Thank for watching the video 😊 Listed underneath are all of the Moebius who would still exist after reduction, each one of their referenced emotions and where they would all now appear in the story! Respond to this comment if you feel that one thing or another should be tweaked/changed and I can take a look 👍 Moebius: Triton - Freedom Dirk - Bloodlust Joran - Desire (Specifically, the desire to achieve something) Shania - Envy/Jealousy N - Regret M - Regret (Only due to her being born because of N) Irma - Companionship O - Gluttony (Have you seen his belly? Also has a funny line where he says "Tea Time") P - Pride/Arrogance (Based on how she is so full of herself when they Interlink) K - Aesthete (Based on him teaching that one NPC in Fort O'Virbus about the qualities of art) H - Wrath? (Could be based around anything tbh) E - Theatrical C - Musical? (I'll take any better descriptions) X - Anima (Based on the principle of Anima & Animus with both True Moebius representing the Male & Female Moebius respectively) Y - Animus (Based on the principle of Anima & Animus with both True Moebius representing the Male & Female Moebius respectively) Z - Moebius ? - Control (The desire to be in control) Chronological Events of when Moebius show up and die: - Introduces Wild Ride (D & J) like normal Colony 4 - Introduces K - K Dies Colony 30 - Introduces P (Normal giant robot fight like before) Colony 9 (Optional) - Introduces Irma (Remains masked permanently. Fight is changed to face off against Generic Moebius enemies instead) Colony Gamma (Optional) - Introduces H (H flee's after being defeated) Colony Lambda - Introduces J (Like normal. Colony was originally run by K (Taion recognised him from before)) Colony Tau - Introduces O (Extend Hero quest to basically include her ascension quest at the same time) - Initiate & Complete Eunie's Side Story (When you meet up with Bolearis after he flee's the castle) (Features X and Crys (In his transformed state) as the enemies fight) - P & O Death (After returning to the Ethel & Cammuravi fight area) Colony 11 (Optional (Must have completed Teach's Hero Quest First)) - H Returns (Ashera lets him leave like before) Colony Iota (Optional) - Introduces E (E flee's after being defeated. Fight him along side Generic Moebius Enemies) - Encounter D & J once more (Fight plays out like normal) - Introduces N (Like normal) - Initiate & Complete Lanz's Side Story (Before you leave the City for the prison (Opportunity to interact with Moebius Candidates)) (Features Y and Generic Moebius enemies) Colony Mu (Optional (Must have completed Zeon's Hero Quest First)) - Irma returns (Quest plays out the same) (Irma's Death) Colony 15 (Optional) - Triton appears and can be recruited - Initiate & Complete Taion's Side Story (Just before you infiltrate the City) (Features Y and Generic Moebius Enemies) - Introduces M and whilst N & X show up once more - M's Death after finishing prison segment Colony Omega - Fight Y (Mio's Side Story) Colony 0 (Optional (Must have completed Alexandria's Hero Quest First)) - Fight the Levnises before Segiri kills E - Defeat both D & J (D & J Deaths) - Initiate & Complete Noah's Side Story (Like normal) (Features Crys as the Enemy with X being present) (Crys' Death) - Initiate & Complete Sena's Side Story (Whilst the boat is upgraded) (Features Shania as the Enemy with X being present) (Shania's Death) - Fight N like normal infront of Melia (N's Death) - X & Y's Deaths after facing them once more - Z's Death Changes to Hero Ascension Quests: Juniper - Instead of fighting those monsters again and killing the consul, instead we go to Low Maktha and fight a dragon Boss Ashera - The events play out the same except that only H is present. H is killed during this quest Alexandria - A new Consul who I will refer to as "?" due to not knowing their name but this Consul would be the old commander who Alexandria succeeded. Aside from that, events play out the same If a Hero's name is not ^above^, assume that their Ascension Quest would play out the exact same as normal (Potentially with a new Consul stated above) Hero's who do not encounter Moebius during their respective quests: Riku & Manana Grey Isurd Monica Ghondor Cammuravi That's everything I believe! If I forgot anything, I will attempt to update this post ASAP
Malos really is one of the best villains of all time. He successfully pulls of being a concept and being a compelling character at the same time. He is both plain evil and also has depth to why he is evil. He is both cold hearted toward your party and warm toward his own group. He shows up in the beginning and he was there at the end.
Disagree completely, XC2 is by far my fav Xenoblade game and Malos is a bullshit villain that should have been a secondary villain not the main one (this should be Amalthus).
I think one of the problems with moebius is that we don’t really see them come into being. If the whole Malos backstory wasn’t shown in a full fledged flashback in xenoblade 2, then we’d have the same problem with Z because the concept of him being, well, a concept, would be jarring. It works with Malos because we actually see it happen when Amalthus resonates with him, so they could’ve done something similar with Z when showing the worlds colliding but the 2 halves of origin get corrupted by showing the data of the people going haywire.
It's possible (and I'm hopeful) that this will be the focus or be revealed in the DLC story as its one of the best ways to elevate Z's character. I do still think aside from this change as a gameplay mechanic, Moebius is flawed with their sheer quantity but this would for sure be a step in the right direction
More so then that, I wish that we could still fight "Moebius" enemies after beating the game. I still find it strange how the things inside of Origin aren't Moebius type enemies
I know the game has a lots of problems story and lore wise (specially compared to 1 and 2) but I love videos like this that offer a solution to those problems instead of just complaining about them. The bittersweet part is that sometimes these ideas are so much better than what we had that it feels a bit sad to think about the "what could've been". Great work!
I try to look at an aspect of these games objectively when making these type of videos, with a little sprinkle of my own opinion added in. Moebius had GREAT potential and largely, I think it was succesful but it still had issues that lead to me initially being disappointed with the antagonists and game as whole! It has taken me a long time and a lot of research to truly come around to understand and appreciate Moebius and the changes in this video aim to remove that long uneccesary process
Honestly I notice the biggest flaw in Z’s goal is that his “eternal now” was one of the kinds of futures the people dread in the first place. It wasn’t some paradise where everyone we cherish is with us and happy forever, it was a literal hell where everyone’s lives were absurdly short and solely dedicated to constantly murdering each other in a war that’s only purpose was to have everyone die over and over for eternity. His “present” was the result of changing two worlds into the kind of very thing the emotions that created him were so scared of. Death and destruction. And I think that’s the point, he’s ultimately still an AI, just corrupted by the fears of the people. but even now still doesn’t comprehend that people weren’t scared of the future, they were scared FOR the future. He’s a computer taking an already altered goal way too literally.
I'll say this: I don't think Moebius should be fleshed out. I think they represent a much more banal type of evil in the real world of a disproportionate amount of people at the levers of societal power and control being outright greedy, regressive and/or malicious. To some degree, it's implied that Z goes out of his way to find people who already fit that psyche profile. I think the final explanation is also perfect because Z saying "I did it for fun" is really the only proper explanation a world like this could have. That it's so unrepentantly, mercilessly cruel in its design can only be due to malice, not utility. There's a line from one of the FFXIV expansions where one character asks another why they committed a crime. the criminal says "for nothing" and the accuser gets angry. The criminal says "would it make you feel better if I had a good reason?" And I think this exchange from another game highlights why trying to rationalize or beef up Moebius' backstory or motivations is pointless: they're not supposed to be interesting, they're supposed to be hateable. They're meant to represent a very real form of evil in the world that isn't to be understood more deeply but just overthrown without replacing it with more of the same. The fact that the party has some 'Moebius' in them as well is to point out that this outcome, and the way Moebius behave, can be evoked from any person and it's a worst impulse that you have to resist
Honestly, X should be in Noah/Eunie/Lanz side-stories, which would lead to XInfinity being the enemy of the Bionis/Mechonis portion of the group, while Y should be in Nio/Taion/Sena side-stories, which would lead to YInfinity being the enemy of the Alrest portion of the group.
