Xenoblade Chronicles X Spoilers (Unmarked so Beat the Game First)

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Fin

Clan Centurio Member
UFFSite Veteran
Nov 22, 2013
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Kanagawa, Japan
#1
Mod note: Created a spoiler thread that won't have unmarked spoilers. If you don't like spoilers, leave the thread and come back until you beat the game. Kinda have to beat it anyways so that some of your questions early on in the game can be answered. -Squirrel

The Xenoblade X Secret File artbook is AMAZING I'm so happy x_____x now I really want a sequel. I also wish the character models looked more like the design sketches, some of them are unrecognizable. Irina's sketch in particular looks so much better than her game model. (Oh and Lao too. Lao's sketch is way better)

The "Confidential" section also shows some things that were unused (scrapped protagonist, unused supporting characters...) AND some of the mystery things like a full illustration of the shadowy figure in the final cutscene.

A lot of the descriptions have black bars over the words D:

And it shows other interesting things that didn't make it into this game like
L's "true form" (I believe they showed a glimpse of this at one of the American events but here it's kept separate from his other design concepts... also I would have realized this sooner if I played the English version but I am very sure his true name is Lucifer)
Qlu ship/villages (I think they were originally planned to have a much, much larger role)
More Ares designs (in the original concept at least, it was the protag's skell piloted in tandem with Elma)
New Tokyo
Black knight (the shadowy figure)'s Skell
The Ghosts (alien race in the opening cutscene)
Some satellite floating above Mira called "the rose garden"

It totally teases like it's a preview for things to come. I will be so sad if I never get to see this stuff realized.
 
Sep 26, 2013
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#2
Qlu villiages... On Mira or some other planet? That's what Elma is right? A Qlu?

A satellite floating above Mira called "The Rose Garden"... That's pretty telling what Mira might be.

I think a sequel is inevitable at this point. As many developers create sequels today for business reasons, Takahashi might be able to take advantage of this and create a story he has always wanted to tell through several games.

Where is the best place to import the book?
 

Fin

Clan Centurio Member
UFFSite Veteran
Nov 22, 2013
147
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Kanagawa, Japan
#3
Qlu is Celica's race.
it didn't really look like the villages were on Mira, but it looks like they are floating ships or something.

It also showed a drawing of a completed, larger NLA.

I just grabbed it off the shelf but I think the easiest place to import would be Amazon Japan. You need to make an account separate from your regular Amazon account, but they ship anywhere.
 
May 26, 2014
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#4
Hopefully the book gets scanned at some point (and preferably translated) so I can look at it whenever I finish the game... which will be years from now at the rate I'm going. I remember reading you get access to the skells about 30 hours in. Currently 62 hours and I don't even have the overdrive yet.
 

Fin

Clan Centurio Member
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Nov 22, 2013
147
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#5
Well, I'm sure someone already has scans up, but there be spoilers all over the place in the book and you shouldn't look it over until after you finish the game.

Here are some snaps I took that aren't spoilery in any way, though-- the sketches of Irina and Lao by Tanaka

Honestly if their names weren't attached to the adjacent page I wouldn't have recognized them
 
Sep 26, 2013
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#6
Irina and Lao have better looking outfits. So does Lin.

(Chapter 5 spoilers)
Faces do look better too. I figured the human models look the way the do because they're Mimeosomes, so they were intentionally designed to have that artificial look to them. You can see it in their eyes and tell that they're not real humans. Even had the option to select robot looking eyes too when we created our characters!

I remember reading you get access to the skells about 30 hours in. Currently 62 hours and I don't even have the overdrive yet.
You could probably get Skells in 30 hours if you avoid all the side stuff and focus on grinding. Took me a while to get Skells too. Personally, I wouldn't try and speed through the game just to get one. Explore the world on foot first. Exploration changes in a big way once you get a Skell.

