Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 Switch
User Score
8.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1372 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,137 out of 1372
  2. Mixed: 79 out of 1372
  3. Negative: 156 out of 1372
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  1. Fisherk1ng
    Jun 28, 2023
    6
    The gameplay feels stiff but mostly fun until you unlock all the combat features where the gameplay actually becomes smooth. Unfortunately, the game actively punishes you for preparing for tough fights by locking experience to classes when you are over 5 levels than the enemy you're fight. This means the game is also punishing you for doing quests, since doing all the quests as they comeThe gameplay feels stiff but mostly fun until you unlock all the combat features where the gameplay actually becomes smooth. Unfortunately, the game actively punishes you for preparing for tough fights by locking experience to classes when you are over 5 levels than the enemy you're fight. This means the game is also punishing you for doing quests, since doing all the quests as they come up makes you roughly 10 levels over the monsters you face while doing said quests.

    The story is mid at best and insulting at worst. It feels like it was written by three very distinct individuals. The first is an industry veteran who knows what they're doing. When they're writing, the story well written, concise, and you can really understand who each characters is.
    The second writer is a college grad who hasn't quite kicked the habit they teach you in school to write a 5 page essay where 4 paragraphs is more than enough. This writer breaks the show don't tell rule in the most infuriating way. They will show you, tell you, then make the characters have a conversation going in depth on what they just experience or learned and then have the characters act like this is all new information when it comes up again. Never before has my controller fallen asleep because a cutscene was going on too long. Never before have I skipped cutscenes on the first viewing because i already know everything that happens in the cutscene from the first 5 second while they insist it needs 30 more minutes of cutscene to really drive the point home.
    The Third Writer is a twitter blogger. They care more for creating artificial drama than keeping character consistency. Characters will spontaneously break character, act stupid, or act stubborn for the sake of adding extra drama or conflict when the story already has plenty of both to work off of.
    The discrepancy between these three writing styles is such a glaring issue to the point that im almost convinced the first writer had made the prefect story for this but it wasn't long enough for investors so they hired writers two and three to stretch the play time and consequently ruin the story. The game tries to mix the themes of the first two games to great effect until the second writer beats the point to death and the third writer retcons it at the last second.

    In conclusion, if you want to play it for the gameplay, go ahead and just try not to over-level. if you you want a compelling well written story, just play the last two because you're not going to find that with this one.    … Expand
  2. hinanawi
    Apr 2, 2023
    5
    This is my first time play the Xenoblade Series. The navigation is so good. I love 99% of the story. However, the ending made me uncomfortable and bad mood for all day. So, I would not give it high score unless the dlc story make Noah and Mia together.
  3. Amaru12
    Mar 30, 2023
    5
    The good: The soundtrack, the story, the characters, the interactions, the animations, the bosses, the wide and beautiful world, many combat options.
    The bad: I was very disappointed in the combat system, it's not entertaining, it's boring and tiring, it's not quite a turn-based tactical rpg, it's not a free-roam battle like Zelda BotW either, the combat is a strange hybrid, where your    The good: The soundtrack, the story, the characters, the interactions, the animations, the bosses, the wide and beautiful world, many combat options.
    The bad: I was very disappointed in the combat system, it's not entertaining, it's boring and tiring, it's not quite a turn-based tactical rpg, it's not a free-roam battle like Zelda BotW either, the combat is a strange hybrid, where your characters and enemies hit nothing and nothing, enemies do not react to your attacks and movements, "enemies are just punching bags" that take damage until they die, you can leave it on automatic do nothing and wait for the character to die enemy and that is boring, the strategy that exists is only to increase the damage inflicted but nothing else, it is very easy and simple, and if you increase the difficulty it only increases the life of the enemy, which is a punching bag. The music in combat is repetitive and stressful, however the music when you travel the world is beautiful.    … Expand
  4. Juac
    Mar 14, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. My original rating for this game was 6/10, after 110 hours and the ending it is now 4.5/10. This game was made for teen to young adult audiences who don’t mind anime-esque tropes and clichés and to introduce philosophies to them. I am not that target audience and feel those that are deserve better than this.

    This game suffers a bar so low that it acts as an excuse as to why it’s not better than it should be. It walks on the corpses of the previous games, and by the end tramples on them. If you’re looking to play XenoC 3, welcome to the Endless Now.

    Gameplay 3/5

    TL;DR: The gameplay is held up by conveniences invented and improved in the last 3 XenoC games, but is spoiled by its thoughtless combat and a lack of interesting mechanics on the enemy’s side.

    -The good stuff from the previous Xenos are still here.
    -The Gem mechanic has been simplified since XenoC: 1 into tactical stat buffs. No more fumbling around menus, throwing out useless ones or fusing them then slotting them.
    -This game has an insane amount of tutorials for half the game.
    -I like the new colony mechanics. Raising ranks to get better shop items, and building (pointless) relationships is nice.
    -Traversal takes too long. This game could use XenoC X’s vehicles.
    -The discussion mechanic bogs down time with extra steps to do basic quests.
    -The bonus EXP is basically just “Get more EXP from the EXP you already get”.
    -The Interlinks are cool looking, but slow combat with long animations. They’re like summons in FF10 and 12, meat shields used to keep the party alive.
    -Chain Attacks are horrendously long. The animations are not fluid, they take forever, with latency between selection and animations.

    ~THE COMBAT of XenoC 3 is the worst part of gameplay. It comes down to basic level related questions.
    ”Are you 5 levels below a normal enemy?” You win.
    ”Are you the same level as this elite enemy?” You win.
    “Are you 5 levels above the boss?” You win.
    People make bosses with weird and interesting mechanics to breakup the above formula. The only two interesting boss fights in the game are against M (whose not that interesting, just watch your targeting) and the Final Boss.