One change I had in mind to improve Moebius X/Y and the climactic feeling of chapter 7 is to split Origin into two parts in the story. After resolving things with N and freeing Melia, we find out that X and Y got up to some very nasty stuff outside Origin (no idea what, think of something appropriate) and you actually exit Origin to confront them because whatever it is they’re doing needs to be urgently addressed. However, since Nia and Melia are both awakened, they accompany you to this battle (maybe have a short dungeon first, if we really want to be bold have it be a mix of Prison Island and World Tree). From there, elaborate on the implied idea of X/Y being the Anima/Animus of Moebius, and of Aionios as a whole, and make things personal between them and the two true queens of Aionios. Since X/Y seem to have set up the system of the world they stole from Melia and Nia, let this be a chance for Melia and Nia to assert their understanding of the world, use X/Y as their foils, and have the queens resolve to protect the will of the people they care about. Boss fight with interlinked Moebius X/Y happens here, give the queens an interlink to match if we want to get crazy, but either way, it’s through this scenario that X/Y meet their ends. Then Melia and Nia return to their castles to rally the people while the party returns to Origin’s depths in a short last crawl to get to Z.
Finally got to watch this and fully agree with X and Y bearing some of the largest missed potential in every aspect. Your idea of having them involved further with the rest of the main cast is very sound and intriguing; Thinking of how Y would be a great secondary antagonist to Lanz while also providing further depth for Taion (especially if Nimue was somehow involved).
One thing that could be nice it's fight Moebius that we killed in origin but as regular mob. It can reward the player for having finish side content with more variety of Moebius. I don't think it's impossible lore wise since Z ressurect Noah (or N) after his home comming. However they would have lost their mind and only be a particular emotion. This emotion would be portrail by the ennemy art name or some death dialogue like K '' I don't want to die ''. If it's not clear enought it's a bit like the Wels from gears and memory space before Zanza boss fight.
This isn't possible actually... Z didn't revive Noah after his homecoming's, that's something that happened outside of his power and is why Z took such an interest into Noah. When a Moebius dies, they die for good, that is the way of the world and even with all of Z's power, he can't change that
That's due to something else because Mio has the same power/trait. We still don't know the exact reason but that is almost certainly to do with something else
Amazing video! I love Moebius as villains, but I understand why some people don't like them. As much as I like them, they do need some improvements (looking at you X and Y) and I agree with your points I also really like the vampire aesthetic of Moebius, if you know what I mean (such as the amphitheater stuff + Z's design) Idk if anyone else noticed this, but in a lot of cutscenes you can see that Dirk has fangs which I find to be an interesting detail since he's basically the most bloodthirsty Moebius you encounter
Appreciated 😊 To reiterate what I said in the video, the concept of Moebius was really good with Z leading the charge and the other important story Moebius picking up the slack and I too then really like them. It's just some aspects that I feel would have been better to be cut then added which ruined what could have been a great antagonist
I agree that mobius could have been better, but what made them better for me was that I never did any side quests in my first play through. The only moebius that I saw was in the main story. So N was front and center with M. D and J were there a fair bit with the only other ones really showing up were Y,X,P,O and K.
SEE I came to this realistaion as I was working on this video that actually avoiding ALL side content is actually for the best compared to it normally enhancing everything. On my first playthrough, I completed every Hero Quest before finishing the ending so it impacted me greatly
I disagree. Completing every hero quest really fleshes out the world and strengthens a lot of the game’s themes and characters. Most of the hero quest Moebius are kinda nothingburgers, but from a holistic standpoint you can see through them how deeply Moebius dug their claws into Aionios, whereas the main story Moebius are more personal affairs that focus on how the main party confronts their existence and what makes someone Moebius to begin with. Together, the whole picture is painted of the world.
The side quests are what actually fuck the Moebius as villains because It makes the main ones feel like "just another one of them" I ain't fan of what they did with hero quests
I am not sure that every good villain needs to have understandable motives, backstories and development. Sometimes I just want to have some unredeemable bastard to feel hatred towards, wanting to beat the crap out of him. For me, Z fulfilled this role.
I mean, some evil bugger who just wants to do bad things is kind of his motive... You can think of "motives" being quite loose as a lot can be considered as it is incredibly important. For instance, if a once normal character suddenly turned evil for no reason and tried to beat the party, then they would be quite jarring which is why we need to give a reason for a character to do that to smooth it out a bit. A motive or something to explain villain is incredibly important I appreciate that sometimes you can just have a character who is bad because they are but you still need something to give a reason why else my example still works because they could not be considered "good" villains at all
I don’t think it’s wise to read too much into Z’s stated motivation. The whole theatre room scene has him saying a bunch of stuff that is just a bs mask for his insecurities, which are revealed by Z Infinite’s existence.
It makes me wonder how the generic Moebius would be named aside from just "Moebius" or "Consul". Like if you fight a few of them, would one be called a "Moebius Reveler", then a "Moebius Strategist" and so on.
That'd be an interesting way to do it as they could simply just reuse Classes that are already in the game. Would mean they have to make different weapon visuals (Darkgod Variants) but that shouldn't take too long
We really just needed more screen time for each Moebius especially X, Y and Z. Having them present in the place of some of the other less developed Moebius would’ve done much more for their character
Yeah I mostly agree. I would have given each mobius less psychotic tendencies and more actual reasons to hate the passage of time. Like Triton became mobius because he hated getting old and not having the time to explore everything, or maybe Irma became mobius because she wanted more time as a leader, things like these. Just explain the constant battles as a way to keep the endless now up and running instead of Z and the rest of the alphabet messing around for fun. I also would have loved to get more of a backstory for Dirk, alongside more things to do with X and Y and even Z himself.
Funny enough I feel like Z was the main problem with Moebius. I felt that there was an opportunity to have him be a real person that still embodied the fear of change. One thought I had was to have him maybe be a person who helped create Origin itself (maybe a scientist or engineer from the XC1 world) which would help explain how he knew to take over Origin and kidnap Melia in the first place. It would’ve been cool to maybe see “Zed” (why does the game call him “Zed” anyway?) in his “human” life struggle with fear of change to the point where the embodiment of everyone’s fear morphing him into “Z”.
I disagree because I think Z is actually a great antagonist when you look at him thematically over the whole story of XC3 but I do also agree with what else you say. The thing is tho, Z might actually be real person and he might have worked on Origin, that isn't disproven as of yet. The current understanding is that he isn't but the DLC story might introduce him for instance and he might even be connected to that painting Also, "Zed" is how we pronounce it in the UK so it is actually correct
I believe that the Moebius being like petty cartoon villains is the whole point. These are people who have been in power for millennia and have had everything go their way all the while and have only met serious resistance recently.
I have hope that the DLC may be better than the main game- kinda like how many found Torna to be better than base 2! I was always partial to 2's base game, but I heard a lot of people talking about how much they love Torna. I'm really hoping the DLC does the same thing :)
Xenoblade Games are typically very long and Torna was praised for how good it was whilst still being much shorter then normal! I'm confident that Monolth can do it again tho 👍
Yeah I agree with almost everything here, another thing I don’t like is how they all look the same. Like I get the colour theming is part of the story (Keves blue black, agnus white green, city brown and grey, moebius red and purple), but it just made them even more forgettable. They could have made red as the primary colour but added accents, or red helmet and then varied designs of armour. Torna (the group) in xc2 does it fairly well with the Japanese influence, maybe they could have gone with a more European suit of armour deal idk. And most of the consuls don’t remotely look intimidating in consul form, like the faces in xc1 do for instance. Their armour looks goofy a lot of the time and it takes away from the villainy
When you asked which Mobius was in each colony - you missed another criticism... Which colong was Colony Iota? For example? For me, there were way too many colonies to ever get invested in any of them. For me there was "the colony with the teaching quests', 'the colony with the ones who were defeatest','the colony with the crazy aggressive leader' and so on... Emotional connection to mobius would have been improved with a greater emotional connection to those under their thumbs.
Personally, I don't really find this much of an issue...I can easily tell you at a glance that Iota is Alexandria's colony located in Elaice Highway in the Fornis region. The only colonies I struggle on are Colony 5 and Colony 15 because I get their names mixed up but aside from that I don't find this much of an issue
@@JBspherefreak Yeah I can see that. Perhaps for me this game, as a criticism you've touched on before, doesn't have as memorable locales or world orientation. I absolutely adore Xeno 1 for example, and can tell you how each location maps to the Bionis and Mechonis. I can tell from a screenshot which titan an area was in from Xeno 2. But this one... I found I couldn't even remember the names of the locations aside from Everblight field, Urayan Caverns/mountains. Obviously I remember the order the areas came in, but I couldn't tell you their names. The first rocky area with the fallen arm is my favourite in the game for its music and story beats, but I can't tell you it's name... I feel like, for me and other, this might all feed into the mobius questions. I will probably play the game again to get more details, but I also couldn't remember many of the hero's names either. It's a shame because I really like the game and the story, but I find it lacking in memorability and connection. It's a strange dissonance for a Xeno fan to feel.
