#[shulk voice] I'M REALLY FEELING IT

[gallade-x-treme]

TRESPASS IN THE DOMAIN OF THE GODS

[4rsene]

when freddie mercury sang "i sometimes wish i'd never been born at all"...............man............he was so real for that

[bigboobshaunt]

Alright then, here's the characters, the weapons they use (that's a contributing factor, I'd say), and some details whenever I consider it necessary.

First off, Gwin Evans, 24 years old who uses long swords and assault rifles:

Doug Barret, 30 years old, who uses photon sabres (basically light sabres) and rayguns (also, voiced by Patrick Seitz)

Lao, 31 years old, the Sad™ widower who uses a sniper rifle and javelin (voiced by Matt Mercer)

L'cirufe, the tallest playable character bar none, who uses shields and psycho launchers (kinda like the orbitars in KIU)

Kentaro Nagi, 57 years old, who wields longswords and gattlings guns - the resident Dunban-like swordmaster

Phog Christoph, 24 years old, who uses dual swords and dual guns (also very likely neurodivergent)

Frye Christoph, 30 years old, older brother of Phog, uses gattling guns and longswords, enjoys drinking about as much as Gregor Fire Emblem

Hector Bumwhistle Birthwhistle, or H.B. for short, 28 years old, uses shields and assault rifles

Also of note with H.B. is the Superior Form™:

Bozé Lowes, 54 years old, uses javelins and sniper rifles. Also derogatory, personally.

Yelv (just Yelv, really), 22 years old, uses photon sabres and rayguns. Also enthusiastically calls the player avatar "pardner".

And lastly, Jack Vandham, who's not actually playable and 48 years old.

This is the second time I am answering this because my workplace wifi died as I was publishing it. These are my ratings, which don't mean anything, followed by short commentary.

Gwin: Very Fuckable, acts like he wants to be friends with benefits but always catches feelings. Would I reciprocate? Who knows?

Doug: HOT, we love a guy with a deep voice and light sabers and big guns. It does not get better than that. Hung and everyone can tell.

Lao: Not My Type, but I can easily see him causing multiple fans some terrible mental illnesses. "How big is that dick?" "Small, leave me alone"-type of guy.

L'cirufe: Attractive, monster fans need their rights respected. His face card is NOT declining.

Nagi: HOT. Resident old man whose cervix is being done crazy things to on twitter (or should be). Hung and don't ask me how I can tell.

Phoggot: Eh. Good for him on the neurodivergence but you can meet multiple twinks who look like him at any nightclub.

Frye: Intriguing, looks like someone who lead an interesting life and could surprise you in bed. Further research is needed.

Hbirthwhistleguy: Not My Type, but I'm sure he has quite a reach with fans. I support his Bayonetta 2 cosplay endeavors.

Bozé: Eh, this man will leave you and pretend the child isn't his. Have I played this game and do I know what this guy is about? No, but it had to be said.

Yelv: No, thank you. We have Shulk at home. That man is not 22.

Jack: I Love Arm. I could see him being a secret softie in bed. Spoils you to make up for feelings of inadequacy.

[miraclelevellan]

Thought on dlc characters,Chapter 3.

Matthew feels like he is going through a midlife crisis. Like he looks young but he also has bags under his eyes,and that might just be a thing for his family line but idk he gives off he is in his 30s and trying to hold onto his youth. Gameplay really wants you to stick to only him becuase his damage is Art canceling.

A is certainly there,I have no real complaints about them. Other then if I'm gonna hate the word Phenomenonal by the end of the dlc. I appreciate the skill that let's them heal themself per auto attack,don't have to worry to much about healing them.

Nikol is baby,but also that voice is not baby. It's fine but he and Glimmer so far are just sorta there to be related to Shulk and Rex. Don't really mess around with Tanks in gameplay but he does a decent job,you know when Rex goes down from stealing the aggro.

Glimmer idk how you made it your tenth term you keep getting your ass handed to you by everyone. But I appreciate her attitude,it's nice. Gameplay wise she's my favorite,so much magical,musical fire and great buffs.

