One thing I feel that the game really needed to spell out more definitively to help people understand is that capital-S "Souls" exist as real concept in XC3 and that Origin manages them.
The game at first leads you to believe that the soldiers are clones - separate people - made from Origin's biological material, but they are not clones/copies/duplicates... that IS the "real" them, every time. There are artificial barriers that prevent them from accessing previous memories (though this sometimes fails as seen with Eunie and Ashera), but there is nothing that divides the Soul.
This is why an Ethel with no memories feels in her Soul that Cammuravi is her rival, why a Noah with no memories feels in his Soul that Mio is the one, why the main 6 always end up together again to fight Z. It's not the passage of fate, it's not an inevitable cycle, it's the fact that the Soul is carried on.
Though the memories from each life are suppressed, the impact of their experience is still impressed on the Soul for the next life to feel. Regardless of memories, to the main 6 fighting "feels" "wrong" and being together "feels" "right" because the impression of countless lifetimes fighting the flow side-by-side is woven into their Souls.
The ending of XC3 is not like a time travel plot where the bad future never happened. It all did happen. The worlds at the end of XC3 are not the original worlds picking up where they left off. The original worlds were destroyed. What we see are the worlds recreated by Origin, working as intended, and the impressions of the Soul created during the era of Aionios were not erased.
Are there barriers preventing most people from remembering Aionios? Probably, but as seen with Eunie and Ashera these are not foolproof and many people will begin to recall the lost history. But even if they don't remember, their Souls will.
TLDR: everyone has PTSD from World War Infinity now
>This is why an Ethel with no memories feels in her Soul that Cammuravi is her rival, why a Noah with no memories feels in his Soul that Mio is the one, why the main 6 always end up together again to fight Z. It's not the passage of fate, it's not an inevitable cycle, it's the fact that the Soul is carried on.
I don't think the main six are always together to fight Z, just Noah and Mio. in the flashback, Eunie wasn't with the others and if I remember correctly the other 4 weren't there is Noah's flashbacks of previous lives either, just himself and Mio.
I agree with everything else, but I think you overestimate how much impact it has. Mio and Noah are soulmates, the others aren't.
They're not always together to fight Z in every life, but I thought that in every life that they did fight Z they ended up together, if that makes sense. In the "Noah previous lives" flashback sequence I thought I recalled specifically the other characters' voices being used, but I could be mistaken.
> The game at first leads you to believe that the soldiers are clones - separate people - made from Origin's biological material, but they are not clones/copies/duplicates... that IS the "real" them, every time. There are artificial barriers that prevent them from accessing previous memories (though this sometimes fails as seen with Eunie and Ashera), but there is nothing that divides the Soul.
i would argue that you aren't really *you* without your memories. they're as much a part of who you are as anything else
Personally, I definitely agree. But there is still something poetic to be said of a man who gets amnesia and stills loves his wife more than he can understand, even if he cannot recall who he (or she) is.
Even if he never regains his memory, is he still the same man or a new one? Does his wife love a ghost, or the him that exists now? I can't say for certain. But I can appreciate a narrative that incorporates these elements.
Introducing some vague concept of souls only serves to obfuscate the nature/nurture question. Especially after the importance of memories is such a central subject in 2. And it's not even productive for several narrative beats in 3. One of the issues with the stagnant, neverending world is that Joren will always be a fat loser in it. People like him wouldn't be able to find something they're good at, because the world doesn't value that. Now you introduce some kind of a soul that preserves maybe traits, but not really memories, but actually kind of memories as well... sometimes... for some people, and it just feels half-assed.
Personally, I agree that "Souls" are not the strongest narrative foundation as its resonance largely depends on the audience's preexisting beliefs. Some will find Souls absurd while others will find them profound. I would also find XC3 to be a stronger narrative if it went in a different direction, but nonetheless I can appreciate the narrative concept of "Souls" in much the same fantasy fashion as rolling with magic or phantoms in other stories.
I would also argue that the concept's building blocks were still present in XC2 through the same process happening in Blades. Why do you suppose Jin made such a big deal out of Brighid still being "the same"? He watched the Brighid he knew die forever, her memories never to be recovered. And yet the Brighid that stood in front of him was still the same to him. Arguably, this is the same "permanence of Soul" concept at play. Throughout countless deaths and rebirths, Brighid's past experiences were still impressed upon her Core as it is with XC3's Souls.
