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StarTopic Xenoblade 3: Future Redeemed |ST| Ontos the Next One

I just finished with the main story as well. This DLC was amazing, it had some of my favorite locations in the series and it was just a joy to play. It's feels like if they turned the Xenoblade equivalent of disc 2 of Xenogears into a full on game. I did hope for some more clear answers but I'm definitely satisfied with what we got, and since the series is going to continue I wouldn't be surprised if we see some of the underlying plot points again. The Klaus saga might be over but... This story never truly ends.
 
I really love what they did with Shulk and Rex.

I was worried their characters would be be tacked on for the sake of fanservice, but both feel like a natural maturation of their younger selves from Xenoblade 1 and 2, and their interactions with their "kids" and how they take to parenting was really well done.
Much like Matthew and A, the two of them have great chemistry with each other as well.

Awesome stuff.
 
in case there's anyone still wonderin/encountering this: I finally got around to adding this explainer from the purple OT to the OP's FAQ:
Why can Hearlers exceed the 99 cap during Chain Attacks suddenly?
Explanation from Metto (over on Era) : "It's the Hero Chain books. If you have a Hero Chain equipped on a character it will override their class chain attack bonus. This doesn't apply to Chain Order books it will just change the effect of their chain orders but they'll keep Class Chain order effects.
To put it simply if you have Glimmer equipped with the effect that will grant her turn the effect of say getting 150% if she acts first it will override her healer bonus and go over the 99%."
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Some of those "area conquering" things are pretty annoying, gotta say.

You try to be a good little player and pick one after another by luring them with the stone throw. But then, boom, suddenly, a banner-type enemy locks into you too from 10 miles away, one of your tanks RUNS to it to tank (Dude, it's a flag! YOU DON'T HAVE TO TANK IT!), and boom part two, the whole base just aggro'd you too.
 
Guys
Chapter 4

I need to repair the lift to climb up the Black Mountains, but I am missing 1 item: a white "cover"?
Where can I find it? 2 are needed, I have only 1
 
I just finished this and I don't even know what to say. It was really hard to nail this and they made something very close to perfection. Thank you Takahashi <3

I'm also emotional thinking about the past struggles of Takahashi fulfilling his artistic vision and how now he's been able to do a complete trilogy with no compromises and round it up with this amazing DLC. I hope Nintendo gives Monolith Soft even more money for the next project, the jump from Xenoblade 2 to 3 was very pleasant in that regard.
 
Began a second playthrough for the fun of it. One of my favorite "improvements" is getting to play battles in the flashbacks, it helps break up larger cutscene chunks. Base game 3 could've used that, like playing out the mock battle in the kid flashback during that half-hour-long cutscene block right at the beginning.

Given Joren and Nimue have things like weapon/class icons, I wonder if playable flashback battles actually were planned for base game at one point.
 
EtherPenguin said:
Began a second playthrough for the fun of it. One of my favorite "improvements" is getting to play battles in the flashbacks, it helps break up larger cutscene chunks. Base game 3 could've used that, like playing out the mock battle in the kid flashback during that half-hour-long cutscene block right at the beginning.

Given Joren and Nimue have things like weapon/class icons, I wonder if playable flashback battles actually were planned for base game at one point.
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One feature I really like is that if you're supposed to lose in a battle, you actually lose in the battle. You don't overkill the enemy with a 500% exp bonus only to lose in the following cutscene.
It's a little thing, sure, but especially when selling you to the idea that you're facing unbeatable odds, actually putting you in an unfair fight goes a long way.
 
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I realize it would be entirely pointless to implement and arguably somewhat spoilery but I would've loved if they had let us play the Shulk+Rex+Z versus Alpha fight in the intro
 
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Bonejack said:
Some of those "area conquering" things are pretty annoying, gotta say.

