Some clarification about ACE vs. ACE+: It's true that the group went by ACE+ when Hiramatsu was a member, however Xenoblade 1 is the only OST in the series where that is the case; Hiramatsu worked solo for 2 and 3, so Tomori Kudo and CHiCO are simply ACE in those games. So 21:42 and 23:14 should say "Composed by ACE", meanwhile 8:44 and 9:26 are accurate. Oh, and the reason I care is because Hiramatsu and ACE are super talented composers who gave us some of the most memorable tracks in the series, so the more specific we are when crediting them for their compositions the better. Also because ACE and ACE+ is a confusing naming scheme and I see people miss the distinction all the time, even to this day.
A cool detail about Valak Mountain is that at first glance, it’s confusing why it is so snowy and cold when it’s right next to the hot and humid Makna. However when you play 2, you learn that Tantal is so cold because Genbu’s ether is constantly being drained to get Core Chips. Because the right arm is where the Mechonis is sucking the Bionis’ ether, that could be why Valak remains so cold when Makna remains so hot.
well, the hand is gripping the sword, but the sword is really draining ether out of the _stomach._ I'm not sure that really tracks. They sorta said it as if it was because it was up to high. Makna is a lot lower, down on the back. Then Eryth is above it, and we know water helps regulate temps, plus they have all that high tech so they're not freezing.. but it makes sense for both shoulders to be cold. Weird that the other shoulder was ALWAYS planned to not be cold though.
@@lemmyxpro it gets better when there's a npc late game that talks about the world's sun being made of ether and it doesn't actually set or rise; it just "turns off." The environments make even more sense once you realize the sun is in a fixed position in the sky.
Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm excited to finally share this video with you all! 2024 has been a bit light on content, but I'm hoping to make 2025 more exciting. Thank you for all of your support this year, and I hope you have a wonderful end of the year!
Awesome video, snow regions in Xeno go really hard!! Tantal is easily my favorite location in all of Xeno, there's something so magical about climbing the architecture of Genbu.
I do agree that Valak Mountain is my favourite out of all the snowy areas in Xenoblade. That quiet, secluded corner of the world with the gorgeous purple and golden hues during the night-time is just so freakin' magical. However, the Black Mountains are emotionally gripping to me, with the blend of its weather conditions, purpose in the game's narrative, the MUSIC (oh my god the music), and the ascension toward Origin. Black Mountains are literal peak, and the lead up to the truth and culmination of what makes Xenoblade an emotional masterpiece. Love this video man, and you're honestly one of my favourite Xenoblade content creators on TH-cam 🙏
You know I need to see more videos on Xenoblade locales like this. Starting towns, the opening grassy plains, ocean areas (especially this one, I need someone else to gush about Eryth, Leftheria, and Erythia PLEASE), the final dungeons, caves, etc.
8:46 you mentioned resemblance to a lullaby, imagine if this portion was a lullaby Shulk's mother hummed for him while traversing the snow storm? Now I wanna cry 😂😢
woaaah I didn't expect you to use my translations of the Liner's Note, thank you for the shout out at 36:00 !!! Thinking that it has helped you makes me very happy !
amazing video KayJulers! Next level production quality and research are on display here. I look forward to seeing your next video, the wait was worth it!
The snow areas of Xenoblade are some of the most atmospheric in their respective games, and I agree with their place in the rankings. Excellent analysis on these chilly levels and their amazing design!
One of the things I like the most of snow areas is how consistently they manage to be the only areas where I like the night themes more than the day ones. Normally I change the clock to avoid night, but in the winter zones I can enjoy the calm nature of the chill nights.
Thank you so much for this video. Snow areas are ALWAYS my favorite spots in video games (I'm genuinely serious), so it's awesome to see them being analyzed. Fun fact, I dropped XC3 for 4 months because I was so disappointed by Capticorn Peak's environment. Seeing all of Tantal and Valak in FR made me so, so happy ❤
I've always loved snow areas. I remember back a few years helping a friend make a winter video game playlist composed of songs from a bunch of areas like these. Thanks for watching!
