I adore the Agnus Ouroboros forms and was overjoyed see them revealed. They look rad and more visually appealing than the Keves ones to me. Being able to switch between the two, in conjunction with all the other combat mechanics is great. Combat in general looks rad. Classes, master arts, character switching, different ‘driver combos’, fusion forms, fusion arts, heroes, etc. And that’s on top of pretty much all the traditional XC stuff. I know we knew about a lot of this stuff, but to see it all come together and in action - wonderful. I particularly like how you can choose multiple flavours of the chain attack. There looks to be a lot of decision-making, which is very welcome. There seems to be so much customisation too. It looks like it should be the best XC combat system so far. Quick and packed with loads of options.
I still need to get a feel for the characters - though I do feel really positive about them in general. I have to say I prefer the voice work of the Agnus side so far. They all sound excellent. Taion probably has my favourite male voice in the game, while Mio and Sena sound adorable. I loved their little ‘water scene’. That’s the kind of character stuff I really enjoyed in XC2 and am happy to see make their way into XC3. Noah is a tricky one, he’s very soft-spoken and I want to hear more from him before I form any real opinion. Howden made Shulk intelligent, but quite… for a lack of a better term, strong. Weaver’s distinct accent gave Rex a really unique sound. Noah sounds more in line with Shulk, but without that rough edge. It almost feels like he’s pitching his voice slightly higher… probably because he has to give ‘dark Noah’ (if it is him) a slightly harder sound. Eunie is also interesting, as she sounds a bit chavvy in some scenes, but a bit like an old-fashioned Eastenders character in others. Again, I need to hear more. Lanz is fine - I like his ‘shouty’ voice. Overall I’m really happy with their designs, their voices and can’t wait to get to know them. Sena is, by stealth, really growing on me. I probably liked her design the least initially (along with Lanz), but I’m really warming to her now. I think they’ve found a great balance, at least from the small interactions and designs we’ve seen, between the more grounded cast of the first game and the more flamboyant group from the second game. I think the designs are really sleek in a way we haven’t seen before in XC and XC2. Those games, irrespective of style had some (endearing) goofiness to them, but that’s not here in XC3.
The game itself looks really refined. It appears really assured and accomplished in what it’s trying to do. There’s lots of old ideas brought back with, seemingly, the rough edges shaven off. Heroes being a combination of a few ideas without the drawbacks, being the obvious example. The UI in general looks excellent to me. Super sleek and clean. I saw the game auto saving too, which is great. Torna was a really good refinement of XC2, DE was the next step and this feels like another step in the right direction. It’s not just in the menus and some of the returning systems, I love how monsters fight each other in the overworld, as well as the two factions. The worlds of Xenoblade have always felt alive thanks to monsters of all shapes, sizes and levels occupying the same space, but to see battles independent of your involvement playing out is the evolution of that and awesome. On a side note, I love that a prompt will flash up on the screen to draw your attention to something. I’m really curious to see how they use that across the game.
I thought the campsite was an excellent addition to Torna so to see it return and expanded is exciting. Intrigued to see if rolling a bunch of systems into this reduces the rolls of towns in any way. We did a see a glimpse of an industrial town in the initial reveal, but Colony 9 looked relatively simple (not that we could see everything). I wonder if with the world being huge and open, and more functionality added to the campsites, towns are going to be downsized as a result. I’m not against that, but I felt XC2 had some excellent towns, so it would be a shame to not see the evolution of that aspect of the series. Or more to the point, not to see the devs build on that complexity. I imagine we’ll spend more time out in the wilds of world this time… maybe a bit more like XC in that sense, still, I hope there’s some big towns to enjoy. The game has definitely got a bit of X about it, with what looks to be a giant open world so that probably is going to be the main draw, alongside the story and combat.
It looks really dark tonally, radically so compared to XC2, and a lot more grim than XC as well. I don’t mind that but I hope Monolith Soft can thread the needle of leaning into some older Xeno trappings, while servicing fans of XC and XC2 specifically. I expect that they can, but it won’t be easy. The music is excellent so far, as you’d expect and the story setup is really intriguing. I feel like they are hiding a lot of this game. Perhaps not mechanically, but in terms of story and locations, I think they’ve been really careful not to reveal too much. The theatre sequence and shots of people in pods allude to something bigger of course, but even then, I don’t think that’s the end of the rabbit hole. Swordmarch is shown to be relatively close in some areas, which makes me think that the journey is going to be a significant part of the journey, but only that, a part. The direct did a really good of giving you a hook to get you started, but not offering much more. I want to see how it all shakes out. I do think Monolith Soft have got a responsibility to deliver something in line expectations based on the previous games. I don’t want to see Melia and Nia used as pawns and eventually killed off in some misery-fest. I don’t think fans of either XC and XC2 would be happy with that given the tone and endings of those games. And to be fair, I think Monolith Soft know that. I’m thinking out loud and rambling, but I just really hope they can balance expectation, telling a new story with a fresh tone and using characters from previous games, while also respecting the legacy of those games and not undercutting already established characters and themes. I hope for and expect the best. I’m interested in the parallels being drawn between Gears and Saga, but this has got to be a satisfying conclusion to the Blade series above all else.
And talking about keeping their cards close to their chest, I think they did that with the environments. We’d already seen most of them and the new ones we did see, we didn’t see a lot of. It feels harsh to that because what we’ve seen so far looks massive in scope, but you feel like there’s got to be more, with some more sci-if heavy stuff towards the end. Not sure we’ll end up in a space station again (but who knows), however I hope we get something as equally crazy. We didn’t get much more on the boat either. Surely you wouldn’t go to the effort of building boat mechanic for the one lake we’ve seen it in?
In the end, I felt incredibly satisfied, but left wanting more - perfect!