Xenoblade Chronicles/YMMV


 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Dickson The fact that.
 * Speaking of ?
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: When the game was confirmed for a Western release. Both the European and the American releases are worth mentioning. The former since it meant that the game would have an English version when the possibilities of that happening looked bleak at best, and because a major JRPG got to be released in Europe before any other non-Japanese territory when they usually are left for last (and worse). The latter, because of all the effort that the fandom made to try to convince Nintendo of America to bring the game despite its low sales prospects, including the now legendary Operation Rainfall.
 * Anticlimax Boss: Everyone makes a huge deal about how dangerous the rampaging Leone Telethia in Makna Forest is, even moreso due to it's spawn being annoying to fight already which says a lot about how bad the boss itself must be... until you fight it, that is. It's hardly easy, but it's nowhere near the threat it's hyped up to be. Hell its spawn are harder thanks to the fact that you're fighting three as Shulk with only Alvis backing you up!
 * As cool as the battle itself is, Egil... really isn't all that dangerous in any of his fights to be honest, even the last one . Jade Face, a minion of his is far more dangerous and powerful.
 * Awesome Music: We could easily say the entire soundtrack. But if we get specific:
 * The Main Theme. Wow! Just... WOW!
 * Time to Fight! deserves a special mention.
 * Field of the Machinae.
 * Prologue B.
 * Gaur Plains.
 * Those Who Bear Their Name.
 * Satorl, the Shimmering Marsh (Night).
 * Unfinished Battle.
 * Mechanical Rythm
 * Beyond the Sky.
 * One Who Gets In Our Way
 * ''Zanza
 * Bad Export for You: The North American localization isn't bad, but it shows lack of effort. It's pretty much just the UK version. For some things in the game, such as voice acting, this is a good thing--another Baten Kaitos won't occur. However, the format of the date and British spellings of certain words weren't touched. Not bad in any way, just not much effort was put into minor things. It's much preferable to nothing.
 * Even the copyright date on the title screen remains unchanged: something one would expect the lawyers to insist upon if anything of significance had been done at all.
 * In fact many reviewers have praised the British Voice Acting as it makes it stand out for the other JRP Gs.
 * It was either that or essentially wasting money to pay a localization team to go through the game's script and remove 'u's for basically no reason, especially considering that with all the British accents, you'd expect words to be spelled the British way.
 * Base Breaker: Riki has a lot of fans who think he's hilarious and adorable, while others simply find him unbearably obnoxious and completely unlikable.
 * Best Boss Ever: You've spent a good while unable to hurt Metal Face, the bastard who attacked Colony 9 and killed thanks to Faced Mechon being immune to the Monado... but this all changes when . Now the tables have turned and you get to beat the snot out of that son of a bitch while the awesome "You Will Know Our Names" blaring in the background. It feels good to finally put this asshole in his place, and this carries over to the rest of his fights as well.
 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment - Debateable, but at the end of her sidequest comes off as a bit jarring, since it hasn't been mentioned, demonstrated or hinted at that  serve as anything but decoration, they've got plenty of technology to  and the plot implies that they've been actively trying to mix their bloodline with the Homs for unrelated reasons which would also serve to breed this trait out as a side effect.
 * Actually one of the nameless NPCs in Alcamoth mentions that it's possible for a High Entia to fly using their headwings. But it requires a great amount of training and compares it to being able to wiggling ears.
 * Complete Monster -
 * Metal Face
 * for sure. This asshole ... ugh.
 * Xord is obsessed with exactly two things: killing Homs outright, and eating them. He wiped out most of Colony 6 and ate every hostage he took, and really, really wants to do the same to Juju, a preteen boy.
 * 's fellow trinity member is a borderline example as well, and manages to be just as nasty as her partner thanks to being in on . When she reveals her status as a member of the Trinity, she.
 * Demonic Spiders: Unique Monsters. They're always much stronger than the other nearby monsters being usually five to thirty levels higher (or in some cases, SIXTY), and they are more than happy to help out weaker monsters you're fighting if they wander by the battlefield.
