Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a roller coaster of emotions but when you come out of it you don't feel like you've gained anything, while you had a lot of fun and enjoyed the experience, you're left with more questions than you've started with and you're left wanting more, but the ride already closed down and it's time to go back home.
I'm going to get this out of the way, I in no way hate this game or think it's bad, I deeply love and adore the gameplay, the characters and the world, but i cannot say the same for the narrative at all, it's a complete mess of a story where the more you think about it the less it makes sense, the game really likes to talk about talking about big stuff, it simply alludes to it and does nothing with it, so you're left theorizing and yet there is so little that you can't come up with anything concrete.
Am I missing the point or is the game simply not giving me enough information? Despite the flaws of Xenoblade 1 and 2 in terms of writing, neither of them had this problem and while some things were left ambiguous, if you were to piece everything together it would all make sense, the same simply can't be applied to this game.
If you were to ask to me describe this game with one word, it'd be: Inconsistent.
The game is a series of inconsistencies across a 100 hour experience, the game gives you so much money yet the shops don't sell anything, the game incentivizes doing side content (more on this later) and yet actively punishes the player for doing so, the list goes on but you get the idea.
Anyway enough about all the negatives, let's get into the proper review.
I'll start with gameplay first this time, and in short It's phenomenal, the addition of a job system greatly helped to keep the game fresh the whole way and the fact you can have 7 party members adds both to the chaos and enjoyment of the battle system, the Hero system is also an extremely fun addition to the core combat and grants way more party customization considering every recruit able Hero is unique with their own unique abilities, the fusion arts also letting you make some crazy combinations which also helps spice up the combat, and then there is the Interlinking mechanic which is tied directly into fusion arts, while early game it's quite rewarding to manage to get Level 3 interlink by managing to pull off enough Fusion Combos, by late game once you have unlocked most of the upgrades the forms simply become too broken, where even a Level 0 interlink can melt bosses.
And the most dreadful mechanic of all... Chain Attacks. They're back and they're more broken than ever, while they're the same as interlinking and they are much more rewarding to pull off right early game, as the game advances and you get more Heroes, some of which have broken chain orders, the game simply breaks and Chain Attacks turn from a fun mechanic to master to a skip button, throwing any and all balance this game had out the damn window.
And not to mention, when you get too powerful and overleveled the game simply stops giving you any amount of job experience, causing you to either not be able to unlock any more jobs or simply not being able to level them up until you find another high level area, and doing quests is an easy way of quickly overleveling yourself which is simply not a good thing when exploration and questing is one of your main gameplay loops that the game constantly encourages you to do.
But even then, it's fun, the amount of possible strategies you can get with any job combination is simply staggering and manages to always keep encounters fresh no matter how long you play the game which is way more than i can say about alot of other JRPGs, in fact i'd even say Xenoblade 3's combat is up there as one of the best combat systems of all time!
And now we move onto the characters, and I have to admit, this game has the best written characters that I've ever seen in a JRPG, the amount of depth even simple side characters have is staggering, the world has a deep history and you can feel by simply talking to the characters and people who start of as one note character slowly develop and become much more engaging, Bolearis is a major example of this, whenever any Hero interacts with another it's a pure delight, and this is when Xenoblade 3's writing as at its peak.
Oh yeah how could I forget, the main cast!
While i don't think the characters just by themselves are anything special, the main group as a whole is fantastic, the way they interact and talk with eachother, the way they grow and learn more about the world they inhabit together, it's great, but there is a very major problem...
And it's the Story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and well... It's not good, not right now at least.
The story as i mentioned earlier is a mess, and while there are great story moments in the game, they're all locked behind optional side content which is a choice that really hurts this game since the game cannot utilize any of this during the main story simply because of the risk of a player not having done the side content, which really sucks since the side content are most of the times some of the biggest highlights of the game.
So after removing those moments, what do we have left of the main story? We have a generic action shonen plot that tries to look and sound deep yet either always comes up short or says too much to say something with so little value, and it really sucks, but that's fine, the villains will make up for it right? their dynamic with the main characters is what keeps the stories fresh right?
Well I have bad news, in contrast to the main and side characters, all the villains in this game are awful, they are monster of the week baddies who say nothing or do anything, and besides 2 of them, all of them are either bland, forgettable, underdeveloped or simply missed potential.
I'd rather not dive too deep into spoilers so I'll end this section right here.
The world of Xenoblade 3 is still as fantastic as ever, while the opening areas are quite bland, as the game advances you get to see some jaw dropping views and landscapes with the exploration being the best in the series yet, everywhere you go is beautiful and there is always something to find, either a unique creature, a crate or some secret cave area, but that's not what makes the exploration in this game good, I think the exploration is good because you yourself want to explore this world to see more of it, not to get a reward.
However as I mentioned before there is a big problem with exploration as it causes you to quickly overlevel, however that is a problem I'm willing to ignore because of how damn fun the exploration is by itself.
I would usually talk about the soundtrack here but I don't really need to, every track is fantastic, and while the overworld themes are a little lacking compared to previous entries, the music of this game is simply out of this world.
In conclusion: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an inconsistent mess of a game that constantly threatens the player to be a masterpiece, yet never quite manages to do so, the game is way more concerned about fantasizing about important things than actually talking about them, and while it is much better than most games out there right now, as a conclusion to a massive story arc it is simply lacking in the story department.
