Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review – A Fight For Life and Its True Meaning

My first entry in the Xenoblade Saga actually wasn’t the first one, it was X on the Wii U (which I talk about a bit on the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast at times because of its ending and how it NEEDS a sequel!!!). Then I played XC2 when it came out in 2017, got the original game via the Definitive Edition, and loved all three. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got the “third” title in mainline, but as my Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review will show you, what I got was one of the most compelling stories I’ve ever been able to witness.

Game Name: Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch
Publisher(s): Nintendo
Developer(s): Monlith Soft
Release Date: July 29, 2022

…oh, and I’m not kidding here, you can’t talk about this game without going deep into its stories and its characters big and small. So if you want an “overview” jump to the bottom where I give my score and such. Otherwise, strap in for a decent-sized breakdown of this game’s story up to a certain point.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you are on the world of Aionios, a world that is built around a never-ending war between two nations. To the extent that their life is being born in tubes, being trained right away, put in combat so that they can literally “take the life from others” and store it in a Flame Clock so that they can survive another season. Only if they last ten years will they be truly “honored” via their queens by a ceremony known as Homecoming.

This is the life of the characters Noah, Mio, Eunie, Taion, Lanz, and Sena — they have no reason to question it. It’s what they do, pure and simple. Until one day when they meet a man who reveals the truth…that the world doesn’t need to be this way, and that all they’ve been through has basically been a sham due to a vile group known as Moebius.

While at first, this might just sound like a “typical RPG story”, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 does a remarkable job of making it clear how serious they’re taking the ramifications of not just this world, but of the lives that these six main characters (and others) have lived. For example, even after the truth was revealed to them, they don’t form up at first. They don’t become “fast friends” because both groups have lost people due to the others’ nation. It’s only out of literal necessity that they go on a journey to a place called “The City” and try and learn more about their new abilities as Ouroboros, as well as whether the lives they’ve lived have indeed been lies.

Watching these six go through some very basic things, and yet it being very fresh or traumatic to them, is something that at times is breathtaking and tragic. For example, we find out that Mio has only 3 months left to live before her “term” is up, so they’re racing against the clock, knowing that her time is running out. At one point the crew can’t eat a fruit for a whole year because it’s not ripe yet. Which is fine…until they remember Mio. Ten years is not a long life to live as they find out the hard way, and how they deal with it and grow from it is very powerful. Especially when they make it to The City and learn that there are “regular humans” there that have full lives, fall in love, have kids, and so on. It’s mind-boggling to them, and the game sells it beautifully.

Another key thing that makes the story so grand is the use of all six characters. While I’m not poking fun at the other games in the Xenoblade line, you could argue that many of the main characters don’t have a big story arc. Yes, ones like Shulk and Rex do, and you could argue for Pyrrha, maybe Mythra, and definitely Nia. But what about the others? What was their true growth throughout the games? Exactly.

But here, every one of the six main characters has a big arc that they go through, all the way up until the final battle, where their conviction and belief in themselves and their purpose are shown. Through this, we get some of the game’s most traumatic and shocking moments. Not just by learning each of their backstories and how they met up, but key scenes play out that straight-up left me crying. Why? Because I cared about them! I didn’t want any of them hurt, and I wanted to see them all succeed in their journeys, so when certain things happened, and you’re made to believe they failed…it hurt, and you felt COMPELLED to play on because you needed to know what happened next.

And that’s another thing I want to emphasize in my Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review. This game will make you feel, but also make you think. With most JRPGs (or just RPGs in general at times), they have either simple plots that you can understand so you can get through the game, or, they have overly complex plots that try and have you piece everything together at the end (Xenoblade has done that a few times…). Here though, they take the story step by step, and just when you think you don’t understand something, they explain it. What’s more, they discuss the importance of the choices that they’ve made, and that Moebius have made, all so you get that this isn’t a one-sided story. This is very much a story about a world and those trying to “save it”…in their own way.

