Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Is Not What Everyone Else Thinks - Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Analysis 

My favorite part about the side quests is how you can deepen relationships between the various colonies. You really feel this sense of unifying a broken world as you watch people who originally hated each other because they were told to hate each other realize that they aren’t so different and that the whole conflict is pointless.

prob my favorite thing about 3 is how multifaceted and nuanced its themes are. there's like a million ways to interpret the story none of which contradict eachother its kinda insane

On M/Mio “somehow knowing N would execute ‘Mio’ on the eclipse day”, that wouldn’t have to be part of her plan at all. The point was for M/Mio to die, for N to realize that it was M instead of Mio, and use that to get N to realize M didn’t want this life for them. A very brief thing in the N fight cutscene after the prison break, notice everyone only engaged N while in their Ouroboros forms *except* M/Mio, after she and Noah cancelled their Interlink she attacked N *by herself*, and was the *only character* to attack N by herself. It was likely an invitation to kill her, she was probably planning to die right then for her plan.

Its crazy to me that people didnt naturally tackle the sidequests since XC3 is inarguably the best when it comes to what the sidequests ask of you and the rewards(narratively) for doing them

14:50 Personally, I believe the reason that all the residents of Aionios refer to each other as human beings simply because they don't realise their racial/species differences due to a loss of culture and history as an effect of the eternal war. In early Chapter 2, right around when the party first enter Milick Meadows, they remark about each other's physical differences. They each talk about the other's characteristics including Lanz's somewhat mechanical body where Eunie and Noah (who've known him since birth) remarked their surprise as they previously never cared to notice since they were too preoccupied with fighting and staying alive to which Mio responds that both sides are "world's apart". The lost culture and history is further reinforced in the post game hero quests, where Nia and Melia both explain Bionis/Mechonis and Alrest of which either nation knew nothing of. Simple things such as the buildings that are scattered around Makatha Wildwoods were once used to house people astounded the party. Pair that with the limited lifespan and constant need to fill the Flame Clocks in order to live, it'd be extremely reasonable to assume that most knowledge has been lost to the passage of time after each rebirth as memories aren't being passed in order to preserve a sense of culture and identity hence everyone referring to themselves as 'human' (same reason there's no massive kingdoms/cities in Keves/Agnus btw but rather various somewhat homogeneous colonies as they are only afforded 10 years of which most is spent on the battlefield anyways so easy to build mobile colonies fit their short, nomadic lifestyle best).

I think regarding your point about how M knew what N was thinking, it's fairly easy to imagine that M has been with N as N rather than Noah long enough now that she can fairly easily guess what kind of sadistic horrors he's decided to unleash upon the party. That's how I've always read that scene, at least.

My interpretation of M’s intentions were that she expected an immediate death shortly after the switch, which would fulfill her purpose since Moebius are not reborn. The whole prison month would have been unintended, precisely due to N’s sudden sadistic idea. M didn’t need the homecoming, she just needed to be killed before the rest of the party. That’s how I read it, at least.

Oh shit, so I'm not the only one who felt that Xenoblade 3 was really meta. I'll eventually put out an analysis about the game myself one day.

Love that great cotte falls concept art for the thumbnail. One of the games prettiest areas

Hey Cinnacal! I finished XC3 around half of August. After beating the game my first thought was exactly that it was a critique of sequelization. And that all people playing the series, and don't want it to end, are in fact Moebius. We, the players, are the audience in the theatre. I've searched if someone shares similar sentiment, but around the time i finished the game I didn't find anything. Then, few months later I accidentally saw your video and I'm really happy that I'm not alone in this :) Great video, great work!

