What The Hell, Xenoblade?

The thing with computer/console-based RPGs - what almost puts me off them entirely - is that success in battles has little to do with the skill of the player, and a lot to do with luck, based on the background number-crunching of the game. Certainly, there comes a time when you've got your character(s) upgraded to a point where they hit more than they miss, and hit powerfully enough to do the job, but there's still something frustrating about choosing your actions and hoping for success, rather than controlling your actions directly, and living or dying based on the accuracy of your control. And that's ignoring the whole 'action button sensitivity' issue.

A prime example is the part I reached in Xenoblade recently. I mentioned in a previous post that I'd read about an alleged 'difficulty spike' around the time the party reaches Level 50 (which is actually more to do with location and the associated enemy types, and whether or not the correct path is followed). At the very end of the first area on Mechonis, there's a battle where, even well above Level 50, I found myself hopelessly outclassed by a group of enemies that, technically, weren't that much more powerful than me.

My usual response to this is to find some Let's Play videos and observe other folks playing - maybe pick up a few tricks. There still aren't that many Let's Plays of Xenoblade, owing to the fact that the English language version hasn't been released in the States yet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm beginning to find a lot of the American Let's Players kind of irritating in their attempts to be 'humorous' (great if you can do it, but if it doesn't come naturally, then what makes one Let's Player funny isn't necessarily going to work for someone else), and frequently end up screaming at my screen as they somehow miss something as the player that's obvious to me as the viewer. It increases the length of the Let's Play, and gives rise to the question of whether it's better to present an authentic Let's Play with all the mistakes, or whether it's better for everyone to edit out the half hour of backtracking and running around in circles because they didn't notice that a door opened right next to them when they threw that switch.

I think you can guess which I'd vote for.

But I digress. I dug up a Let's Play of Xenoblade that had already covered the part I've reached. Annoyingly, the player was at a lower level than me, and yet seemed to be more successful in his battles despite employing much the same mash tactics as me, except that he virtually never uses the Monado's powers (other than Enchant) or any chain attacks (even going to far as to mention he'd only used a chain attack on one specific enemy).

And, aside from dodging a couple of battles, he actually did better than me - completing the battle that had been giving me trouble on his first attempt.

It would have been nice to have picked up a winning strategy... but there really wasn't one, apart from picking away at one enemy at a time, which is what I'd tried to do anyway.

I'd tried the same team as him - Shulk, Dunban and Riki - and failed miserably. Even my first attempt with the normally-winning team of Shulk, Reyn and Sharla resulted in a wholesale slaughter.

So, I thought, I might as well just keep trying. One important point I did pick up from the video was that the enemies don't respawn if you die, so you only have to pick up the fight with whoever you didn't kill the last time round.

I copped out, and when back to Shulk, Reyn and Sharla...

...and I aced it.

All I can say is that I made sure everyone was focussed on the same enemy- issuing the 'Focus' command every so often - and had actually gone up a level just before the fight after a bit more grinding. I supposed I'd also played about with my selection of special moves and their individual levels... but, by and large, I was playing the same way with the same characters, but it was much easier.

So... Progress. And, after a good few cutscenes, I decided to stop for the day at a suitably dramatic juncture. Looking forward to more, but not sure when it'll happen - probably not before Sunday, since I'm off to my folks tomorrow.

There's further drama with my grandmother - when she was finally seen by a doctor, it became clear that there was something wrong. Her speech is apparently rather off - she knows what she's saying (or trying to say), but what comes out of her mouth ain't makin' sense. She had an appointment for an X-Ray, and I haven't heard any more - I guess I'll get the whole story tomorrow, though my mother warned that she might be back and forth between home and the hospital - but, at my grandmother's age, the problem could be anything from concussion to brain damage from the fall, or it could have been a stroke that caused the fall.

Watch this space...