I dont have many opinions on Shulk,he is Shulk but this time he is not really feeling it. I do wonder why they made him a avoid tank with no avoid arts? Maybe future fashion arts let him avoid but I don't like relying on Agility stat alone to dodge.

Rex has the biggest glow up I've seen. I know jackshit about 2 but holy crap. The power of having 3 wives or something. He is a monster for damage but that comes with the backlash of stealing aggro from tanks and then ending up face down and forcing me to revive him.

[eaglefairy]

Today was yet more sidequesting for about an hour until my roommate decided to throw all of you people following along with this a bone and go tackle more of the main plot after a few failed attempts at Breezy Zolos (Deinos Sauros, questionable party comp, and plain bad luck). She was committed to fighting Zolos with Melia, Sharla and Shulk, and she actually had a chance the first time before Deinos Sauros Moment

ldisjfdgfldsjfdgefhdgkfj GOD her voice has been up an entire octave for like 3 whole minutes because of Riki's cuteness. She adores his whole family and is ready to fistfight Dunga to end capitalism in Frontier Village so Riki doesn't have to be in debt to feed his kids. He's now beaten Reyn to become her favorite character

I saw Lorithia in the cutscene and wanted to start snarling. Roommate saw Lorithia and said "what the fuck", which is an eminently reasonable reaction to Lorithia. (really I think it was more a reaction to the dark and spooky atmosphere considering she immediately wondered if this was at Prison Island, but still. very reasonable reaction to Lorithia)

We got to Eryth Sea and spent a solid 30 seconds just looking around and listening to the music :) It's her favorite song from this game

And then she spotted one of the Andos and we had a nice little chat about history and lore and worldbuilding! Man I love this game. I love it so much

She obviously knows that Lorithia and Yumea are evil but she thinks they're involved with the Mechon somehow which is. lol. lmao even

dhsfdkjsdfnhgkd ok I just know we are having two very different experiences of Alcamoth right now. She's looking around at all the grandeur and loving the music and joking about how we don't talk to unnamed NPCs and I'm sitting there on the couch feeling deeply emotional about seeing Alcamoth at its height again (ESPECIALLY after xc3)

At first she was like "eugh Kallian is so condescending I don't like him" but thankfully she did a 180 once I started wailing about how much I love him and he encouraged Melia to feel emotions

re: that last bit, I think Melia and Sorean exchanged like 2 lines before she turned to me and said "so this is a very emotionally repressed culture, huh"

adkhfgrkdfjefskhudgr "[Lorithia] is evil, she wears black and red and has boobs!"

"This game is a bi woman's fantasy. There's so many attractive people here!"

We ended with a short discussion of what the last affinity area might be. I ran a little interference by pointing out that we haven't been to the shoulders or arms yet; her theory is that the last region is near the feet of the BIonis, and we'll go there to find the place where the Homs found the Monado. I get her logic because it seems to her that the Bionis gets consistently warmer and warmer near the upper regions, so a cold snowy region would be near the bottom

"Okay, WILD theory: the last area is for the Mechon. It'd be hard to make connections there though, since we're at war..." and "It'd be cool if in like the later games we make friends with the Mechon somehow"

Just going to. gonna let those stand by themselves

[fioras-resolve]

I'm gonna give a bit of a take here. I'm pretty confident in it, but I understand the potential negative reactions you could have to it, so, bear with me here.

Xenoblade Chronicles became one of Nintendo's biggest series for reasons that had nothing to do with it being good.

Now, I don't think the series or the original game are bad. It's not my favorite JRPG, and not even my favorite game in the Xeno series, but I understand why people like it so much. It's a solid 7 to me.

But I, like many of us, first learned about the game through Super Smash Bros. 4, when Shulk was announced and none of us knew who he was, at least in the States. Smash has a way of legitimizing games by raising awareness, just like it did for Fire Emblem and Kid Icarus before. By gaining this presence in a massively popular crossover fighter, Xenoblade gained a presence in people's minds. So many people, including me, wanted to try this Monado RPG.

The hitch was, it cost $100.

