“So look up, face forward, towards your chosen horizon, and just... walk on.”

Xenoblade Chronicles is a series that I have become very fond of. I was enamored by the story of the first Xenoblade Chronicles game and adored the colorful cast of characters. On the contrary, I detested Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I disliked how the story was aiming to execute multiple half-baked ideas at once, just for it to fall flat. The day Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced, I was on cloud nine. I had only finished the first Xenoblade Chronicles game at the time, but this announcement and my friend raving to me about the game is what convinced me to push through and finally play Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has a very compelling story on its hands. The world of Aionios, which is the combination of Bionis and Alrest, has two nations. One nation is Keves, which serves as the connection to Xenoblade Chronicles, and the other is Agnus, which serves as the connection to Xenoblade Chronicles 2. These can be reflected when using classes in combat. When using a Keves class, the arts recharge over time as they did in Xenoblade Chronicles but when using an Agnus class, the arts recharge from auto-attacks as they did in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. All these two nations know is combat and their lives under the Flame Clock, which is tied to how much killing said colony does and to the survival of the colony people. Because of the Flame Clocks, there is no sense of choice or freedom, which is ironic knowing that the reason behind why this “world” was created, is the slow realization that we, the audience come to recognize alongside Noah, Eunie, and Lanz, three characters from the Keves Colony 9, and Mio, Sena, and Taion, three characters from the Agnus Colony Gamma.

To give some introspection into our factions, both “Keves” and “Agnus” (an abbreviation for Agnus Dei) mean lamb in Latin and Hebrew respectively. Aionios means “eternal life” in Greek, which is the “endless now” that Z was aiming for when freezing the world. In a religious setting, lambs are a metaphorical reference for being sacrificed to God as a way to obtain forgiveness for sin. This shows that in the world of Aionios under Z, Keves and Agnus are seen as sinful. This is why they “sacrifice” themselves through battle and the Flame Clocks: so the “lambs” (the people) that are sacrificed can create the “eternal life” that Z desires. This allegory that frames the story is fascinating due to its connections to religion and the overarching theme of the story.

The cast of characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is my favorite cast of characters in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. The characters are brimming with personality and bounce off one another so naturally. I love that we have our main six characters in the cast from start to finish. The characters’ development feels more natural and organic this way. At first, there was bitterness and hostility between the characters since all they knew was fighting each other and the propaganda they were fed from their textbooks and Consuls. Over the course of the story, the dynamics develop and the characters become comfortable and realize they can depend on one another. Noah and Mio bond over being overseers, the team leaders of the group, and realize that they will always find their way back to one another. Lanz and Sena are the ultimate muscle heads, bonding over working out and lifting weights while also having introspective discussions about the insecurity of not being up to par as Noah and Mio and their self-esteem. Eunie and Taion have polar opposite personalities, but slowly come to understand one another and begin to grow closer as the story moves along, with Eunie teasing Taion constantly and saying at the end of the game that Taion is her “fourth best friend.” This saying may be a reference to the “Fourtune Clovers,” which are special to Eunie, showing that Taion is special and that the bond that they created is important to her. Although I love this cast, I have to say the side stories were underwhelming. Sena’s side quest was the biggest letdown for me. Although I see that they were trying to connect Shania and Sena through their similar situations, with Shania becoming tormented by the thought of not being as good as Ghondor while Sena grew to understand her worth and realizes that her worth shouldn’t be tied to Mio, I think it is ironic that Sena is insignificant and forgotten in her own side quest when it was supposed to give more perspective into her character. I feel a similar way about Noah, Eunie, and Mio’s story quests. I feel as though Noah and Mio’s side quests shouldn’t have been integrated into the main story and should have just naturally played out through the story. Noah and Mio should’ve received different quests that fleshed out their characters in better detail. Eunie’s side quest just feels like they tacked her into the side quest just to say that she was there. Her arc was dropped suddenly in the main story, and I don’t think a side story should be what finishes her arc. Lanz’s side quest was about realizing his newfound freedom from the world of fighting that he was used to, and I feel that his arc is solid for representing how far Lanz has come; this side quest is one of my favorites because I feel it utilized Lanz’s arc in such an important way and it shows how much he’s grown throughout the story. Taion’s side quest is my favorite because it felt like an actual side story and felt it was used for what side quests should’ve been intended for.

The world building in this game is one of my favorite aspects of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Although I feel as though the environments aren’t as imaginative as their predecessors, the side quests give an incentive to develop the environments and the colonies that you free from the flame clock. This is the first game where I have felt as though side quests aren’t a chore and I enjoyed going through them. My favorite region in this game was Cadensia due to how vast Erythia Sea is and it has my favorite environments in the game. The regions of this game have so many callbacks to different areas of previous games, and it's noticeable through the familiarity of some environments and the easter eggs scattered throughout. This game encourages you to explore as the map fills its gaps as you walk across the region. In previous games, the region template was laid out in full for you. I like that you can fill up the region maps yourselves because you can discover new areas organically that you didn’t think to explore previously. I like that the colonies in this game have more significance, like helping Valdi collect parts for his robot, Dorrick, creating a field of Spongy Spuds in Colony 9 with Zeon, developing the Li Garte Prison Camp as a place for inhabitants Segiri and the rest of Colony 0, the Armu and Ardun farm in Colony Mu, and much more. It feels like you’re building more community in these games and you get to know the colony and the area pretty well by connecting with everyone and doing the side quests.

