From my prior knowlege of the game before I played, I used to be the most dissapointed with sena's side story. While the scenes with Shania are really moving and made me cry, I really feel like that should've been Gondhor's ascension quest and Sena should've had something... to actually do with Sena. Then I played this part and saw that nothing more happened with Mwamba. Like, we didn't take him back to colony 9, he didn't get a homecoming. like they should've explored being brought back to life, only to die again so soon. but as far as I am in the game, they really hadnt. good vid!
I used to think this was the worst part of the game’s story until I had watched/read another video last year explaining better how/why the resonance of Noah’s sword with the offseer tunes were able to restore the minds of all those from Colony Omega. It was made by a really underrated Xenotuber named Miiks, check out their stuff
I think part of the nuance here is lost in translation. In Japanese, it's more clear that Aionios is a world that is governed by emotion in an EXTREMELY OVERTLY LITERAL sense. It was the emotion of fear of oblivion that created the moebius wish. It was the regret that Noah harbored lifetime over lifetime that kept him resurrecting over and over even beyond his homecoming. N's power is fueled by his self hatred, and by his blade of divine origin, notably represented in how he never displays a true moebius power. It is fear of her inevitable death that allows Ashera to keep her memories of her "homecoming". It was the nopons apathy that kept them out of the flow and out of Z's war. It was Melia and Nia's defiance of the moebius wish, and hope for a better future, that then formed the basis for ouroboros and the sword of origin. It was Na'el's nihilistic outlook and despair that made her a prime target for exploitation by Alpha. And I also personally speculate that it was the love they felt for their children, that dragged Shulk and Rex out of their corresponding origin data. Anyways. It is emotion that is conveyed by the offseer's melody, or rather, the emotion the player imbues into it. Which then influences people in the ways see in side story Mio. In Japanese, these concepts are all neatly tied together using a single word. It is emotion, which is the source of basically everything in Aionios. It was how everything works, literally, as Aionios only exists as per the wish. But that inferred nuance is lost in English, as the translation clumsily uses different words in different contexts. Which can then really fall apart in this specific quest, creating the power of friendship impressions, and many of the surrounding lore misconceptions and fandom controversy. And this is sadly far from the first time that translation has failed Xeno... I'm not generally angry at the people who work on these games for that, it's probably an ungodly nightmare of a job to get functioning at all. But even now, as XC3 is clearly the biggest production the studio ever put forth. There are still dumb mistakes every here and there that become stumbling points along the road.
I wouldn't even blame the translation. It is clearly stated in the scene that Y took people important to the party who just went back to the cradle, put them in his machine, and restored the age to 10th term. He also stated that he erased their memories in the process. It also made clear that the flute music is evoking emotions so deep that this restores the overwritten memories. It's all there, you just have to listen...
i raise you a perspective of examining mio's story more around life than death. mio and noah serve as both sides of this, where mio is trying to make the most of her life and hold on to it while noah tends to look more towards the dead and understand them. they make up both sides of the same coin, and that's why i think mio's side story works, for the most part. i could take or leave mwamba and hackt and maybe cammuravi's inclusion could have been handled differently idk but thematically i think it makes a lot of sense mio's side story would focus on life and having miyabi's life be mio's reward for her struggles and convictions ties together well. noah's side story does the opposite with crys in a way that i think really works with his themes as well. i don't thin miyabi's life takes away from the important gestures between mio and noah with the flutes, in fact they have a small scene talking about the flutes and i think that makes mio's older scenes of believing miyabi to be dead a lot less useless. also fwiw, we don't even know if miyabi actually ever died so her having her memories doesn't have to be that strange. in fact, i took her keeping her memories as proof that she survived the explosion and was just picked up and used by Y from there on. i'm having trouble finding good images of her term marker, but i believe it supports this idea as well
TRUE. I feel like the pace of the game dulls just how frivolous this plot point is - as it was around this time the player is probably running through a lot of the side content. It hides itself amongst the more mundane side content.
Honestly the *only* part of this sidequest I actively didn’t like- and a part I’m surprised you never mentioned- is that once Miyabi’s life is saved, Mio is just kinda like “ah. yeah. cool.” If this martyr figure, this emotional centerpiece of a character, was afforded a touching, emotional reunion, I feel like this plot point would have at least felt like it had an impact on the characters participating in it. But Mio BARELY reacts to Miyabi once she’s safe, and Sena has even less of a reaction despite having been in the exact same scenario as Mio (albeit conked out during the heavy part), which made it feel like a massive anticlimax when Miyabi sort of just leaves the story immediately having offered no impactful dialogue exchanges in the time she was now afforded. I think, otherwise, this plot point is alright. I never felt that it tramples Mio’s character at all, because the M death cutscene cluster was sort of Mio’s emotional breakthrough- Mio no longer has room in her mind to mull her impending doom or what that means for Miyabi at all. Post-swap Mio has risen above most of her flaws, so there isn’t much that Miyabi accomplishes by staying dead, either. I guess that’s the big problem in having a character who exists to die for a backstory’s sake…
It’s not as bad as sidestory Mio but Sena’s side story bummed me out as well. That should’ve been Ghondor’s ascension quest, the random tirkin stuff should be cut, and sena should get a side story that is about her.
It's extra annoying since Shania works very well as a foil to Sena but since Ghondor's relationship to her is developed more that's where all the focus falls I think a conflict solely between Shania and Sena would have been great
I think that of the sidestories this is my least favourite, but I do think that there is some reason given by the developers for Miyabi's return, being that they wanted to show Noah and Mio's growth after chapter 5.
im miyabin’ out!!: the aubi
Cried real tears during that line
From my prior knowlege of the game before I played, I used to be the most dissapointed with sena's side story. While the scenes with Shania are really moving and made me cry, I really feel like that should've been Gondhor's ascension quest and Sena should've had something... to actually do with Sena. Then I played this part and saw that nothing more happened with Mwamba. Like, we didn't take him back to colony 9, he didn't get a homecoming. like they should've explored being brought back to life, only to die again so soon. but as far as I am in the game, they really hadnt. good vid!
