Spoiler The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Postgame & Spoiler Discussion Thread

[Deleted member 2]

PERSONALLY, I want the story behind Hackt. Gone to soon after chapter 1

Spoiler

Saw him hangin out in The City

 

[EtherPenguin]

Somewhat unsatisfying but thematically appropriate for a game all about moving on to not care about the past storyline lol


Idk I figured it being introduced at the end of two meant there was more going on than it seemed compared to XB1's ending. Thought it would be a whole subplot line in the war of the universes

I think they just needed a reason for the beanstalk to be under siege.

I do get where you're coming from with being disappointed that Klaus didn't have any part in 3, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same. His story for the most part is over, but what always caught my interest in 2 was after Rex & crew leave him, he says "perhaps I will be able to face you again, Galea." I was in the camp, that wanted a new Xenoblade to be standalone and was put off by that leak from last year, but I always thought if it had to be connected, I'd like to see that line mean something. I envisioned an end to the Klaus story as having a reincarnated Klaus and Galea where he would be able to complete his atonement in some cosmic way and be able to apologize to her.

3 didn't really need that, but it's a little bit of a bummer that this is supposedly the last time Takahashi's going to touch this world and these characters.

 

[Deleted member 2]

Klaus and his conflict don't matter really. He's dead and gone, no one else from his era is alive. It's all lost to time unless Takahashi decides to go back in time with the future games. What he left behind is a universe ending disaster.

That's incredibly disappointing after being told that this game is the conclusion to the "Klaus trilogy", a term we did not even have until the promotional cycle gave it to us.

 

[Momo]

Who needs a Klaus trilogy when we can get an Elma trilogy instead

 

[Toad King]

That's incredibly disappointing after being told that this game is the conclusion to the "Klaus trilogy", a term we did not even have until the promotional cycle gave it to us.

I think it was obvious that "Klaus Trilogy" means the worlds he created rather than him being personally involved after his pretty thorough deaths in 1 and 2. I mean the only way to have Klaus come back he would either a) have to be revived b) not really have died or c) have some third split person/universe. None of those options really sound good to me.

 

[Deleted member 2551]

That's incredibly disappointing after being told that this game is the conclusion to the "Klaus trilogy", a term we did not even have until the promotional cycle gave it to us.

I personally interpreted it as the story finally being done with Klaus’ mess, not that it would feature further and final closure for Klaus.

I wouldn’t say that we got closure about the state of the universes however.

 

[Deleted member 2]

I think it was obvious that "Klaus Trilogy" means the worlds he created rather than him being personally involved after his pretty thorough deaths in 1 and 2. I mean the only way to have Klaus come back he would either a) have to be revived b) not really have died or c) have some third split person/universe. None of those options really sound good to me.

I... completely disagree that that interpretation of what they meant was "obvious"

I personally interpreted it as the story finally being done with Klaus’ mess, not that it would feature further and final closure for Klaus.

I wouldn’t say that we got closure about the state of the universes however.

Closure to the state of the universes involved with Klaus' decisions is like the one basic thing I would hope from the conclusion of a Klaus trilogy

 

[EtherPenguin]

I personally interpreted it as the story finally being done with Klaus’ mess, not that it would feature further and final closure for Klaus.

I wouldn’t say that we got closure about the state of the universes however.

What feels weird is that the original games (especially the first one) already ended with them being done with Klaus's mess. The two worlds colliding never had to happen, they just made it up so 3 can have a plot. If they wanted, in Xenoblade 4 they could come up with some new disaster and be like "Actually this is the final thing they need to do be free from Klaus's influence!"

 

[BradenAndEggs]

I’m gonna need Monolith to remake Mythra’s awakening cutscene with whatever wizardry they are doing to make 3’s cutscenes’ characters so wonderfully human like. The eyes man, the eyes.

 

[Deleted member 2]

What feels weird is that the original games (especially the first one) already ended with them being done with Klaus's mess. The two worlds colliding never had to happen, they just made it up so 3 can have a plot. If they wanted, in Xenoblade 4 they could come up with some new disaster and be like "Actually this is the final thing they need to do be free from Klaus's influence!"

It was the term "Klaus trilogy" that made it go from a completed duology to a trilogy in my mind.

 

[Deleted member 2]

I’m gonna need Monolith to remake Mythra’s awakening cutscene with whatever wizardry they are doing to make 3’s cutscenes’ characters so wonderfully human like. The eyes man, the eyes.

