this man really made a whole documentary about xenoblade 1

my favorite part of the story is when Alvis unlocks Monado Jump

About the "we knew the emperor would die" we saved Reyn, Sharla, Juju and Otharon after showing them dying, so its not that clear because most people will think he will be saved

I think the idea with Dickson is that after he betrays the party, he intentionally acts like the biggest asshole villain he can in order to suppress his conflicted feelings. That would be why his last words are praise for Shulk.

I think the main reason people did not notice such obvious foreshadowing is because of the gameplay. You got dozens and dozens of sidequests. After finishing all that, you just kinda forgot about them. I know I do.

Next week: "Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Double Spinning Breakdown"

Not gonna lie but, I completely forgot that mumkhar was a thing until he revealed himself.

The one thing I disagree with is the "Two sides of me" thing is obvious foreshadowing. Simply because it's SO cliche for characters to say that whether they have an evil half or not. I was surprised by this line on my second playthrough.

I mean, if the plot twists were completely impossible to guess, you could easily say they came out of nowhere, which isn't a good thing either. I don't mind predictability if everything make sense. It just mean the plot is well written.

Very good video. In terms of non-story criticisms, I widely agree. However, I feel like a lot of your story-related critiques are somewhat biased. Aside from a couple specific moments, I feel like the foreshadowing was very well done. (Dickson at the end of the marsh and Gadolt with Jade face are the only painfully obvious ones) 1. Munkhar being Metal Face? Not as obvious as you make it out to be. Lot of games have a habit of killing "filler" characters, so a lot of people don't even try to remember Mumkhar after dying 3 minutes in. By the time his voice is revealed, few remember him. As for the Face aspect of things, I personally always thought it was some kind of antibody or chemical way to counter the Monado. (Lorithia's antibodies, Apocrypha are the kind of thing I was thinking of) 2. Fiora being put in Nemesis is kinda obvious, but some people miss that one. Suppose people could think it's cyborgs controlling faces. 3. Dickson could have been much more subtle, but even so, you don't know when, why, or how he is "deceiving these kids." I don't think that takes away from his betrayal that much. 4. Shulk does change the future, that much is drilled into our heads, and he's saved lives before. So is it really crazy to think the Emporor might live? That one raises concern, but it's far from guaranteed like you make it sound. 5. The 2 voices in my head foreshadowing is actually very subtle. I don't understand how you think that's obvious. That's a common expression people say when they're conflicted. Just reflects the duality of the mind, the good angel and bad angel concept. 6. The Trinity isn't too obvious. Alvis is sketchy, and he and Lorithia clearly have something going on. But it could just be imperial corruption like with Yumea. And Dickson doesn't interact with either of them really until right before the Core. Aside from those minor gripes, amazing content as always Enel. Thanks for reading if you read all that. I'm a big XC2 fan too, (as you can guess lol) just wanted to hear your thoughts on why you think 2's story is better? it's good, no doubt, but it never left as strong an impression on me as 1. I know one of your biggest gripes with one is it's predictability, but I personally find 2 to be pretty predictable story-wise. Your thoughts?

Thanks to youtubers like you and chuggaaconroy I actually know that this series exists and now it’s my favorite single player game ever. Thanks for keeping these games alive on KZfaq bro

I agree that they made Mumkhar quite obvious. especially on the English version. But I actually like this fact, since the developers intentionally used a highly recognizable Japanese voice actor(Norio Wakamoto) (Not sure about the English voice actor) for Mumkhar. They actually wanted to make people who were paying attention notice this. If they wanted to keep it hidden, they could have just used a different voice actor just like Fiora and Silver Face

Personally, I agree with you about as often as I disagree with you in this video, but I can seriously respect the amount of time and effort it took to make this. While I do think that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also has a really great story, I feel like it’s much more disjointed. Each individual arc of the story makes sense in its own context, but I feel like each arc has a stand alone pacing to it. XC2 is much more episodic than the original, with clear cut rising action, climax, and falling action per chapter which makes the pacing between chapters feel awkward at times. Additionally, while everything that happened in XC2 can be attributed to Amalthus, he feels very nebulous as a villain until the very end when he goes from being a malevolent force hiding behind a pretty face to being almost comically evil. By contrast, the story in XC1 feels much more cohesive. There are clear cut goals and objectives that the characters are trying to achieve and as they solve one problem, another arises which gives an organic feeling to the twists in the story. The threat goes from being the Mechon as a nebulous whole, to being the leader of Mechonis as an idea, to Egil as a person, to Zanza as the one manipulating everything from the beginning. While Zanza and Amalthus are both shadowy figures manipulating the party, and while both want to become the sole being in existence so they can reshape the world as they desire, Amalthus’s sudden switch from calm, collected, and gentle to manic, aggressive, and egotistical comes across as somewhat jarring, whereas from the moment we even start learning about Zanza, he seems like a manipulator working for his own benefit from the beginning, but he’s set things up in a way that the only feasible way for the party to move forward is by giving Zanza what he wants. From his introduction we’re constantly questioning him and his motives, why he was locked up in the first place, why are the Mechon so against him, what did he do to cause Egil to despise him so much? I didn’t mean to ramble on so much, I love both stories and the lore behind them so much, I just think the villain was done better in 1 than in 2, and the villain is what really drives the story, you know?

I really don't agree about the plot twists being obvious. The game provides you with enough hints and foreshadowing that you can figure things out in advance, but that hardly makes it obvious, and there's plenty of minor misdirections used along the way. Like with how the Monado that doesn't cut people can't cut Faced Mechon - it really didn't stick out so much in mind at the time I first saw Metal Face, because NOTHING seemed to be harming him at that point. The whole Colony 9 attack sets up Metal Face as indestructible, with him tanking everything, including being shot in the face at point-blank range with a huge cannon. At that point I was thinking of the Faced Mechon as the next evolution of Mechon technology, bigger, stronger, faster and capable of even resisting the Monado, not that they had Homs stuffed into them. Or take the first Face Nemesis scene - sure, if you already suspect that Fiora isn't really dead (despite the infamously human-eating Mechon having swarmed her corpse, and a Colony 9 NPC even mentioning her being eaten), you'll probably think that the woman with her face covered is Fiora. Then again, the woman is explicitly identified as someone else (Meyneth), and once you finally see Face Nemesis in action, the character has a different voice and knows a bunch of things that Fiora has no way of knowing.

