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The Story of Xenoblade Chronicles: A Full Recap

The story of Xenoblade Chronicles is a long, emotional, and fulfilling one.

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The Xenoblade series has some of the most winding and involved stories of any JRPG franchise, and that’s before we even get into how they all tie together. To make these titanic narratives a bit more digestible, we’ve taken the opportunity to recap the stories of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for your reading pleasure. Whether you need to be brought up to speed on a game you haven’t played yet or simply want a refresher on certain details in Shulk and Rex’s stories before Xenoblade Chronicles 3 releases later this month, here is everything you need to know. This is a full story recap of the original Xenoblade Chronicles.

The Story So Far: Recapping All of Xenoblade Chronicles

The camera zooms through a bank of clouds, breaking through to reveal two gargantuan titans locked in combat in the middle of a great sea that stretches endlessly. The white titan, the Bionis, wields a blade of light while the black titan, the Mechonis, a blade of metal. After the Bionis manages to cut off one of the Mechonis’s arms, the two massive beings swing their weapons one last time and find their mark in their opponent’s flank. The two titans move no more. It’s upon the body of these two majestic beings that the story of Xenoblade Chronicles takes place upon, and it’s one of the most creative and imaginative video game settings out there.

Xenoblade Dunban
The Battle of Sword Valley

Eons pass and we’re shown a battle taking place between the biological inhabitants of Bionis, the Homs, and the mechanical beings of Mechonis, the Mechon. The Homs seem to be heavily outmatched and are being pushed back when a trio of soldiers breaks through and takes on the Mechon vanguard. The one leading the charge, Dunban, wields a sword of light that easily cuts through the Mechon armor that took regular soldiers significant effort to pierce. This sword is the legendary Monado, and is a key item to the Xenoblade Chronicles story. 

Together with his two comrades, Dickson and Mumkar, Dunban manages to fend off the advance Mechon party. Using the Monado takes a toll on Dunban, though, eventually rendering him immobile. Mumkar takes the opportunity to flee the battlefield, only to find himself swarmed by the enemy moments later. Dickson and Dunban steel their resolve for one last offensive. As they charge forward, the camera pans out to reveal the battle had been taking place on the sword the Mechonis embedded in the side of the Bionis.

Time passes and we shift perspectives to our protagonist for this journey, Shulk. Shulk and his best friend, Reyn, are inhabitants of Colony 9 which rests on the Bionis’s right calf. Dickson is shown to have survived the battle at Sword Valley and reminisces when he found Shulk as a child together with the Monado. Shulk accompanied his parents on an expedition when he was four but upon their party finding the Monado in a mountainous temple, an incident caused every member to die save for Shulk himself who was later found by Dickson. Shulk feels a need to uncover the secrets of the mysterious weapon as a result.

Dunban has also survived the battle, but repeated use of the Monado has left him crippled, bedridden, and unable to even hold a spoon properly. He’s taken care of by his younger sister, Fiora, who also happens to be close friends with Shulk and Reyn. The three friends spend some time taking care of tasks for the colony but it isn’t long before a full-scale Mechon assault begins without warning. Joining in on the attack is a unique, faced Mechon that seems to act with more purpose than the other units.

Dunban rallies his body to fend off the Mechon with the Monado but it almost immediately taken by intense seizures. Shulk takes up the Monado in an act of desperation and beats away the invaders. He realizes that the Monado has given him the ability to see into the future, allowing him to predict his enemy’s movements and react accordingly.

Metal Face
Metal Face readies to tear into Fiora

Unfortunately, that power doesn’t help him when Fiora gets isolated from the rest of the group. Shulk and the others watch in horror as the faced Mechon runs Fiora through with its claws, tossing the mobile artillery unit she was in into the lake below. In a blood-filled rage, Shulk manages to land a solid blow on the Mechon’s head but that doesn’t defeat it, only makes it retreat.

