Christi Junior on Nostr: Xenoblade 3 Writeup: Prologue 1/3 It’s finally here, the long-awaited Xenoblade 3 ...
Xenoblade 3 Writeup: Prologue
1/3
It’s finally here, the long-awaited Xenoblade 3 writeup, 2 years in the making! I always knew this thing was gonna be an absolute monster, a Titan if you will, which made it natural to keep procrastinating, to keep prioritizing other, more manageable projects, not to mention the Best Vidya Girl Contest. Once I had finished my Persona 5 Royal writeup however, I felt that the time had finally come to tackle Xenoblade 3.
Being one of my most eagerly-anticipated games of all time, a game I’ve put more than 200 hours into (Update: Well over 350 hours now, lol!) and a game I have A LOT to say about (including various hot takes and observations I haven’t really seen elsewhere), this was always gonna be a big one. So big in fact that it’s not only gonna be divided into 9 parts (each comparable in to a regular writeup in terms of size), but I’ll be approaching it in a very different way from my usual writeups – trying to convey how I personally experienced the game, from its announcement and hype phase to my playthrough of its 7 Chapters, as well as the post-game. I will also review in a more standard manner various aspects of the game (graphics, music, combat system, Based Morality etc) at whatever point feels most appropriate. I will try to keep Spoilers somewhat vague where I can, but since I’ll be discussing the story and major characters in depth, this writeup will end up revealing most major events and twists in the main story (I however aim to keep discussions of side content Spoiler-free).
Obviously, if you already feel my normal writeups are TL;DR material, this isn’t for you. However, if you’re interested in Xenoblade 3, the Xeno series, my takes on vidya or right-wing video game reviews in general, you should find plenty to enjoy. I’m ultimately writing these things primarily for myself, to develop and improve how I write about video games, and to finally put into words all sorts of thoughts and ideas that have long been floating around in my mind, but I’m always delighted when people on the Based side of Fedi end up appreciating and enjoying my writeups. And with that out of the way, let’s properly begin this prologue.
As the February 2022 Nintendo Direct was drawing to a close, I considered it a pretty good one overall – while Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes didn’t excite me at the time (I would actually go on to be extremely impressed with that game once it came out), a new Mario Strikers was certainly exciting (and would ironically would prove to be yet another ill-conceived and disappointing Mario sports game on the Switch). There were a number of interesting 3rd party ports (including Portal 1 and 2!) and remasters/remakes announced, Kirby and the Forgotten Land kept looking better and better, while I couldn’t care less about Nintendo Switch Sports. Mario Kart 8 DX getting a whopping 48 “new” tracks through DLC was actually pretty damn cool. But when it comes to Nintendo Directs, there’s always that moment where the Big N pulls a Columbo and goes “Just One More Thing…” – which often ends up stealing the whole show.
This time, their “One More Thing” opened with a clip of a dark-haired man playing a flute – clearly a fantasy adventure/RPG of sorts, and one with very high production values, but obviously not Zelda, and it really didn’t look like Fire Emblem either (besides, we’d already opened the Direct with Three Hopes). Already I was feeling pretty confident that this was in fact a new Xenoblade game – there had for a while been persistent rumors floating around about a Xenoblade 3, and even some supposed leaks about plot details, like Melia returning and the game being a sequel to both Xenoblade 1 and 2. However, I am a pessimist by nature, and so remained cautious – until the trailer switched over to a battlefield scene, full of warriors dressed similarly to Xenoblade 1’s Defence Force soldiers and crucially, a big honkin’ FACED MECHON-looking motherfucker! When the very next scene showed the man from the opening wielding a big Red sword, and fighting a catgirl who wielded twin rings as her weapon, I felt safe fully marking out in pure Fanboy joy.
Xenoblade 3 was real, it was looking amazing (some idiot JewTubers even insisted that the game must be running on the Switch Pro), and it was coming earlier than anybody had dared hope – September 2022! Despite the announcement trailer containing less than 90 seconds of actual cutscenes and gameplay footage, there was just so much to talk about, so much to speculate on – but some key takeaways were indisputable: Xenoblade 3 would not only combine the worlds of Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 2, but was pitting the two against each other (represented by two nations, Keves and Agnus) in a desperate war for survival. Characters from the old games would be returning, with Melia and Nia already have been shown in the trailer (albeit with their faces covered by creepy-looking masks), as the Queens of their respective worlds. Meanwhile, our heroes would be a party of 6 characters from both warring nations (3 from each), led by the flute-playing, Monado-swinging Noah, and the goal of this group would presumably be to put an end to this Xenoblade civil war.
There was so far no explanation for HOW their two worlds had collided, or WHY they had become such bitter enemies (let alone how people as sensible as Melia and Nia had gotten swept up in this madness), but a lot of time seemed to have passed since the first two games ended – at least 100 years, the consensus seemed to be. But then, why did the trailer seemingly show one particular Xenoblade 2 character who not only shouldn’t be able to live nearly that long, but who hadn’t even survived his own game? These sorts of tantalizing mysteries just made Xenoblade 3 that much more interesting.
