Home Blogs Xenoblade Chronicles Helped Me Find My Soon To Be Wife

Xenoblade Chronicles Helped Me Find My Soon To Be Wife

Most people have at least one video game franchise that means a lot to them. While I can easily throw out franchises like Banjo Kazooie, Pokemon, and Persona as series that I love, they honestly aren’t as important to me as Xenoblade Chronicles. Why? It helped me meet my fiancée.

When Xenoblade Chronicles first released in the West in April 2012, I was one of the first people to jump on board. I was in high school at the time and I jumped on it quickly given that the original release was a GameStop exclusive due to Nintendo’s risk-averse approach to marketing it. I spent all of my Spring Break demolishing the game and loved it. I did the same thing when Xenoblade Chronicles X and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 came out in 2015 and 2017 respectively. By that point, I was in college and had plenty of time to dive completely into the worlds of Mira and Alrest. Each game was always an event for me, and I always tried to recommend it to everyone I met if they wanted a solid JRPG.

Throughout this time, I was talking to a woman who would eventually become my fiancée. We were across the country from one another, and whenever we talked, I would always tell her about the new games I was playing. She likes to game, but not as much as I do, so it was easy to tell when she was interested in a game I was playing or not. Yet whenever I would tell her about Xenoblade Chronicles, she was always interested. She was curious about the world, the gameplay systems, the huge sprawling nature of each installment, and while she didn’t seek the games out on her own, she always asked me for updates each time we talked about what was happening.

Fast-forward to 2021, which is when we actually met face-to-face for the first time. She was visiting family near me, we met up, and in the few hours we spent with each other, we knew instantly that we wanted to keep seeing each other. Before she left to go back home, she asked me to borrow some games. I’ve been burned before loaning games out to people, but I had no problem giving her a game or two before she left. And I knew instantly what I was going to give her. I lent her my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and said that when she beat it, I would give her the next game. We would see each other every two or three months, so I thought that was more than enough time to beat it.

For the next several months, when we would call each other each night, she would update me about Xenoblade Chronicles. She would ask for advice on how to customize her party, where she should go next, and some strategies for fighting some of the tougher bosses. I’ll always remember our long phone calls being interrupted by the low muffles of “REYN TIME.” Then when she beat it, I loaned her Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Then Torna: The Golden Country.

By this point, it was 2022 and she was hooked into the series, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was on the horizon. It had a July release, and her excitement for the game matched mine. For once, I could look forward to a video game release alongside someone else. The game had a collector’s edition, and because Nintendo is terrible when it comes to actually coordinating collector’s editions for games, the process to get ahold of it was terrible. It was available exclusively on Nintendo’s online store in limited quantities, and it would be released at some arbitrary time with no rhyme or reason. It was like Amiibo all over again.

I remember trying in vain to get a hold of the collector’s edition the day it dropped. It was a futile effort. Nintendo’s servers crashed, and they said they would reschedule the preorder opportunity. By that point, I was convinced that I wouldn’t get the collector’s edition. Admittedly, it’s a pretty negligible problem at the end of the day, but for a series that I had a deep personal connection with, it was a bummer. I told my future fiancée about my attempt to get it, she said it’s okay and we would both just play the standard edition.

A few weeks later, Nintendo would put the collector’s edition up for pre-order. I didn’t even bother trying to get it. I resisted the FOMO and went about my day. After I was done with work, I got a text from her with a single screenshot. I opened it, and it was a picture of a confirmation order for the collector’s edition. I don’t know how she got it, but she said that when we saw each other next, we could experience it together. So when I saw her a few months later, we did exactly that. We sat next to each other, enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and I knew then that she was the one.

Since then, a lot has changed. We moved in together, we play more games together beyond JRPGs, and now we’re engaged. And when Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition was released, I bought it for us so that she could experience the former Wii U exclusive for the first time. It’s going to be her big summer game, when we both have more time to delve into Mira and experience its new content. To us, Xenoblade Chronicles is the franchise that we bonded over, and it will always be the one video game franchise that we’re able to share our mutual love for together.

Articles View all