@@knifewieldingwomen It's hard to find the original video on YT 'cause it's like 18+, but you can kinda see it in this reaction video at time stamp 6:53 th-cam.com/video/GtImYAcRNXk/w-d-xo.htmlm53s I think it was actually Lucah who saw it first and made the rest of us aware of it but I might be wrong? Haha, all I know is we watched it a bunch and laughed a lot.
A thing I feel like mentioning is that after being swallowed by the Urayan titan, you can skip travel. It's another one of those weird moments where you can skip travel, even if it feels like you shouldn't. The image of everyone climbing out of the Urayan titan's mouth and swimming to where they want to go and doing the same to get back is a funny image to me
@@robhillen8007 for certain places, yes. It's just weird that it never gets fully disabled at points when it does get disabled in Xenoblade 1. I get it from a gameplay perspective that they wouldn't want you to be softlocked and unable to progress from being too weak but it's just funny from a story perspective
Disagree. I thought his accent made him immediately hateable, and then his absolute 180 afterward just made my feelings conflicted. *SPOILERS AFTERWARD* Then Vandahm gave me like 500 death flags in a row, and I was like, "ok, never getting attached, or putting you in my party.
An accent made someone hatable? Wow, that's kind of rude. I myself really like his accent, but I know everyone is different. SPOILERS AHEAD Yeah, it is SO obvious that Vandham will die. With his affinity tree being locked and him only using Roc, they did not mask it well. I wish they had his full affinity tree be accessible and have be able to summon blades. You could have then gotten Vandham's blades when he died, but they all lost their memories, similar to Roc. That might even have added more weight to his death. This game definitely could have done more with Roc; he's basically dropped as a character after chapter 4. I really do enjoy this game's blade system, but it did maybe overload the narrative with too many characters to all get development. The game, story, and the characters are still great though!
I kinda agree with you both honestly. Because *SPOILERS* The game honestly didnt do a good job with making the fact that vandham dies, and it differently made me want to use him less in my party and try to shift away from him a bit, but it makes narrative sense for Rex to grow, if only the game masked that he would die just a little better. Still a great character tho
G’DAY MATE, WELCOME TO URAYA! WE’RE GONNA PUT SUM CRUSTIP ON THE BARBIE! STONE THE FLAMIN’ QUADWINGS, A VOLF ATE MY BABY! …So, as an Australian, I’ve been really looking forward to this part. Playing this game for the first time, this part kind of broke me. I did NOT see these accents coming. As an Australian I want to point out that these are the most board, exaggerated, “Ocker” accents possible, and most of them aren’t voiced by actual Australians. Especially Vandham. (Then again, Pyra’s VA isn’t American. Nia’s really is Welsh.) Very few people I know actually talk like this, and of my nearly 30 years living in Sydney I don’t think I’ve EVER heard someone use the word “drongo”, or really any Australian slang used unironically. Still, I love these guys, in a “Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales” way. It’s not often you hear Aussie accents in a videogame. 23:44 THE AUSTRALIANS HAVE ARRIVED!
It really makes a difference seeing characters with voices and accents that aren't just the usual American or Received Pronunciation English. It's why I get so passionate about all the Welsh in Gormott. The varied British voice acting in the first Xenolade is what makes is such a good game for me; but the full array of accents in Xenoblade 2, used in such a clever way, really make this game something else. I hope that they continue this sort of dubbing when localising the next Monolith Soft games.
@Zachary H. Thanks for that info. I'll update that. Australian accents in general are something you don't often hear in games, although apparently the Australian accent is considered one of the hardest to convincingly fake (most attempts end up sounding Cockney). The only other games I've heard Aussie accents in are Dragon Quest VIII (which, in a very British in-joke, used them for NPCs in a prison) and Final Fantasy XIII (Fang's is pretty fake, but Vanille's VA really is Australian)
Things Emile missed: -After feeding Umon’s Titan the Pollen Orbs, don’t go immediately back to Umon’s Shipyard. Instead take a dip in the Cloud Sea and swim to the two previously inaccessible ledges behind where the Titan was resting. On the left is a white chest with a lot of gold and a Legendary Core Crystal among its contents (EDIT: I’ve been informed that the Core Crystal is not Legendary and is likely Rare status. Oh well, it’s still better than most. Maybe the other chest has it; it’s been a couple weeks). On the right, a red chest. I actually hinted at this one way back in Episode 4 or 5 but was purposefully coy about the contents and the exact locations because I thought Emile was going to get them at this point and we hadn’t covered Core Crystal mechanics yet (it’s the easiest and likely earliest Legendary Core Crystal players will likely get without the Expansion Pass). Imagine my shock and surprise then when Emile instead immediately skip travelled away and got on with the story. There really is no reason not to get them any later too. Outside of maybe one side quest, you’re never going to need High Tide on Gormott ever again, whereas you will need to revisit the Lower Level for multiple future side quests, so there’s no point in coming back to this location at High Tide otherwise. At any rate, it’s about time we meet the best father figure in Alrest, eh? 0:30 Trust me Rex, you’d be the first to know if she was hurt. 3:37 Nothing’s stopping you from going back to play that now though. It might be a bit worthwhile since you can get some pretty good mods from it, and it’s going to be a while (including the exclusive Luck Mod II, which can be crystallized for a good chunk of crystals) before we can actually craft some of them. 5:15 This is why I prefer to craft one of everything. It’s kind of like a checklist of sorts. Obviously it’s not very ether crystal efficient, especially since a lot of these parts go unused, but still. 8:05 Smash is the last step of the Driver combo. Break your enemy to open them up for a good Topple. Then Launch your Toppled foe and then Smash them into the ground for massive damage, a nice rain of items from the target’s item drop pool, and an opportunity to wail on them as they pick themselves up. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to Smash Arts and won’t have access to them until Chapter 4...or you could get the Boy with Two Swords who has a Smash art for any and all Drivers he’s equipped to. 9:20 And most if not all that were added could’ve been gotten from playing Tiger! Tiger! which is kind of the takeaway here. Not only does Tiger! Tiger! allow you to become more powerful than you ordinarily would be by giving you early access to Poppiswap parts, but it also contains some parts that you cannot get from technical manuals. So it comes down to whether or not you want to take the time to get good at Tiger! Tiger! (much easier with Easy mode now a thing) and do the grind, or wait until you find these manuals and craft the parts yourself, only playing Tiger! Tiger! when necessary? 11:55 You definitely want an HP Potions art on Kora. That’s kind of her thing, see. Well, that, and chatting your ear off with some Girls’ Talk. She has the potential to spawn a lot of HP Potions through Driver Arts and her level 2 Special and one of her Battle Skills makes it so that potions can remain on the ground for longer than normal. Not only does this mean that you can save the potions for when you really need the heals more easily, but it pairs up really well with Crossette and her HP Potion related skills. 13:15 It’s even better when you have the blossom rain weather effect (exclusive to Uraya at night). Even in the Titan’s mouth, it’s so pretty watching the blossoms coming down and lighting up the area a bit more. 14:02 Kora’s other schtick is positioning. User her specials to stun an enemy, walk around to their backside to gain some HP back, and then hit them for more damage from behind. 15:12 That I will give you. Compared to the other two Base game Knuckle Claw Rare Blades, Kora’s not worth much without Crossette. She can keep your party alive easily (provided the foe doesn’t one-shot people as Rotbart is known to do), but there are better ways to go about that and still keep up the damage. 16:42 “Don’t knock it til you tried it” seems to be a recurring theme with Emile’s analysis. 17:53 Not nearly as impressive when the enemy is 9 levels higher and you aren’t optimally equipped unfortunately. 18:30 She said the line! 19:52 Caterpiles back in Gormott also have an art like that if you want to get good practice in. Their topple period is rather short though compared to if a Driver inflicted it. 20:45 You do if you lure them though. 21:40 Guess that quest will have to be saved for later. Remember if you’re playing along, you don’t have to play as Emile is and not level up at inns. Those levels could make all the difference, and it’s kind of a challenge that Emile is imposing on himself, so if you’re thinking Uraya’s too tough, go back to Torigoth or Argentum and rest up. 23:13 I miss that from OG and X, honestly. 25:10 Oh so you’re Zuo! ...Why are you giving us gifts again without us even knowing who you were before, you weirdo? 27:42 Technically, they’re all attackers (Megalance and Greataxe are Attacker weapons), but Vandham more so. Additionally, we’ve not seen anyone fight with Dual Scythes, so we’re in a bit of unfamiliar territory with his arts. 27:53 Given what you nicknamed your Archeops, I think it stands to reason you’re a Roc fanboy. 31:56 Banana suit Vandham when? 32:08 If you think you can jump down to the pool of water below or even scale down the cliff face to get down there and avoid railing Vandham after the whooping he and his men gave you, think again. Thanks to how fall damage is calculated, it is impossible to safely drop down to the Belly level of the Urayan Titan, even at 9999 HP. No other way but to follow the old man. 34:06 Garfont is a name we’ve heard all the way back in Episode 1, when we were helping that one lady with her shipments and fending off those Krabbles and Crustips. She had mentioned a group known as the Garfont Mercenaries. It’s no coincidence then that this is their base of operations and that Vandham is their leader. Welcome to Garfont Village, where everyone is welcome regardless of race.
