#xenosaga a missing year

[bonelessskeleton7]

finished a missing year. my opinion on it is basically the same as my opinion on pied piper, just replace "ziggy" with "shion" and "flip phone game" with "series of flash videos".

just finished “playing” pied piper(watched a translated playthrough since the english patch isn’t out yet). pretty neat, liked the depth it gave to ziggy’s character and the context it gave to the testaments(plus clearing up the factions fighting each other going into episode iii, since i found some of the relationships between factions a bit hard to follow in the main series). i can’t help but wish this was stuff that was in the main series though.

or at least told through a different medium than a flip phone game, the shop for which is now completely defunct

[luxuriainash]

silly poll time!!! what do you think we're getting first!

keep in mind we've been waiting like 15 years for act iii and almost 19 for episode iv but have seen more for them than we have for ML lmfao- give or take what we got for ep iv just being a logo, a namedrop, and a blue comet,,

[rubylily]

For Femslash February and the second anniversary of Octopath Traveler II's release, I have a new Agnea/Throné fic! It's a short and sweet piece, and my aim was to write something introspective with minimal dialogue. (I actually had another Agnea/Throné fic I wanted to post for the anniversary, but it's proven to be longer than expected and I'm still not finished writing it, and thus this short fic came into being.) The title comes from the song "My Long Forgotten Cloistered Sleep" from Xenosaga: A Missing Year.

[satoshi-mochida]

Xenosaga Fan Translates Full Playthrough of Canonical Phone Game, Pied Piper

Noisy Pixel Source. Possible Spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 below.

To celebrate the 19th anniversary of the largely unknown Xenosaga: Pied Piper, fan @ValakTurtle has announced that they have translated an entire playthrough of the game on YouTube by @Keju_frangelico. Additionally, “the translation was built on top of Chaoslace’s original translation that was hosted on Zarathustra.”

The script was previously translated, but an in-game translation was absent.

For those unaware, Xenosaga: Pied Piper is a canonical entry in the series that is essentially required reading to fully understand and appreciate the events of Xenosaga Episode III. Given the title’s exclusive presence on mobile phones plus its lack of official localization, it’s not really known by those who haven’t played the Xenosaga games.

In fact, while it has been over a decade since I last played Xenosaga, I (think?) I remember Episode III trying to recap the events of Piped Piper because it is actually significant. As a result, it’s recommended to check out Pied Piper after playing Xenosaga Episode II, despite it taking place roughly a century before the events of the first game.

Piped Piper is arguably more vital to experience than Xenosaga: A Missing Year, which connects Xenosaga Episode II and Episode III.

If you’re a Xenosaga fan and have never delved into Pied Piper, this is a pretty fantastic way to do so. Honestly, huge thanks to @ValakTurtle for deciding to translate this playthrough with English captions. It even appears they’ve translated the menus during battles, which is a pretty intense and intricate step.

You can check out the full Xenosaga: Pied Piper playthrough playlist here or start watching the first episode below:

Earlier this year, fans united for G-MODE Archives to officially re-release Piped Piper.

Speaking of Xenosaga, the conclusion of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Future Redeemed storyline has seemingly opened up the possibility of a Xenosaga revival or continuation.

[foibles-fables]

fanfic writer questions

Thanks for the tag, @uhhhyaenbyjade!!

1- How many works do you have on AO3?

Sitting at 79, currently!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 363,375

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Like, ever? Lots of them over the past twenty years, hahah. Currently it's mostly Horizon that's got me by the throat, but I've also put out a couple one-offs for Stray Gods and Control over the least year. Besides those, I'd say my main claims to clownery would be Legend of the Seeker and Warrior Nun. I'm also finally dipping my toes into the ATLA scene after missing the boat for way, way too long.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'm gonna remix this question a little bit and pick the top one from my an amalgamation of my five most prominent/recent fandoms, since otherwise Warrior Nun dominates due to sheer fandom size-- 1- Because the Light Is Close (Warrior Nun) 2- The Weight of Us (Legend of the Seeker) 3- rest like you belong here. (Horizon) 4- brave this time (Stray Gods) 5- dream geometries (Control)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do!!! Gotta lavish my genuine gratitude on you lovely, wonderful, amazing folks who take time out of your day to read and hype up my silly writing.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh hmmm. If we're talking recently (like, written since 2010) it's gotta be so i'll stay half away (Horizon). That comic, man. lmao. lol. OH! Or waiting through daybreak (Stray), because that cat game is an emotional wrecking ball

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

TOO MANY OF THEM, LATELY? I feel like I need to dive back into a bittersweetness era, because wouggghh have my endings been tooth-rottingly sweet. Recently I'd pin this title on entering light (Horizon).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not directly on the fics or to my face, which is nice.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Hell yeah! Overwhelmingly sapphic, usually of the more esoteric variety re: language. Using sex as a character study is my passion.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Not in many, many moons have I written a crossover. And the only time I ever did, it was from two shows in the same universe, lmao.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, thankfully!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

For the first time recently, yes!!! So freakin cool! Check out this Mandarin translation of eye for eye, tooth for tooth (Control).

