Xenoblade Chronicles 3 News and Discussion

[Lightchao42]

It's finally here! Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in the world of Aionios, home of the hostile nations of Keves and Agnus.

Per the European website we have six main characters: Noah, Mio, Lanz, Eunie, Taion, and Sena. "Life" will be the central theme of the game.

The game will release September 2022. You can discuss the trailer and theories about the game here.

[Etrurian emperor]

I'm really digging the return of the Mechon and High Entia. I'm also curious how the girl who's definitely Melia is going to factor in to all this.  

Edited February 9 by Etrurian emperor

[vanguard333]

It looks kind-of interesting. I personally would've preferred an XCX-2 over an XC3, but that's just me.

One thing that concerned me a bit was the lack of anything indicating anything special about the gameplay. Monolith Soft is great at making interesting worlds with neat stories and characters, but the gameplay is often uninteresting and lacking, especially with its combat, but even exploring the worlds they've created can often be a drag despite how interesting they look. The reason I like XCX is that, while the combat is largely the same as always with XC games, it greatly improved the exploration.

I really hoped that, after helping the Zelda team with Breath of the Wild, Monolith may have learned something about how to make interesting gameplay, but the trailer being all story and 80% cinematics suggests that that's where the focus will be. I know this is just an announcement trailer, but it's still a bit concerning that they showed nothing.

[joevar]

theres definitely english VA of Melia talking there. im sure she will appear in some form.

but whats curious is the world of XC 1 and 2 seems to have merged at one point. hopefully they can also take whats best in respective world (game) and combine it, not the other way around

after shota, we got ourselves ikemen protagonist huh. not that i didnt see it coming. its just remind me of Shin megami tensei series protag. and the sword definitely a monado replica or some sort

[Fabulously Olivier]

Oh, hey, a protagonist I actually want to play. That's already better than XBC2.

[Sire]

I am convinced I saw Melia and Nia in the XC3 Trailer, or at least something that resembles them. I'm guessing they are the heads of the respective nations and are in conflict with one another (so XC1 with its tech and Mechons are fighting XC2's tech and their Blades, perhaps even potentially Titans).
-- I was also wondering if the eyepatch guy was an older Dunban, but then my thoughts shifted to a potentially older Zeke. Of course, it could just be someone else entirely.
-- I also wondered if the two Nopon showed had any relation to the two Nopon that appeared in Future Connected, although I haven't played FC myself yet and the colors seem to be different upon closer inspection.

I'm personally wondering how Shulk, Alvis, Pyra, and Mythra may be involved in all of this. As for Rex, unless Pyra and Mythra (or Nia) did something, I am uncertain if he will be around if there is a significant timeskip.

Either way, I have all the hype for XC3. I still need to get around to getting XC: Definitive Edition to replay the game and experience Future Connected, while I have yet to fully complete XC2 (although I have finished the main storyline).

[King Marth 64]

I definitely dig into Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I also do like the protagonist Noah. He does kind of looked like a combination of Flynn from Shin Megami Tensei IV with the Face and Hair and Llyod Irving from Tales of Symphonia from the Red Vest. I'm kind of wondered if Mio be like the Pyra type protagonist for XC3?

Also, I noticed that Masked Woman from Agnus had the same hair color and pretty much the same ears as Mio had that I'm started to wonder if that Masked Woman could possibly be the sister of Mio that Noah had to stop in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 since Mio was claimed to be from Agnus as well?

Edited February 10 by King Marth 64

[Armagon]

Posting my thoughts from another thread

12 hours ago, Armagon said:

I will now give my thoughts on the six main characters

Sword Fei Noah is absolutely a name Takahashi would name his character and he looks to have the best drip out of all the protagonists. Red is a thing with all Xenoblade protags (even if Rex doesn't wear it). I like him, he cool.

Mio is cute i like her

Man these designs have so much drip. Eunie is cool. Oh, she's the childhood friend. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha she has already lost. She will get friendzoned, just like Melia and Nia before her.

"Wait a minute, that's not Taion" you might be saying. Turns out however, that the legacy of the Hector Birhwhistle also known as H.B, continues in this game. See, he reincarnated as Ahkos in Xenoblade 2

And now he's reincarnating as Taion in Xenoblade 3

The legacy continues.

