Xenoblade Chronicles 3[b] is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is an installment in the open-world Xenoblade Chronicles series, itself a part of the larger Xeno franchise. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 depicts the futures of the worlds featured in Xenoblade Chronicles (2010) and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (2017) and concludes the trilogy's narrative. The development team wanted to develop a story-driven game in the style of the first two entries in the series, while featuring content and combat gameplay from previous Xeno entries. Like the first two entries, the game was localized by Nintendo of Europe. The gameplay combines elements from the first and second entries. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 takes place in Aionios, where two warring nations, Keves and Agnus, engage in perpetual war with soldiers with ten-year lifespans. The story follows Noah and his two childhood friends, Eunie and Lanz, from Keves, and Mio and her two fellow servicemen, Sena and Taion, from Agnus, who all gain a mysterious power and decide to cooperate to find safety. Through this journey, they uncover the mystery behind this perpetual war and the nature of their world. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was received positively by critics, who praised its story, themes, gameplay, music, characters, and scale, while criticism was focused on its technical and graphical issues at launch. The game had sold 1.81 million copies by December 2022. An expansion taking place before the events of the game, Future Redeemed, was released in April 2023.
