As the credits of The Future Regained rolled, to the tune of the beautiful "Future Awaits" sung by Joanne Hogg, the same Joanne Hogg who sang "Small Two of Pieces" at the end of Xenogears twenty-five years ago, and rest assured It's no coincidence: we felt old, tired and a little sad. The latest downloadable content in expansion pass of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, A Future Regained is a much more substantial content than the previous ones, just as Torna ~ The Golden Country was for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 a few years ago, and closes a story that began in 2010 with the first title of the successful Monolith Soft series, when perhaps director Tetsuya Takahashi had not yet thought of a success of this caliber.
our review of A Future Recovered will contain some spoilers about the story of the previous games, because the new adventure strongly connects the entire trilogy and, in this sense, the choice to make it a paid content is also worth discussing: controversial but sensible. We will explain why in the following lines.
The grand finale of the series?
A recovered future is a kind of rude flashback- tells the story of the Founders, the heroes who established the outpost called City that the protagonists of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 discover during their adventure in the world of Aionios. If until recently we could only make educated guesses about their identities, based on the appearance of their statues and the clues offered in the dialogues with the inhabitants of the City, A Future Reconquered reveals the cards to us and explains who they were, how they fulfilled and how they paved the path that Noah and the others will travel many years later.
It might seem that the story told in the DLC is essential to understanding Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but that is not exactly the case: although it quite explicitly clarifies some narrative points that had remained vague or open to free interpretation - including the ending itself -, the DLC There remains a hiatus that late-game players, not interested in delving into the story, could easily skip.
The matter is complicated for those who, however, have tried to connect all the dots since the moment it was discovered that the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 merged that of the two previous titles. In this sense, A future recovered is real. Love Letter to all the players who have followed Tetsuya Takahashi's new saga over the years, from its first installment on Wii or perhaps even from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Switch, through the Definitive Edition of the first episode, of which now finally We understand some small changes.
The Xenoblade Chronicles 3 DLC represents more than anything theepilogue of the trilogy, and does not get lost in vagueness or insinuations but often answers in an almost didactic way to certain questions we asked ourselves while wandering around Aionios. And he almost always does it through the mouth of Shulk and Rex, the two protagonists of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, respectively, who accompany the new heroes on the adventure as playable party members.
Needless to say, for fans of the first two titles, playing as Shulk and Rex again - older, more mature and bruised, but still formidable - will be wonderful, but they also hold their own well. Mateo and A.: the first, who in her appearance and fighting style repeatedly reminds Fei Fong Wong of the charismatic swordswoman who is the perfect complement to Matthew's aggressive and determined character.
We must admit that we were a little less convinced by the other two characters who join the gang almost immediately. Nicole is brilliant: represent the factions of Keeves and Agnus respectively, thus establishing a contextual connection to the narrative of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but if Glimmer outlines an initial characterization full of potential that remains unexpressed, Nikol is even more irrelevant.
The game, however, has a good alchemy and works well, thanks also to a good introspective job that Takahashi managed to do despite the limited duration of the campaign, which is around 15-20 horas, although it could take at least 30 hours to see everything, unlock all the collectibles, and defeat each unique enemy. The satisfactory length of the DLC and its quality would justify the purchase of the Expansion Pass, especially if we take into account the rest of the content published in the months for the base game, including Heroes, additional missions and extra modes, but it must be admitted that proposing the Closing such a beloved saga for a fee might seem like a low blow towards the players who have followed him passionately over the years, perhaps jumping from one platform to another.
One might think, therefore, that A Future Regained is an infamous cut content, that is, a part of the base game that, due to time and budget reasons, Monolith Soft could not complete and integrate into the main campaign of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and that has already It is being sold separately, but the truth is that less demanding players, so to speak, will understand little or nothing of what happens in the DLC: the remember to the two previous titles - and not only that, we would add - are so marked that they risk ruining the experience for those who approached the series only with the second or third episode. In order not to alienate last-minute players, it made sense to offer this content separately.
