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

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EtherPenguin said:
The talent art for Eunie's ouroboros also has unblockable as one of the effects. If you look at the Japanese footage, that effect in Eunie's ouroboros talent art literally translates to something like 'Guard Seal'. It's the exact same word that I chose to translate as Nullify Blocking in my chart because that seemed more in line with how 2's localization named similar stuff. But now I'm thinking Unblockable is actually the localized name for that Guard Seal status. I also think yumsmith has an art that inflicts it. Likely, Annul Guard seen on another ouroboros art is for an attack to bypass block rate.

I find 1 vs 2 stuff tiring and I don't enjoy talking story as much as gameplay because of how personal one's connection to a story can be so I won't go into this too much. 1 came into my life at a time where what it means to me is something I can't argue rationally.

But 2 strikes me as a lot heavier on plot with all the politics between nations and the world feeling more fleshed out because of it. People often say chapter 4 is useless or an example of the narrative getting sidetracked. Really, Bana's connection to torna and the mass manufacturing of artificial blades is pretty important and what people are responding poorly to I think is that it doesn't feel character motivated. It eventually gets to expand on a character in which they retell Maria Balthazaar's story with Tora, but that wasn't the impetus for the party going to the factory in the first place.

I'm not interested in discussing the merits of using a revenge plot for a narrative device, but isn't revenge inherently a character driven motivation? Much of 1's story feels driven by Shulk's desires. He wants revenge on the mechon and when he reaches a point where he sees revenge as futile and only continuing a cycle of violence - his enemy changes to an entity who looks and sounds just like him and seeks to continue a cycle of violence. He conquers his own bloodthirst by turning to face what is essentially his own dark side making up the third act.

Though in general, I don't find plot vs character to be all that useful because very few stories actually weigh that heavily on one side. It's always muddied and hard to separate. And it gets even more complicated when you consider some people see a difference between plot vs story on top of that. The best stories do both well and both 1 and 2 play with both at different times through their respective stories.
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Hm, still think the name's a bit weird but that's solid evidence. Would make some sense for an Attacker to inflict Unblockable on themselves as an aura

I do wonder how Auras will be balanced for Agnian classes, since arts seem to recharge a lot faster there (even if you increase the number of auto attacks for the cooldown, canceling arts charges things up really fast it seems). Seems trivial to have constant uptime, but at the same time I don't know if you'll want one of your faster charging arts to be relegated to an aura.

Also, interesting take on the subject of plot vs character driven. I guess for me it isn't that 1 is more plot driven, but more plot focused . As in, the motivations might be more character driven but the actual game focuses more on the plot than the characters. And vice versa for 2. But I agree that it's all a bit subjective and murky and we've probably discussed it for long enough. Like you said, how people view stories is ultimately subjective and it's hard to argue about that sort of thing.
 
NabiscoFelt said:
Hm, still think the name's a bit weird but that's solid evidence. Would make some sense for an Attacker to inflict Unblockable on themselves as an aura

I do wonder how Auras will be balanced for Agnian classes, since arts seem to recharge a lot faster there (even if you increase the number of auto attacks for the cooldown, canceling arts charges things up really fast it seems). Seems trivial to have constant uptime, but at the same time I don't know if you'll want one of your faster charging arts to be relegated to an aura.
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The name's definitely weird, I think something similar to Nullify Blocking would better explain the effect.

I do think the auras should've been Keves exclusive. They could still be balanced by just requiring a lot of charge though and the drawbacks help balance things too. But then there's that Nigh Hunt art which looks pretty close to Shadow Runner, why would you ever not want that on? I like how X had every aura cost TP to activate, that made things more interesting and tactical. My preference would be for the next xenoblade to have some sort of gauge resource on top of cooldowns.
 
NabiscoFelt said:
NabiscoFelt said:
Yeah that's probably fair haha

Honestly the second part is what makes it feel a bit more standard, but I realize that's not that common. But I've definitely seen the "actually, the guys you wanted revenge against were really justified the whole time and your side is kinda the baddies here" a couple times before. Though since I played 1 for the first time with DE, XC might be one of the first examples of those chronologically, even if it wasn't the only one (or the best one, imo) by the time I played it


Doesn't it say "Unblockable"? That would be a fairly weird way to phrase it, even though it would make more sense that way if Maximum Voltage is an aura (since those seem to have a drawback)

And interesting about the plot vs character/1 v 2 comparison. It's one I see often and also the main difference that I personally see between the two, so I'm curious what your take on it is.
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What you described typically ends up being the progression of most heroes journeys, as former enemies are won over and become freinds, and they put their faith in the hero. This is lampshaded in Xenoblade.

