Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (July 29, 2022)

[Nix]

Spoiler

I like how common variety Nopon Riku is just there.

I'm interested in finally seeing what his deal is. Dude clearly knew a lot more than he let on.

 

[Sonicka]

1 hour ago, Nix said:

  Hide contents

I just like how common variety Nopon Riku is just there.

I'm interested in finally seeing what his deal is. Dude clearly knew a lot more than he let on.

Spoiler

Yup, hopefully we'll see more of where he factors into this.

There where a few subtle hints about him around XC3, but the nod he gave to Melia at the games climax certainly sealed my suspicions for sure. 

 

[Sonicka]

Getting lost in this DLC wave 4 goodness is glorious. So much to see and do. Presently up to Chapter 3 and it’s been a ride so far. 

Unlike Torna, this seems to expand rather than outright change certain systems in place from XC3. Not only that but it does seem to require a lot of foreknowledge and completion of the base game - so I’m not confident this will get a separate physical release anymore as it’s quite tied in.

Nonetheless the new quirks and learns are fun and I’ve finally got the full party together. There’s something immensely rewarding to me seeing a grown up Shulk and Rex sitting around the rest spot campfire laughing and trading stories. 

Matthew’s VA totally sucks though. Despite him doing his best “Ali G in da house innit bruv” impersonation, I think it’s less him and more the odd direction sometimes since these actors have zero idea of the story context to the scenes they are playing. 

Watching Henry Mc’intyre (Noah) run through the entire game on his YouTube stream for the first time was incredibly interesting since he had no real idea of the story… which is wild when you think about it! But that’s also a credit to his performance in Chapters 5 and 6 for pulling THAT off despite no context. 

[JezMM]

I finished it today - just like Future Connected and Torna I find myself as a non-fan of JRPGs finding it easier to get into these compact versions of the main game mechanics, where you only have to concern yourself with a set few characters instead of rotating them in and out, but I get that to fans of the genre, that would probably get stale in a 60+ hour game, perhaps even to me as well with my minimal engagement.

 

The story was pretty great and I enjoyed my time with all the characters.  I can definitely see how some line reads were lacking context for the scene (about standard for Xenoblade voice acting actually, unfortunately) but I didn't have any issue with Matt's voice myself, I'm glad all the Xenoblade protagonists have felt unique for better or worse, when I saw Matthew's design I was a little concerned at first that we were just going to get Noah 2.  Full story spoilers:

Spoiler

Not gonna lie I had forgotten some fine details about how base XC3 connects to the previous two other than the broad strokes, so I was left a little confused at the ending, and did end kind of itching to see more XC1 and 2 character interactions.  I also completely missed the blindingly-obvious-in-retrospect implication that Nikol and Glimmer were the Aionios reincarnation of Shulk and Rex's kids, not Shulk himself and Pyra/Mythra herself lol, and that your two travelling companions were not just reminscent of Pandoria and Sharla (the latter of which I didn't even notice) but possibly their actual children who have made it to Aionios like Shulk and Rex themselves.  Hell it wasn't even blindingly obvious that A was Alvis from having Alvis' core crystal as an earring until Shulk started interacting with her, I'm so embarrassingly bad at picking stuff up in these games lol.

The whole time I was reading Shulk's interactions with Nikol as just trying to be kind to a younger, less confident version of himself and Rex's interactions with Glimmer (being distant at first and treating her like a kid) just him being awkward because she looks like his old girlfriend and also significantly younger than him.  I'm such a dumbass lol.

Also needed TV tropes to explain to me that the three of them at the end were becoming the three missing processing cores for the Trinity Processor/Origin at the end until the Aionios situation was solved.  And to remind me who Alpha even was and... yeah, gosh the story of this overall trilogy and 3 in particular is a lot, lol.

It's kind of funny that going back to the City in the main game, pretty much 75% of the DLC plot was foretold by the founders statues!  It's funny to me how they've been there the whole time because I avoided trailers and found the hall of founders too info-dumpy to really take any of it in, so the story was pretty much 100% fresh for me.  Heck it took me a while to realise this wasn't an alternate version of Aionios as oppose to in the past lol.

Even though I'll just never be fully into the gameplay of these games, I'm really glad I played the whole lot of them to enjoy this massive story without any gaps... even if, being JRPGs, they are so complex that I had gaps to fill in by reading up on it all anyway, lol.