Those frickin' eyes

 

[Thunder84]

The two worlds colliding never had to happen, they just made it up so 3 can have a plot.

This was arguably the most speculated direction for XC3 well before the reveal even happened. Sure, it didn’t have to happen, but considering how so many people figured that’s where the story was headed, I don’t really think it’s fair to say they pulled it from thin air. This was in the works for a while, and a lot of people picked up on it after XC2.

 

[Apopheniac]

That's incredibly disappointing after being told that this game is the conclusion to the "Klaus trilogy", a term we did not even have until the promotional cycle gave it to us.

When did Takahashi or anyone at Nintendo call it that? All I can find is the letter from Takahashi where he describes XC3 as "the conclusion of the Xenoblade story that began with Klaus’s experiment." Which would be as Toad King described it, as opposed to a story with further involvement from Klaus himself.

Aside from some kind of "Z is for Zanza" thing I'm not sure what more we could've gotten from Klaus. XC1 had the protagonists wrench their destiny away from him, XC2 had him accepting his oncoming demise and passing the torch to our plucky heroes. He's backstory to the backstory at this point.

 

[Deleted member 2]

This was arguably the most speculated direction for XC3 well before the reveal even happened. Sure, it didn’t have to happen, but considering how so many people figured that’s where the story was headed, I don’t really think it’s fair to say they pulled it from thin air. This was in the works for a while, and a lot of people picked up on it after XC2.

No, this is a vast misrepresentation of what was expected.

Having been very active in Cenoblade discussion and speculation since 2, I'd summarize the consensus as being the worlds had merged; that what we were seeing at the end of 1 was the new world, and what was happening at the end of 2 was the merging of the two worlds. The expectation was that 3 would take place with the merge already having happened.

When trailers and promotional material came out showing familiar locations, this solidified the theory that the game was taking place in the same world that we had seen at the ends of both 2 and 1.

I wouldn't even classify that as an intentional "twist". There's no significance in playing with our expectations in such a way where we are led to believe we are seeing the combined result of the worlds, only to learn that what we've been seeing is actually a temporary mishmash simulation that is deleted at the end of the game, while the actual universes of 1 and 2 never merge, and never meet beyond this temporary and ultimately deleted simulation (post-credits scene speculation notwithstanding).

I'm not debating whether it was defying expectations or not - I'm arguing that if the defiance of our expectations was on purpose, it wasn't necessary nor was it executed well, and if it wasn't on purpose, it was some seriously flawed storytelling.

Love the game tho. Still grinding up CP

 

[Deleted member 2]

When did Takahashi or anyone at Nintendo call it that? All I can find is the letter from Takahashi where he describes XC3 as "the conclusion of the Xenoblade story that began with Klaus’s experiment."

My memory fails me - that's what he said. I pulled "Klaus trilogy" from a hat I guess.

Aside from some kind of "Z is for Zanza" thing I'm not sure what more we could've gotten from Klaus. XC1 had the protagonists wrench their destiny away from him, XC2 had him accepting his oncoming demise and passing the torch to our plucky heroes. He's backstory to the backstory at this point.

It's not even about Klaus, it's about the Conduit, it's disappearance, the Trinity Processor and it's Aegises, the whole worldbuilding and the connections between the two worlds established in 1 and 2.

3 feels like an unnecessarily tacked-on story for the sake of adding more to what was already a conclusive story, on the level of the Star Wars sequels.

And I'm just saying that's disappointing is all.

 

[Thunder84]

No, this is a vast misrepresentation of what was expected.

Having been very active in Cenoblade discussion and speculation since 2, I'd summarize the consensus as being the worlds had merged; that what we were seeing at the end of 1 was the new world, and what was happening at the end of 2 was the merging of the two worlds. The expectation was that 3 would take place with the merge already having happened.

When trailers and promotional material came out showing familiar locations, this solidified the theory that the game was taking place in the same world that we had seen at the ends of both 2 and 1.

I wouldn't even classify that as an intentional "twist". There's no significance in playing with our expectations in such a way where we are led to believe we are seeing the combined result of the worlds, only to learn that what we've been seeing is actually a temporary mishmash simulation that is deleted at the end of the game, while the actual universes of 1 and 2 never merge, and never meet beyond this temporary and ultimately deleted simulation (post-credits scene speculation notwithstanding).

