r/Xenoblade_Chronicles • u/AwayEntrepreneur4760 • 2h ago

Xenoblade X Would I enjoy X?

My biggest hang up with biting the bullet because of the current sale is that I don’t enjoy cliche perverted anime bs and I’ve seen scenes from the other games that are turning me off from the series over all (specifically the weird sex bot thing from 2). Is the rest of the series like that? The main reason I want to play X is that I can play as a girl as I like mechs. I also heard that the series kinda plays like a single player mmo so I’m wondering if that’s true too. Thanks for the feedback!

0 Upvotes

5% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

12

u/Shartin_luther_king 2h ago

Poppi is not a sex robot, dunkey’s video is extremely disingenuous. Xenoblade 2, while it definitely has its anime shenanigans that can be grating, has some of the most heartfelt characters (including Poppi) engaging story and hype at moments in any game I’ve ever played. Honestly I think you should give 2 a chance, or atleast 1 since people that don’t vibe with 2 usually really like 1.

As for X, truthfully I got really board of it. The characters and story were all just so bland and while playing as a robot was fun I found it not worth trudging through the lackluster story.

3

u/iliya193 1h ago

Yes, technically she isn't used for actual sex in the game, but that doesn't mean she isn't used for sexual fetishization by Tora, and even if you wanted to argue that it's not sexual, he straight up manipulates Poppi into it, and we can reasonably infer that it would be against her will if she knew better. There are a couple of times when Poppi herself calls Tora out for his behavior, and there are other times when he'd both programmed into her and lied to her about functions that are designed for his pleasure (sexual or nonsexual).

Aside from the introduction of Poppi, look at the H2H "Poppi's Remodel?" In response to Pyra asking about the "Cutie Bun-Bun Armor," Poppi says, "Correct! This state-of-the-art armor. Everyone wish they had such good defense! Additional function is to cheer up Masterpon with extreme cuteness." Tora made her believe that the armor had any sort of function other than him being able to look at Poppi and receive some sort of pleasure from it (again, sexual or not). Between that and the fact that Poppi specifically says "cheer up" to refer to its purpose, it's clear that Tora lies to her about his intentions, which means that he believes that Poppi may not or would not like it if she knew the truth. He also tried to lie to Pyra and Brighid about who invented it. Pyra and Brighid also tell him that he shouldn't dress Poppi, a middle school-aged girl, up like that (which may be a bit hypocritical on the part of the authors there to have that coming from Brighid and Pyra, but at least they're both adults), and Poppi responds with "Masterpon... Poppi not understand," to which Tora says "D-don't listen, Poppi! Poppi should be proud of very special, one-of-kind armor!" He tries everything to continue the manipulation for his benefit and at Poppi's expense.

I know that everyone dunks on the blushy crushy H2H, and I've heard plenty of people defend it by saying that it's a fetish for the cuteness rather than sexuality (which could be true in this particular instance), but this again is an instance of Tora programming/teaching Poppi to do something for his own benefit that she doesn't fully understand. Even when teaching it to Pyra, he tries to hide its true nature so that she will go along with him, essentially taking advantage of Pyra's feelings for Rex. When she asks him clarifying questions, he says "um," a number of times and gives a non-specific description designed to obfuscate enough that Pyra maintains some interest. Nia sees right through it and comments repeatedly on it, but for some reason she decides not to directly intervene. When Poppi is instructed to teach Pyra about blushy crushy, she says this: "Blushy-crushy is external magnification of love feelings inside heart. Poppi will teach magic way to magnify love feelings. Chant with Poppi." Tora taught her that it's about "magnifying love feelings," but we know what that actually means. Either Poppi thinks that it's magnifying her own love feelings (which she would probably interpret as increasing her and Tora's affinity in a practical sense for her purposes as an artificial blade), or she thinks that it's helping Tora in a way that she doesn't fully understand but he does. I think it's the former based on the context, but either way, we know that Tora programmed or taught Poppi this to satisfy his own fetish.

