Reyn! Hit that yoinky sploinky, P L E A S E ! ! !
From character voicelines, real-life moments correlating to the game, and particularly funny cutscenes, the first Xenoblade's age when it comes to meme potential shows some particularly gold examples.
- Using character voicelines with Accidental Innuendo or What's a Henway? implications can be used to make...hilariously inappropriate dialogue, with "xenoblade.mp4"
and "These are nuts!" being primary examples, with the below mentioned "Shulk's Scream" being used in both of these videos. - Reyn's English battle quotes surely clicked with the internet.
- You know Reyn had to do it to 'em ExplanationReyn's new artwork from the Definitive Edition features him posing similar to the one found in a pre-existing meme featuring the caption "You know I had to do it to 'em", leading to comparisons.
- "The true final boss is Reggie of Nintendo of America". ExplanationBecause the game was originally not planned for release in North America due to declining interest in JRPGs at the time, people made jokes that the actual final boss was Reggie Fils-Aime, the at-the-time president of Nintendo of America, preventing the game from having an official release.
- To a lesser extent, "The true final boss is Gamestop." ExplanationWhen the game finally did release in North America in 2012, it was a Gamestop exclusive. And of course, because Gamestop controlled the stock and thus the price, they quickly "pulled it off shelves", lied about how many copies they had in stock, and inflated the price to over $80-100 in the US, with unlucky Canadians having to pay over $200 CAD for their copies.
- "The true final boss is eBay or Amazon." ExplanationBecause of the aformentioned price gouging by Gamestop, copies of Xenoblade would go for well over $140-$200+ on the second hand trade.
- Territorial Rotbart will murder you just for existing.ExplanationThe Bionis' Leg is infamous for having various extremely high-levelled monsters that will likely one-shot the player if they so much as look at them funny the first time they enter the area. The most infamous of them, and usually the first one encountered, is the Killer Gorilla Territorial Rotbart, which got an expy in Xenoblade Chronicles X and a "successor" of the same name in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
- Want to know if someone else is a Xenoblade fan? Start with the first line of Dunban's "Blossom Dance" poem, and sure enough they'll be rushing to finish it for you.
- Shulk's "I'm really feeling it!" has become this as of Super Smash Bros., where he's saying it in his introduction trailer and as one of his taunts.
- "I'm really feeling it!" became so popular that it became battle quotes of specific characters in both sequels, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Even better in that Shulk himself appears in the latter, and if equipped to Zeke they can say it one after the other. (Zeke even has a Southern Englander accent like most of the cast in the first Xenoblade Chronicles.)
- Monado Jump Explanation Due to many first learning of Shulk from Super Smash Bros., it's common for new players to assume there will be a Monado Jump art in the game, despite the fact this would be useless in combat and unusable outside it. This was actually an original art created for his Smash Bros moveset. There is, however, a Monado art of the same color in Monado Purge, which is first used while jumping, making it an infamous place for new players to confuse the two.
- Glorious Future Sharla. ExplanationGlorious Future is a Shulk skill that instantly maxes the Talent Art gauge after a vision. This can be linked to Sharla, whose Talent Art causes her rifle to overheat and render her useless for a few seconds. Fans found this so hilarious they challenged themselves to beat superbosses with it.
- "Do you know if Egil is part onion?"
- Someone attempted to follow that one up with "Do you know if Shulk is biologically related to paper?", but it didn't catch on quite as well.
- "Like a hot knife through butter! Ha ha ha ha!" ExplanationThe way Metal Face taunts Shulk regarding semi-killing Fiora. Accelerated with the advent of the 1000 degree knife cutting meme.
- Using the names Zanza, Bionis, and Meyneth in the manner of Oh, My Gods! tends to be frequent as well.
- "BESTEST", the description given to Riki by a nopon child shortly after returning from the battle with the Telethia, has also recently been approaching memetic levels as well, particularly among the YTP community. Other oft-quoted lines from Xenoblade YTPs include:
- "What's that you say?" / "Put a sock in it!"
- "CRASHING THE MOBILE HOUSE INTO ARTILLERY?!"
- "HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ON THE FORCE?" "40 seconds." "I DON'T WANT ANY EXCUSES!" (beat) "44 seconds."
- "CHAMPIONS DON'T WHINE, THEY dine WITH wine!" (cut to Vangarre at a dinner table with a plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine)
- "POOR MELIA" caught on after Chuggaaconroy exclaimed it several times in his Let's Play, to the point that director Tetsuya Takahashi referenced it in an interview for Definitive Edition!
- You Will Know Our Names goes with everything. ExplanationThe song is played typically during something unconventional happening or through an awesome action sequence of another media similar to that of Rules of Nature.
- "Justice for Melia!" and "Melia's out for revenge!" caught on once the "Future Connected" epilogue for the Definitive Edition was announced and Melia was all over the material for it, including the key art (which appears to show her with a Monado staff). The joke became that this was revenge for her getting the somewhat short stick of the story in the original game. Even the developers have mentioned in an interview that that's why she was included.
