Okay, so there’s no real need to beat around
the bush. You and I both know what an iceberg video
is and what it is supposed to do. So let’s do ourselves a favor and skip those
formalities. The iceberg image I’ll be covering today
is one that I designed myself but it adapts a lot of information I found from other icebergs
online made by these users. The only disclaimer I really want to make
here is that if you haven’t ever played the Xenoblade series, I highly recommend you
stop watching here. This video has spoilers for all three of the
games and the DLC stories and I don’t want to ruin the series for anyone if I don’t
have to. Seriously. Xenoblade Chronicles is one of the most brilliant
games I’ve ever had the privilege to play and its story is one that is best experienced
blind. The same goes for the other games. I can’t tell you what to do, but if you
don’t heed my advice, you’ll just be depriving yourself of an amazing experience that you
could have had firsthand. And that’s just really sad. So, now that that’s taken care of, let’s
dive into the Xenoblade Chronicles Iceberg. I’m Really Feeling It This is a pretty obvious one. The line “I’m really feeling it” is
a common battle line for Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles. Believe me, if you’ve played the game, you’ve
heard him say it several times. This line specifically became a huge meme
in the summer of 2014, when Shulk was revealed as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. for Wii
U and 3DS. After he backslashes Bowser, the music starts,
and he says the iconic line. This was the first impression Shulk left on
a lot of people, and this Smash reveal did a lot of good for Xenoblade’s growth as
a franchise. For a while, Shulk was basically known as
the “I’m really feeling it” guy for people who weren’t familiar with the game. The whole bit has definitely faded as time
has passed, but it’s certainly a big part of the Xenoblade and Nintendo canon. Races in Xenoblade
This is likely referring to the many species and peoples that inhabit the worlds of the
Xenoblade games. In the first one, the four main races are
the Homs, Nopon, High Entia, and Machina. In X, well there’s humans, along with like
a dozen others. Interestingly, Nopon also exist in X and are
natives to the planet of Mira. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 also has distinct races,
but they’re more similar in this one than any other. We do have Nopon once again, but most of the
others are all pretty similar and fit comfortably under the umbrella as “humanoids”. There are differences, like Gormotti being
cat people and Urayans having, uh, scales or something on their face, but overall their
differences are much less aesthetically and narratively pronounced than the differences
between the races in Xenoblade 1. Gaur Plain
Gaur Plain is a location on the Bionis’ leg in Xenoblade Chronicles 1. It’s pretty much the first incredibly large
free-roam area you explore in the game. It’s incredibly iconic, given that it’s
on the front cover of the box art, and it appears as a stage in Super Smash Bros. Interestingly,
the music that plays for the Bionis’ leg as a whole is titled “Gaur Plain”. Because of that, I think a lot of people use
the term “Gaur Plain” interchangeably with the term “Bionis’ leg”, even if
it’s not exactly accurate. British Accents
This one is pretty easy. One of the most notable things about the Xenoblade
Chronicles English dub is that the entire cast is voiced by British voice actors. This was done because the game was originally
just dubbed in English for Europe, and there were originally no plans for a North American
release. But eventually, Xenoblade Chronicles was brought
to the Americas… but they didn’t bother to change the games much from the European
release. If you’ve American and have ever wondered
why many things in the game are spelled the British way instead of the American way, that’s
why. Honestly, I really like the British cast for
many reasons. One reason is that the actors chosen were
pretty unknown when they were cast for Xenoblade, and because of that it was probably the first
time most of us heard their voices. I tend to get fatigued with a lot of American
anime dubs because you often encounter a lot of the same actors over and over, so it’s
nice to have a totally unique cast. That’s just my opinion, though. But because of the complicated localization
for the first game, it’s kind of become a tradition for Xenoblade games to cast British
VA’s… sort of. Xenoblade X didn’t do it, but that makes
sense given that most of the human characters literally are from the United States. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 brought in a mix of
voices from a few countries, but interestingly the blade actors were directed to use American
accents regardless of their place of birth. Also, this is just a side-note, but it’s
kind of interesting that even in the American release for Xenoblade Definitive Edition,
they still kept all the British spellings in the script. I like that. Operation Rainfall
Operation Rainfall was a video game fan campaign calling for the release of three region-exclusive
Wii games in North America. These three titles were The Last Story, Pandora’s
Tower, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Xenoblade Chronicles was released in Europe
in the Summer of 2011, but there had been no confirmed plans to release the game in
North America at the time. Because of this, gamers all over America made
their desire to play Xenoblade known online, and their voice was eventually heard… kind
of. Debatably. Nintendo acknowledged the online demand for
the game. But in one interview Reggie Fils-Aimé claimed
the release wasn’t directly because of the fan demand, and that was only one of many
reasons. It’s a bit shaky, especially because it’s
not clear what is totally true and what is just business-speak. Still, though, Operation Rainfall is seen
today as a big success as far as fan video game campaigns go. You can argue that without it, Xenoblade Chronicles
might have only been a one-time thing, and we wouldn’t have things like Shulk and the
Aegis in Smash today. Xenoblade 2 Blade Cameos
Of all the blades you can use in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there are a few who are characters
from other Xeno games. In the base game, there was KOS-MOS, who is
a major character from the Xenosaga games. And once they started adding DLC to the game,
you gained the ability to fight with a few more. You have T-elos, who is also from the Xenosaga
games. You also have Shulk and Fiora from the first
Xenoblade. And finally, you have Elma from X. The cameos for the other protagonists aren’t
