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oak-leaf.bsky.social
Oak 🍂
@oak-leaf.bsky.social
140 followers 230 following 220 posts
she/they ~ VGM enthusiast ~ game design sometimes ~ software dev ~ michigan sports fan ~ xenoblade enjoyer ~ pfp by @meliaart.bsky.social
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oak-leaf.bsky.social
MY CROPS ARE FLOURISHING MY DEPRESSION IS CURED AND THE SUN IS SHINING
October 12, 2025 at 2:52 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
pumpkin cheesecake brownies are a family favorite, highly recommend!
October 5, 2025 at 11:23 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Hades 2 and Silksong in the same month?
September 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Another 5 years of three houses discourse?
YES... HA HA HA... YES!
September 13, 2025 at 5:37 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
new FE protagonist: “I only want to fight so I can save my father’s life”
How do we tell him?
September 13, 2025 at 5:21 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Takeaways for X specifically
I think my main frustrations with chapter 13 come from how it serves as a follow-up for the original 12 chapters. As I mentioned before, the broad strokes for this chapter make a lot of sense and feel like natural areas of focus. But certain things leave somewhat of a bitter taste in my mouth. The main one being that we’re moving on from Mira. While the ending of the original chapter 12 was an unsatisfying ending, it left a tantalizing hook for a sequel. And the mystery being tied to “something about this planet”. Well, as it turns out, the persistence of the humans’ consciousnesses had nothing to do with Mira itself…definitely an odd writing choice considering the setup. To me, one of the most exciting prospects about a potential X sequel was the opportunity to dive into Mira’s secrets. What else is on this planet? More continents to explore? Another civilization of humans? What about the origins of L and the nopon? What’s the meaning behind the appearance of the Telethia? Why did all the alien races end up on Mira specifically? How was this planet created, and why does it have protections like a space-time barrier? Whether the writers decide to move on from these questions is TBD - the ending of chapter 13 doesn’t necessarily mean these questions will never be answered, but at least to me they seem to have been put aside. And this is such a shame - not only is there plenty of material here for a sequel, but also, the ending of ch13 retroactively makes the buildup of these questions less meaningful (at least to me), now that it’s unlikely they’ll lead to any answers I think what really throws me off about ch13 though, is that the idea of the X cast having to abandon Mira is a genuinely interesting plot point. After all the effort they undertook to be able to make Mira their new home, the humans would naturally form attachments to that world. The sidequests leading up to the exodus demonstrated how people react in different ways to such dire circumstances. I would’ve loved to see more nuanced perspectives from the main cast as well. But the placement of this type of story in X’s overall plot is pretty jarring. I mean, as far as the story’s concerned, we just defeated the ganglion 5 minutes ago. In fact, from an IRL perspective, it’s tough to be able to finally return to Mira only to be told we’re now leaving it…within the same game. Again, interesting stuff, but imo this storyline would’ve worked so much better if it was given time to breathe. Imagine after chapter 12, the cast is given space to exist in (relative) peacetime. Imagine we get to explore more of Mira, potentially finding and helping another civilization of humans. In what ways would our beloved cast grow more attached to Mira, when they’re not constantly fighting? And instead, have more time to savor its beauty? We could hear more about Elma, L, Tatsu, Celica, and Neilnail. We could have time to dig into this those questions left at the end of ch12 without the pressure exerted by a new big bad. Like how do people react to Lao being gone? And what about his legitimate concerns with Project Exodus? Do we need to take action against the provisional government, now that the matter of the lifehold is settled? We could explore the mysteries of Mira, and dig more into interpersonal conflict from the fallout of ch12. But unfortunately no, for whatever reason, we need to move on immediately My guess is the ending of chapter 13 was originally the plan for the ending of X, but also that there were supposed to be more chapters between 12 and the events of DE’s 13. So then rather than expand the missing chapters into a sequel, they decided to fit what they could into chapter 13 and move on to events that connect X to the wider series. If this were the case, it’d explain why ch13 has some good scenes, but ultimately feels rushed. If Monolith doesn’t have the bandwidth or interest to continue the story of Mira, I can respect that. I just really felt with this definitive edition that we finally had the chance to conclude this story. While the ending we got does provide some important closure, and poses some interesting questions for the X cast going forward, I can’t help but feel like a significant part of X was abandoned. I guess I’ll wait and see what they do with the X cast in the future. For now it’s a bittersweet feeling
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Implications for the series
