Awesome / Xenoblade Chronicles 2

WARNING: Per wiki policy, spoilers are unmarked on Awesome Moments pages!

Story:

BURNING SWORD!

• Rex bursting back onto the main deck of the ancient ship where Pyra had been found, Pyra bursting out of her pod, and the two of them immediately begin clashing with Malos, cementing immediately the fact that the two of them are partners. Nia and Azurda's Big Damn Hero moments throughout the battle and the effective closure of Chapter 1 set a very strong tone for the course of the entire game.
  Rex: It's kinda low to stab a man in the back...you bloody psychopath!
• The final battle of Chapter 2: Rex working in conjunction with both Pyra and Poppi to dump an entire water tower onto Mòrag; and Brigid to negate the latter's fire abilities.
• The play that the party steps in on and watches in the middle of Chapter 3. It's a re-telling of the end of the Aegis War and done so well that everyone can only sit and watch. It makes one want to be able to see the whole thing. Also doubles as a funny moment due to the actors' extremely hammy delivery and gaudy costumes, their Scottish (Ardainian) accents, and the narrator sounding like Sideshow Mel.
• Vandham's actions at the end of Chapter 3, as a whole, qualifies as this, even if it's a Dying Moment of Awesome. How does he handle an anti-ether field that prevents Blades from channeling ether to their Drivers, thus crippling the party? Simple. He STABS HIMSELF with his scythes without a second thought, allowing the ether to generate directly into him, and then single-handedly holds off Akhos and Malos long enough for the rest of the party to recover. He even manages to give Rex some parting words that Rex takes to heart, before being struck down. The entire scene shows just how powerful Vandham is for a normal human both physically and mentally, even though he's going against the likes of Torna.
  • He doesn't just hold Akhos and Malos off; he punts Akhos aside like a ragdoll almost immediately, taking Akhos completely out of the fight until Malos is able to finish him.
• Immediately after is Mythra's first awakening, summoning bolts of light from the sky and giving Akhos a Death Glare that just says, "I am done with your shit!" and displays of light from her body that make her look like a wrathful deity as she glares at her foes with contempt. Followed by calling a rain of beams with such force and precision that it instantly destroys the Core Crystals to Akhos and Malos's blades.
• A bit later in Chapter 4, the Poppi vs. Lila fight.
  Poppi: Energy efficiency is not a problem. Poppi's masterpon told Poppi not to lose. So Poppi will win. Very simple logic.
  Lila: Comprehension error.
  Poppi: And that is why you are a failure.
  [Poppi throws Lila into the wall hard enough to briefly shut her down]
  • Followed up by Lila's Grew Beyond Their Programming moment, where she destroy's Bana's control device.
    Lila: My Masterpon is... Professor Soosoo! And... Professor Tatazo! [pulls the control device from her head and crushes it]
• Shortly after that is Poppi's first transformation into QT mode, which has such an amazing energy output that it manages to impress Mythra. And then the party proceeds to go to town against Rosa.
• During the first fight against Patroka and Mikhail, the party seems to be overwhelmed by their combined offense and defense... then Mòrag appears and joins your party as You Will Recall Our Names starts to play. Commence the asskicking.
• Zeke gets one right before his third boss fight. When the party meets him again, Nia points out all the surrounding obstacles that could ruin Zeke's day...only for Zeke to smugly smile and unleash an attack with Pandoria that knocks the party down. To top it off, Mòrag calmly explains that he's "Thunderbolt Zeke", crown Prince of Tantal and a Driver who is roughly on par with her in terms of skill and power, which causes the party to actually start taking him seriously.
  Zeke: [post-defeat] ...Not bad, chum!
  Rex: Right back at you. Impressive!
• Chapter 6 has the team rescuing Pyra from the Tantalese palace. The Ether Cannon being used to try and destroy her is charging, but the team is overwhelmed by the palace guards. Zeke starts off the moment with "No you don't!" leaps onto the cannon, and stabs it with his sword to run lightning through it to short it out. When that doesn't work, Tora directs Poppi to enter QT Mode and lift the cannon from below to throw off its aim. It works. Possibly too well, as it causes the Tantal Titan to submerge rapidly, putting everyone's lives in danger.
  • Mòrag and Tora get an awesome moment early on, too. When the party arrives at the Tantalese palace, Mòrag notes that the ether flow of Genbu within the palace is not unlike the ether flow of the ether nets used against Nia and Dromarch in chapter 2. She then hatches a plan with Tora to not use a single art in the possible scenario where the King captures them, allowing Tora and herself to maintain a single art charge when they're locked in jail later. Mòrag and Tora have every right to act and look smug after that one.
• Chapter 6 ends with a villainous one. After revealing his true power Jin manages to instantly take down the party with countless lightspeed slashes and starts moving so fast that Mythra can't keep up even when using Foresight. In addition he manages to even No-Sell an attack from Siren, and the following flurry of attacks manages to be so overwhelming that it shatters Mythra's sword.