You try to be a good little player and pick one after another by luring them with the stone throw. But then, boom, suddenly, a banner-type enemy locks into you too from 10 miles away, one of your tanks RUNS to it to tank (Dude, it's a flag! YOU DON'T HAVE TO TANK IT!), and boom part two, the whole base just aggro'd you too.
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Pick the focus enemy option from the tactics menu so that your party doesn't run off and do their own thing
 
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catonkatonk said:
One feature I really like is that if you're supposed to lose in a battle, you actually lose in the battle. You don't overkill the enemy with a 500% exp bonus only to lose in the following cutscene.
It's a little thing, sure, but especially when selling you to the idea that you're facing unbeatable odds, actually putting you in an unfair fight goes a long way.
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I only recall this happening once in the very beginning. Conversely, there were plenty of bosses later that I finished off with a chain attack, only to be shown struggling in the cutscene right after lol
 
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catonkatonk said:
One feature I really like is that if you're supposed to lose in a battle, you actually lose in the battle. You don't overkill the enemy with a 500% exp bonus only to lose in the following cutscene.
It's a little thing, sure, but especially when selling you to the idea that you're facing unbeatable odds, actually putting you in an unfair fight goes a long way.
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This has been a thing since the original, they just didn't do it every time (and still don't quite here). I can think of several battles that automatically ended upon the enemy using a certain art (a couple with Egil come to mind), usually one that felt huge damage to the party.

Contrary to the common fan opinion, battle cutscenes in Xenoblade 1 were often a great reflection of how well I was doing lol
 
Jersh said:
This has been a thing since the original, they just didn't do it every time (and still don't quite here). I can think of several battles that automatically ended upon the enemy using a certain art (a couple with Egil come to mind), usually one that felt huge damage to the party.

Contrary to the common fan opinion, battle cutscenes in Xenoblade 1 were often a great reflection of how well I was doing lol
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I never noticed the "merk the enemy and lose in the cutscene" thing in 1 tbf, but it was all over 2 in particular and somewhat frequent in 3.
 
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It’s never bothered me.

I’ve been playing a lot of Glimmer and it’s probably the most fun I’ve had with a healer all series. Managing the party is tough sometimes.

Fighting the level 70 super boss was crazy frantic.
 
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Seeing Valak Mountain and Prison Island again really look me back, I love how so much in Future Redeemed loops back around to the first game where it all began.

Also, it's kinda crazy impressive how fast travel only takes a few seconds of loading in a game this big on the Switch.
 
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Wrapped up the DLC just in time for Zelda!

Awesome conclusion, Matthew may have dethroned my boy Rex as my favorite Xenoblade protagonist (though like people are saying Rex was done great by this DLC and he's still an absolutely awesome character)

I don't know if this DLC takes away from my mixed feelings on the story of the main game, but it's a great story on its own and serves as a satisfying conclusion both in itself and the Klaus saga. Plus the gameplay was generally top notch - while I still prefer XC2/Torna's combat the rest of the DLC is the series gameplay at its finest
 
It's a real shame that it feels like Zelda took all the air out of this one. I was travelling the week it released, then Zelda hit. Zelda took a full month, so I only got around to it last week.

Just beat it last night, it was fantastic. In fact, I preferred both Torna and this to their main games, purely because they are so trimmed and focused. About 25 hours is a really good time for a game, especially an RPG. It's enough time to tell a story, to establish game mechanics and fully explore them. Xenoblade's combat mechanics (which are deeply flawed) do not support a 120 hour game - which is about what I put into each of the first 3 games.

As for the story, even as someone who was totally cool with a standalone game for XC3, I don't really understand why XC3 itself wasn't this story. This is kind of what XC3 was both expected to be and marketed to be, no? And it's just so much clearer than the base game about what the motivations of the characters are (especially the villains), what the stakes are etc. There are no meandering side-stories shoved into the main progression. It's tight. Whereas 60+ hours of XC3 were spending touring some of the dullest and most miserable camping grounds to recruit heroes. This game tells a full story in less than half that time.

