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

Which side are you on?

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Multiverse said:
X was on the more “realistic“ side which made everything weird and uncanny.

I prefer this more anime aesthetic tbh. Monolith is going full anime art now.
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What I'd really, really like to see is for X's character designer to be brought back on a future Xeno, and apply this new semi-cel-shaded technique and updated facial animation to it. I think his character art is lovely, and it's too bad that X's modeling and animation went with the plastic doll look.

Multiverse said:
I had my reply in a draft. This page was on a tab and I didn‘t bother to click “view new messages” but my thoughts exactly.

I didn’t realize somebody else is going to post almost the exact same thing Lol. It’s just funny when that happens. I’m pointing it out because I don‘t want people to think that I read his reply and basically reiterate what was already said. I wasn‘t aware of his post before posting mine. I’m actually surprised we have similar conclusion 🤣. That tis all.
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No worries, I've done it a hundred times. 🤣
 
chocolate_supra said:
What I'd really, really like to see is for X's character designer to be brought back on a future Xeno, and apply this new semi-cel-shaded technique and updated facial animation to it. I think his character art is lovely, and it's too bad that X's modeling and animation went with the plastic doll look.
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XC2's character rendering tends to give the main characters a babyface. that was my problem with Elma in that game. it really softened the edges too much. unfortunately, a lot of the examples for more mature characters are either sharp faced masculine (Malos), or way further down the rung in importance and don't get the good treatment
 
chocolate_supra said:
What I'd really, really like to see is for X's character designer to be brought back on a future Xeno, and apply this new semi-cel-shaded technique and updated facial animation to it. I think his character art is lovely, and it's too bad that X's modeling and animation went with the plastic doll look.
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We sort of got that with Shulk, Fiora, and Elma in 2's DLC (as well as KOS-MOS and Finch). But apparently there's reason to believe Tanaka won't continue working with the xeno series: https://xenomira.wordpress.com/2019...o-tanakas-involvement-with-future-xeno-games/

I feel it's less 2's renderer and more just Tanaka's style in general to give characters chubby cheeks lending to the baby face look. It's even noticeable in gears. I've seen Xenosaga 1 referred to as the game with the creepy cherub faces.
 
chocolate_supra said:
What I'd really, really like to see is for X's character designer to be brought back on a future Xeno, and apply this new semi-cel-shaded technique and updated facial animation to it. I think his character art is lovely, and it's too bad that X's modeling and animation went with the plastic doll look.
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Oh, absolutely! the 2D illustrations are great. They were not translated well to 3D at all.

9KLfdwL.jpg
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These looks so much better than whatever this is 🤣
JKyvP0x.jpg
Rin.jpg
 
Multiverse said:
Oh, absolutely! the 2D illustrations are great. They were not translated well to 3D at all.

9KLfdwL.jpg
CUS8_h6UkAAhEho.jpg


These looks so much better than whatever this is 🤣
JKyvP0x.jpg
Rin.jpg
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that's not a fault of the 2D artist but more of the 3D artist. but also note that I'm not one who believes teh whole "can't translate 2D to 3D". that's a load of BS to me
 
ILikeFeet said:
XC2's character rendering tends to give the main characters a babyface. that was my problem with Elma in that game. it really softened the edges too much. unfortunately, a lot of the examples for more mature characters are either sharp faced masculine (Malos), or way further down the rung in importance and don't get the good treatment
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I also prefer Elma in X. She looks off in 2. I don’t think It’s the rendering tbh. It’s the person responsible for the 3D model. The artist.

ILikeFeet said:
that's not a fault of the 2D artist but more of the 3D artist. but also note that I'm not one who believes teh whole "can't translate 2D to 3D". that's a load of BS to me
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You posted this just I was about to post my response but yeah I don’t believe that either. However, I do think certain styles are easier to replicate in 3D while others are harder. Well, it really all boils down to how good the 3D artist is tbh.

I think Taion looks better in 3D. He ate.
 
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Tye said:
That’s why they’ll release a port of XCX on Switch sometime after XC3 comes out. It sounds like you played XC2 before playing the original (unless playing DE was your second playthrough), so if that’s the case then you’ve already played them out of order, but despite the connections to 1 in 2 I’m sure it turned out fine for you, yes? Why would it be any different with some ties to X in 3?
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I was still a little irritated that Xenoblade 2 had such close narrative ties to 1 at the end without an easy way to play 1 on Switch. (The marketing insisted that 2 would be fine without 1 but I see the end of both of them succeeding way more with the knowledge of 1 first.)

