Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

I felt like I should finish the game properly, so I loaded a save file from chapter 6, to do the sidequests and stuff. In the other save file, I just rushed to the end.

Today I helped colony Tau, to get rid of consul U. It felt good. The default name of the farm in Rune Factory Frontiers, is called Tau-Farm. Ever since, I like to call my farms in farming games Tau. It means dew. It might be time to get a little more creative.

Edit: The forgotten colony is save now. It is good to see places free of war. Relaxing colony. If I were a girl living there, I would propably dream of becoming a fairy. This game makes me want to read the Sky Crawlers books.

For that reason I was happy to turn the difficulty down to easy for a few of the Moebius fights, especially the forgettable two-line clowns in Zeon and Teach's hero quests. As predicted my party's getting crazily overlevelled from all the side quests, I've only just entered the Urayan Tunnels and my party's at Lv35 (the upcoming boss is Lv29), and there's a few I've deliberately left alone too.

Good to hear, it's a very diverse cast and one that you could stack in almost any order. I think Taion's my favourite because he has a very icy start to being in the group, he's hostile, aloof and dismissive, but through interacting with each Kevesi one on one he starts to respect them as people, not enemies. Love his scenes with Noah by the desert pool (wotah!) and with Eunie by the camp (the shaking), it makes him come across very sensitive and switched on. Meanwhile with other characters, like Sena, there isn't much contact with the others, at least memorable moments.

Oh yes, the two clowns created purely to fill out more of the Moebius alphabet. XD Overleveling is definitely very easy; I believe you can redistribute or even lower the levels at campfires IIRC, but that might just be a NG+ feature? It's been awhile. 😅

I think Taion and Eunie are my favorites; both come very far in their character arcs, especially the former for reasons you mentioned. I like how they explored Eunie's half-remembered PTSD and the effects it has on her. Which makes perfect sense; these characters are alive for ten years cycles, essentially fighting an endless war, all while they're in various stages of adolescence/very early adulthood. Plus, I like her sass. XD Taion comes off as pretty hostile at first, but he is indeed very observant, brainy, and sensitive. Likely due to a bit of his past as well, which is also explored extensively.

@Tyranexx Can’t say I remember many of the Moebius, I really hope that’s the point though, because it would be one of the worst galleries of JRPG villains I’ve ever seen if not. I remember K, though he’s forgettable he’s the first one we beat, D’s the breakout star of course, he’s just like Metal Face in being evil for evil’s sake, X has sass for days, and J has his whole “elation” shtick. Other than that they all fade away. Speaking of, I’ve beaten Chapter 3 now, with a party at a low Lv35, even the Moebius boss was easy. I can’t level down my characters since I’m not in NG+, I imagine it’s good for challenge but it’s fun overlevelling anyway.

The PTSD angle is what makes her so likeable for me, though she’s the only one that even remotely taps into memories of her past life in the group, which makes that moment all the more interesting. I’ll admit the theme of each character losing someone can become formulaic but that’s almost certainly the point of the game in the first place, what with the theatre of eternal war.

Continued with the quests in chapter 6. This game has alot of quests. Rozana and Gray are such a cute couple, it really warms my heart. It is a joy to help the people and get to know them. I think the people make Aionios feel alive, after all.

I am still thinking about reading the Sky Crawlers books.

@jedgamesguy Some of the Moebius are definitely one note, whereas others do stick out in my mind. Besides the ones you already named off, I found Y somewhat memorable if pompous, O & P with their own messed up fusion, and T of course. Sounds like you're making some great progress in your current playthrough. Agreed, Overleveling is more fun anyway lol.

The PTSD angle and how it's handled is done well IMO. Plus, I like Eunie's general sass lol. True, the themes can be formulaic if one has played many RPGs, but they make perfect sense in the context and generally well thought out writing in XC3. I was sort of hoping more of the characters would tap into their past iterations (Noah and Mio sort of did, but not through memories), but there was generally some great coverage with their current runs.

Another fine day in Aionios. Freeing Colony 0 felt very satisfying, for obvious reasons. Segiri is a weird but likeable addition to the team. When I met her, I thought she was a robot, poor girl. I wonder if she does it because of the traumatising life she lived. Hopefully she and the rest can be, who they want to be from now on. And now I have unlocked every class in the base game. Wuhu!

I am having a great time with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 again.

Edit: Is 70 € a normal price for the soundtrack? Seems weird to me, since this is more, than the game costs.

Edit 2: Even after watching Joran's redemption a second time, tears came into my eyes. I am really proud of him. You are not a worm, you are a wyrm with a heart of gold and you were flying.

It feels so good to see the people get along with each other. I love the characters. Watching the scenes when Shania came to her senses again, made me feel like crying. Ghondor was so lovely and understanding. Monica should have screamed at Shania's mother, "She almost became a monster like you!" I felt so sorry for Shania, having a (mother) like that. But of course, it is not wise to blame the parents and others, for the path she chose. May she smile again in the future. Being who you are and who you want to be is a big theme of this game.

This game is just awesome after all. I love it so much.