- "Melia's got weird eyes?!" ExplanationIn the original concept art, High Entia, especially Melia, were supposed to have an effect in their eyes wherein they had a second "inner iris" within their pupil. However, the texture resolution for the Wii and 3DS versions of the game were, shall we say, unkind to this particular detail. One of the things noticed about Melia during the March 2020 trailer for the DE was that the game finally had the detail and resolution to actually show her eyes (and she's so dead-center of the camera in a few shots that people wonder if Monolith wasn't perhaps showing this off deliberately).
- "Is Jenna Coleman back as Melia?!?!" ExplanationIn early trailers for Future Connected, Melia was left pointedly muted, leaving it unclear if Jenna Coleman, who had risen to massive fame following her original stint as Melia, would return to the role (since her asking price would likely be astronomically higher than it was back in 2011). The trailer released on May 5th only increased confusion, since it sounded like it could be Coleman, but it was hard to tell if it was a great sound-alike or if it was just Coleman being a full decade older and coming back to a role long left behind. Asking if Coleman was back as Melia became one of the central topics of discussion and speculation leading up to the DE's release. Eventually, it was revealed that yes—Coleman would indeed return as Melia.
- "Boy, puberty hit Melia like a truck." ExplanationOnce it became clear that Coleman was back as Melia, it was also clear that she... both hadn't had the same vocal training as dedicated voice actors for maintaining and expanding her vocal tone over time (Coleman having become a dedicated television performer in the decade since XB1), and also was dealing with the rather shonky voice direction that has plagued Xeno projects since XB2 and which wasn't trying very hard to get a good, matching performance out of her. The end result was Melia's very first line in Future Connected being, shall we say, just a bit deeper than one might remember. It's not helped at all by Adam Howden, her constantly-present co-star for Future Connected, both being a dedicated voiceover artist (and thus having that tone training) but also being much more used to one-take direction and having much more recent experience with Shulk, so it's a lot easier for him to slip back into his old performance. Coleman actually does settle down into the role she remembers as the game goes on (though she's still clearly struggling a bit with modern Xeno's spotty voice direction) and especially in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where her deeper voice fits Melia's Older and Wiser appearance in that game, but that first impression is still a bit of a jolt.
- Duncan and Rain ExplanationIGN's video review for Definitive Edition got Dunban and Reyn's names wrong by calling them Duncan and Rain respectively. Fans responded by creating images making fun of it, such as putting Dunban's face over a can or replacing Dunban with a character named Duncan, most commonly the one from Total Drama.
- Egg McMuffin inside of ham. ExplanationA common mondegreen for some of the lyrics of the God-Slaying Sword.
- Running away is a valid tactic. ExplanationOne of the many things you can do in Xenoblade is running away if a battle goes downhill or if a much higher level enemy has joined the battle, shown in a tutorial section. It has since become an in-joke in the community.
- I think a fly bit me!ExplanationStarter Villain Xord has become a hilarious fan favourite for his Large Ham performance and very thick Cockney accent. During his battles, like many other bosses with their lines, he tends to repeat the line "OI THINK A FLOI BIT ME" when hit.
- You'll Pay For Your Insolence! ExplanationOne of the battle quotes from Lorithia, it's become quite popular because it comes up quite often and Lorithia is considered the hardest, and most annoying, mandatory boss in the game by many. One specific Scott Pilgrim video had the main villain say almost the exact same line, only for the comment section to get entirely taken over by Xenoblade fans.
- "Summon... COFFEE!" ExplanationMelia's "Summon Copy" ability is her saying "Summon...COPY!" only it sounds like she's saying "Coffee"
- Shulk's Junk Sword. Explanation and SpoilersStarting New Game Plus or Theater Mode in Definitive Edition allows Shulk to customize the appearance of his weapon. This allows said weapon to appear in various inappropriate times, such as when Mumkhar or Zanza take it.
- "That's Dunban over there!" Explanation and SpoilersWhen Shulk and the party encounters Fiora under the influence of Meyneth in Valak Mountain, Shulk tries to remind her of her family with a statement that is kind of redundant to the audience; due to the delivery and out of context nature, it has become a hit with fans. The official Nintendo of America Twitter account has also joined in on the fun by posting a clip of Shulk saying the line at least once a month.
- "I want you to kill George."ExplanationUpon realising that Richard Ridings, who voices Egil's father Miqol, also voices Daddy Pig in Peppa Pig, people have been joking about the latters desire to kill his son.
- Enemies too strong? ExplanationThe addition of Casual Mode, which was an easier difficulty in the game, appeared every time you'd die 3 times to an enemy. This led to a lot of anger until a patch came in and allowed the player to turn it off in the settings. People also compared it to "Easy mode is now selectable" due to appearing in very similar circumstances.
- Fiora's Infinite Sandwich. ExplanationWhen Fiora brings Shulk lunch early in the game, many fans noticed that Shulk's sandwich doesn't show bite marks or get smaller as he eats it. This led to jokes about it being either actually terrible and Shulk is only pretending to eat it to spare Fiora's feelings, or it's some miracle of cooking that can solve world hunger through video game magic. Of course, the real reason is because simulating food being eaten was too much work for the animators, especially for just one cutscene, but that's not nearly as funny as the alternatives.
