Me an hour ago: "Well, going to write up the next bit tomorrow, lemme just run through my screenshots and cull the ones not worth keeping..."
Me now: "Well, got rid of the vast majority of them, and I have a good idea of how to narrativize them in my head! Lemme just see how ma - "
Oh god
... right paring that down is tomorrow me's problem
I did notice people have done that pretty frequently in other Let's Play threads, but honestly, I'm using the image limit as a way of also ballparking how many words to write - I don't trust myself to not just write up like a five post installment or something and burn myself out if I start allowing myself leeway on that, lol.
Anyway.
Back to it! Time to go check in on Dunban. Who, notably, is not - at the moment - home alone. Intuitively, this makes sense, considering it's... not clear if he's in a good enough state to take care of himself, at the present. This other individual walks in off-screen: "Dunban, are you awake yet?"
As we will find out shortly, this is the third party member to round out our initial three (looking at the party equipment screen, I think that's how many you can have in the party at once). Her name is Fiora, and besides having a pretty neat combat niche (which we'll get to later), she's honestly probably got the most Protagonist Energy out of the group. (Sorry, Shulk.)
I'm not sure what her relationship to the other characters is, exactly, yet. My best guess is probably Dunban's... daughter, maybe? I could see there being a generation or so difference between them, at the most, and at minimum probably opposite ends of one. Later in the scene, though, they discuss her taking food to Shulk, which implies if they are a family unit of some kind, Shulk is also included? And, to be honest, I didn't really get the vibe that Shulk is kin-related to Dunban. The dialogue from before comes off much more like Dunban is a sort of friend-slash-mentor rather than a relative.
Speaking of said food, Fiora is here bringing some up to Dunban, who, as we could tell from the previous installment, is bedridden - presumably still from that fight where he overused the Monado a year prior, which... wow. Did a number on the guy. He's absolutely ready to get right back to it mentally, though; "Don't treat me like an invalid. I'm much better than I was a year ago," he says (I think jokingly?) and then, as Fiora sits down on the ground beside his bed...
On the one hand, Dunban is still the Coolest Man Alive. Like, absolutely clutching those Badassery Credentials in a death grip, even when he gets knocked down so hard he's stuck inside for a year. But, on the other hand... Fiora was just talking about how she was worried she could have lost him. This comes across as a bit of a thoughtless thing for him to say. Almost a tad self-centered, maybe, though that might be a reach.
... gonna be real with you, folks. I do not trust this shiny sword. Like, I know Dunban's surface-level motivation here - he wants to pick it up to defend the Colony, though we don't know much about his background or deeper feelings yet - but. What a thing to say right after someone who was just expressing their worry regarding the consequences of this exact topic? To perhaps no one but Dunban's surprise, Fiora doesn't take this response particularly well.
That surprised expression tells one everything one needs to know about Dunban's social intelligence, I suspect.
Dunban explains his prior statement, saying he "just means he's prepared," which. Fair.
We then divert to talking about everyone's favorite topic: the food! Fiora's made something special. And we need to get it to Shulk before his portion gets cold. We leave Dunban to eat his portion. After Fiora goes offscreen, Dunban reaches for the food, picks up a spoon, and... is immediately hit by tremors in his right arm, dropping the utensil.
Damn, it really did a number on him, then. He's... not doing as well as he made out to Fiora, is he? He had to use his other arm to scoot himself across the bed, and if his motor control is shot enough to be having trouble feeding himself, he's definitely not doing as well as "almost well enough to handle the Monado again" would imply.
On the slightly less depressing end for this scene, apparently Shulk just, like, has absolutely no discernment when it comes to taste? Like, Dunban and Fiora spend a decent chunk of the runtime making fun of his lack of a palate:
Anyway, with our check-in on Dunban dealt with, we proceed to pop back into gameplay mode... now with Fiora as our only party member!
This is actually really interesting. Now, when it came to the prologue, I assumed the quick change in POV character was a one-off, but considering the fairly limited apparent number of party slots, maybe this is the kind of game that allows juggling POVs or keeps a relatively flexible party comp? That would be interesting, considering I was fairly certain that Shulk was supposed to be the protagonist-protagonist, but we'll see. Maybe there will just be occasional interludes with other focus characters scattered across the game.
