On July 29, the third installment in the Xenoblade Chronicles series was released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. Developers from Monolith Soft were awarded the highest ratings by both specialized publications and players. Some even gave the title of “Game of the Year” in absentia! Why is that? Let’s figure it out.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a Japanese RPG and sequel to the cult Xenoblade Chronicles series. Do not be afraid of the big words of the developers about the “completion of the trilogy” – the third part is self-sufficient and familiarity with the previous games in the series is optional. Large open world divided into regions; deep combat system with a constant change of classes and roles; an intriguing story about a world consumed by war – the project has enough merits.
Worth checking out if…
I want a many-hour plot and staging videos like in cool anime. At the heart of the conflict in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are two races that are artificially bred to fight each other. Each soldier lives for ten years, and then ascends to a better world – if he lives.
The main characters from the warring camps are united by the power of Ouroboros – having experienced an emotional shock, the protagonists unite into divine beings. The desire to put an end to the endless battles and save the world of Adonis from the Consuls pulling the strings comes to the fore.
The latter will be the main antagonists of the game, and each of the villains is unique and has a hidden power. The staging of the videos here is epic and gives you goosebumps – especially the battle scenes with orchestral musical accompaniment. Every element of history plays a role, and events of the past intersect with events of the present day.
It is interesting to study combat systems with hundreds of abilities and two dozen subclasses. Exploring the world will often involve fighting, but don’t be deceived by the primary simplicity of combat. Automatic attacks are made for convenience, while positioning the heroes and activating techniques will have to be done independently.
There are three classes in the game – a warrior, a defender and a healer – but later they are divided into 23 subclasses, which will be opened during the passage. The chosen roles and leveling affect the skills of the heroes, techniques and “depuffs” for enemies. The latter are completely assembled into special chains of combo attacks in order to keep the enemy in a stunned state for as long as possible.
Be wary of the rig genre. Despite the number of windows in the menu, the abundance of items in the inventory and a dozen optional additional mechanics, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is interesting to play even for people unfamiliar with the genre. Here you will have to spend a lot of time equipping heroes.
collecting items in the open world, and exchanging equipment. Monolith Soft made these activities easier by making them logic puzzles and smoothly bringing the player up to date. Having picked up the best skills and created a build for a new subclass, you feel like a winner – so what if you spent half an hour poking around in the menu. But you see how the heroes become stronger!
I want tests. As mentioned above, you will have to constantly improve the characters. The game has an “easy” difficulty level, but playing on “normal” is recommended – then the combat system works as the creators intended. Even if the boss is a whole level lower than the heroes.
be sure that the reptile will drink blood. You will have to look for an approach to opponents: what are the vulnerabilities and resistances of the enemy; who to attack first from the enemy party – a healer or a defender; adapt to emergency situations and resist reinforcements. Party death is a normal occurrence in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and you will regularly have to start the battle from the very beginning.
Don’t touch a project if it’s annoying…
Compulsive training that lasts 15 hours. Monolith Soft seemed to be scared – in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the tips were slurred, they explained the basics even in the middle of the game. In the third part, they decided to rush to the other extreme – to lead the player by the hand for a couple of dozen hours.
Got a new ability or class item – a couple of times they will force you to install new things as active. This is annoying, because the rest of the gameplay is blocked, and descriptions using text would be enough. By the way, there are also a lot of text hints here – they even have a separate item in the menu. They also allow you to train in the development of game mechanics in order to consolidate the nuances of the combat system.
Numbers, dependencies and menu windows. When I wrote above that you sit in the inventory for about half an hour at a time, this was not a joke or an exaggeration. To create a strong party, you will have to: delve into the nuances of local characteristics; pick up items and decipher the properties of accessories; combine skills in a certain order; select subclasses for the corresponding heroes and monitor the result. Yes, after a couple of battles and an unimpressive result, you will have to start over – otherwise you won’t be able to complete this game on the “normal” difficulty level.
Grind and return to old locations. As in other JRPGs, you will not only have to run on stupid errands, but also return to already visited regions to get new subclasses and equipment. No one forbids you to move only along the plot, but then you won’t be able to see all the content – and maybe even upgrade to the desired level! If you want to hook everything, then you have to run around the fields and collect ingredients, do side quests in the style: “Bring three dandelion seeds, two piranhas, a four-leaf clover and a robot CPU so that I create the ultimate weapon for our camp.
