StarTopic Xenoblade 3 |ST| Σ Become One

[Neverx]

God I want a multiplayer Xenoblade game so badly

Imagine creating a party of 3 with friends online and killin monsters together.

Now that the trilogy is over, I really hope they focus on a multiplayer title whether it's X2 with expanded multiplayer features or an MMO, I want to make a custom Xenoblade character and play with others so badly

 

[Jahranimo]

Now that the trilogy is over, I really hope they focus on a multiplayer title whether it's X2 with expanded multiplayer features or an MMO, I want to make a custom Xenoblade character and play with others so badly

I want this so bad, especially after finally playing X earlier this year. Could be a big push on Nintendo's next console too.

 

[Niraj]

Sooooooooo you want Xenoblade X2

Me too

 

[Deleted member 2551]

I completed the game.

I absolutely need the extra Story and a Xenoblade 4. I need them right now.



EDIT: I still find if funny that after 4 Xenoblade games we can't have an IA capable of handling healing, I had to do the final battle playing the support.

 

[carlosfilho]

Spoiler: Final boss talk

Wow. What in the world. There are like four stages! It would have been so easy to implement.

Spoiler: Spoilers

Yeah, i was enjoying the fight but then died once, and the second run felt really annoying as i had to start over again, and you're not allowed to jump all those cutscenes (only one of them iirc, the bigger one). In the end i still think it was an awesome fight, but the implementation could've definitely been better

 

[Deleted member 2]

Been testing Combo Art reactions on Fusion Combos. I'll update with my findings. @EtherPenguin, you might find this interesting.

Hypothesis: The order in which Fusion Art reactions proc is based on the time it takes for the reaction to proc on its own Art. The reaction proc order does not prioritize Standard Arts over Master Arts, and vice versa.

Scenario 1:

Lanz @ Heavy Guard
Fusion Art
Master Art: Glitter Stream (Break) - 0.75 seconds to proc reaction
Standard Art: Bull Rush (Topple) - 1.4 seconds to proc reaction

Scenario 1 test result:

When using the Fusion Combo involving the above Break and Topple Arts listed above, Glitter Stream (Break) finished first, and was followed by Bull Rush (Topple). A successful Break -> Topple combo occurred.

I still need to provide an example of the negative (a Fusion Art involving a Break Art that procs slower than the fused Topple Art will not succeed in a Break -> Topple combo).

 

[BassForever]

I love my naive children

Isurd Ascension Quest spoiler

Spoiler

"If we can get Isurd some of this "spa" he'll be able to rest"

 

[Deleted member 2181]

Been testing Combo Art reactions on Fusion Combos. I'll update with my findings. @EtherPenguin, you might find this interesting.

Hypothesis: The order in which Fusion Art reactions proc is based on the time it takes for the reaction to proc on its own Art. The reaction proc order does not prioritize Standard Arts over Master Arts, and vice versa.

Scenario 1:

Lanz @ Heavy Guard
Fusion Art
Master Art: Glitter Stream (Break) - 0.75 seconds to proc reaction
Standard Art: Bull Rush (Topple) - 1.4 seconds to proc reaction

Scenario 1 test result:

When using the Fusion Combo involving the above Break and Topple Arts listed above, Glitter Stream (Break) finished first, and was followed by Bull Rush (Topple). A successful Break -> Topple combo occurred.

I still need to provide an example of the negative (a Fusion Art involving a Break Art that procs slower than the fused Topple Art will not succeed in a Break -> Topple combo).

I would be surprised if such an example would exist. I feel they thought about possible fusion combinations and decided that if you put two reactions, you want to follow the combo path.

One thing I noticed is that fusing power charge with another art doesn't power charge that art, it's still the next art. Power charge was in the left position. Which indicates to me that there isn't an order, it's more based on what players would expect.
But your hypothesis could still be right. Power charge has a long animation after all.

 

[linkwashere]

Been testing Combo Art reactions on Fusion Combos. I'll update with my findings. @EtherPenguin, you might find this interesting.

Hypothesis: The order in which Fusion Art reactions proc is based on the time it takes for the reaction to proc on its own Art. The reaction proc order does not prioritize Standard Arts over Master Arts, and vice versa.

Scenario 1:

Lanz @ Heavy Guard
Fusion Art
Master Art: Glitter Stream (Break) - 0.75 seconds to proc reaction
Standard Art: Bull Rush (Topple) - 1.4 seconds to proc reaction

Scenario 1 test result:

When using the Fusion Combo involving the above Break and Topple Arts listed above, Glitter Stream (Break) finished first, and was followed by Bull Rush (Topple). A successful Break -> Topple combo occurred.

I still need to provide an example of the negative (a Fusion Art involving a Break Art that procs slower than the fused Topple Art will not succeed in a Break -> Topple combo).