Beaten the double Ferronis act in chapter 4, safe to say I absolutely cheesed the fight considering my party was Lv48 and the bosses were Lv35. The Moebius fight afterward wasn't any harder, I may switch to hard mode to make up for how easy the game's become now. I then did the Colony 11 Hero Quest, plus wrapped up Three Ravens at War quest line, and will infiltrate Keves Castle next time I pick up the game. I'm surprised how long it's taken to be honest, I'm 38 hours in and are nowhere near the halfway point of the game even though I've done such an enormous amount of side quests, pretty much as I get them.

@Tyranexx They get boring but then again none of the Moebius are the entire circus by themselves, only together do they remind me of court jesters and the like. The shame about even the standouts like O and P is that they don't get anywhere near enough screen time to become memorable. O and P appear in two scenes after all. Either way, I'd say the story's growing on me again, even if some of the game's best moments stand on a fine line between brilliant and unsubtle writing. JRPGs have typically struggled with subtlety considering it's being taken from another language entirely.

I think there's a good bit of subtlety in 3. There's some moments that aren't really subtle at all, but then there's a lot of stuff that I didn't even realize was actually going on until I connected the dots. Things like Z basically changing how he acts in order to reflect the mindsets of those who he's interacting with. Acting like a big generic bad guy when facing off against Noah and the others, yet being contradictory when interacting with people like Shulk and Rex, or interacting with people like N.

Then there's just all the stuff that basically ties into the original game's themes, and showing how a character feels without communicating it outright to the audience themselves. Leaving things vague, yet having information to guide the player to the right conclusion. It's kept me talking about the game for 2 years now.

@jedgamesguy Glad you're at Colony 11; they're one of my favorite colonies due to how unorthodox they can be, especially Ashera and her character development.

Some of the Moebius do deserve more screen time; we only meet many of them as one-note characters with very little cross-interaction. The scenes where this does happen are sometimes notable IMO. It'd be neat to see the whole "circus" together. Another Consul I forgot but, in hindsight, realized was memorable, was Consul I (or Irma), but this was due in part to Fiona's Ascension quest.

@Tyranexx Ehh, I can kinda get why the Moebius don't tend to get more screentime. It's 25 characters pretty much, and usually it's hard to balance that many whilst also keeping them fresh personality-wise and writing-wise. I think the route they went with them works, when the more prominent ones sort of exist as outliers in their commonly found behavior.

@VoidofLight A fair point. Maybe not all 25, but I would have liked a bit more screen time with some of the outliers that were on screen for more than two seconds. We did get that with T, not to mention a couple return characters (though the whole bit with Crys still confuses me a bit - why go the Moebius route at all in their case?). I would've liked to see more of their original selves as well.

Keep in mind I haven't played Future Redeemed yet, so it's possible I'm missing some context.

@Tyranexx I think with Crys, it was mostly lingering regret. Moebius is effectively the embodiment of people who don't wish the world to come to an end. People who hold themselves in the past and never really learned to let go. Some are sadistic monsters that just don't want the fun to end, whist others are like N or S, where they experience hardship and trauma that make them want to become Moebius- yet their misery is only perpetuated due to being Moebius.

@VoidofLight I had a better response written, but the site swallowed it.

With Crys, I can kind of see how it was regret...but for what? Not making it to his Homecoming ceremony in a month? Honestly, while I'm glad he came back, him doing so kinda felt like filler. I sorta felt like bringing him back cheapened his death.

Regarding Moebius, I do like their concept overall. Even though they're "bad" in a sense (with some like D truly being bad seeds), they're powered by all-too-relatable human emotions spawned from hardship, trauma, fears, and looking too far backward. It's kind of crazy though, where some like N become Moebius to escape the cycle and, in so doing, multiply their own suffering. And that's if they even chose to be Moebius at all.

Started Chapter 5 (the best one, wink wink) and ventured out into Erythia Sea for the first time. Party's at a healthy Lv56, and considering how many quests there are in this region at this time it's safe to say I'll be in the mid level 60s if not the 70s by the time I go for the meat of the story. Might even turn the game up to hard to compensate since I could probably beat the chapter 6 bosses in the state I'm in now.

I do like Colony 11, they're definitely the most outwardly warmongering colony of the lot, and I do like Ashera's off-kilter sense of humour, quite a lot. As for the Moebius, there's only so much screentime you can give each one without bordering on the insane, the game already has a massive amount of cutscenes as is. Far as I see it the best consuls are definitely the ones that've been established in the background, so that's S, D, J, I, C, and a few others.

It's strange but the Erythia sea theme is my least favorite Xenoblade song. I don't know why, but something about it is grating to me.

@VoidofLight Maybe, I think it's one of my favourite songs in the game. Now Captocorn Peak, that song I hate with a passion, it's so boring, written the same way as other, better, themes before it.

@jedgamesguy I ironically have the inverse opinion. Captocorn Peak is one of my favorites in the game. It's a remix of Yzana plains, sure- but it gives off heavy Xenoblade Chronicles 1 vibes to me. It's ironic that the song is more resemblant of XC1, given that it's playing on Melnath's head.

XC3's Chapter 5 is the best stretch of gameplay and story (including new optional content) that I've encountered in any game. It's SO good.