The MOST HATED Combat System in Xenoblade Chronicles & Why I Love It

[@ActualAero]

Wanted to make my final 2023 video a positive one being one of the 4 Xenoblade 1 combat enjoyers. If this video has some good support I'll make more Xenoblade related videos in 2024 as well. See you all next year :)

[@rowanatkinson3594]

One thing I really appreciate wtih 1's combat is that it's a lot easier to keep track of what your party is doing via their battle barks: because 2 and 3 have so many variables and things going on it can be a bit tricky to figure out what your team is doing and work around it, but since everyone only has one or two lines for everything they do it can be easy to hear "WILD DOWN" and start buffering using a shaker edge before the topple even takes effect, for example. I think that quality is what kept it from being boring, for me

[@SuperSavajin]

I noticed the reqson so many people think xb1 combat is lame is because they rarely switch to other characters. The game has an amazing battle system if you change your party dynamic a lot.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah playing as Dunban for example is really fun!

[@Terranigma23]

Exactly! Playing as Melia is like "nearly" a new battle system ahah.

[@lemmyxpro]

Not really. This "solution" only works for so long. It's enough to last you a full playthrough almost always, but it kills the replayability of the game even more...

[@pixel6894]

I think the reason people don’t usually switch from shulk is because for most of the early/mid game shulk can is the only one who can hurt mechon. Shulk as an ai party member has trouble using the arts you need him to like enchant and shield/speed etc. it’s just more reliable to keep that in the players hands. Although I do love playing as the other characters, I only use them when I get the weapons that can hurt mechon and always have shulk in the party.

[@lemmyxpro]

@@pixel6894 Yep. That's exactly why...

[@EpicGlopster]

The future vision was probably by favorite part of xenoblade 1s combat keeps the battles engaging by keeping you on your toes for big hits. And then theres the Bionis slash which looks insane 🤣

[@ActualAero]

Bionis Slash vision at Mechonis Core is so peak. Like here's a vision where the world collapses lmao

[@karmaopg7820]

Xc1 combat is still fun and I love it idc what Twitter says Always gonna be my favorite RPG

[@ActualAero]

Same I love it

[@drumd00d]

If it’s your favorite RPG I have a question, and vague spoilers to anyone who hasn’t played it, don’t read further: I know of a specific character betrayal and a specific character death, both of which I accidentally saw online. I assume both of these things happen near the end. That’s all I know about the game. Could I still play 1 and enjoy it? Will knowing those two major things and who it involves ruin the game and the whole story for me?

[@miimiiandco]

​@@drumd00d Not OP, but I think Xenoblade's story works well if you know or don't know the twists, since you can pick up on some of the foreshadowing and go "Oh. Wow." Especially in 2 because that story has a lot of elements that the game doesn't explain until way later, but that's neither here nor there. The characters in 1 are still fun and endearing, the setting is still fresh and lively, and I don't think the emotional moments rely too much on twists, and knowing the twists could allow you to view some scenes in a new, interesting light. If you haven't played it already, I'd highly recommend it.

[@firenze6478]

X1 and x has my favorite combat systems. 2 is just too limiting and 3 is so customizable that the main characters just don’t feel unique.

[@ryanprice4345]

I definitely struggled with grasping 1's combat my first playthrough. I forced myself to try playing characters I didn't really like playing on my second playthrough and Melia is the one who REALLY made it click for me. Turns out this game is actually fun when you branch out and try new things, who knew??

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I think a lot of people also aren't willing to try other play styles and only solo Shulk the whole game. Melia is a great example of a fun character! I love charging her elementals and then unleashing all 3

[@miimiiandco]

Balancing buffing the party, dealing damage and ensuring she doesn't take the aggro made Melia really fun for me. Yeah, I did kinda just use Melia, Dunban and Riki for the entire game, but I had fun.

[@blakerenimu9033]

When I learned about Xeno 2/3 combat being "different" or even "better" than 1, I thought "how do you improve on perfection???" And now that I'm having a great time with 3 I can confirm it is indeed "different" but NOT better. Xeno 1 combat system still holds up, I don't get why people are complaining 😅 Honestly, the only "bad" thing about it is that scrolling through arts is a bit clunky. That's it. Everything else is PEAK *It actually beats Xeno 3 imo cuz Expert Mode (yes that's DE only I know) is the best mechanic ever created and not having it from the start in 3 is a crime

[@patrykzukowski7471]

Yeah, XC1 combat is perfection. Tons of choices, tons of tactics, easy to navigate and to read UI, I won't even mention how totally awesome the skill system was and skill-links in particular. I just started XC2 and please... please someone tell me it's not as bad as it seems in the first few hours. All I do is start fights and wait for any of my Arts to fill up - and then MAYBE I'll have a chance to use any of them before the enemy dies. It's auto-attack galore. I just don't get it, it's not even different, it's just terrible, worse in every single way.

[@lapotato9140]

imo the custom difficulty settings in 2 are superior in terms of that. wish enemies could have less health but hit you way harder to make them go by faster but still more or less be as difficult to fight? now they are. wish enemies used their arts more often so theres more stuff for you to interact with? done. tired of chain attacks doing so much ungodly damage? easy, now chain attacks are a lot more of a strategic utility of using them only for dodging huge attacks and panic healing, rather than just blowing people up. basically any possible thing you can want, you can do.

[@talranddrake9679]

@@lapotato9140 isn't that locked behind dlc though? It's neat, but locking it behind a pay wall is scummy

[@lapotato9140]

@@talranddrake9679 "scummy" its an expansion that gives you a bunch of stuff in the base game AND a side story that's like 20 hours long if you explore everywhere, i am not fucking letting that slide. why is it always this specifically with xenoblade 2? whats so wrong with just being in good faith? next youre gonna act like the blade gacha is just as bad as or worse than other gacha where you actually spend money for pulls

[@talranddrake9679]

@@lapotato9140 calm the fuck down dude. Locking difficulty settings behind a paywall is scummy. That is something that should've been in the base game.

[@Angrtard]

I honestly loved all of the combat, to be honest. Xenoblade did something not a lot of other JRPGs managed to do, and get me to like everything about it is something pretty cool to me, even if it isn't perfect.

[@ActualAero]

Xenoblade does have very special combat systems, I enjoy them all

[@marche800]

People saying XB1's combat is slow always baffles me when battles go way faster than 2's fights. 2 enemies gas so much HP to make space for the combo system, but it means every encounter lasts forever even when you are playing as intended. It also, like you said, has absolutely glacial walk speed so if you ever need to pick up a health potion you are going to experience agony. In 3, using a chain attack means you just slapped 5 minutes onto however long the battle way. It's engaging, so it doesn't bother me, but I just know a 4th of my playthroufh was just chain attack optimization.

[@rudeondude21]

You didn’t get a chance at x gameplay it was a mix of 1 with combo and timing but had use of weapon element and gear to hit hard and cut that enemy HP to zero or hop in your sKell and just start blasting

[@talranddrake9679]

@@marche800 people that call the combat in 1 slow probably use sharla a bunch. Heck, even with sharla the slowest fights aren't anywhere near as long as 2s.

[@potabanomaybe5629]

Holy shit I'm one of the 4 people who love Xenoblade 1's combat!!! Fr though I also love the xenoblade 1 combat in the sense that I can make so many varied movesets rather than working with the limited movepools that weapons or classes have in xenoblade 2 and 3. At this point I have made 8 different movesets for Melia since it's so much fun to test out different elements. Also the visions along with chain attacks being not as powerful which makes it so much more satisfying to beat hard enemies compared to 2 or 3 wherein I click the chain attack button then win half the time. It's like it feels more rewarding beating avalanch abaasy for the first time rather than beating tyranotitan kurodil or seraphic ceratinia for the nth time to me. All in all thank you for this video glad to finally find another person who likes Xenoblade 1 combat.

[@talranddrake9679]

There are more than 4 people. Most new fans are just retards.

[@luke3810]

I'm glad someone discussed this topic! When I first got into Xenoblade I primarily played it for the story and exploration but after a little while, the combat ended up becoming one of my favorite things about the series. There just really isn't anything like it and I love it in all the Xenoblade games. I do find it a little sad how many people seem to hate on XC1s combat. I personally found it to be very enjoyable and even after completing the game to 100% completion I still go back to it. I loved how each character had their own playstyle. I turned Reyn into an insane attacker rather than his intended tank playstyle lol. Man, now I want to replay this game lol.

