Video Game / Xenoblade Chronicles

Three of the "Xenoblades"
L-to-R: Monado REX+, Veiled Sword (with Lucky Seven), and the red Aegis Sword.

You're standing at a loss
In front of a door
That's been closed for so long
With your foreseeing eyes
What do you see?

— "Future Awaits", the ending theme of Future Redeemed

Xenoblade Chronicles, known simply as Xenoblade in Japan, is a series of action Japanese role-playing games, developed by Monolith Soft and published and produced by Nintendo.

Named after Squaresoft's Xenogears (a game whose early roots lie in the Final Fantasy series) and Bandai Namco Entertainment's Xenosaga, in honor of producer Tetsuya Takahashi and his history and struggles in the industry, the franchise is itself a Spiritual Successor to the same series, borrowing its Gnosticism-inspired symbolism and its love for giant robots.

The first Xenoblade Chronicles is infamous for being one of three games involved in "Operation Rainfall", a fan campaign to push Nintendo into releasing and localizing several JRPGs in North America (the other two being Pandora's Tower and The Last Story). Out of the three, Xenoblade Chronicles was by far the most successful, spawning three sequels and featuring in Super Smash Bros. as one of Nintendo's most recognizable titles.

The series features a unique mix of Action RPG gameplay akin to Final Fantasy XII with MMO mechanics such as cooldowns for special abilities.

---

The series consists of:

Main Games

• Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Nintendo Wii, 2010; New Nintendo 3DS, 2015; Nintendo Switch, 2020): Two continent-sized gods called the Bionis and the Mechonis fought until only their lifeless corpses remained. Life arose on the surface of these titans, organic life on the Bionis and the Mechon on Mechonis. For as long as the human-like Homs can remember, the Mechon have been intent on wiping out all life upon Bionis. When a Homs researcher named Shulk discovers he is the destined wielder of the legendary Monado, the sword of the Bionis itself, he and his friends embark on a journey to end this war once and for all.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected (Nintendo Switch, 2020): An extended epilogue story included in the game's Definitive Edition release. One year after the events of the main game, Melia and Shulk go to investigate the Bionis' Shoulder. However, an unexpected attack leaves them stranded on a Floating Continent, forcing them to deal with a new threat.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo Switch, 2017): In the world of Alrest, the last remnants of civilization live on the backs of colossal beasts called Titans, which swim on the surface of an endless ocean of clouds. However, the Titans are reaching the end of their lifespans, and with the increasing scarcity of livable land, the various nations of the Titans are growing uneasy and edging closer to war. One day, Rex, a young salvager of sentient weapons known as Blades and other ancient technology, is hired to help retrieve one of the rarest Blades of them all: an "Aegis"-class Blade named Pyra. Rex ends up becoming bonded to Pyra, and together they embark on a world-spanning quest to reach her place of birth: Elysium, a mythical land of plenty said to exist at the top of the World Tree, with enough livable space for all.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country (Nintendo Switch, 2018): A Standalone Expansion Pack, set 500 years prior to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 that focuses on the Aegis War and the fall of the once prosperous titan of Torna - as well as offering a glimpse into the pasts of Mythra, Jin, and Malos and how the Aegis War shaped who they would become by the events of 2.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Nintendo Switch, 2022): In the world of Aionios, two nations are locked in conflict: Keves, a technological powerhouse brimming with combat vehicles and mobile weapons, and Agnus, a magic-based society specializing in ether technology and autonomous weapons, waging war with human soldiers that must kill the other side's forces in order to sustain their own limited lives. Amid this cycle of endless carnage and death, six heroes — three from Keves, and three from Agnus — are forced to band together when a mission goes horribly wrong. Now fugitives from both nations, they resolve to put an end to the bloodshed and create a better world for everyone.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (Nintendo Switch, 2023): A prequel to 3 focusing on Shulk, Rex, and the Founders of the City. In the early days of Aionios, centuries before the events of the main game, Shulk and Rex are confronted by a familiar face from the past, while a young man named Matthew searches for his sister after the destruction of the City by the Moebius N.

