Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a genuine masterwork and a huge accomplishment from Monolith Soft. I have played every game in the Xenoblade series, and I can safely say that this entry is my favorite one so far.
For starters I want to talk about the narrative, it's characters, and the game's themes. As a departure from the series' normal themes, the focus is less on godhood and more focused on humanity. The main theme of the game is about time, specifically grief, generational trauma, and how we move on from tragic experiences, and even accepting death. I won't go too deep into spoilers, but many of the characters struggle with having to move on from their own difficult experiences. In a way it's a story about self-acceptance and learning to come to terms with your shortcomings. It's all about growing up and becoming a stronger person. All this is rounded out by a wonderful cast that all feel very deep and all shine in their own special qualities. The main cast in particular is one of my favorites in a JRPG, as they all go through so much character development, and in the end feel like a family to one another. Each Hero character as well all feel great to explore more of and learn more about them and their identities further. This is complemented by excellent voice acting and writing which really makes all the characters come to life.
Now to talk about the gameplay. Xenoblade's combat has always been divisive as it's always leaned towards fairly unconventional MMORPG combat which some may find unintuitive or sluggish compared to other RPGs on the market. However I can safely say that I think Xenoblade 3's combat strikes an excellent middle ground by offering something that's both fast-paced and engaging. Battles are much quicker than in previous installments and give you much more approach options. For starters you now have a dash button which makes fights a lot faster especially if you want to traverse to a certain area. Another thing that improves the combat is Fusion Arts. Like in previous games you can customize your Arts, however there is a whole separate selection of Arts you can equip from your partners. This allows you to form stronger moves between two Arts which creates more variety.
Two completely new additions to the combat are the Ouroborus system and the Class Change system. For Ouroborus attacks you can fuse between two partners that are linked with one another to form an Interlink. This is between three levels, when to switch to Interlinking is up to you. Do you do it at a lower level to quickly deal up more damage, or do you wait till it gets to max level to get more benefits from it? It all depends on your approach. For the Class System this is tied to the game's Heroes system. Heroes are different characters you can recruit to fill a seventh slot in your party, you do this by doing certain quests which also allows your party to equip their skills depending on who the inheriter is. The Class Change system adds a lot more variety to battles, as you'll never have the same approach if you keep changing classes.
Then there is the world and map design. Out of all the games in the series this is probably the most robust and expansive world as there's just so much to do. There's aformentioned Hero and Ascension Quests, but outside of that you can find secret areas like dungeons, locations such as Ferronis's which give you special benefits, and find tons of rare Monsters to fight. There's so much to do in the world and I especially enjoy doing the Quests which are the best in the series and really help to flesh out the world of Ionis. This is backed by a beautiful score by Yasunori Mitsuda, from the sweeping orchestral tracks to the metal guitarist battle themes, not a single track in the game fell flat for me.
All-in-all, in the three months and 100 hours total I spent on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I think it's one of the finest games I've played in some time. I felt so many different emotions while playing and was moved to tears up to the very final moments of the game. I think this is a game everyone should play at some point in their lives, and I could not recommend it enough. This is a game for the ages.
For starters I want to talk about the narrative, it's characters, and the game's themes. As a departure from the series' normal themes, the focus is less on godhood and more focused on humanity. The main theme of the game is about time, specifically grief, generational trauma, and how we move on from tragic experiences, and even accepting death. I won't go too deep into spoilers, but many of the characters struggle with having to move on from their own difficult experiences. In a way it's a story about self-acceptance and learning to come to terms with your shortcomings. It's all about growing up and becoming a stronger person. All this is rounded out by a wonderful cast that all feel very deep and all shine in their own special qualities. The main cast in particular is one of my favorites in a JRPG, as they all go through so much character development, and in the end feel like a family to one another. Each Hero character as well all feel great to explore more of and learn more about them and their identities further. This is complemented by excellent voice acting and writing which really makes all the characters come to life.
Now to talk about the gameplay. Xenoblade's combat has always been divisive as it's always leaned towards fairly unconventional MMORPG combat which some may find unintuitive or sluggish compared to other RPGs on the market. However I can safely say that I think Xenoblade 3's combat strikes an excellent middle ground by offering something that's both fast-paced and engaging. Battles are much quicker than in previous installments and give you much more approach options. For starters you now have a dash button which makes fights a lot faster especially if you want to traverse to a certain area. Another thing that improves the combat is Fusion Arts. Like in previous games you can customize your Arts, however there is a whole separate selection of Arts you can equip from your partners. This allows you to form stronger moves between two Arts which creates more variety.
Two completely new additions to the combat are the Ouroborus system and the Class Change system. For Ouroborus attacks you can fuse between two partners that are linked with one another to form an Interlink. This is between three levels, when to switch to Interlinking is up to you. Do you do it at a lower level to quickly deal up more damage, or do you wait till it gets to max level to get more benefits from it? It all depends on your approach. For the Class System this is tied to the game's Heroes system. Heroes are different characters you can recruit to fill a seventh slot in your party, you do this by doing certain quests which also allows your party to equip their skills depending on who the inheriter is. The Class Change system adds a lot more variety to battles, as you'll never have the same approach if you keep changing classes.
Then there is the world and map design. Out of all the games in the series this is probably the most robust and expansive world as there's just so much to do. There's aformentioned Hero and Ascension Quests, but outside of that you can find secret areas like dungeons, locations such as Ferronis's which give you special benefits, and find tons of rare Monsters to fight. There's so much to do in the world and I especially enjoy doing the Quests which are the best in the series and really help to flesh out the world of Ionis. This is backed by a beautiful score by Yasunori Mitsuda, from the sweeping orchestral tracks to the metal guitarist battle themes, not a single track in the game fell flat for me.
All-in-all, in the three months and 100 hours total I spent on Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I think it's one of the finest games I've played in some time. I felt so many different emotions while playing and was moved to tears up to the very final moments of the game. I think this is a game everyone should play at some point in their lives, and I could not recommend it enough. This is a game for the ages.