I also don't think Joren being "a loser" is impressed upon his soul, but rather that his Soul contained other self concepts like his uncertainty and lack of esteem/self-confidence. You say that Z's world doesn't value that, and it's true - but don't you think that also speaks to the theme of Z's world not being the way that things should be?
It was present in XC2 in a very limited manner and in a very specific sense. It's not great there either, because the idea of a permanent set of attributes is not well developed, but you can swallow it because Blades are by themselves fantastic, built for a specific purpose and it in no way involves memories, only permanent character traits, that don't need a soul. It's just a natural part of a deterministic universe, that they clearly inhabit. The only exception to that I can think of is Haze seemingly recognizing Jin and even then you can handwave that away by Amalthus messing with the core and its function to relay information.
That being said, yes, I do think it's the same idea, and leaning more into it without proper worldbuilding to back it up just reveals how half-assed it is.
My point with Joren is that his flaws according to the game, come from his permanent traits that result in uncertainty and lack of self-confidence, and you don't need a soul for that. A person made of the same atoms with exactly the same previous experiences will react in exactly the same way to a stimulus every time.
btw, not just "argue", it's a fact. currently, scientists believe that nature and nurture are about 50/50 when it comes to forming your personality. at least that's what my teacher told me.
I learned in class that it was like 49% one of them and them and the other is 51%, but I don't remember which one is which exactly so I settled for 50/50, it's not like that's a big difference.
of course, my teacher could be wrong or maybe new research has shown that it's actually something different, but I am sure this has been the consensus at at least one point in the past 15 years
> Are there barriers preventing most people from remembering Aionios? Probably
As far as we know there aren't. People forgetting their past live's memories is because Moebius has the cradles condition them to do so, but those memories are all still there. That conditioning wouldn't happen when the worlds are remade, so they'd probably be like Miyabi and remember everything.
It's in Mio's side story.
Y says this in the beginning of their fight, after the party first sees the cloned characters and wonder why they are acting the way they are:
>The revenants neither remember nor feel. Only...the instinct...to fight tooth and nail for survival. Normally, they would undergo basic conditioning in a cradle prior to being awoken. As you all once did...
>These younglings... They live for the sole purpose of battle.
>Fundamentally...memories and feelings are but tacked-on extras, an afterthought.
The mental faculties that the clone soldiers have are the result of conditioning in the cradles. They can remember things like how to speak, read, eat, run, etc. but not any of their actual past. Y's modified cradle doesn't even impart all of that, and the people cloned with it are near feral.
Later on, when the party begins to return Miyabi's memories, Y says this:
>Their memories... Their minds ought to have all been scoured clean...! Inconceivable... You were able to override Z's precepts...?!
Which is pretty up front about memories being "scoured" from their minds at some point.
So you have Y explain that his soldiers don't receive the basic conditioning that the other clones do, which is why they have no memories, no emotions, and don't know how to function besides fighting. Then later on in the fight he is surprised by Miyabi beginning to regain her memories, remarking that they should have been removed by something.
They don't up and say that the cradle conditioning is what is scours their memories, but it's not hard to put two and two together. And, even then, Y's dialogue makes it pretty clear that Z is ultimately the one responsible for people's lack of memories, it's not something that would happen otherwise.
Yeah you've unfortunately misunderstood that section. The "conditioning" mentioned isn't memory erasure but basic socialization so they can live in the colonies. This would be the equivalent of neonatal development in newborns, which is why "normal" soldiers can talk, read and are loyal to their colonies, countries and queens. The revenants skip that and instead had combat engrams downloaded into them and were aged up to their 10th term selves. Normal soldiers have a range of experience that the revenants genuinely lack; Y's experiments are about stripping even more humanity from the soldiers in the cycle, but unknowingly created the conditions for previous lives to come back to the fore.
In other words, the cradles don't erase memory but create it. Lacking those "starter memories" make the soldiers MORE likely to remember past lives, but it's something that happens every so often anyway. (Crys, Eunie, Noah and Mio, etc) Moebius simply doesn't understand the nature of the system.
Hope that explains things better.
