This was a weird game. I actually did like the gacha mechanics that people hated. I generally do like gacha except for the fact it's usually in super predatory games, and this one doesn't do that. I also really liked that the special blades you unlock have unique personalities and missions. Some of them ended up being amongst my favorite characters in the game, and I loved doing their side missions.
That said, I think my issues were more with Xenoblade as a whole. This game was fun for about 50 hours, and during those 50 hours it felt VERY fun.
The problem is I put over 100 hours into the game. The beginning of the game when you don't have many combat mechanics unlocked is brutally slow and tedious, something I've heard other people say is an issue in all Xenoblade titles.
The later part of the game has a different yet similar issue. At some point, the game decided to give everyone some sort of super attack that activates when they get to about ~20% HP. These attacks would often wipe or almost wipe my whole party. As a result, to avoid this, every combat in the later part of the game forced me to save chain attacks to use around ~25% hp and kill them outright before they could use that crazy low hp move they all seemed to have. This made every fight feel repetitive because I ended up just doing the same sequence of moves to enemies that weren't challenging outside of their 1 BS low hp attack to kill them before they could do it.
Mix that with the fact that the plot ends on a weak note and that the story dragged a bit, and I feel like the whole game could have benefitted from being shorter, something I've heard is also a recurring Xenoblade theme.
All in all a pretty good game with an excellent soundtrack that has severe pacing issues and a few weird difficulty curves.
That said, I think my issues were more with Xenoblade as a whole. This game was fun for about 50 hours, and during those 50 hours it felt VERY fun.
The problem is I put over 100 hours into the game. The beginning of the game when you don't have many combat mechanics unlocked is brutally slow and tedious, something I've heard other people say is an issue in all Xenoblade titles.
The later part of the game has a different yet similar issue. At some point, the game decided to give everyone some sort of super attack that activates when they get to about ~20% HP. These attacks would often wipe or almost wipe my whole party. As a result, to avoid this, every combat in the later part of the game forced me to save chain attacks to use around ~25% hp and kill them outright before they could use that crazy low hp move they all seemed to have. This made every fight feel repetitive because I ended up just doing the same sequence of moves to enemies that weren't challenging outside of their 1 BS low hp attack to kill them before they could do it.
Mix that with the fact that the plot ends on a weak note and that the story dragged a bit, and I feel like the whole game could have benefitted from being shorter, something I've heard is also a recurring Xenoblade theme.
All in all a pretty good game with an excellent soundtrack that has severe pacing issues and a few weird difficulty curves.