Is this game an overhyped letdown? I wouldn't say so, but I can't say it was what i wanted either.
I'm going to get this out of the way, I in no way hate this game or think it's bad, I deeply love and adore the gameplay, the characters and the world, but i cannot say the same for the narrative at all, it's a complete mess of a story where the more you think about it the less it makes sense, the game really likes to talk about talking about big stuff, it simply alludes to it and does nothing with it, so you're left theorizing and yet there is so little that you can't come up with anything concrete.
Am I missing the point or is the game simply not giving me enough information? Despite the flaws of Xenoblade 1 and 2 in terms of writing, neither of them had this problem and while some things were left ambiguous, if you were to piece everything together it would all make sense, the same simply can't be applied to this game.
If you were to ask to me describe this game with one word, it'd be: Inconsistent.
The game is a series of inconsistencies across a 100 hour experience, the game gives you so much money yet the shops don't sell anything, the game incentivizes doing side content (more on this later) and yet actively punishes the player for doing so, the list goes on but you get the idea.
Anyway enough about all the negatives, let's get into the proper review.
I'll start with gameplay first this time, and in short It's phenomenal, the addition of a job system greatly helped to keep the game fresh the whole way and the fact you can have 7 party members adds both to the chaos and enjoyment of the battle system, the Hero system is also an extremely fun addition to the core combat and grants way more party customization considering every recruit able Hero is unique with their own unique abilities, the fusion arts also letting you make some crazy combinations which also helps spice up the combat, and then there is the Interlinking mechanic which is tied directly into fusion arts, while early game it's quite rewarding to manage to get Level 3 interlink by managing to pull off enough Fusion Combos, by late game once you have unlocked most of the upgrades the forms simply become too broken, where even a Level 0 interlink can melt bosses.
And the most dreadful mechanic of all... Chain Attacks. They're back and they're more broken than ever, while they're the same as interlinking and they are much more rewarding to pull off right early game, as the game advances and you get more Heroes, some of which have broken chain orders, the game simply breaks and Chain Attacks turn from a fun mechanic to master to a skip button, throwing any and all balance this game had out the damn window.
And not to mention, when you get too powerful and overleveled the game simply stops giving you any amount of job experience, causing you to either not be able to unlock any more jobs or simply not being able to level them up until you find another high level area, and doing quests is an easy way of quickly overleveling yourself which is simply not a good thing when exploration and questing is one of your main gameplay loops that the game constantly encourages you to do.
But even then, it's fun, the amount of possible strategies you can get with any job combination is simply staggering and manages to always keep encounters fresh no matter how long you play the game which is way more than i can say about alot of other JRPGs, in fact i'd even say Xenoblade 3's combat is up there as one of the best combat systems of all time!
And now we move onto the characters, and I have to admit, this game has the best written characters that I've ever seen in a JRPG, the amount of depth even simple side characters have is staggering, the world has a deep history and you can feel by simply talking to the characters and people who start of as one note character slowly develop and become much more engaging, Bolearis is a major example of this, whenever any Hero interacts with another it's a pure delight, and this is when Xenoblade 3's writing as at its peak.
Oh yeah how could I forget, the main cast!
While i don't think the characters just by themselves are anything special, the main group as a whole is fantastic, the way they interact and talk with eachother, the way they grow and learn more about the world they inhabit together, it's great, but there is a very major problem...
And it's the Story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and well... It's not good, not right now at least.
The story as i mentioned earlier is a mess, and while there are great story moments in the game, they're all locked behind optional side content which is a choice that really hurts this game since the game cannot utilize any of this during the main story simply because of the risk of a player not having done the side content, which really sucks since the side content are most of the times some of the biggest highlights of the game.
So after removing those moments, what do we have left of the main story? We have a generic action shonen plot that tries to look and sound deep yet either always comes up short or says too much to say something with so little value, and it really sucks, but that's fine, the villains will make up for it right? their dynamic with the main characters is what keeps the stories fresh right?
Well I have bad news, in contrast to the main and side characters, all the villains in this game are awful, they are monster of the week baddies who say nothing or do anything, and besides 2 of them, all of them are either bland, forgettable, underdeveloped or simply missed potential.
I'd rather not dive too deep into spoilers so I'll end this section right here.
The world of Xenoblade 3 is still as fantastic as ever, while the opening areas are quite bland, as the game advances you get to see some jaw dropping views and landscapes with the exploration being the best in the series yet, everywhere you go is beautiful and there is always something to find, either a unique creature, a crate or some secret cave area, but that's not what makes the exploration in this game good, I think the exploration is good because you yourself want to explore this world to see more of it, not to get a reward.
However as I mentioned before there is a big problem with exploration as it causes you to quickly overlevel, however that is a problem I'm willing to ignore because of how damn fun the exploration is by itself.
I would usually talk about the soundtrack here but I don't really need to, every track is fantastic, and while the overworld themes are a little lacking compared to previous entries, the music of this game is simply out of this world.
In conclusion: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an inconsistent mess of a game that constantly threatens the player to be a masterpiece, yet never quite manages to do so, the game is way more concerned about fantasizing about important things than actually talking about them, and while it is much better than most games out there right now, as a conclusion to a massive story arc it is simply lacking in the story department.
Is this game an overhyped letdown? I wouldn't say so, but I can't say it was what i wanted either.