It’s here that we pick up on the story in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the latest (and, we think, biggest) installment in the numbered trilogy. We begin our story on Aionios, a world that appears to be a fusion of the worlds of Bionis and Elrest from the previous two games.
Duality, fusion, and eternity are all core concepts in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and of course, we don’t intend to spoil any of the great plot twists that await you later in the game. What is immediately clear, however, is that our two universes have merged together, but maintain an “opposite” stance to each other.
This is where Monolith works its magic as soft developers. Although every game in the franchise naturally improves on previous iterations, Monolith Soft has revamped the gameplay system in a way that is directly tied into both Aeonios’ new story and the wider universe.
The clever interplay of game and mechanics begins with our setting, and in particular, our playable characters.
Aionios is divided into two warring nations of Caves and Agnus, each with their own distinct race (and of course, they’ve been in every Xenoblade universe since our drunken Nopon on both sides).
Our Cavs characters are from the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 1—we have Noah, a human (or Hom, if you prefer); Lanz, a hybrid Machina; and Uni, a (probably a later generation) High Antia.
And with Agnus crew, we watch Xenoblade Chronicles 2—we have Mio, a cat-eared Gormotti; Taon, a human; and the army, whose design and pronunciation suggest that it descended either from the blade or from the indole.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 returns in a wonderfully regional British accent, and these are also consistent markers of our characters and their lineage. Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Urayans make an appearance as a “third party” to this two-player battle, with Oker Aussie accents that speak to their isolationist history created despite the worlds merging.
But it’s not just the characters—Monolith Soft has also modified the gameplay to match the two worlds.