Christi Junior on Nostr: 6/7 Going back to non-villain characters, you have the returning heroes from past ...
6/7
Going back to non-villain characters, you have the returning heroes from past Xenoblade games, Nia and Melia. I’ll save a more in-depth review of their characterization for the epilogue of this writeup (for reasons that should become obvious), but for now I’ll say this: Monolith Soft truly did these beloved characters justice, and while they didn’t take any real risks (like you know, actually committing to the queens being villains), what they did do with these characters, they did pretty much perfectly.
…but wait, are Melia and Nia really the ONLY legacy Xenoblade characters included in XB3? Until Future Redeemed, yes – even characters *everybody* assumed would return, like Poppi (who’s a robot, and should easily be able to live for as long as Melia and Nia) fail to play a real role in the main story. Hell, in the DLC, Monolith Soft go out of their way to come up with a brand new Nopon-created female Artificial Blade who can join the party as a Hero, rather than just bring back Poppi, who could easily be written into the story without breaking the lore. And it’s not just characters either – outside of the Queens the references to the past two games are kept as superficial and unintrusive as possible, limited to landmarks, returning races and monsters, as well as certain names (like Team Noah’s colony being called Colony 9).
Now, it’s not hard to figure out why Monolith Soft did this – they were obviously very concerned about people who had never played a Xenoblade game before being able to jump right into Xenoblade 3, without being confused, and without having past games Spoiled for them. This was the approach Xenoblade 2 took, and it was extremely successful, with the game selling more than 3 times as much as Xenoblade 1 on the Wii, and getting tons of new people into the series.
However, there’s a core difference between XB2 and XB3 – the former was essentially advertised as a standalone story from Day 1 (like a new, numbered Final Fantasy entry), and it was actually quite a surprise just how strongly connected to past Xeno games it turned out to be. Xenoblade 3 meanwhile, was ALWAYS promoted as a continuation of the stories of the past games, if not explicitly then implicitly (even the reveal trailer prominently showed off the Queens, and there could be no mistaking who they were). For the XB3 story to be as disconnected from past games Xenoblade games as it turned out to be was quite a surprise, and genuinely disappointing.
By truly committing to continuing the story of past games and even bringing back far more legacy characters, the stakes would be raised, and everything that happened would be given more weight. Even with our main party having already undergone their most meaningful character development and overcoming their greatest trial, the story could still have been greatly reenergized just by bringing back old characters and truly connecting all 3 mainline Xenoblade games. Sure, Xenoblade 3 wouldn’t be a standalone story anymore, but I’d argue that would be strength, as XB3 would now truly be the final part of a greater, overarching story, a Season 3 if you will – and I know this would work, because that’s what Future Redeemed did, and it was absolutely glorious. Of course it would have to be handled well, otherwise it could backfire badly (I already mentioned Disney Star Wars…) – but looking at Melia and Nia’s characterization, as well as everything Future Redeemed did, Monolith Soft was more than up to the challenge.
Some people have even argued that if Xenoblade 3 was so committed to being a standalone story, it shouldn’t even have bothered with the XB1 and XB2 references and returning characters that it DID go with – after all, the power of so many of its best moments (like the end of Chapter 5 and the beginning of Chapter 6) doesn’t hinge on ANY connection to the past games. That said, as sparse and strictly rationed as the legacy Xenoblade references of substance are, I still really loved them – and moments like confronting “Queen Melia” for the first time, as well as the absolutely stunning opening scene of Chapter 7, really elevated the game for me. And it’s not like these references negatively affect newcomers (I’d actually love to see how people who started with Xenoblade 3 react to seeing Nia and Melia in their original games), and you can’t really blame them for the story’s core problems – as I’ll cover in the Chapter 7 writeup, the merger of the two worlds could have both been handled in a far less convoluted way, as well as be explained far better.
Going back to non-villain characters, you have the returning heroes from past Xenoblade games, Nia and Melia. I’ll save a more in-depth review of their characterization for the epilogue of this writeup (for reasons that should become obvious), but for now I’ll say this: Monolith Soft truly did these beloved characters justice, and while they didn’t take any real risks (like you know, actually committing to the queens being villains), what they did do with these characters, they did pretty much perfectly.
…but wait, are Melia and Nia really the ONLY legacy Xenoblade characters included in XB3? Until Future Redeemed, yes – even characters *everybody* assumed would return, like Poppi (who’s a robot, and should easily be able to live for as long as Melia and Nia) fail to play a real role in the main story. Hell, in the DLC, Monolith Soft go out of their way to come up with a brand new Nopon-created female Artificial Blade who can join the party as a Hero, rather than just bring back Poppi, who could easily be written into the story without breaking the lore. And it’s not just characters either – outside of the Queens the references to the past two games are kept as superficial and unintrusive as possible, limited to landmarks, returning races and monsters, as well as certain names (like Team Noah’s colony being called Colony 9).
Now, it’s not hard to figure out why Monolith Soft did this – they were obviously very concerned about people who had never played a Xenoblade game before being able to jump right into Xenoblade 3, without being confused, and without having past games Spoiled for them. This was the approach Xenoblade 2 took, and it was extremely successful, with the game selling more than 3 times as much as Xenoblade 1 on the Wii, and getting tons of new people into the series.
However, there’s a core difference between XB2 and XB3 – the former was essentially advertised as a standalone story from Day 1 (like a new, numbered Final Fantasy entry), and it was actually quite a surprise just how strongly connected to past Xeno games it turned out to be. Xenoblade 3 meanwhile, was ALWAYS promoted as a continuation of the stories of the past games, if not explicitly then implicitly (even the reveal trailer prominently showed off the Queens, and there could be no mistaking who they were). For the XB3 story to be as disconnected from past games Xenoblade games as it turned out to be was quite a surprise, and genuinely disappointing.
By truly committing to continuing the story of past games and even bringing back far more legacy characters, the stakes would be raised, and everything that happened would be given more weight. Even with our main party having already undergone their most meaningful character development and overcoming their greatest trial, the story could still have been greatly reenergized just by bringing back old characters and truly connecting all 3 mainline Xenoblade games. Sure, Xenoblade 3 wouldn’t be a standalone story anymore, but I’d argue that would be strength, as XB3 would now truly be the final part of a greater, overarching story, a Season 3 if you will – and I know this would work, because that’s what Future Redeemed did, and it was absolutely glorious. Of course it would have to be handled well, otherwise it could backfire badly (I already mentioned Disney Star Wars…) – but looking at Melia and Nia’s characterization, as well as everything Future Redeemed did, Monolith Soft was more than up to the challenge.
Some people have even argued that if Xenoblade 3 was so committed to being a standalone story, it shouldn’t even have bothered with the XB1 and XB2 references and returning characters that it DID go with – after all, the power of so many of its best moments (like the end of Chapter 5 and the beginning of Chapter 6) doesn’t hinge on ANY connection to the past games. That said, as sparse and strictly rationed as the legacy Xenoblade references of substance are, I still really loved them – and moments like confronting “Queen Melia” for the first time, as well as the absolutely stunning opening scene of Chapter 7, really elevated the game for me. And it’s not like these references negatively affect newcomers (I’d actually love to see how people who started with Xenoblade 3 react to seeing Nia and Melia in their original games), and you can’t really blame them for the story’s core problems – as I’ll cover in the Chapter 7 writeup, the merger of the two worlds could have both been handled in a far less convoluted way, as well as be explained far better.