Fixing Xenoblade's Field Skills ft. Movement Options

[@irekaias]

I would have loved to have the option to Use common blades to buff the same skills on regular blades, so like if I have fire mastery +3 on a rare blade I could use the data of a common blade with a lvl 1 and now have +4 on the rare blade that way eventually you have all of the skills needed for field on the main party, maybe include "learning slots" where you could equip skills of any sort and use that to fill the party Gap

[@Aetoetta]

Poopi should have been able to change field skills. It would have helped a lot

[@littywitty5867]

I feel like xc2’s problems would be a nonfactor if everyone was a master driver (or at least eventually) and the skill check was only required on the first interaction

[@rinnnnnnnnnnrinRinOnishi]

or just getting to that point in the story letting you auto pass every field skill check cause youre now designated a *master driver*

[@Namingway248]

by far the most frustrating thing about skill checks was the party shuffling around that needed done. generally the process went something like "oh, do i have the right blades for this? yes i do, but they're all on rex and just 2 of them aren't good enough yet. who else has some? oh okay zeke has a blade that can help here lets put that on in place of this, oh wait, I didn't realize that blade also needed to be on for this. Lets try moving this around again." this made it extra frustrating when I would realize I ultimately had no way to combine what party slots I had access to that would let me pass the check and that I did need to come back later, wasting like 10 minutes just trying to shuffle around puzzle pieces.

[@michaelclifton9498]

Yeah that's why i prefered torna. Each character having a set number of blades only they can use

[@HollowPurple-if2co]

I actually liked this process, it was a mini puzzle and if I was on track, I would usually have the skills ready

[@hallaloth3112]

Yep, and then you switch in a party member that just had unleveled common blades and stumble across a unique monster on your way to grind a collectable and get trashed by a boss you should be able to do in your sleep because for some reason all your field field skills ended up on Shield Hammars for that person.

[@HollowPurple-if2co]

@@hallaloth3112 most of my common blades are decently skilled up and the ones I use most for field skills I just put core chips on or I switch immediately. But I get what you mean

[@bianks3916]

it's the concept of a puzzle game i think? Thinking and elaborating? That's the fun and functioning part, the frustrating part (thats existist only from endgame when those puzzle require lots of skills) is opening the menù- doing the puzzle- and then re opening the menù to select the prevoius blade you were using. A window that let you select blades like the mercenaries would be more funcional, maybe something like you can only select 3, 2 or 5 blades to resolve this puzzle. But the concept is right and work, that incurage the player to work on his blade's ability and add varaiety to the gameplay, so every action like killing a monster has more that exp and gold.

[@3XHS]

I think that having more movement options in xenoblade as a whole would make stuff so much more interesting. Even unlocking something like a high jump and sprint in 1 or 2 could work wonders for exploration, and the amount of options that could be added to x would be actually amazing, especially since the best movement option in X isn’t nearly as interesting or enjoyable as the other forms of movement in the game.

[@lachesis1541]

Its annoying when you make your way all the way to a place thats nowhere near a location you can teleport to, just to be told that you arent good enough to do the thing yet, until you either grind the skills of ypur current blades or pray to the gacha gods

[@famillesabot5719]

Yes that was anoying when I was stuck before Jin final fight because of the concentration skill

[@ponspectorstillwedie4579]

For XC2 specifically, I think being able to assign blades to specific tasks via the menu would help a lot. Like what if for each of the field skills in the game you could assign up to 6 Blades to be responsible for that 'task'? Let's say we assign Pyra, Brighid and a few common fire Blades to the Fire Mastery 'task'. Now whenever you come across a check that requires Fire Mastery the game will check the Blades you assigned and choose 3 to partake in the field skill check, going through the list from top to bottom and skipping over ones that are currently on a Merc Mission. And also, let's remove Blade-specific field skills entirely. All they seem to do is needlessly complicate the process of filling out the Affinity Charts of certain rare Blades. Having to talk to specific NPC's throughout Alrest in a specific order for Electra and Floren's skills is just a pain in the ass. Remove their useless field skills and let us interact with the NPC's in the order we find them. Lastly, while not strictly about field skills, it would be nice to have the process of filling out Affinity Charts be more streamlined. Lowering the trust requirements for non-essential Blades would be a good first step. Also automatically register a skill as unlocked once the requirements are met rather than forcing the player to manually open the chart every time. After raising a skill's level a pop up could appear displaying the requirements for the next level. Enemies required for a Blade's skill node having an icon over their HP bar would help as well. And finally, let's allow defeated enemies and collected items to contribute to the skill requirements of Blades even if they aren't in the party at the time. The lack of QoL features is always my single biggest gripe while playing XC2, unfortunately...

