Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Everything We Know So Far About Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
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.

Click for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 spoilers
The Mechonis’s sword was destroyed during Xenoblade Chronicles, and Uraya merged into the landmass at the end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. So why are both intact in the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3?

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?

Spiritfarer: A Journey of Mixed Feelings

 Reviews, Video games  2 Responses »
Mar 072022
 

We might have just finished our February contest, but today’s post goes back to October, as the winner of last year’s Celebrating All Things Spooky contest opted for a game review, with Spiritfarer as the chosen game.

(While it might seem like I took an exceptionally long time to finish, the winner recomended I wait to start until the final update came out in December.)

Spiritfarer puts you in the shoes of a woman named Stella, who takes over for Charon in his duties of shuttling spirits of the dead to their final rest.

It’s difficult to describe the gameplay genre of this one. At its core, Spiritfarer’s gameplay is sort of a combination of light 2D platforming and a management sim. You have a ship, upon which you can build various houses and facilities, and take care of the spirits who join as your passengers.

You’ll plant seeds and grow crops to cook into meals, fish as you sail around the world, and also use materials you’ve gathered to craft various structures and items to fulfill side quests.

The world is a series of small islands, which you’ll discover as you sail your ship around the world to meet new spirits, take on side quests, and gather resources. It has some light Metroidvania elements, since certain spots and areas can’t be accessed until you have the right abilities, but I’d say that’s a comparatively small part of gameplay.

There are also mini-games that become available on the ship throughout the game to gather special resources.

Exploration and mini-games require a slight bit of platforming know-how, but it’s fairly simple aside from one part that leans a little more into the platforming side of things.

And of course, as you do all of this, it’s to aid the spirits you’ve met and help them move on to their final rest. The tone of Spiritfarer is mixed, since at times (especially when dealing with side quests and characters in the larger world) it can be fairly humorous, while a significant portion of the game deals with death and helping spirits come to terms with their own life, death, and regrets.

However, it never resonated with me quite as much as I expected it to. A couple of characters had stories that hit me hard, but many didn’t strike that emotional chord. That became increasingly common near the end, as I felt I spent less time getting to know the characters and instead simply did a few tasks before they were ready to move on.

(That could partly be a side effect of how by late-game I had so many more resources available to me that I could complete requests faster, though.)

One major thing also disappointed me a bit, although I can see why people would like it.

Click for major Spiritfarer spoilers
So the entire journey seems to be taking place within Stella’s mind, as she’s currently dying, either as a metaphorical journey for her to come to terms with her own death or as a look through her memories since she knew many of the spirits in life.

When I realized it was going in that direction, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed, just because I’ve played so many games now where the fantastic adventure or supernatural events are symbolic of normal real-world things happening to the character.

Maybe it’s a little hypocritical of me, since there are games with that premise that I love, but I just found the on-the-surface premise of taking over for Charon to be much more interesting than another symbolic story.

Overall, I ended my Spiritfarer playthrough with mixed feelings. I expected an emotional experience in which I’d really fall in love with the characters. I ended up with a pleasant game that tugged at my emotions a few times, but didn’t leave a lasting impression. Oddly enough, I found the gameplay more addicting, despite expecting its simple systems to be a backdrop to the characters.

I did enjoy Spiritfarer, in the end, but it was a different experience than I thought it would be.

Star Ocean: First Departure R – A Slightly Tedious Journey

 Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Mar 042022
 

Back when Star Ocean: The Divine Force was announced, I said I intended to play Star Ocean: First Departure R before it came out.

And you know what? I actually did!

In the midst of all the romance games I played in February, I also played through Star Ocean: First Departure R, which is a remaster of the remake of the first Star Ocean game (whew).

The story starts out with a group of friends in a small village who encounter a terrible disease that is turning people to stone. While searching for a cure, they run into two people from a starship and learn that, their planet is part of a universe with advanced technology and has been caught up in a war with an alien race.

Now, you might expect this to turn into a spacefaring adventure. That doesn’t exactly happen. The space opera setting is there, but they soon learn that the only way to find a cure is to go back in time to their own planet’s past.

As a result, the majority of the game has a medieval fantasy setting despite the larger context.

It is an action JRPG, and the combat is… fine. More interesting is the skill system, which lets you put points into a lot (and I mean a lot) of skills to increase stats, gain combat bonuses, and learn special abilities.

Unfortunately, this eventually resulted in First Departure R feeling tedious to me. Some of the abilities are great, such as one that lets you change the encounter rate or one that lets you temporarily lower your stats in exchange for more exp. But a significant number are related to the game’s numerous crafting skills. Crafting requires materials and often special crafting items as well. Attempting it uses up those items, but there’s a chance of failure even if the skill is at max level.

You can influence the success rate further, however, by playing music. Music is tied to other skills. You’ll need instruments, and you’ll also need to have music written. These skills also require items and have their own success rates.

I can see how the system sounds neat, and I’m sure there are people out there who adore it. I am not one of those people. Using items with skills to help me use different items with different skills to craft something and not even be guaranteed success drove me crazy. After a certain point, the game felt like it expected me to be crafting better gear, too.

It’s a shame, because there are other aspects of the game that I really liked. The story is nothing special, but there are multiple party members to recruit based on different conditions, which means I only got to see some of the characters and their stories.

Character interactions also come into play through “Private Actions,” a system which lets you split up in town and witness special character events.

(Unfortunately, there is no airship, so the only way to backtrack is to use ships to travel between port towns and walk across the world map for everything else. I like backtracking, but that was annoying enough that I didn’t backtrack to check for new Private Actions as much as I would have liked to.)

In short, Star Ocean: First Departure R left me with mixed feelings. It has some aspects I loved, but also some that annoyed me enough that I was just ready to be done with it. As you might guess, that presents me with an important question… will I enjoy other Star Ocean games?

What are your thoughts on First Departure R and the Star Ocean series?

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