ANSH JAIN

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Xenoblade Chronicles 3

To paraphrase some legend I saw on Reddit; "Everyone who loves Xenoblade knows that as a series, it's deeply flawed. There's so much stuff wrong with it, so much stuff that other games and other studios do better. But the fact we love it so much just shows how much heart these games have." That perfectly encapsulates how I felt when I played the first game, and it does so for the third entry in the series as well. Let's get on with the review.

This game was not at all what I was expecting, but I loved it anyway. I think my favorite part was how it made use of much darker themes and sadder moments than the previous games, which I didn't think I would like, but it made it a lot more enjoyable for a slightly older audience. The themes are more mature and well-emphasized, and I love that they chose to focus on making the main cast absolutely rock-solid this time. This didn't come without a price though; the villains really aren't that great and I have some stuff to say about the ending (more on that later). However, that's about the only criticisms I can give this game. Everything else about it was pretty much better than the other two.

The story was incredible, and it featured the single greatest set of cutscenes I've ever seen in a video game. That lone set of cutscenes is a better movie on its own than half the movies I've watched. The music was calmer and darker (to suit the tone of the game), and I actually think it did a much better job of conveying the feelings the developers wanted to instill in the players, especially the overworld themes. The cutscene soundtrack was also incredible, featuring strong motifs and musical storytelling that the series has never seen before. Visuals were obviously a series best, gameplay and quests were a lot more engaging, the voice acting is absolutely incredible, and damn if this isn't my favorite cast of main characters in any game. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is comfortably deserving of the highest rating on my site, and it's my favorite game of 2022 and all time.

(OUTDATED) My largest criticism of this game comes from the ending. The last chapter kind of dropped the ball a little bit, and the ending felt a lot more incomplete than I was expecting. On some level, I think that's the entire point of the game though; we're not supposed to know what's going to happen in the future, and at this point, we really don't know conclusively what happened to this incredible cast of characters. I do think and hope that the DLC content next year, if it helps address these points, might get Xenoblade 3 up to the 15 rating I was hoping to give it. It'll be hauntingly beautiful if it does; I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

(UPDATE) Alright so Future Redeemed really did redeem (ha) the ending of the main game, and just cemented Xenoblade Chronicles as my favorite series of all time (probably including the future as well). I won't say anything more for fear of spoiling this incredible story for anybody reading this; just play it. You'll be glad you did.

Videogame Reviews!

Game Highlight

Story: 3/2

Gameplay: 3/2

Characters: 3/2

Music: 3/2

Visuals: 3/2

15

I've played a lot of video games, and I'm basically addicted to my Nintendo Switch. Here are some of my favorites and how I rate each of them! My rating system assigns 2 points each across 5 categories (story, gameplay, characters, music, and graphics) for a max score of 10. I'll sometimes allow a single category score to go higher than 2 if I think it makes up for a game's shortcomings elsewhere. I recommend anything above a 6. Click each image for a more in-depth review.

Only recent/upcoming games

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