Is the story really that confusing? I mean. I guess some stuff is left vague. But to me it more-so feels like they have the confidence in their audience to not have to spell out every tiny detail and let you come to your own conclusions and inferences based on what is displayed. I want to make it clear that I do like the previous games plot like A SHITLOAD, but it is a fair criticism of these games that they have an exposition dumping + continuity porn problem after a certain point. I mean. Lets be honest here. The end of Xenogears is literally nothing but exposition to explain the big ideas the team had that had totally outstripped their ability to even deliver a game after a certain point. Xenoblade 2's Klaus scenes are praised to high heaven, but if you're not invested in the lore like we are, you are literally listening to a minor character exposit away the entire history of the setting for 25 straight minutes. With several of the given details having little to no meaningful bearing on the characters and their respective journeys, and there also being some things within said lore dump that no one could have reasonably predicted with the prior given information ahead of the reveal. I'm not saying that these are bad stories, but it would be fair to say that a lot of Xeno games stories are told in a fashion which is not confident in the audiences ability to make inferences or connections. That lack of trust in the audience manifests in those long exposition sessions. And it would seem that starting with Future connected, we've stopped crafting narratives that are filled with these sorts of moments, and are moreso focused on character. Lore is still a factor. But it's obfuscated in favor of our heroes quests and personal perspectives and developments. Over XC3, Noah goes from a pacifist who hates fighting, to an individual who literally tears down the world he lives in, so that he no longer has to fight. He fights the good fight so that he gets to not fight anymore. His journey is that of accepting that difficult role ascribed to him, and the responsibility that it entails. What does the fate of the XC1 and 2 universes have to do with that then? Save for sharing a setting. Not a whole lot really. I myself was pretty solidly able to connect most the mysteries before even Future Redeemed or the Art book's additional clarification. Riku was obviously Riki's child, based on that nod in origin. We could predict that the Sword of the end contained the logos core based on the cinematic framing of that end scene in FR. I was able to piece together the nature of the annihilation events based solely on the scientific key term ascribed to them, annihilation in our real world referring to matter anti matter collision. Which then also explained the danger of the two worlds drifting back together as well as probably the nature of the experiment itself, how it would have worked by dividing the world into plus and minus. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I also figured it out pretty quickly that Nopon were ageless in this world due to not willingly joining in on the Moebius wish. Heck, even the two worlds showing up in front of aionios, I was then able to rationalize it as "huh, so I guess Aionios must be something like an Encephalon dive but just for the whole world in origin." Which was seemingly on the money too. And also, they didn't have to say out loud "nia and Rex are Mio's mom and dad" because well. We have eyes, we all saw the photo, lol. The fates of the 1 and 2 cast aren't as tragic or as weird as we would initially think either. Given that after the reboot, things would go back to how they were when Noah and Mio were children. I.E. to around the time that Rex and Nia were in their 30's or 40's, meaning literally everyone is OK. They didn't give us hard answers (till the book, and even then some things are left to be sorted by xc4), but the things that were there were pretty easy to sort out if you were paying close attention, and were aware of the series history up to that point. The wackyist reveal was the Fiora thing, which admittedly is batshit. But imo, It's arguably a good thing that back seated the lore this time around. Because it would have ultimately just distracted from Noah's story line in the base game of 3. Future Redeemed provides some answers and some fan service which one can argue was missing from the base game, but Future Redeemed's most profound moments only work due to the leg work that 3 did to lay the stage for it's events. Namely, the destruction of the city, and Rex and Shulk passing it onto the next generation to save the world. With what those moments mean for Noah and Mio, specifically. Those elements only work due to what 3 setup ahead of time. So people rushing to say "Future Redeemd should have just been 3 only" aren't considering the wider scope here, and how that game would have faltered should that have been the case. In my view they are critical segments of one whole epic story. Maybe i'm on some shit. But yeah. I've just never found the narrative and lore based complaints of this game as solid. Especially not with how some have criticized the stories of this series till this point.
in response to 8:50, in the artbook they said the reason characters don't talk about the history of locations is because they don't know that history and don't have anyone to tell them about it, not because of new players, this is why Nia's sidequest focuses on Nia telling the cast about past locations and FR has moments where Shulk and Rex explain the history of a local to the others. Also I was surprised with the critique of people like Joran's introduction, I felt it was more natural that way like they're just part of the main casts lives so they don't really need an intro.
@@Robottsie Compqre Joran to Xenoblade 1's Mumkar who was introduced perfectly. As for backgrounds, I guess it would had been nice if they discovered what Blades and High Entia are. Or how the Macina became more human looking.
