This review contains spoilers

(Ramble Ramble, these thoughts are still fresh)

A great opening hook and ending can't make up for the bloat that makes up the majority.

I have no real issues with the gameplay. It does feel more approachable from the outset, but its still Xeno. It basically feels like a mix of all the systems so far which is nice. It is strange how the game provides incentives to fight enemies above your level but then punishes you for being over-leveled by reducing your CP gains to basically zero. There were long stretches where I didn't get any class levels because I was just too overpowered. You need these levels to unlock class quests too, I don't get why it's like this.

My biggest gripes are with the pacing and story presentation. Heroes and Villians are introduced and discarded at such a rapid rate that they leave little lasting impact, and placing substantial character moments behind side-quests is such a baffling decision especially since not much happens in the main story until the last third. Several times I noticed the story would set up a plot-thread only for it for it to be completely removed from the main plot to move on the next one. They pressure you to do side-content so much I wonder why they made most of them optional in the first place. These quests usually involve Moebius in some way or another who suffer from the same issues with content bloat. Threatening at first, they are so overused that they become the least threatening set of villains in the series - did they really need to add one for each letter of the alphabet? There is one who sets up an interesting premise but he's also completely optional, truly wasted story potential.

In general, the game really could have benefited from a tighter focus, stripping back the number of Heroes in particular to give them greater focus in the story. It really is the strangest case of a game doing too much and too little I think I've ever played.

Reviewed on Sep 23, 2022


Comments