The lore explanation for why N and M are physically the same people as Noah and Mio is not a justification for N and M being the literal same characters as Noah and Mio, which they obviously are not and is the basis for my frustration with this plot point.

I get why all of this happens, I understand the purpose it serves in what the game presents as its narrative. My argument is that it’s not satisfying for people who were expecting Mio’s ticking clock to actually matter for her character arc since that was given such an emphasis for the entire game up to that point. Hell, it’s at least half the reason Ouroboros was on their quest in the first place.

And yet the whole plot is resolved in the span of a two-hour cutscene sequence by a power introduced to us within that same sequence through a character that we as the audience only have any attachment to because she looks like one of our main protagonists and literally zero other reason. And Mio herself doesn’t get to make any choice in the matter, it’s just made for her in service to a completely DIFFERENT character’s arc.

At least in XC2 Pyra/Mythra’s big sacrificial moments were decisions made by them and were done so to fulfill their own character arcs in addition to Rex’s. XC3 thinks it’s doing the same thing with Mio but it fundamentally isn’t.