Thread: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 [OT] - "Lets get stuck in!" (Decent Internet Connection Recommended)
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I don't think they factored in all the exploring XP people can get when working on the leveling curve. It is very easy to level up a bit too much if you like to fully do everything in each zone before moving on. The biggest downfall to that is you don't really get as much CP to unlock classes once you start to overlevel stuff. They should have baked in the level downgrader that XBC2 added in NG+ to the regular game here. They already created the tech for it.
Yeah, explored most of the Desert area on chapter 3 before even getting on the road lol. I'm quite overleveled for the Ribbi Fields.
 
I found Teach, but that was entirely optional. Can you like entirely skip colonies in the course of playing?

Also, is there a way to turn the announcer on? I miss him saying stuff during combos.
 
I found it is pretty easy to unlock classes even when overleveled by grinding mobs around my level. I was doing some +3 level snakes and it took a little over 20 minutes to unlock a new class for all characters. The character paired with whoever has the class will unlock it pretty quick. Then you have 3 characters in the party with that class so that speeds it up more. Then keep changing more characters to the class as it unlocks until everyone is done.

Of course you'll also gain a regular level or so in the process of doing that making your level even more inflated…
 
Ok, so Xenoblade 3 is really really good, about to leave Colony 4. It just keeps building and building.

I also returned to Xenoblade 2 to continue it from where I left off on chapter 4, after hearing and seeing how crazy amazing it gets. Got some side quests done finally, got past the fucking nightmare that is the factory. Heading towards Rex's hometown and then Indol. 2 starting to really pick up. Mor Ardain has nifty western music.

I already spoiled everything for myself for 2 over the years and recently even 3, nothing new. Mass Effect 3, Bioshock Infinite, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Game of Thrones, Star Wars sequels all taught me the error of not knowing the ending.
 
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I have a huge backlog of games but with Xeno 3 it is just one of those games that clicked with me immediately. Enjoying it immensely. Went to bed at 4 am last night and I am paying for it now.

I also think that I should get honest with myself and admit that I just don't really like many games on my backlog and just forget about them.
 
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I found Teach, but that was entirely optional. Can you like entirely skip colonies in the course of playing?

Also, is there a way to turn the announcer on? I miss him saying stuff during combos.

Teach teaches you ability to walk up sandfalls so how optional can that be?
 
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I finished the game last night. I found the second half of the game drags a lot compared to the beginning half. There are tons of cutscenes that are just lenghty speeches about having hope or whatever. They are tedious and never really add much. Plus there are a lot of lengthy speech -> fight long boss fight -> fight same boss again -> another speech patterns in the second half. It really starts to drag.

Overall I'd say:
Gears = XBC2 > Saga3 > XBC1 > Saga1 > XBC3 > Saga2 > X

Good things:
-The combat is fun and they made a lot of improvements.
-The world is huge and fun to explore.
-Quality of life stuff. No more field skills or awkward shit like that.
-Music is solid.
-Appears to be a lot of endgame content like usual for Xeno games.

Bad:
-Overall I did not like the story as much as any of the past XBC games.
-The villians felt much weaker. Don't want to go into spoilers so I will leave it at that.
-The cast is decent, but not great. Noah is very boring. I didn't think I would go into this game missing Rex, but Noah is that bad of a character.
-The world is big and fun to explore, but none of the zones really stand out as memorable. I liked the Titans in the last game much better. They felt really unique.
-Hero system is a good idea. But in the end it makes all the characters feel the same.
-If you do all the content as you go you become super overleveled early on. I stopped doing side content half way through and was overleveled until the last dungeon.
-Performance can start to chug a lot in the open areas.

I have a lot more to say about the story but since we probably don't have many who have beaten the game yet I will leave that out.

Overall I still did enjoy the game it feel it is worth playing. It's just not nearly as good as the last games. I'd rate them XBC1 (9.5), XBC2 (10), XBC2 (8.5). A bit disappointed since XBC2 is one of my favorite games of all time, so I had hyped this one up a lot.
 
