This review contains spoilers
Some context before my review:
I have played every single Xeno game prior to this including minor spin offs and unlocalized games. I loved this franchise with all my heart. That said I am very critical on the series because I want to see it reach its true potential.
Xenoblade 3 was a game I was somewhat mixed on. I absolutely loved it but something about the last two chapters disappointed me. I think it's the fact that a lot of the dark moments throughout the game were erased by plot twists, multiple missing plot points, and the lack of many end game plot twists like most other entries in the franchise have.
Did Future Redeemed redeem any of these problems? Well it explained Riku and showed quite a bit of new lore during the Founders era such as where the Aegises went. This info does flesh out and expand the world of Aionios well enough that I'm satisfied. There are still some unexplained plot details but none that bother me enough to impact my judgment of the base more or this expansion negatively. The dark atmosphere being lost was not fixed but it's kind of hard for a prequel to fix that so doesn't matter here. Was the ending satisfying? Oh heck yeah and it even made me like base game's story more but let me go in depth on the whole story before then.
Chapter 1 was very straightforward but that was fine. It introduced is to the cast and basic plot premise very quickly. Some of the plot felt a bit too coincidental like come on what are the chances Shulk and Rex's kids fight right here and right now? Especially right in front of A and Rex's great great grandson? This is such a weird family tree BTW but I think it's more funny than anything in a good way. No big complaints yet but not much worth praising other than pacing.
Chapter 2 had a much larger area to explore which I enjoyed traveling around at my own pace. The plot once again got to the point very quickly too. Seeing Rex again at the end made me so happy and I was really getting a feel for the gameplay at that point.
Chapter 3's intro boss was a little rough but in a good way. The story, characters, locations, music, and basically everything was doing well to keep me interested. Xenoblade 1 is one of my least preferred but still very much enjoyed games in the series yet seeing Colony 9 again hit me hard. The entire map is a love letter to fans of 1 and 2 in such a good way. The story by the end of this chapter was getting super interesting and most characters grew on me a lot as I traveled with them. I wasn't expecting to like Nikol so much but I did. A and Rex were definitely my favorites. My only complaint as of this point is once again that the plot feels just a little too coincidental in how everything just happened to come together so well but I can ignore that because it's SOOO good. I loved it.
My thoughts on chapter 4 match basically everything I said about 3. Everything was super well paced and intriguing. The combat grew on me so much that it became my favorite in the franchise. I did a lot of wide content before progressing. I almost want to say I 70%ed all the content in the game before bearing it.
Chapter 5 time and ... OMG is that MORYTHA!? Little did I know that would be the weakest part of this hype experience. I didn't notice the Vector Industry logo on the radio but I heard Project Exodus, Dmitri Yuriev, and all the other references to Xenoblade X and Xenosaga. I was genuinely popping off because Xenosaga 3 is one of my favorite games of all time and I never imagined it would actually be relevant again. I mean I as genuinely so excited that I was shaking at times. It's a hard feeling to describe but essentially I gave up hope on one of my favorite things ever coming back so this just warmed my heart so much. The final boss fight was raw. The designs and music was so good. I felt like this ending was perfect as a Xenoblade 1-3, really cool as an X fan, and super hype as a Saga fan. Gears kinda got a reference in there which I enjoyed too. Overall this just flipped the massive nerd switch in my brain and made me extremely happy for multiple days in a row just thinking about the ending. I genuinely cried a year or happiness from the ending upon realizing Saga is genuinely relevant. Words can't describe how happy it made me. It really meant the world to me.
HOLY SPARK HOW DID TAKAHASHI PULL THIS OFF!? Like genuinely this was such an amazing experience despite how short it was. The gameplay, story, setting, and everything just spoke to me.
That said I do want to address some post game problems. The final party member not being playable kinda sucks since you could literally play as them earlier but aight whatever. The worse part of the deal is she can't be turned off so it can be hard getting screenshots without large spoilers in them. The bigger problem for me however is the fact that there's very few high level enemies. The high level optional bosses jump from level 55 to 60 to 70 to 80 to two 90 at the same time to 100. Level gaps like that are horrendous for grinding. I'm level 79 as of writing this and yet I find chain attacking the 55 boss to be the best grinding method due to the 60 and 70 both resisting break. That's not even mentioning the fact that the level 70 boss can also lock chain attacks so good luck getting EXP multipliers. The difficulty spikes after that is outrageously hard. What's worse is these bosses and their rewards are some of the last things I need for 100% completion. I wish there was either more common high level enemies to grind, better level gaps between bosses, or simply more standard side quests to focus on this late into the game. Regardless of this I've had so much fun playing. It's not every day that I put four to five times as many hours into a game than the storyline lasts. Some people beat the game in 10 hours while I beat the game at 22. I have nearly 45 while writing this.
Edit:
I rarely ever 100% games but I loved this so much that I went out of my way to do everything. It took me 52 hours. I'm actually kinda sad that there's nothing left to do. Regardless this was amazing! It had become on of my favorite games of all time and I can't wait for the future of the franchise!
