Nintendo Updates Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Game Page With Stunning New Artwork

Definitely one of the most hype RPG I'm looking forward to this year.

Excited to the core for this one!

Very much looking forward to the game, though I do find the box art for this series always really boring. Something to be said for brand consistency I guess but the covers for 1, 2, and 3 are basically indistinguishable from a glance.

Easy day 1. New art looks cool and nice to see it reference Xenoblade 1 and 2. Really interested to see how this story further connects both games.

I seriously cannot wait for this game omg! Xenoblade 1 and 2 are both some of my favorite RPGs of all time. Seeing how Xenoblade 3 ties the futures of the two previous games together means that this could definitely end up being my favorite Xenoblade game and it excites me to no end 😂

This art looks so nice. I'm a big fan how it matches both the art from 1 and 2, while merging the two key figures from both pieces together into one game. It's haunting to see the Sword of the Mechonis impaling the broken corpse of Uraya... and it's weird to see it as well, given that both games didn't really end up like this at the end.

@Lizuka I have a dumb theory that they do this to show which ones are connected story wise. Maybe if Xenoblade X gets a sequel it'll look closer to the Xenoblade X cover? 🤔

I'm confused as the why the Twitter user would think it was "accidentally uploaded" it? It's not like this game is a secret..

It's..Beautiful!

@Lizuka Yet no one complains when Final Fantasy does it.

@RubyCarbuncle To be fair, this game was planned right around the time 1 was about to be released. I doubt it's the series being milked, but moreso that this game was what they series was leading to all this time.

Ooh, I see a High Entia!

Urayas insides were quite beautiful. Sad to see it wounded by a sword that's pretty damn ugly lol

@kurtasbestos Sadly there's only one species missing from the playable cast. This might be the first mainline Xenoblade game that doesn't include a Nopon fighter.

Oh yea. All in on this one.

I still haven't been able to force my way to get all the way, through 1 of these. Got a bit into the 1st one 3 times, wii, 3ds, & now switch. Never had the urge to get even half way, but everyone keeps saying how good it is online, so i think, "it must get better, right?" Played through 1st quarter of part 2, got really bored with it, but i liked the way it looked. I planned to go back eventually, but that's getting less & less likely as my backlog continually grows. Oh well, this is good for those who enjoy it. I just prefer turn based rpgs & this didn't do it for me enough to put up with gameplay I don't enjoy. I hate having AI controlled characters in any game, but now they're forcing it in every game, so what can u do.

Two things, 1: I hope the battle system is a little less convoluted than XC2. Even though, once you finally get the hang of it, it’s cool. And…

2: All game journalists need a thesaurus. Specifically regarding the over use of the word “stunning”. Watch, now that you’ve read this, you will see a stunning abundance of the use of stunning. That word and “slammed” need to be eliminated from professional use, until further notice.

@Realness I kind of hope that it has the same chain attack system as 2, but lets you move around during auto-attacks like in 1, given how hard it is to position your character for arts in 2.

hopefully some of the original characters from 1 and 2 shows up in this games besides melia and nia who are in it alrdy.

People rag on the designs in XC2, but, IMO, the dude with the scarf in this looks really silly, and not in an endearing way.

Anyway, as long as this doesn't replicate XC1's major flaws (or the annoying field skill requirements for sidequests from XC2), I'll be happy enough with it.

Are you really feeling it?

@Specter_of-the_OLED It bothers me that X is listed after XII and that there are 3 different versions of IV.

I'm ready to invest another 200+ hours. I still can't believe this game is coming out before BOTW 2 in September.

I love this art! I hope we get to see more familiar areas than just the ones in this picture, I'd love to see how everything's changed since the prior games. It's nice seeing the other confirmed party members added to the picture as well.

@PeterAndCompany 1 and 2 both had party members not revealed in trailers/marketing material, so I'm sure we'll have at least one more here. A Nopon seems like a very likely choice since it's a staple of the numbered games to have one as a party member.

@Specter_of-the_OLED I don't mind that XC3 is shaping up to have extremely similar box art. That said, the FF box arts, while consistent, do feature representation of one of each title's major themes in the logo (FF4's Kain, FF7's Meteor, FF8's love story, etc.)

Blades, catgirls, bird ladies - oh my!

XC3 will be amazing. Looks like it will be the true follow-up to the first game.

