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Spoiler The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Postgame & Spoiler Discussion Thread

Sooooo... the cutscenes titles have been leaked, but you can't realistically and clearly make anything out of them, with the exception of two things:

  • Klaus returns, or at least will be mentioned, after his absence from the main game.
  • This can't 100% be a prequel anymore, due to Ghondor's mention. It occurs me that it could still technically be a prequel but the characters somehow become aware of the events that will happen later in the world.

It's interesting because the shot at Aionios in the teaser shows what appears to be an Agnian colony in what used to be a section of Gaur Plain, i.e., an older Aionios, so who knows how exactly the narrative will play out now that Ghondor is set to appear.

Consul Duo must refer to N and M, and W probably will appear with mind clarity in this expansion, but will suffer something that rendered her in the state we see in the main game.

Either way, it feels like that something the main game is missing after Chapter 5
 
Síriocaz said:
Sooooo... the cutscenes titles have been leaked, but you can't realistically and clearly make anything out of them, with the exception of two things:

  • Klaus returns, or at least will be mentioned, after his absence from the main game.
  • This can't 100% be a prequel anymore, due to Ghondor's mention. It occurs me that it could still technically be a prequel but the characters somehow become aware of the events that will happen later in the world.

It's interesting because the shot at Aionios in the teaser shows what appears to be an Agnian colony in what used to be a section of Gaur Plain, i.e., an older Aionios, so who knows how exactly the narrative will play out now that Ghondor is set to appear.

Consul Duo must refer to N and M, and W probably will appear with mind clarity in this expansion, but will suffer something that rendered her in the state we see in the main game.

Either way, it feels like that something the main game is missing after Chapter 5
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Interesting. Seems like this will, at the very least, provide a lot more light on Origin, which is much appreciated.

Still hope they leave the ending relatively untouched though. Providing context is cool, but a straight epilogue to that would leave a sour taste in my mouth.

EDIT: Links to cutscenes are here, link to campsites are here. Cool to see that Valak and Prison Island are coming back, but the main thing that caught my eye is the "Old City Street" camp. Would suggest that the story takes place at a point after the original City is destroyed, but before it's completely gone like in the main game. Or maybe I'm just reading into it too much, I dunno.
 
Don't feel bad because you didn't know that haha. I did not happened to me but for example I was increasing rank in Splatoon 3 purely with Open battles and thought the other was just for the rank up battles lol
 
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  • "Matthew's Past" is probably in reference to Vandham, as he's likely the main character of the game here. So, in other words, Matthew Vandham is probably his name.
  • "Colonies Collide" followed by "Two remain" could very well reference Ortiz and Rhodes. The former probably references their initial fight, and the latter probably references when they're rescued by the other Founders. The later cutscene "Clockless" could reference when they're removed from the clock.
  • "Consul Duo" is almost certainly N and M, meaning the game takes place after the Old City is destroyed.
  • "Fusion" likely references the first instance of Ouroborous working between Vandham and Doyle. Given that it directly follows "Moebius W", its probably during that fight where Ouroborous is fully unlocked, and you kick her ass so hard she ends up in the state we see her in the main game.
  • "Consul from the Past" followed by "Great Grandfather" likely both reference N. That would mean that the grandfather Vandham references in the trailer is N's son, who was ultimately killed when N razed the Old City.
  • "The One at the Beginning" likely refers to Alvis. Given that Rex hasn't lost an eye yet in the cutscene we saw, this probably isn't the scene where it shows up, or it takes place after a timeskip of some sort.
  • "Ghondor's Path" is easily the trickiest one to decipher, as it could mean a number of things. Maybe there is indeed a time skip, and we play in the future. Maybe the "Origin's Memories" could also see into the future, particularly through the Monado. Maybe there's an entirely different character named Ghondor, perhaps even the 7th unknown Founder, and the Ghondor we know was named after them.
 
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Thunder84 said:
Interesting. Seems like this will, at the very least, provide a lot more light on Origin, which is much appreciated.

Still hope they leave the ending relatively untouched though. Providing context is cool, but a straight epilogue to that would leave a sour taste in my mouth.

EDIT: Links to cutscenes are here, link to campsites are here. Cool to see that Valak and Prison Island are coming back, but the main thing that caught my eye is the "Old City Street" camp. Would suggest that the story takes place at a point after the original City is destroyed, but before it's completely gone like in the main game. Or maybe I'm just reading into it too much, I dunno.
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Not quite sure here but the main game feels like it has more in common 2 than the first game, so, by the looks of it, it seems this one could be more linked to the original, which would be really cool.

"The Ark" is also something else that intrigues me, wonder if that's part of what is supposed us to inform us about "the future of Xenoblade".
 
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The new gauntlet mode is pretty fun and addicting. The final challenge can get exhausting though, I haven't made it far beyond stage 100 yet. The launch all mechanic seems to favor a smash focused build with shackle ring to quickly take out bosses. I've gotten pretty far with an elemental genesis seraph build but I'm thinking I might need a good keves class with mighty beat as a master art to get rid of the bosses later on. I avoid cursed emblems like the plague, but maybe some are worth it?

