Media Xenoblade Chronicles

[lemonademaker]

Surprised there hasn't already been a Xenoblade discussion thread, so i decided to make one. Considering that smogon is a community based off another Nintendo rpg, I assume there's a decent amount of XBC fans here.

PLEASE PUT SPOILERS IN TAGS


Might as well start. Don't know if this is a hot take, but 1 is my favorite and its not even close. I love 2 and 3, but they're not near favorite piece of media ever level like 1 is. Shulk is a much better character then rex or noah imo. I much prefer the game taking place on two huge titans then multiple tinier titans like in 2, or the remnants of titans like in 3.

And also,

spoiler

There are a lot of themes in 1 that aren't not in the others. I love the idea of champions of gods, mortals given power by gods who've choose them. Shulk is essentially a champion for Zanza and the same can be said for Fiora and Meyneth. 2 has ideas of this but 1) the aegis isnt really a god and 2) rex and mythra are less in a championship relationship and more in a business (and then romantic) one. And no one in 2 or 3 gets as close to divinity as zanza did. Claus in 2 can barely be considered a god. Z and Alvis in Future Redeemed come close but aren't nearly at the same superiority complex as zanza. Zanza just feels like the most godlike out of any of them. Also, I love technology vs nature stories which is a much smaller theme in 2 and 3.

And I haven't completed X, so if it has it these, sry. But that wouldn't change much cause from the ~5 hours I've put into it, it wouldn't be anywhere near 1, even if it had these things.

 

[torterraxx]

I think they’re all goats but my favorite would have to be 3 and it’s really not close for me. Even though all the games have fantastic soundtracks, 3s impacted me the most and has some insane songs in it. I’m always shocked at how many different instruments they can add in these songs and they all still sound so good. Battle system wise I like Xc3 a lot with classes, but I still like Tornas and even Xs battle system more. If I had to rank the games I would say 3>2>1>X would be my personal ranking, however I really do love all of them so it feels stupid to rank them. I never played the xeno games prior to 1, I’m really hoping those get rereleased.

xc3 and xenoblade characters

The focus on life and death was really beautifully done and it hit very close to home for me, I think that’s why I like it more than the other games ultimately.FR really made me appreciate N so much and he has became my favorite character in the series. His struggle with his decisions hit too close to home for me and even though his actions weren’t justified, I found myself extremely sympathetic towards his character and the theme behind it. I’ve grown to appreciate Shania as a character a lot as well, I just wish her character was more fleshed out than 1 optional affinity quest lol. I think the characters are a strength for the game, but the moebius were disappointing to me overall, especially Z. Some of my other favorite characters (in no order) are Melia, Nia, Elma, Mio, Dunban, Shulk, and Jin.

 

[igiveuponaname]

Won't really elaborate right now but if I were to order them favourite to least favourite I would go

3>X>2>1

 

[lemonademaker]

I think they’re all goats but my favorite would have to be 3 and it’s really not close for me. Even though all the games have fantastic soundtracks, 3s impacted me the most and has some insane songs in it. I’m always shocked at how many different instruments they can add in these songs and they all still sound so good. Battle system wise I like Xc3 a lot with classes, but I still like Tornas and even Xs battle system more. If I had to rank the games I would say 3>2>1>X would be my personal ranking, however I really do love all of them so it feels stupid to rank them. I never played the xeno games prior to 1, I’m really hoping those get rereleased.

xc3 and xenoblade characters

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I totally forgot about Shania cause of how little attention she gets lol, but yeah an absolutely amazing character that I wish they did more with.

 

[Ironmage]

When I was playing through 3, I kept finding that the story themes they seemed to be going for ran into issues with the nature of being a video game. Regardless of what wants to be said about grander things, I was only capable of interacting with it in the context of someone looking for something less realistic than your standard open world game and pining for the Battle Frontier. Within that mindset, how could I not be cheering for the villains? I definitely still rate the game highly on other merits, overly complicated character building is my jam.

 

[lemonademaker]

When I was playing through 3, I kept finding that the story themes they seemed to be going for ran into issues with the nature of being a video game. Regardless of what wants to be said about grander things, I was only capable of interacting with it in the context of someone looking for something less realistic than your standard open world game and pining for the Battle Frontier. Within that mindset, how could I not be cheering for the villains? I definitely still rate the game highly on other merits, overly complicated character building is my jam.

have you played 1 or 2. I feel that its decently hard to get into 3 if you haven't played 1 and/or 2. And going into xenoblade cause its an open world game is gonna cause problems. The games aren't primarily open world experiences. Its more like they're jrpgs with some open world elements

 

[Ironmage]

have you played 1 or 2. I feel that its decently hard to get into 3 if you haven't played 1 and/or 2. And going into xenoblade cause its an open world game is gonna cause problems. The games aren't primarily open world experiences. Its more like they're jrpgs with some open world elements

I have played 1 and 2. I also partially got 2 and 3 because they were more of a jrpg than open world on top of having better world designs. As mentioned, I really enjoyed the gameplay but felt the story was awkward in my particular context.

