Discussion Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

[Christi Junior]

And finally, here’s my old writeup of Xenoblade 3’s Future Redeemed DLC prequel. And yes, back in the day I really DID expect to have the Xenoblade 3 writeup done before Future Redeemed arrived, I absolutely had no idea just what kind of a behemoth that thing would grow into – though in my defense, Future Redeemed itself ended up arriving far earlier than anyone expected.

As late as it will be, I at least expected to have my Xenoblade 3 writeup done before its DLC campaign came out, and I still think I would have (no you wouldn’t, lol – Future Christi) if Monolith Soft hadn’t out of the blue changed its release date from autumn to fucking spring! When does this even happen, a game coming out half a year earlier than originally planned? I guess Monolith must have been struck by divine inspiration that made the entire development process go without a hitch.

Because the Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed DLC campaign really is just that shockingly, remarkably brilliant. When FR it was first announced, I considered Xenoblade 2’s Torna prequel story to the gold standard for this kind of DLC, but FR is not only unquestionably superior to Torna, it’s in fact so much better that the gap between the two is almost comparable to the gap between Torna and the seemingly superfluous Xenoblade DE epilogue Future Connected. Compared to other DLC campaigns available at the time, Torna was so spectacular that its flaws barely seemed to matter, but Future Redeemed suddenly throws them into sharp relief: Here’s a DLC adventure that’s not only lengthier than Torna, it’s one that achieves said size increase without any notable padding, which was extremely evident in Torna, with its Filler story quests and dozens of FORCED sidequests. FR has an even bigger world to explore than Torna, and not only does it feel denser and even more packed with things to see and do, but unlike Torna it doesn’t recycle a whole massive area from the base game (FR *does* remix plenty of locations from Xenoblade 1 and 2, but none of those places existed in Xenoblade 3, and when I say remix, I mean it. The world of Aionios is special that way).

While Torna was just a Xenoblade 2 prequel, Future Redeemed outright continues the stories of Xenoblade 1 AND Xenoblade 2, while fleshing out the backstory of Xenoblade 3, and in the end it decides to go beyond even that. And sure, Torna delivered an amazing new battle theme, a lovely city theme and some great remixed songs, but its brand new area themes weren’t all that special (a weakness shared with Future Connected and arguably even Xenoblade 3), whereas in Future Redeemed ALL the new area themes are instant classics. Of course, the new battle theme is again fantastic (even Future Connected got that one right), but this time the final boss theme is far better still.

While it suffers from none of Torna’s weaknesses, Future Redeemed shares pretty much all its strengths: like Torna, it takes the gameplay of the Xenoblade game it’s based on and polishes it, refines its mechanics and adds a bunch of new ideas, many of which you never even knew that you wanted, but which work out superbly. In some ways, FR felt tailor-made for me personally, because it recreates the extremely tight gameplay loop of Xenoblade 1, where (if you made sure to nab all the generic sidequests whenever you first entered a new area) you’d be constantly rewarded just from exploring, picking up collectibles and fighting monsters, while seemingly always being able to upgrade your character in some new way. I absolutely loved this aspect of Xenoblade 1, and was really sad to see later Xenoblade games largely water it down in the name of streamlined mechanics and a quality-over-quantity approach to sidequests (admirable in theory, but Xenoblade 1 was one of those rare examples the shitload of generic quests actually worked to its benefit if you played the game like I did).

However, Future Redeemed not only revives Xenoblade 1’s approach to exploration, it vastly improves on it, ditching the 6 gorillion sidequests and random achievements for well-established and natural exploration- and affinity goals in each area, goals that include adding enemies to the bestiary (yes, FINALLY a mainline Xenoblade game with a bestiary!) by killing a certain number of them, adding collectibles to the Collectopedia (better handled than in any previous Xenoblade game), discovering landmarks and locations, harvesting ether, uncovering secret treasure, rescuing City refugees etc. In addition to this making exploration consistently rewarding, the actual rewards themselves are often truly useful, offering crucial upgrades to your playable characters that genuinely helps you in battle. And even when the rewards are underwhelming, the affinity points you earn will always help you upgrade your characters in different ways.