Stricken by grief, Shulk and Rey vow to get revenge on the faced Mechon, now referred to as Metal Face. Dunban entrusts the Monado to Shulk and the two set off for Sword Valley — the location the opening cutscene battle took place in — where there is said to be a Mechon base. They decide to travel to Colony 6 along the way first to see if they can gather any information.

Along the way to their destination Shulk has a dream of an obscured figure asking if he wants to change the future. The figure tells Shulk to seek “the true Monado” if he wants to make the future his. Shulk isn’t quite sure what to make of the dream.

Eventually the duo arrive at the Gaur Plains on the Bionis’s thigh where they encounter a young boy being pursued by monsters. After rescuing him the boy introduces himself as Juju and offers to take Shulk and Reyn back to their camp for them to rest. There we meet Sharla, a combat medic and Juju’s older sister. 

Sharla reveals that Colony 6 was also attacked by the Mechon but unlike Colony 9, they were unable to fend them off. The colony is now occupied by the Mechon and many soldiers stayed behind to ensure the few survivors got away. Sharla’s would-be-husband, Gadolt, was one of those soldiers.

Upon hearing the news that Colony 9 was attacked, Juju takes that to mean some of the occupying forces in Colony 6 must have left and sets off to retake it in secret. Shulk sees a vision of Juju meeting his end, though, and so he, Reyn, and now Sharla as well set off to bring him back before it’s too late.

Xenoblade Chronicles Sharla and Juju
Sharla tending to her little brother, Juju

The trio manages to save the boy from his untimely fate, but just as they take a breath of relief a new faced Mechon crashes in. This Mechon speaks mockingly to the party, the first Mechon ever to have spoken. The Monado, which cleaved through lesser Mechon like butter, harmlessly bounces off this new threat’s armor. The faced Mechon, named Xord, eventually makes off with Juju, taking him back to Colony 6.

The party decides to infiltrate Colony 6 via the Ether Mines that spread out beneath it. Once they enter the mines, though, they encounter Gadolt’s commanding officer, Otharon, fighting for his life against the Mechon. After rescuing him Otharon says Gadolt staged a last stand offensive and has been lost ever since; Otharon gives the ether rifle Gadolt left behind to Sharla. Otharon tells the group that the Mechon take all the Homs they kidnap to the central pit of the mines, so rather than heading to the surface their new destination is to head down.

When the party finally makes it to the bottom of the mines they’re greeted to a grim site of Homs bodies melted down for nourishment to the Mechon, but Juju remains unharmed. Xord appears and fights the party but Shulk’s Monado still can’t do any damage to him. When all seems lost, Otharon catches Xord off-guard with a surprise attack and pushes him into a pool of concentrated ether, seemingly defeating him.

The group rescues Juju and attempts to escape via the main elevator but Xord reappears albeit with severely damaged armor. The Monado is finally able to damage Xord and the party forces him into submission. On his last leg, Xord mentions that he’s surprised Shulk was able to defeat him without the Monado’s “true power.” He also implies his eyes were opened when he “became like this.” Shulk presses Xord for more details but instead of answering Xord propels himself into the elevator shaft, self-detonating and destroying himself along the way.

Xenoblade Chronicles Xord
The party facing down against Xord

The party barely escapes the resulting explosion and manage to make their way back to the surface, but before they can catch their breaths they’re attacked by a horde of Mechon led by Metal Face who reveals he, too, can talk. Timely help comes in the aid of Dickson and Dunban, though, who have caught up to the group after recuperating from the Colony 9 battle. (Fun fact: This is the only battle in the entire game that Dickson is playable) Even with their assistance, though, the Monado is still powerless against Metal Face just as it was against the full-powered Xord and the party is eventually forced onto the back leg.

Just as Metal Face is about to finish them off, however, a winged creature swoops in and decimates the Mechon forces. Metal Face exclaims out that it’s something called a Telethia and seems confused as to why it’s there. Shulk takes advantage of his confusion to land a blow that manages to scratch Metal Face’s armor. Metal Face retreats from the battlefield, leaving Shulk and Reyn to seethe that the target of their revenge continues to live on.

