254 xenoblade - warping to hovering reefs 5 and 6

Dear Readers,

We found someone else outside the lighthouse with quests. We agreed to defeat 5 Palti Kromars for him. He had more quests for Maleza Kromars and a Flabbergasted Jerome, which is a really funny name.

Behind the lighthouse was a transporter to Hovering Reef 5, which had another one that went to Hovering Reef 6.

This area actually had Kromars, but they were a much lower level than what we saw when exploring. We were able to fight these guys and we beat them up! Next transporter was to the Ether Crystal Deposit...

253 xenoblade - hanging out at syrath lighthouse

Dear Readers,

We went straight for Hovering Reef 4 and the story point. We seemed to run out of warping options for transportation.

We met a guy who said the maintenance worker repaired what he needed, but he went behind the lighthouse to harvest some crystals and never came back. He asked us to see if he was okay.

We didn't do that yet. We went up into the lighthouse.

We met Shalen, the manager of the lighthouse. She worried about stuff lately.

Someone here had quests for us to collect things for research. We had everything for the first quest but not the second one. 

So that was the lighthouse. There was another transporter in the area but it was broken.

252 xenoblade - eryth sea perimeter explored

Dear Readers,

We went back to exploring the sides of the map, going north from Hode Refuge.

We came across another small beach with dangerous enemies at a very high level. We snuck by and continued exploring, which was now about going east.

We eventually reached another beach, the very one we started on in this area! Latael Shore!

That's it for this post. I finally made a whole circle of the entire map. I'm not sure if that was the smartest thing to do but I want to map it all out so I know what I'm doing and where I'm going.

251 xenoblade - exploring hode refuge

Dear Readers,

We explored Hode Refuge. We found someplace to climb. It led to a cave.

In this cave was a creature called Pelargos Ekidno and it was LV40. We didn't bother with it for now.

We found another cave around the island with Hodes around and in it. Inside were Orlugas as well. There was an opening in the cave ceiling and water inside too. The whole island was like a hollowed out volcano or something.

We didn't fight anything. In fact, we were spotted by a huge winged creature that had a similar name to the thingy I named earlier in the post, but I didn't know if it was the same thing or not. We fled and decided to come back later.

We went back to exploring.

250 xenoblade - discovering hode refuge island

Dear Readers,

We continued swimming and exploring the perimeter of the map at Eryth Sea. It was very very boring and we just kept on finding nothing. It was nice to fill in the bits of the map but it was a whole lotta nothing.

Out of desperation to find something new, I turned us out towards a nearby island that looked a lot like Secluded Island from before. This island was called Hode Refuge.

We swam to the shore and I just saved and quit the game. Gonna explore it in a different post in a different play session.

249 xenoblade - a whole bunch of nothing before bionis' occipital

Dear Readers,

We continued from Faras Cave, heading west to explore and fill in the map.

We filled in more of the map, the edge of the map started turning towards the north. There was a gap I couldn't fill in, despite turning back to cover it. Not sure what's going on.

It was in the far west. We continued exploring as the edge continued northeast.

We pretty much found nothing. A place called Bionis' Occipital came up. That's it for now.

248 xenoblade - discovering faras cave

Dear Readers,

We managed to escape Kromar Coast without getting slaughtered and continued exploring to the west.

We discovered Faras Cave, a secret area! Woo! It was like a secluded cave with its own little beach. It seemed very private. Didn't see anything here so we just continued west.

247 xenoblade - sneaking around kromar coast

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring along the southern part of the map until we found Kromar Coast.

There certainly were Kromars there. Different kinds of them and all at very high levels. There was a path leading away from the beach but it was guarded by two of them. I stayed away and continued exploring.

I then found a secret little beach that gave us access to the upper area here. We snuck past as many of those Kromar as we could. We came across a bridge and on the other side of the bridge was a huge gang of Kromar. We decided to abandon sneaking around here for now and go back to exploring.

246 xenoblade - discovering secluded island

Dear Readers,

From the High Entia Tomb, we leaped over the barrier and continued exploring south.

There was a tiny little inland pocket of water that random items like dolphin asparagus or whatever. We went to the trouble of collecting it, even though it looks the same as everything else. Didn't need anything here for a quest, or at least not yet.

We found Secluded Island. It was small enough to explore for fun. We found a cave guarded by very high level Kromars. We didn't mess with them yet and just continued exploring in the water.

We came across a beach with hodes but also high level eks, so we continued on without attacking. On the map we could see connector thingies used by the transporters. Probably for a ledge above the water.

More exploring next time.

245 xenoblade - secret cave near anu shore

Dear Readers,

We leaped from High Entia Tomb all the way down into the water and started swimming along the edge towards the cave near Anu Shore. This is the most fun this game has been in a very long while. I'm glad to see it.

The cave had a tunnel that led all the way up to the ledge we were looking for on Anu Shore. When we got there we were confronted by strong enemies called Stella Eks. I got a few visions and shattering changes of the future. I was on my toes with this one. They were tall, four legged creatures and it was close enough, but we beat them.

There was another one called Lightspeed Sonid but it was slightly too strong for us.

We collected the Chalk Container. We'll have to go back to Kurralth later.

Just for fun, we tried to take on the Lightspeed Sonid anyway. It finished us within moments. That didn't last long! Haha.

We'll just continue exploring the area next time!

244 xenoblade - beaten up on anu shore by lv80+ enemies

Dear Readers,

We ran out of beach on Latael Shore, so we decided to swim around the perimeter of the Eryth Sea area.

It may have been a mistake. We headed east and swam for ages and ages, seeing absolutely nothing until we got to Anu Shore. No items or anything on the way.

On this beach we saw some very high level enemies so we shied away. LV86 Lograt Kromar and LV85 Sol Grady to name a couple.

We got curious about a red exlamation mark on the map and saw there was a ledge above the beach. We couldn't see any way up there. While we were looking, one of the Kromars spotted us and knocked us out straight away. Oops.

We warped to High Entia Tomb and looked over to Anu Shore. We could see a cave just above the water. We'll try there next time.

243 xenoblade - fun beating up cruz paguls

Dear Readers,

We found Mir'leiz! We told him about his mother being worried so he went home. We'll have to talk to Merisa later. We found him on Hovering Reef 1 at night.

We went back to the beach where we first entered this area to beat up more enemies. Some quests finished, some quests updated so we'll have to talk to the corresponding NPC later, which is kind of annoying.

We beat up these shelled enemies called Cruz Paguls on the beach, which was fun. We had to beat up a bunch for a quest. They go all floppy when toppled, which is cool.

242 xenoblade - beating everything up for quests at eryth sea

Dear Readers,

Exploring more Eryth Sea. Warping between platforms, beating up enemies, not really knowing what to do but just hammering at enemies anyway.

Some quests are being completed, can't really keep track of all of them right now. Warping between Hovering Reefs 1, 2 and 3 and we just discovered Showdown Cliff off of Hovering Reef 1. We got some white tails for a quest.

We beat up some Orlugas, Hodes, flying enemies and a machine for other quests. It's just hard to keep track of them all and everything looks the same anyway.

At the moment we're doing very well against enemies, though it's daytime.

241 xenoblade - starting to explore eryth sea

Dear Readers,

Time to explore Eryth Sea! Every single quest I got in Alcamoth, this area's city, is time sensitive, so I better explore as much as I can in this local area in case I get locked out of doing them.

We wandered around the centre gate platforms and met many High Entia who were concerned about the repair worker that didn't come back yet.

We discovered the High Entia Tomb when we took a transporter over there. 

We warped a few more times and found the way to the story progression point. I wanted to hang around a while longer though.

We started fighting enemies. When I got a Luxury Hode Wood I got a vision of Riki being excited to collect 3 for Jarack to fix a windmill.

We beat up all the Unine Hodes we needed for a quest

240 xenoblade - leaving alcamoth for eryth sea, updating affinities

Dear Readers,

We didn't see the kid that was sparring in Alcamoth.

He really did leave the city then. We also got a comment from Baroba who wasn't happy with Nelo getting drunk. Popipo was nearby and had a comment about Nelo's drinking as well. All of this updated the affinity chart.

There's lots more little updates to do for the affinity chart, but I wanted to go to Eryth Sea for now. Hopefully I can update them a little later. I was getting a little tired of going back and forth between characters at far ends of the city. Takes ages walking and warping.

I took a look at the map for Eryth Sea. There's a huge amount to fill in here too. Let's go I suppose. Will be back soon hopefully.

