This review contains spoilers
[Big spoilers for the entire game, including the ending]
What a fucking video game, my god. I have so much to say about Xenoblade 3, there is genuinely so much substance to this game it is incredible.
Firstly, it has far and away my all-time favorite main cast of characters in any video game. I don't think I have truly loved each and every party member so much before. My love for them made me absolutely bawl my eyes out more than once, at the game's most emotionally impactful moments that are just phenomenally executed in such a way that left me completely devastated.
Monolith Soft leads some of the best cutscene direction in the industry, and Xenoblade 3 showcased this to the fullest extent, despite the limits of the hardware. Watching the cast split apart at the end of the game, desperately running towards each other is just one example of this brilliant direction. Not only was I sobbing in the moment, but in retrospect I realized the impact it had was only amplified by the scenes just before. Mio and Noah are the only two that show blatant romantic interest for each other in the game, and the culmination into a kiss, which everyone playing the game waited 100+ hours for, was an incredibly satisfying resolution that I honestly did not expect.
While Eunie and Taion, and Lanz and Sena, aren't exactly making out, their deep-seeded care and love that they have for each other is unspoken up until the very last moments of the game. We understand Lanz and Sena's relationship to be that of two workout buddies who can train off each other. While this is more or less the presentation of their relationship throughout the game, there are glimpses of where it becomes deeper here and there. Because of the nature of their relationship, it's obviously difficult for them to show how they truly feel to each other, evident by how Sena's final words to Lanz are how they can't workout together anymore. Eunie and Taion are the most reserved towards each other of the three pairs, and do not immediately have some sort of connection like the others do. Taion has the most trouble expressing his feelings to Eunie, who teases him as they grow closer. Before their worlds are separated, Eunie says that Taion is her fourth best friend, which Taion cannot pretend he does not have a problem with. It is not until the very end, when there is no time left, when each of these couples, even Riku and Manana, show what they mean to each other. desperately trying to reach the other as their worlds split apart. It is a devastating and yet so very meaningful conclusion so the relationships that we saw blossom over the course of the game. In that moment, just briefly, we all wanted that endless now, just to see them together again, but that is not how the world works, and everything good comes to an end.
There are so many events and pieces of dialogue that have brought me so close to these characters and this world, and after having finished the game my appreciation for each and every one of them has grown even more. The greater scope of the story of this game is incredibly intelligent and impressed me as put the pieces together. Z I think truly is a great villain for exactly what he is: the embodiment of fear and uncertainty in humanity. The fear of death, of the unknown, the fear of that which is out of our control is a primal terror within all conscious life. It shapes us and bends our wills and can make us as desperate as it so desires, which is exactly what Z does—offering the impossible choice of becoming infinite alongside him. Once I understood that Z is not an mindlessly evil individual but an entity, a representation of that primal fear we all have, I could truly appreciate his role. It only makes sense that the embodiment of humanity's fear into one individual would act as a sort of cliché, senselessly evil villain.
The world of Aionios, created from these primal fears, is one of infinite suffering, only to appease the few who can live in the selfish desire of infinity. When given the choice of death or forever, how could one turn the obvious down? I absolutely love what Aionios represents. The desire to live forever is embedded deeply with us, as beings conscious of our lives and place in the universe. Life exists to survive and thrive, but is rarely given a choice over the matter. It is no surprise that Z was created; the intensity of the fear of 'the end' is powerful enough in one person, and thus all of life feeling it at once would be incomprehensible. Aionios is a dream-turned-nightmare, the monkey's paw of forever.
________________________________________________________
Apart from Xenoblade 3's phenomenal characters and storytelling, I could not have been more enamored by the incredible, ever-evolving combat system. The game easily has one of my favorite JRPG battle systems ever, perhaps across all genres, period. Just when you think you've got it figured out, you get even more to experiment with and master, and yet it somehow never felt overwhelming as mechanics are slowly unveiled and understood. By the end of the game I truly felt like an expert of every cog in the machine, and even after over 100 hours I still couldn't wasn't tired of my new class setups, as they became perpetually stronger due to access to more Mastery arts and skills, gem levels, accessories, etc. I was very skeptical of the class system at first, but I have come to love it so much. Combined with the interlink system, combos, Chain Attacks, Noah's eventual Lucky Seven use and mixing and matching heroes, there is just SO much to both enjoy and maximize the potential of.