  • Though credit where its due, the team does have a few moments of their own. Rex lasts a bit longer against Jin than in previous encounters, actually being able to react and dodge several of Jin's strikes in contrast to their first encounter. Zeke is actually able to move so fast that that Jin misses his heart, leaving him slightly impressed. Most importantly, after witnessing Jin Curb Stomp the entire team, and having realized they need her alive, Pyra controls Mythra's Artifice through sheer willpower and as such actually manages to bargain with him and Malos by threatening to kill herself with a beam so fast not even Jin would be able to deflect it. Said bargain means Jin spares Rex's life when he had previously stated he was going to cut the Core Crystal out of his chest. Further, we later learn Pyra knew Ophion would attack Malos even with the Control Core in his posession, and thus was hoping to oppose him even though she had surrendered herself.
• Chapter 7 is full of these. Starting with the rapid Get A Hold Of Yourself Man Nia, Brighid, and Poppi gives to Rex, to later when Nia formally reveals her Blade form and easily defeats the Phantasms of Addam, to even later being able to stand toe-to-toe with Malos, and after activating Pyra's/Mythra's Pneuma form, Rex is easily able to take on both Malos and Jin. Finally, when Malos tries to sick Ophion on them, Pyra/Mythra summons Siren and the two Humongous Mecha have a destructive duel that sends (almost) everyone there to the bottom of the Cloud Sea.
  • Really, that description doesn't do Nia justice. Despite clearly having trouble within the very environment due to her nature as a Flesh Eater, she continues to push forward to the point of passing out. Even after that, she still continues to traverse Spirit Crucible Elpys when it's clear that she should be turning back. When its clear she should be taking a break, she doesn't make the suggestion herself and it has to be pointed out by Mòrag. When fighting Addam's Phantasms, Mòrag and Zeke ^Note  The strongest drivers in their respective Titans are only able to hold their own against even one of them. Nia upon revealing her Blade Form? She downs three of them in a single strike!. She and Rex then proceed to utterly destroy the rest of the phantasms and while Mòrag, Zeke and Tora are able to still hold their own, the phantasms quickly leave those fights to deal with Nia. Later on in the chapter, she comes up with a plan to defeat Malos by inflicting Harmful Healing on him and it nearly works. She and Rex successfully harm Malos and drive him off a cliff. If only that ledge hadn't been there...
  • Props should still be given to Mòrag and Zeke, however. Even before Nia's transformation, they're shown to be holding their own against small groups of the Phantasms, and they save Nia from getting overwhelmed by multiple Phantasms partway into the fight. Later on, during the Malos and Jin fight, Jin is able to completely suppress Nia's insane healing abilities by dropping the temperature, leaving Nia vulnerable and reeling. Malos goes in for a killing blow, only for Mòrag to dash across the cliff and block the blow with ease. What's more, this was all a set-up on Mòrag's part to give Zeke an opening to strike Malos, and it almost works! Even better, while Rex and Jin are going at each other at light speed, there's a part that shows Malos still swordfighting. The person or people he's sparring with aren't clearly shown, but the implication is it can't be Tora given the latter's position relative to Malos. Earlier on, when Malos rebuffed Mòrag and Zeke, it was shown that both were able to quickly recover, meaning the most likely person or people still fighting him were Mòrag and Zeke. Certainly an improvement after the duo were easily neutralized by artificial blades in 6.
  • When first encountering Malos at the cliffs, the reveal that his Aegis Sword...is a Monado. In fact, he possesses Monado Arts both old and new, which he will wield against you. The sight alone will make people who've played the first game realize that this Aegis is not to be trifled with.
  • On a more subtle note, Rex's character development is clearly shown in this chapter and emphasizes how far he's come since bonding with Pyra. When Vandham pulled a Heroic Sacrifice to save the team in Chapter 3, Rex nearly threw it away by charging at Malos, the same person who treated the team to a Curb-Stomp Battle moments prior. However, when he thinks he's lost Pyra, someone he was even closer to, Rex's reaction is to get Dromarch to take Pyra's body and keep her safe before calmly preparing to fight both Jin and Malos while giving himself a "The Reason You Suck" Speech. The result is Rex actually being able to hold his own against Jin with nothing but his own skill. Malos even lampshades this new maturity in Rex by directly referencing the last time Rex lost someone close to him.
  Malos: What's this? I thought you'd start bawling and charge at me. What a big boy.
• Chapter 9 is packed with awesome from start to finish. Mikhail converts Torna's battleship into a mecha which he uses to take on the Titans under Amalthus' control. Rex and Pyra destroy the towers that amplify Amalthus' control abilities, saving Mor Ardain from destroying itself in the process. Mikhail saves the party from being killed by Indol's lasers and manages to cripple it altogether, at the cost of his own life. The party catches up to Jin, and manages to defeat him as Rex explains how he views the world, which ultimately spurs Jin on to destroy Amalthus before he can wipe out the party, albeit at the cost of his own life.
  • Mikhail somehow manages to one-up his Heroic Sacrifice in the New Game Plus where it's revealed that he survived. Even he's surprised that he's still alive.
• The finale of the final battle is certainly awesome, as Rex and Pneuma channel and magnify Siren's energy beam through their sword, hitting Aion so hard that they mortally damage Malos and cut off one of Aion's arms.
• For Xenoblade Chronicles 1 fans, there's something particularly awesome about knowing that the final battle with Zanza is happening at exactly the same time as the battle with Aion and the defeat of both almost happens at the same time.