I see I still stand by Aionios not being as interesting as other game worlds previous. Part of that seems to be some areas not being clear where they originate from (Captocorn peak I'm looking at you....piece of shit area) Additionally, the actual map design of each area seemed to fall flat as well. The most original area (and would be my personal favourite) is the Great Swords Base but it was literally ONLY designed as a stepping stone to get into Swordmarch. I think this is by far the most creative and original area that could have been really neat to explore but it was left untouched. I dunno there's just something bad about the map design (I'm waiting on a guy to publish a free camera mod for XC3 so I can actually explore these area's and A) see if there were area's left unfinished, showing they originally planned for them to be bigger and better ore B) witness how much unutilised space they could have used)
@@Dooddood0 @JBspherefreak Interestingly, thinking about it, the areas never quite seemed to get to the "playground" feel that past entries did. Not quite small enough to feel "entirely" linear, but you seldom went off the beaten path to a corner and find something wonderful - it felt like "all roads lead to next area". (Obviously Capticorn is the linera exception... that was... yeah). But Bionis Leg for example, so many areas you can explore there and think "Oh... I'm really in deep now".
Adding on to this whole video I think it would be great if moebius also had a few more more members interlink. Only 2 sets ever interlink in the game and its kinda baffling to me that X and Y don't interlink when their theoretically the 2 strongest moebius outside of Z.
It’s funny because I expected Melia and Nia, N and M, and X and Y to all have interlink bosses, and not one of them did! Narratively, only the last one would even make sense but it was still really funny how far off base my prediction got
I hope we get another xenoblade chronicles game that isn't a sequel whatsoever outside of a few references. While i liked 3 i also missed the unique worldbuilding of 1 and 2.
I think the x and y being in more stuff is a good idea but it has to be more cameo based I feel. Like taion cant have another moebius in his story as the whole point is tricking one person if Y was there itd make way less sense. I think cameos where Y is telling I believe Q? To go check an old flame clock that started up for him. In regards to lanz he could just simply say H has done a good job at creating her better flame clock and its light causes the last life to shine ever more brilliantly. That's it though just small cutscenes not actual fights. This could also make Q being offended for thought to be a lapdog make it ironic since he was doing what a master of his told him to do. As for side stories being locked to main story yeah that's a good idea but probably be annoying player wise unless it was spread out more like say eunie and lanz have their early then taion and sena then finally mio and noah. However I do disagree with having tons of the alphabet moebius for side story. While moebius do canonically have charge over multiple colonies it would take away from the uniqueness of each situation even if most of them are evil for sake of evil. Your idea would also change stuff like triton and Irma as there would be more moebius and they wouldnt have an easy way to do those stories. Say if B and R randomly shows up to be like "triton what the spark are you doing fishing with ouroboros" it takes away from it
As for Taion's side story, I think it could work with just Y and removing V. Yes it makes Taion look like a genius to outsmart a True Moebius but I feel like an intellectual battle of wits between Taion & Y would have been really interesting and at the end of the day, it is Taion's side story so why not make him flex that muscle Lanz's side story works far easier with it just being Y and him just "running an experiment" so I don't think there would be too much of an issue here. I don't follow your last issue? I was reducing the number of named Moebius, not constraining them to side content. I would check the Pinned Comment to get a full run down of what I had in mind
Why do we need to make them better? Sometimes Villains can just not be that complex. The main villain and driving force of the game, N, was great and complex.
@@JBspherefreak I mean, the side isn’t supposed to be that deep. Nor was Z. Zanza wasn’t deep either. The problem isn’t depth the problem is you didn’t really see Z do anything or interact with him before hand or build to him. Unlike Zanza who is just as one note, but you get build up.
I recently made a video on moebius as well, and I came to a similar conclusion to you. Moebius are the only villains that work for xenoblade 3, and Z is the only final boss that could work for the narrative. But Z isn’t the issue, it’s the other moebius. While some were awesome others were lacking, and I think what you said here is a good fix. Regardless looking back on it I love moebius as the antagonists of 3 and I think there involvement was genius for the narrative of 3, probably a bit of a hot take.
I don't think thats a hot take at all. I've discussed this topic with A LOT of people and many have come to a similar conclusion after looking over and understanding things better. Moebius didn't do Z any favors and he ain't beating Malos anytime soon for the best Xenoblade villain but I think a lot more people would have appreciated Moebius if it wasn't for these issues cropping up
@@JBspherefreak yeah no, xenoblade 2 is my least favorite in the series but it nailed it in the villain department. The only villain in the game that was 2 tier was N imo. But I think for a game that relies a lot more on thematic storytelling moebius just works really damn well.
Honestly i'd make D & J be more relevant and don't do the same shit they did with their ending in Ch 6(which i found pretty cringey and rushed) and also make X and Y play a more active role from the beggining N and M are perfect but i would make N don't just be redeemed in the way he got
I know I am late but I disagree moebius has reshaped the idea if the Xenoblade franchise. Xenoblade gave it the identity whereas xenoblade 3 gave the series’s a renewed focus on what we thought was a series that reached its peak after xenoblade 1. Xenoblade 2 was something that was both decent but insanely flawed both in story and characters for me. Xenoblade 3 is a return to form.
I can totally sympathize with the dislike of XB2’s anime/shounen stuff but the overall story and character development are best in the series. XB3 could have taken the crown but the last two chapters were just incredibly rushed garbage with a complete wet fart of an “ending”
As a student going into game design and you know, just writing classes in general, I understand giving love and attention to twenty-five different antagonists equally is a task that may as well be impossible. But as another comment made by RedTheWeeb pointed out... some hero quests and the like would need to be a completely different story from what we actually got since they just do not work if there is multiple Moebius. Then admittedly in my own opinion I think tossing out some of the named Moebius, some of which do actually have a tiny bit of semblance of humanity in them we don't really get to see while they're alive like G and I/Irma, and to some extent F, for nameless Moebius cheapens Moebius in another way that I personally feel is far more damaging than keeping the ones that are named even if they're just stereotypes rather some super duper interesting villain like Torna or Egil. Sure, might not matter much in your memory if you're fighting one of the less memorable Moebius with four goons, but narrative wise that really cheapens the Hero quests and makes some of the best side content the series has ever had mediocre, when it comes to that Players enjoy fighting against "characters" not nameless grunts, even if those "characters" barely qualify for it. Though part of this is also based on my own interpretation of the scene where Z fills the theater with Moebius, as he is not only the concept of two world's fear, but also the world and laws of it and I don't mean laws as in just governmental, I mean the law of how certain things in the world even operate and function as can be partly seen in his boss fight, so I always interpreted that theater full of Moebius to be Z simply allowing for dead Moebius to return from the grave there and now with the use of his powers to watch the duel and manifest for a time, almost as if they were just illusions rather than an actual representation of how many Moebius were in the backlog ready to ship out since considering the type of villain Z ultimately is if they were real and true Moebius... the party would've been literally dog pilled then and there and realistically that'd be the end of it..
You make interesting points and I will admit that all of these changes are not necessarily perfect but I do disagree. I get where your coming from in respect to G (Irma is absolutely staying, she's a boss, check the pinned comment) but as this ultimately lead me to being confused about Moebius, I think it is necessary. The main thing to keep in mind is that I am turning the concept of Moebius INTO a narrative device meaning that THEY are what are going to be Foreshadowing the truth about Z & Moebius. To this extent, Moebius like G get in the way and interfere as it makes Moebius just feel like a mish mash of random of folks rather then a super powerful entity that stole control of the world. Your also probably right that in some senses, adding generic unnamed Moebius may "cheepen" the side content but I would only use these sparingly and when necessary as not to re-create the same whole issue from before. You could admittedly probably keep Moebius like G and simply remove their name and I'd be good because that doesn't belie the food chain of Moebius. It's another issue with X & Y because I think as we move up through the ranks, the Moebius should get closer and closer to likliness to Z so grunts like unnamed Moebius being random would be fine. I appreciate your interpretation but I'm fairly confident that isn't what is happening at all as one of the big points before they enter Origin is Mio stating "All Moebius are aware of the principle that if they die, they cannot come back" which is a rule set and stated. Z may be powerful but I don't think even he could break this rule or as you say, he would just revive every Moebius ever to stop Ouroboros I hope you enjoy studying Games Design! I did a few years ago and is why I'm able to objectively look at things like this and come to a relatively conclusive solution if there ever is one
For me the biggest issue with Moebius was how they were introduced as not caring about living or dying, but then EVERY time they actually were defeated, they'd start crying "I don't wanna die!!1". For a big portion of the game, I thought that Moebius are immortal because of that. Which they are not. And yet when you meet the first two Moebius and J, they act as if they're far-detached watchers or puppeteers that just have fun with the living. That was just bad presentation ultimately.
