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finished my first playthrough of Xenoblade 3 yesterday at 70 hours (normal mode). here are my thoughts (mostly spoiler-free):


i had been anticipating this game for like four years now ever since i beat xc2 the first time since i figured the story would continue in one way or another. now that ive played xc3, i can attest that this was a good follow-up. the environments and music are cool, and it was great seeing familiar places and hearing familiar motifs from the first two games reconstructed in this game. if you’ve never played any other xenoblade game, all of those references would just fly over your head, although theres nothing wrong with that anyways. gameplay is thrilling and definitely the biggest selling point. i would say the combat leans more toward xc2 style rather than it being a full-on combination of the two, which is good bc i think the combat from xc2 is superior. however, if you never played a xenoblade game, theres a chance you might gameplay to be overly convoluted and/or overwhelming. because tbh, it kinda is. i didnt find the game difficult on normal, i didnt have to grind anywhere nor did i struggle anywhere at all but one tiny part in a quest, but thats bc i already knew what to expect with this game. if this had been my first xenoblade game, i could imagine myself having to rely on a guide. but even with all that aside, the game can be enjoyed in whatever difficulty as there is plenty to do and has a LOT of quests/stuff to do.

characters are great, the main cast is all cool. my favorite character is Mio and now i cant wait to get her scale figure once they release it in the near future. i think out of all the main party members, Taion is the one who kind of gets the least amount of development/screen-time, but even so he is still a good character, so i was still satisfied with what we got from the main party. i cant speak on behalf of all of the side characters you can recruit in the game, because i didnt go out of my way into recruiting every possible character in this first playthrough, but the hero characters i did get were also still pretty decent.

i was pretty content with everything that the game offered, EXCEPT for one major thing… which is the story. suffice to say, this is by far the weakest xenoblade game story-wise, which is a shame bc the stories are what drew me to this series. there are two major reasons why i wasn’t fascinated with the xc3 story as i was with xc2’s and xc1’s. the first one is that a lot of times, specially in the first half of the game, story progress would be locked by mandatory side quests. this made it difficult to personally be invested in the first half of the game bc it almost made it seem like the main story would not really go anywhere, and if it was about to reach an interesting point, a side quest would happen. the second point is that once you’re in the second half of the game and stakes are higher, i personally found the identity of the main antagonist group to be so… bland. and it doesnt help that in the majority of the game, the antagonists speak in cryptic phrases that dont help the narrative at all bc you’ll forget what they say anyways five minutes later lol.

in regards to literal connections to past games, there’s Nia from xc2 and Melia from xc1 which shouldn’t be a suprise to you if you saw all the previous trailers, besides that, there’s not that much else that ties to previous games, there are a couple of easter eggs at the very end and in the middle of chapter 5. it might seem that the DLC expansion story might feature more since it has the monado and the aegis on the cover, implying Rex and Shulk could show up in some capacity but even if there are or are not literal connections to past games, i definitely see how Monolithsoft approached this game to be played by both newcomers and returning fans. when the game was first announced, i really thought that it would be too confusing for newcomers to play this one first, but now i dont believe that.

soooo, all in all, i am satisfied with this game. did it meet all my expectations? no. but while there were things lacking, i still love and appreciated this game for what it was and hold it dearly on its own as its still a really great game. might even end up loving it even more now that i’ll start a second playthrough for 100% completion.
 
Santi Chacin said:
finished my first playthrough of Xenoblade 3 yesterday at 70 hours (normal mode). here are my thoughts (mostly spoiler-free):


i had been anticipating this game for like four years now ever since i beat xc2 the first time since i figured the story would continue in one way or another. now that ive played xc3, i can attest that this was a good follow-up. the environments and music are cool, and it was great seeing familiar places and hearing familiar motifs from the first two games reconstructed in this game. if you’ve never played any other xenoblade game, all of those references would just fly over your head, although theres nothing wrong with that anyways. gameplay is thrilling and definitely the biggest selling point. i would say the combat leans more toward xc2 style rather than it being a full-on combination of the two, which is good bc i think the combat from xc2 is superior. however, if you never played a xenoblade game, theres a chance you might gameplay to be overly convoluted and/or overwhelming. because tbh, it kinda is. i didnt find the game difficult on normal, i didnt have to grind anywhere nor did i struggle anywhere at all but one tiny part in a quest, but thats bc i already knew what to expect with this game. if this had been my first xenoblade game, i could imagine myself having to rely on a guide. but even with all that aside, the game can be enjoyed in whatever difficulty as there is plenty to do and has a LOT of quests/stuff to do.

