Current Events > Reviews for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 are coming in, it seems.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/RPGSite/status/1551915237535731712?t=GzjBsXK0H88rubERviiTPQ&s=19

Good. I need something with a strong narrative to break me out of my Elden Ring hole. I just made it back to Crumbling Faram Azula on my 2nd character. It's been virtually all that I've been playing since March, save for a break to play some FF pixel remasters.

currently at 89 on Metacritic:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/xenoblade-chronicles-3

an amazing adventure that earns its 140+ hour runtime.

Holy fuck, I was expecting something around 50 hours. [Vanilla] Persona 5 took me well over 100 hours to finish, and this is supposed to be even longer?

Oh boy I wasn't expecting close to 100 hours.

Solar_Crimson posted...

Holy fuck, I was expecting something around 50 hours. [Vanilla] Persona 5 took me well over 100 hours to finish, and this is supposed to be even longer?

1 and 2 are about 70 hours respectively on a first playthrough.

Aren't they all good?

2 was good just had alot of cringe and excessive anime fanservice

WingsOfGood posted...

Aren't they all good?

2 was good just had alot of cringe and excessive anime fanservice

They are (IMO) but it seems like this one may be the best yet, judging from various impressions I've seen. I absolutely cannot wait.

Also holy hell, 140+ hours? I'm assuming that's a casual playthrough where you do some exploration and stuff, rather than breezing through the story.

I'm just here for the free Sawano

all I wanna know is does it have embarrassing fanservice this time

But Rex impregnated 3 blades so its 10/10 for Rex being a mega chad.

Japanese devs really just dont respect the players time anymore these days

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Japanese devs really just dont respect the players time anymore these days

Japanese devs?

*looks at the countless western open world games that have several hundred hours worth of content*

Was not expecting 140 hours.

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Japanese devs really just dont respect the players time anymore these days

I mean, Western games really aren't any better, and may even be worse.

140 hours, albeit, probably significantly less. We don't exactly know what this "140 hours" comprised of in terms of a specific personal playthrough.

WingsOfGood posted...

Aren't they all good?

2 was good just had alot of cringe and excessive anime fanservice

There was a lot I disliked about 2, more than I liked about it.

What I want to know, is have they fixed any of the pointless and annoying busy work? Like all those damn nonsense items that you collect and combine into other nonsense items that you use to roll for a chance at getting some other item than you can then use to make a character's weapon 3% stronger?

It's cool that opening this chest gives me 27 wafflebronks and if I combine those with 19 srinklytops and 42 plappyburgers then I have a 0.32% chance of getting a rare item I'll never use, but jesus christ I don't care

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Japanese devs really just dont respect the players time anymore these days

Indeed. Western Live Service/Season Pass models that treat games like daily second jobs are much better about respecting our time

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Japanese devs really just dont respect the players time anymore these days

???

its not some battle pass bullshit like in your favourite EA games where you have to play daily or lose your battlepass rewards you paid for

you can play this game 1 hour a week and be fine

The not respecting time complaint should be reserved for monotonous dailies, a lack of QoL features forcing you to repeat things and excessive grinding unless it's the kind of game where that's really what you sign up for. It shouldn't be for a game actively trying to give you more mileage per playthrough. Xenoblade 1 was a game I didn't want to end and if they on board with that, great. Edit: Ah someone just beat me to it.

Let's just hope there's lots of post-game stuff to do because wandering around with 3 level 99s with good gems/equipment in Xeno 1, choosing which of the four enemies that could still fight back I was going to fight again was a little disappointing.

Christ I wish they'd stop making games a job

BakonBitz posted...

140+ hours

o_o

I spent as much time on Elden Ring and that took me months.

Sorry, but I have other stuff I want to play too.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Let's just hope there's lots of post-game stuff to do because wandering around with 3 level 99s with good gems/equipment in Xeno 1, choosing which of the four enemies that could still fight back I was going to fight again was a little disappointing.

Its ok for games to end after 100 hours dude

complaining that once youve maxed out level and gear only a few enemies still pose a challenge is kind of nonsense tbh

TheGoldenEel posted...

Its ok for games to end after 100 hours dude

complaining that once youve maxed out level and gear only a few enemies still pose a challenge is kind of nonsense tbh

If the game offers postgame content to begin with, it kinda needs to have more substantial stuff than four enemies.

XC2 after its updates and DLC offered like 10 superbosses, the option to play NG+ on a much harder difficulty, as well as a much more difficult Challenge Mode, which was amazing.

Like sure, if that's not your thing you don't have to engage in it, just like doing 10 NG+ runthroughs of Souls games doesn't appeal to me. But with how absurdly broken you can make your characters become in Xenoblade it's nice to have some endgame/postgame stuff to test all that out on. XC1 was the outlier in having not enough content, ironically enough.

CyricZ posted...

o_o

I spent as much time on Elden Ring and that took me months.

Sorry, but I have other stuff I want to play too.

This is what it boils down to for me. In a month I have Soul Hackers 2 to play, and after that theres a couple games coming out in September I want to play.

Some of you throwing EA live service type games at me does not phase me since I dont play those games but I would have to agree they not only dont respect the players time but they dont respect their income or frankly their intelligence

TheGoldenEel posted...