I had to keep reminding myself that it's a prequel, because it really feels like the culmination of the whole series. The final boss is the perfect final boss for the entire Xenoblade series, even if it's a little strange that it's a relative nobody leading the fight when he has legends backing him up.

But I realize that's me thinking of it as a video game in its entirety - when I remember that this is a piece of DLC... it really is astonishing by those standards. I rank it even higher than Torna, which was also fantastic but had that annoying community-based gating feature as well as the issue that you knew exactly how the story would go from playing the main game.

Wonderful capstone for the series - now I hope they do something new.
 
Heron said:
As for the story, even as someone who was totally cool with a standalone game for XC3, I don't really understand why XC3 itself wasn't this story. This is kind of what XC3 was both expected to be and marketed to be, no? And it's just so much clearer than the base game about what the motivations of the characters are (especially the villains), what the stakes are etc. There are no meandering side-stories shoved into the main progression. It's tight. Whereas 60+ hours of XC3 were spending touring some of the dullest and most miserable camping grounds to recruit heroes. This game tells a full story in less than half that time.
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Xenoblade 3 was absolutely not marketed as the kind of story the DLC told. It was made abundantly clear that it was a story about Aionos and the party, in a world where fighting is all they know, from the very start. It never focused on the X1/2 content in trailers at all, beyond brief glimpses for a reason.

From the horses mouth in a prerelease interview.

If the setting of this title is linked to the first and second entries, does that mean that the story continues through all three titles?​

Takahashi: No, the stories of one, two, and three all stand alone. Although some elements and designs from one and two will appear in this third entry here and there, there is no need to have played the first and second games to understand the story or how to play. However, since this is a series of works, the underlying theme is consistent, and in each case, the story unfolds based on "the relationship between foreign things." Also, I used the word "culmination" earlier, but this title brings together all the themes that have been developed over the past 15 years since 2007, when development of the first title in the Xenoblade Chronicles series began, as well as the gameplay systems that have been developed throughout the series.
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Yokota: So, by “culmination,” you don't mean that it brings closure to the series, but rather that it rounds out the trilogy thematically.
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Takahashi: Yes, that’s right. I guess you can say that this is like a summary for moving on to the next step in the future.
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The story of the DLC doesn't work at all without assuming you've already played the entirety of 3 (and at the very least, 1, but also ideally 2).
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Xenoblade 3 was absolutely not marketed as the kind of story the DLC told. It was made abundantly clear that it was a story about Aionos and the party, in a world where fighting is all they know, from the very start. It never focused on the X1/2 content in trailers at all, beyond brief glimpses for a reason.
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I think it's the interpretation of the marketing that is more the issue. Because seeing land features from 1 and 2, seeing the queens, and knowing that there are usually big lore-revealing twists in XB games, would lead fans to assume the big lore-revealing twists this time around had to do with the combination of the worlds and what that'd mean for the Xenoverse and its characters overall.

And it just sorta didn't. It told a self-contained story about (imo) the best cast in the series, sure, but when it came time to reveal how and why the world's came together, it was an almost hand-wavey thing. The big twists were about 3's world and characters, and as great a standalone experience as it was, the expectations I mentioned earlier led to a lot of us finishing the game and going "..that's it?"

And I know, that's an us problem. It's an our-expectations problem. Yes, the developers said it wouldn't really connect, but they said that about XB2 as well, and look how that game's big twist turned out. It was easy to assume they were playing coy again, before knocking our brains apart with a big lore twist again.

And they did, with Future Redeemed.

I know I'm rambling but I guess I just mean to say: I get where @Heron is coming from. Actually I was listening to the OST just the other day and it got me thinking about how I woulda preferred if XB3 had contained this story within it somehow, since this is exactly what I was wanting after seeing the Mechanics Sword and Uraya together in the trailer, and is exactly what I felt was missing after the main game ended.

