While it sounds crazy enough to write a review about a game thats not even OUT LMAO. I why I can 100% confirm that this game will be my favourite game ever when it releases.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is from a series I'm genuinely not that familiar with. beside playing Xenosaga Freaks on the PS2 15 years ago. Having played a few hours of Xenoblade Chronicles X on the wii u and having watched like 7 episodes of Xenosaga : The Animation and then dropping it out of boredom. You would genuinely be insane from a series where your intertest was never fully captured nor grasped to have the latest entry be your FAVOURITE GAME EVER?! Well here I will try to concretely enough explain my "My insanity" or for some of you guys "Stupidity" I'm assuming.

I found out about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pretty late actually the game was revealed at the Nintendo Direct in 2022. I accidentally stumbled upon the game in February pure on whim. I was watching videos about JRPGs and I saw the games Trailer in my recommendations. I didn't even wanna click on the trailer nor did I want it to play YouTube Autoplayed it for me when I went to the toilet lol... but when I came back I was like "fuck it why not" and pressed replay and my mind was blown away... to most it's a standard trailer nothing outstanding or experimental enough for someone to lose their shit over it but man... I WAS IN. From the VA of Noah the silent build up and the narrator to the big open athmosphere but with a striking distinct visual style. It reminded so much of every favourite open world jrpg series I love and it happens so rarely that I ever have such a strong sense of nostolgia from past of something in the present that I have no strong knowledge. But from the previously mentioned things and flashy gameplay and strong and striking character designs. I just knew it was the one. The open world fantasy genre is a VERY important genre to me because it helped me allot as a person throughout my life and I honestly watched allot of fantasy media but super rarely has this same feeling been matched before. I literally searched up every information about the game since and don't think I've ever been as hype for something as this game. The latest Info dump just made me even more confident in my feelings. I rewatched each trailer over 10x and watched the gameplay showcases over 10x. Did as much research as I can on the people working on it. Theorize heavy about future characters , environments and potential story beats. I genuinely have 100% trust in this game and don't think I can get dissapointed really.

So it really a case of pure feelings of nostolgia , charm and trust that makes me so sure. I know this seems goofy asf to write this but I know myself the best so I know best what my true feelings on the game will be.

( P.S I've done this before and know how my expectations work so I really cannot be dissapointed. also I will do a follow up in September on this when I play it.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the definition of the word perfect

This game does everything it could have done right it did right and went beyond that. From the opening cutscene to the last frame of the credits this game is just a constant emotional ride.

The story and cast of this game are the best i've seen in a game. There is so much to be said about both the story and characters but i know someone else will do that and they will do it better than me so i will not go into it.

The gameplay is one of the big standouts from 3 aswell. I was worried for some aspects of it prelaunch but after actually playing the game it turned out to be perfectly smooth in all ways it could have been.

The open world of this game is brilliant too with it basically always having something for you to find and mostly not feeling padded out at all. All the quests you can find around the world genuienly feel like they were made with care and passion unlike the very repetitive sidequests of the previous games in the series.

This game really felt like the game Takahashi always wanted to make and which is why i believe there's probably never going to be a game like this one

I shed a tear at the ending, but not because of main story (fanservice did the job for me). Overall it's a very satisfying conclusion to the thrilogy. On another hand, - for me - that's the weakest game in the series. But still good, of course. For example, take a graphic design of the locations, for which the series was famous, is rarely impressive here. But it's interesting to explore them, trying to find out where things are from the previous installments. The music is super nice, but there are fewer memorable and prominent motifs than usual. Too much of dull music... And most importantly, the story: Takahashi has plucked a bunch of elements from past games, and even from the days of Xenogears. Therefore I predicted 99% of the plot in the first chapter. The combat and class system is the best in the series, not counting X.

In the end, slightly disappointed, but I don't regret a single minute spent. It's still a very soulful and beautiful game, of which there are fewer and fewer, in my opinion.

I hope the next Xenoblade will be completely new. I would like a return to space, but the chances of that are extremely slim.

I started the game the day it leaked online. Some spoilers in the spoiler section

I've been sort of passively waiting for xc3 since the day it was announced. I say passively because I did my best to distract myself from its release so that I could avoid the agony of waiting everyday for it and building expectations so believe me when I say I didn't go into this with unreasonable expectations.