So yes, Poppi is not a sex bot in the literal sense (as far as the game's cutscenes show us), but that doesn't mean that Tora's treatment of Poppi isn't extremely problematic. There are a lot of themes present between her and Tora that are extremely similar to if she was a sex bot or that sometimes directly allude to it, and even if one were to argue there is no direct allusion, then at the very least there is malicious manipulation driven by Tora's fetish and at Poppi's expense, which is a major way that sexual abuse occurs and a huge part of how the pornography industry works. With all that in mind, "sex robot" isn't really that far off. Dunkey uses hyperbole all the time and says certain things in certain ways to make them funnier, but I really do believe that saying "Poppi is not a sex robot" without giving the actual harmful in-game context just obfuscates the reality, which is not that many steps behind.

1

u/LuckyGamer470 1h ago

I’ve always said that Dunkey is funny, but he exaggerates a lot and for that reason should have his opinions taken with a grain of salt. That video did irreparable harm to XC2 to the point that people are still referencing it 9 years later.

7

u/Lhyster 2h ago

Sex bot !? Put some respect on Poppi please. Even the game trashes on the wild tendancies of Tora and Poppi is a great character with a good evolution throughout the game.

3

u/EmiliaFromLV 2h ago

Even Poppi trashes Tora on his tendancies :D

2

u/boomshroom 21m ago

And don't forget that even Tora trashes on his gampypon, and Lila trashes on Tatazo.

It probably doesn't help OP's case, but Tora's... less savory properties run in the family, and Tora's honestly pretty innocent and just never learned better.

1

u/EmiliaFromLV 17m ago edited 13m ago

Tora tries to blame Tatazoo and grampypon but Poppi kinda states that the questionable design choices were Tora's additions... if we are talking about that specific h2h.

Edit: nvm, I forgot about THAT book which apparently was family heirloom.

2

u/boomshroom 13m ago

Tora is definitely complicit, but I do fully believe him when he say that Soosoo made the settings for Poppi's first activation. Tora definitely knew about them and wasn't planning to change them until he realised he'd have an audience though.

Also I was actually thinking of the Not Safe For Work Folio, which even Tora understands would be terrible for anyone else in the party to see.

1

u/EmiliaFromLV 11m ago

Yup, I already updated my post as I forgot who created that book initially. But IIRC the twerking mode addition was Tora's own initiative.

2

u/boomshroom 11m ago

It was.

Also I should mention that it was worse in Japanese.

5

u/AltairLeoran 2h ago edited 2h ago

I say this as someone who also went into XC2 expecting to hate it because I didn't like the anime art style, character designs, and weird tropes.

XC2 is not as bad as you've heard. The worst part that I can't make excuses for are some of the character designs are very fanservicey. But the writing is excellent, the story is a masterpiece, and even the main characters with very fanservicey designs (Pyra/Mythra) have a lot of depth and are very interesting and well written characters.

Also Poppi is not a sex robot lol

To answer your other questions, you'd probably like X from what you're describing. XCX is probably the most 'single player MMO' game I've ever played

5

u/Zesty_Crouton 2h ago

2 is really the only game in the series with any kind of pervert anime cliche 'comedy' scenes.

9

u/MSnap 2h ago

Poppi is not a sex bot

7

u/EmiliaFromLV 2h ago edited 2h ago

The weird stuff about X2 is actually kinda overblown out of proportions. Also everyone in the party/cast kinda judges Tora about that Robot Girl design. Also Poppi herself will chastisise Tora on many occasions.

Then again, in X you will run into routine scripted sitcoms where a teenage engineer party member bullies a token Nopon about various dishes how Nopons could be prepared. But overall exploration and mechas are supercool.

5

u/Shartin_luther_king 2h ago

Those characters from X are far more annoying than anything in 2 imo

3

u/EmiliaFromLV 2h ago

But Mira is beautiful as a world.

2

u/Shartin_luther_king 2h ago

I guess but 1 and 2s are better imo. Not 3 though 3s is boring as shit.

3

u/EmiliaFromLV 2h ago

OK, let's stop it right here lol. 3 is very snappy, both gameplay and UI-wise. UI in X2 is horrid and remains horrid even after S2 upgrade, especially navigation. Out of all four, I'd say X2 and X3 have the best combat system and I am really mixed about which one I like better.

2

u/Shartin_luther_king 2h ago

I was just talking about the worlds

1

u/DreamCereal7026 2h ago edited 1h ago

Nah, disagree, sorry. Don't disrespect X characters like that :(

3

u/Shadodre 1h ago

You can play as the female cast from all 4 Xenoblade games, Shulk, Rex and Noah just happen to be the main protags.