</rant>
Sorry 😅
 
Linkstrikesback said:
That's not ranting! That's just having a discussion! That's what we're here for :ROFLMAO:. I don't have time to write a detailed reply, but I'll come back later if I remember it.
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I think chocolate_supra has pretty much covered it, but...

a) I didn't see that interview, or any interview, just one or two trailers
b) As someone familiar with the Xenoblade series, I was expecting another standalone game - UNTIL I saw the trailers! And the amount of callbacks and returning characters and familiar scenery then made me wonder exactly what we were getting here. I can absolutely see how people would have expected a proper sequel.

But in truth the marketing angle isn't that important, I'm more curious as to why he just wouldn't have made the DLC story the main story in the first place. Obviously you'd need to expand it, do the worldbuilding that was in XC3 etc, but you'd have Z as an irrelevant mid-boss (which is what he feels like anyway) and move on to the "real" bad guy we fight at the end of FC.

You could argue that a fresh story leads to a more accessible game and better sales. But I feel like this is an RPG series that appeals to hardcore gamers, so the kinds of people who are going to play it are the type who've probably played the first two, and if they haven't they will go back and play the first two - which are both also on switch, so no issues there. And the kinds of casuals who won't play the first two are the kind who won't know or care (they are, after all, buying a game with "3" in the title without having played the first two). So you do a bit of recapping in the first few hours to bring them up to speed. Even FC itself does this, with Shulk, Rex and A explaining their worlds and the current state of play. I don't think it would have cost them a lot of sales.

I'm just trying to get across this weird feeling that Future Connected was the "real" story, while XC3 often felt like a side story - even while playing it, even without knowing there was a DLC that would answer a lot of questions coming down the track. The entire ending of that game felt entirely flat to me, the villain a non-entity and so on. I felt like one of the greatest casts in RPG history was wasted on what was 66% a useless and irrelevant camping trip. FC felt like a real heroic quest.
 
Heron said:
I think chocolate_supra has pretty much covered it, but...

a) I didn't see that interview, or any interview, just one or two trailers
b) As someone familiar with the Xenoblade series, I was expecting another standalone game - UNTIL I saw the trailers! And the amount of callbacks and returning characters and familiar scenery then made me wonder exactly what we were getting here. I can absolutely see how people would have expected a proper sequel.

But in truth the marketing angle isn't that important, I'm more curious as to why he just wouldn't have made the DLC story the main story in the first place. Obviously you'd need to expand it, do the worldbuilding that was in XC3 etc, but you'd have Z as an irrelevant mid-boss (which is what he feels like anyway) and move on to the "real" bad guy we fight at the end of FC.

You could argue that a fresh story leads to a more accessible game and better sales. But I feel like this is an RPG series that appeals to hardcore gamers, so the kinds of people who are going to play it are the type who've probably played the first two, and if they haven't they will go back and play the first two - which are both also on switch, so no issues there. And the kinds of casuals who won't play the first two are the kind who won't know or care (they are, after all, buying a game with "3" in the title without having played the first two). So you do a bit of recapping in the first few hours to bring them up to speed. Even FC itself does this, with Shulk, Rex and A explaining their worlds and the current state of play. I don't think it would have cost them a lot of sales.

I'm just trying to get across this weird feeling that Future Connected was the "real" story, while XC3 often felt like a side story - even while playing it, even without knowing there was a DLC that would answer a lot of questions coming down the track. The entire ending of that game felt entirely flat to me, the villain a non-entity and so on. I felt like one of the greatest casts in RPG history was wasted on what was 66% a useless and irrelevant camping trip. FC felt like a real heroic quest.
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I think the main issue is something you touch on at the end here - even ignoring connections to the other games, FR feels more like a coherent and satisfying story than 3 does. That it's also a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy is just the icing on the cake
 
Linkstrikesback said:
Xenoblade 3 was absolutely not marketed as the kind of story the DLC told. It was made abundantly clear that it was a story about Aionos and the party, in a world where fighting is all they know, from the very start. It never focused on the X1/2 content in trailers at all, beyond brief glimpses for a reason.

