YMMV / Xenoblade Chronicles 2

All Games | Xenoblade Chronicles 1 | Xenoblade Chronicles X | Xenoblade Chronicles 2 | Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country | Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed

---

YMMV items with their own subpage:

• Game Breaker
• Memetic Mutation
• Scrappy Mechanic
• That One Attack
• That One Sidequest

#-B

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The "secret" Nia asks Mythra to keep from the others during the Furo Scene is being a Flesh Eater Blade, but can seem like a case of... something else.
  • "Tora dreamed of tasty sausage the size of Poppi!"
  • Putting in an Art item in Tora's bag makes Poppi QT very excited. Maybe a little too excited. "Meh, meh, MEH! Poppi's heart full!
• Adorkable:
  • Rex's passionate, yet also naive nature, and occasional awkwardness throughout some points in the story have managed to be endearing to fans. Helps that he often winds up on the receiving end of some slapstick, just like Zeke (namely the part where he gets slapped into some Camera Abuse in chapter 4).
  • Pandoria has the cute nerdy look and is very devoted to Zeke to the point that she cheerfully imitates his poses during their encounters with Rex and the party prior to officially joining them. However, Pandoria still performs a variety of poses with Zeke during idle animation.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Maybe Malos knew he needed stopping, but decided to be the heroes' final test. He even implies so when he rejects Rex's offer in the ending.
  • Did Amalthus's mother shove him off the cliff so that he would evade the soldiers hunting them? Or was she trying to give him a mercy kill?
  • In Vess's sidequest, it's entirely possible that Mabon knew that he was near death, and sent the party on those jobs to clear some lingering regrets.
  • Did Haze caressing Jin's face as she died indicate that Blade's regain (or at least can access) their past incarnation's memories in their final moments of life? It seems like one of the few explanations for how she could in a matter of seconds go from hating Jin to feeling affection for him.
  • In one of the New Game Plus menu screens, Nia playfully pushes Rex aside to hold Pyra and Mythra's hands for herself. This gesture raises the question of whether she is simply showing her closeness to them in a playful manner, or if she might have romantic feelings for them and is comfortable being with them, with or without Rex. The fact that she can also join in the hand holding in the other option, without anyone else in the party joining them, adds to the intrigue. Given the revelation in 3, where the relationships between them become polygamous, it adds even more complexity to Nia's feelings towards Pyra and Mythra.
• Americans Hate Tingle: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is very popular in Japan and is widely considered an Even Better Sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 1, scoring significantly higher than the first game in a poll of Japan's top 100 games of all time and with Pyra and Mythra being consistently voted the most popular fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. While XC2 is still generally well-received in the West, it is more contentious among fans, with many of them preferring XC1 and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and seeing XC2 as a disappointment. Reasons include a much more pronounced anime aesthetic with more cutesy character designs, prominent sexual elements such as many of the female Blades' outfits, the potential Squickiness of some story elements such as Pyra/Mythra's relationship with Rex and Tora's maid obsession, the gacha-like system for obtaining Blades, and an English dub with more inconsistent voice direction. Most of these aspects (aside from the English dub) are much more accepted in the game's home country, and issues with the English dub are specific to Western audiences, with the Japanese dub employing a number of well-known and prolific seiyuu. In addition, more than just being accepting of them, many fans (including Occidental Otaku) like the game in part due to the same issues that others find contentious.
• Ass Pull: Bana's surviving his attempt to kill everyone by detonating Giga Rosa. Niall dies from the blast even though he was not as close as Bana, and the explosion leaves no trace of Bana behind. Despite this, Bana shows up alive during a sidequest without a scratch on him and his survival is not even treated as a shock to the audience.
• Award Snub: The game's release date of December 1 had the unfortunate effect of completely disqualifying it from The Game Awards two years in a row, as the game was considered to have come out past the cutoff date for 2017, but also the fact that it was released in the tail-end of 2017 caused it to be rejected again for the 2018 Awards. This despite many thinking it would've been a perfect nomination for Best JRPG during a period that was especially light on releases for said genre.
• Awesome Bosses:
  • All of the Jin and Malos fights count (if you aren't busy pulling your hair out), but of particular note is the last time you fight Jin as the penultimate boss of Chapter 9. After spending a chapter with him and learning his backstory adds a lot of emotional weight to the battle, helped by "The Power of Jin". The battle is followed up with one against Amalthus, after which Jin performs a Heroic Sacrifice to take down the misanthropic Praetor and completes his story.
  • The battles with (Giga) Rosa are absolutely hilarious thanks to the boss' design, the campy music, and (of course) Chairman Bana hamming it up to ridiculous levels during both fights. The boss herself also packs quite a punch, and has moves that can easily one-shot the party if not careful (but not to the point of imbalance).
  • Most of the over-level-100 Superbosses count, but possibly Artifice Ophion most of all due to its story importance. The fight is extremely challenging but ultimately fair, with devastating attacks that one must learn to work around. The always awesome "You Will Recall Our Names" helps too, or its replacements "You Will Know Our Names" and "Uncontrollable" if Shulk, Fiora and/or Elma is in the party.
  • The highest-leveled superboss Tyrannotitan Kurodil is very challenging but fair and is basically Alrest's version of Godzilla.
• Awesome Ego:
  • The mighty Zeke! Von! Genbu! Sure, he's delusional, self-centered and a very Large Ham, but his amazing swordsmanship and other Hidden Depths more than justify such.
  • Elma's commentary sounds more like H.B. than her original self. It's possible that she's just blowing off steam though, given she still half-thinks she's in a simulation.
  • Zenobia is an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy and claims that her firepower is better than that of KOS-MOS if you have them on the same driver. She also loves to fight challenging opponents. Fans don't mind though, given that she's one of the strongest Blades in the story, only being outdone by Pneuma, Jin, Mythra and possibly Malos, to the point where against most opponents she has to hold back just to have some fun in battle.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • The (supporting?) protagonist of the story, Rex. Defenders like him for being the opposite of a typical Xeno protagonist by being a proper Everyman Unchosen One who succeeds based on his strong moral character and is likeable for his optimism and perseverance. However, detractors believe he's a boring Vanilla Protagonist and generic Stock Shōnen Hero who is the subject of unjustified Character Shilling and focus, on top of an unappealing character design and a dub voice that, while not completely bad, is among the most notoriously Narmy in the game. A third camp agree with defenders on him being a likeable character but agree with critics that he gets too much attention throughout the story.
  • Both forms of the Aegis are this as a whole. While their characterization and growth as one whole character is interesting to watch and relatable, as with Rex a lot of fans think that despite being the plot's main focus they take too much time from the game's more colorful cast of secondary characters.
    • Pyra is widely liked due to her genuinely nice personality and wife-like qualities, such as cooking. However, a good number of people will point out how she comes off as generic, and that she is less developed as a character, accusing her of serving as a plot device to her other forms, Mythra and Pneuma. It's to the point of being completely and unfairly overshadowed in-game by them.
    • Mythra is widely praised by fans and reviewers as one of the best and most compelling characters in the game and the series, largely thanks to her character arc throughout both the main game and prequel, and also being a Game-Breaker in both of her main appearances as well as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. However, prior to Torna ~ The Golden Country, her tsundere tendencies and harshness toward Rex made her more contentious, and even afterwards there are still fans who dislike Mythra for being unnecessarily unpleasant towards others.
  • Tora, to a far more extreme extent than the previous Nopon party member Riki. He's either adorable, funny, and surprisingly useful and powerful with his Poppiswap mechanic, or his Otaku traits make him annoying and creepy with his voice/speech patterns and apparent maid fetish and Comedic Lolicon tendencies (removed in the English localization) that he initially builds Poppi as a vehicle for.
  • Ursula is one of the better healing Blades in the game but the fandom splits on whether or not it's worth going through her long and grindy sidequest.
  • Dagas. His haughty attitude bothers many of his haters, not helped by his sub-par initial affinity chart. His fans argue that he's a beast in combat once his second affinity chart is unlocked after his quest, and that he has an Awesome Ego.
  • Sheba is either a Disc-One Nuke with a unique design, funny mannerisms and outrageous character interactions, or too expensive to acquire and develop, with a personality that's more insulting than funny, and a non-existent character arc, depending on who you ask.
  • Bana is either loved for being a surprisingly threatening Laughably Evil Large Ham of a side villain and a good use of the Capitalism Is Bad trope, or hated for being an annoying waste of time who ruins the tone of the game and clashes with the main villains.
  • Similar to H.B., fans either find Akhos enjoyable in a Love to Hate way whose extreme hamminess, theatricality, and Insufferable Genius attitude are hilarious, or they just plain hate him for it and see him as an obnoxious Smug Snake, especially since he has few redeeming qualities compared to H.B. Not helping is the time you fight him in Chapter 3, which is seen as That One Boss for a reason.
• Best Level Ever:
  • Uraya is a very, very vast Titan filled with colorful swampland and gorgeous, varied Scenery Porn. It's also the only Titan in the game to have two towns and boasts multiple caves and secret areas, along with many sidequests including Blade Quests.
  • Mor Ardain is another vast Titan to explore, having a multi-layered industrial city in Alba Cavanich along with different environments, hideaways and buildings to discover, including an entire factory. It also boasts some of the funniest story bosses in Chapter 4, and happens to be Mòrag's homeland and where she joins the party.
  • Tantal is a huge Slippy-Slidey Ice World with lots of vertical exploration, including multiple ice slides and ruins. It also has an entire mini-dungeon in Theoscaldia Palace, with its own secrets to discover.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: Pyra, Mythra and some of the optional blades take up so much of the conversation that people unfamiliar with the game can easily mistake what it's actually about. In fact one of the first controversies about the game were if Pyra and Mythra were too sexy.
  • And it only got worse when they were made playable in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as now a number of their Newbie Boom fans only know them as the broken hot anime girl sword fighters you can swap between without much regard for their story or the base game they come from. Their attractive designs also lend them to lots of fanart as artists who've never played their game can still ensure lots of attention on social media if they draw them, especially after their Smash reveal. Other characters thus tend to get sidelined as a result or remembered as background characters on a Smash stage. Though there are those who also remember Rex, but as Pyra and Mythra's boyfriend only and/or as "the Chrom of Xenoblade 2" without even knowing why they're together. Years later, mass confusion regarding Pyra, Mythra, Nia and Rex having kids together and Rex growing into a muscular hunk was well documented from Smash fans who were confused by these viral reveals given that they require actual knowledge of the game and Pyra and Mythra's story to understand.
• Breather Level:
  • The first half of chapter 5 sees the party trekking through the Leftherian Archipelago and visiting Rex's hometown. The archipelago is fairly linear and none of the monsters are too difficult... if you go left.
  • Kora's Blade Quest has no battles in it and is mostly just a humorous vignette series.
  • The "Leadership Qualities" Rank 4 Mercenary Mission, merely requires Rex to listen to a bunch of interviewees for a position and make a decision to pick which one to hire. Contrast the Rank 3 quest "A Test of Strength," which involved fighting many overpowered enemies.
• Broken Base:
  • The art style (or rather, the game's hodgepodge of art styles). Some people find it unique and appealing, praising the variety and memorability in character designs, while others lambast it for being inconsistent and unappealing, with a certain sect of fans complaining that it looks "too anime" compared to the first game.
  • The English dub. Some players praise it for its stronger moments and memorable performances, most notably David Menkin as Malos, and are willing to overlook its flaws because of them. Such fans also praise the dub for having a wider variety of accents (mostly British) to define each race and culture. However, other fans criticize the dub for its weaker moments, labeling them as irritating and narmful (most notably Rex's "airplane" screams in the early game), and also criticize the much more noticeable Hong Kong Dub aspect.
  • The script localization is also controversial due to the disproportionately high amount of liberties it takes compared to 1 and 3, especially when it comes to characters' names. Critics lambast the lack of any attempt to match the lip flaps and consider most of the changes pointless or gratuitous, especially noting that a lot of significant nuance was completely lost in the dub due to the localization's liberties^{Some Examples (Endgame Spoilers)}Two Blades and two Titans are named after the The Four Gods, which is important foreshadowing for the truth about the overall Blade lifecycle and the reveal that they eventually grow into and are the children of Titans. Meanwhile, the group that attacked the Rhadamanthus Tower are called the Salvators in Japanese, which is a major Wham Line for those familiar with Xenosaga; in English, they are referred to as the less-meaningful Saviourite Rebels, or even outright mistranslations ^{Endgame Spoilers}The English version of the Architect's dialogue about the Trinity Processors implies that Ontos went rogue and split off into another dimension of their own will, whereas the Japanese states that the separation of the domains was an accident triggered by Klaus's activation of the Conduit, claiming that the localization is a net negative and that the game should've just gone with a more literal translation. On the other hand, the localization has quite a few defenders who believe it to be an overall better and more memorable experience, arguing that a more literal translation would sound awkward whereas many of the replacements such as using "the Architect" instead of "God of Creation" resulted in lines that sound more poetic to English speakers, with the most praise going towards the decision to give every culture a unique accent and regional dialect. Another debated aspect is the removal of various sexual references^ExamplesA line about Pyra prostituting herself to fund Poppi's construction is changed to a more generic reference to crime, while references to Tora being a Comedic Lolicon who installed Poppi with fanservice functions even for her childlike α form and his family's interest in ephebophilic pornography, are modified to be about cuteness or functionality, and to generic pornography respectively; while some accuse it of being censorship, quite a few find the references gratuitous or outright Squicky and think it was for the best to remove them.
  • Chapter 4, which precedes the much better-received second half of the game, is easily the most contested chapter in the game. Some people love it for Mor Ardain being a Best Level Ever and it being the first chapter where Mythra can be used extensively, along with plot elements such as Tora's character arc, two outrageously funny boss fights being those against Zeke and "Rrrrrrrrosa", and Mòrag pulling a Big Damn Heroes moment and joining the party at the end of the chapter. Others criticize it for being a slog filled with padding, with the pre-Mor Ardain Gormott/Roc portion being widely disliked (even among fans of the chapter) and gating off access to Mythra, and the Old Factory being a confusing chore to get through. Players who dislike Tora and/or Nopon in general are also usually more negatively inclined towards Chapter 4 due to their prominent role, and find that it clashes too much with the rest of the game tonally (including said Rosa boss fight).
  • The ending. Some fans feel that Pyra and Mythra's Disney Death weakens the emotional impact of their Heroic Sacrifice as Pneuma, while others believe that their happy ending is well-deserved after all the shit they've been put through over the years. There's also the issue of whether or not they kept their memories (and whether or not they should have), which brings up heated debates on its own.