Shulk conveys to the group a vision he had in the heat of battle; in it they were fighting Metal Face again in front of some tower on the Bionis’s head. Dickson recognizes that description as Prison Island at the capital of the High Entia, Alcamoth and offers to lead them there.

Coming to a Head

They pass through Satorl Marsh on the Bionis’s waist and along the way Otharon and Juju split off from the group to return to and begin rebuilding Colony 6, while Dickson parts ways to take care of his own business. The group then takes a shortcut through the inner part of the Bionis in order to reach higher parts. As they pass through, Shulk notices that it’s a little strange how the inner parts of the titan somehow feel like its still alive.

The group emerges from the squelchy innards and onto the Bionis’s back, where they are greeted to the rich, verdant landscape of the Makna Forest. Dunban suggests paying the local Nopon village a visit, seeing as no one knows quite how to proceed from here. Along the way, though, they encounter a young girl collapsed in the forest, her ether all but drained. Sharla sends Shulk to find the appropriate ether crystals so that she may heal the girl.

Xenoblade Chronicles Melia
The party finds an unconscious Melia in Makna Forest

While Shulk is searching he encounters a young Homs named Alvis, who Shulk faintly recognizes as the boy in the dream that told him to seek “the true Monado.” The duo is attacked by a Telethia, the same creature that came to their aid when they were under attack at Colony 6. Shulk attempts to fend the Telethia off but it swiftly avoids all of his attacks. Alvis explains that the Telethia can read minds before suddenly taking the Monado from Shulk and using a new power to block the creature’s telepathy. He promptly returns the legendary weapon to Shulk, allowing him to dispatch the Telethia with relative ease but Alvis vanishes soon afterwards, leaving Shulk with many unanswered questions as to the identity of his savior. 

Shulk returns to Sharla with ether crystals in tow, which she uses to resuscitate the unconscious girl. She introduces herself as Melia and in return for rescuing her she agrees to escort the party the path to the Bionis’s head, the entrance of which just so happens to be at the Nopon village they were heading to anyway.

They arrive at Frontier Village where the Nopon chief agrees to grant the party safe passage to Eryth Sea, the location on the Bionis’s head. Shulk can’t help but worry about Melia after seeing a vision of her being attacked by a large Telethia, though, and decides to help her with her task of slaying it before moving on, much to the annoyance of Melia herself. The Nopon chief overhears their conversation and lends them their grrrrrrrrreatest Heropon, Riki, to assist them.

Xenoblade Chronicles Riki
Heropon Riki, on the scene!

The group dispatch the “Dinobeast” after a fierce battle and Riki returns home victorious… only for the Chief to order him to continue accompanying the Homs because Riki’s kids racked up quite the debt while he was gone. Tough break. Melia also decides to act as the group’s guide to Eryth Sea and Alcamoth in return for their help in slaying the Telethia.

After reaching the sea, Melia escorts the group to the entrance of Alcamoth where she asks them to wait while she arranges for their entry. The game briefly shifts to Melia’s perspective as she approaches the emperor of the High Entia and is revealed to be the princess of the race herself. Before she can ask for safe passage for her saviors her brother, Kallian, announces that they had already been arrested at the city entrance for possessing the Monado. A legend has been passed down in the royal line that the chosen one who wields the Monado may bring ruin to the High Entia if they are “black of heart.” Emperor Sorean then goes on to pronounce Melia as the crown princess and the successor to the throne of the High Entia, much to Melia’s confusion.

Shulk’s group, meanwhile, is being detained at another location. Alvis comes and frees them from their detention. He works as a seer for the High Entia, and receives visions of the future similar to Shulk which he conveys to the emperor. Alvis explains the reason for their detention but stops short of answering the question Shulk so desperately wanted to ask after their first meeting.

Melia continues to deal with her own problems. Since she is of mixed heritage between both Homs and High Entia, she must overcome a trial in the High Entia Tomb in order to prove her worthiness of the throne. When Shulk eventually learns of this through her brother, he insists on going to help her when he sees a vision of her assassination.

