Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (I'm Really Threeling It!)

JayMoyles wrote:

Were Chain Attacks always so drawn out? It feels like I'm settling in for a lengthy five minute attack when I start one in XC3 and I definitely don't recall that being an issue in the other games. Maybe I need to be using Ouroboros form more often or something.

They weren't, XC3 makes a much bigger deal of them - to the detriment of the fighting system I reckon, especially since slamming a static menu interface over the entire screen takes away a lot of the dynamism.  I almost never want to hear the chain attack theme over the battle music either.

JayMoyles wrote:

Spoiler:

Yes it is!  Truly awful.

I was speaking to a friend yesterday who got to that same point at 2am on a weeknight, turned to her partner, and carried right on playing because she had to know what happened next. Taion's scarf is great, Eunie calling it dumb is also great.  Both things can be true.

Just done the new characters little story bit, seemed even shorter than the last one, but Masha is useful with the crafting though now seems pointless as I'm not going back to do more side quests and the big DLC seems like new group of characters.

Said same about FEnage, new rings are great but as I'm done what am I using Hector on, though with that game maybe can use the party on the story content coming.

Looks pretty good, pretty surprised how soon it is

Yes: as we've discussed elsewhere, releasing it with a week's notice less than three weeks before TotK is an interesting move.

The Big N have released some art

Nikol an Kevesi soldier


and

Glimmer an Agnian soldier


After watching the trailer again, I'm looking forward to this a lot as XC3 was my GOTY of 2022 and Torna which was an expansion of XC2 I thought was great. Just lots to play, though after my mad pick-ups it's really nothing till TotK that in that three weeks I can play a bunch of these, then post Zelda might be only FFXVI really.

I love Nikol's big robot arms, he reminds me of a bloke from... well. ARMS. He also looks a lot like Shulk. A lot. Glimmer meanwhile: I'm wondering if she has some link to Pyra/Mythra. The name has a lot to do with light, and then there's her physical proportions. Monolith's hornier designers going off on one again I see.

I'm looking forward to it too, it looks pretty special and XC3 was my game of last year as well (by a distance). I avoided Future Connected because I didn't fancy being lumbered with a bundle of Nopons (and I didn't care about Melia or Shulk) and Torna because I didn't fancy the miserable ending, so this will be the first sub-adventure I've played. Keen to see what they come up with.

Talking to Jay, he's seen theories that these are kids of Shulk, Rex etc along with Matthew seemingly being Noah & Mio kid.

As only about 3 people on here care about it, I will DP here then last game thread and that is



Also it's an expansion, a meaty one at that as it took me close to 18hrs to finish where I've finished games that have taken 5 mins, I digress.  

Much like Torna it could have been its own game where the recent Fell Xenologue in FEngage felt like a side story, where FR is a pretty important piece of the Xenoblade timeline. Though I will say even at 18hrs it felt a tad rushed, as the game is 5 chapters and goes pretty much straight into save the world, meaning I didn't feel like I spent a whole lot of time with the new characters and one side quest stands out as decent character growth, yet it has no VO.

It makes it feel less important than other things happening, then out of six characters you see, I wasn't that keen on Rex he was certainly my least favourite and I think even said when talking about XC2 that the party characters I found tad meh. That I'm more likely to play XCDE next and leave XC2 till last.

Things like the music etc is still good, it just makes what is now my Number 3 Switch game (54th of All-Time) better in XC3.

Yeah, this launched at a terrible time for me. I'm not really wanting to dive into anything substantial before TotK. I'll likely get to this in the summer, I expect.

Oi Moyles, give us your thoughts about the main game! Give the people what they want darn it.

It's been a little while so I apologise for not going as in-depth as I might have done! Essentially, XC3 was a bloody good time, but it's a strange one to reflect back on because I feel in most areas it didn't reach the heady heights that the previous two games did.

The story was really bloody good when it focused on character based events (that ending to that chapter, you know the one) but lost me somewhat when it started focusing on the really rather poor villains. Jin and Malos were cringing seeing the Consuls and their cabal, I'm sure. I really liked the cast and whilst there might be individual characters across the series I liked more, I think the XC3 party stand above the rest. Also, not having to rely on RNG gacha pulls to meet the majority of the characters in the game was a refreshing change!

