526 xenoblade - discovering bionis' right elbow

Dear Readers,

We warped to Valak Mountain and started hiking in search of the Three Sage Summit.

Using a map we hiked through a pass which led all the way to the Bionis' Right Elbow but nowhere else. It felt like a place we shouldn't be yet. There were Setor Eks here which looked just like other Eks but they were well above LV90. The Monta Moramora flying around looked intimidating too. There were also Latio Apis, little bugs flying around that seemed like they might be part of a random quest later. Big ol' ether deposit here too but I didn't bother harvesting anything.

On the way there we met a Setor Eks randomly galloping through the pass. It wasn't malicious but I did feel the need to step out of the way!

Three Sage Summit was near here but definitely not part of this path. I'll have to try a different route next time.

525 xenoblade - zain and kurralth may be in trouble

Dear Readers,

I noticed Miriall now had a quest and it was urgent. She said Zain and his friend went to Valak Mountain and haven't come back. We agreed to help.

We had to find Zain and Kurralth near Three Sage Summit on Valak Mountain.

I looked it up and it was in a place we hadn't explored yet on the upper level. I don't think Mumkhar is in the way either as he's on the lower level. We'll have a look next time.

524 xenoblade - vidian is happy her friend isn't racist anymore

Dear Readers,

After talking to Lesunia, I set the clock back to daytime and went back to Vidian. Whew.

She was delighted to hear Lesunia was back to her old self. She then told us she remembered back then, admitting she was embarrassed her headwings were so small, since she was half High-Entia. Lesunia said back then she didn't care about that at all and that she was envious of her shorter wings, saying they must be easier to maintain. She was really happy now they could be friends again! Hooray! This updated in the affinity chart too.

I decided to catch up with Lesunia even though the quest was now done. She said she did some research and that once upon a time there were High Entia that discriminated against other races. She said it she honestly thought it would be romantic to fall in love with a Homs and that it would help settle the differences between races.

523 xenoblade - lesunia remembers when she wasn't racist

Dear Readers,

Thankfully, we already had Befalgar Pedestal mapped out and were able to warp there.

We set the clock to 5AM and nearby was the Morning Dew Ice in the form of a glowy red item with an exclamation mark. Easy pickings now!

We warped back to Vidian and she was delighted we got it. She made something called "Affection Seal Half" and asked us to give it to Lesunia for her.

We set the clock to nighttime and warped to Lesunia. She recalled when she and Vidian were young. She wanted to get Morning Dew Ice so badly that she and Lesunia got separated from their class on a trip to Valak Mountain. There was a really bad blizzard and they survived until morning talking to each other, trying not to fall asleep. When morning came, there was the Morning Dew Ice. She remembered how she survived that night thanks to Vidian. She then reflected on how she was treating Vidian now, calling her all kinds of bad things. She resolved to apologise to Vidian.

Quest not over yet. We had to go talk to Vidian again. This involved setting the clock to daytime and warping... well there's no warp between here and there but I have to go all the way to Vidian again. It's really tiresome but it's nice this development is happening. I'm gonna end the post here. I could do it all in one but this rigmarole is wasting enough time. 

I'm glad Lesunia is going to be less racist from now on.

522 xenoblade - vidian is still having problems with her racist friend

Dear Readers,

I looked online to see if I could do any more quests. I found one for Vidian in Alcamoth. We warped there to chat with her.

She heard about us helping Lesunia out with her racism problem and asked us for more help with her. They used to be friends until they had a falling out over something Vidian broke that belonged to Lesunia. She was still cold with Vidian and Vidian wanted the old Lesunia back. We agreed to collect Morning Dew Ice from Befalgar Pedestal on Valak Mountain at dawn.

Off we go!

521 xenoblade - no, still not strong enough for mumkhar

Dear Readers,

After defeating a couple of enemies that gave me trouble before, I thought, why not the next major story enemy?

Unfortunately, he was still too strong for us. I tried running around a bit but things got confusing and I didn't know who was who sometimes.

We did manage to knock him down on the ground at one stage at least, so that's something. We'll get there.

520 xenoblade - defeating the lightspeed sonid finally!

Dear Readers,

Now that we were a good bit stronger, about LV51 on average, I wanted to try and fight the Lightspeed Sonid again to see if we could defeat it.

Even with the extra levels, it was still a tough fight. I didn't have any visions, but I did die once and Reyn died twice. It was all in the same fight though and I was lucky to have bars in the party gauge.

We threw our usual attacks at it and tried not to die otherwise. We got one chain attack in and I got Sharla to heal me as my HP was 1. It wasn't too easy at all but at the same time we beat it and finished the quest. Hooray!

519 xenoblade - saving the lighthouse from flying thingies

Dear Readers,

It was already nighttime and the flying creatures appeared at the balconies of the lighthouse. We took all three of them on, one by one. Only one could fit at a balcony. I call them thingies because I already forget what they're called. They're not exactly memorable and they're the same type of creature as the ones that attacked us at the Ether Plant.

The first one I played as Melia. We defeated it handily. I switched back to Shulk and beat the other two just as handily.

When all that was done, Shalen wanted to thank Melia, so I had to switch back to her again.

When I spoke to Shalen, she got weird. She wanted me to thank Jarack for fixing the lighthouse and put me down for not doing it. She called me reticent and this weird argument happened. After this, Melia's reticent branch thingy was unlocked and Shalen's affinity updated in the chart. It said she had heart racing for Jarack, which is nice and kind of explains some of the awkwardness at least.

Jarack went back to the Ether Plant and we warped there to speak to him. He didn't have any more quests but said he sometimes puts love letters in the turbines for fun and liked the idea of them being found and read by ladies. That was kind of amusing.

518 xenoblade - melia helps at the lighthouse

Dear Readers,

We warped to the lighthouse to see if Jarack needed anything for repairs. It wasn't going well for him and Shalen was in despair. She wanted a High Entia who knew how important this lighthouse was. We couldn't get a quest from her, so we spoke to her as Melia.

She asked Melia if she knew how important the lighthouse was. She said of course she did and that it served to suppress monster activity at Eryth Sea which would prevent them from attacking Alcamoth. Shalen praised her and said nervously that the lighthouse would take time to be repaired and would be attacked in the meantime.

We agreed to protect the lighthouse while it was being repaired and to defeat 3 Decay Ekidnos during the night.

517 xenoblade - revenge of the hodes at the ether plant

Dear Readers,

We went back to Jarack at the Ether Plant and he said he could hear the Hode Leader's death cries all the way from here, which was pretty good! It saved me from having to tell him everything that happened.

After we finished up his quest, another popped up. The Hodes wanted revenge! We had to defeat 2 Confusion Ekidnos. Jarack legged it lol.

They lined up side by side and came to the Ether Plant. They were very easy to defeat though, which was nice.

When we beat them, we had to find Jarack. He escaped to underneath the plant on the ground below. Seemed like a good hiding place while we were fighting above.

He thanked us and set off to repair the lighthouse.

516 xenoblade - beating up the funeral gozra at last

Dear Readers,

I tried another go at the Funeral Gozra in Eryth Sea to see if we could beat it now.

We did it! I just fought normally and didn't do anything particularly special and we just beat it handily and without any trouble at all. That's great. It was so much trouble before. I feel a bit more confident about going up against Mumkhar now. 

515 xenoblade - completing the collectopaedia for makna forest

Dear Readers,

I checked the collectopaedia for the first time in a while. I noticed I had the last thing for Makna Forest collected, the Enigma Lotus. I confirmed it and finished the page for this area. Hooray!

That's that done. Next!

514 xenoblade - geography lesson with dunban and me

Dear Readers,

I didn't notice this before but the next available heart-to-heart was between Shulk and Dunban on the Bionis' Leg at the Believer's Paradise. I didn't realise it before because it doesn't work unless the characters in question are in your party when you check it out. Anyway, we got there and did the scene.

I said to Dunban we'd never see a sight like this from Colony 9. This was the absolute wrong time to do this because it was misty and pouring rain hahaha!

Anyway, the scene continued. He agreed with me. I said I'd never get tired of looking out at this landscape and wondered when these rock formations dated from. He didn't sound too interested and I said it to him.

From this point I had to choose stuff to say for Dunban. I had him say of course he was interested. I told him he seemed to switch off whenever I talked about geeky stuff or anything about the latest fad. I asked him if he knew what the latest "superfood" was that everyone was talking about.

