Games 'n Stuff

The right level bracket is about two to five levels in either direction, probably, depending on your skill level/gear and what precisely it is you're fighting (a boss that's hard when you're at level is probably pretty much impossible at five levels lower regardless of how good you are, for example). It's not as if you have to be precisely the same level as enemies for it not to be impossible/trivial. Even easier enemies can be tough because they'll often come in large packs.

The "red" range is significantly above your level (I do not know the exact number - maybe >10?), and basically denotes things that you aren't supposed to even try to fight. It's straightforward and upfront about it, the color is right there in your face when you choose to engage the target.

Against lower-leveled enemies, battles won't last more than 30 seconds, plus about 20 more for each extra enemy. And half the time, you can easily sneak behind the enemy, use the skill that does double damage from behind, and likely OHKO the monster before it even realizes there's a battle (which, by the way, you get an achievement for doing exactly that).

Also, Mordain, what do you mean bosses have a different type of challenge? They just seem like standard unique enemies to me.

EDIT: Also, the red range is 6+. I think the yellow range is 3-5+, grey is 2+/-, and blue/black are the inverse of yellow/red.

This post has been edited by aturtledoesbite on Jun 22 2012, 12:34 AM

Eh. Honestly, I find the fights to be almost awkwardly short. Even on at-level fights, you often get your "battle opening" "mid-battle chatter" and "victory celebration" voice lines practically overlapping each other. Admittedly that was more of a problem early game where everything was ridiculously easy to defeat. Still, contrasting many other JRPGs, where boss fights can often take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes (when they don't take even longer), I've never had a fight last more than about five minutes, and that was notable.

Not that fast-paced combat is a bad thing. I'd have almost no complaint about the system... if it weren't for the goddamn spammy battle-chatter. It's a minor complaint, but it's just enough to make short fights slightly annoying.

Page'd-Edit: Different challenge in that they often have some unique mechanics or requirements, like being completely invulnerable until certain conditions are met, and having insta-kill attacks that you have to properly counter or die.

Oh, those bosses. I completely forgot about them. Mainly due to the fact that the invulnerable bosses never show up again and countering attacks is something you do in most battles where you're not completely destroying the enemy, anyway.

Looks like Bioware's finally come out of hiding regarding Mass Effect 3's "Extended Cut" ending. Coming pretty soon, too.

Guess the shitstorm's about to start back up if/when this doesn't actually do anything to make any sense of anything.

I figure it'll elevate it to the level of "probably would have prevented the worst of the shitstorm if it had been included at release" (the starchild BS is still retarded and nothing will fix that) but well below "making up for the original ending disaster".

Not expecting to bother playing through the end sequence again myself. I'll catch the ending variations on youtube this time next week.

One point nine gigs... I wonder how many colours that is!

1 colour
But it will be VERY pretty

...

It's going to pink and FABULOUS isn't it.

Only if you romanced Diana Allers and/or took Kai Leng seriously.

Spoiler: [No one did either of these things.]

What if you romanced Kai Leng and took Diana Allers seriously?

You get an extra 5 army points to your total.

Then it will still be pink, but the game will claim it's salmon and that it's totally manly.

So, no specific points to update my playthrough of Xenoblade, but from my actions today, you can probably deduce my overarching opinion of it. I just took advantage of Gamestop's used game return policy to get my money back on it...

And buy a new unopened copy.

I don't get it. You bought it used, but now you returned that and bought a new one? I lack the brain to deduce that opinion you mentioned.

He liked the game well enough to get a new copy that is less likely to suddenly shit itself during the last boss fight because the last goober to own the game stored the game in his steel wool collection or something.

Ah, okay. Yeah, it should be mentioned that if you have an older Wii, you might need to clean and/or replace the lens to get it to work. This game, along with a few other Wii games, has more than one layer of data on the CD. Even the slightest amount of dust can make the game unreadable. I should know; I had to open up my Wii to clean the lens and play it.

I'll have you know that collection is going to be worth a lot one of these days, just you wait and see!

I'll have you know that collection is going to be worth a lot one of these days, just you wait and see!

It may very well be, but that doesn't make it an ideal place to stow video games.

Forgot to mention this earlier, but for those of you that care, Bejeweled 3 is the daily deal for Steam. Only four bucks.

The damage is done at this point, and realistically there's almost nothing they can do to fix the ending and still keep the themes they wanted to include.

That said I kind of hope they go completely off the deep end with the new ending.