38. The Need for Grinding is Rare. In Xenoblade Chronicles, having to grind to level up your characters is rare. Exploring, achievements, and quests grant enough experience that more often than not you will find yourself at the needed level to play the main game. Of course, this really depends on how you approach the game. If you choose to fast play the game, ignoring quests and exploration, you’ll likely find that grinding is necessary. But most people will tell you that the need for grinding in Xenoblade is a rare thing.
37. Chaining Enemies For Better Chest Drops. If you can manage to defeat more than one enemy of the same type in the same battle, you can increase your odds for receiving a silver or gold chest. Depending on how many enemies you chain together, your chances for a gold chest greatly improve. The easiest way to get a gold chest drop is by chaining enemies.
36. Weather. In Xenoblade, there are random weather conditions. Sometimes there may be rain, sometimes there may be thunderstorms. There are other weather conditions as well but we’ll leave them for you to experience yourself. There are certain enemies and unique enemies that will only appear in specific weather conditions.
35. Side and Back Attacks. In Xenoblade Chronicles, there are Arts (Abilities) that are only effective if used from the side or from the back. This means you are going to be circling your enemies in order to effectively land a blow. If the enemy is targeting your lead character, you will not be able to circle around it. You can only do so if the enemy is targeting one of your other party members or if the enemy is incapacitated.
34. Battle Commands. You can issue battle commands to your party while in battle. You only have limited options such as withdraw and attack. You can call your party to you which is useful when you want your party to stop attacking or if you want to have them start attacking again. This can be used when an enemy is winning against you and you want to flee. Also, if a party member is getting too close to an edge in battle, calling them towards you may prevent them from falling.
33. The Bosses Wait for You. Having trouble with a boss? Not a problem in Xenoblade. If you get defeated, you’ll start right back at just outside of the range of the boss. Most boss battles have landmarks close by so it’s easy to leave to do some leveling, and then return. Level up two or three levels and that boss should no longer be an obstacle. Return via landmark and the boss will be there, waiting for you without having to replay parts of the story.
32. Vision of The Future in Battle. While in battle, if an enemy is about to defeat one of your party members, a lot of times a vision will occur. Visions temporarily stop the battle and show you the move that the enemy is going to use that defeats your party member. You then are given the option of choosing an ability that can perhaps stop this from happening. Visions last for only a couple of seconds and are particularly handy when battling tough foes.
31. Colony 9. Colony 9 is the starting point of the game. Colony 9 is where Shulk, Reyn, Dunban, and Fiora all live. It is located at the foot of the Giant God Bionis. You’ll find a variety of enemies in this area including Bunny like creatures called Bunnits, Crab like creatures called Krabbles, and many others as well. While most of the enemies in the area are what you would expect for a starting area, that is to say, easy, you’ll want to be careful if you decide to fully explore the map of colony 9 because there are certain areas in the far areas of the map that have much higher leveled enemies waiting to ambush the unsuspecting explorer.
30. New Game +. Xenoblade Chronicles does have a Game +. What this means is that after you complete the game the first time, you can choose to play the game again and carry over certain content from your first playthrough. We won’t tell you anything else about it as to not spoil it for you, we’re just letting you know that it is there.
29. Quest Visions. We mentioned earlier about the collectibles that can be found all over the game world and are represented as blue dots on the ground as you explore. Collectibles can be used for completing quests, using in the collectopedia( We will detail this later), as well as for trading and selling.
A neat feature in Xenoblade is that on occasion when you come across a new collectible, you might get a vision that you will need the collectible later for a quest. Sometimes visions will even let you know how many of the collectible you are going to need for the quest. This lets you know to hold on to the collectible instead of using it for other reasons.
28. Riki Character Profile. Riki is a member of the Nopon race. The Nopon live in Makna Forest inside and around a giant tree. Riki believes he is the legendary Heropon spoke of in the Nopon legends. Riki is not very knowledgeable of the world outside of the forest, but for what he lacks in knowledge, he makes up for in bravery and ability.
Though small, Riki is quite capable in battle. With his high HP and healing ability, he is a welcome addition to any team. Riki also has some of the most useful skills in the game. You can share these skills with your other party members providing you build up your relationship levels with Riki.
27. Dual-Layered Disc. This tidbit has nothing to with the game, but it does have to do with the Xenoblade Chronicles game disc. Xenoblade Chronicles comes on a dual layered dvd game disc. Other games that run on a dual layer disc include Smash Brothers, Metroid: Other M, Metroid Trilogy, and Sakura Wars: So Long My Love . Every Wii is capable of reading these discs obviously, but we just wanted to inform everybody in case that information is relevant to them.
26. Skill Tree Examined. The Skill Tree can be used to link skills gained between all the different team members of your party. There are 5 skills each team member can share from another team member. So, if there are 6 team members in your party, this would mean you have an additional 25 skills you can use. Some skills cannot be shared.
Skill linking is dependent on the affinity level between characters as well as how many affinity coins you have received. Affinity coins are gained from defeating bosses and unique enemies. The more useful abilities cost more affinity coins. In the image, the player cannot select the skill they want because it reruires 7 coins and they only have 6 left of 64. They need to unequip a skill which will free up the coins.
The shapes represent what kind of skill can be linked, different shapes mean different kinds of skills. When a shape has a yellow border, you have the required affinity level so the shape is unlocked. In the image, Shulk has maxed out affinty with Reyn and Sharla, but has very little with Riki or Melia.
25. Finding The Next Destination Made Easy. In Xenoblade Chronicles, you won’t have to wander around aimlessly searching for the next destination to continue the story. There is almost always a yellow arrow at the top of the screen that acts like a compass, pointing to the next destination, and also telling you how far away that location is.
24. Reviving Characters. You won’t find any Phoenix Downs or Max Revives in this game! Instead, reviving characters requires you to sacrifice a bar of your Party Gauge. The Party Gauge can be filled by using moves correctly (such as using Back Slash from behind) and by combining certain Arts. It may be wise to avoid using a Chain Attack in a difficult battle, as you may need to revive a party member instead.
A party member who loses all of their HP during battle will be automatically revived at the end of it. There are also Gems in Xenoblade that increase the amount of HP recovered when you revive a party member. Some Auras will grant HP just before a party member is knocked out or incapacitated.
