@@KayJulers Not to mention how Quiet Moments with Kino and Nene further establish that he's just a fantastic dad Edit: ok yeah you just got to that part
Xenoblade Chronicles is the game we so desperately needed in our lives, but not one we deserved. After 1 100% playthrough on the new 3ds, and 2 100% playthroughs of DE, this game is still a blast to play for me. Much Love❤
It's still crazy to think that the game even exists! I'm really happy that one of my favorite games of all time found its way onto the Switch and in a big way.
I got DE without having played the original. I knew most of the major plot points, Fiora stuff, Zanza, Dickson, that kinda stuff. Did not know about Telethia, Machina, heck, even the Monado III. Didn't know any of the dialogue though, so that was all a treat. Such a great game, and is now at 4 in my top 5 games
Jstar338 I’m glad to hear that you were able to enjoy it despite knowing some of the major stuff. I think it goes to show how strong the experience is.
I played Definitive Edition for the first time a couple months ago. I knew absolutely nothing about the game and although I struggled to understand some of the gameplay for awhile, my friend who let me borrow the game helped me out with it and I finished it after about 60 hours. As soon as the credits rolled, I started crying. I've played some amazing games in my lifetime, but none with a story as incredible as this. I ordered my own copy of the game immediately afterward. Currently playing New Game+
Me too. When it got to "Can't say I feel so good about decieving these kids." I was like "Wait what? Is he sending us to the wrong place to protect us or something?" Boy was I wrong. But As soon as the gun shot Shulk I knew it was him but I was like, why....and then he explained everything
I really liked the new version of Engage the Enemy. I don't know why but the really high vocals that you said drew you out of the cutscene, drew me in and made any scene it was in more emotional for me. It may be that when I played the original over 5 years ago, I never finished it as I got stuck on a boss and I wanted so much to finish the game since then. So maybe it just struck a note with me as some of the scenes were the first time I was seeing them and i got used to the new version. I'm not sure. But it is interesting seeing someones elses opinion on it Also best remastered song is Zanza the Divine. That song hits hard. I've listened to the original and while I agree that the original is amazing. The DE version really just kicks it up a notch.
Totally understandable! I was talking with several people and we all had very different opinions on the song haha. I actually do like the instrumentation in the new Engage the Enemy as I was enjoying the snippet we heard in one of the earlier trailers. The new Zanza the Divine is pretty strong too!
@@KayJulers I also think generally the Definitive version grows on people the more they listen to it and view it in context. I was pretty quick to warm up to it, but my friend was much in the same boat as Kay. Eventually, as he kept playing and listening, he got to the point where it grew to be his favourite of the two.
My apologies for a couple of the audio hiccups on this one! I had to re-record everything because a whole recording session got scuffed, but hopefully it's not too big of an issue. For further clarification, the criticisms in this video are ones I found bothersome. However, if you disagree with my sentiments or weren't personally bothered by things I pointed out then you are 100% entitled to your opinion. I hope you guys enjoy the video and thanks as always for watching!
I frankly didn't even notice the audio issues, they might be more apparent to you than to others :D Aside from that, I found this to be a great review but also one that just goes to show how opinions can differ which I always find interesting. (For example, I personally like the way XC1 handles quests just because of the simple fact of how convenient it is to complete them and that there are no hidden secondary quests as opposed to XC2)
I'd say that Dickson's "can't say I feel so good about deceiving these kids" line suffers less from being too revealing and more from being too hammy as well as generally making no sense. He doesn't "not feel so good" nor is he "deceiving these kids". Dickson revels in his appreciation for Zanza, but moreso the thought of being given godly power, and he only ever guides the party along his desired path by giving them information that's accurate. This line would benefit from being changed altogether. If the line was delivered in a more neutral tone and had been something to the effect of "I guess those three's turn to see to the Monado now." (referring to Zanza's, Alvis', & Lorithia's actions during Eryth Sea) then it would've shown that Dickson was up to something, but would've left it open ended as to whether his plans would help or hurt the party in the future.
I actually do kind of like Dickson indicating that he doesn't feel good about what he's doing though. I really enjoy how ambiguous Dickson is regarding his feelings towards the whole situation. Despite him trying to come off as totally antagonistic at the end of the game, when he's defeated you see him appear to almost feel bitter-sweet about it. Having him make seemingly contradictory statements like this is actually an interesting facet of his character in my opinion.
I could see where you're coming from. A full on revision of that line is also something I can get behind (so long as we keep the meme response from Otharon "What's that you say?") I like the general direction of your revision since it feels multifaceted in nature and leaves more room for interpretation. However, I do think Dickson show a little concern for them, especially Shulk, given the way he talks about him following his reawakening and at Prison Island. If the line were to be kept then I think more of Dickson's feelings of regret should've been showcased.
I mean saying that he revels in it completely ignores the final encounter with him which shows that he never really thinks about it and in the end he does care deeply about shulk as he wanted to spare him the pain of seeing his mentor die
The title of the dlc apart, that sounds more like a clickbait that misguided the fandom to certain disappointment, FC is SOOOO GOOD! A very heartwarming story and the perfect closure Melia needed and deserved. Can't say how much in love I am with it.
The development that Tyrea and Melia got was very nicely done! I think the aspect of FC that might've hit me the most is how surreal it is to fully explore this cut area that was the subject of fan discussion for years.
I played the original a few times, but the new facial animations in Definitive Edition were my favorite enhancements. They gave so much more context to the cutscenes that I felt like I was actually getting more out of a story that I felt I already knew in and out.
I never realized how deep the rabbit hole went until I did that video on Loss and noticed the changed animations. They were certainly some of the best enhancements in the whole package.
I played 2 before 1 and when I heard that a remake was coming I was ecstatic because I hear people praise this game a lot, and boy did the hype deliver. The story felt very well written with its many twists and turns, most of the main cast was really well written(we don’t talk about you Sharla) with some likeable side characters too like Kalian. The villains were great and I enjoyed their arcs and how it affected the characters. Gameplay was super fun and addicting and while there were some annoying things like Spike damage I still enjoyed it. The music might be my favorite game music of all time, with so many beautiful tracks. As for how it compares with 2? I thought 1 was slightly better but both tell really good stories.
I'm glad you had a great time playing the games in reverse order! I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Kalian with my revisit. That's generally how I view them too! I like 1 more, but only by a hair as 2 is really strong. Thanks for sharing your experience!
ZeroBeys yeah that’s why I didn’t like her all too much, her story arc was mostly just about Gadolt(or however you spell his name) and I didn’t like that all too much, along with how she takes the motherly role of the group when Dunban is right there.
Okay. I have this headcanon in which the reason why The Birth of a Universe is so different in XC1 and XC2, besides of course the real-world reason being that the original scene was made in 2010 and in 2017 it was heavily expanded upon what was known and saw, the in-universe(Or multiverse) is that the cutscene was different because it was shown from the perspective of both halves of Klaus. The shortened, twisted one being from Zanza's and the really happened was from Klaus'(The Architect) perspective. In both cutscenes we see Klaus acting differently because that's how they remember it, with the Architect's being the accurate one. Zanza's version of the memory could be result of simply the result of the event being partially forgotten over the millenia or due to Zanza being just a half of Klaus hence also having his memory fragmented. The same could be applied to Alivis, who now is believed to be the lost Aegis, Ontos(Which I also confidently believe to be 100% the case), since Pyra, Myrtha and Malos have bits of memories as their time as the cores of the Trinity Processors, so if made the argument that the memory was told from Alvis' perspective that's the simple answer to that. So to make it short and sweet: Zanza's version of the story is different because of either fragmented memory due to being only half of a man or simply his memory of the event decayed over the millennia since from his point of view the experiment was a success(Which view in the grander picture of the XC Multiverse it was), let's also add the fact that Zanza's the the half of Klaus that rejected and abandoned his humanity, yet another reason that in his memory it isn't shown Klaus' humanity unlike in the version of the Architect's, but some remnants of that abandoned humanity are still there of his desire for friendship and being capable of feeling loneliness, which arguably can be traced back to Klaus' previous life. The Architect's on the opposite lived in a constant torment, haunted by that grave error he did, which he relieved over and over again, hence his memory didn't decayed over the millennia. Back to the real world. I believe that the reason for the scene to be kept intact in DE was not only to avoid spoiling one of the craziest twist in the entire saga, but also due to the fact that it wouldn't make sense to add up all that extra information literally at the end of the that would feel out of nowhere, unlike in XC2 which the hints were drop at the latter chapters all the way to the beginning of the last chapter which was the climax of the story. Not to mention that XC1 story was meant to be self-conclusive, of course the potential for a sequel was there all along, but it was more up for interpretation if they'll be a continuation or not. No doubt that scene could have been successfully recreated in XC1DE's style given what they could do with FC, but I believe it wouldn't just make sense to just leave newcomers with questions that they hope to be answer in XC2 about the previous universe or where did the Conduit came from, only come out with almost no answers if any at all. As a newcomer myself that played DE before XC2, i didn't got the same gripes as you about the gameplay (Although I prefer having more than 3 arts to chose in battle and the fact that during a Chain Attack in XC1, one an enemy is down you can target the other), which in both were solid but obvious XC2's is the superior of the two with better Chain Attack mechanics and Auto-Attacks that can be canceled to better exploit certain arts. (Also like you I can geek about how Torna's is the best gameplay out of all in Xenoblade and I also agree it should be further use in future game, i dunno know, but as long as it is based and improved upon it, i'll be happy). Most importantly I really can't describe the hype and the surprised i got when to chapter ten in XC2, so from my perspective I appreciate that they kept the story intact in XC1DE, but from yours it's understandable, but from this real-world and in-universe reasons The Birth of a Universe wasn't changed in XC1DE
That's actually an interesting interpretation on why the scenes are different and I can see that as a possibility. When it comes to combat, I do prefer XC2's as I feel like it gives you more to do, the Chain Attacks are better, and there's the fact that you don't have to worry about auto attacks as you move. People who complain about the last one don't seem to understand how frustrating it is to stop auto attacks in XC1 to stop generating aggro. There were several times that I pleaded to my other party members to draw the aggro whenever I played Shulk or Melia because I was near death and the auto attacks weren't helping.
@@zerobeys That's fine. I kind of prefer relying on auto attacks and pouch items to recharge my three arts. It feels quicker, plus you can cancel them to do more damage.
That's fair! I was talking with my chat the other night and we all had a variety of opinions on the song. I think the instrumentation is quite solid, though!
I absolutely adored Future Connected. Melia is my favorite character in any video game series and I saw how much potential she had for her character in the original, and I just loved her story with the High Entia. I actually find the lore behind the High Entia society and Melia's personal story to be more captivating to me than the main story of Xenoblade itself as time went on. The story was great on a blind playthrough when you didn't know what to expect. When I do know what to expect, it didn't hit me nearly as hard. This could also be due to overexposure to the story since this is my 4th time playing this game and I've seen multiple people play through the game as well. Giving Melia closure and an actual happy ending deserving of her character brought me to tears. It also made Tyrea the second best female character in the game. One of the unspoken flaws of Xenoblade 1 is the lack of amazing female characters. People debate between Melia and Fiora, but Fiora is much too basic of a character for me and Meyneth doesn't do enough to make her super compelling (I actually would've liked if Meyneth just completely took the memories of Fiora but the personality of Fiora died with the attack on Colony 9, and she ends up developing feelings for Shulk due to those memories. Would've made for a more complex motive.) As a result of this, there aren't any good female to female character interactions. All of the development revolved around a male character, especially Shulk. So I loved how Future Connected completely broke that mold and made Shulk a secondary character to Melia and Tyrea actually having meaningful bonding moments. It was something this game lacked playing it again. So anyway, I'm so happy that Melia finally gets fleshed out and her development made more obvious. Most of her development can be seen through small details or just by reflecting on it and how she changes throughout the game, but Future Connected brought it out to the forefront by making her the protagonist. Also I find it funny how Melia is the first Xenoblade protagonist who isn't dead. I think I might have jinxed it...
I loved Xenoblade 2 and the ending of chapter 2 made it one of my favorite video games. Then I played this one and it immediately became my definitive favorite video game. Without this game I'm not sure how I could have gotten through all that's going on.
The sidequests are a pretty common complaint launched against XC1, and while I can agree that they are perhaps a bit numerous and don't have much in the way of rewards, I still really like doing all of them. I think it mostly just comes down to the fact that I love XC1 so much that regardless of what I'm doing in the game I'm still enjoying it. So with that motivation, the more quests the better really. Also I think if you removed all the nameless npc quests you'd probably have a number much closer to XC2. The new quest system made doing 100% super chill though. I didn't need to reference a quest tracker constantly like I had to for 100% on the original version, sped the pacing up massively. Was also nice to be able to do quests as they unlock due to expert mode and seeing when they unlock because the quest available icon renders at any distance.
One good way of appreciating the inaccurate cutscenes like the zanza origin and torna ones in the 2s main game is to see them as distorted memories from so many ears that you just remember some key moments but not the details such as environment
I gotta agree with your thoughts on Sharla, Riki and Fiora. I think that if it wasn't for their voice actors they wouldn't be as memorable. This also applies to Gael'gar in my opinion, his character is interesting in concept, but the execution is just... no. His voice actor was really good and he deserved better.
Yeah, I feel like his voice actor got a raw deal. If the character was given better material then I think people would be talking about him a lot more.
@@KayJulers also, another thing is that from the moment he was introduced he was obviously going to be a villain. which is fine, but he could've been much more nuanced
I was a newcomer to the series and what I had heard was that the game was amazing. So I didn't know what to expect from this game, I bought it at Best Buy and I was excited and once I played the first few hours of the game I was hooked. I couldn't stop playing, the narrative was amazing. I like how the whole cast develops over the course of the narrative. Originally started as a revenge one, changed once the group leave Prison Island and go to Valak Mountain. Breath of The Wild was my favorite game of all time and once I beat Xenoblade Chronicles DE around 5 times it's my favorite game now. And the soundtrack is amazing. My favorite song is A Tragic Decision and I also loved Engage the Enemy. A Tragic Desicion lines up perfectly with one of the best lines in the game. I plan to play Xenoblade 2 soon.
Played definitive edition because of a youtuber telling hisviewers constantly to buy xenoblade chronicles definitive edition I did and I loved it. Went into Future Connected absolutely exhausted because of the ending of the original game, I didn't want to get more of those intense emotions in a while for my own sake. Future Connected being so "chill" and "pure" is what made me realize how little I needed of this game to still love it. *I love that battle music* *is still in my head*
I felt in love with this game. I'm so glad I gave It a chance. I played 80 hours. I'm now 40 hours in on XC2 and I'll play this game again once I finish it. I want Xenoblade Chronicles X to be ported :(
I get the feeling Future connected is gonna be one of those situations where, if you play XC2 first you don't know the connections to 1 until you play the game at look back at what 2 was revealing. So later on down the line whether it be XC3 or XCX2 if they reveal new plot points that connect to the events of FC, we'll look back and go "OH SO THAT'S WHAT THAT MEANT ABOUT X,Y AND Z" sorta deal. Either way I'm hyped for the next game.
@@badlatency9979 Absolutely but I feel like my statement still applies, if you played XC2 before XC1 you'd have heard of the Monado so you could guess the implications but you don't understand the full reveal until you've played XC1. Same applies in FC where yes the fog king basically being a Gnosis is HUGE buuut we don't know the full implications of why he/they are here or if there's more to how they work that's not shown in xenosaga ect.
Hi XC newcomer here. I not too long ago decided to go through the series to try and play and finish XC3 before years end. Ive always been fascinated by the original and knew Id want to play it some day but until recently found jrpgs and expansive ones at that intimidating. But after going out and hunting the 4 titles that have ties down I started with definitive edition and was absolutely blown away. I knew from a nintendo life review that this game was thought provoking and a masterclass in story telling but not in a way that I expected to be moved to tears or left speechless. And since beating it, several tracks from the ost have been staples for me driving to and from work. Very glad I decided to experience this series for myself and XC1 DE is easily one of my favorite games of all time.