I'm not debating whether it was defying expectations or not - I'm arguing that if the defiance of our expectations was on purpose, it wasn't necessary nor was it executed well, and if it wasn't on purpose, it was some seriously flawed storytelling.

Love the game tho. Still grinding up CP

That’s not what I was referring to. The person I was quoting implied (or at least my interpretation of what they said implied) that the two worlds interacting at all was pulled from nowhere for the sake of XC3 having a plot/setting. That was what I was refuting, as most speculation after XC2 centered around the worlds interacting in some way, and XC1FC further fueled that.

I don’t think that the worlds completely merging was ever fully implied, although I do think that Monolith played off of that idea. You can’t really write off the numerous landmarks as anything other than a string of clues hinting at Aionios being the merged world, only for Monolith to pull the rug at the end. The significance should’ve been played up more heavily than it was for sure though, as it stands it really only serves to be a reason to make the ending bittersweet (although I’m still ultimately ok with it, I just think there’s a lot of missed potential).

Personally, even though the final act was a mess, I liked how they went against the idea of the worlds completely merging. The last thing I wanted was for XC3 to turn into a fanservice mess that tried to be some sort of “ultimate” conclusion, and I’m quite happy that it stands as it’s own product, even though I have plenty of issues with the final act as I said before. The final hanging thread from the previous games was how the worlds would ultimately meet and interact, and XC3 answered that question.

 

[EtherPenguin]

This was arguably the most speculated direction for XC3 well before the reveal even happened. Sure, it didn’t have to happen, but considering how so many people figured that’s where the story was headed, I don’t really think it’s fair to say they pulled it from thin air. This was in the works for a while, and a lot of people picked up on it after XC2.

It's a perfectly serviceable idea. It's just some of the interpretations I've seen that say this (the worlds colliding to be destroyed, then recreated as pure) was a necessary step in finally shedding off Klaus's influence devalues the ending of the first game to me.

 

[Deleted member 2551]

Unrelated but I’m glad I’m not the only one constantly mistyping the series as “Cenoblade” on the phone keyboard

 

[Pokemaniac]

No, this is a vast misrepresentation of what was expected.

Having been very active in Cenoblade discussion and speculation since 2, I'd summarize the consensus as being the worlds had merged; that what we were seeing at the end of 1 was the new world, and what was happening at the end of 2 was the merging of the two worlds. The expectation was that 3 would take place with the merge already having happened.

When trailers and promotional material came out showing familiar locations, this solidified the theory that the game was taking place in the same world that we had seen at the ends of both 2 and 1.

I wouldn't even classify that as an intentional "twist". There's no significance in playing with our expectations in such a way where we are led to believe we are seeing the combined result of the worlds, only to learn that what we've been seeing is actually a temporary mishmash simulation that is deleted at the end of the game, while the actual universes of 1 and 2 never merge, and never meet beyond this temporary and ultimately deleted simulation (post-credits scene speculation notwithstanding).

I'm not debating whether it was defying expectations or not - I'm arguing that if the defiance of our expectations was on purpose, it wasn't necessary nor was it executed well, and if it wasn't on purpose, it was some seriously flawed storytelling.

Love the game tho. Still grinding up CP

The interpretation that the worlds had already merged in the original endings is certainly something that's been floating around, but it largely seemed to be based on a misinterpretation of something Azurda said in the ending of 2 ("rift" was a really bad word choice in hindsight). I don't think it was ever really the intent to imply that. The worlds getting drawn back together like this was definitely one of my top guesses for what happened after seeing the trailers for 3, though I certainly expected it to be a more permanent thing.

 

[Apopheniac]

It's not even about Klaus, it's about the Conduit, it's disappearance, the Trinity Processor and it's Aegises, the whole worldbuilding and the connections between the two worlds established in 1 and 2.

3 feels like an unnecessarily tacked-on story for the sake of adding more to what was already a conclusive story, on the level of the Star Wars sequels.

And I'm just saying that's disappointing is all.

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from with some of that. I don't see it as tacked-on any more than XC2 was for XC1 in that I think either 1 or 2 would've been fine stopping points for the overarching story, though it does seem like XC3 is saving some secrets for its DLC.