Before talking about X on its own, I want to talk about how this chapter fits into the wider context of Xenoblade. I think the most likely outcome is that the blue light we saw at the end of Future Redeemed is the White Whale 2, and the next Xenoblade game will involve the casts of various games coming together (in some way) on this new planet. Another possibility, and probably my preferred option, is that the White Whale 2 arrives at a different planet from what we see in FR, but within the same universe. I think this could leave room for a sequel to X before fully integrating it into the numbered series in a future game. In terms of how to integrate X, I think the dematerialization events + White Whale 2 were a perfectly fine way to do it. It doesn’t feel shoehorned in like a lot of people were worried about. I kind of like X being its own thing, but from a game development perspective, the possibility for having one larger integrated series might be best for the future, rather than having multiple very similar series in parallel. I also think that, if this is their way of connecting X, then this is probably the last “definitive edition” that needed to happen In terms of other implications for the series, the main thing I wanted to talk about was The Rift. It’s still pretty nebulous at this point, but I think it’s a good start for providing a more cohesive structure for the series’ other-domain activity, and honestly could provide an explanation for a bunch of stuff that’s already happened in the numbered trilogy. I’m thinking about stuff like Memory Space, Origin, and how the Trinity Processor cores operate. Monolith hand-waves A LOT, and while I don’t think there’s been anything particularly egregious in that regard, there has been some stuff which wasn’t explained (especially in 3) that genuinely brought down my enjoyment of the story. When you get to the point where you hand-wave too much, it can break the player’s suspense - they won’t have a good sense of what’s possible if the boundaries are broken in unsatisfying ways too many times. The Rift provides an opportunity for Xenoblade to give players a better idea of what to expect when it comes to activities on another domain, while still offering plenty of room to operate within that space. I hope they’re consistent about it going forward
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Void
The ganglion “god” being a Samaarian castoff whose mind has been broken by an immense amount of time trapped in the rift feels like a natural extension of the perspective of the ganglion we got from luxaar in chapter 12. void feels like a proper final antagonist for the original xenoblade x plot. Void is kinda interesting to me. I found the “primordial entity” with unclear plans/motivations to be fairly engaging to follow since I didn’t know what to expect. Additionally, the unclear extent to which he’d go for his goals, in addition to a strong visual design and distinctive type of dialogue, lent a feeling of uncertainty and intimidation to Void as a villain. The revelation that he’s a Samaarian, though, honestly confused me more than anything. Void seems to have godlike powers that are never explained - are all Samaarians like that or is Void special for some reason? And why can’t Void comprehend death? Apparently the Samaarians had some concept of it because “death as punishment is anathema”, but is Void’s lack of comprehension because Samaarians are immortal, or is his mind broken due to his imprisonment? I do think he could’ve benefited from more clarity on those questions
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Lao
In contrast to how they built up Al’s persona, I’m very confused about what they did with Lao. Why imply he’s still alive, if he was just going to pass on immediately anyway? I will say, when he changes his mind at the end of chapter 11, it does feel pretty abrupt - I suppose they just wanted to give his character some closure by giving clarity to his mindset, and I definitely appreciate that. But man, that scene with him and Al was absolutely gutting. Lao is probably the most interesting character in x, and I would’ve loved to see a true redemption arc from him, especially with the opportunity to move on to a new world. In fact, if they’re planning to make the next Xenoblade a “crossover”, I would’ve loved to see him meet the cast of 3 considering the themes of their journeys. The fact that he wants to inspire Lin to keep living, but accepts death himself, is truly disheartening
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Elma
I do wish we got more from Elma in this chapter. I get why she wasn’t the main focus, but there were two things I really would’ve liked to understand about her: 1. The fact that she was living undercover - how did it affect her to be keeping secrets for so long? How do the other characters adjust to seeing her in a new light? It just kinda feels like, aside from what happened to Elma’s planet and how she came to earth in the first place, the revelations about Elma from chapter 12 were just kinda dropped. There was good potential for drama there, but it feels like they wanted to move on 2. What exactly is her relationship with Al? We got a few good scenes with them, I’m glad we got to hear more about the pain Elma was carrying after Al disappeared. But imo what she said in chapter 13 about her guilt was already kinda implied, I wish they had expanded on that a bit more. Although I suppose there’s room for that in the next story they tell with this cast
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
How’s it poppin’?