I started with Xenoblade X, continued to 2 and played Chronicles on the wii u. On first play, while I beat it, I was a bit underwhelmed by XBC1. I loved the story and the music, but the side questing and affinity systems really hurt the game in my eyes. With Xenoblade 2 being my favorite game of all time, I was eager to really give XBC1 a try at the time, and I always stood by the sentiment that if any xenoblade game got a remake, it'd be 1. Obviously, I was right. Playing Definitive edition isn't something I can understate, it's fantastic. The music, the quest tweaks and all the small things they did took a game plagued by some bad interfaces to a game blessed with great UI and record keeping. I can say that I have played and 100% completed XBCDE and Future Connected, all in all it was a great time spent on my second playthrough. Although, I have to say it is still my least favorite out of the 3 Blade games, its got some of my favorite moments. Dicksons reveal is masterful, Prison tower on the 1st visit is amazing (the second visit is what I consider to be the 2nd best dungeon in the whole series behind the World Tree), and the departure from Colony 9 with that beautiful track playing is iconic. All 3 of the games are in my top ten JRPGs and I have nothing but pure excitement and anticipation for the next game, be it X2 or 3. Oh also I think the Eryth Sea changes in the soundtrack are the best. If you play to completion you spend a LOT of time there, and I never once got tired of the gorgeous visuals and that heavenly song.
I was always interested in the Xenoblade series for a long time and I wanted to play it, but the RPG combat mechanics definitely seemed far more different to the point that it put me off for a long time until now. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic messing up the game industry, there wasn’t any new games that caught my interest. I was looking for a game to play through the summer and I saw Definitive Editon’s trailers detailing everything about the basics of the gameplay which seemed to catch my attention. I was also having a itching feeling to play a RPG since I avoided this genre of games for so long thanks to combat and very long stories. Of course with this knowledge in mind and a desire to at least play Xenoblade 1 once, I bought Definitive Edition digitally and waited until May 30 to finally experience what the Xenoblade fans were hyping up about in various parts of the Nintendo fandom. It’s was one of the best decisions I have ever made in a long time. However, I will be sleeping now so I will post more of my experience tomorrow in a edit to this comment.
This was my first time ever playing Xenoblade 1 and I really enjoyed it. I liked the improvements like the better graphics and the facial expressions. Then there's the costumes, which are very helpful in making sure the party doesn't look like they just put random stuff on. It's cool that they included this for the weapons too as this lets you use the skin for Meyneth's Monado for Fiora. Unfortunately, Shulk's weapon skins are locked behind new game plus but that kinda makes sense because of story reasons. One of my few criticisms of the game is that some of the songs get reused too often. It wouldn't hurt for them to use new ones to give a sense of progression. Another complaint is the auto attacks, I feel that they're better executed in XC2 as you have more control over them. There were several instances in XC1 where I struggled to get the aggro off me because I couldn't stop my character from attacking without moving away from the enemy. With XC2, I know that I don't have to worry about auto attacks whenever I move to either lower my aggro or revive a party member.
Can't believe it's already been a year since XCDE was announced. This game changed my entire perception of RPGs and is one of the best games I've ever played. It's an an experience I will never forget and wish I could go through it all again blind. Absolutely breath taking game. More importantly XCDE led me right to playing XC2 which could potentially be my favourite game of all time. Easily 2nd best but still can't decide if I like it more than Dark Souls III. I just love these games with all my heart and the characters even more so, it's fucking magical. I seriously can't believe I missed out on the Xeno series until this year, and I'm incredibly excited to see what Monolith can wow us with in the future. Edit: Just got to the part where you talked about the ending and you were absolutely right about it being good for new comers to the series. I started with DE and went right into 2 after DE and the reveal of the connected endings BLEW MY MIND!
I had no idea until late yesterday and it really shocked me. It doesn't feel like a year has passed, but here we are! Thanks for sharing your experience with the series and I'm glad you were able to enjoy 2 unspoiled! That reveal might be one of my favorite things in media and I get goosebumps thinking about it.
Love this video, you touch on a lot of key details and it's incredibly well written. I think I disagree with the pacing component, as it refers to Mechonis Core. I think the fast paced nature of the scene is largely a reflection of the anticipation and impatience the game wants you to feel, and likely an indication of machinations beyond the control of Shulk and co. Shulk is in a rush because Zanza is in a rush. And we're in a rush because we control Shulk.
One remastered song that I think got a real glow up was Fallen Arm. The composition was always good, but the MIDI instrumentation in the original sounded really rough, which was strange because the overwhelming majority of the MIDI in the original release was actually pretty good. The new live instrumentation for Fallen Arm in Definitive Edition though just sounds so good.
The first and only time I played it I felt so compelled to follow the story since it was so good and interesting that I ignored a lot of the content the game has to offer. With DE though, since I already know what happens, I've been taking my time exploring, doing side quests and stuff and I have to say I think I'm enjoying it slightly more than the first time around. It was cool finding out areas that I didn't know existed, completing quests that gave me stuff like like a new Monado Art and developing NPCs relationships with each other as well as seeing Colony 6 come to life. I feel like I did the game a disservice by going straight for the story the first time around but at the same time I'm glad I waited for the Definitive Edition to do it because of the amazing quality of life improvements. In conclusion: This version solidified my love for this game.
I share some of those sentiments with regards to my first playthrough. I was so engaged in the narrative that I stumbled my way through the gameplay with misused Monado Arts and all haha. I'm happy to hear that you had a fantastic experience with DE and one that seemed to strengthen your adoration of this game!
Xenoblade on Wii got me into the series Xenoblade X taught me how to break these games to make them super easy Xenoblade 2 made it one of my favorite series of all time I can’t explain how much I love DE
Great video and very fair analysis! There's so many XC1 vs XC2 flame wars that it was nice to hear a genuine take on XC1's strengths and weaknesses. Didn't agree with everything but you presented your points excellently. One I definitely agree with and wanted to expand on was Fiora's weakness as a character. She has a great personality but for me, it always felt like her MAIN character trait was always "is dying/is in danger of dying". It drowns out the other aspects of her character and it's hard to appreciate her developments when the question "Is Fiora gonna die? (Again?)" is always hanging above her scenes.
while listening to this, i'm working for my university, but when i heard "the double edged sword that is torna side quests", i went like hehehehe without even a grin
As a Xenoblade 1 veteran who had already completed both the Wii and the 3DS version, I absolutely loved Definitive Edition. The quality of life changes were wonderful, I loved how much better it ran than previous versions (the final battle in particular suffered from atrocious slowdowns on the Wii), and all the little improvements and additions really added up. Expert Mode allowing you level down and avoid getting overleveled from sidequesting in particular was a Godsend. The visuals were so much better, and the drawn distance being further improved this time around just made the already incredible sense of scale even more impressive. Future Connected was pretty disappointing though (especially after how amazing Torna was), and the Challenge Mode is vastly inferior to its Xenoblade 2 counterpart. I also did notice some new flaws in this latest playthrough, especially when it came to the AI being bad (Dammit Shulk, stop spamming Enchant over Armor!) and combat being pretty basic compared to Xenoblade 2. I'd say that Xenoblade 1's combat stays fun for 100-150 hours, while Xenoblade 2's combat can stay fun for 500+ hours given all the depth and customization options. Overall though, Xenoblade: DE is the best version of my all time favorite game, and even gave me the opportunity to do some things I had never done before, like beating all the Xenoblade 1 Superbosses. Overall it has aged incredibly well, and kept me hooked throughout the whole adventure and even the late-game quests.
I definitely think this is the best running Xenoblade game. After revisiting Torna, that game has a handful of texture pop ins and slow down at points. Expert mode was a great addition! I really hope that style of leveling becomes a staple from here on out. I also hard agree. Xenoblade DE is certainly best version of the game and the version I'd recommend to everybody. I'm really happy with the final product.
I subscibed to your channel for a while (maybe a year ago? but it quite while after I finished my first playthrough of XC2) but never did comment on your video before. XCDE is my first complete playthrough of the game, (I did play the original Wii untill Makhna forest but stop playing after the direct that reveal the DE). Nothing to complain about your opinion and hearing the the different invidiual mind is always great for me, espectially soundtrack section in this video. Anyway, I just want giving supportive comment here. I have not watch any your video of XCX since I'm still in my progress of playing it but I'm very confident that I'll feel satisfy in your video again.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy the full experience with DE and sounds like you had a good time with it! Also, thanks for the kind words as well as sticking with me and the channel for this long!
My honest (very wordy) thoughts of XC1. I LOVE Alvis and Kalian (the best boys in my opinion), the story and some of the main cast of characters like Shulk and Melia while others I only simply enjoyed outside of core/major plot heavy cut-scenes, mainly because of their voice acting was fantastic. Even then, Fiora I enjoyed mostly because I believed her and Shulk's relationship as well as she's one of the rare characters in anime or games I've played that didn't get romantically shafted by Melia - the "new girl". Melia has an amazing character arc of becoming a better person and letting herself have friends (and deep connections in general), but it wasn't until I did a heart to heart recently that I realized the tragedy that woven in with her growth is even sadder than when I first experienced this game through a LP I watched a few years ago. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this, but since nothing alludes to her mother dying from disease or being murdered by the Order that means Melia slowly grew up as she watched her Homs mother grew old and died of old age. From that alone one could imagine her closing herself off, but she also believed her other living parent didn't love her and her distance with her brother Kalian (either because of his mother or Melia's belief Kalian was set to be the next ruler - thus of higher status) would make her feel truly isolated and alone well before the game even starts. It's why I really love FC so much! It concludes her journey to be a better person so she is truly ready to be the ruler her people need internally (being open to Machina, High Entia, Homs, and Nopon alike as well as building connections to said people), but emotionally too by building a new familial connection. After all my gushing over Melia it might sound a bit silly, but my love for Shulk is 50% Adam Howdin's voice acting, 30% his arc with Egil and Zanza in the story, and 20% his relationship with Fiora and Reyn. On the topic of Zanza, I have to disagree with you on the ending and 'the birth of a universe' scene. This is just my opinion of course, but I really like that they didn't change it to match XC2's version - and not just because I'd want new players to see the scene as it was in the original XC1, but because I think it fits better as a contrast to XC2's. To me they're both how (canonically) the scene played out in a Schrodinger's cat kinda way until we (VERY unlikely) get a game that leads up to 'the birth of a universe' scene through the eyes of an unbiased character's eyes. Because Klaus was split apart into his arrogant and regretful selves (I am simplifying a bit here since I think Klaus still held a bit of arrogance given his choice to try to remake the world as a for of penance) it makes sense (to me) that the version we'd see in XC1 is the birth of Zanza's god complex through his arrogance as (in my opinion) a scientist, believing that they - HE - could create a new universe. And in XC2 we see the same scene through the eyes of Klaus, a man full of regret reflecting on how his arrogance birthed a new universe, but at the cost of everything - everyone - else, including himself in a more literal way. As for the visuals, other than Shulk's hair seeming too bight in cut-scenes during the day sometimes I think the visuals make the game look WAY better than before. The music was great and Making a Tragic Decision is still my favorite song! The game play/combat is really the only other thing I oddly have strong feelings on. When I watched an LP of the game a few years ago, I hated the combat to the point that unless it was boss fights or the LPer was talking about anything interesting their live chat was asking them about I would skip through them fighting groups of enemies (if they were being mobbed), but one of the reasons a year or two before that when XCX was coming out combat was something that got me interested in getting the game. Yes, I do realize how weird that is as both game's combat is almost the exact same. Now that I've played XC1 DE for myself I can happily say I don't hate it any more, but I still prefer XCX's combat over it.
I feel the same about Fiora. I can understand where some people might be coming from with their criticisms of her, but I just enjoy her character and find the relationship between Shulk and her to be sweet. I think a lot of the stuff you mentioned regarding Melia does an excellent job of giving her added complexity and a contextualizing a lot of her familial relationships that we see in the game. Totally understandable! I kind of viewed it as a matter of perspective for awhile too and I can definitely see the argument. I think it was when my friend pointed out the desire for friendship and how that felt more in line with the more sympathetic Klaus of XC2 that I started to believe in that interpretation more intensely. The combat was honestly something that felt really wonky to me at first and made me put the game down for a bit before continuing again. That's awesome that you were able to come around on the combat of the original, though! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with the series over the years!
My problem with Future Connected is the fact that with the understandable, in a way, lack of Shulk's visions they didn't change high-level combat to work without them. I found myself struggling in FC due to a lack of high-quality gems early on as well as attacks coming out of nowhere that one-shotted with very little counter other than predicting them. I'm not a game designer so I don't know a good fix but I just felt frustrated and without chain attacks, I felt as if I had very little control over combat in the moments where I felt it was necessary.
I played Xenoblade first on the N3DS and loved it but found a lot of the more interesting side quests very confusing and obtuse - the most memorable being the King Agni and Tomb of the 3 Sages. Never did them. Never knew how. With the QoL changes in Definitive Edition, I did almost every side quests and started a 3rd playthrough until I got my hands on XC2 which I'm playing through now. I adored this game on the 3DS and thanks for DE, I now love it even more
I agree that the cutscene should have been changed. BUT I like to think that because this cutscene is played while zanza is still alive, the cutscene is different due to the innate differences between klaus and zanza That's why Zanzas depiction is more aggressive and forceful as he likes to exude dominance Whilst Klaus' depiction is more logical and calm, showing more care for Meyneth and not being too overwhelming and abusive. That's just a theory😉
I think the parallels between Xenoblade 1 and 2 are brilliant and they compliment each other very well. Though, I still like the original the most as it reminded me why I loved this genre during a time where it felt like quality RPGs were becoming scarce.
Honestly sorta agree for the klaus cutscene needing changes, even getting rid of the randos in the background could’ve helped. I remember playing XC2 and thinking “oh shit are the souls of these titans the people seen in the background with meyneth and klaus at the end of XC1?” But nah. we didn’t even need to see the conduit or much lines of dialogue really Imo, I’d say just a different perspective and context and yes give galea her name and better characterisation that 2 better implemented, I still love this game and it’s one of my favourites but I agree with you that there’s aspects that all it needed was a bit more tweaking and consultation for it to be even better, this was an amazing video thank you for the hard work!!
I always enjoy listening to your thoughts. I’ve played XC, XC2 and Torna before, but am playing them all back-to-back now and am part way through The Golden Country. I think the one thing that sticks out to me is how much more frequent, stronger and interesting the characters interactions in XC2 are, compared to XC. BIG SPOILERS BELOW FOR XC AND XC2 XC is really plot heavy and leaves little room for the party to interact as people. Not only does the breakneck pacing of the first game afford the characters little chance to actually talk, when they do talk, it’s generally in the service of furthering the plot, rather than the characters on screen. Riki could be removed from the game entirely, while Sharla is introduced, forgotten about for 30 hours and then roped back into the main plot in a pretty clunky way. If you take Shulk out of the game, Seven has no character. There’s no Mythra and Poppi talking about the dangers and destructive qualities of technology in the world, no Nia revealing her life on the run as an outcast who is too scared to reveal her true nature, no Morag and Nial reminiscing about holidays to Gormott - with the former left searching for meaning in her life after inheriting a role she never expected to inhabit. The start of Chapter 7 when the whole gang get into a spat when Rex considers abandoning his quest entirely, is fantastic character work. Or how when Rex tells Pyra she needs to stop apologising, or when he takes her to his parents graves, etc. There’s load of brilliant character moments in XC2 that just don’t really exist it the first game. It also helps that all main party heart to hearts are voiced and not locked behind affinity. Characters also get yet more interactions away from the main plot in blade quests. I can understand preferring the look of the main cast of XC, the voice work and their general dynamic. But they, Shulk, Melia and perhaps Dunban aside, all feel so shallow. And when it comes to villains, I enjoy Metal Face, but Egil is the best villain in the game and his lack of screen time is criminal. The other villains in the game are poor. I think most people love the big twist, but it’s essentially the death of the plot in some ways. I’d take Jin, Malos and Amalthus every day of the week. Each of them get loads of screen time, do way more in the narrative and have better interactions with the party. Torna also interacts with each other in a way that builds the sense they’re team. Jin and Malos have a bit of a bromance going on, Mikhail and Patroka have this weird confrontational, but flirtatious relationship going on, etc. Just thought I’d chime in on my thoughts. I generally think, despite all the characters being likeable, the party writing is fairly weak in the first game. Not every character needs a big arc, but half the cast offer very little in my opinion. Thanks for the video and stirring my thoughts.
