My personal recommended order is 1, 2, Torna, Future Connected, 3, Future Redeemed

There is one question I don't see talked about enough - Why would Klaus have reason to awaken Alvis in the first place? He already won the fight against the Salvators with a curious push of a button, unless it took more time than depicted in all flashbacks for the experiment to fully take effect and he needed a powerful distraction to make sure the Salvators and those working at Radamanthus couldn't destroy the orbital ring to shut it down (Completely removing the Arbitor itself from the Trinity Processor and having it wield the power of the Conduit would certainly be enough to ensure the experiment proceeds smoothly, it took both the Preserver and Endbringer, as well as the closest equivalent in a jrpg to weaponizing fourth wall breaks without breaking the fourth wall in order to overthrow Schrodinger's Wilhelm), I just see no reason *why* Alvis would be awakened in Zanza's Universe. And another thing - if Klaus did awaken Alvis, why wasn't this shown in either depiction of the final hours of the original world, and why would Klaus omit that detail when explaining to Rex what happened to Ontos when a butchered attempt at an awakening would've been an actually solid explanation for *how* Zanza became one with the Monado in the first place?

Dirk nation will never die!

I started with Xenogears and played every game in order as they came out hahaha!

The order I'd definitely recommend the most for everything related to the Xeno series is XC1, XCX, FF6, FF7 (The original, not the remake), Xenogears, Perfect Works, XC2 (to Ch9), Torna, the remainder of XC2, Chrono Trigger, Saga 1-3, Future Connected, XC3, Future Redeemed, Baten Kaitos, XC4 onwards. I placed heavy importance in my play order in understanding the struggle to finalize Perfect Works that Monolithsoft strived towards, and the order of certain entries is done for pacing as going back to back is incredibly jarring and needs more lighthearted intermissions between (Future Connected, Chrono Trigger, the start of XC2, Baten Kaitos - We havent seen anything of XC4 but after what happened in Future Redeemed an intermission is absolutely necessary). XCX also occurs incredibly early on because it uses XC1's gameplay and also seemingly has its own continuity with XC1 separate from the main Klaus Saga because its implied to occur after XC1. Xenogears also being originally proposed as Final Fantasy 7 means that I consider FF6 and the original FF7 pre-requisite reading material before continuing with the remainder of the series, as it serves to inform some of the decisions made in Perfect Works.

Dear monolith software, if u make a fantasy jrpg, I will personally make shure it sells well

Crap theory

You know what's the real secret sauce? Not being able to climb over everything. Climbing over everything ruined Zelda games because the devs can not longer strategically place enemies or landmarks for the players to discover

I started with 2. And it’s still my favorite Switch game. 🙌🏾 I went XC2, XC2 Torna, XCDE, XC FC, XC3, XC3 Future Redeemed

Xenoblade as a franchise started with good characters with good stories and transitioned to good characters with bad stories.

Just started 2 as my first in the series and ngl Nia is the main reason why i FINALLY jumped in. Saw her online for years and always wo dered wtf she was from😂😅 Edit: Theres already been moments in the game that have completely hooked me. I havent felt this excited to dive deep into a game sinve the witcher 3

"City People make no sense" - Well ... Fei from Xenogears was the inspiration for Matthew ... if Origin kinda forces them to be reborn , maybe it does so over and over and over again ... which could result in a similar scenario Fei and Ellie went through in Gears.

Im pretty sure all is now more or less connected Gears , Saga , Blade , X. Baten Kaitos might even be connected by this point ... seeing as they live above the clouds and have titan whales as ships ... sound familiar .. yeah. Anyways , i think most connections were made so that Square Enix and Bamco can make Remakes for Gears and Saga and connect them with mild retcons to the Blade Series. Aka convenient commercial. Aliens not existing in Saga can simply be retconed or maybe all Aliens just get wiped out until the plot of Saga starts. In any case i think the Klaus experiment and the White Whale leaving earth is most likely the same event , the not matching Cutscenes just means they are only showing and telling what is relevant for the current audience. For example its irrelevant for Shulk to know if that was a Space Station or a Orbital Ring Station with a Lift , or if there was infighting among the Humans or not. Same with Rex it would be completely irrelevant for him to know if the Humans just fought among themselves or also against Aliens. Heres the thing Takahashi was unhappy with how the dev events on Xenosaga went down (he wasnt even involved in Xenosaga 2 at all) , he also was unhappy with many things for Xenoblade X because a lot had to be scrapped in dev to make this game. So i think if he gets the rights to fix some of Saga and plans to Remake X ... he might actually Reboot X with actual plot included ... for example if Elma was actually sent to Earth to save Humanity , it might as well have happened because Wilhem sent her there. Samaarians in X seam to be the Ancestors to Humans that look exactly like Humans ... so Wilhem might just be a Samaarian Human. Samaarians might just wipe out everything in the Universe that isnt Human , that would kinda solve the Alien issue with Saga. Funny thing tho , the now Origin Fused Earth Humans are kinda all mixed breeds of some sorts ... the only pure Human DNA is actually found in the broken Life Hold Core. But just in case they could just slap the Vector logo on some stuff in X and add a few quests and Story Missions to flesh out this previously half baked plot and it would fit perfectly within the timeline.

