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

Still in the early stages of 1 myself so don't think I've seen much of what it will become just yet but I'm here for the setting and the slightly hammy acting and drama.

Finished Chapter 4 this morning, banger of a game.

You should now be onto the best* chapter in the game Mas! Dull landscapes, exposition dumps, twee nonsense a-plenty, and a physics engineer who's never spent enough time with a woman to understand how bras work. Rolling Eyes

Still, the ending to 4 is a belter!

Rum wrote:: Hey! I'm playing XC2 too! Put me in the title you bitch!

I agree with what Jay's saying but haven't quite clicked with the battle system, which makes me think I'm not going to at this point. I really resent the fact you can't go back to tutorials and double check things, because I don't have the time for long sessions at the moment so I've struggled to practise what they've taught me and I can't go and double check things in-game. I also don't want to then spend lots of time YouTubing it instead!

You're in the title you slag!

XC2's battle system... yep I had to look up a guide too. Loved it after looking up that guide, mind; but the game does a terrible job of explaining it. You'll be pleased to know that XC3 does a much better job of explaining everything: if anything it's too slow, but given what they did with 2 perhaps that's for the best! You can check the tutorials after the fact as well.

masofdas wrote:: Add to this I like how the essentially the job system tied to Heroes (maybe like blades in XC2) and changing them around, to find a nice balance of attack, defend, heal along with levelling jobs up.

The class system and the Blade system both have their own benefits I think. I think I prefer the classes? They're more customisable. My main problem with them is that there's a serious lack of defender classes to level up when I probably want three in my party at any one time. DAMN YOU!

About the class system... I think I still prefer it to the Blades, because there's no gacha nonsense here, but it's definitely one of the weaker systems I've come across. This is especially true if you compare it to Nobody Saves The World, which came out this year and is entirely class system. Even ignoring that, though (and obviously this is just one part of XC3's setup), the existing system could easily have been improved with just a few tweaks. Obvious stat. increases to your classes as you level them up, or boosts to your classes' moves; unlocking the base moves and skills for each class instead of having them all available from the off...

Sigh. This is probably stuff nobody cares about but me, especially given that it's just me and Mas on 3. How are the rest of you grappling with your fighting systems?

(As for where I am in the game, I've got a boat. It's good.)

Think I like the class system as reminds me jobs in FF, even recent Strangers of Paradise had them and I like unlocking new ones, which this even neater because tied to Heroes.

I think I'm getting more used to the fighting system in XC2, a mere 25 hours in. Though having said that, I don't really care enough about it to properly understand everything intricately. I also do not really like the design of the generic Blades or the gachapon system, and even the rare Blades are wildly inconsistent in their design, as Jay says.

I also find the tone quite inconsistent. It's been mad hammy and light-hearted for the past hour or so. Patroka and Mikael made me cringe.

I've slowed down a bit now. I dipped out to play Torna at the end of Chapter 7 and that was phenomenal. Everything that needed tweaking was tweaked, so the combat, the character development, the world all felt so good. Then it's plonked back into 2 and I'm having to do side quests to make up for the fact I kinda ran through the last chapters, however it doesn't feel like a good side quest time from the story perspective...

I'm playing a bit of Cult of the Lamb right now, so hopefully I'll feel reinvigorated once I'm done with that.

Rum wrote:: I also find the tone quite inconsistent. It's been mad hammy and light-hearted for the past hour or so. Patroka and Mikael made me cringe.

I'd forgotten about them, apart from one nails-hard battle against the two of them (and Jin I think?) that will be seared into my memory forever. Mad

Crumpy Andy wrote:: I've slowed down a bit now. I dipped out to play Torna at the end of Chapter 7 and that was phenomenal. Everything that needed tweaking was tweaked, so the combat, the character development, the world all felt so good. Then it's plonked back into 2 and I'm having to do side quests to make up for the fact I kinda ran through the last chapters, however it doesn't feel like a good side quest time from the story perspective...

Meh. Do the sidequests anyway. It is the way of the JRPGs. That makes me almost want to play Torna, but I know that the ending will be chuffing miserable and I'll hate it.

masofdas wrote:: Think I like the class system as reminds me jobs in FF, even recent Strangers of Paradise had them and I like unlocking new ones, which this even neater because tied to Heroes.

I do like the class system overall, but it could be better in several obvious ways. Much like the game as a whole.

For example: the map. Why can't I place different types of markers? Why can't I scroll through different vertical slices? You could do that in 1 ferchrissake! And why have they suddenly given the soundtrack chaps a completely different brief from what they were doing in 2? And why does Ghondor exist!?

I am still loving it though. Chapter 5 ends/chapter 6 begins on some massive twists that I barely followed. Load of bats**t nonsense. And the pirate's class is an absolute winner.

Oh yeah I am, I guess just normally at the level of amping up the story has gotten to I'd have finished up all the sidequests unless they're post game. I've been on it today and have tidied up most of them now. Should be a decent level to go back to the main story within the next few days, so hopefully will finish up soon.

I'm not going to jump into XCDE or XC2 right away after playing XC3 also Torna this year but after playing those two, I am keen to go back to XC2 more likely than XCDE because I want to see what happens in regard to Torna & I liked one of the characters that shows up in XC3.