My friend Rudra shares a lot of similar opinions as you regarding the characters. These are the kinds of thoughts that make me want to replay Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as it's the only one I haven't gone through twice. For some reason, despite some of the characters I found weaker, I always like the cast of XC1 more. I think I see all of these XC2 character moments and I enjoy them, but another playthrough might contextualize them for me in a new way. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the two titles!
KayJulers thanks for the response! I really enjoy the main cast in XC and I think the excellent pacing of the first game helps mask the lack of consistent character writing. The story - from Prison Island onwards anyway - builds momentum incredibly well and it’s hard to demand more from the party when there’s so much happening and so quickly. There’s nothing wrong with liking the first cast more - but I think if you’re invested in the cast of XC2, there’s just a lot more to sink your teeth into. MORE SPOILERS It’s the same with the world in general for me. I think the Bionis/Mechonis combo is perhaps the more captivating concept, in comparison to XC2’s titans. But the latter just has so much more going on. Tensions are rising between nations, Gormott has been occupied by the Ardanians who are frantically looking for a new home as their titan reaches the end of its life, Indol controls when and where blades are born and are blackmailing the Tantalese, whose royalty are trading the prosperity of their people in order to protect their dirty secret. It feels like a world occupied by real communities who have goals, ambitions, secrets and so on. I think you can tell the first Xenoblade was not originally a Xeno game at all. Despite the more garish costumes and goofy anime moments in XC2, I think it delves deeper into the detail than XC ever does and delivers on that Xeno-feeling moreso. Regardless, you should play XC2 and Torna back-to-back and pull together a video. I’m replaying Torna for the first time myself and the additional characterisation of the likes of Mythra and Jin, the way it recontextualises scenes from the main game, reveals how the relationships between blades and humans developed, etc really enhances what is already a very dense mythos. Whatever you do, keep making great content. The entire Xeno community is behind you. :)
I have a different opinion about the ending. Although i never played the original, I played xbc2 first and this year I played the definitiv edition. I already knew from a friend that these universes were connected through Klaus, so in the definitiv edition I wanted to find out the whole Mysterie behind him in that game. And I like that they kept the original ending. I like to think that this is the way how Zanza rembers those events, while in the birth of a universe it's the way the Architect remembers those events.
Ironically, I actually ended up liking Future Connected quite a lot, while I really didn't enjoy the Torna DLC all that much. For most people, it seems to be the other way around. Maybe a lot of this just comes down to expectations. Torna was really hyped up by a lot of people, so I expected a phenomenal DLC. However, when I played it, I quickly felt as though it had quite a lot of padding and very little actual story content. Old areas also didn't feel changed enough for me to have much fun exploring them again. That overall left me with a pretty sour taste after finishing the DLC. Future Connected, on the other hand, a lot of people really seemed to dislike or at the very least be underwhelmed by, so I expected nothing more than a short time waster. Was pleasently surprised then that it actually turned out to be a rather nice and inoffensive continuation of the base story with a few genuinely touching character moments. For me, it was the better overall package over Torna, but I think I can still see what some people did like about Torna.
this whole port is a visual and iconic remakster masterpiece! the only con I have for this remakster is that the new targeting icon for enemies obscures the enemies a ton especially small enemies, it sorta makes the bonus effect prompts required while with 2 and the og game (on new 3ds) I could do arts fine
This is the only game in recent memory for me that I Instantly wanted to replay in years. I want to 100% this game and then give Xenoblade 2 another shot at 100%. The amount of content 2 had previously just crushed me, but I think I'm almost ready to go at it
You're stronger than I am haha. I originally wanted to 100% Xenoblade 2, but just felt so overwhelmed with BotW and Odyssey there too. You have my energy.
@@KayJulers Thanks to the amount of Xenoblade content creators now it shouldn't be as bad as in 2017. I'm sure your Videos and Enel's tutorials will keep me going
The slowest with 78 hours? I'm 60 in and still in Alcamoth, haven't gotten to Prison island. It will take me 120 at the least. I guess that happens when you like to talk to all npc's and do all side content.
Re-watching this, and I totally agree at how much that fucking SOUNDTRACK's impact, I still love it to death, and don't know when I'll get tired of it.
might be my memory being terrible since it's been a while, so I can't remember the exact sequence of events, but the first time I played through the game I thought Dickson talking about deceiving them was about a boss fight immediately after or just what to expect in Makna and about the High Entia. I had no clue he was actually up to anything until it happened. DE was my second full playthrough, so I knew by that point, I just felt it was decent foreshadowing since I still felt like it could be talking about the events immediately coming up.
When i first played xenoblade a few years ago it genuinely changed my life and got me out of some hard times and continues to do so today. I think that feeling of getting over hardships despite being only human thats tied with the game and was and is tied to our lives still impacts me just as much as it did the first time. Seeing xenoblade represented in any way at all brings me a lot of joy and reminds me that there are good things to look forward to and that I'll find them sooner or later. Definitive edition rekindled that feeling with an even brighter flame that makes me want to smile and laugh but also burst into tears at the same time. It definitely met my expectations and im so glad that I got to experience this masterpiece again. thanks for the video man, it was a joy to watch
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your story and experiences with the game! That final message about looking toward the future is one that really resonates with me. Xenoblade's come a long way since that original release and I think we'll be seeing more representation and success as the series continues.
My feelings about Dickson's reveal are heavily colored by my own experience with it. Obviously, I knew he was up to SOMETHING from early on, but what specifically that something was still took me by surprised. I found myself on the wrong track, thinking that he wanted to destroy the restored Fiora, which may have meant he knew she wasn't fully dead. Then wham, actual reveals.
maybe since I played the game in a span of two years and hadn't seen the Satoru Marsh scene in a while I would have been super surprised. I only knew that Dickson was bad when I got spoiled when looking up something for a quest before the mechonis core section
i find ''engage the enemy (remastered)'' vocal part gives me more chills than the normal part. Music has a special way to provoke thought and memory recollection. perhaps what i find mesmorizing is not the vocal, but the emotion attached to the vocal when i first watch fiora epic cutscene. As we listen back to the song while driving, and the melody hit that climax. Emotions, visual flash back happens For newer players who experience on switch, its the vocal. For older players who first experience on wii, its the instrumental.
xenoblade x and 2 were my first xenoblade games, so the first version of xenoblade one I got to experience was the definitive edition, and I can definitely see why people were hyped over this one. It’s story and characters and set pieces are phenomenal, and it’s definitely my favorite xenoblade as far as story and character writing are concerned (this might be an unpopular opinion, but xenoblade x actually has the best gameplay, especially with the class customization and skells).
I like how neutral yet favoritism tones that you have on this video is very good! It's a way to show that you still love this game but you can notice it's hiccups. Most of the video i agree with but the thing i REAAAALLY don't agree with is XC2's combat being a "step up". While there are ways to mitigate aggro in XC2 the combat of that game is.....contradictory to what we see and how we were told to play it. The combat in XC2 (not torna) is a spectacle but also a working place. The amount of circumstances and situations you have to complete before doing those massive and beautiful numbers are waaaaay to much. From waiting until your link chain is golden, to timing your cancel combos, to waiting for the meter to build up while also managing which elemental reaction you need to activate, while also managing what combos your teammates need to do WHILE at the same time working around the enemy and play "Hot Potato" with the aggro (i miss the Wiggles so much man) is insane. Not to mention there are enemies that impede your work and sometimes outright deny it (hate the seal status). All of this, just so you can extend your chain attack to another round. On one hand this is satisfying once you pull it off and get to sit back and relax for a couple of seconds while enjoying the attack. on the other hand, QTE's in the middle of said spectacle and having to always build it up get's somewhat....annoying and depressing sometimes (specially if you get interrupted partway of building that elemental orb, that is just the biggest cuk holding thing to ever happen). Then there's the slow movement this game has that for some reason (despite having positional arts) which don't really give you much of a reason to move, other then trying to get aggro first and pull of the AOE arts. But other then that, movement in that game is weird (specially since you get faster if the link chain is golden BUT OOPS you went to far away, time to build up that link again chain). There are ways to circumvent these issues, in the forms of equipment BUT as you can see, you only have 3 slots so most of your build up stats will depend on your level and that system has it's own issues (shortest version of it being: levels don't matter). Torna fixes SOME of these problems and it's still my favorite version of XC2 (The [redacted] slander in that game is a lot though) so i recommend it for everyone who want's a faster paced game (some forced sidequest sucks, but it's mostly a minor thing for me). still recommend people to play both XCDE and XC2 with passion. they are great games by themselves, and even though i don't agree about XC2 combat being the "Next step up" and i rather much it being it's own thing for it's own game, there still something to enjoy there.
After beating Definitive Edition, I decided to try going through Xenoblade 2 again, and I still vastly prefer Xenoblade 1's sidequests to 2's if you take Merc Missions into account. Having my gameplay constantly interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by returning groups gets extremely aggravating to me, and Ursula's affinity chart is downright inexcusable. I'm the kind of person who likes to 100% complete any game I can, but Xenoblade 2 honestly just breaks me. I genuinely get anxiety from expecting my gameplay to be interrupted any second by having to send _another_ merc group out. Even outside of Merc groups, I still can't stand the side content in the game because maxing out the Affinity charts of any new rare blades I get oftentimes requires me to go back to old areas I have been to and beat vastly underlevelled monsters. It's especially annoying when certain blades ask you to do the exact same thing as another blade. Granted, a lot of these types of requirements can be automatically filled by merc missions, but as I said before I absolutely despise doing merc missions, and the ones requiring you to beat a unique monster can't be completed this way anyways. In my current playthrough I've beaten Supercharged Alfonso 4 times now. Once because I just saw him and wanted to kill him, then 3 more times because I kept getting new blades that required me to kill him for their charts. By the time I got to Indol, I just quit trying to complete everything because it was making me really hate playing the game. Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure I actually quit trying to 100% complete the game at around the same point on my first playthrough too. It's a lot more enjoyable when I don't have to worry about so much of that monotony, but even still I'll get new blades with affinity chart requirements that ask me to kill monsters from several areas ago, and it's still extremely aggravating to have to do that if I want to add them to me team and have them be on par with the rest of my options. Even though you could argue that Xenoblade 1's side quests are less meaningful, I still vastly preferred doing them as a gameplay experience because they usually felt like a natural extension of what I was currently doing anyways. The side quests always asked that you defeat monsters on par with what your level should be as long as you recieved them as soon as they were available, and there was never any redundancy within the quests either. You would never have 5 different quests in Xenoblade 1 all tell you to do the exact same thing, as they were all totally unique, even if they were oftentimes shallow. If a quest told you to beat 3 of a specific enemy, you could go do that, and then probably never battle that specific type of enemy again if you didn't want to. I feel like Xenoblade 2 got it extremely wrong on all fronts by having these sorts of shallow quests where you go kill 5 enemies have a significant impact on gameplay by locking blade affinity chart skills behind them, by making you repeat them over and over by having multiple blades asking you to do the same thing, and by making it possible to only have some of these affinity chart missions available when you're absurdly overlevelled for the task thanks to the randomness of the blade system. My point in saying this is that although I can absolutely acknowledge the flaws in Xenoblade 1's sidequests, I frankly see Xenoblade 2 as a strict _downgrade_ in this aspect, even if it is a little less obvious. As for Xenoblade X, it has honestly been quite a while since I've pulled that game out, so it's hard for me to remember my exact feelings on it. I think I remember having issues with it's sidequests as well, but I think that had more to do with the fact that game on the whole just wasn't exactly for me in a lot of ways.
Same actually, I think sidequests should be short and only a few should be story + worldbuilding etc (named NPC quests). I do like the voiced Blade quests mostly. But not when the merc missions are used too much like Ursula's.
I have to say, as someone who played xenoblade on the wii for over 500h recorded time, i grew to love the old graphics, to the point where they felt natural to me, but playing this new version i came to realize how much room there was for improvement, in fact, the anime-esk asthetic will hold for many years to come as we all know historically games going for sheer realism usually look outdated in 5 years time I loved the first game and think definitive edition improved a few more kinks than the normal player may experience, most notable of which being some weapon gems I think your criticisms on that marsh moment with dickson, albeit fair, would overall change the perspective of new players playing the game, it fooled me as a few cutscenes before that dickson was flaunting about being "well traveled" and i thought the *decievement* was about forcing the party to take riki or something (look, i was a dumb kid) About the music, i have to admit i never really noticed the changes before listening to stuff side to side, but i think that speaks more to how beautifully the music ties in with the old versions, i used to be a singer on a chorus too so that one high note you complained about is pretty much fan service to me future connected story was pretty... weak... but the point of it wasnt to be a Xenoblade Chronicles 1,5 in fact the reason that got me the most HYPED to play it was just the fact we were gonna be able to explore the shoulder without hacking, to me that was the main reason why it was a thing, and im quite happy with how it turned out
I couldn't agree with you more about the remastered music. Engage The Enemy was as disappointing as it was distracting. On the other side of things, the changes to many of the atmospheric tracks were amazing. The Alcamoth themes in particular stood out as major improvements.
It seems like the new Engage the Enemy is pretty contentious from my discussions with a lot of people. Yet, a friend and I have talked about Agniratha Night a lot and how great it is! They did a pretty fantastic job on those environmental tracks.
I really like this review. One of the reasons is that some of your opinions are completely different to mine and it's really cool to hear arguments from the opposing side of an aspect. To give an example, you mentioned how the engage the enemy remaster made you feel a bit underwhelmed, whereas i enjoyed the song a lot, and the very thing that you don't like about it is part of the reason i personally, prefer it over the original. With the story, you mentioned as a personal thing, you felt a bit underwhelmed because you saw the cutscenes already so many times and you knew them like the back of your hand. On the other hand, even though i know the cutscenes extremely well, when rewatching the new cutscenes whilst playing DE, i felt that the amazing visuals and facial expressions coupled with the remastered music captivated me all over again, even though i knew exactly what was going to happen. Also, when you mentioned your personal aspects on the story and how it didn't captivate you as much as you hoped, it made me remember watching my 14 year old neice play Xenoblade on the switch for the first time. As i was watching her play, i left to go do something else and when i came back i just saw her strolling around colony 9 after watching the picnic at outlook park cutscene. Like, not doing side quests or anything just walking around the colony completely immersed by the atmosphere of the setting and the game itself. She's put in 2 hours into the game and hasn't even gone into tephra cave for the first time yet. It makes me feel bad knowing exactly what happens in chapter 2 because Fiora is her favourite character. However, it also excites me knowing that I'll get to watch someone experience this amazing game first hand. I'm bringing up this story because i think you might find it interesting how even to this day, the game is still making huge impressions on people that are playing it for the first time, the same way it made impressions on us when we played the original. To elaborate, she knows next to nothing about the game or the story except for a few minor things. She also sat through the entire title screen listening to the music until the song ended. Which is funny because i think we all did that as well... multiple times. if anyone is reading this and made it through to the end of my 5 paragraphs, hat's off to you.
I really appreciate that! I was originally afraid to post this video, but it's comments and mentalities like this that made it worth it. The story of your niece is incredibly sweet and that put a smile on my face. I hope she continues to enjoy the game! Those are the kinds of experiences I want to see people have and it's why I recommend this game to so many of my friends. From what you've said, a lot of her experiences sound exactly like those that myself and countless others had. Listening to that title screen and breathing it in, wondering around with no set goal to take in the settings, it's nostalgic. Part of me wonders deep down if I just wasn't in the right headspace in my DE play-through to truly appreciate it. Thank you for sharing!
