Xenoblade Chronicles 3: the best opus of the license?

More than a decade after the landmark release of Xenoblade on Wii, the JRPG, exclusive to the Switch, intends to mark the spirits again with its third opus, especially after the disappointment that was the previous one. But Monolith is not a studio like the others, since it admits its errors and seeks to correct them. So, for all the worried people who still have Xenoblade Chronicles 2 across the throat, no worries. Ciao the catastrophic nomad mode, goodbye the unreadable interface and finally goodbye the acquisition of characters worthy of the gacha. If correcting one’s missteps seems normal and logical, it is actually a proof of maturity to be able to understand one’s previous failures in order to evolve better (isn’t it Ubisoft?) And, just with that, the first minutes of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reveal a game you can trust.

A generous game…

This third part, which has occupied the first place in sales in France since its release at the end of July according to the available SELL figures, takes place within the world of Aionios, which has seen the nations Keves and Agnus wage a war without respite since ( too long. Each individual is born to fight, so it’s only natural that the story follows the tale of three soldiers from each faction. All considered fugitives by their own allies, they will then try to understand the origin of this endless confrontation. It will then be necessary to manage six protagonists, in addition to a seventh adventurer who will join the game under the name of “hero”. This will occur throughout the story and will fluctuate depending on the encounters you make and the stages you go through. It will then be necessary to walk in this “mimi-open world”, as Gamekult specifies, to carry out the various quests, main and secondary. Note that the latter are more interesting than in the last opus and that the visibility of the quests as a whole has been improved thanks to a red navigation line.

… but a bit tedious

However, the very heart of a JRPG is in the many fights that we will have to fight, and unfortunately it is on this point that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 sin. Faced with a very little renewed bestiary compared to the second part, some fights are boring and redundant, especially when faced with a large bag of HP where we thank the automatic combat. If we easily find the balance in our team, it is to the detriment of the difficulty which will never be too high if we follow the natural evolution of the game. Which, in itself, is not a problem, but risks bringing a form of weariness, especially when you know that the game deserves a minimum of 80 hours to unravel the entire plot, DNA of the Xenoblade. And if the final twist, typical of the series, has metamorphosed from surprise to signature, it is nonetheless full of curiosities and emotions. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 does not claim to propose a revolution of the genre, but rather a thoughtful and constructed evolution of the saga which, along the way, will perhaps one day end up establishing itself as a must.

For more details and analysis, find Gamekult’s full review here.