With the reliance of link arts the combat system makes, all of this should be better explained or way more streamlined (like for ex: master arts always go second). It's these kind of things what make the game feel "obtuse" to me despite all the tutorials on it.

I found this "issue" with power charge arts: the power charged art is the next after the link is activated, not the one linked. I don't have a problem with that, but it would be better if these kind of rules were more clear.

 

[EtherPenguin]

Been testing Combo Art reactions on Fusion Combos. I'll update with my findings. @EtherPenguin, you might find this interesting.

Hypothesis: The order in which Fusion Art reactions proc is based on the time it takes for the reaction to proc on its own Art. The reaction proc order does not prioritize Standard Arts over Master Arts, and vice versa.

Scenario 1:

Lanz @ Heavy Guard
Fusion Art
Master Art: Glitter Stream (Break) - 0.75 seconds to proc reaction
Standard Art: Bull Rush (Topple) - 1.4 seconds to proc reaction

Scenario 1 test result:

When using the Fusion Combo involving the above Break and Topple Arts listed above, Glitter Stream (Break) finished first, and was followed by Bull Rush (Topple). A successful Break -> Topple combo occurred.

I still need to provide an example of the negative (a Fusion Art involving a Break Art that procs slower than the fused Topple Art will not succeed in a Break -> Topple combo).

Interesting to hear your findings. I don't have any means of recording footage to get the length of art animations and when the procs happen, but I can confirm the seraph class's topple art works with lone exile's launch for a successful topple to launch.

I do wonder if catonkatonk is right that certain fusions are planned to work together regardless.

I also had the same thing where power charge never applies to that class art no matter what I pair with Cross Impact, while Shadow Eye does work with Resonant Flag. Maybe that's because it's Power Charge on hit rather than just giving you the buff like Shadow Eye. Another interesting little thing to note about power charge is that it won't go away if the next art you use is non-damaging.

 

[lightning16]

Ok I have to mention this because it really grinds my gears, whats up with Nintendo localization (don't know who worked on this) hating japanese names? We clearly have one of the nations based on japanese culture and yet they decide to go with western name for a lot of them. This was already bad in X2 but at least was consistent with all the name, but here they actually have japanese/asian names for characters in the colonies, just not the important ones. And then some of them doesn't even make sense like Nina / Alexndria, Isuru / Isurd and the worst offender Mashiro (refuse to call her Fiona)

Spoiler: chapter5

with her name carrying meaning in the events that happens in her colony and the Consul

At least with Yuzuriha / Juniper they kept it consistent using a nature related name

Of course it later hit me that the heroes that joins you with those names have dialogs and are called constantly by their name in the events, so they probably didn't want the VA to butcher the pronunciation

I honestly don't care for the localization in general. I really liked XB1's localization, 2's less so, and 3's even less. This is also my first time playing a Xenoblade game with JP audio which makes it even more jarring.

Also completely agree with the name changes. Not a whole lot of JRPGs change names these days, and I sorta wish Xenoblade 3 didn't.

 

[Deleted member 2]

I would be surprised if such an example would exist. I feel they thought about possible fusion combinations and decided that if you put two reactions, you want to follow the combo path.

One thing I noticed is that fusing power charge with another art doesn't power charge that art, it's still the next art. Power charge was in the left position. Which indicates to me that there isn't an order, it's more based on what players would expect.

I believe A Fusion Art, while including the effects of two Arts, still counts as one Art according to stuff like this. That's why Power Charge doesn't charge the other Art in the Fusion Combo (it also very well could be that the other Art is simply proccing first). This will be another thing to test.

Scenario 1, where Power Charge sees it's own Fusion Art as a single Art:
1. press ZR + X to cancel into a Fusion Art that includes Power Charge and another attacking Art
2. 0.6 seconds (hypothetically) goes by and Power Charge proccs and gives you the Power Charge state (which means now your next Art is stronger)
3. Another 0.2 seconds goes by and the other Art in the fusion combo hits, and is not powered up by Power Charge.
4. After the Fusion Combo ends, your Power Charge state is still active and the next Art is powered up. In this scenario, I imagine Power Charge could power up both attacks in a followup Fusion Art. Sick.


Scenario 2, where Power Charge includes the other Art in a Fusion Combo as "the next Art", and powers it up if it hits after Power Charge procs:
1. press ZR + X to cancel into a Fusion Art that includes Power Charge and another attacking Art
2. 0.6 seconds (hypothetically) goes by and Power Charge proccs and gives you the Power Charge state (which means now your next Art is stronger)
3. Another 0.2 seconds goes by and the other Art in the fusion combo hits, and IS powered up by Power Charge.
4. Because the other Art in the Fusion Art used up the Power Charge state, the Power Charge state disappears after the Fusion Art completes.
5. This would probably imply that Fusion Arts truly are two independent Arts just triggered at the same time, which would be kinda non-spectacular

But your hypothesis could still be right. Power charge has a long animation after all.