 

The only question this DLC didn't answer for me... is I still don't goddamn understand what causes Point Limit in Chain Attacks.  The early tutorials told me it was Healers, but I swear I've sometimes used Healers for the final round and it goes over 99.  At first I thought maybe it's only if you attack with healers, but I swear that isn't consistent either.  I regularly used the heroic chain perk on A (because the game applied it with Auto-Build lol) where finishing the chain with her ensures a 150 score at the cost of having no chance of it being higher than that either (using one of her buffing arts because I was afraid attacking as a healer is what causes point limit, and when it worked once I stuck with it lol).  I figure there's a possibility that this perk makes an exception to the 99 point limit because otherwise it would be useless, but I swore I did it WITHOUT this heroic chain perk once or twice too...  But maybe I've just imagined that?  I also read now that the idea is supposed to be that you use a healer to hit 99 and then finish with another character to increase the chances of hitting 150 or 200?  I thought when point limit is hit, that's it, your chain attack is basically done, but is it possible that for the 100+ hours I've put into the game, I read the "healers can only go up to 99" tutorial message and then proceeded to only ever use them last after I'd exhausted all other characters?

[Zaysho]

48 minutes ago, JezMM said:

The only question this DLC didn't answer for me... is I still don't goddamn understand what causes Point Limit in Chain Attacks.  The early tutorials told me it was Healers, but I swear I've sometimes used Healers for the final round and it goes over 99.  At first I thought maybe it's only if you attack with healers, but I swear that isn't consistent either. 

In Future Redeemed, you get battle/tactic manuals you pick up and equip to your party members (I think almost all of them are in relics or from boss monsters and you only get one of each manual) which grant all the chain completion/heroic chain bonuses you'd get in the base game if you had a Hero in the party finish a chain attack round (Healer-class heroes don't get the Point Limit, which actually threw me when I first played the base game). What likely happened is A or Glimmer (or both) had one of these manuals with a Heroic Chain bonus of some kind equipped, so it overrides the Point Limit Healers would hit.

The manuals are actually a really neat addition to this expansion but I can see them causing some confusion if you happened to auto-build and it slapped something onto a character you didn't realize the effect of.

 

I also have a bunch of thoughts on Future Redeemed I need to sort out (I started writing but I think the forum lost my draft so I just gave up and went about my day lol)

[Sonicka]

I’m so close. At about 30 hours in I have reached that “point of no return” in redeemed but realised there are still a few things I need to do before I’m happy to continue and finish this story… but after that cutscene from heading into Origin before the final fight… I’m almost overwhelmingly tempted just to finish the bloody thing. 

I laughed out loud at your comment @JezMMwith regards to understanding chain attacks.

I almost gave up trying to figure out the pattern / rules to this myself as well with healers. But yeah - the manuals do override certain situations (which I didn’t realise at first as I use auto build to save me some time). As I spent half my gametime in menus during my XC2 run, I was keen to try the available auto-build approach they baked into XC3. 
 

12 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I also have a bunch of thoughts on Future Redeemed I need to sort out (I started writing but I think the forum lost my draft so I just gave up and went about my day lol)

This happened to me when I competed the base version of XC3 - almost an essay gone to the wind because of a hiccup. I did write it out again (learnt from my mistake and put it in a separate document for lengthy pieces) but never finished it. 

Might fish it out and trim the fat when posting here another time alongside my redeemed thoughts also. 

What I will say so far - is that I do think they made the right call having all these sweet throwbacks and references be more prominent in the DLC story. Whilst I liked to think I wanted this in the base game, actually it would have detracted from the tale they were trying to tell there.

The little callbacks and moments in Redeemed really do hit though, and I’m so goddamn glad to know how Riku fits into all of this now as well - as that weirdly rose to the top of my list of mysteries I wanted answers to

[JezMM]

30 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

The little callbacks and moments in Redeemed really do hit though, and I’m so goddamn glad to know how Riku fits into all of this now as well - as that weirdly rose to the top of my list of mysteries I wanted answers to

What did you think needed answering?  The base game explained it pretty clearly: Riku is Riku, common variety Nopon.

[Sonicka]

15 minutes ago, JezMM said:

What did you think needed answering?  The base game explained it pretty clearly: Riku is Riku, common variety Nopon.

Hehe. Yes. yes that is very true.