I remember those days. Xenoblade was a limited release over here, so actual copies of the game got sold on eBay for twice the price of the game at launch. I remember this, I bought it for that much. And if I spend that much on a video game, I have to like it. I am willing to put aside the shitty graphics and overwhelming number of mechanics and abundance of boring sidequests, because the high price point already works as a magic circle. I am invested in what the game is doing, because I've already bought into it, literally.

The cost for playing this game isn't just individual, either. The game unavailable in North America for years, despite already having an English translation. The choice to actually make it available over here was the result of a push known as Operation Rainfall to bring three already-translated Wii RPGs out of Europe. (Incidentally, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower don't get nearly the same attention as Xenoblade, which I think is unfair, they're also fine and would probably be somebody's shit if they'd heard of it) There's a kind of narrative that comes from that, isn't there? The game we only got to play because of the people who love the genre pushing to bring it over here.

But the fact the localization was done by Nintendo of Europe led to the game having a pretty unique style. I actually think the localization of Xenoblade is really good, particularly the translated names being alien in a way that still feels believable. But the choice to cast British voice actors was one of convenience for NoE. Despite this, it makes the voice direction stand out, gives it more character than we would have heard if it was the same American voice actors we've heard for decades.

I have a weird complex surrounding Nintendo RPGs, that I won't go into here because they're not relevant. (I'll just say, play Xenogears and FF12) Again, Xenoblade is a good, fine series of games, solid 7. But it's been interesting looking at it as one of the defining RPG series on the Switch. How did we get here? I do think a lot of it is in the circumstance surrounding it, and I hope I've convinced you of that here. Anyway did you did Monolith Soft worked on Dirge of Cerberus?

[kimzee-the-great]

Guess who finished Future Redeemed today.

There will be spoilers below the cut, so be warned.

Now I've been a Xenoblade (I have yet to be able to play any Gears or Saga games) since 2016. I have played and beaten every game in the series. And I have to say that Future Redeemed might be either right at the top or pretty damn close to it.

To be honest, I think I'm just gonna shout all my feelings here. So I apologise if you don't like walls of text.

It felt like a game made for fans of both 1 and 2, and the fact that the original Xenoblade Chronicles is my favourite game of all time (I have a monado tattoo and a Shulk cosplay to prove it) really helped me just fall in love with this DLC.

There were just so many references, so many areas and so much just felt familiar. I cried when they let you walk around Colony 9 and you got to see how it had changed.

But I think the thing that got me the most, was when the party went into Origin. We got to find out more about the Savorite Rebels. We got to find out more about Klaus' world. It was a massive pay off and I'm so happy that it happened.

And that fight against Alpha. That music gave me massive Zanza the Divine vibes and it fit so well. And also the music continued if you went into a chain attack!!

And the fact that we got to see that both Rex and Shulk had children and we got to meet them. The fact that they were trapped in that cycle and had no idea who Rex and Shulk were to them broke me, when I picked up the hints the game was dropping.

Although the thing that broke me the most, was definitely the thoughts that stuck with me. This game might be the last in the Klaus saga. Meaning that this might be the last time we get to see anything from the characters in this game. And that does make me really sad. I know that before we knew of this game, we thought we might have seen the last of the MCs from the previous games. But now it feels all too real.

I do hope they come back in a future game, but if they don't, I will really miss hearing Adam Howden voicing Shulk.

Okay my ramblings are over. Thank you for reading this mess. For your time, I offer you a cookie 🍪 .

There is probably more I want to say, but I can't think of anything right now. But I am looking forward to whatever Monolith have in store for us next.

[dausy]

ok so I finished Xenoblade 3. Though I have the DLC, I think, and I haven't started it yet.

I will say that, while I'm tempted to get Octopath Traveler 2 now, I am telling myself to hold off and wait for August because theres a new Legend of Mana game coming out but its on the PS and not the switch. My husbands been a bit of a playstation hog recently....but I told myself I have 4 books in this household that I started and need to finish and I have kinda told myself that I need to just binge read some stuff and get them out of the way before I go and get distracted again.

