Got this for Christmas this year, really loving it so far, just finished chapter 2 and called it a night. I remember reading from someone that this was a "JRPG-ass JRPG", and that's exactly how I'd describe it. I really missed games like this, so I'm just taking it all in.
Voice acting is very very bad from the non-british/scottish/irish characters, but the cutscenes are really fun and really anime.
2 questions:
- Does anyone have an issue running straight forward with a Pro Controller? I've tried all sorts of things to fix it, but it doesn't seem to work. When I click the joystick in, it works for a minute or so, but then it also messes up the minimap.
- Can someone explain how Blade Combos work? My gf was nagging me during the explanation and I don't get what they do. Are they the reason I see the ZL and ZR prompts for my teammates to use their skills?
I'm about as far into the game as you are (I got it for Christmas too), so don't take my word as the best explanation. But here's what I understand so far:
1. Each character has arts they can pull off. They are assigned to 3 of your face buttons (X, Y, B). As you pull off arts, you build up a meter which allows you to execute a "special", which can be executed by pressing the A button.
2. The Special comes in 4 levels (I, II, III, IV). Each incrementing level is a stronger special. But more importantly, these levels also allow you to do blade combos.
3. Each blade also has an elemental type (e.g Fire, water, etc.). There are types which have weaknesses to other types, as you'd expect. There is a symbol near the enemies health to indicate their elemental weakness. More importantly, these elements need to be kept in mind when executing blade combos.
4. When you execute a level 1 special, you'll notice symbols appear in the top right of the screen.
5. Whatever the elemental type is of your blade that executed the special will set the start of the tree. For example, a fire special will create a tree of symbols at the top right, where the first symbol is fire.
6. It needs to be a level 1 special to invoke this tree because each layer of the tree actually corresponds to the level of your special. So to start at the beginning of the tree, you need to execute a level 1 special.
7. To move down the tree means that you need to execute specials of incrementing level. So going from the first layer of the tree to the next, means you'll need to execute a level 2 special now. To move from the 2nd layer to the 3rd, you'll need to execute a level 3 special.
8. However, it's not as simple as executing level 1, 2 and 3 specials in that order. They also have to match the elemental symbols as indicated in the tree. Going down this tree will eventually lead you to the 3rd layer, which invokes a little cut scene and does a lot of damage.
9. Going down this tree is what's known as a blade combo.
10. Once you execute a blade combo all the way to the level 3, it will create an orb that floats around the enemy. This orb corresponds to the type of special you just executed. It indicates that the enemy has a resistance to that type now. So the game encourages you to execute blade combos with different elements. Multiple orbs can surround the enemy, meaning they can build up multiple resistances.
11. You get button prompts (ZL and ZR) because you can tell your buddies when to execute their specials. Remember, your own blade has a specific elemental type, and the blade combo tree often requires a mixture of types, meaning you also rely on your teammates to move down the blade combo tree since they might have a special with the right type + level. Pressing ZL or ZR invokes your teammates' special. They will have little white balls flying around their ZL or ZR icon, indicating what level special they're up to. The symbols that appear for your teammates sometimes have the ZL or ZR icon, or they are just a simple symbol without the button prompts. This is because you can tell your teammates to execute a special, even if t doesn't advance you along the blade combo tree (e.g they have a level 1 special ready, but you need a level 2 special to advance along the tree, so you can invoke their special pre-maturely if you want, but it's only recommended if they also have the ZL or ZR symbol as well). This is only a recommendation though, don't feel obliged to do it, and you can make up your own tactics on when to execute things.
12. Remember you can also switch blades (on the D-pad), so you can have different blades of different types to help you go down the elemental tree on your own.
That's all there is to blade combos. It's quite difficult to get the timings right but also fun trying to manage it.
After this, there's also a thing called chain attacks. But I'll leave that for you to find out. It's basically a thing you can do after blade combos.
That's what I understand of it anyway. I'm quite new, so I've probably said a few wrong things! But I hope it helps anyway.
EDIT: Actually I think you don't need the *exact* special level to move across the tree. It just has to be *at least* that level. So to start a blade combo tree, it should be a 1+ special level, to move from layer 1 to 2, it should be 2+ and so on. I think anyway.