C-E

• Catharsis Factor:
  • There's some dark pleasure in releasing weak, unwanted, or hated blades. Hearing their pleas or angry outbursts is just the icing on the cake.
  • For a cross-game example, many would find enjoyment in beating up Tatsu during the challenge This Year's Heropon.
  • As always, defeating Territorial Rotbart and other strong monsters that terrorized you in the early game is sweet, sweet, revenge.
  • A huge example is killing Malos in the main story's final boss battle, after his smug, Holier Than Thou reign of terror across Alrest.
  • Replaying Chapter 7 on New Game Plus, because Pyra and Mythra stay with you irrespective of story events, and make the frustrating levels and bosses much easier while also providing earlier access to Pneuma. In other words, you get to sic them on Malos as payback for his capture and horrible treatment of Pyra during the previous "cycle".
• Character Perception Evolution: Mythra was very intensely disliked upon initial release despite her gameplay usefulness due to a good deal of her scenes consisting of Tsundere antics which many fans saw as incredibly unfunny, and she was commonly considereed a shallow Flat Character relative to Pyra, since most of the backstory contextualizing her behavior was removed from the base game to be put in the Torna ~ The Golden Country DLC. After that game's release, fan opinion on Mythra shifted significantly, to the point that while she's still somewhat divisive, these days overall fan opinion towards her leans heavily positive, to the point she's widely regarded as one of the most complex and dynamic characters in the 2 duology.
• Character Tiers: Just like the first game, all characters are usable but some optimize better than others. A more detailed breakdown can be read here. Notably, because of the variability in Drivers' playstyles depending on the Blades they equip as well as New Game Plus allowing Drivers to de-equip their default Blades, most tier lists focus on Blades rather than Drivers. The only generally agreed-upon positions are that Rex, Mòrag and Zeke all have Blades that make them shine in different situations, Tora is underpowered until he gains access to Poppi QTπ at which point he becomes the exact opposite, and Nia is a Crutch Character who always ends up overshadowed by other Drivers when optimized.
• Common Knowledge: Pyra and Mythra are only a few inches taller than Rex as best seen when they are introduced to him, but the fact that they frequently spend time around shorter characters like Rex, Nia and Tora causes the fan base to assume they're towering over most people they meet when in reality, the artbook has noted the Aegis sisters are just average for two humanoid girls. Thus, fan art of the Rex x Aegis girl ship has become memetically infamous for exaggerating how tall Pyra and Mythra really are, a situation not unsimilar to how fans of NieR: Automata years earlier assume 2B completely towers over 9S or how later fans of Chainsaw Man assume that Makima is taller than Denji,^note both are quite average in height, with Makima not being as short as the Aegis duo but Denji being about 2 inches taller than her, especially given that it emphasizes the "stoic, but dominant tall sword girl x submissive shorter guy" dynamic that both the Rex/Pyra/Mythra and 9S/2B ship share.
  • However, the release of Pyra and Mythra in Smash Bros. subjected them to Your Size May Vary (much like with Link and Lucina) where they appear to be even taller than they are than in their main game, with Pyra notably having to bend down to happily greet Rex when he's summoned for the up taunt, almost validating a misconception of something that isn't canon in their main game.
  • Rex was not designed by Tetsuya Nomura - in fact the characters who do not have Too Many Belts were his designs.
  • It's often stated that the Architect and Zanza are the good and evil halves of Klaus, however what actually seperates them is both circumstance and memories; the Architect didn't lose his memories and was left in a dead world he created while Zanza was completely ignorant of anything prior to his awakening as the Bionis while retaining Klaus' personality. As Klaus was driven by a mixture of altruism and megalomania, the Architect being able to reflect on his actions and try to correct his mistakes set him on a different path to Zanza, who had no idea about any of this and used his power to feed his ego.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome:
  • During the main story, most players choose to play as Rex and use the team of him, Nia and Mòrag team from Chapter 5 onwards. All three's base Blades perform all three roles, and Mòrag is a Driver like Rex, Nia, and Zeke therefore they can easily equip Blades of three different elements and can use other Tank, Healer, or Damage weapons. This can cause some problems since there are segments in which Tora's better as a party leader, especially Spirit Crucible Elpys. Even during endgame and postgame content, many players stick with Rex out of habit and because of how popular and useful Pyra and Mythra are.
  • If one isn't using Mórag as the tank, especially for postgame and endgame content? It will be Tora. Tora may have only three blades total, which are Poppi's three forms (and cannot get his third until fairly late in the game, and it's a sidequest meaning it's very easy to miss). Fortunately? All his Blades are very very good, rely little off of RNG to obtain, and are very customisable. He may be locked to only tank and damage dealing roles (even with the various Role Mods that can be equipped to Poppi), but he's very good at it. On Bringer of Chaos difficulty and Challenge Mode, Poppi QTπ in particular becomes absolutely invaluable largely due to her customizability and the "Speedy Sword" art that she gives Tora, which is by far the best Break art in the game and the most reliable way to start Driver/Fusion combos.
  • Art Recharge (usually found on desserts) is by far the strongest pouch item effect in the game, and the base game gives you access to a very strong dessert (Narcipear Jelly, which also provides a small defensive boost) in the first major area, with money serving as the only limiting factor in keeping a full stash (which can be gotten around via salvaging or claiming an Expansion Pass gift).
  • Certain Blades are considered to be just "Better" on specific characters, and some people would rather use overdrive protocols to move them to these characters
    • Boreas is usually assigned to Nia or Mórag. Boreas is a healer blade that makes its wielder surprisingly durable. Being able to have a tank swap to this weapon will give them some needed utility while giving Boreas to Nia will give her some much needed survivability.
    • Because Roc is locked to Rex and has a Smash ability, while Pyra and Mythra gain a Topple ability, a Greataxe weapon is usually considered best on Rex as this will give him access to Topple-Launch-Smash of the Break-Topple-Launch-Smash combo. However, once Zeke joins the party, he's considered the best Greataxe wielder because of his Arts and animations when using the weapon, and getting a Topple art of his own.
    • Shield Hammers are somewhat of a Scrappy Weapon - with the exception of Finch, who is considered to be best given to Mórag as Finch boosts its wielder's agility. The character in question is an agility tank - meaning that it fits them like a glove.
    • Zeke sees use with all of the Guest Fighter Blades except for Fiora. He makes a great Driver for KOS-MOS, T-elos and Shulk due to the Arts that they grant him, and while his Arts with Elma's Dual Swords are far from optimal, she can still be useful for him so that he can manually activate Overdrive as the player character. Shulk also sees frequent use on Mórag because he is an improved Shield Hammer (a Scrappy Weapon class mostly only salvageable on her), while Fiora sees use on both Mórag and Rex due to the DPS capabilities with their Arts (and occasionally on Nia due to her Break art). Elma is almost always used on the player character for the sake of Overdrive (and not having an AI partner switch to her), but is generally considered best on Rex due to her synergy with Mythra.
• Complete Monster: The egotistical, giggling Dr. Castrofari has children all over Alrest drugged and kidnapped as fodder for his twisted experiments, which aim to forcefully augment his specimens into artificial Blades. When Perun confronts him on his deeds, Castrofari offers to let the children go if Perun surrenders herself as his next subject—only to laugh and confess he'll murder all of the children anyways, giddily announcing his intention to experiment on Perun until she's nothing but a withered husk.
• Contested Sequel: Compared to the universally-acclaimed first and third main games, or X for which opinions on it as a flawed but mostly-good Cult Classic are fairly uniform, XC2 has divided fans much more sharply, with some labeling it an Even Better Sequel or even the only good game in the series, some considering it a confusing and clichéd disappointment, and some labeling it as a solid game but not as good as the first. Detractors call out the use of modern anime tropes, the game's humor relying on a lot of Cringe Comedy, the story's tone and initially glacial pace, mourn the loss of selectable gear, and rip into the new affinity system and "gacha" mechanics, as well as the incoherent art style peppered with oversexualized female Blade designs. Supporters praise the battle system, the main companions, the subtlety in the story and character interactions, the story's later twists, and especially the very expansive postgame, DLC and amount of content in general compared to the rest of the series. This wasn't helped by the Newbie Boom caused by Pyra and Mythra's inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, bringing in a new cohort of fans who started with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and used it as their baseline for expectations for the previous games. Both groups, however, largely agree that both games' area design, exploration and music remain up to par; general consensus among fans of both games is that XC2 is a more inconsistent but not necessarily worse experience than XC1 overall, with more pronounced strengths and weaknesses.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Some fans joke about shipping Captain Padraig and Muimui just for the sheer weirdness of it all. They click surprisingly well; Padraig is best known for screaming "Don't forget me!" and has issues recognizing the color green, while Muimui is forgotten easily for being uninteresting and is green himself. A match made in Elysium.
  • In Japan, Mythra (Hikari) is often paired with another Nintendo heroine named Hikari in fanart: Dawn from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, especially since Mythra's announcement for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate occurred in the same timeframe as the announcement of the Diamond and Pearl remakes.
• Critical Backlash: Though opinions on Rex and his English voice initially trended very negative both in and outside of the fandom, enough of it was surface-level in nature that it drove many players to reevaluate him in a more positive light:
  • Rex has commonly been dismissed by detractors, especially early on in the game's lifespan, as a bland Stock Shōnen Hero with a perpetually dense and cocky attitude who only has eyes for Pyra and seemingly learns nothing by the end. While a lot of this is true in the earlier parts of the game, Rex has a good number of defenders who accept these as intentional character flaws and regard him as a successful Decon-Recon Switch of the trope. Defenders also point out that he does show some Hidden Depths and that while he retains his idealistic worldview by the end, he does still undergo Character Development in a more subtle sense.
  • On the surface, many players were quick to dismiss Rex's English voice. However, as players became more aware of the Troubled Production and how it impacted the voice acting^note Voice actors were given entire scripts with little to no voice direction and only one take., these days fans tend to argue that Al Weaver's performance as a whole isn't as bad as it was first made out to be, noting that his yells sound better by later chapters. For the former, people cite how Rex manages to sound good when talking in humorous moments, and even crying, such as when Gramps seemingly dies in chapter 2, and when Vandham is Killed Off for Real in chapter 3. Likewise, Rex's appearance in Pyra and Mythra's moveset in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was praised for completely averting the Dull Surprise moments he sometimes had in his home game. For the latter, while the strength of his yells being as strong as Adam Howden's is up to debate, Al Weaver's still capable of pulling off a solid performance even considering the lack of proper voice direction, such as everything leading up to Pyra's capture at the end of chapter 6, his confrontation with Jin in chapter 9, and the mid-final boss cutscene with Malos. In other words, opinions had turned around enough on Al Weaver's performance that many fans were disappointed when Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed elected to ues a Time-Shifted Actor for Rex in English instead of keeping him.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Flying enemies. They're aggressive, can easily spot you, move fast, usually have long-range attacks, are typically higher level than other enemies nearby, and will chase you for very long distances before being shaken off. Taken together, you either die quick or have a grueling battle ahead of you. And in Chapter 9, there are many extremely powerful Super-Persistent Predator flying enemies that will make it impossible to properly fight the Indoline troops and monsters without getting caught up in an extremely deadly pandemonium of dragons, birds of prey and religious zealots out for blood. Have fun!
  • Enemy Drivers, both humans and Unique Monsters with a Blade. They have access to Blade Arts and have extremely high block rates when using Arts, making your Arts hard to charge. Enemy Blade Arts can apply the same status effects as yours, heal, or otherwise make your battle unpleasant.
  • Scouts/Runners. Not tough on their own, they attempt to summon nearby enemies, up to and including Unique Monsters.
  • In Tiger! Tiger!, the red sharks are the only enemy that actively pursue the player. They also take multiple hits to take down (usually two, but the faster ones in later stages take three). If one of these foes get too close, the player is bound to take damage, losing their power up or treasure in the process.
• Designated Villains: The Tirkin. Every time the people of Alrest come across Tirkin, they're treated as savage beasts, when in reality, they're a fully-developed species that have their own societal rules and ethics that don't stray too far from typical Alrestian behavior. In Kasandra and Finch's quests, they're treated as creatures that can't be reasoned with, when in the former, they were reasonable until their primal instincts kicked in because of fear of Kasandra's notoriously bad luck, and in the latter, they were just searching for their ruler, who had gone missing. Most egregiously, though, is the Fire Dragons, a group of Tirkin chefs known for making exquisite banquets for the governments of Alrest. At first, the party thinks they're plotting to kill Niall by lacing his food with poison, when in reality, they had nothing to do with Bana's assassination attempt whatsoever. Then, when the party comes across the Fire Dragons again later on, who were just proven innocent, what do they do? ...They brandish their weapons, ready to attack the Fire Dragons.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Many fans interpret Pyra and Mythra's Split Personality situation as a somewhat-fantastical but otherwise clinically-sound depiction of alters in Dissociative Identity Disorder. For starters, they are overtly based off of Xenogears' protagonist Fei Fong Wong, who is explicitly diagnosed with a scientifically accurate-for-the-time version of the condition. It's also noted that Pyra and Mythra are two distinct minds in one body, with their own unique personalities and semi-compartamentalized memories, and that the separation of the two personalities was the result of attempting to cope with a severely traumatic event, typical symptoms of DID. Their journey to self-actualization also includes acknowledging each alter's personhood, which is a common goal for DID alters in real life.
• Discredited Meme: For years, Rex's response to Nia's Love Confession was touted as the poster child of the Stock Shōnen Hero characters and how dense they were when romance was involved. And then the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 revealed that he actually followed through on that statement, marrying Nia alongside Pyra and Mythra. Unsurprisingly, nobody used "I love you and all you guys" as a sticking point against Rex since.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Turters, Zeke's pet turtle, for being both a Team Pet and a Ridiculously Cute Critter. There's even a Twitter account dedicated to him.
  • Thanks to the Ardainian Soldier voicelines, Captain Padraig is loved by fans even though he's a faceless character and stops being important after his boss fight early in the game. It helps that he has a memorably goofy helmet and some funny cutscenes while he's around.
  • Poppi QTπ is by far the least plot-important of the Poppi forms, being optional content, but she is also by far the most popular for her incredible power and customizability and for upgrading Poppi into a sleek, badass Ms. Fanservice.
  • Vandham from Xenoblade 2 is often considered the best incarnation of Vandham in the entire Xeno series. While Vanderkam is beloved for being an over-the-top power hungry Well-Intentioned Extremist, and Colonel Vangarre is adored for being a memetic Drill Sergeant Nasty, Vandham is the most humble of the bunch, has the distinction of being an actual party member, is a Badass Teacher for Rex to perfect his Anchor Shot, and his death hit newcomers hard. He was well-received enough that he got a Suspiciously Similar Substitute in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in Guernica Vandham (who was similarly well-received), complete with the same voice, a similar design, his own versions of Yew and Zuo as sidekicks, and his own Tear Jerker death.
  • Quite a few optional Rare Blades have ended up incredibly popular with the fans.
    • The Guest Fighters from previous games in the Xeno series - KOS-MOS and T-elos from Xenosaga, Shulk and Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and Elma from Xenoblade Chronicles X - all qualify as this for their references to their respective games and for being among the most powerful Blades in the game. Shulk especially, since his appearance in the Super Smash Bros. series was many people's introduction to Xenoblade, to the point that people who played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 as their first Xeno game were delighted to see him nonetheless.
    • Wulfric for being a sympathetic shy, super nice guy who only wants friends in spite of his monstrous appearance. He's also a really powerful Attack Blade that the plot hands to you.
    • Zenobia for being a powerful Blade who loves beating up enemies.
    • Boreas has a very fun and quirky character and is not only one of the best healers in the game, but can be maxed out as soon as you acquire him and is fairly easy to obtain by rare blade standards.
    • Perceval, for being a former assassin that now fights for the downtrodden and an excellent offensive tank.
    • Adenine for being a Badass Bookworm and having an ability that increases a fallen enemy's item drop rate.
    • Finch for being an agility-boosting Shield Hammer Blade, thus making her viable on Mòrag. She's also a super adorable anthropomorphic bird whose forgetful nature is actually a useful skill in battle, giving a chance for arts and specials to instantly recharge.
    • Praxis and Theory for being Heterosexual Life-Partners that share complementary designs and the stars of an extensive but rewarding chain of sidequests that showcases Character Development. The two of them are also capable Blades in their own right, with Praxis being a decent attacker with good offensive skills and Theory being one of the better non-DLC tanks in the game.
    • Fan la Norne/Haze, Lila, and Dughall's Dolmes were all Blades that were present in the base game but weren't made playable, much to the dismay of players. While Lila and Dughall's Dolmes didn't quite make the cut, Haze went on to star in a DLC 30+ hour prequel, along with other fan-favorites such as Lora, Jin, and Addam.
    • Speaking of DLC, the three new DLC Blades - Poppibuster, Crossette, and Corvin - all became favorites in their own ways. Poppibuster is a Light element Blade that can be transferred to any Driver without Overdrive Protocols and is widely considered to be the best Shield Hammer in the game; Crossette has a cute design and personality and is a favorite among speedrunners for her deceptively powerful combat capabilities; and Corvin is powerful offensive tank with a versatile set of skills and a unique weapon that grants a Smash art to anyone long before you're supposed to have one.
• Epileptic Trees: Plenty of them, mostly spawned by the game's ending and The Reveal of its connections to the original Xenoblade:
  • In Morytha, the card picked up by Rex after defeating the Infernal Guldo is noted to resemble Galea, the human scientist seen with Klaus in the opening cutscene of the final chapter. Galea also just so happens to be Meyneth from the first game, AKA the soul of the Mechonis. Given that Klaus was split into the Architect and Zanza, the latter of which is Meyneth's enemy and the soul of the Bionis, some people have been speculating that the Infernal Guldo is the evil Literal Split Personality to Meyneth, much like how Zanza was the evil half of the Architect.
  • The identity of Ontos, the missing third Aegis core, was the subject of debate for a long time. The most common consensus was that Ontos went on to become Alvis/the Monado in the first game, which was supported by Malos wielding a Monado with similar arts to the original Monado, and Mythra having similar foresight powers that the Monado granted to its wielders. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition ended up confirming this, giving Alvis' new model a red Aegis core.
  • The end of the first Xenoblade has Shulk wishing for a world with no gods, with Alvis telling him that it will be populated by many different species that would all walk "hand in hand". At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Architect's final gift to the species of Alrest is to disperse the Cloud Sea and have the titans form a new continent. However, fans have speculated as to whether the Architect instead sent the people of Alrest to Shulk's new world without Gods, or if Alvis sent the people of Shulk's world to Alrest instead. Further complicating things is Gramps saying that they were crossing a "rift" when descending into Alrest's atmosphere from the space station above the World Tree, leading to people debating if he meant a dimensional rift, or a metaphorical one. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 seems to confirm that the two worlds merged together in some way.
• Even Better Sequel: While Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a Contested Sequel, most fans agree that it outshines the original game in some respects.
  • The combat system is considered even better than the first game's, similar to Kingdom Hearts II compared to Kingdom Hearts. While quite intricate with a high learning curve, assigning different Arts to Blades can be easier to understand than the Arts toolbar from the first game, and is more customizable to boot. Additionally, the Driver Combo and Blade Combo systems add more layers of depth that can result in some truly flashy, impressive and satisfying combat when mastered.
  • The exploration is at least as good as the original's. Alrest's Titans are all Scenery Porn in their own right, and densely packed with sights, treasure, and monsters.
  • All of the party members are equally useful in their roles into post-game, unlike the first game where Reyn and Sharla were much less tactical than other party members.
  • The facial animations in 2 are far better at emoting than the more realistic but also flat faces of the original. That is, until the original's remake for the Nintendo Switch and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 came.
  • The New Game Plus in XC2 is usually considered the best in the series, for adding multiple exclusive Blades and Anti-Frustration Features such as the traveling bards, and overall making the game one of the most content-heavy Xenoblade entries.
• Evil Is Cool: Jin and Malos are cool. The former for his tragic backstory and really cool powers to the point of being the main character of the Torna prequel, and the latter for being Mythra and Alvis' evil twin with a hammy yet no-nonsense personality and a freaking Monado. In a 2021 Twitter popularity poll of characters across the entire Xeno series, Jin and Malos claimed first and second place, respectively, beating out fan-favorites such as Pyra, Mythra, Shulk, KOS-MOS and Shion.