But anyway, Xenoblade 3. I was enjoying that game a lot more than the other 2 for a while. It had a weird major twist in that back end that I think distracted me from the final 2 chapters. Those were some massive cutscenes and I think my brain read that as "this is big enough to be a finale" and then I sort of lost interest, even though it wasn't a finale. Then the finale kinda made me go "meh". After 120hours, I was just tired. That one "group" photo was ODD too, ifykyk. What kind of weird man fantasy was that?

It also made me realize that I don't remember XB1 at all. I played it maybe a year and a half ago now and I do. not. remember. it. Listen to me sitting there saying "wtf is a shulk?" and I had to look it up. ITS THE MAIN CHARACTER. My memory is 1. bad. 2. I didn't care for that game THAT much because it felt very Chore-y...I might have skipped all the cutscenes and just don't remember skipping the cutscenes. But I must have. The thing is, is I remember the game locations. I remember doing the tasks and exploring the dungeons but I could not tell you character names or what they looked like. I rewatched a play-through of it on youtube last night so I can remember a bit of that story and its like..nope..only the dungeons were familiar. I can tell you about my struggles climbing up the nopon tree and getting murdered by level 90 monsters in level 2 areas..that I remember. Don't remember the story. MY BAD.

but I did have to rewatch that story so that I could try and made XB3 story make a bit more sense.

I am glad that I played XB2 even though everybody told me not to. While it wasn't a great game, I do feel like I would have been lost playing 3 and everybody assured me that the previous games were not important. I disagree. I do think 3 was a superior game though compared to both. I really liked the familiarity of the voice actors and I thought they did a good job.

One thing I did kind of miss though was exploring cities. While there was one city and you could visit little colonies, in my RPGs, half the fun is getting to the next city or castle. It just felt like a lot of open land with occasional people. I get that that is the story. So I'm hoping this new Legend of Mana game is going to give me whatever RPG feels I'm missing.

I am really chasing that feeling I used to get with games when you'd first turn on that big blockbuster novel of a game. I think the last time I got some sort of Feels was probably the first Ni No Kuni. I'm ignoring FF7 rebirth because its a remake. But that smell, that feel, that sense of wanting to explore and then a huge story unfolds..like I don't think I'll ever feel that way that I did with FF7, or 9, X, 12, kingdom hearts even..so yeah..

[author-main]

Imagine Twilight with Zoomies

Eh

[texts-from-xenoblade]

[gallade-x-treme]

NOT BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD THOSE FEELS THO

[maryse127]

Anyway for those of you unaware what happens outside of hellsite (affectionate): Xenoblade Twitter is having a field day because a dev on Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga (which looks amazing and I want it) snuck in a Xenblade reference after finding out Adam Howden aka Shulk's voice actor would be providing voicework for the game. The npc voiced by Adam Howden says: I'm really feeling it!

This meme is probably my least favorite in terms of Xenoblade memes because it's used so often and doesn't match the greatness of ytp quotes. However, what really shook people is that Xenoblade Portugal, a popular fan account blessing your cursed Twitter timeline with quality Xenoblade memes, mistakenly said that "I'm really feeling it" isn't in the original game and was introduced in Smash. Which led to many, many, many people correcting them and them admitting their mistake in shame.

[lawrencegarte]

wowee i jyust. bojack horseman was such a fantastic show from start to finish. the narrative was so so solid and it all felt so real and down-to-earth when it really needed to (and coo coo bananas when it was right) and man. man. that was hands down the best television i think i’ve ever seen and i’m so sad that it’s over but so glad that it ended how it did because it didn’t really fully end and that’s just how life is! it goes and it goes and the people come and they go and they all touch you in some way and some stay and some don’t and you never really know when things are gonna be over. life is transient. i’m feeling some type of way and i gotta end this post but yeah Bojack Horseman.

[rufflet]

I found enough lighting in this bar to get my face somewhat in focus but not enough to show off how blotchy my skin is bless

[machineryfield]

At the Start of the World Chapter 2

Heading Out

--

Fiora sits on the bench at Outlook Park, staring out at the Colony. Just a day ago it had been so peaceful, the threat of Mechon becoming more and more of a distant dream... But, like most good things, that had to come to an end.

