Episode 135 - The Headful Horseman - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

He is not a podcast, but a concept. Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we’re going to be talking about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the most recent release in the series and the game that is supposed to end the story that started in Xenoblade Chronicles. Comparisons to the earlier games in the series are bound to happen, with the two main factions in the game taking their aesthetics and even combat mechanics from each previous title specifically. However, even with many direct calls back to the earlier games, this game manages to be its own unique thing. With 6-7 characters active in combat all at the same time and the ability to freely switch between them, combat is even more active than it ever has been, managing “arts” to maximize damage and keep everyone alive. The world itself is a mashup of the titans featured in XCs 1 and 2, but still feels like a distinct place with an open world design that has an entirely different feel to it. It’s the rare game that has made its prequels a immutable part of its identity, but manages to incorporate them without it feeling like a pile of references and nudges to the player. The game is less noisy in combat, less stupid than the gashapon girl blades of two, and more accessible to the average player. Probably. We’re a bit too deep in at this point to be sure. We’re going to be talking about the feeling of the world and how it feels differently designed to the similar worlds of previous games, the potential and troubles with the class system for the ways we each engaged with it, and how enemies in these games compare to water balloons, or sandbags full of blood. Thank you for joining us! If Xenoblade isn’t your bag, we’re happy to say that we’re done with it for the time being. This game really took over our lives, and with me playing the second one not that long before, I’ve been livin’ on Alrest for quite some time. If you’ve played it, did this game make you interested in the series, or have you been along for the long and occasionally bumpy ride Monolithsoft have taken us on the past decade? Where does this land in the grand scheme of Xenoblade, and do you think it’s a fitting conclusion to the story? Let us know in the comments or over on our Discord! Next time, we’re going to be reeling it way in and talking about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a pretty classic title that was about as far away from the games we’ve recently covered as we could think of. So we hope your palette will be cleansed then.