In my opinion, Xenoblade 1 is a game you play once for start to end, then you get your friend to play for start to finish while you watch. You'll know every twist and turn but your friend will be clueless the entire run (save for the foreshadowing)

i refused my boyfriend's marriage proposal because i'm already engaging with this content

This game is 70+ hours, or more, with like 12-14 hours of cutscenes that dont count on gameplay, people forget things between cutscenes. It happened to me.

I respect all the effort you put in to this but at times (like with dickson finding the monado during the story part) you mixed up dramatic irony and foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is where the audience and characters have a clue, that’s usually subtle, which tells us about an aspect of the story that’s gonna happen. Dramatic irony is where the audience knows something which the characters don’t. Like take for example if I was watching a play, character A says to character B “I love you” and then Character A says aside (only audience heres) “I can’t wait to steal his money”. This is: A) dramatic irony B) a bad play You get me?

Mans made a whole ass college essay on Xenoblade, Enel is really on his grind

Can only imagine how much your hands hurt from typing a script this long wow

Damn. Now I understand why that script was so long.

There's no way anybody heard shulk say that he had 2 voices in his head and immediately knew somebody else was in his body that's just too out there. You dont even know who zanza is when he says that. Fiora just "died" in front of him so him saying that a part of him wants revenge isnt "obvious foreshadowing " at all

Wait there are people who don't like Riki?!?

This was an interesting video to watch. I'll give my own opinion on some points that I disagree with. *(This is long, I know, but please read this, I watched the whole video)* *_Gameplay_* I can agree with how little customization there was in this game. The game doesn't give much aside from gems and different arts, but I'd say that's good enough, and keeping it simple allows it to be easily accessible. I played through Xenoblade X one time, and after seeing it's credits roll, I never replayed the game again because of how cluttered X's interface felt, and once I got into the rhythm of X's combat, I never felt much of a desire to keep playing once I was done. I've played Xenoblade 1 three different times, and even now I still feel like replaying it partly because of the battle system. There's a bit of a catharsis in hearing the characters yell out their catchphrases. Over and over. *_Exploration_* To me, every location (except Ether Mines) is really good, mostly from a world building standpoint. I find the large locations to be fun to run around in, simply for the spectacle of how small you are in this world of a titan. Bionis Leg never dragged for me and I always find it fun to discover every landmark and quest that is present on this location every time I return to it in a subsequent playthrough. I find Makna Forest's huge lake and long river to be great just for the size of it. The game never tells you to go there, and if you really want to, you can swim across all of the water you can see, which is just really novel. Same with Eryth Sea. I found the fact that there was such a large body of water to be great for the fact that it's just there, majestically glowing at different times of day, and once again, you can swim in it if you want to. Alcamoth's size never bothered me because of the music, and seeing this highly advanced society is just amazing and makes the future events even more tragic once it's infested. *_Story_* I almost punched my drywall sitting through this part. I have a lot to say but I'll choose specific points that I disagree with. 1. You constantly rant about how easy it is to predict certain plot elements, and the thing is, I think that was the point. Everything that is foreshadowed towards is extremely logical, stuff like how Dickson becomes evil, Muhmkar is Metal Face, and Fiora being a Mechon all make plenty of sense, and I don't think any of these are weak plot points simply for being predictable. I believe the intent about stuff like Dickson being evil was meant to be shown to the player as a bit of dramatic irony, since the main party doesn't know much his true allegiances. This is why they have entire scenes where he speaks to Lorithia and Alvis about their foreboding plans, because the intent was supposed to show us that Dickson was evil the whole time. What mattered most was the character's reactions to Dickson being evil, since they didn't get to see Dickson's evil side before. Shulk and the parties reaction to Dickson makes a lot of sense, and the shock is mostly supposed to be taken in seeing how the characters react to seeing Dickson act like this. 2. You complain about how Fiora only had about 10 minutes of screen time before being killed, but to me, screen time didn't matter that much. The game shows that it's been 1 year since the Battle of Sword Valley, and it's been shown that life has been very peaceful. We are even introduced to Fiora in a scene with Dunban, literally the character we saw in the Prologue. I think this does an excellent job at showing how much we should care about Fiora by immediately associating her with the first character we play as (Dunban), and then immediately afterwards with the next character that we play as (Shulk). And then when Fiora and Shulk see Reyn in the lab, we even get a little more character interaction with Reyn showing that he also cares for Fiora. Couple this with the fact that Fiora has a strong relationship with all of the playable characters so far, and she's even a fully playable and customizable character, and this makes her death feel very earned. This beginning part did not need to be 2 hours long (cough cough, Kingdom Hearts 2) or overly long to establish Fiora as an important character, as the shown and implied relationships with the other characters fills all of that in quite nicely. 3. I disagree wholeheartedly that the story starts to slow down to a crawl before Alcamoth. I think showing Shulk discover new Monado powers and showing him save different people with the visions was supposed to hammer the point that Shulk can change the future. When I first played the game blindly, I legitimately thought Reyn was going to die in Tephra Cave since I saw Fiora die before, so it came as a surprise to see a new Monado art come into play that saved Reyn. When Sharla and Juju are seen to possibly die, I knew Sharla wouldn't die, but the game now throws in an NPC that I think can actually die. And right after that, it shows Otharon, a much older character that already was working with Gadolt, a different character that actually died. After all of these successful saves in a row, this makes seeing the Emperor's death in the vision feel more reversible, as we've saved everyone up except for Fiora up to this point. Once the Emperor dies, we see that once again we failed to save someone from their fate, but in the same scene, Shulk discovers that Fiora is alive, hence giving new meaning to any supposed deaths we've seen or heard of up to this point. This stretch of the story is very important, and without it, I can't imagine how the story would've gone if the party just flawlessly ran up to Prison Island. *_Characters_* This part aggravated me to no end. Not ONCE did you ever mention the Heart to Hearts which give more insight and character interaction with all 7 party members. You only looked at stuff the main story showed, which is a huge disservice to the fact that these Heart to Hearts are very well written, and there are about 65 of these Heart to Hearts. There's a reason Definitive Edition allows you to rewatch Heart to Hearts as well as the Main Events, because these Heart to Hearts give ALL of the much needed character interactions that you said was missing. If there was an ideal way to experience the story of Xenoblade 1, I think wedging in the Heart to Hearts between specific cutscenes would be the best way to get the most of both worlds. *_Villains_* I found Xord to be a great first villain for the party to encounter. His over the top and dark sense of humor made him an excellent and formidable foe to face off against. By this point in the game, the player only met Metal Face, so to see another faced Mechon adds in some extra thought for exactly how many more of these faced Mechon exist. He is an excellent introductory villain that paints a small part of the larger picture of Xenoblade 1's world, which makes seeing Metal Face again with even more Xords a lot more intimidating, knowing that you would eventually have to fight more faced Mechon in the future. To me, Lorithia is a great villain since she makes for a good foil to the much more innocent Melia, and really goes home in being a hate-able villain through and through. She's not the best in the game, but she does the job right, and as a villain for Melia, she's spectacular. I agree, I love Egil. Dickson I find to be the third best villain in my opinion (behind Egil and Zanza), as he in fact DOES have multiple moments of layers to him once he's shown as a full villain. Once in the scene in which he flies away from Colony 6, when he starts trembling to himself at the thought of Shulk being more powerful than him. This shows that he not only feels vulnerable, but also that he somewhat cares for Shulk. He's a disciple of a god, and he's lived for thousands upon thousands of years, and yet he still has feelings for this little Homs that he knew for only about 18 years of his life. This makes Dickson feel very human. He puts on a facade of villainy towards the party members in order to make them lose any sign of sympathy towards them, and in his dying moments, he doesn't want Shulk or the others to see him die, as he really didn't want Shulk to feel the pain of watching the closest being of a father figure lose his last breath. And as for Zanza, I believe he's perfect. It is a standard for JRPGs to have a big God become the final boss, but to me, I feel like this God deserves all of the praise for being an exceptionally good villain. Throughout many cutscenes, we get small hints at Shulk not acting like himself. Seeing himself in his own dream, having two different sides of himself in his head, returning the soldiers in Tephra Cave to the Bionis, having such extreme hatred towards the Mechonis and the Mechon. All of these and more add to really excellent hints at Zanza pulling the strings from behind the whole time, and it makes perfect sense. I love Egil the best out of all the villains, but I think it was really good to have Egil's phase in the story transition to Zanza's phase in the story, as Egil constantly referred to himself as a God, and now there is a real God, and they're evil. This drives the point home that there should be no one as powerful as a God dictating the way others move through their lives, and to seize their own destinies. Zanza works very well as a villain, and he's a lot cooler than just having a spiffy outfit. Anyways Enel, thank you for reading through all of this. I appreciate all of the work you do on this channel, as you really have made the Xenoblade community become a lot more noticeable on this platform. I appreciate the fact that you had an honest opinion, and I appreciate the fact that you didn't back down in making this video any shorter. I'm happy to be subscribed to you, and can't wait to see what the future of this channel holds.

