You Must Be Playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in First Person
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is one of the most popular Nintendo Switch games of the year thanks to its deep combat, compelling storyline and huge world to explore. The game is addictive from the start, but there is a way to get even more immersed in this epic JRPG.
As YouTube channel BoomStickGaming points out, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 can be played entirely in first person. Veterans of the Xenoblade series will know this is a recurring feature, but as someone who’s bounced back from most previous games in the series, I was completely unaware it was possible.
I played the first 10 hours exclusively in first person (apart from a single boss fight), and while it’s probably not the best way to play through the entire game, playing in first person really helped me immerse myself in Xenoblade. Early chapters of Chronicles 3 , and I intend to play as much of the game as possible this way.
How to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in first person
To play in first person, hold down the ZL button on the Switch controller and slide your right thumb up to get the camera fully in first person view, then push the stick left or right to adjust the height. You can also adjust the speed of “camera movement” and “camera zoom” in the settings menu according to your preference. Make sure the Camera Position is set to a medium value to center your character’s head, otherwise your view will be awkwardly shifted to the left or right.
To add to the sense of immersion, I also turned off the “mini-map”, “auto-target” and “additional information” settings and tried to hide or disable all quest markers and notifications whenever possible.
These are optional changes, but worth a try, even if you’re playing with the default camera view. This removes much of the UI clutter so you can see even more of the world as you explore. It also makes you pay more attention to your surroundings, which I find helps me connect more to the environment (you can easily open the map from the context menu if you need to double check your title).
Can Xenoblade Chronicles 3 be played in first person?
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, but so far I like the first-person view in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 , although it took some getting used to.
Playing from a first-person perspective gives you a closer look at the characters, enemies, and places you interact with, and really highlights the sheer scale of the world. Obvious comparisons to other large-scale first-person RPGs like The Elder Scrolls are immediately obvious, but running through these vast landscapes dotted with high-tech military bases and populated with alien flora and fauna reminded me of No Man’s Sky with an anime tinge. .
Navigating, jumping, and collecting collectibles is still easy, and most of the other actions you will perform, such as switching between party members, talking to NPCs, climbing stairs, and interacting with important objects, are intuitive and work like intended.
Combat is the only part of the game that requires some actual tweaking to make it work, but it’s doable.
Overall, the MMO-like combat system works great in first-person. Because the game clearly marks whether you’re standing in front, behind, or to the side of your target, it’s easy to tell if you’re in the right place to attack, even if you’re looking at a giant alien gorilla. , and your party members’ jokes will tell you what tricks they use. In first-person mode, the battles are more like tactical battles in CRPG blobs like Wizardry 8 or Might & Magic X.
However, you will need to tweak some settings if you plan to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in first person for a long time, as the constant visual barrage of the combat UI and other effects can be downright chaotic in this mode. Do as the BoomStickGaming video above suggests and disable all combat numbers except for your character’s damage pop-ups in the options menu. This will make first-person combat much more comfortable. I also decided to disable the “Combat Camera” option to disable cinematic cutscenes for certain attacks.
So far, I’ve found that the game can be fully played on normal difficulty after making these changes to the settings, but feel free to set the gameplay difficulty to “Easy” if you still find the combat too hard to control. You can always rotate the camera right before the start of the battle to take advantage of the third person perspective and then zoom back in while exploring.
No, the first person mode is not the “intended” way to play Xenoblade Chronicles 3 , but it made it a lot easier for me to get into one of the best JRPGs of the year. If you prefer first-person games or just want to try playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in a new way, I definitely recommend giving it a try.