I really love how Zeke’s elemental weakness is earth, and all three times that you fight hem the ensuing cutscene ends with him getting screwed over by the terrain

It's almost like part of the story is that rex is a child and has to learn that even this power has limits and he needs to be a better smarter person to learn how to use it

Rex is only 15 guys and not the giorno giovanna type of 15

"I guess Malos just wasn't paying attention" Malos: *Windows blue screen sound*

I actually like that they are losing battles. I mean they should not be able to beat Jin or even Malos easily.

Having characters lose battles is mandatory for their development. There is no feeling of accomplishment if you never had problems after all. In my opinion Rex's victory at the cliffs of morytha felt so good because he had to go through so much trouble. Especially compared to other fights like the one where mythra first appeared. Rex didn't know Mythra existed. It was not Rex's own doing that brought the victory. But at the cliffs of Morytha it was him. He learned from his mistakes and was able to succeed.

Rex had so many huge dubs they formed a new Elysium

Losing battles makes sense when you are a kid who is literally fighting god and a guy who moves at the speed of light.

Losing battles is part of Rex's character arc. He can't help or save everyone. He's just a kid who was forced into a heroic position because of an interaction he could've just as easily avoided if he had taken different action.

I'd consider adding a Pyrrhic Victory counter if you do this again, as it kind of feels wrong including obvious wins like Dughall with devastating events like Vandham and Fan La Norne.

I legitimately forgot Poppi was in the scene where Nia and Mythra talk about the former being a flesh eater.

After watching the video, my theory as to why people say that Rex loses so much is because 3 of the 5 out right losses happen in the first three chapters of the game (with some likely considering the fight against Morag in chapter 2 as a loss as well). And I wouldn't be surprised if a decent number of people who make this complaint never got much further than chapter 4 at most.

For me, the main difference between xc1&2 is that xc1 is more story focused while xc2 is more character focused. So its understandable that xc2 feel like the characters lose more, because you need setbacks for character growth.

(Slight spoiler) Does Brighid's b!tchslap on Tantal count as a lost battle?

You bring up a good point, why do people consider the Akhos fight a loss when they were able to make him retreat?

every anime in a nutshell Loses gives characters growth.

Basically, people have the feeling of lose a lot because they success a lot, but with a hell amount of collateral damage. Nice video, I'm still amazed by the Rex effects on the puntuation table xD

I guess you could call the Akhos/Malos fight a Pyra-ic victory.

I think the idea that rex looses every other fight comes more from how he has more losses/deus-ex-machina perceived victories in the early game, and people made their opinion on the whole story based on just the first few chapters.

Loss makes this game so memorable to me. In my first playthrough, Pyra/Mythra is so powerful so I basically just use them to win every fight until Jin in Tantal. When Jin said Rex did not even notice that Pyra/Mythra has so many wounds on her, it shook me to my very core. And then the next chapter I did not have any great blade to use with Pyra/Mythra gone, suddenly I just realized how important she is and how much I’ve taken her for granted. I think the devs wanted me to lean on Pyra/Mythra so much, so this loss would be more heart felt. It worked and it’s simply masterful.

*SPOILERS FOR XENOBLADE 1* Party's losses: Metal Face at Colony 9 The 3 Monado Art fights Metal Face outside Ether Mine Jade Face at Mechonis Field Gold Face at Galahad Fortress Yaldabaoth at Agniratha Zanza at Mechonis Core Dickson's Telethia aboard Junks Let me know if I missed any or included ones that shouldn't count. Edit: Xord at Bionis Leg Telethia Horde at Colony 6

I've never been bothered by Rex losing some fights in XB2. It's not like Trails of Cold Steel (especially ToCS2) where your party is always beaten down (even if you slaughtered the ennemies in the fight) and end up being rescued by someone else. Or having the ennemies do the 'I wasn't even at full power' trick...

I LOVE the sound effects of rex between points Lmao!! This video is very entertaining. Thanks Luxin for the xeno content!

