Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 1: Introduction

So!  Now it’s time to start a new game.

The game, as many do, opens with a cinematic.  Two titanic creatures, one seemingly mechanical and the other apparently alive, are doing battle in the midst of the ocean.  Through the storytelling you learn that these are the Bionis and the Mekonis.

These two immense beings are the continents -or even the worlds, if you will- of the game, which starts on the Bionis.

Following the cinematic is a cutscene about three men- Dunban, Dickson, and Mumhkar - who are all fighting against large mechanical monsters called Mekon.  You are in control of Dunban- who wields a strange red energy-spouting blade called the Monado, which is known for being the only thing that can actually harm the Mekon.  Then the game dumps you into combat.

This first fight is pretty simple- in fact, you don’t actually need to do anything outside of move Dunban so that he’s standing next to enemies.  The auto-attack feature will pretty much take care of the rest, since the characters you’re using here are so high level.  If you want to play around a little with the three Arts available, you can, and it will give you a bit of an in to the way combat works.  You don’t absolutely have to though.

Keep in mind that the Monado, which Dunban is wielding, is the only weapon that actually damages the Mekon you’re fighting unless you use the left art to enhance Dickson and Mumhkar’s weapons.  The art on the right is a stronger attack, and the center Art, presumably Dunban’s unique Talent Art, isn’t going to be available for this first fight- you don’t really need it anyways.

After you defeat the three Mekon in the first fight, three more will come forwards and you will fight those as well- again, no big concern here.

There is a third fight though, against a much larger single Mekon.  This fight grants you access to the large icon- Dunban’s Talent Art.  This does massive damage in a long line that includes your target, so go ahead and use it to finish things off more quickly.

These initial fights are really simple and not all that dangerous- a good intro to how combat works.  You will notice that the area you can move around in is restricted- don’t worry too much, this isn’t actually a feature of every battle in the game.  Mostly it’s there to keep you from doing something silly like spending the whole fight running away and getting shot in the back, or other similar errors.