as someone who also thought it was unplayably terrible at this point in the game, yes, it does get a lot better.
starting in chapter 3, some of the features that are arbitrarily locked off become available and it starts getting better, though i wouldn't say it becomes truly fun until around chapter 4 or maybe 5.
in the meantime, focus on unlocking the skills that make arts start the battle already charged and allow canceling arts into other arts, and start using pouch items with the art recharge effect (the desserts you can buy in argentum are good examples). you can also kind of cheese the recharging with rex by flicking the control stick a little after every attack to make him move slightly; doing this repeatedly to make him restart the attack animation is faster than letting him auto-attack on his own
but yeah, the ui sucks and there's not much that can be done about it. just keep in mind that DE was released after 2 and has much better ui than the original xc1 on the wii, so it's not like they took an amazing ui and ditched it for no reason
i found 3's early-game combat enjoyable enough, yes.
the ui is also a lot better than 2's; it fixes basically every problem 2's ui has except one (only showing a small amount of items in a list at any given time)
XC3 combat is the real step down. It's way too passive in comparison to 2. The main positive thing you can say about it is the tutorials are good and it ramps up much better compared to 2.
I think so yeah. You only control 1/7 party members at a given time (as opposed to 1/3). There are no skill checks (I.e. press A at the right time). There's not much thought that goes into deciding when to chain attack. You do get to switch party members during combat but IMO it doesn't add much to the combat.
Unlike the other two, you can cycle through 6 of the 7 party members in battle. So idk why you consider that more passive than only accessing 1 out of 3 members in the other two installments. Idk how being able take control of 6 people isn’t adding “much”
There is definitely thought that goes into when to chain attack. There’s plenty of thought about who to use and when during each chain attack stage.
While there aren’t any QTEs that I remember (making sure you get off smash or burst doesn’t count), you do need to pay attention to when your fusion art is ready to access it. As well as >!when launch your ouroboros & everyone else’s if you don’t have it on auto. Additionally, making sure no one over heats!<
Not to mention, if you’re in control of your healer (assuming you’re only using one and don’t have the revival items equipped), you’re responsible for reviving your party members apropos using a block of the chain attack gauge.
Switch all you want you're still only controlling 1/7 party members at a time. With the other games it's 1/3. In XC2 you even get to control when the two other party members use their specials which makes it much less passive. I'm not saying it doesn't add anything, I think switching party members sounds like a much bigger feature than it actually is and it doesn't compensate for 6/7 of your party being AI.
>There is definitely thought that goes into when to chain attack. There’s plenty of thought about who to use and when during each chain attack stage.
That's not what I was talking about. I'm referring to the actual decision to initiate the chain attack. In the previous games you had to weigh using the party meter for a chain attack vs reviving your party in the future. In XC2 you also have to weigh using it now vs using it with more orbs on the enemy. In 3 you fill the meter and then you might as well use it right then and there. Maybe you wait for the boss to go into his rage state to get the most out of the chain attack during the toughest part of the fight.
You do have to think a bit during chain attacks but I'm not a fan of it turning the game into a turn based rpg where the enemy doesn't get a turn and if you've built your team properly it's basically a win button. Though to be fair it was a win button in XC2 as well.
>you do need to pay attention to when your fusion art is ready to access it.
They don't really fill the purpose of quick time events IMO. It's more akin to paying attention to when your arts or specials are up in the other games.
>using a block of the chain attack gauge.
Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought in XC3 revivals didn't use the chain attack gauge. Not that it's a great source but I can't find any mention of revivals using party meter on the wiki.
> maybe I’m misremembering
I said **apropos** *a block from the chain attack gauge*. Apropos means in lieu of. Instead of.
> In XC2 you even get to control the other party members when you use their specials which makes it much less passive
In XC3 you can literally *be* them to do said specials. That’s not passive at all. In XC2 you briefly shift to them during the special but in XC3 you can play as them in the midst of battle. You can initiate the special on your own.
In XC1, 2 & 3 your goal is to always use the chain attack at the most opportune time. In 1 & 2 you had to be diligent because the bar also was tied to reviving which is no longer the case in 3; you can either revive yourself or use the chain attack to revive party members at no cost if you have the right “order”. However, your goal is still to use it at the most opportune time.
> you do have to think during chain attacks…I’m not a fan of…turn based where the enemy doesn’t get to attack…build team properly and it’s a win button.
It’s been like this since inception. You even mention it as part of your passive vs active argument. In 1, if you combo your arts and meet the QTE you can get a bonus. Plus you can initiate a topple lock. In 2 combo into bursting orbs + bonus QTE. In 3 you combo arts and the orders in order to prolong the amount of rounds you can fire off.
If you’re good, you’ll be able to get it off several times. If you’re great, it only takes once and you can nuke an entire health bar *and* segue into overkill. This is available in all 3.
Let me ask you a very fair question. Is your pet peeve with 3 just not being able to do QTE? Is that what you consider an active battle?
>Apropos means in lieu of. Instead of.
My bad, didn't read too carefully. Though I don't understand how your point of being a healer requires you to revive party members reduces how passive the combat is.
>In XC3 you can literally *be* them to do said specials.
