Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (July 29, 2022)

[Zaysho]

I guess because I'm the resident Xeno guy (and getting goaded a bit earlier) at this point I might as well be the one to make this now that I've (mostly) come off the high of the Direct reveal on Wednesday

(Also this post will contain light, but unmarked spoilers related to Xenoblade 1 and 2 -- go play them, y'all had enough time to catch up)

(I also included some screenshots as well and tried to make them small as possible so hopefully they don't eat up bandwidth; please let me know if there are loading issues or slowdown and I will remove them)

Set in a new world known as Aionios, after the events of Xenoblade 1 and 2, the game will follow Noah and Mio, two off-seers from opposing nations whose job is to mourn the deaths of soldiers. Not much else is known about the plot except for what can be gleaned from the trailer, but if you've at least played the two mainline (Nintendo Xeno) games there is so much packed in here.

Going by Tetsuya Takahashi's own words on the development, the key art of the Mechonis's Sword and the ruins of the Urayan titan, from their own respective games' key art, was thought of some time after the end of Xenoblade 1's development and leading into the development of Xenoblade 2. If I had to take guesses, this would have been some time during the development of X on the side; Takahashi and crew like to play the long game, as it's well documented the plans and aspirations he had both for his original game for Squaresoft, Xenogears (itself the fifth episode in an intended six episode epic), and again with Xenosaga at Namco (another planned six episode epic that was drastically cut down and altered over time).

There have been more than a few comparisons to Xenogears from the design of Noah sharing some similarities to Fei (not to mention the name being a religious reference as well as the fact that Xenogears was called "Project Noah," as well as Xenogears itself having a "Project Noah" within its plot), the names of the two warring nations, Agnus and Keeves, being strikingly similar to ones in Xenogears, Aveh and Kislev. There's probably even more and this is just from what other Xeno fans have pointed out.

Of course the most notable thing about this with regards to the Blade series is the connection of the two main games' worlds. If you're familiar with both, they are parallel dimensions. Here, it seems after the respective ends of the games the worlds have become connected, further sold by the key image and multiple returning locations with altered terrains feeling like a merging of the two. How this happens we won't know just yet. It seems some time has passed and the leaders of Agnus and Keeves are actually legacy characters from 2 and 1, being long-lived beings. I won't say who, but you'll know just from the trailer.

Them even being in the game was subject to rumors last Summer that I honestly didn't even believe because it sounded too good to be true... and man was I wrong. And that means there's only more to come, and as someone who adores these games, I can't wait.

(and yes, I know I didn't have to do this much--I wanted to, all right?)

[Salamander]

I have to say, this looks considerably more up my street than XC2 did, and the theories about the premise seem extremely exciting.  I'm not sure if I'll bite - I think I would find it mildly annoying not having the deep Xeno knowledge to appreciate everything the game is doing - but I feel I would like to see more of this.

[Zaysho]

8 minutes ago, Salamander said:

I think I would find it mildly annoying not having the deep Xeno knowledge to appreciate everything the game is doing - but I feel I would like to see more of this.

If you mean the original PlayStation/PS2 games, they're not necessary per se, but the Blade games are heavily rooted  in similar ideas and imagery that started there (this is more true with X and 2, but 1 is just as thematically linked as its follow-ups), and there have been some hints and theories about things like Future Connected (XCDE's epilogue) that they're borrowing elements from Xenosaga and so on. For me it just further enriches my appreciation of the series when I learn about it, because most of them are hard to come by for collection purposes (I have Xenogears and Xenosaga I, but I will probably never own Saga II and III because they're stupid expensive, especially III). This has been a long time coming after the various setbacks Takahashi and his team have dealt with under Square and Bamco.

At most for 3, knowledge of Blades 1 and 2 are enough because that's where the obvious story is.

[Blue Blood]

I don't really have anything to add to this discussion because I'm not interested in this series and don't think that I ever will be. It's aggressively not my thing. But bloody hell do I just like the fact that the VAs in this series are English (/British, I'm not sure if there are any VAs from other countries in the British Isles). And they're not all not all Londoners either! There seems to be be a pool of about dozen North American voice actors used in most anime and video game dubs and half as many different voices that everyone tries to use, so everything ends up sounding so homogenous. Xenoblade though is just so refreshing. It's like when I first played Kameo on 360 years ago and suddenly the characters were talking in the quaintest of Nottingham and Yorkshire accents. I love it. 

Anyway that's really all I have to say. Hope you all enjoy the game.

[JezMM]

Really interested in this, though goddamn Nintendo - they finally reduce Xenoblade 2 on the eShop two months after I finally caved and got it at full price (though at least I can enjoy the discount on the DLC), and now that XB3 has given me a reason to go and play XB1 as well, of course that one isn't on sale like it has been every damn eShop sale that I browsed looking for a XB2 reduction!

[Sonicka]

I really, REALLY can't wait for this. it was one of the titles I was super hoping for Nintendo to announce during the direct (or a Xenoblade X port).

I was an original adopter of the Wii game (+ that Red Pro Controller combo) but I never made it far in as "life" got in the way and it casually entered my back catalogue. I was always amazed at the scope of it though... for a Wii title of all things especially. 