F-G

• Fandom-Enraging Misconception:
  • Calling the game a "waifu-collecting" game, or judging the entire game solely on the fact that it's Best Known for the Fanservice is an easy way to start a multi-page flamewar.
  • Labelling Poppi as a "sex robot", Tora as a Loveable Sex Maniac, or anything similar simply because of the questionable in-universe design choices is another easy flame war starter. While there are a couple of jokes of that nature in the Japanese script, most of which were removed for the English localization, he never gets to the point of actually doing anything with them. It's also shown in the same chapter they're introduced that Tora had genuine reasons for building Poppi in the first place, which are further explored in Chapter 4, along with why she even has such design choices.
• Fanwork-Only Fans: One of the reasons Pyra and Mythra are Best Known for the Fanservice is their vast amounts of Rule 34 from artists who have admitted to never playing the game or were commissioned to do so by people who didn't, but were still attracted to Pyra and Mythra's designs. While this is mitigated by their Newbie Boom thanks to being included in Smash to make them more easily accessible, it still resulted in an explosion of fan art created or enjoyed by people that also have no interest in Smash but were attracted to how hot they were. This leads to skewed perceptions of the two girls in terms of their personalities and relationship with each other and Rex.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Train-chan" or "Scottish/British Train Lady" for Mòrag, because her outfit somewhat resembles a train conductor and her Commissar Cap looks like the front bumper of a train, along with her notable Scottish accent. "Scottish (Army) Mommy" is also common among those who find her attractive. As the game's fourth permanent party member, she also carries the name "Four".
  • BaeBlade is used to refer to someone's favorite Blades, because of the pun off the name of a certain franchise that couldn't be passed up.
  • "Zaveid's sister" is used to refer to Zenobia due to their resemblance, same powers, and having the same character designer.
  • Much like Seven/Fiora from the original Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 'Catalyst' is sometimes used as a name for Nia in her blade form (as said blade has the Catalyst Scimitar for a weapon) to avoid spoilers.
    • Likewise, Nia and Roc are sometimes referred to as "Rex's Story Blades," since receiving Roc coincides with Vandham's death, and Nia being usable as one of his Blades coincides with her Character Arc's conclusion.
  • "Coffee with milk" for Pneuma, as this is what Rex calls her once, and it's a name to avoid spoilers.
    • The name Pneuma itself could count for this as well. While it technically refers to the Aegis as a whole, it's most commonly used to refer to the ascended form specifically, as she had no official name other than "Pyra/Mythra's ascended form" until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate gave her Spirit the name Pneuma.
  • Some variation of "Rrrrrosa" for Rosa, due to Chairman Bana's consistent and highly amusing Large Ham Trrrilling Rrrs delivery when announcing her name.
  • Malosblade/Metsublade, for the very popular for-want-of-a-nail Fandom-Specific Plot where Rex takes up Malos as his Aegis of choice while Amalthus wields Mythra.
• Fandom Rivalry: Just as Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition came into conflict with fans of Persona 5, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has been used to portray the Xenoblade series in a bad light. Naturally, these debates get very heated.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Early on in Chapter 5 the hitherto-comedic and otherwise-humble Zeke goes on a rant against refugees displaced by the Mor Ardain-Uraya war protesting the usage of Blades (used here as a metaphor for gun control) and blaming Blades for the war, accusing them of being lazy and ungrateful plebeians lashing out at the wrong target. Azurda and Nia implicitly agree with Zeke's stance (in part due to being Blades or former Blades themselves), while Morag sympathizes with the refugees, and Rex is made slightly uncomfortable by the whole situation, but it's quickly brushed over and never revisited in the main story again. It's typically seen as an extremely jarring moment due to how at-odds it is with the game's anti-war message as well as what's later revealed about Zeke and Nia's own backstories, along with the fact that Morag is part of the nation who was a direct instigator of the war responsible for their plight, thus a lot of fans like to pretend it was a random Writer on Board moment that didn't really happen due to making everyone involved come off as either massively hypocritical or out-of-character.
• Fandom-Specific Plot:
  • Role Swap AU stories for the two Aegises are common, with Malos becoming Rex's Blade while Mythra is the Big Bad. It helps that canon provides an easy explanation for the difference: Since Amalthus obtained both Aegis cores and only awakened one on a whim, he could've simply grabbed the other one instead. Despite his more heroic role, Malos tends to retain his abrasive personality, sometimes driving a wedge between him and Rex. The two learning to work together often makes up much of the early conflict. Since Pyra/Mythra are on the villains' side, Nia often gets promoted to Rex's primary Love Interest — if he's not being paired with Malos, that is.
  • The most common depiction of post-game life for the characters is Rex, Pyra and Mythra living together in a One True Threesome thanks to Pyra and Mythra being finally split with Mythra discovering her powers don't translate well to social and domestic life, while Pyra has newfound confidence thanks to her Character Development through the game and handles living with Rex smoother. Some of these works also throw Pneuma into the mix as a fourth addition to the ship or a fusion when Pyra and Mythra need to summon her even though Pneuma's fate is left unclear in the main game.

