-possibly one of the best endings to the trilogy they could have done
-they gave closure to every loose end and every character. very nostalgic
-i love the father-son dynamic of Shulk and Nikol and father-daughter dynamic of Rex and Glimmer, they were pretty fitting and wholesome, seeing the protagonists of the old games try to be dads (which Shulk is way better at). also love the canon implications that Panacea is Reyn and Sharla's daughter, Linka is Zeke and Pandoria's daughter, and Riku is Riki's son. there's also the non-canon stretches people have made such as Ashera being Dunban's daughter
-when Matthew said "one day it might even be you" on who's going to stop Moebius, it's a cool line that teases the plot of the base game, but it doesn't really make sense why he'd say that in context lol
-the lore dump of Earth in 2054 was super cool, especially all the radio talk in the background which went over my head because I haven't played the older Xeno games but it's still cool
-I didn't quite get the ending when Matthew was leaving, was he setting off to build a new City?
-WHO IS RIKU??? WHY IS HE EVERYWHERE AND AS OLD AS TIME

Where do I even start with this game haha, it's absolute peak from start to finish. I had an absolute blast playing it and I didn't want it to end. That may be the one drawback of the game; the story is too short, I didn't get enough. But I suppose if that's the way I think, then I didn't learn a thing at all from the game's message about refusing to live in the "endless now."

At its core, in my opinion, is a very eastern type of message that reverberates along the game's core themes. There's the cycle of death and rebirth playing a huge role in the plot, reincarnation and past lives, and characters who yearn for immortality or eternal life. In every way, this has been a core struggle of the human condition for thousands of years. But now it's retold gloriously in a fantastic, unique sci-fi setting that the Xenoblade games always promise, with truly compelling characters.

Since it's such a niche series I suppose I have to explain where I'm coming from for the franchise. I played the first game's definitive edition on the switch because I saw Shulk in Smash Bros Ultimate and thought yeah why not I'll give his game a shot just so I fully know this character. It was a phenomenal game. Then I heard about Xenoblade X which I really wanted to play but I didn't have a Wii U and it's really not worth getting one. Then I didn't know Xenoblade 2 existed until Pyra and Mythra were added to Smash Bros Ultimate, which is really funny because the game released on the switch before the first game's definitive edition. But I'm one of those people that hardcore loves the first game and will probably never play the second game due to the utterly different direction it went in.

I was present when the third game was announced though. I remember thinking, they made a game about XC1 fans fighting XC2 fans? Utterly hilarious. Immediately, just by seeing the character designs and the trailers, I knew this was going to be an awesome game and probably one of my favourites. The characters looked in their late teens to early twenties, futuristic and stylish in their modern clothes, diverse, mature, charming, and serious. And boy was I right because when I played the game, it was heavily carried by its characters. I loved the entire cast, and out of the main six, I don't have a favourite because I love them all. They're absolutely hilarious and it was a blast going on a journey with them as they bickered, teased, had the most stupid conversations, and shared some strong moments.

When you combine everything that makes a Xenoblade game great (endearing British accents, action-based combat system, cool and mysterious sci-fi world environments, massive monsters, great story) with my personal favourite characters in the series, you get what I think is the best game in the franchise so far. This is an opinion. The community is very split on which mainline game is the best which is a good sign. It means all three of them are so good that you can't rank peak.

Anyway, about the actual game! There were so many times while playing I thought that this was hands-down probably the best JRPG ever made. A lot of people think the same, but since it's still so young it's too early to tell. It does everything right as a JRPG and has few flaws in that regard. It does have flaws though, which I'll get to later. But there were just times during the story that were so moving it really made me reflect life. Most notably, to no one's surprise, the transition scenes from chapter 5 to chapter 6. Those scenes really made you feel that the characters were stuck in the endless now. Noah seeing his countless past lives, even seeing one where he managed to escape the war with Mio and have a son with her, but then both of them succumbing to their short lifespans as Noah leaves his son in the forest while The Bereaved and Those Left Behind plays in the background, it really is peak fiction. It sort of made me think about what's truly important about life on Earth.