BlazingBuizel 7 You just gotta know where to explore. There aren’t even any high level monsters lurking about. It’s still the single digit monsters from before (and the double digit UM in the area can’t hurt you because its spawn location is below the Cloud Sea).
Adam Rhodes So when you feed the Titan the orbs, go straight forward into the Sea area as if you were going back to the very start of Chapter 2. There’s two portions of land sticking out of it (one of them has a collection point), and they both have chests.
@@verdethestarwarrior1088 Yeah with how much hyping up Chugaa was doing for Roc's Acrobatics, it was kinda disappointing to see Cofagrigus to survive. I know Cofagrigus is a beefy tank, but still
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fun fact of the day number 18: The titan Uraya gets its name from the Japanese word for envy or jealousy, Urayamashii. This is in the same theme as all other titans taking their names from the Seven Deadly Sins of Christian religion.
Worth noting that this is only the localized name. Because the original name for the Kingdom is Invidia. Uraya is just on of the many unnecessary name changes that NoE did with the localization of this game.
@@dinglberry3320 ... It's for the benefit of sounding right in English, yeah you can call it censorship but making it work better in English has made some damn good localized versions of video games.
Words could not describe the excitement I felt when I heard Vandham and the other Urayans for the first time. You have no idea how rare it is to hear an Australian accent in a videogame. And I mean a proper Aussie accent, not some American trying and failing to act Australian and not massively overexaggerated Steve Irwin wannabes. Hearing natural Australian accents around is such a rarity, that it made me love this game so much more.
Ah yes, welcome to Uraya. To me, this is the best area in the entire game! Uraya is basically an underground open world. I love the music, environments, the atmosphere and how huge it eventually becomes. For anyone who hasn't played this game, all I can say is you're in for a ride in this place!
I got so freaking lost. And of course the way up was there to my left yet i kept overlooking it and going the wrong damn way. Gormott took me forever to navigate with all its winding, twisting tree roots, and was always stumped how to get to umon's because of the convenience of skip travel, at bare minimum only needing going there 2 times in the entire play through. So i guess its no surprise a lot of people have a difficult time remembering where the back starts
@@ShadowSkyX I got stuck fighting that unique monster by the tree along the upper path after the eight stone skip. So many other enemies kept joining the fight and slaughtering me. I had no idea you could go down until several failed attempts.
All I you have to say about Uraya in terms of visuals: the trees. I swear this are some views, like off the city harbor, that I could look at for hours.
Yes, Uraya is gorgeous. Especially during the like, rose petal weather. Seeing the explorable area open up tremendously when you get to it and see all those glowing blossom trees is magical.
Okay, very minor nitpick in the beginning of the episode: You keep saying "crystalize" when crystalizing is the process of turning parts into crystals. You *create* parts by turning crystals into those parts. That is so unimportant I realize, but it annoyed me. "We've yet to see Smash." I KNOW REX HASN'T QUIT TEASING ME
@@chugga I didn't expect you to respond to my little nitpick, haha. Should mention that your production is top-notch and a thing small as that doesn't bring it down at all! Just something that bothered me a bit.
33:10 - There's a little joke here in this scene I like. It's quite subtle and I'm not sure if it was even intended but I feel like it was and yet I haven't seen anyone talk about it. > Roc standing idly in shot in the background. > 33:21 Dromarch: So you're saying that you... *take them under your wing* > 33:44 Nia: Good *eggs* huh? Dad joke Dromarch strikes again.
"Flora heals an aching soul" counter: 6 (1 new in this episode) We finally meet Vandham, a very lovable character in this game. He might look tough, but he's very kindful Driver. I also like Roc's design, his Blade.
I've played through all the games but I don't remember what you're referencing. If you put a spoiler notice, for others' sake, explain the joke please?
@@Gumby518 Spoilers for an decade old game I'm talking about the Bionis Interior, the inside of the titan you play the first half of the game in. I'm making a joke about it because Rex and team are inside a titan, the same what happened to Shulk and team when they have to reach to the top of the Bionis
I love the evolution of the Van-characters. From ascended grunt in Gears to kinda-accidental villain in Saga to a good (if nasty) drill sergeant in Blade to reasonable authority figure in X, and (twenty minute spoiler).... Outright party member in 2.
And then he becomes the character that starts the entire main plot in 3. With an entire family that shares his name. And most importantly (spoilers) He may be a descendant of the two main characters in the game.
Vandham and Roc are arguably some of my favorite characters in the whole game. Roc’s design is super interesting, and even more intriguing if you look into the Japanese Art Book. Then Vandham is just this big ol’ strong guy, but he’s nice.
SPOILERS I like roc in terms of his design, but I hate him when he joins rex. All of his voice lines are along the lines of "I'm Roc" and you'd think after the 600th time he'd understand that I fucking know that. As for Vandahm, he just has like a million death flags, so I didnt even bother getting attached or using him in my party. He also doesn't slot in well at this point at all. So when he died I just kinda went, "Qas that supposed to be unexpected? Was I supposed to be attached?" It felt like they tried to do Fiora again but it didnt work in any way, and just left me laughing at rex's inconsistent va.
@@raikkel9516 Spoilers I also don't like how Roc gets completely shafted by the story, he doesn't even show up in the cutscene in Elpys, where he is supposed to be Rex's main blade for awhile.
@@33link333Spoilers oh god, I successfully purged elpis from my memory. That area has the worst gameplay in xenoblade history, and even ends with a "Maybe the real sword was the friends we made along the way." Awful in every way.
Dromarch to Vandham, Driver of Roc: "So you're saying you take them under your wing?" Me: And thus the reason Chugga liked Dromarch's character despite doing little in the first act is finally revealed :D
As some one who played XC1 before this game, I always thought of Uraya as this game's equivalent of Satorl Marsh aesthetically. Well, if Satorl MARSH was a CAVE... Vandham's great! And Roc's a cool blade!
I love how the designs of the titans have made areas that are brilliant and unique. Later on it's even greater how titans that are lived on top of vs ones that have inhabitants inside.
“Which means the name is here to stay” Suddenly, in the next xenoblade game, the devs pull a fast one and give the character a name like vanderstrudel. Can you just imagine that happening
So funny thing. I played this on a Switch-Lite and when I saw Vandham for the first time, I mistaken his massive knee-pads for his actual knees and thought he was walking around pants-less with only a bandolier covering him as a kilt like he was suppose to be some sort of Australian Scotsman.
Honestly, Vandham (in Xenoblade 2) is my favorite character. Awesome Blade, awesome weapons, awesome character design, great dubbing, and absolutely wonderful personality. They went for that gentle giant look and absolutely nailed it. His voice actor also did a spectacular job on his voice as well, and sounds exactly like what you'd expect our twin scythe wielding gentle giant to sound like. Also awesome hair, he rocks that pompadour.
Emile, stop, your having "to good to use" syndrome, just out the amethyst chip on someone by the time you have someone you finally deem worthy to use it on youl have a billion better chips seriously theres no need to hold yourself back like this, could put it on azami.