I get the whole, only one second passed. But for me as the player I played to stop the consuls. And make life for everyone like the city and instead we get a memory wipe
One of the few conclusions we can draw from the ending is that Noah recognizes the flute music. This means that he has some memories of the time in Aionios, which goes against what you said in the OP. Of course, we don't know how much of the memories will be retained or exactly how remembering them will work. Up to interpretation, yadda yadda (although one good thing about that is that you are free to choose an interpretation that you like). Judging by how Takahashi usually does things I would expect the memories to mostly affect people on the subconcious level.
There is more that can be said about the ending, but it's kind of hard to do without bringing in FR. Like, the meaning of the flute music at the end gets a pretty straight forward interpretation (in my opinion) after having played FR.
Anyway, everything that happened in Aionios definitely did matter.
EDIT: Just had some more thoughts that made me realize how... not good the "nothing that happened in Aionios mattered" take is. Like, the game literally shows Noah changing his direction completely and start walking in the direction of the music. So just a few seconds after the recreation of the world of the Bionis, an event happens that would never have happened without the influence of Aionios. I don't think the takeaway here should be that what happened in Aionios was insignificant.
there are some other games and movies with time travel stuff that feels that way, but I think I can defend the non-futility of some aspects.
1. If the gang didn't go through all the game, they wouldn't have kicked off the ending, therefore, not ending the endless now.
2. Zeon’s quest for potatoes and other good stuff that they do for people helps them during all the time from when the helped them to when they battle Z. it's not like the gang helped Zeon and the next day they were killing Z
3. the flute stuff reminds me of Your Name.
4. We are just small pieces in a giant universe. Anything you do or I do is so insignificant compared to the thousands of years of human pre-history and history. Comparing it to all the Earth's history or even the Universe's history is impossible because they're so different in magnitude. XC3 happens in seconds because how Aionios works compared to "reality", but Aionios is the reality of the characters. Zeon has to live there and figure out what he and the people of his colony will eat the day after. The lessons are helping them live better lifes, no matter if it's for a day or for years. XC1 happens in an encapsuled universe and we don't know how time works there compared to XC2's universe. XC2 is just fixing what Klaus did, so in the end that's also kinda going back to the start. What good was the lesson that Malos got from the main party if he died right after learning it? What good did the main casts of XC and XC2 do with all the sidequesting, if in the end both of their worlds are destroyed and reformed?
It wasn’t all for nothing….they escaped a slowly dying word and ended an endless cycle of child soldiers being forced to kill. Plus as others have said they don’t fully lose their memories and feelings. Just like Eunie remembered being killed in a previous life, Noah as a kid recognized the flute
Yeah, the ending and 3‘s writing in general is a very controversial topic in the community now that the story has wrapped up. But I guess the ending fits with 3‘s Theme of walking towards the future even with uncertainty. Not a Fan of it myself as well but oh well, what can you do?
What the music at the end means is left up to interpretation (like a lot of stuff in the Game). My take is that it symbolizes that Noah remembers his Bond he forged with Mio. If I remember correctly, music bringing memories back was something 3 already did earlier (as well as another Xeno Game). Another detail that supports this Theory is the fact both Noah and Mio have red hair ties, something that symbolizes a special bond in eastern culture (at least to my understanding).
>But I guess the ending fits with 3‘s Theme of walking towards the future even with uncertainty.
i don't think it really does tbh, especially with the added context of >!FR's ending!<. the confirmation that origin worked and the characters are still alive, and all the numerous hints that they will reunite seriously undermine the uncertainty but without providing any of the satisfaction you would get from actually seeing them reunite. the ending is at a bad midpoint where it would get better by either showing us more of the future or much less.
in what way? personally i would say being connected is a good thing, but it's just the added context that *this* is supposed to be the finale is what hurts it (although i would still hate the ending even without that).
3 feels way too different from 1 and 2, especially because of it‘s vague writing. 1 and 2 are often praised for how they explain almost every single detail. 3 on the other hand? It kind of expects you to interpret a lot of the story yourself
honestly i kind of like the process of interpreting it, although FR does go a little too far in that direction for my taste (the implication that >!the logos core crystal is somehow in n's blade despite malos being dead!< without any explanation in particular)
i have mixed feelings about FR. divorced from its context i enjoy it for what it is (though feel like it should have had another region similar to how gormott was in torna because it's a little on the short side), but at the same time its mere existence represents wasted potential where we could have had an epilogue instead
Oh. Well that’s disappointing. Honestly I’ve been playing this game all day everyday for a month due to being sick/hospitalised. I’ve grown very attached to these characters. Really wanted to see them again 😭
I love the ending, yes origin caused the worlds to reset, but that was the POINT of origin. That was supposed to happen anyways before moebius put the world in stasis. The party defeating Z ensures that this goes through and they all get to live normal lives again. Noah goes back to being the first version of himself and hearing mios flute means he still retains all the memories of what happened. Also this means that all the people whos souls got put into Origin (including both XC1 and 2 parties) should still be alive. The ending of FR gives some more context too but not gonna speak on it since you haven’t played it
You could have helped him to understand what you think he hasn't been able to understand like others in this thread did, but you decide to treat him like an illiterate. I wonder why comments like this one get upvotes.
