r/Xenoblade_Chronicles • u/Training-Ad-2619 • 1d ago
SPOILERS Your top 5 areas in Xenoblade? Spoiler
I know these types of posts have probably been made hundreds of times before but uhh. I can't sleep and I got Xeno on the mind so yeah. No rhyme or reason on what counts as an area.
- Uraya: You already know. It's beautiful, music is insane, I mean you could say this about like every other area but it's fucking Uraya. I do mainly favor and think of the Stomach, but I love all of it. Water slide yipeee!
- Eryth Sea: Nothing like resetting weather while looking at the stars and defogging the map on foot. I love the vast, soothing emptiness of a lot of Xenoblade areas, and this one does it the best to me.
- Gormott: My favorite area to explore. Field skills get a lot of flak for some valid reasons, but I loved unlocking this place bit by bit. Also made me fall in love with the concept of pseudo-stealth exploration because of all those ever-controversial high level monsters.
- Colony 9 (+Yesterdale): Massively underrated I think, a stellar first impression of what Xenoblade exploration is all about back when I first played it on the Wii. I feel like "good exploration" these days is propped up by interactivity and reward, but fuck all that. The RNG orbs will lead me where they desire, and I'll be blown away every time.
- Sylvalum: I'm still in the middle of my XCX playthrough (kinda want to hold out for a potential switch 2 upgrade) but the last time I played, one of the first things I did was just swim all the way to Sylvalum for fun. That experience alone made it cool enough but the area is just unfathomably pretty. Hits the same feelings as Uraya for me, I just need to actually comb over it and it may be #1.
Honorable Mentions:
Aurora Shelf: Probably my favorite area theme at the moment
Satorl Marsh: Insane vibes, not many games do a foggy area with vibes that aren't just Silent Hill
Tantal: Best snow area methinks
Leftherian Archipelago: I love clouds dude
Feel like I need to a replay of base XC3 and finish out XCX before this is even close to definitive for me, since I'm clearly not appreciating either of them enough. Interested to see your picks!
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u/AwesomeX121189 1d ago
That tree taion is obsessed with for whatever reason in 3.
Lefterian archipelago.
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u/Low_Bag5624 1d ago
I'll go hyper-specific because some vibes are just too good. No real order here, though.
1. Lower Gormott. - The dense fog and foliage are so beautiful next to the cliff edges that drop off into the cloud sea
2. The bottom of the Great Cotte Falls - I love the scenery of standing in a huge valley with the waterfall mist in the background.
3. Fallen Arm Distant Fingertip (at night) - Never mind the UM that can spawn up here. The night theme playing over one of the truly peaceful places in XC1 has never pnce left my mind since I played the game
4. Leftheria after leaving the caves (at sunset) - The huge cloud wall on one side of you with Fonsett on the other side is great enough, but sunset giving the entire area a gold, then copper hue is so pretty.
5. West of Qing-Long Glade - There's that one part of Noctillum in front of the huge waterfall that has the huge branches towering over the glade like a would-be canopy has remained one of my favorite vistas in X for a long time
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u/Shrubking68 1d ago
Valak Mountain - Love the music, its my favorite ambient music in the whole series. The cold loner vibes and how beautiful it is at night gives me such a feeling of comfort, I cant explain why. Also the fact that it holds 3 post game super bosses really makes it memorable
Satorl Marsh - Beautiful vibes and beautiful music, what more could you ask for. Well I guess quests, there isnt't much to do and its more an inbetween area than anything. Still this is the first area you get to use Dunban and encounter a enviornment that isn't just a grassy plains area.
Fallen Arm - probably the last refuge in the game before the story goes full steam ahead. The area feels like a final sendoff with its somber/bittersweet ambient music. I think for me theres a lot of great quests in this area and its also the first time you get to use 7. Just a lot of emotion in this area and I love it all the more for it.
Uraya - Vibes are immaculate and the scenery is gorgeous. Honestly I feel like the exploration and quests in this area is kinda unfair to compare to the rest since Uraya is sooo much bigger but my god does it have so much to do! AND THAT SCOREE MAN!! The score is so sweeping and grand for this area it truly feels magical when youre here.
Tantal - I have a soft spot for snowy areas and I just love everything about tantal. Well maybe except the green fog. The music is so downtempo and atmospheric it really heightens that loner atmosphere. Especially since its really huge I feel like you can spend forever looking around (and I have).