11:31 is even reflected early in the game (before getting the mission to go to Alfeto Valley) when Lanz tells Noah how to get to the meeting area behind the Colony 9 ferronis, with Eunie telling him that Noah probably already knows that. (edit: oh wait you show that exact scene later in the video lol) For the part about what Nia says (the worlds splitting), I think the reason they never said it before beating Z was to show that the party was willing to end the endless now *despite* not knowing what would happen to them. The point was to highlight just how much the characters valued freedom, no matter what would come after. Knowing that the worlds would split after beating Z would remove some of the... courage? (don't know the exact word to use there) that the party had because they would then have a certain outcome if they succeed. The uncertainty of what will happen next is what the writers wanted to push there, an idea that connects perfectly to Aionios being a system created out of fear. Edit to follow the above paragraph: and what you say after about having no problems fighting Z, I actually had the opposite experience. I had a ton of different ideas about what would happen after beating Z, I wasn't even 100% certain that it was the actual end of the game lol. I suppose that would be why I saw this whole thing in a different light though. The way I see it, the "Nia world's splitting message" isn't a puzzle piece in the wrong place, it's an interchangeable one, a piece that somehow fits in two different spots to create two different messages, one of facing fear despite the uncertainty after, the other about facing fear to end the terrible system it creates. The two paragraphs above are also why I'm much happier with Xenoblade 3's ending than many others. Since I saw the ending as a way to express that uncertainty is a part of life, we can't live in a constant cycle of certainty (the endless now), I feel that they resolved it well. Altogether, this was a very interesting video. Most of what you stated (the above paragraphs being an obvious exception) was what I was thinking as well, just turned into a coherent video instead of the thinking that makes sense in your head but not when you try to explain it.

i feel a overwhelming majority of people that played xc3 didn't really understand what it was trying to say, everyone just wanted to be in the endless now of it being a retread of past games in the series.

I was actually worried you weren't doing vids anymore after I just found your vids lol. OK good welcome back.

While it is not explicitly stated with respect to N, the custom of executing people on the eclipse in a performative manner is a Moebius custom that was established earlier in the chapter, with the stated purpose of extinguishing hope and instilling a sense of powerlessness in those who oppose them. One does have to make an inference but it is not far-fetched to think that M made the same inference when proceeding with her plan. My interpretation is that her staging the fight with the party was a way of priming N to take the course of action that he did. She says to N that she wants to show the party how hopeless their fight is, and game-ifys the encounter ("I'll tell you...if you can defeat us in combat" - having "Mio" set up that line was a nice touch and shows it was part of the plan). I quite enjoyed this though. It's funny - I made a joke to some friends pre-release that the game would be a meta-commentary on the fanbase, though not in the same way that it ended up. Perhaps the complaints about the game not being a "good sequel" are a perfect demonstration of the prescience of its message. While it wasn't specifically with respect to storytelling, thinking about the game eventually made me realize how it was calling me out, and with multiple events in my life at present forcing me to move forward, I am far more welcoming than fearful of the incoming changes. I believe I have Xenoblade 3 to thank for that, in part. It was a well-timed game for me and I find myself loving it more as I continue to think about it. I would love to see more "podcast" style content from you, by the way.

Honestly this video has probably grown my appreciation and love for XC3. After finishing it it was already solidify as my favorite Xenoblade game and my favorite game of all time, but videos like these from fans just continue making me love it even more and more, be it positive, or delving into the negatives too.

This channel is criminally underrated! This video was amazing and it put so much into words for me, this game was truly something else. Thanks for this video!

Looking forward to what you make next!

The side content being transformative to xenoblade reminds me of X. I felt the main story of X was serviceable with good moments but the side quests of X and exploring how a multicultural group tries to get along and build a city absolutely elevated the game

LET'S GO. A NEW VIDEO FROM THE LEGEND

I'm extremely interested to see what the DLC does and if it addresses if the series will move forward or gives any glimpse to future monolith projects

5:59 "They even interlink" Slick Cinny really slick.

Great video! Helped me move along with my morning thanks.

Can’t wait for more content by this guy. I’ve watched his Xenoblade 1 video 4 times. He just adds more to the table than most RU-vidrs.