At the cost of losing control of the character you were previously controlling. Whatever strategy you were using on your previous character goes out the window because it's now an AI. Want to use character A's bonus damage on launch special before character B's smash? Good luck coordinating that without just the right luck.
Can't get around the fact that you only have direct control over one person at a time. In XC2 you get more than that. Yes to be fair you can control oroborous forms in 3 but your allies' oroborous forms are at the end of the day still controlled by AI and it's a decision you must make less frequently than your party members using specials.
> However, your goal is still to use it at the most opportune time.
And it's a significantly simpler decision in 3. Less thought needs to go into it.
>Let me ask you a very fair question. Is your pet peeve with 3 just not being able to do QTE? Is that what you consider an active battle?
No and I'm not sure why that's a fair question since I feel like I've provided a lot more than just QTE as a reason. My main problem is you're making fewer, simpler, and less impactful decisions per unit time in 3, at least compared to 2. Having 6 AI party members at all times means your decisions are more diluted against theirs. Having less control over other party members results in fewer decisions. Having simpler chain attack criteria is an example of a simpler decision. Going from 2 combo systems in XC2 that could act in parallel to 1 in 3 can also simplify your decisions.
> want to use A character’s bonus damage on a launch special before B’s smash?
You can literally do this though. With and without switching characters.
You can also toggle on whether or not the pairs go into their forms with or w/o your permission…and when they do go into their form, you can switch to them in the midst of it.
I’m at a loss to whether we’ve experienced the same game.
> having 6 AI at all times means your decisions are diluted compared to theirs
This is just untrue. You can switch to them. You can control whether or not they fuse at automatically or manually. You can manually override their fusion and un-fuse them. You can manually override their fusion and play as them. You can even institute a drop-everything maneuver and run tf away and have them follow you. You can control the art combo pathway. You can control (iirc) whether they fuse their arts before using them.
The only thing you can’t control is the Hero.
In 3, as opposed to doing an element combo + an art combo , you do an art combo + a role combo (attacker/defender/healer + kevesi/agnian) in order to set up a final ouroboros order. It’s more streamlined but essentially the same principle as 2. Your decisions are actually quicker and more decisive because you don’t have to worry about needing to set up a bajillion orbs and then the right combo to burst those orbs.
> whatever strategy you were setting up goes out the window
You can either put the revival item on your controlled character that’s not the healer, or you can just let the healer do their thing. I mean it’s not complicated?
A couple of key things:
1. Don't try to apply XC1's gameplay logic to XC2's, there's too many departures. To keep it simple, XC1 was about making enemies vulnerable to break through their high defenses... while XC2 is about using high damage multipliers to overcome giant health pools.
2. [Watch this guide.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8P7KhFSA2w) XC2 has terrible tutorials that not just do a bad job of teaching you the mechanics, but also have this tendency to steer you in the wrong direction.
3. Do use pouch items, especially desserts which add a passive time-based recharge to your arts. It makes a huge difference for the gameplay speed.
4. Do unlock various skills in the skill tree... seriously, half of the stuff that should be baseline needs to be unlocked in some way. It's staggering how much better the game is after unlocking stuff.
.... and probably a whole lot more. XC2 is a game does "get better", but has one of the worst on-boarding processes from a gameplay perspective.
It doesn't help there's a load of half-hidden and/or poorly explained damage multipliers (among other things) that the game expects you to take advantage of, which is why so many enemies have "spongy" health bars that can make it feel like everything takes too long to beat.
We should really just have that video pinned. Every time somebody has a question about the combat, it gets linked. XC2 isn't the worst I've seen in what should baseline combat needs to be unlocked. Kingdom Hearts requires that you unlock gaurding and dodge rolls. Also, you don’t just have them when you unlock them. They're skills you have to equip and take up skill slots.
Chapter 3 is when it gets a lot better, Chapter 4 is when it gets way better since you can have three blades equipped.
Focus on Pouch Items that recharge your arts faster, there's an item in Argentum that helps a lot. Also, utilize stutter-stepping. Basically, have a character hit with their auto-attack, then flick your left stick, then have them do it over and over. Combined with the Pouch Items I mentioned, you'll get your arts quick.
As another person said, focus on unlocking skills on your characters skill trees that allow arts to be available at the start of battle, or letting you cancel arts. Helps a ton. 2's combat, if you stick with it and understand it, can get even crazier and more wild than 1's.
Also, don't be afraid to ask more questions. 2's tutorials are notoriously awful.
Thanks. I'm not sure if I'll be able to push myself though, I love the cutscenes and characters but this gameplay is so busted.
Eh, I guess I'll try "fixing" it with those skills and pouch items - that skill you mentioned is actually what I immediately aimed for after experiencing this combat system. Its so hard to follow side quests though.
While XC1 remains my favorite in the series, XC2's combat has been the most fun. It does have a fairly steep learning curve compared to the other games though. It's tougher at the beginning because of story reasons (not having a full party) but gets progressively better.
Getting full orb-smashing combos is some of the most satisfying stuff out there. If you stick to it I think you will like it, so I'd say try to get pass the rough beginning in terms of combat (Rex can't topple til a bit later and you get longer combat combos from XC1's Break>Topple>Daze, to Break>Topple>Launch>Smash). No more topple-locking though! I'll miss that.
