Ethel May Newbold (28 August 1882 – 25 March 1933) was an English epidemiologist and statistician. She was the first woman awarded the Guy Medal in Silver in 1928.

Early life
Ethel May Newbold was born in Tunbridge Wells. One of eleven children, she was the eldest daughter of William Newbold (1828–1900) and Eleanor Isabel Newbold, née Fergusson (1862–1942). Her mother was born in California and her parents married in Mexico. Her older brother Charles Joseph Newbold (1881–1946) was a noted rugby player and chemist.

Education
She was educated at first by a governess and then won a scholarship offered by the Girls' Public Day School Company to attend Tunbridge Wells High School

The Kent & Sussex Courier reported the December 1902 Tunbridge Wells High School School Prize Giving in detail. "In geometry the examiner says that of the three candidates taking both parts of the paper one did brilliantly—this girl, we know, was Ethel Newbold, who got full marks, 90 out of 90 on the second part."... "The Chairman again congratulated the school on its success in the matter of education, and observed that he noticed the name of Ethel Newbold was mentioned very frequently in the report, and he was sure the school was proud of her (applause)".Ethel won a mathematics prize and was awarded an open scholarship for three years at University of Cambridge."Ethel Newbold carried off an open scholarship to Newnham College this year – the value of it is £50 a year for three years and it is one of the most difficult scholarships to win. It was awarded to her on the results of the Higher Local Examinations in which she got a double first in classics and mathematics, with distinction in Latin and arithmetic. She was also awarded on the same examination a prize of the value of £3 10s; a certain number of these prizes are awarded to the best candidates of the year."Her tutor at Cambridge was Mr. G. H. Hardy, Fellow of Trinity College.

The London Daily News reported on "The Lady Wrangler" on 14 June 1905.  "Miss E. M. Newbold, of Newnham, the only woman student to find a place among the Wranglers, and she is placed equal to 26th … With her latest success Miss Newbold's career at Newnham concludes, and she is now leaving college for the purpose of entering the teaching profession. Asked her favourite pursuits, Miss Newbold replied " Mathematics and hockey" but she also admits a liking for tennis". On 21 February 1909 she landed in New York, travelling from Liverpool, on board the ship 'Baltic' to visit her grandfather David Fergusson, of Oxford Street, Berkeley, California with her mother and younger sister Angela (1886–1958). Angela's second husband (m. 1934) was aviator Alec Ogilvie.

Career
She first taught at Godolphin School, Salisbury. Her move to Statistics was induced by her work during the First World War in the Ministry of Munitions. She studied for a M.Sc. in the University of London, which she received in 1926, and was awarded a Doctorate in 1929. She became a member of the Medical Research Council in 1921, working on medical and industrial studies.

Ethel Newbold published 17 papers within the eight years she conducted research at the Medical Research Council. In his obituary, Major Greenwood describes her as "the best mathematical statistician and I think quite the best logician" of the group at the National Institute of Medical Research.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1921 and was the first woman awarded the Guy Medal in Silver in 1928, for the paper "practical Applications of Statistics of Repeated Events, particularly to Industrial Accidents" and for her other contributions to the then novel experimental study of epidemiology. She served on the Council of the Royal Statistical Society between 1928 and 1933.

Death
She died at Woodend House, Hayes End, Middlesex in March 1933 after "a long illness". Her coffin left her mother's home of Imberley Lodge, East Grinstead and her funeral "took place quietly at Tunbridge Wells Cemetery in the presence of family and intimate friends on Thursday 30th March".

Major Greenwood, with whom she had worked at the Medical Research Council wrote a professional obituary for her in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, ending with a touching tribute. "The pages of a scientific journal are no doubt not the place in which to expiate on the personal qualities of a friend and colleague. But I may be permitted to say, and all those who knew her will agree it is no mere obituary rhetoric, that Ethel Newbold had a genius for friendship and all whom she honoured with her friendship will remember her generosity in word and deed. She never said, much less did, an unkind thing and has influenced for good the lives of all her colleagues and assistants."

Legacy
Her memorial was cleaned and repaired in 2018 by Burslem memorials at the request of the Friends of Tunbridge Wells Cemetery as part of the exhibition of Exceptional Women of Tunbridge Wells at the Cemetery, put on as part of the centenary commemorations of partial female suffrage.

The Ethel Newbold Prize

In 2014, the Bernoulli Society established the Ethel Newbold Prize for research excellence in statistics. "The Ethel Newbold Prize is to be awarded to an outstanding statistical scientist for a body of work that represents excellence in research in mathematical statistics, and/or excellence in research that links developments in a substantive field to new advances in statistics." The prize is awarded biannually and includes 2500 Euros sponsored by John Wiley & Sons.

Ethel Newbold Prize Award Winners:

2015 Judith Rousseau

2017 Richard Nickl

2019 Mathias Drton

2021 Marloes Maathuis

2023 Lester Mackey

Publications

References

1882 births
1933 deaths
British women epidemiologists
English statisticians
Women statisticians
Alumni of University College London
People from Royal Tunbridge Wells
Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Ethel Newbold


Christina Oiticica (born 23 November 1951) is a Brazilian artist. She has been married to Paulo Coelho since 1980.

Oiticica is known for using an exotic neoconcretist technique that is reminiscent of both land art and eco art, a technique that allows nature's elements to act upon her works. Oiticica is a "daughter" of the experimental art movement of the 1970s arisen in Rio de Janeiro, where she was born, and has taken her paintings all around the world.

Oiticica idealized the combination of land art – which uses nature as foundation matter – with a painting in the French Pyrenees, five years ago, when she decided to paint a 10-meter long canvas in the middle of nature in the open air, as she realized not to have a covered area that would enable her to create on such surface. Once her work was finished, she left it to dry right there, outside. On the next day, as she went back to pick it up, she found that dust, dirt, leaves and some insects had been integrated to the canvas. "With no premeditation, nature had given its unique touch to the painting."

The artist began this technique painting in the forests, valleys and mountains of the Pyrenees, in France. The result of this work is her book The Four Seasons. Soon after, between 2004 and 2005, she buried many canvases in the Amazon Rainforest forest in Brazil and waited a year to retrieve them. The humid and equatorial forest left their indelible marks on her paintings. In 2005, she took her work up to the Sacred Valley of Ganespura, in India.

Between 2006 and 2008, Oiticica elected the Saint James Way, a sacred and symbolic place that receives pilgrims from all over the world, as her studio. She composed her canvases at different locations along the Way, using the relief of rocks, the intervention of rain, snow, the color of the soil, natural pigments and wax. Once composed, they were "planted" on the ground and recovered months later.

Generally, Oiticica leaves her canvases "planted" for a period of nine months (the cycle of a pregnancy) or for one year (cycle of the four seasons).

Exhibitions
In twenty years of artistic career, Oiticica's works have been exhibited in more than sixty galleries in twenty countries. Among the main expositions are:

 Carrousel du Louvre – Paris, France
 Britto Central – Miami, USA
 Art Masters Festival  – St Moritz, Switzerland
 Infr'action – Festival de Séte, France
 BACI Gallery – Washington, USA
 Louis Vuitton – São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 4th Visual Photographs Exhibition – Liège Biennial, Belgium.
 Mestna Gallery – Ljubljana, Slovenia
 48th Contemporary Art Exhibition of Montrouge, France
 National Museum of Fine Arts – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Oscar Wilde House – Dublin, Ireland

References

External links
 Official website

1951 births
Living people
20th-century Brazilian artists
21st-century Brazilian artists
20th-century Brazilian women artists
21st-century Brazilian women artists
Brazilian contemporary artists

Christina Oiticica


Colonel John T. Milner (1826 – August 18, 1898) was an engineer and a businessman.  He accumulated wealth in lumber and coal mine interests in Bolling, Alabama.  He started the Milner Coal and Railroad Mines.

He was a native of Pike County, Georgia.  He spent his early youth in the Dahlonega, Georgia gold fields.  He received a classical training at Athens, Georgia.  In 1848 he went to California to follow the San Francisco gold rush and eventually became the City Surveyor of San Jose, California.  He moved to Alabama in 1852 and built a number of railroads.  He laid out some of the first railroad lines that ran across Alabama.  The primary one was the "North and South" which traversed from Birmingham to Montgomery.  As a railroad engineer, he was the principal player in choosing site of the City of Birmingham, based on his assessment of the strategic resources and transportation advantages of Jones Valley in Alabama.  It is due to his rail line that Birmingham was brought into existence.

In many respects, he was the father of Southern industrialization, particularly in the deep, deep South.  Milner's vision triggered decades of rapid industrial growth.

He represented Jefferson County in the Alabama Senate for eight years.  He was the most conspicuous figure in the creation of Birmingham and one of the most distinguished citizens of Alabama.  He died in New Castle, Alabama of paralysis and was interred at Oak Hills Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama.

"Slavery by Another Name"

According to a 2011 PBS documentary: "(Milner) was also a supreme racist and a despotic person."  He stated, for example, "Negro labor can be made exceedingly profitable in manufacturing iron and in rolling mills, provided there is an overseer: a Southern man who knows how to manage Negroes." After emancipation, Milner was instrumental in the movement of industrialists to replace slavery with "convict" Black laborers.  His influence was also a primary cause of peonage. He found that it was impossible to drive "free" labor the same way that they could force prisoners to mine and build railroad infrastructure. This is why people like Milner wanted prisoners in his coal mines. He saw them as a great source of profit and did not have to worry about labor disputes.

References

1826 births
1898 deaths
American railway entrepreneurs
19th-century American businesspeople

John T. Milner


The East Siberian Sea is a marginal sea in the Arctic Ocean. It is between the Arctic Cape to the north, the coast of Siberia to the south, the New Siberian Islands to the west and Cape Billings, close to Chukotka, and Wrangel Island to the east. This sea borders on the Laptev Sea to the west and the Chukchi Sea to the east.

