Xenoblade Chronicles 3

[Nester the Lark]

Funny to think that three whole Xenoblade games will have been release between Breath of the Wild and its sequel.

Anyway, there's almost no gameplay in the trailer other than the obligatory footage of "running through wide open spaces to let you know it's a Xenoblade game." Otherwise, it looks like a fusion of elements from Xenoblade 1 and 2. The environments definitely look more like XC1, but with some hints of XC2.

The character designs are among the best I've seen yet in the series. They're less cartoony and fan-servicey than XC2, but some of the characters very much seem to be Blades (even including core crystals). There's no combat shown in the trailer, but I doubt the Driver-Blade mechanic is returning. It does hint that you can have four active party members at a time, like in XCX. You can also see races from both games (High Entia from XC1, Gormotti from XC2). And is that Vandham at 0:39?

The Nintendo UK website has some information and character names.

This Reddit post has artwork of the six main characters.

Here's a message from Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi. A number of main staff from the previous games return for this one. He also mentions that the key art was created between the development of XC1 and XC2.

Looking forward to learning more!

[Nester the Lark]

So, of course, the trailer is already being analyzed in-depth by many people.  I thought I would do my own analysis, except I'm going to do it a little differently.

I think I've mentioned before that one of the reasons I love the English voice acting in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the use of different accents. So, just for some silly fun, I'm going to analyze the accents of the characters we hear in the trailer.

Noah - Starting with one of the main characters, Noah comes from the nation of Keves, which seems to be made up of the various races present in Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and thus resembles a Homs. Every character in XC1 had an English accent, regardless of race, but we'll go through this one by one. We clearly hear Noah speaking with an English accent.

I can't quite tell if that's Adam Howden doing Noah's voice, or another actor with a similar sound. It sounds like Adam, but with a higher tone. However, Adam's voice for Shulk is also a higher tone than his normal speaking voice, so it could be him.

Mio - Mio comes from Agnus, a nation that seems to be made up of the various races from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. She resembles a Gormotti, as evidenced by her cat-like ears. Gormotti all speak with Welsh accents, which Mio clearly has in the trailer.

Eunie - She comes from Keves and is clearly a High Entia as we see from the wings on her head. (Although, I don't recall ever seeing a High Entia with black wings.*) Regardless, she would have an English accent, which we clearly hear in the trailer.

Taion - Being from Agnus, that would make Taion Human, and generally all of the Human characters in XC2 had English accents, regardless of whether they came from Torna, Tantal, or Leftheria. Taion clearly has an English accent.

Lanz - Lanz is from Keves, and somewhat resembles a Machina due to the gray colors of his skin. Either way, he would have an English accent, and while he says very little in the trailer, that seems to be the case.

Sena - And finally we have the last of the six main characters in the game. Sena is from Agnus and resembles a Blade due to the glowing parts of her body and slightly artificial look. (Not sure if I should factor in the somewhat fan-servicey outfit, but I guess there's that, too.) In general, all Blades spoke with American accents (with some exceptions). She doesn't say much in the trailer, but she sounds American to me.

Aside from that, there's the unnamed character that strongly resembles Vandham from XC2, and provides some of the narration. Vandham was Urayan, and Urayans had Australian accents. The character in the trailer, however, does not seem to be Urayan, lacking the pointed ears and facial scales, and instead seems to be either Human or Homs. He does, however, share the same voice actor and still has an Australian accent. We'll need to wait for more information to see if his accent has any relevance.

It's worth noting, however, that Vandham is sort of a recurring motif in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, similar to Cid in the Final Fantasy series. There was also a character named Vandham in Xenoblade Chronicles X, although he looks different and has a different voice actor. They both share a Japanese name with Vangarre from XC1, but again, he looks and sounds different. (Diving deeper, there was also a recurring character in Xenogears and Xenosaga named Vanderkam that also bore some vague similarities.) So, it could simply be the case that this is a different character, but meant to resemble Vandham from XC2, and the accent may have no more relevance than that.

Finally, there are the two masked characters at the end of the trailer. It's generally believed that they are Melia and Nia from XC1 and XC2, respectively, and from what little we hear, they seem to have the same voice actors and same accents.