My subtitle for this review is “Fighting For Life And Its True Meaning”, and that’s very much what this game is about. All the main characters, and plenty of side characters, give their own views on the lives in the game, and you see both sides of the coin. A character named Shania, for example, was a “regular human,” but because of her life and the pressures put upon her, she explained why the “10-year cycle” was better because if you failed in one life…you might do better in another because you’ll have that second chance. A humbling notion that changes the perception of everything when you think about it. As I said, this game makes you think, and you’ll see MANY different views on life and its purpose throughout the game, all the way up to the end, which is why it’s so beautiful, so compelling, and definitely the best story of the Xenoblade line so far.

Oh, and if you’re wondering if they explain the connection to the previous two mainline titles, they do, and I won’t spoil it because it’s too good.

I’ll focus on Moebius next because they are a key part of the story being the villains of it all. We learn a LOT about them and the choices they made to get to where they are, and while they are monsters in terms of battles, they had journeys that got them to be monsters, and some of them aren’t what you think they are. The game does a more or less good job of balancing out the “over the top” ones that you’ll beat in sidequests and the ones that really drive the story forward, and you’ll feel tons of hate for. Their looks and sounds and views also make them stand out. They’re not just an “evil organization”, they’re so much more…and that makes them all the more terrifying as you try and stop them.

Ok, now let’s get to the gameplay. Because that’s definitely something, I was partially dreading for this Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review because my experience with XC2 wasn’t the best battle system-wise because I had no idea what I was doing at points. HOWEVER! XC3 did SO much better due to how they made sure to show everything through tutorials, go through things step by step, and when they did throw a changeup at you like with the Ouroboros, or with having new classes to pick from, and so on, Monolith made sure you knew what to do and how to handle them (with some trial and error of course) before you moved on. I never felt lost, and I took arguably the “simpler path” overall.

What I mean by that is the main classes your six mains start with don’t have to be that way throughout the game. You can change them to suit your style. For me? I honestly liked how they all were and thus didn’t change them throughout the game, and I beat the game with that mindset. It wasn’t always easy, but I can’t say it would’ve been easier if I kept swapping them around rather than finding the groove in the ones I really liked.

Combat is one that takes time, strategy, and a willingness to learn everything. Which, again, is easy to do this time around. You’ll have the cancel ability like the other games and the Arts system. But this time around, you also have the Ouroboros/Chain Attack ability, where if you play your characters right, you’ll get to do MASSIVE damage to enemies. This is important because, especially in the latter parts of the game, you’re dealing with enemies whose HP is in the literal millions, if not tens of millions.

My personal team had three healers on my squad (one of them being a Hero character, which I’ll get to) which enabled me to stay in the fight even when ‘cheap tricks’ from the bosses tried to kill me, and I lost, or nearly lost, some fights because of that, or not being able to have that third healer. But with so much variety, you’ll be able to find the squad that works for you.

That brings me to the side quests portion of the review. Because, like the previous games, there are a LOT of them. A key twist, though is the “quality of life” improvements to them. In this case, you can be guided to the places you need to go in the sidequests (most of the time…), and you can fast travel once again, which helps make it even easier. What’s more, these quests feel like they’re important, especially when you learn about destroying the Flame Clocks, and doing quests will boost your “rating” within the colony to give you special perks and abilities. You’re even encouraged to wander these colonies so you can get more of these side quests.

Yes, some of them can be slogs, but they do not all fetch quests (thank goodness). Many deal with helping characters, fighting battles, going to find specific spots, and so on. Doing them helps you get a lot of EXP (which you’ll need), so you never feel obligated to do them. Instead, you feel compelled to because you want to do all you can for the colonies you’ve saved. This goes double for the hero missions.