And of course, this isn’t just any old world you’re exploring – it’s a Xenoblade world, meaning that it’s absolutely massive, yet lovingly crafted and impeccably designed, full of stunning vistas and memorable landmarks, with no invisible walls and loading times between areas to break immersion. If anything, the design is better than ever, a number of secrets being ingeniously hidden away, or requiring you to jump off steep cliffs down to barely visible platforms, or on that very note, even engage in some honest-to-goodness platforming in order to reach them. And that’s not even getting into how the new ether line mechanic (constructed by materials you collect in the overworld during exploration, showcasing some fine synergy) helps connect the world further, even letting you outright create zip lines made of energy that give you access to remote locations. One type of ether lines even let you quickly reach areas high up in the sky, which comes across as an early preview of what to expect in Tears of the Kingdom.

Speaking of Zelda, here’s something BotW was NOT known for: A vast variety of different monsters, another area where Future Redeemed (like all Xenoblade games really) excels, and like Xenoblade 3, it also handles the Unique Monster feature absolutely perfectly, meaning the world is effectively full of optional boss battles that are often more challenging and interesting than the story bosses. In addition to the expected loot, defeating a Unique Monster rewards you with a new Quick Travel point that is the UM’s tombstone, where you can also refight the monster whenever you please. Another great thing about UMs in Future Redeemed is that unlike in Torna, they’re introduced very early, giving you access some really tough and exciting battles even before you’ve assembled a full team, helping make the early-game and its combat a lot more interesting and fun. Also, FR has a proper Hard Mode, as opposed to the Fuck You Mode labeled Bringer of Chaos in Torna that accompanied its overly easy Normal Mode.

As for the actual combat itself, the battles are extremely entertaining. While FR lacks the amazing customization options of Xenoblade 3, its comparably short length means this isn’t really an issue, especially because the aforementioned upgrade system means your characters will be receiving new and helpful upgrades all the way up until the final boss, thus avoiding the risk of growing stale. Furthermore, each character having a clear, set role in battle throughout the adventure means you’ll become more familiar with what each can reliably do and not do, which in turns means that you’ll probably be able to better take advantage of the mid-battle switching feature than in Xenoblade 3, where you were so frequently putting characters in new classes to build up class experience and unlock new abilities that it often came at the expense of party synergy. As a result, in FR I ended up taking control of and making good use of far more of my party characters during individual battles than I would usually do in Xenoblade 3 battles, finally making the most of one of Xenoblade 3’s best new additions to the Xenoblade series. A number of the new classes are also extremely fun and offensively oriented, with even the healer classes making good use of attack-up items and gems.

And just like Torna, Future Redeemed also reinvents the established battle system in various ways, like with new customization options for chain attacks, greater control over when to Smash or Burst launched enemies with Unity attacks (and DAMN does it feel satisfying to smash enemies in this game!), Unity pairing battle buffs, modified Fusion Arts etc. However, at the end of the day combat in Future Redeemed is basically Xenoblade 3 combat revolving around a bunch of really cool new classes, and really, that’s all it needed to be, since base Xenoblade 3’s combat was already excellent, and even after more than 200 hours I hadn’t come close to getting bored with it (make that 450 hours now J)

 

[Christi Junior]

Of course, beyond gameplay and exploration that’s absolutely superb even by Xenoblade standards, Future Redeemed has another major selling point: being the true bridge between Xenoblade 3 and Xenoblade 1 & 2. As I’ll go more into in my eventual Xenoblade 3 writeup, that game ended up downplaying references to past games far more than anyone expected pre-release, very much wanting to work as a standalone story. This approach was both a boon and a bane, but for longtime Xenoblade fans like me, the way XB3 effectively relegated almost everything in the past games to extremely distant lore was very much a disappointment. Yes, the game DID offer tantalizing glimpses of what had happened to our favorite characters from past Xeno titles, some powerful scenes of poignant, haunting beauty, as well as a certain photograph that turned a until-then somewhat unpopular protagonist into a memetic GigaChad overnight, and once the postgame rolled around XB3 did become somewhat more willing to openly address events of the past games, but such lore rations were still tightly restricted.

Well, for Xenoblade fans thirsty for such content, Future Redeemed is an oasis. The initial teaser for the DLC, showing off Alvis/Ontos in its very first shot, as well as revealing older versions of Shulk and Rex instantly promised us the kind of story we’d dreamed about Xenoblade 3 having, and well, that’s pretty much exactly what we got. Where Xenoblade 3 seemed extremely hesitant to ever explicitly refer events and characters from the past games, in Future Redeemed people will casually talk about Pneuma, Logos and Ontos, about Klaus and the Trinity Processor, about Shulk turning down Godhood and Rex being swallowed by the Urayan Titan. In Xenoblade 3 they didn’t show footage from the past titles until post-game sidequests, in FR they already start doing so at the midway point. If the Xenoblade 1 epilogue hadn’t already taken the name, Future Connected would really have been a fitting title for this game!

