Nintendo shares the basics of Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s combat system

Nintendo of Japan is doing a solid job sharing tons of details for Monolith Soft’s upcoming Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and we’re analyzing every little detail, especially when it comes to combat.

the Xenolame The series is known for having a plethora of systems to dive into, and with each entry there are only more and more layers on top. So Nintendo gave us a little insight into the basics of combat. This gives us some new details and expands on information the company shared with us last week, though a lot of the information will be familiar to Xenoblade veterans.

First up on the blog update – which was helpfully translated by RPG Site – is the mention of Blades. Xenoblade fans will remember the Blade system from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Nintendo actually tweeted about it late last week.

Soldiers of Keves and Agnus can materialize the weapons they use in battle, called blades, at will. Each soldier’s Blade is a reflection of themselves, so they can take different forms such as swords, guns, shields or spears!

We’re sure this is making some fans’ brains spin – some people are already drawing comparisons between Blades materializing out of fire and Pyra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – but it’ll be interesting to see how the Blade system relates to the class of the game. system.

Speaking of classes, like its predecessor, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 brings back the attacker, defender, and healer roles. These pretty much do what you’d expect them to, but we’ll go into more detail below in this nice little diagram, which shows what each character’s likely starting role is. Noah and Sena are attackers, Mio and Lanz are defenders, and Eunie and Taion are healers.

The Attacker role is obviously best for dealing heavy damage, both to the side and from the back – it’s always been useful to take advantage of that in Xenobalde’s fight, so it’s no surprise that it comes back here. The most important role for an attacker is to make sure they deal a lot of damage while dodging enemy attacks, which is where the next role comes in handy.

Defenders – think Reyn and Dunban from Xenoblade Chronicles – are good at guarding and escaping. Their job is to draw in enemy aggro and take the brunt of the damage, or dodge enemy attacks, so they’re built to last in combat. As a result, much of their skills focus on stunning enemies and getting their attention.

Of course, there’s always the healer role, who works to support the party with healing spells and buffs. Healing can draw enemy aggro, so they should stay on the periphery of the battle, as they are much squishier than other roles

Nintendo also delved into other familiar systems found in previous Xenoblade games, but they’re good callbacks for fans and nice little introductions for newcomers.

The first is the target line, which indicates who the enemy is aiming at. If the line is red, that means it’s targeting an attacker or healer, but if it’s focusing on a defender, the line will be blue. Here is what you want.

A few healer skills only heal within a limited radius, one of them being Eunie’s Healing Circle. If used, Eunie will place a circle on the ground that gradually heals the health of all allies in it. In Xenoblade Chronicles 3 healers are also the only role that can revive deceased party members, you may want to have two healers in your party in case one drops.

Now we return to those adorable diagrams to talk about what Nintendo calls “flexible formation.” Really, this is just advice to make sure your defender is in front of the enemy and your healer is close to the group – but not too close to take aggro or damage – to allow the attacker to make the most of its best damage. skills and damage bonuses.

An extremely interesting new feature is the ability to sheathe weapons during combat. Having your weapon makes your character slower, so to move a little faster you can temporarily (and magically, from the looks of the clip below) sheath your weapon to perform a “quick move”, which looks like a small dash.

The last bit of advice Nintendo shared was something we touched on yesterday – the ability to switch between characters at the touch of a button. This nice quality of life feature is almost immediate, so you can chop to change however you see fit.

Phew! That’s a lot of information. Thanks to RPG Site for translating the information. It looks like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 builds on the foundations of the previous three games while adding little things like fast character swapping and faster combat movement options. And that’s only the beginning ! We haven’t seen much of the class system or what the Ouroboros will entail, but even that little familiar tidbit is enough to get us excited.

You can check out more clips from Nintendo of Japan’s recent blog update below. Otherwise, let us know what you think of what you saw of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in the usual place!