TBH it was thanks to the pandemic lockdown that I really had the opportunity to play this thing - although I opted to wait for the Switch Remaster (and  very glad I did!). It's proudly sit's right at the top of my "50 favourite games of all time" list. Never spent so long with a game before becoming so immersed in its world and lore and completing near enough everything 100%. My hats off to them for the Future Connected Epilogue Chapter too, this was a wonderful bookend extra for fans that made the remaster even more worth buying. I gather that they'd laid story seeds back as far as 10 years ago, but it was clever to navigate fans to the future since 2 had come out and now this Third Chapter is on the Horizon. 

Xenoblade 2 (+ Torna) was an immediate buy as soon as I finished XC1. And fell in love with that title too. It still sits below the original though. I like that the game does a few things better than 1; battling for example I found to be slightly more engaging... but only ONCE you figure it out during the 20th hour (although I did miss the foresight ability), and I enjoyed the lean into anime tropes and aesthetics, which is always a real preference for me (and one I am glad they backdated on the the XC1 remaster, as the character models and designs are hella ugly there (and in XCX if you ask me).  

But there are also a fair few things that are worse, like eg: Map Navigation (but I appreciate that the Xenoblade 1 Remaster came after this game, so in a way it addressed this criticism from XC2). Also there were some story elements/beats that I didn't think were as quite as strong as the original. And as incredible as the locations were for some of the titans - it still felt a bit underwhelming overall compared to just traversing the Bionis. But I can't deny I that adore most of the characters in this games, Pyra and Mythra especially (and they were the reason I bothered to pick up the 2nd Smash Pass).

I also happen to own XCX on Wii U - but similar to when I first bought XB1, it got pushed back onto my shelf not long after I purchased it. I wasn't overly hyped for the fact that it wasn't very story driven - but I was super impressed at how large the world was. I do want to go back and play this game... but I've been holding out in case it does get a Switch Port that makes improvements similar to XC1 (10th anniversary in 2025 perhaps then, Monolith?)


So can't understate how excited I am for XC3. Is it a bit spoiler-y of them to say it's set in the futures of XC's 1 & 2? As that's a mind blowing revelation when you reach that certain moment of the second game. I guess they think enough time has passed? But to see all races and cultures of both worlds overlapping here (on a new world? or new titan? was this clear?) but the image of the Mechonis's Sword and the ruins of the Urayan titan was certainly something!! 

I'm super excited to see what they have picked up and learnt from XC2, Torna and the Remaster to make this game the best it can be as well. I've no doubt the locations and traversing will be as exciting to explore as ever - but I am most intrigued about how they handle the battle system and/or if blades have made their way back into this game in some form or another.

Another thing of note is that the music in these titles are soooo good, be it the main themes, battle themes, dramatic sequences, or the relaxing exploration of specific titan areas. All Glorious stuff! So I can't wait for more tunes to add to my playlist - and it's relieving to see Yasunori Mitsuda, Manami Kiyota & ACE attached again as well since they composed some of my favourite pieces of the past few games (although no Yoko again, but nevermind can't have it all!)

I am not sure I can say I have the same hype for the UK cast (which can be a real mixed bag)... but I won't deny that they become very endearing after a while and you just go with it. To be honest often I feel it's the direction they're given more than the actors themselves being labelled as "terrible" at times. Overall, I'm just happy to hear regional accents from my country in a game I enjoy. 


EDIT:  I didn't anticipate writing this much on this topic. So TL;DR - I love the first two games and can't wait for the third.
 

On 2/11/2022 at 2:00 PM, JezMM said:

Really interested in this, though goddamn Nintendo - they finally reduce Xenoblade 2 on the eShop two months after I finally caved and got it at full price (though at least I can enjoy the discount on the DLC), and now that XB3 has given me a reason to go and play XB1 as well, of course that one isn't on sale like it has been every damn eShop sale that I browsed looking for a XB2 reduction!

Although I'd say it's still worth it at full price, that is annoying when it happens. =/

With XC1 I have seen it go at Curry's and Argos for £29.99 from time to time, so it is defo worth keeping your eyes there and about (but you are still getting your money's worth even at a £tenner more without a doubt.)  

[KairosDialga]

I'm just hoping that I can be able to snag a special edition of this game the minute it gets announced and preorders come up for it. (I'm fairly certain that they will do it.) Though I'm curious as to how it goes. I'm optimistic from the vids for this one about how it is going to be both story and gameplay since I struggled getting into 2 when I tried to play it, but 1 was absolutely phenomenal both back when it first came out on the Wii and even now in DE. (X still remains as my favorite but it is basically the forgotten member of the series at this rate)

Also...I don't think a single soundtrack out of the series has disappointed me (Yes, that includes X as well despite having a vastly different composition direction) and thus I know this soundtrack is still gonna be a good one.

[QuantumEdge]

Looks good and all, but does this mean a sequel to X is a bit dead and buried?

[Sonicka]

17 hours ago, QuantumEdge said:

Looks good and all, but does this mean a sequel to X is a bit dead and buried?

Personal thoughts on this are that they’ll test the waters with a Definitive Edition of Cross first before sequaling that game. 

Given that the numbered entries are:

1)  Going to have wider fanbase compared to Cross (in no small part thanks to that game being on WiI U) 

2) Thematically linked. Cross was a title that is in a lot of ways a bit of a departure from the numbered entries.