Kind of disappointed here after how fun Ino's stuff was. I liked the hinting at a connection with xb3 blades and xb2 blades, the driver and blade reference with Noah and Ino, and the xb2 battle music for the master quest. Masha just doesn't have anything like that. The most it does is give a little extra info on the City houses, but not a whole lot. Her being from the house that Rex was a mentor of despite having Keves arts is interesting. Maybe she points to what Cassini's founder will be like or play like in the DLC. All the xb2 references in the Ino quests made me want Masha to have similar stuff for xb1 but we're getting in Alvis in the DLC so it's all good.

The accessory crafting is interesting. I've been very critical of 2 and 3's simplistic single-effect accessory system, so in some ways, this is more like how I wish accessories were like in the base game with some additional stat boosts on top of their base effect. But it's so random that it's hard to get much use out of it, on top of grinding for blue stones just to make something that might be useless.

The first accessory I made had a damage boost per enemy in battle with one dexterity boost and three critical boosts. After I upgraded it all the way, the extra critical boosts put it on par with my pink rarity Thermo Headgear so it's basically a superior Thermo Headgear with an extra effect and some dexterity. If I could get some more stuff like that, it could be pretty useful. The flat critical rate boosts do some more valuable than a little extra in any other stat though. I don't think a little more dex or agility, or even attack is going do much in the end game when percentage boosts vastly outweigh the potency of flat increases. I like the overall idea though.

Interesting to see Valak Peak mentioned. There looked to be a snow area to the right of the Bionis Leg chunk so maybe that's it, but I think Corne Island in Erythia was supposed to be the remains of Valak.

My guess is that the DLC story will take place across two regions: Aetia and Cadensia. Set 1000-ish years ago, they'll be more complete, less devasted by annihilation events, and the environments will closer to how they originally were. So Valak's snow hasn't melted yet into Corne Island, Prison Island still exists, and more of the Bionis Leg is there beyond just Viliera Hill with the Kamos guidepost. It also looks like we'll have the original Colony 9 (well, the remade one from the end of xb1 anyway) going by the camp names. I think we might actually be able to see it a little bit on the bottom left of the Bionis Leg shot in the trailer. Black Mountain camp is between Colony 9 and Raguel Bridge so maybe Black Mountain is Tephra Cave?

The ancient version of Cadensia could have snowy Valak, Prison Island, and the original City (I'm guessing Old City Street Camp is the original City). We probably won't have a boat and they'll use that to reduce the amount of explorable area in Cadensia. I'm guessing the way to Fornis through Aetia will be blocked and we'll take some sort of transport ship between Aetia and Cadensia. I don't think we'll explore a full remixed version of Aionis as amazing as that would've been. The amount of cutscenes implies it'll be about the same size as Torna so it would make sense to stick with just two regions like Torna and Gormott.

The appearance of Moebius W intrigues me. She had a rather interesting ability despite such a small appearance. Could also mean we'll see a past incarnation of Ashera. A cutscene being titled Core Crystal is enticing too. I wonder if we'll see Rex show off a blade awakening. Hell, maybe we'll see Oosoo and Ino.

It's hard to say what the use of Ghondor's name could mean. Could be another character with the name or a location that had the name. Ghondor's frequent remarks that she hates her name made me think it was a nonsense name Monica came up with rather than a name that had history to it. Considering it's right after a scene called Origin's memories, I'm guessing there will be some time-bending shenanigans that will allow the founders to glimpse the future and throw a bone to fans who wanted an epilogue instead.

Klaus's World is presumably referring to the original pre-experiment world, right? Might we see one last appearance of Klaus and Galea before Monolith closes this chapter of the series?

Random aside, I've been re-watching Doctor Who and only just now realized Z is voiced by Son of Mine from Human Nature/Family of Blood in series 3 lol.
 
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According to the Xenoblade reddit, there are spoilers out there because of the data mine. The chapter titles for the DLC spoil cutscenes and stuff.
I didn't look at it, so I'll go on a blackout until the new story dlc comes out.
 
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The gauntlet mode is just too long. You can cruise through the first 60 or so stages of the final one without much thought or difficulty, but then it ramps up. The trouble is that it takes at least an hour to even get to that part.

And also, it now forces you to think about how you've equipped each hero in terms of accessories. Most of mine had all their accessories removed so I could sell them!!
I think it's a commitment too far for me. I got the S rank and I'm happy with that. Might give a few more goes as a way to farm the blue noponstone for crafting.
 
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If the DLC campaign ends up going all-in on describing the Xenolore connecting the trilogy, I wonder if they'd sell it as a standalone game. I still believe Xenoblade 3 made the right call in being mostly self-contained for the benefit of newcomers and leaving the expansion to spell out the broader Xenoimplications, but it would put the new scenario in the position of being impenetrable as its own Xenothing. TTGC didn't have this issue because it related exclusively to Xenoblade 2 and could be played before, during, or after playing XC2, but I'm not sure how that'll go down with XC3's expansion when the returning characters we've seen are all from XCs 1 and 2. It's possible to just recap all the necessary lore, but too much exposition runs the risk of overwhelming or confusing newcomers while boring the Xenoheads, especially when they're trying to cram it down into a quarter of the typical Xenoruntime, and it's easier to make that work if you can assume some familiarity with XC3 coming in.
 
