Hello, and we’re back with another game Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review. Now, this is the newest in a long-running JRPG series. And just like two, which I really enjoyed, this one is pretty great so far.
- Read more: MultiVersus review: Better than Smash Bros?
Now keep in mind we didn’t get very much early access To this game. So these are strictly strong first impressions.
We dumped as many hours as we could into this thing just to get you some basic info.
And so far, unless a major red flag pops up like 70% in or something, all signs point to a yes.
There are a couple of glaring issues, but overall I’m still really enjoying it. Monolith Soft once again built a fantastically unique world and a massive compelling JRPG adventure that is accessible at the start and grows bigger and deeper into this crazier thing.
As it goes from both story to gameplay elements.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review: Story
So first story wise without spoiling anything, just the basics.
If you haven’t played previous entries, that’s fine. You can start here. This is a self-contained story.
There are connections to previous games if you did play but you’ll be fine jumping into this adventure, with new characters, and new things.
This one leans really heavy on sci-fi, the style, and the vibe is totally different and it’s awesome, from weaponry to warfare, to different colonies, And really, really cool robots.
There’s a lot to chew into if you like this stuff but it’s really a story about a group of friends that are like soldiers who are literally bred to fight and then just die off, all in the span of 10 years.
They’re literally fueled by the death of their enemies in what seems to be this just endless sad battle of colonies on this planet. But of course, there’s a lot more to it.
This group of soldiers quickly ends up with the world against them and with unlikely allies.
So it’s up to them to go on an adventure featuring warring groups, fearsome creatures, massive landscapes, and tons of weird, spooky mythical, bad guys.
Now it’s a story that gets super complicated but ultimately it’s one that’s told through a current timeline and some really interesting flashbacks and is ultimately at least to me, something about loss and friendship.
There are tons of lengthy cut scenes. So get ready. This is an unlikely band of heroes that turns out to be an awesome group.
Characters
Every character is unique and has their own quirks and charms and it’s great to get to know them.
You know, we play so many games where it’s a band of characters, but after a while, it feels like you can only have so many ideas and characters feel like a generic archetype of, you know some other game you played.
But I still managed to really like them here. They still managed to pull it off and make ’em feel a little different.
The writing is a bit over the top and really tries to kind of like endlessly smack you like hammer home some of the points but ultimately it’s just chock-full of emotion.
You know, every couple of steps, every time you’re in a new area, you are just dumped with the emotion of these characters, what they’re thinking, how they’re feeling about their world and it can be overwhelming, but it’s that anime style and it works.
I really like a lot of these characters and just how their fates are intertwined, makes for some cool story but also bleeds into the gameplay concepts in clever ways.
The flow is the story wandering across massive, beautiful landscapes, fighting creatures, collecting things, and maybe doing some side quests.
Many of the side quests so far are actually being pretty solid and actually rewarding. Now the exploration is simple.
There are crates, there are items to pick up, not a ton of interaction, just a bunch of mindless enemies wandering the landscape, but still, it’s just enough.
Graphics
Now, speaking of wandering these landscapes you might see in-game, the art direction is on point. Once again, the world feels massive.
You know, like the sense of the scale of things and the distance is so unique to this series in a weird way.
It gives the world and the vibe a really unique identity with stuff like this. But unfortunately, graphically the game looks like a mess.
I don’t usually harp on this stuff, graphics aren’t everything but this one in spots seriously just hurt my eyes. And I hurt that experience a bit.
The resolution will tank, things look blurry and a lot of times it really holds back what is otherwise a beautiful color palette and character designs.
And I’m talking docked and handheld mode. Hardware limitations, sure but you know, worth pointing out. Now like many at JRPG, it takes a bit to really get going. But once it does, once it clicks, a man like then it’s some good stuff.
Combat is kind of like a more stacked version of two you know, auto-attacking is the main bit here, but you know, of course, it’s all about managing to position, managing cooldowns, and effectively using your arts and training them and building them up together with your allies.
Everyone has a unique role and those roles are somewhat swappable, but ultimately it’s worth kind of building them up individually.