So, that's my accent analysis of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 trailer. Everything seems to be consistent with previous games so far. 

* EDIT: I guess her wings are not actually black, but appear that way in the two close-ups of her in the trailer due to the lighting. There's another view of her from a distance where her wings are clearly white.

[Nester the Lark]

New trailer!



So, first of all, the release date has been moved up to July 29! That's two months earlier than the original release window.

We also get a good look at the combat system. It seems to resemble XC2's in interface, but there can be up to seven(!) active characters in the party at once. There are the six main characters previously introduced, but a seventh can be seen in certain parts. There are characters named Zeon and Valdi, and at one point, the two nopon, Riku and Manana, are part of the party functioning as a single character.

And speaking of which, there is a mechanic where two characters can merge into a single form. It seems to be a temporary state, however.

I also noticed that the characters' outfits change a little bit. We saw this in the original trailer, where the main cast had two different outfits, but it could've been the case this was just story related. However, now we see glimpses that suggest there may be more detailed customization like in the original Xenoblade Chronicles. (eg. Noah with a white shirt and red scarf at 2:13, Mio wearing a red jacket just after that, etc.)

Can't wait!

EDIT: Actually, I wonder if Mio with a red jacket is related to her ability to merge with Noah...

EDIT 2: I'm seeing people point out that the characters are swapping clothes and weapons, so it must have something to do with the partner system.

EDIT 3: Apparently, it's part of changing classes. Makes sense. Noah was wearing Taion's jacket and scarf, and Mio was wearing Noah's jacket.

[Nester the Lark]

So, to be honest, I'm a little surprised there was a Direct for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. There was one for XC2, but that was back in the Switch's first year, and I felt like it was because Nintendo needed to put more effort into showing what the platform had to offer. That's obviously not the case now, so this Direct was specifically for the sake of the game, itself, which I think demonstrates Nintendo's confidence in building up the series.

Anyway, as for the actual content, it's mostly just an overview (as I was expecting), fleshing out the info that has been drip-fed on the Japanese Xenoblade Twitter account over the past couple of months.

One new reveal is that each Ourobors has two forms, depending on which character is in control.

There's a DLC Expansion Pass, which was expected due to the eShop listing mentioning in-game purchases. Content will be added through to the end of next year.

This is actually exactly the kind of content I was expecting, as it's similar to what XC2's Expansion Pass had, but I hope they add more than just two new Hero characters. I'll definitely be getting this day-one (unlike with XC2, where I waited several months).

Something I was not expecting was amiibo support. The only other Xenoblade game to have that was the N3DS port. It doesn't sound super substantial, but the Shulk amiibo changes the appearance of Noah's Blade to look like the Monado. (No word on what the Pyra/Mythra amiibo might do, but perhaps something similar.) I hope they make more Shulk amiibo, because now I kinda want one.

Other notes:

- It's been noted before, but one cool detail I like is how if you're controlling a character from Keves, the Arts icons are circle-shaped and refill over time, just like in XC1; and if you're controlling a character from Agnus, the icons are diamond-shaped and refill as you attack, like in XC2.

- Glad to see some outfit customization back, even if it's tied to classes.

I'm really looking forward to getting absorbed in this game's world. It's just what I've needed lately.

[Nester the Lark]

OK, I didn't pay attention, but the artwork for the Expansion Pass includes Shulk's replica Monado from XC1: Future Connected, and Rex's/Pyra's/Mythra's sword from XC2, so... perhaps that confirms who the DLC Heroes will be?

Also, just wanted to say I love this screenshot Nintendo used.

[Nester the Lark]

Wasn't sure if this was my imagination or not since sometimes the English voice actors try to match the Japanese lip flap, but apparently, there are separate mouth movements for both the English and Japanese voices!

Nice! I wonder why this took so long. I always thought there was software that could automatically do this kind of thing.