I just recently got (post game content spoilers)
Ares90 and I'm wrecking shit with it... Except for some tyrants who I can't quite beat. Saved up and got Elma's true form armor too! *drools*
 
May 26, 2014
625
172
#7
You could probably get Skells in 30 hours if you avoid all the side stuff and focus on grinding. Took me a while to get Skells too. Personally, I wouldn't try and speed through the game just to get one. Explore the world on foot first. Exploration changes in a big way once you get a Skell.
Yeah, I can imagine. I've already explored quite a lot of Primordia, Oblivia, and Noctilum. Haven't touched the other two yet. I think I've already been several places you're not meant to reach on foot too :p. The neat thing about this game is that if you look hard enough you can find a foothold almost anywhere, even on surfaces that look completely vertical.

I'm in the middle of chapter 5 now, and enemies are just starting to drop skell parts. The customization options look really extensive. I think I remember reading you only unlock skells at the end of chapter 6, but I'm already wondering if I should go for light, medium, or heavy.
 
May 26, 2014
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#8
YOU'RE A FUCKING ROBOT!?

Wow. Totally didn't see it coming. Anyway, the scene where the Ma-non ship arrives was very cool. I was wondering what they were going to do with the undeveloped zone. I had thought there was going to be a town building aspect like Colony 6 in the first Xenoblade, but I guess not. NLA already offers enough of that "growing town" feeling anyway, even if you're not physically building it up.

I don't really get the whole mimeosome thing though. Elma explains that their real bodies are stored in the lifehold, but why then is the protagonist a "mim" when he/she was found in a piece of the lifehold? Or was the protagonist's pod some other sort of stasis chamber independent of the lifehold (perhaps used only for the crash landing)?

I figured the human models look the way the do because they're Mimeosomes, so they were intentionally designed to have that artificial look to them. You can see it in their eyes and tell that they're not real humans.
Sure that's the reason. It's totally not that they just suck at animating faces. ;)
 

Fin

Clan Centurio Member
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Nov 22, 2013
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#9
I don't really know how the English version handles it but there is Life (the Zohar-looking things) and there is Central Life (the really important one) and then the other salvaged things I believe are pieces of the White Whale; life pods, storage units etc etc. that were scattered after the crash. A lot of ship crew and so on were in life pods (like your avatar) but it sounds like most of them were damaged beyond repair during the crash.
 
Sep 26, 2013
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#10
@ScienceNonfiction I see it as since Monolith Soft is owned by Nintendo, they're not going to invest the time and money into better looking animated faces. NOA/NOE probably doesn't care to reanimate them so the characters look like they're speaking English either. XCX is a middle tier title and not AAA after all. Priorities! ;)

In regards to the models though, I think the faces look fine. Especially Elma's! :drool:
 
May 26, 2014
625
172
#11
@ScienceNonfiction I see it as since Monolith Soft is owned by Nintendo, they're not going to invest the time and money into better looking animated faces. NOA/NOE probably doesn't care to reanimate them so the characters look like they're speaking English either. XCX is a middle tier title and not AAA after all. Priorities! ;)

In regards to the models though, I think the faces look fine. Especially Elma's! :drool:
Well whatever the reason, at least there's a a semi-reasonable, plot-related excuse for it. But I agree: the faces look completely fine.

I don't really know how the English version handles it but there is Life (the Zohar-looking things) and there is Central Life (the really important one) and then the other salvaged things I believe are pieces of the White Whale; life pods, storage units etc etc. that were scattered after the crash. A lot of ship crew and so on were in life pods (like your avatar) but it sounds like most of them were damaged beyond repair during the crash.
I guess that makes sense.
 
Sep 26, 2013
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#12
Got my art book in the mail. Pretty damn good.

Don't know Japanese but came across something from one of the interviews where the development staff at one point during production wondered if the next game should be "open world" for budget reasons.

Oh yeah. Wonder what they say about Rock? His English voice is interesting. Reminds me of one of those characters from a children's TV show where some kid does something wrong or is guilty of something and there is a lesson to be learned from it.
 