• Fanfic Fuel: What the other characters saw during Klaus' Secret Test of Character is ripe for fanfic writers to explore.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: The Spirits image for Mythra, as well as her fighter model in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a fair bit of Adaptational Modesty, covering up her cleavage and giving her black leggings. Though some fans have complained about the censorship, quite a few other fans turned out to like the redesign overall or even prefer it to the original (mostly those who find the over-the-top Stripperiffic nature of her original outfit to be ridiculous, but also a fair few who just think tights are sexy too), and others have noted it looks a lot like Elly's outfit. It was later added into both the main game and the expansion as an Aux Core for Mythra in an update a week before Smash's release, and admittedly it wouldn't be as well-liked if not for it being one of the absolute best Aux Cores in the game; some speculate that the censorship would have gone over more poorly (akin to the censorship in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG) if not for the fun little Mythology Gag added to the original game. It also provides a nice option for cosplayers who don't want to show as much skin as Mythra does normally or can't make convincing Fake Boobs.^note Making fake cleavage is a common cosplay practice for female characters with revealing outfits, regardless of the cosplayer's gender. The outfit was popular enough to make a pseudo-return in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where Nia returns as a postgame Hero and her outfit incorporates the tights and Mythra's leg band.
• Fetish Retardant:
  • The gratuitous Jiggle Physics tend more toward the comical than sexy.
  • Pyra's regular outfit emphasizes her breasts, which jut out at an odd angle.
  • Dahlia (or Tsuki) is supposed to be another Ms. Fanservice, and while she has her fans, others find her large breasts and animal traits more off-putting than sexy.
• Fountain of Memes:
  • Like Reyn before him, ZEKE VON GENBU, BRINGER OF CHAOS! is insanely memetic and quotable with the fanbase, especially with his Large Ham Chuunibyou personality. Some of the game's quotes from or about him even call back to memes from the first Xenoblade Chronicles 1!
  Zeke: I'm really feelin' it!
  Shulk: Zeke, you're a lifesaver!
  • Malos is also this, for his over-the-top Large Ham performance and sexy factor, to the point that some consider him a Tumblr sexyman for his enthusiastic fanbase.
  Malos: INDEED!!!
• Franchise Original Sin: The past Xenoblade games tend to have their fair share of Stripperiffic outfits. However, for those games, they were mostly completely optional as the players don't have to put a Stripperiffic outfit onto a character if they don't want to, and the default outfits for most of the playable characters (with some notable exceptions like Sharla) are fairly modest. Here, three (four if you count an optional form one character gains late in the game) of the main characters wear Stripperiffic outfits as their "main" outfit, and prior to DLC, characters are stuck with those outfits throughout the entire game. This, as well as the game's writing incorporating more Ecchi humor that highlights said designs, and the fact that they can sometimes dip into Fetish Retardant territory, causes a lot more people to complain about it.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • It's a given that fans of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Expelled from Paradise are practically one and the same due to Masatsugu Saito doing the character deisgns of both works, with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 helping Expelled From Paradise getting Retroactive Recognition because of this, especially since Mythra from the former and Angela from the latter look alike to the point where they can be clones. Designs aside both works also are about an After the End Earth inhabited by dangerous creatures and small civilizations contrasted by a false paradise located in space built by humanity's former dominant government. The male lead of both works is also a hot head spiky brown haired Working-Class Hero from Earth that must deal with shady people in order to survive though Rex is certainly more humble and shorter than Dingo. Meanwhile, the female lead is a blond tsundere from the futuristic paradise who the male lead helps give a new insight of life on. These similarities thus allow for Rex x Mythra fans Dingo x Angela fans to be cross fandom Ship Mates, especailly since fans have joked that Dingo could pass for a grown up Rex.
  • Fans the Xenoblade franchise took a liking to Astral Chain at first sight. An incredibly common reaction to Astral Chain's reveal trailer assuming it was the next Xenoblade game.
• Game-Breaker: Has its own page.
• Genius Bonus:
  • The Titans are named for the Seven Deadly Sins. In Japanese, they are simply the traditional Latin names of said sins^note Avaritia, Superbia, Gula, Invidia, Ira, Acedia, Luxuria. The English localization also keeps the theme naming, but it's not as obvious because you'd have to have good knowledge of multiple languages to get it:
    • Argentum: Derived from the Latin word argent meaning silver, associated with greed.
    • Mor Ardain: Mor means "big" in Celtic, and "Ardain" is derived from ardan which is Gaelic for pride.
    • Gormott: Derived from the French word gourmand for gluttony.
    • Uraya: Derived from the Japanese word 羨ましい urayamashii, meaning "jealous" or "envious". For bonus points, Uraya is a giant whale, a species often associated with Leviathan, a demon who itself is tied to envy.
    • Torna: Derived from the Dutch word toorn for wrath.
    • Indol: Derived from the English word indolence for sloth.
    • Tantal: Derived from the English word tantalize for lust.
  • Then, we have several Titans that are named after the Seven Heavenly Virtues:
    • Leftheria: Rex's hometown is Liberalitas in the Japanese version, while "Leftheria" is derived from the Greek word λευτεριά lefteriá which in turn is a shortened version of the word ἐλευθερία eleuthería for liberty. The original Latin meaning of liberalitas is similar to charity, which is one of the Virtues.
    • Temperantia: This wasteland is named after the Latin word for temperance, another Heavenly Virtue.
    • Judicium: Yet another Latin virtue: justice.
    • Spirit Crucible Elpys is named after Elpis, the Greek personification of Hope, another Heavenly Virtue.
  • The names of Mòrag's Driver Arts with Brighid may look a bit odd to the casual player, being all some variant of "Azure II" and then another word. However, there are a handful of times where she actually calls out the names in cutscenes and more significantly during special moves, and she specifically says "Azure Striker: Form the Second/Third: [Art name]." This is actually derived from Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) manuals which categorize stances as "form the first/second/third/etc" and allow the combatant to string several fighting techniques together in a continuous flowing movement.
  • In the "Growing Up" Heart-to-Heart, Tora announces the name of Poppi's planned 3rd form: "Quantum Technochampion π", explaining the name came to him when he was deciding whether to enter a swimming pool with his right or left foot. One principle of quantum physics is "superposition", which states that a quantum system can be in several states at once, even if those states are seemingly contradictory. Such as, entering a pool with both your right foot and your left foot.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Like with the first game, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is very popular in the UK due to its British localization and the representation that comes with it, this time with an even wider variety of British regional accents in the dub. In particular, Nia's rarely-represented Welsh accent is one of many factors that has made her a fan-favorite to players in Wales and elsewhere, while the Scottish accents for Ardainians are either seen as awesome or comical depending on the character.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • Viewing the Maelstrom cutscenes via the Events Theater and then immediately skipping them results in Rex apparently falling into an unseen abyss.
  • A few precise jumps allow you to go over a particular spot of Temperantia's Ancient Wall. From there, you can explore the massive inaccessible portion of the titan, and even swim under or around the map. Swimming too far drops your character through the Cloud Sea before respawning them in front of the Ancient Wall. The same can be done in Elysium, where the out-of-bounds portion is in fact bigger than the portion that can be explored in-game, and can be exploited even further to end up in the Conduit room or the escape pod bay from the ending.
  • Killing the boss of the Ancient Ship without ever drawing your weapon (only possible in New Game Plus thanks to spike damage) brings up the normally unseeable name of the next area: Dreamworld Elysium.
  • Electra's "Mastery of Thunder" nodes stay lit upon transitioning to a New Game Plus, which means Electra can complete her Affinity Quest without viewing the prerequisite scenes across Alrest needed on the first playthrough.
  • The way characters' speaking animations are programmed on the field can be quite sloppy sometimes. For starters, Rex's mouth moves when Gramps speaks, just because Gramps is present in his model; also, if a Blade switches to their Driver's top-position Blade after a battle finishes, the new Blade will appear to speak the previous Blade's lines. Pneuma has post-battle dialogue, but it will appear to be spoken instead by base form Pyra or Mythra after transforming back; however, as Pneuma is simply a Split-Personality Merge ascended form for both girls (even having either of their names) and her voice is halfway between them, they still fit.
  • Unless you're standing in the middle of a flat area with no NPCs around, the game has some trouble figuring out what to do with the other party members. This often leads to characters standing in bizarre places, interacting strangely with NPCs, or falling off of cliffs repeatedly.
  • One exploit, titled "auto-attacking canceling" by fans, involves slighting moving the characters during their auto-attack combo. Moving them resets their auto-attacks, allowing players to circumvent the combos' end lag or repeat the first hit in rapid succession. This is very helpful for Drivers with slower weapons but fast start up attacks, such as Rex with the Aegis Sword, as it will allow them to attack more frequently and recharge their arts faster.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • The Phantasms fought at the end of chapter 7 are the most frustrating boss in the main story. While they attack slowly and don't have much health, the battle can take forever since each Phantasm will summon two new Phantasms whenever it is close to death. There is nothing you can do to prevent the new Phantasms from being summoned, as the Phantasms summoning them will evade all attacks until the summoning is finished. The idea is to kill them all at once in quick succession, but this is complicated due to the dungeon's gimmick preventing you from being able to use any blade attacks past level 1, which consequently means that blade combos can't be executed and chain attacks are less potent.
  • Thanatobeast Andraz, the boss of Zenobia's personal sidequest, is no pushover for a Level 65 boss, with health in the millions and a few attacks that hit like a truck. What pushes it into this category as opposed to That One Boss is that the most dangerous things about fighting it have nothing to do with the Thanatobeast itself, and more so to do with the surrounding area. The boss is fought in an area of Temperantia surrounded by a poisonous pool that drains the health of any party member who stands in it, and if that's not enough the area also is infested with Goddamned Bats like Jadas Upas, which can inflict "Shackle Blade" status, that have a tendency to join the fight if it goes on too long. The best strategy to fighting the Thanatobeast is to trigger the fight, then immediately flee and run towards the back of the cave it just burst out of and hope that it follows the party back in and then praying your AI party members stay in the cave.
  • The Final Boss: Artiface Aion. The boss wouldn't be difficult except for the mid-fight interruption that dispels your Blade combo and the boss's Instant Kill that can only be dodged via Blade combo.
  • Artifice Ophion isn't too hard for a Superboss once you get used to it and are proficient with the Blade Combo system. However, what pushes it into this territory is its arena, which has a walk-off ledge that your character can easily fall off with any sort of movement aside from Driver Arts. Combine this with the fact that most Driver Arts will drive your characters forwards non-stop (albeit thankfully not off the ledge on their own), and the Artificial Stupidity of your teammates walking off the ledge for no good reason, and you have a battle where you'll die more times to gravity than to the boss' attacks.
  • Two other bosses made even more frustrating via Artificial Stupidity are already brutal Superbosses: Gladiator Orion, and Elma in Elma: Redux. They have attacks that create a damaging fire terrain effect around them (alongside other nasty effects) and while any sensible human being would know to avoid the fire until it dissipates, your AI teammates will think of nothing but to Attack! Attack! Attack! and end up dying, wasting your time and/or your Party Gauge and maybe even losing the entire battle for you.
  • Vengeful Waldemar in Blade-Sharp Memory, the quest to get Theory. He has the ridiculous combination of an evasion spike alongside an art that gives him perfect evasion for a short time and when he Turns Red from getting his HP down, he also has perfect evasion for a time. Even if you notice that he's evading your attacks, your AI allies will not and you can't order them not to attack, so you're going to be low on HP for most of the fight, meaning one lucky hit and you're done, even when you're higher level than he is.
• Growing the Beard: When released in 2017, the game was contested on whether it lived up to its predecessors, particularly its egregious "gacha" mechanics for recruiting Rare Blades and being Best Known for the Fanservice via its character designs. As multiple updates, New Game Plus and prequel Torna: The Golden Country were introduced, a growing contingent deemed Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a worthy installment to the franchise, which is no small feat considering the first game's ground-breaking praise.

