Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - My Hopes for Gameplay and Combat Features

[@gmaster2647]

I've had a few ideas myself. - Give unique monsters...unique drops. As rewards for beating them for the first time they will almost ALWAYS give you valuable armor, weapons, or equipment that you can't find anywhere else. Defeating them as soon as possible will give you the edge in combat earlier. - Bring back the concept of 2's shop deeds and Torna's craftables with permanent upgrades, only rework them into relics and scatter them around the world as direct rewards for exploration. - Making field skills into actual traversal abilities similar to Metroid. You don't need specific "field skill checkpoints", if you have the field skill to jump while climbing to reach different vines/ladders, you can just do it yourself. No "levels" of field skills either, you just unlock it (through skill trees and certain sidequests) and it's yours. I just kinda like the concept of locking stuff away so you can come back later when you have the abilities, but making them glorified, menu-based keys with automatic animations, and also reliant on RNG was kinda archaic and bad.

[@PenguinSage]

I like the idea of some Unique Monsters dropping upgrades like deeds. Have some of the more challenging or unique ones give stuff like movement speed up, increase drop rates, and other good stuff. I could see Territorial Rotbart giving a really good bonus, as to feel even more rewarding for triumphing over the monkey that killed you your first few times through the zone. Have 1 or 2 of these upgrades per area and it will fell quite rewarding to track down and kill these unique monsters.

[@jstar3382]

I mean 2 had something close. The best chips are from... I mean super bosses are technically uniques

[@-siranzalot-]

@@jstar3382 though in X2's case that meant we had to fight the same two superbosses over and over and over... because there only really were two chips two really go for

[@jstar3382]

@@-siranzalot- yeah, but it's a start. Let's hope they do it better next time

[@liammccafferty4755]

Now I want to see the morph ball in XC3. Y can't Mio-troid crawl?

[@lued123]

I kinda want the item orbs to take some of the upsides of collection points and integrate those. Collection points give you more stuff and allow you to target specific items, so if each orb gave like 2 or 3 items and you could track items by registering them in the collectopaedia, that would be a perfect blend of the two.

[@Azurald55]

I'd really like to see some old blades back. It would be cool to see how different they would be in the future and that would mean a few cool sidequest.

[@izanagiforsmite4365]

If they have a different system (which is most likely) for combat, I think some fan favorite blades may show up for side quests like Crossett

[@Azurald55]

@@izanagiforsmite4365 yeah I'm not expecting to see blades in battle as they don't seem to be fighting like that. I hope combat is more closer to 2 then 1.

[@fluffyspark798]

I just want to see kosmos

[@Sleiyphnus]

Herald rage goess brrr

[@AlejandroRodriguez-cy8ee]

@@Azurald55 no

[@Kasaaz]

From a purely design standpoint, if you're still going to use the Trinity of Roles (Tank, Healer, Damage) then moving up to four person parties is probably a good idea. It allows for more flexibility about who you want to bring or to experiment. I wouldn't be surprised if this is their reason as XC2 already brought the ability for each character to swap to specific roles on the fly with different Blades, etc. I realize at the highest levels of play the Trinity goes out the window in the previous games, but I don't think they necessarily design specifically for that.

[@lued123]

I feel like they do design for that to an extent. Sharla's gimmick is just "bad at chain attacks" so it feels like you are intended to take her out as soon as you feel comfortable doing so, and she's the only dedicated healer in that game.

[@conorb.1901]

@@lued123 honestly, the moment I'm able to kick Sharla out of the party is when combat in Xenoblade 1 gets more fun, I still don't particularly like it, but removing Sharla ironically helps tremendously in my opinion

[@lued123]

@@conorb.1901 Sharla is absolutely a crutch character. She makes it nearly impossible to lose, but she also makes fights take a lot longer because her damage is so low and she ruins chain attack synergy. She's like Survivor's Footgear from 2. A useful crutch if you can't manage a fight without it.

[@conorb.1901]

@@lued123 it doesn't help that the first character you can replace her with is Dunban, who is the last piece needed for the Shulk/Reyn/Dunban dream team that is pretty much the best party comp in the game.

[@DeltaZapdos]

​@@lued123 The only time I ever had fun using Sharla that I can remember was during my first encounter with Wise Gregory in my first Xenoblade playthrough. I was like 5 or 6 levels underleveled at the time (it was also one of my first yellow-tagged unique monster fights) because I rushed the story and my poor-quality gear meant that my party’s health just melted in what felt like seconds. Controlling Sharla directly allowed me to properly manage my party’s health to survive the fight and managing the talent art, cooldown, and animation times kept me fully engaged during the fight. The issue is that once you learn good character builds maintaining health becomes a joke as you can cycle through arts quickly to obliterate enemies. Although you can turn Sharla into a decent damage dealer, it takes way too long (like end of end game long) and shulk, reyn, dunban, melia and seven can all deal damage at like 10+ times the speed Sharla can. Even though his damage output is less than the others, Riki is still far superior with his various support arts, DOT, and not being a detriment in chain attacks. The only way to solve Sharla’s issues is to actually make the attacking party members be frail with low agility (so they can’t just dodge everything) and not have a way to easily regenerate health (crit healing). That, and/or give her actually good supporting moves which seems to be the case with Eunie and her gunstaff (assuming the staff part works like melia’s).

[@anniacal676]

A. I wonder if every character can have an "active" or "support" role in combat. Essentially, the character in the support role would function like the Rearguard in Torna, giving buffs and periodic attacks. That way you could do the same Torna switching mechanic, but make it a lot more interesting with exponentially more combos of pairs. It would also boost the total party in one battle to 8, surpassing XC2

[@mobes8876]

I’m not a pro at the game. But the thing that bothered me the most in combat was not being able to switch to different party members in battle, or at least be able to control what AI does. I hated it when I was controlling Tora and Rex decided to switch into Pyra, getting rid of all the great evasion party buff, subsequently letting the boss kill the party in 1 shot. If they can fix this, I’ll be super happy

[@trueNahobino]

Yeah I don't think we should be able to switch to a completely different character in battle (that could get a little too complex if we do get 4 or more characters in a battle). To fix that issue, I think they should just make a better system for issuing commands to the AI. Maybe something like that command menu in X where you can tell your team a lot of different things to do.

