Story:
The world is stuck in a perpetual loop of war, death, and suffering where colonies of child soldiers are ruled over by a Moebius monster with fealty to a "Queen". Sounds dark, right? Well... its not. The 'power of friendship' is emphasized heavily and everyone is obsessed with smiling. A certain villain (Shania) who commits genocide - twice - is forgiven because they have mommy issues. The story keeps telling you how bad things are but it doesn't look or feel that way. Characters talk in circles constantly, explaining and reexplaining the very obvious themes of the game like you're a 5 year old. Noah (the protagonist) is the most generic "good guy" and the Moebius villains are literal immortal children playing with their 'toys'. They all have the same wacky mannerisms and will throw a tantrum whenever things don't go their way, so they never come off as a serious threat.
Most of the story beats are broadcast too early and the big plot reveals are too obvious. Before the game was released for example, fans had already guessed that the letter of each Moebius' name corresponded to their full name, and that Noah and N were connected in some way. Then you have moments like where Eunie finds her old body, revealing a system of reincarnation similar to what was seen in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (except it is possible for people to retain the memories of their past lives in 3). A Moebius then reveals himself to be a childhood friend (Joran) of the main cast in Chapter 3, alerting the player to the fact that anyone going forward could be a Moebius. So, scarcely halfway into the story the stakes of death have been removed and the identity of every Moebius can now be ascertained by the letters of their names and the characters who match.
For the first time ever in a Xenoblade game I found the exploration to be mundane. The world is intentionally washed out of color and five times larger than its predecessors (according to producer Koh Kojima), but doesn't add any meaningful content to fill that additional space. Remnants from the worlds of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are visibly present on the landscape, but seem to exist purely for the sake of nostalgia as they have no bearing in how the player navigates the world or engages with it mechanics. In fact, the biggest defining trait of Xenoblade Chronicles 3's world is that it is circular like a clock - a recurring element, but it isn't very noticeable and if you do notice it, it doesn't have the same impact as navigating a giant humanoid body.
I don't mind cameos and a little bit of fan service, but if you're going to try to connect things in a big way show me that you have something interesting to say about it. Like, why are Melia and Nia here? Since when is Nia royalty? How did they establish contact each other? Neither one is a person of science, so why are they at the helm of the "Origin" operation? Who actually made the blueprints and how did they figure out how to do it? The entire thing is poorly explained.
The game clearly wants to say something with its focus on existential philosophy, but the execution is sloppy and too drawn out. The constant revival of dead characters cheapened the message of making the most out of the limited time you have. And I get that the Moebius are a manifestation of peoples lack of ambition, resistance to change and their willingness to let the world persist as it is, while the heroes are concerned with moving forward, but where did it intend to go with all of this? The story just kinda ends and loops back to where it began. Everything that happened occurred in a sort of simulation, so the entire adventure technically wasn't real, and Rex (Xenoblade Chronicles 2 protagonist) has a harem now(?).
The mysterious black fog is made out to be a bigger deal than it is.
It struck me as odd that none of the colonies opposed destroying the flame clock, or questioned the necessity of the queens, especially after finding out that the previous ones were Moebius controlled fakes. On the whole Xenoblade chronicles 3 tells far more than it shows; important plot points, events, and characters are shown in flashback cutscenes instead of being experienced organically. So big emotional scenes with dramatic deaths for NPCs like Joran, Ethel, or Cammuravi - NPCs I know nothing about and have zero attachment to, end up falling flat.
Gameplay:
During combat the characters can move around freely and will automatically attack any enemy within range. There are three 'Classes' that determine a character's abilities: attacker, defender, and healer. These are self-explanatory. Only healers can restore party members during battle, while defenders draw the enemy's attention and tank hits. The attackers deal more damage than anyone else.
Each party member has six special abilities called "Arts"; three class specific arts are on the right-hand side of the screen, and three non-class specific arts called "Master Arts" are on the left-hand side. Arts inflict more damage than auto-attacks, as well as status effects and healing. These abilities take time to charge before they can be used and will need to recharge again after use. Some arts are more effective when attacking the enemy from the rear, or they can inflict special states such as toppling enemies that have become unstable. This makes the positioning of characters around the opponents important.
Each party member also comes with a "Talent Art" that is a super powerful move. These need to charge up like regular arts but don't do so passively over time. Instead, talent arts only charge when the character does something relevant to their class - an attacker effectively positioning themselves for maximum damage for example.
A "Chain Attack" gauge on the right-hand side of the screen fills up by using combos, toppling enemies, and so on. When triggered, the chain attack will prompt the player to pick one of three "Chain Orders" - essentially a bonus applied if the chain is successful. From a selection of characters at the bottom of the screen, the player chooses who will attack and what art they will use. This will accumulate "Tactical Points" (TP). If at any point the TP equals or exceed 100%, a powerful "Chain Art" will be performed. If there's still charge in the gauge, or if certain other conditions are met, the chain attack will continue.
Each character also comes with an invincible "Ouroboros" form that can only be engaged when an "interlink" gauge is triggered. This gauge is charged through the use of "fusion arts" - essentially triggering two fully charged arts (one master, one not) at the same time. When the ouroboros mode is initiated, two characters will fuse into a monstrous form that has its own set of four arts that can deal significantly more damage than the human forms. This form lasts for a limited amount amount of time before entering a cool-down. Ouroboros also have a soul tree - skills - that are unlocked by spending "Skill Points" (SP) earned through exploration and story progression.
Conclusion:
It has its audience, but as much as I love the Xenoblade series this one just didn't click for me. The lore and world building were too watered down for my tastes and the writing was unbearably infantilized. These games have never been 'mature' content but this one in particular felt like it was aimed at a younger audience than usual. I didn't care about the main character, his girlfriend, or their weird counterparts. Some may say that I am 'emotionally insensitive' for that, but these just aren't the types of characters or stories that resonate with me.
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