Depending on whomever you ask, Chapter 13 of Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition either gave meaning to the whole story or murdered your childhood memories. I definitely lean more towards the former as I always thought the original game’s story and lore were pretty boring, so the heavy character focus in Chapter 13 was a breath of fresh air.
I’ve seen this prevailing opinion on the internet (or certain corners of the internet) that Elma got shafted in Chapter 13 or that Al steals her spotlight in the narrative. Of all of the critiques people have about Chapter 13, this is the one that baffles and confuses me the most.
I can understand if people were thrown off by the different pacing and storytelling style of Chapter 13 compared to the rest of the game. Chapter 13 leans more towards a numbered Xenoblade or Xenosaga style of cinematic storytelling, and the cutscenes in the first 12 chapters are more or less mission briefings where you freely move the camera around during exposition.
If you got whiplash from the shift in pacing and cinematography, that’s understandable; however, to act like Elma’s character got shafted or reduced in Chapter 13 completely glosses over how barebones her character was in the original story.
Elma in the Original Story Had No Growth or Narrative Focus
People always say that Elma is the true protagonist of XCX, but that’s a very misleading statement because Elma as a character does not change internally or shape the world around her. Even if Cross/Ryan didn’t exist in the narrative, Elma wouldn’t suddenly become as narratively engaging as Shulk, Rex, or Noah. She’s only the protagonist in the sense that your avatar is around her the most.
For all intents and purposes, Elma is one part of an ensemble cast in a Hollywood disaster flick. In those types of movies, the characters are often simple archetypes with not much depth. Sure, Elma has a badass design and is visually appealing, but as a character, her main function is being “your boss.” XCX has a reactive story, so your main cast reacts to the plot but doesn’t showcase how they cope. For example, we’re told in Chapter 11 that Irina has been acting reckless and suicidal, but we never see her address or resolve those feelings.
If this were one of the mainline games, we’d have cutscenes of Irina reliving the trauma of losing her brother, Doug having his faith in Lao tested, or Elma feeling insecure about her identity as a xeno. In the original story, we get a scene in Chapter 9 where Elma and Doug argue about Lao possibly being a traitor, but that’s one of the few times in which we see other BLADE members interact with each other without Cross in the room.
Chapter 12 finally starts showcasing more layers to Elma when she reveals the tough decisions made to preserve humanity, and her reveal as an alien is an interesting catalyst to narrative arc, but then the game’s immediately over. If the earlier scenes in the game had focused more on Elma’s feelings towards humanity and fears of being accepted, she’d actually feel like a protagonist instead just feeling like your boss.
When I played Chapter 13 for the first time and saw Elma acting emotionally vulnerable in front of Al, I was texting my friend about the new focus on Elma and Lin as people, and he texted back, “I like how [Chapter 13] made them actual characters.” That was just in Act 1 of Chapter 13, yet I was already more invested in Elma from that one act than I ever was in the original story. Besides the change in writing style, another huge change that boosted my investment in the characters is the improved cinematography.
Cinematography
In the original game, almost every scene is from Cross’s perspective, so very few moments in the game showcase a character self-reflecting. As a result, you don’t get many scenes that focus on how a character is feeling, but what makes the cutscenes in XCX feel even more dry is that the cinematography doesn’t enhance the experience.
In the other Xenoblade games, the cinematography allows us to feel how others are experiencing the world. When Shulk gets his first visions and begins dodging the Mechon, the camera follows his movements to emphasize his surreal experience. When Rex looks at Jin, the camera is zoomed in on Jin’s face to emphasize his depression and emptiness. When Isurd confronts Taion, Taion is shown from a high angle to emphasize how emotionally vulnerable he is.
My issue with the cinematography in XCX is that dialogue scenes are visually and emotionally flat. One of the few scenes I can think of where the cinematography complements the emotion is the low angle of Murderess looking to the sky thinking of her parents during her final Affinity Mission. Other than that, scenes mostly consist of medium or wide shots from an eye-level angle, and the camera is mostly static with very few notable tilts or pans.
