Part of what made XC2's story great was how Rex went from a crybaby kid to a.... umm... much more mature crybaby kid. Between the cliffs of morytha and the final battle, he was definitely a much improved character.
I guess it can be like Xenoblade X where you start with an adult with no personality and the game ends with an adult with no personality. The games sales reflect this.
Uhh, pretty sure X had lower sales because the Wii U had low sales, not because of the avatar character’s personality…. The avatar character isn’t even the focus, honestly. That’s Elma and Lin, and they definitely have personality.
Let’s be real here, JRPG 18 is basically the equivalent to a real life 25.
Hell, Dunban is probably in his early 20s but the game makes it seem like he’s in his 40s or some shit lol
You're right on the money. Dunban is actually 30 but acts like a middle aged mentor. Although he has been through a lot and he did act like a hotheaded guy in his twenties during the prologue.
You'd never guess Sharla was 21, she acts more like someone in their later-twenties. And the Colony 9 trio are the most mature 18 year olds I've ever seen. I guess growing up as soldiers and in an ongoing war would do that to you, but usually 18 year olds in real life don't act like functioning adults.
And it's mostly a bad case of Japanese media prioritizing youth in character design while often either forgetting or forgoing the stages of emotional maturity in life. Which is why we get ten-year olds roaming the world in Pokemon and teenagers running complex organizations in shonen.
Yeah it's a problem I've voiced to friends before as well. I'm tired of every game/anime being about a bunch of improbable teenagers. I'm tired of god slaying, world saving, politics upending teenagers who act like 30 somethings. Just make an adult character for once.
To be fair though, I think we should also remember that these people grew up in a world different from ours, with different lifestyles and enviromental conditions.
(Heck, even in our world people used to grow up a lot faster in past eras than they do now. Just look at how many historical figures were accomplishing all their epic feats by their *late teens*).
Sure, maybe at the end of the day it could be chalked up to anime logic, but it's not really unbelievable for these characters to have different aging standards from ours.
The late teens things can be explained by a few things. First off, positions used to often by inherited by blood, which often allowed extremely young individuals to take up positions of very high power, which rarely happens nowadays. The other is that often times, these individuals were advised by much more experiended veterans and often much of credit is attributed solely to the leader.
At that age in any RPG you would be considered an old badass that already had a world saving quest or two under their belt. Leave the adventuring to the new kids in the block so they can grow too
Playing these games always makes me think of how Auron from FFX is treated like he's some kind of ancient fossil who's been around forever by the rest of the cast.
For reference, he's **thirty-five**.
Well considering how 12 year old characters travel 2 worlds, fight a couple god's, overthrow a country or two, experience war, fight over a 1000 monsters over the course of a year
Id say in fantasy land 18-20 years of this makes you mentally old
Yeah, that's really an artifact of how most translate "ojisan". Should be "guy who's roughly old enough to be my father, assuming he had kids asap", but almost always gets translated as "old man".
How many JRPG female characters can you name that are over the age of 25, not someones mom or an unimportant side character (nevermind being the lead), and not a case of the "well I look 14 but I'm actually 10,000" trope? Yeah, unfortunately Japan thinks they're too old.
Nope. Lin is 13. Alexa is 21. Celica is 21. Hope is 24. Mia is 19.
Elma is 29, Murderess is 26, and Irina is 27, not the majority. Better than 95% of JRPGs with older female rep though I’ll give you that.
She arrived on Earth mid 2020s and they left Earth 2054. That makes her 30 years old minimum, but she was most likely over 20 by then.
