Nintendo Switch Thread

[MMaRsu]

Person 5 is so damn good bork!

[HardcoreRetro]

The writing seems way better than Xenoblade 2 so far. If it keeps this quality throughout it'll probably be the best of the 4 Xenoblade games to me.

Edit: Port Xenoblade X already for fuck's sake!

[Nintex]

The only thing I'm missing from previous games so far is the ability to change equipment but I guess that may be introduced later as each mechanic has been introduced piece by piece so far.

Other than that nearly all the QOL changes are perfect.
Connecting the collectopedia mechanic of XB1 to NPC's for example and the much improved menu's, maps and overall UI.
Everything is about 2 button presses away which is a big difference compared to Xenoblade 2.

The tone of the game is much different than 2, where existential threats to all existence or wars fell flat in the child like demeanor of most characters and general animu waifu aspect of it all.
The game is quite melancholic like the latter half of Xenoblade 1. Not as depressing as NIER but somewhere in between like Lost Odyssey.

The graphics are stunning. Especially in the realtime cut scenes. If this was released during the Xbox 360/PS3 days it would've shot up to 'best looking RPG of the generation' lists easily.
This is probably the first time that Nintendo using any type of upscaling technique and it works out rather well. I don't find it blurry but the game has a much wider FOV than Xenoblade 2.
Navigation is easier because you can see much more of the terrain and landscape ahead (no more missing an item or NPC despite standing next to it), however the DOF effect can make it blurry at times.
The performance is much improved over XB2 though, especially during battles.

So yeah, if they nailed the pacing and it opens up more and the story continues to unfold in exciting ways and it doesn't shit the bed with a progression wall at some point... this could be a 9/10 or 10/10 RPG easily.

[Supermanisdead]

After another marathon day, I'm getting comfortable with combat mechanics and playing optimally. The new chain attack system is soooo good. Sidequests are pretty good this time around, I actually stopped story progression for a few hours just to hang about exploring and getting new heroes.

[Pissy F Benny]

The graphics are stunning. Especially in the realtime cut scenes. If this was released during the Xbox 360/PS3 days it would've shot up to 'best looking RPG of the generation' lists easily.

[Rahxephon91]

We are on PS5 bro. PS3 was over a decade ago. Not a strong boast.

[Bebpo]

Idk, I mean even at 4k/60fps this looks pretty shitty ugly to me:



I'm enjoying the game early on. The XB battle system is a bit slow & boring these days (playing FF14 right now I wish XB combat rotations/cooldowns/speed was closer to FF14) and it's reminded me how one of my many issues with XB2 is how it took 30 hours to unlock the full battle system and the first 30 hours were just fucking endless tutorials.

But yeah I think the game looks a bit poo.

[Nintex]

Early on I made the mistake of doing too much side stuff without having enough unlocked I suppose.
The best way is to level up to level 10 max and do all the early story beats. It's pretty clear when you've finished the baby steps.
I could've easily shaved 2 hours of my play time.

It's sort of confusing how every enemy seems to have way too much HP but once your party size doubles it suddenly makes sense.
The opening area is suddenly the most drab and least interesting. I'm now walking in around in green grassy fields surrounded by the kind of environments Monolith is known for.

What's mostly improved over XB2 is that the screen looks far less busy, so you can actually tell what's going on.
The character models are way better and the LOD's and pop-in have been vastly improved.
They still had to work within the limitations of the Switch but it's a big improvement over XB2.

I wonder what bigger towns and cities will look like in this game. Those were probably the best looking environments in XB2.

[Pissy F Benny]

does it still take like 5 minutes to beat up a rabbit?

[Nintex]

Nah you can beat it pretty easily and then Lanz says: "is tha all?

And then Eunie says: "Oi, you hear that Noah, Lanz wants something Meatier"

[Tasty]

The graphics are stunning. Especially in the realtime cut scenes. If this was released during the Xbox 360/PS3 days it would've shot up to 'best looking RPG of the generation' lists easily.

[Bebpo]

I hadn’t watched the trailers so I didn’t realize the style of game is the same as the current Trails arc (Trails of the Black) with Tokusatsu Ultraman stuff.

Just kind of funny their both doing that at the same time.

Never liked Blades conceptually in XB2, so this seems better.

[Supermanisdead]

In 2, everything was so damage spongey cuz they wanted you to use their stupid lil combo system. In 3 so far, I have been brute forcing things. 4 attackers, 1 defender and 1 healer and battles end well before the defender can get clocked. But I got some really strong classes unlocked by now. Even my "healer" is better at attacking.