239 xenoblade - vidian happy for scarlen

Dear Readers,

Continuing the mingling on 1F, Alcamoth, daytime, south semi circle.

Vidian was glad that Scarlen picked a girl. That's good.

Otherwise I met the same NPCs as before. Still kinda worth revisiting the area, to update Vidian's entry on the affinity chart.

238 xenoblade - north semi circle, 1f alcamoth, daytime mingling

Dear Readers,

Now to mingle in Alcamoth, 1F, daytime, on the semi circle track and bridges, starting with the northern half and working down.

We almost missed Merisa as she was standing next to one of the many shrub baskets. She asked us to help find her son who went to train at Eryth Sea and bring him back, as it was very dangerous. We agreed to. Sharla empathised with her as she was in a similar situation with her brother.

Her son was Mir'leiz? We saw him just a moment ago! Maybe he's gone from the southern water feature now.

We had access to the cubby hole that was all exclusive and secret, but this was during the day. We tried waiting there and changing the clock to night, but we immediately appeared outside of it. We really weren't allowed in there.

237 xenoblade - alcamoth mingling, 1f daytime, northern water feature

Dear Readers,

More mingling in Alcamoth, this time it's daytime, northern water feature.

Three citizens were gathered to look at a huge island in the area. They said different things about it, like needing permission to go there and how there's a huge door there. Looking forward to exploring later.

Naroth came up as "Mad scientist" and spoke about Teelan. I guess Teelan's an up and coming talent. He is going to write a textbook after all.

There were other characters giving random gameplay tips and others who commented on Alcamoth security.

Maybe I should level up arts? I'm not really sure what I'm doing. We'll see when we get out to Eryth Sea. Those de-buffing enemies sound like they're gonna be a pain.

236 xenoblade - 1f alcamoth mingling, southern water feature during day

Dear Readers,

On 1F of Alcamoth I decided to cover the daytime as well, as I wasn't that focused when filling in the map before.

Teelan had a quest. Teelan was interested in science, particularly gold caterpillars. We agreed to collect 9 of them for him. He came up as "Budding scientist". We already had them so we gave them to him. He was pretty happy and wanted to write a new textbook as his one was lacking in information. 

Mir'leiz was around here too and he was doing some kind of sparring moves.

This was around the plaza area, at the southern water feature.

235 xenoblade - lower semi circle, alcamoth 1f at night

Dear Readers,

We continued mingling along the semi circle of 1F, Alcamoth at night. This is from the mid point and going anti-clockwise to the south.

First cubby hole had nothing. No secret club like its counterpart in the north.

The chain link bridges didn't have anyone or anything either, apart from the guards on the plaza side, who said no one was on the bridge at night. Fair enough.

I admit, I had a morbid curiosity about jumping over the side of the bridge. The barrier kind of looked low enough to jump over. I didn't do it though.

The other features of the bridge kind of looked like NPCs, so I took it slow in case there was someone to interact with.

The other cubby hole had nothing either. Didn't meet anyone else along this area.

I only met the vehicles, which I wish I could ride proper. Getting pushed along by them isn't much fun.

234 xenoblade - the secret club, alcamoth 1f cubby hole, northern semi circle at night

Dear Readers,

Now to mingle along the outer circle and bridges of Alcamoth, 1F at night. May break this up into different parts.

We found the Mother's Necklace in the bushes, going north from the plaza to the circle. We don't have to go back to the dude, but he may have some extra stuff to say. One of the many weird little complications this game has.

We got to the first chain link bridge and explored it. No one was on it, but one of the guards said a Nopon was there earlier. Maybe I saw him during the day when I was filling in the map. Hmm.

After the link bridge was a little cubby hole gathering area, but it had a bouncer! He said we needed a Secret Club Card to get in. Yeesh.

Will explore the southern link bridge and cubby holes later.

233 xenoblade - northern plaza, 1f alcamoth at night

Dear Readers,

Continuing the mingle in Alcamoth on 1F, northern plaza at night.

First thing I did here was map the central escalator by going down it and coming back up.

One of the guards at the door of the palace had a quest for us. He asked us to beat up some baddies, as it would take a lot of paperwork for them to get around to doing it themselves. We agreed to defeat 3 Chloro Laias, 5 Stella Eks, 1 Racti Lexos. I didn't record where he said they were. If I'm having trouble I'll look them up later.

Kaleka the Nopon was concerned about Vidian.

Three people gathered under the northern water feature. They spoke of the ones who lost their lives while out with Melia.

I'm hearing about a residential district too. Sounds like another huge place to explore for day and for night. Argh.

Caul came up as "Former imperial guard". I heard he was training people. He said morale was low and he was worried about it.

I rode the northern escalator as well just to fill it in on the map. That's the whole plaza area for now.

232 xenoblade - mingling on 1f of alcamoth at night, southern plaza

Dear Readers,

Now to mingle on 1F of Alcamoth, outdoors, at night. 

We found Lesunia fairly quickly near the stairs to the south. She was the one who didn't want to speak to other races. She dismissed us politely at least. She came up as "Extremely proud".

We stayed around this plaza area for now.

Ruthan had a quest. There was some amusing banter between him and me about being scientists because I was also doing exploring and fighting. He asked us to collect 6 pieces of Sturdy Armour from Flavel Andos at Eryth Sea in order to build a deciphering machine for ancient texts. We agreed to. He came up as "Great inventor". He also kind of looks like a Cid.

A citizen who was tending to vehicles asked us to collect 2 Spiral Lamps for him. We agreed to.

Miriall came up as "Celebrated stargazer" and she was very enthusiastic about it too, even when it's cloudy and rainy.

Talia came up as "Gung-ho researcher" and said scientists were interested in her research.

There was a gathering of 5 people under the southern water feature. They all had various tips and tricks on gameplay. Some I knew already, some interesting bits I didn't know such as the Ether Plant at Eryth Sea where some guy named Jarack lives all by himself. Would like to visit him later.

I'll leave it here for this post. This'll be about the southern half of the plaza and water feature. I'll explore the northern part next time.

231 xenoblade - over 100 hours played

Dear Readers,

I have over 100 hours in this dang game now. Whew...

I explored the ground floor of Alcamoth in the centre at night in case I missed anyone. We found some random items in the grass and found it a pain to jump from the grass to the pavement. Anyway, moving on...

Under the south bridge a citizen had a quest for us. She said her boyfriend was selected for subjugation duty. Sounds horrible, even though it's a thing High Take pride in. She didn't want him to get hurt. She asked us to defeat the target of his mission before he does so he won't get hurt. We agreed to defeat Proper Bandaz in the area of Secluded Island at Eryth Sea, which only appears during shooting stars.

That's it for this floor for now. I'm going upstairs.

230 xenoblade - the scarlen ricoth and rozeal love triangle

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring and mingling. Outer circle, Alcamoth, Fountain of Eternity.

Some guy had a quest for us. He asked us to defeat Tempestuous Edegia on Hovering Reef 10 at Eryth Sea at night. We agreed to do it.

We caught up with Don Argentis. He said he dreamed of going somewhere green. He worried about his daughters being selfish and figured they may learn some independence if he went off somewhere.

I caught up with Ricoth! She said she was fond of Scarlen and spoke of how he was manipulated by women in the past.

I then spoke to Rozeal. She wasn't straightforward but she was flustered. She said she should tell him about her feelings herself. 

I returned to Scarlen and he was glad we asked them. He said he was glad they didn't dislike him.

On the affinity chart, Scarlen comes up as "Indecisive man", Ricoth comes up as "Pretty lady", and Rozeal comes up as "Lives for love".

He then had another quest. He said they both came to him to admit their feelings for him. Now he had to choose between them. He asked us to ask both girls what their favourite memory of him is. 

We hiked back to the girls again and they both had red exclamation points over their heads. Which to ask first? 

I asked Ricoth first. She had a specific memory about the time he saved them on a picnic or something. Rozeal didn't pick a specific one because they had so many.

We returned to Scarlen and told him. He chose Ricoth after considering everything, including his own feelings. Hooray! I wonder if it was because we spoke to her first?

Scarlen then had one more quest. It was to give a letter to Ricoth, expressing his feelings for her. He didn't want to do it in person because Rozeal was always near and he didn't want her to cry. He asked us to be discreet.

We gave Ricoth the letter. She was happy, yet sad. We told Scarlen about it, and then he finally had the courage to get with Ricoth and tell Rozeal. They talked it out, then agreed to continue being friends as well. Ricoth and Scarlen were now dating. That was a lot of over and back but we got it done. It does seem that Ricoth was more in love with Scarlen, so that was nice. I'm glad it worked out like that.

