Welcome to the final week of my journey playing through the Xenoblade Chronicles 1 for the very first time in anticipation for Xenoblade Genesis! Last week, Fiora is alive & I could not be any happier with her return. This week I finished the game!
Environments
Mechonis Field is unlike any other environment I have visited so far. They took the verticality from the Ether Mines, but expanded on that idea resulting in this massive journey through this terrifying area. It was also really cool to be able to see outside the Mechonis through a battle scar!
The Mechonis Central Factory might have been one of the largest environments I visited so far. It took me several hours to explore the entire area because there were so many unique monsters with objectives that required me to kill some of them. Honestly, by the time I reached the end, I was exhausted by this location.
Arriving at the Mechonis Capital, Agniratha, my exhaustion turned to sadness as I saw the devastating effects of Zanza’s attack on Mechonis. A city devoid of any life. The music so somber as I fight my way through mechons to reach Egil.
After the Mechonis Capital, we begin the finale, so we don’t visit very many large explorable environments, but a lot of really cool smaller ones.
The Mechonis’ core was a visually cool environment because I am descending down to face who I thought would have been the final boss of this game. It really felt like an end game level area.
The return to the Bionis Interior was awesome, Everything being gross & bodily, strangely enough this felt like such an evil place with the amount of strange & bizarre looking creatures. However, I was surprise that we’re immediately thrown to Prison Island.
Where we get to explore more of this derelict castle, which from the way I understood this story. This is either Zanza’s castle or a castle made for Zanza as people over the ages had forgotten about Zanza. It was so cool seeing this banquet halls & hiding rooms throughout this area.
There are two other areas that although not explorable were so awesome to see! First, was seeing our solar system starting from Saturn & making our way to Earth. As a big space geek, I was so just amazed at how beautiful rendered all these planets were!
The last area was not playable, but seeing Colony 9 after humanity’s wish was such an incredible sight to see. So many times I’ve seen the massive mountains surrounding Colony 9 representing this cage Bionis had on everyone that lived there. To now see, this wide open sea full of freedom & possibilities! Such a wonderful sight & great final environment to see in this game!
Game Bits
I ended the game around the 91 hour mark. Funnily enough, it would have been shorter if I realized back in Sword Valley that the anti-mechon weaponry was more useful than pure max attack because after 20+ hours of fighting my way through Sword Valley to the Mechonis capital, I was not using anti-mechon weaponry & it was such a struggle…also I basically forgot about it existed.
I also didn’t realize that Sword Valley was in fact the sword. I was really hoping to be able to be on the edge of the sword & see out onto the ocean.
I won’t be able to 100% Xenoblade Chronicles 1, but I was happy to have fully reconstructed Colony 6 post-game & even did the Tyrea quest as well.
Throughout this game, I’ve been relatively overpowered or within a couple of levels of the main story because I’ve been doing every single quest in every area. It was a nice form of grinding without having to just kill monsters for the sole purpose to gain experience. However, as I entered the Bionis Interior, I was around 70 – 71 when the game expected me to be around 75. So I was rather disappointed that I had to grind for a couple of levels to be able to defeat Loritha. Luckily, Prison Island had a ton of aggro monsters so by the time I finished exploring the island, I was prepared for the remaining fights!
Egil Fights
Speaking of fights, I enjoyed the Egil fights! Not so much the actual fighting, but the meaning behind many of those fights.
The first real fight against Egil where he was outside his mechon really helped illustrate the way he originally viewed the lives on Bionis as being insects. But once we defeat him, I love that immediately the second fight begins as now he takes us as a real threat despite us having no possible chance at winning.
His fight at the core was incredible because I love how the “Change the Future” mechanic showed us the Mechonis destroy the Bionis! What a cool visualization for what I thought was the final boss.
Egil’s final fight was my favorite. Although, I didn’t participate in this fight. The moment came directly after Shulk & Meyneth deaths & Egil’s realization that there can be peace among the Bionis & Mechonis. This fight was Egil’s final stand against our true enemy, Zanza! A incredible end to a character I thought was really cool!
Gadolt
Gadolt is another character who has such a powerful end as well. Last week, learning that Gadolt memories were wiped. I knew it was going to be rough for Sharla and of course the writers really wanted to make sure I felt that pain as I see Gadolt blaming himself for not being able to save the lives of his men. Putting this burden that they died for nothing because they didn’t win the fight.
I was expecting the waterworks to happen, but honestly, when he exited his mechon right after his pretty fun fight where we had to run from wall to wall to avoid his sniper shots. That moment didn’t really get to me. I think it was because I was trying so hard to understand if this is Gadolt or Egil speaking.