Your interpretation of the story I don't feel was intended but I can certainly see how you came to that conclusion from the story and agree with it, a perfectly valid read of the themes

Okay, I realise I'm more than just fashionably late, but I do want to point out (in case no one has done so already) that Nia states quite explicitly in a cutscene when first explaining about Origin, that Origin's purpose was *not* to merge the two worlds, but to reboot them after they had annihilated each other. To me that made the separation of the worlds quite clear. More importantly, you had so many interesting points and insights as usual. ^-^ Always a delight to hear your thoughts. Looking forward to the scripted Xeno videos.

Personally I liked how until the end, we don’t know what the consequences of defeating Z will be. We are given all the clues, but by deliberately leaving the player in ignorance (and not the characters if, as me, you consider the post game intradiegetic prior to the end), so we live the same fear as people from both worlds before the fusion. The fear of not knowing what the future will be, the fear that made Moebius, that is Moebius. So you still beat Z wanting to free the world and the ending cutscene starts. Then suddenly you realize, as the lyrics will even say, It's just the most logical ending ultimately and you can't do anything besides following the last words of Noah : hoping to see their reunion, keeping the memories of these happy days and walk on. So again I like the ending, in a way it talks directly to us. Oh and btw I also like the Mio/M situation, I don't feel betrayed by the non-death of Mio (since ultimately someone still dies, still bamboozled tho) and I really like the "sacrifice for the new generation" trope. Actually a scenario where Mio dies and M replaces her in the team, would have disappointed me, feeling like Mio’s death was cancelled (like a massive, oh no Mio... anyway M aka Mio2) while here the death isn't cancelled but replaced by another one (I feel bad for Mio, then I'm happy but feel bad for M).

I remember being confused by the characters not knowing what a 'city' was. But further into the game you realize how it makes sense because the experience of the characters didn't allow them to know what a city was. Whenever the characters got to the city it really shows when they couldn't recognize particular words they would never use in their lives. This game is a prime example of world-building and one of the best ways to show a world that is lived in as opposed to a world with lots of stuff in it.

0:01 To this day I'm impressed with the fact that you did that, and somehow I feel like you still have more to say about it.

Nice analysis. I always find myself applying the word 'sustainable' whenever I think of Aionios so I'm glad other people think the same way

Love the content as always!!

Enjoyed the point about the supervillainpon and the system as the villain. Also thank you for pointing out that moebius being cartoonist and immature is 'the point'. However the point about Melia saying 'people' is nitpicky. It's implied at the end of 1 that all the different races come together in an unprecedented way, and that's shown again when we see alcomoth stationed beside a colony 9 like city. Clearly there was a great social upheaval that saw the races become much more unified and it makes sense that this would be reflected in their language evolving to describe them all as one 'people' rather than by homs, high entia and nopon. Also Melia was implied to be seeing events from Aionios in her dreams when she was imprisoned. Also there was plenty of dialogue (from npcs like Dorin and bambam and also in the main story) that implied that people at the very least knew killing Z might end the world. And it was very clear from Nia's monologue earlier that origin was designed to recreate the world's as they had been before after the merging destroyed them, not to allow them to merge. Me and my partner both felt that Nia's quest was slapping us over the head with stuff that had already been explained. Maybe revisit those parts before doing your scripted video just to consider if it was clearer than you thought? There are still consequences to M dying. It's a brilliant double flip where the tragic thing we're worried about is taken away but replaced by a deeper tragedy. M dying in that way is even sadder than if M had. She IS Mio but having gone through much more. And it's borne out by how the song that plays during the prison cell scene is given new depth when we know it's from N's perspective. Shania being genocidal seemed fine. In a society hidden in a metal prison in a world that wants to kill them, where everything is orientated towards killing or hiding, it would be weirder if people didn't go nuts. You hit on a really good point when saying you can make the puzzle pieces for the story yourself. I think 3 is using a more soft world building approach than 1 or two that relies on ellipse to have the player fill in gaps so the game doesn't have to waste time on extemporaneous details that can big down pacing or take up space they could have otherwise used for character development. It seems like some players didn't understand that approach which is a shame because it's probably what allowed us to get such fleshed out character work in this game and as you say, the shit they didn't put in like a flashback to N saying to M 'oh in going to have a homecoming for Mio when we capture her' is so obviously implied by how things play out that it's an unnecessary use of their finite resources and the players attention. Lastly while I agree that sequelisation is being critiqued i don't think it's the only point and there are layers to what they are doing with the endless now.

