Xenoblade Unravelled: The Beginning
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- The first in a series of videos diving deep into Xenoblade's plot, exploring its many deep messages, hidden elements, and philosophical ideas. Xenoblade 1 Spoilers
Topics of this video include:
What is the Xenoblade universe, and how does it work? How and why did it come into being? How is it different from our world? Where did the Bionis and the Mechonis come from? What is Alvis, and what are his roles in all of this?
Cutscene Playlist by Impetus Games: • Xenoblade Chronicles -...
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"Alright Flat-Earthers, explain this!"
*Shows a picture of Bionis*
Also, this is a great video. Can't wait for more of this series!
@@Kirusei Lol. And thanks!!
*But I''m a Flat-Bioniser*
@@Kirusei also, same
This series seems promising. The story in this game is the gift that never stops giving.
What I want to know is why Juju's buggy was a major issue. Did he forget you can open the map and simply fast travel between areas? Why was his buggy being broken such a big deal considering everyone in the xenoblade universe can just break time and space? Erico if you can respond to this comment with some insight I would greatly appreciate it. It's been bothering me for many months and I've lost sleep over it. In addition, I am a shulk main. But I am possibly Ryu now. Still a Shulk main though but will never drop shulk. His is my everything, my counterpick. Heir to the monado.
Hey apathy lol. I know you're not being serious, but I'm going to treat it like you are :P.
So... the way I interpret skip traveling is that it's not actually the characters are teleporting or moving faster but rather the game just does not display the time they were moving to us. Otherwise though, I would say this represents one of many disconnects there are between the overworld and canonical cutscenes, a common issue in JRPG's especially. There are other things you can look at as well, like the Bunnit and many creatures who are stronger than Zanza or that Shulk can heal people somehow using ether despite it being talked about only Sharla can do that. For the most part, these little details are meant to be ignored and considered not canon.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the video!
Asking the real questions
What would be the point of creating a universe without Reyn? Ya can't have space without time, baby!
Ooh can't wait for this. Also hi, I'm Owen, I'm the guy who posted a mini-essay in the comment section of Paradigm's issues with the ending of XC1. While I doubt these will get anywhere near as long as that reactive writing, I still intend to offer my own thoughts and such about the game. Don't worry, I'll stay strictly within the confines of XC1 lorewise, I won't go out to any other games in the Xeno series, unless I'm talking thematics. But for the sake of these thoughts and videos, I will only reference XC1 material
So the central theme of the Xeno series, especially early on when it was name dropped a lot, was this idea of "Ye Shall Be As Gods" which of course is the idea of humans attaining divine power. I personally this theme as a kind of Icarus story, of flying too close to the sun. Xenoblade 1 heavily supports this idea, with the one who WANTED to become god, Klaus, falling farther away from truth than ever, and the one who had no desire whatsoever, Shulk, to become ascended, and achieved an even greater state of enlightenment by choosing to reject godhood.
While calling Klaus the greatest killer isn't entirely false, it could also be understood that Klaus assimilated the entirety of earth into a singularity, and that raw energy is what became the universe of XC1. This isn't crazy talk either. From what I understand of the XC1 Secret Monado Archives (my friend relayed this info to me btw): "Due to the influence of the Phase Transition Experiment, a Closed World isolated from the other universe was born"
implying that while Earth as we know it was destroyed, the universe as a whole remained
There's no evidence that Klaus and Meyneth remember their time as humans, evidenced by the way they speak to each other. They treat each other (and themselves) as beings that have existed since all eternity ("all that I am is fading. The memory of a god's existence, born from the chaos of creation, it is vanishing"). Though Memory Space is indeed an area that exists, I believe that is actually Alvis's memory, rather than Zanza's, which actually makes a lot of sense, since Alvis uses the space far more often than Zanza ever did.
Xenoblade likes to borrow ideas from different religions a LOT of the time, so it should go without saying that the scene of Zanza and Meyneth creating life in their own image HEAVILY mirrors the Book of Genesis.