[Bebpo]

Not really liking the battle system after you unlock class change. Everyone seems to suck at their non-starting classes. Wrong tank takes aggro lead, healers doing a terrible job healing, attackers aren't doing break/smash combo. Feels like the worst AI I've experienced in this kind of game. But when I switch it back to default classes the game yells at me telling me how inefficent that is since I'm at max class rank.

Not sure if I just need to tough it out until I get the alternate classes to higher ranks. They seem to level fast if lvl.10 is max class.

[Bebpo]

Also about 6-7 hours in, initial thoughts are basically

-Just like XB2 don’t like the combat compared to other rpgs
-Don’t like the environments. Boring to explore out. Feels like Ubisoft open world with tons of emptiness and husks and treasures sprinkled around.  Doesn’t feel like there’s any rewarding reason to explore them out fully. Also art direction and graphics these environments are ugly and boring so far.
-Still a million tutorials and cutscenes and terrible pacing early on just like XB2.

+story is interesting
+cast is solid (which is a huge step up from XB2)

Music is good, but nothing’s stood out so far compared to the first two soundtracks.


Also even though I don’t like XB2 I feel like the starting environments were more interesting. Floating salvage city in the clouds? Sunken submarine? Giant giraffe fields? The XB3 areas feel more like the starting basic areas of XB1.

Depending on how/if the gameplay picks up or gets more fun, this may be a game I just blow through the main story path to see the plot.

[Bebpo]

The cutscene direction in this game is masterbatory, especially with regards to the kid flashbacks.

"How did you get your wepaon?"
-> Proceed to watch little kids spinning weapons for 2 mins before the cutscene even starts


Also is there seriously no way to track collect items in terms of where to find them? Because otherwise that makes quests that need them nonsense since without using a guide you have zero idea where they are in this giant game.

[Nintex]

The animation team sure had fun with this game
https://twitter.com/TaleSpun/status/1553632102838546432

Because otherwise that makes quests that need them nonsense since without using a guide you have zero idea where they are in this giant game.

I think the collection cards are sorted by region. And I've yet to find something for a character that wasn't in their own region. For quests they simply point you in the right direction.
However it wouldn't surprise me if at some point during the game you get an item tracking gizmo or something.

What I would like is map markers though. Sometimes I see a cave or path with enemies that are too strong and I would like to be able to record that.

[Nintex]

I think the collection cards are sorted by region. And I've yet to find something for a character that wasn't in their own region.

Actually the little blurps from the NPC's themselves tell you where to find what they need.
Something like: "I've always wondered what the vegetables from Ferronis taste like!"

[Bebpo]

I think the collection cards are sorted by region. And I've yet to find something for a character that wasn't in their own region.

Actually the little blurps from the NPC's themselves tell you where to find what they need.
Something like: "I've always wondered what the vegetables from Ferronis taste like!"

Pretty sure the Nopon Trader guy food quest at the start of the desert doesn't have any location tips at all. It'd be one thing if he'd eat any food collectibles from any area, so you could just go back later and finish the quest, but it seems like he only eats food collectibles from the first 5 hour area of the game which you're already past, and since you have no direction as to where in that map to grind collectibles to feed him, it's like do you want to spend 2 hours running through the whole map again grabbing every collectible you see to maybe have enough to get him to 100%?

Or you just use a wiki which tells you were to get this things and you go there and grind the spot and finish the quest.

Given there are already collectible grind quests like this super early on in the game, I'm sure there will be tons of these types of quests even outside the collecter cards. Which would be ok if the game had an in-game library of where to get collect items that you've already picked up, but it seems like it doesn't, so it's just dumb. If they wanted to be asses again with collectibles at least leave them as an optional card thing only.

Also movement traversal on the maps is way too slow. This game makes me miss Xenoblade X map design and traversal. Idk, maybe in XB3 you will get mechs to drive and fly around like X and that's why the maps are designed the way they are? I'm assuming mech traversal is unique to the X sub-series, but who knows. I haven't watched trailers for XB3.

Anyhow, I think I'll give this game until the tutorials are done, so probably like 20-30 hours and then if I'm not having fun gameplay-wise, I'll bail. Game is easy to play for hours, but wouldn't say it's actually fun yet.

[Pissy F Benny]

is there any blushy crushy

[Joe Molotov]

is there any blushy crushy

Nopon is a veteran warrior, friend.

[demi]

Bebpo is the Etiolet of Anime. "Eh, after 30 hours I'll stop playing"

Come on dude, lol

[BIONIC]

Rip etoilet

[Rahxephon91]

I don’t know why he’s lying.

He’s going to finish the game and then talk about why he dislikes it.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

A pain I know all to well.