My interpretation is that the merger of the worlds is the result of the Conduit's disappearance, since that was the force that split them apart to begin with and may have been what maintained their separation. While I think that Alvis and Malos are probably retired, it seems like Nia's inherited the Aegis swords, and I'd be willing to bet that the DLC sheds some light as to what's going on with Pyra and Mythra.

 

[Seven]

I personally interpreted it as the story finally being done with Klaus’ mess, not that it would feature further and final closure for Klaus.

I wouldn’t say that we got closure about the state of the universes however.

We did get closure about the states of the universes though. They were both destroyed and a new one came into being through the efforts of the inhabitants of the prior two. We were done with Klaus' mess at the ends of XC and XC2 where he died and the Conduit disappeared with him.

You could say that XC3 deals with Klaus' legacy which would have ended with the death of both universes. Instead his creations in both worlds managed to "survive" their inevitable destruction and have forged a path beyond his influence.

 

[Phendrift]

I guess I skipped a LOT of sidequests and am doing them post game but they’re all a breeze

I kinda wanna de level but at the same time that bothers my OCD returning to a “weaker” state and undoing progress

 

[Toad King]

I guess I skipped a LOT of sidequests and am doing them post game but they’re all a breeze

I kinda wanna de level but at the same time that bothers my OCD returning to a “weaker” state and undoing progress

Be like me and embrace Lucky Seven and wipe out literally every sidequest boss in two attacks.

 

[Apopheniac]

The main things that I feel weren't really explained well were the off-seeings and the Irises

My guess in the beginning of the game was that the motes from the off-seeings were signals being sent to the cradles alerting them to print a new person, but then I did the sidequest in the City where they do an off-seeing on some mementoes and those produced the motes, and after that was Chapter 6 where they went with "yeah the music is magic because of feelings" and I gave up on trying to figure it out

The Irises I don't think were ever explained. We know Moebius can do tracking and mind control through them and the Origin metal can block the signal, and we know they're connected to the Blades which Moebius can also shut down if they want, but the mind control and Blade shutdown are presented as Consul-specific powers which is why they only come up like twice. Alexandria was able to come up with Collectaeopedia Cards and get them added as a feature but she had to go through a Consul, so maybe it's a Consul thing, except the Ouroboros can unlock Blade-switching through it and no one else can, and they never get their network access revoked

 

[Xenoblade 3]

One thing I found interesting about the Irises is that Nia used her core crystal to send the Origin's blueprints to the party's Irises.
They use Irises to summon weapons almost exactly like Blades in XC2. The Irises seem to have some relation to core crystals.
The part where the party was in prison without access to their blades is also really similar to Tantal's prison in XC2.

 

[EtherPenguin]

One thing I found interesting about the Irises is that Nia used her core crystal to send the Origin's blueprints to the party's Irises.
They use Irises to summon weapons almost exactly like Blades in XC2. The Irises seem to have some relation to core crystals.
The part where the party was in prison without access to their blades is also really similar to Tantal's prison in XC2.

Also when you take the final elevator ride in Origin down to the amphitheater, there are all those glowing blue cubes floating around that look a lot like Core Crystals. If those are the stored digital souls, then it's possible they stored all the data of everyone from the original worlds in an evolved version of the Core Crystal technology. In that way, all the people of Aionios taken out of Origin's data are essentially a form of Blades. Irises might work like a Blade Power similar to the one Gort's blade had.

 

[Jbone916]

Just finished the main story myself and have to say the ending definitely moved me emotionally. Was anyone else reminded of the conclusion to the “His Dark Materials” trilogy?

Honestly, I kinda like how some of the narrative details in this game are left up to interpretation - it certainly generates discussion and is imo better than an overly-long exposition like Klaus’ monologue at the end of XC2. Speaking of Klaus, I was pretty surprised he never showed up in this game (not even in a flashback), but I guess that kinda makes sense since he’s long dead at this point.

One frustration I have to vent on is that I was party wiped right at the end of the final boss’ last phase and then had to restart the entire cutscene-filled fight from the beginning again. For a game that is normally very forgiving of player death, this was a little annoying.

On a more positive note, I’m having trouble deciding between Nio and Eunie regarding who my favorite character in this game is, but needless to say all 6 main party members are awesome.

Now, to finally listen to the OST without fear of spoilers!

