One way Xenoblade Chronicles X can connect to the numbered trilogy
It’s no secret that Xenoblade Chronicles X is much, much different than the numbered games. It’s also no secret that when Monolith Soft was making Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015, they didn’t plan for it to connect to future games in the series. But things have changed, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s Future Redeemed DLC has us thinking that the studio may or may not try to connect Xenoblade Chronicles X to the numbered trilogy. We’re no lore experts, but today, we’re going over some possible ways that it could be retconned to connect to Xenoblade 1, 2, and 3. We do have to cover spoilers from those games in order to properly speculate, so you might want to come back later if you’re trying to avoid plot details. There are also spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles X itself here, so keep that in mind too.
Connecting Xenoblade Chronicles X to the numbered Xenoblade trilogy doesn’t seem to be a simple task – this is a very lore-heavy series. The game starts out in the year 2054, showing a terrible war that has broken out on planet Earth. To save humanity from the destruction caused by the war, the government sends out millions of humans on giant ships in search of new planets as part of something called Project Exodus. Not all of the ships make it away from Earth safe, but the one that does, the White Whale, becomes a main story element in Xenoblade Chronicles X. The White Whale, full of fleeing humans from Earth, eventually is attacked and crash-lands on planet Mira, the main setting of the game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 start on Earth, too. Shulk and Rex’s worlds, the Bionis and Alrest, were once one world. It was split into two separate places by Klaus, a scientist working for an organization called Aoidos (which is revealed by a message that comes with the Siren model kit – the lore is that complicated) using the power of the Conduit. An entirely new pocket dimension is created, which becomes Shulk’s world. Earth, however, winds up completely destroyed, and half of Klaus’s body is sent off to Shulk’s world. Full of regret for his hasty actions, Klaus creates the Cloud Sea and eventually the entire world of Alrest via the power of the Conduit.
According to the ending of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Elma arrived on Earth years before its destruction and bestowed humanity with incredible technology to help defend them from the war. This is where things get tough. According to Xenoblade Chronicles X, Earth was completely destroyed by a race of aliens called Ghosts. According to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Earth was being attacked by the Saviorites, who we don’t really know much of anything about. It doesn’t seem like Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is renaming the Ghosts, either, so that creates one conflict in that Xenoblade Chronicles X and the numbered games both say the Earth was destroyed by something different. But the radio in Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed depicts Klaus’ world before it was destroyed, and it specifically mentions Project Exodus, the project that sent millions of humans into space. That could mean that Xenoblade Chronicles X’s Earth and the numbered games’ Earth are one in the same, but how exactly that’s possible remains unknown.
At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles X, the characters vaguely hint at the possibility of returning to Earth. The game is presumed to take place in the year 2056, though, and this creates another problem. According to at least the English version of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the events of that game take place in the year 4058. That means the characters in Xenoblade Chronicles X would most likely come back to Alrest, not technically Earth.
Another problem is that in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the two worlds almost recombine but are then stopped and frozen in time by Moebius for presumably thousands of years. We’re not sure what would happen if the ships from Xenoblade Chronicles X tried returning to Earth in this state, not to mention the fact it’s thousands of years in the future compared to the events of that game. At the end of Xenoblade Chronicles X, it’s revealed that the Lifehold Core, which holds all the souls of the characters in the game, was destroyed from the moment the White Whale crashed onto planet Mira. In this game, the characters are all actually souls controlling artificial bodies. But since the Lifehold Core was destroyed, all the artificial bodies (Mimeosomes) should have powered down. This was never explained in the original Xenoblade Chronicles X, which ended on a cliffhanger.
One theory is that planet Mira somehow has something to do with Origin, the plot device from Xenoblade Chronicles 3 that was created to safely restore the two worlds. Origin holds the souls of everyone from the Bionis and Alrest. Likewise, Elma comments that Mira must somehow be responsible for the protection of the human souls despite the Lifehold Core’s destruction. This creates an incredible number of inconsistencies and plot holes, though, so we have no idea if this is the route the developers will go with.
There are potentially many routes Monolith Soft could take to connect Xenoblade Chronicles X to the numbered trilogy, but all of them are extremely complicated. If you’re very knowledgeable about Xenoblade lore, then most likely none of these theories were much a surprise. In any case, though, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition includes a new chapter of content. It features world tears that look a lot like annihilation events from Xenoblade Chronicles 3, plus there are some Skells that look like they have Ouroboros Cores (early details on the new story can be found here). We’re sure to get some of these questions answered in one way or another – specifically what happened to the Lifehold Core, a mystery gone unsolved for ten years.
How do you think Xenoblade Chronicles X connects to the numbered trilogy, if at all? Do you think Monolith Soft will do some retconning to connect them, or would you rather they remain completely separate? Whichever your opinion, feel free to let us know in the comments down below.