Well it makes sense Rex loses a lot thorough the story. Dude's 15 and works as a salvager in a dying world just to make a living while sending money to his family in Leftheria, he wants to find a way up to Elysium and makr an impactful change thanks to his kind-hearted spirit and once he finds himself as the driver of the Aegis and finds her goal is to also get to Elysium he's more motivated than ever to achieve that goal, which of course drives him to act recklessly out of good nature and he's still pretty much a newbie as a driver who just happens to have one of the most powerful blades in history so it makes sense he loses against baddies like Jin and Malos and then once he gets his sht together after the events at Tantal and finally understands Pyra/Mythra he starts to grow as both a person and driver which leads to the dúo winning more

I'm convinced the Ahkos fight in Garfont is comprised of two different versions of the same scene. My reasoning for this is that Vandham is right there when the fight starts and is personally motivated to avenge his fallen allies, but then after the gameplay he comes in all nonchalant like he only just got involved. He literally says he "can't leave kids alone for a second" even though you can have him fight Ahkos with everyone else. Where was he before then? Where is everyone else while Pyra is getting beat up? My theory is that the cutscene before the fight is a version where Ahkos rolls up and takes on everyone, and the cutscene after is from a version where he instead gets Rex and Pyra alone to pick them off easier, and at some point these two scenes got spliced together despite not fitting together perfectly.

Did you know, commenting helps out Luxin, just like hitting the like button? From the top of my head, think they only lose to Jin sort of and Brighid that one time.

Dude just finish watching Chuggas latest episode of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 I hope this doesn't have as many feels then again we are talking about losing battles Ill still watch though.😭😢

Xenoblade fans complain about MC getting his ass handled to him a couple of times by some of the top fighters in the verse. Meanwhile in Trails MC needs to be bailed out of fight with a dozen of mooks each chapter, and he's still treated as one of the best fighters around. What a strange contrast.

I understand what you're getting at but I feel like the reason people complain about Rex losing isn't that he actually does but that Rex himself feels weak in comparison to his enemies for most of the game. Take the example of his clear victory against Mikhail and Petroka. It's undercut both by Morag joining and Petroka implying she could still fight after. Shulk feels a lot stronger the whole way through. Every time Shulk almost loses and is bailed out by a Monado art it makes Shulk feel stronger but when Rex gets battered around by Akhos only for the party to deal with him it makes Rex feel weaker.

You've done a pretty good job here at disproving the specific complaint regarding "win in the game lose in the cutscene." However, there is definitely still something going on here to cause such a major disconnect for so many people, even if the complaint most often raised doesn't exactly match up to how the scenarios unfold. Perhaps a slightly better way to word the complaint would be "the cutscene stole my win." The biggest examples are definitely fighting/escaping from Morag and the first Akhos fight. Sure, the gang do ultimately escape Morag and scare of Akhos, matching a reasonably expectable result from defeating their boss fights, but the events that occur between the gameplay ending and those scenes conclusions can majorly contrast against a player's experience. I imagine most people who care about this stuff will have seen all the specific complaints around these scenarios before, so I'll keep it rather short and say that the difficulties Rex experiences in both cutscenes are not properly represented in the boss fights. This can create a major rift between what the player has just experienced, winning the fight, and what the player sees immediately afterwards, Rex struggling. In some respects, the fact that the gang DO end up with at least modest success by scenes' end may actually further exasperate these feelings. It implies that the group's escape/victory was never within the player's agency, the boss fights were merely formalities. Technically this is true, given that the game only has one narrative path, but these moments of contrast can really pull back the curtain in a way that was clearly detrimental to the enjoyment of many. When first playing the game I definitely had a reaction after the Morag battle of "Whyyyyy is this scene still going? I... won the fight, that should really be it." and while it didn't substantially sour my experience overall (I still really did have a lot of fun with the game and enjoyed the overall narrative) I can definitely understand it being a dealbreaker for many.

Maybe it's just me but I enjoyed the story and all the "losses" people are complaining about and never stuck out to me as a negative. A lot of stories are just like XC2. 🤷‍♂️ In my four decades on this earth I've found people tend to remember or focus on the negatives (loss) to the point they are exaggerated so much they begin to out weigh the positives (win) even if more positives happened than negatives. People tend to lose sight of positives when they get aggravated.

Great analysis! Keep up the great work, friend!

