My most anticipated game in a long time, Xenoblade 2 is my favorite piece of media so I had high expectations.
And to be honest, I'm a little let down.
Don't get me wrong, I still liked the game!
As of now I would rank it higher than 1 but lower than 2.
I've come to realize that my expectations and hopes have been placed wrong.
Before release I let my mind run wild with theorizing what we would be seeing in the game.
Among Xeno fans there were crazy theories going around about how XC3 would be the game to tie Xenoblade together with Xenosaga and Xenogears and all sorts of outlandish and hopeful speculations.
To the point where I started to expect Aionios to be reference city, I wanted the story to revolve around the worlds of XC1 and XC2 interacting with each other, I wanted to see the cast of both games come together, not these new people!
I wanted this game to be a direct sequel to XC1 and XC2, not for it to be it's own game.
And so I set far too high an expectation for Xenoblade 3.
I merely hope now that, in time I can begin to appreciate the game more for itself.
----------------
World
The setup for Aionios is really cool: the worlds from XC1 and XC2 have collided and have shaped a combined but also wholly new world to explore.
And I quite like it, there are very pretty environments and only a few empty feeling areas.
I got very excited each time I found a location from one of the earlier titles, my only wish being that they resembled their previous iterations more. Some of the returning locations look unrecognizably different.
Story
The story overall was perfectly serviceable, it has some great moments but I was not as interested as I would've liked in most of the characters we meet in the game, the villains specifically I did not like.
The side characters were also very forgettable as they get no screentime after their little episode, which is not very long for most of them.
I had a lot of questions going into it and most of them sadly went unanswered for the entire game, those that did get answered only were in the final cutscene.
I felt a distinct lack of moments that made us discover something new about the world, the kind of scenes that gives you some answers but even more questions.
This leads to the story feeling more empty, where I cannot remember many significant things happening looking back, it all feels like filler until we get to our objective.
Gameplay
During the first gameplay trailer I got a little nervous when I saw how much the combat seemed to resemble XC1, if there was one thing I was not looking forward to it was standing still and waiting for cooldowns.
Thankfully this was not the case.
The combat is fun and a good mix between XC1 and XC2.
The way arts recharge based on which world the class originates from is a great touch.
I really enjoyed the class system, it brings with it a large amount of customizability for your party and gives steady progression in the depth of combat.
The heroes were not as indepth as I hoped them to be.
The fact that they aren't more unique than one of the main party in their class or that you cannot control them makes them feel like an add-on or filler, just put on whatever class you're lacking and it'll work fine.
The new chain attack is pretty cool.
Each character having their own 'order' to fulfill is an interesting concept.
I do think they are all a bit too similar though, as they pretty much just boil down to 'do more damage'.
Luckily the heroes orders are all quite unique.
My biggest gripe by far being that the chain attack takes way too long to execute, you are essentially watching the same small cutscenes over and over again.
Getting a successful chain attack is also not challenging, you always get to do the same amount of orders as long as you're not heavily messing up, making it feel more like a free damage button rather than a challenge with a big payoff.
Music
The music has been less noticeable for me, there were few times where I stopped to listen to the music.
I am very excited to take my time and listen to the entire soundtrack and I have no doubt I will find some tracks that I will love but have simply missed while playing.
----------------
All in all I still enjoyed this game.
I am very excited to keep discovering more cool things within it and I will be anxiously awaiting the future content.
And to be honest, I'm a little let down.
Don't get me wrong, I still liked the game!
As of now I would rank it higher than 1 but lower than 2.
I've come to realize that my expectations and hopes have been placed wrong.
Before release I let my mind run wild with theorizing what we would be seeing in the game.
Among Xeno fans there were crazy theories going around about how XC3 would be the game to tie Xenoblade together with Xenosaga and Xenogears and all sorts of outlandish and hopeful speculations.
To the point where I started to expect Aionios to be reference city, I wanted the story to revolve around the worlds of XC1 and XC2 interacting with each other, I wanted to see the cast of both games come together, not these new people!
I wanted this game to be a direct sequel to XC1 and XC2, not for it to be it's own game.
And so I set far too high an expectation for Xenoblade 3.
I merely hope now that, in time I can begin to appreciate the game more for itself.
----------------
World
The setup for Aionios is really cool: the worlds from XC1 and XC2 have collided and have shaped a combined but also wholly new world to explore.
And I quite like it, there are very pretty environments and only a few empty feeling areas.
I got very excited each time I found a location from one of the earlier titles, my only wish being that they resembled their previous iterations more. Some of the returning locations look unrecognizably different.
Story
The story overall was perfectly serviceable, it has some great moments but I was not as interested as I would've liked in most of the characters we meet in the game, the villains specifically I did not like.
The side characters were also very forgettable as they get no screentime after their little episode, which is not very long for most of them.
I had a lot of questions going into it and most of them sadly went unanswered for the entire game, those that did get answered only were in the final cutscene.
I felt a distinct lack of moments that made us discover something new about the world, the kind of scenes that gives you some answers but even more questions.
This leads to the story feeling more empty, where I cannot remember many significant things happening looking back, it all feels like filler until we get to our objective.
Gameplay
During the first gameplay trailer I got a little nervous when I saw how much the combat seemed to resemble XC1, if there was one thing I was not looking forward to it was standing still and waiting for cooldowns.
Thankfully this was not the case.
The combat is fun and a good mix between XC1 and XC2.
The way arts recharge based on which world the class originates from is a great touch.
I really enjoyed the class system, it brings with it a large amount of customizability for your party and gives steady progression in the depth of combat.
The heroes were not as indepth as I hoped them to be.
The fact that they aren't more unique than one of the main party in their class or that you cannot control them makes them feel like an add-on or filler, just put on whatever class you're lacking and it'll work fine.
The new chain attack is pretty cool.
Each character having their own 'order' to fulfill is an interesting concept.
I do think they are all a bit too similar though, as they pretty much just boil down to 'do more damage'.
Luckily the heroes orders are all quite unique.
My biggest gripe by far being that the chain attack takes way too long to execute, you are essentially watching the same small cutscenes over and over again.
Getting a successful chain attack is also not challenging, you always get to do the same amount of orders as long as you're not heavily messing up, making it feel more like a free damage button rather than a challenge with a big payoff.
Music
The music has been less noticeable for me, there were few times where I stopped to listen to the music.
I am very excited to take my time and listen to the entire soundtrack and I have no doubt I will find some tracks that I will love but have simply missed while playing.
----------------
All in all I still enjoyed this game.
I am very excited to keep discovering more cool things within it and I will be anxiously awaiting the future content.