i am extremely exited to see your video on xenoblade 3 after having finished this one. it seems like there is a good amount of overlap between you and i in what i felt the game was trying to convey, im just very bad at expressing or putting it into words. one of the biggest points i see missed is how everyone seems to think Moebius are the villains instead of Aionios, to me Moebius feel more like victims that couldn't make it in the world of Aionios and sought a way out

I love the open nature of the side quests. I did Alexandra's colony 15 levels under level and it was an amazing challenge, barging through and leveling on the solders guarding the colony. But I also saw a streamer do Alexandra's side quest as one of their last. It is like breath of the wild In the sense that everyone will have a unique xenoblade3 story and I love that!

I love this kind of videos that cast some love to Xenoblade 3. There are many people only casting flaws of the game everywhere, sure it's not perfect but it's a brilliant and yet beutiful piece of art, and the only Xenoblade with this big themes mixed in a really human story.

man hearing you talk about the game makes me want to start an ng+ but I don't have the time. I have to be patient and wait for the dlc

This was very interesting to listen to! Can't wait for new videos as well! I hope the DLC will give a lot more answers to the already great and incredible story Monolithsoft was able to deliver with this game! (Both scripted and unscripted videos are ok for me!)

The Humans thing is an artefact from Xenoblade 2 where all the technically human but not human races of Alrest(and also nopon for some reason) were referred to as human. The Xenoblade 2 characters refer to things like Gormotti and Mor Ardanians as how we refer to races irl like caucasian etc

So considering Future Redeemed now, Alpha would represent how we sometimes feel it'd be better to get rid of the past to try creating something perfect from scratch, even if it may only be an unreachable utopia; in contraposition of trying to build over what we already have and improve ourselves to create something better together, to bring us closer to that perfect world we desire, even if we still have to get rid of the fear of things changing day by day, because that feeling is unavoidable to a certain extent, but we should focus on our hopes for the future being bright

wake up babe new cinnacal analysis dropped

A true game deserving of GOTY for me personally. The lore, music, story, characters and more.

The Jail scene leading up to the execution really got me and for me absolutely overthrows FF7 Aireth scene. Despite not losing your party member, it was so much more powerful.

There is a trend in Japan media that address the societal problems that the country faces, and right off the bat this game hit on the fact that conservatism is holding Japan back greatly. It is represented by Moebius being old living beings that suck on the life force of young people to continue living on and keep life as it is. Hard to find a better metaphor than that. If you are intimate with Japanese society the messages in these game are sometimes very easy to spot. I find it interesting how Z refers to “the flow” a lot, because many often refers to Japanese society as a river, and it is often referable to swim with the current and make it stronger rather than against it. That philosophy is often used to deter rebellious attitudes and encourage people to give their life more to their work.

There is another therm that I noticed" high horse" that has been used some times. I atleast noticed that term being used by DJ in the first battle we met him/them and used by Eunue during the eclipse, but where is all the horses in Aionios? I think the closest that comes to horses is ponios, but ponios are not horses

15:14 The use of the word "Homs" came entirely from Western localization of the first game. In the Japanese version, they use the regular japanese word for people/humans.

Super interesting take, that I generally agree with. I've been searching for something to scratch that same itch as xenogears, but it's clear it won't ever happen again if they keep pushing these same themes (albeit more watered down in chronicles)

The king returns

It's impossible to say to what extend this was agreed upon ahead of time, but it's clear M and Mio have time to coordinate and get to know one another's thoughts and memories while interlinking. Is it possible, however unlikely, that M had no prior knowledge of N's plan, but remained in contact with Mio after learning about the execution? My understanding is that it wasn't just premeditated or luck. It was something they agreed upon as they found out about it. I dunno.

i was myself surprised that nia quest was in the post game because it seemed so important indeed. At the same time, maybe they wanted you to be uncertain of what would happen, and uncertainty is a fear in itself. Z was created to the uncertainty of the 2 original world colliding, i guess that ending loop on this too.

The moment when story is litteraly XC1 fan fighting XC2 you know this game is a critic of fandom who want the enternel now.

I've played games that have more content than XC3, even some of the other Xenoblade games i think technically have more content, but I've never played another game where I genuinely felt that every single side quest and conversation added something meaninful to the world and my connection to it.

You speaking like that bit from Stewie in Family Guy-talking about his babysitter, I forget the episode. *Like a heightened/question mark at the end/in between sentences lol*

Y'all should read the preface do "Tales from the Earthsea" by Ursula Le Guin, it is completely about this theme

The part about the power frame is completely accurate for me to portraying and expansive world. Initially, I thought is was just a Machina thing for Lanz, but then learning that: a) they need it to be on equal footing with agnian soldiers and b) the differences races in the past game do not matter to them, really made me feel foreign to this world in a way that felt natural

Haven't watched yet but I just really wanna say the one thing I wanna pass on to any people who will listen is too experience the franchise or at the least 3 and I hope before I die one day that I at least got 1 person to play them because while they aren't perfect they make you truly feel something whenever you even just hear the music or something again just the flute song that Noah and Mio play starts to make me tear up every time.

Lol just a heads up the description says Rex instead of Noah, thought that was funny

I was under the impression “power frame” was a piece of Machina anatomy😅 Since it was Lanz who said it

Just love hearing your takes on things scripted or not. You got a great analytical eye.

Commenting cause small channel and I believe your commentary is great and has a lot of potential Really appreciate that you're very articulate and have an expanded dialog with very precise use of language, although I think your use of language might not appeal to an average audience.

Your issue with [spoilers] referring to the people of Aionios as humans/people appears to be answered in-game. The first the party meets is connected to a machine which relays information about everything that happens to her. The second is in the [spoiler] that gives rise to everything and speaks of dreams within which the world does what it is supposed to, and implies it has given her knowledge of the world. Both of these can explain becoming accustomed to the culture, even at a distance.

33:13 manana is basically just nene 2.0 so it works lol

Not that I don't think it's a bit frustrating, but Nia's conversation in the postgame is there in the postgame to be a form of self reflection, after you defeat Z, to see his perspective in a less distorted manner, through Nia I understand why it was done as such, but I do understand your gripes with it

As for Melia assimilating into the culture, it is stated that she was constantly receiving data from the world and people. So it can be assumed that she picked up those bits from her time being imprisoned.

I'm really looking forward to the next Monolith game as I'm assuming it'll be on either a Switch Pro or Nintendo's next console and will have more power to work with. That plus the time investment of being mostly past Covid and the development issues it brought I think the next game will be able to truly blow it out of the park. I loved 3 and think it's one of the best rpgs of all time. t took the best elements of all the other Xeno games and improved on them. It definitely fell short in some areas but the better hardware and increased development time will help fix most of those issues

This game got me in to the series I have now put in 130 hours in xeno 3 bout the same in definitve edition of the first one and over 200 hours into 2 and about 50 into torna love the series and def deserves the Goty nominee!

This video is fantastic!!!! I really enjoyed hearing your perspective. It is very interesting to consider how the story would change if M survived with Mio's memories. I do think that N going full Moebius is worth sacrificing the more dramatic version. Also I think the point about the world being the villain, not just Moebius, could have been a perfect conclusion to Sena's side story. Sena is the only character in the main 6 whose issues stem from within, instead of externally. Defeating the bad guys would not fix her complexes. It wasn't Moebius who did this to her. It was the same soldiers who were supposed to be her comrades. The world will never be fixed, because people can't be fixed. Coming to terms with it not being a single person's fault is the first step to healing. I hate Shania's mother more than any Supervillainpon in the game.