[@Xenowolf8]

Xenoblade 1 has probably my favorite combat system in any game, it’s simple but it gives you so many different options that all have their uses. A prime example is how this game only has break topple and daze, but there are several different ways of achieving those statuses, it’s way more engaging than doing the same combo over and over again. And the game encourages you to use your arts at the right time, and punishes mashing with time cooldowns. And that’s the real reason I really don’t like XC2’s combat but most other people do. When I play Xenoblade I want to be strategic and use my arts at the right time in the right position, and make my own strategy. But it seems most other people prefer the spam approach in Xenoblade 2, they don’t care as much about waiting to use arts for maximum benefit, they just want to press buttons fast until they win, and they like following a flowchart instead of making your own strategy. Also people wanting to mash is probably why people try mashing in Xenoblade 1 and get upset when they have to use positioning instead, and they go play Xenoblade 2 and they can mash their hearts out, and you don’t have to worry about strategy as much when there’s a set formula to play the game. Xenoblade 3 has elements of both, but it’s a good balance that doesn’t lean too much into mashing because it’s still fun without it, and I’d say all the options are generally more balanced than Xenoblade 2, but not quite to the same degree of Xenoblade 1 where you make just about anything useful.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah Xenoblade 1 for sure you can't just spam your arts or it's very unenjoyable. Xenoblade 2 though if you max out Mythra's affinity chart with crit recharge yeah you can mash double spinning edge and spam that as much as you want. I get enjoyment in both but yeah it's unfortunate the common opinion is just the style of XC2 and XC3 is superior and XC1's is outdated and not fun 😔

[@Chronoflation]

I have never read a comment I agree with more. Xenoblade 1 isn't outdated. It's strategic and that just isn't as popular, unfortunately. It really makes me sad that 1 didn't get a mass release on a thriving console in the west until after 2 came out, cause so many people came into the franchise with 2, it made people think they could just use one basic combat cycle for the whole game and then end fights when opponents were at or well above half health with a single chain attack. So much flash, I won't say it lacks substance, but it really feels like no matter what choices you make, combat always comes down to the same formula, driver combo til you can start doing your blade combos, get as many as you can and then chain attack, or some iteration of that, for the most part. I got so annoyed when I was looking up solutions for surviving an enemy's aoe party wipe attacks and all the answers were "use a chain attack before it reaches half health and KO it so it'll never use that move"

[@lapotato9140]

@@Chronoflation "I got so annoyed when I was looking up solutions for surviving an enemy's aoe party wipe attacks and all the answers were 'use a chain attack before it reaches half health and KO it so it'll never use that move'" ??? this is extremely untrue. you get a free sequence of full invulnerability on your whole party when either using a blade combo finisher, or a level 4 blade special in general. if you're smart, you can wait out the blade combo timer or save your character's level 4 for when the boss is about to do something deadly and fully evade it, but you can't just do it whenever you want. chain attacks accomplish the same thing but have an even greater opportunity cost given how useful they are, and if all else fails there are still evasion arts that make you fully intangible, so it's possible to take aggro with your character and kite the incoming attack away from your allies so that it only hits you and you evade it. but then on the other hand, some powerful enemies have attacks they can use that specifically hit behind them, so you still have to actively keep track of that. if you ask me, all of that agency you get basically matches the vision mechanic from 1 blow for blow, except it's more on you to keep track of it all and you get a bit less freebies. i think you might just be not engaging with 2's gameplay if you think that's all there is to it.

[@lapotato9140]

also are we really gonna go with "you dont get to spam in xb1 and thats why people dont like it"? really? topple locking? did i miss something and that just doesnt exist now? if you get to criticize 2 for art spamming...

[@Chronoflation]

@@lapotato9140 Dude, I accidentally fat finger skipped the tutorial pop-up that taught how to do blade combos and driver combos and the game offered no way to review tutorial messages when I played it (idk if they ever fixed that), so I was basically on my own other than online tutorials. Nobody ever mentioned level 4 blade special invulnerability or anything like that, so no, I had no idea. All I remember is 5 hours against one unique monster trying to build up a blade combo after I figured out what they were and my allies never being ready and then getting knocked off the nearest cliff from a blowback attack, and another unique monster that I fought for 2 hours cause it also had blowback effects while on a not narrow ledge, but it was a big Telethia that flew and sometimes I was closer to the edge than I realized, or it would get to half HP and then instantly party wipe me. When I looked up how to beat it, the 2 or 3 videos I watched said to do 4 or 5 blade combos and then do a chain attack to take it out before it reached half health. So I tried that and it survived on like 1% health. I appreciate learning about the invulnerability. Really makes the game seem more playable to me now. But I hate the bag system, I hate the menus, I really hate Rex, and I honestly got so burnt on the game that I'm never gonna go back at this point. Still, glad to know it's more competent with defensive mechanics than I had realized. Happy for all who enjoyed the game. I still personally prefer the first game in the series in almost every regard. I really like that mechanic of knowing what an enemy's about to do and having like 5 or 10 seconds to strategize a counter to save your team is super satisfying to me. But, to each their own

[@Terranigma23]

What I really like a lot more about Xenoblade 1 combat system it's how the position of each character is really important to execute battle art at full damage (backslash is a good exemple of this).

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I always have fun with the positional attacks as well!

[@CritsVG]

Here's some more that I think makes XC1's combat unique over the other titles: 1) Character uniqueness: Each character having their own distinct skillset makes them stand out way more to me from a gameplay perspective than any XC2/3 party member where a lot of arts and possible roles overlap. Of course that's not always great (Sharla being the prime example that people tend to just leave out of the party in late game), but I think it's still amazing that everyone will probably have their own favourites in this game purely because of how they play. 2) Party interaction: Being able to help a toppled/dazed/sleeping/discouraged party member in the middle of combat is something I truly miss in XC2/3. It made me feel way more like I was battling an enemy with more than just one character and that they help each other out in battle.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I agree! Having the interactions of encouraging others and tension was something that was pretty neat for building affinity and kept you moving around in combat

[@StubbsDK]

So far, I’ve only put in 14 hours in XC2, so I still have a lot to learn. But, so far, I really find it a step down from XC1! It bugs me so much that your combo’s get cancelled if you as much as sneeze on your controller! And to your point about waiting for arts to get ready again, I find the new system with the build-up a bit worse, and that they start at zero every time, so you can’t get the same “headstart” as you could in the first. Plus, if there’s an enemy right next to the one you’re fighting, but they’re not engaged, all your meters get reset. To that point, the lock on…why do I have to hold down one button for it to allow me to use a different one to change my target?? Add to that, I’ve had multiple issues with it targeting enemies not in the vicinity of the battle, so I have to shuffle through a lot of different enemies, engaged in battle or not, before finally getting the right target! I’ve also had my target shift when I’ve used the lure, to drag an enemy towards me, without the entire group! Mark an enemy, throw rock, enemy sees me, charges, gets ready to fight, but for some reason, his buddy, that’s still looking at a pretty little flower, is now my target?! Sure, XC1 had it’s issues, like the need to wait for the Monado to be ready to make all weapons do the ouchies on mechons was pretty annoying, but then you get new weapons later that actually removes that step…

[@LostBlade776]

Good video it's nice to see someone who also loves Xenoblade 1's combat since although 3's combat is my favorite I do like 1's combat more than 2's and I don't see anyone share the love for Xenoblade 1's combat so I am happy to see this video about how you lovw Xenoblade 1's combat (And also side note Xenoblade 1 is also my favorite game of all time)

[@HectorGonzalez-qx9nk]

I love 1’s combat so much, I’ll just fight the Level 98 Deinos Sauroses over and over again with different characters simply because it’s fun for me. I felt like 2’s was too mashy and brain dead with the right Blades. And while 3 mixed time based Arts and auto attack Arts well, it felt tedious trying to reduce their cooldowns by getting to rank 20 with a Class. Also, why did 3 handle aggro so badly? My tanks can barely keep it.

[@Monado.]

Its peak and people are just too afraid to admit it 😞 I do find it funny how HIGHLY praised the combat was in the first game for nearly 7 years, but that all collapsed when 2 came out and the franchise started getting more eyes. Even X takes a lot of points from the combat in 1

[@ActualAero]

Yeah at the time when it came out I'm sure it was praised for being a new type of combat system since most JRPGs are usually just turn based but nowadays especially after the new generation of Xenoblade fans from 2 and 3 the common opinion is sadly "XC2 and 3 combat amazing XC1's is outdated and not good" 😔

[@Backslashed]

XC1 is still my favorite one out of them all, gameplay and everything else as well, 2 & 3 are great in their own right but the first one stands out for me. And no other game has topple locking so there is that.

[@ActualAero]

Topple locking while not planned is really satisfying to do for sure

[@2yoyoyo1Unplugged]

@@ActualAero 2 and three have equivalents. You can't indefinitely topple lock in 2, but you can full driver combo over and over for massive damage. Plus how can you not love launching?

[@cqllel5186]

XC2 was my first Xenoblade game. The learning curve was MASSIVE. At the time, I had absolutely 0 interest in tryna figure it out or read the countless tutorial boxes and whatever Torna was so much easier to learn and play. I had way more fun with that one. I felt like I was actually playing the game right After I played XCDE, I felt like I understood the combat system of XC2 a LOT better. XCDE combat was very easy to grasp and didn't take much to learn the gist of the Xenoblade games XC3 was easily my favorite. Best game I played in my life. Best combat system of them all Downside to Xenoblade: When I return to the game after a while, I completely forget how to play the game.. So I try to complete the game ASAP

[@TheOmniBlade]

I think that Xenoblade 1 did Xenoblade 1 combat better than Xenoblade 3 did and that is why people are looking back at 1 unfairly. 2 and 3 conditioned us to be able to just spam arts but just does not apply at all in 1 like you said. Positioning and patience is so much more important and 1's design and you can only spam arts to quick kill an enemy if you know what you're doing with the right party. In 3, the cooldown arts are just misery to use and you can't just spam Double Spinning Edge to win. The lower ceiling is fine to work with since it makes topple and daze actually matter, and then when everything starts resisting it in late game, you use Chain Attacks to force it. This game is still my favorite and hard agree on everything said, even visions as it's great when the music stops as you feel so empowered like you're taking over the fight.

