Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $79.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
For some time now fans of Monolith Soft have had at least some idea of what to expect from the developer. After making a name for themselves early with the Xenosaga trilogy the team began to work with Nintendo and started to craft some of the most elaborate JRPGs that a Nintendo platform could hope for. Xenoblade Chronicles has since seen a number of sequels and now with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 arriving and delivering perhaps their largest, most emotional, and perhaps even most accessible entry yet it is clear that Monolith Soft knows exactly what they are doing.
Story
The world of Aionios is a war torn land where two massive nations by the name of Keves and Agnus are constantly at war with one another for seemingly unknown reasons. Rather than fighting for any great cause, these soldiers take to the battlefield to steal the life force from enemy soldiers, seeking to fill their own colony’s “flame clock.” The soldiers doing the fighting know little else as they are born from their Queen and trained as disposable soldiers of war that care little for their own lives that are measured in “terms.” Why they measure their lives on such a scale is due to the fact that every soldier’s greatest dream is to survive to their tenth term, or tenth year of life, and receive a homecoming ceremony that will return their life force directly to the Queen.
Players join this conflict as Noah, Lanz, and Eunie as the three skilled Keves fighters manage to survive a large-scale battle and “send off” the life force of those who have fallen as Noah is one of Keves’ Off-Seers. Thanks to their time lingering behind on the battlefield they must venture back to base on foot, arriving shortly before they are given new orders to pursue a strange new energy source that has appeared nearby. This brings the three Keves soldiers up against a strange new automated foe commanded by a mysterious man belonging to neither side of the battlefield and is eliminating both Keves and Agnus soldiers alike.
After some rather amazing events occur, Noah and friends find themselves allied with three Agnian soldiers by the name of Mio, Sena, and Taion as they now possess the power of “Ouroboros” and learn that their world and the things they are doing are incredibly strange and that the real enemy is something that is pulling the strings of everyone behind the scenes. With the six now finding themselves at odds with everything they once knew and pursued by those that they once called friends, their only hope is to push forward and look for the truth behind the world and find a way to put a stop to the never ending war even if it means taking on everything they once knew as a result.
All of these events happen within what is best described as the introduction/tutorial area of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and even then this is barely scratching the surface of what the full story has to offer. Obviously we won’t be going into more detail than this to avoid spoiling any of the major twists and revelations that happen throughout the easily hundred hour long game. Now while most games would struggle to keep a storyline engaging for that long, Monolith Soft almost makes things look easy here between action packed fights featuring great choreography, heart pulling emotional moments, and constant revelations that keep players on their toes. It also helps that while the core storyline is incredibly well written, nearly every side quest, besides some generic collection ones, players choose to undertake feels naturally written into the world and has an interesting element to it that makes them worth engaging in, especially since players will quickly find themselves invested in the world.
This is thanks primarily due to the various complexities that players will encounter in the world and face off against as the enemies are far more nuanced than meets the eye and many have their own motivations for what they are doing rather than simply being evil. It is worth noting that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 does take a darker tone to its storytelling than what fans of the series might be familiar with but there is still plenty of hope to be had and nowhere does this hope shine brighter than with the characters that make up the player’s party.
Players are quickly introduced to all six members of the cast and despite the fact that some remain unsure of one another for a while it is great to watch the cast come to life and reveal more about themselves as they develop over the course of the game. Not only do these six personalities manage to mesh together so well in a party, even going beyond the usual Xenoblade pairings, but it feels like every character gets at least some time to shine and prove themselves rather than simply focusing on the two primary leads. Of course, some of this charm might be thanks to the stellar and unique voice work that the series is known for but it would mean little without the excellent character writing and interactions to back it up.
It is worth noting that while Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the third entry in the series, players shouldn’t feel discouraged from checking it out if they haven’t played or completed the previous entries in the series. While there are a number of elements, including various spoilers, involving previous entries players will mostly be able to enjoy this release as its own standalone story for the most part.
