PLATFORM: SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 kicks off with a battle between the armies of two rival nations on a dying planet – a striking and enthralling introduction that gives a tantalising glimpse of the kind of things you’re going to encounter during this 100-hour adventure. Colossal dragon-shaped mountains, futuristic sci-fi robots and weaponry, weird creatures and monsters, a stunning soundtrack that wouldn’t be out of place in a big-budget blockbuster movie, and a cast of characters who are all immediately likeable (although some of their accents might start to grate sooner rather than later…).
The Xenoblade series is known for its unique combat, and XC3 is no exception. You’ll automatically attack when in range of an enemy, ganging up on them with your other party members to slowly whittle their health down. Special attacks called Arts deal extra damage but operate on a cooldown so they can’t be overused. Arts become more powerful during the course of the game, and additional varieties become available that add a lot of depth and nuance to the way they can be used, both in terms of a single character fighting alone or linking their attacks with party members to take down larger foes. As with previous games in the series, it takes a lot of effort to understand how it all works, and the initial introductions to the more involved mechanics don’t really do the greatest job of explaining things. You can pick up and play easily enough, but great care and attention are needed if you want to fully get your head around the combat and master the various techniques that are available.
Each of the characters in your six-person party belong to a class, all of which have their own unique Arts as well as a variety of skills that boost their effectiveness in specific areas. You’ll learn plenty of new abilities as you level up and progress through the game, and after reaching a certain point you’re granted the ability to change classes and swap Arts around, allowing you to equip each character with the most useful skills and attacks to deal with whatever situation you find yourself in. After the end of the first chapter, which acts as an introduction to both the story and the main gameplay mechanics, you’re given the ability to swap between characters at any time, giving an almost dizzying amount of options for customising your party and slotting your preferred characters into whichever role you please.
While the story takes place between the events of the first and second Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, the main characters in XC3 are new to the series so newcomers won’t have any problems. There are plenty of references and surprises for anyone familiar with previous entries in the series, though. Either way, it feels like the most approachable game in the series so far, both in terms of its grandiose and enchanting storytelling and also its satisfying gameplay. XC3‘s combat won’t be to everyone’s tastes, however, and the abundance of lengthy cutscenes means that this might not be the ideal game for impatient players. Having said that, the engaging characters, deep and rich story, gigantic (and extremely beautiful) world and countless ways to tweak and customise your party mean that those with a penchant for action-JRPGs will find plenty to keep themselves occupied. A stunning game with an incredible amount of content, XC3 has been more than worth the wait and absolutely deserves a place in every JRPG fan’s collection.