Lanz looks to be an Indoline. He's got Addam's hair and he gives off Zeke vibes. He wins.

And lastly

Sena. She wields a Shield Hammer, hopefully this means she won't suck in combat. She also has those blue highlights that Brighid had and she even has a Blade core. No but she's straight-up got Blade features here like Mio, except even more defined because of the Ether lines. Curious.

All of these designs bang and even tho Xenoblade 2 designs never bothered me, i'm finally glad we can look forward to a new game without annoying-ass discourse about anime clothing. Saito is back as the character designer so it seems Monolith Soft wants him to stick around for future titles.

 

11 hours ago, Armagon said:

Ok time for the world: Aionois, which is very clearly Alrest and the "onis" naming scheme of Xenoblade 1 fused together. In these shots we can see

The cliffs of Gaur Plains

This fucking gorgeous shot in which we can see the mouth of Uraya. But more interestingly, Noah is walking on the finger tip of the Fallen Arm

The geography is very Xenoblade X-like.

Same place, though the rust suggests thousands of years have passed.

What remains of Sword Valley, and you can also see the tail of Gormott there. The ancient hand of the Mechonis is still holding onto the sword.

The Fallen Arm has turned into a desert. 

....Monolith Soft. Please for the love of God tell me those are Collection Points and not Item Spheres. 

This feels more like a mix of Oblivia and the floating structure of Cauldors. Ziplining huh. Once again, another suggestion that this world is more massive than it appears.

Honestly, i think this is gonna be an appeal of this game. Seeing sights from the previous game, transformed by the passage of time. Uraya is deceased but do it's people live on? Does Fonsa Myma still exist (renamed probably) or is it all just ruins now.

GODZILLA

Yeah so this game is incapable of being bad. And once again, there's that Xenoblade X influence. That's an absolutely massive creature. The Squoods in Xenoblade 2 are pretty big but they were also localized to like one specific area. The fact that Godzilla over here is just chillin'. We could be seeing more similarly-sized creatures, perhaps even bigger.

Like right here. And those dark clouds or whatever are reminiscent of Fog Beast particles.

This place is likely Colony 9, however many thousand years into the future. However, upon closer inspection, we can see that island is what remains of one of the Leftherian Islands from Xenoblade 2.

 

Something else

Wouldn't be a Xeno game if this imagery didn't show up somewhere. 

12 hours ago, vanguard333 said:

I know this is just an announcement trailer, but it's still a bit concerning that they showed nothing.

The first reveals have always been that. Xenoblade X and 2 initial reveals were both just cinematics and a few shots of running around the environment. E3 will definitly show us how the game plays and i'm already expecting some new gimmicks based on the fact that aquatic enemies far away from the shore are a thing.

10 hours ago, Sire said:

I was also wondering if the eyepatch guy was an older Dunban, but then my thoughts shifted to a potentially older Zeke. Of course, it could just be someone else entirely.

It's Vandham. Not the same Vandham obviously (aside from VA) but it's a Xeno tradition to always have a Vandham (though in English, the name Vandham wouldn't be used until X). Notice how the eyepatch guy has an X-shaped scar on his head. 

7 hours ago, King Marth 64 said:

Also, I noticed that Masked Woman from Agnus had the same hair color and pretty much the same ears as Mio had that I'm started to wonder if that Masked Woman could possibly be the sister of Mio that Noah had to stop in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 since Mio was claimed to be from Agnus as well?

Relations are still unclear if any exist but if Mio is Nia's sister, it's likely through adoption or whatever rather than blood ties.

[vanguard333]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

The first reveals have always been that. Xenoblade X and 2 initial reveals were both just cinematics and a few shots of running around the environment. E3 will definitely show us how the game plays and i'm already expecting some new gimmicks based on the fact that aquatic enemies far away from the shore are a thing.

Fair enough. Still; I've always enjoyed the worlds and characters in Xenoblade games; it's the gameplay that keeps me from being able to finish them, so I hope the gameplay in this game is a lot more interesting than it normally is in XC games.

 

Quote

Man these designs have so much drip. Eunie is cool. Oh, she's the childhood friend. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha she has already lost. She will get friendzoned, just like Melia and Nia before her.

