Nintendo’s shadow-drop of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 expansion trailer was a massive surprise. In typical Xenoblade fashion, the roughly three-minute video is loaded with details to make fans salivate. An extreme glow-up for both Shulk and Rex, a Colony 9 base, and the children of nearly every main character are just a few of the massive details. Past all that, however, one specific shot of the trailer has potentially massive ramifications for the overall narrative — and some startling revelations for the main villain of Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
The shot in question takes place at roughly 1:55, and it’s a new iteration of something we saw in the first reveal trailer. Here we see Shulk and Rex facing down a god-like Alvis, but the real kicker is that Z, the main villain of Xenoblade 3, seems to be helping them. Before now, we had no idea that Z even knew Shulk and Rex, let alone that he was interacting with Alvis.
Even more interesting is the line where Z says, “Is this how badly you wish to erase us, my god?”
In Xenoblade 3, we learn that Z is the warped AI of Origin, which is essentially an ark constructed to preserve the peoples and knowledge of both Alrest and the Bionis/Mechonis. The AI was supposed to help facilitate this process, but after being influenced by the digitized souls of people it transformed into Z, who came up with a new directive. Motivated by the fear of an uncertain future, Z froze the merging of the two worlds and created the “Endless Now,” locking all beings in a frozen world and cycle of endless conflict.
Alvis’ involvement here is what’s really interesting, and seemingly suggests that his influence could actually be what corrupted Z and started the events of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Considering the Future Redeemed expansion takes place before the main game, this would also suggest that Shulk, Rex, and the other fail in stopping events.
Getting even deeper into the series’ lore, Alvis was originally the computer Claus used to reconstruct the universe when the Earth was destroyed (creating the two worlds of Xenoblade 1 and 2). This then made Alvis into a god-like entity, but because he was essentially a computer he could only take commands from the administrators, who were Zanza and Meyneth. Of course, Shulk defeats Zanza at the end of Xenoblade 1, which begs the question what does Alvis do now?
Free of the shackles of Zanza and Meyneth, is Alvis still bound by the order of others, or does he finally have his own free will? If the latter is true this could lead to Alvis becoming the de facto “villain” of the series as he seeks to correct all of the decisions and mistakes that have been made.
Perhaps Alvis is trying to return the universe to its original state before the split — he is the only person alive that might have the power to do so. Alvis's desire to fix mistakes might ultimately be what ends up corrupting Z, who was never evil to begin with, thus creating the Endless now.
One other interesting detail that might tie in here, is with one of the DLC’s new main characters, simply known as A. Presumably that name means the character is the missing Consul A of Ouroborus, but past that, it’s entirely possible this character is Alvis’ descendant. A bears a striking resemblance to Alvis, and she’s even wearing Zohar earrings, an icon that has tremendous importance across all of the Xeno games and is rebranded as “The Conduit” in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The Zohar symbol is used in the Trinity Processor of Xenoblade 2, a machine that houses three biocomputers used to power the Conduit. The Trinity Processor makes a brief appearance in the Future Redeemed trailer.
While Future Redeemed will clearly give a ton of context on the events leading up to Xenoblade 3, the big question now is if it will give us any more info on what happens after the heartbreaking ending of the game, and the ultimate fate of Noah, Mio, and everyone else. Considering the plotlines of all three games seem to be converging in Future Redeemed, it’s hard to imagine this isn’t an “end” to the series as we know it.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed launches April 25.
