Every single week, I’ll be chronicling my first time playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy on Switch 2 in anticipation for Xenoblade Genesis.

This is Week 2 of my journey through the first Xenoblade Chronicles, last week, I experienced the harrowing attack on Colony 9 & the unexpected death of Fiora. This week, I’ve made contact with Colony 6 and arrived at Makna Forest…yeah, the previous video covered my first 4 hours & this video covers the next 14 hours because I have been loving this game so much that I didn’t want to stop to write this video.

Locations

Every single location I visited I was in awe at how beautiful striking it was! Standing on the Bionis’ kneecap & looking up to see the bodies of the Bionis & Mechonis clashing is incredible. Riding through the Bionis’ Leg to see these vast plains, full of different monsters, which I love that this game scatters high level enemies within these maps too because it encourages me to take a mental note so I can go back & hunt them!

It has been especially fun to get quests that I am clearly unable to complete until I am a higher level so it is a clever way for the game to create a reminder for me to come back later. The biggest example being this bottle item locked behind a level 40 unique monster even though I got the quest before reaching leveling 10.

One of my favorite moments was being ambushed by a bunch of Javelin Tirkin’s for looting an item at their camp!

Seeing the destroyed Colony 6 was awful, but I am glad to know that I can help rebuild it so that is certainly a priority to complete before the end of my journey!

The Ether Mines & Satori Marsh both offered some awesome visuals. The Ether Mine having this giant drill or machine at the center of it that required us to navigate vertically in this area.

The Satori Marsh being this beautiful bright area is striking! My first experience in the Marsh was at night so I got to see all tree glowing in this magic light! I love exploring this area because I found myself inside this Lizard temple with their leader on the throne & I spent a couple of hours finding the best ways to pull this room of 11 lizards into groups of 3 so make the fights more manageable.

The Bionis Interior is so cool! I didn’t realize it during my first time here, but you can see a beating organ & objects that look like red blood cells floating in the environment! Such a cool small area to provide more visual lore for this bionis!

Music

I didn’t mention the music during part 1, but as I begun to focus more on paying attention to the music. It heavily reminded me of FF15, a game I greatly love! And yes, one of the composers Yoko Shimomura. The composer for FF15. The music is fantastic, I am always excited to fight unique monsters because the music track is so good!

Mini Games

I have been unlocking mini-games throughout my adventures, which I believe are unique to the Switch 2 version.

First, is the GP race, which is a lot of fun, but it did spoil me on how many more party members I will be unlocking. The race will reward you for winning a race with a character. However instead of leaving empty space after your characters. It clearly adds additional rows with their own question marks to indicate 3 additional characters.

I do know of the name Melia & I did see a cutscene with her at the end of my 14 hours. So I am guessing she is the next playable character. Definitely feels like she would be a High Entia. Her outfit is so much different from everyone else. Not sure who she is, but Shulk & Melia were probably the most common names I heard when people referenced Xenoblade Chronicles.

There was also combat trials that were a lot of fun! They helped me better understand how to play a character! As soon as I unlocked Dunban, one of the trials had me play as him so I got to better learn how to play as him well to reach S rank!

World Building

The world lore is slowly unfolding! We learn about the ancient High Entia race at the head of the Bionis. I am curious if Dickson was hinting that Shulk might be a High Entia because he does mention having met a High Entia.

We also met a monster called a Telethia, which are dragon-like monsters meant to protect the Bionis, which is super cool! We saw it fight a Xord!

I also have been seeing these glimpses of this mysterious white Mecron. Part of me is like, is that Fiora, but then the lady in black called the lady in white, Meyneth or something. I have been really enjoying these out of context visions Shulk is having because it is unclear whether this person in white is good or bad.

Also the reason I said Fiora is because there is still a meeting point in Dunban’s house that I don’t have access & I’m like, is it Fiora?! I hope not , but it would be crazy!

Characters

I was also introduced to Sharla!! Holy, what a gorgeous character! I was just stunned at her beauty! Her outfit choices are wild too! I wish her beach outfit was a bit more creative, but I have been happy with the other options available!

Also for her gameplay to be a healer that shoots you with a rifle is awesome! It is a pretty difficult play style because I have to juggle the rifle’s heat while casting all of these additional attacks & skills. The animation of her cooling the gun is so sick too!

Currently, I have the AI play her since it seems like they do a much better job at juggling the gun heating mechanic.

The relationship between Shulk & Reyn has gotten so good! I love that Shulk has been feeling more insecure about his visions to the point where he avoids telling people about them.

But Reyn being very emotional connected to Shulk, realizes Shulk has been holding back & confronts him about it. Giving Shulk this comfort that we will change the future together! It is such a beautiful moment!

There is another really emotional where Shulk tells Ortharon to chill out & let’s plan our next move. Not realizing that since Colony 6 was attacked, Ortharon has been planning this out. It gives a lot of depth to a character when they make responses like that! Very happy!

Even Sharla, although unfortunately her goal is to find her man. She is still a very strong character on her own. I do hope we get closure with her & Gadolt though!

Dunban’s reintroduction into the story with Dickson was super cool! Fighting back Xord & being a total badass!

I cannot wait to play more! This game has been tremendously fun!! I’ll see you all next week for some more Xenoblade Chronicles!