Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

 3DS
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 367 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 312 out of 367
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 367
  3. Negative: 24 out of 367
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  1. TemplarGR
    Sep 10, 2016
    0
    One of the most overrated and overhyped games of the last generation, now on the New 3DS!

    This is final fantasy wannabe with mediocre story and bland, boring gameplay. I can understand how this scored highly on the Wii, after all Wii had no good RPGs (or games in general), so in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king and all that. But this doesn't mean that the game was good, it    One of the most overrated and overhyped games of the last generation, now on the New 3DS!

    This is final fantasy wannabe with mediocre story and bland, boring gameplay. I can understand how this scored highly on the Wii, after all Wii had no good RPGs (or games in general), so in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king and all that. But this doesn't mean that the game was good, it wasn't. The only really cool thing about the game was the setting, but a setting can't carry a 80hour slog on its own.

    The port is mediocre, as expected, and requires a New 3DS for no reason. The original 3DS is more than capable of playing this, as evidenced by other games playable on the O3DS, like the Monster Hunters. Nintendo used the lame excuse of "needing more power to run it" in order to sell more consoles. Which is disgusting, but that is Nintendo greed for you.

    The good thing is that we didn't need to play this anyway. Skip it. If you just don't value your life and your time, play it on PC using Dolphin. Thank me later.    … Expand
  2. Valdor
    May 15, 2018
    0
    I'm still confounded by the amount of hype this game got. The combat is a terrible combination of the worst that every F2P Korean MMO has to offer and the story and characters are bland and predictable.

    This game is a prime example of why you should never go quantity over quality. - There's hundreds of sidequests, BUT they're all the same kill x monsters, collect y items, ad infinitum.    I'm still confounded by the amount of hype this game got. The combat is a terrible combination of the worst that every F2P Korean MMO has to offer and the story and characters are bland and predictable.

    This game is a prime example of why you should never go quantity over quality.
    - There's hundreds of sidequests, BUT they're all the same kill x monsters, collect y items, ad infinitum.
    - The world is massive, BUT there's little to no reason to explore any of it. That cranny over there? Has the same items and monsters as everywhere else.
    - The game is long. You'll put in about 80 hours or so to finish the story, BUT it's all due to the horrible pacing and the game's forced marches across it's broad landscapes. It stretches itself incredibly thin in order to claim that long play time. The game really doesn't have any right to be longer than 30 hours with what's in it.

    Your time is better suited to playing anything else, really.    … Expand
  3. Leon_90
    Nov 29, 2016
    0
    Bad gameplay, bad story, bad character, bad world setting, this is one of the worst games I played in my life, going to sell it cuz its such a waste of time and money
  4. goschke
    May 4, 2015
    3
    Fairly good game, but what makes me mad is that it ONLY WORKS ON NEW 3DS! You don't need the C-Stick! You might as well stick with the Wii version because most people don't need it for this system too.
  5. okamimiyazaki
    Sep 3, 2020
    0
    Can't believe the 3DS version is so well received... This is an awful version. Do NOT buy it. Game is great, but the 3DS version looks like complete trash. I'm not even picky about graphics, but this is a blurry mess. Avoid at all costs. Waste of money. Get the Switch.
  6. b00lpr0p
    Jan 21, 2019
    3
    Very unbalanced enemies. The combat is full of blablabla which Japanese people use to love, but it's annoying. The combat system doesn't help, it's long and boring. Graphics look worse than a Nintendo DS game.
  7. jcolin
    Jan 8, 2017
    4
    This is a great game, on the wii, however they had to dumb down the graphics even further to run it on a system with "updated hardware". Now it looks like a playstation one game. The wii graphics were already terrible and this really makes the game unplayable. Add an extra small screen in the mix and the thing is just a mess. Bought this as soon as it came out, returned it the next day.
  8. Trey82
    Feb 16, 2020
    4
    To be fair, it isnt a bad game, its just terrible at nearly everything it tries to do.
    Lets start with a summary: Anime cliche, action rpg, english voices, 3d, vast overworld, unique navigation premise, solid battle foundation, high difficulty.
    And then the problems begin in expanding upon all that. Anime cliche - nothing surprising, the plot points are all common sense goodness. The    To be fair, it isnt a bad game, its just terrible at nearly everything it tries to do.
    Lets start with a summary: Anime cliche, action rpg, english voices, 3d, vast overworld, unique navigation premise, solid battle foundation, high difficulty.
    And then the problems begin in expanding upon all that.
    Anime cliche - nothing surprising, the plot points are all common sense goodness. The reason you cant do this, is because of that. The reason your godblade doesnt do this, is because they are doing that. You can see the future, because this thing creates that, and if you've played it, you know the story tells an interesting tale, but still usual anime style. Which is, to say.. entertaining. Creative in ways. But standard.
    Story gets a pass, because 'consistent and yet nothing special' isnt good or bad. Satisfying. :)