Another thing worth mentioning in the world being certainly flat, not round, in XC1, due to the fact that the universe could be seen as a bunch of fragments lying around in a flat plane (a visual shown in the rebirth of the world). In terms of why this works in a closed off "isolated" space, I like to think of it like in math, in that there is an infinite number of fractions between two whole numbers. Infinity has many different meanings, based on how you define it, and XC1's universe could work under 1 of many different definitions. Just a thought
And that's all I got for this particular episode. The only thing I'm gonna say is be sure you are aware of Gnosticism (particularly the relationship between Monad-Sophia-Demiurge) and Monadology as you go forward in these episodes. Other than that, good job can't wait for the next one.
Thank-you! Rest assured I have done research into Gnosticism and Monadology and definitely see the heavy influences they have had on the story of Xenoblade.
You're also right that there is no information about if they remember their past lives or not. That is something that's definitely unknown to me still, and I can see arguments either way but nothing really strong either way.
I actually agree with you about Memory Space hehe, and there's a lot more to Memory Space than meets the eye. I will just say that for now. :)
"Implying that while Earth as we know it was destroyed, the universe as a whole remained" - I actually don't see the same implication here, if I am understanding you correctly.
My interpretation of your quote: "Due to the influence of the Phase Transition Experiment, a Closed World isolated from the other universe was born" is that it's saying is a new universe was born that is a completely different, closed off universe from the previous one. It doesn't say anything about what happened to the other universe though. However, Alvis in game gives us this insight when he says the curiosity of a single man *destroyed the universe* and created a *new one*. That's all I have to disagree with though!
Thank-you again! Please let me know if you have any further thoughts, and I hope to see you in future videos as well!
@@ParadigmShulk Yep! No prob, looking forward to future episodes
Wow I thought you were kidding with the monadology but it exists. Gotta check that out
You know what’s weird, that there is a cutscene in xenoblade 2 that either contradicts this or expands what limited perspective alvis had during 3:06
Accurate summary of the theories we've heard and discussed over the past 8 years! Keep it up.
Thank-you Valak!
I LOVE THIS
I LOVE THIS
I LOVE THIS
I LOVE THIS
I LOVE THIS
:D
Same
Re: 10:24
For the record, that's 586,920,000,000,000 Miles, in case you were wondering.
Feel free to correct that figure
Nice, that also really puts it into perspective haha
Xenoblade has also been my favorite game for over 5 years. As someone who is always eager for more content and discussion regarding this game, I really appreciate what you're doing. Excited to see more!
Awesome, thank-you! There's a lot more cool stuff to look forward to :)
Please do this for xenoblade 2 and X as well
Thanks, I think I will!
@@ParadigmShulk Please do! As much as I enjoy the concept of this series, after having completed XC2 myself, it just feels kind of incomplete without some of the critical information that is revealed in that game. An examination of both mainline games, or possibly even all 3 together in some capacity, would be more fascinating in my opinion.
@@ParadigmShulk Xenoblade 2 Is connected to Xenoblade1 And it all starts with Klaus And the beginning the universe as well as a thing called conduit You forgot that part Cause you technically we're spoiling Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 2
Awesome video!! I'm very much looking forward to the next parts when they're ready!!
Thank-you!! We like your videos by the way!
4:19 basically Shulk beat Zanza but um...
Which means Shulk is now a god. And what does he do, he gives up on being a f***ing God
This is awesome! As a Xenoblade fan who's interested in learning more and more about this masterpiece, I'm really excited for this series :)
I unfortunately had to spoil me the end of Xenoblade because after 5 years, I never managed to finish it so I watched the end through gameplays 😭
I'm already starting episode 10 of Xenoblade 2 and I haven't played Xenoblade X so please don't spoil it to me.
I found fascinating the conection between this games and as you mentioned, many details of the world aren't highlighted through the story but on little details and by talking with NPCs. I can't describe how much I loved my journey through Bionis and Mechonis and now Alrest.
I can't wait for the next video!