Other really great parts of the story were: the entire beginning including the war and meeting Guernica, when the party reaches the City and learns what true human life is all about, and the ending, of course. Really great stuff. Life-changing.

The Bereaved and Those Left Behind, which I've mentioned already, is my favourite song of the soundtrack. Simply one of the best pieces ever made. It's beautiful listening to it on its own, but I think its true potential is when its paired with an emotional scene. Then it really hits. But the entire soundtrack was really good. The Moebius theme, regular battle themes, the chain attack theme, ANYTIME Noah and Mio play the flute, and for SOME reason the elevator jingle menu theme goes so hard too. It was jarring to hear it every time I opened the menu but it didn't get annoying for me, I got used to it and eagerly anticipated it. The music was really good, but I do somewhat agree it may not be the most memorable soundtrack in the series. The first game I know for sure had some really memorable scores. Despite that, it's still very good and holds up on its own.

The story is unique from other RPGs because instead of the party having a clear goal from the very start, such as defeating this one enemy, or saving the world, this game starts with the main party not knowing who the Big Bad Boss is yet. Their motivation isn't revenge, like Shulk in the first game, or delivering someone home like Rex in the second game. The party's motivation in the third game is to explore and learn about their world because it's a mystery from the very start. That's why their main goal for most of the plot was to reach Swordmarch. In this sense, their motivation of curiosity was YOUR reason to keep playing the game. I was genuinely just as curious as these characters in finding out the truth about why they fight, which was what kept me hooked on advancing the story. It wasn't the urgency of defeating a Big Bad Boss, it was just me wanting to uncover the mystery. In fact, I wanted to reach Swordmarch to find the truth so bad that any detours or delays helping people or destroying big weapons annoyed me. It's clever. I think this is a huge benefit of the game that might not be commonly talked about. Not fictional high stakes, but just poking at your curiosity. Getting to Swordmarch and learning everything was extremely satisfying. Then freeing the Queens to learn even more was even more satisfying. In addition, finding the map's question marks for extra stories and exploring the vast world with very cool locations and monsters only added to this addicting feeling of curiosity in uncovering the world.

I think the right word for it is "immersion." The game does a lot for immersion. The characters, who follow the lead one you're controlling, sometimes wander off to find something nearby for you and then they have a voice line for it. There's constant voice lines before, during, and after battle. The party can discuss side quests and random dumb topics for fun at rest spots so you see the characters interact. And so on. In this way, the characters feel super real and not AI. Other things include: the maps are HUGE. Absolutely massive. I explored every single landmark in the first game and I don't even know where to begin for this one. Cutscenes play in exact locations in the maps, making for a seamless transition between gameplay and story (a good example is the muddy hill Lanz slides down in the Pentelas region's forest, and once the cutscene ends you can see the exact hill he just slid down on). Class outfits and weapons stay the same in cutscenes (for the most part, not for important ones). You get to play your entire party at once during battle, no one is left out in some unseen menu backlog. All of this adds to the total immersion of the game. Immersion is one of the core strengths of Xenoblade and the third game only maximizes it to its potential.

The gameplay is super fun, doing everything you can to rack up those numbers and you don't get bored from a classic turn-based system because you constantly have to move and make decisions on the spot. The combat system is complex and looks daunting, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not that bad. That's when you start learning how to optimize things and have the most fun. The chain attacks are my favourite, they always have been, even though they got rid of any quick-time events during them from the past games, which is a shame, as they were fun. As I've mentioned, this is a rare RPG that actually lets you play your entire party at once instead of choosing a few from a pool of idle characters. There's a total of seven so you never really know what's going on in the chaotic battles. It's super hectic and fun, and the ability to switch seamlessly between controlling party members, unlike past games, makes it ten times more fun as you execute specific strategies and dish out unique tactics instead of relying on AI. I also love how the party never changes the entire story like how it might in other RPGs. Changing the party is a neat way of storytelling, but really it just messes up the flow for the player who constantly monitors the party's equipment and it is more of an annoyance if anything. Another neat thing they added was the ability to play in first person. If you adjust the camera to zoom in all the way, you can play the whole game in first person, and it's not half bad at all, which is really neat. I preferred it at times when exploring new colonies so that I could actually see the faces of the NPCs I talked to.