As I played through the Definitive Edition, I was playing XC2 alongside with it. And that the absolute best time I had with this series ever. Since I knew both games from before, it really helped me appreciating their strengths and noticing the weaknesses both games have. May just be my personal dumb opinion, but I like them equally, and no one will will tell me otherwise :)

Ahhh, a Xc1 movie.

Wow, even if I disagree with a lot that you said, I appreciate the amount of effort that went into making this video and I can at least understand your point of view. It's also really impressive how you manage to keep someones attention for one and a half hour although he disagrees with a lot you say. That only shows the quality of your content and that you actually care about it. For example, I wouldn't watch five minutes of someone just straight up trash talking this game

One thing I honestly really like about having autism is that I have a tendency to be more trusting than I probably should, so plot twists like dickson consistently work really well for me. Just a cool little thing about my neurodivergency that makes life more fun yknow?

Oh so this is why this took so long

I largely agree with you on combat. I don't feel like it is as fun as X and 2, and chain attacks feel like a crapshoot for most of the game. Also XC1 has like 2 good sidequests. All the rest are "kill monster A, get thing E, kill this very specific unique monster in Makna Forest that only shows up during a rare weather with no way to change said weather besides adjusting the clock." That said, despite my gripes with the game, I still enjoyed it. Not my favorite game I ever played, but I enjoyed it

As someone who was turned off from Xenoblade 2 at first, I’ve grown to love it a lot thanks to your content. Currently at the beginning of Chapter 5, btw. I think this video is great and addresses a lot of the things I do have problems with in XC1. However, I do think you left out a lot of the actual subtle foreshadowing throughout the whole game. For example, during Alvis’s introduction, him and Shulk both have their hands on the Monado when Alvis says the line “Both the material and the immaterial”. The camera focuses on Shulk during “material” and Alvis on “immaterial”. Also something I though was really cool is that on the back of Alvis’s coat is a symbol with the same shape as Seven’s chestplate, sort of hinting at his role.