@@KayJulers your welcome! I'm gonna hopefully let my niece play chapter 2 (She is using my switch). My only worry is that she might get discouraged and not want to play the game anymore, but I'll never know till it happens. So here's to hoping it all goes well. OH YEAH. When you mentioned you recommending the game to some friends it made me remeber a funny story. So, a friend (I'll call him Frank for privacy reasons) and i are both really interested in Xenoblade, and when DE came out we were all wanting our friends to play it. One of our friends in particular (I'll call him jimbo) sits on the bus with Frank for an hour long bus ride everyday to get home. So during this time, Frank would non-stop talk about Xenoblade during this hour long bus ride. So as a joke, Frank and i would pester him about the game. Like, we'd all just be talking and Frank would say something like "did you know how busted topple locking is?". We never took it to harrasment or anything, and Jimbo knew it was all for a joke seeing how he'd laugh everytime we talked about it. it was Jimbos birthday this week, so Frank decided to buy him a copy of Xenoblade Definitive for his birthday. He hasn't recieved the gift yet but it'll be funny. (especially if he ends up falling in love with the game). Also, it's really cool how you reply to all the comments in your videos. Thanks for that!
Concerning the music segment, I have a few complaints. For starters, I wish they gave Egil his own battle theme at the Mechonis Core considering it's the last fight with him and the last fight on Mechonis in general. It felt empty giving him the normal boss theme. I mostly dislike this because of XC2 where there were many unique battle themes for different characters and enemies for no reason. The second thing is Zanza's theme during his fight. The old theme actually fits him more than the remaster. Other than that, I don't really have any issues with music in the main game. Concerning the bonus chapter, I did not like it. I feel it doesn't compare to the main game at all in terms of quality. The ponspectors get in the way far too much during fights, there are too many of them to be on screen at once. I didn't like how they used Zanza's theme as the Fog King's battle theme nor the fact that they reused the model of the guldo enemy in XC2, it just doesn't fit.
Gotta say it’s quite funny to see someone else who was left impacted by mgs 3 and then xenoblade which were the first two games that really left a lasting impact on me
I never had the nostalgia factor going into the game that a lot of people did, since I never owned a Wii in the past. Despite that, having gotten Definitive Edition on the Switch, it has easily become my absolute favorite game ever (and I have played a shit load of games). Even if I do not play it every day, I legitimately think about it every day, as the game has been that moving for me.
I've had a Wii for the past 12 years and I still have it, but I'd never heard of nor played this game until a few months ago. My best friend played it on the Switch and she really wanted me to play it so she let me borrow the game to play on my own Switch. But it became my favorite game of all time and I don't know if any game can ever surpass it (though I think I said the same thing about Breath of the Wild and yet, here we are)
It was my first time through I haven't played the expansion content yet, I liked the combat a bit more than xc2, but I never played torna yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part, except for the vast quantity of side quests, they got me so lost in them I ended up putting the game down for a long while, I still think it's great overall though.
The sidequests are definitely a problem and something Monolith seem to be getting better with, but still has room for improvement. Torna's combat is a lot of fun, so you'll probably enjoy it!
I think I'm just a masochist or very dedicated, but doing these sidequests feels good to me. I want to 100% this game at some point, but due to moving issues I'm still only 45 hours into my 100% playthrough.
So uhh let's see what point I can start with. Firstly finally a reyn fan :^] he often gets the bruh he is only a Lancer treatment. But I think he's nicely done for xenoblade being more about the world than the characters theyselfs (don't being mean if you like them over everything else but the debs said so) Secondly actually I like in a way the missions xenoblade 1, it helps to bring the theme of community that is build slowly not just in colony 6 but in all the world. They also help to make worldbuilding some characters can't see their family because the conflict or the racist high entida in alcamonth for example. They help to see the world, and well not everyone has something interesting to say, it is true for our world to. Still torna sidequest might better in every way, but I will have xeno 1 520 sidequest over the sidequest in normal 2,even with all the problems in 1. Also for DE I love the camera. And more now than we can just take a picture with the capture button on the switch controller. It is just fun to search to cool stuff and find a good angle to do some screenshots. But finally I have to agree with you here. The game gets a little stale if you have been following it and watching videos like this often. It would be better if you leave xeno 1 alone for a while, but the truth is not even that would make the emotions you feel the first time the same and that makes me truly sad in a way. Is still enjoyable but if you know everything in the story and even some lines at points it just get boring.
Could you do an analysis on the new Zelda OoT romhack "The Missing Link"? Maybe in the context of the cultural impact of OoT and MM. I think there is a lot to unpack and the game (only like 3 hours long) is pretty good.
I am of the opinion that every single remastered track is a lot better than the originals, I genuinely think the new Engage the Enemy is a lot better, the vocals are actually why I love it so much
entirely agree about the pacing issues. First playthrough I noticed nothing but playing through DE the bit before egil felt really squeezed together. Couldve been spread out across the later mechonis sections much better. anyway this is 100% by far my favorite game so I'm glad to see you loved it so much as well
I completely agree on your opinions on the three tracks you specifically pointed out; Tragic Decision and An Obstacle in Our Path are easily the biggest improvements while Engage the Enemy is significantly worse
@@KayJulers Yeah, I listen to them a lot casually, it's incredible how much of an improvement they are honestly. Also thanks man, I think I commented on one of them a while ago but I loved your ZE videos too, they were really well formulated.
World's slowest? It took me 108 hours (in the span of 11 days) to beat XCDE. On another note, whenever you talk about this game your enthusiasm is just infectious. I might disagree with some of the things that you've said here and there, and, love it as I do, I might not be as fond of this game as you are, but I can't help but admire how passionate you are about it, for I know that joy of gushing over one of your favourite games. Also, for better AND worse (since some games' progression curves aren't designed to be over by the time you beat the game) I never replay games which aren't almost purely founded on replayability, and your experience with XCDE is one of the main reasons why. Funnily enough, I felt the urge to replay (if you can call playing NG+ so I could totally 100% the game a replay, as I had already done everything there was to do in the base game) XC2 for study purposes (study applies to both character analysis, as it's hard to keep track of every character's motivations on first playthrough, especially when taking into account Torna wasn't even out back then, and, most importantly, watching all the cutscenes with swimsuits on), and to this day it's the only game I've ever replayed. Lastly, I bet you're told this on a quasi-daily basis, and you probably plan on doing it, but I thoroughly recommend playing Xenosaga. I played the games right after XCDE and I loved it just as much, for quite different reasons but ones which I think can easily resonate with fans of the Xeno series. That being said, I always find myself looking forward to your next video whenever I'm done with your latest one, so keep up the great work!
I guess in raw hours it certainly wasn't too slow, but I didn't beat it until August and I felt like I was so far behind everyone else haha. And thank you for the kind words! I really do love this series and one of the best aspects of making videos is the ability to show that passion and find like-minded people. Those reasons are why I want to revisit Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I already love the game and view it as one of my favorites, but I wonder if a revisit would make me appreciate it more. Luckily, I have Xenosaga I and II, but need to track down a reasonably priced copy of III. That's the hard part lol. I actually started Xenogears and have been getting footage of that, so I think I will likely tackle Xenosaga after that one. Thanks again for watching the video and sticking with me!
I can't decide between Engage the Enemy DE or the OG, I really like the sound balance of DE but the vocals throw me off. This also applies to Satorl Marsh, it sucks that we can't get a mix of both.
That's what a couple friends and I were talking about. If we could hit this perfect balance between both versions then we could say it'd be the best hands down.
So one my best friends told me to play xenoblade like 2 years ago, and i did it, (with a few other friends, but I was the only one playing and tthey were watchiing) i had soooo much fun the first time I played it on wii ! But i got stuck on the tyrea fight in the tomb and stopped playing.... Then i played xc2 but my best friend told me to stop before chapter 10, and just before i got to chapter 10, xc définitive édition came out. So i bouughtt it and loved it. Then came back to xc2 and these 2 games became my favorites.. (I also fouund out that xenogears and saga were connecter to xenoblade)
I love that line from Egil about the blade not being deep enough also because it's a Shakespeare reference to when Mercutio was stabbed in Romeo and Juliet and he said "twas not deep, but was deep enough". Takes a line from classic writing and inverts it in a powerful way
I'm not a fan to some of the clothing, coloring, and texture changes, cause it makes some stuff stand out as not feeling natural to the world, or almost plastic-y (a more extreme change in this nature can be felt in the Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom remake where it feels almost sterile). I don't mind all the musical changes and a lot of the updates are great, but I didn't find them all necessary, and I did feel that musical difference you mentioned in Fiora's death cutscene. I appreciate being able to move and auto attack again. I know it technically gives you less control over battle, but when positioning is so important in a combat system, I loved returning to movement not being penalized in combat, after 2. I also actually prefer this chain attack system better than 2's because you use standard arts with standard effects, instead of only specials, so you can build big damage with same color arts, or you could use the opportunity to topple or daze an opponent, among other choices. It felt more tactical to me, in that way, and less of a "get my opponent to half HP and then destroy them all at once" ultimate attack. But that's personal preference. So as far as DE is concerned, I like it. It's not amazing nor is it terrible. It's kinda just a different way to play the game after the original, though I think the original release will always hold a special spot in my heart (btw, play that with a Wii classic controller pro or on Wii U with the gamepad for smooth camera controls). I'm mostly just glad people get the chance to experience this game for the first time in a way they weren't able to before, without any hurdles standing in the way. I hope they do a few updates for optimization, though it's league's better than 2 ever got optimized to be, but still, it's no technical marvel like X was back on the Wii U. It's great for exploitative gamers who just want to immerse themselves in a world and run around it getting lost in the nature of the world, and who also like a great story. I'm happy it didn't oversell its connections with 2, as this game is a wonderful standalone experience and I believe that is the ideal form for most games
I don't think either 1 or 2 are better than the other or that either is incorrect with their depiction of Klaus before resetting the universe. I think both are equally true and the different scenes just focus on the aspects that actually apply to their respective versions that appear. That said, I wouldn't have minded them throwing the Zohar in there. Not sure why it wasn't.
Honestly I prefer the way the 1st game handles sidequests more than the 2nd does. In 2 the sidequests are way more involved, which isn't a bad thing, but it can be a pain to do them with the way the compass works in that game. In Definitive edition there's a ton of quests but I can just do many of them while on the way to the next story objective.
So the shift in focus kind of leads to the sidequests in XC2 feeling more like distractions than actual sidequests? If that's the case then I could honestly see that.
I personally find Xenoblade's sidequests a lot more engaging than Xenoblade 2's, but honestly, I feel as though X has the best of the series - I'm not counting monster/collection quests since both the original and X have those anyway 5 playthroughs of the original (+1 DE) 4 playthroughs of X 4 playthroughs of 2 (+1 Torna) After all this, I find X's NPCs to be the most memorable, followed by the original, then Torna, then 2
X has the single sidequest that left the biggest impression on me with Lakeside Getaway and probably has the biggest list of quest plot lines that I can remember. I have to give it massive props for that.
@@KayJulers Yes, I remember that one quite well... In general, X's sidequests seem to tackle some heavier topics - not that the other games are completely exempt I also love the aspect of them different questlines intersecting and crossing over the further into the game you get, especially after Chapter when everything comes to a head; the sense of community built by the different races is also really nice As a sidenote, I think the new Engage the Enemy is my favorite of the remastered tracks - I van see why people don't like it, but I think it's the pinnacle of the remastering for me (was my favorite track already, and now I like it even more lol)
Wow, this video was GREAT. As someone who personally isn’t a huge fan of Xenoblade 1, I went into this video expecting to be kind of annoyed and probably quit a couple minutes in. But your editing and speaking voice are so great, it’s just a very “satisfying” video to watch. The best way I can explain it is this video is the Xenoblade Definitive Edition UI of TH-cam videos. I hope that makes sense lol. It’s just all so well presented. BUT I personally disagree with like, everything about the story still. Sure it’s presented well and the pacing is generally great like you said. But the story itself is just so unoriginal and blech to me. As a longtime Xeno fan, I can’t help but feel like the story of XC1 is just an extremely simplified and boring version of Xenogears. You mentioned you loved the Fiora Death and Zanza Reveal cutscenes, but those are two of my least favorite, again because they’re just so derivative. In Gears, Fei unintentionally slaughters almost his entire village. The survivors banish him and he’s forced to wander the woods, aimless and hating himself. How many stories begin with the main character committing accidental genocide? It’s just so unique and gripping. In XC1, Fiora is killed by a bad guy and Colony 9 and its NPCs are left unscathed. I know it gets more complex later, but in the moment it’s framed in a much more traditional, “good guy vs bad guy” way than the morally grey emotional horror of Gears. Again, it just feels so much more generic and like a weak copy of a previous game in the exact same series! Same with the Zanza reveal. The main character is shot through the chest by someone he trusted, only for that person to then reveal that god was the bad guy the whole time. Like, it’s almost the exact same scene. Why? Why are we just doing Gears again? You mentioned how you liked that Zanza was manipulating everything from behind the curtain the whole time; but so was Deus. Except Deus wasn’t just some basic jRPG god, but a thousands year-old computer that results in this amazing existential crisis when you realize that your epic, 60 hour long fantasy story is actually just the story of a computer trying to reboot itself. Again, Gears is so creative and weird. XC1 feels like it takes the bones of Gears, and changes it to a much more generic story, That said, I don’t usually watch 40 minute videos on games I don’t particularly like. I can’t exaggerate how great this video is, it’s presented so smoothly and efficiently. Your passion for XC1 is obvious, and you are clearly just really freaking good at making TH-cam videos. Even if I totally disagree with your perspective, I gotta subscribe because your video making skills are just phenomenal.
Riki shall forever be forgiven for being the best support, his fantastic in/after battle dialogue, and also the heart to hearts
Riki is honestly some of the best comedic relief in the series IMO. He has very wholesome moments near the end of the game too!
@@KayJulers Not to mention how Quiet Moments with Kino and Nene further establish that he's just a fantastic dad
Edit: ok yeah you just got to that part
@@jstar3382 i love those two
Why does he need to be forgiven?
Xenoblade Chronicles is the game we so desperately needed in our lives, but not one we deserved. After 1 100% playthrough on the new 3ds, and 2 100% playthroughs of DE, this game is still a blast to play for me. Much Love❤
Hi xenoblade_strife_akira ✌
It's still crazy to think that the game even exists! I'm really happy that one of my favorite games of all time found its way onto the Switch and in a big way.
Yes!! Xenoblade Chronicles is truly a special game! I'm so glad that we got DE so that I could finally experience this masterpiece :)
I got DE without having played the original. I knew most of the major plot points, Fiora stuff, Zanza, Dickson, that kinda stuff. Did not know about Telethia, Machina, heck, even the Monado III. Didn't know any of the dialogue though, so that was all a treat. Such a great game, and is now at 4 in my top 5 games
Dickson didn't really do anything that would indicate that he was evil at any point until the very end.
Jstar338 I’m glad to hear that you were able to enjoy it despite knowing some of the major stuff. I think it goes to show how strong the experience is.
I played Definitive Edition for the first time a couple months ago. I knew absolutely nothing about the game and although I struggled to understand some of the gameplay for awhile, my friend who let me borrow the game helped me out with it and I finished it after about 60 hours. As soon as the credits rolled, I started crying. I've played some amazing games in my lifetime, but none with a story as incredible as this. I ordered my own copy of the game immediately afterward. Currently playing New Game+
I actually never got the notion that Dickson might turn against Shulk throughout my entire playthrough, so that reveal was big one for me
Me too. When it got to "Can't say I feel so good about decieving these kids." I was like "Wait what? Is he sending us to the wrong place to protect us or something?" Boy was I wrong. But As soon as the gun shot Shulk I knew it was him but I was like, why....and then he explained everything
I thought for sure that the game just tried to make him look like a traitor until the last second.
I really liked the new version of Engage the Enemy. I don't know why but the really high vocals that you said drew you out of the cutscene, drew me in and made any scene it was in more emotional for me. It may be that when I played the original over 5 years ago, I never finished it as I got stuck on a boss and I wanted so much to finish the game since then. So maybe it just struck a note with me as some of the scenes were the first time I was seeing them and i got used to the new version. I'm not sure. But it is interesting seeing someones elses opinion on it
Also best remastered song is Zanza the Divine. That song hits hard. I've listened to the original and while I agree that the original is amazing. The DE version really just kicks it up a notch.