I'm pretty surprised this game has the word "superfood" in it as a topic of chat!

I had Dunban say that he knew. He brought up Chewy Radishes and said they were the latest healthy ingredient. He said he saw a queue of people lining up to buy them and that it was as long as the Bionis' Leg, which made me laugh!

I was surprised he knew the answer as I barely knew myself. He told me not everything could be learned from books or from researching in the lab. I said I'd keep it in mind.

I was expecting this to be about Dunban giving Shulk a pop quiz, but from the looks of things it's the other way round! 

513 xenoblade - flowers of eryth sea with sharla and riki

Dear Readers,

The next available heart-to-heart was at Eryth Sea and it was between Sharla and Riki at Hovering Reef 2.

Riki said the flowers here smelled like passion and made him feel passionate. Sharla asked him if he was feeling okay. He said he loved flowers.

This time, I was picking what to say for Sharla. I said I liked flowers too for the best results. The other option was about Riki getting old, which wasn't a nice option! What the heck!

Riki talked about eating flowers but also about bringing them home for his wifeypon. Sharla said he was a good husband and he was modest, saying he wasn't that good.

Sharla commented on the shade of blue these big flowers had and said they would suit Melia. She suggested he give her one of these blue flowers!

I had her say she'd be so happy. She thought Melia was sensible but she was too uptight and needed to loosen up. Riki agreed with her. Sharla offered to help Riki pick out flowers for Melia and he happily agreed.

What a nice thing! I had a look at the alternate dialogue and it's funny too. He's dead right to protest the ageism remark!

512 xenoblade - fallen brethren with melia and me

Dear Readers,

The next available heart-to-heart was between Melia and me and it took place in Makna Forest, at the Agni Tablet landmark.

I asked Melia if something was bothering her. She said she wasn't feeling herself. I had to choose what Shulk had to say and "hey look at this!" was pretty funny but not the best option. I chose to ask her what was wrong instead.

She talked about losing her companions to the Telethia before she met us. She missed them deeply.

I said they sounded like great people. The other option was about her getting on their nerves, which would be a horrible thing to say. Yeesh.

She said they took care of her all her life in the villa and asked if I would help her give them a proper sending off. I said of course, we'd do it together, she and me.

We bowed our heads as in prayer. Her own words came up as a thought bubble and they were nice. She promised them she would live her own life to the fullest and asked them to look over her as she journeyed on.

That had to be very hard for her. I feel glad I can be her companion at a time like this.

511 xenoblade - a broken watch with sharla and me

Dear Readers,

The next available heart-to-heart was in the Ether Mine, again between Sharla and me. This was in the Mining Base landmark and it was called "A Broken Watch".

Sharla was looking for something and she found it, her pocket watch. As Shulk I had to pick what to say. I said it's a beautiful watch. Sharla said it was her father's who gave it to her before he died. We reckoned Otharon must've picked it up during the evacuation. Unfortunately it wasn't working right now.

I said I could fix it. She was super grateful and said it would mean so much to her. I said it was no problem as I was handy and everyone at Colony 9 kept bringing me things to fix!

I love watches myself! I can see how a particular one can be special to someone.

510 xenoblade - reconsidering the past two heart-to-hearts

Dear Readers,

I changed my mind on those last two heart-to-hearts and decided to redo them again.

I looked up another guide for the heart-to-hearts and it turns out I was doing the best possible paths all along. That's good to hear.

Even though I miss out on that extra bit of interesting dialogue about Juju picking the right girl for himself, what I picked was the best possible outcome.

OK! Gonna go with what I picked first time.

509 xenoblade - what visions may bring with sharla and me

Dear Readers,

Next heart-to-heart I was able to do was "What Visions May Bring" with Sharla and me as Shulk. This was the one next to Raguel Bridge - North landmark.

Sharla asked me what it was like to see the future. I said I found it hard to explain but I described it as being made to watch a dream. I asked her what she thought of my ability.

I then had to choose what to say for Sharla. I looked up what the right answers were. I had her say I wish I had it. Sharla said if only she could see what was going to happen to Colony 6 then maybe she could do something about it, maybe even save Gadolt. She admitted it couldn't be helped though but she was grateful that Juju was able to be helped with the power.

I had Sharla say that I could save someone's life. She said she felt stronger because of me. I was thankful for her kind words but I felt like I could be better with my powers. I wasn't able to save Fiora and sometimes my visions were hazy. She said not to be so hard on myself as I saved everyone loads of times with my abilities! I was thankful.

I looked up the dialogue and it looks like there's other dialogue if I chose other options with more opportunities for hearts, even if there was an initial loss of hearts. That extra dialogue seems nice too, like the stuff about what kind of girl Juju would pick for a relationship.

Oh well. I won't worry about that for now.

508 xenoblade - heart to heart points don't show up on the map unless you're in that area. wtf

Dear Readers,

I just learned the hard way that heart-to-heart points don't show up on the map unless you're in the area itself.

Why is this? What a nuisance.

It might seem like a small thing but it's yet another annoying thing about this game. I don't need more reasons not to play it.

Anyway, that's the way it is. I don't know why but I have to be aware of this when looking for these points now.

507 xenoblade - overlooking the colony with reyn and sharla

Dear Readers,

I decided to do some heart-to-hearts. I was able to do the one titled "Overlooking the Colony with Reyn and Sharla.

It's the one on Agora Shore I wasn't able to do for ages but now I'm able to.

Sharla looked at Colony 9 and talked about how live was in Colony 6 before the attack. I was now choosing what to say as Reyn. I asked her if she wanted to go back there. She said she thought about it but she felt she had to fight for now.

I told her not to be so hard on herself. This led to some banter and with her telling Reyn she appreciated the way he made her laugh and smile. She teased him a bit as well when he said they were friends.

I looked it up and these were the right choices to make. Glad to have this heart to heart.

506 xenoblade - upgrading colony 6's special to lv3

Dear Readers,

Now we had enough to upgrade Colony 6's Special to LV3, so we talked to Juju.

Upgrading it built a little park there. It seems small but it's nice. It's also said it'll help with filling the Collectopaedia. That'll be nice for sure.

Everything was now at LV 3, so as a bonus, street lights have been built! Very nice!

I checked out the street lights and they were indeed nice and made the town look more like a town. The park helped loads as well with its nice water feature. A guy was training there at night now and during the day, girls are there talking about gifting things to people. Looking forward to seeing what items pop up here.

The sentimental music is sounding stronger now with more instrumentation as the place develops more and more. Chatted with one person who has a new shop and they're positive business will pick up. It's all new and hopeful sounding. Lovely.

505 xenoblade - upgrading colony 6's nature to lv3

Dear Readers,

We warped back to Juju and gave him the stuff to upgrade Colony 6's Nature to LV3.

With this, flowers were planted all along the main street. It also said the mine's ether crystals went up in rank, which is interesting.

One of the old people loved seeing the flowers, saying it made them feel young again. So that's a nice thing for people.

504 xenoblade - hunting bono nebulae for squall elements at eryth sea

Dear Readers,

All that we needed now was the Squall Element, which is obtained from Bono Nebulae at Eryth Sea.

Been a small while since we were in this area. Enemies are quite weak to us now! Maybe we should take on the strong enemies we couldn't fight before. All in due course.

The green Bono Nebulae are all over the place except during thunderstorms when they turn a different colour and become extremely strong. When that happens we just have to change the clock and hope for a time when it's not thundering.

We had the same old problem of the creature blowing up on us when it got too weak, not dropping anything. We spent a lot of time trying to get our chain attack gauge to stay topped up so that we could be ready. This meant we had to fight many other enemies for ages and some of them were too weak to even let us build up anything.

Eventually I switched out Shulk for Riki. I used Riki's Yoink! move again and again until I finally got the Squall Element with it! Great little Nopon he is!

503 xenoblade - hunting reef nebulae for snow elements

Dear Readers,

We were on the hunt for those blue nebulae in the mountains. Up until now, we didn't go near them, but now I needed the Snow Elements for an upgrade in Colony 6. Reef Nebula they're called.

These things are all over the place. I find that a good place to hunt for them is the little area southwest of Befalgar Pedestal. They appear there a lot and there's nothing else in the way to annoy you. It's level ground as well. The more powerful version of them are here too but I'm not gonna bother with them for now.

