This review contains spoilers
A great sequel that lives up to the series' acclaim despite hitting an almost entirely different appeal from the other games. Xenoblade 3 has an immediately interesting and unique setting and refreshingly returns to the darker tone of Xenoblade 1 while quickly introducing a likable party and battle system that takes much less time to speed up than 2's.
The 7 member party with interchangeable heroes strikes a good balance between the prior games by giving you plenty of variety to pick from without bloating the party with random gacha blades like 2 did. Where the game's distinct appeal comes in is the job system and emphasis on sidequests. Leveling jobs makes doing sidequests feel much more rewarding and addicting. The heroes and their respective colonies also being optional means the majority of playtime was dedicated to running around exploring and doing sidequests which were easily the weakest parts of the previous games.
This design makes the game a lot of fun in its own right, but it does also cause the issues that end up putting the game below the first one for me. The hero quests are above-average JRPG side content but generally weaker than the main story events presented in the other games and none of the areas are as memorable as the major ones in 1 and 2. The main story is compelling but doesn't have many impactful scenes between the first and last couple chapters. It also has some things that particularly grind my gears like the cliche rebel prison break section and everything about ghondor besides her class. The consuls were typically cartoon villains and very few of them got any development, but the content with N and M was really nice. I really liked the party, particularly my boy Taion and Eunie, and there were lots of pleasant down-to-earth interactions between them all. Even the animations when you're just resting at camp were fun to watch.
While the locations were generally indistinct, the game looked and ran quite well especially with 7 party members and several enemies wreaking havoc in every battle and the music was also very good as usual.
The 7 member party with interchangeable heroes strikes a good balance between the prior games by giving you plenty of variety to pick from without bloating the party with random gacha blades like 2 did. Where the game's distinct appeal comes in is the job system and emphasis on sidequests. Leveling jobs makes doing sidequests feel much more rewarding and addicting. The heroes and their respective colonies also being optional means the majority of playtime was dedicated to running around exploring and doing sidequests which were easily the weakest parts of the previous games.
This design makes the game a lot of fun in its own right, but it does also cause the issues that end up putting the game below the first one for me. The hero quests are above-average JRPG side content but generally weaker than the main story events presented in the other games and none of the areas are as memorable as the major ones in 1 and 2. The main story is compelling but doesn't have many impactful scenes between the first and last couple chapters. It also has some things that particularly grind my gears like the cliche rebel prison break section and everything about ghondor besides her class. The consuls were typically cartoon villains and very few of them got any development, but the content with N and M was really nice. I really liked the party, particularly my boy Taion and Eunie, and there were lots of pleasant down-to-earth interactions between them all. Even the animations when you're just resting at camp were fun to watch.
While the locations were generally indistinct, the game looked and ran quite well especially with 7 party members and several enemies wreaking havoc in every battle and the music was also very good as usual.