I was planning to write a progress report much sooner; but somehow, I found myself wanting to play just a little more instead, then a little more after that... And before I knew it, I had poured 30 hours into the game. On the other hand, 30 hours of
XC2 probably amount to 5 hours in a regular RPG, so that's fine. Without further ado, here's the first of (I bet) many
XC2 progress reports, dear fellow gamers! (
SPOILERS!)
So, where to start? The premise, maybe. I was not expecting to care about the story, like,
at all; but to my utter surprise, I find myself actually sympathizing with Rex and understanding his plight and his subsequent eagerness to trust and follow Pyra. I mean, the kid probably did the math and realize that at the rate the Titans go down, he won't be around to see his grandchildren grow up; that's a terrible prospect for anybody, and an even worse one for a (presumably) virgin teenage boy who spend most of his life slaving away to feed his village. So when a ray of hope suddenly appears, can you really blame him for wanting to cling to it as if his life depended on it — which it might well literally do in that case? As for Pyra herself, I understand her even better now that I've played through chapter 3: she's basically in forced exile, an unwilling outcast who's been torn away from her homeland and wants to go back there at all costs. And talking about Pyra's home, the separation between the Titans and Elysium reminds me eerily of the whole Salem/Scrapyard situation in
Gunnm (a.k.a.
Battle Angel Alita). I have an inkling that if we do indeed reach Elysium, we're gonna discover that it's not as holy a land as we thought and that we were better off on the Titans after all. And since I'm mentioning the Titans, I cannot help but think that they were designed as a bunch of Noah's arks. I mean, they are floating on an endless ocean, with all those animals cohabiting peacefully on their backs... I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out later that they were indeed designed specifically to rescue the last remnants of a dying civilization.
The characters, now. Well, I like them overall, and I have a special soft spot for Nia; in fact, I would definitely play as her if not for the fact that she's a healer and doesn't accommodate my bull-like fighting style. So far, I find myself disliking only two characters. One is Akhos, that arrogant, precious stuck-up little Harry Potter clone; and the other... Well, it pains me to admit it, but the other is Mythra herself. Gosh, I
vomit her. Why, Monolith Soft? Why did you feel the need to squeeze that immature, touchy, violent tsundere b*tch into your game? Why not stick with Pyra, darn it? Pyra is calm, cool and collected, in a gentle and motherly way; and she was just
perfect as the female lead. My party's chemistry was amazing until that broad Mythra popped up and ruined it all with her temper tantrums — like, blaming Rex for having "awakened her" while he was not even aware of her existence, calling him a pervert for oggling at her bosom for a nanosecond while she's the one prancing around half-naked, or slapping him hard for mentioning that she was blushing. The worse part is that so far, there is absolutely no sound justification for her existence, apart from fulfilling the tsundere quota and creating a lame love triangle between her, Pyra and Rex. The story implies that her changing into Pyra is a way to restrict her
immense power, but that doesn't explain why she has to change her looks
and behaviour in the process. Why did she feel the need to create a mellow alter ego for herself? Did her aggressivity cause a calamity of sorts in the past, or is she just ashamed of her violent personality? Well, she should.
Now let's talk gameplay, folks! You know I like to keep things simple and streamlined when I play RPGs; and to my utter delight,
XC2 is very much in the mood to accommodate me. I've been sticking to my initial Blades — Pyra/Mythra, Poppi
α and Dromarch — in combat and doing just fine, and I fully intend to keep doing that as long as I can get away with it. So far, I've had no desire to start training with my other Blades; but you never know what might happen in the next hours. That's not to say that I didn't dabble in Blade bonding: I managed to snatch rare Blades Godfrey, Perun and Nim (the latter from a mere Common Crystal!) and they're currently busy slaving away on Merc Missions. I've not been touching Salvaging and Pouch Item management so far, but I fully intend to pore over it in the next hours, all the more so as I amassed a considerable amount of cash already and need some outlets for it. But no rush here, I still have dozens of hours of play ahead!
As for my progression, I'm currently in Mor Ardain, trying to break into that shady factory. (That's chapter 4, although I routinely tend to forget that this game has chapters.) My whole crew is Level 37; and if the levels of the foes I'm currently facing are any indication, I'm a teeny-tiny bit overleveled. It's not like I actively grinded, though: I find myself fighting for fun on my way to places, just because I
love combat in that game, and I cannot help but tackle every side quest that comes my way. And talking about side quests, they're very much a mixed bunch. They range from entertaining and forgiving to obnoxious and hardcore, and there's no way to know how they roll before accepting them. I finished roughly half of them so far, leaving the other half for later — or never. (I'm not losing sleep over uncleared side quests, I can assure you.) Overall, I've been progressing without a hitch so far, taking down bosses and unique monsters without breaking a sweat — which may or may not be due to the fact that I'm playing in Easy Mode. That's not too glorious of me, but I didn't want to run the risk of toiling on random encounters and being stuck on hardcore foes in a game that vast and that brimming with features and systems to manage.
And that's it for my 30-hour progress report, dear fellow gamers. I'll see you soon with more
XC2 goodness; and as usual, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
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