Just like every other nebulae in the game, they explode when they get weak and don't leave any treasure, which is very annoying. I've come to expect such a thing now, so when I see them emitting some red lines when their health is low, we carry out a chain attack with break and topple in order to delay its move long enough to defeat it and get the drop.

Getting the drop takes luck as well and we had to fight so many of them. Eventually we got the snow elements we wanted and then got the heck off the mountain.

502 xenoblade - how i almost got killed in the mountain looking for ice cabbages

Dear Readers,

One of the items I wanted for the Colony 6 reconstruction was the ice cabbage. I got some before but now I just need one more for an upgrade. I took out my reference and got to hiking.

I hiked everywhere I could see spots where they might be. I hiked along Kana Peak trying to get lucky, but I kept picking up every other thing like wet rats or whatever else in the miscellany of items that have a much higher rate of appearing. I also started falling off the mountain for the first time! I tried again and I kept falling off! How did I manage to stay up there the first time when exploring?

At one point Reyn fell off and when he respawned his respawn pushed me off the mountain! It actually made me scream when this happened.

I even tried going on that awful ice slide again. No luck at all.

Eventually I got the ice cabbage by revisiting the Lava Cave over and over until I finally got it in that inner chamber where we got the Magma Rock.

I also unwittingly discovered the Hidden Gamigin during one search where we went south from Ignia Hill along that narrow path going upwards. That didn't end well at all. I'm just glad we got the ice cabbage at last.

501 xenoblade - researching valak mountain items for colony 6 reconstruction

Dear Readers,

We had a chat with Juju about reconstruction again. I looked up to see what I could upgrade and it seems I could upgrade Nature to LV 3 and Special to LV 3. I just needed to pick up an Ice Cabbage and obtain 2 Snow Elements from Reef Nebulae and 1 Squall Element from Bono Nebulae. I had some of the other stuff needed already.

Research done, now to obtain the stuff!

500 xenoblade - giving nopo'rikh the wrong perfume on purpose

Dear Readers,

There are two routes to the Ma'crish/Nopo'rikh situation. I chose the one where she continues to dote on him because I think it's cute. I don't know if she's enslaving him but I do think she's really fond of him.

I spoke to her and she said to get the Pure Perfume from an island at Makna Falls which would have the opposite effect of what he wanted. It was very easy to find and very near the warp point. We got it in no time at all.

We gave the pure perfume to Nopo'rikh and then headed back to Ma'crish. She was grateful we gave him the wrong perfume, saying she could now cuddle and snuggle with him forever and ever.

Nopo'rikh didn't seem to mind too much. He said she didn't mind if he didn't do his chores and doted on him anyway. That's nice at least! I think he'll come to appreciate her affection for him and I'm glad he's not a slave.

For this we got the Colony 6 Celeb achievement for getting a 3-star Affinity for the Colony 6 area. Hooray!

499 xenoblade - nopo'rikh doesn't wanna be a pet

Dear Readers,

We found Nopo'rikh fairly quickly. He was in the Armu Field in Colony 6, so it wasn't far from where Ma'crish gave us the mission at all. Finding him increased Colony 6's stats and Ma'crish was very happy he was here.

We caught up with him again and he was unhappy with her company, feeling like he's a servant. Aw that's a pity. She likes him so much. We agreed to get some smelly perfume for him.

We also got the "Drawing a Crowd" achievement for increasing the population of the place to 50 people. Hooray!

498 xenoblade - ma'crish is looking for nopo'rikh

Dear Readers,

We warped to Colony 6. Ma'crish was here and she had a quest. She was looking for a Nopon named Nopo'rikh and she was worried about him.

We agreed to help her find him.

Been a while since we were in Colony 6. The music has changed a bit! It's getting more developed here!

Anyway, she says he likes to hide in the grass so let's have a look for him.

497 xenoblade - filling the valak mountain collectopaedia entry

Dear Readers,

Just thought I'd fill in the Collectopaedia for Valak Mountain. We had all the items so I just confirmed the slots into which all the stuff goes.

Nothing that seems to special. Frost Glass and Large Handcuffs are in the strange category but they don't seem strange at all. Oh well.

496 xenoblade - hunting sesna lexos

Dear Readers,

We found the Sesna Lexos fairly quickly. It was enormous. It was like one of those flying things at Eryth Sea but much bigger. It was LV47 as well.

We lured towards solid ground and fought it. We beat in just in time before it could launch a fatal attack on me.

We picked up its drops, one of which gave me a vision of Dunban picking up a Silver Lexos Heart for someone named Rakzet who wanted it to become like us Homs. Strange scenario from the future.

495 xenoblade - researching sesna lexos

Dear Readers,

Mumkhar is just too strong for us. Time to do some quests or whatever.

I looked up the Sesna Lexos for a quest. I found that it is on the upper level of Valak Mountain, southwest of Hollow Bone and some further up the mountain at all times except nighttime. Let's go hunting!

494 xenoblade - butts kicked by mumkhar again

Dear Readers,

We had another go at going up against Mumkhar and although we were above LV50, he kicked our butts easily and very quickly.

Not sure what to do. I could do more quests but I'm running out of them. I guess I'll have to upgrade at some point.

493 xenoblade - hunting sparas paguls on the ice

Dear Readers,

We went hunting for Sparas Paguls north of Nofol Tower.

There were quite a few of them around a frozen lake and they were easy to deal with, though they toppled us a good few times. It was funny seeing the other slip and slide around the ice and going far away, though that did make the battle take longer.

We needed to defeat 5 of them for the quest and there was more than enough here.

492 xenoblade - researching sparas paguls

Dear Readers,

I didn't see any Sparas Paguls yet, so I decided to research them for the quest.

It turns out there's a bunch of them at the frozen lake north of Nofol Tower. We headed there.

491 xenoblade - reporting on valak mountain hiking research to the nopon

Dear Readers,

With that fun bit of hiking research gathered, we went back to the Nopon camp with our findings. The Nopon asked which had the better view and I had a choice between Befalgar Pedestal and Kana Peak.

In my own opinion, it was Kana Peak as there was so much to see around it, whereas although Befalgar was higher, it didn't have as much of a view because it wasn't on the peak.

I looked up this choice and it said it didn't have any impact on quests or rewards as either was fine, so I chose my favourite of the two, Kana Peak.

490 xenoblade - hiking along kana peak

Dear Readers,

Now to research Kana Peak. Coming down from Befalgar Pedestal, the red exclamation for this point was very clear and I could see a clear, yet narrow path on the way towards it.

This was very easy compared to the previous research point and it was a lot of fun to hike towards as well. It was pretty funny to see Reyn's health bar appear, even though I didn't see him falling off the path.

To fall off here for real though would be no laughing matter! It really does give a feeling of being a treacherous place to explore. It's such a narrow path and it's so high up above everything around it.

We continued walking along this narrow path on the ridge, collecting items and finding the actual area that gave us experience points. Both Sharla and Reyn were falling off now and I tried my best to be careful and not fall off myself.

The ridge itself doesn't appear on the map, which is kind of annoying. It comes down to its lowest point in the Bagnar Snowfield and looks like it's pointing towards it.

489 xenoblade - hiking to befalgar pedestal

Dear Readers,

We decided to do the fun-sounding hiking quest. It ended up having it's own frustrations and boredoms.

We went back up to the start of the mountain area. This was where Befalgar Pedestal and Kana Peak were. We headed down normally towards the red exclamation marks and got to several dead ends.

We even found Antols we needed for the quest earlier. We didn't need to go on that stupid slide at all for them! It fact, it turns out the upper level is crawling with them! Gah!

We warped back to the top and followed hillside paths and bridges that seemed to lead towards Befalgar Pedestal. Along the way, we reached one of those dead ends where the ledge is too high to climb, which was just the dumbest thing.

The next dumbest thing was finding a climbable wall, which looked like pretty much any other wall on the mountain but it had the climbing icon on it to tell you that it was climbable. After playing Breath of the Wild it really shows the age of this game.

Anyway we followed the paths until we got to that weird abandoned-looking pedestal. The view was indeed nice and the place was indeed treacherous looking.

That's one of the two places done!

488 xenoblade - mountain sightseeing quest!