 

[Xenoblade 3]

Also when you take the final elevator ride in Origin down to the amphitheater, there are all those glowing blue cubes floating around that look a lot like Core Crystals. If those are the stored digital souls, then it's possible they stored all the data of everyone from the original worlds in an evolved version of the Core Crystal technology. In that way, all the people of Aionios taken out of Origin's data are essentially a form of Blades. Irises might work like a Blade Power similar to the one Gort's blade had.

Yeah, I agree the people of Keves and Agnus seem to be Blade-like beings. They also reincarnate without their memories, just like Blades.

Another thing I wanted to mention was Nia's line here.

This device sounds exactly like the Trinity Processors. The people's Irises send information back to these things that Nia (and probably Melia) have.
I still have to do some side quests, so I don't know if these devices are named or explained. Poppi was inside of it too, which is a huge question mark lol

 

[Phendrift]

Also Robo Melia literally says she “watches over the world with her Aegis” in Chapter 4

Wonder what that means

 

[Koren Lesthe]

If I got it right, the actual people of The City won’t be born when the Origin is used, correct ? That’s why Ghondor is saying that she’s glad to have a chance to exist in the new world and hope to have a better name this time (I have to agree with her, I always had LOTR in my head with her name).

 

[Weebos]

If I got it right, the actual people of The City won’t be born when the Origin is used, correct ? That’s why Ghondor is saying that she’s glad to have a chance to exist in the new world and hope to have a better name this time (I have to agree with her, I always had LOTR in my head with her name).

Yeah I was wondering about this myself. Do they get to pick a world? Does the city become a spaceship? Do they just get consumed by Origin and spit back out?

 

[Phendrift]

One thing about a founders prequel is, what new big area will there be to explore that wasn’t in the base game? With Torna it was easy - there was a Titan that died by the time of XC2. Let’s see how it looked back then.

With XC3 I can think of two things. A big area to explore would be the Urayan Mountains. The info discussion states how they’re a shell of what they used to be. The “new” town to explore would be the older incarnation of the city before it was rebuilt. Maybe it was pretty different in terms of architecture.

 

[Renmazuo]

lol sorry for being so negative but I've been rewatching some cutscenes and I couldn't help but notice how extremely contrived the end of chapter 5 is for the sake of the plot twist. This is something that makes less sense the more I think about it, knowing how the story goes.

Starting with something the game establishes: Mio and M swap places the very first time she uses Soul Eclipse, before the battle even begins. The game shows this a few times and can also be inferred from Mio/M starting to tear up when it happens.

First my most minor gripe: Taion is using his mondos to detect the "moebius" (the moebius... is you!) but he is actually detecting Mio instead. How does he not notice this? But whatever, maybe he's just detecting something else and he's just saying the moebius thing for dramatism.

Noah and M interlink twice. Wait what? Ouroboros and Moebius can interlink... I guess? J says something like that to Lanz in his last encounter, offering to share his feelings with him, but it sounds like he's mocking him more than something that is actually possible. On that note...

Noah and M interlink twice. Noah somehow doesn't notice the swap and that he's interlinking with a completely different person. Remember that seeing the thoughts and memories of your partner is about the first established feature of interlinking.

Ghondor doesn't question at all why the consul who gave her the key to Nia's place is now suddenly attacking them and trying to prevent her escape. Was she in on the plan? Doesn't seem like it considering she was rushing to rescue the party afterwards until Mio warned her and Monica.

Was Mio really going to allow Lanz, Sena and N to die there? What was she going to do if X didn't arrive at the last possible second to save N? Did she somehow know? N seemed surprised by the turn of events so I can't see how she would know.

What was actually Mio and M's plan? N is the one who comes up with the "wonderful entertainment" mere seconds away from slicing Noah to death. What were they going to do if N didn't have this sudden whim? Wouldn't it have made more sense for M/Mio to propose the idea instead? Like, if the plan was to have M die via Homecoming to snap N out of it and have the party save him, then they did absolutely nothing to work towards that beyond the inital swap. Nothing at all. Things just happened to work out by pure chance.

It's like, they wanted a bunch of cool shit happening at the end of chapter 5, and a cool twist happening at the beginning of chapter 6, but completely forgot about how the latter is supposed to recontextualize the former.

 

[Thunder84]

First my most minor gripe: Taion is using his mondos to detect the "moebius" (the moebius... is you!) but he is actually detecting Mio instead. How does he not notice this? But whatever, maybe he's just detecting something else and he's just saying the moebius thing for dramatism.

The Mondo likely were detecting which body had a foreign presence in it, not necessarily M/Mio herself.

Noah and M interlink twice. Wait what? Ouroboros and Moebius can interlink... I guess? J says something like that to Lanz in his last encounter, offering to share his feelings with him, but it sounds like he's mocking him more than something that is actually possible. On that note...

Given that Mio can use Ouroboros powers and that M succumbs to the 10 year limit, I think it’s pretty clear that the powers of Moebius and Ouroboros are connected to their physical bodies, not their “souls”.

Noah and M interlink twice. Noah somehow doesn't notice the swap and that he's interlinking with a completely different person. Remember that seeing the thoughts and memories of your partner is about the first established feature of interlinking.

Given that Mio retained all of M’s memories, it’s very likely that M retained all of Mio’s as well. Noah didn’t suspect anything, so Mio’s memories were likely enough to keep Noah off the scent, since he wasn’t really taking notice of M’s memories at the time.

Ghondor doesn't question at all why the consul who gave her the key to Nia's place is now suddenly attacking them and trying to prevent her escape. Was she in on the plan? Doesn't seem like it considering she was rushing to rescue the party afterwards until Mio warned her and Monica.

Ghondor only met M once, and she was alone at the time. I’d be more surprised if she did trust M in that situation considering that she had another consul, an entire Agnian strikeforce, and a recently betrayed Shania on her side.

Was Mio really going to allow Lanz, Sena and N to die there? What was she going to do if X didn't arrive at the last possible second to save N? Did she somehow know? N seemed surprised by the turn of events so I can't see how she would know.

It’s definitely possible that M knew of X’s presence, which would in turn mean Mio knew as well. Definitely unclear on this point though.

What was actually Mio and M's plan? N is the one who comes up with the "wonderful entertainment" mere seconds away from slicing Noah to death. What were they going to do if N didn't have this sudden whim? Wouldn't it have made more sense for M/Mio to propose the idea instead? Like, if the plan was to have M die via Homecoming to snap N out of it and have the party save him, then they did absolutely nothing to work towards that beyond the inital swap. Nothing at all. Things just happened to work out by pure chance.

N probably was planning on the forced homecoming before the encounter even began. There was no reason to swap at all otherwise.

 

[EtherPenguin]

Also Robo Melia literally says she “watches over the world with her Aegis” in Chapter 4

Wonder what that means

I re-watched the scene before the Melia fight, is this the line you mean: "I have endeavored for countless years to protect and shelter Keves under my aegis and now you seek to bring ruin to this world."

The subtitles have aegis as lower case and given the context, I think she's using the actual meaning of the word as in under her guard. To me, this comes off as just saying how she's the good protector of the world who maintains the status quo and the ouroboros oppose it.

One thing about a founders prequel is, what new big area will there be to explore that wasn’t in the base game? With Torna it was easy - there was a Titan that died by the time of XC2. Let’s see how it looked back then.

With XC3 I can think of two things. A big area to explore would be the Urayan Mountains. The info discussion states how they’re a shell of what they used to be. The “new” town to explore would be the older incarnation of the city before it was rebuilt. Maybe it was pretty different in terms of architecture.

On the map screen, there's a big green island north of Aetia, I think that's going to be used for something

 

[Deleted member 2]

It makes a lot more sense once you realize that they didn't swap bodies at the beginning, M was just sharing her thoughts and memories with Mio. Mio was still Mio, and M was still M. She shed the tear because she was finally being heard and understood.

Starting with something the game establishes: Mio and M swap places the very first time she uses Soul Eclipse, before the battle even begins. The game shows this a few times and can also be inferred from Mio/M starting to tear up when it happens.

First my most minor gripe: Taion is using his mondos to detect the "moebius" (the moebius... is you!) but he is actually detecting Mio instead. How does he not notice this? But whatever, maybe he's just detecting something else and he's just saying the moebius thing for dramatism.

Noah and M interlink twice. Wait what? Ouroboros and Moebius can interlink... I guess? J says something like that to Lanz in his last encounter, offering to share his feelings with him, but it sounds like he's mocking him more than something that is actually possible. On that note...

Noah and M interlink twice. Noah somehow doesn't notice the swap and that he's interlinking with a completely different person. Remember that seeing the thoughts and memories of your partner is about the first established feature of interlinking.