3) In game Sequels (of sorts) - so of course the stories for these titles are going to warrant follow ups. 

This isn’t to say Cross doesn’t deserve a sequel though. I’m aware it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger of sorts (or at least the means that there could be more story to that game?) and there was the

Spoiler

fun crossover Cameo from Elma being an unlockable blade in Xenoblade 2.

But really, considering XC3 is “set in the futures of both XC1 and XC2” it wouldn’t surprise me at all if there was a story link to  that game somewhere along the line as well.

…but then who knows, it could just be that they want to tie up things with XC3 then continue with the Cross series? 
 

 

[Sonicka]

https://youtu.be/Rt9pfN-2S0k

Good god, in the wake of BOTW2's delay this game got the opposite treatment.

So, Xenoblade 3 is now releasing July 29th! 

July is going to be a good month indeed! 

There is too much else to contemplate from the new trailer, the screens, the new battle interlink layout (christ!)... so I'll have to regroup my thoughts and return. But I am definitely feeling it!

[SanPolo4389]

 

[Zaysho]

Heads up that previews are going up and spoiler potential is high. Set up your filters, turn off your watch history, tag story spoilers, etc. Just three more weeks before the wild ride really starts.

[Sonicka]

Well - with the positive reviews pouring in it looks like the game is averaging about a 89 on Metacritic at the time I last checked (the same as XC:DE) which only has me feeling this more. 1 more day! (Unless my shipped order arrives today).

I decided to pay for the pass early too. If it’s anything like what we got with XC’s extended Future Connected epilogue or XC2’s Torna Prequal then it will be worth the value alone. 

-------

To save on the double post - and despite me not wanting to do this UNTIL I'd finished this game (which knowing me will take some sweet time) ...This game so far is turning out to be a hell of a time and is living up to expectations.

I'm only about 10 hours in (and boy those tutorials just don't stop) but the pacing here is so MUCH better than XC2's opening. Not only does it provide a much stronger communication to the player on what to do, but there are actual menus available to relook at hints and tutorials (thank god!). Similarly I met the core cast of 6 already - and although this is by design, I think I prefer this to the stagnated approach that the first 2 games took with their cast in involving them.

The battle system so far feels like a dream cross between what worked in XC 1 & 2 (literally, and figuratively), and bugger me - having a revolving arrow UI to tell you your position in relation to an enemy to ready an attack is a real game changer. I like that it isn't taking me as long to figure out or master the battle system this time (yet I know I'm only beginning to scratch the surface here). But the fact that I find the system fun and intuitive is great for a big grindy RPG. The navigation system is also so much more improved (and optional) and builds on what XC:DE brought to the table a couple of years ago. 

Otherwise what's more to say; the music is incredible, the cast are SO likeable (especially Noah and Mio), and these impossibly huge locations are still as wondrous as ever.

The central mystery has been pushing me on like it's no tomorrow. It's no secret that that this games premise is about the worlds of XC 1 & 2 somehow being smashed together, so when traveling about the locales and you spot... well, you actaully just stumble across areas and you when you KNOW what those areas are/were previously - it gives those goosebumps in all the right places. It feels like a reward for the players of the series up to now.

So yeah, this is real great stuff so far. Hopefully it will keep it up until the end. 

Edited July 31, 2022 by Son-icka
No Double Post.

[KairosDialga]

I wish I could get a chance to play it here. I'm still waiting on my copy to arrive from Nintendo, but considering I've been deep into studying as well I likely wouldn't be able to get a good long time to devote to it for a long while either.

Though I'm probably gonna hold off on getting the Expansion pack right now, mostly because I DO want to see if they pull a Torna and give a physical release of the extra 'story' thing like they did with that one.

[JezMM]

Enjoying it a lot so far.  They really did a much better job explaining the battle system this time.  I like how much more staggered opening up various systems is, the way they force you to play as Attacker/Healer/Tank seperately for a little bit to understand how they work (the other games just expect you to play as other characters on a whim and figure out what they're about), and of course, all the excellent UI work to communicate things such as auto-attack range and positioning.  The only thing I will say is that your current target isn't always easy to spot in particularly busy battles, I'm frequently finding myself stood in front of an enemy wondering why I'm not auto-attacking it before realising my character is actually targetting another one behind it, off-screen.  Though I do wonder if there are any basics that might still be hard for a newcomer - having played 1 & 2 definitely helped me to understand the familiar elements like aggro, positioning and attack cancelling (although I admit that last one never fully clicked until 3's tutorial, I find the name a little unintuitive).

Having said this, things have started to get a bit unintuitive by chapter 2.  I don't feel like it was ever explained that Gems aren't tangible objects like they are in Xeno1.  I still don't super understand chain attacking - how to have any idea how much TP your chosen attack/order will gain - and while I thought I understood the rule that attacking with a healer will force the gauge to max out at 99%, sometimes I do and... it doesn't.  Sometimes even when specifically using arts with healing benefits.  And choosing which character's plan to go with at the time often seems arbitrary, like all the perks seem about equal in benefit most of the time).

The linked form also, I don't super understand how you level it up or how you can ever do your right-face button attack with how the heat system works.

