Video games as a medium have led up to this game. It is the conclusion of a story that Tetsuya Takahashi has been trying to tell since Xenogears in 1998. The characters are all amazingly written and have great chemistry, the combat doesn't quite reach the highs of XC2 but the field gameplay is far better. The music takes a bit to get used to from past games, but ultimately is amazing as well. And the story is by far the best in the series, tying together the main themes from XC1 and 2 while introducing new ones as well, all tying a bow on the series as a whole with an emotional, unparalleled ending. Basically, this game is peak fiction, peak gameplay, just peak video games. It's my current favorite game of all time, and it probably will be for a very, very long time (i.e., until Xenoblade 4 comes out).