5/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed.

Platform: Switch Time Played: 22.5 hours Status: Beaten As a Xenoblade fan, of course I was excited to see whatever Monolith Soft and Tetsuya Takahashi came up with, but the track record for previous expansions within the series had me biting my tongue a little. But when that first trailer finally dropped in February, ho boy was I excited. To finally see all three games in the Xenoblade trilogy, along with their characters and worlds, finally come together for its conclusion was insanely hype worthy. Therefore I am so incredibly thankful that Future Redeemed was the absolute best story expansion we could have possibly gotten. This was just amazing. First of all, let me get out my small few issues, obviously not big enough issues to not give this game a 10, but still small issues nonetheless. After the first seven hours or so, this game goes on a consistent gameplay loop grind that felt like an even more extensive version of what Xenoblade 1 did, give you a small sliver of story, and then hours of walking around, fighting monsters and exploring, repeat. This mainly was an issue due to the extremely fast pacing of the opening hours, and by extension the first three chapters. Once I got to the first fight against Alpha at the end of Chapter 3, the gameplay and grinding loop started strong and heavy, and didn’t stop until right before the end of Chapter 4. Now I am by no means saying that I disliked this gameplay loop, as Future Redeemed’s combat is just a tweaked version of the base game’s combat and thus gameplay loop, so in the end it was still fun to run around the vast overworld, slaying tough as hell monsters, leveling up in the process, and sorting through my entire inventory for extended periods of time to boost their stats. Although throughout the game I wished that we could have seen some Ouroboros forms of the main party, not having them present did allow for the Unity mechanic that allows you to pair up any of the party with each other, although some pairings are better than others. It also allowed for that awesome six-person Ouroboros during the climax, and seeing that was fucking awesome. The plot in this game is also insane. Being able to fight alongside more wiser and grown up versions of Shulk, Rex, and even Alvis (now being A) was a delight; same with meeting Nikol and Glimmer, of course being the abstract representations of Shulk and Rex’s children; and having Matthew be the great-grandson of the Moebius N from the base game was such a smart move, and making him look and play just like Fei Fong Wong from Xenogears was such a smart way to add in fanservice for the game that started it all with the restriction of not being able to mention it. The amount of fanservice in here referencing the Xenoblade trilogy was so delightful. Hearing Shulk talk about his times with Dunban, Fiora, Riki, and Melia; with Rex talking about Nia, Pyra/Mythra, Zeke, and so on; it was just so nice to hear them talk about interactions with those characters, and the events of those games. That big ass cutscenes between Shulk, Rex, and A where they discussed the entire Xenoblade lore was crazy, I had to screen record and watch it over again five times before I finally comprehended everything the game was referring to and putting forth, and the cutscenes with Shulk and Rex recapping the previous games was also great. Just the sheer amount of fanservice in here was enough to make any Xenoblade fan happy. Not to mention the ending area taking place in a futuristic version of the Los Angeles suburbs, finally canonizing the Xenosaga trilogy and Xenoblade X along with it. My jaw was on the floor throughout the entirety of that area, like just wow. I also love how the base game has a bunch of references to this game’s story, with all the statues of the City’s founders, their origins, and the first Ouroboros stone being interactable; just some great foreshadowing. The final battles against N and then Alpha was an excellent climax, including that segment in Los Angeles. Everything was just so awesome, fighting that giant mech-like being representing Alpha and the Ontos core, creating what I think was the perfect conclusion to the Xenoblade trilogy. This entire ending section was the part of the game that convinced me that Future Redeemed had to be a 10/10. To conclude, Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed was a phenomenal experience, especially as a big Xenoblade fan, and a Xeno fan as a whole. Having this series end on the incredible high note that the entirety of Xenoblade 3 was is so satisfying, like this entire package is truly a masterpiece. I am so glad that Takahashi finally got to finish his six-part story that he’s been trying to tell from the beginning, and I absolutely cannot wait to see what is next in the pipeline.