Because your party in FR really is quite the mix of old and new. While our protagonist is Matthew, a new character who’s the founder of Xenoblade’s 3 City as well as the legendary Vandham clan, his traveling companion “A” from the very beginning barely hides the fact that she’s a female version of Alvis from Xenoblade 1, and the previously mentioned heroes of Xenoblade 1 and 2 also become party members later on. Rounding out the party are newcomers Nikol and Glimmer, aka Shulk’s son and Rex’s daughter, though having been trapped in Aionios’ cycle of Forever War, they not only have no memory of this, but they’re outright clueless about concepts like “children” and “parents”.

It’s very much a party that brings all the 3 main Xenoblade games together, but more importantly, the story and writing truly does justice to every character and every game. Take note Western writers – THIS is how you bring back old heroes and continue their story. Despite having faced enormous hardship and even the loss of certain body parts, Shulk and Rex aren’t bitter, broken losers, they’re still the heroes that they were the last time we saw them, but older and wiser, maybe a bit more cynical, yet nonetheless still the kind and fundamentally decent people we know them as. They’ve become leaders and mentors, not washed up has-beens. The losses and setbacks these past protagonists have suffered serve to make them further grow as characters as they overcome overwhelming odds, not tear them down just to make new, more “Diverse” heroes look good (hi Luke Skywalker!), nor are these characters brought back just to get killed off for shock value (how’d you enjoy your golfing lesson Joel?). Every aspect of their characterization rings true, making the return of these characters actually feel meaningful, and making it extremely easy to buy into Future Redeemed as an authentic successor to XB1 and XB2, not just pandering fanfiction/fanservice.

That’s not saying that there isn’t A LOT of nostalgia pandering here, because there is, and of the best kind – we’re not just talking characters, locations and music, I was blown away by the sheer number of *sidequests* and Unique Monsters from past games that end up being referenced. The deep cuts are fucking everywhere, and the more you’ve played the old games the more nods and callbacks you’ll notice, each and every one being thoroughly gratifying. And I’ve played those games for a combined total of more than 1000 hours, so the sheer amount of nostalgiagasms I ended up experiencing while playing Future Redeemed will probably go forever unmatched.

On that note, this is not only a game you should hold off on playing until you’ve beaten Xenoblade 3, it’s probably a game you should save until you’ve finished the entire Xenoblade trilogy. While technically a prequel to Xenoblade 3, set 1000 years before the events of the main game, FR’s story effectively plays as the thematic and emotional conclusion to the entire trilogy, a role Xenoblade 3 was too self-contained to properly serve.

In Future Redeemed, you go up against Alpha, a Godlike villain with deep ties to both Xenoblade 2 and especially Xenoblade 1 – a villain so powerful that the mighty Moebius in comparison are nothing but small fry Dunban wouldn’t have time for. Alpha is so powerful that Shulk and Rex in the backstory were forced to team up with the Big Bad of Xenoblade 3, and STILL couldn’t defeat him. And that’s before Alpha decides to do like all the Fediverse cool kids, and gets himself an anime girl avatar!

Alpha is the perfect villain to end the so-called Klaus Trilogy on, and it all culminates with a final chapter that combines the kind of earth-shattering, universe-expanding lore revelations that made Xenoblade 2’s Chapter 10 so incredible with a fantastically epic final showdown (complete with one of the best final boss songs I’ve ever heard) to rival Xenoblade 1’s. While Future Redeemed had consistently exceeded my expectations up to that point, the final chapter was where it reached not just true greatness, but transcendence – what this final of section of the game made me feel just shouldn’t be possible to build up to in less than 30 hours, but of course, it was actually the conclusion of a story that began more than 12 years ago, and that has spanned dozens of hours of cutscenes and hundreds of hours of gameplay. THIS is the kind of experience I was dreaming of Xenoblade 3 delivering, given its premise of the XB1 and XB2 worlds having come together, and while that game’s already-legendary Chapter 5 was certainly peak fiction, it was also firmly self-contained. With Future Redeemed, this particular itch of mine has finally been scratched, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

