You know, as someone whose was introduce to the franchise by Shulk inclusion in Smash 4, who tried XB1 on the Wii U but never got very far into it for various, whose first XB game I fully played & finished was XB2, played & finished XB:DE the day of it's release to make up the time lost, seen some stuff about X but sadly never got the chance to play, did ton of research of Monolith Studio and the start of the Xeno franchise with Gear & Saga, been in the Smash Speculation cycle ever since the first trailer for Smash 4 in 2013 (god I feel old, again), and was basically in heaven when I finally got a character
I personally wanted (everything that came before end was more or less fine, but a XB2 rep was something
I wanted personally, and even then, a
liiiiiittle part of me would have prefered Lora & Jin, or Malos, but what can you do?), was in and feel like I don't have to care too much about Smash Speculation those day...
I can't help but feel guilty for feeling like this and feel you all, XBX fans, deserve as much if not more love than what 1 & 2 are getting atm.
Let me explain:
Alot of you probably don't know much about me, since I don't go into character threads that much, and Smash Speculation is something I learned to not be too invested for my sanity sake, but I did said here and there in the Ultimate Speculation thread that despite
me wanting a XB2 rep, I would have been really cool & happy if we got
any XB rep. Elma, KOS-MOS, Fiora, etc... At the end of the day, part of me wanting another rep was because I wanted Monolith Studio to get the love they deserve for helping Nintendo in so many way, on top of making qualities games that no other franchise can quite replicate. Are they a perfect studio?
hahahaha
NO
I know XB2 well enough & seen so much of their work that I can safely say that they have made alot of mistakes and their games aren't flawless masterpieces that are on the same level as Citizen Kane or whatever the
** story wise. XB2 especially as lots of flaws that are very easy to point out, like the character design of some characters (a little part of me died a little when I see the same exemples used 494533254 times without anything new added to it, but whatever, some of them are quite meeeeeh indeed) and the english VA in part of the games too, and playing XB1 in full also showed me the problems with that game much more easily. (notably the amount of boring sidequests that tell you to kill X amount of enemies or getting 10 bears ass for some random NPC you probably don't give a ** about and give you no insight on the world or it's characters or good rewards beside more money, and Topples locking trivialize the game difficulty once you have the equipements & party members needed, also sharla gameplay).
I am a fan, but i'm not a fan
boy, what i'm saying. Even if I have my opinions on some the problems peoples have with these games, I can still agree that some elements can make these games less fun for some peoples, and if they feel this way, so long they aren't a **** about it, I can respect them & even agree on occasions.
With that all said, XB is one of those franchises that, while it had indeed alot of flaws, it does so much
right (the giant world that are very fun to explore and are characters onto themselves, the characters are very likeable & fun to mess aroud with, the gameplay that, once mastered, is so fun & rewarding and give you those adreline rush that make your blood pump, topped all by the musics that make you to ****ing dance & jump like a happy idiot as you SMASH the skulls of some big ASS Unique Bosses that may or may not have you given problems before) that on the moment, I can overlook or atleast not be affected as much when I'm in the right mood.
I love those games what I'm saying, but the game by themselves and the maker of it are only a part of why I love this franchise.
You know what made me care about all those things? Smash 4? Ehhh, I guess so at the start atleast, but I would also say that one of those reasons that made me stick with it are the fans.
Before Smash, as you all know, XB1 was pretty obscure, atleast outside of hardcore JRPG fans. A whole campaign has to be made to get this game and 2 others in North America, and even then, it could have been done ALOT better.
What's more, all the previous Xeno games were quite obscure too. Xenogears was overshadowed by FF7 and suffered from its lack of a complete second disk. And Xenosaga 2 pretty much destroyed any chance for the franchise plan to be realize and forced its creator to all wrap it up in 1 last game, which is now hard as balls to buy.
Yet, despite the all the odds, all these games had their fans. XB1 fans in particular fought hell and back to get more people's to try out the game they love, and getting Shulk into Smash was the best chance to do so, and you know what? It happened, and all thanks to its fanbase, Xenoblade - and to a lesser extent the games before it - were finally getting the attention they deserve.
What i'm saying is, it was thanks to the fan that Xenoblade didn't end up being a cult classic like it's predecessor, and once I realized that, I felt I had to do something, anything to show my support for this franchise I very much care & love now and only want the best for it.
And I did!.....for Xenoblade 2.
Now, if you remember at the start of this loooooooong post. XB2 was my very first Xenoblade I played until completion & then some more. I have 400~ hours into this game and that's without counting Torna into the mix. I been on this ride since I bought the game, and the funny thing is, I didn't think I would love it that much. In fact, the first few trailers made me worried for the franchises! What's this anime style? What are those voices? Why does it look low-budget in places? What is even going on?!
In other words, I was really skeptical at first glance and I remember buying the game with mixed feeling about it due what others were saying & having a rough time at the begining due to how poor the tutorials are & how slow the beginning is gameplay & storywise.
Still, I kept moving forward, and while it wasn't a perfect ride all the way through, I did end up loving it (especially when I reached chapter 5 & then later chapter 8), and once I did lots of research to get what I didn't know or understood on my first time. I came to the conclusion that: yup, this is one of my favourite game of the last years or so, and while I can't make everyone else love it, I
can help others as best I can when it come to some questions they might have, and most important of all: make them have a good, chill time with it. Because for me, games are here to have fun and have fun with others peoples you know.