[@ActualAero]

I can see it. The Kevesi arts in Xenoblade 3 do have longer cooldown timers than XC1 and because of how XC1 you have 8 arts but those long cooldowns are only for 3 arts at the start of XC3 a lot of people think since that aspect is based off XC1 that it means the original system was just as garbage. But having a wide range of arts as well as the visions I've always had a really good time with it personally

[@ShallBePurified]

What I found from playing Xenoblade DE and Xenoblade 2 back to back is that Xenoblade 1 is fun to mess around with party composition. It's fun mixing and matching party members and changing their arts and combine different ones together to see if they work. With Xenoblade 2, I don't change around too much because I am building a team that is structured around the combo mechanics. However, I also found Xenoblade 2 and 3's combat to feel more satisfying against boss enemies because of the cancel mechanic and stacking moves on top of each other, like landing a fusion combo in 2 or setting up a strong fusion art in 3. So TLDR, Xenoblade 2 and 3 have a more rigid combat structure than 1 due to having mechanics more closely linked to combo into each other, and Xenoblade 1 is more free form and easier to experiment with. I like all the combat in every game, but I also don't like using the d-pad to scroll through my arts compared to it being mapped to a button.

[@fernando98322]

I hella love this game's combat, even more than 2's (3 was still the best one). I don't get the complaints of "waiting for arts to recharge". That's the entire point. You're always occupied by something: position, buffs and debuffs timers, party's tension, chain attack gauge, auto attacking to fill the Talent Art, meanwhile you're strategizing which next art you wanna use so you select that one and use it as soon as it's available again or save it for later. Plus it's literally a progression system so you upgrade your arts to have less waiting time, and you have so many options for every character that's not named Shulk. It's different, but it's still fantastic and much easier to understand than 2's imo. And I'm not a MMO player at all (I don't even know the correlation with that, but I've seen comparisons). In my playthroughs, I can literally use any party and have fun, I'm always cycling out party members.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I think there's still a good amount of factors to pay attention to but it may still be too simple for some people I guess haha. I've never really had the issue of just having no arts and waiting though, there's always at least 1 or 2 arts I can use if I'm moving around for positionals and using break and topple when you're supposed to

[@patrykzukowski7471]

... Waiting for Arts to recharge? And what the hell am I doing in 2 if not waiting for them to recharge, at the beginning of every damn fight! Sorry, I just started 2 after finishing the brilliant XC1 and I am baffled by this seemingly butchered combat system. Arts need to fill up first so almost every fight is an auto-attack galore... I hope it gets better, because this is such a step-down for now.

[@El_Surge]

Hello I am one of apparent 4 people who like xc1 combat (maybe the most in the series). 6 or 7 replays deep including an insane challenge run and all. Anyone who says the combat is "very boring" definitely does not try to do chain attacks properly, and only use either topple party (shulk/reyn/dunban) or use sharla for pure healing. Many details the game outright tells you i am sure they do not know of either (look in the tutorials in that case to discover what youve missed people) I guarantee they switched to casual mode for the lorithia fight (not the best fight but you can obliterate it with a couple party comps) and could not beat anything postgame if they tried because they are simply oblivious to what they do not know.

[@justanothergamer9570]

I'm thrilled someone finally said it. I love the combat from 1, and I never really understood why so many people feel like they're always waiting for gauges to fill up. I almost always had something I could do at any given time in a battle. Visions were the only mechanic outside of chain attacks prior to XC3 that sort of allowed you to switch to other characters mid-battle. You could benefit from remembering exactly how you built your party. An attack's coming, and I don't have a tool that can save me? Does either of my party members have a tool that could help out? Xenoblade 1 also had not only a large number of arts, but a large variety of them. Each character had a completely different list of arts, thereby giving them a sense of identity. But they also had a large enough variety to allow for a lot of flexibility in playstyles and character builds. Xenoblade 3 often felt like the different characters barely had their own identity in combat since their arts were determined entirely by their classes, and their class-independent stats barely differed from one another. And Xenoblade 2 had very low art variety. Every art was either a reaction art, an attack art with a bonus damage effect, an attack art with an aggro modifier, an attack art with regen or art recharge, a potion art, a heal art, or a shield art. Absolutely not a single buff or debuff art in the entire game, and also no combo arts outside the reaction system. Finally, I dislike how chain attacks in 2 and 3 basically let you skip over half the battle. I often just don't use chain attacks in 3 so I can enjoy the other combat mechanics more.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I definitely enjoy it not being chain attack focused and the visions were always something that I thought was so cool

[@damndanielcruz6754]

I love Xenoblade 1 and it's combat

[@ActualAero]

You are one of my friends I count in the only 4 people who I know actually like this combat system lmao 😭

[@ash8244]

And here I am thinking that 2 and 3s combat is wayy too much and makes enemies have massive hp bars for longer battles. 1s combat is the best

[@DLCMan1218]

3:10 Pretty much the same until you find out how to abuse overdrive

[@Kuhazan]

I am one of the four. I prefer Xenoblade 1s combat over the others because in 2 & 3 it feels like wasted design potential unless you intentionally do not use chain attacks otherwise you only end up fighting half of a boss before locking them into a chain attack where only you can win which one could argue could be done in 1 but much later in the game not during the entirety. 2 in my opinion has too many instances of cinematic s where you can just cheese the system by playing it not how the designer intended (I am going to assume since these problems do not exist in 3). Something else people forget about combat in 2 you move like molasses in combat by default and if you kill multiple targets your loot pops out of enemies like Sonic loses rings... they also flash like said rings and disappear into the ether while 3 addresses this with the dash I will say as far as enemy loot 1 and X did it better and that is not even debatable I also feel the inclusion of DLC difficulty modes brings another thing to the debate : those who played the game without the combat additions from DLC (Custom difficulty / Bringer of Chaos) and those that played it with which becomes a $60 vs $90 game problem and if designing around multiple difficulties is even good because you have to question if it is difficult or if it is just time gate grinding. So I have to say I never understood the complaint about Xenoblade 1s combat other than people being drawn in by the cinematic flash and being able to push the face buttons instead of cycling through the arts panel.

[@rgon3t]

11:25 You're not taking full advantage of chain attacks if that's how you're using them, and that's why you're not using them much. They're very powerful and fun if used right. This isn't really explained in game, but when you chain attack in XC1, if you select the same color arts or a talent, you increase the damage multiplier for the subsequent attack, which can lead to doing massive damage on the final attack, like a +300% to +700% damage Sword Drive. Also all your arts are available during a chain attack, letting you use those big damage, high cooldown arts more than you would be able to normally. If you configure your characters and their affinities properly, execute those chance attacks in the right conditions rather than art spam, and hit those burst affinities, you'll be able to do multiple chain attacks in one fight, which will take huge chunks of health off bosses, uniques, and enemy groups.

[@RogerG085]

I prefer x's combat followed by 1 not a fan of the classes/blades and the long chain attacks in 2 and 3

[@Gaht64]

personally I think the end part was all you really needed; you like it because its simple. And that's fine, but I think its also fair for others to not like it because of that and prefer the other games'. Granted, I do think people are too harsh on this game's combat but as someone who also has problems with it I can definitely see why they feel that way

[@autocorrect5456]

"i like it because it's simple" doesn't explain anything. that's why throughout the video he made multiple comparisons to the other games. and while it's simple it's a hell of a lot quicker and more engaging than 2. i dropped 2 because it's such a god damn slog to play through, not to mention the terrible story/characters. 2 burned me so bad that i haven't even played 3 but i expect much of the same.