Dropping the game bc of the disappointment in the snow area is so real lmao 🤝🏼 I’m so glad they fixed it in FR. I always love snow areas too. The levels in Super Mario 3D World are so much fun and the Christmas-y music is so cute
@@rhettmitchell We all know that Super Mario 3D World snow song; it's become so iconic and a classic for winter playlists. It brings a smile to my face. :) Some of my non-XC favorite snow songs are "Winter (Ancient)" from SDV and "Snowbelle City" from Pokemon XY
I know people love Valak Mountain and Tantal (rightly so), but I've gotta give it up to Upper Aetia and Black Mountain. One gives you chills from just the story significance, the other is snowy Prison Island merged with Valak Mountain and Genbu, and you climb it to fight Xenoblade Darth Vader and God's Computer. They aren't iconic like the first two are, especially given they aren't all original, but they are certainly amazing. Part of what makes Prison Island II's sequence work well isn't just how the sequence parallels Xenoblade 1, but also Xenoblade 2's in another, much more subtler way. Given Origin is Moebius' hideaway, and the hideaway is directly ABOVE the Prison Terrace, and how Rex's party had to descend to Tantal's depths to stop it from sinking, it's pretty safe to say that N subtly takes a corrupted form of that situation. I mean, he's already an expy of Jin... it also helps that Tantal is right below Prison Island, but what stops the parallels from going further is that N makes it no further down the mountain, and its even DESTROYED in the end. Rex doesn't really get his redemption until after the fact after Poppi and co knock some sense into him, and Rex can still go back and visit the location where the Omega Fetter was held, but Matthew and co don't get that same redemptive push towards N, and no one can go back to the Cent-Omnia region afterwards. It's like his chance was completely cut off at that point in time, and that change would have to come from within... and funnily enough, in a very roundabout way, it does. I'm probably stretching really hard here and overreading into the situation to a near schizophrenic degree (Hi, Luxin), but its a nice headcanon at least.
My hot take is liking valak day more than the night. Oboe is highly underrated and the melody has this relaxing but ominous quality to it. Dont get me wrong i still love the night theme but without the visual context i dont think it would be as good a standalone track
I love how X sorta breaks the trend of "Snow Level" by having a level that snows... spores. The whole of Sylvalum looks like a snow level, it even has occasional "blizzards" but none of it is actually snow. It even has a "Christmas" theme to its overworld song that invokes a snowy feel. It's not even cold, but it is definitely a person who has allergies worse nightmare. It always made me wonder how a fire doesn't start there, as it probably would light the whole place in a massive bonfire of doom.
I honestly respect it for doing so. Although I love hitting the usual staple environments in games, I think it's very interesting when they throw some curve balls into the mix. The mental image of Sylvalum spontaneously combusting is pretty funny, though.
I much prefer how Valak mountain looks during the day. The clear sky and the crystal lasers make it feel smaller than when it is covered in clouds. And the snow doesn’t look like it’s been pissed on
Valak Mountain is definitely the best snow area, definitely at night, with the glowing crystals. Black mountain is second place for me as it's just a fantastic fusion of Tantal and Valak and I love having to scale it to arrive at Prsion island. Tantal 3rd i liked it did sometimes fill 2 big with a lot of dead space the ruins of ancient civilizations dose help it stand out through as dose the gaint sea monsters that make the land home depending on weather Captocorn Peak is my least favourite mostly because it dosent feel as interesting or fun as the other regions and there isn't really much you do there
I feel like people really undersell the other snow levels compared to valak. Yes, purple and yellow look nice together, but the blanket of white snow over jet black rocks in tantal and captocorn peak, with the only colour being the blue of the sky during the day or the glowing ether fluttering through the air during the night, to me is just as striking. The landscape composition/level design of tantal is particularly good IMO, the almost perfectly circular snow field, the pillars with precarious bridges between them, and the harsh shadows created by the sunlight through the gaps tantal's shell. Compared valak which has a couple bridges across it, the three sage summit andbose tower, but is otherwise a sloped plane above a horizontal plane. edit: People complain about tantal being boring to walk through is funny considering it has more landmarks than valak and is circular so it doesn't take as long to travel anywhere compared to valak which is a straight line.
that split second after you pronounced Xenoblade properly (yay!) and then added Chronicles (booooo). Naw naw this is great, I've always wanted to see an analysis of the snow areas, because DAMN they really pull it off. Makes me wanna look up a video on all the stuff from the first two games that were included in 3 that I missed. because I know there's a lot more than I noticed.. even just here in these two maps from 3.
My main problem with Valek mountain was getting stuck on the boss fight, leading to lots of running from the nearest checkpoint (which is far away) making the whole area feel way too big
I'd be curious to see how Valak Mountain would be with better checkpoints placed around it. I don't think it would make it perfect, but it'd hopefully reduce some of tedium like what you experienced.