Dear Readers,

We went to the Nopon research camp to cash in on the Chilkin and Antol quest. This got Sharla to LV 50. We the main trio were now all at this level. Should we go after Mumkhar now? We'll do a few more quests if we can.

The Nopon researcher from last time had another quest for us and it was simply to go to various spots and see what the view is like! That's it! That's my kind of quest!

We agreed wholeheartedly to take in the scenery at Befalgar Pedestal and Kana Peak. Enemies might get in the say and spoil the pleasure of exploring but we won't worry about that for now. I'm just glad we got a nice quest like this!

487 xenoblade - more ice slide grief

Dear Readers,

We had to go on that stupid slide again to get back to the Antol Den. We kept missing the last jump more and more. It was annoying enough to make me want to give up on the game again. It's just so boring.

Again and again we tried and failed to make that last jump. Then we made it and immediately got killed by the big creature again. Then a few more times of failing the jump we made it there by me sliding up the wall a bit at the end, which got us over there. That's what I think anyway. I can't be sure at all. It's just such a stupid obstacle.

The big creature came after us again but we just ran around the platform until it stopped. Then we lured and beat up the smaller Antols until we got the quest finished.

We immediately left. Didn't want to hang around here at all.

486 xenoblade - saving the freezing nopon

Dear Readers,

We didn't defeat enough Antols, but we had enough drops for the freezing Nopon, so we decided to head back to her while waiting for more to respawn.

We also had to jump off the platform because that big creature chased after us again. We'll have to go on that stupid slide again :(

We jumped in the geyser again and emerged nearby. She was glad to see us. We gave her what she wanted and she headed back to her buddies at the research camp.

485 xenoblade - losing against barbaric sitri

Dear Readers,

In the antol den we just wanted to fight the little ones for a quest, but there was a big one too, called the Barbaric Sitri. We picked a fight with it and promptly lost. It was LV47. We should be able to handle it, but I don't really feel like fighting it right now.

484 xenoblade - the stupid slide to the antol den

Dear Readers,

Next on the list were Ent Antols. I didn't know where to find them so I looked them up. They had their own den and the only way to get there was by jumping off the obnoxious ice slide at the right time.

I fell off this slide several times. Using it barely feels like anything. The characters just stand up straight on their feet while using it. I just kept thinking how it was nothing like the slides from Super Mario 64. There was barely any feeling to it.

Also, jumping off it was a nightmare. I had to get speed and then jump at the end without bumping off of anything. I couldn't try to get speed before the bend so I accelerated immediately after. With that we just about made it. Many other attempts launched us through the tunnel into the Nopon camp. Very glad to have fast travel to zip back up to the top.

Slides are supposed to be fun. This one wasn't that fun. Not like the ones in Super Mario 64 anyway.

483 xenoblade - bashing more poleaxe chilkins

Dear Readers,

I decided to hike back up the mountain. It was a pretty hike, but I'll probably do fast travel all the time instead.

We wanted to focus on quests before we take on Mumkhar again. We found some more Poleaxe Chilkins and defeated them for a quest.

482 xenoblade - first fights with mumkhar not going well

Dear Readers,

Mumkhar was LV48, not far behind us at all and he beat us fairly quickly in our first attempt.

I made several more attempts and switched characters but we were absolutely no match for him at all. The battle just ends too quickly with us dying to him.

In that cutscene, Dunban asked him why he betrayed us and killed the people in the colony. Mumkhar answered "because it's your home" which is a fairly nasty thing to say but again, why was he so resentful in the first place? Also why can he remember stuff but Fiora doesn't? Maybe we'll find out later.

So far I know I can daze him.

481 xenoblade - metal face revealed! no surprise whatsoever lol

Dear Readers,

We continued hiking from Nofol Tower towards Sword Valley. When we got to the next story point a cutscene played where the Mechon with Fiora inside showed up!

She flew all the way here to talk to us. She didn't seem to know that the Homs inside her was Fiora or who Fiora even was but she wanted to talk to us about something.

Suddenly, Metal Face showed up! He had followed her here! He held her hostage and threatened her life if we didn't hand over the Monado.

I sank the Monado into the snow and stepped back, demanding he release Fiora. He took the Monado and revealed himself, the Homs inside. It was Mumkhar, revealed at last in the story with a big shock to the characters, but anyone could figure out it was him from the intro. I mightn't remember his name, but of course I could see he was the "evil sounding one" from the opening scenes.

Melia launched an attack at him for killing her father and I snatched the Monado back. He was not happy. He brought out his weapon, some kind of Wolverine-like hand blade thingies. It was boss time once again.

480 xenoblade - hiking from ose tower to nofol tower

Dear Readers,

Next step was to go to Galahad Fortress in Sword Valley, leaving the tower, which was called Ose Tower.

More hiking downhill. The slope continued to be steep and we got to a sheer drop where the path went narrow and winding until it got back to a slope again.

We spotted Poleaxe Chilkins so we fought with them for the quest related to them.

We continued the big long hike downhill. Another RPG might've had this as a snowboarding section! This was pretty nice though. We went down through Ignia Hill and found a landmark structure called Nofol Tower. I wonder if this has something to do with the giants? Who knows.

The story point seems not too far ahead. Will continue there next time.

479 xenoblade - the chamber in the tower

Dear Readers,

We brought the Magma Rock back to the frozen door of the tower and melted the ice with it. The door revealed. It was big and had High Entia writing on it. We looked at it for a while wondering how to open it when Dunban just walked up to it and it opened up automatically.

We went in to a smallish chamber. I got a feeling I knew this place but I couldn't recall everything. Alvis explained this was where the Monado was kept before it came to Colony 9. So all those years ago this was where I first encountered the Monado as a young boy.

The subject went on to visions of the future and the ability to change the future and how it all related to ether. Alvis said his family had the ability to see the future but there was always a ritual where family members must touch the Monado before they gained the ability of foresight. With my ability, I had the power to change the future as well.

I wondered if Zanza intended for all this in the conflict with the Mechons.

The next step was to go to Sword Valley. There was a heart-to-heart here for Dunban and Riki but it wasn't active yet. We spent the night here before heading off in the morning. As we were leaving, Dunban paused to think of something. Wonder what it was. Alvis is holding back on stuff and maybe he's concerned.

478 xenoblade - the very slow process of defeating the conflagrant raxeal

Dear Readers,

Conflagrant Raxeal. Still trying to fight it.

We tried picking off the Nebulae around it but one of them is called Moonlight Paimon and it's much stronger than the other ones. We made sure to avoid engaging with that one.

We kept luring the nebulae out from the lava one by one and fleeing when other enemies got involved and/or when party members went into the lava. Sometimes we had to lure the nebulae back out into the corridor to beat them up individually.

It was a very slow process but we got them all beat, except for the Moonlight Paimon.

We then fought the Conflagrant Raxeal, continuing the luring and fleeing strategies so that we could get in good enough positions to fight it. Eventually, we beat it, obtaining the Magma Rock as the prize. At last!

It wasn't enough we had to fight it but we had to make room to fight it as well.

477 xenoblade - conflagrant raxeal and nebulae kick our butts

Dear Readers,

Now to fight the Conflagrant Raxeal in a strategic way. I don't want any other enemies getting involved and I don't want party members to wander into the lava.

We started with picking off the Nebulae. It was tough and we got clobbered by the stronger ones. I did level up though and we got an Ice Cabbage, which gave me a vision of Riki saying we'll need them for Colony 6.

I saved again and tried again.

We got killed again. Whew.

We repeated this a few times and continued getting what we needed from Hoxes. We got killed more times too.

476 xenoblade - searching for magma rock in lava cave

Dear Readers,

We looked for the Magma Rock and found the Lava Cave. It was a big contrast to the snowy wilderness outside.

We scrapped with a Noto Feris and got the Feris Aged Ale for the freezing Nopon. There were Hoxes here we needed to fight for other items.

We got the story quest area and saw there was a big creature in the way. Probably a boss so I saved.

This creature was called a Conflagrant Raxeal and it was LV45. It was definitely in the way so we picked a fight with it.

We got our butts kicked. It didn't help that there were Nebulae getting tangled in the fight and party members were going into the freaking lava and just standing there. We'll have to do this in parts.

475 xenoblade - the frozen wall at the tower

Dear Readers,

We continued past the geyser on the path towards the tower, with more downhill sloping.