Yep, which means that in order to test scenario 2 above we'd have to fuse it with an Art that takes longer and see if it uses up the Power Charge state or not.

With the reliance of link arts the combat system makes, all of this should be better explained or way more streamlined (like for ex: master arts always go second). It's these kind of things what make the game feel "obtuse" to me despite all the tutorials on it.

I agree. Then I wouldn't have to test any of this.

I found this "issue" with power charge arts: the power charged art is the next after the link is activated, not the one linked. I don't have a problem with that, but it would be better if these kind of rules were more clear.

That makes sense though, because that's how Power Charge works. It charges the next Art.
It would go against that rule to have Power Charge charge up the Fusion Art it's a part of.

Interesting to hear your findings. I don't have any means of recording footage to get the length of art animations and when the procs happen,

I'm just screencapping it and using my stopwatch app on my phone to take a few different measurements and average them out.

but I can confirm the seraph class's topple art works with lone exile's launch for a successful topple to launch.

That's great!

I do wonder if catonkatonk is right that certain fusions are planned to work together regardless.

I hope that's the case. That's probably why I'm having such a hard time finding an Art Combo that takes longer than it's successor!

I also had the same thing where power charge never applies to that class art no matter what I pair with Cross Impact

Are you saying Power Charge doesn't proc? Or that it doesn't make the Fusion Art it's a part of stronger? Because Power Charge isn't supposed to make its own Fusion Art stronger - it's description says it powers up the next Art, as in the next one after the Fusion Combo.

while Shadow Eye does work with Resonant Flag.

That makes sense though, because Shadow Eye's effect isn't buffered to the next Art, it activates immediately.

Maybe that's because it's Power Charge on hit rather than just giving you the buff like Shadow Eye.

That's exactly right

Another interesting little thing to note about power charge is that it won't go away if the next art you use is non-damaging.

I noticed that too, thank god.

 

[ermitron2]

I honestly don't care for the localization in general. I really liked XB1's localization, 2's less so, and 3's even less. This is also my first time playing a Xenoblade game with JP audio which makes it even more jarring.

Also completely agree with the name changes. Not a whole lot of JRPGs change names these days, and I sorta wish Xenoblade 3 didn't.

I gotta say I'm amazed by the notable differences in Eunie's and Ghondor's dialogs in JP audio. I get they want to add some local flavour but they really turned on and broke the "foult mouth localization" knob with them

 

[Leica]

I gotta say I'm amazed by the notable differences in Eunie's and Ghondor's dialogs in JP audio. I get they want to add some local flavour but they really turned on and broke the "foult mouth localization" knob with them

They went overboard with Ghondor for sure.

 

[lightning16]

I gotta say I'm amazed by the notable differences in Eunie's and Ghondor's dialogs in JP audio. I get they want to add some local flavour but they really turned on and broke the "foult mouth localization" knob with them

lol those are actually the two examples that come to mind for me as well. Just a weird situation where I find them both pretty obnoxious fairly often when I'm reading what they say but they're both fine with the words that are coming out of their mouths. There's a lot jarring about this localization but those two are up there with the most blatant examples. Ghondor especially I still don't know if I like her or dislike her lol.

 

[ermitron2]

They went overboard with Ghondor for sure.

lol those are actually the two examples that come to mind for me as well. Just a weird situation where I find them both pretty obnoxious fairly often when I'm reading what they say but they're both fine with the words that are coming out of their mouths. There's a lot jarring about this localization but those two are up there with the most blatant examples. Ghondor especially I still don't know if I like her or dislike her lol.

Yeah, Ghondor is the most jarring one. While 90% of Eunie swearing is non existant her lines does come as rude in jp so it kinda make sense, but for Ghondor its like there are 2 completely different persons. IN jp they went for the sukeban stereotype, which yeah, they are rude, but there is a difference between being rude and just talking shit

 

[Thunder84]

Ghondor’s foul mouth is my favorite aspect about her, love that they made that change. Same with Eunie, although she’s a much stronger character outside of that.

I’m general I don’t really care about staying faithful to the JP script. Had no issues with XC2 at all, nor do I have any with XC3, but I understand that’s all personal preference.

 

[Notsowise]

dunno what you mean, the best gear is found through exploring and fighting UMs

Do you mean the accessories? I just use the same recommended options. You can’t really scale to create a specific character.
The weakest part of all xenoblade games are the non sense list of items and the shopping list.

One of the best parts of any rpg game is to mix and match so you can create a specific class character. Just like Diablo or Monster Hunter, I can focus on certain abilities and fight the way I want.

You never have that kind of freedom on Xdnoblade games. You just keep going and repeating the same gameplay.

