Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was released just over a month ago, on July 29, 2022. Just like its predecessors, it is an action RPG developed by Monolithsoft. And also, just like the games that came before, it is a damn good video game.
Just to summarize my feeling about the previous entries, I'll say that the series consistently gets better with every entry. The first Xenoblade is a game I had never heard of until its protagonist Shulk came to Super Smash Bros. This piqued my curiosity enough to pick up the game when it came out on New Nintendo 3DS. Long story short, I had fun with it. However, towards the end of the game, I began to get really frustrated with the combat system. The difficulty seemed to spike with every optional area gatekept by a super boss. This annoyed me because it felt as if I could not fight beyond the number of my characters' stats. The combat felt very automated, and I thought it had little in the ways of player/skill influence. Looking back now, I am willing to admit I probably just didn't understand some of the nuances of the system. Combining this with what I thought was a mediocre story and a bland protagonist, I would always take long breaks between playing the game. This came to a head when I reached what I could only assume was very close to the end of the game. Some new side quests had become available to customize Shulk's sword, but the materials were all held by different super bosses. Being a completionist, I refused to continue the story before clearing these quests, but the amount of grinding I would have had to do to stand a chance against those enemies was more than I wanted to endure. Therefore, to this day, I have not finished the game. This is not to say I will never go back, though, as the quality of life improvements in the Switch remake look appealing; however, I am not willing to pay full price for it, and the reason for that is a little ironic.
Note what I said before about how the series keeps improving and how I thought the combat in the first game felt automated. Enter Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Considering how I fell off of the first game so hard, even I don't exactly know what motivated me to play the sequel. Oh, wait, now I remember. It was the Xenoblade 2 direct. I'm sure everyone knows what a Nintendo Direct is at this point, and it is not surprising that they occasionally dedicate an entire presentation to a singular title. In this specific Direct, they went into detail about the game's story as well as combat systems. The moment I saw how the blade system worked and that the characters could switch weapons mid-battle and have access to even more tools, I knew it would fix the main problems I had with the first game. The more anime aesthetic was also appealing to 16-year-old me. In the end, I had so much fun with Xenoblade 2, and specifically its combat, that I just couldn't go back to the first due to how limiting it was in comparison. Despite another weak protagonist, absurd character designs, and literal gacha elements, I still put over 350 hours into that game. The combat was so fun it made the first game bad in comparison and helped me overlook some of its flaws. Put its god-tier DLC in the mix, and you got a 9 out of 10 from me. Side note, while Rex and Aegis were weak-ass characters, Zeke, Pandoria, Nia, and Dromarch were awesome.
Moving on to the star of today's show. I was weirdly unenthused going into Xenoblade 3. The game's release came really quickly after its announcement, so there was not as much time to internalize or anticipate it. Even the Direct this time around was not mind-blowing. The main thing I took away was that it was going to have a 6 person party, then I got Star Ocean V flashbacks. But I digress; each character only being able to equip one class at a time was disappointing, but they compensated by allowing you to switch your playable character on the fly. The introduction of Ouroboros also scared me because I thought it would dominate the battle system much like the mechs in Xenoblade Chronicles X. However, while my expectations were not soaring into space, I still expected a game that was just as good as Xenoblade 2 at least.
Fast forward to the release of the game, and I have not bought it yet. Weird right? I forget what I was playing at the time, but it was enough not to need the game immediately. Then half a week later, I finally decided to pick it up. And I'm not going to lie, at first I was disappointed. The early game battles were mad sluggish feeling. This was mainly due to the fact that you cannot auto-attack while moving. And you can't cancel arts into each other until forty hours into the game (time is assuming you side quest as much as me.) However, I refused to believe that it would not get better. I knew that these games continue to add mechanics as they go on. And boy, was I not disappointed in this regard.
With that said, let's just do a deep dive into the battle system. Similar to the other games in the series, you can enter battle with any enemy on the field and fight them right there without being contained in any boundaries. The actual battles consist of you and your AI-controlled party members periodically auto-attacking the enemy they are locked onto (if they are in range, of course.) Then, when they are off cooldown, you use combat arts with various effects (stronger attacks, AOEs, buffs, debuffs, etc.) to control the battle. Now, note these cooldowns as they are the most important thing to understanding this game's battle and class systems.
