Amongst all of the Swap 2 pleasure, we did not need this to get misplaced: Xenoblade Chronicles is now 15 years previous! To have fun, Alana remembers one thing which turned the sport from a terrific one right into a particular one.
Warning: This text incorporates spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles, so be cautious if you have not at the very least made it to the ultimate hours of the sport.
The Bionis and Mechonis. Two nice titans, eternally locked in battle till time wore them each away and left them in stasis. Two corpses, lifeless, however house to varied dwelling races, whose populations are at battle with each other.
That is the setting for Xenoblade Chronicles, a world that has turn out to be without end etched in my reminiscence. Monolith Smooth’s Wii recreation fully tore up the rulebook as to what an RPG ‘world’ might be. Planets, islands, recreations of real-life international locations – who wants any of these when you may set your total recreation on the carcasses of two gods? I’ve spent over a decade and a half marvelling in any respect the completely different worlds I’d thought unimaginable till this recreation got here alongside. However nonetheless, the Bionis and the Mechonis, and the straightforward dichotomy of nature and know-how, has all the time remained on the prime.
I’ll all the time bear in mind the primary time I walked out of Tephra Caves and into the large, sprawling fields of Gaur Plains, the place stone plateaus tower over acres of grass and rivers. And also you’ll by no means communicate to anybody who didn’t awe on the nighttime glow of Satorl Marsh. However for all of its spectacular moments and enticingly artistic panorama, my favorite place in Xenoblade Chronicles stays its ‘quietest’: the Fallen Arm.
The Fallen Arm isn’t the primary place individuals consider if you discuss Xenoblade, until that particular person is me. The gorgeous, harmful landscapes of the Bionis rightly take centre stage, however the Fallen Arm — the severed left arm of the Mechanical titan’s physique — could be an important place within the recreation. Not for its easy magnificence, its serene, sorrowful music, or its temporary second of respite, however for its place within the story and the tonal shift that takes place.
Probably the most outstanding themes in Xenoblade Chronicles is revenge, and for about half of the sport’s runtime, protagonist Shulk’s rage particularly propels the plot ahead. It’s onerous to shake the opening hours, the place Shulk’s childhood good friend and love curiosity Fiora is brutally murdered by the Mechon Metallic Face, significantly as he removes his blood-soaked claws from her ‘corpse’. It is this that units Shulk’s — and Xenoblade’s — quest for vengeance in movement.
From the Natural titan’s foot all the way in which to its neck, it’s a relentless barrage of anger and struggling, of revenge towards these supposed bloodthirsty mechanical enemies. Till you attain Jail Island, the place you discover out Fiora isn’t lifeless. As an alternative, she’s been turned half-Mechon, and he or she doesn’t bear in mind her pals.
That revenge doesn’t go away, however it’s joined by a desperation to search out out why Fiora is how she is all through the arm (Valak Mountain) and Mechonis’ sword (Sword Valley), the place the Mechon stronghold of Galahad Fortress sits. There, Fiora’s consciousness manages to interrupt by means of, and in a determined try to avoid wasting Shulk from sure demise, destroys the fortress.
A number of cutscenes and a sepia flashback later, Shulk awakens on the serene shores of an unfamiliar location, with a huge, collapsed claw protruding out of the sands, and the stays of Fiora’s mech, the nemesis, left in tatters within the waters. This isn’t how I’d anticipated to reach on the Mechonis — a blistering assault or kidnapping into an enormous mechanical construction had performed out in my head a number of occasions, however a peaceful, quiet seashore was removed from my thoughts.
This was the second Xenoblade Chronicles went from a recreation I beloved to a recreation that was particular to me.
Lastly, we get to see Shulk and Fiora collectively once more. We get to see him fluctuate from concern to centered concern as he pulls her limp physique out of the water and saves her life by giving her water and mouth to mouth. Lastly, the awkward, type Shulk is again once more, for a quick second.
Fiora, and the Fallen Arm, convey a brand new facet to the plot that the sport had gone nice lengths to cover – empathy, not only for the Homs, Nopon, and Excessive Entia, but additionally for the Machina, the residents of Mechonis. There was no different approach to arrive in Mechonis — a spot that has suffered simply as a lot because the Bionis — than a peaceable, calm seashore, populated by the very people who find themselves imagined to be our enemies, however aren’t.
This was the second Xenoblade Chronicles went from a recreation I beloved to a recreation that was particular to me.
Reuniting with my misplaced celebration members, discovering the Hidden Machina Village and its rusty partitions and pipe pathways, assembly Linada, Miqol, and all the opposite Machina and discovering out why they’re not preventing for, or with, Egil — the chief of the Mechon military — few different moments within the recreation have caught with me as clearly as these. And the quests for the Machina within the village that you just get for the remainder of the sport assist develop relationships that hate and anger would by no means foster. It’s a stepping stone in the direction of Xenoblade Chronicles’ eventual struggle for hope, and for a united future.
Fiora can’t convey herself to hate the one who was inhabiting her physique as a result of she was type, however Shulk’s instant response is anger. She sways him towards that path for a second, and Shulk stays his extra level-headed self. As Miqol, chief of the Machina Village, asks Shulk and his celebration to kill Egil, his son, I felt the load of that call, the affect of these phrases.
This isn’t nearly revenge, it’s about ache, too. And this tiny little metallic haven within the centre of the Mechonis’ collapsed claw is the place a lot forgotten, unchecked ache has lain.
Revenge hasn’t gone away at this level, however these effervescent questions I had from Jail Island all the way in which to Galahad Fortress have been now effervescent on the prime of the pool. The threads of vengeance have been fraying, ready to be re-knotted in a brand new strand that turns into apparent on the prime of Agniratha and the Mechonis’ head. This is not the Machina’s fault, it’s not Egil’s fault — who himself is a sufferer of rage and revenge — however it’s those that are answerable for the world who’re accountable. The everlasting battle that the gods went by means of, and later the individuals, is the reason for the ache.
With out the Fallen Arm, Xenoblade Chronicles’ tonal shift simply isn’t potential. This lovely, understated panorama serves because the mild bonfire that can spark the remainder of the sport’s occasions. From right here on out, every thing I’d understood was slowly flipping on its head, and it made me take a look at previous occasions in a brand new gentle.
It additionally paved the way in which for these questions of religion and philosophy that Tetsuya Takahashi, Monolith Smooth’s head and one of many writers on the sport, is so well-known for, which he’d established in Xenogears and Xenosaga earlier than. Not was Xenoblade Chronicles a strictly offended recreation with a superbly crafted world to discover – it developed into one which was mainly involved with individuals, regardless of their background, of Godhood and duty, of energy and corruption.
The gorgeous photographs of this collection’ worlds will keep on with me without end; Mira, Alrest, and Aionios all have mesmeric qualities to them, biomes filled with mystical crops, uncommon fauna, crumbling buildings, and glowing corals and constructions, that each one should be celebrated.
However the Bionis and Mechonis transcend sheer magnificence and awe; they’re the conduit for a plot construction that follows a journey up and down two our bodies in stasis, an emotional up and down of loss, revenge, hate, aid, concern, empathy, and hope. And all aided by a rusted, damaged arm that lay within the seas and sands.
Are you able to consider Xenoblade Chronicles is 15 years previous? Are you excited for the collection’ future on the Swap 2? Share your reminiscences within the feedback beneath.
Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and whereas RPGs are her past love, Nintendo is a detailed second. She enjoys nothing greater than overthinking battle methods, characters, and tales. She additionally needs she was a Sega air pirate.