Ok let’s talk about Al. I love the direction they took with him. After emphasizing his status as “the hero”, and being very coy about what he looks like, building up this legend (which was aided by a 10-year IRL wait), only to reveal him to be just some guy was honestly brilliant. Excellent manipulation of the player’s expectations, through the game itself but also via external media. Al himself is pretty great. The fact that he’s legitimately very talented as a pilot, but his most important qualities are more about his ability to perceive others and the world as a whole, make him a good complement to the rest of the cast. He had some great scenes with Lin, Elma, and Lao. Some of his “power of love” lines were kinda corny imo, but he’s a massive dork anyway, so it works well enough. It’s just difficult to deliver a compelling character arc in one chapter though, so I hope we get to see more of him in the future
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Music
On that note, I’d say the music in this chapter, mainly from Misaki Umase, doesn’t really fit super well with the rest of the soundtrack, but considering Volitaris also feels pretty different from Mira’s continents, I think it works well! The area theme really captures that otherworldly feel. And in particular, the strings in various songs stood out to me
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Gameplay
That being said, though, idk how I feel about the execution. A lot of the revelations from this chapter were delivered in massive lore dumps. Nothing much wrong with that, I think the devs knew what longtime X fans were most interested in, and wanted to focus on that. I did enjoy the sidequests we got to flesh out Al + how various characters reacted to the exodus. Volitaris was pretty neat, it was cool to see a lategame area designed purely for skell traversal, something that wasn’t really in the base game. Kinda wish it had been a bit more expansive (it’s quite small compared to its “equivalent” in other games - Bionis Shoulder / Torna / Cent-Omnia Region), but for its placement in the story, and considering the scope of this epilogue, it fit well enough. I liked that we didn’t have the usual minimap, requiring the player to rely on actual observation and exploration to find the other party members, plus using the spears as visual landmarks for navigation
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Overall impressions
In general, I enjoyed the epilogue. The broad strokes definitely felt like what the original xenoblade x plot was meant to be - Elma’s backstory, Al, the Ares, the Great One, some explanation for how the mims are still active, etc. Mostly good character building, a cool new area, an actual conclusion to the story - all good stuff here!
July 19, 2025 at 8:24 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Just unlocked the character from A Challenger Approaches
May 12, 2025 at 6:17 PM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Taking my time with Xenoblade XDE but this game remains stunning
May 4, 2025 at 12:15 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Anyone who wants to play some xenoblade x online, feel free to add me! Might be playing kinda sporadically, but would love to tackle some online missions
March 24, 2025 at 12:22 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
I still can’t believe this game is real 😭
March 24, 2025 at 12:16 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
I’m not crying you’re crying 🥹
March 21, 2025 at 5:40 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Flipping through the xenoblade x artbook again, it’s really a shame we’re not likely to see Tanaka in another xeno project. I love his style, especially how he drew Irina and Lao here w/messier hair that didn’t really translate to the in-game models. We definitely missed out on some personality
February 13, 2025 at 9:06 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
need the high-quality render so I can make a lebron-wade edit with luxaar and the great one
January 31, 2025 at 8:26 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
idk why but forward-facing luxaar is so funny to me
January 31, 2025 at 8:26 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Game #6 - Balatro

The last game in this little series is an incredibly well-designed deck-building roguelike. I picked this game up on a whim and it ended up being some of the most fun I’ve had with a game all year
January 1, 2025 at 4:59 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Game #5 - Echoes of Wisdom

Pretty fun game with a unique approach to puzzle solving. I think the echoes mechanic is a really cool idea with a lot of room for creative solutions
January 1, 2025 at 4:53 AM
oak-leaf.bsky.social
Game #4 - Monster Hunter Rise

This was my first experience with monster hunter, and I had an absolute blast. It’s a series I’ve wanted to try for a while, but for whatever reason didn’t get around to it till now
January 1, 2025 at 4:50 AM