Story
The story unfortunately is full of unanswered questions or questions that were explained badly. It would be one thing if it was just minor stuff, like how Noah tells Mio that he doesn't like the name of his sword and chose to name it something else and then never tells her but important plot elements and items will just happen or show up with no explanation and for a series that's as methodical and planned out as the Xeno series its quite disappointing to see. That said, the story does have many kino moments, the cutscenes are well choreographed and the dialog is mostly good with odd sentences and conversations here and there.

Characters
The main 6 are pretty good and each of them get their own time in the spotlight thankfully but I don't think Noah gets enough. This might just be me not vibing with the type of character he is though as he is more of a thoughtful quiet character as opposed to the shonen type characters that are Shulk and Rex. The side characters are quite good and their personalities mesh well with the main 6. The villains mostly suck though. Moebius D, J and C are good but the rest are just bruh moments. Its one thing to have a few villains that are just "Hohoho I am the evilest evil" but its another thing to have almost your entire villain cast consist of that. X and Y in particular I feel were really badly handled and Z, the main villain is contradictory about his beliefs and methods. Also for some reason, most of the villains share 90% of the same design and their lackluster character makes it hard to differentiate them.

Gameplay
Might be the best combat in the series. I loved the elemental orb system from XC2 but the combat and customization can get pretty deep here with loads of build options. Exploration is really good, the story takes you through a small part of all the areas in the game but if you choose to explore there is so much to see and do. The world design is pretty good with plenty of callbacks to areas from previous games. Side Quests are plentiful but don't feel generic as each one typically has its own story to tell which is connected to the Colony that quest came from. Hero Quests are a new type of quest where completing one grants you access to a new Hero which is an AI controlled ally you can add to your party as well as unlocking a new class that your party can use. The combination of Hero and Standard Quests fleshes out the world and side characters quite well.

Music
Music is great as always for a Xeno game but the non battle tracks are less memorable. I did not rush through the game at all as you can see by my playtime (this is the most time I've spent on a xeno game even) but I can barely remember any environmental music. Battle tracks are really good though except the final boss track which is kind of nothing for half the fight. Weight of Life is a really good track but they play that thing only twice in a 40 hour story lmfao!!

Spoiler stuff
Originally I was going to type out questions I had regarding the story and how it doesn't explain many things but it got way too long so I put it in a pastebin instead. If anyone knows the answer to any of those questions hit me up on discord, @Shu_Watch#0423.

Also I just remembered that all the hype of 3 being the conclusion to 1 and 2 was a lie and Future Connected is pretty useless because the story is quite separate which can be a benefit or a negative depending on your tastes but I don't think the story is strong enough to stand on its own without that connection.

Conclusion
Everything gameplay related is top notch and honestly the price of the game could fully be justified by the gameplay and I will certainly be returning to this game after finals to get the 100% but the story is disappointing. Definitely did not expect that of a Xeno game. Like I said its not awful, there are still many kino moments but you should temper your expectations going in

The toughest part of writing a review is deciding how to start it, so let's go with this: Should you buy this game if you've never played any other Xenoblade title? This seems to be the most pressing question Xenoblade Chronicles 3 faces and I'm happy to answer that yes, you should. Obviously both other games (sorry X) are on the Switch already, so if you felt so inclined, you could go play them now too, but if you're just too excited for the newest, shiniest thing, by all means you can jump in here. In fact, I envy you if that's the case.

Xenoblade suffers from what I like to call Persona Syndrome, in which a person's favorite game in the series often tends to their first one. When you play something so unique and different from anything else, that resonates with you, and that initial experience will form an impression that's almost impossible to top, even if, from a technical perspective, later games surpass it. I formed that bond with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and thus a lot of this review will be written with comparisons to that game, so do consider that as you read, but I also think it's worth discussing this now because some of my issues with Xeno 3 come from the weight of expectations placed upon it by its predecessor.

That said, if you've seen the score I've given this game, it should be obvious that it's something I would still highly recommend. Monolith Soft are masters of their craft and part of why these games generate such a strong emotional response is that there's almost nothing like them out there. They are sprawling, massive single-player RPG experiences that effortlessly capture the feeling of being in another world and exploring every inch of it. They have rich and addicting combat that is built upon systems layered upon other systems that all combine to form fun and challenging gameplay. And of course they have stories with memorable characters and detailed worlds with hidden truths waiting to be uncovered.