Totally understandable! I was talking with several people and we all had very different opinions on the song haha. I actually do like the instrumentation in the new Engage the Enemy as I was enjoying the snippet we heard in one of the earlier trailers.
The new Zanza the Divine is pretty strong too!
It is trulu, divine
Honestly the vocals from Engage the Enemy is what draws me in to the scenes like Loss and A Tragic Decision is just a masterpiece to me.
Engage the Enemy sounds way better with the high vocals
Hearing the OG version sounds so "weak" without them for me
@@KayJulers I also think generally the Definitive version grows on people the more they listen to it and view it in context. I was pretty quick to warm up to it, but my friend was much in the same boat as Kay. Eventually, as he kept playing and listening, he got to the point where it grew to be his favourite of the two.
My apologies for a couple of the audio hiccups on this one! I had to re-record everything because a whole recording session got scuffed, but hopefully it's not too big of an issue.
For further clarification, the criticisms in this video are ones I found bothersome. However, if you disagree with my sentiments or weren't personally bothered by things I pointed out then you are 100% entitled to your opinion. I hope you guys enjoy the video and thanks as always for watching!
I frankly didn't even notice the audio issues, they might be more apparent to you than to others :D Aside from that, I found this to be a great review but also one that just goes to show how opinions can differ which I always find interesting. (For example, I personally like the way XC1 handles quests just because of the simple fact of how convenient it is to complete them and that there are no hidden secondary quests as opposed to XC2)
"Your bade... It did not cut deep enough" has some serious "you should've gone for the head" vibes
BADE
I'd say that Dickson's "can't say I feel so good about deceiving these kids" line suffers less from being too revealing and more from being too hammy as well as generally making no sense. He doesn't "not feel so good" nor is he "deceiving these kids". Dickson revels in his appreciation for Zanza, but moreso the thought of being given godly power, and he only ever guides the party along his desired path by giving them information that's accurate.
This line would benefit from being changed altogether. If the line was delivered in a more neutral tone and had been something to the effect of "I guess those three's turn to see to the Monado now." (referring to Zanza's, Alvis', & Lorithia's actions during Eryth Sea) then it would've shown that Dickson was up to something, but would've left it open ended as to whether his plans would help or hurt the party in the future.
I actually do kind of like Dickson indicating that he doesn't feel good about what he's doing though. I really enjoy how ambiguous Dickson is regarding his feelings towards the whole situation. Despite him trying to come off as totally antagonistic at the end of the game, when he's defeated you see him appear to almost feel bitter-sweet about it. Having him make seemingly contradictory statements like this is actually an interesting facet of his character in my opinion.
I could see where you're coming from. A full on revision of that line is also something I can get behind (so long as we keep the meme response from Otharon "What's that you say?") I like the general direction of your revision since it feels multifaceted in nature and leaves more room for interpretation. However, I do think Dickson show a little concern for them, especially Shulk, given the way he talks about him following his reawakening and at Prison Island. If the line were to be kept then I think more of Dickson's feelings of regret should've been showcased.
I mean saying that he revels in it completely ignores the final encounter with him which shows that he never really thinks about it and in the end he does care deeply about shulk as he wanted to spare him the pain of seeing his mentor die
The title of the dlc apart, that sounds more like a clickbait that misguided the fandom to certain disappointment, FC is SOOOO GOOD! A very heartwarming story and the perfect closure Melia needed and deserved. Can't say how much in love I am with it.
The development that Tyrea and Melia got was very nicely done! I think the aspect of FC that might've hit me the most is how surreal it is to fully explore this cut area that was the subject of fan discussion for years.
I played the original a few times, but the new facial animations in Definitive Edition were my favorite enhancements. They gave so much more context to the cutscenes that I felt like I was actually getting more out of a story that I felt I already knew in and out.
I never realized how deep the rabbit hole went until I did that video on Loss and noticed the changed animations. They were certainly some of the best enhancements in the whole package.
I played 2 before 1 and when I heard that a remake was coming I was ecstatic because I hear people praise this game a lot, and boy did the hype deliver. The story felt very well written with its many twists and turns, most of the main cast was really well written(we don’t talk about you Sharla) with some likeable side characters too like Kalian. The villains were great and I enjoyed their arcs and how it affected the characters. Gameplay was super fun and addicting and while there were some annoying things like Spike damage I still enjoyed it. The music might be my favorite game music of all time, with so many beautiful tracks. As for how it compares with 2? I thought 1 was slightly better but both tell really good stories.
I'm glad you had a great time playing the games in reverse order! I was shocked by how much I enjoyed Kalian with my revisit. That's generally how I view them too! I like 1 more, but only by a hair as 2 is really strong. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I find Sharla very likeable, but of course she is one of the least develop and useless in gameplay so your opinion is fair.
ZeroBeys yeah that’s why I didn’t like her all too much, her story arc was mostly just about Gadolt(or however you spell his name) and I didn’t like that all too much, along with how she takes the motherly role of the group when Dunban is right there.
@@truthsinger7413 That's cool man, that's totally cool.
Okay. I have this headcanon in which the reason why The Birth of a Universe is so different in XC1 and XC2, besides of course the real-world reason being that the original scene was made in 2010 and in 2017 it was heavily expanded upon what was known and saw, the in-universe(Or multiverse) is that the cutscene was different because it was shown from the perspective of both halves of Klaus. The shortened, twisted one being from Zanza's and the really happened was from Klaus'(The Architect) perspective. In both cutscenes we see Klaus acting differently because that's how they remember it, with the Architect's being the accurate one. Zanza's version of the memory could be result of simply the result of the event being partially forgotten over the millenia or due to Zanza being just a half of Klaus hence also having his memory fragmented. The same could be applied to Alivis, who now is believed to be the lost Aegis, Ontos(Which I also confidently believe to be 100% the case), since Pyra, Myrtha and Malos have bits of memories as their time as the cores of the Trinity Processors, so if made the argument that the memory was told from Alvis' perspective that's the simple answer to that.
So to make it short and sweet: Zanza's version of the story is different because of either fragmented memory due to being only half of a man or simply his memory of the event decayed over the millennia since from his point of view the experiment was a success(Which view in the grander picture of the XC Multiverse it was), let's also add the fact that Zanza's the the half of Klaus that rejected and abandoned his humanity, yet another reason that in his memory it isn't shown Klaus' humanity unlike in the version of the Architect's, but some remnants of that abandoned humanity are still there of his desire for friendship and being capable of feeling loneliness, which arguably can be traced back to Klaus' previous life. The Architect's on the opposite lived in a constant torment, haunted by that grave error he did, which he relieved over and over again, hence his memory didn't decayed over the millennia.
Back to the real world. I believe that the reason for the scene to be kept intact in DE was not only to avoid spoiling one of the craziest twist in the entire saga, but also due to the fact that it wouldn't make sense to add up all that extra information literally at the end of the that would feel out of nowhere, unlike in XC2 which the hints were drop at the latter chapters all the way to the beginning of the last chapter which was the climax of the story. Not to mention that XC1 story was meant to be self-conclusive, of course the potential for a sequel was there all along, but it was more up for interpretation if they'll be a continuation or not. No doubt that scene could have been successfully recreated in XC1DE's style given what they could do with FC, but I believe it wouldn't just make sense to just leave newcomers with questions that they hope to be answer in XC2 about the previous universe or where did the Conduit came from, only come out with almost no answers if any at all. As a newcomer myself that played DE before XC2, i didn't got the same gripes as you about the gameplay (Although I prefer having more than 3 arts to chose in battle and the fact that during a Chain Attack in XC1, one an enemy is down you can target the other), which in both were solid but obvious XC2's is the superior of the two with better Chain Attack mechanics and Auto-Attacks that can be canceled to better exploit certain arts. (Also like you I can geek about how Torna's is the best gameplay out of all in Xenoblade and I also agree it should be further use in future game, i dunno know, but as long as it is based and improved upon it, i'll be happy). Most importantly I really can't describe the hype and the surprised i got when to chapter ten in XC2, so from my perspective I appreciate that they kept the story intact in XC1DE, but from yours it's understandable, but from this real-world and in-universe reasons The Birth of a Universe wasn't changed in XC1DE
That's actually an interesting interpretation on why the scenes are different and I can see that as a possibility. When it comes to combat, I do prefer XC2's as I feel like it gives you more to do, the Chain Attacks are better, and there's the fact that you don't have to worry about auto attacks as you move. People who complain about the last one don't seem to understand how frustrating it is to stop auto attacks in XC1 to stop generating aggro. There were several times that I pleaded to my other party members to draw the aggro whenever I played Shulk or Melia because I was near death and the auto attacks weren't helping.
@@darkstorm2579 Right, right. I agree, although i prefer that i can choose more than three arts
@@zerobeys That's fine. I kind of prefer relying on auto attacks and pouch items to recharge my three arts. It feels quicker, plus you can cancel them to do more damage.
@@darkstorm2579 Well, that does makes up for it!
The remastered engage the enemy is my favourite remastered ost imo
That's fair! I was talking with my chat the other night and we all had a variety of opinions on the song. I think the instrumentation is quite solid, though!
Yeah, same.
I absolutely adored Future Connected. Melia is my favorite character in any video game series and I saw how much potential she had for her character in the original, and I just loved her story with the High Entia. I actually find the lore behind the High Entia society and Melia's personal story to be more captivating to me than the main story of Xenoblade itself as time went on. The story was great on a blind playthrough when you didn't know what to expect. When I do know what to expect, it didn't hit me nearly as hard. This could also be due to overexposure to the story since this is my 4th time playing this game and I've seen multiple people play through the game as well. Giving Melia closure and an actual happy ending deserving of her character brought me to tears. It also made Tyrea the second best female character in the game.
One of the unspoken flaws of Xenoblade 1 is the lack of amazing female characters. People debate between Melia and Fiora, but Fiora is much too basic of a character for me and Meyneth doesn't do enough to make her super compelling (I actually would've liked if Meyneth just completely took the memories of Fiora but the personality of Fiora died with the attack on Colony 9, and she ends up developing feelings for Shulk due to those memories. Would've made for a more complex motive.) As a result of this, there aren't any good female to female character interactions. All of the development revolved around a male character, especially Shulk. So I loved how Future Connected completely broke that mold and made Shulk a secondary character to Melia and Tyrea actually having meaningful bonding moments. It was something this game lacked playing it again.
So anyway, I'm so happy that Melia finally gets fleshed out and her development made more obvious. Most of her development can be seen through small details or just by reflecting on it and how she changes throughout the game, but Future Connected brought it out to the forefront by making her the protagonist. Also I find it funny how Melia is the first Xenoblade protagonist who isn't dead. I think I might have jinxed it...
I loved Xenoblade 2 and the ending of chapter 2 made it one of my favorite video games. Then I played this one and it immediately became my definitive favorite video game. Without this game I'm not sure how I could have gotten through all that's going on.
The sidequests are a pretty common complaint launched against XC1, and while I can agree that they are perhaps a bit numerous and don't have much in the way of rewards, I still really like doing all of them. I think it mostly just comes down to the fact that I love XC1 so much that regardless of what I'm doing in the game I'm still enjoying it. So with that motivation, the more quests the better really. Also I think if you removed all the nameless npc quests you'd probably have a number much closer to XC2.
The new quest system made doing 100% super chill though. I didn't need to reference a quest tracker constantly like I had to for 100% on the original version, sped the pacing up massively. Was also nice to be able to do quests as they unlock due to expert mode and seeing when they unlock because the quest available icon renders at any distance.
One good way of appreciating the inaccurate cutscenes like the zanza origin and torna ones in the 2s main game is to see them as distorted memories from so many ears that you just remember some key moments but not the details such as environment
I gotta agree with your thoughts on Sharla, Riki and Fiora. I think that if it wasn't for their voice actors they wouldn't be as memorable. This also applies to Gael'gar in my opinion, his character is interesting in concept, but the execution is just... no. His voice actor was really good and he deserved better.
Yeah, I feel like his voice actor got a raw deal. If the character was given better material then I think people would be talking about him a lot more.
@@KayJulers also, another thing is that from the moment he was introduced he was obviously going to be a villain. which is fine, but he could've been much more nuanced
I was a newcomer to the series and what I had heard was that the game was amazing. So I didn't know what to expect from this game, I bought it at Best Buy and I was excited and once I played the first few hours of the game I was hooked. I couldn't stop playing, the narrative was amazing. I like how the whole cast develops over the course of the narrative. Originally started as a revenge one, changed once the group leave Prison Island and go to Valak Mountain. Breath of The Wild was my favorite game of all time and once I beat Xenoblade Chronicles DE around 5 times it's my favorite game now.
And the soundtrack is amazing. My favorite song is A Tragic Decision and I also loved Engage the Enemy. A Tragic Desicion lines up perfectly with one of the best lines in the game.
I plan to play Xenoblade 2 soon.
Played definitive edition because of a youtuber telling hisviewers constantly to buy xenoblade chronicles definitive edition
I did and I loved it.
Went into Future Connected absolutely exhausted because of the ending of the original game, I didn't want to get more of those intense emotions in a while for my own sake.
Future Connected being so "chill" and "pure" is what made me realize how little I needed of this game to still love it.
*I love that battle music*
*is still in my head*
I felt in love with this game. I'm so glad I gave It a chance.
I played 80 hours.
I'm now 40 hours in on XC2 and I'll play this game again once I finish it.
I want Xenoblade Chronicles X to be ported :(
Just seen you pop up in the opening credits of Chuggaaconroy's Xenoblade 2 Let's Play, thought that was really cool to see!
Man I love the production value of the video. So much effort must have gone into this. Definitely deserves more views and subs!
Thanks for the kind words and watching!
I get the feeling Future connected is gonna be one of those situations where, if you play XC2 first you don't know the connections to 1 until you play the game at look back at what 2 was revealing.
So later on down the line whether it be XC3 or XCX2 if they reveal new plot points that connect to the events of FC, we'll look back and go "OH SO THAT'S WHAT THAT MEANT ABOUT X,Y AND Z" sorta deal.
Either way I'm hyped for the next game.
If you have played _Xenosaga_ you know what Future Connected is alluding to for Xenoblade.
@@badlatency9979 yeah the fog king is literally a gnosis lol
@@heir2themonado422 which has _enormous_ implications.
@@badlatency9979 Absolutely but I feel like my statement still applies, if you played XC2 before XC1 you'd have heard of the Monado so you could guess the implications but you don't understand the full reveal until you've played XC1. Same applies in FC where yes the fog king basically being a Gnosis is HUGE buuut we don't know the full implications of why he/they are here or if there's more to how they work that's not shown in xenosaga ect.
I got this game a little while ago and I must say, this game really hit me. I absolutely loved it and it’s probably in my top 3.
Hi XC newcomer here.
I not too long ago decided to go through the series to try and play and finish XC3 before years end. Ive always been fascinated by the original and knew Id want to play it some day but until recently found jrpgs and expansive ones at that intimidating. But after going out and hunting the 4 titles that have ties down I started with definitive edition and was absolutely blown away. I knew from a nintendo life review that this game was thought provoking and a masterclass in story telling but not in a way that I expected to be moved to tears or left speechless. And since beating it, several tracks from the ost have been staples for me driving to and from work. Very glad I decided to experience this series for myself and XC1 DE is easily one of my favorite games of all time.
I started with Xenoblade X, continued to 2 and played Chronicles on the wii u. On first play, while I beat it, I was a bit underwhelmed by XBC1. I loved the story and the music, but the side questing and affinity systems really hurt the game in my eyes. With Xenoblade 2 being my favorite game of all time, I was eager to really give XBC1 a try at the time, and I always stood by the sentiment that if any xenoblade game got a remake, it'd be 1. Obviously, I was right. Playing Definitive edition isn't something I can understate, it's fantastic. The music, the quest tweaks and all the small things they did took a game plagued by some bad interfaces to a game blessed with great UI and record keeping. I can say that I have played and 100% completed XBCDE and Future Connected, all in all it was a great time spent on my second playthrough. Although, I have to say it is still my least favorite out of the 3 Blade games, its got some of my favorite moments. Dicksons reveal is masterful, Prison tower on the 1st visit is amazing (the second visit is what I consider to be the 2nd best dungeon in the whole series behind the World Tree), and the departure from Colony 9 with that beautiful track playing is iconic. All 3 of the games are in my top ten JRPGs and I have nothing but pure excitement and anticipation for the next game, be it X2 or 3.