[close]

[Nintex]

Pretty sure the Nopon Trader guy food quest at the start of the desert doesn't have any location tips at all. It'd be one thing if he'd eat any food collectibles from any area, so you could just go back later and finish the quest, but it seems like he only eats food collectibles from the first 5 hour area of the game which you're already past, and since you have no direction as to where in that map to grind collectibles to feed him, it's like do you want to spend 2 hours running through the whole map again grabbing every collectible you see to maybe have enough to get him to 100%?

He's thirsty. You can give him any type of fruit like grapes, kiwi's etc. . I gave him like 5 different things from different regions.

Given there are already collectible grind quests like this super early on in the game, I'm sure there will be tons of these types of quests even outside the collecter cards.

It seems to be lifted from Future Connected. Which means that you just need a certain type of collectible (in this case fruit) not a specific collectible.
I expect that's how most of these Nopon quests will work but so far I haven't seen a lot of repetition.

Xenoblade 2 was way too specific for my tastes, like having to figure out which type of food, music or drink each Blade liked because you needed a certain field skill was a real pain.
So far I have an abundance of gold and stuff and not having any difficulty to find something.

It's still very much a Xenoblade game though, where the quests are mainly: story, finding/collecting things or beating monsters.
I'm at 10 hours or so and I think I have unlocked about every gameplay mechanic for the time being now that I can recruit Heroes.

is there any blushy crushy

Does simping for Mommy Commander Ethel count?

The furballs have not built a sex robot in this game though, yet.

[bork]

Tried XBC2 again- the lower resolution is pretty jarring coming off even XBC1, but it was easy to get used to.

Don't remember much about the story but I only had four hours in.  I think I like battle system more, but I think I should at least get the magic user girl in XBC1 before deciding which one to go with...or just dropping them both in favor of the third game.

[Nintex]

I love Xenoblade 1 but I never managed to beat it on the Wii, I did finish the Definitive Edition.
That game is very focused, has very little filler content and great pacing. It's more of a classic RPG story than XB2 though.
It does get grindy about two thirds in. One of the better looking remasters out there though, they really cleaned it up.
In many ways it's also not a very complex game (mostly because of the technical limitations) everything is pretty straightforward.

Xenoblade 2 is good but it builds up slow, very slow there's also tons of filler content which doesn't really move anything forward.
Most people praise the second half of the game, I think I got to about the closing act of chapter 4(there's 10 chapters in total).
The presentation of this game is just all over the place and the gacha mechanics as well as the field skills make progression more cumbersome than it should be.
Finding where you need to go can also be very confusing at times, especially with all the verticality.

Xenoblade 3 from what I've played so far is the best out of the 3 easily. Which is surprising considering XB1 tops many 'best JRPG of all time' lists.
Far fewer progression blocks than XB2 and a more focused story. I also like the characters much better than XB2 and the gacha mechanics have been completely removed.
Like XB2 it starts out with tutorials but these are far less intrusive and also move the plot forward in the early hours of the game.
They basically took the best from XB2/XB1 (and the class switching from X) and refined it. As far as the graphics go it's more styled like XB1:DE than XB2. The screen is less busy overall.

I would just start with 3 or continue playing 2 if that's the one you like best. Although 4 hours in 2 is just getting your toes wet and you probably don't remember the story because at that point there isn't a whole lot of story yet.

As far as the connections between the games go, except for Future Connected and Torna which are direct prequels/sequels/expansion there's very little that connects XB1 and XB2.
And so far XB3 mostly relies on references (like Noah's blade looks a lot like Shulk's and it has a cat girl) but outside of that I'm not seeing any 'deep lore' that you would miss if you hadn't played either of the prequels.

Fun fact that Future Connected teased a lot of things that would later show up in XB3 but in a very convoluted Takahashi way that only makes sense now that XB3 is released.
Some Nopon talks about how it would be cool if two characters could merge into one and Shulk has that same disc belt that the characters in XB3 have in their military outfits.
Plus in Future Connected they're already sort of playing with the idea of the 'two worlds' merging, the final boss being one of the bosses from XB2.

[Bebpo]

So far, I feel like it's the worst Xeno-game yet (actually Xenosaga ep2 is the probably bottom of the list) and a continued decline for Takahashi and Monolith-soft three games in a row between Xenoblade X, XB2 and now XB3.

It also feels tweeny as fuck with these generic shounen baddies. I miss the more adult testaments and character stuff from Xenosaga, the cast (including the villains) & combat from XB1 [I prefer the simple MMO combat there to this bullet sponge million systems of XB2/XB3 combat), the environments & music from XB2, the mecha traversal from XBX and haters be damned the music.