The combat and music are both my favorite of the Xenoblade series. The class system is so refreshing from what we were used to in the previous two games. I had a blast experimenting with different builds across different characters, maxing out different classes, and trying out attackers, defenders, and healers. Fusion attacks are also a neat addition to attacks and spice up the combinations of attacks, buffs, debuffs, and combo moves that you can use. With the addition of various classes, I never felt the need to level up my characters except at the end for the final boss. There was so much room to level up classes and it is such an improvement over Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where I felt like I had to level up constantly since I felt like there wasn’t much I could do. The only thing I hated was that it was hard to unlock classes at times due to needing to fight enemies at a higher level than you, which meant I didn’t have access to certain attacks on certain characters that I wanted.
As for the soundtrack, it is such an earworm. I remember going back to Erythia Sea constantly so I could hear the music from the area. It is such a calm and serene track that encapsulates the setting of the environment so well. I feel that the music in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 captures the setting of battles and environments perfectly and Yasunori Mitsuda, as always, excelled at doing this.

Heroes in this game are a unique addition to the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Doing hero quests and getting to know the heroes we recruited was something I always looked forward to. Some of the hero quests are amazing for not only developing the colony itself but also the commanders of each colony. Ashera has to be my favorite hero in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 due to her personality and her subsequent hero and ascension quests. Her backstory was one of the most compelling out of the hero quests and her resolution at the end of the hero quest of doing things on her terms was a satisfying solution to her arc. The downside to hero and ascension quests is that some of the quests given feel pointless and give no more substance to the character than when we met them in the initial quest. I understand that these are side characters that join your party as heroes to help you along your journey, but it isn’t an excuse to make some of these characters have development that is paper thin and nonexistent when other hero and ascension quests exist to exemplify other characters.

As for the villains, Z should’ve been fleshed out a lot more. We get drip-feeding of Z through clips of him throughout the story, but we never truly know about him until Chapter 7. Z is the manifestation of mankind’s fear of the future and the desire to stay in the present. This is represented through his first phase where Z’s physical body disappears and reveals his true form, which looks as if he’s a part of the framework for a computer. Z’s true form is an allegory that he is the framework of the current Aionios, which is frozen in time to prevent the potential catastrophe of Bionis and Alrest combining, which is why the “endless now” was created. As Melia said, Z is a concept and not a person, he is the amalgamation of Moebius's energy. Z’s battle was a very cinematic battle, but I also felt as though the multiple cutscenes broke the immersion of the boss battle. Z’s way of changing elements shouldn’t have been done through cutscenes but through the battle itself. Z’s final boss battle also felt like it bogged on for too long as it had 5 different phases and long cutscenes that lengthened the battle in ways that weren’t necessary. Although the approach of having a cinematic final boss is appealing, I think the way it was executed in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, in my opinion, was good in some parts but felt too drawn out and exhausted its purpose by the end of the sequence.
Speaking of Moebius, they aren’t necessarily a bad set of villains. The concept of Moebius is that they are identified with a single letter. The single letter signifies their loss of humanity, which ironically shows their insignificance since Z is using them as a means to obtain his goal of the endless now. Nothing embodies this more than M and N. M and N are the representation of Mio and Noah’s previous incarnations. The reason N became a Moebius is so he could stay with M for eternity. Through this action, both M and N lose their sense of humanity due to wanting to latch on to the past instead of accepting the present for what it is. The actions of M and N are a natural feeling and innate desire that we all have, and that personally resonated with me. There are many things that I regret that I wish I could go back in time and undo, but I can’t dwell on it or I will become consumed. M and N are the representation of being consumed and not accepting what was done should be left in the past. I feel that Moebius is a great representation of the overall plot because the overarching story is ultimately about learning to accept that you can’t change the past and that you need to move on.
Although I was just singing my praises about Moebius, I do think they became oversaturated at one point. I feel as though that since they introduced so many Moebius to the story and in subsequent side stories, they become forgettable and muddled. M and N feel underdeveloped and when developed, their development felt very rushed and unnatural. The Consuls feel like a monster of the week, one or two get introduced to counter the party and when they’re done, another set comes in to counter them. What I would’ve loved to see is the pressures of being Moebius and more chemistry between Z and the rest of Moebius. The only Moebius I feel that was properly developed was Joran, and that was because he had connections with Noah, Eunie, and Lanz, and even then, I feel as though there should’ve been more Moebius developed like Joran and less Moebius who suffered from being underdeveloped, thrown away, and sidelined.

Overall, I think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a solid game that has a good overarching story, but I feel that it falls short in its execution. It has a lot of the right ideas in mind, but it lacks the proper execution to properly frame what Monolith Soft was going for. The pacing of some parts of the story, including Chapter 7 was rushed. I was surprised at how good Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was, and I don’t regret immersing myself for a month across 115 hours of playtime to get the full experience. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a game I feel like was made to fully experience through exploring the regions, doing the side quests, doing the hero quests, trying out different classes, and much more. I highly recommend playing this game, whether you are returning or are a new fan of the series. This game made me feel so many emotions, especially with the jail scene in Chapter 5 (one of the best and most touching scenes in the series for me) and after finishing this game, I need time to process what I just experienced and the adventure I went on. I have a hard time currently deciding if 1 or 3 are my favorite in the series, but undoubtedly Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reinvigorated my passion for the series in a way that I didn’t know was possible and I don’t regret playing the first Xenoblade Chronicles game two years ago.