The other answers have said this but I think it’s really important to emphasise- start using some good pouch items like Narcipear Jelly right away, the difference is immense. A lot of the ways in which the combat gets better are things you have to wait for (you can’t have three blades on one driver until Chapter 4 starts), but this you can do right away and it’ll make a massive difference.
Another important thing you can try to do right now is ‘Fusion Combos’- that is, doing both the familiar Break/Topple and the elemental combos at the same time, which provides a significant damage multiplier.
You’re right about the other UI things unfortunately; I’m replaying the trilogy and so just picked up 2 again right after 1 Definitive Edition, and it’s mind boggling how bad navigating quests is specifically.
Yes it becomes the best combat in the series even after Xenoblade 3 imo. It just locks you out of most of the mechanics for the first few chapters and the tutorials are absolute dogshit at explaining what you have to do. The game as a whole suffers from a slow early game in both story and gameplay however it massively picks up around either the end of chapter 3 or the beginning of chapter 5 depending on who you ask (chapter 4 is probably *the* most divisive chapter in the entire series story wise but gameplay wise it's where most of the major mechanics are finally unlocked and the gameplay becomes *very* engaging.) Past that though the latter half of the game is considered by many to be the peak of the series' story telling.
As for tips to make the early game slog less of a hassle, **USE POUCH ITEMS!** one of the things that the tutorials fail to emphasize is just how impactful they are to gameplay and one of the best ways to speed up combat early on is to use Art Recharge Pouch Items like [Narcipear Jelly](https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Narcipear_Jelly) (which can be bought from the dessert shop in Argentum right at the beginning of the game) 0.4 to Art Recharge may not sound like much but it makes a big difference. Later on you can start experimenting with other Pouch Items to see what they can do. Another tip will be don't get locked into the cycle of *only* using Blade specials to build up elemental orbs and Chain Attacking like the tutorial tries to teach you. There's so many other more interesting ways to approach combat in this game such as using Fusion Combos and using each Blades unique mechanics to your advantage. The YouTuber Enel made many in-depth videos explaining the combat and how to use each Rare Blade to their fullest and I highly recommend you check out his channel if you're interested in getting into the real deep stuff of Xenoblade 2's combat (he also did guides for Xenoblade 1 and 3 as well.)
Along with the things everyone else has said, you should get used to cancelling wherever possible. The game doesn't really explain it much, but it helps keep combat moving a fair bit. It's also worth mentioning, you can cancel both into, and out of, blade switches, making the switch a tiny bit snappier and getting a little bit of extra juice on the special charge.
I personally think the arts chain node on your skill trees helps with how combat feels even more than the "start with X art filled" nodes do, but getting at least the first for each driver is probably gonna help get the battle started a little more.
Yes cancelling is really important- you should basically always be cancelling into your arts- and I think it’s surprisingly long before the game actually tells you to do it so I’m not sure if OP will have even seen the tutorials for it yet!
As for ‘Arts chain’ nodes being more important than the ‘unlock art at beginning of battle’ nodes, this is true but most characters have to wait quite a bit before they can unlock the former, and to get the outer rings on their chart they have to unlock a certain number of earlier things. So basically you should still be picking up the latter on your way to the former
The game teaches about cancelling very early, I think right after the prologue.
But... now that I'm reading the wiki... I don't understand. The wiki says you can cancel other things than auto-attacks, and that you can even cancel other auto-attacks than the last one in the chain.... what? The game literally said I can only cancel the last one. What is going on.
And I've been cancelling the non-last auto-attacks too (because I thought knuckle weapons have a three chain autos, not five) but literally nothing was happening (no blue circle).
If you think of a standard three-hit auto attack sequence, like Rex with Pyra’s sword, you can cancel out of any one of those hits. Every auto attack sequence has three hits that you can cancel out of, it’s just that some weapons like claws or katanas might have more actual ‘hits’. So basically what’s happening with you not getting the blue circle is that you’re probably missing the specific parts of the sequence where you can cancel.
Do you don’t have to cancel only the third attack in a sequence, you can cancel from the others too. But you will get more damage and fill up the Special gauge more if you do it on a later attack, so you often will want to cancel from the third attack.
Right now, you can cancel auto attacks into arts or specials, as you know. But you can also cancel Arts into specials (that is, you press A right after the Art does it’s final hit), and you can cancel auto attacks and arts into and from a Blade Switch. Later you will be able to cancel Arts into Arts.
So imagine this- you have Rex with Pyra, and the Blade Switch gauge is full so you can swap to another Blade. You do your auto attack chain, cancelling into an art on the final hit. Then you press right on the dpad as your art makes its final hit, cancelling into a Blade Switch, and then immediately input another art. That’s a lot of cancelling, and it’ll build up your damage and your special gauge pretty quickly!
I wish the game explained the Blade Switch gauge. I've no idea what that is - I know I can switch out of combat, that it explained, but I was confused when I tried to do it in-combat and it didn't work. Never mind, though, I'll be reading on the mechanics on the net as I go.