But I'm still enjoying it somewhat at ch.3 even if it's the weakest jrpg I've played in a while. Just waiting for it to reach the point where it's like "that was all the ugly boring generic intro areas, here is the cool stuff you actually play the game for"

This game kind of makes me excited for Trails of the Black part 2 in September (JP), even though the first game was kind of long and slow and kinda boring, because it's really similar to XB3 in story, but compared to this, Trails feels slightly more adult-orientated (later teens vs early teens), has better characters and cutscenes and the turn-based combat is super fucking fast & good.

Glad you are liking it Nintex.

[Nintex]

I'm really surprised Square and Namdai haven't banked in on the Xeno popularity yet with remasters of Xenosaga and/or Xenogears.

While I disagree their games have declined that much in quality, I do think this is sort of the 'definitive' experience you can get from this type of gameplay.
Most changes in the series have been incremental never changing the core elements of the real-time combat, 'seamless' open spaces, item collection, boy meets girl plots and such.
And then it all depends on which of the characters, worlds, story etc. you like best.

As good as this 'refined' Xenoblade experience is, I think the next Xenoblade game would have to shake things up to make a bigger splash again.
Especially now that some of the elements like the big open worlds have been borrowed by Zelda and other series.
I wouldn't mind a remaster of X with a bunch of QOL changes though but I suspect they will drop that at the tail end of the Switch generation or early on in the Switch 2 lifecycle.

[Bebpo]

One of the things is that I just don't "get" the battles systems in XB2/XB3. In XB2 I felt like I was missing something that made it click and really fun and it just felt tedious and grindy.

Here I'll be doing fine and then I'll switch up my classes with 1 tank, 2 healers, 3 attackers, hero and I'll get in some multi-enemy fight and my entire team gets destroyed because the healers die quick even though they have the lower aggro on heals stuff and my tank has aggro grabbing stuff and high HP. Like I don't get what goes wrong when it goes wrong and I don't really get a good feeling of what goes right when things are going right and you kill everything quickly. Just feels like I'm missing something with the combat like XB2.

I never felt like this in XB1 or XBX. Something about the combat systems in XB2/XB3 just feel off to me and I have trouble figuring out what I should be min/maxing and focusing on with everyone at any time.

The 6-7 person party in XB3 makes it even weirder because it's like the game wants you to have multi-tanks, but the AI seems to have issues managing aggro with two tanks. Also the healer AIs seem fucking terrible and they're bad at healing the tanks (staying in range for the AoE heals) and somehow they love to die quick. I'll play as one of the two healers to make it work and then I look and the other healer is dead 20 secs into the fight. It's just a weird combat system and relies heavily on AI for all these mix and matching of jobs and aggro.

Anyhow, hoping if I stick with it, it'll click at some point. Or maybe I should just revert everyone back to their basic roles with Noah attacker, Lanz tank, etc... since they seem built more for those.

And tbh all the skills/master arts I'm getting from other classes seem useless back in the class you actually want. Like why am I wasting all this time leveling up tanks and healers for a character I want to be an attacker so they get...heal/aggro stealing skills/arts which...you don't want as an attacker in the first place.

Seems like it would make more sense for attacker characters to only learn attacker classes, tank characters defender classes, healers, heal classes? And maybe grab an occasional master art/skill from another job if it makes sense. Like Swordperson at lvl.10 gives a master art thing that halves your aggro. This would be useful for my AI healers that keep fucking dying. So I'm trying to get both my healers to rank 10 of that before going back to healing.

[Bebpo]

Although I think the basis for my issues with XB2/XB3 is how they handle heals and aggro in general is just weird compared to other rpgs both jrpgs and wrpgs.

Since you can't target your own units, there can't be single unit heals/buffs, so everyone has to be these AoE spells/skills. Which means you're limited by whose in range (AI is terrible at sticking together for AoE heals) and to balance that the heal is an AoE it's potency is pretty low, so you're getting really small heals and then gaps while your heal spells are in cooldown. Which usually is more heals than non-tank characters need, but not enough heals for a tank character to offset the incoming damage. Especially if your AI healer is standing by your non-tank characters when they fire their AoE heal so the tank doesn't receive the healing and has to wait another 10 seconds for a heal.

So it feels like a race against time in terms of healing (made worse if your tank can't keep aggro in the cooldown gaps between aggro attacks). This is fine for normal fights where you kill things quick, but stuff that drags out just feels off. Also the more enemies there are, the harder it is for the tank to keep aggro on them all. Maybe in these multi-enemy fights if you're talking about 4+ enemies it makes more sense to have 2 or even 3 tanks to ensure the tanks are keeping aggro.