Recovered gameplay
In terms of gameplay, A Future Reconquered builds on the solid foundations laid by even more. He combat system It works well or badly in the same way: we explained it to you in our review of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but it is worth making some considerations here. First, it is important to note that A Recovered Future almost completely undoes the class system, in the sense that each hero is defined by a characteristic role, but it is not possible to exchange classes and learn the skills and techniques of others.
Individual customization is therefore limited to the choice of accessories and gems, and also to the techniques There are only six per hero: three learned from the beginning and three to unlock that can be associated with the others through a variant of the fusion mechanic. Despite being more limited, the combat system is fluid and limited to the limited duration of the adventure.
For narrative reasons, in fact, the transformations in Uroboros - which manifest themselves in a moment when a Fusion Technique is used - are missing with everything that revolved around it, but Monolith Soft has worked transversally on other aspects of the combat system to ensure good variety and a minimum of customization. He Combo Union, for example, involve two characters in a spectacular attack, but it is possible to choose the heroes involved to modify the final effect of the Join Combo and related bonuses, which is particularly useful at the end of the Weak > Knockdown > Throw sequence. .
En group attacksHowever, the Union Orders replace the Uroboros Orders, closing the Heroic Chains with the Union Combos defined on the corresponding screen: considering that it is possible to strengthen these attacks and customize the intervention of individual characters in Group Assaults by equipping specific accessories called Manual, it is clear that the gameplay has not really been impoverished and, in fact, it is possible to play with these combinations to build truly unstoppable strategies, especially in the advanced stages of the game.
The progression of the characters, then, goes hand in hand with the exploration of this part of Aionio: Composed of five interconnected regions (there are no loading points separating them, unless you use fast travel), A Future Regained's map hides an exorbitant amount of collectibles and more or less hidden objectives. It is not the same map from the third game, but a part of Aionios that we explored last year, characterized by locations and panoramas inspired by the other two Xenoblade Chronicles, and especially the first: in short, fans will find the one that we could easily define like fan service concrete and sensible, considering the context.
By visiting locations, opening chests, defeating common and unique enemies, completing side quests, and more, we accumulate Comprehension Points, which we can then spend on the Comprehension Growth screen to unlock new skills, techniques, and passives to improve performance. of the six heroes in battle. Unlike Torna ~ The Golden Country, we will not be forced to complete secondary missions to advance the story, and the so-called Comprehension Objectives - which include Prestige with the inhabitants of Colony 9 - are outlined on a special screen that allows them to be tracked and understand what we have yet to discover in each individual region: the Reader wandering.
It is a subtle interweaving game, a kind of matryoshka of level design that works wonderfully, also due to the nature of the progression, close to that of the "metroidvania": the discovery of new displacement systems, like the ether slides and elevators, leads us to return to the areas already explored in search of those passages that seemed impassable until a few hours before, and that we can now follow to reach new collectibles and objectives.
It is an intelligent system, which promotes not only theexploration, but also the combat - defeating enemies completes a bestiary that rewards in Comprehension Points - and all the other dynamics of the game, including the customization of the characters themselves: additional slots for accessories, gems and Techniques are unlocked by finding specific kits , hidden for good on the stage or stored inside chests or particularly powerful unique enemies.
In retrospect, The Future Regained actually makes the base game feel overloaded with content and proves that ultimately a balanced gameplay and expertly intertwined with a contained progression works better than a host of variables and features. Additionally, lovers of a demanding challenge will find new features and some really tough super bosses waiting for them after completing the campaign and reloading the final save.
In short, A future recovered is a Flawless DLC which we explore without realizing it: we started it with the objective of simply closing the main story without wasting time with the secondary ones, and we ended up completing almost all the objectives without even realizing it. Longtime fans of the series may be disappointed by having to pay more to get the full story, but A Future Regained is worth every penny of the Expansion Pass, and we can safely say that this era of Monolith Soft ended on a note. high. style.
Conclusions
digital delivery Nintendo eShop Price 29,99 €Holygamerz.com
Readers (115)
8.9
your vote
PRO
- It is a long-lasting DLC with impeccable gameplay.
- Connect the three Xenoblade Chronicles and answer many questions.
AGAINST
- Anyone who has not played the first two chapters will understand little or nothing of the story
- Some characters were characterized in a more superficial way.