The Ouroboros is a system that lets link pairs (Noah and Mio, Eunie and Taion, Lanz and Sena) to combine into one invincible form with new arts for a limited time. This can be done anytime during a battle; however, the time allowed in this form, as well as the effects of some arts, are stronger if the link level is higher. This level starts at zero for every battle and can be raised up to level 3. Raising it requires performing fusion arts (more on those later.) In reality, you could go the whole game never using this mechanic as it is not overwhelmingly powerful compared to the rest of your kit. It's strong, don't get me wrong, but the end result of each transformation is just a decent amount of damage. In the case of Noah and Mio's, it might as well just be one big attack that takes twenty seconds to come out, and you're fully invincible during.
Chain attacks also make a return, but as expected, they function a little differently in this game. Basically, you choose any fusion art from any party member to be performed, and it will fill a TP gauge. When this number hits one hundred or above, the "order" you chose at the beginning will apply its effect. Afterward, depending on how much TP the final number was, a relative amount of party members become reactivated (100 = 1, 150 = 2, 200+ = 3), and the damage ratio increases by that amount. However, those reactivated have their minimum TP gain increased, meaning fewer attacks before the number hits one hundred. Note that support classes always prevent the TP from going over ninety-nine, even when the number is already ninety-nine (does not apply to hero party members regardless of class.) If you fail to hit one hundred, the chain attack just ends.
The most interesting about the above-mentioned cooldowns is that there is some lore explanation behind the systems. Just as a quick rundown, the game is about two countries, Keves and Agnus, that are always at war with each other. In the plot of the game, your party members, or rather I should say your classes (since each character can play as any class,) have an associated country, and depending on what country your class is, is how your art cooldowns function. Classes from Keves have their cooldowns based on time. Simple, the move is available after x amount of time passes. Agnus classes see their art cooldowns being associated with the number of auto-attacks the user performs. After x amount of auto attacks, the move becomes available to use. Fans of the series may also recognize that the Keves cooldowns are reminiscent of the cooldowns in Xenoblade 1, while the Agnus cooldowns follow Xenoblade 2's mechanics. This is a cool connection because it represents how the third game connects the previous two, not just with its story but also with its mechanics. The first two games were always disconnected in both regards, but the third brings their worlds together literally, figuratively, and mechanically.
Black symbol = Keves. White = Agnus
Each class is categorized by whether it is an attacker, support, or defender. Each one has its own role in battle. Attackers, obviously, attack. They are there to deal the damage to the enemy. This can also mean setting combos in traditional
Xenoblade fashion (ex. inflict break, then topple, then launch, then smash. The effect is determined by the art used.) However, as much they can absolutely shit on an enemy's health bar, the foe will do the same to them. They are very squishy and all fall under the glass cannon archetype. Supports are just as if not more squishy and exist for the purpose of buffing and healing the party, as well as reviving fallen party members. Quick note: this game's reviving system is drastically different from previous titles. Before, anyone could revive, but it would cost party gauge that you would use for devastating chain attacks. Typically if someone died during a boss, you lost, all because you would get snowballed without being able to chain attack. More on chain attacks in a bit. But I digress. Moving on to defenders, their job is to draw agro and not die. They are the only ones who can take a hit, so if they die, everyone else will most likely be one-shot.
The class a character chooses influences both their stats and their arts. However, while the arts assigned to your face buttons are determined by your currently equipped class, the arts assigned to the d-pad can come from any class whose mastery level high enough and is from the opposite country of your class. This means during battle, you have two sets of arts, both with different cooldown styles. They can also be used as fusion arts that combine two paired arts into one and grant each other their effects, including bonuses to damage ratio. It's another nice touch showing how the two countries are coming together.