I’m… not really sure what’s supposed to be compared between them, in both cases they just run up to the main cast in the middle of a battle. And Machina don’t really look any more human than they previously did, the reason they looked different before was mostly because of their armour but young Machina looked human except with silver hair. The people in Aionios do see the differences between each other they how they know agnians are stronger, Eunie has more affinity with ether and more, but it’s another case of characters not fully understanding things like Eunie has wings because she’s high entia, they understand her having wings is different but they don’t know it’s because she’s high entia so its just a fact of life to them, like how different people have different hair colours
Just an FYI, my Final Thoughts came out a bit too negative. I really do like the cast and music, it's just I think they don't quite reach the heights of previous games. But with Xenoblade's high standards it's pretty hard to meet them.
It looks really good, and plays really well. It sounds really good, but had only one or two amazing tracks. The big issue is that the story is really bad for how long it takes to unfold. Similarly the characters are far too boring to carry how long they're on screen. Noah is hideously boring. Mio is cute but also entirely uninteresting. Lanz has a fun personality, but most of his character development is boring thoughts of Joran. Sena is cheery, but a nothing character. Eunie has a great personality, but doesn't have much of a character arc, she's easily the best character. Taion is kind of an annoying stick in the mud, but he's got a personality, so he's still the third most interesting character. The Moebius seem pretty cool at first, but are just so repetitive that they really offer little of note after the third one. By the time I got to Z I was so thoroughly bored I had no feelings about him. The big struggle with making an interesting world is that most of the characters in the game are ~15-20, and have been soldiers for life while living in a colony. It's just so boring and repetitive. If the game had about a quarter of the story/scenes it would've been so much less exhausting. It was still a fun game, but 2 finished so triumphantly, that 3 becoming so tedious by the end was so disappointing.
I really like Moebius as an antagonistic force, but only once I thought about how they relate to the protagonists' struggle and idelogy. Since moebius at its core is the stagnation of life and the fear of change and what may come with it. This is why N works so well, and similarly, each moebius demonstrated this idelogy to a T, and because of the way Aionios works, this thought process is heavily rewarded. Why should I grow as a person and experience new things if this world rewards those who only take? Moebius takes what could be and what has been to enforce the thought that the present is the only thing that matters. This is further explored with Shania and her arc, along with the constant paralles between ouroboros and moebius. It doesn't take much to become Moebius, especially in a world like Aionios. TLDR: XC3 took a very different approach to its villains as the main antagonist is a literal idea that refuses to allow any possibility of loss or growth, which indirectly causes the perpetual loss of life and the certain inevitablity of destruction due to the black fog.
I've read that the more modest designs are intentional. Having a world in perpetual war and soldiers living only 10 years is pretty grim, so the character designs were made less revealing to match with the tone of the story and world.
Well, the fact that you have the same party from the start across the whole game makes it underwhelming at times. And I mean, with the cast of both one and two its hard to see it as anything but a direct sequel to them. Also really wish we could pilot the mecha's in this game. Also wish we had more real towns that were not camps but guess the world did not work that way. And the Moebius group felt like inferior knock off's of the Testaments sadly. Still, the hype to the link to Xenosaga in the DLC brought some major hype lol. In fact, I liked the DLC cast more then the main cast a lot of the time sadly. I also was not fond of the flute heavy sound track and felt it inferior to blade one and two, though the DLC final boss track was one of my favs. I feel like this game ALMOST had the feel that Xenosaga had but got weighed down by things to reach the level that Saga and Gears had with all the scattered gameplay stuff, for me at least.
Too much explaining in this video especially for combat. It as the best story and music imo :) Story: every character gets so much time and development. Noone played for laughs. New tone feels so good. The Nietzsche/philosophy/xenogears references are raw and a welcome return. Some for the best villains in all of xeno. Great theming and symbolism all around but especially in Moebius. but animus + anima theme motif all over the game (and even combat) just makes it feel so cohesive. Love me some ambiguity as well. Music: Flutes and emotion god tier. Atmospheric field themes so good those were always my favs in the other games anyways. Cutscene music blessed by Mitsuda himself with excellent leitmotif usage as always. Best battle music by far in the series. So ye best game in the series but I guess xenogears is pretty good too. for a lot of the same reasons.
Every Xeno UA-camr maked a Video for the 2 Years of Xenoblade 3 (me too)
Bro, thanks for this !
