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Axe of the Blood God: Kat Tackles More of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Nadia Gives Kuja a Beating in Final Fantasy IX
On this week's Axe of the Blood God podcast, Kat survives another extended play session with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Nadia polishes off Final Fantasy IX's big bad.
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by
Nadia Oxford,
12/15/2017.
Axe of the Blood God is our weekly RPG podcast hosted by Kat Bailey and Nadia Oxford. You can find the previous episodes here.
In this week's episode of Axe of the Blood God (download link here), Kat gets elbows-deep into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 just as I finish off Final Fantasy IX.
Today's podcast is a bit laid back, but what's better than chilling with your homegirls on a Friday afternoon? Sorry; I promise never to say that again. Just listen to the episode, please. Kat and I talk at length about the strengths and weaknesses of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and I talk about my final showdown with Final Fantasy IX's Kuja. I'll sum up my thoughts on Square-Enix's classic RPG next week, so stay on the edge of your seat. Do not move. I'll know.
Want to share your thoughts on RPGs? Email us at usgamer@usgamer.net. We may read your letter on the show! Keep those Perfect RPG Teams coming, folks!
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Show Description
Kat and Nadia talk about the peculiarities of Xenoblade Chronicles 2's battle system, what do with common Blade cores, and more as Kat continues through Chapter 3 of the Switch's new RPG. Then Kat and Nadia discuss Final Fantasy IX's big final battle and conclusion in Final Fantasy IX Report #10!
Music from Axe of the Blood God is courtesy of Lena Chappelle, who has also contributed the themes to Active Time Babble and Roleplayers' Realm. I also use music from the RPG Music Pack over at rpgmaker.net. Check it out!
This article may contain links to online retail stores. If you click on one and buy the product we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here.
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Comments 20
The common core crystals are really important. You get way more of them, so even though your odds of getting a rare blade from them are lower you should still use them all. About 1/3 of my rare blades so far have come from common core crystals.
The way you get the really strong attacks from your specials is by looking at the top right corner after you use any first special attack. Every element has a tree of elements associated with it that appears after you use a special of that elemental variety. If you follow along that chain using specials of at least the level in the tree you're at (ie level two or higher for second tier, three or higher for the third) and of one of the two elements that comes next in the tree you'll progress to the next tier. The third tier in the tree triggers specials that do a bonus 10x more damage than the same special used without the tree. You'll also generate an orb that makes the enemy resistant to the element that the orb represents, but can be shattered during the "driver combo" you unlock later to extend your combo.
For example, if you start with a fire special (say Pyra's level 1 special) a tree will appear that lets you choose between fire and water for the next special. If you, for example, use Dromarch's level two special you'll advance along the tree towards the water side, which matches Dromarch's element.
That last tip in particular is key! The battles will take forever and be incredibly boring if you don't follow it. I'm honestly amazed you were able to enjoy the game without it, Nadia, I think I personally might have died of boredom. I suspect other people who didn't enjoy the game probably missed this critical element and so had a horrible time with the mid/late game combat.
Sorry to be this guy- I don't want to be a jerk- hopefully the advice is well received. I just enjoyed this game more than I expected, and hope you will too, Kat.
My biggest issue is that nia is getting all of my rare blades. When you have rare healer blades equipped to nia she can deal more damage than Rex. I have here upgraded with agility accessories so I use her as a healer tank. I purely play nia as the lead character I like her play style better, I then have Rex as a damage dealer with some support skills. When playing as a healer you have a lot more things you need to watch for.
I am really enjoying the game it brings me back to when I first started Xenoblade 1 my excitement level was through the roof. I hope the game continues to keep me interested with all the systems I think it will, and the music some of the best in any game.
I'm surprised at the complaints of the game, other than a few annoying voice actors, everything else is good in my opinion. I don't let scantily clad women and anime troupes ruin my experience and Nadia made a good point that pyras voice actor being mature sets her character apart from other anime girls. Pyra is much better than Fiora.