Spin-Offs

• Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U, 2015): In 2054, a war between two alien factions devastates the Earth, and forces humanity to evacuate the planet. Two years later, one of the surviving Colony Ships — the American White Whale, holding the city of New Los Angeles — is caught and attacked by one alien faction. The White Whale survives long enough to break apart over a hospitable planet: Mira. Months later, your player-created character joins BLADE—NLA's defense force—as they attempt to claim Mira as their new home, all while dealing with a few small complications, most notably the gigantic and bloodthirsty Miran wildlife capable of turning NLA into a pile of rubble.

Supplementary Material

• Super Smash Bros.:
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, 2014): Shulk's inclusion in the fourth installment introduces Xenoblade Chronicles to Nintendo's premier crossover Platform Fighter.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo Switch, 2018): Along with Shulk, Pyra/Mythra make their debut as playable fighters in the fifth installment as part of Fighters Pass #2. A Mii swordfighter costume based on Rex can be obtained if the first volume of the Fighters Pass is purchased.
• Project × Zone 2: Brave New World (Nintendo 3DS, 2015): a Crossover title between Sega, Capcom, Bandai Namco Entertainment, and Nintendo that features Fiora from the first Xenoblade Chronicles. Metal Face also makes an appearance as an enemy unit.
• Super Mario Maker (Wii U, 2015): Shulk appears via amiibo as a Mystery Mushroom outfit.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U and Nintendo Switch, 2017): Rex's costume from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 appears as a reward for completing a DLC sidequest.
• Tetris 99 (Nintendo Switch, 2019): Themes based on the first and third games appear in this game.

---

You will know these tropes:

