xenoblade is one of my favourite games. when i first got to the eryth sea i assumed the lake was out of bounds before jumping in and seeing that the surrounding coasts and small islands could be explored too. most games would insta kill you for trying to go down there. this game has little nooks to explore everywhere its such a masterpiece
First time I reached the Bionis’ Leg(?) after the battle with the giant spider gave me the same vibes as the early scene in Jurassic Park where they stop the SUVs and see all of the dinosaurs wandering around freely. Just a whoa kinda moment. There was a similar moment for me in the third game before you reach the Kevesi colony that has all of the nopon mechanics.
17:01 Actually... it's not a sidequest that takes the player to the Monado Wound - it's the *prologue.* As in, it was Dunban's doing when the Monado lit up bright enough to be seen from pretty much anywhere with line of sight to the battlefield.
🤯🤯🤯🤯 I can't believe I didn't realize that. I just looked at the footage of the opening and you're right, the camera pulls back at the end and reveals that's where it is.
That area with the high level enemies in Valak mountain is actually home to not one but two of the game’s superbosses. One is the weakest and the other is the strongest. If I recall correctly, those doors are tied to a sidequest, not defeating the enemies. Valak mountain is actually a really interesting place for sidequests because it contains several bits of old technology/architecture of presumably high entian origin. It feels like a once-important place that has since become very barren and uninhabitable. There’s actually a lot of stuff that changes around the world after the events at the Mechonis Core, which closes off a bunch of sidequests, but also opens up some new areas like some new paths in Tephra Cave. Xenoblade 1 has a bunch of postgame content that actually makes getting up to superboss levels a bit less of a slog than it seems. Seeing how much you enjoyed the world of Xenoblade 1, I’d love to see you take a look at the other Xenoblade games. There’s a lot to see in each of their worlds!
Somebody probably mentioned it already, but you can see colony 9 from the path leading to the ether mines (before colony 6) and you can see mechonis' facing you/bionis from the long bridge leading to the imperial villa (its' eyes glow at night) which is pretty epic. edit: also was hoping you'd mention the ever looming gaze of the bionis literally looking down on you from sword valley absolutely loved it tho! love this format/concept for a series and hoping for more! cheers!
Yeah, cool to see people know that you can see C9 in the ether mine entrance, though, the leg is way bigger than Tephra Cave suggests, kinda messes with the scale
32:54 You didn't re-explore this area after Mechonis Core when the Telethia took over! Sounds like you never experienced some of the best sidequests in the game, the High Entia sidequests post-Mechonis Core.
Specifically there? I don't know. There are a few more traditional islands in the sea that aren't connected by teleporter, and the most convenient way to get to them is by skipping to a Landmark, then jumping down to the waters below, and swimming the rest of the way. It might be. Then again, there is that floating tower that you come to Alcamoth to go to... and the final area could be considered even higher. Hmm. Indeed, when the High Entia become active or stop being active for the day or night, they use teleporters, not those doors/not-doors. I wonder if the giants that keep being mentioned have something to do with it. I would probably seek out a certain Heart-to-Heart in Tephra Cave, or a certain other one in Satorl Marsh if you want the game to explain, but I'm pretty sure the short explanation is ether. If the question is "Why specifically at night?" then... I wonder if the answer is something like "Oh, they're always shining, but it's like how you don't see most stars, hardly see a flashlight's beam, and don't bother shooting off fireworks during the day." Your instinct about Befalgar Pedestal is correct, of course. Would you believe TWO sidequests have you coming here? Surprisingly, neither is a battle. I can just imagine a unique Gogol or something standing on the pedestal, waiting for you to take it on, but no. And one of those sidequests actually involves that dangerous narrow path, so it's funny that you put them together in your video without knowing. Yep. Those Sloboses would take a lot of grinding or New Game Plus to stand a chance against. No, but there is a sidequest that lets you go in there. It just doesn't involve defeating those Sloboses. There is a Unique Monster before the Monado Wound, but no sidequest. I guess it's just minor worldbuilding in this case. Well... one time, in an Xbox 360 game called Crackdown, I went into the ocean and started swimming away from Pacific City. I swam a really long time. It didn't stop me in any way. No damage, no invisible wall, just... nothing, and the city seemed to be getting farther away. Eventually, I decided I'd had enough, and decided to go back... but the game's fast-travel system isn't designed to take you from just anywhere; you have to be continuing the game, standing on a different Supply Point, or die to choose which Supply Point to appear at. At least, if it let you, but you got tired of staring at nothing but empty water, you could just skip back to a Landmark. And would you believe it? A sidequest in FC takes you to the Companions' Forum, as well.