    The problem with the combat is that it’s flashy, slow and superfluous. Interlinks and Chain Attacks bloat the time. All the subclasses are pointless because you’ll never need the admittedly great and varied ideas they had for the subclasses because no enemy is special enough to need different strategies. On top of that it incentivizes you to just drop the controller because of Auto-combat. “Above the level requirement? Good, turn on auto-combat, it’ll be over soon. Unless you want it over even slower, but guaranteed, with the overly long Chain Attacks.”

    Story 1.5/5

    TL;DR: The premise is simple, but interesting and starts well. Later the themes are found to be only skin deep and the characters and villains are shallow. The setting is glazed over and no one goes through character growth. The midsection is bloated.

    -Plot. Easily guessable, but fine…till the end.
    -Setting. Unutilized. The world is made of the titans of the first two games, who don’t come up as a plotpoint. The focus is on the “10 years to die” aspect and Moebius's immortality.
    -Themes. They’re brought up only on a surface level with one exception. The main themes: Reincarnation, living a short life to the fullest , living for the possibilities of the future rather than the Now, people live on in others who knew and cherished them.
    -Characters. The main characters are bland, save Eunie. The worst parts about them is they're innofensive and have no hobbies or dreams besides their goals. Earlier I mentioned this game has a safety net; that’s their 10 Year Lifespan. Because they can only live for 10 years they lack personhood/occupations. The narrative uses this as an answer to the character’s lacking elements. Yet they stretch subjects of convos impossibly long.
    -Character Growth. There is none. The main reason being that because the colony’s side stories are optional. If any character development happened at a colony that was too significant, they’d have to change too much later to compensate.

    The best characters are mainly the colony leaders: Ethel, Cammuravi, Monica, Asherah, and Triton. The rest are bland to bad (Ghondor). Only fleshed out villains are J and M

    ~THE ENDING. The End was so insultingly bad I thought it was a bad ending that I could earn a good version of. I could go on for hours, but in short it subverts its own message of giving people more choices. They rob each other of choice, denying the wish of people that want to be together, in hopes of finding a way to get back to each other. Also, when did Origin, a machine designed to hold people’s souls through an apocalypse (and somewhat manipulate ether) gain the power to force two universes apart?    … Expand
  5. Guiltyghost
    Feb 12, 2023
    5
    - The story is not as good as Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 personally (as a JRPG, the outline is fine, but the storytelling is terrible, especially too much content is included in the side stories and the pace is not well-balanced. i.e. slow at the beginning, fast at the end)
    - Many meaningless conversations and some characters are not well built
    - Music is ok, but most are forgettable    - The story is not as good as Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 personally (as a JRPG, the outline is fine, but the storytelling is terrible, especially too much content is included in the side stories and the pace is not well-balanced. i.e. slow at the beginning, fast at the end)
    - Many meaningless conversations and some characters are not well built
    - Music is ok, but most are forgettable (e.g. XC1 have Engage the Enemy, XC2 have Counterattack, XC3? Unfortunately, Weight of Life is not well used in the story)
    + Well-designed map and navigation
    + Better image quality and motion capture compared to XC 1 and 2    … Expand
  6. WallCrouton
    Jan 19, 2023
    5
    What could've been a good game is riddled with excessive cutscenes, extremely repetitive combat/exploration dialogue, and just full of generic RPG junk. Walk here, watch a 45 minute cutscene, walk there, fight meaningless enemies, watch a 20 minute cutscene, do a really long tutorial, walk two feet to the objective marker, watch another cutscene. Combat feels meaningless because nothingWhat could've been a good game is riddled with excessive cutscenes, extremely repetitive combat/exploration dialogue, and just full of generic RPG junk. Walk here, watch a 45 minute cutscene, walk there, fight meaningless enemies, watch a 20 minute cutscene, do a really long tutorial, walk two feet to the objective marker, watch another cutscene. Combat feels meaningless because nothing has any impact besides combos that just make your enemy stop attacking for a while. Exploring is pointless because nothing you pick up is unique and the environments contain no significance. Class system is a waste of time and you'll probably just have to play a healer anyway to make sure the AI doesn't just kill itself. Equipment customization is pointless because there's basically no real customization.