We met a pretty tough bird called the Atomizek Ansel. Nearly killed us a few times. We made it daytime and it seemed to change a little bit. The spelling of its name became different at least.

Pretty soon after the geyser we found a pass that led to the tower.

A cutscene played where we came across an area that was frozen over. Alvis said we needed to melt it and told us to collect a Magma Rock from a cave near a geyser. Is it the same geyser we passed on the way here or a different geyser?

Saying we need to look for a geyser when we just passed one is kinda silly haha.

474 xenoblade - the freezing nopon near hollow bone

Dear Readers,

We ventured on from the Nopon Camp and came across Jakt Geyser. The Nopon said it would shoot us back up the mountain so we gave it a go!

Wow! The geyser shot us all the way back up to Hollow Bone! It was pretty cool!

Near the pool we met a poor little Nopon who was freezing to death. She said she needed some food to help her resist the cold. We agreed to collect 3 Hox Flints from Porcu Hoxes, 2 Antol Fire Pouches from Ent Antols, and 1 Feris Aged Ale from a Noto Feris in the area.

Whew. We haven't met these enemies yet. We will though.

473 xenoblade - chatting with nopon researchers at zokhed pass

Dear Readers,

We mingled with the Nopon at the camp after the chilly slide.

The leader's name was Dakuku and he was worried about someone he sent to study Chilkins. I got the "Networl of Knowledge" achievement from speaking to him, which was awarded to me for getting to know many Nopon outside of populated areas. It's fun to speak to them, though they are hard to find on account of being so little.

There was a shop here too and another Nopon had a quest for us.

The quest was about Chilkins and Antols who were fighting all the time which was interrupting the Nopon's research. We agreed to defeat 5 Poleaxe Chilkins and 5 Ent Antols in this area.

472 xenoblade - the cave slide at hollow bone

Dear Readers,

From Hollow Bone we continued adventuring through the tunnel the Nopon pointed us towards. The tunnel became a slide!

I collected an item and got a vision of a future fetch quest. Melia will speak of collecting both pieces of Frost Glass that Kaleka wanted to repair the Ether Furnace Controls.

Immediately after the vision, the slide turned into a big drop going all the way down into a big pool of water. We swam ashore and found the Nopon camp we were looking for.

471 xenoblade - hiking down the snowy valak mountain

Dear Readers,

We got to Valak Mountain and it was very very cold with snow all around. Reyn and Riki weren't thrilled with it at all. Alvis directed us to a tower in this area.

We chatted with some Nopon Merchants who set up camp near the entrance to this area. They had directions, a shop and a bunch of Monster Quests. We agreed to take on all four of these quests.

At a glance, there was a lot of snow, a lot of thick grey icy mist and a very steep slope going downwards. The Nopon told us to keep going and meet some of their researcher friends, clearing monsters along the way.

We got the first monster quest done and dusted quickly, which was nice.

As day turned to night, the tall ice crystals emitted this really cool ray of light straight up into the air, making the snowy areas glow.

We then got the third monster quest done, which was nice too.

I made room in the inventory for the Lucky Chilkin Ring, which gave me a vision of a future quest for Oleksiy and Zel. We'll have to get two of them. Melia was in the vision.

It was fun hiking down this mountain and the music was a soft piano tune. We reached the next landmark, Hollow Bone. There was a Nopon patrolling here who directed us towards the tunnel nearby. We'll go there next time.

This Nopon research team kind of reminds me of Captain Toad and his team. In any case, it's really nice to see a new area in the game after so long.

470 xenoblade - lady mayneth is repaired

Dear Readers,

The next scene took place in some repair place on Mechonis. The Mechon that had Fiora inside was getting repaired.

She was talking to someone, saying Zanza was not dead. Someone else called her by some name that was definitely not Fiora. Who was Lady Mayneth?

She wondered why Zanza did what he did and then said she had feelings for the boy that Zanza chose. When she got repaired she said she wanted to meet me. She said something about some kind of reawakening and then flew off towards the Bionis.

Metal Face saw her flying away and then realised it was Fiora! Dun dun dunn! There's a lot of stuff to explain with these Homs/Mechon hybrid thingies.

469 xenoblade - a nice red item on the way to valak pass

Dear Readers,

From the pod landing site we headed for the new area. Along the way we saw a massive Orluga, a LV43 Suelo Orluga. It was standing in the way of a path to a red item and a dead end. We looked at it from the safety of another path on a hill above that one joined at the dead end. We took the red item and it was an ancient document. Yoink!

We continued on the main path until we got to the Valak Pass landmark.

468 xenoblade - fallen bridge in makna forest rebuilt

Dear Readers,

We went hunting for Hodes in the east part of Makna Forest for their planks.

We can beat these enemies super quickly now! It's quite fun to do it too. It took a little bit of time but we got the planks we needed for the bridge.

We warped back to the pod landing site and brought the materials to the Nopon. He built the bridge straight away and they were all very happy! The other Nopon said Lupa would be very happy because they like to study the ruins.

It's really nice to have that bridge there now. I remember that time I ran right off the cliff because I thought there was one there haha.

467 xenoblade - taking the pod to makna forest

Dear Readers,

Alvis guided us on the next place to go, Galahad Fortress. He had a flying contraption prepared to take us some of the way through Makna Forest and told us to expect a tough climb through a snow covered mountain.

We got on a flying vehicle and were taken to Makna Forest, in that area north of Bridge Three, where the bridge collapsed, but on the other side.

We ran towards the bridge and met some Nopon who were stuck here because the bridge was out. One of them had a quest. It was to fix the bridge by gathering materials. We agreed to get them for him! We had some of them already but we needed 5 Hode Planks from Hodes in this area.

I think I'm going to do this. It'll be nice to have that bridge. We don't see quests that result in a bridge very often so I'm gonna do this now.

466 xenoblade - ambassador for the alliance against mechon

Dear Readers,

Kallian called us for a meeting. Some lovely dramatic scenes followed.

He said he was inspired by our banding together to fight the Mechon and said the High Entia were going to ally with others to do the same. He asked me to be an ambassador for this cause. I hesitated.

It was all because of Fiora, who was now among the Mechon. Melia encouraged me and the others to go save Fiora. It was funny how her weapon was clipping through her cape and the camera was so zoomed on it haha.

She said she would stay and be the ambassador, as she was of mixed heritage. I had some hesitation but I agreed to it and thanked her. It was a sad parting. Sharla had a chat with her about our feelings for each other and that she would make sure to look after me. Melia got all proud and flustered. It was a nice scene to watch.

Kallian then encouraged Melia to join us on our adventure, showing what looked like another Melia, but she was wearing a mask like Melia always wore before. They were going to take care of the ambassador stuff while we were away. I told them I appreciated it.

We were now all together once more, set and ready to go!

465 xenoblade - chatting with dunban about his sister

Dear Readers,

It was just me on my own in Alcamoth looking for Dunban now. I went back to speak to the others and they were supportive. Melia was curious about Fiora but didn't press on anything. Riki wanted to join me if I was going for food.

I chatted with the citizens of Alcamoth as I left the palace. They were grieving and coming to terms with the loss of their Emperor but they were hopeful for Melia.

Dunban wasn't too far outside the palace, standing in front of a railing. I went up to him and we had a chat about Fiora. He reflected on their lives, how he was a much older sibling than her and how they lost their father to a Mechon. He said he thought she should be with me as a couple, making me gently flustered. Shucks! Reyn was just as close a friend and a good person but his personality was very different.

This was like a heart-to-heart, but obligatory to the story!

We discussed how Fiora didn't recognise us. We wanted her back, even if she lost her memory she was still our Fiora. We joined up and went back to the group.

When we got together, a servant said Kallian wanted us. I was prompted to organise the party made up of me, Reyn and Dunban as a suggestion. I put Sharla back in instead.

464 xenoblade - telling the party about our childhood friend

Dear Readers,

Back in Alcamoth, Kallian announced that Melia would succeed as leader one year from now, but until then he would assume duties. Lorithia discussed the Mechon in her usual evil tone of voice.

While this was happening, we were hanging in our hotel room/prison/meeting room, wondering what the heck just happened. Fiora turned out to be alive but she didn't seem to recognise us at all. Dunban wasn't here. He locked himself away for a while.