• Action Commands: Every game has button prompts popping up in combat. They are tied to a Morale Mechanic, improving the party's performance if cleared successfully. In 2 action commands also raise damage dealt by Blade Specials and extend Chain Attacks.
• After the End: A conceit of the series is that its games always take place following an apocalyptical event.
  • 1 starts in the aftermath of a war between the Homs and Mechon. The Homs eventually won with the help of Dunban and the Monado, but it reduced the number of Homs colonies to two. It is revealed in the ending that the universe is a result of Zanza / Klaus and Meyneth / Galea using Alvis' power to create a new world after Klaus destroyed the original one.
  • The premise of X is about one of the Colony Ships of the Earth evacuating after it is rendered inhospitable and eventually destroyed as collateral damage in a war between alien factions.
  • In 2, there were many small apocalyptic events following the deaths of Titans, most notably the fall of Torna during the Aegis War 500 years ago. The rest of Alrest is expected to eventually collapse due to the increasing lack of living space, which necessitates our heroes' quest to find Elysium. In the final stretch, it is revealed that Alrest takes place in the original, destroyed universe that 1's world split off from. Beneath the Cloud Sea are the ruins of the Earth, known as the Land of Morytha.
  • In 3, Aionios is the result of the world of Bionis and the world of Alrest coming into collision with each other. Z hijacked Origin, which was meant to save humanity and reboot both worlds, to put them in a state of frozen time, or an "endless now." Aionios manifests as the mashed-up ruins of both worlds, and is slowly tearing itself apart due to "Annihilation Events", or what happens when elements from Bionis and Alrest merge. The ending of 3 shows the worlds splitting apart again, but the ending of Future Redeemed then shows the worlds merging properly.
• Anachronic Order: The numbered installments and their expansions all constitute a six-part saga, but weren't released in chronological order starting from 2's expansion. In chronological order, they would be structured as such:
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country (first chronologically, third by release)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (second chronologically, first by release)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (third chronologically, second by release)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Future Connected (fourth chronologically, fourth by release)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (fifth chronologically, sixth by release)
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (sixth chronologically, fifth by release)
• Antimatter: Although the word "antimatter" nowhere appears in the series, Future Redeemed makes it clear that of the two universes in this series, one of them is made of matter, the other of antimatter.
• Back Stab: Arts with bonuses to damage when used from the enemy's back or side are pretty common across all games in the series. In 2 they are less efficient, however, because the game doesn't allow auto-attacks while moving.
• BFS: A highlight of the franchise is characters wielding giant swords, ranging from "merely" man-sized to the continent-sized swords of the Bionis and Mechonis in the first Xenoblade.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The series Unique Monsters (Tyrants in X) are larger, abnormally powerful versions of regular enemies found in their immediate area. Finding and defeating them gives the player a special reward.
• Broad Strokes: The "Klaus saga" of Xenoblade Chronicles is a Broad Strokes remake of Xenogears, reutilizing key themes, plot points, character archetypes, and story sequences across all three games and their expansions to the point where Xenoblade Chronicles more or less becomes a reinterpretation of Xenogears that even outright fixes some of the more contested elements of that game. Future Redeemed confirms that the Xenoblade Chronicles series, including X, is in some way canon to Xenogears and Xenosaga via the mention of various characters and concepts. With the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 eventually becoming one world, it is implied that it is Lost Jerusalem, the previously lost Earth in Xenosaga.
• Central Theme:
  • Screw Destiny. Whether it is the machinations of a higher power or the systems and beliefs they were raised to believe in, the protagonists of the Xenoblade Chronicles series will always fight against fate to secure a future of their own choosing.
  • War Is Hell. Each of the games features a devastating war, with the world and characters being harshly impacted. The heroes aim to end the current war or prevent an even worse one from happening.
  • Vicious Cycle. The games have an element or plot point that deals with something reoccurring and the protagonists seeking a way out of it.