There are initially only 4 beings in the universe with the capacity to create causation. They are all marked with the same symbol of the monads. It's not that the bad guys had a legitimate reason, (Egil fully explaining himself was not part of the script) it's that somebody was literally able to write a script where they had to play bad guys, because they don't have self determination (without meyneth active, who would stop zanza?) Everything, and everyone was forced into a play, so shulk would go through the motions of the heros journey and defeat the great evil. Upon succeeding, the 'chosen hero', who was actually the chosen rube, would be the end of the world. Game over.

Zanza played the part of great homs heroes at the battle of sword valley. zanza also plaid the part of not so great homs 'heroes'. He was also the assaulting Mechon force as well.

Zanza played the part of a childhood sweetheart. Zanza played the part of the childhood sweetheart all the way into an adult making Shulk sandwiches.

Zanza played the part of sending an invading force to colony 9.

Zanza played the part of the courageous childhood sweet heart valiantly sacrificing her life.

Zanza played the part of of the villain that murdered her.

The pre established harmony of events is supposed to be exactly that,
A completely pre written series of events. There is no causality, any appearence of causality, is an illusion, as everything is pre orchestrated, and synched up in perfect harmony, to appear to react in pre scripted ways. (it's not absolute as Zanza states, due to it not being divine, but technological, and as such, having errors and glitches, but that's another topic).

There are usually tropes involving a bad guy who was brain washed and not really a bad guy, or bad guys who are befriended.....

But there aren't many villains who pull off something this..... Sociopathically petty and bombastic.

Dude literally had the power of an omnipotent deity and he obssesively concerns himself with using an entire plane of existence and every living thing in it, to act out a story he wrote (as a human being, who knows by heart the exact same classic story conventions we do, because he's from our earth) to trick a creation of his to become his new vessel to extend his life. And he fails because he is just so damn arrogant.

Conversely, his other half, takes massive arrogance in a completely different direction, when he feels his creations turned out no better than mother nature/designless chaos the inescapable reality that despite having the powers of basically omnipotence and creation, he still failed in his goal of designing a populous that wouldn't make the same mistake of Earth's humans, reconciling that with his massive arrogance completely shattered and depressed him, he just gave up. Until rex and co roused him out of it.

Zanza/Klaus is a really interesting take on the super arrogant character trope. I wonder how he would have handled the situations had he had his whole psyche as one being. Maybe we'll find out somehow in an upcoming redemption arc. That could be neat.
 
Ok I originally was just going to wait to play X3 after finishing the first two but I’ve gotten too excited and want to play it ASAP but I’ve got a dilemma. I have played part of X1 twice now on the Wii and 3Ds but have only gotten up the sea with the floating city. And then X2 I’m at the part with the factory on the desert Titan.

Obviously no one knows yet how important it is to have played them already before playing X3 (despite Nintendo saying it’s fine : p) but just based on the concept it seems important to understand what’s going on. I generally know what happens with X1 having been spoiled on party members and final boss stuff

But for X2 does anyone have any insight into how far am I from finishing the game? Is there still a lot? Is it too much for the 2 weeks before release and then jumping back in after 1.5 years? I’ll be lost in those systems

Maybe I trust Nintendo and just play 3 without having finished either 1/2 or maybe I just find some summaries online to watch before playing 3 and then go back to 1/2 again later
 
DecoReturns said:
Why they gotta have the future connected Monado.

Yes I’m being nitpickly 😞
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Because it'll be canon!

Beelzemontheworld said:
But for X2 does anyone have any insight into how far am I from finishing the game? Is there still a lot? Is it too much for the 2 weeks before release and then jumping back in after 1.5 years? I’ll be lost in those systems
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Desert titan with the factory? You're only about a third of the way through I'm afraid. Some stuff that happens in chapter 7 is pretty important to understanding Nia that 3 might spoil.
 
