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StarTopic Xeno Series Community |ST|

In more positive news

Today Nintendo launched a website called "My Nintendo Switch History 2021" for Japanese users that allowed them to look back at their 2021 on the Switch and share the results on Twitter.

/#MySwitchHistory quickly reached n1 trending in Japan and WorldWide (it currently still is n1 worldwide), and alongside it 3 games went trending as people shared their own top 3:

  1. Monster Hunter Rise*. It launched March last year and became last year's best selling game in Japan.
  2. Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Pyra and Mythra were included in Smash Ultimate in February, and according to this article (japanese) the characters were very popular among the Smash playerbase, leading to shortages of XC2 physical copies.
  3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. AC:NH is Japan's best selling game of all time so no real surprise here, and it also received a massive free update and a paid DLC later last year.
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Edit: These are NOT strictly the 3 most played games, better description of the situation here
 
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Procheno said:
I've grown to love the Xenoblade franchise a lot since I first started playing them when 2 came out. I've played 2, Torna, and DE so far with X on the to do list when it gets ported some day. I am curious about Xenogears and Saga as well.

I actually just made a fan cinematic trailer for Xenoblade 2 to show my affection and exercise making trailers as one who hopes to one day make a new Xenoblade trailer.


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Oh my god yes, you used my favorite Xenoblade track - Torna, Day

This is incredible, thank you
 
Procheno said:
It's such a good song, I wish I heard it more when people talk about Xenoblade
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Same here. It encapsulates Torna perfectly imo. Beautiful, yet wistful, like hiding a mournful secret...
 
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PandaAndino said:
Awesome video, yes the story repeats and thats why I think somebringer is coming back as xenoblade 3, or atleast something similar like xenogears with xenoblade 2.
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Thanks! Xenoblade 1 and 2 already used most of the major plot points from SomaBringer, except for....
...meeting the wave-existence-god-entity! So I'm looking forward to it in Xenoblade 3.

maniacmaison said:
Guys I need your help: Im a huge fan of Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2 and Torna, and my boyfriend's favourite game is Xenogears. He has never played any of the other Xeno games, and I would like him to try Xenoblade in my Switch. What are the philosophical themes connecting Xenoblade and Xenogears? I want to sell him these games as something he may enjoy if he likes Xenogears, but he was put off by a video that depicted Xenoblade's 2 story as childish.
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I'd say it's the most like Xenogears than any other Xeno game, including Xenosaga. But some people have a hard time not judging a book by it's cover.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is like a "young-adult" version of Xenogears. And don't take that in a bad way. It is intended to be more "immature" intentionally, but is very much a Xeno game with all the exact same themes as Xenogears, just handled a little more subtly. It has more of a nostalgic/growing-up feeling if that makes any sense. But the "childishness" fades the further you get into the game as the themes the Xeno games are known for start to show themselves more.

While Xenoblade 1 and X are "more serious", they don't come close to XC2 in terms of closeness to Xenogears.

Procheno said:
You did a fantastic job as well on your tribute video! 👏 👏 And thank you for your kind words!
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Thanks! I look forward to seeing more in the future.
 
PandaAndino said:
Awesome video, yes the story repeats and thats why I think somebringer is coming back as xenoblade 3, or atleast something similar like xenogears with xenoblade 2.
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Future Connected seems to be pointing pretty strongly to something more Xenosaga inspired.
The Fog King and how Shulk deals with it are very reminiscent of the Gnosis and the Hilbert Effect, respectively.
 
Almadel said:
Thanks! Xenoblade 1 and 2 already used most of the major plot points from SomaBringer, except for....
...meeting the wave-existence-god-entity! So I'm looking forward to it in Xenoblade 3.
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Speaking of, is Soma Bringer worth an import and to throw a fan translation on it?
 
Mr.Fletcher said:
Posted this at the other place. Great to see the game still part of the conversation in 2022.

Wouldn‘t surprise me if XC2 was heading to 2.5m at this stage. Ballsy considering the last numbers? Yep, but it’s been a couple of years and Smash reinvigorated interest in the game.
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Gotta wonder about the latest sales number of Xenoblade DE and 2.
(Graph source)
Xenoblade_Series_Sales_Plot.png

These were the latest sales numbers I can find (November 2020) which are more than a year old.
It wouldn't be surprising for XC2 to actually hit 3 million or at least come close to it (thank you SSBU).
XCDE sales should also have been tugged along by XC2.
I could be overestimating though, so don't take my word for it.
 