[Nester the Lark]

This isn't directly related to Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but here's a retrospective of the Xenoblade series by The Kiseki Nut. It glazes over XCX a bit, though.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's a look at some of the content for the first two waves of DLC:

Well, that silhouette certainly doesn't look like Shulk or Rex. Some people are theorizing that it's a version of Poppi, while others note that their "ribbons" resemble those that Pyra has, but most likely it's an original character.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean that we won't see the likes of Shulk or Rex or some other returning character. Comparing this to the expansion pass for XC2, previews originally only showed silhouettes for the three original Blades, but they ended up adding Shulk, Fiora, and Elma on top of them. Also, Shulk's and Rex's swords are part of the artwork for a reason. It could be related to the extra story content being added next year.

XC2's expansion passes overdelivered on what was originally announced, so who knows what content XC3's expansion pass might have that simply hasn't been revealed.

On a completely different note, I wanted to mention something interesting. I'm sure you remember Operation Rainfall, the fan campaign to convince NoA to release the original Xenoblade Chronicles in North America, especially after it was already localized by NoE. There was a little bit of debate over whether it actually made a difference. (IIRC, Reggie, himself, back in the day said it didn't.)

Well, Kit and Krysta, on their latest podcast, confirmed that it actually did.

You can hear them talk about it in this video starting at about 1:11:11 (interesting time):



It also confirms what I suspected: That NoA was reluctant to localize it because it didn't fit their MO for what type of content they wanted to have on the Wii. ("Oh, grandma can't play this? We don't want it.")

[Nester the Lark]

Nintendo has posted an "Ask the Developers" for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, featuring Tetsuya Takahashi, Koh Kojima, and Genki Yokota. Here is part one. Parts two and three will each be posted tomorrow and the next day, respectively.

Here are a couple of parts that caught my attention.

Yokota: So, by “culmination,” you don't mean that it brings closure to the series, but rather that it rounds out the trilogy thematically.

Takahashi: Yes, that’s right. I guess you can say that this is like a summary for moving on to the next step in the future.

I've seen mention that XC3 is the end of the trilogy, and speculation that Monolith Soft will move on to some other "Xeno" series, but considering how much Nintendo has been building the Xenoblade Chronicles brand over the last few years, I didn't think it would make sense for them to suddenly walk away from it like that. Also, Takahashi has always been extremely ambitious, with both Xenogears and Xenosaga originally intended to be much larger series'. This quote pretty much confirms for me that there will be more Xenoblade in the future.

(My personal speculation is that the next major game will be a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles X, and a port of the first X to either Switch or its successor will be the stopgap title.)

Takahashi: This idea of "foreign things becoming one" is something we have been trying to express since the time of Xenogears (3) back in the day. A person's life is basically built up of relationships with other people. A relationship with foreign things. I’m always conscious of this perspective when I’m making things.

(3) Released in 1998 by SQUARE CO., LTD. (currently SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.) for the PlayStation console. Tetsuya Takahashi directed and wrote the script.

Yokota: “Xeno” in the title is an English prefix that means something like "foreign,” right?

Takahashi: Yes, it is. The relationship between “Xeno" (foreign) things is at the core of the series that bears this name.

I've heard Takahashi mention a similar interpretation of putting "Xeno" in the titles of his games during an old Treehouse Live segment for XC2. I think I'm just amused that he specifically namedrops Xenogears here, and that Nintendo actually included footnote for it.

[Nester the Lark]

Here is part two. It mostly covers the character designs, music, and cutscenes.

Impressive that they actually created Noah's and Mio's flutes in real life, and then used them for recording the actual music.

They also mention trying to make the transitions between cutscenes and gameplay as seamless as possible. I've seen footage from early in the game where a cutscene simply zooms out to show all the characters, and a battle immediately starts.

I seem to remember that there was a similar intention with Metroid: Other M. I think it was less successful, though, simply because Other M's cutscenes, on their own, were rather jarring.

[Nester the Lark]

Finally, here is part three. This one discusses the amount of content, the guide and tutorial systems, and final thoughts.

Takahashi says he still comes up with the story first, and then builds the game around it. I think what has made Xenoblade more successful than Xenosaga and Xenogears, however, is that the gameplay finally caught up with his ambitious stories. I've mentioned before that the reason I don't care for Falcom's Trails series is because it feels like gameplay takes a backseat to the narrative, and I feel like that's why I also might not necessarily enjoy the Xenosaga trilogy. (I think I'm in a minority. I've seen other Xenoblade fans that are also Trails fans.) With Xenoblade, while the narrative is really involved, there's also tons of other things to do in the games.