I finished the game last night. I found the second half of the game drags a lot compared to the beginning half. There are tons of cutscenes that are just lenghty speeches about having hope or whatever. They are tedious and never really add much. Plus there are a lot of lengthy speech -> fight long boss fight -> fight same boss again -> another speech patterns in the second half. It really starts to drag.
Isn't that pretty much XBC1 and XBC2 as well, or is it worse in 3.


I'm about 25 hours in at this point and starting to open up a lot of the hero classes. What party comp did you end up running? Two of each - attacker/healer/tank or some other combo?
 
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Isn't that pretty much XBC1 and XBC2 as well, or is it worse in 3.


I'm about 25 hours in at this point and starting to open up a lot of the hero classes. What party comp did you end up running? Two of each - attacker/healer/tank or some other combo?
I felt the last two games started out at a decent pace and really ramped things up. The last few chapters of XBC2 were pretty crazy and lots of good reveals. I didn't feel the same about XBC3. It just kind of started to drag and I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. The dialogue in the prior games felt like it had more meaning, but this game was just the same kind of generic speeches a lot. I still enjoyed the game a lot, but it didn't really hit the highs of the other games at any point.

Party make up did not matter too much since it was so easy to overlevel most of the game. I normally did 1 tank, 2 healers and 3 dps. But a lot of times I just tossed random compositions in there depending on which classes I felt like leveling.
 
I felt the last two games started out at a decent pace and really ramped things up. The last few chapters of XBC2 were pretty crazy and lots of good reveals. I didn't feel the same about XBC3. It just kind of started to drag and I wasn't a huge fan of the ending. The dialogue in the prior games felt like it had more meaning, but this game was just the same kind of generic speeches a lot. I still enjoyed the game a lot, but it didn't really hit the highs of the other games at any point.

Party make up did not matter too much since it was so easy to overlevel most of the game. I normally did 1 tank, 2 healers and 3 dps. But a lot of times I just tossed random compositions in there depending on which classes I felt like leveling.
Cannot deny any of this, more than halfway through. Been loving it anyways, but yeah.
 
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How do you activate Noah's Monado? There was the fight at the castle that taught you about it but now playing the game I can't do it. It also doesn't seem to be a tutorial. Is it an art that needs to be equipped?
 
I finished the game tonight. Overall I liked it, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I was hoping we would get more XC1 and XC2 story background. Future Connected played nearly no role in this game as well. This entry doesn't even have the cornerstone of the Xeno series, either shown or implied.

Combat got really old as the game went on, so much so that in the last area I just used auto battle. I found combat in XC1 boring as well.

The last area of the game felt rushed, samey looking environment with very linear movement.

The final boss is one of the worst in a JRPG I have played. Fighting the same guy multiple times isn't fun and drags on forever. This is even worse than the final boss in P5R.

Environments are very well done and the world feels connected. I did not like the world building nearly as much as in 2, and this game lacks that soul which made XC2 such a great game.

The enemies were honestly pretty lame and comicbook-esq. Not the thought provoking enemies of XC1 or 2.

Honestly my favorite part of the game was a photograph in the final cutscenes.

Good game, but probably not top 30 for me. For the record XC2 is my #1. I hope the DLC story gives us more background.
 
Want to give my feedback to the game, too. The following is a "review" I wrote shortly after finishing the game several weeks ago. I wrote it as the text for a video, so pls don't mind odd wording here and there; didn't use the text ultimately, because I wasn't happy with the "review". It still largely represents my opinion of the game, but there's a lot more to it. It's easily my goty, but within the context of acknowledging that all Xenoblade-games are masterpieces, there's also a lot I have to criticize. Anyway, here goes:


How Xenoblade Chronicles 3 sent me into actual depression – A Questionable Masterpiece

Hey guys, this is Monolith Soft guy,
after having done a short joke video and the service video for newcomers, I felt like like I owe the game a little more in-depth look, now that I've finished the main story and am knee deep in my new game plus, doing all the side content.