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not a fic, but I gotta thank Meg for being my cowriter on Talanah's FOTH path!!!!

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

don't make me choose between Cara/Kahlan and Aloy/Talanah. please

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Sorry to that one early Warrior Nun fic I left hanging after a single chapter

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotional immediacy, prose-craft, evocative syntax, lyricality

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

MY SPEED. OUGGHHHH. Also I am actively trying to get better at dialogue, along with location/setting descriptions

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'd tackle it if it fit the scope of the fic, and only with the guidance of someone fluent in said language!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Written for and posted? The Xenosaga series at age 11, baybeeee. I wrote plenty before that without posting, however.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

This legitimately changes on the daily. It's impossible for me to choose, so I'll just toss out if you held yourself up to the light (Horizon) as today's contender.

No-pressure tags: @mehoymalloy @tjerra14 @finrays @sssammich @askweisswolf and anyone else who sees this and wants a go! Just tag me as your tagger!

[wreckscalibur]

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition Thoughts In No Particular Order

Other than inarticulate joy, of course. That's implied.

The character models look like they've been modernized, and I'm feeling mixed about that. On the one hand, everyone looked a little doll-like before, and probably not on purpose. I feel like a big part of that was the lighting though, so it could have been fixed without totally changing the style. It hurts a little more because Kunihiko Tanaka's art style in X felt like one of the stealthy ways they were able to keep Xenoblade linked to Xenogears, other than the double stealthy way they linked to Xenogears by linking it to Xenosaga (which X also does). With all that said, it does look good, and I'm excited to see my Cross Definitive-ized.

I wonder how much of the old Miiverse functionality will be brought back. I didn't play the game much when Miiverse was still available so I don't remember much of it, but I know people missed it. Splatoon 2 and 3 have kept their art posting strong even after cutting off Twitter integration, so it's not impossible for them to bring this back. Worst case scenario is it'll be tied to the phone app.

I also wonder how much tweaking or rebalancing of the game we're going to get. If they do anything, it's going to be getting rid of the Diskbomb glitch, either fixing what the Magazine Up augment is meant to do for that weapon or just making it so that augment can't show up on Diskbombs. Other than that, I don't know if they will mess with things much. I don't recall any big changes in Xenoblade 1 DE, but on the other hand that isn't a pseudo-MMO like X is.

So this all but confirms that the Switch 2 is backwards compatible, right? There's no way they're going to release this next year, then release the new console, and leave the game twisting in the wind again, right?

Right?

[clairric]

orchid, abelia, taro

orchid ⇢ what’s a song you consider to be perfect?

This was a tough one to start off with! I don't know if I'd consider my favourite songs to be perfect (or vice versa), which means I get to overthink things a lot.

The first thing that came to mind was Don Quixote by Gordon Lightfoot (RIP). Love the guitar and strings, and the lyrics are really evocative while also depicting that funny guy from book.

I ended up coming up with a bunch of other options while trying to get this post typed up. I'll have to put together a playlist sometime.

abelia ⇢ do you have a particular piece of jewelry you always wear or can’t part with?

I'm not much of a jewelry person tbh - it's not usually something that comes to mind when I'm picking out an outfit, and I don't have a thing I "always wear" that'd be a go-to.

Despite that, I'll always treasure the stuff folks have given me as gifts. Will I wear a necklace with a cool video game sword on it every day? Probably not, but it's still a fun choice for hanging out with friends.

taro ⇢ if someone called you right now to catch up, what’re the things you’d tell them about?

If they're someone I haven't seen in the past ~5 years? Probably the standard stuff (cool new gender, computers job in a big city, play piano & build model kits in my spare time). It's tough to figure out what to say without many actual "life events" to date.

