#xenoblade reference

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

Xenoblade reference: Substances hidden in inventory descriptions

Been a while since I made one of these. Got inspired by noticing that hoverstone, thought to be a new invention for XC1DE, was actually mentioned in the description for a base XC1 piece of equipment. So I decided to go through and pick out more of these cases where an item says what fantastical material it's made of, as long as it's more interesting than e.g. "a glowing rock".

It is possible I missed something. There's a lot of this stuff after all.

Weapons

The core of the Acid Staff is a "highly acidic rock".

The Acrylic Driver is actually made from acrylic resin. This is interesting because it implies Homs have the ability to create plastic, which I would say is not expected.

The core of the Cloud Staff is a "cloud stone".

The core of the Comet Rod is a meteor (well, "a rock that fell from the sky"), as is the Cosmic Nibbler. Usually the game implies that meteors/shooting stars are purely etheral, and usually these are found in regions where there's nothing any higher for rocks to fall from, so this is odd.

The core of the Dragon Rod Alcar is said to be "the talon of a dragon king".

The core of the Mirage Staff is "a core of condensed illusions".

The core of the Sun Staff is a "sun stone".

The core of the Will-o'-Wisp Staff is a "ghostly flame".

Armour

Some pearls from the "ocean depths" are blue (Abyss Earrings).

The Amethyst set all say they're made of "nocturnal iron ore" from Valak Mountain.

The Beech Bangle is made of "shadow tree wood".

The Brandle set all say they're made from "a metal only malleable in icy regions".

The Brave set are all made from "a newly developed anti-ether fabric".

The Glory set are all made from "fate stone".

The Grace set are all supposedly made from an ether-based cloth as opposed to a matter-based cloth.

The Gravity Stone Band is, well, made of Gravity Stone, "the hardest substance in Eryth Sea".

The Hover Shoes contain Hover Stone, "from the core of a Hovering Reef".

The Mithril set are all, well, made of mithril. It comes from the Hovering Reefs.

Pine Headgear is made from "sunshine tree wood", which glows.

The Princess Dress is supposedly made of Machina "illusionary materials".

The Ruby Glasses are said to have lenses made of jewels.

Some of the Snow set are made from "fire-snow", which "releases heat on contact with snow".

The Snow Glasses have lenses of unmeltable ice.

Collectables

The Gypsum Branch is of "the ice tree". Since it's described as shooting light at night, probably related to all the glowng stuff in Valak Mountain, where it's found.

Materials

The Andos Alloy Plate says it's specifically nickel alloy.

Black Fog Deposits are supposedly made of "condensed lumps of [black] fog". No, this is not a DE addition.

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

XC1 vs DE face models

Started to make some headway into XC1DE models, and one thing in particular is greatly frustrating me.

This is a high-detail face from the Wii version. Each thing poking out is a control bone, which can be moved/rotated around to make each bit of the face do things. There are 5 bones per eye - 2 eyelid, 3 eyebrow - and 11 for the mouth - 8 around the lips, plus one each for the teeth, tongue, and jaw - and finally 1 for the nose. That’s a total of 22 points of articulation. (The image also shows other bones, for hair and weapon and etc.) The eyes aren’t attached to bones, they move by shifting the texture around.

This is from the Switch version. The only bones in the face are now to point the eyes (no more texture shifting; this does mean they can point different directions now). The only method of face posing now is via shape keys (or morphs, however you want to call them). This by itself is quite a bit more limiting, because you can no longer leave the preset boundaries - if the eyebrows aren’t curving or the mouth isn’t opening in quite the shape you want, too bad, you get to try and blend multiple shapes together until you find something kind of close. But it’s even worse because of all the things that are no longer supported at all. Here’s the list of shapes:

eyebrow_angryA_L/_R

eyebrow_angryB_L/_R

eyebrow_back_L/_R

eyebrow_down_L/_R

eyebrow_fear_L/_R

eyebrow_flat_L/_R

eyebrow_front_L/_R

eyebrow_in_L/_R

eyebrow_joy_L/_R

eyebrow_sad_L/_R

eyebrow_shout_L/_R

eyebrow_up_L/_R

eyelid_angry_L/_R

eyelid_close_L/_R

eyelid_down_L/_R

eyelid_half_L/_R

eyelid_narrow_L/_R

eyelid_smile_L/_R

eyelid_surprise_L/_R

eyelid_up_L/_R

mouth_down_L/_R

mouth_jpvowel_a/_e/_i/_o/_u

mouth_pursed

mouth_shock

mouth_shout

mouth_smile_closed

mouth_smile_open

mouth_surprised

mouth_talk

mouth_up_L/_R

mouth_wide

You want to have a snarl that’s stronger on one side than the other? Nope, most mouth shapes are symmetrical. You want to shift the jaw sideways in indecision? Can’t, there’s no way to alter the jaw without altering the whole mouth. You want to animate the nose, or teeth, or tongue? No longer allowed.