[@eseph9899]

I always just kinda liked X field skills. They werent crucial to gamplay but it was just a little extra thing that was satisfying to clear off the map as your stuff leveled up. The fast travel points being locked sometimes was the one case where it went a bit too far, but i dont remember being particularly bothered by it because of the route i happened to take through the game. The main issue with 2 for me was that i just hated having to shuffle around my whole party setup for one skill check then having to go back and undo it all. It was such a mind goblin for my first playthrough and a lot of times od just ignore it so i wouldnt have to fuck with my whole party.

[@weberman173]

i mean, the fast travel points arent even locked.... the FN nodes are.... but there where multiple travel points that arent FN Nodes across the map

[@branmuffinyogurt9368]

The electric door check was my initial reason for dropping xb2, but chugga inspired me to finish it!

[@robhillen8007]

Using arts as your field skills sounds awesome. Maybe instead of having a separate arts pallet though, it could just be your normal arts and have the field skills be based around what those arts do in battle. Water element arts work on water mastery, arts that buff strength work on super strength, arts that inflict lock on work on keen eye, leveling up an art increases the level of field skill it counts as, etc. Maybe you could even take the art animation into account with things like an arts that makes the character jump up counts for leaping and stuff like that.

[@SAWFD1413]

for collectibles i agree about the need/want for the collectapedia to return as it gives the player a way to grab more of a certain resource that they might need that & the thing in XC1 & XCX gave lore about the items(why its named what it is, what its most prominent use is & other factoids). point is even in new game plus for both XC2 & XC2ttgc i needed to look up where certain collectables are hence why it needs to come back in the next game in the series.

[@CesarTorres61296]

Field Skills are cool and all but they should not have been mandatory for Story Progress.

[@LainK1978]

They honestly weren't. Because it was impossible for you to be missing them.

[@wishes2393]

@@LainK1978 but then by that logic, what’s the point in putting it there? Why give a skill check that is impossible to not pass, thus making a player waste time checking it, realising they don’t have the right party member in the team, changing their team, watching the animation again and then changing their team back? It becomes a pointless waste of time, and really breaks up the pacing. Not to mention, some areas don’t clearly communicate that skills aren’t needed, sometimes a player will find a skill check to progress the story before they find the alternative route that doesn’t need them, but just think that’s the only way, which is also perfectly reasonable considering the game teaches you that it can happen with the other required skill checks. Even if you are guaranteed to pass them, players can’t know that rule persists throughout the entire game until they’ve beat the entire game. It just causes pretty needless clutter, and only really serves to be either a minor inconvenience or a major disappointment

[@AdamTheGameBoy]

The idea of tying them to specific characters is great. Maybe in addition to party members gradually increasing their field skill(s), side quests could also increase them allowing access to certain areas earlier if completed, but set so you always unlock access when going there is necessary.

[@dragonmaster1500]

20:40 I mean, X kinda did something similar already. Remember Battle points (BP)? You get one for doing a bunch of different things, but they are required for leveling up Arts and Passive Skills. Kinda similar to how the Driver Affinity chart and Arts Level up in 2 work actually.

[@miimiiandco]

I'm gonna complain about Elemental Mastery. It's annoying swapping out blades for field skills - I don't have alot of blades with a super high level Elemental Mastery, and it was occasionally annoying having to grind it. Sometimes I have to use my noggin to remember what blades I had in my party. This is the worst with Leaping points, as they can require lots of Wind Mastery. I love your idea of leaping being saved.