This sea is one of the least studied in the Arctic area. It has severe climate, low water salinity, and little flora, fauna and human population.  The depths are shallow (mostly less than 50 meters).  There are slow sea currents, low tides (below 25 cm) and frequent fogs, especially in summer.  The ice fields only fully melt in August–September. The sea shores were lived on for thousands of years by tribes of Yukaghirs, Chukchi and then Evens and Evenks.

The largest city and port is Pevek, the northernmost city of mainland Russia.

The most important of the rivers flowing into the East Siberian Sea are the Indigirka, the Alazeya, The Ujandina, the Chukochya River, the Kolyma, the Rauchua, the Chaun, and the Pegtymel. Only a few rivers are able to be travelled on. The coastline of the sea is 3,016 km long.

Flora and fauna
There are few flora and fauna due to the harsh climate. The summer plankton bloom is short.  It makes 5 million tons of plankton in August and September.  The yearly amount is 7 million tons.

The sea shores and icefields have ringed seals, bearded seals and walruses along polar bears. Birds include seagulls, uria and cormorants. Sea waters are often visited by bowhead whale, gray whale, beluga and narwhal. Major fish species are grayling and Coregonus (whitefishes), such as muksun, broad whitefish and omul. Also common are polar smelt, saffron cod, polar cod, flounder and arctic char.

References

Other websites

Seas of the Arctic Ocean
Seas of Russia

East Siberian Sea


Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky (25 April 1946 – 6 April 2022) was a Russian right-wing populist politician and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) from its creation in 1992 until his death. He had been a member of the State Duma since 1993 and leader of the LDPR group in the State Duma from 1993 to 2000, and from 2011 to 2022.

He served as a deputy chairman of the State Duma from 2000 until 2011. He also worked as a delegate in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1996 to 2008. During his lifetime, Zhirinovsky ran in every single Russian presidential election apart from in 2004.

He was known for many controversies, as well as staunch advocacy for Russian military action against NATO.

Early life and background
Zhirinovsky was born in Alma-Ata, the capital of the Kazakh SSR, modern-day Almaty, Kazakhstan. His father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, was a Ukrainian Jew from Kostopil in western Ukraine, and his mother, Alexandra Pavlovna (née Makarova), was of Russian background from Mordovia region. Zhirinovsky inherited his surname through Andrei Vasilievich Zhirinovsky, Alexandra's first husband. His paternal grandfather was a wealthy industrialist in Kostopil, who owned the largest sawmill in (what is now) Ukraine and was head of the local Jewish community. His grandfather's mill today has an income of $32 million a year, and over the years Zhirinovsky demanded that successive Ukrainian governments return it to him.

In July 1964, Zhirinovsky moved from Almaty to Moscow, where he began his studies in the Department of Turkish Studies, Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University (MSU), from which he graduated in 1969. Additionally, he studied law and international relations at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism. Zhirinovsky entered military service in Tbilisi during the early 1970s and worked at posts in state committees and unions. He was awarded a Dr.Sci. in philosophy by MSU in 1998.

Although he participated in some reformist groups, Zhirinovsky was little known in Soviet political developments during the 1980s. While he contemplated a role in politics, a nomination attempt for a seat as a People's Deputy in 1989 was quickly abandoned. In 1989, he served as a director of Shalom, a Jewish cultural organization; unknown in Jewish circles before, he is thought to have been invited to join by the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public, but subsequently forcefully opposed its influence in the group.

Jewish heritage
Four of Zhirinovsky's relatives were murdered during the Holocaust. Zhirinovsky's parents separated while he was still an infant. Abandoning the family, Zhirinovsky's father, Volf Eidelshtein, immigrated to Israel in 1949 (together with his new wife Bella and his brother), where he worked as an agronomist in Tel Aviv. Zhirinovsky's father was a member of the right-wing nationalist Herut party in Israel, and died in 1983 when he was run over by a bus near Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv.

Zhirinovsky did not find out the details of his father's life in Israel until many years later, or even that he had died. Zhirinovsky said that he was an Orthodox Christian. In 1994, presented with a birth certificate indicating his original name as Eidelshtein, Zhirinovsky said the document was faked.

Zhirinovsky denied his father's Jewish origins until Ivan Close Your Soul, published in July 2001, in which he described how his father, Volf Isaakovich Eidelshtein, changed his surname from Eidelshtein to Zhirinovsky. He rhetorically asked, "Why should I reject Russian blood, Russian culture, Russian land, and fall in love with the Jewish people only because of that single drop of blood that my father left in my mother's body?"

According to Zhirinovsky, "My mother was Russian and my father was a lawyer". Zhirinovsky later disowned the statement after researching his father's life in Israel. Discussing the statement, Zhirinovsky says: "Journalists mocked me: for saying I was the son of a lawyer. And I am really the son of an agronomist."

Discussing his father, Zhirinovsky said with tears in his eyes: "All my life I was looking for him. I believed that he was alive. I believed that someday he would find me... But there is a silver lining. I tried to imitate him... And I was able to achieve a certain position in life, even without the support of my father."

Zhirinovsky's Israeli relatives included an uncle and cousin, meeting and befriending them for the first time only after discovering more about his family's story in Israel. Zhirinovsky's Israeli family did not know that he was a politician in Russia but responded warmly to his invitation to stay with him in Moscow.

Founding of the Liberal Democratic Party

In April 1991, Zhirinovsky, along with Vladimir Bogachev, took initiatives which led to the founding of the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union, the second registered party in the Soviet Union in 1990, and therefore the first officially sanctioned opposition party. According to the former CPSU Politburo member Alexander Nikolaevich Yakovlev, this party started as a joint project of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) leadership and the KGB.

Yakovlev wrote in his memoirs that KGB director Vladimir Kryuchkov presented the project of the puppet LDPSU party at a meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and informed him about the selection of the LDPR leader. According to Yakovlev, the name of the party was chosen by KGB General Philipp Bobkov. However, Bobkov said that he was against the creation of "Zubatov's pseudo-party under KGB control that would direct the interests and sentiments of certain social groups".

Zhirinovsky's first political breakthrough came in June 1991, when he came third in Russia's first presidential election, gathering more than six million votes (7.81% of the vote). Zhirinovsky's populist included promises to voters that should he be elected, free vodka would be distributed to all. Similarly, he once remarked, during a political rally inside a Moscow department store, that if he were made president, underwear would be freely available.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the party was renamed the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In 1992 Zhirinovsky made contact with Jean-Marie Le Pen, then leader of France's Front National (FN). Eduard Limonov of the National-Bolshevik Party introduced the two men to each other and the FN later "provided logistical support [to the LDPR], including computers and fax machines". Zhirinovsky suggested establishing the International Centre of Right-wing Parties in Moscow and invited Le Pen to visit Moscow.

The Liberal Democratic Party was a significant force in Russian politics. At the height of its fortunes, the LDPR gathered 23% of the vote in the 1993 Duma elections and achieved a broad representation throughout Russia – the LDPR gaining the most votes in 64 out of 87 regions. This fact encouraged Zhirinovsky to once again run for president, this time against incumbent Boris Yeltsin. The fact that Yeltsin's candidacy seemed seriously challenged by Russian nationalist groups and a rejuvenated Communist Party alarmed many outside observers, particularly in the Western world, who expressed concern that such developments posed a serious threat to the survival of Russian democracy, already in a very fragile state.  During the 1990s, commentators described Zhirinovsky as fascist, having fascist tendencies, and a neo-fascist.

During a visit to France in 1994, he said "It's all over for you once you're Americanized and Zionized", and threw stones and dirt at Jewish protesters. Michael Specter, in a piece for The New York Times in the same year, said Zhirinovsky's "party is not liberal, not democratic, and these days not much of a party." A 1995 BBC documentary showed Zhirinovsky telling the crowd at a campaign rally: "Help us, and you'll never have to vote again! I'm not saying, 'Vote for us and maybe in 20 years' time somebody will do something.' No, these will be the last elections! The last ones!"

While some observers considered Zhirinovsky's controversial statements as efforts to drum up nationalist support, as electoral fodder meant for domestic consumption, there was considerable dismay in February 1996, months before a presidential election, with Zhirinovsky being placed second in opinion polls, behind the Communist Party's Gennady Zyuganov and ahead of Yeltsin. In the end, Zhirinovsky placed fifth, with a 5.7% share in the first voting round.

Following the 1996 election, the party's fortunes stabilized, with the 2003 election seeing an LDPR vote share of 11.7%. In 2004, Zhirinovsky declined even to be nominated by the party, leaving that role to Oleg Malyshkin, who received 2% support from voters.

Zhirinovsky ran in the 2000 and 2008 presidential elections, promising a "police state", with summary executions.

Views

Zhirinovsky expressed admiration for the 1996 United States presidential election candidate Pat Buchanan, referring positively to Buchanan's comment labelling the United States Congress as "Israeli-occupied territory." Zhirinovsky said that both the United States and the Russian Federation were "under occupation" and that "to survive, we could set aside places on U.S. and Russian territories to deport this small but troublesome tribe."

Buchanan strongly rejected this endorsement, saying he would provide safe haven to persecuted minorities if Zhirinovsky were ever elected Russia's president, eliciting a harsh response by Zhirinovsky: "You soiled your pants as soon as you got my congratulations. Who are you afraid of, Zionists?"

Scholars of Russia consider him to have a neo-Eurasianist outlook. Besides expressing his concern for Turks and Caucasians displacing the Russian population from their settled territory, Zhirinovsky also advocated for all Chinese and Japanese people to be deported from the Russian Far East. During his 1992 visit to the United States, Zhirinovsky called on television "for the preservation of the white race" and warned that the white Americans were in danger of turning their country over to Black and Hispanic people.

In 2004, Zhirinovsky spoke at the City Court of Saint Petersburg, in reference to the assassination of Galina Starovoytova. After accusing Starovoytova of having worked for foreign intelligence, he said "I have always said openly that for democrats of pro-Western orientation there are only three roads: prison, the grave, and emigration."