• Darker and Edgier: The series stands out as one of the more mature members of Nintendo's stable. The original game isn't too different from the likes of Fire Emblem or The Legend of Zelda, but each of the later installments are notable in that they have audible, subtitled swear words you would never hear in most other Nintendo-produced games and go into particularly heavy subject matter typically unseen in other Nintendo franchises.
• Damager, Healer, Tank: Played with. The games' MMORPG-like combat and clearly defined aggro system technically allows for such a system, but as the game goes on, this setup starts to quickly fall behind in efficiency, as dodge tanking and "crit heal" strategies become available. Still, in all numbered games the first party that the player receives adheres to this trope.
• Draw Aggro: "Tank" characters and classes often have abilities that heighten their aggro rating, or even force enemies to focus on them.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: The party will be transported to the last visited landmark whenever the player dies.
• Dolled-Up Installment: The first game was planned to be its own title, and not something to serve as a spiritual followup to Xenosaga, given the mostly original Worldbuilding for the game. The name change from Monado: Beginning of the World to Xenoblade was more about acknowledging Monolith Soft's past works. Then came the numbered sequels, which began retrofitting elements from Xenosaga into the background lore, with Vector Industries and Dmitri Yuriev being outright referenced in Future Redeemed.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The party in the first Xenoblade Chronicles are more strongly defined in their roles: Reyn is the Tank, Sharla is the Healer, etc., and have a large palette of Arts to choose from and use in battle. Starting with X, which introduces a Job System for the player character, the player is able to play around with the player character roles while the number of Arts you can use in a battle is reduced to four at a time.
  • Because the game was localized without the intention of releasing in North America, 1 uses Nintendo of Europe's native British English spellings and vocabulary in its text, which carries over to Future Connected. When Nintendo of Europe returned to localize 2 and 3, they wrote the game text using mostly American English spellings for an international audience, with a few missteps (e.g. "Blue Ladybirds", as "Ladybirds" are known as "Ladybugs" in the United States).
  • The British accents in the first game were pretty haphazard and didn't have much thematic meaning to them, which carried over into Kevesi characters in 3. 2 introduced the idea of characters having accents that indicate their place of origin, as well as having a greater diversity of accents, including Scottish, Welsh, Australian, and various American accents, which carried over into Agnian characters in 3. Adding to this, X didn't have a British voice cast at all, instead having a cast of high-profile American voice actors. This does fit the setting, though, considering the story is about Americans and the language of the aliens they encounter is being translated for them accordingly.
  • The Legacy Character in 1 was localized as "Vangarre." It wasn't until X that the name for all subsequent characters was then translated as "Vandham" which is more accurate to the Japanese name and also manages to avoid being too obvious with the Jean-Claude Van Damme reference. The Vangarre name was also inconsistent with what the name had been in the older Xenogears and Xenosaga games which used "Vanderkam."
  • The word "Blade" was made an important term in each game's universe starting with X, meaning the first game did not use the word to refer to anything important.
  • Starting from X, each game has featured a slew of optional party members; X has other recruitable members of BLADE, 2 has Rare Blades awakened from core crystals, and 3 has Heroes that are usually the leader of their respective Colony. In contrast to this, the first game only has seven regular party members and two temporary members.
  • 1 and X were the only games in the series to allow the party to upgrade their weapons in the manner of traditional RPGs (e.g., through crafting or buying). From 2 on, the weapons themselves remain constant throughout the game and aren't upgraded directly outside of accessories in Torna, as the characters' stats are what are upgraded instead.
• Expy: The Nopon are very blatant ones to the Ewok race from Star Wars in their English-speaking incarnations, with them being furry, mass-populated creatures who integrate their likeness with the series' main human(oid)s. The resemblance is a bit more apparent in the first game, where the Nopon reside in a Treetop Town called Frontier Village and have a designated chief.
• Gaiden Game: The end of Future Redeemed reveals that the series as a whole is one to Xenosaga, with all three games becoming dedicated to wrapping up one of Xenosaga's most infamous lingering plot holes. Specifically, how Lost Jerusalem disappeared before the series but re-entered the universe's main plane of existence for KOS-MOS to find it in Xenosaga 3's ending.
