RawkHawk2010 here! You can call me Rawk for short. To further introduce myself I'll explain my Xeno history (and please feel free to respond without reading it lol):
My first conscious exposure to Xeno was receiving Xenosaga Episodes II and III when a guy sold me his PS2 and all his games for ~$30. However, the purchase was motivated by it simply being a good deal rather than because it fulfilled any long-held interest, so for years KOS-MOS idled on my shelf as I played more Nintendo-oriented things.
(She's just lying there. Menacingly.)
I would gravitate more towards Xeno upon first hearing songs from Xenoblade Chronicles 1's soundtrack in 2013 (specifically You Will Know Our Names and Mechanical Rhythm), but apparently I was content with just listening to the music and like with Xenosaga felt no real desire to play the game. I became more interested after Shulk was announced for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3D being locked to a new (no pun intended) system releasing just two years after I upgraded to a 3DS XL meant that this version would elude me as well. Xenoblade Chronicles X simply failed to capture my attention (which may have been for the best considering my setup at the time was not at all compatible with its text size).
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, however, was when everything changed. I bought it upon release mostly on a complete whim, knowing that at least the music would be good if nothing else. (Breath of the Wild's promotional DLC sidequest may have also planted the seed in my head...?) It ended up gluing me to the screen in a more intense way than any game I had ever played, which was kinda unbelievable considering how much Breath of the Wild had captivated me earlier that same year. Not having had much experience with "real" JRPGs combined with Xenoblade 2's infamously vague explanations definitely resulted in some moments of feeling overwhelmed by both the gameplay and story, but considering how quickly I had already fallen in love with the game's characters, environments, and (predictably) music, that was simply assurance that I'd be playing the game for a long while in order to learn everything there was to know. In short order I knew Xenoblade 2 was my favorite game of all time.
That next summer I played and completed Xenoblade 1, making sure to do so before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released so that I could better appreciate its Xenoblade representation. Was a big fan even if it didn't dethrone Xenoblade 2 for me. I played Xenoblade 2 prequel Torna ~ The Golden Country when it released a few months later; was an amazing experience and enhanced my opinion of Xenoblade 2's story/characters even further. After Torna I bought and attempted to play Xenoblade Chronicles X, but my setup sadly wasn't compatible with its microorganism-sized text, so I sadly had to shelve it until later. In 2019 I continued my Xeno grind by going ahead and watching all of Xenosaga's cutscenes, as I didn't own Xenosaga Episode I and based on internet discourse Episode II simply didn't sound like something I was gonna have fun playing on the original hardware (I was pretty certain I'd run into technical issues trying to emulate them as well). Admittedly I only absorbed a fraction of what I watched, but I at least knew who KOS-MOS was now which felt like essential reading after how much I used KOS-MOS Re: in Xenoblade 2. The (however small) possibility of her being Ultimate DLC's Namco rep was also a motivating factor for me wanting to go ahead and familiarize myself.
In 2020 I played Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition upon release, but overhyping its new content resulted in unmet expectations. Still enjoyed it for what it was though, especially the remastered/partially rerecorded soundtrack. In December 2020/January 2021 I finally played through Xenoblade X, now having acquired a setup more suited to its text size. Like with Xenoblade 1 I was a fan, but it's definitely the Xenoblade game I found the most issues with (nearly all of which could be fixed with a remake provided it values logic over faithfulness).
Shortly after I beat Xenoblade X came a certain fateful day... The day that Pyra and Mythra were revealed as playable fighters in Smash. After what felt like eons of tuning into Nintendo Directs only to be crestfallen when a Xenoblade 2 Smash rep wasn't announced (especially post-Byleth), you guys have no idea just how much this meant to me. Pyra/Mythra in Ultimate was essentially a Xeno game in and of itself -- at least in terms of how many snapshots I got out of it.
("The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.")
Mid-2021 was when it dawned on me that Xenogears was the only Xeno game I hadn't watched/played and it was finally time to change that. In what felt like a miracle I was able to get Xenogears up and running on PC and I'm very much glad my experience was via playing it. Before then I had seen multiple people recommend simply watching the story-relevant portions (their justification being that there was nothing to be gained from suffering the poorly aged 90s JRPG gameplay), but I feel personally exploring the game's areas (while fully taking in the accompanying Mitsuda OST) is essential for getting a feel for what those areas actually are, and additionally acts as a needed buffer between the game's long segments of techno/psychobabble (for these reasons I definitely plan to one day return to the Xenosagas and actually play them). Overall, Xenogears spoke to my inner Xenoblade 2 fan on a deep level, and indirectly enhanced my knowledge of every Xenoblade entry by featuring story elements that are clearly a blueprint for Xenoblade's (usually less elaborated upon) equivalents. I predict that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will similarly benefit in that regard.
Okay, so this introduction may have been longer than I intended, lol. I'll end by saying that I'm currently more passionate about Xeno than ever and that September can't come soon enough!