something to note about Eryth Sea is how when you first arrive there in the story, suddenly being on this beach with Prison Island in direct view kind of messes with the players head, by this point the player is used to the whole "small corridor into reveal of big open area" but now they're inexplicably on a coastside with this massive area all there at once, this I feel greatly gets across how small we are in this world, no location prior was so overwhelming in its size but now your face to face with this giant blue sea that just goes on and on with these strange floating islands all over and actual teleporters all across it, in a way Eryth Sea creates this almost alien feeling, like your on a completely different planet and this feels very intentional as a way to lead into Bionis' Interior thematically. Eryth Sea is kind of like a great showcase of Bionis itself, it's big, beautiful but clearly imbalanced, there are islands floating above (the High Entia) and those stuck on the sea (the Homs) but then there's THAT tower (Bionis), a tower above everything, a tower of false divinity, far above all of mortality but far from the heavens above even it (Ontos). Curious how well that fits to the general power structure found on Bionis
I hope you get the chance to experience Xenoblade 2 in the near future. The multiple titans in that game may feel more condensed at first, but each one has its own ascetic that makes it feel truly unique from one another. Plus, my favorite area in the entire series, one that made my jaw drop the first time I saw it, happens towards the latter half of the game. I won't say much as not to spoil it, but I will say that there is a strange beauty in desolation that I can't help but adore.
This is one of my favorite games ever and the world is no small part of why. It's just so...cool. Immaculate even. Personally my top 3 areas in the game are Valak Mountain, Satorl Marsh, and Mechonis Field. Shoutout to Makna Forest as well. If I had to pick a singular favorite spot, I think it would be high up on Valak Mountain somewhere, especially at night. Another great entry in a great series of videos.
13:44 That's actually the same door that you can find elsewhere in the game. Those doors are Giant's doors, part of the Giant's ruins sidequests, and can only be opened when you have the keys. Real shame most people probably miss those quests. The rooms are cool, the sidequests are cool, the lore about the Giants is cool.
Your videos are very charming. This was a pleasant stroll through the wonderful world of this masterpiece of a game. I would like to see you do the other ones as well in the future. Xenoblade Chronicles is one of my favorite franchises of all time, and the worlds Monolithsoft has lovingly crafted for each game are a big part of it.
7:46 Pretty sure the bridge to the villa being that long was done for thematic reasons, Melia being so sheltered and separated from her father and people that there's literally a giant bridge worth of distance between them.
there's a really cool side quest in Makana forest that unlocks you another Monado art, and it ends in a tomb you can enter that's filled with the dead bodies of a specific type of monster and one monster sitting atop a throne waiting for you to challenge him. King Agni's Tomb. also after the third act of the game kicks off there are more areas that open up in Tephra cave with things like giant ribcages and even more ruins to explore
I believe that agniratha looks the way it does because of time constraints during development. The director, Tetsuya Takahashi, has a track record of planning out stories for games that are so long that they were not able to be completed in the given development time, until Xenoblade 3, where the development cycle was largely tied into the dev cycle of Xenoblade 2 and the definitive edition of 1 (but the expansion that came with future connected in the definitive edition had about a quarter of it's story cut, with the secondary antagonist's arc resolving in an unvoiced cutscene and a very anticlimactic fight). Xenoblade 3 was able to use a ton of assets from 1 and 2 (which will be evident if you ever play it) and allowed the developers to spend more effort on the narrative. But anyway, if the team had another year to work on xenoblade 1, agniratha most likely would have looked a bit more like a living space and less like a dungeon.
This is the kind of stuff I live for. I love the worlds in these games. Xeno X is probably my favorite for that but you really can't go wrong with any of them.
PLEASE play Xenoblade 2 & Torna and make a video on them! Or several haha. Of course take your time, but those games have my favorite locations in all of Xenoblade and they are truly amazing. The places I went in them have stuck with me even years later. They also have the cast of characters I grew to love the most, so I feel something emotional when I go to those locations again in subsequent playthroughs. Xenoblade 1 & 3 are excellent but 2 is the one that has my heart!
