While other game companies have been giving us presentations throughout the month of June, Nintendo has sorta been leaving their fans dry. While that’s not the case anymore, it’s not exactly what everyone wanted or expected. But it’s definitely something big, being a Direct presentation exclusively for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. We were shown a new trailer showing more things than before, as well as an in-depth look at what the game had to offer. Here’s all that was shown.
Main Characters
After the trailer, we get an explanation of the overall world and the situation the characters live in, being that they’re from two different clans that are constantly at war. After that, we’re given an introduction to the characters that the game’s story will revolve around: Noah, a trusted off-seer; Eunice, a girl that appears brash and blunt; Lanz, a muscular up-close fighter; Mio, an off-seer with kindness and compassion; Taion, a smart tactician; and Sena, a small girl with lots of power. Noah, Eunice and Lanz are from Keves while Mio, Taion and Sena are from Keves. The six have to put aside their clans’ differences as they become fugitives and journey to find the truth of the world they live in.
A Boundless World
After we get a cute little cutscene with Mio and Sena, we get to see a variety of the landscapes in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. We’re shown some of the monsters, which also have variety to them, as well as the clans of Kevus and Agnus that continue to fight. Throughout your time traversing these landscapes, you’ll come across rest stops where you can do a number of things, such as cook food and learn more about the characters. This part of the trailer also showed off the feature that guides the player to their objective, a “Skip Travel” feature that allows players to fast travel between landmarks, and the ability to change the time of day.
Battling it Out
This section and the next had quite a lot to cover, so I recommend watching the video just to hear this portion of it if you haven’t yet. With that out of the way, battles in the world happen seamlessly by approaching an enemy and drawing your character’s weapon. All of the characters have a wide range of Arts that they can use, which are linked to a button on the controller. Each character also has a specific role that they fill, including Attacker, Defender, and Healer. Your characters can string together Arts to pull off a highly rewarding sequence or link different characters’ Arts together to achieve a similar effect with a Chain Attack.
Classes Galore
Within the previously mentioned three roles are classes specific to one character: Swordfighter (Noah), Zephyr (Mio), Medic Gunner (Eunice), Tactician (Taion), Heavy Guard (Lanz), and Ogre (Sena). Despite the classes being specific to each character, they all can be changed to match that of any of the allies. The classes are upgraded with EXP earned from battles, which can be put towards learning Master Arts, which are beneficial Arts that can be used by different classes. You are also able to pull off Fusion Arts by combining the effects of two compatible Arts into one.
Heroes Join The Fray
This section shows off the supporting characters that will seemingly assist the characters. These characters can be added to the team as a seventh party member, and can be swapped out whichever way you want. These characters also have unique classes of their own, including Guardian Commander (Zeon), Incursor (Alexandria), War Medic (Valdi), and more. The main party of characters are able to change into any of these roles as the characters that have them become allies. A fun feature is that you can change a character’s look to fit that of a different class, so your whole party can be matching class colors.
The Power of Ouroboros
Ouroboros is a powerful form that two characters can fuse into after linking together in battle. Interlinking can occur between a specific pair of characters: Noah with Mio, Lanz with Sena, and Eunice with Taion. It’s limited in time so players will have to take advantage of the Ouroboros Arts before the interlink deactivates. The Ouroboros is only controlled by one character despite being made up of two of them, so the player can swap between who’s in control to modify the appearance and Ouroboros Arts. You can also upgrade the form with points earned in battle.
Conclusion
After one final little video, the Direct concludes with a list of content that will be available in an Expansion Pass for the game, including outfits, quests, a story scenario and more. It costs $29.99 and the content for it will be produced and released from the day the game comes out until December of 2023. Speaking of, the game is still set to release on July 29th.
Honestly, I’m not interested in getting Xenoblade Chronicles 3, at least not as soon as it comes out. That being said, the game looks absolutely amazing, and what’s been shown gives me faith that it’ll be better than that of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 by a longshot. What do you think about what was shown off? Do you like everything you saw? Was there something you didn’t like? I’d love to hear your thoughts.