canon, or at least that’s how most fans feel, but you still get to see Rex and Shulk
talk to each other, and that’s pretty fun. Riki is a father
This is pretty much known by everyone who’s played the first game. Because of the fact that he is a Nopon, it’s
a bit difficult to accurately guess how old Riki is supposed to be for a lot of people. But if you play the game, you’ll find out
that the guy is 40 years old and has 11 children. It’s kind of played as a joke at first,
but later on in the game it’s actually revealed that Riki is a pretty wise person, and his
experience as a father had taught him a lot. And hey, it’s quite fun knowing that Riki
is the only main party member in Xenoblade 1 who is confirmed to have had sex. In Future Connected, they actually expanded
the role of Riki’s family quite a lot. Most notably, they put two of Riki’s kids
into the spotlight as playable characters. Kino and Nene. The music is beloved
Xenoblade Chronicles has amassed quite a reputation for its music. I distinctly remember falling in love with
tracks like You Will Know Our Names and Mechanical Rhythm before I had ever even played the game,
and that definitely increased my interest in giving the series a try. I think most of my favorite stuff from the
series comes from ACE+, as they are responsible for tracks like Engage the Enemy and Mechonis
Field, which are both fantastic. Tora is an otaku
Tora is pretty clearly a bit of a nerd and a recluse, and fits pretty comfortably into
the Japanese definition of otaku, “a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular
aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills”. Although anime doesn’t seem to exist within
the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Tora very much exhibits a lot of the weird stereotypes
people tend to have of big anime fans. The way he programmed Poppi is pretty creepy
at some points, and there’s plenty of jokes surrounding it throughout the game. However, it seems that Tora comes from a long
line of reclusive maid fetishists, given that he, his father, and his grandfather all worked
on the artificial blades and displayed an interest in dressing them up in bunny costumes
and French maid outfits. He even has an alternate DLC outfit called
“Best Girl” where he wears a stretched-out T-shirt of Pyra. Screaming
This is basically just referring to the large amount of yelling and screaming you get to
enjoy when playing games from the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Especially during the most dramatic cutscenes. Rex and Shulk especially yell and scream so
much that it’s kind of become a meme. [screaming] I have to give special props to the voice
of Shulk, Adam Howden, who is basically my homie, even though he and I have never met. When doing his performance of the character
he would listen to the Japanese audio lines, especially the dramatic ones, in order to
emulate the attitude and stylings of the original voice for Shulk to a T. And that really seems
to have contributed to his phenomenal performance in the game. Foresight
Foresight refers to Mythra’s ability to predict future events in Xenoblade Chronicles
2. It’s quite like Shulk’s visions, although
it doesn’t really work exactly the same in the story and definitely not in gameplay. Shulk would see glimpses of the future and
its consequences, while it seems Mythra gives real-time predictions of enemies’ movements. It generally appears to work much more in
the immediate moment than Visions, which have a much longer range temporally. Territorial Rotbart
This refers to an infamous unique monster that appears in the starting areas of Xenoblade
Chronicles 1 and 2. Xenoblade has the habit of scattering a few
enemies around the in-game areas that are way higher in level than the rest, and for
many people the Territorial Rotbart is the first of its kind you’ll come across and
likely die to, especially because of how much he roams around in the first game. Although it’s definitely annoying to just
get sniped by him out of nowhere, that makes it all the more satisfying when you finally
can beat him later on in the game without any issue. Like really, it’s almost a rite of passage
to go back to the early areas and finally kill him. It’s debatably more satisfying than killing
Zanza. Chuggaaconroy
Chuggaaconroy is someone you’ve probably heard of, but if you haven’t, he’s a long-time
beloved let’s player on YouTube who’s been making consistent uploads since 2008. The reason he’s on this list is the fact
that he’s made two very popular let’s plays for each of the main Xenoblade games. The first one especially was a big deal among
the Xenoblade fans I knew when it first came out for its high quality and level of thoroughness. Especially because this was a point in time
where there wasn’t really that much seriously high-quality content focused on the series,
or at this point in time, the game. Thank you for that, Chugga. How visions work
It’s revealed in Xenoblade Chronicles that the way the Monado can grant visions is because
it can predict the movements of every single existing particle of ether, which in the game’s
universe is the fundamental building block of all matter. So on a large scale, the Monado can predict
future events with decent accuracy. It’s only an approximation, though, and
with some willpower, these predicted events can be counteracted. I really like this explanation, and I appreciate
how it tries to give a sound theoretical basis for how the prediction of the future can work
in the game’s environment. Especially because it fits right in with the
themes of fate and determination in the game. Mythra’s cooking
An occasional joke brought up between Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the Torna DLC is that Mythra
is a terrible cook. However, she loves cooking and insists on
doing it when she can, much to the dismay of the people around her. Ironically enough, Pyra is an excellent cook,
which begs the question: how good is Pneuma at cooking? Does she inherit Mythra’s lack of skill
or does she cook as well as Pyra? I like to imagine she gets the best of both
worlds, combining Mythra’s enthusiasm with Pyra’s skill. But that’s just my headcanon. Dahlia controversy
This refers to the mixed reception that the character Dahlia got upon the initial release
of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Her design certainly wasn’t well-liked by
everyone, and it struck a lot of arguments surrounding the costume designs of female
characters in Xenoblade 2 and video games in general. It’s a tale as old as time itself. Ironically enough, it was later revealed that