 

[xghost777]

The topic of the day once again is the one I want to talk about, the job system! I’m 80ish hours in and definitely have some thoughts and questions (the latter I want to figure out myself). So in general I really love the job system, but if you are cycling out and learning jobs you don’t really get to experiment with it the way you might want to. Also in general, having a balanced party (2 attackers, 2 defenders, and 2 healers) generally keeps the game running smoothly so rearranging and planning leveling and fighting around that feels most optimal.

But that isn’t really what I want to talk about because while I do think it’s an issue I’m still in this process 80 some hours in (I have three classes left for everyone to learn) every once in a while through this process I run into some really cool combo that makes me excited for what’s ahead. While I’ve generally been learning one class at a time, I suddenly got a lot of heroes quickly and since it worked out for it, I currently have three characters in the Troubadour class to speed up learning. Normally I spread out my classes (ie three characters aren’t in the same class) and I was worried when I accidentally walked into an end of chapter boss fight with this spread. It actually worked out amazingly well. Troubadour has an ability that sets out a “fast recharge” field which the AI is not shy about dropping and whose effects stack (ie if you are standing in three fields at once, you get three fast recharge buffs). I was playing as Noah who had Ghondor’s class (I forget what it’s called, but it’s like a martial artist) and all of its arts already have a fast recharge time (he also had the double fusion art damage accessory equipped). He also had his second unique talent art equipped that normally takes a long time to recharge, but can deal incredible damage if you manage to set it up. Anyway you can see where this is going, basically everything charged extra super fast and I was dealing massive damage super quickly that melted through health bars because the big set up became so easy to set up. It felt extra super cool.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Spoiler

And where's my bioluminescent forest, XB3?

nvm, found it

 

[Zeal543]

One of the best parts of any rpg game is to mix and match so you can create a specific class character. Just like Diablo or Monster Hunter, I can focus on certain abilities and fight the way I want.

Funny, I dislike the new gem system in MH games, I prefer the pre-world gem mechanics which encouraged less mixed sets

 

[skullwaker]

The simplicity and forward nature of Sena’s “And now we know things.” line is very funny to me for some reason.

 

[Thunder84]

One thing the class system does bungle is the role distribution.

Spoiler: Postgame

11 attackers vs 5 defenders is a terrible split, should’ve been 8 of each class alongside Soul Hacker

 

[Notsowise]

What the bloody sparks!

Chapter 5 is fucking awesome. That should have come early in the game. I just can’t…. My dream zelda game has to get an area like that.
The music … the blade… what the heck? How can people even compare to xeno2? What the heck man… amazing! My Goty just there!

 

[Lovecatt]

God I want a multiplayer Xenoblade game so badly

Imagine creating a party of 3 with friends online and killin monsters together.

I was just thinking today about how cool a monster hunter esque multiplayer game would be

 

[zumaddy]

Zeon is my little pogchamp, I take him to new areas just so I can hear him talk about new vistas and soil quality. Was not expecting this dude to be my fave.

 

[xghost777]

Lore question here, if someone has hair constantly on fire is it actually safe to snuggle up to them at campsites?

I’m just saying Eunie snuggling up to Sena and falling asleep on her shoulder always looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Nate just said on Twitter that XB2 is the worst Xenoblade game and I uh

I dunno yall

after chapter 5 / early chapter 6 of XB3 I might agree with him

 

[Jersh]

Yes, that's right.
Attacker's Hit Rate: 90%
Target's Evade Rate: 10%

Oh, it also might be worth pointing out that in all the previous Xenoblade games, Hit rate always caps at 95% and can't go lower than 5%. So no matter how much DEX you have, there's always a 5% chance to miss. And no matter how much agility you have, the enemy will always have a 5% chance to hit. I assume it's the same here just because 1, X, and 2 all did that.

I'm not 100% sure of this but I don't believe misses and evades are the same thing; I've seen both pop up for both characters and enemies. Given that there's quite a few bonuses for evading an attack for certain classes, I'd be surprised if they apply even when the enemy just misses.

God I want a multiplayer Xenoblade game so badly

Imagine creating a party of 3 with friends online and killin monsters together.

X sort of had that. If Nintendo ever wanted to wade into the mmo space a Xenoblade Online would be the best series they have for that sort of thing. That said I'd rather that get outsourced to an external developer with Monolith in a supervisor role, I really want them to keep their focus on single player games.

Sometimes I look at that first X trailer and wonder about what might've been.

I'm not sure whether I'd prefer for a theoretical online Xenoblade to be an MMO or not. There's pros to the idea, but I wouldn't want it to tie them up Monolith Stuff for too long, and I kinda prefer there being an end to Xenoblade games lol. They take me enough time as it is. But just partying up with friends, sign me up.

