I must say that this is the deepest element JRPG that I had ever played. It's like it combines the best recipe across all MMORPG and single player RPG till date. Think the elements from RO, Lineage 2, FF, and other RPG that you had known of combined altogether in this masterpiece. The massively large scale beautiful open world is truly something to hold your breath on. If you think Adamantoise or other similar species in FFXIII is the largest monster model that you ever seen, then you will be even more amazed as you are definitely going to see even LARGER monster in Xenoblade.

One downside to this game, sadly, is the camera view. I found myself that I have to manually shift the view just to get the optimal view that I was looking for. The auto adjustment in the setting just didn't live up to my expectation. Take no heed for this weakness as it is a purely subjective matter.

In conclusion, the story is great, the entire game mechanic is impressive, and you are definitely not going to get lost even after leaving in on shelf for a year! Take my word when I say, 'Xenoblade is the JRPG that will leave you craving for more (some even develop OCD on it!), and you are definitely going to spent at least 50 hours on completing this game'.

I have heard many good stuffs about Monster Hunter but it's really a shame that I didn't get the chance to play it. But one thing that I know is Xenoblade will really thrilled any JRPG gamers, be it novice or veteran. Good for you to spent only 30 hours+, I might spent over 100!

For any of you who just want to enjoy the epic story for this game without having time to play, view my YouTube channel here. It took me quite some time to process the final output, so I hope you guys like it.

*I only started to upload video from Prison Tower event which is about a quarter of the story coz that's the moment when I feel the story really started to manifest.

This post has been edited by D.Sync: Apr 25 2012, 09:07 PM

If you want to play safe, just keep Shulk, Reyn and Sharla in your party. Switch Sharla for Dunban for faster victory.

For me I invest heavily on Back Slash, Stream Edge, Slit Edge and Air Slash . For Reyn, invest in any aggro skills. For Sharla, allocate more points on Heal Bullet, Heal Round, Cure Bullet, and Shield Round. That's what I did. Luckily investing skill points doesn't require careful planning like Etrian Odyssey, if you ever play it.

I believe you can maximize Dunban potential in the late game after you had acquired some high quality Agi Up gems and unlocked his additional skill branch. Sure his strength is good but Reyn surpasses him in the area of HP and defence. There had been many times that I didn't get Game Over because Reyn is taking the hits for me. His aggro skills are perfect, which enable me to use Back Slash effectively.

For Shulk, I mainly invest in Buster and Enchant, but with much focus put on Enchant since I use it A LOT, even against non-Mechon enemy for its attack boost. Other skill such as shield, purge, or Speed is pretty much useless since I put Sharla on my team. If I get any vision I can just ask Sharla to heal, hence without the need for Shield. Purge is useful against Telethia only, which you rarely encounter until much late game. So it would be wise to invest only if you really think it is necessary. If you want to invest your AP, it is better to invest in normal arts instead of Monado arts since the cooldown for Monado is long and you need to wait until the Talent gauge is maxed out. In other words, you use normal arts much frequently than Monado arts.

I believe it's Shaker Edge. There is really no point to increase its skill level as increasing it will NOT increase the duration of Daze. Offensive isn't the purpose of this skill. As said, the main purpose of this skill is to inflict the Daze status. It is best used in Chain Attack instead of normal attack as you will notice that its animation is slow. Most of the time you won't even daze the enemies because of the short Topple duration. To use it effectively, equip your characters with Topple Plus gems.

You must definitely increase your Shadow Eye to the max skill since you are a back slash user, which I myself is too It's awesome.

Your strategy seemed fine to progress till the end. Though beating those super-boss will require much more strategy then that.

I agree. To have Melia in your party you have to manually control her. Her AI is just not smart enough.

Make sure you utilize the elementals well, such as the summoning order. E.g Thunder, Summon Copy, Blaze, Earth. This way both Earth and Blaze will gain 40% up while the Thunder (summoned via Copy) will get 20%. There are other combinations as well, just experiment with them.

My generic all rounder team is Shulk, Reyn and Sharla. Although this team is almost guarantee to be fail-proof (no game over screen), the battle might taken long and does not require much strategy. I like your method for mixing around to find out the best team that suit your style. I, on the other hand, only mix and match after I had completed the game. I just like to rush through the entire game to know the story.