    Basically just a surface level RPG with way too much filler. I thought it'd be a nice long game but instead it's just a long, boring tutorial. The long cutscenes at the beginning made sense because it was establishing the story and characters, and for a while was interesting. Now it's just "oh boy another cutscene", and put the controller down for a while. That's not a game. I got this because I saw how highly rated it was, and now I find myself doubting people's opinions, severely.    … Expand
  7. PageWizard
    Dec 23, 2022
    7
    I need to preface this by the fact I've played and essentially completed every Xenoblade Chronicles game to date. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the most polished the series has been, but unfortunately did not live up to its ambitions and may even do "dirty" its previous numbered titles by mischaracterizing beloved characters at times with underdeveloped plot elements. It leaves far too manyI need to preface this by the fact I've played and essentially completed every Xenoblade Chronicles game to date. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the most polished the series has been, but unfortunately did not live up to its ambitions and may even do "dirty" its previous numbered titles by mischaracterizing beloved characters at times with underdeveloped plot elements. It leaves far too many plot elements unanswered and feels undercooked in its execution toward the end unfortunately.
    -The world itself leaves much to be desired from a gameplay standpoint compared to its predecessors. It has an ambitious combat system that drags players back to the more simple gameplay of Xenoblade 1 and mixes it with some elements of 2 in ways that make battles drag out longer than they probably should.
    -The gameplay gets too repetitive compared to much superior combat system of 2 (or Torna).
    -I think the developers really went out of there way to present well animated cutscenes that are the best in the series in terms of production, but sometimes it is a bit too much and re-treads too much on the previous games in ways that are not productive at all for advancing the story. I don't need 3 cutscenes when I'm running down a hill that takes three times as long as they need to, just present one cutscene that does it all then take me back to the gameplay.
    -I think in terms of feedback, they over-corrected on potential flaws of previous games. The tutorials are way too long and drawn out for repeat plays. On the other hand, it is easily the most accessible the series has been since 1.
    -It never resolves plot threads that it should be considering, and leaves much to be desired for what it is trying to execute. Don't bring previous games into your game if you don't make it worth it. As a huge fan of the 2nd game that loved it to bits, to leave many core elements unsettled was strange.
    -The game could have existed without needing to bring 1 & 2's universes into this game, it felt totally not merited. The actual story it was trying to tell got dragged down as a result.
    -The event system for quests are a bit confusing at times. You try to find out how to activate an ascension quest sometimes, and it depends on a quest, but the game doesn't inform you of which quest you're on. This happened at least 3 times on my playthrough and left much frustration on where/what I was to do next.
    -The hero system, which is this game's "equivalent" to the blade system of 2, can lead players to become over-levelled for many parts of the game, making the gameplay far too stale too quickly. This is because unlike the blade system, the hero quests provide a ton of EXP up front through required quests you can at many times do at any time, rather than earning it. You can essentially just do side-questing with hero quests, and be way too overlevelled for the main story that you are walking through main quests not fighting any regular enemies. It breaks the immersion of the game considerably. Also the hero system, unlike the blade system, does not encourage replays in NG+.
    -At this time, there's little reason to do a NG+.

    The game, while a step forward in production, was definitely a step backwards in storytelling and gameplay from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which is arguably a better game overall. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a very ambitious title, and I respect the developers for their attempt, but they need to remember to focus on making the plot stronger and not re-use previous games in the way they did, it could have been much better. Without spoiling anything, the entire plot of this game could be rewritten out of existence if the previous games ended in a better way (that this game confirms didn't happen, unfortunately).    … Expand
  8. epiclegend22
    Dec 13, 2022
    6
    Xenoblade 3 disappointed me with how much of a step back it’s gameplay and combat was from its predecessors. The main problem that this game has is that all the characters feel exactly the same with the games class changing system. The problem is only made worse by the fact that seven party members are on the field at the exact same time. It ends up feeling like you as the player have noXenoblade 3 disappointed me with how much of a step back it’s gameplay and combat was from its predecessors. The main problem that this game has is that all the characters feel exactly the same with the games class changing system. The problem is only made worse by the fact that seven party members are on the field at the exact same time. It ends up feeling like you as the player have no control over the outcome of the battle. Teammates in my experience did not use combos, didn’t really know when to use their support abilities or heals, they never entered a buff circle without me guiding them toward it. The combat is just incredibly clunky and felt like it was on autopilot most of the time which again was not a problem in any of the previous xenoblade games. The gimmick of this game, the interlink ability was also not interesting either especially compared to the gimmicks of the previous games (skells, blades) it functionally just gave you an additionally 6 arts you could spam repeatedly until the time limit ran out, again this is way less interesting than the overdrive mechanic in XBX which let you extend your time in the skell if you were clever about the arts you used. Chain attack was also not great in comparison to the chain attacks from XB1 and XB2, they massively interrupt the flow of combat and basically boil down to using the guy with the highest number over and over until you get the same big damage cutscene at the end which is unskippable and takes about 40 seconds.

    Inventory and skill management are a complete hassle in this game. You constantly pick up random crap off the ground and your constantly unlocking new skills and classes and interlink points and every time you swap a class you have to go through their stat screen and change every little thing if you want to be meticulous and not use auto equip.

    The point I’m trying to get at with this game is that it feels like player agency has been massively stripped from this game and the interesting gameplay decisions you could make in the previous games is now gone in order to massively streamline the experience. Unfortunately this has made the overall experience of the game feel very mediocre and uninspiring.

    The other aspects of the game have taken a step back as well, exploration is not interesting, the music has a few good songs but overall is mediocre. The story takes a while to pick up and when it does it’s enjoyable unfortunately I find it difficult to get invested in a games story if I do not enjoy the gameplay.

    I tried to like this game because I like the other games in this series a lot but unfortunately it has too many issues to ignore.    … Expand
  9. Reed618
    Nov 29, 2022
    7
    I'm between a 7 and an 8 on this one. The story is good but they desperately needed an editor to come in and cut it down. By the end the cutscenes were starting to feel like a chore because they could be so long and so frequent. That said I did enjoy the story and loved the ending but just found the pacing to be kind of awful.

    The gameplay is fun but can get repetitive. Some of the new    I'm between a 7 and an 8 on this one. The story is good but they desperately needed an editor to come in and cut it down. By the end the cutscenes were starting to feel like a chore because they could be so long and so frequent. That said I did enjoy the story and loved the ending but just found the pacing to be kind of awful.

    The gameplay is fun but can get repetitive. Some of the new systems like interlinking work well but personally I think the 2nd game had much more variety as you could get so many different creatures to fight alongside you.

    I think there are definitely some areas the series continues to struggle with. The sidequests often feel a little boring as they're mostly boring fetch quests and what's worse is when critical path missions also turn into fetch quests. Find the 6 doodads so we can go to the place where the story will actually progress. Some of the repeating dialogue continues to be a chore... yelling about doodads repeatedly does get tiresome.

    Also, I found the last stretch to be a bit of a hassle. The final dungeon is just quite long with lots of enemies and you need to fight them all as the bosses will be quite a lot higher than your level when you first enter that place. Plus it seems like the final boss doesn't have checkpoints. I beat it first time thankfully but if I hadn't i'm not sure i'd have the energy to repeat that one hour encounter.