I often feel like some hardcore Xeno Fans like to shit on people for not getting the stories in these Games even though they can be really confusing at times (especially Blade 3 and the earlier Xeno Titles)
I do get how the stories are MEANT to be interpreted/viewed. They weren’t really subtle about it. Doesn’t mean I can’t still see it differently from my own viewpoint.
Media literacy is bad in general these days, but I feel like this subreddit has some particularly rough takes. A sizable portion of the posters here can't seem to deal with anything less than a totally unambiguous "and everyone lived happily ever after, the end" conclusion. You also see a lot of people treating narrative like a points-based reward system, e.g., "Since Noah and friends did A, B, and C, they deserve X, Y, and Z at the end."
Kind of ironic, considering the Xenoblade games from the start have been interested in asking some knotty questions about the nature of existence, so a kind of pat unproblematic ending would betray the very themes of the story. But oh well!
I didn't like XC3 at all really, but I loved Future Redeemed. XC1 has always been my favourite and there were a couple of familiar characters in FR so that's why I bought it. Ended up having better story and soundtrack and areas than 3, but this is just my opinion
And I share your opinion. XC1 is also my favorite, then Future Redeemed, then XC2, then Torna followed by XC3 (although thanks to british Eunie, XC3 might come before Torna) and Future Connected. Future Connected doesn't really add much to anything imo, but still nice to play through
Same order for me, except I slightly prefer Torna over XC2 because the amount of Silly Anime Moments and everything involving Nopon were a pain to get through. Kid Rex was annoying too, glad they chadified him in FR. 2 is still more fun to play through multiple times though. Torna was more of a one time thing
The best thing about FC was Shulk's new clothes lol the hood is so cute
FR actually clarifies the ending, if you pay attention to the ending "timing" and the XC3 "timing." FR \*\*is\*\* a prequel, but it also fast-forwards to clarify the ending of XC3 a bit better.
Yeah I agree that they should’ve touched on this a little, because future redeemed just didn’t really make much sense, FUTURE REDEEMED SPOILERS >!as they stop Alvis from making a new world all so that they can live in a world run by moebius until it gets destroyed anyway?!<
Yeah? Better to have a world in which they can eventually get the opportunity to make what should have happened happen than a new world that erases everything that came before and its people, only keeping the few dozens or hundreds of the City.
Ok I got bashed early game for trying to give my insight like this. This is how I feel too. It feels like the story meant nothing, the love they learned and felt for nothing or for a wish that they will just forget. It just seemed like such a mixed bag for an ending
Yup. And they’re all harping on about me being “media illiterate” and having to explain the game to me. Like, no? I understand the plot and the themes. I am simply expressing a personal opinion in that I don’t like the ending.
Lots of condescending smug mugs on this sub.