1:07:31 I think the reason why they’re different is because XC1 focuses on Klaus’ more insane psychopathic side and in in XC2 it focuses on Klaus’ more logical and understanding side

I disagree with you about the open areas being boring. Exploring the areas is my favorite aspect of this game. I just love seeing the sheer scale of each area. For example, on the Wreckage beach, you have an amazing view of both the Bionis and Mechonis. Sometimes you get views that foreshadows future areas. An example being in Makna Forest you can see Eryth Sea right above you. I also loved that at one story point you can see the Mechonis moving, which I thought was pretty neat. There's even some moments where you can see the progress you made along your journey. A good example of world building in the gameplay was outside the Ether mines you can see Colony 9 far below from where you are. My point is that you can't achieve this with a smaller scale world. Being the first attempt that Monolith has made a big world, I think they did a pretty good job at it. Also, Valak mountain has fun ice physics and I'm a little disappointed that you didn't mention that. I have endless amounts of fun messing around with the ice physics to see how far I can jump over the mountain before the ramp. The side quests, I kind of agree with you. In a narrative way, they are boring for the most part. Only a handful has a memorable plot to them. However, they did give me an incentive to explore more of the world that this game presents which as I explained earlier is my favorite aspect of this game.

My opinions on the game: If you’re going purely for cutscenes and story, then this game is absolutely phenomenal! The story has many twists some may not expect, and the writing with the music choices make so many cutscenes so memorable. However, when you mix gameplay into the mix, it definitely drags it down a bit. Gameplay can be a bit boring sometimes, especially when you can feel limited to a certain team due to poor AI or conditions (cough, Melia, cough). There are also a numerous amount of side quests which, although optional, can feel extremely boring or frustrating. The amount of time they take away from the main story can also drag down that aspect. Other mechanics such as Affinity and Gem Crafting can also make the player feel limited in their options (by the gem crafting, I’m referring to how you may need a specific attribute you just can’t find, or not getting the hoped results). There are also a lot of visual bugs that can be a big detracting if you focus to hard on those kinds of things. Overall, definitely would recommend to people if you know they’ll pay attention.

Enel, while I largely agree with your points, there are a few things you overlooked: 1. You argue that Shulk defeated Zanza due to the power of friendship, but this is incorrect. Zanza lost due to a MAJOR miscalculation. When he powered up the Monado, Meyneth was perplexed, asking why he would take such a risk. What she was getting at is that powering up the monado also added Zanza's full power to Shulk. This made Shulk more powerful than Zanza. Examples of this are: a. Shulk seeing the future without visions on Mechonis b. Shulk overpowering the Apocrypha throughout the journey on Mechonis (until being right next to it when he fights it) c. Shulk preventing Zanza from coming out of him before the final fight with Egil d. Shulk coming back to life after Zanza's soul left his body. Each of these events is the direct result of Zanza's decision to power up the monado, and they were NOT part of his plan. He turned Shulk from a normal human, into a god. This is what Alvis meant when he says at the end of the game "The old god was defeated by the new god he himself created". He was pointing out the irony of Zanza's mistake. Zanza made this mistake because he believed that Egil was more dangerous than Shulk, and that the best course of action was to power up the monado so Shulk could defeat Egil. After that, he believed he could easily kill Shulk and that would be the end of it. However, ever since Shulk came back to life, Zanza was afraid of him, and showed it from that point on. Shulk didn't die like he was supposed to, implying that things weren't going according to plan. This is the reason that Zanza offers to make Shulk his disciple. He didn't want to fight him. 2. Shulk decided to create a world without gods due to Meyneth's influence. She argued that the detiny of the people she created belonged to them alone. People will resist the passage of fate, and eventually, they will succeed in overcoming it. Therefore, there is no need for a god to rule over them. Alvis told Shulk about this, saying that the passage of fate would be overcome eventually, leading to the gods destruction. Meyneth accepted this and entrusted the future of the world to the beings of Bionis and Mechonis, while Zanza feared this. You completely ignored the nuance of Zanza and Meyneth's philosophies about how the world should be. I wouldn't say Zanza is a great villain, but he has more depth than you imply. While I do like Xenoblade's story more than its sequel, and I agree with those who claim it is exceptional, it certainly has its flaws. Here are a few examples of bad writing in the story you didn't bring up, that I think are worth mentioning: 1. The plotline of Fiora's body being damaged, allowing her to die at any time was stupid and made no sense. The other Face units had no such problems. The whole point of giving face units mechanical bodies was to make them stronger. Mahmkar talked about how much he loved the power of his new body. It gave him a strong sense of superiority over Dunban, and the other Homs. Even if Fiora was damaged in some way, once Vanea joins the team, she would have no trouble fixing her since she made the face units to begin with. The notion that Fiora needs a monado to power her body, while the other face units do not doesn't add up. It also doesn't fit the gameplay. Fiora shows no signs of weakness in battle at any point in the game. There is a major disconnect between the weakness she has in cutscenes, and her crazy DPS in battle. The way that she gets her body back at the end is also hilariously stupid. I was hoping that they would fix this plotline in Definitive Edition, but they didn't touch the script, probably because they wanted to save some money by using the old voicelines.