All this makes sense if you take it as that they did not swap places. M swapped with Mio during the battle, I imagine, or afterwards, or even offscreen. But yeah, it makes way more sense that way.

Ghondor doesn't question at all why the consul who gave her the key to Nia's palace is now suddenly attacking them and trying to prevent her escape. Was she in on the plan? Doesn't seem like it considering she was rushing to rescue the party afterwards until Mio warned her and Monica.

Well, she was also actively being betrayed by someone at that same time, so I imagine Ghondor wasn't exactly in the mood for solving all these mysteries and more interested in surviving.

Was Mio really going to allow Lanz, Sena and N to die there? What was she going to do if X didn't arrive at the last possible second to save N? Did she somehow know? N seemed surprised by the turn of events so I can't see how she would know.

What was actually Mio and M's plan? N is the one who comes up with the "wonderful entertainment" mere seconds away from slicing Noah to death. What were they going to do if N didn't have this sudden whim? Wouldn't it have made more sense for M/Mio to propose the idea instead? Like, if the plan was to have M die via Homecoming to snap N out of it and have the party save him, then they did absolutely nothing to work towards that beyond the inital swap. Nothing at all. Things just happened to work out by pure chance.

The plan was to have M and Mio swap. That's it. If Mio died right then and there, then boom, plan complete. But since N suddenly decided to drag it out for a month and have her die via homecoming, the swap was still a success. They just have an extra month to kill before it's complete.

It's like, they wanted a bunch of cool shit happening at the end of chapter 5, and a cool twist happening at the beginning of chapter 6, but completely forgot about how the latter is supposed to recontextualize the former.

I don't know, I think it was pretty well conceived. I imagine if you interpret it the way you did it wouldn't seem right, but this was like..... one of the core parts of the story, I'm pretty sure they took the time and care to piece it all together.

 

[Tye]

The purpose of Origin was to "let humanity live on" - meaning ensuring humanity doesn't disappear forever. They knew their universes' deaths were inevitable, but througu Origin, exact replicas of their universes would be booted up and continue living. The lives in the new universes would still be new consciousnesses - the originals were always going to die.


Interestingly enough, the universes weren't pushed apart - those were new universes being created by Origin, as intended. The old universes collapsed into each other, and the Noah you see at the end "unfreezing" is actually the new universe "starting" where the old one "left off", so to speak.


I think the DLC will take place sometime in the 1,000 years before our story takes place in Aionios. The original Founders are a commonly shared idea for the subject of the DLC story.

I dunno, from what I can tell a lot of things related to Origin just aren’t clearly explained in the game, so I’m not sure we have many concrete answers either way. Also, how is it seemingly capable of Conduit-like abilities when it’s assumed to have no connection to the Conduit at all given its connection to the two worlds was severed after the events of the first two games?? The whole thing is super vague and unclear to me, and I feel like they have to shed more light on some of this stuff with the DLC. That’s also largely why I think it’ll probably be an epilogue rather than a prologue, though I was 100% on the idea that the DLC would absolutely be about the Founders before I finished the story too. I guess it still could be but if that’s the case then I fear we won’t be getting many more answers with it, but who knows I guess.

I guess a story about the Founders could give us some answers though, ‘cause I certainly have a lot of questions related to the City as well. Like, why are they all homs/humans, despite there being at least one Gormotti among the group of Founders—and how come there were no High Entia, Machina, Blades, etc.? Why and how do they also have Irises? And, of course, what happens to them all at the end of the game—do they just…disappear, as if they never existed? ‘Cause that seems to be the implication, but that would be…counter to the game’s message, I feel. Also what the hell is the deal with the Nopon, and how do they fit into all of this??

There are just so many questions, which wasn’t the case with the other Xenoblade games besides X…but honestly I think I’m more bothered by the unclear and unanswered questions here than I ever was in X because X at least clearly sets itself up for a future sequel and hasn’t been directly tied to the other games (yet…), while this one kinda just ends and that’s it; we know it’s not going to get a direct sequel due to it being the end of this narrative trilogy, and I feel like rather than giving closure for the worlds of XC and XC2, it just raises a lot more questions than we had before.