 

[Christi Junior]

Future Redeemed even fares well on my Based Morality Scale, unlike most JRPGs. It’s a +2/-1 game in this sense, and really, the -1 just comes from your typical JRPG “let all people come together, there’s no Us VS Them”-type cringe that doesn’t even really get emphasized. The ongoing question of “A”s sex is at the end of the day just a product of fairly harmless sci-fi fantasy weirdness, not modern gender ideology, and the true nature of the character wouldn’t really seem out of place in a game from 25 years ago – the difference is that now Western video game fandoms are full of fags looking to project their sick fetishes and mental illnesses onto games that are about far more interesting things. FFS, Alpha is almost exclusively referred to as “he” in Future Redeemed, with one character using “it”….so of course the TV Tropes article on Alpha exclusively refers to the character using “they/them” pronouns. The actual story, the game data (which confirms that A is female), not even their precious localization really matters, it’s all about pushing fagspeak and their evil agenda wherever they can, however flimsy the excuse, which I really can’t fault the game for.

On the opposite end of the Tranny-TERF spectrum, I guess there’s also one late-game remark, contrasting A with Alpha, that could be interpreted in a “the Future is Female” kind of way by certain schizos, but that’s really pushing it, especially in a game that treats the returning male heroes with such reverence, and which is the one Xenoblade adventure where the party skews the most heavily male (with 4 male party members and only 2 female ones). And both female party members are Healers btw.

Beyond those potential issues, I in this case feel confident in saying that the Good far outweighs the Bad. For starters, a main theme of story is literally respect for the past and even tradition, which sometimes proves superior to modern fads. Our villain Alpha explicitly views the past as nothing but a hindrance, and wants to wipe it all out in order to pave way for what he views as a glorious future. In a way he reminds me of Future Connected’s Gael'gar, an otherwise crappy villain whose contempt for the racist past of the High Entia (due to having himself been previously discriminated against for being a half-breed) motivated his actions. That motivation was Gael'gar’s one redeeming feature as a character (not to mention how refreshing it was to see the kind of guy who’d IRL be first in line to tear down statues of Confederate Generals be portrayed in a negative light), and in Alpha we actually have a GOOD villain representing the same poisonous mindset.

It’s also a nice contrast to the Xenoblade 3 base game, whose story ended up heavily emphasizing the importance of change and embracing the future. Future Redeemed adds much-needed nuance to this message: we should move forward informed by history, grateful to the people who came before us, willing to take steps back and rethink “progress” if need be. Far from embracing the leftist view of history as continuous Progress, we here have a cautionary tale about human hubris, and how the technological advancements that can enable us to reach for the stars can also rob us of everything we hold dear. Considering just how banal and insipid the messages of even many *good* JRPG stories are, it was both surprising and gratifying to see FR contain something resembling genuine wisdom and insight. It marks a welcome return to Xenoblade 2’s surprisingly critical view of humanity, which despite rejecting the nihilism of Malos nonetheless left little room for silly utopian ideas about heaven on earth or the perfectibility of man.

However, also like in Xenoblade 2, there’s a warm and healthy humanism at work here that truly values what’s most important in life. In Future Redeemed specifically, fatherhood is an important theme, and while Shulk and Rex’s unique situation prevent them from explaining their true relationship to Nikol and Glimmer, the game makes it clear that not even the end of the world will prevent those two from being good dads, and the final scene between them and their children is truly a beautiful statement about parental love.

Hell, even Consul N’s disordered and unhealthy obsession with his Endless Now, due to still having at its foundation very real and human love and attachments, is shown to be a far more potent force than a heartless machine like Alpha ever expected. The abstract concept of progress and a perfect future is ultimately no match for the desperate desire of a broken man to be reunited with the woman he loved above all, and Alpha himself is forced to exploit family bonds and a grandfather’s love just to escape alive from his first battle with N. It’s one of several great (as well as tragic) moments for N, cementing him as not only by far Xenoblade 3’s best villain, but one of the best villains in the series.