She closes her eyes, remembering the scenes that had played out before her. People being eaten, Shulk being eaten. Stabbed cleanly through by that Mechon with a face before smaller ones descended on his body.

She remembers the cold rage that had seeped into her, the way she had finally found a weak point on the blaster armour of that thing and let the Monado cut deep...

The Monado feels so heavy on her back when Reyn approaches, and she forces herself to give him a smile when he sits next to her. "Hey."

"Hey," he doesn't even attempt to pretend to smile. "You doin' alright? I know you and Dunban went home last night... He say anythin'?"

"He tried to comfort me." She admits. "...It didn't really help, though. He just said what I expected him to say, really."

Words of moving forward, like Shulk would want. Firm looks and with an underlying insistence she returns the Monado to the Weapons Development Lab as soon as possible in his tone. She thinks of all he said and frowns. She decided then and there she wouldn't listen to him...

"I want to go out and find that Mechon," she says. "I want to make it pay for what it did to Shulk, and I want to understand why."

"Understand why?" Reyn frowns. "I don't get it..."

"I want to know why the Mechon attacked us, why they’re always attacking us, what made us their targets. I want to know why... why they eat us. Do they need to, or do they just take pleasure in it? Things like that..." She wrings her hands together. "But a piece of me just wants to make the Mechon pay. Not take the time to learn, as much as the questions eat at me."

"Sounds like that piece of you is me rubbin' off on ya,” Reyn rubs under his nose. "...If ya got that, I guess I should be the one to keep you on your path to learnin', right?"

"That piece of me is loud, just like you!" She giggles, before looking over at him. "Really? You're willing to let me try and find out why? Even though you just want to..."

"You're my friend, Fiora. You've got your reasons for wantin' to know, and 'sides, if we know, might be easier to take 'em down!" He nods with a grin. "So let's do this, yeah?"

She smiles and nods. "Yeah...!"

"So," he kicks his legs. "Guess we're not tellin' Dunban, yeah?"

"Yeah." She frowns. "He'd just try to stop me... We head out, just the two of us, tonight."

Reyn nods. "You got it, I'll meet ya at the entrance."

--

"Ready to go?" She asks, fixing the pack at her side.

She goes over all she has. Food for a few days, her knives in case she needs them, and the Monado. Not much, but enough to get them through Tephra Cave and the Bionis leg, at least. They could stock up at Colony 6.

"Yep." Reyn rolls his arm and smiles at her. "The Mechon won't know what hit 'em."

"Yeah," she nods. "First we go to Colony 6, then we head for Sword Valley. If we're gonna find that Mechon anywhere, it'll be there."

"Galahad Fortress," Reyn adds on. "If there's still Mechon, the fortress is probably still there. Buildin' up grunts for a year, I bet."

"Yeah, something like that." She cracks her neck and looks out towards the path towards Tephra Cave. This time, it'd just be the two of them. "Let's go, Reyn."

--

Fiora sees the door open towards Colony 6, once locked, and figures that's where the strange machines they fought earlier came from. She wonders, they showed up right before the Mechon.... Had they sensed the threat? Activated for that?

She shrugs off that thought, at least for now. Whatever those machines were, they were gone now. They could move forward without a problem, right? They just needed to get to Colony 6.

"You know," Reyn speaks, pulling Fiora out of her thoughts. "We haven't had any convoys from Colony 6 recently, have we? Y'think the Mechon got 'em, too...?"

Fiora frowns as they make it to the lit path. "I hope not. Maybe they just got delayed, or it was bad harvests this year."

She doesn't believe what she says, but she continues to hope, anyway. Maybe they did die, but maybe to natural wildlife. It was never fun to lose any of the few Homs they had left, but better to beings of the Bionis than the Mechon.

Reyn nods, frowning. "Sorry, I didn't mean t'..."

"Don't worry about it," she gives him a small smile. "I get the worry, really. We just... have to try and look on the bright side."

