Summary: We meet our protagonist, Shulk, his friend Reyn, and together kill some helpless bugs. I also grapple with the controls and many menu options.
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Location: Mechon Wreckage Site
Time lapse to one year later and a young man is sifting through Mechon remains for salvage. He's getting quite into it, identifying what type of Mechon each part comes from and what he can do with it, it's nice.
The scenery is very pretty here. I have a hard time thinking this is the same location a year on, perhaps this is just a site that happens to have wrecked Mechon parts for... reasons. Reasons I don't know yet.
Ah, so this is Shulk. I recognise the blond hair and red outfit from the few SSB trailers I came across. It's a slight shame, but as spoilers go this seems like the least of the lot.
Spotting a juicy part (from an M69) that would make a good shield, our hero runs over and... disturbs the inhabitant. We're saved by our friend, Reyn (a member of the military), and do glorious battle with a little Krabble.
Shulk (right) and Reyn (left).
First taste of the battle them here and I'm liking it. Reminds me a little of the boss battle theme from Kingdom Hearts 1 (Night of Fate).
Shulk seems to do a bit of everything, leaning to support. I've got some healing magic (or whatever it's called in XC) and I can Break enemies to lower their defences. Reyn seems more like a tank, he can draw aggro from the enemies then disable them. But he can only disable them after using Shulk's Break art 'Turn Strike'.
There's already a lot of synergy going on here, it'll be interesting to see how adding other party members to the mix goes. The first battle in what amounts to the prologue had three active party members but there potentially looked to be room for two more. Lastly, instead of MP/TP (or some equivalent) arts have a cool-down time between usage.
Those item drops have a sniff of crafting about them.
Apparently every enemy will spawn a chest on defeat, and they seem to contain what I can only expect are items to go towards crafting later. They may sell well too, but I'll wait and see. There are no battle transition screens, but there is a barrier preventing me from running away once combat starts. A flee command would be nice to learn.
Seems we also live in a colony, and during this conversation I'm getting a brotherly vibe between Shulk and Reyn, with Reyn as the big brother. To my surprise both Dunban and Dickson are alive, and it seems Shulk has acquired his tinkering skills from the latter. Dunban still has the Monado too. I had figured Shulk was gonna come across it at some point amongst some Mechon debris.
Sweet, I can save practically anywhere, this will be very helpful! Going through the menus is a little counter-intuitive, but I'm sure it'll get easier as I keep playing. I'm having to alternate between the left analog stick (movement) & the d-pad (menu) and the right analog stick (camera) & the a/b/x/y buttons (actions) constantly. I also can't seem to interact with any of these creatures that show as red dots on my mini-map.
Whoops, I need to use L or R to initiate combat first! I wonder if every enemy starts non-hostile? Probably not. I also learn that we live in Colony 9, which is on the lower leg of the Bionis and and suffers from falling debris. That's amazing but brings up a very good question. How the hell does gravity work here?
Going through the menus, I see some crafting options that are blacked out, as well as skill progression tree options, which are also blacked out. I did learn a new art from downing the local wildlife though. There's an inaccessible-for-now quest sub-menu too.
I levelled up a couple of times and got an affinity coin each time. Do they play into skill progression somehow? Maybe? Another quandary: I ran across some collectibles (a Cool Potato, a White Beetle and a Plate Snow) for the Collectopaedia.
I'll get bonuses by completing sections of the Collectopaedia, but I can't tell for certain if adding something to it consumes my (for now) singular items, and whether they have any other uses or not. I'll hold onto them for now, at least until I have a whole set (such as Veg, Fruit, Parts and more besides) to add for the reward.
Shulk, out of combat banter: "We need to stick together from here on, and we'll be right as Reyn. Get it?"
Reyn: "A-ha-ha. You crack me up Shulk."
Me: *groan*
The last cool feature I've come across so far is that changing my equipment changes my look. It's always a nice touch when a game does this, though as I only found some boots and head gear, it's hard to say how <i>unusual</i> my character's appearance may get.
I get caught out by the Common Caterpile's attack and take big damage. Fortunately Shulk can heal it away.
The sun appears to be going down (day/night system?), so this seems like a good as time as any to end this part.
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Next time: I return to Colony 9 and possibly some military responsibility?