A final note on the Based Morality issue, this time touching on muh diversity: While Xenoblade 3 dramatically increased the share of dark-skinned characters, Future Redeemed not only dials their “representation” back to pre-Xenoblade 3 levels, it might actually have the lowest share of notable dark-skinned characters (including named NPCs) of any Xenoblade game, except maybe Torna. It doesn’t really make sense in terms of continuity, but then again, neither did Xenoblade 3 suddenly raising the share of darkies from something like 5% to possibly as much as 20% (more like 10%, but still way more than in FR – Future Christi). And given the choice, I obviously prefer FR sticking to the old, pre-Global Standards continuity. The Future has been Redeemed indeed….

 

[Christi Junior]

So, does this outstanding DLC have any actual flaws? Well, of course it does, as great as it is, it’s by no means perfect. For starters, while it brings the Xenoblade trilogy to a satisfying thematic and emotional conclusion, it not only leaves tons of loose plot threads from Xenoblade 3 unaddressed, it adds quite a few apparent contradictions of its own. Once I finally do the full Xenoblade 3 writeup I’ll go over some of the more egregious issues with the lore and the backstory of Aionios, but for now, I’ll settle for saying that it’s indeed quite the mess, and I DARE Monolith Soft to provide an actual, official Timeline for the events prior to the main XB3 adventure.

Oh, and the actual ending of Xenoblade 3 is still as hard as hard to wrap my head around as ever.

Moreover, as mechanically sublime as Future Redeemed is (and is polishes up SO many of the minor annoyances I had with Xenoblade 3, including money being largely worthless and the weather being remarkably shitty), it still has some glaring issues, like the camera automatically zooming in and out to adjust for certain environmental features and obstacles, but only making things worse in the process (I didn’t find a way to disable this annoying feature either). Also, WHY is the ability to level down your characters still a postgame-only feature? WHY does the chain attack theme still override every single boss theme except for that of the final boss, despite fucking everyone having complained about the crimes committed against Words That Never Reached You? And WHY is the party character AI so retarded that literal Arts Spam would be superior to what these morons end up doing whenever you’re not controlling them? On that note, the Superbosses are some cheating, annoying turbo niggers, and probably added at least 15 hours to my playtime (in total it took me 57 hours to 100% the game, and I beat the final boss around the 30 hour mark), but when I finally overcame them all it felt so satisfying that I’m not sure if I should bitch about the bullshit or be grateful for the challenge.

So sure, there are flaws and problems, but they absolutely pale in comparison to what a spectacular achievement this mere DLC is. Even without factoring in the glorious emotional payoff it provides, you still get 20-40 hours of some of the best, most fun and polished JRPG gameplay in existence, a bunch of utterly amazing new songs, and a number of great new areas. Obviously, Future Redeemed on its own not only makes Xenoblade 3’s Expansion Pass 100% worth it, but a must-buy for anyone who even remotely enjoyed the base game. Hell, if you liked the past two games, but disliked Xenoblade 3, I could still easily see you loving Future Redeemed.

The final question therefore becomes, why couldn’t the base game be like this? In terms of mechanics, I certainly agree that a lot of Future Redeemed’s features are undeniable improvements, and FR also has a superior approach to stuff like music (have all the area themes go hard!) and minority racial representation (don’t fucking bother with it). That said, in terms of retro fanservice and bringing back old characters, I’d say FR if anything justifies Xenoblade 3’s approach, namely to focus on building up its own world and its own cast, rather than relying on nostalgia outside of truly special occasions. Because now we finally have a situation where Monolith Soft has both truly done justice to the new world of Aionios, its heroes and stories, AND has actually taken advantage of the storytelling potential the merger of the two Xenoblade worlds provided us with. The Xenoblade 3 package as a whole is still flawed, but the base game was already a towering achievement in so many ways even prior to the DLC, and after the DLC, it finally feels like it has fully realized its true potential.

 

[Ohdeargods]

I noticed a stronger emphasis on Xenoblade 1 locations in FR than 2's locations. Colony 9, Raguel bridge and its lake, valak mountain and prison island, the Igna stronghold from Satorl marsh, and even Gran Dell from FC. Sure, there's parts of tantal making up chunks of the black mountains and part of Ragmos, and the saffronia tree, among other things. Perhaps it's because 2's landmarks don't jump out at me as much compared to 1's, but maybe Alpha had a strong influence on Cent-omnia's creation as a whole. I know Moebius created Aionios, but given Ontos/Ousia's core was used to create Origin and that region is where Alpha resides, it really makes you wonder.