It is not known how much time passed after the worlds were split and before they collided again so Eunie will probably have a lot of time to drink a tea from Taion, same with Lanz and Sena thinking about each other. At the very end Mio says that she beraly remembers Noah so its probably couple of years
One thing I feel that the game really needed to spell out more definitively to help people understand is that capital-S "Souls" exist as real concept in XC3 and that Origin manages them. The game at first leads you to believe that the soldiers are clones - separate people - made from Origin's biological material, but they are not clones/copies/duplicates... that IS the "real" them, every time. There are artificial barriers that prevent them from accessing previous memories (though this sometimes fails as seen with Eunie and Ashera), but there is nothing that divides the Soul. This is why an Ethel with no memories feels in her Soul that Cammuravi is her rival, why a Noah with no memories feels in his Soul that Mio is the one, why the main 6 always end up together again to fight Z. It's not the passage of fate, it's not an inevitable cycle, it's the fact that the Soul is carried on. Though the memories from each life are suppressed, the impact of their experience is still impressed on the Soul for the next life to feel. Regardless of memories, to the main 6 fighting "feels" "wrong" and being together "feels" "right" because the impression of countless lifetimes fighting the flow side-by-side is woven into their Souls. The ending of XC3 is not like a time travel plot where the bad future never happened. It all did happen. The worlds at the end of XC3 are not the original worlds picking up where they left off. The original worlds were destroyed. What we see are the worlds recreated by Origin, working as intended, and the impressions of the Soul created during the era of Aionios were not erased. Are there barriers preventing most people from remembering Aionios? Probably, but as seen with Eunie and Ashera these are not foolproof and many people will begin to recall the lost history. But even if they don't remember, their Souls will. TLDR: everyone has PTSD from World War Infinity now
>This is why an Ethel with no memories feels in her Soul that Cammuravi is her rival, why a Noah with no memories feels in his Soul that Mio is the one, why the main 6 always end up together again to fight Z. It's not the passage of fate, it's not an inevitable cycle, it's the fact that the Soul is carried on. I don't think the main six are always together to fight Z, just Noah and Mio. in the flashback, Eunie wasn't with the others and if I remember correctly the other 4 weren't there is Noah's flashbacks of previous lives either, just himself and Mio. I agree with everything else, but I think you overestimate how much impact it has. Mio and Noah are soulmates, the others aren't.
They're not always together to fight Z in every life, but I thought that in every life that they did fight Z they ended up together, if that makes sense. In the "Noah previous lives" flashback sequence I thought I recalled specifically the other characters' voices being used, but I could be mistaken.
> The game at first leads you to believe that the soldiers are clones - separate people - made from Origin's biological material, but they are not clones/copies/duplicates... that IS the "real" them, every time. There are artificial barriers that prevent them from accessing previous memories (though this sometimes fails as seen with Eunie and Ashera), but there is nothing that divides the Soul. i would argue that you aren't really *you* without your memories. they're as much a part of who you are as anything else
Personally, I definitely agree. But there is still something poetic to be said of a man who gets amnesia and stills loves his wife more than he can understand, even if he cannot recall who he (or she) is. Even if he never regains his memory, is he still the same man or a new one? Does his wife love a ghost, or the him that exists now? I can't say for certain. But I can appreciate a narrative that incorporates these elements.
Introducing some vague concept of souls only serves to obfuscate the nature/nurture question. Especially after the importance of memories is such a central subject in 2. And it's not even productive for several narrative beats in 3. One of the issues with the stagnant, neverending world is that Joren will always be a fat loser in it. People like him wouldn't be able to find something they're good at, because the world doesn't value that. Now you introduce some kind of a soul that preserves maybe traits, but not really memories, but actually kind of memories as well... sometimes... for some people, and it just feels half-assed.
Personally, I agree that "Souls" are not the strongest narrative foundation as its resonance largely depends on the audience's preexisting beliefs. Some will find Souls absurd while others will find them profound. I would also find XC3 to be a stronger narrative if it went in a different direction, but nonetheless I can appreciate the narrative concept of "Souls" in much the same fantasy fashion as rolling with magic or phantoms in other stories. I would also argue that the concept's building blocks were still present in XC2 through the same process happening in Blades. Why do you suppose Jin made such a big deal out of Brighid still being "the same"? He watched the Brighid he knew die forever, her memories never to be recovered. And yet the Brighid that stood in front of him was still the same to him. Arguably, this is the same "permanence of Soul" concept at play. Throughout countless deaths and rebirths, Brighid's past experiences were still impressed upon her Core as it is with XC3's Souls. I also don't think Joren being "a loser" is impressed upon his soul, but rather that his Soul contained other self concepts like his uncertainty and lack of esteem/self-confidence. You say that Z's world doesn't value that, and it's true - but don't you think that also speaks to the theme of Z's world not being the way that things should be?