H-M

• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Jin killing Fan la Norne/Haze. It's a tragedy when it happens. It's even worse after playing Torna ~ The Golden Country, where Haze says she'd hate to be the Blade of someone like Amalthus.
  • Jin's disdain for the Indoline Praetorium's control over the Blades to serve Alrest while the Blades themselves are reborn constantly without memories of their past lives, as well as his grief over Lora's death, become much more painful with the knowledge of what's to come in Xenoblade Chronicles 3: N ends up upholding a similar endless cycle of death and amnesiac resurrection in Aionios out of his own grief over M dying in exchange for him and M living forever. In essence, N upholds everything Jin stood against out of the same grief that drove Jin to try and tear everything down.
  • In the cutscene preceding the last boss fight of Chapter 9, the end of Amalthus' Motive Rant and how Rex refutes it pretty much describes the premise of "The Endless Now" and how Moebius want to prolong it in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
    Amalthus: Mankind will never change, no matter how many millenia pass!
    Rex: You're the one who won't change. That's exactly why you hate those who try to!
    Amalthus: And why should I have to change? If I change, I lose everything, I lose my very self. Who in their right mind would accept such a fate?!
    • Similarly, Amalthus' nihilism at mankind being unable to change from being what he considered to be savages and utter bastards takes on an even bleaker tone after Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, where Alpha witnessing all of the carnage and endless strife in Aionios results in him deciding that Aionios is unsalvageable and to take the people of the City to another world while Aionios is destroyed, and ends up taking advantage of the nihilism of Na'el. It results in a direct inverse of the relationship between Amalthus and Malos, where Amalthus' despair influences Malos, an Aegis who is part of the Trinity Processor as Logos, while the despair of Na'el ends up being encouraged by Alpha, an Aegis who is part of the Trinity Processor as Ontos.
  • Nia is initially skeptical of Pyra's motives and cautions Rex not to trust her just because she seems nice. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, Na'el (who incidentally is implied to be Rex and Nia's descendant) comes across Ontos' core crystal and more or less becomes Alpha's Driver, but their relationship is nowhere near as balanced as Rex and Pyra's was, and ultimately Alpha ends up overpowering her and using her as a host for their plans. In addition to being an inverse of Malos, Alpha is basically what Pyra could have been if Nia's initial suspicions were right.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Nia joining Rex, Pyra, and Mythra in the updated New Game Plus title screens becomes all the more sweeter after the revelation that Rex married all three girls in Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
  • In the "Beneath the Aurora" DLC side quest, after helping a man propose to his love, Mythra (if chosen) asks Rex when he's going to get around to proposing, himself. After realizing what she meant, Rex awkwardly responds that he'll get to it "in a little while. Or maybe a long while...", to which Mythra calls Rex hopeless. Comes the sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where it’s revealed that Rex did get around to it and married Mythra. Alongside Pyra and Nia, as well.
  • In “By the Graveside” Heart-to-Heart discussion, after talking to Rex about his parents and how he sees his village as his family, Pyra stated she would love to have a big family like Rex's. By the time of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Pyra became part of a big family with Rex, Nia, Mythra and their children.
  • Poppi, seeing the ruins of the old world, worries that she would become too dangerous and destroy their new world. Mythra promises, by Poppi's request, that if she ever goes rogue, she will stop her. If many decades have passed by the time of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Poppi remains her good old self and is still good friends with Nia and assumingly others.
  • Rex and Shulk meeting in the non-canon Challenge Mode DLC and becoming fast friends became this when Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed showed them as having canonically become brothers-in-arms during their time in Aionios.
  • Vandham's final lesson to Rex that he must fight his own war, words that he carries with him and helps him growing into the hero he needs to be for Pyra and Mythra. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this same lesson lives on through Rex's implied decendents who take up the Vandham name in the war against Moebius.
  • Rex's relationship with Zeke doesn't get that much focus, but from what we are shown Zeke acts as a protective if bumbling older brother to the young boy. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed adds more context by showing that Rex looked up to Zeke so much that he doesn't mind having lost an eye because it reminds him of the Tantalese prince, and he even returns the favour by acting as a mentor for Zeke and Pandoria's daughter, Linka.
• He Really Can Act: Rex's English voice acting has drawn quite a bit of ire, with many saying that Al Weaver is flat-out incapable of screaming. That said, even those who outright don't like Al Weaver as Rex admit that he pulls off sad scenes like an absolute champ, making Rex's Heroic BSoDs sound like he's genuinely upset. More ardent supporters of his performance also call attention to his yells later in the game and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, rebutting that those show that the main game's voice direction is to blame for the improper yells and not Al Weaver himself.
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • While Tora and the Poppis may seem like the best Driver and Blades on paper, actually playing the game reveals a different story; most of the really good things that the Poppis can do^note E.g. full invicibility, taking half damage from everything, doing damage on a level with specced out Mythra, etc. is locked until endgame, making them Awesome, but Impractical. Until then, Tora will spend the majority of the game with only two blades, which significantly axes his damage output and his ability to tank, both in terms of his durability and his ability to hold aggro. It also doesn't help that the game encourages the use and development of Rare Blades, none of which Tora can obtain, meaning players are likely to bench Tora instead of putting the high amounts of effort needed to make Poppi viable. For hardcore completionists willing to put in the work, the Poppis are enough of a Game-Breaker to provide good returns on their investments, but for the vast majority of the story Tora remains solidly in Mòrag's shadow.
  • Poppi QTπ and Elma are disliked by some for being too good in a Character Select Forcing sense, requiring them to be on any moderately competent Bringer of Chaos Challenge Mode team. QTπ is essentially the best Blade in the game as she is completely customizable and can be any type, plus has the "Speedy Sword" Break Art which is the only one in the game that has multiple hits each with their own Break chance, which is an absolute must when most large and/or enraged enemies have impossibly high Break resistance. Even so, some bosses such as Ardainian Kurodil are still nigh-impossible to Break when enraged even with a Master Scope, which is where Elma comes in; Overdrive reduces enemies' Driver Combo resistance when active. This severely limits teambuilding for challenges and forces every team to run Tora, who doesn't have any Blades with interesting party-wide support skills like Foresight or Kaiser Zone that can be stacked for more synergy, not to mention that Tora suffers from Artificial Stupidity for more complex strategies.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Rex is voiced by Hiro Shimono who would later go on to voice Zenitsu in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba with one of Zenitsu's main gripes being not attracting women and how the character Tengen Uzui gets to have three wives. Rex as revealed in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would go onto marry and have children with Pyra, Mythra and Nia, living Zenitsu's dream.
  • At one point Rex tells Nia in her blade form after her confession that he loves her... and everyone else in the party. While some fans turned this into a Memetic Mutation of Nia being friendzoned and losing to Pyra and Mythra, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reveals that Rex was serious and actually meant it, marrying and having children with Pyra, Mythra and Nia.
  • Finch's habit of garbling up peoples' names becomes a bit funnier when IGN made an infamous review of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, naming Dunban "Duncan" and Reyn "Rain".
  • Boreas has already been compared to Kirby due to their very similar personalities. Even funnier however, is that come Kirby Star Allies, a new coincidence came in the form of the game's final boss, Void Termina, whose first form's head resembles Boreas'.
  • Sheba's character designer is Parsley, who later went on to become the character designer for Chloe Sakamata from hololive. And whereas Sheba is shown riding around in a bathtub 24/7, a Running Gag with Chloe is that she rarely, if ever, bathes.
  • Poppi QT's "Antique Princess QT" costume gives her Melia Antiqua's color scheme, essentially turning her into a robotic Melia. One of the antagonists in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (which has a brief in-person cameo from Poppi herself) is a robotic version of Melia.
  • During a conversation Azurda was having with Vandham, the latter states that with enough training, Rex could become very muscular. Pyra, however, could not help but state that he’s fine the way he is. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed, Rex is shown to have bulked up during the war.
  • One of the Arts used by Ophion, which is one of Mythra's Artifices, is Ouroboros Drive. In the sequel, the heroes belong to a group called Ouroboros, and furthermore Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed would reveal that Ouroboros derives its power from Pneuma, the Core Crystal that created Mythra.
  • Examining the organ in the church in Elysium will have Zeke make a comment about composing "The Zekinator's Fifth". Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed has children requesting Na'el play several songs from earlier games in the series, including "Bringer of Chaos: Ultimate", meaning it's possible Zeke really did have his own battle theme composed and published.
  • Fiora is widely considered the most powerful Blade in the entire game alongside Poppi QT Pi due to her insanely powerful critical hit and DPS capabilities that allows her to shred through enemies, to the point of rendering Mythra's similar toolkit obsolete if you have her. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the Absurdly Sharp Blade Lucky Seven, a veritable Game-Breaker in its own right and so powerful that it's able to alter reality in-univese, was eventually revealed to be Fiora transformed into a sentient weapon with an existence similar to Pyra and Mythra.
• Ho Yay:
  • Malos' sincere loyalty and affection for Jin stands out as his most human attribute in stark contrast to his otherwise strong Lack of Empathy, to the point of even coming off as ambiguously romantic. One standout moment is towards the end of the game when Malos holds Jin in a close embrace and whispers something intimately into his ear before they part for the last time, so Jin can use the last of his strength to fend off the party as Malos confronts the Architect. Even both of Malos' voice actors weighed on it, with his Japanese VA Yuichi Nakamura having stated in a radio interview that the subtext between them was so strong that he mistook Jin for Malos' female love interest when he first received the script, while his English VA David Menkin had this to say:
  David Menkin: Several of the characters I’ve voiced through the years have let me know that they were queer, without there being anything necessarily implicit in the writing. An example is Malos: nowhere does it say that he is actually in love with Jin... but come on!?
  • Nia is shown snuggling next to Pyra in Tantal for warmth, but the way she reacts suggests she's seemingly into it for more than just convenience. Likewise, when she and Mythra are resting in the hot springs, she praises Mythra's body in such a way that it can come off as not just admiration but also possible attraction. One of the two New Game+ title screens also shows her butting Rex out of the way so that she can hold both Pyra and Mythra's hands for herself, implying that the relationship will not merely be a one-sided harem centered on Rex but that Nia regards Pyra and Mythra as her own lovers as well, in a case of a full-blown Polyamory relationship.
  • While Morag in a sidequest expresses that she herself has no interest in romance, Brighid's devotion to Morag is just as strong as and is treated similarly to the other Driver/Blade relationships which are explicitly shown to have been romantic in nature, with the contrast between the Bifauxnen Morag and the elegantly feminine Brighid resembling a Takarazuka Revue couple.
• I Am Not Shazam: Pneuma does not actually go by that name in-game — fanon merely gave her that name (derived from the original name of Mythra's core crystal) to better differentiate her character from her two other forms. Likewise, the character is not a third separate personality, like a newcomer might suppose — she's actually a combination of Mythra and Pyra's personalities. Nevertheless, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate uses the name for her Spirit, which is as close to making it canon as possible.
• I Knew It!:
  • Many fans have correctly guessed that the Architect is someone from the original Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and that he would be voiced by Adam Howden.
  • After it was stated that players would understand why it's called Xenoblade 2 during the course of the game, the game being a Stealth Sequel was an easy assumption.
  • A common guess before release was that Mòrag and Vandham would join the party due to their prominent placement on the special edition's boxart, which proved true.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • Given that the game is a very Broad Strokes retelling of Xenogears, Amalthus is widely seen by fans who played that game as Krelian "done right", as the latter was considered very Unintentionally Unsympathetic and a Karma Houdini. While Amalthus receives some degree of sympathy from the heroes and his defeat is treated as an Alas, Poor Villain, the writing takes care to have the heroes point out that Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse and whatever suffering Amalthus endured does not make him a good man.
  • Previous attempts to adapt Kunihiko Tanaka's character designs to 3D were infamous for producing some rather extreme examples of Unintentional Uncanny Valley. Meanwhile, the models for Finch, Shulk, Fiora, and Elma, which Tanaka provided guest designs for, are generally considered to be good adaptations of his artwork that manage to avoid looking too uncanny for the most part.
• Inferred Holocaust: A small-scale example. Fans have noted that, because of the fact that Adenine decided to make the World Tree her new home, since the World Tree ends up collapsing following Malos' defeat, there's a high likelihood that unless she's brought into the final fight, Adenine ended up dying when the World Tree fell. Even if this isn't the case, she's still effectively abandoned, being left out of Elysium. A mitigation to this theory is how the final title screen (if it is considered a canon scene) shows that the lower part of the World Tree (where Adenine would have been) is still intact (if now a bit lopsided from the upper part falling apart), and close enough to Elysium to be visible (and certainly within flying distance for a Titan ship).
• Iron Woobie: Rex is quite the chipper young lad, but he's had to put up with a lot in the 14 some years he's been alive. His parents died not long after his birth on the outskirts of the Leftherian Archipelago, he had to take to being a professional Salvager from a young age to keep Fonsett Village from going broke without realizing that Bana's transportation methods took a majority of his donation cuts, Jin outright killed him upon reaching the Ancient Ship, he witnessed firsthand the death of Vandham, he lost Pyra to Malos at the Genbu Crown and nearly quit his adventure out of the guilt of failing to protect her, he was betrayed by Amalthus when trying to scale the World Tree, the Architect put him under a brutal Secret Test of Character that caused him to feel as though he was a bad friend before the façade was lifted, and most painfully of all, he was unable to prevent Pyra and Mythra from committing suicide, with Poppi promising them to prevent Rex from going back for them.
• It Was His Sled:
  • Zeke and Pandoria joining up, since trailers and promotional material made it obvious. It did have the side effect of obfuscating the fact that Mòrag joins first though.
  • The reveal of Mythra's existence as a result of Vandham's death was a shock to almost nobody, not only thanks to her major prominence in promotional material (including the very first trailer for the game), but also thanks to her being advertised as a major part of Torna ~ The Golden Country. Her inclusion as a secondary fighter for Pyra in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate only made her reveal less of a surprise than it already was.
  • Nia is a Flesh Eater Blade. Even the Nintendo Switch Online's selection of icons doesn't even bother to hide this, with this character's design being available as one of the icons to purchase alongside several other characters from the game.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Jin and Malos commit countless atrocities and come close to destroying the entire world, yet some fans leather-pants them and treat them better than the heroic Mythra who just happens to be a harsh tsundere.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of Xenosaga perked up when they saw KOS-MOS had showed up as an extremely powerful rare Blade.
• LGBT Fanbase: The game has a lot of fans in the LGBTQIA+ community due to the varied, attractive and colorful character designs. Most notably, Nia and Jin have backstories that can easily be put through a Rainbow Lens, being particularly relatable to transgender fans. Other characters also get notable attention from queer fans, notably Pyra/Mythra (being the "gateway character" to the game for many fans thanks to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as well as very beautiful women with stripperiffic costumes and whose voice actress is confirmed queer), Mòrag (being a non-sexualized and intimidating yet beautiful Bifauxnen military leader who appeals to Butch Lesbian fans), Zeke (being a Walking Shirtless Scene Large Ham who appeals to Bara Genre fans), Pandoria (a Blade whose English voice actor is non-binary, with a design and personality highly reminiscent of that community), Roc (canonically considered neither male nor female by the game mechanics), Sheba (a canonical Lipstick Lesbian who dreams of an "entourage" of beautiful women), and Corvin (an archetypical twink).
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • The first common Blade Rex gets is a guaranteed wind element Knuckle Claw, almost guaranteed to be the worst quality (due to character level playing a direct factor in how many crowns a common blade will usually get). Rex's Knuckle Claw Arts aren't the best, and it's stuck on Rex forever, even in New Game Plus. ^note The game doesn't automatically save when it's activated, meaning that it's possible to Save Scum until it has more than one crown's worth of quality and/or has good field skills or stat boosts. It's also completely outclassed by Adenine, who shares an element and weapon class and is one of the easiest Rare Blades to get.
  • Godfrey is a Shield Hammer Blade who buffs you at low HP and has a damage bonus against higher leveled enemies—an oxymoronic combination. Going one step further, all three of his Field Skills are only used during Merc Missions and his personal sidequest.
  • Newt, as a fire-element Chroma Katana who boosts HP. Katanas are the dodge tanking weapon, favoring Agility over durability, and they're best wielded by Rex and Mòrag, who already both use fire Blades.
    • Rare Fire Blades in general are considered to be somewhat low tier, simply because you already have two that are good enough and you would much rather use other elements to give better coverage for combos. The only exceptions are Dagas, due to his role as a Support Party Member once his second affinity chart is unlocked, and Crossette, due to her potency in Fusion Combos.
  • Kora generates potions and keeps them on the field and heals you while you move. Far less useful than it sounds since potions are usually plentiful and moving in combat is discouraged, as characters' movement in combat is slowed to a crawl and risks losing affinity with their blades. Not helping is that as an Electric Knuckle Claws blade, she's only really viable on Nia, as the other viable Knuckle Claws user, Zeke, already has Pandoria as his signature blade.
  • Poppi QT is a rather underwhelming blade for Tora. Poppi QT is an evasion-based tank blade that starts out with a fire element core, which immediately becomes redundant when Mòrag and Brighid become party members not long after. Poppi QT's weapons also provide Smash as her driver combo art, which AI Tora rarely uses. The only real uses for her are additional elemental coverage not provided by the other Poppi forms (via Elemental Cores), and using her Smash to complete Driver combos (which, fortunately, the AI does exploit if it sees the opportunity to carry one out).
  • While Pyra is about as popular as Mythra character-wise, it's a different story in gameplay, where she has the misfortune of being a So Okay, It's Average Starter Mon. But what makes this even worse is that Mythra is a Game-Breaker, even after Power Creep, and utterly outclasses her sister in almost every area, giving many players no reason to use Pyra directly. Many fans agree that this imbalance in Mythra's favor was unfair to Pyra given that she was likely intended as the Aegis' more iconic and recognizable form, and it really says something that her most common use in Min-Maxing is to equip her with the extremely weak Amethyst Chip just to give Rex a sizable Agility boost when using Mythra. While Pyra still has some niche uses in post-game optimization (mostly related to Blade and Fusion Combos), it's generally advised to only bring out Pyra for brief spurts for those purposes, if at all, while mostly sticking to Mythra.
  • Nia's signature Blade, Dromarch, is not only considered the worst story Blade but is also often ranked as one of the bottom 5 Blades in the game. Anything he can do, other healing Blades can do better, and his passive skills and stat modifiers are considered subpar. Being almost entirely focused on healing, he also becomes redundant if the player's team uses the popular "crit-heal" strategy. As the final nail in the coffin, not only is Dromarch better to use on Master Driver Rex than on his own Driver, but both of them have access to Fiora and Elma as Twin Rings Moveset Clones, and those are considered two of the best Blades in the entire game. On top of that, Nia herself is a much better Blade for Rex than Dromarch is for either of them, and even she isn't particularly outstanding. It can be said that the only reason why Nia has some niche uses in postgame material is because Dromarch can be de-equipped from her during a New Game Plus.
  • Nia as a Driver is an odd case. In the main story Nia when equipped with Crossette can perform powerful Fusion Comboes all by herself, which makes her the best Driver for speedrun challenges. In post-game and Challenge Mode, however, Nia finds herself outclassed in every weapon type. Rex is better with Twin Rings and Great Axes; Mòrag is better with Megalances and Chroma Katanas; Zeke is better with Ether Cannons and Bitballs; and Tora has the single best Blade in the game and is the best character for Driver Combos, hands-down (which invalidates the fact that Nia gains exclusive Driver Combo Arts on some weapons). The number of Blades that are best on her (Obrona and arguably Sheba) can be counted on one hand, and they are mid-tier at best. Additionally, if Nia is in her Blade form, she's probably the single best healer in the game, but she can only be equipped to Rex and prevents her from being used as a party member.
  • Ursula is one of the strangest examples. Originally she was considered a Game-Breaker of a healer that required a lot of hard work to max her out due to her lengthy sidequest which people hated; but when Challenge Mode came out and the game had insane amounts of Power Creep, Ursula's special ability "Beary Healing" stood out less and less, and typically wasn't the healer for choice anymore, with many more people using Nim or Crossette because Fusion Combos became really strong when combined with QTπ and Overdrive. How good she actually is ended up becoming swiftly debatable with many people starting to prefer the Crit Heal strategy on DPS Blades. In addition, her sidequest still takes an awfully long time to complete and because she's now considered a low tier by many, completing her quest is nothing more than a Bragging Rights Reward.
  • Aegaeon, despite having skills that make him look like a great agility tank on paper, falls flat because aggro in XC2 is mostly based on damage dealt. Aegaeon has barely any offensive presence, making it very difficult for his Driver to keep aggro. Along with Dromarch, he's widely considered one of the worst Legendary Blades in the game, and is widely treated as a Memetic Loser even after being Promoted to Playable in Torna (where he's just as underwhelming).
• Love to Hate:
  • Malos is a monstrous Blade who does some horrible things throughout the game, but he puts up some formidable fights, is the source of many iconic story moments and boasts a fantastic voice performance by David Menkin in the English dub. It makes for a very memorable villain who is simultaneously cool and utterly despicable.
  • Bana is an incredibly corrupt Nopon who sells weapons to terrorists and attempts assassinations and wars just for the money, even to the point of being one of Torna's main enablers without being directly involved. But being a Nopon, he is also Laughably Evil thanks to his ridiculous Large Ham performance and his equally ridiculous Humongous Mecha Robot Maid Rosa.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Chapter 7's climax involves Pyra in an apparent vegetative state, her memories stolen by Malos. Absolutely no one playing expected it to stick.
• Magnificent Bastard: The enigmatic Jin is a Flesh Eater Blade who used to be revered as a hero known as the "Paragon of Torna". Jin succumbed to despair and misanthropy after his kingdom's people were slaughtered and he lost his Driver Lora, and proceeded to found the Organization of Torna with a cabal of fellow misanthropes. A taciturn No-Nonsense Nemesis, Jin curbstomps the heroes almost every time they meet and lectures protagonist Rex on his own personal failings. Jin's most impressive gambit comes when he nearly orchestrates a war between two separate nations as a diversion to his attempt to kill the Architect himself and destroy the world. Not without an immense level of honor, Jin is ultimately so impressed with Rex's personal growth that he gives his life to save Rex and defeat Amalthus in the endgame, recanting his misanthropic ideals and coming to peace with himself. Tragic but utterly driven, the heroes themselves pledge to remember Jin as a "splendid soul" in spite of his atrocious actions.
• Memetic Badass:
  • Turters, despite being a Ridiculously Cute Critter that only shows up in a few scenes, is frequently depicted by fans as a being of immeasurable power, and often gets declared the best character in the game as a joke.
  • Zeke himself also gets this, being a Chuunibyou Large Ham whose mannerisms are comparable to Captain Falcon (complete with an Awesome, but Impractical Signature Move with a name that he yells very bombastically). Often, people joke that Turters is the source of his power or the one controlling Zeke, or inversely, that Zeke is the universe's supreme deity and that Turters is his son, and make up Chuck Norris-esque "facts" about his incredible might. Such as Zeke not being the Aegis' Driver because it would make him less powerful. There's some truth in this with his "Unleash Shining Justice" skill on New Game Plus.
  • Territorial Rotbart "returns" from the first game, and is just as devastating for new players as ever. But also roaming Gormott is the Level 90+ T. Rexpy Ancient Sauros, which while not a Unique Monster, has also gained a reputation for being an unnecessarily powerful newbie-killing monster.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Many players use the Mayne Driver in Torigoth as a punching bag due to being one of the only unique enemies to respawn in the middle of a town. Despite having a Blade, his low level means that it won't be long before the party is one-shotting him every time they pass by.
  • Godfrey is frequently mocked for being one of the worst Blades in the game, even more than the small number of Blades that are even worse than him (such as Electra). Having the worst weapon class in the game (Shield Hammer) with the worst element in the game (Ice) and a bunch of generic battle skills a la Dromarch will do that, on top of having literally no useful Field Skills.
  • While not the worst Blade in the game and still better than Godfrey, Aegaeon is mocked by fans for his underutilization during the main story as well as his general uselessness in battle, being entirely focused on evasion and defense while not having the offensive presence to draw enough aggro to make him useful. It's even worse in Torna ~ The Golden Country, where despite being Promoted to Playable, Aegaeon isn't any more useful and is widely considered the worst character in the game, to the point that Chuggaaconroy treated him as the Butt-Monkey^note rather than the In-Universe Butt-Monkey Mythra during his Torna playthrough.
• Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
• Mis-blamed: The English voice acting got a lot of flak for some of the Narm-filled performances until Skye Bennett revealed while streaming the game that sometimes, the voice actors received entire scripts without the voice direction or context necessary to make situation-appropriate performances, meaning many of the more questionable line deliveries were the result of the voice actors' guesswork. Additionally, she mentioned that said dialogue was mostly done in one take, which implies that the voice actors probably didn't get to re-do any off sounding lines even if they wanted to.
• Moe:
  • Poppi is a cute, lovable Robot Girl whose loyal, childish personality and inexplicably American-accented Nopon speech make her a very endearing character. As she evolves into her QT and then her QTpi form, her appearance becomes less "cutesy" and more "sexy" but she keeps the same base personality and stays firmly within this trope. Her "sister" Lila also firmly falls into this trope after being rescued from her brainwashing, caring deeply about Poppi and being excited to see her succeed and get upgraded.
  • Pyra is a sweet, kindhearted and adorable girl and one of the most lovable and sympathetic characters in the game. While Mythra is a bit more prickly, she isn't without her moments of this either (moe and tsundere traits go hand in hand, after all).
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Bana crosses it when he attempts to assassinate the leaders of Uraya and Mor Ardain all to start a war so he can rake in more profits.
  • Freudian Excuse or no, Amalthus crossed it when he had an entire Titan destroyed (or rather, the remnants of its populace as shown in The Golden Country) to cover up his failed attempt to steal Mythra.
  • The villain of Perun's sidequest, Doctor Castrofari, crosses it with his willingness to kidnap children from all over Alrest in order to turn them into Artificial Blades For Science!.
• More Popular Replacement: Tora is the game's resident Nopon party member. Unlike Tatsu, who embraced every negative stereotype of a Nopon and played it straight, being an unplayable character, and generally being a pain in the ass, Tora, like Riki before them both, is a proper party member. The fanbase for both Tora and Riki are split evenly, as Tora is a serious case of Magikarp Power, eventually getting one of the most powerful blades in the game, while Riki's usefulness throughout his game remains linear, as well as whether or not Tora's increased involvement in the story compared to Riki is a good or bad thing.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • The unique theme that plays when drawing most of the Rare Blades.
  • Any prompt from your Driver teammates whenever they carrying out the Break-Topple-Launch-Smash combo. Tora's "Tumbly-Tumbly!" comes to mind.
  • The "Down!" voice clip that plays when a Chain Attack finishes an enemy and enters Overkill mode, especially if it's against a tough unique monster or a superboss.
  • The short tune that plays when you defeat a Unique Monster.
  • The metallic ding sound that plays when enemies attack you during a state where you're invincible (during the third Special of a Blade Combo, a level 4 Special, or a Chain Attack), since it means the enemy's attack just got negated. Especially satisfying if it was one of the enemy's more annoying or powerful attacks.
  • "Make your dreams a reality!" Usually because it signifies that Rex can now go ham on whatever monster you're facing.