But also, if they're cool? Then I'd talk about a bunch of the video games I've been playing. Thanks to the abundance of remakes and easier emulation, I've been more pumped than ever to go and try stuff I missed out on. So far, I've ended up playing lot of RPGs like Chrono Cross, FFVIII, Xenosaga, and Live A Live; although I haven't been engaging with them much in a fandom-y/Tumblr sense, it's been neat getting a better understanding of the genre.

[sicahyart]

Jin wearing Jin's outfit but the A Missing Year one because Xenoblade Jin would unironically wear that 

 Aka Jin with gun

[thesmartestmoron]

So in order to try and understand Xenosaga 3 some more, I needed to look at the side-content. And I figured I should at least share my findings/links. I should note I DID NOT TRANSLATE THESE! Credits are at the end and links are down below:

Xenosaga: A Missing Year - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhkdGQOixb1cbR4UDX1iFT1M_ErV5dWxA

Xenosaga: Pied Piper - https://xeno-underground.net/wiki/doku.php?id=wiki:xenosaga_pied_piper

[arkeyr79]

I finished Future Redeemed some hours ago but it is just now that it is really hitting me. Even if Xenoblade is far from over (and those Xenosaga connections 👀) I'm gonna miss the Klaus' Arc. It has been a wonderful journey from getting that obscure first game almost 12 years ago.

[okamiprincess15]

List of rottmnt fanfic crossovers I’d currently LOVE to see:

Some kind of Final Fantasy crossover (preferably FF14 but I’m not too picky on this, I’ll take what I can get). I just wanna see the boys dressed up in Final Fantasy esque outfits and use FF type magic and summons. (If not Final Fantasy then some other sort of JRPG series like Wild Arms, Dragon Quest, the Mana series, the Tales series, the Star Ocean series, or the Xenosaga series will do. Donnie would probably be ecstatic with the technology of either of those last two.)

RWBY (they’d almost NEVER be bored for long on Remnant with all those Grimm to kill. And Donnie would LOVE the weapons, as well as the chance to study Dust)

Stargate (either SG1 or Atlantis) Possible Idea: What if one of the two missing female turtle siblings (I’m thinking Jennika, although she’d probably be named Jennifer in this instead. I just love the idea of a heavy metal loving snapper type female turtle.) winds up in the custody of a member of SG-1 as a turtle tot (Perhaps having been rescued from the NID?)? And post Kraang invasion Casey Jr. is the one to inform the rest of the Hamato Clan that, ‘Hey Draxum? Those two female turtles you thought were dead are actually alive. One of them’s Big Mama’s assistant, and the other was raised by a member of the US Air Force.’

4. ASOIAF (NOT THE TV SHOW, THE BOOKS!! That last season was especially awful.). I love the idea of the turtles having to navigate through politics and political intrigue (Rise Leo would probably be especially good at it). I’m thinking maybe the Krang had a failsafe that would cause the planet to slowly start dying, that was put into place not long after getting out of the prison dimension, in case they were somehow sealed away in the prison dimension again (they may all have a superiority complex but they’re not stupid, if it could happen once it could happen again). And that Sister Kraang activated it before being captured by the E.P.F. (It was never utilized in the bad timeline because they were obviously winning, so Casey Jr. didn’t , nor anyone else in the resistance, know about it). The Kraang, knowing that Earth still didn’t have the technology for interstellar space flight, assumed that this would spell the end of Earth native sentient life if activated.

However Donnie was able to get an early enough warning (a few months after the invasion) with sufficient proof through his tech, that the Hamatos were able to warn the human and yokai governments of the world. There wasn’t enough time to develop and build sufficiently advanced space ships to get most of Earth’s population off before the Earth expired. However it WAS deemed possible to make a very large dimensional portal to a planet with a similar environment to Earth’s with enough mystic artifacts designed to handle dealing with the immense strain, with Mikey with the help of a bunch of other yokai mages opening the portal. And while Earth’s entire yokai population is small enough to be brought through, they’d still only be able to bring with them a fraction of the Earth’s human population (a fact that haunts the Hamato Clan for the rest of their lives), and thus the human governments had to prioritize who would make the journey.

I’m thinking since so little is known about it, that they wind up in the mysterious landmass of Ulthos when Raph is 19, in the year 295 AC. And through a series of events (including the fact that they saved Earth from the Kraang invasion and Mikey’s instrumental role in the ‘evacuation’ of Earth) that the Hamato Clan practically becomes major nobility, possibly being the closest thing to royalty, in the new Ulthos civilization by the turtles early twenties.

