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Pre-Release Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Pre-release Discussion Thread (Spoilers from leaks/early copies NOT allowed)

Which side are you on?

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bellydrum said:
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Currently analyzing the first minute or so of the Direct. Lots of very interesting content that hints at the main story.

What are these conduit / zohars on their chests for?
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Characters

D
- character known as “Wild Ride”
- seems to have a rivalry with “P”
P
- seems to have a rivalry with “D”
- has what looks like a Conduit / Zohar on her chest with a glowing purple crystal
?3
?4
?5
?6
?Leader
- looks down on the others as if they have less authority or power

As a group
- work together to “stop its raging flow”, but are yet unsuccessful
- take turns making excursions in their Orouboros forms to an unknown location - possibly Aionios
- have glowing purple objects on their chests
- led by a single person, ?Leader

Dialogue

P: You were all talk when you left here. But you’ve nothing to show for it, “D”.
D: Oh, spare me, “P”.
?3: We should have <?> <forth? / fourth?> in the first place.
?4: Surely the turn is mine.
?5: I believe it’s my turn next.
?Leader: Honestly, you make more noise than the rabble at a feast. Even if you did stop its raging flow, it will soon burst through.
?Leader, to himself: Well. Let us see how far the flow brings them this time.
 
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Ok addendum to my previous post, thanks @snikdasnek for pointing this out on Era

Seems like the class menu actually continues behind the class description screen, so there are actually 23 classes shown there and Lanz/Sena are just behind the screen. Again, number is not even so I don't think that's all of them, but I'm thinking maybe only one more for the base game. 24 is a good number

Apopheniac said:
I'm wondering if it's a thing where taking a sidequest locks the hero slot to the relevant person and that's why the top slot had to be censored. Though it definitely could still be Vandham even then, since there really aren't many other characters who would warrant censorship like that outside of the queens.
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I don't see why that would affect the chronological sort though, but it could be something like that I suppose.

But also from the class menu, now that I noticed that it continues behind the screen, there's a spot between the 6 and Valdi, which matches [CENSORED]'s spot on the Hero list. And that's also a Chronological sort

Are we actually going to get a living Vandham? Or do we get some spoiler Hero character joining us right away, that they've somehow kept under wraps this whole time?
 
Ok, I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but does the new antagonist organization remind you guys of God's Hand in Berserk?
 
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Another new mechanic I noticed: you sometimes see two enemy groups warring with a sword icon and a button prompt reading 'attention'. It shows up where Keves and Agnus soldiers are fighting in the world, but also with brogs fighting crustips. I wonder if this is a mechanic where you can pick a side and help one side defeat the other side getting different rewards.

Also, the campfires do not seem to be the heart-to-hearts we thought they were. The speech bubble icon seems to be for picking up basic quests where party members share little tidbits they heard while out and about. This means we still haven't seen heart-to-hearts and they won't be exclusively tied to campfires like Torna which makes me happy.
 
Looks like all of the heroes have titles. Riku & Manana are Peerless (Dundun reference??????), Gray is Ashenpelt, Juniper is Ghostbow, Ashera is Undying Blade.

Hmm... I wonder if we've seen other characters with titles like those that might be heroes... Nope, can't think of any.
 
Apopheniac said:
Looks like all of the heroes have titles. Riku & Manana are Peerless (Dundun reference??????), Gray is Ashenpelt, Juniper is Ghostbow, Ashera is Undying Blade.

Hmm... I wonder if we've seen other characters with titles like those that might be heroes... Nope, can't think of any.
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Finally

Territorial Rotbart as a Hero
 
Colony Gamma is on Melnath's Shoulder, which is the part of Gormott on the upper level near Umon's Shipyard. It's shown later as the place the Lv. 100 Perilwing Ryuho is flying around in. The moss looks red near the colony, though, so maybe it's Melnath's Other Shoulder that we never saw in XC2.

Obliterator Centaurio is located in Agnus Castle Barbican, so the castles are probably dungeons. Maybe endgame or postgame content?

It looks like there's a meter UI next to the minimap while in the colonies representing who controls it. Maybe that meter is supposed to represent "awakening" them by bringing in people from the opposing nation. Colony Gamma's is half full on the left and yellow, but Colony 9's is only a quarter full on the right and blue, so maybe it's showing their strength to indicate the likelihood of seeing them in the field, or you reduce it by battling soldiers.

Affinity Chart has a button for something called "Collectopaedia Card." Maybe it's a trading thing?
 
