Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a great example on how to create a successful sequel to a highly acclaimed series and keep the momentum from its previous entry. Despite being the third entry, this game is very friendly for anyone to pick up and play with a new cast and story. That does not mean that long-time veterans will be left behind with many lore call-backs and references being made. 

Thrown into the middle of battle in an everlasting war between the Keves and Agnus clans. You are put into the perspective of a reluctant “Off-Seer” Noah of the Keves clan. As an “Off-Seer”, Noah performs a soft ritual on his flute that sends off dead soldiers. This gives Noah a different perspective to the war than his team and this develops along with the story. As the soldiers from these clans are artificially born to only know of war, everything goes normal for them until they encounter a strange man at a crash site while battling an Agnus group. The man explains to the teams that there is more to war and even life beyond constant battle. From there the story finally opens and the truth starts to unfold. 

The story isn’t groundbreaking by any means and can be predictable but it is not at all dry with a lot of mystery and lore to keep you on your toes. To make up for it, the game spends a lot of time developing the members on your team. While Noah may seem to be the main character, the game follows each character of the team and their backstories. Characters from both clans are explored from their own perspectives. Cutscenes are long and there are plenty of flashbacks to deepen the characters.

A very pleasant surprise was the English voice acting for the main cast of characters. While not amazing, the main cast give believable and emotional performances that allow the story to flow without you wanting to mute the audio and turn on subtitles. It does have its faults with minor characters as it can be painfully obvious at times that the voice actors weren’t together when recording lines. However, those moments are go by very quick and are quickly forgotten. 

This game may not be a graphical showcase for this generation but that does not stop the visuals from being beautiful at their best. The art style of this game is very pleasing to the eye and hides the shortcoming of the relatively low-power Switch. Major cutscenes are visually impactful and have lots of heart put into them; very rarely does the game ever look anywhere close to ugly. Exploring the open world that Monolith Soft has created feels vast and expansive. The designers have created a world that feels alive with many creatures roaming, vegetation, and the iconic dynamic elevation Xenoblade is known for. A major complaint of Xenoblade 2 is that its resolution would go extremely low in intensive scenes but that is not the case here. As speculated by Digital Foundry, this game may be using an upscaling method akin to FSR 2.0 which makes the game’s sharpness look dramatically better than Xenoblade 2 even in the worst cases. The majority of my time playing was in handheld mode and that never felt like I was losing much from playing on a TV. 

In addition to the great visuals, the music is constantly enhancing the immersion and bringing the emotional scenes to life. Small moments like sending off dead soldiers become much more impactful with the Off-Seer ritual flute song playing. Adventuring along paths doesn’t get stale with music fitting the environment you’re in. Activating “Chain Attacks” add much momentum to encounters just with the fast-paced and upbeat music that plays when activated. 

As is the case with many JRPGs, the start of the game is very slow. With being an auto attack RPG, the first hour or two of gameplay is just positioning your character on an enemy and just watching as the character slowly chips away at a monster’s health in addition to using an ability every 15 seconds. For newcomers to the genre, it could be very daunting and might push them away, even though the slow pace is meant for you to learn how to play. Fortunately as the story opens up, so does the gameplay in a few hours. Once the “Ouroboros” mechanic is introduced, the gameplay picks up greatly and real fun starts.

The game teases you with the Ouroboros which is a beast that is formed when two specific characters bond with powerful attacks and abilities. Up until the game allows you to create an Ouroboros again, you are given plenty of new mechanics to keep you busy. Team members become able to bond and link with each other. This enables you to have a character use the move set from another member of the party including their weapon, clothing, and abilities. While it doesn’t completely change how the game is played, it adds more depth to character progression and customizable gameplay. Additionally, characters can learn new abilities to use but I found myself not switching them out often.

Each character has their own roles to be played in a battle and you are rewarded for keeping to them. If an encounter lasts long enough, a Chain Attack can be used if party members are using correct positioning and timing abilities with the other members. A chain attack allows for all of the team to attack with their abilities in a long sequence and depending on the points you gather from each attack, it could last for a long time to create a very powerful combo. There's a great amount of satisfaction in seeing the numbers rack up, piling on damage on the enemy, and even then given another chance to do it again. While the AI of your team-members is very capable, I found myself wanting to rapidly switch between members to create combos or inflict specific status effects. This wasn’t a hindrance at all and only added to the gameplay experience. 

Despite the slow gameplay at the start, encounters quickly turn into high paced and strategic battles where you are constantly switching control over party members to make sure each one is working with one another. This high intensity is sometimes hindered by the low resolution of the Switch. With having a large party, a group of monsters, countless attack visuals, and UI elements clouding the screen, it can sometimes be hard to understand and react to things happening on the screen. Thanks to the sound design and the character designs, it issue isn’t game-breaking but it is to be noted.

Exploring the big open world is a highlight of this game. You lead your party across many different landscapes and it’s never boring with lots to see. The settlements and camps become a drag when you just want to go back into the world and get into some battles. There can be fights between two groups where you can choose to help a side or even ignore. Giant high level beasts will stomp along your path which you have to avoid as you’re too low-levelled to fight them. Marked with a symbol, there are encounters to be found where you can “Conquer” the monster and are oddly satisfying to find and complete. While expansive, you can’t get lost doing a mission as there is a pathfinder that tells you exactly where to go and is optional.

For the main story, there is was never a feeling where grinding to level up was really needed with great pacing between big battles and encountering smaller fights in-between. The progression is never just as simple as levelling up a character’s experience as well, which adds more depth to the progression and the game really rewards you for doing so. Xenoblade 3 never wants you to stick to the same play style as it will remind you to switch classes if they are maxed out while at the same time rewarding you for switching things up. Switching character move sets levels them up and their attributes. In addition to party members, Heroes are characters you meet throughout the story that can tag along in battles. By having characters fight alongside a Hero long enough and they can use their abilities.

Further attribute enhancements can be done through crafting gems and the skill tree for the Ouroboros forms. During the main story, I was rarely sticking to the same play style and gameplay never got repetitive for a long period of time. As someone who is not of the most hard core RPG players, none of the mechanics, progression, or menus were cumbersome to understand. This is due in part with the long intro that teaches everything in a natural way albeit at a very slow pace.

There are countless hours of content to be had with plenty of things to level up, craft, learn, and find. Settlements along the journey are lively with people to talk to and get side quests from. While many of them will be simple fetch quests, they never felt forced to be done to be levelled up for the story missions. In a form of a more passive quest you can do without thinking, you can gift items you earn on your travels and get small rewards straight from the menu without having to activate anything or travel back to any settlement. 

There's a lot to be said about this game but all that needs to be said is that there is a lot of fun to be had once you get past the slow introduction. Just like an anime, both the story and gameplay tease you with what’s to come next every time you may start to want to put it down. I could spend hours wandering around an environment, levelling up my party, and almost forget to progress the story. There are still the shortcomings of every Japanese or action RPG such as a sometimes cluttered screen but they don’t take too much from this great game. The sometimes over dramatic story might not be for everybody but for the one’s that this game is targeting, they will surely have a blast.