I won't spoil XC2/XCX so don't worry! If I do a video on them, they would be clearly labelled as for the particular game. I agree. And thank-you!
you can't answer who alvis is without x2... SOO much is answered in the sequel. killer video tho man
How did I not find this channel earlier? This channel is *made* for me
i read almost all the comments and they really make me fucking happy :)
when i first saw xenoblade chronicles, it was on the shelf in a gamestore for only 10 bucks, so i asked my parents if they could buy it for me
i never heard of this game
when i finished the game for like the 3rd time, i wanted more, this is when i first discovered chuggaaconroys lp of xc
the moment i found out that shulk will be in smash, i knew i had to get a wii u, i got it in a xcx bundle
nintendo was promoting shulk with smash and the franchise was getting a scifi sequel game, i couldnt be happier
but it only got better with time
bc xenoblade chronicles 2 was one of the games that were announced to be in the first year of the switch, so i also had to get a switch
it is amazing how much love xc2 got
it got pushed by nintendo very hard, having its own direct, also selling over a million copies
there are youtubers dedicated to xenoblade content and so many amazing music remixes
i never played xenogears\saga, but i watched all the cutscenes and watched
ead reviews just to get a picture how much the games changed\improved over time
what i'm trying to say is, it feels absolutely amazing being a part of a community with so much love for a franchise
i could never imagine having this experience, when i saw this cheap game in the store
i have so many fond memories and eye opening experiences with the xenoblade games, i truly want to thank tetsuya takahashi and his team, for creating masterpiece after masterpiece and thank you erico for showing me once again that this game truly is something special, you just got a subscriber :)
sorry if some things were hard to follow, me not so good with articulation
Underrated channel, keep up the good work
The xenoblade universe makes me uncomfortable, because it seems as if the creator of OUR Earth & our universe seemed to have his or her shit much more together. They created an entire elaborate universe, had a better creative mind, and created much larger spaces for living beings to exist.
It’s always felt as if the Xenoblade universe, even after Shulk “saves” it, has felt as if it will always remain horribly stagnant, and I worry for the sake of all life. It only would take one nasty war to end all life, for all of reality, forever. Imagine the universe stuck forever as just endless ocean and Alvis.
This is a video series I never knew I wanted... till now. Looking forward to the future!
Yay! I can't wait to get more of these videos out. Thank-you!
Looking forward to more of this. Nice job! :3
Glad to hear you like it. Thanks!
This is amazing! Can’t wait for the next part!
Yay, thank-you!
This is great. Xenoblade's story was breathtaking and it keeps getting better
The world of Xenoblade is endlessly fascinating to me. Loved the video!
Wow i've played this game so many times and even 100%'d it and didn't know some stuff in this video. I have a bit of bias though and the only area where I can say I've talked to every NPC is machina village. (And yeah I accounted for dialogue changing between plot events and different unnamed NPCs appearing at different times in the day)
Playing Xenoblade Chronicles made me wish there were more N3DS exclusive games. It's probably one of the best games if not, the best games I've ever played on the N3DS.
The game debuted on the wii and was then ported to the wii u and new 3ds
It was really interesting to see it ported to N3DS! It really did a great job of giving the game more exposure, and giving people to play it who hadn't had the chance before (especially considering how scummy gamestop treated XC Wii). It is such a great game though! I hope it gets an HD remake some day.
@@ParadigmShulk It may come to switch but I feel like if Nintendo were going to do that they would of done it before XC2
@@reyntime738 One can only hope though ;v;
I wonder what happened to this. Is there going to be a part 2?
7.8/10 not enough land
Yeah man, it's a lot of frickin water haha. I notice there's fish in the sea around Fallen arm, so I wonder if there's actually like some sort of crazy aquatic life in that vast sea. I also wonder is it fresh water?
Can't wait for more of this series to see if I ever missed anything
I hope I don't disappoint!
Very nice stuff. At first it seemed like you were just narrating the cutscenes but later on it got deeper. The flat earth theory is very unexpected and interesting.