Is the story really that confusing? I mean. I guess some stuff is left vague. But to me it more-so feels like they have the confidence in their audience to not have to spell out every tiny detail and let you come to your own conclusions and inferences based on what is displayed. I want to make it clear that I do like the previous games plot like A SHITLOAD, but it is a fair criticism of these games that they have an exposition dumping + continuity porn problem after a certain point. I mean. Lets be honest here. The end of Xenogears is literally nothing but exposition to explain the big ideas the team had that had totally outstripped their ability to even deliver a game after a certain point. Xenoblade 2's Klaus scenes are praised to high heaven, but if you're not invested in the lore like we are, you are literally listening to a minor character exposit away the entire history of the setting for 25 straight minutes. With several of the given details having little to no meaningful bearing on the characters and their respective journeys, and there also being some things within said lore dump that no one could have reasonably predicted with the prior given information ahead of the reveal.
I'm not saying that these are bad stories, but it would be fair to say that a lot of Xeno games stories are told in a fashion which is not confident in the audiences ability to make inferences or connections. That lack of trust in the audience manifests in those long exposition sessions. And it would seem that starting with Future connected, we've stopped crafting narratives that are filled with these sorts of moments, and are moreso focused on character. Lore is still a factor. But it's obfuscated in favor of our heroes quests and personal perspectives and developments. Over XC3, Noah goes from a pacifist who hates fighting, to an individual who literally tears down the world he lives in, so that he no longer has to fight. He fights the good fight so that he gets to not fight anymore. His journey is that of accepting that difficult role ascribed to him, and the responsibility that it entails. What does the fate of the XC1 and 2 universes have to do with that then? Save for sharing a setting. Not a whole lot really.
I myself was pretty solidly able to connect most the mysteries before even Future Redeemed or the Art book's additional clarification. Riku was obviously Riki's child, based on that nod in origin. We could predict that the Sword of the end contained the logos core based on the cinematic framing of that end scene in FR. I was able to piece together the nature of the annihilation events based solely on the scientific key term ascribed to them, annihilation in our real world referring to matter anti matter collision. Which then also explained the danger of the two worlds drifting back together as well as probably the nature of the experiment itself, how it would have worked by dividing the world into plus and minus. I don't mean to toot my own horn but I also figured it out pretty quickly that Nopon were ageless in this world due to not willingly joining in on the Moebius wish. Heck, even the two worlds showing up in front of aionios, I was then able to rationalize it as "huh, so I guess Aionios must be something like an Encephalon dive but just for the whole world in origin." Which was seemingly on the money too. And also, they didn't have to say out loud "nia and Rex are Mio's mom and dad" because well. We have eyes, we all saw the photo, lol. The fates of the 1 and 2 cast aren't as tragic or as weird as we would initially think either. Given that after the reboot, things would go back to how they were when Noah and Mio were children. I.E. to around the time that Rex and Nia were in their 30's or 40's, meaning literally everyone is OK.
They didn't give us hard answers (till the book, and even then some things are left to be sorted by xc4), but the things that were there were pretty easy to sort out if you were paying close attention, and were aware of the series history up to that point. The wackyist reveal was the Fiora thing, which admittedly is batshit. But imo, It's arguably a good thing that back seated the lore this time around. Because it would have ultimately just distracted from Noah's story line in the base game of 3. Future Redeemed provides some answers and some fan service which one can argue was missing from the base game, but Future Redeemed's most profound moments only work due to the leg work that 3 did to lay the stage for it's events. Namely, the destruction of the city, and Rex and Shulk passing it onto the next generation to save the world. With what those moments mean for Noah and Mio, specifically. Those elements only work due to what 3 setup ahead of time. So people rushing to say "Future Redeemd should have just been 3 only" aren't considering the wider scope here, and how that game would have faltered should that have been the case. In my view they are critical segments of one whole epic story.
Maybe i'm on some shit. But yeah. I've just never found the narrative and lore based complaints of this game as solid. Especially not with how some have criticized the stories of this series till this point.
Holy based. Couldn't have said if better myself. Agree 100%.
in response to 8:50, in the artbook they said the reason characters don't talk about the history of locations is because they don't know that history and don't have anyone to tell them about it, not because of new players, this is why Nia's sidequest focuses on Nia telling the cast about past locations and FR has moments where Shulk and Rex explain the history of a local to the others.
Also I was surprised with the critique of people like Joran's introduction, I felt it was more natural that way like they're just part of the main casts lives so they don't really need an intro.
