Why did mysterious face just suddenly decide to stop attacking, then said come to Colony 6 and captured Juju, instead of yknow, just killing the team while they were weak

Xord dies and alludes to him being turned into the way he is. Then metal face shows up and taunts. Some winged lightning Telle-something with anime guy saves everyone. Shulk has vision of him destroying MF and says, this is for the emperor and fiora

Dickson says that he cant feel so good about deceiving these kids at the swamp end before leaving

I thought Dunban joining was kind of strange. His relation with the Monado, Shulk and the quest is kinda off for the main story. But he's a good character

Ch6 end Insane cutscene out of nowhere introducing Lady Meyneth, Egil. First thing I thought seeing the Face being made was that this is Fiora

Melia calls out to 4 people I've never heard of

Riki joining immediately after Melia is interesting since the early game is just Shulk/Reyn for so long

This game introduces Riki's house as a landmark before you have any idea who they are. Then, you see a Nopon weapons and arms manuals in the shop before you know who they are

Nopon named Miko (Japanese for shrine maiden )

I really liked the Tellethia fight. I thought that battle cutscene with The Music was well timed, and it persisted thru phase 2. And Shulks message to Melia was real good. I liked the way the cutscene had everyone in the party piling on damage. But maybe most importantly, I kept thinking about how a Tellethia saved the party back in Colony 6 after Xord, so it's conflicting taking this one down

Reyn learning Magnum Charge after using Sword drive for so long

A little weird how there's suspense about Melia and her father but she literally says Father! When she levels up, and it's pretty damn obvious

Making it to Alcamoth is the most Solaris coded thing I've seen

Why did Melia have a completely different face

Ancestor, 80%, the end of the curse. The last high entia ruler. What is the Queen's opposition 

I thought the end of ch8 where the Emperor asks Shulk to be Melia was very endearing but it's SUPER weird that 5m later at the beginning of the next chapter, they do a flashback to that dialogue with a voice over and they changed the quote the Emperor JUST said

They said the Emperor always has 2 consorts, one Homs one Entia. But Melia wears a mask to hide her Homs. I dont understand why? Do the people not know about that? Is this tied to the 80% thing from the ancestor in the tomb?

You can feel the VA work was recorded separately in big cutscenes like Melia meeting with the Emperor for the first time. It's not bad or anything. You can just feel it's a little off


Some random good parts
Shulks reaction to Fioras death with 2 beasts within him
Sharlas backstory flashback with Gadolt
The way Reyn supports and understands Shulk in general
Gaur plains first visit. The music. Yeah.
How few Mechon are in the early/mid game - it makes them feel important



the instant that the female mechon showed up way back in like ch3/4 in a cutscene, i figured it was fiora. but i did not put together that metal face was mumkhar that got snatched in the prologue, but as soon as he reacted to dunban specifically then it was very obvious 

dunban and shulk's reaction to fiora is good, esp how dunban is just happy his sister is alive. but its a little weird no one is like, "why is she piloting a mechon and what the hell is happening", in the sense of, obviously there's some mastermind mechon plot going on with humans, even if the party doesnt directly know about it like the player does (because the player gets the extra cutscenes)

The party cutscene after Kallian asks for ambassadorship support, then the party talks to each other and Shulk resolves to get Fiora back, then Sharla talks to Melia about Shulk, it's incredible. This kind of party natural synergy is like, desperately missing from a lot of JRPGs I feel. They nailed it. 

I also really like how the visions of Prison Island were a huge part of the game, but it wasn't the end. 

Isn't it weird that Metal Face (Mumkhar) has a reaction to Fiora/Meyneth/whatever during the attack on Alcamoth where he says like "oh I know you, you're dunban's sister", like it's a revelation. But he was the one who attacked her in colony 9 in the first place? And why does Mumkar remember everything as a Mechon Face when the others don't?

Egil: "Now that the Monado has become freed, the usefulness of the Faces is coming to an end." ?