characters are great, the main cast is all cool. my favorite character is Mio and now i cant wait to get her scale figure once they release it in the near future. i think out of all the main party members, Taion is the one who kind of gets the least amount of development/screen-time, but even so he is still a good character, so i was still satisfied with what we got from the main party. i cant speak on behalf of all of the side characters you can recruit in the game, because i didnt go out of my way into recruiting every possible character in this first playthrough, but the hero characters i did get were also still pretty decent.

i was pretty content with everything that the game offered, EXCEPT for one major thing… which is the story. suffice to say, this is by far the weakest xenoblade game story-wise, which is a shame bc the stories are what drew me to this series. there are two major reasons why i wasn’t fascinated with the xc3 story as i was with xc2’s and xc1’s. the first one is that a lot of times, specially in the first half of the game, story progress would be locked by mandatory side quests. this made it difficult to personally be invested in the first half of the game bc it almost made it seem like the main story would not really go anywhere, and if it was about to reach an interesting point, a side quest would happen. the second point is that once you’re in the second half of the game and stakes are higher, i personally found the identity of the main antagonist group to be so… bland. and it doesnt help that in the majority of the game, the antagonists speak in cryptic phrases that dont help the narrative at all bc you’ll forget what they say anyways five minutes later lol.

in regards to literal connections to past games, there’s Nia from xc2 and Melia from xc1 which shouldn’t be a suprise to you if you saw all the previous trailers, besides that, there’s not that much else that ties to previous games, there are a couple of easter eggs at the very end and in the middle of chapter 5. it might seem that the DLC expansion story might feature more since it has the monado and the aegis on the cover, implying Rex and Shulk could show up in some capacity but even if there are or are not literal connections to past games, i definitely see how Monolithsoft approached this game to be played by both newcomers and returning fans. when the game was first announced, i really thought that it would be too confusing for newcomers to play this one first, but now i dont believe that.

soooo, all in all, i am satisfied with this game. did it meet all my expectations? no. but while there were things lacking, i still love and appreciated this game for what it was and hold it dearly on its own as its still a really great game. might even end up loving it even more now that i’ll start a second playthrough for 100% completion.
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The time that it took you to beat XC3 was the time it took me to finish Ursula’s “5000-fan” side quest in XC2.

I plan to finally fire up XC3 next week.
 
Since I've been stonewalled at Crumbling Farum Azula in Elden Ring and haven't really had the urge to pick it back up, I reupped on Game Pass (for $1!) and have been making my way through some indies I've missed over the years.

Unpacking - Cute!
Firewatch - Great narrative storytelling in a unique setting. Ended a little anticlimactically, but I enjoyed it.
Donut County - Also cute! and REALLY funny. Great spiritual successor to Katamari.
Outer Wilds - Having trouble catching on to this one, but it's interesting.
Death's Door - Very Zelda. A lot of fun so far.

Think I might delve into the Yakuza franchise or play the Gears of War I've missed recently. Or something along those lines next.
 
wokeupnew said:
I was visiting my parents recently and found my old Gameboy Color. It still works but I didn't find any games with it. I think my games would probably be with my Gameboy Advance if I could have found that somewhere since the Gameboy/Gameboy color games still play on Advance.

So I can actually use it, I just bought Pokemon Blue off ebay. There's fakes out there for like $15 each, but I think this one is legit. I only ever played Red, my sister had Blue (so we could trade and get all the Pokemon). I was thinking of grabbing Silver later on (I only played Gold and my sister had Silver) and maybe Pokemon Yellow or Crystal (I've never played Crystal). I may also try Links Awakening DX, Oracle of Seasons/Ages but again, I've never played any of those Legend of Zelda games. Are they any good? They all go for around $30-$50~ on ebay depending on the seller/condition.
Click to expand...

wokeupnew said:
yeah I made sure that this one in particular stated that it works and saved, but eBay is a crapshoot with what's advertised and what you get. 🤞 I sold my 3DS like 5 years ago but would rather play the OG way anyways. I also recall there being something about Switch having Gameboy games on it sometime soon but that will probably be in that new subscription service that I don't want to pay for.

www.nintendolife.com

Rumour: Here Are The Supposed GBA Games "Tested" For Switch Online So Far

Take a look
www.nintendolife.com www.nintendolife.com
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Updated it works and I've been slowly playing my way through Pokemon Blue, I haven't touched Oracle of Ages yet but that one seems to work too.