 * For specific examples there are the Kromars of Eryth Sea, which are absolutely irritating reptilian creatures that always fight in packs, can initiate brutal chain attacks, can shrug off a lot of your attacks like they're nothing, and worst of all can seal your arts if they're an ether-type variation.
 * Fortress Unit Mechon are always several levels higher than most of the Mechon in the areas that they appear in, and are absolutely enormous which makes getting behind them for attacks like Backslash or Sneaky Sneaky a chore to do. They also hit ridiculously hard, and generally take forever to kill.
 * Ear Worm: If you spent any time at all solving the Bionis' Leg quests, Gaur Plain will. not. leave. your. head. for. weeks.
 * 8.8: The game got glowing reviews in all of the continents it was released in... with the glaring exception of EGM's "review." Keep in mind, this is the post-Magazine Decay EGM, so it wasn't widely reported.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: While he is a divisive character, Riki still pulls a ton of fans thanks to his hilarious dialogue, surprising usefulness in battle, and rather deep conversation with Dunban on . Along with Dunban, he's one of the few characters to make it into Smash Bros along with Shulk, albeit as a part of his Final Smash and an Assist Trophy as opposed to a lowly trophy.
 * Xord as well, partly for his hilarious voice as well as his ridiculously hammy nature.
 * Despite being an optional sidequest villain, is one of the most remembered characters if only due to the absurdity of . His sidequest is ridiculously well-liked due to those details.
 * Evil Is Sexy: . And when she merges with, she goes topless.
 * Executive Meddling - Not by Nintendo, rather, Nintendo of America.
 * And a positive example out of Game Stop, who apparently convinced Nintendo to sell Xenoblade from their stores.
 * Hate Dumb - Because of the situation listed just below, a lot of people seem to suddenly believe Europeans are lucky bastards that get all the good games and America is DOOMED. Of course, that nicely forgets how Europe suffers from No Export for You much worse than America has ever did, even to this date, and Xenoblade, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story are the exception, not the rule. In fact, as far the Xeno series goes, America still beats Europe 4 to 2!
 * With the announcement that Xenoblade is coming to America, they started quieting down about that game... then they started focusing on the latter two games.
 * With The Last Story heading to US soil, that leaves Pandoras Tower left... then people found out its quite average compared to the other games.
 * There are quite a number of people who refuse to play Xenoblade because it doesn't have HD graphics and is on the Wii (and this also leads to the further assumption that it is "for little kids"). As Operation Rainfall says, Don't Judge A Game By Its Console. It's also not rated M.
 * Hell Is That Noise: As awesome as the song titled "You Will Know Our Names" is, if you hear it out of nowhere you'll likely panic since it tends to play when Unique Monsters that are much higher leveled than you have you in their sights.
 * That fucking scream Shulk does when.
 * Hype Aversion: To be expected, since the game is already being called the "Best JRPG of this generation," even being ranked among the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII.
 * Internet Backdraft - The moment NOA said they may not bring the game to North America, specially after Nintendo of Europe confirmed they were going to bring it to the good Old Continent. The fact that reviews praised it as the best JRPG in an entire console generation didn't help either. The key word here though, is "may"...
 * "May" indeed. They have now confirmed that they "will" bring it over.
 * Like You Would Really Do It -
 * Love to Hate: Both Metal Face and Xord are completely without redeeming qualities to speak of, but they're so good at being unlikable bastards that it's hard not to like them in a twisted way. In the latter's case, his hamminess certainly helps as well.
 * The same goes with {{spoiler|Dickson of the Trinity who manages to be completely monstrous yet still stylish and Badass, while his partner Lorithia and master Zanza only manage to be simply hateable due to their callous, sociopathic, and irritatingly smug natures.
 * Memetic Mutation - Reyn's English battle quotes surely clicked with the internet.
 * "Now it's Reyn Time!"
 * "Man! What a bunch of jokers!"
