"Long ago... the world was nothing more than an endless sea cloaked in a boundless sky, reaching as far as could possibly be imagined." ~ Shulk, in the game's opening lines.
Xenoblade Chronicles is my favourite game of all time! following the release of the XC3 DLC Future Redeemed, the series skyrocketed to my favourite series ever. it's hard to describe exactly why i love Xenoblade so much without sounding cliche as hell, but i'll try my best :3
a word of warning: this page will contain unmarked spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles. continue at your own risk.
the world
the world of Xenoblade Chronicles takes place across two dead titans !! how cool is that !!!
it's probably one of the most compelling worlds of any video game i've ever played. the concept alone was what piqued my interest way back when, and i thought it was fascinating the ways that the titans' biology is reflected in various in-game areas -- particularly Bionis Interior and Mechonis Core. Bionis Interior was soooo fascinating to me as a microbiologist / immunologist. the immune system is a particular special interest of mine, and it was super cool seeing it used as inspiration for an in-game area!
so many of Xenoblade's NPCs have their own relationships and problems independent of the protagonists, but by interacting with them and completing their sidequests, you really get the sense that your actions are having an impact on the game's world.
the locations throughout the game, especially those on the Bionis, are the perfect blend of familiar and fantastical; you really feel like you're exploring a whole other world, while still somehow feeling like you're returning somewhere you've known your whole life.
i'm a huge fan of how the scenery of the Bionis changes at night -- it takes these seemingly-standard RPG/fantasy areas and casts them in a fresh light that emphasises the fact that this is not a world you know.
many of my favourite areas in the game are specifically the night-time ones! Valak Mountain, Satorl Marsh, and Eryth Sea at night are my favourite places to just... run around in, especially when i feel the need for a moment of calm :'')
the first time i beat Xenoblade, i'd sat down after dinner to 'play for a bit before bed'. only ... i'd left off right before Mechonis Core.
Mechonis Core turned everything i thought i'd known about the game and its world on its head; i had to pause the game just so i could sit on the floor and Process. even after i'd gathered myself, i simply couldn't rest until i'd discovered what happened next -- and before i knew it, the sun was rising and the credits rolling.
i'd wound up playing for over 15 hours straight, but the experience of reaching the game's end, exhausted and slightly delirious, is still to this day one of my favourite gaming experiences!
the characters
the characters in Xenoblade are all so endearing that it's hard to choose a favourite!
whilst the main party fill classic - albeit, at times, tropey - roles, they each possess more depth than it may appear at first glance. each character fills - and, at times, subverts - their designated roles in such satisfying ways that it fleshes them out as complex, compelling characters and makes it hard not to love them :')
although i love all the main party for various reasons, my favourite characters are probably the following four!
Shulk
*slaps Shulk* "this bad boy can fit sO much trauma in him" "don't slap Shulk hasn't he been through enough already"
Reyn
REYN MY BESt FRIEND REYN ;u;
dumb of ass big of heart .... himbo blueprint .... he's truly theee friend of all time i love him sm,,,,
Fiora
Fiora my beloved don't listen to the haters you're a strong female character to me !
Fiora is suuuch a chewy character to me .... she's outgoing and upbeat and determined, yes, but it hides a much more tender heart. she cares incredibly deeply about others, especially those she loves, almost to the point of (albeit unintentonal) self-sacrifice. how often does she adopt a cheery demeanour for the sake of boosting team morale, but at the detriment of hiding her own true feelings?
i wonder how much of her upbeat optimism is a function of growing up with Dunban. it's implied that their parents died when Fiora was quite young, and Dunban assumed the responsibility of raising his baby sister when he was still just a child himself. there must have been so much stress on his shoulders, and he was a soldier to boot .... Fiora cares so deeply about the ones she loves, i can't imagine she would have wanted to add to that.
and that's even BEFORE getting to the events of the game !!! whilst this is touched upon in some of her heart-to-hearts, i really wish they'd expanded on Fiora's feelings about dying and returning as a Machina during the main game. her death was an expression of her love, but that must have been a cold comfort to those she left behind. and though her death was not permanent, the scars it left behind were much longer lasting.
Dunban
is it any surprise that i love Dunban a whole lot (it's the elder sibling trauma)
his relationship with Fiora is particularly chewy to me because the age gap between him and Fiora (12 years) is the same as the age gap between me and my younger brother ... so i understand on a very intimate level that nebulous third space you occupy, where you're not quite a parent but you're not quite a sibling, either.