According to the discord, some more hidden strings were found and we may have the names of the wave 4 party members.

1. Matthew
2. Ei
3. Nicole
4. Kagiroi
5. Shulk
6. Rex

What's interesting is Shulk and Rex among the six when we've been speculating it would be the six founders with Shulk & Rex only being heroes. My guess is that the Ortiz and Rhodes founders will be NPC tag-a-longs like Milton and Mikhail in Torna. This would also mean the party is still 3 boys and 3 girls like the main game as Cassini and Reid were said to be women according to the plaques.

The presence of Shulk and Rex implies ouroboros won't be a gameplay mechanic, or at least not the way it is in the base game. I know there is one cutscene called Fusion and Vandham (Matthew?) and Doyle are supposed to be the first true fusion but maybe it's only a cutscene thing while summoning an ouroboros as a stand like what Matthew does in the trailer will be a new mechanic that Shulk and Rex have their own equivalents for (like Shulk could just be a stance for activating Monado Arts).

The Na'el character mentioned in the cutscene titles is notably absent here. I saw some speculating that was Doyle's name.

It's also possible some of these might not be final or fully translated. The artwork of Masha found in the last batch of DLC was named Dillon.
 
EtherPenguin said:
According to the discord, some more hidden strings were found and we may have the names of the wave 4 party members.

1. Matthew
2. Ei
3. Nicole
4. Kagiroi
5. Shulk
6. Rex

What's interesting is Shulk and Rex among the six when we've been speculating it would be the six founders with Shulk & Rex only being heroes. My guess is that the Ortiz and Rhodes founders will be NPC tag-a-longs like Milton and Mikhail in Torna. This would also mean the party is still 3 boys and 3 girls like the main game as Cassini and Reid were said to be women according to the plaques.

The presence of Shulk and Rex implies ouroboros won't be a gameplay mechanic, or at least not the way it is in the base game. I know there is one cutscene called Fusion and Vandham (Matthew?) and Doyle are supposed to be the first true fusion but maybe it's only a cutscene thing while summoning an ouroboros as a stand like what Matthew does in the trailer will be a new mechanic that Shulk and Rex have their own equivalents for (like Shulk could just be a stance for activating Monado Arts).

The Na'el character mentioned in the cutscene titles is notably absent here. I saw some speculating that was Doyle's name.

It's also possible some of these might not be final or fully translated. The artwork of Masha found in the last batch of DLC was named Dillon.
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Woo playable Shulk and Rex! I mean, they wouldn't have actually done a DLC with them being seen but not playable (despite what people were saying about the lore aspect) but it's good to get seeming confirmation

It does bring up questions about Ouroboros not being a thing this time around, but I think we were all expecting some sort of gameplay shakeup anyways. I think the Ouroboros Stand thing makes sense (Monado Arts and Blade mechanics seem like a good way for Shulk and Rex to emulate that)
 
EtherPenguin said:
According to the discord, some more hidden strings were found and we may have the names of the wave 4 party members.

1. Matthew
2. Ei
3. Nicole
4. Kagiroi
5. Shulk
6. Rex

What's interesting is Shulk and Rex among the six when we've been speculating it would be the six founders with Shulk & Rex only being heroes. My guess is that the Ortiz and Rhodes founders will be NPC tag-a-longs like Milton and Mikhail in Torna. This would also mean the party is still 3 boys and 3 girls like the main game as Cassini and Reid were said to be women according to the plaques.

The presence of Shulk and Rex implies ouroboros won't be a gameplay mechanic, or at least not the way it is in the base game. I know there is one cutscene called Fusion and Vandham (Matthew?) and Doyle are supposed to be the first true fusion but maybe it's only a cutscene thing while summoning an ouroboros as a stand like what Matthew does in the trailer will be a new mechanic that Shulk and Rex have their own equivalents for (like Shulk could just be a stance for activating Monado Arts).

The Na'el character mentioned in the cutscene titles is notably absent here. I saw some speculating that was Doyle's name.

It's also possible some of these might not be final or fully translated. The artwork of Masha found in the last batch of DLC was named Dillon.
Click to expand...
Maybe it could be a tag mechanic for Shulk and Rex? They can't transform themselves so maybe pressing the left dpad makes them switch out with their transformed pupils, who can't fight untransformed for whatever reason (too young? not trained to fight?)

In my mind it doesn't make much sense to call them liberators and make statues in their honor if they were mere spectators who didn't participate. Plus I don't like the idea of only getting 4 new Ouroboros designs. They ended up being my favorite part of the battle system after I started making Ouroboros centric parties.

We might also be simply jumping the gun here, considering neither Nicole nor Kagiroi sound like they coul be Ortiz's real name (female name and agnian name respectively), and those strings are simply not the full fixed party (maybe just the initial party). The statue descriptions of Ortiz and Rhodes even described their potential fighting style, and called them soldiers. So I'll be very surprised if they are just npc tagalongs.

