If you appreciate the work done within the wiki, please consider supporting The Cutting Room Floor on Patreon. Thanks for all your support!

Xenoblade Chronicles/Bionis' Left Shoulder

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This is a sub-page of Xenoblade Chronicles.

The sheer scale of this game's environments is well-known; maps such as Bionis' Leg and Valak Mountain are simply massive, and visually stunning to boot. However, the one real unused map in this game is even bigger than anything which is actually used!

No, it can't be true; I could fly if I wanted to.

The unused map, internally ma0801, is a huge, multi-level field stretching along the left shoulder of the Bionis. While small sections of it are seen in the cutscene featuring Egil's discussion with Arglas and in the ending, Bionis' Left Shoulder is arguably the largest map in the game, and features unique architecture and landforms, unlike anything else in the game. The map seems to be roughly half-finished. Portions of it, such as the lake area, are essentially complete; other regions are mostly finished, but still in possession of some rough edges, such as the town. A few areas are very obviously completely unfinished - the wooden platforms at the back of the map and the caverns chief among those.

The map's internal name is interesting: it's right between Makna Forest and Eryth Sea. Its position both in the map list and on the Bionis would suggest that this map was intended to be visited between Makna and Eryth, probably connecting them. Indeed, in the final game, the transition between Makna Forest and Eryth Sea is rather jarring: after slaying the Leone Telethia, the Nopon in Frontier Village allow for the party to freely transport to Eryth Sea in a ball of light. Presumably, this rather awkward method of transportation came to be after it became clear that the left shoulder map wasn't going to be complete in time for release.

Like a bird in the sky, if I believe I can fly, why, I'll fly!

One interesting thing about this map is that it features standing treasure chests. These were shown in some early screenshots, but are not present in the final game; all treasure chests in the final are dropped from enemies upon death. This dates the map to around the game's unveiling at E3 2009; treasure chests, free in the environment and of this specific design, were visible in the batch of screens from the press pack. For that matter, so was this map, apparently in much the same state as in the final.

Due to the sheer size of Bionis' Left Shoulder, it isn't possible to provide a single image or video of the map as a whole. Instead, the two screenshots above allow for a wide view of the front of the map; in addition, specific places of interest will be pointed out, accompanied by videos. Descriptive titles have been given to these areas for ease of reference; these are in no way official names.

Bird's eye view of Bionis' Shoulder.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition incorporates an altered version of the Left Shoulder into the game proper as the main location of the new epilogue "Future Connected". The original shoulder map still exists within DE's files.

Northwestern Village

The landscape of this map is dotted with tiny villages, comprised of these interesting clay-looking buildings. Normally, these aren't particularly worthy of attention - there are just too many to catalog each little hamlet. However, this particular village, located on a spike of rock jutting out in front of the lake, is interesting because of the presence of a large, ruined stone tower, identical to the one in the walled town. The texture on the tower is very, very low-resolution; the tower is located on the town's edge. The path splits at the tower, making a perfect circle around it before rejoining at a strange earthen platform in front of it.

Lake Area

Near the aforementioned village, this is a huge and very polished section of wilderness. A massive waterfall feeds into a lake; two streams leave this lake, pass under bridges, and run off of the Bionis' arm. Being essentially complete (the only unfinished bit being the currents at the waterfall, which are buggy), it's no surprise that this section of the map was glimpsed in pre-release screenshots and in the game's ending.

Dummy Caves

There are three cave entrances on the map: one each at the front and back near the head of the Bionis, and one a bit further out on the arm. All of them are very, very unfinished as they're just simple square doorways. Inside, they all use the same layout, which is interesting - it's a rough, early layout of a cavern, but it's too complex to be a placeholder; this was probably intended to stay in one of these locations. It's a claustrophobic tunnel system filled with early Ether Crystals, in a design unlike any in the final...though it should be noted that these can't be interacted with. The crystals all share the same blue color, and glow faintly.

Hmmm...
To do:
Put screenshots of the entrances up.

Walled Town

To the far distant end of the map is a massive city behind a wall, bigger than any city in the final game, even Alcamoth. Huge expanses of farmland littered with individual houses fill most of the space; it seems likely the grain would have looked different in an earlier version of the game, as the final grain, as seen in Colony 6, isn't too pretty here. The interior of the walled area is an expansive city featuring a market, many large houses, and a huge citadel surrounding a rough tower identical to the one mentioned previously.

Three Pillars

Near the back, but closer to the head than the wood rings, are these three stone pillars protruding from the floor of the lower level. They mushroom out at the top; there's a sizable space, which you can reach by using the bridges connecting the pillars to the upper level. The near two feature rough, unfinished clusters of buildings; the far one is even less complete, being completely empty inside the surrounding wall.

Wood Rings

Around the back of the map are a series of pillars beyond the edge of the main landmass, protruding from far below. Some very unfinished wooden scaffolding of unknown purpose surrounds these pillars; beyond a trio of chests, there's nothing on these platforms, and no way to know what they would have been for.

Title Screen Demo

The title screen shows previews of different areas after a while, the one used for the Bionis' Left Shoulder is unused.