I'm excited! But I played the Xenoblade 1 definitive edition (or whatever they called it and loved it) I admit there was a bit of fatigue by the end so I can't exactly remember the very end. Xenoblade 2 I played till you get to a major city and there was two ship armada's blowing each other up and you have to stop them or something. If any of that makes sense.
How will the 3rd connect. I liked the other 2 but I found 1 more interesting I don't really want to play them again though.

I'm not really feeling it ¬‿¬

Hope we see a new trailer soon. It would certainly help with the wait...maybe...or make it worse...gah...dunno.

So excited for this, roll on September.

I enjoyed the first quite a bit on the Wii and even the remake on the Switch, but Xenoblade 2 was a steaming pile of doodoo and i didn't really get into the one on the Wii U either.

I don't care for this game, i dunno why they insist on releasing more of these games, the entire franchise has sold less than 5m copies. 4 games with less than 5m sales between them isn't good.

Not when games like 1-2 Switch have sold more than 80% of your entire franchise has ever sold. If you're faced with that fact, you need to move on, not keep flogging the horse. The franchise is clearly niche.

Monolith should develop another IP also Monolith should learn how to use HD graphics, stuck in the mid 00s visually and it's getting really lame now.

Hard pass.

Edit: i know this game has dedicated hardcore fans, but unless you guys start buying 5 games each, this franchise will always remain a niche that not many people will play or care about.

Here I was, thinking we’d go a week without being stunned by something that looks exactly like some other thing.

My god the amount that I need this game right now is unhealthy

@FishyS If you can, you should play the first 2. Great games! But in the interest of time, you should play Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

@Fizza They kept quiet about it while they were making it. Easy.

Will probably be buying two copies of this day 1, one for my kid in college who's birthday is in September, and one for my kid at home. Will probably just watch this one, I'm getting kind of old for all the craziness.

I honestly forgot this was releasing in September, nice to wake up to.

@rjejr Not gonna lie, reading that your kid is in college made me feel old.

Still gotta play Xenoblade 1 & 2… and I plan to, but I’m currently still working through so much of my other Switch RPG backlog right now. It’s great!

I'm looking forward to this a great deal as I'm a huge fan of the series. The artstyle looks incredible and the colors are so vibrant and dazzling, it really is going to be very visually impressive. The exploration should be enjoyable too, as there are clearly landmarks from 1 and 2 scattered throughout. There should be plenty of cool references for longtime fans. My only nervous hope/wish right now is that the combat is closer to that in XC1 (with a proper battle palette with more than 4 arts, the ability to continue auto-attacking while repositioning to take advantage of position-specific arts bonuses, and chain attacks that aren't a confusing mess) than XC2 (where the player is literally punished for repositioning in battle by much slower movement and no auto-attacks). Honestly, I love the story in both games, though I do find the characters in 2 to be noticeably more campy and cheesy, but I hope the dialog is written to be more emotional and heartwarming like 1 rather than as campy and goofy as 2. The story of 2 was great, but the writing and voice acting were hit and miss.
Anyway, since BotW's sequel has been delayed, we'll have plenty of time for this.

Love xenoblade games, and yup thats a Xenoblade box art, nothing much to say here

I've been playing Xenoblade X in anticipation of Xenoblade 3. I really hope Xenoblade 3 does well enough that Monolith Soft decides to port X to Switch; the GamePad doesn't seem to be that important to the gameplay so far, so I don't see any reason why the game should be exclusive to Wii U.

@Gamer_Zeus What's wrong with niche? Popularity is no indication of quality. Most of my favorite things are niche.

Harvest Moon and its ilk were ultra niche for literally decades until Stardew Valley came along with the exact same gameplay as Friends of Mineral Town and suddenly blew up online, and now there are fifty gazillion Harvest Moon-likes that everyone refers to as Stardew-likes. Fire Emblem was niche until Awakening blew the doors off the hinges. Katamari Damacy, Okami, Doki Doki Literature Club, Disgaea, Atelier, ALL niche.

And this isn't just in video games - in nearly every medium, the most highly acclaimed things are not the best sellers. As long as the things make enough money to be financially viable, who cares?

I get that you bounced off XC2, and so did I as a matter of fact. But that's no reason to think they should stop making them.

(Edited for formatting)

DON'T FORGET WE'LL GET AN EXPANSION PACK!!!!

It looks glorious. Can't wait to see more of the game in June (hopefully).

Also, that official artwork looks too good for the base Switch. Must mean the Switch Pro is confirmed.

@Gamer_Zeus

I don't care for this game, i dunno why they insist on releasing more of these games, the entire franchise has sold less than 5m copies. 4 games with less than 5m sales between them isn't good.