Torna did have more playable characters than base 2 at the cost of complexity. So maybe we can have more than 6 this time.
 
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Renmazuo said:
Maybe it could be a tag mechanic for Shulk and Rex? They can't transform themselves so maybe pressing the left dpad makes them switch out with their transformed pupils, who can't fight untransformed for whatever reason (too young? not trained to fight?)

In my mind it doesn't make much sense to call them liberators and make statues in their honor if they were mere spectators who didn't participate. Plus I don't like the idea of only getting 4 new Ouroboros designs. They ended up being my favorite part of the battle system after I started making Ouroboros centric parties.

We might also be simply jumping the gun here, considering neither Nicole nor Kagiroi sound like they coul be Ortiz's real name (female name and agnian name respectively), and those strings are simply not the full fixed party (maybe just the initial party). The statue descriptions of Ortiz and Rhodes even described their potential fighting style, and called them soldiers. So I'll be very surprised if they are just npc tagalongs.

Torna did have more playable characters than base 2 at the cost of complexity. So maybe we can have more than 6 this time.
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The idea of tagging out sounds plausible and would keep most of the gameplay intact though it seems a bit unnecessarily complicated. Seems like the kind of thing they'd force in there when they want both the ouroboros mechanics to remain the same while also offering playable Shulk and Rex. But that's probably exactly what they're doing. I wonder if they would have all eight running around on the field together so they can swap out at any time.

Maybe it is Ortiz and Rhodes instead of Cassini and Reid though. The thing throwing me off is none of the names seem like good a good fit for Ortiz who's supposed to be a Kevesi boy. The only western masculine name is Matthew who is undoubtedly Vandham. Then again all of the founder houses have European names despite two having very Japanese first names.

I thought the mentions of Ortiz and Rhode's playstyles could be interpreted as out-of-battle utilities instead. Ortiz's plaque mentions him making his own weapon which made me think he could fulfill a Riku-like role of being a mechanic and gem crafter. Then I could see Rhodes focus on medicine being a replacement for cooking where she mixes poultices with various pouch effects. But it could very well be Reid and Cassini who end up as the tag-a-longs.

The other thing is that the fusion cutscene doesn't happen until halfway through the campaign which seems a long time to wait until getting the full battle system.
 
EtherPenguin said:
The idea of tagging out sounds plausible and would keep most of the gameplay intact though it seems a bit unnecessarily complicated. Seems like the kind of thing they'd force in there when they want both the ouroboros mechanics to remain the same while also offering playable Shulk and Rex. But that's probably exactly what they're doing. I wonder if they would have all eight running around on the field together so they can swap out at any time.

Maybe it is Ortiz and Rhodes instead of Cassini and Reid though. The thing throwing me off is none of the names seem like good a good fit for Ortiz who's supposed to be a Kevesi boy. The only western masculine name is Matthew who is undoubtedly Vandham. Then again all of the founder houses have European names despite two having very Japanese first names.

I thought the mentions of Ortiz and Rhode's playstyles could be interpreted as out-of-battle utilities instead. Ortiz's plaque mentions him making his own weapon which made me think he could fulfill a Riku-like role of being a mechanic and gem crafter. Then I could see Rhodes focus on medicine being a replacement for cooking where she mixes poultices with various pouch effects. But it could very well be Reid and Cassini who end up as the tag-a-longs.

The other thing is that the fusion cutscene doesn't happen until halfway through the campaign which seems a long time to wait until getting the full battle system.
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If we assume that Ouroboros worked individually then, maybe fusion doesn't unlock a whole new part of the battle system, maybe it will just be a combined fusion special attack kinda like in Torna when Team Addam and Team Hugo learned combined level 4s with their blades halfway through the story.

While Ortiz and Rhodes being just camp utility sounds plausible it's... I dunno. For starters Ortiz statue says he himself fought with that weapon he created so that would be kind of a bait and switch. Plus in my mind it just seems very silly if all 6 Ouroboros weren't playable, you know? They made a big deal out of it in base game how precious they were because there could only be 6 of them at a time, then in the expansion we will only get to play as four of them while the other two are reduced to Milton tier? After being given statues and everything? Seems a bit suspect honestly.
 
Renmazuo said:
If we assume that Ouroboros worked individually then, maybe fusion doesn't unlock a whole new part of the battle system, maybe it will just be a combined fusion special attack kinda like in Torna when Team Addam and Team Hugo learned combined level 4s with their blades halfway through the story.

While Ortiz and Rhodes being just camp utility sounds plausible it's... I dunno. For starters Ortiz statue says he himself fought with that weapon he created so that would be kind of a bait and switch. Plus in my mind it just seems very silly if all 6 Ouroboros weren't playable, you know? They made a big deal out of it in base game how precious they were because there could only be 6 of them at a time, then in the expansion we will only get to play as four of them while the other two are reduced to Milton tier? After being given statues and everything? Seems a bit suspect honestly.
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I get where you're coming from. The founders were the six ouroboros of their time and it made sense that we would play as them. Shulk and Rex being among the six party members here really threw me for a loop. Just a few weeks ago I was thinking Reid and Cassini would be the protagonists of this story. But it seems one pair will have to be reduced nearly to Milton tier to make Shulk and Rex fit.

