Oak 🍂

@oak-leaf.bsky.social

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any pronouns ~ VGM enthusiast ~ game design sometimes ~ software dev ~ michigan sports fan ~ xenoblade enjoyer ~ pfp by @meliaart.bsky.social

Vandham: “Hmmm… Rex, you’re a salvager, ain’t ya?” Rex: “Yeah.” V: “You musta fished out your share of military supplies, right? You fine with that?” R: “Nah, I don’t wanna get involved with it.” V: “It’s all the same. Compasses, valves for ether stoves… Armies need all of these things. That bread you’re eating? It’s made from ruska flour. Supplied by the Ardainian government. This world’s full of war. Don’t matter if you’re a soldier or not. As long as you’re alive… you’re in the war, some way or another. Don’t you think? R: “Um, I…” V: “Life can be cruel. Crueler than you know. That’s why I set up this little band, so I could protect the people I care about. Rex. You’re the Driver of the Aegis. The whole world’s gonna try and scalp you, you realize that? How ya gonna live, when you got everyone gunning for ya? It’d be easy to run. All you’d need to do is ditch that girl.”
Reyn, a powerful LGBTQ+ ally Shulk: “Reyn, you got my back?” Reyn: “‘Course. Gay rights! You can’t have a rainbow without Reyn, baby”
Sorry we’re late to the party!
Riley Affinity Chart To Elma: Looks up to her From Elma: Feels safe around her To Lin: Wishes she wasn't so hard on herself From Lin: Bonds over love of sci-fi To Irina: Has a crush on her From Irina: Respects/admires her To Gwin: Like a little brother From Gwin: She's so cool! To Doug: Skell buddies From Doug: She's chill To Lao: Appreciates his melancholy vibe From Lao: We can be sad together To L: Please help me get to know Mira! From L: Tell me about the natural wonders of earth! To/from Nagi: Mutual respect To Frye: This guy needs to slow down... From Frye: Loosen up, will ya? To/from Phog: Unexpected kindred spirit To Al: So dramatic... From L: Not sure she has the heart To Alexa: Top-tier yapper /pos From Alexa: Skell buddies! To Hope: Let me be your rock From Hope: I can relax around her To Murderess: Can't believe she's a curator... From Murderess: Chill out already To HB: At least he's earnest.. From HB: At least she's competent... To Yelv: He's rude, but I'm oddly drawn to him From Yelv: Let's keep it going, pard! To Boze: The woooooorst From Boze: A great student To Mia: Why are you like this... From Mia: She always has my back To Celica: I must protect her From Celica: She's so sweet! To/from Neilnail: Best friends To/from Liesel: Mutual respect To Ga Jiarg: Wants to help him relax From Ga Jiarg: Honorable warrior
White Whale Crew Profile Name: Riley Division: Curators Class: Galactic Knight+ Voice: Independent (Kira Buckland) Age: 28 Height: 5’7” Gender: F Personality: - Shy and reserved around others - Good listener, likes to chime in with sarcastic quips + teasing - High attention to detail for things she cares about, but can be forgetful about things she deems unimportant Hobbies: - Hiking/camping - Trying out weird foods as rations Skills: - Scouting/studying new regions - Taking care of/cultivating protected land Likes: - Nature, beautiful vistas - Fantasy/sci-fi stories - Cowboy coffee Dislikes: - Large groups of people - Those who disrespect nature Memory intact: Yes Background (History): Originally from the PNW, Riley studied forestry and grew up loving hiking/camping. Her dream job was to become a NPS ranger - her parents deterred her from pursuing that path due to lack of financial mobility but she decided to stick with it. After graduating, she moved to California to work at Kings Canyon National Park, and eventually rushed from there to LA to be on the WW. She's excited about the opportunity to explore an alien planet, but has MAJOR survivor's guilt from being chosen for the WW. This feeling is built on pre-existing guilt from being chosen for a rare opportunity with the NPS, and exacerbated by her family not being able to board the WW. Due to this, she can be prone to careless actions during bouts of self-loathing. She retains her memories but initially pretends she has amnesia, in a misguided attempt to leave behind her guilt. This of course makes her feel even more guilty until she's able to open up to the BLADEs closest to her Free space: Her initial work as a ranger focused on guiding hikes. She loved sharing history/details about the park, but realized she couldn't stand interacting with disrespectful tourists. She switched to a role as a backcountry ranger, which was more in her wheelhouse as it focused on conservation, trail maintenance, and sear…