That Direct was AMAZING. Just everything I wanted to see, plus more, and there's still so much we don't know. I don't want to spend too much time analyzing or discussing since I'm trying to be a bit spoiler-lite, but damn. I am going to spend an obscene amount of time playing this game.
 
Apopheniac said:
does, uh, the Taion & Eunie Ouroboros have a bulge
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We are literally creating a super powered representation of some serious boot knocking to beat up people who are mean to us.

We are literally creating the Jungian perfect super being by merging the Anima and the Animus, let me check my old notes on this..... Let's see, the Animus is drawing the sword of power (it has to be a penis... But the Animus is the personification of man within the woman, so massive woman power penis), and the Anima the personification of woman within the man.... Uh.... Ejecting his..... poison of illusion and seduction?.... So.... A Super powerful stat mage, the kind that works even on bosses. That's got to be what Carl meant. Anything else would be weird.

So in scientific conclusion from old dead psychology dude. Yup definitely bulge. That much power is barely capable of being contained. With that much power, the thought of not having a barely restrainable bulge is clearly absurd.
 
modal_collect_img2.jpg


This looks like a Collectopaedia Card. It seems like filling out the Collectopaedia is tied to NPCs.
 
Lukus99 said:
What if story DLC is an adventure with Rex, Shulk and friends meeting after the worlds collide? That would be very cool. I also put this in the other thread, but I have a feeling that Nia and Melia aren't actually the characters we know, but people made to look like Nia and Melia to be puppets in charge while the 'real enemy' rules and forces these battles. Maybe Nia and Melia were leaders after the worlds collided and their image is being used because they are legends?
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Came here to say this.
More: They're clones. Everybody is a clone.
So they are Melia and Nia genetically. But that is the only way in which they are Melia and Nia.

Crusters said:
We are literally creating a super powered representation of some serious boot knocking to beat up people who are mean to us.
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I felt like the conversation Senna and Mio had about wanting to take charge was almost obscene.
 
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Has it been mentioned that Mio's healthbar is purple at one point? She's inflicted with bleed so you'd think purple health is an indicator of a DoT but the healthbars don't turn purple in other footage when characters are inflicted with poison so who knows.

Also everyone's comparing that one masked guy to Grahf but they're ignoring the more important character
They added Reala!
 
So we've seen I think 9 Heroes so far (the 8 named ones and the Indoline Hero)? Based on the 23 classes "shown" in the classes screenshot, we can assume we have at least 17 Heroes (probably at least 18 in reality). We also know one of those is Cammuravi, and we can reasonably assume Ethel as well. Maybe Isurd, but he's less certain than those two.

So we still have around 4-5 Heroes left to be revealed. Eunie is seen using dual fans at one point, so that's possibly one of those (or the Indoline). Then I'm starting to feel like Censored Hero is Vandham, which tbh is definitely a twist worth spoilering (should've changed the sorting though if they wanted to hide it better)
 
Uh... there's a screenshot on the Japanese website of circle arts on both sides of the palette:
img_class-change.jpg

What is happening?! I recommend checking out the Japanese site, I also saw shots of the fashion gear menu (you can wear your military uniforms), and what looks like water combat against a new enemy
 
EtherPenguin said:
Uh... there's a screenshot on the Japanese website of circle arts on both sides of the palette:
img_class-change.jpg

What is happening?! I recommend checking out the Japanese site, I also saw shots of the fashion gear menu (you can wear your military uniforms), and what looks like water combat against a new enemy
Click to expand...

Palette hot swaps?
 
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EtherPenguin said:
Uh... there's a screenshot on the Japanese website of circle arts on both sides of the palette:
img_class-change.jpg

What is happening?! I recommend checking out the Japanese site, I also saw shots of the fashion gear menu (you can wear your military uniforms), and what looks like water combat against a new enemy
Click to expand...
Oh huh, that's weird. The class is Zephyr, so the right side Arts should be diamonds. Which just makes this even more confusing, honestly.

I wonder if it's just a UI thing in the arts select menu? But that would be weird, since we know the Master Arts do reflect the shape of the actual arts. Or it could just be a bug, the shape of the arts is "correct" in the bottom menu. My other guess would be an accessory or skill that changes the type of your main arts? With maybe a corresponding one for the Master ARts
 
EtherPenguin said:
Uh... there's a screenshot on the Japanese website of circle arts on both sides of the palette:
img_class-change.jpg

What is happening?! I recommend checking out the Japanese site, I also saw shots of the fashion gear menu (you can wear your military uniforms), and what looks like water combat against a new enemy
Click to expand...
Don't know what the talent art is called but I don't think we've seen it before. The icons show it's an AOE Break.
 
