Before I get into it, vague spoiler warning for most other Xeno series games in this review (especially Xenogears).

Xenoblade Chronicles 3, as any game, has a lot of different aspects to it. Some parts hit hard, and some parts are a miss. I don't want to sound too negative about a game that I genuinely enjoyed my time with, especially being part of my favorite series in the world, so I'll go over some positives first.

The cast of characters were all highly lovable and enjoyable. The Xenoblade series in particular often has some aspect of its main party lacking; in Xenoblade 1, the party were all united in their feelings of revenge and felt like a team, however as individual characters some are not as fleshed out as they could have been; in Xenoblade 2, most of the cast feels three dimensional with great writing, but the dynamic between them was simply lacking. Xenoblade 3 rectifies this by taking the best of both worlds: the strong interparty dynamic of 1 and the great character writing of 2. All of the flavor text present in 3, the dialogue when entering a new area, unique interactions with NPCs, banter with the hero characters, serves to make the cast feel that much more alive and like a real group of friends. The post-battle dialogue is a little lacking, but everything else more than makes up for it. Even throughout the story, it truly feels like everyone gets some chance to shine. Of course, there are some that get the spotlight slightly more than others, but Takahashi did not lie when he said that he intended for the final script count from the main six to be about equal. I think the only other game(s) in the Xeno series that have a party which nails both of these points is Xenosaga, especially since we have multiple protagonists throughout it, so it’s certainly impressive that 20 years later we finally get something similar.

I'm also very glad that the story does not seem to be very pushy about its romantic pairings. Xeno has had issues with that in the past (we do not talk about the photograph of the cast of 2 at the ending, that is proof enough of the problems), but in this game that's very much a nonissue. Taion and Eunie only have a couple throwaway lines that could be interpreted as such, and Lanz and Sena have practically nothing at all. It's just nice to see everyone as friends instead. Noah and Mio, the main romance, have a genuinely good dynamic as well. I'll admit, they aren't my favorite canon Xeno romance (Fei and Elly FTW, plus I consider Shion/KOS-MOS to be real as hell), but for what they are they're very cute; much better than whatever was going on in XBC1 and 2, to say the least.

On the topic of Xenogears, I also want to make a side note that I absolutely adore the callbacks. N and M paralleling Grahf and Miang to Noah and Mio's Fei and Elly was awesome. Chapter 5 revealing that they are alternate versions of each other, with M having Miang's body hopping powers (albeit executed differently) and N retaining his memories from his past lives made me super excited; the Contact and the Antitype much, anybody? Even at the end, when N and M sacrifice themselves to protect the party/the world, I was reminded of Grahf's sacrifice. (I might be a little biased though because Grahf/Lacan and Elly are some of my favorite characters, haha).

I briefly also want to mention the gameplay. Gameplay is usually not make-or-break for me, as I find the story and its characters to be what I care most about, but I just can’t not praise it. Genuinely, this is the best gameplay that the Xenoblade series has ever had. It is a perfect combination of 1 and 2’s battle systems which takes the best aspects of both. The hero system is really fun, a much improved version of the Blade system from XBC2 without the infamous gacha, and the classes are super fun to mix and match and experiment with.

However, the game is not without its faults, as I'm sure you can gleam by my rating of it. In particular, it is the story itself that falls flat for me. Some aspects of it hit truly hard, like the fact that it looped back to the opening cutscene is fucking cool as hell. Others though, not so much.

This game was banked upon being the culmination of the numbered Xenoblade games, a combination of both 1 and 2. I don't mind it not being a direct sequel, I actually vastly prefer it that way, but I do feel somewhat cheated out of what I was expecting. After waiting for 5 years after 2's release, with the lore it expanded upon the Xenoblade series, this just feels like a let down. Where are any mentions of the Conduit? the Trinity Processor?

Furthermore, Future Connected was said to tie in directly to the future of the series, and aside from Melia having World Ender, seeing the Monado Replica EX, and hearing the remixed battle theme when in battle with her as a Hero (which is really amazing, might I add), there is barely any mention to it at all. What about the Fogbeasts? the Telethia research? It makes sense that this is not a perfect combination of the worlds given that it is stuck in a timeloop, but that conclusion is unsatisfying to me. While it does capture the Xeno vibes perfectly, if it were not a numbered Blade game I would have liked it that much more. It just feels like a tease after all that we were expecting for so many years, and the hype leading up to it.

The villains especially, I find, were largely uninteresting. Some were cool (I absolutely adore Joran, his narrative really hit hard for me), but most were very one note. Moebius in general were not as fleshed out as I would have liked them to be and left me with more questions than answers. They are the culmination of the peoples’ anxieties about the two worlds remerging, but how is it that the people even knew about the two worlds merging to begin with? As far as we know, it is only the party of XBC2 that knew the world was cut in twain, due to hearing this from the man that started it all directly. Not even in XBC1 does the party find out that there is a parallel dimension to theirs, only that Klaus reset the universe to create a new one in his hubris (I blame this on Alvis’s bastardly tendencies, but that is beside the point). Moebius—and Z, by extension—are interesting in theory, but are truly lacking in execution. They are a far cry from Xenoblade’s other villains.

This could just be my personal take, but I find that Z did not feel quite as all-encompassing as neither Zanza nor Malos. By the end of both XBC1 and XBC2, you truly feel as though you are fighting the culmination of all of your efforts in order to set things right. This is true in XBC3 as well, but it feels much more self-contained as opposed to the astronomical scale the Xenoblade series has done before. Saga and Gears have had “conceptual” final bosses as well, but the stakes did feel higher; again, it makes sense within the plot the scale on which Z is the villain, but I take issue with that in of itself. Regardless, as a character, Z had next to no substance to him aside from being what he is.

With all my criticism, I do not want to come across as too harsh. I did still tear up at the ending of the game, particularly the thematic significance of Noah throwing away Lucky Seven and moving on with his life just as he had been advocating for throughout the story (though it does bother me we do not know much of the lore behind it, still). Some parts of the game truly felt like coming home, finding the Distant Fingertip again in this game made me more emotional than anything—almost replicating the wonder I felt when I first played XBC1 as a young teen. The message XBC3 aims to convey, about moving on from trauma and looking forward to the future regardless of whatever may come, is a beautiful one. This thematic significance certainly does fit with the rest of the Blade games, what with XBC1’s narrative about seizing one’s own destiny and XBC2’s finding value in one’s life. However, as a conclusion to this sub trilogy of game, I do not find it satisfying. At its core, the numbered Xenoblade games follow the story of what happens when a mad scientist seeks the divine and destroys everything in the process, and XBC3 lacks the final conclusion by being set right before it would have happened. I definitely would have enjoyed it more if it either lost all reference to the previous games to stand on its own, or bridged that gap properly. What we are left with is a flimsy suspension connecting the two, rather than the iron road I had imagined. Perhaps it is my fault for having expectations that were too high, but Takahashi has proven time and time again that his works deserve it.

TL;DR: This is a great game, but not a great sequel. I really enjoyed my time with it (and I’m not done yet! I’m still doing the postgame, which has some really amazing content), despite all of the criticisms I have, and perhaps with time my thoughts will change. I do highly encourage anyone to play this themselves and form their own opinion on it, though. This is just my own opinion, after all. :)

I’d also like to add that I’m very excited about the upcoming story DLC. Perhaps I should temper my expectations lest I be disappointed again, but after what TTGC did to XBC2, it’s difficult not to be. If the DLC addresses that which was lost, especially given its breadth, my opinion of this game will most certainly improve. Here’s to hoping it’ll be good!