Do You NEED to Play Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 Before 3?

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is just about here. But can you play it if you haven't played the previous games? We break it down in this spoiler-free video!

Want more on Xenoblade Chronicles 3? Check out some recent videos!
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Video by: Tris Valbuena
Thumbnail by: Tom Arnold
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#XenobladeChronicles3

[selder_]

I would highly recommend not playing any of the games back to back, they’re so big that burn out could be a big factor and they deserve better. Throw in something totally different in between at least

[MJTRadio]

Last year, when Metroid Dread was announced, I finally decided, "You know what? I own or have access to nearly every game in this series, but have only ever beaten Fusion. This is my call to action, time to actually catch up with this series."
Xenoblade 3 sparked an almost identical sentiment, I've only ever beaten X and 2. From the announcement to now, I finally beat Xenogears, Torna, Blade 1, and Future Connected. And believe me, if the September release date had held, I'd have tried to do Xenosaga as well.
Every game ranged from solid to amazing, glad I did it. Although the biggest takeaway has been the way about every five minutes of gameplay a little alarm has gone off in head saying, "Like how it was in Xenogears?" Because damn, that is a deep well and Takahashi will pull up anything he wants from it and still manage to do something cool with it.

[Mattaiko]

If your on the fence about whether you should play 3 not having played the other games then just go for it. Yes having the knowledge from the other games will add to the experience but it's not worth missing out on 3 because the thought of playing two other massive games first puts you off. Both Xc and Xc2 if played to a reasonable level of completion will take 100 hours at least and yeah I love both games but don't skip 3 because you are overwhelmed by thinking you need to beat the other games first. I originally played xeno 2 before going back only last year to play xeno 1 and honestly it didn't matter. Play 3 and then go back and play the other games later.

[Deepseashark]

Hearing you dont have to play one and two while seeing the trailers and seeing 2 specific characters really confuses me on how you would not have to play the og's

[fencerderio]

Given how Takahashi lied out his ass regarding 2’s connection to 1, yes. Yes you should.

[nodtomodley]

A hallmark of a good sequel is being able to welcome newcomers without requiring them to experience the previous installments.
Terminator 2 is probably the prime example of that, keeping it in the realm of video games, you got Metal Gear Sold.
So far Xenoblade Chronicles has been pretty good in that regard.

[UltimateTS]

I already knew this, but I'm the type that has to play through a whole franchise when I enjoy it, so I'm just gonna finish Future Connected, 2, then Torna and by that time I could potentially get 3 on sale and cap it off with that. I'm excited to get to it since it's been getting universal praise

[superstarthechannel]

I just finished Xenoblade 2 for the first time in preparation for this and I’m so excited

[adamn]

Thanks for doing this. I was thinking about picking this up at some point just later on because my gaming time is going to shrink considerably soon.

[theparadoxrejected]

I was gonna play through the others before 3, but I think Im just gonna jump into 3 this weekend and after I beat it, play the others followed by a replay of 3 so I catch all the small details

[prowolf]

I need to finish Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (and continue to hope that Rex can somehow be a fighter in future Smash games)

[renren]

XC3's Keves Battle theme has being my way to cope with the hype

This game soundtrack will be insane

[IgnatiusBlaze]

That's all I needed to know, what I liked about 2 when I played it 1st, I do usually like my games having some form of connection between previous entries, but RPGs in general tend to build their own stories and/or worlds. Like Fire Emblem not a lot of them are continuations, Final Fantasy only played a couple but know they aren't connected in any way, like I think the only RPGs I've played that has a connected timeline and universe is Zelda and Pokemon, and again some FE here and there. FE 2 doesn't need to be connected to FE 1 and 3 necessarily, you might miss some things if you haven't played 1 (or their remakes) but 3 is a continuation of 1 and 2, is that kind of how this is structured? Same with Awakening it's only ties to previous entries are being they're hundreds of years after 1-3 and the radiant games. Heck Blazing Blade was the 7th game and is a prequel to 6 Binding Blade, Fates has 3 characters from Awakening but it isn't necessary to know that before playing. Even Pokemon, even though the timeline is linear... ish, multiverse, you don't necessarily need to play the previous games, take this from someone who started on Silver and wondered who the hell this Red guy is on this mountain... to which child me got stomped hard.

[Leopez]

I have Xenoblade x and Xenoblade chronicles 2, I will buy Xenoblade chronicles 3 too it looks AWESOME. 😆

[Jacobell]

Honestly I’m glad. I loved 1 so much. It’s one of my favorite games of all time. But I picked up 2, played around 10 hours or so, but just couldn’t get into it. I think I’ll pick up 3 once I have the money

[angelsorcer]

I feel like it’s similar with pokémon or legend of zelda, it’s cool to have knowledge but you can play any game in any order

[zakirstocks]

I already finished Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2. Can't wait to get me Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this year! I have to know everything about Xenoblade Chronicles 3!

[shiibo]

It's gonna be my very first Xenoblade game 😊

[SarahAlasiry]

I finished XB DE last week, and immediately started XB2, and after that I'm gonna play Torna the Golden Country :) I'm in no rush to play XB3, I'll just let it release and get fixed with updates like every game nowadays before I even touch it. To answer your question, yeah you should play them but only if you have a lot of free time. XB DE took me 50 hours to finish, and now XB2 is finally starting to get good after like 20 hours of tutorials. These are very long games and if you can't play them all before XB3 then just jump into 3 but know that you won't understand certain things like Aegis, Monado, Cores, Bionis, Mechonis, etc... Have fun my XB comrades.

[DarthLocutus]

I wouldn't trust Takahashi's quote there.

He said most of the same things about Xenoblade 2. And those of us who finished that game know it was a bald-faced lie then.