I completely forgot how annoying not having a backlight is on a Gameboy Color. It fucking sucks.

Also forgot how barebones Gen 1 Pokemon really is. Have to use basic af Pokemon just to use Cut/Surf/Strength. I'd normally like to get more unique pokemon but it is what it is. Early on I was using Pikachu just because Pikachu is awesome, but Pikachu is extremely weak so I didn't bother with that for the long run. Getting a Magikarp early on and getting it to Gyrados was pretty clutch as Gyrados is very, very powerful.
 
ayayrawn said:
This is why the SP is the prime Gameboy experience
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I never had one of those but I may have got one had I not already had a Color. I only had a Color, Advanced, DS Lite, and 3DS. I ended up selling both the DS and 3DS but I kind of wish I hadn't sold either of them... oh well
 
ayayrawn said:
Since I've been stonewalled at Crumbling Farum Azula in Elden Ring and haven't really had the urge to pick it back up, I reupped on Game Pass (for $1!) and have been making my way through some indies I've missed over the years.

Unpacking - Cute!
Firewatch - Great narrative storytelling in a unique setting. Ended a little anticlimactically, but I enjoyed it.
Donut County - Also cute! and REALLY funny. Great spiritual successor to Katamari.
Outer Wilds - Having trouble catching on to this one, but it's interesting.
Death's Door - Very Zelda. A lot of fun so far.

Think I might delve into the Yakuza franchise or play the Gears of War I've missed recently. Or something along those lines next.
Click to expand...

I just played Firewatch last month. I agree, anticlimactic ending but an enjoyable, short game. And unique.
 
ayayrawn said:
Since I've been stonewalled at Crumbling Farum Azula in Elden Ring and haven't really had the urge to pick it back up, I reupped on Game Pass (for $1!) and have been making my way through some indies I've missed over the years.

Unpacking - Cute!
Firewatch - Great narrative storytelling in a unique setting. Ended a little anticlimactically, but I enjoyed it.
Donut County - Also cute! and REALLY funny. Great spiritual successor to Katamari.
Outer Wilds - Having trouble catching on to this one, but it's interesting.
Death's Door - Very Zelda. A lot of fun so far.

Think I might delve into the Yakuza franchise or play the Gears of War I've missed recently. Or something along those lines next.
Click to expand...
Stick with Outer Wilds, great game.
 
Does anybody have Elden Ring on Xbox One and want to help me with Placidusax or Maliketh so I can move on and attempt to enjoy the last of my time with this game? I've been at this spot for going on 2 and a half months.
 
wokeupnew said:
Updated it works and I've been slowly playing my way through Pokemon Blue, I haven't touched Oracle of Ages yet but that one seems to work too.

I completely forgot how annoying not having a backlight is on a Gameboy Color. It fucking sucks.

Also forgot how barebones Gen 1 Pokemon really is. Have to use basic af Pokemon just to use Cut/Surf/Strength. I'd normally like to get more unique pokemon but it is what it is. Early on I was using Pikachu just because Pikachu is awesome, but Pikachu is extremely weak so I didn't bother with that for the long run. Getting a Magikarp early on and getting it to Gyrados was pretty clutch as Gyrados is very, very powerful.
Click to expand...
I love and miss the og Pokemon experience. I know we can always go back to it (I've got a DS Lite and LeafGreen I could always boot up, and may very well have to, especially as gen 1 brings me back to the summer I'd play on my friend's GB at swim meets), but sometimes I wish I had a more polished, technologically contemporary version of the game.
Max Sterling said:
I think the Advance was my favourite form factor.
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The SP gets a lot of credit for the backlight and folding/portability, but the OG Advance was such a good looking handheld. Sometimes I humor the idea of ebaying a GB Color with og pokemon, but an advance with Golden Sun....mmmm.
 
ayayrawn said:
Does anybody have Elden Ring on Xbox One and want to help me with Placidusax or Maliketh so I can move on and attempt to enjoy the last of my time with this game? I've been at this spot for going on 2 and a half months.
Click to expand...
I'm playing on Xbox one. Last time I had played my high level character, I had just finished New Game Plus. There's no way to invite someone to an area is there? If not I'd have to make a mad dash for Famum Azula, but could totally do that, that how I went through New Game+.
 
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