Did they change the textures for the footage? Shulk's face looks uncanny and his way too white eyes are weird
I love how this can be used to learn more about my favorite game but I’m gonna be sad that this series will greatly reduce the number of new things to learn about when it comes to the story.
I'm not sure what to say, haha! I'm glad you are going to enjoy learning new things, and I think don't take it too far to heart about how there might be less things to discover because of it. I'm going to uncover some cool stuff, but this is a very deep game so I definitely won't get everything. Honestly, you could probably even build off of this series and take the understanding to completely new levels I had never even imagined!
Damn that was cool, can't wait form more analysis on my favorite game ever
This is sick. Can't wait for the next part.
Thank-you, Selah!
@@ParadigmShulk NO THANK YOU YOU BEAUTIFUL BOY
@@SillySelah You're too kind ;v;
Great video, I'm definitely looking forward to the next one. Just out of curiosity, how much do you like the other Xeno games compared to XC?
Thank-you!! Mm to tell you the truth, I have several issues with the other Xeno games in terms of game design. I like XC1 the most by far, Torna 2nd, XCX third, and XC2 fourth. I could go into more detail about why, if you would like!
@@ParadigmShulk Sure, if you're (really) feeling it. I enjoyed them all, though XC1 is my favorite as well. I haven't played Xenogears or Xenosaga, so I might check those out (I've heard that Xenogears is really good). Thanks for the answer.
@@meafius Right, I haven't played Saga/Gears either. Okay! So in the original, I liked pretty much all aspects of the game. I loved the story, exploration, and characters. I enjoyed the combat a lot because there was a lot of cool things to experiment around with, and I think my appreciation for it actually came from how I specifically played it without topple locking heh. I also loved the visual appeal of the game, the amazing environments and beautiful scenery.
With Xenoblade X, I came to dislike many of the things I loved. I no longer enjoyed combat, but rather found it more of a chore. There were some times I remember having fun with the combat, but over-shining those moments were the many times I was frustrated with it, especially in the main storyline. I found the story still interesting, but it was stripped down due to being less of the focus. I think the main focus was supposed to be exploration, which I both had fun with and took issue with. It was fun to explore beyond where I felt I was 'supposed to go' in the game, but I often found myself cock-blocked by the 'blade level' requirements for the mining locations. I also found myself twice feeling like all exploration I had done previously in the game was worthless, because I got an upgrade. I actually did a lot of exploration on foot before getting a Skell, which I felt a little proud about, but then getting a Skell made that all seem worthless. I adjusted to this, and with my new Skell I continued to explore, driving and jumping to new heights... but then I got flight and the same exact thing happened again. Now with flight, exploration was no longer something of any difficulty but rather just a time investment, which did not feel very rewarding anymore. Anyways, moving on, the characters were more dry and less developed. I didn't like Tatsu at all despite liking Riki, I didn't like Lin much at all, and the main character (Cross) was a shell of a person, which disappointed me after liking Shulk so much. Elma was the most interesting out of the bunch. Some of the side characters were neat, but unfortunately were just side characters. Something I really did appreciate in the game though was the visual appeal of it, I think actually having the best graphics of the Xenoblade series.
