The Uniquely Expansive World of Xenoblade Chronicles 

If you ain’t never swam to the end of the Great Falls for actual no reason you ain’t a real one

“Torches you see around village won’t set fire to anything. Village made entirely of wood, so we not use normal fire torches. They use concentrated form of pollen orb. Does not burn, but still very hot. So take care, friends.” - Frontier Village NPC. Yep, the little guys definitely know what they’re doing with the torches! Another thing I love about this game: the little details you discover if you take the time to talk to people. Great video, would love to see a follow-up.

A fun fact is there is a place near Colony 6 near the entrance to the Either Mines where you can look down and see Colony 9 in the distance to see how far up the Bionis you've come.

every single named character has a home, just follow them and you‘ll see that they even have their own routes and different dialogue sometimes.

Yes! I would like every xenoblade game to be covered by you!

Nopon dealing drugs is one of the best recurring Xenoblade things

18:00 when i first played this game i didn't know the map is automatically revealed when you find all the fast travel points. It was grueling to swim through all that water

Xenoblade kinda looks like how the pre rendered backgrounds of ye olde RPG's like Chrono Chross and FF would look in 3D and I really love that.

Finally a recent xenoblade chronicles video. I'm crying. I finished the definitive edition yesterday, and it left a mark on my soul which cannot be described. My favourite game of all time.

Wish you talked more about the knee, and the Mechonis Sword lingering above the player, truly letting the player know that the previous area’s size wasn’t a fluke, and proceeds to show guar plains in all its glory. And yes I’m sure many people (myself included) would like to see a part 2 and the other xenoblade’s worlds, afterall, the huge expansive sizes are one of the major drawing points for the Xenoblade series

the original game was such a special game to me. i played it as a young teen and it really shaped what i valued in videogames to this day. i will forever love xenoblade 1

It's absolutely incredible what the developers were able to accomplish with this world. The idea of all these locations being on a giant titan, and the fact that you can actually see where on the body you are and where you came from is just an absolute joy. Not to mention how well the level design itself compliments the unique locations, showing off how strange and wonderful the landscape and architecture is. I'd love to see you continue this series, and hopefully even cover the other games as well! I know it's been forever banished to the Wii U, but Xenoblade X has my favorite open world of all time. The way each continent is filled with varying locales, and how your exploration of those locales evolves as you gain access to your Mech, and then flight. That said, it's a really tall order, and these games are definitely best explored at your own pace, and how you want. Do whatever you want, and enjoy the journey!

Xenoblade is one of the best games I have ever played, and that world is part of it. Sometimes I'll just zoom the camera in and look around. Notice all the background details that -- while you can't explore -- fill out the world, and feel like logical walls rather than some invisible force keeping me from going that way. The first time I discovered a secret area was amazing too, and the little intricacies of all the towns and villages was nice. It says a lot about the people that live there. The music adds so much to the atmosphere as well, especially in Valek Mountain if you ask me. I generally hate snow levels, but the steep inclines and boat loads of secrets were great. Agirnatha is beautifully desolate. I adore this game and its world so much, I could go on for hours, but I'll let this video do the talking. So glad you're covering this Pretzel, loved your other videos when I saw them recently, and this just affirms it.