Anyway, now that we're back in the world, I wander around the house a bit before popping outside. Dickson pops by for a scene so short I kinda question why he's here. He helpfully informs me that Shulk's not at the lab and popped out to touch grass get some air.
Fiora, fortunately, is more knowledgeable about Shulk's habits than I, and I'm given a helpful quest marker to head to Outlook Park. Now, this food is apparently supposed to be delivered warm... so of course I should go directly to make sure he gets his warm food... eh, ludonarrative consistency is overrated anyway. Let's go see if any colonist dialogue updated.
As a matter of fact, almost everyone in town has fresh dialogue. I'm honestly impressed, considering it means a lot of the initial dialogue when Shulk shows up to town is missable. Some highlights:
Random kiddo makes me sad by talking about how her dad is "one of the stars shining in the night sky"
A colony guard(?) named Dorothy attempts to outcool her apparently much lamer brother
Giorgio has run out of curry and can't offer me any (I weep)
A fella rambles in a concerned fashion about the potential of the Bionis one day moving and thus ending the world (if this doesn't turn out to be prescient later, I will be very surprised)
The helpful knowledge that blob people are called Nopon! Also one of them is leading around a bunch of Armu for mercantile purposes
That last bit is big. At last, the secrets of the Fuzzy Blob People begin to be revealed... in fact!...
How mysterious.
Note to self: travel to Bionis's back at the first available opportunity. We must discover the secrets of the Nopon.
Anyway, interestingly, I'm fairly certain both the dialogue and the locations of individuals within the Colony are tied to the in-game day/night cycle. Honestly, I like this implementation. I haven't yet figured out how the Affinity Chart works yet, but looking at the various mechanics, I'm starting to see the general shape of a design with some social sim elements mixed into the quest system? Which, as a Persona fan, absolutely no complaints if so.
Anyway, speaking of quests, I do pick up one or two more from people who weren't there the prior evening when I was playing with Shulk.
Don't worry, ma'am, I will ensure your child gets their biscuits! Let me check my to-do list, we can probably squeeze it between -
Oh my. I think I had forgotten how many quests I had picked up last time.
Alright, on second thought, let's go find Shulk so we can have two party members and then go on a Colony-wide quest completion pass. On the way to get to Shulk, though, we will have to pass through a brief area with some visible XP generators (rabbits), so it would probably be a good idea to stop by the shop first to pick up some decent equipment for Fiora... if for no other reason than so that she can keep pace with the items I stuck on Shulk.
Why is the best equipment available for Fiora the bikini set? Surely that should be less Phys Def than her current clothing, yeah? I know I was joking about ludonarrative coherence earlier, but honestly. Ya know, I'm just not gonna question it. If the game doesn't give us equally sparse outfits for Shulk and Reyn later, then I can chalk it up to the usual slightly sexist sexualization you see a lot of the time in games, but I'll hold off for now. Not that it matters to me directly, at the moment, anyway; I can't afford the set right now. Actually, I can't afford most of the equipment I want.
You know what? Let's go find Shulk and run some quests. Then we'll go shopping.
Unsurprisingly, he's currently musing to himself on his project. God, what a nerd. The Comp Sci major in me entirely approves.
After a moment, Fiora runs up and Shulk is finally jolted out of his presumably multiple hour long reverie about the Monado's power, given it's solidly nighttime now. The dedication is real.
Anyway, he likes the sandwich and soup (absolute victory). Fiora is understandably pleased. After all, she added some special herbs and spices!
Fiora then remarks on how Shulk - and, by extension, his sense of humor - have been "spending too much time with Reyn". That comes across as rather curiously pointed, and doesn't come off as just joking, or at least not entirely. Gonna to be keeping that one in the back pocket for later. After this, they reminisce for a bit, and then a... strange sound goes off. It was actually mixed so differently from the rest of the game that I took a pause looking for the source of the sound somewhere in the house before realizing I couldn't hear it without my earbuds.
It's the 'debris siren'. Something is falling down from high above. Fortunately, the colony defenses are ready and primed for exactly this situation.