Gameplay
In a number of ways Xenoblade Chronicles 3 tries to take things slow by introducing various gameplay elements over the course of a few hours to prevent players from being overwhelmed by the many mechanics that they will eventually have access to. This includes explaining how the game’s combat system works and limiting player control to a single character for quite some time. Combat involves auto-attack and making use of active combat “Arts” that can be used to deal extra damage or inflict special status effects when attacking at certain angles or under certain conditions. These attacks build up powerful finishing move gauges that vary from class to class and it doesn’t take long before players will eventually find themselves adjusting their six party members to best lay enemies out while making the most of their current capabilities.
After a certain period of time, players will gain access to the ability to swap a character’s starting class with others, giving players plenty of freedom in seeing what characters work best in certain roles. Initially only certain classes will be available to specific characters but through temporary “Hero” characters that provide new unique classes, some required and some optional, the amount of party customization can be quite extensive, especially when players master classes and unlock their skills permanently. This is only the tip of the iceberg of what the Ouroboros power can do however as players will find themselves being able to “interlink” two characters together and transform them into a large extremely powerful being. When combined with Ouroboros players will be one character short but deal tons of damage and, since it makes use of an overheat gauge instead of health, can be used to rescue party members at low health and turn the tide of battle in more ways than one.
Combat as a whole can be quite complicated but despite how it sounds, it is rather easy to master and allows for some truly powerful attacks and combinations. That being said, while there are a number of challenging fights in the form of bosses and unique field enemies, most of the battles that players will take part in while traveling through the overworld won’t really test their skills too much so while the combat can be extremely fun, it can feel a little underutilized at times especially when grinding for quests or simply traveling through a location.
Of course, traveling is something that players can always cut down on a bit as Xenoblade Chronicles 3 offers plenty of fast travel opportunities as not only are various landmarks unlocked for travel once discovered but so are unique locations and even graves that are dropped by special enemies. These graves can be used to refight an enemy that was previously defeated hoping for a better time but it is best used as a quick travel option. Combine this with the ability to make quick saves often, the ability to use banked bonus exp to level characters at camp, and the ability to cook food at camp to provide various stat boosts and players have a lot to work with when it comes to making Xenoblade Chronicles 3 a more appealing experience.
In fact, to make things a little easier, should players choose, special coins called “Nopon coins” obtained from chests, completing quests, defeating special enemies, etc. can be used to help rank up classes, complete collection side quests, cook or craft items without using materials and traded for special items at certain locations. While not required to complete various things, players having access to such a shortcut is a nice touch especially when it comes to some “Collectopaedia” card quests that can be a bit difficult to complete should players miss the required items.
Visuals & Audio
With Xenoblade Chronicles 3 landing on the Switch it is quite clear at times that Monolith Soft is really pushing the hybrid console to its limit. When docked players are presented with a fairly crisp looking image though handheld mode will drop the quality quite a bit but for the most part character designs and combat remains strong looking throughout. The character designs remain as memorable as fans of the series will remember with plenty of flashy moves and amazing looking battles that happen during cutscenes. It is worth noting that the game does suffer from a bit of slowdown here and there when fighting in the open world, especially against bigger foes, and in general a lot of the vistas, while pretty, feel a bit uninspired in design compared to what players have come to expect from the series.
The title features an absolutely astounding soundtrack mixed with various themes and types of music that work well whether players are in the middle of the fight or watching a heart wrenching scene. As for the voice work, players will have the option of the original Japanese voice track but the English voice cast has done an incredible job here making their performances a real treat. It is worth noting that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 continues the series’ tradition of using British voice actors and terminology for the English dub, giving the title a fairly unique feel with only a few odd terms here and there.
Overall
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hooks players early by introducing an engrossing storyline with so many intriguing and emotional elements that they cannot help but keep playing through to see what could possibly be revealed next. With an amazingly written cast of characters used to support this wonderful storyline and a highly enjoyable combat system that is only limited at times due to battles being a bit easier at times than one would hope, this is an RPG that anyone with a Switch should check out, even if they have yet to dive into the Xenoblade Chronicles series until now.
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