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Beelzemontheworld said:
Ok I originally was just going to wait to play X3 after finishing the first two but I’ve gotten too excited and want to play it ASAP but I’ve got a dilemma. I have played part of X1 twice now on the Wii and 3Ds but have only gotten up the sea with the floating city. And then X2 I’m at the part with the factory on the desert Titan.

Obviously no one knows yet how important it is to have played them already before playing X3 (despite Nintendo saying it’s fine : p) but just based on the concept it seems important to understand what’s going on. I generally know what happens with X1 having been spoiled on party members and final boss stuff

But for X2 does anyone have any insight into how far am I from finishing the game? Is there still a lot? Is it too much for the 2 weeks before release and then jumping back in after 1.5 years? I’ll be lost in those systems

Maybe I trust Nintendo and just play 3 without having finished either 1/2 or maybe I just find some summaries online to watch before playing 3 and then go back to 1/2 again later
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You're definitely still in 'the beginning' of xb2, maybe 1/4th through the game.

As far as story plot points relevant to xb1, and likely xb3, that happens around 3/4ths of the way through the game, mostly in a massive and important exposition dump, that provides more concrete details on and expands upon xb1's big reveal, which isn't shown until literally the end of that game.
 
Beelzemontheworld said:
Ok I originally was just going to wait to play X3 after finishing the first two but I’ve gotten too excited and want to play it ASAP but I’ve got a dilemma. I have played part of X1 twice now on the Wii and 3Ds but have only gotten up the sea with the floating city. And then X2 I’m at the part with the factory on the desert Titan.

Obviously no one knows yet how important it is to have played them already before playing X3 (despite Nintendo saying it’s fine : p) but just based on the concept it seems important to understand what’s going on. I generally know what happens with X1 having been spoiled on party members and final boss stuff

But for X2 does anyone have any insight into how far am I from finishing the game? Is there still a lot? Is it too much for the 2 weeks before release and then jumping back in after 1.5 years? I’ll be lost in those systems

Maybe I trust Nintendo and just play 3 without having finished either 1/2 or maybe I just find some summaries online to watch before playing 3 and then go back to 1/2 again later
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Why did you stop playing the previous games? How likely do you think it is to happen again with XC3? Or that you will get burn out from trying to finish XC2 first?

They will probably make XC3 standalone (even if you don't get the full picture until you play the others) and are very likely to put big plot twists there aimed at new players (similar to how people starting Star Wars from Episode I will not be surprised on Episode V big twist but they will be surprised with Darth Vader birth on Episode III), so I wouldn't resort to summaries or rushing in your place. Finishing them out of order is probably better than that and definitely better than not finishing any of them.
 
Aostia82 said:
I actually agree
It is the worst one for sure
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Well we can extrapolate reasons to choose from.

The iconic monado was not actually shulks monado, it was Zanzas.

Shulks true monado is way too cool and powerful looking to be fair putting it next to the other weapons.

Shulks true monado breaks the matching color scheme.

The actual Monado is offline and no longer functional, it may have also blinked out of existence when the conduit was sent away.

Shulk may have misplaced it. I lose stuff in piles of other stuff in my attic all the time. I would probably lose a dormant legendary blade that has I/O access to editing reality. I might possibly misplace it still, even if it was still active and capable of editing reality.
 
EtherPenguin said:
Desert titan with the factory? You're only about a third of the way through I'm afraid. Some stuff that happens in chapter 7 is pretty important to understanding Nia that 3 might spoil.
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Crusters said:
You're definitely still in 'the beginning' of xb2, maybe 1/4th through the game.

As far as story plot points relevant to xb1, and likely xb3, that happens around 3/4ths of the way through the game, mostly in a massive and important exposition dump, that provides more concrete details on and expands upon xb1's big reveal, which isn't shown until literally the end of that game.
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Thank you! I really could’ve sworn I was further along, I felt like I remembered so much happening but I realized I still only have 20 some hours.

RennanNT said:
Why did you stop playing the previous games? How likely do you think it is to happen again with XC3? Or that you will get burn out from trying to finish XC2 first?
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I stopped bc I would have time to binge them for a few days to get into them some what but then I’d have to start school again and never had the time to play and they were just too much to get back into after months of not playing. No more school to get in the way now though : p
I’m gonna dive back in 2 and then get to 3 when I wrap up 2! It looks so exciting That direct really pushed me over the precipice into full hype
 
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Beelzemontheworld said:
Thank you! I really could’ve sworn I was further along, I felt like I remembered so much happening but I realized I still only have .
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In normal games you'd probably be done or at the end, Xenoblade games are just.... Large, even for most jrpgs.