 

[EtherPenguin]

I'm not 100% sure of this but I don't believe misses and evades are the same thing; I've seen both pop up for both characters and enemies. Given that there's quite a few bonuses for evading an attack for certain classes, I'd be surprised if they apply even when the enemy just misses.

Do you mean when it says 'Evaded' instead of 'Missed'? That's a completely different thing. 'Evaded!' means it's a forced evasion from arts like Wide Slash that force all hits to miss during the art's animation or the target has the Decoy status which forces a set number of hits to miss. It's possible the tactician and stalker passive skills I mentioned also return 'Evaded' instead of 'Missed', it would make sense as they are forced evades as well.

I'm fairly familiar with the datamining from 1, X, and 2 and can assure you the Base + Dex - Agi is the only hit/evade formula these games have (of course it varies slightly between games as 1 has no dex and X has two accuracy stats - but the basic idea's the same) You can't increase the chance to evade from Wide Slash or Decoy because it's always guaranteed.

 

[Jersh]

Do you mean when it says 'Evaded' instead of 'Missed'? That's a completely different thing. 'Evaded!' means it's a forced evasion from arts like Wide Slash that force all hits to miss during the art's animation or the target has the Decoy status which forces a set number of hits to miss. It's possible the tactician and stalker passive skills I mentioned also return 'Evaded' instead of 'Missed', it would make sense as they are forced evades as well.

I'm fairly familiar with the datamining from 1, X, and 2 and can assure you the Base + Dex - Agi is the only hit/evade formula these games have (of course it varies slightly between games as 1 has no dex and X has two accuracy stats - but the basic idea's the same) You can't increase the chance to evade from Wide Slash or Decoy because it's always guaranteed.

Ah, I wasn't aware that was only during forced evasion arts.

 

[NabiscoFelt]

Man

Spoiler: Chapter 4 Hero Class

Incursor is just kinda nuts huh. Especially in Chain Attacks, I'm regularly doing more damage with one of the Fusion Art setups I have (Aerial Slash + Hidden Thorn, with the Flash Fencer Power Charge Art on one of my other slots) than with even Ouroburos Orders.

At least where I'm at in Chapter 5 it kinda far outclasses anything else in terms of raw damage output. It's possible there's a FMJ or Ogre build with similar output at this point in the game though, I wouldn't be too surprised since I haven't gone back and experimented with those

 

[chocolate_supra]

Spoiler: Chapter 6 spoilers barely but not really

So I was saying earlier that it felt weird to have the story noving in one specific direction while having my brain going "wait, must backtrack and chase Hero quests because I don't wanna miss any Heroes!" led to that strange disconnected feeling between the story and what I'm actually doing. That weird immersion loss.

Welp, I actually found a comfortable place in the story where it feels normal to buzz around and explore. After the big boss battle that kicks off Chapter 6, we're left with this sort of "well what do we wanna do now?" moment where the characters aren't actively pushing in a particular direction for the story like their lives depend on it. This literally feels like the story finally left a gap for all the exploration and sidequesting.

So in my headcanon, all the backtracking and quests I've been doing are happening now. I've just been, like, watching episodes of a tv show out of order or something.

 

[Deleted member 2551]

I completed the game.

I absolutely need the extra Story and a Xenoblade 4. I need them right now.



EDIT: I still find if funny that after 4 Xenoblade games we can't have an IA capable of handling healing, I had to do the final battle playing the support.

Thinking about the ending the day after, I think the ending itself is greatly done and it execute everything it wants to do, but the last 1.5 chapters before it are all so empty it feels like nothing happens in them. More details in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Basically the true emotional climax of the game is the end of chapter 5, beginning of chapter 6. That section is the most emotional AND the most detailed in the game, with a sequence that feels like it lasts long enough to be the ending.

Then basically nothing happens, just "go to point A, get some lore drops, go to point B, get some lore dumps, get to point C and clear a dungeon". It feels like there is barely any cutscene at all during chapter 7 and I would say almost no cutscene at all in the last dungeon.

The thing is even more strange when compared to the whole World Tree section of Xenoblade 2. The similarities between the two sections are obvious, but the World Tree takes so much longer to clear because of how much of the story is resolved in it: Amalthus' backstory, Mik/Patroka/Akhos final moments, Jin/Malos being bros, Jin finally closing with the past, Rex being a chad...
In the Origin on the other hand anything barely happens, even Melia has like 2 minutes of dialogue then dips out.