ACE+ said:
These were the latest sales numbers I can find (November 2020) which are more than a year old.
It wouldn't be surprising for XC2 to actually hit 3 million or at least come close to it (thank you SSBU).
XCDE sales should also have been tugged along by XC2.
I could be overestimating though, so don't take my word for it.
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I suspect that would be overestimating quite a bit how much of an affect Smash could have had on the fortunes of a 3-4 year old game.

While comparisons are a bit difficult to make, in the quarter that Byleth got announced and added to Smash, Three houses went from selling 270k copies (Oct-Dec 2019) , reaching a sales total of 2.58m, to 2.87m , meaning a total of 290k copies sold, then reaching 3.02m at the last update by June 2020 (meaning another 150k sold).

However, it's also the same time the large expansion pack released for Three houses, so how much of that bump can be attributed to smash is difficult to say, but it gives an upper estimate at least, and it still wasn't a particularly huge increase in the legs of a game.

Xenoblade 2 might have just about crawled to 2.5m eventually, but I don't think 3 is particularly realistic.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
I suspect that would be overestimating quite a bit how much of an affect Smash could have had on the fortunes of a 3-4 year old game.

While comparisons are a bit difficult to make, in the quarter that Byleth got announced and added to Smash, Three houses went from selling 270k copies (Oct-Dec 2019) , reaching a sales total of 2.58m, to 2.87m , meaning a total of 290k copies sold, then reaching 3.02m at the last update by June 2020 (meaning another 150k sold).

However, it's also the same time the large expansion pack released for Three houses, so how much of that bump can be attributed to smash is difficult to say, but it gives an upper estimate at least, and it still wasn't a particularly huge increase in the legs of a game.

Xenoblade 2 might have just about crawled to 2.5m eventually, but I don't think 3 is particularly realistic.
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I see. Thanks for the Fire Emblem comparison!
 
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I just listened to Nate’s podcast about Xenoblade 3. I have many thoughts about its potential delay into 2023. Obviously as a fan it will suck having to wait until next year to play it. But if it means a higher quality product, then I fully support the delay. After all, there was a comment by one of the higher ups about wanting to take their time with this project. As it stands now, I firmly believe we will have the game by March 2023. That’s roughly 4.5 years of development. Xenoblade X had a similar amount of development time which is just insane to me.

As they are seemingly finalizing/optimizing the game, I’m certain Takahashi is currently sitting in his office thinking about where to take the series next. Whether it’s coming up with potential DLC scenarios for XC3, Xenoblade X port or a direct sequel, Xenoblade Warriors, a mobile game, or even Xenoblade 4. The future is bright for the series, and I can’t wait to see what happens.
 
Shadow said:
Speaking of, is Soma Bringer worth an import and to throw a fan translation on it?
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I say yes. It's pretty much the "first" Xenoblade game. The gameplay and story were pretty much carried over and evolved into Xenoblade 1 and 2. Plus, it's the last game Takahashi, Soraya Saga, and Yasunori Mitsuda worked on together.

It's not as deep gameplay or story-wise as any of the Xenoblade games or Xenosaga/Xenogears, but it's still very fun with some great music and worth it.

The battle system is something I wouldn't mind seeing an evolution of for Xenoblade 3 either.

 
I'm gonna try and make an effort to go through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 this year. I played the remaster of the first one when it releases on switch and I loved it but I have some problems getting hooked on 2's combat
 
Legion of Primes said:
I'm gonna try and make an effort to go through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 this year. I played the remaster of the first one when it releases on switch and I loved it but I have some problems getting hooked on 2's combat
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You could watch some Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play on Youtube until the point you are on the game to avoid spoilers. He explains the game combat and other systems in a very nice way...
 
Legion of Primes said:
I'm gonna try and make an effort to go through Xenoblade Chronicles 2 this year. I played the remaster of the first one when it releases on switch and I loved it but I have some problems getting hooked on 2's combat
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2's combat does take a while to click, but once it does it's so smooth. And it's layered in a way that you can completely ignore certain elements of the battle system that you just don't like (for me, the orb system was just way too irritating to deal with so I mostly just focused on the rhythmic art-cancelling and Chrono-style dual and triple elemental arts). So not to sound too much like a commercial, but you can basically play in whatever combination of ways works for you.