I still love the game, and I’m fully expecting us to get answers to most things in some form or another, whether it’s through the added Hero quests, the DLC story, the art book, interviews with Takahashi, or even model kit lore dumps, lol, but until then I’m gonna continue to be bothered by all these unanswered questions and unclear details…

 

[Koren Lesthe]

Yeah I was wondering about this myself. Do they get to pick a world? Does the city become a spaceship? Do they just get consumed by Origin and spit back out?

I guess they will exist one way or another, but the thing is : if I got it right, the person who started acting against Moebius & who kickstarted the creation of The City was Noah and Mio’s child (decades before they became M & N).

 

[EtherPenguin]

I'm pretty sure all the people in the City were erased from existence, they can only hope to be reborn in the new worlds. That's what Ghondor says at the end. If they have mixed Kevesi-Agnian ancestry then they're fucked.

 

[Renmazuo]

I'm pretty sure all the people in the City were erased from existence, they can only hope to be reborn in the new worlds. That's what Ghondor says at the end. If they have mixed Kevesi-Agnian ancestry then they're fucked.

Not Shania lol, she got herself recorded in Origin

 

[EtherPenguin]

Not Shania lol, she got herself recorded in Origin

Shania lives! She'll be the main villain of Xenoblade 4

 

[ermitron2]

I fiind funny that during all this Triton is like "yeah mates, lets bash some Moebius skulls" and he is totally OK with it.

 

[Jersh]

Given that Mio can use Ouroboros powers and that M succumbs to the 10 year limit, I think it’s pretty clear that the powers of Moebius and Ouroboros are connected to their physical bodies, not their “souls”.

Both physical bodies interlink though, as you can still interlink after chapter 6. Whatever's going on there isn't clear.

It makes a lot more sense once you realize that they didn't swap bodies at the beginning, M was just sharing her thoughts and memories with Mio. Mio was still Mio, and M was still M. She shed the tear because she was finally being heard and understood.

All this makes sense if you take it as that they did not swap places. M swapped with Mio during the battle, I imagine, or afterwards, or even offscreen. But yeah, it makes way more sense that way.

When I rewatched that bit, I really can't take that shot of the long haired one opening her eyes and then seeing the short haired one come into view from a first person perspective as anything other than Monolith Soft showing us the exact moment Mio awoke as M. It just doesn't make much sense from a cinematography perspective to use those shots for, like... anything else.

 

[Zeroth]

Noah and M interlink twice. Noah somehow doesn't notice the swap and that he's interlinking with a completely different person. Remember that seeing the thoughts and memories of your partner is about the first established feature of interlinking.

It's worth noting that interlinking doesn't mean the pair get to know all of each other's memories and thoughts. Taion didn't find out about Eunie's memory thing until she told him herself later on.

 

[Thunder84]

Both physical bodies interlink though, as you can still interlink after chapter 6. Whatever's going on there isn't clear.

Good point. Might just be a Moebius thing then, considering they can interlink too? Doesn’t really matter in the long run, but still interesting.

 

[Jersh]

Good point. Might just be a Moebius thing then, considering they can interlink too? Doesn’t really matter in the long run, but still interesting.

She distinctly has that hybrid Mobius-Ouroboros iris. It honestly feels more like a hand wave at best and a genuine mistake at worst; it breaks the game's own established rule of only 6 Ouroboros at a time and instead of explaining it, they avoid drawing any attention to it.

 

[Renmazuo]

It's worth noting that interlinking doesn't mean the pair get to know all of each other's memories and thoughts. Taion didn't find out about Eunie's memory thing until she told him herself later on.

Taion explicitly states that he actually saw that memory in Eunie's ascension quest though. Regardless, hiding over a millenia of accumulated thoughts and memories seems a bit unbelievable to me considering how interlinking is visually represented, but I gotta accept it is what it is

 

[Apopheniac]

So uhhh what's the deal with the enemy names in Origin? I'm assuming these have some kind of meaning and aren't just the sounds that Takahashi makes while eating a burrito

 

[xghost777]

With N, the whole point of him is that he is so consumed with himself and his own wants that he isn’t paying attention to any of the details around him. That’s why he didn’t notice he was interlinking with a different version of Mio (who did have 1,000 years of memories still alongside less than ten of Mio’s) and why we never get the name of their child. He does not really care about their child.

Edit: it was the other way around for interlinking. See next page.

 

[xghost777]

Let me add on, N had 1,000 years to notice M was unhappy and never really figured it out.