Incredible fucking game. I loved it from start to finish and never wanted it to end even when it did. Van is an amazing protagonist and honestly one of my favourites in anything ever, and the cast overall is great. The gameplay shift from real-time to turn-based is also excellently implemented, taking advantage of both while not feeling overwhelming or confusing at all

With another amazing OST to accompany it, the game feels like such a breath of fresh air for the series, whilst still upholding it's main value of continuity, and it helped me fall in love with it all over again like I did with Sky. Absolutely can't wait to play the sequel when I can

I finished this game about 3 weeks ago and I've let it settle before I fully collect my thoughts and write a review, and that time is now since I'm basically done with the game. This is gonna be a long one, and there'll be some minor spoilers, but nothing explicit

I love this game. Originally when I beat it I called it my favourite Xenoblade game, and favourite of all time, but I still prefer 2 for a multitude of reasons, however I do admit that as a game 3 is better, it's just for more personal reasons that I still call 2 my favourite. I would've liked more callbacks to 1 and 2 admittedly, similar to to the Trails series finale for its first arc (just with less volume in terms of characters obviously), but what's there is still great and part of me is glad that it's a cast of mostly fresh new faces that take the reigns this time, to make it truly feel like their journey

That being said I still have a couple issues with the game, but they're mostly minor and in the long term don't affect my enjoyment as much. I have lot to say so I've made them into notes below

- tutorials are way too handholdy, the ones that explain menus specifically, but they're generally good and being able to re-read them at a moment's notice is great
- cutscenes are really lively and hilarious/serious (whatever fits the mood) - everyone feels real in the situations they're put in
- the action scenes are great
- it's nice to see the threats of agnus and keves prevalent through the whole game and not just in specific scenes/areas - you really feel like you're on the run and the world is out to get you
- quests are personalised and feel much less taxing to do
- keves arts are unfortunate. there's no advantage they have over agnus arts and it's really weird how there's no way to boost their recharge at all (outside of troubadour)
- combat is good, but it's missing the satisfaction that xb2 had for me. It only really comes close when you pull off a smash in a chain attack, see the health deplete (sometimes even get to overkill status), and see the huge number at the end, but a Blade Combo equivalent would've been nice - maybe it would be how you build ouroboros interlink level by doing combos with each pair instead of just spam fusion arts
- not too big on chain attacks. they take a long time to do and they're kinda rng based on who you get (Hero orders should be guaranteed), nor are they ass exciting as 2's
- story and characters are excellent, some of if not the best in the series, at least for the blade entries
- classes are fun but inheriting them can be annoying
- no levelling down before beating the game?????? why??????????
- music is so-so. Some themes are really good, some are just fine. Definitely feels weaker for this entry overall compared to previous ones, but still some great tracks are present
- Areas could do with some more identity. A lot of them are just 'grassy plains', or 'desert' with not much more to them that defines them like areas in past games have
- Heroes are really neat but I wish they were playable. They're meant to serve as guest party members so it makes sense, but it's still a shame, even if compared to the main 6 they're vastly underpowered
- villains aren't bad, but they're a major step down from past ones like Jin, Malos and Egil
- Ouroboros feel a little underwhelming. Maybe I didn't just use them enough but for being the main gimmick of the game alongside class changing, it definitely felt like a background element a lot of the time
- AI feels really unco-operative at times, like not doing their jobs properly (I know you have the option to switch to them to fix this but they should still be competent regardless), like defenders failing to keep aggro so your attackers end up getting wiped and messing up your strategy, healers having the worst positioning by sitting next to your tanks and getting killed for it, and they're bad at saving their reaction arts for when they're actually needed (there are the tactics but I've had times where they've still used them at the wrong time or just not at all)
- speaking of tactics, a 'Disperse' one as an opposite to 'Follow Leader' would be helpful, mostly to help out the healer issue addressed above and as a reliable way to avoid an oncoming aoe
- No combat dishes available - would've been nice to have buffs like art recharge (just nerfed from 2), or stat ups available rather than just drop and exp boosts
- it doesn't bother me, but I hope there's an update that turns off chain attack music for important fights or fights with unique themes, as well as the option to turn off animations during one to shorten their length
- this is without a doubt the best main cast in xenoblade, maybe even xeno as a whole. They're all great and bounce off each other really well. It's hard to pick a favourite
- I played the game on Hard mode and it was fine most of the time. but some fights honestly felt untested or needlessly difficult. Normal felt too easy to go back to as well
- the map not showing the name of locations (the ones you can't skip travel to) makes completing them way more annoying than it needs to be. There's a filter system in the game so I don't see why location names can't be added, and you can turn them off if they get in the way

that's pretty much it. Like I said, stellar game and it was well worth the wait, I just hope there's updates in the future to fix a couple of these issues like there was for 2, and DLC answers any lingering questions