I can't talk about this game without mentioning how hilarious it is. One of the boss battles being fighting a WHOLE FERRONIS? Some fat ape in the starting area having better stats than the FINAL BOSS? Who exactly IS Riku, the "common variety nopon"? Why was he there when Leonardo DaVinci painted the Mona Lisa, or when Napoleon conquered Europe? Why is his voice so FUNNY? This whole time he had a blade that could destroy Flame Clocks and he only gives it to someone now after all this time? An old person in the City named BOOMER? Eunie being a VEHICLE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION? Welsh people pronouncing "WATER"? Anything Ghondor or Triton SAYS? The British slang? Bollocks? Mudder? Spoon? Muppet? Queen's beans? The party just rushing off and leaving Queen Nia at Cloudkeep, not even offering to bring her to Agnus Castle or at least the City? Nia bringing out her real personality after Melia tells her to put down her royal facade? All of it is truly part of the Xenoblade experience.

Most of what makes the game funny are the quality characters. The characters are quirky and unique in their own way and watching them interact and settle into their dynamic was a highlight of the game. The changing classes cutscene was the funniest thing ever too because it canonically explained a game mechanic in the story, which is a bit like breaking the fourth wall. But to summarize, Noah and Mio are like the serious ones that act like a Mom and Dad for the party sometimes. Noah deeply reflects about life and what they're doing and has a deep respect for the dead and Mio keeps a diary and cherishes life the same because she's dying soon. Eunie is probably the funniest in the group, she has a tomboyish, no-nonsense attitude and loves to bicker with anyone because of it. I found it funny when I expected her to become better friends with Mio and Sena after meeting them because they're also girls, but she never really vibes with them to that level and still hangs out with the guys, including even Taion. Lanz is great because he acts all tough and mean on the outside but he's actually super nice, has strong values about morality, and really fits his role in being a protector of other people. He's the type of guy you want on your team because he's someone you can depend on. Taion is the classic know-it-all who is arrogant because of it and learns to gain humility later, but his character goes deeper than that if you learn about his story. Sena's arc consist of the typical girl with no self-esteem who learns to love who she is. She's a funny and extremely endearing character (with her jarring American valley girl accent) who appears so innocent but packs the biggest punch in the party. It's funny how the game treats her and Lanz as the least intelligent party members too with their starting TP in chain attacks. In short, Eunie's the boss, Lanz is the MVP (you were all thinking it), and Sena's the girl with the gall.

A lot of RPGs have the main character start weak and have them progress to get strong at the end. While this game obviously has it too with the level 1 to 99 system, the addition of the Ouroboros forms made it feel like they were given a wild power from the start and just had to learn how to use it. So it made it feel like they couldn't really lose, but they couldn't really win either unless they figured things out. This makes sense for the story because they would be hopeless without such power against a much more powerful enemy that controlled their world. They would be dead from the first boss, in fact, who was already destroying everything in sight in chapter 1, not even a Ferronis could do anything against a Moebius. So they needed those Pacific Rim jaegers (seriously, they even gain each other's thoughts and memories when they interlink). To add to this, Noah has Lucky Seven from the very start and is basically overpowered from the beginning of their journey, he just doesn't use it that much. As always, it can't be a Xenoblade game without the main character wielding some legendary sci-fi-looking sword with incredible powers (it's in the name). I think my favourite part of the story was in the middle of chapter 4 when Lanz says to Noah, "You know Noah, after all we've been through, I think it's safe to say this really has been the Xenoblade Chronicles 3."

