xenoblade chronicles

Across all three games, while novel in some ways, the MMO-style battling was, for me, worse than a chore. Especially in Xenoblade 1, the vague icons and, worse, the Monado sub-menu, rendered combat incredibly opaque. The mechanics, too, from the necessity of breaking, toppling, and so on, and the premonition mechanic that required invoking a particular Monado ability...none of which I knew what they were or what, exactly, they did. Xenoblade 2 is a vast improvement: Combat is legible! The movement to abilities assigned to buttons make combat feel more playable, though the focus on the status combos was still key. The blades were an interesting mechanic, but the gacha-like system of obtaining them was not. Thankfully, the second game has autobattle; I turned it on and didn't look back. This had the unfortunate side effect of removing much of the game aspects of the video game. Xenoblade 3 again improves the combat, making it more interesting with its fusion mechanics and the interlink, but, still, the arc of combat is the same and I happily turned autobattle on.

Perhaps worse than the combat system were the equipment, ability, and gem systems surrounding it. Xenoblade 1 was intolerable with the density and the constant, incremental improvements you found randomly. Xenoblade 2 was simpler, though picking out accessories and aux cores was still intolerable (again, incremental, random pieces of equipment; I tire of choosing between a 20% and 25% stat increase). There's no improvement here in Xenoblade 3, though the entire game is tutorialized better. Like autobattle, there is an autobuild option; I happily let the computer make its average builds for autobattle.

But none of that matters. The combat and equipment systems are just not to my taste and, in inevitably comparing Xenoblade to Xenogears and Xenosaga, I prefer the older style turn-based battles (and Xenogears has some interesting fighting game DNA in it). What matters much more is the story. I did not finish Xenoblade 1 or 2; the systems in the first game were too opaque for me to continue and I abandoned it as the story was becoming more interesting. The second game, to me, had intolerable characters and such surface level writing that it was more of insult to play than anything...however, the story eventually does turn to take itself more seriously and trust the player more, but I did not finish Xenoblade 2. The most engaging part of Xenoblade 2 is the third chapter, focused around a character named Vandham and his mercenary/refugee community. Vandham dies at the end of chapter three in a satisfying moment of sacrifice, but (another, different and yet the same) Vandham returns in the beginning of Xenoblade 3, to die yet again at the close of that beginning chapter.

Overall, the story of Xenoblade 3 makes outstanding use out of the ensemble class, taking up the whole runtime to develop characters individually, in pairs, and as a group. The sidequests, which have remained since the first game, are pitch perfect here. They develop the world, societies in development, cultural aspects, and further cement the main characters' relationships to the people and places around them. The narrative arced naturally, though with no surprises. I don't think Monolith Soft was trying to be surprising. Here they are, the seventh Xeno- game; well, we're going to get into identity, rebirth, and killing god! The main criticism I have is the baffling writing of the consuls. Except for M, N, and Z, the villains are caricatures. Worse, the appearance of new consuls that stick around for just a chapter only does the story disservice after disservice. J, C, S (especially S!)...those three stick out. Most others are entirely forgettable anyway. I think there is just an issue of balance. There is so much good storytelling between the main characters and in side-stories across the world, when should Monolith Soft have better developed the villains? Then again, perhaps they don't need to; Xenogears and Xenosaga were serious enough, maybe I should be more forgiving on Monolith Soft having fun with their games.