On 23 August 2014, Zhirinovsky said Russia should abolish political parties, instead favouring an autocratic system in which the leader would be chosen by the "five to six thousand wisest people" in the country. He also proposed returning to the Imperial flag and anthem. The proposals were rejected by Putin.

In September 2016, inspired by Donald Trump's signature border wall proposal, Zhirinovsky proposed building a border wall and banning Muslims from entering Russia.

The Last Break Southward
In The Last Break Southward (1995), Zhirinovsky described his worldview. "Since the 1980s, I have elaborated a geopolitical conception—the last break southward, Russia's reach to the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean." This is "really the solution for the salvation of the Russian nation … It solves all problems and we gain tranquility." Russia will rule the space "from Kabul to Istanbul." The United States would feel safer with the Russian rule in the region, since wars there would cease under the Russian rule. Perhaps, some people in Kabul, Teheran, or Ankara would not like it but many people would feel better. "The Persians and Turks would suffer a bit but all the rest would gain."

The "bells of the Orthodox Church must bell from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean." And Jerusalem becomes close. It is necessary that "the Christian world reunifies in Jerusalem." The Palestinian problem can be solved by partial transfer of the Palestinian population to the former territories of Turkey and Iran. The great Russian language and Russian ruble would wield Near Eastern and Central Asian peoples into one Russian citizenship.

Along the Russia southern sphere from India to Bosporus, other spheres of influence will stretch from north to south in the forthcoming world order, Latin America would be in the American sphere, Africa in the European sphere. and Japan and China will rule Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Australia. Everywhere "the direction is the same—north-south." Geopolitically, he saw his position as logical: "Hence, the distribution along such a geopolitical formula would be very beneficent for the whole of humanity, and all over the planet would be established warm and clear political climate."

"On this occasion, we need a man with at least planetary thinking," who would realise "the geopolitical formula, guaranteeing the interests of the majority on the planet … This is the fate of Russia. It is destination, fate … We must do it, for we have no choice … This is geopolitics." We would do it, assured Zhirinovsky alluding to himself, by the efforts of an "honest, perseverant, patriotically inspired President."

Foreign relations and military excursions

Zhirinovsky was known for his boasts pertaining to other countries, having expressed a desire to reunite countries of the ex-Soviet "near abroad" with Russia to within the Russia's borders of 1900 (including Finland and Poland). He advocated forcibly retaking Alaska from the United States (which would then become "a great place to put the Ukrainians"), turning Kazakhstan into "Russia's back yard", and provoking wars between the clans and the nations of the former Soviet Union and occupying what will remain of it when the wars are over. Zhirinovsky, who encouraged separatism within the Russian minority in the Baltic countries, endorsed the forcible re-occupation of these countries and said nuclear waste should be dumped there.

Zhirinovsky supported Israel-Russia relations, but said that Israel had to make Russian its official language. He also believed Israel has to pay more attention to the Russian Orthodox Church. He believed Russians are endangered in Israel and should come under the protection of the Russian police. Zhirinovsky led several official Russian delegations to Israel, on behalf of the Russian government. Visiting Israel, he said that he was concerned mainly about the economic situation for the more than one million Russians living in Israel. He also stated that "Russia will never allow any violence against Israel."

In the early 1990s, Zhirinovsky proposed setting up large fans on the Russian border to blow airborne radioactive waste into the Baltic states. To eradicate the bird flu, he proposed arming all of Russia's population and ordering them and the troops to shoot down migrating birds returning to Russia from wintering.

In 1994, Zhirinovsky sued Finland Swedish politician Jutta Zilliacus and the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki for defamation because she had used the word "galenpanna," or "madcap," to describe him. In December 1994, the district court of Vantaa, Finland acquitted her.

Also in the 1990s, Zhirinovsky threatened to remove restrictions on arms sales to Iran and proposed selling the disputed Kuril Islands to Japan for US$50 billion.

In 1999, at the start of the Second Chechen War, Zhirinovsky, an ardent supporter of the first war in Chechnya in the mid-1990s, advocated hitting some Chechen villages with tactical nuclear weapons. He also advocated using nuclear weapons and naval blockade-imposed starvation in the event of a Russian war against Japan. In 2008, during the resulting political row between the United Kingdom and Russia, he suggested dropping nuclear bombs over the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to flood Britain.

Zhirinovsky hailed what he described as "the democratic process" in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, whom he supported strongly. The friendship dated from at least the Persian Gulf War in 1991, during which time Zhirinovsky sent several armed volunteers from the "Falcons of Zhirinovsky" group to support the Iraqi president. Allegations dogged Zhirinovsky after the fall of Baghdad asserting that he personally profited from illicit oil sales as part of the Oil-for Food scandal, a charge investigated in 2005 by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-Food Programme (Volcker Commission) and the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). He was also close to the Serbian nationalist leader Vojislav Šešelj.

In a 2002 video, a drunken Zhirinovsky, while hugging two young men, threatened George W. Bush in offensive language against a war in Iraq, and suggested to strike on Tbilisi, or some other targets instead in coalition with Russia. He called the United States a "second-hand goods store" filled with "cocksuckers, handjobbers, and faggots", and claimed that Russian scientists were able to change the gravitational field of the Earth and sink the entire country. He mentioned Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and Condoleezza Rice in the video. Zhirinovsky called Rice: "a black whore who needs a good cock. Send her here, one of our divisions will make her happy in the barracks one night. She will choke on Russian sperm as it will be leaking out of her ears ... until she crawls to the US embassy in Moscow on her knees."

Zhirinovsky said he dreamt of the day "when Russian soldiers can wash their boots in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean and switch to year-round summer uniforms" following Russia's conquest of Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey and occupation of the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean. He also declared that Bulgaria should annex the Republic of Macedonia, and said that Romania is an artificial state supposedly created by Italian Gypsies who seized territory from Russia, Bulgaria, and Hungary.

Russia's southern neighbour, Georgia, was another frequent target of Zhirinovsky's rhetoric. After Aslan Abashidze was ousted from power in 2004 as leader of Ajara, an autonomous Georgian region, Zhirinovsky worried that similar revolutions would occur in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Highly critical of Georgia's pro-Western line, he was an energetic supporter of the republic of Abkhazia that broke away from the Republic of Georgia. In a high-profile incident in August 2004, he departed on a campaign to promote a tourist season in Abkhazia aboard a cruise ship which was briefly intercepted by a Georgian coast guard vessel.

Zhirinovsky was expelled from Bulgaria for insulting its president and barred from entry in Germany. In 2005, Kazakhstan declared Zhirinovsky persona non grata on the territory of his historical homeland, due to his controversial speech about the change of the Russia-Kazakhstan border, in which he questioned the Kazakhs' place in history.

In 2006, Zhirinovsky became persona non grata in Ukraine as well, following his statements regarding the January 2006 Russia–Ukraine gas dispute. His ban was revoked in 2007. In reaction to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's criticism of Russian foreign policy during the dispute, Zhirinovsky stated, "Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers [and] needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied."

After the November 2006 death by poisoning of Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko in London, Zhirinovsky said: "Any traitor must be eliminated using any methods. If you have joined the special services to work, then you should work, but to betray, to run away abroad, to give up the secrets you learned while working – all of this looks bad." Sergei Abeltsev, Zhirinovsky's former bodyguard and State Duma member from the LDPR, added: "The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am sure his terrible death will be a warning to all the traitors that in Russia treason is not to be forgiven. I would recommend to citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his criminal accomplice Litvinenko."

In the 2007 Russian election, political patronage from Zhirinovsky enabled Litvinenko murder suspect Andrei Lugovoi to win election to the Russian parliament and thus obtain formal parliamentary immunity. Zhirinovsky accused Great Britain (according to him, "the most barbaric country on the planet") of fomenting World War I, the October Revolution, World War II, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

After war broke out between Russia and Georgia in 2008, Zhirinovsky argued in favour of Russian recognition of Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence. "We should have taken the whole territory of Georgia under control," he complained, and "arrested all Georgian officers and taken them here, like to Guantanamo, arrested Saakashvili and handed him over for trial by a military tribunal and gone to the border with Turkey."

At the premiere of the film Taras Bulba in 2009, Zhirinovsky stated: "Everyone who sees the film will understand that Russians and Ukrainians are one people – and that the enemy is from the West".

Writing about Marine Le Pen, Zhirinovsky in 2011 said that she could out do her father because "Instead of saying that Islam is terrorism, she simply insists that France is a secular nation that will not stand for hundreds of thousands of Muslims practicing their religious traditions. With this argument, Marine has cleverly defended the French people's right to a secular nation." In that vein, Zhirinovsky said that she has the "chance to represent the French majority."

In 2013, when asked about former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Zhirinovsky said, "Yulia Tymoshenko, I'm sorry, is a woman. I don't like them, as it's easier to persuade a woman. [...] Women are more compliant, and it's dangerous."

In the wake of the February 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, Zhirinovsky was quoted by the Russian International News Agency as claiming "It's not meteors falling, it's the test of a new weapon by the Americans." At the same time, he derided the Russian Academy of Sciences for anarchism and having scientists so old that their brains and reproductive organs no longer worked, telling the "elders" to go home and collect their pensions.

On 4 April 2014, in the wake of the annexation of Crimea, McDonald's fast-food restaurant franchises in Russia were unable to continue operating after being cut off by their Ukrainian franchisor. Zhirinovsky suggested that McDonald's "should be evicted from Russia" for the affront. On 25 July, amidst an armed insurgency in Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry launched criminal proceedings against Zhirinovsky and Communist Party of the Russian Federation leader Gennady Zyuganov for "financing actions aimed at changing the boundaries of the territory and the state border of Ukraine". In August, Zhirinovsky threatened Poland and the Baltic states with carpet bombing, dooming them all to be wiped out.
"What will remain of the Baltics? Nothing will remain of them. NATO airplanes are stationed there. There's an anti-missile defense system. In Poland – the Baltics – they are on the whole doomed. They'll be wiped out.
There will be nothing left. Let them re-think this, these leaders of these little dwarf states. How they are leaving themselves vulnerable.