I was excited for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 with reviewers I watched saying it did everything the original did but better. Unfortunately, after playing it, I really disagree. Firstly, Xenoblade 2's story just didn't appeal to me as much as the original game. It had many flaws, which I don't want to go too far into because I could talk for hours about it. In addition to the story issues, the characters were way less gripping. For most of the game, I found myself very frustrated with Rex, Pyra, and Mythra. Having a likeable main character is a pretty big deal, and Rex was just not that for me. Pyra was a generic love interest for the most part, while Mythra was a generic Tsunedre. I wasn't very happy about either of their physical designs either, but I imagine if I was several years younger I would be. Actually, Rex/Pyra/Mythra make me wonder if the game was designed for someone much younger. Anyways, I also disliked Tora for the most part and disliked Poppi until she started to grow on me later in the game. I didn't like Nia at the start, but I was glad to see she grew as a person as the game went on. I kind of liked Morag. Zeke was incredibly annoying and not funny to me in the starting cutscenes, but developed into a legitimate character thankfully. I also felt like most of the villains were pretty generic -- Bana (generic greedy businessman meme), Malos (one dimensional evil... but cool). Jin was the only villain who went beyond being generic. ANYWAYS moving on from the story and characters (supposed to be a huge aspect of the game that they did a poor job with), I took huge issue with the exploration in the game. Remember the cock blocks I talked about in XCX? Even worse now. As you try to explore areas, you're constantly being cock blocked by not having the skills necessary to continue. This was a bad idea, because it really just encourages only exploring the areas when you are in late-game rather than exploring as you go. This is poor because you want players to be excited about coming to a new area, because there's so much new they can explore. Instead, it was more rewarding to save the exploration for later. Moving on, the combat was also just really too complex and for me just wasn't much fun. It got better as you went through the game, but never reached the same level of fun it was for me in the original game. I was also pretty disappointed with the graphics. I didn't like the heavy antialiasing, and if you paid attention, things were often hugely pixelated, and everyone's faces had this weird glow around it from the antialiasing. I don't really understand why they had to run it in 720p (or 480 if in handheld) despite the Switch's higher graphics capabilities. Surely, there must have been something they could have done better to prevent this? Scale back the model, texture, and graphic details a bit maybe? There were also times where we had major framerate issues. But hey, despite graphics issues, Uraya was actually fairly pretty at least?
Torna improved on many of the issues of XC2 with better main characters and a more fun / less complicated combat system. Unfortunately, it was a much shorter game, and the story went a lot less in depth. Regardless, I actually liked it more than XC2. I think I had more fun with it than XCX too. There also weren't as many cockblocks with the exploration, but even when there were (like needing Brighid's lockpicking skill at lv 3), having a set party allowed you to remember what characters had the skills you needed, and you could actually work toward them. This is a major improvement over XC2, where you had no idea what the hell was going on with skills, because you had a million of these damn blades.
Anyways, despite all of my issues with the more recent Xenoblades, the improvements I saw in Torna have me hopeful for future games. Please, do not let me down, Monolith Soft.
@@ParadigmShulk Interesting read, thanks. My enjoyment of them seems to be a bit different, but that probably stems from the order in which I played them (XCX -> XC2 -> XC -> Torna). I'm not sure exactly how I'd rank them myself, but I appreciate your insight.
Now that half life 3 came out there is no more excuse to do a part 2 of this show.
I'm planning on a big reboot to this series! I've just gotten caught up with heading the Xenoblade Secret Files translation project! Thank-you!
I chuckled real loud at the 7.8/10
Cannot say more but
Thank you.
You're welcome!
I want to see the worlds of 1 and 2 unraveled how they exist side by side
I'll be getting to this eventually!
You think you'll continue this series once DE comes out?
When’s that memory space episode coming out.
the music and voice acting made xc what it is.
Yeah, I really love those aspects of it as well. All around, I think it really is a game deserving of the title masterpiece.
So when Shulk and Co. go to space and see all the original solar sy Wait wtf just as I was typing it you started talking about it LMAO
Funny how fort the first episode you basically talk about the ending of the game lol
Good video though!
Hehe, yeah. And it won't be until a few episodes I get in that I'll talk about the stuff at the beginning haha. Thanks!
3:24 shulk your now a god!😇
Me: So shulk what are you going to do now that your a god?😀
Shulk: nothing😐
Me: why?😙
Shulk: because I want a regular world, where we can live in peace🙂
Me: than why did you F***ing beat up a god with two over powered swords?😠
Shulk: I don't know 😕
Me: that's kinda stupid 😞
Shulk: I'm really feeling it 😄
Me: shut up you nimrod 😒
The original was better, but the story was F***ed up
Well zanza was going to kill all life on bionis.
I feel now’s a time to clarify something people don’t understand here: Shulk was a ‘God’ BEFORE the game began, Alvis actually says this himself:
Alvis- “The old god was defeated by the New God, that he himself created.”
