A buncha hours into Chapter 3 before I had to stop for the night and
neonreaper posted... Colony 9 :))))))))
this was huge for me,
just complete fan nostalgia-ing my Colony 9 revisit. It also took walking up the stairs of Dunban/Fiora's place that it hit me that Shulk's arm mirrors Dunban (albeit more severe, being literally replaced with robotics). Of course makes me wonder then if it's a Monado-related infliction but probably not. Also though not the Colony itself but revisiting the entire area was such a joy along with the XB1 music playing, like for this section I've really entered a sequel to XB1. Even just the very tiny Tephra Cave as well, and now then climbing up to the next area that's a lot like Bionis Leg which is where I left off.I really enjoy the more overt remixes of specific past XB regions in this game rather than the base-game that kind mashed themes from the two previous games together. I loved XB3's revisit to the Distant Fingertip but that's honestly the only moment that recaptured previous game locales. Pentelas Region's nods to Uraya and Makna really didn't feel that strong, and Erythia Seas just felt like oh hey we'll make a massive lake again, that's all Eryth really is right? But now in the DLC this Colony 9 area really did evoke a whole lot of feelings for me, absolutely seeing the layout from XB1 post-game, and combining that with swapping around the soundtrack. Of course it is THE introduction to the Xenoblade series which helps out those feelings even more, but I'm hoping this continues for something XB2 at least (though I know there's not much space left in this DLC story for more) ---
Story's definitely focusing a lot more on
daddy Shulk than I expected, and while it's awkward that A's character still remains such a massive question-mark this far in I really can't complain about all this
daddy Shulk stuff that's sending me. Likewise Glimmer is kinda surprisingly shafted so far just feeling like she's here but
I'm assuming that she'll get her turn with Rex moments like Shulk has now with Nikol. It's funny you immediately do peg the crystal core as soon as you meet Glimmer but nobody really notes anything of it until Rex comes in so I didn't yet know if they were going this daddy-child thing yet, but then once you do, oh wow she really is just teenage Mythra. Although I did of course say the same with Nikol right away that he's literally baby Shulk.But yeah definitively more focus right now on
Shulk, but hey I mean Rex has already been transformed into the most manliest of badasses and that's enough, what a glow-up. Literal Sean Connery voice keeps throwing me off every time and I just think man Rex you levelled up.