This solidifies Xenoblade 3 as one of my all time favorite games. The base game already left this impression but I was still leaning towards the first game as my favorite. I think with this DLC it pushes it to being the best in the series in terms of character writing and gameplay mechanics. I really adored this. I’m a casual Kingdom Hearts fan and love 1 and 2 but didn’t invest myself in the side games enough for 3 to be satisfying, but now I think I know what it feels like to have done that. Everything in Future Redeemed felt like a loving payoff for investing myself in this series. The base game was a great conclusion imo, but obviously lacked those fan service elements which is where this expansion came in - though not at the sacrifice of new characters and providing more context to 3 overall. It didn’t overdo its fan service which I appreciate.

I’ve been with the series since it came to the states on Wii. It started as a weird game my friend showed me one day while at his apartment. It was inside of a Wii that he purchased from Goodwill oddly enough. I was so intrigued I tracked down an at the time rare copy to play it myself. I was instantly obsessed. I knew it was an all timer the second I beat it.
I remember how excited I was for X as well but it being detached from 1’s narrative was disappointing to me at the time despite being really fun. With the series complete now I really wish I had a way to revisit X - it was a ton of fun.
Then of course came 2, an actual sequel. When it came out I was insanely put off by the writing and dropped it - eventually I returned to give it a second chance a year later after hearing so many good things. It was 100% worth it. XC2 is a masterful game despite my issues with it. It’s a shame so many wave it off based on questionable writing moments and character designs, but I’m so glad I gave it a second chance because I adore it now and its expansion.

XC3 based on its trailers was obviously the game tying 1 and 2 together. I was beyond excited for it - maybe one of the games in my life I’ve anticipated the most prior to release. I love it so much. This trilogy is incredibly special to me. The themes strike me in a very deep personal way. The characters are some of my favorites in all of gaming, and the combat systems are my favorite in the whole JRPG genre. Takahashi is a true architect. The world he’s crafted feels like an unreal accomplishment. I wish I had experience with gears and saga too. I trust that anything he is involved with is at least ambitious and thought provoking.

I can’t wait to see what’s next from him. Im glad the story around the Klaus experiment ended in such a satisfying way. Not a single xenoblade entry or expansion was lacking in quality - maybe future connected was a bit whatever in terms of the story, but it was a free addition to an amazing remaster that adds some necessary context for 3 so it succeeds in its goal.

This has been vague but I’m intentionally staying spoiler free. I just wanna say that Matthew also turned out to be a brilliant protagonist. Nikol and Glimmer maybe don’t get as much focus as they deserved, but every character here was well done and worked perfectly for the story here. It makes me want to replay 3 immediately as I know this expansion will only improve everything about it. So many things are given new contexts and make a perfect game even better. Xenoblade 3 is a masterpiece. This trilogy as a whole is a masterpiece. Each game has specific flaws of course, but the big picture of it all works too well for me to dwell on those.