[@AuraKnightStar]

I think that it would have been cool if a Blade had a unique field skill it should have utility outside of their side quest. Nothing game breaking or story related would be looked behind them but having it could open up new options or interesting interactions. Like Agate's Prospecting could increase the spawn rate of rare collectables at mineral collection points or Kassandra could apply random rebuffs to enemies.

[@dragonmaster1500]

Say, the whole thing about party members having field skills tied to their profession, or actual skills, really makes me think about how salvaging works. If we disregard the button challenge, it's basically a collection point that was made for the kind of skill check you were talking about in the video. Too bad it was wasted potential.

[@miimiiandco]

I was gonna talk about Juju's Buggy, then you immediately just mentioned it.

[@Frog_24_]

I'm just here to say Pokemon Rangers 1-3 handled Field Skills a lot better than XC2. *_runs away_*

[@aidanhayes3571]

Yeah, bc the whole game was built around it.

[@rexthewolf3149]

Pretty much hit the nail on the head

[@4KDolbyDigital]

True

[@hallaloth3112]

Yea. . .my least favorite part is swapping blades around and immediately forgetting to swap them back for my non-active party members. . meaning either I have unneeded common blades getting trust for completed quests when they should be just going through Merc missions or swapping in that character and forgetting they have unleveled common blades equiped and immediately dying to a unique monster because for some reason someone has two shield hammars equiped and isn't doing their actual job. At least Tora will always be reliable in his use since he can't change blades.

[@Fatalordi]

Game Freak stopped the HM slaves in Pokémon because they knew it was a terrible thing. At the same time at Monolith : -Boss, I've got a good idea ! :D

[@Fatalordi]

@@thomaswinwood What do you think about field skills of Xenoblade ?

[@otakudaikun]

Yeah, the absolute worst part is only pulling from your battle party. It pulling from your top blades for that category would be a simple solution^^ Great vid.

[@otakudaikun]

@saber 1616 I love me some Xeno. Hi

[@Dman25]

As someone attempting to plan out my own rpg, this video gave me a lot of ideas!

[@Cman04092]

Fortunately, it seems like monolithsoft listen to the fans on this one! Well, kinda. They basically just got rid of field skills entirely for something else instead of fixing field skills, but yeah, I'm cool with that. No stoping to farm crap, just grab and go. Also, the new traversal skills are a permenant unlock with no friggen checks, it's just so much better imo.

[@ArveEriksson]

I agree with pretty much everything you say here. *THIS CANNOT CONTINUE*

[@koopanique]

I love just listening to this guy talk about Xenoblade stuff

[@calypso_al]

I would totally play a game Luxin directed/made cause like, all the collection stuff is great and I agree

[@aragaki507]

I want XenoX on switch sooooooooooooooo bad! So far my predictions have been 3 out of 4: Xenoblade remakes 1/2 & X Advance Wars

[@RoboticEdward]

Field Skills singlehandedly ruin the game for me and can't look past all of my problems with the game because of it. This game (referring to 2) is such a design nightmare.

[@aidanhayes3571]

14:07 somebody get me a list of JRPGs and their party members who fish.

[@justinbowman1342]

All I can think of is Noctis from FF15

[@AdamTheGameBoy]

Adol - Ys Ryu - BoF Link - Zelda Like everybody in Atelier ...and Rex fishes for trash

[@bkebradley]

Summon Night: Swordcraft Story 2 has a fishing minigame

[@sperryyoungerjr.3985]

There's Kisara from the recently released Tales of Arise. She loves fishing.

[@MegaPokefan97]

Byleth from Fire Emblem Basically every Pokemon protagonist Sora from Kingdom Hearts I think it's probably more lucrative to make a list of jrpg MC's that don't fish at any point

[@Vandreand]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZPJc3l4draMbKM link to the video mentioned at the beginning. Great watch!