This can never be a definitive review, if only because the game is way too fresh on the market and only time will tell where it ends up ranking among previous Xenoblade-games. But for those who played the game themselves and want to hear other voices, I will talk about what worked and what didn't in this video. There will be spoilers, so if you haven't finished the game, I recommend stoping the video now. Anyway, let's go:

Worked: Characters
What absolutely worked is the characters of your party. Unlike other games, there was basically no delay between starting the game and falling in love with every single party member. Marketing and trailers might have helped, but the game doesn't wait hours before each member has had their character arc to flesh out their personality. One reason for this is that every party member is revelant to the story at any given time. Comare this to Xenoblade 2 where Tora had his arc in the Mor Ardain factory, Zeke had his arc in Tantal and then it became quiet for them. Not so in Xenoblade 3, where all 6 party members naturally interact with each other and the occurring events, never making anyone feel like an afterthought or 5th wheel. And yes, Eunie is precious.

Didn't work: Empty environments
This became more frustrating the longer the game went on: Every colony, every settlement of sorts looks empty and has these super broad streets that would let 4 to 5 hummer jeeps drive next to each other. My inner fanboy tried to rationalize this with the pragmatic nature of Aionios' world, but even then it's just too damn empty. Compare the locations of XB3 to dense towns like Torigoth, Fonsa Myma or even Xenoblade 1's Colony 9 and there's no comparison really. So much visual detail can be found in Xenoblade 2's towns, whereas Xenoblade 3's locations are comletely sterile for the most part. You'd think there'd be at least spare parts, levnisses on standbye or or other ressources lying around, but nothing. Just vast, empty streets. Even for the cruel world of Aionios, this was too little and made settlements immensely less interesting to explore compared to previous games.

Worked: Sidequests
While the main story of Xenoblade 3 can be finished in a good 40 hours, the game does the same genius "trick" that Cyberpunk 2077 did: Sidequests are extremely relevant for the overall story, be it because of additional information, learning more about other characters or unlocking important features. This isn't like those random sidequests from past Xenoblade-games that you played because they existed, no, these are sidequests that might as well be part of the main story, but just happen to be optional. A fantastic way of creating meaningful side content. I would hope more developers adopt this style for their long-winded jrpgs, as it lets more casual players finish the main story more easily, but rewards those of us willing to put in the time and effort. It's really day and night how great the sidequests in Xenoblade 3 are compared to the first two games.

Didn-'t Work: Cheap looking cutscenes in the last two chapters
Honestly, this is what makes me think Monolith Soft ran out of budget as they neared end of development, because they certainly didn't lack time. Just have a look at this cheap looking cutscene from the final showdown in the game. You'D think this is where Monolith Soft would put in the most effort, but what we get are these basic looking air ships fyling like they're from an early Xbox 360-game. And just so you understand what I'm comlaining about, these are similar cutscenes from Xenoblade Definitive Edition and Xenoblade X. I won't even mention Xenoblade 2's ending cutscene that was pure hype. Xenoblade 3's cutscenes start out great up to the emotional peak in chapter 5. But then something must have happened and they began to look too simple, not as exciting as we'd exect from Xenoblade, and simply cheap at times. Fortunately, the very last cutscene returns to the high quality of the beginning of the game, but it's a bummer that Monolith Soft couldn't keep it up during important scenes in the game's showdown.


Worked: Battle Music
Not much to say here, except: Mitsuda really nailed all those pulse-driving battle themes. My favorite is easily the song that plays when you're fighting the consules. Reminds me of the Thundercats-opening song, if you're old like me and remember that cartoon show. So good.

Didn't Work: Vaguness
Whether or not Takahashi went for some meta message there, leaving so many questions unanswered, important questions, left a lot to be desired. Hence why a lot of people hope for the DLC to focus on the Founders and how origin came to be and what really happened before the merging of worlds. It's up to anyone whether this is a big point of criticism or not, some people like stories that don't answer questions, other peole want to know all the details. Considering there's at least 3 characters in the game that should know ALL the answers, it's very much an intentional choice not to tell the players. Personally, I wanted to know more and I still hope that the DLC will do some answering.

Worked: Story

Hyperbole incoming: Xenoblade 3 features the best story not only of all the Xenoblade-games, but pretty much any video game I've ever played. That is because its story isn't about some fantasy world and fantasy characters – at its core, Xenoblade 3 is about death, the meaning of life, and how to cope with loss. And that is told to the player both on a traditional layer of watching the party members experience these relatable events, as well as on a meta layer that directly addresses the player, subtly breaking the 4th wall.

