How does Xenoblade Chronicles 3 rank?

[NabiscoFelt]

My current rankings as of the beginning of Chapter 6 are 3 = 2 >> 1 (haven't played X yet, probably will get to it soon. I can see it ranking around 3 and 2 from what I've heard about it, but I need to play it first obviously to judge)

3 has the best cast (a little less "fun" overall than 2 due to them being more grounded, but more well-rounded as a group and with a bit more depth overall). Its combat is about as fun as 2's for me (as in I enjoy both quite a bit). While the world is a bit less visually spectacular than 1 or 2, the level design is probably the best out of all of them. The main narrative is probably the weakest part of the game so far, definitely a step back from 2 and may even be worse than 1's overall, though the character work does go some way to making up for that in my eyes. Soundtrack is also a step back from both games though there are some standout tracks here and there (really like A Life Sent On which is great because boy does the game use it a lot).The side content is easily the best in the series and definitely one of the reasons I'm fairly positive on the story aspects of the game as a whole.

I haven't heard great things about the last two chapters of the game, so I could see 3 dropping below 2. Can't see it dropping below 1 (which is a fine 8/10 game overall, just completely overshadowed by its sequels in my eyes)

 

[RockmanBN]

3 > 1 > Torna > 2

Though 3 still had a lot of problems. The villains suck, game's pacing goes to shit more than halfway through, and some character's really needed more screentime to have an actual impact.

Spoiler: Chapter 5

The baby scene, while cute is reinforcing that being straight and making babies is how the world should be. Imagine being anything but CIS and watching that scene.

 

[Ascenion]

Y'all killing me with this music shit. Some of you clearly have no taste. The Agnus Battle Theme alone is a goddamn Bop and up there with You Will Know Our Names.

 

[Zekes]

X = 3 > 2 > 1

X has the best music though. Fight me

 

[cgatto]

It's the best one

 

[Legacy]

X3 > 2 > 1 for me

Xeno 3 is definitely an upgrade in every department from 2. I wasn't a big fan of the combat in 1 but the story was good at least.

So far, it's either 2-3-1 or 2-1-3 for me. I just reached Erythia Sea.

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I've spent most of the day there, the area is way too big overall. Could have done with more landmarks on the islands as well

 

[Zeal543]

Y'all killing me with this music shit. Some of you clearly have no taste. The Agnus Battle Theme alone is a goddamn Bop and up there with You Will Know Our Names.

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Battle and cutscene themes are on point, problem is the less melodic area themes outside of a few exceptions

 

[Hellstruck]

Now that I finished it I think it's the worst one. Game just reused too many monsters from XC2. The character design save a few are just too basic looking. The areas/zones aren't that memorable. Same as the music . The battle system isnt as engaging as the second one. The story was amazing halfway until it just falls off.

Also what's up with the last dungeon? It's like they ran out of budget and didn't even give cutscenes to the last villains. Purple grape juice color scheme everywhere. Final villain was a disappointment.

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This is another thing that annoyed me.
Outside of Levnises, it's not until Chapter 4 that you finally find an enemy that's not out of XC2 (The otters). There's so many reused assets in this game. I usually don't have a problem with this (Trails in the Sky is my favorite trilogy ever and is 90% reused assets) but stumbling the ending that hard made it all the more noticeable.

 

[Deleted member 56266]

3 is very clearly the best of the 3 in pretty much all regards (villains being a big exception though) but when it comes to subjective rankings for me:

1>3 (barely, might be equal soon) >> 2 (still love it)=X

 

[Jencks]

Y'all killing me with this music shit. Some of you clearly have no taste. The Agnus Battle Theme alone is a goddamn Bop and up there with You Will Know Our Names.

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Melodic = better to a lot of people for some reason

 

[Yasumi]

Over 30 hours in and this is so far above Xenoblade 1 and 2 for me, I'm kind of blown away. The character writing is *so* much better, GAWD. It's amazing what a cast of less anime-archetypical characters and a more gradual introduction to the worldbuilding can do. Blade 1's characters were the writing equivalent of rice cakes, there was pretty much nothing to them. 2's felt like they were written by someone who had binged a year's worth of shonen anime and light novels, just really juvenile and shallow. 3's cast feels much more grounded and mature. Yeah the Consuls are pretty much monocolor Testaments, but that >>>>> 1+2's villains. It feels waaaaaaay more like Saga.

 

[Deleted member 4090]

This is another thing that annoyed me.
Outside of Levnises, it's not until Chapter 4 that you finally find an enemy that's not out of XC2 (The otters). There's so many reused assets in this game. I usually don't have a problem with this (Trails in the Sky is my favorite trilogy ever and is 90% reused assets) but stumbling the ending that hard made it all the more noticeable.

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I'm fine with enemy reuse. Reused assets are how games push wildly outside of a normal budget scope, like Elden Ring or SaGa Scarlet Grace. Yeah, XC3 hides the reuse worse than those other two GOATs, but they used the budget savings on other areas really well.