I agree with you. But i give you a few thoughts i had. 8:00 "What is falling towards Earth" - The theory that KOS-MOS falls towards earth makes no sense to me. KOS-MOS and T-Elos were Gacha Blades in XC2 so they should be by this time already part of the Core Crystal System within Origin. Ofc a Xenosaga Remake / Reboot could address this and retcon it , but who knows. Lin at the ending cutscene of XCX says she dosnt believe earth was destroyed and some of the other Ships might have Survived too , she also wants to venture out somewhen in the future to look for Earth aka the Humans Planet of Origin. So i think the blue light is either the Icarus coming back for some reason , or the People from Mira finding their way home. 11:50 "Faster than Lightspeed travel" - Its "not" faster than Lightspeed travel , its just lightspeed travel. And some other Technologies including the Trion Barrier for some reason ... which is said by Luxaar to be a Technology invented by the Qlurian Race. "Government" - The fact that the Government is lying to the residents of NLA is already clear from the start , as soon as you arrive at NLA for the first time Maurice Chausson is saying 10 Survivors , while Elma only found 1. "Cut Scenes dont match" - XCDE came out after XC2 but it did not change the Cutscene when earth vanishes. Because for Shulk it would be irrelevant to know if it was a Space Station or a Orbital Ring Station and if there was some commotion. Same with Rex its completely irrelevant for him to know if there was a fight with Aliens and Space Ships. And for the NLA Crew its irrelevant to know if the Planet has a Orbital Station or infighting among Humans and Rebels. The Cutscene only shows whats relevant to whoever the Character is that is watching / listening ... This might as well be true for the Radio. I think Takahashi added all this to the ending cutscene either because Bamco paid him so they have a convenient commercial to promote their upcomming Remakes , but i highly doubt that Takahashi will be involved in the making of those. Or because he wants to actually reboot Xenoblade X with more ties and plot points or topics that include Xenosaga stuff. Anyways , if Saga and X end up being canon , i have a specific theory about Mira ... Mira functions as Noahs Ark , over time gathering remnants of each Alien Lifeform to prevent their extinction. Why ? Well because in Saga the Universe kinda ends and gets rebuild over and over again until Shion makes a decision , so in Saga not having Aliens might be just because long before the Saga plot starts all Alien Lifeforms got purged from the Universe by the expanding Humans , and heres where Mira might come into place gathering a bunch of all the different Alien Species for after the Universe gets rebuild to repopulate them. And then wiped out again collected again and the cycle repeats. And this dosnt conflict with Saga because the people on Mira cant actually leave the place , so them being hidden basicly from the rest of the Universe is possible in their pocket dimension. So Mira could be thing Wilhelm created to keep the cycle going , or it could be the will of the Universe itself , or something a higher power from the upper domain created to prevent total extinction in the lower domain.

"KOS-MOS falling towards earth" - I heard that theory alot , it just dosnt make any sense to me. KOS-MOS and T-Elos in the Xenoblade Universe Canon were in XC2 so going from there they should be in their Core Crystals and integrated into Origin. Xenosagas plot and KOS-MOS original creation plays what ... 4000 years in the future of Lost Jerusalem aka Earths vanishing ... in every Universe / Time cycle ... so there is certainly some time shenanigans not fitting here. - My theory is : Lin says in the ending cutscene of XCX that she dosnt believe that earth got destroyed and some other ships might also have survived , so she plans on venture out to search for their planet of Origin at some point. So the blue light approaching earth is imo some people from Mira , hopefully Elma and Lin. Alternatively they also mentioned Icarus , so it might be that Ship coming back for some reason.

I can get past all the complicated stuff of XC2 but the fact I can only have one save and need to override my beaten save to play NG+ shouldn't have been allowed in 2017

Wait xenogear and xenosaga are linked to xenoblade lore? @_@

I also played X first, then 2, 1, and finally 3. Any order definitely works!

you should start with 2 and Torna cause its the best

started with 2. waites for XCDE, then played 3, and still havenplayed X but that will happen eventually. and yes, XC2 is my favorite game of all time

My Xenoblade order was 2, 1, 3

I played 2 first, loved it and dumped 500 hours into it, excitedly bought the XB1 port, and burned out at like half way through, just didn't grab me the same way, it was still pretty good, but not the same as 2, I eventually forced my way through the rest of the game and DLC, but other than a couple brief glimpses of future improvements to come in the sequels, just didn't feel the same. Luckily XB3 grabbed me the same way as 2, I didn't dump nearly as many hours at the end, but also 3's postgame isn't as exciting as 2's was.