In addition to arts, each class comes with a set of passive skills. While the ones associated with your class cannot be changed, you can equip three master skills that can come from any class you have enough mastery of, regardless of country. These skills influence your abilities and build more than any art could so keep that in mind. A tip from me to you, ether-type attackers are actually useless late game all because of the existence of one master skill; Ultimate Qigong. I'm not saying you can't play as an ether attacker at all, but post-game battles will be easier if you don't, as there is no ether equivalent.
Ultimate Qigong at max mastery
Now, if you are just going to play through the game's story and have a grand old relaxing time, you can, no problem. The easy mode makes grinding and optimization a thing of the past. But for those looking for a challenge, I can tell you what worked for me when it came to fighting super bosses. Feel free to disregard this. I will not judge anyone who wants to do something different. I'm simply recounting my experience.
As you can see, I have a lot of hours in this game. And while it may be less than I invested in Xenoblade 2, they were far more productive and fun hours. No gacha grinding, no absurd skill point requirements, and I was able to beat every challenge boss available so far. In the second game, despite all my hours, I never unlocked every skill or pulled the best gacha and was unable to clear every challenge battle since that optimization was hidden behind absurd grinding, mini-games (I hate Tiger Tiger, sorry Poppi,) and literal RNG. In Xenoblade 3, however, FUCK that shit! I was able to become a force of nature through pure effort. Getting broken is one of the most fun things in a JRPG, and it's actually doable in this entry. (I will never get over never getting KOS-MOS.)
But, let me digress again. Xenoblade 2, go sit in the corner for the rest of this review. Anyway, my general battle strategy was to have a Zephyr draw agro (it can draw most agro due to short Agnian cooldowns and high evade rate makes it unlikely to die,) have a Troubadour shorten everyone's cooldowns, a Signifer (the most important class in the game) applies an absurd number of buffs, the Soulhacker (basically a make your own class) piles on more buffs while being unkillable itself, an Ogre inflicts break, and I the Incursor wait for all my skills to be off cooldown and unload on the enemy whenever possible. After I deal millions in crit damage off one combo, the aggro, unfortunately, goes to me, and I die. But due to this game's revive system, it's not a problem. My supports and my unkillable tank (due to an accessory) all revive me really quickly, so we just rinse and repeat. Let me repeat that a party wipe was basically impossible because a virtually unkillable character could just revive everyone with any resource being spent. Then when the link level hits 3, Noah and Mio's Ouroboros can inflict an almost guaranteed weaken debuff (the only debuff that actually works on late-game enemies), and then I initiate a chain attack since my deaths don't prevent me from doing so. This chain attack promptly kills due to Incursor damage, the ability for Soulhacker to guarantee grant power charge and increased crit rate at the same time to the whole party and equal Incursor's damage output via smashes that are enabled by Ogre's almost guaranteed break. Not to mention Signifer can increase the lengths of these buffs by sharing their own buffs with the whole party. And that seventh party member you might have noticed, the hero (an extra party member that you can barely customize and grants their respective class to your party after a side quest,) uses their absurdly powerful and, most importantly, consistent heroic chain (each hero has unique skills during chain attacks. These are the main factor to consider when picking a hero) to increase the bonus damage ratio. Most likely, the boss would die by the time the chain attack finishes.
Call me a sweat all you want, but I still would have finished the game even if the combat was less than stellar, and that is because of the characters. The character writing in this game rivals that of Tales of games. Noah, the protagonist, actually has a cool design and a more than surface-level personality. Sorry but I really didn't like Rex or Shulk. The deuteragonist, Mio, does a great job as the emotional center of the story. Her's and Noah's character development and internal conflicts almost made me feel like I was playing a different series from the one that brought us such classic lines as "put your hand on my chest." Moving the story and characters mostly away from the anime bullshit that comprised most of Xenoblade 2 was an amazing call.