I then went on to look this up online, and it seems there is an alternative that leads to something else. It does depend on who you talk to first it turns out. Some people even said that Rozeal was the ideal one! 

Yeesh! What a headache! I don't care! But then, what if I missed out on something cool? Bleehhhhhh. I'm just going to go along with this. I've it saved anyway.

229 xenoblade - arielle's discriminating daughter

Dear Readers,

We continued mingling on the outer circle of Alcamoth ground floor at night. We reached the Fountain of Eternity and around that area.

Arielle had a quest for us. She said her daughter suddenly started hating Homs and Nopon. Yikes. She didn't even like half-blooded High Entia. Uh oh. We agreed to find out why by having a chat with her daughter, whose name was Lesunia. Arielle came up as "Kind old lady".

Arielle became the 120th person we registered on the Affinity Chart, earning us the "Friend of the World" achievement. Whew!

Arielle then advised us that Lesunia may only talk to other High Entia. A job for Melia then, when we catch up with her!

228 xenoblade - mingling on the outer circle of Alcamoth, ground floor at night

Dear Readers,

We explored the outer circle of Alcamoth, ground floor at night.

We met a Nopon near the Fountain of Hope. He had a quest for us. We agreed to find the Health Amulet for him. We already had it, so we gave it back. He was happy to have his lucky charm back.

He then told us about Faras Cave, how it was hard to find except at night and it had lots of nice things there.

We mingled at the Fountain of Hope and the people there had nice and useful things to say. One thanked us for a quest we did earlier about finding someone's kids.

Another citizen said he lost his Mother's Necklace. We agreed to find it for him.

By the escalator was a kid named Lunara, who came up as "Lonely girl". She was happy with her new big brother Mir'leiz. She was here to greet her father hopefully, because she missed him.

Yura came up as "The people's poet" and he heard about a group of amazing people who went around defeating Mechon. I wonder who :)

Scarlen had a quest. He fell in love with two girls named Rozeal and Ricoth. He wanted us to find out how they felt about him. Wow. The tick box said we had to talk to Ricoth.

Soon afterwards I collected all the Stardrops I needed. Think I'll take a break here.

227 xenoblade - meeting the argentis daughters

Dear Readers,

We met Don Argentis' daughters near the south, not too far from the Nopon that likes to drink.

Zel Argentis knew her father worried about her and her sister, but didn't know what to do. She came up as "Naïve sister".

En Argentis was nearby and said she thinks her father was considering living on his own and have fun without her. She also came up as "Naïve sister". She said she wants to eat delicious cake, be sent flowers, to sleep in more, and not to work. It sounds really nice, though it seems like they all have some kind of crisis.

The girls seem worried... they all do. At around 3am, they started walking and had other stuff to say. They admitted they argued with each other and distanced themselves from each other. That's sad... I'll have to catch up with their father later, but he's all the way on the north side of the area.

226 xenoblade - alcamoth ground floor at night, inner circle

Dear Readers,

Now to cover all the same ground... at night! We started with the ground floor.

Don Argentis boasted about being rich and giving his daughters everything they wanted. He was very proud of them. He came up as "Concerned father" and he was in the northern part of the area.

We covered the whole inner circle and down towards the outer circle.

Towards the south, a citizen dropped a Silver Ring he was going to give to his girlfriend. We agreed to find it for him. Thankfully, we already had it. We gave it back and he was delighted. He warned us about how dangerous Secluded Island was. It was south-east of the main gate and had really dangerous Kromar there.

Nearby, we found an item called "Ha Ha Ha", which was really weird.

Nearby was Nelo the Nopon, who had a quest for us. He had a drinking problem, so he asked us to make a medicine that would make him drink less. We agreed to find 2 Feris Blood, which we already had, and 5 Pagul Hot Pots, which we didn't have yet.

Nelo came up as "Enjoys a drink" on the affinity chart.

225 xenoblade - a quest from kurralth

Dear Readers,

Kurralth then had a quest for us. He lost a Chalk Container on Anu Shore at Eryth Sea. We agreed to find it for him.

This was a container of cream used for travelling in cold climates. He said it's likely near an ether deposit.

We definitely didn't have this so we'll look for it when we go out.

Another citizen nearby lost a Merchant's Gift. We agreed to find it for him.

We already had it so we gave it to him and he was very happy.

224 xenoblade - discovering the fountain of eternity, kurralth and zain

Dear Readers,

The thunderstorm finally stopped, not that it was affecting us at all in Alcamoth, ground floor. We continued filling in the map until it was finished.

We found the Fountain of Eternity, getting a nice bonus and a Globetrotter achievement for discovering 80 landmarks. Wow. That is a lot... it feels good I suppose, especially since it feels like this game is taking forever.

We mingled a bit and learned a few bits and pieces, like about a dragon island locally that has a big strong dragon on it when it rains.

We met an older High Entia who has hip problems, but is able to go out because of the good public transport system.

We met Kurralth "half of an adventure duo" and Zain who had a quest for us to get water that doesn't freeze. We agreed to collect this water. He was the other half of this adventure duo.

It just so happened we had all the water he needed! We gave it to him and he was delighted.

223 xenoblade - more mingling and quests in central daytime alcamoth ground floor

Dear Readers,

We continued filling in the map for Alcamoth ground floor, going up through the middle from the Fountain of Hope, or whatever it's called.

We met a kid who likes running and a Nopon who talked about secret areas. No doubt there's one in this region too.

An imperial guard standing next to a vehicle had a quest for us. We agreed to get 3 Orluga Slacks for him to make a doll for his child that he doesn't get to see very often due to his job. Bless...

222 xenoblade - mingling at the fountain of hope

Dear Readers,

With the perimeter explored, we went on to fill in the map of the Alcamoth ground floor.

We met a boyfriend who joined the guard to impress his girlfriend, but his girlfriend was missing him now that he was going off on these missions.

It suddenly got all dark and a thunderstorm started. It was all dry in here though. The place is like a gigantic glasshouse.

We found the Fountain of Hope with many people around talking about other people who had names. No doubt I'll be dealing with said named people eventually.

There was someone here with a quest. This lady wanted us to collect 5 Stardrops and we agreed to. This made her happy.

I didn't commit any of the names to memory. Seems like it's people arguing amongst themselves over some gossipy drama. Who knows. I'll probably find out sooner or later.

221 xenoblade - high entia wants a new pillow

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring the inner circle of the ground floor in Alcamoth.

We met a guy who wore his pillow out by washing it the wrong way. We agreed to collect 2 White Tails at Eryth Sea for him.

We met a parent who was going to miss their child when they grow up. We also met a child who was fond of their father that works nights. Must be hard on the people that have to work all the time.

After this, we finished mapping out the inner circle of the ground floor. Now for the middle...

220 xenoblade - high entia playing in the water with nopon

Dear Readers,

We explored the non circular part of the ground floor perimeter of Alcamoth.

We met some young High Entia who were splashing around for fun in the water with a Nopon.

One of them said it looked like they were having fun but they were supporting each other physically. I'm not sure what they meant, but it sounded like their parents were busy doing some dangerous work. Sounds like it would be good to have support alright.

219 xenoblade - shy guy and girl who like each other in alcamoth

Dear Readers,

In the north part of Alcamoth GF, we found two friends. The guy was in love with the girl but was worried about spoiling their relationship. The girl had a quest for us to beat monsters.

We agreed to defeat Lightspeed Sonid for her. She didn't have any other monster bashing quests but it did seem she was fond of her friend next to her too, so that was kind of nice! She didn't admit it right out though. She seemed shy about it.

We met a kid wandering around here named Elior. He came up as "Aspiring adventurer". He liked hearing about adventurers and their stories.

218 xenoblade - circle of alcamoth ground floor filled in

Dear Readers,

We finished walking the circular perimeter of the GF part of Alcamoth. Whew. It was long and boring.

We met some NPCs that popped in all of a sudden and they spoke about whatever.

Coming to the end of it, there were a couple of spots on the map we hadn't filled in, so we traipsed all the way back to fill them in. Not sure why, just did it anyway.

We met a Nopon named Piko. She came up as "Worried about relatives" and said she didn't want to go near Baroba now that he was smelly. She was really happy that he was happy though, so that was good at least.

217 xenoblade - popipo's littlepon baroba wants to be smelly

Dear Readers,

I continued the circle drawing of Alcamoth until I came across a Nopon named Baroba. He was at the gate and came up as "Something of a mascot".

