Xenogears is one of my favorite Jrpgs of all time, its script is excellent and mindblowing at times and the scope of its world was insane at the time, having played it, i was not a fan of the modernized Xenoblade formula, i enjoyed Xenoblade 1 but i was very disappointed in Xenoblade 2 to the point where i was on the verge of giving up on any feature titles from this franchise, however after Xenoblade 3 successful release i decided to give the series another go and ultimately i didn't regret it, the game overall was worthwhile.
To go straight to my verdict on the game elements i will skip indepth details and write a summary-like quick thoughts.
Tech:
- From a technical point i had close to no issues on the game, it runs well and performance is good.
- Sound design and OST: excellent, there's a little issue here which was that certain tacks got repetitive like the combat and chain attack one, but otherwise the music was nice.
- Visuals: low on graphics power due to hardware limitation, gorgeous world and landscape design, good art-style, character design is a bit generic and bland.
The Writing:
a) Story: grand, epic, adventurous, a bit messy, doesnt know what it wants to be, pacing too slow, moments that contradict gameplay, bloated with filler content that goes nowhere, falls off hard from chapter 5 finale and towards the end due to inconsistencies in the plot and failure to keep up with the interesting themes after the mystery reveal.
b) Characters: mostly okay, few uninteresting faces, few underdeveloped ones but mostly good, the villains on the other hand are so bad. (Note: Time-travel stories with reset button more often than not damages character development heavily)
c) World-Building: okay for the most part, develops upon prior world knowledge and lore that tracks back the the older titles. I would've appreciated a more multilayered dive on its world themes rather than total reliance on previous established ones.
d) Dialogue: juvenile and very teenage focused, writing makes nonsense statements, like how ethel is strong when she doesnt deal damage - situations like this, dialogue tries hard to shove meaningful statements at points where it feels unnatural. Overall; not bad but full of padded text and could be cut by a significant margin.
// Story relies too much on cutscenes to convey its storytelling which is not a good sign, could use a bit of storytelling in form of a game //
One another side-point is that i heard so much praise for Chapter 5 and i was very excited to reach it, as supposedly it was the peak of the game. While its truly a wonderfully executed cutscene that did deliver on the emotional and presentation level, the writing felt cheesy, too many plotholes, the time reset, the lucky seven sudden reveal at the right time, the stakes that could only be described as fake tension, and the conclusion of the chapter all were disappointing and didn't live up to their hype. The peak of the game i would say is Chapter 3 to 5. After it reaches the finale of Chapter 5 the story goes downhill and never really recovers.
Chapter 5 also contains a lot of filler and boring quests where i was running doing prison tasks that felt incredibly padded and waste of time, which is another point why its not really as peak fiction lol as its reputation suggests.
The Gameplay:
a) Combat: meat of the game, enemies lack mechanical variety, limitation of different attacks patterns, they feel similar, mostly change color and level and sometimes shape, hp bloat, however interesting design concepts, a lot of enemies to defeat, chain attacks is the best part of the combat by the end i was dishing out insane amount of damage. overall, a decent battle system
b) Level/World Design: mostly alright, a bit bloated (mobs) and empty(content), a lot of handholding, but other than that gives meaningful tools to traverse, good backtracking and so-so rewarding system. Gives a good sense of scale with its vast
and varied landscape, chapter 5 sea region is a highlight.
c) RPG mechanics: most of the loot is not useful, crafting feels meaningless, too much collectable bloat, no use for money, few uses for the good loot you get, overall weak on the exploration side. Good amount of class customization but has one annoying aspect which is the skill mastery that you get, the customization of accessories and gems are alright, could use more depth but mostly is ok.
d) Quest Design: a mixed bag of great side quests and poor fetch quests, the ones with the tag Hero Quests are often very good and deserve your time, they offer a hero to use entire new class with good rewards and explore the world and the characters even more, the collectable and standard quests are just boring fetch quests that should be skipped and are more or less an excuse to just fight more monsters.
e) Interactive systems: outside of combat, barely anything to do, you just walk and talk, craft and collect, no other system than the battle system.
// The gameplay is decent for what it is but it also could use a lot of improvements, its a stronger highlight than its writing counterpart and its the best in the whole Xenoblade Chronicles series but is still far from its true potential. //
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a decent back to form by Monolith, and is a game that offers as much interesting and great stuff as it also offers flawed and poorly executed stuff, in my opinion the series has yet to reach its true potential and is still a long way from reaching the peak of its original in terms of scope and script power.