Oh also I think the Eryth Sea changes in the soundtrack are the best. If you play to completion you spend a LOT of time there, and I never once got tired of the gorgeous visuals and that heavenly song.
I was always interested in the Xenoblade series for a long time and I wanted to play it, but the RPG combat mechanics definitely seemed far more different to the point that it put me off for a long time until now. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic messing up the game industry, there wasn’t any new games that caught my interest. I was looking for a game to play through the summer and I saw Definitive Editon’s trailers detailing everything about the basics of the gameplay which seemed to catch my attention. I was also having a itching feeling to play a RPG since I avoided this genre of games for so long thanks to combat and very long stories. Of course with this knowledge in mind and a desire to at least play Xenoblade 1 once, I bought Definitive Edition digitally and waited until May 30 to finally experience what the Xenoblade fans were hyping up about in various parts of the Nintendo fandom. It’s was one of the best decisions I have ever made in a long time. However, I will be sleeping now so I will post more of my experience tomorrow in a edit to this comment.
This was my first time ever playing Xenoblade 1 and I really enjoyed it. I liked the improvements like the better graphics and the facial expressions. Then there's the costumes, which are very helpful in making sure the party doesn't look like they just put random stuff on. It's cool that they included this for the weapons too as this lets you use the skin for Meyneth's Monado for Fiora. Unfortunately, Shulk's weapon skins are locked behind new game plus but that kinda makes sense because of story reasons. One of my few criticisms of the game is that some of the songs get reused too often. It wouldn't hurt for them to use new ones to give a sense of progression. Another complaint is the auto attacks, I feel that they're better executed in XC2 as you have more control over them. There were several instances in XC1 where I struggled to get the aggro off me because I couldn't stop my character from attacking without moving away from the enemy. With XC2, I know that I don't have to worry about auto attacks whenever I move to either lower my aggro or revive a party member.
The way you speak is literally so powerful and filled with genuine investment and raw feeling - combine that with xeno music and im in awe
Thanks so much for the kind words!
dont really have much to say. great video!
Thanks so much!
Can't believe it's already been a year since XCDE was announced. This game changed my entire perception of RPGs and is one of the best games I've ever played. It's an an experience I will never forget and wish I could go through it all again blind. Absolutely breath taking game.
More importantly XCDE led me right to playing XC2 which could potentially be my favourite game of all time. Easily 2nd best but still can't decide if I like it more than Dark Souls III. I just love these games with all my heart and the characters even more so, it's fucking magical.
I seriously can't believe I missed out on the Xeno series until this year, and I'm incredibly excited to see what Monolith can wow us with in the future.
Edit: Just got to the part where you talked about the ending and you were absolutely right about it being good for new comers to the series. I started with DE and went right into 2 after DE and the reveal of the connected endings BLEW MY MIND!
I had no idea until late yesterday and it really shocked me. It doesn't feel like a year has passed, but here we are! Thanks for sharing your experience with the series and I'm glad you were able to enjoy 2 unspoiled! That reveal might be one of my favorite things in media and I get goosebumps thinking about it.
Love this video, you touch on a lot of key details and it's incredibly well written. I think I disagree with the pacing component, as it refers to Mechonis Core. I think the fast paced nature of the scene is largely a reflection of the anticipation and impatience the game wants you to feel, and likely an indication of machinations beyond the control of Shulk and co. Shulk is in a rush because Zanza is in a rush. And we're in a rush because we control Shulk.
One remastered song that I think got a real glow up was Fallen Arm. The composition was always good, but the MIDI instrumentation in the original sounded really rough, which was strange because the overwhelming majority of the MIDI in the original release was actually pretty good. The new live instrumentation for Fallen Arm in Definitive Edition though just sounds so good.
I just relistened to Fallen Arm and I can totally see what you mean. This new version sounds way smoother and I like that a lot.
The first and only time I played it I felt so compelled to follow the story since it was so good and interesting that I ignored a lot of the content the game has to offer.
With DE though, since I already know what happens, I've been taking my time exploring, doing side quests and stuff and I have to say I think I'm enjoying it slightly more than the first time around. It was cool finding out areas that I didn't know existed, completing quests that gave me stuff like like a new Monado Art and developing NPCs relationships with each other as well as seeing Colony 6 come to life. I feel like I did the game a disservice by going straight for the story the first time around but at the same time I'm glad I waited for the Definitive Edition to do it because of the amazing quality of life improvements.
In conclusion: This version solidified my love for this game.
I share some of those sentiments with regards to my first playthrough. I was so engaged in the narrative that I stumbled my way through the gameplay with misused Monado Arts and all haha. I'm happy to hear that you had a fantastic experience with DE and one that seemed to strengthen your adoration of this game!
Xenoblade on Wii got me into the series
Xenoblade X taught me how to break these games to make them super easy
Xenoblade 2 made it one of my favorite series of all time
I can’t explain how much I love DE
Great video and very fair analysis! There's so many XC1 vs XC2 flame wars that it was nice to hear a genuine take on XC1's strengths and weaknesses. Didn't agree with everything but you presented your points excellently. One I definitely agree with and wanted to expand on was Fiora's weakness as a character. She has a great personality but for me, it always felt like her MAIN character trait was always "is dying/is in danger of dying". It drowns out the other aspects of her character and it's hard to appreciate her developments when the question "Is Fiora gonna die? (Again?)" is always hanging above her scenes.
while listening to this, i'm working for my university, but when i heard "the double edged sword that is torna side quests", i went like hehehehe without even a grin
As a Xenoblade 1 veteran who had already completed both the Wii and the 3DS version, I absolutely loved Definitive Edition. The quality of life changes were wonderful, I loved how much better it ran than previous versions (the final battle in particular suffered from atrocious slowdowns on the Wii), and all the little improvements and additions really added up. Expert Mode allowing you level down and avoid getting overleveled from sidequesting in particular was a Godsend. The visuals were so much better, and the drawn distance being further improved this time around just made the already incredible sense of scale even more impressive.
Future Connected was pretty disappointing though (especially after how amazing Torna was), and the Challenge Mode is vastly inferior to its Xenoblade 2 counterpart. I also did notice some new flaws in this latest playthrough, especially when it came to the AI being bad (Dammit Shulk, stop spamming Enchant over Armor!) and combat being pretty basic compared to Xenoblade 2. I'd say that Xenoblade 1's combat stays fun for 100-150 hours, while Xenoblade 2's combat can stay fun for 500+ hours given all the depth and customization options.
Overall though, Xenoblade: DE is the best version of my all time favorite game, and even gave me the opportunity to do some things I had never done before, like beating all the Xenoblade 1 Superbosses. Overall it has aged incredibly well, and kept me hooked throughout the whole adventure and even the late-game quests.
I definitely think this is the best running Xenoblade game. After revisiting Torna, that game has a handful of texture pop ins and slow down at points. Expert mode was a great addition! I really hope that style of leveling becomes a staple from here on out. I also hard agree. Xenoblade DE is certainly best version of the game and the version I'd recommend to everybody. I'm really happy with the final product.
I subscibed to your channel for a while (maybe a year ago? but it quite while after I finished my first playthrough of XC2) but never did comment on your video before.
XCDE is my first complete playthrough of the game, (I did play the original Wii untill Makhna forest but stop playing after the direct that reveal the DE).
Nothing to complain about your opinion and hearing the the different invidiual mind is always great for me, espectially soundtrack section in this video.
Anyway, I just want giving supportive comment here. I have not watch any your video of XCX since I'm still in my progress of playing it but I'm very confident that I'll feel satisfy in your video again.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy the full experience with DE and sounds like you had a good time with it! Also, thanks for the kind words as well as sticking with me and the channel for this long!
11:54 that was satisfying
My honest (very wordy) thoughts of XC1. I LOVE Alvis and Kalian (the best boys in my opinion), the story and some of the main cast of characters like Shulk and Melia while others I only simply enjoyed outside of core/major plot heavy cut-scenes, mainly because of their voice acting was fantastic. Even then, Fiora I enjoyed mostly because I believed her and Shulk's relationship as well as she's one of the rare characters in anime or games I've played that didn't get romantically shafted by Melia - the "new girl". Melia has an amazing character arc of becoming a better person and letting herself have friends (and deep connections in general), but it wasn't until I did a heart to heart recently that I realized the tragedy that woven in with her growth is even sadder than when I first experienced this game through a LP I watched a few years ago. Please correct me if I am wrong about any of this, but since nothing alludes to her mother dying from disease or being murdered by the Order that means Melia slowly grew up as she watched her Homs mother grew old and died of old age. From that alone one could imagine her closing herself off, but she also believed her other living parent didn't love her and her distance with her brother Kalian (either because of his mother or Melia's belief Kalian was set to be the next ruler - thus of higher status) would make her feel truly isolated and alone well before the game even starts. It's why I really love FC so much! It concludes her journey to be a better person so she is truly ready to be the ruler her people need internally (being open to Machina, High Entia, Homs, and Nopon alike as well as building connections to said people), but emotionally too by building a new familial connection. After all my gushing over Melia it might sound a bit silly, but my love for Shulk is 50% Adam Howdin's voice acting, 30% his arc with Egil and Zanza in the story, and 20% his relationship with Fiora and Reyn.
On the topic of Zanza, I have to disagree with you on the ending and 'the birth of a universe' scene. This is just my opinion of course, but I really like that they didn't change it to match XC2's version - and not just because I'd want new players to see the scene as it was in the original XC1, but because I think it fits better as a contrast to XC2's. To me they're both how (canonically) the scene played out in a Schrodinger's cat kinda way until we (VERY unlikely) get a game that leads up to 'the birth of a universe' scene through the eyes of an unbiased character's eyes. Because Klaus was split apart into his arrogant and regretful selves (I am simplifying a bit here since I think Klaus still held a bit of arrogance given his choice to try to remake the world as a for of penance) it makes sense (to me) that the version we'd see in XC1 is the birth of Zanza's god complex through his arrogance as (in my opinion) a scientist, believing that they - HE - could create a new universe. And in XC2 we see the same scene through the eyes of Klaus, a man full of regret reflecting on how his arrogance birthed a new universe, but at the cost of everything - everyone - else, including himself in a more literal way.
As for the visuals, other than Shulk's hair seeming too bight in cut-scenes during the day sometimes I think the visuals make the game look WAY better than before. The music was great and Making a Tragic Decision is still my favorite song! The game play/combat is really the only other thing I oddly have strong feelings on. When I watched an LP of the game a few years ago, I hated the combat to the point that unless it was boss fights or the LPer was talking about anything interesting their live chat was asking them about I would skip through them fighting groups of enemies (if they were being mobbed), but one of the reasons a year or two before that when XCX was coming out combat was something that got me interested in getting the game. Yes, I do realize how weird that is as both game's combat is almost the exact same. Now that I've played XC1 DE for myself I can happily say I don't hate it any more, but I still prefer XCX's combat over it.
I feel the same about Fiora. I can understand where some people might be coming from with their criticisms of her, but I just enjoy her character and find the relationship between Shulk and her to be sweet. I think a lot of the stuff you mentioned regarding Melia does an excellent job of giving her added complexity and a contextualizing a lot of her familial relationships that we see in the game.
Totally understandable! I kind of viewed it as a matter of perspective for awhile too and I can definitely see the argument. I think it was when my friend pointed out the desire for friendship and how that felt more in line with the more sympathetic Klaus of XC2 that I started to believe in that interpretation more intensely.
The combat was honestly something that felt really wonky to me at first and made me put the game down for a bit before continuing again. That's awesome that you were able to come around on the combat of the original, though! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with the series over the years!
Bruh Xenoblade DE is a wee few months old so I dunno wot in tarnation yer "5 years later" hooliganry is all bout
It's in reference to the last time I completed the original Xenoblade Chronicles! Either that or I'm time traveling, but you didn't hear that from me.
My problem with Future Connected is the fact that with the understandable, in a way, lack of Shulk's visions they didn't change high-level combat to work without them. I found myself struggling in FC due to a lack of high-quality gems early on as well as attacks coming out of nowhere that one-shotted with very little counter other than predicting them. I'm not a game designer so I don't know a good fix but I just felt frustrated and without chain attacks, I felt as if I had very little control over combat in the moments where I felt it was necessary.
I played Xenoblade first on the N3DS and loved it but found a lot of the more interesting side quests very confusing and obtuse - the most memorable being the King Agni and Tomb of the 3 Sages. Never did them. Never knew how.
With the QoL changes in Definitive Edition, I did almost every side quests and started a 3rd playthrough until I got my hands on XC2 which I'm playing through now.
I adored this game on the 3DS and thanks for DE, I now love it even more
I agree that the cutscene should have been changed.
BUT
I like to think that because this cutscene is played while zanza is still alive, the cutscene is different due to the innate differences between klaus and zanza
That's why Zanzas depiction is more aggressive and forceful as he likes to exude dominance
Whilst Klaus' depiction is more logical and calm, showing more care for Meyneth and not being too overwhelming and abusive.
That's just a theory😉
I think the parallels between Xenoblade 1 and 2 are brilliant and they compliment each other very well. Though, I still like the original the most as it reminded me why I loved this genre during a time where it felt like quality RPGs were becoming scarce.
My thoughts exactly.
Honestly sorta agree for the klaus cutscene needing changes, even getting rid of the randos in the background could’ve helped. I remember playing XC2 and thinking “oh shit are the souls of these titans the people seen in the background with meyneth and klaus at the end of XC1?” But nah. we didn’t even need to see the conduit or much lines of dialogue really Imo, I’d say just a different perspective and context and yes give galea her name and better characterisation that 2 better implemented, I still love this game and it’s one of my favourites but I agree with you that there’s aspects that all it needed was a bit more tweaking and consultation for it to be even better, this was an amazing video thank you for the hard work!!
I always enjoy listening to your thoughts. I’ve played XC, XC2 and Torna before, but am playing them all back-to-back now and am part way through The Golden Country. I think the one thing that sticks out to me is how much more frequent, stronger and interesting the characters interactions in XC2 are, compared to XC.
BIG SPOILERS BELOW FOR XC AND XC2
XC is really plot heavy and leaves little room for the party to interact as people. Not only does the breakneck pacing of the first game afford the characters little chance to actually talk, when they do talk, it’s generally in the service of furthering the plot, rather than the characters on screen. Riki could be removed from the game entirely, while Sharla is introduced, forgotten about for 30 hours and then roped back into the main plot in a pretty clunky way. If you take Shulk out of the game, Seven has no character.
There’s no Mythra and Poppi talking about the dangers and destructive qualities of technology in the world, no Nia revealing her life on the run as an outcast who is too scared to reveal her true nature, no Morag and Nial reminiscing about holidays to Gormott - with the former left searching for meaning in her life after inheriting a role she never expected to inhabit. The start of Chapter 7 when the whole gang get into a spat when Rex considers abandoning his quest entirely, is fantastic character work. Or how when Rex tells Pyra she needs to stop apologising, or when he takes her to his parents graves, etc. There’s load of brilliant character moments in XC2 that just don’t really exist it the first game. It also helps that all main party heart to hearts are voiced and not locked behind affinity. Characters also get yet more interactions away from the main plot in blade quests.
I can understand preferring the look of the main cast of XC, the voice work and their general dynamic. But they, Shulk, Melia and perhaps Dunban aside, all feel so shallow.
And when it comes to villains, I enjoy Metal Face, but Egil is the best villain in the game and his lack of screen time is criminal. The other villains in the game are poor. I think most people love the big twist, but it’s essentially the death of the plot in some ways. I’d take Jin, Malos and Amalthus every day of the week. Each of them get loads of screen time, do way more in the narrative and have better interactions with the party. Torna also interacts with each other in a way that builds the sense they’re team. Jin and Malos have a bit of a bromance going on, Mikhail and Patroka have this weird confrontational, but flirtatious relationship going on, etc.