I like the way they were introduced BUT I totally get how you would arrive at that conclusion. The way I interpreted this is that Moebius are so Overconfident in themselves that they haven't even entertained the possibility that they might be defeated. They are all incredibly prideful which is why they treat this as a game but when encountering and understanding that they are in danger, they begin to weep like so. Also, they are technically immortal as they will just live forever but they aren't invincible. Moebius will go on living up until the point they are killed so your interpretation was actually accurate
@@JBspherefreak Yeah, they were just overconfident as you say. But with the theater and them observing Aionius like it IS a game or movie to them, I really thought they'rre immortal, and even if defeated, they just return to the theater where they rant about losing like a gamer who got shot in counterstrike or whatever game. Do you know the old anime 'Star Sheriff and the Saber Riders'? Basically I thought defeated Moebius would return to the theater just like defeated Outlaws vanished back to the 'phantom zone'. ;D
Right I see I see, I follow ya now. Personally didn't see that being the case (possibly due to all the Xenosaga/gears lore I was getting left right and centre) but I can kinda get where your coming from
That is the point of Moebius, they all wanted the Endless Now, meaning that since they are virtually immortal by draining the lives of the rest and the power given by Z, they literally feared death besides losing the thing they desired the most regardless of what it was. And since they were basically Gods compared to the rest, their power led them to psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies. N is the perfect example of this.
For me x i remember x very well but y seems much more lackluster. I think they should have put more hints to what mobius is but i did like the quantity. I remember most of them even if i dont remember their letter. Is it sure that there are way more moebius then 25? For me the many moebius were an illusion or something alike but not real
The one problem I can see this having aside from potentially recording the script is that it increase the run time a far. But hey who am I to complain of a linear narrative being more fleshed out.
So I’m going to sound like a hater, but one Moebius kind of messed it all up for me in game… And that goes to everybody’s favorite pirate boy, Triton. Seeing the Moebius be such horrible awful pieces of garbage, have 1 single Moebius actually treat his people well was jarring. I LUV Triton the character, but him being one of the older Moebius while also keeping his humanity makes me wish we got a bit more of that. Having gone through this game now 3 times I can conclude than Moebius is amazing on paper, but the overall execution was lacking
The Generic Moebius could be called "Lambs" or "Moebius Lambs" as a reference to Xenogears and to represent how they are repleceable lambs that follow the main moebius and that If they are slaughtered It doesn't matter for them, they would just be figures to assure Z and the others have control over the colonies
So basically everything can be boiled down to a not so advanced computer AI has a meltdown due to the fear of everyone and creates an embodiment of said fear which then turns others into manifestations of negative emotions. Also this game confirms that the previous two games are set in the same UNIVERSE NOT TWO SEPERATE ONES. It is a literal case of an idiot scientist was fucking around with cosmic power and split the Earth into two halves. One being Earth reborn and the other being effectively Counter Earth from Marvel.
Only 3 minutes in but I just need to vent that this question about which consuls reside over which colony is incredibly stupid because most people cannot even name the commander of each of those colonies. The main ones the big parts of the story focus on are 9, Gamma, Omega, Lambda and 4 give or take a few others. That said, I can only remember Omega and Lambda's consuls so the point of the question isn't moot, not that people are going to remember every villain in a 100+ hour game though.
I don't like hero quests, especially when they actively started to hurt the narrative later(Miyabi, Cammuravi, Mwamba and Hackt should've been just sent off and maybe Ethel could return because she was kept into the pod) They also make the main moebius feel less impactful compared to the other thousands you met Although these quests add good Worldbuilding Hero side stories should've been in the main story in a similiar way to Juniper Quest and Taion's boss should be X Edit: Yeah i agree with where X and Y would appear on your version
woah i'am half a year late but thought I could share my thoughts. Moebius in general are a cool concept but poorly executed, the main problem for me in xc3 story beside the pacing and the last chapters are specifically the villains. Is cool that despite being hundreds of yrs old and having multiple consciousness they are all completely crazy. BUT they are 19 copies of the same character (not counting N M Z and J), they became boring and stupid from the eyes of the player. Still the biggest problem is Z, the main villan, is cold, resolute, calm, give the sensation to be a villan with a clear plan that has everything over his control, but in reality is an absolute idiot... He had everything to stop us at any time, but choose to send the weakest moebius every time to fight Uroboros (his only true enemy). His just a concept shell of a character than never stands up and is wrote badly. N is a good character ( not counting FR retcon), but Z is hilarious? He even says "I underestimate you" during is fight, really bro? Even his powers are a mess. Not necessarily a character needs a backstory, a sad point of you to look at or empathy. Look at Ultima, (villain of FF16, voiced by the same VA of Z and with a similar attitude and profile), he works perfectly bc he has something to tell, he has a role! He leaves something at the player! Z is just a wall of HP that we fight for the same reasons we fought 22 other guys but he's also magical and shit. I'll not talk about J bc I think I said enough bad things :(. really a shame this story could have been so much better with very little more. Nice video btw.
Still disappointed that we didn't get a Moebius of the main cast I would've love to see a Moebius Eunie and Sena Eunie with all her shit talking And Sena would've probably been the funniest villain ever Taion could've been an evil strategist which would've been really cool Lanz could've been a monster boss to fight through
@@JBspherefreak Other than Noah and Mio I don't see why we couldn't see the other cast in some form outside of Origin We just see the Kevesi group as kids but that was it. Would've loved to see little Mio and tiny Sena
I think Chapter 6 was more lacking tbh but that's just my opinion. From Captocorn Peak (worst area ever) to the Origin Metal collection quest, things were pretty shit
@@JBspherefreak actually i agree, both chapter 6 and 7 needed more. They hype up origin but i feel like i made it through in 5 mins plus i cant really remember much of the interior outside of the room with all the (memory cubes?/souls?) Also i really dont like giant head boss fights usually
Thank for watching the video 😊
Listed underneath are all of the Moebius who would still exist after reduction, each one of their referenced emotions and where they would all now appear in the story! Respond to this comment if you feel that one thing or another should be tweaked/changed and I can take a look 👍
Moebius:
Triton - Freedom
Dirk - Bloodlust
Joran - Desire (Specifically, the desire to achieve something)
Shania - Envy/Jealousy
N - Regret
M - Regret (Only due to her being born because of N)
Irma - Companionship
O - Gluttony (Have you seen his belly? Also has a funny line where he says "Tea Time")
P - Pride/Arrogance (Based on how she is so full of herself when they Interlink)
K - Aesthete (Based on him teaching that one NPC in Fort O'Virbus about the qualities of art)
H - Wrath? (Could be based around anything tbh)
E - Theatrical
C - Musical? (I'll take any better descriptions)
X - Anima (Based on the principle of Anima & Animus with both True Moebius representing the Male & Female Moebius respectively)
Y - Animus (Based on the principle of Anima & Animus with both True Moebius representing the Male & Female Moebius respectively)
Z - Moebius
? - Control (The desire to be in control)
Chronological Events of when Moebius show up and die:
- Introduces Wild Ride (D & J) like normal
Colony 4 - Introduces K
- K Dies
Colony 30 - Introduces P (Normal giant robot fight like before)
Colony 9 (Optional) - Introduces Irma (Remains masked permanently. Fight is changed to face off against Generic Moebius enemies instead)
Colony Gamma (Optional) - Introduces H (H flee's after being defeated)
Colony Lambda - Introduces J (Like normal. Colony was originally run by K (Taion recognised him from before))
Colony Tau - Introduces O (Extend Hero quest to basically include her ascension quest at the same time)
- Initiate & Complete Eunie's Side Story (When you meet up with Bolearis after he flee's the castle) (Features X and Crys (In his transformed state) as the enemies fight)
- P & O Death (After returning to the Ethel & Cammuravi fight area)
Colony 11 (Optional (Must have completed Teach's Hero Quest First)) - H Returns (Ashera lets him leave like before)