    All in all it's a good game but also a mixed bag. Definitely one of the better jrpg series around but I hope some of these problems get addressed in future titles.    … Expand
  10. OwtDaft
    Nov 19, 2022
    6
    + The story is pretty good.
    + The image quality is improved from the 2nd game.
    + Voice acting is really good. + It's very easy to become over powered early if you enjoy that. - The story though good isn't as good as the previous games. - The characters didn't interest me as much here. - Exploration was the biggest let down in this game. - The world is very empty and lacks proper    + The story is pretty good.
    + The image quality is improved from the 2nd game.
    + Voice acting is really good.
    + It's very easy to become over powered early if you enjoy that.
    - The story though good isn't as good as the previous games.
    - The characters didn't interest me as much here.
    - Exploration was the biggest let down in this game.
    - The world is very empty and lacks proper towns to see in the landscape.
    - Never been a big fan of the battle system in the first place, after so many games it's so stale.
    - Your team constantly keep saying the same things over and over after a battle.
    = The battle system been stale and the exploration and story been a step down from previous
    games, this game is a huge disappointment though it's still good in places. The story despite been a step down has it's moments, there is a very good story point about 2/3 into the game I won't spoil. The environment isn't as fun to explore but there is a more open bit later but getting around it is a nightmare because of the boat you have which has horrible controls. I really hope the 4th game reboots the series with a much improved battle system and a more interesting world to explore, hopefully on better future Nintendo hardware.    … Expand
  11. TmatoCE
    Nov 6, 2022
    6
    Tras haber jugado a todos los xenoblade y haber terminado el tercero recientemente debo decir que es una entrega muy mala respecto a las anteriores.
    Ofrece mucha libertad respecto a el 1 y 2, libertad para reclutar aliados y fortalecer el equipo pero la historia es terriblemente mala respecto a las anteriores.
    Cuando iba por el capitulo 6 estaba pensando (vale, ya ha pasado algo gordo    Tras haber jugado a todos los xenoblade y haber terminado el tercero recientemente debo decir que es una entrega muy mala respecto a las anteriores.
    Ofrece mucha libertad respecto a el 1 y 2, libertad para reclutar aliados y fortalecer el equipo pero la historia es terriblemente mala respecto a las anteriores.

    Cuando iba por el capitulo 6 estaba pensando (vale, ya ha pasado algo gordo ahoa empieza lo bueno) pero no, no despega y toda la continuación es mala sin explicaciones y sin historia potente.

    En resumen:

    - Historia mucho peor que X1 y X2
    - Más libertad que las anteriores entregas
    - Estilo de combate divertido
    - No hay grandes cambios en la historia y muy pocas explicaciones    … Expand
  12. Purshe
    Oct 23, 2022
    6
    Normal jrpg, that has good elements, which mixed with a lot of bad decisions. For example, plot starts as interesting dystopia with good battle choreography in the cutsenes, but poor and repetetive dialogue makes it ubearable to watch. Scenario is very standard with no major twists. Unineresting main villians and copy paste optional boss with personality from cheap tv show. Side quest areNormal jrpg, that has good elements, which mixed with a lot of bad decisions. For example, plot starts as interesting dystopia with good battle choreography in the cutsenes, but poor and repetetive dialogue makes it ubearable to watch. Scenario is very standard with no major twists. Unineresting main villians and copy paste optional boss with personality from cheap tv show. Side quest are better than in previous games, but most of them seen a lot of times in diferrent jrpg games. Some of the side quests are better than the main plot.

    The most interesting part for me was new mechanic with classes. It is interesting to finde New classes, mix abilites and create your ultimate class.    … Expand
  13. smahlt
    Oct 11, 2022
    6
    What happened? It's the worst Xenoblade game so far and by far. Every single aspect makes it worse than the other 3 games in the series. Monolith, what the **** happened?
  14. Zerpad
    Sep 23, 2022
    7
    After spending 85 hours to finish the main story, and then another 12 to do some of the side quest content, I'd say this is an average to slightly above average JRPG. The plot was the biggest disappointment compared to the previous entries in the series. I went in expecting something closer to WW1 theme, but it's just a standard high school JRPG plot. The colonies are differentAfter spending 85 hours to finish the main story, and then another 12 to do some of the side quest content, I'd say this is an average to slightly above average JRPG. The plot was the biggest disappointment compared to the previous entries in the series. I went in expecting something closer to WW1 theme, but it's just a standard high school JRPG plot. The colonies are different classrooms, and the bosses of each colony are the teachers. Most of the side quests and plot elements are basic "coming of age" tropes. Fortunately, the characters don't lean hard into common anime archetypes, or this would have been a terrible game.

    Combat is decent, but essentially it's mash buttons to win. Xenoblade 1 & 2 were similar in this regards, so you're getting more of the same. Most of the fun should be in the customization of the characters through the skills, arts, accessories, gems, etc, but it's just too much. Every time you change the class for a character you'll need to redo all of those things, or just hit the auto button and take what it gives you. Early on the number of skill/gem slots available to you are restricted and the number of items available to fill those slots is limited, so it was pretty manageable. By the end of the game, the number of accessories in my inventory had become so bloated that I was just hitting the auto config button and moving on with the story. Sometimes less is more, and Monolith Soft needs to learn that lesson.

    The game also has way too many materials/items with a very minimal quality of life features to track things. The number of items is easily in the hundreds. If you need a particular item, the game has no encyclopedia to help you remember where you found something previously. I guess they expect everyone to grab their phone and google the item location.

