Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Rydiamond is a fan appreciation card. You could theoretically play the Xenoblade Chronicles games on their own, but this final wave of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 expansion pass assumes you’ve played 1, 2, and 3, so you can play You will be rewarded for what you have done.
caveat: This review contains some spoilers.
The game takes place on Ionios before the events of Xenoblade 3 and introduces two new heroes, Matthew and A. Before we meet them, however, we see a cutscene of Shulk (XC1), Rex (XC2), and Rex (XC2). Z (XC3 of all) faces off against Alvis in his XC1. So not only do they throw entire series characters right at us, they challenge what we know about these characters. Is Alvis the bad guy? Is Z a good guy? Are Shulk and Rex friends?
Future Redeemed spends a lot of time connecting the unsolved parts of the three games, so get used to it. This is not always successful. The writers sometimes make some pretty drastic leaps, obscuring key elements of earlier stories when convenient. We can’t provide details to avoid spoilers for the event, but in any case, these story issues are nothing to worry about. Even if the developers of Xenoblade Chronicles didn’t have a carefully planned vision of where Chronicles’ story would end, they got there more consistently than, say, George Lucas developed. Star Wars.
Also, spoiler-free questions need to be asked as to why some characters in Xenoblade 1 and 2 were loved and others weren’t even mentioned. We have some favorites in our memories, some simply referenced (overtly or indirectly) and others completely ignored. Even the people being talked about don’t know much about what happened to them. The story of Future Redeemed is a little disappointing in that regard.
However, I am happy to say that is the only downside. In over 40 hours it took her to complete, not a single moment felt wasted. This is partly due to the nature of expansion paths. I knew this would be a much shorter adventure than the main game, so I spent more time getting everything done. Of course it wasn’t. There are still some quests to unlock and the Collectpedia (Welcome back!) is not full yet. You have to defeat some unique monsters of level 90 and above. But there’s a lot to do in this game, so even if you’re not 100% done, you’ll be completely satisfied.
It helps refine your exploration even further. For example, Matthew has an X radar that notifies him when he’s approaching important objects, and I wish that device had been given to Noah in the main story. The downside here is that you will simply be notified of items that are not yet reachable. So you can waste a lot of time trying to reach places that are currently unreachable.
Killing monsters in the landscape improves your relationship with the community (research, I think), and the game tells you on the main screen if you should do that for each monster you see. The quest monster is also revealed. So you don’t have to fight or check sub-screens to determine if a particular animal offers more than experience points or items you need. The community menu is also easier to navigate. What must be done to improve relations between NPCs is well defined, and with that in mind, you can often do things when you don’t feel like fighting.
Combat has also been revamped, which I appreciate. I recently said on the Pure Nintendo Podcast that returning to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for expansion pack releases in a few months is confusing. Because it’s hard to remember all the nuances of an optimized character. Future Redeemed puts all that aside and tweaks real-time combat in new and fun ways. We rely on auto-attacks to power up our arts, and we can pick and choose those arts and skills to support the characters we want to control.
However, unlike the Ouroboros combos in the main game, any two playable characters can be paired for unified attacks and combos. It’s fun to mix and match these, and you’ll quickly find the one that fits your combat step (or the one with the best animations). Pairing affects chain attacks and this time those chains are easier to reach/use. Pairings, skills, art, accessories and much more can be customized, but it’s never overwhelming. As long as you stick to it, you’ll be fine.
The game is as good as ever, with wonderfully colorful and detailed environments to explore. The light changes during the day are stunningly beautiful, and fans of the early games will be thrilled as they enter familiar locations. The combat animations are great, but you’ll spend more time looking at his indicators than the character. Finally, the cutscenes are as good as ever. It doesn’t have the emotional impact of the main game, but it does provide some very endearing moments for the playable characters, especially Shulk and Rex.
Similar to Xenoblade Chronicles: Connected Future and Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna: The Land of Gold, Monolith Soft provides an absolutely essential addition to Future Redemption. It’s a lot of fun to play, gives fans a sense of nostalgia for the entire series, and scatters some Is that should have been interspersed (although some T’s remain uncrossed). One particular revelation was so great and unexpected that I had to keep my son up late at school to watch the entire cutscene together again.
And finally, while the trilogy comes to a solid conclusion, we feel a distant glimmer of hope for what happens next. I have my own theory as to what it is, but I’ll save that for a future podcast.
