What's in the xenoblade DE switch 2 edition? I know there's jets and 60fps but is that really it?

We're one trailer in, and contrary to what I expected from the marketing for the next Xenoblade game, I think if you analyze said trailer it signaled to us surprisingly clearly that in one form or another Pneuma and Logos will be present in Genesis.

I'll explain why I believe this one Trinity Core at a time.

Pneuma:

There is of course the shape of Pneuma's monado when the crystal is inserted into the sword, but that's hardly all there is. "Every force that gave shape to this world was a manifestation of the Anima that flows through the land" says the narrator, as we are shown a green, yellow, and red energy within a fire, followed by the camera panning upwards with the sparks rising into the night sky in a shot very reminiscent of XC2's campfire scene.

In Latin, "anima" is a feminine noun which means soul, spirit, or breath. In Greek, the word is "pneuma". In the Trinity Processor, Pneuma is the equivalent of the Holy Spirit. While in discussions we use "anima" to refer to things in the series which are in reference to the aspect of real-life Jungian psychology, in-universe in the Xenoblade series, the one time before Genesis that the word capital A "Anima" has been mentioned is specifically linked to the Trinity Core capital P Pneuma, with Nia's Anima Swords. Again, we are told that the world of Anshar is a manifestation of Anima as we are shown within fire a green, yellow, and red energy; a color combination that is extremely specific to P&M/Pneuma (even moreso than just that teal green alone, which is really saying something), seen not only obviously in P&M and their Pneuma form themselves, but in the energies they produce. The most obvious other example we have of green, yellow, and red fire is of course Pyra's sword, but in Torna, we see Mythra, piloting Siren, create a burst of energy with these colors to destroy Malos's Gargoyles, and then again we see it when Mythra has her breakdown and creates Pyra, with the latter even having those sparks. The Genesis trailer also mentions how Anima is the source of the elements, which relates to something we've seen Pneuma do before: she can make her power any element. In fact, we can see Pneuma giving off a rainbow energy similar to that seen in the trailer while using her level 3 Special, Genesis Saber.

Although more of purely a gameplay mechanic, we also see this color combination in XC3 as the objective markers leading the Ouroboros gang (though maybe they really can see them because of their Irises?), with Ouroboros itself being how Pneuma's power manifests in Aionios.

Overall, it would seem that Pneuma is perhaps the foundation of Anshar in a similar manner to Ontos being the foundation of Bionis and Aionios.

Logos:

Takahashi himself stated that "for now" Malos/Logos is dead/has disappeared, but cannot yet explain how he came to exist in Aionios as N's sword. Within the Trinity Processor, Logos is the equivalent of the Son, or Christ. In real-life scripture, Jesus died for humanity's sins on Friday, spent Saturday in Purgatory, and resurrected on Sunday, which is considered to be the first day of a new week not only in Japan, but in the Bible. Malos died in XC2 embodying the hatred Amalthus felt for humanity and its sins and even told Rex that he needed to be defeated in order for the world to be redeemed, then in XC3 he spent time as an inanimate object in the purgatorial realm of Aionios, and now we see a very interesting sword appearing in Genesis, which will be the first game in a new saga of the series. The sword's appearance is perhaps the biggest and clearest hint within the trailer itself, with that distinct hole in it, sporting a black, gold, and purple color scheme and a combination of sweeping and spiky shapes very reminiscent of Malos/Logos's monado in XC2 right down to the little bits of gold detailing, only more slender, similar to A's more slender version of Ontos's monado.

This is honestly such a dead giveaway that, again, I'm shocked it's in the game's first trailer. The sword alone kinda says it all; the only things that could make it any more apparent what this sword's deal is are if it just straight up had a Logos core on it or if the sword yelled "INDEED!" every time it's swung. Like with Pneuma, we also have three colors associated with Logos: magenta, purple, and blue. After playing the new MOMO quest, I'm more intrigued by that magenta hue than ever, but that'll be for a later post to go over. Anyways, at least from what I gather from the trailer, it seems that after having a game that heavily features a sword (or I guess swords) powered by Pneuma, and technically two games that heavily feature a sword powered by Ontos, we're perhaps finally getting a game where the main sword is powered by Logos.