    I should also mention that this game does have many frame rate drops during combat. I played docked with an OG switch and mostly encountered them during battles with multiple enemies. Considering that you need some timing rhythm to cancel arts, the slow-downs do take away from the fun of combat and my overall enjoyment of the game.

    Overall, the game is a decent game to play, but compared to the previous Xenoblade game it is a disappointment. The high school theme made the plot generic and less interesting. Game mechanics didn't feel polished and feels like a haphazard combination of the prior two games.    … Expand
  15. Suprablock
    Sep 22, 2022
    5
    God tier soundtrack, great environments, good Gameplay, nice characters, poor dialogues AND another very cliché Japanese story with all its nonsense and over complexity for saying nothing.
  16. Chastizer
    Sep 18, 2022
    6
    In terms of a JRPG with insanely fun combat and a massive world to explore, this was a good game. In terms of the story driven game with strong characters that I have come to expect from Xenoblade at this point, I'm going to be honest and say that this was kind of a let down.

    That's not to say that this game is completely devoid of deep characters or great moments between them. But when    In terms of a JRPG with insanely fun combat and a massive world to explore, this was a good game. In terms of the story driven game with strong characters that I have come to expect from Xenoblade at this point, I'm going to be honest and say that this was kind of a let down.

    That's not to say that this game is completely devoid of deep characters or great moments between them. But when I find that half of the main 6 characters are just uninteresting and not compelling in any way, even after seeing through the entirety of their story, I have to say I am just underwhelmed.

    I think this chalks up to the fact that a lot of this game felt like it needed more time in the oven. Despite it's already massive size, it seems like bits and pieces are just missing sometimes. A lot of the side content kept me engaged, but if I were to charge straight through the story this would definitely be the shortest main story to date. I feel like that part of the game should definitely have been given more love. Especially at the beginning and towards the end.

    Definitely worth a play, but probably won't return to it.    … Expand
  17. Robertinho123
    Sep 14, 2022
    7
    First of all, if you're not into JRPGs, don't play this game, this is the most JRPG game to ever JRPG. It really feels like they threw all the JRPG-tropes and gameplay elements at the wall and seen what sticks, sometimes that works great, sometimes it falls flat. I loved Xenoblade 1 DE (might be my favourite game of all time) and 2, and I really wanted to love this game too, but sadly, itFirst of all, if you're not into JRPGs, don't play this game, this is the most JRPG game to ever JRPG. It really feels like they threw all the JRPG-tropes and gameplay elements at the wall and seen what sticks, sometimes that works great, sometimes it falls flat. I loved Xenoblade 1 DE (might be my favourite game of all time) and 2, and I really wanted to love this game too, but sadly, it fell short for me.

    First the gameplay, it's ridiculously easy to get overleveled, which takes away any challenge. I had about 20 bonus levels left that I never used and was still about 10 levels too high. If you play all the sidemissions, you're guaranteed to be overleveled halfway through, and that meant that I spent most of the fights on auto-battle as there was no challenge to it. As you can't unlock a class if you're 5 levels or more higher than the monster you're fighting, it also makes unlocking classes more difficult than in needs to be. An option to level down from the start would be really nice.

    Added to that, chain attacks are way too powerful, they can beat unique monsters 5 levels higher, even if they have more than half health. This makes it extremely repetitive, because instead of a tactical battle, it's just a race to the chain attack, especially with a particular healer class late game.

    Storywise, there's a lot that gets set up that doesn't necessarily have a fulfilling conclusion, as a fan of the first two, I'm a bit disappointed.

    Lastly, the graphics. The art style is absolutely gorgeous, but the limited power of the Switch means they needed to make some choices, and those aren't always the right ones. Some textures look like PS2 days, while at other times the game is absolutely stunning. At some points it's the most beautiful game on Switch, but at others it's similar to Pokemon Sw&Sh.

    The good: The characters, the first 30 hours of gameplay and story
    The bad: Became very boring and repetitive in the end, story didn't deliver on its early promise, graphics are hit and miss.

    Sadly, I'm a bit disappointed. The first half of the game gets a 9, the second half gets a 5, averaging out at 7.    … Expand
  18. Risax
    Sep 10, 2022
    7
    + Main Story is well told with interesting twists and turns.
    + Main Characters and their interactions with each others.
    + Beautiful & Interesting looking world. + Chain attacks and Ouroboros transformation are fun. + Gathering Heroes to expand an already interesting cast of characters - Exploration doesn't feel very reward - Receiving side quests feels like you're being given the    + Main Story is well told with interesting twists and turns.
    + Main Characters and their interactions with each others.
    + Beautiful & Interesting looking world.
    + Chain attacks and Ouroboros transformation are fun.
    + Gathering Heroes to expand an already interesting cast of characters

    - Exploration doesn't feel very reward
    - Receiving side quests feels like you're being given the runaround a lot
    - Side quests are kind of a slog, with many MMORPG style collectathons
    - Pacing can be kind of weird, with chapter 7 feeling pretty stretched out even without doing side quests.

    Overall rating 7/10
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a fun game with a beautiful looking world and a fun main cast, but the exploring the world can be a bit of a drag sometimes with mediocre rewards for doing so and sidequests that can be a bit of a boring slog. I'd say the main story is probably the game's strongest suit and I might've liked the game a lot longer if the game focused in on that a lot more.

    All that said, it has interesting ideas and I'll keep an eye on DLC and whatever Monolith might do in the future.    … Expand
  19. LaPinzaWea
    Sep 9, 2022
    6
    I dom't understand why people love this game so much. For me it's just a good story but generic stuff all over the place.
  20. wiiboii
    Sep 6, 2022
    6
    There are so many black VAs in the English dub that totally mar the overall quality & experience of Xenoblade 3. I really can't stand them, and I know others feel the same. Overall the game is decent but not amazing.
  21. TheLinkgirl
    Sep 6, 2022
    6
    While Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is certainly a good game, I feel like it failed to grab me in quite the way that previous Xenoblade games have. With their unforgettable worlds, stories and characters, the Xenoblade games are known for a certain level of quality in some regard or another.