Suggested Pairings: I was thinking they could be Leo/Usagi (they met during the beginning of the preparation for the evacuation and got married not long after arriving in Ulthos)

Raph/Dacey Mormont (A Mormont woman would probably be the only type of noblewoman not to be scared off by Raph’s appearance and size, plus she’s awesome and I hate how she got killed off in canon. Her being in Ulthos with her husband, would be better then killing her off in my opinion)

Donnie/ a daughter of Bu Gai, the current Azure Emperor of Yi Ti (initially a political arranged marriage due to Yi Ti’s close proximity to Ulthos, as well as being a major trade partner, but they do eventually fall in love. Leo and Raph are NOT happy about their family being put into a position by the newly created Ulthos government where their father had to accept the betrothal, since Leo and Raph both married for love, but Donnie is pragmatic enough to not publicly put up too much of a fuss. Might make for good plot, since Yi Ti by the time ASOIAF starts is based on Imperial China, vaguely based on the Three Kingdoms era.)

Mikey/ A daughter of a Braavosi Magister (another arranged marriage from another major trade partner of Ulthos, but they do grow fond of each other). Course these are just suggestions, feel free to pick what you want as long as it makes sense.

[bonelessskeleton7]

xenosaga 2 done 👍 an interesting game held back by 1 million missteps

I unintentionally took a pretty long break from xenosaga 2 while playing some other stuff so this is my first time playing in a couple weeks but uh. damn disc 1 was really short

[h-worksrambles]

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: I wanna talk about Tora

With the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 less than two weeks away, I’ve been thinking a lot about Xenoblade and the Xeno series in general. And I wanted to use this time to talk about a thought I’ve had for a long time about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 specifically. That being, the one character in the main party who had severe missed potential, the Nopon inventor, Tora.

Now, before I go on, I want to pre-emptively state something. I love Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It’s one of my favourite games on Switch and I go back and forth between it and Xenosaga Episode III as my second favourite game in the whole Xeno series. Furthermore, it has overall my favourite cast of characters in the franchise. It’s full of likable, complex figures with great chemistry. But no game is perfect, and even a wonderfully realised title is going to have missed opportunities. I know how much flack 2 gets from portions of the fanbase and I don’t want this post to either become a rallying point for bad faith criticism, or for fans of the game to feel like their game is gettting still more unneccesary hate. Plus, much like the last time I did one these character critiques/rewrites, I must remind you that writing from scratch is incredibly hard, and me playing script doctor after the fact is not me claiming to be a better writer than the people who worked on the game. Everything I say comes from a place of love for this title. But I think Tora is the victim of several missed chances and poor writing choices that result in him being the weakest member of the party by a long shot, probably the only one I dislike. And I wanted to talk about how he might have been improved. Also full spoilers for Xenoblade 2 naturally.

Tora enters the story in Chapter 2 when he shelters Rex and Pyra from Ardanian soldiers. Tora is a Nopon mechanic who lacks the aptitude to resonate with a Core Crystal and become a Driver. Becuse of this, he and his family have been working for generations to build an artificial Blade, one that can resonate with anyone, regardless of potential. This Blade is the android girl, Poppi. Tora and Poppi befriend Rex and Pyra and join them on their search for Elysium, as Tora hopes to one day find his father, who vanished several years ago.

There’s a lot about Tora’s character that does actually work. Tora is very different from previous Nopon party members. Unlike the deceptively mature Riki or the outspoken, sometimes cocky, Tatsu, Tora is an introvert who spends most of his time tinkering in his home. He doesn’t have much in the way of friends or a social life and latches on to Rex very quickly. To him, Rex, this ordinary kid who became a hero by wielding the legendary Aegis, is exactly what he wishes he could be, and he respects him greatly. He’s basically a nerdy shut-in orphan learning to get out and make friends, all while fulfilling his dream of being a real Driver.

Unfortunately, whille Tora is pretty well established as a character, between a lot of ideas not being fully explored with him, and poorly executed comedy that actively makes him less likable, he falls short compared to the rest of the characters. I think the first step to fixing Tora is pretty obvious to anyone who’s played the game: We’re taking any of the ‘jokes’ about him being into maids or moe, and we’re throwing them out of the window. I was gonna talk more at length at this, but frankly I believe it’s self explanatory. The last thing we needed was to make this character into Mineta 2.0. Stuff like this casts really ugly implications on to Tora and Poppi’s relationship, which we need to buy into for this character to work. But it comes up in Poppi’s very first scene and makes an awful first impression, especially considering Poppi goes on to be arguably one of the best characters. And it’s not like it’s in service of any character arc. Whenever it comes up in cutscenes or heart to hearts, it only amounts to ‘Tora does/implies something creepy, the other characters get annoyed, but he gets off with just a slap on the wrist’. I think a lot less people would deride Xenoblade 2 for being ‘too anime’ if it didn’t pull stunts like this. Not funny. Never funny. Always gross. Stop it. The other issue is that Tora is relatively tangential to the story, with his only big moment of relevance being Chapter Four. Problem is, Chapter Four...kind of sucks. It’s a filler episode full of half explored ideas, cringy jokes, and the worst dungeon in the game by far (Screw you, Old Factory).