Its ok for games to end after 100 hours dude

complaining that once youve maxed out level and gear only a few enemies still pose a challenge is kind of nonsense tbh

Actually I disagree.
They had the solution though, they had enemies above level 100 that even maxed out you'd have to bring a strategy to the fights, there's one with insta-death spikes you have to circumvent, high agility stats, one with an enormous aggro range that let him get the jump on you with ranged attacks.
Final Fantasy X had a monster arena and it was full of uber monsters you could unlock by beating enough regular enemies, you could fight them repeatedly too. Dark Aeons, Penance. They don't even have to be difficult ones, Blizzard Belgazas is one of the easier superbosses but he's my favorite fight in the game because he was the only one who didn't have some out of control agility stat. I'd just really appreciate if Xeno 1 became something I could pick up, customise some characters and see how they do against a bunch of fights.

Maxed out is weird in Xeno 1 too, if you want to hit the Mechon without the enchant spell, you have to swap over to the anti-Mechon weapons. I thought there'd be an upgrade for that for each character. They could have had celestial weapons rather than a 3 gem slot best weapon.

If the 100 hours are mostly story and your regular lap through the game then that loses mileage on subsequent playthroughs. A game can end after 100 hours if it's your first run through, sure but what I want from a game is a reason to come back or keep going. But it probably shouldn't go too far and turn into Runescape because that game seems like a legitimately dangerous time devouring beast.

ViewtifulJoe posted...

Actually I disagree.
They had the solution though, they had enemies above level 100 that even maxed out you'd have to bring a strategy to the fights, there's one with insta-death spikes you have to circumvent, high agility stats, one with an enormous aggro range that let him get the jump on you with ranged attacks.
Final Fantasy X had a monster arena and it was full of uber monsters you could unlock by beating enough regular enemies, you could fight them repeatedly too. Dark Aeons, Penance. They don't even have to be difficult ones, Blizzard Belgazas is one of the easier superbosses but he's my favorite fight in the game because he was the only one who didn't have some out of control agility stat. I'd just really appreciate if Xeno 1 became something I could pick up, customise some characters and see how they do against a bunch of fights.

Maxed out is weird in Xeno 1 too, if you want to hit the Mechon without the enchant spell, you have to swap over to the anti-Mechon weapons. I thought there'd be an upgrade for that for each character. They could have had celestial weapons rather than a 3 gem slot best weapon.

If the 100 hours are mostly story and your regular lap through the game then that loses mileage on subsequent playthroughs. A game can end after 100 hours if it's your first run through, sure but what I want from a game is a reason to come back or keep going. But it probably shouldn't go too far and turn into Runescape because that game seems like a legitimately dangerous time devouring beast.

the solution is that after developing 100 hours of game they could have developed even more

Its cause were getting old lol I wouldve love this when I was a kid lol but now Im like how am I gonna find the time

video games have change but its still with people who have time in mind like kids

Biofighter55 posted...

Its cause were getting old lol I wouldve love this when I was a kid lol but now Im like how am I gonna find the time

video games have change but its still with people who have time in mind like kids

Yeah, I've always loved JRPGs, but nowadays, they're just too long. And I love games like Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei, and Persona, but all of them are damn commitments. Sometimes, I see the game, and just power up some quick games in Smash instead.

Edit: Nintendo was on stupid shit back when Xenoblade was new, and it is great that in-house Japanese rpgs are finding the NA market.

EyeWontBeFooled posted...

Remember when the first one was going to be Japan exclusive with Pandoras Tower and the Last Story?

But Project Rainfall happened and now Nintendo has raked in the money on Xenoblade

Not Japan-exclusive; all three games were confirmed to be releasing in Nintendo of Europe.

It's just Nintendo of America that was on some stupid shit at the time (and they also passed on Disaster: Day of Crisis, and the sequels to Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk, which were all also released in Europe).

Biofighter55 posted...

Its cause were getting old lol I wouldve love this when I was a kid lol but now Im like how am I gonna find the time

video games have change but its still with people who have time in mind like kids

Yep, at most I can only play games that my wife would enjoy watching like cinematic games or games that can be played in short bursts. JRPG's is too much of a time commitment for me, especially when I have a 10 month baby and is planning on having another kid fairly soon.

I tried Xenoblade Chronicles X and really didn't like it... should I even give a shit about the numbered series?

Getting the impression that the game is closer to 100 hours in length unless you go around completing a lot of side stuff from other reviews.

Also, any confirmation of expert mode or at least banked quest xp in this game?

I can't wait to sink my teeth into this game. Glad to see it's reviewing well.

PiOverlord posted...

140 hours, albeit, probably significantly less. We don't exactly know what this "140 hours" comprised of in terms of a specific personal playthrough.

This. We always get ridiculously exaggerated completion times pre-release. I'm sure the length of a normal playthrough is much shorter.

Jabodie posted...

Getting the impression that the game is closer to 100 hours in length unless you go around completing a lot of side stuff from other reviews.

Also, any confirmation of expert mode or at least banked quest xp in this game?

The main story is supposed to be 50-60 hours, it's just got a shitload of sidequests

Jeff_AKA_Snoopy posted...

I tried Xenoblade Chronicles X and really didn't like it... should I even give a shit about the numbered series?

I dunno. Depends on what you didn't like about it. If it's the gameplay, maybe not. If it's the story, characters, and overall presentation maybe you could give one of the numbered games a try.