I've been pleasantly surprised by the writing so far. I'm probably a little too used to anime trash, all told, but Xenoblade 3 has defied some expectations.
Immediately after the tutorial, the squad returns to base and hits the baths. I expected, well, the usual kind of shit you'd get with an anime bath scene, but then the game pulls a Starship Troopers and just has everyone bathing together and talking about their war shit with total frankness.
The inciting incident sets up a pretty standard sort of "fighting, bad??" moral, but I feel like the prologue did actually put a proper amount of time in to establish the sort of culture these characters exist in where they very literally live to fight and fight to live. It lands surprisingly well when Vandham tells them he's sixty years old, since that's literally longer than the entire party combined has cumulatively lived.
I almost wish the prologue lasted longer, though? I really liked how they throw the Flame Clock up on screen as part of the UI and you have to see it slowly tick down for a while while you're doing things, but it's there for maybe an hour until you hit the story beat where it becomes a moot point. Maybe I just didn't putz around enough near Colony 9, I guess. I can absolutely see the possibility of a late-game story beat where you lose the party's Ouroboros powers and have to go back to scavenging life juice, though.
(I actually like global timer mechanics. Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game, and I've got a real soft spot for Dead Rising 2. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer has a great one with the whole Spirit Eater mechanic, too.)
I didn't play Xenoblade 2 (and hell, it's been over a decade since I played Xenoblade 1), and that's been worrying me a fair old bit. Any time something shows up, I'm forced to constantly second guess if it's something I'm supposed to be recognizing. That sword on the horizon? Okay, I'll recognize that. But I had to be told that the big leviathan on the horizon was from 2.
Here's hoping the game stays enjoyable.
