.story
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 comes from nowhere after XB2 closed every plot in the XB universe. So as you might understand this new entry wasn't absolutely needed from this point of view...but let's start from the beginning. We start our adventure in the world of Aionios. His people are once again divided, fighting each other in an infinite series of plot holes and unnecessary long-drawn scenes. Ops...I meant fighting each other to prolong their life on this world. Yes, because our character live 10 years long and if they don't fight to live another day they just die and never see their Homecoming: a ritual in which they pass away peacefully, a sort of heaven. The general plot isn't even that bad despite hours of cut-scenes with no content, interesting dialogues or any story progression. It is simply overwhelming how the game forces you to stop every 100 meters with a cut-scene that doesn't add any value to the story or to the characters you never care about. Characters that are not even that bad but have this forced Woke background mixed with a forced pairing between them which is not believable or makes any sense. Add the fact that they repeat the same dialogues of finding a purpose on life, friendship, dying soon in every single cut-scene... what XB2 did well was a good balance between plot, characters building and humour moments. Here they have gone 100 steps behind in writing. Even XBX had a poor storyline but found his strength in great world building. Xenoblade 3 lacks any sort of likeable story, interesting characters and even the cameos from the previous titles aren't well mixed in the story and seems just bland fan-service. 2 chapters from the end the writers woke up and throw up all the content they kept till then. XB3 suffers of the same recipe Tales of Arise did some time ago.
.gameplay
Xenoblade 3 makes of quality-of-life improvements is major selling point and with excellent results! To name a fews: we can custom different shortcuts (save, map, party) to the directional buttons; auto-battle agaisnt common mobs that are just boring to fight; give up option; show quest route option, taken from XBX and more. For the first time the party is composed of 6 members plus a hero character that can be switched between a vast selection. These are unlocked with hero quests and reward the relative characters and his class. Classes are back and arts can be mixed and canceled (if you are not a veteran, it means pressing the button at the right timing to fasten the cooldown/gain chain attack bonus gauge) between 6 different ones which makes the combat quite fast and strategic. Add the fact that status and buffs are not as basic as it was in XB2 and you can understand the combat has more depth than in the past. We also have our chain attacks, now not exploitable like the first 2 Xenoblades and the Ouroborous forms that are basically XB3's mechs. They play as normal characters but have a cooldown instead of HPs. Gems are back as well and they needs to be crafted just once to be available for every character and are the only item to craft because there are no weapons and accessories are only dropped/found. Worry not if it seems like a lot to learn because Xenoblade 3 features the best tutorial of the franchise and explains well everything together with a useful Tips submenu. This third entry features all the improvements and fixes to various time-consuming activities that cursed the past games with countless hour of farming. The point is that seems like they focused on the gameplay aspect to cover the incredible misdeeds related to the narrative content.
.sound
I bet most of who plays with English VO will be pleased to know that the british accent is not as heavy as XB1-2. One thing though..at least itused to be good. Unfortunately I dislike most of the voices featured in this chapter. Most of them are so annoying and give a crybaby feel to the already bad written dialogues and characters. Special mentions to the Nopons. After a great Tora we have got Riku and Manana that are arrendous are out of character. Talking about the main score for Xenoblade 3 I don't even want to compare it to X or 2. This episode has the least memorable and more miscellanous JRPGs sounds I have ever seen and it's a first for this series. Even his peaks are not good and it doesn't help to create a good atmosphere for the many dramatic moments this game features.
.graphics
Aionios is, like Bionis and Alrest before, the same kind of world you can expect from a Xenoblade. The major difference from the 2nd Xenoblade is bigger areas and a bigger scope overall that brings back the flavour of the first game that made everyone feel tiny. Unfortunately enemies are not as giant as XB1 but reskinned bigger size enemies. I appreciate there is more verticality and that's a pleasure for exploration and finally a photo mode. We are still far from the detail and love-crafted Myra but we are getting there.
. verdict
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is not a bad game but a skippable one for sure. It has the worst writing in the whole series and one of the worst in the history of Monolith. It is great pad at hand with the most satisfing gameplay but lacks in every other aspect. I doubt the DLCs are gonna fix anything as we don't have a great pool of characters like what happened with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna. Is it the time to leave the main series on a hiatus in favour of the spin-off X maybe?