Nothing threatens America, it's far away. But Eastern Europe countries will place themselves under the threat of total annihilation. Only they themselves will be to blame. Because we cannot allow missiles and planes to be aimed at Russia from their territories. We have to destroy them half an hour before they launch. And then we have to do carpet bombing so that not a single launch pad remains or even one plane. So – no Baltics, no Poland. Let NATO immediately ask for negotiations with our Foreign Ministry. Then we'll stop. Otherwise well have to teach them the lessons of May 1945."

In May 2015, Zhirinovsky stated that former President of Georgia and then-Odesa governor Mikheil Saakashvili should be killed. "We will shoot all of your governors, starting with Saakashvili, then they'll be afraid. And there will be a different situation in Europe and Ukraine. ... Let's aim at Berlin, Brussels, London, and Washington." He then said Ukrainian political prisoner Nadiya Savchenko should be shot and hanged in Belgrade.

In November 2015, after a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M jet near the Syria–Turkey border, Zhirinovsky said in a speech to the Duma that Russia must detonate a nuclear bomb on the Bosphorus to create a 10-meter-high tsunami wave to wipe out at least 9 million Istanbul residents.

In August 2016, Zhirinovsky prayed for the Republican U.S. presidential election nominee, Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton, whom he considered dangerous, in order to take his party's ideology global. He also expressed his desire to test his DNA to determine whether he and Trump were related. In September 2016, inspired by Donald Trump's border wall policy, Zhirinovsky proposed building a border wall and banning Muslims from entering Russia. In October, Zhirinovsky in an interview said that a vote for Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election was a vote for a third World War, leading to Hiroshimas and Nagasakis everywhere. In contrast, he stated, Trump wouldn't care about Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Ukraine, and thus represented a more peaceful alternative.

In April 2017, Zhirinovsky promised to drink champagne if Donald Trump were impeached, saying: "A half of Americans voted for different foreign policies. Trump breaks his promises, and if he continues breaking them, his impeachment is inevitable." Following the 2021 United States Capitol attack, Zhirinovsky praised Trump and tweeted: "Be brave Donald. We're with you, you'll get help from abroad."

In a speech on 27 December 2021, Zhirinovsky appeared to almost predict the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine of 24 February 2022, stating: "We shouldn't  saber rattle, [we] need to say: let's comply  [with the conditions demanded by Russia], and if you refuse , then we can apply another agenda . And which one — you will feel it,  at 4 o'clock in the morning , on February 22. I would wish 2022 to be a peaceful year, but I love the truth, for 75 years I have been telling the truth. It will not be a peaceful year. It will be a year when Russia eventually  becomes a great country, and everyone must shut up and respect our coutry, otherwise they shut our mouth and start exterminate Russians first in  Donbass and then in western Russia, so let's in this way  appreciate a new direction of foreign policy of Russia."

Controversies

Threatening behaviour and assaults
Zhirinovsky had a history of personal violence in political contexts. In his debate with Boris Nemtsov in 1995, Zhirinovsky threw a glass of orange juice at him on live television. In 2003, he engaged in a fistfight following a television debate with Mikhail Delyagin. In 2005, Zhirinovsky ignited a brawl in parliament by spitting at Rodina party legislator Andrei Saveliyev. In 2008, he showed himself shooting a rifle at targets representing his political rivals.

In 2005, Zhirinovsky, at one of the meetings of the State Duma of the fourth convocation, publicly expressed disagreement with the result of the parliamentary elections in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where United Russia won, and demonstratively left the meeting room. Passing by the Rodina faction, he got into an argument with Ivan Viktorov. Viktorov's colleague Andrey Savelyev, commenting on the dispute between Zhirinovsky and Viktorov, noted that "spittle is flying": in response to this, Zhirinovsky spat at Savelyev, and a fight immediately broke out with the participation of members of the LDPR (including Sergey Abeltsev). As NTV channel reporter Alexey Pivovarov reported, some time ago, Savelyev had already had a fight with Zhirinovsky on television during a discussion of a national issue. The then-head of the Rodina faction, Dmitry Rogozin, demanded that Zhirinovsky be deprived of his post as vice-speaker of the State Duma and that a criminal case be opened against him, and Savelyev filed a statement with the prosecutor's office.

During the 2008 televised presidential debate, Zhirinovsky threatened Nikolai Gotsa, representative of Democratic Party of Russia candidate Andrei Bogdanov, with violence, saying he was going to "smash his head" and ordering his bodyguard to "shoot that bastard over there in the corridor". Gotsa sued Zhirinovsky in civil court for 1 million rubles (approximately US$38,000) in damages and was eventually awarded 30,000 rubles (approximately US$1,150).

At an April 2014 press conference in the Duma, Zhirinovsky made violent verbal threats against Stella Dubovitskaya, a pregnant Rossiya Segodnya journalist, who asked him about possible sanctions against Ukraine in the wake of Russia's Crimean annexation. When asked whether Russians should reciprocate in kind after Ukrainians initiated a sex strike against Russian men, Zhirinovsky replied that all Ukrainian women were "nymphomaniacs", and that Dubovitskaya was as well. He then ordered two of his aides to "violently rape" the journalist, who had to be briefly hospitalized for shock. He later apologized, adding that he "spoke a bit rudely when I replied to a young woman".

In March 2018, male journalist Renat Davletgildeyev accused Zhirinovsky of sexual harassment, despite his public expression of homophobic positions.

Donkey video for 2012 presidential election

On 6 February 2012, Zhirinovsky released a 30-second election video on the Internet that featured him on a sleigh harnessed to a black donkey representing the country. The video was widely discussed on the Internet, and received mostly negative reactions from Russian users. Organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (now known as World Animal Protection), as well as Russian animal rights activists, accused Zhirinovsky of cruelty to animals. He responded by saying that similar treatment is commonplace in the Arab world and that the donkey had been treated "better than many people".

Sanctions

Sanctioned by the UK government in 2022 in relation to Russo-Ukrainian War.

Personal life
Zhirinovsky married Galina Lebedeva, a lawyer and daughter of a retired general in the early 1970s. The couple had three children, two sons and a daughter.

Ilya Ponomarev has alleged Zhirinovsky was gay in a 2017 interview given in Ukraine. In 1996 openly gay journalist Yaroslav Mogutin suggested it was "a foregone conclusion" that Zhirinovsky was gay according to Russia's gay intelligensia in The Advocate.

Zhirinovsky was a polyglot and was fluent in English, French, German, and Turkish.

Illness and death
In February 2022, Zhirinovsky was hospitalized in critical condition in Moscow with COVID-19. In March, he was reportedly placed in a medically induced coma, and underwent treatment for COVID-19 complications such as sepsis and respiratory failure. Zhirinovsky claimed to have been vaccinated against COVID-19 eight times.

On 25 March 2022, Zhirinovsky was reported to have died in a hospital. Despite confirmation from several sources, including his own political party, the news was quickly denied by family members. On 6 April 2022, Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the Duma, announced that Zhirinovsky had died following a long illness. He was 75. In a statement after Zhirinovsky died, president Vladimir Putin said he "always defended his patriotic position and Russia's interests before any audience and in the fiercest of debates".

Zhirinovsky's funeral was officiated by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus' in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, at the presence of several high-ranking politicians, including Putin, Volodin and Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu.

Legacy
On 6 April 2023, a monument to Zhirinovsky was unveiled at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Electoral history

See also
 Aleksandr Dugin
 Rashism
 Russian nationalism

References

Notes

External links

 Liberal Democratic Party of Russia website
Zhirinovsky videos with English subtitles
Zhirinovsky's 2007 political manifesto (in Russian and English)

Hello, I Must Be Going, TIME, 10 January 1994
Zhirinovsky: Russia's political eccentric, BBC News, 10 March 2000
The trademark Zhirinovsky is up for grabs in Russia, International Herald Tribune, 10 July 2007
ZHIRINOVSKY'S FOLLIES: Nuclear Threats and Busty Ladies in the Race for Second-Place in Russia, Der Spiegel, 28 February 2008
 Zhirinovsky backed "Julia-2". Elena Berkova ready

Vladimir Zhirinovsky
1946 births
2022 deaths
20th-century Russian lawyers
21st-century Russian lawyers
People from Almaty
Christian critics of Islam
Far-right politics in Russia
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia politicians
People of the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt
First convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Second convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Third convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Fourth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Fifth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Sixth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Seventh convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Eighth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Moscow State University alumni
Political controversies in Russia
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Zhirinovsky
Russian conspiracy theorists
Russian lawyers
Russian military personnel
Russian monarchists
Russian nationalists
Kazakhstani people of Jewish descent
Kazakhstani people of Russian descent
Kazakhstani emigrants to Russia
Russian Orthodox Christians from Russia
Full Cavaliers of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov
Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia)
Russian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Russian political party founders
Anti-Americanism
Kazakhstani people of Ukrainian descent
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia
Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery
Russian individuals subject to European Union sanctions
Russian individuals subject to United Kingdom sanctions
Anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Russia

Vladimir Zhirinovsky


A  watch glass is a circular concave piece of glass used in chemistry as a surface to evaporate a liquid, to hold solids while being weighed, for heating a small amount of substance, and as a cover for a beaker. When used to cover beakers, the purpose is generally to prevent dust or other particles from entering the beaker; the watch glass does not completely seal the beaker, so gas exchanges still occur. When used as an evaporation surface, a watch glass allows closer observation of precipitates or crystallization. It can be placed on a surface of contrasting colors to improve the visibility overall. Watch glasses are also sometimes used to cover a glass of whisky, to concentrate the aromas in the glass, and to prevent spills when the whisky is swirled. Watch glasses are named so because they are similar to the glass used for the front of old-fashioned pocket watches. These large watch glasses are occasionally known as clock glasses.

