- What happened to Alvis is explained, which is good because Alvis was pretty essential to the first Xenoblade game.
- A is a delight of a character, Nikol is pretty likeable and I guess Matthew and Glimmer are ok.
- They succeeded in making Rex likeable. He and Pyra were easily the most boring parts of Xenoblade 2, so I'm glad they managed to make Rex more than a bland shonen boy with questionable voice acting.
- Seeing Shulk and Rex interact with reincarnations of their children is pretty interesting. You don't see much parent-child/sort of child interactions in fiction (usually because the parents succumbed to Death by Backstory or Death by Villain disease. When will they find a cure?) so that was neat.
- The game encourages and rewards exploration with the items that unlock all of the various equipment slots as well as some fantastic views. You might not need the various equipment slots to beat the game unless you're playing on the highest difficulty, but it's good to have the option.
- It wraps up the Klaus Saga and gives us hints as to what life was like before Klaus destroyed the world and gives us hints of what might come next in future Xenoblade games.
The negatives.
- N was done dirty by the story. It portrayed his act of destroying the Original City as a tragic accident instead of him selfishly destroying everything he built in order to get M back and be with her for eternity instead of constantly reincarnating over and over again. The story and writers are trying to rugsweep his worst villainous actions from the main game because N is popular. They tried to do to him what the MCU did to Loki after The Avengers by trying to retcon away his most evil acts. And it doesn't work. It just ruins one of the few good villains that Xenoblade has produced by trying to make him less evil.
- Future Redeemed kind of ruins Shulk and Rex a bit by having them present. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see Shulk all grown up and also see Rex become likeable. But their stories ended on high notes and to have them in Future Redeemed basically means their accomplishments were All for Nothing. If they had lived out their lives and died peacefully before Aionios happened and Panacea and Linka replaced them as party members and were trying to honor their legacies, I think I would have been more satisfied.
- Alpha was even more boring as a villain than Z. And that's saying something since all Z does for most of Xenoblade 3's story is sit around and act like he's rehearsing to be in a Shakespeare play.
- The game is too short and as a result, a lot of potential is squandered. Panacea and Linka are just kind of there despite being two of the Six Founders, Matthew manages to accomplish many things but doesn't have much in the way of character development and Z and Moebius are barely used beyond a couple of generic Moebius who try to kill people for kicks. The story needed an extra 10-15 hours to flesh out everything a bit better so it didn't feel rushed and like something was missing.
Overall worth playing, but like me you might end up feeling like something was missing.
VideoGame Alright but flawed fanservice and kind of unnecessary (Spoilers if you haven't played it or Xenoblade 3 yet)
Let me start with the positives.
- What happened to Alvis is explained, which is good because Alvis was pretty essential to the first Xenoblade game.
- A is a delight of a character, Nikol is pretty likeable and I guess Matthew and Glimmer are ok.
- They succeeded in making Rex likeable. He and Pyra were easily the most boring parts of Xenoblade 2, so I'm glad they managed to make Rex more than a bland shonen boy with questionable voice acting.
- Seeing Shulk and Rex interact with reincarnations of their children is pretty interesting. You don't see much parent-child/sort of child interactions in fiction (usually because the parents succumbed to Death by Backstory or Death by Villain disease. When will they find a cure?) so that was neat.
- The game encourages and rewards exploration with the items that unlock all of the various equipment slots as well as some fantastic views. You might not need the various equipment slots to beat the game unless you're playing on the highest difficulty, but it's good to have the option.
- It wraps up the Klaus Saga and gives us hints as to what life was like before Klaus destroyed the world and gives us hints of what might come next in future Xenoblade games.
The negatives.
- N was done dirty by the story. It portrayed his act of destroying the Original City as a tragic accident instead of him selfishly destroying everything he built in order to get M back and be with her for eternity instead of constantly reincarnating over and over again. The story and writers are trying to rugsweep his worst villainous actions from the main game because N is popular. They tried to do to him what the MCU did to Loki after The Avengers by trying to retcon away his most evil acts. And it doesn't work. It just ruins one of the few good villains that Xenoblade has produced by trying to make him less evil.
- Future Redeemed kind of ruins Shulk and Rex a bit by having them present. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see Shulk all grown up and also see Rex become likeable. But their stories ended on high notes and to have them in Future Redeemed basically means their accomplishments were All for Nothing. If they had lived out their lives and died peacefully before Aionios happened and Panacea and Linka replaced them as party members and were trying to honor their legacies, I think I would have been more satisfied.
- Alpha was even more boring as a villain than Z. And that's saying something since all Z does for most of Xenoblade 3's story is sit around and act like he's rehearsing to be in a Shakespeare play.
- The game is too short and as a result, a lot of potential is squandered. Panacea and Linka are just kind of there despite being two of the Six Founders, Matthew manages to accomplish many things but doesn't have much in the way of character development and Z and Moebius are barely used beyond a couple of generic Moebius who try to kill people for kicks. The story needed an extra 10-15 hours to flesh out everything a bit better so it didn't feel rushed and like something was missing.
Overall worth playing, but like me you might end up feeling like something was missing.