Sharla
they gave the healer a GUN truly iconic 10/10 no notes
Sharla's one of those characters that i'm like .... sooo aggressively neutral about tbh. i like her well enough; i also don't have many strong opinions about her lmao
i think part of it is just cos i yeeted her from my party as soon as Dunban joined ... i'm not a hugeee fan of dedicated healers in general and preferred having a third party member who had a bit more raw damage output.
i really wish we'd seen more interaction between Dunban and Sharla tbh -- they have a lot in common, and i would have loved to have seen them bond over the shared sense of responsibility and the trauma that comes from being on the frontline; from being elder siblings forced to take responsibility for their younger siblings at too young an age ...
Melia
Melia wins the award for my favourite character development -- not just during Xenoblade Chronicles, but throughout her appearances across the series as a whole (Future Connected and Xenoblade 3). watching her grow from this reticent and uncertain young girl into a wise and self-assured monarch, knowing that the traits that make her such an effective and compassionate ruler came with such significant sacrifice -- but that she refused to let those sacrifices break her and instead made them the foundation upon which she could grow and flourish .... God.
Melia is also one of my favourite characters to play as!! having the most unique combat style of any of the party, it has a bit of a learning curve BUt by god is it fun stacking her Dot arts and watching them absolutely melt through an enemy's health bar.
Riki
HEROPON RIKI BEStESt !!! truly the funniest fucking thing making this adorable little fluffball a 40-year-old with crippling debt and like 12 kids. i never tire of finding out people's reaction to that one lmao
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game mechanics
this section is a work-in-progress! more in-depth explanations to come :]
Xenoblade has some super cool mechanics that interface with its narratives in unique ways that i've never really seen before or since. vision tags, heart-to-hearts, and affinity all reinforce on a gameplay level the things the narrative tells you.
are all of these mechanics implemented perfectly? no. but their inclusion emphasises what Xenoblade is trying to say, what it's trying to make you feel, and the depths to which it immerses you in its world.
Shiora my beloved ... they have my whole entire heart !!!
what can i say .... i'm a sucker for the childhood friends-to-lovers trope :'')
why Xenoblade Chronicles matters to me
Xenoblade Chronicles deals with themes of agency and fate, and having the courage to carve out your own path in the world.
perhaps that's why i love it so much. at the very least, it's part of why it holds such a special place in my heart. i first played Xenoblade in 2020, at a time where i was panicking over the unprecedented agency i suddenly had over my life.
my entire life i'd done what i was '"supposed to"': i worked hard, got scholarships to university, studied a '"useful"' degree. my life was a series of boxes to be ticked, and when i graduated uni in 2019 i realised i'd ticked off the last of those boxes. the world was my oyster -- but, with no one telling me what to do, the wealth of possibility that faced me was overwhelming.
i panicked and enrolled in a postgrad programme that i hated. i stayed where i was comfortable, and continued doing what i'd always done.
the background noise amplifying all this uncertainty was, of course, the pandemic raging globally. the world was changing, and no-one knew what it would look like on the other side -- a particularly frightening concept for those in a transitional stage of life, like myself and so many of my friends were. we didn't know if the path we'd been dutifully following all these years was even going to lead anywhere anymore.
i cannot emphasise enough the role that Xenoblade had in shaping my life that year. it challenged me to rethink the course that my life was on: what had lead me here, and the future i was creating, day by day. it reinvigorated my passion for the creative arts: i wrote fanfic and drew fanart with a ferocity i haven't since i was a child. and, when the uncertainties of life became a little too overwhelming, it offered a reprieve in its fantastical yet altogether comforting world.
playing Xenoblade Chronicles fundamentally altered my perception of how i interact with the world. it gave me the courage to pursue a path that promised joy, no matter how uncertain. i dropped out of my honours programme and enrolled in a degree that i not only loved but thrived in. i ran away to the middle of nowhere to work in an apple orchard with my friends over the summer. i have since moved to a city i love, despite having no job lined up and no money to my name.
i reshaped my life from the ground up and transformed it into one that i looked forward to waking up into. because, to quote Shulk:
"the future is ours to decide."
official art
a collection of official art released for Xenoblade Chronicles. i loveee the style of this art; it gives me the same feeling as the illustrations of fantasy worlds i pored over as a child did! ultimately, i think that's why Xenoblade Chronicles captured my heart: it creates a world that [encapsulates] the feeling of being a child and losing yourself in a fantasy world :'')
all images sourced from creative uncut.