Combat wise... I don't know, there was something missing to me playing through this. I often felt like a spectator in some of the fights as they just resolved themselves and I posted earlier about how the chain attacks seemed to really disrupt the flow of the fights. I missed the simplicity of XC1 as well as the fluidity of the XC2 - especially Torna - battle system.

Of course, the key appeal for me with Xenoblade was still present in that I could still roam about colossal environments, poking into places with overlevelled beasties and lose myself in the world for a while. That's always been a highlight in the series and they've never not nailed that in my eyes. I wish there were some more standout music tracks, but what can you do.

If I was to rank the series including DLC/whatever Future Connected is, I'd probably go like this:

1) Torna
2) XC1
3) XC3
4) XC2
5) Future Connected

We shall see where XC3's DLC features!

Question did you play XC on Switch or just Future Connected? If you didn't, then do think nostalgia of it on Wii places it higher, then others?

Nah, I played the Definitive Edition on Switch. I've never actually played it on Wii - my only exposure to the game prior to the Definitive Edition was the 3DS port which probably wasn't the best way to experience that game. I think I got to Frontier Village in my 3DS run before packing it in.

Nice as I'm thinking about playing XCDE but didn't know if it holds up compared to Torna or XC3.

I don't disagree with any of your points there Jay, apart from the conclusion. XC1 top of the list without any nostalgia is an odd one for me. What areas do you think the first game is the strongest in out of the three? (Ignoring the mini-adventures, none of which I've played. That'll change soon!)

I beat Future Redeemed! I had a good time with it. I think I've identified my issue with the base game's combat system - I think messing about with class composition and having to constantly juggle what role each party member plays was a bit much for me. Having the party in FR as set roles was a grand time and allowed me to just enjoy the combat at a more pure level.

This is definitely a fan-service expansion through and through. I don't think I could recommend it to anyone that's just played XC3 as a result. A huge part of the appeal and the enjoyment I got from the expansion was obviously hanging out with Shulk and Rex but also in seeing the nods to the first two games.

At its core, it's more XC3 and obviously I still loved roaming about colossal environments like I always enjoy in the series. I do agree with Mas in that it felt a bit rushed from a story standpoint and maybe needed a few more chapters to flesh out the plot somewhat.

It was grand though and worth a look for sure. 8/10

Balladeer wrote:

I don't disagree with any of your points there Jay, apart from the conclusion.  XC1 top of the list without any nostalgia is an odd one for me.  What areas do you think the first game is the strongest in out of the three?  (Ignoring the mini-adventures, none of which I've played.  That'll change soon!)

I really do enjoy the simpler combat of the original - like I mentioned above, not having to faff about with Blades or classes is a good thing in my book. I do think the areas in XC1 are so much more enjoyable to explore than in XC2/3. Each area felt like it had a real identity to it and felt a lot more memorable as a result. I also really like the story and the cast are mostly fantastic.

Not more fanservice, I had enough of that from 2.

Hrm, okay. I agree with you about the classes, but I thought the Blades added so much more to the fighting than 1 could ever dream of - once you understand what's going on there, natch. Possibly the area is the one thing I could concede XC1 winning at, but I think you're underselling some of 2's areas then. Thinking the party and story are better than in 3 is just wrongheaded though.

Balladeer wrote:

Not more fanservice, I had enough of that from 2.

Hrm, okay.  I agree with you about the classes, but I thought the Blades added so much more to the fighting than 1 could ever dream of - once you understand what's going on there, natch.  Possibly the area is the one thing I could concede XC1 winning at, but I think you're underselling some of 2's areas then.  Thinking the party and story are better than in 3 is just wrongheaded though.

I thought the Blades system was even more of a mess than classes! Gacha elements, absolute spiderwebs of difficult to follow skill trees and just a mish mash of designs visually.

As for 2's areas... Gormott nearly made me quit the game. It did pick up from Uraya onwards, but anything that made me feel like Gormott did is a black mark.

I think the N based story stuff in 3 was a total triumph, but the other villains just did not hit for me at all compared to the rogue's gallery in 1. And yeah, I think the main party as a whole are better in 1! Shulk's great, Reyn is lovable, Melia rules, Riki is a hero, Dunban oozes cool... the other two are just fine.