Shulk- “New God!?”
Alvis- “Yes; That is why I appeared before you, Shulk.”
(Xenoblade Chronicles, Cutscene 158)
While this cutscene implies that Shulk became a God when he killed Zanza, this is not the case as the Timeline established by Alvis also in this cutscene wouldn’t make sense; according to what Alvis is saying, he appeared before Shulk because Shulk became a God. Except Alvis initially appeared in Tephra Cave. Also, Alvis hints when he’s speaking to Shulk again later on that Zanza has a motive for trying to wipe out the universe, which is to say that he’s afraid of Shulk; Shulk can Kill him.
Also Xenoblade games hold a power system consistent with Leibniz’a Monadology concepts, which basically state that when a God kills a Non-God then the Non-God becomes a God- Among MANY, MANY other things.
Very nice
Thank-you!
if you need some heart to hearts, i have all the green ones in my channel, just saying if you want to use them in future vids
Thank-you!
Will you eventually do this for the other games as well?
I'm definitely thinking so!
god XC1 is so underrated :(
At least they put Shulk in Smash
@@davidoprean7372 ikr! im so happy that he is in smash
Is it? I remember many people would consider it a masterpiece!
@@ParadigmShulk yeah I myself also consider it a master piece but there aren't really many people who completed XC1 compared to how many people completed other games, which makes it kind of hard to find people who actually have played the game :(
Still though, great video! Please keep on going more in depth about the game :)
@@dannyalian Oh I see haha yeah. Thank-you, I will!!
So, nothing to do with the video, but I have to say, I don't like the "HD" cutscenes. It may make things less grainy and more sharp, but they were grainy for a reason: to hide the poor quality. Kind of like Twilight Princess HD, where they took away the filter the original used to disguise its bad models and textures.
Ah yeah I see what you mean. I was personally debating on using source quality cutscenes, but I weighed it by some other folks in the Shulk discord and they all agreed it was better to use HD. But I didn't want to use Helsionium because of the whacky outfits he chose haha, so I was happy to find this series which is both HD and uses the OG outfits! But hey actually since you brought it up, you should check out the playlist I was going to use if I did source quality cutscenes! ruclips.net/p/PLcqrtNcgfCI3t7GYz0B5OgeqfmC6kMQPX
@@ParadigmShulk Yeah I get that. Helsionium really does do some wacky outfits, and he also really loves glasses. Also he is using New Game+, so Shulk has the Monado 1 or 2 in some cutscenes, but then others with the Monado 3. A whole playthrough with their OG outfits is really nice. But hey! That playlist has some pretty good choices mostly. I like it.
Oh oh does this mean you're going to do xenoblade X later. Does this mean you'll talk about the xenosaga connections. XENOSAGA BEST XENO
I will definitely be doing Xenoblade X later. I have not actually played Xenosaga, but I actually read it was supposed to be unconnected! Could you tell me more about these connections?
@@ParadigmShulk officially they are unconnected, but they share enough common themes, plot points, motifs, etc that an argument could be made for their linkage. I myself have been trying to make a theory on that exact topic
@@ParadigmShulk it's more of a tribute. There are a lot of similarities that is it clearly supposed to be kind of like an alternate setting to xenosaga. The whole leaving earth thing and then a lot of stuff that happens in game are very similar to the xenosaga story. I've also heard that xenoblade 1 and 2 have a bunch of references to xenogears. I know most of the xeno games have or reference the zohar which I believe is a thing from gears. So yeah basically one giant xeno multiverse thus the name xeno
@@TransShadow42 ruclips.net/video/Dn1wXyBfBE8/видео.html
Replace Bungie with Monolith
@@TransShadow42 @LEGOdawg2001 Oh I see! That makes sense. I'm currently doing a blind watch-through of Xenogears cutscenes with Para haha, so I look forward to seeing those!
Very glad you completely disregard Xenoblade 2 and its character murder of Zanza.