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Gameplay:

• One of the most cathartic feelings in the game comes from fighting a flying enemy that's hovering over a large drop or a Bottomless Pit and using Topple/Smash to throw it into the abyss either for massive damage or—even better—a One-Hit Kill. Doubly so if it's a Unique Monster. The same can be done with land-dwelling enemies by using a skill that causes Blowdown. The only downside is being unable to loot the body.
  • Environmental kills can sometimes be done on land without the benefit of a bottomless pit. For instance in Spirit Crucible Elpys there's a unique boss that you can fight on a rock bridge over a stream of water. Using knockback effects here will knock the boss a short and non-fatal distance down the cliff into the stream, which then carries it all the way down to the end of the tunnel. Apparently the game reads that extra distance as falling damage because it will deal a one-hit kill even from full health.
• Any time you pull off a Full Burst during a Chain Attack. The sheer damage this can deal is often enough to slay a boss with half of its health remaining. The spectacle of it helps, too.
• Just like in the previous games, it's entirely possible to run into Level 80 enemies while not even at Level 10 and be on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle. Revisiting those enemies and defeating them later on when strong enough serves as a moment for both the player and the fighting party.
• Zeke's "Unleash Shining Justice", added in the 1.3.0 update that unlocks Driver Hidden Affinities. It requires a lot of SP to unlock, but once you obtain it Zeke essentially gets his own Super Mode similar to what Pneuma is for Rex. With increased damage and critical hit rate, immunity to negative status effects, and drastically reduced art animations and cooldowns, it is now possible for Zeke to solo even the toughest of bosses with the right setup. Remember when Zeke said that battles would be no contest if he used the "Eye of Shining Justice"? He wasn't kidding.
• Shulk and Rex crossover in the Challenge Mode. And since Shulk is a Blade here, Rex, Nia, Mórag and Zeke can all wield the Monado! This gets quite awesome and hilarious in the Challenge Mode battle against Malos and Jin, as it could be seen as a weird Mirror Match.
  • Speaking of crossovers, the "This Year's Heropon" challenge is big one, where as Tora, the player has to fight through hordes of Nopon, first starting from the ones introduced in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, then fighting the ones from X, then the Nopon from the first game, and finishing the whole thing off fighting the Monopon, a Nopon at Level 99 representing Monolith Soft itself. However, an understated one occurs just before fighting the Monopon, as the Nopon the player fights immediately before is Riki himself. And considering that he's the last Nopon the player fights before fighting the Monopon, it means that Riki is canonically stronger than all of the Nopon the player just fought, truly making him a "legendary Heropon".
• Speaking of crossovers Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X also gets to make an appearance in Challenge mode and she quickly proves to be formidable even to both Rex and Shulk by knocking them and the rest of the group on their feet at the start of their challenge battle with her. Beating her once unlocks her for Challenge battles, and beating her again lets her go to Alrest as a Blade like Shulk and Fiora, and anyone who uses her can even activate an Overdrive mode! And the whole reason all of these 3 are united through this? The Nopon Archsage wanted to see all of the heroes from this franchise in one place together. Fan service at its finest.

Blade Quests:

• Zenobia's quest finale is pure awesome, a monster that was sealed up for centuries by strong Blades because they couldn't defeat it due to its healing factor. When you challenge it due to the team, not even Mythra seems to be able to defeat it for good (it "dies" repeatedly and then regenerates), let alone Brighid and Pandoria (albeit Mythra doesn't go all-out). The Zenobia unleashes her full power and reveals that the fight against Zenobia was never a challenge to begin with, as she sends the monster into outer-space, presumably killing it in one hit.

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