You do also get kind of a taste in the cutscene after the first playable section. You see several locations you'll visit in the future. It's nice to recognize them on a 2nd+ playthrough. Come to think, I'm not sure where Shulk's home is. Aside from the lab, that is. We know where Dunban and Fiora live, but we never see anything designated as Shulk's house. Maybe he literally lives at the lab. I can't imagine doing that, but I'm not Shulk. I wish the end of their daily routine were actually when their profile in the Affinity Chart says it is, or at least the other way around. It rounds up to the next multiple of 3 hours, but I've found that's like 2 hours after you can't talk to them, which is frustrating for sidequests that involve them. You assumed you had time to get to them just because it's 19:01 and it says they're active until 21:00? Nope, they're gone. I kind of see it. It's still considered a colony, so maybe I can understand more things being kind of... thrown together hastily. Yeah... I haven't acquired a taste for the original version. Just watch out for Territorial Rotbart! For much of a first playthrough, he's completely beyond your ability to harm, let alone defeat. I like to call that Beef Stealth, as a play on Beef Gates, where they entirely block your way to someplace you're not supposed to go yet with a powerful enemy. It's not an auto-fail if you're spotted, but everything in the cave is way out of your league the first time you can go there unless you did an insane amount of grinding. You can leg it instead and be fine, at least, but if you're after that sidequest item, you'll have to try again. I have to respect the craftsnoponship on those bridges. It makes one wonder what the process was. You can later get involved in a sidequest to build an additional bridge, but of course, the screen fades to black before you even see them begin, and it only comes back once it's done. We know Hode Planks are involved somehow, but I'm not sure if it's a building material or just something the Nopon use while building. Oh yes. At the end of another line of sidequests, there's something to do at that one unassuming island. Depends on the properties of the wood, but green wood is harder to burn. Also, I'm pretty sure you could touch that fire -- in-game, of course -- without getting hurt. In the Extra Story, Future Connected -- I don't know if it's only included with the DE or if the Wii version had it, too -- I had Melia crouch in the campfire outside that one settlement, and nothing happened to her HP. Well, if you know the story... he does have debt, but the only thing we hear it attributed to is his littlepons eating so much. They have wings... but Riki still takes fall damage. Looking forward to what you have to say and show!

XENOBLADE VIDEO LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Xenoblade Chronicles has my favorite world out of any game I've ever played, even compared to the sequels (although I haven't played X). Would love to see you show off more of it!

Man I love this game so much

I would love to see World Tours of 2 and 3 (as well as the rest of 1DE)

I think the important thing about Xenoblade's area design are their near landmarks. That's generally something that distinguishes good open world / zone design from bad one, it doesn't even need to be super special, just an unique terrain shape that's recognizable enough so you can remember it, especially tall landmarks like gauer plains mountains, as long as you see enough landmarks that don't seem super far away the world won't seem flat, also Xenoblade doesn't have plane fields, they don't have much obstacles but the have steeps and slopes, you only have flat floor where it makes sense, also actual standing grass and paths make it feel much less flat :3

omg the spider legitimately scared me lol

12:04 It looks even better during heavy fog weather, where the fog makes it glow even more and adds a beautiful purple to the mix.

I'd like to think that when I'm on my deathbed, my mind will be flooded by my fondest memories. Family, friends, and my lifelong passions. And playing xenoblade chronicles will be one of the last things i think about and it will bring a tear to my eye and a smile to my face

I'd definitely love to see you finish covering this game, as well as the rest of the series

18:00 I love how you tried to zoom out beyond the max distance for that take

I appreciate this so much. Seeing someone appreciate the little details and even stumble into unplanned inclusions is the most a level designer could hope for. I'd love to learn more about the other Xenoblade games too after having fun exploring them myself. People knock the map display in XC2, which is fair for what people want out of it, but I actually found it pretty nice for exploring. Having it lead me to somewhere within view of an objective and then figuring out how to work my way to the actual spot, which could involve a pretty roundabout or hidden path, was super fun for exploration with purpose. Gormott was most memorable for this. I was still finding new little secrets or areas in Gormott even toward the end of the game after coming back throughout the game for more sidequests. One of the sidequests had me going to an area in Mor Ardain that I could not for the life of me reach despite trying like every time I went back there. I finally found a well hidden and creative path to get there in NG+ and that was intensely satisfying, much better than just looking it up like everyone does. All that said, even the smaller, enclosed first town-like area where you start the game gave me a surprising amount of exploration. The treasures were a fun bit too. I ended up making a list of all the treasures in the game, but I've seen two individual treasures online that I had missed from how well hidden they were. In making that list, I missed noting the contents of a particular chest in Indol, which is unfortunate because of every person playing the game I found, no one saw that chest. XC2 also had a few really more memorable moments for me in exploration. One involved a whole big place to explore that I thought I wouldn't be able to, while the other was me trying for like an hour to jump down a cliff and sequence break. I got close with little bits of cliffside that I could land on to reset fall damage, but was never able to survive all the way down. Most obvious negatives here for me were two aspects of the field skills. I'm fine with the field skills as a system in general and having a closed-off area that I have to remember to go back to later. What the game needed most there is to either count every blade you own or to automatically count the top 3 on each character. The locks were fun enough for me, but they shouldn't require switching blades around and back. And then the fact that you use field skills to gather collectibles is also fine, but given the frequency of encountering collectibles, it's a sin to make you sit through the visual fluff every time instead of just passively displaying the relevant level. At least for those, you're not always switching blades around-if you want to farm something, swapping them once before farming and once after is perfectly reasonable.