Multi-classing as well is something I don't really feel the tutorials did enough to explain the benefits of.  At first I was just like "why would I want to arbitrarily shuffle which character does what around?" and hated how it made their designs look a bit lame as they sported clothing that didn't really suit them.  Unlocking Heroes, and the ability to adjust aesthetics seperately from gameplay made that all make a bit more sense for me.  Having said that, it still definitely seems completely overwhelming to keep track of what each character's base abilities are, their gem setup, their accessory setup, their class, and making sure all of these gel together to make a good build but... I guess that's half of the fun for people who are into this stuff.

I'm not and that's why I'm playing easy mode, and thus far I haven't really had any issues.

 

On a seperate note, I do like that your whole party is active at once and you don't have to pick and choose your favourites of the main characters to be represented in gameplay anymore.  And this is a small thing but... I really love that they stopped doing that thing from the first two games where a dramatic cut-scene would end with a battle starting, the camera would swing round looking down as if you're about to go into gameplay - and then it would fade to black as normal (and fade back in at a normal camera angle to boot lol).  It's nice that it just segues smoothly into gameplay in this one.

[Sonicka]

Ok, I'm a good 22 hours into this now. I can see myself racking up a big amount more time by endgame. I've already fallen for every emotional trapping though (because I always do with these titles). Not to mention the music - and god these ridiculous OTT anime battles and tracks are really something else.

But what's hitting me more is the game connections. They say this is a self contained story like the last two were (and I'm sure this will be the case for the most part), but there are some very rewarding visual and audio treats for fans of the first two games.

The trailers I think made it quite obvious who the Queens of the Colonies were supposed to be, but I did get pretty excited when I heard...

Spoiler

...Melia and Nia talk at their respective castles for the first time. I still wonder if there is gunna be another rug pull from this "reveal" however. 

It was also very interesting seeing the party of characters talk about their visual differences without them knowing much about why they look the way they do themselves (I mean we know why they don't know), but it's such a treat to see a party consisting of Homs, Telethia, Machina, Blades, Flesh Eaters and so forth... I just really want to know more of what's going on here and how they got there like that specifically, not to mention how their blade weapon functions in comparison to XC2, and what makes Noah's blade specifically special of course.

On the subject of connections, when I was exploring the Eagles Wildness area I loved coming across...

Spoiler

...what appeared to be the remains of the Hidden Machina Village from XC1. But better still was when I was back country exploring to a place that was too high levelled for me, I entered what I think was the backend of that area and suddenly a new version of the Hidden Machina Village music from XC1 started playing and it completely floored me. A really REALLY beautiful track - hit the nostalgia in the right areas. Damn.

 

12 hours ago, JezMM said:

Enjoying it a lot so far.  They really did a much better job explaining the battle system this time.  I like how much more staggered opening up various systems is, the way they force you to play as Attacker/Healer/Tank seperately for a little bit to understand how they work (the other games just expect you to play as other characters on a whim and figure out what they're about), and of course, all the excellent UI work to communicate things such as auto-attack range and positioning.  The only thing I will say is that your current target isn't always easy to spot in particularly busy battles, I'm frequently finding myself stood in front of an enemy wondering why I'm not auto-attacking it before realising my character is actually targetting another one behind it, off-screen.  Though I do wonder if there are any basics that might still be hard for a newcomer - having played 1 & 2 definitely helped me to understand the familiar elements like aggro, positioning and attack cancelling (although I admit that last one never fully clicked until 3's tutorial, I find the name a little unintuitive).

Yeah, this is actually a thing I came across a few times over the weekend - for a few moments I almost thought the game had some sort of bug before realising from the (VERY) busy screen that I'm just not next to the right foe. With so much going on it also makes it quite difficult to even discern where your character is sometimes, which in turn makes it increasingly difficult to pull off those timely cancel attacks (which really, should be called "Art Linking" or something - the name used to confuse the heck out of me for ages in XC2 with no clear guide). 

Thankfully though for the most part - it seems like they learned a lot of lessons from dumping the player into situations and expecting us to figure stuff out here, there was a natural flow to being slowly introduced to system after system without being too overwhelmed.
 

12 hours ago, JezMM said:

Having said this, things have started to get a bit unintuitive by chapter 2.  I don't feel like it was ever explained that Gems aren't tangible objects like they are in Xeno1.  I still don't super understand chain attacking - how to have any idea how much TP your chosen attack/order will gain - and while I thought I understood the rule that attacking with a healer will force the gauge to max out at 99%, sometimes I do and... it doesn't.  Sometimes even when specifically using arts with healing benefits.  And choosing which character's plan to go with at the time often seems arbitrary, like all the perks seem about equal in benefit most of the time).

The linked form also, I don't super understand how you level it up or how you can ever do your right-face button attack with how the heat system works.

With Gems, you're right, it wasn't, and this threw me off kilter for how much easier they made the creation and application of this system - especially after the first game. Who knew one gem could be applied to 7 people at once? Not me. 