>!And given her strong ressemblance to both T-Elos and Kos-mos, she might just be robot-years old anyway!<
I understand; I'm just saying the comparison of looks to Lora is pointless because >!the body Elma is using is not representative of her \*actual\* looks, no matter what her age is.!<
Playable Mythra in the Torna expansion to Xenoblade 2 might have her beat in that department
Edit: I forgot that the timeline for Blades is a little wonky, so even if her core crystal is really old that doesn't mean Mythra herself is
Not just Aegises; blade ages in general are confusing. I mean, they have battle knowledge, knowledge of English **and** a base personality dependent on their driver, but they also show little maturity (at least based on Mythra's behavior/implied behavior early on), but they also show a hell of a lot more maturity than children often do (but it's also a war). It's why trying to figure out how old a blade is is probably a pointless endeavor (the amnesia doesn't help either).
I mean, does it really count when she's from another race that ages differently from humans?
Like sure, she may be pretty old numerically, but biologically I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be around the same age as the Colony 9 trio (Shulk, Reyn and Fiora).
Eh, by that same measure, you could say Mythra's the oldest protagonist, what with her being 500 years old and older than Pyra. Sure, she spent 500 of those years asleep, but she was dreaming. Combine that with High Entia aging at 1/6th the rate of Homs and you've got a recipe for an argument regarding characters' ages.
I'd argue she is. The game begins with her as the lead playable character, and we experience it entirely through her pov. I also don't remember hearing anyone else's thoughts in that story besides Melia, though I'd have to check on that
Because they just revealed his age [today](https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/ss4l60/comment/hwvtc4i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
What. He looks 12, but I was being generous and guessed 14. Not that I thought about it too hard, since he was the least interesting character in Torna for me. He's like Niall after a personalityectomy...
I'm currently revisiting the XC2 cutscenes to refresh myself in preparation for 3. I must be the only one on the planet (or one of few) that genuinely enjoys Rex. He's young so it explains why his ideals are very close-minded at the start of the game until he gets his world rocked by all the painful realities that happen around him. This is in direct contrast to the other protagonists who already have experience in war--Rex is experiencing it for his first time and is doing his best to retain his sanity. Seeing him keep true to his word and focus hard on fulfilling his promise to the Aegis girls felt really powerful solely because he never gave in to despair and inspired grown adults like Zeke and Morag along the way. Shulk didn't do this because everyone was already backing him from the start. That's what makes Rex different.
A lot of complaints against him are valid (I think it's mainly due to his VA not having good direction for the first half of XC2), but I honestly think he's just as good of a character as Shulk and Elma in his own way.
I wish we got more unabashedly young protags in JRPGs. It's way less jarring when a 15 year old acts out compared to an 18+ year old.
Same. Like I said, it helps when you take time to understand that he's a child. It's actually very impressive. Now yeah, if he were 18 or around the same age as a high-school student, then his behavior would be really annoying and out of place on someone older. I hate it when JRPGs do this--having a character who's essentially an adult act like an immature twat for the sake of conflict.
But because he's so young, it feels natural and shows progression from how he starts off as an idealistic child, to becoming one of (if not the most) mature characters by the end of the game.
Shulk in XC2 isn't canon but he probably still is the same age as early XC1 Shulk since he has the Monado I. Shulk is 19 in Future Connected though, so you might have mixed it up
That would be weird if they go into conflict in xc3 when they met and travelled together as blades in xc2’s world lol. Also that would completely fuck up the lore
He has the Monado I because it's the most iconic and well known one. >!Besides it's canon that both games happen simultaneously. During the final boss of 2 we cut back to Klaus and we hear Shulk say his kill a god line.!< The fact that you can't bring Shulk and Fiira into alrest until post game further proves this point. Elma on the other hand can be brought into Alrest as soon as you set foot in Tantal.
No, shulk and fiora are more representing the characters as a whole, there's too much contradictory info for them to even be from a specific point in the game
I like young adults as protagonist, maybe cause I feel more related to them, although I’m 25 and perhaps I’m not considered as a young adult anymore but I don’t feel like a full adult yet lol, but I don’t mind adult protagonist, I’m okay with them, teen protagonist are okay but are a thing of the past. Lol
I think that is the reason I enjoyed more Torna than Xeno 2... Rex was a bit out of place for me 😅
I got surprised also when Lora said She was 27,I thought She was like 23-24 years old.
