Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an action role-playing game with a large open world to explore. Unlike previous Xenoblade series entries, the game allows for seven party members to participate in battles at once, including the main party and an additional "Hero" character. Up to 19 Heroes can be recruited to the party by completing story events or sidequests, each possessing different skills and abilities. Party members will also gain the ability to change their character class, granting them access to different abilities; raising a Hero's affinity with the party will unlock their class for use. Under certain conditions, specific pairs of party members—Noah and Mio; Lanz and Sena; and Eunie and Taion—can utilize the Interlink system to combine into an Ouroboros, a larger form with more powerful moves. Like the previous entries, the game employs an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that affects in-game events, such as the availability of quests and items. Similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, the game takes place on a continuous open world, featuring a fast travel option for players to travel more quickly through the largest open world map featured in the series to date.[4] When traversing the map, players can now turn on a quest navigation mode that will mark a line on the ground to follow if they are unsure of how to reach their destination.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has an action-based battle system, where the player manually moves the current lead character in real-time, and party members "auto attack" when enemies enter their attack radius. Unlike past entries, players have the ability to swap between characters in the middle of combat. Party members use abilities called "Arts". Some Arts may deal bonus damage or inflict a status ailment, depending on a character's position in relation to the enemy. Each character has a starting moveset based on a Class. Classes consist of different styles of fighting, which feature different abilities. There are 25 total classes that can be obtained in the base game. As a character continuously uses Arts in battle they will fill up a special gauge called the Talent Gauge. Talent Arts are special moves unique to a character that can be performed once the Talent gauge is full. Talent Arts are all unique—some will grant bonus damage against a dazed enemy, and others will regenerate health for any allies within an area. In addition to Arts, the "Break, Topple, Daze" combo will temporarily stun enemies in combat.[5]

Every tutorial the player receives is archived under the Tips section in the options menu. The Training Drills feature allows people to redo any combat tutorial to ensure they understand a specific mechanic.[5] This tutorial system is greatly improved from all previous installments in the series, guiding the player in the correct direction from the beginning of the game.[6]

Similar to Xenoblade Chronicles, this game features the "Chain Attack" mechanic. A gauge slowly fills as party members hit their opponents, and filling it allows the player to chain multiple attacks together, for extra damage. This allows a player to select a special move on a menu with three options, with moves based on a character's current Class. After a player has selected one of the options, the Chain Attack turn begins. The goal of each turn is to get over 99 TP (Tactical Points). TP is rewarded on each move during the turn. The player is able to select a move from each character, where the game rewards the player by adding TP to the gauge for the current turn in the attack. TP is rewarded based on the current Class the character has equipped, the amount of times the character has been used during the chain attack, and various other conditions. By achieving over 99 TP during the turn, the attack ends for that turn. There are three different ratings you can get after crossing 99 TP. These include "Amazing" (getting over 200 TP), "Bravo" (getting over 150 TP), and "Cool" (getting over 99 TP). The attack goes on for as long as the party gauge is not empty.[7]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 received several waves of downloadable content via an "Expansion Pass", with three out four planned waves of content released to date. Volume 1 of the Expansion Pass released alongside the game on July 9th, 2022, and includes several consumables, accessories, and alternate outfit colors. Volume 2 of the Expansion Pass released on October 13th, 2022, and includes a new challenge mode, as well as a hero quest to unlock a new hero, Ino.[12] Volume 3 was released on February 15, 2023, and includes new challenge mode battles, new character outfits, and a hero quest to unlock the hero Masha. The fourth and final volume will be released later in 2023, and will include a new story scenario following other characters, including the respective protagonists of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, Shulk and Rex.