N-S

• Narm:
  • Some of the cutscenes in the English version, and to a lesser extent the Japanese version are a Hong Kong Dub. While this may result in a more natural performance, there are many instances where a dramatic line is delivered before the character's body actually reacts, which just looks plain silly especially when said line is Punctuated! For! Emphasis!, such as Zeke's Establishing Character Moment in the English dub. The Japanese dub at least has characters' lip movements animated to match the dialogue in more important scenes, whereas the English dub has no such privileges.
  • Pyra's unrealistically large and gravity-defying bosom tend to be a major distraction during some cutscenes.
• Narm Charm:
  • While some considered the Ardainian Soldier's lines of "Think you can take me?!" and "Don't forget me!" annoying, others came to love them to the point of them being mourned when they were patched out.
  • Malos's voice acting is among one of the most beloved performances in the English dub due to just how absurdly exaggerated it gets. Even if he is Chewing the Scenery at every moment, it's a sincerely well done performance.
  • The whole game feels like the plot to a shonen anime, and comes with all the over-the-top Narm Charm associated with those types of works.
  • Some of the weaker moments in the English dub can come across as this. Rex's infamous "airplane scream" is an iconic source of hilarity for many fans, and Nia's "Here I come, ready or Gormotti!" is incredibly cheesy but is also endearing and fits her character.
• Never Live It Down: Most detractors of the game's use of modern anime and Fanservice tropes will almost always bring up the bedroom scene between Rex and Mythra as one of the most dubious moments of the game's storytelling and overall quality.
• Nightmare Retardant: After defeating solo Malos in Chapter 7, the subsequent cutscene shows Nia throwing him off a cliff by forcing the cells in his body to replicate extremely quickly. While the scene was intended to showcase the more disturbing aspects of Nia's abilities as a healing Blade, a number of fans instead found it silly thanks to the Fridge Logic of her essentially giving Malos cancer, something that has long been the subject of sophomoric jokes online (e.g. "your post gave me cancer" or "get cancer and die"). Consequently, bringing up the scene with fans will lead to more than a few jokes about Nia having "super cancer" powers.
• One-Scene Wonder: Shulk, outside of his DLC appearances. He's not even seen, yet his one line in the finale is the biggest plot twist of the entire game.
• One True Threesome: Naturally with Rex/Pyra/Mythra as it's the closest thing the game has to an Official Couple, but many fans ascend this to a OT4 by adding Nia to the mix, since she gets many Ship Tease moments with all three of them including confessing her feelings to Rex during Chapter 7 after revealing her true self. The New Game Plus title screen even has Nia tackling Rex out of the way to hold hands with Pyra and Mythra and another one where all four of them hold hands.
  • As it turns out Xenoblade Chronicles 3 did in fact canonize this trope with Rex marrying and having children with Pyra, Mythra and Nia.
• Paranoia Fuel: While she isn't omniscient, Azami can always see her target, regardless of location.
• Player Punch:
  • Word of God says the intended way to play the game is to start from Chapter 1-7, then play Torna ~ The Golden Country, then finish the game. Anyone who plays the game like this is in for a really nasty surprise in Chapter 8 when Jin reveals what happened while the credits were rolling for the DLC.
  • Chapter 6. Pyra is captured and set to be executed. You spend a significant chunk of the chapter without her or Mythra. Then, at the end of the chapter, she turns herself in and is captured again, which is played for all the drama that it's worth.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Pyrex and Mythrex for Pyra/Rex and Mythra/Rex shippers. In Japanese it's Homurex (which can get translated as Homureku) given that Pyra's Japanese name is Homura, though on Pixiv there is also a Rexhom (which can get transalted as Lekhom) tag that some artists prefer using and may require a fan of the ship to search both tags to not miss anything out. The Japanese name for Mythrex meanwhile is Rexhika (which can get translated as Lekhika) or Hikarex (which can get translated as Hikalek) which once again means fans of the ship may need to search both tags.
  • Rexia for Nia x Rex.
  • Outside of the shipping realm, a sisterly platonic example is Pythra or Homuhika/Homuri for Pyra/Mythra and their Japanese names Homura/Hikari as a faster way of saying their names when they're in art together or a faster way for Smash fans to say that they main them.
• Questionable Casting:
  • Nia's English VA has a Welsh accent that sounds unusually adult for a girl who looks as young as Nia. Which can be seen as foreshadowing for Nia being a Flesh Eater - she is an adult.
  • Despite the fact that a lot of characters treat him as a kid, Rex has a noticeably deep English Dub voice for a 15 year old. The game's improper voice direction certainly doesn't help some moments where he had to yell, which can ruin some of the game's more emotional moments.
• Rainbow Lens:
  • Nia's Character Arc relating to her status as a Flesh Eater can be seen as an allegory to transgender people and how they fear being persecuted for their gender identity, try to protect themselves in public, and how they come to terms with it. In particular, the scene of Nia's conversation in the hotspring which was meant to foreshadow her having a Core Crystal can and has been read by many as her talking about having been assigned a different gender at birth. Thus some players who identify as transgender can relate to Nia's struggles.
  • While Pyra is the same gender as Mythra, and was created as a result of trauma rather than dysphoria, her origin as the personification of Mythra's idealized self-image complete with a modified appearance and hyperfeminine personality and presentation, who also seeks acceptance and approval from a world that hates her for somewhat unfair reasons, also makes it popular to interpret her as a transgender allegory. This is furthered at the end of the game, when Klaus calls them "Pneuma," only to correct himself with "No, I should call you Pyra and Mythra." This moment can feel like a parental figure learning to accept a transgender child by using their chosen name.
• Realism-Induced Horror:
  • The feeling of helplessness when dealing with a loved one with suicidal depression and not knowing what to do about it makes up the bulk of Rex and Pyra/Mythra's relationship and the main plot as well.
  • The fear and pain of outliving the people you care about is what ends up not only something that the heroes contemplate in detail, it also is revealed to be the driving motivation of all of the main antagonists.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Pre-release, Vess was mocked due to her strangely proportioned face and her irritating Japanese voice. Once the game came out however many players warmed up to her thanks to her heart wrenching recruitment sidequest, not having to be summoned through the blade core RNG system, decent English voice, and generally being a useful healer with good field skills.
• The Scrappy:
  • Common Blades are hated by many fans. Not only will most players pull countless Common Blades when hunting for Rare Blades, but they also have extremely generic and visually similar designs with very little variation (especially after a player has pulled hundreds of them trying to complete their Rare collection). While some of them have their uses, such as the rare Orb Master and Ultimate Combo abilities and higher-than-normal stat modifiers, they remain one of the biggest reasons the gacha system for Core Crystals is so hated.
  • In keeping with how he's utterly unmemorable in-universe, Muimui is considered by many people to be an unremarkable character with no reason to be in the game, and many people find his voice annoying as well. Being a part of the hugely contentious Chapter 4 Tora subplot doesn't help, and even for those who enjoy the Bana and Rosa shenanigans, Muimui doesn't have much to contribute in terms of humor or entertainment value (as seen in Chapter 6 when Bana pilots Giga Rosa on his own, and in the much better-received Lindwurm sidquest chain where Muimui doesn't appear at all).
• Scrappy Mechanic: Has its own page.
• Scrappy Weapon:
  • The only rare Twin Rings Blade in the game is Dromarch (not counting derivative weapons with similar arts such as Fiora's knives, Obrona's twin swords, and Mikhail's fans), and the only Driver with a Driver Combo Art with them is Nia. Thus Nia is the only Driver who really benefits from investing in the category, while other Drivers prefer Bitballs (which have similar but better Arts, and Rare Blades).
  • Shield Hammers are a mild example. There are two categories of Tank Blades: face-tanking Shield Hammers and dodge-tanking Chroma Katanas. The party's single (standard) Tank Blade specialist is an Agility tank while Tora usually fills out the shield tank role... And cannot use standard blades. Other Drivers can use them in mixed builds, but benefit more from specialization. Most rare Shield Hammers at least have decent special abilities that make them somewhat worthwhile, but most of them aren't the greatest tanks either.
• Self-Fanservice:
  • Some art of Nia tends to amp up her chest area or her curves a little. While these tend to be minor, they're enough to be noticeable in these cases. This is justified as she becomes an outright Ms. Fanservice in her Blade form.
  • Drawing Mythra with a Tomboyish Ponytail is surprisingly common thanks to Rex commenting on how he prefers that hairstyle on her as Pneuma along with this trope.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • The biggest one is between those who ship Nia/Rex against those who ship him either Pyra and Mythra. It doesn't help that Rex at one point puts up a Bait-and-Switch Sentiment on Nia, while ironically, New Game Plus has a title screen where all four hold hands.
  • Even though the game itself pushes a One True Threesome with Rex, Pyra and Mythra together, Pyrex and Mythrex fans still argue over which of the girls is better for him. One would think that their combined form Pneuma would be a compromise between the two sides, but just end up being a third faction.
  • In the end Xenoblade Chronicles 3 revealed Rex married Pyra, Mythra and Nia while also having children with them, giving a canonical ending to the shipping feud though it may not stop fans from arguing.
  • To a minor extent, Morag is either paired up with Zeke as a case of opposites attracting, or with Brighid due to the latter's potential bisexuality.
• Sidetracked By The Golden Saucer:
  • The Tiger Tiger 8-bit game in Tora's House is surprisingly addicting, and is the only source of the items needed to upgrade Poppi. Slips into a Scrappy Mechanic when you realize the Master Mods and Light elemental core have single-digit drop chances. Luckily NG+ lets you buy the items outright.
  • Salvaging can also be pretty addicting and very profitable.
  • Sidequests are everywhere. Spotting a new quest marker on the map is an invitation to stop doing the main story for a while.
  • Gathering all rare Blades in the game is a common goal for completionists. Gathering tons of Rare Blades early in the game is a very distracting goal.
• Signature Scene:
  • Meeting and talking to the Archiect better known to fans as Klaus from the first game and the subsequent re-contextualizing of the entire game is probably the most significant and most talked about scene in the game.
  • ...except for The Reveal that Nia is a Flesh Eater Blade, which is probably the game's emotional scene and its narrative high point.
• Signature Song:
  • Counterattack is the most popular cutscene theme, which usually plays during moments where Rex and the party have the advantage, such as when Mythra or Pneuma awaken. It also has a remix in Smash Ultimate.
  • Drifting Soul is a track which plays during the aforementioned reveal that Nia is a Flesh Eater, as well as a vocal version for Vandham's death and a cutscene before the final boss as well as the cutscene after the final boss of Torna. The instrumental version also appeared in Pyra and Mythra's reveal trailer for Smash. Similarly to Jump Up Super Star it got rather popular, having almost 2 million views on Youtube.
  • Mor Ardain - Roaming the Wastes is the most popular overworld song by a large degree, being used often in Youtube Videos. It also is in Smash.
  • You Will Recall Our Names is the most popular battle theme, used for some bosses and Unique Monsters and plays during the battles immediately following Mythra's and Pneuma's aforementioned awakenings. Similarly to the rest of them, it is in Smash Ultimate.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The plot moves at a very slow pace until Chapter 5, where the last of your main party joins, allowing players to finally take proper advantage of most of the game's various mechanics and systems, and it's also when the plot finally begins to transition from its mostly comedic tone into a much faster-moving and serious plot. Some have also argued that it takes until Chapter 7 to really hit its stride, as just about all the major plot-relevant mechanics have finally been introduced, the writing becomes more thoughtful and philosophical, and the story starts dropping Wham Episodes left and right.
• So Bad, It Was Better: The developers patched the game after release to remove the repetition of the Ardainian Soldiers saying, "Think you can take me?! Don't forget me! You're done!", in order to keep another "You'll pay for your insolence" situation from happening. Unfortunately, fans also considered it the most charming aspect of the Ardainian Soldiers, especially with how much of a Fountain of Memes Captain Padraig is, so the change ended up being lamented instead of welcome.
• Sophomore Slump: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is generally very well regarded and remains a fan favorite, but it tends to be considered the most controversial among fans of the franchise. This is due to multiple controversial changes, such as ditching quite a few well liked elements of the first game, such as the Affinity Chart (in the first game, it showed the relationships between various groups and NPCs as well as how they shift, in the second one, it is simply a skill tree), as well as having a plethora of Scrappy Mechanics, like a gacha system to obtain new blades and very uninformative tutorials. Xenoblade Chronicles 3, in comparison, fixed up a lot of the problems fans had with the first and second games, both gameplay and story-wise (such as Tamer and Chaster designs after the impractial outfits of the second game and very extensive tutorials), which made it far more warmly received by the fanbase. Fittingly enough, this echoes the reception of the Xenosaga games, where Part II was generally well-received but considered the weakest entry.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • In Chapter 2, Rex devises a plan to depower Mòrag by exploiting Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors and sending a tank full of water clattering to the ground. When the top falls off, it looks a lot like a bowl filled with jelly instead.
  • When falling below a death barrier with ground underneath (such as Uraya's tail), your character's model will still be in their falling animation, but awkwardly floating above the ground, letting you move them around a bit for a few seconds before respawning.
  • Female characters' breasts briefly jiggle for no apparent reason when the camera cuts to a new angle during cutscenes. The game engine likely counts this repositioning as movement and plays the appropriate animation. ^note From a development perspective, this probably means that the movement mechanics were programmed with the model's position hard coded to follow whatever they used character's base, but they didn't leave a way to properly unhook it when the camera moves but the character is locked.
  • Portable mode's low resolution, combined with the game's heavy anti-aliasing, makes everything more blurry than intended. Bizarrely this doesn't apply to menus or the HUD.
  • During in-engine cutscenes there is an invisible field around the party that prevents background characters that perform their walk cycle from photobombing the scene. As a result, background characters will sometimes visibly fade out of existence as they approach the party, only to reappear a few meters away. This becomes especially noticeable when it happens to large monsters.
  • The early cutscenes in Torigoth can run at abysmal frame rates even in docked mode and after plenty of patches to improve it, mostly due to the demanding lighting.
  • In the Cliffs of Morytha, the area is designed to appear as a giant series of cliffs positioned above a gigantic, black pit below the area. However, by walking to the southern section of Morytha Falls (where Machine-Gun Julio's tombstone is) and looking towards the north, it is very easy to see the world's model, instead of reaching down to emulate a cliff, simply cuts off flatly, in a manner very similar to floating Super Mario 64 levels such as Whomp's Fortress.
  • Characters all have various idle animations to help them express personality or feelings. Unfortunately, only their bodies animate while their faces remain neutral resulting in motions where the face clearly should animate to match the motion but doesn't. The only variations that the faces have are blinking, the mouth moving during field dialogue, and changing from a "neutral" to a "serious" expression when initiating combat (the latter is much more noticeable with Tora than with other party members).
  • The Torna Blades in NG+ sport "unique" weapons that are actually palette swaps of pre-existing weapon classes. For the most part they work well (even with Akhos giving his Driver an axe instead of a bow).... except for Sever and his weapon. Despite the sword-like appearance of Sever's Tonfa, it is modeled after the Knuckle Claw weapon class. As a result, his Driver will instead be attacking with the sword's hilt and their free hand rather than with the actual blade. Sever himself will still use the blade in some of his specials, however.
  • Certain game assets may be loaded in before their textures are finalized(particularly after fast-traveling or salvaging), making them appear very smooth and simple for several seconds.
  • Unlike with Shulk and Fiora, none of the main cast recorded any new voiced dialogue for Elma's inclusion. As such, her sole cinematic cutscene has only her speaking while the Alrest characters remain silent. None of the Drivers say the names of her arts and use their generic switch-in lines for her. Lastly, all post-battle dialogue with her reuses voice lines for the Alrest gang.
• Squick:
  • Depending on how you look at it, the romance between Rex and Pyra. Setting aside the fact that one of these characters is technically hundreds of years old, Pyra has the appearance, mentality, and voice of an adult woman, while Rex looks like a younger teen. Possibly made worse when you realize it's the other way around, and that Pyra has only experienced several weeks of life, outside of the Elysium dream realm, at most by the time she starts falling for Rex. It's not much better for Mythra, who's only been alive for perhaps less than two years outside of sleep and some time in the Elysium dream realm.
  • Tora's maid fetish, given Poppi's pre-pubescent intial appearance, has some rather... unfortunate implications. It's toned down in the English localization, and also mitigated by the fact that he never actually succeeds at his efforts to sexualize her thanks to Pyra and Brighid's efforts, as well as Poppi having a third form that looks like an adult.
  • Theory wears a fairly skimpy bikini bottom with a pose that shows off her buttocks. However, she also arguably looks and behaves like she's barely twelve.
  • Nia's Blade costume gets this reaction from a solid portion of the audience, due to how fanservicey it is despite the fact that she's stated by the story to have the appearance of someone close to Rex in age, when Rex is a young teen who is already a case of Younger Than They Look.
• Star Trek Movie Curse: Internal example, as a result of the writing process alternating between two main writers. The odd-numbered chapters tend to be fairly unanimously well-received due to having a higher concentration of effective drama and character moments, as well as usually being Wham Episodes, whereas the even-numbered ones prior to the reveal of Pneuma tend to be either more light-hearted Breather Episodes to the point of Mood Whiplash or have more of the segments typically considered tedious or otherwise highlighted by detractors to criticize the writing, with Chapter 4 being the most controversial of them all.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The first part of the background music for the Old Factory/Cliffs of Morytha sounds very similar to the beginning of the theme song for Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
• Superlative Dubbing:
  • While the English Dub of the game is generally considered a mixed bag overall, there are several standout performances. Of note is David Menkin's extremely over-the-top and fun Large Ham performance as Malos, which has been near-universally praised by everyone who has played the game with the English dub. Skye Bennett is also well-liked as Pyra and Mythra and Pneuma, giving the character(s) just the right amount of charm and likability and pulling off a flawless standard American accent (to the point that some people believed that the dub was an International Coproduction rather than exclusively UK-based). Other acclaimed performances include Catrin Mai-Huw (Nia), Kirsty Mitchell (Mòrag), Daniel Barker (Zeke) who was a personal favorite of Chuggaaconroy, and the late Stephen Critchlow (Bana), who was particularly beloved for his line delivery and comedic timing. Adam Howden and Carina Reeves, who were praised as Shulk and Fiora in the first game, also return to voice their characters as Blades.
  • Around Chapter 6 (where the plot becomes more serious and dramatic), the English dub improves considerably, with stronger performances from the main cast (most notably Rex) and far fewer infamous narm moments. This quality was then carried over and improved upon in Torna ~ The Golden Country, which had a dub that was more widely praised all around.