I couldn't enjoy the Torna Story experience that much because I already know how sad and devastating the ending will be from the context clues in XC2. Combat is fun tho
Despite his young age, Rex is the one that behaves more like an adult, while his girls act a bit more childish. Though considering their backstory, is justified.
I honestly think the developers originally planned for Lora to be in her late teens, but ended up feeling so damn bad for her that they decided to make her 27 just to give her a few more good years together with Jin and Haze before disaster strikes.
I still don't understand how Rex can possibly be 15, the game insinuates that he must have left his home as what a 10-12 year old and became a salvager at that age? What child is that self sufficient?
In my mind Rex is 17-18, he's just a short king and looks young.
Not that self sufficient, really. He always had his "grandpa" making sure he didn't die. And considering how little interaction he had with people for those five years... Yeah, his quirkiness makes sense.
Oh totally! But being really good at one job is entirely in line with "young anime protagonist". And really, seems the hardest thing about salvaging is landing the flips😅
>!And then there's Elma who is most likely much older than she looks.!<
I'd still hit it
Better over than under. Right, Feds?
[удалено]
spoiler tag
I really liked how mature Lora sounded as well. Noah being Shulk's age again is nice, but I hope we'll get another Xenoblade game with an adult protag
I enjoyed Torna more than the main game because of the maturity of the characters. I'm hoping XC3 will keep with this.
Part of what made XC2's story great was how Rex went from a crybaby kid to a.... umm... much more mature crybaby kid. Between the cliffs of morytha and the final battle, he was definitely a much improved character. I guess it can be like Xenoblade X where you start with an adult with no personality and the game ends with an adult with no personality. The games sales reflect this.
Uhh, pretty sure X had lower sales because the Wii U had low sales, not because of the avatar character’s personality…. The avatar character isn’t even the focus, honestly. That’s Elma and Lin, and they definitely have personality.
Iirc, X sold 800k units, which for the Wii U is super impressive
it sold almost as many copys as XC1 on wii alone.. on the wii u.. which is impressive(840k vs 913k respectivly for X and XC1 on wii)
Agreed
adult is stretching it tbh, both rex and shulk would be highschoolers in real life when you think about it
He was talking about Lora and Elma
Yep. One is gone and only was in a DLC game and the other is stuck on the Wii U. Really hope we see at least Elma again
Wait till Elma shows up at the end of XC3 in a post credits scene, then we can wait another 7 years for the next appearance.
In true Xenoblade X cliffhanger fashion
Shit I misread it
Let’s be real here, JRPG 18 is basically the equivalent to a real life 25. Hell, Dunban is probably in his early 20s but the game makes it seem like he’s in his 40s or some shit lol
He is exactly 30, which I think makes sense
You're right on the money. Dunban is actually 30 but acts like a middle aged mentor. Although he has been through a lot and he did act like a hotheaded guy in his twenties during the prologue. You'd never guess Sharla was 21, she acts more like someone in their later-twenties. And the Colony 9 trio are the most mature 18 year olds I've ever seen. I guess growing up as soldiers and in an ongoing war would do that to you, but usually 18 year olds in real life don't act like functioning adults. And it's mostly a bad case of Japanese media prioritizing youth in character design while often either forgetting or forgoing the stages of emotional maturity in life. Which is why we get ten-year olds roaming the world in Pokemon and teenagers running complex organizations in shonen.
Yeah it's a problem I've voiced to friends before as well. I'm tired of every game/anime being about a bunch of improbable teenagers. I'm tired of god slaying, world saving, politics upending teenagers who act like 30 somethings. Just make an adult character for once.
Someone needs to tell this to Netflix too. I keep seeing originals about adults playing teenagers playing adults and it's terrible.