I was fine with him losing the fights because just think about it story-wise Rex has very little experience actually fighting sure he's fought bugs and shit before while savaging but he has never fought other humans and when he becomes a driver he is fighting some of the most powerful drivers in the world. Would it make sense for Rex who has been a driver for like 2 days to beat Morag who has been a driver for years and is considered one of the most powerful driver in the Empire? Would it also make sense for Rex to beat Malos on the ship WHEN HE JUST CAME BACK TO LIFE AND DOESN'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO FIGHT

Rex may lose a lot in 2, but he got the ultimate win in 3(I won’t say for spoiler reasons)

Really interesting to see this boiled down like this When/if you do the XC1 one, I think it's definitely going to have more losses, not just because of Monado arts, but I'm pretty sure there's a fair few fights where you deal *some* damage, but don't kill the enemy (like MF in Chapter 2), which would count as losses I think since the boss doesn't lose. The only real question of a XC1 one would be if FC counts, since unlike Torna, you have a majority of the party being party members from the base game. Although, I think the only loss that'd tack on would be the Alcamoth fight sorta in the middle of the story, when the fog king first shows up.

its funny how rex and co has 31 wins and the least losses yet they'll still try to say somehow that addam was better when addam was a failure driver for mythra and didn't accept her and failed because he feared her power instead of mastering it, rushing to fight malos like an idiot. glad to see rex getting some love for a change.

You forgot the 50 times you lose to the morag memory

I can tell you had a fun time editing this.

So let's see First Malos fight, they reduce the HP to 0 and escape. In the King/Brighid fight, they reduce the HP to 0 and escape with friends getting captured, In the Morag fight, they reduce their HP to 0, and escape, In the Vandham fight, Vandham lays off and decides to get them some grub. With Akhos, they force a retreat. With Malos and Akhos, they force a retreat.. Morag, they persuade an alliance. Jin in Temperantia, he runs out of stamina. Jin in Tantal, they lose in both gameplay and cutscene as his Health is never brought to 0. Malos, Nia weaponizes cancer and they win. Jalos, the fight is interrupted with Malos getting pissed off at the fact they're losing. Jin in World Tree, they persuade an alliance. Amalthus, they don't land the final blow, but they still gave him "an incredible thrashing." Why do people say they win in gameplay, lose in story, exactly?

I think the way people see it is that many of the loses are at the start and many of the wins are against minor monsters that many people forget about soon after the big fights against main characters where a lot of the losses are against.

Riding the Chuggaaconroy hype (and his video where he specifically mentioned you [in a tweet]) you should go over the points for/against the lose/keep their memories for the ending.

I would love to see that XC1 video. Always down for your content and XC content in general

This was interesting to go through. Not sure how popular this video would be but I'd love to see the Xenoblade 1 one for comparison.

I'd like to see more videos like this, where you take criticism about Xenoblade 2 and analyze it and see if they have a point. Maybe you could do the topic of people wanting Zeke to be the main character over Rex

Not something I expected to find, but good vid. Good vid.

Sometimes, people need to realise that gameplay should not be taken as consideration of how the story progress.

If people can see Rex and say he "loses too many fights", I wonder how so many people can also be so upset about some characters "always winning".

Luxin destroys Dunkey fans in 7 minutes

How would the manado arts count as a loss but unlocking mythra isn't, shulk activity knows the manado has more arts, the mecon also know it has more arts and you say if it's clear to the player that also counts to purge also is justified

Having the battles end part way into them would be better story-wise, since alot of the fights are wins not from defeating the enemy, but achieving a goal - which often doesn't include defeating the enemy.

I think the reason people complain about the "win in the fight, lose in the cutscene" thing (besides memes from the dunkey video) is that, for some puzzling reason, Monolith got it right in the first game and then proceeded to do a poorer job in the second (technically third if you count X). In the same situations where you'd win the fight and lose in the cutscene in 1, usually you don't actually get to fully deplete the boss' health bar. Examples are Metal Face in Colony 9, Xord's first two fights and further spoilery fights beyond. Hopeless situations in 1 are actually hopeless ingame and not just in the cutscene afterwards, which makes it a bit jarring they didn't opt to do the same in 2.

Rex: Oh no! Talk no jitsu failed! Shonen Protag: First time?

I got cancer trying to understand how losing fights and evolving characters ruins a story.

Really cool vid

Counterargument to the Malos/Ahkos fight: Rex didn't know about Mythra and the team was going to get completely wiped out if she didn't show up. By your own criteria, this should count as a loss, or at the very least a success, given that they did what they were trying to do, but at a heavy cost. Or can we make a new category for pyrrhic victories?

Realistically he should losing a lot considering what he goes up against

i would LOVE a xenoblade 1 video about this

Luxin: "But can it still be a win if a major character dies?" Me: Clearly, you've never heard the term "pyrrhic victory" before

Not only do you not lose a lot, for the Chapter 7 Jin fight, you even don't win in the fight! You knock his HP down a tiny bit and then the fight ends! This complaint is so stupid

Unfortunately I have to wait one day to watch it since Chuggaaconroy’s LP of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 probably ends tomorrow.

