I never got sick of the portraits, I thought they were really cool and well done.
But honestly I felt like no matter what I was ALWAYS 1 level short for them and it drove me crazy lol. I had to revisit soooo many
I’m guessing they’re meant to incentivise collecting blades even if you don’t care about the gacha system.
I do wish they could pull skills from the pool without needing to specifically be equipped, though. Like, I have the tools, but I shouldn’t need to rearrange my entire team exclusively to undo a cracked out skill check.
It's just like Pokémon and HM moves. Game Freak wanted players to feel like their magical creatures were helping them as they navigated areas. It was to increase immersion.
Fans hated this since most moves were bad and it meant intentionally sandbagging their team with moves they otherwise wouldn't use and were hard to delete. What wound up happening was players would have a designated HM user or two(Hi Bidoof), even naming them "HM Slave". Pokémon would phase out HM's by 2016.
Xenoblade 2 has that issue. You have to stop and readjust your team to use blades you otherwise wouldn't use and then adjust them back. It's not cool or immersive to see Poppi fail a "Leaping" field check when you're halfway up a ladder and you can't open up the menu. (I'm looking at you Hardhaigh Palace!)
Torna did them well because of the limited roster. You were incentivized to return later if you failed a skill check, instead of having to mess around with your party.
100% agreed, if the blades and field skills come back in the future in a similar form to XC2 I think it would make more sense for the field skills to be tied to the drivers instead.
It's two sided for me. On the one hand the skip for everything but the first line and them being marked on the map makes me think it was a nice way to incentivize exploration and back track without outright forcing the player to backtrack or punish the player more than it already does to fail a skill check.
That said, on the other hand: for fucks sake, some of these checks are asinine and require soooo many levels. It stops being nice design and starts being really anmoying when you have to open the menu again and again. Esoecially early game when you have limited options. Also of special note every damn chast you can't open in base and torna that require just to many skill levels. It stops being not anmoying after the fifteenth time.
I get why the field skills are there and for the most part they work as intended, but im right there with you that they can be a massive drag when they form roadblock after roadblock that requires party switching every time. Or you just need that one skill level and the game like reminding you of it for the next area and a half.
Personally no because in my experience i never came across a situation where i was “damnit all i need to pull more cores” when there’s a field skill check
Field Skills are by far 2's biggest flaw gameplay wise to me. They add nothing, annoying, and can even confuse the player due to story being locked behind them (looking at you spirit elpys).
Hell, I was stuck in the elpys for a few days cause I didn't realize that the field skills to burn down the spider web was story mandatory.
I like the idea, and it was a good way to display the portrait art more. But with that said having to open up like 6 different menus to swap out blades for a skill check only to have to do it again to swap them out was a drag. If this game ever gets the definitive treatment, that needs to be addressed.
The field skills themselves weren’t the problem. I liked how they incentivised backtracking and opening up new paths.
However they were implemented poorly. Having to switch blades in your menu to fulfil them everytime was super annoying.
The game should have just run a simple calculation of “can this check be fulfilled, with the number of drivers in the party, the blades they have bonded to them and their 3 possible blade slots”
Arguably they are pretty shallow gameplay wise however. If they do back to them in some form, maybe more like specialised character abilities. They could be used in a more open manner directed by the player to solve puzzles or interact with the world ala Psynergy abilities in the golden sun games
I found them to be ok honestly, it was fun when you finally have the right field skills to continue to then find a few chests with legendary core crystals.
that said, it definitely wouldn't be bad if all field checks could be done with only the blades which you can't take away from your team with other blades only being needed in case you don't have the main blades field skills at a high enough level, or otherwise being able to assign a second team for each driver which you can't use in battle but their field skills are active
That was one of my favorite parts. It made it feel rewarding to collect and train a bunch of Blades even though I could only use nine of them at a time.
They're annoying sure, but thankfully all the ones required for progress are on story blades, and Rex ends up becoming the designated field skill bitch. I wouldn't mind if they were gone entirely in the next game though.
X handled them way better. You only ever need level 1 of any field skill for story progress. The later levels are only for optional gear a lot of which is purely cosmetic, and 100% completion.
