One thing to be instantly sure of is that Guillaume should never play World-of-Warcraft-vein MMORPG, unless it was for academic reasons.
With the reveal of the end of Yelv's Affinity Missions, my interpretation had shifted to memory manipulation as I played past the story. However, this podcast reminded me of the line about "J-bodies" and of how Eleonora and conspirators wouldn't have access to the digital consciousnesses that were supposed to be in the Lifehold Core. Still, I think the memory manipulation angle still holds true because a hearsay line describes how Elma's Reclaimers team that were witness to the destroyed digital consciousness hold of the Lifehold Core have exited the Mimeosome Maintenance Center appearing pale.
One tragic interpretation I wish I was able to e-mail in about is the sad and depressing reality that humanity faces in NLA. For one thing, the Earthlife Colonization Project has lied about the true nature of the Lifehold Core. Second, most (if not all) of the digital consciousnesses have died. All those lives that the population of NLA thought would be resurrected are dead. The mother that hoped to be reunited with her young daughter will no be able to. The fallen BLADEs are gone forever. The mimeosomes that people thought were temporary, and have used them as such, are now faced with these mechanical bodies being the ones they live in. The mimeosome doesn't have the digital consciousness (as far as we know); there is nothing (or should be nothing) to transfer to a biological body made from the Lifehold Core's proto-plasma. The ruling bodies of NLA may be looking at a future of civil unrest or mass memory manipulation.
Of course, this is only interesting if you grew to care for the city of NLA and the world of Mira. The many narrative shortcomings and dissonances that were brought up by the panel I have made peace with by recognizing the first-time-developing-in-HD nature of the game's development and Monolith Soft shackling themselves to having some familiar aspects of a JRPG. With the variety of themes and plot lines explored, while their shallowness is disappointing, I ultimately enjoyed them. I wish all the stories in the game dug deeper and twisted harder, but it was fun to have so many of them that surprised and amused me with their turns.
Melia is my favorite character in Xenoblade Chronicles, in part due to her having the most complete character arc. After realizing Elma and Lin weren't going to fill Melia's shoes at all, I was desperate to find any character that I can attribute Xenoblade Chronicles X's soul to. The limit of three Affinity Quests to each party member made my search hard. But all along my time with the game, I keep helping a young woman blaze her own path in the dangerous world of Mira. She's a bit aloof, but you spend a lot of time with her. You get to know a bit of her past and her dreams. How she lost her parents to the wilds of exploration, and how she wants to follow in their foot steps. Through all the odds, hell fire, and pesky doppelgangers, she finally becomes a full-fledged BLADE. And it's all thanks to you, chief! Mia ends up being the perfect singular character to embody Xenoblade Chronicles X for me. She's kinda odd, tedious to track down, surprising when she appears out of nowhere, and is kind of a hassle to work with. But she has such a strong spirit for exploration and for adventure that I can't help but love.
Also, echoing Jon's laud for that one eavesdrop about Lara Mara, Mia says how she misses her two dads like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is a game that you wish you had time for, wish made time for you. The negative way to take it is that Xenoblade Chronicles X is a game you don't have time for and doesn't respect your time (material crystals are the worst). I have about ~85-90% of the game surveyed, an Ares 90 (the uber mech that you slagged a prototype of in Chapter 11), and some good headway in to an Infinite Overdrive build. My game clock reads 290 hours. I'm not proud of having a game grabbing and holding me for so long, but I wouldn't want trade away all the joy and fun I had living on Mira for the past three months.
But I certainly wouldn't mind if the next game Monolith Soft and Tetsuya Takahashi clocked in at less than 100 hours.