This really was a long time coming.
I got a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 all the way back in early December of 2022. And at the time, I absolutely was loving it, but I got distracted by Pokemon, and I forgot to continue it. Now, a whole 8 months later, I’ve played all of Xenosaga, replayed Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and played through all of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And finally, I made it back, all the way to Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And now, sitting here, having beaten it all, believe me when I say that this game is an absolute masterpiece.
Now, when it comes to the Xenoblade Series from what I’ve played so far, they always nail the general combat loop, and this game is no exception. Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s particular combat loop feels like a mesh of Xenoblade 1 and 2’s, creating something similar, but adding things to make it entirely unique. In particular, depending on the class a character has, their primary arts either recharge after time, like in Xenoblade Chronicles 1, or after Auto-Attacking a certain number of times, like in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. And on top of that, you can eventually fuse these arts together, strengthening them, and combining their affects together. This doesn’t even take into account the Talent Arts, which charge up depending on the class of your character, and the actions you do in combat. This all combined with the fact that there’s up to 7 characters in combat all at the same time provides for such an engaging loop of combat, especially as you can chain certain arts together to go from Break all the way to Smash.
And genuinely, of the games so far, I think Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has the best version of Chain Attacks from what I’ve seen so far. In fact, I used them so often because I found them that good. Particularly, you can use arts of specific characters in order to build a meter up to 100%, with each class type having unique effects to the chain. And easily my favorite aspect of the Chain Attack is Overkill, allowing you to increase the XP yield from battles. Late in the game, I was able to easily get over 500% increase of XP from Unique Bosses. I also just enjoy being able to think of what arts are the best to use in the situation, and how to better the chain as best as possible.
Even now I’m still not done with the combat of the game. The last thing to be mentioned is one of the biggest parts of Xenoblade 3, that being Interlinking. Interlinking grants temporary transformations that occur during battle, and require two specific party members for, and god, they’re just so cool. They have unique arts and skill trees that allow for further upgrade, and especially against later bosses, they become even so, so useful. You can also somewhat power up your Interlinks while in combat through the use of Fusion Arts. Particular from what I noticed, the higher level you get, the more time you have to be Interlinked. In addition to this, if you reach the max Interlink level, Interlink, and then start up a chain attack, you can start up a special chain attack instead.
There’s so much I could really mention about Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story, but trust me here, the story is easily one of the best in the entire series from what I’ve played so far. Especially coming from the complicated mess that was Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s story is of such high quality, it’s crazy. The entire main cast, including the heroes and the villains is easily one of, if not the best cast of a Xenoblade game. And it makes it interesting to me how the entire main group of protagonists are all met in the game’s first chapter. You’d think that this would overwhelm, but it’s balanced in a way that it never does, which I find really impressive. And god, I absolutely love the themes found within Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but because of that, I’m going to stop speaking of the story now. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is one of those games where the story is super important, and with how amazing it is, I want to keep things as little known as possible. I don’t want to spoil any of it, and I really think it’s important to worth playing.
Speaking of characters though, while you can only play as the main 6 cast of characters, you have a lot of options for who can be in that 7th slot. In particular, there’s 19 heroes that can take up that slot, each having unique skill sets and arts, and if you battle with them enough, you can give those abilities to the main 6 as well. Some Heroes are unlocked through the main story, but a majority are found through optional Hero quests, and I found them extremely worthwhile to do. Not only is it just more content and more story for the game, but it’s great to give new insights of the world of Aionios through the lens of numerous additional characters. Especially as there’s additional quests and ways to strengthen Heroes, you’re able to learn even more about specific characters in the game. I tried to do every Ascension Quest that I came across in order to do that, however after I did one that was extremely tedious, I decided against it.
And as I mentioned prior with the Hero Quests, they provide a lot of additional content to this game, however, believe me, even without those, this game is absolutely huge. Numerous side quests, treasure to find, overworld bosses to fight, it’s just absolutely absurd how much this game includes. How Long To Beat measures Xenoblade Chronicles 3 at an average of 62 hours in order to beat the main story. But, if you’re anything like me, that’s just not going to be true. For me in particular, it took me a little over 77 hours total, and even then, it could’ve taken so much longer.