the character designer for Dahlia was a woman herself, which just made the whole argument
even weirder. I’m really glad all of this is over. Enel
Enel is a YouTuber who primarily makes Xeno-related content, and he’s one of my personal favorites
of that bunch. I really enjoy his tutorials on how to take
advantage of the mechanics of individual Xenoblade installments to get better at the games, especially
the ones for Xenoblade 2. Also at the time of writing this, he currently
is the world record holder for the Any% speedrun of Xenoblade 2. So it’s pretty fair to say he knows his
stuff. Project X Zone 2
I actually talked about this in my Ace Attorney iceberg video. Project X Zone 2 is a crossover tactical RPG
game that features characters from all sorts of series. One of these series is the Xeno series, and
you get to play as KOS-MOS from Xenosaga and Fiora from Xenoblade 1 specifically. This was a pretty big deal at the time, as
it was one of the first overt connections between properties from the older and newer
Xeno games. This was a few years before KOS-MOS and T-elos
made their way into Xenoblade 2, so it was pretty exciting. Lin’s hair clips
Fun fact, if you look closely at Lin’s hair in Xenoblade Chronicles X, you’ll notice
that her hair clips look just like the Monado! It’s unclear whether this is supposed to
be an in-story connection to Xenoblade Chronicles or not. If I had to guess personally, I’d predict
that the hair clip designs are just an external nod by the developers and aren’t meant to
be direct evidence of a story connection between the two games. Sakurai likes Pyra better
In the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate presentation for Pyra and Mythra,
developer Masahiro Sakurai says he prefers playing as Pyra in-game strictly for her combat
mechanics. However, he stumbles over his words a little
bit in a funny way, kind of implying that he might have, uh, more complex motives for
his preference. Probably involving her haircut. Or her leggings. Monado REX
The Monado REX, or Monado Replica EX, is the main weapon used by Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles:
Future Connected. It has the exact same stats as the Replica
Monado from the main game, but it has a different design and name. It also can’t use Monado Enchant, but you
don’t really need it anyway. What’s interesting about it to a lot of
people is how the shortened version of its name is Monado REX, and Rex is the name of
the main protagonist of Xenoblade 2. A decent amount of discussion comes from this,
especially with some of the story implications of Future Connected and other Xeno games. Could the Monado REX have a direct story connection
to the Rex we know and love? I mean, I doubt it, and think this is just
another external nod like Lin’s hair clips. The Xenoblade games have a track record of
reusing character names and stuff in this kind of way, after all. But who knows. Memory Space
This refers to a recurring area of Xenoblade Chronicles that is essentially a manifestation
of Zanza’s memories. Earlier on in the game, it just appears to
be an indiscriminate night sky, but at the end of the game right before you face Zanza
you travel through it and pass by several of the planets in our solar system. It’s one of the first overt hints to the
idea that the world of Xenoblade has a direct connection to our own world, and once you’ve
killed Zanza, it’s revealed that the entire world of Bionis and Mechonis was created in
a freak accident phase transition experiment that took place on a low orbit space station,
and the two scientists who were there when it happened became the Bionis and Mechonis. The planets you saw on the way to seeing him
was his memory of the world surrounding his home planet. I’ll never forget the pure euphoria I felt
when I experienced this plot twist firsthand. It was such an exciting revelation, and it
blew my thirteen-year-old mind. Monado: Beginning of the World
This refers to the original name Xenoblade Chronicles had before it became Xenoblade
Chronicles. It was first shown off with this title at
E3 2009, and the game was certainly in a different state at that point. A lot of the main characters look pretty similar
to their final form, with the major exception of Fiora, who looks completely different. Bad character design
This most likely refers to the criticism Xenoblade Chronicles 2 received for a lot of its art
direction. We talked about the whole Dahlia debacle already,
but even besides that the game did receive some flack for the uh, lack of, consistency
in its character designs. I mean, whatever you think about it, I’m
sure that most people would agree that these two characters do not look like they come
from the same video game. I don’t really want to weigh in on this
more than necessary, but that’s the gist of it. Addam is married
This is a detail about Addam that is surprisingly hard to come across, but during the events
of Torna: the Golden Country, Addam is married and has a pregnant wife! For whatever reason, it’s only mentioned
in the middle of a side quest chain that a lot of players likely missed out on. It’s kind of a shame too because I think
it provides a bit of useful context about Addam and Mythra’s relationship that the
main story could have benefited from. Rex outfit in BOTW
Update 1.3.3 of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild introduced a new armor set for
Link inspired by Rex’s outfit in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. That’s basically all there is to say. I guess it’s worth mentioning that you also
get a swim dash stamina boost. Colonies 1-5, 7, and 8 were destroyed
In Xenoblade Chronicles, especially near the beginning, it’s made pretty clear that the
Homs are on the brink of extinction. The first location of the game is Colony 9,
one of the two only surviving colonies left. And during the game, the only other colony,
Colony 6, is burnt to the ground. It’s made pretty clear that all the other
ones were destroyed. It’s also revealed in a certain Heart-to-Heart
that Mumkhar was from one of these destroyed colonies. I guess that might be one reason he didn’t
care much about betraying the other Homs. Alvis is Ontos
This is a theory that… well, it’s not even really a theory. It’s pretty much established that Alvis
is the missing Trinity Processor core that triggered a quote-unquote “space-time transition
event” and disappeared from the universe of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The core’s name was Ontos, and it went on
to shape the universe of the first game. Basically, Alvis is an Aegis like Malos and
Mythra. There’s even more evidence of this in the
