Introduction
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 came out recently (July 2022) for the Switch. I’m a big fan of the first XC. I never got a chance to play Xenoblade Chronicles X and I skipped XC2. Nevertheless, I was pretty excited for XC3 and preordered it.
General Gameplay
Each class has one of three roles: Attacker, Defender, and Healer. This tracks pretty close to XC1. Attackers dish out pain but can’t take much. Healers heal but also can’t take the heat. Defenders can take pain and are meant to draw aggro. Healers also have more buffs than XC1. In particular, every Healer class has at least one ability that puts an AoE buff on the ground that allies can step into.
After the two teams unite (see below) you end up with six party members. And you can have a Hero join as a non-controllable seventh member. You can freely switch among the six. I don’t know that I’ve played a non-strategy jRPG like this with so many party members. Closest I can think of is Final Fantasy IV which had 5-people parties. Makes for a lot of chaos in battles and I mostly focus on just doing my current character’s role correctly. Then you can get into battles against squads of enemies or against enemies that summon enemies. There’s even been some six-on-six’s which is both chaotic and awesome.
XC1 put a large emphasis on timed hits and actions. XC3 brings that forward with a twist: cancelled actions. If you cancel an attack into another it skips the end of the first attack’s animation, improving DPS, and often gives a bonus to damage too. Cancelling also gives other bonuses like building Interlink levels (see info on Ouroboros forms below).
So Many Powers
For a while the game keeps introducing new powers to you and you end up with a lot you can do beyond your standard attacks and abilities. First, chain attacks are back from XC1. In XC1 I’d sometimes hold onto Chain Attacks because their meter was also used for revivals. In XC3 that’s not the case so you may as well unleash them when you get them. Further, I feel like it’s easier to get a long chain going and do tons of damage. And against some bosses I’ve had two or more Chain Attacks launch.
Chain Attacks can also be used to get in extra healing and a variety of effects like buffs and debuffs. Sometimes I’ll launch a Chain Attack as things are looking bad and end it with buffs, restored HP, and a good chunk off the boss’s HP meter.
The group also unlocks their Ouroboros forms, where they can merge with their partner into a tall biomechanical looking form. While in this form they do good damage and don’t take damage in return. I generally reserve it for when one or both of a pair is low on HP.
Thus, when things are looking bad you have multiple tools to turn things around quickly.
Exploring the World
As with XC1, XC3 has a huge world to explore. They’ve further encouraged exploration with more sub-objectives. There are containers hidden around which are pretty much treasure chests. They’ll show up on your mini-map but can still be difficult to get to due to multiple levels or obstacles in the way. There are soldier husks, the remains of fallen soldiers. Either Noah or Mio will send them to the afterlife when you get to them and it’ll improve relations with their home colony.
Some returning mechanics have been improved from XC1. Unique monsters are back but now instead of sometimes-obscure conditions and respawns when you beat one it becomes a fast travel spot. And a statue appears where you can rematch the unique monster at will. There’s also “rare” and “elite” versions of monsters who are weaker than uniques but give good drops. Items are picked up much easier. Quests are far better marked on the map.
Assorted Quests/Bosses
Battle of Everblight Plain
As far as tutorials go this is pretty good. You start in the middle of a battle between Colony 9 and an Agnus colony. Your squad fights through squads of Agnus troops. The boss is an Agnus Levnis (a big robot that reminds me of the faced Mechon from XC1). After the battle Noah’s squad misses the transport back so you get an excuse to explore the plain on the way back. The haunting music played over the wide, battle scorched plains, and a multitude of the fallen to send on the way back helps build up the war is hell world you’re in.
Eagus Wilderness
One of the first areas you come to after the six unite as a group. This desert is very expansive. It also has some tough monsters, I was taking losses from even some normal enemies. There’s also lots of areas that are blocked, such as a hill of loose sand you can’t climb up or an area blocked by overleveled monsters. It can be overwhelming to explore everything so I took it one step at a time.
***** SPOILERS THROUGH REST OF POST *****
Battle vs. Colony 4 – First the regular soldiers are pursuing you through a cave. They’re not too tough but they keep showing up so you’ll have to keep moving. After that you face their commander, Silvercoat Ethel. She has heavy offense and calls in other soldiers. The defenders will lock your party onto them and off of Ethel.
After that you fight Consul K. The Consul isn’t much but then he reveals his true form, Moebius K. There are a lot of great battle themes in the game and the Moebius theme busts out with some Latin chanting to let you know things are going down. Moebius has various debuffs such as Shackle which disables blocking. This makes your Defenders more vulnerable but the fact you have six members and probably more than one Defender helps a ton. The story for this segment of fights is great as well.
***** PLOT SECTION *****
“Fight to live, live to fight”
The game tagline describes Aionios, the world of the game. All people are tied to a Flame Clock. The Clock drains over time and when it runs out all the people tied to it die. The only way to replenish the clock is to slay others with Blades (personal weapons that include non-bladed weapons like guns and hammers). There are two nations, Keves and Agnus, that are thus constantly at war. Their colonies each have a Flame Clock and the colonies fight to wipe each other out in order to replenish their own Clocks.
It gets worse. We see the lifecycle of the people. The queens of the nations grow people in tubes. After a moment as an infant they’re accelerated to early adolescence. They then go to a colony to support the war effort. Each person gets 10 years (called “terms”) if they aren’t killed first. Most don’t make it that long. But if they do, they get a ceremony called a Homecoming before being sent by an off-seer; their bodies dissolving into light. Everyone’s lives revolve around war.