Kojima: Well... I'd like this third entry to be the last one with such a large volume of content!

But didn't you think that for the second title as well?

Kojima: Well, yes... That's right. (Laughs) Come to think of it, we were just talking about this yesterday in the office. That the world would be crazy big for this title. So I actually did the math, and it turns out that the total walkable area in this game is over five times larger than in the second title. It was like... "Yikes!" (Laughs)

Xenoblade 1 had a lot of open space. XC2 felt more condensed, and was also divided into separate areas. (X is one huge world.) I'm looking forward to having a larger, more open area to explore again.

Yokota: This is something to consider after you have played this game, but we are offering an additional Expansion Pass. We will be adding a new story at the end of the Expansion Pass, and we are thinking of making its volume of content as large as Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country. We hope that those who enjoyed that content, as well as newcomers, will pick it up.

It will be quite a high volume of content that will not let you down... I'm talking about the volume again. (Laughs)

I figured the DLC would be substantial given the price. I bet they'll also sell it as a standalone game like they did with Torna, but I'll still get it as the expansion pass.

And if there were still any doubts about the future of the series:

Finally, I would like to ask Yokota-san a question. You mentioned that this title is the culmination of the series, but am I right to assume that the Xenoblade Chronicles series will still go on?

Yokota: Yes, it will still go on! I want to keep it going as long as possible!

[Nester the Lark]

OK, this turned into a bit of rant, but here we go.

I finished Xenoblade Chronicles 3 recently. The in-game timer marked my final, post-game save data at 100 hours 15 minutes, which is actually relatively short for a Xenoblade game. My first playthough of XC1 took 130+ hours, XC2 was 170+ hours, and even XC1 Definitive Edition (without Future Connected) was still 120+ hours. I wasn't rushing through the story or anything. My usual rhythm when playing a Xenoblade game is to stop between certain story beats and go do side quests or explore the map, sometimes even for days at a time, and that was no different with XC3, so I was a little surprised when it seemed like the endgame sneaked up on me. That's not necessarily a negative; it just wasn't what I was expecting.

XC3 is easily the most polished of all the Xenoblade games. All of them are a little janky due to size and scope, but XC3 suffers the least. It looks great, the controls feel good, things are organized well, and while the systems and combat are still quite complex, they're fairly streamlined compared to XC2, which admittedly was a little messy, convoluted and unwieldy. MonolithSoft has taken everything they've learned up to this point and significantly refined it.

Previous games tended to get off to a slow start, but XC3 is interesting and exciting from the get go. The story and setting are quite dark and deal with some pretty heavy themes, but it develops well and has lots of intriguing twists. (Some of it is difficult to watch. The end of chapter 5 has developed an infamous reputation, and I think people will be talking about it for years.) The characters are mostly really likable and memorable, and filled with personality. The English voice acting is exceptional, and definitely on the level of the original Xenoblade.

The world is really fun to explore, and further reinforces how great MonolithSoft is at world design. At the same time, I have to admit that the world of Aionios doesn't have quite as appealing a “personality” as previous Xenoblade games.

As usual, between the story, side quests, heroes to recruit, and exploration, there is a ton of content in the game, and even more is added after finishing the story. Despite the story campaign being a little shorter than previous games, there's still a lot to do.

I hate to say this, but I felt that the music didn't quite live up to the standards of the previous Xenoblade games. It's still really good, but it didn't quite take my breath away that previous soundtracks did, and seemed to be missing a certain “Xenoblade feel.” This is unfortunate considering that I've heard Yasunori Mitsuda is retiring from composing game music after XC3.

While the cast of characters are generally great, I have to admit, Noah feels somewhat bland. It's weird to say this considering some of the powerful emotional notes he hits. I suppose the same could be said for Shulk and Rex, but even they felt a little more distinct in their own ways. Similarly, the ultimate villain is also not terribly interesting. Even Malos from XC2, who literally has no other motivation than to be evil for the sake of being evil, was far more fun and charismatic.

