Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that has treated me well now for over 30 hours. Its got a fun combat system, lots of side content, likable characters and absolutly gorgeous design. And if this had been written an hour ago, that would have been the long and short of it. I have been liking this game.

However, I am not writing this an hour ago, and me and Xenoblade chronicles aren't speaking to one another currently. Because while the gameplay hasn't changed and the art design is still fantastic, its got something of a problem- the plot has begun systematically destroying my interest and goodwill. Let me explain.

I have just finished the mechonis core and most of the succeeding events. To say that these events have shifted the focus of the plot would be an understatment. They've given us a new main antagonist- the dark god, Zanza- and removed the idea of a mechonis vs. bionis conflict- those peoples are now on the same side. The god living within Fiora has been let out and subsequently killed, and shulk lies...in a coma? I guess? I assume not for long. And everything has become infinitly more boring.

Speaking of Fiora, let me start there, because in retrospect I think things started losing there way around her return. I was not inherently opposed to her return- though it is terrible storytelling to have early tragedy easiliy reversed for our main characters, she came back with enough strings attached that it didn't feel particularly cheap. She wasn't dead but she was 95 percent mechanical, and was living with another being inside her, and her new body was not particularly stable, giving her relationship with Shulk and Dunban in particular some interesting depth and giving them some new issues to wrestle with. On top of that was the fact that in the meantime, Shulk and Melia's relationship had started taking on some potential romantic undertones and things were setting up nicely for some interesting personal conflict and character development. The subsequent introduction of the independing and peace-loving people of Mechonis was icing on the cake- the game looked like it was ready to reveal the reasons and motives behind its largely-thus-far faceless antagonists and develop some moral complexity.

So with all this potential, what went wrong? Why is it utterly failing to deliver on it's potential? Some of the issues about Fiora's new body, and its potentially limited lifespan, are addressed, but a character quickly drops a hint that, hey, whatever, she's probably gonna get her old body back, good as new. Sorry, what the character (Linada) actually said was that there was very low odds such a thing might be possible but forgive me for translating- the game isnt throwing that out there in order to get the character's hopes up then crush them, it would of lingered on it longer if it was. So right off the bat we know that any angst about Fiora's new body is inheirently pointless and any sweetness about Shulk's easy and loyal acceptance of her is bought cheaply- the game didn't have the balls to really kill her and it doesn't have the balls to keep her like she is now, either.

The game not having any balls is the root cause of other problems as well. The game reveals that it has a sympatheic antagonist in Egil and that the war against bionis is retaliation for past wrongs, but then quickly has him repent when confronted by Shulk and replaces him with a pointlessly evil and uncomplex diety and have him be REALLY behind it all. Almost immediatly after his reveal, everyone becomes either nauseatingly righteous or sickeningly evil, and you can tell because the good guys- no matter what side they were on before- immediatly line up behind our party and the EVIIILLLL guys immediatly stand againt them. Black and White. Totally devoid of shades of grey.

This is the worst thing of all, so I'm going to elaborable a little more. Dickson, a previously helpful character that the game hints has some darker motives immediately comes out as a disciple of the evil god and betrays the party. It's a little far-fetched because it's so outside his previous characterization- the first hint of his dirty intentions came much earlier in the story, but it came in the form of him expressing regret for decieving the party. None of that appears here, just grinning, inhuman psychopathy. Meanwhile, Egil, a character who has festered in perhaps-justified hatred for CENTURIES immediatly abandons all ill-will toward the party and gives his life to defend them- he is quickly forgiven and accepted as a hero despite having murdered thousands of people and left more than one NPC orphan back in colony 6. It's okay, though- Since Fiora is still alive he hasn't managed to kill anyone directly related to Shulk, which we all know is the one true crime. He did still kill Gadolt but Shulk never met him so whatever, it's all cool.

Then, after a hilaroiusly stupid parallel is drawn between EVIIIILLLL god Zanza and the christian god (I'm DICKSON of the TRINITY!!!!), the treacherous Head Researcher of the High Entia is ALSO revealed to be a disciple of the evil god. Though she was a more minor character, this is arguably the most egregious example of the "black-and-whitining" of the plot- in the past, she was hinted at to be scheming against Melia due to political ambitions, helping the first consort to further her own position, and to be mostly motivated by lust for power and ambition. Now, that should have put her squarly against Zanza- whose motive is ALL THE POWERZ FOR MEEEE!!- but we cant have a bad guy working with out protagonists, can we? So in a truly ass-pull moment, we find out that she is working with Dickson (OF THE TRINITY! FUCK THE POPE!) to bring about the end of the world for her evil god. As a bonus, this makes any past actions againt Melia completely stupid- it would have been in her best interest to HELP HER reach prison island and free Zanza if that was her goal. But whatever.