Uses

One of the generic uses of a watch glass is as a lid for beakers. In this case, a watch glass is placed above the container, which makes it easier to control and alter vapor saturation conditions. Moreover, a watch glass is often used to house solids being weighed on the scale. Before weighing desired amount of solid, a watch glass is placed on the scale, followed by taring or zeroing the scale so that only the weight of the sample substance is obtained. A watch glass can also be used for observing precipitation and crystallization patterns. When further drying of a substance is required, a watch glass is often used in cases where a particular type of solid needs to be separated from its comparatively volatile solvent. The solid is spread on a watch glass and, often, a folded piece of filter paper is placed above to keep airborne particles from contaminating the product. To maximize the drying rate, a watch glass can be placed inside a fume hood to provide good air circulation for an adequate amount of time. Another technique used in chemistry laboratories to increase the drying rate is passing a gentle stream of dry air or nitrogen gas over the watch glass from an inverted funnel clamped above it.

Types

There are two types of the watch glass, glass and plastic, used in the laboratory. Watch glasses are available in various sizes and widths, and are usually thicker than any other glass or plastic labware.
Glass watch glasses – These can be reused after they are sterilized in an autoclave or a laboratory oven. The glasses provide high resistance to thermal shock, chemical resistance, and mechanical durability.
Plastic watch glasses – These are disposable watch-glass used in laboratory work to avoid cross-contamination while preparing the samples. They are very good at implementing in low temperatures and have an operating span of ; they can also resist UV light degradation. These plastic watch glasses are less expensive and light in weight.

See also
 Laboratory glassware

References

External links

Laboratory glassware

Watch glass


Maurice Greene (12 August 1696 – 1 December 1755) was an English composer and organist.

Biography
Born in London, the son of a clergyman, Greene became a choirboy at St Paul's Cathedral under Jeremiah Clarke and Charles King. He studied the organ under Richard Brind, and after Brind died, Greene became organist at St Paul's.

With the death of William Croft in 1727, Greene became organist at the Chapel Royal, and in 1730 he became Professor of Music at Cambridge University. In 1735 he was appointed Master of the King's Musick. At his death, Greene was working on the compilation Cathedral Music, which his student and successor as Master of the King's Musick, William Boyce, was to complete. Many items from that collection are still used in Anglican services today.

He wrote very competent music in the style prevalent in Georgian England, particularly longer Verse Anthems. His acknowledged masterpiece, Lord, let me know mine end, is a representative example. Greene sets a text full of pathos using a polyphonic texture over a continuous instrumental walking bass, with a particularly effective treble duet in the middle of the work. Both this section and the end of the anthem contain superb examples of the Neapolitan sixth chord.  His organ voluntaries - published only some years after his death - are closer to Thomas Roseingrave in style than, say, John Stanley or William Boyce, and are more contrapuntal than melodic.  They display a more reflective and profound character, and do not specify manuals or stops unlike later contemporaries such as Bennett, Boyce and Stanley. Instances of 'false relation' can be heard frequently in these works.

He died in 1755 aged 59 and was initially buried at St Olave Old Jewry.  On the church's demolition in 1887, he was reburied in St Paul's Cathedral.

Works
Greene wrote a good deal of both sacred and secular vocal music, including:
 the anthem Hearken Unto Me, Ye Holy Children (1728)
 the oratorio The Song of Deborah and Barak (1732)
 the oratorio Jephtha (1737)
 the opera Florimel (1734)
 settings of sonnets from Edmund Spenser's Amoretti (1739)
 a collection of anthems (1743), of which the best-known is Lord, let me know mine end.
 the opera Phoebe (completed 1747)

He also published keyboard music, including:
Choice Lessons, for harpsichord or spinet (London, 1733)
6 Overtures … in Seven Parts, arranged for harpsichord or spinet (London, 1745)
A Collection of Lessons, for harpsichord (London, 1750)
Twelve Voluntarys, for organ or harpsichord ((published posthumously by J. Bland of Holborn) London, 1779)

References

 Johnstone, H. Diack. "Greene, Maurice", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 4 October 2004).

External links

Free scores

1696 births
1755 deaths
18th-century classical composers
18th-century English composers
18th-century keyboardists
18th-century British male musicians
Professors of Music (Cambridge)
British male organists
Cathedral organists
Classical composers of church music
English Baroque composers
English classical composers
English male classical composers
English opera composers
English classical organists
Male opera composers
Masters of the King's Music
Members of the Academy of Ancient Music
Composers from London
People educated at St. Paul's Cathedral School
Male classical organists

Maurice Greene (composer)


Xenoblade Chronicles is an action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. Initially released in Japan in 2010, it was later released in the PAL regions in 2011 and in North America in 2012. A port for the New Nintendo 3DS was released in 2015, and a remaster for the Nintendo Switch, titled Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, was released in May 2020. Xenoblade Chronicles is the first entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, a subseries which forms part of the larger Xeno metaseries. Although it lacks direct narrative connections to previous Xeno games, like them, it incorporates aesthetic and narrative elements from both fantasy and science fiction. The game features navigation through an open world split into zones, side-quests tied to party members' affinity, and a real-time action-based battle system which incorporates Shulk's ability to see brief glimpses of the future.

Xenoblade Chronicles takes place on the frozen bodies of two warring titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis. The people of the Bionis, including the human-like Homs, are at perpetual war with the Mechon, a mechanical race of the Mechonis. Key to the Homs' efforts in fighting against the Mechon is the Monado, a sword said to have once been wielded by the Bionis. During an attack on his colony, the main protagonist Shulk discovers his ability to wield the Monado and sets out on a quest for revenge with his best friend, Reyn, with others joining in as the game progresses.

The concept for Xenoblade Chronicles originated in June 2006, when the game's executive director and lead writer, Tetsuya Takahashi, visualized and constructed a model of two giant titans frozen in place, with people living on their bodies. Development began in 2007 under the title Monado: The Beginning of the World, though it was eventually rebranded with its current title to honor Takahashi's previous work on the Xeno series. The script was worked on by Takahashi, anime writer Yuichiro Takeda, and Nintendo writer Yurie Hattori. The music was handled by six different composers, including first-timer and lead composer Manami Kiyota and industry veterans Yoko Shimomura and Yasunori Mitsuda, with the latter also writing the ending theme, "Beyond the Sky".

The game was announced in 2009 under its original title and released in Japan the following year. Despite releasing in Europe and in Oceania, its North American release remained unconfirmed until December 2011, when a fan campaign called Operation Rainfall drew attention to the game. Upon release, the game was critically acclaimed as one of the best recent role-playing games, while its New Nintendo 3DS port was praised for successfully re-creating the game in a portable form. It was particularly praised for its story, which critics called innovative and surprisingly complex, and was commercially successful in both Japan and the West. In the years since its release, it has been considered to be among the greatest games of all time. A spiritual successor by the same development team for the Wii U, Xenoblade Chronicles X, was released in April 2015. A sequel for the Nintendo Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, was released in December 2017. A third entry, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, was released in July 2022, also on the Nintendo Switch.

Gameplay

Xenoblade Chronicles is an action role-playing video game (RPG), where the player controls one character out of a party of three using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk or the Classic Controller. The game employs an open world design, where players can freely navigate seamlessly interconnected environments. The game has a day-and-night time cycle, which often affects in-game events, quests, enemy strength, and item availability: for instance, stronger enemy types appear at night. While time flows automatically and a day cycle repeats about every ten minutes in real time, players can adjust the in-game clock to the desired time at any point. Additionally, while the game is about exploration, areas called "Landmarks" aid in traversing the land by serving as warp points that allow the player to instantly return to that point at any time. The game also supports a "save anywhere" feature, where players can save at any point outside of battle. The game has a New Game+ mode, which maintains much of the player's progress from their initial playthrough into future playthroughs.

Exploration, quest completion, and item collection are large parts of the gameplay. The player is encouraged to explore the large environments, which generally allow them to visit whatever can be seen on the horizon. While exploring, the player can take on side quests from various non-player characters that inhabit the game's world, which commonly involve obtaining certain items or killing a certain number of enemy characters. When the necessary requirements are fulfilled, some quests are completed automatically without the player having to return to the quest giver. Item collection plays a role in the game in the form of the "Collectopaedia". Scattered across the game are glowing blue orbs, and upon collecting them, the player is awarded with a random item that they can add to the Collectopaedia; when a certain number are collected, the player is rewarded with new items. Aside from the Collectopaedia, ether crystals can be obtained from fallen enemies or ether crystal deposits, which are used in the "Gem Crafting" mini-game to craft gems that offer various benefits when equipped.

Many in-game systems affect the general flow of gameplay. The "Affinity" system tracks the relationships between characters and locations in the game. "Location Affinity" tracks the interpersonal relationships between the game's named characters and how they get along with one another, as well as a town's general perception of the player's controllable party. Completing quests can change perception of the characters and open up additional story sequences and quests. There is also "Party Affinity", which is the level of affection between each party member and ranges from indifference to love. Affinity between party members can be raised by having them participate in battle together, giving gifts, or using the "Heart-to-Heart" system. "Heart-to-Hearts" are intimate moments between two characters that show more of a character's personality, history, or thoughts, and can be initiated by having a certain level of Affinity between them. The Affinity system affects how characters work together in battle, as well as gem crafting. The game also has an extensive customization system, which includes changing the characters' outfits and weapons. These changes are directly reflected in the game, appearing in the field and during scripted cutscenes.

Battle system

Xenoblade Chronicles has a real-time action-based battle system, where the player controls the current lead character in real-time, and party members will "auto-attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Manually input attacks, called "Arts", may also be performed by the player, but in a limited fashion. Battle Arts are only available after a "cooldown" period that occurs after they are used, while character-specific "Talent Arts" become available after enough auto-attacks are executed. Both party members and enemies have a finite amount of health points, and attacks deplete this value. Combat is won when all enemies lose their HP, but is lost if the player character loses all their HP and is unable to be revived. Health may be restored by the player by using healing Arts in battle, and regenerates automatically outside of battle. Winning battles earns the player experience points, which allows the characters to grow stronger as they level up and learn new Arts. Arts for each character must be set by the player on their respective setup, called a "Battle Palette", outside of battle.