While the new eyes are cool I can’t help but think this is a straight downgrade.

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

Xenoblade reference: Interesting NPC text (Colony 9/Tephra Cave)

So I managed to (somewhat accidentally) get a text dump of most if not all NPC comments in Colony 9 (and surrounding areas of the same map), and I also went and did Tephra Cave because it’s small (well, in NPC count) and close by. It doesn’t tell me who’s saying what for the most part, but for the purposes of this post that’s not necessary: I’m just looking for interesting worldbuilding material. The process should be repeatable for other locations, but it’ll be a bit slow going.

I trawled through as much text as I could find and plucked out the interesting stuff. From what I can tell, this includes generic comments as well as quest text. Spoilers obviously.

Colony 9

People

"You shouldn't go outside the colony on your own, Shulk. The monsters will eat you alive! At least keep that hulking lummox around to fight them off."

"Oh, if it isn't Shulk and Fiora! You two are pretty close. I see you together at all hours of the day! Just don't get too close and leave Reyn feeling left out. Poor guy!"

"Fiora's alive? That's wonderful news! And not just because the area will smell like her great cooking again!"

"Make sure the girl doesn't get hurt. And you there, the scrawny one. Get the big one to help you out! The three of you are the funniest lot I've seen round here in ages."

"Shulk, don't be keeping Fiora out all night! Dunban's sits at his window watching what you do. I'm kidding! Come on, Dunban wouldn't do something so creepy. ...Would he?"

"Did you know about Dunban and Mumkhar? They competed against each other to be the one to use the Monado. In the end, Dunban won." "Mumkhar was always so angry after that. I guess he'd be using it now if he was still alive. Dunban can't handle it anymore."

"Dickson is actually the commander of the soldiers and scientists. But he's often away so Vangarre is acting as colonel. I just wish they'd made Dunban colonel instead..."

"I've been training in Arts using claw weapons lately. It's my dream to master Mumkhar's Hell Dive Claw." "If only he was still alive to teach me. It's a shame he's gone."

Races

"A lot more girls have become soldiers since the war ended."

"No Nopon on Mechonis? Even Nopon Merchants not go there yet? That not sound like Nopon."

"The Mechon had complete superiority. It was as if they knew absolutely everything about this colony."

"It turns out that the Giants' fate was linked to the White Spiders. The Giant in the coffin was in fact the Giants' Soothsayer. The Soothsayer subjugated the White Spiders. But when the Soothsayer died, the White Spiders were freed. That's when they started to amass power. So the Giants offered sacrifices in order to avoid a war! But the Giants' numbers grew ever smaller. Soon the oppressors had clearly become the oppressed. They were unable to fight back against the White Spiders. They were forced to live a meagre existence behind closed doors."

Creatures

"Pack Armus are different to other monsters. They're perfectly tame. Most monsters will attack Homs. Don't let yourself get hurt!"

Defence Force

"This vehicle managed to survive the war a year ago. Feels like we're squeezing the last bit of life out of it. We have to be careful with it. But Colonel Vangarre's violent. I dunno if it can last much longer."

"The mobile artillery used to have five machines. They got destroyed one by one in the war. Now there's only one left."

"The mobile artillery really came in handy in the war. It was the second most important weapon after the Monado. It's easy to control and highly manoeuvrable. Not to mention the firepower. Although we've only got the one. It was brought in from outside the colony; we don't make them here. So we're just doing our best to keep this one in working order."

Bionis

"You don't know why the Bionis is shaped like a person? Didn't you ever listen at school? The Bionis isn't shaped like us. We're shaped like the Bionis!" "Scientists are saying the weirdest things nowadays though. Apparently the laws of physics say that the world should be round. But if the Bionis was round, then people would be round as well. I don't want to be round. I think the Bionis would agree with me!"

"As we are born of the Bionis, we should all be returned to its body. We place the dead in water, so it may carry them back to the Bionis. But a lot of people who died in the last attack left no bodies behind... What will happen to them?"

Ether

"You see the little bits of light in the sky? Those are bits of ether. They're little energy particles released from the Bionis' body. There's ether everywhere. Everything's made with ether."

"Did you know that our bodies are made from ether? Not just our bodies, actually. That chair over there, too! And erm...rocks, I guess...? Anyway, lots of things! Everything in the world is made from ether. It's like...the base element! Of everything!" "There's even research that proves the Bionis is made of ether! But the ether deposits kind of prove that anyway, don't they? They're just hard lumps of ether shot out from inside the Bionis."