    My unfortunate case with Xenoblade 3 is that, while all of its qualities are good, they don't reach a    While Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is certainly a good game, I feel like it failed to grab me in quite the way that previous Xenoblade games have. With their unforgettable worlds, stories and characters, the Xenoblade games are known for a certain level of quality in some regard or another.

    My unfortunate case with Xenoblade 3 is that, while all of its qualities are good, they don't reach a point that feels even close to previous games in the series. The music is mostly forgettable, the story is fine, albeit mostly cliché or poorly managed, the gameplay is a strange mess of elements that don't feel like they fit together well, and the world is just completely uninteresting. It's very sad to think, but Xenoblade 3 has left me feeling unsatisfied. I'm left wanting simply to go back and play Xenoblade 2.    … Expand
  22. Cobalt_Red
    Sep 6, 2022
    5
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 è un deludente passo indietro rispetto alla semplicità del primo gioco e alla complessità del secondo.
    Per quanto riguarda la storia, è il gioco più lento dei tre e con il cast più debole: invece di far crescere i personaggi in modo naturale, sembra tutto predeterminato.
    I cattivi sono usati frettolosamente senza dare loro una ragione per quello che fanno. Gli    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 è un deludente passo indietro rispetto alla semplicità del primo gioco e alla complessità del secondo.
    Per quanto riguarda la storia, è il gioco più lento dei tre e con il cast più debole: invece di far crescere i personaggi in modo naturale, sembra tutto predeterminato.
    I cattivi sono usati frettolosamente senza dare loro una ragione per quello che fanno.
    Gli eroi avrebbero potuto essere utilizzati molto meglio, invece la maggior parte sono anonimi o poco interessanti.
    Molti contenuti della storia sono relegati alle subquest, è ridicolo vista l'importanza di alcune.
    Dal punto di vista del gameplay è stato rimosso il sistema elementale, sono stati rimossi i potenziamenti delle armi, dei 3 set di abilità che si hanno uno ha gli effetti "bloccati" dalla sincronia per cui per usarlo con i suoi effetti bisogna prima usare gli altri due insieme almeno 3 volte di seguito, l'IA è pessima spesso si perdono le battaglie perché non vuole stare dentro i cerchi, l'attacco finale a catena di uroboros usa un'animazione lunghissima che non si può saltare e diventa noioso vederla 2~3 volte a battaglia, il fatto di avere molti personaggi su schermo non è proprio una novità (personaggi + blade sono sei nel secondo) ma nel terzo in certi momenti non si capisce un accidente perché sono tutti attivi quindi se si usa una classe d'attacco non si vede dove si è posizionati rispetto al nemico, stessa cosa per la resurrezione visto che quando il gioco diventa caotico perde fotogrammi, la telecamera si ingrandisce e si rimpicciolisce a caso.
    Se si gioca lentamente, ci vogliono 40 ore in modalità difficile per sbloccare il sistema di base (la concatenazione delle abilità).
    Le ambientazioni sono inferiori ai predecessori con poche eccezioni, niente città (con una sola eccezione) solo avamposti con differenze ma fin troppo anonimi.
    Il comparto sonoro l'ho trovato buono ma non ci sono musiche memorabili (a parte quella del menu che purtroppo vi rimarrà in testa per ore) così come il doppiaggio sia in jp che in eng, anche se non raggiunge il primo in inglese ma è migliore del secondo gioco.
    Il gioco ha troppi problemi di framerate ed è andato in crash diverse volte con diverse console (switch v1 e v2) anche durante battaglie con i boss piuttosto lunghe.
    Fa cose buone come la semplificazione delle subquest, ma non è abbastanza.
    Il sistema di classi è una buona idea ma non è sufficiente, basta avere uno dei 3 tipi di classe e premere i pulsanti che hanno le abilità impostate, non c'è tattica, diventa monotono.
    L'intero gioco è l'apoteosi di:
    Mediocrità, cerca di creare una storia pretenziosa e non ha personaggi o gameplay per farlo.
    Per me non è degno di un capitolo finale della saga, soprattutto quando alla fine ti ricorda che dovrà uscire un dlc.
    Di solito aspetto un po' prima di comprarli puramente in caso di bug o cose del genere e sono sicuro che alcuni dei problemi elencati sono risolvibili con patch o almeno per il gameplay, per la storia sono rassegnato.
    Non posso consigliarlo in questo stato.    … Expand
  23. Pokenight
    Sep 3, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is great. But it doesn't live up to the standard the previous two games do for me. I loved it regardless, exploring the world was admittedly better than it was in 1 and 2. But the story is where this game falters. 7 chapters isn't enough for a game like this. Just as I got interested, it ended. The villains are boring and easily forgotten.
    The main villains N and Z are recycled copies of Jin and Zanza respectively.

    I loved this game. But I wanted to love it so much more    … Expand
  24. Ughhh
    Aug 30, 2022
    6
    Playing the story is nice. But the fights are very boring with weird random stuff.
  25. Maestr
    Aug 27, 2022
    7
    Nice game with good balance mostly. It's possible to follow main story, side stories or visit area for grind. For example, I've not understood purpose of desert at all except grid.

    But there is one cons: sometimes too many cut-scenes. I did 5 steps -> cut-scene for 5 minutes. Another 5 steps and new scene. It annoyed. Another problem in battles: I cannot recognise where my allies are    Nice game with good balance mostly. It's possible to follow main story, side stories or visit area for grind. For example, I've not understood purpose of desert at all except grid.