Great video, and I would actually love to see more like it. World design is my jam. It is cool to see the series take different approaches to similar environments throughout the titles. Most of my thoughts concern Captocorn Peak. Like everything in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Captocorn Peak's significance is better appreciated when considering its thematic purpose. Lanz even comments on it, noting that the party's journey around Aionios has literally gone in a full circle. Like some kind of Ouroboros or something. Colony Omega sits on a cliff that is almost directly above Colony 9. It is neat that, from a certain point just south of Omega, you can leap down into the pond between Colony 9 and Everblight Plains. There are even collectibles on the way down, basically encouraging you to take the leap. I have to ask, was Colony 0 just a little too far off the path to get a mention?
Some clarification about ACE vs. ACE+: It's true that the group went by ACE+ when Hiramatsu was a member, however Xenoblade 1 is the only OST in the series where that is the case; Hiramatsu worked solo for 2 and 3, so Tomori Kudo and CHiCO are simply ACE in those games. So 21:42 and 23:14 should say "Composed by ACE", meanwhile 8:44 and 9:26 are accurate.
Oh, and the reason I care is because Hiramatsu and ACE are super talented composers who gave us some of the most memorable tracks in the series, so the more specific we are when crediting them for their compositions the better. Also because ACE and ACE+ is a confusing naming scheme and I see people miss the distinction all the time, even to this day.
wait so they split up but they both kept working on xenoblade?
@@KairuHakubi Yep. Xenoblade 1 seems to be the only project they worked on as a trio, but I could be wrong.
@@MaxAutoAttack I love it. "You guys broke up? Well we still want all of you. we'll just credit you separately"
A cool detail about Valak Mountain is that at first glance, it’s confusing why it is so snowy and cold when it’s right next to the hot and humid Makna. However when you play 2, you learn that Tantal is so cold because Genbu’s ether is constantly being drained to get Core Chips. Because the right arm is where the Mechonis is sucking the Bionis’ ether, that could be why Valak remains so cold when Makna remains so hot.
Holy shit 😳
I didn't even think about that lmao
That's an INCREDIBLY COOL detail!!! Thanks for pointing this out! 😮
well, the hand is gripping the sword, but the sword is really draining ether out of the _stomach._ I'm not sure that really tracks.
They sorta said it as if it was because it was up to high. Makna is a lot lower, down on the back. Then Eryth is above it, and we know water helps regulate temps, plus they have all that high tech so they're not freezing.. but it makes sense for both shoulders to be cold. Weird that the other shoulder was ALWAYS planned to not be cold though.
@@lemmyxpro it gets better when there's a npc late game that talks about the world's sun being made of ether and it doesn't actually set or rise; it just "turns off." The environments make even more sense once you realize the sun is in a fixed position in the sky.
Valak Mountain, the only time snow and the color yellow have mixed in a good way
wait.. everytime i write my name into the snow, it always turns out to be good😅
Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm excited to finally share this video with you all! 2024 has been a bit light on content, but I'm hoping to make 2025 more exciting. Thank you for all of your support this year, and I hope you have a wonderful end of the year!
Best Christmas present ever
A juicy hour long vid for me to tuck into. Thank you Mr KayJulers for this beautiful Christmas gift!
I hope you enjoy it and Happy Holidays!
@@KayJulers Thank you ❤
Awesome video, snow regions in Xeno go really hard!! Tantal is easily my favorite location in all of Xeno, there's something so magical about climbing the architecture of Genbu.
Thank you! Yeah, it’s cool that they’ve been able to give each snow area a different vibe.
I do agree that Valak Mountain is my favourite out of all the snowy areas in Xenoblade. That quiet, secluded corner of the world with the gorgeous purple and golden hues during the night-time is just so freakin' magical. However, the Black Mountains are emotionally gripping to me, with the blend of its weather conditions, purpose in the game's narrative, the MUSIC (oh my god the music), and the ascension toward Origin. Black Mountains are literal peak, and the lead up to the truth and culmination of what makes Xenoblade an emotional masterpiece. Love this video man, and you're honestly one of my favourite Xenoblade content creators on TH-cam 🙏
You know I need to see more videos on Xenoblade locales like this. Starting towns, the opening grassy plains, ocean areas (especially this one, I need someone else to gush about Eryth, Leftheria, and Erythia PLEASE), the final dungeons, caves, etc.
You can’t be a Xenoblade game without a Snow area with peak music. Each one is so different but shares so many great elements aaaaaaa
They might be the most consistent biome when it comes to having killer soundtracks.
