Gallery: Take A Closer Look At Xenoblade Chronicles 3's Characters And Combat

This very well could be my personal goty based on what I've seen so far ngl 😅

Not sure what it is with this series but I just can’t get excited about a man hitting a giant robot with what looks like a spanner,

I don't think I want another look at the characters. They're really ugly this time especially the orange scarf dude lol. Its a shame some of those 7th party member heroes have some decent designs but you can only choose 1

Environments look gorgeous as always with this series but I'm not a huge fan of the character designs to be honest. I never played the second game anyway so I'm not sure if I'll ever get this one.

My main concern about the game is how well it will perform, especially in handheld since it seems during the direct there were quite a few frame drops especially during scenes with a lot of characters on screen.

Hoping it can keep a largely stable 30 most of the time.

other than that the game is looking great.

@Orokosaki Different strokes for different folks.

This looks like GOTY. Wow!!!!

@Mgalens This game has a custom engine, so I am hopeful.

This game might give Kirby a run for its money as my or Nintendo's GOTY if that Monolith magic shines through.

Most important, only concrete, easiest to miss thing that we learned, that should temper all other discussion: There IS a obvious connection that we could figure out!

We know this because the first “Hero” added to your party is blurred out when they show the hero selection screen.

That means that seeing that Hero is obviously a spoiler, and that can only happen if we already know them and there is a connection.

Now some speculation.

This is all happening inside a X like world. We see the pods, the “time limit” is consistent, and the “home coming” seems like an an assentation, maybe being born or moving to a body in the "real" world.. I see this as a world between worlds, almost like “the dead” trying to earn a new life, or maybe a trail to be allowed to die and be reborn as titan. With that said, everyone can be a reflection or reincarnation or projection of characters we have already seen, and I think this works. Even the class change mechanic seems to point to some type of malleable, virtual world.

If you accept this ... Mio is just Nia, straight up. We can clearly see that she and one other member of that “team” have core crystals, she uses Nia’s starting weapon, she spoiler spoiler cloths , and she has the same name. Guess I have to explain that one ...

For a name to “mean something” in Japan, you generally have to know how it’s written in Kanji. There are over 100 ways to use Kanji to make “Mio” and the game only gives us the katakana spelling. So while this name GGENERALLY means Charry Blossom, Dream, or Sun, we can’t know for sure with the information we have. But using katakana is telling in itself, given that the “phonetic” alphabet, used to make sounds that are not part of hiragana, so they care that the name SOUNDS the same in English. The first character is “Mii” or simply “Me”, while the second is “O”. However, if you look at a word like “Ohayo” you’ll find that it tends to sound closer to “oh” or “ow” when spoken. So her name, phonetically … is Meow. This mirrors Nya’s name, with “Nyan” being the Onomatopoeia in Japan for the sound a cat makes. Given you hold the “a” and “n” is a very subtle sound in Japanese, that word sounds like “Ni-ah” in the wild.

They literally have the same name. I mean ... if you are a cat. Which she is!

It's easy to see the other team as Schalk, Ryan and Fiora, but I haven't put a ton of thought into that. They do NOT have core crystals, which is consistent with Xenoblades 1 where they were just Homs, and Xenoblades 2 where they didn't have core crystals even as blades.

Just hoping it performs well.

@Sarkos I'm in the same boat. LOVED Xenoblade Chronicles 1 but hated 2, mainly because of the terrible character designs. I just couldn't get past it. These ones look a little better, but not much...I'll probably pass.

@Munchlax Riki beats Reyn

Beyond excited. Xenoblade 2 is one of my favourite Switch games and I hope that this one will hold the bar.

such breathy, moany male voices. if i didn't know any better, i'd say they were trying to make me squirt. what would it look like if i paid 60 bucks to let them do that more often to me? hard pass, unfortunately. i don't like dudes licking my ears.

Wow, looks amazing! My hype level for this game was already at 100% prior to the Direct, but now it has shot up to like 200%.

Xenoblade games treat gamers like babies with all the handholding. They should've learned from BotW and Elden Ring. That red line showing your path.. give me a break

The closer we get to this the more excited I become. Probably my most anticipated game of the year.

Not a huge fan of the character designs (probably because everyone needs to be able to mix & match those "class" jackets), but it's not a big deal. Some of those "Hero" helpers look cool.

this looks like the best Xenoblade game ever!

@Cia Elden Ring is not a good example. (Almost) every "bonfire" has the Light of Grace emitting showing you the way to the next story segment it is even visible on the map and it cannot be disabled Elden Ring is a fail from this perspective.
Anyways, what red line did you mean?

Monolith Soft you magnificent ***** you done it again, this seems way more interesting than XC2 in every way, story, gameplay, world. The main cast feels kinda lackluster but still a step up from XC2.

@Orokosaki i bought the original 3 times, wii, 3ds & switch, & bought the 2nd on release day, but haven't had the desire to play through even half of either game. I hope everyone gets what they want out of the game, but it's battle system just isn't for me, i guess.

The first XC is amongst my fav all time games so I am obviously looking fwd to this

@HeadPirate I'm putting my money on clone of Nia, rather than literally Nia. There was a lot in the trailer pointing towards cloning being a part of the story.

Absolutely 🔥 🔥 🔥

This looks like a generational leap compared to Xenoblade 2, in the same way X was compared to 1. The sheer volume of quality of life improvements and refinements is astounding. I especially like the quest marker path, given one of the most common complaints in XC2 was players unable to find the objective.

The characters are stunning- massive improvement over the last game! And the theme is definitely more mature, which I love. They've taken the best elements of the previous games, enhancing what worked and dropping what didn't.

This very well could end up being the greatest JRPG of all time.

@falkyn So you won't buy the game because you find the male characters too sexy?

I love how much more polished the game is looking compared to previous games. But I've got the feeling it could look even better with stronger lighting.

@The__Goomba i don't find the male characters too sexy, nor do i find the male characters any sexy. i won't buy the game because the production behind it has created sound bites from male actors that creates a scenario that is exactly like letting a male character next to you and moan into your ear. i don't consent to such ridiculousness.

@falkyn You're a strange fellow.

I am so excited for this game. This series has become my favourite in recent years and I can't wait for this. I love the worlds, the lore, the characters, the battles, how deliciously complicated they can be.
XC2 was a masterpiece, IMO, best game on the Switch thus far, so this one has the bar set high for me.
Can't wait to see how this ties in with the first two.

Taion seems cool, love that he has a non traditional weapon as well.

@BlackenedHalo
From the trailer I noticed you can create a red line showing you the way. This line is real time on the game screen, not in the map. Great way to ruin exploration.

What's the point of asking npcs help to find your quest objective if the game just blatantly shows you where to go with a damn line? Imagine if BotW had this, it would've ruined quests such as Miskos treasure or Giant Horse where you had to listen to the npcs tips and then try yo find the correct route.

In Xenoblade 3, you can just skip all npc info and put the line on the screen to show you the way. If this does not ruin exploration then I don't know what is.