I used to think this was the worst part of the game’s story until I had watched/read another video last year explaining better how/why the resonance of Noah’s sword with the offseer tunes were able to restore the minds of all those from Colony Omega. It was made by a really underrated Xenotuber named Miiks, check out their stuff
I think part of the nuance here is lost in translation. In Japanese, it's more clear that Aionios is a world that is governed by emotion in an EXTREMELY OVERTLY LITERAL sense. It was the emotion of fear of oblivion that created the moebius wish. It was the regret that Noah harbored lifetime over lifetime that kept him resurrecting over and over even beyond his homecoming. N's power is fueled by his self hatred, and by his blade of divine origin, notably represented in how he never displays a true moebius power. It is fear of her inevitable death that allows Ashera to keep her memories of her "homecoming". It was the nopons apathy that kept them out of the flow and out of Z's war. It was Melia and Nia's defiance of the moebius wish, and hope for a better future, that then formed the basis for ouroboros and the sword of origin. It was Na'el's nihilistic outlook and despair that made her a prime target for exploitation by Alpha. And I also personally speculate that it was the love they felt for their children, that dragged Shulk and Rex out of their corresponding origin data. Anyways. It is emotion that is conveyed by the offseer's melody, or rather, the emotion the player imbues into it. Which then influences people in the ways see in side story Mio.
In Japanese, these concepts are all neatly tied together using a single word. It is emotion, which is the source of basically everything in Aionios. It was how everything works, literally, as Aionios only exists as per the wish. But that inferred nuance is lost in English, as the translation clumsily uses different words in different contexts. Which can then really fall apart in this specific quest, creating the power of friendship impressions, and many of the surrounding lore misconceptions and fandom controversy. And this is sadly far from the first time that translation has failed Xeno... I'm not generally angry at the people who work on these games for that, it's probably an ungodly nightmare of a job to get functioning at all. But even now, as XC3 is clearly the biggest production the studio ever put forth. There are still dumb mistakes every here and there that become stumbling points along the road.
That's absolutely fascinating
I had no idea
Thank you for sharing
I wouldn't even blame the translation. It is clearly stated in the scene that Y took people important to the party who just went back to the cradle, put them in his machine, and restored the age to 10th term. He also stated that he erased their memories in the process. It also made clear that the flute music is evoking emotions so deep that this restores the overwritten memories. It's all there, you just have to listen...
i raise you a perspective of examining mio's story more around life than death. mio and noah serve as both sides of this, where mio is trying to make the most of her life and hold on to it while noah tends to look more towards the dead and understand them. they make up both sides of the same coin, and that's why i think mio's side story works, for the most part. i could take or leave mwamba and hackt and maybe cammuravi's inclusion could have been handled differently idk but thematically i think it makes a lot of sense mio's side story would focus on life and having miyabi's life be mio's reward for her struggles and convictions ties together well. noah's side story does the opposite with crys in a way that i think really works with his themes as well. i don't thin miyabi's life takes away from the important gestures between mio and noah with the flutes, in fact they have a small scene talking about the flutes and i think that makes mio's older scenes of believing miyabi to be dead a lot less useless. also fwiw, we don't even know if miyabi actually ever died so her having her memories doesn't have to be that strange. in fact, i took her keeping her memories as proof that she survived the explosion and was just picked up and used by Y from there on. i'm having trouble finding good images of her term marker, but i believe it supports this idea as well
That's a really interesting take
If nothing else I appreciate the alternative perspective
TRUE. I feel like the pace of the game dulls just how frivolous this plot point is - as it was around this time the player is probably running through a lot of the side content. It hides itself amongst the more mundane side content.
Honestly the *only* part of this sidequest I actively didn’t like- and a part I’m surprised you never mentioned- is that once Miyabi’s life is saved, Mio is just kinda like “ah. yeah. cool.” If this martyr figure, this emotional centerpiece of a character, was afforded a touching, emotional reunion, I feel like this plot point would have at least felt like it had an impact on the characters participating in it. But Mio BARELY reacts to Miyabi once she’s safe, and Sena has even less of a reaction despite having been in the exact same scenario as Mio (albeit conked out during the heavy part), which made it feel like a massive anticlimax when Miyabi sort of just leaves the story immediately having offered no impactful dialogue exchanges in the time she was now afforded. I think, otherwise, this plot point is alright. I never felt that it tramples Mio’s character at all, because the M death cutscene cluster was sort of Mio’s emotional breakthrough- Mio no longer has room in her mind to mull her impending doom or what that means for Miyabi at all. Post-swap Mio has risen above most of her flaws, so there isn’t much that Miyabi accomplishes by staying dead, either. I guess that’s the big problem in having a character who exists to die for a backstory’s sake…
It’s not as bad as sidestory Mio but Sena’s side story bummed me out as well. That should’ve been Ghondor’s ascension quest, the random tirkin stuff should be cut, and sena should get a side story that is about her.
It's extra annoying since Shania works very well as a foil to Sena but since Ghondor's relationship to her is developed more that's where all the focus falls
I think a conflict solely between Shania and Sena would have been great
I think that of the sidestories this is my least favourite, but I do think that there is some reason given by the developers for Miyabi's return, being that they wanted to show Noah and Mio's growth after chapter 5.
Fair point
It also takes place in Captocorn Peak, one of if not the most disappointing zones in all of Xenoblade
-more like captocorn mid amirite-
YES. I generally dislike all the side stories, but this one seriously ruined the main game