I do admit it's possible I missed or forgot a connection or three between XC3's base game and Future Redeemed; by my own earlier admission, it's been some time since I finished the main game. Though I did re-watch a plethora of cutscenes before starting FR that I thought would be important. Mainly related to the City and M/N. I must say, the movie ending cutscenes of Chapter 5 in XC3 definitely hit different when one goes in with the knowledge that comes later.

@RygelXVIII Good point; I think a lot of my confusion stems from the lore. Not really the plot of Future Redeemed or some of its connecting elements. I did get a kick out of the references that I recognized from the previous Xenoblade titles and 3.

@VoidofLight I'll admit your interpretation for Shulk, Rex, Riku, etc. does make some sense, but I'm admittedly not satisfied with it. If a Reddit thread I found from a year or so ago is any indication, we're firmly in hypothesis territory when it comes to the lifespans of those from outside of Aionios. I'm not under the impression they're immortal/can't die; it just seems odd to me when their lifespans seem insanely long in direct contrast of the others. Ignoring those in the Agnus/Kevesi cycle of course, since their lifespans are limited by Moebius to ten years/terms. In the grand scheme of the games though, I suppose this detail doesn't ultimately matter. I'm just one who likes knowing the "why?" of something if I'm genuinely interested in how its gears turn, so to speak.

Fair point, Fiora's soul being in Lucky Seven was alluded to in Riku's conversation with Shulk, though not mentioned outright. I might have mentally merged that conversation into Riku's exchange with Matthew. As for Pneuma's soul, to me her core crystal being present is essentially the same thing. I did find the Logos theories after my previous post, but as you say it doesn't seem to be confirmed.

As you mentioned, that DOES seem to be what Rex was alluding to there. I completely misinterpreted that part; I thought he was referring to Pyra/Mythra. It seemed odd that he'd refer to Logos/Malos in that way, but then I remembered that Logos, at his core (pun not intended), isn't a bad guy; his incarnation of Malos was warped by Amalthus's influence and how he perceived Alrest.

The bread and butter for any JRPG is interpretation and unsubtly hinting at things but not going as far as saying anything outright. It's one of my pet peeves with the genre. It's probably more down to localisation efforts than anything, and things get way too smoothed over when translating into English, but it doesnt make it any better.

I remember reading a direct translation of Ganon's lines in BOTW; in English Zelda says that "He has given up on reincarnation and assumed his pure, enraged form" but in Japanese it's the complete opposite: "This form was born from his obsessive refusal to give up on revival…". Things can get lost in translation very easily and even twisted.

@jedgamesguy Honestly for me, JRPGs tend to over-explain things in a plain fashion. Go into detail and spell everything out to the player. Xenoblade 3 was sort of a breath of fresh air in that regard, since it actually took a more subtle approach to that. It hinted at a lot but confirmed little- and the characters didn't say how they felt, but rather showed it with their own actions. The one thing I loved in 3 is Eunie and the Dog tag. How she looks at the dog tag in the prison cell, retreating back into the thoughts of a past life. it's such a small detail, but it gives a ton of depth to her character.

I did catch that part with Eunie and the dog tag after rewatching some of XC3's cutscenes in preparation for FR. That PTSD bit about Eunie's background was handled pretty well IMO.

We're probably too far removed from XC 3 at this point, but I would like to see a physical release for Future Redeemed in 2025.

@Magician same, I'd buy that in a heartbeat. It certainly deserves a "full release" like that. Best game in the series by a LARGE margin to me but I think that's the natural thing for most people who played the entire numbered trilogy.

I can't see them doing that @Magician. Torna worked because it was pretty standalone. You could play it technically before 2, and it wouldn't ruin the experience of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It also was far longer in form, lending itself well to being pretty much it's own physical game.

Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed relies on you to play all of the games beforehand, including Xenoblade 3. It's a far shorter DLC- and serves to wrap up the loose ends of 3 whilst also the trilogy at large. Highly doubt that it would be able to be sold as a physical copy given how dependent it is for the other games in the trilogy.

@VoidofLight Future Redeemed worked as well in its format, whilst it is a smaller story it was part of a larger dlc with other waves of content. Future Redeemed I think is my favourite story of the series.

So when playing this I realized that the gems are consistent with the class, not the character. And after 2, I need to tell whoever made that decision, thank you.

It's not even the biggest thing but it is a necessary convenience in order to not make another Xenoblade "Menus: The Game". And after 2, I absolutely could've imagined them expecting you to change gems every time you want it to better reflect your current class.

@kkslider5552000 You can't change class in XC2, though. Well, at least not without Poppiswap. Other than that, Blades are always the same class and keep their same core crystal and aux cores when you swap them. You've only got to hit the menus if you want to change the accessories on the driver at the same time.

Are you thinking of XCX, perhaps? That's rather annoying for throwing your current build away whenever you change class.

XC3 is far and away the best in the series for how its menus are organized, though. I won't dispute that much.

@Matt_Barber I know, but if 2 did have regular class changes, they would have absolutely not kept gems consistent with those classes thus making you switch equipment regularly. Like how they make you regularly check in on the blades you send out on missions for basically all 100-200 hours of the game.

Or when you need to endlessly pull crystals to hopefully find a rare blade.

Or the 2000 times you'll switch equipped blades for field skills.

Or every time a rare blade gets a new skill on their chart.

Not to mention the endless times you need to teleport somewhere. (which is at least normal for this type of game)

Or if the game won't tell you where enemies are needed for a quest to for a blade's skills so you look up a guide and then need to look up the map to find the location.

Or if you need to endlessly buy and use items to improve blade affinity.

I'm sure I'm forgetting one thing (even ignoring more restrained uses of the menus like unlockable driver upgrades or equipment changes).

I hate double posting but since the Switch 2 is more than a year old, leaving this forum as secondary...**** it.

I need to tell people immediately that I'm like 35 hours in, I got into a cave to see if it takes me to the enemy for a sidequest, and suddenly there's a puzzle with a talking door. I am so bewildered because this has nothing to do with anything in this game remotely so far, I was so immediately taken aback by this bizarre moment I needed to tell people about it.

@kkslider5552000 Ohhh yeah, that. Its funny how I can instantly remember what you're specifically talking about due to how out of place it felt lol. I forget what you got from it though, but I remember it being pretty neat.