Two nations collide in an endless battle to harvest the souls of the fallen. Was Xenoblade Chronicles 3 worth it?
Table of Contents
Background
This isn’t a sequel to XC1 and XC2 per se, but it takes place in the same world and some characters reappear. Fans of the franchise will definitely appreciate callbacks to previous titles. There are a lot of recycled assets here, so Xenoblade veterans will recognize enemies, the items, the combat, etc.
The story starts off as an anime-esque take on Logan’s Run, but later weaves in plot points and references from Star Wars, One Piece, and even Gundam. Despite this, it still plays enough Uno reverse cards to keep you guessing.
What to know early on
Fair warning, this is incredibly similar to the previous games. If you aren’t a fan of the combat or mechanics, then XC3 isn’t going to change your mind.
Unlocking the game
Early in the game, the combat will feel slow. Don’t fret, it’s balanced for 7 party members, so it gets a lot faster when you start rolling deep with a full squad. I specifically bring this up because it took forever for the combat to start clicking in XC2.
You can pull off Break>Topple>Daze combos from the first minute you start fighting. If you played XC2, you know how long it took to get all the combo pieces. The game wants you to switch classes often, but I would recommend making sure that you classes that can actually inflict the status effects instead. For example, Launch arts are relatively rare for much of the early to mid game, as only the Ogre class and interlink forms can access it.
Don’t stress about party composition
You’ll probably be changing classes pretty often, so don’t feel pressed about optimization. Just try and keep a relatively balanced party. Use the available heroes to round out your party, and don’t be afraid to leave a character in a class if it has a helpful ability or art.
Mood Whiplash
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was downright cheery in comparison to this game. There’s no silly sexiness or goofy characters doing JoJo poses. There are some moments of levity, but this game is consistently serious and doesn’t let you forget it.
Fair warning, this game gets into some heavy themes of PTSD and survivor’s guilt.
The limits of the Switch
This isn’t the first game to push the limits of this gimmicky console. Shin Megami Tensei V and the recent Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes were hard on the little tablet, and this game is no exception. I want to be clear – the game doesn’t look bad, but you already know what I mean when I say “Switch graphics.”
My play wasn’t ever negatively impacted by the limits of the hardware, but I’ll admit that I was worried when I picked up my Switch and felt how hot it was.
With that said, at no time did the game ever look as rough as Pokemon Legends: Arceus or Disgaea 6.
What does Xenoblade Chronicles 3 do well?
There are a lot of high points in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Standouts include the characters, and the vaguely familiar world.
Music
If you go through these games in release order, you can see how the music has evolved. Admittedly, I don’t remember as many of overworld themes as say, XC2, but the battle themes are permanently ingrained in my memory. “Keves Battle Theme” in particular didn’t have to go this hard but wow, what a song. The significance of the flutes is also important to the story, so kudos to them for integrating it so seamlessly into the soundtrack.
I would like an option to turn off the music override though. There were times where I deliberately didn’t start a chain attack just so I could hear certain boss themes.
Narrative
Fundamentally, the story is the best part of the game. It doesn’t get any points for originality, but what kept me engaged wasn’t the weird combat or the exploration, it was the desire to see a happy ending for these characters.
However, there is a caveat. Check my section below on pacing.
Character Development
Growing up is hard, and it’s even harder when you know you’re born solely to fight and die. Every character has their own trauma to work through, and it’s handled appropriately. The main characters do fall cleanly into anime archetypes but are all generally likeable. I preferred the Noah/Lanz/Eunie triad over the Agnian trio, but your mileage may vary. Some character arcs, like Eunie, are extremely satisfying to watch. Unfortunately, some of the character development comes after the big emotional point in the game, and at that point it feels a lot less impactful.
Big caveat: the main characters are likeable, the villains suck, and the guest heroes are one-note characters. If you aren’t a fan of Noah and his merry band of terrorists, then it’s not going to suddenly get better.
It’s a big, harsh world
The world is huge and fun to explore. It almost feels like a man vs nature story considering how much time you spend rampaging through the wilderness. The corpses that you encounter in your travels are a grim reminder of how cruel and unforgiving the world of Xenoblade is. In character, it’s a nice nudge to the characters to remind them of how important their mission is.
Gems are outrageous
The gem system is fantastic. There’s a selection of 20 gems to craft, with a variety of effects – increased stats, etc. Each character has access to this full array of gems, meaning that you don’t have to craft duplicates.