When Z and the consuls watch these poor Keves and Agnus soldiers murder each other and it's all fun for Z and his underlings, and sitting in a movie theather althewhile, too, then even talking about how they can just make "new ones", as in "create new soldiers that will fight and kill each other", it's almost like Takahashi directly attacks the player. "This is you", he says here, "treating virtual lives just like Z, simply because you have the power to do so". And he's not wrong.

The most impactful part of the story was the end, however. As the finale went down, N and Z were explained as being villains because of their desire to keep the world from changing, to stay in the "endless now" forever. Eventually you defeat Z and prove to him that life must go on, that there is no meaning without change. And thus the game reaches its conclusion. It doesn't answer many questions, as mentioned before, but the final cutscene is quite enjoyable nonetheless. However, what really hit me at the end was how I had become Z. I didn't want the game to end. I wanted more. Inside me, I was screaming for answers, for more chapters and I was a bit upset how meaningless the end of the story felt at first glance. As someone who's suffering from depression, the sudden realization that playing this video game was just as meaningless as Z keeping up the "endless now", waiting for the slow, but guaranteed destruction of the world, sent me into a several day lasting depressive low. Instead of continuing with new game plus immediately, I didn't play the game at all for 3 full days. It took me that time to realize that the story of Xenoblade 3 wasn't actually meaningless, and thus the time I spent with it wasn't meaningless either. Ulltimately, Xenoblade 3 tells a story about making the most of life and accepting the inevitable. I'm not personally there yet, but as a message it couldn't be stronger, and I think a lot of people will be able to relate in similar ways I did.
 
Want to give my feedback to the game, too. The following is a "review" I wrote shortly after finishing the game several weeks ago. I wrote it as the text for a video, so pls don't mind odd wording here and there; didn't use the text ultimately, because I wasn't happy with the "review". It still largely represents my opinion of the game, but there's a lot more to it. It's easily my goty, but within the context of acknowledging that all Xenoblade-games are masterpieces, there's also a lot I have to criticize. Anyway, here goes:
Nice review.

I actually disagree with you strongly on these points:

Characters- I thought the individual time dedicated to characters in 2 worked much better as they were more memorable and fleshed our their story better. In 3 it all just blends together, aside from the very small and shallow character quests. While this approach is probably more natural, it didn't do much for the characters.

Story- I think this game is only stronger than X in story. I'm not in love with XC1, but I think it's story is much more complete, where you also said that 3 had too many unanswered questions. Z and the consuls while being very comicbook villain-esq weren't really believable. "Because I wanted to" is the weakest cop-out in Xeno history, a franchise known for it's complex villains.

Empty-environments- This actually works with the story I think. While XC1 and 2 didn't have believable world populations, the story of 3 at least makes some sense to make up for this. I think a lot of this ties to the story being told vs the game, and this is why I think 3 has the worst world building of the entire franchise (Gears and Saga included).

You are right about the game feeling like it ran out of time/money after chapter 5. The entire end feels rushed and empty, which leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Someone somewhere said XC3 is Xenogears; if it is, then certainly the end of the game is one of those aspects. I was honestly much happier with the end of gears than I was 3.
 
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Finished the game, it's good but XC2 still holds the best for me. XC2 > XC3 > XC1. I think the other titles also drag things a lot we just don't remember much of that due the high notes they have at times.

Now let's talk about about best builds per roles, let me know if this is spoilery enough.

Attacker:

Flash Fencer - Noah, focused on crit rate 50-60% and crit damage percentage on both gems and skills. Instant Lucky seven combo kills
Ogre - 25% reaction boost is massive for easy combos.
Crit girl or that postgame attacker - self explanatory

Defender:

Only Zephyr - Focused only on agility and evasion (except for their arts). Increased evasion on stationary, draw aggro for every evade, start aggro gem. Evade queen is the best.
Other are not worth the slot imo.

Healer:

Buff girl - self explanatory, with fusion arts also focused on great buffs.
War medic - used buff girl fusion arts and fast recharge field, really short art and cancel animations is a plus.