But, during the final battle against Gadolt, I was getting misty-eyed. Sharla refusing to believe that Gadolt wouldn’t remember her & through the power of love! He was able to remember! I’m a sucker for this cheesiness, it warmed my heart for Sharla to see Gadolt again. It did break my heart seeing Reyn’s expression as Sharla runs to Gadolt, but it was such a mature move of him to help Gadolt out after that.
This all leading to the moment were I actually teared up when Gadolt sacrificed himself to save Sharla & the others, which also reawakened Meyneth. So I was happy that Gadolt’s character really nailed the emotional impact I was hoping for.
Finale
The finale was just absolutely incredible. They first gave us this glimpse of Shulk floating in space with the voice of Zanza speaking to him, but I thought it was Alvis. So the moment when Dickson shot Shulk & Zanza appeared, I was leaping off my couch cursing at Dickson because they definitely had more heavy-hand “Dickson isn’t a good guy” foreshadowing, but that reveal was still so incredible!
Zanza using Shulk’s dead body as a vessel, which ended up giving Shulk a second chance at life much like Meyneth using Fiora’s body as a vessel! Very cool moment of Shulk & Fiora being the future of the world.
I greatly appreciate that attention to detail this game has for outfits since I am always switching up outfits for these videos, it was cool to see it reflected in Shulk’s memories as he is trying to return to his body.
Also huge credit to the writing team by still having the excitement hit when Shulk saved his friends against Dickson’s telethia. We knew he was coming back so to make this return such an awesome action moment really helped elevate that scene more than just a Shulk has returned reveal.
It stunned me how much wild reveals were thrown at me towards the end of the game. First, the crazy moment where all the high entia were transformed into Telethia, which is the gene referenced early on in the game that the first Emperor tried to eliminate. We even see Kallian get transformed into a Telethia & when Melia said her final goodbye to her brother & Riki is just like I hear your brother, but I don’t see him. That killed me, my eyes started to water up as Melia hugs Riki. It was a really beautiful moment!
Funny enough, Melia’ stepmother plot point was just not important as we learn through a Tyrea side quest that she turned into a Telethia & we fight her as a Telethia. Also Face mechon were helping fight against the Telethia at Colony 6, that was super cool!
The Dickson fight was a lot of fun because it was challenging enough where I could make a couple of mistakes without outright having everyone die as a result, but why this fight stands out to me is another favorite trope of mine. “BUT HOW”. Shulk & Fiora slow walking towards Dickson has Shulk has created a new Monado is so freakin’ sick!!
Now this moment wasn’t as hype gameplay wise because nothing actually changed. We’re given a replica Monado once Shulk returns & he can use all previous Monado skills so when Shulk gets the power of the Monado during Dickson’s fight. Everything remained the same.
And as much as I hate Dickson his death had me getting a bit misty-eyed. For one, Dickson wanted to die without giving Shulk to satisfaction, but to me, I think it was also to allow Shulk to not witness Dickson’s death. To keep Shulk’s conscious clean; however, we also see a moment where Shulk realizes that Dickson will not live through this & does grieve his death. It is a very short, but effective emotional moment.
AND THEN WE ARE FREAKIN’ SPACE! How cool is this moment, I love this build up of us fighting the god of the world. I love that Zanza has the goofy-ass Bionis looking armor on him covering up his older hot Shulk look.
I love that during this fight against Zanza, there is a quick-time event to determine who’s power over the future prevails. Succeeding allows Shulk to see Zanza’s upcoming attack! Such an awesome way to utilize this mechanic I have been using for nearly 100 hours in such fun way!
Zanza’s final form being the unity between the Bionis & Mechonis is such perfectly irony & the way Shulk creating a new monado by creating a new future with his friends is such cheesy awesome stuff that I love so much!!
Of course, the game didn’t want to end the crazy reveals there because Alvis is not only revealed to be the Monado, but he is the onboard AI that was on the space station where Zanza who was once human destroyed the entire universe causing himself & Meyneth to become gods in his new world.
I am eating this up, I absolutely love every single aspect of the craziness that this story provided. It isn’t a story about an egotistical god, it is a story about Elon Mu- someone who destroyed the universe to become god & I think that is so cool!
And for this wonderful game to end on, the universe being full of so many different forms of life that we haven’t met before! It is so tremendously exciting to see what the future holds for Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Genesis, and even all those older Xeno games. This is ending filled my heart with so much warmth, seeing everyone from Bionis & Mechonis coming together at Colony 9 in this new world is a truly magical thing & I love this game so much!!
Ending
Thank you for joining me on this wonderful journey as I experienced Xenoblade Chronicles 1 for the first time. As excited as I am to play the epilogue & jump into Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This series is no longer weekly. I will be releasing a Xenoblade Chronicles 1 review w/ thoughts on Future Connected & a single video about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that will attempt to capture my journey playing through that game. As the ultimate goal of this weekly format was to illustrate that journey. Thank you!