But... in case you aren't joking (and because it gives me opportunity to springboard into a ramble)... for me after finishing XC3's base game with Riku I wanted to know:
 

Spoiler

1) Who was his Masterpon that he talks so highly about?
2) Why / how was the Lucky 7 created and why is he intrinsically tied into this being made? 
3) Riku always seemed to know more than he let on - not to mention he appeared to be the leader of the others that had those weapon improvement hammers in the base game, which implied to me he was more than a standard Nopon
4) Does Riku have lineage?
5) Why does he and Melia share a knowing nod to each before the final battle against Z in the base game?

Redeemed revealed that Melia was actually his Masterpon which explained (1) and (5). For (2) and (3) we find out that the Lucky 7 was created with a shard of Origins metal (that might have been explained in the base game actually), but he also surmises that everyone important or their memories are part of this blade which seemed to imply why certain other legacy characters are missing in this DLC (I'm not 100% on that point though as the line could be read in typical Xenoblade ominous ways). Riku also mentions waiting for the right person to give the blade to and was heading to a Keves base to see how events play out. With (4) we find out that he is indeed one of Riki's many son as he talks about how his dad was a hero that used to travel with Melia and Shulk back in the day.  

 
It's not just that though, Nopon in general seem to be these unexplained otherworldly creatures that (mostly) exist outside the rules and realms of the Xenoblade games (and not just the Archsage). Could just be that most of them have a non-interference policy, I'm not really sure. 

[JezMM]

5 minutes ago, Sonicka said:

Hehe. Yes. yes that is very true.

But... in case you aren't joking (and because it gives me opportunity to springboard into a ramble)... for me after finishing XC3's base game with Riku I wanted to know:
 

  Hide contents

1) Who was his Masterpon that he talks so highly about?
2) Why / how was the Lucky 7 created and why is he intrinsically tied into this being made? 
3) Riku always seemed to know more than he let on - not to mention he appeared to be the leader of the others that had those weapon improvement hammers in the base game, which implied to me he was more than a standard Nopon
4) Does Riku have lineage?
5) Why does he and Melia share a knowing nod to each before the final battle against Z in the base game?

Redeemed revealed that Melia was actually his Masterpon which explained (1) and (5). For (2) and (3) we find out that the Lucky 7 was created with a shard of Origins metal (that might have been explained in the base game actually), but he also surmises that everyone important or their memories are part of this blade which seemed to imply why certain other legacy characters are missing in this DLC (I'm not 100% on that point though as the line could be read in typical Xenoblade ominous ways). Riku also mentions waiting for the right person to give the blade to and was heading to a Keves base to see how events play out. With (4) we find out that he is indeed one of Riki's many son as he talks about how his dad was a hero that used to travel with Melia and Shulk back in the day.  

 
It's not just that though, Nopon in general seem to be these unexplained otherworldly creatures that (mostly) exist outside the rules and realms of the Xenoblade games (and not just the Archsage). Could just be that most of them have a non-interference policy, I'm not really sure. 

While it's unlikely because it wouldn't be as meaningful:

Spoiler

There is always the possibility that Riku is Kino's son, as Kino also travelled with Shulk and Melia in Future Connected!  Doesn't make a huge difference either way, to be honest, him being Riki's son is much funnier with how different Riku is as a person.

I did forget completely about the nod though!  What bit in FR makes it clear that Melia was his masterpon?  I knew that from hitting up TV Tropes and such, but feel like the game didn't spell that out for me personally.

 

[Sonicka]

16 minutes ago, JezMM said:

While it's unlikely because it wouldn't be as meaningful:

  Hide contents

There is always the possibility that Riku is Kino's son, as Kino also travelled with Shulk and Melia in Future Connected!  Doesn't make a huge difference either way, to be honest, him being Riki's son is much funnier with how different Riku is as a person.

I did forget completely about the nod though!  What bit in FR makes it clear that Melia was his masterpon?  I knew that from hitting up TV Tropes and such, but feel like the game didn't spell that out for me personally.

Spoiler

That's true - it could well be Kino. I suppose either way it doesn't matter as you say. I do like the idea of it being Riki just because of how different they are - Riki has some very useful buffs and abilities in XC1 but is mostly an annoying and irritating side character that was tacked onto the core group. 