But it does take a while to get going, yeah. 😅
 
chocolate_supra said:
2's combat does take a while to click, but once it does it's so smooth. And it's layered in a way that you can completely ignore certain elements of the battle system that you just don't like (for me, the orb system was just way too irritating to deal with so I mostly just focused on the rhythmic art-cancelling and Chrono-style dual and triple elemental arts). So not to sound too much like a commercial, but you can basically play in whatever combination of ways works for you.

But it does take a while to get going, yeah. 😅
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I still have a physical copy of the game so I’ll make an effort to try again. I loved the first game when I played that two years ago.
 
chocolate_supra said:
A badge of honor among Xenofans, wow

I know it's not quite as bad now as it used to be but I managed to snag Xenoblade 1 back when GameStop was burying the physical release and copies were going for $100 on eBay 😅)
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Gotten the copy from a local game store that has sadly, since closed. It was after I had beaten the first one. Didn’t even know it was out of print and hard to come by at the time. It was forty five bucks
 
Can I also say how much I loved the first Xenoblade when they came out on switch? The game story blew my mind and I knew basically nothing before I played it. The twists and other things kept me hooked all the way through. Easily a highlight of 2029 for me
 
Almadel said:
Plus, it's the last game Takahashi, Soraya Saga, and Yasunori Mitsuda worked on together.
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Pedant mode on Technically incorrect as Soraya Saga designed and wrote Gorg in Xenoblade 2

Legion of Primes said:
Can I also say how much I loved the first Xenoblade when they came out on switch? The game story blew my mind and I knew basically nothing before I played it. The twists and other things kept me hooked all the way through. Easily a highlight of 2029 for me
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You loved it so much it gave you visions of the future too!
 
chocolate_supra said:
A badge of honor among Xenofans, wow

I know it's not quite as bad now as it used to be but I managed to snag Xenoblade 1 back when GameStop was burying the physical release and copies were going for $100 on eBay 😅)
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Honestly, looking back at it from a European pov, NOA and Gamestop their handling of the game was outright hilarious. I remember coming across copies of the game for €10 sealed because stores were moving on from the Wii era all the while the US was still being difficult in bringing over a fully localised title for no reason other than just not feeling like it. And Gamestop selling clearly brand new copies as used to be able to have a mark up on the price, but good luck proving that despite the obvious.

Things truly have changed since those days, what a time that was...

Almadel said:
I say yes. It's pretty much the "first" Xenoblade game. The gameplay and story were pretty much carried over and evolved into Xenoblade 1 and 2. Plus, it's the last game Takahashi, Soraya Saga, and Yasunori Mitsuda worked on together.

It's not as deep gameplay or story-wise as any of the Xenoblade games or Xenosaga/Xenogears, but it's still very fun with some great music and worth it.

The battle system is something I wouldn't mind seeing an evolution of for Xenoblade 3 either.

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Going to see if I can pick this one up soon, it's been on my list for a while now, but never came around to it. Thinking about it, I also still need to finish Xenosaga Episode III since I started last summer... I'll get around to it all eventually 😅
 
Shadow said:
Honestly, looking back at it from a European pov, NOA and Gamestop their handling of the game was outright hilarious. I remember coming across copies of the game for €10 sealed because stores were moving on from the Wii era all the while the US was still being difficult in bringing over a fully localised title for no reason other than just not feeling like it. And Gamestop selling clearly brand new copies as used to be able to have a mark up on the price, but good luck proving that despite the obvious.

Things truly have changed since those days, what a time that was...
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It was wacky. The only reason I got my copy was because a buddy of mine managed a local GS location. He said there was one copy in the store and the higher-ups had instructed him to keep it stored in the back room for reasons he didn't understand. But since I asked for it by name he went back and dug around and got it for me and charged me actual retail price for it.

GameStop is weird, yall.
 
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I still remember my journey to get a copy of the first Xenoblade in 2013. I actually got a Saraiva bookstore to send to Rio a copy from the Northeast region (I think it came from some store from Bahia or Pernambuco). There were, like, 6 or 7 copies remaining in the entire country, and I managed to snag one.

The Brazilian copies are somewhat different because they got a Brazilian Portuguese-translated sleeve (more like a dust jacket) covering the entire plastic case. This went on with several Wii, 3DS and Wii U games until early 2015.

Xenoblade X is still my favorite game in the Wii U. I actually got two copies of it. my hype was just off the charts atm.

All in all, I really have no desire to ever try 2. Don't like the artistic direction the series went, and although I loved the first Xenoblade, I found I'm much more of a sci-fi guy than a fantasy guy.
 
