Now that the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy is over, the series is looking to go forward. Straying away from the first 3 games plots. While the DLC story for Xenoblade 3 is yet to release, fans have a feeling that this will contain tons of fanservice and references. The main game tries to separate itself as its own identity, despite its ties to both previous games. This DLC will likely contain an epilogue story that tells us more about where the series is going next. In a Ask the Developer Interview Takahashi and the other developers explain that Xenoblade 3 will set up the future of the series, however the ending of the main game does not.
You can experience the entire trilogy on Nintendo Switch right now. I would recommend waiting for the digital version of Xenoblade 2 to go on sale as the physical version is almost impossible to track down. I got spoiled for both Xenoblade 1 and 2′s stories but they are still my favorite RPG tales. Due to questionable character designs and a slow beginning many don’t give 2 a chance. Through this article I will tell the grand ambitious and legendary tale of Alrest, in this Xenoblade 2 recap!
Check out the other parts of this Xenoblade trilogy recap:
A Sea Of Clouds, Journeying Upon A Titan
The Beginning Of A New World
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was released in 2017 and takes place at the same time as Xenoblade 1. The story follows a salvaging 15-year-old named Rex in the world of Alrest. In Alrest there is no land, no ground, no surface, only an endless Cloud Sea. The residents of Alrest all find themselves living on the backs of these huge sentient creatures known as Titans. The Blades, weapon-based beings, also inhabit this world. Blades are awakened from Core Crystals which can only be activated by other life forms. The Architect did this in hopes of creating a way to protect all life. Their “Driver” bonds with the Blade’s life and if their Driver dies they return to their Core Crystal with their memories lost. Only to await for another Driver to reawaken them once again.
The only Blades that do not do this are the Aegises. These are extremely powerful Blades that were made by the Architect, the creator of all of Alrest. They are able to control the fabric of reality itself. Their purpose is to act as a data log of sorts for the Architect. Randomly, one of them triggered a space-time transition event causing it to disappear (likely to become the Monado AI, Alvis,of Xenoblade 1‘s world). One inhabitant of Alrest steals the other two cores.
The one who took the cores was Amalthus, a vengeful person who wanted revenge on the world. He awakened the Core Crystal of one of the Aegies which would be influenced by his mind to take the form of the destructive Aegis known as Malos. Amalthus gives the other Crystal to Adam the prince of a highly esteemed Titan, Torna. Adam awakens it as the Blade Mythra. Adam and Mythra would not be together for long as eventually Adam sealed her away after not being worthy of wielding her true blade.
The Aegis, Pyra and Mythra
The Present Story
500 years pass and over the course of this Malos forms a group named after the titan which tragically fell, Torna. This organisation seeks to kill the Architect and destroy all human life on Alrest due to the pain and suffering of Blades life cycles.Torna consists of a few powerful Blades and Drivers. The most notable members are the leader of Torna, Jin a Blade who can manipulate particles and move incredibly fast, and Nia a Driver.
Torna is searching for the other awakened Aegis, Pyra, who is currently in statis somewhere in the Cloud Sea. Once they locate her, they hire Rex to help salvage the ship she is being held in. They also choose Rex as he is a Leftherian. Adam had left everything to the Leftherians, including their bloodline being the only ones that can open the door that he sealed Pyra behind.
Unfortunately for Rex as he touches Pyra’s blade Jin kills him, causing Rex to enter Pyra’s memories. Pyra ask him if he can take her to Elysium in exchange for half her life force. Elysium is a place inside the World Tree (a space station) which is supposed to be an endless green horizon of paradise. Which is what the space that Pyra’s memory is based off. One of the issues with Alrest is due to no land masses and Titans having short life spans, there is an impending doom for all.
The Force To Destroy The World, Malos
Escaping from Malos and Jin, Nia joins Rex and together they head towards their goal of reaching Elysium. Along their way they make new friends and battle and protect Alrest from Torna. Some of these new friends include Tora, a Noponic engineer who made the first artificial Blade, Mòrag, A special inquisitor for the Titan of Mor Ardain and Zeke, the prince of the Kingdom of Tantal. At one point, Torna kills one of the party members, Vandham, this causes Rex to get overly emotional taking on more than he can handle.
To save them all Pyra unlocks the power within her, waking up the true aegis, Mythra. Mythra was in slumber due to her powers being too strong for even her to use for good, let alone any Driver. She sealed herself away as the weaker form Pyra. Pyra and Mythra are both separate beings despite sharing a physical form, they constantly switch between each other going forwards. With Mythra’s power they are able to fight back the members of Torna. However Mythra is not happy at all about Rex awakening her.
Fire And Flames, Turning Foes Into Friends
The Power Of The Aegis
Continuing on the way, Rex and Pyra go through many obstacles as they hop from titan to titan looking to reach the world tree and stop Malos. The World Tree has a guard called Ophion that can only be controlled by the Omega Fetter. During the attempt to get it, Torna attack and are able defeat the party using Jin’s overwhelming powers. Pyra threatens to destroy herself using her Artifice, Siren but in the end is taken hostage. She sacrifices herself like this as she knows Torna needs her to achieve their goals and then Rex will no longer have to deal with anymore loss.