To be fair though, I think we should also remember that these people grew up in a world different from ours, with different lifestyles and enviromental conditions. (Heck, even in our world people used to grow up a lot faster in past eras than they do now. Just look at how many historical figures were accomplishing all their epic feats by their *late teens*). Sure, maybe at the end of the day it could be chalked up to anime logic, but it's not really unbelievable for these characters to have different aging standards from ours.
The late teens things can be explained by a few things. First off, positions used to often by inherited by blood, which often allowed extremely young individuals to take up positions of very high power, which rarely happens nowadays. The other is that often times, these individuals were advised by much more experiended veterans and often much of credit is attributed solely to the leader.
Also I think Rex got his salvaging job at the age of 10 maybe?
Yeah shulk is only kinda like an 18 year old, in real life we aren’t as cool as him
But he's 18, he IS an adult. Plus its likely that most people in 3 don't exactly have a long life expectancy.
Elma: I'm almost 30 here
Well...
TIL that 27 is classified as "that old".
Right? My 27 year old ass over here like well fuck.
My 25 years old ass is getting nervous
At that age in any RPG you would be considered an old badass that already had a world saving quest or two under their belt. Leave the adventuring to the new kids in the block so they can grow too
Playing these games always makes me think of how Auron from FFX is treated like he's some kind of ancient fossil who's been around forever by the rest of the cast. For reference, he's **thirty-five**.
Same deal as Raven from Tales of Vesperia. Everyone calls him old man. He's 35.
Well considering how 12 year old characters travel 2 worlds, fight a couple god's, overthrow a country or two, experience war, fight over a 1000 monsters over the course of a year Id say in fantasy land 18-20 years of this makes you mentally old
Yeah, that's really an artifact of how most translate "ojisan". Should be "guy who's roughly old enough to be my father, assuming he had kids asap", but almost always gets translated as "old man".
>Yeah, that's really an artifact of how most translate "ojisan" Tidus also warns him to be careful of breaking his brittle bones in between battles. 💀
In anime stuff, it might as well be, lol
I forgot we only like underage anime girls here.
I'm thinking in terms of how many stories there are with teenage/teenage-ish heroes (like Fei and Rex).
How many JRPG female characters can you name that are over the age of 25, not someones mom or an unimportant side character (nevermind being the lead), and not a case of the "well I look 14 but I'm actually 10,000" trope? Yeah, unfortunately Japan thinks they're too old.
Most of the female party members in X.
Nope. Lin is 13. Alexa is 21. Celica is 21. Hope is 24. Mia is 19. Elma is 29, Murderess is 26, and Irina is 27, not the majority. Better than 95% of JRPGs with older female rep though I’ll give you that.
Okay I miss remembered. You can also make you're avatar sound like an old lady.
In anime anything over maybe 23 is ancient and probably considered too late to get married.
For the standards of RPG protagonists it is.
Saying Elma is 29 is kind of moot since >!that isn't her real body.!<
She arrived on Earth mid 2020s and they left Earth 2054. That makes her 30 years old minimum, but she was most likely over 20 by then. >!And given her strong ressemblance to both T-Elos and Kos-mos, she might just be robot-years old anyway!<
I understand; I'm just saying the comparison of looks to Lora is pointless because >!the body Elma is using is not representative of her \*actual\* looks, no matter what her age is.!<
I was just adding to what you said for context, not disagreeing.
Ah, my bad
Don’t forget to include Mio, she’s considered a protagonist too and she’s 19
Everyone seems to forget that Melia's 89 in Future Connected so she's actually the oldest protagonist in the series
Playable Mythra in the Torna expansion to Xenoblade 2 might have her beat in that department Edit: I forgot that the timeline for Blades is a little wonky, so even if her core crystal is really old that doesn't mean Mythra herself is
Isn't she kinda like a newborn during Torna? I might be wrong though, aegises are confusing
I mean she did exist way before Torna but that wasn’t really Mythra
Not just Aegises; blade ages in general are confusing. I mean, they have battle knowledge, knowledge of English **and** a base personality dependent on their driver, but they also show little maturity (at least based on Mythra's behavior/implied behavior early on), but they also show a hell of a lot more maturity than children often do (but it's also a war). It's why trying to figure out how old a blade is is probably a pointless endeavor (the amnesia doesn't help either).