Story, however, is what I'd point to as Xenoblade 3's biggest weakness, and where comparisons to past games come up the strongest. It's not that it isn't compelling, or there aren't strong, world-shattering events (the ending of Chapter 5 is the game's high point and one of the best moments in the series), but I sadly never found myself as emotionally invested in these characters and their adventure as I did with Shulk, Rex, and their respective crews. This is in large part because the game and its story are structured around these characters as a unit and less as individuals. They come across as more interchangeable than anything; despite being on two different sides of a war, they all possess very common trauma which allows them to coalesce together very early on, but that hurts the dynamic in my mind more than anything. Noah, Mio, and the rest lack the eccentricities or the internal conflict of past Xenoblade parties, and while I did like all these characters to some extent, I never came to love them.

This was perhaps best reflected at the end of the game, which despite its best efforts to illicit tears from me, failed to do so. In contrast, I was a blubbering mess at the end of Xenoblade 2. In fact, Xenoblade 3's most emotional moment (for me) had little to do with its own merits, and more because a certain song played at a certain time and was a gut-punch to me in the best possible way. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was a game I was satisfied to see its conclusion, as opposed to Xeno 2 which I never wanted to end. I suppose that's the best way I can put it.

Further compounding the issues with story was the lack of a compelling villain. I don't want this review to deviate too far into spoiler territory, so there's only so much I can say here, but my core issue is I really felt no connection between them and the main cast (and, by proxy, myself). This comes in sharp contrast with Xenoblade 2, where the villain had immensely personal ties to your party, and confrontations with them only furthered your desire to emerge victorious in the end. Xenoblade 3 kind of ends on flat note, and revelations about the villain's identity paint him and his group as little more than something that exists to justify the plot, rather than a more concrete obstacle that felt good to overcome. It certainly doesn't help that the final boss fight is excruciatingly long and far too scripted at times; heaven help you if you lose at any point and have to start over again.

I realize I'm being fairly harsh towards something I did genuinely really enjoy so I should also say there is plenty about the story that does work. Xenoblade 3 is ultimately a narrative about life, death, and the passage of time, and how it weaves those concepts throughout its runtime is incredibly well done. It exists on a strong foundational message of hope for the future and the desire for humanity to move forward, which goes a long way in a world that is otherwise extremely dour and bleak, much more than anything else found in these games prior. Its use of the Ouroboros as its primary theming device couldn't be more appropriate and the way the game begins and ends only further cements that. However, if you're holding out on true finality here, you might be disappointed, and there's more than a fair share of loose ends along the way.

Switching (Xeno)gears here for a moment, let's talk about gameplay and combat. One thing Monolith has always excelled at in this department is variety, and that continues to be the case here. Though only three roles, Xenoblade 3 features over 20 different classes which you can easily apply to any character you like, so whomever you gravitate toward and whatever playstyle you like, you'll find you can make that work. Unlocking more roles, levelling them up, and acquiring moves from them gives you a lot of flexibility in customizing your character, and although it takes a while into the game before you feel like you have enough to fully gauge the combat system, once you hit that, it's incredibly satisfying. Combine this with the mini-game like element of cancelling your attacks with good timing and you've got a really engaging combat system despite how automated much of it is.

While on the surface the combat looks fairly similar to Xenoblade 2, battles actually play out more like Xenoblade 1, so if you were more a fan of the first game you'll probably resonate greater with 3 (this is true in a lot of respects, really). For me, however, it sacrificed some of that flexibility in battle that Xenoblade 2 had. 2's combat was more adaptable on the fly, allowing you to switch your weapons/blades mid-fight while zeroing in on enemy elemental weaknesses. This meant each encounter felt more unique in how you approached it when deciding which blades to use and which branches you'd follow in your blade combo tree. In Xenoblade 3 every encounter plays out largely the same; once you develop your strategy it's merely a matter of executing it over and over. It's more than enough to carry the game but not quite as enjoyable or satisfying as Xenoblade 2's was for me.

Another area where the game suffers slightly in this department is combat readability. If you've ever seen a screenshot of a battle in Xenoblade it can look almost indecipherable in terms of how much is going on and how many UI elements it uses. Traditionally once you get into things, though, it's not much of an issue. Xeno 3, however, ups the ante with six party members at once (with an optional seventh you can add), the result of which can devolve into a visual mess when everyone is grouped up, or when the camera pulls out for battles against larger monsters. It can be incredibly difficult to keep track of your own character at times, not to mention timing your weapon cancelling, so the overabundance of things on screen might have finally caught up to them here.