The childhood friend usually wins in a Xenoblade game; Fiora being the obvious example.

[Corrobin]

The official website listed out some information about the characters, and a couple had their combat roles listed. Eunie is described as a Healer and Lanz is described as a Tank (he even does the Blade Shield effect thing in the trailer). Sena is described as being Physically Very Strong, but says nothing about her tanking. Talon is a strategist who fights at a range, which could mean a variety of things.

Neither Mio or Noah have their combat roles listed, but you can make a good educated guess about Noah. Mio might end up being more of a Seven (duel wield DPS) than a Nia though.

[avensis]

Cannot even begin to describe how excited, I am for this game !

TweakBox Tutuapp

Edited June 22 by avensis

[Corrobin]

Most games get delays. We get our release date pushed up. And also characters can fuse into mecha monsters, and everyone in the party fights at once, for 6 (sometimes 7 with a guest) party members on the field at the same time.

[King Marth 64]

I don't see anyone posted the release date revealed from two days ago. So Xenoblade Chronicles 3 managed to pushed the release down from September to July 29th.

I'm kind of surprised to see Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was going to be releasing on July instead of launching on September. It makes me wondered if the development team managed to fix the stuff in XC3 that was originally planned to be released on September?

 

Edited April 22 by King Marth 64

[Fabulously Olivier]

Now we're getting a 20 minute direct focused on just this game. If only Fire Emblem got this kind of preferential treatment, it would easily be a 4 million+ selling franchise.

 

The game looks good mind you, but I'm honestly tired of hearing about it. It's all some youtubers want to talk about.

Edited June 20 by Fabulously Olivier

[Aiddon]

People who claimed a June 29 Direct are now in shambles

 

Edited June 20 by Aiddon
Link

[Lightchao42]

4 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Now we're getting a 20 minute direct focused on just this game. If only Fire Emblem got this kind of preferential treatment, it would easily be a 4 million+ selling franchise.

Were you not around in 2017 when Fire Emblem got a direct with four game announcements? Even Three Hopes got six trailers.

Anyway, Xenoblade 2 had its own direct back in 2017 that was 16 minutes long; it covered the basics of the plot and gameplay in addition to providing a roadmap for the DLC, so I expect basically the same thing here. It might also make special note of having Japanese voiceover DLC, even though that isn't really uncommon nowadays.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

34 minutes ago, Aiddon said:

People who claimed a June 29 Direct are now in shambles

Are they? They never seem to skip a beat in moving all their leaks to the next wednesday. And the one after that. And the one after that until they're eventually correct. We've seen how easy the grift is. 

I'll be checking out the Xenoblade stuff just to see what's up with these Gears the characters are turning into.

[Aiddon]

Yup, relying on internet amnesia to keep the notoriety going. It's honestly kind of pathetic and people need to stop feeding them.

Regardless, looking forward to what Nintendo's going to show. Considering how intricate Xenoblade 2's mechanics were I wonder how 3's will pan out.

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, Aiddon said:

People who claimed a June 29 Direct are now in shambles

 

Are they? Pokemon Presents regularly proceeds full directs by 1-2 weeks, why not Xenoblade? It's slate-clearing.

 

38 minutes ago, Lightchao42 said:

Were you not around in 2017 when Fire Emblem got a direct with four game announcements? Even Three Hopes got six trailers.

Anyway, Xenoblade 2 had its own direct back in 2017 that was 16 minutes long; it covered the basics of the plot and gameplay in addition to providing a roadmap for the DLC, so I expect basically the same thing here. It might also make special note of having Japanese voiceover DLC, even though that isn't really uncommon nowadays.

You said it yourself. Fire Emblem has to have multiple announcements to get a dedicated Direct.

[Lord_Brand]

So, how long before "Noah for Smash 6"? They got plenty of time to work a XC3 rep into the starting roster.

Edited June 20 by Lord_Brand

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Are they? Pokemon Presents regularly proceeds full directs by 1-2 weeks, why not Xenoblade? It's slate-clearing.

I'd counter that the Pokemon franchise has more autonomy from Nintendo than the Xenoblade series. A Xenoblade direct is going to be handled directly by Nintendo (in conjunction with Monolith Soft), whereas a "Pokemon Presents" is moreso in the hands of GAME FREAK and The Pokemon Company.