Definitive version of Xenoblade Chronicles, which I will go over later. No official art for spoilers
One sort of frustrating thing about Xenoblade Chronicles and its sequels is that it is very
light on the official art. There’s usually art just for the playable
characters, and maybe a handful of side characters. But there is not much official art ever made
for characters that show up past any of the games’ halfway points. Like, I’m sure fellow YouTubers will know
the struggle of trying to find good visual aid material for a video game character and
basically just having to choose from a bunch of cutscene screenshots. This has to be done a lot in Xenoblade. I suppose it makes sense, though. Especially because of the fact that a lot
of the official renders are primarily commissioned to be used in promotional material, and spoiler
characters like Zanza are obviously not going to be shown in any advertisements for the
game. It’s frustrating sometimes, but understandable. Monado side-effects
The Monado is a legendary weapon, but using it takes a heavy toll on its wielder if they
are not Zanza or have Zanza in them. Shulk was able to use it because Zanza was
living inside of him, and Zanza never resisted until later on when Shulk began to go against
Zanza’s wishes. But characters like Dunban were able to wield
the Monado with their intense physical strength and determination and because of that they
were able to keep it from going totally all over the place, but they couldn’t unlock
its full potential and it did cause physical damage over time. Eventually, after the Battle of Sword Valley,
Dunban lost almost entire control of his arm. Interestingly it’s revealed in the Xenoblade
Monado Archives that Mumkhar was also able to wield the Monado to some extent, but Dunban
was given the honor instead; this caused Mumkhar to resent Dunban and eventually betray him. Xenoblade X OST memes
The soundtrack to Xenoblade Chronicles X is pretty great; there are tons of absolutely
fantastic songs to enjoy. Though, I have to admit that the songs with
lyrics are kind of silly a lot of the time. The majority of the songs are in English,
but I would predict the songs were written much more with an audience in mind who don’t
actually know the language. At best, the lyrics are just kind of generic
and hollow, but at worst, they are fucking hilarious. I think the most infamous example is Black
tar. [music] The New Los Angeles Night theme tries to kind
of do a hip-hop sort of thing, but instead of having any rapping or lyrics, it’s literally
just a bunch of guys grunting and yelling “yeah”! I’ll never forget how funny I thought this
was when I first heard it. And the memes some people made are excellent. All in all, the Engrish lyrics and weird design
choices can be a bit silly, but honestly, I wouldn’t get rid of them if I could. They kind of give the game a certain charm,
and I definitely grew to love them. Even the “UHS” and “YEAHS”. “Think you can take me?” When Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was first released,
players who were coming upon chapter 2 had their eardrums violated with constantly repeating
voice lines by Ardanian Soldiers. For whatever reason, the soldiers would say
their little lines over and over endlessly. Like, games like Xenoblade often become victim
to repeating voice lines over time, but this was on a whole new level. And players could not get enough when it came
to memeing about it. It was so bad, that the next patch of the
game literally removed the lines because it was so made fun of. Unfortunately, the fan petition to bring them
back was never listened to. At least they made a joke about it in the
challenge mode. First Low Orbit Station
This refers to the space station that resides at the top of the World Tree in Xenoblade
Chronicles 2. Also known as Rhadamanthus, it was one of
three space elevators built around the Earth to study the Conduit in a less potentially
hazardous way. It’s also the place where Klaus used the
Conduit to create a new universe, causing the whole dimension split that led to the
creation of the worlds of both Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2. You can visit it at the end of Xenoblade 2,
and my God it is such an awesome place for the game to finish. It’s eerie, dark, and nearly lifeless; basically
the opposite of what the characters actually expected to see at the top of the World Tree,
and I really like it for that. Telethia on Mira
One interesting bit of knowledge about Xenoblade Chronicles X is that the planet Mira has Telethia. In fact, the strongest Tyrant enemy in the
entire game is a huge Telethia that is level 99. This begs the question… what are Telethia doing on Mira? Is there a connection we’re not aware of? The Telethia in Xenoblade 1 are an ancient
species meant to wipe out all life on the Bionis for Zanza. We don’t know if the Mira version serves
any specific purpose like that, but it is interesting that it seems to be peaceful to
humans. Perhaps that’s a hint to something. There are fan theories potentially linking
the Mira Telethia to the Bionis Telethia, but for the time being, we don’t actually
know for sure if there’s actually supposed to be a story link. It could very well be the same kind of situation
as Nopon or Lin’s hairclips; more of an external nod to a repeating motif than anything
direct. Alvis’s necklace
I hinted at this earlier in the Ontos bit. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition was
all things considered a very faithful remake, but there was one notable character design
change of interest. Alvis’ necklace. In the original release, he had a key thing
hanging from it, but that was replaced with a certain gem that looks remarkably familiar. Uh… oh yeah, it’s the same exact design
as the Aegis core crystals. If you for whatever reason still had any doubt
about Alvis being Ontos, that alone is really damning evidence of the connection. Skell fan fiction
This refers to an infamous cutscene from Xenoblade X where Lin starts geeking out at the presence
of skells. The scene serves as a formal introduction
to the story and gameplay mechanic and has been poked fun at for some of the weird dialogue. -"Oh yeah, work it baby. Mmmm, mmm, mmm." The most heavily meme’d part is the line
where Lin tries to show the player character her quote-unquote “skell fan fiction”. Something about that line just seems kind
of silly. It’s not particularly strange that a character
would really like something like skells, but the term “fan fiction” is just confusing
here. Skells are a weapon and vehicle in the game,
they’re not like something from a video game or anime. It’s like a car enthusiast in our world
saying he writes “car fan fiction”. It just doesn’t make much sense. And because of that, the line has become something
of a meme. Chests in Xenoblade
When data miners and hackers accessed the unused Bionis’ Shoulder map in the original
Wii release of Xenoblade Chronicles, they were given some insight into some gameplay
mechanics that didn’t make it into the final game. The most notable example is the fact that
treasure chests used to be normally found throughout the map. Now, Xenoblade Chronicles did end up having
a few chests in things like Giants’ and High Entia ruins in the final game, but the
ones here were just normal-looking chests scattered throughout the map. Interesting. Giants
The Giants are an extinct race of Bionis that lived long before the main events of Xenoblade. Like High Entia, they were created by granting
intelligence to Telethia, and their ruins can be found all over the Bionis. You can explore some of these ruins in side
quests, too. Although the species is extinct, you do get
to see a couple of Giants firsthand. The first one you see is Arglas, but at that
point in time, he had been possessed by Zanza for at least thousands of years. You also learn late-game that Dickson is not
actually a Homs, he was born a Giant and can just change forms. He was granted immortality in exchange for
eternal loyalty to Zanza, and because of that you also end up having to fight against him. Sad. All stories happen at the same time
So, it’s confirmed that Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 take place at the same point in time. There are plenty of hints at it, but at the
end of the second game, they literally play the sound byte of Shulk giving his speech
before killing Zanza. This basically confirms that the final battle
of both games takes place at more or less the same time. I mean, the whole reason the Architect died
in the 2 dimension is that Shulk and friends killed his other half in the 1 dimension. So the games kind of have to align. The word “all” here does stick out a bit,
given we don’t know what place Xenoblade X has in this if it has a place at all. So for the time being, Xenoblade 1 and 2 are
aligned, but we don’t know where X fits in. Elysium is a resort
So, at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it is revealed that the so-called Elysium
you’ve been heading towards this entire time is nothing but a deserted wasteland with
no signs of life. It was quite disappointing. For pretty much the entire game you’ve only
had Elysium described to you in the abstract, and you don’t really have any idea what
it is besides a grassy paradise with a lot of space for people to live. But what Elysium actually was was a residential
area for scientists working at Rhadamanthus along with their families. It was presumably designed to simulate an
Earth-like environment as a remedy to the physical and psychological tolls of living
in a space station. But, once Klaus did what he did, the people
who worked on the station all disappeared. I don’t know if “resort” would be the
right word to describe Elysium, but it is definitely close in the sense that it acts
as a sort of escape. Alvis’ Claymore is a recolored Junk Sword
I never actually noticed this until recently. I guess it may be because Alvis only fights
in your party once and you never can even play as him, but the claymore he uses is literally
just a recolored version of the Junk Sword Shulk uses at the beginning of the game. The Black Wreckage is Mumkhar’s remains
One of the landmarks on the Fallen Arm in Xenoblade Chronicles is the Black Wreckage,
and if you take a look at it, you can see pretty clearly that it is the remains of Metal
Face after the death of Mumkhar. This can go over a lot of first-time players’
heads, as it kind of blends in with a lot of the other Mechon armor scraps littered
throughout the area. A lot of people might not really notice from
a cursory glance. Though I’m sure there are plenty of people
watching this right now telling me that they actually knew from the first time they got
to the area. If that’s the case, good for you, I guess. One interesting fact is that the reason it’s
called the Black Wreckage is that the literal translation of Metal Face’s name from Japanese
is “Black Face”. But due to the, uh, cultural stigma surrounding
that term, the Mechon’s name was changed. However, when translators were localizing
place names, they likely either didn’t realize what the “Black Wreckage” was referring
to or they just didn’t care enough to change the name. Nopon dialect grammar
Now, anyone who’s played even a little bit of any Xenoblade game is aware that Nopon
have a very different dialect than all the other species in the game. This includes speaking of oneself in the third
person, the lack of consistent verb tense usage, and the swapping out of words. But the dialect actually goes pretty far in
some interesting areas. One line that always stuck with me was when
Shulk asks Riki how old he is and Riki replies by saying “Riki have 40 years”. What’s interesting about that is that it’s
basically a totally different way of saying his age than the way most English-speakers
would. Now, if you speak a Romantic language, or
even if you took high school Spanish or French, you would know that the way people express
their age in those languages is not by saying they’re a certain amount of years old. They do so by saying that they have a certain
amount of years. And Riki essentially does that, as if he were
directly translating from one of those languages. Maybe this is just my inner linguistics nerd
speaking, but I always found the fact that they made that decision when writing Nopon
in Xenoblade to be really interesting and creative. Duncan and Rain -"It just feels great to be back with Xenoblade
Chronicles' memorable cast of characters whether it's the loveable meathead Rain [sic] or the
stoic and Inscrutable Duncan [sic]" How do you even make that mistake? What the hell? When I first heard of this I assumed it was
a mistake made in the original Xenoblade review from 2012, but no, it was made in a professional
IGN review, in 2020. Like, how does that happen? Did the guy even play the game? Like, all around the article seems like it
was written by someone who knows what happened in the story, so how did the guy read the
characters’ names wrong? I always assumed that the article’s writer
is the person who reads it for the video, but maybe I was wrong. I mean, the review isn’t even that bad otherwise,
except for some Melia dissing I have to stand against and also there’s also footage of
Mechon Fiora, which is basically a mortal sin to me as a Xenoblade fan. But, whatever. Ancient Daedala is stronger than Yaldabaoth
This one is pretty simple. When Egil as a character is first introduced,
he claims his Mechon, Yaldabaoth, is the strongest one ever built. This is put into question outside of the main
story if you fight Ancient Daedala, one of the game’s superbosses, who is over thirty
levels higher than Yaldabaoth in-game. This has led to a lot of memes and a few fan
theories for how Daedala fits into the whole equation involving Mechon. But I personally believe that Daedala sort
of exists outside of the core canon of the game and was probably added to Fallen Arm
way after the story was written. Though I don’t know for sure. Melancholy Tyrea is the only voiced side-quest
One of the most interesting anomalies in Xenoblade Chronicles is the existence of the Melancholy
Tyrea sidequest. Now, story-wise, it’s fine. It gives some insight into Tyrea as a character
and her relationship with Melia. But for some reason, it has cutscenes and
voice acting. You might not remember this, but there is
not a single other side quest in Xenoblade 1 that has this kind of stuff. Those only really exist in X and 2. So Melancholy Tyrea really sticks out for
this reason and for years fans have been wondering why it has this kind of special treatment
in the first place. Personally, I think it was done to fit some
important plot resolution in the game without disrupting the main story. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original
plan was to have the sidequest’s narrative somewhere in the main plot. However, the story had to be cut due to the
fact that it was hard to find a good time for it. It would make sense, given it has all this
special treatment, and one of the developers’ biggest regrets with Xenoblade was the lack
of closure for Melia as a character. And Future Connected, which exists partially
to give further screentime to Melia, also has Tyrea in it playing a major role! It has Teelan too, which is cool, given he
went from being just another Affinity Chart sidequest NPC to having a proper model and
voice. Also, fun fact, we learn during this sidequest
that High Entia are able to fly. Blade sex trafficking
In Chapter 9 of Xenoblade 2, there is a flashback to a conversation between Zeke and Amalthlus
about a confrontation Zeke had with bandits. He brought up how they may have wanted to
kill him to take and sell Pandoria’s core crystal, and how she likely would have sold
for a lot because she’s both humanoid and pretty attractive. Apparently, there are markets that line up
core crystals with quote-unquote “pretty” pictures of the blades inside. A lot of fans interpret this scene as a hint
at the existence of blade trafficking for, uh, certain purposes, but it’s not a total,
100% confirmation. Though I certainly would say in my opinion
I think that’s what they’re implying. Also, in the Japanese version of Xenoblade
Chronicles 2, there is a joke about Pyra potentially working as a prostitute to raise money. Which kind of eludes this specific point,
but is still tangentially related. Désirée is Xord’s daughter
Xord is one of the first faced Mechon you encounter but interestingly he’s the only
major story one that doesn’t even have his face and identity revealed. Well, sort of. After you defeat him in the Ether Mine, there
is a special line with the sidequest NPC Désirée that she had a father who worked as a blacksmith
whose name was Xord, and apparently, he died during the Battle of Sword Valley. So, he, much like Mumkhar, was likely taken
by Mechon and forced to become a Faced Mechon pilot. Galea is the Infernal Guldo
There’s a boss in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that you encounter in the land of Morytha
named the Infernal Guldo. Guldos are humanoid monsters that came from
humans left on Earth after Klaus split the universe, and amidst the ruin, they fused
themselves with Core Crystals in an attempt to achieve immortality. What’s interesting about this one in particular
is that after you defeat it, Rex comes across an ID card near its body where you can vaguely
see a familiar face. Galea, or Lady Meyneth, or the person who
tried to stop Klaus when he was trying to use the Conduit. What we can infer from this is that Klaus
and Galea both experienced a split. One half of them became Zanza and Meyneth
and the other half became the architect and the Guldo. Nia’s original design
Like basically every character, Nia went through a few phases of development. Here you can see Nia’s beta design, along
with some early sketches of Pandoria. And, um… Nia, kind of… reminds me of someone… oh. L’s real name
The real name of L is actually never revealed in either the Death Note manga or anime, but
in some other adaptations, his name is revealed to be… wait… oh, THAT L, okay. L’s real name is uh, L’cirufe. I don’t know how to pronounce that. Sorry. Interestingly, that name is an anagram of
Lucifer. Which is ironic, because the character is
really nice and funny. Loading screen symbols
Xenoblade Chronicles honestly has a really good-looking loading screen. It’s simple, but the Monado in the corner
is really cool looking. And interestingly, the symbol written on the
Monado here is the kanji for reading. Cool! Machine, Man, God
Speaking of Monado symbols, there are a few cool details snuck into the game regarding
those. First of all, the symbol for Monado Enchant
is the Kanji for “machine”, which makes sense; given that Monado Enchant grants the
party the ability to damage Mechon with any weapon. But it gets cooler. Remember the cutscene where Shulk unlocks
the Monado II? Yeah, well, in that scene, the symbol that
appears on the sword is the kanji for “man”, which makes sense, given that the Monado II
gains the ability to hurt people, and by extension, face Mechon. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Right before you finally kill Zanza, another
symbol appears on the Monado, and it’s the Kanji for “God”. I guess this isn’t as much of a secret if
you know your Kanji, but if you don’t know the language like myself, this can go over
your head for years. Alvis and HAL 9000
As we know, Alvis at his core is a data processing robot machine thing. And although it’s not clearly stated until
the end of the game, there are hints at it as early as his first appearance. In the battle against the Telethia, he has
a couple of sci-fi references in his battle voice lines. He has the chance to say “resistance is
futile”, which is a Star Trek reference, and he can also give the iconic HAL 9000 line,
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that”, which is a fun reference and easter egg. The Bionis’ Shoulder Was Never Cut