I'm shooting blind, but both Xenoblade 1 and 2 cover the exact same reveal. So in a weird way, it doesn't matter which one you play first.

Perhaps xb3 will do the same?
 
Crusters said:
In normal games you'd probably be done or at the end, Xenoblade games are just.... Large, even for most jrpgs.

I'm shooting blind, but both Xenoblade 1 and 2 cover the exact same reveal. So in a weird way, it doesn't matter which one you play first.

Perhaps xb3 will do the same?
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Yeah I forgot to finish my sentence but I checked and I’ve only got 20 hrs which feels so weird to say “only” but for Xenoblade I guess it really is only. I have been playing Persona 5 Royal since May though so like what else can compare. 3 is looking pretty large though so I guess we shall see
 
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No reviewer said anything about Field Skills? I guess they could only talk about what was in chapter one.

Because wasn’t it confirmed some type of Field Skills was returning on their website?
 
Dark Cloud said:
No reviewer said anything about Field Skills? I guess they could only talk about what was in chapter one.

Because wasn’t it confirmed some type of Field Skills was returning on their website?
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Field Skills in some way are confirmed by the blog and tweets. But the Nintendo World Report guy said in the Q&A that he never encountered any field skill checks in the first chapter for what's allowed to be discussed in the preview embargo. A lot of mechanics like gems, chain attacks, and the field skills apparently aren't in the first chapter.
 
EtherPenguin said:
Field Skills in some way are confirmed by the blog and tweets. But the Nintendo World Report guy said in the Q&A that he never encountered any field skill checks in the first chapter for what's allowed to be discussed in the preview embargo. A lot of mechanics like gems, chain attacks, and the field skills apparently aren't in the first chapter.
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Interesting.
 
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I think they’ll unlock new combat, exploration and customisation elements each chapter in an attempt to ease the introduction to the series to newbies (with the combat we already saw this in old games learning new thing pretty advanced in the story). I hope they’re not simplifying the systems too much for the sake of it, part of the serie’s flavour resides in the option to micromanage almost every aspect of the game mechanics if you desire so.
 
So, did any reviewer mentioned that they were warned that a day one update/patch is going to happen?

I hope not, at least, not for anything other than adding the day 1 expansion stuff. I hope this action of moving the release date foward, which probably came from Nintendo, did not negatively affect the game development in any way whatsoever, and that the game was indeed 100% finished, and that is why they were cool with releasing earlier.

And well, did you guys see the theGamer preview? That one was so weird, like, very different from what all others are saying, in terms of performance, and even makes weird/wrong statements about the previous games. Really stroke me as odd. Shame they did not have comment section, because I even felt like calling them out on some incorrect points of the article.
 
One of the funniest parts of Xenoblade 2 is when an Important Battle starts in chapter 7 and right at the start, the screen freezes and a tutorial pops up for a new mechanic
 
bellydrum said:
One of the funniest parts of Xenoblade 2 is when an Important Battle starts in chapter 7 and right at the start, the screen freezes and a tutorial pops up for a new mechanic
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That's exactly the moment I was thinking of. I laughed so hard when the tutorial screen came up that far into the game
 
Wisehunter666 said:
So, did any reviewer mentioned that they were warned that a day one update/patch is going to happen?

I hope not, at least, not for anything other than adding the day 1 expansion stuff. I hope this action of moving the release date foward, which probably came from Nintendo, did not negatively affect the game development in any way whatsoever, and that the game was indeed 100% finished, and that is why they were cool with releasing earlier.

And well, did you guys see the theGamer preview? That one was so weird, like, very different from what all others are saying, in terms of performance, and even makes weird/wrong statements about the previous games. Really stroke me as odd. Shame they did not have comment section, because I even felt like calling them out on some incorrect points of the article.
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So wait they wasn't all that positive about the resolution/performance like the other outlets?
 
Momo said:
Xenoblade 3 ad



Also, people are saying that the last line is
Tyrea
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Hmm.....doesn't sound like Tyrea to me. Sounds more like Melia doing a deeper voice. The accent on the second time she says "hope" sounds like Jenna Coleman to me.
 