Unfortunately, we probably have like half a year to wait to find out lol
 
If we've got six playable characters, and three of them are Shulk, Rex, and the Vandham founder, then I have to assume the other three are the three remaining Founders who got their own statues. Reid and Cassini are probably going to be Mikhail and Milton-style NPC companions.
 
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EtherPenguin said:
I get where you're coming from. The founders were the six ouroboros of their time and it made sense that we would play as them. Shulk and Rex being among the six party members here really threw me for a loop. Just a few weeks ago I was thinking Reid and Cassini would be the protagonists of this story. But it seems one pair will have to be reduced nearly to Milton tier to make Shulk and Rex fit.

Unfortunately, we probably have like half a year to wait to find out lol
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If anything, I think Shulk and Rex are the ones who might be reduced to Milton tier. Though I doubt they’d go that far; most likely, they’d be the additional heroes for at least the main part of the expansion.

EDIT: wait nvm this is what i get for not scrolling up lol

We’ll see what they end up doing with the odd founders out, if anything. If those datamined names are real, I’m starting to think things are nowhere near as straightforward as we assumed.
 
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Just finished the Gauntlet on Medium. The last fight is incredibly hard, easily the hardest fight in the game.
Earned over 40k noponstone from it. Will probably need to spend that on the emblems if I want to have a chance on Hard. I'm thinking the one that lowers the boss HP but increases the regular enemy HP is the way to go (I didn't even have it unlocked on my run). I damage cap smashed in the final stage and didn't even take out a quarter of the enemy's health istg


Meanwhile Enel soloed the whole thing with an evasion tank Full Metal Jaguar
 
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Alright, after taking a break for a few months I finally got around to finishing the game

This is my favorite ending of the trilogy, I loved it. Those last scenes hit really hard, very bittersweet, but it just felt right. That was a beautiful way to wrap it all up.

I know there was some disappointment that they didn't go hard with the Xenolore, but they wanted to give and Noah and everyone their own adventure with some fanservice on the side. They used the two worlds as a vehicle to tell a new story and it turned out really well.

The major weak-point, as we've been saying since launch, is of course the villains. The weird thing is that once they revealed what Moebius actually is, I actually really dig the idea of what they were going for, it's just the execution that was poor. It's the embodiment of the collective consciousness's fear of change and uncertainty given form, that's a cool concept and I really liked what they did with it thematically in the end, but they screwed up big time by only giving us a bunch of lame mustache-twirling clowns as villains

What it needed was a big bad with charisma, someone we could empathize with their reasoning for maintaining the Endless Now to create a more interesting struggle between them and the gang. N was supposed to be this, but his angsty incel routine aint gonna cut it when he just ends up as yet another super evil dude until his face turn at the end. Z sucks because he's not a person, he just exists and that's boring. A main villain that's actually vulnerable and human would have done a lot more for the story, instead we just get another caricature

I got a lot of theories about the DLC, really curious to see where that goes considering how the base game ended
 
RochHoch said:
What it needed was a big bad with charisma, someone we could empathize with their reasoning for maintaining the Endless Now to create a more interesting struggle between them and the gang.
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Shania's right there.
 
Finally sitting down to tackle the new DLC and I was very underwhelmed by Masha’s hero quest. That was a whole lot of nothing for a character that wasn’t very entertaining. Wasn’t expecting where she fit in the game and then they did nothing with it. Oh well. I’m excited to try out the new mode though. Sounds big from the few posts on it here.

Also I really appreciate you all putting the datamine stuff behind spoiler tags. Wasn’t aware and hadn’t considered we’d get Wave 4 info in this Wave. Going to avoid clicking on it.
 
@EtherPenguin
Have you completed the pro gauntlet on hard yet?
I made a run at it today, made it to 130 before wiping.

I can barely counter the ridiculous heal these bosses have once enraged. Their health chips away so slowly that the noponwatch just ends the fight. I'm at a loss, the only thing I can think is that stacking Moneybags might give me enough of a damage increase to overcome. I went into that fight with a lower-level moneybags (I think it was 40%, hadn't updated it in the store yet) and 50,000 points.
If it's not that, then I think a gimmick build is the only way to go. I haven't even tried running it as a top-tier attacker because I'm pretty sure the aggro will just straight kill me (unless you do the full metal jaguar evasion thing)
 
catonkatonk said:
@EtherPenguin
Have you completed the pro gauntlet on hard yet?
I made a run at it today, made it to 130 before wiping.