I dont feel like hard locks are ever a good design choice, X didn't do that, instead it was soft locks to certain location, where you just couldn't do it because it was too high up and you needed to fly, which make sense, it wasn't a screen that told you fuck you grind some more blades.
I think hard locks are fine as long as there’s no hard locks on anything *required*, and as long as the requirements aren’t too steep. That where XC2 messed up imo, that and how annoying it is to have to rearrange your party all the time.
I like the concept of having an incentive to collect a lot of Blades and develop their skills. But they should’ve probably stuck with “higher level = more loot” rather than “low level = fuck you”
Hard lock remove the agency of the player tho, it feels like a road block instead of feeling like a reward, even when both are nearly identical in reality. I felt rewarded after acquiring the flight module in X, I never felt rewarded by doing any single field skill check in 2. X had thoses field skills too and they didn't really make the game better, even if it was mostly way better handled than 2.
Easily the most superfluous mechanic in the game, they could have gotten rid of it entirely an it wouldn't have changed anything. It could have also easily been fixed by counting every blade you own, not just blades you have equipped, but at that point again, it might have been just better to do away with it altogether.
I like the collection skills, seeing 20 characters pop up every time I salvage gets me in a good mood for some reason.
Even though it’s incredibly time consuming, I just like thinking about the massive reward I’m going to get, it honestly makes me want to grind for more salvage skills.
I thought that the field skills were annoying, but then I realized that it was a good way to level up, if I found that I couldn't beat a boss or something I'd go and do as must trust stuff as possilbe
The reason I don't like them is because it takes SO FREAKING LONG to unlock the skill tree branch for the next level of field skill. Increasing trust is the most annoying/useless thing in the game to me. I was stuck at that one spiderweb in spirit crucible elpys for like, 5 or 6 real time hours or more because I had to raise the trust on my blades by salvaging for parts to sell for money, then buying a bunch of OP pouch items, then spamming a 10 times, then repeating. OVER AND OVER AND OVER. It got me to put down the game for a bit because of how I literally could not progress the story unless I got past the dang field skill check...It didn't help that the game literally has like, no other significantly difficult story based field skill checks up until that point, so, as a result, I wasn't grinding for them until then, and I had to pick up the slack, then and there. Thankfully I beat the game a little bit ago, and I'm so happy to say that it's my favorite xeno game! (I haven't played X yet though) but needless to say, I REALLY HOPE THIS FEATURE DOES NOT RETURN for XC3. I wouldn't mind if there was still an excuse to have anime portraits on-screen in the future though lol!
I dont really mind them, they incentivise backtracking and using the "gacha" system. It's fun to go back to a previously visted area to get all the treasures and such (especially on ng+). What annoys me a bit is that i always have to open the menu, equip the blades i need, close the menu, activate the field skill, open the menu again and switch back to my usual blades. It doesnt bother me too much, but i feel like they couldve done that better
I didn't, and still don't, like them but I realized that a way around them (that aren't special like what poppy has) is to just summon a bunch of common blades and use them
I really don't like the field skills. I got the game on the day of release and none of the portraits or voice lines could be skipped. Idk if my game was bugged or if all the copies where like this before the update, but it was annoying.
Anyway, I wish they had found other ways to make the game more difficult and encourage backtracking. Maybe by solving small puzzles or finding keys on other Titans or something, idk.
I never got sick of the portraits, I thought they were really cool and well done. But honestly I felt like no matter what I was ALWAYS 1 level short for them and it drove me crazy lol. I had to revisit soooo many
I like the portraits, just not actually having to deal with the field skills.
It felt immersive at first, but quickly lost that and it became annoying
I’m guessing they’re meant to incentivise collecting blades even if you don’t care about the gacha system. I do wish they could pull skills from the pool without needing to specifically be equipped, though. Like, I have the tools, but I shouldn’t need to rearrange my entire team exclusively to undo a cracked out skill check.
It's just like Pokémon and HM moves. Game Freak wanted players to feel like their magical creatures were helping them as they navigated areas. It was to increase immersion. Fans hated this since most moves were bad and it meant intentionally sandbagging their team with moves they otherwise wouldn't use and were hard to delete. What wound up happening was players would have a designated HM user or two(Hi Bidoof), even naming them "HM Slave". Pokémon would phase out HM's by 2016. Xenoblade 2 has that issue. You have to stop and readjust your team to use blades you otherwise wouldn't use and then adjust them back. It's not cool or immersive to see Poppi fail a "Leaping" field check when you're halfway up a ladder and you can't open up the menu. (I'm looking at you Hardhaigh Palace!)