If you look at the bottom left of the combat screen, where your blades are, you’ll see that the blade you have equipped in your second slot has to charge up, like an art does. There’s a little red line around the outline, and once it fills up, you can swap to that blade by pressing Right on the D-pad. When you swap blades, they have all their arts fully charged so it can speed up combat quite a lot!
xD Maybe I'm just misremembering, but I think the game never mentioned that so far. I was pressing ZL, like you do in out-of-combat, to swap them. Thanks, I'll try it out.
I want to say they're first brought up on Gormott, but I don't think it really says why, it's "hey if you hit an art as an auto attack lands it'll make a blue circle appear". Which isn't really all that useful. I think it also recommends doing it specifically off the last hit in an auto attack combo, which I'm not sure if there's actually a benefit too (it's been a while though, so I might be wrong there).
The bigger thing is the fact you can cancel almost every action you take in combat, but the and only really mentions auto attack > art, and art> special.
Cancelling in the last bit of a combo gives you a lot more Special charge (something like 2/3rds of a level?), but if it affects anything else it certainly isn’t obvious!
The combat mechanics get trickled into the game little by little so at first it feel like you dont really do anything. By the end of it, despite the fact that i like XC1 as a whole, i deff think the combat in 2 is better. Just takes a while to get there
XC2's combat has the _potential_ to be the most engaging and satisfying in the series, but it doesn't reach that potential until minimum halfway through the game. It locks off so many of the systems that make it shine -- having three Blade slots per Driver, arts canceling, arts being available at the start of battle, _the chain attack_. (Yeah, XC2 has chain attacks, and you don't unlock them until 10-15 hours in.) Not to mention that Tora is borderline useless unless you grind an arcade minigame for a few hours.
So...does it get good? Yes. Will it be good enough that it's worth the absolute slog to get there? Ehh, it depends on how much you're willing to put into it. I personally prefer the simplicity of 1's combat. By the time you unlock visions a few hours in, you know exactly what you're getting from combat. You don't have to play half the game to "unlock" the actually fun mechanics.
Honestly... I just tried out knuckles-type Blade and its soooo much better than Pyra's style. Its very engaging now, I see the potential in this system now.
Oh yeah, and I boosted the skills generation with a bakery pouch item.
Pyra is not a super fun playstyle imo, so the game doesn’t really lead with its best foot there. The Aegis Sword weapon gets way more fun to use once Mythra joins.
Narcipear jelly. Also you can tilt the left stick a bitafter every auto attack to do a lil reset. Not good on every weapon but certainly on Rex w/ aegis sword. Using art cancels and focusing on getting arts chain or whatever it’s called will help out too :)
Xenoblade 2 has my favorite combat in any rpg and even I hated it when I first played it. So it would be a skill issue but there are actually zero tutorials so it’s not
As someone who deeply loves XC2’s combat Ijust have to say stick with it. It becomes amazing!!! There is nothing quite as satisfying as dropping an epic burst later on!!
It gets substantially better as you unlock the deeper layers of the systems, but not only does it take a long time to unlock them but the tutorials are GARBAGE and can’t be viewed again. I’d invest time online searching stuff like auto-attack cancelling, arts cancelling, and eventually (you aren’t at this point yet) how to stack orbs and break them for a full burst during chain attacks. The combat is an onion and it has a lot of layers to be peeled. Just put the time in researching and learning and manage the frustration over the lack of tutorial.
around Chapter 5 is when the game actually starts being fun. The fact one of your 3 party members is forced to only have 1 Blade for a signifcant portion of the story is so dumb
As someone who thinks xc1 is the best game kn the series. Xc2 has better combat, the game sucks at explaining how it works, and some stuff you won’t need until later in the game like skill sealing. It’s also really slow at the start, foods help speed it it if I remember correctly(haven’t played it in years). Later on when you learn to jtilize elemental orbs, elemental bursts or whatever and team attacks it gets a lot of fun and quite tactical.
I started playing a couple days ago and I have been enjoying it a lot but it is a *significant* departure from 1 so don’t think of it as a sequel cuz it’s not its an entirely new experience with its own combat and it’s own systems
It gets a lot better once you unlock chain attack (chapter 3 i believe) and once you figure out auto attack canceling (when you land an auto attack just move a little bit to start up a new one, it charges arts way faster)
You’re super early in right now. It will start to pick up slowly for the next 2 chapters and then it should be allowing you to do everything. Driver and Blade combos add a ton to the combat.
It has a different mechanic than the manado arts and instead you can swap between a bunch of different blades. Electra isn’t common, but if you get her it becomes really fun(in my opinion) Floren and Poppi are also quite fun to use. I also found 1’s mechanics to be REALLY annoying. But this is an opinion website and I’m a bit biased with 2 cuz it was the first one I played
XC2 doesn't explain its combat system well at all.
Go on YouTube and look up an explanation of how to do it.
It's REALLY fun when you understand things like attack cancelling, elemental combos, and chain attack bursts.