So that's why they have anti-air. Certainly not the traditional use. I wonder where these bits of junk from above are actually coming from? There's edges to the valley, of course, but the bits of... whatever that was were falling pretty directly from the sky above, rather than rolling down the cliffside. Strange. Doubly so considering everyone considers the Mechon a non-issue these days, so it's not, like, debris from aerial combat, or anything.
Shulk gets up and says we need to seek cover at the lab. Probably a wise decision; I would do this, if not for the game immediately introducing a new social mechanic!
It's actually a really interesting system! It also comes with a list of completed H2Hs in a new menu, presumably for rewatch purposes (maybe it's for identifying when you have an H2H you haven't done, as well? Not sure, still need to watch the other tutorial).
Regardless, this H2H is helpfully directly in front of us in the park.
So, the format of an H2H is pretty straightforward. You have dialogue between two characters who have a close bond, which is occasionally peppered with a light seasoning of choices. These are, I believe, the first time we've had dialogue choices in the game. In this specific case, Fiora muses on a time they watched the sun rise from this exact lookout point, and Shulk attempts to remember why they were there.
Thinking about it a bit, the fact that I entered this conversation with Fiora leading the party but I've been dropped into the role of Shulk blows a pretty damn big hole in the "maybe everyone is the protagonist actually" theory. However, it strongly supports the "there's probably going to be occasional other-character interludes" one! So that's probably settled.
Anyway. I have no idea what the consequences for picking the wrong choices are. I dread to find out. Luckily, this one was pretty easy: I don't know if the correct answer could have been deciphered from earlier conversations or what, but fortunately, "You and Dunban..." seemed like a safe bet, since Dunban and Fiora are definitely related somehow.
Though, as it turns out, it isn't correct in the way I expect.
Huh. That's interesting. They definitely had points of disagreement during the earlier scene, but I definitely don't get the vibe that Fiora and Dunban regularly get into full-on arguments. I wonder what it was about...?
Unfortunately, we won't be finding out from this H2H. Instead, we find out a few different points of information: firstly, that they only sat out here at sunrise that once; secondly, that they talked about their hopes and dreams for hours; and third, that Fiora said something that was very embarrassing during that discussion.
Fortunately for Fiora, Shulk is exactly as blonde as his hair implies and cannot recall. As we find out from Fiora's helpful interior monologue, however, the answer is that she wants them to get married one day. Oh my.
I have feelings about this. Honestly, I really like Shulk and Fiora both as characters so far, but also? I genuinely don't see it. I am not feeling the chemistry. Admittedly, I usually don't catch on to what people mean when they say characters have "chemistry" anyway, but yeah, not feeling it here.
Anyway, that's the first H2H. Quite an experience. Incidentally, shit is still falling from the sky, so we should probably head to the lab. After doing all those quests, that is. This is also my first opportunity to experience Fiora's role in combat, which basically boils down to "gotta go fast". She does very entertaining amounts of damage, but generates a karmically equivalent amount of aggro. this includes my favorite move in the game so far:
On the one hand, this isn't Pokemon. On the other hand, the bit of me that enjoys playing smogon sees "multi-hit" and immediately cackles. Anyway, finishing up about two thirds of the quests doesn't take long; most boil down to running around looking for a couple items or committing serial homicide on the local wildlife. Get a fair few levels out of it, too.
Now, armed with more money, I return to the shops.
Incidentally, while I was out and about, I have decided on what gear to put on Fiora.
Now, I know I was just talking earlier about the weirdness and potentially-misogynistic-but-not-yet-proven nature of the bikini set. In my defense, the extra agility (especially with the Agility Up II) genuinely seemed worth it. So, uh. This is what we got.
For posterity: this playthrough should not be taken as an indication that swimwear is a reasonable defensive garment. pitl is strictly non-liable for any injuries taken while fighting in garments of this variety, and indeed, actively discourages you from attempting this at home or elsewhere.
Anyway, with the frequently paired tasks of Money Acquisition and then Giving All My Money Away To the Local Economy completed, we fast travel to the Military District and then hop down to the lab, much better gear equipped. Unfortunately, Fiora and Shulk are not the only ones to have returned to the lab, it seems.