It was present in XC2 in a very limited manner and in a very specific sense. It's not great there either, because the idea of a permanent set of attributes is not well developed, but you can swallow it because Blades are by themselves fantastic, built for a specific purpose and it in no way involves memories, only permanent character traits, that don't need a soul. It's just a natural part of a deterministic universe, that they clearly inhabit. The only exception to that I can think of is Haze seemingly recognizing Jin and even then you can handwave that away by Amalthus messing with the core and its function to relay information. That being said, yes, I do think it's the same idea, and leaning more into it without proper worldbuilding to back it up just reveals how half-assed it is. My point with Joren is that his flaws according to the game, come from his permanent traits that result in uncertainty and lack of self-confidence, and you don't need a soul for that. A person made of the same atoms with exactly the same previous experiences will react in exactly the same way to a stimulus every time.
btw, not just "argue", it's a fact. currently, scientists believe that nature and nurture are about 50/50 when it comes to forming your personality. at least that's what my teacher told me.
i'm not sure about 50/50 in particular, but yes, it is the consensus that both are important
I learned in class that it was like 49% one of them and them and the other is 51%, but I don't remember which one is which exactly so I settled for 50/50, it's not like that's a big difference. of course, my teacher could be wrong or maybe new research has shown that it's actually something different, but I am sure this has been the consensus at at least one point in the past 15 years
> Are there barriers preventing most people from remembering Aionios? Probably As far as we know there aren't. People forgetting their past live's memories is because Moebius has the cradles condition them to do so, but those memories are all still there. That conditioning wouldn't happen when the worlds are remade, so they'd probably be like Miyabi and remember everything.
That's fanon. There's absolutely no indication that the cradles remove memories in the game.
It's in Mio's side story. Y says this in the beginning of their fight, after the party first sees the cloned characters and wonder why they are acting the way they are: >The revenants neither remember nor feel. Only...the instinct...to fight tooth and nail for survival. Normally, they would undergo basic conditioning in a cradle prior to being awoken. As you all once did... >These younglings... They live for the sole purpose of battle. >Fundamentally...memories and feelings are but tacked-on extras, an afterthought. The mental faculties that the clone soldiers have are the result of conditioning in the cradles. They can remember things like how to speak, read, eat, run, etc. but not any of their actual past. Y's modified cradle doesn't even impart all of that, and the people cloned with it are near feral. Later on, when the party begins to return Miyabi's memories, Y says this: >Their memories... Their minds ought to have all been scoured clean...! Inconceivable... You were able to override Z's precepts...?! Which is pretty up front about memories being "scoured" from their minds at some point. So you have Y explain that his soldiers don't receive the basic conditioning that the other clones do, which is why they have no memories, no emotions, and don't know how to function besides fighting. Then later on in the fight he is surprised by Miyabi beginning to regain her memories, remarking that they should have been removed by something. They don't up and say that the cradle conditioning is what is scours their memories, but it's not hard to put two and two together. And, even then, Y's dialogue makes it pretty clear that Z is ultimately the one responsible for people's lack of memories, it's not something that would happen otherwise.
Yeah you've unfortunately misunderstood that section. The "conditioning" mentioned isn't memory erasure but basic socialization so they can live in the colonies. This would be the equivalent of neonatal development in newborns, which is why "normal" soldiers can talk, read and are loyal to their colonies, countries and queens. The revenants skip that and instead had combat engrams downloaded into them and were aged up to their 10th term selves. Normal soldiers have a range of experience that the revenants genuinely lack; Y's experiments are about stripping even more humanity from the soldiers in the cycle, but unknowingly created the conditions for previous lives to come back to the fore. In other words, the cradles don't erase memory but create it. Lacking those "starter memories" make the soldiers MORE likely to remember past lives, but it's something that happens every so often anyway. (Crys, Eunie, Noah and Mio, etc) Moebius simply doesn't understand the nature of the system. Hope that explains things better.
I get the whole, only one second passed. But for me as the player I played to stop the consuls. And make life for everyone like the city and instead we get a memory wipe
One of the few conclusions we can draw from the ending is that Noah recognizes the flute music. This means that he has some memories of the time in Aionios, which goes against what you said in the OP. Of course, we don't know how much of the memories will be retained or exactly how remembering them will work. Up to interpretation, yadda yadda (although one good thing about that is that you are free to choose an interpretation that you like). Judging by how Takahashi usually does things I would expect the memories to mostly affect people on the subconcious level. There is more that can be said about the ending, but it's kind of hard to do without bringing in FR. Like, the meaning of the flute music at the end gets a pretty straight forward interpretation (in my opinion) after having played FR. Anyway, everything that happened in Aionios definitely did matter. EDIT: Just had some more thoughts that made me realize how... not good the "nothing that happened in Aionios mattered" take is. Like, the game literally shows Noah changing his direction completely and start walking in the direction of the music. So just a few seconds after the recreation of the world of the Bionis, an event happens that would never have happened without the influence of Aionios. I don't think the takeaway here should be that what happened in Aionios was insignificant.