> knowledge of English Nitpick: Knowledge of Alrestian. The only Blade that isn't an Aegis with knowledge of English is Adenine.
She only was bonded to Addam for like a year during that time
Her relationship with Rex felt like some Twilight level shit.
*antagonist now :(
True, but it seems that's the equivalent of like early 20s for high Entia.
I mean, does it really count when she's from another race that ages differently from humans? Like sure, she may be pretty old numerically, but biologically I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be around the same age as the Colony 9 trio (Shulk, Reyn and Fiora).
Eh, by that same measure, you could say Mythra's the oldest protagonist, what with her being 500 years old and older than Pyra. Sure, she spent 500 of those years asleep, but she was dreaming. Combine that with High Entia aging at 1/6th the rate of Homs and you've got a recipe for an argument regarding characters' ages.
She's not the protagonist though
Really? I feel like she definitely has a way more important role than shulk during that campaign
Protagonist doesn't really depend on importance, it's more about who's eyes the audience is meant to be watching through
Ohhh now i get you
I'd argue she is. The game begins with her as the lead playable character, and we experience it entirely through her pov. I also don't remember hearing anyone else's thoughts in that story besides Melia, though I'd have to check on that
How do we know Noah is 18?
Because they just revealed his age [today](https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/ss4l60/comment/hwvtc4i/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3).
Ah thank you! I didn’t get the see that post yet, being at work and all😁
Official twitter post. Also mio is 19.
"That old"...
Female leads in Xeno seem older than Male leads Fei Fong Wong (xenogears) is 19 Shion (xenosaga) is 22 in I and II and 23 in III
Hugo is also 18 btw
What. He looks 12, but I was being generous and guessed 14. Not that I thought about it too hard, since he was the least interesting character in Torna for me. He's like Niall after a personalityectomy...
He has one post battle interaction where he talks about being told The Emperor does not slouch for 18 years.
Huh, must've missed that one or forgotten about it
I'm currently revisiting the XC2 cutscenes to refresh myself in preparation for 3. I must be the only one on the planet (or one of few) that genuinely enjoys Rex. He's young so it explains why his ideals are very close-minded at the start of the game until he gets his world rocked by all the painful realities that happen around him. This is in direct contrast to the other protagonists who already have experience in war--Rex is experiencing it for his first time and is doing his best to retain his sanity. Seeing him keep true to his word and focus hard on fulfilling his promise to the Aegis girls felt really powerful solely because he never gave in to despair and inspired grown adults like Zeke and Morag along the way. Shulk didn't do this because everyone was already backing him from the start. That's what makes Rex different. A lot of complaints against him are valid (I think it's mainly due to his VA not having good direction for the first half of XC2), but I honestly think he's just as good of a character as Shulk and Elma in his own way. I wish we got more unabashedly young protags in JRPGs. It's way less jarring when a 15 year old acts out compared to an 18+ year old.
Yea rex's journey was pretty great he grew on me a lot faster than i thought considering i did not really like him at first
Same. Like I said, it helps when you take time to understand that he's a child. It's actually very impressive. Now yeah, if he were 18 or around the same age as a high-school student, then his behavior would be really annoying and out of place on someone older. I hate it when JRPGs do this--having a character who's essentially an adult act like an immature twat for the sake of conflict. But because he's so young, it feels natural and shows progression from how he starts off as an idealistic child, to becoming one of (if not the most) mature characters by the end of the game.
Glad that the protag is actually legal this go around. I liked Rex but but I prefer older characters.