As for the confirmation - Riku specifically namedrops Melia as his masterpon to Matthew & A after you return to him from a side quest or community task (can't remember the specific one unfortunately - but it activated a scene). It's missable if you only push through the story, same can be said of a few of the other little mysteries which are cleared up from doing side quests for gaining community and affinity. For example Linka and Pancea offer up a few more insights if you complete the tasks on the Colony 9 board - which is nice given they also have legacy character heritage

 

[JezMM]

1 minute ago, Sonicka said:

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That's true - it could well be Kino. I suppose either way it doesn't matter as you say. I do like the idea of it being Riki just because of how different they are - Riki has some very useful buffs and abilities in XC1 but is mostly an annoying and irritating side character that was tacked onto the core group. 

As for the confirmation - Riku specifically namedrops Melia as his masterpon to Matthew & A after you return to him from a side quest or community task (can't remember the specific one unfortunately - but it activated a scene). It's missable if you only push through the story, same can be said of a few of the other little mysteries which are cleared up from doing side quests for gaining community and affinity. For example Linka and Pancea offer up a few more insights if you complete the tasks on the Colony 9 board - which is nice given they also have legacy character heritage

Oh, good to know!  I've still got some time to kill before Zelda, so I'll have to see if I can't manage to wrap up all the side quests, since I did go for that on the base game.

[Sonicka]

On 5/7/2023 at 10:59 PM, Sonicka said:

  Reveal hidden contents

That's true - it could well be Kino. I suppose either way it doesn't matter as you say. I do like the idea of it being Riki just because of how different they are - Riki has some very useful buffs and abilities in XC1 but is mostly an annoying and irritating side character that was tacked onto the core group. 

As for the confirmation - Riku specifically namedrops Melia as his masterpon to Matthew & A after you return to him from a side quest or community task (can't remember the specific one unfortunately - but it activated a scene). It's missable if you only push through the story, same can be said of a few of the other little mysteries which are cleared up from doing side quests for gaining community and affinity. For example Linka and Pancea offer up a few more insights if you complete the tasks on the Colony 9 board - which is nice given they also have legacy character heritage

 

On 5/7/2023 at 11:02 PM, JezMM said:

Oh, good to know!  I've still got some time to kill before Zelda, so I'll have to see if I can't manage to wrap up all the side quests, since I did go for that on the base game.

I was concerned I wouldn't finish this before Zelda (with side quests and all) - life and such doesn't always make an intense gaming session possible these days. But at least you've done the main stuff and the story. 

I think at best anything I'll probably pass up for now (before going to the last battle in redeemed) is tackling anything super boss related, but this is mostly to save on spending hours grinding which I imagine will happen due to the smaller scale of the game.

Saying that, I do feel that can't moan too much about that as to the base games' credit I never felt like I've needed to grind because of all it offers (or possibly I did grind without realising because the battle system felt engaging to me). There is an upside and downswing to this of course as I like being over-levelled before a boss - but because I often went exploring I'd instead end up about 25 levels above the recommended level when I eventually continued the story. XD 

Also when it comes to exploration in Xenoblade, I know the teams worked on BOTW/TOTK to a degree as well - so I can understand why I enjoy the exploration aspects of all these games as the landscapes always fascinate me to go wondering about. But if the next Xenoblade game could maybe add in an unlockable climb and glide from any surface feature like the Zelda's, then it would be my GOAT. I just want to explore everything. ^^;


EDIT: Ok, just finished. I have so many thoughts... as well as where the future of this series is heading now. Blimey. Going to need to digest and come back. 

I will say though, that their Marvel Movie moment of "stay to the end of the credits" ending has me super happy about the possibility that...
 

Spoiler

...Noah and Mio very likely did find each other, as implied by the base game's mysterious ending.

XC3: FR seems to imply that after the worlds re-separated from the original clash and getting frozen from Z's hijack of Origin... that actually the reboot process was actually even more successful in the end... since the worlds appeared to have successfully recombined once more after all. 

My original understanding was that Origin would reboot both worlds from the data stored as 'separate'... but now it seems they found way to merge... or even "interlink" if you will without an annihilation event. I suppose this world will be explored in the next entry if they continue or forge a new path of games.

I won't go into the significance of the falling star though. I've seen a few intriguing videos and theories already - which all seem viable and conflicting. But at the end of the day it might mean I either need to play a lot more Xeno games - or finally get back to finishing XCX (but I would rather hold out on that one in case they announce a remaster).