I have never had a problem with side quests until this game yes side quests are always welcomed and I’m a firm believer of getting your bang for ur buck. But shoot the amount of side quests is literally insane.there has to be 30 hours in side quests alone.Great game loved playing it Xenoblade 3 was my first Xenoblade game and after I beat it I instantly bought 2, and plan on getting XBDE.

Bloody beautiful game .has now become the best game I have ever played and I really don’t think there will be another anytime soon.

In xc1 and xc2 the word humans and people is used as a catch all term for every sentient race as well even by Melia and nia

both melia and nia had information sent to them. Melia thru her robot self and nia thru the machine housing poppi Also glad to see someone micmic my feelings about the metaness of this game as well how Monolith somehow reaches for the stars yet somehow limit themselves as well

I just wish you unlocked canceling arts sooner and had action commands during chain attacks, otherwise it's so close to being perfect

This is great discussion. Not nearly enough of this specifically in the community. Love me some well constructed interpretation. I'm glad I'm listening to this as the metaphors passed over my head in the playthrough. I unfortuntely wasn't fully gripped by the seeming lack of consequences, repetetive, sloggy gameplay, and the consideration of knowing Monolith was capable of more. There were clearly constraints put on them. The comparisons with Xenogears were blatant though, and the fact that they still didn't have the full free reign Xenogears wanted to accomplish has left me broken in that regard. The chance has gone with this closing the story. Xenoblade 2's success is probably at fault... This metaphor of the endless now changed how I think about my dissappointment for perfect works and the lack of interaction with 1 and 2. Althought it's very cool to me that what he's going through as an artist is more present than ever. I'm wondering with the Zohar dissappearing at the end of 2 if that was it actually taking its' leave from Takahashi's writing then, if he is in fact moving on from this structure. The Zohar plays a big role in what makes Xeno Xeno, so that says a lot really. I'm going to miss what I've just come to love Takahashi for. I wanted the series to impove and dramatacize itself in even grander scales than currently explored, but I'm realizing they have been thoroughly explored to their reasonably possible extents already. He's recontectualized perfect works in every way that'd be important I feel, and now he's literally thrown away the Xenoblade, the modern symbol of the series, letting it leave a valuable memory. I'm sure whatever's next will fulfill me in a whole nother way though. Honestly sounds nice. I'm tired of things like Pokemon being too old for its' own good. The good ideas have been lost with time there. Refreshing Takahashi's story telling with a new ip, or at least different Xeno scenario, and a team yearning for change opens up a world of opportunity. This all is very similar to Evangelion and Anno. Which is hilarious. I've always compared the 2 directors. Evangelion and Xeno have clearly been born upon the same exact ideas as they're from the same era of weebs, but I also feel like they've referenced each other. They're still drastically different enough that it's kinda crazy to see how similar of a path the ips have gone down. Except Anno has gained creative freedom and Takahashi is stuck as a Nintendo money printer for the foreseeable future - the world is the problem. Business never allowed for Takahashi's full vision. Honestly gives new meaning to the series as a whole for me. The vocal songs will for sure hit differently. Edit: Listened to A Step Away and Where We Belong, and, yeah, the lyrics hit different under this context. I'd love to hear a furthering of this conversation in regards to them.

Havent watched the video yet but i have to disagree already to the thumbnail. The game cant be better than i think, since it is already the best.

I love this sort of analysis it’s very interesting, but my question would be, how do you account for the fact that Xenoblade 3 actually takes the most from Xenogears in its story telling out of the 3 mainline games? If you have played Xenogears and pay extra attention there are so many little nods to and even plot points that are direct extrapolations of Xenogears and arguably the perfect works as a whole. This may be an incredibly superficial example, but you can’t tell me the soul hacker is not inspired by the Thames from Xenogears.

