Tetsuya Takahashi, a veteran of Final Fantasy and survivor of the Xenosaga games, went out to create the first Xenoblade Chronicles with the goal of producing a JRPG masterpiece. His team at Monolith Soft was charged with creating a game that would return the JRPG back to its peak in the 1990s and rebalance the mechanics and plot that had been thrown off by some of the genre’s titans during the decade.
The original Xenoblade Chronicles, which debuted in 2010 and came six months after the high-budget disaster that was Final Fantasy 13, exceeded expectations when it came out. Takahashi’s game brought back and improved the aspects that contributed to the popularity of JRPGs during their prime. A apparently endless fantasy realm with impossibly great horizons was constructed by Monolith Soft; it included stunning scenery similar to that of the game Breath of the Wild, which Monolith Soft collaborated on while working with Nintendo as a support developer. This was a JRPG with some very beautiful mechanics and an appealing spirit of exploration. It was almost a revelation at the moment.
Later submissions found it difficult to make the same impression. While Xenoblade Chronicles 2 saw its appeal limited by some of its more dubious character designs and the excesses of its story as it was crowded out in the busy Switch launch year, Xenoblade Chronicles X, a fantastic and fascinating spin-off, was held back by the Wii U’s paltry user base as it shifted the balance towards its open world systems. It seems that the time is ideal to give a cherished franchise its JRPG crown back, since Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is set to release during a rather quiet summer for major new releases.
It helps that this is the most accessible installment in the series to date; in fact, it seems to be geared at a player who has never touched a JRPG or even a Xenoblade game before. The number in the title feels strange and maybe even a little foolish; Xenoblade Chronicles 3 functions nicely as a stand-alone game, with deeper connections to the previous titles appearing well into this grand journey (and much beyond what I can discuss in this review).
Be aware, however, that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an excellent introduction to the series and the larger universe of JRPGs. It is a fantastical far-future scenario set on the globe of Aionos, where two kingdoms are locked in an endless battle against one another. Keves, with its black-clad warriors and steampunk remnants in its cities, is on one side of the conflict; Agnus, with its angelic white garb and more ethereal-looking colonies, is on the other. The warriors on both sides have an intentionally shortened lifetime of ten years, and they both anticipate spending those ten years fighting until their lifeforce is exhausted so that the cycle may repeat again.
This dismal setting gives Xenoblade Chronicles 3 gloomy undertones that permeate every beat of the game—a blessing if, like me, you want your JRPGs extra bitter. First of six heroes to meet, Noah is from Keves’s Colony 9 outpost, where he trained in combat with healer Eunie and hot-headed tank Lanz. But Noah’s real job is as an off-seer, ensuring those who have died on the field pass safely to the next realm while he plays a melancholy flute tune to send them off. He upholds this responsibility for the whole of the 50-hour Xenoblade Chronicles 3 game. During your many journeys, you will come across slain soldiers. When you do, you are urged to halt and send them goodbye with a few somber comments.
Mio carries out the same duty on Agnus’ side, burying the dead of the battle against Keves. The cunning Taion and the deceptively little ogre Sena, her friends and other partygoers, join her; the six of them come together quickly to create a work that is unquestionably an ensemble piece. The plot is profound and heartbreaking, with plenty of compassion for each character. It’s delivered in cutscenes that, because of their length, may evoke heavy gasps, but what’s really noteworthy is the scope of the battle, which is made possible by the large cast.
You have complete control over each of them and may switch between them quickly whether exploring or engaging in battle. Even better, Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s incredibly flexible class system allows you to spec out all six of these characters practically exactly as you want. With a remarkable degree of flexibility, you may mix and match here to create outlandish groups consisting only of high DPS attackers and see what kind of damage you can inflict in the rhythmic real-time RPG action, reminiscent of the Xenoblade series’ MMO. An ever-growing roster of cameo heroes may even occupy the seventh spot, which you can then unlock for your own range of classes.
Though all that depth might sometimes get buried in the hectic pace of Xenoblade’s fighting, it’s still a potential hacker’s paradise. This time around, there’s more mayhem as all six characters sometimes threaten to collapse in a barrage of combos and chain strikes. However, if you can find the correct pace and manipulate the numbers upward, battle in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 can be rather enjoyable. Alternatively, you could play it casually. There are other settings available, such as an extremely simple Easy mode and the option to autobattle through all characters save the boss. This means you could just spend an evening relaxing and leading your group through mobs for a fun and mindless grind.
It doesn’t really matter whether you decide to go more into the mechanical depths or adopt a more frictionless strategy since Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a pleasantly light game that is united by a feeling of globe-hopping adventure. It shares this quality with a lot of classic JRPGs, having a fast-paced narrative driven by the six main characters and a lightning-fast exploration of the recurring themes of the Xenoblade series. You have to break rings of destiny and cunning gods, or in the case of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, actual clock faces, in order to free all the Agnus and Keves camps that stand in your way.
You may interact with these colonies as much as you’d like, just as you do with so many other aspects of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 — or you can just keep playing. If you stop at the campgrounds, you could hear discussions that lead to a questline or just something to talk about when the six of you sit down to relax in the future. Stay put for a long, and you may establish yourself as you complete missions and go out into the wide wilderness beyond (Xenoblade Chronicles 3, like its predecessors, has the sun rising and setting as part of its day cycle). That flexibility and depth are what I adore.
Above all, I like the wildness that unites Xenoblade Chronicles, which is abundantly provided in the third installment. Traveling the planet is one thing, but it’s improved tenfold when the destination is as magnificent as Aionos, a medley of unfathomably large open spaces with breathtaking views of extraterrestrial life. The true appeal of Xenoblade Chronicles lies there, as it taps into a fantastical sci-fi vein that gives the impression that you’re playing through the cover of a Starlog magazine Takahashi used to treasure as a child or against the backdrop of a ground-level classic 1980s shmup like Darius.
There are the nooks and crannies of Aetia, with clifftop views overlooking endless meadows and lagoons. Can you make out the level 80 monkey in the distance, circling the lake? If you really want to, go ahead and slam him in the face. Afterwards, in Cadensia, there’s an open body of water you can freely crisscross in your ship, visiting the various islands and discovering their secrets like you’re playing a miniature version of Wind Waker. In Pentelas, there’s the striking sight of a Colony beneath a waterfall, with a full rainbow arching out across the mists. It gets right to the point of what makes old-school JRPGs so great: the feeling of sprinting over endless fields of tall grass with friends and defying insurmountable odds while maintaining a positive attitude.
It enhances the amazing spirit of adventure that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has, which is what really sets it apart as a JRPG. More than any other game in the series, this one strikes the ideal balance between plot and mechanics; even better, it combines the two into an adventure that gives every step you take a meaning. Though it may not be nearly as groundbreaking as the 2010 original, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is unquestionably another one of Monolith Soft’s JRPG masterpieces.