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ACE+ said:
Gotta wonder about the latest sales number of Xenoblade DE and 2.
(Graph source)
Xenoblade_Series_Sales_Plot.png

These were the latest sales numbers I can find (November 2020) which are more than a year old.
It wouldn't be surprising for XC2 to actually hit 3 million or at least come close to it (thank you SSBU).
XCDE sales should also have been tugged along by XC2.
I could be overestimating though, so don't take my word for it.
Click to expand...
I didn't expect to see the chart I made get posted here. We haven't had any updates on XC2's numbers since then, so we just know it was at 2.05m as of June 30, 2020. We should be getting an update on its performance sometime in the spring, but the updated numbers might only go up to December 31, 2020.

The most recent update on XCDE's performance from Nintendo is that it was at 1.52m as of March 31, 2021. It might be a long time until we get any additional updates for it.

This is the most up to date version of the chart using the numbers Chris posted and the more recent XCDE numbers from Nintendo's quarterly reports:


Xenoblade_Series_Sales_Plot_2.png
 
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Zeal543 said:
siren has such a good design. Do we know who did the design for it?
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We don't know. To my knowledge, no-one was credited for the mechanical design. If I had to guess, I'd say it was Hideyuki Matsumoto, as he did the mechanical design for Xenoblade X and is listed as an artist for XC2. Looking at the copyright of the siren model kit itself may also be helpful though, as this is just a guess.
 
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So I finally grabbed Xenogears and now I have the entire Takahashi Xeno Saga so I'm a happy Takahashi fan:

CmQFJqul.jpg


I also was sent a pretty neat little Kos-Mos figure, which went on my Xeno shelf:

12CHUpEl.jpg


Needless to say I'm a fan of the series.
 
Almadel said:
Is it a sign....? Probably not.

But the Siren model kit is getting a re-release and pre-orders are up. Still torn if I should get one. I've never done one of these before.



AmiAmi [Character & Hobby Shop]

www.amiami.com www.amiami.com
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Thanks for the heads up, really happy to get a preorder in for one of these. Had a lot of fun (and a couple of nightmares) assembling and painting my Formula skell from X. This’ll go nicely with that.
 
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Brainiac 8 said:
So I finally grabbed Xenogears and now I have the entire Takahashi Xeno Saga so I'm a happy Takahashi fan:

CmQFJqul.jpg


I also was sent a pretty neat little Kos-Mos figure, which went on my Xeno shelf:

12CHUpEl.jpg


Needless to say I'm a fan of the series.
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Very nice.
 
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Almadel said:
Is it a sign....? Probably not.

But the Siren model kit is getting a re-release and pre-orders are up. Still torn if I should get one. I've never done one of these before.



AmiAmi [Character & Hobby Shop]

www.amiami.com www.amiami.com
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I was thinking about getting a second hand one on eBay so it was nice last morning when I got the mail with the pre-orders and I made mine right away.

I wish I had the money to get the more expensive figures (Nia, Melia, KOS-MOS, Pyra and Mythra), but for now they're out of reach for me sadly.
 
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Brainiac 8 said:
So I finally grabbed Xenogears and now I have the entire Takahashi Xeno Saga so I'm a happy Takahashi fan:

CmQFJqul.jpg


I also was sent a pretty neat little Kos-Mos figure, which went on my Xeno shelf:

12CHUpEl.jpg


Needless to say I'm a fan of the series.
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So... Where's Xenosaga 1·2?

I kid, I kid! 🤗
 
Zeal543 said:
siren has such a good design. Do we know who did the design for it?
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It might be Junya Ishigaki. The same mech designer from Xenogears and some of Xenosaga. But I can't find anything concrete yet. I'm going just based on design comparisons.

The similarities between

Aion and the original unused Proto Omega design from Xenosaga Episode I are strikingly similar. It makes me think they may have reused the design if it is him. Plus he designed all the other Deus/Omega related designs.

M3WHLbq.png
 
Brainiac 8 said:
I had to look that up. Didn't know that one existed. I wonder if it ever was put into english. If not, then I might not worry about that one. I will need to research it a bit. Thanks for pointing me to something I didn't know about. :p
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Xenosaga 1 + 2, if translated, would be really interesting to play, as it alters a lot of the story beats from the PS2 version of episode 2, with a lot of the changes coming from Takahashi. I doubt it'll ever happen, but a fan translation project for it would be really nice.
 