[@lued123]

@@trueNahobino Xenoblade 2 would have immensely benefitted from a toggle that just forces a character to stay on their starting blade. Keep Tora on QTπ, keep Rex on Mythra, keep whoever on Dagas, etc. That would allow the AI to do proper evasion stacking strats, keep the good partywide buffs up, use their damage-stacking effects properly (such as Brighid's damage boost that requires dodging attacks without switching), etc. Another toggle for focusing on blade combos or driver combos would be great too, rather than the weird male/female split, but that would only make sense if the single blade toggle was turned off.

[@pencilcheck]

basically FF7 remake style. hmmm

[@subthescrub3063]

I'm just going to copy and paste a comment I found online about things they wanted in Xenoblade 3. I agree most of these: "The things that I want from Xenoblade 3 would be: Customizable outfits - Yeah, this might be a smaller feature but this was one of the reasons why I enjoyed XCDE. They had outfits that matched the scenery and it was super nice! Good Navigation System - I hope they keep the navigation system from XCDE because I thought it was pretty much perfect. No matter where you were on the map you'd always be able to find your way back to the objective with ease. The follow ball in XCX worked but, in XC2 I had some trouble getting to some areas because of its navigation system. No requirements for Heart to Hearts - One thing that I like about XC2 was that the heart to hearts wasn't locked behind affinity like in XCDE and in XCX. The heart to hearts add a lot to the characters so I'm kinda surprised that they locked them behind something in the first place. I also hope the heart-to-hearts are voice acted in this game but it won't kill me if they aren't. Overkill Bonuses - This one might be a bit of a long shot but I really loved overkill bonuses in XC2. I thought it was a pretty cool way to avoid grinding. In XC2 I'd set the difficulty to easy and then fight an enemy that was 5-10 levels higher than me. Every time I got a good overkill bonus I would be able to increase my exp gained by like 500% and level up 2-3 times from one battle. It wasn't always easy to pull off but it felt rewarding every time I did it! I'm not expecting it to come back the same way but I would like it to be in XC3 in somehow. Better Tutorials - Lol I don't think I need to explain this one. I think they have been improving since XC2 though. No Field Skills - I really felt like field skills were really unnecessary in XC2. If they do end up bringing them back they need to implement them better. Having to rearrange blades every time just to pass a skill check wasn't exactly fun lol. Switch characters mid-battle - This one is also a long shot but I feel like Xenoblades combat would benefit if we could switch characters mid-battle like in FF7R. The AI isn't always the smartest lol Bring Back Tombstones - XC2 was superior in this aspect because if I ever wanted to refight a boss I would just click their tombstone and resummon them. In XCDE the bosses only had a 30% chance of respawning so you had to reload the save file multiple times in hopes of getting the boss to respawn. Other ways to explore the map - After seeing how fun it was to explore the map in XCX I'm kind of hoping they add other methods of travel in XC3. I never really had a problem traveling on foot but XCX made me want more lol. As I mentioned earlier in the thread though this seems it might be possible based on the trailer. No Missable Content - Ugh...I have never liked missable content and Xenoblade is full of it...I didn't realize how many things were missable in XCDE until I did a 100% completion playthrough. I get the feeling XC3 will have missable content but I really hope it doesn't. Better voice direction - I loved the voice acting in the first game and I thought it was pretty good in Torna...but future connected itself had me a little bit concerned. There were a few cases in future connected when the subtitles actually didn't line up with what they were saying. I know future connected isn't really a main game but still...That being said I do like what I've heard in the trailer so far. Bring Back Expert Mode - I love expert mode so much not only because it prevents you from being over-leveled but it also allows you to do some crazy stuff. I've seen people beat some of the hardest bosses in both XCDE and XC2 at level 1 because of this mode. Dropping bosses 100+ levels higher than you is always fun 😂. I just hope they allow you to use it from the first playthrough like in XCDE. Good New Game Plus Mode - I don't always replay RPGs but if they've got a good new game plus mode I'm usually willing to do it at a later date. XC2, in particular, has one of the best New game plus modes I have ever seen! Multiple Save Files - I was so happy when I found out XCDE had multiple save files. It made me sad that XC2 didn't have multiple." And one thing I want to make a return in XC3 would be XC2's collection system, make it so there are set points you can reset at any time along with ways to boost the resources coming out of them, if not field skills maybe separate consumable items you can farm yourself or buy. In xc1 it was a real pain looking for the specific items you needed for quests and waiting for them to respawn, to my XC2's implementation of this was better in every way only downside being you couldn't skip the animations for your field skills.

[@luke3810]

Hey that's my post from nintendolife xD I'm Vortexeo over there! Glad you agree!

[@Coolkid245]

You may be in luck for the field skills one because there seems to be purple item orbs in the trailer similar to the ones found in xenoblade 1

[@subthescrub3063]

@@luke3810 Yoo I didn't expect to see you here man! My name is iLikeUrAttitude in nintendolife.

[@lonedrifter9994]

You can have 3 save files in XC2

[@luke3810]

@@subthescrub3063 Man it's pretty fun bumping into some of you guys outside of the site 😂 I also ran into TheJGG not too long ago as well. Btw, I absolutely love your name over there 😂

[@ZekamashiTheDestroyer]

something in combat I kinda wanna see return is targettable appendages, makes larger enemies feel more interactable if you can break parts to change how fights go etc. it's not a huge thing, but I kinda liked the idea from X , would hope we don't have a core crusher type skill to neutralize the system though

[@maagic2031]

I think I would have preferred Aion a lot more, if it had something like this. Definitely needed something else to make it feel more grand than Jin or Amalthus.

[@MonadoBoyFlameRock]

in the Gameplay Department i honestly would want bestiary enemy index like XCX with Enemy tracker & item drop table included also hopefully Tombstones need to make a return for Unique Monsters Other things Bring back affnity chart npc tradeables & make it able to trade more items than 1 Don't Forget a Extras menu with Music Library to listen to in game tracks and a Model Viewer aswell Maybe add Amiibo Compatibility so Shulk Pyra & Mythra Fashion Gear Costumes and Weapon Skins are Unlocked with More Unique Monster Music in the Options

[@Berdomlikesgames]

I would LOVE for xc3 to have a bestiary. It's a little thing but I like when game's give a bit of ecology/lore for the monsters to expand on the world. Cause for as much as I enjoyed fighting the golden monsters in torna (except for tlaloc, screw that guy) I couldn't help but wonder how the golden monsters even came into existence with how different they are from the local wildlife.

[@Cowmoo83]

Agreed. The less I need to look up monster locations and item drops that I’ve already seen before on a wiki while playing xenoblade, the better. It breaks my immersion in the world. And the tombstones for UM are essential. I’ve missed them dearly while playing xc1.

[@TheBandoBandito]

This channel IS the #1 resource for Xenoblade combat tips and general guides. Enel has been helping me out since way back in 2017.

[@Pine2142]

The rings/loading circle glowing things on all the characters weapons could be some kind of overdrive like in Xenoblade X

[@mrpyrostorm3165]

Yeah whatever it is, it will tie into combat for sure.

[@xandermcdonald8543]

Plus that flame clock they mentioned in the trailer, maybe that’s connected

[@jpegwarrior5431]

Don't do that to me. Don't give me hope.

[@togz813]

I hope not.. Overdrive always felt like a weak game mechanic for me... ok it let you combo to eternity but the point of special team attacks was to change the battle pace and to reward you from previously setting up orbs and buff/debufffs

[@ShadowSkyX]

Calling it now, it's going to be called "Overtime"

[@shadowmario111]

Man, crazy to think how time flies. I've been watching your channel since your "The 'Best' Party" vid 4 years ago, looking for ways to optimize curbstomping Superbosses for Chips. I don't think anyone else on KZbin or anywhere offers the kind of in-depth content and analysis on the Xenoblade series that you do. Guaranteed, your channel is going to blow up. You'll be able to ride Xenoblade 3's hype right on past 250k.

[@derfuchs3296]

I really liked the way combat was in X. Mixing 2 different weapons and using art from both while getting certain passive abilities from them was so cool. Maybe you can do a similar thing with the hybrid weapons in 3. Like turning the Gun/Staff into a Gun/Longsword or something. I want the customisation and skill trees from X and the fun combat flow of 2. That would be perfect. I really hope Monolith manages to mix together the best elements of their past games here

[@raisklose6785]

Loving the Xenoblade content on the channel lately. I was kinda tired of Xenoblade in recent months but XC3 has completely rekindled my passion again. Looking forward to even more cool videos Enel!

[@justsomeguyontheinternet2251]

I do hope XC3 keeps the more action-like combat. I think it makes for a more interesting and satisfying system. Auto-attack canceling and art canceling should be mainstays for the series. I'd also like to see specials be a mainstay. Specials don't necessarily have to be tied down to the idea of blades, they're basically just stronger and more flashy arts, so I hope they stick around. It also adds to the action like feel XC2 has.

[@snivelill4457]

Art cancelling is cool no matter what... but you should be able to move while auto attacking, honestly. It's more action-like that way.

[@turtersvongenbu]

I do hope talent arts return. Any character exclusive mechanics can really give characters more of an identity. As for healers, I'd like to see them be able to heal beyond max hp by a percentage to create a sort of buffer. It could make max hp bonus effects more consistent or even unique buffs to this state, giving dedicated healing arts some more utility.

[@jstar3382]

In terms of npc charts, I love the massive interconnected web showing all the ways that characters feel, and I would love that system with the same level of detail that x had

[@Speckmantelmade]

Pretty nice to see the coolest protag ever in this footage - Yoyyeno. The Torna DLC did a lot of good things in general. Definite hard agree on a mixture between X and Torna in terms of sidequests. As much as I love XC1, most of the quests really were tedious or repetitive.

[@TheChimples]

I was thinking about this today too. I hope they take the best of both games. The combat from 2 and the character designs from 1. Stories were fine in both but 2 had a more emotional ending which I hope they go with again in 3 (emotional storyline).

[@Thundertron55]

I hope we get something like Torna's combat but with 1/X's arts pallette.

[@dustingonzalez8080]

Same here

[@snivelill4457]

Amen to that. I much prefer the bar styled art palette myself.

[@justice8718]

Hahaha. Did you know this is an action jrpg game?

[@snivelill4457]

@@justice8718 Yes. Everyone here is very aware. And we said so despite knowing, because the genre is not the end-all-be-all way to decide how a game is controlled.

[@Seraphic2004]

1/X arts but with 2's Combos

[@tachyonsls9692]

Just spitballing some ideas: - fighting bosses and unique monsters was always a highlight of the series but the normal enemies most of the time felt not really worth it to fight and more annoying. So i propose some kind of experience feature where you gain party buffs or else for defeating a number of them (like after defeating 30 soldier enemies you get 5% evasion against human type opponents) - i really hope they have combo features again akin to torna. Those were the most enjoyable superbosses with unique party gauge chaining mechanics and so forth, which you could understand easily but were still challenging to overcome. And the combos were not restrictive to certain elements, just yieling more effects for certain element follow ups which was great. Maybe spreading out the driver combos into trees like the blade combos would allow to encourage experimentation even more, finding special named combos with unique animations. - for exploration: in the past games there were amazing worlds to explore but sometimes a unique place didnt have much to see there. One fight, one treasure or sth along those lines. Coming from a Dungeons and Dragons background I'd like to see more fleshed out lore for these little areas, or areas like optional dungeons with more though out level design or gimmicks for fights. One good example was the lizard fortress in XC1 in satorl marsh. (Btw, pls more of those luminecent trees, those are gorgeos)

[@kian26master]

Thanks Enel. You XC2 blade guide helped me alot during my playthrough of the game.

[@blazeknight2629]

I want to add that with certain sequences we see only really two characters teaming up so my speculation is that the party consists of four main members and a sub member kinda like a blade that doesn’t actively fight. The character can then switched to this character they are paired with and it will be just like torna with you switching play styles with them, maybe even getting rid of the shared health but keep it the same health that the character had from before they switched(adding accessories that maybe allow for standby characters to regain health in combat). This does also make sense since the one girl and boy did this wind attack that kinda reminds me of the levels 4 of two and maybe characters can also switch styles and have other unique combinations with other characters that either provide bonus for character pairs or uniques actions possibly like Tales of Arise where every character has a unique burst attack when you a d-pad button

[@embrcelica]

another welcome change id like to see is fluidity of movement in combat overall. while im not asking for dodge rolls or anything, often i feel like a tradeoff of auto atk canceling in xc2 was sluggish movement in combat

[@snivelill4457]

Trust me, I'm completely with you there pal. It's really understated how important movement is in a game. Xenoblade X did it the best, imo. It's really important to me personally, and it honestly prevented me from enjoying Xenoblade 2. The game has positional effects but the movement is too sluggish for you to use them smoothly. Just something as simple as attacking while moving again like in previous titles, would be fine. To be honest, auto attack cancelling to do 1>1>1 combos forever is pretty silly anyway...

[@bobboberson8297]

@@snivelill4457 Your other moves do more damage if you let the auto attack combo go past 1, so there's a pretty good incentive to not just mindlessly spam 1>1>1 combos (i'm sure there's situations where that's optimal though but it's at least not always). I agree though some kind of movement upgrade would be nice

[@snivelill4457]

@@bobboberson8297 Mmm, I'm aware of all that. It's just that I think it's pretty silly that it exists at all, at least in its current state. Thanks though!

[@piousaugustus84]

I love that the music in the background is Shion's email tune. Nice touch! :)

[@picochap]

Honestly, a gameplay element I really liked was the fireside chats from Torna. It really helped flesh out the characters more, not just through heart to hearts, though I don't believe they had them in Torna so, a mix of both camp convos and heart to hearts would be amazing

[@Vexal50]

There are two main things I'm hoping for 1) XC2's customizable difficulty settings....Just don't lock it behind DLC again. That was dumb. Out of everything added for free through updates, why wasn't this one of those? 2) If the combat itself is similar to any past games, I'd like a hybrid of XC2's and XC1/X's systems when it comes to skills. Have them tied to characters rather than weapon category and allow us to equip more than 3 at a time, but have a page system so that the skills are still tied to buttons rather than having to navigate a bar like in 1/X

[@Sherolox]

Yes, exactly! Console MMOs have used a page system for decades at this point. I’m surprised Monolith didn’t do it in Xenoblade 2.

[@Seraphic2004]

You said "have a page system so that the skills are still tied to buttons rather than having to navigate a bar like in 1/X" Am I reading that wrong or, you said it the opposite way?

[@Vexal50]

​@@Seraphic2004 in XC1 and XCX, you navigate a bar to use your arts. This makes you prone to misinputs and doing the wrong skill, and hopefully the misinput wasn't your talent art :V XC2 meanwhile uses a page system which is done by switching Blades, but only if those blades are of different weapon types. Basically my idea is using XC2's structure but making it easier to use the skills you actually want to use. However unlike Xenoblade 2, I'd want skills to be tied entirely to the character rather than the weapon currently being used, and remove the cooldown on changing pages, as that'd be pointless in a system without weapon changing

[@Seraphic2004]

@@Vexal50 Oh okay, when you said page system I thought you mean the 1 one lol

[@CherikoSol]

I loved switching between Blade and Driver in Torna. To me it was a good forwarding idea to even get underused party members in the mix.

[@ric8248]

I can't wait to get this game! Even though my fav XC is X, and this is clearly based in 1 and 2, I'm sure I will still dig it. I don't know what the problem is with field skills lol, they are an indirect way to have you do something else before progressing any further, and that can be fun! At least in X they weren't necessary for anything but treasure, and segment completion. About the game, all I hope is that the world be HUGE with tons of people to meet and things to do.. mysterious things, of course. Thank you for keeping this channel, Enel; with your analysis, speedruns, tutorials, &c you make this games even more enjoyable.

[@ensislucis2395]

I really really hope it’s not like 1 or X where you have to move the D pad to use an art. Xenoblade 2 perfected the combat. I would love to see the class system from X, and maybe even something from Dragon Quest III where if you get to level 20 in a certain class, you can reset to level 1 again in a new class while still keeping the skills from the previous class.

[@Azurald55]

The arts being maped to the buttons really made it feel like an action game. Chaining arts into themselves and specials felt so cool and made each battle so much more enjoyable.

[@justinbowman1342]

I remember remapping the left and right d-pad inputs to the shoulder buttons in Xenoblade 1. That way you navigate your arts palette while walking.

[@ensislucis2395]

@@justinbowman1342 I did that too, with ZL and ZR being the way I switch between arts. But it is still annoying because I have to actually press ZL or ZR many times and then press A. Charge based arts where you press one button like B, Y, or X is much better.

[@AdfasSSBM]

i get that, but i also have good memories of playing X with a claw grip so i could move around and also swap arts, going to the extent where i even remapped a controller I was playing minecraft with so that it would be the same it's not the best layout, but just like X i love it with the flaws and wouldn't have those games any other way in that sense

[@ejiro8061]

I don't see why selecting arts with the d pad is a bad thing

[@kennethhernandez9243]

I just hope to god we get gears/skells/amws and a flight module. Nothing, an I mean nothing, beats that moment in X when you got the flight module.

[@Coolkid245]

Well we did see a drivable boat in the trailer so it’s not too far fetched

[@kennethhernandez9243]

I’m just praying. All the xeno games have had mecha, but the blade series doesn’t let players pilot them (minus x). It’s time to bring them in proper.

[@monadomaster2007]

I've always thought that the combat system is easier in the first game, and the Xenoblade 2's combat is the most complex of all games I've played before, but is still a very fun game, and that's what I say to all my friends who are interested in starting the series. I wish Xenoblade 3 has a mix of the previous games' combat system. Either way I'm not worried about the combat in this game because I know it will be great, and we will understand it better with Enel's videos :)

[@nobodyscomment929]

Oh damn I never thought about the XC3 combat potentially having the characters having different stances. If that's the case that would be awesome because then they could implement Torna's Switch Art system which I really enjoyed a lot. The switch art mechanic could also be a seamless way of transitioning between stances and could have unique effect like a dps transitioning to tank with a switch art that pulls aggro. Then they could have another switch art that transition them back into their dps stance that does increase damage base on the amount of damage taken during their tank stance. For a healer they could have a switch art that provides a heal over time buff on allies when changing stance to buffing stance with the alternative switch art would refresh buff times when transition back into their healing stance.

[@ephemeralenhancement9445]

XC2 had my favorite combat in the series so I hope it shares similarities. Of course it will be unique to itself with no blades and whatnot but I like the customization XC2 gave. Using the flute during gameplay could be really cool

[@trueNahobino]

I mainly hope that we have more options for what do do directly in a battle. I like the combat in xc2 more than 1 but I don't like how we only ever have access to three arts at a time. Different combos between arts are pretty cool in xc1 (like Dunban being able to do a whole break, topple, daze combo) and I hope we get more things like that. It would also be nice to see more passive/buff/debuff arts (maybe even strategies where having a debuff gives you bonuses because of items equipped) but that would require not just having the three arts like in 2.

[@EnelXC]

you technically have access to 9 arts at a time in XC2 and can cycle between them often, plus 12 specials on top of that.

[@TheJaredPunch]

I hope we get an overdrive feature for the game to make up the lack of X. Also I want the healer to actually be useful Cough cough -Sharla-.

[@seb3082]

No more “My rifle’s getting hotter!”.

[@TheJaredPunch]

@@seb3082 Nia is also not that great outside of spoiler reasons. Dromarch is the worst story blade in the game.

[@seb3082]

@@TheJaredPunch yeah in the post game, I wouldn’t really choose Nia for damage honestly she’s out classed by the other drivers. If you want healing just use Tora with Poppi qtpi with a skill that heals you from crits or use the avant-garde medal.

[@ShadowSkyX]

Maybe nerf higher agility = better chances to evade and maybe healers can start getting some respect. As mean as laughing at him was, I laughed everytime someone I shall not name kept claiming he didn't need a healer and almost immediately, almost without fail, kept getting clapped right after saying one isn't needed or necessary. Yeah you prove it can be done without one sometimes, but you also prove your losses came purely from stubborn refusal to having a healer or two to keep you alive. Just because "it's faster" without them. That kind of play proves exactly why I _don't_ ignore healers; i learned from an early age to never take them for granted and often worked best to be a psuedo healer myself if they fail or fall. Trying to outpace the enemy's damage is good and all, evasion is great - its addicting even - but I don't like being overly frail and lacking a way to heal. I just hope they don't bring back weighted armor from one or needing specific color arts to rng further into a chain attack. Have something close enough to xbc2 or torna is fine. Though i suspect it's going to be mixed with 2 or torna and x-- instead of Overdrive it'll be Overtime.

[@seb3082]

@@ShadowSkyX I gotta agree, agility is extremely busted, especially in Xenoblade 1, however to be fair, it really is meant to be a post game strategy. I’ll be honest, I used the healers in both Xenoblade 1 and 2 throughout the story and just dropped them post game.

[@gameregression539]

One idea I have is fusion arts: like you could see in the trailer, there is a scene where you see Eunie enhancing Taion’s weapons for an attack. Perhaps there will be ways to link certain arts together in battle with any combination of party members. Maybe have arts that have two categories: primary and secondary, where if someone uses a primary art, another can use a secondary within a certain window to trigger a more powerful mixed attack between them.

[@chilet_]

I hope there's a nopon party member cause I love their designs. It would be really cool if the nopon party member is a descendent of Riki

[@LordofEvilUnicron]

I would love to see the Fashion system return for 3. XCDE was perfect as far as altering character appearance for stats and then choosing what you wanted to look like.

[@shulkash8799]

I would prefer if collection point came back with item orbs, like have a place at the end of the map where you can collect multiple items. That would help with farming and have a balance to how each game handled collecting items.

[@Pure_Random]

It would be interesting to see some kind of on-field support like they did in Torna with rear guard system. Maybe 4th character comes for that specific purpose?

[@dibby1045]

One quality of life change i thought should have been in XC2 was having the Unique Monsters' tombstones on the map, with their name and level when you hover over it, so you can find them easier.

[@Renegative]

Please please please, regardless of what else they do, the ability to swap the controlled party member in combat is something I've wanted and something I really hope we see appear.

[@dystranndenoche4568]

Cool video, I hope the gameplay is like we know it but also different at the same time. Dont really want to predict anything since I would like to be surprised by Monolithsoft instead of trying to design my own thing and be dissappointed even if the actual gameplay is different. I trust them to make a great game gameplaywise, they have yet to make a bad one IMO!

[@CFindisguise]

I would like to see xenoblade 1 and 2 combat meet somewhere in the middle.

[@Relisoc4]

my first instinct is some kind of crafting-esque subsystem that would allow the player to make use of the dozens of copies of each accessory that you end up getting. Either that or just redesigning the loot system in some way so you don't get your inventory flooded with a billion bunnit chokers and such

[@akiraraiku]

On point, many of your ideas actually made it into the combat system, quite visionary !

[@TriforceZard]

Switching between party members mid battle. That’s all.

[@TheJaredPunch]

Better yet, Game Over only happening when all of the party members die.

[@omensoffate]

@@TheJaredPunch as long as the battles are harder because of it

[@tbpbTB2010]

Welp looks like the Xenoblade JP twitter recently confirmed switching party members out of and within battle! Also seems healers are the only ones that can revive so since you can switch members, you'll most likely "game over" when all party members are KOed!

[@alvis9992]

something pretty specific I want is to make sure that all the characters in this game have a proper art pallet like in XC1 and XCX- and to go even further, I hope the characters have a lot more arts than they can equip, to have different, highly customizable pallets.

[@Seraphic2004]

I want customizable outfits, and a Collectopedia, which will probably come back as there are item orbs, so we won't get 4 different items per orb It's hilarious to see how characters name the items

[@danbagon924]

Personally I hope to see some more surface level options in combat, a deep combat system is great but having to decide what to chose between distinct options in battle has always made me enjoy the Art Palette in 1 and X over the 3 options at a time in 2 and Torna. 1 and X had tons of synergy and combo potential that arose from having more specific art effects freely available alongside your main damage arts. In terms of cooldowns, I'm not against the idea of attack based cooldowns being the norm, but I never liked how easily abusable it was to infinitely chain arts together through pouch items and blade skills. I feel like X struck a good balance of being able to use skills and art secondary effects to reduce timer cooldown, and Torna effectively bypassed the need of pouch items and in some cases auto-attack cancelling to recharge arts by actively encouraging you to vanguard switch and not stripping away your acquired buffs with a blade in the process. I hope that if attack based cooldowns are used in 3, that they are properly balanced in a way that recharging arts is something you can achieve multiple ways directly in combat through choices you make in the moment. I also hope that auto-attack cancelling if it returns isn't done through movement. Movement while auto attacking allows for repositioning and taking advantage of position based arts. In 2 and Torna I always feel like I'm stuck in place using arts and that moving would just decrease my active damage output. Ideally I would like sprinting like in X to be a battle mechanic, where you stop attacking only while sprinting but your fast movement speed allows you to reposition around large enemies even with the aggro and pull off a quick position based art even if you cant get bonus effects by cancelling into it. I genuinely love the idea of different branches of the Break-Topple-etc combo, having variety and utility incorporated into these paths would greatly increase engagement in deciding what is best to use in a given situation. While I'm alright with specials returning, I would like them to be faster and for special trees to no longer replace status effects. Having arts on their own inflict debuffs to enemies like blaze, chill, poison and such and other arts that gain bonus effects off of enemies having debuffs was always a lot of fun to build around in 1. Characters like Melia and Riki could be custom built to inflict strong DoT and have good synergy with each other in a way no other character could really replicate. 2's specials in general locked a lot of effects behind them, and when trying to perform blade combos it would mean deciding between using a level special you wanted the effect of, or progressing the blade combo to have stronger DoT/burst damage, sometimes even forcing you to avoid a special that has the bonus effect you want to use so you didn't finish a blade combo and could keep improving the DoT effect. Of course you could always optimized around this but its a system that felt like it stuffed too much into itself forcing you to make trade offs. Having to remember each special effect was also a hassle as the UI couldn't display that information like it could with art effects. Lastly I hope to see whatever form of Gem/Augment/Accessory+Aux system in the game stops having so many overly specific effects like we see in X and 2. While X at least had the benefit of every piece of gear having 3 fully customizable slots to use (along side up to 3 set effects), It was easily broken by stacking specific effects over and over. 2 on the other hand had only 2-3 driver accessory slots and 1-3 blade Aux slots to pick for, making the same 3-6 types of equipment the only things I ever really used. I feel like 1 had a the best implementation the customization aspect, with general but easy to understand buff effects with hard caps and a still moderately sized collection of options you could build around. This a long with its nice limit of 8 slots (not too many, not too few) for these buffs to be added allowed for a nice selection of different types of builds to use even when a few select gem types ended up on the majority of your party. I know I had some long winded and strong opinions here, and I'm by no means a speedrunner or data expert of these games. But I hope my explanations for my hopes and reasons for my takes provoke some discussion on different aspects gameplay. Regardless I have put hundreds of hours into each one of these games I and wholly look forward to doing the same with 3 when it releases.

[@TheKotaCan]

Xc3 DLC is gonna be crazy.

[@darkmoonwarrior2813]

I honestly hope combat is more like 1 and x. But with the best stuff from 2 thrown in as well. I just like having more options, as opposed the 3 arts plus special system of 2

[@EnelXC]

you didn't have only 3 arts in 2 though, you had 9 + 12 specials between all 3 blades and you could swap very often. It gave you a lot more options than the first two games.

[@theimpersonator7086]

On your comments balancing, I always thought that JRPGs were up there with Open World games for the hardest video game genres to properly balance. This is especially true if you give players many options(like say a FF5 or Pokemon), as then you statically increase the chances of something going through the cracks and becoming stupid strong. You also have other things in JRPGs like Evasion mechanics, Crits, Buffs, etc that are also kinda easy to break any game. Think the only JRPG I ever played that was pretty balanced was Mother 3, but even then I could just not know the broken stuff in that game. Here is hoping though that Xenoblade 3 doesn't have some obscene stuff like Fiora and Poppi QTPie in 2

[@Seraphic2004]

>Buffs This some mention Shin Megami Tensei

[@ancientrune1674]

i dont think anyone else has commented on this but isnt it odd the seadragon is going in the same direction of the party. i figured this could be two things 1 monsters being part of the party. the other I think that the seadragon may be gating your movement to keep you from going somewhere too early

[@ontosinabyss5950]

Me personally, I wouldn't mind if they based the combat off of something, but I wouldn't want it to just XC1's combat or XC2's combat or even X's combat. I really want to see if they can make something as original as possible while also having plenty of aspects they took from all three games. Edit: Also I agree with what your saying as far as in the quest and collection points, but I still would like some of those kind of quest, however, I would like if we also got something like more skills and arts as a reward instead of just money or experience.

[@Wlightning25]

I hope the speedrun is fun since I find watching your speedruns entertaining. Maybe I’ll even try it myself if it is fun enough.

[@Magic_Ice]

Something I just remembered and would be the coolest shit ever is if the Keves off seers played the Xenoblade 1 theme on their flute and the Agnus played the Xenoblade 2 theme on their flute. But when they come together they play the Xenoblade 3 theme.

[@Ric_93]

I still can't believe XC3 is real... and coming to us SOON. My brain simply can't seem to process it as something real. Is this some sort of collective dream?

[@MarcelSOLDIER]

i would like to see the xenoblade 1 skill system to return. i love xb2 but here's two minor issue i have with it. Firstly, most driver skills are useless with the exception of a few major ones (arts chain, unleash shining justice etc) The other is that finding and defeating all the unique monsters while fun, could feel unrewarding... especially if they only drop items i already had 15 hours ago haha. xb1 had very strong skills on every character, and even if you were crazy overleveled, you still had a reason to defeat a UM you hadn't before to use more of said skills. Sorry for the long read, btw i really enjoyed the video!

[@aleh722]

For the combat I mainly want auto cancelling to be back, the larger arts variety from 1 and X, and the arts themselves being mapped to buttons like in 2, more combo routes like you said, and chain attacks that don’t feel random like 1 but aren’t as op as 2. Oh, and I wanna be able to move during auto attacks + no movement speed penalty like in 1 too and even more emphasis on positioning.

[@seankelly6620]

One way to make it work with school is have the students reverse engineer the damage equations, the effects stats have etc for extra credit

[@pumpkinlemonadezero9995]

I would really want them to take the dynamic elements of Torna and add to that with zone-based attacks from enemies that you have to avoid through positioning, like in an MMO. Making the combat more dynamic should be the main priority, and I think that allowing the player to avoid certain big attacks of an enemy would accomplish a lot in terms of dynamic combat.

[@paperluigi6132]

What I’m looking forward to is where we’ll find big monke in low level area.

[@JoseGarcia-fe8bq]

I hope we get better war hammer blades and just honestly can’t wait for the game to come out also cant wait to see your videos on it

[@spiritsavage]

I like the huge pool of characters (blades) to choose from that we got in 2 though

[@austinyoung4675]

The flutes used in a ritual to honor the dead make me wonder if we will summon spirits that can be equipped or swapped, providing customization like the blades? Maybe each character has their own skill pool, and spirits add possible skill and stat boosts.

[@Golcarjack]

I would really like for the combat to have a similar level of options to 2. In xc1 you'd have the issue of characters just using the same arts in the same/similar order for every battle, and mostly being restricted to one role. With how some of the weapons look, it makes me think they may have kind of fixed this, like having different weapon choices for characters, similar to different weapons associated with blades in xc2. Like how Eunie has an ether rifle and a staff, maybe you're able to choose which you use, and it changes her moveset and stats, same with Lanz and his sword/shield weapon. Or maybe just have purchasable weapons in stores, or as quest rewards, to unlock different weapons/styles.

[@Onhil]

I would like the return of X's secondary and tertiary cooldowns as I felt that improved the combat experience. Although in X's case overdrive is op so you always had tertiary cooldowns up so have it be less broken.

[@TheAccursedHunter01]

I'm guessing Nintendo is going to wait for the E3/June direct to reveal gameplay for Chronicles 3. There's a possibility of an April Direct but I don't think the gameplay reveal will be then, wait until June when the game's release is 3 months away to start building hype (the actual release date might be revealed at E3 as well).

[@WhosRenRen]

Dude it be so cool if the combat is like FF7R. Also keep up the work just found your channel and its awesome!

[@Jazardly]

I wonder how the Nopon are going to act in the story, since both universes have them.

[@AliBaba-sw4ej]

Really hoping for mechs to make a return. Flying for the first time in Xenoblade X was one of my favorite experiences in the series.

[@Magic_Ice]

One small thing I hope is that there are 2 boss themes based on either the Xenoblade 1 boss theme or the Xenoblade 2 boss theme depending on the enemy. Would definitely give some heavy nostalgia. But I’m incredibly confident about this game due to how well monolith listens to criticism and how well Torna turned out in story and gameplay and DE in Quality of Life. The only 2 games that are even somewhat near my hype for this game this year is Kirby and botw 2 if it even comes out.

[@nirelia3231]

Heyy I was waiting for this one.... just finished playing saga 3 because of you btw lmao that was a great experience

[@greenflame2425]

It wouldn't surprise me if the two sides had different ways of using there weapons, for example using the side who is using ether for weapons could be more along the lines of a blade system comparing to a mechanical side having a more xenoblade 1 way of attacking.

[@rexieyoung951]

I feel like different characters will have different styles in combat that are different combinations of aspects if each games' combat.

[@ChaosXOtaku]

i hope for collection orbs that when you touch it it'll release multiple items like in XC 2 instead of getting just 1 item per orb. i'm also hoping they bring back online multiplayer like in XC X with each player controlling a party member

[@regulusking4299]

2 things. One I hope item orbs could have multiple items in them to limit grinding running around. So it would be Xenoblade 2 with multiple items but also not needing to stop to get them. And second I do think switching character control in battle is good and help with AI problems, but maybe it should be on some timer like how blade driver switching was in Torna so it’s not spammed and is just full of switching

[@zane100long]

I would love to see more story options that don't affect gameplay in any way but just give you interactions with your favorite party members. (Sorta like the "call her pyra or mythra" option in 2 but expanded upon) I would also kill damage modifier arts like Reyns in xb1

[@jpegwarrior5431]

My biggest hope for XC3 is some kind of enemy index where you can see their location and even drops. I know X had something similar. If I had a nickel for every time I needed to finish a XC2 affinity node by beating Maniacal Scrimblo and having absolutely no idea who or where that is, I would have several nickels.

[@isseli703]

tbh I dont understand while so many didnt like the field skills or the gacha, i liked it and it made the replay so much more worth and I had a lot of stuff to do and wasnt finished to quickly - sorry for my english I'm not fluent in it

[@terdragon4366]

Just looking forward to playing it

[@SaikaraXeno]

If we do get a mech I would love to do air combat again. Doing that was so fun in X since air battles are just cool for me lol

[@roiitzkovich4545]

1. I need the different fighters to be able to change class. The blades allowed you to do it in XC2. Maybe Monolithsoft can make it so that you can change their classes on the fly and their arts' affects change to complement the change (sort of like switching between 3 blades and using their different arts). Of course, add a special art which fills up by using basic arts. 2. Have the chain attack system from 2. In 1, it felt a bit random whenever it gives you extra turns or not. 2 nailed it by giving you extra turns for bursting element orbs. 3. Keep the affinity chart for blades, but re-name it to a proficiency chart. The warriors will have 3 charts (one for each class they can be). The charts only fills up if the warrior plays that role (pun ABSOLUTELY intended). I want this back because becoming OP in the post game by making my blades rank S+ was so much fun. To unlock more chart slots you need CP (Class Points), a replacement for affinity points. You get CP from basic combat or consuming items that enhance the class skills (because no way in hell I'm grinding all the way up to S+ via combat). Post-game would have to support the OPness. Make the overworld superbosses about the same difficulty as superbosses from past games, but give us a fighting arena ala XC2 to challenge OP characters, which will make the torturous grind feel worth it. I'm talking LV200 normal enemies and LV160 bosses. 4. Affinity will instead be used your fighting alongside friends and increasing friendship levels ala XC1. Though one of the least affective customisation tools, it nice that it's there at all. It needs to have a fast way for a 100% grind in the post-game though so it won't be as tedious as in XC1. Maybe a bonding mini-game in one of the towns. 5. Equipment management was messy in XC1. Choosing equipments with either higher stats or more gem slots took way more time than it should have. XC2 made it easier with only blades equipment and chips you can place on them for a higher auto-attack. Since XC3 doesn't seem to have blades, I want a more simplified equipment system or as complex as XC1, but eases up on the different stats changes. Maybe you can see how useful the new armor will be with the gems you have on the armor you already equip without de-equiping and re-equiping armors all the time. I'm not going to voice an opinion on how unlocking abilities and upgrading arts should be handled because these haven't changed much in-between games.