[@Gaht64]

@@autocorrect5456 I agree. That was the entire point of my comment because that's basically the only reason given throughout the video. That being said, it's a fair enough reason to prefer one thing to another and doesn't need much explanation I'd implore you to give 2 another shot after learning more about it's combat as that's probably why you think it's such a slog; the game is awful at explaining itself and provides no way of reviewing information

[@ZeroillusionX]

I honestly don't understand why people can hate the first xenoblade combat system, specially on a first playthrough, the first time, playing correctly with your arts is key to winning battles, and specialy the strong special monster around the world, the correct use of a topple or daze to disrupt damage, or even better, to stall out the enemy enough so that you can build your monado shield and avoid all damage is key to some of the most difficult encounters in the game, although to be fair, once you reach endgame you can basically break the system in extremely toxic ways, the infamous topple lock, or even some extremely powerful chain attacks strings that do massive amounts of damage without the use of topple lock, I think xenoblade 1 has some of the most robust systems out there in terms of combat because it takes a lot of tactic when you take into account all of the things that you need to tweek outside of combat to really go into a killing spree. One thing I highly disagree with you is that xenoblade 1 isn't build around chain attacks like xenoblade 2 and 3, which is completely wrong, all games are build around it, with 2 being the one with the heaviest focus on it, since all the real damage comes from that, xenoblade 3 has the least amount of focus on chain attacks, the reason being because you can absolutely end all fights without a single chain attack, this includes super battles and bosses, xenoblade 1, it's basically impossible to beat special bosses and the super bosses without the use of chain attacks, the reason being because you can only control 1 unit at a time, and to be fair, the problem with xenoblade 1 combat is that the game is build around team work a bit too much, but you can't really play teamwork if you can't control your other party members to do the right attack at the appropiate moment, which again is why you absolutely need to use chain attacks, and is not an option, it's basically mandatory, while that isn't true for the main story it is for absolutely everything else, if I have to say, xenoblade 1 has a better combat system than 2 in the early stages of the game, while at the endgame because everything is chain attacks 2 ends up being better then we have xenoblade 3, which is honestly the worst at the early game but becomes the best in the series once you get to a certain point in the story where you can finally chain arts one after another which open ups insane combo play for some amazing freestyle, adding up the amount of combinations you can make with your party with different classes makes it by far the best combat system of the 3 games in the series.

[@minuterice19540]

The thing I think that people overlook about Xenoblade 1 combat is that it was very specifically designed to carry the game through its main story, as 1 doesn't really have much post-game in it. So, yeah, once you have all the stuff, there's not much going on, but the fun factor is the progression in combat ability as you also progress through the story. For what it's intended to do, I think it does its job well.

[@JoostBaars03]

Although chain attacks in XC1 are not as cinematic as in the other games, they can quite often do massive damage, like killing bosses at half HP or more just like in the other games. So they are still a very important part of the combat i'd say.

[@CuteAndFunnyFan]

I liked 1 and X gameplay, but not 2.

[@ActualAero]

Interesting, what about Xenoblade 3?

[@reeseseater12]

I was today years old when I learned people didn't like the vision mechanic from XC1. I just figured people's main gripe about the combat was the auto attacks and navigating the UI during battle

[@ActualAero]

I've barely seen anyone like visions which is unfortunate cause I think they're really cool!

[@reeseseater12]

@@ActualAero rarely does story get implemented in gameplay as well as that, I don't get the hate

[@thedelly535]

@@ActualAero As do I. If visions were a bit faster and didn't start up that stupid broken future song, I bet a lot less people would give it so much flack.

[@uroy8371]

Xeno 1 has an amazing combat system. Sure if you use only Shulk could get I little repetitive, but He isn't even the strongest character in the game. Personally, Melia has such an unique move set and an incredible way to deal huge amounts of damage with summon earth and ice. Or Fiora being able to topple any enemy with her art, and being a machin gun of auto attacks and having her talent art being customizable. Durban and Ryan are tanks, but one is a chunky one and the other is an agility base. Personally chain attacks are op and broken in this xeno, you can topple lock most enemies in the game, and you need to use some sort of gems to avoid certain enemy effects like topple spike. Also, the chain attacks can be upgraded by getting the heart to hearts and increasing the bond between character. There are many ways to customize your character even when they only have one moveset (with a ton of arts). And yep being able of move at decent speed while auto attacking is more dynamic and fun. Also, being able to help daze or topple partners is super useful, and you get rewarded with affinity increases. And I love how after a battle you get a chest that will wait for you until you decide to open it ❤ lovely.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I feel like most people just use Shulk when I actually have a ton of fun using Melia or Fiora haha

[@MaxM210]

This topic has always frustrated me a little bit for two main reasons. One, It's always frustrated me how Xenoblade's combat is treated as the least important aspect of the series. While it's true that the story, characters and world are the primary driving force of the series popularity, Xenoblade has my favourite combat system of any game series period. Xenoblade to me has always been the perfect marriage between the more strategic attack planning of turn based and tactical rpgs, with the adrenaline pumping motion of typical real time action rpgs. Its a series that encourages mastery and practice, without relying on cheap unpredictable difficulty curves. Xeno games allow for casual mastery as well as more advanced mastery. Its a series where you can naturally gain the skills to take on its toughest challenges. I'm not expert on the combat systems but I remember how rewarding it was to take on a level 105 super boss with a level 80 party in xc3, because I'd naturally gotten skilled enough at combat, without the game pressuring me to do so. It's a little disappointing that only a few people like Enel really bother to sing the praises of the series combat, and to see so much of the mainstream gaming landscape write it off completely. I roll my eye anytime a souls game player call Xenoblade too complicated. But secondly because it really demonstrates the all or nothing attitude a lot of the fandom takes towards discussion of this series. So many people take this, "if you like one you have to hate the other" mentality. You can't prefer 2 or 3's combat without hating 1's apparently. I do prefer 2 and 3's combat, but I'd scoff at anyone who tried to say I hate 1's. i think it is a little outdated, and all of my critiques of it were addressed in the sequels, but for me 1's combat has always been pretty cozy. I see Xc1 as my comfort game. It's my least favourite of the series, and in all honesty I have an enormous amount of criticisms of it, but It's still a game I've played all the way through six times. I like playing xc1, It's easy to just jump into. Xc2 and 3 take a lot of energy for me on repeat playthroughs, because their bigger and more complicated. i can kinda just relax with xc1. I recently bought a 3ds, and have been playing xc3D, and it's just so relaxing to play. I can just pop out the 3ds when ever theres a dull moment and put a few hours into xc1. In fact I think OG Xc1 is easier to play then the definitive edition, because it feels smaller. It feels like playing a retro game. I love me a hundred hour rpg, but I like the compact feel OG xc1 has. I mainly just wish people could have their preferences without feeling the need to dunk on which ever game they enjoy less, and that goes both ways. I've always felt like so much of my negative feelings towards Xc1 weren't motivated by a genuine dislike, but instead by how it always feels like in order to defend 2 and 3 I need to bash 1. It also feels like I can't compliment Xc1 without it being interpreted as an indictment of 2 and 3.

[@UnoTheFirstOne]

I honestly love Xenoblade 1’s combat, and personally, I like it more than 3s. 2 is still my favorite though. Some more things I’d like to add here that I like in 1 over the others is: The fact that you can extend topple/break/daze by using another art with the same effect. Because there’s no shared classes/blades, each character feels unique from one another. Interacting with party members in the combat when they are toppled or dazed and when their tension drops makes it feel more interactive, as well as random QuickTime events when a character does, anything really. And finally, chain attacks extensions being rng based (I think, plus high tension helps too I think), makes it more hype when it extends farther.

[@ActualAero]

Extending break and topple is really fun! I agree!

[@Michail_Chatziasemidis]

Nice video for the new year! I never had a problem with XC's battle system, but I never understood how I could extend my chain attacks to last more than one round...

[@ActualAero]

Yeah unfortunately in XC1's it's dependent on how well your affinity is with your party members so the more affection they all have the better the chances of extending chain attacks. It's one of my dislikes with it too as I enjoy how XC2 and XC3 have a confirmed way to extend a chain attack round by shattering an orb or having enough characters remaining for 100 TP

[@Chronoflation]

I think Shulk has a skill tree skill that increases the chance of chain attacks continuing and you can skill tree link it to every other character when you have affinity with Shulk matching the shape of that skill. That should guarantee at least a few extensions by that point

[@lpfan4491]

Objectively, I feel all Xenoblade gameplay I have played thus far(1/DE/FC, 2, FR, Torna) is mediocre. However, it ironically became the thing I actually play the games for after I started taking the attempt to 100% the games seriously. Even tho it can get pretty frustrating when stuff decides to just not work, it just gets a lot of fun to go down the checklist for success for me when it does, which is probably also why I like missionbased games where many people run in fear when they hear the first thing about those, lmao. 3:15 I still hope that people will get a replacement server running because I haven't played X yet and won't by April, so that would kinda suck. There are things straight up locked behind online that according to those who played already can be really beneficial or downright required for one's completionism. 5:05 No way. 😂I 100%ed FR and I straight up didn't know this was a thing. I thought the dash was a partner AI-exclusive thing. Well, that certainly explains some things. 8:55 I personally enjoy it. Well, most of the time, they contribute to the list of stuff that make time attack challenges absolutely dreadful to S-rank on restricted because they just eat so much time. If anything, my only issue is that they have a chance to not trigger on certain attacks that absolutely partywipe you when they connect, which leads to the Future Connected-effect in my playtime. The future connected-effect being that if I am going to fight a unique monster that I know I cannot rely on visions for that has a devastating talent art(I know because I just got partywiped my the same monster, lol), my top priority becomes to just spam shield like a fool the entire time. The game tries to help you by talent arts having a much longer reaction time than anything else, but it is still hard to react to them due to strict timing, largely because the game is designed around you responding to visions, not funny enemy animations. 10:24 "it makes sense". Tell that to Mythra in 2 who just gives you evasion and hitchance(Still a great buff, but it doesn't hit the same way in representing what happens in the story). Meanwhile Shulk as DLC for some reason gets the soft vision-mechanic where it isn't really a vision but you get the cool visuals and it negates an entire enemy attack, so it gets the same job done. 13:32 Technically yes. You straight up do less damage if you don't chain attack the orbs away. However, I have ironically gotten myself wipes by doing chain attacks incredibly often simply because it can be incredibly risky in 2 to throw away what is basically 3 revives for a Chain that won't result in too much until you get more optimized(And full bursts do not really happen without common blade orb-stacking). Of course, this could just be me having major skillissue. And well, yeah, we obviously all know how the 3-Chain works. Doesn't even have a real resource attached to it, so the literal only thing stopping you from going nuts is the order of characters you get being random. Which ironically can make or break certain fights because like, I absolutely need to get the hardest superboss in FR dead in the first chain or the fight is basically over because it is just too strong on hardmode.