Sidenote, Rex was unpopular? He was easily one of my favorite characters from 2, given everything He went through, yet determined on getting Pyra and Mythra to Elysium. Though, His english voice acting might be part of why people didn't like Him.

 

[Christi Junior]

There's definitely some Xenoblade 1 bias in Future Redeemed, which lines up with base Xenoblade 3 as well (it's Noah and the Keves crew that's our starter party after all, and Noah is Xenoblade 3's undisputed main character throughout the story). While both games do get a ton of love in Future Redeemed, I definitely do get the sense that Takahashi's heart beats just a little faster for Xenoblade 1. The role Alvis/Alpha played in the creation of Origin and with it Aionios would however provide some lore justification for the greater overall emphasis on Xenoblade 1, so that is a good point.

Of course, in terms of playable characters it's definitely Xenoblade 2 that came out on top, because Future Redeemed Rex is GLORIOUSLY overpowered, a crit rate reminiscent of Fire Emblem 6 Rutger would already be wild enough, but the way he can flat out ignore enemy defense just gives him an absolutely insane damage output, causing him to completely outclass Matthew (who in any other context would be a very strong Attacker himself).

But yeah, until Xenoblade 3 dropped it was common to see Rex Hate online. A common sentiment was that he was this lame, generic Shonen boy hero, and that somebody like Zeke would have made for a much better protagonist. Nia fans might also have been mad at Rex for his "I love you and all you guys" fakeout - little did they know...

His English voice acting (especially his notoriously bad screams, and ESPECIALLY in comparison to Adam Howden's Shulk) definitely didn't help matters, but I also saw other aspects, like Rex's character design, get exaggerated amounts of hate (people are gonna freak out about Rex's design when somebody like Sora exists, seriously niggers?). Hell, even when it came to hentai Rex was victim of a fair amount of truly nasty NTR shit. Before Xenoblade 3, I'd pretty much have considered Rex to be in the same boat as Tidus from Final Fantasy X, a divisive protagonist who's not even close to being the most popular character from his own game.

Me, I always liked Rex fine. While I would have personally ranked him last among Xenoblade 2's playable Drivers, that's more of a testament to just how strong XB2's party as a whole was. I'm not the biggest fan of his character archetype, but Rex is actually surprisingly well-written, with his unique background really helping explain why he is the way he is. He certainly never deserved the hate that I often saw, and so it was very gratifying to see Xenoblade 3 and Future Redeemed leave the Rex Haters holding gigantic fucking Ls.

 

[Narmy]

Of course, in terms of playable characters it's definitely Xenoblade 2 that came out on top, because Future Redeemed Rex is GLORIOUSLY overpowered, a crit rate reminiscent of Fire Emblem 6 Rutger would already be wild enough, but the way he can flat out ignore enemy defense just gives him an absolutely insane damage output, causing him to completely outclass Matthew (who in any other context would be a very strong Attacker himself).

I wish he wasn't such a hate magnet. I tried focusing on reducing hate as much as possible on him and raising it as much as possible on the tanks but he still kept getting targeted and killed.

 

[Ohdeargods]

I wish he wasn't such a hate magnet. I tried focusing on reducing hate as much as possible on him and raising it as much as possible on the tanks but he still kept getting targeted and killed.

That's... weirdly emblematic of Rex as a whole.

 

[Christi Junior]

I wish he wasn't such a hate magnet. I tried focusing on reducing hate as much as possible on him and raising it as much as possible on the tanks but he still kept getting targeted and killed.

I did too at first, because I wanted to take advantage of his Raging Flame, which requires him to stay alive for a bit to land the critical hits necessary to increase his damage output, but truthfully, he doesn't even need it - taking control of Rex, Arts Spamming like crazy and just eating the KOs, that really seems the optima way to maximize his DPS over the course of a long battle, because he WILL get the aggro no matter what you do. Somebody on the Fediverse described the Rex Experience as doing monster damage, getting killed, and then getting revived by his cute daughter, rinse and repeat. Definitely a playstyle worthy of the GigaChad.

That's... weirdly emblematic of Rex as a whole.

That too of course, lol.

 

[Ohdeargods]

There's definitely some Xenoblade 1 bias in Future Redeemed, which lines up with base Xenoblade 3 as well (it's Noah and the Keves crew that's our starter party after all, and Noah is Xenoblade 3's undisputed main character throughout the story). While both games do get a ton of love in Future Redeemed, I definitely do get the sense that Takahashi's heart beats just a little faster for Xenoblade 1. The role Alvis/Alpha played in the creation of Origin and with it Aionios would however provide some lore justification for the greater overall emphasis on Xenoblade 1, so that is a good point.

