So many emotional moments, so many tears shed, so many profound messages, so many hidden details... Covering my favorite game of all time is going to be a daunting task, but I want to pour my heart out and show the world why Xenoblade 3 speaks to me on such a deep, visceral level. I don't know if it will be my first video because I want it to be my best possible product, but it's the one I want to work on the absolute most.

I'm lumping these all together because I want to mainly talk about the overarching narrative of the Zero series, how they develop the characters (primarily Zero and Ciel), and how astonishingly strong the writing is given the release era and original platform.

Zero 3 and 4 are especially good to look at, as not only are they the best in terms of narrative, but it also demonstrates a sort of climax-falling action dynamic. Zero finally discovers who he is at the end of 3, and becomes a genuine hero in 4, while the humans around him view him as a terrorist. Ultimately, he proves them wrong in a true act of selflessness, redeeming himself of his Maverick status and starting a completely new era for humans and reploids.

Almost two years after playing Xenoblade 2 for the first time, I think my opinions on this game's narrative have finally calcified. I used to think my major issue with 2 was its main plot, but now I realize the real problem is the missed potential behind all its sub-plots and much of the supporting cast. The conflict between Mor Ardain and Uraya is resolved in the most anticlimactic way possible. Morag is never forced to confront the fact that she works for an imperialist regime. Vandham is effectively forgotten about by everybody past Chapter 4. The main narrative in 2 gets so good, but it forgets about all the surrounding stuff, and it's really disappointing.

This is kind of a stand-in for the whole Gunvolt franchise, but I chose GV3 specifically because it's a fascinating case study on how you can write so much character dialogue and yet have a story where nobody really says anything of substance. And the rest of the series (save for iX2 I guess) serves as a great contrast, since those games actually have characters that develop.

This is the coolest indie series you've never heard of. I kind of wanna make a video covering the whole lore

This game rules, and nobody talks about it. Hell, the people who do talk about it have only negative things to say. Literally how??? This game is so cool

That ending.

But also, BMZ in general does a great job at integrating themes into gameplay and vice versa. 3's whole gimmick is "reversal," which leads to entering dimensions with opposite rules to the real world, but this concept of "reversal" also ties into the story in so many little ways.

I love political intrigue, and this game's story hasn't really been analyzed in depth yet - at least, not that I've seen. I think there's a lot of interesting concepts and characters in Triangle Strategy that aren't seen in other RPGs. And hot take: I think the Roselle are actually a well done allegory for racism.

hbomberguy's "In Defense of Dark Souls 2" is nice because it's one of the only positive video essays on DS2, but it also sucks and I hate it. I wanna talk about why DS2 takes the concepts and story threads from DS1 and does new and interesting things with them, and why DS3, while also making great nods to 1, fails in connecting itself to 2 and making a cohesive trilogy out of the whole thing.

why does nobody talk about how fucking awesome this game is