I'm still getting to grips with Chain Attacking, but I'm just following the recommended pattern of Attacker - Healer - Defender, it doesn't explain that you can use any of your 3 arts either which can play a role in gaining extra TP rather than just looking at the numbers (which weirdly don't always add up. For the most part I can get 3/4 rounds though each time, this is an easier system to activate than XC2's (however in that game that was part of the fun arguably).

with the Interlink, have you found the Tree branching system in the menu? This is basically the Ouroboros Form's "levelling system" so to speak. There are abilities you can unlock which slow the overheating system down that allow you to reach that right button Art easier when battling. Art Cancelling will get you there faster as well not to mention eventually you will unlock an ability to chain arts in other arts from cancelling them.
 

12 hours ago, JezMM said:

Multi-classing as well is something I don't really feel the tutorials did enough to explain the benefits of.  At first I was just like "why would I want to arbitrarily shuffle which character does what around?" and hated how it made their designs look a bit lame as they sported clothing that didn't really suit them.  Unlocking Heroes, and the ability to adjust aesthetics seperately from gameplay made that all make a bit more sense for me.  Having said that, it still definitely seems completely overwhelming to keep track of what each character's base abilities are, their gem setup, their accessory setup, their class, and making sure all of these gel together to make a good build but... I guess that's half of the fun for people who are into this stuff.

I'm not and that's why I'm playing easy mode, and thus far I haven't really had any issues.

There's defiantely some positive swings and misses to this system. On one hand it get you to be a lot more familiar with the class types, especially if there is one character you prefer using as your MVP (AND NO I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT YOU LANZ!), and this expands further when you meet other "Heroes", and it keeps the battling and levelling up somewhat fresh throughout so you have a constant feel of progression, and it gives there player countless options to choose from... almost too much you could say when you look at the entire thing as a whole. But yeah, I wasn't really a fan of the cosmetic changeup when doing this originally... then when I unlocked the "just wear whatever regardless" ability, I realised it was harder for me to keep track of which class my characters where on the field as I knew them by clothing XD ...so maybe it was a good idea. But still - the option to adjust it to how you feel is always welcome. 

There is a lot of things to customise here for sure though. Some systems have been refined from XC1 and XC2 and new ones expanded upon - it's defo a juggling game (I think about 30% of my time with XC1 was spent customising characters in the menu screens lol). What the game doesn't tell you is it has an auto customise fill system, and if you press (Y I think?) in the character menu, it will pick and fill ALL of your gems, accessories, arts, skills etc... for you and make what it determines to be the best selection for your character. 
 

12 hours ago, JezMM said:

On a seperate note, I do like that your whole party is active at once and you don't have to pick and choose your favourites of the main characters to be represented in gameplay anymore. 

...the unfortunate side effect of this seems to be the grass. I know draw distance on elements like that have always been slightly off kilter for how big these worlds are, but now grass just dissapears around the field of characters themselves and doesn't just pop in ahead of them. It's like this team decay the plant-life the moment they touch the surrounding area. XD

[JezMM]

Funnily enough since I posted, Chain Attacking is making more sense.  Now that I'm "half familiar" with it through gameplay, re-reading the tips about it in the options menu made everything else click regarding what actions are likely to generate more TP (using the same class type as the order character, using arts from the same army faction as the order character, etc).  Also if I understand said tips right, only ATTACKING with a healer will max the gauge at 99% - using a supportive art doesn't.  I'll need to test that out though.

And yeah, did find the skill trees for the Interlink form!  I don't ALWAYS fully understand what I'm unlocking but I don't think it matters too much in Easy mode.

6 hours ago, Son-icka said:

...the unfortunate side effect of this seems to be the grass. I know draw distance on elements like that have always been slightly off kilter for how big these worlds are, but now grass just dissapears around the field of characters themselves and doesn't just pop in ahead of them. It's like this team decay the plant-life the moment they touch the surrounding area. XD

Noticed this too!  I think it must be a glitch that might get patched at some point, because I'm not seeing it all the time.  The worst is that when it does happen, it shows up in cut-scenes and is horribly distracting, lol.

 

I didn't read your spoiler boxes just in case you're further on than me, but definitely my biggest drive is being eager to find out how this world came to be and how on earth the Queens could be who they seem to be!  I do almost wonder how the story compares for people who haven't played the first two.

[Sonicka]

7 hours ago, JezMM said:

Funnily enough since I posted, Chain Attacking is making more sense.  Now that I'm "half familiar" with it through gameplay, re-reading the tips about it in the options menu made everything else click regarding what actions are likely to generate more TP (using the same class type as the order character, using arts from the same army faction as the order character, etc).  Also if I understand said tips right, only ATTACKING with a healer will max the gauge at 99% - using a supportive art doesn't.  I'll need to test that out though.

And yeah, did find the skill trees for the Interlink form!  I don't ALWAYS fully understand what I'm unlocking but I don't think it matters too much in Easy mode.

Noticed this too!  I think it must be a glitch that might get patched at some point, because I'm not seeing it all the time.  The worst is that when it does happen, it shows up in cut-scenes and is horribly distracting, lol.

I'm so grateful you can re-read the tips in this game. Not to mention there is a battle simulator of sorts - really helps hone abilities,  especially if you've forgotten how to pull off or trigger certain moves (as the game can indeed be overwhelming with things to do at times).

