Paul RobertsSeptember 20, 2022Maxi Geek Review, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, SwitchComment

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - Review

Paul RobertsSeptember 20, 2022Maxi Geek Review, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, SwitchComment

At the beginning of the year I would never have thought we’d be playing a new Xenoblade Chronicles game before the year is through. Do we finally have the Nopon filled sequel I’ve hoped and dreamed of or is it meh meh?

There is a seemingly never-ending war between two nations; Keves and Agnus. The two competing sides are made up of colonies who must fight one another to harvest the enemy's energy. Every soldier's life hinges on a device called the Flame Clock assigned to each colony - it’s a fight to survive. On top of that, the soldiers have a total life span of ten years. While they do age faster, towards the end of their life cycle they are still only teens/young adults. That’s a lot of information to throw at you to set up the premise, it makes more sense in the game.

Noah, Eunie, and Lanz are Kevesi soldiers, enemies of the Agnian soldiers; Mio, Taion and Sena. Very early on, circumstances bind these young soldiers, marking them as dangerous beings called Ouroboros, and literally linking their memories and thoughts together to form giant robots.

As a result of becoming Ouroboros, the characters find themselves marked enemies to both sides. Once mortal enemies, their fates have become intertwined. With a new goal and purpose, they are on a journey to uncover the truth behind the never-ending war and save the world in the process.

Throughout the game, the team grapples with what happens when you no longer have to do the one thing you lived for. Colonies pitted against each other to steal their energy to live another day and the futile nature of war. Each character has their own memories that are shared and explored throughout the story. XBC3 manages to give all six characters a good amount of time under the spotlight, each dealing with their own pasts, hopes and regrets and the chance to get some insight or closure into their own past.

The premise for XBC3 makes more sense in the game, and the story kicks off quickly. Getting the six characters together early on really helps to get you invested in them. It’s so easy for JRPGs to slowly introduce characters while losing interest in those introduced earlier. While I say there’s six in the party, there’s really eight when you include your Nopon team mates Riku and Manana. Once again, the Nopon feel like the heart of the team. They are meaningful additions to the group, while also adding some levity.

As you travel great distances there are many colonies to help, each one will have a few quests waiting for you to pick up. I would attempt to pick up every one of them. Some are nearby and quick to do, and some become multiple quests. What I did appreciate was that a lot of the quests helped flesh out the world by providing more personality to the party, and few felt like fetch quests. Don’t get me wrong, there are fetch quests, but they’re sectioned off to collectopaedia cards. As you build an affinity with a colony, they’ll send you requests for items. If you have what’s needed, you can turn them in from the collectopaedia card screen without having to run back anywhere to get the reward. Also, if you decide to not interact with that part of the game you can do so without missing out.

Each member of the party will have their own side quest, which is usually a chain of quests that tie into something that matters to them or their past. Enjoying getting to know the characters and the dynamics amongst the team, I gladly took on the side quests. Along with the extra bit of story, completing them helps unlock higher class levels.

Given the aged tech, the Switch is running on Monolith Soft and still makes a beautiful-looking world to save. XBC3 runs smoother than XBC2, although don’t go in expecting miracles. The main thing is that it runs well and looks good considering the hardware. You’ll still notice stiff animation and some single digit frame rates on distant objects, but it’s nothing new.

The music as always is great, the series has always captured the feel of being on a grand world-saving adventure. For XBC3 there’s the added focus on Noah and Mio’s Off-seer flutes to help the fallen soldier's energy return to the source. In keeping with the Xenoblade Chronicles tradition, the voice cast is stacked with British voice acting. As with the previous games, t’s neat to hear the different accents you wouldn’t usually come across in a game. In true Xenoblade Chronicles fashion you best be prepared to hear the same quips over and over again until you lose yourself to madness, it is a bit of goofy fun though.

The world looks familiar to the previous games, the beautiful lands resting atop strangely-shaped structures. You’ll journey through the expansive grass-covered plains, survive the desert, explore the tundra and sail the ocean. While at times they might be hard to navigate, the world design is top-notch. As with the previous two Xenoblade games the world is massive, at times almost too big! It can take some time to get across the vast areas when you’re first exploring and unlocking fast travel points. If there wasn’t fast travel and you had to backtrack everywhere, it would easily double the play time.

The party begins bound to their classes and weapons, however another effect of becoming Ouroboros is that they are no longer locked and can gain other classes. You unlock new classes through additional heroes that join. Along with your team of six, you can also have one other party member. Some of these heroes join through story events, others will take some extra exploring of the world to find. Once they decide to tag along, you’ll usually have a quest to help them with before they are available and their class unlocked. Even after all that, the class is locked to one character until they level up to level 10. Then, all party members can select it. The class system is something you can mostly ignore if you want, but the extra classes provide more options to how you approach fights.

I won’t of course be going into the connection between the three main Xenoblade Chronicle games (sorry XBCX), there are of course similarities into how they play. Like how the story goes into a lull after the game unveils the endgame. As mentioned earlier, the large open areas, with a big variety of environments to traverse. The quest path that can be activated is a big help with the often vertically large areas. So there should be fewer times you wind up lost, even if using the maps remains fiddly.

If Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is meant to wrap up the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy as it stands, then it is closing out on a high. XBC3 builds on the previous games and adds plenty more. It’s going to be a wait for the expansion pass’ story-based content, but for now there is plenty here to keep you busy for at least 100+ hours if you try.