I find your overall take on one very interesting, and to explain why I guess I'll need to give brief context to how I started playing Xenoblade. (brief as in an essay) I discovered Xenoblade by literally picking up 2 on a whim because the artstyle looked interesting and Pyra was hot (hehe). I soon surpassed my brainlet decision and found actual reasons for liking the game, and soon after beating Two I immediately watched a playthrough of One. I had been curious due to lurking among online discourse on 'if Two is actually good' and 'which game is better'. Sufficed to say, after watching a playthrough of One basically understanding every story beat (Rest in not having a Wii/Wii U or understanding how to emulate it correctly at the time) I came to the conclusion that I could understand why people saw Xenoblade 1 as a better game whilst I held Two in a higher regard (mostly because I had actually played it). I reacted very similarly to you in regards to DE's announcement. I had a higher interest in X due to how underrated it seemed and I also had tried (and failed) at reaching into the rest of the Metaseries like Xenosaga (One day I'll get a working emulation going). However, as DE approached to release, I had a lot more motivation to actually play One, especially with the announcement of Future Connected. Unfortunately in my undying quest to avoid spoilers due to a few close calls with 2, I avoided as much marketing for FC as possible. I knew two things: 1. I had seen they basically confirmed Alvis as Ontos, and 2. The name was Future fucking Connected. I was ecstatic because I found the similar ways 1 and 2's worlds experienced restoration a intriguing possibility to connect the games. What I failed to realize with my assumptions towards Future Connected, and something I found out about before playing the game and chose to sort of ignore was that Future Connected was mostly akin to cut content for 1. I realized this pretty soon while playing FC and started enjoying it for what it was. Soon enough I was at the final fight, and all of a sudden the Connection I made to the fog king (not having Saga on my mind since I've seen like an hour of the first game) wasn't to the Gnosis but that they used a Guldo model from 2 for the Fog King. 'Oh boy, we're fighting a Guldo type enemy with a giant rift in the sky to another dimension right beside us, I wonder what that means?'. In the end, obviously, that didn't matter. The only strong connection to Two aside from the real Experiment cutscene from 2 was Alvis and his space-time continuum bull honky. All that made me put a perspective on the discourse I had seen online towards 1 and I came to a lot of conclusions about the story you did in the video. However, despite all this I still enjoyed 1, immensely in fact. I agree with a lot of gripes you held, but--not to be rude--you sound extremely jaded in the video. While I concur that the only other Xeno game I've played, being Xenoblade 2, felt like it had a lot more character moments and writing, and even in my opinion a better plot, I still love 1 the most for the Grand Scale of its plot, setting, and themes. Everything is setup from the start of the first cutscene as big, then we get smaller, smaller, in scale, zooming in on where the beginning of the game starts. Now the goal of the developers was to start to build up back to that grand sense of scale throughout the story, and they did with the whole end of the game being 'Kill God and Decide your own Fate'. I feel the impact of this hypothetical quest the developers had In the large, open, and sometimes empty areas, thin or static characters with strong personality traits and little depth, and that previously mentioned escalation of story and themes. Does this forgive the game for lacking in certain areas? No. Did the sense of scale add some to my immersion in spite of those elements lacking? Yes, it did for me at least. At this point, I think most people who prefer one more so appreciate what is was trying to do in addition to it probably being their introduction to the current state of the Xeno series, but obviously there's probably more nuance to it than that. 2 by far (my favorite so far) is without a doubt flawed in addition, but like you I see so many improvements to it as a game and I take how many times I've replayed it as a sign that I like it more. 2 was my introduction as well, which probably adds onto my love for it. I guess I'll conclude with how I think DE panned out in light of my initial reaction to its development. Experiencing 1 for myself in such a heightened state has by far been a worthwhile experience especially during this pandemic. I didn't play the original through emulation to completion so I didn't have a handle on how DE could've improved the combat, all I knew was that I still held 2's in high regard. Do I think it was worthwhile that DE happened? Certainly, but I think the range of its influence will largely depend on what they do next with the series. DE serves as an actual reintroduction to the series standing just above the 3ds port, however with FC and time attack being underwhelming and the rest of the additions/improvements not doing too much to add to the base game, only making it a more complete experience, I feel a lot of fans are now wanting for that new experience we had hoped to have heard about instead. I'll be interested to even see if mainline Xenoblade (1 and 2's now sort of connected universe) goes further, if Saga or X get more attention, or if we get something new from Monolith in the future. I just hope that DE will justify its existence by providing a full view of 1 and 2 on the switch together to newer players in contrast to something new for us already interested. Keep up the Good Work Enel, with every new video I look forward to seeing your improve more and more, as well as showing me how outclassed I am when playing these games.

You forgot the worst part of the side quests The fact that you have to see Juju’s face every time you bring up the quest log

Xenoblade is kind of a miracle when you look at Monolith (and even the own series’) history. I never would have believed the Xeno metaverse would have seven games way back when I finished Xenogears or even Xenosaga. So keen to see what Monolith has in store.

Playing Xenoblade Definitive Edition years later after the original made me realize just how much I love Xenoblade 2's combat. So many interesting elements were put in place to make combat more fun and strategic with wide variety of blades and abilities compared to XC1

I love Xenoblade, I love Monolithsoft, I love this channel and Enel. Thank you very much for all the effort you put into promoting this franchise on youtube.

Wait wait wait, I didn't get it. So is the game telling us that shulk can change the...uh...the...the thing...the... Future! Yeah. Took a while to remember, kind of not stressed a lot in the game.

I can explain why Riki is so well-liked in one word: Tatsu.

Enel: this video is very spoiler heavy Me: shit I wanted to watch the video, but haven't played the game YET, so I'll probably watch it later but it's already liked :-)

It's my favourite game of all time, and I love the remaster/remake!

I agree that when Metal Face first showed up it was obvious it's Mumkar, but during the battle at Sword Valley, when Mumkar "died" i honestly thought he did die because i thought Nintendo wouldn't include a violent death scene

I really enjoyed the plot twists the first time I played because I was so focused on what had happened in the past that I didn't see the foreshadowed events coming so it ended up being super satisfying.

"Some might call the cutscene the changed everything. While I won't be making a 20 minute analysis on it..." Do I get points for knowing what video you're referring to? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a7-UideVrLqZdIU.html

Would you ever do a similar video for xc2? I know you did a one year anniversary vid, but would you ever want to do a video in this much detail for any other Xenoblade game?

Tora just leave comment (Don't want to spoil story meh meh). It Tora's birthday on Saturday, which is when he receive game from Mamapon and Dadapon. Will watch more when Tora play game yes.