This is where that plot about Tora’s missing dad gets resolved. When the party is in Mor Ardain, they find another artifical Blade, who Tora recognises as Lila, Poppi’s prototype, who was stolen the same night Tora’s father, Tatazo, vanished. It turns out that Tatazo was kidnapped by a group of Nopon, led by Charmain Bana, who wanted to use his research to create weapons of war to sell to the already tense countries of Mor Ardain and Uraya, lining their pockets as the people of these Titans go to war.

I think this is a great idea to introduce to Tora’s character. Tora and his family designed Poppi with the best of intentions shut up that other thing isn’t canon in my version. They wanted to become Drivers, and to allow even those like them who lacked the aptitude to do the same. But now that same technology is being used by selfish people as a tool for war. And it gets worse, because by Chapter Six, Torna are using that same technology against the party. Tora’s family legacy is now being used by a group of murderers who want to destroy the world and kill his friends. This could have been used to make the young, naive Tora reflect on his part in this, since he and his family effectively opened the door to allow them all to do this. Heck, we could have even seen him wonder if it was even right to create Poppi at all. But he doesn’t. Tora gets briefly mad at Bana but otherwise never brings it up again , nor does his outlook or attitude change at all. Sure Poppi gets a power up, and this is actually a great moment for her. But this is supposed to be the resolution of Tora’s character arc and he doesn’t do or say anything meaningful. Plus, after this he fades into the background, only providing unfunny otaku jokes. Sure, Mòrag and Zeke also kind of fade in and out of relevance, but at least their dialogue and actions in major story scenes subtly show new or changing aspects of their characters as the story progresses. I can’t say the same for Tora.  The thing is, we do get hints of this theme...in Poppi’s arc. In Chapter Eight, Poppi reflects on her nature as a living weapon, on what her technology could be used for down the line, with or without her say in the matter. And this is something Mythra is able to empathise with, having spent centuries being afraid of her own power, and wondering if the world would be better off without her. It’s a wonderful scene for both characters. But I can’t help but think this should have been an ongoing concern for both Tora and Poppi’s characters for most of the game, rather than just bringing it up now with just Poppi. It could have given Chapter Four more weight if its events had more of an impact on Tora, and if Poppi picked up on Tora’s own doubts, before she voices them to Mythra.

You could even have given more substance to the PoppiQTπ sidequest. Maybe make this scene the resolution to this arc as Tora, now reunited with his father, talks through his worries with him, as they work on upgrading Poppi, if he’s ok with knowing that people could use their research for evil, only for Tatazo to sadly explain that that’s the sad reality of being a pioneer. You can’t predict what your discovery could one day result in, and it’s up to Tora to decide if he’s willing to press on despite that. Then after QTπ is complete, we could see Tora and the now almost fully sentient Poppi, discuss this, reaffirming that Tora’s proud of Poppi, that he’s glad they met, and that they both still want to be Driver and Blade knowing the risks. I actually like the subtle detail that PoppiQTπ looks a lot like Mythra. It’s a great subtle expression both of how far Tora’s skills as an inventor have come, and of his admiration of Rex. He’s built a mini-Aegis so he can be like his hero. But I think this side quest could have been a much stronger conclusion to Tora’s character arc if the writers cut the cringy humour, and went all the way with the themes and ideas they set up.  

Truthfully, I didn’t need to change much because the ideas for Tora’s character arc are all there. What it lacks, is any real response from Tora that suggests the game’s story has impacted him in any way. But in the actual game, he feels like the exact same character he was when the game started, and compared to how much growth the various heroes and villains of Xenoblade 2 go through, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Tora had the potential to be a really sympathetic and interesting character, a lonely boy genius who made a huge step in his scientific field, who gets to see the world with his new friends, but also has to come to terms with the ugly realities of not just the world at large, but his own creation. Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t commit to the ideas it introduces with his character, and drags him down with misguided attempts at humour, that cause many players to dismiss him outright. At best, he’s an accessory to Poppi, who is a far better developed and more likable character. The result is a huge wasted opportunity in an otherwise splendid game. And that’s a real shame.