• Good Wears White: If a protagonist isn't primarily red-colored, their outfit and weapon will probably have a white color scheme, especially in the case of deuteragonists and secondary protagonists like Fiora (especially in Mechon form), Melia (in Future Connected and as a Hero in 3), Mythra, Nia (in her Blade form in 2 and her royal robes in 3), Jin and Mio.
• Humongous Mecha: Tetsuya Takahashi is quite a fan of the mecha genre so it is not surprising that each game has different types of mecha, although they have only been controllable in X and 3:
  • The first game takes place on the corpses of two titans, one of which, the Mechonis, is a continent-sized mecha that is even piloted at one point in the story. There are also the Faced Mechon, large Mechon that are directly piloted by cyborgized Homs or Egil in the case of Yaldaboath.
  • In X giant mecha are not only controllable but are an important part of the gameplay of the game. These are known as Skells or Dolls in the Japanese version and are used by allies and enemies alike, with the player being able to choose between several models after progressing through the game. There are also several unique enemy units such as the Xe-Doms or the Xerns, as well as the Vita, and the Zu Pharg which seems to be a spaceship but turns out to be able to transform into a giant mecha.
  • 2 has several types of mecha:
    • The Artifices are an entire army of mecha that serve the Aegises, with Mythra piloting Sirens and having control of Ophion, and Malos using Gargoyles in the Torn expansion, along with the Colossi found in the uppermost levels of the World Tree. Malos also manages to gain control of Artifice Aion, a massive mecha capable of destroying all of Alrest as the final boss.
    • Sovereigns are robotic units ranging from standard size to giants known as Gerolf that serve as the main security force of the World Tree.
    • The Marsanes, the flying ship used by the Torna organization, is capable of transforming into a giant mecha.
  • In Xenoblade Chronicles 3:
    • Both factions use vehicle-sized mechs called Levnises, which can come in both piloted and automated varieties. Kevesian Levnises are styled after Mechon, while Agnian Levnises are styled after Artifices.
    • Ferronis are mecha also used by both sides like Levnises but are much larger. They serve as the core of a Colony and are only mobilized when two Colonies directly battle each other. They can also be piloted and emulate the fighting style of the Colony's commander. Keves Castle and Agnus Castle take this concept to the most logical extreme, as they can transform into gigantic mecha that each castle's respective Queen pilots to help join the fight during the final part of the game.
    • When the Ouroboros, the main protagonist group, Interlink, they merge and transform into forms resembling giant mecha with designs that evoke the robots from Xenogears and Xenosaga. The Moebius can do something similar, but with a monstrous Organic Technology aesthetic that belongs to none of the previous games.
• Injured Vulnerability: Some battle arts can inflict a Status Effect called Break (Stagger in X), which does nothing by itself^note Though starting from 2, Break can interrupt an enemy's ongoing Art, but allows certain other arts to inflict Topple, which knocks the enemy down, preventing them from attacking and dodging. In 1 and 2 Topple is followed by Daze and Launch/Smash respectively. Some arts also have additional effects when used on enemies afflicted with one of these effects.
• Justified Title: Each game in the series has something within it that can be construed as a "Xenoblade":
  • The first game has the Monado, a mysterious, otherworldly Laser Blade that appears to be the Homs' only hope against the invading Mechon forces. It turns out to be the weapon of the setting's resident evil God figure, and there turns out to be a "true Monado" in the form of Alvis who helped create the game's universe.
  • X revolves around the military organization BLADE and their dealings with both hostile and non-hostile aliens referred to as "Xenos". Elma, a main character and high-ranking member of BLADE, turns out to be a Xeno herself, making her the "Xenoblade."
  • 2 is centered on Pyra and Mythra, also known as the Aegis, who are a Blade, a Living Weapon that grants immense power to their users in the world of Alrest. The Aegis is stated to be different and far more powerful than any Blade in existence. Additionally, Malos is an Aegis himself, and they are implied to be siblings to Alvis as processor cores crafted from the Conduit.
  • 3 has Noah's hidden sword called the Lucky Seven, a weapon crafted by seven Nopon that can cut through anything. It was created as a collaboration between Nia, Melia, and said Nopon to use against the Moebius organization, made using metals from the powerful reality-warping Origin computer.