- "I've been waiting... waiting for THIS DAY!" ExplanationEgil's line when he tries to take revenge on Zanza after the latter awakens from Shulk's body. Can be reused for pretty much anything you've been expecting for a long time, like new Xenoblade announcements.
- Memes for the first Xenoblade Chronicles often cross over with ones for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, meaning that one is bound to encounter a spare "DON'T FORGET ME!" "THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME?" in memes based on the first game, or even videos of XC2 characters spouting meme lines from the original.
- "Now! Starlight Kick! ...Ouch!"ExplanationMelia's "Starlight Kick" Art has her perform a jumping divekick, only to fall on her arse and cry out in pain. Fans found this hilarious and endearing enough to label it as her Signature Move. It got to the point that in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Melia returns as a postgame Hero and can use the move (complete with the same comical trip), and for her Chain Order, she finally pulls off a Starlight Kick successfully and lets out a triumphant laugh.
- Klaus' Heartless and Nobody.ExplanationWhat Zanza and The Architect are compared to by fans of Kingdom Hearts as Zanza is a hammy evil Big Bad who shows up last 20% of first game but impacted rest of villains and has a large fleshy One-Winged Angel form and The Architect is a Stoic emotionless shell who lives in a large mechanical tower.
- "Check out this massive plant."ExplanationA line from Shulk during a Heart-to-Heart with Melia that's often used to poke fun of Shulk's complete lack of social skills or to make him into a bit of a memetic Jerkass because of the wild non-sequitur from a fairly serious conversation with Melia about the death of her best friends. Sometimes juxtaposed with the first line of the conversation where she speaks about being unwell. Also sometimes used for weed jokes portraying Shulk as a huge stoner, or used as a Snow Clone replacing "plant" with something else.
- Xenoblade is BIONICLE.ExplanationThe initial premise of Xenoblade Chronicles, which revolves around lifeforms living on the bodies of warring giants in a Science Fantasy universe, has received many comparisons to LEGO's BIONICLE line of products.
- Dunban's love of Wet Rats.ExplanationDunban gets a whopping 8 hearts from receiving Wet Rats as a gift. Although Reyn is even fonder of them, the sheer idea of a Cultured Badass enjoying such a goofy gift led to a lot of jokes and memes about My New Gift Is Lame.
- Reyn, you're a lifesaver!ExplanationAn in-battle quote from Shulk to Reyn, which in the linked clip is followed by Reyn morphing into a Lifesaver candy. Similar clips have been made of "You're a lifesaver" phrases in other games, such as Fire Emblem Fates, Torna ~ The Golden Country, and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Also an Ascended Meme, as Shulk himself calls Zeke a lifesaver for his Guest Fighter appearance in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, while Noah does the same with Lanz in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
- Shulk's screamExplanationAmidst Shulk's otherwise normal-sounding pain grunts is a particularly melodramatic & genuinely intense scream from when he falls off the map or gets hit with an attack of any kind. It gets commonly used in YouTube Poop videos such as this one as a Wacky Sound Effect due to how absurdly over-the-top it is for most situations. Often used to portray Shulk as a straight man reacting in horror to when other characters do something silly. In general, Adam Howden's ability to deliver extremely intense screams in the English dub is infamous enough that "Shulk Scream" has become a popular benchmark and Fan Nickname for particularly intense or convincing screams from other characters, such as Malos in Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country or N in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
- Reyn, hit that yoinky sploinky! Please!ExplanationA popular meme has Shulk ask Reyn to perform "that yoinky sploinky", and Reyn obliging, being proud of himself as the aforementioned Shulk's scream plays in the background. There are also versions with Rex and Zeke, Noah and Lanz, and Matthew and A, respectively.
- "But what does this have to do with Shulk?"ExplanationA line from Dunban asking about the connection between Zanza and Shulk, which has since become a standard reaction gif from fans as a tongue-in-cheek joke about overly intense fans, often used as a generic response to random things that don't have to do with Shulk (or the Xenoblade franchise in general), naturally.
- A Christmas-related one: Zanza Klaus Explanation(spoilers)Many fans couldn't help but notice that Zanza's current name combined with his original one sounds a lot like "Santa Claus." It doesn't hurt that the later games make a big deal about his nicer half, the Architect, giving "one last gift" to his creations before his and Zanza's shared demise, or that Rex makes a crack about how Klaus' gifts "just keep on giving" in Future Redeemed.
- "Well, Shulk, after all we've been through, these truly have been the Xenoblade Chronicles." "Shut up, Reyn." ExplanationA subset of the broader forced Title Drop meme that began with Final Fantasy XIII, the Xenoblade franchise has a specific variant that takes the format of the above dialogue, where Reyn or some other character comes up with a contrived way to say the game's name at the end (since "Xenoblade" has never been used in the series outside of the title screen), only to be rebuked by another character (usually some version of Shulk) for saying such a stupid line.