[xenosagaepisodeone]

do you know if soraya saga’s old deviantart posts are archived anywhere? i remember reading that she posted xenogears/xenosaga art on her account in some old forums

unfortunately not, there still exists caps of her old dA which largely exhibits her avid love for the transformers franchise (plus some "thank you" replies to other users), but the gallery as well as her old journals are entirely unarchived. the way back machine contains no traces of her old personal sites (http://home.soraya.jp/ , https://sorayasaga.blogspot.com/ and http://home.att.ne.jp/gamma/fridge) either

it's a shame! I miss her old xenogears art, and the fan art she would create for western movies. at the very least, some of her old art is on her instagram https://www.instagram.com/sorayasaga/?hl=en . I haven't combed through her twitter yet, but I doubt it's contents are too different from her instagram. given her unfair treatment from fans over the years, maybe it's for the best? >_>

[formthethird]

xenosaga missing year moment

[veebs-hates-video-games]

So I finally finished the first Xenoblade Chronicles. I should probably write down my thoughts on this one before too much more time goes by.

I probably had one of the weirder experiences playing through it. By the time it came out my Wii had already been acting funny for a couple years and I'd stopped playing games on it, so I didn't get to it right away. I finally gave it a shot a few years later in Dolphin and it was great. This was around 2016, and I found a HD texture pack for it that made it look better in some ways than the Switch version (and less in others, mostly because of the limitations of the original engine). I spent like 65 hours on it doing every side quest and all the little things that came up as they happened because I was enjoying it so much that I didn't want to miss any of it.

...and then my computer broke. Luckily I had a friend who was able to just give me a replacemnt CPU for free (I seem to know a lot of people willing to help me out like that, who I would not have survived as long as I have without), but it wasn't as good as the one that died. I wasn't able to upgrade or replace anything in my computer until early 2020, so I didn't really have a good way to keep playing and kind of forgot about it, and it wasn't until this year that I managed to dig up my old saves and the texture pack from my old drive, a year after XCDE was already out.

Once I finally started playing again I was sucked right back into it though. Well ok, after a 6600 word summary of the first half of the game, then spending an hour rereading all the tutorials, and a few more hours relearning how to actually play the game, but after that...

It's just such a neat game that does a lot of stuff well. The characters are fun, it's very pretty, the music is good, there's enough going on mechanically to have still been interesting 140 hours later, and the world/story/general concept are absolutely bonkers in the kind of way that Squenix has repeately tried to pull off with the Final Fantasy games but never succeeded like this did. The only two RPGs I've play in a while that have grabbed me like that and made me want to do everything just because I'm curious and invested and want more are this and The Witcher 3 (which I'm still working on because I also didn't start that until after new computer time), and they're definitely my two favorites I've played in a long time and contenders for two of my favorites ever.

There are plenty of games that don't manage to be as compelling at any point in their entire run as XC does just setting up the initial premise: the entire in-game world exists on the corpses of two gods who fought each other to death, and the inhabitants of each are now fighting each other for some reason. They go in a lot of interesting directions from there which I can't say too much about without spoiling a lot of stuff, but despite having as many twists and turns as the most convoluted of the FF games it still manages to be a coherent story that all fits together. True to form as the people who made the previous Xeno games (Xenogears/Xenosaga) it gets into plenty of philosophy and religion along the way, with fate vs. free will, if/how morality would apply to gods, and other shenanigans like that, all wrapped in a lightly anime-flavored shell. Lots of the power of friendship, and there are times you'll walk into a boss fight and the soundtrack just feels exactly like a typical anime showdown. It's fun.

(I'm like two chapters into XC2, and it leans more heavily into the anime side of things, for better and worse. Aesthetically it uses it well, and the tone works well for some stuff too...but then it'll intermittently break that with some weird dubbing decisions that do the same stuff that tends to annoy me about a lot of dubbed anime (although 95% of the time the voice acting has been good), and it's always a bad sign when a character pops up on screen and I can hear the implied "goshujin-sama" before they even pan over to the maid outfits...and also let the female characters wear actual clothes please?)

Anyway, I rather enjoyed it and am looking forward to when the plot of the second one picks up, and also to eventually playing XCX. I liked it enough to grab a copy of XCDE and play through the epilogue, and I'm really curious what Monolith is going to do next...