Baroba was scared of getting "finded", whatever that meant. Who knows.

Nearby at the fountain was a female Nopon named Popipo. I almost didn't see her because she was so small and her colour blended in with the colour of the ground. Ugh.

Anyway she had a quest. Her son Baroba didn't want to go out anymore so she asked us to help. We agreed to. She came up as "Worries about her son".

We talked to Baroba and he said he didn't like being picked up and being called cute. He asked us to bring him bad-smelling things, them being 5 Ether Roses. We had them so we gave them to him. He was happy, and his mother was happy that he was happy, so it all worked out and we got rewarded.

I'm glad she doesn't mind his new bad smell. She was just happy he was playing outside again.

216 xenoblade - drawing more circles of alcamoth on the map

Dear Readers,

I started filling in the map of Alcamoth, covering the circle and trying to draw it out.

I chatted with someone who was suspicious of the 5 people in the circle I spoke about in the last post. He should mind his own business, the ol' busybody.

Along this circle there was another vehicle like the one I saw on the upper level, moving around.

215 xenoblade - talia's secret, whatever it is

Dear Readers,

5 Alcamoth citizens gathered in a circle. One of them was a Nopon. It sounded pretty important.

They blabbed about something secret that only Talia knew about. I had to find Talia and ask them myself. I have no idea if I met them yet or not, since most characters look and sound the same.

214 xenoblade - vol'aren and his kids cian and atael

Dear Readers,

We started exploring the ground floor of Alcamoth during the day. I feel like screaming.

A man named Vol'aren was minding his son and daughter. His son went missing. We agreed to help him find his son. He came up as "Treasures his children." His daughter Cian came up as "Adores anything cute". I always thought Cian was a boy's name. Ah well.

I got a vision when I collected a Stardrop. It was of Melia collecting all 5 for some lady. Later quest I suppose.

We then found the son, Atael. He came up as having "no sense of direction".

The dad thanked us. Then he said Cian went missing! We found her in some water nearby. The dad thanked us then too.

Vol'aren absolutely adored his kids and was missing his late wife dearly. It was very nice to hear him talk about them.

213 xenoblade - semicircle of alcamoth during day explored

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring the semicircle road of Alcamoth, meeting many people.

Some wanted to learn about monsters.

We met a Nopon in the flowers who loved drinking. We almost missed it as it was so small.

We met a girl who was thinking of having a different boyfriend who could protect her from Nebulae.

We had the whole semi circle explored now, but it was only daytime. We then descended a floor and found another huge area to explore that was full of people. This is gonna take forever.

212 xenoblade - exploring the circle road of alcamoth and mingling

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring Alcamoth. We met many people who talked about fighting monsters and being worried about the Mechon attacking like they did on Colony 9.

Came across a man who had Monster Quest 3 series. 5 Unine Hodes, 2 Tocos Orluga, 1 Pelargos Ekidno. We took all these quests. He said Lady Melia doesn't show her face in public and wears a mask instead. Things got complicated when she tried to comfort a crying child who was scared of her mask.

We ran along the big circular track. It was long and round and dull. We met many people though, including younger Alcamoth citizens.

We met a lady whose husband died while serving Melia. Aw :(

The lady next to her wanted 3 lots of Gold Burdock. We agreed to get some for her. She was hungry and wanted some good food.

We came across two bridges that looked like chain links. They were long and boring too. We met Mir'leiz on the southwestern one. He wanted to join the empirical guard or whatever, just like his dad, to the worry of his mother. He came up as "Hates yet admires his dad." Aw.

Continuing on the circle, we met a woman named Vidian, who was down and out about men. She came up as "Puts friends first".

We met a trio of friends further along the circle, who liked to gather together everyday and talk about silly things, just to be friends. That's really nice :)

211 xenoblade - fun bus thing in alcamoth

Dear Readers,

We came across vehicles in Alcomoth. In the northern part, there was one that was moving like a tram along a path in the shape of a circle. We chased it for fun until it made a quarter circle, then it turned back and did the same thing. It was fun!

Meanwhile we were passing someone who was despairing out loud. "What will become of us all?" they said while we had fun running around.

This is how I'm having fun in this game now :) goofing off while NPCs despair.

210 xenoblade - melfica road mingling, daytime, north of imperial palace entrance

Dear Readers,

We went outside at daytime to explore Melfica Road and mingle a bit too.

There were vehicles flying around. One guard said it made people feel uneasy, even though it was for their protection.

Another guard told us about Skill Link and... whew I don't want to go into this complication right now. I do need to do something with that menu because one branch or whatever was filled. I need to take it slow and read up on it all.

A citizen asked us to collect 5 Orluga Grass Skirts from Orluga in Makna Forest for her dancing costume. We agreed to get them for her.

Someone named Merisa was standing by a plant and we almost missed her. She was worried about her child it seems. She came up as Kindly Mother in the chart. She mentioned her husband was killed in action sadly.

Lady Melia had a big fan who hadn't seen her face since she was young, so it looks like she doesn't make big public appearances. 

There was a Nopon here! He spoke of Kaleka being very talented with his hands and paws and that he knew a lot about stars.

We came across a couple of transporters but they glowed red, which probably meant they weren't usable right now. There was also another blue glowing thing near where Merisa was that we had no idea what to do with. We might find out soon.

Gonna take a break from exploring to end this entry. This area we just explored was the path going to the north from the Imperial Palace doors. We kind of hugged the walls so we haven't explored this place fully yet. More exploring next time.

209 xenoblade - more great hall mingling at night

Dear Readers,

We continued in the great hall at night.

A guard at the top of the stairs had a quest for us to defeat 3 Somati Kromars on Soltnar Seal Island. It was top secret and time limted. We agreed to it. This turned into more. 4 Tussock Kromars and 5 Otol Kromars were added to this series of time-limited quests. We agreed to defeat them for him.

It seems this guard had a crush on Ma'crish as well. He got all embarrassed too! How sweet!

Another guard spoke of a mysterious place south east of Eryth Sea. Might have a look later.

We took a look at our prison/resting quarters and it looked really pretty at night with the falling stars outside. The lights were on and there were no beds though, just these weird hotel room conference chairs.

Ok that's the Great Hall covered for now I hope.

208 xenoblade - nighttime mingling in great hall

Dear Readers,

I decided to mingle in the great hall of the imperial palace at night. The night-time version of the music is lovely and lulling with some gentler chanting.

A guard spoke of Talonyth, a beloved chef here. Another encouraged trading items, saying that it could fill in that one collectopaedia entry you're missing in a page. I've been having this exact problem! I've skipped trading until now. Maybe I should. He suggested trading with Lecrough and Caul.

Another guard spoke about rumours of someone walking around with a black mask at night. Strange.

More people admiring statues too, saying there was an old religion that excluded people if you weren't a believer. Doesn't happen anymore though.

Galdo was by the stairs this time and he was worrying about someone who injured their back. Galvin maybe?

At the opposite staircase Lar'shen was complaining about his back. Mystery solved! He came up as "Pushes himself too far" in the chart.

We went back to Galdo now that we were familiar with the back pain dilemma and we agreed to defeat 6 Archer Hodes in another time-limited quest.

More night time mingling here next time.

207 xenoblade - great hall of imperial palace mapped

Dear Readers,

We're still in the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace. We tried going to Melia's private quarters, but there was no access.

We then tried the corridor opposite this one but there was nothing at the end, only a silver ring. It was a glowing red item so no doubt it'll be important soon.

This corridor also had a transporter that led to our prison room. It was kinda amusing how they were ordered to accommodate us for rest when there's only a long table and chairs in there.

After that, I had mapped out the Great Hall. I'm glad because the place is so big I feel lost and vulnerable with all these time-limited quests too.

206 xenoblade - why is the imperial palace so big

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the imperial palace more. I feel completely lost and overwhelmed here so I wanted to explore and mingle.

The guards were very proud of their position.

There were people who looked at statues of their ancestors and wonder if they devolved. More people thought it was weird this place was so big and wondered if their forefathers were giants. Whew, so it's not just me who thinks this place is a bit too big.

Another two citizens were looking at the mural and water feature. The mural depicted the battle between the Bionis and Mechonis. Their ancestors witnessed the battle apparently.

The two people here vanished and I remembered this game has different character schedules for day and for night. Urgh.... I don't need this right now. I set it back to daytime.

Galvin stood by the stairs here and came up as Overzealous soldier. He said someone saved him but didn't say who.

