their affinity chart to see if they had this ability. Frustrating, to say the least. Not only that, if those blades went on Merc Missions, then I couldn’t even see their charts!
I decided then to stop the Merc Missions momentarily and create an excel spreadsheet with all the blades I had and their abilities. I coded them with an asterisk if they weren’t one of the personalized blades and with yellow if their affinity charts were complete to stop myself from sending them to any more Merc Missions.
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| A portion of my excel spreadsheet with each blade and their unlocked abilities. |
Each time a blade learns one of these abilities, I update my table. It’s a little annoying, but trust me, it’s worth it in the long run.
Now, whenever I encounter a door to open or a chest to loot, I check on my spreadsheet to see who I can equip. It’s heaven!
I am enjoying the game more now. I have a higher level, are understanding how to read the map more and more and have been using the internet to upgrade my blades, because, I have no idea where those monsters I’m supposed to kill are. Who can?
As of now, I have lost Pyra, which won’t let me start some of the blades’ stories (which unlock abilities), but I’m hoping I’ll get her back soon.
Right now, I’m playing chapter 7 and are finally enjoying myself.
cheers!