I honestly just could not believe how I continued to feel more and more powerful, even after the amount of time that I spent. There are basically an infinite amount of ways to set up your party and so much fun to be had with interlinks and Chain Attacks, the latter of which I thought was pretty simple at first but later on, as I used more and more classes, realized the grand potential and true complexity of. I would sometimes spend upwards of 30-40 minutes changing all of my classes around on my characters once they got to max rank, and loved every minute of it. If you enjoy customization there is SO much to love about what Xenoblade 3's systems allow you to play with.
One of my other favorite things about Xenoblade 3 is how much it cuts down on a lot of the unnecessary filler and system bloat that the previous games and many JRPGs in general have. The overly complicated crafting mechanics from Xenoblade 2/Torna turn into the very straightforward cooking system that is as simple as necessary. Accessories are permanent and provide clear, meaningful effects that do not need to be refreshed or collected multiple times. There are no longer really any straight-up fetch quests that fill your side quest inventory, instead allocated to Collectaepedia Cards. You don't have to think about them much outside of turning them in, but they also give value to the random items that you collect all around Aionios, in the forms of bonus XP, accessories, and affinity level. Side quests in general feel more meaningful, and while of course there are some that could be done without, in general they have some merit to them and can all be done as you get them pretty easily up until later on in the game, but even then you're not really too overloaded with them. There is a sort of beautiful dichotomy between the complexity of the combat mechanics, which I feel is somewhat necessary but also far from too much, and the simplicity of all of the other systems on the game, so you truly only have to focus on what matters; so much filler that tends to be in JRPGs is cut down or out completely, and I could not appreciate that more. Thinking of the completely absurd gem-crafting system in Xenoblade 1 compared to the very straightforward yet still-powerful one in 3 is night and day, and there are so many more examples where I thought to myself how nice it was that something was no more complicated that it needed to be.
While of course there are some small issues here and there and certain storylines that I wish were fleshed out a bit more (such as the significance and backstory of X and Y), Xenoblade 3 tells a phenomenally effective story with some of my all-time favorite characters and combat mechanics , all the while removing a lot of bloat problems that many JRPGs are faced with. Playing through this game was an unforgettable experience and I cannot give Monolith Soft enough credit for creating such a grand, imaginative, profound experience of incredible scope. The amount of meaningful content that is present in this game is insane, especially for a single-player game, and I cannot help but compare its value to Elden Ring, as I debate to myself which of the two is my personal game of the year.
9.5/10
What a fucking video game, my god. I have so much to say about Xenoblade 3, there is genuinely so much substance to this game it is incredible.
Firstly, it has far and away my all-time favorite main cast of characters in any video game. I don't think I have truly loved each and every party member so much before. My love for them made me absolutely bawl my eyes out more than once, at the game's most emotionally impactful moments that are just phenomenally executed in such a way that left me completely devastated.
Monolith Soft leads some of the best cutscene direction in the industry, and Xenoblade 3 showcased this to the fullest extent, despite the limits of the hardware. Watching the cast split apart at the end of the game, desperately running towards each other is just one example of this brilliant direction. Not only was I sobbing in the moment, but in retrospect I realized the impact it had was only amplified by the scenes just before. Mio and Noah are the only two that show blatant romantic interest for each other in the game, and the culmination into a kiss, which everyone playing the game waited 100+ hours for, was an incredibly satisfying resolution that I honestly did not expect.
While Eunie and Taion, and Lanz and Sena, aren't exactly making out, their deep-seeded care and love that they have for each other is unspoken up until the very last moments of the game. We understand Lanz and Sena's relationship to be that of two workout buddies who can train off each other. While this is more or less the presentation of their relationship throughout the game, there are glimpses of where it becomes deeper here and there. Because of the nature of their relationship, it's obviously difficult for them to show how they truly feel to each other, evident by how Sena's final words to Lanz are how they can't workout together anymore. Eunie and Taion are the most reserved towards each other of the three pairs, and do not immediately have some sort of connection like the others do. Taion has the most trouble expressing his feelings to Eunie, who teases him as they grow closer. Before their worlds are separated, Eunie says that Taion is her fourth best friend, which Taion cannot pretend he does not have a problem with. It is not until the very end, when there is no time left, when each of these couples, even Riku and Manana, show what they mean to each other. desperately trying to reach the other as their worlds split apart. It is a devastating and yet so very meaningful conclusion so the relationships that we saw blossom over the course of the game. In that moment, just briefly, we all wanted that endless now, just to see them together again, but that is not how the world works, and everything good comes to an end.