Melia came into the room, demanding to know who Fiora was. We asked her if she was okay after losing her father and she put on her bravest, business-like tone. We told her about Fiora, how we knew her all our lives and how she was Dunban's sister. Everyone finally understood what we were going through right now.

I set off on my own to find Dunban. Melia asked if Fiora was important to Shulk and Reyn said she was more than important and she was the reason why we're going after the Mechon. Sharla put her hand to her head. I guess everyone can see that there's a spark between Melia and Shulk, except maybe Reyn that is.

463 xenoblade - still alive

Dear Readers,

It's not really a big shock to me that Fiora is alive or the way Metal Face is someone we know as well that we assumed was dead, but I am glad that it's finally being revealed in the story itself. This game is taking forever, though of course that's because of all the quests I'm doing.

We couldn't save Melia's father, who was saying his last words of encouragement to his dear daughter, who was crying by his side. It was a dramatic scene, poetic singer and all. Poor Sorean passed away.

I asked Melia to come with me to fight the Mechon, to avenge her father and make them pay. She agreed wholeheartedly.

Another scene followed, with Alvis leaning on the weapon that speared Zanza. They spoke with each other and chuckled, as if he played a part in a big scheme. It had the tone of some dramatic double crossing scene, but we don't know for sure. It's all to get the imagination racing and hold our attention for another chapter. Next!

462 xenoblade - fighting metal face with the power to defeat it

Dear Readers,

I got a new tutorial about the Monado. I could now fight Mechon with faces and Monado Arts could now be levelled up to level X or 10. I never really did this kind of thing... Maybe I should start.

Metal Face was LV 42 but we were stronger. We were well able to fight him and bring his health down with our usual attacks!

When this health got down to a point, a very dramatic cutscene played.

The female Mechon got between me and Metal Face, telling me to desist. She got in the way of my swinging and part of her got damaged.

Zanza encouraged me to swing to my heart's content. He and the female Mechon then exchanged words that didn't make sense right now. He said she existed outside the harmony or something? It wasn't clear at this moment.

We then looked at the female Mechon. There was a Homs inside! It was revealed to be Fiora! This was the moment that revealed she was still alive! We were all amazed!

She and Metal Face, along with the other Mechon, retreated, flying away with me calling out to her. She was saying some things that wasn't like her, but it was no doubt that it was her.

461 xenoblade - zanza unshackled

Dear Readers,

Zanza told me that if I freed him, he would lessen the constraint on the Monado, which would allow me to defeat the faced Mechon.

Melia told me not to do it, saying her people must've had good reason to lock him up like this.

I told her I needed this power, getting flashbacks of what the Mechon did to us on Colony 9. I said I would do it. I released the shackles on Zanza.

Zanza was about to unshackle the Monado when the Masked Mechon's weapon suddenly broke through the barrier and stabbed Zanza in the chest! He wanted to stop the unshackling from happening!

The female Mechon then spoke to Zanza, asking him how many more will he sacrifice. What did she mean?

She said she wanted to talk but a fight broke out. I attacked in a rage demanding Fiora be returned. The masked Mechon knocked me aside and the others joined in the scuffle.

Dunban and the Masked Mechon had an exchange that made it dawn on him who the Masked Mechon really was. Anyone playing this would recognise the voice but the characters are finally finding out.

The scuffle continued with Sorean getting hurt defending Melia.

Zanza spoke to me and I asked him to give me the power. he said I already had the power and told me to make the Monado bend to my will. He told me to think of my enemy and the power to defeat them would be mine. He then burst into what I assume was a flurry of ether.

This stuff seemed to get absorbed by me. I thought of my enemy, Mechon, and the Monado changed form!

The female Mechon warned the others about this emerging power. A boss battle followed. I stuck with my regular crew.

460 xenoblade - zanza the giant tells the truth about the monado

Dear Readers,

We finally reached Sorean and the giant. Melia ran up to him and asked him who the giant was.

Sorean explained the giant was what their forefathers locked away. The giant welcomed me, calling me the true heir of the Monado. I wondered who the giant was too.

The giant introduced himself as Zanza, telling me he waited centuries for me. He revealed that he made the Monado in order to oppose Mechonis. He said the sword had infinite power, explaining stuff about ether or whatever.

He said some feared this power and imprisoned him here. Melia said her people couldn't have done that and Zanza simply said "You are what you are", which is a dang good line!

Zanza explained the Monado was the sword of the Bionis and it was shackled, just like him. He said this constraint led to faced Mechon who couldn't be defeated by the Monado.

While all this was going on, the Masked Mechon tried getting through the barrier and noticed that Zanza was there with us. It got ready its new weapon...

459 xenoblade - reaching the prison island place in my visions

Dear Readers,

We went through the huge door to a massive empty hall. There was a weird dark portal just ahead of us but we explored the place a bit.

At the end of the hall was some kind of device that made a message box appear that said it was deactivated. We turned around and went through that dark portal.

We emerged on another path outside. The way downwards led to another deactivated device like the one we saw in the hall. We then turned and went upwards along the path. We crossed a bridge which had another dark portal at the end of it. The path continued until it got to another deactivated device. We went through the portal at the bridge.

We emerged at another deactivated device. It seems these portals are bypassing these deactivated devices, which are probably teleporters.

The path continued until we got to the place I saw in my visions.

458 xenoblade - the huge door on prison island

Dear Readers,

Prison Island was a gloomy place, especially with all this bad weather. It was a long continuous path lined with chain linked railings. Some enemies were around but we didn't bother them. More Rays and Nebulae type of things.

We just went to the story point and another scene played.

We came across a huge door, along with a massive statue of what seems like a Telethia and some kind of seal with a symbol similar to the Monado's. Melia spoke of beings who were there before the High Entia. She said only her family could open the door and she summoned her forefathers to open the door for us, and it did indeed open.

When it opened, I got a vision of the giant saying something about the heir to the Monado, saying let the event begin, but didn't show me what the event was.

The others asked me about my vision but didn't stick around long enough for me to explain it. Oh well. Hope nothing bad happens right?

457 xenoblade - sorean and the giant

Dear Readers,

We stepped into the transporter for Prison Island and a cutscene played.

It was stormy around Prison Island. Mechon and the High Entia forces were fighting intensely all around.

Sorean observed this and knew the forces of Alcamoth couldn't defend against them for long. He summoned the wisom of his forefathers with some incantation, seals and lights shining making a shackled giant appear.

They talked for a bit. Sorean then did some thing that made a big shield appear all around the island. The Masked Mechon wondered what was going on.

We then appeared at the teleporter on Prison Island.

456 xenoblade - beating up the skyray that suddenly attacked us

Dear Readers,

When we opened up the transporter, a cutscene played where we looked at the little explosions that were happening over at Prison Island.

Suddenly, a boss appeared, the LV40 Skyray! We beat it up handily. It was able to daze us, but it didn't faze us too much.

After the fight, we wondered what it was exactly. Melia said she only saw these creatures as fossils and Dunban said it must've been something that was protecting the transporter when we activated it, something from many years ago.

Anyway, we can continue. Woo!

455 xenoblade - breaking the seals to access prison island

Dear Readers,

I decided to go for the next story quests, going for the Soltnar Seal and Khatori Seal Islands to activate the mechanisms in both places.

Thankfully I've been to both places already. We weren't able to break the seals then, but we did do a bunch of quests in both places.

On Khatori Seal Island, I decided to fight with the Cumulus Danaemos that always attacks us when we get there. We were well able for it this time. After taking care of it we went up to the top and released the seal.

We did the same on Soltnar Seal Island. The Kromars didn't even try to attack this time! They were very chill!

Then, on Central Seal Island, the two structures that emerged there revealed another seal, which opened up the transporter to Prison Island. We were able to go there finally.

454 xenoblade - inviting pokapoka to colony 6

Dear Readers,

We bumped into Pokapoka in Frontier Village by chance. He said he wanted to move to Colony 6 for reasons related to food tasting. He was willing to help with reconstruction too.

We invited him and he was happy. Colony 6 got some stat boosts too. Hooray!

453 xenoblade - secret club in alcamoth shuts down

Dear Readers,

With Dedeba caught at the secret club, we headed back to Gadada. He was delighted with us and thanked us for our hard work in getting Dedeba apprehended.

