Overwhelmed, lost and confused.

Boy, now I'm not pretending to be fluent in JRPG's because I'm not and I don't want to sound like I need my hand held everywhere I go but Xenoblade Chronicles X is one of the most overwhelming games I've ever played. Hell I've played many deep MMO's that do a better job explaining themselves and offer a good amount of freedom at the same time. Not saying X's freedom is unwelcomed, I love the world vastness but I feel so overwhelmed by everything going on that I'm not having fun playing it. I don't want to sound like a moaning mike here but I think I've spent the vast majority of time reading the manual and looking at online forums. The missions I have available are mostly undoable right now so I've basically been planting probes and randomly suddenly dying every few minutes despite being careful to miss more powerful creatures. I feel like they throw mechanics/features at you without explaining it at least a little bit. Again, I'm sure I must come across as a real fool to most of you because I'm sure the vast majority of you know what's going on and how it all works but the troubling thing is I love the basics of X but feel so overwhelmed and lost that I'm just having no fun playing it. I should note I didn't play the original but heard nothing but praise. I feel at times like the developer have purposely made aspects of this more confusing than they need to be.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I just to stupid? Or is it all me? I would seriously love some honest opinions from people who've played X. I sense I could have fun with X, but I don't know what's going on half the time.

Thanks and be kind.

I feel Exactly the same way! How long have you played? I'm about 10 hours in and I feel like it's *starting* to click with me. It's certainly an overwhelming game, and there seems to be a lot of stuff carried over from the first game (that I didn't play). However, nothing at the start seems super critical, so it's perfectly okay to take your time to get accustomed to the systems and it won't hurt you long-term by missing anything. What's keeping me going more than the mechanics or anything is just the style; I love (some of) the music and the feeling of the giant plain with all these weird monsters. But, yeah, you're not alone at all! I'm constantly on the internet or the guide trying to figure out (or remember) what anything does or is. Then again, I'm very patient with games and this is one of the few I'll buy this year, so I don't mind this so much.

XCX has a lot of systems that are poorly explained and most of us probably ran into a similar issue/scenario that you did. While I absolutely love the game, it has some glaring issues in that department. If you could give us some more specific info, I'll try to remember what I was doing at the point in the game.

What's the general level of you and your party members? What's your next story mission and how many stars do the available missions have?

Feel free to ask specific questions

I think you're doing pretty well! XCX can be very confusing and light on explanation, but planting probes and getting that network going is a great early step. Try not to get too discouraged with getting flattened by high-level creatures. Annoying as it can be, circumventing monsters like this remains a pretty big part of the game, and it will continue to happen (at least, it did for me!). Things like how the resource collection works are more fully explained as you go, and after quite a few hours, the story shapes up to the point where you have a more clear and interesting directive to pursue, if nothing else.

It can be a little boring, especially early on when not much is developed, but it's worth taking foot trips around different sections of New LA regularly. Lots of quests show up there that will help you progress your party, and they're usually a lot more interesting than what's on the quest board. Affinity missions (the ones sitting in the world that require certain party members at certain levels) are, from what I saw, the best stuff in the game. Check them out while you can, but heed the game's warning well: once you accept an affinity mission, you cannot cancel it, nor can you accept new story missions until it's done. I have no fucking clue why this is, but remembering this can save a lot of headaches. After a few chapters of questing, things start to make a lot more sense. Oh, and don't forget to use the fast travel to get around!

You're not wrong that XCX is full of confusing systems like this; here's hoping things become more clear over time.

I put about 10-15 hours into my first play through, got frustrated, stopped playing for about a month, started a new game from scratch, and am now having a great time with it.

Just plant your probes and keep some quests that sound like you can handle them active at all times. It'll all eventually click.

@machofantastico: You are far from alone. I finished the game back in January and had a long discussion with two friends afterward about our experiences with it. We all agreed the game was badly in need of a longer tutorial of some kind. Also, the game's interface designer should probably be fired.

Message boards and videos are sadly going to be your best friend with this game and explaining its inner workings. So I'd suggest not hesitating to Google for more information or ask people on the forum for help. A lot of the game admittedly is kind of wandering around and kind of stumbling into understanding it. The in-game manual is quite helpful, if a bit sparse in explaining some concepts.

As the idiot who spent nearly 300 hours in the game, your experience is par for the course.

I've indulged myself to all the official promotional and preview material of the game, so I came in to the game prepared. It might help to watch the subtitled versions of the half-hour Japanese promos:

But even then, these videos won't teach you the flow of the game or how the numerous systems interact with each other.

Starting out, finish the first three story chapters that serve as the slight tutorial sequence. You'll unlock the network features after Chapter 3, don't worry about it. From there, you can do what you want. The two most useful things are to plant as many probes as you can and raising your Mechanical Skill every time you increase your BLADE level.

The Basic missions you get from the mission board are mostly throwaway extra things. They often lead you to your doom, if they lead you anywhere at all. Normal missions (quests you pick up from red questions marks over named NPCs) have a bit more direction and story. Try to do those if you are able. Affinity missions can do a good job of guiding you to interesting places, but some (like The Repair Job) can get you stuck with some of the more bullshit systems of the game.

This game is unfocused and varied to it's detriment. Also, that was pretty much the design goal of the game. If you set out to do something specific and immediate in Xenoblade Chronicles X, that is the path to hating the game immensely. Unfortunately, this game is best played with a meandering and fickle attitude.