While I really enjoyed Melinoe’s self-esteem issues early on, they become less impactful as the game goes on. This is mainly because Melinoe is mostly concerned about how she is not strong enough, in the literal sense. Melinoe doesn’t have a lot of faults; she’s confident, capable, and strong-willed. And while I do think this makes her pretty cool, I also think it means she doesn’t have a whole lot to learn; I don’t think she develops all that much. Probably her most significant “issue” in the story was not being willing to grant Chronos any mercy. It takes Zagreus convincing her to let him try getting through to Chronos before they go for the more violent route. But while I do like Zagreus having a significant role in this story, getting Chronos to attempt redemption feels like mostly Zagreus’ doing, not Melinoe’s. Yes, Melinoe needs to defeat Chronos in battle several times to enable Zagreus, but I wish Zagreus’ willingness to put mercy first had resulted in a more significant character moment for Melinoe
Metal Face in a party hat saying “Sorry we’re late to the party!”
YES... HA HA HA... YES!
How do we tell him?
I think my main frustrations with chapter 13 come from how it serves as a follow-up for the original 12 chapters. As I mentioned before, the broad strokes for this chapter make a lot of sense and feel like natural areas of focus. But certain things leave somewhat of a bitter taste in my mouth. The main one being that we’re moving on from Mira. While the ending of the original chapter 12 was an unsatisfying ending, it left a tantalizing hook for a sequel. And the mystery being tied to “something about this planet”. Well, as it turns out, the persistence of the humans’ consciousnesses had nothing to do with Mira itself…definitely an odd writing choice considering the setup. To me, one of the most exciting prospects about a potential X sequel was the opportunity to dive into Mira’s secrets. What else is on this planet? More continents to explore? Another civilization of humans? What about the origins of L and the nopon? What’s the meaning behind the appearance of the Telethia? Why did all the alien races end up on Mira specifically? How was this planet created, and why does it have protections like a space-time barrier? Whether the writers decide to move on from these questions is TBD - the ending of chapter 13 doesn’t necessarily mean these questions will never be answered, but at least to me they seem to have been put aside. And this is such a shame - not only is there plenty of material here for a sequel, but also, the ending of ch13 retroactively makes the buildup of these questions less meaningful (at least to me), now that it’s unlikely they’ll lead to any answers
Before talking about X on its own, I want to talk about how this chapter fits into the wider context of Xenoblade. I think the most likely outcome is that the blue light we saw at the end of Future Redeemed is the White Whale 2, and the next Xenoblade game will involve the casts of various games coming together (in some way) on this new planet. Another possibility, and probably my preferred option, is that the White Whale 2 arrives at a different planet from what we see in FR, but within the same universe. I think this could leave room for a sequel to X before fully integrating it into the numbered series in a future game. In terms of how to integrate X, I think the dematerialization events + White Whale 2 were a perfectly fine way to do it. It doesn’t feel shoehorned in like a lot of people were worried about. I kind of like X being its own thing, but from a game development perspective, the possibility for having one larger integrated series might be best for the future, rather than having multiple very similar series in parallel. I also think that, if this is their way of connecting X, then this is probably the last “definitive edition” that needed to happen
The ganglion “god” being a Samaarian castoff whose mind has been broken by an immense amount of time trapped in the rift feels like a natural extension of the perspective of the ganglion we got from luxaar in chapter 12. void feels like a proper final antagonist for the original xenoblade x plot. Void is kinda interesting to me. I found the “primordial entity” with unclear plans/motivations to be fairly engaging to follow since I didn’t know what to expect. Additionally, the unclear extent to which he’d go for his goals, in addition to a strong visual design and distinctive type of dialogue, lent a feeling of uncertainty and intimidation to Void as a villain. The revelation that he’s a Samaarian, though, honestly confused me more than anything. Void seems to have godlike powers that are never explained - are all Samaarians like that or is Void special for some reason? And why can’t Void comprehend death? Apparently the Samaarians had some concept of it because “death as punishment is anathema”, but is Void’s lack of comprehension because Samaarians are immortal, or is his mind broken due to his imprisonment? I do think he could’ve benefited from more clarity on those questions