[@pokeleoantiqua7326]

This man can see visions

[@Luma_64]

Field skills and tides are the main reason in didn’t like 2’s exploration, it felt really clunky

[@BAIGAMING]

Please no more gacha style character recruitment 😣

[@corrinflakes9659]

The movement thing predicted Xenoblade 3’s very reduced field skills.

[@ultimafire2001]

Perhaps a nod to FFXV for doing certain tasks like preforming certain tasks like fishing or mining gain points to Blades

[@gilbertguerrero2916]

God. All of these ideas excite me but I already know half or prolly none of them have a good chance of being incorporated in the next XC… I hope I’m wrong if they wanna or have to bring back field skills 🙏

[@andelare2402]

I like a lot of what you said, but towards the end when you started talking about probabilities and item locations, I feel like the map would be too clustered with information. Think about all of the collection points that would get registered. It would just be very overwhelming, especially as someone that doesn't like to filter my map

[@Loopy791]

A bit peeve of mine of the field skills is having to hear the same repeated voice lines every single time. I think I got... the point

[@mythoughtsexactly2145]

Its even funnier in a weird way when Mythra says "there that should do it" all the time. Like its not gonna happen Im sorry

[@lizardandbone]

Hey I’m playing xenoblade 1 again and Ik you did a guide on the combat but no one ever explains how to know what an enemy is doing in the game. Is there even a way to know what there arts do so you can actually account for it? Where on the screen should I look to understand all what’s going on?

[@xenopizza10509]

I just noticed your pfp is finch.

[@miimiiandco]

Pyra is the only blade that can cook.

[@goldmemberpb]

I absolutely hated field skills when i first played Xneoblade 2 and still don't like them. they actively discourage exploration and makes you have to remind yourself that there is something there on top of needing way too much resources to complete them. it's like if the metroidvania exploration system and the pokemon HM system were cranked up to 10. if you make every field skills available to you even if the characters are not in your active party, it poses the same issue newer pokemon games have. if the solution is just there for you to use, then why even have the obstacle? Unlike a metroidvania game, Xenoblade is not a full on action game. So, having to keep using the same skills to go past the same obstacles again and again don't make too much sense. I would much rather just have tricky environment that changes over time like xenoblade 1 than the field skill mess xenoblade 2 had.

[@bloodydoll5897]

remeber the first time i played x i leveled them up each equally and then at three i realised "wait actually im just gonna focus mechanical." in the next playthrough that is _exactly_ what i did why is the camera so zoomed out in the start of the 2 footage,,, the genome centre ladder messed me up so much on my SECOND Playthrough of two i forgot about it and then messed up selecting the right blades several times and had to spend ages climbing and doing and failing the 1 or 2 skill checks on it wait, dont they already do the tiered collectible rarity based on field skill level? or does it _just_ increase how much is dropped? think the collectpedia and the enemy index should be brought back regardless, they make sense in xenoblade style games a lot. recently played a game called crosscode that is also an action RPG, and it made good use of both collectable resources and enemy index in the memnu! im a huge platformer kinda gal and if xenoblade made a real attempt at some cool movement options i would be absolutely hooked and *never* stop tellling my friends about it. at least right now its every couple of weeks until a remember how awesome the xeno series in general is. the things you mention like fal damage reduction and ahookshot like ability make me want a xeno metroidvania game and that is terrifying, the idea of a sequence breaking a jrpg with intended mechanics

[@ericbloodsmith5161]

I've been playing CrossCode and the enemy index and item index are sooooo good.

[@shinnok5337]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 padding was maddening due to the field skill checks that blocked story progression. Who on the dev team thought it was a good idea to lock progress behind an arbitrary skill tree instead of just getting better at the game through natural level progression, I ask you.

[@LainK1978]

The reason why the skill checks were limited to the blades which you have equipped in your party, was because you have so many blades that you can care it. Meanwhile in Torna and X, you are severely limited in the number of possible blades. So you only have specific skills. So in reality all of the suggestions listed would require that there be no collection of blades in the new game.