I believe he's saving those amethyst chips for something particular if I remember correctly. Probably is waiting until he gets more bitball commons 12:30 In fact, there's the answer
I probably should have used it on Azami, I mainly held back from using them on Kora, Finch, and Electra because they're reeeeally bad Blades. They would actually be better spent on Commons and we'll be pulling more Rare Blades before we get better Chips. Wanting to leave my options open.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1’s system for how strong an enemy is relative to you and how they might spot you is sorely missed (and gone for not much reason) here
The lack of detection indicators was apparently intentional. According to interviews the director wanted people to learn which species were aggressive in a more natural way (bit of an odd decision, but thankfully it's really easy to tell them apart). The strength indicators, however, are still there. Look at the arrows on the top and bottom of the target marker icon, they'll change between black, blue, white, yellow and red, just like the name tags in XC1.
Scott Elder You still can see enemy threat level when you target an enemy (look for the color around the targeting diamond), but it’s a lot easier to miss than having it in the enemy info bar as it was in 1 and X.
I remember thinking that the oesophagus and Garfont looked absolutely gorgeous, so if you're in the same boat as me for that then I just want to give a little hint about the rest of Uraya ad say that you haven't seen *anything* yet
It's only factual if it's been backed up by proven evidence. What you just said was an *OPINIONATED* statement. Don't kids learn anything in school nowadays?
Another great blade from this chapter is Wulfric and HES AMAZING. With max affinity, his attack increases coz of his skill tree. Level 2 special on toppled enemies along with poppis level 1 does great damage.
This...this was where I really got invested in the game and crossed over from being a solid sequel into a great one. Walking into Garfont and that music kicking in may be the most memorable part of my first playthrough.
*1:* ...we're gonna need a bigger boat. *2:* *Poppi: **_[uses high beams, accidentally destroys Terok Nor]_* *3:* Poor Dromarch. Even Nia knows he's outclassed, and he's her signature Stand! *4:* And so we get jumped by a bunch of Aussies. *5:* Aaaand the leader was just joshing with us. He might seem friendly, but he's still a bogan for jumping us like that.
And there he is, my favorite character!! Much like Emile said, I didn't like him for the same exact reason when I first met him. Just like Emile, That immediately changed after that cutscene. He becomes even better as time goes on too! Uruya is also my favorite Titan but we won't see why it's my favorite until later.
I love how they break expectations and have him become an extremely cool Mentor Character. He's definitely one of my top favorite characters in this game. Edit: Oh damn (dham?), I never knew he was the Xeno series version of Cid. Also, the confirmation that his name is based on the Jean Claude variety of Vandham.
Good thing Rex has his handy crotch light, and who else thought of “let rip with a FArt” when Vandam said that line. I also really want him to say CRASHING THE MOBILE ARTILLERY INTO A HOUSE!
27:33 "If you know how things work, you can take things out high above your level." I didn't fully know how things worked until I started watching this LP. Just 2 days ago, I went back to it to do the post game (after a 2 year break), and ended up taking down the level 110 super boss at only level 85, mostly thanks to the driver combo. What Chugga says here is solid advice. For context: The full combo gives drops, so I was using it to farm items (fully expecting to die). When noticed I was over half way and still doing well, I started aiming for the KO, and barely managed it. This saved a lot of time grinding lower level enemies compared to what most guides suggested grinding at that level.
Why can't Pyra cover up her Emerald Core Crystal with, like, clothing? It seems like so much trouble comes from people recognizing it on her, and she's definitely not wearing too much clothing already lol
Sorry for the late reply, but the issue is that now, rex is effectively a wanted man, so even if pyra covered up. They could identify her by her being beside rex. And even if rex wore his helmet, his outfit is distinct enough that one could identify him. ALSO considering that Nia is ALSO wanted, seeing nia would also raise alarm bells. Plus, its not like they're wanted in Uraya. Just ardanian territory
Best character has arrived! I love Vandham so much, really looks like he's seen a thousand battles with those scars and that equipment, yet he's got a heart as big as the titan we rode in on. He's easily the highlight of this chapter for me, he's just got cool oozing from every pore. Can't wait to see him in action. Another fun part about Vandham is that they didn't give him a big hulking weapon like a hammer or an axe, they gave him a smaller set of dual scythes that he still wields like an expert. It's not much but it's a nice twist on things. I guess technically they're Roc's weapons but w/e, he still wields them. Speaking of Roc though, I like their design a fair bit, those wings are GIGANTIC, and they're so graceful too. A bit obvious that they're a wind-type Blade but hey, even the obvious can look really cool if you try hard enough. I really am excited to see this pair do their work in the upcoming parts, so hopefully we get some good moments.
5:25 You talk about the tutorials being bad but worse is the lack of information on things like this. It's quite complicated and how it works is never truly stated in full. It's something you have to memorize.
You've inspired me to pick this game back up again. I finished the story, and intended to do the post game and DLC later. After a while, though, I'd completely forgotten how to play, and no good tutorials meant I would have no idea if I tried. Your explanations were a better refresher than even starting a new game would have been. Even this early in the LP, I feel like I understand the mechanics better than I ever have thanks to your explanations, and am now farming superbosses. I even beat the level 110 boss at only level 85 the other day. And thanks for explaining some of the DLC stuff, as that's proving very helpful. The new trust item saves tons of time, and the custom difficulty helps immensely with grinding insane affinity chart requirements (currently AFK grinding out 600 Blade Combos with auto-battle and max HP settings).
Wow the area at the start of this episode gives me big Twilight Princess dungeon vibes, I love it so much. I think I'm putting Xenoblade Chronicals 2 on the top of my Christmas list this year with the new Hyrule Warriors game.
Ah, Vandham. His name and position may be a running trend in the Xeno series, but I honestly think this incarnation is my favorite (though I haven't played Xenogears or the Xenosaga series). All we've seen is his introduction today, but what an entrance he made! Testing the new Driver of the Aegis, giving us a bit of lore behind the connection between Drivers and Blades, and even giving us one of our first party-even match, despite technically winning. We'll see a LOT more of him later. Also, we haven't seen much of it yet, but in terms of visual design, Uraya is my favorite looking area in the game. Trust me, you'll see why I love how it looks so much next episode! Episode Highlight 18: 20:18 "Swiped his butt like a credit card!" Not a sentence I expected to hear when I woke up this morning...
Even if we can't explore all of Uraya right away, I'm glad we get to hear the music right away. Uraya's theme is a very soothing track that pairs beautifully with the area (even if we haven't really seen why yet). Also, a hell yeah for Vandham. The Jean-Claude Van Damme thing makes sense, but my personal theory is that he's intended to be Monolith's version of Cid. Like, one of the higher-ups at MonolithSoft was like "hey, Final Fantasy has this tradition of naming a side-character Cid in every one of their games because it's a fun quirk, why don't we do the same thing for our games?"
Fun Facts: Roc is named after the Rukh, a giant bird of pray in Arabian mytholoy, while his bird-human design is based off the Garuda of Hindu mythology, the aerial mount of the god Vishnu and said to be the king of all birds. His japanese name Suzaku is based off the Vermillion bird of Chinese lore, better known as Feng Huang, one of the 4 Celestial Beast.
Am I the only one who says Roc is their favorite blade just because I love his design? And I just realized that Vandham's blade is where Emile got the nickname for his Archeops from Pokémon White.
I mean, a Roc is a mythical bird. I don't think he was specifically referencing THIS Roc in PKMN White, but they ARE based on the same bird. Edit: After seeing people's responses to me, I immediately remembered the moment he reveals Archen's nickname he quotes one of Roc's voice lines in this game. So I was wrong, he was referencing this Roc.
I was like "oh hey look a chugga video just popped up when I refreshed. This'll cheer me up after that online smash ultimate match!" Boy 0:00 scared the crap out of me because I forgot where we left off. I'm laughing about it now. 😂 Thanks Emile!
The cutscene was extra funny in my playthrough since my update data was glitched so everyone was stuck in their default position except with their eyes floating off.
Ah, Vandham, one of my favorite Xenoblade characters and probably my favorite Xeno series reference to date. Vanderkaum, who I HATED in Xenogears actually turned into the Cid of the franchise in a move I never saw coming. Vandham is my favorite iteration so far.
13:30 Those leaf like things are also in a real windpipe. They are there to provide more surface area for the slime to keep your lungs clean. They also have nerves and are connected to muscles so that when something get's into your windpipe they contract and push it up to get it out again.