The opposite staircase also had someone named Lecrough standing by them. He wanted to defeat 6 Eryth Hilns to help his friend Galvin. We agreed to do it for him. He came up as Diligent soldier.

Another guard nearby had another quest for us. We agreed to defeat Peeling Kircheis on Hovering Reef 7 for him. Yet another time-limited quest.

All time-limited quests. Sounds iffy to be honest.

We learned that Galvin lost his confidence after something happened to him. Maybe we can help him recover.

We couldn't go further after going upstairs.

205 xenoblade - gathering time-limited quests in alcamoth

Dear Readers,

After Alvis left, an imperial guard rushed in, telling us something bad happened outside of the city with one of the transporters and some people were in danger. We offered to help.

This came up as a story quest.

We left the room out into the huge area we were before and saw more people with exclamation marks over their heads. Here we go...

An Alcomoth Citizen wanted to make a musical instrument and wanted materials. We agreed to collect 2 Lexos Beards from Racti Lexos at Eryth Sea. This was also a time-limited quest, which makes my headache even bigger. 

Another citizen was doing a monster ecology study but was feeling overwhelmed. I know how she feels. We agreed to defeat 5 Cruz Paguls at Eryth Sea for her. This was also time-limited and there were more of them. She also wanted to defeat 3 Eryth Ansels and 2 Ciconia Ekidnos. Both time-limited as well.

Yikes with all the time-limited quests. Does something bad happen here soon I wonder?

Someone named Ma'crish was on the steps and spoke about how we should respect everyone's culture. She came up as an advocate of equality.

I now need to get to know a new people, the High Entia. They're like Homs but they have wings on the sides of their heads.

204 xenoblade - the huge window prison

Dear Readers,

The prison we were in had a lovely view of the world around us. It also had a really long table and chairs. No one was standing up though. It was like being told to wait in a fancy hotel conference room.

I was able to speak with everyone individually. They were all puzzled. Well, it was mostly Reyn that was puzzled. Dunban said they were probably being cautious to keep us here for the time being.

The guards came and Alvis was with them. He was the one that was going to interrogate us. I told him our story and he explained that the Monado was the reason why we were kept here.

I had more questions for him but he said to be patient and I would find out what I wanted to know soon, whatever that meant.

He then ordered us to be set free to roam the city and to use this room to rest before heading away.

203 xenoblade - the emperor congratulates melia

Dear Readers,

Before the focus went back to Shulk and the others, I went to the audience chamber as Melia and a scene played out where her father and her brother and another character whose names I haven't learned welcomed and congratulated her on the defeat of the Telethia.

They gave advice about grieving the soldiers who lost their lives fighting the creature and they all sounded very royal and diplomatic. They also said the rest of our group were arrested because of the Monado. Melia was confused and upset about this.

They went on to explain about the legend of the Monado and how if it fell in to the wrong hands it could be harmful to their race, the High Entia. They wanted to interrogate everyone to ensure we were pure of heart, especially the one wielding the Monado. They wanted to know if I, Shulk was the chosen one.

When the perspective shifted back to the group, it didn't look like we were in a cage. This prison was all windows, spacious and had a grand view. I was now Shulk again.

202 xenoblade - melia enters the palace

Dear Readers,

We arrived at the gate of the city when some soldiers appered and knelt in front of Melia, calling her Lady Melia, revealing something very significant to the group about her.

She gave them some orders to accommodate us, asked us to wait, and left to report about the telethia and ask for access to Prison Island.

Suddenly, the focus shifted to Melia entirely! I continued as Melia, into the Imperial Palace of Alcamoth. It was enormous and had lovely chanting and chiming music. I didn't really stick around to chat with anyone wandering around and the heart to heart spots here weren't accessible of course.

I immediately got lost and had to go back to the centre of where all the paths split. I found where I was going by ascending some huge staircase. I met a man named Donnis who was very happy and relieved to see me. He came up on the affinity chart as a patriotic imperial guard.

I had to zoom out on the chart to find him. He was on the very bottom right corner of the chart! There's an entire right half of this thing that's otherwise completely blank. There are many many more hours of this game to get through, unfortunately.

There was also a scene with two wicked looking characters that seemed to be plotting against the royal family or whatever. Dun dun dun etc.

201 xenoblade - climbing to the city

Dear Readers,

I may have saved too soon. I have no idea how to go back to the previous area. We came up through the sea, right? Not sure how to get back so might as well press on.

We went up to the transporter Melia told us about and it took us to a new area. I collected an item there that gave me a vision of Riki collecting another one. It was a white tail. He wanted to use them as pillows for sleeping.

What followed was a series of transporters across floating islands called hovering reefs to pass through. There was a heart to heart here for Riki and Sharla but it was still too early. We continued until we got to the centre gate.

200 xenoblade - arriving at eryth sea

Dear Readers,

There was a tour guide at the top of the tree. She made a column of water and a big spherical thing come out of the water and told us it would take us to Eryth Sea. We all got in, though poor Reyn was reluctant. He got in shortly after us though.

We found ourselves on a beach at Eryth Sea. Melia showed us where Prison Island was. It was big, tall, dark and floating in the sky. She then showed us the floating city of Alcamoth, where we had to go to obtain permission to go to Eryth Sea.

I asked Melia if she was curious as to why we were going there and she said she wasn't going to pry. Reyn said she was dying to know and she said "how dare you!" Melia was a very proper and polite lady. She admitted she was interested as no Homs would really go to a place like Prison Island. I told her the story about how the Mechon attacked us. She was understanding.

The area's music was a gentle tune.

Melia said we could go to the city via a transporter not too far away.

199 xenoblade - melia offers to guide us

Dear Readers,

We overshot the meeting point with Melia and went up to the next floor without her by accident. Ooops. We climbed back down and met up with her.

She wanted to continue with us as our guide and I said we were delighted to have her. I told her about a dark tower in my vision and she said it was Prison Island, but we needed permission to go there.

Reyn didn't have an understanding what was going on so an exasperated Sharla explained things like sanctions and empires to him. An explanation for the rest of us to help understand what's going on really.

This time, with Melia, we went to 8F, the Apex Lake.

198 xenoblade - riki's hero welcome

Dear Readers,

We returned to the village after defeating the Telethia, where Riki got a hero's welcome. We let him have his glory. He did make a difference, even though I have no clue what it was. These guys are supposed to be strong as well as cute after all so I won't doubt it.

The chief Dunga said Riki's debt was repaid, but his littlepons ate a lot while he was gone, so he announced Riki was going to continue adventuring and fighting side by side with us. Riki wasn't too pleased!

Riki then introduced his wife and huge family to us, which made us raise an eyebrow. I asked him how old he was and he said he was 40. He was going to support his family by joining us and they'd be taken care of by the village. That was the plan.

Melia asked Dunga if he could allow us passage to Eryth Sea and he gladly granted it. She told us to meet up with her above when we were ready. Finally, some progress!

197 xenoblade - telethia defeated at last!

Dear Readers,

We finally beat the Telethia! The major change I made was having Melia and Riki in the party. I've had Melia there before, but I never had Riki there. If that made all the difference I'm not 100% sure how it did.

I tried other strategies like deflecting the aggro from myself and using backslash on its actual back. I'm not familiar with Riki or Melia's moves so one or both of them made a big difference.

When we defeated it, a dramatic cutscene played where everyone joined in to attack  it.

Afterwards, Melia thanked us and we patted each other on the back in congratulations. There was some weird explanation where it was being filled with energy and that's what done it in but I didn't fully grasp it at all. Who cares though! Time to move on!

196 xenoblade - telethia is still kicking our butts

Dear Readers,

We haven't faced the Telethia in quite a while, so I decided to try it out again.

We got our butts handed to us again haha.

However, I saved at just before the fight and loaded it so I don't have to traipse all the way there again past huge creatures.

195 xenoblade - frontier village collectopaedia page

Dear Readers,

The Frontier Village of the Nopon had a very small collectopaedia page and we collected everything there.

This time, Riki and Melia had a go each of naming things.

194 xenoblade - makna forest collectopaedia entry

Dear Readers,

Just like one of the previous pages, we were only missing one thing from Makna Forest. Not sure what it is yet.

The princess daffodil has an odd name. I thought daffodil was a masculine name?

The venomous lizard entry says it just looks like a venomous lizard. Doesn't say otherwise if it really is. I guess it's one to avoid anyway.

Dunban and Sharla tried naming things in the strange section.

