Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Excess of liberty, whether it lies in state or individuals, seems only to pass into excess of slavery.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a 2022 Japanese role playing game. The game is part of the Xeno series, serving as a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Sometime after the events of both the first and second games, the world of XC1 and Alrest began to fuse, on the day of Queen Melia's birthday. An unspecified amount of time later, the nations of Keves(XC1) and Agnus(Alrest) are fighting between each other in the fused world, called Aionios, in a seemingly endless war to extract from each other nothing less than the soldiers' own lives.

Yet, despite that, citizens on both sides only live ten years. They are conceived inside pods of liquid, emerge of them quickly already on the age of ten, and spent those ten years training for or fighting on the war, only to die or to go through a ceremony of ascension where they seem to vanish into sparks of light anyway.

Noah is a soldier of Keves just doing another day of killing, but then his colony receives instructions to retrieve an artefact carried by a third-party which both Agnus and Keves are dying to get their hands on. Soldiers on both sides are reduced to only four, and the third party to be reduced to one guy, which questions why the kevesi and agnian soldiers are even doing what they are doing, instilling doubt on their hearts. Before he can reveal who is responsible to Noah, however, he gets mortally wounded by a red giant carrying soldiers of both sides, comrades of both Noah and the agnian soldiers, and kills them to provoke both sides on a fight.

The third-party soldier, Guernica Vandham, activates the artefact, and Noah and an agnian female named Mio gain the ability to fusion with each other, which allows them to successfully make the red giant retreat, though he seems to be playing around with them and even bother to warns now they have gained this ability, called Ouroboros, they will be persecuted by both Agnus and Keves.

Taking off the mask he was wearing in his last moments, Vandham reveals to the survivors a shocking truth: humans can live up to sixty, and instructs them to go Swordmarch, the land pierced by a giant sword. This will somehow reveal the truth about the "real enemy" he can no longer reveal what it is.

Directed by Koh Kojima and Genpei Yokota, which also directed Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo.

Tropes used in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 include:

Absurdly Sharp Blade: "Lucky Seven" is so sharp that Lanz's own weapon cuts itself by trying to smash it.
Adaptation-Induced Plothole: Nopons' voices are a deliberate method for them to look adorable to other races. Even if Riku was raised as a soldier, he still mentions trying to look adorable, which seems illogical when his english voice being so deep.
Babies Ever After: A photo seen only by a few seconds on the ending reveals Rex had children with Pyra, Mythra and Nia after the ending of the previous game.
Badass Baritone: Taion's english voice is substantially deeper than everyone in the main cast bar Riku, whose voice seems to be there for comedic effect anyway.
Bare Your Midriff:
- In flashbacks, preteen kevesi soldiers wear outfits which reveal their bellies.
- In the present Sena wears a crop top on her default outfit, showing her belly.
- Juniper is a very curious case, where she dresses modestly with a top which covers her whole torso except exactly the belly button, almost like it's supposed to draw attention to it.
The Berserker: Eunie shows signs of this. She forces a fusion with Taion to attack Alexandria while she and Noah are talking, and Noah is clearly trying to make Alexandria back down.
Big Good: Melia and the queen of Agnus certainly try to act this way towards their side in-universe, by motivating them and leading them supposedly to victory; but how they do the war, by training kids from the cradle to fight and the fact their soldiers know very little of why exactly they even do what they do implies something else to the audience.
Blood Knight: It is heavily implied Eunie is one. She seems confused when Noah says they have been forced to fight, and later when he tries to invoke Thou Shalt Not Kill on the soldiers persecuting them, she asks the reason.
Catgirl: The gormotti females of course, Mio being the most prominent of them.
Five Man Band: Once the main cast decides to act together, their configuration is pretty obvious:
- The Hero: Noah, the protagonist and leader.
- The Lancer: Mio, which is an off-seer like Noah but unlike him was much less willing to question why she was fighting. Also, her starting class focuses on dodging, while Noah's starting class focuses on attacking.
- The Big Guy: Both Lanz and Sena have Super Strength and are quite hot-headed.
- The Smart Guy: Taion, which is constantly strategizing and trying to think logically.
- The Chick: Eunie, which is the most traditionally feminine of all females, and tries to act as a mediator between Noah and Lanz since they were preteens. She is also the only one with healing powers on her starter class.
Fusion Dance: Both Ouroboros and Moebius forms involves two individuals fusing their bodies with each other, creating an entirely new third form.
Heroic Sacrifice: In flashbacks, Joran is shown pushing Noah away from a piece of debris and being buried by it, killing him.
How Do I Shot Web?: After Mio and Noah's first transformation into Ouroboros, the party tries to figure it out how it works at all. Eunie and Lanza try what can only be described as post-apocalyptic Feng Shui to try to unlock it, but Noah deduces strong emotions are more likely the reason behind it.
Humongous Mecha: Both Agnus and Keves use giant robots in war, as do Vandham and his side.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The red giant acts like he is aware of how the main cast is supposed to act and deliberately lets them go and even provides hints despite being an antagonist, like the whole plot is really just a fictional plot for him.
Male Gaze: Alexandria's introduction noticeably focuses on her large glutes, and the camera really loves her large chest in general.
Mr. Exposition: The red giant on the prologue seems to be a subversion. He speaks a lot of things he has no purpose doing, but when he gives the party a clear hint what they should do next despite being their enemy they ignore him and return to their colonies.
Ms. Fanservice: Eunie. Her Ouroboros form is the one closest to look like a naked woman between all the females, her outfits both as a soldier and after becoming an outcast feature a cleavage window large enough to show the brand on her chest, and are also skintight.
No Nudity Taboo: Both females and males in Keves and Agnus bathe together. Considering they do not reproduce using sex and in fact do not have romantic relationships, gender barriers caused by sexual behaviour must have been completely eliminated.
Pettanko: Sena is petite and has nearly a flat chest, but acts more or less like a eighteen years old would.
Punny Name: In-universe. Noah tries to be subtle but he certainly don't thinks highly of having a sword named "Lucky Seven" when Riku offers it to him.
Retirony: Mwamba's homecoming is in practice a retirement(he will no longer be fighting, since he will be dead), and is pointed out it's only a month before it before he goes into the mission with Noah where he is killed.
Sideboob: Alexandria's outfit exposes the sides of her breasts.
The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: Noah's sword do not have an special status in Agnus or special powers, unlike Shulk's Monado and Rex's Aegis. Riku does goes on a lengthy explanation about on a flashback and is a pretty good sword, but she was simply offered to Noah like a special gift of the nopon to the human.
Younger Than They Look: Alexandria is only on her sixth term, which is means she is only sixteen, but she looks to be in her twenties.
X Meets Y: It's basically Xenoblade Chronicles meets Darling in the Franxx. Two factions are stuck in a seemingly eternal conflict, with the protagonists trying to understand why, and also the heroes slowly discover there is something very wrong with the assexual way they live compared to how humans who had not their sexuality repressed live like. For extra points, their mecha-like forms only work by men and women working together, much like the mechas on Franxx only work with a female and a male co-piloting.