Colony Iota (Optional) - Introduces E (E flee's after being defeated. Fight him along side Generic Moebius Enemies)
- Encounter D & J once more (Fight plays out like normal)
- Introduces N (Like normal)
- Initiate & Complete Lanz's Side Story (Before you leave the City for the prison (Opportunity to interact with Moebius Candidates)) (Features Y and Generic Moebius enemies)
Colony Mu (Optional (Must have completed Zeon's Hero Quest First)) - Irma returns (Quest plays out the same) (Irma's Death)
Colony 15 (Optional) - Triton appears and can be recruited
- Initiate & Complete Taion's Side Story (Just before you infiltrate the City) (Features Y and Generic Moebius Enemies)
- Introduces M and whilst N & X show up once more
- M's Death after finishing prison segment
Colony Omega - Fight Y (Mio's Side Story)
Colony 0 (Optional (Must have completed Alexandria's Hero Quest First)) - Fight the Levnises before Segiri kills E
- Defeat both D & J (D & J Deaths)
- Initiate & Complete Noah's Side Story (Like normal) (Features Crys as the Enemy with X being present) (Crys' Death)
- Initiate & Complete Sena's Side Story (Whilst the boat is upgraded) (Features Shania as the Enemy with X being present) (Shania's Death)
- Fight N like normal infront of Melia (N's Death)
- X & Y's Deaths after facing them once more
- Z's Death
Changes to Hero Ascension Quests:
Juniper - Instead of fighting those monsters again and killing the consul, instead we go to Low Maktha and fight a dragon Boss
Ashera - The events play out the same except that only H is present. H is killed during this quest
Alexandria - A new Consul who I will refer to as "?" due to not knowing their name but this Consul would be the old commander who Alexandria succeeded. Aside from that, events play out the same
If a Hero's name is not ^above^, assume that their Ascension Quest would play out the exact same as normal (Potentially with a new Consul stated above)
Hero's who do not encounter Moebius during their respective quests:
Riku & Manana
Grey
Isurd
Monica
Ghondor
Cammuravi
That's everything I believe! If I forgot anything, I will attempt to update this post ASAP
Malos really is one of the best villains of all time. He successfully pulls of being a concept and being a compelling character at the same time. He is both plain evil and also has depth to why he is evil. He is both cold hearted toward your party and warm toward his own group. He shows up in the beginning and he was there at the end.
Malos is peak character design and I can never get enough of him simply swearing 😂
@@JBspherefreak only for him to the f word in gow ragnarok yes his voice actor voices thor
@@kevingame3198 That is just wrong.
Malos: David Menkin
Thor: Ryan Hurst
Disagree completely, XC2 is by far my fav Xenoblade game and Malos is a bullshit villain that should have been a secondary villain not the main one (this should be Amalthus).
Tbh, Malos in my eyes suffers from an issue that often comes up in XC2 and Torna that an idea was amazing and the execution was just ok.
I think one of the problems with moebius is that we don’t really see them come into being. If the whole Malos backstory wasn’t shown in a full fledged flashback in xenoblade 2, then we’d have the same problem with Z because the concept of him being, well, a concept, would be jarring. It works with Malos because we actually see it happen when Amalthus resonates with him, so they could’ve done something similar with Z when showing the worlds colliding but the 2 halves of origin get corrupted by showing the data of the people going haywire.
It's possible (and I'm hopeful) that this will be the focus or be revealed in the DLC story as its one of the best ways to elevate Z's character. I do still think aside from this change as a gameplay mechanic, Moebius is flawed with their sheer quantity but this would for sure be a step in the right direction
Backstory and concept. As well as motivation for the hero to overcome them. That’s some, but not all to make a great villain.
Every little bit helps and every tiny sprinkle of info helps build a mountain of greatness
I wish when you hit 5 on the Mobius counter, the death squads that appeared had Mobius leading them.
More so then that, I wish that we could still fight "Moebius" enemies after beating the game. I still find it strange how the things inside of Origin aren't Moebius type enemies
I know the game has a lots of problems story and lore wise (specially compared to 1 and 2) but I love videos like this that offer a solution to those problems instead of just complaining about them. The bittersweet part is that sometimes these ideas are so much better than what we had that it feels a bit sad to think about the "what could've been". Great work!
I try to look at an aspect of these games objectively when making these type of videos, with a little sprinkle of my own opinion added in. Moebius had GREAT potential and largely, I think it was succesful but it still had issues that lead to me initially being disappointed with the antagonists and game as whole!
It has taken me a long time and a lot of research to truly come around to understand and appreciate Moebius and the changes in this video aim to remove that long uneccesary process
Honestly I notice the biggest flaw in Z’s goal is that his “eternal now” was one of the kinds of futures the people dread in the first place. It wasn’t some paradise where everyone we cherish is with us and happy forever, it was a literal hell where everyone’s lives were absurdly short and solely dedicated to constantly murdering each other in a war that’s only purpose was to have everyone die over and over for eternity.
His “present” was the result of changing two worlds into the kind of very thing the emotions that created him were so scared of.
Death and destruction.
And I think that’s the point, he’s ultimately still an AI, just corrupted by the fears of the people. but even now still doesn’t comprehend that people weren’t scared of the future, they were scared FOR the future. He’s a computer taking an already altered goal way too literally.
I'll say this: I don't think Moebius should be fleshed out. I think they represent a much more banal type of evil in the real world of a disproportionate amount of people at the levers of societal power and control being outright greedy, regressive and/or malicious. To some degree, it's implied that Z goes out of his way to find people who already fit that psyche profile.
I think the final explanation is also perfect because Z saying "I did it for fun" is really the only proper explanation a world like this could have. That it's so unrepentantly, mercilessly cruel in its design can only be due to malice, not utility.
There's a line from one of the FFXIV expansions where one character asks another why they committed a crime. the criminal says "for nothing" and the accuser gets angry. The criminal says "would it make you feel better if I had a good reason?"
And I think this exchange from another game highlights why trying to rationalize or beef up Moebius' backstory or motivations is pointless: they're not supposed to be interesting, they're supposed to be hateable. They're meant to represent a very real form of evil in the world that isn't to be understood more deeply but just overthrown without replacing it with more of the same.
The fact that the party has some 'Moebius' in them as well is to point out that this outcome, and the way Moebius behave, can be evoked from any person and it's a worst impulse that you have to resist
Honestly, X should be in Noah/Eunie/Lanz side-stories, which would lead to XInfinity being the enemy of the Bionis/Mechonis portion of the group, while Y should be in Nio/Taion/Sena side-stories, which would lead to YInfinity being the enemy of the Alrest portion of the group.
Can't wait to fight Moebius A in the DLC sequel !
Please Monolith make it a sequel...
Don't forget that the DLC story might have absolutely nothing to do with XC3 😉
@JBspherefreak then why include it with xenobalde 3? At that point just make it the next game in the series
One change I had in mind to improve Moebius X/Y and the climactic feeling of chapter 7 is to split Origin into two parts in the story. After resolving things with N and freeing Melia, we find out that X and Y got up to some very nasty stuff outside Origin (no idea what, think of something appropriate) and you actually exit Origin to confront them because whatever it is they’re doing needs to be urgently addressed. However, since Nia and Melia are both awakened, they accompany you to this battle (maybe have a short dungeon first, if we really want to be bold have it be a mix of Prison Island and World Tree). From there, elaborate on the implied idea of X/Y being the Anima/Animus of Moebius, and of Aionios as a whole, and make things personal between them and the two true queens of Aionios. Since X/Y seem to have set up the system of the world they stole from Melia and Nia, let this be a chance for Melia and Nia to assert their understanding of the world, use X/Y as their foils, and have the queens resolve to protect the will of the people they care about. Boss fight with interlinked Moebius X/Y happens here, give the queens an interlink to match if we want to get crazy, but either way, it’s through this scenario that X/Y meet their ends. Then Melia and Nia return to their castles to rally the people while the party returns to Origin’s depths in a short last crawl to get to Z.