[@FoldedBionis]

I also loved the combat from Xenoblade 1. I was extremely surprised hearing that people disliked visions? It negates one of my heavily disliked aspects from, not just xenoblade games, but from other rpgs too. those dumb powerful attacks that are unreactable to defend against and kill half of your party. Sometimes not even coming from a boss, but a somewhat pointless enemy.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah I find them so cool! Especially with how it makes sense with the story too. But yeah people hate them for interrupting the flow of battle apparently cause its pauses combat for the cutscene to show up which is one of the complaints I always hear. I didn't really find it annoying though as it takes like 4 seconds but yeah not many people like it sadly

[@Cadaberific]

I love all 3 Xeno games but I find XC2 and XC3's have so so so much going on screen in battle and so much menus to manage between battles. XC1 is a little simplistic but at least I know I understand everything that's going on. Torna the Golden Country was the sweet spot for me of complexity and strategy without battles taking ages in my opinion. Edit: Visions are one of my favourite parts of any combat system ever though. The peak ludonarrative harmony!

[@Eternalwarpuppy]

The biggest issue I had with Xenoblade 1's combat system was almost all of my attacks getting resisted if I am 4 levels below a boss. Since my auto attacks got resisted, I couldn't build up any charge for arts to fight back or even heal myself. So if I was within 3 levels of a boss the battle was trivial, if I was 4 levels below the boss, it was nearly impossible. Maybe there was some way to compensate for my accuracy issues with the crafting system, but the crafting system seemed very confusing to me. I also didn't like the balance of character roles. Almost everyone was an attacker, hardly any tanks or healers join your party.

[@sting7789]

Xenoblade 1 definitive edition is the only Xenoblade i care for cause Shulk is a beast and i love the combat system. Being Shulk with the awesome Monado is my favorite but it is also fun to switch to other characters

[@mystical3501]

Personally, X is my favorite combat system 😭

[@Chronoflation]

Thank you! I always loved Xenoblade 1's combat, at least ever since I got Eryth Sea or thereabouts in my first playthrough, when I first really started having different arts and party combos available. It took forever for me to get there, admittedly. I didn't like the game at first but kept pushing cause I heard how good it gets and noticed it getting better as I unlocked more arts and characters, plus I was story hooked by chapter 1's ending. I loved the vision mechanic from it's introduction and loved that it added a bit of timing and strategy into the combat system and that I didn't need to rely on chain attacks, but they were a powerful tool, useful for enemies typically out of my league and the such. I hated the combat in 2 for making chain attacks all but required and having enemies that would one shot your entire party if you didn't chain attack them to KO from above half health. To me, that just felt like "what's the point of the second half of the health bar if it's either KO or be KOed at that point. So many monsters that could barely touch me that had party wipe attacks at half it lower health, it really soured the final few chapters of my first playthrough and I haven't been able to complete a second since, no matter how hard I try. I hate when games with so many battle options force a single solution on so many encounters. That or you have to deal with the terrible pouch system. And with so few arts available at any given time and how late in the game you get access to your third blade slot, I was just so frustrated for almost the entire game, outside of the short period in Tantal where I finally learned how the blade and driver combo system worked since I accidentally had mashed through the tutorial and the game had no way to review past tutorials. 3 has been a breath of fresh air since 2 for me and definitely the best of both worlds, for the most part. I like the more strategic use of chain attacks getting to pick moves again, but no combos, the power just builds automatically every attack, so a little less tactical than 1 in that way, but also having super moves each round that don't require quick time events that block and distract from the action is great, and the lack of visions is notable to me, but I'm happy with the Oroboros forms. I still think I like 1's the best at its peak with 3 being a close second for me. Though, that's not including X which is my top game, for when you know what you're doing, since you're always in control

[@pedrobeckup456]

This video released and i had never played Xc2 in my life, now i beated it. One of the best games of my life for sure

[@Darkspire94]

I always found Xenoblade 1's combat to be my favorite. It mau be simple but it was engaging and i never felt slugged down. Ive always wished they built on it in future games

[@ActualAero]

Yeah it's definitely simple but I've always enjoyed it and I like simple combat systems so I can have a good time with it

[@dachking6657]

People harp on and on about the timed art recharges being too slow, the late game plethora of visions, or the irrefutable randomness in the chain attack system, but those don’t really cause me any actual frustration. XC1’s combat is really good, and it’s not in the inherent systems that I (admittedly) still find it to be inferior to the other 3 systems; rather, it’s that the additions layered on over time made future entries simply more polished and fun. The two things that I miss the most while playing 1 are art cancels and stutter stepping/auto-attack control. Because of the timed recharges, XC1 is probably the game in which auto-attacks are the largest factor in Aggro management…despite this, it’s the game that gives you the least control over your auto-attacks by making them more of a passive thing that just sorta happens while you focus on your arts and strategy. As for cancels…they’re just really fun, and my muscle memory built up from 2, Torna, 3, and FR resulted in me constantly finding myself trying to cancel arts in my recent replay of DE and the anticipated dopamine rush never arriving. It’s still a really fun system, though, especially once I kind of accepted that it was doing its own thing and went looking for a solution. This solution turned out to be Melia. When the game forces you to take it slower and think every action through, the wizard character is basically guaranteed to be the best one…and yeah, she’s probably my favorite to play as now. The range of classes and characters to play as may not be as wide in 1 as it is in any other game, but they made sure that the ones that did have were really good.

[@ZeldagigafanMatthew]

Biggest problem I have with the combat in 1 is that an art can be as many as 5, or 7 in the case of a Monado Art, button presses away from execution (counting the A press). In 2, an art (not counting specials here) is never more than 2 button presses away, rare occasions in Torna, 3 presses. In 3, it's mostly the same as it is with 2, but being able to change the character you're controlling mid-battle does complicate matters.

[@MikeThePsykat]

Something that most people don't talk about in this game is how the Arts recharge WHILE in use, meaning that, when you're using say, Backslash, then Backslash will being recharging WHILE it's own animation is playing out. This is NOT the case with Xenoblade X, or even 3's Kevesi arts. Heck, because of this, even Sharla can be fun to play once she's gotten Drive Boost letting her spam Thunder Bullet and Head Shot (just keep an eye on your Talent gauge). I also feel that XB1 was the game that got tanks right, Ryen could practically spam mad taunt while Dunban could just strait up absorb someone else's agro, adding it to his own while reducing the agro of said party member. Overall, 1's combat is slower, more tactical feeling, while 2's is faster paced and more action packed, even if battles tend to take longer (desert items really do speed up 2's combat though). 3's combat tries to be a mix of both, slower then 2, faster then 1. In defense of 2, I only really use chain attacks on larger enemies, bosses, and UMs, cause other then that, most everything else just dies after like, 1 full blade combo. I think 2 also has the flashiest combat, with 3 in a close second place. Still, even though 1's combat is slower, that's not a bad thing, a truly boring battle system to me is FF12, where you can win most fights, even bosses, just by using the attack command and healing every so often (though, every once in a blue moon that game can throw something more "fun" my way).

[@keldeo05]

The main thing I really enjoy in XC1 combat in comparison to the others is that it feels like there's an actual enemy in front of you, not just an hp bar, you end up directly interacting with the enemy in ways you really don't in the other 2, in theory they have you do more things like cancelling arts and auto attacks but in the end your strategy is going to be the same, in XC1 combat is way more tense, there are very few times when you go from full health to dead in the sequels in comparison to xenoblade 1, your and the enemies damage is way higher, so every encounter needs to be dealt with caution as the smallest mistake can mean you just lose, but at the same time your win is just a step away, where in the others it feels like you can tell you're going to lose a fight 30 seconds before it happens simply because your opponents are outdamaging you. Healing also became way more mindless, seeing as you're always incentivised to use it asap because the game wants you to use as many arts as possible, and because of the smaller damage numbers you will be taking and the faster cooldowns, by he time you have enough damage on you again the healing is already up and it's party wide so there's even less decision making involved.