Playing a role is rewarded by faster access to more powerful abilities and stuff. It looks like absolute chaos. It can get really messy.
Like really just become like a cluster of crap on screen sometimes but it’s still satisfying to pull it all off.
It’s more like organized battle chaos and you can swap characters on the field or in battle which is a really nice plus.
All character types are engaging even if I stuck to the lead ones mostly. Now, as you get further in, this gets a bit deeper and seems a bit tricky to understand stacking arts at first you know, it took me a minute to get into that flow as you’ll probably see in the gameplay footage here.
But the game keeps giving you more and more and you can become a little group of powerhouses from a pretty awesome in-battle mini-game where you stack attacks and build points to keep it going by choosing different characters, to being able to fuse into a larger creature and ouroboros to cause major damage.
Enemies, Game Mechanics
All of the bigger enemies, you know, the creatures, the mechs, the ouroboros things are all totally awesome and working in tandem, like I just love this stuff.
Now the game is riddled with tutorials and help popups for a significant length of the game.
On the one hand, it means a nice steady trickle of new features and things going on so it’s always fresh, but on the other hand, it’s consistently kind of annoying.
The only other annoying thing doesn’t really come as a surprise If you’ve played these games, the repeating lines, the voice lines, the character repeating the same two lines over and over and over and over and over like whether you’re in battle or right before a battle or upon completion of the battle, it is so painful.
During the battles, I like it because I can know what kind of attack everyone is doing just by listening but hearing the same thing every time you wrap up a winning battle it’s really grating.
It’s almost like a signature of these games though, in a weird way.
I think they do it on purpose. That’s my weird theory. But yeah. So anyway, like you’re chaining arts, you’re doing crazy stuff.
You’re summoning the ouroboros, like all of it with really cool style. And then you’re in easy-to-read character menus.
You know, you’re equipping accessories you find or buy with traders.
You’re crafting gems to equip characters and specialize them a bit more and you’re managing their move sets.
You’re leveling up the characters and then you’re mastering those moves. As I said, character groups can actually swap subclasses and you can tweak equipment and moves to said characters and their outfits change.
You know, it walks a nice, fine line between being nice and simple and not too over the top, with too many RPG elements.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review: Campsite System
It’s a good amount of stuff to manage and it makes you feel a little bit more in control. Between this and just a good campsite system, you know, exploration is fun when you finally get to a campsite, like it’s always a good length of time and you’re always like, oh, like you’re relieved. You’re spending bonus XP at these camps to level up more.
Cleaning up, you’re cooking for bonuses.
You’re crafting gems and more as you go on, it’s just good.
Oh, and speaking of good, the music kicks ass.
The group of composers behind this seriously showed up.
Every moment of the music is super epic and compelling.
It’s cool sci-fi or just like a perfectly peaceful, contemplative flute that they put a bunch of work into behind the scenes.
All of it just really, really deserves praise from the epic battle music to the simple stuff
Really, ultimately, if you love JRPGs, I think you’re gonna really dig this one. That’s my first impression so far. If you didn’t like the second game, I don’t know if this one will change your mind.
You know, maybe the aesthetic being a bit more sci-fi it might, but either way, I personally am really enjoying myself.
And as you’ve heard, this puppy will probably take you like 100 hours or so. So you’re getting some real bang for your buck, obviously But it’s got a ton of charm, a lot of attention to the art and the music and it’s fun chaos with of course a backdrop of cool giant creatures and robots and sci-fi, but it’s the heart, man.
I think that’s why I keep going back to these games.
The Chronicle series just has heart. Anyway, that’s a Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review You guys know how this goes by now, I give you some pros, some cons, you know first impressions, and really some personal opinion.
And now I want to hear your opinions down in the comments. Some of you guys have probably jumped into this day one.
So if you’re just getting your feet wet I want to know how you’re feeling so far. Who’s your favorite character in the group? How have you been rolling? What do you think about the, you know the graphics and the performance? Do you love music as much as I do? Let’s talk about anything with this game down in the comments.
That is it on The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review, to stay updated with upcoming game reviews old and new, follow us on Twitter.
35 thoughts on “Xenoblade Chronicles 3 review”