Fin

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Nov 22, 2013
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#13
If they want to go more story heavy for the next game, making it open world would probably be really difficult and expensive. Because of that, XBX had minimal cutscenes and the majority of them were characters standing around and talking (since they wanted to prioritise making an open world)


edit: OH CRAP
Someone on Gamefaqs mentioned something and I really buy it as a theory about L, at least his design.
KARELLEN FROM CHILDHOOD'S END (and Xenogears).
He has the same voice actor as the Xenogears Karellen (Krelian) as well.
Combined with his demon/devil motif designs (both his regular appearance and his "true" appearances which turns it up to 11), and knowing this is a reference that has already been made in a Takahashi game before, it... really makes sense.

I don't know if this is supposed to be a direct parallel or just one of the many, many sci-fi references thrown out like Doctor B, but the way it's kept secretive is what makes me wonder.
 
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Sep 26, 2013
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#14
I'm not familiar with Gears so I can't comment. But XCX seems to have many more references to previous Xeno games.

When you first mentioned "The Rose Garden", which is apparently some satellite floating above Mira, the first thing that crossed my mind was the satellite Klaus was in where he was conducting his phase transition experiment and Alvis being the administrative computer of that experiment.

It kinda sounds like some of the things we see happen on Mira (all alien species speaking the same language and many of them arriving and being stuck on the planet, mims still functional even with that data destroyed, Professor B saying Mira is unfamiliar to him as it's not on any planetary chart), make me think that satellite is key. Like it's some sort of administrative computer that created Mira and is responsible for so many things that happen on the planet

At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles, Alvis says, "Shulk. This new world is boundless. It is home to not only you, but many forms of life. I can see it. In this world, all life will walk towards the future, hand in hand."

Mira seems to have shaped itself to be the home of many forms of life with the common goal of creating a better future where everyone can get along.

However, a rose garden means you have to take the good with the bad. All that is beautiful is not as it seems. Hmm...
 

Fin

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Nov 22, 2013
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#15
Oh, Karellen is a character from Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (the author of the Space Odyssey series). It's not really a Xenogears reference aside from it being used before, though more loosely.

Basically, he is an alien species called an Overlord who is very interested in the evolutionary progress of mankind (even envious) and is guiding them to their next stage in evolution. Overlords appear like the traditional visage of the devil-- horns and all, which is why they try to keep their appearance a secret from humans-- the entire reason humans fear the devil is due to a primal fear that the Overlords will end humanity as they know it (end of their physical bodies, transforming to pure energy).

Overlords are a race forced to serve an existence called the Overmind, which gathers and assimilates other alien species, destroying their individuality. They are the only species who are at an evolutionary dead-end, so they cannot join the Overmind themselves, but they prepare other species in their journey to join the Overmind and try to keep them from delving too deeply into ESP and other psychic phenomena, which are something the Overmind fears (it isn't explained why). When the children of Earth are ready for their transformation, the vast energy required destroys the Earth. At this point the only human (as we know them) remaining had been living on an Overlord spaceship; they offer to let him go with them but instead he chooses to stay behind and witness the end of Earth.

https://zarnaguamore.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/xenoblade-chronicles-x-concept-l-light-dark.png

^ these are the L concept arts released at PAX. In the artbook, the one on the right is separated from the others for some reason.

It's just a theory but I think it makes a lot of sense. Takahashi is a big fan of Clarke (naturally, their studio is called Monolith) and XCX is full of sci-fi culture references


Edit: to keep it as spoiler-free as possible (Xenogears is THE best Xeno game you really ought to play it), Karellen and L have the same voice actor, and making references through the VAs is something Takahashi did with Gears and Saga-- Fei and U-DO had the same voice actor as well and it was definitely intentional considering what U-DO is/looks like. Gears' Karellen has a totally different personality from L and was more of a tragic antagonist figure. He did atrocious things that stemmed from the loss of a loved one, but was far more sympathetic than Lao.
 
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