I can barely counter the ridiculous heal these bosses have once enraged. Their health chips away so slowly that the noponwatch just ends the fight. I'm at a loss, the only thing I can think is that stacking Moneybags might give me enough of a damage increase to overcome. I went into that fight with a lower-level moneybags (I think it was 40%, hadn't updated it in the store yet) and 50,000 points.
If it's not that, then I think a gimmick build is the only way to go. I haven't even tried running it as a top-tier attacker because I'm pretty sure the aggro will just straight kill me (unless you do the full metal jaguar evasion thing)
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Hey, sorry it took a few days to respond. The farthest I got on hard was stage 120. Admittedly life's been crazy and I haven't had a lot of free time as opposed to last year when the game came out during a window of being unemployed. So I haven't done as much experimenting with challenge mode as I would like, I've barely even touched Fire Emblem Engage (Not that it's been all bad, this is the most social I've been since the pandemic lol).

I ended up sticking with my Element Genesis Seraph. I have been focusing purely on attack and wiping enemies out before they have a chance to kill me and I don't use any defenders. I have a Gust Bracelet, Shackle Ring, and a custom accessory that boosts attack 37% while also having some dex and crit rate (my crit's around 45%). For skills, I have Ultimate Quigong (EG is physical for some reason), Cypher Edge, and Capable Hands. On normal I used Protector's Pride but I think Capable Hands might be better to have EG ready to go, I'm going back and forth on whether that's right. I'd consider ditching Cypher Edge if I could get a custom attack accessory with more crit on it. Gems are empowered combo (cancel bonus is an independent multiplier like in 2), swelling blessing (should boost the attack, defense, and recharge rate from Awakening), and analyze weakness.

My arts are the standard EG seraph setup: Quickshot + Flamelord, Summon Element + Inferno Dance, Cross Impact + Leveling Fire. LF might be worth replacing. Quickshot has an interesting quirk (glitch?) when used as the master art in a fusion: both hits generate Talent Gauge. Every other positional attack or using Quick Shot outside of a fusion or as the class art will only generate Talent Gauge on the first successful hit. I'm also pretty sure you can't die during a Talent Art's animation (only have HP reduced to 1) and EG has a loooong animation. Also, make sure to launch before using EG against bosses to get Seraph's innate launch damage bonus.

Smash builds don't seem as useful as I initially thought. The HP of bosses on hard is multiple times that of the damage cap from a smash. I don't use any smash arts now.

For heroes, I always go for Melia, Nia, Miyabi, Masha, Fiona, and Alexandra. Fiona's obviously the only way to get four rounds of a chain attack, Miyabi helps keep your arts charged, Alexandria and Melia can break and topple, and Melia, Nia, and Masha give the party wide buffs. Masha's Arts Heal field has a party heal dissolution effect like the regen fields. I've equipped these six with fraternal badges for faster arts charge, just wish we could change gems for heroes too. I think it's worth waiting for these six, if none of them appear as freebies in the first two rounds, I restart. I play as Taion so always purchase the emblem that gives boosts with 4+ Agnian characters.

For emblems, I do think Moneybags is the way to go. I've fully upgraded it at the shop and had ~50,000 when I hit 120 on hard. I'm thinking it's worth it to go for the cap if possible. I also upgraded the price reduction emblem and purchase it either very early on if it shows up, or when it's a free option. I've incorporated some cursed emblems. I like the one that reduces boss health. I've also used the one that boosts attack per cursed emblem held but I'm thinking the HP penalty isn't worth it and I could just save points for moneybags. If I try another run this weekend, I'll probably avoid it and see how it goes. I think the one that boosts attack after a chain attack might be pretty good for bosses. I'm on the fence about the one that boosts attack when the nopwatch is low. I've actually not had any difficulty with the nopwatch running out. If nopwatch recovery is a whimsy option, I always go for it and that's usually enough, I barely ever spend points to refill it at the shop. I have been using the emblem that boosts whimsy chance at the cost of lowering events which seems nice for getting rid of moebius or enemy rush events that can screw you over. But yea, next time I try, I'm going to attempt getting the moneybags cap or at least as close as I can after fully upgrading the stat boost emblems.
 
EtherPenguin said:
Hey, sorry it took a few days to respond. The farthest I got on hard was stage 120. Admittedly life's been crazy and I haven't had a lot of free time as opposed to last year when the game came out during a window of being unemployed. So I haven't done as much experimenting with challenge mode as I would like, I've barely even touched Fire Emblem Engage (Not that it's been all bad, this is the most social I've been since the pandemic lol).

I ended up sticking with my Element Genesis Seraph. I have been focusing purely on attack and wiping enemies out before they have a chance to kill me and I don't use any defenders. I have a Gust Bracelet, Shackle Ring, and a custom accessory that boosts attack 37% while also having some dex and crit rate (my crit's around 45%). For skills, I have Ultimate Quigong (EG is physical for some reason), Cypher Edge, and Capable Hands. On normal I used Protector's Pride but I think Capable Hands might be better to have EG ready to go, I'm going back and forth on whether that's right. I'd consider ditching Cypher Edge if I could get a custom attack accessory with more crit on it. Gems are empowered combo (cancel bonus is an independent multiplier like in 2), swelling blessing (should boost the attack, defense, and recharge rate from Awakening), and analyze weakness.