While I may not expect to see you cover EVERY xenoblade game i honestly hope you eventually cover the planet of Mira from Xenoblade X. Across all the xenoblade games it has such a distinct and vibrant world, it truly feels like an alien planet and honestly is the best designed XB world imo. And thats purely in terms of map design, not even the sheer amount of world building on top of it.

I’m surprised you never saw NPCs use those doors; I guess for a casual play-through it’s easier to miss than I realized. Virtually every named NPC will lead you back to their home at the end of the day, or at the end of the night for the night owls. If you see an NPC on the Affinity chart with an active period listed, you can follow them back from their usual location for what tends to be either the last one or two hours of that period, until they disappear into a structure you can’t enter. The main exceptions I remember to that are anyone living in a location without regular homes. The refugee camp and Eryth locations, for example. In Alcamoth, they all disappear into the teleporters you can’t use, so their homes are a lot less specific, but one can assume they have homes of some sort in the vast spaces of Alcamoth that you can’t enter. In the refugee camp, they disappear into a dark ‘doorway’ covered by a cloth. Some kind of implied shared sleeping space. If you explore the rest of the series, I hope you don’t forget Xenoblade Chronicles X! For all it’s faults (chief among them, that it’s stuck on the Wii U) it’s still a beautiful, sprawling world with a lot to appreciate!

The entire Xenoblade Chronicles series is full of amazing worlds to see and explore. I do hope you continue with a second video and with ones of the other games.

Ah reminds me of my first gameplay, swimming all over to the falls......just because. Such an amazing and beautiful world.

Love Xenoblade towns, they have so many funny corners, you need to platform to get to so many places, especially in 2, there they might as well be considered dungeons, Mor Ardain in particular has a lot of hidden places.

Its fun seeing someone appreciate the small details in the world :D

I'd LOVE to see you cover other Xenoblade stuff. I just stumbled upon your channel and your videos seem super chill. That's great, I like it a lot

As an immense xenoblade fan, i would love for you to do the latter half of the game, eyrith sea, prison island, and the Mechonis are my favorite areas in the game, because of the vibes they give off, especially with the visuals and music

15:56 Should've pointed out the beating heart through the 'windows'. In the wii version it was much harder to notice

great video! i love these kinds of things where people just explore the worlds of games with a fine tooth comb. i first played this game when i was around 10 or 11 or so on the 3ds in like 2015 so it's nice to see someone experiencing the world for the first time.

I really hope this series continues all the way to Xenoblade 3, seeing how all the iconic locations from 1 and 2 were fused or transferred is so interesting. I like how the seemingly waterfalls in Makna Forest that were seemingly pointless in the video became the Great Cotte Falls for example

I would love to see your take on Xenoblade Chronicles 2's art style. Each area is so vast and beautifully designed

Xenoblade Chronicles ties with Majora's Maak for my favorite game of all time, but its world is absolutely my favorite. I will never forget how stunned I was as a teen by the thought that this world is basically me walking around on a long-dead giant... that the other thing I could see across from Bionis's leg may be walkable too. The constant back and forth between funnels and space reveals... no game ever did it like that. Even the following Xenoblade games, imo, didn't succeed completely. The two titans and how the world and story were connected just works really well. Oh and... I'm one of those swamp people. I remember reaching Satorl by day first and because teen me was scared of more difficult monsters I never allowed it to get dark. Passed up to the forest, and much later returned at night and was like "wait I don't remember this???". Personally Satorl as well was Xeno peak for glowy places. Uraya is super pretty too, but the surprise wasn't there. And the glowy trees in 3 are just not it tbh. Looking forward to the next part! I love this format.