From the horses mouth in a prerelease interview.






The story of the DLC doesn't work at all without assuming you've already played the entirety of 3 (and at the very least, 1, but also ideally 2).
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"The story of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 ties together the futures of the worlds depicted in Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2" - Shinya Takahashi right after Xenoblade 3's reveal.

I definitely think they fumbled the sequel aspect of the game. They technically succeeded at the most basic level: Tetsuya Takahashi was completely right in saying that the base game is standalone and can be played by anyone, including newcomers. They succeeded at that. But does that mean that newcomers will actually be willing to play the game with the trailers they were presented? Especially after that Direct reveal?

I've seen and spoken to enough people who ultimately didn't buy 3 because they felt intimidated, like they had to play the previous games first, to know that they failed at convincing people that the game was standalone, even though they did succeed at making it standalone. The sales trajectory of the game so far also tells a similar story: extremely frontloaded sales with little legs to speak of, suggesting most of the buyers were people who already were Xenoblade fans to begin with. And let's be honest for a moment, who the hell other than people who are already Xenoblade fans is going to be reading interviews by Tetsuya Takahashi, his words pretty much being the only assurance that the game was standalone? The things newcomers are going to see are the trailers, particularly the reveal trailer in the Direct, and the things they were shown were a ton of imagery borrowed from 1 and 2, couple of characters from previous games, a big red number 3, and Shinya Takahashi's words suggesting that the game was some sort of direct sequel to the previous games.

They really, really should have thought better about how they wanted to approach the sequel aspect of the game, because I can't help but think it was one of the most limiting factors the game had to deal with.
 
Renmazuo said:
I've seen and spoken to enough people who ultimately didn't buy 3 because they felt intimidated, like they had to play the previous games first, to know that they failed at convincing people that the game was standalone, even though they did succeed at making it standalone.
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I really don't think that was because of a throwaway comment in the direct after the trailer aired, though. And especially not because of the trailers themselves.

I'm instead seeing all the posts, in forums, on Reddit, "Can I start with Xenoblade 3?"
"NO. No. ABSOLUTELY NOT. You MUST play the previous games first."

Maddening.
 
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NabiscoFelt said:
I think the main issue is something you touch on at the end here - even ignoring connections to the other games, FR feels more like a coherent and satisfying story than 3 does. That it's also a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy is just the icing on the cake
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I think we're veering a little to close to spoiler territory, but I would say that the only reason the story in FR is satisfying is because we know how things play out in XC3. If not for that I would say that FR ends with a bittersweet note since the two greatest champions on the heroes side sacrifice their physical bodies on Aionios in order to keep Origin operational.
 
Renmazuo said:
The sales trajectory of the game so far also tells a similar story: extremely frontloaded sales with little legs to speak of, suggesting most of the buyers were people who already were Xenoblade fans to begin with.
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Tbf, this is a common problem for JRPGs in general, even for big-name franchises like Final Fantasy. I don't think any manner of better marketing or not fumbling the "sequel aspect" (as you put it) would've given sales for a third Xenoblade game more legs in the long run.
 
One can argue that having to pay for the DLC wasn't fare to old fans, but I sincerely think that the XB3 basic game story has been well written, interesting, emotional and with a great cast/dialoges

The DLC story has been primarly fan-service oriented, toward the older/stronger part of the fanbase, with all the explicit connections to Xeno1, Xeno2 and even older games from the same developers, and I LOVED IT, but I think its quality was weaker in a general sense, and stronger only if you are (as I am) SO involved and excited about all the story-arch going on in Takahashi's head since 20 years ago lol
 
Seven said:
I think we're veering a little to close to spoiler territory, but I would say that the only reason the story in FR is satisfying is because we know how things play out in XC3. If not for that I would say that FR ends with a bittersweet note since the two greatest champions on the heroes side sacrifice their physical bodies on Aionios in order to keep Origin operational.
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But...