I agree that I wonder how first time players feel if this is their first game. I mean they have a lot more instructions and help than previous... but it is still A LOT. I remember not really getting used to battle system in XC1 (and especially XC2) really until hours 20-30, that's when I began to understand the basics a lot more. it was like I had to really push past it - then when it *clicked* I loved it. I hope the experience of newcomers to XC3 don't have that trouble the game is very rewarding when you learn it, but I think they did a much better job here thankfully. 

Yeah the Interlink Unlocks - I mean to me the only real ones I take note of are the overcharge gauge slowdown, arts, and Art linking ability being most important (but only because the game says so lol) - like a lot of abilities I think most probably will be useful in some way or another if you're REALLY into packing your characters out specifically, otherwise it's an arbitrary method of making you feel like you're progressing towards the better unlocks. I'm very half / half here - I play on Normal mode as I casually enjoy messing with this stuff, but don't always wish to spend half my evening decking my characters out to a degree... only for it to change again 30 minutes later as I want to get on and play the game. I usually just over-level from exploring and battling which then makes the main boss battles a cinch so it doesn't stagger my progression when I want to continue. 

I really hope they patch the grass glitch for sure - it does become distracting (and in cutscenes especially like you say), it has to be an error thinking about it as XC2 had like 6 players (3 pairs of two) out on the field constantly. I don't mind seeing the grass appear in front of me in the distance, but disappearing before you touch it is reaaaal odd. 

 

7 hours ago, JezMM said:

I didn't read your spoiler boxes just in case you're further on than me, but definitely my biggest drive is being eager to find out how this world came to be and how on earth the Queens could be who they seem to be!  I do almost wonder how the story compares for people who haven't played the first two.

From what I've read I surmise it's roughly the same place I am give or take. My main spoiler pertained to the big "you know what" in the desert (and a slight detour I made), as well as who the queens could be.

But I honestly still don't really know... I mean... it HAS to be them right? As that would work given the games context. I just hope there isn't a false expectation being set up here as I want to know what the heck is going on. But I suppose that's the whole point of this game - what is this convergence thats caused XC1 & 2 to smash into each other? Why are the rules of this world the way they are...? Given the opening of the game are these characters like copies or cloned creations that are made to fight endlessly? And that bloody red blade Noah has - he says it's not really a secret or anything but other characters seem to think that there is a lot more too it (apart from lucky 7). I just don't know. 

...But I'm super intrigued, which makes playing through a solid drive, and thankfully the characters are more than interesting so even if that wasn't the story backdrop I'd still be invested with them anyway. 

[Zaysho]

I have been losing my mind for the last six hours

I never gave my full thoughts on 3 (my feelings are complicated but mostly positive) and there's A LOT in the general timeline and unspoken worldbuilding of Aionios I've been turning around in my mind since I finished the game way back in August. Maybe one day I'll post about it if anyone cares, I just love these games. The DLC trailer for the new story is sending my brain into overdrive now, I'm so excited. And the new challenge mode looks like it'll be more fun than the previous wave, especially if the Heroes will finally be playable. First half was kinda middling/too easy, especially compared to XC2's challenges and if there's one thing I can say about 3's combat while fun gets too heavily centralized on a few key things (Noah's true sword, Sena/Ogre's combo capabilities, healers for reviving with Signifer being particularly broken) and while this is not at all bad (and plenty of RPGs do this too) it feels way more noticeable than in other games in the series (consequence of managing six characters at once, really). This new mode might be a really fun mix up.

[Sonicka]

7 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I have been losing my mind for the last six hours

You're not alone, the rest of the Nintendo Direct could have been terrible and I still would have come away pretty hyped after the Wave 4 story Teaser. I mean... this is pretty much the DLC route I was was hoping they'd go down (especially after seeing you know what  in The City). I just hope Wave 4 is on the same scale as the Torna Expansion - it looks it for sure however.
 

7 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I never gave my full thoughts on 3 (my feelings are complicated but mostly positive) and there's A LOT in the general timeline and unspoken worldbuilding of Aionios I've been turning around in my mind since I finished the game way back in August. Maybe one day I'll post about it if anyone cares, I just love these games. The DLC trailer for the new story is sending my brain into overdrive now, I'm so excited. And the new challenge mode looks like it'll be more fun than the previous wave, especially if the Heroes will finally be playable. First half was kinda middling/too easy, especially compared to XC2's challenges and if there's one thing I can say about 3's combat while fun gets too heavily centralized on a few key things (Noah's true sword, Sena/Ogre's combo capabilities, healers for reviving with Signifer being particularly broken) and while this is not at all bad (and plenty of RPGs do this too) it feels way more noticeable than in other games in the series (consequence of managing six characters at once, really). This new mode might be a really fun mix up.

Hey, you can certainly shout about it here and I'd listen for sure. You are the relative Xenoblade expert round here, right? So I'd be intrigued to hear your overall thoughts. The Xenoblade series quite happily sits as my "favourite game series" without me needing to really think about it, so I can understand your appreciation for the games.

I actually finished XC3 back in late August (as well, funnily enough) - I had even written out an entire review piece to post my thoughts, but held off as I realised I needed to evaluate the game properly than give a knee-jerk reaction to simply finishing the campaign whilst hyped up. The way it ended to this day still has me internally debating if the entire journey was even worth it (I mean, it absolutely was - but if you understand the context of the story you'll know what I mean). But at its heart the core cast were all meaningful characters that I connected too or cared about for one reason or another - which is pretty rare for me in an RPG that is usually littered with tonnes of main and side cast members. Even the 'heroes' got their due here. 

