All Xenoblade Chronicles 2 needed to reach true greatness was to strip off some bad designs such as the gecha system and questionable character design. Building on 1 and 2's legacy, Monolith Soft was a few steps away from perfection, and they did take those steps. Character designs are some of the best in modern JRPGs, boosted by colorful personalities and excellent voice acting. Previous redundant systems are scaled back or expunged. Even the writing gets some brushing up, especially in side quests. Yet, Xenoblade Chronickes 3 feels like a regression overall. The real time combat system tries to accommodate six playable characters and one helping NPC at the same time, which trivializes player input: after all, five sixth of the combat activities are under AI control. Map design, the pride of the series, gives way to vast flat landscape. The writing, while more than serviceable for a typical JRPG story, cannot carry the weight of the lofty theme that the game is trying to convey, and crumbles into belabored preaching. XB3 is self-indulgent to the point that when it runs out of meaningful things to say, instead of ending, it repeats everything it has said again.