“Wow.”
I found myself saying this, over and over, while play Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I finished it on Sunday, and I genuinely think it’s the best game I have ever played (not that it’s flawless).
It had a huge emotional impact on me, one that no game has ever had. I decided at the start to tally how many times I cried, and the total was 24. I was really impressed with the narrative. It’s open to interpretation, of course, but I took it to be about revolution, and young people taking their lives back from the corrupt systems in the world.
I love the characters. The 6 main characters are all super interesting, and learning more about them as you progress through the game (and their individual stories) is very rewarding. There’s something to love about all of them. I really cannot do them justice in this short blog post, but I will say that the emotions that the dynamic between Noah and Mio made me feel were like anything I’ve ever felt before. It’s powerful, masterful storytelling.
The gameplay is a fantastic combination of Xenoblade 1 and 2, and even X, and I couldn’t be more happy with it. On top of a general increase in quality-of-life features (such as good tutorials and anti-grinding features), the gameplay is creative and varied, and is very flexible when it comes to teambuilding (my favorite part of RPGs). I am extremely glad the gacha system didn’t come back and I had such a great time experimenting with different class and art combinations with such freedom.
And the music… don’t even get me started on the music. As is standard with Xenoblade, the battle music is intense, and the event/cutscene music is powerful. The vocal themes evoke tears when I listen to them (granted, that’s because I am thinking of the emotional moments in the game that I first heard them).
… And I’m not even done with the game completely. I didn’t bother 100%ing it, because I don’t want to have to re-do it once the DLC releases. Even still, it took a good 90 something hours to get to the credits. Unlike other RPGs, I genuinely enjoyed every moment of it. All of the content is great! I was super invested throughout, I look forward to coming back to it some time!!
I highly, highly recommend Xenoblade 3. I wish I could say with confidence that you don’t need to play the other 2 games first, but I feel like you need to have played through both to understand the significance of both the combined battle system and very meta narrative. To be honest, I know that I certainly didn’t get everything out of it that I know is there – this game has a ton of references to past Xeno games and even Judeochristian imagery, that I just know completely went over my head.
Here’s one of my favorite scenes from somewhat early in the game (spoilers, obviously). It embodies the theme of resistance against a cruel and corrupt authority. It gave, and continues to give me, shivers.