After years of waiting, the potential reveal of Monolith Soft’s next big project has come.Xenoblade Chronicles 3was just allegedly leaked and is supposed to be late in development. Its release date is said to be in 2022, which suggests a Nintendo Direct reveal in the next few months. Fans are quite happy about this, asXenoblade Chronicles 2’s revelations left the world feeling like it still had room to grow. If this rumor is accurate, then fans can once again expect to return to theXenobladeworld wielding another iteration of the Monado. Really, there’s no bad way to take this news, assuming that it is actually true.
A big part of that excitement is the chance to go back and make some more refinements to the series.Xenoblade Chronicles 2was very popular, andXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Editionwas a surprise hit as well, as it reached many people who had missed it the first time around. However, it’s hard to discuss these games without mentioning some of their shortcomings. The discourse aroundXenoblade Chronicles 2became pretty intense after it came out, and while it’s quieted down, developer Monolith Soft should take some of the complaints to heart. These games are excellent examples of what modern JRPGs can be, andXenoblade Chronicles 3should exemplify this reputation.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Ought to be Fashionable
Amajor downgrade fromXenoblade Chronicles 1to2was the removal of character customization. Partially because of that, there have been plenty of debates as to the quality of the main cast’s outfits inXenoblade Chronicles 2. While there were options to change them very late in the game, it didn’t affect the discourse. This major feature fromXenoblade ChroniclesandXenoblade Chronicles Xshould make a triumphant return, and let players design their own ensembles. It would be even better if it tookThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s approach (another game Monolith Soft has worked on) and let players color individual pieces so that they can mix and match accessories.
Furthermore,Xenoblade Chronicles 3should try to have a more unified art style. This is a somewhat vague goal, but the basic idea is to have characters, monsters, and environments mesh together well. This was accomplished better in other games Monolith Soft has contributed to. This issue was in part due to the many different artistscontracted for character design inXenoblade Chronicles 2, as Monolith Soft did not have an internal character designer at the time. If the general art style of characters' faces could be modified to something closer toXenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected, then that would be a good step towards unifying the art style. The rest would have to be played by ear, but there are certainly ways to make the more anime characters look less out of place beside each other, let alone the monsters.
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Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Should Use Its Setting Elements Well
Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Bladesystem was an interesting experiment, and if3’s leak can be trusted regarding the return of certain characters far in the future, there is a good chance that some Blades will return. The many Blade party members did contribute somewhat to the over-reliance on guest artists, but that can be fixed. However, one part of it that needs to be removed outright is the random loot box system used to get many Blades. There was no reason for this to be in the game, aside from attempting to emulate the feeling of getting a rare prize in a gacha game that normally requires real money to get more rolls. Such a thing shouldn’t be in a single-player game with no DLC, and the mercenary missions where excess Blades are sent out on timers should be reworked or removed as well. These sorts of normally financial hooks have no place in a full-priced single-player RPG.Xenoblade 3would be better off with a more tightly designed core cast, anyways.
Something thatXenoblade Chronicles 3could have that2felt like it was missing is playable mech suits. While this would robXenoblade Chronicles Xof some of its identity, this cool concept is just sitting there unused right now. Mechs do play a part in the regularXenobladegames' story, but not to the degree that they did in past installments andXenoblade X. This chains intoXenoblade Chronicles 3possibly becoming more of an open-world game, rather than just an RPG with particularly large areas. Much like inXenoblade Chronicles X, once a player has access to a mech, they can go anywhere and fight things that they normally wouldn’t be able to. Having mechs around expands the scope of aXenobladegame, and the idealXenoblade3would bring them back.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Needs to be Polished
A problem many newcomers to theXenobladefranchise had with2was its approach to tutorials.Xenoblade Chroniclesis known for being a mechanically rich series of open-world RPGs, with a unique take on real-time menu-based combat. It’s difficult to describe it in more exact terms due to the many additional elements layered on, like the importance of the targeted side of a marked monster, different methods of debilitation working on different types of enemies, and the occasional quick-time event.Xenoblade Chronicles 2handles its tutorialby throwing a lot of combat and menu elements at the player very quickly, often in the form of long text dumps before much of the information is pertinent. This also goes on for a long time, with new tutorial boxes popping up every once in a while. This will be a hard issue to solve as no doubt there will be even more mechanics in the next game, but it can surely be presented to players better.
The rest of theimprovements forXenoblade Chronicles 3should be just that: improvements. Monolith Soft should take the lessons it learned from its various other games and apply them toXenoblade Chronicles 3. A map that is comprehensive but also easy to read, quests and social activities that don’t require much tedious grinding, and more attention paid to the pacing of the story.Xenoblade 2made the mistake of having a spike of excitement during its prologue, and then nothing really relevant to the core plot happened for a while. All fourXenobladegames released so far have been quite good, so it can be reasonably expected that theXenoblade Chronicles 3will continue that trajectory. With any luck, it will be the most impressive and fun title in the series.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3is rumored to be in development for Nintendo Switch.
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