My arts are the standard EG seraph setup: Quickshot + Flamelord, Summon Element + Inferno Dance, Cross Impact + Leveling Fire. LF might be worth replacing. Quickshot has an interesting quirk (glitch?) when used as the master art in a fusion: both hits generate Talent Gauge. Every other positional attack or using Quick Shot outside of a fusion or as the class art will only generate Talent Gauge on the first successful hit. I'm also pretty sure you can't die during a Talent Art's animation (only have HP reduced to 1) and EG has a loooong animation. Also, make sure to launch before using EG against bosses to get Seraph's innate launch damage bonus.

Smash builds don't seem as useful as I initially thought. The HP of bosses on hard is multiple times that of the damage cap from a smash. I don't use any smash arts now.

For heroes, I always go for Melia, Nia, Miyabi, Masha, Fiona, and Alexandra. Fiona's obviously the only way to get four rounds of a chain attack, Miyabi helps keep your arts charged, Alexandria and Melia can break and topple, and Melia, Nia, and Masha give the party wide buffs. Masha's Arts Heal field has a party heal dissolution effect like the regen fields. I've equipped these six with fraternal badges for faster arts charge, just wish we could change gems for heroes too. I think it's worth waiting for these six, if none of them appear as freebies in the first two rounds, I restart. I play as Taion so always purchase the emblem that gives boosts with 4+ Agnian characters.

For emblems, I do think Moneybags is the way to go. I've fully upgraded it at the shop and had ~50,000 when I hit 120 on hard. I'm thinking it's worth it to go for the cap if possible. I also upgraded the price reduction emblem and purchase it either very early on if it shows up, or when it's a free option. I've incorporated some cursed emblems. I like the one that reduces boss health. I've also used the one that boosts attack per cursed emblem held but I'm thinking the HP penalty isn't worth it and I could just save points for moneybags. If I try another run this weekend, I'll probably avoid it and see how it goes. I think the one that boosts attack after a chain attack might be pretty good for bosses. I'm on the fence about the one that boosts attack when the nopwatch is low. I've actually not had any difficulty with the nopwatch running out. If nopwatch recovery is a whimsy option, I always go for it and that's usually enough, I barely ever spend points to refill it at the shop. I have been using the emblem that boosts whimsy chance at the cost of lowering events which seems nice for getting rid of moebius or enemy rush events that can screw you over. But yea, next time I try, I'm going to attempt getting the moneybags cap or at least as close as I can after fully upgrading the stat boost emblems.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
The shackle ring->element genesis combo does seem to be popular, but I'm very stubborn!
I was running Lone Exile with Frenzied Combo to spam arts & stay alive via evasion. Got to the final stage, 140, with three launches charged and a full chain attack gauge, and still lost.
I've given up!


I did discover that the sheer tankiness of the moebius enemies is partly due to them activating stances. You can interrupt them when they start to do this, which makes it much easier to whittle their health down. But the onslaught on stage 140 is just too much, the AOE attacks kill off my team members, get the healers stuck in a revive loop, make me lose my buffs and eventually the fight.

If I ever do try again, it's going to be element genesis for sure, but I might just leave it, it takes hours to even attempt a run.
Edit: another discovery is the viability of buffs via the cursed emblem that increases their chance at the expense of their duration. Couple it with the one that increases break chance on debuffed enemies and Riku & Manana and you have a very consistent break recipe. And the debuffs are extremely handy as well. Melia managed to get a bind off on stage 140 even!
 
catonkatonk said:
Thanks,
The shackle ring->element genesis combo does seem to be popular, but I'm very stubborn!
I was running Lone Exile with Frenzied Combo to spam arts & stay alive via evasion. Got to the final stage, 140, with three launches charged and a full chain attack gauge, and still lost.
I've given up!


I did discover that the sheer tankiness of the moebius enemies is partly due to them activating stances. You can interrupt them when they start to do this, which makes it much easier to whittle their health down. But the onslaught on stage 140 is just too much, the AOE attacks kill off my team members, get the healers stuck in a revive loop, make me lose my buffs and eventually the fight.

If I ever do try again, it's going to be element genesis for sure, but I might just leave it, it takes hours to even attempt a run.
Edit: another discovery is the viability of buffs via the cursed emblem that increases their chance at the expense of their duration. Couple it with the one that increases break chance on debuffed enemies and Riku & Manana and you have a very consistent break recipe. And the debuffs are extremely handy as well. Melia managed to get a bind off on stage 140 even!
Click to expand...
I understand the stubbornness lol! Reaching the final stage is pretty good even if you haven't managed to beat it. The revive loop problem is one of the biggest reasons I wish we could change the gems on heroes so everyone has the fast revive (I did manage to slowly grind all level 10 gems over the last six months off and on).

I usually purchase the debuff emblem (but don't upgrade it), I still get a lot of resistance but blaze and bind go through often enough. Honestly, bind worked pretty well for me throughout most of the main story playthrough. I've considered substituting one of my heroes for Valdi for the attack down debuff. But now you've got me thinking I should swap Alexandria for the nopons. I know there's also a new accessory effect you can get from Masha's crafting that increases debuff success rate but I haven't managed to get it yet.

Good luck, you're close!
 