I kind of wonder what would happen if you made a party that's 3 tanks / 3 healers + 1 attacker hero. Fights would go slow, but in theory it seems like that should be able to handle anything thrown at you in boss fights/multi-enemy fights.

Idk, will continue to trial & error test builds and try to figure out what works. Sure would've been nice in XB3 if healers could target the tank for focused heals that wouldn't miss and for larger heal amounts like ...normal tanking/healing rpgs.

[Bebpo]

Also completely unrelated but it annoys me that the big special A button attacks don't have any hitstun effect that actually feel like the hit is connecting with the enemy. Normal attacks and special moves do, so it's just weird when you do the big special and it just goes right through the enemy with no reaction.

And I've been playing this on the TV but here and there I play a few mins in portable and I swear XB3 feels more responsive in portable mode and it's not just TV/bluetooth lag but like the game runs smoother in portable?

[bork]

The mClassic does wonders for Xenoblade Chronicles 2.  Huge visual improvement.

[Tasty]

words words words

Damn never knew you were such a perv bebps

[Supermanisdead]

Bebpo, eventually you find jobs that are more complex than the starting ones. Like tanks and healers that can do damage. And the skills that you learn from healers in fusion arts will heal while still doing damage or drawing aggro. You just gotta collect as many heroes as you can and start maxing out the classes on everyone just to get the fusion skills. Make everyone in your party have a heal-all ability. You can only have 99 silver nopon coins, so start using them to max jobs.

[Bebpo]

The ch.3 ribbits area is the first nice big area. Movement is so painfully slooooow though. Need to at least get my speed up affinities ASAP. Was movement this slow in XB1/XB2? Maybe the fields were just smaller in those so it wasn't as noticeable.

Bebpo, eventually you find jobs that are more complex than the starting ones. Like tanks and healers that can do damage. And the skills that you learn from healers in fusion arts will heal while still doing damage or drawing aggro. You just gotta collect as many heroes as you can and start maxing out the classes on everyone just to get the fusion skills. Make everyone in your party have a heal-all ability. You can only have 99 silver nopon coins, so start using them to max jobs.

That make sense on having extra heals. Doesn't seem like the base healing class crossover master arts bring any heals over.
I'm only in ch.3 so I only have one hero at this point and only Noah can even use the class.

[Bebpo]

Another issue with the game is figuring out what character you are currently controlling sometimes when switching characters in battle. Because the clothing swap job system everyone looks the fucking same in this low resolution + zoomed out camera so you can see the field. I have no idea who I am half the time and have to change to the next character just to see the names show up again on the L/R for switching.

I think the whole clothing swap thing is pretty dumb. I like my jrpg characters to look unique. I know you can change clothing, but I can't tell if there's a way to give each character in the team a unique look they will always have no matter the job so you can recognize them on the field in combat.

[Supermanisdead]

You can find more heroes just by exploring. I’m pretty sure I had 3 or 4 in chapter 3. They’re usually at the yellow question marks on the map. You can also unlock faster running by raising affinity with different colonies.

[Nintex]

Ribbit plains is absolutely fantastic. The affinity chart is back too.
This is the full Xenoblade experience

[Bebpo]

Game is growing on me ~20 hours. Combat/character build progression gets much better once additional classes start opening up and you can mix and match a lot of interesting setups. Exploration gets better once you start getting a good amount of sidequests and optional areas you can explore.

All that's missing at this point are the big sprawling cities with great gfx and music that XB2 had on each continent. These colonies are kinda boring compared to the cities in the previous games. Hoping there's a good amount of real intricate cities to come and it's not like 90% minor colonies with just one or two real cities.

And biggest negative in the game is still the collect items. At least they got rid of field skill bullshit and gacha blade grind bullshit (though it seems to just be replaced with hero grind having to use heroes for a long enough time to unlock their class for everyone, repeat, repeat for each hero just like using blades for a ton of time to unlock their charts). Actually maybe the grind is worse here because you could just ignore most of the Blades in XB2, but here you will probably want a lot of the hero classes for your party so you have to grind them out. But so many quests ask you to get a ton of items which just sucks. I have no idea where to find all the items for this colony 30 mech building sidequest. You need a lot, so will end up looking up a guide at some point.

These games would be so much better without any collect items on the map, but then they'd also be like 20% shorter games.

You can find more heroes just by exploring. I’m pretty sure I had 3 or 4 in chapter 3. They’re usually at the yellow question marks on the map. You can also unlock faster running by raising affinity with different colonies.

Yeah, I keep looking at the colonies I unlock to see if they give the running speed up perk, but none do so far.