[@mrmiesfies3941]

I love the XC1 combat as well, but still there are some things that can be improved. What I love: o) The characters are much more differentiated that in 2 and 3. Sure that sacrifices some of the freedom, but it also brings much more unique fighting styles. 2 and 3 can be pretty overwhelming with the sheer amount of customisation. With dozens of arts, multiple classes and loads of gear and gems it can be quite confusing and hard to understand how to build the perfect setup. Having dedicated characters for certain classes can make things much more understandable, when you don't want to use guides. o) I like the simplicity of the chain attacks. The orb thing in 2 and especially the chain order in 3 can get a bit long, though I like the concept of 3, cuz it is a little bit like the gem crafting in 1. o ) Having those unique characters, the art selection is easier, but you still have two more arts available one time. In 3 you can change characters, so you theoretical have 42 arts available, but that is also very hectic and you'll have to know every character to reach maximum potential (in 1st playthrough). In 1 you have a decent amount of options, without being overwhelmed. What can be improved (respectively what already was improved in 2 and 3): o) Art cancelling. This gives you a little bit more to do without complicating things. I like that you have Keves and Agnus arts in 3, but I think the best thing would be to fuse them even more. Combine cooldown and auto hits completely, so staying back is more not that passive and engaging the enemy and cancelling is still rewarded with less waiting. o) Earlier I said switching characters can be overwhelming, especially for beginners, but it helps more than not and you don't have to use it all the time. Having the option is much better than having to rely on the AI all the time. o) That the chain attacks are not only bound to affinity, but also luck sucks. Of course you need some sort of progression to unlock longer and longer chain attacks, but putting RNG into things makes it much worse than it has to be. Just have one scaling method and that's it. o) Sharla. She is such a cool character, but after your first playthrough you'll never use her again, because now you understand how much she sucks in combat. PLS buff. If there ever will be a real remake of 1 (newly built from the ground up) or even for a potential XC4 or Xenoguns, Xenofists, etc. I would like Monolith to return to a more focused and limited battle system, but bring more uniqueness to each character.

[@astrea555]

It's literally all a skill issue, they're all fun, you just need to understand the mechanics.

[@nakano8412]

This is interesting, first time playing through Xeno 1, currently lv 70, have played 2 & 3 before. I'm not fan of the combat, but I actually do quite like the vision aspect, just feels natural since Shulk already gets visions. My bread & butter for 1 is topple locking everything.

[@ActualAero]

Topple locking is one of the fun things to break the combat if you wanna be busted haha

[@gabrielcalderon6715]

Just watchout for topple spikes enemies those are a bit annoying

[@NECROcade]

i LOVE xenoblade 1 combat, i do wish with my entire soul that the auto attacks would be as smooth in the other games as they are in 1, as for art cooldown its just the balance mechanic, think of how overstimulating late game xenoblade 2 art recharge is, i just adore xenoblade 1 so much the combat was never bad, i think the only thing i wish for would be characcter swapping and having the entire party available at all time like in 3, but that requires SOOOOO much rebalancing for the entire game, seeing as melia buffs, 2 healers, and shulk would be alot of effects, the bosses would be super unkillable

[@ActualAero]

Yeah character switching mid battle would've been cool and all party members would be difficult to do as they'd prob have to remake the whole game to be built around it but it is a really neat idea to think about

[@grenaja]

I do appreciate that XC1's Chain Attacks are a lot more flexible. While I do prefer 2 and 3's Chain Attack's, they are basically just for damage. Yeah you can use healing arts, but deleting enemies is still the main focus. In 1 on the other hand, you can chain together the same coloured arts to deal damage, or just focus on heal, OR try to get a daze combo off, and I do appreciate that! Though I do hate how reactivations are RNG based, it's so frustrating. Also 3's chain attacks can drag so not all of them are perfect. In general, I think 2 and 3's combat are better (and those games are better in general), but comparing Xenoblade games is like comparing hamburgers, pasta and pizza. I think pizza is best, but all of them are delicious and I see why people would prefer burgers.

[@Jetbladewarrior]

The only problem about using chain attacks in 3 it gives you way to much experience that you can be overleveled if you overkill an enemy so I turned off overkill in the Chain Attacks and I'm slighty underleveled and when I was using Chain attacks in boss fights I was way to overleveled. 3 for me is my favorite it's way easier to understand but I just wished enemies didn't resist breaks so much but when they hit me, almost everytime we get broken and I'm playing on easy so it should be the opposite. Only 2 things I wish they would fix in 3 but it's never going to happen reduce enemies break resistance based off difficulty easy being they resist break very rarely and we hardly get broken and we overkill an enemy with a Chain attack put the experience for overkill in the extra experience we can use at campsites. 2 is still harder for me but I understand how to do the orbs it's just so easy to mess up and accidentally use the same Blade Combo. And then there's 1 the worst to me in my experience and I didn't really enjoy the story either sadly. The story was good and I was excited at first till we got Fiora back on the team then it went from Shulk and Crew to Shulk x Fiora and 3rd wheels. That's when I stopped playing. I deal with the incomplete story that we got for 3 if they fix those 2 things.

[@ActualAero]

My least fav part about it in XC3 is if you get to much EXP your classes become out of range from the enemies to become leveled so they don't grow which sucks

[@Jetbladewarrior]

@@ActualAero Yeah that definitely sux I just wished they allowed us to level up or down in the campsite at the very beginning it even says in the tutorial says you can level up and down but you can't level down till post game.

[@emsharingan8639]

Something that goes overlooked in xenoblade 1 is that the vision system actually takes a moment to put the focus on the enemy that you are fighting. Honestly think about your playthroughs and combat experiences in 2 and especially 3. When are you ever actually looking at what the enemy is doing? There are so many arts and hud elements that you are constantly monitoring in the later 2 games it sometimes doesn't even feel like you are fighting something. In two if you were playing a tank you can watch the enemy to dodge something with an evasion art or a level 3 cutscene or a level 4 special for i frames, but in 3 there is so much chaos on the screen with 7 party members and a trillion damage numbers and switching characters changing pov that the enemy is hidden behind hud elements. Not to mention chain attacks take a million years and remove all agency from the enemy, but that is a different rant.

[@peanutt82004]

The combat can get super complicated in XB1 and you'll see that the first time you come across Xord. I like the fact that the other characters control themselves and the only way I was able to defeat Xord was to change the main character to Sharla. I let Reyn and Shulk do their thing and it made the game way easier and fun.

[@lemmyxpro]

The reason that XC1 has the worst combat by far is not necessarily because of the combat system itself, its because the Time Attack mode SUCKS ABSOLUTE DOG!! The Time Attack mode is a complete joke, and thus you can't experiment much with the combat, and push the system to its limit. But the amount of customization in XC1 is also a limiting factor of the combat, as there isn't much of it.

[@ky0kami]

As a PC gamer for about 15 years I got a switch around a month ago and I have to say xenoblade 1 blew me away. One of my favorite games I’ve ever played. I think the combat is perfect for the switch I’m surprised people don’t like it.

[@ActualAero]

The quality of life updates like the ❗ icon near the right position for arts helps a lot too. I really thought it was solid but it's unfortunate most people just hate it 😔

[@Particle_Ghost]

Tales of Vesperia smokes it.

[@ky0kami]

@@Particle_Ghost interesting I’ll try it out

[@molten8022]

I honestly dont understand why they would remove auto attacking while moving in the two games were your arts recharge while auto attacking in xc2 i would pretty much never use the positioning arts because why would i move when doing so will stop my art recharge and thus slowing down the talent arts thus making the games combat slow down even further

[@ClaytonMathisVO]

This is actually my FAVORITE battle system. It was so engaging especially when you play as other characters. I would love to see it used as an MMO version of Xenoblade if it ever happens.

[@miimiiandco]

I think XC1's combat is the most kinetic of all the games, mostly thanks to the Vision system. It really makes the system fun to me, having to fend off so many deadly attacks with either your own arts, or hoping you can get enough Party Meter to warn an ally can feel exhilarating. In comparison to 2, you need to focus on reacting to the enemy more. In 2, the combat is way more about your Drivers and your Blades than the enemy. Also I knew about the enemy chain attacks, ehe. I think of it as an Igna or High Entia strategy.

[@alexkogan9755]

I can’t speak for 2 and 3 as of yet but for the most part I really like the combat for Xenoblade 1, it kinda felt like playing Knights of the Old Republic again but much faster. However there are aspects of it that I definitely can understand why some would be turned off. For starters you can’t switch between characters during battle, which sucks especially if you’re in a jam and want to use another character to trigger an ability that might help, and large swaths of the game have you heavily rely on Shulk since he’s able to damage Mechon and nobody else can do that until halfway through the game (and you have to play as Shulk anyway before that point because only he can give the mechon damage ability and he can’t trigger it by himself, which again ties into the issue of the inability to switch between party members when in combat). Also the gameplay, while cool, is fiercely reliant on the cooldown wheels and there’s nothing else that mixes up the gameplay, not even items to use, which honestly makes collecting items in the game pretty meaningless since only a third of them will only ever be used for specific quests and as gifts for party members (and boy howdy does it take a long time to level up affinities between characters even with the gifts). Not to mention if you’ve managed to keep within a good level throughout the game it gets to a point where Xenoblade 1 starts to feel too easy, even the final boss was a breeze for me (other than certain side quest bosses which predictably always somehow end up being harder than the actual main bosses).