Apopheniac said:
Don't know what the talent art is called but I don't think we've seen it before. The icons show it's an AOE Break.
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Oh right, we still don't know how we've seen Talent Arts outside of their given class.

We know Noah's Infinity Blade can be carried over between classes, and is linked to his Gauntlet and Sword form. But Infinity Blade doesn't have Break, if I recall, so that can't be what's happening here. I was prepared to say Infinity Blade was some weird protag power-up adjacent thing (even though it was pretty lackluster for one of those), but this seems to indicate there's a more extensive mechanic at play

It's incredible how we've had a full Direct for this game and I still feel like we know so little about the mechanics
 
Apopheniac said:
Don't know what the talent art is called but I don't think we've seen it before. The icons show it's an AOE Break.
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The weirdness doesn't end there. The talent art is called Infinity Blade, the exact same name as Noah's second Talent Art we've seen except before it had AOE / Pierce with no break.

Also the fourth Zephyr art listed is Glow Ring. The last one is a buff art that seems to be called Speedster (probably grants Haste). But we've seen Mio use an AOE art that inflicts evasion down with chakrams.

@NabiscoFelt While we haven't seen Talent Arts outside their class, today's presentation confirms Talent Arts can be mastered while the class select menu is being shown.
 
EtherPenguin said:
The weirdness doesn't end there. The talent art is called Infinity Blade, the exact same name as Noah's second Talent Art we've seen except before it had AOE / Pierce with no break.

Also the fourth Zephyr art listed is Glow Ring. The last one is a buff art that seems to be called Speedster (probably grants Haste). But we've seen Mio use an AOE art that inflicts evasion down with chakrams.
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Oh, it is Infinity Blade? Then yeah, I'm leaning towards that Talent Art being Noah's official Protag Power (TM). Maybe it's customizable in some way which is why we've seen it with different effects.
 
EtherPenguin said:
The weirdness doesn't end there. The talent art is called Infinity Blade, the exact same name as Noah's second Talent Art we've seen except before it had AOE / Pierce with no break.

Also the fourth Zephyr art listed is Glow Ring. The last one is a buff art that seems to be called Speedster (probably grants Haste). But we've seen Mio use an AOE art that inflicts evasion down with chakrams.

@NabiscoFelt While we haven't seen Talent Arts outside their class, today's presentation confirms Talent Arts can be mastered while the class select menu is being shown.
Click to expand...
Ah yep, good catch. Zeon's Deflector Field is a Master Art. Since we don't have Talent Arts on the left hand side, maybe that is how Talent Art switching works. Or they might just take a normal Master Art slot, but that would be strange.

Still leaning toward Infinity Blade just being its own weird thing but the fact that we can Master Talent Arts is interesting.


Edit: Zeon's is especially an interesting example since it seems to cause some sort of buff state, "Awakened", which'll be neat to carry over into other classes. Wonder how that'll work with roles though since those play a role in filling Talent Arts. Maybe Talent Arts can only be carried over between Roles? Besides Infinity Blade, which we've seen on Attackers and now a Defender (with a different effect, so maybe that's why). Or your Talent Art just uses your role specific filling method regardless of what role it originally came from
 
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Immediately thought of Aion when I saw this in the trailer. It's shown during the voice over line that goes something like "how many more of you must we make an example of?" so I'm guessing this is some sort of "punishment", or, to assume less, some sort of negative outcome for the individual floating above the object in the second picture.

If I can put on my reaching hat - I do see some general similarities to Aion. Maybe since the Conduit left our plane at the end of Xenoblade 2, Aion is no longer powered, and is surviving off the "life forces" of Aionios? If @Joseki's position that this is an isekai holds some weight... and the similarities to The Matrix are not unfounded... could Aionios be a sort of "digital simulation" where people are grown for their life energy just to fuel Aion? Could the "end" of the game take place outside of Aionios, in the "real world"?
 
bellydrum said:
View attachment 490

View attachment 491


Immediately thought of Aion when I saw this in the trailer. It's shown during the voice over line that goes something like "how many more of you must we make an example of?" so I'm guessing this is some sort of "punishment", or, to assume less, some sort of negative outcome for the individual floating above the object in the second picture.

If I can put on my reaching hat - I do see some general similarities to Aion. Maybe since the Conduit left our plane at the end of Xenoblade 2, Aion is no longer powered, and is surviving off the "life forces" of Aionios? If @Joseki's position that this is an isekai holds some weight... and the similarities to The Matrix are not unfounded... could Aionios be a sort of "digital simulation" where people are grown for their life energy just to fuel Aion? Could the "end" of the game take place outside of Aionios, in the "real world"?
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How you feeling about the game? Your enjoyment of 2 is infectious so I hope this one is as enjoyable for you!
 