6/10
To go straight to my verdict on the game elements i will skip indepth details and write a summary-like quick thoughts.
Tech:
- From a technical point i had close to no issues on the game, it runs well and performance is good.
- Sound design and OST: excellent, there's a little issue here which was that certain tacks got repetitive like the combat and chain attack one, but otherwise the music was nice.
- Visuals: low on graphics power due to hardware limitation, gorgeous world and landscape design, good art-style, character design is a bit generic and bland.
The Writing:
a) Story: grand, epic, adventurous, a bit messy, doesnt know what it wants to be, pacing too slow, moments that contradict gameplay, bloated with filler content that goes nowhere, falls off hard from chapter 5 finale and towards the end due to inconsistencies in the plot and failure to keep up with the interesting themes after the mystery reveal.
b) Characters: mostly okay, few uninteresting faces, few underdeveloped ones but mostly good, the villains on the other hand are so bad. (Note: Time-travel stories with reset button more often than not damages character development heavily)
c) World-Building: okay for the most part, develops upon prior world knowledge and lore that tracks back the the older titles. I would've appreciated a more multilayered dive on its world themes rather than total reliance on previous established ones.
d) Dialogue: juvenile and very teenage focused, writing makes nonsense statements, like how ethel is strong when she doesnt deal damage - situations like this, dialogue tries hard to shove meaningful statements at points where it feels unnatural. Overall; not bad but full of padded text and could be cut by a significant margin.
// Story relies too much on cutscenes to convey its storytelling which is not a good sign, could use a bit of storytelling in form of a game //
One another side-point is that i heard so much praise for Chapter 5 and i was very excited to reach it, as supposedly it was the peak of the game. While its truly a wonderfully executed cutscene that did deliver on the emotional and presentation level, the writing felt cheesy, too many plotholes, the time reset, the lucky seven sudden reveal at the right time, the stakes that could only be described as fake tension, and the conclusion of the chapter all were disappointing and didn't live up to their hype. The peak of the game i would say is Chapter 3 to 5. After it reaches the finale of Chapter 5 the story goes downhill and never really recovers.
Chapter 5 also contains a lot of filler and boring quests where i was running doing prison tasks that felt incredibly padded and waste of time, which is another point why its not really as peak fiction lol as its reputation suggests.
The Gameplay:
a) Combat: meat of the game, enemies lack mechanical variety, limitation of different attacks patterns, they feel similar, mostly change color and level and sometimes shape, hp bloat, however interesting design concepts, a lot of enemies to defeat, chain attacks is the best part of the combat by the end i was dishing out insane amount of damage. overall, a decent battle system
b) Level/World Design: mostly alright, a bit bloated (mobs) and empty(content), a lot of handholding, but other than that gives meaningful tools to traverse, good backtracking and so-so rewarding system. Gives a good sense of scale with its vast
and varied landscape, chapter 5 sea region is a highlight.
c) RPG mechanics: most of the loot is not useful, crafting feels meaningless, too much collectable bloat, no use for money, few uses for the good loot you get, overall weak on the exploration side. Good amount of class customization but has one annoying aspect which is the skill mastery that you get, the customization of accessories and gems are alright, could use more depth but mostly is ok.
d) Quest Design: a mixed bag of great side quests and poor fetch quests, the ones with the tag Hero Quests are often very good and deserve your time, they offer a hero to use entire new class with good rewards and explore the world and the characters even more, the collectable and standard quests are just boring fetch quests that should be skipped and are more or less an excuse to just fight more monsters.
e) Interactive systems: outside of combat, barely anything to do, you just walk and talk, craft and collect, no other system than the battle system.
// The gameplay is decent for what it is but it also could use a lot of improvements, its a stronger highlight than its writing counterpart and its the best in the whole Xenoblade Chronicles series but is still far from its true potential. //
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a decent back to form by Monolith, and is a game that offers as much interesting and great stuff as it also offers flawed and poorly executed stuff, in my opinion the series has yet to reach its true potential and is still a long way from reaching the peak of its original in terms of scope and script power.
6/10
Reviewed on Dec 05, 2022
2 Comments
Thank you!
TheGamingN00b
1 year ago