    Action RPG ~ thats what the kids are playing, these days. They cant be bothered to go buy god of war and button mash if it doesnt have RPG elements. Superficial rpg elements. You'll never be pushed too hard to deepthink anything in this game. Equipment? Just map the whole area youre in, stay 2 levels above the bad guys and you'll be fine. Gems? Meh. Equipment? Just max out your defensive stats. Which special godblade power should you use in any situation? They'll show you the mechanic to be learned right before you need it. The game is on rails. Even the FF7 remake is a button masher.

    English voices ~ no, I mean english accented. Not just english. har!
    Pleasing to hear, excepting the endless battle chatter repetition. (And no option to turn off post-battle yapping, you'll get tired of that within the first 5 hours)

    3d - not bad, good view distance. Great for what it is, but with hindsight at 20/20.. almost no other games impress to this extent on n3ds. Beautiful world, very scenic. Its just.. its just that it isnt very compelling. After filling out the whole map, exploring all the little hiddenish areas.. it plays like an offline MMO. You'll have some roaming mobs at your level, some overlord level 70ish types, some flyers, some whatevers.. at least the towns are populated reasonably well. And the conversations flow logically and smoothly. Consistent, not good or bad.

    Unique navigation. You are on one of two guys, making your way up and over to find the other guys, just to find that they arent all bad, but are they they? But it is. But its about the over-guys, and then it isnt about them. And its about the godblade. But then it isnt. But it is, again. And then you hit new game +.
    Thats a no-spoilers summary. And it weaves a kinda good tale, if a little underwhelming. Except when it isnt, but the pacing is so.. consistent. But not. Like, it really doesnt rush you to the next objective. You know where its at, and it doesnt 'push' you to get there any faster than you want to get there. And you shouldnt want to get there.
    Because you havent grinded until you are 5 levels higher than everybody else. Its really important that you grind. In most JRPGs you can just barely slide by if you just kill everything on your way.
    Xeno is that odd one out that isnt JUST about grinding for the sake of it, its about being very consistent ~ you will absolutely die if you even tiptoe to the next area without grinding up. Like dark souls levels of 'you arent ready so die'.
    Whch isnt to say that it is hard, it really isnt. So long as you grind.
    It isnt like etrian odyssey where even if you grind to death, you still have to micromanage every single round of every battle, on every stage, with EVERY character type having to fit within the 5 you chose. THAT.. is hard. Xeno is just boring. Consistently.

    Battle foundation.. what can I say about this? Think of it like disgaea. You get some cool skills. Then you get more. Then more. Before you know it there is all this crap you can pick to use!
    Except by 'can use' I mean 'must use'. Which doesnt make the battle system complex, just complicated. Complex is final fantasy tactics telling you that your attack should do 18 damage, but due to the day, the month, the gender of you two combatants, the faith in your religion, the braveness in your soul, the class you chose, the direction you attacked, PLUS the RNG random number generator... AHEM, yeah.
    As where xeno is just.. complicated. You got autoattack, except its useless. You got knife up, knife sideways, knife down, and one works if youre on the side, one from behind, one for hitting multiple enemies, so on and so forth. And its nice and all to have these special attacks, but they arent special. They are mandatory. And you have to eventually start using them in conjunction with everyone else, to beat the special enemies. And the more special enemies. And you cant do much damage to those guys, because.. well, they ate something funny.

    Add those consistencies, the deaths, the absolute tedium of EVERY single battle requiring your attention, and it sucks. Badly paced, cuz youre the pace. Slow down!    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best 3DS Game of 2015
4
#4 Most Discussed 3DS Game of 2015
3
#3 Most Shared 3DS Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 63 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 63
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 63
  3. Negative: 0 out of 63
  1. GamePro Germany
    Aug 12, 2015
    79
    The game has suffered by being ported to the 3Ds. It's still a great game, but I would only recommend the Wii version.
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  2. CD-Action
    Jul 27, 2015
    80
    A truly huge RPG with nice visuals, enjoyable combat system and a lot to do besides the main storyline. [08/2015, p.78]
  3. RPGamer
    Jun 29, 2015
    90
    Xenoblade Chronicles is a phenomenal RPG that hasn't been given the most extensive port that one would hope for, but is still impressive for being scaled down to a handheld.
    Read full review
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