[@BubReaper-uj7no]

I like the combat in Xonblade 1😀

[@mr_yoru5834]

The combat in XC1 is great. The only thing I really don't like is chain attacks, because they feel really random and don't feel powerful until you raise your party affinity enough. The early game with just Shulk and Reyn is slow, but the game is trying to introduce new options over time to avoid overwhelming the player since each party member is unique. Lots of people who play RPGs will just pick a few characters and focus on them, and may not even switch out members regularly, and that play style really drags down the experience in games where everyone is different.

[@cullenhutchison6528]

Visions make sense in XC1's story. Something similar would have made sense in XC2 as well with Mythra's Foresight, but they didn't utilize that potential.

[@marioxenobladedokifan614]

I personally find XC1's combat to be great in its own way. I really enjoyed the vision mechanic as it keeps you on your toes in battle when you're trying to prevent it from happening.

[@michaelclifton9498]

I always thought the visions in XB1 were a really cool idea. I still prefer XB2, although i experienced XB1 1st through a let's play, XB2 is the one i played through myself so i'm probably bias😅

[@pixel6894]

I personally love the combat when your level matches/is scaled with your enemy but in ng+ unless you nerf yourself it gets boring when you can’t engage in it because everything dies too fast.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah that's pretty much NG+ in all Xenoblade games haha. I'm glad they let you level down throughout the main adventure though and it isn't locked to post game like in XC3

[@pixel6894]

@@ActualAero I don’t remember, did Xenoblade 3 get ng+ because I kinda thought it didn’t have it. Maybe I’m misremembering.

[@jacobmonks3722]

I adore Xenoblade Chronicles and I do have fun with its combat, but something that definitely keeps me from loving it more is how "solved" it is. Every character has an objectively best strategy and Arts setup, and I feel like it isn't that difficult to figure out what it is if you are even slightly well versed in RPGs. By the time you get to the superbosses, you probably already know the best ways to beat them. Night Vision, Spike Resist, and Agility gems are unquestionably the best, and Shulk/Reyn/Dunban will be the most effective party for Topple Locking, which is the best way to do fast, consistent damage. While I am a bit mixed on the execution, I do appreciate XC2's gacha system for making each playthrough feel different. You won't always have powerful blades like Dagas or KOS-MOS for the final boss, but sometimes you'll have them as early as Giga Rosa. Other times you'll be stuck with Boreas and Elektra and Kora for practically the entire game. It can be frustrating to not get what you want, but it also means the game stays fresh each time you play, and giving each of these blades their own sidequests also helps with that feeling.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah there is definitely better setups but I feel like that applies to all the games as well. Like certain blades that work really good on Zeke or a certain class that's really busted for Noah, etc.

[@jacobmonks3722]

@ActualAero True, but in 2, you are relying on RNG to get the best setups, and in 3, you have to go out into the world and find all the classes. It's far easier to get to the best setups in 1 in comparison because the characters just naturally learn their Arts when they hit certain levels. The only exception I can really think of is Shulk's Monado Eater and Monado Armour, which is a sweet reward for a sidequest, and I wish more Arts were like that. I'm not really saying any of this is a good or bad thing, just for the record, because it's really just up to personal preference. But I definitely think 2 and 3 give you more incentive to interact with all of their systems than 1 does.

[@MegaJames1987]

Great video dude. I keep burning out on the XC1 battle system, but i also keep coming back to it. My body knows theres something great there and something in me wants me not to give up completely.

[@redbirdtribe]

For me the combat of these games is what makes me played them all the combat wasn't as good as it is. I would have dropped it

[@pallao3500]

I just finished Xenoblade 3 + DLC (knew this would be a loooong journey to play, so I just didnt want to start when I wasnt sure if I had the time to keep up the flow), and, well, the DLC gameplay was cool, nothing to complain about that, but 3... I had a lot of moments in 3 where I didnt really like the combat there. Played hard mode and early game, the first Moebius battle that was meant to be tutorial absolutely obliterated me. I have no clue how many attempts it took me to win this battle just because you had so little impact on it. Eunie went down was an insta loss, the few little chances for the break art fail = insta loss. And the Moebius resisted break a lot. The healer issue is huge early game, very limited class options to keep healers in your team without losing out on progress for new classes / talents / arts, and having only one healer at a time just means there is literally no way to revive your healer anymore if the healer faints. Luckily there is an item you EVENTUALLY get that allows other classes to also revive healers, but until you get that a fainting healer is far too devastating and unforgiving. Then we reach mid game where Eunies Ourobourus basically solo'es the game with a single command. Deals constant, unblockable damage to each enemy around, while having an AoE that deals damage, heals the other party members and links into itself was super brain dead, but on the other hand, not using it just made every single random encounter battle just last for too long with how many HP the enemies had. During this time the Moebius battles were amazing, not gonna lie. Boss battles felt extremely well balanced, not this garbage from the first Moebius encounter where you basically had to pray to RNG to win, but also not that braindead pushover with Eunies Ourobourus or alternatively, just a far too long fight that you would win anyway, and just feels like a big time waster. The boss battles were hard, but didnt feel unfair, taking down their HP bar took a while, but it wasnt a boring time, you had to pay attention throughout the whole battle, a dumb mistake at the wrong time could easily lead to a loss, but if you focussed enough it was basically always possible to keep the upper hand wihtout RNG just randomly say "Nope, you lose now". This phase lasts for a while until Noah learns how to Insta Lucky 7, and everything turns brain dead again, and playing any other character than Noah becomes basically pointless. You can basically now beat the game by spamming Lucky 7 through everything. Only the optional super bosses and challenge mode (to an extend) still provide some harder battles, HOWEVER (!) to prepare for these you have to be willing to spend dozens and dozens of hours just grinding for class experience and jewel materials. Which I did. Buuuuut.... maaan, those things could have been a LIIIIITTLE bit more obtainable post-game xD" Long story short, Xenoblade 3 main game cobat system felt super weird to me, where it was constantly changing from unfairly unbalanced garbage, to amazing, to boring, braindead button mashing, back to amazing, back to brain dead button mashing, back to amazing (but only after hardcore farming / grinding, because otherwise you wouldn't stand the slightest chance against the post game bosses). Xenoblade 2 battle system opens up too slowly; It gets progressively better and better (until its just like with Noahs Lucky 7 just Double Spinning Edge button spamming again), but, goddamn! Locking the fully loaded arts at the beginning of every battle behind a skill tree was such an aweful decision. Early game could have been so much better if the arts were fully loaded from the start. Every single battle you first have to go through a couple of seconds just auto attacking before you can actively take part into the battles. Thats just... why?! Xenoblade 1 has the issue that early game you just dont start with enough arts available, or, at least unlock new arts too slowly. Kinda the same issue Xenoblad 2 has, though you can use arts instantly here, as long as its like just 2 or 3 you have available it very quickly turns into auto attack only anyway. But as soon as you have like at least 4 or 5 arts available the cooldown times of each of them individually becomes short enough that you have at least one art pretty much fully loaded at any time of the battle when needed. Having 8 art slots total makes such a big difference compared to the 3 slots only in XC2 or even 6 slots (which most of the times will be used as fused arts, so kinda back to only 3 arts anyway) in XC3. And having a great pool of very unique arts for (almost, hi Shulk) each character makes switching between your characters much more fun than in the other two titles. Playing a different character actually really feels like playing a different character. I also used to swap the character I controlled in XC3. Mid game, when the Moebius battles peaked, swapping characters mid battle was needed, a mandatory part of the battle system, the characters still felt unique in battle. But at some point, when enough class points were gained, and with the limited amount of art slots given, the characters here just started to feel like generic classes rather than individual characters. I didnt play "Noah, Eunie, Taion..." anymore, but "current Healer Class, current guy who inflicts Break, current guy who Topples...:". In Xenoblade 1 if you control Shulk, it always feels like Shulk you control, and if you swap to Riki, its always Riki. There is no point in the game where it doesnt matter anymore if you pick Riki or Shulk, because both of them are able to do the exact same things anyway. Visions from 1 are still the single best feature of any Xenoblade Combat system to this day. Such a cool mechanic, a shame something like that never reappeared in any other title. And the talent system is something I feel like many people arent paying enough attention to, even though it has a really big impact on the combat system. Learning Shulks talents over time, then being able to inherit them to all the other characters, but with limitations on who can learn which talent from whom, and only possible if they gained enough friendship together, not only was a cool way to further individualize each single character towards your own preferred gameplay, and get the maximum out of it, but was also a cool way to encourage players to mix up your party every once in a while to get that friendship affinity points together and thus, always keep up a fresh battle experience rather than getting into this situation where eventually every single battle just starts to feel the same. And if that wasnt enough advantages XC1 kept to this day over the other titles even the equipment in 1 is just superior with 5 instead of just 2 or 3 armor pieces per character and the flexibility gem slots added to them. Item slots in 2 and 3 felt just too limited. You get spammed with so many different item effects, but most of them you will just never use because some of them are clearly superior and those already take up the very few slots given, for everything else there is just no space left.