Uraya's my favorite titan. The glowy flora, the soft lighting, the Garfont mercs, and that music. Mmm! A bit of a pain to get around at first, but once you reach the main city, a lot of the pain is over.
31:52 Another Final Fantasy reference. I keep getting extremely excited every time I hear them, but that probably shows how much I've spent with the series. Anyways to finally make a comment related to the video, Vandham is one of my favorite characters in the game. I love his blade, I love his dynamic and how his views for creating a home for others resonates with Rex's dream of Elysium, I love his voice actor... everything about him is fantastic. I hope all the new timers to the game have a great time with him as well!
One thing I can't understand is why they removed the ability to switch party members before a forced story fight. I know right now we only have Rex, Nia, and Tora, not being able to switch the part around when you are caught off guard by some story battle is annoying. At least changing the order of the characters would be more helpful than nothing. The original Xenoblade Chronicles had this feature, and it was incredibly useful. Even if you didn't want to switch around the current party, having the option available was nice. I don't see a reason why it was removed as a feature.
The Torna DLC actually lets you do that again. I really wish these QoL improvements had been given to the base game as well, even minor stuff like being able to skip the pointless Inn jingle. It happens much later, but there's a terrible instance of one specific, spoilery Blade being removed from the party in a cutscene before a bossfight. I really appreciated being denied my healer just in time for a tough battle!
I don’t think he has it, but you can get Element Absorb abilities for Poppi by now from Tiger Tiger, and if you’re lucky like I am and get a Water Absorb, it’s incredibly useful for some fights in this area. Element Absorb items basically mean that, on block, the damage you would have taken will be absorbed instead. Poppi being able to have 50% block rate already makes that super helpful
Honestly the first time I saw vandahmn I thought he was so lame but as this chapter went on I think he became one of my favorite characters in the whole game.
time to meet a recurring running trend similar to why the name cid appears in every Final Fantasy game, Vandham. I am glad you found that clip of Xenosaga episode 1. I had to pick favorite towns in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there's only 2 area's I truly like a whole lot. Garfont is one of them. the other favorite town, isn't till much later in the game.
Emile says he’s not for Affinity Extend, but it does have very limited uses for fighting enemies that cause the Stench status, which can be very situationally annoying, but not a massive deal.
He will never remember that he has that challenger for Poppi. In fact he will go to buy it in like ep 40 and be like "what I already bought it!?" Warning headphone users in ep 40 at 21:47.
Something I hope Emile brings up is the magnet hands all the enemies seem to have with their attacks. Like that unique monster managing to pummel Nia from fifteen feet away. It's incredibly jarring and a little infuriating, why can they reach you when you can't reach them?
At the same time, I'm pretty sure you can do that yourself to an extent. >Use an art ; >The enemy runs way off ; >The attack still connects. That aside, yeah, it's weird x)
...Goddamn, first venture in Uraya, and you get the hail weather effect. I know from searching for weather that it's not horribly common, and it's *really* pretty. More luck from the luck god!
Use your core chips! The good ones won't stay good forever! It's like hoarding healing potions in other games. If you keep saving it, you'll be past the point of usefulness before you know it. Just my 2 cents
18:48 Almost as if the Urayan titan has a.... frog in it's throat.... On an unrelated note, Vandam is one of my favorite characters in the game and I think I went through the same thought process as you except with the extra step of "I hope I get his blade when I beat him." Kind of messed up when you think about it more lol.
What do you call a Nopon that likes to roll for core crystals?
A Gachapon!
The first time I heard the word "gachapon" was in a XC2 context and I actually thought it was a Nopon dialect thing.
*HHHHHHHHHAAAAAA* HA HA HA
and what do you call a nopon that hates friendships? a dokapon! (if you watched his old collabs. you know)
What even is a gachapon i don’t even know
Pfft! Lol
"Swiped his butt like a credit card!" Oh great, and just when I thought I'd never see THAT image in my head again...
Hi Tim!
Wait, again?
@@knifewieldingwomen It's hard to find the original video on YT 'cause it's like 18+, but you can kinda see it in this reaction video at time stamp 6:53 th-cam.com/video/GtImYAcRNXk/w-d-xo.htmlm53s I think it was actually Lucah who saw it first and made the rest of us aware of it but I might be wrong? Haha, all I know is we watched it a bunch and laughed a lot.
NintendoCapriSun hah, it can't be that bad-OHMYGODMYEYES! 😱
Gotta burn out the image again. Good luck Tim😂
I like how he was like "the weapons that look like they're from kid icarus uprising dont fit kora" when kora is literally just phosphora
I never even got to play uprising and that's all I was thinking about when using kora
A thing I feel like mentioning is that after being swallowed by the Urayan titan, you can skip travel. It's another one of those weird moments where you can skip travel, even if it feels like you shouldn't. The image of everyone climbing out of the Urayan titan's mouth and swimming to where they want to go and doing the same to get back is a funny image to me
To be fair you could do that on the last titan
When it really doesn't make much sense that you could all things considered
“Rex-Rex, do we have to go back in the titan’s belly?”
“Hush, I need to make story progress”
Does skip travel ever get disabled?
@@robhillen8007 for certain places, yes. It's just weird that it never gets fully disabled at points when it does get disabled in Xenoblade 1. I get it from a gameplay perspective that they wouldn't want you to be softlocked and unable to progress from being too weak but it's just funny from a story perspective
Rob Hillen Yeah, though I only recall one instance at the beginning of Chapter 5.
Vandham is so kind. His voice actor does a great job of making him immediately likeable.
Let's be honest: *Everything* about Vandham makes him immediately likeable
Disagree. I thought his accent made him immediately hateable, and then his absolute 180 afterward just made my feelings conflicted. *SPOILERS AFTERWARD*
Then Vandahm gave me like 500 death flags in a row, and I was like, "ok, never getting attached, or putting you in my party.
An accent made someone hatable? Wow, that's kind of rude. I myself really like his accent, but I know everyone is different.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Yeah, it is SO obvious that Vandham will die. With his affinity tree being locked and him only using Roc, they did not mask it well. I wish they had his full affinity tree be accessible and have be able to summon blades. You could have then gotten Vandham's blades when he died, but they all lost their memories, similar to Roc. That might even have added more weight to his death. This game definitely could have done more with Roc; he's basically dropped as a character after chapter 4. I really do enjoy this game's blade system, but it did maybe overload the narrative with too many characters to all get development. The game, story, and the characters are still great though!
I kinda agree with you both honestly. Because *SPOILERS*
The game honestly didnt do a good job with making the fact that vandham dies, and it differently made me want to use him less in my party and try to shift away from him a bit, but it makes narrative sense for Rex to grow, if only the game masked that he would die just a little better. Still a great character tho
I like how he sounded like an actual threat but nah he just wanted to test them.
Why are all of the residents of Uraya australian?
Because it lives DOWN UNDER the clouds :D
Where the women glow and men plunder.
That was a bad joke.... but I couldn't care less cause it was funny😂
They live “Down Under” the surface of the Titan.
Uraya, 'Straya. Makes sense to me.
Urstailia
G’DAY MATE, WELCOME TO URAYA! WE’RE GONNA PUT SUM CRUSTIP ON THE BARBIE! STONE THE FLAMIN’ QUADWINGS, A VOLF ATE MY BABY!
…So, as an Australian, I’ve been really looking forward to this part.
Playing this game for the first time, this part kind of broke me. I did NOT see these accents coming. As an Australian I want to point out that these are the most board, exaggerated, “Ocker” accents possible, and most of them aren’t voiced by actual Australians. Especially Vandham. (Then again, Pyra’s VA isn’t American. Nia’s really is Welsh.)
Very few people I know actually talk like this, and of my nearly 30 years living in Sydney I don’t think I’ve EVER heard someone use the word “drongo”, or really any Australian slang used unironically. Still, I love these guys, in a “Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales” way. It’s not often you hear Aussie accents in a videogame.
23:44 THE AUSTRALIANS HAVE ARRIVED!
Hahaha! That first line just made my day! Thank you for that BigKlingy!
Morag’s VA actually is Scottish. She actually won Miss Scotland a while back.