 

[XYZ15]

Hot take but having only played Xenoblade 1 and 3, my fav one is the first one even if Xenoblade 3 is bigger and hits harder in terms of how the story tries to break your soul. The first game came in a magical moment for me and I felt really identified by many topics that happened in the story. It was my first 'hardcore' RPG game too, which made it really special. Its OST is really good and I fell in love with the characters and plot twists that really changed your mind and made you see everything in a different way.

I really recommend both games to anyone who wants to try the RPG sauce!

 

[bdt2002]

Historically, anyways, I haven't been too much of a fan of jRPGs outside of Pokémon, provided that may just be a result of me not trying very many, and I'll admit right here and now that I straight up did not know this I.P. existed until Shulk was introduced to Super Smash Bros. in the 3DS and Wii U installment. So, if that's the case, why am I posting here if I know very little about the games and my interest in trying out newer video games has only gone down over time?

Well, there's two reasons for that, but one of them is more of a joke than anything else at the moment. I'll get to that in a bit, but I'll start by saying that the fact that Xenoblade fans have so much positive things to say about their games has caught my attention more than once. Yes, yes, I'm sure this fanbase has its issues with the games just like any franchise, but compared to a surprising amount of other Nintendo I.P.s, I feel like most of the feedback and reception I have heard has been largely positive with little to no complaints. In fact, out of every jRPG franchise I can think off of the top of my head, this and maybe Persona probably have the highest overall average reception between their respective games. That's simply another way of saying that, from what I've heard, Xenoblade's low points are still pretty high compared to the low points of these other jRPG franchises. As someone on the outside looking in, I'm very curious as to why that is. Has there been some really appealing factor of these games that I haven't been aware of for the longest time or something? Is this going to be another situation where I waited over a decade to finally experience something that other people have been calling peak fiction for years?

The other thing I want to post about is something that has nothing to do with this post but I feel obligated to mention as a really big fan of a certain Pokémon spinoff title. I have reason to believe that one of your games stole the name of our region without our consent at some point in the past, and while I like to think I've done a great job so far of keeping my fanboying about this Pokémon game to a minimum, if the amount of enjoyment I had with that game growing up is anything to go off of, maybe I'd enjoy this, too. Hey, you never know. Stranger things have happened.

 

[torterraxx]

Historically, anyways, I haven't been too much of a fan of jRPGs outside of Pokémon, provided that may just be a result of me not trying very many, and I'll admit right here and now that I straight up did not know this I.P. existed until Shulk was introduced to Super Smash Bros. in the 3DS and Wii U installment. So, if that's the case, why am I posting here if I know very little about the games and my interest in trying out newer video games has only gone down over time?

Well, there's two reasons for that, but one of them is more of a joke than anything else at the moment. I'll get to that in a bit, but I'll start by saying that the fact that Xenoblade fans have so much positive things to say about their games has caught my attention more than once. Yes, yes, I'm sure this fanbase has its issues with the games just like any franchise, but compared to a surprising amount of other Nintendo I.P.s, I feel like most of the feedback and reception I have heard has been largely positive with little to no complaints. In fact, out of every jRPG franchise I can think off of the top of my head, this and maybe Persona probably have the highest overall average reception between their respective games. That's simply another way of saying that, from what I've heard, Xenoblade's low points are still pretty high compared to the low points of these other jRPG franchises. As someone on the outside looking in, I'm very curious as to why that is. Has there been some really appealing factor of these games that I haven't been aware of for the longest time or something? Is this going to be another situation where I waited over a decade to finally experience something that other people have been calling peak fiction for years?

The other thing I want to post about is something that has nothing to do with this post but I feel obligated to mention as a really big fan of a certain Pokémon spinoff title. I have reason to believe that one of your games stole the name of our region without our consent at some point in the past, and while I like to think I've done a great job so far of keeping my fanboying about this Pokémon game to a minimum, if the amount of enjoyment I had with that game growing up is anything to go off of, maybe I'd enjoy this, too. Hey, you never know. Stranger things have happened.

I didn’t have a lot of JRPG experience before playing xenoblade, besides some tales of games and Pokemon, so I didn’t have much to compare it to going in. But for me it was really about the characters and how fleshed out they are, the plot twists, and the music elevates the game so much imo, they really don’t miss with the music at all. The cutscenes are fantastic by themselves, but the music makes some of them unforgettable. The gameplay is probably the weakest aspect of the games, but I love the combat in all the games except the first (still very good but more simplistic compared to the later games).

Monolith also does an excellent job at getting the most out of the consoles graphically and gameplay wise. You can really tell they put their hearts into the games and it makes me depressed when I look at other Nintendo franchises (Pokemon unfortunately), where I feel like that same effort/care just isn’t there for one reason or another. I have some gripes with each game, so they’re definitely not perfect, but they’re all very polished and a blast to play imo.