For a guy with so much to say about the stuff I play, I'm actually kinda loath to really talk about things I love dearly; aside from the possibility of setting some unreasonable expectations from friends or readers who may be disappointed after playing something I wholeheartedly recommend, I also can't help but feel like maybe something's too good to be true, that I'm not being critical enough, that I've overlooked something that everyone thinks is just awful. Lately, it's made me feel generally more cautious when I talk something up.
I think Xenoblade 3 is about to undo a lot of that. I adore this game. It has some (very superficial) things I think could've been improved or better utilized, but on a whole it's my favorite JRPG in a veeeeeeery long time. It's still very early -- I understand I'm writing this no less than like 10 days after the game's release -- but I'm not sure what the last game was that I played that was so affecting, so beautifully choreographed (this game's cutscene direction and music is some of the best in the industry, no lie), so touching and tragic and full of all different manner of meaning. The closest thing I can really think of, to be honest, is Final Fantasy XIV, but unlike FFXIV this particular game is not what I'd consider a culmination of now-9 years of brilliant setplay and storytelling; it's simply an expertly-told, considerably self-contained story that doesn't rely on a revolving door of callbacks and canon tricks to get a response out of me. (To be fair, a couple did, but they were just cute nods and not really impactful on the greater narrative.)
Oh yeah, and the gameplay was cool too. I could go on at length about the rest of XC3, break down the vibrant aesthetic, talk at length about the combat systems and character classes and explain what I liked about the game's robust sidequests, yadda yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, all of that's very much worth spending your time getting into, and I highly recommend the game on those merits alone, but you could hear about that from anyone and get a good impression of what to expect. You could even ask me if you're curious about more detail.
Find a way to support Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft -- find a way to play this game. Let it captivate you. Play it on whatever difficulty you want, it really doesn't matter. Just experience this story, because it's a once-in-a-generation kind of game.
I think Xenoblade 3 is about to undo a lot of that. I adore this game. It has some (very superficial) things I think could've been improved or better utilized, but on a whole it's my favorite JRPG in a veeeeeeery long time. It's still very early -- I understand I'm writing this no less than like 10 days after the game's release -- but I'm not sure what the last game was that I played that was so affecting, so beautifully choreographed (this game's cutscene direction and music is some of the best in the industry, no lie), so touching and tragic and full of all different manner of meaning. The closest thing I can really think of, to be honest, is Final Fantasy XIV, but unlike FFXIV this particular game is not what I'd consider a culmination of now-9 years of brilliant setplay and storytelling; it's simply an expertly-told, considerably self-contained story that doesn't rely on a revolving door of callbacks and canon tricks to get a response out of me. (To be fair, a couple did, but they were just cute nods and not really impactful on the greater narrative.)
Oh yeah, and the gameplay was cool too. I could go on at length about the rest of XC3, break down the vibrant aesthetic, talk at length about the combat systems and character classes and explain what I liked about the game's robust sidequests, yadda yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, all of that's very much worth spending your time getting into, and I highly recommend the game on those merits alone, but you could hear about that from anyone and get a good impression of what to expect. You could even ask me if you're curious about more detail.
Find a way to support Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft -- find a way to play this game. Let it captivate you. Play it on whatever difficulty you want, it really doesn't matter. Just experience this story, because it's a once-in-a-generation kind of game.