• Legacy Boss Battle: The Territorial Rotbart and Immovable Gonzalez, a duo of giant apelike Unique Monsters who reside in an early area at late-game levels. Rotbart wanders aimlessly throughout a field, attacking the player's party on sight, while Gonzalez stays still and rests in a secluded area. Gonzalez has appeared in all "mainline" Xenoblade games thus far, with Rotbart appearing in 1 and 2 while getting Suspiciously Similar Substitutes in X and 3.
• Literal Split Personality:
  • A recurring concept in the series, in which a person of divine or nearly-divine power manifests into two beings: one that is the manifestation of the person's regrets, resulting in a malevolent personality, and one that is a manifestation of the person's hopes, resulting in a more moral personality. Zanza and the Architect, N and Noah, M and Mio, and Alvis (Alpha and A respectively) are key examples of this.
  • Mythra and Pyra are a Downplayed example: while Mythra created Pyra to be the person she wishes she was due to her trauma of killing countless people in the Aegis War, Mythra is neither evil nor lacks those positive qualities, and Pyra is not without her flaws either. Also, unlike the other examples, Pyra and Mythra cannot exist at the same time, as they share a body. At least, until 2's ending.
• Masculine, Feminine, Androgyne Trio: The series loves this trope. One character even has a place in multiple triads.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1:
    • Zanza's Trinity of masculine Dickson, feminine Lorithea, and androgynous Alvis.
    • The three gods of the world. Masculine Zanza, feminine Mayneth, androgynous Alvis/Monado.
  • The Trinity Processor of Ontos, Logos, and Pneuma. In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Pneuma takes the form of a woman named Mythra, later splitting off and forming an alternate personality named Pyra as well. Pneuma's brother Logos takes the form of a man named Malos. Ontos first appears in Xenoblade Chronicles 1 in the form of an androgynous character named Alvis, who is believed to be male by the main party. It isn't revealed until Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed that Ontos is actually nonbinary, being between Pneuma and Logos and serving as an intermediary between them. In fact, by the time of Future Redeemed, without Pneuma and Logos there to keep them grounded with compassion and logic respectively, Ontos splits into two beings too, the masculine Alpha and the feminine A.
• Mini-Mecha:
  • In 2:
    • Rosa in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a giant Artificial Blade that serves as a mecha for the Nopon President Bana and is fought on two separate occasions.
    • The Poppibuster is a small mecha piloted by Poppi Mk II and an optional Artificial Blade in 2.
  • Segiri, one of the heroes of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pilots a miniaturized Ferronis known as a Ferron.
• No Full Name Given: Throughout the series, surnames are a rarity.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 1: Melia Antiqua and her family are the only characters with surnames; considering they're royalty, it makes sense that they're the ones that would consider their surnames important. Shulk is an orphan, so he could well not have a surname at all, but most of the other characters presumably just don't bother mentioning them. In particular, the Big Bad, Zanza was originally a human man named Professor Klaus. "Klaus" is, by all indications, his given name, but his surname is never mentioned.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Rex is an orphan, so there's no reason to assume he has a surname, and quite a few of the other characters are Blades, who definitely don't have surnames. The only explicit exceptions are royalty: Zeke von Genbu is the prince of Tantal, and Mòrag Ladair is the cousin to Niall Ardanach, emperor of Mor Ardain. There's also a very easy to miss bit of dialogue that Nia is actually Nia Echell, the adopted daughter of Lord Echell, as she is the Flesh Eater Blade used to try to heal his daughter.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: None of the soldiers have surnames, since they're born at age ten from growth acceleration pods and then die ten years later. None of them know what families are, much less why you'd have an extra name. Surnames still seem rare among the City people, who do know what families are; it seems that only the descendants of the six Founders have surnames. In Future Redeemed, we meet those Founders, and even they don't use their surnames. It's unclear if they invented those surnames at a later date, if they inherited them from their parents (who didn't have surnames in previous games), or if they got them from their spouses. Matthew does confirm that his name is Matthew Vandham at the end, which presumably came from his beloved grandfather. But since his grandfather was the child of two soldiers without surnames, it's still unclear where the name came from in the first place.
• NPC Scheduling: Some NPCs, and, more importantly, enemies, are present only during specific periods of time.