Brainiac 8 said:
I had to look that up. Didn't know that one existed. I wonder if it ever was put into english. If not, then I might not worry about that one. I will need to research it a bit. Thanks for pointing me to something I didn't know about. :p
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Unfortunately never officially translated, there is a patch out there that does the bare basics and makes the absolute most essential parts English, but the story and what not is fully Japanese.
 
Quoted by: ika
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Shadow said:
Unfortunately never officially translated, there is a patch out there that does the bare basics and makes the absolute most essential parts English, but the story and what not is fully Japanese.
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It's so disappointing that we probably won't get Xenosaga 1·2 and Soma Bringer on English ever... even with NSO :(
 
ika said:
It's so disappointing that we probably won't get Xenosaga 1·2 and Soma Bringer on English ever... even with NSO :(
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At least Soma Bringer had a rather complete fan translation. I can't see Nintendo putting it on NSO, and Xenosaga would depend on Namco which makes it less likely. But it would be nice if Nintendo and Monolith could do a remaster of Soma Bringer at least.
 
My Formula Skell, painted in the same colours I used for my main character’s Skells in the game. I went for a dirty, worn effect - this one’s spent a lot of time fighting and exploring Mira.

6e931c9e-40d7-4862-bzljvw.jpeg

8449d72e-ed89-417b-8z8kyu.jpeg

6242fcdf-ba55-446a-8mjk0r.jpeg


ad445b81-6497-418b-b0bkm2.jpeg
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The first time I transformed it between mech/vehicle I managed to completely destroy one of the pipes connecting the hip to the legs, thankfully I just so happened to have a length of solid plastic piping the exact same diameter kicking around from a previous project, so managed to not only repair it but make it significantly stronger than it already was. Still, it was terrifying to just accidentally twist a whole leg right off.
 
Thanks! It was my first time building a mech kit like this so it was a pretty big learning experience. Can’t wait to get stuck into that Siren kit.
 
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I've been watching the State of the Arc Podcast about Xenogears lately. This got me back into reading Perfect Works, I was mid-way into it last time I took some time for it. Sank a solid hour in it before going to bed and didn't see the time going by.

I'm not sure there is any game out there, still to this day, that has the ambition and scale that Xenogears aimed for. It's just out of this world, and one will come to this realisation by reading this book which I can't recommend enough.

There is just a scientific/sensible explanation for just about everything that happens in the game. Everything has been so meticulously calculated. The only thing that, while partially explained, still have that aura of mystery and unknown around is the Zohar and the Wave Existence, which ultimately makes sense since these entities are so maleable by their own definitions. It's just insane the amount of details that was poured in this world by Takahashi and Saga.

The only Xeno games I haven't tackled yet is the Saga series, and this is all motivating me to go play it ASAP. All three games have been rotting on my shelf for almost a decade.
 
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Mister Gideon said:
My Formula Skell, painted in the same colours I used for my main character’s Skells in the game. I went for a dirty, worn effect - this one’s spent a lot of time fighting and exploring Mira.



The first time I transformed it between mech/vehicle I managed to completely destroy one of the pipes connecting the hip to the legs, thankfully I just so happened to have a length of solid plastic piping the exact same diameter kicking around from a previous project, so managed to not only repair it but make it significantly stronger than it already was. Still, it was terrifying to just accidentally twist a whole leg right off.
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Good friend of mine has this one as well and I was the one who put it together, was really fun to build it, just... I broke one of the fingers 🤭
 
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So many people have wished me a happy birthday, thank you very much. I'm sorry I cannot reply individually to all of you. I will repay your kindness to the fullest with my work 😀 The first announcement will take place at the earliest (with a bit of luck) next month, please look forward to it!
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Yeah, not really expecting Xenoblade next direct at all anymore. Expectations were already low but still. I'm thinking the Chrono Cross remaster is the only Mitsuda related thing we'll see.

But hey, he says it's the "first" one, so maybe there's still a chance he's involved with a new Xenoblade and it'll be announced later in the year. We can cope with that I guess
 
Renmazuo said:




Yeah, not really expecting Xenoblade next direct at all anymore. Expectations were already low but still. I'm thinking the Chrono Cross remaster is the only Mitsuda related thing we'll see.

But hey, he says it's the "first" one, so maybe there's still a chance he's involved with a new Xenoblade and it'll be announced later in the year. We can cope with that I guess
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If his new project will be announced as early as next month... Why can't that exactly be Xenoblade 3 at the next Direct?
 
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