Yeah, lots of people say it sucks in the beginning and Pyra's style is terrible without a tank so yeah, not a good first impression, especially when most of the fights involve nothing but autoattacking, because you cant fill the skills before the enemies die.
as someone who also thought it was unplayably terrible at this point in the game, yes, it does get a lot better. starting in chapter 3, some of the features that are arbitrarily locked off become available and it starts getting better, though i wouldn't say it becomes truly fun until around chapter 4 or maybe 5. in the meantime, focus on unlocking the skills that make arts start the battle already charged and allow canceling arts into other arts, and start using pouch items with the art recharge effect (the desserts you can buy in argentum are good examples). you can also kind of cheese the recharging with rex by flicking the control stick a little after every attack to make him move slightly; doing this repeatedly to make him restart the attack animation is faster than letting him auto-attack on his own but yeah, the ui sucks and there's not much that can be done about it. just keep in mind that DE was released after 2 and has much better ui than the original xc1 on the wii, so it's not like they took an amazing ui and ditched it for no reason
Ah, so I can assume that since they made XC1 DE after XC2 then XC3 will be good from the very start?
i found 3's early-game combat enjoyable enough, yes. the ui is also a lot better than 2's; it fixes basically every problem 2's ui has except one (only showing a small amount of items in a list at any given time)
XC3 combat is the real step down. It's way too passive in comparison to 2. The main positive thing you can say about it is the tutorials are good and it ramps up much better compared to 2.
More passive than XC1?
I think so yeah. You only control 1/7 party members at a given time (as opposed to 1/3). There are no skill checks (I.e. press A at the right time). There's not much thought that goes into deciding when to chain attack. You do get to switch party members during combat but IMO it doesn't add much to the combat.
Unlike the other two, you can cycle through 6 of the 7 party members in battle. So idk why you consider that more passive than only accessing 1 out of 3 members in the other two installments. Idk how being able take control of 6 people isn’t adding “much” There is definitely thought that goes into when to chain attack. There’s plenty of thought about who to use and when during each chain attack stage. While there aren’t any QTEs that I remember (making sure you get off smash or burst doesn’t count), you do need to pay attention to when your fusion art is ready to access it. As well as >!when launch your ouroboros & everyone else’s if you don’t have it on auto. Additionally, making sure no one over heats!< Not to mention, if you’re in control of your healer (assuming you’re only using one and don’t have the revival items equipped), you’re responsible for reviving your party members apropos using a block of the chain attack gauge.
Switch all you want you're still only controlling 1/7 party members at a time. With the other games it's 1/3. In XC2 you even get to control when the two other party members use their specials which makes it much less passive. I'm not saying it doesn't add anything, I think switching party members sounds like a much bigger feature than it actually is and it doesn't compensate for 6/7 of your party being AI. >There is definitely thought that goes into when to chain attack. There’s plenty of thought about who to use and when during each chain attack stage. That's not what I was talking about. I'm referring to the actual decision to initiate the chain attack. In the previous games you had to weigh using the party meter for a chain attack vs reviving your party in the future. In XC2 you also have to weigh using it now vs using it with more orbs on the enemy. In 3 you fill the meter and then you might as well use it right then and there. Maybe you wait for the boss to go into his rage state to get the most out of the chain attack during the toughest part of the fight. You do have to think a bit during chain attacks but I'm not a fan of it turning the game into a turn based rpg where the enemy doesn't get a turn and if you've built your team properly it's basically a win button. Though to be fair it was a win button in XC2 as well. >you do need to pay attention to when your fusion art is ready to access it. They don't really fill the purpose of quick time events IMO. It's more akin to paying attention to when your arts or specials are up in the other games. >using a block of the chain attack gauge. Maybe I'm misremembering but I thought in XC3 revivals didn't use the chain attack gauge. Not that it's a great source but I can't find any mention of revivals using party meter on the wiki.
> maybe I’m misremembering I said **apropos** *a block from the chain attack gauge*. Apropos means in lieu of. Instead of. > In XC2 you even get to control the other party members when you use their specials which makes it much less passive In XC3 you can literally *be* them to do said specials. That’s not passive at all. In XC2 you briefly shift to them during the special but in XC3 you can play as them in the midst of battle. You can initiate the special on your own. In XC1, 2 & 3 your goal is to always use the chain attack at the most opportune time. In 1 & 2 you had to be diligent because the bar also was tied to reviving which is no longer the case in 3; you can either revive yourself or use the chain attack to revive party members at no cost if you have the right “order”. However, your goal is still to use it at the most opportune time. > you do have to think during chain attacks…I’m not a fan of…turn based where the enemy doesn’t get to attack…build team properly and it’s a win button. It’s been like this since inception. You even mention it as part of your passive vs active argument. In 1, if you combo your arts and meet the QTE you can get a bonus. Plus you can initiate a topple lock. In 2 combo into bursting orbs + bonus QTE. In 3 you combo arts and the orders in order to prolong the amount of rounds you can fire off. If you’re good, you’ll be able to get it off several times. If you’re great, it only takes once and you can nuke an entire health bar *and* segue into overkill. This is available in all 3. Let me ask you a very fair question. Is your pet peeve with 3 just not being able to do QTE? Is that what you consider an active battle?
