This review contains spoilers
I am officially mentally ill and not okay.
May be suffering some sort of whiplash from finishing this. I don't think mentally I was ready to actually finish it and now I'm coping by simping for fictional white women.
Guess getting my few problems with it out of the way first are probably the best route. So imma be frank but the villains in this kinda lame. Moebius is full of goons with fantastic designs, but I really wish we only focused on a couple instead of making them the entire Alphabet. D and J are fantastic and the emotional baggage attached to the latter makes for some incredible emotional roller coasters from hate to sadness to ambivalence and pity. Downright great stuff. D peak cyclepath glad we got another villain like that. Easily the most vile and disgusting of any of the goons across this trilogy (or quadrilogy if you want to count X). Metal Face from Xenoblade 1, but without a shitty death and way more entertaining even after the reveal. The other Moebius goons while evil just feel too samey. I LOVE WAR CRIMES BRO PLEASE NOAH LET ME KEEP PLAYING WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES WHAT THE FUCKKKK YOU PRICK and after the first 5 or so they really do start to feel like busy work in the same vein as freeing outposts in a Far Cry game or MGSV feels hell even Elden Ring to be honest. This rings especially true if you decide to free every colony like I did. Music wise too this game while better than 1 doesn't hold a candle to X and 2s OSTs which is a shame cause the tracks that go hard as fuck like Moebius or when they sneak in shit like Drifting Souls in the Cloudkeep is so gooooood but I feel the area themes (and some battle themes) are a bit lacking don't expect anything crazy like Gormott, Tantal or Mor Ardain I feel they really hit gold with the first giant green area these games always have and then never hit the same energy after. Shame, but not a bad OST by any means you're on crack if you'd say that. Fuck the Chain Attack theme overriding boss music especially after learning that some change dynamically after a certain health threshold. As for probably my only other major complaint I think I may have set some wrong expectations going into this cause story wise this didn't hit me emotionally as much as 2 did. Which is a shame cause the entire concept of an endless war is PRIME material for a lot of really sad shit. Granted when it hits emotionally it fucking hits. People not being able to shut up about Chapter 5 and the beginning of Chapter 6 are 100% valid in their reactions. That shit had my eyes stinging when I finally regained control after I'm assuming an hour of cutscenes. Maybe if I return to it with a full new ground up playthrough in 5 years like Xenoblade 2 I'll be an actual emotional wreck this time...
Those things aside HOLY FUCK THIS RULED as with Xenoblade 2 the gameplay is yet again a massive improvement over the first one and I'm glad I can be kind of smug and say "I was right" seeing people preferring the arts of the Agnus characters over the Keves ones. And BY GAWD that final battle with Nia and Melia teaming up is peak fan service I was hooting and hollering like a fucking chimapzai at like 3 in the morning. And while I mentioned early that D may be the highlight of the WE DO A LITTLE TROLLING type villains of the game the real standouts on the Moebius side are N and M which was downright gut wrenching stuff paired with the stellar performances. I'm one of those motherfuckers that says Xeno2s dub is fine but in this there ain't no weird awkward shit it is great from start to finish. Also I'm so glad I'm able to sit down and say shit like N is just Jin from 2, but pathetic which just makes him Gendo. Right down to the same cathartic realization of how much he'd fucked up.
And that's where the true emotional core of Xenoblade 3 lies. Realizing your mistakes and moving on instead of wallowing in your self pity stuck to move on or as the game so eloquently puts it "The Endless Now". And boy let me tell you when it finally hit me what the characters meant by "not being able to see each other anymore" I could feel them tears welling up. I mentioned that emotionally it may not be moment to moment after the first three chapters like Xenoblade 2 was, but Xenoblade 3 very much like 2 has such a powerful feeling of catharsis and finality and hope by the end that I think I'm just left coping with the fact I won't be able to experience it all again for the first time, but eventually I too will have to move on while keeping this whole past week and a half close to my heart.
Anyways if this review seems like total nonsense and insane rambling its because it is and I'm still coping, but it don't matter what you think I got to see Poppi again and got confirmation of MILF Mythra within the span of 20 seconds so I won in the end lmfaoooo
May be suffering some sort of whiplash from finishing this. I don't think mentally I was ready to actually finish it and now I'm coping by simping for fictional white women.