"Has friend seen ether crystal deposits on surface? They formed by high pressure and heat inside body of Bionis."

"Ether deposits are like...the crystallised blood of the Bionis. That's why the crystals you harvest from them are so pure."

"World is full of ether crystals. Ether crystal is small clump of ether. Formed when particles of ether are put under pressure. Particles of same colour and shape naturally fuse together." "Look at ether crystal's colour to see its properties. Red is fire and blue is water. Like that! If friends want to make gems out of them, talk to guy over there!"

"Ether Cylinders from the furnace fuel everyone's light and heating. They're also what powers the Defence Force's machines. But they're not usually pure enough for the latest weapons. That's why we need the stockpile of cylinders at the ancient ruins. All the cylinders there are of a very high purity, you see."

"Did you know that ether particles can cause a chain reaction? It happens when the same type of ether gathers in a large quantity. The heat it generates is intense! The ether stream under Colony 6 is a prime example of all this." "Ether is a plentiful energy source provided for us by the Bionis. Just plain ether is enough to power almost all of our machines. But some machines need very pure ether. Like the Anti-Air Batteries."

"All our weapons contain a catalyst that reacts with ether. So you just need to use your Arts to gain the benefit of that power. But I suppose there are some people who don't need that stuff."

"I heard that there're ether gears inside the Mechonis. You can use ether crystals from the Bionis or ether gears. When you're gem crafting, it don't matter which ones you put in."

Gameplay

"What? There are weapons and armour with holes in them?! Maybe holes are to put gems in! That make them stronger!" "There is also equipment that comes with gems stuck in holes. In Nopon homeland we call them unique equipment."

"If you help someone who's been Dazed, your affinity will deepen. That's how me and my boyfriend got together!"

"I've heard there are monsters who can Daze your entire party! That's why I sometimes wear gems that protect against Daze." "But not all the time. Sometimes it's nice to be Dazed in battle. Otherwise you don't get the affinity boost from being rescued!"

"Certain monsters can Poison you. I've been looking for some kind of medicine that can cure it, but... It seems like there isn't one." "I did hear that the ether rifles the soldiers use can cure Poison. They use anti-Poison bullets. If only I had any friends in the Defence Force."

"The skills you can learn depend on your character traits. Like, Reyn can learn Skills that help him be a hard-headed idiot! Did I just say that?"

"Do you think people have hidden depths to them? Like, extra character traits we don't know about up front? If so, I bet there are Skills related to those as well!" "How can you find out what hidden character traits people have? Good question. Maybe they're revealed when you help people?"

LOL

"Why Mechon attack colony? Colony do nothing wrong!" "Oh no! Might be because I steal and eat neighbour's fruit. I never do again!"

"Oh, fiddlesticks. I was really hoping I could ask Shulk for a favour. Why is he never around?" "He must be avoiding me because I keep asking for favours..."

"I shouted, 'Curse you, foul creation!' Then I swung my hammer as hard as I possibly could. What? It's the only way I could get my fridge to start working again!"

"I wonder what Talent Art a hero like Dunban would have. I bet it'd be really manly, graceful, powerful... Yeah..."

Tephra Cave

"I see. It's the Path of Absolution... The path walked when offering a sacrifice to the White Spiders. It is lined by the memorial tablets of those offered up as sacrifices. It's all written in this book."

"The offering we need to make is a White Spider Heart. Now, as you already know, there are many spiders in Tephra Cave. When these ruins were built, the Giants and spiders were enemies. Among both groups, the heart of the White Spider was revered. That's why we need to use the heart as an offering."

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

Been digging through some Xenoblade model files for the party recently and found some odd stuff:

The game has a fairly smart system for hiding parts that conflict with other armour parts. For example, Dunban’s default arms have a bracelet, but the bracelet (and most of the arm underneath it) is disabled if he has a torso with long sleeves on (like his default one). Another example: Shulk’s left sleeve (the one with the elbow brace) can disable his bare arm but is itself disabled by bulkier gloves.

The Monado’s blade doesn’t appear to have a model, so it must be just a particle effect. Conversely, the beams of the energy swords used by Dunban and Seven are models.

Sharla’s cutscene face (the high-resolution, animatable face model that replaces the low-detail one on the head model) includes an entire secondary skeleton for her whole body. Based on the names of the bones, it’s only used for special effects, and my guess is that it’s only for the cutscene where Shulk learns Monado Speed.

Riki has no knees. His legs are a single bone. (This is ironic given the comments from Nopon about how they do indeed have knees.)

