KàIRóS
Member
I finally finished it at 141 hours, Hard mode, lvl 99, most sidequests completed, all heroes unlocked and most of them at Rank 20, most unique enemies defeated, ultimate weapons obtained (didn't expect this sidequest btw) and ready to go into postgame to start killing the superbosses and finish whatever is left.
My thoughts: if there's one reason to play the game it's the class system, there's so much variety for playstyles, it's one of the best class systems in JRPGs period, the characters are OK, Taion and Mio are my favorites, Story also went back to the bigger emphasis in the philosophical storytelling similar to the older Xeno games, the world building is really well done, if you actually take time to read NPC chats you can see how much of an impact the party has on the game's world and the many factions in it, I love those kind of little details, the soundtrack is full of bangers as expected, the open world exploration was good even though I still think XCX does it the best, combat is the best version of the Xenoblade battle system, the Ouroboros transformations make you feel like a true powerhouse, the new Chain Attacks feel like a cool turn based minigame and even small additions like the Dash or the new Field arts make the combat so much more engaing compared to previous versions, it feels like all the good ideas from the previous Xenoblades were combined for this one while also removing the bad ones like the spike damage from XC1 or the horrible gacha system from XC2, overall great game.
I know Elden Ring will ultimately win GOTY but XC3 totally deserves to be on the GOTY nominees at least, it's definitely up there alongside Dragon Quest XI, Tales of Arise, Persona 5, etc, as one of the best modern JRPGs.
My thoughts: if there's one reason to play the game it's the class system, there's so much variety for playstyles, it's one of the best class systems in JRPGs period, the characters are OK, Taion and Mio are my favorites, Story also went back to the bigger emphasis in the philosophical storytelling similar to the older Xeno games, the world building is really well done, if you actually take time to read NPC chats you can see how much of an impact the party has on the game's world and the many factions in it, I love those kind of little details, the soundtrack is full of bangers as expected, the open world exploration was good even though I still think XCX does it the best, combat is the best version of the Xenoblade battle system, the Ouroboros transformations make you feel like a true powerhouse, the new Chain Attacks feel like a cool turn based minigame and even small additions like the Dash or the new Field arts make the combat so much more engaing compared to previous versions, it feels like all the good ideas from the previous Xenoblades were combined for this one while also removing the bad ones like the spike damage from XC1 or the horrible gacha system from XC2, overall great game.
I know Elden Ring will ultimately win GOTY but XC3 totally deserves to be on the GOTY nominees at least, it's definitely up there alongside Dragon Quest XI, Tales of Arise, Persona 5, etc, as one of the best modern JRPGs.