Just thought I’d chime in on my thoughts. I generally think, despite all the characters being likeable, the party writing is fairly weak in the first game. Not every character needs a big arc, but half the cast offer very little in my opinion. Thanks for the video and stirring my thoughts.
Oh I agree. You play XC for the main plot, you play XC2 for the characters, and you play XCX to treat a Nopon like a potato.
My friend Rudra shares a lot of similar opinions as you regarding the characters. These are the kinds of thoughts that make me want to replay Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as it's the only one I haven't gone through twice. For some reason, despite some of the characters I found weaker, I always like the cast of XC1 more. I think I see all of these XC2 character moments and I enjoy them, but another playthrough might contextualize them for me in a new way. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the two titles!
KayJulers thanks for the response! I really enjoy the main cast in XC and I think the excellent pacing of the first game helps mask the lack of consistent character writing. The story - from Prison Island onwards anyway - builds momentum incredibly well and it’s hard to demand more from the party when there’s so much happening and so quickly. There’s nothing wrong with liking the first cast more - but I think if you’re invested in the cast of XC2, there’s just a lot more to sink your teeth into.
MORE SPOILERS
It’s the same with the world in general for me. I think the Bionis/Mechonis combo is perhaps the more captivating concept, in comparison to XC2’s titans. But the latter just has so much more going on. Tensions are rising between nations, Gormott has been occupied by the Ardanians who are frantically looking for a new home as their titan reaches the end of its life, Indol controls when and where blades are born and are blackmailing the Tantalese, whose royalty are trading the prosperity of their people in order to protect their dirty secret. It feels like a world occupied by real communities who have goals, ambitions, secrets and so on.
I think you can tell the first Xenoblade was not originally a Xeno game at all. Despite the more garish costumes and goofy anime moments in XC2, I think it delves deeper into the detail than XC ever does and delivers on that Xeno-feeling moreso.
Regardless, you should play XC2 and Torna back-to-back and pull together a video. I’m replaying Torna for the first time myself and the additional characterisation of the likes of Mythra and Jin, the way it recontextualises scenes from the main game, reveals how the relationships between blades and humans developed, etc really enhances what is already a very dense mythos.
Whatever you do, keep making great content. The entire Xeno community is behind you. :)
I have a different opinion about the ending. Although i never played the original, I played xbc2 first and this year I played the definitiv edition. I already knew from a friend that these universes were connected through Klaus, so in the definitiv edition I wanted to find out the whole Mysterie behind him in that game. And I like that they kept the original ending. I like to think that this is the way how Zanza rembers those events, while in the birth of a universe it's the way the Architect remembers those events.
Ironically, I actually ended up liking Future Connected quite a lot, while I really didn't enjoy the Torna DLC all that much. For most people, it seems to be the other way around. Maybe a lot of this just comes down to expectations. Torna was really hyped up by a lot of people, so I expected a phenomenal DLC. However, when I played it, I quickly felt as though it had quite a lot of padding and very little actual story content. Old areas also didn't feel changed enough for me to have much fun exploring them again. That overall left me with a pretty sour taste after finishing the DLC. Future Connected, on the other hand, a lot of people really seemed to dislike or at the very least be underwhelmed by, so I expected nothing more than a short time waster. Was pleasently surprised then that it actually turned out to be a rather nice and inoffensive continuation of the base story with a few genuinely touching character moments. For me, it was the better overall package over Torna, but I think I can still see what some people did like about Torna.
Theres a scene towards the end of future connected where Melia says that she senses something bad coming in the future.
Oh, something is. If you know pre-Xenoblade Xeno lore you have an idea what it is.
this whole port is a visual and iconic remakster masterpiece! the only con I have for this remakster is that the new targeting icon for enemies obscures the enemies a ton especially small enemies, it sorta makes the bonus effect prompts required while with 2 and the og game (on new 3ds) I could do arts fine
This is the only game in recent memory for me that I Instantly wanted to replay in years. I want to 100% this game and then give Xenoblade 2 another shot at 100%. The amount of content 2 had previously just crushed me, but I think I'm almost ready to go at it
You're stronger than I am haha. I originally wanted to 100% Xenoblade 2, but just felt so overwhelmed with BotW and Odyssey there too. You have my energy.
@@KayJulers Thanks to the amount of Xenoblade content creators now it shouldn't be as bad as in 2017. I'm sure your Videos and Enel's tutorials will keep me going
The slowest with 78 hours? I'm 60 in and still in Alcamoth, haven't gotten to Prison island.
It will take me 120 at the least.
I guess that happens when you like to talk to all npc's and do all side content.
Re-watching this, and I totally agree at how much that fucking SOUNDTRACK's impact, I still love it to death, and don't know when I'll get tired of it.
Oh no this guy is everywhere
might be my memory being terrible since it's been a while, so I can't remember the exact sequence of events, but the first time I played through the game I thought Dickson talking about deceiving them was about a boss fight immediately after or just what to expect in Makna and about the High Entia. I had no clue he was actually up to anything until it happened. DE was my second full playthrough, so I knew by that point, I just felt it was decent foreshadowing since I still felt like it could be talking about the events immediately coming up.
When i first played xenoblade a few years ago it genuinely changed my life and got me out of some hard times and continues to do so today. I think that feeling of getting over hardships despite being only human thats tied with the game and was and is tied to our lives still impacts me just as much as it did the first time. Seeing xenoblade represented in any way at all brings me a lot of joy and reminds me that there are good things to look forward to and that I'll find them sooner or later. Definitive edition rekindled that feeling with an even brighter flame that makes me want to smile and laugh but also burst into tears at the same time. It definitely met my expectations and im so glad that I got to experience this masterpiece again. thanks for the video man, it was a joy to watch
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing your story and experiences with the game! That final message about looking toward the future is one that really resonates with me. Xenoblade's come a long way since that original release and I think we'll be seeing more representation and success as the series continues.
I like how your Xenobalde X character is wearing a mask, neat little touch
I'm a big sucker for face masks even if that makes my character look edgy lol.
My feelings about Dickson's reveal are heavily colored by my own experience with it. Obviously, I knew he was up to SOMETHING from early on, but what specifically that something was still took me by surprised. I found myself on the wrong track, thinking that he wanted to destroy the restored Fiora, which may have meant he knew she wasn't fully dead. Then wham, actual reveals.
maybe since I played the game in a span of two years and hadn't seen the Satoru Marsh scene in a while I would have been super surprised. I only knew that Dickson was bad when I got spoiled when looking up something for a quest before the mechonis core section
i find ''engage the enemy (remastered)'' vocal part gives me more chills than the normal part.
Music has a special way to provoke thought and memory recollection. perhaps what i find mesmorizing is not the vocal, but the emotion attached to the vocal when i first watch fiora epic cutscene.
As we listen back to the song while driving, and the melody hit that climax. Emotions, visual flash back happens
For newer players who experience on switch, its the vocal.
For older players who first experience on wii, its the instrumental.
Yeah, I really love both versions of the song, but I honestly like the remastered version quite a bit more.
xenoblade x and 2 were my first xenoblade games, so the first version of xenoblade one I got to experience was the definitive edition, and I can definitely see why people were hyped over this one. It’s story and characters and set pieces are phenomenal, and it’s definitely my favorite xenoblade as far as story and character writing are concerned (this might be an unpopular opinion, but xenoblade x actually has the best gameplay, especially with the class customization and skells).
I like how neutral yet favoritism tones that you have on this video is very good! It's a way to show that you still love this game but you can notice it's hiccups. Most of the video i agree with but the thing i REAAAALLY don't agree with is XC2's combat being a "step up". While there are ways to mitigate aggro in XC2 the combat of that game is.....contradictory to what we see and how we were told to play it.
The combat in XC2 (not torna) is a spectacle but also a working place. The amount of circumstances and situations you have to complete before doing those massive and beautiful numbers are waaaaay to much. From waiting until your link chain is golden, to timing your cancel combos, to waiting for the meter to build up while also managing which elemental reaction you need to activate, while also managing what combos your teammates need to do WHILE at the same time working around the enemy and play "Hot Potato" with the aggro (i miss the Wiggles so much man) is insane. Not to mention there are enemies that impede your work and sometimes outright deny it (hate the seal status). All of this, just so you can extend your chain attack to another round.
On one hand this is satisfying once you pull it off and get to sit back and relax for a couple of seconds while enjoying the attack.
on the other hand, QTE's in the middle of said spectacle and having to always build it up get's somewhat....annoying and depressing sometimes (specially if you get interrupted partway of building that elemental orb, that is just the biggest cuk holding thing to ever happen).
Then there's the slow movement this game has that for some reason (despite having positional arts) which don't really give you much of a reason to move, other then trying to get aggro first and pull of the AOE arts. But other then that, movement in that game is weird (specially since you get faster if the link chain is golden BUT OOPS you went to far away, time to build up that link again chain). There are ways to circumvent these issues, in the forms of equipment BUT as you can see, you only have 3 slots so most of your build up stats will depend on your level and that system has it's own issues (shortest version of it being: levels don't matter).
Torna fixes SOME of these problems and it's still my favorite version of XC2 (The [redacted] slander in that game is a lot though) so i recommend it for everyone who want's a faster paced game (some forced sidequest sucks, but it's mostly a minor thing for me).
still recommend people to play both XCDE and XC2 with passion. they are great games by themselves, and even though i don't agree about XC2 combat being the "Next step up" and i rather much it being it's own thing for it's own game, there still something to enjoy there.
I don't want to be that guy, but "Gaur Plains" is actually just like 20% of Bionis' Leg
Also holy shit I didn't know 2 had half the side quests of 1
After beating Definitive Edition, I decided to try going through Xenoblade 2 again, and I still vastly prefer Xenoblade 1's sidequests to 2's if you take Merc Missions into account. Having my gameplay constantly interrupted every 5 to 10 minutes by returning groups gets extremely aggravating to me, and Ursula's affinity chart is downright inexcusable. I'm the kind of person who likes to 100% complete any game I can, but Xenoblade 2 honestly just breaks me. I genuinely get anxiety from expecting my gameplay to be interrupted any second by having to send _another_ merc group out.
Even outside of Merc groups, I still can't stand the side content in the game because maxing out the Affinity charts of any new rare blades I get oftentimes requires me to go back to old areas I have been to and beat vastly underlevelled monsters. It's especially annoying when certain blades ask you to do the exact same thing as another blade. Granted, a lot of these types of requirements can be automatically filled by merc missions, but as I said before I absolutely despise doing merc missions, and the ones requiring you to beat a unique monster can't be completed this way anyways. In my current playthrough I've beaten Supercharged Alfonso 4 times now. Once because I just saw him and wanted to kill him, then 3 more times because I kept getting new blades that required me to kill him for their charts.
By the time I got to Indol, I just quit trying to complete everything because it was making me really hate playing the game. Funnily enough, I'm pretty sure I actually quit trying to 100% complete the game at around the same point on my first playthrough too. It's a lot more enjoyable when I don't have to worry about so much of that monotony, but even still I'll get new blades with affinity chart requirements that ask me to kill monsters from several areas ago, and it's still extremely aggravating to have to do that if I want to add them to me team and have them be on par with the rest of my options.
Even though you could argue that Xenoblade 1's side quests are less meaningful, I still vastly preferred doing them as a gameplay experience because they usually felt like a natural extension of what I was currently doing anyways. The side quests always asked that you defeat monsters on par with what your level should be as long as you recieved them as soon as they were available, and there was never any redundancy within the quests either. You would never have 5 different quests in Xenoblade 1 all tell you to do the exact same thing, as they were all totally unique, even if they were oftentimes shallow. If a quest told you to beat 3 of a specific enemy, you could go do that, and then probably never battle that specific type of enemy again if you didn't want to. I feel like Xenoblade 2 got it extremely wrong on all fronts by having these sorts of shallow quests where you go kill 5 enemies have a significant impact on gameplay by locking blade affinity chart skills behind them, by making you repeat them over and over by having multiple blades asking you to do the same thing, and by making it possible to only have some of these affinity chart missions available when you're absurdly overlevelled for the task thanks to the randomness of the blade system.
My point in saying this is that although I can absolutely acknowledge the flaws in Xenoblade 1's sidequests, I frankly see Xenoblade 2 as a strict _downgrade_ in this aspect, even if it is a little less obvious.
As for Xenoblade X, it has honestly been quite a while since I've pulled that game out, so it's hard for me to remember my exact feelings on it. I think I remember having issues with it's sidequests as well, but I think that had more to do with the fact that game on the whole just wasn't exactly for me in a lot of ways.
Same actually, I think sidequests should be short and only a few should be story + worldbuilding etc (named NPC quests). I do like the voiced Blade quests mostly. But not when the merc missions are used too much like Ursula's.
Xc2 problem is TOO MUCH Blades! I dont mind just using blades that was set by the story, the added blades with the core , i just hate it
I have to say, as someone who played xenoblade on the wii for over 500h recorded time, i grew to love the old graphics, to the point where they felt natural to me, but playing this new version i came to realize how much room there was for improvement, in fact, the anime-esk asthetic will hold for many years to come as we all know historically games going for sheer realism usually look outdated in 5 years time
I loved the first game and think definitive edition improved a few more kinks than the normal player may experience, most notable of which being some weapon gems
I think your criticisms on that marsh moment with dickson, albeit fair, would overall change the perspective of new players playing the game, it fooled me as a few cutscenes before that dickson was flaunting about being "well traveled" and i thought the *decievement* was about forcing the party to take riki or something (look, i was a dumb kid)
About the music, i have to admit i never really noticed the changes before listening to stuff side to side, but i think that speaks more to how beautifully the music ties in with the old versions, i used to be a singer on a chorus too so that one high note you complained about is pretty much fan service to me
future connected story was pretty... weak... but the point of it wasnt to be a Xenoblade Chronicles 1,5 in fact the reason that got me the most HYPED to play it was just the fact we were gonna be able to explore the shoulder without hacking, to me that was the main reason why it was a thing, and im quite happy with how it turned out
i finished xc1de last week, as my true first experience with xenoblade (i tried and quit on the 3ds). it wasnt what i was expecting but still loved it
999 Is a fucking masterpiece. Other games of the zero escape Series don't click on me as the first, mindblowing
I couldn't agree with you more about the remastered music. Engage The Enemy was as disappointing as it was distracting. On the other side of things, the changes to many of the atmospheric tracks were amazing. The Alcamoth themes in particular stood out as major improvements.
It seems like the new Engage the Enemy is pretty contentious from my discussions with a lot of people. Yet, a friend and I have talked about Agniratha Night a lot and how great it is! They did a pretty fantastic job on those environmental tracks.
When he brought up his music gripes the Engage the enemy vocals was the one thing I was looking for
I really like this review. One of the reasons is that some of your opinions are completely different to mine and it's really cool to hear arguments from the opposing side of an aspect. To give an example, you mentioned how the engage the enemy remaster made you feel a bit underwhelmed, whereas i enjoyed the song a lot, and the very thing that you don't like about it is part of the reason i personally, prefer it over the original.
With the story, you mentioned as a personal thing, you felt a bit underwhelmed because you saw the cutscenes already so many times and you knew them like the back of your hand. On the other hand, even though i know the cutscenes extremely well, when rewatching the new cutscenes whilst playing DE, i felt that the amazing visuals and facial expressions coupled with the remastered music captivated me all over again, even though i knew exactly what was going to happen.
Also, when you mentioned your personal aspects on the story and how it didn't captivate you as much as you hoped, it made me remember watching my 14 year old neice play Xenoblade on the switch for the first time. As i was watching her play, i left to go do something else and when i came back i just saw her strolling around colony 9 after watching the picnic at outlook park cutscene. Like, not doing side quests or anything just walking around the colony completely immersed by the atmosphere of the setting and the game itself. She's put in 2 hours into the game and hasn't even gone into tephra cave for the first time yet. It makes me feel bad knowing exactly what happens in chapter 2 because Fiora is her favourite character.