T

• That One Boss:
  • Chapter 3's penultimate boss fight against Akhos and Malos. Akhos's Blade, Obrona will constantly inflict the Shackle Blade debuff, which prevents the player from using Blade Specials while also reducing Affinity. Both of them are also Drivers, which means they can interrupt the player's combos using their max Affinity barriers. Coupled with how hard both of them hit, and you got a tough boss fight ahead of you. To make matters worse, Vandham is Killed Off for Real midway through the boss fight, which may be a problem if you've been relying on him for some time. Thankfully, you also get Mythra at the same time during fight.
  • Chapter 4's penultimate boss fight against Patroka and Mikhail also deserves a mention. Patroka's attacks hit very hard, while Mikhail acts as a tank who can interrupt the player's attacks and forcibly draw all aggro to him. And just like Akhos and Malos, they're both Drivers and can gain max Affinity barriers to shrug off player attacks. And while Mórag does join the party midway through the fight, they'll only have one Blade available to help. Although thankfully should you lose with Mórag in your party, you can go and awaken more Blades on them.
  • The battle against Aeshma's Core and Power Lines is frustrating. The former is completely unkillable, and so, you must destroy Power Lines to stop it. However, after taking about half its HP in damage, the Power Lines gain incredibly strong Spikes. You're better off destroying that thing fast, because the Core just keeps attacking, frequently inflicting Blowdown.
  • Chapter 10's phantom party members easily fall into this. For starters, Rex is on his own, and without Pyra/Mythra or even Nia to help. He must fight all of his other party members in sequence, and they're usually a higher level than he is (and these bosses are indeed the same level as your party members when you last left them). Without many ways of healing himself, it takes a certain strategy to get through each phase of this nightmare. The worst by far would be phantom Mòrag, who attacks fast, and without mercy. It's highly advisable to make use of a Shield Hammer Blade just to survive, or to cheese the fights by taking your party to an inn and leveling up Rex and only Rex.
  • All of Jin's boss fights. If he isn't completely avoiding all damage and hitting the entire party with Blowdown with Empty Moment or forcing Launch with Stunned Swallow, he's running through the entire Driver Combo at once to deal ridiculously high burst damage with Heavenly Disrupt, cancelling any affinity bonuses with Skyward Slash, sealing off healing with Zero Zone, and dealing high damage to the entire party with Bladeless Blade. On top of that, his high natural evasion rate means even hitting him is difficult. The only thing really holding him down is that he's a Glass Cannon supreme; the fight where this isn't the case (the fight with him and Malos atop the Cliffs of Morytha) is generally considered one of the most difficult bosses in the game not only because Malos is quite difficult on his own right when you fought him alone before but also for the first phase of the fight it's the only Jin fight where you don't have Pyra/Mythra.
  • The fight against Malos is similarly hard. Just like the Jin and Malos fight, Rex doesn't have Pyra/Mythra, so if you use him, your damage output is severely dampened unless you've taken the time to train up Rex with a similarly powerful Blade like Corvin or KOS-MOS. And all of his moves are frustrating to deal with. Striker Edge can deal heavy damage and inflicts knockback, so if your tank gets hit while they're on the edge of the crater, they're bound to fall. Monado Cyclone inflicts Blowdown on the entire party and Malos can use it far more often than his other arts. Jail prevents you from using your specials which is incredibly obnoxious if you were in the middle of a blade combo. Armor reduces the damage Malos takes and also reduces the time you have to do your Blade Combos. Monado Eater deals heavy damage AND lowers your Blades' affinity. And finally, Monado Buster deals heavy damage and inflicts Blowdown on his target, although he typically only gets to use this once during the fight. All in all, this equals to a boss that can continually hamper your damage output and is difficult even a few levels above his.
  • If the player doesn't set up orbs quickly enough to finish him off with a chain attack, Amalthus can be quite tricky. Guilty Road deals high damage to one character and inflicts blowdown, which can potentially launch your character straight into the bottomless pit in the middle of the arena. Domination shackles your Blades, God Rage makes him temporarily invincible and launches the entire party, Sacred Arrow can KO your entire party if your are too close to him, and Resurrection will restore a good portion of his health. In addition, his auto attack is one of the most powerful in the game, meaning that if your tank ever loses the aggro he can run through the other characters in seconds.
• That One Level:
  • Uraya's stomach can be a labyrinth for players unfamiliar with the place. To get to Fonsa Myma, the gang must dislodge a dam in order to open up a floodgate (which happens to be heavily guarded by a few enemies that can deal Blowdown and Knockback, which has the potential to ruin a lot of progress), plus there are a ton of hostile, aggressive enemies on the road. Word of advice: Ignore the giant staircase seemingly leading up to the city; there's no way to access it without getting to Fonsa Myma proper first.
  • Going through the old industrial district in Mor Ardain is a chore. It's another labyrinth full of windy turns, locked doors, and misleading passages, along with high level enemies watching the outdoor path.
  • The second half of the Old Factory in Mor Ardain can be very difficult if you've neglected to equip Rex or Nia with any Tank blades. Even if you have however, it remains difficult to traverse because the game takes Tora—who is the party’s dedicated Tank by default—from you, leaving you to go through the rest of the dungeon and the first phase of the boss with only two party members.
  • The journey through Tantal can be quite the journey in all the wrong ways. Like Uraya, it's a cryptic maze with misleading passages, often going through Guide Dang It! levels of design. The gang must hop from island to island on the way down the lower levels, often needing to make improvised bridges to get across. This place is also full of obstacles that require a lot of ice mastery to overcome.
  • Chapter 7 is That One Chapter's worth of this trope:
    • The Spirit Crucible Elpys is one long, twisted dungeon full of narrow pathways, a wide variety of hazards surrounding them, and enemies that have easy access to the Blowdown effect. To make things worse, the interior of the cave inhibits Blade abilities, preventing you from using past level 1 specials and thus sealing off the Blowdown (unless you somehow managed to equip one of Poppi's forms with a Wind Elemental Core) and weakening healing Arts. To top everything off, the first time you go through the area you'll be doing so without Pyra and Mythra, meaning Rex isn't dealing nearly as much damage. Even if you have the DLC, forget about using Shulk or Fiora on your first playthrough because you can't take them into Alrest until you beat the game once, though Poppibuster and (if you're crafty enough) Elma are options.
    • The Cliffs of Morytha are even worse. Full of aggressive fliers at high levels (including a deadly Unique Monster, no less), windy tunnels, cryptic passages, and well as having two of the hardest story bosses in the game, this place is an absolute nightmare to trek through. Like the Spirit Crucible Elpys, Pyra and Mythra will be absent the first time you get through this area. Fortunately, the DLC provides easy access to Crossette and Corvin, two very powerful Blades with the same elemental typing that can work as temporary substitutes, and unlike in Spirit Crucible Elpys, they can be used at full power.
  • Chapter 8 specifically the Land of Morytha. For one you are restricted to only Rex for most of it, and while he does have the master program and a new form of the Aegis, the player still won't be able to use chain attacks and special combos are harder to pull off. The area is also comprised mostly of enemies with high HP, can change their element to match your current element, and have a suicide attack if you don't kill them fast enough. The area is also full of thin hallways where you are guaranteed to encounter multiple enemies at once. While players will initially be happy to use Pneuma after a whole chapter of having to rescue Pyra/Mythra and having them unavailable, many of them will likely be forced to use her as a crutch to get through the level instead of just enjoying her new powers.
  • Chapter 9. There is a section where you cross a long open air pathway to get close to the next story point but there are a ton of flying enemies circling around. Getting into a battle with one especially in certain areas draws several of them into the battle overwhelming you.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Customizing party members' outfits is gone, meaning you're stuck with the default outfits, a lot of which are divisive or regarded as ugly.
    • Unless you have the expansion pass and are willing to grind for the alt-color outfits (and the few true alternate costumes).
  • The Affinity Chart in the first two games tracked NPC locations and relationships. In this game it's an individual's skill tree.
  • Enemies now aggro based on sight alone, unless they're non-hostile. Earlier games had a variety of triggers for enemy aggression.
  • You can't make changes to your loadout before boss fights anymore.
  • NPCs don't have audio clips when spoken to, unlike 1 and X. Hearing them talk in a cutscene can be REALLY jarring.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Roc. Rex inherits his core crystal and bonds him in chapter 4, after which he and his 100% unique field skill play no further role in the story. Especially bad in chapter 7, where Rex wields the Dual Scythes during a cutscene. With Pyra/Mythra being benched in that chapter, it could have been a perfect opportunity for Rex to bond with Roc and for the two to reminisce about Vandham.
  • Vandham. Cool Old Guy with a unique design and good chemistry with the party, who dies in the same chapter he's introduced. His death is supposed to be a major turning point for Rex, so it's surprising how little he's brought up.
  • Tora. Fairly prominent in the first half of the game, his arc basically ends after chapter 4, even though Artificial Blades are important during the endgame.
  • Aegaeon completely disappears from the story after Niall's death returns Aegaeon to his Core Crystal, appearing only in a Heart-to-Heart and a late-game sidequest.
  • Dromarch. Outside of being Nia's personal butler, he remains static for the entirety of the story. While he is present in a majority of cutscenes and participates in a number of Heart-to-Hearts, his interactions with the cast never give the audience more insight into his character or give him character development. Even his interactions with Gramps, as nice as they are, are few and far between. He gets it particularly bad in Chapter 7, the chapter that puts a great deal of focus into Nia's character development. Rather than seeing their relationship with each other explored, the most we get with Dromarch is the reveal that he was the former blade of Nia's "father". By the end of the game, Dromarch is left with no arc explored and no character development.
  • Dolmes, Dughall's Blade. Some fans were disappointed that he was never added as a recruitable Blade in postgame updates, especially since he sports a very unique design and how some players felt sorry for him being mistreated by Dughall. He does appear as a boss in one of the challenge battles of Challenge Mode from the DLC, however.
  • Lila, who was also never added as a recruitable Blade. Although this is somewhat mitigated by how Poppi QT shares much of her moveset.
  • True Rosa in Challenge Mode. While the fight itself is fairly well-done and is challenging but fair even on Bringer of Chaos, many fans found the Rosa fights during the main story to be hilarious thanks to Bana's and Muimui's Large Ham voice clips. True Rosa, meanwhile, is completely silent and apparently pilot-less, making her come across as little more than a Creepy Doll version of a Humongous Mecha and causing the battle to lack the laugh-out-loud moments of the story ones. It wouldn't have meant much for Bana and/or Muimui to return in the battle, seeing as Challenge Battles have little regard for canon, or even for True Rosa to be piloted by Tatazo or someone similar with a new set of comical voice clips.
  • While many fans were elated that Shulk and Fiora returned as DLC Blades, the superboss battle that unlocks them for use during the main game is against a bunch of generic dinosaur enemies with no real connection to the first game rather than, say, Metal Face or a similar boss from Bionis/Mechonis, which would have provided for a much more coveted challenge and an easy contender for Best Boss Ever if designed well.^note The Land of Challenge seems to have very little regard for canon, considering that there's a level where you play as Jin (though expressly explained as recreation of his earlier attack on the Ardainian transport ship), so it would have been very easy to handwave why Rex and co. are fighting someone/thing that was already defeated in Shulk's universe.
  • Mikhail, specifically the recruitable Blade version of him on New Game Plus. Despite being a major character in Torna ~ The Golden Country as a child and retaining his memories because he was originally human, he doesn't have any special interactions with Mythra, Brighid or Aegaeon, three Blades who he traveled and spent time with for the entire game. Mythra most of all, considering how Mikhail and Milton were good friends who were often seen together and how Mythra was close to both of them, and how Milton's death was the very reason why she went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and sealed herself away.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Garfront Mercenaries after chapter 3, despite Rex being named their leader, come up once more during the story and rarely in sidequests.
  • Rex becoming the Master Driver lets Rex engage any Blade in the party except Poppi. The party never remarks on the ability nor the costume change, and the term Master Driver is mentioned exactly once, in a different context.
  • The scene with Queen Raqura that takes place after Niall's sacrifice. Raqura mentions her suspicion regarding the Aegis, which hints that Uraya could become an enemy to the main party, but the scene has no impact on the plot. It's particularly egregious when Queen Raqura is directly involved in the final Mercenary Rank quest yet seems to have completely forgotten about her concern with the main party.
  • The Internal Reveal that Nia is a blade in Chapter 7. While there is a bit of contention following the scene, it's immediately dropped, rather than used to explore the theme of death further due to Nia being able to revive characters shortly after death, but choosing not to at previous points of the story. The issue is never brought up again.
  • Some of the Secret Areas in the game are disappointing, but arguably none more so than the Lost Capital Judicium in Temperantia. Despite its connections to lore (including its importance to Flesh Eater/Blade Eater technology) and its name suggesting something really important and interesting, it just consists of more empty land with a few insignificant details on the wall. Given that Temperantia has a huge unused area with (mostly) proper collision that can be explored via an exploit, it's very plausible that much more was planned for Temperantia before the final release.
• Too Cool to Live:
  • A respectable mentor to the main protagonist, a badass leader of a mercenary group with a clear understanding of the shades of grey the setting is composed of, has a unique weapon and Blade, can't have core crystals bonded to them. Yep, Vandham might as well start picking out their tombstone now.
  • Haze/Fan la Norne. Their unique ability to nullify Blades let them hold off Torna and bring Jin down to a level the protagonists could match, so of course Fan la Norne is quickly killed by Jin.
  • Jin himself, for that matter. Face it, the game was never going to let you have the strongest non-Aegis Blade in Alrest, Paragon of Torna, and perhaps the only person who could convince Malos to stand down as a permanent party member, no matter how close to a Heel–Face Turn he gets. While Jin does get a well-deserved act of redemption in finishing off Amalthus, it comes at the cost of his life.
• Tough Act to Follow: Considering the near-universal praise of the first game and the generally well received status of X, 2 had a lot to live up to. Opinions comparing it to its predecessors and successor vary, as while it's still considered a good game in its own right, it's quite the Contested Sequel. While there are elements that are praised, and some elements that are better than past games, compared to the games that came before and after, 2 is considered by some fans to be a Sophomore Slump for the series.
• Trans Audience Interpretation:
  • As mentioned under Rainbow Lens, while Nia's story can be interpreted as a metaphor for being transgender, some fans interpret her as being transgender in the literal sense for a number of reasons including her androgynous appearance that she hides under loose fitting clothes, her established ability to shapeshift to hide her Blade form, and the double meanings behind her dialogue working out the same way if she were. Fans also noted that her Core Crystal colors as well as her Candy Stripe outfit conveniently match the colors of the transgender pride flag almost exactly, so while it's not stated whether the palette was a deliberate reference to the flag, it's been popularly embraced as a form of Queer Colors anyway.
  • It's also not uncommon for fans to interpret Mórag as a trans woman, since she has an androgynous Bifauxnen appearance and a very deep voice courtesy of Mitsuki Saiga that could be mistaken for a man's (to the point that Saiga is frequently typecast as explicit trans women). In addition she's shown as being somewhat sensitive over other characters mistaking her for male, despite her masculine appearance and mannerisms. The existence of Sena in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, who is vaguely implied to be related to Brighid and possibly even her daughter, caused an increase in the number of fans who believe Mórag may be a trans woman, and that if Sena is Brighid's daughter, she may have helped her conceive.