Discuss.
My first conscious exposure to Xeno was receiving Xenosaga Episodes II and III when a guy sold me his PS2 and all his games for ~$30. However, the purchase was motivated by it simply being a good deal rather than because it fulfilled any long-held interest, so for years KOS-MOS idled on my shelf as I played more Nintendo-oriented things.
(She's just lying there. Menacingly.)
I would gravitate more towards Xeno upon first hearing songs from Xenoblade Chronicles 1's soundtrack in 2013 (specifically You Will Know Our Names and Mechanical Rhythm), but apparently I was content with just listening to the music and like with Xenosaga felt no real desire to play the game. I became more interested after Shulk was announced for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3D being locked to a new (no pun intended) system releasing just two years after I upgraded to a 3DS XL meant that this version would elude me as well. Xenoblade Chronicles X simply failed to capture my attention (which may have been for the best considering my setup at the time was not at all compatible with its text size).
Xenoblade Chronicles 2, however, was when everything changed. I bought it upon release mostly on a complete whim, knowing that at least the music would be good if nothing else. (Breath of the Wild's promotional DLC sidequest may have also planted the seed in my head...?) It ended up gluing me to the screen in a more intense way than any game I had ever played, which was kinda unbelievable considering how much Breath of the Wild had captivated me earlier that same year. Not having had much experience with "real" JRPGs combined with Xenoblade 2's infamously vague explanations definitely resulted in some moments of feeling overwhelmed by both the gameplay and story, but considering how quickly I had already fallen in love with the game's characters, environments, and (predictably) music, that was simply assurance that I'd be playing the game for a long while in order to learn everything there was to know. In short order I knew Xenoblade 2 was my favorite game of all time.
That next summer I played and completed Xenoblade 1, making sure to do so before Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released so that I could better appreciate its Xenoblade representation. Was a big fan even if it didn't dethrone Xenoblade 2 for me. I played Xenoblade 2 prequel Torna ~ The Golden Country when it released a few months later; was an amazing experience and enhanced my opinion of Xenoblade 2's story/characters even further. After Torna I bought and attempted to play Xenoblade Chronicles X, but my setup sadly wasn't compatible with its microorganism-sized text, so I sadly had to shelve it until later. In 2019 I continued my Xeno grind by going ahead and watching all of Xenosaga's cutscenes, as I didn't own Xenosaga Episode I and based on internet discourse Episode II simply didn't sound like something I was gonna have fun playing on the original hardware (I was pretty certain I'd run into technical issues trying to emulate them as well). Admittedly I only absorbed a fraction of what I watched, but I at least knew who KOS-MOS was now which felt like essential reading after how much I used KOS-MOS Re: in Xenoblade 2. The (however small) possibility of her being Ultimate DLC's Namco rep was also a motivating factor for me wanting to go ahead and familiarize myself.
In 2020 I played Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition upon release, but overhyping its new content resulted in unmet expectations. Still enjoyed it for what it was though, especially the remastered/partially rerecorded soundtrack. In December 2020/January 2021 I finally played through Xenoblade X, now having acquired a setup more suited to its text size. Like with Xenoblade 1 I was a fan, but it's definitely the Xenoblade game I found the most issues with (nearly all of which could be fixed with a remake provided it values logic over faithfulness).
Shortly after I beat Xenoblade X came a certain fateful day... The day that Pyra and Mythra were revealed as playable fighters in Smash. After what felt like eons of tuning into Nintendo Directs only to be crestfallen when a Xenoblade 2 Smash rep wasn't announced (especially post-Byleth), you guys have no idea just how much this meant to me. Pyra/Mythra in Ultimate was essentially a Xeno game in and of itself -- at least in terms of how many snapshots I got out of it.
("The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.")
Mid-2021 was when it dawned on me that Xenogears was the only Xeno game I hadn't watched/played and it was finally time to change that. In what felt like a miracle I was able to get Xenogears up and running on PC and I'm very much glad my experience was via playing it. Before then I had seen multiple people recommend simply watching the story-relevant portions (their justification being that there was nothing to be gained from suffering the poorly aged 90s JRPG gameplay), but I feel personally exploring the game's areas (while fully taking in the accompanying Mitsuda OST) is essential for getting a feel for what those areas actually are, and additionally acts as a needed buffer between the game's long segments of techno/psychobabble (for these reasons I definitely plan to one day return to the Xenosagas and actually play them). Overall, Xenogears spoke to my inner Xenoblade 2 fan on a deep level, and indirectly enhanced my knowledge of every Xenoblade entry by featuring story elements that are clearly a blueprint for Xenoblade's (usually less elaborated upon) equivalents. I predict that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will similarly benefit in that regard.
Okay, so this introduction may have been longer than I intended, lol. I'll end by saying that I'm currently more passionate about Xeno than ever and that September can't come soon enough!
Discuss.