So, thats where I am in the game, and I've lost all will to finish. Shulk's in a coma- apparently he was a corpse reanimated by Zanza to use as a vessel, which explains why he's now in a coma and not dead- oh, wait, no it doesnt. The High Entia are all turning into Telethia- It's something in there genes, apparently. And Melia has decided that she's obviously nothing compared to Fiora and has givin up on Shulk. I suppose it's hard when your a more complex character competing with a girl with no appreciable human flaws.

I guess I don't really have an end to this, but needed to get it out there. Maybe someone can tell me that it all gets better, but I'm not sure im going to finish this game. It fucked up too hard in the home stretch.

Considering you don't have much more to do, just go finish it. There are 2 more areas to do and they are pretty straight forward.

I admit that I felt a little bit like you do when this happened. The evil grins of Dickson bothered me--but in the end, it just became part of his character and I was satisfied in the end.

As far as Black and White/Evil and Good, there is a little grey in there as you'll find out once you start playing again.

Play until the end. The game still has twists and character revelations, it's not as straightforward as what you're describing. The ending is fucking phenomenal.

Then again, I enjoyed the parts you described as not liking so I don't know. I just know that I loved it and I'll never forget it.

Made an account just to say that I agree with you completely. I enjoyed the first half of the game (up until you get Fiora back), but the second half was just an incoherent mess. Fiora's return felt cheap, especially considering that I actually felt emotional upon her "death" at the beginning at the game. Moreover, her return meant that Melia stopped mattering, even though Melia was a far more complex and likeable character than the perfect Fiora could ever be (as you rightly pointed out). The whole "Gods! Gods are doing this!" turn after you felt Egil was cliche and shallow. Moreover, like you said, characters had no development and they barely even had motive. E.g. why were Lorithia and Dickson even helping Zanza? Being "disciples" or wanting immortality aren't good enough reasons.

I didn't get how the "dead" Shulk was actually in a coma, either. And I'm not sure if you got through to the ending, but it made an incoherent mess even messier.

Yeah, I really liked the batshit ending, but overall the story went to complete shit in the second half, they basically copied and pasted the 'endgame' of every other JRPG released in the 90's.

Egil sacrificing himself to save Shulk was to help screw over Zanza, as he was only trying to kill him through the deaths of others. Shulk never really wanted to hurt Egil, and would have gladly helped him if he had agreed to stop assaulting Bionis. Fiora coming back had a good plot reason, because Meyneth wanted to be close to Zanza and the Monado and try to deflect it's influence. Fiora was the perfect vessel for the job. She was also extremely capable as a fighter, and many less important Homs were turned into faces, so her being used wasn't that strange. Lorithia was always part of Zanza's group, and was in on it with Alvis, as is seen in a few scenes around Prison Island. It was always Mechonis Vs. Bionis, because it was Zanza vs. Meyneth. Zanza attacked Mechonis through Bionis. So the Machina would obviously oppose him. The people of Bionis were fighting to prevent their extinction. Zanza would have given it to them. Earlier in the game, their are hints of Shulk achieving the true Monado, one that is his own. That can give him the power to survive an ether shot. Some of what I said is from cutscenes that you just saw, so I think that you weren't paying a lot of attention. You shut yourself off and then posted a problem that was resolved by the game. Most of what you had to say was oppinion based/not easily remembered, so I think that you still have a point to make, but the first half of the game was a revenge plot. Fiora died. Go out to kill the thing that killed her. Other people had loved ones die. They join your quest. That is cookie cutter plot.

P.S. Fiora was mostly being kept alive by Meyenth's power, and she had limited time once Meyneth was gone.

Most of the things you explained as plot holes or problems can be inferred to make sense if you think about them for more than 2 seconds. The game doesn't spoon feed you everything. The "Why is Shulk in a coma" is easily explainable if you finished the game. Here's a hint, it has to do with Alvis. Dickson not seeming as evil as he was is exactly what he was going for. They did set it up in many of the earlier cutscenes, however. The explanation with Lorithia and the consorts is fairly simple. Lorithia wanted to convert as many people as possible to telethia during the reawakening, so she would obviously support a movement that gives power to pure high-entia, and shames crossbreeds, because that will influence society to fall in line with what she wants. I do agree that the "possibly recreating Fiora's body" line could have been handled better, but there's no really good way to set that up without it seeming like a plot hole, or seeming obvious. As far as Zanza, the reason you think he's black and white is simply because you haven't finished the game. Egil seemed that way too before you got to him. By the way, Egil didn't switch sides because the plot needed him to, he switched sides, because as the game described in detail, he didn't hate the people of Bionis, he hated the idea of Zanza reawakening and devastating his people. When Shulk showed that he wanted peace, Egil agreed. I feel like a lot of these problems you have come from not finishing the game, not reading into the subtext of what is said, or just not paying attention.