The group now try to find the third sword of Pyra and Mythra. The one Adam sealed away after not being worthy to wield it. They find the cave and inside of it they realize it limits ether flow which Blades use. This weakens the Blades in the party and causes Zeke to reveal he is a Blade Eater meaning his Blade shared half her life force for him to live. Strangely Nia also starts to struggle.
They face Adams trials to prove Rex is worthy, these challenges push the party to their limits. This is when Nia decides to stop hiding who she is and reveals her true form, A Blade who is a Flesh Eater. Flesh Eaters are Blades who have absorbed human cells to improve their abilities. They can even live without their Driver for a unknown length of time. Torna is specifically made up of Flesh Eaters and Blade Eaters. These are usually considered unethical so they have nowhere to go but Torna gives them that place to go. This is also why Nia hid her true self away for so long. Nia’s Blade powers involve being able to manipulate ether waves to heal almost anything.
Rex can feel what’s happening to Pyra and knows where Torna are. Malos is t able to heal his Core Crystal back to its full power, like it was 500 years ago. He achieves this by taking the life from Pyra. Luckily for the party Rex is able to communicate to Pyra and Mythra and proves to them that he will protect them and will get them to Elysium no matter what, waking them back up. This causes their true form Pneuma to awaken. Giving Rex the ability to manipulate the fabric of reality wielding the true blade of the Aegis. With this Rex is able to outspeed even Jin and defeat Torna. Yet all is not well as Ophion is able to destroy the ground below the battle. Sending the party down into the Great Abyss.
The True Aegis Form
Falling down to the Land of Morytha the party explore the remnants of a long gone society. Having no choices Jin has to join up with the party momentarily before Torna come rescue him. At the bottom of Morytha there is a elevator that allows the rest to go up the world tree. Amalthus manages to use his control over the world to attack the world tree and attempt to stop the party, he also wants to meet the Architect as he believes the Architect’s wishes are to cleanse the world by destroying it all. Jin sacrifices himself to destroy Amalthus and allow the party to continue.
They reach the top of the tree and make it to Elysium. Only to find it in ruin by the hands of humans before the Architect’s experiment to create this world. Malos has also reached the top and has started to control the Artifices a set of powerful machines that the humans once used to defend against galactic threats. He uses them to start destroying all of Alrest. With him being Amalthus’s Blade, his Driver’s mind corrupts him.
Rex and the gang reach the Architect who turns out to be a scientist named Klaus. He explains the life cycle to them and how all life is one in the same. Klaus activated a powerful relic known as the Conduit. He used the Conduit’s power to create a new world. Only half of Klaus remains, the space-time transition event took half of his body into the new world the experiment created.
He just wanted to create a world that was free of the mistakes him and other humans made. Unfortunately the experiment went wrong. He instructs them to hurry in stopping Malos as he and the Conduit do not have much time left. At this exact point in the Xenoblade 1 world the wielder of the missing Aegis, Shulk is fighting Zanza (Klaus’s missing half). Meanwhile, Malos is awakening the most powerful Artifice Aion. Luckily the group are able to destroy it before he can unleash its power and destroy all of Alrest. This also ends up killing Malos which he uses his final words to reflect on his life and wished Rex could have been his Driver.
After Zanza is killed in the other world, Klaus begins to fade away. So does the Conduit, he does leave the people a “gift”. Without the Conduit’s power the space station starts to fall. In order to save all of Alrest from the debris, Pneuma sacrifices themself only leaving Rex with their inactive Core Crystal. After going back down the gang are able to see Klaus’s gift and that is a land mass that all the titans begin to dock into and create the true Elysium. At the last moment Pneuma’s Core begins to glow again. Rex reawakens them to find Pyra and Mythra alive. Now they are separated individuals!
500 Years Ago
Torna – The Golden Country
The DLC prequel story, Torna – The Golden Country takes place 500 years before the main story. This story tells the backstories of some of the Blade’s such as Mythra, Jin, and Malos. It also serves as the starting point of the formation of the main antagonist group in Xenoblade 2, Torna.
We follow Jin and his Driver Lora as they look to stop Malos alongside Adam and Mythra. This adventure contains lots of loss and anguish as many characters end up losing those close to them due to the destruction of both Aegises and the commanding force of Alrest Indoline Praetorium. Lora ends up dying and this causes Jin to become a Flesh Eater. This pain causes him to eventually form Torna with what his old foe, Malos.
It shows us that Mythra destroyed Torna, a sacred Titan. This destruction she caused is what brought her to lock her powers away. Even forcing her to become the much weaker form that is Pyra. This chaos that Mythra descended upon Torna damaged Malos’ Core Crystal. There is a very cool detail and that is with Mythra’s arts, in Torna her arts are extremely strong. In the base game these same arts become her Blade specials showing this fear of her being too destructive. She is physically holding her own power back.
So what are your thoughts about Xenoblade Chronicles 2‘s story? Despite the large anime inspired cutscenes did you still enjoy the engaging tale? Let us know down below what your favourite moments are! Make sure to read the other parts of this article series to get the ultimate look into Xenoblade!