[@mds_main]

Here's how to fix it, just don't have a gatcha/blade system, just do what Torna did but better. Or even better yet, do like the first Xenoblade did, reward the player for their exploration rather than punish them for it by giving them another pointless challenge.

[@drowningin]

I wish it just checked if you had that skill lvl unlocked in any combo. Having to change them around got annoying

[@trooplelionheart5214]

wait does xc2 take place where xcx did

[@Kuhazan]

I would love it if they would just get rid of field skills... just revert back to Xenoblade 1 style with no collection points or treasure chests.... having my treasure fall into the ocean and be unobtainable and then flash and disappear is blah. Field skills in like every JRPG that I have played are more of a annoyance than they are fun.... over complicated system for boredom.

[@glen3133]

i never opened the door in argentum. why is bana there? what the fuck? xD

[@hallaloth3112]

Xeno-Staple. . .Bana always end up on a hamster wheel.

[@skyeguy7914]

Before even actually diving into this video, I just want to start by saying that if you focus a lot more on actually improving all your blades, instead of just chugging down core crystals until you get the rare ones, the field skills aren’t nearly as much of a problem. In fact, I’m doing that in my current play through, and field skill access has come to be such a non-problem that even merc missions are going smoother. I’m even overleveled every time I go to do story stuff purely off of casually clearing blade affinity charts. Not even spending bonus exp. I’ve especially only been using side quests to fuel trust gains to make the affinity chart go smoother. Once you realize that there is a particular way the developers wanted you to tackle this game, everything becomes a breeze.

[@face_nemesis]

i dont like the idea of being able to select any skill check youve ever gotten. theres so many skills you'd have to look for a while to get through the list, each and every time you fail it adds more time you spend in a menu. which was something xb2 did that already pissed me off, failing a skill check to open a chest and then having to go into the menu multiple times

[@kingdanett4043]

Do you believe Xenoblade Chronicles X fixed this problem or do you still not like it there?

[@LainK1978]

Breaking the game to get to spots faster doesn't equate to story required skills not being accessible and needing leveled up.

[@Lanoman123]

Field skills honestly ruin the whole flow of the game, it sucks having to just go into your party menu everytime you fail a check by 1 level

[@baconator_x4098]

Another thing that's annoying for me is in Tantal there are three "jump pads". I looked at the requirements and thought "easy enough" equipped my blades and passed the check. Then another jump pad with higher requirements, then I went awakened a couple blades or upgrading skills came back went on the first pad then the second. I then saw a THIRD with even higher requirements thought "no I won't be beaten" grinded more passed the check then I saw a ONE CHEST AND ANOTHER SKILL CHECK WITH THE MURAL. Now do I have a problem with the games high requirements? No. My issues are twofold 1. The game never rewarded me what so ever for passing the first two checks. If your not going to reward me after those two why even have them at all? 2. If your going to give me 4 checks in a row you might as well present them to me up front, I never would have attempted that if I saw how high the checks or high many different skills I'd need were. SPOILER: Another time I got stuck in the spirit crucible and had a keen eye check now I hadn't been using Brighid so I didn't have her field skills leveled up keen eye and fire mastery (the fire mastery is annoying because I was missing my main fire blade Pyra) since I hadn't leveled Keen Eye on Brighid I needed the food she liked no problem I looked up what I needed bought enough and I had to wait looked at how long it would last and with 20 mins but I hadn't upgraded Morag's pouch which means I had to wait AN HOUR AND 20 MINUTES JUST SO I COULD PROGRESS THE MAIN STORY. So what I did was put the item in the pouch set a 20 min timer left the game on and did something else (not in-game but IRL) until it was time to replace it. Now I could've been doing something else at the time like finding the getting that pouch expansion or doing some side quests. I on the other hand was angry and decided "It's clear the game doesn't want me to play the game so I won't."

[@MonadoBoyFlameRock]

*Lockpicking Level 99 exists* it's a free real estate. me: so I can't cross over to beat this boss... guess I'll grind.