There are so many events and pieces of dialogue that have brought me so close to these characters and this world, and after having finished the game my appreciation for each and every one of them has grown even more. The greater scope of the story of this game is incredibly intelligent and impressed me as put the pieces together. Z I think truly is a great villain for exactly what he is: the embodiment of fear and uncertainty in humanity. The fear of death, of the unknown, the fear of that which is out of our control is a primal terror within all conscious life. It shapes us and bends our wills and can make us as desperate as it so desires, which is exactly what Z does—offering the impossible choice of becoming infinite alongside him. Once I understood that Z is not an mindlessly evil individual but an entity, a representation of that primal fear we all have, I could truly appreciate his role. It only makes sense that the embodiment of humanity's fear into one individual would act as a sort of cliché, senselessly evil villain.
The world of Aionios, created from these primal fears, is one of infinite suffering, only to appease the few who can live in the selfish desire of infinity. When given the choice of death or forever, how could one turn the obvious down? I absolutely love what Aionios represents. The desire to live forever is embedded deeply with us, as beings conscious of our lives and place in the universe. Life exists to survive and thrive, but is rarely given a choice over the matter. It is no surprise that Z was created; the intensity of the fear of 'the end' is powerful enough in one person, and thus all of life feeling it at once would be incomprehensible. Aionios is a dream-turned-nightmare, the monkey's paw of forever.
________________________________________________________
Apart from Xenoblade 3's phenomenal characters and storytelling, I could not have been more enamored by the incredible, ever-evolving combat system. The game easily has one of my favorite JRPG battle systems ever, perhaps across all genres, period. Just when you think you've got it figured out, you get even more to experiment with and master, and yet it somehow never felt overwhelming as mechanics are slowly unveiled and understood. By the end of the game I truly felt like an expert of every cog in the machine, and even after over 100 hours I still couldn't wasn't tired of my new class setups, as they became perpetually stronger due to access to more Mastery arts and skills, gem levels, accessories, etc. I was very skeptical of the class system at first, but I have come to love it so much. Combined with the interlink system, combos, Chain Attacks, Noah's eventual Lucky Seven use and mixing and matching heroes, there is just SO much to both enjoy and maximize the potential of.
I honestly just could not believe how I continued to feel more and more powerful, even after the amount of time that I spent. There are basically an infinite amount of ways to set up your party and so much fun to be had with interlinks and Chain Attacks, the latter of which I thought was pretty simple at first but later on, as I used more and more classes, realized the grand potential and true complexity of. I would sometimes spend upwards of 30-40 minutes changing all of my classes around on my characters once they got to max rank, and loved every minute of it. If you enjoy customization there is SO much to love about what Xenoblade 3's systems allow you to play with.
One of my other favorite things about Xenoblade 3 is how much it cuts down on a lot of the unnecessary filler and system bloat that the previous games and many JRPGs in general have. The overly complicated crafting mechanics from Xenoblade 2/Torna turn into the very straightforward cooking system that is as simple as necessary. Accessories are permanent and provide clear, meaningful effects that do not need to be refreshed or collected multiple times. There are no longer really any straight-up fetch quests that fill your side quest inventory, instead allocated to Collectaepedia Cards. You don't have to think about them much outside of turning them in, but they also give value to the random items that you collect all around Aionios, in the forms of bonus XP, accessories, and affinity level. Side quests in general feel more meaningful, and while of course there are some that could be done without, in general they have some merit to them and can all be done as you get them pretty easily up until later on in the game, but even then you're not really too overloaded with them. There is a sort of beautiful dichotomy between the complexity of the combat mechanics, which I feel is somewhat necessary but also far from too much, and the simplicity of all of the other systems on the game, so you truly only have to focus on what matters; so much filler that tends to be in JRPGs is cut down or out completely, and I could not appreciate that more. Thinking of the completely absurd gem-crafting system in Xenoblade 1 compared to the very straightforward yet still-powerful one in 3 is night and day, and there are so many more examples where I thought to myself how nice it was that something was no more complicated that it needed to be.
While of course there are some small issues here and there and certain storylines that I wish were fleshed out a bit more (such as the significance and backstory of X and Y), Xenoblade 3 tells a phenomenally effective story with some of my all-time favorite characters and combat mechanics , all the while removing a lot of bloat problems that many JRPGs are faced with. Playing through this game was an unforgettable experience and I cannot give Monolith Soft enough credit for creating such a grand, imaginative, profound experience of incredible scope. The amount of meaningful content that is present in this game is insane, especially for a single-player game, and I cannot help but compare its value to Elden Ring, as I debate to myself which of the two is my personal game of the year.
9.5/10