LogFAQs > #966209572

9. Xenoblade Chronicles 3

July 29th, 2022
Switch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG_hINfOz28

Okay, I was conflicted on FF16 but some of that conflict is just apathy for a once great franchise. Xenoblade, though. I *love* the Xeno series. Xenogears is the GOAT, I've always liked Xenosaga, and even Xenoblade 1 is a really good game. But Xenoblade 2 is one of the most disappointing games in my memory, a game ruined by bad design, weird gacha mechanics and a really gross story rife with anime tropes. I played through the whole thing but I felt kinda gross the whole way.

So we come to Xenoblade 3 and.. is it more of what 2 offers? I can't totally tell. The setting looks promising. I couldn't explain it well without rewatching the trailers and the Nintendo Direct they did, but it's got kids coming together from competing factions that have a limited lifespan due to some social system that's in place. I'm not going to try to explain it beyond that, but it looks intriguing.

Here's my thing: if this game had a different title on it, like Tales of Xenobia or something, would I even pay close attention? Probably not. I'm relying more on the pedigree of the developers. I'm also a little intimidated by the overload of systems. Xenoblade has always had overwhelming systems but this one also adds a class system and some kind of guest system where an NPC joins you and I get overwhelmed just thinking about trying to juggle all of that.

But man, no one puts a setting together like the Xeno team, and if Xeno 2 was just a hiccup then this could be really great. I'll probably pick it up just out of hope. I'm sure it's some sprawling 100 hour behemoth and will consume me for 3 months. Don't ruin my decades of fandom, MonolithSoft.