I don't agree with almost everything on this video but still enjoy your content Enel

33:04 "It introduces us to his two trustworthy and wonderful friends Dickson and Mumkhar". He said it so casually rofl

The reason there are very little character moments in the main story is because of the heart to hearts. You don’t get that from watching only the cutscenes. I was genuinely surprised when I found out one of Riki and Sharla’s heart to hearts references Nene’s tree climbing incident mentioned in FC.

im not gonna lie, i actually fell for every plot twist in the game except for melia and the emperor dying when i played the first time lmao. made the experience so fun. xc2 still has a way better story and way better gameplay imo

I can tell you put so much time and effort into making this video. You are one of the best Xenoblade creators out there. Thanks man for all you do.

Disclaimer: I like Xenoblade 1 and 2 equally. I think you're extremely biased against xenoblade1 bc of the xc1 elitists. You're honestly really ignorant towards a lot of things. Especially a lot of cool things that are just good bc theyre... cool and its fun to see the characters do well sometimes. Xord isn't a bad villain because he's just "metalface but without motivation" he's good because hes scary. Alvis isn't obviously evil because he's helping Shulk all the time, and yes, while Dickson is also helping, its clear that Alvis actually wants Shulk to do well, which Dickson does not. The complaint that there is too little subtlety is valid but... are you really saying you expected Shulk to have Zanza inside of his body? I think you're mostly viewing the story too much from the perspective of someone who's already finished it. We don't know what's going to happen when we play it. The only things we know are: Mumkhar is def metalface, Dickson is probably evil, and Egil thinks Shulk is someone called Zanza, though we have literally no idea what that means. We don't know if the Emperors going to die, because the last bunch of visions have all lead to everyone being saved (Reyn, Juju, Sharla, Otharon). Otharons vision is shown like 3 times too but he still makes it out alive. We don't know anything about Zanza. And I mean anything. Even if you somehow expected Shulk to die, Zanza to take over the Bionis and kill everyone, you can't deny that it was handled really well. Zanza isn't some no one like the Fog King, he's a real threat that you genuinely want to destroy. Also one final thing, the things with Lorithia & the Telethia and Vanea & Fiora really doesn't make you go "oh so that's gonna happen". Even if you thought it was Fiora, Vanea calling her Lady Meyneth should definitely at least put you off a little. I like both games equally, I know you think 1 is good too but I think a lot of your disliking, especially in the story and characters (ESPECIALLY riki lmao) are because of your spite against xc1 elitists (which I understan dont get me wrong, but still). That and that you're thinking about it as if you know almost everything thats gonna happen. Sorry if I sound like an idot

Second comment yahoo... But i have to comment on that when you said many times that the game is kinda bad at foreshadowing, i dont agree with it. Now after playing the game and knowing everything, characters lines etc are more obvious. My friend played Xenoblade 1 first time and he was blown away by some "now obvious" reveals. I on my first playtrough of this story, i was blown away too. First time playing the game, you dont maybe pay that much attention to some details but later they are obvious. Bad explanation but i had to comment on it. Thanks Enel for this video btw

I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling like most party members got the shaft when it comes to characterization. I truly do love Xenoblade 1, but I think it sometimes suffers from what I call "first draft syndrome", kind of like Megaman 1 or Kingdom Hearts 1. I think taking this game and splitting its focus into two sub series (Xenoblade X focusing more heavily on exploration and player expression, while Xenoblade 2 focused more on story telling and characterization) was a good call on Monolith's part. And while Xenoblade 2 remains my favorite in the overall Xeno series, I still love this game, and it still stands on its own as a fantastic RPG. I feel lucky to have a franchise like this where the debate comes down to "which amazing game did I find more amazing"

almost 2 years late but i DID have a good chuckle at you saying "you probably want to do quest so you arent underlevled" when a common complaint was that you are often OVERLEVELD if you do even just a few side quests to many

I have to disagree about how you thought a lot of the twists were obvious. On a repeat playthrough, it’s a lot easier to notice just how much foreshadowing there is, as so many seemingly throwaway lines are hinting at future events. Another thing I think this game does well is wait for acting upon certain kinds of foreshadowing. The time between Dickson saying he was going to betray us and him actually acting on that was so long, I had honestly forgotten about it. Another thing which you were annoyed by, but I thought was pretty clever, we’re all the prison island visions. I think this is extremely clever when you consider that Zanza is controlling Shulk’s visions and freeing the Monado is supposedly his win condition. There’s also a whole bunch of stuff you didn’t bring up, such as Shulk getting a vision for Lorithia when first seeing Melia, but if we wanted to talk about all the foreshadowing in this game, we’d be here all day. (Again, because there’s so many seemingly throwaway instances)

Something I never hear discussed is the character of Vanea. She is the real hero of the game, because she re-awakened Meyneth. If it were not for Vanea, the party would have been killed by face nemesis (controlled by Egil) at Galahad fortress. Vanea is also the sole reason the party survived Egil’s attack after the mechonis field/central factory portion (where gadolt sacrifices himself to buy Meyneth time). On top of that, Vanea had not only lost her people to Zanza thousands of years ago, but she also witnessed her once-noble brother turn into a revenge seeking monster, with absolutely no hope of changing his mind until thousands of years later when shulk and his friends come by. And to top it off, as soon as her goal is met (Egil’s mind is changed), he dies. Those thousands of years of Vanea trying to change Egil’s ways were all for nothing. All of these conditions resulted in a complex character with great motivations. However, in the game’s execution, Vanea was a ton of wasted potential. Given how her actions saved the party’s lives multiple times and her endless state of suffering, she should have had MUCH more interactions with the rest of the cast. She was so important to the plot, and yet the game chose to treat her like an irrelevant side character that the party hardly interacted with. It also would have been much better if Vanea because a party member after the events of Mechonis Core, as that would have created both more variety in combat and the 8-person party would have had representation of all the races of the xenoblade world. Main idea is this: Vanea did not get the treatment by the game and the rest of the characters that she deserved. Not by a long shot.

don't you know that it's illegal to say anything negative about XB1? now reddit will cancel you for criticizing the golden calf of secondaries

the only sort of plot hole i could see is Egil's reason for killing everything on Bionis. The living beings on the Bionis are the "food" of it after they die, so naturally you want to kill everything, thus giving the Bionis all of the "food"

Phew...you weren't kidding when you said this was gonna be loong! Time to get the popcorn :>

I feel like certain things like moments of foreshadowing become far less subtle when you're already used to games like this. The general playerbase isn't going to pick up on moments like the " two different versions of me" line. I know I didn't the first time.