 * Moral Event Horizon - When he is revived, {{spoiler|Zanza turns a good portion of the High Entia in Alcamoth into the Telethia, the mindless slaves who collect ether for him.}}
 * {{spoiler|As if slaughtering Egil and Meyneth, then destroying the Mechonis all within minutes of each other wasn't crossing the horizon already. Sure, Egil struck first, but damn.}}
 * {{spoiler|Egil striking first doesn't even begin to justify the horrible things Zanza has done considering his entire reason for attacking Zanza is because of Zanza attempting to exterminate his people in the past out of the blue during a time of peace.}}
 * Speaking of Egil, he's hardly innocent himself as he is the one responsible for the horrific attacks on Bionis, the {{spoiler|transformation of Homs into Faced Mechon}}, and is perfectly willing to {{spoiler|kill anyone who gets in his way of revenge: Bionis' life, his fellow Machina, and even the goddess he devoted himself to in order to do so. He thankfully repents, but it's scary to see how badly revenge has consumed him}}. For a proper crossing of the MEH, there's when {{spoiler|he's in control of the Mechonis and stabs its sword into a part of the Bionis at random, then smugly asks Shulk how many innocent people he's killed just to be a dick}}.
 * Xord crossed this when he {{spoiler|ate the Colony 6 survivors he had rounded up in the Ether Mines}}.
 * {{spoiler|Dickson crosses this when he shoots Shulk for sparing Egil's life and reveals that he raised Shulk solely to serve as Zanza's vessel, and he just keeps sinking further and further from there...}}
 * Then there's the absolutely horrific moment when {{spoiler|Lorithia turns on her High Entia allies and forcibly transforms them all into Telethia in a horribly painful process, Prince Kalian included.}}
 * First Consort Yumea comes off as merely a racist bitch towards Homs at first, but she undeniably crosses this when she tries to have her own stepdaughter assassinated for having the gall to be born with Homs blood in her veins.
 * And of course, let's not forget Metal Face/{{spoiler|Mumkhar}} attacking Colony 9 at the beginning and slaughtering many innocent Homs, including purely out of {{spoiler|pettiness and spitefulness towards Dunban}}.
 * Most Annoying Sound - Some of the battle quotes are repeated WAAAAAAAY too often.
 * "FEELS LIKE A FLY BIT ME! FEELS LIKE A FLY BIT ME! FEELS LIKE A FLY BIT ME! FEELS LIKE A FLY BIT ME! FEELS LIKE A FLY BIT ME!" Xord, shut the fuck up.
 * Speaking of annoying boss quotes, there's the constant, endless metallic garbled screaming from Tyrea during her boss fight, which is made even worse because the fight takes forever thanks to her Telethia helper's high amount of health and her inability to be harmed by the Monado.
 * "You will pay for your insolence!" "This is for defying Lord {{spoiler|Zanza}}!" will grate on your nerves during {{spoiler|the Lorithia fight}} due to how long it takes even when you're not struggling against her.
 * The song it plays after there's been a vision cuts into the various awesome boss themes, which can really grate your nerves when it constantly plays during the harder boss fights.
 * During the stretch from {{spoiler|Fallen Arm}} to Agniratha, you have the Offensive and Defensive flying Mechon enemies and their stronger variations, who emit an absolutely irritating sound when they follow you.
 * Some of the character's jumping sounds are more amusing than others, but Fiora's are hard to listen to. She sounds like she's gagging and on the verge of vomiting, which can really hurt more sensitive ears.
 * Most Wonderful Sound - Several.
 * The shattering-glass sound when you change the party's fate during a battle.
 * Now it's time for a Chain Attack!
 * Anything Reyn says, including one of his jump sounds ("Alley-oop!").
 * Nightmare Fuel - Some areas are not fun to run through for those with arachnophobia. Tephra Cave is a standout location since you get Reyn being swarmed by tons of ugly little Arachno with the Queen dead set on impaling him if Shulk doesn't save him in time.
 * The Mechon entirely.
 * {{spoiler|The High Entia turning into Telethia looks like a painful process, especially thanks to the screaming. Dear god the screaming...}}
 * And let's not forget the absolutely horrifying scream Shulk does when {{spoiler|the Monado starts to damage him the way it did to Dunban. He sounds like he's being ruthlessly tortured and can only scream and scream with his friends completely unable to help until the pain finally subsides}}. Kudos to Adam Howden's vocal cords for creating such a scary noise.
