Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

I used the alternate color costumes pretty much through the entire game (The one you get via expansion pass)

Alright, I have decided what my second playthrough of XC3 is going to look like.
I'm going to give myself a challenge by starting a brand new game (no NG+) and prohibit myself from using fast travel while doing every quest in the game. In other words: I'll be doing all traveling required by foot and the in-game modes of transportation like the boat to enhance immersion.

I tried doing this on one of my playthroughs of XC1 but I got stuck with some of the timed side quests, unable to complete them before they expired. Maybe it's doable in that game, not sure, but if it is it requires a ton of preparation and foresight.

Don't even bother trying to do this in XC2 though, because even the main story requires the use of fast travel at one point and most side quests aren't completable without it. That was a major gripe of mine in XC2: you needed to do so much fast travel in this game because the areas were all disconnected and in pretty much all cases there was no in-game solution to travel from one country to another.
It broke immersion for me quite a bit.

Anyway, this gameplay choice is in fact doable in XC3 and I love the game even more because of it.
It means my second playthrough will take a lot longer than my first, but I'm so excited for it. Can't wait to start playing again in a few hours.

just started the Alexandria Hero sidequest in Chapter 3. i swear you deal with the Consuls more in the sidequests than you do in the main games' story. Not that theres anything wrong with it but wow. SIdequest after another its insane.

I had something weird happen to me (I'm supposed to be on my internet break but I needed to tell this), I logged back into the game today and my characters classes were switched back to what I had them before, I fixed the problem but it was weird they were the same levels I was in the same spot as my save. Weird just weird.

@Kermit1 Is it possible you loaded a slightly earlier auto save rather than the manual save? Did you just change the classes recently before saving?

@Cynas yep, I went back a minute ago to see if the same thing had happened and it didn't.

I think I might have somehow goofed a save.

Ho.... ly.... crap...

Just saved the game in Chapter 6. When I started playing a few hours ago, I was in mid chapter 5.

This has to be one of the most amazing story twists of any game I've ever played.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is straight fire! Idk how else to put it. This game is phenomenal!

anyone happen to know what else youre suppose to do with Teach's teaching sidequest? I dunno what else to do with the stupid sidequest. I already did the quiz part and the training ground battle.

There something else that youre supposed to do for that stupid sidequest?

@JaxonH
Happy to see you like the game that much.

@XandertheWise
Patience young one. More subjects will be revealed in due time.
Also, why do you think this quest is stupid? I loved it because it's so different from other quests in the game and it brings a lot of character building to the main cast.

I finished it half an hour ago... took me 53 hours. Party was Lv75. Managed to take down the final boss in a Chain Attack. Biggest adrenaline rush the whole series has given me for sure!

I can barely put it together. What it all means to me. I'm so happy but yet I'm so sad. So, so happy that I had the privilege of playing this game, but sad it had to end.

Gaming wise this trilogy is everything to me. So to see it culminate in such spectacular fashion makes me so, so happy.

@TheJGG
Only 53 hours? That's very fast!
Makes me wonder, how long did it take you to beat the other Xenoblade games?

@Mioaionios I'll say this; most of it was because I played in Easy mode. I just wanted to enjoy the story without too much of a fuss challenge wise. But I did a decent amount of quests, unlocked all but one of the Heroes and explored a whole lot.

As for the other Xenoblade games... depends. I went back just now and looked at my old YouTube videos, that's the only reason I even have some numbers for you! Even then though, they're approximate.

Xenoblade (Wii) ~75 hours. Didn't do any side quests at all.
Xenoblade (Switch) ~45 hours. Did almost all of the side quests.
Future Connected ~5 hours. Didn't do much side content.
Xenoblade X ~85 hours. Did a decent amount of side stuff.
Xenoblade 2 ~75 hours. Didn't do much side stuff.
Torna ~12 hours. Did most of the side stuff.
Xenoblade 3 ~55 hours. Did a decent amount of side stuff.

I liked Xenoblade X quite a lot to be honest. Exploring the world made up for the barebones story.

One day though, I WILL do a playthrough of this game. I have my capture card and can easily get a USB to store the videos on. Just a matter of editing it. Should be a massive project though...

Lol, you're a speed-runner ....

@TheJGG
Those numbers are amazing... almost unbelievable.
I concur with @BruceCM You have some mad speed-running skills. 🤯

@Mioaionios @BruceCM In some ways, maybe. But whether it's 40 hours or 75 it's still a lot of time. I'd happily give a thousand hours more time to this series... and maybe a thousand more. I did try and speedrun Xenoblade once (a little). Managed to beat the whole game (Wii, so no Casual Mode, quest tracking, etc) in 20 hours. I used the Gogol trick a lot, that got me from Lv60 to 80 in an hour.

What's your kind of mileage with the series? How long did it take you to beat each one?

Spoilers for XC1 and 2 by the way...

Speaking of speed runs, a couple of people have already cracked the 4 hour mark with NG+.

The record for a first run still stands at over twelve hours, but I'd think that's going to come down a lot over time.

@TheJGG lol.. ok so Xenoblade with no side quests takes 75 hours. Xenoblade with most of the side quests takes 45 hours?
Idk if you don't talk to npc, or skip every fight you can skip, but it's hard to believe stuff like.. Torna with most side quests takes 12 hours? I think i did all side quests and it was like 40 hours.

Anyway though, I've been working overtime and stuff i'm still at chapter 4, haven't played in a few days. Im eager to have more time for XC3 and find out what all the hype is in the later chapters

@defhed Only now does it really hit me how quickly I’ve played through them. Mind, this is after I don’t skip any cutscenes and do a reasonable amount of side quests. Xenoblade DE I already knew how to play so that’s why it took a lot less time than in Wii, plus the quest tracking and me generally understanding the game better.

As for the rest, fair enough. I think Xenoblade 3’s story is a little short though. Take away the cutscenes and you get the shortest mainline game in the series IMO.

@TheJGG
I always go for completionist runs, and they always take well over 100 hours.

• Xenoblade 3 took me 130 hours.
• Xenoblade 2 took about 160 hours but that's because of the awful time wasting mechanics that game has like the gacha system and field skills. Without those, it'd be shorter than XC3 for sure.
• Xenoblade 1 on Wii took me around 150 hours but the Definitive Edition streamlined things quite a bit and brought it down to about 110 hours. More experience with Xenoblade games also helped, I'm sure.
• Xenoblade X is the longest to do a completionist run for and took me close to 200 hours.