_Beautiful..._ (That was _incredibly_ redundant of me; sorry for that.) Can't wait to see the other games, though part one of this was a month ago, and there are 3 more whole games to get through, and the _real_ mind blowing moment isn't until the very end of the last one. Oh well, guess we'll just have to wait. I guess the next we might end up seeing will be the wide open planet: _Mira._
I was kinda excited to get into XC2, but I think you're right. I should check out XCX next. Like I said, it might be a bit, but I will return to the series someday!
an interesting bit, if you back track after you-know-what to go back to alcamoth, you can already see it in disrepair from that! the progression from the initial experience all the way to FC is one of my favorite little details!
Absolutely love hearing your thoughts on these areas in these videos xD constructive criticism tho I think the background music in these vids could be louder. The vids seem too silent at times. Love the zooms, cuts, and jokes tho :) just raising the volume of the music would go a long way👍 keep up the great work, can't wait for the next one :)
11:10 don't recall if it is a side quest but its stated that the pillars are releasing excess ether, and wity the crystal formations make that effect of light beacons
I didn't realize I wasn't really covering the first half of the game with the first video, part 1 and 2 are a bit lopsided in terms of length. 😭 I'd love to make longer videos, but it's kinda hard with the weekly schedule I got going on. Maybe someday I'll drop that schedule and just kinda put things out when they're done. I love watching longer videos, so I think that'd be a cool road to go down in the future.
8 minutes in and I'm already pretty sure this will become one of my absolute favourite Xenoblade Videos. Thank you so much for making it! Edit: Question, which part of the game would you say is "not interesting"? 🤔 Edit 2: No, there's actually nothing in the game that ever explains the glowing crystals on Valak :D They just... Do it. Great little guys. Edit 3: The door at Three Stage Summit is indeed unlocked by a quest, and it's one of the most elaborate in the game that requires the defeat of multiple strong minibosses :)
13:45 The door here actually doesn't have anything to do with the high level enemies, rather three seperate side quest chains. It's been 2 years since i did them but I remember the quests were in the marsh, the nopon village and tephra cave (that one is late game though). They're all a bit lengthy but I remember being so intrigued that I grinded them out anyway Sorry for the long ramble, this is a fantastic video, I love to see appreciation of all the details in this game
Interestingly enough, the arenas in Prison Island are by far the smallest rooms in the castle, making me thing they weren't build for giants but rather for smaller creatures.
Fun fact: You don't exactly need to grind out those levels to beat strong enemies, you just need to craft gems that grant your characters accuracy and evasion (agility gems do both, you can also make night vision gems to get more accuracy at night). Agility is incredibly overpowered in these games.
Would love to see xenoblade 2 or 3 or even X if you can! Would be fun to see what ever you do next. Edit: oh and if you want a idea for a game to see how hard a real person would survive i personaly wonder how someone might do in Zelda Breath of the Wild or the Mario odyssey Kingdoms (other then metro which you can obviously survive). Ok thats it Have a great day!.
great videos on xc, i hope you play through the other xenoblade games! i feel like xenoblade 2 and 3's worlds aren't as sick to me compared to 1's(they have their moments, don't get me wrong, but something about the two titans stuck in time is really cool) , but X's comes pretty close! monolithsoft are insanely good at these, explains why they helped on games like botw
As much as I love Xenoblade 1, I feel the game kind of falls apart after the fallen hand. I’m sure they could’ve found a way to make the Mechonis more exciting to explore than an endless slog of factories with the same godforsaken enemies. Egil’s sister calls the Machina “mechanical life forms from the Mechonis” so they easily could’ve had whole ecosystems populated by basically rahi.
I'm not too plugged into the discourse for the game, so I don't know how widespread that opinion is, but I kinda felt the same. As I said in the video, all of the metal interiors just kinda wore me down after a bit.
