In Which I Learn That The World Is A Robot Carcass
New
pitl
lingering spirit
- Location
- three days leeward
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Introduction
So, approximately two days ago, I was playing Metaphor Refantazio (fantastic game, by the way, totally recommend). Anyway, my brother came in, saw what I was doing, and immediately started yapping about JRPGs - a habit for which we both share a tendency. Eventually, we got into a discussion about the ending of FFXVI, god only knows how. He hasn't played XVI yet, so I played him some clips, particularly the ending. The very first time Joshua said something in the ending clip, my brother immediately started laughing. "Sam, it's Shulk. He's literally Shulk." I nodded along, firm in the knowledge that Super Smash Bros Ultimate had prepared me for all the Xenoblade related facts I would ever need to know, such as the fact there is a person named Shulk, and a pair of (presumably mentally connected?) people named Pyra and Mythra.
Then the fandom in-jokes started coming. And wouldn't stop. Even after I went back to playing, Oh no.
In particular, one quote cropped up - "this is the Monado's power!" - a phrase I had heard him say a few times in the past. Finally managing to get a word in edge wise, I said the fateful words that would eventually lead to me typing out this post.
So, What Is a Monado Anyway?
Uhhhh. Will get back to you on that. Later in this first post, actually.
Now, historically, I have a systematic bias against exactly two game series I have not played. The first is Dragon Quest, because I have a deep-seated belief that most of the traits it introduced to the JRPG industry are my least favorites, and besides, I don't really like really straightforward D&D-esque fantasy stories. Am I probably being unfair? Yeah. I'll play one of them eventually... just not today. More importantly, however, the other is Xenoblade Chronicles. This is for the arguably even pettier reason that the name rubbed me the wrong way ("Chronicles" plus fantasy setting? Eugh). That's the only thing that's kept it off my To-Play list since, uh, probably somewhere between '12 and '13, not sure when I first heard the name.
Anyway. Needless to say, this is a silly reason. Time to fix that. Maybe then my brother will stop laughing at me.
Regarding why a Let's Play... well, we'll get to that in a minute.
So, beginning the game, I know exactly the following, no more and no less:
I'm playing the Wii version.
Also, obviously, I'm typing up these descriptions after the fact; however, I have kept the reactions as accurate to my actual, real-time impressions as I could. I'm playing with dialogue scrolling on manual, so after the initial cutscene (which I had to do twice to actually grab images), I have been keeping notes.
And thus it begins.
Let's see what this game has in store!
So, hitting New Game drops us into a deep fog, narrated by the most British voice I have ever heard in my life. "Long ago," he says, "the world was nothing more than an endless sea"; very fantasy, very respectable, ya know, I like the vibe and the distant hum in the background -
Huh. Those are weirdly metallic shapes in the fog. I thought this was a fantasy game?
These mechs (audible question mark) are the Bionis and Mechonis. Obviously filing those names away for later, sounds important. They're fighting each other - "locked in endless battle". I'm assuming this is some form of creation myth. Considering this is narrated in-world, of course, it's worth keeping in mind this may not be an accurate understanding of creation, but for our worldbuilding purposes, this is the story we're being conveyed.
Speaking of, who's talking? I'm... assuming Shulk, given Britishness? But also if they kept the voice cast consistent or have, like, regionalized accents, it could be someone else...
Oh, yeah, anyway. Back to the creation story. The mechs stab each other.
Excuse the bright picture. The other frames were a blueish, this one happeend to be at the exact moment of an explosion as a bunch of sci-fi ass soldiers fight against robots, presumably from the other mech, the two of which form the world above the endless waters of uncreation.
Alright, so. That bit earlier when I said I would explain why I'm Let's Play-ing this later? This is the later. This intro made an absolutely massive immediate impact. I will be ranting about this to my brother later. However, he's not a lore guy. I very much am a lore guy. Thus, I need another target for my inevitable ranting and theories.
Congratulations, you reading this, if anybody does read this. You are my mark. I would apologize, but I'm not sorry.
Anyway, this setup has immediately got some shit going down, conceptually. We have, functionally, two worlds: Bionis and Mechonis. Assuming I'm not wrong in guessing the Mechons live on Mechonis (would be willing to place money on that one), there's an immediate dichotomy being formed between biological and mechanical life - things of flesh and things of steel. Interestingly, however, both halves of the world appear to be of artificial make, unless I was fooled by the low polygon count of the opening cutscene. Gonna store this one away in my back pocket as well.