I honestly need more! Such a great video! Please continue this series!

The Guar Planes are such an incredible part of the game. It's been a really long time since I've seen Xenoblade Chronicles but the sheer scale of the planes have left a lasting impression on me, and the theme is just one of the best I've ever heard.

When I heard a few RU-vidrs briefly mentioning Xenoblade is their favorite game, I started looking into it. Though I didn't have a Switch until 2021, but saw the Wii version on GameStop for $20. They actually gave me a complete in box game, the box art was in good condition on both sides of the paper, the manual was lightly used, I was pretty surprised with all of that honestly. So with that said, I played the original game using my WiiU in 2021. I prefer the gritty art style of the original version to the remake. But because the animation is improved so much, I'd play Definitive Edition over the orig any day if I was to replay the game.

Xenoblade 2 has my favorite world overall, but this game’s world is incredible in its own way. It’s beautiful. Gaur Plains especially is an area that expands as far as the eye can see.

I'm listening to this in the background of me grinding affinity in my second playthrough of Xenoblade DE, as in my first playthrough I never got to see all the heart-to-hearts. I really have gotten a better appreciation of the locations during this second playthrough. I love Gaur Plain during the day, the colorful nights in Satorl Marsh, Valak Mountain and especially Eryth Sea when there are shooting stars.

I really like your video and the way you looked at things and analyzded in such detail. Thank you!

Would love to see you cover the rest of this game, and future games in the series! Really liked the video :)

This video is AMAZING 😍 I can't wait for the second part!

Xenoblade Chronicles X would be perfect for this series!

For sure i want to see a follow up with the other games of the series! Great video! Top content. Also, please make a part 2! Its only half of Bionis still >

4:34 "You crashed a house into the mobile artillery!?"

Pls do all of your xenoblade ideas. It is such an underrated game series. This video was so fun to watch and it was very beautiful. I'm glad I found someone like me when it comes to appreciating the slow beauty of this game

1:56 The scale reveal in XCX is monumentally greater

One of the greatest games ever made. This is a truly immaculate video. A very pleasant watch! I would love to see the other half of your take on Xenoblade's beautiful world. Man, this is one game that I love so much that I'm proud to say I've completed just about 100% (every sidequest, secret area, etc.) and loved every second of it. Absolute masterpiece.

I just found your channel and it’s great! I would also like to see part 2 of this and the rest of the series if you get to it!!

Amazing. I'd love to see you make a 2nd video on this game and a tour through the other 3 games! Side note, I would have liked to see a bit of focus onto the insane spectacle of the Mechonis from the Bionis knee, and just the idea that the sword alone covers a portion of the bionis leg. Another incredible and huge detail that I wish you had covered is that you can see tue bottom of Eryth sea from Makna forest, and of course the whole ridgeline of that big plate on the back of the bionis. And one more, that you probably didn't even know about! Go to the part before you enter the mine, and look below, torwards the leg. You can see Colony 9! I hope you touch on these few things briefly on the next video.

Awesome video would love to see more, and to see the other Xenoblade games!

I cant wait to come back in a couple years and see this channel blown up. Everything here is so cozy its listenable and watchable its perfect. I dont even really care about the game i just know im gonna see some interesting stuff.

I like the wave of Eryth Sea‎ over the sky of Makna Forest‎ ，the water over sky is so stupid and fantastic

Damn man what a finely crafted video! Can't wait for the next one :)

Such an underrated series. Xenoblade is truly one of a kind experience.