In contrast to how they built up Al’s persona, I’m very confused about what they did with Lao. Why imply he’s still alive, if he was just going to pass on immediately anyway? I will say, when he changes his mind at the end of chapter 11, it does feel pretty abrupt - I suppose they just wanted to give his character some closure by giving clarity to his mindset, and I definitely appreciate that. But man, that scene with him and Al was absolutely gutting. Lao is probably the most interesting character in x, and I would’ve loved to see a true redemption arc from him, especially with the opportunity to move on to a new world. In fact, if they’re planning to make the next Xenoblade a “crossover”, I would’ve loved to see him meet the cast of 3 considering the themes of their journeys. The fact that he wants to inspire Lin to keep living, but accepts death himself, is truly disheartening
I do wish we got more from Elma in this chapter. I get why she wasn’t the main focus, but there were two things I really would’ve liked to understand about her: 1. The fact that she was living undercover - how did it affect her to be keeping secrets for so long? How do the other characters adjust to seeing her in a new light? It just kinda feels like, aside from what happened to Elma’s planet and how she came to earth in the first place, the revelations about Elma from chapter 12 were just kinda dropped. There was good potential for drama there, but it feels like they wanted to move on 2. What exactly is her relationship with Al? We got a few good scenes with them, I’m glad we got to hear more about the pain Elma was carrying after Al disappeared. But imo what she said in chapter 13 about her guilt was already kinda implied, I wish they had expanded on that a bit more. Although I suppose there’s room for that in the next story they tell with this cast
Ok let’s talk about Al. I love the direction they took with him. After emphasizing his status as “the hero”, and being very coy about what he looks like, building up this legend (which was aided by a 10-year IRL wait), only to reveal him to be just some guy was honestly brilliant. Excellent manipulation of the player’s expectations, through the game itself but also via external media. Al himself is pretty great. The fact that he’s legitimately very talented as a pilot, but his most important qualities are more about his ability to perceive others and the world as a whole, make him a good complement to the rest of the cast. He had some great scenes with Lin, Elma, and Lao. Some of his “power of love” lines were kinda corny imo, but he’s a massive dork anyway, so it works well enough. It’s just difficult to deliver a compelling character arc in one chapter though, so I hope we get to see more of him in the future
On that note, I’d say the music in this chapter, mainly from Misaki Umase, doesn’t really fit super well with the rest of the soundtrack, but considering Volitaris also feels pretty different from Mira’s continents, I think it works well! The area theme really captures that otherworldly feel. And in particular, the strings in various songs stood out to me
That being said, though, idk how I feel about the execution. A lot of the revelations from this chapter were delivered in massive lore dumps. Nothing much wrong with that, I think the devs knew what longtime X fans were most interested in, and wanted to focus on that. I did enjoy the sidequests we got to flesh out Al + how various characters reacted to the exodus. Volitaris was pretty neat, it was cool to see a lategame area designed purely for skell traversal, something that wasn’t really in the base game. Kinda wish it had been a bit more expansive (it’s quite small compared to its “equivalent” in other games - Bionis Shoulder / Torna / Cent-Omnia Region), but for its placement in the story, and considering the scope of this epilogue, it fit well enough. I liked that we didn’t have the usual minimap, requiring the player to rely on actual observation and exploration to find the other party members, plus using the spears as visual landmarks for navigation
In general, I enjoyed the epilogue. The broad strokes definitely felt like what the original xenoblade x plot was meant to be - Elma’s backstory, Al, the Ares, the Great One, some explanation for how the mims are still active, etc. Mostly good character building, a cool new area, an actual conclusion to the story - all good stuff here!