Speaking of Ouroboros and Moebius, I thought the main plot regarding these two types of infinities was clever. One infinity is about staying the same eternally, resisting change, and permanence, represented by the Mobius strip. The other infinity is about the cycle of death and rebirth eternally, changing with the flow of time, and impermanence, represented by the mythical serpent eating its own tail. So essentially the plot is about the clash of these two types of concepts. Melia even explains the final boss, Z, isn't a person or entity, but a concept. The party is literally fighting the "endless now," which is a metaphor for how we in life struggle to keep things the same in an ever-changing world. This metaphor was shown best through the story of Noah and Mio, or N and M. N was a man who wanted nothing more than to stay with his wife and son forever. But it's a hopeless dream, and even if it's successful, M showed that living such a life would feel more stuck than free. Life is impermanent and resisting change is an evil. Those who turn out fine in life versus those who don't are just, as Noah puts it in the ending, lucky. That's all we can do, just live life and get lucky sometimes, and unlucky sometimes. That is the takeaway from the game's story. In the heartbreaking ending when their two worlds were drifting apart, the moment we didn't want the party to separate, we became Moebius. Anyway, that's my essay analysis of the story.

But enough about what makes this game good. What about the flaws? I still think it's a near-perfect game. Definitely one of my favourites of all time. But it does have some flaws that if tweaked could make the game much better in my opinion. I think more war should've been shown between the colonies of Keves and Agnus. We only saw one battle, which was the beginning sequence, and the stakes felt real. It was a really great hook for the story. But it drops off after there and the urgency of replenishing Flame Clocks seems to die off, which made me question how often they even need to kill each other. Once a week? Once a month? Once a year?

Related to the first thing, the sense of urgency of the entire world hunting down the main party after they gained Ouroboros died down quickly after the Colony 4 sequence as well. It seems like you can just return to old colonies and befriend them, even take out their Flame Clocks so they start befriending other colonies, and the urgency of the whole world being their enemy vanishes midgame. It's not a pacing issue, it's just a plot conflicting with game mechanics issue. Obviously I DO want to return to old colonies and do side quests for them and interact with old heroes, but sometimes it doesn't fit with the plot. (RIP Ethel. Also, there's no way all of the soldiers are never biologically older than 20 years old, Ethel looks, sounds, and acts in her mid 20s.)

The entire ending could be better, but it was still very good. I don't know the specifics of HOW it could be better, but I just feel like it could be. Perhaps show more cutscenes of the other colonies joining the fight against Origin? Not just Colony 4? More interactions with the Queens we just freed, who are beloved characters of the franchise? Just a few more interactions post-final-boss? People did say the story peaked on the transition from chapter 5 to 6, and I can see where they're coming from, although I disagree when they say the ending was bad, though. It definitely wasn't, it was a great ending. It just could be improved, perhaps extend the whole point-of-no-return sequence, making the scale bigger, making the stakes more felt. Why not a side quest or cutscene about helping the City prepare for war against Origin?

The game is arguably the longest out of the three mainline games. I don't know any specifics, perhaps the others are longer, all I know is the fact it has 7 chapters only while the other ones had way more is an illusion because each chapter is pretty long and there's a lot of side content which adds to your playtime overall. The game's length is not a true issue, but if the plot was longer, I would definitely consider that as an improvement because I can't get enough of these characters! There are a TON of side quests though, so there's that.

The game is too easy, even on hard. Only for someone experienced in playing games. Someone new will find it hard. But enemies should have more gimmicks that challenge you to switch up strategies or classes in a difficulty level even higher than the highest one, to fully take advantage of the new class system of the series. I played on hard and while the beginning DID have that challenge I craved for where I had to really think about what I was doing, when the bonus EXP rolled in later on everything became a cakewalk. I understand you don't have to take the bonus EXP at rest spots, but the decision to make your game harder should not exist, it should just be hard if you want the difficulty to be hard.