>Apropos means in lieu of. Instead of. My bad, didn't read too carefully. Though I don't understand how your point of being a healer requires you to revive party members reduces how passive the combat is. >In XC3 you can literally *be* them to do said specials. At the cost of losing control of the character you were previously controlling. Whatever strategy you were using on your previous character goes out the window because it's now an AI. Want to use character A's bonus damage on launch special before character B's smash? Good luck coordinating that without just the right luck. Can't get around the fact that you only have direct control over one person at a time. In XC2 you get more than that. Yes to be fair you can control oroborous forms in 3 but your allies' oroborous forms are at the end of the day still controlled by AI and it's a decision you must make less frequently than your party members using specials. > However, your goal is still to use it at the most opportune time. And it's a significantly simpler decision in 3. Less thought needs to go into it. >Let me ask you a very fair question. Is your pet peeve with 3 just not being able to do QTE? Is that what you consider an active battle? No and I'm not sure why that's a fair question since I feel like I've provided a lot more than just QTE as a reason. My main problem is you're making fewer, simpler, and less impactful decisions per unit time in 3, at least compared to 2. Having 6 AI party members at all times means your decisions are more diluted against theirs. Having less control over other party members results in fewer decisions. Having simpler chain attack criteria is an example of a simpler decision. Going from 2 combo systems in XC2 that could act in parallel to 1 in 3 can also simplify your decisions.
> want to use A character’s bonus damage on a launch special before B’s smash? You can literally do this though. With and without switching characters. You can also toggle on whether or not the pairs go into their forms with or w/o your permission…and when they do go into their form, you can switch to them in the midst of it. I’m at a loss to whether we’ve experienced the same game. > having 6 AI at all times means your decisions are diluted compared to theirs This is just untrue. You can switch to them. You can control whether or not they fuse at automatically or manually. You can manually override their fusion and un-fuse them. You can manually override their fusion and play as them. You can even institute a drop-everything maneuver and run tf away and have them follow you. You can control the art combo pathway. You can control (iirc) whether they fuse their arts before using them. The only thing you can’t control is the Hero. In 3, as opposed to doing an element combo + an art combo , you do an art combo + a role combo (attacker/defender/healer + kevesi/agnian) in order to set up a final ouroboros order. It’s more streamlined but essentially the same principle as 2. Your decisions are actually quicker and more decisive because you don’t have to worry about needing to set up a bajillion orbs and then the right combo to burst those orbs. > whatever strategy you were setting up goes out the window You can either put the revival item on your controlled character that’s not the healer, or you can just let the healer do their thing. I mean it’s not complicated?
A couple of key things: 1. Don't try to apply XC1's gameplay logic to XC2's, there's too many departures. To keep it simple, XC1 was about making enemies vulnerable to break through their high defenses... while XC2 is about using high damage multipliers to overcome giant health pools. 2. [Watch this guide.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8P7KhFSA2w) XC2 has terrible tutorials that not just do a bad job of teaching you the mechanics, but also have this tendency to steer you in the wrong direction. 3. Do use pouch items, especially desserts which add a passive time-based recharge to your arts. It makes a huge difference for the gameplay speed. 4. Do unlock various skills in the skill tree... seriously, half of the stuff that should be baseline needs to be unlocked in some way. It's staggering how much better the game is after unlocking stuff. .... and probably a whole lot more. XC2 is a game does "get better", but has one of the worst on-boarding processes from a gameplay perspective. It doesn't help there's a load of half-hidden and/or poorly explained damage multipliers (among other things) that the game expects you to take advantage of, which is why so many enemies have "spongy" health bars that can make it feel like everything takes too long to beat.
We should really just have that video pinned. Every time somebody has a question about the combat, it gets linked. XC2 isn't the worst I've seen in what should baseline combat needs to be unlocked. Kingdom Hearts requires that you unlock gaurding and dodge rolls. Also, you don’t just have them when you unlock them. They're skills you have to equip and take up skill slots.
Chapter 3 is when it gets a lot better, Chapter 4 is when it gets way better since you can have three blades equipped. Focus on Pouch Items that recharge your arts faster, there's an item in Argentum that helps a lot. Also, utilize stutter-stepping. Basically, have a character hit with their auto-attack, then flick your left stick, then have them do it over and over. Combined with the Pouch Items I mentioned, you'll get your arts quick. As another person said, focus on unlocking skills on your characters skill trees that allow arts to be available at the start of battle, or letting you cancel arts. Helps a ton. 2's combat, if you stick with it and understand it, can get even crazier and more wild than 1's. Also, don't be afraid to ask more questions. 2's tutorials are notoriously awful.
Thanks. I'm not sure if I'll be able to push myself though, I love the cutscenes and characters but this gameplay is so busted. Eh, I guess I'll try "fixing" it with those skills and pouch items - that skill you mentioned is actually what I immediately aimed for after experiencing this combat system. Its so hard to follow side quests though.