I like this idea but I don't think its necessary to exit Origin, maybe go to one end instead of straight to Z
Finally got to watch this and fully agree with X and Y bearing some of the largest missed potential in every aspect. Your idea of having them involved further with the rest of the main cast is very sound and intriguing; Thinking of how Y would be a great secondary antagonist to Lanz while also providing further depth for Taion (especially if Nimue was somehow involved).
Exactly, Moebius was great but they just needed to take that last step
One thing that could be nice it's fight Moebius that we killed in origin but as regular mob. It can reward the player for having finish side content with more variety of Moebius.
I don't think it's impossible lore wise since Z ressurect Noah (or N) after his home comming. However they would have lost their mind and only be a particular emotion. This emotion would be portrail by the ennemy art name or some death dialogue like K '' I don't want to die ''. If it's not clear enought it's a bit like the Wels from gears and memory space before Zanza boss fight.
This isn't possible actually...
Z didn't revive Noah after his homecoming's, that's something that happened outside of his power and is why Z took such an interest into Noah. When a Moebius dies, they die for good, that is the way of the world and even with all of Z's power, he can't change that
@@JBspherefreak I mean after the with child version. Noah die in homecoming but yeah I guess I imagine to big
That's due to something else because Mio has the same power/trait. We still don't know the exact reason but that is almost certainly to do with something else
I honestly couldn't get over how goofy they looked
Amazing video! I love Moebius as villains, but I understand why some people don't like them. As much as I like them, they do need some improvements (looking at you X and Y) and I agree with your points
I also really like the vampire aesthetic of Moebius, if you know what I mean (such as the amphitheater stuff + Z's design) Idk if anyone else noticed this, but in a lot of cutscenes you can see that Dirk has fangs which I find to be an interesting detail since he's basically the most bloodthirsty Moebius you encounter
Appreciated 😊
To reiterate what I said in the video, the concept of Moebius was really good with Z leading the charge and the other important story Moebius picking up the slack and I too then really like them. It's just some aspects that I feel would have been better to be cut then added which ruined what could have been a great antagonist
I agree that mobius could have been better, but what made them better for me was that I never did any side quests in my first play through. The only moebius that I saw was in the main story. So N was front and center with M. D and J were there a fair bit with the only other ones really showing up were Y,X,P,O and K.
SEE I came to this realistaion as I was working on this video that actually avoiding ALL side content is actually for the best compared to it normally enhancing everything. On my first playthrough, I completed every Hero Quest before finishing the ending so it impacted me greatly
I disagree. Completing every hero quest really fleshes out the world and strengthens a lot of the game’s themes and characters. Most of the hero quest Moebius are kinda nothingburgers, but from a holistic standpoint you can see through them how deeply Moebius dug their claws into Aionios, whereas the main story Moebius are more personal affairs that focus on how the main party confronts their existence and what makes someone Moebius to begin with. Together, the whole picture is painted of the world.
The side quests are what actually fuck the Moebius as villains because It makes the main ones feel like "just another one of them"
I ain't fan of what they did with hero quests
I agree with all of that. Just a handful of Mobious with more depth would go a long way.
I am not sure that every good villain needs to have understandable motives, backstories and development. Sometimes I just want to have some unredeemable bastard to feel hatred towards, wanting to beat the crap out of him. For me, Z fulfilled this role.
I mean, some evil bugger who just wants to do bad things is kind of his motive...
You can think of "motives" being quite loose as a lot can be considered as it is incredibly important. For instance, if a once normal character suddenly turned evil for no reason and tried to beat the party, then they would be quite jarring which is why we need to give a reason for a character to do that to smooth it out a bit. A motive or something to explain villain is incredibly important
I appreciate that sometimes you can just have a character who is bad because they are but you still need something to give a reason why else my example still works because they could not be considered "good" villains at all
I don’t think it’s wise to read too much into Z’s stated motivation. The whole theatre room scene has him saying a bunch of stuff that is just a bs mask for his insecurities, which are revealed by Z Infinite’s existence.
It makes me wonder how the generic Moebius would be named aside from just "Moebius" or "Consul". Like if you fight a few of them, would one be called a "Moebius Reveler", then a "Moebius Strategist" and so on.
That'd be an interesting way to do it as they could simply just reuse Classes that are already in the game. Would mean they have to make different weapon visuals (Darkgod Variants) but that shouldn't take too long
my dumbass thought he was goanna improve the mobius strip 💀
R.I.P.
I ain't out here about to revolutiose Mathematical equations and create another 4D shape 😂
We really just needed more screen time for each Moebius especially X, Y and Z. Having them present in the place of some of the other less developed Moebius would’ve done much more for their character
Yeah I mostly agree.
I would have given each mobius less psychotic tendencies and more actual reasons to hate the passage of time. Like Triton became mobius because he hated getting old and not having the time to explore everything, or maybe Irma became mobius because she wanted more time as a leader, things like these.
Just explain the constant battles as a way to keep the endless now up and running instead of Z and the rest of the alphabet messing around for fun.
I also would have loved to get more of a backstory for Dirk, alongside more things to do with X and Y and even Z himself.
Funny enough I feel like Z was the main problem with Moebius. I felt that there was an opportunity to have him be a real person that still embodied the fear of change. One thought I had was to have him maybe be a person who helped create Origin itself (maybe a scientist or engineer from the XC1 world) which would help explain how he knew to take over Origin and kidnap Melia in the first place. It would’ve been cool to maybe see “Zed” (why does the game call him “Zed” anyway?) in his “human” life struggle with fear of change to the point where the embodiment of everyone’s fear morphing him into “Z”.
I disagree because I think Z is actually a great antagonist when you look at him thematically over the whole story of XC3 but I do also agree with what else you say. The thing is tho, Z might actually be real person and he might have worked on Origin, that isn't disproven as of yet. The current understanding is that he isn't but the DLC story might introduce him for instance and he might even be connected to that painting
Also, "Zed" is how we pronounce it in the UK so it is actually correct
Because there are several countries outside of America that actually pronounce it as "Zed" instead of "Zee." One example is British.
I believe that the Moebius being like petty cartoon villains is the whole point. These are people who have been in power for millennia and have had everything go their way all the while and have only met serious resistance recently.
I have hope that the DLC may be better than the main game- kinda like how many found Torna to be better than base 2! I was always partial to 2's base game, but I heard a lot of people talking about how much they love Torna. I'm really hoping the DLC does the same thing :)
Xenoblade Games are typically very long and Torna was praised for how good it was whilst still being much shorter then normal! I'm confident that Monolth can do it again tho 👍
Yeah I agree with almost everything here, another thing I don’t like is how they all look the same. Like I get the colour theming is part of the story (Keves blue black, agnus white green, city brown and grey, moebius red and purple), but it just made them even more forgettable. They could have made red as the primary colour but added accents, or red helmet and then varied designs of armour. Torna (the group) in xc2 does it fairly well with the Japanese influence, maybe they could have gone with a more European suit of armour deal idk. And most of the consuls don’t remotely look intimidating in consul form, like the faces in xc1 do for instance. Their armour looks goofy a lot of the time and it takes away from the villainy
I agree actually. I understand why they went with the style and consistency they did but a little more variety wouldn't have gone amiss
When you asked which Mobius was in each colony - you missed another criticism... Which colong was Colony Iota? For example?
For me, there were way too many colonies to ever get invested in any of them. For me there was "the colony with the teaching quests', 'the colony with the ones who were defeatest','the colony with the crazy aggressive leader' and so on...
Emotional connection to mobius would have been improved with a greater emotional connection to those under their thumbs.
Personally, I don't really find this much of an issue...I can easily tell you at a glance that Iota is Alexandria's colony located in Elaice Highway in the Fornis region. The only colonies I struggle on are Colony 5 and Colony 15 because I get their names mixed up but aside from that I don't find this much of an issue
@@JBspherefreak Yeah I can see that. Perhaps for me this game, as a criticism you've touched on before, doesn't have as memorable locales or world orientation.
I absolutely adore Xeno 1 for example, and can tell you how each location maps to the Bionis and Mechonis. I can tell from a screenshot which titan an area was in from Xeno 2. But this one... I found I couldn't even remember the names of the locations aside from Everblight field, Urayan Caverns/mountains. Obviously I remember the order the areas came in, but I couldn't tell you their names. The first rocky area with the fallen arm is my favourite in the game for its music and story beats, but I can't tell you it's name...
