Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has cemented itself and the franchise as a whole as one of Nintendo’s best modern series and the flagship of JRPGs for the company.

From top to bottom it’s a near complete improvement from the first one. While I think the story and villains from 1 are generally better than 2’s, the main party as a whole are huge steps up from Shulk and the gang. Combat is a lot more cleaner and exploration is somehow even better.

I think my one and only small knock on the game is that the music never really hit for me. Like, there’s some good tracks in there no doubt, but I think the soundtrack didn’t have much of an effect for me choosing the score of the game. I had the same “issue” with the first’s soundtrack, but neither actively take away from the games themselves.

I’m also a fan of how both of these games ramp up in quality as the game goes on, but I definitely like it rose much quicker than it did in the first (which I think can be attributed to me simply being more attached to 2’s cast).

TL;DR: Incredible game with a great and lovable cast (outside of Tora sadge). The music didn’t quite hit for me, but it did not take away from my experience. Cemented itself as Nintendo’s flagship JRPG franchise.

Check point for the first 10 hours:
- Chapter 2 (just got eaten by the big whale dude after running from purple spaghetti dude).

I find it pretty similar to XC1:DE’s opening this far ngl. The story is a little more engaging and it generally looks a lot better (combat especially) and running around the world is just mad relaxing.

Character design is very hit and miss for me thus far. Characters like Poppi, Nia, Morag, and Jin look incredible, but others like Malos, glasses dude, and especially Rex look pretty bad in comparison.

Unfortunately and surprisingly, the thing I’m most disappointed in this far has been the music. None of the music thus far has hit that hard for me. Ive done the whole “turn it up during dialogue, listen to podcast during gameplay”

Uhhhhh anyways, see ya later