[@thevioletbee5879]

Field skills are like HMs. They’re irritating, but removing them without having some kind of better replacement drastically harms the world design. I like 2’s world more than 1’s specifically because of the field skills providing layers of secrets to return for. I just wish the actual mechanic wasn’t dreadful… oh wait, it actually isn’t. In Torna specifically.

[@rinnnnnnnnnnrinRinOnishi]

field skills feel super poorly designed, theyre incredibly annoying to work with and forces you to have basic blades just to progress them at alot of areas, i also hate how painfully slow the blade crystal thing is, even skipping it feels a tad clunky, why not let us select an option to ski[p by default?

[@mistressminerva3382]

Im not exactly sure why you see a Problem in an earlier game that was clearly fixed in a later one as still an issue that needs pointing out . As you mentioned the marking of the skill check chests on the map is in XC2 and works , blaming now XCX that it didnt or only suboptimally had it , is pointless by this time since its already there in XC2 , which means the devs have noticed it and fixed it for the newer game ... so if they keep it for XC3 , im sure they will get marked as well. Raising your Field Skill Level was tied to the Blade Level , and you got rewards from Eleonora for every Blade Level that you got. Sure would have been nice to be able to increase Field Skills while on the Field exploring , ... an option would have been to make your Blade Level go up by itself , and you just being able to increase the level then and there , while being able to collect your rewards afterward . Like how the Salvage Ranks work in XC2 , you can Salvage and if you have a Blade with a Salvage skill it will increase , but you can get your non mandatory Salvage Rank and Rewards whenever you want and visit the NPC. i agree making Mechanical a mandatory skill check without the game telling you that you should first focus on Mechanical is a bad idea , and could have been fixed by outright telling you to focus , or if Eleonora would give you a sidequest to show you the importance of Mechanical Fieldskill in combination with the Data Probes .... ... which she does ... kind off .. she sends you to Kirsty , where you get the full explanation about the Frontier Nav and the importance of the Data Probes while also getting your first side quests all around those ... and to top this off , its even a mandatory sideqeust ... so ... why is this an issue ? - because some people dont pay attention , so i would say its human error on the player part. But i agree with you for every problem you mentioned about XC2 field skill checks. I also agree with the Torna field checks , its an improvement over XC2 skill checks for sure. About your idea : looks like we have a more or less fixed group of people in XC3 , that will rotate in and out of your active party , so yeah i agree with the fixed skill checks , but what you suggested about the map skill checks sounds a bit weird ... i would be happy enough if the marked skill check on the map would simply be clickable and tells me what field skills i need and what i have , so i just know immediately if i could go there and open it , or if i have to level something up first. Locking Field Skill improvement behind sidequests can be a fun idea if it makes narratively sense , so in case of XC3 , if you need a special techniqe that only certain people of Keves or Agnus know about , that you have to visit them first and learn it .... but if they make that , they shouldnt make it mandatory for Main Quest progression. I personally want a drastic reduction of field skills in XC3 ... i was happy with only 3 different field skills in XCX , XC2 went completely overboard with it . So depending on the character number in the party in XC3 , i think 6 Field skills would completely suffice. About Collection Points , i think the XC3 trailer showed that we get XC1/X style collection points , which ngl i honestly prefer ... because i dont want to stop every 5 steps to collect some vegetables from the ground ... i dont like these constant interuptions to the game / exploration flow.

[@LainK1978]

Field skills existed in games long before any of the Xenoblade games.

[@Dragunity182]

field skills are such a non issue

[@DarknessXER]

Honestly I did feel like Field Skills are dumb and it coulda been handled easier just by having a passive field skill art which could be unlocked same as normal arts. Goes to show why you should not always leave things to the B team or at least Xenoblade 2 shoulda had more time to be worked on.

[@griswo3272]

First :)

[@Magic_Ice]

Second

[@aphato2770]

Third

[@lachesis1541]

Second

[@ajaxmajor]

I always get so upset seeing xenoblade x gameplay. please my eyes hurt I can't read

[@BioMega96]

Get some glasses