Top ten haunting photos taken moments before disaster. Number one -
Okay. Reyn. Put that down and STEP AWAY from the +2 Sword of Brainwashing, please. The hell are you doing with that, anyway?
Well. Guess it's too late. Dammit.
Interestingly, the sword is... actively dragging him around, it seems like? Like, he's all but floating in the air. It's moving under its own power. So, it would seem that while the Monado needs to have someone wielding it to, like, actually do things, it can at least somewhat move under its own power once it's been activated. I wonder if that's related to the symbol and Shulk's little theory regarding there being multiple of them? I wonder if the, like, influencing behavior of another symbol would be different? The current setting seems to be... very drawn towards physical action and violence, in a way.
Anyway, regardless of the underlying mechanics of the Monado, shit is hitting the fan. Reyn is rapidly increasing the number on the bill that Shulk's going to have to present to Vangarre to get this lab reconstructed later.
Oh shit.
There is a brief moment here where I genuinely think "fuck, is Fiora about to die". It is a genuinely distressing moment, and I'd like to give a kudos to the devs for having me going for a minute there. Plot-wise, it makes sense; it gives Shulk motivation, probably would form the inciting incident for the narrative, would provide a point of conflict between our actual party members to build off of, hell, it would even have interesting impacts on Dunban's character. It all makes sense.
At the same time, I was about to be very upset if she died.
Fortunately, she's absolutely fine. She seems shocked to be fine - understandably so. Shulk, meanwhile, gives approximately zero fucks. He bends down to check on the sword and broken lab equipment.
Now, to me, this is an entirely understandable reaction. Even if you knew that she was going to be fine - which Shulk does, as we'll get to in a second - it still feels like the natural reaction should be checking that your friend still has her lower body attached.
Instead, we just get this.
... I think this says some interesting things about Shulk as a person. On the less important end - he is actually very much an an engineer par excellence; you're fine, no damage done, why would you act like there's a problem? In a few moments, when Fiora confronts him a bit more intensely, Shulk looks surprised, much as Dunban looked surprised earlier when Fiora pushed him on the Monado issue. He doesn't seem to actually get why she's upset here. On the more critical side, however, he's obsessive. I don't just mean determined - most of the characters we've met are determined, in one way or another. Shulk, however, has tunnel vision. He has the things he focuses on, and he seems to be locked on to them, to a degree that other things seem to have trouble coexisting with the things he's focusing on.
This is doubly interesting because, unless I'm picking up on something the game isn't putting down, these are both traits he shares with Dunban. It's a neat parallel, and I'm interested to see where the story goes with it.
Anyway, with the lab successfully triaged (to quote, "it's broken") rather than the human being, Shulk proceeds to start reprimanding Reyn.
As it turns out, Reyn is here to ask Shulk a favor, but basically just got bored and wanted to touch the weird sword with a reputation for burning peoples' arms out. I swear the Monado has to have some sort of ambient "pIcK mE uP" influence thing. The alternative is that Reyn isn't all that bright. I love the guy, but either seems possible, to be fair.
Shulk goes on another Shulk-esque discussion of how the symbol may be related to what power the Monado currently bears, and picks it up to put it back on its pedestal. Fiora, however, is not pleased about her "hey I almost died" argument being brushed off. She backs him up against the pedestal.
... and then the sword glows. And Shulk's eyes with it.
A regular phantasmagoria flashes across the screen, and with it snippets of dialogue - "Look at you! Worthless without the Monado," "until I've scrapped every last one of you," "so of course I want to get my revenge!" Alongside these are various individuals, most who we haven't yet met - a bearded man, a woman with a gun, a Sauron expy, and, of course...
Shulk himself. I don't know what's going on in this scene, yet... but it definitely looks tragic. The building in the background could be the central area of the Military District, maybe, but I'm not certain. Regardless, I suspect these are snippets of the future - if so, this is certainly a power of the Monado we haven't seen yet until now. Though, curiously, the symbol in the sword is the same as it ever has been. Not sure what this says if anything about Shulk's "if we can unlock more symbols maybe we can unlock more powers" theory.
Yeah, Shulk. Sorry, buddy. It's just you. God help you.