• Oddball in the Series: Xenoblade Chronicles X. The game's original release, during a time when it seemed unlikely that Xenoblade Chronicles would even be a series, seemed to imply that it would be a Thematic Series à la Final Fantasy. However, 2 and 3 were more explicit in their connections to the original in terms of gameplay, aesthetic, and story, leaving X alone as an odd duck, along with the fact that it is the only game in the series not available on the Nintendo Switch. Major oddities include:
  • A lack of connection to the mythology of the "mainline" titles, outside of sharing general themes and Elma making a cameo in 2.
  • Online multiplayer elements that make it even more like an MMO, such as leaving messages for other players.
  • A singular open world with a stronger emphasis on exploration and mission-based gameplay. X also allows the player the ability to fly and traverse across the map via the Skells. Piloting vehicles would not be revisited until 3.
  • A player-created avatar who does not wield a red blade, but instead a variety of weapons through different classes.
  • An English dub localized by Nintendo Treehouse and 8-4 with well-known American voice actors such as Caitlin Glass and Cassandra Lee Morris, instead of being localized by Nintendo of Europe with UK-based voices^NoteThough this may be because the humans in Mira are actually American. Likewise, the game text is entirely in American English, unlike the American/British "international" English hybrid used for text in 2 and 3.
  • The music wasn't handled by ACE, the series's regular musicians. The battle themes in X also have vocals while the rest of the series has instrumental battle themes.
  • The plot has a more heavy Science Fiction slant from the beginning, with elements like aliens races and spaceships.
• Real-Time with Pause: The numbered games combine features of real-time and turn-based gameplay with Chain Attack, a state where time pauses and the party can take turns attacking one after another.
• Recurring Element:
  • The cover art for every game (even Torna: The Golden Country) depicts the main characters (or in the first game's case, the Monado) in a grassy landscape, looking towards a structure far larger than any of them, representing the scope of these Wide-Open Sandboxes and the challenges our protagonists will face.
  • In every game there is a gruff male character named Vandham who is in charge of a military force allied with the protagonists. The only exception is 1, where he is instead named "Vangarre" in English, but in Japanese they share the same name.
  • All three male protagonists in the numbered games use a distinctive red Laser Blade that is more powerful and plot-significant than most other weapons.
  • Your initial party will pretty much consist of a Damager, Healer, Tank setup. The protagonist would be the DPS (Shulk, Rex and Pyra, Noah, Matthew), who are joined by a tank (Reyn, Tora and Poppi, Lanz, Nikol), and a healer (Sharla, Nia and Dromarch, Eunie, A). Further characters that join still operate in one of those roles but play a bit differently, like an evasion tank (Dunban, Mòrag and Brighid, Mio, Shulk).
  • There'll always be a Nopon that joins the team that's usually the comic relief, particularly Riki and Tora, although Riku is more The Comically Serious.
  • Starting in X, the word "Blade" is used to name a concept. In X, it's the organization BLADE that spearheads the human's efforts to make Mira their new home. In 2, Blades are the Living Weapons who are awakened from Core Crystals. In 3, Blades are the weapons ingrained in everyone's Hyperspace Arsenal.
  • Adam Howden and Carina Reeves, the English voice actors for Shulk and Fiora from the first Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as Shintarō Asanuma, Shulk's Japanese voice actor, have made a voice cameo in every subsequent game in the series.
    • In X, Howden and Reeves provide the "Classic" voice for the male and female avatar, while Asanuma provides the "Protagonist" voice for the male avatar.
    • In 2, Howden and Asanuma both play the Architect, who is the good half of Zanza (who both actors also voice). Shulk's speech from the end of 1 is also played before the final boss. Shulk and Fiora also appear as playable Blades in 2's Expansion Pack, with their actors reprising their roles.
    • In 3, Shulk and Fiora appear in a flashback, albeit using Recycled Voice Clips. Shulk also appears as a playable character in Future Redeemed.
  • There will be a long series of sidequests that eventually ends in a Nopon having to run in a giant hamster wheel as punishment. In the first game, it was Bana, in 2 it was Bana again along with his father, and in 3 it's Pulipuli.
  • The protagonists of the main series games have or will die in-game at one point.
    • Shulk had been Dead to Begin With, having perished with his parents and the researchers in Valak Mountain and resurrected to be Zanza's vessel due to being the closest to the Monado. When Dickson shoots Shulk to bring Zanza back in full, Shulk dies again, and only comes back due to his Heroic Resolve and some help from Alvis.
    • Rex is killed by Jin when he touches the Aegis. He is resurrected when Pyra gives him half of her Core Crystal.