Fun Fact: It's theorised that the Sun in Xenoblade Chronicles doesn't actually move across the sky. If you watch it in-game, it kinds of just sits there and turns on & off like a lamp. This is supported by how the different environments are affected by the linear path of sunlight. Places with direct access like Bionis Leg and Eryth Sea enjoy simple, warm climates. Satorl Marsh is somewhat hidden around the waist, but not high enough to be cold, causing the swampland environment Valak Mountain used to actually be habitable in the ancient past, but it is theorised the Bionis' head rests just in the right position to block the sun from reaching it, which combined with the high altitude led to the frozen climate despite the close-by Makna Forest Speaking of, Makna Forest does receive plenty of sunlight, but the literal ocean hovering over it might be what causes the strong humidity, trapping moisture in the atmosphere of the region.
When I first began to play Xenoblade, it was a little difficult to get accustomed to the combat mechanics (which were frustrating me beyond belief) but I stuck to it since the world design and atmosphere were things I wanted to continue to experience and boy am I glad I did!
Xenoblade 2 is the first game I've played in the series and boy was that overwhelming in terms of mechanics. 😅 I made it a good bit into it but got bored after a while. Definitely looking forward to finally giving that game the attention it deserves sometime in the future.
@@PretzelYT Xenoblade 2 has probably the worst tutorials in any game ever, so it doesn't really surprise me. It's unhelpful to the point where I might even call it detrimental- for example, at the start of the game you're prompted to buy one of those consumable items that boosts stats for a while and it wants you to buy the worst one in the game. What a way to make players dismiss an entire mechanic.
@@percher4824 I played Xenoblade 1 first and I had a lot of problems to learn the combat, I frequently had to watch a video to take the strategy and beat the boss and always there was something I didn't know, and at the end I had to grind a lot to defeat Zanza. Then I played it again and it was good knowing from the start, even so I was still learning, and still had to grind (and see video to pass Lorithia of course) But as I had played XC1 twice already, and knew my error was not reading the tutorials (not understand the language too.. and playing in a CRT), I just read patiently every tutorial and I could learn the combat well, the only thing that took a lot to understand was the orbs, and these I only masteresed them after beating the game and playing Torna. But at least I only had to grind in the land before morytha and it took 3 tries to beat Malos in the end game Well, maybe if I played Xenoblade 2 first I wouldn't even beat it if it would be too complex to someone like me and who wasn't used to the style of combat. Or wouldn't even be interested in the game because of the start or the anime look, but as someone who played Xenoblade 1 first, I knew Xenoblade 2 would be good even tho it is too anime, and now I absolutely love Xenoblade 2 as much or even better than Xenoblade 1 because I really found so many qualities in this game 🤷
i’m surprised you don’t like mechonis as much. i definitely got the feeling of those areas having less going on though. but the idea of a naturally occurring machine life was so unique to me. i liked it for that alone. i thought agniratha felt weird because of what happened to it. but it unfortunately looks the same in flashback scenes… i wish mechonis was more filled out. i wish there was more stuff about the machina in general they’re my favorite
I had played it a couple times before but never completed it. I'm glad I was finally able to push through and finally roll the credits on it. The channel has been good for getting me to finish games I might not have otherwise 😅
I'd love to see you do a similar video on the ugly duckling of the xenoblade series, Xenoblade X on the wii u. it's one of my favorite world in all of gaming
Xenoblade Chronicles X may not be mentioned nearly enough with it’s flaws, but one of the few things it does better than the main trilogy (imo) is it’s explorations, and due to the story, most of the areas are never seen before by people living on the planet with you! It’s a shame it’s locked on the Wii U and will probably stay locked on there until monolith soft either remakes the controls or outright rework the game from the ground, taking a lot of time (granted they could probably still use the world as is, just update the models and controls) but with how negative the reviews were they probably wouldn’t put time into it..
I have yet to watch the video but i wanted to ask: assuming you've played through Xenoblade Chronicles 3, what is your opinion on Shania Reid, Ghondor, and the story post-chapter 6? I ask this because the story, as amazing as it is, has a few blemishes, one of which being the City and the characters surrounding it (in my opinion)
Empty space perfectly describes this over hyped pos. I keep repeating it since day one. Only reason people care about xenoblade is because it is a Nintendo property. Truth it was a medium fish in a small pond. If it would have come out on ps3 no one would care. (Medium fish in an ocean). Only good Xenoblade was 2/Torna and X (Japanese version). Only phenomenal Xeno was Xenogears. Xenosaga 3 was also better than any Xenoblade.