Gadada said he was going to arrange for Dedeba to take on all of his debts. he also said Bana didn't want to talk about it anymore, just the future. What an end to a big saga of sidequests! It was very hard to get reliable information on anything, but it all starts with the Nopon, particularly Gadada.

One thing bothers me though... Zazadan was worried about getting killed by the "chairman" and Dedeba insisted he was being framed and the real kingpin was someone else. Could there be more to this? We'll see if there is or not.

All these quests were timed too. Glad to take care of them.

To wrap things up, I warped back to Alcamoth and hiked to the secret club venue to find that there was nothing there anymore, just an empty little chamber on the road. No people or anything. Probably for the best. 

The Nopon were all very embarrassed by what happened. The High Entia didn't seem to have any shame about what they did. Oh well.

452 xenoblade - catching dedeba at the secret club

Dear Readers,

Now that we had the Secret Club Card we headed straight for the club and spoke to the bouncer. He put on his best manners and let us in!

Visually there was nothing special going on. It was just four soulless figures just standing and sitting there, not eating anything yet their dialogue was all about them eating the addictive stuff made from the red orbs. It's what I've come to expect from this game but moments like these where the dialogue is way more animated than the figures it really stands out.

Anyway, Dedeba was also here, bouncing up and down. We confronted him and he got all nervous. He couldn't worm his way out of anything because we had the evidence and all.

Suddenly the Alcamoth Imperial Guard appeared and placed him under arrest! He blathered about how he was framed and he was not the kingpin, despite all the evidence. They took him away.

Now we had to go tell Gadada, next time. I kind of like seeing how the high and holy mighty High Entia are flawed just like anyone else. They're just like rich jerks.

451 xenoblade - hunting orluga rufus for control units

Dear Readers,

For the secret club card, we had to go back to the High Entia Tomb to hunt for Orluga Rufus and obtain their control units.

I did some research and found them east of the "Tower of Trials - Bridge", so we warped there and went after them.

This place was a tower and each floor had an Orluga Rufus so we kept wrecking them and regenerating them by leaving and coming back until we got the drops we wanted.

I also found that warping to the Ceremony Hall landmark was better because that didn't involve any climbing.

We got the drops and gave them to Nelo in Alcamoth. He was happy and gave us the secret club card! Yay!

450 xenoblade - finally on the road to obtaining the secret club card!

Dear Readers,

Gadada's next quest was about catching Dedeba out. We were finally going to deal with the secret club in Alcamoth! Hooray! It was titled "Destroying the City Trade" and we accepted it wholeheartedly.

We warped to Alcamoth and made it nighttime. We went to the club, where the bouncer had the red exclamation mark. He said some extra stuff about getting a Secret Club Card from someone but doubted they would give it to us. This spawned a surprise quest about getting the card! Woo!

We caught up with Nelo, who had a card! He was in want of something though, 3 Rufus Control Units from Orluga Rufus in High Entia Tomb. He said if we got that for him he would give us as many secret club cards as we wanted. Hooray! We'll seek it out... next time!

449 xenoblade - collecting dedeba's evidence

Dear Readers,

Gadada's next quest in the great Red Orb Scandal Rabbit Hole was to gather pieces of Dedeba's Evidence scattered across Frontier Village. This was all about a trade that was going to happen at Alcamoth. We took on the case.

Nice bit of fun to this series of quests, even though the presentation is pretty ridiculous. I'm glad I'm not getting hopelessly lost at least.

There were four pieces of Dedeba's Evidence. Two were conveniently placed right here at the pollen works. One was behind Dedeba's little house and the last one had us looking all over the village. We found it in the underground store. It was kinda fun but at the same time I was going to give up if we didn't find it there.

With all the evidence, we returned to Gadada, who had another quest in this series for us. Next time!

448 xenoblade - interrogating zazadan about the red orb black market

Dear Readers,

We confronted Zazadan about the red orbs and he gave us a choice of things to ask about.

We asked him what if it was processed? He admitted to it being processed into something addictive, Highmore Caviar.

We talked to him again and he got begging and desperate, saying he'll get in trouble. We said we didn't blame him, which was the least violent of the choices. The other two were about killing and hurting! Yeesh!

He appreciated this choice and told us his secret Nopon society sold this stuff to the High Entia, which made them lots of money. he then revealed a rumour about a secret club the High Entia had!

Finally! I'm on the right track with this secret club thing!

Zazadan continued, saying the High Entia celebrated every night at this club and ate the Highmore Caviar there.

Next we had to get a confession out of him. We got more choices.

By the way, it seems that making the wrong choice doesn't have consequences, except maybe just a funny bit of dialogue. I didn't make all the wrong choices but I reloaded my save just in case.

Anyway I chose to ask where Dedeba was. This led to him giving us a memo. He said he couldn't say any more or else he would be killed by the chairman.

We took this evidence back to Gadada to read. This spawned another quest.

Whew! Next!

447 xenoblade - following the red orb trail to zazadan

Dear Readers,

We took the top secret data from Gadada and warped to the Nopon merchant camp in Satori Marsh. No red exclamation marks there, so we went to the Nopon Refuge. Two red exclamation marks there!

One was for a red orb for the fighting brother's quest in Colony 9 so I yoinked that.

One was for the Nopon here, Zazadan. We showed him the letter and he got very worried. We stared at him silently and he got all nervous.

All of a sudden, a prompt for a surprise quest came up! It was all about interrogating Zazadan about the red orb black market! This was called "Gather Information", which we'll do... next time!

446 xenoblade - visiting dedeba's funny little house

Dear Readers,

Now to go after Dedeba, continuing this journey down the Red Orb rabbit hole. We went to his home. Gadada said it was next to the Pollen Orb Storehouse, which was very helpful.

Thank you, Gadada for being helpful.

We went to Dedeba's house. It was funny when the little red exclamation mark appeared in front of it.

He wasn't home.

We went back to Gadada.

Gadada said that packages always arrive at Dedeba's house from Nopon in Satori. He gave us top secret evidence data and asked us to bring it to the Nopon merchants there. We will, in the next post!

445 xenoblade - gadada reveals details on dedeba

Dear Readers,

We continued with this investigation Gadada was doing with the Red Orbs. The quest itself is interesting but the over and back is fiddly and annoying and I have to remember where and when everyone is.

Anyway Gadada brought up Chief Dunga's advior, Dedeba. He said the letter said that Dedeba was misusing Red Pollen Orbs. So it was Dedeba who was behind it all. This was called "Adviser Hunt" and we accepted this quest to go to Dedeba's home. Next time!

Yes I get to make multiple posts about this. I can try to be as annoying as this game, even though I'll never be as annoying as this game.

444 xenoblade - giving gadada the nopon letter

Dear Readers,

We caught up with Bana and confronted him on behalf of Gadada and the Red Orbs scandal.

Bana said an order arrived from Nopon Merchants to give the red orbs to the High Entia. He didn't know who exactly sent it but he thought it might've been big trouble, so he got involved in the Red Orb giving thing. He felt tricked too.

Another leg to the quest opened to speak to Gadada again. We changed to daytime again and went back up to the works to speak to him again.

We got a letter from Nopon Merchants earlier somewhere I don't know or remember but we gave it to Gadada and that helped with the quest. 

This however, opened a new quest from Gadada that followed up on this. Next!

443 xenoblade - gadada is angry at bana

Dear Readers,

We caught up with Gadada at the pollen works and he had a quest. He said he was in debt because of the effort he went into making Red Pollen Orbs. Uh oh... he said Bana asked him to give them to the High Entia. He wanted Bana to explain himself.

This quest was titled "Find the Kingpin" which is pretty funny. Is this some kind of drug war thing?

We agreed to speak to Bana. We had to change it to nighttime though. I'm gonna continue in a new post.

442 xenoblade - gadada trading in the forest

Dear Readers,

We found Bana near the sacred altar but we had to change to nighttime. We asked him about Gadada and where he could be found. He said he saw him go to Clear Waterfall. He was a bit more specific about directions but I sussed that he meant that tiny area near the falls that was only accessible by bridge.

We warped over there and yup! He was there!

He was doing business with a High Entia when Cherri showed up and said no! Gadada gave out to her for making them run away. They then talked about Red Pollen Orbs and how they shouldn't be sold to outsiders. Gadada said he felt tricked. Aw... that's a pity.