"Yeah... you're right."

They continue on their way for a while, fighting off the wild life and picking up knick knacks from the ground. It's going well, she thinks. Maybe too well... She doesn't like thinking that, but dread sits in her stomach as they walk along. What was this feeling...?

She tries to shake it off, at least, until they see dead bodies ahead of them. She feels panic wrack her body as they move towards them. Reyn is there first, looking them over with a grimace.

"Was it the Mechon...?" She asks as she approaches, voice shaking."

Reyn shakes his head, "looks like Arachno wounds, if y'ask me. Probably got ambushed on their way to Colony 9..."

Fiora frowns, she knows how Reyn feels about spiders and their bigger monstrous cousins. She moves to his side and places a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, there's some water, let's return them to the Bionis, then rest. We should think about our next move first if there are Arachnos ahead."

Reyn nods, clearly thankful for the idea. "Yeah. Let's do it."

Fiora's thankful that she and Reyn are both pretty athletic, all things given. It makes moving the remnants of the Caravan easier. There's not enough for it to have been the full group, and as bad as it sounds, Fiora is glad. That's less death they have to see right after what happened.

The bodies start to dissolve the minute they touch the water, and Fiora offers a quick prayer to the Bionis. Born of the Bionis and returned to it, the way Shulk didn't get to be.

She swallows down the bitter thought and turns to Reyn. "Come on, let's get some rest. You first, I'll take point."

--

A giant Arachno, Reyn surrounded by smaller ones. There's no where for him to run and Fiora isn't with him. She watches as it strikes out, he moves to block it, and dread settles in as it gives out. She watches the Arachno stab right through his chest. Watches him die, just like Shulk did.

Fiora blinks back to reality and sees Reyn walking towards her. "Your turn to rest."

"Reyn," she stands, shaky on her feet as she moves to him. "Are you okay?"

"'Course I am." He frowns, scratching his cheek. "Well, couldn't sleep a wink, but I feel alright. You look like you just saw a ghost, though."

"I..." She bites her lip. "I had another vision. Promise me you'll stay safe if I sleep?"

Reyn pats her back. "'Course I will, Fiora. We just lost Shulk, I ain't lettin' you lose me, too."

"Reyn..." She sighs and rests her head against his chest for a minute, tears pricking at her eyes. "You better stay safe, you big dummy."

He squeezes her into a tight hug then, a smile on his face. "Don't you worry about me! I can take a few hits... and if I need ya, I'll wake ya up, okay?"

"You better," she looks up at him. "No running off to play hero. No doing what Shulk did."

"None of that, promise."

--

It's foggy in Fiora's dream, she can barely make out where she is. It's a platform of some sort, that much she can make out. Looking around, she comes to realize she's high above some sort of water source…

There's not much else she can see, save a man in the distance. She squints, trying to get a better look at him and takes a step forward. He seems to realize she's there, but doesn't turn to greet her. He keeps his back to her, simply tilts his head back a bit.

"Quite the divergence, wouldn't you say? I wouldn't think the Heir to the Monado would fall like that." He says, voice sounding quite sad. "But now you are here, to take on that heavy title."

"Heir to the Monado..." She furrows her brow and doesn't even understand why she asks what she does. "Do you mean Shulk?"

He was the miracle child, after all. Found alive when everyone else from his colony -- pushing forward on an expedition to find any way to stay alive -- perished to the cold of Valak Mountain. The little boy, sleeping next to the mythical sword that saved the day so many times.

The man chuckles, and does not answer her. "I look forward to seeing what you'll do, now thrust into his place. I'm sure you'll make him proud, Fiora."

"How do you know my name?" She asks, stepping forward once again. "Who are you? What do you know about the Monado?!"

"All will be revealed in due time." He assures, but Fiora still feels unsettled. "Do your best, now, I'll be watching."

She opens her mouth and sits up from where she fell asleep, panting as sweat rolls down her brow. She turns to see if Reyn noticed, see if he has commentary for her, and her blood runs cold.

Reyn isn't there.

[templarsecretweapon]

beans