Shulk manages to save Melia from the assassination attempt in the tomb, which was carried out by a woman named Tyrea under the command of the Emperor First Consort who is also Melia’s step-mother. The consort is disgusted by the idea of a “mixed-breed” ascending the throne but her attempts at subterfuge, egged on by her aid Lorithia, are ultimately meaningless.

After the operation, the party quietly ponders why Melia was chosen to be the crown princess and not her brother, Kallian, who is of pure blood and equally as capable. Furthermore, why does Kallian seem so supportive of Melia’s ascension?

Melia’s coronation festivities take place the next day but they’re cut short by a sudden Mechon attack led by Metal Face and a new faced Mechon, Face Nemesis. Emperor Sorean already knows what they’re after and heads to Prison Island alone to prevent them from getting it. Shulk’s group pursues the emperor to Prison Island and manage to reach him before the Mechon do, where they find the emperor brought forth from the prison a still restrained giant by the name of Zanza.

Zanza the Giant
Zanza the Giant

Zanza explains to Shulk that the Monado is “shackled” and it’s the reason why it can’t hurt people nor the faced Mechon. Zanza promises to release the Monado’s power if Shulk releases him in turn, a proposal Melia objects to but Shulk ultimately accepts. Shulk releases Zanza but no sooner than he does is Zanza run through by a giant spear thrown by Metal Face who had just breached the barrier.

Metal Face sets on attacking the group. Emperor Sorean manages to slow him down briefly, but is ultimately struck down while protecting Melia. Zanza, meanwhile, uses the last of his strength to release the Monado’s power. Shulk sets about on Metal Face once again, this time finally being able to damage his arch-nemesis. Just when he’s about to deal the finishing blow, though, Face Nemesis swoops in and takes it to the chest.

The metal plating falls away to reveal a Homs girl inside. A Homs that is none other than his childhood friend, Fiora. Fiora is unresponsive to Shulk’s pleas, as if she’s a different person entirely. She and Metal Face retreat from the scene, leaving the party shaken to their very core.

Old Flames Reignited

The party takes a moment to come to terms with these new revelations, Shulk and Dunban in particular considering how close they were with Fiora. They soon resolve themselves to get the answers they so desperately want from the girl herself, and set out for Galahad Fortress on the Mechonis’s sword where they are likely to find her. Melia joins the group under the pretext of seeing the world to become a better leader while Alvis accompanies them to show the way to the sword.

Alvis takes them down Valak Mountain on the Bionis’s right arm. Along the way they make camp at Ose Tower, the place where the Monado along with an orphaned Shulk were originally found by Dickson. Shulk and Alvis have a conversation about the Monado’s ability to read the world’s ether in order to predict the future, and the bearer’s ability to disrupt that future.

At the base of the mountain, the party is approached by Face Nemesis piloted by the Fiora lookalike. The pilot is surprised by Dunban and Shulk’s claims that they have relations with her but before any further discussion can occur she’s attacked by Metal Face, who threatens to kill her if Shulk doesn’t give up the Monado. Shulk obliges and Metal Face’s fuselage opens to reveal Dunban’s old comrade, Mumkar, inside, who was the one who abandoned the battlefield at the start of the game.

Xenoblade Chronicles Mumkar
Mumkar reveals himself

Mumkar takes the Monado but is taken by a surprise ether attack from Melia that causes him to drop it. A skirmish ensues between Mumkar and the group, with Dunban taking the vanguard. Their battle is interrupted by a golden faced Mechon named Egil, though, who introduces himself as the leader of Mechonis. Egil refuses to answer any of the questions Shulk shouts at him, instead goading him on that he expects “the heir of the Monado” to seek him out on Mechonis. Egil takes Nemesis Face and departs with Metal Face in tow leaving the party, once again, with more questions than answers. Their destination is unchanged, though, as crossing the Mechonis’s sword, also known as Sword Valley, will bring them to the Mechonis.

At the entrance to Sword Valley the group finds a familiar face, Dickson. He had been appointed as representative of the Homs in a new Bionis joint alliance between all the races in order to face the Mechon threat. Alvis takes that chance to part with the party, citing the alliance’s need for his seer abilities.