Battling certainly felt OP for most of the game - but the QOL improvements to the setup had me a lot more engaged than its predecessors did. You could say was a lot more simplistic in approach to some degree, but I enjoyed that it took the best of both worlds from XC1 and XC2.  I constantly felt like I wanted to battle more and experiment (rather than try to avoid battling unless purposely grinding like other RPG's) - to the extent that Xenoblade 3 conversely never felt like a grind. But this new Rogue-like mode in Wave 3 certainly looks a lot more long-lasting than Wave 2's challenge battles - just anything to keep me engaged in the world at this stage and I will happily take it until Wave 4's story content hits. 
 

[TheZekenator]

Can we talk about this volume 4 teaser for the Xenoblade Chronicles 3.  Alright so if you haven't seen the trailer I'm typing my thoughts and questions into a spoiler bubble because I just need to talk about this...

Spoiler

I went bananas seeing Alvis with the Zanza wings and the Monado 1 in his hands looking meancingly down on the iconic foreign blade wielders. I went even more crazy seeing Shulk and hearing Shulk again the cape is nice touch (Dunban's most definitely proud)  . The best moment for me was seeing Rex become a man. I mean he's a buff duel-wielding arts master (A mixture Zeke and Vandham from XB2 in my opinion). Yeah, whatever new character at the end I'm already attached to most of the cast there has never been a character I can really hate even among the villains of the series. That Torna DLC did wonders for Jin, Malos and Mythra no doubt all the founders of Aionios here in great hands. I sense we might end up seeing some deaths here with Shulk and Rex still alive to tell the tale.  There are a couple questions here....

Q1. What happened that made the Conduit symbol not be on Rex's swords?

A: Perhaps Alvis dealt with them (and Rex would have a reason for saying "He's just a heartless machine"), Maybe when the Architect disappeared so did their powers, or maybe when they were reborn as humans and the swords Rex wields are mere replicas

Q2. Who is this dude at the end?

A: If you know the history of Xenoblade everyone has been saying he's a Fei look alike (Xenogears), Could be related to N, all that's known is that he leads House Vandham.

Q3. Why is Alvis the antagonist?

A: This is not proven but nonetheless could be true. Those who played the first game know that Alvis is in fact a computer, so he has no morals no sense of right or wrong. Him "switching sides" when revealed to be affiliated with Dickson was surprising but, in the end, he ended up pushing Shulk to make his own future/Monado etc.

Q4.  Who is the Seventh Founder? Could this be answered in the DLC?

A: My guess is Alvis (As much as I would love to say someone from Xenoblade X) Alvis is the only one I think who could remain of the radar for so long come back and then erase every trace of his existence after saving the day.

Q5: Shulk loses an arm and Rex an eye (like their mentors) Who does this?

A: Perhaps N does this. It's just hard for me to Alvis making rash decisions. Seeing as in Xenoblade 1 he was calm and collected and really just chilled the entire game like the savage silver haired anime protagonist he is.

 

 

[SanPolo4389]

 

 

[Sonicka]

Wait… *rubs eyes* whaaaaat? 

Genuinely, I didn’t think this would drop until late in the year, or maybe July at best… but next week?! 

But ok. Sure! I have time to kill until TOTK, Nintendo.

There’s an awful lot to unpack in that Trailer alone with both the returning & new characters (and possibly legacy characters offspring?). This also seems to solidify that the DLC is indeed the founders story (if the first teaser didn’t make that obvious already) but I’m not sure I expected N to once again be an additional antagonist here - but it could be that I’m simply misremembering some details of the timeline of events in XC3’s history. In any case - it looks like it will serve to tie up a lot of loose  threads and possibly things hinted at from Future Connected too. 

In particular, my eyes did widen plenty over the character of Glimmer. That core crystal… is she supposed to be an amalgamation of whom I think it is? Or maybe one of the kids? I mean, The VA was almost certainly…

[Zaysho]

I'm going insane. I can't believe this shit is next week. I just started a replay of Xenoblade 1 this past weekend since I was expecting a June release at the earliest lmaoooooo (I just got to Satorl Marsh tonight, I assume by the time this drops I'll be up to Sword Valley--yeah I ain't finishing this run). (3 spoilers)

I was initially unsure how I'd feel about them doing a prequel again but this is something I really wanted to see with the way the game teases it in the second half of the story, and I'm hoping it somehow ties back into the ending of 3

Spoiler

(because I really want to see Noah and Mio keep their promise).

While I really enjoyed the base game, the DLC trailers are presenting almost more of what I initially wanted/expected from 3, but at the same time I'm sorta glad 3 kept all the legacy stuff in check to not overshadow everyone else. It was very smartly done, I felt, but it kind of felt like the game was holding back, especially the way the final chapter is set up to lore dump the connections.

3 hours ago, Sonicka said:

There’s an awful lot to unpack in that Trailer alone with both the returning & new characters (and possibly legacy characters offspring?). This also seems to solidify that the DLC is indeed the founders story (if the first teaser didn’t make that obvious already) but I’m not sure I expected N to once again be an additional antagonist here - but it could be that I’m simply misremembering some details of the timeline of events in XC3’s history. In any case - it looks like it will serve to tie up a lot of loose  threads and possibly things hinted at from Future Connected too.

