Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is as enjoyable as it is inscrutable

theverge.com:

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the perfect game to get you through the annual summer drought of video game releases precisely because it is a game that seemingly goes on forever. By the time you finish it, it’ll be well into November, just in time to pick up Game of the Year shoo-in Skull and Bones or whatever little game Sony Santa Monica’s got going on that will surely be of no consequence whatsoever.

I’m not even sure the game can be finished because, at 25 hours in, it’s still throwing new mechanics and tutorials at me that increasingly complicate an already complicated game. That said, I’m strangely compelled by its combat, which makes it feel like an MMORPG, and its nigh-incomprehensible story. Half the time, I don’t know what’s going on, mechanically or narratively, but I’m enjoying it.

Let me disclose two things up front. Firstly, I haven’t finished this game. It’s a JRPG; those things take upward of 60 hours to complete. And even with the wealth of time Nintendo gave us — a luxurious full month — it’s just not enough. I’m only 25 hours in with an untold amount to go. Secondly, I’ve never played a Xenoblade game before. I’m a Final Fantasy girl, and the Xenoblade series came at a time when my tastes in JRPGs had long been calcified.

Knowing all of this, it’s possible my attitudes about the game might change once I hit the 50-hour mark. The game might, at long last, stop introducing me to new mechanics every three hours, allowing me to finally figure out how combat’s supposed to fit together. And the game’s story may finally start answering the many questions it has so far seemingly refused to acknowledge it’s even asked. So while this isn’t a formal review, it’s a good encapsulation of how the first half (third?) of