The group presses through Sword Valley to the entrance of Galahad Fortress where they find Mumkar waiting for them. Mumkar reveals a new weapon coating made from the Bionis’s blood that’s meant to decompose any living being, but it’s not enough to keep him from being put on his last leg in the resulting battle. Dunban goes in for the killing blow but is stopped by Shulk, who is now fettered with the knowledge that faced Mechon are controlled by Homs and killing them means killing one of their own.

As is characteristic of Mumkar, the traitor repays kindness with maliciousness and launches a surprise attack on Shulk and Dunban. Shulk foresees this and dodges but is unable to prevent a falling piece of debris from impaling Mumkar, the exact same way he had impaled Zanza. The platform beneath Mumkar gives way, and the mechanical fool falls to his doom to the vast emptiness below.

Shulk’s group pushes to the heart of Galahad Fortress, where they’re ambushed by Egil in his golden faced Mechon, with Face Nemesis at his side. He emits a particular wavelength that nullifies the Monado’s power and demands Shulk surrender it to him. When Shulk refuses, Egil controls the Fiora lookalike’s Face Nemesis to force her to fight Shulk and the others against her wishes. She manages to wrest control back for a moment, though, when the Fiora the group knows pleads from within to save them. 

Egil
Egil gives the party an ultimatum

Nemesis and Gold Face fiercely clash, severely damaging both the fortress and Nemesis. As Nemesis Face slips off the edge of the collapsing platform, Shulk leaps after her into the unknown expanse below, much to the horror of his companions watching.

News spreads of Galahad Fortress’s destruction and eventually reaches Kallian back in Alcamoth, who leads the united front of Bionis that Dickson mentioned before. With advice from Dickson, he decides this is the comment to act and finally bring the fight to the Mechonis.

The attention returns to Shulk, who is having a dream of him as a child falling into the ground as another child identical to him watches from above. He wakes with a start to find himself on the shore of a beach. He immediately finds Fiora in the wreckage of Nemesis nearby and pulls her out. He notes the strange object affixed to her chest before fetching some water. She’s unresponsive and unable to swallow the water on her own, though, forcing Shulk to provide it to her mouth-to-mouth.

Fiora awakens and Shulk begins to explain himself to who he thought was still a stranger, only for Fiora to interrupt him with a quip about this being her first kiss. She remembers.

Xenoblade Chronicles Fiora and Shulk
Sweet reunion

Fiora explains that after she “died” back in Colony 9, she awoke with the body of a machine along with a second entity of some sort. The entity had complete control of her body, Fiora couldn’t even talk to it until the encounter in Galahad Fortress. Despite having been controlled by this person for so long, Fiora still doesn’t know who or what they are or what their goals were. She can tell that they’re still sleeping inside of her, though, to which Shulk hopes she never wakes up. Fiora rebukes him, however, saying that despite everything this person put her through, Fiora could tell that she was trying to help. She did save Shulk and the others back at the fortress, afterall. 

Shulk concedes and pledges to find out what this entity was trying to accomplish and after a heartfelt reunion between the two close friends, they set out to locate the other members of the party. The Monado is still malfunctioning, though, and Fiora’s mechanical body is not in the best of shape making it difficult to resist when they’re waylaid by wandering Mechon. They’re rescued by Reyn and Sharla, who awoke together and began searching as well after a little heart-to-heart of their own.

The party fully reunites in a nearby village inhabited by a race called the Machia. They learn that they are on the fallen arm of the Mechonis that was cut-off during the battle between the two titans and that the Machia are the original inhabitants of Mechonis. One Machia in particular was still alive during that clash all those eons ago: Miqol, the leader of the Machia. Miqol tells the party of how his people were nearly wiped out in the clash between the Bionis and Mechonis. He mentions a Lady Meyneth who was the creator of the Mechonis and protector of the Machia. He then implores the party to kill Egil, his own son. Miqol can’t stand by and watch his son eradicate all innocent life on Bionis, even if the titan was responsible for his own people’s near extinction.

