Mar 092022
Ah, now those are words I’m delighted to be able to write!
In the middle of our romance celebration in February, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was announced for the Nintendo Switch.
Not only that, but it already has a release window: September 2022.
That’s right, the next Xenoblade game is coming out this year!
I’m still hoping we get a Xenoblade Chronicles X sequel someday (with a Xenoblade Chronicles X port as a likely first step), but I’m thrilled to get any Xenoblade game.
(As excited as I am for Bayonetta 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 vaulted into the top spot as my most-anticipated game of the year as soon as it was revealed.)
And in what is very interesting news, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a sequel that brings together the future of both Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In fact, the trailer actually shows that, with some familiar locations popping up in the gameplay segments.
So let’s start by watching the trailer.
The trailer is exciting and teases many intriguing details about this new game in the series, especially the glimpse of two masked characters near the end who are widely believed by fans to be Melia and Nia.
It also shows us a world filled with conflict, a reference to people being used as fuel, and a puzzling line in which a character asks, “What good’s filling up these flickering clocks in our eyes?” Some intriguing story elements are definitely being set up.
The protagonists, as detailed on Nintendo UK’s official Xenoblade Chronicles 3 page, are Noah and Mio, two “off-seers” who mourn for soldiers who lose their lives (which seems to have something to do with the flutes that they play).
Joining them in the main cast are Lanz, Eunie, Taion, and Sena. Curiously, character details translated from the official Japanese Xenoblade Twitter account revealed that all 6 main characters are age 18, except for Mio, who is 19. Yes, even the High Entia and Machina (?) characters, even though they shouldn’t age like Homs, are 18. What does this mean? I have no idea. A popular theory is that enough time has passed for the genetics to have diluted to the point of giving them Homs-like lifespans.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 deals with a war between two nations called Keves and Agnus. Noah, Lanz, and Eunie are from Keves, while Mio, Taion, and Sena are from Agnus, so it seems as though their groups will come together despite the conflict between their countries. Interestingly, “Keves” means “sheep” in Hebrew and “Agnus” means “lamb” in Latin. Is this significant? It can’t be a coincidence.
Eagle-eyed fans have also caught a lot of tiny details in the trailer that I would have missed on my own, such as a shape that might be the Conduit on the machine at 1:10, a symbol that appears on the bodies of the three Keves characters, and ouroboros symbols on the party’s weapons (which is especially interesting since the character who might be Melia says, “Ouroboros abhor this world”). Noah and Mio also appear to exchange flutes at some point in the story.
Finally, let’s talk about the art at the very end of the trailer, which shows the sword of the Mechonis from Xenoblade Chronicles alongside the Urayan Titan from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. This is a puzzling scene if this is the future of both worlds.
What makes this even more interesting is that in a message from Executive Director Tetsuya Takahashi about Xenoblade Chronicles 3, he brings up this key visual as an important point and says that the image of the Mechonis sword alongside the wounded Urayan Titan was first thought up between the development of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
So whatever this visual means, whatever this is all building up to, they actually had it in mind before they made Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Knowing this has been planned for so long makes me even more excited for Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I’ve tried to cover everything we know about it at this point, but if I missed anything, let me know in the comments! Are you looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles 3?
I’m very excited for the game. I still have some mixed feelings about the faux-gacha elements of XC2 (and I never did finish the quests for them all, collect all the units, or even do a NG+ for the NG+-specific units…) but I’m very excited for this game and to see what they have in store for us!
Regarding the 18 years, I wonder if it could be something like “the world has only existed for 18 years”? 🧐
Yes, I hope XC3 doesn’t include anything like those gacha elements. That was the one major thing I disliked about XC2, even though I loved the game overall.
Interesting theory… that would make the party members almost all born after the two worlds merged, which could be interesting.
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