It really makes a difference seeing characters with voices and accents that aren't just the usual American or Received Pronunciation English. It's why I get so passionate about all the Welsh in Gormott. The varied British voice acting in the first Xenolade is what makes is such a good game for me; but the full array of accents in Xenoblade 2, used in such a clever way, really make this game something else. I hope that they continue this sort of dubbing when localising the next Monolith Soft games.
big klingy, luxin, & chugga in one video, this is great
@Zachary H. Thanks for that info. I'll update that.
Australian accents in general are something you don't often hear in games, although apparently the Australian accent is considered one of the hardest to convincingly fake (most attempts end up sounding Cockney). The only other games I've heard Aussie accents in are Dragon Quest VIII (which, in a very British in-joke, used them for NPCs in a prison) and Final Fantasy XIII (Fang's is pretty fake, but Vanille's VA really is Australian)
*opens video*
"AAAHHHH!"
*quickly mutes volume*
**Clicks video link**
*Y O U H A V E O P E N E D T H E G A T E S O F H E L L*
**Screams of the Damned**
Things Emile missed:
-After feeding Umon’s Titan the Pollen Orbs, don’t go immediately back to Umon’s Shipyard. Instead take a dip in the Cloud Sea and swim to the two previously inaccessible ledges behind where the Titan was resting. On the left is a white chest with a lot of gold and a Legendary Core Crystal among its contents (EDIT: I’ve been informed that the Core Crystal is not Legendary and is likely Rare status. Oh well, it’s still better than most. Maybe the other chest has it; it’s been a couple weeks). On the right, a red chest.
I actually hinted at this one way back in Episode 4 or 5 but was purposefully coy about the contents and the exact locations because I thought Emile was going to get them at this point and we hadn’t covered Core Crystal mechanics yet (it’s the easiest and likely earliest Legendary Core Crystal players will likely get without the Expansion Pass). Imagine my shock and surprise then when Emile instead immediately skip travelled away and got on with the story.
There really is no reason not to get them any later too. Outside of maybe one side quest, you’re never going to need High Tide on Gormott ever again, whereas you will need to revisit the Lower Level for multiple future side quests, so there’s no point in coming back to this location at High Tide otherwise.
At any rate, it’s about time we meet the best father figure in Alrest, eh?
0:30 Trust me Rex, you’d be the first to know if she was hurt.
3:37 Nothing’s stopping you from going back to play that now though. It might be a bit worthwhile since you can get some pretty good mods from it, and it’s going to be a while (including the exclusive Luck Mod II, which can be crystallized for a good chunk of crystals) before we can actually craft some of them.
5:15 This is why I prefer to craft one of everything. It’s kind of like a checklist of sorts. Obviously it’s not very ether crystal efficient, especially since a lot of these parts go unused, but still.
8:05 Smash is the last step of the Driver combo. Break your enemy to open them up for a good Topple. Then Launch your Toppled foe and then Smash them into the ground for massive damage, a nice rain of items from the target’s item drop pool, and an opportunity to wail on them as they pick themselves up. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to Smash Arts and won’t have access to them until Chapter 4...or you could get the Boy with Two Swords who has a Smash art for any and all Drivers he’s equipped to.
9:20 And most if not all that were added could’ve been gotten from playing Tiger! Tiger! which is kind of the takeaway here. Not only does Tiger! Tiger! allow you to become more powerful than you ordinarily would be by giving you early access to Poppiswap parts, but it also contains some parts that you cannot get from technical manuals. So it comes down to whether or not you want to take the time to get good at Tiger! Tiger! (much easier with Easy mode now a thing) and do the grind, or wait until you find these manuals and craft the parts yourself, only playing Tiger! Tiger! when necessary?
11:55 You definitely want an HP Potions art on Kora. That’s kind of her thing, see. Well, that, and chatting your ear off with some Girls’ Talk. She has the potential to spawn a lot of HP Potions through Driver Arts and her level 2 Special and one of her Battle Skills makes it so that potions can remain on the ground for longer than normal. Not only does this mean that you can save the potions for when you really need the heals more easily, but it pairs up really well with Crossette and her HP Potion related skills.
13:15 It’s even better when you have the blossom rain weather effect (exclusive to Uraya at night). Even in the Titan’s mouth, it’s so pretty watching the blossoms coming down and lighting up the area a bit more.
14:02 Kora’s other schtick is positioning. User her specials to stun an enemy, walk around to their backside to gain some HP back, and then hit them for more damage from behind.
15:12 That I will give you. Compared to the other two Base game Knuckle Claw Rare Blades, Kora’s not worth much without Crossette. She can keep your party alive easily (provided the foe doesn’t one-shot people as Rotbart is known to do), but there are better ways to go about that and still keep up the damage.
16:42 “Don’t knock it til you tried it” seems to be a recurring theme with Emile’s analysis.
17:53 Not nearly as impressive when the enemy is 9 levels higher and you aren’t optimally equipped unfortunately.
18:30 She said the line!
19:52 Caterpiles back in Gormott also have an art like that if you want to get good practice in. Their topple period is rather short though compared to if a Driver inflicted it.
20:45 You do if you lure them though.
21:40 Guess that quest will have to be saved for later. Remember if you’re playing along, you don’t have to play as Emile is and not level up at inns. Those levels could make all the difference, and it’s kind of a challenge that Emile is imposing on himself, so if you’re thinking Uraya’s too tough, go back to Torigoth or Argentum and rest up.
23:13 I miss that from OG and X, honestly.
25:10 Oh so you’re Zuo! ...Why are you giving us gifts again without us even knowing who you were before, you weirdo?
27:42 Technically, they’re all attackers (Megalance and Greataxe are Attacker weapons), but Vandham more so. Additionally, we’ve not seen anyone fight with Dual Scythes, so we’re in a bit of unfamiliar territory with his arts.
27:53 Given what you nicknamed your Archeops, I think it stands to reason you’re a Roc fanboy.
31:56 Banana suit Vandham when?
32:08 If you think you can jump down to the pool of water below or even scale down the cliff face to get down there and avoid railing Vandham after the whooping he and his men gave you, think again. Thanks to how fall damage is calculated, it is impossible to safely drop down to the Belly level of the Urayan Titan, even at 9999 HP. No other way but to follow the old man.
34:06 Garfont is a name we’ve heard all the way back in Episode 1, when we were helping that one lady with her shipments and fending off those Krabbles and Crustips. She had mentioned a group known as the Garfont Mercenaries. It’s no coincidence then that this is their base of operations and that Vandham is their leader. Welcome to Garfont Village, where everyone is welcome regardless of race.
I cannot believe they give you a legendary core crystal before Uraya
BlazingBuizel 7 You just gotta know where to explore. There aren’t even any high level monsters lurking about. It’s still the single digit monsters from before (and the double digit UM in the area can’t hurt you because its spawn location is below the Cloud Sea).
@@Rexaura888 So wait... Where, exactly, from the Spring?
Adam Rhodes So when you feed the Titan the orbs, go straight forward into the Sea area as if you were going back to the very start of Chapter 2. There’s two portions of land sticking out of it (one of them has a collection point), and they both have chests.
Never mind. Found them.
Roc the Archeops: Who are you?
Roc: I'm you. Roc, pleased to meet ya!
WHY DID IT TAKE ME THIS LONG TO GET THAT?!
Always have been, always will be...
The Phantom Lol, Vandham is almost as loud as Emile. The big difference here is that Vandham’s Roc really would one-shot a Cofagrigus with Acrobatics
...huh. took me forever to get that
@@verdethestarwarrior1088 Yeah with how much hyping up Chugaa was doing for Roc's Acrobatics, it was kinda disappointing to see Cofagrigus to survive. I know Cofagrigus is a beefy tank, but still
From Wales to Australia in the space of one episode.
Way faster than the just under 20 hours it takes for us non-xenoblade universe folk.
From regular Wales to New South Wales
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 fun fact of the day number 18:
The titan Uraya gets its name from the Japanese word for envy or jealousy, Urayamashii. This is in the same theme as all other titans taking their names from the Seven Deadly Sins of Christian religion.
I like this theming, I plan to talk about it after we’ve seen every Titan and it can be fully appreciated as a set.
That is true, except that those are the names of the countries/regions, not the titans themselves.