Shulk is hesitant at first, but a surprise visit and some words of encouragement from Dickson makes him decide to at least confront Egil. With the help of the Machina, Fiora’s mechanical body is repaired and the group sets off to scale the Mechonis, where the leader of the Mechon awaits.

The Mechanical Titan

The party begins their ascent up the Mechonis starting with the Mechonis Fields of its leg. As they near the end of the fields they’re attacked by a new faced Mechon, Jade Face; his pin-point sniping stirs something within Sharla. When the group finally closes the distance to their adversary Sharla calls out to the face and the Homs that emerges is none other than her old husband-to-be, Gadolt. Her pleas fall on deaf ears, and Gadolt fires a massive energy blast at the group; Fiora’s eyes light up red just before the impact.

We see Shulk once again in a dream with Alvis’s voice speaking, imploring Shulk to find “his own” Monado. Shulk wakes along with the rest of the party. Jade Face is nowhere to be seen and the party is completely unharmed. As they ponder what twist of fate delivered them salvation, a Machia appears and introduces herself as Vanea, Egil’s sister.

 Vanea
Vanea comes to aid

Vanea explains that the faces were created to counter the Monado as the weapon used to not be able to harm “those who share the blood of Zanza.” Zanza, the giant that was imprisoned on Prison Island, was the progenitor of the Homs and the one who attacked Mechonis all those years ago. She recounts how her brother used to be kind and compassionate and even used to be friends with Zanza, but the Bionis’s attack robbed him of those emotions. Vanea invites the group to the Data Centre of the abandoned Mechonis capital, Agniratha, to learn more.

Meanwhile, Kallian commences the assault on Mechonis with the Allied Bionis Forces stationed in Sword Valley.

When the main group reaches the Data Centre, the entity inside Fiora takes over and is revealed to be Meyneth, the progenitor of the Mechonis and Machina herself. She shows the group a video recording of the events in eons past when the Bionis, controlled by Zanza, suddenly attacked the Mechonis, swinging its Monado and sending Telethia in an clear attempt to exterminate the Machina. After the titans fell still, Zanza was sealed away on Prison Island. The revelation shakes Shulk to his core, as he feels guilt for releasing Zanza and fears he may have played into his hand. Vanea reveals that Meyneth came to reside within Fiora due to the fact she is close to Shulk, the Heir to the Monado.

The party head to Meyneth Shrine to confront Egil but before they can they’re attacked by Gadolt in his Jade Face once again. While his memories seem to have been wiped, Reyn notices that Gadolt is intentionally missing Sharla, implying there’s still a vestige of self remaining. Meyneth assists with restoring Gadolt’s sense of self and breaks Egil’s control over him. Gadolt is too weak to move but implores the party to go ahead to stop Egil; he also asks Reyn to take care of Sharla.

The party reaches Meyneth Shrine and confronts Egil. Shulk tries to reason with Egil now that he knows the true history between the Mechonis and Bionis but Egil is stalwart in his convictions. He says he harbors no ill will towards the living beings of Bionis, but that they must be killed anyway in order to kill the Bionis. After a brief clash Egil mounts his gold-faced Mechon, Yaldabaoth, and uses it to fuse with Mechonis itself.

The fusion causes a reaction that causes detonations all throughout Agniritha and the party makes a desperate, but ultimately futile attempt at escaping. They’re saved by Gadolt in his Jade Face, but unfortunately he doesn’t make it through himself.

Gadolt and the noble sacrifice

The Mechonis unleashes a massive laser beam that tears through the Bionis’s shoulder. Kallien sees this as a sign of the Mechonis’s reawakening and quickly orders the troops’ retreat from the sword they stand on at that very moment.

The party falls from the Mechonis head and is rescued by the Machia ship, Junks, which took off from the Machia Village after Miqol received a warning of a vision from Alvis. After a brief  respite the party is flown to the core of the Mechonis where Egil controls it from. After they arrive, Shulk notices that the nature of his visions had changed at some point in the sense he doesn’t have them anymore. Instead, he can simply tell what’s going to happen. It’s an odd sensation that makes him uneasy, especially after everything they’ve learned about the Monado.