I needed to carve out some time to play the third round (pro) on Normal because this mode takes so long. In my successful run I made it to level 60 before the two Moebius got me. Didn’t consider until I read the posts above me you can set up your heroes with equipment and it’d count for this mode, probably would have helped. Had some bad luck in my successful run here as I couldn’t get any dexterity boosts to draw which can drag out fights and run down the clock if you can’t hit anyone. My healing was so good though aside from those last bosses I was untouchable. Overall this is a pretty cool mode if you get invested. The decisions you make really pile up and the random luck with each round keeps it interesting.

If I wasn’t interested in so many games right now, I would have stuck with my original goal to finally hit level cap and beat the super bosses with Wave 3’s drop. Hopefully I’ll have more time when Wave 4 drops, but if not I did see every inch of Aionios when Wave 2 dropped so I still feel good if I’m done with the main game. 153 hours with Xenoblade 3 is a lot!
 
Managed to finish stage 140 on hard. I was more stingy with points spending and got the 100,000 cap on a fully upgraded moneybags emblem which ended up making the later stages significantly easier. I also put prayer rings on all my healing heroes for a little more breathing room.

xghost777 said:
I needed to carve out some time to play the third round (pro) on Normal because this mode takes so long.
Click to expand...
It auto-saves every 10 stages, so you can close out after a boss stage then jump right back to where you were later. That helps break the gauntlet into more manageable chunks.
 
EtherPenguin said:
Managed to finish stage 140 on hard. I was more stingy with points spending and got the 100,000 cap on a fully upgraded moneybags emblem which ended up making the later stages significantly easier. I also put prayer rings on all my healing heroes for a little more breathing room.


It auto-saves every 10 stages, so you can close out after a boss stage then jump right back to where you were later. That helps break the gauntlet into more manageable chunks.
Click to expand...
That helps a ton. I never look closely at autosaves in any game. Thanks!
 
Wait why would this be the week? I guess waiting until after ToTK would be cutting it way too close to the potential June release but why this week specifically?
 
Momo said:
“Yeah!” this post if you think this is the week

I hope Mitsuda is right
Click to expand...
I don't.

It will get delayed and will release as Xenoblade 4 in 2024 for the Super Switch, free for those who bought 3's EP before the announcement.

Yeah if you agree xS
 
I think Nintendo tends to distribute its releases as far apart as it can, right? I'm not sure of there's precedent pointing to the contrary. People speculate the release date could be July 28th, but that's right after Pikmin 4, so I frankly doubt it.
 
0
June or very early July feels like the sweet spot for sure. It mostly just depends on how quick they want the marketing turnaround to be.

Given that Tears of the Kingdom previews will likely be dropping the week after next, this week feels like a decent fit. First week of May would also work, and if it's late June or early July then the week after Tears of the Kingdom is another possibility. Or maybe they just go the Metroid Prime Remastered route, although I highly doubt that.
 
0
I suppose an announcement this week and a release in June both make sense

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out a direct announcement still though, the 29th is pretty late in July and I could easily see a direct in late May-early June after TotK and a release in early-mid July
 
Thunder84 said:
  • "Matthew's Past" is probably in reference to Vandham, as he's likely the main character of the game here. So, in other words, Matthew Vandham is probably his name.
  • "Colonies Collide" followed by "Two remain" could very well reference Ortiz and Rhodes. The former probably references their initial fight, and the latter probably references when they're rescued by the other Founders. The later cutscene "Clockless" could reference when they're removed from the clock.
  • "Consul Duo" is almost certainly N and M, meaning the game takes place after the Old City is destroyed.
  • "Fusion" likely references the first instance of Ouroborous working between Vandham and Doyle. Given that it directly follows "Moebius W", its probably during that fight where Ouroborous is fully unlocked, and you kick her ass so hard she ends up in the state we see her in the main game.
  • "Consul from the Past" followed by "Great Grandfather" likely both reference N. That would mean that the grandfather Vandham references in the trailer is N's son, who was ultimately killed when N razed the Old City.
  • "The One at the Beginning" likely refers to Alvis. Given that Rex hasn't lost an eye yet in the cutscene we saw, this probably isn't the scene where it shows up, or it takes place after a timeskip of some sort.
  • "Ghondor's Path" is easily the trickiest one to decipher, as it could mean a number of things. Maybe there is indeed a time skip, and we play in the future. Maybe the "Origin's Memories" could also see into the future, particularly through the Monado. Maybe there's an entirely different character named Ghondor, perhaps even the 7th unknown Founder, and the Ghondor we know was named after them.
Click to expand...
Looks like I got a lot right with this, although it's still too soon to say. Ghondor was the name of Matthew's grandfather, who I'm guessing is Noah's son.

Also, given that Glimmer is 100% Rex and Pyra's daughter, and Nikol is probably Shulk/Fiora's son, it feels like we have to see Mythra's child too. I also wonder what's up with the Alvis earrings on A, maybe she's Consul A?
 
0
i'm kinda curious if Alvis and A will even exist at the same time

it seems to me like there's two different time periods shown here, the "main" one and one that takes place beforehand where Shulk and Rex fight against Alvis with Z on their side
 
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