193 xenoblade - bionis' interior collectopaedia page

Dear Readers,

The Bionis' Interior Collectopaedia page was very small and I hadn't found anything from there yet.

It's a strange place. It's very small, yet has its own page and we only use it as a passage so far.

192 xenoblade - satori marsh collectopaedia page

Dear Readers,

Now to fill in the Satori Marsh page of the Collectopaedia.

There was one veg I didn't find yet. Otherwise, I found everything else.

Reyn and Dunban named a coulple of things here.

I'll do the other collectopaedia entries later because I'm getting bored and drowsy.

191 xenoblade - filling in the ether mine page of the collectopaedia

Dear Readers,

Now to fill in the Ether Mine page of the collectopaedia.

There were a couple of things Sharla named before going for her shower. One of the parts I haven't obtained yet, so I didn't finish the page.

I can't explore the whole mine right now for some reason. NEXT!

190 xenoblade - filling in the colony 6 page of the collectopaedia

Dear Readers,

Now for the Colony 6 page of the Collectopaedia.

I filled the whole thing in and got rewards. One of the items was a corgi dog, which was kind of weird. It just looks like any other item really.

Another dull task done. NEXT!

189 xenoblade - filling in bionis' leg page of collectopaedia

Dear Readers,

Now to fill in the Bionis' Leg page of the Collectopaedia.

Mostly uninteresting sounding vegetables. There was stuff that Reyn and I named. Slightly amusing I suppose. NEXT!

188 xenoblade - filling in the tephra cave collectopaedia

Dear Readers,

I went filling in more of the collectopaedia, this time from Tephra Cave.

This time there was an animal section. Each entry made a mouse squeak and had a mouse icon, even though they weren't all mice.

I filled in the whole page and got rewards for it. Hooray!

I like how it mentions that Fiora or Dunban named some of the items.

187 xenoblade - doing some gem crafting to clear out inventory

Dear Readers,

It took me three months to get back into playing this game again. Between November 2023 and now, February 2024. There was Christmas and a lot of stress and everything, but it was always somewhere in the back of my mind that I wanted to do and I wanted to continue keeping a diary of it too. Anyway, let's continue.

I got Sharla and Reyn to do some gem crafting because I wanted to raise their affinity and to clear out excess inventory.

I did this quite a few times and made gems and cylinders and whatever else. It didn't feel fun to do at all and it just felt like doing excessive busywork. Excessive busywork can be fun but this particular thing is just not fun and feels pointless.

Anyway, it didn't raise their affinity level so again I'm confused and annoyed.

At the very least I managed to clear out some inventory.

Let's continue and hope I get less confused and annoyed.

186 xenoblade - starting to fill in the collectopaedia

Dear Readers,

I took a bit of a break from the game again but I'm going to continue with something a little different.

I've been thinking of gem crafting, raising affinity levels, and generally getting rid of that excess material from my inventory. I'm tired of being told I'm over encumbered.

I spent forever looking for the gem crafting in the menus and finally found it under items.

Before I checked it I went into the collectopaedia. I then learned that I had to manually fill in the spaces! Even though I already had the item!

I went on to fill in the collectopaedia page 100% for Colony 9. Some of the descriptions were nice to read. There weren't any individual illustrations though. I got some random rewards for filling in categories and the page.

It was a simple task and I had already collected a crap ton of stuff from randomly wandering around picking up any old thing.

I'll continue filling in pages later. I'm going to take my time with this. This game just constantly feels overwhelming.

To be honest I've been absolutely dreading coming back to this game. The only thing I'm enjoying in it right now is the music.

185 xenoblade - bashing arena orlugas

Dear Readers,

Next quest was Monster Quest 2 - Part 3. Bash 3 Arena Orlugas near Precipice Bridge in Makna Forest.

I was already in the area so I hunted for them. One was on the bridge with other Orlugas so we had to beat them as well. The other two were on the east side with those Hode thingies. We bashed until we got the quest done.

Next quest please. We picked up some masks that were for another quest so that's nice.

184 xenoblade - bashing ammos orlugas

Dear Readers,

I'm only in the mood to do very simple stuff right now so for this post I'm focusing on the Monster Quest 2 - Part 2 from Frontier Village, which is about bashing 2 Ammos Orlugas near Precipice Bridge in Makna Forest.

Unlike the quest from the last post, there was nothing confusing about this. I found one of those big dudes soon enough and bashed him. I had one defeated already so I just needed the one. Quest done.

Next quest, next post.

183 xenoblade - "sparkling pool" is not the same as "shining pond"

Dear Readers,

We decided to get the filtered water for Rasha for her nieceypon Cherri. We went to the Sparkling Pool... or at least we thought we could go there, but it turns out we hadn't discovered it yet and we were completely mixed up between the Sparkling Pool in Makna Forest and the Shining Pond in Satori Marsh. What a headache.

I didn't even know this until I warped back to Satori Marsh and found that out. I wandered around Makna Forest like a fool trying to find it too.

A shining pond is a type of sparkling pool so of course that's confusing. Everything's just loads of the same thing in this game. I got so bored and annoyed I turned the game off for the rest of the day.

182 xenoblade - bana's secret egg for gadada

Dear Readers,

We had a brief chat with Rasha who mentioned she was an old friend of Bokoko in Satori Marsh. That's nice.

Bana had a quest for us. He asked us to bring a Monster Egg from the forest to the village so they could train it themselves. He asked us to give the egg to Gadada. We agreed to go to the Twisted Tree Gate and get it.

We warped to the area, ran through the shallows and around the path that led towards the egg. Then we warped back to the village with it.

We found Gadada on 4F, the pollen works sometime after 6AM. He was delighted with the egg and told us to keep it secret and only tell Bana.

We caught up with Bana on the ground floor at night and he was happy with the news, saying the Nopon future was secure, whatever that meant.

I was happy too. Melia had a thought bubble that said seeing me happy made her feel warm. I asked her why she was staring. Oooo! Something there between Shulk and Melia?

181 xenoblade - curing tati's cough

Dear Readers,

We went to the Hode area in Makna Forest and hunted them for their camouflage drops. We got them in no time at all.

The Orlugas near them got involved too. We had to defeat some of them for quests too.

We had enough and headed back to the village to bring the drops to Tati. He was delighted and his cough even went away! Wow, that's some really good warm material to cure a cold like that. Sounds magical even.

With that solved we went back to Pipiki, who was much happier now that the spooky noises were gone. The link between him and Tati was labelled "Weird Songs".

180 xenoblade - investigating what spooked poor pipiki

Dear Readers,

We found out what the noise was that was freaking out Pipiki. It was Tati singing while he was working underground.

When we spoke to Tati, he said his voice got really weird because he got a cold. He asked us to grab 3 Hode Camouflages from Hodes in Makna Forest.

Well, that's that. It wasn't some spooky monster or anything. Just a spooky sounding cold. We'll hunt for that stuff later.

179 xenoblade - discovering bridge four isn't there

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the area northwest of Bridge Three. On the way there we came to another bridge, or what was left of it anyway.

This bridge was out and I didn't realise it wasn't there until I walked right off the cliff and fell way down into the river! That was pretty stupid of me but we had a good landing and it was pretty funny. Had a good laugh at least.

It seems on the other side there's an entrance/exit to another area. Maybe we'll get to explore later.

178 xenoblade - beating up mount tortas for pachipa and gerugu

Dear Readers,

Pachipa at the archaeology centre during the daytime had a quest for us.

She said her dadapon worked on the Bionis' Leg with Nopon Merchants but turtles stole his things and caused a lot of trouble for him. We then learned that her father was Gerugu! Or were we reminded? I'm not sure if we already established that earlier. It's very hard to tell with some of these characters. We agreed to bash 2 Mount Tortas on the Bionis' Leg. Those huge things? Were we ready?

She told us they were at Vanilla Hill. She wasn't sure though. I think she meant Viliera Hill. We went there and saw the Mount Torta which was LV32. We picked a fight with this huge creature we used to steer clear of.

The fight went very well and we even found a second one nearby. It took a small bit of time but it was no real trouble, aside from all the clunky warping to get to the area.

We got back to Pachipa and she said she got a letter from her dadapon saying all was well. She thanked us. All was well now with her and the link between her and her dad was one of relief.

177 xenoblade - warping clunkily for lupa and satata's elixir

Dear Readers,

We warped clunkily back to Satori Marsh to obtain the poison stuff from the big poison frog brogs.

We found one and obtained its drop after defeating it easily. I had Sharla and Melia and since they fight from a distance, they stood in the poison swamp, which wasn't great. Must keep that kind of thing in mind for the future.