Of course, in terms of playable characters it's definitely Xenoblade 2 that came out on top, because Future Redeemed Rex is GLORIOUSLY overpowered, a crit rate reminiscent of Fire Emblem 6 Rutger would already be wild enough, but the way he can flat out ignore enemy defense just gives him an absolutely insane damage output, causing him to completely outclass Matthew (who in any other context would be a very strong Attacker himself).

But yeah, until Xenoblade 3 dropped it was common to see Rex Hate online. A common sentiment was that he was this lame, generic Shonen boy hero, and that somebody like Zeke would have made for a much better protagonist. Nia fans might also have been mad at Rex for his "I love you and all you guys" fakeout - little did they know...

His English voice acting (especially his notoriously bad screams, and ESPECIALLY in comparison to Adam Howden's Shulk) definitely didn't help matters, but I also saw other aspects, like Rex's character design, get exaggerated amounts of hate (people are gonna freak out about Rex's design when somebody like Sora exists, seriously niggers?). Hell, even when it came to hentai Rex was victim of a fair amount of truly nasty NTR shit. Before Xenoblade 3, I'd pretty much have considered Rex to be in the same boat as Tidus from Final Fantasy X, a divisive protagonist who's not even close to being the most popular character from his own game.

Me, I always liked Rex fine. While I would have personally ranked him last among Xenoblade 2's playable Drivers, that's more of a testament to just how strong XB2's party as a whole was. I'm not the biggest fan of his character archetype, but Rex is actually surprisingly well-written, with his unique background really helping explain why he is the way he is. He certainly never deserved the hate that I often saw, and so it was very gratifying to see Xenoblade 3 and Future Redeemed leave the Rex Haters holding gigantic fucking Ls.

On the note of Xenoblade 1 bias, I think it's partially because 1 is the first in the series as well (we know how much pokemon loves referencing gen 1).

Rex is definitely my favorite to play in FR, though I just like playing as attackers in general. It's funny that Double-spinning edge ends up as Rex's best move, because no-one EVER used it in His home game.

I remember not being sold on Rex's design at the time 2 came out, but I also wasn't into Pyra's design at the time either (I'd have liked Her boobs pushed together instead of separated, like in Her artwork.) Hell of a thing for me to say, given Dahlia is my favorite blade (I swear She caused even MORE of a storm than Pyra...) I've come around on both since then, because goofy and ridiculous designs are just a part of 2's identity, and I love it all the more for it. Rex's isn't even the goofiest (Pandoria? Kora?), but i guess being the protagonist comes with certain expectations. Then again, as you mentioned, Sora, with His poofy-ass Mickey Mouse shorts.

The Protagonists in Xenoblade games usually end up being my favorite characters, because, aside from Melia, they usually end up getting hit the hardest by the game's respective events. Call me a sadist, but I love seeing the protag getting beaten down by the villain, driven to the depths of despair, only to then come back stronger than ever with someone's help (Danganronpa 2 being a shining example, as far as I'm concerned). Noah is undoubtedly my favorite in 3, Shulk I've wavered a bit on (with all the stupid shit He does), and Rex, seeing His whole team get Him back on His feet, and helping Him find the strength to save Pyra and Mythra from joining the 41%, easily elevated Him to the top for me. And of course, becoming the gigachad with a harem of beautiful ladies is just icing on the cake. Be careful of who you call ugly in middle school, normies.

Sidenote: I was one of those people who saw the photo of Rex's team shown during the ending before playing the game, thinking it was just some fanart or something, and then getting blindsided by it when it showed up.

 

[Ohdeargods]

On an unrelated note, I love the absurd sexual dimorphism present in Noah's family tree. The males are regular dudes with an affinity for ponytails and punching things, and the females are catgirls. Even Guernica inherited Matthew's love of punching the ground, though the catgirl dimorphism disappeared if Monica and Ghondor are anything to go by (apparently replaced with a trend towards boondocks level of talking shit.)

It took five generations for Nia's line to measure up to the balconies of Her sisters-in-law, but now She has the best of both worlds (still annoyed you can't play as Na'el, though).