U-Z

• Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
  • Previous Xeno games had somewhat uncanny models; 2 has its anime aesthetic to avert that for the most part. That said, some Rare Blades look very odd in profile because they were drawn by guest artists. The fact that some animations appears to be the result of motion capture can also make the models appear uncanny to some due to the mixture of styles not blending well.
  • The new models and animation style are also not completely without issue - some characters, especially Zeke and Rex, open their jaws to extreme ranges that can be quite unsettling. Zeke is the Comic Relief, making this less of a problem with his scenes, but Rex doing this in several serious scenes results in multiple instances of Narm.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • Amalthus. His final moments come across as this to many due to his actions causing many of the events in the story, and that his supposed generosity to refugees is undone by his desire to secretly kill them all with sadistic glee, eventually becoming even worse than the ones who killed his mother or took for granted his generosity.
  • Albina in the "Mellica the Chorister" sidequest. We're supposed to sympathize with her jealously over members of Indol's choir being essentially set for life, and her desperation to achieve that status to escape poverty. It's a little hard to, given that she's a child who hires mercenaries to murder another child and receives zero punishment for this. Her target instantly forgives and befriends her after hearing her backstory, while most players are left thinking she got off easy for what she did.
• Unexpected Character:
  • KOS-MOS, or KOS-MOS Re: in the Japanese version, from Xenosaga appears in the game as a Rare Blade, based on her Episode I appearance.
  • The lack of any overt connections between X and the first game established Xenoblade as a Thematic Series. So the following characters being in 2 made players really surprised.
    • The Monado, and being wielded by one of the toughest bosses in the game Malos during the climax of Chapter 7, catches players by surprise in more ways than one.
    • Very few, if any, expected Klaus to appear again, let alone be the Architect, but even fewer expected Shulk (or more specifically their voice) in the finale reciting their lines from the final battle against Zanza, showing that both Xenoblade games take place at the same time.
    • The Zohar from Xenogears and Xenosaga, called "the Conduit," is revealed to be the object used by Klaus to create the universe of Xenoblade. Which also has the effect of connecting the first Xenoblade back to to those two games as well by way of Revision.
  • Version update 1.4.0 introduces two new blades : The Expansion Pass adds Poppibuster, an artificial Blade that can be equipped on any member of the party sans Tora, and KOS-MOS' rival T-elos from Xenosaga.
  • Challenge Mode adds two characters nobody expected: Shulk (now in the flesh) and Fiora as Blades for your party. Which means that you can have all the normal Drivers use the Monado.
    • One of the challenges involves Tora fighting other Nopon characters. This starts from minor characters from Xenoblade 2, then advances into fighting Nopon from Xenoblade Chronicles X, including Tatsu, then moves onto fighting Nopon from the first Xenoblade Chronicles, including Riki. The final enemy in the challenge is Monopon, the Nopon mascot of the Xenoblade 2 Twitter page.
    • A later update to Challenge Mode would see the inclusion of Elma, straight from Xenoblade Chronicles X, as a recruitable Blade. To say that players were surprised and excited at the prospect of having every Xenoblade protagonist in the same party would be an understatement.
• Values Dissonance: Rex receiving Ship Tease with Pyra and Mythra has received Squick criticisms due to how Rex is a particularly young-looking 15-year-old while both Pyra and Mythra physically look like late teen/young adults, although their mental age is more complicated and ambiguous. This criticism is far more prevalent in the west though as Westerns take romances between an adult and a minor far more seriously than Japanese do. Granted, Torna ~ The Golden Country reveals and hints that Mythra supposedly has the physical appearance and personality of someone in their late teen, lessen some view over the relationship.
• Vindicated by History: The game was immensely controversial upon first release in part due to its clearly-unfinished state, as well as other issues such as the numerous Stripperiffic wildly-clashing character designs, and its questionable Hong Kong Dub voice acting. However, the reveal that many of these issues were the direct result of a Troubled Production^note The studio was working at a fraction of its normal capacity due to many of the staff being pulled from the team to work on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; the inconsistent and highly fanservicey character designs as well as the poor animation quality and lack of lipsyncing or voice direction that plagued many of the game's cutscenes are the result of Monolith Soft outsourcing and cutting corners in order to release the game on schedule, greater awareness of the game's latter half which is considered more in line with Monolith Soft's previous work than the Denser and Wackier (and to many, tedious) first half, post-release QOL and content patches remedying a lot of the initial gameplay issues, and Torna: The Golden Country adding valuable nuance to some of the game's most contested characters, have caused the game to be seen in a much more positive light these days.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Just like its predecessors, the world is wide open and beautiful. And this time the faces are good too!
• Watched It for the Representation: A fair number of players expressed additional interest in the English dub due to its use of accents infrequently seen outside of UK-exclusive media, such as North English and Welsh accents on the protagonists.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Chuggaaconroy has pointed out that the game can be seen as an allegory of Global Warming, with the main goal of the game is seeking a place which will bring total peace to all the titans, which as a result, will bring an end to all wars of the world. The causes of all the war tensions in the game are because the titans are dying and countries have to take land from other titans in order to survive, similar to how the rising sea levels are causing similar conflicts in real life. In one heart-to-heart, Nia finds out that Mor Ardain specifically has been using their high temperatures in order to make their society more prosperous, but they still have to deal with the fact that their titan is dying out soon. Adding to this, an authoritarian superpower (Indol) is directly responsible for hogging resources and contributing to the poor state of the world, all to reinforce its hegemony and satisfy the ambitions of its leader (Amalthus). All of this evokes not only an Anti-War message but also a pro-environment one as well. That being said none of the developers have confirmed if this was their intention or not.
• The Woobie: The Architect Klaus, who as a consequence of desperately trying to save his own world from destroying itself ends up destroying the world himself and sending his colleagues into parallel universes, including his friend Galea and half of his own body into the world of the first Xenoblade. And despite successfully recreating life on the planet he becomes despondent when seeing the new humanity follow the same path as the old one, including their own worst traits. This makes him not even try to stop Malos from activating Aion to destroy everything he created, seeing it as proof his atonement was doomed from the start. Thankfully seeing Rex and Pyra/Mythra's determination and optimism as well as hearing Shulk's last line to Zanza, allows him to finally make peace with himself and create a new Elysium for his created humanity to live in.
• Woolseyism: Quite a few instances of Dub Name Change were pretty well thought out. Overall, the English translation takes liberties to transform the world into a British-isle-centric mythology, especially with Welsh influence.
  • Numerous characters have their names changed completely from Japanese to English, but retaining their Meaningful Name tropes:
    • A poppy is a kind of flower, and Poppi's Japanese name is "Hana", which means flower. Her alternative forms are puns on Japanese 'net slang for female elementary, high school and college students. The English dub changes this to puns on "cutie" and "cutie pie", keeping the slang while erasing the Squick.
    • Homura and Hikari are common Japanese girls names that mean "fire" and "light" respectively. In the West the girls are named Pyra and Mythra, which are not typical names but keep the theme with a Western bent.
    • The leader of Torna is named "Shin" in Japanese. In English, he gets a Barely-Changed Dub Name to "Jin", which means both "man" and "blade" in Japanese fitting with his status as a half-human half-Blade Flesh Eater and also lets him share a name with Jin Uzuki from Xenosaga.
    • Byakko, named after the Chinese mythological animal, becomes Dromarch, after the Welsh hound Dormach.
    • Several of the Rare Blades utilize similar or new references in their translated names. For example, Dahlia's Japanese name "Tsuki" refers to the Japanese legend of the rabbit in the moon, while her English name references her affinity for flowers and resemblence to Dolly Parton. Adenine's names both contain scientific references, with her English name referring to one of the bases of DNA and her Japanese name being roughly translated to "formula."
  • Nia calls Zeke "Shellhead". The accompanying One-Eyed Monster joke is based on a Japanese pun; rather than translate both awkwardly they're separate in the conversation.
  • "Flesh Eater" was originally "Man Eater" in Japanese. This changed in English due to the term having very different connotations, and to emphasize the cannibalistic aspect.
  • At the end of Chapter 7, Malos refers to himself as an "Eraser" in Japanese. The English dub changed this to "Endbringer" to connect to Xenoblade Chronicles X and that game's superboss "Telethia The Endbringer".
  • Many fans think that Nia's Dub Personality Change from a childish Token Mini-Moe in the Japanese to a more cynical, foulmouthed Deadpan Snarker with a deeper voice is a more sensical choice that fits with her true identity as a a Blade and a Flesh Eater with a more physically mature true form.
  • In the Japanese version, the countries and kingdoms are named after the Latin words for the Seven Deadly Sins. ^note  Luxuria, Avaritia, Gula, Invidia, Acedia, Superbia, and Ira. The English version still retains the motif of the sins, but their names are derived from words in other langauges besides just Latin.

---