The new battle music drop in Galahad Fortress :fire:

The music that plays during the Egil and Meyneth/Fiora cutscene while she and Shulk jump off the exploding Fortress, hot damn. That's some good anime. Also Dickson's dialogue with Kallian after where he's like, It's time for war, mf. Aw yeah 


Isn't it interesting that Shulk is a hero of Bionis, but he is introduced as a character infatuated with mechanical parts. Then, he goes on to conquest against them? 

Shulk's reunion with Fiora is really great on the Arm. It's very earnest and believable. And the Riki cutscene with Dunban and Melia taking a rest shows how strong the characterization and the writing is. The music variation on his silly theme for a sensitive cutscene.

I find it very interesting how green the Mechonis Arm is. You're left wondering most of the game what the Mechonis biome/atmosphere is like at all before this point 

I'm 50 hours in, landing in Mechonis Field for the first time, checking the map, and thinking to myself, "Holy fuck how many more areas are there? Am I going to travel through the entire Mechonis at this rate?" 	

Getting Monado Armor at Lv60 arbitrarily felt really weird considering every other one (even Eater) felt like an event

Dickson... no... he was so cool... then he turned into generic asshole bad guy...

Chapter 15 and 16 are, as they say, some shit

"This world was created so that they could continue to exist" - Alvis talking to Shulk makes it seem like the entire world they live on was created specifically to perpetuate both Zanza and Meyneth's existences

Full on anime Shulk return cutscene vs. Telethia & Dickson while he slices a Telethia was kinda ... frickin cool

What could Zanza possibly be doing during the time after the major cutscene with Egil

Reyn cooking Tyrea for being rude to Melia had me popping off

Going back to the Bionis Interior at the end is really cool. I kept going back to this area routinely throughout the game, thinking that there had to be more here (since you can see it on the map)

Why she gotta kiss Kallian WTFF

Melia's farewell to Kallian was really, really great. The entire game I had the question in my head "Why wasn't Kallian the next chosen leader of the High Entia?". The game acknowledges this question much earlier too (I think it was Dunban), by wondering why he doesn't just lead. And they finally answer it very clearly with Melia's inability to turn into Telethia. Melia's send off to Lorithia with dignity and not desperately crying for her brother after her one on one cutscene was really well done. Then Riki overhearing the conversation was the icing on the cake 

The bloodline thing for Melia also answers why the High Entia Tomb was talking about integration percentages and how Melia was the next proper ruler 

The Empty Throne... *point*

Prison Island being a mysterious castle area without seemingly much connection to the rest of the game is actually pretty cool. It seems like a future game setup or something. We'll see. (Writing this after I finished the game, but with the knowledge that Zanza recreated the world many times over, it makes you think) 

I had been wondering for a long time who Xord really was. But I was not expecting him to just show up again. I guess the Ether Mine bath wasn't that big a deal 

"I will create a new world, just as I've done many times before" - Zanza. Hmm

It's hard not to see the comparison between the Wave Existence from Xenogears and Alvis as the terminal operator. 

That was one of the most impactful, well delivered endings I've ever seen in a video game. Easily. The explanation Alvis gives as the Monado about the backstory with Zanza (as Klaus) and Meyneth was exactly what I was looking for. Watching the world get wiped out into Bionis and Mechonis coming out of the sea was so great. It wasn't a lore dump at all, it was a carefully withheld story point that makes sense to reveal both to the player and to Shulk at the end. The whole thing really makes you want to know more about the world before this cycle started. 

I also really like the simple stylistic choice to have the ending from Fiora's perspective for a little while. And Fiora getting her body back as a result of the Machina technology that (sorry, blanking on her name, Machina doctor) she said would be experimental but could possibly get Fiora's body back 


Music box playing during final save menu very reminiscent of Black/White 2 final screen. Riki's song (at this point I don't think it's Riki's song, it's just the silly/whimsical song that plays when you first recruit him) being re-arranged is so great here



Easily one of this game's best design qualities is how the quests naturally lead you to new areas and help you understand where enemies of varying strengths are. especially helpful at the end of the game with the replica monado while you're trying to power up