    • Pyra and Mythra when fused as Pneuma, perform a Heroic Sacrifice to save Alrest from the collapsing World Tree after the final battle. In The Stinger, they are resurrected in separate bodies.
    • Lora is killed by an ambush by the Indoline Praetorium, compelling Jin to eat her heart to keep his memories of her and become a Flesh Eater.
    • Jin is not killed in Torna ~ The Golden Country, the game he stars in, but performs a Heel–Face Turn Heroic Sacrifice in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to take down Amalthus, the man responsible for Lora's death.
    • Noah like all of the Kevesi and Agnians have been constantly dying and being reborn on Aionios. In particular, we see a sequence where we witness the passing of several past incarnations of Noah, one of whom became N.
    • Mio is stuck in same cycle of death and rebirth as the Kevesi and Agnian, and is due to die in a few short months once the reaches the end of her last term - but ends up pulling a "Freaky Friday" Flip with M (her past self) so that Mio would live and M would perish after a life of unwanted immortality.
    • Matthew is already long-dead by the time 3 happens, as Future Redeemed is set centuries before the events of 3.
    • Ironically enough, Elma inverts this: she's likely the only person in the Lifehold Core whose body still exists.
  • In the lead-up to the endgame, there is a Big Badass Battle Sequence involving the side characters and NPCs while the main characters make it to the core of the Big Bad's stronghold.
  • The Final Dungeon is usually associated with how the world began. In Xenoblade 1 it's the original solar system, which Klaus seemingly erased, in Xenoblade 2 it's the World Tree, which survived from Earth and the Low Orbit Station where those experiments took place, and in Xenoblade 3 it's Origin, which Z corrupted to make Aionios.
• Red Is Heroic: A common trope in all games:
  • Shulk, Elma, Pyra, and Noah are the main protagonists of their respective games (although Pyra is more of a deuteragonist) and have red outfits by default. Lora of Torna ~ The Golden Country wears red to a lesser extent, same with Matthew of Future Redeemed with his red gauntlets and some red trim on his outfit.
  • All three male protagonists of the main series wield red swords.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Nopons are an entire race of them. They are egg-shaped, bird-like creatures with Black Bead Eyes. Deconstructed to an extent, as the Nopon are well aware of it and are not above exploiting it.
• Science Fantasy: The science and fantasy aspects of the Xenoblade Chronicles series are so intertwined that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. In short, the universes take the form of fantasy worlds but work on (At least for where they're from) scientific principles.
• Stealth Sequel:
  • 2 was initially billed as being a completely separate affair from the first game and X, until the final chapter brings back Professor Klaus from the first game and reveals that the worlds of the first two numbered games were both Earth that was split apart in an experiment gone wrong with the Conduit. 3 builds off of this, explicitly showing the combined future of both worlds and saying so from the get-go, rather than hiding it until the very end.
  • Future Redeemed may top 2 in that regard, as it effectively canonizes Xenosaga not only through Vector Industries and Dmitri Yuriev both being name-dropped in the "Klaus' world" sequence, but also with The Stinger showing a blue light approaching the newly-reformed and merged world after Origin was rebooted in 3, heavily implying that the blue light is KOS-MOS and the combined world of the Bionis and Alrest was Lost Jerusalem.
• Sympathy for the Devil: A common type of antagonist, typically The Dragon, who is led to villainy after a seriously traumatic backstory and is almost as much a victim of the Crapsack World they inhabit as they are monsters to the people whose lives they've ruined, with the protagonists often voicing their sympathies. Notables examples include Egil, Lao, Jin, Malos, N, and Shania.
• Thematic Series: The entries of the series do not have direct continuity with each other, instead sharing common themes and elements. Or so it seems. In fact, this only applies to X (Elma's appearance as a DLC Guest Fighter in 2 notwithstanding); the same science experiment went wrong and created both the Bionis/Mechonis and Alrest and the Big Bad of 1 and the Big Good of 2 are two halves of the man responsible. 3's story follows up on both plot-lines.
• Wide-Open Sandbox: Zig-Zagged, the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles feature expansive worlds that are fully explorable. However, X is the only game to have the "cohesive, singular world with no loading screens" part of the definition besides entering NLA. The "mainline" numbered entries instead go for a "wide linear" structure, but the individual zones in each game are appropriately massive.

---

If you feel you've got no guidance
I will always be near, right beside you
If you think you've lost your way
We will walk this path together
For our future awaits

---