However, it also excites me knowing that I'll get to watch someone experience this amazing game first hand. I'm bringing up this story because i think you might find it interesting how even to this day, the game is still making huge impressions on people that are playing it for the first time, the same way it made impressions on us when we played the original. To elaborate, she knows next to nothing about the game or the story except for a few minor things.
She also sat through the entire title screen listening to the music until the song ended. Which is funny because i think we all did that as well... multiple times.
if anyone is reading this and made it through to the end of my 5 paragraphs, hat's off to you.
I really appreciate that! I was originally afraid to post this video, but it's comments and mentalities like this that made it worth it.
The story of your niece is incredibly sweet and that put a smile on my face. I hope she continues to enjoy the game! Those are the kinds of experiences I want to see people have and it's why I recommend this game to so many of my friends. From what you've said, a lot of her experiences sound exactly like those that myself and countless others had. Listening to that title screen and breathing it in, wondering around with no set goal to take in the settings, it's nostalgic. Part of me wonders deep down if I just wasn't in the right headspace in my DE play-through to truly appreciate it.
Thank you for sharing!
@@KayJulers your welcome! I'm gonna hopefully let my niece play chapter 2 (She is using my switch). My only worry is that she might get discouraged and not want to play the game anymore, but I'll never know till it happens. So here's to hoping it all goes well.
OH YEAH. When you mentioned you recommending the game to some friends it made me remeber a funny story. So, a friend (I'll call him Frank for privacy reasons) and i are both really interested in Xenoblade, and when DE came out we were all wanting our friends to play it. One of our friends in particular (I'll call him jimbo) sits on the bus with Frank for an hour long bus ride everyday to get home. So during this time, Frank would non-stop talk about Xenoblade during this hour long bus ride. So as a joke, Frank and i would pester him about the game. Like, we'd all just be talking and Frank would say something like "did you know how busted topple locking is?". We never took it to harrasment or anything, and Jimbo knew it was all for a joke seeing how he'd laugh everytime we talked about it. it was Jimbos birthday this week, so Frank decided to buy him a copy of Xenoblade Definitive for his birthday. He hasn't recieved the gift yet but it'll be funny. (especially if he ends up falling in love with the game).
Also, it's really cool how you reply to all the comments in your videos. Thanks for that!
Concerning the music segment, I have a few complaints. For starters, I wish they gave Egil his own battle theme at the Mechonis Core considering it's the last fight with him and the last fight on Mechonis in general. It felt empty giving him the normal boss theme. I mostly dislike this because of XC2 where there were many unique battle themes for different characters and enemies for no reason. The second thing is Zanza's theme during his fight. The old theme actually fits him more than the remaster. Other than that, I don't really have any issues with music in the main game.
Concerning the bonus chapter, I did not like it. I feel it doesn't compare to the main game at all in terms of quality. The ponspectors get in the way far too much during fights, there are too many of them to be on screen at once. I didn't like how they used Zanza's theme as the Fog King's battle theme nor the fact that they reused the model of the guldo enemy in XC2, it just doesn't fit.
Gotta say it’s quite funny to see someone else who was left impacted by mgs 3 and then xenoblade which were the first two games that really left a lasting impact on me
Best written review I've seen in some time it deserves a like I only hope the game gets more updates to help the game where it lacks #Klaus 👌 👏
I never had the nostalgia factor going into the game that a lot of people did, since I never owned a Wii in the past. Despite that, having gotten Definitive Edition on the Switch, it has easily become my absolute favorite game ever (and I have played a shit load of games). Even if I do not play it every day, I legitimately think about it every day, as the game has been that moving for me.
I've had a Wii for the past 12 years and I still have it, but I'd never heard of nor played this game until a few months ago. My best friend played it on the Switch and she really wanted me to play it so she let me borrow the game to play on my own Switch. But it became my favorite game of all time and I don't know if any game can ever surpass it (though I think I said the same thing about Breath of the Wild and yet, here we are)
As many faults Future Connected has you gotta admit, the Ponspecters "Final Smash" attack always brings me joy whenever I have to face a hard creature
It was my first time through I haven't played the expansion content yet, I liked the combat a bit more than xc2, but I never played torna yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed it for the most part, except for the vast quantity of side quests, they got me so lost in them I ended up putting the game down for a long while, I still think it's great overall though.
The sidequests are definitely a problem and something Monolith seem to be getting better with, but still has room for improvement. Torna's combat is a lot of fun, so you'll probably enjoy it!
I think I'm just a masochist or very dedicated, but doing these sidequests feels good to me. I want to 100% this game at some point, but due to moving issues I'm still only 45 hours into my 100% playthrough.
So uhh let's see what point I can start with.
Firstly finally a reyn fan :^] he often gets the bruh he is only a Lancer treatment. But I think he's nicely done for xenoblade being more about the world than the characters theyselfs (don't being mean if you like them over everything else but the debs said so)
Secondly actually I like in a way the missions xenoblade 1, it helps to bring the theme of community that is build slowly not just in colony 6 but in all the world. They also help to make worldbuilding some characters can't see their family because the conflict or the racist high entida in alcamonth for example. They help to see the world, and well not everyone has something interesting to say, it is true for our world to. Still torna sidequest might better in every way, but I will have xeno 1 520 sidequest over the sidequest in normal 2,even with all the problems in 1.
Also for DE I love the camera. And more now than we can just take a picture with the capture button on the switch controller. It is just fun to search to cool stuff and find a good angle to do some screenshots.
But finally I have to agree with you here. The game gets a little stale if you have been following it and watching videos like this often.
It would be better if you leave xeno 1 alone for a while, but the truth is not even that would make the emotions you feel the first time the same and that makes me truly sad in a way. Is still enjoyable but if you know everything in the story and even some lines at points it just get boring.
Could you do an analysis on the new Zelda OoT romhack "The Missing Link"? Maybe in the context of the cultural impact of OoT and MM.
I think there is a lot to unpack and the game (only like 3 hours long) is pretty good.
I am of the opinion that every single remastered track is a lot better than the originals, I genuinely think the new Engage the Enemy is a lot better, the vocals are actually why I love it so much
entirely agree about the pacing issues. First playthrough I noticed nothing but playing through DE the bit before egil felt really squeezed together. Couldve been spread out across the later mechonis sections much better. anyway this is 100% by far my favorite game so I'm glad to see you loved it so much as well
I completely agree on your opinions on the three tracks you specifically pointed out; Tragic Decision and An Obstacle in Our Path are easily the biggest improvements while Engage the Enemy is significantly worse
I can't get over how good those two are now and I thought they were already solid! Also, great profile picture!
@@KayJulers Yeah, I listen to them a lot casually, it's incredible how much of an improvement they are honestly.
Also thanks man, I think I commented on one of them a while ago but I loved your ZE videos too, they were really well formulated.
World's slowest? It took me 108 hours (in the span of 11 days) to beat XCDE. On another note, whenever you talk about this game your enthusiasm is just infectious. I might disagree with some of the things that you've said here and there, and, love it as I do, I might not be as fond of this game as you are, but I can't help but admire how passionate you are about it, for I know that joy of gushing over one of your favourite games. Also, for better AND worse (since some games' progression curves aren't designed to be over by the time you beat the game) I never replay games which aren't almost purely founded on replayability, and your experience with XCDE is one of the main reasons why. Funnily enough, I felt the urge to replay (if you can call playing NG+ so I could totally 100% the game a replay, as I had already done everything there was to do in the base game) XC2 for study purposes (study applies to both character analysis, as it's hard to keep track of every character's motivations on first playthrough, especially when taking into account Torna wasn't even out back then, and, most importantly, watching all the cutscenes with swimsuits on), and to this day it's the only game I've ever replayed. Lastly, I bet you're told this on a quasi-daily basis, and you probably plan on doing it, but I thoroughly recommend playing Xenosaga. I played the games right after XCDE and I loved it just as much, for quite different reasons but ones which I think can easily resonate with fans of the Xeno series. That being said, I always find myself looking forward to your next video whenever I'm done with your latest one, so keep up the great work!
I guess in raw hours it certainly wasn't too slow, but I didn't beat it until August and I felt like I was so far behind everyone else haha. And thank you for the kind words! I really do love this series and one of the best aspects of making videos is the ability to show that passion and find like-minded people.
Those reasons are why I want to revisit Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I already love the game and view it as one of my favorites, but I wonder if a revisit would make me appreciate it more. Luckily, I have Xenosaga I and II, but need to track down a reasonably priced copy of III. That's the hard part lol. I actually started Xenogears and have been getting footage of that, so I think I will likely tackle Xenosaga after that one.
Thanks again for watching the video and sticking with me!
I can't decide between Engage the Enemy DE or the OG, I really like the sound balance of DE but the vocals throw me off. This also applies to Satorl Marsh, it sucks that we can't get a mix of both.
That's what a couple friends and I were talking about. If we could hit this perfect balance between both versions then we could say it'd be the best hands down.
Great review!! But why did you spoil XC2 without any warning? :(
Thanks, and I said there would be spoilers for XC2 in the spoiler warning intro.
9:51 wow I got to level 99, beat all the side quests, and never knew that, must’ve spammed A on that one
So one my best friends told me to play xenoblade like 2 years ago, and i did it, (with a few other friends, but I was the only one playing and tthey were watchiing) i had soooo much fun the first time I played it on wii ! But i got stuck on the tyrea fight in the tomb and stopped playing.... Then i played xc2 but my best friend told me to stop before chapter 10, and just before i got to chapter 10, xc définitive édition came out. So i bouughtt it and loved it. Then came back to xc2 and these 2 games became my favorites.. (I also fouund out that xenogears and saga were connecter to xenoblade)
Riki also has alot of development in the base game through heart to hearts
I love the vibe of Isolation in this game
I love that line from Egil about the blade not being deep enough also because it's a Shakespeare reference to when Mercutio was stabbed in Romeo and Juliet and he said "twas not deep, but was deep enough". Takes a line from classic writing and inverts it in a powerful way
I've already been spoiled so many times about how xc1 and 2 are connected TT^TT
I'm sorry to hear about that :/ Hopefully you can/were able to still enjoy them regardless of the spoilers!
I'm not a fan to some of the clothing, coloring, and texture changes, cause it makes some stuff stand out as not feeling natural to the world, or almost plastic-y (a more extreme change in this nature can be felt in the Spongebob Squarepants Battle for Bikini Bottom remake where it feels almost sterile). I don't mind all the musical changes and a lot of the updates are great, but I didn't find them all necessary, and I did feel that musical difference you mentioned in Fiora's death cutscene. I appreciate being able to move and auto attack again. I know it technically gives you less control over battle, but when positioning is so important in a combat system, I loved returning to movement not being penalized in combat, after 2. I also actually prefer this chain attack system better than 2's because you use standard arts with standard effects, instead of only specials, so you can build big damage with same color arts, or you could use the opportunity to topple or daze an opponent, among other choices. It felt more tactical to me, in that way, and less of a "get my opponent to half HP and then destroy them all at once" ultimate attack. But that's personal preference. So as far as DE is concerned, I like it. It's not amazing nor is it terrible. It's kinda just a different way to play the game after the original, though I think the original release will always hold a special spot in my heart (btw, play that with a Wii classic controller pro or on Wii U with the gamepad for smooth camera controls).
I'm mostly just glad people get the chance to experience this game for the first time in a way they weren't able to before, without any hurdles standing in the way. I hope they do a few updates for optimization, though it's league's better than 2 ever got optimized to be, but still, it's no technical marvel like X was back on the Wii U. It's great for exploitative gamers who just want to immerse themselves in a world and run around it getting lost in the nature of the world, and who also like a great story. I'm happy it didn't oversell its connections with 2, as this game is a wonderful standalone experience and I believe that is the ideal form for most games
I don't think either 1 or 2 are better than the other or that either is incorrect with their depiction of Klaus before resetting the universe. I think both are equally true and the different scenes just focus on the aspects that actually apply to their respective versions that appear.
That said, I wouldn't have minded them throwing the Zohar in there. Not sure why it wasn't.
Honestly I prefer the way the 1st game handles sidequests more than the 2nd does. In 2 the sidequests are way more involved, which isn't a bad thing, but it can be a pain to do them with the way the compass works in that game. In Definitive edition there's a ton of quests but I can just do many of them while on the way to the next story objective.
So the shift in focus kind of leads to the sidequests in XC2 feeling more like distractions than actual sidequests? If that's the case then I could honestly see that.
I personally find Xenoblade's sidequests a lot more engaging than Xenoblade 2's, but honestly, I feel as though X has the best of the series - I'm not counting monster/collection quests since both the original and X have those anyway
5 playthroughs of the original (+1 DE)
4 playthroughs of X
4 playthroughs of 2 (+1 Torna)
After all this, I find X's NPCs to be the most memorable, followed by the original, then Torna, then 2
X has the single sidequest that left the biggest impression on me with Lakeside Getaway and probably has the biggest list of quest plot lines that I can remember. I have to give it massive props for that.
@@KayJulers Yes, I remember that one quite well... In general, X's sidequests seem to tackle some heavier topics - not that the other games are completely exempt
I also love the aspect of them different questlines intersecting and crossing over the further into the game you get, especially after Chapter when everything comes to a head; the sense of community built by the different races is also really nice
As a sidenote, I think the new Engage the Enemy is my favorite of the remastered tracks - I van see why people don't like it, but I think it's the pinnacle of the remastering for me (was my favorite track already, and now I like it even more lol)
Wow, this video was GREAT. As someone who personally isn’t a huge fan of Xenoblade 1, I went into this video expecting to be kind of annoyed and probably quit a couple minutes in. But your editing and speaking voice are so great, it’s just a very “satisfying” video to watch. The best way I can explain it is this video is the Xenoblade Definitive Edition UI of TH-cam videos. I hope that makes sense lol. It’s just all so well presented.
BUT I personally disagree with like, everything about the story still. Sure it’s presented well and the pacing is generally great like you said. But the story itself is just so unoriginal and blech to me. As a longtime Xeno fan, I can’t help but feel like the story of XC1 is just an extremely simplified and boring version of Xenogears. You mentioned you loved the Fiora Death and Zanza Reveal cutscenes, but those are two of my least favorite, again because they’re just so derivative.
In Gears, Fei unintentionally slaughters almost his entire village. The survivors banish him and he’s forced to wander the woods, aimless and hating himself. How many stories begin with the main character committing accidental genocide? It’s just so unique and gripping. In XC1, Fiora is killed by a bad guy and Colony 9 and its NPCs are left unscathed. I know it gets more complex later, but in the moment it’s framed in a much more traditional, “good guy vs bad guy” way than the morally grey emotional horror of Gears. Again, it just feels so much more generic and like a weak copy of a previous game in the exact same series!
Same with the Zanza reveal. The main character is shot through the chest by someone he trusted, only for that person to then reveal that god was the bad guy the whole time. Like, it’s almost the exact same scene. Why? Why are we just doing Gears again? You mentioned how you liked that Zanza was manipulating everything from behind the curtain the whole time; but so was Deus. Except Deus wasn’t just some basic jRPG god, but a thousands year-old computer that results in this amazing existential crisis when you realize that your epic, 60 hour long fantasy story is actually just the story of a computer trying to reboot itself. Again, Gears is so creative and weird. XC1 feels like it takes the bones of Gears, and changes it to a much more generic story,
That said, I don’t usually watch 40 minute videos on games I don’t particularly like. I can’t exaggerate how great this video is, it’s presented so smoothly and efficiently. Your passion for XC1 is obvious, and you are clearly just really freaking good at making TH-cam videos. Even if I totally disagree with your perspective, I gotta subscribe because your video making skills are just phenomenal.
As someone who has played the entire story without side questing I feel really guilty for not rebuilding colony 6 lol
I so glad you could buy collectables from the nopon sage to rebuild colony 6!
premier1975 That was definitely a great addition! I also never played much of 2’s challenge mode, so I had fun diving into it more with DE.
I was really hoping Future Connected would put ShulkxMelia back in the realm of possibility....
Sigh
Guess I'll just have to stick to fanfiction then!
The pacing towards the end is a little wonky. Idk it was just twist after twist after twist. It felt overwhelming.