We had all the materials we needed for Lupa's secret elixir now. We warped clunkily back to the village and went to see her at Riki's House.

I found Lupa, not at Riki's House but at the archaeology centre. Wish the quest would've told me that and save me the grief of finding her. Luckily, she was only a couple of levels up.

She thanked us for the ingredients and made some elixir. She then asked us to take it to her grampypon Satata in Colony 6.

We warped clunkily to Colony 6 and made it daytime.

He was delighted to see us, took the elixir, and told us to go back and tell her... something I forget what it was.

We warped clunkily back to Frontier Village and made it nighttime. Lupa was delighted and was happy to hear how her Grampypon Satata was doing. She vowed to carry on his work and discover the secret of Makna. (Not Mana haha)

Someone here during the day has a quest. Will talk to them next time. It'll probably involve more clunky warping.

176 xenoblade - discovering the seahorse islet

Dear Readers,

I decided to explore the Lakeside area on the other side of the map, so off we went.

It was a small area so we then went for a swim around the lake. We went against the current and tried to fill in the map. The view of the Great Makna Falls was pretty nice! The rainbow that was cast looked spectacular as well! Just really nice.

We found some Hades Beetles along the way too for a quest.

There was a little beach on the right side of the area with big LV34 Makna Brogs. We beat some up for fun. No quest for them right now.

We went down river. We'll explore the rest of the lake later. There were shorelines all along with enemies.

We also met Fool Sardis, which are very nicely named. They're like piranhaxes but very feisty. We were well able for them with our healing abilities. It was able to inflict daze and all.

We picked a fight with the Agile Albatro, LV33. It was quite formidable with some big attacks. Really needed Melia's healing abilities here. We beat it in the end to complete a quest.

We then got all the Hades Beetles we needed. I checked the quest and it said we needed Potent Brog Poison from the Poison Brogs in Satori Marsh. Will visit there later.

Continuing downriver, we came across rocks, one of which was the Seahorse Islet, which was a secret area. Very nice discovery.

After this were a few items in the river current before it ended in an endless abyss. I wondered where it went and curiosity killed the cat haha. It goes right off the world.

I'm enjoying the game a bit more now that I'm exploring like this again. It got dull and laborious for a while. The initial gameplay draw for me was the exploring after all so this is good!

175 xenoblade - rasha wants to be closer to her nieceypon cherri

Dear Readers,

While we were in the village I noticed Rasha had a quest. She said her nieceypon Cherri didn't seem to want to spend time with her. Rasha wanted to be close to her though because she was her only relative. Aw...

We asked for more details and she said Cherri's mom wasn't around anymore so she would like to be like a mamapon to her. Sharla suggested a present or something she needed and then Rasha remembered Cherri needed Filtered Water. We agreed to get it for her. It needed to be gathered from the Sparkling Pool in Makna Forest from dawn to dusk.

That was sad about the sister passing away. I'd like to help bring the aunt and niece closer together.

174 xenoblade - observing the hodes and their orlugas

Dear Readers,

Back to exploring. We used the network of bridges to access a hard to reach area to the north of the Clear Waterfall. There wasn't anything particularly special there, day or night. Maybe a quest takes place there later? I dunno.

We then went south and discovered Precipice Bridge. In this area we saw more Orluga variants and these little guys called Bois Hodes.

We found lots of Kelp Mushrooms in this area and finished that quest for Kofuko at the Sacred Altar.

We discovered the Hode Lair, guarded by two Orlugas and the Abyss Basin nearby.

Lots of Orlugas and Hodes were frolicking about here. It seems like the little Hodes have the giant Orlugas tamed like beasts, which was interesting to see.

This entire part of the forest was explored now, so we went back to cash in with Kofuko.

After searching in the affinity chart (he's in the bottom left), we found him near the Sacred Altar at night. He was happy with the mushy mushrooms but was sad his teeth were so bad he couldn't eat the chewy ones anymore. Aw... 

We had something else to talk to him about. The water under the altar was bad and it was because of him. He wanted ingredients to make it good and gave us suggestions.

Suddenly I got a vision of Migaga tasting something really sweet, saying she didn't like Jollyade. The others didn't like it either and they were feeling dizzy and sick. Yikes... better not mess it up.

I had the choice of the easy-to-find 4 Walnut Grapes or the rare delicacy 2 Bitter Kiwis. I agreed to the quest generally. It was weird he wanted to make alcohol in the water under the altar.

It turns out I had the grapes at least. I better think about this one... maybe even look up a walkthrough for tips.

173 xenoblade - gathering pollen for dobadoba

Dear Readers,

We continued past Clear Waterfall until we got to Yellow Flower Grove. Some quest markers were here!

Some big Makna Elucas were here too. They didn't give any trouble though.

The markers were all for Yellow Pollen that Dobadoba wanted. We got the 5 and that part was done.

We trekked past the Decayed Forest where the Telethia was as well. Soon...

We went to see Dobadoba and he was delighted with the stuff.

He told us Gadada was fast and reliable and they had a teacher/pupil partnership. 

172 xenoblade - exploring clear waterfall

Dear Readers,

We continued fighting more Terra Orlugas until that quest was completed.

The Nopon who was angry for being stepped on was now satisfied because they got a letter saying the Terra Orluga was sorry. Wow. Didn't know those big guys could write.

We continued east and found a body of water. We fought a couple of Makna Ansels and they were tough enough but manageable. It was good to have someone who had an ability to put them to sleep. I think it was Melia.

This area came up as Clear Waterfall.

171 xenoblade - beating up itmos upa and wahpol sardi

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring the area near the Nopon Arch.

We completed the Itmos Upa quest by bashing enough of them. We also defeated the Wahpol Sardi for another quest. It was like a slightly stronger piranhax.

We beat up a Terra Orluga as well. They look scary but we're well able for them now. We'll beat more next time to fill up the quota for that quest.

The entire area between the Nopon Arch and the Twisted Tree Gate was now explored by us.

170 xenoblade - defeating makna piranhaxes, venaes nebula

Dear Readers,

I decided to pick 8 Kelp Mushrooms for Kofuko.

We picked a fight with LV34 Elder Gragus. It wasn't a good idea because we got killed. Oops.

We bashed some other monsters instead for quests, like local piranhaxes, upas and a Venaes Nebula.

The shallows near the Nopon Arch was a good spot for collecting items and fighting baddies. The piranhaxes were fearsome looking with their teeth but we were well able for them.

169 xenoblade - teaching ababa a nice lesson

Dear Readers,

We checked on Deki to see how he was getting on with his new friend, Ababa, but it seemed he wasn't happy since he had a quest.

The problem was, Deki liked bugs as friends, whereas Ababa liked bugs for eating. He wanted our help to teach him a lesson. We agreed to grab 2 lots of Green Eluca Juice, which we were told was very hot.

We took the juice to Ababa. He was nervous about drinking it and he found it very hot but he loved it. He said he'd recommend it to Deki. Uh-oh, looks like the plan backfired.

We went back to Deki...and by the way, Deki is up during the day and Ababa is up during the night, so we had to change the clock every time we wanted to speak to the other one, which was another tedious rigmarole.

The link on the affinity chart between them became one of outrage. Yikes. Deki was still very upset with Ababa for eating bugs, but he appreciated what we did for him.

168 xenoblade - gathering shield bugs for the bug fans

Dear Readers,

We went hunting for Shield Bugs in Makna Forest. We already had two, just needed one more.

We went straight to the branches we used to get to ? and found another of them in the same place. Then we went back to the village to see Ababa.

We spoke to Ababa, then we had to speak to Kokora. I cursed and swore out loud trying to find Kokora but I eventually found her at the entrance to the village.

She said Ababa and Deki became friends with their common interest being insect fans. Hooray!

But yeah, finding a specific little Nopon in this huge village is not fun.

167 xenoblade - fetch quests for dobadoba and lupa

Dear Readers,

Chatting with more Nopon for quests in their village.

Dobadoba on 4F talked about pollen orbs and was very passionate about it. We agreed to grab 5 lots of Yellow Pollen at Yellow Flower Grove in Makna Forest for him. Things were a bit dangerous for them to do it. He said Yellow Flower Grove was out of Windmill Pavilion and upstream towards the waterfall before taking a right. Whew.

We met Dabidabi who was gonna jump off from a great height into the water. He was on 7F.