I mean, you can't just stop at the end of Makna. We've an ocean, a mountain, a sword, a robot, inside a body, and SPACE to go through still.

Ah this was a fun watch, had a great time with this game like 10 years ago on the Wii, the upgraded visuals make it even better

Definitely really want to watch the follow up to this video. I've been playing Xenoblade recently (Almost finished as a matter of fact) so this couldn't have come at a more perfect time for me.

Would love to see you cover 2 as well! There's so many pretty areas in that game. Would love to see you explore Leftheria, It's one of my favorite places in all of gaming.

I really enjoyed this video because I love the Xenoblade series. Please do the other games in the series!

This is one of the reasons why I kind of hate to see the Xenoblade games get lumped in with other JRPG's. From a glance, I can understand, but when an assumption becomes a consensus, it prevents people from experiencing something special. Xenoblade 2 in a nutshell. P.S. The Skell flying in X is so breathtaking that I have convinced people to buy a Wii U and a copy of the game just to experience it.

i bought this game without thinking back when I was a teenager, I enjoyed it so much that one of the things I did which i don't believe anyone else bothered to try, was to stay in colony 9 for as long as possible, for no reason. I intentionally did not continue the story as much as possible, but I also didn't continue the story as much as possible, as much as possible. so I was only using shulk for a VERY long time and only got reyn after quite a few hours. I ended up somehow doing stuff there for 15 hours before finally running out of things to do and leaving for tephra and completing the first boss tutorial. I unlocked soo much stuff that by that tutorial, my characters were all dodging everything wearing swimwear with sunglasses, oil, and many gems. with the best weapons I could get for all of them. I actually managed to get a red item collectable for a quest from behind an unbeatable boss, by luring it out slowly, letting it come close to me all the time, then eventually getting to the edge of its area and when it turned around and headed back to it's starting location, where the item was, I used the gems that increased my speed by as much as I could and managed to pick up the red item. the unbeatable monster ignored me because it was too busy trying to get back to the starting location to notice me. thanks to this little run around I was able to continue to stay at colony 9 for a little bit longer and eventually defeated a blue bird that I thought was unbeatable, but it turned out I just needed to unlock more stuff still and I eventually managed to defeat it too, leading to another quest completion. so before I got the first boss tutorial done I was able to just take my time and do a lot of stuff. the trick is to use the affinity chart and do all those trading for material things that everyone tends to ignore in this game. I spent FAR too long just getting random stuff for people and reading their chat bubbles. so yeah. by the time I got to the bionis' leg I was 16 hours into that game. I don't recall any other game keeping me occupied just because I wanted to challenge myself to see what is possible. fiora joined my party at level 16.

Xenoblade 1's world design sparked my passion for game development like no other game before it.

OMG yes please cover more of this beautiful game

I have to say that I love your analysis and overthinking about simple world games. I hope you keep doing this type of content. May I suggest one game to explore? Max Payne seems quite odd and familiar at the same time.

Oh man, I discovered your channel at the right time if you’re about to start doing Xenoblade content!

Honestly, I was waiting for Xenonlade Chronologicals X to come to Switch, but it never did. Anymore, I don't really play RPGs unless they're on a handheld. 😅

Such a beautiful game, would love more ceverage of these games to experience these games and their little and large details

There’s an area in like 5 areas from Makna that has a truly amazing environment. The music and visuals come together to create a feeling of foreignness, yet beauty that’s just magical. I can’t wait for you to experience it! That area and Makna are probably my favorites in the game. I might add… you aren’t halfway through the game. You’ve still got a wild ride ahead of you!

God I could watch you talk about an area alone for 20 minutes. This game has some of the most beautiful areas I've ever seen. Also definitely surprised you didn't like Satorl Marsh. I thought you were building up to a gotcha moment but it never happened lmao

Oka is surprisingly ruthless for a cute tiny puffball.

Would love to see the rest of the game and every other Xenoblade!

