Xenoblade 3: Completed. I am feeling many emotions right now and should probably try to process them better before writing but since when have I ever done that. For the non-spoiler part of this post I'll just say this: Excellent game. Absolutely joins XS3 and Xenoblade X as my favorites in the Xeno series. Because I am emotional right now I'd say it could give a run for the top but probably once I settle down XS3 will remain on top but Blade 3 v X is legit. Definitely the best of the numbered Xenoblades.
Okay, spoiler time. So there was good here and there was bad/silly. On the whole I'd say the good outweighed the bad but let me start with the bad so I can spend the rest of this gushing. The final battle got pretty silly after we left the theater. Like that was actually a great fight setting but then Z turned into a giant energy head and Melia and Nia turned their castles into gundams and things got a little out of hand lol. None of that felt necessary in the slightest, think we wnt a bit *too* JRPG right there. Also there was a scary moment when Z split up the party and my Keves team was all attackers and like we were legit going to lose LOL. Reinforcement cutscene actually saved me because Noah and Lanz were 1 HP and Eunie *was* dead. And the NPCs don't revive you. I don't know if you *can* lose there but I came darn close on that side. So yeah, everything about the final battle after Z transformed wasn't very good. Like it had plenty of spectacle but no thanks.
Also, LMAO Rex. That picture just lmao. Also consider me annoyed that Pyra and Mythra were a no-show and Poppi was just there for about five seconds. They were a recurrent part of my theorizing because they damn well should have been significant/present especially if Nia was. And they should have had the ability to if not solve a lot of these problems themselves, then at least provide substantial assistance. I don't know maybe that's why they didn't show because they may have broken the story but it's a glaring hole IMO. Alvis you can explain away as respecting Shulk's wish/command for a world without gods and just letting things play out even as they went sideways hard but those two? The fuck went on there?
But as for the good. The *beginning* of the fight was great. I've always loved Z's theater so I loved having the fight there, especially as he was playing footage behind us of our journey and the banter there. That was the good part of the fight (at least in the presentation, the actual fight fight part bleh.)
And then the ending. So like, okay, I guess I totally misunderstood Nia's explanation (I maintain at the very least there are some inconsistencies/hanging threads with it the way this actually panned out.) I thought the situation was that the two worlds were drawn to one another because they were originally one (Klaus's) and were going to collide and merge back into one... at the cost of destroying everything and everyone in the two worlds while they were split. Melia and Nia's plan was to basically build an Ark that could survive the Intersection by digitizing everything important and then rebuilding it in the new world. Z/Moebius stopped time because of the collective fear of humanity that this may not work (as is suggested to the party by at least one of them) and/or the change that would come of the two societies being put together in their new shared world. ...But I guess no they're literally on intersecting paths and were going to just keep going. and not merge back into one.
On one hand, I'm unsatisfied with this - one because it proves my theory wrong but more importantly I'm too invested in these character relationships for it to end like that... but it's thematically appropriate and extremely effective in that regard. So even though it makes me want to cry it's a beautiful/great ending in that regard.
Not sure what we're supposed to make of the stinger though I may be looknig too much into it. So the intro cutscene is Noah's group right before the intersection and the time freeze happen and the stinger is cutting back to it after Origin successfully rebooted his world. But what's the significance of the off-seer tune there? I dunno i am dum and can't read the symbolism here.
Didn't start postgame yet will do that next time. may cry first.
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May you find your book in this place. Formerly known as xp1337.