Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Shouldn't Exist

This video took me a lot longer than I expected. It seems like these things keep getting a little bigger! It’s funny now thinking back to my plan for the last pair of videos, Drakengard and Xenoblade, I originally was going to do Drakengard as a 5ish minute piece similar to the Wuhu Island video. It evolved once I realized how passionate I was about the game; and the same thing happened this time.

I first planned to do a pre-release Xenoblade 3 video that would be about how the internet influences the general opinion on games (Xenoblade 2, Cyberpunk 2077). I was a little worried that it would be too negative and frankly I didn’t want to say “Dunkey” out loud on the internet, so luckily XC3 swept me off my feet.

The idea for “This Game Shouldn’t Exist” came before the game was out, but it was cemented when I found the game shared a lot of themes with what I wanted to say in the video. I didn’t even realize the Ouroboros butterfly effect-ing into saving the world would be one of the main themes! Before playing the game all I had seen was the reveal trailer so I was going purely on “vibes” and expectations based on the previous games.

You might notice that the video feels like it has 3 distinct sections where the style is a bit different in each. Also, many things are paired with a forward/reverse version. These were intentional, as to represent the 3 separate games having very different stylistic textures, and parts of the video representing the duality of Keves and Agnus. I wanted it to sorta feel like 3 different people made each part of it.

The first section is the “how we got here” portion, where I quickly go over the basics of the history of the franchise. I wanted to really emphasize how much led up to XC3 and how many little decisions there were along the way. I also wanted to not spend too long on it, so it’s really dense! It turned out well though, in my eyes. Most of the jokes are in that first section, partly to hook people into watching, and also partly to try to lift the viewer up before bringing them down a bit with the more heavy content.

I consider the second section to be the general analysis of XC3, especially the gameplay section. It’s hard to ride the line between trying to spoil as little as possible while also wanting to help people understand why certain mechanical decisions are made. I think I started that sentence planning for there to be a “but.” No “but” though! It’s just hard!

Finally, the “But it does” section at the end. I’ll be honest, each of these sections are inspired by 3 separate content creators that I used to watch. I say “used to” just because I barely watch gaming-adjacent YouTube content anymore. For some reason after diving into personally creating content it’s really hard to just browse the internet and watch stuff, most of the stuff I see is recommended to me by others. I trust their judgment more than my own! (On this, only!) Anyway, I’m not going to say who the inspiration for this or the other sections are, but maybe you can guess. I was most nervous about executing this part well because doing “emotional” stuff is a lot more of a scary task than joking about game development. I am pretty happy with how it turned out though, it just feels weird to put myself out there a little. Though, I do consider “ConstantlyCaden” to not be me. The words I say in the video aren’t being spoken by “Caden,” but rather a separate, exaggerated version of him.

If you are someone who pauses the video at the optional text walls, you might have noticed I leaned more “political” in this one. Hopefully this isn’t too surprising, there is some layer of political thought in every one of my videos, it’s just never the point. I’m not an expert on these things, but Xenoblade 3’s symbolism screams “anti-capitalism” to me, so I felt like it was worth alluding to. It’s art, it’s up for interpretation, so I didn’t want to push it too hard on people. It’s referenced in some of my lines and is there on the pause screens for anyone who wants to go out of their way to see it.

I think it’s really funny when commenters tell me to stop putting walls of text on screen. Those aren’t for you, random commenter! They’re for me! It’s liability coverage so that people can’t say “heh, you missed [talking point].” I really do not like wasting the viewer’s time, so some stuff I want to say just isn’t worth filling up seconds of audio with. But I still want it to be said, so we get those text walls! I realize that some people are complaining because some of them are on screen for a very short time. 

The less time it stays on screen, the less important it is! I know that this Patreon post will never reach those people and you awesome supporters probably understand this already! :)

On the stuff I said about Xenoblade 2’s problematic objectification, I just felt like I couldn’t talk about the game without mentioning it. It’s such a big deal and as I sorta said in the video, games can and do sexualization without harmfully objectifying its characters. The biggest offender within XC2 is it pretending do be doing good commentary where it does self-referential admonishment of Tora. But, it’s done by characters with designs that do not fit, and are absolutely not empowered by it like Bayonetta. I realize I’m a guy and this isn’t exactly my place to speak on problematic objectification of women (and robots), but I care! And praising Xenoblade 2 is hard to do without caveats–the biggest being that. If you’re here on the Patreon and find yourself disagreeing with my statements, I highly recommend Ludiscere’s case study on XC2’s sexualization. I haven’t watched all of it myself (the whole, “It’s hard for me to watch gaming content now” thing) but I’ve heard great things and the parts I’ve seen are very thoughtfully explained. The character designers are talented, I won’t deny that. In fact, they’re at the top of their game. It was purely a communications and direction failure that is evident in the rest of the game’s disjointed existence.

I swear, I do really love Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it’s (mostly) incredible!

Regarding Xenoblade 3, I do wish I could have gone into spoiler territory more, but I think it was best to treat this video as the same level of spoiling as review-style content since I want it to appeal to a wide range of people. 

I really just want to talk about the end of Chapter 5. 

It’s brilliant. 

Possibly one of the most brilliant moments in any Nintendo game. Without thinking, I’d say right now that it is the highest point in the franchise and makes Xenoblade 3 easily one of the best games of the entire Switch generation. And I think that statement will stand the test of time!

As always, thank you, you magnificent patrons. I hope the video was worth the wait!

The next one is…. Splatoon! Maybe you’ve noticed that in all of my videos I reference the next and previous videos, and I think there were 3 Splatoon references in this one. Since my last few videos have been about JRPGs, it might seem like a bit of a change in pace, but it’ll still have the same substance as my other videos. I love Splatoon, I always have. I have a lot to say about it, and Splatoon 3 comes out soon. Working on this last video every day took a lot out of me (by my choice, don’t worry!), so I’m going to take a little rest, but I still think the Splatoon video will be done roughly within 1-1.5 months from now. Hope you’re looking forward to it!

Remember that “eternity was closed,” and have a great week <3