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

I've just put the title back to normal and all. The tutorials are I think better than they were on Wii, and yes it goes surprisingly dark surprisingly early. Hope you're enjoying it Smurf!

masofdas wrote:

Was I right about the plot?

Oh yeah, let me have a look at that.

Spoiler:

Fired up Xenoblade Chronicles 2 last night. Apparently I last played in 2018.
I played through the opening (past Malo, basically until the first time it asks you to save).

I dunno what I was on about before? The opening is pretty cool, and sets up some interesting stakes and scenarios. I want to play more, and probably will do.

XC2 does have a slow and occasionally confusing (and occasionally lecherous) start, so I wouldn't blame you - but I'm glad you've got back into it!  Gormott, and the best, is yet to come.

My angle on titillation and sexiness has settled into "I like it as long as it's not the only form of female representation in the industry" which is a point I'd say we've reached. That said, it is unnecessary and exaggerated to the point it should be a comedy thing in X2. Pyra's tits are so big they make it awkward for her to move, she dresses in that skimpy outfit and everyone ignores it. Maybe this comes up later, but if they lean into "I was built to belong to a driver, I've been deliberately designed to be eye candy and a useful tool, I'm glad you see me as more" or something it'll be fine, or if they wore it on their sleeve with a bit more cheekiness like a Suda or Kamiya game, but as is . . . it's just a bit weird and immature.

I've had a little while in Gormott, I think I'm about to overtake what I played last time.

Also, in the same period I started playing and did a couple of hours, a student of mine bought this game and played 40 hours. Full-time employment sucks.

Buskalilly wrote:

Maybe this comes up later...

You'll be amazed to find out that it doesn't. And there's at least one optional Blade that's even worse.

Full-time employment does indeed suck, can confirm.

Played a little more, have officially reached where I got to last time, but Splatoon 3 came out . . .

I didn't buy the pass day one, yet I likely will for this first new character and story missions for them

Goodness, she looks awful!  And sounds awful too!  As a character she looks like she could be pretty interesting, a Defender (yessssss) powered by ether - but that's now how a neck works!

Buskalilly wrote:

Played a little more, have officially reached where I got to last time, but Splatoon 3 came out . . .

As a non-believer, that's what I think all the characters in Xenoblade Chronicles look and sound like anyway!

I have to rescue the Welsh girl from a big boat but I couldn't even find my way onto the boat in handheld mode and then I fell asleep and I haven't gone back.

The dream is dead.

I bought the season pass after using some gold was like £22

The wave 1 stuff was kinda pointless for me as had better gear etc, and new costumes which I won't use, the nopon coins handy and used for some of the collecting quests.

Wave 2 and why I got now, brought new hero Ino into the mix which her two quests take about 20 mins at most because well the enemies level 20, and I'm 80. Is an ascension quest, but just be ranking her class up to 10 to begin with though for that. Battle Challenges also been added which I've done a few on normal as the unlocks seem to be the same on any of the three difficulties, I'm not going to use the swimsuits though which seem to be the main draw for people. I was hoping doing the challenges get me Exp and up Ino class for Noah whilst I'm at it but nah you get a set level & get orbs which you can to unlock classes or buy gear, you may might not have unlocked like my Noah can now be Machine Assassin.

I'll likely do all the battle challenges on normal, and then not come back to XC3 till Wave 3 and wait after that for the big story content which based on Future & Torna will make the £22 worth it (It be a bargain if like either those) for now maybe wait till that.

Saying that, I did like going back to the game and the cutscenes of the gang being shocked at Ino drinking ether (I could collect all the ether and power her up sort alike another character) and talking like Nopon.

*scrolling down to post with eyes closed to avoid spoilers*

So, I started this earlier this week! I'm part way through Chapter 3 and I'm impressed that MonolithSoft seem to have learned their lessons regarding tutorials and introductions to their games. Granted, there were still some things I missed (I didn't initially release you could choose which order people attack in during a chain attack and was just going along attacking in the order it was arranged in...) and some things probably didn't need a tutorial - I know how to save the game, Monolith - but at least I'm not lost and frustrated like I was early doors in XC2.

Story and character wise... well, the story is certainly interesting. The world is so much darker than I expected with its whole war economy going on and I'm interested to see how that pans out. Character wise... no real standouts as of yet other than Eunie who is excellent and not what I expected from seeing her in screenshots and whatnot heading into the game. Lanz is basically just Mechon Reyn at this point, Noah is utterly vanilla, Mio seems nice if nothing else, Sena is a bit too earnest for me (also if I have to hear "I'm the girl with the gall!" one more time I will flip) and Taion is a dweeb, but at least he's got something going on. I expect this will all change.

Few early miscellaneous thoughts:
- Having to uncover the map manually as you travel is the bane of my life as I must fill in everything I possibly can before progressing.
- The villains seem a bit too hammy for my tastes, very Saturday morning cartoon/Power Rangers villains at this point. Again, I expect this will all change.
- Not sure on having so many people in battle at a time as it can feel too busy at points and like I'm not really in full control of the battle. Again - say it with me - I expect this will all change.
- Taion's scarf is dumb.