 * After defeating Egil, there's the scene when {{spoiler|Dickson shoots Shulk in the back when he's trying to make a truce with Egil. Not only is this scary because Dickson is killing his own adopted son with a look of grim satisfaction of his face, but there's also the way Shulk twitches and convulses rapidly while his eyes roll into the back of his head}}.
 * Player Punch: {{spoiler|After the High Entia get mutated into Telethia, if you look at your relationship chart, at least half of the High Entia people on there are greyed out, signifying Telethia mutation. Yep, those people you quested for, helped, and maybe even learned their connections? Gone.}}
 * Scrappy Mechanic - Debateable, but Spike damage tends to edge towards this: basically, anything that has Spike aura automatically does a set amount of damage to anyone who attacks them, and naturally due to the enemies' vastly higher HP, the fact they end up getting hit a lot more often than your characters, your limited sources of healing and thus the need to rely more on evasion to keep your party alive, this tends to work far too much to their advantage. There are ways to counter it, but they're either temporary or require you to sacrifice far too many gem slots to defend against it, and you have no clue on what enemy has such defenses before you see the purple numbers popping out of your characters. Furthermore, the spike damage defense gems don't work on Spikes that cause status effects, which you naturally have no access to.
 * The above is mitigated somewhat with high-level gems that make you almost immune to spike damage and ones that protect you from all status effects, but until you get sufficiently high-leveled variations of them, you're still going to be crippled severely by it. Not to mention the fact that the few skills that you can use to nullify spike damage rely on not only being able to hit the enemy, but to be able to build enough party gauge for a chain attack as well to make the effect stick.
 * Shocking Swerve: {{spoiler|Dickson shooting Shulk after he refused to kill Egil, revealing that he was evil all along. Then later revealing that he solely rescued Shulk and kept him alive to be a vessel for Zanza.}} Ho-leee Shit.
 * Tear Jerker: {{spoiler|Kallian's mental farewell to Melia.}}
 * That One Area: Satorl Marsh. It's filled with bird enemies that are very aggressive and tend to dog you as you try to evade them, and unlike the wide open beauty of the Gaur Plain before it, is rather confined and dull-looking, at least during the daytime(during the nighttime...). It also contains an aggravating fetch quest where you have to collect stones, and they are placed in the strangest places, including one across a poisonous lake. Have fun!
 * The Ether Mine isn't necessarily hard per se, but it is incredibly tedious and boring thanks to the fact that it's an enormous, dull-looking area that's similar to the earlier cave dungeon you were in hours ago, and thanks to a lack of landmarks can make continuing in the event of a death painful to say the least.
 * Alcamoth may be a peaceful city, but it's considered to be among many player's least favorite areas due to being too big for its own good. There are tons of people living in the city, and due to the area's vast size combined with NPC's having a schedule in regards to when they're available to talk to, it can make hunting down quest givers needlessly frustrating, even moreso since you HAVE to finish their quests before a certain event if you want the rewards, or else they all time out. It doesn't help that the city has very few landmarks to fast travel to, and it's impossible to jump down to the lower level from the higher without killing yourself.
 * That One Boss: Disciple . Not only is she a Flunky Boss, but her flunkies will selfdestruct, and you're fighting on a tiny platform with ether surrounding it. Seeing how she's huge, she'll try to push you into it. It gets worse; she also has an unavoidable attack that will hit all party members for over 2000 damage. She has a ton of HP, and Shulk is useless for this fight. Melia is ideal, but her low HP means she's destroyed a few seconds into the battle. Oh, and at this point in the game, there's also really no place you can go to to get better armor or easily level grind either since you WILL be underleveled when the time comes to fight her.
 * The first battle with Xord in the Ether Mines sounds simple on paper: you need to topple him twice, beat on him a bit, and the battle is over. But thanks to his ludicrous damage output, level spike, swarms of lesser Mechon, and the screwy camera angle make this easier said than done. If he so much as kills Reyn or Shulk, you're likely to never get a proper chain attack pulled off since it takes one part of the gauge to revive a fallen partner.
 * Tyrea and her Telethia friend are just plain horrible. Tyrea can only be damaged slightly by the Monado, the Telethia has a massive amount of health, and they are capable of hitting hard and fast.
 * Jade Face/{{spoiler|Gadolt}} is just awful, especially when you fight him in Agniratha. He has arts that deal ludicrous amounts of damage, he spams said arts endlessly, his best attack Laser Bullet has no reliable way to dodge and hits everyone for a horrific amount of damage, and to top it all off, HE SUMMONS ENEMIES THAT WILL FORCE YOU TO HIT THEM. And those enemies will take forever to kill, and God help you if he summons more right after you kill them. All in all, this battle is easily one of the hardest in the game, bar none.
 * The Scrappy: Most of the characters are pretty well-liked for the most part, yet there's still one semi-important character that is almost universally hated: Juju. Despite Sharla's constant warnings, he gets himself in danger no less than three times by deliberately disobeying her and running into dangerous situations without thinking about it whatsoever. Some people wish that Xord could have eaten him {{spoiler|along with the rest of Colony 6's inhabitants}}.
 * Lorithia as well, mainly for {{spoiler|lacking any Evil is Cool moments that make characters like Metal Face and Dickson somewhat likable and comes off as purely smug and unlikable. The fact that she's also absolutely frustrating to fight doesn't help her case in the slightest}}.
 * Visual Effects of Awesome: While the character models take a noticeable hit from this, the vast, thriving world you explore is well conceived design-wise and lavishly detailed, with its own ecosystem, weather effects and day/night cycle, with surprisingly good draw distance to boot. And this was all pulled off on an aging system that's only slightly more powerful than the original Xbox.
 * Notable examples include the Gaur Plain, a grassy field with huge cliffs and rock formations, and the Makna Forest, with a huge group of waterfalls that you can actually explore for yourself and filled with realistic flora and fauna.
 * WTH Costuming Department - A lot of people dislike most of the armors of the game so much that they refuse to put the characters anything but the standard outfits and maybe a one or two better-thought armors. Even if that means having worse stats. The worst offenders are the heavy armors, which are ridiculously bulky and over-ornamented.
 * The Woobie: Even with all of what the rest of the main cast has to endure, Melia gets hit hardest and most often. It begins even before Shulk's team meets her: {{spoiler|her best/closest/only friends and bodyguards are killed while on a mission to destroy a Telethia, her stepmother tries to have her assassinated, her father is killed before her eyes, one of her advisers turns traitor, and a good number of her people- including her brother and stepmother- are turned into Telethia.}}
 * So to summarize, by the end of the game, {{spoiler|her whole family is dead, only a tiny fraction of her people are still alive, and she knows that she's lost out to Fiora when it comes to winning Shulk's affections. She definitely got the rawest deal out of all the party members. And despite all this, she keeps her chin up and resolves to continue shouldering on.}}
 * Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: It's hard not to feel sympathetic for {{spoiler|Egil, considering Zanza took over his friend's body and committed mass genocide on the Machina just so he could continue his vicious cycle of causing apocalypse to keep himself alive. Too bad that Egil's plan to kill Zanza would have resulted in the destruction of the Bionis, where Homs and other races live in.}}
 * {{spoiler|Zanza}} tries to present himself as this, saying that he truly {{spoiler|desired friendship with his creations and that loneliness is what motivated him to keep them from leaving him}}, but Shulk calls him out on his bullshit immediately by stating the truth: {{spoiler|he doesn't truly want friendship, but mindless obedient pawns that he can abuse to his heart's content}}.
 * Woolseyism: Although in British style. It was so good that the Edge Magazine gave Nintendo of Europe a special award for the best localisation of 2011. The other four translations were also really great.
 * Woolseyism: Although in British style. It was so good that the Edge Magazine gave Nintendo of Europe a special award for the best localisation of 2011. The other four translations were also really great.

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