Worth noting that this is only the localized name. Because the original name for the Kingdom is Invidia. Uraya is just on of the many unnecessary name changes that NoE did with the localization of this game.
@@dinglberry3320 ...
It's for the benefit of sounding right in English, yeah you can call it censorship but making it work better in English has made some damn good localized versions of video games.
@@motivationintensifies9558 Regarding the titan region names, the originals were Latin names. Latin names sound just fine on English.
Words could not describe the excitement I felt when I heard Vandham and the other Urayans for the first time. You have no idea how rare it is to hear an Australian accent in a videogame. And I mean a proper Aussie accent, not some American trying and failing to act Australian and not massively overexaggerated Steve Irwin wannabes.
Hearing natural Australian accents around is such a rarity, that it made me love this game so much more.
Ah yes, welcome to Uraya. To me, this is the best area in the entire game! Uraya is basically an underground open world. I love the music, environments, the atmosphere and how huge it eventually becomes. For anyone who hasn't played this game, all I can say is you're in for a ride in this place!
I got so freaking lost. And of course the way up was there to my left yet i kept overlooking it and going the wrong damn way. Gormott took me forever to navigate with all its winding, twisting tree roots, and was always stumped how to get to umon's because of the convenience of skip travel, at bare minimum only needing going there 2 times in the entire play through. So i guess its no surprise a lot of people have a difficult time remembering where the back starts
@@ShadowSkyX I got stuck fighting that unique monster by the tree along the upper path after the eight stone skip. So many other enemies kept joining the fight and slaughtering me. I had no idea you could go down until several failed attempts.
All I you have to say about Uraya in terms of visuals: the trees. I swear this are some views, like off the city harbor, that I could look at for hours.
Yes, Uraya is gorgeous. Especially during the like, rose petal weather. Seeing the explorable area open up tremendously when you get to it and see all those glowing blossom trees is magical.
Okay, very minor nitpick in the beginning of the episode: You keep saying "crystalize" when crystalizing is the process of turning parts into crystals. You *create* parts by turning crystals into those parts.
That is so unimportant I realize, but it annoyed me.
"We've yet to see Smash." I KNOW REX HASN'T QUIT TEASING ME
I can certainly watch this in the future!
@@chugga I didn't expect you to respond to my little nitpick, haha. Should mention that your production is top-notch and a thing small as that doesn't bring it down at all! Just something that bothered me a bit.
33:10 - There's a little joke here in this scene I like. It's quite subtle and I'm not sure if it was even intended but I feel like it was and yet I haven't seen anyone talk about it.
> Roc standing idly in shot in the background.
> 33:21 Dromarch: So you're saying that you... *take them under your wing*
> 33:44 Nia: Good *eggs* huh?
Dad joke Dromarch strikes again.
"Flora heals an aching soul" counter: 6 (1 new in this episode)
We finally meet Vandham, a very lovable character in this game. He might look tough, but he's very kindful Driver. I also like Roc's design, his Blade.
Rex: Why does this look familiar?
Shulk: I have no idea
...were not there yet
I've played through all the games but I don't remember what you're referencing. If you put a spoiler notice, for others' sake, explain the joke please?
@@Gumby518
Spoilers, as You advised
I think they're referring to the Bionis Interior.
@@Gumby518
Spoilers for an decade old game
I'm talking about the Bionis Interior, the inside of the titan you play the first half of the game in. I'm making a joke about it because Rex and team are inside a titan, the same what happened to Shulk and team when they have to reach to the top of the Bionis
@@Gumby518 its a non cannon dlc thing anyway
"Nimble Nopon Get Girls"
Well, at least we now know the title of the book that Lucahjin game him...
*Nopon
@@TheHeroOfTomorrow Ta kindly
Do I spot a fellow lucahjinner...?
Wait, did she name that item? If so, was she involved in this game’s development in any other ways?
I love the evolution of the Van-characters. From ascended grunt in Gears to kinda-accidental villain in Saga to a good (if nasty) drill sergeant in Blade to reasonable authority figure in X, and (twenty minute spoiler)....
Outright party member in 2.
And then he becomes the character that starts the entire main plot in 3. With an entire family that shares his name. And most importantly (spoilers)
He may be a descendant of the two main characters in the game.
And now (spoilers)
Future Redeemed has a Vandam as the main character
3:09 can we have an f in chat for dromarch?
F, poor Dromarch.
F
dromarch is a simp too lol, big F
F
poor Dromarch tries so hard and gets burned so many times lol
Vandham and Roc are arguably some of my favorite characters in the whole game. Roc’s design is super interesting, and even more intriguing if you look into the Japanese Art Book. Then Vandham is just this big ol’ strong guy, but he’s nice.
I agree! I praise these two guys a lot in some coming videos.
SPOILERS
I like roc in terms of his design, but I hate him when he joins rex. All of his voice lines are along the lines of "I'm Roc" and you'd think after the 600th time he'd understand that I fucking know that. As for Vandahm, he just has like a million death flags, so I didnt even bother getting attached or using him in my party. He also doesn't slot in well at this point at all. So when he died I just kinda went, "Qas that supposed to be unexpected? Was I supposed to be attached?" It felt like they tried to do Fiora again but it didnt work in any way, and just left me laughing at rex's inconsistent va.
@@raikkel9516 I wholeheartedly agree on both points. I hope that this gets brought up to some extent once we get to that point in the LP.
@@raikkel9516 Spoilers
I also don't like how Roc gets completely shafted by the story, he doesn't even show up in the cutscene in Elpys, where he is supposed to be Rex's main blade for awhile.
@@33link333Spoilers
oh god, I successfully purged elpis from my memory. That area has the worst gameplay in xenoblade history, and even ends with a "Maybe the real sword was the friends we made along the way." Awful in every way.
33:21
take them under your WING! because he has a bird blade! Dromarch I didn't think you'd be the punny one.
"Good eggs, huh?"
I get the sense that he makes a lot of puns, but I just can't remember them.
Hey uh Rex, why did you put your light “there” huh?
I mean, in theory its convenient since its a hands off light. In practice though... yeah.
Makes sense. He's a Salvager, so he usually has his helmet on when he would have the light on him.
Good ol’ crotch light
He's just happy to see ya.
"Rex...I know you're into the modifications, but why'd y o u put a flashlight on your dick?"
"I thought it was unique"
Dromarch to Vandham, Driver of Roc: "So you're saying you take them under your wing?"
Me: And thus the reason Chugga liked Dromarch's character despite doing little in the first act is finally revealed :D
This LP has actually ended up encouraging me to go back and finally play the Torna DLC, and I'm loving it. So thanks for that, Emile.
Torna is the high point of the series for me
Torna is the best part of the game
Torna does it even better than the base game does. Love Torna
“At least our corpses look pretty together” - Emile, 2020
"You know what they say, live fast, die fast, and leave behind a pretty corpse. At least you got two of the three right."
As some one who played XC1 before this game, I always thought of Uraya as this game's equivalent of Satorl Marsh aesthetically.
Well, if Satorl MARSH was a CAVE...
Vandham's great! And Roc's a cool blade!
I love how the designs of the titans have made areas that are brilliant and unique.
Later on it's even greater how titans that are lived on top of vs ones that have inhabitants inside.
“Which means the name is here to stay”
Suddenly, in the next xenoblade game, the devs pull a fast one and give the character a name like vanderstrudel. Can you just imagine that happening
The chances of something like this happening have just increased tenfold >.>
Vhandham is here to stay!
Xbc3:
“Swipe his butt like a credit card!”
There’s another Emile moment for the books.
31:12 The synchronized van punch is going down in the books.
So funny thing. I played this on a Switch-Lite and when I saw Vandham for the first time, I mistaken his massive knee-pads for his actual knees and thought he was walking around pants-less with only a bandolier covering him as a kilt like he was suppose to be some sort of Australian Scotsman.
Umon won’t be happy about his ship.
I'm pretty sure it isn't even mentioned ever again. It's definitely dead.
@@anothergamer112 it's mentioned. Unfortunately, it also causes one of the most extreme reactions in any side character in the game.