Yes, if anything Monolith went a little too hard on the tutorials this time, but it's much better than the alternative! Sena can get in the bin, but most of the others do get a little better.

JayMoyles wrote:

- Having to uncover the map manually as you travel is the bane of my life as I must fill in everything I possibly can before progressing.

You will give up on this. That said, if you uncover all the landmarks in an area I think it auto-populates the rest of the map?

JayMoyles wrote:

- The villains seem a bit too hammy for my tastes, very Saturday morning cartoon/Power Rangers villains at this point. Again, I expect this will all change.

Erm. Maybe prepare to be slightly disappointed here.

JayMoyles wrote:

- Not sure on having so many people in battle at a time as it can feel too busy at points and like I'm not really in full control of the battle. Again - say it with me - I expect this will all change.

ERM. This gets a little better, but honestly not by much. I found the most value playing as a healer, then you're in control of setting the circles down and that requires some skill - but it never quite reaches the highs of XC2's battle system for me, assuming you've learned those somewhere other than the game.

JayMoyles wrote:

- Taion's scarf is dumb.

how dare

Looking forward to continuing to read your thoughts Jay, but at this point slightly apprehensive that some of your problems won't be as resolved as you'd hope.

JayMoyles wrote:

"I'm the girl with the gall!" b.

And I was the MVP! You were all thinking it!

...once again I realise that I have no idea what Andy is playing or has played. When did you crack on with XC3?

He's playing at the moment, Andy looking for something a bit meatier?

I finished it this morning, I've been playing it on and off since Christmas and enjoyed it. Certainly enjoyed it enough to do all but like 3 of the side quests so it's been a good ride.

Overall I enjoyed it much more than 2, though not sure as much as 1 (though frankly that is a vague memory at this point so maybe I should pick up the remaster to check that over)

End cutscene spoilers:

This is the content I needed more regularly during your playthrough! (Apart from that ending opinion, I keep forgetting I'm the only person who hated that with a passion.) Helps that the side quests absolutely dump on 1 and 2's.

I don't know whether to recommend picking up the remaster. I feel like XC1 occupies a special position as a JRPG of a kind we simply hadn't had on Wii, that arguably we simply hadn't had much of full stop at that time (especially the breakaway from 'waifu style'), and that what it did with the technology at the time was incredible and breathtaking - and that those moments and that tech don't impress any more, so you're left staring at the sub-quests in disgust. Then again I feel like our tastes have relatively little in common so you might be better off ignoring me.

Wave 3 much like FEnage not super bothered about but I have bought this expansion as the story content likely 15hrs worth of content, which seems to show Shulk, someone from XC2 (Older Rex?), Noah from XC3 and fourth who looks like Fei from Xenogears.

I find it so hard to care about booster pass content, and I've played neither Torna nor Future Connected... but seeing Shulk come back?  I'm intrigued.

Still though they did spend ages in the Direct on all of that DLC, and frankly I wish they wouldn't.  It's definitely the least bad form of microtransaction, but it's getting so frequent that it's starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

And what the heck was up with that voice acting

Balladeer wrote:

I find it so hard to care about booster pass content, and I've played neither Torna

Torna is excellent and the peak of the trilogy in my eyes thus far, well worth your time.

I'm still playing through XC3, as you'd expect! I'm now in Chapter 5 and that prediction Balla made that I would stop trying to fill in the map came to a screeching halt when I reached the Erythia Sea. I really didn't like that area - my pathological desire to explore every inch of the map did not mesh well with this zone and I hated driving that big dumb boat with its awful steering.

I'm also still not vibing with the combat. I'm finding because I'm changing classes so often to level them up and unlock new skills that I can't settle into a good rhythm in combat and I've found accessories and general character management to have fallen by the wayside due to the fact I cannot be arsed setting up each character every time they max out a class and have just relied on the auto build button instead. I felt I had a much better understanding of the role each character had to play in XC1 and XC2 and I enjoyed setting up their equipment and gems to match. Still, I'm glad I don't have to rely on XC2's blade system to unlock new classes for the characters - thank fuck that's gone.

It's a shame that I'm not enjoying the combat all too much as everything else in the game has been great. The characters are really coming into their own, the side quests have felt consequential and worth doing and the main plot is easily my favourite of the trilogy so far. I don't think I'd have felt as strongly about the story had I not played the first two games though.

What I mean by that:

More thoughts to come, I'm sure!

Told you! It's a shame that your 'pathological desire' got in the way of you enjoying that area, Castle called it his favourite in the game and I liked the boat. (The area as a whole... ) I fundamentally disagree that anything to do with XC1's gems system is better than anything combat-wise in either of the latter two games, buuuuuut I had similar problems with kitting out the squad in 3. Also the fighting in general is so Chain Attack dependant that everything else falls by the wayside.

I'll say nothing about the plot, apart from that the end of the chapter introduces both a terrible character and... other stuff.

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.

Balladeer wrote:

I'll say nothing about the plot, apart from that the end of the chapter introduces both a terrible character and... other stuff.

I think I did actually finish Chapter 5, actually...

Spoiler: