Xenoblade Chronicles X – Blitzkrieg Mission

If you follow me on Tumblr, you’ve already seen how I got REALLY attached to the character Phog in Xenoblade Chronicles X… Well, his deal is that he is the younger brother of another party member, Frye, but mysteriously the two cannot be on your party together at the same time, and circumstances reveal that they are not on speaking terms.

I’ve spent a good chunk of this game looking forward to the quest that reunites them at last, and I went a little overboard and took a bamillion screenshots when I finally reached that point myself. Here is a little screenshot diary of them!

Click any of them to see the full resolution – I cropped most of them so that the text size would be more readable on this page, but in the more zoomed-out ones feel free to click the image to see it larger if you have to.

Here is the Affinitiy Mission that initiates the quest – it’s near the East Gate of NLA.
I had to get through Chapter 8 to finally meet the requirements for it –
Chapter 8 was so stressful ahh!!!

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During the mission briefing, you’re given the option to go on offense with Frye
or defend the city with Phog.
I reloaded a few times during this quest to try each side
(in a bit you’ll see my character equipped differently and with other party members),
but for now, let’s see Phog’s side.

He’s appreciative of our help. c:

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Ahh, I wonder if this is the first time these two have spoken to each other in years. ;_;

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The others empty out, and Phog is still hoping for the safety of his bro.

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Here’s the first example of the other set of equipment and party members
you’ll see in these screenshots lol!
This is a cute line and I missed catching it the first time around.

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aaaaaaa any time my child (´▽｀人)

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Phog in almost all of his missions will tell you how appreciative he is toward you, actually.
It is one of the many things that I really, really like about him.

I wanted to give him some encouragement in his own efforts,
since there was an earlier mission where selecting this same “Downplay” option
was his preferred response, but he kinda shrugged it off this time.

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You’re actually supposed to Brag about your “awesome advice,”
because it reminds Phog of his bro.

There are actually a LOT of options that Phog appreciates because
they sound like what Frye would say. Similarly, Frye is the inverse –
being kind to NPCs will often get you affinity with Frye since it
reminds him of Phog.

these bros make me feel a lot of things.

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Speaking of “bro,” I love Phog actually referring to Frye with that lol.
Anyway we got a distress signal ’cause things went bad on Frye’s end of the mission.

See also: a nice shot of Primordia in the background, and Hope’s cool weapons lol.

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After some fighting, Frye is surprised that Phog battled his way through all of that.

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Phog actually chastised Frye here which was kind of awesome.

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Frye tasks to fight off a few more enemies,
and I enjoyed how confidently Phog took it on.

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Feels good to keep surprising Frye like this.

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Two things:
1.) Phog’s confidence (yay!); and
2.) Night fell during the earlier fighting, and I happened to get
the Aurora weather effect for this scene, which was awesome.

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I liked this exchange, where Frye wants to hear Phog’s side of the story at last
(pertaining to the disagreement they had back on Earth),
but Phog just wants Frye’s injuries treated.

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Didn’t want to share all of the backstory these two have toward their dad
so you can still experience it for yourself, but basically Phog was more
mature about the whole thing than Frye had been giving him credit for.

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Brotherly love!

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This is the part where I’m really mad at myself because at this point,
Phog turned toward the player character and thanked him for helping the two
of them through everything. The line onscreen was “You are a true friend,”
but I was just a second too late to capture it before the text had disappeared. :,D

So pretend that this is just a screenshot of the aurora in the background again.

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Well, now we all learn how out of control I am about these characters, because I actually spent the time to reload and try this mission from Frye’s side as well, to see what he had to say about Phog. Before this point in the game, Phog has talked about Frye lots of times, but Frye has never, ever spoken about Phog.

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Once you’re alone with Frye, he asks how Phog has handled missions with you.
I didn’t screencap the line “How was he?” but
it was between this screenshot and the next.

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I put in a good word for Phog, but in the couple of reloads I did for this
I got exactly the same reaction for both Praise and Chuckle
(which is to say that Phog is “unique” but it adds to his charm).
Frye responded to both with “Hmm, I see.”

I don’t know if Criticize would give you something different
but there is no way I would ever criticize Phog,
not about this anyway.

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Finally, we learn a little of why Frye won’t speak with him.

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And I guess Frye can’t handle that his little brother is thoughtful.

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You have the chance to defend Phog a little here,
but Frye brushed it off with (paraphrased) “Yeah right,
our father would never say something like that!”

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If you keep quiet and Listen instead, Frye reminisces a bit more
and we learn that Phog is crazy smart.
Honestly maybe Frye is a little intimidated by him??
It seems believable to me that they’re each intimidated by the other.

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xbcx_blitzkrieg_208

Anyway, other mission stuff happens, you fight monsters,
and then Phog is the one that sends the distress signal instead,
and you fight some more monsters.
But not until after Frye has the chance to be impressed by how long Phog lasted.

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I like this part because it’s exactly the inverse of the Phog half of the mission,
with one insisting to talk while the other just wants them taken care of.

They have the same discussion about their dad.

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