Honestly, Vandham (in Xenoblade 2) is my favorite character. Awesome Blade, awesome weapons, awesome character design, great dubbing, and absolutely wonderful personality. They went for that gentle giant look and absolutely nailed it. His voice actor also did a spectacular job on his voice as well, and sounds exactly like what you'd expect our twin scythe wielding gentle giant to sound like. Also awesome hair, he rocks that pompadour.
Emile, stop, your having "to good to use" syndrome, just out the amethyst chip on someone by the time you have someone you finally deem worthy to use it on youl have a billion better chips seriously theres no need to hold yourself back like this, could put it on azami.
He can stop whining in general too while he's at it. He's beating a dead horse
@@ShadowSkyX true
I believe he's saving those amethyst chips for something particular if I remember correctly. Probably is waiting until he gets more bitball commons
12:30
In fact, there's the answer
@@ShadowSkyX What horse is he beating, so to speak?
I probably should have used it on Azami, I mainly held back from using them on Kora, Finch, and Electra because they're reeeeally bad Blades. They would actually be better spent on Commons and we'll be pulling more Rare Blades before we get better Chips. Wanting to leave my options open.
Vandham is such a good character, and I LOVE his unique weapons. Plus his grizzly bear personality is something anyone could enjoy
Ight, I tried to edit the comment to make it say the right thing, but it ain't working
Xenoblade Chronicles 1’s system for how strong an enemy is relative to you and how they might spot you is sorely missed (and gone for not much reason) here
The lack of detection indicators was apparently intentional. According to interviews the director wanted people to learn which species were aggressive in a more natural way (bit of an odd decision, but thankfully it's really easy to tell them apart). The strength indicators, however, are still there. Look at the arrows on the top and bottom of the target marker icon, they'll change between black, blue, white, yellow and red, just like the name tags in XC1.
Scott Elder You still can see enemy threat level when you target an enemy (look for the color around the targeting diamond), but it’s a lot easier to miss than having it in the enemy info bar as it was in 1 and X.
Starts crying immediately when Vandham appears on screen. I love him so much! One of my favorite characters in RPG history
I remember thinking that the oesophagus and Garfont looked absolutely gorgeous, so if you're in the same boat as me for that then I just want to give a little hint about the rest of Uraya ad say that you haven't seen *anything* yet
Roc has one of the best blade designs in the game and that’s a fact. Vandamn is pretty cool too
Yes.
His tig ol' sack bitties are a little strange but yeah
It's only factual if it's been backed up by proven evidence. What you just said was an *OPINIONATED* statement. Don't kids learn anything in school nowadays?
Another great blade from this chapter is Wulfric and HES AMAZING. With max affinity, his attack increases coz of his skill tree. Level 2 special on toppled enemies along with poppis level 1 does great damage.
Roc is best 4. (Obscure datamine reference)
Ok but I love Nia’s “why is this happening to us?!” At around 9:05
This...this was where I really got invested in the game and crossed over from being a solid sequel into a great one. Walking into Garfont and that music kicking in may be the most memorable part of my first playthrough.
Dang what's how much chaos they were making inside of that titans belly I'm surprised it didn't have "Acid Rex-flus!"
I love the twist with vandham, think he's a villain but turns out he's not, also has a cool blade
*1:* ...we're gonna need a bigger boat.
*2:* *Poppi: **_[uses high beams, accidentally destroys Terok Nor]_*
*3:* Poor Dromarch. Even Nia knows he's outclassed, and he's her signature Stand!
*4:* And so we get jumped by a bunch of Aussies.
*5:* Aaaand the leader was just joshing with us. He might seem friendly, but he's still a bogan for jumping us like that.
And there he is, my favorite character!! Much like Emile said, I didn't like him for the same exact reason when I first met him. Just like Emile, That immediately changed after that cutscene. He becomes even better as time goes on too! Uruya is also my favorite Titan but we won't see why it's my favorite until later.
I love how they break expectations and have him become an extremely cool Mentor Character. He's definitely one of my top favorite characters in this game.
Edit: Oh damn (dham?), I never knew he was the Xeno series version of Cid. Also, the confirmation that his name is based on the Jean Claude variety of Vandham.
Good thing Rex has his handy crotch light, and who else thought of “let rip with a FArt” when Vandam said that line. I also really want him to say CRASHING THE MOBILE ARTILLERY INTO A HOUSE!
27:33 "If you know how things work, you can take things out high above your level."
I didn't fully know how things worked until I started watching this LP. Just 2 days ago, I went back to it to do the post game (after a 2 year break), and ended up taking down the level 110 super boss at only level 85, mostly thanks to the driver combo. What Chugga says here is solid advice.
For context: The full combo gives drops, so I was using it to farm items (fully expecting to die). When noticed I was over half way and still doing well, I started aiming for the KO, and barely managed it. This saved a lot of time grinding lower level enemies compared to what most guides suggested grinding at that level.
Why can't Pyra cover up her Emerald Core Crystal with, like, clothing? It seems like so much trouble comes from people recognizing it on her, and she's definitely not wearing too much clothing already lol
The Gormotti disguise worked well, so why didn't they keep using it?
Sorry for the late reply, but the issue is that now, rex is effectively a wanted man, so even if pyra covered up. They could identify her by her being beside rex.
And even if rex wore his helmet, his outfit is distinct enough that one could identify him.
ALSO considering that Nia is ALSO wanted, seeing nia would also raise alarm bells.
Plus, its not like they're wanted in Uraya. Just ardanian territory
20:22
"Swiped his butt like a credit card..."
_and it was on fire, too!_
Emile: All these Blades are great!
Also Emile: These blades are the worst in the entire game
Best character has arrived! I love Vandham so much, really looks like he's seen a thousand battles with those scars and that equipment, yet he's got a heart as big as the titan we rode in on. He's easily the highlight of this chapter for me, he's just got cool oozing from every pore. Can't wait to see him in action.
Another fun part about Vandham is that they didn't give him a big hulking weapon like a hammer or an axe, they gave him a smaller set of dual scythes that he still wields like an expert. It's not much but it's a nice twist on things. I guess technically they're Roc's weapons but w/e, he still wields them.
Speaking of Roc though, I like their design a fair bit, those wings are GIGANTIC, and they're so graceful too. A bit obvious that they're a wind-type Blade but hey, even the obvious can look really cool if you try hard enough. I really am excited to see this pair do their work in the upcoming parts, so hopefully we get some good moments.
Being eaten by part of the map is so unique. I love the idea.
5:25
You talk about the tutorials being bad but worse is the lack of information on things like this. It's quite complicated and how it works is never truly stated in full. It's something you have to memorize.
Vandham is probably the most sincere person we meet on this journey. Love him or hate him, he earns a place in our hearts.
You've inspired me to pick this game back up again. I finished the story, and intended to do the post game and DLC later. After a while, though, I'd completely forgotten how to play, and no good tutorials meant I would have no idea if I tried. Your explanations were a better refresher than even starting a new game would have been. Even this early in the LP, I feel like I understand the mechanics better than I ever have thanks to your explanations, and am now farming superbosses. I even beat the level 110 boss at only level 85 the other day.
And thanks for explaining some of the DLC stuff, as that's proving very helpful. The new trust item saves tons of time, and the custom difficulty helps immensely with grinding insane affinity chart requirements (currently AFK grinding out 600 Blade Combos with auto-battle and max HP settings).
I've been watching old chugga series and the crazy thing is how he's barely changed over the years. If anything he's gotten more enthusiastic!
Wow the area at the start of this episode gives me big Twilight Princess dungeon vibes, I love it so much. I think I'm putting Xenoblade Chronicals 2 on the top of my Christmas list this year with the new Hyrule Warriors game.
This time, on Xenoblade Chronicles 2: We meet Jonah - er, I mean, Vandham!
Ah, Vandham. His name and position may be a running trend in the Xeno series, but I honestly think this incarnation is my favorite (though I haven't played Xenogears or the Xenosaga series). All we've seen is his introduction today, but what an entrance he made! Testing the new Driver of the Aegis, giving us a bit of lore behind the connection between Drivers and Blades, and even giving us one of our first party-even match, despite technically winning. We'll see a LOT more of him later.
Also, we haven't seen much of it yet, but in terms of visual design, Uraya is my favorite looking area in the game. Trust me, you'll see why I love how it looks so much next episode!
Episode Highlight 18: 20:18 "Swiped his butt like a credit card!" Not a sentence I expected to hear when I woke up this morning...