    But there is one cons: sometimes too many cut-scenes. I did 5 steps -> cut-scene for 5 minutes. Another 5 steps and new scene. It annoyed.
    Another problem in battles: I cannot recognise where my allies are and who I am. Am I defender or healer. I would propose to highlight the active player in the list on the left-up corner.

    Plot: It's not stable. Sometimes it's breathtaking, but final disappointed me. I expected more details about the world. But it was ruined. Final ruined everything. It's horrible.    … Expand
  26. kefka_palazzo
    Aug 20, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A glorified mobile game wrapped in a poorly written, unoriginal anime featuring wooden animation void of any charm.

    I struggle to comprehend how people can place this game adjacent to achievements like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring. The philosophy behind this game seems to be ‘’more is more’. The world is massive for no reason. Textures can be seen tiling and often the camera needs to be so zoomed out I feel like I'm controlling little ants. Loot is scattered around like trash. Collecting loot lacks any specialness-compare to the magic of breath of the wild. There's no sense of discovery because there's nothing to discover. There are far, far, far too many cut scenes and interruptions to the gameplay. Open a door, cutscene, approach a destination, cutscene, take ten steps, cutscene. Most don't serve the story they only inflate the total length of the game unnecessarily.

    The cutscenes aren't very well animated either. Characters pop into poses with no transitions, slide over terrain and come to sudden stops. Expect to see lots of those recycled JRPG poses that no one in real life does - weird curtsies, hands to the chin as if in deep thought, looking at each other nodding in agreement. The action sequences, however are really really good! Battle is ok. Mediocre at best. The job system is fun but forces you to play most of the game with weird team composition. Landing combos isn't very satisfying. Battle feels almost automatic without a lot of skill required. The game is lacking any meaningful mechanics or quests. For instance, this upgrade system with the orroboros is full of false choice. Why do I need to select those upgrades? Just roll them out as I level. Quests rarely amount to anything more than go here and collect this. Throwing a cutscene into the quest doesn't change what it is-kill quests and fetch quests are pretty much all you get.

    There’s literally nothing to do but collect trash, talk to people, watch cutscenes and switch jobs. Nothing even close to collecting Korok seeds, or the magic of climbing some mountain and discovering something at the top. Exploring the world feels like channel surfing in the 90s. 1000 channels and nothing good is playing. The story is really really bland. It's a cool premise but anyone with average IQ can figure it out by chapter three. It's an overly long, oversized game full of filler content and yawn worthy storytelling. Is it enjoyable, yeah, it's pretty fun, but rating it anything over a seven is just flipping a middle finger to the real game design achievements of recent years. Call it what it is. A ‘’more of the same’ JRPG with decent presentation and thankfully lots less pervy stuff.    … Expand
  27. ah1ddengamer
    Aug 19, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is good but absolutely inferior to its predecessors.

    The story has its good parts but for the most part incredibly predictable and bland, it tries to make you feel urgency but in a game like this where you have the option to sidequest or explore the map for hours on end kinda makes any sense of urgency feel removed. As you progress you really start to feel the story fall off pretty hard due to the nature of its predictability. The best example of this is Joran when I say him I said that character is going to die, but not die and be an awful character, another would be consul N who is revealed to be Noah but not Noah and how the queens are evil but not actually evil. Stuff like that I was able to see from the moment I saw their appearances. Too predictable

    As for gameplay, I like the exploration but many of the locations in the game seem formulaic, there was not really a place in the game world that stood out and made me go "wow this place looks awesome". The battle system is alright if you played the previous game, but new players will most likely get overwhelmed trying to control 6 characters or even customize 6 characters. I do dislike that every character can get away with doing whatever they want and that there is not really a specific niche that makes the character feel more unique. An example of what I mean is in Xenoblade 2 every character's starting blade had a role attached to it that gave that character a unique way to play Rex was the attacker, Nia was the healer and you can mix and match secondary blade to either help a weakness they have or go all in on their strength, but in this game, the characters are not exactly forced into a specific class or role, they can do whatever with maybe stats not being as good in a certain role but the effect of that is not felt at all and seems that the game would rather just give you a bunch of classes to grind out for skills and arts in order to increase the playtime

    The music was a massive letdown, no memorable tracks for me personally, in fact, the colonies reuse the same tracks once you free them no sense of uniqueness between the areas. The song that gets me most excited is the triangle attack song.

    As for the characters, the main cast is likeable and seems to have developments that keep you invested in them, villains and supporting characters are boring and extremely forgettable they are nothing if you compare them to the previous game's villains.

    When I was writing this I initially was going to give it 7/10 but thinking it over 6.5 or something might be better, I loved the previous games but this feels like all the other mid JRPG out there, kind of a letdown    … Expand
  28. Zski
    Aug 16, 2022
    7
    I am not a huge fan of the Xenoblade franchise. I came in playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a few years back, and while I appreciated what it was, I thought it was very rough and aged poorly. I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for maybe 5-10 hours and gave up on it, I just could not get into it. So my expectations for this game were tempered, but the hype and the previews soldI am not a huge fan of the Xenoblade franchise. I came in playing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition a few years back, and while I appreciated what it was, I thought it was very rough and aged poorly. I played Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for maybe 5-10 hours and gave up on it, I just could not get into it. So my expectations for this game were tempered, but the hype and the previews sold me on it.