Still waiting on the 3 hour video

31:05 Melia: I had... A long dream. A very, very long dream. In my dream, youths were fighting. And as many times as they fell, they always got back up again. A dream of young people, simply trying to survive... Noah: Majesty? Melia: Noah... Correct? I have been watching you, all this time, through the eyes of my simulacrum. Well done making it here.

i only got 35 hours in while finishing all quests. i loved what i played but i had college so i wasnt able to play. now im unable to get back into it because i dont remember enough. (this is the only game where ive a actually played many of the sidequests) i also enjoyed what i played way more than xb1 remastered, but i beelined the main story in that game. idk if i should restart or watch some videos recapping the chapters ive played

This looks amazing. That said, I wish the creators had gone back to Xenogears. There hasn't been a good rpg based around mechs since that one.

In line with your opinion on how rushed the timeline had to be with three months instead of granting a year or more, I had an idea: Instead of having us go on a useless fetch quest to random locations, each location/collection could have corresponded with more time passing. Maybe relocate/reformat some side quests so that they can fit in the extended timeline you proposed while allowing a more "semi-optional' feeling of time progression (to be real, in my first playthrough I didn't consider too many side-quests to be optional, especially with how many hero quests and rewards you get from the others). [For reference, I was 2 levels under the final boss and I still felt overleveled, despite much of the last dungeon not requiring being high level because it pumped so much exp into me that even at like mid 60s at the start I was up to that point. I hadn't even used all of my bonus exp {I had 10 levels saved up too}. Many of the smaller quests felt so integral to the story that I was compelled to do them, and I still only did like half of the hero quests.]

yeah, the ending is also a bit abrupt, probably because of miss time, but we also have to look at sales number, even with that bit more time to completely do their whole vision, the project itself may have been no longer profitable. i know its sad, and the supervilainpon allegory kinda work here.

It's a damn masterpiece

33:10 Funny how you called Manana "Naenae". It does sound like a nopon name for sure😂

I agree with a lot of your points. In addition to your endgame critiques, I think a big one that's a result of the narrative direction is that Z is never given a chance to make things personal. The worst things that happen to the party happen due to one of the other Consuls and, sure, Z is behind them all, but the party literally only meet him at the very end of the game. He's entertaining in a "nigh omnipotent being whose who is utterly emotionally distant from the destruction he causes" kind of way, but there's no way he could carry the emotion of a final endgame conflict. To me, N should have been the real final boss, with Z at most being a footnote. N works well as a hateable villain, as well as giving you that conflict you mentioned of pondering whether killing him is the right thing. With the current structure of the ending, perhaps it might have worked better to have the ending of the battle with Z and then immediately, as he is imploding, have the two worlds begin to slip apart. It wouldn't have given you that conflict you mentioned, but I think it would be a bit more poignant than what we got, as the party realize that they are being separated without a chance to say their goodbyes. Perhaps you could even have Nia and Melia narrating the aftermath to explain why they couldn't tell the party the truth about what would happen when they won. Just some thoughts.

I think the hero quest aren’t necessarily “side quest” They are essential otherwise the main game is pretty short without doing these. They just made optional main quest for players who maybe doesn’t want a 100+ hour game But I really appreciate hero quest since you know your time is well spent by also unlocking new characters in your party My main complaint with the game’s sidequest is the amount of fast travel you do for each of them,I think more quest should happen in the area you find them Fast travelling too often goes against my desire to explore

Monolith soft has been working some sort of black magic to get all these games working well on these underpowered systems. I was blown away when x came out on the wii u. Now I am blown away by 3.

They should have been call Eyeshins. Or something with part of the word Ionios.

Interesting perspective. I think there is some truth in it. But I think the endless now was the endgame for the Klaus arc all along, since it is the final act of source material that Xeno games are inspired from. It’s the ultimate threat of the Demiurge. In Xenogears humanity was restarted several times. Xenosaga had Eternal Reoccurrence, and Xenoblade has the Endless Now. This may not be how Takahashi viewed his games, but other people at Monoliftsoft? Yeah maybe. Good food for thought.