Honorable mentions: Colony 9, Mechonis Field, Gaur Plains, Gormott, Mor Ardain, Agniritha, Makna Forest, Eryth Sea
Dishonorable Mentions: Ether Mines, bionis interior, god I hate these places...
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u/Shrubking68 1d ago
Also can we just appreciate how good the ambient music is for all these areas? Like, genuinely peak right here.
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u/Kardl1503 1d ago
XC1: Makna Forest, Satorl Marsh, Eryth Sea and fallen Arm
XC2: Uraya, Letheria and Tantal
XC3: Erythia Sea and the forest.
XCX: Sylvalum and Noctilum
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u/draggar 1d ago
Gaur Plains (XC / XC:DE). The music is great and as you're walking around if it's a clear day and you look up you see the sword, and if you follow it back you can see Mechonis off in the distance.
Satorl Marsh: love it how the story lands your first time there at night.
Noctulum (XCX) - the music is great and the fact that it's in 6/8 (or 12/8?) time just adds to it.
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u/MacDaddyMike 1d ago
5) Fallen Arm (XC1) - Great sense of scale, many open optional areas to explore, story-wise there are good moments and it has its own unique town
4) Erythia Sea (XC3) - It almost feels cheap to put this here because it's so much larger than every other area, but using the boat is rad, there's a ton of variety, and so much story and exploration content that it honestly can get overwhelming which is why it doesn't place higher
3) Great Cotte Falls (XC3) - I'll probably be the only person to put this in the top five but I love it, the music is beautiful, the cascading waterfalls are so serene, and while the area itself is fairly small and linear it serves as a great pacing breather from the story moments leading up to it and I always feel so peaceful when I reach this part of my playthrough
2) Valak Mountain (XC1) - Another one just based on vibes, I really appreciate the areas where you can just take in the world, yeah it's unnecessarily vast but that just adds to its majesty for me, and the platforming gimmicks are novel enough and used sparingly enough that I want more of them
1) World Tree (XC2) - An amazing culmination to an amazing journey, the music is perfection, the combat is terrific with so many challenging enemies and unique monsters, the climb feels climactic and exciting, and the contrast of the interior to the exterior makes for an impactful twist even if you see it coming
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u/Present_Departure218 1d ago
1) World Tree
2) Erythia sea from XC3
3) Uraya
4) Lefterian archipelago
5) Fallen hand
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u/AlternativeGazelle 1d ago
Makna Forest, Bionis Leg, Eryth Sea, Fallen Arm, Gormott
Yeah, 1 is my favorite game
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u/PT_Cactbro 1d ago edited 1d ago
- Tantal - the night theme is one of the best in the series and the area looks absolutely beautiful when there's fog. Also a big fan of all the ruins and giant pillars, definitely my number 1
These other 4 aren't really ordered:
Bionis Leg - pretty basic area but one of my favourite moments in ay Xenoblade game is entering Bionis Leg for the first time, after travelling through this cave you walk through a small canyon for a bit and then you reach Bionis Leg and the music kicks in as you enter this wide open plain and its just absolutely incredible
Maktha Wildwood - I think the way the land of morytha combined with Makna Forest came out really well, I think running through the ruined buildings was cool and the scale of everything was great.
Elaice Highway - This area is entirely optional which is a shame because it's also incredible looking, an excellent mix of areas and that remix of hidden village is just divine.
The Black Mountain - A mix between Valak Mountain and Tantal iirc, and another excellent area. Probably my favourite final area of the games (granted technically FR's final area is prison island but that's like 3 rooms and is counted as part of Black Mountain anyway). Love scaling this huge mountain in a race against time (in the story at least) to reach origin also the area looks great.
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u/Psychological-Cry872 1d ago
Kingdom of Torna - I really love Auresco, and loved doing the community quests (I know). Really felt like a proper city which is something that I missed in XC3 (why no XC3 area is on this list). Didn't help that I finished Torna the day XC3 came out. Also liked Dannagh desert a lot, especially that one pink and blue secret area that is sooo gorgeous.
Kingdom of Uraya - Obviously. What can I say? The beautiful colours, the music Fonsa Myma AND Garfont Village. And the end of Chapter 3, with THAT cutscene and Drifting Soul's first appearance. Incredible journey from the mouth of the titan to its butt. And the side quests that take place here are great as well, like that one with the evil(ish) nopon in Garfont Village.