Shulk soon after suddenly has a seizure attack. Dunban immediately recognizes it as the same type he had when he used to wield the Monado but can’t understand why now, after all this time, Shulk is experiencing the same thing. For whatever reason, the seizure makes Shulk recall the dream of him falling into the ground.

The party destroys the Apocrypha Generator which had been restraining the Monado’s power and then confronts Egil. A fierce battle ensues that culminates in Shulk poised to deliver a finishing blow. A voice echoes in Shulk’s head, egging him on to finish the job but Shulk thinks back on the events that led him to this moment, all the pain and suffering on both sides, and lowers his weapon.

Egil is at first displeased with the apparent display of sympathy but eventually recounts his time when the Bionis and Mechonis were at peace and he was friends with a certain giant, Arglas. Arglas eventually came to wield the Monado and was subsequently possessed by it, becoming Zanza. The Monado is the method by which Zanza perpetuates his soul, by possessing beings of Bionis, yet Egil sees no such traces of the menace in Shulk. He decides to take a chance at peace once more but just as Egil is about to shake on it, Shulk is shot from behind.

The party turns around to see a smoking barrel and the one holding it — Dickson.

Xenoblade Chronicles Dickson
Dickson the traitor

The party rushes to Shulk’s aid while screaming at Dickson for answers to which he says he’s just doing his job. Egil takes a long, hard look at the man and recognizes him as a giant and one of Zanza’s disciples. Shulk’s body convulses and from it emerges a being that looks so much like our protagonist yet so very different. Zanza has been fully revived.

Gods and Mortals

Dickson reveals that when he found Shulk and the Monado in Ose Tower all those years ago the boy had already died. He only continued living because Zanza possessed him and provided him with life force. He then waited for Shulk’s body to mature and become a fitting host to wield the Monado. Zanza intends to absorb all life on Bionis to sustain him but first he must destroy the Mechonis, his greatest obstacle.

The Bionis roars to life and swings its massive sword of light down on the Mechonis. Before it can find its mark, though, Meyneth awakens within Fiora and engages Zanza with her own Monado. However, she is overwhelmed by Zanza and when he takes aim at Shulk’s comatose body, Meyneth expels herself from Fiora’s body in order to protect him. With her last words she pleads for the others to create a world that has no need for gods, before disappearing and leaving only her Monado behind which Zanza seizes. With both Monado’s in hand, Zanza flies to Prison Island where it sinks into the Bionis head and releases a high-density ether wave that has a clear effect on the High Entia of Alcamoth.

The party flee the Mechonis aboard Junks but Zanza attempts to strike them down. He’s intercepted by Egil once again controlling the Mechonis. Egil manages to land one blow on the Bionis which leaves a gaping hole in its chest, but Zanza savagely retaliates and obliterates the Mechonis with Egil along with it.

The party on Junks still isn’t in the clear as they’re attacked by a swarm of Telethias headed by Dickson. They’re rescued by Kallian, who had successfully managed to pull his forces back from Sword Valley before it was too late. But this blessing becomes a curse when Lorithia, aid to the High Entia First Consort, reveals a device that emits an ether wave that transforms all the High Entia into Telethia, including Kallian.

Dickson reveals that the High Entia were originally created by Zanza to act as a type of antibodies, beings that remove any obstructions to the Bionis’s rebirth. The High Entia contain a gene that, when the time comes, transforms them into Telethia to do Zanza’s bidding. The danger of this gene had always been known to the royal line of the High Entia, hence the tradition of taking a Homs consort to gradually dilute the High Entia bloodline enough over time. Enough now for Melia to remain unchanged. In a final act of defiance, Kallien turns on the swarm of Telethia to clear the way for the party to escape.