It kinda feels like they run of out resources in a way, it just fizzles out until the last part of the ENDLESS final bossfight and the final cutscene

I also have a possibly controversial opinion about the aesthetic of the Queen of Keves/Agnus (of course, end game spoilers)

Spoiler

Melia's combat costume is pretty cool, but Jesus what did they give to Nia, her Blade Form looked so elegant, this weird Blade/Driver form mix is terrible. Why didn't they just slightly edit her Queen dress if they didn't want to give her the more revealing original outfit, her Queen outfit too looked outstanding and elegant.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Beaten all but the final superboss. Tomorrow will probably wrap up the last few quests I still have remaining in postgame, kill the superboss and then send the game off with the offseer melody. Might post some more detailed thoughts later in the week

 

[xghost777]

I have all the heroes at this point and I only have the last one’s job to learn (thanks @bellydrum for sharing the google doc guide earlier today in the thread!). Mostly went back to exploring today rather than tackling the story. I was most excited to discover a terrifying level 95 zone that I’m excited to explore down the road.

Incidentally, this is the first Xenoblade on my first playthrough I don’t think I’ll be putting down when I hit credits. There are plenty of high level areas I’ve encountered that I want to explore before I can put the game down, not to mention I’m intrigued by the ascension quests that I’ve barely started (I’ve only done two so far I think). Pretty wild too I’ve put 83.5 hours into the game and I’m still going strong. IIRC I first beat Xenoblade at 80 hours and both Xenoblade X and Xenoblade 2 at 70 hours so this is already the longest in the series for me for a first playthrough.

 

[damondamon]

Yeah, Ghondor is the most jarring one. While 90% of Eunie swearing is non existant her lines does come as rude in jp so it kinda make sense, but for Ghondor its like there are 2 completely different persons. IN jp they went for the sukeban stereotype, which yeah, they are rude, but there is a difference between being rude and just talking shit

I also notice Ghondar does call her mother てめえ in Japanese. Do you think that's enough to justify the much more offensive localization?

 

[Ketwick9844]

Thinking about the ending the day after, I think the ending itself is greatly done and it execute everything it wants to do, but the last 1.5 chapters before it are all so empty it feels like nothing happens in them. More details in the spoiler.

Spoiler

Basically the true emotional climax of the game is the end of chapter 5, beginning of chapter 6. That section is the most emotional AND the most detailed in the game, with a sequence that feels like it lasts long enough to be the ending.

Then basically nothing happens, just "go to point A, get some lore drops, go to point B, get some lore dumps, get to point C and clear a dungeon". It feels like there is barely any cutscene at all during chapter 7 and I would say almost no cutscene at all in the last dungeon.

The thing is even more strange when compared to the whole World Tree section of Xenoblade 2. The similarities between the two sections are obvious, but the World Tree takes so much longer to clear because of how much of the story is resolved in it: Amalthus' backstory, Mik/Patroka/Akhos final moments, Jin/Malos being bros, Jin finally closing with the past, Rex being a chad...
In the Origin on the other hand anything barely happens, even Melia has like 2 minutes of dialogue then dips out.

It kinda feels like they run of out resources in a way, it just fizzles out until the last part of the ENDLESS final bossfight and the final cutscene

I also have a possibly controversial opinion about the aesthetic of the Queen of Keves/Agnus (of course, end game spoilers)

Spoiler

Melia's combat costume is pretty cool, but Jesus what did they give to Nia, her Blade Form looked so elegant, this weird Blade/Driver form mix is terrible. Why didn't they just slightly edit her Queen dress if they didn't want to give her the more revealing original outfit, her Queen outfit too looked outstanding and elegant.

Disagree here. The mix actually looks really good on her.

 

[Link_enfant]

I just hit that part of the story at the end of chapter 5 & beginning of chapter 6, that was a wild ride and I definitely didn't see most of that stuff coming even though I read about huge things happenning at this moment (without any spoilers obviously).

I'm really loving the game so far but I hope they fix some of the small technical issues here and there (sound popping for instance), as well as add main location names on the map.
Why aren't those shown anywhere except for when you're in the actual locations?

The levels are very well down and much less confusing than XC2 overall (saw Gormott mentioned earlier), but it'd definitely help to have big locations written here and there on the map: Yzana Plains, Millick Meadows, Eagus Wilderness and such (as well as colonies even though you have them on the Affinity Chart map)

It's like you should only care about big regions like Aetia or Fornis but those are huge and all have large, different locations in them that shouldn't be ignored on a map you're supposedly using quite often.

 

[zumaddy]

So in XB1 a ton of hard content opens up around getting past Agniritha, is there anything similar in this game? I'm trying to feel out how much 'endgame' content there is, currently at chapter 5.

 

[Starphanluke]

Just finished Chapter 4. This story is NOT going where I thought it was going to, but I so dig it.

Spoiler: Spoilers through the end of Chapter 4

I am so glad Melia isn't actually evil. Was worried about a bit of character assassination, there. Seems like she's somewhere fighting against Moebius, based on N's comment?

This game has done the impossible, I think: made me genuinely love every single party member in a JRPG. Just incredible so far.

I think I'm going to hang back now and go finish up some sidequests. I'm nervous that a

Spoiler

colony is going to get vaporized and I'll never be able to finish some lmao.