Several other systems are present which affect the flow of battle. The "Party Gauge" slowly fills as party members successfully land hits on enemies, and filling the gauge allows the player to perform a Chain Attack for extra damage. All party members have an "aggro ring" around them as well; it grows larger as a character performs more actions. Larger aggro rings lead enemies to focus their efforts on that respective character, leading to a strategic aspect of luring and diverting the attention of enemies. Each character has a "Tension" gauge, which represents their morale: at its highest point, characters have increased accuracy and a higher chance to deal critical hits. The game's "Vision" system, where the main character Shulk can see glimpses of enemies' future attacks, also factors into battles. With knowledge of an enemy's potentially dangerous attack, the player can prevent it from happening by alerting a teammate, allowing the player to activate one of their Arts, or by using an Art of their own to stop the attack. The Vision system is tied to the "Party" gauge, which is filled by boosting team morale, using Arts with special effects, and avoiding or dealing critical hits. The three-tiered gauge gradually depletes outside of battle, and one tier is needed to either revive characters or alert a teammate to a vision. When all three tiers are full, the party can execute a Chain Attack.

Synopsis

Setting and characters

The setting of Xenoblade Chronicles originates from a world that was nothing but an endless ocean until two titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis, came into existence and battled each other until only their frozen corpses remained. In the eons following their battle, they became the home for multiple forms of life. The Bionis is home to organic lifeforms, most prominently the humanoid Homs, who are virtually identical to humans in appearance and biology; the diminutive and furry Nopon; and the avian humanoid High Entia, whose lives span centuries. Conversely, the Mechonis is home to the mechanical humanoid Machina, whose lifespans span several millennia. Life forms emit a substance known as ether, which can be used both as a form of magic and as a source of fuel. The Monado – the namesake of Xenoblade – is a mystical ether-controlling sword that the Homs wield in the battle against the Mechonis, which grants visions of the future to its wielder when fully controlled.

The game's main character is Shulk, a young Homs scientist who lives in Colony 9 on Bionis. During an attack on the Colony by Machina warriors called Mechon, Shulk becomes the Monado's new wielder. During his journey, he is joined by Reyn, one of his childhood friends and a headstrong member of the Defence Force; Dunban, a former wielder of the Monado and the brother of Shulk's childhood friend and love interest Fiora, who also joins Shulk; Sharla, a medic and sniper from Colony 6; Melia Antiqua, a High Entia-Homs hybrid and princess of the High Entia; and Riki, a Nopon chosen as the hero of his village. Other important characters include Zanza, the god of the Bionis and the game's main antagonist; Lady Meyneth, the goddess of the Mechonis; Shulk's mentor Dickson; Mumkhar, a cowardly soldier who fought alongside Dunban and wished to wield the Monado for himself; Egil, the self-proclaimed leader of the Machina; and Alvis, a mysterious man who aids Shulk on his journey.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition adds a new storyline, Future Connected, which is set one year after the events of the main story and takes place on the Bionis's Shoulder, an area not explored in the original game. Future Connected follows Shulk, Melia, and Riki's daughter Nene and adopted son Kino as they seek to reclaim the High Entia city of Alcamoth. The story also prominently focuses on Melia's relationship with her half sister, Tyrea, who was a minor character in the main story.

Plot
The game's opening details events one year past, when Dickson, Dunban and Mumkhar were fighting a Mechon army and Mumkhar deserted them. In the process of defeating the Mechon, the Monado paralyzed Dunban's right arm. In the present, Shulk studies the Monado in Colony 9, where Dunban and Fiora live. A group of Mechon soon attack Colony 9 along with their leader, a special Faced Mechon called Metal Face. Dunban is injured when he attempts to use the Monado again, prompting Shulk to use it. He wields it with ease, and receives visions of the future from it. While the Mechon are driven back, Metal Face is immune to the Monado and seemingly kills Fiora before running out of energy and fleeing. Shulk sets out with Reyn to seek revenge and kill Metal Face, and soon Sharla, Dunban, Riki, and Melia join the party. After Shulk receives another vision, the group travels to the High Entia capital to gain entry to Prison Island. Along the way, Shulk meets Alvis, who shares his ability to wield the Monado. Upon gaining entry to Prison Island, they encounter Zanza, a giant being who is the Monado's creator and offers to improve it so that Shulk can destroy the Face Mechon, who are revealed to have Homs inside. Shulk accepts and Zanza improves the Monado, but during an attack on the capital Metal Face and another Mechon called Face Nemesis kill him. In the ensuing battle, Face Nemesis is damaged to reveal an amnesiac Fiora controlling it.

Although he is initially disheartened, Shulk's comrades rally him and he sets out in pursuit of Metal Face and Fiora. During a peaceful encounter with Face Nemesis, Metal Face attacks the party and reveals himself to be Mumkhar. Egil, the leader of the Mechonis, intervenes and spirits Fiora away. On their way to the Mechonis, the party defeats Mumkhar, then faces off against Egil and Face Nemesis. After the fight, Shulk and Fiora are separated from the group, and during their time together Shulk learns that Fiora had been awake inside Face Nemesis, but another being was controlling her actions. Upon reuniting with the group, they meet a friendly Machina named Vanea, who reveals that the Bionis and Mechonis were initially at peace before the Bionis' god Zanza launched an unprovoked attack and possessed a friend of Egil, the giant who was imprisoned on Prison Island and killed. Since the battle a year ago, Egil had been working to infuse the Mechon with people from the Bionis to create Face units who would be impervious to the Monado. While going to face Egil, the other presence takes over Fiora and is revealed to be the Machina goddess Meyneth. They reach Egil as he reactivates the Mechonis and begins attacking the Bionis, seeking to prevent the Bionis from using its population as food and saving the Mechonis from another attack. Despite fighting him, Shulk manages to make him see that they both wish for a return to peace. Dickson appears and shoots Shulk, who Zanza, Dickson's master, was using as a vessel. Zanza reawakens and uses the Monado to destroy the Mechonis and steals Meyneth's Monado from Fiora's body before killing her. The party narrowly escapes with Shulk's body, with Egil sacrificing himself so they can escape.

In the aftermath of the Mechonis' destruction, pure-blooded High Entia begin transforming into Telethia, beings who exist to purge Bionis of life. While the party is initially helpless before the Telethia, Shulk awakens and manages to defeat a Telethia raid on Colony 6. Although Alvis is revealed to be a disciple of Zanza, Shulk believes there is more to him than he lets on. While making their way to Prison Island, they defeat a High Entia disciple named Lorithia, then Dickson. The party then travels to face Zanza, who declares the life of Bionis as his food and vessels and offers Shulk the chance to become his disciple. Shulk rejects the offer, and during the ensuing battle produces a new Monado. With the encouragement of Alvis, who is revealed to be the spirit of the Monado, Shulk kills Zanza. Alvis then shows Shulk Zanza's origins: both Zanza and Meyneth were originally human scientists working to create a bubble universe from the Earth, and Alvis was originally the artificial intelligence aboard the space station. However, the experiment ended in disaster, obliterating the universe and causing Zanza and Meyneth to be reborn as gods. After the new universe's birth, Zanza and Meyneth created life in their image, and Zanza created the cycle of the Bionis out of fear that he would eventually fade from existence as his creations forgot him and sought life beyond Bionis. Zanza then attacked the Mechonis, believing that Meyneth and the Machina had become insolent to him as a god and towards his vision of the world he created. With the current universe threatened with death, Alvis asks Shulk to remake the universe as its new god. Shulk declines and wishes for a world without gods, where everyone can decide their own fates. In the new universe, the survivors of Bionis and Mechonis build a new settlement and live peacefully together. Fiora is restored to her Homs form, and she and Shulk look forward to meeting the people of their boundless new world.

Future Connected
One year later, with the world's restoration underway, Shulk and Melia set out together to the remnant of Bionis's shoulder after reports that the High Entia capital Alcamoth has reappeared, with Riki's children Kino and Nene tagging along as stowaways. An energy beam from a black fog on Alcamoth attacks their ship, and they learn from a local High Entia outpost that the Fog King, a being from outside the current reality, is attacking the land. Shulk and Melia help to resolve ethnic tensions between the garrison and a local township housing Machina, while Melia makes peace with Tyrea, who is in the area researching the Fog King. Shulk and Melia find a way to weaken the Fog King, and manage to defeat it and reclaim Alcamoth with help from surviving Telethia. The scenario ends with Melia being crowned as Empress of the High Entia.

Development

Xenoblade Chronicles was developed by Japanese development company Monolith Soft, with Tetsuya Takahashi forming the original concept and serving as the game's executive director. In the 1990s, Takahashi had previously worked on Xenogears, then on the Xenosaga trilogy after founding Monolith Soft in 1999. Xenosaga was intended to be a six-part series, but low commercial performances caused the series to be halved. After these events, the entire development team was in a state of low morale. The initial concept for Xenoblade Chronicles, of people living on the bodies of gigantic gods, came to Takahashi in June 2006. Struck by his idea, he immediately committed it to paper and showed the draft to other senior staff, who were favorably impressed. One of them, an executive called Yasuyuki Honne, thought that it would make a good 3D model and bought materials to create it. Construction began in July: during this period, younger staff acted as models so that Takahashi could establish which parts of the gods' bodies could be used as habitable and navigable environments in various poses.