As I said before
EtherPenguin said:
Has anyone else been getting an ad in front of youtube videos for the game where at the end someone, says "they are hope personified; they are everyone's hope."? I was wondering if anyone could place the voice, I thought it sounded like Melia.
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Melia was my first guess. Coleman's voice is a little deeper these days than when the first game came out. I also thought maybe Ethel. I hadn't considered who Momo suggested in the spoiler tag, but I can sort of hear it now.
 
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Phendrift said:
Need to freshen up on XC1 bc I can’t remember a single thing about Tyrea lol
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That’s cause she’s in the game for like 10 minutes and never appears again, and it’s not even half point, still haven’t even gotten to prison island. But I’m surprised you don’t recall. she’s a annoying boss for first timers. That’s the only reason I use to remember her .

She’s given more character in future connected and since that is very small. She’s more memorable since she’s in a lot of those cutscenes lol.
 
Phendrift said:
Makes sense then, I haven’t played FC.

She’s not the evil one who attacks in the Alcamoth Shrine dungeon or whatever is she?
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That's her! She also had a voiced sidequest after the Mechonis Core event. I thought the Quiet Moments between her and Melia in FC were actually really well written, I'd recommend looking them up
 
EtherPenguin said:
That's her! She also had a voiced sidequest after the Mechonis Core event. I thought the Quiet Moments between her and Melia in FC were actually really well written, I'd recommend looking them up
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Ok so I do remember her then. Just looked it up and was also confused between her and Yumea.

Can’t remember how either of their plot lines ended. But I think I got confused because people talk about her as if she and Melia are on good terms but I remembered her being a boss fight so I assumed it wasn’t the same person.

I need to play FC lol
 
Tyrea's a pretty interesting character, but I'm not sure I'm really itching for her to return in any way. Felt like her arc ran its course and it's not like she's a fan favorite (or is she? Idk, haven't met many Tyrea fans)
 
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Does anyone think there's gonna be a love triangle in this game? You know who I'm thinking about

Noah and Mia Vs Eunie

Would be nice if they give us two different endings that we can choose
 
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Momo said:
Xenoblade 3 ad



Also, people are saying that the last line is
Tyrea
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Comparing that line to what little of her voice we've heard, I'm almost completely certain that's Ethel speaking.
 
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Nopon Merchant tweet. Believe we've seen these guys before so that's not really new, but I think the area this screenshot is from is. Looks neat (might be a part of Eagus Wilderness or some other desert area)

Edit: Wait there was more stuff



Officially acknowledging that Nopon coins are, in fact, a thing. I don't think it tells us how to get them though, which is what we were missing

You know, the UI for the gem page, now that I'm looking at it again, does seem to imply you might be able to have multiple pages (the blue line starting down from the bottom of this page and coming down from the top of it as well) but that might just be wishful thinking on my part



The green beacons we've seen in some footage appear to be from these ether deposits, which are how we get ether cylinders used in gem crafting

Edit Edit:


Ahhh stop posting things channel

Clean version of the Millick Meadows theme. It's a banger, as kinda expected at this point
 
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I hope there’s a part of Millick Meadows theme that is on par with THAT part of the Gormott theme

I don’t even have to timestamp it, y’all know what part I mean
 
Short question, did the LE in Europe go on sale already? Iirc, they wanted to send out emails when the listing goes live for the official Nintendo store.
 
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Joseki said:
Expansion pass image without the logo

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They have to know what they are teasing with this right? They aren't setting me up for disappointment by just teasing non-canon playable Shulk/Rex right?

I would love a Torna-styled follow-up for Rex/Shulk setting up the horrible state of things by the beginning of 3...
 
Ketwick9844 said:
So wait they wasn't all that positive about the resolution/performance like the other outlets?
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Yeah, together with wierd statements like, it is better to play them undocked than docked because she thinks they look worst on TV???

And says the games are closer to age of calamity than first party games?? As if fps was a problem with the blade games on switch (when in reality no, at max maybe two before patches, there is nothing in the blade games that runs as bad as, for instance, Kakariko village, lost woods, or freezing and lauching big bokoblins in Zelda BOTW).

The article was also about how she thinks we are in dire need for a switch revision/pro new console. Honestly, was a weird read. I sent a message to the editiorial questioning a few points. Shame these guys reviews goes to metacritic.
 
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