I recently picked up a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in a sale and don’t have enough time to play all the previous titles at the moment. I know that playing the games in a chronological order would be beneficial in terms of background story and lore, but is it possible to follow the story without having played one and two before?
You can play the main game without playing any of the previous ones. There are certain things (in main story / plot) that you will enjoy more if you have played the previous two mainline games though, but for the majority of game, it has nothing to do with any other game.
As for the DLC, Future Redeemed, it brings all 3 games together, and I don’t think you’ll enjoy it without playing all the games.
Thanks for your input, I think I’ll give it a shot then!