Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review — Fantastic, But It Took Forever to Tell Me Why

I never would have imagined that I’d be playing Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, and somehow get old enough to now be watching what feels like the beginning of an actual Final Fantasy-esque JRPG staple bloom. I am now done Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and somehow this series still has yet to drop a bad game while always finding a way to sneak in how all of these games are interconnected.

But, this is the grumpiest person in the Suite, so of course I have some things to say about this third iteration!

I know there are only so many ways you can write science-fiction apocalypses while trying to stay as original as possible, but the third game really shows how difficult it can be to keep up that galaxy-brain level of storytelling. The story moves at quite a snail’s pace compared to the great pacing of the first two entries. You just do not know why certain things are the way they are, and boyyyyy do they take their time giving you the little morsels of plot you so, so desperately want.

After enough time playing through the story, though, I felt like it took so damn long to figure out what the actual plot and direction were that I kinda stopped caring.

Since everyone’s lives are so short in this universe, nobody truly has these huge shining personalities. Just think about it: everyone is basically a fighter, and they exist somewhere on a spectrum between loving to fight (Ashera) and really not wanting anything to do with fighting (Miyabi). I will admit, though, the chemistry of the main party is pretty damn good. I also definitely appreciate the character designs moving away from the gooner-baiting direction of the second game. Having a solid voice cast also strengthens the experience big time.

But I still just did not care about these characters as much.

They’re not bad characters. I just did not find them that interesting. Maybe it has something to do with the whole short-life-span thing, but I was rarely sitting there dying to know more about where they came from or what happened in their past.

And yes, I know there are side quests.

But sometimes those missions are about something that happened like a year ago and we’re expected to feel like it is soooo imperative that we find the childhood friend who got lost like he has dementia. It just didn’t matter as much to me.

When Eunie starts getting certain flashbacks, it becomes VERY interesting. And then the game basically goes: “Cool, anyway.” We move right the hell on and continue heading to the castle like Bowser is sitting there impatiently waiting for us. We never truly dig into that story and it would have also been great to see if the others experienced this in any capacity. But if not, that is also quite interesting. Why is only Eunie remembering such things?

Another gripe I have is that the worlds just are not as mind-blowing as the first two. I do not even know exactly why, but there just are not as many distinct features that make certain areas immediately memorable.

Sure, everything is more detailed. There are more creatures. The game itself looks beautiful. But it never hit me the same way as seeing Gaur Plain for the first time (gawd that music thougghhhh), Satorl Marsh, or the Kingdom of Uraya. Those places felt eventful when you first walked into them.

The colonies did not really have much personality either. Even The City was kinda boring to me. I would have loved it much more if it had the same kind of personality and depth that towns had in XC2.

And again, the game looks great, don’t get me wrong. But maybe seeing another Xenoblade so quickly after 2, on the same hardware and with a similar visual foundation, makes some of these locations feel less special because we already had that “holy hell, this is running on a Switch?” moment before.

The battles can also be quite lengthy, by the way. Now, of course, they weren’t exactly short in the first two games either, but a lot of hours can disappear into battles while you’re just trying to make your way to the next objective. Luckily, and this is huuuggee, the game gives us auto-battle.

Bless whoever made that decision. There were stretches where I could start a battle, go do some chores or errands around the house, and come back when it was over. At some point, because I’m an adult and this game is mad long, I just had to start combining Xenoblade into my day to get through certain portions of it.

Auto-battle is a massive plus for this game, and honestly, I think more JRPGs should implement it. Sometimes we just need the game to understand that we got laundry to fold.

The battles themselves are mad hectic at first because there are so many characters on screen, but eventually you get a handle on it. The bigger problem is that you are bombaaarrddeddd with tutorials at the beginning. Tutorial after tutorial after tutorial. And because the game is so long and there are so many different systems, there is a good chance you forget one of those features later on, only to realize the explanation is buried somewhere inside a whole damn Bible of tutorials.

I guess there really is no perfect way around this because there is just so much going on.

You have Smash combos, Burst combos, hero classes, inherited skills, class switching, arts, accessories, gems, Ouroboros, Chain Attacks…It’s a lot.

And that is both a good and bad thing.

You can absolutely get lost in the menus trying to optimize your team, but at the same time, that is also part of the fun. The game gives you enough systems to play around with that you constantly want to tweak something.

But again. It’s just a lot.

Speaking of mucho stuff, because of the sheer amount of content in this game, you are almost always overleveled for the main quest if you are actually doing side content. At first, that feels great because you earned those levels. You put in the work. You did the quests. But eventually it leaves some boss fights feeling kind of lackluster because you walk into these supposed massive encounters and just body them.

On the topic of villains, by the way, I just did not care about them that much either. A lot of the Moebius villains feel weak and completely disposable. You start off curious about them because clearly there is something bigger going on, but most of them basically show up one at a time like filler-episode villains. Thank you, next.

And the villains you originally feel invested in are out of the picture for huge portions of the game.

I cannot emphasize enough how long this story takes to explain the true conflict of the world. Thinking about it again, it was actually pretty annoying hearing things like “the Endless Now” over and over again without really explaining what the hell that meant. It constantly felt like: “Don’t worry. The next letter dude will explain it.”

Then you dispose of the villains in alphabetical order and move on.

That slow drip of information really started putting me off from being as emotionally invested as I probably should have been.

And I know, at this point, it probably sounds like I’m saying this game is no good. That is absolutely not what I mean. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is still a fantastic game. It still has that superb quality you expect from something carrying the Xenoblade name. Gorgeous and immersive worlds, solid voice acting, great cutscenes, an amazing soundtrack, and a combat system with enough depth to keep you busy forever.

It is an amazing game in almost every regard.

I just do not think it hit the same emotional level as the first two games for me. Which is kind of wild, because this game is almost entirely about grief and death. But because of how the world is designed, and because of how slowly information gets revealed, I found myself caring less deeply than I wanted to.

Still, play every Xenoblade.

Seriously.

None of them disappoint.

And yes, this also includes Xenoblade Chronicles X. That is another amazing entry in what is quickly becoming one of the best young JRPG staples around.

Until next time.

Score: 4/5 — Banger!

Mr. Grumpy