Related to the last point, the final boss should be hard no matter what level you are. The gimmicks he had were in the right direction, such as changing the terrain or splitting your party, something no other boss did, but they weren't good enough. At higher levels they feel more like a minor annoyance than a challenge. Perhaps changing the boss's level to match the player's party no matter what it is, would be a good idea, to counteract the player being overleveled when they reach him. Especially since the final boss is going to be a unique enemy anyway, making him harder no matter if he's the same level as you, and if the game developers thought it would be too hard for new players, then make this a feature exclusive to the harder difficulties and not the lower ones. It's that simple.

Overall, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was an absolutely phenomenal delight from start to finish. If you want to be Moebius and have it never end, there's also a DLC and a New Game+ option. There's plenty of side quests. There's also some post-game content on purpose, such as Triton's Soulhacker class which asks you to re-defeat all unique monsters in the game to level it up for fun to create some insane builds, or the 5 secret superbosses that go past the level cap of 99. Or you can be one of those chain attack damage maximizers, there's a whole community of people and world-record holders doing it. Whatever you choose to do, if you decide to play this game be ready for countless hours and hours of fun, humour, depression, and everything in between. In my opinion it's one of the best games I've ever played. (I want a nopon plushie of Riku.)

It was great exploring the world and all the references to the past two games. The story is also the most mature in the series. Everything about this game was just brilliant. It might stay a trilogy since all loose ends were tied up in the story (except for a couple unanswered mysteries), but if they ever make a fourth game, which they probably will, with a totally new set of characters and story, I just know it's going to be amazing too. I can't wait to see the next adventure the Xenoblade games will offer.

P.S. I can't believe the hardest choice in the game is about Mio's hairstyle

There's a lot to say about this game that I don't know where to start. I suppose I'll start by saying the rating I'm giving it is not a measure of how good I think the game is but how much I enjoyed it. The game is extremely fun, in fact I had a blast with it that I didn't want to put it down until I completed it. In addition, it's extremely hilarious, I laughed out loud several times. From the start, it was clear that the tone of the game was supposed to be lighthearted and fun. For me, that's the biggest thing that matters about a game, the enjoyment factor, but there's still a lot of details about this game that make it far from perfect.

First of all, let's start with the obvious: the game is incomplete. It both feels incomplete, in that so many features feel missing or are in the game but are completely useless, and it literally is incomplete, with the whole messy history of the developer team going defunct, where they promised to patch many of the game's huge issues. The biggest one being the infamous glitch that locks you out of one of the monsters needed in a side quest to get one of the characters, Zahra, which now I'll never get to play her unless I start a new run.

Second of all, the story is not bad overall, but it could seriously be improved. I understand rushing the beginning to get players engaged in the game right away, but the whole beginning situation just didn't feel real. It doesn't make sense how OK Ajna becomes with bringing along Dhar in her head after he just killed her father, and how fast she disregards the whole inner realm thing too, not even having a goal to find help or someone to explain it to her (which I suppose fits with her character). And then it doesn't make sense how Dhar fights in her party now, and even fights the soldiers of Ravannavar's army, when realistically he should've refused to fight. There are big plot holes like this which are actual issues, but other ones I understand are just played for laughs and are just really funny, like when Ajna says a big bird will save them if they jump off the fortress and a big bird actually saves them. That was hilarious. There are no real issues for the plot in moments like those.

I could go on, but as many problems the game has (which are fixable), there are a lot of good things about it too. Number one is easily the endearing cast of unique and interesting characters. I loved all of them. Razmi was particularly interesting because she talked a lot the whole game since you picked her up early, and she was absolutely HILARIOUS. She's easily one of the characters that makes the game the game that it is. I thought Zebei summed up what I thought about the cast best when he said, "Frankly I don't know how you can all stand each other."

With such a big cast it only makes sense that only a select few would have any meaningful character arcs. Ajna was insufferable, but I suppose that was the point. She did learn from her mistakes in the end even though she made many of them time after time. Not everyone learns from one failure, sometimes it takes several. Dhar had a great arc and actually turned quite likable near the end of the game after he got past his naive phase (of which was also insufferable). Even Razmi had a small arc during your goodbye to her near the ending. Overall, the characters and their arcs were great.