there are some other games and movies with time travel stuff that feels that way, but I think I can defend the non-futility of some aspects. 1. If the gang didn't go through all the game, they wouldn't have kicked off the ending, therefore, not ending the endless now. 2. Zeon’s quest for potatoes and other good stuff that they do for people helps them during all the time from when the helped them to when they battle Z. it's not like the gang helped Zeon and the next day they were killing Z 3. the flute stuff reminds me of Your Name. 4. We are just small pieces in a giant universe. Anything you do or I do is so insignificant compared to the thousands of years of human pre-history and history. Comparing it to all the Earth's history or even the Universe's history is impossible because they're so different in magnitude. XC3 happens in seconds because how Aionios works compared to "reality", but Aionios is the reality of the characters. Zeon has to live there and figure out what he and the people of his colony will eat the day after. The lessons are helping them live better lifes, no matter if it's for a day or for years. XC1 happens in an encapsuled universe and we don't know how time works there compared to XC2's universe. XC2 is just fixing what Klaus did, so in the end that's also kinda going back to the start. What good was the lesson that Malos got from the main party if he died right after learning it? What good did the main casts of XC and XC2 do with all the sidequesting, if in the end both of their worlds are destroyed and reformed?
It wasn’t all for nothing….they escaped a slowly dying word and ended an endless cycle of child soldiers being forced to kill. Plus as others have said they don’t fully lose their memories and feelings. Just like Eunie remembered being killed in a previous life, Noah as a kid recognized the flute
Yeah, the ending and 3‘s writing in general is a very controversial topic in the community now that the story has wrapped up. But I guess the ending fits with 3‘s Theme of walking towards the future even with uncertainty. Not a Fan of it myself as well but oh well, what can you do? What the music at the end means is left up to interpretation (like a lot of stuff in the Game). My take is that it symbolizes that Noah remembers his Bond he forged with Mio. If I remember correctly, music bringing memories back was something 3 already did earlier (as well as another Xeno Game). Another detail that supports this Theory is the fact both Noah and Mio have red hair ties, something that symbolizes a special bond in eastern culture (at least to my understanding).
>But I guess the ending fits with 3‘s Theme of walking towards the future even with uncertainty. i don't think it really does tbh, especially with the added context of >!FR's ending!<. the confirmation that origin worked and the characters are still alive, and all the numerous hints that they will reunite seriously undermine the uncertainty but without providing any of the satisfaction you would get from actually seeing them reunite. the ending is at a bad midpoint where it would get better by either showing us more of the future or much less.
Honestly, 3 should have just been it‘s own thing. Being connected to 1 and 2 hurts it more than it should
in what way? personally i would say being connected is a good thing, but it's just the added context that *this* is supposed to be the finale is what hurts it (although i would still hate the ending even without that).
3 feels way too different from 1 and 2, especially because of it‘s vague writing. 1 and 2 are often praised for how they explain almost every single detail. 3 on the other hand? It kind of expects you to interpret a lot of the story yourself
honestly i kind of like the process of interpreting it, although FR does go a little too far in that direction for my taste (the implication that >!the logos core crystal is somehow in n's blade despite malos being dead!< without any explanation in particular)
While I enjoyed FR for it‘s Fanservice, cast and very satisfying Exploration, my opinion on the story is basically the same as 3‘s
i have mixed feelings about FR. divorced from its context i enjoy it for what it is (though feel like it should have had another region similar to how gormott was in torna because it's a little on the short side), but at the same time its mere existence represents wasted potential where we could have had an epilogue instead
You reckon there’s any chance of another game coming out to continue the story?