Nadia and kat keep doing what you do I love ya"ll. Looking forward to more reports, but please no final fantasy 8 I don't want to experiance that game again. The characters were boring, and the story was muddled.
When you're going though the different tears of the tree, how do you know of the special you're triggering from one of your party members will take you to the next step? What I mean is - if your level 2 step is Water, and Nia has one ready, how can you tell if it is her level 2 art that is ready? (Hopefully this question makes sense)
If you don't mind my asking, can you break down how pouch items work? I'm a bit confused by it. Edited December 2017 by Jonnyboy407
That said, sometimes it can be advantageous to wait a little for your other party members to charge up their bars further. When you start this special chain a bar appears to the right above the enemy's health bar, and you have until it empties to trigger the next level of special. Using some of the extra time to charge up your special gauges further so you're sure you can activate the third level of special can make a big difference.
Pouch items are medium term consumables. You use them and your driver gets some type of benefit for the duration that the consumable lasts (which is indicated in the item and can be anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours). So far the ones I've found most useful are the arts recharging items. Buying a lot of the cheapest variety of this item and using them constantly will let you fill your arts gauges faster, which lets you trigger combos faster.
Hope it helps!
Do you activate pounch items manually? I want to adavnce a few blades in thier skill trees and some require pounch items.
1) Auto-attacks charge arts -» arts charge blade combos -» Blade combos prepare elemental bursts (try to destroy the elemental orbs that circle around the enemy after you perform a level III or IV blade combo, preferably with the opposite element, using a chain attack);
2) ALWAYS cancel your auto-attacks with arts (or blade combos), especially on the third auto-attack. This will increase the damage of your attack and fill up your blade combos faster;
3) Break -» Topple -» Launch -» Smash;
Meanwhile I got back to playing a little more Super Robot Wars V. Just got to the Cross Ange part and it's a harem anime that reminds me a bit of those old 1980s anime except with more jailbait. Hathaway is a punk.
I look at it this way: Garnet had all the summons forcibly removed from her body, found out that her entire race was executed, learned she was physically mutilated as an infant, had to watch her adpoted mother die and witnessed her citizens massacred by bahamut.
If the dude she kinda likes being alive gives her a little bit of happiness, I think she deserves it.
I had finished FF9 and loved the ending (it's still one of my favorites), and that night a bunch of friends were at my house doing something that didn't involve the TV (playing Magic? Who knows!) I figured that I'd put on the ending of FF9, because I was young and stupid and thought people might care about an ending that was good because of the emotional investment of playing the game.
My party was a bit underleveled and lacking in top-tier abilities, but I had a lot of auto-regen, which is seriously broken in FF9. I fought Necron for a bit, until he ended up killing everyone in my party except Garnet, who was Berserk and Mini and just repeatedly attacking with some crappy racket for 3 damage. However, due to Auto-Regen, Necron couldn't actually finish her off, so instead of resetting I just kind of let the game run in the background and my friends and I laughed about how silly it all was.
Suddenly, Garnet Tranced, which healed Berserk and Mini, so I grabbed the controller, got the party back up, and resumed the fight... only to have everyone but Garnet die again, except this time she was only Berserk, not Mini. But she still seemed to be basically invulnerable, so I left her attacking for a few hundred damage at a time. I figured she'd Trance again eventually, but she actually ended up killing him with normal attacks. It was amazing, and I will never forget it.
Also, Thousand-Year Door is the best Paper Mario, and I only wish Nintendo would return to what made it good, instead of what it's been doing to the series lately.
And finally, now that Romancing SaGa 2 is out, I am loving it, even if I don't have a handle on how everything works yet.
Soft spot for Final Fantasy V's Exdeath, though. "I'll harness the power of The Void! I don't actually know what it is, but I'm gonna harness it, I tell ya!" The big goof.