[@EmilXOM]

Simple is nice! I really like 1's combat, despite it not being the deepest. It still has so many options for team builds. I definitely also like how chain attacks aren't as over centralised, compared to 2 and 3. I get kinda bummed in 3, when the regular music cuts out in favour of the chain attack theme, and then boom, the fight is suddenly over :/

[@WhiteRaito]

Idk i cannot get past like 1st hour for all XB due to auto attacks i just prefer i can smack or its pure turn base instead may be something like wild arms where you move around hexagonal to do back attacks and whatnot on WA5 or trails/Like a dragon that lets you move somewhat and position yourself in and see AOE attacks and stuffs

[@somedude3820]

I think Xenoblade 1's combat system has many elements to it that make it my favourite in the franchise, but I'll stick with a few key bits. 1: It feels the most tactical of the bunch to me, your Arts build at a set speed- barring Talent Arts- meaning timing them is very important compared to how Xenoblade 2's Arts are built through Auto Attacking and all the cheesy ways to hyper accelerate Arte gain in 3- you don't just toss them out whenever you get them, even with tank characters like Dunban. It feels like each moment impacts a battle significantly, and while I like the seven man party of Xenoblade 3, it often feels like each move you make only influences a small part of the battle a lot of the time because there's so many moving pieces. 2: The future visions keep combat dynamic and makes averting a known bad outcome a big tactical undertaking. You probably do the same thing all the time in each game's combat, but having that be met with visual feedback in 1 is so satisfying. 3: On average, the game's battles are the best paced in the franchise, or at least is close to this distinction to Xenoblade X. This might sound contradictory as I've mentioned the other games becoming mashers, but Xenoblade 2 and 3 pump up the enemy HP to ludicrous degrees. I think it's a bit better in 3 because you have 7 bodies on the battlefield compared to 3, but by the end both of those games (or by the midgame in 2) I am actively avoiding combat because each random enemy can take minutes to kill, unlike in 1 where generally if a random encounter takes more than 30 seconds its because you dragged more enemies into the fight. The boss fights while meaty, don't take forever either. 4: The lack of a class and alternative weapon system. One trend I really don't like in RPGs is the trend of everyone being able to become everything. In Xenoblade 2 and 3 I feel character identities in gameplay have been eroded by an excessive degree of customizability, especially 3. Lanz feels less distinct and special for example as you can just have Taion go into his class and play the same as he does. I prefer how in Xenoblade 1, Shulk is Shulk, and only Shulk, he can't suddenly play identically to Reyn or vice versa. The affinity coins to choose which passives characters can pick up from other characters and their Art Selection is the perfect amount of customization. Xenoblade 1 characters don't have to spend time in classes or wielding weapons I don't want to play as to feel like a complete character, either. Future Redeemed was really refreshing in this aspect, no class jumping as everyone is only their class and can't change it. There's more, but this generally covers why Xenoblade 1 and by extension X, have my favourite combat systems in the series. In X, other party members aren't as useful though, so I give the edge to Xenoblade 1.

[@TheGamingAnole55]

Xenoblade 1 has by far my favorite combat of the numbered entries. Its more diverse and strategic than the other games. I'll never say its perfect- there's too much randomness in Chain Links for example. But I just love the chain attack system, talent arts, moving & attacking, etc. Its so unique and so good. X's combat is great too, but I prefer 1's chain attacks over Overdrive.

[@sprothan2]

I Love all the XENO combat systems and especially the VISION system

[@ActualAero]

Me too!

[@ciphymasterofmedia9104]

Personal take on why I dislike the visions is that they feel like hand holding. Where other games put emphasis on attack patterns and animation cues to indicate when a big attack is coming, the visions in XC just tell you off the bat what attack is coming and what arte to use against it. It just makes all fights feel the same and unintuitive imo. If every fight will tell me how to avoid big attacks then what's the point of trying to pay attention to enemy AI? Not like the game does a good job at relaying that info anyways. Having visions removed in Future Connected and then playing XC2 without them felt much more challenging and satisfying.

[@CharNatorn]

Xenoblade 3 is my favorite game for both story and gameplay. It's just amazing, and now that I beat it, I have nothing else to play.

[@questionmarkquestionmarkques]

this combat system would be peak if chain attack extensions werent rng oriented

[@kingofcheshire]

One thing I’d give XC1 combat are the unique looking colorful art icons, otherwise XC2 combat is just better, 3 is really fast but I feel like it lacks some depth aside from chain attacks

[@Dantes61680]

My combat order 2 1 x 3 I found 3 to be either boring or easy. I dont like having so many characters at the same time being managed by AI. There were times when fighting normal mobs was not engaging. I would not do anything, and my AI team would kill them all. Just in case I beat all the superbosses on hard and got max stars. That was the only time that I saw the combat potential.

[@ActualAero]

That's interesting as I loved XC3's combat personally. I think having healers being the only ones to revive and 7 party members added some neat elements

[@5000PokemonMaster]

I’m one of those 4 people 🤝

[@ActualAero]

You are one of the 4 that I know lmao

[@TerryBogurt]

Combat is why I love this series but X holds my heart for my favorite

[@ActualAero]

I definitely wanna give it a try! Especially with how it looks to be built off of XC1's combat as well

[@justanothergamer9570]

I love X's combat and exploration, but I hate its overall package. The nail in the coffin is the terrible party building and leveling system (which forces you to use the same three party members for every story mission plus one extra who will almost inevitably be underleveled for the whole second half of the game). If they remade the game and fixed that problem, I'd try to forgive the game's other flaws.

[@patrykzukowski7471]

Are you kidding me? There are people who thought XC1 combat is bad? How? It allows for so much customization and there are tons of different and useful Arts, not to mention all the synergies and the awesome skill system. I'm sorry, but I just started XC2 after thoroughly enjoying XC1 and the combat is what struck me in the very first encounter: where are my Arts? Where are my tactics? Where are my choices? What is this constant auto-attacking? Where are my timings? Where is my easy to read UI?

[@ZeroZmm]

I love the Xenoblade series but the combat in 1 is probably my least favorite aspect(maybe above the excessive fetch questing). It just feels like an mmo where you just stand there and shoot your arts. Many times I get annoyed because there's position based skills, but you can't do anything about positioning if you're aggro'd or when starting chains, like what's the point of backslash if trying to get behind the enemy just turns them into a spinning top or activating a chain makes Shulk run to the side instead. There's a lot of opportunity for strategy but at the same time I feel kneecapped for trying and just end up brute forcing it most of the time.

[@andreyele3464]

Controls in this game is ridiculous, you need to change button mapping in settings to keep it tolerable, it’s frustrating

[@rhyhaggen336]

People need to understand the break+topple+daze part of battles to finalize with chain combos.... if they skip tutorials this may be a reason why some regular enemies with high damage may be diffcult to defeat... beating superbosses its an amazing part of these games and just using brute force wont do it...

[@jorgemaldonado5239]

I loved the combat system!!! I don't know if XC1 is the best system but I really enjoyed it a lot. It was a little bit rudimentary when compared with XC2 and XC3, because of nintendo wii's controller limitations.

[@MikoMango23]

I also love 1's combat! There's a lot more than just 4 fans of 1's combat ya know, it's simple but it's still pretty fun, honestly Although I'm not a big fan of 2's, not helped by all the gacha mechanics, field skills and the slow movement speed in combat, although 3's combat came back around to being peak again, with battle pacing being improved and you having more arts at the current moment than 2 Although with that being said, X's combat is better than all 3 😈

[@finp9689]

There's no way people shit on XB1's combat system. its the most simple of the 3, most enjoyable imo, most intuitive, most well explained, etc... i rly like XB1's combat system and I think XB 2 has the worst of the 3 (granted i am a XB2 hater).

[@Blackwindzero]

I prefer XB1 for the same reason. XB2 orb system was too easy and the combat was doing the same thing repeatedly. I enjoyed 2 more once I put it on hard (or nightmare cant remember) where ya cant use the mechanic as much. I also loved XB3 because it was a good medium between the two. You could either use your overpowered transformations or just focus on normal play.

[@ActualAero]

Yeah Xenoblade 2 and 3's are fun but they definitely do feel like a get to a chain attack and win whereas in Xenoblade 1 you usually can chain attack 2-3 times in the same battle because of how its just a tool and not the whole focus of the combat to base your strategy around

[@Blackwindzero]

@@ActualAero it's actually possible to do crazy chain attacks in XB1, it's just not something that organically makes you think "I neeeeed to focus on this mechanic" even if you can. Xb2 kinda made normal play feel like "you're playing it wrong, you clearly must use orb system / chain attacks". I just wanted to point out focusing on chain attacks is an optimal playstyle on xb1 too, it's just not obviously so and I love that.

[@rcmg4013]

Can't understand people who thinks XC1 combat is boring when XC2's field monsters are stupidly bulky and unrewarding. I literally skipped fighting field monsters and doing side quests as early as chapter 2. I was wondering the whole time when will it get not boring.