Guess getting my few problems with it out of the way first are probably the best route. So imma be frank but the villains in this kinda lame. Moebius is full of goons with fantastic designs, but I really wish we only focused on a couple instead of making them the entire Alphabet. D and J are fantastic and the emotional baggage attached to the latter makes for some incredible emotional roller coasters from hate to sadness to ambivalence and pity. Downright great stuff. D peak cyclepath glad we got another villain like that. Easily the most vile and disgusting of any of the goons across this trilogy (or quadrilogy if you want to count X). Metal Face from Xenoblade 1, but without a shitty death and way more entertaining even after the reveal. The other Moebius goons while evil just feel too samey. I LOVE WAR CRIMES BRO PLEASE NOAH LET ME KEEP PLAYING WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES WHAT THE FUCKKKK YOU PRICK and after the first 5 or so they really do start to feel like busy work in the same vein as freeing outposts in a Far Cry game or MGSV feels hell even Elden Ring to be honest. This rings especially true if you decide to free every colony like I did. Music wise too this game while better than 1 doesn't hold a candle to X and 2s OSTs which is a shame cause the tracks that go hard as fuck like Moebius or when they sneak in shit like Drifting Souls in the Cloudkeep is so gooooood but I feel the area themes (and some battle themes) are a bit lacking don't expect anything crazy like Gormott, Tantal or Mor Ardain I feel they really hit gold with the first giant green area these games always have and then never hit the same energy after. Shame, but not a bad OST by any means you're on crack if you'd say that. Fuck the Chain Attack theme overriding boss music especially after learning that some change dynamically after a certain health threshold. As for probably my only other major complaint I think I may have set some wrong expectations going into this cause story wise this didn't hit me emotionally as much as 2 did. Which is a shame cause the entire concept of an endless war is PRIME material for a lot of really sad shit. Granted when it hits emotionally it fucking hits. People not being able to shut up about Chapter 5 and the beginning of Chapter 6 are 100% valid in their reactions. That shit had my eyes stinging when I finally regained control after I'm assuming an hour of cutscenes. Maybe if I return to it with a full new ground up playthrough in 5 years like Xenoblade 2 I'll be an actual emotional wreck this time...
Those things aside HOLY FUCK THIS RULED as with Xenoblade 2 the gameplay is yet again a massive improvement over the first one and I'm glad I can be kind of smug and say "I was right" seeing people preferring the arts of the Agnus characters over the Keves ones. And BY GAWD that final battle with Nia and Melia teaming up is peak fan service I was hooting and hollering like a fucking chimapzai at like 3 in the morning. And while I mentioned early that D may be the highlight of the WE DO A LITTLE TROLLING type villains of the game the real standouts on the Moebius side are N and M which was downright gut wrenching stuff paired with the stellar performances. I'm one of those motherfuckers that says Xeno2s dub is fine but in this there ain't no weird awkward shit it is great from start to finish. Also I'm so glad I'm able to sit down and say shit like N is just Jin from 2, but pathetic which just makes him Gendo. Right down to the same cathartic realization of how much he'd fucked up.
And that's where the true emotional core of Xenoblade 3 lies. Realizing your mistakes and moving on instead of wallowing in your self pity stuck to move on or as the game so eloquently puts it "The Endless Now". And boy let me tell you when it finally hit me what the characters meant by "not being able to see each other anymore" I could feel them tears welling up. I mentioned that emotionally it may not be moment to moment after the first three chapters like Xenoblade 2 was, but Xenoblade 3 very much like 2 has such a powerful feeling of catharsis and finality and hope by the end that I think I'm just left coping with the fact I won't be able to experience it all again for the first time, but eventually I too will have to move on while keeping this whole past week and a half close to my heart.
Anyways if this review seems like total nonsense and insane rambling its because it is and I'm still coping, but it don't matter what you think I got to see Poppi again and got confirmation of MILF Mythra within the span of 20 seconds so I won in the end lmfaoooo