Lukus99 said:
How you feeling about the game? Your enjoyment of 2 is infectious so I hope this one is as enjoyable for you!
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I'm feeling really good about it. I'm trying not to give too much weight to comparing it to 2 when I'm playing it, because I want to let it stand on its own as a fresh new experience. I'm really, really happy that this Direct focused fully on 3's self-contained story rather than any connections to previous games. The introductions of these mysterious "D" and "P" characters, as well as their cohorts and their leader, made me even more excited about what's to come. There seems to be some truly evil stuff going on.

I'm very excited for this game
 
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bellydrum said:
View attachment 492


why they fightin?
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Noah finally did the required Xenoblade Protagonist Friend Zone of The Other Girl and Eunie is pissed. Taion and Mio are just along for the ride, I guess.

On a serious note, it is a really curious cutscene. My money's on possession, or maybe Evil Noah Dude has an Ouroboros form that resembles Noah's
 
bellydrum said:
View attachment 490

View attachment 491


Immediately thought of Aion when I saw this in the trailer. It's shown during the voice over line that goes something like "how many more of you must we make an example of?" so I'm guessing this is some sort of "punishment", or, to assume less, some sort of negative outcome for the individual floating above the object in the second picture.

If I can put on my reaching hat - I do see some general similarities to Aion. Maybe since the Conduit left our plane at the end of Xenoblade 2, Aion is no longer powered, and is surviving off the "life forces" of Aionios? If @Joseki's position that this is an isekai holds some weight... and the similarities to The Matrix are not unfounded... could Aionios be a sort of "digital simulation" where people are grown for their life energy just to fuel Aion? Could the "end" of the game take place outside of Aionios, in the "real world"?
Click to expand...

I really don't feel like Melia and Nia would ever participate in that.

Aion is just a weapon of war made possible by the energy provided by the basically perpetual motion machine that was the conduit.

The real oh no is the fact the conduit also powered the reality machine made by Klaus's team, that's constant application to normal real world physics made the physics observed in both xb1 and 2.... Well, exist as they did.

I heavily Suspect we are revisiting/reusing one of the concepts from xenosaga, where lives/souls need to be sacrificed to continue existence as it has been known itself, rather than feed a weapon of war like Aion, and the orobouros are taking the place of the gnosis, with the concept being turned on it's head (those refusing to accept are now the heroes who will save everyone.)
 
Really love the design of that one Gazel Ministry dude that looks like a demented court jester. Appropriate given the "stage" framing device.

Well no, it was a cinema, right. Those opening lines seemed to imply a kind of cycle. I wonder if every time NotFei and co are cloned, they go off res and try to end the war.

Rebellion coded in their introns!
 
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I think Aionios is a simulation, and each character has a "real world" counterpart.

The vats in Aionios containing the soldiers are "avatar" bodies that are inhabited once the "real world" person is "inserted" into it (by choice? Probably not)

Once a soldier dies, its "avatar" body disintegrates, the life force of which is absorbed into the "computer" of Aionios (........Aion), and the soldier "wakes up" in the real world..... maybe?

Or, if they die in Aionios they die in real life, and the "ultimate honor" of living through your 10 Terms and getting personally seen off by Melia / Nia is the way to return back to the real world unharmed.

All this would imply that Noah and Mio's military role of "off-seer" means that they play some part in the "fueling" of Aion using the spent avatars of fallen soldiers
 
bellydrum said:
I think Aionios is a simulation, and each character has a "real world" counterpart.

The vats in Aionios containing the soldiers are "avatar" bodies that are inhabited once the "real world" person is "inserted" into it (by choice? Probably not)

Once a soldier dies, its "avatar" body disintegrates, the life force of which is absorbed into the "computer" of Aionios (........Aion), and the soldier "wakes up" in the real world..... maybe?

Or, if they die in Aionios they die in real life, and the "ultimate honor" of living through your 10 Terms and getting personally seen off by Melia / Nia is the way to return back to the real world unharmed.

All this would imply that Noah and Mio's military role of "off-seer" means that they play some part in the "fueling" of Aion using the spent avatars of fallen soldiers
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Finally, a Xenoblade isekai /s

But yeah I'm liking the simulation theory (well, like as in I think it has merit. Less sold on the idea itself but there's interesting ways to pull it off)
 
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