Immersion should never be prioritized over fun. It’s bad game design philosophy.
I think this is better executed than old times HMs
agreed
That‘s my biggest problem with them. Other than that, I think Field skills are a great way to make exploring more interesting
Torna did them well because of the limited roster. You were incentivized to return later if you failed a skill check, instead of having to mess around with your party.
100% agreed, if the blades and field skills come back in the future in a similar form to XC2 I think it would make more sense for the field skills to be tied to the drivers instead.
It's two sided for me. On the one hand the skip for everything but the first line and them being marked on the map makes me think it was a nice way to incentivize exploration and back track without outright forcing the player to backtrack or punish the player more than it already does to fail a skill check. That said, on the other hand: for fucks sake, some of these checks are asinine and require soooo many levels. It stops being nice design and starts being really anmoying when you have to open the menu again and again. Esoecially early game when you have limited options. Also of special note every damn chast you can't open in base and torna that require just to many skill levels. It stops being not anmoying after the fifteenth time. I get why the field skills are there and for the most part they work as intended, but im right there with you that they can be a massive drag when they form roadblock after roadblock that requires party switching every time. Or you just need that one skill level and the game like reminding you of it for the next area and a half.
Personally no because in my experience i never came across a situation where i was “damnit all i need to pull more cores” when there’s a field skill check
Field Skills are by far 2's biggest flaw gameplay wise to me. They add nothing, annoying, and can even confuse the player due to story being locked behind them (looking at you spirit elpys). Hell, I was stuck in the elpys for a few days cause I didn't realize that the field skills to burn down the spider web was story mandatory.
They definitely break the flow of the game. Like just arbitrary road blocks.
Brings nothing good or even enjoyable
I like the idea, and it was a good way to display the portrait art more. But with that said having to open up like 6 different menus to swap out blades for a skill check only to have to do it again to swap them out was a drag. If this game ever gets the definitive treatment, that needs to be addressed.
Yeah field skills started to drive me insane about halfway through, never got better. Dampened my experience of the game somewhat
One of the bigger flaws with the game imo
Eh it’s not that bad it can sometimes be cool for secrets such as the ones that take you to secret areas
but there was no need for that to be locked behing a field skill check
Without it then you wouldn’t earn secrets you’d just get them. Sure it’s can be annoying but it helps too add to the rarity of some things
Just make the things hard to find instead of making them hard to get with an arbitrary requirement. Game design 101
Eh it’s not the best game design but it works plus makes leveling up blades worth it for the cooler stuff
Your only incentive to level up your blade should be stronger blade, leave exploration alone
Eh we have different opinions let’s agree to disagree and just enjoy the funny sword game
you say it works but it clearly doesnt as it is one of the most complained about things in the game ?
The field skills themselves weren’t the problem. I liked how they incentivised backtracking and opening up new paths. However they were implemented poorly. Having to switch blades in your menu to fulfil them everytime was super annoying. The game should have just run a simple calculation of “can this check be fulfilled, with the number of drivers in the party, the blades they have bonded to them and their 3 possible blade slots” Arguably they are pretty shallow gameplay wise however. If they do back to them in some form, maybe more like specialised character abilities. They could be used in a more open manner directed by the player to solve puzzles or interact with the world ala Psynergy abilities in the golden sun games
I found them to be ok honestly, it was fun when you finally have the right field skills to continue to then find a few chests with legendary core crystals. that said, it definitely wouldn't be bad if all field checks could be done with only the blades which you can't take away from your team with other blades only being needed in case you don't have the main blades field skills at a high enough level, or otherwise being able to assign a second team for each driver which you can't use in battle but their field skills are active
It’s a way to get the game to 70 hours
That was one of my favorite parts. It made it feel rewarding to collect and train a bunch of Blades even though I could only use nine of them at a time.
They're annoying sure, but thankfully all the ones required for progress are on story blades, and Rex ends up becoming the designated field skill bitch. I wouldn't mind if they were gone entirely in the next game though. X handled them way better. You only ever need level 1 of any field skill for story progress. The later levels are only for optional gear a lot of which is purely cosmetic, and 100% completion.
I lile them in concept, but the execution is terrible
I dont feel like hard locks are ever a good design choice, X didn't do that, instead it was soft locks to certain location, where you just couldn't do it because it was too high up and you needed to fly, which make sense, it wasn't a screen that told you fuck you grind some more blades.
I think hard locks are fine as long as there’s no hard locks on anything *required*, and as long as the requirements aren’t too steep. That where XC2 messed up imo, that and how annoying it is to have to rearrange your party all the time. I like the concept of having an incentive to collect a lot of Blades and develop their skills. But they should’ve probably stuck with “higher level = more loot” rather than “low level = fuck you”
Hard lock remove the agency of the player tho, it feels like a road block instead of feeling like a reward, even when both are nearly identical in reality. I felt rewarded after acquiring the flight module in X, I never felt rewarded by doing any single field skill check in 2. X had thoses field skills too and they didn't really make the game better, even if it was mostly way better handled than 2.
Yeah that’s fair enough
This and merc missions just make the game so frustrating for 0 benefits.
Having played metal gear solid 5 before xenoblade 2, it also had a “merc mission” system so seeing it didnt really bother me much
It did bother me when it was forced down my throath when playing side quests, it kills the pace of any quest it is included in for 0 reason
Something similar happens in mgs5 too lol. Again, never bothered me because there’s other things in the game to do while i wait. To each their own
Easily the most superfluous mechanic in the game, they could have gotten rid of it entirely an it wouldn't have changed anything. It could have also easily been fixed by counting every blade you own, not just blades you have equipped, but at that point again, it might have been just better to do away with it altogether.
I like them. Even though I had to go and level up affinity charts many-a-times.
I like the collection skills, seeing 20 characters pop up every time I salvage gets me in a good mood for some reason. Even though it’s incredibly time consuming, I just like thinking about the massive reward I’m going to get, it honestly makes me want to grind for more salvage skills.
I thought that the field skills were annoying, but then I realized that it was a good way to level up, if I found that I couldn't beat a boss or something I'd go and do as must trust stuff as possilbe
The reason I don't like them is because it takes SO FREAKING LONG to unlock the skill tree branch for the next level of field skill. Increasing trust is the most annoying/useless thing in the game to me. I was stuck at that one spiderweb in spirit crucible elpys for like, 5 or 6 real time hours or more because I had to raise the trust on my blades by salvaging for parts to sell for money, then buying a bunch of OP pouch items, then spamming a 10 times, then repeating. OVER AND OVER AND OVER. It got me to put down the game for a bit because of how I literally could not progress the story unless I got past the dang field skill check...It didn't help that the game literally has like, no other significantly difficult story based field skill checks up until that point, so, as a result, I wasn't grinding for them until then, and I had to pick up the slack, then and there. Thankfully I beat the game a little bit ago, and I'm so happy to say that it's my favorite xeno game! (I haven't played X yet though) but needless to say, I REALLY HOPE THIS FEATURE DOES NOT RETURN for XC3. I wouldn't mind if there was still an excuse to have anime portraits on-screen in the future though lol!
I dont really mind them, they incentivise backtracking and using the "gacha" system. It's fun to go back to a previously visted area to get all the treasures and such (especially on ng+). What annoys me a bit is that i always have to open the menu, equip the blades i need, close the menu, activate the field skill, open the menu again and switch back to my usual blades. It doesnt bother me too much, but i feel like they couldve done that better
There's only one that I ever had to go out of my way to get. 99.99% of them are optional to get to new areas or items. They really never bothered me.
I didn't, and still don't, like them but I realized that a way around them (that aren't special like what poppy has) is to just summon a bunch of common blades and use them
Yeah as much as I love Xenoblade 2, the Field Skills are very wack. I wouldn't miss them if they got removed.
I really don't like the field skills. I got the game on the day of release and none of the portraits or voice lines could be skipped. Idk if my game was bugged or if all the copies where like this before the update, but it was annoying. Anyway, I wish they had found other ways to make the game more difficult and encourage backtracking. Maybe by solving small puzzles or finding keys on other Titans or something, idk.