Now things are getting interesting.��
Listed on Nintendos japanese site
IGN eyes on trailer and screens
A lone warrior chopping through an army of robotic warriors with an outsized Cloud Strife-like energy sword. Colossal war machines advancing though a misty canyon, shooting anything that moves. The few remaining human defenders hiding behind simple wooden shields that are no match for high-energy weapons. Welcome to the world of Monado.��
The debut trailer for Monado: Beginning of the World premiered today at E3: 2009, and first impressions for the new Wii RPG are that the beginning is going to be pretty exciting. Things kick off with that canyon-set battle, revealing more and bigger enemies with an interesting steampunk design. Things likely don't end well for our lone warrior, as we soon segue to a young blonde hero discovering that energy sword - now inert - only to see it flash blindingly to life the moment he picks it up. Your standard JRPG Hero's Journey (tm) is definitely in full effect here, with just a dash of King Arthur.��
Gameplay appears to be open-world, where you'll traverse lush jungles, glowing forests, climb sheer walls, and encounter the crumbling remains of a conquered people. It looks nicely textured and details pop, animating at what looks like a smooth 30 fps.��
Players will pick up two partners in their travels, and while combat initially looks turn-based, we saw all three party members attacking simultaneously. Transitions into combat are completely seamless; characters approach enemies, draw weapons, and it's on. One scene showed your team (wielding much smaller edged weaponry) surrounding a lizard-man enemy, who didn't make much of a dent in their lifebars before it was downed. A much larger lizard-man (a good twenty feet tall) and giant mutant crab monster probably fared better.
(back up link - check the japanese site first link in post for proper quality trailer)
Hit the HQ option.
I had a battle against an named enemy at the same level and man was it difficult. I really needed to form a strategy, think about the gems I will equip and what kind of technique to use.
I was determined to beat him with my current team, that consist of two damage dealers and one agile tank. The problem was that the enemy caused spike damage. That means you basically take damage when you are close. Kinda like the enemies own version of the auto attack.
I solved this by equipping spike defence gems and using spike sealing arts. Because I do not have healers in my team, healing my tank can be troublesome. But I did manage, feels good man
Man the battle system is fun, accessible and has plenty of depth. Each character also plays completely different and picking your team really can change your play style. I play aggressively so I have two damage dealers and a agile tank that just dodges all attack. So I do not need a healer, my damage dealer can heal him just fine.
If you want to play more defensively take a tank, a healer and a damage dealer. Everything is possible.
Haven't played this or any other game much these days, I was at the start or Makna Forest too but I was gonna go back to the marsh for a while first, I didn't explore it enough.
I noticed the pop up yeah, I don't get why it's there, the area isn't more beautiful or more densely populated than others, just different. The area is awesome though, love that waterfall and stuff.
Actually I did go back, my last save is in a fort with like 6-8 lizard men and a larger one sitting in a throne. I tried to beat him twice and failed even though I first kill the minions before I agro him. Kinda sucks that even though I saved after I killed the minions I have to repeat it after a load, they all respawn.
For the cloudy enemies they take a while yeah, I save chain attacks and such for when they have little health so that they don't manage to suicide explode and deny me from the loot and xp. It doesn't always work.
Yeah I don't get the pop up in Makna, it's not as evident in other areas.
Agree, it is an awesome area. I do chain attack the light orb things but it still barely does anything. They must have some sort of weakness right? It's a pain in the ass when you attack someone else and then they pile in just because you used ether.
After doing lots of sidequest I finally moved the story forward. I was so overleveled by doing all the sidequest that the monsters did not attack me anymore
I just finished the part that you saw in Shulk's visions. The story is really good. It is not a simple robots vs humans anymore and their are plenty of mysteries and conspiracies happening. On one hand I want to move the story forward to see what happens, but on the other hand the sidequest are just too addicting to pass. Again had few sidequest where I was forced to make a choice. I really want to play the game again and see what would happens if I choose otherwise.
I will probably do some sidequests before moving on. At least finish all the timed ones.
28 hours in.
*hugs SDTV*
Makna forest looks great. Shame about the pop up, otherwise it might be my favourite area in the game. Like Iga said it's like a real jungle, so much foliage and space. It feels like a cross between walking through the forest in Princess Mononoke, the forest in LOTR and the forest in the Avatar movie.
Such beautiful music, which is on the free soundtrack BTW.
Then, I went into Nopon village.
OMG, the music is like the Studio Ghibli film Pom Poko, the inside is just magical and huge. Absolutely love it.
I have a couple of questions about levelling up. You know you can only have 3 active party members for battles? When you level up, do the active members get levelled up but the non-active ones, do they get points or not? I have been using Reyn, Shulk and Sharla because I assumed that I had used them the most and invested a lot into levelling them up. Then recentely I checked my party page and the other two characters are the same level, 33.
If this is the case and the whole party levels evenly that would be so cool and would free me up to experiment more with changing party members up. So let me know what you guys think.
Told you so about Frontier village.
Yes leveling up happens even with the inactive members. Get rid of Reyn and replace him with you know who. Give you know who many agility gems and armour that increases agility and you have a tank that just avoids all punishment. Meaning you can play without using a healer. Or you strip him naked get an agility boost with his left most skill tree and put all you best agility gems on his weapon.
Long story short, get rid of Reyn.
Oh God that is so cool. I was afraid of a Fire Emblem gba problem where you ended up with some really high level characters and then some who were pretty useless but who had abilities you might need later in the game. This rpg, it just removes the punishment from JRPGs. You don't even really have to save until you are done with your play session as it just returns you to the nearest landmark.
Have the areas past frontier village been as good as this or Bionis' Leg/Makna forest?
Not as good as those two. Still some interesting areas up ahead. Those two mentioned are the best followed by Satori Marsh, that one had some awesome quests.
Did you return to Colony 6 already?
And did you figure out what these faces Mechons are?
Plunged deeper into Makna Forest in Xenoblade.
I'm starting to feel some size fatigue here. The size of this forest is getting overwhelming, it's not always easy to navigate and there are huge obstacles in your way and not as many landmarks to warp back to.
It's pretty amazing to look at though. There's tons of pop up, but the payoff is huge, literally - the size and scope of the jungle is overwhelming, the foliage detail is an artistic and even a technical achievement on Wii. And some of the monsters begger belief, with a massive size and great animation to boot.
I got my ass handed to me by the boss Melia wants me to beat. I was doing fine in the first part, then in the second part I could not hit anything, and if you can't normal attack you can't build up enough power to use the monando sword to purge the enemy so I was in a catch 22 situation. I guess I have to replace Melia with Sharla to do this? They could have said so before kicking me into the battle.
Wait, you complain that Dunban is a spoiler, but yet you mention Melia?
About the boss, when it uses its aura you need to do the Monado sealing art. If your talent gauge is not full, then you need to use the arts that sacrifies some HP to fill your talent gauge. If you do not have it yet, I suggest doing some sidequest and exploring to raise your AP. (Arts level, when the yellow bar is full you learn a new art.)
Sharla will not help you there, the battle is possible without her. I suggest using Dunban, Melia and Shulk, with Shulk as your main.
And if you are feeling size fatique, move the story forwards or stop playing. Once I felt it too, but then I realized I was playing 5 hours straight.