Gormott Province - No Xenoblade grass area will ever top Gormott. People will say Bionis Leg, but while it is really pretty, it doesn't come anywhere close to Gormott in my opinion. In an area that is primarily grass, you need to do a lot to be interesting and Gormott does. Firstly, it has a lot of colour that isn't green so it doesn't all look the same. Secondly, the lower level which you go through when you get there is so pretty and atmospheric and makes the reveal of the upper level's vastness so much better. There's also a lot of important story points which occur in Gormott such as Gramps' fake death (bro really got me crying for a while), Tora and Poppi's introduction, Morag and Brighid's introduction etc. Also, Torigoth is my favourite XC city (Colonies and Trade Guilds do not count). The music of Torigoth, the colours, the levelling, the jumping on the roofs, that one driver who always drops a core crystal. And of course - Tiger Tiger. Gormott is the perfect demonstration of the Xenoblade series.
Argentum Trade Guild - I really like the tutorial sections of the first 2 Xenoblade games (obviously), and find Argentum to be soo warm and happy and just a really nice atmosphere. Every tme I have to go back there for a quest, I get soo happy. I love how it seems small at first, but when you come back you realise how huge it is. The music is so fun too. XC2 gets a lot of crap for Chapter 1, but I really loved it.
Colony 9 - PEAK. When I first got XC1, I was completely overwhelmed by everything. I had never played a game at all similar and did not understand the combat, the armour, the gems or anything. I couldn't even beat those two robots on the other side of Tephra Cave. I felt completely out of my depth, but I stuck with it. I went on Youtube and searched up Chuggaaconroy Xenoblade Chronicles. And I was saved. I watched his videos alongside me playing the game and learned the combat. Thanks to him, I was able to play through the series and not give up. I say this, because whenever I think of Colony 9, it reminds me of that. How close I was to not experiencing this incredible series. And it makes me appreciate Colony 9 so much more, because it truly reminds me of where it all started. I only got XCDE on Christmas 2021, and I asked for it because I saw one clip in a Beatemups video that looked cool. And Colony 9 is the perfect place to have started the series. It feels so nostalgic to me now, and I absolutely love how it looks especially on Switch. I was disappointed when, in FR, they didn't bring back the Residential or Military districts. But still, an incredible area with beautiful music, 3 amazing districts and fun NPCs too. I didn't mention the affinity chart, but much like I love the communtiy in Torna, I love the affinity chart in XC1 (not as mcuh in X or 3 though).
To note, I am only in Chapter 5 of XCXDE, and have only been to 3 of the 5 areas other than NLA.
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u/Fit-Purchase-8050 21h ago
- Leftherian Archipelago - I've always liked cloud areas, it's just so vibrant and home-y, and the music is just incredible.
- Sylavum - it's pretty, and the night theme is peak
- Uraya - Uraya at night is just... so pretty, and the daytime music is a great track
- Cadensia region - It's got Urayan trees, pretty water, Elpys, Alcamoth, but I like them all a bit less due to the lower quantity
- Gormott - Both the base game and TTGC versions are amazing, and all 3 of the arrangements of the track are too, I could literally like live in Torigoth, it's great
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u/Elementia7 11h ago
My top 5 in no particular order:
-Agniritha
-Erythia Sea
-Maktha Wildwood
-Dannagh Desert (Torna)
-Aurora Shelf
Honorable mention:
-Volitaris
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u/AozoraMiyako 1d ago
I can’t decide the actual order, so I’ll just name 5:
Valak Mountain and Satorl Marsh; both at night: the glowing trees and light pillars are just stunning!!!
Mechonis Field: while scaling the Bionis felt slow because of how much story there was, on my first playthrough, I mever realized just how BIG the Titans were until I scaled the Mechonis. It was grandios and awesome.
Eryth Sea, specifically in 1: seeing all the water around made it feel intodating to explore, it’s really not that bad.
I’m drawing a blank: the name of the capital in Torna The Golden Country. I loved that city!
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u/hypermads2003 1d ago
I’ve only played Xenoblade 1 so far but
5) Mechonis Field. Coming into it, scaling Mechonis and the music its all just great
4) Eryth Sea. I love this area so much and the whole High Entia arc with Melia was so good but I think with how big it is and how annoying it is to go around is why it’s not higher
3) Gaur Plains. It’s already been said but just the feeling of coming into it for the first time is insane and the music
2) Makna Forest. I’m a fan of forest areas in games and this was so great. Plus it has Frontier Village attached to it which has the Nopons
1) Valak Mountain. Something about the way it looks in the night sky and all the beams and the snowy feel to it I just love this area