#Xenoblade3Writeup
1/3
It’s finally here, the long-awaited Xenoblade 3 writeup, 2 years in the making! I always knew this thing was gonna be an absolute monster, a Titan if you will, which made it natural to keep procrastinating, to keep prioritizing other, more manageable projects, not to mention the Best Vidya Girl Contest. Once I had finished my Persona 5 Royal writeup however, I felt that the time had finally come to tackle Xenoblade 3.
Being one of my most eagerly-anticipated games of all time, a game I’ve put more than 200 hours into (Update: Well over 350 hours now, lol!) and a game I have A LOT to say about (including various hot takes and observations I haven’t really seen elsewhere), this was always gonna be a big one. So big in fact that it’s not only gonna be divided into 9 parts (each comparable in to a regular writeup in terms of size), but I’ll be approaching it in a very different way from my usual writeups – trying to convey how I personally experienced the game, from its announcement and hype phase to my playthrough of its 7 Chapters, as well as the post-game. I will also review in a more standard manner various aspects of the game (graphics, music, combat system, Based Morality etc) at whatever point feels most appropriate. I will try to keep Spoilers somewhat vague where I can, but since I’ll be discussing the story and major characters in depth, this writeup will end up revealing most major events and twists in the main story (I however aim to keep discussions of side content Spoiler-free).
Obviously, if you already feel my normal writeups are TL;DR material, this isn’t for you. However, if you’re interested in Xenoblade 3, the Xeno series, my takes on vidya or right-wing video game reviews in general, you should find plenty to enjoy. I’m ultimately writing these things primarily for myself, to develop and improve how I write about video games, and to finally put into words all sorts of thoughts and ideas that have long been floating around in my mind, but I’m always delighted when people on the Based side of Fedi end up appreciating and enjoying my writeups. And with that out of the way, let’s properly begin this prologue.
As the February 2022 Nintendo Direct was drawing to a close, I considered it a pretty good one overall – while Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes didn’t excite me at the time (I would actually go on to be extremely impressed with that game once it came out), a new Mario Strikers was certainly exciting (and would ironically would prove to be yet another ill-conceived and disappointing Mario sports game on the Switch). There were a number of interesting 3rd party ports (including Portal 1 and 2!) and remasters/remakes announced, Kirby and the Forgotten Land kept looking better and better, while I couldn’t care less about Nintendo Switch Sports. Mario Kart 8 DX getting a whopping 48 “new” tracks through DLC was actually pretty damn cool. But when it comes to Nintendo Directs, there’s always that moment where the Big N pulls a Columbo and goes “Just One More Thing…” – which often ends up stealing the whole show.
This time, their “One More Thing” opened with a clip of a dark-haired man playing a flute – clearly a fantasy adventure/RPG of sorts, and one with very high production values, but obviously not Zelda, and it really didn’t look like Fire Emblem either (besides, we’d already opened the Direct with Three Hopes). Already I was feeling pretty confident that this was in fact a new Xenoblade game – there had for a while been persistent rumors floating around about a Xenoblade 3, and even some supposed leaks about plot details, like Melia returning and the game being a sequel to both Xenoblade 1 and 2. However, I am a pessimist by nature, and so remained cautious – until the trailer switched over to a battlefield scene, full of warriors dressed similarly to Xenoblade 1’s Defence Force soldiers and crucially, a big honkin’ FACED MECHON-looking motherfucker! When the very next scene showed the man from the opening wielding a big Red sword, and fighting a catgirl who wielded twin rings as her weapon, I felt safe fully marking out in pure Fanboy joy.
Xenoblade 3 was real, it was looking amazing (some idiot JewTubers even insisted that the game must be running on the Switch Pro), and it was coming earlier than anybody had dared hope – September 2022! Despite the announcement trailer containing less than 90 seconds of actual cutscenes and gameplay footage, there was just so much to talk about, so much to speculate on – but some key takeaways were indisputable: Xenoblade 3 would not only combine the worlds of Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade 2, but was pitting the two against each other (represented by two nations, Keves and Agnus) in a desperate war for survival. Characters from the old games would be returning, with Melia and Nia already have been shown in the trailer (albeit with their faces covered by creepy-looking masks), as the Queens of their respective worlds. Meanwhile, our heroes would be a party of 6 characters from both warring nations (3 from each), led by the flute-playing, Monado-swinging Noah, and the goal of this group would presumably be to put an end to this Xenoblade civil war.
There was so far no explanation for HOW their two worlds had collided, or WHY they had become such bitter enemies (let alone how people as sensible as Melia and Nia had gotten swept up in this madness), but a lot of time seemed to have passed since the first two games ended – at least 100 years, the consensus seemed to be. But then, why did the trailer seemingly show one particular Xenoblade 2 character who not only shouldn’t be able to live nearly that long, but who hadn’t even survived his own game? These sorts of tantalizing mysteries just made Xenoblade 3 that much more interesting.
#Xenoblade3Writeup