...it does also show the world's reuniting as one. The final 10 seconds work a lot better as an ending point for the story of Xenoblade Chronicles than what XC3 did.
 
Mr.Fletcher said:
But...

...it does also show the world's reuniting as one. The final 10 seconds work a lot better as an ending point for the story of Xenoblade Chronicles than what XC3 did.
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Again, I partially disagree

I thnk that the last seconds of XC3 FD are a better starting point for XC4, than a better ending for the Xeno Chronicles story arch: alongside the many "hints" to previous games during THAT chapter, it clearly anticipate MANY possibilities for the next chapter, even linking it to XenogearsSaga or XBX, for example: it opens up a lot of possibilities, more that "closing" everything. At "closing", the ending of XB3 base game was good enough, in letting you know that all those struggles, all those emotions were born from two worlds colliding, and now in orde to go ahead they were strong enough to surpass their fears and leave the beloved ones behind)
 
Aostia82 said:
Again, I partially disagree

I thnk that the last seconds of XC3 FD are a better starting point for XC4, than a better ending for the Xeno Chronicles story arch: alongside the many "hints" to previous games during THAT chapter, it clearly anticipate MANY possibilities for the next chapter, even linking it to XenogearsSaga or XBX, for example: it opens up a lot of possibilities, more that "closing" everything. At "closing", the ending of XB3 base game was good enough, in letting you know that all those struggles, all those emotions were born from two worlds colliding, and now in orde to go ahead they were strong enough to surpass their fears and leave the beloved ones behind)
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I take your disagreement and disagree with it!

If you’ve only played XC and XC2, the ending of FR brings the whole trilogy full circle.

If the world began as one, and XC and XC2 told the stories of how those worlds evolved independently, FR unites them and calls it a day.

Yeah, if you’re a big Xeno fan you’re wondering what the radio is all about, or what that light travelling to Earth is, but if you’re a Xenoblade fan, it’s just the end.

An open-ended conclusion that leaves room for the next saga to begin.

People say FR couldn’t be standalone because it doesn’t work without XC3.

I’d argue that if the DLC explained what Moebius are and the state of the world - something it could have done in a two-minute intro monologue like XC - it would completely work without XC3.

XC3 wrapped up its own story well enough, but didn’t do much to finish up the larger story.

Right at the end, we get a scene where Rex says, ‘don’t worry, everything will go back to normal one day’.

It’s inevitable that someone will come along make everything alright. The final shot of the DLC sees that ‘prophecy fulfilled’ and the worlds merge.

You could, in some ways, cut XC3 out of the larger story and it wouldn’t make a difference. FR shows us the before and after of XC3.

The problem XC3 has as a sequel is, it’s essentially, something happened to the worlds of XC and XC2 off-screen, this party has to solve the issue so those worlds get their happy ending back.

I could literally write another thousand words about why XC3 fails as a series finale, but I won’t bore you! :)

It just feels unsatisfying.
 
Mr.Fletcher said:
But...

...it does also show the world's reuniting as one. The final 10 seconds work a lot better as an ending point for the story of Xenoblade Chronicles than what XC3 did.
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It works so well as a satisfying conclusion because it recontextualizes the ending and epilogue of base game 3. I sincerely doubt that FR's ending would be a better ending for XC trilogy in a world where base game 3 isn't a thing, and arguably, it'd be a rather hollow ending in isolation.
 
Astra1185 said:
It works so well as a satisfying conclusion because it recontextualizes the ending and epilogue of base game 3. I sincerely doubt that FR's ending would be a better ending for XC trilogy in a world where base game 3 isn't a thing, and arguably, it'd be a rather hollow ending in isolation.
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You‘re talking to someone who doesn’t feel like the ending of FR is particularly satisfying. Just like I didn’t think the ending of XC3 was satisfying either.

