Since Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a massive game, and we were happily given it at launch to review, I thought it best to give my first impressions now, about 15 hours into the main story, with more updates and a final review to follow. 

The fact that a game like this can exist on the Nintendo Switch still amazes me. It really feels massive, almost in the same way that Breath of the Wild did. The colours and character models pop on my OLED’s screen. It is a beauty to look at, that’s for sure. 

In terms of performance, I have seen a few issues over my 15 hours, a bit of pop-in here and there, characters jumping from one spot to the other, and enemies being invisible (either below ground or in the surrounding terrain, no, not on purpose). The frame rate seems stable in and out of battle though and the game handles well in docked and handheld mode. 

Gameplay has something for everyone, with classes and skills to interchange on characters, which also level up independently based on how much you use them. This means you can have tiny Mio wield Noah’s massive blade, and Noah dance like Mio and each of them will level up their mastery of that skill until you switch them back to their original class. It’s a fun mechanic and adds another level to the layered onion of mechanics you will find and need to learn to play the game effectively. 

Choosing a difficulty level really make a difference! Easy is really just for the story – which is keeping me hooked so far – while the higher levels make you think about which character to use, which skill to give them, and what to accessorise them with, as well as if you really should take on that giant giraffe looking thing right now or come back in a little while. 

So far, so good. If you are a Xenoblade fan and you’ve been on the fence about this one, there’s no need. It’s worth the time and money. Stay tuned to The Nintendo Gamer for our final review in the near future…