Cherri promised a reward when we got back to the storehouse and she gave it to us when we got there. She said Gadada felt bad and seemed sad so went to see him. He had a quest...

441 xenoblade - avenging rasha's sisterpon

Dear Readers,

I went to the sacred altar looking for Bana, but found Rasha with a quest. She wanted to speak to a grown up woman, so I spoke to her as Sharla.

She said she ran a business with her sister until they were attacked and the sister lost her life. I sympathised with her. The sister was Cherri's mother and since then, Rasha had been taking care of Cherri. Cherri blamed Rasha for the loss of her mother and Rasha felt bad, wishing it was her who was taken instead.

I told her she mustn't think like that, that time heals all wounds. I also understood what it was like to have such a big loss so I was able to relate. I had an idea and asked her what kind of monster it was that attacked them. She said the monster was probably still there today. I said we'd slay the Pillager Hode for them if it would help them in any way. She was glad we would do something like this for them.

440 xenoblade - cherri worried about gadada's disappearance

Dear Readers,

Cherri now had a quest after that last thing. She was worried about Gadada after he left for the forest and worried he might be in trouble. We agreed to chat with Nopon who were friends with him. It's called "Dangerous Ambition" and we'll get around to it.

439 xenoblade - choosing cherri to take over the pollen works

Dear Readers,

I found Gadada at the pollen works, but I had to make it daytime.

You know, I looked over the last post and I was frustrated. Even though the Nopon are cute and they have very funny names, I was still irritated. I should be laughing. I actually was laughing but that was in hindsight. While I was playing I wasn't laughing at all. No enjoyment from that secret club quest I can't activate properly.

Anyway I talked to Gadada and now I have to talk to Dobadoba again. After ages I found him at the pollen orb storehouse on whatever level. I talked to him and to Cherri and chose Cherri to be his successor. I don't care I don't care just get it over with.

Cherri is now taking over the pollen works. She wants to focus on the allergies thing which I think is kinda cool so I picked her. I don't know what'll happen now.

438 xenoblade - trying to find any information at all on the secret club card quest in alcamoth

Dear Readers,

I tried looking up stuff about the secret club card quest in Alcamoth again. I could not get a straight answer anywhere, just bits and pieces from different wikis and Reddits and whatnot.

It seems to be connected to a quest in Frontier Village, though I could be wrong.

I went there to find Gadada, but found Dobadoba first who wanted to pass down ownership of the pollen works. He wanted to find Gadada as well.

I accepted his quest. Now I have to look up where and when Gadada is again but I don't feel like it now. Next time maybe. This game is so frustrating.

437 xenoblade - telling arielle about lesunia's reasons for racism

Dear Readers,

We warped to the Fountain of Eternity and kept it nighttime. We went looking for Arielle now that we finally knew why her daughter was so racist.

We explained everything to Arielle and she couldn't believe it was the Bionis that spoke to her. She did remember that Lesunia had bad dreams that night and she had changed afterwards.

She thanked us and said she'd talk to Lesunia and tell her that she couldn't think like that in this day and age.

I caught up with Lesunia and she said Vidian apologised to her several times. Seems there's hope for her but she still has an attitude.

I caught up with Vidian too by going all the way over to her and changing the time to daytime. She had nothing different to say.

Well that's that quest. Next!

436 xenoblade - lesunia explains why she's so racist

Dear Readers,

We warped to the lighthouse and found the Marine Marble that Lesunia wanted. It was very quick too! Thank goodness!

We warped back to her and made it nighttime. I spoke to her as Melia and she opened up as to why she didn't like other races.

She said Vidian broke her headwing decorations. That night when she went to sleep she heard the Bionis speaking to her, telling her that only those of pure High Entia blood were worthy. She said the "savage" Homs were a joke, before following with a "no offence". Yeesh.

She said Vidian's blood was tainted by the savages and so she must've gotten jealous and smashed her headwing decorations out of spite. She said it didn't matter now that we had gotten her the Marine Marble, which she said was nicer than her decorations were.

Now to speak with her mother.

435 xenoblade - mechon attack at eryth sea

Dear Readers,

I wasn't allowed to use fast travel because of the story, so we had to walk out of Alcamoth.

A scene played where the masked Mechon and a female Mechon cohort were being surrounded by High Entia defence machines like flies. The Mechon attacked and destroyed many of them.

Melia told us we had to release the seals on Khatori and Soltnar Islands in order to reach Prison Island. I knew exactly where she was talking about. I didn't get story quests in a very long time!

Fast travel became available again and we got slightly different dialogue from NPCs in the area. I wish they were more interesting and less painfully boring to talk to.

434 xenoblade - talking to lesunia as melia

Dear Readers,

We had Melia in the party now so I wanted to speak to Lesunia as her.

Lesunia was fairly dismissive of Melia's "stunted" head wings and said she could tolerate speaking to her if we brought her 2 pieces of Marine Marble from Eryth Sea. Yeesh. Didn't she know she was speaking with royalty?

Anyway, I'm glad we can get this quest going at long last.

433 xenoblade - deciding to follow melia's father to prison island

Dear Readers,

We looked for Melia's father but learned he was gone to Prison Island alone.

Alvis explained that her father knew what was going to happen to him but went anyway to fulfil his destiny and carry out his duty as leader. Melia protested and Dunban spoke up.

Dunban said he wasn't going to follow destiny and encouraged us as Homs to go and help him as we weren't bound by their laws. We were all with him with Melia declaring "To Prison Island!"

We were able to explore around here at last. We could interact with Kallian and Lorithia and take a teleporter to find another high place. Couldn't jump from there though.

432 xenoblade - checking out melia's villa, continuing with story

Dear Readers,

I decided to go with the story again. I want this game to end. Also, I don't think I'm going to miss out on anything else at this point.

Post 278 is when I decided to put the story on hold to do missions. Yikes.

So here we are, at Melia's place. The Mechon attacked and now we have joined up with her and are on our way to stop her father ending up like in one of my visions.

I had a look around Melia's villa first. Heart-to-heart spot not yet available and a big garden with water feature. The building was weird, like some big gazebo. Probably another part to it we can't access somehow.

We ran back to the hall which took a while and learned that the Mechon weren't attacking Alcamoth. Emergency wasn't happening here right now then.

431 xenoblade - location of pepa and her quest

Dear Readers,

I got angry at this game again trying to find Pepa. She was the "cutest" Nopon for another quest but she had a quest of her own. It was called "Decoration Makeover".

She wanted a list of cute things. We had all of them except for Enigma Lotuses. We'll look for them later.

She was on 6F by the door for outside.

430 xenoblade - unlocking leku's quests

Dear Readers,

We spoke to Leku in Frontier Village for a quest. He gave us "Leku's Food Crisis".

We agreed to grab 10 Peachy Leg Joints from Deinoses in Makna Forest. 

We already had them so we gave them to him to finish the quest.

He had another quest, "Hunt for a Patron". He wanted us to ask for help from other villagers. We agreed to it. We had to have chinwags with the cleverest, strongest and cutest Nopons in the village. Sounds fun. Will do!

Must remember Leku is on 5F during the day.

429 xenoblade - enjoying the "what's on reyn's mind" heart-to-heart

Dear Readers,

We warped to the refugee camp on the Bionis Leg to see if there were any quests. There wasn't, but the heart-to-heart titled "What's on Reyn's Mind" was finally available! I had a look.

Sharla and Reyn talked about stuff. She said Reyn reminded her of Gadolt. Reyn asked Sharla who would win in a fight between him and Gadolt and I had to choose for her. I said Reyn would, by a whisker. She joked about him and his hard head. He asked about his other qualities and I had her say he had dignified qualities. This led to some joking around including her saying he could be Juju's father someday. They laughed it off and told each other they were glad they met one another, which was nice!

Nice warm conversation between them. He does want to impress her when we're in battle which is fun to see.

This was my first heart-to-heart in a very long time. I wanna see more of them.

428 xenoblade - confusion in colony 9 quests

Dear Readers,

I looked up more Colony 9 quests and there are some I haven't seen before and some that look like they should already be finished near the start of the game, like the ones about getting to know characters. I'm trying to make sense of them but they don't quite match with what's in the quest list. Some of them don't even have prerequisites.

I'm gonna look up quests in other areas. I already checked Tephra Cave too and that has prerequisites like advancing the story a bit more.