Other things:

Don't sleep on top tier talent arts: Pause buff timer and awakening.
Make sure you have both smash n burst combos.
Don't ever sleep on putting fast recharge art/recharge on crit skills. Also that 40% shorten auto, works on both keves and agnus classes.
Post game classes are good just not explored much for me, only used their non stacked skills.
 
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I decided to buy this for some reason without really looking into it too deeply. Played the first two hours, but man, this setting/story setup combined with the ridiculously modern dialogue of the characters is just so unbelievable and poorly thought out that I'm having trouble getting into it. The systems seems pretty cool, but does the story ever get less ridiculous or become somewhat more believable, because this is a bit much.
 
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I decided to buy this for some reason without really looking into it too deeply. Played the first two hours, but man, this setting/story setup combined with the ridiculously modern dialogue of the characters is just so unbelievable and poorly thought out that I'm having trouble getting into it. The systems seems pretty cool, but does the story ever get less ridiculous or become somewhat more believable, because this is a bit much.
.... he said and proceeded to raise FF7R, P5R and DQ11. lol

There's jrpg with a more well-thought out story.
 
I decided to buy this for some reason without really looking into it too deeply. Played the first two hours, but man, this setting/story setup combined with the ridiculously modern dialogue of the characters is just so unbelievable and poorly thought out that I'm having trouble getting into it. The systems seems pretty cool, but does the story ever get less ridiculous or become somewhat more believable, because this is a bit much.
Two hours in?

For the record this game is tied in from the previous entries but I'm confused what kind of information that seems so ridiculous to you to comprehend just two hours in.
 
.... he said and proceeded to raise FF7R, P5R and DQ11. lol

There's jrpg with a more well-thought out story.
Dragon Quest XI is amazing, even if its basic story of fantasy
and sci-fi elements actually good vs evil is differently handled then Xenoblades sci-fi trappings. This and Xenoblade 1/2, Okami, 13 Sentinels, Dragon's Crown Pro existing almost make up for Star Wars and other seminal works of good vs evil being ruined or subverted. Okay, not really but they are all amazing I think.
 
I decided to buy this for some reason without really looking into it too deeply. Played the first two hours, but man, this setting/story setup combined with the ridiculously modern dialogue of the characters is just so unbelievable and poorly thought out that I'm having trouble getting into it. The systems seems pretty cool, but does the story ever get less ridiculous or become somewhat more believable, because this is a bit much.
I've played Xenoblade 1 and seen a lot of 2 and 3, and I think that the story is actually the roughest part of the franchise. The characters are usually well fleshed out, the combat systems are quite interesting, the game world is huge with nice graphics and the game life is a goo length usually. The problem I see with the franchise is sometimes the story gets too cerebral, but others may like that in their games. If the story isn't your kind of thing, I'd just enjoy the quests and combat instead. I think the last quarter of Xenoblade 1 I skipped most of the cutscenes because it was just getting way too complicated for me.
 
I finished the game last night. I found the second half of the game drags a lot compared to the beginning half. There are tons of cutscenes that are just lenghty speeches about having hope or whatever. They are tedious and never really add much. Plus there are a lot of lengthy speech -> fight long boss fight -> fight same boss again -> another speech patterns in the second half. It really starts to drag.

My interest in the game cratered halfway through, I
got to the sword town
and have to do some quests to progress the plot and I just lost all interest. Last played it August 15, not sure when will get back to it.
 
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Two hours in?

For the record this game is tied in from the previous entries but I'm confused what kind of information that seems so ridiculous to you to comprehend just two hours in.

The basic premise is just so ridiculous that I'm having trouble accepting the characters.

I mean, you have these two factions that are engaged in a forever war and make clone soldiers that only have 10-year (?) lifespans. That could be an interesting setup, but none of it comes through in the characterization or dialogue (at least so far). The characters all talk and act like normal people or even stereotypical teenagers. Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else, but it just feels beyond ridiculous to me and makes it hard to care about anything.
 
The basic premise is just so ridiculous that I'm having trouble accepting the characters.