I feel like, for me and other, this might all feed into the mobius questions.
I will probably play the game again to get more details, but I also couldn't remember many of the hero's names either.
It's a shame because I really like the game and the story, but I find it lacking in memorability and connection. It's a strange dissonance for a Xeno fan to feel.
I see
I still stand by Aionios not being as interesting as other game worlds previous. Part of that seems to be some areas not being clear where they originate from (Captocorn peak I'm looking at you....piece of shit area)
Additionally, the actual map design of each area seemed to fall flat as well. The most original area (and would be my personal favourite) is the Great Swords Base but it was literally ONLY designed as a stepping stone to get into Swordmarch. I think this is by far the most creative and original area that could have been really neat to explore but it was left untouched. I dunno there's just something bad about the map design (I'm waiting on a guy to publish a free camera mod for XC3 so I can actually explore these area's and A) see if there were area's left unfinished, showing they originally planned for them to be bigger and better ore B) witness how much unutilised space they could have used)
@@JBspherefreak xenoblade 3s areas can be summed up as "very pretty yet, somehow...uninteresting"
@@Dooddood0 @JBspherefreak Interestingly, thinking about it, the areas never quite seemed to get to the "playground" feel that past entries did. Not quite small enough to feel "entirely" linear, but you seldom went off the beaten path to a corner and find something wonderful - it felt like "all roads lead to next area". (Obviously Capticorn is the linera exception... that was... yeah).
But Bionis Leg for example, so many areas you can explore there and think "Oh... I'm really in deep now".
Adding on to this whole video I think it would be great if moebius also had a few more more members interlink. Only 2 sets ever interlink in the game and its kinda baffling to me that X and Y don't interlink when their theoretically the 2 strongest moebius outside of Z.
True, we also never got to N or M's Moebius forms either
@@JBspherefreak M's form not being shown was probably intentional since she really never asked for this. Not too sure about N though.
It’s funny because I expected Melia and Nia, N and M, and X and Y to all have interlink bosses, and not one of them did!
Narratively, only the last one would even make sense but it was still really funny how far off base my prediction got
I hope we get another xenoblade chronicles game that isn't a sequel whatsoever outside of a few references. While i liked 3 i also missed the unique worldbuilding of 1 and 2.
Moebius Q is Kenny Rohan and you can't convince me otherwise now.
Q?
@@JBspherefreak Did I stutter
Kenny Rohan is Consul K? I mean, you can't prove that he isn't, right?
Its just a neat theory that even if it became a meme, could have added a lot to K if it was true
I like Z more than Malos because i find Z more cool and i like the concept but ok
I think the x and y being in more stuff is a good idea but it has to be more cameo based I feel. Like taion cant have another moebius in his story as the whole point is tricking one person if Y was there itd make way less sense. I think cameos where Y is telling I believe Q? To go check an old flame clock that started up for him. In regards to lanz he could just simply say H has done a good job at creating her better flame clock and its light causes the last life to shine ever more brilliantly. That's it though just small cutscenes not actual fights. This could also make Q being offended for thought to be a lapdog make it ironic since he was doing what a master of his told him to do. As for side stories being locked to main story yeah that's a good idea but probably be annoying player wise unless it was spread out more like say eunie and lanz have their early then taion and sena then finally mio and noah. However I do disagree with having tons of the alphabet moebius for side story. While moebius do canonically have charge over multiple colonies it would take away from the uniqueness of each situation even if most of them are evil for sake of evil. Your idea would also change stuff like triton and Irma as there would be more moebius and they wouldnt have an easy way to do those stories. Say if B and R randomly shows up to be like "triton what the spark are you doing fishing with ouroboros" it takes away from it
As for Taion's side story, I think it could work with just Y and removing V. Yes it makes Taion look like a genius to outsmart a True Moebius but I feel like an intellectual battle of wits between Taion & Y would have been really interesting and at the end of the day, it is Taion's side story so why not make him flex that muscle
Lanz's side story works far easier with it just being Y and him just "running an experiment" so I don't think there would be too much of an issue here.
I don't follow your last issue? I was reducing the number of named Moebius, not constraining them to side content. I would check the Pinned Comment to get a full run down of what I had in mind
Why do we need to make them better? Sometimes Villains can just not be that complex.
The main villain and driving force of the game, N, was great and complex.
Thats exactly the issue. N is a great enemy but the side he represents isn't which when confronted with Z at the endgame feels lacklustre
@@JBspherefreak I mean, the side isn’t supposed to be that deep. Nor was Z.
Zanza wasn’t deep either.
The problem isn’t depth the problem is you didn’t really see Z do anything or interact with him before hand or build to him. Unlike Zanza who is just as one note, but you get build up.
I recently made a video on moebius as well, and I came to a similar conclusion to you. Moebius are the only villains that work for xenoblade 3, and Z is the only final boss that could work for the narrative. But Z isn’t the issue, it’s the other moebius. While some were awesome others were lacking, and I think what you said here is a good fix. Regardless looking back on it I love moebius as the antagonists of 3 and I think there involvement was genius for the narrative of 3, probably a bit of a hot take.
I don't think thats a hot take at all. I've discussed this topic with A LOT of people and many have come to a similar conclusion after looking over and understanding things better. Moebius didn't do Z any favors and he ain't beating Malos anytime soon for the best Xenoblade villain but I think a lot more people would have appreciated Moebius if it wasn't for these issues cropping up
@@JBspherefreak yeah no, xenoblade 2 is my least favorite in the series but it nailed it in the villain department. The only villain in the game that was 2 tier was N imo. But I think for a game that relies a lot more on thematic storytelling moebius just works really damn well.
Honestly i'd make D & J be more relevant and don't do the same shit they did with their ending in Ch 6(which i found pretty cringey and rushed) and also make X and Y play a more active role from the beggining
N and M are perfect but i would make N don't just be redeemed in the way he got
I know I am late but I disagree moebius has reshaped the idea if the Xenoblade franchise. Xenoblade gave it the identity whereas xenoblade 3 gave the series’s a renewed focus on what we thought was a series that reached its peak after xenoblade 1. Xenoblade 2 was something that was both decent but insanely flawed both in story and characters for me. Xenoblade 3 is a return to form.
I can totally sympathize with the dislike of XB2’s anime/shounen stuff but the overall story and character development are best in the series. XB3 could have taken the crown but the last two chapters were just incredibly rushed garbage with a complete wet fart of an “ending”
As a student going into game design and you know, just writing classes in general, I understand giving love and attention to twenty-five different antagonists equally is a task that may as well be impossible. But as another comment made by RedTheWeeb pointed out... some hero quests and the like would need to be a completely different story from what we actually got since they just do not work if there is multiple Moebius. Then admittedly in my own opinion I think tossing out some of the named Moebius, some of which do actually have a tiny bit of semblance of humanity in them we don't really get to see while they're alive like G and I/Irma, and to some extent F, for nameless Moebius cheapens Moebius in another way that I personally feel is far more damaging than keeping the ones that are named even if they're just stereotypes rather some super duper interesting villain like Torna or Egil. Sure, might not matter much in your memory if you're fighting one of the less memorable Moebius with four goons, but narrative wise that really cheapens the Hero quests and makes some of the best side content the series has ever had mediocre, when it comes to that Players enjoy fighting against "characters" not nameless grunts, even if those "characters" barely qualify for it. Though part of this is also based on my own interpretation of the scene where Z fills the theater with Moebius, as he is not only the concept of two world's fear, but also the world and laws of it and I don't mean laws as in just governmental, I mean the law of how certain things in the world even operate and function as can be partly seen in his boss fight, so I always interpreted that theater full of Moebius to be Z simply allowing for dead Moebius to return from the grave there and now with the use of his powers to watch the duel and manifest for a time, almost as if they were just illusions rather than an actual representation of how many Moebius were in the backlog ready to ship out since considering the type of villain Z ultimately is if they were real and true Moebius... the party would've been literally dog pilled then and there and realistically that'd be the end of it..