44 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

So, how long before "Noah for Smash 6"? They got plenty of time to work a XC3 rep into the starting roster.

Ironically, the argument may work the opposite way. If we don't get a Smash 6 for at least another few years (my guess: holiday 2024 at the absolute earliest), then it's possible another Xenoblade game (or spin-off) will have come out by then.

[Lord_Brand]

Mentioning spinoff makes me think Xenoblade Warriors could be fun. They got at least four games to pull from now.

Edited June 20 by Lord_Brand

[Zapp Branniglenn]

15 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ironically, the argument may work the opposite way. If we don't get a Smash 6 for at least another few years (my guess: holiday 2024 at the absolute earliest), then it's possible another Xenoblade game (or spin-off) will have come out by then.

For years I've believed that Sakurai would Stop development on Ultimate once Nintendo drops a Super Switch development kit on his desk. And I think that's exactly what happened. Smash Ultimate Deluxe. Launch title for the Super Switch, 2023. Everyone is STILL Here. Come back in 12 months and hold me accountable for this shit. 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

6 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

For years I've believed that Sakurai would Stop development on Ultimate once Nintendo drops a Super Switch development kit on his desk. And I think that's exactly what happened. Smash Ultimate Deluxe. Launch title for the Super Switch, 2023. Everyone is STILL Here. Come back in 12 months and hold me accountable for this shit. 

remindMe! June 2023

With Sakurai's own waffling about his career, I'm not confident that he'll be at the helm of Smash 6. In which case, we could expect a longer development cycle than past games. On top of that, we haven't seen a Smash title release in the same year as its console since Melee on the Gamecube. Getting a proper "Switch Successor" next year is already dubious (so long as the system, and its games, keep on selling), and a same-year Smash title even more so.

But hey, it could happen.

21 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:

Mentioning spinoff makes me think Xenoblade Warriors could be fun. They got at least four games to pull from now.

Oh god, we're approaching the singularity where every vaguely anime-looking franchise gets Musuo'd, aren't we.

Ace Attorney Warriors when?

[Lord_Brand]

23 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Oh god, we're approaching the singularity where every vaguely anime-looking franchise gets Musuo'd, aren't we.

Ace Attorney Warriors when?

Spoilers since I'm going a bit off-topic here.

Spoiler

Funnily enough, a Capcom franchise getting the Musou treatment most likely won't happen, at least not from Koei Tecmo due to the two companies' bitter relationship. If anything, Capcom would develop such a title in-house since they already have their own Musou equivalent, Sengoku Basara.

Fact is, Musou encapsulates so much of what we see in Japanese action film, television, and video games that it's easy to adapt them. That said, Final Fantasy is long overdue for a Musou title (I mean c'mon, the series has a Warrior job and traditionally featured teams of heroes known as the Warriors of Light), and a Nintendo Warriors game (basically Super Smash Bros. meets Musou) would be extra-exciting due to putting a wide variety of video game characters in the Musou format.

Kirby Warriors would be a pleasant surprise that fits with the Kirby series' blend of cuteness and action. Between the various Kirby copy abilities, the growing roster of popular co-stars lead by King Dedede and Meta Knight, and even playable Helpers, I'm surprised one hasn't happened already.

A manga/anime series that seems prime for the Musou treatment is Dragon Ball. Unlike most Musou adaptations, most of the characters likely to be playable in a Dragon Ball Z Warriors would canonically be literally powerful enough to wipe out entire armies of mooks. Watch Frieza, Cell, or Majin Buu obliterate an army of Red Ribbon Soldiers or Saiyans and tell me that's not perfectly in keeping with their capabilities. If anything, the playable characters would have to be nerfed compared to their canon versions in order to explain how common grunts with guns could do any damage to them.

Another prime animanga would be My Hero Academia, easily one of the most popular modern manga/anime series. They would probably want to opt for an original story for this one, maybe armies of mutants or robots created by a new original villain.

But, this topic is for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so I'll save most of the Musou speculation for the proper topic.

All the same, I imagine by the time Smash 6 is announced, there will be demand for Noah to join Smash 6 just like there was demand for Rex & Pyra in SSBU (which ultimately was fulfilled, sort of).

Edited June 20 by Lord_Brand