I mean, you have these two factions that are engaged in a forever war and make clone soldiers that only have 10-year (?) lifespans. That could be an interesting setup, but none of it comes through in the characterization or dialogue (at least so far). The characters all talk and act like normal people or even stereotypical teenagers. Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else, but it just feels beyond ridiculous to me and makes it hard to care about anything.
You realize that there was a young Noah in the first cutscene, right? And then there's an older Noah who's a soldier., but that older Noah is already part of the 10 year-cycle setting. In case you still don't understand: People aren't born without any previous knowledge in this world. They might lack memories, but they're still a certain persona, hence why they behave like an established person and not like someone who spent the first years after birth in that gruesome world.

Have you played Xenoblade 2? It's similar to blades: When a blade dies, it loses all memories. But the general persona of a blade remains the same as can be seen directly with Brighid, Ageon and Roc who all "die" over the course of the game, but are re-.awakened. Xenoblade 3 eventually makes this even clearer, without spoiling too much.

Also, on one hand I agree that the general atmosphere amongst soldiers is too "happy" considering the gruesome setting. On the other hand, we all know how American soldiers behave when they go to war, so it's not that far-fetched that there'd be a more lighthearted atmosphere amongst soldiers who exist in a perma-war situation.

Feel free to not play the game, but it's a better story than any of your FFs, Tales or Personas. Just takes more thought here and there.
 
The basic premise is just so ridiculous that I'm having trouble accepting the characters.

I mean, you have these two factions that are engaged in a forever war and make clone soldiers that only have 10-year (?) lifespans. That could be an interesting setup, but none of it comes through in the characterization or dialogue (at least so far). The characters all talk and act like normal people or even stereotypical teenagers. Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else, but it just feels beyond ridiculous to me and makes it hard to care about anything.
I've never seen anyone make this statement no matter at what point in the story they are in. Tell me which JRPGs are more believe than this story?

I mean, what is normal to you for soldiers, especially young soldiers conditioned to fighting all their lives with "homecoming" seen as their prestige moments. Also, those 10-year lifespans ranges from age 10 to 20, so do they act like their age there at times.
 
Does a Smash combo always do insane damage during chain attacks? Did one for the first time at the end of chapter 5 against a boss and I think it did something like 800k damage, actually had to do a double take cause the boss still had half an HP bar before it went to overkill suddenly.
 
Glad I decided to stick with this despite my initial qualms with the characterization. About 6 hours in now and things are definitely starting to pick up and I'm quite into it now. Maybe it's because I've played previous Xenoblade games and lots of MMORPGs, but the tutorials seem less frequent in this game, which is quite refreshing.
 
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My desire to continue to push on with the game started to wane around the start of Chapter 5. I'm continuing to push forward, but slowly.

XBC 3 seems to suffer from the same pacing issues as 1 & 2, in that there are long swaths of the game that are literally info dumps via cutscenes/dialog interspersed with walking around an area talking to people, with perhaps a fetch quest or two thrown in for good measure.

When you have two hours to play and you know that 90 minutes of that is going to be taken up with going from point a to point b without combat and viewing cutscenes/dialog, it's really hard to push through and play the game.

The game has a fun and engaging combat and job system but it's bookended by long stretches of dialog that are almost a chore to get through.
 
I hate transpeople so much :/

Juniper is a girl, ffs. The english translation is wrong and pushes an agenda. She's not nonbinary in the original. I'm so sick of these assholes trying to use her as a "win" when it's based on an intentional mistranslation.

/rant
Apparently in the code her gender is set to some 'other' thing. Roc in XC2 was the same way.
 
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The code doesn't say shes nonbinary. And Roc is a bird monster, he's got gender, he doesn't fuck.
Another bullshit post by the little bitch boy who whines about "facts" being dead.

According to the game files, the internal values assigned to the "gender" of the characters are 0 for male, 1 for female, as well as the undefined value 2, which was assigned to the character Juniper, and only suggests that there is no male or female gender assigned to Juniper.
According to the code of the game in version 1.0.0, Roc's gender is defined as "4". Judging by the data tables: 1 = Male, 2 = Female, 3 = Animal, 4 = Other.

Maybe it's time you just gave up trying to make the word bend to what you think is right and lashing out when the truth is a palm mash of the keyboard away.

Although I will probably miss the peak clown posts which always contain great contributions like:

:/
ffs
/rant