The game is a confusing sort of mess, a beautiful thing covered in a lot of unexplained and un-evolved systems that barely make any sense, and when they do, operate in the most ass-backwards way possible, to the point where trying to navigate them is a huge pain.

Really your only "goal" at first should be to try and uncover as much of the map as you can, and plant as many probes as possible. Also going for the yellow treasure chest things whenever you are able, and collecting all of the crystals. It's essentially a platformer to start out with, but on a giant scale. Just try and enjoy exploring the world and marveling at the landscapes. Kill any enemies you feel like you're able to just to learn the combat, and accept any missions you see out in the field, but that's about as far as you need to worry. It's worth doing the story missions whenever you are able.

If you find all of the systems overwhelming, you can safely ignore things like the quest board, most gear, all of the bizarre multiplayer, the convoluted affinity tree, the ridiculous party system, (you're fine to just stick with your core 4 people for most of the game), the crafting system and most of your stats.

Hi everyone, thanks for all the tips. Sorry I've only got around to reply just now. As things stand I think I'm finally getting into some sort of groove, even though I was pretty much ready to throw my Wii U out of the window trying to get a research probe. I got lucky with a treasure box and was able to finally complete that darn quest and move on. I still don't understand a lot of what's going on but I'm feeling better about it.

I've just entered the second continent which is probably my favourite so far and I think I'm getting use to the combat/soul voices, though I'm a little concerned how repetitive it feels. Maybe I'm missing out on something there.

Overall though I'm feeling better about my time with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Like some of you have mentioned, they do a real poor job of explaining its systems and there's still a bucket loads full of systems that I don't understand. On a side note I do love that fashion gear system as some of the equipment I've discovered looks real odd on my characters. :D

Embrace the oddness.

As for the combat, at the start it is pretty simple since you don't have many Arts to use. But remember you can change classes whenever you like, and the arts you have are linked to the weapons you use. They play very differently, and all combine in different ways with combos and chains and positional requirements. Plus you can totally change up what arts you equip to go from an AOE DPS to a support healer or a tank. You can also play as any of the characters in your party just by moving them to the top of your party list. That might freshen things up a bit if you are getting bored of Assault Hammer etc.

@machofantastico: That's nice to hear. The game is worth something (so says the 300 hour clocker), and we want to help you give the game it's best chance. As systems heavy the game is, it doesn't punish you harshly for not engaging with them outside of some egregious game stoppers (e.g. the aforementioned "The Repair Job" Affinity mission that requires you to set up mining probes on Frontier Nav). However, if you have the mind of at least attempting to "100%" the game in a quick manner, the beginning to going to be very rough.

It will take a lot of time to explain the systems and interactions of the game, and it will be difficult to explain them with no context for you or us. So, feel free to @ me or anyone else when you have a question or a wondering thought.

One tip if you value an uncluttered inventory: The inventory sorting is okay-enough in the equip menu and non-existent in menu where you can sell stuff (Intel -> Inventory). If you don't want junk in your inventory, take some effort to be picky now. Blue gear (Rare) drop all the time and are generally lackluster. Sell those, and keep Green gear (Unique). All loot drops have either have a Worn or Advanced modifier with expected negatives and positives when compared to gear you can get from Armory Alley. Take what you need and sell the rest in the spoils screen.

That said, you have enough inventory space to last you for hundreds of hours. So if you can't be bothered to manually sell your trash gear, then you are free to do so if you're not thinking of a completionist or near-completionist playthrough.

Oh, unlike a lot of other RPGs, the gear you buy in town can be pretty decent. Investing Miranium (mined from setting Mining Probes on Frontier Nav) in to Arms Manufacturers can increase the rarity of sold gear when an Arms Manufacturer reaches level 4 and 5 (max level). Keep that in mind whenever you see that your Miranium storage is full.

Thanks again for the advice and tips. Regarding the combat I see that there's a much deeper system at play with the soul voices though I'm scared to death to mess with my characters soul voices in fear of screwing something up, the same can be said for upgrading arts which I've tended to stick with the ones I'm comfortable with and upgrading those. As for equipment, like I said I'm making use of the fashion gear system and basically equipping new gear whilst in NLA or after I've leveled once or twice more as it recommends. That said I'm not finding to many pieces of equipment out in the wild that's proven to be better than the gear bought from the stores which makes some sense I guess. I have been using Miranium to invest in AM's to which is helping to unlock new gear, even though it looks like pretty much all of it is suited for level 60.

On that note I do have a question regarding gear and selling it, I've been a little reluctant to sell gear in case it removes the ability to use that gear for fashion gear if that makes any sense. Does the options for fashion gear remain the same no matter if I sell that specific piece or do you lose the ability to use it once you sell it off? I was curious to know.

Thanks for the help.

Soul Voice is always an extra. There's little way in messing with it that will cause you to wipe. Maybe if you switched all your Soul Heal bonuses to non-healing bonuses. You can only edit the Soul Voice of your character. I recommend poking at it to see the options. Remember, the actions you are setting are for your party to reply to with their arts. Don't expect to see many Soul Voice melee triggers from your party if there are few melee arts in place among your entire party.

For the development terminal, the most use you will get out of it is in investing Miranium to AMs. Most of the features of the Armorey Alley's development terminal are for the post game. Once you get an AM to level 4 or 5, you will see better gear in the shop across all levels.

When you use a piece of gear as fashion gear, that gear is essentially equipped on the character. You can't sell it as long as it's equipped as fashion gear. Feel free to buy or keep gear that you want to wear. I have so many silly hats and dresses from finishing Basic missions and other things.