Oh yeah, also, that war business? Doesn't seem to currently be going great for humanity.
Fortunately, someone is here to help!
It seems the battle is, unfortunately, already lost - Dickson tells Dunban that an order to retreat has been given, and they'll be regrouping at Colony 6.
The guys in charge, however, forgot to account for the fact that, as previously stated, Dunban is a badass.
Hell yeah, man. Let's go out in a blaze of glory. Oh, yeah! By the way -
Alright! My question is answered! So, the Monado is the pointy red sword wheel thing! That's it, wrap it up, single post Let's Play -
Yeah, no. I'm invested in the world and spectacle at this point, if not the characters (though I enjoy the upbeat vibes). Damn it.
Dickson immediately does the family-friendly equivalent of cussing Dunban out for this, which is interesting. "Stupid beast!" is... a fascinating statement. Why beast? All the humans involved so far are, at least on the visible end, baseline. So why that word choice? Why not just call him an idiot? Questions, questions. More directly, however, he also establishes something that I assume will be both very lore and mechanically relevant later: you can only use the Monado a certain amount before your body gives out.
Good to know. Though... why not just swap around the sword between the three of you whenever the strain becomes too great? Maybe there's some sort of bonding/affinity system going on? Hmm.
Obviously, Dunban the Absolute Badass brushes off Dickson's concerns, and Dickson is all in on shooting some holes in the oncoming Mechons. The Bro Vibes are off the charts. Unfortunately, as was foreshadowed, they are not off the charts with Mumkhar. What an ass.
Though I'm getting ahead of myself, hang on.
Oh, understandable. Sucks you're leaving your buddies to die, but I get why you're doing it.
Okay, that's awful of you. Jeez. Surely no later statements will make this reflect even worse on you.
Anyway, that's still in the future. The present, however, is our combat tutorial.
pitl.exe has stopped working
Anyway, after coming back online, I went through the combat tutorial. The system is fairly simple (deceptively so, given what I've discovered only a little later with gems and shit, but we'll get to that.. probably in next post, given how long this is already). You don't have an attack button; instead, when you engage a battle with the dedicated Fight People button after trigger-targeting, you just kind of... auto-attack when in position to do so. This does a little damage. You can then access Arts through your left and right menu entries, which do special things. A bit later on, we also discover positional arts, which must be deployed from a specific position / orientation around the enemy. There's also center button things, but I'm not entirely certain how they're distinct from arts. I may have skimmed the tutorial.
This system is interesting. It's dreadfully dull in the tutorial, where the Monado-powered Mechon Deletion Art (patent pending) just annihilates all opposition at the slightest glancing blow, but it's more engaging in the game proper, where it makes battles all about positioning yourself around an enemy and making sure you and your party members are in the right place at the right time.
But that's for the future. For now, we have another wave of Mechons to deal with.
Oh no! Whatever will we do against these powerful Mechon forces! Polishes Monado with deadly intent... how am I supposed to believe that Dunban & co. are actually going to have any trouble here after tearing through the tutorial enemies.
Well, then again. Mumkhar. He's gonna fuck us over, isn't he?
We get another awesome action sequence, but Dunban finally becomes overwhelmed, body twitching and flickering with Monado-blue power (insert brother's joke here), and Dickson saves him, taking a heavy blow in the process. And then, just as anticipated...
Dammit, Mumkhar.
Unsurprisingly, he explains that the Mechons are after the Monado (shock, gasp), and that it'll make a good distraction. All well and good. Asshole move but yeah, smart scheme. Unfortunately, during the scene, he also says that he'll just... come back for the Monado later. Somehow. And he'll finally have it for himself.
Which. Uh. What? How? What? Are you dense? the Mechons are gonna take that, dude. I could at least respect the guy for having a good plan to save his skin, but really, that's just silly.
Anyway. The Cool Crew are, as the kids say, cooked.
And Dunban. it seems, knows it.
Respect. Been good knowing you, Dunban. Bet Dickson's gonna be the old grizzled mentor, then. Maybe Mumkhar will be a side antagonist? Or even the main antagonist? I could see it given the kind of vibes the story is giving off so fa -
Oh. Oh. Nevermind, then.
Back to our regularly scheduled Dunban Being Awesome.
"... you are sorely mistaken!"
Damn, what a way to go out. Kinda wish I coulda played a game as this guy, but ya know, hell of a way to immediately pull me into the story.