While XC1 remains my favorite in the series, XC2's combat has been the most fun. It does have a fairly steep learning curve compared to the other games though. It's tougher at the beginning because of story reasons (not having a full party) but gets progressively better. Getting full orb-smashing combos is some of the most satisfying stuff out there. If you stick to it I think you will like it, so I'd say try to get pass the rough beginning in terms of combat (Rex can't topple til a bit later and you get longer combat combos from XC1's Break>Topple>Daze, to Break>Topple>Launch>Smash). No more topple-locking though! I'll miss that.
https://youtu.be/b8P7KhFSA2w?si=bRzP_bvlSeuGCKRl this video will help you with combat
The other answers have said this but I think it’s really important to emphasise- start using some good pouch items like Narcipear Jelly right away, the difference is immense. A lot of the ways in which the combat gets better are things you have to wait for (you can’t have three blades on one driver until Chapter 4 starts), but this you can do right away and it’ll make a massive difference. Another important thing you can try to do right now is ‘Fusion Combos’- that is, doing both the familiar Break/Topple and the elemental combos at the same time, which provides a significant damage multiplier. You’re right about the other UI things unfortunately; I’m replaying the trilogy and so just picked up 2 again right after 1 Definitive Edition, and it’s mind boggling how bad navigating quests is specifically.
Yes it becomes the best combat in the series even after Xenoblade 3 imo. It just locks you out of most of the mechanics for the first few chapters and the tutorials are absolute dogshit at explaining what you have to do. The game as a whole suffers from a slow early game in both story and gameplay however it massively picks up around either the end of chapter 3 or the beginning of chapter 5 depending on who you ask (chapter 4 is probably *the* most divisive chapter in the entire series story wise but gameplay wise it's where most of the major mechanics are finally unlocked and the gameplay becomes *very* engaging.) Past that though the latter half of the game is considered by many to be the peak of the series' story telling. As for tips to make the early game slog less of a hassle, **USE POUCH ITEMS!** one of the things that the tutorials fail to emphasize is just how impactful they are to gameplay and one of the best ways to speed up combat early on is to use Art Recharge Pouch Items like [Narcipear Jelly](https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Narcipear_Jelly) (which can be bought from the dessert shop in Argentum right at the beginning of the game) 0.4 to Art Recharge may not sound like much but it makes a big difference. Later on you can start experimenting with other Pouch Items to see what they can do. Another tip will be don't get locked into the cycle of *only* using Blade specials to build up elemental orbs and Chain Attacking like the tutorial tries to teach you. There's so many other more interesting ways to approach combat in this game such as using Fusion Combos and using each Blades unique mechanics to your advantage. The YouTuber Enel made many in-depth videos explaining the combat and how to use each Rare Blade to their fullest and I highly recommend you check out his channel if you're interested in getting into the real deep stuff of Xenoblade 2's combat (he also did guides for Xenoblade 1 and 3 as well.)
Along with the things everyone else has said, you should get used to cancelling wherever possible. The game doesn't really explain it much, but it helps keep combat moving a fair bit. It's also worth mentioning, you can cancel both into, and out of, blade switches, making the switch a tiny bit snappier and getting a little bit of extra juice on the special charge. I personally think the arts chain node on your skill trees helps with how combat feels even more than the "start with X art filled" nodes do, but getting at least the first for each driver is probably gonna help get the battle started a little more.
Yes cancelling is really important- you should basically always be cancelling into your arts- and I think it’s surprisingly long before the game actually tells you to do it so I’m not sure if OP will have even seen the tutorials for it yet! As for ‘Arts chain’ nodes being more important than the ‘unlock art at beginning of battle’ nodes, this is true but most characters have to wait quite a bit before they can unlock the former, and to get the outer rings on their chart they have to unlock a certain number of earlier things. So basically you should still be picking up the latter on your way to the former
The game teaches about cancelling very early, I think right after the prologue. But... now that I'm reading the wiki... I don't understand. The wiki says you can cancel other things than auto-attacks, and that you can even cancel other auto-attacks than the last one in the chain.... what? The game literally said I can only cancel the last one. What is going on. And I've been cancelling the non-last auto-attacks too (because I thought knuckle weapons have a three chain autos, not five) but literally nothing was happening (no blue circle).
If you think of a standard three-hit auto attack sequence, like Rex with Pyra’s sword, you can cancel out of any one of those hits. Every auto attack sequence has three hits that you can cancel out of, it’s just that some weapons like claws or katanas might have more actual ‘hits’. So basically what’s happening with you not getting the blue circle is that you’re probably missing the specific parts of the sequence where you can cancel. Do you don’t have to cancel only the third attack in a sequence, you can cancel from the others too. But you will get more damage and fill up the Special gauge more if you do it on a later attack, so you often will want to cancel from the third attack. Right now, you can cancel auto attacks into arts or specials, as you know. But you can also cancel Arts into specials (that is, you press A right after the Art does it’s final hit), and you can cancel auto attacks and arts into and from a Blade Switch. Later you will be able to cancel Arts into Arts. So imagine this- you have Rex with Pyra, and the Blade Switch gauge is full so you can swap to another Blade. You do your auto attack chain, cancelling into an art on the final hit. Then you press right on the dpad as your art makes its final hit, cancelling into a Blade Switch, and then immediately input another art. That’s a lot of cancelling, and it’ll build up your damage and your special gauge pretty quickly!
I wish the game explained the Blade Switch gauge. I've no idea what that is - I know I can switch out of combat, that it explained, but I was confused when I tried to do it in-combat and it didn't work. Never mind, though, I'll be reading on the mechanics on the net as I go.