Noah, Lanz, and Eunie make up a special forces unit of Colony 9, a Keves colony. Noah is an off-seer; he plays a flute next to the corpses of the fallen to send them to the afterlife. They have all lost friends to the never-ending war and have no life goal other than to reach the end of their 10-year lifespan and get a Homecoming.
Colony 9 gets a mission to investigate a mysterious ether source (ether is more or less mana in Xenoblade). Intel says that Agnus is also after it. They are to eliminate the ether source.
Enemies Come Together
An Agnus colony converges on the ether source at the same time. The ether source is something called an Ouroboros Stone. The Stone is defended by a man named Guernica.
Noah’s team encounters an Agnus special forces team: an off-sear named Mio, Taion, and Sena. The two teams fight but are evenly matched. Guernica looks on in horror, not wanting the two teams to kill each other. He interferes to stop the fight. He mentions there is a “true enemy” for them to fight instead.
Guernica is shot by a monster: Moebius. Moebius attacks the others. The Keves and Agnus teams are forced into an uneasy alliance to defend themselves. They’re still overwhelmed by Moebius.
Guernica staggers over to the Ouroboros Stone and activates it. All are hit by an aura. Soon after Noah and Mio Interlink into a monster. Moebius says they have become Ouroboros, mortal enemy of Moebius. Noah and Mio’s Ouroboros form drives Moebius back. Before leaving, it lights up the sky with a red infinity symbol and says now the whole world will be the six’s enemies.
The six go to Guernica as he dies. Seeing him up close they’re shocked to see he’s wrinkled and old; he’s 60. It was a nice touch to further drive home how horrible life on Aionios is: the characters have never seen someone live to old age. Guernica tells the six this is how life is supposed to be and the world has been driven off course. He urges them to go to Swordfall where they’ll find a “city,” another concept the group is not familiar with.
A Reluctant Team
Despite what they went through, the two units go back to their colonies. However, both units are attacked by their colonies as they draw close. They’re forced to retreat back to where they met and reunite. I like how they handle the team drawing together. They run a range of how willing they are to turn their world view upside down and accept former enemies. Noah and Mio take the lead in encouraging the group to work together. Lanz and Taion are the most reluctant.
The characterization of Noah really struck me too. He’s a skilled swordsman but is reluctant to kill. Even before becoming Ouroboros he is bothered by having to kill to survive. He reminds me of a theme from the 2002 movie, Hero: that the ultimate warrior does not want to fight.
In Noah’s past we see him get a unique Blade. The Nopon Riku gave Noah the incredibly sharp Lucky Seven sword, a katana that can cut through anything. Noah generally doesn’t want to use it so the rest of his Blade is actually a sheath for Lucky Seven. Noah also renamed Lucky Seven but we aren’t yet told what the new name is.
Colony 4
In the past Noah’s squad was saved by a great warrior named Silvercoat Ethel. Now Ethel is commander of Colony 4. Ethel and her colony run into the Ouroboros six and start hunting them. Noah tries to appeal to Ethel but Ethel doesn’t seem to recognize him. Ethel and all of Colony 4 have glowing red in their Irises (an Iris is a computer interface embedded in one of everyone’s eyes). The red is causing them to see the protagonists as monsters.
The six are forced to retreat and fight as they go. They find some black mist, a strange phenomenon that interferes with Irises. Between that and knocking Ethel around a bit, the effect on her Iris starts to slip and she starts to see Noah, confusing her.
The red Iris effect was caused by Consul K. The Consuls are servants of the Queens. They’re covered in armor that to me resembles either jesters or chess pieces. With Ethel no longer effective Consul K takes over the battle. After a fight he transforms into Moebius K. Noah’s group continues to fight and in the fight two new Ouroboros forms emerge: Lanz and Sena Interlink and Eunie and Taion Interlink.
However, Moebius K is able to heal his wounds by drawing from Colony 4’s Flame Clock. This heals him and draws life force from the people of Colony 4, nearly killing them. Noah decides they need to try and destroy Colony 4’s Flame Clock to free the colony from Moebius K. In an awesome scene, he and Mio Interlink to get to the clock and then Noah draws Lucky Seven and destroys the clock.
Colony 4 is freed and their life force returned to them. The fight continues against Moebius K who has no further tricks. It’s defeated and transforms back to Consul K. The group takes his helmet off and sees another wrinkled, aged face. Another stunning revelation that rocks the characters’ worldview. Are the Consuls the true enemy that is making everyone fight? Do the two Queens know?
Colony 4 Aftermath
Colony 4 is freed but the destruction of a Flame Clock is seen as rebellion against Keves’s crown. They’re on their own now with no more supplies coming from their Castle. Ethel is glad that they no longer are forced to engage in senseless violence. But some of her colony cannot let go of their hatred of Agnus and let the Agnus members of the party know.
This opens up a part of the game where there are sidequests that involve freeing other colonies. You can go back to Colony 9 and free them, reconciling with the new Colony 9 commander. But like Colony 4, any freed colonies are also cut off from supplies from the Castle and have to make do on their own.
Meanwhile, the main plot has the group continue to journey towards Swordmarch. The Counsuls/Moebius continue to take notice of their efforts and go after them.
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