The worlds merging, after the events of XC and XC2, should have been a huge finale for the whole saga - but because of how both XC3 and FR are constructed it doesn’t really deliver in my opinion. But as an ending, it feels like that was the right one… even if the execution felt flat for me.

FR put a full stop at the end of the whole trilogy, so in that respect I’m glad it exists. But alone, it feels slight and unfulfilling and it doesn’t do anything for XC3’s ending for me.

Of course, if FR was the main story, it would look totally different too.
 
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Mr.Fletcher said:
But...

...it does also show the world's reuniting as one. The final 10 seconds work a lot better as an ending point for the story of Xenoblade Chronicles than what XC3 did.
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That last cutscene showing the worlds reunite wouldn't make sense if we didn't see the efforts the party in XC3 underwent to make it so.
Mr.Fletcher said:
I take your disagreement and disagree with it!

If you’ve only played XC and XC2, the ending of FR brings the whole trilogy full circle.

If the world began as one, and XC and XC2 told the stories of how those worlds evolved independently, FR unites them and calls it a day.

Yeah, if you’re a big Xeno fan you’re wondering what the radio is all about, or what that light travelling to Earth is, but if you’re a Xenoblade fan, it’s just the end.

An open-ended conclusion that leaves room for the next saga to begin.

People say FR couldn’t be standalone because it doesn’t work without XC3.

I’d argue that if the DLC explained what Moebius are and the state of the world - something it could have done in a two-minute intro monologue like XC - it would completely work without XC3.

XC3 wrapped up its own story well enough, but didn’t do much to finish up the larger story.

Right at the end, we get a scene where Rex says, ‘don’t worry, everything will go back to normal one day’.

It’s inevitable that someone will come along make everything alright. The final shot of the DLC sees that ‘prophecy fulfilled’ and the worlds merge.

You could, in some ways, cut XC3 out of the larger story and it wouldn’t make a difference. FR shows us the before and after of XC3.

The problem XC3 has as a sequel is, it’s essentially, something happened to the worlds of XC and XC2 off-screen, this party has to solve the issue so those worlds get their happy ending back.

I could literally write another thousand words about why XC3 fails as a series finale, but I won’t bore you! :)

It just feels unsatisfying.
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Reading your post I get the impression that you believe that XC3 is the finale of the series and if it was I would agree that the ending leaves a lot to be desired. However Tetsuya Takahashi has stated that XC3 was simply the next step in the series and just marked the close of Klaus' influence.

FR couldn't work as a standalone because it answers a big question that is brought up in XC3 when you enter the City which is: How could the City be stuck in a thousand year stalemate when they had the two greatest champions of both Alrest and the Bionis on their side?

Not to mention an explaination of Moebius would be pointless in FR since they aren't even the main threat in that story.

FR shows us the before and after of XC3, but it nevers answers how we get to that which is shown in the main game. Cutting that out would just leave us hanging on the words of hope Rex and Shulk leave behind.

"The problem of XC3" is how stories work in general; an issue arises and it's up to the protagonists to solve it. In XC3's case the issue is that the worlds of XC and XC2 were on a collision course and the answer both worlds came up with ultimately got them stuck in a purgatory of sorts. Therefore it's up to Noah and the others to solve this issue by finishing what the party in FR started.
 
Seven said:
I think we're veering a little to close to spoiler territory, but I would say that the only reason the story in FR is satisfying is because we know how things play out in XC3. If not for that I would say that FR ends with a bittersweet note since the two greatest champions on the heroes side sacrifice their physical bodies on Aionios in order to keep Origin operational.
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Bittersweet doesn't really mean unsatisfying though

Ultimately, I felt like FR solved its own conflict better and more satisfyingly than 3 did its. But tbf my problems with 3's ending is mostly in its execution rather than conceptually (though I do have problems with it conceptually as well)
 
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