I skipped the last third of Xenoblade 2 story, but I'd agree that Z isn't as satisfying as Zanza.
That said, I find X cooler than Lorithia, though that isn't saying much.
Continue writing our story of peace.But then what the hell is X? She definitely isn't conceptual and has more personality than some other Consuls.
Continue writing our story of peace.The story was certainly flawed. The whole stuff with Moebius was far too vague and conceptual for my liking. N was a big disappointment seeing how he was hyped up to be the primary non-big bad antagonist. J ended up being the best villain, and he's a far cry from Jin and Malos. Also not enough nostalgic callbacks. I wanted more of those.
But there was 5 seconds of happy Poppi, so actually the greatest game of all time.
One thing I think could've been more interesting with N is if, instead of never defeating Z, he actually did defeat Z (almost), only to be faced with same thing Noah faces at the end: the reality of the worlds being separated and reset, and therefore losing Mio anyways, and that is what prompts his total despair and complete betrayal.
But this would require changing the trajectory of the game's themes a bit, since this does lose some of the sadistic choice aspect (when the freedom from such choice is an important theme). But it would also counter the odd line from Noah where he accuses N of not trying to fight fate hard enough.
In a similar vein, I would've preferred if Z was an actual character: who seized Origin with X and Y, not only to forestall the potential annihilation of both worlds, but also forestall the potential reset both worlds. Exchanging mundane reality for a manufactured one full of entertaining stories (as per Z's twisted notion of fun), as a direct antagonism to the conclusion of the previous games, actively rejecting a world without gods. He could still claim to be the embodiment of the collective fear of the future/unknown/death, but that would clearly be his own ego. And sure, it's once more in the vein of Zanza and Malos/Amalthus, but I think they were really good ideas!
Edited by Eschaton on Aug 23rd 2022 at 2:03:35 AM
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You Mean 5 seconds of Gigachad Rex, therefore its the best Xenoblade.
Edited by Demongodofchaos2 on Aug 23rd 2022 at 5:34:59 AM
Watch SymphogearStill better then Winicott from Xenosaga. Easily. In the same way Amalthus is a better Krelian from Xenogears.
Watch Symphogear![]()
Oh yeah, the ending cutscenes of both games are pretty much the same, except that the protagonist of Blue Reflection Second Light was in Mio's position.
I've also heard someone compared Colony Mu with Second Light too.
Continue writing our story of peace.Something that stands out to me is that the crew here doesn't have any real mentor figure guiding them or giving them worldly advice from a more experienced perspective. At least in the first half. 1 has Dunban as a proper adult figure plus Dickson to push them in towards the plot. 2 has both Pyra and Gramps giving the party a more solid direction for where to go. 3 has an old man ramble to the confused party for a few minutes before dying, and they just grasp onto whatever they could understand to see if they can find any sort of hope at all.

Finally finished the main story. Initial feelings is that it's largely the inverse of 2, starting off much stronger but faltering towards the end.
It's frustrating, since I like what it's going for, but it feels like it's missing the connective tissue to really pull it together post-chapter 5. At least they're upfront about the main antagonist being conceptual, but I think both 1 and 2 pulled that off just fine while also having them be very personal.