Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review – A Dull Knife

Monolith Soft struggled since 2012 to replicate and improve the unique features of the original Xenoblade Chronicles Adventure. This third chapter is the same as XC X X, XC 2 and XC X. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 despite its excellent combat and character progression features is a bloated journey across large, but uninhabited environments. This is further reduced by an unfunny narrative featuring one of most inept ensemble casts within the franchise.

XC 3 employs a real-time battle system where “Arts,” advanced skills mapped to the controller’s face buttons, give fights a natural, straightforward cadence. My early enemies were easily defeated by me cancelling auto-attacks and balancing cooldown times. To find stronger enemies to protect rare treasures, or just to graze off the beaten path, I had no choice but reconsider my conventional attacks and learn how each mechanic works. From taking control of a healer and issuing a “group up” tactic so I could save my team with wide-reaching AoE Arts to toppling staggered enemies with combos, every decision I made felt valuable and rewarding. 

The loop is made more exciting by classes. I love the fact that all six of my party can choose any class. It encourages me experiment with different classes. Even seventh “hero” characters, recruited from main and side quests, offer rarer, hybrid classes to choose from. My fighters had strong health and defense stats which made them great candidates for tanks. The dexterous, however, were more suited to DPS roles. Every class had its own set Arts/passive skills, which made it a pleasure to play. Drawing aggression was my favorite part of the game. I loved using heavy guard taunts to draw attention, then switching to a dual sword attacker to strike the foe’s back. It was refreshing to be able heal the squad before one of my devastating strikes.

Interlinks, and Chain Attacks were my favorite combat feature. After filling the gauges with class abilities, both can be activated. The former allows two parties to fuse together into an android called Ouroboros. This colossal deity can eliminate large swathes of enemies in one hit, or make the most of powerful bosses. Chain Attacks can be used to dramatically slow down action and allow for a sequence character Arts that not only deal severe damage, but also gives bonuses like high aggression and high avoidance. Interlinks, Chain Attacks, and Exploration were always fun power trips.

Both the Agnus and Keves nations are in constant conflict with each other, resulting in both parties suffering huge losses. The 10-year life expectancy of soldiers is morbid and bloody. So, when Noah, Eunie, and Lanz join forces with Agnus operatives Mio, Taion, and Sena, the crew settles on new goals: end the intercultural violence, defeat the “true” enemy, and find a righteous reason to live. This premise is eerily similar to last year’s Tales of Arise. Where infectious, likable personalities remedied that game’s occasional thematic blunders, XC 3’s protagonists are forgettable caricatures that lack the emotional complexity a story of this nature requires. Stiff cutscene animations coupled with mind-numbingly repetitive barks – “I’m the MVP!” or “That’s a rare doodad!” – do the six champions no favors.

The explorable backgrounds lack the awe inspiring points of interest or vistas that were present in previous Xeno entries. Open-world areas are full of deadly creatures. These include flying stingrays, dangerous kaiju-sized Apes, and collectibles that can be traded for profit or sent to fetch quest NPCs. Beyond challenging monsters, collecting respawnable drops, and recruiting heroes at Keves or Agnus settlements, there’s not much to do or see. The generic locales – forests, deserts, mountains; you can probably guess the rest – were barren spaces I’d navigate for hours to arrive at the next underwhelming story checkpoint.

Character progression systems made it easier to get past the boredom. XC 3 provided a number of options to increase the party’s strength. At camps scattered throughout each biome, I’d level everyone up, craft gemstones that increase specific stats, and cook meals that affect XP and CP (Class Point) gains. There’s even an Interlink skill tree that let me augment the combat prowess of my Ouroboros. Smaller-scale upgrades, like improved running speed or meal effect duration, came from completing fetch quests, speaking with NPCs, and freeing Keves or Agnus settlements – this usually amounted to working alongside a hero to beat a powerful adversary. While customization made gaming more interesting, I found it less enjoyable after spending many hours doing the exact same things to boost my combat effectiveness.  

The seven-strong party felt like an army, especially when the explosive Arts and flashy Ouroboros combos lit up the already chaotic battlefield. The quality-of life improvements such as customizable shortcut hotbars, in-game GPS and simplified menu-surfing. The narrative and the world design left much to be desired. Critical plot twists were frustratingly obvious and character growth was almost non-existent. Navigation in every uninspired setting proves tedious. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has a dual-edged sword and needs some sharpening.