These are kind of nitpicks, though, and aren't too big of a deal overall. If these were the worst negatives I could come up with, then it would do more to demonstrate how strong the overall game is, but I do have one major complaint: the ending.

I'll do my best to talk about this without spoilers. Also, I'll add that from what I've seen online, the ending is somewhat divisive, but in general, most people really liked it, so my opinion falls into the minority.

Also, I do understand why the game ends the way it does. It's actually the whole point of the story, and the narrative builds up to it. But that doesn't necessarily make it a satisfying ending. I don't think it's explained very well, and it leaves a lot of questions. (I was actually caught off guard, as I was under the impression something different was supposed to happen.) After all the emotional highs and lows the story puts the characters and player through, it just isn't enough of a resolution, and I think we deserved more. It's a very bittersweet ending, but the aftertaste was far more bitter than sweet.

To make a comparison that I know YL will understand, it's comparable to Ys VIII's ending. Given how clever and interesting the endings were to the other Xenoblade games, I'm disappointed that XC3, the supposed grand finale of the trilogy, reduces itself to such a cheap cop out.

Does it affect how I feel about the rest of the game? At the risk of sounding petty, I'd say yeah, at least a little bit. Going back to do side quests and such feels a bit empty, and even a little depressing, knowing the fate of the world and everyone in it.

Although, looking back, the whole game is a bit depressing. Not that it doesn't have plenty of moments that are lighthearted or even genuinely happy, but the world of Aionios is such a hellhole that I suppose it deserved the ending it got. It's the characters and the inhabitants of the world that I feel deserved a better resolution.

Does it affect how I feel about XC1 and 2? Not really. It does not change my feelings towards XC2 being one of my favorite games... even if a certain image in XC3's ending raises a lot of questions. (Honestly, I can't help but laugh at it. It seems more like an in-joke about a certain meme. But taken at face value, it's highly questionable at best.)

Overall, how do I evaluate a game that I felt was 99 percent great, but didn't stick the landing? Well, my initial reaction to the ending soured the experience for me to a degree, but I'll get over it. It is what it is. My overall impression is positive. A great game, but with an asterisk.

Also, there's still the major story DLC due out next year, and there's plenty of speculation about it online. Some think it could be a prequel story like Torna ~ The Golden Country, but others think it might be an epilogue chapter like Future Connected. Obviously, I'd rather have an epilogue that gives us a better resolution for the characters, but I kind of doubt that's what it'll be.

So, this kind of turned into a big rant. I will continue to play the game, as it does have some really cool post-game content. I'm thinking of making a spoiler post to talk about some of it and other certain things.

[Nester the Lark]

A while back, YL mentioned that he thought Xenoblade Chronicles 3 looked like "discount Star Wars." I can kind of see where he's coming from, but actually, it occurred to me that it has a lot more striking parallels with The Matrix.

And before you think that's a story spoiler, no, the world does not turn out to be a computer simulation. However, I will be discussing some early and late game spoilers, so be warned.

First of all, there's the plot point about people being grown in pods ("cradles"), and their life force being used as a source of power for the villains (powering the Flame Clocks).

EDIT: Forgot to mention something, but not sure if it's a spoiler.

Early game spoilers?

SPOILER: Click to show

I forgot to mention how the protagonists are trying to get to the city where people are living outside the system.

First-half game spoilers:

SPOILER: Click to show

And then there's the realization that people are continually being reborn after death. This mirrors the plot point in The Matrix movies that there were several versions of Neo, and everything is just a cycle.

Major second-half and end game spoilers:

SPOILER: Click to show

And yes, this includes several versions of Noah and Mio, as we see in Noah's flashback sequence. The final villain, Z, mentions having been confronted by Noah multiple times before.

And while the world is not a computer simulation, it's kind of treated like one, with the device known as "Origin" being intended to act like a back-up of people's memories/consciousnesses/souls, and basically "reboot" the universe after the annihilation event. Boot-up fails, however (it's actually explained in those terms), and "crashes" the system due to the collective fear being stored. That fear manifests itself as Z, who could be interpreted as a computer virus. (Really, is there any other explanation for Z's existence?) This causes the universe to freeze in a suspended (but unstable) state.

So, yeah, the game's a bit murky on the details, but I think the comparison fits pretty well. I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else talk about it.