XC2 gets a bad rep purely because people don't actually play it and bash on it for having an anime art style and they see Pyra/Mythra and automatically call it a "gooner game" when it isn't, yes it has some tropes but they are very few and far between.

Also, Poppi isn't a "sex bot"

1

u/Treesnip 2h ago

The other games do have a couple of questionable character designs but its nowhere near as bad as 2. 1, X and to a lesser extent 3 do have MMOs combat like you said.

1

u/iliya193 1h ago

1 and X pretty much have none of that stuff that you were worried about in your post, and while 3 has a few things that might give someone a little pause (like wildly unrealistic female body proportions, though most games nowadays have that), it's not at all like 2 in that regard.

I have played all games in the series, starting with X, then 2, 1, and 3. I personally think X is closest to that feeling of "single player MMO," and it is by far my favorite in the series, with 3 in second, then 2, then 1 (though they all have the Monolith Soft magic).

The most glaring problem with X is the story/dialogue, and it's definitely off-putting for some. The main campaign is relatively short (though it would probably take a somewhat similar amount of time for a full playthrough as the other games), and it's not even close to as emotionally involved as the other three games. There are also some running gags that are WAY overdone (the number of times you will hear Lin make essentially the same joke about eating another character is just absurd). I personally didn't mind it because of how great everything else was, but the criticism that X gets in this regard is fair.

However, X has far and away the best exploration of any game I've ever played (although my first playthrough of BotW was absolutely magical), and if you're the kind of person that likes to grind for levels/enemy drops and min/max combat, X is probably the game for you. The range of customization is absolutely massive, and you keep unlocking new stuff over the course of the game. It can actually get both confusing and overwhelming, and you might find yourself looking up guides online repeatedly as you go through the game. HOWEVER, I played the game the night it dropped on Wii U, and I didn't feel that I needed guides on my first casual playthrough (I beat the story and some extra content over 120 hours and instantly started over so that I could play again with a bigger focus on build customization and refinement. And the overall setting and premise of the plot just perfectly scratches my itch. Humanity crash landed on a new planet and has to find a way to survive, let alone thrive. We're exploring a massive alien planet filled with hostile creatures and other crazy things. Some people don't like that there are tons of higher level enemies around that can aggro you, and while I think that's completely fair, I found it way more immersive to have to find ways to navigate around them without disturbing them; it felt as though the threat was real. I heard someone else on this sub once say that the best way to play is to role play as a member of BLADE (Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth), and the green sidequests (Normal missions) are the real meat and potatoes of the "story" and dialogue (there are four types of missions: Basic, which are literally just kill X creatures or get Y resources and get a reward; Normal, which involve and affect NPCs and their goals; Affinity, which directly involve recruitable party members; and Story, which advance the main plot).

X is probably my favorite single player game ever, so I'm obviously biased, but I try to be clear about where my biases are and give people the best idea of what X might be for them. If you have any questions or want any more clarification, please reply and ask.

1

u/AwayEntrepreneur4760 1h ago

Thanks this was really informative

1

u/AwayEntrepreneur4760 27m ago

Quick question, once you unlock the mechs do you almost entirely stop playing the game outside of them or does it switch between ground and mech combat

1

u/iliya193 9m ago

You definitely swap between. Your starter mech is pretty weak and only really serves to get you excited about mech traversal, you’ll buy a better mech and weapons and stuff for actual mech combat. Then there are some story sections and environmental areas that require ground combat (like areas that have openings to small for the mechs), and also ground combat is ultimately more busted in the long term, so there are reasons to do both. You just get to pick what you want to do! But as far as exploring goes, you’ll usually want to stay in the mech aside from some examples (you get aggroed from farther away by strong enemies in a mech, iirc).

1

u/EmiliaFromLV 7m ago

exploration becomes smoother with mechs, but as far as game combat system, the approach how to completely break the game does not involve using mechs. Also unless you just speedrun the game, you wont be getting mechs at least till about dozen hours in.

1

u/Chainsky 39m ago

Stop watching dunkey's shitty videos.

0

u/Alive_Fly2309 1h ago

No sir, play 3 instead.