Yeah I've still yet to play a xeno game that I feels like it was finished even if it was complete

"Got a great hoohah over here"

I think M switched with Mio because, no matter what happened, Mio's body still only had a month left to live which presented M with both an opportunity to help Ouroboros defeat Mobius and escape her immortality at the same time. It also allowed for Mio to not force the story into a rush to defeat Z and letting the story have time to breathe in the final act.

I loved Xenoblade 2 but sometimes blade designs were really distracting, Xenoblade 3 meanwhile is just so good and the characters are some of the most memorable in any jrpg I've ever played

I LOVED XBC3. Probably alot more than most people. I loved it more than 2. Hell i love it almost as much as 1. My only real gripe with the game is the ending. It’s far too bittersweet for my tastes and also feels far too open ended and inconclusive for a trilogy ending. I hope the dlc helps fix that (yes i know it’s a prequel, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be some kind of epilogue)

M didn’t foresee the exact scenario, she didn’t have to, she knew they would be executed, her plan was to let mio rescue them at the last second regardless of what n did,

I loved 2, despite the embarrassing fanservice. 1 I really enjoyed up until maybe the fifth time I had to go back and talk to every single npc in the game in every town, multiple times over in different orders, because of the weird way side quests work. I burned out at the last town. I do mean to finish before I play 3, but it’s hard to get myself motivated to do so.

Is this channel still alive?

Im a JRPG guy, Im playing them constantly..... And Xenoblade 3 is the best JRPG I have played in years (multiple dozens) and is the best in the legendary series. If you are looking for a grand, 80+ hour long epic JRPG adventure that is, in my opinion, the cutting edge of the genre right now then this is your game. AAAA material.

The thing i hate about how i played this game was just how little side content i did.

Behind every system there are people who created it, benefit from it and have interest in keeping it going. World as a "villainpon" is really more silly than it might seem at first. World is just there, everything else is our job. Tbh I think 3 is the weakest of them all in terms of story, you can tell they tried really hard but they just don't have it, they are no Squaresoft. Technical excellence, scale, great animations in cutscenes, amazing soundtrack, they have it all but they don't really have a story and a method of telling it that would resonate so much with people.

30:45 FUTURE REDEEMED DLC SPOILERS. . . . . . . Now that we know Origin, and by extension Aionios are made using Ontos' core crystal, who has knowledge from Earth, is probably where all the soldiers and city folk and moebius all learned the "human" terminology. Perhaps it was Even if that's not the "intended" answer, it works well enough for me to just assume it's what happened. BOTH queens state that they were observing everyone as things happened, so the "assimilation" answer can still work. BUT as another poster said, I think her just using terminology for the PARTY'S sake is more likely. THAT SAID, I would have loved to see her trip over her words and say "homs- er, humans" at least once. It would have been just a nice little nod, and could have even just been tucked away in a sidequest or a discussion and still be a great touch while not being too "in your face" or confusing for those who DIDN'T play other games. Obviously there's a WHOLE LOT of other shit in the DLC that pertains to this video, but I also do not believe the two are mutually exclusive or that your take on sequelization here isn't true. BUT since this video ISN'T about the DLC I'll wait and not risk spoiling things for people still playing catchup.

I mean no disrespect from this, but you would benefit greatly from working on your method of speech. The way you speak your sentences is like you're gasping for air, with the tone of each word being sometimes drastically different from the one just before it. You're not speaking in sentences but word chunks, often ending with rising inflection, making it sound like you're asking questions when you're making statements instead. Hearing someone communicate like this is like being in a boat during a violent storm: you (the listener) are being pitched all over the place and can't relax. It's also distracting, meaning it will diminish the listener's focus on what you're saying by instead having them focus on just understanding your syntax. If people are focusing not on _what_ you're saying but _how_ you're saying it, it makes you a less effective communicator. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on XC3, so I'm disappointed to feel that nearly 45 minutes of distractingly choppy uptalk does not sound like a pleasant use of my time... hence the criticism that I hope you'll take as constructive, as it's not meant as insulting. Good luck!

they want to convert xenoblade into a tradition