Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for the Nintendo Switch

Live to fight. Fight to live.

Join Noah and Mio, members of the two opposing nations of Keves and Agnus, on a heartfelt journey through a warring world with a dark secret. Traverse massive, fantastical landscapes and master seamless real-time RPG combat as you expose the true enemy pulling the strings.

I am calling anything with the Xeno on front of it, as part of the overall series, I am not sure (or remember) how accurate that is, but these have been around since the PlayStation One days. Starting with Xenogears in the late nineties, I still have my copy somewhere in the house. don’t remember much about it other than it was a great game.

In the early two thousand on PlayStation 2, Xenosaga (I, II, and III), I also have my copies in some box somewhere. Those were fun to play, and I remember the story being slightly complicated and open for discussion and interpretation.

Now here is where I got lost in the whole thing. I think then we had Xenoblade Chronicles X, on the Wii U, which I probably purchased but never really played it. I was never a Wii U player, to be honest. Then comes Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition, and this one I think was originally released on the Wii U then the Nintendo 3DS and eventually we got this remastered version for the Nintendo Switch, which I do own and played only about an hour or two before dropping it. Next is Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on the Nintendo Switch and that one I did get excited about, and once again, played for like 4 hours before dropping it. Tried once or twice to get back into it but for whatever reason, I could not get into it or had the patience.

This brings us to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and when this game was announced I didn’t even bother to watch its announcement, trailers, or looked into it in any way. Actually, I was a little fed up with it because Nintendo was pushing this game very heavily on social media and that made me despise the game a bit. Until, release day, guess there was a little bit of FOMO.

So how is it going? Well, I am close to ten hours into it and I am not yet feeling bored or overwhelmed. In fact, I can’t seem to be able to put it down. In lieu of that, I felt like I needed a Xenoblade Universe crash course. Although I was always under the impression that these games aren’t directly connected, there seems to me some lore. Even though each game has its own set of characters and overall story, things do connect in some way. So I have spent quite the amount of time watching youtube videos to kind of get into the Xeno-lore.

I like how the game slowly but steadily introduces you to all the mechanics, the ins and outs of the battle system, crafting items, abilities trees, etc. It doesn’t just throw all the information in one single tutorial battle at you and then you figure it out. In fact, I’d say, the first ten hours, are the tutorial, or so it did feel like. I mean I just had my first “big” battle and hopefully, there is nothing else to introduce me to as far as something else to explain game-wise.

The battle system does get some used to, or at least to me, auto-battle it’s weird to me and I believe Chronicles 1 and 2 have a very similar battle system. So you have your regular auto attacks but your greatest damage, or heavy attacks, come from arts and these have a cool-down system. Each character has its own class and arts but these can be learned and shared among all the characters and leveled up, that’s a kind of nice system.

Graphics are great, and so is the voice acting. The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 seems huge and lots to explore without feeling like it’s a chore, so far. There is so much about this game and I already feel like I am rambling too much about it.

I am really having fun with this one. I read it is about eighty hours to finish the game. So far I feel as if I was reading (or listening) to one of those fantasy/sci-fi books. I am very intrigued by the story and the main characters so far. I am very curious about where this is going. What this game does that the other did not? I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I got into its lore and “backstory” that now I am intrigued?

Hm…

Final thoughts,

It’s a great game, you shall play it!

• Gabz

╰(˙ᗜ˙)੭━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

I have always been a fan of taking an original thing and making it your own, creating your own take, perhaps as an homage or as fan service but keeping the essence and respecting the original work.

For example, I like song covers, very much, or at least I know I will listen to it if I know it's a cover. Doesn't necessarily mean I will love it, but it excites me to listen to them, at least. 

On the other hand, I know people that hate song covers and I don't blame them.

This morning I listened to a good one,  Guiltiness by  Chronixx a cover from Bob Marley & The Wailers Guiltiness. 

On top of my mind, I have a few others;

Lovesong by Adele, a cover from The Cure's Love Song, I think is a cover well done.

Disturbed's cover of  The Sound of Silence from  Simon & Garfunkel, is another favorite.

Bernard Fowler, Chuck D's version of  Can't You Hear Me Knocking from The Rolling Stones.

Tems's cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers No Woman No Cry, it's beautiful!

And what about Lorde's cover of  Everybody Wants To Rule the World of  Tears for Fears?

Then there are some albums where there are all cover songs by the same artists.

Weezer's Teal Album, love it!

My Echo, My Shadow, My Covers & Me by  AWOLNATION, is my current favorite.

What are some of your favorites, or the ones you don't like?

Let me know in the comments below, like, subscribe and click that bell. 😋

It has come to my attention that  Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, for the PlayStation 5 in my case,  it is up for pre-order. I remember watching the trailer or teaser for it and man did it look good.  I am looking into it and as I am reading the description, I read the following;

• The Masocore Dream Team - A joint creation by Team NINJA producers Fumihiko Yasuda (Nioh) and Masaaki Yamagiwa (Bloodborne).

With Team Ninja alone, I know this game will be, most likely, extremely difficult. Unless they take pity on us and make it more accessible. I mean, they did it for the Ninja Gaiden Collection. They added an easy mode of sorts that made the game more approachable and accessible.

At this point in my life, I am not up for challenges when it comes to video games. I want an enjoyable experience and a good story. I want to have fun, not episodes of rage.

Warning, sausy Gabz content. 

Reader discretion is advised...

We all have done it (or keep doing it), where we find this YouTube video (or Podcast radio show), "MY SUPER AWESOME PRODUCTIVE DISTRACTION FREE SETUP", and we watch it (them). Then we are like,

"OMG, this guy is a genius, I am a monster of a mess, and I must emulate this!"

STOP IT!

You know exactly what I am talking about. The super minimalistic, no distraction, almost nonexistent home screen setups where everything is hidden.  And then here I am spending about half an hour moving things around my home screen because according to this video (or PodShow).

But, apparently,  "This is the Way"

Making sacrifices and compromises, hiding away apps that I might have a legit use for, hiding widgets that I probably will forget about. Creating more friction for me to use my stuff than fixing a problem now I think I have.

But, 

"This is the way, Gabz."

Is it though?

No, it isn't! It is all majestic bullshit!

Maybe for some of these people yes, it is a thing and in their minds, it helps, but for me it is just majestic bullpoop. 

"But Gabz, the notifications, pings, and all the buzzes, all the distractions". 

Then, my friend, that sounds more like a personal problem. I know, I have struggled with the same problem and more and more I am convinced that is a personal problem. It is an addiction and we blame it on pings and buzzes. Just put down your phone, do some work, type a letter, grill something, or have sex. That is what I tell myself every day, at least.

I would say though if you want a clean setup because this "helps" with "distractions" go for it, by all means. I have seen many setups out there that are clean, and functional and not this romanticized fantasy I keep getting across with these days,

I would also say if you want to vomit every single app and plaster them all over your home screen (or home screens), go for it! Why not? Your phone, your decision!

Now, to be fair, it is not their fault, we are all suckers for setups and all they are doing is feeding the masses, me included. I guess I am just done with all of it and constantly making changes based on someone else's use case. This, is also, a personal problem 😜.

Now that I am done with my rant...

I think I will take this opportunity to think and re-evaluate my personal relationship and habits with my devices and what I want out of them and go from there. And if anything, I find more useful, videos or talks about the tools some other people use, than setups, since those can help me discover something I didn't know about and add some real value, and there are many people that do that, and they do it very well.

Just my unprofessional, not humble opinion.