I played this years ago and enjoyed it quite a lot, however the confusing combat and poor tutorials definitely held it back from being one of my favorites. However, on my second playthrough it ended up becoming top 5 games because I understood the combat from the beginning. This is one of those games where coming back to it after a first playthrough makes the game more enjoyable. And on my third playthrough, I still love this game. It is no longer top 5 now as Octopath 2 stole that away, but this is still one of the best games I've ever played. This has bar none the best Xeno combat and some of the best JRPG combat in general. So overly complicated, so many systems to remember, so much strategy! Thats what makes it fun. It's not for everyone, but I love it. The blade gacha is annoying for sure, but you can get most rare blades casually. I just wish I got Kosmos this time around.

The story is my favorite in the Xeno trio. It's cast is about on par with 3s but what tips it in it's favor is that the villains are a million times better in this game. 3 had N, but this game has about 6 villains that are memorable in their own ways and have a lot of depth. I also think the world building and backstory in this game is the best and it arguably has the biggest revelations regarding the Klaus storyline.

It has some bad filler at times, the performance can be abysmal, the field skills suck, the menus are way too laggy and the localisation is genuinely abysmal. But, this game is still special to this day despite this.

While I concede there are a lot of games of worse quality out there, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the game I hate the most in the world. Xenoblade 2 throws out what was good in the original and replaces it with porn material and annoying gacha mechanics. Any improvement they did make is near impossible to learn due to the awful tutorials this game provides.

Often times people boil down the differences between Xenoblade 1 and 2 and call Xenoblade 2 more "anime". While I agree with the message behind this, the truth is both games are "anime" and take a lot of themes and tropes from shonen animes; the difference between the two is what they take, and what they do with it. Xenoblade 2 takes too many of these tropes, especially the ones that have more to do with sexualizing women, and don't really mold it in any way beyond the setting. Xenoblade 1, while taking a lot of tropes from shonen animes, still tells a great story with a unique setting and premise, and at the same time mostly avoids the negative tropes and avoids the jerk off material. I think the dichotomy between these games just goes to show that tropes aren't inherently bad, but what matters is what you do with them and what you take from them.

Overall I still give Xenoblade 2 1 star because there is still something resembling a good game here, I like the premise behind the settings, I like a few of the characters who aren't so terribly designed, and so on. The thing is though, for me everything this game has fails miserably. While I didn't finish the game, if half of the chapters leave me this sour, I can't in good faith enjoy the 2nd half even if it is an improvement over the rest. In the end, I find Xenoblade 2 to be one of the most disappointing sequels ever made.

this game and borderlands should have a contest to see who has the most unfunny cutscenes. the music and gameplay are very good but that's about all i liked. alot of people love this game but it just never clicked with me. story was not engaging, the main cast designs look like generic units in a gacha game, and everything plays out like a 4/10 seasonal anime. this game isn't bad but personally there was just too much i didn't like. i hear 1 and 3 are much better so i definitely wanna give them a chance. xc2 has alot i do like but i have very little desire to finish this game despite having 40+ hours invested.

XC1 review: https://www.backloggd.com/u/DGunz_on_Twitch/review/796085/

After attempting to play XC1 on 3DS and dropping it after 8 hours due to various reasons, I thought heck, why not try the sequel. It looks cool.

Well, it is cool! This was a great Switch game - plenty of reason to grind things out while playing in handheld mode. It felt like a game that really made sense on Switch.

I found the battle system interesting and appreciated the sense of scale. I liked some of the characters, but some were very over-acted and awkward, for sure. Pyra/Mythra, Rex, and ESPECIALLY that weird bunny creature thing were low points.

I'm glad I tried this after discarding XC1. XC3 really interests me but I can't bring myself to invest another 100 hours in to a game like this. It's just too much.

All of these games are absolutely bloated/too long.

idk what the hell y'all are on but this game is AMAZING. Literally my only big flaw with it is Rex sucking as a protagonist, and while the English dub is technically bad I think it's hilarious and extremely entertaining. I LOVE the anime tropes, the soundtrack, and the WORLD. This definitely has my favorite world out of the Xenoblade trilogy, there's so many beautiful and memorable areas. Story-wise, it's just average and nowhere near as good as the story of the first, but I don't really care because this game is just too fucking good.

Was the combat the best ever in the first game?
No, but I was invested enough in the story to keep playing.
Is the combat in this game the best ever?
No
Is it better then the first game?
No
Was I invested enough in the story to keep playing like the first one?
No
What now?
Watch the cut scenes on Youtube then try out the XC3