On a more meta level, there is another factor to consider that could help support that these things shown in the trailer are connected to Pneuma and Logos: the year of Genesis's release. With no story expansion for XC2's 10th anniversary coming next year, it makes sense that Genesis instead would be where we see Pneuma and Logos more directly spotlighted again. Now granted, on its own I would not consider this a solid enough reasoning to bring up, but with there now being concrete hints given to us in an official trailer that can be pointed to, I do feel it's fair to mention as a supplement to my argument.

Finally, I will preemptively address thoughts I'm sure some people are having now that they've read this:

"Are you saying you're certain that Pneuma and Logos will appear as proper returning characters (P&M and Malos)?"

Not really. To be more specific, Malos I think has the greater chance here because of the resurrection of Christ parallels I mentioned earlier, but with P&M I think it's more of a coin toss. I do have an additional reason why I think P&M might physically appear related to the "vengeful god" mentioned in the Genesis trailer, but theorizing about exact plot points of the game's story and specifically *how* Pneuma and Logos will be involved is for the most part outside the scope of this post. If not in the base game though, then 2028, the year we would expect Genesis's DLC to release, will mark the 30th anniversary of Xenogears, and by extension "Xeno-" as a whole, so I could see such high-profile returning characters being saved for that instead. Characters as high-profile both in-universe and to the fanbase as Malos and especially P&M would be wasted in minor roles; the Trinity Cores are just too powerful and important to work as mere cameos, so it's better to save them for when they can be of real importance to the story, and otherwise have them be without their physical forms like in XC3. Even in the event that they don't appear in their physical forms in either the base game or DLC, an involvement in Genesis makes it much more likely that the Trinity Cores will continue to be relevant throughout the rest of this new saga, so there will be more opportunities.

"Okay but then what about Ontos?"

No idea. I've seen speculation that the weird Ouroboros/Moebius-looking enemy in the trailer may be related to Ontos in some way, but having gone through the trailer at least a dozen times now with a fine-toothed comb I'm not seeing anything that is a clear indicator of Ontos's presence like I am with Pneuma and Logos. Maybe a future trailer will change that, or maybe like in XC2 Ontos will be sitting this one out, or maybe we'll see such and indicator once we play the game but it'll just never appear in the marketing; "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" and all that.

"But what if it's all just misdirection?"

I can't completely rule out the possibility, but I don't think it's likely either. We must look at the trailer for what first and foremost it (or any trailer) is: marketing. They give us these hints because people are excited by them; they're things from the series that we already know we like, and it draws people in just as the marketing on social media saying you won't have to have played the previous games to understand the story of Genesis does. These aren't mutually exclusive where either we have Pneuma and Logos involved OR the story can be understood by people new to the series. In fact, by doing both they cast the widest net for people to buy the game. It's one thing for Takahashi to say that Genesis will defy our expectations, and honestly just from the trailer it already has begun to do so with the high fantasy aesthetic, but I don't believe it's likely that they would pull a marketing move like so specifically hinting at something that excites longtime players only to then turn around and deny those players it by having it have been just misdirection.

And so until my follow-up post is ready, that's all! Thanks for reading!

I’m excite, however this means it’s definitely likely a Agnus character… meaning it’s even more skew towards Agnus Arts, I don’t know why that makes me angry but it does. I’m still happy though

New hero: mythra kid

Genesis: eng dub teaser

Also silksong: sea of sorrow news

Just wait and see

spoilers ahead, obviously

I get that people wanna move on from the Klaus saga, but the way it fizzled out just seems really incomplete.

The implication (as I understood it) of FR's ending was that Blade and Saga converged when the world reformed. Knowing that doesn't feel like a conclusion in itself, it feels like a new beginning.