After the model's construction, Takahashi decided to combine the model's concept with an unrelated story idea, which became the basis for a new game after positive feedback from staff. Takahashi later said that one of the main reasons for developing the game was to bolster team morale after the commercial failure of the Xenosaga games. The team first showed their proposal to Nintendo prior to the final development stages of Disaster: Day of Crisis. Development began over four years prior to its release, with the first prototypes for the game being developed in April 2007. Co-director Genki Yokota was brought in by Nintendo to handle any system-related issues because of his previous experience with RPGs. After being contacted regarding both Xenoblade Chronicles and fellow Wii JRPG The Last Story, head of Nintendo's licensing department Shinji Hatano said that the games should be made for a wide audience and using a "romanticist approach". Takahashi was involved in every aspect of the game's development, from its initial concept to the debugging stage. At the beginning of development, the game was going to be a stand-alone title unrelated to the Xeno series, originally being titled Monado: The Beginning of the World. Later, then-Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had the title changed to its current one to honor both Takahashi's previous titles and the effort he was investing in Xenoblade Chronicles. According to Takahashi, the "Xeno" designation was more along the lines of a symbol, calling back to the previous works of Monolith Soft. When describing the title's meaning, Takahashi described "Xeno" as meaning "different nature" or "uniqueness", while the "Blade" part was closely tied to the narrative, particularly the game's ending.

A key element of the game for Takahashi was creating an ideal balance between gameplay and story, something that he felt was lacking in other JRPGs which focused too much on story. Takahashi's previous experiences with the Xenosaga games and Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, which had been called out for being old-fashioned when compared to other RPGs of the day, influenced his work in this regard. The mechanic of Shulk getting glimpses of the future became the foundation of the entire battle system. Takahashi briefly experimented with a turn-based battle system that incorporated the feature, but it did not work out. In a separate issue, Takahashi decided against a transition between the environment and a battle arena as he felt such a transition would negatively interrupt the flow of gameplay. The game features a fully open world, which was described by Takahashi as "overwhelming, like an MMORPG", describing the world size as being roughly equivalent to the Japanese archipelago. The scale of the world was derived from Takahashi's wish to showcase the grandeur of the experience. In addition to this, the number and length of cutscenes was cut down significantly from those present in the Xenosaga games, with Takahashi considering such a development method as having become a "dead end". The wish for an expansive world also became tied up with the wish to reward players for exploration, which entailed creating a large amount of content, such as items and accessories. The gameplay was influenced both by previous Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs. When the team ran into difficulties, Takahashi went to Nintendo in a "deflated" state to suggest numerous means of meeting the game's projected deadline. Yamagami rejected all of Takahashi's proposals and instead insisted the team persist with their vision, saying he would persuade Nintendo to continue supporting them.

Scenario
The scenario was created by Takahashi, Yuichiro Takeda and Yurie Hattori. Takahashi was responsible for creating the main concept, but as he was going to be director and executive producer, he was unable to also take on full script-writing duties, so he asked Takeda to be his partner in creating the scenario. Takeda was a writer for anime, and had previously collaborated with Takahashi on adaptations of the first Xenosaga game, in addition to writing the script for Xenosaga I & II, the Nintendo DS remake of Xenosaga and its sequel. Takahashi deliberately chose someone outside the video game industry as he wanted a different perspective on the story's pacing. Hattori was brought in during the early development stages due to her experience with scenarios for Nintendo games, which enabled her to look at Takahashi and Takeda's scenario from an objective viewpoint. A key element in the scenario was contrasting senses of scale, which Takahashi described as "contrasting the realms of the micro and the macro", while the main story themes were characters embarking on a great and evolving journey, and overcoming a predetermined future. Despite multiple fantasy elements, Xenoblade Chronicles is based within a science fiction premise, although such elements were kept low-key during the first part of the game.

Despite their earlier work together, it was the first time Takahashi and Takeda were so intimately involved in a project. Takeda found working on the project more difficult than he initially anticipated: his standard writing form was for the anime series format, which was limited to episodes of 2025 minutes. With Xenoblade Chronicles, the volume of story and writing work was much larger and offered more freedom for dramatic expression. Conversely, his previous experience enabled Takahashi to easily plan the structure and scheduling for the game. During the initial writing stages, Takahashi did not give precise instructions to Takeda: he instead gave a rough outline that they worked on together, then they passed the developing script between themselves, along with producers Shingo Kawabata and Koh Kojima, to iron out rough elements. Takahashi compared it to playing a game of catch, something he was unused to doing for his game scenarios. The ending underwent revisions: while Takahashi and Takeda felt they had created a fairly explanatory ending, Hattori still felt unsatisfied. After a second look, Takahashi and Takeda realized that it would appear perplexing for someone outside the writing process, so they rewrote it to be more player-friendly. The final script contained a large amount of dialogue: the sheer volume, which included dialogue spoken in battle, made for a difficult experience while recording. Due to all the effort, Takahashi was emphatic that as much of it as possible be used, although he sometimes felt that there was too much. In the end, some dialogue needed to be cut as testers felt that the characters talked too much. Takahashi's overall writing style was made deliberately more mature and subdued than other games within the genre.

One of the elements that was of great concern to both Takahashi and Takeda was the main protagonist Shulk. Takahashi had noticed that, in the majority of RPGs, the main protagonist was all too easily disliked even if other characters became fan favorites. Consequently, one of the main priorities was to make Shulk as appealing as possible to players. During this process, it was suggested that Shulk be a silent protagonist, but there was a general wish from the staff for him to speak. In addition to this, Takahashi needed to confront the problem faced in any RPG with voiced characters, which was developing them suitably and writing appropriate dialogue between them. The companion character Riki was cited by Takeda as a favorite of his: on paper Riki sounded an unlikable character, but his voice and appearance acted as a counterbalance to his remarks. One of the scenes where Hattori had input was a scene between Shulk and Fiora which showcased their connection: the original scene had Shulk touching Fiora's cheek, which Hattori felt would look "creepy" coming out of the blue. The scene was altered so Shulk touched her hand instead. One of the early concepts Takeda suggested was that one of the main protagonist's party would betray them and become the final boss, but Takahashi rejected this idea as he felt it would run counter to player expectation. During the course of its development, the story underwent so many revisions that Takahashi forgot what his original concept was, although the basic framework remained intact throughout.

Music

The original score for Xenoblade Chronicles was composed by Manami Kiyota, ACE+ (a musical production group composed of Tomori Kudo, Hiroyo "CHiCO" Yamanaka, and Kenji Hiramatsu), and Yoko Shimomura. As with other parts of development, Takahashi was deeply involved, constantly rejecting pieces due to what he felt was not fitting for the game. He admitted that this was due to early samples he had given the team for his vision for the music, which they had followed too faithfully for his liking. At Takahashi's request, Nobuo Uematsu's record label Dog Ear Records assisted with production.

The music team was led by Shimomura, who was initially very confused by the odd naming of tracks, along with getting the opportunity of using sounds not normally used in compositions in her other projects, such as electric guitars. Kiyota had only previously done superficial work on video game titles; she accepted Dog Ear Records' offer for her to compose music. ACE+ was recommended to Takahashi by Dog Ear Records. Kiyota handled environmental tracks, while ACE+ was in charge of battle tracks in addition to other musical pieces. The team's main goal was to create music that went beyond the typical sound of RPGs. In hindsight, Yamanaka attributed the harmony of the six composers' works to Takahashi's organization and overall direction. The final score contained around ninety tracks. One of the hardest tracks for Shimomura was a nine-minute track that Takahashi requested to match with a movie scene. Later, he said the track needed to change midway through, essentially necessitating the creation of two conjoined themes. The majority of the game's music was written by Kiyota and ACE+, with Shimomura writing eleven tracks. The music was recorded at Burnish Stone Recording Studios in Tokyo. The chorus work was provided by Yamanaka, Kiyota, and Masao Koori.

The game's ending theme, "Beyond the Sky", was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and performed in English by Australian singer Sarah Àlainn. Mitsuda was brought in to the music team due to his previous experience with the soundtracks of Xenogears and the first Xenosaga game, and due to Takahashi's long working relationship with him. Takahashi himself personally wrote the original Japanese lyrics for the track, which were translated into English by Lisa Gomamoto. When Mitsuda was contacted, the project was nearing completion, with very little development and composition work left. Despite this, before creating the main theme, Mitsuda asked if he could read the script, which was much larger than he anticipated. The track caused much stress to Mitsuda, who was tasked to create the game's most important song, which needed to incorporate both the diversity of the entire rest of the soundtrack, and mesh with Takahashi's grand vision for the ending of the game.

An official soundtrack album for the game, Xenoblade Original Soundtrack, was released by Dog Ear Records on 23 June 2010. It entered the Oricon charts at #80, and remained in the charts for five weeks. Upon release, the album received praise from critics: while multiple critics were surprised that Shimomura and Mitsuda's contributions were less substantial than originally thought, they found the majority of the music composed by Kiyota and ACE+ to be enjoyable. "Beyond the Sky" also received unanimous praise.

A second soundtrack album featuring the remastered tracks used in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition was released on 2 August 2023. It was revealed alongside the soundtrack for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and the Xenoblade Chronicles Original Soundtrack Trinity Box, a limited edition package featuring the soundtracks for all three mainline games in the series. The album spans 99 tracks across 5 discs, and also features the new music used in the additional campaign, Future Connected.

Release

Xenoblade Chronicles was announced during E3 2009. Its official title and release window were not announced until the beginning of 2010, alongside the announcement of The Last Story. The game released in Japan on 10 June 2010. Nine months after its Japanese release, it was confirmed for release in European territories under the title Xenoblade Chronicles. This version included both the English and Japanese voice tracks. According to Adam Howden, Shulk's English voice actor, he was not given much information prior to his audition, and was never given the full script during recording. According to him, the translated script needed to be altered as some lines came out as longer or shorter than the Japanese originals, and he was told to give Shulk a neutral British-accented voice. Concerning the game's localization, Takahashi stated that while some minor changes were made in the English versions of the game, like bug fixes, minor adjustments to gameplay balance, and slight rewriting of some written content, none of the changes led to any significant differences. Initially planned for release on 2 September 2011, it was released two weeks early on 19 August. In addition to the standard edition, a special edition with a Red Wii Classic Controller Pro was also released. It was later re-released in Europe on the Wii U's Nintendo eShop on 5 August 2015.

