Screenshot: Monolith Soft / Nintendo
We finally got a full review of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 today and the upcoming Switch JRPG looks huge. The 20-minute Nintendo Direct showed more than the game’s existential beats, multi-layered combat mechanics and other activities that players will be able to handle in its giant open world. We hope you like the icons on the screen because there were a lot of them.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was only announced in February and is just around the corner. Wednesday’s extended trailer clearly showed that the game does not deviate from its strange and esoteric roots. If nothing else, it seems to focus even more on the series’ charm of war, class struggle and free will. Also furs, including giant ones, which act as mobile military bases.
The game takes place in a land called Aionios, where the inhabitants of two warring colonies, Keves and Agnus, live a nasty, cruel and short life, fighting for their leaders. Those who kill more complete a fire watch that prolongs their lives. But when two groups of young people from opposite countries meet during a special operational mission, a mysterious old man wearing glasses intervenes to uncover a deeper threat lurking behind the scenes. What follows are intrigues inspired by Monster Hunter grinding and great sci-fi fantasy spectacles.
We also got a full look at the main lineup of the game. There’s Noah, the red-jacket, the “invisible,” June, the “cheeky and dumb” healer of weapons, Lanz, the huge man with the sword, Mio, the double-chakra soothsayer, Tayon, the philosophical tactician, and Senna, a tiny fighter who wears a giant destruction ball. Tyon is already far from the best, which probably means he will either die or betray us.
Here is a brief description of what was shown in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct:
- Aionios looks big, really big. Xenoblade has always offered unnecessarily large and beautiful worlds for automatic battle with enemies, but the one that comes five years into the Switch’s life cycle is the most breathtaking so far. I just hope the frame rate and pop-up aren’t a mess when your group of six moves from a mission tag to a mission tag.
- The mission routes highlight the way forward. A red line will now show you exactly where to go to get to your destination. You will no longer follow a marker in the side of the rock, only to understand that you have to go back to the other side.
- Places for making, cooking and resting are back. But in a further layer of gamified adventure, you will be able to sit with your comrades on a campfire and inquire about what you have heard from the NPC to initiate new quests. It seems cumbersome, unless there is an aspect to building a relationship.
- The characters have classes. In addition to your roles as striker, defender, and healer, each of your six team members will have related classes that they can rank to further personalize their contribution to the battle. Master Arts are special abilities that can even be equipped in different classes, allowing you to create hybrid compilations.
- You can hire additional characters. As if six characters in the battle are not enough, there will be unique NPC “heroes” that you will meet during the game and can be chosen to help in the battle.
- The characters can merge into mini-mechanics. Called “Ouroboros”, these Evangelion-looking fighters are extremely strong and can switch between two different styles of play, each modeled after the characters who shaped them. However, you cannot mix and match. Synthesis pairs are history-based and fixed.
Screenshot: Monolith Soft / Nintendo
Originally scheduled for release in September, last month Xenoblade Chronicles 3 received its release date until July 29. Nintendo revealed on Wednesday that the latest Monolith Soft raid on Xeno-verse will have a $ 30 Expansion Pass, bringing it with new characters and story content through December 2023. There will even be support for Amiibo, providing players with additional items, or in this case of Shulk Amiibo, the Monado laser sword from the first Xenoblade Chronicles.
While I can say without reservation that I’m ready for all the JRPG nonsense of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and others, I’ll be curious if this is the one that can finally explode beyond the main fans of the series. The games are traditionally too long, repetitive and overwhelmed by terrible dialogue. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has sold a decent 2 million copies of Switch, but it’s not as easy to recommend as things like Persona 5 or even Tales of Arise. Maybe Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will be different. I’ll let you know after I get out and I’ve played 100 hours of it.
Here’s the rest of Wednesday’s Direct:
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