This is referring to the fact that people believed that the Bionis’ shoulder at one
point in Xenoblade Chronicles’ development was meant to be visited in the main story. Chuggaaconroy partially popularized this theory
by talking about it in his let’s play, and bringing up how the transition from Frontier
Village to Eryth Sea seemed to be kind of weird and rushed. So for years, people believed that the map
was meant to be visited in the story but had to be written out. But, nope. Takahashi has stated in multiple interviews
that the area was just a beta map used to test the general feel of the game, and there
were no serious plans to fit it into the main story. Gnostic influences
If you don’t know what Gnosticism is, well, don’t fret, because I barely know what it
is either and I did research on it for this video. It was essentially a large-scale religious
and intellectual movement that sought to ponder the mysteries of life, divinity, human existence,
and more. And Tetsuya Takahashi loves his Gnosticism,
and there are influences all over his work. I mean, the Monado itself is a reference. The term “monad” is a common concept found
in Gnosticism and it refers to the one, or the absolute. A supreme being, basically. The Mechon Yaldabaoth is literally just named
after the Gnostic demiurge, which is the concept of a false God. I don’t want to go too deep with this, as
I am in no way knowledgeable about this concept. Just take my word for it. The Lifehold Core was destroyed
The Lifehold Core is a super important plot device throughout all of Xenoblade X that
has all the genetic data for all life on Earth. It also harbors the consciousness of all the
human characters, which is why everyone is frantically looking for it throughout the
game. But it turns out that this entire time, the
database had been destroyed. But for some reason, everyone’s mimeosomes
still were working. We don’t know why or how that’s possible. Elma thinks it’s something about the planet. How wars profit Nopon
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, there is a pouch item book purchasable in Mor Ardain called
“How Wars Profit Nopon”. And uh, well, it kind of leans into a depiction
of Nopon in-game some people seem to notice. Uh, you see, well… *sigh* there’s a chance
that this video may be seen by a lot of people so I’m going to choose my words carefully. Or, better yet, I’ll read a post I found
from a thread discussing the issue. “When I played Xenoblade Chronicles, I didn't
have a negative impression of Nopon. I didn't feel like they were stereotyped in
a negative light or like they possessed some sort of bad seed in their hearts waiting to
be cultivated by tempting vices. I've been playing 2 for about 60 hours now. I'm not a big fan of Nopon in this game (Tora
in particular), but I can't help but notice how all the game's negative stereotypes regarding
Nopon, and their portrayal, mirror real-world stereotypes of a certain ethnoreligious group.” I don’t really want to make people mad here,
so I’m going to move on, but I guess I’ll just say that this pouch item kind of raised
a few eyebrows. “In my head, there are two versions of me”
My God, I love this game. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that excels
in its foreshadowing, and I think this might just be the best example. -“In my head, there are two versions of
me.” ”One of them is saying that. It’s telling me, ‘Listen to what Dunban
said.’ -”What about the other one?” -”It keeps shouting, ‘Make them pay!’ Destroy every single one of them!’ And it won’t stop getting louder.” -”That doesn’t sound like you. Sure it ain’t my voice in there?” -”Might be! It’s a bit of a loudmouth!” If you don’t get what this is referencing,
just think about the cutscene where Shulk is about to kill Egil, and you can hear echoes
of Zanza’s voice encouraging Shulk to kill him. That’s the same exact voice. And this was being hinted at within the first
few hours of the game. And it’s such a well-disguised line too. It fits right in with the conversation and
doesn’t really make you suspicious. And it’s even funnier because the two literally
joke about the voice being a separate entity, which it is. Mythra’s multiple personality disorder
Oh boy, I get to talk about mental illness again. Yay… So, uh, yeah. I think we can all agree that Torna: The Golden
Country ends in tragedy. With the death of multiple major characters
along with the destruction of an entire continent, the cast is left with a lot of baggage to
carry, especially Mythra. Because she kind of caused it all. I mean, she stopped Malos and everything,
but there was a lot of collateral damage and seeing Milton die caused her to start screaming
and begin to glow. The next time we see her, she is Pyra. So, is this dissociative identity disorder? Well, I don’t want to say definitively because
I’m not a psychiatrist and I don’t want to act as an authority on a very real psychological
condition, but the argument is that the trauma caused by the battle caused her to create
Pyra as a way to disassociate with the events that took place. One thing that is confusing though is how
much of a hand Mythra consciously had in creating her. In the main game, Mythra describes Pyra as
a separate self she created, and the word created makes me feel like she was meticulous
about it. But as you see in the ending of Torna, she
does not seem to be very meticulous. I guess maybe she is lying? Or what we saw wasn’t the actual creation
of Pyra? I don’t know for sure. Riki can hear ghosts
This is a really weird detail in Xenoblade 1. Riki seems to be able to feel the presence
of ghosts. It’s first shown in a Heart-to-Heart at
Ose Tower. Riki tells Dunban that he feels like there
are ghosts nearby and then Dunban tells him that Ose Tower was where a whole expedition
of Homs died mysteriously. But Riki didn’t know this yet. So, quite like the spirit medium in the Sopranos,
he seemed to have an insight into certain information he shouldn’t have had by normal
expectations. It’s even made more clear at the end of
the Lorithia fight where Melia gets a vision of her dying brother, and Riki is able to
somehow hear what Kallian said to her. So this isn’t even really that much of a
speculative thing, Riki just seems to be able to do this stuff. The Regeneration Chamber
So, at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles, Fiora gets her old Homs body back and everyone is
happy for her. But it’s never made clear in the main game
what actually happened. I always assumed it was some Machina technology
thing with Linada. But, a short story from the Monado Archives
