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
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. dannyusername
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    here come the people review bombing and calling the battle system boring without even understanding the mechanics past auto attacking. the exact same happened with 2, so I'm not surprised. if you can't understand the game, you should go back to fortnite!
  2. SpYdEr_88
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Un juego con un gusto exquisito, una trama tremenda y una ejecucion de juego excepcional! De lo mejor que he jugado en los ultimos tiempos. Grande Monolith! Grande Nintendo!
  3. esarbay
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Amazing world, amazing story, characters, sidequests, the best combat system in a xenoblade game so far. Everything has been polished from the previous titles, bringing the best RPG experience on such a small device as the Nintendo Switch is. A true miracle that every fan from the genre should try.
  4. AndGrirgo9
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Un mundo increíble, con banda sonora extraordinaria e inolvidable, historia inolvidable, personajes bien escritos y un gameplay algo loco pero cuando aprendes es una pasada muy completamente fascinante.
  5. cess093
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Definitely one of the best games of Nintendo Switch. The gameplay, the story, the characters… everything is perfect!
  6. Burninator84
    Aug 1, 2022
    9
    I’m only about 11 hours in the game so far, so this isn’t a review score of the entire game. So far this game is amazing, the story is fantastic, the voice acting is very good. For being on the very underpowered Switch the visual quality is really good (Nintendo needs a kick in the behind to get a more powerful system). I do have some small gripes with the game, but as a whole Xenoblade 3I’m only about 11 hours in the game so far, so this isn’t a review score of the entire game. So far this game is amazing, the story is fantastic, the voice acting is very good. For being on the very underpowered Switch the visual quality is really good (Nintendo needs a kick in the behind to get a more powerful system). I do have some small gripes with the game, but as a whole Xenoblade 3 is extremely good and if you play it you can tell MonoliftSoft really cared about this game.… Expand
  7. zeroreoxo
    Aug 2, 2022
    10
    Monolith Soft really listens to user opinions. There are a lot of improvements compared to Xenoblade 2 and 1DE. JRPGs are dying these days and Xenoblade is one of the game I enjoyed the most. Glad to see Nintendo values this series.
  8. gustave154
    Aug 4, 2022
    10
    This is the best JRPG for Switch period. Monolith have outdone themselves with this entry. This game has everything.
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. HunterSeeker
    Apr 6, 2023
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is a game that has many good ideas but the execution of it is rather sloppy. First off, it's really cool that you get up to 7 characters on screen at once all participating in battle. However, the story wants to be a super complex story but has many plot holes and contrivances. For instance, the game basically says someone has 3 months to live, yet the party is okay meandering around doing things that aren't their main objective despite their time constraints. There's a moment where the main character summons a sword from his chest; yet never explained why this happens. Sometimes, the plot only moves forward because the writers force characters to make absolutely asinine decisions. For example, the party finds themselves in the heart of enemy territory and all agree that they have to get away as soon as possible. But no, the protagonist walks more into the territory rather than running; he does this for no reason and it's never explained. The game features completely one dimensional and overdramatic villains. It's a darn shame that the counsel of villains all have extremely similar personalities. There's even a scene where one of the characters tells the villain that they would join their side cuz of "friendship" even though the villain murdered all the character's friends. Let me tell you, if one of my friends murdered my other friends, I'd be pretty pissed about that. There's a part where one character switches bodies with another character. It's never explained why this can occur and how this is possible. It just happens because the writers needed a way to progress the plot and couldn't think of a logical way to do it somehow.

    The gameplay itself is really fun. If you love tab targeting MMO's, you'll like the gameplay of this game. Exploration feels smooth, but some of the maps have issues telling the players which items are on which floor. One of the biggest foibles of this class based game is that when a new class is unlocked, it's not unlocked for every character. This is huge oversight because other games in this genre will allow all characters to use a class once it's unlocked. Why this game went against that good game design is beyond me. Also, the game fails to explain that you can't unlock classes if you're fighting mobs that are 5+ levels lower than you. This is awful design to an otherwise well designed class system.

