Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Glad to see they're keeping art canceling in. The timed button presses add a fun, Paper Mario-esque layer of skill to the combat.

And, of course, the horrid command bar from 1 and X seems to be gone for good, which I'm very happy about.

@Ralizah Yeah, the combat seems to be mostly taking inspiration from 2 with some improvements and QoL added, which is probably for the best.

I'm also glad the command bar is gone and b arts and specials are assigned to buttons instead like 2 introduced.

I'm just glad they didn't just decide to copy and paste 2's combat entirely, since things like pouch items and movement were a pain.

@VoidofLight I liked XC2's combat, and I'd still be disappointed if they did that. Each of these games (even Torna) change up the battle mechanics to keep things fresh and give each entry its own sense of identity.

@iLikeUrAttitude Have we seen elemental combos yet? I do wonder if they've gone back to the somewhat stripped-down combat of XC1, or if they're going to design the combat more around those fusion transformations we saw in the last trailer.

@Ralizah I don't think we'll get anything like Blade combos, since it doesn't look like elemental classifications still exist in Xenoblade 3. It is confirmed seemingly that combos do have two paths, with one being the Xenoblade 1 version where you Break, Topple, and Daze, with the other being Break, Topple, and Launch from Xenoblade 2.

I feel like the combat will be stripped back in regards to elements, but making up for that with other aspects of the combat, like having to manage around 7 party members, and the Ouroboros. The combat already seems to be extremely complicated just by the looks of things alone, so it won't be as stripped down as 1's, where it's at it's most basic.

Yeah it doesn't look like blade or fusion combos are making a comeback given that there are no orbs that appear during chain attacks. I'm quite curious how the whole tactical points will end up working

Blade and fusion combos wouldn't make much sense when you've not got that blade/driver divide between the characters.

Having a branching combo path might add a bit more variety to the combat than just stacking topples like you do in XC1 though.

@Ralizah cancelling arts is a dope mechanic but oh Boy if that was not the one thing I completly missed from the tutorial and that I had to Google dozen of hours later when the game was getting really really hard.
I find the name very odd as it is much more about introducing or chaining an art into the autobattle

Not excited about revives being exclusive to healer characters.

@Balta666 tbh I didn't really 'get' the orb/chain attack system until I got to some boss that pretty much required you to know how to manipulate it and then, yep, went to youtube.

If they ever re-release XC2, they need to really go to work improving the tutorials.

@Ralizah Revives are exclusive to healer characters, but the game lets you switch to party members on the fly, so you don't have to worry about downed party members not getting revived unless the healer dies. Even then, I feel like class swapping will eventually allow all the party members to revive one another.

Also, with the chain attack system, I went almost the entire game without understanding. It wasn't until rewatching a friend play it, and playing through Torna that I actually understood how Chain Attacks worked in 2.

I didn't even pick up on the chain attack break/orb system and how it functioned until about 3/4 of the way through my XC2 run...thankfully before I ran into a certain fight (still what I'd argue was the hardest in the game for me) where some familiarity was almost required. I only activated singular chain attacks before that. The game was that bad at explaining it. It did a decent enough job of explaining the combat basics, but some of the more intricate systems could've used a lot more in-depth explanation IMO.

As for art canceling....It's possible I know what this is mechanically and just didn't know what it was called, but...how is this done exactly?

@Tyranexx Art cancelling is when you use the art at the exact same time that the auto attack connects!

@Vortexeo Ah, THAT. Yes, I tried to take advantage of that process as the game did mention it, but I was never very good at pulling those off.

Yeah, I never really got the hang of that either, @Tyranexx ..... I never do well with things like that, though!

@BruceCM Combat mastery in any game depends on the genre for me, but it also depends on how much time I want to invest into the system and how well it's explained to begin with. XD

Yeah, @Tyranexx .... That sort of thing that requires very good timing, though, I'm never good at!

We just got new footage via Xenobladejp's twitter:

Rough google translation:

"Ethel has a history of helping Noah, who was a child soldier of Keves, from Agnus. From that time on, Noah and his friends had a longing for Ethel. Why are you attacking as an enemy ...?"

I hope Xenoblade 3 will be the best game ever made

How to effectively confuse every player in the world: title the using of a skill as skill canceling.

Mannn more story details are starting to pop up online. I haven't looked at them yet because I want to experience the story as blind as possible. I'm gonna be trying my hardest to avoid them so I might have to unfollow the topic from everywhere 😅

We're more than halfway to release though so it isn't too much longer!