My only experience with XB2 base game was watching a younger cousin play it on Christmas in their living room and getting second hand embarrassment from family's reactions to the opening 2 hours I could see my cousins soul leave his body when Pura told rex to touch her chest

Future redeemed dlc in 3 definitely requires to have played 1 and 2. So while I agree that you can play 1 and 2 in any order. I’d say it’d be better to play those before 3. Since in the main game of 3 there are still a lot of references and a couple of characters from the previous games. The very last scene in 3 also won’t hit the same since it makes a huge reference to 2 that got a lot of people. lol

The order I'm playing them in: I got through a few hours of 1, decided I liked it and now my order is: 3, FR, 2, Torna I haven't beat 1, FC or X yet.

I played 2, then played like the first sixt of 1, then played a third of 3, then my switch malfunctioned so I waited to play the rest, played until the fight with D and J, played definitive edition and then finished X3. I am currently playing FR and maybe I will play torna in the future but I sold my copy of 2 trying to buy a bargain on X2 especial edition but once I returned it was alredy sold.

agreed, start with saga

I played 2, 1, then 3. My favorite is 1 but I wanna replay all of them

The fact that so many blades have horns, really calls back to the core rule of blades, that being their appearances are effected by their first drivers. The fact that most blades are humanoid, but some are bestial, and many like Wulfric are first awakened by monsters and physically reflect this, really lends credence to the claim that there were horned Alrestians we just didn't see. Combined with Fiona's crystal type, and her lack of any other blade effects, and the amount of horned Agnians, I fall on the side of Titan of Horned Alrestians we weren't previously privy to.

This is a weirdly tricky topic, because logically, you should just play the games in order. They were releases in order, and you get the maximum effect of the narrative that way. But I've always sort of felt like playing Xc1 first kinda sets a bad president in terms of what one can expect from the series. Xc1 has all this hype and reputation behind it, and I feel that hype and reputation has had a negative effect on both Xc1 itself and on the series as a whole. For one, a lot of people take Xc1's reputation at face value and feel pressured to ignore its shortcomings, and other people find themselves frustrated if the game doesn't live up to the hype. Not to mention Xc1 is rather different than the other two, in terms of writing, structure, and gameplay. Xc1 wasn't made the same way 2 and 3 were, and I feel it kinds works better as a middle game, rather than a first game. And just in general, I think Xc2 is an easier game to figure out. Like yeah, "tutorials bad" blah, blah, blah, but in terms of the way game mechanics are paced out and introduced Xc2 is much better at slowly introducing its mechanics and building up the core Xenoblade series gameplay loop over time, than Xc1 is. Xc1 throws a lot at you right at the start, and in my experience watching dozens of people play the series online, Xc1's mechanics tend not to set in as naturally as Xc2's. Xc1 has much simpler total gameplay, but its quite a bit denser. getting an optimal build in Xc1 requires a lot more work than in Xc2. you spend way more time in xc1 menus in terms of moment to moment gameplay than in Xc2, and Xc1's system of no damage to enemies five levels higher makes leveling up much more time consuming. I've found watching people play the series over the years, people end Xc2 with much better understandings of that game's combat than Xc1.

ALWAYS PLAY IN ORDER! 1, 2 & 3. From that order. It is the optimal path and always will be and that's coming from me who started with XC2. Things in the story plays out in a way that connects all three games. Without having played from 1 to 2 to 3, you will be confused and go "Who?? What??" at certain parts if you don't play in the correct order. The entire premise and world building starts with XC1 and while XC2's world is very different from XC1, you will understand why if you've played the first game. The ENTIRETY of XC3 is XC1 and XC2 from the get go and you will only understand by having played both prior games.

Start the franchise with the best game ever Xenoblade 1 duh . Xenoblade 2 just like Xenoblade x can start slow and way too many battle systems at once can be a turn off to new player's. Specially that super happy song in first town of 2 might think its a kids game. Xenoblade 3 is however really polished almost perfect.

obviously you should play in chronological order of Xenoblade 2: Torna, Xenoblade 1, Xenoblade 2, Future Connected, Future Redeemed, Xenoblade 3.

I started with Xenoblade 1 on 3DS, then Xenoblade X, 2, Xenoblade DE + Future Connected, 3, then Future Redeemed. Yes, they're all amazing games.

Yes there's not a definitive order to play them... But I would leave XC3 last

My order was: -2 -torna -1 -3 -f. Connected -f. Redeemed

edit: just play in order please, for the best experience.. 1 > 2 > 3 > X (....yeah X is number 10 so... last) There is like 0 reason to not play this game in Order I would recommend starting with 1 The experience of playing this game in order is a Resonant pulse But yeah you can do anything you like, lots of people don't like being told anything If i can forget all of my xenoblade playthrough i would still played them in Order It's wonderful.