One of the big reasons to why this game is as massive as it was for me was just how big the actual world is. That’s not me saying it takes a long time to get from point A to point B, instead, there’s just so many optional areas that you never actually need to go to. And as I’m someone who loves to explore, of course that means I explored every optional area I could find. I remember particularly around the start of chapter 3, while the game directed me to go a specific way, there was an alternate path that took me to a massive desert, with so many things to find in it. And aside from optional side quests, and a DLC Hero Quest, it’s never mandatory to ever step foot in this desert. And the fact that the game is just able to do this blows me away, I absolutely love it. And even now due to not being strong enough to go to specific areas, there’s still locations in the map that I haven’t seen yet. The fact that there’s just that much to see is super impressive.
And one thing I want to really commend the game is how much better it is to navigate the world of Aionios. I still think how hard it was to traverse the world of Alrest back in Xenoblade 2. While the environments were really pretty, actually getting from point A to point B was an absolute pain in the neck, and it was super frustrating because of it. However Xenoblade 3 fixes that issue, while still keeping the game absolutely gorgeous. Though I definitely think the better navigation marker improved things noticeably. And the Party Skills you obtain by obtaining specific heroes in the game is just what the Field Skills in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 should’ve been.
And throughout the 77 hours I played of the main campaign for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I didn’t have to grind a single time. That in itself is already impressive, and that’s primarily due to Bonus Experience. Bonus Experience was first introduced back in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, however got a lot better in the following game. Much like the previous game, completing quests, and finding new locations, landmarks, and secret locations all provide characters with Bonus Experience that they can use when resting at a Campsite. However with doing as much as I did, I found myself with an outrageous amount of Bonus Experience at all times. If I remember correctly, by the time I beat the game, I was level 88, which I was able to attain primarily through bonus experience. And while I am glad I never needed to grind during my time with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I also think the Bonus Experience ended up making me too powerful at the same time. I can’t really think of a proper solution to this, but it’s something I wanted to acknowledge.
And now, I want to get into the game’s DLC campaign, Future Redeemed, and just what an absolute wonder it is.
Much like the Torna DLC of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Future Redeemed alters the base of the main game’s combat mechanics, but alters them in a way that makes them really interesting. There’s no Interlinking in Future Redeemed, instead, they’re replaced with Fusion Attacks, which are special art attacks that are powerful ways to end combos. But instead of how Interlinking is specific combos, you can actually decide what your unity attacks are, which I find really cool.
And it’s crazy to me just how generally massive Future Redeemed is, especially in comparison the Torna Expansion of Xenoblade 2. There’s 4 large areas found in Future Redeemed, and the game actively pushes you to explore as much of it as possible. Whenever you look at the map, you can see a checklist of everything you can find and discover throughout each area. And of course, the game rewards you for exploring through Affinity Points.
I wouldn’t exactly call them Skill Trees, however each character has an amount of skills that can learn or gain through spending Affinity Points. You can start by learning 10 skills on each character, but if you get some Affinity Unlock Kits, you can increase that amount to 40. These Skills can teach characters new arts, skills, or enhance already obtained arts and skills. I played as A for the entirety of the DLC, and A had a skill or whenever they auto-attacked, they gained health depending on the amount of damage they did. I absolutely love how helpful actively trying to clear out as many skills as possible is.
And much like the story of base Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I don’t want to speak much about Future Redeemed’s story. There’s some absolutely great moments in it that I can’t bring myself to mention, and there’s still some things I don’t fully grasp. But with that in mind, much like with the base Xenoblade Chronicles 3, I absolutely love the main cast in Future Redeemed. And as you can probably infer from my previous paragraph, I found my favorite of the cast to be A. I also really think this game redeemed Rex to me, making him so much more likeable of a character.
And this brings me to the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the most recent Xeno game to release, and easily one of the best I’ve played. And, while I’m not done with the Xeno series yet since I haven’t played Chronicles X or Xenogears, it feels like I’ve finished an era with now having beaten Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And thanks to the DLC campaign, it feels like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a real send-off to the past titles and to the entire Xeno series history, and is ready to move in a new direction. It’s ready to move into the future, whatever that may be. And no matter what the future may be, I will be there along the way. I love Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and I’m so glad I finally got to truly play it.

Prob my favorite game of all time.

I love protagonists that are super kind and effectively change others as the story moves on. That's exactly who Shulk is.

Gripping story that has death as one of the main themes. Truly one of the masterpieces of our time. Everyone should play it.

Also it's way different from the second game in every single way possible so please do not compare the two :(