Lupa had a quest for us. She wanted us to bring her grampypon in Colony 6 some Secret Nopon Elixir, provided he was still alive. She also wanted us to help her gather ingredients for it. We accepted all that. She wanted us to find 5 Hades Beetles, 3 All-Seeing Eyes(which we had), and 2 lots of Potent Brog Poison from Poison Brogs in Satori Marsh. The rest were in Makna Forest.

Dedeba had praise for Bana and this updated in the affinity chart.

Chatting to NPCs here is exhausting. They're all tiny and look the same, some have quests, most don't have quests but may affect the affinity chart so I have to chat to them twice in a row... they're spread across all these little floors in the big tree and I haven't gone below or outside to talk to the other ones yet to see if they have any more quests themselves...

I've only chatted to a few since we came back and already I feel like I've done a long day's work.

Oh, and another thing, they have different schedules depending on if it's day or night. Whew...

I used to love day/night cycles in RPGs. Why are they so tiresome now?

166 xenoblade - pipiki spooked by scary noises

Dear Readers,

We hung around the Nopon village as they had more quests for us.

Pipiki on 1F Was scared because he heard ghosts at night apparently. He wanted us to find out what that noise was below his house. We agreed to help him.

Kuriku was talking to him and was upset with Pachipa, as she called her a roly-poly. This appeared on the affinity chart. Not nice...

Migaga was at the spring fountain thing and said there was a sweet smell somewhere. I suddenly got a vision of Migaga talking about a funny smell that made her dizzy and feel sick. It was alarming. I asked her more about it. She said it smelled like a certain drink her hubbypon Kofuo likes. We agreed to investigate the smell before everyone got sick from it. "OK Marriage" appeared on the affinity chart between them.

More chatting later.

165 xenoblade - beat up 5 makna elucas for rasha and cherri

Dear Readers,

We went back to Makna Forest to explore and beat up more enemies.

We came across a Makna Ansel and beat it up. Not sure if it was rare or not.

We discovered Bridge Two and crossed it to explore the lands on the other side.

We beat 5 Makna Elucas, so we had to go see Cherri to complete the quest.

We also discovered Bridge Three.

Cherri asked us why we bashed the creatures and told us to tell Rasha to mind her own business. We did that and Rasha said she needed to learn manners. She was thankful though. A link called "Irritating" came up between them.

Again, I was only able to find them thanks to talking about them on previous blog posts. Whew...

Just saw that there other quests from the Nopon here in the village so I'll hang around and chat with them.

164 xenoblade - satata thanks us for his brotherpon

Dear Readers,

We went back to Satata in Colony 6 after carrying out the quest based on a departed loved one. He was very thankful.

After we did this, he started talking about what to do for the farm.

That was pretty much it, so we went back to Makna Forest for more exploration. Someday we'll be able to upgrade Colony 6 some more.

163 xenoblade - exploring makna forest with sharla and melia

Dear Readers,

We went back to Makna Forest in order to explore it and complete more quests. I also tried having Sharla and Melia in the party for a while to raise their affinities with one another for another quest from way back in Colony 9.

Pretty soon I found an Ash Fox which finished another quest.

We went exploring the overgrowth of the forest to beat more enemies and obtain items for other quests. 

At one point I got a vision of Sharla talking about getting the second lot of Green Eluca Juice for a quest. She wondered if Deki expected Ababa to drink something so strong.

We found a path to go up a tree where a Jungle Quadwing was waiting for us. It knocked me down off the tree but the others were able to finish it off. We had enough of them beaten to complete a quest too which was nice.

Up in the branches of the tree there were items for quests and I kept falling off because of other party members were getting in the way. Yeesh!

This path up the tree allowed us to access a tunnel that led all the way to a secluded cliff. From that point there was yet another little tunnel that led to an even more secluded cliff. This was called the Divine Sanctuary. We picked on some Vangs along the way. I wouldn't have been able to find this without the map! Hard to notice anything with all the dense overgrowth in the way.

While up here, night fell and I got a vision of Dunban collecting four benign crickets. He wondered what kind of offering Pipiki wanted to make with these.

A part of the cliff jutted out and it was the area Satata was talking about when he wanted me to cast the mushroom cap. I said rest in peace to the departed member of his family and did what he wanted me to do. It was a nice thing to do. I'll catch up with him later to mark the quest complete.

162 xenoblade - installing a flower garden in colony 6

Dear Readers,

We went back to Colony 6 to see if we could make any upgrades. We were able to level up Nature to LV2, which brought about a flower garden.

The flower garden was nice enough, but didn't seem to do anything particularly special. It was the only one we were able to upgrade for now.

We left Colony 6 again. Will be back later.

161 xenoblade - stealing daring of the giants and saying eff you to the spiders

Dear Readers,

We took the Giants' Mirror and left the big spider behind without defeating it. We returned to the Exile Fortress in Satori Marsh.

We had to go all the way round to the entrance and through the actual fortress again. It was a slog like most of the game is and we fell off the ledge once, which was even more annoying, but it was very amusing to go through the throne room and see the lizard men Ignas again, only this time without their leader. They were all gathered around an empty throne and paid no attention to us now. It was a funny sight alright.

We got to the altar and used the mirror. This gave us the Daring of the Giants.

It also made another bunch of big spiders appear! Defied Queens this time. We ignored them just like the other big spider and jumped off the fortress roof. It looks like they won't appear again but I don't care anymore.

We went back to Kacha who thanked us for the quest. She said there was something else to this item we got but didn't say what it was. I guess we'll find out later.

160 xenoblade - collecting the giant's mirror, getting killed by the clifftop bayern

Dear Readers,

We warped to a point on the Bionis Leg where we could return to the Daksha Shrine. Nearest point was Kamos Guidepost which was still some ways away.

We got the Giant's Mirror but the Clifftop Bayern still killed us, even though it was five levels lower than we were. We whittled its health down by half at least.

We decided to skip the spider fight and just get on with the quest.

159 xenoblade - learning about the giants' mirror

Dear Readers,

Kacha had another quest for us. She wanted us to collect the Giant's Mirror from Daksha Shrine and place it on the altar of the Exile Fortress.

This wasn't all part of the last quest, which ended with us not knowing what the heck to do with the altar. We had to find that first so we could come back here and get this new quest.

We'll have to go to the previous area now. I think it might be that area where the big creature came out from nowhere and beat us up. We might be able for it this time. Will explore next time.

We got a nice bit of lore about giants from Kacha though. The altars were for offerings and the giants were big but they liked order and rules and stuff like that. Next thing is to continue the tradition.

158 xenoblade - beating up every single lizard dude in the exile fortress

Dear Readers,

We hung around in Satori Marsh. I decided to do the quest about the Giant's Key. We went to the Dark Swamp to defeat 5 Deluded Ignas.

Finding them wasn't that fun, but fighting them was. They had their own chain attacks and everything. We were at a much higher level than them now so we clobbered them handily.

When they were done we found the Giants' Key nearby. This area was to the east of the Dark Swamp on a higher platform. We had to come in through a little cave/arch along the way on a path that ran alongside the Exile Fortress.

After that, we went into the fortress itself and beat up every single lizard dude thingy in there, including the Reckless Godwin. It took a small while but we beat them all handily enough. I aimed for the biggest one straight away, which may not have been the best idea but we were able to manage it with a couple of chain attacks.

Afterwards we found the Wall of Sin, that opened up to reveal a path to the altar we were looking for on the roof. We examined it and it seemed we needed an offering. We headed back to Kacha who rewarded us.

157 xenoblade - delivering highmore caviar for zazadan

Dear Readers,

Zazadan was sad again. He wanted to give the Highmore Caviar to a Nopon named Dedeba but he didn't have a way to deliver it. We agreed to deliver it for him.

Interestingly, this was a timed quest. Doesn't that make earlier quests timed as well even though they're not labelled as such? In that case, I must spend more time doing older quests without progressing too much. Another thing to stress about with this game.

I warped clunkily to Nopon Village and went looking for Dedeba. Luckily I already blogged about where the heck he was in the village, which was on 2F at night. I looked that up in my own archive and found him there right away.

If I hadn't blogged about this before, I just wouldn't have been able to find him for ages. I would've had to look it up online out of boredom.

When I got to Dedeba, he was grumpy as well, complaining about how long he was waiting. He was surprised to see us delivering it. He was happy with the delivery, though he still shooed us away quickly.

A link appeared between him and Zazadan on the affinity chart labelled with "A Regular".

We warped back to Zazadan and he didn't have any more quests for us. Might just never come back. It's annoying having to warp and climb his hill each time when visiting him. Depends on quests to come I suppose.