Spoiler

It makes sense since the Founders' story is directly tied to N's. N was charged with killing the people of the old City in exchange for Z bringing back his Mio (M) as a Moebius like him. The old man we see him kill is probably his son grown up, so Matthew and Na'el (Vandham and Doyle, respectively) are his great-grandchildren. 3's a little weird with time in general though.

4 hours ago, Sonicka said:

In particular, my eyes did widen plenty over the character of Glimmer. That core crystal… is she supposed to be an amalgamation of whom I think it is? Or maybe one of the kids? I mean, The VA was almost certainly…

Spoiler

My guess is she's almost certainly Rex's and Pyra's daughter. Could always be a curveball and be a reawakened reincarnation of the Aegis altogether, though, but I feel it makes more sense she's another one of Rex's children. Raises the question if we'll see Mythra's child to round out the family since we obviously have Mio already.

gaaaaaaaah I can't wait to play this next week

[Sonicka]

It's totally messed with some of my backlog plans of things to finish up before TOTK arrives. But everything goes onto hold when it comes to XC games. 17 days should be more than enough time to finish this out if the wealth of content matches Torna / Future Connected.
 

1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

I was initially unsure how I'd feel about them doing a prequel again but this is something I really wanted to see with the way the game teases it in the second half of the story, and I'm hoping it somehow ties back into the ending of 3

  Hide contents

(because I really want to see Noah and Mio keep their promise).

While I really enjoyed the base game, the DLC trailers are presenting almost more of what I initially wanted/expected from 3, but at the same time I'm sorta glad 3 kept all the legacy stuff in check to not overshadow everyone else. It was very smartly done, I felt, but it kind of felt like the game was holding back, especially the way the final chapter is set up to lore dump the connections.

Same, in my head what I wanted was this DLC offering - but really the focus of XC3's stuck the landing and stuck with it's newer characters and we saw the events from their POV. The moment we deviated to anyone else from outside this world too much would immediately have shifted the players focus and emotions away a lot. We got lore dump at the end for sure but at least they invested us in the characters existing in XC3's world, rather than what came before.

With Future Redeemed they can use the past connections to finally link a lot of the missing story up, which is a wise play. I mean this was a similar move Monolithsoft made with XC2 wasn't it? In that Torna was supposed to be an entire chapter or two originally, but they repurposed it into DLC as it took the player away from the main story for too long.

I do hope we get to return to...

Spoiler

Noah and Mio as well. For me personally, I found their romantic entanglement to be built up so organically throughout the play-through, that when you realise they've been tragically falling in love for a Millennia again and again (and with what happened between N and M)  it quickly becomes one of the most tragic love stories ever written - and then it hits you with the end that they'll be pulled apart (yet again).

But hey, be it an additional end sequence, or even the tease of another title... I hope it's fulfilled someday.

1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

  Hide contents

It makes sense since the Founders' story is directly tied to N's. N was charged with killing the people of the old City in exchange for Z bringing back his Mio (M) as a Moebius like him. The old man we see him kill is probably his son grown up, so Matthew and Na'el (Vandham and Doyle, respectively) are his great-grandchildren. 3's a little weird with time in general though.

Yeah actually I think though right and I am slightly misremembering this.

Spoiler

I think the rebirth cycles & timey wimey elements are throwing me off. XC3 exists for almost an eternity within a second after all lol.

I forgot that The City in XC3 narrative is actually the SECOND iteration after N destroyed the first one. For some reason Shulk & Rex being here had me thinking this was also at a time waaaaaay before N made an appearance, although it does look like some of the narrative takes place before Shulk Buffs himself up - but also the Founders story is set at this time when the New City is built, so yeah it totally tracks of course.

Also the Old Man being N's son is a good shout and makes a lot of sense. 

I originally wondered if that that person might have been Matthew - but considering the timing and also the existence of Na'el, it  adds credence of a generational gap.

 

1 hour ago, Zaysho said:

  Hide contents

My guess is she's almost certainly Rex's and Pyra's daughter. Could always be a curveball and be a reawakened reincarnation of the Aegis altogether, though, but I feel it makes more sense she's another one of Rex's children. Raises the question if we'll see Mythra's child to round out the family since we obviously have Mio already.

 

Spoiler

Yes, that definitely does make more sense - I do wonder where Mythra's offspring could be? 

Another thing that I totally missed on first inspection was that Nikol and Glimmer (likely the Son & Daughter of Shulk & Rex respectively) were freed from the clock like the XC3 protagonists where (the statues indicated this I beleive) So that means they won't know recognise their parents, much like Mio wouldn't have. 

I do like all the subverting achieved with the statues as well. In the trailer we see a shot of Buff Shulk with his Metal arm, which matches up to the statue that I don't think many would have thought was Shulk at the time (most of us aligned him to House Ortiz - which is clearly Nikol). 

Also A... is this supposed to be a female Alvis equivalent or something? 

 

So many many questions and just 6 days to goooooooooo...

Edited April 19, 2023 by Sonicka
Those darn spoiler boxes and quotations messed with my post format.