[Nester the Lark]

Wave 2 of the DLC is coming October 13. It includes the new Hero character, Ino, plus new costumes, and the first part of the Challenge Battle mode.

Trailer:



So, Ino is kind of a strange design. I'm wondering what's special about her that warranted making her paid DLC as opposed to just including her in the main game.

I've seen speculation that she might be related to Poppi from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Her class name is "Noponic Champion," implying that she may have been made by a Nopon (like Poppi), and she has some kind of customization feature called Inoswap, which sounds similar to Poppiswap in XC2.

It's also likely she's just an overpowered character, like the DLC Blades in XC2.

Aside from the extra costume the characters get from the Noponic Champion class, there also (*sigh*) swimsuits.

I didn't doubt that there would be swimsuit costumes, and I'm not offended by them at all, but (and I'm in the minority on this) I just find them so boring and cliché. I usually never use swimsuit costumes because they look so silly unless the characters are in a watery area, and I'm too lazy to go through the hassle of putting the swimsuits on all my characters just for that. It seems like there could be much more clever costumes to put into the game.

OK, rant over.

Moving on, I'm looking forward to trying out the challenge battle mode... and doing very poorly at it.

---

OK, now, it's been a couple of weeks since I posted my initial impressions, and I've had time to let the game sit with me more, so I thought I would revisit a few of my points.

I mentioned I thought the music didn't live up to the standard of previous games. Maybe I was being a little harsh on it, as I think it's been growing on me. I still think it lacks a bit of a "Xenoblade feel," and I never had one of those moments where it took my breath away. It seems more like a traditional orchestral score that could've been in a Star Wars movie, but it works for what it is.

Some of the music, however, seems reminiscent of '90s-era Squaresoft, like Chrono Trigger. It's interesting because Chrono Trigger was the first game Yasunori Mitsuda composed the soundtrack for. If Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is his final game soundtrack, then I wonder if he was deliberately calling back to his early work as a way of bringing things full circle.

I mentioned that the end of chapter 5 (and also the beginning of chapter 6) had developed an infamous reputation for being rather... intense. I definitely won't spoil it, but I've seen it several times now because I've been fascinated by watching other people's reactions to it. No matter how many times I've seen it, it still stirs emotions in me.

But what occurred to me was how incredibly well crafted the whole sequence is, especially considering how lengthy it is. If even one element of it was a bit off or awkward, it would be distracting and lessen the impact of the whole thing. But everything works. The writing, the voice acting, the animation, the music -- it all works. Quite impressive.

Finally, I want to bring up the ending again. No spoilers.

My general feelings haven't changed much. I've seen a lot of explanations of the ending from different people, and a lot of them contradict each other, or ignore certain details, or include a significant amount of personal conjecture. However, a YouTuber named Luxin, who is known for his in-depth analyses of Xenoblade lore, came out with his own video explaining the ending of the game. It's 46 minutes long. (I won't link to it because, obviously, it's nothing but spoilers.)

He mostly sticks to facts, citing things specifically mentioned or seen within the game, itself. While he still indulges a bit of headcanon (which he admits), he does a good job arguing that the ending is better than most people realize. It's the best explanation I've seen yet, and it makes me feel a little better about it.

However, I think the fact that it took a 46-minute fan video to explain the ending reinforces my feelings that it doesn't make things very clear, and doesn't go far enough to provide satisfying closure.

[Nester the Lark]

Wave 3 & 4 trailer:



So, the new hero is Masha the Lapidarist, and her special power is crafting accessories. Hope she has a good Hero Quest.

The new Challenge Battle is apparently something with roguelike elements, which sounds interesting. The new costumes are legacy outfits that are appropriate to each character (although, I'm not sure why Taion's outfit is (spoiler)'s final form). I like these much better than the swimsuits.

Wave 3 is due out February 15, so it looks like it's about time for me to dive back into Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

I was not expecting to see anything about the Wave 4 story DLC. We see what appears to be an older Shulk, Rex and Noah(?) facing off against Alvis for some reason. (NOTE: No, this does not spoil the plot of XC3.) Can't tell if this is a prequel or not. Looking forward to it, though!