    This game really is worth the hype that it receives. It feels like this is the first game in the series where everything came full circle, and finally fulfills the vision of the creators. I can finally understand what they were trying to get at with the first two games because the execution is fantastic in this game. To start with the combat and gameplay, every feature is fully streamlined and I can finally understand the logistics behind them, whereas in the first two games I just couldn't really see what they were trying to achieve. The combat is smooth and engaging, and the class system isn't perfect but it adds a really nice layer of depth to the character builds. What I didn't like is that they took away changing gear and weapons, which tempered some of the progress made by the class system. Regardless, everything has been fully realized and makes for a great experience. The combat and gameplay sort of feels like a MMO. The game does a great job of drip feed introducing you to new mechanics, because there is a lot to take in.

    The story, character development, and presentation are all pretty good. They really paced the cutscenes pretty well, so its always a little bit of character development, a little bit of mystery surrounding the overarching plot, and then it goes away so you can continue to play the game. Some of the cutscenes are long, but they are engaging. The graphics are good, the music is excellent, the voice acting is solid.

    Overall its an excellent RPG. It still has its rough features such as the clunky animations and awkward banter in an attempt to do character development, but the core features of the game are so well executed that makes it a very digestible experience for those who have a tough time getting into the depth of JRPGs.

    EDIT: After close to 30 hours, I am changing the score from 9 to 7. All of the above still remains true, but I am really starting to feel like a large portion of this game is filler. It feels long for the sake of it being long, not because there is actually that much content. While the story is engaging, it’s spread out into bursts, so there is a lot of walking in an empty and soulless world and repetitive combat against routine enemies. When a game begins to feel like a chore to get to the parts of the game you enjoy, it’s a testament to game itself. It’s not a bad game, but it absolutely overstays it’s welcome.    … Expand
  29. MadMaxxieXD
    Aug 16, 2022
    7
    First off I'll say, the game is fun but just like Elden Ring, it's overhyped and issues are getting ignored. The writing and dialogue is shockingly bad most of the time, the villains are cartoonishly evil, characters just suddenly completely change their minds with no morivation, don't give necessary info or do not even sort of react to things that should completely wreck them. It badlyFirst off I'll say, the game is fun but just like Elden Ring, it's overhyped and issues are getting ignored. The writing and dialogue is shockingly bad most of the time, the villains are cartoonishly evil, characters just suddenly completely change their minds with no morivation, don't give necessary info or do not even sort of react to things that should completely wreck them. It badly breaks immersion in the story because it starts off very interesting but the dialogue tanks it. Then combat, it's very fun and addictive but my huge issue is the AI for companions, it's very bad and basically forces you to play healer in any non-trash fight because the AI will not use their skills right and you will die constantly because of it if you are not focused on playing a healer.
    There are issues with the game crashing as well, I've had my game crash 3 times so far at chapter 5. There is also a problem with overleveling, you can very easily get too high level and it not only trivializes story content and makes it boring, but you cannot gain class ranks or unlock classes on other party members if you fight enemies more than 3-4 levels below yours so you can have long stretches of story where you are not able to progress your classes because you accidentally leveled up , and sometimes it levels you up during battles, not manually at campfires, so with no way to lower your level it can really screw up the experience. Just to demonstrate how easy it is for this to happen, I just went and did all the question marks on the map indicating quests that unlock new classes, not even all the regular side quests, then went back to the story at level 48 when the main story had a recommended level of 27, most levels were not manual, and the game did not indicate that you would not get class progress if you leveled too much, so the only way to avoid this would have been to skip getting new classes or running from all unnecessary battles avoiding everything like supply drops or those bouts where you pick a side.
    That said, the plot hook is interesting even if the execution is kind of a mess and it is very fun still so I would still recommend it, but it's not the masterpiece some people are acting like it is, it needs some big fixes.    … Expand
  30. boxcutta
    Aug 15, 2022
    7
    I love the game. It's great! Battle system is awesome, plot is pretty good too. Why 7 then? IMO it has severe pacing problems. I'm around 50 hours in and the game turned into a cut scene fest. I'm just going from one place to another to watch some cut scene, after that I'm reading some text that summarize what just happened and then goes to the next place to watch yet another cut scene.I love the game. It's great! Battle system is awesome, plot is pretty good too. Why 7 then? IMO it has severe pacing problems. I'm around 50 hours in and the game turned into a cut scene fest. I'm just going from one place to another to watch some cut scene, after that I'm reading some text that summarize what just happened and then goes to the next place to watch yet another cut scene. It's ridiculous. It's 10 minutes of gameplay and 35 minutes of cut scenes. It breaks my heart, but I think this is going to be one of those games that I never finished.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best Switch Game of 2022
4
#4 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
89

Generally favorable reviews - based on 122 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 116 out of 122
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 122
  3. Negative: 0 out of 122
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 25, 2024
    100
    Ultimately, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 represents the pinnacle of the series, both gameplay-wise and narratively. The characters are another highlight of the game. They are well-drawn, with only a small amount of formulaicness. [Issue#321]
  2. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Nov 9, 2022
    100
    I began XC3 knowing I'd enjoy it because of the fun I had with the previous games. What I didn't expect was for this to become one of my favorite JPRGs of all-time! With its engaging open world, engrossing combat system, loveable characters and gripping story, this game is a masterpiece of the genre! [Issue #62 – November/December 2022, p. 67]
  3. Easy Allies
    Oct 11, 2022
    90
    Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a clear improvement over its predecessors in almost every way. It streamlines so much and avoids past pitfalls, though there’s still work to be done in terms of balancing the difficulty. There’s a grounded story here with a solid cast of characters, and the basic plot is much easier to digest. The world design exceeds past efforts with ease, and the implementation of Hero Quests is a game changer. While the devs have done an admirable job making the battle system easier to grasp, it feels like the series has fully explored and exhausted these core combat mechanics, signaling it’s time for the next game to change things up. As a whole, it stands as a phenomenal RPG with a one-of-a-kind sense of exploration you can’t find anywhere else.
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