TL;DR
Xenoblade 3 exemplifies the true theme of the series, which is overcoming yet embracing duality.
This game is very stream-lined and is lacking in significant amount of challenge.
This is just the basegame review. No DLC.
[Played on a Nintendo Switch Lite]
The worlds of Xenoblade 1 & 2 have merged into one. The story in this game takes the best from both games' DNA and creates a great product for fans of the series. MonolithSoft was able to carefully craft a game that easily can explain the purpose and theme of Xenoblade Chronicles: overcoming differences and manifesting what you imagine.
Xenoblade 3 has a lot of great additions. The Ouroboros fusions are really dynamic and interesting. The combat can be seemingly hectic with 7 people in a party too, but it actually works just fine. Changing classes and customizing your team is also really fun to do. The game encourages you to do this throughout, so there isn't just one OP build to smash on everything.
I played on Hard mode difficulty, and I will say that generally the bosses hit harder and have more HP in this mode. You also have to utilize combos at certain times, or your party will wipe out very easily. This game kind of emulates Xenoblade 1, where you really have to be over-leveled to beat enemies. There really isn't a lot of strategy necessary as we are dealing with an unrefined system. If you provide a decent, balanced party and utilize skills at the right time, hard mode isn't very hard. What annoys me the most is that hard mode doesn't encourage out-of-the-box strategy building but instead just reinforces the need to grind and do common-sense strategy. It did, however, get me to do a lot of fetch questing and try to immerse myself with the world of Xenoblade 3 and all the side missions.
While I don't like the deviation from Xenoblade 2's model, which fixed a lot of issues with boss mechanics as well as offering challenging battles and the need to strategize, this title still does a great job overall in player mechanics. I absolutely LOVE how I can change between party members, which was not available until this game! I didn't like how only healer classes could revive party members, as the other titles anyone can lift each other up. If this is a fusion of the 2 worlds, I don't know where they got that change in mechanic. Hopefully, they don't continue with that in the next Xenoblade game...
Xenoblade 3's questing seems to be very fetch-heavy and there is a lot of story/world building with the side quests. This is great, but also the affinity building in communities is sort of barren like in Xenoblade 1. The world does appear to be in conflict and in apocalypse war mode, and there are communities of humans yet I just don't feel like there is any human connection outside of the main characters. The overall world building is average at best. Everything in this title is so stream-lined, such as routes to go or even getting items. It makes exploration kind of unnecessary, as you will eventually end up being directed and shown where to go all the time. I found lots of "secret" or "hidden" areas easily.
Xenoblade 3, overall, makes a lot of bold moves in its combat system yet fails to be a challenging JRPG. It reflects a game build with emphasis of play-time over play-value, yet it is still a very good story and a decent RPG. I would not replay the title again, unless it was playing the DLC content (if I am correct, it is another story related, but unrelated to the save file of the maingame)... I definitely recommend players complete Xenoblade 1 & 2 before embarking on this journey (optional yet really does amplify the story's purpose here).