 

[Leica]

Beat the game after taking a break for a couple days, general opinion hasn't changed, exploration is fun, side content is by far the best out of any XB game and probably the best part of the game in general, I really liked how a couple of the hero quests tie into overaching plot and give some backstory to the world.

Loved the cast though some characters needed more development, Lanz especially really delivered thankfully. Story was good overall but the last 2 chapters have just enough unnecessary padding it kind of pulls you out of it for a while until the end hits, but I liked the ending overall, though some questions feel purposely unanswered and saved for DLC.

Combat is bad, every class feels the same to play, there's no real strategy; enemies fall in like 3 boring archetypes and never ask you to solve any problems outside of a: spawn adds, b: does aoe damage, that's about it, AI is dreadfully bad and you don't have enough control over them even with real time swapping, no idea why they wouldn't give more options to stop your party from being idiots, AI not cancelling arts is bad and makes them suck at just about every job (also makes them absolutely awful at Oubouros control), visual clarity is ass (especially in sea) and targeting the correct enemy in mobs is annoying, thankfully none of the enemies do anything but sometimes I wanted to pretend killing the healer first or something mattered so I could pretend there's strategy at least.

Smash is completely broken and trivializes any fight regardless of difficulty, my party setup killed every single boss in the story with chain attack + Smash starting around late chapter 5 all the way to the end which was kind of funny and probably the only redeeming part about the combat here, pretty sure you can keep doing that all the way through post-game since I hit 6.5 million damage at level 55 with unoptimized gems and a random assortement of equipment, you could probably double or triple that casually at lvl 99 if stuff just keeps scaling. Class balance in general is pretty shit with Signifer (lmao), Ogre, Souhacker, etc (spoiler ones) being so much better than everything else, they don't play differently enough to promote experimenting so just sticking to the overpowered ones to make fights go faster is a pretty easy decision.

I don't really necessarily think it's a Xenoblade 3 problem though, 2 had bad combat too and 1's wasn't great either. Out of all the things Monolith improved on the fighting is the thing that has improved the least. I actually kind of like the idea of a multiplayer Xenoblade because I feel these games are very much compromised and held back how bad the AI is, you can't really create more complex encounters when you have to babysit 5 characters who can't even do basic actions like press the heal button on cooldown or not stand in front of the big fire breathing dragon.

 

[Link_enfant]

Beat the game after taking a break for a couple days, general opinion hasn't changed, exploration is fun, side content is by far the best out of any XB game and probably the best part of the game in general, I really liked how a couple of the hero quests tie into overaching plot and give some backstory to the world.

Loved the cast though some characters needed more development, Lanz especially really delivered. Story was good overall but the last 2 chapters have just enough unnecessary padding it kind of pulls you out of it for a while until the end hits, but I liked the ending overall, though some questions feel purposely unanswered and saved for DLC.

Combat is bad, every class feels the same to play, there's no real strategy; enemies fall in like 3 boring archetypes and never ask you to solve any problems outside of a: spawn adds, b: does aoe damage, that's about it, AI is dreadfully bad and you don't have enough control over them even with real time swapping, no idea why they wouldn't give more options to stop your party from being idiots, AI not cancelling arts is bad and makes them suck at just about every job, visual clarity is ass (especially in sea) and targeting the correct enemy in mobs is annoying, thankfully none of the enemies do anything but sometimes I wanted to pretend killing the healer first or something mattered so I could pretend there's strategy at least.

Smash is completely broken and trivializes any fight regardless of difficulty, my party setup killed every single boss in the story with chain attack + Smash starting around late chapter 5 all the way to the end which was kind of funny and probably the only redeeming part about the combat here, pretty sure you can keep doing all the way through post-game since I hit 6.5 million damage at level 55 with unoptimized gems and a random assortement of equipment, you could probably double that casually at lvl 99 if stuff just keeps scaling. Class balance in general is pretty shit with Signifer (lmao), Ogre, Souhacker, etc (spoiler ones) being so much better than everything else, they don't play differently enough to promote experimenting so just sticking to the overpowered ones to make fights go faster is a pretty easy decision.

I don't really necessarily think it's a Xenoblade 3 problem though, 2 had bad combat too and 1's wasn't great either. Out of all the things Monolith improved on the fighting is the thing that has improved the least. I actually kind of like the idea of a multiplayer Xenoblade because I feel these games are very much compromised and held back how bad the AI is, you can't really create more complex encounters when you have to babysit 5 characters who can't even do basic actions like press the heal button on cooldown or not stand in front of the big fire breathing dragon.