So....to come back to X at last.
Now, why I didn't play this game? If Shulk inclusion to Smash made me care, why didn't I jump on the X train when it was hot?
Well....to be honest, i'm not really sure why. Maybe it was because others games interested me more at the time, maybe it was because the receptions was quite mixed at the time and iI was afraid it wouldn't be worth it, maybe it was my personal life getting in the way, maybe I wanted to play 1 first, etc.. I can't really remember
why exactly I didn't give it a chance, but the point is that I didn't. Because of that, I didn't want to talk much about the game because I felt like I couldn't really say anything that was sincere or could help. I didn't play it, who I was to say to someone if the game was really good or really bad in places? Due to this & other stuff, I didn't feel like I belonged in the XBX fanbase, and even those this day, with me knowing much more than I did back then, I still don't know if my opinion is worth a damn due to only seeing videos & posts from others fans who had their own opinions based off their playtime with the game, but I didn't.
Still, this is a
Xenoblade, no, I said to myself
,a Monolith Soft game! , even if I didn't play it, I can still show support in
some way! After all, we may not all like the same games, but we still love a game from this franchise! And wow, there's a new Smash game coming out on a new console! Maybe we can get a remaster of 1 and/or X for peoples to give those games more of a chance ('cuz one of the thing most peoples loved to critized about the first game at first glance was how ugly the game looked)? Maybe we can get another XB rep too! Monolith as a very good relation with Nintendo and 2 sold well enough to warrant some more love. Surely, after getting Shulk in 4, we will get so much more for all fan of the franchise!...
...Yeah, we got more love, right, butonly for 1 a bit & later 2, X tho...., well to be fair, Elma got into XB2 as a DLCblade with a cool ass music from her game with it and she was featured on various celebration pics for Monolith anniversary, which some of you even remember I posted before, but still....only a few spirits in Smash? No songs? XB:DE is nice, but what about X?
I thought XB2 got little love when Ultimate released, but at least they had the excuses of Ultimate being too far in it's developpement to put much of it in in the base game, but X? I know the Wii U was a failure and said failure caused X to not get the love it deserved, but still, not even 1 song???
It didn't sit right with me, and if I, someone who didn't even play X, felt that way, I couldn't
imagine what actual fans felt like at the time.
But now?? After so much times passed, with still no hint at a switch port, despite almost every Wii U games getting a port even for those that don't deserve it as much (Hi NSBMU: Deluxe)? Now, to top it all of, a
Xenoblade 2 character get in out of nowhere?!?
Again, I am very, very, VERY happy Pyra & Mythra got in, and I wouldn't change their spots for anything else because I be lying at this point. They aren't my favourite characters in 2, but they are still the XB2 rep I feel Ultimate could need. After years of losing hope for it to happen, there, they are in, and god, they look beautiful. Shulk finally wasn't alone on the Xeno bench, and I could at last finally chill as any other characters they could get in would either not stop me from being happy with what I got, or just make me even happier for their fans and the like.
But....while looking these boards, seeing X fans feeling so, so dissapointed, that their game once again got ignored and now most chances of Elma getting in as a fighter were either lost or slim -depending of who you ask - I couldn't help but feel.... sad, horrible even.
Now, I know it sound like I'm making alot out of nothing. After all, it's Smash Bros, some characters get in, some don't, it's the sad truth but even if it suck for some, you got to be happy if you got what
you wanted, right? So long you aren't a total **** to others, it's ok to show your love for what you care, so long it's not in the wrong place, yeah??
In some way, yes, but....part of me can't help but feel like crapat just the thoughts that,
maybe, just maybe, my love for Pyra&Mythra could make a XBX fan feel like **** because I could give the impression I don't care about what others feel, when I very much do so. I generally feel this way for other characters too, but here it's different. I know this franchise, I know some of the fans in it, I know how much it mean to them and I know what must it feel to get
nothing in return.
Xenoblade isn't the only franchise I wanted a character out of, but as the last years passed, I lost hope for most of my other choices, and my time in Smash Speculation as made me seen so many fanbase lost all hopes for their characters or even franchises. (Remember Ridley speculation thread pre-Smash 4? Remember Isaac speculation thread in the middle of the Grinch Leak & after it?). Some of those series I love, other more or less, but I seen it, alot, and it's never fun imo.
Really, I guess what i'm trying to say is, you guys & X deserve so much more, I know I said it before but I really, REALLY do, and more importantly, even if some of you don't like or even hate 2. Know as a fan of it, I hope my love for it doesn't make you feel worse about yourself. Peoples love to talk **** online about other peoples pick & their games for sometime very petty reasons, it's inevitable (
ESPECIALLY ON TWITTER), but whatever happen next, I wish Xenoblade X get the respect it deserve in the future, and that all Xeno fans can still have fun along the way together, not diveded or at the other expense, we're all on this crazy planet/titan together, folks.
......aaaaaaaannnnnnd this post is way too FREAKIN' LONG
BECAUSE I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE MY THOUGHTS AND I SUCK ASS AT LONG POST, AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Sorry for the mass texts and if it's not well written in places, I'm really truly bad at those. Let me know if it need spoiler tag, also I didn't try to make it EVEN LONGER than the previous big post, I just really had alot to say because I care alot.