@@Robottsie Compqre Joran to Xenoblade 1's Mumkar who was introduced perfectly.
As for backgrounds, I guess it would had been nice if they discovered what Blades and High Entia are. Or how the Macina became more human looking.
I’m… not really sure what’s supposed to be compared between them, in both cases they just run up to the main cast in the middle of a battle.
And Machina don’t really look any more human than they previously did, the reason they looked different before was mostly because of their armour but young Machina looked human except with silver hair. The people in Aionios do see the differences between each other they how they know agnians are stronger, Eunie has more affinity with ether and more, but it’s another case of characters not fully understanding things like Eunie has wings because she’s high entia, they understand her having wings is different but they don’t know it’s because she’s high entia so its just a fact of life to them, like how different people have different hair colours
Just an FYI, my Final Thoughts came out a bit too negative. I really do like the cast and music, it's just I think they don't quite reach the heights of previous games. But with Xenoblade's high standards it's pretty hard to meet them.
It looks really good, and plays really well. It sounds really good, but had only one or two amazing tracks.
The big issue is that the story is really bad for how long it takes to unfold. Similarly the characters are far too boring to carry how long they're on screen. Noah is hideously boring. Mio is cute but also entirely uninteresting. Lanz has a fun personality, but most of his character development is boring thoughts of Joran. Sena is cheery, but a nothing character. Eunie has a great personality, but doesn't have much of a character arc, she's easily the best character. Taion is kind of an annoying stick in the mud, but he's got a personality, so he's still the third most interesting character.
The Moebius seem pretty cool at first, but are just so repetitive that they really offer little of note after the third one. By the time I got to Z I was so thoroughly bored I had no feelings about him.
The big struggle with making an interesting world is that most of the characters in the game are ~15-20, and have been soldiers for life while living in a colony. It's just so boring and repetitive.
If the game had about a quarter of the story/scenes it would've been so much less exhausting. It was still a fun game, but 2 finished so triumphantly, that 3 becoming so tedious by the end was so disappointing.
I really like Moebius as an antagonistic force, but only once I thought about how they relate to the protagonists' struggle and idelogy. Since moebius at its core is the stagnation of life and the fear of change and what may come with it. This is why N works so well, and similarly, each moebius demonstrated this idelogy to a T, and because of the way Aionios works, this thought process is heavily rewarded.
Why should I grow as a person and experience new things if this world rewards those who only take? Moebius takes what could be and what has been to enforce the thought that the present is the only thing that matters.
This is further explored with Shania and her arc, along with the constant paralles between ouroboros and moebius.
It doesn't take much to become Moebius, especially in a world like Aionios.
TLDR: XC3 took a very different approach to its villains as the main antagonist is a literal idea that refuses to allow any possibility of loss or growth, which indirectly causes the perpetual loss of life and the certain inevitablity of destruction due to the black fog.
I've read that the more modest designs are intentional. Having a world in perpetual war and soldiers living only 10 years is pretty grim, so the character designs were made less revealing to match with the tone of the story and world.
Well, the fact that you have the same party from the start across the whole game makes it underwhelming at times. And I mean, with the cast of both one and two its hard to see it as anything but a direct sequel to them. Also really wish we could pilot the mecha's in this game. Also wish we had more real towns that were not camps but guess the world did not work that way. And the Moebius group felt like inferior knock off's of the Testaments sadly. Still, the hype to the link to Xenosaga in the DLC brought some major hype lol. In fact, I liked the DLC cast more then the main cast a lot of the time sadly. I also was not fond of the flute heavy sound track and felt it inferior to blade one and two, though the DLC final boss track was one of my favs. I feel like this game ALMOST had the feel that Xenosaga had but got weighed down by things to reach the level that Saga and Gears had with all the scattered gameplay stuff, for me at least.
Too much explaining in this video especially for combat.
It as the best story and music imo :)
Story: every character gets so much time and development. Noone played for laughs. New tone feels so good. The Nietzsche/philosophy/xenogears references are raw and a welcome return. Some for the best villains in all of xeno. Great theming and symbolism all around but especially in Moebius. but animus + anima theme motif all over the game (and even combat) just makes it feel so cohesive. Love me some ambiguity as well.
Music: Flutes and emotion god tier. Atmospheric field themes so good those were always my favs in the other games anyways. Cutscene music blessed by Mitsuda himself with excellent leitmotif usage as always. Best battle music by far in the series.
So ye best game in the series but I guess xenogears is pretty good too. for a lot of the same reasons.
This game is terrible because both the story and the gameplay are bad.