This is the true power of Enel. Let the shackles be released!

-just wanna live in peace yet- -Egil's gonna keep us restless- -running just to own our own breaths- It's cool to see a more critical perspective from someone who is a superfan of the series. Great video as always!

It's really cool to hear the your thoughts on this game. As someone who got into the series though Xenoblade 2, it's really nice to hear how someone who's been into the series much longer, and has a different perspective on it. It's unfortunate there isn't a larger community for the series, and I'm glad there are people like you who are willing to put so much work into stuff like this.

Thanks for this Enel, I didn't think I was in the same boat as you about this game. I can tell you put a lot of work into this. Well done

I think a lot of people can write off a lot of problems with the story solely because they'll likely be doing side quests often, so there's likely going to be massive breaks between these story moments for most players. I know in my case, the repetitive story didn't bother me much because it took me a month or so to get to Mechonis Field I believe (I'll often pick up a lot of games at once, so progress in some games suffers). The repetition was almost welcome in that playthrough because I forgot a lot of things (although I think it says a lot that it took so long to play it... if I was really invested, it wouldn't have taken me so long to finish the game. For example, I finished XB2 and XBX in about a week each).

Dude, this is hands down one of your best videos, it impresses me every time to see the outstanding amount of passion and dedication that you have for this series. The hard work you have put in this video really makes for high quality content to appreciate, I'm looking forward to more videos like this one.

Holy Bionis, dang bro you went full power on this. Huge kudos Enel.

Personally I disagree with a lot of what you had to say about the story. I think Fiora’s death is one of the most emotional sections of the story along with Shulk’s, Kalian’s, and Dickson’s Deaths. I do agree that Dunban is a character with missed potential, especially when he says nothing about his relationship with Dickson during that fight. I actually don’t like Memory’s End. I appreciate the free party gauge, but fighting old enemies just felt hollow, especially since the Mechon could be hurt by normal weapons, the Telethia didn’t use Soul Read, and none of the enemies said a single word. Also you can skip the Gadolt relight because getting to the end of his area launches you into the cutscene before the final battle. I know it was obvious that Dickson wasn’t the type of guy we were led on to believe, but shooting Shulk I thought was completely unexpected and caught me off-guard. I actually do like most of the party thanks to the Heart-to-Hearts. I think they did enough to make me interested in each of the characters and while technically optional, those who want more out of the characters are incentivized to find the Heart-to-Hearts and complete them. I also think a lot of the little lines and the stuff in between each of the major story sections really helps make these characters feel like characters I should feel about. AND NYAPIKAPOW IS NOW MY FAVORITE WORD. I think the 2nd Prison Island adventure is an amazing buildup to Zanza. And the fight with Zanza himself feels really climatic especially with the background and the first phase music. I prefer this story over 2, even though that story was good, the highs didn’t really reach the same level as in the original. I still liked this video and I appreciate what you had to say and your viewpoints on certain things.

I can feel the amount of effort you put into this video and it’s a great video

I also started theorizing about why the Monado can't cut Faced Mechon at Zord, but it had to sink in why and how, since they look a lot like machines, and they didn't talk at first

52:26 You called Yaoldaboath a Bakugan! Lmaooooooooo

Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful and insightful analysis! I like how you talk about both the strengths and the weaknesses of the game. I’m new to the series and was thinking of playing this before three comes out next month.

Say what you want about dunban losing character after shulk gets the Monaco, but nothing beats the "we ordered room service an hour ago" line

I just wanted to say that your content has been a major compliment to my experience with Xenoblade Chronicles. It's the first time I've ever played this series and without your guides, I don't think I would've enjoyed the game as much as I did. I'm gonna jump into XC2 in a few days, so I'll definitely be watching your older videos for help and I would love to watch another hour long video about XC2 hahaha Thanks again!

Love your work Enel! Your series of videos really helped go from just finishing the game to getting close to 100% completion

I was 16 at the time the original came out and this was my first j-rpg. At that time, I didn't really watch anime either (I sure do now) so I wasn't really aware of the tropes, which made a fair amount of this game not-so predictable for me. So I really do think this is really good as a first experience with j-rpgs, the story/combat/difficulty are all simple but not too simple which makes it really easy to digest in a way. Also, funny story, I bought this game at the same time as I did Super Paper Mario on the wii. I started playing this, got to the Ether Mines and got bored there (2nd worst area imo, 1st being Bionis's Interior), so I went and started SPM, beat the ENTIRE GAME, and only then came back to this game after like 2 weeks. And guess what cutscene we get after the Ether Mines ? Yup, we hear Metal Face talking for the first time, and at that point I had completely forgot the existence of Mumkhar, so needless to say that I didn't see that plot twist coming (I admit the Fiora one was pretty obvious though) :p Regarding Dickson, I remember being suspicious of him back then, but I think my suspicions had completely died down when he found us on the Fallen Arm and was like "btw I know Miqol and this whole place but I guess the cat's out of the bag now" and I didn't really think much of him after that. So yeah, my plot senses were kinda weak to say the least XD

It's really interesting, how we each saw different things comin... I was absolutely surprised by Dickson's betrayal while seeing the High Entia-Telethia transformation coming :D

Fantastic video, Enel! Have you made a similar one for XC2? I went through your video list and didn't see one. If not, I urge you to consider it. I for one would definitely love to get your definitive breakdown of it (even though I already have a decent sense of your opinion of XC2 through your speedruns).