    Overall, there's nothing wrong with a straightforward story. If the writers wanted to make a complex story, they can do so without having so many plot contrivances and plot holes.    … Expand
  12. JeffMD
    Aug 2, 2022
    9
    The game lays a lot of story out in the first couple of hours as well as unlocking a lot of things like all your arts in one go. This is great for vets but can be overwhelming for newcomers. There are hand holding tutorials for everything and while in the end you will need them to understand it all, it is just a little frustrating at times when you just want to get moving but you areThe game lays a lot of story out in the first couple of hours as well as unlocking a lot of things like all your arts in one go. This is great for vets but can be overwhelming for newcomers. There are hand holding tutorials for everything and while in the end you will need them to understand it all, it is just a little frustrating at times when you just want to get moving but you are forced to slog through menus to learn something new.

    Rest assured the game does its best not to fall in some of the pitfalls of xenoblade 2's systems (Not that I thought anything was wrong with it personally). Amazingly enough, at first shoving 6 diverse characters on you you would think you would fine at least one or more of them annoying or disappointing. After 7 hours I was able to find at least one thing to like about each and every one of them and can't wait for full backstories. The writing is really amazing, and it really needed to be because it can be particularly difficult to believe what these colonies do day in and day out for their 10 year life spans.

    Technically, we aren't seeing any BETTER visuals then anything we saw in xenoblade 2 per say, but rather the little things everywhere. Performance is pretty rock solid now, no sudden frame drops from busy areas. Load times are based on the complexity of the area so out in the world the load times are quite fast. I also have yet to see any of the texture load in bugs that plagues XB2 when you loaded into cities and cutscenes. I also think facial animations have been improved noticeably. On the audio front, I so far feel this is the series best sound track to date.

    If you are any kind of a fan of JRPGs, this is a must have just as Xenoblade 2 is.    … Expand
  13. Phuz
    May 16, 2023
    0
    Nintendo are doing a great job in recent years of ruining legendary franchises. They turned Zelda in to a walking sim, mixed it with Minecraft and took away the great music and made a kiddies empty fetch quest walkathon.

    Then Fire Emblem, a masterpiece right through to 3 Houses, which really brought it to the future, had these great story path choices, beautiful design, adding stunning    Nintendo are doing a great job in recent years of ruining legendary franchises. They turned Zelda in to a walking sim, mixed it with Minecraft and took away the great music and made a kiddies empty fetch quest walkathon.

    Then Fire Emblem, a masterpiece right through to 3 Houses, which really brought it to the future, had these great story path choices, beautiful design, adding stunning music. Then Engage happened and ruined it all. I don't care how good the chess bit is when everything else was ruined. Nasty ear piercing, boring anime characters that I wanted to kill, not save and in a fooking illuminous game world.

    Then Xenoblade, guess what? Yes ruined. The 3rd of Nintendo's best franchises given the **** treatment on the latest gen.

    How did they manage to downgrade everything from the Wii and WiiU? All they had to do was combine the two and ditch Nopons. The gameworld, graphics, speed and fun of XC X on WiiU mixed with the Story and music of XC1 on Wii. Instead they literally destroyed everything. I am really at a point now where I don't believe the hardware of Switch is as good as WiiU. I don't think the Switch is capable of the WiiU game world in Xenoblade Chronicles X. On paper Switch maybe better but in the real world, I haven't seen the Switch come close to XC X on WiiU.

    I am also starting to believe that people are paid to add reviews. Some of the reviews are outright lies.

    Great characters. If you're 6 y/o possibly.
    Great story. Yeah, I'm just 30 hours in and the story has done practically nothing and the cuts enes are boring as it gets.

    Edit: Got to 40 hours and it was still bad and got hit with loads of filler just as the story was about to move. Went to CEX and traded this junk. Good riddance.

    I can't even be bothered listing every part of the game. It is bad in every way. Go play XCDE and XC X and comeback and tell me this isn't a downgrade in every possible way.