Considering i was always underlevel, all the losses felt right

I think that the Malos akhos fight is a they succeed but at what cost?

Still waiting for that Shulk video

I feel like you were thinking too hard for some of these.

Really what annoys me more is the double bosses. Rose then Mik and Petroka soon after. The arachno followed shortly by Akhos, and the chairman followed by the second Morag fight. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just second phases, it just specifically how you beat one boss, go down a short hallway, and then fight another boss.

Oh, and I don't think we even need to bring up the other xeno series.

Funny, I don't like a lot of the logic used in this, but I agree with the outcome. Rex himself might lose a few fights when you only focus on him, but as a party they don't actually lose a lot and there really isn't a lot of Deus Ex Machina protecting them when they do lose. Not that it never happens, it just isn't frequent. However, the one thing I do want to argue is regarding characters that, in cutscenes, are part of the party, helping out with stuff, but aren't playable. You were rather hesitant to include Haze's help during the Jin fight or Jin's fight during the Amalthus fight. According to the cutscenes, they are there helping the entire time even though you can't play as them. Haze doesn't come out of nowhere to stop Jin before he can deal the killing blow, she's there supporting the party before he even appears, helping weaken him the entire fight. She's not playable, but she is a part of the party. Same with Jin in the Amalthus fight. He is shown to be there the entire time, I mean you just fought him moments before. Yes, he is severely injured, but he is helping as best he can. Just because you can't control him, doesn't mean he isn't on your side. Them helping win their respective fights is no different than when a playable character helps with a fight in a cutscene at a time when they aren't playable. The only real instance of this I can think of is Zeke during the fight against the knights, where he isn't playable, then the fight with a group of knights is about to start in a cutscene and he comes in and defeats them all at once. He is not a playable character in the party when that happens, only rejoining the party after that fight. But similar situations would be Mythra's appearance in the fight where Vandham dies (which has the added support of Pyra having theoretically been able to awaken her at any point) or Nia having her Blade form. Overall, an enjoyable video. Nice to see someone defend the game in this kind of argument

its not about losing. its about getting back up and seeing things through.

Also like of course you're gonna win in the game play fight

I think the perception largely just comes down to gameplay limitations. Narrative objectives such as "escape", "force enemy into position" and the like kinda all get muddied down to gameplay objectives of "reduce health bar to 0", which makes it feel like the game is discounting your victory because the victory you did get in gameplay was of a far greater magnitude than that which the cutscene shows. Although I will say that I think it is somewhat fair to feel a bit sour about gameplay leading into a cutscene where the characters are getting stomped down, only to eventually come out on top, because many feel that reducing a healthbar to 0 should be the end to the actual fight, which is why a lot of games will follow this up with either immediate death or a cutscene that is more or less a onesided beatdown delivered by the player/party (after all, if the game is well designed, an actual struggle that goes back and forth should have already been delivered in the gameplay). A better approach used by some games, including Xenoblade 2 at points, is to instead just play cutscenes depicting the party struggling at health benchmarks other than 0 (not to say this approach is without issues itself, I found it to disorient me during quite a lot of fights, and if the gameplay is just an absolute beatdown from your hands getting cut short by you getting your ass kicked when the opponent has 50% health left, that's also a bit annoying... or the Dickson fight that was just me stomping on him until they showed a cutscene of Shulk being all like "oh no, he's too powerful" so the party could go, "don't worry, we have the power of friendship"). As for win/loss criteria, I think that how the game frames the situation and what the party makes clear they think of it is also to be considered. For instance, the party does not consider the Malos/Akhos fight to be a victory at all, even if the criteria used here do. It is somewhat akin to marking down Colony 9 as a victory because the Mechon were eventually forced to retreat.

I think the complaint is more so how in XC1 battles you can't win the enemy's health won't go to zero, but in XC2 that rarely happens instead, even if you take down an enemy they'll be fine in the cutscene. (Although my knowledge is a bit rusty so forgive me if I'm wrong)

You should do this for other games and anime, this is an interesting video.

After watching this video I realized how much early game plot I forgot and I beat the game like 2 months ago

excited to see the xc1 losses if u ever do that video

Good video.

I feel like the criticism of Rex losing too much is just a poorly worded criticism. Maybe "Rex is too weak" is a better criticism. Both Rex and Pyra get wrecked way too often. Sure they get up and win but it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in your protagonists. Can't help but feel something along the lines of "do I actually want these losers to win?" Even when Shulk loses, it doesn't feel like he loses because he's weak. Sure he eats dirt plenty of time but I expect a giant Mechon being able to do that. One of my favorite scenes in Xenosaga is Episode I where KOS-MOS bursts through the wall and saves Shion. The Aegis is hyped up to be as big of a deal as KOS-MOS and gets bodied a lot. It creates a disconnect with the story. Pyra's gameplay is not even impressive until mid to late game. At least Mythra actually feels like she's the real deal.

Please do the XC1 video, it sounds so interesting!

I'd be interested in a Xenoblade 1 version.

A bit late but I'll day I think why it feels like Rex loses all the time because the gameplay really doesn't match and that makes people grumpy. Like I remember my first Grand Rosa fight, I was so strong I could literally have put the controller down and not even lose 20% of my health before winning. So when the next cutscene stressed how hard the fight was and how we needed new Poppi to save us, I was more mad than anything else. Logically we won the fight, but emotionally I felt like I just got kicked in the shin.

Oh yeah remember that time nia gave malos mega cancer

I was just fascinated you how this video was 18 minutes long for one question

gah!

I played through Xenoblade 2 for the first time last month, and I'm playing through 3 right now, and whenever a battle ends early, or I finish a battle and the opponent is either unharmed, or winning in the cutscene, I refer to as a "Xenoblade 2 event"

The losses show as how they grew stronger

*O K E H*

I don't mind a protagonist losing battles, but I do dislike the dissonance when you won against a boss then the following cutscene shows that you lost anyway. If we are suppose to lose that fight, make it an impossible fight for the player to beat.

So side question how does malos become a driver? Can aegises be drivers?

Depends. Ingame? Few. Cutscenes? Many.

I can think of at least 4 fights in xenoblade 1 not including the ones where he unlocks manado arts where the party losses

Is the first battle with Morag not a clear win fore Rex and his team? Morag pointed out that Rex avertd his aim. If Rex would have hit Morag with that attack she might have been done fore. Even if not she would have atleast being injured and with Brighid being all wett and her being injured she would have been screwed if Rex team decided to gang up on her. Rex holded back otherwise Morag would be dead.

In other words, wait a minute or two to see the conclusion before you assume anything. Not every single blow is the decisive blow.

Eeeh, I’d argue that any fight where somebody the party wants to keep alive dies is a loss, and I can see the argument that Rex getting his ass kicked and needing to be bailed out by his badass mentor figure - playable or not - is his loss too even if it’s the party’s win. Similarly, against Amalthus the party *fails* to save Akhos and Patroka, and then *fails* to save Jin too because he has to blow himself up to finish Amalthus off. For a fight they explicitly go into with the hope of showing Jin Rex’s answer and giving him a chance to live and move on, I can’t call that a success at attaining their goal. Still, that’s only a couple of points, and frankly I think Rex losing a lot is *good* for the story arc. ~~also, the final battle is clearly a moral defeat, because Rex’s goal is to save Malos but he has to kill him instead. :p~~

to be fair, if you count those saves as loses(which some people do), you lose 1/4th the time which is alot for an rpg

Mmmm crab meat

If anything my problem is that they don't lose enough. And the problem with the whole 'win in game lose in cutscene' thing is that the battle system really doesn't lend itself well to that. The most common way to do it that doesn't feel cheap is simply to not let the enemy go down to 0% HP, if the fight simply stops at say 30% instead then it's clear that the enemy shouldn't be dead/incapacitated. But the way the combat system works in 2 is that it wants you to "overkill" your enemies with chain attacks, this makes it so they cant just stop the fight at 30% since chain attacks need to be able to overkill so as to reward skilled play.