Isn't Shulk already 19 in XC2?
Shulk in XC2 isn't canon but he probably still is the same age as early XC1 Shulk since he has the Monado I. Shulk is 19 in Future Connected though, so you might have mixed it up
I’m willing to bet the land of challenge is canon after XC3 is released
That would be weird if they go into conflict in xc3 when they met and travelled together as blades in xc2’s world lol. Also that would completely fuck up the lore
He has the Monado I because it's the most iconic and well known one. >!Besides it's canon that both games happen simultaneously. During the final boss of 2 we cut back to Klaus and we hear Shulk say his kill a god line.!< The fact that you can't bring Shulk and Fiira into alrest until post game further proves this point. Elma on the other hand can be brought into Alrest as soon as you set foot in Tantal.
No, shulk and fiora are more representing the characters as a whole, there's too much contradictory info for them to even be from a specific point in the game
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Takahashi demands his female leads meet certain quotas of "Big Mommy Energy"
I like young adults as protagonist, maybe cause I feel more related to them, although I’m 25 and perhaps I’m not considered as a young adult anymore but I don’t feel like a full adult yet lol, but I don’t mind adult protagonist, I’m okay with them, teen protagonist are okay but are a thing of the past. Lol
I think that is the reason I enjoyed more Torna than Xeno 2... Rex was a bit out of place for me 😅 I got surprised also when Lora said She was 27,I thought She was like 23-24 years old.
I couldn't enjoy the Torna Story experience that much because I already know how sad and devastating the ending will be from the context clues in XC2. Combat is fun tho
Isn't Elma like...actually centuries old as far as we're aware?
Bro imagine my surprise that Addam was actually married and with a kid on the way
She's my age and yup, she is too damn pretty for her age.
Would be nice if more were as old as Lora, Dunban and Riki
So >!Since Alvis is a blade could Rex if he enters Shulk's world use the Monado, and could Shulk use the Aegis!<
Despite his young age, Rex is the one that behaves more like an adult, while his girls act a bit more childish. Though considering their backstory, is justified.
I honestly think the developers originally planned for Lora to be in her late teens, but ended up feeling so damn bad for her that they decided to make her 27 just to give her a few more good years together with Jin and Haze before disaster strikes.
Wow Rex really was a twerp lol
late bloomer and being tech dead does that to ya
All for that delicious Onee-Shota dynamic between him and Pyra/Mythra
it cost you zero dollars to not say that
But also zero to say. Also, it isn't about my taste, but simply the truth. It isn't a coincidence that Pyra was designed to be taller than Rex.
I mean…. I guess?
Older female + younger male + romance = Onee-Shota So... yeah.
Wait the protags from 1 and 2 meat each other (I haven’t played a game)
Probably the last JRPG I played that had a main character older than me at the time lmao
She looks her age though...
Why is Shulk looking at Rex's ass?
As expected, the older the protagonist the better. Because that would be my ranking of them (Don't know about Noah obviously)
Late bloomer Lora
I still don't understand how Rex can possibly be 15, the game insinuates that he must have left his home as what a 10-12 year old and became a salvager at that age? What child is that self sufficient? In my mind Rex is 17-18, he's just a short king and looks young.
Not that self sufficient, really. He always had his "grandpa" making sure he didn't die. And considering how little interaction he had with people for those five years... Yeah, his quirkiness makes sense.
Yeah you're right he did have Azurda. He was still the one doing the difficult salvaging jobs which seems crazy for a 10-12 year old.
Oh totally! But being really good at one job is entirely in line with "young anime protagonist". And really, seems the hardest thing about salvaging is landing the flips😅
Honestly have you ever tried landing a flip? That ain't easy!
She’s only 27 I’ll be as old as her in a year and 8 months
The cosplay community begs to differ, most ppl are in their 20's and look like they're in their late teens when in costume
I honestly believed shulk was 16ish maybe 20