    It's childish with characters and dialogue. With the removal of the old combat bar (I know they did this in 2 but I haven't played it) combat can feel like a lot of waiting around. Characters constantly glitching out and humping scenery. High quality but very forgettable music. I've never spent so long on such a terrible game. Absolute waste of my life.

    I'm not sure how so many people can criticise SAO games and then praise this because the poor dialogue is very reminiscent of SAO. Hollow Realisation is actually a better game than this though.

    Avoid this crap. Reviews are clearly from primary schoolers. There is nothing for teenagers, or adults here.    … Expand
  14. Flomo
    Aug 2, 2022
    10
    Unglaublich diese Jrpg es ist Perfekt ,Grandiose Musik,Charaktere, Grafik, und sdie Story ist Meisterhaft .Es hat eine Magie wie der erste Teil. Die Musik ist noch ein Stück besser .Meisterleistung
  15. Mcmardigang
    Aug 8, 2022
    10
    It is one of the best games of this year. Very good story and exellent tutorial for understanding the combats, that by the way, it is really deep and ejoyable. I really respect the opinion of other people, but I do not understand why Metacritic allow haters participate providing their useless opinion in this platform.
  16. Volcan24
    Aug 8, 2022
    10
    Excellent game! Great story, astounding music and well-written characters. Out of the Xenoblade games, it is definitely my favourite.
  17. felixmoysich
    Oct 7, 2022
    10
    One of the best RPGS ever made.
    Story,battle system,graphics,music,characters,amount of content, everything is top notch.
  18. MuhannadX
    Aug 2, 2022
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Characters ✅
    Story ✅
    Play Rate ✅
    Conversations ✅
    Play Rate ✅
    world ✅
    Technical orientation
    10/10    … Expand
  19. 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
  20. Thiago06
    Aug 5, 2022
    10
    Xenoblade chronicles 3 es una aventura muy increíble, con un impresionante mundo abierto y una historia que te impresionará cada segundo
  21. Sasanqua67
    Aug 5, 2022
    10
    i can't stand people who bash on games without even playing them.
    This game is amazing, good gameplay, AMAZING characters, good music, and nice graphics for Switch standars. The story tho, oh my god it's great, literally.
    if you like party interactions, good chemistry among protagonists and genuinely good romances, then the game's for you.
  22. Djon57VGR
    Nov 10, 2022
    10
    The JRPG at his paroxysm that give us a magnificent moment to link the 2 beloved previous serie entries. The Nintendo Switch allows us to have this anthology triology on a single machine.
  23. Andybody
    Jul 30, 2022
    10
    A Fantastic game. 17 hours in now. Great gameplay and story. Recommend this game. Don't listen to the haters. They don't even own a switch
  24. Monoblade
    Jul 30, 2022
    10
    Definitely one of the best games ever made,amazing story don't listen to the 0/10 obviously trolls
  25. Delsinx4
    Jul 30, 2022
    10
    A deep and sentimental adventure full of great and thoughtful moments with a beautiful soundtrack, recommended for anyone who likes good, thoughtful and humanistic stories
  26. Bob84
    Jul 30, 2022
    9
    Gonna give this a 9 from wat I've seen from the first 10 hours, extremely well put together considering the hardware that it's running on, coming from elden ring on ps5 to this was a bit of a shock but it's held up quite well even on a switch lite! Ignore the 0 out of 10s obvs not own a switch
  27. Dabigboss_1987
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Una absoluta obra maestra de la mano de monolith si te gustan un poco los jrpg no lo dejes pasar! el juego es espectacular
  28. nininiyy
    Jul 31, 2022
    10
    Don’t read all those 0 rating reviews, they haven’t even played it. The story is absolutely amazing and the gameplay and the exploration are perfect. Just play it!
  29. Meeeeee
    Aug 1, 2022
    10
    dear God they went hard on this one gg monolith thank you funny japanese man takahashi
  30. Shirohae
    Jul 30, 2022
    10
    Intruging story and extremly good battlesystem, requires some dedication to master!
Page:

Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »