Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review - IGN

• IGN reviews Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for Switch (Travis Northup, reviewed on Switch OLED), calling it a massive JRPG well worth the time^[1]
• Praise: improved combat, quest design and RPG sandbox, strong characters (Lanz, Taion, Sena) and voice-acted side quests, with class swapping and Ouroboros transformations keeping combat fresh for over 100 hours^[1]
• Criticism: hit-or-miss writing, repetitive cutscenes, pacing filler, weak bosses, and low-res textures, pop-in and blur, with a 30 fps frame rate; it took about 150 hours to complete^[1]
• The reviewer says it is competing to be his favorite in the series^[1]
• Nintendo and Monolith Soft moved the launch up from a September window to July 29, 2022, announced April 19, 2022^[5][6][7]
• A Collector's Edition with a 250+ page hardcover art book and steel case was announced for the My Nintendo Store, not yet open for preorder^[5][6][7]
• Game Informer calls the push forward of at least a month a rare move for Nintendo^[6]

Notable features

• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is an action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch, set in the world of Aionios over 1,000 years after the first two games, and concludes the trilogy's narrative^[3]
• Story connects the futures of the two earlier mainline games, with Noah and Mio leading six soldiers of Keves and Agnus toward Swordmarch; in battle, pairs combine into giant Ouroboros forms via the Interlink system^[5][6][7]
• Up to seven party members fight at once, the six main characters plus a recruitable Hero (19 in the base game), and the player can swap control between all six during real-time battles; characters can change class, each falling under the Defender, Attacker or Healer roles^[3]
• The game takes place in a continuous open world, the largest map in the series, with a day-and-night cycle that affects quests and items, fast travel, and the returning Chain Attack mechanic^[3]
• An Expansion Pass adds four volumes of downloadable content, ending with the story scenario Future Redeemed on April 26, 2023^[3]