I just wish this game had vehicles. Zelda has a horse. Most rpgs with much smaller maps have horses or some type of vehicle. The maps are huge and this world is full of mecha stuff everywhere. Just seems like you should be able to get a rideable mech like Xenoblade X. Maybe you do? I haven't looked at spoilers and there's a bunch of field skills left to unlock. Who knows.

I'd love to have flying like Xenoblade X, but if they don't want to bring that to the main Xenoblade series because it breaks the level design then at least give ground only rideable mechs that just speed up traversal.

[Nintex]

I'm not far enough into the game yet but considering the first part of the game seems to be heavily inspired by Xenoblade 1 I suppose the second half could be more like Xenoblade 2 and introduce cities and other XB2 elements.

Haven't seen a vehicle or faster running yet either, XB2 had the tiger you could ride but that hardly increased the speed of traversal.
This game does have much more fast travel points though so that's a big help.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, the fast travel spots are good.

Another thing about how this game feels like Monolithsoft lives in a 2006 era bubble and doesn't pay attention to other rpgs and games in general and their quality of life improvements is the maps.

Both maps fucking suck hard. The zoomed out map doesn't have most of the details and the zoomed in map is way too zoomed in given the size of the maps. On top of that each section of a map has a specific name to the area "HILL X, etc..." which shows under the mini-map on the right side, but...the area names don't show on the map. So if you look up a guide and it says "find this item in this area of the map" good fucking luck figuring out where that area is.

The zoomed out full size area map just needs way more details. It's an incredibly plain map for the size and intricate designs of these areas. They just really suck at maps.


The more I'm playing now that more classes are open the more I wish you didn't have to use specific heroes for hours and hours to try to unlock them for your other characters. The classes are essential but I don't like being stuck using heroes I don't necessarily want. And because only 1 character inherits the class off the start, you pretty much should make that character the new class. But like I don't want to make Lanz a healer because he sucks at healing I think? (I can't tell if the characters are all exactly the same in stats so they're equally good with any job, or if some characters are better at certain jobs. It sure feels like the latter with big Lanz on tanking and Eunz on healing)

Also given the way healing works and revives which only healers can do (which seems busted since if your healers get one-shotted mid-boss fight that's game over), some of these boss fights seem busted? Like when I did the hero quest for Colony 9, the final boss would do two major moves. One would be a circle AoE that would hit everyone for like 400-500 damage. This was rough but surviveable with AoE healing. But then he'd do what seemed like a bleed/burn status effect where your HP would just burn down really fast even when you aren't being hit? This would KO my healers real quick. I got around this by interlinking once I saw someone with that status since I think it removed the status during the interlink and maybe it was gone by the time I changed back, but idk, seemed weird to have stuff that can murder your healers super quick since they need to be alive to make it through boss fights.

[Supermanisdead]

I think base stats are all pretty similar. I haven’t noticed Lanz being a worse healer than Eunie. I love the class/skill system in this game. I have just been grinding out the classes to make Mio and Sena into insane DPS. I’ve switched to hard and stopped using the bonus exp, because all this extra battling really over leveled me. I’ve got like 15 levels stored up in bonus exp.

[Bebpo]

Bork, you finally got me to order a damn mClassic for this.

[bork]

Bork, you finally got me to order a damn mClassic for this.

[Supermanisdead]

Hell yeah mclassic slays 

[Bebpo]

It kind of sucks when you're overleveled for an area but that's where all the quests are, some exploration still, main story.

Because you still have to fight a bunch for quests or exploring, and the fights aren't super quick against blue elites or uniques, but they pay out like...jack shit for beating them so you do these 5-10 min fights and get like 30 CP and 50 XP.

My party is lvl.29 now and I've been clearing out the quests in Fornis region before finishing the chapter and fully exploring out the map and like all the enemies are 22-25 so barely got any party gains after a long session. I fought one blue elite lvl.29 in front of the secret area in the desert and finished it with a chain attack and got like 2000 CP and everyone gained like 4-5 class rank level ups. That was cool. The only stuff that's over 22-25 is like 40-55 stuff, so there's nothing really for where my levels are at.

I wonder how much of the total game world map Fornis region is. Looking at the affinity chart map if that's the entire game world then it seems like maybe 1/4th or 1/3rd or something. Gonna easily hit about 30 hours by the time I finish it and 40 if I go back and finish out the first region before moving on to chapter 4.

I can't say I really like the way zones are combined into one giant region in this one. All the parts don't feel very distinctive since they're just a section of the overall region and the story doesn't make a big deal about each sub-section of a region, whereas in XB1/2 each zone had its own progression and cutscenes and felt like a story going through each region. XB3 seems more...gameplay focused? There's still a ton of cutscenes, but they seem kind of diverged from the world exploration. It's just like "hey, here's a giant fucking map, go explore and kill shit and find some treasures and some quests will take you to a few of these spots later". The world feels a bit dead imo.

