It has been almost exactly three months since the released of the phenomenal Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and the newest update breathes a lot of new life into the game! We have finally got the promised New Game+ mode which allows anyone who has completed the game to start it over while maintaining such things as their levels, equipment and bonded blades. One aspect of the Xenoblade series which makes New Game+ modes work so well is that you can encounter level 90 enemies right in the first major area of the game, so you will still be able to find enemies to challenge you the entire way through your journey.
Additionally, this update allows you to utilize some blades which were previously only seen and encountered as enemies, so it will be exciting to finally have them under your own control.
One much requested feature that has been added is the ability to skip the blade bonding animation. This animation is very lengthy, and it can be quite frustrating to sit through when you have 90+ core crystals to bond with. Since we can now skip that animation entirely, it will be far less intimidating to use up all those old core crystals!
Did you complete Xenoblade Chronicles 2? If so, are you going to take advantage of New Game+? What is your favorite aspect of this update, and are there any more features or issues you would like to see addressed in future patches? Let us know in the comments below!
*Note: If you missed it, I wrote a full review of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which you can check out here.
I have included the full set of patch notes below, so be sure to check them out. There were quite a few more exciting additions to the game than what I specified above!
Version 1.3.0
- Issues Fixed
- Fixed an issue occurring in chapter 7 and onward, in which specific conditions caused bonded blades and drivers to not appear in the Manage Blades menu.
- Fixed an issue associated with acquiring Perun’s Key Affinity Gift in which the counter for “small good deeds” required to earn it would stop, making the item unobtainable.
- Fixed an issue associated with acquiring Perceval’s Affinity Gift, “Brandish,” in which certain monsters failed to count toward the requirements “Defeat Igna enemies in Uraya. (Excludes unique monsters.)” and “Defeat Tirkin enemies in Tantal. (Excludes unique monsters.)”.
- Fixed an issue associated with acquiring Perceval’s Affinity Gift, “Brandish,” in which defeating high-level Tirkin enemies (around level 80) failed to count toward the “Defeat Tirkin enemies in Tantal. (Excludes unique monsters.)”.
- Fixed an issue in which Blades with the condition“Deal a certain amount of damage in one hit” to acquire Affinity Gifts would not meet the condition if they were not present at the start of a battle, and were brought in via Blade Switching instead.
- Fixed an issue in which Rare Blades, once released, could not achieve a level of Trust higher than S1, even if bonded with a different Driver.
- After applying this update, performing an action to raise Trust (clearing quests, using pouch items, etc.) will raise the rare blade’s Trust to the correct rank.
- Fixed an issue with Poppiswap in which if the player possessed a combined total of 1023 or more Skill RAM and Skill Upgrade parts, and equipped the 1024th part, they would be unable to set or crystalize any additional parts, even if they had enough energy to do so.
- Fixed an issue in which the descriptions for the Silver Feather and Phantom Feather accessories was switched.
- Advanced New Game has been added
- Players with save data from the final chapter and who have cleared the game will now be able to select “Advanced New Game” on the title screen and carry over some of their data from the previous playthrough.
- Elements carried over into Advanced New Game
- Driver levels
- Driver and Blade equipment and growth
- Awakened Blades
- Acquired items and gold
- Town development status and Merc Group level
- Status of Events Theater and defeated unique monsters
- Play time
- New system features added to Advanced New Game
- Bonding with certain Blades from Torna will allow them to join your party.
- Meeting certain Blades from Torna in the game world will allow them to join your party.
- All Blades can be dispatched on Merc Missions.
- Driver Hidden Affinities have been unlocked. New skills can also be learned.
- Zeke’s “Eye of Shining Justice” has been unlocked. (The skill can be learned by developing Zeke’s Hidden Affinities)
- Levels can now be decreased at inns, with a corresponding amount of bonus EXP being granted for the number of levels decreased.
- Traveling Bards that will exchange Bonus EXP and special items have been added to various locations throughout Alrest.
- Traveling Bards are displayed on the mini map as green shop icons.
- Among the newly exchangeable items, there are those that will increase the number of accessories a Driver can have equipped.
- Level 4 Specials have been unlocked for certain Blades.
- Things to note in Advanced New Game
- Quests, Heart-to-Hearts, and Skip Travel points will all be reset.
- Cleared Merc Missions will be reset.
- Saving after beginning an Advanced New Game playthrough will overwrite the save data in which you initially cleared the game.
- Other Updates
- Easy difficulty has been added. Due to this addition, the default difficulty will now be “Normal.”
- This only adjusts the balance of elements of battles. Game difficulty can be changed at any time via the Options menu.
- Added a “simple mode” option allowing players to skip the lottery animation when bonding with Blades.
- Added the ability to “lock” Blades so that they can’t be mistakenly released.
- Added a “Sort” option to the Blade List, Accessories, Aux Cores, and Poppy’s Skill Parts.
- Map icons will now appear on the mini map.
- Adjusted AI to perform Blade Switches with no regard for Driver combos when using Drivers that prioritize Driver combos while fighting enemies against whom those combos aren’t effective.
- Added the ability to receive the 4th round of items distributed via the Expansion Pass.
- Easy difficulty has been added. Due to this addition, the default difficulty will now be “Normal.”
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