I played the trilogy in release order. I feel this is the best one *************** Spoilers for those all three games ****************** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Well, maybe XC1 or XC2 could be the start since they tie really well. If you play 1, you'll freak out when Malos pull out a Monado, Chapter 10 start or the "today we use our power to fell a god" line. If you play 2, you'll pick up on Ontos' core when Alvis appears, the similarities between the Monado / Aegis swords and Zanza / Klaus. So XC1 and XC2 can be interchanged. But if you'll really want to enjoy XC3 to the fullest, you'll need to play the previous ones. XC3 has lots of references and the world is just a big call back to Alrest and Bionis / Mechonis. Hearing the returning soundtracks in Swordmarch and Elaice highway was beautiful

My experience with Xenoblade games is a bit weird because i didn't played in the orders and also played several games at the same time. Here is my timeline: December 2011: Starting Xenoblade 1 on Wii November 2022: Starting Xenoblade 3 April 2023: finishing Xenoblade 1 on Wii April 2023: Starting Xenoblade 2 June 2023: finishing Xenoblade 2 chapter 7 and Starting Torna DLC June 2023: finishing Torna DLC July 2023: finishing Xenoblade 2 Augustus 2023: finidhing Xenoblade 3(breaking my heart😭) , starting Future Redeemed DLC and finishing it So yeah to me until 2023, Xenoblade was just one game and not a franchise, when the xc2 i didn't have a switch and didn't like the art direction it had, everything seemed so different than the first one that i didn't care about it. This was also a moment where I stopped playing video games. That's why I didn't finish xc1wii at the time. Even if I knew I wanted to finish it one day. And suddenly, in summer 2022 my sister got a switch for her birthday, this is the moment that put me back in the videos games. Also, i just saw a short trailer of xc3 and it seemed more serious than xc2 so it convinced me to finally give it a new chance to Xenoblade, I absolutely didn't know that the 3 games were connected, I just saw that you could play the game in any orders. It's only with the first battle against Queen Keves that I realised I was fighting against Melia from Xenoblade 1😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 and it made me appreciate the game a lot more!

Played XC3 first. I loved that game and I also fully understood it without the context of the other ones. Because I loved XC3 so much, I decided to play the others as well. But I did not play XC1. I played XC2. Then I played XC2 DLC. Then XC1 and ended with XC3 DLC. I do not know if there is a DLC for XC1 too, I did not get that one. But maan, what a series/ XC is also my favorite series of games of all time, like is the case for many other players.

While you can play the games in any order, I’d definitely recommend playing Xenoblade 1 and 2 before 3 because of all of the refrences that you wouldn’t get if 3 is your first game

Not going to lie, you really did change my mind about starting with the main story of XC3, but i still wouldn't recommend it, because if you played XC3, you'd want to play Future Redeemed after, but you basically NEED to play XC1 & XC2 before, so you'd go to play XC1 & XC2, but then, by the time you're done with them, you might forget some things about XC3 that would be vital for your Future Redeemed playthrough. Thus, i'd still recommend playing XC1, then FC, then XC2, then Torna, then XC3, then Future Redeemed.

You can absolutely start with any of the games, (EXCEPT Future Redeemed, lmao) but i would highly dissaprove of starting with the main story of XC3, and i would still also slightly dissaprove of playing XC2 first before XC1 and then XC3, even though i started with XC2, then played XC3's main story, then XC1, then Future Redeemed when it came out. In my case, this weird order didn't end up mattering TOO much, (even though XC1: DE was out already by the time i decided to get into the series with XC2) since i became such a MASSIVE fan of the series, and ended up replaying every Xenoblade game a countless amount of times, and watching countless reactions of other people to the games on YT, too. About Gears & Saga, you should definitely at least play them before Future Redeemed, either just before them, or before the Xenoblade series.

me watching this like i didnt play all 3 plus x already

My first xenoblade experience is torna then X.C 2 ,then X.C 1 then X.C 3 But Still i dont finished first those game. Im currently Playing X.C 1 . I love this X.C franchise waiting for X.C .X on switch

Harry Mcentire played Future Redeemed before he played the the first two games. And that was clearly the wrong move.

You can play 1 and 2 in either order, but 3 and FR need to be played last

If you don't play Xenoblade, did you really live?

Play all of them starting with the originalg. Don't overthink it; each part has something valuable to offer.

I am started with 2 too. I never even felt I missing something at all. The game is solid and great and when I revert to 1 and then 3 it actually make me love 1 and 3 more too. But honestly the very first Xenoblade I played was X not 2.