 

[NattyBo]

Been on board since Xenogears launched. It's firmly behind Gears as the second best Xeno game, IMO (which I mean as high praise!)

 

[Kyrios]

X, 2, 3, 1

If 3's world was more interesting than 2's I'd move it to second place. But so far from what I've played, 3's world is really boring compared to 2's.

 

[pinkurocket]

X >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3 > 2 > 1

 

[PspLikeANut]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It makes the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

 

[Shadout]

2>3>1 for me. Have not played X unfortunately.

 

[astro]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It maKen the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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I think the general conensus is the exact opposite of that, honestly.

 

[Kyrios]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It maKen the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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That's...kinda the opposite, at least to me lol

 

[Dyle]

It's not as good as Desert Golfing but is better than Magikarp Jump

 

[criteriondog]

The absolute best one by far, Xenoblade 1 is a 10/10. Xenoblade 2 is an 8 or 9/10 for me (has some flaws that can bring it down, some more than others), and Xenoblade 3 is a 50/10 for me! I can't put it down.

 

[PspLikeANut]

I think the general conensus is the exact opposite of that, honestly.

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That's...kinda the opposite, at least to me lol

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Oh lol nvm then.. I could have sworn skell was hit or miss for a lot of folks.

 

[brinstar]

It's damn good and the presentation is top notch. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed with it a little coming off of XB2. I really loved the lavish, high adventure of that game, the worldbuilding and the big personalities and comedy. The set up of XB3's world doesn't really allow for the things I enjoyed in the previous game.

But really, all the XB games are kind of their own flavor, so you just pick which one you vibe with the most. I can already tell the longer this series goes on the more Final Fantasy-like every discussion about them is gonna be, with everyone insisting their favorite is the best ever and the ones they don't like are trash lol. They've all been great to me, and all I can do is hope whatever vibe Takahashi lands on next is appealing to my tastes.

 

[seeds]

Enemy reuse feels like a bizarre complaint for this series. Almost all of XC2's enemies are copied from the first game, so it's no surprise XC3 did the same thing

 

[Vibed]

Oh lol nvm then.. I could have sworn skell was hit or miss for a lot of folks.

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I had this opinion. The exploration was better when you had to go it on foot, and even more so before you could fly. It trivializes the journey and I found getting to where I wanted to was too easy at that point.

 

[Deleted member 4090]

Oh lol nvm then.. I could have sworn skell was hit or miss for a lot of folks.

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Having to do 8 separate fetch quest chains to get your Skell license was a whole bunch of bullshit. That shit would fly in a truly open game but getting all of that AFTER a major plot part, all at once, feels like getting shat on.

 

[Yam's]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It maKen the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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Getting the skell is both awesome and frustrating imo. It feels absolutely awesome to use and traveling through the maps with it is really a joy, but it does make the world a lot less dangerous. Ideally you'd explore everything accessible on foot before unlocking it. That way you get the full experience. If you unlock it too soon, you'll get a different kind of experience while exploring areas on land with it.

The world is so well crafted and there are so many encounters/bosses that are designed around being on foot that getting it too soon can ruin those. Being able to fly means you can avoid a lot of things and that's not even taking into account their power (even more so if you unlock a certain kind of model).

But it's still one of the most fun traversal system and a lot of people didn't care about unlocking it too soon so…

 

[brinstar]

Enemy reuse feels like a bizarre complaint for this series. Almost all of XC2's enemies are copied from the first game, so it's no surprise XC3 did the same thing

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It also makes sense thematically lol

 

[Warlord]

2>3>1>X
I love 2 cast, story, world building and environments more, but on music they are around the same level, godly
3 has the best gameplay in the series easily. But it has the weakest story aside from X and those last 2 chapter just sour everything
1 has an amazing story, but aside from Shulk, Dunban and the villains I didn't care about the others in the cast. Plus I don't like the combat
X has a great world and great music, but everything else is weak imo

 

[lazerface66]

Honestly, recency bias and all, 3 is probably my personal favourite jrpg in recent memory. They've improved everything so much that it doesn't feel like it's wasting my time with really menial shit like most of these games tend to do.

 

[astro]

It takes so long to ge tthe Skell in X that, imo, you get more than enough of the on foot exploration in.

 

[Dineren]

X is still my favorite just because of the exploration. I had explored pretty much every piece of Mira possible on foot and getting the Skell felt great at that point to both speed traversal and reach those few spots that were impossible on foot. Flying was just a final bonus that didn't feel necessary, but was a lot of fun (minus the flying song cutting off the amazing region music)

I'll have to think about it more after some time has passed, but I think 3 had the best characters in the series, both in terms of design and development (and VA, though a large part of that is direction). It might even be my favorite jrpg cast ever.