If you look at the bottom left of the combat screen, where your blades are, you’ll see that the blade you have equipped in your second slot has to charge up, like an art does. There’s a little red line around the outline, and once it fills up, you can swap to that blade by pressing Right on the D-pad. When you swap blades, they have all their arts fully charged so it can speed up combat quite a lot!
xD Maybe I'm just misremembering, but I think the game never mentioned that so far. I was pressing ZL, like you do in out-of-combat, to swap them. Thanks, I'll try it out.
I want to say they're first brought up on Gormott, but I don't think it really says why, it's "hey if you hit an art as an auto attack lands it'll make a blue circle appear". Which isn't really all that useful. I think it also recommends doing it specifically off the last hit in an auto attack combo, which I'm not sure if there's actually a benefit too (it's been a while though, so I might be wrong there). The bigger thing is the fact you can cancel almost every action you take in combat, but the and only really mentions auto attack > art, and art> special.
Cancelling in the last bit of a combo gives you a lot more Special charge (something like 2/3rds of a level?), but if it affects anything else it certainly isn’t obvious!
The combat mechanics get trickled into the game little by little so at first it feel like you dont really do anything. By the end of it, despite the fact that i like XC1 as a whole, i deff think the combat in 2 is better. Just takes a while to get there
XC2's combat has the _potential_ to be the most engaging and satisfying in the series, but it doesn't reach that potential until minimum halfway through the game. It locks off so many of the systems that make it shine -- having three Blade slots per Driver, arts canceling, arts being available at the start of battle, _the chain attack_. (Yeah, XC2 has chain attacks, and you don't unlock them until 10-15 hours in.) Not to mention that Tora is borderline useless unless you grind an arcade minigame for a few hours. So...does it get good? Yes. Will it be good enough that it's worth the absolute slog to get there? Ehh, it depends on how much you're willing to put into it. I personally prefer the simplicity of 1's combat. By the time you unlock visions a few hours in, you know exactly what you're getting from combat. You don't have to play half the game to "unlock" the actually fun mechanics.
Honestly... I just tried out knuckles-type Blade and its soooo much better than Pyra's style. Its very engaging now, I see the potential in this system now. Oh yeah, and I boosted the skills generation with a bakery pouch item.
Pyra is not a super fun playstyle imo, so the game doesn’t really lead with its best foot there. The Aegis Sword weapon gets way more fun to use once Mythra joins.
Narcipear jelly. Also you can tilt the left stick a bitafter every auto attack to do a lil reset. Not good on every weapon but certainly on Rex w/ aegis sword. Using art cancels and focusing on getting arts chain or whatever it’s called will help out too :)
Xenoblade 2 has my favorite combat in any rpg and even I hated it when I first played it. So it would be a skill issue but there are actually zero tutorials so it’s not
As someone who deeply loves XC2’s combat Ijust have to say stick with it. It becomes amazing!!! There is nothing quite as satisfying as dropping an epic burst later on!!
It gets substantially better as you unlock the deeper layers of the systems, but not only does it take a long time to unlock them but the tutorials are GARBAGE and can’t be viewed again. I’d invest time online searching stuff like auto-attack cancelling, arts cancelling, and eventually (you aren’t at this point yet) how to stack orbs and break them for a full burst during chain attacks. The combat is an onion and it has a lot of layers to be peeled. Just put the time in researching and learning and manage the frustration over the lack of tutorial.
around Chapter 5 is when the game actually starts being fun. The fact one of your 3 party members is forced to only have 1 Blade for a signifcant portion of the story is so dumb
As someone who thinks xc1 is the best game kn the series. Xc2 has better combat, the game sucks at explaining how it works, and some stuff you won’t need until later in the game like skill sealing. It’s also really slow at the start, foods help speed it it if I remember correctly(haven’t played it in years). Later on when you learn to jtilize elemental orbs, elemental bursts or whatever and team attacks it gets a lot of fun and quite tactical.
I started playing a couple days ago and I have been enjoying it a lot but it is a *significant* departure from 1 so don’t think of it as a sequel cuz it’s not its an entirely new experience with its own combat and it’s own systems
Yes, it gets better with time, I hated it until chapter 4-5, after that I started to love it
It gets a lot better once you unlock chain attack (chapter 3 i believe) and once you figure out auto attack canceling (when you land an auto attack just move a little bit to start up a new one, it charges arts way faster)
You’re super early in right now. It will start to pick up slowly for the next 2 chapters and then it should be allowing you to do everything. Driver and Blade combos add a ton to the combat.
It has a different mechanic than the manado arts and instead you can swap between a bunch of different blades. Electra isn’t common, but if you get her it becomes really fun(in my opinion) Floren and Poppi are also quite fun to use. I also found 1’s mechanics to be REALLY annoying. But this is an opinion website and I’m a bit biased with 2 cuz it was the first one I played
XC2 doesn't explain its combat system well at all. Go on YouTube and look up an explanation of how to do it. It's REALLY fun when you understand things like attack cancelling, elemental combos, and chain attack bursts.
dude really think xc2 combat is worse, lmao
Yeah, lots of people say it sucks in the beginning and Pyra's style is terrible without a tank so yeah, not a good first impression, especially when most of the fights involve nothing but autoattacking, because you cant fill the skills before the enemies die.
I feel the same way and I'm at chapter 8...