Sure, yeah it's fine now due to DE being on Switch. Ideally, I wouldn't have to wait for a Switch port of X to tie together the series for me after just playing through all these games to prep for 3.
 
bellydrum said:
This was exactly the case
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Yeah, the discovery of an old civilisation advanced enough to make skyscrapers below the cloud sea and the Great Tree being actually a metallic tower with all the Klaus experiment is equivalent to Alvis and Klaus revelations on XC1… and you don’t need the other game to enjoy the plot twist. Having played it is just an extra level of OMGWTFBBQ that can be enjoyed whatever game you play first (although the original order is preferable because the little hints and obvious ones in XC2, like Malos doing Monado Arts out of the blue)
 
BradenAndEggs said:
I was still a little irritated that Xenoblade 2 had such close narrative ties to 1 at the end without an easy way to play 1 on Switch. (The marketing insisted that 2 would be fine without 1 but I see the end of both of them succeeding way more with the knowledge of 1 first.)

Sure, yeah it's fine now due to DE being on Switch. Ideally, I wouldn't have to wait for a Switch port of X to tie together the series for me after just playing through all these games to prep for 3.
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I mean, I agree, it’s probably better to have played them in order, sure. But I’d argue you don’t lose much by playing them out of order, either, and their narratives work just fine regardless of which you play first. Playing 1 after 2 will just retroactively make you understand and appreciate 2’s ending more. Also, you could always, just, like…get a Wii U and play X now if you really want to play it first. =P

But yeah, I would have definitely preferred X to be on Switch by now, but I understand why they probably wanted to prioritize getting XC1 on Switch and making XC3 first. And, like, plenty of game sequels directly reference past games that aren’t available on the current system, anyway, so I don’t think 3 potentially tying into X in some way is something to get too worked up about just because X isn’t on Switch yet.
 
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bellydrum said:
This was exactly the case
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nah. if you didn't know anything about XC1, you didn't miss out on anything but "who the hell is that voice" at the end and "so where's the third processor". I don't even remember if there was anything that radically changed your perception of it if you have or haven't played XC1
 
ILikeFeet said:
nah.
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Nakapol said:
noooope.
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Why are you saying "nah" and "noooope" and then agreeing with me lol

I'm saying it's the case where 2 would be fine without 1, but the ending is better when you know 1 before 2

I played 2 before I knew anything about 1. I loved the ending of 2. But the ending of 2 was made way better once I finished 1.
 
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iu


iu


The biggest upgrade to Elma's model from X to 2 (after the higher poly count, better hairs, more varied anymations) were the nose and the eyes being more similar to the concept art.

too bad her true form is still stuck on WiiU and with the doll face of every character in X

Lin would have looked perfect in the artstyle of 2 and 3.
 
I imagine the experience of 2 is fundamentally different depending on whether or not you've played the first game. From the very first cutscene, perceptions are going to differ due to the pre-existing expectations that players of 1 will have. For example, those who have played the first game might immediately assume that there's something technological about the tree, that Elysium isn't going to be the solution to anything, and that this great Architect dude is probably a dick. Whereas people going in for the first time might consider this stuff just background colour, or otherwise just take it at face value.

When you play the first game, it's really obvious that the Faced Mechon are repurposed humans and that Dickson has an ulterior motive and that Fiora will return as a Faced, etc. But that stuff is just, like, red herrings to lure you into a false sense of security that you know where this story is going and what the world is all about. Then you get to the Mechonis Core and from then on it's like, "... wha..."
2 is similar, but in different ways, depending on if you've played the first game. If you have, then you have the obvious twist (the tree), masking the huge mind-fuck twist (God is good, actually, and actually is the same as the bad God of the first game!). That final twist isn't a twist for Xenoblade 2-only players. There was never the suggestion that the Architect would be other than he was, and it doesn't mean anything when he talks about his other half. But in contrast, Moritha, the tree, space, that stuff would be, I imagine, hugely surprising to new players. The big twist.
 
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Joseki said:
jGqU62K.png


iu


iu


The biggest upgrade to Elma's model from X to 2 (after the higher poly count, better hairs, more varied anymations) were the nose and the eyes being more similar to the concept art.

too bad her true form is still stuck on WiiU and with the doll face of every character in X

Lin would have looked perfect in the artstyle of 2 and 3.
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Now I really hope that when/if they get around to a Xenoblade X re-release, they put in the extra effort and rework the character models.
 