Just to be sure, were you kind of over leveled during most boss fights? (no spoilers though, I've just started chapter 6)
I'm getting the impression that a lot of people either use bonus XP or grind a lot because of side content, which can clearly make you over leveled pretty early in the game and make combat trivial, highlighting stuff you're mentioning even more.
I tend to be slightly under leveled (or the same) and got my ass kicked various times during the main story, where opimizing my classes and taking care of my actions during battle helped a lot.
I gelt I had to grind a few levels only once actually, and it probably was for a side quest iirc.

 

[Leica]

Just to be sure, were you kind of over leveled during most boss fights? (no spoilers though, I've just started chapter 6)
I'm getting the impression that a lot of people either use bonus XP or grind a lot because of side content, which can clearly make you over leveled pretty early in the game and make combat trivial, highlighting stuff you're mentioning even more.
I tend to be slightly under leveled (or the same) and got my ass kicked various times during the main story, where opimizing my classes and taking care of my actions during battle helped a lot.
I gelt I had to grind a few levels only once actually, and it probably was for a side quest iirc.

I ended up being above 2-3 levels above the bosses in the final dungeon because I forgot to turn overkill exp off for too long but I never used bonus exp, for the rest of the game I was either on even levels or 1-3 levels below. Sadly that meant I skipped out on a lot of side quests till they were trivial because there's no down leveling and I was afraid I'd overlevel for the story by doing them.

 

[Paxie]

Combat is bad, every class feels the same to play, there's no real strategy; enemies fall in like 3 boring archetypes and never ask you to solve any problems outside of a: spawn adds, b: does aoe damage, that's about it, AI is dreadfully bad and you don't have enough control over them even with real time swapping, no idea why they wouldn't give more options to stop your party from being idiots, AI not cancelling arts is bad and makes them suck at just about every job, visual clarity is ass (especially in sea) and targeting the correct enemy in mobs is annoying, thankfully none of the enemies do anything but sometimes I wanted to pretend killing the healer first or something mattered so I could pretend there's strategy at least.

I don't really necessarily think it's a Xenoblade 3 problem though, 2 had bad combat too and 1's wasn't great either. Out of all the things Monolith improved on the fighting is the thing that has improved the least. I actually kind of like the idea of a multiplayer Xenoblade because I feel these games are very much compromised and held back how bad the AI is, you can't really create more complex encounters when you have to babysit 5 characters who can't even do basic actions like press the heal button on cooldown or not stand in front of the big fire breathing dragon.

Quoting these two paragraphs specifically because, as someone who's mid-chapter 5, I 100% agree with these. I wouldn't even be nice 1 and 2 tbh, encounter design is something the series has constantly failed at. Once you figure out the main systems of the game and power up some, you become a hammer in a world of nails. The next Xenoblade game desperately needs many more gimmick fights.

 

[Link_enfant]

I ended up being above 2-3 levels above the bosses in the final dungeon because I forgot to turn overkill exp off for too long but I never used bonus exp, for the rest of the game I was either on even levels or 1-3 levels below. Sadly that meant I skipped out on a lot of side quests till they were trivial because there's no down leveling and I was afraid I'd overlevel for the story by doing them.

I see, thanks for the clarification!
I mostly do the same, though I try to complete hero quests as soon as I get them, and use other side quests to learn classes for characters that haven't unlocked them yet.
I tend to avoid most ennemies except UMs though, but that's not bothering me. I wish we could down level at any time so I would never be afraid of over leveling, but I can understand why they didn't allow it for a first playthrough.
As for combat, I see what you mean but for main story, it's not like previous Xenoblade games required much optimization (if any), going for optimal setups should only be required for superbosses and the upcoming Challenge mode(s).
Of course there needs to be some kind of balance between all this, but I think XC3 nails it so far.

 

[zumaddy]

Colony Mu's Hero quest was really good, and brings up something I was wondering: whether there was any (chapter 5) guilty or somewhat sympatehtic consuls, and Irma may have possibly been one. Need to know more about the Moebius, though.

 

[DrizztDo]

Ok, i just finished ch. 5....omg...my existence is not ready for this game.

I need to think a looong loong time to understand and process.

Im hyped, shattered, happy, sad at the same time....

 

[BradenAndEggs]

Ok, i just finished ch. 5....omg...my existence is not ready for this game.

I need to think a looong loong time to understand and process.

Im hyped, shattered, happy, sad at the same time....

It's a really great sequence.

 

[Deleted member 2181]

Spoiler: End of Chapter 5/Beginning of Chapter 6

It's a wild ride, this passage of cut scenes.

And it started very, very bad. I could feel all the good will I had built up towards the cutscenes in the 65 prior hours vanishing as it suddenly turned into, well, Xenoblade.

And then-
And then-

Well, you know.
Shit.
I cried my fucking eyes out.

It's surreal to me, the wild swings in tone and quality.
We go from that,
To Shania cackling like a Scooby Doo villain,
To Consul X auditioning to be in a sequel to Mean Girls

They just can't help themselves, can they?