[@corruptedteka]

All I'm saying is that I want the XC1 colectopaedia back ! It was fun reading the descriptions of each items and especially the strange ones that were named by the characters themselves. If my beloved Wet Rat doesn't return imma be mad xD

[@topplebc6965]

Much better intro than the prior analysis video

[@EnelXC]

smh

[@ancientrune1674]

ive noticed people talking about the art having different color shades on their legs i wonder if that is an indication that the party members correspond with a different element, since that only leaves 6 elelments. the other two light and dark could be Nia light and Melia dark considering their factions colors

[@cypher838]

I don't really see the issue with arts cooldown in xc1. I only hated them early game, but as I went along it made the game more fun for me.

[@SonicBlast4444]

There are only 2 guides u use for xenoblade games. U for the more specific stuff like character or damage details...and chuggaaconroy for stuff like side quests and the like for certain item locations. I don't think that's gonna change any time soon. Keep up the good work

[@BefeZ]

Another Enel video, we eating good

[@hallaloth3112]

I just want to see the quest guidance/markers from definitive edition/future connected to remain a staple. I love these games and I'm more than willing to spend a hundred hours on my first playthrough, but please if the collection orb I need isn't on the map, have the map reflect that so I'm not spending an hour collecting the map only to have to reset. I do have a life and work full time.

[@willbill6942]

I know this is a long shot, but I'd really like to see multiplayer. Some mode where me and a friend can sit down together and play through battles each as a different party member.

[@lostonessoul5154]

OK....This is gonna be a big help.

[@roiitzkovich4545]

I'm actually fine with having purely healing-focused characters that become irrelevant once you find work-arounds to healing because casual players don't understand the combat to it's fullest so they'll rely on basic attacks and healing to play through the main campaign. The healer is a beginner's tool. The game can't be only appealing to hardcore players, otherwise a good 85% of it's players will be turned off. I don't mind giving them more to work with besides healing (giving buffs to your party and debuffs to the enemy), but having them being mostly healers is needed. As long as there are more characters to play with that aren't healers and can help you achieve your goals in different ways, having the healer being sidelined is not a big deal. A great thing about XC games is that, while they can be broken, you often need to wait until late game or grind for an unhealthy amount of time to get the REALLY OP stuff (topple stunlocking, Cross customisation and S or higher rank blades for example). The main campaign has a decent balance.

[@BlazingBoltAeris]

While I definitely understand the dislike for field skills, I feel like there are two types of scenarios where they work really well. Extra Items From Collection Points- I personally really like having skills that you can develop to make collecting items while exploring easier and more efficient since it makes collecting those items more enjoyable and makes it feel like your characters are growing in a gameplay sense beyond just fighting prowess. Given that we're likely gonna see a return of an item orb system as opposed to collection points, I feel like combining the best parts of each system isn't that hard. An idea I have is: Similar to Torna, have the orbs be different colors to signify different qualities of collectibles found there. Have the Item Orbs make sense with their locations (Fish are found near water, minerals near rocks, etc.) That way if we're looking for items for quests or affinity charts we can easily locate their general area just based off of common sense. That being said, being able to track collectibles (like you can in DE) would also be nice, maybe link it to something like the collectopedia instead of an active quest to give the player a further incentive to fill out the collectopedia (assuming collectables would be used for things besides quests). Another massive improvement would be making it so that item orbs give you more than just one item (I personally prefer collection points purely because they give multiple items), maybe give anywhere from 1-5 items per orb (with 1 and 2 being very common, 3 kinda rare, 4 and 5 both being very rare), and this can be increased by having a party member with a skill in collecting that type of item (without having the same type of pop-up it does in XC2 and Torna), and this skill could increase the number of items you get, or merely increase your chance to get more (essentially either, add plus X amount of item to the type you were already getting (so you could get more than 5 per orb), or the skill when maxed could always guarantee getting 5 items per orb (probably less broken than the other idea). The other usage of field skills I like is best explained by example. In Aletta in Torna there's a Barney Stone You can't reach unless you use a few different types of field skills, one of the actions you need to do is use Aegeon's water mastery to expand a waterfall to fill up the lake below, which you can then use to reach a small geyser, which can shoot you up to the secret area if you've maxed his water mastery. What I like about this case is that it makes a permanent and noticeable change in the world, and while it isn't the biggest change, I feel like it's a good building block for what field skills should do in XC3 if they're implemented. Things like requiring wind mastery, earth mastery, and leaping to jump up slight, unnecessary gaps is pointless and causes the player to need to swap around blades a ridiculous amount of times and makes people hate the system as a result. I feel like if there were more impactful uses of field skills that created a permanent, and noticeable change on the world, then people wouldn't dislike them to the degree they do, especially if they were used in some sort of colony 6-esque quest where you're using your field skills to rebuild a town or something similar. Overall, I get why people don't like field skills, but if Monolith has listened to complaints and learns from them, then I'd be happy to see them return.

[@ryky94]

I think it would be awesome if they brought back skells (or just mechs in general) even if its lategame. I still havent played X yet, but skells always looked so badass to fly around in. Especially if they change them up to look more like siren or aion. For combat, i just want as much variety as there was in xc2, maybe a little more fast paced without the need for deserts lol. Some variety to the break system would be cool as well.

[@MarimbaGod]

This man commits to his Wifu so hard he changed his portrait within days. Respect

[@EnelXC]

lol just for xc3 hype period

[@EZX280]

I think that everyone's weapon is going to model something that was used in a previous game, obvious ones include twin rings and shield hammer, but also Reyn's weapon and maybe the origami guy has arts similar to melia.

[@Spiritofpower24]

Mostly I just hope they bring Skells back, or at least an updated version of the Skell mechanics. This is almost entirely because I think giant robots are really really really cool and I've always been a little bit sad that XCX is the only Xenoblade to let you fully drive one in the overworld.