I would love to see more of this game covered it's areas are so beautiful

Though the game is stuck in purgatory on the Wii U i hope Xenoblade X gets this treatment somewhere down the line. That game's world is just, really, really good.

I hope you get to cover the rest of the game and the whole Xenoblade trilogy or even all of Xeno!

A series on the other Xenoblades games (the rest of 1, X, 2 and 3) would be nice yes !

i would love to see the whole series

As a swamphead, I want to lodge a complaint about your assessment of the Satorl Marsh. I want to get lost in there never to be found again

Do whatever you want, we are here for *YOU* .

I adore the first Xenoblade. Each area was great.

The Switch version is a fine remaster but the Wii version is a masterpiece for the system. How they were able to make these big sprawling landscapes near seamlessly loading areas on the Wii is amazing.

Dude, please, can you do an analysis of the beautiful areas in Knights of the Old Republic 1&2? They are probably some of the most tranquil, spooky, and otherworldly environments I’ve ever felt from a game. Yeah, they are literally alien planets, but its more about how the locations have history, and this history is reflected in the architecture, and the race of the planet, and how it all comes together to really feel like a world that is just as developed as any other, which comes with it’s own esoteric and strange feelings. Ironically, even though some of these environments arent as out there as like Xen from Half Life or the planets from Destiny, they feel the most alien. Specifically the planet of Manaan and the caves on Dantooine with the Kyber Crystals do this for me.

Hello Pretzle, i was wondering. Do you thing that you pretty please could make a Could You SURVIVE in Metroid Prime 1 video?

Now this is some content

this was super nice :0

this is my favorite JRPG love the series and will always love the first Xenoblade the music and countless hours spent with no regrets

Yes please, cover the other half!

yes please do cover alrest in GREAT detail, and then Aionios

The worlds of every Xenoblade game is magical. No other series can give me that sense of child-like wonder when I see the grand world before me. I mean, FF7 Rebirth comes close, but the lack of a jump button and janky geometry physics kinda kills it.

It's odd seeing stars at the top of the nopon tree, because above that is eryth sea.

While XC2 is my favourite Xenoblade game, due to the improved gameplay and characters, I still love XC: Definitive Edition - the first game is still an absolute _wonder_ to behold, and in terms of environment/world design it's leagues ahead of both its sequels; Satorl Marsh and Valak Mountain are stunningly beautiful at night, something neither 2 nor 3 really copied. In addition, unlike 2's discrete Titans, most areas in 1 are interconnected; going from the bottom of the Bionis to its head can be accomplished simply by foot, instead of needing transport, and in the process encountering many amazing and unique locales. XC1 is also the only game in the series with a global Affinity Chart, where it's possible to build ties between different named NPCs, and have those links differ based on your choices in sidequests (and if you talk to named NPCs at different times of day after completing quests). Sure, this does make sidequesting rather complicated, and one reason I prefer 2's quests is the simplification, but being able to visibly unite the world like this does feel amazing.

"it's a good thing my Joycon joysticks are so reliable" **Immediate drift** Yeah ok i'm gonna have to subscribe for that laugh lol Edit: Also I really really love the almost ASMR vibe to this video. There's no random loud memes or loud soundclips out of nowhere. Maybe i've been burned by some other videos from other youtubers but I was preparing myself to lower the volume for a loud soundclip or something whenever you zoomed the camera in on something, but it never happened and I appreciate that (and would love to see more videos about the other Xenoblade games too!)

Yeaaa second part please 😮

I'd like to thank Nico Bizzle for introducing me to the series by random chance. It's cause of him that I can say that I'm a fan of Monolith and their games for life now.

babe wake up, pretzel uploaded a video about xenoblade chronicles!

Fromsoftware also loves to do scale reveals, Elden Ring has like 4 or 5 of them. Dark Souls 3 has 3 or 4 of them. Dark Souls 2 also has like 3 or 4, counting DLCs Its just a really good way of conveying how epic and daunting your journey will be.

So vast it is insane.