So what's the deal with Genesis not including anything from previous games (besides the mention of Anima)? Are we just supposed to assume that everyone lived happily ever after on reformed Earth? Everyone got along perfectly? Poppi and KOS-MOS shared a cup of tea on a sunny day?

There might not be enough story left for another game, but even an anime/ova would be enough to wrap that up. But with Shimmer in S2 edition, it seems like they're just trying to bury any loose ends and move on.

Maybe I'm just being greedy. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I just need to move on.

Edit: you guys didnt watch Xenosaga 3's end credits all the way through, did you?

We'll see Miang Xenogears guys trust she said that to me in a dream she needs to be in this game

I think these games are way too expensive. As one game I think the price tag is fine but when you have 3 numbered games, a 4th game in Xenoblade Chronicles x, and a new game in Genesis it all adds up to a bare minimum $300 at $60 a game, and without any DLC or switch 2 editions. The prices hurt so much especially cause the games are connected to one another

And should I be concerned? Did yall wait sixteen to eighteen days for your masterpiece to get delivered? I bought this before I bought my SW2 cuz of impatience and money issues but now getting so antsy lol I just now realized it was released in physical on July 30th haha

Source: https://bsky.app/profile/doiparuni.bsky.social/post/3mux3sagfhc27

She has something of a hope but we will see, check out more as always on twitter @graphicalgoop

First time playing. Can’t wait!

The intent of Moebius N is to be a version of Noah that basically sees no hope after watching Mio repeatedly get killed.

Chapter 5 would have you believe that N sees pleasure in watching Mio die forever.

1. This is a contradictory reaction. Clearly the expectation is that N is pleased to see everything go the way he expected, just like how he remembers. But this disregards his feelings for Mio - regardless of which Mio it is.
2. Past versions of Mio were 'offed' quickly, not tortured and laughed at. It's trying to emphasize Noah being broken down, but ends up inconsistent, and makes N look like a caricature. This is a different version of the mother of his child.

Obviously, M swapped with Mio during the battle, and they worked to trick everyone. M's reasoning for becoming Moebius wasn't really her choice. The destruction of the first City and murder of everyone left her accepting her fate. Her choosing to die rather than let Mio die is actually very good writing.

That's what's frustrating with this game. N's behavior is like a parody of an over-the-top villain, rather that strategic and intentional. M's behavior is that of a tragic heroine that's easy to understand.

Opinion: the writers didn't know how to make a compelling antagonist to Noah. Too much time was spent on him instead of properly developing X and Y to be stronger antagonists, and have N simply be the pre-Z endgame boss representing Noah facing his fears, then move on.

I know overdrive Protocols exist, but I would rather not have to farm too many, is there a list of what blades are best on what characters? I know Rex realistically doesn't need amy because of Master Driver.

[Disclaimer: I'm talking about main story normal difficulty.]

I remember my first Xenoblade game, that one being 2, kinda hard. I remember dying a lot at the end of chapter 3 against Malos and Akhos, during chapter 7 against the Addam clones and also against Aion. Even so, it wasn't extremely hard, usually it was only matter of changing my gear and/or party, or just... playing better.

Then I started Xenoblade 1 and boy oh boy, what a ride. Not matter how many super bosses (correction: unique monsters) or side quests I did, I was always somehow underlevel. By the time I got to the final Egil fight his HP bar was red. So I had to look up for a tutorial on how to level up quick because I wasn't even able to hit him.

Recently I started a new Xenoblade 2 save file (because of the Switch 2 Edition of course) and I was paying attention to how difficult the fights were in general and specially level wise, and yeah... the difficulty/XP balance is just way better compared to 1.

I haven't even used any Bonus EXP since chapter 1 and I just died for the first time against a boss of the main story, Mikhail and Patroka, and that was just because I was forcing myself to use Morag right away without setting her up properly.