8:46 you mentioned resemblance to a lullaby, imagine if this portion was a lullaby Shulk's mother hummed for him while traversing the snow storm? Now I wanna cry 😂😢
woaaah I didn't expect you to use my translations of the Liner's Note, thank you for the shout out at 36:00 !!! Thinking that it has helped you makes me very happy !
Thank you for doing those translations and making them available! It was a big help.
Valak mountain is one of the best areas in ANY game
This is absolute peak content!! Let’s go!!
Let's gooo this has been the episode I have always loved snow levels and xenoblades are especially special to me, thank you man
Of course! Thanks for watching!
amazing video KayJulers! Next level production quality and research are on display here. I look forward to seeing your next video, the wait was worth it!
Thank you so much and Merry Christmas!
The snow areas of Xenoblade are some of the most atmospheric in their respective games, and I agree with their place in the rankings. Excellent analysis on these chilly levels and their amazing design!
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
One of the things I like the most of snow areas is how consistently they manage to be the only areas where I like the night themes more than the day ones. Normally I change the clock to avoid night, but in the winter zones I can enjoy the calm nature of the chill nights.
Thank you so much for this video. Snow areas are ALWAYS my favorite spots in video games (I'm genuinely serious), so it's awesome to see them being analyzed. Fun fact, I dropped XC3 for 4 months because I was so disappointed by Capticorn Peak's environment. Seeing all of Tantal and Valak in FR made me so, so happy ❤
I've always loved snow areas. I remember back a few years helping a friend make a winter video game playlist composed of songs from a bunch of areas like these. Thanks for watching!
Dropping the game bc of the disappointment in the snow area is so real lmao 🤝🏼 I’m so glad they fixed it in FR. I always love snow areas too. The levels in Super Mario 3D World are so much fun and the Christmas-y music is so cute
@@rhettmitchell We all know that Super Mario 3D World snow song; it's become so iconic and a classic for winter playlists. It brings a smile to my face. :) Some of my non-XC favorite snow songs are "Winter (Ancient)" from SDV and "Snowbelle City" from Pokemon XY
I know people love Valak Mountain and Tantal (rightly so), but I've gotta give it up to Upper Aetia and Black Mountain. One gives you chills from just the story significance, the other is snowy Prison Island merged with Valak Mountain and Genbu, and you climb it to fight Xenoblade Darth Vader and God's Computer. They aren't iconic like the first two are, especially given they aren't all original, but they are certainly amazing.
Part of what makes Prison Island II's sequence work well isn't just how the sequence parallels Xenoblade 1, but also Xenoblade 2's in another, much more subtler way. Given Origin is Moebius' hideaway, and the hideaway is directly ABOVE the Prison Terrace, and how Rex's party had to descend to Tantal's depths to stop it from sinking, it's pretty safe to say that N subtly takes a corrupted form of that situation. I mean, he's already an expy of Jin... it also helps that Tantal is right below Prison Island, but what stops the parallels from going further is that N makes it no further down the mountain, and its even DESTROYED in the end. Rex doesn't really get his redemption until after the fact after Poppi and co knock some sense into him, and Rex can still go back and visit the location where the Omega Fetter was held, but Matthew and co don't get that same redemptive push towards N, and no one can go back to the Cent-Omnia region afterwards. It's like his chance was completely cut off at that point in time, and that change would have to come from within... and funnily enough, in a very roundabout way, it does. I'm probably stretching really hard here and overreading into the situation to a near schizophrenic degree (Hi, Luxin), but its a nice headcanon at least.
Happy holidays, xeno community
Next time maybe all the lava areas of Xenoblade, all of 1 of them.
Sorry, 1.01 of them, that one cave in Valak Mountain overlaps.
My hot take is liking valak day more than the night. Oboe is highly underrated and the melody has this relaxing but ominous quality to it. Dont get me wrong i still love the night theme but without the visual context i dont think it would be as good a standalone track
I actually quite like the day theme for Valak Mountain! I think it actually has a decent amount of personality to it.
I love how X sorta breaks the trend of "Snow Level" by having a level that snows... spores. The whole of Sylvalum looks like a snow level, it even has occasional "blizzards" but none of it is actually snow. It even has a "Christmas" theme to its overworld song that invokes a snowy feel. It's not even cold, but it is definitely a person who has allergies worse nightmare. It always made me wonder how a fire doesn't start there, as it probably would light the whole place in a massive bonfire of doom.
I honestly respect it for doing so. Although I love hitting the usual staple environments in games, I think it's very interesting when they throw some curve balls into the mix. The mental image of Sylvalum spontaneously combusting is pretty funny, though.