I definitely prefer the zones in XB1 and XB2 to the maps in XB3 so far. Doesn't help that because I guess XB3's world is a combination of XB1 and XB2's worlds, the zones are all like versions of old zones instead of original exciting new ones? The zones in the previous games just felt like they had more character, like the fireflies in XB1 at night in the lake with the ruins, or tons of stuff in XB2. The zones in XB3 don't really have any interesting visuals or music so far...

Still digging it, but it does feel more of a gameplay focused game than an immersive world journey story.

[Rahxephon91]

Honestly, not liking it too much. Don’t really get the praise. Game has been pretty boring so far.

[Bebpo]

Bork, you finally got me to order a damn mClassic for this.

Hell yeah mclassic slays 

I mean, I still don't believe in post-rendering upscalers/effects injectors. Once the image has been rendered I don't believe you can really improve it without damaging the original image quality.

Like on PC, a lot of people looooove using ReShade, but I've never seen one single time ReShade has improved the visuals of a game. It usually just changes the look/art direction to something different from the original intent.

I think FXAA is a post-processing AA injector solution which is why it's low gpu/cpu cost, and FXAA has always been shit since it just blurs stuff. Only sorta works when done at a higher resolution and downscaled to native resolution imo.

But, PC is different because you can internally render almost all games at high resolution so you don't need post-processing injectors. I will entertain the idea that on stuff like Switch, it's possible that it helps, though I'm not expecting much out of mClassic, but I'll give it a shot.

[Joe Molotov]

https://www.gematsu.com/2022/08/switch-worldwide-sales-top-111-08-million-nintendo-switch-sports-tops-4-84-million

Switch sales at 111 million WW

[james]

Unprecedented. I dont think Nintendo has ever done anything like this before

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1555191948956368897

[bork]

Bork, you finally got me to order a damn mClassic for this.

Hell yeah mclassic slays 

I mean, I still don't believe in post-rendering upscalers/effects injectors. Once the image has been rendered I don't believe you can really improve it without damaging the original image quality.

Like on PC, a lot of people looooove using ReShade, but I've never seen one single time ReShade has improved the visuals of a game. It usually just changes the look/art direction to something different from the original intent.

I think FXAA is a post-processing AA injector solution which is why it's low gpu/cpu cost, and FXAA has always been shit since it just blurs stuff. Only sorta works when done at a higher resolution and downscaled to native resolution imo.

But, PC is different because you can internally render almost all games at high resolution so you don't need post-processing injectors. I will entertain the idea that on stuff like Switch, it's possible that it helps, though I'm not expecting much out of mClassic, but I'll give it a shot.

I didn't buy into the mClassic until thoroughly researching it and seeing countless positive reviews.  How much it improves image quality is a per-game thing for sure and from my experience, the best image quality you can get is when using the device hooked up to a 1440P monitor or a TV that accepts a 1440P signal.  If you're using it on a 4K TV that doesn't have 1440P support, it's only going to upscale to 1080P, *but* it will still look better than just using a normal HDMI connection. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that the best image quality settings are also per-game, which just means that if the game is running at 1080P docked, you want the Switch video output set to 1080P, but if it's running at a lower resolution docked, it's recommended to change it to 720P for better results.  You don't have to do any of this, to note, but it's something to try for optimal quality.  I generally just leave my Switch on 720P output and let it upscale all the games to 1080P on my TV and it looks really nice.  It's also easy to mess with video output on Switch since you can change the resolution at any time while a game is running through the Switch options menu.

If you don't want to use the mClassic with a game, it has a switch to disable it, btw.  You don't have to unhook it from your TV.  It also has an additional setting to force a 4:3 aspect ratio which is nice when using it on displays that stretch images to 16:9 on older hardware.

Finally, it may seem obvious, but only use the mClassic with your Switch or older hardware.  If you have an HDMI switch hooked up to your TV and your PS5 is connected, you may experience issues with games displaying correctly and HDR won't work with the mClassic.  And also just want to note that it needs its own power source to work, but USB works so you can just power it through the Switch dock.

IMO the best-looking game to try and see the difference with is Monster Hunter, followed by Xenoblade.

[Bebpo]

Damn, didn't know that. My TV doesn't support 1440p, so it'll just be upscaling to 1080p.
Why doesn't mClassic upscale to 4k output? I thought it did looking at their website.

Should still help with XB3 since it runs like 720p.