What could Xenoblade Chronicles 3 do better?
I am proficient with it, but I’m still not a fan of the Xenoblade battle system. I hate this janky battle system.
Artificial Unintelligence
There are clear limits to the AI’s abilities. I recommend playing solely as attacker classes, as playing tank or healer can be frustrating. AI party members won’t stay in your beneficial AOEs, won’t dodge enemy AOE damage, will stand on damaging terrain, and may temporarily make themselves unhelpful if you give them the latitude to transform. For example, if Eunie and Taion are your sole healers and they transform, that means that you won’t have a healer available to revive characters until they revert.
Cutscenes galore
There are a lot of them, and the game will even hit you with cutscene>flashback>cutscene combos. To be fair, they do a good job of showcasing character development, and it’s not like they’re irrelevant or annoying, but there are a lot of them. If you’re on the actual story route (as opposed to exploring), it can seem like you hit a cutscene every few steps.
Side Quests and Settlements
In XC2, your quests/merc missions helped the cities, strengthened your mercenary army, or improved your relationship with a rare blade. Even if they were dumb fetch quests, there was a sense of progression, especially when completing an objective would literally increase your combat prowess.
In XC3, get used to a lot of side characters you aren’t terribly invested in. The game will toss plenty of colonies at you and expect you to complete a character arc for someone you just met. It gets tiresome. Wow, a new hero character that needs me to complete a fetch quest? Didn’t see that one coming.
Settlements in this game are mostly colonies that you come across, rather than cities. They aren’t all exactly the same, but they’re quite close. The fact that the colonies are numbers or letters rather than names doesn’t help. You want me to keep Colonies 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 29, and 30 straight in my head? Not gonna happen. At one point the characters mentioned a location close to Colony Gamma – cue me looking through each region in the map to see where they’re talking about.
Pacing
The game hits a high note toward the end of Chapter 5, and it doesn’t ever reclaim that energy. It’s not just the main plot that suffers from this. Nearly all of the “big” character development quests come very late in the game. At that point it feels like small potatoes compared to what the characters have already gone through.
Quality of Life Features
Normally I wouldn’t be this nitpicky, but I’ve put about 70 hours into the game, so there are some points of frustration that I’d like to address. None of these are deal breakers, and I am hopeful that these are things that will be patched:
- Improve the map to add verticality – it’s impossible to figure out where certain items or landmarks are.
- Add a bestiary – you want me to track down every unique monster?
- Improve item tracking/collectapedia – narrowing it down to an entire region doesn’t help.
- Let me save my build loadouts – if you want me to change classes often, then let me have a preferred setup.
- XC1 Expert Mode – I’m in chapter 5 and I’m 30 levels above the main quest
- XC2 Customization Options – why can’t I turn off enemy aggro or adjust damage rates?
- Accessory Sorting – Hundreds of accessories and I have to ponderously search through them each time.
- Retune tank aggro – there were plenty of times I considered taking defenders out of my party because they never seemed to actually pull aggro.
- Autoattack vs time cooldowns – Shorten the cooldown of Kevesi arts to make them more in line with Agnian art cooldowns.
- UI Scaling – The screen gets very busy during battles.
- Music overrides – Get used to the menu theme or chain attack theme, because you’re going to hear them a lot.
Was Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fun?
The characters are likeable and keep you engaged, the plot throws some much needed curveballs, and the world is a pleasure to explore. I had a great time with this title.
Is Xenoblade Chronicles 3 good value?
This is a substantial game, with plenty to do. It earns its price tag.
Is the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass worth it?
The DLC dropped along with the base game, but didn’t actually add anything relevant, despite very obvious on the in-game menus. It’s entirely possible that the DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 could be as robust as the extra content for XC2, but right now, the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass is not worth picking up.
Who is this game for?
This game is for general fans of the franchise, as well as general JRPG fans. It’s definitely in the running for one of the best JRPGs of the year, and hopefully the upcoming DLC will smooth over the rough parts that need some quality of life patches.
Was Xenoblade Chronicles 3 worth it?
There’s a huge seamless world that’s just waiting for you to conquer and explore it, and you’ve got a likeable cast of characters. To say that XC3 is immersive is an understatement. This is the best RPG I’ve played in a while: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is worth it, but hold off on the DLC for now.
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