reveals that between the events of Mechonis Core and the final battle, Linada tells Shulk
of a rumored ancient High Entia regeneration chamber that can give Fiora her body back. However, the process takes six months to complete. Shulk finds it after having a vision of it
being opened and interestingly enough, it’s actually right in the cylinder hanger from
Colony 9 that you visit at the start of the game. Fiora refuses to use it immediately though
because she wants to help the gang defeat Zanza, but once the world is saved she goes
in and six months later she comes out all fixed up. Klaus likes anime
I believe this. He definitely seems like the nerdy type. I’d imagine him to be a big Evangelion fan. Lambert
Lambert is the name of an unused character found in the files of the Japanese release
of the original Xenoblade. He has a model, a few animations, and that
seems to be it. It’s not clear what exactly he was supposed
to be. Perhaps a cut party member, or just a test
character. We’re not 100% sure. Interestingly, his model’s filename is “pc2”,
short for playable character 2, so maybe Lambert was the original Reyn. Maybe. Xenoblade X is Xenoblade 10
This is a joke theory, and the joke is basically that the X in Xenoblade X is actually supposed
to be the roman numeral for 10. I think that whoever originally came up with
this joke is a big Dangan Ronpa fan. Colonel Vangarre survived the Colony 9 attack
I don’t know how he did it, but despite being the center of a giant explosion likely
done as revenge for his needlessly harsh leadership by Mumkhar, Vangarre survives the Mechon attack
on Colony 9 and lives to fight both in the second battle of Sword Valley and also is
still around in the game’s epilogue. I guess he’s just really strong, and was
able to continue carrying on his life mission of assaulting Colony 9 defense force members. Why did the water become salty? So, an interesting line in the epilogue of
Xenoblade is Reyn displaying shock at the fact that the ocean water he fell into is
salty. This tells us a couple of things. First of all, we can infer that the ocean
water in Xenoblade before the recreation of the universe was likely freshwater, or it
at least didn’t have salt. Second of all, wherever Alvis transported
them seems to have been above a body of saltwater. So, what does this mean? Well, it was certainly a bigger mystery in
the past than it is now, but nowadays the most common theory is that Alvis basically
took the remains of the Bionis and just kinda placed it on the Earth. This should also have coincided with the ending
of Xenoblade 2 where the Cloud Sea dissipates and all the remaining titans merge with the
Earth. So, Reyn basically had a taste of our own
seawater and was shocked at its salty taste. Shulk doesn’t actually eat the sandwich
In Xenoblade 1 when Fiora makes Shulk a sandwich, you can see clearly that he doesn’t actually
eat it. If he was eating it, we would see bite marks
develop and the sandwich slowly disappear. What we can infer from this is that Shulk
doesn’t actually like Fiora’s food, and just pretends to eat so she doesn’t feel
bad. This actually makes sense because Fiora says
that he has no actual sense of taste and always says the same things to her regardless. It’s because he isn’t actually tasting
the sandwich. No, but, jokes aside, the reason we don’t
see the model change is that making a bunch of models of a sandwich being slowly eaten
and properly animating that is needlessly expensive and resource-consuming so they just
kinda make the model shove its face in it a little bit. In the story, you’re supposed to just kind
of look past that and accept the whole sandwich narrative. It’s like, that whole “suspension of disbelief”
thing. The Ether Mine’s magic ability to drain
a player’s motivation to play the game This is just a joke about how the Ether Mine
arc is one of the less exciting parts of the first game’s story. This is due to multiple reasons. First of all, at this point in the game, you
are still very weak and Mechon can be annoying to fight with their whole immunity thing. Also, the Ether Mine dungeon is really long. And likely most importantly, the story motivations
really aren’t as engaging as the motivations in other parts of the game. I mean, no offense to all the Juju fans, for
the 4 of you who exist, but Juju is not really a very popular character and the constant
chasing you have to do for this kind of annoying character who continuously disobeys Sharla
can be frustrating. So you spend all this time trying to fix up
his mistakes and it just isn’t very interesting. Also, and this might just be for me, but I
found the Xord boss fight to be really hard as a kid. Like, I was stuck on it for at least a couple
of weeks, and it really wore me out. Nowadays I know what to do and I can make
easy work of him, but I was really new to the game and its battle system at the time
and I had a lot of trouble because of that. Every single copy of Xenoblade Chronicles
2 is personalized This is another joke, but there is a weird
kernel of truth in it all. There is a randomness factor to how the game
works for you. When you start a new game, you’re assigned
what is called a save file group, and that affects the probabilities of what blades you
can get in the game. So some people get certain blades much earlier
than others, which can change how you play the entire game. Reyn pressing the button in the High Entia
Tomb foreshadows Klaus resetting the universe You know, maybe writing this video has just
given me major brain rot, but honestly, I can almost believe this. I’m pretty sure it was written as a joke,
but after thinking about it I can see the connections. Both Reyn and Klaus were overly curious and
eager to learn about the world surrounding them, and because of that, they messed with
forces beyond their understanding. And both of them also ended up putting the
people around them in great danger. Klaus ended up essentially destroying the
planet, and Reyn caused himself and all of his fellow travelers to fall into a booby
trap. I mean, Xenoblade is a game with a lot of
motifs and this could very well be one. L is real
Yes, L is real in Xenoblade Chronicles X. He is a playable character of an unknown species
who joins your party in chapter 4, and one of his main gimmicks is how he often misunderstands
human figures of speech for comedic effect. Whew, that was a lot of information. Thank you all so much for watching and joining
me in this journey through random Xenoblade trivia. Thank you especially to all my patrons who
help make my videos possible. I don’t know where I’d be without you. I’ll see you all around.