We pull back to see the full battlefield, and then pull back even further, flashing through scenes of the world of Bionis in one of the most spectacular displays of what I'm honestly assuming was the result of pushing the Wii hardware more or less to its limits.
And, with that prologue done and dusted...
Closing Thoughts
Off the bat: damn, what an intro. This is the first time I've done something like this, played a game and decided to share it with others in the online spaces I'm in, because genuinely, I have never had a game make this much of an impression on me from the opening sequence alone. I was genuinely awestruck by the sheer spectacle and management of tension and pacing in this. If the rest of the game is even half as good as the intro, I'm in for something quite special, I think.
I'm interested to see where it goes from here. At time of writing, I played an hour or so, which obviously means I've met Shulk, several side characters, gotten an idea of the gameplay and in-setting current day, et cetera, and honestly, it does keep up the interest so far. I actually already have a Conspiracy Theory, but that can wait for the next post.
The amount I enjoyed this and the fact that I really, really want the rest of the game to live up to this makes me feel even sillier about my prior decisions not to play it, to be honest.
Anyway: next time, since I already have another hour preplayed - meeting a Very British Engineer, lots of other Not Very British People, and Pit Relapses Into Collectable Addiction (why did my brother not warn me there were collectables)
So, approximately two days ago, I was playing Metaphor Refantazio (fantastic game, by the way, totally recommend). Anyway, my brother came in, saw what I was doing, and immediately started yapping about JRPGs - a habit for which we both share a tendency. Eventually, we got into a discussion about the ending of FFXVI, god only knows how. He hasn't played XVI yet, so I played him some clips, particularly the ending. The very first time Joshua said something in the ending clip, my brother immediately started laughing. "Sam, it's Shulk. He's literally Shulk." I nodded along, firm in the knowledge that Super Smash Bros Ultimate had prepared me for all the Xenoblade related facts I would ever need to know, such as the fact there is a person named Shulk, and a pair of (presumably mentally connected?) people named Pyra and Mythra.
Then the fandom in-jokes started coming. And wouldn't stop. Even after I went back to playing, Oh no.
In particular, one quote cropped up - "this is the Monado's power!" - a phrase I had heard him say a few times in the past. Finally managing to get a word in edge wise, I said the fateful words that would eventually lead to me typing out this post.
So, What Is a Monado Anyway?
Uhhhh. Will get back to you on that. Later in this first post, actually.
Now, historically, I have a systematic bias against exactly two game series I have not played. The first is Dragon Quest, because I have a deep-seated belief that most of the traits it introduced to the JRPG industry are my least favorites, and besides, I don't really like really straightforward D&D-esque fantasy stories. Am I probably being unfair? Yeah. I'll play one of them eventually... just not today. More importantly, however, the other is Xenoblade Chronicles. This is for the arguably even pettier reason that the name rubbed me the wrong way ("Chronicles" plus fantasy setting? Eugh). That's the only thing that's kept it off my To-Play list since, uh, probably somewhere between '12 and '13, not sure when I first heard the name.
Anyway. Needless to say, this is a silly reason. Time to fix that. Maybe then my brother will stop laughing at me.
Regarding why a Let's Play... well, we'll get to that in a minute.
So, beginning the game, I know exactly the following, no more and no less:
- There is something called a "Monado". It has a power(s) of some sort. My brother jokes about it regularly.
- It's made by Tetsuya Takahashi, who I know as the Xenogears Guy. Cool, Xenogears is amazing. (Not sure if it's supposed to be a series or not? I'm under the impression -gears is a standalone, but the shared naming has me wondering.)
- The protagonist of this game is named Shulk (this nugget is courtesy of Smash Bros). His voice apparently sounds kinda like Joshua from Final Fantasy XVI.
- There's a shiny roundish sword and a big golem-thing on the Definitive Edition promotional art. Probably important.
- Brother makes it sound very JRPG. Thankfully Metaphor has already assisted me in reactivating the turn based strategy corner of my cranium.
- It's a fantasy game. (This one is going to age very, very poorly).
I'm playing the Wii version.
Also, obviously, I'm typing up these descriptions after the fact; however, I have kept the reactions as accurate to my actual, real-time impressions as I could. I'm playing with dialogue scrolling on manual, so after the initial cutscene (which I had to do twice to actually grab images), I have been keeping notes.
And thus it begins.
Let's see what this game has in store!
So, hitting New Game drops us into a deep fog, narrated by the most British voice I have ever heard in my life. "Long ago," he says, "the world was nothing more than an endless sea"; very fantasy, very respectable, ya know, I like the vibe and the distant hum in the background -
Huh. Those are weirdly metallic shapes in the fog. I thought this was a fantasy game?