The gameplay is split mainly into the combat sequences and platforming sequences. The combat gameplay is relatively unique from my understanding, being inspired by one other game in the past, and it is very fun. I've heard others say it can get repetetive which is totally true but if you're the type of person that likes to mix up things and deviate from optimal strategies for fun then it doesn't get boring at all. The fact that the developer made a fighting game before this one is all you need to know about the style of combat of the game. It's mashy, flashy, fast-paced, very engaging, and requires skill and good inputs. I enjoyed it a lot. But I believe it could have been harder, and I have two improvement ideas for that.

The first is to abolish the invisible enemy turns and let the enemy attack whenever they want to just like your party (but only to your idle party members). The battles are usually you mashing your attacks, then running out of action points so you wait for the enemy's attacks and then you block them. I imagined it would be more fun if as you attack with one party member, an enemy would attack another idle party member, and battles would be chaotic as you had to dish out damage and block attacks at the same time. I understand this would completely change the combat system and make it much more difficult, but it would be more fun for me personally.

The second would be to give enemies a variety of more gimmicks. There were plenty in the game, but I found that only once was I ever forced to actually switch up my party and strategy to win. That fight being, of course, the Slime Queen who damages any melee attackers who get close to her. Me losing the first time, learning that, and then making my whole party range attackers to counter it was good game design. That was making enemies difficult but not unfair, in contrast to just giving them more health and damage. If more enemies had gimmicks like that that forced me to strategize a bit more, I think the game would be more challenging overall and I would have enjoyed it more.

The platforming was also really fun. The controls were buttery smooth and satisfying, which is all you need to have fun for a platformer. That and good level design, which I feel this game accomplished well. I didn't find any major issues in the level design, no major cheats to bypass locked areas I wasn't supposed to reach yet or anything. Mount Sumeru particularly stood out, forcing you to use every platforming ability you gained throughout the whole game. The backtracking could be annoying for some, but that's the point of a Metroidvania-style game and it was done really well here. I've heard others claim that the platforming gets hard later on, which is true, but it's not extremely difficult by any standards. Sure I was frustrated at times but it's mostly due to my skill issue and not the game itself.

Finally, the setting of the game is another thing that completely sets this game apart and makes it stand out. Many other reviews do claim that it truly is an underrepresented setting. The cultures shown in this game are distinctly South Asian, Central Asian, Southeast Asian, African, Native South American, as well as a mix of many others. Though the world is fictional, I still got that buzz of exploring different cultures I'm not usually exposed to in any form of media while playing the game. With Ajna, her village, the save bells, Kala, Heruka, Tungar, rebirth and reincarnation being distinctly Indian; with Tai Krung being distinctly, well, Hong Kong, with Ohma being the most obvious reference to the Opium crisis ever made (and a beloved Jollibee reference for the Filipinos!) and Baozhai reminding me a lot of the real pirate Zheng Yi Sao; with Zebei, Mushi, and Lhan being distinctly Mongolian or Tibetan, with Nuna and Kaanul being distinctly ancient native american; with Port Maerifa reminding me a lot of Morocco, and much, much more. In fact, someone had asked me, "What time period even is this game?" as I played. It's cool seing that many cultures blended together to make a fictional world that simply works. Plus, one of the playable characters is a pettable Tibetan Mastiff dog, which ultimately, immediately, definitively makes this one of the best games ever.

Overall, this game's unparalleled fun dishing out devastating combos as if it were a fighting game, along with its great platforming design, along with the huge cast of endearing, lovable, hilarious characters, along with its great art, along with its super unique setting, and more, conquers any real hate I have for this game and its big issues. I don't know anything about the whole controversy that the developer team went through which left this game in the dust for any hope of future patches and game quality improvements. I don't know what's true or not true about the situation, but all I know is that the bugs will likely never get fixed and this good game will lose out on all that massive potential to be a really great game. But despite that, I really enjoyed this game so it's still a favourite of mine. It would be a five star if it does get improved a lot and it actually gets completed. For now, enjoy it as it is.