Noah Mio
Previous Xenoblade games received criticism and mockery due to what a lot of people would call a less than steller English dub. By that, I mean Xenoblade 2 was famously mocked, specifically the characters Rex and Torra. I know I said I was done talking about it but quickly, let me say this. These were commonly cited as reasons why the game would review at low scores. Something completely independent of the actual gameplay was put front and center by critics. The gacha system, that was bad. Too many skill trees, arguably bad. The point is those should've been what people talked about, but it wasn't. The game got shit talked for reasons that were not its actual gameplay issues. And to all the people that refused to play the game for those reasons, I am happy to say that Xenoblade 3 fixed those problems for you. Not only is the English dub actually undeniably amazing, but even the Nopon characters are cool. First JRPG in a long time I can confidently say has no annoying party members. The script is ripe with curse words, fake and British, and it helps the game feel like it was meant for a more serious and mature audience than the games that came before it. Chances are you have already heard the iconic line "Feathers are a bitch to dry," said in an east London accent.
This is Riku and Manana. They are Nopon. Historically this race of people has ear-piercing high-pitched voices and annoying personalities (Riki from Xenoblade 1 was cool, in my opinion, despite this. Torra is actually a degenerate though.) Riku is a giga-chad engineer who can do whatever the plot requires him to, including but not limited to: fixing any machine you find, being one of seven legendary blacksmiths, giving the best advice ever, and just having the most important item in the game from the very beginning while refusing to elaborate where he got it. All the while, he speaks in this deep manly voice. Unflinching in the face of danger, the only thing that can break Riku's composure is Manana's cooking. Her happy-go-lucky attitude and, although high-pitched, voice always brought a smile to my face. Her enthusiasm paired well with Riku's stoicism and created one of the best comedic duos I've ever seen. While neither character is necessarily a comic relief character, when they interact, it's genuinely adorable. Small things such as Riku always being the one eating the most of Manana's cooking in cutscenes are cute to note, but nothing will beat Riku declaring, "Riku is not shy!" Riku is also always the first person to stand up for Manana and offer to help her gather ingredients.
As far as story elements that annoyed me, the worse thing the game does is try to get me to care about characters I don't like. There are two characters specifically that are villains who the party talk-no-jutsus into not fighting them with a friendship speech. Both these people are set up as absolute dick heads whose actions are unforgivable. However, the characters in the game forgive them and then give them a drawn-out death scene that's supposed to be emotional. One of the situations is sort of ok because the party has a history with them, and although I as a player have no emotional connection to them and want no more than to murder them, it's expected in a JRPG. The other one, however, HOLY SHIT! I FUCKING HATE this character. The first thing they do when you meet them is shit talk the most likable party member, Sena. Then surprise, surprise, they betray you. You as the player are just like, "alright, whatever, they were an arsehole anyway." But Sena is all like, "why are you doing this?" I'm all like, "who cares!?" And I was so happy when they killed themself after being foiled. Sena wasn't happy though, and it annoyed me. Then in an OPTIONAL side quest, this character comes back to life, and you kill them again. This time not only is Sena sad for no reason but so is everyone in the city that this character just tried to genocide. I'm sitting there, screaming at my TV as people grieve this bitch who tried to end the whole world all because she was jealous of other people's talents and wanted to re-roll her life. I am not lying when I say the actual most emotional death scene in the game is that of a turkey.
But let's take a deep breath and look to the future with hope. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has an expansion pass similar to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This pass will include four packs, the first of which is a cosmetic and accessory pack that launched with the game. The second pack is set to release by the end of this year and will include new challenge battles and a new hero. And while I do not know the exact details, the third and fourth packs will release sometime next year and include more challenge battles, costumes, and heroes. The fourth pack specifically will supposably include a story expansion comparable to Xenoblade 2's Torna the Golden Country DLC, which was basically an entire separate fifty-hour game. All this is included in a thirty-dollar pass which is more than worth it, in my opinion, if it is as good as Torna.
Well, what else can I say? If you were a fan of the previous ones, you have already bought this one, so why are you here? And if the animeness of the second game made you embarrassed to play it, then I can say that this game is ninety-seven percent safe in that regard. If you are a fan of any RPG or action game, I would recommend this game to you. As much as I would love to tell everyone in the world to play this game, I don't think the Call of Duty crowd will appreciate it as much, but who knows? I'm just gonna tell you to play the damn game regardless. A borderline 10/10 game, and so far, my game of the year.
really long and informitive!
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