3 did fall off in terms of main story in the last couple of chapters, but finishing up the side quests and seeing how the various colonies ended up versus where they started was very satisfying for me. Though I also enjoyed fully upgrading colony 6 in the first game, so I might be a bit broken. It also had my second favorite ending in the series (1 > 3 > 2, wasn't a fan of what the last ending scene implied in 2 and they triple downed on it in 3).

I think 3's music is vastly underrated. I enjoyed it during the game and listening to it after finishing, I think it easily contends for the best soundtrack in the series. It didn't quite reach the highs of the best song in the series, but it was close.

All that said, each Xenoblade game has brought something different and I've enjoyed them all so my favorite could easily switch depending on how I'm feeling on any given day.

 

[Narigo]

Haven't finished 3 yet but so far I rank it second best Blade game just below 1. It might have the best combat in the series and I'm enjoying the story so far but soundtrack is worst than 1. As far Xeno rankings are concerned.I ranked them

Gears>Blade1>Blade3>X>Saga1>Blade2

 

[Tfritz]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It makes the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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The mech combat is significantly worse than the on foot combat because it strips out all the character building and Overdrive combo stuff in favor of just waiting for cool downs to pop off, and between the cost of fuel for combat/flight and the threat of having to pay lots of money to repair your mech you have to worry about resource management from battle to battle and punishment for dying, something that the the other Xenoblade games famously avoid.

Also some folks don't like the mechs because they sort of let you ignore most of the final continent's layout and all the cool effort that went into the map design.

(There are A Lot of issues with X but this is just a response to you specific inquiry)

 

[Zeal543]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It makes the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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I don't know if it's the general consensus but I agree, mechs devalue exploration in X and mech combat in X is perhaps the worst of any xeno game

 

[Greywaren]

I'm still on Chapter 4, but it would have to go downhill very fast for it not to be the best one.

And I LOVED the first one, it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

 

[effingvic]

X = 3 > 2 > 1

X has the best music though. Fight me

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*black tar intensifies*

I agree with you tho

 

[Ada]

Music worst, map/combat not as good as 1 or 2.

 

[Ex-Psych]

Honestly i put 1, 2, 3 all in equal standing of being very great games. They all get gold medals.

Not X though. That stays in the corner alone.

 

[tim1138]

I didn't play 2 but I'm liking 3 more than 1 or X.

 

[Yeona]

I really liked X. Its world was more impressive to me than the rest and the premise of the story captured my attention quicker. Also I love mechas.

I didn't like the story of XC2 or the characters even a little, the harem fantasy trope just didn't get my attention at all, so at least on that front I feel the characters are a lot more relatable to me.

I don't feel XC3 is as well paced though. The beginning 30 hours' side content is very very spread apart and it's very easy to feel like nothing's going on.

 

[Hellstruck]

Going to back up people saying the skells make X worse.

They have worse combat than on foot
Exploration is worse for me. There's a lot less "Man, how do I get up there?" and more just using your skell to jump up.
Moving around in them is fun at least, but so is running around on foot.

 

[night814]

I gotta play 3 like five more times like I did 2 till I can even allow it to come close to it, it has a lot of pros over 2 but I preferred 2s combat, music, story and characters over it so far. I'd probably rank them 2>3>X>1. 1 is really good but it's so much slower then it's successors I don't enjoy playing it as much(imo the DE didn't do enough to make it better). X has the best world but falters in the story and characters, the skells make the combat better and more engaging then the first. I absolutely loved 2, it's only flaws are some of its designs, the gacha system, and the field skills being basically useless until lategame/ng+NG. It's story is better then 1 and X, I love the main cast, and the battle system is a lot faster with canceling/auto attack canceling. I liked 3 a lot but I need to go through it some more too gather my thoughts on it.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

So what's the deal with X? I think I remember people saying the game is really good up until you get the skell mech. It makes the open world less significant once you're using it.. is that the general consensus?

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What? The mech made the game significantly better.

 

[Papercuts]

Head and shoulders above the rest. Have issues with the story in the end but the combat, characters, side content, etc. were a blast for me. Playing 1 again in the DE was pretty eye opening in how much paper thin a lot of the characters are, and 2 has so many goddamn issues rooted into it that it was always my least favorite.

X is a weird one. I'd like to revisit it eventually, knowing how the focus is way less on story or characters would change the expectations I had at the time.

 

[Diogo Arez]

I won't allow Skell slander on this thread, it has the best theme song ever made when you start flying

 

[HOTSPUR]

lol @ everyone saying 1 is the worst

 

[Diogo Arez]

lol @ everyone saying 1 is the worst

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Different opinions, for me it's the best JRPG ever made but some people don't like it

 

[Deleted member 81119]

Interesting that 2 is easily the one more people are saying is the worst one.

 

[effingvic]

Yeah Skells drastically increased my enjoyment of the game. Ive never experienced something so awesome in a game before.

I get the criticisms about how it impacts exploration and all but the flip side is FLYING MECHS!!!