Despite being confirmed for a European release, Xenoblade Chronicles was not confirmed for a North American release. Additionally, although the project was announced at E3 2009, the finished game was absent from E3 2011. In an interview on the French television station Nolife, Mathieu Minel, the marketing manager of Nintendo France, stated that Nintendo of Europe had desired to show the game there, but Nintendo of America would not allow it, sparking speculation that it would not be released in North America. In response to this, a dedicated fan campaign was launched called Operation Rainfall. Its goal was to raise fan awareness of the situations felt by three Wii RPGs: Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora's Tower. Among the campaign tactics used by Operation Rainfall were emails, organized campaigns, online petitions, phone calls, and messages on Nintendo's Facebook and Twitter accounts. One of the most notable efforts was a call to pre-order the game via the original "Monado: Beginning of the World" placeholder on Amazon.com. Their efforts resulted in Xenoblade Chronicles becoming #1 in the site's pre-order gaming charts, beating The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and the PlayStation 3 bundle for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The campaign also received support from Mistwalker, the developers of The Last Story, and Xenogears and Xenosaga writer Soraya Saga. Takahashi later stated that Monolith Soft developed the game assuming that it would be released overseas.

In the months following these activities, Nintendo of America officially stated that there were no current plans to release the three games in North America, despite acknowledging the great demand for the titles. Rumors eventually emerged that the title would see a North American release when it was listed on the website of gaming retailer GameStop. Soon after this, Nintendo officially announced that the game would be released in the region. In a 2013 interview, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé revealed that Nintendo were considering an American release for Xenoblade Chronicles while Operation Rainfall was active, and that while the campaign did not factor into their decision, they were aware of it and took it into account while deciding whether the release would make a profitable release. Xenoblade Chronicles eventually released in North America on 6 April 2012. It was released in North America as an exclusive to Nintendo's American store, and GameStop's website and stores. The eShop version released for North America on 28 April 2016.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
A port for the New Nintendo 3DS, titled Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, was released worldwide in April 2015. It features StreetPass functionality, as well as compatibility with the Shulk amiibo. The port was originally announced in August 2014 alongside the New Nintendo 3DS. The port was co-developed by Monster Games, a frequent collaborator with Nintendo on well-received ports. They were requested for the job by Nintendo as the staff at Monolith Soft were already working on the next Xenoblade title. Development on the port started between Autumn and Winter 2013 initially for the original Nintendo 3DS, but initial testing showed that the original platform lacked the memory and power to effectively run the game, since the Wii's processing capabilities were greater than the regular 3DS. Hearing about the New 3DS, it was decided to use its increased processing power to realize the game's ambition. Its increased power made the port possible, and its button layout, with the inclusion of the ZL and ZR shoulder buttons and the C-Stick, meant that the original Wii Classic Controller button layout could be used without adjustment. As part of the alterations made to the title, much of the on-screen information was moved down to the bottom Touch screen so as to de-clutter the top screen, while the layout was carefully arranged so as to maintain the feel of the original as much as possible.

To maintain a steady frame rate and the seamless transitions between environments, unspecified "technical tricks" were used. They also worked hard to include 3D capacity despite the resultant technical difficulties. The most difficult part of the development was getting the game's scale to work within the new hardware. This entailed the creation of a new graphics engine with a custom visibility culling and complex level of detail systems. All of the environments were rebuilt and optimized for the new system while keeping the original aesthetic intact. The reason given for porting the game to the New 3DS rather than the Wii U home console was that the length of the game could be intimidating for the modern gamer, who was becoming more used to on-the-go, quick gaming sessions.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
An expanded remaster of the original game, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, was announced in September 2019 during a Nintendo Direct presentation. It includes enhanced visuals, remastered music, an updated user interface, and other quality-of-life improvements, such as utilizing an artstyle and graphics similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It also includes a new epilogue scenario titled Future Connected, which is set one year after the main game's events and focuses on Melia. It was released worldwide for the Nintendo Switch on 29 May 2020.

Reception

Since its release, Xenoblade Chronicles has received critical acclaim with praise directed at its story, characters, themes, combat, music, voice acting, and scale, earning perfect scores from Digital Spy, Joystiq, GamePro and RPGamer, and near-perfect scores from most other video gaming websites and magazines. The game received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic.

The story was cited by many as being innovative and enjoyable despite a fairly standard premise, while its open nature was seen as a welcome change for the genre: IGN critic Keza MacDonald said that she had been shocked out of expecting Japanese RPGs to be similar to the linear and story-driven Final Fantasy XIII. Its battle system and handling of quests also received praise, with the latter being seen as a great improvement for the genre due to its user-friendly workings. The one point that generally drew criticism were the graphics, with multiple critics disappointed that they lacked the polish of other contemporary consoles. IGN, Eurogamer and Edge Magazine cited the game as a triumphant comeback for the JRPG, and a prime example of the genre. The battle system, and to a degree its general gameplay, was favorably compared by multiple critics to that used in Final Fantasy XII.

The New 3DS port also received "generally positive" reviews, according to Metacritic. The port was generally received similar praise to the original Xenoblade Chronicles: many points of praise regarding its gameplay and story were shared with its original release, while new praise was given to the fact that an RPG of its scale had been successfully ported to the platform at all. Despite this, critics cited the graphical downgrade and lackluster implementation of 3D effects as detrimental factors, generally resulting in lower scores for the port when compared to the original game.

Awards
At the 2011 Japan Game Awards, Xenoblade Chronicles received the "Excellence" award. In IGN's Best of 2012 awards, the game was named "Best Wii/Wii U Game" and awarded with "Best Wii/Wii U Story". It was also nominated in the "Best Overall Role-playing Game" and "Best Overall Story" categories. In RPGFan's "Game of the Year" awards that same year, it was named "Best Traditional RPG", and was a runner-up for "Best Combat" and "Best RPG", losing both to Mass Effect 3. It was also awarded the site's "Reader's Choice Best RPG" award, with 24% of readers' votes going to Xenoblade Chronicles, beating Persona 4 Golden to the award. In RPGamer's "Best of 2012" awards, it was named as the year's best RPG, along with earning awards for "Best Story" and "Best Music". At the 2012 Golden Joystick Awards, the game was nominated in the "Best RPG" category, although it lost to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Slant Magazine named it as "Game of the Year" in 2012.

Sales
During its opening week, Xenoblade Chronicles reached the top of Japan's gaming charts, selling 80,000 units. By the end of 2010, the game had sold over 161,000 copies, making it the eighth best-selling Wii game of the year, and eventually reached almost 200,000 units by the end of 2013. In the UK charts, Xenoblade Chronicles debuted at #7, and reached #2 in the dedicated Wii charts despite stock shortages. According to Gamasutra, it was the fourth best-selling game in the UK during its first week. In the US gaming charts, the game was excluded from the NPD Group's monthly assessment due to it being a retailer exclusive. Investment banking firm Piper Jaffray estimated it to be one of the best-selling games in the United States during the month of April 2012, along with Mass Effect 3 and Prototype 2. In a later interview, it was stated that the game sold better in the West than in Japan.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D fared worse, selling 56,932 copies in its first week in Japan. Roughly 78,000 Japanese copies had been sold by the end of June 2015. In the UK charts, the game debuted at #27, becoming the third best-selling Nintendo product of that week. According to NPD Group figures, the game sold under 75,000, failing to enter the top ten. However, Nintendo stated that the game was the fifth best-selling platform exclusive that week.

As of December 2020, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition had sold 1.52 million copies.

The 2023 CESA Games White Papers revealed that Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition had sold 1.88 million units, as of December 2022.

Legacy

In other media
Shulk has been featured as a playable character in the Super Smash Bros. crossover fighting game series, appearing in its Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Ultimate installments. Gaur Plain, a location in the game, appears as a stage along with several music tracks; one of the game's recurring antagonists, Metal Face, appears as a hazard on said stage; Dunban and Riki (and Fiora in Ultimate) accompany Shulk during his Final Smash. Additionally Riki also appears as an Assist Trophy, using his own Arts to disrupt opponents. Fiora was later featured as a playable character in the crossover game Project X Zone 2, representing the Xeno series alongside Xenosaga character KOS-MOS, opposite Metal Face as an enemy character.

Sequels
By using experience gained during development of Xenoblade Chronicles and listening to feedback on the game, Takahashi and the team began work on a spiritual successor for the Wii U. Titled Xenoblade Chronicles X, it was released worldwide in 2015. A parallel story for the Nintendo Switch, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, was released worldwide in December 2017, and Shulk and Fiora can appear as optional Blades to recruit via the DLC expansion pass. Both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 received a sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, in 2022. There are many allusions to the original game throughout the third installment, with Melia serving a major supporting role in the story. Shulk and Alvis reappear in the DLC story expansion Future Redeemed (with the former being playable), taking place between the events of the first two games and the third one; further, Shulk and Fiora's son Nikol is also playable.

Notes

References

External links

  (archived)

Xenoblade Chronicles
2010 video games
Action role-playing video games
Fiction about deicide
Fiction about giants
Japanese role-playing video games
Mass murder in fiction
Monolith Soft games
New Nintendo 3DS games
Nintendo 3DS eShop games
Nintendo Switch games
Nintendo games
Open-world video games
Orphans in fiction
Role-playing video games
Science fiction video games
Single-player video games
Video games about artificial intelligence
Video games about revenge
Video games about robots
Video games about spirit possession
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Yasunori Mitsuda
Video games scored by Yoko Shimomura
Video games that use Amiibo figurines
War video games
Wii games re-released on the Nintendo eShop
Wii games
Video games scored by ACE+
Monster Games games

Xenoblade Chronicles (video game)