Xenoblade Chronicles 3: An (ever-so-slightly!) Messy Middle! [REVIEW SERIES P2]

Hello everyone! This is part 2 of my story review series for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and this time we're discussing the middle section of the narrative! Please Enjoy :)
Flute Trade Scene Breakdown Video: • Xenoblade Chronicles 3...
Cutscenes Courtesy of:
- Helsionium
- Collector Togami
Material shown belongs to MonolithSoft and Nintendo.
Games shown:
- Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3

[@MrBergste]

I wish I could analyze stories and scenes as well as you do. All I can do is walk away from a story or scene and feel a certain way about it, but I can rarely put into words or fully understand why I feel that way about it exactly. Your videos help dramatically with that.

[@linkalot7415]

aww thank you man thats really kind :) what a lovely thing to say. glad i could help, take care brother

[@Zanolith]

While I don’t agree with a lot you said here (3 is my favorite some I’m a little biased) all of these are valid criticisms and storytelling is always subjective. I will say I was a little let down by the whole robot stuff, but after seeing what they did with the queens I prefer it. Funny story though, when I was fighting Melia in ch4 I was screaming shit like “I know we friend zoned you but we can talk about this right?” 😂😂

[@fourthstrongest]

i feel like joran not breaking and showing an older sign on himself with his first encounter with ouroboros is meant to serve as him masking and also for mystery. yeah, it would be instantly gratifying for us to know he's more dimensional immediately, but at that point in the story we don't even know that previous lives exist. his first encounter is meant to serve as intrigue and get the audience questioning how intense and unhinged moebius is. he gives us part of an explanation, but i think the contrast of his old persona with his new is done to be jarring and perplexing. i think showing him falter in their first encounter would make his further encounters just seem unnecessary or even more predictable than he already ends up being you also say that ethel is not shown to be selfish, and while she mostly isn't, she does get her whole colony demoted because she let cammuravi go. that was a huge blow that many people had to suffer through because of a decision that only she made. they're happy to still have her as a commander and mostly forgive and support her through it, but that scene makes it evident that her connection and rivalry with cammuravi is more important to her than her colony, so it's not exactly inconsistent regardless of these disagreements, i look forward to the rest of this project!

[@linkalot7415]

thanks for your input man, you make some solid points tbh! maybe i was wrong with some of my commentary here. thanks for watching brother, take care

[@tuckerhoog9609]

I don't know if their motivations to become moebius are so much that they were weak and got the chance to be strong as much as it's that they couldn't accept being weak in the world and instead choose to be all about themselves. They couldn't accept being trampled on, having to deal with death, not being able to play for forever, not being the same as their model childhood friend, etc. So they become moebius when they can't accept that. In place of being unable to accept these realities they get to be all about themselves. As Z said "the self is all that exists" (or something like that) and that's what they're about. I like Js and Ms ending because they reject being moebius by doing away with their self and embrace themselves in their vulnerability.

[@SD-zm5qg]

I will say that I agree with the idea that the Melia robot plot twist did not feel very earned especially in the case of other Xenoblade titles, but I feel that Melia being a robot was to push the meta-narrative that the soldiers in each country practically worship and die for a puppet figurehead (often as it was (and sometimes is in real life) who is predominantly influenced by the government (in this scenario: moebius). This twist kinda had a bit more of an impact on me as a result of realising that this was the message. I fully agree though on the Ethel and Camuravi's deaths as much as I love the message of it, and it showcasing Ouroborus' impact on the world. It just didn't quite feel right to me and I think its due to the amount of time we were given with these characters and how they just randomly decided this was the action they wanted to commit to. All in all I agreed with most of your other thoughts and liked rethinking the importance of these scenes, can't wait to hear your thoughts on the last act!

[@linkalot7415]

Thanks for your very well written comment, and for watching! I think I agree with you on the robot Melia point 😊

[@Ontos99]

Great video dude. I actually cant wait to finish my XC3 chp 2 analysis because I want to hear your thoughts about it so much.

[@linkalot7415]

wow, high praise!! thank you man, im really honoured that the opinions of myself, a random internet stranger, mean that much to you! i look forward to watching that vid of yours too, good luck with it :))

[@JustJulyo]

A true masterpiece 👏

[@linkalot7415]

Wow, high praise! Thank you man ❤

[@Ontos99]

That 9:24 section is so well edited in haha

[@davedixson]

Great video - keep it up!

[@lpfan4491]

10:51 I mean, it is explained in the game why he has that knive. Long after this scene, which is not the most ideal thing, but it is explained.

[@aylinilya.]

11:00 best explanation i can give to joran acting this was is he probably feels like he needs to prove himself since he’s always been that weakling. also he’s a kid, kids are somewhat stupid and usually blindly follow role models, in this case moebius

[@hix299]

My criticism with Takahashi is that all his games suffer from ensemble cast syndrome. Which means that you do not know who is more important to the plot and who is the stepping stone ( see Ethel, Cammuravi, Sena, and the Consuls). Also, Joran is the least cringe of the Consuls. The most cringe Consul is Consul U. What waste of dialogue and lines.

[@corrinflakes9659]

“Least cringe of consuls” implies most based or pog, which is Consul T/Triton.

[@aylinilya.]

i wouldn’t call sena a “stepping stone” i feel her arc is widely misunderstood and is one of my favourites