Speaking of that optional seventh party member, it ties into one of my favorite things about Xenoblade 3 which are Hero Quests. This is the third game's equivalent of your blade side quests from Xenoblade 2, except an actual area of improvement in terms of how the game surfaces them to you. The gacha system is long gone and you don't need to have the character already to trigger the quests. Just go to a ? on the map and there's a good chance it'll give you a quest to add a new character to your repertoire, which is also how you gain your additional classes. These hero quests have the same production values as story quests, featuring fully voiced cut scenes, and they definitely constitute the most interesting side content the game has to offer.

The only downside? These hero characters aren't controllable. You add them to your party, they do their thing in battle, and that's about it. There are additional side quests that feature these heroes though, so there's at least attempts to flesh them out more, but it's almost a shame because these are by far the most interesting characters in the game. The part earlier where I mentioned the lack of eccentricities in the main party? They all went here. In fact you could actually make a really interesting JRPG consisting of a party of just these side characters. Kind of a waste in that sense but also I'm glad they're here.

Exploration is another area I should probably touch on because it is ultimately what I love most about these games. Xenoblade 3 is their biggest one yet, absolutely pushing the Switch to its limits. But, I'll always forgive a little loss of fidelity and framerate for a truly ambitious game, which this absolutely is (not to mention still being quite gorgeous too). I would get lost for hours just meandering around the map, wanting to see what is around every corner, and quite often being handsomely rewarded for it. Even when I thought I had seen it all, the game opens up even further at about the 40 hour mark, in a way I can only describe as Wind Waker-esque. I adored it and had a lot of fun in that section of the game.

And, of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the soundtrack, which remains some of the best music you'll hear in all of video games. I saw a comment about how it sounded like the composers crafted 90% of the music in this game as if they were told it was the last song they'd ever get to make, and that is a perfection summation of it. The sheer breadth and quality of battle themes alone is worthy of praise. There's one minor caveat to this, and as much as I hate to sound like a broken record...Xenoblade 2's music was just a bit better. The emotional musical themes of that game gave its big moments much more of a "pop" than Xenoblade 3's equivalent tracks do.

I really wish I could have written this review from the perspective of someone playing it for the first time because I feel this comes across more negative than I would like. Xenoblade 3 is a genuinely fantastic game and I'd recommend it to anyone but I can't divorce myself from my own experiences which result in feeling like it comes up a bit short compared to the previous game. And while there are twists and turns abound, having played the prior games also makes you a bit more wary of how these games are typically written and you'll come to expect certain elements and moments that would have otherwise been huge surprises if viewed with fresh eyes. Either way, I'd be shocked if anyone walked away from Xenoblade 3 not feeling satisfied. That's how I felt, and the only shame in that is it just didn't leave the same impression Xenoblade 2 did for me. Perhaps there was never any escaping that.

Peak fiction.

Don't even ask why I made a review this quickly, I already know it'll be a 5/5. I have 100% faith in it.

Yeah, this game was a masterpiece. I stand by what I said months prior.

Thank you monolith for such a beautiful game.

One of the best switch games, in my opinion.
gameplay wise, it's exactly what you'll expect from a Xenoblade game. That being said, I do actually find it more easier to understand than 2 and overall being more "beginner friendly" (or it's just that i'm more used to Xenoblade's gameplay now). The story in this game is nothing too special but I did find myself more invested in it than previous Xenoblade stories. overall, while i've only played it for a mere 10 hours, i highly recommend it to Xenoblade and JRPG fans alike. 10/10

I dont even know what to say right now. This is a thing of beauty and will be a staple of Jrpg talk for MANY years to come. I am so glad to have dived into the series earlier in the year.

Im not even going to lie I cried badly at the ending lmfao.

This game is a prime example of what developers should do to make their sequels even better from QoL improvements, new mechanics and keeping everything fresh but also never straying too far from what the fans love.

I think this might just be my game of the year currently. Its so damn hard to pick this year lmao

This new entry into the Xenoblade series takes the best parts of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and makes it a nearly perfect masterpiece of a game. Combat and exploration stays just as good as previous entries with little to no flaws there. No matter what you're doing in the game, It's absolutely fun. The characters are some of the best in the series and give some real meaningful thoughts. On the topic of characters though, the only big weakpoint are the villains. Most of Moebius just feels like a standard villainous organization with no redeeming qualities (with some really good exceptions). Despite that, the main cast is one of the best I've seen and some of the side characters are particularly outstanding. The story also makes a lot of twists and turns that feel natural and makes for a well polished theme of life and how precious it can be. Xenoblade 3 does exactly what it wants while also setting the bar for other JRPGs. This is a game that you can't miss out on and is an easy highlight for JRPGs this year.