Next time: dealing with whatever the fuck that was! Lemme finish the cutscene, but I'll save the rest of it for the next post -
Dunban is your brother? What? Really? Huh -
Well, I guess I wasn't too far off guessing they were parent/child -
Anyway, as I was saying: next time, figuring out what Reyn wanted help with, and hopefully figuring out why Shulk is receiving prophetic visions! (Nothing bad ever happens to people with prophetic visions)
I refuse to believe these fluffy adorable creatures could be so diabolical. In fact, you should all join me and travel to the back of Bionis immediately. I have discovered many things here you must see, none of which include such events such as kidnapping by tiny puffballs, suspension upside-down, or being forced to write this message while being held at gunpoint.
I refuse to believe these fluffy adorable creatures could be so diabolical. In fact, you should all join me and travel to the back of Bionis immediately. I have discovered many things here you must see, none of which include such events such as kidnapping by tiny puffballs, suspension upside-down, or being forced to write this message while being held at gunpoint.
I refuse to believe these fluffy adorable creatures could be so diabolical. In fact, you should all join me and travel to the back of Bionis immediately. I have discovered many things here you must see, none of which include such events such as kidnapping by tiny puffballs, suspension upside-down, or being forced to write this message while being held at gunpoint.
Anyway, interestingly, I'm fairly certain both the dialogue and the locations of individuals within the Colony are tied to the in-game day/night cycle.
Yes to locations at least, don't know about dialogue. This included questgivers so if time changing is in this version you should check every town area at multiple times of day to see if new quests are available (people sleep! Or are nocturnal!)
Now, I know I was just talking earlier about the weirdness and potentially-misogynistic-but-not-yet-proven nature of the bikini set. In my defense, the extra agility (especially with the Agility Up II) genuinely seemed worth it. So, uh. This is what we got.
For posterity: this playthrough should not be taken as an indication that swimwear is a reasonable defensive garment. pitl is strictly non-liable for any injuries taken while fighting in garments of this variety, and indeed, actively discourages you from attempting this at home or elsewhere.
This is one of the bigger advantages of Definitive Edition, IMO. Besides the improved graphics and artstyle (no matter how hard the grognards complain about it Definitive Edition looks way better), you're able to set the characters' equipment visuals to whatever you want, no matter what absolute fashion disaster outfit happens to have the best stats right now. Want everyone to be wearing swimsuits during a pivotal moment? Done! Want everyone to be wearing their starter outfits? You got it! End up really falling in love with how this or that set looks, even though it's way out of date? In Definitive Edition, fashion is never limited by stats!
And besides which you were gonna need a Switch to play 2 or 3 (or XCXDE when it comes out) eventually anyway. If you end up liking this one, that is.
This is one of the bigger advantages of Definitive Edition, IMO. Besides the improved graphics and artstyle (no matter how hard the grognards complain about it Definitive Edition looks way better), you're able to set the characters' equipment visuals to whatever you want, no matter what absolute fashion disaster outfit happens to have the best stats right now. Want everyone to be wearing swimsuits during a pivotal moment? Done! Want everyone to be wearing their starter outfits? You got it! End up really falling in love with how this or that set looks, even though it's way out of date? In Definitive Edition, fashion is never limited by stats!
And besides which you were gonna need a Switch to play 2 or 3 (or XCXDE when it comes out) eventually anyway. If you end up liking this one, that is.
Should I keep playing that long, members of my extended family do have a Switch I could use for 2/3... if I can manage to requisition it from my youngest cousins, anyway.
Admittedly never heard of X until today. Should I consider it "part of" the Xenoblade series for full playthrough purposes? Like, side game kind of thing I'm guessing, or is it more a spin-off?
Admittedly never heard of X until today. Should I consider it "part of" the Xenoblade series for full playthrough purposes? Like, side game kind of thing I'm guessing, or is it more a spin-off?
It's more of a spin-off, I'd say. XC2 and 3 are in the same sort of... chain of narrative, XCX isn't especially. It did come out between 1 and 2, but it's its own standalone thing
Incidentally, while I was out and about, I have decided on what gear to put on Fiora.
Now, I know I was just talking earlier about the weirdness and potentially-misogynistic-but-not-yet-proven nature of the bikini set. In my defense, the extra agility (especially with the Agility Up II) genuinely seemed worth it. So, uh. This is what we got.
Should I keep playing that long, members of my extended family do have a Switch I could use for 2/3... if I can manage to requisition it from my youngest cousins, anyway.
Admittedly never heard of X until today. Should I consider it "part of" the Xenoblade series for full playthrough purposes? Like, side game kind of thing I'm guessing, or is it more a spin-off?
A good summary is that there are fringe theories that X is actually gaming's most ambitious meta long-con and will eventually be revealed to have been XB10 all along. It's clearly not just 1.5, but it's also not just XB in-name-only.
In terms of game design it didn't leave much of a mark on the series, since it was an experimental attempt of the team to create a WRPG following the successes of like Skyrim and Fallout.
Admittedly never heard of X until today. Should I consider it "part of" the Xenoblade series for full playthrough purposes? Like, side game kind of thing I'm guessing, or is it more a spin-off?
Yeah, the connections are tenuous, but by now they're definitely there. The references to XC1 are pretty much purely visual, with a character wearing Monado hairclips and a nopon sword in a side quest that looks like a plush Monado. And the main character of XCX shows up as a blade in XC2's DLC in a way that is almost definitely non-canonical.
But Future Redeemed, XC3's DLC prequel story, does reference XCX's opening, albeit in a way where it's not entirely clear whether it's a soft reboot/retcon (though XCXDE's trailer implies this is not the case), there's something more going on, or if they just wanted to drop a name and make the XC fandom go off into wild speculation.
XCXDE might clear things up a little, given that the trailer has implied it would tie up at least one of the many loose ends left dangling by the original, but I wouldn't count on it.
In summary, it might share a backstory with the rest of the series. But it also might not. There's one key incompatibility that would need to be resolved
Yeah, for reference, if you share content that may contain spoilers, please give a headsup in the post. Obviously, given the title of the video, I wouldn't have clicked it anyway, but just in case something ever gets shared that's a bit more subtle about going into spoilers territory and such.
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.
Honestly, you're in for a treat. The one thing that Monolith Soft does better than any other game developer currently is their cutscenes. They're masters of pacing, choreographing, and musical timing for their segments, and all of it is done in engine (no expensive pre-renders) so there's a lot of them.
Every single Xenoblade game, even X which was very much the weakest story wise, has at least one, if not five +, S tier cutscenes that stick with you even after the game is over. It helps that the stories are genuine good, but even then, I could show the XB3 CH 2 climatic Cutscene to someone with zero context and they'll probably agree that it was sick. Or XB 2 CH 7 end or CH 10 opening. Or XBX Skell formation attack sequence. And plenty of XB 1 scenes.
I was going to say I was surprised that you haven't mentioned the music that much, before remembering that the opening of XB1 is the most generic JRPG music the series has. Not that it's bad, but more that it doesn't differentiate itself the way the rest of the soundtrack does later. I'm just going to say, in the next segment (assuming you haven't already played further), look for an enemy with a fancy name and a fancier name tag. These are unique enemies, which are basically fancy world mini bosses you can fight for extra loot but more importantly they have unique combat music. And trust me, that song will not disappoint.
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.
Edit: Also want to say this is funny to me because Chronicles was added by the localization team to the title. In Japan, the games are just called Xenoblade. The Europeans thought that it needed the extra pizzazz to the title to sell.
I was going to say I was surprised that you haven't mentioned the music that much, before remembering that the opening of XB1 is the most generic JRPG music the series has. Not that it's bad, but more that it doesn't differentiate itself the way the rest of the soundtrack does later.
Irl I do music composition as a hobby; to be honest, I was waiting until I had a bit of a wider perspective of the soundtrack to comment on it much, as it's something I'm actually somewhat qualified to analyze in some detail. I've been considering whether I should make an occasional sidestory threadmark for posts dedicated to side things like that that I'm semi-purposefully not putting into the main posts. Will get back to y'all on that.
Off the bat though, I can say I've personally enjoyed some of the field music so far, as well as that really elegant string piece that played over the Fiora and Dunban scene.