Xenoblade Chronicles Kallien
Kallien’s final stand

The party takes refuge in Colony 6 with Shulk still comatose. Their reprieve is short lived, however, when Dickson attacks the colony with a swarm of Telethia and makes sure to torment Melia about her transformed brethren while he was at it. The party fights valiantly but is driven to the brink. They’re rescued in the nick of time by a reawakened Shulk wielding a replica Monado Miqol made for him.

With Shulk’s assistance, the party repels the Telethia onslaught and in the aftermath Alvis is revealed to also be a disciple of Zanza. Reyn tries attacking Alvis but is stopped by Shulk. He had a conversation with Alvis in a dream while he was unconscious and is sure there’s more to his actions than meets the eye. Alvis and Dickson retreat, inviting the party to come “pay them a visit.”

Shulk knows Zanza is lying in wait within Prison Island which is now inside the Bionis itself. Thanks to Egil’s last stand with the Mechonis, there’s now a hole in the Bionis’s chest which the party uses to get inside.

When they reach the heart of the Bionis they’re confronted by Lorithia once again, who is the third disciple of Zanza. She has the Telethia Kallien in tow and fuses with him to attack the party. The party defeats her, though, and in his last moments Kallian gives some parting words to his Melia, that she is the hope of their people and must live on. Afterward, Dickson appears and opens a portal to welcome the group to the new Prison Island.

They ascend Prison Tower to meet Dickson at the top, who takes on his true form as a giant to take them on. Dickson is incredibly strong, but the group’s teamwork manages to open up his defenses to allow Shulk to land a decisive blow. Dickson puts on airs that he’s had enough fighting and takes a seat to have a smoke. He and the group both know full well this will be his last cigar, though, and as it falls from his lips the group presses on to face their main target: Zanza.

They find themselves in Memory Space, the odd outer-space-like realm often seen in Shulk’s dreams, and confront Zanza. The maleficent god offers Shulk immortality as a reward for being such a good host, on the condition that Shulk also becomes his disciple. Shulk firmly refuses. Zanza reaffirms that all life on Bionis is simply meant to be his sustenance before commencing his attack.

Fighting a god naturally proves challenging, but is a fight made easier by the fact Shulk can still see visions for reasons unknown even to him. Alvis’s voice rings from afar and with his and the group’s aid, a third Monado is created for Shulk which he uses to cleave Zanza in twain. As Zanza perishes, Shulk sees a vision of the old universe presented by Alvis.

Xenoblade Chronicles Zanza
Shulk confronts Zanza with the True Monado

Shulk sees a space station orbiting what looks like Earth. Two humans on the station, which are clearly earlier incarnations of Zanza and Meyneth, are seen, with Zanza initiating an experiment that Meyneth tried to stop. This experiment destroyed the universe and created a new one, leaving Zanza and Meyneth as the gods of the new world. They were lonely, and thus created life in their image but Zanza wanted to use that life to perpetuate his own existence. Alvis explains, however, that deep down Zanza longed for friendship. Alvis, meanwhile, is the AI of the computer that carried out that fateful experiment.

Alvis declares Shulk as the new god of the new world and asks him how he would like to shape it. Shulk wishes for a world with no gods, where each person can decide their future for themselves. And thus the world is remade and the Monados are no more.

Time passes, and we see a new Colony 9 under reconstruction but flourishing nonetheless. Every race — Homs, Nopon, High Entia, and Machina — is seen coexisting as we take a walk through Fiora’s perspective. When she finds Shulk, we see Fiora has her Homs body back. Shulk reminisces on Alvis’s final words, how this new world is boundless and teeming with new life, life that we may very well see in Xenoblade Chronicles 3

The pair share a quiet moment together as they wait in quiet anticipation for whatever the future may have in store for them.

Xenoblade Chronicles Ending
To a brand new world…

RECAP: The Story of Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Heralding from the rustic, old town of Los Angeles, California; Matthew now resides in Boston where he diligently researches the cure for cancer. In reality, though, he just wants to play games and watch anime, and likes talking about them way too much. A Nintendo/Sony hybrid fan with a soft-spot for RPG’s, he finds little beats sinking hours into an immersive game world.

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