The first ideas for the plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 came during the development of the second entry of the three games, Xenoblade Chronicles 2. According to Tetsuya Takahashi, creator of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, the Mechonis sword featured on the cover of Xenoblade Chronicles and the Titan of Uraya featured on the cover of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is what sparked the idea of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Bringing the two worlds together, the broken sword of the Mechonis going through the wounded Titan of Uraya is the visual key of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, indicating war between the two worlds, thus the starting idea for this game.[13] In May 2018, Takahashi pitched Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as a new game concept to Nintendo. The first production group of Monolith Soft, known for their work on the Xenoblade Chronicles series, started development on the game in August 2018 after Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna – The Golden Country went gold.[14]

Music

Composition of the game's soundtrack was led by Yasunori Mitsuda.

As with previous numbered games in the series, the game's soundtrack was written by Yasunori Mitsuda, Manami Kiyota, ACE (Tomori Kudo and Hiroyo "CHiCO" Yamanaka), and Kenji Hiramatsu. They were joined by Mariam Abounnasr, who arranged tracks for Xenoblade Chronicles 2.[13] In order to create a sound that had not been heard before, Monolith Soft had custom flutes created in different sizes and tuned to different scales resembling flutes from the game. The first track Mitsuda worked on for the game was "A Life Sent On", its main theme. Takahashi told Mitsuda in advance to interweave the two melodies of Noah and Mio into a single piece of music, and Mitsuda seemed to have thought that creating the flutes would enable him to express himself easier.[15] As with Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Irish choral ensemble Anúna assisted in recording vocals for the game. Members Aisling and Lauren McGlynn provided vocals for tracks themed around Ouroboros and Moebius respectively, while Sara Weeda sung 'A Step Away' and the ending theme, 'Where We Belong'.[16]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced in February 2022, and was initially set for release in September. It was later shifted to an earlier release date of July 29.[17] The game is described as featuring a narrative that will depict the respective futures for the worlds of the previous two entries.[18] Following the announcement, a blog post on the official Nintendo website revealed preliminary details about the game's development. Takahashi was confirmed to be working on the game in an executive director position, while various other returning staff members from previous Xenoblade Chronicles games were revealed to be reprising their duties, including the composing team behind the first two entries and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 lead character designer Masatsugu Saito, returning to work on the game's art alongside Xenosaga and Xenoblade Chronicles artist Koichi Mugitani.[13]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic.[23]

Nintendo Life enjoyed the changes to the combat system, specifically praising the new ability to combine character abilities, "Interlinking is a slick addition to the action here, it adds real drama and excitement to battles and is, most importantly, easy to get your head around."[30] Destructoid liked the visuals, saying they were impressive despite the Switch's constraints, "Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is impressive looking by any standard. I took a ton of screenshots of this gorgeous world for fun."[24] While feeling the ending didn't adequately resolve the story, Nintendo World Report wrote the game had the best balanced combat in the series, "It is challenging yet excellently paced. I rarely found myself over or underleveled."[31] IGN criticized the pacing of the game, saying the included filler was unnecessary with the 150-hour runtime, "one section that has you go undercover to perform menial tasks, or another that has you trotting across the world to collect pieces of metal, and I often felt like my time wasn't being respected."[29] GameSpot praised the new Master Arts for continuously evolving the combat system, "I am well over 120 hours in now and I am still unlocking new Master Arts, leveling up different classes, and uncovering powerful new tactics."[28] Game Informer felt the world didn't have enough to do, and all of the biomes seemed to blend into each other at a certain point, "Beyond challenging monsters, collecting respawnable drops, and recruiting heroes at Keves or Agnus settlements, there's not much to do or see."[27]

PCMag wrote that the Switch seemed unable to keep up with the game's large vistas and combat, "here are noticeable resolution drops and object pop-in abounds. The frame rate isn't particularly steady, either, and the game can chug at times."[38] Eurogamer praised the game for capturing the sense of freedom found in older JRPGs, "the sensation of running through endless fields of long grass with your companions, facing impossible odds with a spring in your step."[25] Polygon liked the new optional content, feeling it was some of the series' best, "There are well over 100 side quests, and though their objectives could be rote, each told me something about how one lives in this world. It made me care about Aionios as an amalgamation of the land and its peoples."[39]

• Official website