As they say in the industry: holy shit.
There's mechs. There's mechs. Oh man, I just got done playing the new Armored Core like a month ago, and now I have more mechs? Hell yeah!
These mechs (audible question mark) are the Bionis and Mechonis. Obviously filing those names away for later, sounds important. They're fighting each other - "locked in endless battle". I'm assuming this is some form of creation myth. Considering this is narrated in-world, of course, it's worth keeping in mind this may not be an accurate understanding of creation, but for our worldbuilding purposes, this is the story we're being conveyed.
Speaking of, who's talking? I'm... assuming Shulk, given Britishness? But also if they kept the voice cast consistent or have, like, regionalized accents, it could be someone else...
Oh, yeah, anyway. Back to the creation story. The mechs stab each other.
There's a really interesting screen stretching effect on this as we pan away. Kinda curious how it works, actually. Anyway, mechs do be dead. The music picks up to a driving rhythm headed by orchestral strings and electric guitars. Eons pass. Cool stuff, very RPG. Maybe-Shulk continues: "Now our world, the vast land stretching across the remains of the Bionis,"
Excuse the bright picture. The other frames were a blueish, this one happeend to be at the exact moment of an explosion as a bunch of sci-fi ass soldiers fight against robots, presumably from the other mech, the two of which form the world above the endless waters of uncreation.
Alright, so. That bit earlier when I said I would explain why I'm Let's Play-ing this later? This is the later. This intro made an absolutely massive immediate impact. I will be ranting about this to my brother later. However, he's not a lore guy. I very much am a lore guy. Thus, I need another target for my inevitable ranting and theories.
Congratulations, you reading this, if anybody does read this. You are my mark. I would apologize, but I'm not sorry.
Anyway, this setup has immediately got some shit going down, conceptually. We have, functionally, two worlds: Bionis and Mechonis. Assuming I'm not wrong in guessing the Mechons live on Mechonis (would be willing to place money on that one), there's an immediate dichotomy being formed between biological and mechanical life - things of flesh and things of steel. Interestingly, however, both halves of the world appear to be of artificial make, unless I was fooled by the low polygon count of the opening cutscene. Gonna store this one away in my back pocket as well.
Oh yeah, also, that war business? Doesn't seem to currently be going great for humanity.
Fortunately, someone is here to help!
Good lord, the cinematography in this intro is so good.
This, as we find out after a short but epic action sequence, is Dunban. He is an absolute badass. He's also got the really fancy sword from the intro. I had... kind of assumed it was going to be Shulk's sword, but I have absolutely no complaints about this guy having it. Alongside Dunban, we have Dickson and Mumkhar, stalwart, absolutely, completely trustworthy companions (this will age very poorly). For a brief moment, I'm incredibly excited about the initial party comp, but then remember we haven't actually met the protagonist. These people die, don't they? That's how the sword gets passed on. Damn. Maybe one survives as an old, grizzled mentor?
It seems the battle is, unfortunately, already lost - Dickson tells Dunban that an order to retreat has been given, and they'll be regrouping at Colony 6.
The guys in charge, however, forgot to account for the fact that, as previously stated, Dunban is a badass.
Hell yeah, man. Let's go out in a blaze of glory. Oh, yeah! By the way -
Huh. I... kinda thought the sword was gonna be called the Xenoblade, to be honest.
Alright! My question is answered! So, the Monado is the pointy red sword wheel thing! That's it, wrap it up, single post Let's Play -
Yeah, no. I'm invested in the world and spectacle at this point, if not the characters (though I enjoy the upbeat vibes). Damn it.
Dickson immediately does the family-friendly equivalent of cussing Dunban out for this, which is interesting. "Stupid beast!" is... a fascinating statement. Why beast? All the humans involved so far are, at least on the visible end, baseline. So why that word choice? Why not just call him an idiot? Questions, questions. More directly, however, he also establishes something that I assume will be both very lore and mechanically relevant later: you can only use the Monado a certain amount before your body gives out.
Good to know. Though... why not just swap around the sword between the three of you whenever the strain becomes too great? Maybe there's some sort of bonding/affinity system going on? Hmm.
Obviously, Dunban the Absolute Badass brushes off Dickson's concerns, and Dickson is all in on shooting some holes in the oncoming Mechons. The Bro Vibes are off the charts. Unfortunately, as was foreshadowed, they are not off the charts with Mumkhar. What an ass.
