Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is an installment in the open-world Xenoblade Chronicles series, itself a part of the larger Xeno franchise. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 depicts the futures of the worlds featured in Xenoblade Chronicles (2010) and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017) and concludes the trilogy’s narrative. Set after the events of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in Aionios.

A world made up of merged locations from the Bionis and Mechonis, the world of Xenoblade Chronicles, and Alrest, the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where the nations of Keves and Agnus are at constant war. The world is divided into Colonies, each with their own giant mecha called a Ferronis, fueled by the life force of fallen enemy soldiers trapped in a Flame Clock. Each Colony is home to engineered soldiers with artificially limited lifespans of ten years, referred to as Terms. They fight to fuel their Colony’s Flame Clock and survive to the end of their tenth Term in hopes of receiving a Homecoming ceremony. Among both forces are “off-seers”, soldiers who play flutes in rituals to send off the dead.

The game features six main characters who have the power of Ouroboros, including two protagonists: Noah, a Kevesi off-seer accompanied by his childhood friends Lanz and Eunie; and Mio, an Agnian off-seer accompanied by her fellow soldiers Taion and Sena. The two groups are joined by their Nopon support members: Kevesi mechanic Riku and Agnian chef Manana. Other major characters include the Vandham family, who lead a faction called the Lost Numbers that consists of Guernica, his daughter Monica, and granddaughter Ghondor; Melia Antiqua from Xenoblade Chronicles and Nia from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, who are the queens of Keves and Agnus; and Moebius, an organization led by Z that manipulates the war between Keves and Agnus and is made up of powerful beings called Moebius that oversee the colonies.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an action role-playing game with a large open world. Unlike previous Xenoblade games, the game allows for up to seven party members to participate in battles at once, including the main party of six controllable characters plus an additional character known as a “Hero”. Up to 19 Heroes are available in the base game, each with different skills and abilities, and can be recruited to the party through story events or sidequests. In addition, four heroes were added in the DLC. Party members also have the ability to change their character class, granting them access to different abilities; raising a Hero’s affinity with the party will unlock their class for use.

Like the previous entries, the game has an open world design, with a day-and-night time cycle that affects in-game events, such as the availability of quests and items. The game takes place in a continuous open world that is the largest map featured in the series to date. It also features a fast travel option for quicker traversal, as well as the option to activate navigation to assist in quests. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has an action-based battle system, where the player controls the current lead character in real-time, and party members “auto-attack” when enemies enter their attack radius. Unlike past entries, players have the ability to swap between all six main party characters during combat.

Party members use abilities called “Arts”, which can deal bonus damage or inflict status ailments depending on a character’s position in relation to the enemy. Each character has a starting moveset based on a Class, which consist of different styles of fighting and abilities, but all fall under one of three main roles: “Defenders”, who draw enemy aggro towards them and tank attacks by blocking or evading them; “Attackers”, who deal damage and utilize positional Arts to deal increased damage and/or trigger certain effects, such as combos or status effects; and “Healers”, who support the party with heals, buffs and debuffs. By performing actions that correspond to a character’s class, the Talent Gauge will fill up and allow the character to unleash a Talent Art when full.

Talent Arts are special moves unique to a class that amplifies their class’ potency, such as dealing massive area-of-effect damage, forcing all enemies to target the user, or fully healing the party. In addition to experience points gained by defeating enemies, characters also gain Class Points (CP), which increase their class’ Mastery level. Reaching a certain Mastery level will unlock Master Arts that can be used on other classes of opposing factions. The player can also fuse Master Arts and Class Arts into Fusion Arts, which combine the properties of both Arts into one. The defining battle feature added in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the Interlink system.

Early on in the game, specific pairs of characters—Noah and Mio; Eunie and Taion; and Lanz and Sena—gain the ability to fuse into Ouroboros, larger forms that are invincible and have stronger Arts. Ouroboros forms are limited by the Heat Gauge, which fills up as the form is used. When the Gauge is full, the Interlink is canceled and the pair cannot Interlink again until the Heat Gauge empties. Heat Gauge consumption is reduced with higher Interlink Levels, which increase by using Fusion Arts up to Level 3. Certain Arts only have their effects active when the Interlink Level is at 3, which encourages the player to hold off Interlinking until then.