I have played every single Xeno game prior to this including minor spin offs and unlocalized games. I loved this franchise with all my heart. That said I am very critical on the series because I want to see it reach its true potential.
Xenoblade 3 was a game I was somewhat mixed on. I absolutely loved it but something about the last two chapters disappointed me. I think it's the fact that a lot of the dark moments throughout the game were erased by plot twists, multiple missing plot points, and the lack of many end game plot twists like most other entries in the franchise have.
Did Future Redeemed redeem any of these problems? Well it explained Riku and showed quite a bit of new lore during the Founders era such as where the Aegises went. This info does flesh out and expand the world of Aionios well enough that I'm satisfied. There are still some unexplained plot details but none that bother me enough to impact my judgment of the base more or this expansion negatively. The dark atmosphere being lost was not fixed but it's kind of hard for a prequel to fix that so doesn't matter here. Was the ending satisfying? Oh heck yeah and it even made me like base game's story more but let me go in depth on the whole story before then.
Chapter 1 was very straightforward but that was fine. It introduced is to the cast and basic plot premise very quickly. Some of the plot felt a bit too coincidental like come on what are the chances Shulk and Rex's kids fight right here and right now? Especially right in front of A and Rex's great great grandson? This is such a weird family tree BTW but I think it's more funny than anything in a good way. No big complaints yet but not much worth praising other than pacing.
Chapter 2 had a much larger area to explore which I enjoyed traveling around at my own pace. The plot once again got to the point very quickly too. Seeing Rex again at the end made me so happy and I was really getting a feel for the gameplay at that point.
Chapter 3's intro boss was a little rough but in a good way. The story, characters, locations, music, and basically everything was doing well to keep me interested. Xenoblade 1 is one of my least preferred but still very much enjoyed games in the series yet seeing Colony 9 again hit me hard. The entire map is a love letter to fans of 1 and 2 in such a good way. The story by the end of this chapter was getting super interesting and most characters grew on me a lot as I traveled with them. I wasn't expecting to like Nikol so much but I did. A and Rex were definitely my favorites. My only complaint as of this point is once again that the plot feels just a little too coincidental in how everything just happened to come together so well but I can ignore that because it's SOOO good. I loved it.
My thoughts on chapter 4 match basically everything I said about 3. Everything was super well paced and intriguing. The combat grew on me so much that it became my favorite in the franchise. I did a lot of wide content before progressing. I almost want to say I 70%ed all the content in the game before bearing it.
Chapter 5 time and ... OMG is that MORYTHA!? Little did I know that would be the weakest part of this hype experience. I didn't notice the Vector Industry logo on the radio but I heard Project Exodus, Dmitri Yuriev, and all the other references to Xenoblade X and Xenosaga. I was genuinely popping off because Xenosaga 3 is one of my favorite games of all time and I never imagined it would actually be relevant again. I mean I as genuinely so excited that I was shaking at times. It's a hard feeling to describe but essentially I gave up hope on one of my favorite things ever coming back so this just warmed my heart so much. The final boss fight was raw. The designs and music was so good. I felt like this ending was perfect as a Xenoblade 1-3, really cool as an X fan, and super hype as a Saga fan. Gears kinda got a reference in there which I enjoyed too. Overall this just flipped the massive nerd switch in my brain and made me extremely happy for multiple days in a row just thinking about the ending. I genuinely cried a year or happiness from the ending upon realizing Saga is genuinely relevant. Words can't describe how happy it made me. It really meant the world to me.
HOLY SPARK HOW DID TAKAHASHI PULL THIS OFF!? Like genuinely this was such an amazing experience despite how short it was. The gameplay, story, setting, and everything just spoke to me.
That said I do want to address some post game problems. The final party member not being playable kinda sucks since you could literally play as them earlier but aight whatever. The worse part of the deal is she can't be turned off so it can be hard getting screenshots without large spoilers in them. The bigger problem for me however is the fact that there's very few high level enemies. The high level optional bosses jump from level 55 to 60 to 70 to 80 to two 90 at the same time to 100. Level gaps like that are horrendous for grinding. I'm level 79 as of writing this and yet I find chain attacking the 55 boss to be the best grinding method due to the 60 and 70 both resisting break. That's not even mentioning the fact that the level 70 boss can also lock chain attacks so good luck getting EXP multipliers. The difficulty spikes after that is outrageously hard. What's worse is these bosses and their rewards are some of the last things I need for 100% completion. I wish there was either more common high level enemies to grind, better level gaps between bosses, or simply more standard side quests to focus on this late into the game. Regardless of this I've had so much fun playing. It's not every day that I put four to five times as many hours into a game than the storyline lasts. Some people beat the game in 10 hours while I beat the game at 22. I have nearly 45 while writing this.
Edit:
I rarely ever 100% games but I loved this so much that I went out of my way to do everything. It took me 52 hours. I'm actually kinda sad that there's nothing left to do. Regardless this was amazing! It had become on of my favorite games of all time and I can't wait for the future of the franchise!