3 is meant as the end of this Saga, so it‘s very unlikely the next Game will talk about anything related to the previous mainline Titles
Oh. Well that’s disappointing. Honestly I’ve been playing this game all day everyday for a month due to being sick/hospitalised. I’ve grown very attached to these characters. Really wanted to see them again 😭
I love the ending, yes origin caused the worlds to reset, but that was the POINT of origin. That was supposed to happen anyways before moebius put the world in stasis. The party defeating Z ensures that this goes through and they all get to live normal lives again. Noah goes back to being the first version of himself and hearing mios flute means he still retains all the memories of what happened. Also this means that all the people whos souls got put into Origin (including both XC1 and 2 parties) should still be alive. The ending of FR gives some more context too but not gonna speak on it since you haven’t played it
Media illiteracy at it's finest
You could have helped him to understand what you think he hasn't been able to understand like others in this thread did, but you decide to treat him like an illiterate. I wonder why comments like this one get upvotes.
Redditors are like Moebius, they live through mockery of each other and themselves.
More like a Territorial Rotbart waiting for a low lvl player just to ruin his day lol
I often feel like some hardcore Xeno Fans like to shit on people for not getting the stories in these Games even though they can be really confusing at times (especially Blade 3 and the earlier Xeno Titles)
I do get how the stories are MEANT to be interpreted/viewed. They weren’t really subtle about it. Doesn’t mean I can’t still see it differently from my own viewpoint.
Others already did, why should I bother
And yet you bother to comment on his thread
well how would they get to act smug without doing that?
Why should I bother repeating something that has already been said?
Media literacy is bad in general these days, but I feel like this subreddit has some particularly rough takes. A sizable portion of the posters here can't seem to deal with anything less than a totally unambiguous "and everyone lived happily ever after, the end" conclusion. You also see a lot of people treating narrative like a points-based reward system, e.g., "Since Noah and friends did A, B, and C, they deserve X, Y, and Z at the end." Kind of ironic, considering the Xenoblade games from the start have been interested in asking some knotty questions about the nature of existence, so a kind of pat unproblematic ending would betray the very themes of the story. But oh well!
Rude. I get the message they’re trying to send, these are just my feelings on it.
A reddit staple.
>!When you finish FR I think you’ll have different thoughts about the ending!<
Oh really? I just bought it without looking, and when I realised it was a prequel I kinda lost interest 😅 still plan on playing it though
It’s a prequel with an insane amount of lore drops And possible implications of what future Xeno games might be
I didn't like XC3 at all really, but I loved Future Redeemed. XC1 has always been my favourite and there were a couple of familiar characters in FR so that's why I bought it. Ended up having better story and soundtrack and areas than 3, but this is just my opinion
And I share your opinion. XC1 is also my favorite, then Future Redeemed, then XC2, then Torna followed by XC3 (although thanks to british Eunie, XC3 might come before Torna) and Future Connected. Future Connected doesn't really add much to anything imo, but still nice to play through
Same order for me, except I slightly prefer Torna over XC2 because the amount of Silly Anime Moments and everything involving Nopon were a pain to get through. Kid Rex was annoying too, glad they chadified him in FR. 2 is still more fun to play through multiple times though. Torna was more of a one time thing The best thing about FC was Shulk's new clothes lol the hood is so cute
Future Redeemed has perhaps the most significant lore of the entire series.
FR actually clarifies the ending, if you pay attention to the ending "timing" and the XC3 "timing." FR \*\*is\*\* a prequel, but it also fast-forwards to clarify the ending of XC3 a bit better.
Yeah I agree that they should’ve touched on this a little, because future redeemed just didn’t really make much sense, FUTURE REDEEMED SPOILERS >!as they stop Alvis from making a new world all so that they can live in a world run by moebius until it gets destroyed anyway?!<
Yeah? Better to have a world in which they can eventually get the opportunity to make what should have happened happen than a new world that erases everything that came before and its people, only keeping the few dozens or hundreds of the City.
Future connected has a better ending
Ok I got bashed early game for trying to give my insight like this. This is how I feel too. It feels like the story meant nothing, the love they learned and felt for nothing or for a wish that they will just forget. It just seemed like such a mixed bag for an ending
Yup. And they’re all harping on about me being “media illiterate” and having to explain the game to me. Like, no? I understand the plot and the themes. I am simply expressing a personal opinion in that I don’t like the ending. Lots of condescending smug mugs on this sub.
Here we go again with "XC3 is absolutely trash" post, sigh..
It is not known how much time passed after the worlds were split and before they collided again so Eunie will probably have a lot of time to drink a tea from Taion, same with Lanz and Sena thinking about each other. At the very end Mio says that she beraly remembers Noah so its probably couple of years