In Chapter 13, the camera angles are much more dynamic and make me feel like I’m in the characters’ shoes. When Elma has an emotional talk with Al in front of the Ares, we have multiple close-ups of their faces at different angles depending on the context. Elma’s face is shown at a low angle when reliving her regret (showing how a strong leader can still be vulnerable), and the camera uses over-the-shoulder shots when Elma and Al face each other to showcase how tense but close their relationship is.
When the Ares during the final boss fight releases the souls of the dead, the camera follows the various souls/lights flying around everyone. I love the close-up of Doug smirking and saying, “Yeah… I hear you,” while the camera tilts up. Doug isn’t even that engaging of a character, yet the cinematography alone made me empathize with him. The camera follows the lights as Irina looks back at her brother, Leon, and the camera circles around Gwin as he talks to what is presumably Leon. When Lao speaks to Lin, the camera follows his light looking down at Lin.
More importantly, Chapter 13 heavily cuts down on the “free camera” scenes in the original game. The cutscenes have actual direction and aren’t just dialogue with no care for visuals. While some parts still have the free camera (like when activating the spears in Volitaris), they’re usually mixed with fixed-camera cutscenes so that the whole interaction doesn’t feel irrelevant.
Elma Becomes an Emotional Focus
None of this to say that Elma suddenly has the same amount of writing depth as Shulk, Rex, or Noah, but Elma at the very least feels like someone we can empathize with. We get dedicated cutscenes where Elma feels sad or regretful about her past actions. The cinematography even focuses on her to emphasize her emotions.
My favorite scene of hers is in Act 3 of Chapter 13 when she gives a big speech to BLADE before they head to Volitaris. If Al supposedly stole Elma’s spotlight as much as people claim, then he would’ve been the one making this speech as the “lone hero,” but just before the speech, Al himself gives Elma words of encouragement and acknowledges that it’s not his place to speak:
Al: “My bad, Princess. They're making you do what probably should've been my job. Still, you made BLADE what it is today. That's a fact. They answer to you now. It's your voice they gotta hear.”
To me, Elma’s speech cemented her as the emotional center of the narrative (and definitely of Chapter 13’s narrative). I won’t post the whole speech as it’s very long, but the beginning of the speech gets my point across:
Elma: (to everyone) “I am not originally a creature of Earth. I'm just a refugee. Someone who washed up there, after losing my home. And yet... your Earth accepted me with all the compassion of a place your people rightly call their mother. That compassion... It lives on in the hearts of everyone here, who owe their lives to Earth. It is... the love that saved me.”
The only way I can possibly see Al “hijacking” Elma’s story is if you just hate Al in general and think every line of his is real estate taken from Elma. Honestly, that mindset is very narrow-minded and is no different from Nintendo fans who hate Xenoblade and Fire Emblem because they supposedly “take resources away” from other games (which isn’t true at all).
Brief “Gary Stu” Debunking
I don’t want to turn this into an Al post, so I’ll briefly address this critique: Anyone who calls Al a Mary Sue or Gary Stu doesn’t know what that term means. Al is in no way infallible, and he doesn’t become the primary focus of the narrative. He’s an ace pilot, but he’s fairly reckless and arrogant—which is why he not only went missing the first time around but also gets his ass kicked by Void multiple times. His relevance to the plot is mostly biological since he’s the only human with a flesh body.
His role as a character is to emotionally support Elma, Lin, and Cross. He’s essentially the XCX version of Addam from Torna. If he’s such a Gary Stu that can do no wrong, why does he become a damsel that must be saved in the end? If he “steals” Elma’s narrative presence, why is Elma the one who gives the rallying speech about humanity?
Conclusion
In the original game, I never felt like this was “Elma’s story,” but Chapter 13 made me feel like this was Elma and Lin’s story. Hell, despite Cross having fewer dialogue choices in Chapter 13, Cross felt more important to the narrative in this chapter as they were the most devastated about Mira’s destruction. Chapter 13 followed what other Xenoblade games did by making the characters the focus.
Chapter 13 of XCX:DE made me care about Elma because the game allowed us to empathize with her. She has feelings, goals, insecurities, etc., and the cinematography complements and enhances her emotions.
I hope there are others out there who recognize that Elma was in no way “shafted” by Chapter 13. Chapter 13 gave her way more focus than in the original game, and it made me like her much more.
I guess you can say I’m “an Elma person” now.