You make interesting points and I will admit that all of these changes are not necessarily perfect but I do disagree. I get where your coming from in respect to G (Irma is absolutely staying, she's a boss, check the pinned comment) but as this ultimately lead me to being confused about Moebius, I think it is necessary. The main thing to keep in mind is that I am turning the concept of Moebius INTO a narrative device meaning that THEY are what are going to be Foreshadowing the truth about Z & Moebius. To this extent, Moebius like G get in the way and interfere as it makes Moebius just feel like a mish mash of random of folks rather then a super powerful entity that stole control of the world.
Your also probably right that in some senses, adding generic unnamed Moebius may "cheepen" the side content but I would only use these sparingly and when necessary as not to re-create the same whole issue from before. You could admittedly probably keep Moebius like G and simply remove their name and I'd be good because that doesn't belie the food chain of Moebius. It's another issue with X & Y because I think as we move up through the ranks, the Moebius should get closer and closer to likliness to Z so grunts like unnamed Moebius being random would be fine.
I appreciate your interpretation but I'm fairly confident that isn't what is happening at all as one of the big points before they enter Origin is Mio stating "All Moebius are aware of the principle that if they die, they cannot come back" which is a rule set and stated. Z may be powerful but I don't think even he could break this rule or as you say, he would just revive every Moebius ever to stop Ouroboros
I hope you enjoy studying Games Design! I did a few years ago and is why I'm able to objectively look at things like this and come to a relatively conclusive solution if there ever is one
For me the biggest issue with Moebius was how they were introduced as not caring about living or dying, but then EVERY time they actually were defeated, they'd start crying "I don't wanna die!!1". For a big portion of the game, I thought that Moebius are immortal because of that. Which they are not. And yet when you meet the first two Moebius and J, they act as if they're far-detached watchers or puppeteers that just have fun with the living. That was just bad presentation ultimately.
I like the way they were introduced BUT I totally get how you would arrive at that conclusion. The way I interpreted this is that Moebius are so Overconfident in themselves that they haven't even entertained the possibility that they might be defeated. They are all incredibly prideful which is why they treat this as a game but when encountering and understanding that they are in danger, they begin to weep like so.
Also, they are technically immortal as they will just live forever but they aren't invincible. Moebius will go on living up until the point they are killed so your interpretation was actually accurate
@@JBspherefreak Yeah, they were just overconfident as you say. But with the theater and them observing Aionius like it IS a game or movie to them, I really thought they'rre immortal, and even if defeated, they just return to the theater where they rant about losing like a gamer who got shot in counterstrike or whatever game. Do you know the old anime 'Star Sheriff and the Saber Riders'? Basically I thought defeated Moebius would return to the theater just like defeated Outlaws vanished back to the 'phantom zone'. ;D
Right I see I see, I follow ya now. Personally didn't see that being the case (possibly due to all the Xenosaga/gears lore I was getting left right and centre) but I can kinda get where your coming from
That is the point of Moebius, they all wanted the Endless Now, meaning that since they are virtually immortal by draining the lives of the rest and the power given by Z, they literally feared death besides losing the thing they desired the most regardless of what it was. And since they were basically Gods compared to the rest, their power led them to psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies. N is the perfect example of this.
I hope the DLC will uncover more about the Z character
For me x i remember x very well but y seems much more lackluster.
I think they should have put more hints to what mobius is but i did like the quantity. I remember most of them even if i dont remember their letter.
Is it sure that there are way more moebius then 25? For me the many moebius were an illusion or something alike but not real
The one problem I can see this having aside from potentially recording the script is that it increase the run time a far. But hey who am I to complain of a linear narrative being more fleshed out.
Morbius
So I’m going to sound like a hater, but one Moebius kind of messed it all up for me in game…
And that goes to everybody’s favorite pirate boy, Triton.
Seeing the Moebius be such horrible awful pieces of garbage, have 1 single Moebius actually treat his people well was jarring. I LUV Triton the character, but him being one of the older Moebius while also keeping his humanity makes me wish we got a bit more of that.
Having gone through this game now 3 times I can conclude than Moebius is amazing on paper, but the overall execution was lacking
I disagree, focussing on N and Z was the right thing to do.
The Generic Moebius could be called "Lambs" or "Moebius Lambs" as a reference to Xenogears and to represent how they are repleceable lambs that follow the main moebius and that If they are slaughtered It doesn't matter for them, they would just be figures to assure Z and the others have control over the colonies
That would be a nice reference
Not to mention Keves and Agnus also mean "Lamb" in their respective languages.
So basically everything can be boiled down to a not so advanced computer AI has a meltdown due to the fear of everyone and creates an embodiment of said fear which then turns others into manifestations of negative emotions. Also this game confirms that the previous two games are set in the same UNIVERSE NOT TWO SEPERATE ONES. It is a literal case of an idiot scientist was fucking around with cosmic power and split the Earth into two halves. One being Earth reborn and the other being effectively Counter Earth from Marvel.
I wonder if the DLC’s trailer shows Alvis as Consul A or just as another antagonist
We'll have to wait and see
Only 3 minutes in but I just need to vent that this question about which consuls reside over which colony is incredibly stupid because most people cannot even name the commander of each of those colonies. The main ones the big parts of the story focus on are 9, Gamma, Omega, Lambda and 4 give or take a few others. That said, I can only remember Omega and Lambda's consuls so the point of the question isn't moot, not that people are going to remember every villain in a 100+ hour game though.
I don't like hero quests, especially when they actively started to hurt the narrative later(Miyabi, Cammuravi, Mwamba and Hackt should've been just sent off and maybe Ethel could return because she was kept into the pod)
They also make the main moebius feel less impactful compared to the other thousands you met
Although these quests add good Worldbuilding
Hero side stories should've been in the main story in a similiar way to Juniper Quest and Taion's boss should be X
Edit: Yeah i agree with where X and Y would appear on your version
I feel like I'm listening to a watered down version of fight Communism 🤣
He’s suffers the same problem as Luxxar from xenoblade x your saying
Kind of, its not the exact same issue as Luxaar (or anywhere as severe) but there are aspects of Luxaars flaws here in Z
woah i'am half a year late but thought I could share my thoughts. Moebius in general are a cool concept but poorly executed, the main problem for me in xc3 story beside the pacing and the last chapters are specifically the villains. Is cool that despite being hundreds of yrs old and having multiple consciousness they are all completely crazy. BUT they are 19 copies of the same character (not counting N M Z and J), they became boring and stupid from the eyes of the player. Still the biggest problem is Z, the main villan, is cold, resolute, calm, give the sensation to be a villan with a clear plan that has everything over his control, but in reality is an absolute idiot... He had everything to stop us at any time, but choose to send the weakest moebius every time to fight Uroboros (his only true enemy). His just a concept shell of a character than never stands up and is wrote badly. N is a good character ( not counting FR retcon), but Z is hilarious? He even says "I underestimate you" during is fight, really bro? Even his powers are a mess. Not necessarily a character needs a backstory, a sad point of you to look at or empathy. Look at Ultima, (villain of FF16, voiced by the same VA of Z and with a similar attitude and profile), he works perfectly bc he has something to tell, he has a role! He leaves something at the player! Z is just a wall of HP that we fight for the same reasons we fought 22 other guys but he's also magical and shit. I'll not talk about J bc I think I said enough bad things :(. really a shame this story could have been so much better with very little more. Nice video btw.
Still disappointed that we didn't get a Moebius of the main cast
I would've love to see a Moebius Eunie and Sena
Eunie with all her shit talking
And Sena would've probably been the funniest villain ever
Taion could've been an evil strategist which would've been really cool
Lanz could've been a monster boss to fight through
I don't really think they could have structured it well into the story but I hella do want their cosmetics!
@@JBspherefreak Other than Noah and Mio I don't see why we couldn't see the other cast in some form outside of Origin
We just see the Kevesi group as kids but that was it. Would've loved to see little Mio and tiny Sena
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I felt the game was amazing until chapter 7, the final dungeon/boss fight wasnt enough imo
I think Chapter 6 was more lacking tbh but that's just my opinion. From Captocorn Peak (worst area ever) to the Origin Metal collection quest, things were pretty shit
@@JBspherefreak actually i agree, both chapter 6 and 7 needed more. They hype up origin but i feel like i made it through in 5 mins plus i cant really remember much of the interior outside of the room with all the (memory cubes?/souls?) Also i really dont like giant head boss fights usually
The Waffle House has found it’s new host
The Waffle House?
The worst Xenoblade game ever.