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EtherPenguin said:
Maybe I'm wrong but I thought she was having a flashback to what she see during fusion.
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Brewster123 said:
This is what I thought too, since it flashbacks to that weird yellow space that we see during the fusion sequences. Either way, I'm looking forward to all the heart to hearts where characters share eachother's embarrassing memories (Example: Mio finds out Noah wet the bed a lot as a kid and teases him about it in front of the others).
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Perhaps, either way I hope the bond between teammates is used to further those characters and their relationships in interesting ways - even if it’s just as we see in this latest snippet.

Monolith Soft are usually good at tying the game‘s main gimmick into story, combat and exploration so I’m sure they’ll pull it off.

I’m glad we got the clip today, I just expected more character stuff all week, so I’m happy they’ve mixed it up.
 
So it seems like campsites are an all-in-one locatiotion. HtH, leveling up, crafting, cooking and merchants all happen here. wonder if there will still be HtH outside of them.
 
Multiverse said:
The nose thing is a stylistic choice. I actually don’t like the style in DE lol. DE almost looks like X. It’s like a cross between Disney and Anime. X was on the more “realistic“ side which made everything weird and uncanny.
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I think X2 and X3 look more like a generic anime game. X tried something different and that resulted in fantastic graphics. The more generic style they use now looks definitely "cleaner" but makes all characters look very samey with less facial figures, just plain kids faces.

On the graphics side: X Worlds is still one if the most beautiful open worlds ever and technical this game was very impressive. X1 was a technical showcase on Wii. X2 on Switch was a big disappointment in that regard. Hopefully X3 impresses more.
 
The lack of noses really is kind of awful imo. I hate whatever style of art that is.
 
Nia's core crystal is looking more blue in that artwork. Could be nothing, though in her XC2 artwork her core crystal is much darker.
 
That green nopon is the first NPC we've seen in casual clothes not weaing the colors of either nation. Where nopon aren't integrated into the clock system, it makes since there would be nomadic groups unattached to either nation.

But I've been wondering if there might be a whole third faction of people, perhaps more of nature-focused group and the green-haired gormotti's a part of it. Their armor looked fairly different than both Keves and Agnus armor.
 
Aleh said:
And people doubted Saito.
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I never doubted the man who kickstarted his careed doing Evangelion fan arts on pixiv, he was always good.

EDIT: speaking of saitom's design, it's always funny how he tends to spill the same influences over basically everything he gets to draw at the same time. Eunie's shoes or Mio's jacket are both in his NSFW OC "DF Stella" released last year: https://www.mashedpopoto.com/blog/stella-luphia (of course, NSFW warning)
 
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Warlord said:
So it seems like campsites are an all-in-one locatiotion. HtH, leveling up, crafting, cooking and merchants all happen here. wonder if there will still be HtH outside of them.
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Maybe we'll still get some voiced Quiet Moments on top of them. I really enjoyed them in FC.
 
EtherPenguin said:
That green nopon is the first NPC we've seen in casual clothes not weaing the colors of either nation. Where nopon aren't integrated into the clock system, it makes since there would be nomadic groups unattached to either nation.

But I've been wondering if there might be a whole third faction of people, perhaps more of nature-focused group and the green-haired gormotti's a part of it. Their armor looked fairly different than both Keves and Agnus armor.
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If there are other factions with hero characters, I wonder how they'd handle Arts for them.
 
Apopheniac said:
If there are other factions with hero characters, I wonder how they'd handle Arts for them.
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Good point since art shapes are based on nation and there's only two shapes (unless we're getting hexagon arts!). But, this suddenly made me even more curious how the nopon work where they come from opposing nations but function as Xenoblade's ice climbers. Will their arts be circle or diamond? I never thought of that before.

Something else unrelated I've been curious about. Enemies drop a lot of materials but don't seem to drop anything that looks like accessories. The materials can be presumably crafted into gems at the campsites but there's nothing that looks like normal equipment. I think an equipment system with only gems could actually be a lot of fun if that's what they end up doing. I could see it working like Paper Mario's badge system which I consider one of the most fun and flexible RPG equipment systems around.

edit: Maybe the nopon's Yumsmith class and potential third faction classes could have a mix of circle and diamond arts.
 
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Joseki said:
I never doubted the man who kickstarted his careed doing Evangelion fan arts on pixiv, he was always good.

EDIT: speaking of saitom's design, it's always funny how he tends to spill the same influences over basically everything he gets to draw at the same time. Eunie's shoes or Mio's jacket are both in his NSFW OC "DF Stella" released last year: https://www.mashedpopoto.com/blog/stella-luphia (of course, NSFW warning)
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that's generally how design works. nothing is ever made in a vacuum
 
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