Classes to me in just standard RPG things, like in my party need a healer, tank etc

I know it's a standard thing, but I've always got on more with Xenoblade when it's been predefined instead of freeform, like in XC1, Torna and Future Redeemed.

JayMoyles wrote:

I thought the Blades system was even more of a mess than classes! Gacha elements, absolute spiderwebs of difficult to follow skill trees and just a mish mash of designs visually.

From a customisation point of view, sure - but in XC1 you had to muck around with the sodding crystals.  XC3 wins there.  And from an in-battle point, nah the tactics with the Blades and the elemental orbs and everything there spank XC1 to Gormott and back. I reckon 1's in the middle here, out-of-battle 3>1>2 and in-battle 2>1>3.

JayMoyles wrote:

As for 2's areas... Gormott nearly made me quit the game. It did pick up from Uraya onwards, but anything that made me feel like Gormott did is a black mark.

What did Gormott do to you?  It's a big field!  It's like Gaur Plain!

JayMoyles wrote:

I think the N based story stuff in 3 was a total triumph, but the other villains just did not hit for me at all compared to the rogue's gallery in 1. And yeah, I think the main party as a whole are better in 1! Shulk's great, Reyn is lovable, Melia rules, Riki is a hero, Dunban oozes cool... the other two are just fine.

Okay I've found the real point of disagreement.  Not with the villains, that's fair, I think you could argue 1 has the best villains set.  The party... did we play the same game!?  Even when 1 was the only Xenoblade game out the main party was never its strong suit.  Shulk's a standard-issue dull-as-they-come shonen hero, Reyn's a standard-issue dull-as-they-come anime best friend, Melia goes from being the dullest of the party in 1 to (3 spoilers) maybe the dullest NPC in 3, no Nopon before Riku is a good character and the best thing 3 did was relegating them to support units...  I will give you Dunban, otherwise I just can't see eye-to-eye with you on any of this.  The party in 3 trounce the party in 1 (and 2).

Fight! Fight!!!

I will agree with Jay on the environments - XC1 felt the most like a living, breathing world. But XC3's world is the most fun to actually explore. I also agree with Jay on the Blades in XC2... I tried to get into the battle system and the gacha and spiderweb customisation mechanics but I just thought life was too short.

I have put XC3 on pause since TOTK came out, but Pikmin 4 is going to come out soon and I won't have finished either of them! I don't know how people find the time to play these big long games

Bet you agree with Jay on the best way to wipe your bottoms and all. Sulk.

I'm nearly done with Future Redeemed and so I thought I'd scattergun some thoughts in no particular order.

I guess it's not surprising, given the DLC and the presumably lower budget that goes with it, that the voice acting is a leap down from the likes of 2 and 3.  I like Matthew and Glimmer well enough: Shulk and Rex in particular sound stilted and bad, and I don't think that's because Shulk comes from a worse-written game.

I think the game in general has a bit of the BotW-to-TotK 'problem', if you can call it that; in that it knows the magic won't work again and so strips the game back to a checklist.  Nowhere is this clearer than when you build an ether mast.  I don't mind it as much here though, possibly because it's a smaller more condensed experience.  I also think, and perhaps this is TotK's influence again, that I expected a bit more from FR.  Maybe shaking the battle system up a bit more, some more striking vistas.  Instead Chain Attacks dominate the bigger battles again, which once again almost trivialises everything else: it becomes (or rather remains) 'stay alive until you can let off a chain attack, nothing else matters'.  I do think some of the vistas are better in FR than in the main game, even if a large chunk feels copy-pasted from an obvious source.

All that said, I have enjoyed it a whole lot.  It's a more condensed version of XC3, and I loved XC3, but I wouldn't have wanted another 100h of it.  Another 20-30 is ideal for my sensibilities.  The final area as well is a lovely trek upwards and a good old nostalgia hit.  The entire DLC trades heavily off nostalgia of course, but I don't mind that at all: at the end of what must be upwards of 400h of playtime over the whole trilogy, that nostalgia hit feels earned.  (Not learned.)

Anyway, I'm off to fight the final boss, all of which will mean nothing due to the game being a prequel.  Oh well!