I feel that this was a bit generous to the party but overall I still agree with the message

Before watching the video: XC2 puts the player in a position where they are forced to win battles to progress the game, however it is also content to have the player lose or retreat after the fight in the following cutscene - therefore souring the player on the experience. You have a series of half-wins and bitter hurrahs going through the story, so that you really don't look forward to your next encounter with the bad guys. The game is raining on your parade. When you beat a challenge in a game, you expect satisfying feedback. If you put a lot of effort into something and the feedback is underwhelming, you are going to feel dissatisfied. Winning or losing is both an outcome and a mindset. A soured victory can be just as much a loss if not more (and vice versa). Given how XC2 has a tendency for souring your victories, you may end up feeling like they aren't accomplishing anything. And I wouldn't be surprised if some players just stopped playing after a while of feeling like this. After watching the video: This is a great video!! Your reasoning and focus on overall goals are solid and paints a much better picture than how it may be perceived by the player. Good stuff! Having said that, it does ignore the perception of the player, which is more focused on the now than in the grand scheme of things. Also, you do refer to Rex and the party interchangeably, despite the title specifically referring to Rex. This is misleading. I would like to offer this alternative perspective in respect to the player experience and Rex in the cutscenes after beating the bosses (only where I disagree with you): 1. Rex fails to beat Morag and must retreat. It feels like a loss. 2. Rex fails to beat Akhos and Vandham saves you. The method is rather poorly explained, and Pyra is left weakened. So it feels like a loss. 3. Rex fails to beat Akhos and Malos, and Vandham tries to save you. The method is rather confusing and ultimately fruitless, with Vandham dying as a result and Mythra has to be introduced to give Rex a power-up to win. Rex is left a sobbing mess. This feels like a major loss. 4. Rex fails to beat Mikhail and Patroka, and Morag has to step in for support so Mythra can employ a space laser. Mikhail and Patroka only retreats because Fan la Norne suddenly comes in. So you did not win, and since you couldn't succeed on your own, it ultimately feels like a loss. 5. Rex fails to beat Jin who is so mighty that even Fan la Norne cannot suppress his powers (her very specific power that forced Mikhail and Patroka to retreat), and he just rushes right up to her and kills her in front of everyone. Jin only retreats because he wastes his stamina on talking, would've won if he handn't. This is clearly a loss. 6-7. Rex does beat technically Akhos, Mikhail, and Patroka initially, but... Jin is also here so the fight is technically not over. Suddenly Rex and crew gets absolutely demolished and humiliated, with the trip joining in on the fun, and Rex loses Pyra on top of it all, who just barely convinces Jin not to kill you. It's a doubles-loss as far as we're concerned, since it is all in the same encounter. Almost a triple loss with how much salt is getting rubbed into Rex's wounds. 8. Rex fails to beat the phantasms, and Nia has to stop being a moron and use her actual powers (I understand her story, but Rex has already lost at this point). While Nia's transformation only seems to turn a probably loss into a probably win, Rex does friendzone Nia at the same time. And that just breaks my heart and feels like a massive L. 9. Rex fails to beat Malos, and Nia pulls out some magical cancer-inducing powers to temporarily subdue him, with heavy emphasis on the "temporarily". You could call it a win, but he's back on his feet in a few seconds like nothing happened and unharmed. This ultimately feels like a loss as a result, because... 10. Rex fails to beat Malos and Jin, and Pneuma suddenly appears to give Rex super speed power-up. Even with this new advantage, Rex passes up an actual victory for a draw with Jin, and Malos breaks the whole arena they are on, sending Rex and crew tumbling down. This technically makes Malos the victor, so this is a loss for us. So that would total 15 losses out of 41, x3 as many losses. This is a matter of perspective, and you cannot fault people for how they feel. Again, winning and losing are both a matter of outcome and mindset.

It's a subjective topic, but an interesting one.

People keep talking about the fights he loses, but fail to realize that this 15 year old kid is quite literally beating the shit out of creatures and drivers left and right, and loses only to: - An (mildly broken, later fixed) aegis. - The best driver in mor Ardaign, and the national treasure blade(which he later matches in skill). - The best Driver (and father figure) in Uraya. Which is less a loss and more a lesson. - A bullshit blade that stops the flow of ether. So Bs it had to be killed off. - The literal incarnation of the "Nothing personal kid" meme in blade form. And he beat him later on.

The point isn't about the percentage but the raw amount of fights that make you feel bad AFTER fighting a hard battle to win it. Your reward for beating the boss and kicking the crap out of their hp bars is being told "lol no... You suck." This is where: "supposed to lose" fights feel better in other JRPGs, because at least the gameplay reflects the story. In the Morag fight near the start of the game they could've made you attack the water tower instead and have Morag be a hazard or something if they wanted to have an 'alternate win condition' over beating the boss. There is gameplay Vs narrative dissonance that just feels very very disappointing