[bork]

Damn, didn't know that. My TV doesn't support 1440p, so it'll just be upscaling to 1080p.
Why doesn't mClassic upscale to 4k output? I thought it did looking at their website.

Should still help with XB3 since it runs like 720p.

This article should answer everything.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2020-mclassic-review

The mClassic is an HDMI 1.4 device, and there are a bunch of limitations to consider as a result of that. Firstly, it's worth stressing that with processing enabled you lose HDR functionality on PS4 or Xbox One. It's not factored into the algorithm, but on the plus side, since the audio signal is untouched regardless of mode, you keep features like Dolby Atmos - it passes right through. Another catch is the way 4K content is handled: the mClassic only upscales 720p and 1080p input signals at low refreshes to 4K - such as 24, 25 and 30Hz. These are frame-rates usually reserved for movie playback, and not games, which depend on 60Hz. The official website lays it all out clearly but essentially, anyone looking to upscale their Switch, base PS4 or Xbox One's 1080p output up to 4K will have to look elsewhere. In my testing, the LG B8 TV and all capture cards simply received a 1080p and 60Hz signal at the end from these consoles - but PC monitors will trigger the mClassic to push out 1440p if it's supported.

Some TVs also offer 1440p if you switch the input to PC mode. But it definitely depends on the model.

But again, you're still going to see a difference even if it's upscaling to 1080p. There is a noticeable improvement in image quality.

[bork]

The first page of the monster Hunter thread had some discussion on this:

For bork:


^ setting: 1080p


^ setting: 720p

mClassic looks better overall but more contrasty as well. Looks a bit more like GU actually lol, the resolution is hiding some of the textures.

[Bebpo]

Damn, didn't know that. My TV doesn't support 1440p, so it'll just be upscaling to 1080p.
Why doesn't mClassic upscale to 4k output? I thought it did looking at their website.

Should still help with XB3 since it runs like 720p.

This article should answer everything.

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2020-mclassic-review

The mClassic is an HDMI 1.4 device, and there are a bunch of limitations to consider as a result of that. Firstly, it's worth stressing that with processing enabled you lose HDR functionality on PS4 or Xbox One. It's not factored into the algorithm, but on the plus side, since the audio signal is untouched regardless of mode, you keep features like Dolby Atmos - it passes right through. Another catch is the way 4K content is handled: the mClassic only upscales 720p and 1080p input signals at low refreshes to 4K - such as 24, 25 and 30Hz. These are frame-rates usually reserved for movie playback, and not games, which depend on 60Hz. The official website lays it all out clearly but essentially, anyone looking to upscale their Switch, base PS4 or Xbox One's 1080p output up to 4K will have to look elsewhere. In my testing, the LG B8 TV and all capture cards simply received a 1080p and 60Hz signal at the end from these consoles - but PC monitors will trigger the mClassic to push out 1440p if it's supported.

Some TVs also offer 1440p if you switch the input to PC mode. But it definitely depends on the model.

But again, you're still going to see a difference even if it's upscaling to 1080p. There is a noticeable improvement in image quality.

Yeah, I looked it up and my LG C1 only does 1440p at 120hz. People with mClassic aren't getting 1440p working on it. But yeah 1080p is an increase from 720p for sure.

[Nintex]

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1555191948956368897

[Bebpo]

So I just spent an hour messing around with mClassic, tried 720p/1080p on 4k TV that only accepts 1080p inputs. Tried 1080p -> 1440p monitor. Messed with the settings.

...and I can't tell the difference other than there's some blurry FXAA kinda going on to blur out the pixels/jaggies which were never an issue in the first place (game's graphic issues aren't from alaising but from muddy low-res textures everywhere)

Honestly even playing in portable mode...XB3 looks pretty much the same between portable OLED / 4k TV with no mClassic / 4k TV with mClassic at 1080p / 1440p monitor with mClassic at 1440p. Like the only main difference is with mClassic it looks like it has AA smoothing on (which btw I fucking hate how AA smoothing looks on text).

Oh well, waste of $107. I grew up on PS2 and prefer jaggies and alaising w/detail to blurry AA. I don't use FXAA on PC because of this.

mClassic would be more useful if it actually had options. If I could just do the upscaling to 1080p/1440p without the AA solution and sharpening injected I think I'd definitely prefer that look.

[Nintex]

What sort of TV are you using?

I recall LG OLED panels like mine having great upscalers and I can certainly tell the difference when I hook up the Switch to the Sony TV at work.

[Bebpo]

What sort of TV are you using?

I recall LG OLED panels like mine having great upscalers and I can certainly tell the difference when I hook up the Switch to the Sony TV at work.

LG OLED