I much prefer how Valak mountain looks during the day. The clear sky and the crystal lasers make it feel smaller than when it is covered in clouds. And the snow doesn’t look like it’s been pissed on
Black mountains also gives me quite a lot of Power of Jin vibes, fitting for the cold and tantal
3:41, on one hand i feel so honored to be part of the video, however small, but on the other hand, i feel so ashamed seeing my many typing errors😖
I never believed that Nia was dead for a second
You forgot about the great sword in XC3. Not that there would be much to talk about, but still.
I love Tantal so much, I wish snow was real
I would like that too (I live in the south now).
Valak Mountain is definitely the best snow area, definitely at night, with the glowing crystals.
Black mountain is second place for me as it's just a fantastic fusion of Tantal and Valak and I love having to scale it to arrive at Prsion island.
Tantal 3rd i liked it did sometimes fill 2 big with a lot of dead space the ruins of ancient civilizations dose help it stand out through as dose the gaint sea monsters that make the land home depending on weather
Captocorn Peak is my least favourite mostly because it dosent feel as interesting or fun as the other regions and there isn't really much you do there
I'd say this is my exact order for the different snow levels.
Wake up babe new KayJulers just dropped
This vid was like watching a vaati vidya lore vid but for xenoblade
I feel like people really undersell the other snow levels compared to valak. Yes, purple and yellow look nice together, but the blanket of white snow over jet black rocks in tantal and captocorn peak, with the only colour being the blue of the sky during the day or the glowing ether fluttering through the air during the night, to me is just as striking. The landscape composition/level design of tantal is particularly good IMO, the almost perfectly circular snow field, the pillars with precarious bridges between them, and the harsh shadows created by the sunlight through the gaps tantal's shell. Compared valak which has a couple bridges across it, the three sage summit andbose tower, but is otherwise a sloped plane above a horizontal plane.
edit: People complain about tantal being boring to walk through is funny considering it has more landmarks than valak and is circular so it doesn't take as long to travel anywhere compared to valak which is a straight line.
It just occurred to me. The crystals on Valak Mountain are Bionis' arm hair
What if we actually get a snow area in the added story content for Xenoblade chronicles X Definitive Edition?
Can't wait for the new content in X Definitive Edition to introduce a proper snow area
Captacorn peak reminds me of Elden Ring's mountaintops of the giants!
that split second after you pronounced Xenoblade properly (yay!) and then added Chronicles (booooo). Naw naw this is great, I've always wanted to see an analysis of the snow areas, because DAMN they really pull it off.
Makes me wanna look up a video on all the stuff from the first two games that were included in 3 that I missed. because I know there's a lot more than I noticed.. even just here in these two maps from 3.
My main problem with Valek mountain was getting stuck on the boss fight, leading to lots of running from the nearest checkpoint (which is far away) making the whole area feel way too big
I'd be curious to see how Valak Mountain would be with better checkpoints placed around it. I don't think it would make it perfect, but it'd hopefully reduce some of tedium like what you experienced.
Great video, and I would actually love to see more like it. World design is my jam. It is cool to see the series take different approaches to similar environments throughout the titles.
Most of my thoughts concern Captocorn Peak. Like everything in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Captocorn Peak's significance is better appreciated when considering its thematic purpose. Lanz even comments on it, noting that the party's journey around Aionios has literally gone in a full circle. Like some kind of Ouroboros or something.
Colony Omega sits on a cliff that is almost directly above Colony 9. It is neat that, from a certain point just south of Omega, you can leap down into the pond between Colony 9 and Everblight Plains. There are even collectibles on the way down, basically encouraging you to take the leap.
I have to ask, was Colony 0 just a little too far off the path to get a mention?
36:21 OH MY GOD I NEVER NOTICED THAT I WONDERED WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM
I was like, “what’s the aesha region?” And then looked it up. “Aetia”. Aesha makes sense but I looked up the jp and it’s a hard T sound.
I say things weird sometimes haha!
24:05 don’t be silly Kay Melancholia sounds completely different
You know, good point and well made.
People hate Valak Mountain’s day music? I can maybe understand the area itself but the music?!
A streamer once told me that valak mountain was too flat! 😅😂
36:21 not Dromarch💀😂
16:20 I got lost and couldn't find my way down for a while.
ok why but also yes
I admittedly don't have a good answer for why lol.
I just learned xbcx has no snow area. Very disappointing 😔
Valak is really cool until you remember traversal
fucking awful, that game was not made for precise movements