I really like this type of content as well. I mostly agree about the points in the video. Keep it up and can't wait for a new xeno game to come out

honestly you do make a good point but in my opinion i don’t agree with much of the things you said. but i really wish i knew you so i could have a friendly argument on our thoughts about the game

This was a really well put together video. Despite disagreeing quite a bit with a few of the points you made throughout, it was still nice to hear your perspective on this game as a whole. I was quite shocked when you defended Juju a bit during the character portion of the video since many people just bash on him all the time; though, I wouldn't say it's completely unjustified. Regarding Future Connected, I actually found myself agreeing with you on that more since I went in with those big expectations and I'm also not that big of Melia fan either. Overall, great video; and even though I don't share the same opinion with you on this game, I can agree that the Xenosaga series is by far a much better experience all the way through!

Wait so daddy Enel can predict a god living within Shulk and latterly every single plot twist except the genetic code of the high entia on his first time threw, ok.

Love your content. Your passion of the game and what you do shows in all of your videos. I disagree slightly on a few things, but over all thought this was great.

This video was amazing. Well worth the wait. Obviously no rush but I would love to see a video like this on X and especially 2.

A lot of the story complaints came off as “people give Xenoblade 2 crap for its story so here are the reasons Xenoblade 1’s story isn’t that great”. That kind of vibe makes it harder to overlook the flaws of 2 when the someone is nitpicking the flaws of 1 and using biases as bases.

Great video Enel! You’ve pretty much summed up my exact thoughts about this game. Nicely done 👍

A really long informative video. I like it & thanks for all the guides you make for this game. It's really helpful for me as a new fan for these games

I think your complaints toward the story and characters are perfectly sound, but the sarcasm felt a bit much. A good bit of the obvious foreshadowing you point out doesn't feel inherently obvious when you're not literally directly pointing it out and you're actually just playing the game for the first time, at least for me it wasn't. Still though, I do agree with a lot of your points in other places, and that this a very nice and organized overview of your thoughts on XC1 as a whole.

Another thing that other comments missed about the foreshadowing is that XC1 does it in layers. It's very good at throwing obvious hints thrown in with subtle ones that can misdirect the first timers, and also several lines that make sense in context both during the first and later viewings of the game. And then there's everybody's favorite unnecessary line at sartorl.

This was such a great video! I literally made a similar video myself just a few days before this one came out, breaking down Xenoblade like you did here. So I was kinda worried you were going to go over a lot of the same points that I did, which would make my video sort of obsolete in a way. But I was pleasantly surprised to find a different perspective than what you normally find in the discourse around this game. There is a LOT we disagree on, but I think for the most part you gave great arguments to support your points, and it was just a great watch all around. Would love to see more stuff from you like this in the future. Keep it up!

There was a whole lot of hard work that went into making this. I'm actually really impressed. Awesome, job, Enel

I really appreciate this review and everything you talked about in depth. I do believe this game is amazing on a first playthrough when things are fresh and new but on NG+ and revisiting years later with DE the cracks are quite visible. Your issues with the game seemed to be very well thought out and I like how you tackle them in a more objective manner while still conceding this is pretty good as a base line for things to come. This is great content as always and I'm excited for what else comes after.

This game is my favourite game of all time. They really fixed the problems that the original had. Combat never gets boring to me and it is really addicting. Story is just incredible even when i already knew what was going to happen. Music is perfect and i still listen to it almost daily. World looks beautiful and concept of two big titans is really interesting and clever. Characters are interesting and i can really relate to many of them. To me this game is the best in the series. Xenoblade 2 is in the second place but i think 1 does everything better than it does. X is just trash imo

Idk what you mean by zanza having "unclear motivations." He wants to destroy all life on bionis in order to keep living. Like alvis said, zanza isn't invincible, and he needs the homs' life energy if he wants to stay alive.

I disagree with a lot about what you said about the story and combat. XB2 100% starts off WAY slower than 1, not the other way around like you mention. Just because 2 is more complex later on, doesn't all of a sudden make 1 less complex. Sure, if you put 200+ hours into a game, it's gonna get old, but this game isn't a constantly updated MMO. it's a story driven single player game, and everything was designed around that. A Majority of side quests are completed while playing the main story, as they aren't meant as truly in-depth content (the main story has that covered). The side quests simply act as extra stuff to do while exploring the massive environments and completing the story

As far as combat goes, I'm actually happy with it in the grand scheme of things. It's so much simpler to learn Xenoblade 2's combat after the base knowledge of Xenoblade 1, and the lack of post-game content I would argue is somewhat a good thing. The repetitive / simplistic nature of the combat system starts to shine (maybe the better word is glare) when you no longer have the draw of the story pulling you through the fights. I find that there is just enough content to let me destroy things (and get destroyed by things), and fully explore each characters' kits before I lose interest. On note of the story, I actually didn't catch most of the foreshadowing on my first play through. Of course there's the obvious things like "I wish everyday could be like this", but even after Dickson's "deceiving these kids" remark I never expected to what extend he was talking. The faced mechon twist I never expected, and while looking back the foreshadowing is obvious with Fiora in the lab, at the time of Loss you're so new into the universe that a brand new, never-before-seen mechon that's so powerful even the giant cannons and magic sword can't touch it... well, there's just so much you're taking in at the beginning, and so little narrative to go off that I could never have predicted what direction the game is going in. I'll admit that it probably helps that I wasn't aware of the whole "off-screen deaths are fake" trope at the time... Also-nice reference to KayJulers' video at 37:24