Even if we can't explore all of Uraya right away, I'm glad we get to hear the music right away. Uraya's theme is a very soothing track that pairs beautifully with the area (even if we haven't really seen why yet). Also, a hell yeah for Vandham. The Jean-Claude Van Damme thing makes sense, but my personal theory is that he's intended to be Monolith's version of Cid. Like, one of the higher-ups at MonolithSoft was like "hey, Final Fantasy has this tradition of naming a side-character Cid in every one of their games because it's a fun quirk, why don't we do the same thing for our games?"
Fun Facts: Roc is named after the Rukh, a giant bird of pray in Arabian mytholoy, while his bird-human design is based off the Garuda of Hindu mythology, the aerial mount of the god Vishnu and said to be the king of all birds. His japanese name Suzaku is based off the Vermillion bird of Chinese lore, better known as Feng Huang, one of the 4 Celestial Beast.
The music in the village is so uplifting and positive. It's so good
“Aegis” Counter: 45
Today’s Inktober prompt is “Blade”, so maybe I’ll draw someone from this LP.
This is my first time playing along with your vids and it is making my experience through this game absolutely magical
Am I the only one who says Roc is their favorite blade just because I love his design?
And I just realized that Vandham's blade is where Emile got the nickname for his Archeops from Pokémon White.
I mean, a Roc is a mythical bird. I don't think he was specifically referencing THIS Roc in PKMN White, but they ARE based on the same bird.
Edit: After seeing people's responses to me, I immediately remembered the moment he reveals Archen's nickname he quotes one of Roc's voice lines in this game. So I was wrong, he was referencing this Roc.
@@mawk2722 I wouldn't be surprised if it was THIS Roc. Emile's a gigantic Xenoblade fan.
@@magicdreemurr3771 Given that he said "Roc, pleased to meet you" when he first announced his nickname, I'd say that you are correct.
no, well, hes my 3rd fave, just the others above are heavy spoilers so roc is numba one rn
@@enzoforgets9456 My favorite isn't a Spoiler because it's Brighid.
All these uploads leave me wanting more and sad when they end!! I can’t wait for the next one later today!
When I first met Vandham, I kept on calling him Rex’s Space Dad
"Yeah... I'm like your space dad."
You're getting to my favorite part! XD ❤ Love how the episode starts with them screaming
I was like "oh hey look a chugga video just popped up when I refreshed. This'll cheer me up after that online smash ultimate match!" Boy 0:00 scared the crap out of me because I forgot where we left off. I'm laughing about it now. 😂 Thanks Emile!
I was wondering if it would startle people, hahaha.
The cutscene was extra funny in my playthrough since my update data was glitched so everyone was stuck in their default position except with their eyes floating off.
@@PIKMINROCK1 WHAT!?
@@seansean792 This was before Switch had widespread video recording but I did take screenshots twitter.com/astrogamer/status/1049479274908999681
@@PIKMINROCK1 wow.
Hello again, my gaming friend! And now to quote the actual line: "There's _always_ a bigger fish..."
"Eventually, Kora Stopped Thinking"
It's been a long time coming.
Always cute and fierce, though.
Biggest pet peeve when it comes to games, when you win the fight, but the end cut scene is you getting a complete beat down
And this game has done it several times! Yayyyy....
Pyra: *creates fire*
Urayan Titan: Mr. Tree, I don’t feel to good
(Yes i used a dead meme for a joke so shush)
Ah, Vandham, one of my favorite Xenoblade characters and probably my favorite Xeno series reference to date.
Vanderkaum, who I HATED in Xenogears actually turned into the Cid of the franchise in a move I never saw coming. Vandham is my favorite iteration so far.
20:22 “Swipe his butt like a credit card!”
Chuggaaconroy 2020 ppl
Chugga listens to WAP confirmed
13:30
Those leaf like things are also in a real windpipe. They are there to provide more surface area for the slime to keep your lungs clean. They also have nerves and are connected to muscles so that when something get's into your windpipe they contract and push it up to get it out again.
Looks like this Titan has some frogs in his throat!
Uraya's my favorite titan. The glowy flora, the soft lighting, the Garfont mercs, and that music. Mmm! A bit of a pain to get around at first, but once you reach the main city, a lot of the pain is over.
Now this is how you make a lovable “Boss”
31:52 Another Final Fantasy reference. I keep getting extremely excited every time I hear them, but that probably shows how much I've spent with the series. Anyways to finally make a comment related to the video, Vandham is one of my favorite characters in the game. I love his blade, I love his dynamic and how his views for creating a home for others resonates with Rex's dream of Elysium, I love his voice actor... everything about him is fantastic. I hope all the new timers to the game have a great time with him as well!
The video starts with screams, ok, this is gonna be a wild ride.
10:30 63636
Dam. 35 minutes and it's still always over within a blink of an eye. Love the series keep up the good work :)
In this episode:
Gramps took my joke!
I can’t hate him though.
22:25 Did she say "I-I'm not doin' it for him!"? For some reason I couldn't make out what she was saying
One thing I can't understand is why they removed the ability to switch party members before a forced story fight. I know right now we only have Rex, Nia, and Tora, not being able to switch the part around when you are caught off guard by some story battle is annoying. At least changing the order of the characters would be more helpful than nothing. The original Xenoblade Chronicles had this feature, and it was incredibly useful. Even if you didn't want to switch around the current party, having the option available was nice. I don't see a reason why it was removed as a feature.
The Torna DLC actually lets you do that again. I really wish these QoL improvements had been given to the base game as well, even minor stuff like being able to skip the pointless Inn jingle.
It happens much later, but there's a terrible instance of one specific, spoilery Blade being removed from the party in a cutscene before a bossfight. I really appreciated being denied my healer just in time for a tough battle!
@@VonFirflirch Yeah that is such a bullshit moment, it made it impossible to win the fight for me so I had to die and rearrange things.
I don’t think he has it, but you can get Element Absorb abilities for Poppi by now from Tiger Tiger, and if you’re lucky like I am and get a Water Absorb, it’s incredibly useful for some fights in this area. Element Absorb items basically mean that, on block, the damage you would have taken will be absorbed instead. Poppi being able to have 50% block rate already makes that super helpful
Honestly the first time I saw vandahmn I thought he was so lame but as this chapter went on I think he became one of my favorite characters in the whole game.
time to meet a recurring running trend similar to why the name cid appears in every Final Fantasy game, Vandham. I am glad you found that clip of Xenosaga episode 1.
I had to pick favorite towns in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there's only 2 area's I truly like a whole lot. Garfont is one of them. the other favorite town, isn't till much later in the game.
Emile says he’s not for Affinity Extend, but it does have very limited uses for fighting enemies that cause the Stench status, which can be very situationally annoying, but not a massive deal.
He will never remember that he has that challenger for Poppi. In fact he will go to buy it in like ep 40 and be like "what I already bought it!?" Warning headphone users in ep 40 at 21:47.
Poppi is such a precious little thing.
Something I hope Emile brings up is the magnet hands all the enemies seem to have with their attacks. Like that unique monster managing to pummel Nia from fifteen feet away. It's incredibly jarring and a little infuriating, why can they reach you when you can't reach them?
At the same time, I'm pretty sure you can do that yourself to an extent.
>Use an art ;
>The enemy runs way off ;
>The attack still connects.
That aside, yeah, it's weird x)
I think Vandham is the most well-written character in the game.
...Goddamn, first venture in Uraya, and you get the hail weather effect. I know from searching for weather that it's not horribly common, and it's *really* pretty. More luck from the luck god!
That's hail? Pretty sure its just shimmering rain. there's even an area you can see a massive water spout shooting water during this weather
Use your core chips! The good ones won't stay good forever!
It's like hoarding healing potions in other games. If you keep saving it, you'll be past the point of usefulness before you know it.
Just my 2 cents
I love what Chugga said at 20:22
3:09 Well excuse me Nia we can't all have crotch guard lamps like Rex does.
18:48 Almost as if the Urayan titan has a.... frog in it's throat....
On an unrelated note, Vandam is one of my favorite characters in the game and I think I went through the same thought process as you except with the extra step of "I hope I get his blade when I beat him." Kind of messed up when you think about it more lol.