Though I'm getting ahead of myself, hang on.
Oh, understandable. Sucks you're leaving your buddies to die, but I get why you're doing it.
Okay, that's awful of you. Jeez. Surely no later statements will make this reflect even worse on you.
Anyway, that's still in the future. The present, however, is our combat tutorial.
Not pictured: me, sitting blankly for a solid five seconds due to my brain being slow to process that this game has real time combat.
Wait, where is the battle transitions? The turn based strategy? I... I mean, I guess JRPGs can be action games, I mentioned FFXVI earlier for goodness' sake, I shouldn't be so confused by this but -
pitl.exe has stopped working
Anyway, after coming back online, I went through the combat tutorial. The system is fairly simple (deceptively so, given what I've discovered only a little later with gems and shit, but we'll get to that.. probably in next post, given how long this is already). You don't have an attack button; instead, when you engage a battle with the dedicated Fight People button after trigger-targeting, you just kind of... auto-attack when in position to do so. This does a little damage. You can then access Arts through your left and right menu entries, which do special things. A bit later on, we also discover positional arts, which must be deployed from a specific position / orientation around the enemy. There's also center button things, but I'm not entirely certain how they're distinct from arts. I may have skimmed the tutorial.
This system is interesting. It's dreadfully dull in the tutorial, where the Monado-powered Mechon Deletion Art (patent pending) just annihilates all opposition at the slightest glancing blow, but it's more engaging in the game proper, where it makes battles all about positioning yourself around an enemy and making sure you and your party members are in the right place at the right time.
But that's for the future. For now, we have another wave of Mechons to deal with.
Oh no! Whatever will we do against these powerful Mechon forces! Polishes Monado with deadly intent... how am I supposed to believe that Dunban & co. are actually going to have any trouble here after tearing through the tutorial enemies.
Well, then again. Mumkhar. He's gonna fuck us over, isn't he?
We get another awesome action sequence, but Dunban finally becomes overwhelmed, body twitching and flickering with Monado-blue power (insert brother's joke here), and Dickson saves him, taking a heavy blow in the process. And then, just as anticipated...
Dammit, Mumkhar.
Unsurprisingly, he explains that the Mechons are after the Monado (shock, gasp), and that it'll make a good distraction. All well and good. Asshole move but yeah, smart scheme. Unfortunately, during the scene, he also says that he'll just... come back for the Monado later. Somehow. And he'll finally have it for himself.
Which. Uh. What? How? What? Are you dense? the Mechons are gonna take that, dude. I could at least respect the guy for having a good plan to save his skin, but really, that's just silly.
Anyway. The Cool Crew are, as the kids say, cooked.
And Dunban. it seems, knows it.
Respect. Been good knowing you, Dunban. Bet Dickson's gonna be the old grizzled mentor, then. Maybe Mumkhar will be a side antagonist? Or even the main antagonist? I could see it given the kind of vibes the story is giving off so fa -
Oh. Oh. Nevermind, then.
Back to our regularly scheduled Dunban Being Awesome.
"... you are sorely mistaken!"
Damn, what a way to go out. Kinda wish I coulda played a game as this guy, but ya know, hell of a way to immediately pull me into the story.
We pull back to see the full battlefield, and then pull back even further, flashing through scenes of the world of Bionis in one of the most spectacular displays of what I'm honestly assuming was the result of pushing the Wii hardware more or less to its limits.
And, with that prologue done and dusted...
Closing Thoughts
Off the bat: damn, what an intro. This is the first time I've done something like this, played a game and decided to share it with others in the online spaces I'm in, because genuinely, I have never had a game make this much of an impression on me from the opening sequence alone. I was genuinely awestruck by the sheer spectacle and management of tension and pacing in this. If the rest of the game is even half as good as the intro, I'm in for something quite special, I think.
I'm interested to see where it goes from here. At time of writing, I played an hour or so, which obviously means I've met Shulk, several side characters, gotten an idea of the gameplay and in-setting current day, et cetera, and honestly, it does keep up the interest so far. I actually already have a Conspiracy Theory, but that can wait for the next post.
The amount I enjoyed this and the fact that I really, really want the rest of the game to live up to this makes me feel even sillier about my prior decisions not to play it, to be honest.
Anyway: next time, since I already have another hour preplayed - meeting a Very British Engineer, lots of other Not Very British People, and Pit Relapses Into Collectable Addiction (why did my brother not warn me there were collectables)
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