Xenoblade 1, X, and 2, all had what I've been calling a "Gaur Plains moment," the point where the first big, green, wide open place takes my breath away. The surreal topography and sheer vastness of the terrain popped my brain in all three of those games, at Gaur Plains, Primordia, and Gormott. I can kinda tell the point in 3 where it was supposed to happen I think: when the music changes for Kilmarris Highland. But for some reason (maybe how narrow the area is), I just didn't get that gut punch reaction of "holy
cow this is majestic." It's gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but.. it didn't hit the same. For some reason.
The topography itself was another weird one. I've come to expect these impossible, imaginative terrain features from XB games, and as lovely as everywhere is here, it seems almost.. too grounded? If that makes sense? Not as surreal as before? It feels less like Xenoblade and more like Zelda. Which again, is not inherently bad (it's still a better game world than most games I've played) but it just caught me off guard how different it feels compared to my expectations. It's like all the "oh wow" moments that I am having with the terrain are not from the terrain design itself, but the references to the past games (the curved spires of Bionis' Leg, the hand of the Fallen Arm, etc). Like the individual areas don't seem to have their own personality to quite the same degree that places like Noctilum, Sylvalum, Uraya, or Leftheria did. And where's my bioluminescent forest, XB3?
So to be clear: it's absolutely amazing, gorgeous, well designed, but.. somehow different from what I expected. So it seems kinda strange even though it's
incredible. Also different is how the area music hasn't been quite as memorable to me as the other entries. Instead it seems like they went for absolute broke on the battle and event themes, which is the inverse of the other games where I loved the area themes more.
And the gameplay, they nailed it. This is the first Xenoblade game where I feel like I almost understand the battle system, and am actually enjoying grinding. It's awesome.
XB3 is also hands-down by favorite cast of the entire series.
By far. I'm also very much invested in the story, whereas in past Xenoblade games I was enamored with the lore and the world they built more than the actual step-by-step of the story and character beats.
So to summarize, and why this all feels weird to me, it's like they took my loves and expectations of the Xenoblade series thus far and
inverted them. In past entries I loved the personality of the areas but found their size lacking, here I find the personality lacking but the scale absolutely amazing. In past entries I found the area music to be incredible and the battle themes to be okay, here I find the area themes to be okay but the battle themes are absolute bangers getting stuck in my head. In past entries I couldn't get into the battle system, but here I find myself grinding for fun. In past entries I found the world and lore more interesting than the characters, and here we have my favorite cast in all of Xeno.
It's crazy how consistently everything I expected has been turned upside down with this game.
And I absolutely love it to pieces. What a blast this is. I can't wait to see what else they do with what they've set up.