Am worried though about going back to XC2 or XCDE after playing Torna and XC3, as you mention stuff like combat changes.

Anyway on XC3 which I've finished the main story and got some questions, which I guess only Balla might be able to answer but anyway might be able to feel me in on how all these connected

Spoiler:

Finally yesterday I finished Xenoblade 2. Overall I really enjoyed it, though I think the last stretch had me falling out of love a little bit. I kind of stopped levelling my blades as it felt like extra work for little reward and I had some nasty stints

XC2 Spoilers:

Glad I've finally crossed this one off the list and I'm looking forward to getting around to 3 in the not too distant future.

I also finished XC2 earlier this week including Torna. I was definitely fatigued with the game by the end of it all and skipped a fair few sidequests, although not as many as Andy by the sounds of things as I didn't experience any nasty stints as he put it. I did enjoy levelling some of the Blades though and there definitely felt like there was a reward in doing so from a gameplay perspective - a maxed out Zenobia was a thing of beauty and made the last few areas of the game a cakewalk. I realise I sound quite down on the game here and I should add that's definitely not the case - there was just too much of it to do the JRPG thing of ticking off everything!

I didn't know you hadn't play Torna, Balla! I found that to be a much, much sleeker experience in regards to both its runtime and the combat. I was energised enough to 100% complete Torna and that took me about 25 hours compared to the 100+ it would have taken to complete everything in the main game. The combat felt so much zippier and engaging, and it was a godsend not to have to rely on the gacha system for my party.

Well done lads! I'm so glad some other people on here have conquered it! Skipping some of the sidequests is fair. I definitely found those two fights that Andy mentioned a slog too. Looking forward to seeing you both pick up XC3 some time in 2024. Very Happy

I won't be opening that Mas spoiler for a bit: I'm on what I believe might be the penultimate chapter of XC3, but they've sprung a whole heap of sidequests on me. I can't emphasise enough how much XC3's are better than the two main games before it. (XCX's were good actually, it was the main quest that was bobbins). I'm powering up all the classes too, which despite my slight misgivings about that system is good fun.

Yeah you certainly need to see the end credits etc

I believe I now have all the classes, including the obligatory loli hero (with a twist in this case I guess). Balla's verdict: not enough defenders. Sulk

Still, the penultimate one makes short work of... well. Everything.

I got that one after I finished the game, and found the twist with them interesting that I did a bunch of side quests for them.

Yeah, only 3 new defenders out of the 19 heroes which I did think about ranking, but some I didn't use much or spend a lot of time with and one is clearly the worst.

The main cast though my ranking is

1st Eunie
Mio
Taion
Noah
Lanz
6th Sena

Is that one Stalker? Because it feels like that one might be Stalker. Please attack more than once every two days Juniper. Hissy fit

As you know, my ranking is pretty much the same as yours with the top two switched 'round. Eunie is great and has a lot of the best lines, but Mio snipes the top spot due to cute romance shenanigans, Welsh accent, and probably having (spoilers in this link) the best line all game at the beginning of Chapter 6. Plus she's a musician. Very Happy

Taion is a good snarky lad, Noah is decent, Lanz wants something a bit meatier.

Sena is the only one I dislike, which is a shame. I like that they've got a perky lifting girl, and I think her voice acting suits the character I like... but I really don't like her voice acting most of the time. (I'M THE GIRL WITH THE GALL.) I don't quite think the writers knew what to do with her either. It's telling that in her Big Development Quest she spends most of her time being overshadowed by an also not-very-good character.

Anyway, we can all agree that Ashera's the best hero, right? Love

Last edited by masofdas on Thu 25 Aug 2022 - 13:40; edited 1 time in total

Isn't 7 the loli hero as you put it? I got her after I finished the main quest and found her to be interesting that I did all the quests I could do for them.

I liked Juniper and nice to see representation in games. Though didn't use them much, as needed the extra defender which hero slot was good for.

Sorry, I was being unclear: 'that one' referring to 'one is clearly the worst'. Although, I'm not sure loli hero is that great either, seeing as her whole thing doesn't work on bosses more than half the time.

Juniper the character is fine. Juniper the non-binary rep is good. Shame about that Splatoon 3 lady in that regard.

You know who is the worst

Oh duh.

Of course. I was thinking in gameplay terms, but she's the obvious Fruit & Nut in the selection box.

I never really used them either, and shame they show up for Senas story quest.

I've finished the game! By which I mean, finished it and done the post-game missions. I think I might have done every quest, although by the end I was definitely using a guide - especially to mop up some of those yellow 'i's, which are the worst bit of this game's side-quests. I had a 1/2 hanging around for ages, irking me each time.

Post-game chat:

More general thoughts in LGYF when I get around to them, but - game good. Game very good.

Spoiler:

In an attempt to derail the Xenoblade 3 chat I finally got back to the first game after the distraction of Mario's Picross. I'm still not that far in to it but big story things happened that were much darker than I was expecting. I'm struggling a bit to keep up with all the mechanics but it's quite kind with all the tutorials so referring back to them now and then is helping prevent any kind of struggle.

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