This isn't true. Yes it's a smaller seller but the Xenoblade franchise actually has broke 5 million within 3 games (there's isn't 4 games unless you count Torna but there's no official numbers for that).

Xenoblade 1 lifetime sales: 3 million
Xenoblade 2 lifetime sales: 2.05 million
Xenoblade X lifetime sales: 840k

I've seen people say they don't know why this series continues but it's pretty simple. Even though it isn't the best selling series from Nintendo, it's the best selling franchise from Monolith Soft so they continue to make games for it. It's the same reason why Kirby gets more games despite being a modest seller like Xenoblade.

I know you said they should make a new IP but Nintendo has shot down most of Monolith Softs ideas which make them even more likely to just focus on this series for the time being. (They wanted to make an M rated title a few years back).

@Indielink Sorry, I don't recognize the name, but since you've been on here for 8 years you've probably seen me post about my kids a lot, they're much bigger Nintendo fans than I am just by the fact they're into Pokemon and I'm not, but yeah, end of 2nd year.

And if you haven't read about my kids and just anybody's kid being in college makes you feel old, well sorry for all of that.😁

If it makes you feel any better I'm 56 and just 5 minutes ago got a text from my state telling me I tested positive for Covid, so that's how my day's going. It's still early here in New York.

@rjejr No worries. Yeah I've been here for a while but I have been a lot less active as of late which I think is why you saying your kid is in college surprised me. I just remembering you posting about them being much smaller.

I got over having Covid last week. Thankfully I was pretty mild. Hopefully your case is pretty easy going as well.

Art looks amazing!

Whats wrong with that? This franchise isn't trying to be mainstream at all and it clearly knows its audience. And despite being niche its still successful so no harm done.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it has to change to cater to your tastes.

@Gamer_Zeus Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild are developed by Monolith and are probably some of the best looking games on the Switch. Also it's Anime styled graphics, what do you expect it to look like, Halo?

This is my most anticipated game of the year, but I really wish it wasn't as connected to the previous ones as it seems to be. Excluding Torna, the main story in the Xenoblade sequels has been awful compared to the original. Both X and 2 put a lot of work into the side stories for optional party members, some of which were actually really fun and interesting. But none of them really added back into the main narratives, which ended up as complete nonsense in the former and just painfully generic and trope-reliant in the latter. And more selfishly, I'd just rather not ruin the happy endings of the characters from Xenoblade 1. I don't want to hear about how they died and everything they worked for fell apart.

I think they need to change the battle system to something more simpler. It's what the series needs to be more mainstream. Maybe an art change too, but what's so hard to get from the series for the outsiders is the combat system.

Not a fan of RPGs, though I can enjoy an Action one. This looks amazing, can I start with this one or the first two are mandatory?

@Francema It's unknown if you have to play 1 or 2 to understand the story of 3, but there's already a lot of stuff in 3's trailer which you'd only get if you played the first two, like area references and reoccuring characters.

I have played XC1 + Torna and XC2. They all feature beatutiful and highly original surreal worlds which appealed to me. The fighting is not that best, though, especially in XC2 and the gameplay loop eventually bored me so I did not finish neither of them. I'm interested in the third one, however.

Xenoblade today gives me the same feelings I had when I'd get a gaming magazine and find a new Final Fantasy had been announced. The hype is real

Well, I've just finished XC2 and I can safely say that's it's of the best RPGs of our time. Goosebumps - they're real. I'm really tempted to the start the "New Game Plus" mode but I've still got like 50 more games to play...
Anyway. I'm definitely hyped for the 3rd installment.

@Gamer_Zeus The value of a game isn't determined by sales. Art deserve to exist and has intrinsic value regardless of whether it is consumed.

Even if you do only care about sales, having multiple niche series on your console does attract people. The sum of multiple niche franchises is not niche.

@VoidofLight thank you!! Sounds like I'll be missing some nice things but still enjoying the game.
Will check gameplay later on.

@Gamer_Zeus

Not everyone likes playing run-of-the-mill mainstream games. The Xenoblade series scratches an itch like no other, and I for one am grateful for that.

Hmmm... IDK I am less excited then I was. Not by this key art or anything, its just the fact that the previous game struggled with the switches aged hardware back in 2017. So realistically XBC 3 will struggle just as much if not more so. Graphics isn't everything obviously but at times when the dynamic resolution goes down to like 360p in handheld I start wishing for that mythical Switch Pro/ Super Switch.