As you learn more about the world, you’ll get a chance to get a 7th member of your party via the “Heroes”. They are people you meet from the other colonies you come across, and they are as unique as your main characters. Some emphatically so and give new perspectives to the “What is life?” question I mentioned earlier. Getting them also gets you, new classes, to potentially put on your characters, and they can give you a big boost in battle. The picture above is one of my favorite heroes,  Ashera. Who I crushed on the moment I got to see her wonderful personality. There are plenty of heroes to find and get, so you’ll find that “perfect member” for you while fleshing out the story and the world.

Speaking of which, this world is HUGE! The dev team said that it was 5x that of XC2, and I didn’t believe them until I started going up and down the world and reaching all over the place. Oh, and I can tell you I didn’t 100% exploration for various reasons. Not the least of which is the Xenoblade Chronicles tradition of putting over-leveled monsters around to warn you that you’re not top dog everywhere. But also because I was trying to get through the game’s main story to do this review. If I hadn’t? I would’ve easily put a LOT more time on my play clock (which ended at around 62 hours, and that was with both the main story and lots of sidequest doing).

The game really is beautiful both in-game and in its cutscenes. They deliver a lot of fantastic shots and camera angles and make it clear how special this game world is. If I weren’t busy doing other things after this review is done, I’d jump back in and see what else this wonderful world has to offer.

Before I get into the “bad things”, I want to note that I didn’t touch on everything this game offers and its wonderful little nuances. Like how the characters talk to one another as they wander around, giving you more insight into the characters. Or how if you play the battle system right, you can get MASSIVE EXP boosts during chain attacks and more. There’s really a lot to this game, and that’s part of what makes it so grand.

…but…it does have its faults.

One of the biggest will only be seen by you in handheld mode, which was me for the entirety of the game. You see, they didn’t optimize it for the smaller screen, so while the cutscenes play beautifully, the other ones won’t at times, and will be either pixelated or blurry. Yes, we had that with XC2, but it felt more noticeable here (to be clear, though, apparently, on the big screen, this is not an issue. But this still hurts those of us who like the handheld style primarily).

Second, while the sidequests were great, and the “guiding system” was phenomenal, it was hardly perfect. Multiple times in the main story and the side quests led me on a path through greater dangers that clearly wasn’t the point or wouldn’t lead me correctly to where I needed to go at all. It wasn’t all the time, but it was enough to notice. For example, one sidequest has you helping a writer find relics of past figures from six different locations. No problem, right? Except, they don’t point you to the six places to go, they just put markers on your map, and your “guide” leads you to the person, and only that! Given how massive these maps are, and the winding paths to get to certain small areas, there’s a lot of wandering to HOPE you find the right path to only complete ONE sidequest.

Third, and this is another big one, the game gets a bit cheeky when it comes to its boss fights. As noted earlier, Moebius and other enemies can have a LOT of HP, and it can take a lot to get through them, even with your best squad. So now imagine doing all of that…and then finding out that was just “Phase 1” of the battle, and you have to do another round with a “final form” of the boss.  It doesn’t sound like fun, does it? It weighs on you, especially at the end, where the final boss has a 5-part battle. If you fail at one part? You start all over again…and that indeed happened to me because of a cheap shot that took out all three of my healers in one go. Hardly fair!

Finally, and this is something I have noted on NEP…the characters are SO BRITISH!!! Yes, I’m American, so for me, this is different. In previous games, the characters had British accents, but it didn’t go beyond that. Here, they have their own jargon and use of British English language, and it…wears on you. Especially when some of the voice actors (who are overall very good) go a bit overboard with the delivery. A spunky young Ghondor was a great character, but her voice was annoying!

Still, even with those faults, I hope this Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review shows you that this is easily one of the best RPGs to play of recent times. I’d honestly put its story against just about anything because of its depth, use of characters, and fearlessness to do things apart from the norm or even its previous titles.

The gameplay is easily its most solid, the world is massive and beautiful, and there’s so much to do that if you take a more “lax” approach than I do, you’ll easily spend over 100 hours in this game without breaking a sweat. This is my favorite Xenoblade Chronicles game, and I enjoyed my time with this title very much.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was provided to us by Nintendo for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

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