Riki also doesn’t have a cutscene face. The face on his head model is used straight.

A lot of Melia’s models have Fiora’s weapon holster bones, which is evident because no other character has two of them. Yet the one she actually uses is her own.

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

Xenoblade reference: obscure facts hidden in quest comments

Compared to the heart-to-hearts, there’s less juicy canon info hidden in the bonus comments you can get from quests if you have the right character in the field at the time. But there’s still a good bit. So I’ve gone through everything on the wikia (credit to @fortgalahad​ for adding most if not all of them) to parse out the coolest info and compile it here.

Note that this is “obscure” stuff only, i.e.: you’d never hear of it anywhere else. (Or maybe I just find it funny.) It’s sorted by character, mostly. And hopefully I don’t miss anything that I accidentally think is common knowledge or is too easily assumable (poke me if you think I have).

Obviously there be spoilers. Mostly about who Seven is.

Bionis/the world itself

You don’t try to pull shells off Krabbles. They get very angry. (Pride and Courage)

Nopon

It’s claimed that trying to keep Nopon as pets is a thing in Alcamoth. It’s hard to tell whether this is widespread, localized, or even true. (Looking for Freedom)

All the lamps in Frontier Village are pollen orbs, not ether crystals. (Pollen Orb Ingredients)

Sharla wonders where a Nopon’s knees are. Yusa points his out with a “Can’t you see?!” and calls them “good solid knee joints”. (Let's Make Fillings!)

It’s claimed that Nopon don’t really feel cold because of their fur. They have to be not hungry though. (Valak Mountain Research, The Freezing Nopon)

Shulk

Shulk is aware that his grandfather was dead before he was born. (Hunt for Bug-Loving Friend)

After being told he doesn’t look like a scientist, Shulk worries that maybe he’s “getting too buffed up” from travelling. (The Deciphering Machine)

Fiora

Apparently, Fiora needed a new chopping knife, but Shulk thinks she would’ve gotten angry for him to give her one for her birthday. (Cook-Off Final Blow?!)

Fiora’s teeth got worked on when she was given her new body, and is surprised her toothache is gone. (Medical Advancements)

Dunban

Dunban claims that he stopped drinking alcohol when Fiora told him it was “bad for him”. (Losing the Taste for Alcohol)

Sharla

Apparently, Sharla likes to make boots sometimes. (Best Boots)

Melia

Melia happens to think she has “no need to rely on” items that are purported to create love. (Romantic Notions of a Girl)

There’s some suspicion that Melia is someone important because she speaks “really fancy”. (Supplies for Satorl)

Riki

“Riki's favourite subject sleeping. Riki get A+!” (Adviser Hunt)

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

why does the concept of hell exist in the Xenoblade 1 (and probably more) verse? do they have an afterlife they believe in?

There is canon evidence for belief in an afterlife, yes. We have some quotes from nameless NPCs in Alcamoth:

"The Emperor has returned to the Bionis before the rest of us. I hope that we can meet him again when we too return to Bionis."

"Sadly my wish to see the Emperor again won't ever come true. If we can meet again after I return to the Bionis, that'll be enough."

Multiple Homs also do this "return to the Bionis" bit, so it's a common thing, though it seems the Homs believe that a water burial is necessary - the High Entia probably wouldn't put the dead royals in a tomb if they thought so.

That said, the NPC quotes above don't necessarily reflect the majority belief. It just means that at least some High Entia believe the same thing Homs do.

[sir-teatei-moonlight]

More Xenoblade model oddities:

Armour pieces tend to name all their alternate colours the same, while weapons don’t. So a pair of gloves would call the texture of all its colour variations “gloves03_01″, while a sword would use “sword03_01″ and “sword03_02″. (That’s not how the naming convention goes but you get the idea.)

A lot of things use two one-sided faces (positioned slightly differently) rather than one two-sided face. This isn’t strange in context, but it means that when viewed in a program that renders backsides, you can see double at some angles.

Every weapon has individually-placed endpoints to mark where special effects come from. This is in contrast to armour pieces, which (as far as I can tell without manually iterating through every single one) all use the same armature.

The models used for Dickson and Mumkhar in the prologue don’t have individual cutscene faces - they’re part of the actual models.

Some characters/enemies are actually in the “objects” folder (for cutscene props). Usually not as the only place they’re found, but as a slightly altered model. For example, one very lategame boss does not have a cutscene face that goes over their low-quality one, but instead swaps in a full-body object model that has a cutscene face as part of it.

Quite a few things use vertex colours for transparency and fake-lighting effects.

[pokemongenxmons]

Mecheon, the steel type eeveelution